Russia-Ukraine war LIVE: Russia says it is in constant contact with US, ready for arms control talks

LIVE BLOG

• 12 Mar 2022, 03:40 PM

  Russia is prepared to resume arms control talks with the United States if Washington is, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Saturday, according to the RIA news agency.

  Ryabkov said that Moscow and Washington remain in constant contact, but that the Kremlin sees no signs that Washington is ready to continue a dialogue on Ukraine.

  However, Ryabkov said proposals on security guarantees that Russia had sent to the United States and NATO before Russian forces entered Ukraine last month were no longer valid as the situation had now changed completely.

  
• 12 Mar 2022, 02:15 PM

  Fighting rages outside Kyiv, Ukraine says it hopes humanitarian corridors can open.

  
• 12 Mar 2022, 02:14 PM

  Russia disables Ukraine military's radio intelligence facility with high precision strike

  A top official of the Russian Defence Ministry said that the country`s armed forces on Saturday disabled the main radio intelligence centre of Ukraine`s military with a high-precision strike.

  "On the morning of March 12, a high-precision long-range weapon was struck at the military infrastructure of Ukraine. The military airfield in Vasilkovo and the main centre of radio and electronic intelligence of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Brovary were put out of action," RT News quoted Major General Igor Konashenkov, the Ministry`s official representative, as saying.

  Since Russia started its invasion of Kyiv on February 24, 3,491 military facilities in Ukraine have been disabled, Konashenkov claimed.

  According to the official, 123 drones, 1,127 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 115 multiple launch rocket systems have also been destroyed.

  Russia also announced that military airfields in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk were put out of action by high-precision weapons.

  
• 12 Mar 2022, 07:22 AM

  Facebook owner Meta Platforms said a temporary change in its content policy, only for Ukraine, was needed to let users voice opposition to Russia's attack; Moscow opened a criminal case after the company said it would allow posts such as "death to the Russian invaders."

  
• 12 Mar 2022, 07:21 AM

  US President Biden joined with allies to hit Moscow on trade and shut down development funds, and announced a ban on imports of Russian seafood, vodka and diamonds.

  
• 12 Mar 2022, 07:20 AM

  Ukraine said neighbour Belarus could be planning to invade its territory and accused Russia of trying to drag its ally into the war by staging air attacks on Belarus from Ukrainian air space.

  
• 12 Mar 2022, 07:20 AM

  Britain said Russian air and missile forces had conducted strikes in the past 24 hours against the western Ukrainian cities of Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk.

   

  
• 12 Mar 2022, 07:17 AM

  The situation in Ukraine's southeastern city of Mariupol was critical, officials said, as Russian forces tightened their noose around the Black Sea port and the death toll from shelling and a 12-day blockade reached almost 1,600.

  
• 12 Mar 2022, 07:15 AM

  Ukraine's Zelenskiy defiant as Russian forces, despite setbacks, regroup near Kyiv

  President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday Ukraine was at a "strategic turning point" in the war as Russian forces bombarded cities across the country and appeared to be regrouping for a possible assault on Kyiv, with satellite images showing them firing artillery as they closed in on the capital.

  The governor of the Kharkiv region, on the Russian border, said a psychiatric hospital had been hit, and the mayor of the city of Kharkiv said about 50 schools there had been destroyed.

  Russia also carried out air strikes deeper into western Ukraine, far from the battlefields in the north, east and south where ground combat has raged.

  In the besieged southern city of Mariupol, the city council said at least 1,582 civilians had been killed as a result of Russian shelling and a 12-day blockade that has left hundreds of thousands trapped with no food, water, heat or power.

  
• 12 Mar 2022, 07:15 AM

  EU unveils fourth set of sanctions against Russia

  The European Union will suspend Moscow`s privileged trade and economic treatment, crackdown on its use of crypto-assets and ban exports to Russia of EU luxury goods and import of iron and steel goods, the head of the European Commission said on Friday.

  The new measures amount to a fourth set of sanctions against Russia over its invasion last month of Ukraine, coordinated with the United States and other G7 allies.

  "Tomorrow, we will take a fourth package of measures to further isolate Russia and drain the resources it uses to finance this barbaric war," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.