10 March,2022 10:40 AM IST | Moscow | Agencies
A woman is coated in snow after being evacuated from Irpin on Tuesday
Russia has never threatened NATO and does not threaten the Western military alliance now, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday, adding that her country still must react to NATO's "confrontational course".
She told a news briefing that NATO's build-up of military forces on its eastern flank, following what Russia calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine, was "provocative in its nature" and was not helping to safeguard security in Europe.
Russia also claims it does not want to overthrow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government. The Russian military had not ordered to "overthrow the current government," Zakharova, said.
Her denial comes after Moscow's often repeated aims to disarm its neighbour and target leaders it calls "neo-Nazis." Zakharova also said "some progress has been made" in the Russia-Ukraine talks.
The Pentagon on Tuesday rejected Poland's surprise announcement that it would give the United States its MiG-29 fighter jets for use by Ukraine, a rare display of disharmony by NATO allies seeking to boost Ukrainian fighters while avoiding getting caught up in a wider war with Russia.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Poland's declaration that it intended to deliver the 28 jets to the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany raised the concerning prospect of warplanes departing from a U.S. and NATO base to fly into airspace contested with Russia in the Ukraine conflict. Russia has declared that supporting Ukraine's air force would be tantamount to joining the war, and could spur retaliation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday was to travel to Turkey where he was to have talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, the TASS news agency cited the Russian foreign ministry as saying.
Feb 24
When Russia's invasion of Ukraine began
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy accused Russia on Wednesday of carrying out an air strike on a hospital in the southern port city of Mariupol in which he said children were among people "under the wreckage." He called the strike an "atrocity." A statement on the city council's social media account on Wednesday said the hospital suffered "colossal" damage.
The Kremlin accused the United States on Wednesday of declaring an economic war on Russia that was sowing mayhem through energy markets and put the US on notice that it was thinking carefully how to respond to a ban on Russian oil and energy. Russia's economy is facing the gravest crisis since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union after the West imposed crippling sanctions on almost entire Russian financial and corporate system following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
US intelligence chiefs on Tuesday branded Russia's Vladimir Putin an "angry," isolated leader grappling for global clout, frustrated about how his Ukraine invasion has not gone to plan, and lobbing provocative nuclear threats at the West. Putin has been "stewing in a combustible combination of grievance and ambition for many years," CIA Director William Burns told US lawmakers. "I think Putin is angry and frustrated right now. He's likely to double down and try to grind down the Ukrainian military with no regard for civilian casualties," Burns said.
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which was taken over by Russian forces last month, has stopped transmitting data to the IAEA, the UN atomic watchdog has said, expressing deep concern for the staff working under Russian troops at the site in northern Ukraine. The Chernobyl site is not currently operational and handling of nuclear material has been halted. The facility holds decommissioned reactors and radioactive waste facilities, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
The British government announced new legislation on Wednesday which makes it a criminal offence for any Russian aircraft to fly or land in the UK, as part of a new suite of aviation sanctions to strengthen the overflight and landing ban already in place in response to President Vladimir Putin ordering a military offensive against Ukraine.
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