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The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EDT.
11:40 p.m.: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday called on partners and allies to swiftly make good on their existing commitments to support Ukraine and to join the United States in doing more.
Yellen expressed her condolences to Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko and senior Ukrainian officials for the latest Russian attacks, aimed at the capital Kyiv and other haven cities, and pledged Washington's continued support.
Washington intends to disburse $4.5 billion in direct budget support to Ukraine in coming weeks, she said. Congress approved that funding two weeks ago, bringing total U.S. direct budget support for Ukraine to $13.5 billion, all in grants.
Washington had also joined with Ukraine's major creditors to suspend its Ukraine’s bilateral debt service payments this year and next year, she said.
Ukraine has said it needs up to $5 billion a month in long-term commitments to cover its budget costs, including pensions, military spending and to continue servicing its debts. International creditors have frozen debt payments, but about 80% of its payments are to domestic banks.
10 30 p.m.: The Ukrainian presidency said on Tuesday that 32 of its soldiers had been freed and the body of an Israeli citizen recovered in the latest prisoner swap with Russia, Agence France-Presse reported.
"Another exchange of prisoners took place today. We managed to free 32 of our soldiers and get back the body of Israeli citizen Dmytro Fialka," Andriy Yermak, head of the president's office, wrote on Telegram.
8:39 p.m.: France will step up its military presence in eastern Europe, with plans to deploy additional Rafale fighter jets in Lithuania and additional armored vehicles and tanks in Romania, as the war in Ukraine intensifies, the office of the defense minister said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Paris also plans to deploy additional infantry troops to Estonia, it said in a statement as Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu presented the army's draft budget to lawmakers.
8 p.m.: NATO members and allies meeting in Brussels on Wednesday are likely to focus on providing additional air defense systems to Ukraine, the U.S. ambassador to NATO said, according to Reuters.
Julianne Smith told an online briefing that more than 50 nations of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group would meet on the eve of a NATO ministerial on Oct 12-13 to determine what more could be done to help Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Smith said discussions would likely focus on air defense support.
7:22 p.m.: The United States and Germany responded to a call by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Tuesday, according to Reuters.
The U.S. announced that it has approved sending Ukraine eight National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) so far, with two expected to be delivered soon and six more sent over a longer time frame.
"We think that we're on track to get those first two over there in the very near future," said John Kirby, White House National Security Council spokesperson, during a briefing for reporters. "We are certainly interested in expediting the delivery of NASAMS to Ukraine as soon as we can."
And Ukraine received on Tuesday the first of four IRIS-T air defense systems that Germany had promised to supply, a German defense ministry source said, confirming a report by Der Spiegel magazine.
The delivery had taken place earlier than planned, the source added. The government did immediately respond to a request for official comment.
6:47 p.m.:
6:12 p.m.: Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Tuesday for wealthy Western nations to help Kyiv create an "air shield" after a rash of deadly Russian aerial attacks, Agence France-Presse reported.
Zelenskyy, who told the G-7 club of rich nations "millions of people would be grateful" for help fending off attacks from the sky, warned Russia "still has room for further escalation" after Monday's bloody missile salvoes across Ukraine.
"When Ukraine receives a sufficient quantity of modern and effective air defense systems, the key element of Russia’s terror, rocket strikes, will cease to work," Zelenskyy told G-7 leaders at a virtual meeting where he again ruled out peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
5:36 p.m.: The International Monetary Fund is downgrading its outlook for the world economy for 2023, citing a long list of threats that include Russia’s war against Ukraine, chronic inflation pressures, punishing interest rates and the lingering consequences of the global pandemic, The Associated Press reported.
The 190-country lending agency forecast Tuesday that the global economy would eke out growth of just 2.7% next year, down from the 2.9% it had estimated in July. The IMF left unchanged its forecast for international growth this year — a modest 3.2%, a sharp deceleration from last year’s 6% expansion.
“The worst is yet to come,″ said IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas. Three major economies — the United States, China and Europe — are stalling. Countries accounting for a third of global economic output will contract next year, suggesting that 2023 “will feel like a recession″ to many people around the world, he said Tuesday.
4:55 p.m.: Ukrainians crowdfunded about $10 million in one day to purchase kamikaze drones, the Kyiv Independent reported Tuesday.
“Ukrainian comedian, politician, and volunteer Serhiy Prytula said that he and activist Serhii Sternenko had raised nearly $10 million in one day to buy RAM ІІ kamikaze drones for the army,” the media organization reported.
The crowdfunding campaign got underway shortly after Russia's mass missile attack on Ukraine Monday morning, it said.
4:06 p.m.: The U.S. Department of Justice has charged a British money manager with conspiracy to evade sanctions and wire fraud on behalf of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. VOA national security correspondent Jeff Seldin shared the details on Twitter.
3:16 p.m.: Ukraine’s president has urged the U.N. cultural agency to expel Russia because Russian military strikes have damaged hundreds of cultural sites around Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.
In a speech Tuesday to UNESCO, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also announced that Ukraine has nominated the embattled Black Sea city of Odesa to be inscribed on the agency’s World Heritage list.
Zelenskyy said 540 “objects of cultural heritage, cultural institutions and religious buildings” in Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed since Russia invaded February 24.
He asked: “Why are representatives of Russia still among you? What are they doing at UNESCO?”
Russia currently holds the rotating presidency of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which Zelenskyy said “devalues the institution itself -- its significance, its reputation.”
UNESCO itself cannot expel Russia because all members of the United Nations are automatically members of the Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Agency.
2:30 p.m.:
2:20 p.m.: Covered head-to-toe in protective suits, forensic workers pulled several bodies wrapped in black plastic from a mass grave Tuesday in Ukraine’s devastated city of Lyman, part of an arduous effort to piece together evidence of what happened under more than four months of Russian occupation, The Associated Press reported.
Ten body bags lay beside a roughly 100-foot (30-meter) trench from which authorities said 32 bodies have been exhumed so far in the city in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
The bodies were Ukrainian soldiers who had been buried together in a mass grave, the head of the Donetsk region’s military administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said in Lyman on Tuesday.
Another 22 civilians have been exhumed from individual graves at the burial site, located on the edge of a cemetery in a forested area on the outskirts of Lyman. Further exhumations are planned.
The burial site was the second found in Lyman so far, Kyrylenko said, adding that initial investigations suggested the bodies had been buried by local residents and not by Russians.
“We have already found more than 50 bodies of soldiers and civilians,” he said. “We have one long trench or mass grave ... We are finding bodies and parts of bodies here.”
2:05 p.m.:
1:55 p.m.: Ukraine’s capital began to clean up after a second-day air raid scare, Reuters reported Tuesday.
Sitting cross-legged in a passageway deep within Kyiv's Zoloti Vorota metro station, 10-year-old Daria Kucher ignored roaring trains and hundreds of other people taking refuge from the threat of Russian missiles, etching a flower on a pad with her colored pencils.
"We are afraid. But we are more irritated," groused her mother, Helena Kucher, 44, as she, her daughter and her seven-year-old son waited for the all-clear advisory automatically dispatched to the Ukrainian capital's cellphones.
The family was among untold numbers of citizens who headed for a second day on Tuesday into nuclear blast-proof metro stations, basements and underground garages after air raid sirens disrupted the morning rush hour, the same time that Russia barraged Kyiv the day before.
Fresh strikes hit the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia and doused power in part of the western city of Lviv. While Kyiv was spared new attacks, the danger of further carnage all but emptied its broad avenues and narrow streets of traffic and pedestrians.
1:45 p.m.: The death toll from Russia's missile attacks this week has risen to 20, the Kyiv Independent reported Tuesday.
“Russian missile strikes on Oct. 10 injured 108 people,” the media organization quoted State Emergency Service spokesman Oleksandr Khorunzhyi as saying.
The strikes also damaged the power supply in 15 regions, it reported Khorunzhyi saying.
1:30 p.m.:
1:15 p.m.: Ukraine urged civilians on Tuesday not to use domestic appliances like ovens and washing machines to save electricity as millions faced blackouts after the biggest Russian attack on its energy network since war broke out, Reuters reported.
Authorities are trying to repair the damage after Russia fired missiles at energy facilities across Ukraine on Monday, causing widespread power outages and prompting Kyiv to announce it was halting electricity exports.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Ukrainians had voluntarily cut their electricity consumption by an average of 10% on Monday after Russia's attacks, and urged them to limit use between 5 p.m. (1400 GMT) and 11 p.m. on Tuesday.
Ukrainian officials say Russian attacks are now focused on damaging Ukrainian energy infrastructure and sowing fear among civilians. At least 20 people were killed and 108 wounded in Monday's attacks. Russia has denied deliberately targeting civilians since its forces invaded Ukraine in February.
12:55 p.m.: The Ukrainian General Staff says in the past day its forces have shot down 21 cruise missiles and 11 drones fired by Russia, including all eight Iranian-made drones targeting critical infrastructure in the Mykolaiv region, according to The Associated Press.
12:35 p.m.:
12:15 p.m.: The head of the U.N. weather agency says the war in Ukraine “may be seen as a blessing” from a climate perspective because it is accelerating the development of and investment in green energies over the longer term — even though fossil fuels are being used at a time of high demand now, The Associated Press reported.
The comments from Petteri Taalas, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, came as the world is facing a shortfall in energy needs — prompted in part by economic sanctions against key oil and natural gas producer Russia — and prices for fossil fuels have risen.
That has led some countries to turn quickly to alternatives like coal. But rising prices for carbon-spewing fuels like oil, gas and coal have also made higher-priced renewable energies like solar, wind and hydrothermal more competitive in the energy marketplace.
12 p.m.: The head of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency met with Russia’s president Tuesday to discuss the “urgent need” for a security zone around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia power facility, which has come under fire during the conflict.
11:45 a.m.: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the 30-nation military alliance will hold a long-planned exercise next week to test the state of readiness of its nuclear capabilities, according to The Associated Press.
Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday that “this is routine training that happens every year to keep our deterrence safe, secure and effective.”
The exercise, dubbed “Steadfast Noon,” is held annually and usually runs for about one week. It involves fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear warheads but doesn’t involve any live bombs. Conventional jets, and surveillance and refueling aircraft also routinely take part.
NATO as an organization does not possess any nuclear weapons. They remain under the control of three member countries — the U.S., U.K. and France.
Asked whether it was the wrong time to be holding such an exercise, Stoltenberg said: “It would send a very wrong signal now if we suddenly cancelled a routine, long-time planned exercise because of the war in Ukraine.”
Stoltenberg said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear rhetoric over the war in Ukraine is “irresponsible.” He added: “Russia knows that a nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought.”
11:25 a.m.:
11:10 a.m.: Leaders of the Group of Seven industrial powers have pledged after a videoconference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that they “will stand firmly with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” The Associated Press reported.
The leaders said in a statement after Tuesday’s virtual meeting that they had reassured Zelenskyy they are “undeterred and steadfast in our commitment to providing the support Ukraine needs to uphold its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
They said they will continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic and legal support to Kyiv, and that they are committed to supporting Ukraine in meeting its “winter preparedness needs.”
The G-7 leaders condemned this week’s barrage of Russian missile strikes against cities across Ukraine and said that “indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilian populations constitute a war crime.”
They said: “We will hold President [Vladimir] Putin and those responsible to account.”
The G-7 is made up of the U.S., Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Japan. Germany currently chairs the group.
11 a.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told leaders of the Group of Seven (G-7) that they must block Russia's energy sector with sanctions to disrupt Russian revenues from oil and gas, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Speaking to the major industrialized nations virtually, Zelenskyy said the G-7 and "our entire democratic world" must respond "symmetrically" to Russian attacks on the energy sector and energy stability.
"Such steps can bring peace closer — they will encourage the terrorist state to think about peace, about the unprofitability of war," Zelenskyy said, according to an excerpt of his speech posted on his Telegram page.
The Ukrainian president also appealed for the G-7 countries to supply Ukraine with air defenses, saying the main Russian threat will be stopped when Ukraine has the ability to defend itself from air attacks.
Zelenskyy also said the G-7 must recognize that there can be no dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he said only believes in terror and "has no future." One person is blocking peace, he said, and "this person is in Moscow."
Talks can be held either with another Russian leader — one who "will comply with the UN Charter, the basic principles of humanity, and territorial integrity of Ukraine" — or with a different configuration of negotiators "so that the key terrorist does not have the opportunity to influence key decisions through terror."
10:50 a.m.: According to Ukraine's Health Ministry, more than 90 percent of Ukrainians have one or more symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to the ongoing war. It's estimated that only three in every 100 Ukrainians with PTSD are receiving support.
10:25 a.m.: U.S.-led NATO said on Tuesday its member states were boosting security around key installations as Russia escalated its attacks on Ukraine and stepped up threats against the West, Reuters reported.
Russian missiles pounded Ukraine for a second day, after dozens of air raids across the country on Monday that killed 19 people, wounded more than 100 and knocked out power supplies.
Moscow has annexed new tracts of Ukraine, mobilized hundreds of thousands of Russians to fight and repeatedly threatened to use nuclear arms in recent weeks, spreading alarm in the West. A European diplomat said NATO was considering convening a virtual summit of the Western defense alliance to consider its response.
10:10 a.m.:
9:50 a.m.: Canada says it will deploy approximately 40 combat engineers to NATO ally Poland to train Ukrainian sappers in mining, de-mining, engineer reconnaissance and explosives, The Associated Press reported.
Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand made the announcement during a visit to Warsaw on Tuesday.
Anand also signed a memorandum of understanding with her Polish counterpart to strengthen the two countries’ defense cooperation.
9:35 a.m.:
9:20 a.m.: A deputy head of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine has been kidnapped by Russian forces and is being detained in an unknown location, Reuters reported, citing Ukraine's state nuclear energy company Energoatom.
In a post on the Telegram messaging app Tuesday, Energoatom said the official, Valeriy Martynyuk, had been seized on Monday.
No further details were immediately available.
9 a.m.: Moldova’s president has demanded that her country’s borders be respected after three Russian missiles bound for Ukraine crossed its airspace, The Associated Press reported.
President Maia Sandu said in a video address to the nation on Tuesday, a day after the incident, that “we respect territorial integrity and sovereignty of other countries and also demand that our borders be respected.”
Sandu said she would “do everything” to maintain peace in Moldova despite what she called “growing pressure” by pro-Russian political forces in the eastern European nation who she said had “promised to Moscow to overthrow our constitutional order and install a government that will allow Russia to use our country” in its war against Ukraine.
8:50 a.m.:
8:35 a.m.: The Kremlin is saying that the continuation of U.S. weapons supplies to Ukraine will extend the fighting and increase the damage to Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that “the U.S. de facto has become deeply involved.”
Asked during a conference call with reporters about U.S. President Joe Biden telling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Washington has agreed to his request to provide advanced air defense systems, Peskov said that it would only exacerbate Ukraine’s condition.
He said: “It will only drag the conflict out and make it more painful for the Ukrainian side, but it will not change our goals and the end result.”
8:20 a.m.: Economic activity in Russia slowed significantly at the end of September, Bank of Russia Deputy Governor Alexei Zabotkin told lawmakers on Tuesday, but payments to mobilized troops should cushion the negative effect on consumer demand, Reuters reported.
President Vladimir Putin announced on September 21 that 300,000 people would be mobilized to boost Russia's efforts in what it calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine, but details of the economic impact have so far been thin on the ground.
The central bank has been instrumental in limiting the economic fallout from the conflict in Ukraine and subsequent sanctions targeting Russia, introducing capital controls to steady the ruble, which had plunged to a record low against the dollar in early March.
8:05 a.m.:
7:45 a.m.: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russia will not turn down a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden at a forthcoming G-20 meeting and would consider the proposal if it receives one, Reuters reported.
Speaking on state television, Lavrov said Russia was willing to listen to any suggestions regarding peace talks, but that he could not say in advance what this process will lead to.
7:30 a.m.: Western governments plan to ratchet up pressure on Russia over its war in Ukraine, underscoring continued support for Ukraine when finance officials from around the world gather in Washington this week, senior U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen "will clearly, vocally and repeatedly highlight the impact of Russia's war in Ukraine on the global economy," one of the officials told reporters ahead of high-level meetings planned in coming days.
Yellen will meet with counterparts from the Group of Seven rich nations on Wednesday and the Group of 20 major economies — which include Russia — on Thursday, during the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, Reuters reported.
She will also meet with Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko on Tuesday, and participate in a ministerial roundtable discussion about support for Ukraine that will be hosted by the World Bank on Wednesday, officials said.
U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday after Russia rained cruise missiles on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities on Monday in its most widespread air attacks since the start of the war on February 24, killing at least 11 people and wounding 64.
7:15 a.m.:
7:05 a.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to address the leaders of the Group of Seven nations during a virtual meeting Tuesday that follows a series of deadly Russian missile strikes on Ukraine’s capital and other cities located across the country.
Hours before the meeting, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported multiple fresh missile strikes in Zaporizhzhia that killed at least one person.
Air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv and other areas. The mayor of Lviv said a missile strike there disrupted power and water services.
6:55 a.m.: Lviv’s city mayor Andriy Sadovyi said a Russian missile strike on critical infrastructure in the city on Tuesday left part of the west Ukrainian city without power.
A Reuters witness reported three explosions in the city shortly after noon local time (0900 GMT).
"As a result of the missile strike, 30% of Lviv is temporarily without electricity," Sadovyi wrote on the Telegram messaging app, adding that the water supply had also been interrupted in two districts of the city.
Russian missile strikes had also hit the electricity supply in the Lviv region on Monday.
City authorities said late on Monday that power had been largely restored in the region, but Ukrainian Deputy Interior Minister Yevheniy Yenin said some settlements in the region were still without electricity on Tuesday morning.
6:40 a.m.: Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said Tuesday that Russian leaders who ordered missile strikes on Ukrainian cities must be held to account.
6:20 a.m.: The United Nations said on Tuesday the wave of attacks may have violated the laws of war and would amount to war crimes if civilians were deliberately targeted.
"These strikes may have violated the principles of the conduct of hostilities under international humanitarian law," Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the U.N. human rights office, told reporters in Geneva, adding that intentionally targeting civilians and civilian objects, "amounts to a war crime."
6 a.m.: Minsk said Tuesday that a contingent of Belarusian troops deploying alongside Russian forces was a "purely defensive" grouping whose aim was to defend the borders of the ex-Soviet republic closely aligned with Russia.
"We emphasize once again that the tasks of the Regional Grouping of Forces are purely defensive. And all activities carried out at the moment are aimed at providing a sufficient response to actions near our borders," Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin was cited as saying in a statement, Agence France-Presse reported.
5:30 a.m.: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the margins of a regional summit in the Kazakh capital, Astana, on Wednesday, a Turkish official told Agence France-Presse.
Turkey, which has stayed neutral throughout the conflict in Ukraine, has good relations with its two Black Sea neighbors — Russia and Ukraine.
Erdogan has not yet commented on the mass Russian strikes across Ukraine on Monday, which killed at least 19 people and wounded more than 100.
But Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held a phone call with Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba after the attacks, a Turkish diplomatic source said, without elaborating further.
Erdogan met Putin on the sidelines of a regional summit in Uzbekistan last month.
5 a.m.: The Russian assets of Japanese automaker Nissan will be transferred to Russian state ownership, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing Moscow's trade ministry.
The sale will include Nissan's production and research facilities in St Petersburg as well as its sales and marketing center in Moscow, the ministry said, adding that Nissan would have the option to buy its assets back within six years.
4:30 a.m.: The head of GCHQ, Britain’s electronic intelligence agency, says Russia is running short of weapons and its troops are “exhausted.”
Jeremy Fleming said Tuesday that “we believe Russia is running short of munitions.”
Fleming is due to give a public speech later, arguing that Russian President Vladimir Putin has made “strategic errors in judgment” throughout the war, The Associated Press reported.
According to GCHQ, he will say that “we know — and Russian commanders on the ground know — that their supplies and munitions are running out.”
“Russia’s forces are exhausted. The use of prisoners to reinforce, and now the mobilization of tens of thousands of inexperienced conscripts, speaks of a desperate situation.”
GCHQ did not disclose the sources of its intelligence.
4 a.m.: Billionaire Silicon Valley investor Yuri Milner said he had renounced his Russian citizenship.
"My family and I left Russia for good in 2014, after the Russian annexation of Crimea. And this summer, we officially completed the process of renouncing our Russian citizenship," the Moscow-born Milner tweeted.
Milner, founder of the internet investment firm DST Global and one of the original investors in Facebook, has been an Israeli citizen since 1999, DST Global said in a fact sheet on its website, Agence France-Presse reported.
The venture capitalist and physicist has no assets in Russia and 97 percent of his wealth was created elsewhere, it said. "Yuri has never met Vladimir Putin, either individually or in a group," it said.
Milner's non-profit Breakthrough Prize Foundation has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
3:30 a.m.: In its update on the death toll, Ukraine’s State Emergencies Service said that 19 people were killed and 105 others were wounded in Monday’s Russian missile strikes across Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.
It said Tuesday that critical infrastructure facilities were hit in Kyiv and 12 other regions, and 301 cities and towns were without power.
Russia on Monday retaliated for an attack on a critical bridge by unleashing its most widespread strikes against Ukraine in months. They hit at least 14 regions, from Lviv in the west to Kharkiv in the east. Many of the attacks occurred far from the war’s front lines.
3 a.m.: Russian state-owned news agency RIA quoted Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying that direct conflict with the United States and NATO is not in Moscow's interests, but it will respond to the West's growing involvement in the Ukrainian conflict, Reuters reported.
"We warn and hope that they realize the danger of uncontrolled escalation in Washington and other Western capitals," Ryabkov said Tuesday.
2:30 a.m.: Emergency services put all Ukraine on alert for more missile strikes on Tuesday, a day after heavy Russian attacks, Reuters reported.
"Warning. During the day there's a high probability of missile strikes on the territory of Ukraine. Please remain in shelters for your own safety, do not ignore air raid signals," it said on the Telegram messaging app.
The emergency services also said 19 people had been killed and 105 wounded in Monday's missile strikes.
2 a.m.: Belarus could face more sanctions if it gets more and more involved in the Ukraine conflict, French Foreign Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna told French radio on Tuesday.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Monday that he had ordered troops to deploy with Russian forces near Ukraine in response to what he said was a clear threat to Belarus from Kyiv and its backers in the West.
The remarks from Lukashenko, who has held power in Belarus since 1994, indicate a potential further escalation of the war in Ukraine, possibly with a combined Russian-Belarus joint force in the north of Ukraine.
1:30 a.m.:
12:30 a.m.: United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan will travel to Russia on Tuesday to meet with President Vladimir Putin, Reuters reported Monday, citing UAE’s state news agency WAM.
WAM reported that UAE's foreign ministry said the visit aims to help reach "effective political solutions" to the Ukrainian crisis.
The UAE seeks to "achieve positive results for military de-escalation, reduce humanitarian repercussions, and reach a political settlement to achieve global peace and security," the ministry added.
The visit came less than a week after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC+, a group of oil producers that includes the UAE and Russia, agreed to make steep oil production cuts in defiance of U.S. pressure.
12:05 a.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to address the leaders of the Group of Seven nations during a virtual meeting Tuesday that follows a series of deadly Russian missile strikes on Ukraine’s capital and other cities located across the country.
Zelenskyy said Monday that Ukraine “cannot be intimidated,” and rather than instill fear, Russia’s attacks made “the whole world take notice.”
“We will do everything to strengthen our armed forces,” Zelenskyy said. “We will make the battlefield more painful for the enemy.”
The Ukrainian leader tweeted after a phone call with U.S. President Joe Biden that air defense was his top priority, and that he was looking to the United States for leadership on a “tough stance” from the G-7 as it considers its response to Russia’s attacks.
Biden and Western allies were quick to condemn the attacks and vowed to continue to send military aid to Ukraine’s forces to help fend off Moscow’s invasion, now in its eighth month.
A White House statement said Biden told Zelenskyy the U.S. would provide advanced air defense systems.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
