The Russian president said,” Talks with Ukraine have reached a dead”, end during a speech at Vodtochny Space Centre. The Russian president blamed that Ukraine had derailed because the Ukrainian side had made "fake claims" about war crimes and extra demands for security guarantees. "We have again returned to a dead-end situation for us," he said. He added that Russia would continue its operation to defend the Russian speakers of eastern Ukraine. However, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters that though negotiations were hard, they were continuing.
President Putin has described the events in Ukraine as a "tragedy", according to remarks transcribed by the Tass news agency. The Russian leader reportedly said his country had "no choice" other than to launch what he calls a special military operation. And during a public appearance, President Putin praised Russia's military objectives in Ukraine as being noble. Reports and satellite images suggest Russia is building up troops and equipment in at least three places on Ukraine’s border: Belgorod and Voronezh regions, and around the town of Matveev Kurgan to the south. They might be hoping to encircle the Ukrainian forces. And to response to this development, some of Ukraine’s most experienced and best-equipped units were positioned in key regions to disrupt Russian troop’s advancement. Many people believe that the Russia/Ukraine is now in a slow war of attrition. Slowly but steadily lessening the resources of their opponents while their economy decays.
Another interesting development is that, a Ukrainian battalion claims a Russian drone flew over and a cloud of smoke was seen. After that its fighters had suffered minor injuries while some experienced breathing difficulties. The US and Britain say they are looking into reports of possible use of chemical weapons by Russian forces attacking Mariupol. Britain’s Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said the incident needed proper investigation. He said that if Russia were found to have used banned chemical weapons then "nothing was ruled out" in terms of Nato's response.
Finally, United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) pleads to not make us take food from children that are hungry to give to children that are starving, will likely die without the aid. The crises in Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria among others have only got worse since the Ukraine war. Soaring food and fuel costs, together with budget cuts in some traditional donor countries, have forced the WFP to halve the amount of food it is giving to millions of people living in those countries. In December 2021, the UN made a record appeal for $41bn (£31bn) to help 273 million people this year. Many African countries, while not dependent on UN aid, import grain from Ukraine. Somalia gets more than 60% of its grain from Ukraine and Russia, while Eritrea gets nearly 97% of its wheat from Ukraine, and they need to compete with other European and North Americans on the international market for food.
Rest of the world is in midst of recovery after the pandemic, yet some people are starving while others are fighting for their lives and country.
Source : BBC
