March 30 (Reuters) – Russia is promising to scale down military operations around the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, while Ukraine is suggesting it might adopt a neutral status in confidence-building steps that may help de-escalate the five-week war.
TALKS AND DIPLOMACY
* Britain will take a very sceptical view towards Russia and its pledge to scale down military operations around Kyiv, with Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab saying London would judge Moscow by its actions, not words.
* The foreign ministers of Russia and China, meeting in China, both condemn what they regard as illegal and counter-productive Western sanctions imposed on Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry said.
* Ukraine proposed not joining alliances or hosting bases of foreign troops.
* The United States is sceptical of Russia’s seriousness in pursuing peace.
* Ukrainian President Zelenskiy will address Australia’s parliament on Thursday.
* United States and Russia both head to India to lobby its government, which has called for a ceasefire but not condemned Russia’s invasion.
* The mayor of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, Vladyslav Astroshenko, said Russian bombardment had intensified over the past 24 hours, with more than 100,000 people trapped in the city with just enough food and medical supplies to last about a week.
* Russia is shifting some forces from northern Ukraine to the east, where it is trying to encircle the main Ukrainian force there, said Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Some Russians will stay behind near Kyiv to tie Ukrainian forces down, he added.
* Russian forces are shelling nearly all cities along the frontline separating Ukrainian government-controlled territory from areas held by Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Donetsk region, the regional Donetsk governor said.
* British military intelligence said Russian units suffering heavy losses had been forced to return to Belarus and Russia to reorganise and resupply.
🇷🇺 Кадры работы военнослужащих подразделений военной полиции на блокпосту в Черниговской области pic.twitter.com/inPu1vMMAY
* The Kremlin said demanding rouble payment for exports of oil, grain, fertilisers, coal, metals and other key commodities in addition to natural gas was a good idea and should be worked on.
* Germany triggered an emergency plan to manage gas supplies in Europe’s largest economy, an unprecedented move that could see the government ration power if there is a disruption or halt in gas supplies from Russia.
REFUGEES
* The number of Ukrainians fleeing abroad is now 4,019,287, the United Nations’ Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said
QUOTES
* “It is up to the sides to stop this tragedy,” Turkey’s President Erdogan.
* “Ukrainians are not naive people,” said President Zelenskiy. “Ukrainians have already learned during these 34 days of invasion, and over the past eight years of the war in Donbas, that the only thing they can trust is a concrete result.”
* “We are eight people. We have two buckets of potatoes, one bucket of onions,” Irina, boiling soup in the stairwell of her damaged building.
* “It is very scary to be left with nothing,” Gennadiy, an old man leaving his wrecked building with his belongings on his back.
Pope Francis meets with Ukrainian refugees during the weekly general audience in the Paul VI Audience Hall, in Vatican City, 30 March 2022. EPA-EFE/MAURIZIO BRAMBATTI
