Russia Ukraine War News LIVE Updates: Ukraine’s nuclear agency reports increased radiation levels from Chernobyl

• Russia’s civil aviation authority has banned UK flights to and over Russia in retaliation for British ban on Aeroflot.

• Two Air India flights leaving for Bucharest today to fly out Indians who have managed to reach the Romania-Ukraine border

• Russian forces have captured Zmiinyi Island in the Black Sea, where 82 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered to them, Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday. Ukrainian officials have said that all 13 border guards deployed on the island south of the port city of Odessa were killed by arms fire from a Russian warship.

• Russia will deploy paratroopers to help guard the closed Chernobyl nuclear power plant near Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, a spokesman for Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday.Radiation levels at the plant are normal, the spokesman told a briefing. Russian troops, which started a full-scale military operation in Ukraine on Thursday, have destroyed 118 Ukrainian military infrastructure sites, he said.

• Britain would like to cut off Russia from the SWIFT global interbank payments system and will continue to lobby reluctant allies to take that step, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Friday.
• “We would like to go further, we’d like to do the SWIFT system – that is the financial system that allows the Russians to move money around the world to receive payments for its gas – but … these are international organisations and if not every country wants them to be thrown out of the SWIFT system, it becomes difficult,” Wallace told BBC TV.
• U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday that United States and the European Union have opted not to cut Russia off from SWIFT, but he said they could revisit that issue.

• Oil prices jumped on Friday by nearly 3% on concerns of global supply disruptions from the impact of trade sanctions on major crude and fuel exporter Russia after it invaded Ukraine.
• Global benchmark Brent crude rose $2.81, or 2.8%, to $101.89 a barrel at 0738 GMT on Friday, after climbing to as high as $101.99.
• U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude touched a high of $95.64 a barrel, and was last up $2.37, or 2.6%, at $95.18.

• Indian nationals, especially students living closest to the above border checkpoints are being advised to depart first in an organised manner in coordination with the team from MEA to actualise this option, says Indian Embassy in Hungary.

• Drop in investment activity, low inventories, recovering oil demand all these make the oil market very sensitive to any supply disruptions. says Giovanni Staunovo, UBS CIO.
• With missing spare capacity, the price needs to rebalance the oil market. When the market is tight the only way to fix the situation is to ensure that demand does not go up too much, to curb demand growth and that comes only with the higher prices, he added.
• “Going forward we are likely to experience more volatility than in the past. Indian government should try to build strategic oil reserve,” asserted Staunovo.

• President Joe Biden said there is a “complete rupture” in the relationship between the US and Russia if Moscow continues on the path it is on and that Washington and its partners will impose severe costs on the Russian economy.He said Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected every “good-faith effort” made by the US and its allies to address mutual security concerns through dialogue to avoid needless conflict.

• Equities bounced back Friday from the previous day’s rout with investors taking their lead from a rally on Wall Street after Washington decided against imposing the stiffest sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Speculation had been growing for weeks about an incursion, which has stoked fears about supplies of key commodities including wheat, metals and crude. Investors have also been fretting over the impact of any sanctions Western leaders would impose on Moscow. Despite a chorus of outrage at Putin’s move, the punishments have so far been seen as well short of the most stringent.

• Tokyo stocks closed higher on Friday, rebounding from losses in previous sessions and following gains on Wall Street, despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The benchmark Nikkei 225 climbed 1.95 percent or 505.68 points to 26,476.50, while the broader Topix index added 1.00 percent or 18.66 points to 1,876.24. The dollar stood at 115.21 yen in Asian trade, against 115.49 yen on Thursday in New York.

• Russia indends to take the whole of Ukraine but the Russian army failed to deliver on the first day of its invasion, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Friday.

• The Russian central bank on Friday said it was raising the limit at a “fine-tuning” repo auction later on Friday to 3 trillion roubles ($35.55 billion) from 2 trillion roubles, as it works to maintain stability on financial markets.
• The central bank beefed up the banking sector with extra liquidity and started to sell foreign currency on the forex market after the rouble fell to all-time lows on Thursday after Moscow sent its troops into Ukraine. ($1 = 84.3820 roubles)

• Russian markets open sharply higher. Russia’s RTS Index up over 21%, MOEX up more than 17%

• French defence minister says we are examining the issue, decision to be taken “very soon”

• Germany plans to offer troops, air defence systems and war ships to NATO to strengthen its eastern flank after Russia invaded Ukraine, German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Friday without providing sources.
• Germany could send an infantry company with around 150 soldiers and more than a dozen Boxer wheeled armoured vehicles in a timely manner, according to a package that the military has put together for Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht, the media outlet said.

• Geopolitical events have always had a kneejerk reaction from investors and there is a global risk off that happens immediately and gold goes up and US currency strengths that is part and parcel of what I would call almost formula now, says Rashesh Shah, Edelweiss Group.
• On the India front, this does not change actually largely anything for India where India is far away, we are in between we are neutral so we are not caught in this any cross fire. The one indirect effect of this on India could be oil price but usually this cannot last forever so the moment this cools off in a day or two or a week or two. I think oil prices will come back somewhere around 80 to 100 oil prices what most investors are now factoring in for India anything more than that will always be a concern. Corporate earnings which has been growing at single digit for last eight years should start coming back in the next four-five years, he added.
• India’s savings are almost close to a trillion dollars the gross domestic saving is close to a trillion dollars and if in that context about $20 billion of FII selling has got absorbed it is good news for India, Shah said.

• A senior Ukrainian defence official warned that Russian forces would enter areas just outside the capital Kyiv later on Friday after officials said the city and other locations had been struck by Russian missiles in the early hours of the morning.Deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar added that Ukrainian army units were defending positions on four fronts despite being outnumbered.

• Europe and the United States are raining down reprisals after President Vladimir Putin sent tanks into Ukraine, adding to sanctions already pledged in response to his decision to recognise the independence of two breakaway Ukrainian provinces. “The view Russia will be unaffected is wrong. The negative effects may not be felt up front but sanctions will hobble Russia’s potential in the longer run,” said Christopher Granville, managing director at consultancy TS Lombard and a veteran Russia watcher.
• Russia has dismissed sanctions as counter to the interests of those who imposed them. And they won’t immediately dent an economy with $643 billion in currency reserves and booming oil and gas revenues. Those metrics have earned Russia the “fortress” economy moniker, alongside a current account surplus of 5% of annual GDP and a 20% debt-to-GDP ratio, among the lowest in the world. Just half of Russian liabilities are in dollars, down from 80% two decades ago.
• Those statistics result from years of saving since sanctions imposed after Putin’s 2014 Crimea annexation.

• International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan on Friday expressed his concern over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and said his court may investigate possible war crimes in the country.”I remind all sides conducting hostilities on the territory of Ukraine that my office may exercise its jurisdiction and investigate any act of genocide, crime against humanity or war crime committed within Ukraine,” Khan said in a statement.

• U.S. and European officials are holding one key financial sanction against Russia in reserve, choosing not to boot Russia off SWIFT, the dominant system for global financial transactions. The Russian invasion of Ukraine caused a barrage of new financial sanctions Thursday. The sanctions are meant to isolate, punish and impoverish Russia in the long term. President Joe Biden announced restrictions on exports to Russia and sanctions against Russian banks and sate-controlled companies
• But Biden pointedly played down the need to block Russia from SWIFT, saying that while it’s “always” still an option, “right now that’s not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take.” He also suggested the sanctions being put in place would have more teeth.

• Ukraine’s capital was under bombardment in the early hours of Friday, with the skies ablaze as Vladimir Putin’s tanks moved to within 20 miles of Kyiv, Daily Mail reported. Ukraine’s deputy defence ministry said that one missile was shot out of the sky by their anti-missile defense systems. Another missile struck a residential building in the city, the government said. A Ukrainian jet, a SU-27, was shot down by a surface-to-air missile in a separate incident, the Ukrainian government said, Daily Mail reported. Hours earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky raged at Western cowards who failed to come to his aid, saying his country is being ‘left alone’ to face Russian troops.

HUNGARY:
A team in Hungary is on its way to the Zahony border post opposite Uzhhorod in Zakarpattia Oblast of Ukraine.
The team members’ names and phone numbers are listed below:
S. Ramji:
Mobile:+36305199944
Whatsapp:+917395983990
Ankur:
Mobile and Whatsapp: +36308644597
Mohit Nagpal:
Mobile: +36302286566
Whatsapp: +918950493059

POLAND:
A team is on its way to Krakowiec land border with Ukraine.
Pankaj Garg
Mobile: +48660460814 /+48606700105

SLOVAK REPUBLIC
A team in the Slovak Republic is on its way to the Vysne Nemecke land border with Ukraine.
Manoj Kumar
Mobile: +421908025212
Ms. Ivan Kozinka
Mobile: +421908458724

ROMANIA
A team in Romania is on its way to the Suceava land border with Ukraine.
Gaushul Ansari
Mobile: +40731347728
Uddeshya Priyadarshi
Mobile: +40724382287
Ms. Andra Harionov
Mobile: +40763528454
Marius Sima
Mobile: +40722220823

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia resumed missile strikes at 4 a.m. on Friday, but its troops had been stopped from advancing in most directions. In a televised speech, Zelenskiy said the Russian strikes were aimed at both military and civilian targets.

• The onshore ruble advanced for the first time in three days, rising from a record low as investors assessed Western sanctions on Russia that were less severe than some initial expectations. The ruble gained about 0.6% to 84.70 against the dollar in onshore trading on Friday, pulling back from a record low of 89.60 on Thursday after Russia launched an attack on Ukraine.

• People in Ukraine can lock down their Facebook pages as a security measure, the platform said Thursday, following warnings Russia was creating lists of Ukranians to kill after its invasion. Users are able to block people they don’t know from downloading and sharing their profile photo or seeing their posts, a tool the company also deployed after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban last year.

• Invading Russian forces pressed deep into Ukraine as deadly battles reached the outskirts of Kyiv, with explosions heard in the capital early Friday that the besieged government described as “horrific rocket strikes”.
• “Horrific Russian rocket strikes on Kyiv,” Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba posted on Twitter after explosions were heard in the capital before dawn.
• At least 137 “heroes” were killed during the first day of fighting, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday, as he called up conscripts and reservists nationwide to fight in a general mobilisation.

• Asian markets rebounded on Friday following Wall Street’s surprising overnight reversal, as investors weighed the longer-term impact of tough Western sanctions against Russia after it unleashed troops, tanks and missiles on Ukraine.
• European stock markets looked set to follow Asia higher even as Russia pressed its attacks and global condemnation grew, with FTSE futures adding 0.78%, European futures up 2.2% and German stock market DAX futures rising 1.56%.
• But U.S. share futures slipped in Asian trade, with S&P500 e-mini futures losing 0.61% and Nasdaq futures down 0.92%.
• Some analysts said the sanctions by the United States, Europe and a number of other countries were not as strong as markets had feared.

• The Ukrainian ambassador to Japan is urging China to join international efforts to stop the Russian “massacre” in his country amid Beijing’s lack of criticism of Moscow’s actions.“We would very much welcome that China exercises its connection with Russia and talks to Putin and explains to him that it is inappropriate in the 21st century to do this massacre in Europe,” Ukrainian diplomat Sergiy Korsunsky told a news conference in Tokyo. China has not criticized Russia over its actions against Ukraine, and has joined in verbal attacks on Washington and its allies.

• After attacking Ukrainian government websites and banks with massive cyber attacks, Russia-sponsored hackers were now hitting Internet infrastructure in the country to silence the locals amid a full-blown war. The cyber invasion had already cut Internet connectivity in some parts of the country, the reports said on Friday.

• The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has sent global markets into a frenzy. And just as countries and central banks were recovering from the impact of Covid-19 pandemic, the geopolitical tensions are likely to further aggravate inflationary pressures, and a Nomura report suggests that in Asia, India is likely to be among the worst losers as a result of this conflict.
• Brent crude climbed around 3% after surging above $105 per barrel at one point in Thursday’s trade. The report notes that the sustained rise in oil and food prices is likely to have an adverse impact on Asia’s economies, manifested through higher inflation, weaker current account and fiscal balances, and a squeeze on economic growth.
• “In such a scenario, India, Thailand, and the Philippines are the biggest losers, while Indonesia would be a relative beneficiary,” the report says.

• Russia still has about $300 billion of foreign currency held in offshore swaps — enough to disrupt money markets if they are frozen by sanctions or moved suddenly to avoid them.

• Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said many EU leaders have called for Russia to lose access to the international payment system, Swift. Such a move could create major disruption to the supply of key commodities for the European economy, making some leaders reluctant to press ahead. “More work needs to be done to assess what it means if Russia is cut off from Swift,” Rutte said.

• Ukraine’s central bank has banned payments to entities in Russia and Belarus as well as operations involving both nations’ currencies, the regulator said on Friday, a day after Russia launched a full-scale invasion.

• “Indeed it is very bad news not just for India, but for the whole world. Just as economies are trying to claw their way out of the Covid setbacks, inflation is a major concern around the world and central banks are trying to tighten monetary policy. The last thing we need is crude above $100 and still it does not look like a blip to me. It looks like it could sustain and it could continue going higher until the Ukraine crisis is resolved,” said Vandana Hari, Founder & CEO, Vanda Insights.
• While through the ups and downs of this crisis over the past few weeks there was always a hope for a diplomatic de-escalation, it just has receded farther now. I mean one would not argue that it is completely out but it has receded which means basically we all need to tighten our belts for higher prices for at least few weeks, she added.

• Russia reserves the right to respond to Britain’s ban on Aeroflot flights with similar measures, the TASS news agency cited Russia’s aviation authority as saying on Friday.

• A missile strike hit a Ukrainian border post in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhya, killing and wounding some guards, the border guard service said on Friday. The region has no land border with Russia, which launched a military operation against Ukraine on Thursday, but is located on the coast of the Azov Sea which the neighbours share.

• Shares rose in Japan, South Korea and Australia.
• U.S. contracts slipped after a choppy Wall Street session Thursday that left the S&P 500 with a 1.5% gain and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100, which briefly fell into a bear market, up 3.4%.
• Singapore-traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of India’s Nifty 50 Index’s performance, rose 2.12% to 16,582 as of 6:30 am.