Ukraine Russia Conflict: Ukraine to suspend Russian gas flow

Ukraine on Wednesday said that it would stop Russian shipments through “a key hub” in the eastern region of the country. The pipeline operator said Russian shipments through its Novopskov hub, the area controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, would be cut beginning Wednesday.

The operator said it handles nearly one-third of Russian gas passing through Ukraine to Western Europe.

Meanwhile, Russia on 24th February launched its invasion of Ukraine. And, according to the latest updates, Ukrainian forces have retaken villages in the Kharkiv region, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said in his nightly address. The number of civilians killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the war is “thousands higher” than official figures, the head of the UN’s human rights monitoring mission in the country said. At least 100 civilians remained in the Azovstal steelworks under heavy Russian fire in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, an aide to the city’s mayor said.

However, Belarus has said it will deploy special operations troops in three areas near its southern border with Ukraine. The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, said Moscow had agreed to help Minsk produce missiles and warned Belarus could “inflict unacceptable damage on the enemy”.