KYIV: Russian troops left the heavily contaminated Chernobyl nuclear site early Friday after returning control to the Ukrainians, authorities said, as eastern parts of the country braced for renewed attacks and Russians blocked another aid mission to the besieged port city of Mariupol.

Ukraine’s state power company, Energoatom, said the pullout at Chernobyl came after soldiers received “significant doses” of radiation from digging trenches in the forest in the exclusion zone around the closed plant. But there was no independent confirmation of that.

The exchange of control happened amid growing indications the Kremlin is using talk of de-escalation in Ukraine as cover to regroup, resupply its forces and redeploy them for a stepped-up offensive in the eastern part of the country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russian withdrawals from the north and center of the country were just a military tactic to build up forces for new powerful attacks in the southeast. A new round of talks between the countries was scheduled Friday, five weeks into a conflict that has left thousands dead and driven 4 million Ukrainians from the country.

“We know their intentions,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation. “We know that they are moving away from those areas where we hit them in order to focus on other, very important ones where it may be difficult for us.”

“There will be battles ahead,” he added.

Meanwhile in Mariupol, Russian forces blocked a convoy of 45 buses attempting to evacuate people after the Russian military agreed to a limited cease-fire in the area. Only 631 people were able to get out of the city in private cars, according to the Ukrainian government.

Russian forces also seized 14 tons of food and medical supplies in a dozen buses that were trying to make it to Mariupol, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

The city has been the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war. Tens of thousands have managed to get out in the past few weeks by way of humanitarian corridors, reducing the population from a prewar 430,000 to an estimated 100,000 by last week, but other relief efforts have been thwarted by continued Russian attacks.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said it had been informed by Ukraine that the Russian forces at the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster had transferred control of it in writing to the Ukrainians. The last Russian troops left early Friday, the Ukrainian government agency responsible for the exclusion zone said.

Energoatom gave no details on the condition of the soldiers it said were exposed to radiation and did not say how many were affected. There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin, and the IAEA said it had not been able to confirm the reports of Russian troops receiving high doses. It said it was seeking more information.

Russian forces seized the Chernobyl site in the opening stages of the Feb. 24 invasion, raising fears that they would cause damage or disruption that could spread radiation. The workforce at the site oversees the safe storage of spent fuel rods and the concrete-entombed ruins of the reactor that exploded in 1986.

Edwin Lyman, a nuclear expert with the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists, said it “seems unlikely” a large number of troops would develop severe radiation illness, but it was impossible to know for sure without more details.

He said contaminated material was probably buried or covered with new topsoil during the cleanup of Chernobyl, and some soldiers may have been exposed to a “hot spot” of radiation while digging. Others may have assumed they were at risk too, he said.

Early this week, the Russians said they would significantly scale back military operations in areas around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv to increase trust between the two sides and help negotiations along.

But in the Kyiv suburbs, regional governor Oleksandr Palviuk said on social media Thursday that Russian forces shelled Irpin and Makariv and that there were battles around Hostomel. Ukrainian forces counterattacked and some Russian withdrawals around the suburb of Brovary to the east, Pavliuk said.

At a Ukrainian military checkpoint outside Kyiv, soldiers and officers said they don’t believe Russian forces have given up on the capital.

“What does it mean, significantly scaling down combat actions in the Kyiv and Chernihiv areas?” asked Brig. Gen. Valeriy Embakov. “Does it mean there will be 100 missiles instead of 200 missiles launched on Kyiv or something else?”

Chernihiv came under attack as well. At least one person was killed and four were wounded in the Russian shelling of a humanitarian convoy of buses sent to Chernihiv to evacuate residents cut off from food, water and other supplies, said Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova.

Elsewhere, Ukraine reported Russian artillery barrages in and around the northeastern city of Kharkiv.

Ukraine’s emergency services also said the death toll had risen to 20 in a Russian missile strike Tuesday on a government administration building in the southern city of Mykolaiv.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said intelligence indicates Russia is not scaling back its military operations in Ukraine but is instead trying to regroup, resupply its forces and reinforce its offensive in the Donbas.

“Russia has repeatedly lied about its intentions,” Stoltenberg said. At the same time, he said, pressure is being kept up on Kyiv and other cities, and “we can expect additional offensive actions bringing even more suffering.”

The Donbas is the predominantly Russian-speaking industrial region where Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian forces since 2014. In the past few days, the Kremlin, in a seeming shift in its war aims, said that its “main goal” now is gaining control of the Donbas, which consists of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, including Mariupol.

The top rebel leader in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, issued an order to set up a rival city government for Mariupol, according to Russian state news agencies, in a sign of Russian intent to hold and administer the city.

With talks set to resume between Ukraine and Russia via video, there seemed little faith that the two sides would resolve the conflict any time soon.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that conditions weren’t yet “ripe” for a cease-fire and that he wasn’t ready for a meeting with Zelenskyy until negotiators do more work, Italian Premier Mario Draghi said after a telephone conversation with the Russian leader.

As Western officials search for clues about what Russia’s next move might be, a top British intelligence official said demoralized Russian soldiers in Ukraine are refusing to carry out orders and sabotaging their equipment and had accidentally shot down their own aircraft.

U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the war is going because they are afraid to tell him the truth.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the U.S. is wrong and that “neither the State Department nor the Pentagon possesses the real information about what is happening in the Kremlin.”

WASHINGTON: The United States will neither engage in hostilities in Ukraine nor establish a no-fly zone over the country, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin told the CNN broadcaster.

“We’d have to control the skies and that would mean that we’d have to engage Russian aircraft we’d also have to take out Russian and aircraft and aircraft systems in Ukraine, in Belarus, and also in Russia. So that would mean that we’re in combat with Russia. And these are two nuclear powered countries. That nobody wants to see. It’s not good for the region. It’s not good for the world,” Austin added. 

The United States is still concerned about China providing military support to Russia even after President Joe Biden spoke with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, on Friday to discourage him from aiding Moscow in its military operation in Ukraine, said White House spokesperson Jen Psaki.

“We have that concern. The President detailed what the implications and consequences would be if China provides material support to Russia,” Psaki said when asked whether the Biden administration is still concerned Beijing might help Russia, reported Sputnik.

“That is something we will be watching and the world will be watching,” Psaki said.

Biden on Friday held a video call with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and warned China of implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia.

“President Biden detailed our efforts to prevent and then respond to the invasion, including by imposing costs on Russia. He described the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians,” a White House readout informed.

Xi said, “As leaders of major countries, we (China and the US) need to think about how to properly address global hotspot issues and, more importantly, keep in mind global stability and the work and life of billions of people,” as quoted by Xinhua.

Meanwhile, the two leaders agreed that a diplomatic solution to the present conflict in Ukraine is the most desirable outcome as of now.

On the question of Taiwan, Biden reiterated that U.S. policy on Taiwan has not changed, and emphasized that the United States continues to oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo, the readout said.

Xi spoke sharply on the question of Taiwan saying that some people in the U.S. have sent a wrong signal on the issue of Taiwanese independence, adding that “this is very dangerous.”

Amid Russia’s plan to transfer their troops from Armenia to support offensive against Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a video on Saturday, saying that he wants a serious conversation with Moscow as “the time has come to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine”.

“I want everyone to hear me now, especially (those) in Moscow. The time has come for a meeting; it is time to talk,” Zelenskyy was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.

Zelenskyy also accused Moscow in the video of blocking the humanitarian assistance in the war-torn cities of Ukraine, stating that “this is a deliberate tactic..”.

Al Jazeera further quoted Zelenskyy saying that “Russia will have to answer for it (the blocking of humanitarian assistance…”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian armed forces said that Russia will be transferring their troops from Armenia, according to the Ukraine media outlet, The Kyiv independent.

Russia planned to deploy their troops from the 102nd Russian military base in Armenia to support its offensive against Ukraine, according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Earlier on Friday Zelenskyy spoke to European Council President Charles Michel and discussed further strengthening of support to the war-torn country and also the membership of the European Union (EU) for Ukraine

“Discussed with President of the Council Charles Michel @eucopresident further support to (Ukraine) in countering (Russian) aggression, strengthening the anti-war coalition, prospects for restoring peace in (Ukraine). Special attention was paid to our movement towards membership in the #EU,” Zelenskyy said in a tweet.

On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a phone call with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and discussed the issue of the growing number of civilian casualties in the ongoing conflict while talking about the efforts to bring an end to the war.

The developments came amidst the scheduled visit of US President Joe Biden to Brussels on March 24 to attend an extraordinary NATO summit as well as participate in a European Council Summit.

On February 24, Russia began a special military operation in Ukraine after the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics requested help in defending themselves.

Russia has been facing immense pressure from the international community to stop its military operations in Ukraine which has created an immense humanitarian crisis with thousands of refugees from Ukraine fleeing to the neighbouring countries to the West.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday (local time) held a phone call with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and discussed the growing number of civilian casualties in the ongoing conflict while talking about the efforts to bring an end to the war.

“Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Kuleba discussed the growing number of civilian casualties caused by President Putin’s brutal and unjustified war of choice. The Secretary commended the incredible courage and fierce determination of the Ukrainian people as they defend their country against Russian forces who have shown little regard for human life,” a US State Department readout said.

Secretary of State Blinken also reaffirmed “the United States’ steadfast commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” and reiterated the American support through assistance.

“The Secretary reiterated robust U.S. support for the people of Ukraine through security, humanitarian, and economic assistance,” the readout said.

“Spoke with @SecBlinken on efforts to bring an end to Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine and multiple war crimes. To this end, it is crucial to further strengthen Ukraine’s defence capabilities, apply more pressure on Russia, and use all available diplomatic tools,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba tweeted.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting with European Council President Charles Michel discussing further support to Ukraine in the ongoing war.

In a video address on the same day, Zelenskyy commented on the Ukrainian-Russian talks on a possible ceasefire, “It is time to meet. It is time to restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine, the justice for Ukraine,” Sputnik reported.

The developments come amidst the scheduled visit of US President Joe Biden to Brussels on March 24 to attend an extraordinary NATO summit as well as participate in a European Council Summit.

WASHINGTON: Former US President Barack Obama has said he tested positive for the coronavirus, though he’s feeling relatively healthy and his wife, Michelle, tested negative.

“I’ve had a scratchy throat for a couple days, but am feeling fine otherwise,” Obama said on Twitter on Sunday. “Michelle and I are grateful to be vaccinated and boosted.”

Obama encouraged more Americans to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, despite the declining infection rate in the US. There were roughly 35,000 infections on average over the past week, down sharply from mid-January when that average was closer to 8,00,000.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that 75.2 per cent of US adults are fully vaccinated and 47.7 per cent of the fully vaccinated have received a booster shot.

The CDC relaxed its guidelines for indoor masking in late February, taking a more holistic approach that meant the vast majority of Americans live in areas without the recommendation for indoor masking in public.

BEIJING: China’s government responded on Sunday to a spike in coronavirus infections by shutting down its southern business centre of Shenzhen, a city of 17.5 million people, and restricted access to Shanghai by suspending bus service.

Case numbers in China’s latest infection surge are low compared with other countries and with Hong Kong, which reported more than 32,000 on Sunday. But mainland authorities are enforcing a ” zero tolerance” strategy and have locked down entire citiesto find and isolate every infected person.

Shenzhen is home to some of China’s most prominent companies, including telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies Ltd., electric car brand BYD Auto, Ping An Insurance Co. and Tencent Holding, operator of the popular WeChat message service.

On the mainland, the government reported 1,938 new cases, more than triple Saturday’s total.

About three-quarters, or 1,412 cases, were in Jilin province in the northeast, where the industrial metropolis of Changchun was placed under lockdown on Friday and families were told to stay home after a spate of infections.

China, where the first coronavirus cases were detected in late 2019 in the central city of Wuhan, has reported a total of 4,636 deaths on the mainland out of 115,466 confirmed cases since the pandemic started.

In Shanghai, China’s most populous city with 24 million people, the number of cases in the latest surge rose by 15 to 432.

The city government called on the public not to leave unless necessary. It said intercity bus service would be suspended starting on Sunday.

“Those who come or return to Shanghai must have a negative nucleic acid test report within 48 hours before arrival,” said a city health agency statement.

In Hong Kong, a health official warned the public not to assume the territory’s deadly coronavirus surge was under control as the government reported 190 new fatalities, most of them elderly people, and 32,430 new cases. That’s down from above 50,000 after stringent travel and business curbs were imposed.

Hong Kong, a crowded financial hub of 7.4 million, is trying to contain an outbreak that has killed 3,993 people, most of them in the latest surge driven by the omicron variant, and swamped hospitals.

“People should not get the wrong impression that the virus situation is now under control,” said Dr. Albert Au, an expert with the government’s Center for Health Protection. “Once we let our guard down, it’s possible that (infections) will bounce back and rise again.”

Construction crews sent from the mainland have built temporary isolation centres in Hong Kong for thousands of patients.

On the mainland, 831 new cases were reported Sunday in Changchun, 571 in the nearby provincial capital city of Jilin and 150 in the eastern port city of Qingdao.

Authorities in Jilin are stepping up anti-disease measures after concluding their earlier response was inadequate, according to Zhang Yan, deputy director of the provincial Health Commission.

“The emergency response mechanism in some areas is not sound enough,” Zhang said at a news conference, according to a transcript released by the government.

Also Sunday, some residents of Cangzhou, south of Beijing, were told to stay home after nine cases were reported there, according to a government notice. It wasn’t clear how many of its 7.3 million people were affected.

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden said he has moved 12,000 troops along the borders with Russia, such as Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Romania while asserting that Vladimir Putin will not be victorious in the war he has waged against Ukraine.

Addressing members of the House Democratic Caucus on Friday, Biden stressed over “not fighting a third World War in Ukraine” but avowed sending an “unmistakable message that we will defend every inch of NATO territory”.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is a group of 30 North American and European nations.

According to NATO, its purpose “is to guarantee the freedom and security of its members through political and military means.”

Biden said the people of Ukraine have demonstrated remarkable bravery and courage in the face of a Russian military offensive but the security assistance that the US provides has been critical in their defence.

“And as we provide support to Ukraine, we’re going to continue to stand together with our allies in Europe and send an unmistakable message that we will defend every inch of NATO territory with a united galvanized NATO,” the US president said.

“That’s why I’ve moved 12,000 American forces along the borders with Russia — Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania et cetra. Granted, if we respond, it is World War three. But we have a sacred obligation on NATO territory. Although we will not fight a third World War in Ukraine.”

On February 24, Russian forces launched military operations in Ukraine, three days after Moscow recognised Ukraine’s breakaway regions — Donetsk and Luhansk — as independent entities.

“The idea that we’re going to send in offensive equipment and have planes and tanks and trains going in with American pilots and American crews, just understand — and don’t kid yourself, no matter what you all say — that’s called World War Three,” he said.

The US president said that he spent hours the alliance together — the EU, NATO and including all those in Asia.

“As a result, we’ve been able to ramp up our economic pressure on Putin and further isolate Russia on the global stage,” he said.

Biden said the G7 nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States — made a move to remove the favored nation status for Russia.

He claimed that as a result of the US-led sanctions, the economy of Russia is badly impacted.

“The totality of our economic sanctions and export controls are crushing the Russian economy. The Ruble has lost more than half its value.”

“Moscow Stock Exchange is closed. Why is it closed? Because the moment it opens, it will be disbanded. Credit rating agencies have downgraded Russia’s government to junk status,” Biden said.

He said that democracies are rising to the moment rallying the world for peace and security.

“We are showing strength and we will never falter. Putin’s war against Ukraine will never be a victory.”

“I want to thank you for showing a unified front to the world. When Putin unleashed his assault, he thought he could divide NATO.”

“He thought he could divide this country in terms of the parties. He thought he could divide Democrats and Republicans at home, but he failed,” Biden told the members of the House Democratic Caucus.

The United States accused Russia of using a UN Security Council meeting Friday for “lying and spreading disinformation” as part of a potential false-flag operation by Moscow for the use of chemical or biological agents in Ukraine.

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russia was playing out a scenario put forth in the council last month by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, that President Vladimir Putin would “fabricate allegations about chemical or biological weapons to justify its own violent attacks against the Ukrainian people.”

“The intent behind these lies seems clear, and is deeply troubling,” she said.

“We believe Russia could use chemical or biological agents for assassinations, as part of a staged or false-flag incident, or to support tactical military operations.”

The United States has warned about such Russian operations in conjunction with an invasion, which began February 24.

Russia had requested the meeting to address its allegations of US “biological activities” in Ukraine — a charge made without any evidence and denied by both Washington and Kyiv.

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said its Defense Ministry had documents charging that Ukraine has at least 30 biological laboratories carrying out “very dangerous biological experiments” involving pathogens, and its work “is being done and funded and supervised by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency of the United States.

“Ukraine does have a network of biological labs that have gotten funding and research support from the US, but they are owned and operated by Ukraine and are part of an initiative called the Biological Threat Reduction Program that aims to reduce the likelihood of deadly outbreaks, whether natural or manmade.”

The US efforts date back to work in the 1990s to dismantle the former Soviet Union’s program for weapons of mass destruction.

“The labs are not secret,” said Filippa Lentzos, a senior lecturer in science and international security at King’s College London, in an email to the Associated Press.

“They are not being used in relation to bioweapons. This is all disinformation.”

Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward, called the allegations “utter nonsense” and said “Russia is sinking to new depths today, but the council must not get dragged down with it.”

UN disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu told the council she was aware of media reports about the allegations of and said: “The United Nations is not aware of any biological weapons programs.”

Thomas-Greenfield also denied that Ukraine has a biological weapons program or biological weapons labs as Russia claimed, saying the public health laboratory facilities are used to detect and diagnose diseases like COVID-19, with US help.

Thomas-Greenfield said that ever since Russia began building up forces near Ukraine’s borders, Washington’s strategy has been to counter Moscow’ tactics and share what it knows with the world.

“We’re not going to let Russia get away with lying to the world or staining the integrity of the Security Council by using it as a venue for legitimizing Putin’s violence,” she said.

“We do not sit in this chamber to be an audience for Russia’s domestic propaganda,” Thomas-Greenfield added.

“And we should not allow Russia to abuse its permanent seat to spread disinformation and lies and pervert the purpose of the Security Council.”

She also accused Russia’s ally, China, of “spreading disinformation in support of Russia’s outrageous claims.”

China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Jun expressed concern at Russia’s accusations and urged an investigation to “provide a comprehensive clarification and accept a multilateral verification.”

Britain’s Woodward said the Security Council must not be “an audience for Russia’s domestic propaganda” and must remain focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said Moscow’s accusations “may actually point at Russia preparing another horrific false-flag operation.”

Noting that Russia has already used cruise missiles, multiple rocket launchers and heavy aerial bombardment, he addressed Putin by asking: “So what else are you going to use against Ukraine?”

The UN human rights office, meanwhile, has received “credible reports” that Russian forces are using cluster munitions in Ukraine, including in populated areas which is prohibited under international humanitarian law, Undersecretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council.

“Indiscriminate attacks, including those using cluster munitions, which are of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction, are prohibited under international humanitarian law,” DiCarlo said.

“Directing attacks against civilian and civilian objects, as well as so-called area bombardment in towns and villages, are also prohibited under international law and may amount to war crimes.”

Nebenzia replied that the allegations are “refuted repeatedly by our Ministry of Defense”.

The Russian request for the Security Council meeting came from its first deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had made the accusation earlier this week.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki called Russia’s claim “preposterous” and tweeted: “This is all an obvious ploy by Russia to try to justify its further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also denied Russia’s accusation, saying the accusation itself was a bad sign.

A USD 13.6 billion emergency package of military and humanitarian aid for besieged Ukraine and its European allies easily won final congressional approval, hitching a ride on a government-wide spending bill that’s five months late but loaded with political prizes for both parties.

With Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion killing thousands and forcing over 2 million others to flee, the Senate approved the USD 1.

5 trillion overall legislation by a 68-31 bipartisan margin late Thursday.

Democrats and Republicans have battled this election year over rising inflation, energy policy and lingering pandemic restrictions, but they’ve rallied behind sending aid to Ukraine, whose stubborn resilience against brutal force has been inspirational for many voters.

“We promised the Ukrainian people they would not go at it alone in their fight against Putin,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said just before the vote.

“And once we pass this funding in a short while, we will keep that promise.”

The House passed the compromise bill easily Wednesday.

President Joe Biden’s signature was certain.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said approval “proves once more that members of both parties can come together to deliver results for the American people”, a phenomenon in short supply in recent years.

She also prodded lawmakers to revive money “urgently needed to prevent severe disruptions to our COVID response.

” In an embarrassment to Biden and Democratic leaders who’d made it a top priority, the House on Wednesday dropped the measure’s USD 15.

6 billion for continuing efforts to battle the pandemic after rank-and-file lawmakers balked at cuts in aid states had been promised.

Around half the USD 13.6 billion measure for the war was for arming and equipping Ukraine and the Pentagon’s costs for sending U.S. troops to other Eastern European nations skittish about the warfare next door.

Much of the rest included humanitarian and economic assistance, strengthening regional allies’ defenses and protecting their energy supplies and cybersecurity needs.

Republicans strongly backed that spending.

But they criticized Biden for moving too timidly, such as in the unresolved dispute with Poland over how that nation could give MiG fighter jets to Ukraine that its pilots know how to fly.

“This administration’s first instinct is to flinch, wait for international and public pressure to overwhelm them, and then take action only after the most opportune moment has passed us by,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

White House aides told Congress last month that Biden wanted $6.

4 billion to counter Russia’s invasion.

He ended up formally requesting USD 10 billion, an amount that it took an eager Congress just a few days to boost to its final figure of USD 13.6 billion. The USD1.5 trillion bill carrying that aid gave Democrats a near 7% increase for domestic initiatives, which constituted a bit less than half the package.

That translated to beefed-up spending for schools, housing, child care, renewable energy, biomedical research, law enforcement grants to communities and feeding programs.

The measure also directs money to minority communities and historically black colleges, renews efforts aimed at preventing domestic violence against women and requires infrastructure operators to report serious hacking incidents to federal authorities.

Republicans lay claim to an almost 6% boost for defense, including money for 85 advanced F-35 fighter planes, 13 new Navy ships, upgrades for 90 Abrams tanks and improvements for schools on military bases.

There would be another USD 300 million for Ukraine and $300 million for other Eastern European allies on top of the measure’s emergency funding.

The GOP also prevailed in retaining decades-old restrictions against using federal money to pay for nearly all abortions.

And they forced Biden to abandon goals for his 2022 budget, politically implausible from the start, that envisioned 16% domestic program increases and defense growth of less than 2%.

Besides those policy victories, many lawmakers of both parties had one incentive to back the spending package that they have not enjoyed since 2010.

Democratic leaders restored the old practice of earmarks, hometown projects for lawmakers that Congress dropped in 2011 because voters viewed it as a sleazy misspending of taxpayers’ money.

The practice was restored, the expansive bill was laced with thousands of the projects at a price tag of several billion dollars.

Years ago, the numbers were often higher.

Affirming the practice’s popularity, the Senate rejected an amendment by Sen.

Mike Braun, R-Ind., to strip the earmarks.

Braun said they encompassed 367 pages that weighed five pounds and showed “the swamp is rising again.”

The amendment’s defeat by a bipartisan 64-35 margin spoke for itself.

Government agencies have operated under last year’s lower spending levels since the new fiscal year began Oct.1 because, as usual, Congress hadn’t approved any bills by then updating those amounts.

Months of talks produced the compromise spending pact this week.

With the latest temporary spending measure expiring Friday night, Biden’s signature of the USD 1.5 trillion bill would avert a weekend federal shutdown, which was never going to happen because neither party had reason to spark such a battle.

Lviv(AP): Russia announced a ceasefire starting Monday morning and the opening of humanitarian corridors in several areas, a day after hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians attempting to flee to safety were forced to shelter from Russian shelling that pummelled cities in Ukraine’s center, north and south.

As Ukraine officials described a catastrophic situation during failed evacuation efforts in Kyiv’s suburbs, officials from both sides also planned a third round of talks Monday.

A Russian task force said a ceasefire would start Monday morning, the 12th day of the war, for civilians from the capital Kyiv, the southern port city of Mariupol, Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and Sumy.

It wasn’t immediately clear if fighting would stop stop beyond the areas mentioned in the task force’s statement, or when the ceasefire would end.

The announcement follows two failed attempts to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, from which the International Committee of the Red Cross estimated 200,000 people were trying to flee. Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for the failure. The Russian task force said Monday’s ceasefire and the opening of the corridors was announced at the request of French President Emmanuel Macron, who spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday.

Evacuation routes published by Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency, citing the Defense Ministry, show that civilians will be able to leave to Russia and Belarus. Russian forces will be observing the ceasefire with drones, the task force said.

The earlier breakdown of evacuations came as Ukraine officials said that Russian shelling intensified across the country.

Instead of humanitarian corridors, they can only make bloody ones, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday. Today a family was killed in Irpin. Man, woman and two children. Right on the road. As in a shooting gallery.

Putin said Moscow’s attacks could be halted only if Kyiv ceases hostilities. As he has often done, Putin blamed Ukraine for the war, telling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday that Kyiv needed to stop all hostilities and fulfill the well-known demands of Russia.

Putin launched his invasion with a string of false accusations against Kyiv, including that it is led by neo-Nazis intent on undermining Russia with the development of nuclear weapons.

As Russian attacks worsened, a brief reprieve from fighting in Mariupol collapsed. Heavy artillery hit residential areas in other large cities, local officials reported.

There can be no green corridors’ because only the sick brain of the Russians decides when to start shooting and at whom, Ukraine Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko said on Telegram.

On what is known as Forgiveness Sunday in Orthodox Christianity, Zelenskyy said Ukraine will never forgive the shelling of its homes, the killing of unarmed people and the destruction of its infrastructure.

And God will not forgive, either today or tomorrow never. And instead of a day of forgiveness, there will be a judgment day. Of this I am sure, he said in a video address.

The death toll remains unclear. The UN says it has confirmed just a few hundred civilian deaths but also warned that the number is a vast undercount.

Presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich described a catastrophic situation in the Kyiv suburbs of Bucha, Hostomel and Irpin, where efforts to evacuate residents on Sunday failed.

About eight civilians, including a family, were killed by Russian shelling in Irpin, according to Mayor Oleksander Markyshin.

Video footage showed a shell slamming into a city street, not far from a bridge used by people fleeing the fighting.

A group of fighters could be seen trying to help the family. Arestovich said the government was doing all it could to resume evacuations.

This is likely to represent an effort to break Ukrainian morale, the UK Ministry of Defense said of Russian tactics as the war entered its 12th day Monday.

Fighting has caused 1.5 million people to flee the country, which the head of the UN refugee agency called the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

British military officials compared Russia’s tactics to those Moscow used in Chechnya and Syria, where surrounded cities were pulverised by airstrikes and artillery.

Food, water, medicine and almost all other supplies were in desperately short supply in Mariupol, where Russian and Ukrainian forces had agreed to an 11-hour cease-fire that would allow civilians and the wounded to be evacuated. But Russian attacks quickly closed the humanitarian corridor, Ukrainian officials said.

The handful of residents who managed to flee the city before the humanitarian corridor closed said the city of 430,000 had been devastated.

We saw everything: houses burning, all the people sitting in basements, said Yelena Zamay, who fled to one of the self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russian separatists.

No communication, no water, no gas, no light, no water. There was nothing.

Russia has made significant advances in southern Ukraine as it seeks to block access to the Sea of Azov. Capturing Mariupol could allow Moscow to establish a land corridor to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 in a move that most other countries considered illegal.

But much of the Russian advance has become stalled, including an immense military convoy that has been almost motionless for days north of Kyiv.

A senior US defense official said Sunday that the US assesses that about 95% of the Russian forces that had been arrayed around Ukraine are now inside the country.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military assessments, said Russian forces continue to advance in an attempt to isolate Kyiv, Kharkhiv and Chernihiv, but are being met with strong Ukrainian resistance.

Ukraine’s professional and volunteer fighters have fought with great tenacity, though they are greatly outmatched by the Russian army. Volunteers lined up Saturday in Kyiv to join the military.

Ukraine is also planning to fill an international legion with 20,000 volunteers from dozens of countries, though it was not clear how many were in Ukraine.

The whole world today is on Ukraine’s side, not only in words but in deeds, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Ukrainian television Sunday night.

The West has broadly backed Ukraine, offering aid and weapon shipments and slapping Russia with vast sanctions. But no NATO troops have been sent to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy has also heaped criticism on Western leaders for not responding with more force to Russia. He reiterated a request for foreign protectors to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which NATO so far has ruled out because of concerns such an action would lead to a far wider war.

Zelenskyy also asked the United States and NATO countries to send more warplanes to Ukraine. But that idea is complicated by questions about how to provide aircraft to Ukrainian pilots.

He later urged the West to tighten its sanctions on Russia, saying that the audacity of the aggressor is a clear signal that existing sanctions are not enough.

Russia has become increasingly isolated in the days since the invasion began, closing itself off to outside sources of information as sanctions bite deeply into its economy. The ruble has plunged in value, and dozens of multinational companies ended or dramatically scaled back their work in the country.

On Sunday, American Express announced it would suspend operations in Russia, as well as in Russian-allied Belarus.

Also, two of the so-called Big Four accounting firms, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers, said Sunday they would end their relationships with their Russia-based member firms.

TikTok announced Sunday Russian users would not be able to post new videos or see videos shared from elsewhere in the world. The company blamed Moscow’s new fake news law, which makes it illegal, among other things, to describe the fighting as an invasion. Netflix also cut its service to Russia but provided no details.

Facebook and Twitter have already been blocked in Russia, along with access to the websites of a number of major international media outlets. TikTok is part of the Chinese tech company ByteDance.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress is exploring how to further isolate Russia from the global economy, including banning the import of its oil and energy products into the United States.

Pelosi said in a letter to Democrats released late Sunday that the legislation under consideration would also repeal normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus and begin the process of denying Russia access to the World Trade Organisation. (AP) VM

The humanitarian crisis in Ukraine has deepened as Russian forces intensified their shelling and food, water, heat and medicine grew increasingly scarce, in what the country condemned as a medieval-style siege by Moscow to batter it into submission.

The third round of talks between the two sides ended Monday with a top Ukrainian official saying there had been minor, unspecified progress toward establishing safe corridors that would allow civilians to escape the fighting.

Russia’s chief negotiator said he expects those corridors to start operating Tuesday.

But that remained to be seen, given the failure of previous attempts to lead civilians to safety amid the biggest ground war in Europe since World War II.

BEIJING: As the West condemns Russia, President Vladimir Putin has vocal supporters in China, where the ruling Communist Party tells its people they are fellow targets of U.S.-led harassment.

“If Russia is destroyed, we will be next. This is for sure,” said Wang Yongchun, a retiree in Beijing.

“The United States wants to dominate the world.”

Such comments reflect the stance of a ruling party that is the closest thing Putin has to a major ally: The war should stop but the United States is to blame.

President Xi Jinping’s government has tried to distance itself from Russia’s offensive but avoided criticizing Moscow.

The government has offered to act as mediator and denounced trade and financial sanctions against Russia.

Ruling party control of all Chinese media and intensive internet censorship make it hard to gauge public opinion.

But what the party allows online and requires media to publish make clear what it wants the public to think.

Media outlets were told last week to post only pro-Russian content and to censor anti-Russian or pro-Western views, according to a copy of instructions posted on the social media account of the newspaper Beijing News.

The post was later deleted.

Online and in social media, expressions of sympathy for Ukraine and support for Russia appear but not criticism of Moscow.

“When a war begins, is it not the children of ordinary people who serve as cannon fodder?” said a post signed Da Ke Ming Yi on the Weibo social media platform.

“Those who died were the children of ordinary people.”

A letter signed by five professors from prominent universities that criticised Russia for attacking a weaker neighbor appeared briefly on social media before being deleted.

“We stand against unjust wars,” said the academics from schools including Tsinghua University in Beijing, alma mater of many ruling party leaders.

Comments posted by nationalists criticized the professors for failing to stick to the ruling party’s official position of neutrality.

The ruling party has spent decades using school textbooks and the entirely state-controlled media to nurture a sense of nationalist grievance.

It accuses the United States of trying to block China’s rise to its rightful position of global leadership.

State media repeat Beijing’s position that the United States and its European allies are to blame for the Ukraine war because they failed to respond to Russian concerns that its democratic neighbour should be barred from joining NATO, the Western military alliance.

That echoes Chinese complaints that Washington and its allies are interfering in its domestic affairs and issues of national sovereignty, including its claim over Taiwan, territory disputes in the South China Sea, as well as in Xinjiang, the far-western region where China has been accused of detaining over a million Uyghurs.

Russia’s attack, as a historical event, “is not a good one,” but “people think the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is because the United States stirred up trouble,” said Zheng Bowen, a 38-year-old engineer.

The state-run newspaper Capital News exhorted the public to line up with the ruling party: “The nation’s attitude is our attitude.”

“China has always upheld a fair and responsible attitude, calling on all parties to exercise restraint and ease the situation, and return to dialogue and negotiation,” it said.

However, the newspaper appeared to support Putin’s demand that Ukraine become a neutral buffer between Russia and Europe and give up the possibility of NATO membership.

“Ultimately, Ukraine should be a bridge between East and West, rather than a frontier of confrontation between major powers,” the Capital News said.

Comments online have called for China to support Russia by purchasing its exports of oil, gas and other goods.

“Let the Russian Embassy sell their goods on livestream. Let’s show them China’s buying power,” said a comment signed Bao Zou Guang Xiao Pang on Weibo.

It received 42,000 likes.

A separate comment advocating that China maintain normal trade with Russia, an implicit rejection of sanctions, received nearly 80,000 likes.

Social media platforms have urged users to act responsibly and say they have removed thousands of postings about the attack on Ukraine.

Douyin, a short-video service operated by the Chinese owner of TikTok, said it deleted more than 3,500 videos and 12,100 comments due to “vulgar, war belittling, sensationalist and unfriendly comments.”

The popular WeChat message service also complained about “vulgar posts” that it said have a “negative impact on cyberspace.”

It said some users “took the opportunity to publish bad information about international current affairs,” including comments belittling the war such as crass jokes about “gaining course credits by going to Ukraine and fighting in the war” and asking “Ukrainian beauties to come to China,” the platform said.

WeChat’s post was later shared by a unit of China’s internet watchdog, the Cyberspace Administration of China.

Weibo said it removed more than 4,000 posts that were vulgar and ridiculed war.

It said more than 10,000 accounts were closed.

“Peaceful environments do not come easily,” the company said in a social media post.

It called on users to “maintain an objective and rational attitude” and take part in discussion “in a reasonable manner.”

Russian troops are shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power station in Ukraine.

“We demand that they stop the heavy weapons fire. There is a real threat of nuclear danger in the biggest atomic energy station in Europe,” Andriy Tuz, spokesperson for the plant in Enerhodar, said in a video posted on Telegram.

The plant accounts for about one quarter of Ukraine’s power generation.

Tuz told Ukrainian television that shells were falling directly on the Zaporizhzhia plant and had set fire to one of the facility’s six reactors.

That reactor is under renovation and not operating, but there is nuclear fuel inside, he said.

Firefighters cannot get near the fire because they are being shot at, Tuz said.

A live-streamed security camera linked from the homepage of the nuclear power plant showed what appeared to be armoured vehicles rolling into the facility’s parking lot and shining spotlights on the building where the camera was mounted.

Deadly Russian air strikes hit a residential block in Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv and the main TV tower in the nation’s capital, Kyiv said on Tuesday, with Ukraine’s president accusing the Kremlin of a “war crime” as the civilian toll of the invasion mounted.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has announce that the US is banning Russian planes from its airspace in retaliation for the Ukraine invasion, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The announcement follows similar actions by Canada and the European Union and is set to come during his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening.

Despite sanctions and warnings of a humanitarian crisis, the fresh assaults on day six of Russia’s invasion came as a massive military convoy was closing on the capital, and Moscow warned terrified residents living near security infrastructure to leave their homes.

“This is state terrorism on the part of Russia,” charged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, accusing Moscow of committing a “war crime” in Kharkiv.