₦airaland Forum

WARSAW: US Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday said Russian President Vladimir Putin has only made the NATO Western defence alliance “stronger” through his country’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The NATO alliance is stronger and Russia is weaker because of what Putin has done. That is very clear to us,” Harris told reporters alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw.
The Polish head of state for his part said that “we must save Ukraine”.
“We must set additional sanctions against Russia. We cannot tolerate such military activity that carries with it hallmarks of genocide,” Duda added.

“Because no one has any doubts that… if regular people are being killed, if bombs and rockets are being launched at residential areas where there are no military installations, then that is barbarity.”
Both leaders condemned Russia’s bombing of a maternity hospital in Ukraine’s Mariupol on Wednesday, with Harris calling it “an act of violence – unprovoked, unjustified”.
“We have been witnessing for weeks and certainly just in the last 24 hours atrocities of unimaginable proportion,” she added.

Russia has denied attacking a Ukrainian maternity hospital, branding horrific video of the aftermath and reports of the destruction as "fake news".
Ukrainian authorities have said three people, including a child, died when the children's and maternity hospital i n the southern city of Mariupol was bombed on Wednesday.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the target on the hospital was the "ultimate proof that what is happening is the genocide of Ukrainians".
But Russia's first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy, claimed the building was no longer a maternity hospital and had been taken over by Ukrainian troops.
"That’s how fake news is born," he tweeted.
Polyanskiy said Russia had warned on 7 March that the hospital had been turned into a military object from which Ukrainians were firing.

The Coca-Cola Company has announced it will suspend all business in Russia due to the conflict with Ukraine.
In a statement released on Tuesday, March 8, the company said: "The Coca-Cola Company announced today that it is
suspending its business in Russia.
"Our hearts are with the people who are enduring unconscionable effects from these tragic events in Ukraine.
"We will continue to monitor and assess the situation as circumstances evolve."
Businesswoman and Dragons Den star Deborah Meaden spoke out against the firm after it continued to sell in Russia.
"Can you stop drinking Coca Cola please. They are refusing to withdraw from Russia. Let’s show them some people power," she wrote on Twitter.
Can you stop drinking Coca Cola please. They are refusing to withdraw from Russia. Let’s show them some people power.
— Deborah Meaden �� (@DeborahMeaden) March 4, 2022
The news comes after McDonald's announced it would temporarily close 850 restraints in Russia due to the ongoing war.
The two companies were facing pressure to pull out of Russia as they continued to operate in the country.
Other Western firms such as KFC, Pepsi, Starbucks and Burger King are also facing calls to close their outlets and stop sales in Russia.

Russia surpassed Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Myanmar to become the most sanctioned nation, according to a report by Bloomberg. The news agency in a report outlined that 2,778 new sanctions designations made against Russia by the US and its western allies made it the most sanctioned nation ever.
Russia faces 5,530 sanctions according to a report by Bloomberg which cited Castellum.ai, a global sanctions-tracking database. Iran follows Russia with 3,616 sanctions accumulated in the past decade.
Russia faced more than half of those sanctions over one week after Russian president Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine.
Peter Piatetsky, while speaking to Bloomberg, highlighted that this is a financial nuclear war as sanctions have taken Russia from being a participant in the global economy to being a financial Pariah. The official, who served US president Obama and Trump, also founded Castellum.ai.
“Russia went from being part of the global economy to the single largest target of global sanctions and a financial pariah in less than two weeks,” Piatetsky was quoted as saying by news agency Bloomberg.
The sanctions are also a way, according to the report, to prevent NATO and US soldiers from directly fighting Russian forces for a non-NATO ally. Russia sounded warning over the sanctions of the Russian entities like Sberbank and state financial institutions as well as the oligarchs. “It is akin to a declaration of war,” Putin said earlier this weekend while responding to queries regarding sanctions by the western nations as well as the US.
Sanctions levelled against Russia are aimed more at the oligarchs than towards state entities. At least 2,427 individuals have been sanctioned by the US and the west compared to 343 entities i.e. Russian governmental agencies and companies. Switzerland has the most number of sanctions against Russia - 568, followed by the European Union (518) and France (512). The US has imposed 243 sanctions.

Russia also warned that in response to sanctions it will cut off natural gas supplies to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

The unfolding tragedy in the Ukraine’s war with Russia deserves the universal attention it is receiving. Where better to discuss it than the United Nations, UN? Where best in the UN than the Security Council which has all the powers of the world body, has teeth and can bite. But when the matter was discussed at the Security Council, it suffered defeat because that exclusive club of five permanent members that dictates to the rest of humanity, runs on veto power. That group comprising the United States, US; China and three European countries: Russia, France and the United Kingdom, UK, decide what is best for the rest of the world irrespective of the opinion of the rest of humanity.
The war is a matter in which the members of the big boys club had differing interests and the rule is that if any of them objects, no binding decision can be taken.
So, calling a meeting of the castrated UN General Assembly on the issue became more a motion without movement; an academic exercise or more of moral suasion.
Also, the motive of calling the Assembly was more of the West showing that there are more countries that supports it than its rival Russia. A more meaningful objective would have been how the world can pressure both sides of the conflict to accept immediate ceasefire, a negotiated settlement and return of peace, more so when an escalation may have negative consequences on the world.
A non-legal or non-binding vote was taken of the 193-member assembly with 141 states voting against Russia, five in favour, 35 abstentions, while 12 did not vote. In a world supposedly wedded to democracy, this Assembly would have been an opportunity for the world to insist on changing the power relations in the UN to allow the equality of votes or the will of the majority to prevail rather than a world where the vote of a single country overrides that of the entire world. That was why the manifest evil called Apartheid in South Africa endured until 1994; because the US and UK would not allow the world take decisive steps at the UN against that Evil Empire.
When in 1976, Africa boycotted the Montreal Olympic Games because the International Olympics Committee refused to disqualify New Zealand that was making rugby tours in Apartheid South Africa, some Western countries denounced us for allegedly mixing sports with politics. Interestingly, the US boycotted the 1984 Moscow Olympic Games because the Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan; the same country America was to invade 17 years later. Today, Russian sportsmen and women are being barred from international competitions; is this not mixing sports and politics? The point I am making is not to justify any attacks or invasion, including the war in Ukraine. Rather, it is to make the point that countries play international politics primarily based on the promotion and defence of their national interests. So in Nigeria voting against Russia at the UN Assembly, what interest was being served? National interest or a mindless casting of vote?
First, in taking sides in the intra-European squabble, we have lost the opportunity to play the needed mediatory role and lost relevance in the resolution of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Secondly, we lost sight of the fact that unlike the West, Russia has never constituted a threat to Nigeria or Africa. Thirdly, the Buhari administration displayed a lack of historical knowledge. The defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR, which was inherited by Russia, was in the forefront of the global struggles against colonialism. It applied pressure that colonies like Nigeria must be freed. Even while being colonised, the Soviets and their allies provided thousands of Nigerians scholarship to ensure an independent Nigeria has the trained manpower required to run a new country.
Moscow also provided African colonies fighting for liberation with funds, military training, arms, scholarship and vital international support. This it did in the bloody liberation wars in Algeria, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. The Soviets did not mind that the colonialists they armed us against were their fellow Europeans!
In the specific case of Nigeria, when the civil war broke out and countries like France and Israel equipped the then rebels with military hardware and training to secede, the UK refused to supply Nigeria needed air force equipment as it did not want the federal side to have air superiority, and the US declared itself neutral. It was Moscow that came to Nigeria’s aid. On August 2, 1967, then Information and Labour Minister, Chief Anthony Enahoro, was in Moscow to sign an arms deal, including the supply of aircraft. Soviet ally, Czechoslovakia followed six days later, agreeing to supply the federal side military aircraft and training.
The Soviet Union did not mind that Nigeria was opposed to socialism; its position according to Premier Alex Kosygin, was based on the Soviets desire to “prevent the country from being dismembered”.
Nigerian Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Brigadier George Kurubo, declared that Russian support was “responsible for the federal victory more than any other single thing, more than all other things put together”.
In November 1968, while the war was on, Moscow came to Nigeria’s aid by agreeing to provide the funds to build the crucial Kainji Dam.
Also, when in Nigeria’s quest for development it decided to build an iron and steel complex, the West refused on the basis that we did not need this mother of all industries. It was Moscow that came to our rescue by providing funds and building the Ajaokuta Iron and Steel complex.
Nigeria as the giant of Africa forgets that in the event of a conflict between a NATO member and an African country, like the one brewing between Mali and neo-colonial France, the Europeans will collectively fight against the African country. It forgets that with the shortage of gas from Russia, desperate European countries will turn on countries like Nigeria for gas they will want virtually for free even if it means subverting us or removing a non-compliant government. This is our experience.
The basis of Buhari’s foreign policy is truly amazing: from supporting the military coup in Chad to abstaining on December 31, 2020 in the UN Resolution on: “A global call for concrete action for the elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance…” In other words, it refused to vote for the universal elimination of discrimination and racism! At the UN General Assembly, Nigeria should either have abstained or not voted like its more sensible brothers such as Cameroun, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Morocco, Togo, Mali, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea and South Africa. Like we say in Nigeria: Common sense is not common.

Russia warned that any country offering its airfields to Ukraine’s air force attacking Russian targets will be considered as having entered the conflict, state news agency TASS reported on Sunday.
“The use of the airfield networks of neighbouring countries to base Ukrainian military aircraft and their subsequent use against the Russian armed forces may be regarded as the involvement of these states in an armed conflict,” Russian defense military spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
So far, the US and the EU have imposed crushing and wide-ranging sanctions on Russia to pressure it into ceasing its military campaign against Ukraine, but have shied away from any action that can be construed by Moscow as entering into direct confrontation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeated asked NATO to impose a no fly zone over Ukraine to help it protect its skies from Russian air strikes, but the Atlantic alliance refused over concerns of being dragged into direct conflict with Russia.
The Russian official added that Moscow's forces destroyed “practically all combat-ready aviation of the Kiev regime.”
For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
The UN also said the Russian invasion, now in its 11th day, has uprooted more than 1.5 million people, describing it as the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said on Sunday that more than 360 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began on February 24, in addition to 759 injured civilians. The organization estimated that real figures are likely to be “considerably higher.”
Images of destructions due to Russian shelling of Ukrainian cities has attracted international condemnation, and the International Criminal Court said it has launched an investigation into possible war crimes committed by Moscow in Ukraine.

oluwaseyi0:
Great health at old age is sweet

swears �

NATO will defend all its allies and territory against a Russian attack, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday, as he arrived for a meeting of the alliance's foreign ministers in Brussels.
"Ours is a defensive alliance. We seek no conflict. But if conflict comes to us, we are ready for it and we will defend every inch of NATO territory," he told reporters, while condemning what he called Russian attacks on civilians in Ukraine.
"And overnight, we've also seen reports about an attack against a nuclear power plant. This just demonstrates the recklessness of this war and the importance of ending it and the importance of Russia withdrawing all its troops and engaging in good faith in diplomatic Efforts

Former UFC champion Cain Velasquez was arrested in California Monday on suspension of attempted murder.
According to the San Jose Police Department , Velasquez allegedly shot a man near the intersection of Monterey Highway and Bailey Avenue around 3:14 p.m. local time.
The man was taken to a nearby hospital treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
"The motive and circumstances surrounding this incident are still under investigation at this time," authorities said.
Police said Velasquez has been booked into the Santa Clara County Jail.
According to online jail records, the 39-year-old is currently being held without bail.
The two-time UFC heavyweight champion hasn't competed in MMA since February 2019 when he lost to current heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in a 26-second knockout fight, CBS Sports and Yahoo! Sports reported.

KingEverest:
even Japan China no go fit with stand if only the West remove the restrictions it has on Japan

make your research and comeback

KingEverest:
Hmm chinko don get mind o

China is far Ahead of US

sotall:
Fake news from Putin ass-lickers

STFU

American support for Taiwan will be in vain, a
Chinese government spokesperson has said, as a
delegation of former U.S. officials landed in Taipei on Tuesday—a move seen as President
Joe Biden's way of reassuring the island nation's public following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Taiwan has been awash with news about Vladimir Putin's bloody military operation against Kyiv for six consecutive days.
Observers the world over were quick to predict that China's President Xi Jinping would soon attempt the same against Taiwan, which Beijing has claimed for more than 70 years, and about which successive Chinese leaders have created mythologies not dissimilar to those believed in the Kremlin about Ukraine.
"The will of the Chinese people to defend our national sovereignty and territorial integrity is unwavering," China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a daily press briefing.
"Whoever the United States sends to show so-called support for Taiwan will be futile."

In this new month, all-round success, joy, happiness and blessings shall be yours today and throughout the month. Happy New Month EVERYONE ��.

Lukashenko denied that Belarus was taking part in the fighting, adding that no missiles were being fired from Belarusian territory.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko warned that Western sanctions were pushing Russia towards a "third world war," as the Washington Post reported that Belarus was preparing to send troops into Ukraine on Sunday.
"In a situation like this, we should be aware that there are such sanctions. A great deal is being said about the banking sector. Gas, oil, SWIFT. It’s worse than war," said Lukashenko at a referendum on changing Belarus's constitution, according to the Belarusian president's website. "Russia is being pushed towards a third world war. We should be very reserved and steer clear of it. Because nuclear war is the end of everything."
Read more on the Russia-Ukraine War:
Day 5 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
The Belarusian president stated that the retaliatory sanctions by Russia and Belarus would be very sensitive in order to ensure that they do not impact themselves.
Lukashenko claimed that America is the "only beneficiary" of the current conflict, saying that the US aimed to "put Europe in its place and remove competitors."
While casting a ballot at the referendum, Lukashenko stated that "Today we must stop the war. I would not even call it ‘war’ right now. It is still a conflict. Another day or two and there will be a war. In three days - a meat grinder." The Belarusian president added that Russia aimed to "restore Ukraine."
Lukashenko denied that Belarus was taking part in the fighting, adding that no missiles were being fired from Belarusian territory, except for "two or three rockets" which were fired on February 23 after Ukrainian missile batteries were allegedly detected near the country's border.

Russia has declared that offensive will resume after peace talks with Ukraine failed to materialise.
Aljezeera quoted the Kremlin to have said Russian troops have started advancing into Ukraine again after President Vladimir Putin allegedly paused Moscow’s offensive in anticipation of talks with Ukraine that failed to materialise.
Speaking to reporters at a news briefing at the Kremlin, spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Ukraine’s leadership of “refusing to negotiate”.
Recall that on Friday, Peskov said the Russian leader was ready to send a delegation of officials to Belarus, where Russia has stationed thousands of troops, for talks.
He later claimed Kyiv had proposed Warsaw as a venue instead and that negotiations over a potential meeting ended without an agreement because the Ukrainian side went silent.
“Since the Ukrainian side refused to negotiate, the advance of the Russian forces resumed this afternoon,” Peskov said at Saturday’s news briefing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday that Russia is willing to hold high level talks with Ukraine, even as China refused to call Russia's action in Ukraine an "invasion" or critize the country over its military action.
According to a China's foreign ministry statement, Putin told Xi that the US and NATO had been ignoring the legitimate security concerns raised by Russia and continued to expand military deployment eastward, challenging Russia's strategic bottom line.
Putin reportedly told his Chinese counterpart that his country was forced by the NATO as well as the US to take action, as they have been ignoring Russia's concerns.
China has repeatedly called for the crisis to be resolved through dialogue. During the telephonic conversation between the two, the Chinese president told Putin that the country supports Russia in resolving the issue through negotiation, even as he urged both the sides to end the Cold War mentality.
China has also urged both the sides to respect the legitimate security concerns of all countries, and form a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism through negotiation.
Xi said China respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, according to the statement.
China had, on Thursday, said it is closely following the developments and hope that both the sides will not shut the door to peace and engage instead in dialogue and consultation and prevent the situation from further escalating.

9gerian:
Can see at least 4 soldiers lying faced down.

na fake post �

Nigerian singer Habeeb Okikiola popularly known as Portable has called out the operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for arresting marlian music signed artistes, Oniyide Azeez aka Zinoleesky and Ilerioluwa Oladimeji aka Mohbad on Thursday.
Naija News reports that operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Thursday morning stormed the residence of the musicians in the Lekki area of Lagos State.
An eyewitness claimed that the officials carried out the arrest without having any search warrant.
In the now-viral video, operatives of the NDLEA were seen manhandling the musician, whilst shooting into the air to force them into waiting vans.
Reacting, the “zazoo zeh” crooner took to his social media to call out the anti-drug agency for arresting his colleagues.
The singer in Yoruba, questioned the anti-drug agency’s motive for the arrest.
He said that NDLEA had no right to invade people’s homes the way they did with his colleagues as they were not the owners of the homes.
Portable noted that he was a gangster and dared the agency to come to his house and see what happens afterward.
“If NDLEA dares comes to my house they will collect,” he said.

The NATO military alliance will hold an emergency virtual summit Friday to coordinate its response to Russia ‘s invasion of Ukraine, while issuing new orders giving NATO commanders greater freedom to redeploy troops quickly to Eastern Europe.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels that Europe woke up Thursday to a “new reality, a new Europe after the invasion we saw today.”
While NATO has been beefing up forces in Poland and other member-states bordering on the crisis zone, Mr. Stoltenberg again affirmed that no NATO troops are in Ukraine and the alliance will not get directly involved in the fighting.
‌
“We urge Russia in the strongest terms to turn back from the path of violence and aggression it has chosen,” Mr. Stoltenberg said. “ Russia ’s leaders must bear full responsibility for the consequences of their actions. Russia will pay a very heavy economic and political price.”
Mr. Putin has cited NATO ‘s expansion into Eastern Europe and its offer of eventual membership for Ukraine as a prime cause for his decision to invade. But NATO officials say
Russia ‘s slow-building aggression has only reinforced the alliance’s unity.
Notably, Mr. Stoltenberg said Finland and Sweden, two non-
NATO members that have been sharply critical of Mr. Putin’s military build-up, have been invited to participate in Friday’s summit.
Mr. Stoltenberg spoke after private discussions with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. She said the European Union is preparing its own package of sanctions to punish Moscow for its decision to invade.
“These sanctions will suppress Russia ’s economic growth, increase the borrowing costs, raise inflation, intensify capital outflow and gradually erode its industrial basis,” Ms. von der Leyen told reporters in a briefing. “Our measures will weaken
Russia ’s technological position in key areas from which the elite makes most of their money — this ranges from high-tech components to cutting-edge software

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), Europe’s soccer governing body, has announced that the Champions League final will be moved from St. Petersburg following the Russian military's invasion of Ukraine, ESPN reported.
“Following the evolution of the situation between Russia and Ukraine, the UEFA president has called an extraordinary meeting of the Executive Committee for 10:00 CET on Friday 25 February, in order to evaluate the situation and take all necessary decisions,” UEFA said in a statement on Thursday.
Sources told the sports media outlet that UEFA is already considering alternative venues to hold the championship match, ruling out London’s Wembley Stadium due to it being booked for the English Football League playoffs on the same weekend.
In another statement, UEFA shared it is deeply concerned about the security situation in Europe, adding it has “condemned the ongoing Russian military invasion in Ukraine,” according to ESPN.
"As the governing body of European football, UEFA is working tirelessly to develop and promote football according to common European values such as peace and respect for human rights, in the spirit of the Olympic Charter. We remain resolute in our solidarity with the football community in Ukraine and stand ready to extend our hand to the Ukrainian people,” UEFA said.
"We are dealing with this situation with the utmost seriousness and urgency. Decisions will be taken by the UEFA Executive Committee and announced tomorrow," it added.
This comes as Russian President announced that Russia has launched a military operation in Ukraine on Thursday.
In a televised address before the attack, Putin claimed the operation is to protect eastern Ukraine from what he called a “regime.”
The Kremlin has been building its forces along the Ukraine border for weeks, also conducting joint military operations in Belarus.
The U.S. along with its NATO allies have issued firm warnings to Russia to pull back on its invasion attempt in the hope of lowering tension in the region.
Krestovsky Stadium, a host venue for the 2018 World Cup, was set to host the Champions League final on May 28, being awarded the game in 2021 after it was pushed back a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ESPN noted.

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Former U.S. President Donald Trump said he believes China will follow in Russia’s footsteps and “go after” Taiwan on The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show on Tuesday (Feb. 22).
Trump’s prediction came after host Clay Travis asked him why Russian President Vladimir Putin would invade Ukraine while Joe Biden was U.S. president.
“I think he sees this opportunity. I knew he always wanted Ukraine,” Trump said. “By the way, China is going to be next.”
Travis interrupted him, asking, “You think they’re going to go after Taiwan?”
“Oh, absolutely,” Trump answered. “They’re waiting ‘til after the Olympics… It’s almost like twin sisters right here because you have one that wants Taiwan, I think, equally badly.”
Trump is not alone in his conviction. After Putin officially ordered military operations in Ukraine, social media users around the world have shared posts and comments referring to Taiwan as the next target of invasion by an autocratic country.
On social media platform 9GAG, a post entitled “The world right now” shows an illustration of a bear and a panda, both in military uniforms and holding sniper rifles, standing side by side and aiming at Ukraine and Taiwan respectively. The post became so popular that it made its way to the site’s homepage and was shown among video footage of missiles raining down on Ukraine.
On Youtube, Taiwan’s name and related terms appear frequently in the comment section of a livestream video of Kyiv titled “EarthCam Live: Kyiv, Ukraine.”
“China is financing and aiding Russia. Taiwan will be attacked next. Russia and China [show] that authoritarian regimes are a danger to the world,” wrote Xpedisi Nusantara.
“Capture Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) alive? Never mind that; dead or alive,” wrote “Gray Light” (灰光) in simplified Chinese.
On Sunday (Feb. 20), British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that “If Ukraine is endangered, the shock will echo around the world. And those echoes will be heard in east Asia — will be heard in Taiwan."
However, an earlier report cited a recent survey showing 63 percent of Taiwanese believe aggressive action by Russia against Ukraine will not lead China to attack Taiwan. According to the results, only 27 percent of respondents held the opposite view.

Wawelexy:
America will just push ukraine to doom and then turn back.

exactly.

President Vladimir Putin warned other countries that any attempt to interfere would lead to ‘consequences you have never seen’.
Russian troops launched a wide-ranging attack on Ukraine on Thursday, as President Vladimir Putin cast aside international condemnation and sanctions and warned other countries that any attempt to interfere would lead to “consequences you have never seen”.
Big explosions were heard before dawn in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa as world leaders decried the start of an invasion that could cause massive casualties, topple Ukraine’s democratically elected government and threaten the post-Cold War balance on the continent.
Ukrainians started fleeing some cities, and the Russian military claimed to have incapacitated all of Ukraine’s air defences and air bases within hours.
President Volodymyr Zelensky declared martial law, saying Russia has targeted Ukraine’s military infrastructure. Ukrainians who had long braced for the prospect of an assault, while never knowing precisely when it would come, were urged to stay home and not to panic even as the country’s border guard agency reported an artillery barrage by Russian troops from neighbouring Belarus.
US President Joe Biden pledged new sanctions to punish Russia for the aggression that the international community had expected for weeks but could not prevent through diplomacy.
Mr Putin justified it all in a televised address, asserting that the attack was needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine — a false claim the US had predicted he would make as a pretext for an invasion.
He accused the US and its allies of ignoring Russia’s demands to prevent Ukraine from joining Nato and for security guarantees. He also claimed that Russia does not intend to occupy Ukraine but will move to “demilitarise” it and bring those who committed crimes to justice.
Mr Biden in a written statement condemned the “unprovoked and unjustified attack”, and he promised that the US and its allies would “hold Russia accountable”.
The president said he planned to speak to Americans on Thursday after a meeting of the Group of Seven leaders. More sanctions against Russia were expected to be announced on Thursday.
Putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes. This is a war of aggression. Ukraine will defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 24, 2022
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba described the assault as a “full-scale invasion” and said Ukraine will “defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now.”
In the capital, Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko advised residents to stay home unless they are involved in critical work and urged them to prepare go-bags with necessities and documents if they need to evacuate. An Associated Press photographer in Mariupol reported hearing explosions and seeing dozens of people with suitcases heading for their cars to leave the city.
“We are facing a war and horror. What could be worse?” 64-year-old Liudmila Gireyeva said in Kyiv. She planned to head to the western city of Lviv and then to try to move to Poland to join her daughter.
The Russian claims about knocking out Ukrainian air defences and Ukrainian claims to have shot down several Russian aircraft could not immediately be verified. The Ukrainian air defence system and air force date back to the Soviet era and are dwarfed by Russia’s massive air power and its inventory of precision weapons.
The Russian Defence Ministry said it was not targeting cities, but using precision weapons and claimed that “there is no threat to civilian population”.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said on Facebook that the Russian military had launched missile strikes on Ukrainian military command facilities, air bases and military depots in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro.

Russia will give a “strong” response to US sanctions against Moscow over the latter’s Ukraine steps, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

“There should be no doubt - the sanctions will be given a strong response, not necessarily symmetrical, but verified and sensitive for the American side,” state news agency TASS cited the ministry as saying.

US President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday the “first tranche” of sanctions against Russia for what he described as “the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine."
This came after Russia’s parliament approved President Vladimir Putin’s request to use military force outside the country, formalizing the deployment of Russian troops to separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, a day after he recognized their independence.
The Russian ministry said: “Despite the obvious futility of the efforts made over the years to hinder the development of our economy, the US is once again reflexively grasping at restrictive instruments that are ineffective and counterproductive from the point of view of American interests.”

“Sanctions pressure is not capable of affecting our determination to firmly defend our interests,” the ministry added, describing the American sanctions as a stereotypical move “of a unipolar world with a false conviction that the US is still entitled and can impose its own rules of the world order on everyone.”

Israeli officials have expressed concerns that US sanctions against Russia in response to a potential invasion of Ukraine could harm Israel's security interests in Syria , according to a report by Walla news.
Citing unnamed officials, the news website said Israel's close ties with Washington could jeopardise its coordination with Moscow on operations in Syria, where Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes aimed at preventing Iran from taking advantage of the country's chaos in the aftermath of the decade-long civil war.
"US sanctions against Russia put Israel in a very embarrassing position," an official was quoted as saying. "The United States is a long-standing stable ally, but Israel needs Russia given the circumstances in the Middle East."
US President Joe Biden issued an executive order on Monday that imposed sanctions on two Russia-backed breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin recognised the regions as independent from Kyiv.

Donald Trump's Truth Social app was downloaded 170,000 times on Apple Inc's App Store since its launch last Sunday evening, according to research firm Apptopia.
The app created by the company run by the former
US president was the most downloaded app on Apple's store shortly after it was made public.
High anticipation and pre-orders of the app likely accounted for the high volume of downloads, Apptopia said.
Trump is hoping Truth Social will attract the millions who followed him on Twitter as he hints at a third presidential run, triggering a wave of other subscribers to justify the billions of dollars that investors have bet on the venture. Shares in a company that plans to buy Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent of Truth Social, have soared in recent months.
According to Apple’s rankings, Truth Social was the top free app in the U.S. on Monday morning, besting the “Talking Ben the Dog” children’s game, streaming service HBO Max, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

Presidential aspirant and chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu on Sunday said Nigerian youths can become president, but it will be after he has actualised his 2023 ambition.
Mr Tinubu made the statement on Sunday at the palace of Alaafin of Oyo, Lamidi Adeyemi.
“You will grow old, you will become president but I will become president first,” Mr Tinubu said in Yoruba at the palace. Previously he had chided the youth for not allowing him an easy passage into the palace, suggesting that their conduct did not show enough respect for him as a senior citizen.
“You are not giving room for the elderly to pass and you are not yet president. What if you become president, you will chase us out of town?” Mr Tinubu said.
The former Lagos governor has intensified his campaign to succeed his political ally President Muhammadu Buhari next yet, but has yet to make a formal declaration about his candidacy or unveil his manifesto. He has however continued his ‘consultation’ with political and traditional leaders in and out of the country amidst concerns his health was deteriorating.residential aspirant and chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu on Sunday said Nigerian youths can become president, but it will be after he has actualised his 2023 ambition.
Mr Tinubu made the statement on Sunday at the palace of Alaafin of Oyo, Lamidi Adeyemi.
“You will grow old, you will become president but I will become president first,” Mr Tinubu said in Yoruba at the palace. Previously he had chided the youth for not allowing him an easy passage into the palace, suggesting that their conduct did not show enough respect for him as a senior citizen.
“You are not giving room for the elderly to pass and you are not yet president. What if you become president, you will chase us out of town?” Mr Tinubu said.
The former Lagos governor has intensified his campaign to succeed his political ally President Muhammadu Buhari next yet, but has yet to make a formal declaration about his candidacy or unveil his manifesto. He has however continued his ‘consultation’ with political and traditional leaders in and out of the country amidst concerns his health was deteriorating.residential aspirant and chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu on Sunday said Nigerian youths can become president, but it will be after he has actualised his 2023 ambition.
Mr Tinubu made the statement on Sunday at the palace of Alaafin of Oyo, Lamidi Adeyemi.
“You will grow old, you will become president but I will become president first,” Mr Tinubu said in Yoruba at the palace. Previously he had chided the youth for not allowing him an easy passage into the palace, suggesting that their conduct did not show enough respect for him as a senior citizen.
“You are not giving room for the elderly to pass and you are not yet president. What if you become president, you will chase us out of town?” Mr Tinubu said.
The former Lagos governor has intensified his campaign to succeed his political ally President Muhammadu Buhari next yet, but has yet to make a formal declaration about his candidacy or unveil his manifesto. He has however continued his ‘consultation’ with political and traditional leaders in and out of the country amidst concerns his health was deteriorating.

The UK government on Tuesday imposed tough sanctions against five Russian banks and three super-rich oligarchs from the country over President Vladimir Putin's aggressive action on the Ukraine border.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the House of Commons that this is the "first tranche of measures in response to Russian troops moving into two separatist regions of Ukraine.
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The sanctions target Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank, as well as billionaires Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg and Igor Rotenberg as three "very high net worth individuals". All three have been on the US sanctions list for a number of years as associates of Putin.
Any assets they hold in the UK will be frozen, the individuals concerned will be banned from travelling here, and we will prohibit all UK individuals and entities from having any dealings with them, Johnson told Parliament.
This is the first tranche, the first barrage, of what we are prepared to do: we will hold further sanctions at readiness, to be deployed alongside the United States and the European Union if the situation escalates still further...we should steel ourselves for a protracted crisis.
"The United Kingdom will meet this challenge side-by-side with our allies, determined that we will not allow Putin to drag our continent back into a Hobbesian state of nature, where aggression pays and might is right, he said.
And it is precisely because the stakes are so high that Putin's venture in Ukraine must fail, must ultimately fail and be seen to fail. That will require the perseverance, the unity and the resolve of the entire Western alliance, and Britain will do everything possible to ensure that that unity is maintained, Johnson added.
The UK action follows the recognition of breakaway areas of eastern Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk, as independent states by Russia, with troops moving in under the garb of peacekeeping duties and Russian tanks and armoured personnel seen rolling in.
Johnson categorised this as a flagrant violation of the Minsk peace agreements, which amounts to a renewed invasion of that country.
And by denying Ukraine's legitimacy as a state and presenting its very existence as a mortal threat to Russia Putin is establishing the pretext for a full-scale offensive, Johnson said in his Commons statement.
The sanctions received the backing of cross-party support in Parliament, with many MPs calling for further action against Putin. Downing Street said the UK's new sanctions against Russia were part of a "coordinated" approach to the Ukraine crisis together with the US and EU.
Earlier on Tuesday, Russia's ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin, was also summoned to the UK Foreign Office to register the UK's formal protest with the Russian Federation over Russia's continued undermining of Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
The UK has urged Russia to explain its recognition of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic' and Luhansk People's Republic' and the movement of military forces into Ukraine, said a spokesperson for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
We have summoned the Ambassador today to stress that such actions are a violation of international law. The UK reiterates its unshakeable commitment to the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence of Ukraine, and insists that Russia immediately withdraw all of its military forces. We made clear to the Russian Ambassador that Russia would pay the price for its actions through further sanctions if it did not withdraw its troops, the spokesperson said.
Sir Philip Barton, Permanent Under-Secretary for the FCDO, warned the envoy of the sanctions being imposed and that further measures would follow unless Russia withdraws its troops.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday that his government is suspending certification of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline as a direct result of Russia's troop movement concerning Ukraine.

The $11 billion, 750-mile Nord Stream 2 pipeline was completed last summer and can carry gas from Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany, and Europe. Without certification, however, the line will carry no gas.

Omicron007:
Childhood days was sweet. This particular football brings back sweet memories.
We played this on the streets of Rayfield in Jos those years.
Did you play this as a kid?
Let's hear from you!

in yoruba it call "ONIKE" meaning plastic

Kindly help me share to every various platform �