Month: February 2022

Terming the Ukraine situation as the “biggest global peace and security crisis” in recent years, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the latest developments in Ukraine are testing the entire international system.

“We face a moment that I sincerely hoped would not come,” he said at a media stakeout on Tuesday, adding “we must pass this test.”
Deeply troubled by the latest developments regarding Ukraine, Guterres highlighted reports of increased ceasefire violations across the contact line and “the real risk of further escalation on the ground”.

The Secretary-General again criticized Russia’s decision to recognize the ‘independence’ of certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

“Let me be clear: The decision of the Russian Federation to recognize the so-called ‘independence’ of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions is a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine,” the top UN official said.

According to Guterres, such a unilateral measure not only conflicts directly with the principles of the UN Charter but is also inconsistent with the so-called Friendly Relations Declaration of the General Assembly.

At this critical moment, the UN chief called for an immediate ceasefire and re-establishment of the rule of law.

“It is high time to return to the path of dialogue and negotiations. We must rally and meet this challenge together for peace, and to save the people of Ukraine and beyond from the scourge of war,” Guterres said. (ANI)

India reported as many as 15,102 fresh COVID-19 infections and 278 fatalities in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed on Wednesday.

With this single-day rise of COVID-19 infections, the country’s tally of cases touched 4,28,67,031 in the country. Active cases stand at 1,64,522 which account for 0.38 per cent of the total cases.
The ministry informed that 31,377 fresh recoveries from Coronavirus were logged in the last 24 hours thereby increasing the total recoveries to 4,21,89,887 in India.

The recovery rate is currently at 98.42 per cent.

The death toll moved up to 5,12,622. Of the fresh fatalities added today, Kerala accounts for 130 deaths, the state health department informed.

Further, the Union Ministry informed that 11,83,438 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours wherein a daily positivity rate of 1.28 per cent was observed.

As far as the COVID-19 vaccination drive is observed, about 176.19 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under the nationwide vaccination drive. (ANI)

US President Joe Biden during his meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Washington on Tuesday (local) affirmed that his administration would continue providing security assistance and macroeconomic support to Kyiv, the White House said in a statement.

This comes after President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of breakaway regions Donetsk and Luhansk and ordered the sending of Russian troops in the regions.

“Biden updated Foreign Minister Kuleba on the United States’ response to Russia’s decision to recognize the purported ‘independence’ of the so-called DNR and LNR [Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics] regions of Ukraine, including the Executive Order issued last night and new sanctions announced today. He also affirmed that the United States would continue providing security assistance and macroeconomic support to Ukraine,” the statement read.

Biden reaffirmed US’ commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. He also confirmed Washington’s readiness to cooperate with allies in order to respond “swiftly and decisively to any further Russian aggression against Ukraine,” the statement added.

In a key development, Biden on Tuesday announced new sanctions against Russia and called President Vladimir Putin’s moves in eastern Ukraine the “beginning of a Russian invasion”. He also authorized additional movements of US forces and military equipment in Europe to “strengthen” Baltic allies in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, following Russian President Vladimir Putin ordering troops into two separatist regions of Ukraine.

Speaking on the Russia-Ukraine crisis from the White House, Biden also called Putin’s moves the “beginning of a Russian invasion” of Ukraine as he announces new sanctions against Moscow.

“We are implementing full blocking sanctions on two large Russian financial institutions: VEB and their military bank,” Biden said adding, “We are implementing comprehensive sanctions on Russia’s sovereign debt. That means we have cut off Russia’s government from Western financing. It can no longer raise money from the West and can not trade in its new debt on our markets or European markets either.”

“Who in the Lord’s name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belongs to his neighbours?” Biden asserted from the White House podium.

In his remarks, Biden, further said, “We will also impose sanctions on Russia’s elites and their family members. They share in the corrupt gains of the Kremlin policies and should share in the pain as well,” adding, “We have worked with Germany to ensure that Nord Stream 2 will not … move forward.”

Following Putin’s announcement, Biden on Monday signed an Executive Order that will prohibit all new investment, trade, and financing by U.S. persons to, from, or in the “so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics”.

The US strongly condemned Putin’s decision to recognize the “so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics” as “independent.”

US Ambassador to UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield supported Ukraine’s call for an Urgent Meeting of the UN Security Council. She criticized Russia’s announcement and said that it is “nothing more than theatre, apparently designed to create a pretext for a further invasion of Ukraine.”

Notably, Putin has also ordered the sending of the Russian Armed Forces to Ukraine’s breakaway regions after recognizing their independence in his Monday address to the nation.

Notably, in March 2014, Russia invaded and then annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. In April pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region declared independence. The war continued in the eastern Ukrainian region and then spread westwards. Roughly 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians eventually died in the conflict.

In April 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky, a former comedian, was elected by a large majority as President of Ukraine on a promise to restore Donbas to the country. The crisis deepened in January 2021, when Zelensky appealed the US President Biden to let Ukraine enter NATO. In the spring of 2021, Russia started massing troops near Ukraine’s borders in what it said were training exercises.

Russia stated that its troop deployment is in response to NATO’s steady eastward expansion. It argued that its moves are aimed at protecting its own security considerations. (ANI)

Slamming Samajwadi Party over law and order situation in the state and riots during its rule, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday referred to mention of ‘Lankesh’ in Ramayana and said the main opposition party in the state “should be called dangesh”.

Addressing a poll rally in Bahraich, Yogi Adityanath accused the Samajwadi Party of “shielding mafias and terrorists”.

“Now UP doesn’t see riots and curfews. They (SP) imposed curfews, but we take out Kanwar Yatra. You must have heard of ‘Lankesh’ in Ramayana, similarly SP should be called ‘dangesh’,” the Chief Minister said.

Referring to actions taken by his government to vacate illegally occupied land and properties, the Chief Minister said “a strong government holds the stick of development in one hand and that of the bulldozer in the other.”

“BJP’s double engine government has given a strong and stable government to UP. Last government by SP was lacking in this,” he added.

Taking a dig at opposition parties, he said they didn’t allow smooth electricity transmission during their rule “because thieves like darkness”.

“This doesn’t happen now, people are free from that fear,” he said.

Three of the seven-phased polling has been held in Uttar Pradesh. The polling for the remaining phases will be held on February 23, February 27, March 3 and March 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)

Polling for the fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections will be held in 59 constituencies on Wednesday as curtains came down for the intense electioneering yesterday.

The fate of all the 624 candidates contesting in the fourth phase of the UP elections will be sealed in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) tomorrow. These 59 Assembly seats are spread across the districts of Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda, and Fatehpur.

Lakhimpur Kheri hogged the national limelight after eight people, including four farmers, were killed after being mowed down by a vehicle during a protest. The BJP leader Ajay Kumar Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra is accused in the case.

The BJP’s Yogesh Verma had won the Lakhimpur seat in the 2017 Assembly polls by defeating Samajwadi Party’s Utkarsh Verma Madhur with a formidable margin of more than 37,000 votes. The prestige of the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni will also be at stake in the Lakhimpur Kheri constituency. He’s a local MP, besides having been at the center of controversy after his son was named in the FIR in the incident leading to the deaths of the farmers.

Interestingly, both the BJP and the SP have repeated their candidates. The constituency caught the eyeballs in the ongoing polls because of the political heat generated by the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in the Parliament and also outside.

Congress has fielded Ravi Shankar Trivedi whereas the BSP has fielded Mohan Bajpai from the seat. Khushi Kinnar from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is also in the fray along with AIMIM’s Mohammad Usman Siddiqui.

Another keenly watched seat in this phase is the Sarojini Nagar seat in Lucknow where the former joint director of Enforcement Directorate, Rajeshwar Singh, is pitted against former IIM professor and a close aide of the former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Abhishek Mishra. Raebareli Sadar is one of the battles to watch out for with its sitting Congress MLA Aditi Singh now being a BJP nominee.

State Law Minister Brijesh Pathak is facing Samajwadi party candidate and two-time Corporator Surendra Singh Gandhi in the Lucknow Cantonment seat. The UP minister Ashutosh Tandon is in the fray from the Lucknow East seat against Deputy Speaker of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly Nitin Agarwal, who is the Samajwadi Party nominee.

The state is witnessing a multi-cornered contest with Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Samajwadi Party (SP)-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) as principal contenders.

As a last-minute effort, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath while addressing an election campaign in Raebareli on Monday promised the launch of the Purohit Welfare Board in the state for the welfare of priests, sadhus, and special scholarship for students studying Sanskrit if the BJP is re-elected to power.

Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, while addressing a rally in Hardoi, alleged that the BJP was trying to divert people’s attention from real issues by speaking about “religion, Pakistan, and terrorism”.

Voting for the remaining three phases of the seven-phase UP elections will take place on February 27, March 3, and 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)

As COVID-19 cases continue to decline in the national capital, a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has been scheduled for February 25 (Friday) and a decision on further easing of restrictions is likely to be taken.

The daily COVID-19 cases in Delhi dropped below 400 with 360 cases of the infection registered on Monday. The positivity rate dropped below one per cent on Monday for the first time since December 28 last year.

The DDMA will convene a virtual meeting under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will be present in the meeting.

In the last meeting of the DDMA held on February 4, a decision to reopen schools, colleges, coaching institutes and gyms was taken.

However, the night curfew remained in place but the timings were reduced by an hour. The timings are presently from 11 pm to 5 am. (ANI)

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision on Monday to recognize Ukraine’s breakaway regions – Donetsk and Luhansk – as independent entities has escalated the ongoing tensions between the two countries.

Here is a timeline of the events
.
Ukraine gained independence in 1991 after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Russia has been trying to keep the country in its orbit of influence since then.

Minsk Agreements

In 2014, a separatist insurgency started in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland Donetsk Basin. In February that year protesters in Ukraine overthrew President Viktor Yanukovych, who was friendly to Russia’s interests. During the protests, more than 100 people were killed.

Following fighting and violence that broke out as Russia-backed separatists seized territory in eastern Ukraine, Minsk I agreement was reached that also involved Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). However, the agreement reached in September 2014 broke down. Minsk II agreement was then reached in February 2015 requiring the participants to adhere to various points including withdrawal of heavy weapons by both sides.

The interim government that followed the “pro-Western revolution” eventually signed a trade agreement with the European Union, which was seen as the first step towards membership of the bloc.

In March 2014, Russia invaded and then annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. In April pro-Russian separatists in Donbas region declared independence. The war continued in the eastern Ukrainian region and then spread westwards. Roughly 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians eventually died in the conflict. The front lines have barely shifted for years.

Russia’s tensions with the West deepen

In April 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky, a former comedian, was elected by a large majority as President of Ukraine on a promise to restore Donbas to the country.

The crisis deepened in January 2021, when Zelensky appealed the US President Biden to let Ukraine enter NATO. In the spring of 2021, Russia started massing troops near Ukraine’s borders in what it said were training exercises.

Russia stated that its troop deployment is in response to NATO’s steady eastward expansion. It argued that its moves are aimed at protecting its own security considerations.

Troop build-up

Russia, in autumn last year, mobilized around 1,00,000 troops on its border with Ukraine. It sought assurance from the US that Ukraine shall not be inducted in NATO. This escalated tensions between Russia and the West which have been supportive of Ukraine. The US has assured Ukraine that it will “respond decisively” in case of an invasion by Russia.

In December last year, Russia asked NATO to pull back its military deployments to the 1990s level and prohibit the deployment of intermediate-range missiles in the bordering areas.

But the US ruled out changing NATO’s “open-door policy” which means NATO would continue to induct more members. The US also said that it would continue to offer training and weapons to Ukraine.

Germany also warned Russia that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline would be stopped if Russia were to invade Ukraine.

The US threatened Russia of new economic sanctions in case of attempts of invasion against Ukraine.

No narrowing of differences

US and Russian diplomats failed to narrow differences on Ukraine and in January this year a cyberattack warning Ukrainians to “be afraid and expect the worst” hit Ukrainian government websites.

Washington in late January this year presented a written response to Russia’s security demands, repeating a commitment to NATO’s “open-door” policy while offering “pragmatic” discussions of Moscow’s concerns. The Russian President said that Moscow’s main security demands have not been addressed.

Putin on Monday signed a decree recognizing the independence of breakaway regions Donetsk and Luhansk. He made this announcement during a televised address to Russians.

UN chief Antonio Guterres has said that Russia’s decision to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine as independent is a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and inconsistent with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

US President Joe Biden on Monday signed an executive order that will prohibit all new investment, trade, and financing by US persons to, from, or in the “so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.” (ANI)

Afghan truckers who came to Attari integrated check-post (ICP) to carry the first consignment of humanitarian aid of 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan praised India for the kind gesture.

Since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, the situation in Afghanistan is critical and millions of people are suffering from hunger and food crisis.

Most of the people of Afghanistan are living below the poverty line, in such a situation, the humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan by India is like a ray of hope.

Arif, an Afghan truck driver told ANI the help that the Indian government is providing to Afghanistan by sending wheat will bring a lot of relief.

“The situation in Afghanistan is still not good but now gradually there is hope that everything will be fine. There is a lot of poverty in Afghanistan, people are suffering from hunger and they do not have food grains. India helped our people,” Arif said.

Another truck driver Baba Gul, who is a resident of Kabul city, lauded the move by India.

“The food grains that India is sending to the poor people of our country is a big relief because the situation in Afghanistan is not good and the pockets of the people of Afghanistan is empty. There is no money, the people of Afghanistan have no work,” said Baba Gul.

Rahimsha, who is also a truck driver, said that the people of Afghanistan need help for more things, in which medicine is also one. “India has helped our people, we are happy,” he said.

In this endeavour, India has already supplied 500,000 doses of COVAXIN, 13 tons of essential lifesaving medicines and 500 units of winter clothing. These consignments were handed over to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Indira Gandhi Hospital, Kabul.

Foreign Secretary of India, Harsh V Shringla on Tuesday flagged off the first consignment of humanitarian aid of 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan, in the presence of Afghanistan’s Ambassador to India, Farid Mamundzay.

“We are extending our humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, in the form of 50,000 tonnes of wheat. We are flagging off our first consignment of 2,500 tonnes in 50 Afghan trucks, today. It’ll be delivered to the World Food Program for dissemination,” said Shringla.

“This consignment will go from Attari ICP, Jalalabad, via Pakistan; many such consignments will be sent to fulfill the humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan in the next 2 to 3 months,” added the Foreign Secretary.

In response to appeals made by the United Nations for humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, the Government of India has decided to gift 50,000 MT of wheat to the people of Afghanistan. The supply will be effected by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and transported from ICP Attari (India) to Jalalabad (Afghanistan) by Afghan transporters.

The shipment is part of the commitment made by the Government of India to supply 50,000 MT of wheat for the people of Afghanistan. The wheat assistance will be delivered in multiple consignments and will be handed over to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

“We have received information from other agencies including the United Nations that the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is very serious, there is a shortage of food grains, there is a shortage of medicines, in view of all these things, this humanitarian aid has been sent from India to the people of Afghanistan,” said Harsh V Shringla.

“India has a historical relationship with Afghanistan. India and the people of Afghanistan have a people-to-people contact. India has already sent the COVID-19 vaccine including, lifesaving medicines to Afghanistan. The next thing depends on how much and what things Afghanistan needs going forward, India will be ready to help considering the humanitarian aspect,” added the Indian Foreign Secretary. (ANI)

A day after Bajrang Dal activist Harsha was murdered in Shivamogga district, Karnataka’s Additional DGP Pratap Reddy on Tuesday said that all the accused have been identified and the work is underway to arrest the suspects.

Speaking to reporters, Additional DGP Pratap Reddy said, “All accused have been identified. Teams are outside as well as inside the Shivamogga district. So, work is going on and we are on the verge of completing the detection and arresting the accused persons.”
On the outbreak of violence in the district following the murder of Harsha, Reddy said, “All accused have been identified. Teams are outside as well as inside the Shivamogga district. So, work is going on and we are on the verge of completing the detection and arresting the accused persons.”

Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said, “There’s calm in Shivamogga…KS Eshwarappa didn’t lead the procession (for taking the body of Bajrang Dal activist Harsha to his home). He was in procession as local MLA. Action will be taken against whoever damaged property.”

Three persons have been arrested in connection with the murder of 26-year-old Bajrang Dal activist Harsha in Karnataka’s Shivamogga, said Araga Jnanendra on Monday. (ANI)

Actor John Abraham will be seen donning an action avatar in the film ‘Tehran’.

On Tuesday, John took to Twitter and shared the update with his fans. “Get set for an action packed Republic Day 2023. Thrilled to announce my next, #Tehran,” he tweeted.

Arun Gopalan has come on board to helm ‘Tehran’, which is scheduled to release on January 26 next year.

Inspired by true events, the film is produced by Dinesh Vijan, Shobhna Yadav and Sandeep Leyzell.

Meanwhile, John is waiting for the release of his other film ‘Attack’, which will hit the silver screen on April 1, 2022. (ANI)