•Russia’s demand amounts to a surrender — Kuleba, Ukraine Foreign Minister
•Putin says Russia will emerge stronger, sanctions will rebound

By Victoria Ojeme (with additional agency reports)

The Federal Government yesterday said 122 persons plus an infant from Warsaw, Poland will arrive the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport today, Friday, March 11, 2022 at the estimated time of 12:40am aboard Air Peace..

In a statement made available to newsmen by spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Francisca K. Omayuli, said, “In continuation of the evacuation exercise, the second flight comprising 122 persons plus an infant from Warsaw, Poland will arrive the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport on Friday, 11th March, 2022 at the estimated time of 12:40am aboard Air Peace.

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“A third evacuation flight will depart at 8.00am from Budapest, Hungary to Abuja on Saturday, 12th March 2022. Interested Nigerians fleeing Ukraine should contact:Nigerian Embassy Budapest, Hungary on Tel. No. +36308202903 or +36308639203, email: embassy@nigerianembassy.hu Or secretary@nigerianembassy.hu

So far, a total number of 1,076 Nigerians fleeing the crisis in Ukraine, have been evacuated back to Nigeria. The evacuees will be received at the airport in Abuja by Edward Adedokun, Director, Search and Rescue of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA); officials of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

A first round of talks between the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine has failed to yield progress on a ceasefire, Dmytro Ivanovych Kuleba, Ukraine Minister of Foreign Affairs said. Speaking after the meeting in Turkey, Kuleba, said that the demands his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov had made amounted to a surrender.

Mr Lavrov meanwhile said his country’s military operation was going to plan.

The talks come after Russia bombed a children’s hospital, which Ukraine said was a “war crime”.

Officials say three people including a child died in the attack in the south-eastern city of Mariupol.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine two weeks ago and more than 2.3 million people have since fled the country.

The worst humanitarian situation was in Mariupol, Mr Kuleba said, where residents have been trapped for days in freezing temperatures without electricity or water.

But Russia had not committed to establishing a humanitarian corridor there and had also not responded to proposals for a 24-hour humanitarian ceasefire across Ukraine, he said.

“I want to repeat that Ukraine has not surrendered, does not surrender, and will not surrender,” he said, adding that he was willing to continue meeting.

For his part, the Russian foreign minister offered no concessions and repeated demands that Ukraine be disarmed and accept neutral status. Moscow was waiting for a reply from Kyiv, he said.

Mr Lavrov also accused the West of fuelling the conflict by supplying weapons to Ukraine.

Russia would cope with Western sanctions and “come out of the crisis with a better psychology and conscience”, he said.

“I assure you we will cope and will do everything not to rely on the West ever, in any areas of our lives,” he said.

Putin says Russia will emerge stronger, sanctions will rebound

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said sanctions imposed against Russia would rebound against the West, including in the form of higher food and energy prices, and Moscow would solve its problems and emerge stronger.

Putin said there had been no alternative to what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine and that Russia was not a country that could accept compromising its sovereignty for some sort of short-term economic gain.

“These sanctions would have been imposed in any case,” Putin told a meeting of the Russian government yesterday. “There are some questions, problems and difficulties but in the past we have overcome them and we will overcome them now.

“In the end, this will all lead to an increase in our independence, self-sufficiency and our sovereignty,” he told a televised government meeting two weeks after Russian forces invaded neighbouring Ukraine.

His comments were designed to portray Western sanctions as self-defeating and reassure Russians that the country can withstand what Moscow is calling an “economic war” against its banks, businesses and business oligarchs.

Putin said Moscow – a major energy producer that supplies a third of Europe’s gas – would continue to meet its contractual obligations even though it has been slammed with comprehensive sanctions including a ban on United States purchases of its oil.

“They announced that they are closing the import of Russian oil to the American market. Prices there are high, inflation is unprecedentedly high, has reached historic highs. They are trying to blame the results of their own mistakes on us,” he said. “We have absolutely nothing to do with it.”

Hitting back against the West, the Russian government said earlier that it had banned exports of telecom, medical, auto, agricultural, electrical and tech equipment, among other items, until the end of 2022.

Russian weapons’ll defy no-fly zone, US DIA director says

A no-fly zone over Ukraine would not protect against many of the weapons Russian forces are using in Ukraine right now, said U.S Defense Intelligence Agency Director, Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier.

Russian forces are using “a combination of mostly missiles, artillery, multiple rocket launchers. There are some precision guided munitions that are being dropped from aircraft, but that number is small,” Berrier said in an exchange with Sen. Angus King. A no-fly zone would not protect against “inhibit missiles, rockets and artillery,” Berrier added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly asked NATO allies and the United States to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine. The airspace over Ukraine remains contested, a senior US defense official told reporters on Wednesday.

The European Central Bank (ECB) predicts the war in Ukraine will push levels of consumer inflation up even further in the near term.

“The Russia-Ukraine war will have a material impact on economic activity and inflation through higher energy and commodity prices, the disruption of international commerce and weaker confidence,” ECB President Christine Lagarde said in a speech yesterday.

Lagarde said the impact of the conflict could push inflation in the euro area – which hit 5.8% in February – “considerably higher in the near term,” but is still expected to decline progressively to the central bank’s 2% target in 2024.

Financial sanctions against Russia, which include the banning of some Russian banks from the SWIFT payment network, have not yet caused problems for European banks, she said.

“(Sanctions) have so far not caused severe strains in money markets or liquidity shortages in the euro area banking system,” Lagarde said. “Bank balance sheets remain healthy overall, owing to robust capital positions and fewer non-performing loans.”

Former Ukrainian president addresses citizens: “Here’s to our future. For our freedom”

Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, who led the country from 1994-2005, published an appeal to the Ukrainian people yesterday. The appeal was published on the Facebook page of Kuchma’s press secretary, Darka Olifer.

Half of Kyiv’s population has fled, mayor says

Half the population of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv have fled since the invasion began, its mayor Vitali Klitschko says, as Russian forces move ever closer to the city.

Klitschko, the former heavyweight boxing champion, says: “Kyiv has been transformed into a fortress. Every street, every building, every checkpoint has been fortified.”

Just under two million people, from the city’s population of around three million, have left, he says.

Russian forces are believed to have rolled their armoured vehicles up to the north-eastern edge of the city today. Overnight, there was heavy fighting for control of the main road into the city.

Western officials, meanwhile, are warning of “unprecedented movements of people” fleeing Ukraine, saying the number of refugees could hit four million within the coming days.

Former German Chancellor visiting Moscow

Gerhard Schröder, the former German leader, is visiting Moscow today for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Politico reports.

He’s visiting with the intention of holding mediation talks with Putin in order to end the war in Ukraine, Politico says, referring to “sources familiar with the matter”.

Zelensky: We will rebuild Ukraine

President Volodymyr Zelensky has been delivering an address urging Ukraine’s partners around the world to deliver solutions based in reality – not on abstract opinions.

He says leaders are getting together to discuss the war and Ukraine’s membership of Nato – and makes the point that he knows which of those leaders are supporting Ukraine.

On the war, he says Ukrainian men and women are defending their state for the fifteenth day – and have been repelling attacks in key areas.

He confirms three people, including one child, were killed in the Mariupol maternity hospital bombing and says Russia’s claim that there were no patients in the hospital is a lie.

The Russians have created a “humanitarian catastrophe”, he says, adding: “My heart is broken by what the occupiers have done to our cities, to our state.”

He says Russia wants to humiliate the Ukrainian people and “make them kneel and take bread and water from their hands”.

Zelensky adds: “We did not become slaves and we never will – because this is our spirit and this is our destiny.”

Looking ahead, he says that after the war, everything will be rebuilt to the highest standard, and planning by the government is already under way. “There will be no trace left of the Russian invasion.”

Goldman Sachs to exit Russia

Goldman Sachs Group Inc has said it is closing its operations in Russia, becoming the first major Wall Street bank to exit the country over Moscow’s invasion.

“Goldman Sachs is winding down its business in Russia in compliance with regulatory and licensing requirements,” the Reuters news agency quoted the bank as saying in an emailed statement.

Ukrainian strike destroys Russian tanks

Footage has emerged showing Russian tanks being destroyed in a barrage of Ukrainian artillery fire.

The footage, which you can view below, appears to have been taken by a drone and has been verified and geo-located by the BBC to a town north-east of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

Allegedly accompanying the video is a conversation between a Russian officer, who identified himself by the codename Nitro, reporting the ambush to his superiors.

He reports that “there are very many casualties” and that “the regiment commander has died” in the strike.

The convoy was targeted by “artillery, tanks, drones and Bayraktar (a Turkish made drone)”, he adds.