News

BREAKING: Ukraine delegation arrives Belarus for peace talks with Russia

Published

on

Report has it that Ukraine delegation has arrived for peace talks with Russia at the Belarus border.

Russia and Ukraine were preparing Monday for their first talks since Moscow’s invasion, as fighting raged and Western-led sanctions started to bite with the ruble collapsing.

Ukraine said Sunday it had agreed to send a delegation to meet Russian representatives on the border with Belarus, which would be the foes’ first public contact since war erupted.

Belarus announced Monday that the venue for the talks had been prepared and they would start as soon as the delegations arrived.

However, with his government reporting hundreds of civilian deaths and Russian troops besieging key cities, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was sceptical about the talks.

“As always: I do not really believe in the outcome of this meeting, but let them try,” he said.

Russia invaded on Thursday and quickly announced it had neutralised key military facilities, but fierce fighting has since raged and Ukraine forces are reporting some success.

“The Russian occupiers have reduced the pace of the offensive,” the general staff of the Ukraine armed forces said.

The United States has also said that Ukraine forces, backed by Western arms, are stymieing the advance of Russian troops.

Putin on Sunday ordered Russia’s nuclear forces onto high alert in response to what he called “unfriendly” steps by the West. Russia has the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons and a huge cache of ballistic missiles.

The United States, the world’s second largest nuclear power, slammed Putin’s order as “totally unacceptable”.

Germany said Putin’s nuclear order was because his offensive had “halted” and was not going to plan.

– Economic pressure –
The campaign by the United States and its allies to build economic pressure on Russia also showed more signs on Monday of having an impact.

Russia’s central bank announced Monday it was more than doubling its key interest rate to 20 percent because the Russian economy’s situation had “drastically changed”.

The value of the ruble also continued to collapse against the dollar and the euro on the Moscow Stock Exchange on Monday.

And the European Central Bank warned Monday that the European subsidiary of the Russian state-owned Sberbank was facing bankruptcy.

The Kremlin has brushed off sanctions, including those targeting Putin personally, as a sign of Western impotence.

Among the sanctions, the West has said it would remove some Russian banks from the SWIFT bank messaging system, and freeze central bank assets.

The United States and its allies are seeking to continue building the diplomatic and military pressure, as well as economic.

EU member states closed their airspace to Russian planes and many pledged arms for Ukraine — but stressed they would not themselves intervene militarily.

Brussels announced it would provide 450 million euros ($500 million) for Ukraine to buy weapons and ban Russian central bank transactions, as well as restricting two Moscow-run media outlets.

British energy giant BP also said Sunday it was pulling its 19.75-percent stake in Rosneft, a blow to Russia’s key oil and gas sector, which is partly reliant on Western technology.

The White House said it would hold a secure call with allies and partners Monday to discuss “developments” in Russia’s attack on Ukraine and “coordinate our united response”.

The UN General Assembly will hold a rare emergency session Monday to discuss the conflict.

Also in response to hostilities, FIFA ordered Russia to play its home international fixtures in neutral venues and warned it was considering banning it from the 2022 World Cup.

– Defending cities  –
On day four of an invasion that stunned the world, Ukrainian forces said Sunday they had defeated a Russian incursion into Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv, 500 kilometres (310 miles) east of Kyiv.

Ukrainian officials said they were fighting off Russian forces in several other areas, and claimed that 4,300 Russian troops had been killed.

The Ukrainian army said Monday morning that Russian forces had “several times” attempted to storm the outskirts of Kyiv overnight, but all attacks were repelled.

“The situation in the capital of our homeland is under control,” said the army on Facebook.

Local media reported strong explosions heard throughout Sunday night in both Kyiv and Kharkiv.

Presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovich said on Telegram early Monday the capital had been targeted overnight by three Russian missile strikes, one of which was intercepted.

The southern city of Berdiansk is now occupied by Russian soldiers, he added.

Ukraine has reported 352 civilian deaths, including 14 children, since the invasion began. Russia has acknowledged that a number of its forces had been killed or injured.

– ‘Humanitarian crisis’ –
The United Nations has put the civilian toll at 64 while the EU said more than seven million people could be displaced by the conflict.

“We are witnessing what could become the largest humanitarian crisis on our European continent in many, many years,” the EU commissioner for crisis management Janez Lenarcic said.

Ukraine has called on its own civilians to fight Russia, with a brewery in Lviv in the country’s west switching its production line from beers to bombs, making Molotov cocktails for the volunteer fighters.

At the Medyka border crossing with Poland, volunteer Jasinska said the long line of arrivals, mostly women and children, need warm clothes.

Crossing Medyka with his family, Ajmal Rahmani, an Afghan who fled Afghanistan for Ukraine four months before the US withdrawal, told AFP: “I run from one war, come to another country and another war starts. Very bad luck”.

Putin has said Russia’s actions are justified because it is defending Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The rebels have been fighting Ukrainian government forces for eight years in a conflict that has killed more than 14,000 people.

AFP

Advertisement

You may like

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

News

Nigerian rapper Oladips is dead

Published

on

Oladips

Nigerian rapper, Oladipupo Oladimeji, popularly known as Oladips is dead.

The news of his death was announced on his Instagram handle on Wednesday.

According to the post, he died last night (Tuesday) at 10:14 pm.

The Instagram post reads: “We are saddened to inform the general public that Oladipupo Olabode Oladimeji aka OLADIPS passed away yesterday Nov 14th Tuesday evening, at exactly 10:14 pm. We are still in shock as we speak!

“For over 2 years he has kept his battles within himself, his body is now with his family.

“The family asked that we respect their privacy in this trying time. May God give us all the fortitude to bear this great loss. (amen).”

His funeral services will be announced as soon as it is concluded, the statement added.

The news of his death comes barely three months after the death of Oladimeji Aloba popularly known as Mohbad.

Continue Reading

News

Osun Workers Displease With Gov. Adeleke Over Decision Not To Increase Salary

Published

on

Workers under the banner of Osun Workers Union (OWU) have chided the state government for foreclosing the chances of paying workers palliative wage at a time Governor Adeleke had secretly obtained approval in the Supplementary Budget to spend N10billion for his office.

Recall the hope of the Osun state workers to earn special Minimum Wage to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal was dashed on Saturday when the state government sounded unequivocally that it could not embark on upward wage review in order not to repeat the half-salary regime experienced in the state during the tenure of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.

In a press statement authored by the state’s commissioner for information and public enlightenment, Oluomo Kolapo Alimi, the only support the state government could offer Osun workers at the moment is a “well-packaged transport scheme aimed at alleviating the pressure of transportation as a fall out of the removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government.”

Alimi’s statement was a reaction to a N25,000 salary allowance news that trended over the weekend.

In the purported news, Governor Adeleke was quoted to have assured Osun workers of his government’s readiness to begin from November payment of N25,000 extra wage to the state workforce to help reduce the economic hardship.

Commenting on the development, Comrade Gabriel Adeoye bemoaned the leadership of the state government for what he termed their act of wickedness towards the state civil servants and pensioners.

Adeoye, who is the organising secretary of the Osun Workers Union, expressed the Union’s utter disappointment in Governor Adeleke, stating that unless he rescinds his decision on not to increase their salary as done by other states, the state workers would have no other option than to embark on peaceful protests. In his words, “What is the excuse of Governor Adeleke not to increase our salary at this difficult time? In the neighbouring Oyo state, civil servants and pensioners have begun to receive N25,000 and N15,000 palliative wage respectively.

Ogun has been paying palliative support of N10, 000 to its workers since August. Same in Ekiti. Same in Lagos. Only Osun is odd out of the states. Yet, the governor has approved N10b (Ten Billion Naira) for himself in the 2023 supplementary budget. The Governor is also yet to account for the N9billion palliative relief money the federal government gave the people of the state. Is this not sheer wickedness?”

The Union wanted Governor Adeleke to disclose to the people of the state the rationale behind the additional budget of N10billion for only his office.

They equally wanted him to account for the N9billion palliative fund received from the Federal Government since July.

Continue Reading

News

Hope Uzodinma wins all 27 LGAs as INEC annoucnes final result in Imo

Published

on

Hope Uzodimma

Hope Uzodinma has won all 27 LGAs as INEC has annoucned final result in Imo state.

It was reported that Governor Hope Uzodimma of the All Progressives Congress (APC), emerged victorious in 27 local government areas in the just-concluded election, with the collation completed at 08:30 am on Sunday.

The collation of results is currently taking place at the State Collation Centre in Owerri, the state capital.

The process commenced around 02:30 am on Sunday in Owerri, with the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti, Prof Abayomi Fashina, serving as the state Returning Officer for INEC in the election.

The APC, represented by Uzodimma, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, with Samuel Anyanwu, and the Labour Party’s Achonu Nneji, were the primary contenders among the 18 parties fielding candidates in the election.

According to INEC, a total of 2,419,922 registered voters in the state for the poll, with 2,318,919 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) collected.

At the culmination of the collation at 08:30 am on Sunday, Fashina announced that the center would take an hour-long break and reconvene for the announcement of the winner.

 

 

Continue Reading

Trending

Кракен Сайт Площадка