NATO said in a press release on Sunday that Ukraine has received “critical weapons,” including Javelin missiles and anti-aircraft missiles….reports Asian Lite News
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies have boosted support to Ukraine with military equipment, financial assistance and humanitarian aid, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.
“NATO Allies are stepping up support with air-defence missiles, anti-tank weapons, as well as humanitarian and financial aid,” Stoltenberg tweeted, Xinhua news agency reported.
NATO said in a press release on Sunday that Ukraine has received “critical weapons,” including Javelin missiles and anti-aircraft missiles.
We are deploying elements of the #NATO Response Force.
Here are 5️⃣ things you should know about the highly ready, multinational force pic.twitter.com/0GV2PiyGTn
“Millions of euros” worth of financial assistance and humanitarian aid have also been sent to the Ukrainian forces, NATO added.
Russia launched a military operation against Ukraine on February 24. After a seesaw struggle between the two sides, a ray of hope emerged as the Ukrainian and Russian delegations arrived at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border for talks on Monday.
The leaders agreed that their officials and diplomatic teams would continue to maintain regular contacts on issues of topical interest…reports Asian Lite News
Differences between Russia and the NATO can only be resolved through “honest and sincere” dialogue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday told Russian President Vladimir Putin as they discussed the ongoing Ukraine crisis.
President Putin briefed Modi about the recent developments regarding Ukraine.
Reiterating his long-standing conviction that the differences between Russia and the NATO can only be resolved through honest and sincere dialogue, the Prime Minister appealed for an immediate cessation of violence, and called for concerted efforts from all sides to return to the path of diplomatic negotiations and dialogue.
He also sensitised the Russian President about India’s concerns regarding the safety of the Indian citizens in Ukraine, especially students, and conveyed that India attaches the highest priority to their safe exit and return to India.
The leaders agreed that their officials and diplomatic teams would continue to maintain regular contacts on issues of topical interest.
Before Modi spoke to Putin, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla called India a “stakeholder” and a “concerned party” in the conflict.
He also had said that Prime Minister Narendra will be speaking to Russian President over the prevailing crisis.
PM Narendra Modi speaks to Russian President Vladimir Putin
Pres Putin briefed PM about the recent developments regarding Ukraine. PM reiterated his long-standing conviction that the differences between Russia & NATO can only be resolved through honest and sincere dialogue: PMO pic.twitter.com/QWZ3Ay5pxT
Shringla also stated that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had spoken to several ministers from the European Union and those from neighbouring countries which will help in evacuation of stranded Indian nationals.
About being a stakeholder, the Foreign Secretary said: “We are in touch with all. We have interest. Whatever we do will be in the interest of our people.”
“We have been in touch with all parties, both as a member of UNSC, as a country with stakes in that region, with nationals stuck.”
He said that 4,000 Indian nationals have left the country.
No NATO or US troops will be sent to Ukraine. The Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, also NATO members — will now fear a Russian assault….reports Asian Lite News
NATO and the US have made it clear that no troops will be sent, leaving Ukraine’s military — far inferior to Russia — to hold off the assault alone. Few expect it to emerge victorious from what is almost certain to be a prolonged, bloody, and vicious war, Daily Mail reported.
NATO is expected to focus its efforts on stopping the war from spilling over into neighbouring countries. Poland, a member of the alliance, shares an extensive land border with Ukraine.
The Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, also NATO members — will now fear a Russian assault. The alliance began moving its forces early Thursday, putting 100 warplanes on high alert in Europe whole moving more troops to the Baltics, the report said.
Speaking in an emergency White House press conference, Biden called Putin a ‘pariah’ on the international stage and called on the West to stand up to the ‘bully’. But he insisted the US would not be helping Ukraine with troops.
He said: ‘Our forces are not, and will not be, engaged in the conflict with Russia in Ukraine. Our forces are not going to Europe to fight in Ukraine, but to defend our Nato allies and reassure those allies in the east.
‘When the history of this era is written, Putin’s choice to make a totally unjustifiable war on Ukraine will have left Russia weaker and the rest of the world stronger.
‘He has much larger ambitions than Ukraine. He wants to, in fact, re-establish the former Soviet Union. That’s what this is about.’
Oil Prices
Oil prices finished higher on Thursday with both the US crude benchmark and Brent exceeding $100 a barrel in intraday trading, as traders assessed geopolitical tensions over Ukraine.
The West Texas Intermediate for April delivery added 71 cents to settle at $92.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after hitting a session high of $100.54. Brent crude for April delivery increased $2.24 to close at $99.08 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange, after touching $105.77 earlier in the session.
Both crude benchmarks hit their highest intraday level since 2014, Xinhua news agency reported.
The oil rally came as the tensions between Russia and Ukraine have escalated into a military conflict overnight.
Russian President Vladimir Putin authorised on Thursday “a special military operation” in Donbas, and Ukraine confirmed that military targets across the country were under attack.
Market participants feared that the escalating Russia-Ukraine tensions would disrupt energy supplies, experts noted. Traders also parsed newly-released weekly US fuel inventory data.
US crude oil stockpiles increased by 4.5 million barrels during the week ending February 18, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Thursday. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts had forecast the US crude inventories to show a fall of 0.3 million barrels.
According to the EIA, total motor gasoline inventories and distillate fuel inventories both decreased by 0.6 million barrels last week.
Biden insisted the US would not be helping Ukraine with troops…reports Asian Lite News
NATO and the US have made it clear that no troops will be sent, leaving Ukraine’s military — far inferior to Russia — to hold off the assault alone. Few expect it to emerge victorious from what is almost certain to be a prolonged, bloody, and vicious war, Daily Mail reported.
NATO is expected to focus its efforts on stopping the war from spilling over into neighbouring countries, Daily Mail reported.
Poland, a member of the alliance, shares an extensive land border with Ukraine.
The Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, also NATO members — will now fear a Russian assault.
The alliance began moving its forces early Thursday, putting 100 warplanes on high alert in Europe whole moving more troops to the Baltics, the report said.
Speaking in an emergency White House press conference, Biden called Putin a ‘pariah’ on the international stage and called on the West to stand up to the ‘bully’.
But he insisted the US would not be helping Ukraine with troops.
He said: ‘Our forces are not, and will not be, engaged in the conflict with Russia in Ukraine. Our forces are not going to Europe to fight in Ukraine, but to defend our Nato allies and reassure those allies in the east.
‘When the history of this era is written, Putin’s choice to make a totally unjustifiable war on Ukraine will have left Russia weaker and the rest of the world stronger.
‘He has much larger ambitions than Ukraine. He wants to, in fact, re-establish the former Soviet Union. That’s what this is about.’
PM Narendra Modi reiterated his long-standing conviction that the differences between Russia and the NATO can only be resolved through honest and sincere dialogue, reports Asian Lite News
Differences between Russia and the NATO can only be resolved through “honest and sincere” dialogue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday told Russian President Vladimir Putin as they discussed the ongoing Ukraine crisis.
President Putin briefed Modi about the recent developments regarding Ukraine.
Reiterating his long-standing conviction that the differences between Russia and the NATO can only be resolved through honest and sincere dialogue, the Prime Minister appealed for an immediate cessation of violence, and called for concerted efforts from all sides to return to the path of diplomatic negotiations and dialogue.
He also sensitised the Russian President about India’s concerns regarding the safety of the Indian citizens in Ukraine, especially students, and conveyed that India attaches the highest priority to their safe exit and return to India.
The leaders agreed that their officials and diplomatic teams would continue to maintain regular contacts on issues of topical interest.
Before Modi spoke to Putin, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla called India a “stakeholder” and a “concerned party” in the conflict.
He also had said that Prime MinisterA Narendra will be speaking to Russian President over the prevailing crisis.
Shringla also stated that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had spoken to several ministers from the European Union and those from neighbouring countries which will help in evacuation of stranded Indian nationals.
About being a stakeholder, the Foreign Secretary said: “We are in touch with all. We have interest. Whatever we do will be in the interest of our people.”
“We have been in touch with all parties, both as a member of UNSC, as a country with stakes in that region, with nationals stuck.”
He said that 4,000 Indian nationals have left the country.
The alliance called Russia’s military ‘operation’ “a horrifying attack on Ukraine, which is entirely unjustified and unprovoked” and called upon Moscow to “immediately cease” the action….reports Asian Lite News
NATO has announced the deployment of ‘additional defensive land and air forces’ to the eastern part of the bloc and an increase in the readiness of all its forces ‘to respond to all contingencies,’ in light of the Russian military ‘operation’ in Ukraine, RT reported.
“Russia’s actions pose a serious threat to Euro-Atlantic security, and they will have geostrategic consequences. NATO will continue to take all necessary measures to ensure the security and defence of all Allies,” the alliance said on Thursday in a statement.
Following emergency consultations, the bloc decided “to take additional steps” to strengthen its “deterrence and defence.”
“Our measures are and remain preventive, proportionate and non-escalatory,” NATO said, as per the report.
The alliance called Russia’s military ‘operation’ “a horrifying attack on Ukraine, which is entirely unjustified and unprovoked” and called upon Moscow to “immediately cease” the action.
“Russia will pay a very heavy economic and political price. NATO will continue to coordinate closely with relevant stakeholders and other international organisations including the EU,” the statement reads.
NATO claims that it has “made every effort to pursue diplomacy and dialogue with Russia” and has “repeatedly invited” it for talks in the NATO-Russia Council, RT reported.
“Russia has still not reciprocated. It is Russia, and Russia alone, which has chosen escalation,” it said.
Russia launched its “special operation” in Ukraine on Thursday morning. As President Putin said, the operation is aimed at stopping the Ukrainian army’s attacks on the two breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, now recognized by Moscow as sovereign states.
In Putin’s opinion, NATO used Ukraine as a proxy, which could threaten Russia militarily. He underlined that his government had to act immediately to demilitarize its neighbouring country and to ensure that no attack against Russia occurs in the future on NATO’s terms.
He said that India’s relations with the United States, Japan and Australia have steadily improved in the last 20 years…reports Asian Lite News
Rejecting the notion that the Quad is an Asian NATO, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said there are “interested parties” who advance such analogies and one should not slip into it.
“Quad is a grouping of four countries who have a common interests, common values, great deal of comfort, who happen to be located in the four corners of the Indo-Pacific who found out that in this world no country, not even the United States has the ability to address big global challenges all on their own,” Jaishankar said on Saturday while participating in a panel discussion on ‘A Sea Change? Regional Order and Security in the Indo-Pacific’ at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2022.
“I would urge you not to slip into that lazy analogy of an Asian-NATO. It isn’t because there are three countries who are treaty allies. We are not a treaty ally. It doesn’t have a treaty, a structure, a secretariat, it’s a kind of 21st century way of responding to a more diversified, dispersed world,” he said on the Quad grouping which has the United States, India, Australia and Japan as its members.
Jaishankar clarified that the present incarnation of Quad started in 2017 and is not a post-2020 development referring to the tension along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh with China.
He said that India’s relations with the United States, Japan and Australia have steadily improved in the last 20 years.
Mentioning that the Quad has value in itself, the EAM said it is four countries that recognize today that the world would be a better place if they are cooperating and that is what is happening.
“The first time Quad countries came together was in 2004 in response to the Tsunami. Then their representatives met in 2007 in Manila but the countries then were not invested politically in it so they let it fritter away,” he said.
The Quad partners again met a decade later in 2017, this time at a higher level. In 2019, it became Minister’s level and 2021 it became a summit, Jaishankar informed.
“It’s in a sense natural, as you are sitting in Europe, but all of us pull out concepts from pre-existing lexicon to say that it an Asian NATO, because it is convenient though, a completely misleading term and also there are some parties who advance that kind of an analogy,” he observed.
“Our Prime Minister used this term, ‘Quad is a force for global good”, the EAM said.
“What’s the Quad doing, the Quad is trying to supply a billion vaccines that are US IPR, manufactured in India funded, logistically supported by Japan, Australia as well as the two of us,” he stated.
Russia has also expressed concerns over NATO military activity near its borders and ongoing military support of Ukraine, including an increase in the number of Western instructors in the breakaway Donbas region, reports Asian Lite News
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said that the alliance remains open to dialogue with Russia and is ready to protect and defend its allies.
“Thank you @VP Kamala Harris for your personal commitment to #NATO & for the significant #US contribution to our Alliance. Transatlantic unity is key at this critical time. We remain open for dialogue with #Russia & determined to protect and defend all Allies,” Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter.
Thank you @VP Kamala Harris for your personal commitment to #NATO & for the significant #US contribution to our Alliance. Transatlantic unity is key at this critical time. We remain open for dialogue with #Russia & determined to protect and defend all Allies. pic.twitter.com/dQxUvWODMZ
In the past few months, the West and Ukraine have accused Russia of amassing troops near the Ukrainian border in alleged preparation for invasion. Russia has insisted that it has no intention of invading Ukraine, while stressing that it has the right to move its forces within its own territory.
Russia has also expressed concerns over NATO military activity near its borders and ongoing military support of Ukraine, including an increase in the number of Western instructors in the breakaway Donbas region. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow is not excluding that the “hysteria” around Ukraine fueled by the West is aimed at concealing Kiev’s plans to sabotage the Minsk Agreements on Donbas. (ANI/Sputnik)
The Duma proposal prompted strong condemnation from the United States on Wednesday, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying it would “constitute a gross violation of international law”…reports Asian Lite News
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said the alliance is concerned that Russia is “trying to stage a pretext for an armed attack against Ukraine”, The Guardian reported.
He was asked by the Wall Street Journal about Kremlin’s comments blaming Kyiv for the shelling in Donbas.
Stoltenberg said, “We are concerned that Russia is trying to stage a pretext for an armed attack against Ukraine. There is still no clarity, no certainty about Russia’s intentions.”
“Russia has amassed the biggest force we have seen for decades,” he added.
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, has alleged that Russia is moving troops closer to Ukraine borders and stocking up on blood supplies in anticipation of casualties on the battlefield, The Guardian reported.
“I was a soldier myself not that long ago. I know first-hand that you don’t do these sorts of things for no reason,” said Austin, a retired army general.
“And you certainly don’t do them if you’re getting ready to pack up and go home. We see them fly in more combat and support aircraft. We see them sharpen their readiness in the Black Sea,” Austin said at NATO headquarters in Brussels, adding: “We even see them stocking up their blood supplies.”
On its part, Moscow has denied that it is planning to invade Ukraine, claiming that it is pulling back some troops.
Britain warns Russia
The government on Thursday warned the Kremlin against formally recognising two pro-Moscow separatist territories in Ukraine, days after the Russian parliament voted to urge President Vladimir Putin to do so.
“The Duma’s request that Vladimir Putin recognises the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent shows flagrant disregard for Russia’s commitments under the Minsk agreements,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.
The agreements — named after the Belarus capital where they were struck in 2014 and 2015 — sought to halt the war between the Ukraine government and the secessionists and remain the only existing framework for resolving the conflict peacefully.
“If this request were accepted, it would represent a further attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, signal an end to the Minsk process and demonstrate a Russian decision to choose a path of confrontation over dialogue,” Truss said.
“We urge Russia to end its pattern of destabilising behaviour against Ukraine and to implement the commitments it has freely signed up to, including the Minsk agreements.”
Russia’s parliament, the Duma, voted on Tuesday to urge Putin to recognise the independence of the two Ukrainian separatist regions, amid tensions with the West over Moscow’s troop build-up nearby.
Russia has issued passports to hundreds of thousands of residents of the separatist-held enclaves, where Ukraine government troops have been battling insurgents in a conflict that has claimed more than 14,000 lives since 2014.
The Duma proposal prompted strong condemnation from the United States on Wednesday, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying it would “constitute a gross violation of international law”.
Meanwhile, in Kyiv, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba warned that if Russia moved to recognise the rebel territories as independent “Russia de facto and de jure will withdraw from the Minsk agreements with all the attendant consequences”.
However, at a heated United Nations Security Council earlier Thursday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin blamed the current crisis on Kiev’s alleged violations of the cease-fire agreement reached in the 2015 Minsk accords.
“Ukraine stubbornly refuses to implement the provisions of the Minsk Agreements,” he told the Council, accusing Kiev of repeated attacks on the region causing “thousands of victims.”
Stoltenberg says a real de-escalation would mean a substantial withdrawal of Russian troops and military equipment from the border areas with Ukraine…reports Asian Lite News
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has said that it has not seen any sign of de-escalation on the ground from the Russian side with regard to Ukraine.
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in Brussels, “We haven’t seen any de-escalation so far by Russia on the borders with Ukraine,” BBC reported.
But, he added, “signs” coming from Moscow about diplomatic efforts give “some reason for cautious optimism”.
Stoltenberg says a real de-escalation would mean a substantial withdrawal of Russian troops and military equipment from the border areas with Ukraine, the report said.
“Russia has amassed a fighting force in and around Ukraine, which is unprecedented since the Cold War. Everything is now in place for a new attack,” he said.
“But Russia still has time to step back from the brink, stop preparing for war and start working for a peaceful solution,” Stoltenberg added.
He added that there are signs from Moscow that diplomacy should continue. This gives grounds for cautious optimism. But so far we have not seen any sign of de-escalation on the ground from the Russian side,” BBC reported.
Stoltenberg spoke to reporters ahead of a two-day meeting of the alliance’s defence ministers in Brussels. He said they will address the need to further “increase our defencive posture”.
