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US State Department accused Russia Wednesday of having used a chemical weapon against Ukrainian forces in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, while also announcing fresh sanctions against Moscow. In addition to the chemical agent chloropicrin, Russia also used «riot control agents (tear gas) as a method of warfare in Ukraine, also in violation of the CWC,» the department said in a factsheet. «The use of such chemicals is not an isolated incident, and is probably driven by Russian forces' desire to dislodge Ukrainian forces from fortified positions and achieve tactical gains on the battlefield,» the State Department said.

Sergei Shoigu ordered more, and swifter, delivery of weapons for Moscow's military operation in Ukraine, the Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday. Russia, which calls its war in Ukraine a special military operation, now controls just under a fifth of Ukraine's territory, the bulk seized during the first months of the war it launched in February 2022. At a meeting with the top military command for Moscow's fight in Ukraine, the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, who is in charge of the operation, delivered a report to Shoigu, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

Also read: India's oil imports from Russia drops 19% in February, Saudi Arabia 2nd largest supplier According to an ICRA report based on data from the ministry of commerce and industry, the value of India's oil imports fell by 15.2% year-on-year to $162.4 billion during April-February of FY24. This decrease could be attributed to a combination of factors, including a reduction in international crude oil prices and savings from the purchase of discounted Russian crude oil.

Russian lawmakers are poised to legalize the nation’s burgeoning industrial crypto mining sector, but could impose strict limits on home-based “private” miners.

A Russian court sided with state-run lender VTB Bank in its efforts to recoup $439.5 million from JPMorgan Chase that the American lender froze in U.S. accounts after the Ukraine invasion.

The big U.S. aid package for Ukraine and other allies that President Joe Biden signed Wednesday also allows the administration to seize Russian state assets located in the U.S. and use them for the benefit of Kyiv

CHASIV YAR, Ukraine—The explosion lit up the night sky, sending flames hundreds of feet into the air. Another huge blast followed a few seconds later, then a third. The booms carried for miles across the fields east of Chasiv Yar, and a few moments later, a jet ripped through the sky.

nuclear weapons in space on Wednesday at the United Nations Security Council, which is due to vote on a U.S.-drafted resolution calling on countries to prevent an arms race in outer space. Russia is expected to block the draft resolution, said some diplomats. The U.S.

Chinese banks off the global financial system, in the hopes of stopping Beijing's commercial support of Russia's military production, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. With Secretary of State Antony Blinken due to visit China this week, it remains to be seen whether this financial threat will dent the China-Russia trade enabling Moscow to rebuild its military after losses in Ukraine, the report said. Blinken on Friday criticized Chinese support for Russia's defence industry, saying Beijing was the key contributor to Moscow's war in Ukraine through its provision of critical components for weaponry.

Russia said on Monday that US, British and French military support for Ukraine has pushed the world to the brink of a direct clash between the world's biggest nuclear powers that could end in catastrophe. President Vladimir Putin's 2022 invasion of Ukraine has touched off the worst breakdown in relations between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, according to Russian and US diplomats. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the US and NATO were obsessed with the idea of inflicting «strategic defeat» on Russia.

Poland's president says the NATO member would be ready to host the nuclear weapons of the military alliances's other members in response to Russia's moving its nuclear weapons to neighbouring Belarus. President Andrzej Duda made the comments in an interview published Monday in the Fakt tabloid. Russia is «recently relocating its nuclear weapons to Belarus,» Duda said, in a reference to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko's announcement in December. «If there were a decision by our allies to deploy nuclear weapons within the nuclear sharing also on our territory in order to strengthen the security of NATO's eastern flank, we are ready,» Duda said.

Russia on Monday convicted the spokesperson of US technology company Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, of justifying terrorism and sentenced him to six years in prison in a swift trial in absentia, Russia's independent news site Mediazona reported. According to the outlet, the charges against Meta communications director Andy Stone stem from his remarks in 2022 following Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24 that year. Stone, who is based in the United States, announced temporary changes to Meta's hate speech policy to allow for «forms of political expression that would normally violate (its) rules, like violent speech such as death to the Russian invaders.'»

Ukraine has launched a barrage of drones across Russia overnight in attacks that appeared to target the country’s energy infrastructure

Top NATO and European Union officials are urging industrialized nations to take quick and concrete steps to provide more air defense systems to Ukraine

Georgia’s parliament has voted in the first reading to approve a proposed law that would require media and non-commercial organizations to register as being under foreign influence if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad

Also Read: Explained | Why are crude oil prices elevated after OPEC+ policy decision and how will it impact India? Primorsk on the Baltic handled 10 tankers in three of the past four weeks, possibly reflecting a diversion to exports of crude that would have been processed at refineries hit by Ukrainian drones. The port hasn’t handled more than 11 tankers in a week in data back to the start of 2022. Refining rates are languishing near an 11-month low as repairs continue.

Moscow, Apr 16, 2024 -Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that further escalation in the Middle East could have «catastrophic consequences,» during a phone call with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi, the Kremlin said Tuesday. «Vladimir Putin expressed hope that all sides would show reasonable restraint and prevent a new round of confrontation fraught with catastrophic consequences for the entire region,» the Kremlin said in a readout of the call. The situation in the Middle East grew even tenser over the weekend when Iran and its allies launched a barrage of over 300 missiles, drones and rockets at Israel.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has told Chinese leader Xi Jinping who hosted him in Beijing that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine threatens global security, in an apparent call for China to apply greater pressure on its neighbor to end the war

Reserve Bank of India announced new steps for rupee-settled global trades, Russian banking major Sberbank said it has seen an uptick in volumes for rupee-rouble payments for Moscow’s imports, with the lender focusing on drawing more foreign clients to the domestic market. “Sberbank offers its corporate clients a convenient way of carrying out settlements in rupees and roubles. Sberbank has now become the main channel for such payments on Russian import operations, with volumes up by seven times last year compared to 2022. More and more companies are taking advantage of it, recognising the attractions of this means of payment,” Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of the executive board of Sberbank, said exclusively to ET. In July 2022, the RBI said that it would put in place an additional arrangement for invoicing, payment and settlement of exports and imports in rupees. The step, taken in the aftermath of the Ukraine war, was aimed at supporting the increasing interest of global trading in rupees, the central bank said.

Authorities in the Russian city of Orenburg, near the border with Kazakhstan, have announced a mass evacuation from there after water levels in the Ural River rose further, threatening the area with more flooding

Russia, Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala Saturday said the Ministry of External Affairs has informed him that the Indian embassy in Moscow has raised the matter with authorities there. Surjewala said he had written to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on April 7, seeking his intervention to ensure the safe return of the eight youngsters stuck in war-torn Ukraine. The Congress Rajya Sabha MP said he received a reply from the ministry on April 12 which stated that the Indian embassy in Moscow has taken up the matter with the Russian authorities concerned. «Larger issue of other Indian nationals who had been misled into joining the Russian Army was also taken up by Foreign Secretary with Russian Ambassador in New Delhi. In order to preclude recurrence of such incidents in future, we have also advised Indian citizens to stay away from the conflict,» according to the communication Surjewala received from the ministry.