World Bank to allocate $723 million to Ukraine.
The World Bank said it had approved a $723 million loan and grant package for Ukraine, providing much-needed support to the state budget.
The package includes an additional $350 million loan on top of a previous World Bank loan, boosted by about $139 million with guarantees from the Netherlands and Sweden, the bank said in a statement.
It also includes $134 million in grants from the UK, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, and Iceland and $100 million in parallel funding from Japan.
World Bank budget support loans usually have no limits on how the funds can be spent. Still, the bank said the "quick distribution" of funds would help the Ukrainian government provide critical services, pay hospital workers, fund pensions and continue social programs.
"The World Bank is taking swift action to support Ukraine and its people in the face of the violence and severe upheaval caused by the Russian invasion," World Bank President David Malpass said in a statement. – The World Bank supports the people of Ukraine and the region.
Third Round of Ukraine-Russia Talks: Humanitarian Corridors and Logistics
Ukraine called unacceptable the conditions of Russia for the creation of humanitarian corridors and the evacuation of people to Belarus and the Russian Federation.
Kyiv: During the third round of negotiations with the Russian delegation, the Ukrainian delegation received positive results in the logistics of humanitarian corridors.
"The third round of negotiations has ended. We have received some positive results regarding the logistics of humanitarian corridors. They will be amended, and we will receive more effective assistance to people who are suffering today from the aggression of the Russian Federation," he said.
Russia's representative at the talks, Vladimir Medinsky, noted that the expectations of the Russian side from negotiations with Ukraine did not come true.
He also stressed that the Russian side hopes that humanitarian corridors will start working tomorrow; the Ukrainian side gave assurances of this, Vladimir Medinsky highlighted, the Russian press reports.
The demand of the Russian side for the termination of the special operation in Ukraine: to legislate the non-bloc status of the country, to recognize the "LPR-DPR" and the occupied Crimea as Russian territory, to carry out denazification.
Evacuation, refugees, and humanitarian negotiations
Deputy Prime Minister - Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk, called unacceptable the conditions announced by Russia for the creation of humanitarian corridors and the evacuation of people to Belarus and the Russian Federation.
"In the morning, information appeared that Russia was supposedly opening humanitarian corridors "for humanitarian purposes," and the ceasefire was activated from 10 am. This is an unacceptable option for opening humanitarian corridors. Our people will not go from Ivankov, from Dymer, Vyshgorod, from near Kyiv to Belarus to fly to Russia by plane," Vereshchuk emphasized at a briefing on March 7, reports the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty.
According to Russian state publications, Russia by 10:00 Moscow time. Completely stopped all hostilities in Ukraine.
"Today, the Russian delegation is defending the right to live for the citizens of Ukraine, and Ukraine uses this as a resource for trade," Rodion Miroshnik, a representative of the self-proclaimed "LPR," said on the air.
According to the UN, more than 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees arrived in neighboring Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Moldova during the eleven days of the war. They are primarily women and children; due to the general mobilization, men from 18 to 60 years old are prohibited from leaving Ukraine.
"It's hard to predict anything. We will likely see a large influx of refugees in the next few days," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, Euronews reported March 6.
Russian claims and the position of Ukraine
The Kremlin spokesman stressed that Ukraine should amend the Constitution and renounce claims to join "any bloc." In addition, it must recognize Crimea as Russian and the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.
"We are completing the demilitarization of Ukraine. We will complete it. They [Ukrainians] should stop hostilities," Peskov stressed.
Meanwhile, Ukraine supported the creation of an International Tribunal to punish the Russian leadership for crimes against humanity in unprovoked aggression against Ukraine.
"On February 24, the Russian Federation launched a new stage of aggression, a full-scale aggressive war against Ukraine. In speeches before and during the invasion, the President of the Russian Federation detailed the motives for his actions. He publicly denied the right of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people to exist, which points to a misanthropic ideology at the heart of Russia's crime of aggression," Kuleba notes.
"Given the unprecedented nature of unprovoked aggression in more than 80 years and the lack of appropriate international legal mechanisms to hold the Russian Federation and its leadership accountable for such a grave crime against humanity, I supported the initiative of the international scientific community to create a special tribunal to consider the case of the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine," Kuleba stressed.
President of Ukraine: we decide the future of the continent
In a video message on March 7, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that "it is on our soil that it is decided whether anyone else in Europe will become a victim of the same aggression."
"I say this to the leaders of the world and hear them agree. We decide the future of the continent with your resistance. According to his press service and our friends - with their help," the President of Ukraine said.
"When someone loses his mind, you need to lose fear and forget about commerce. We must defend ourselves. You have to be moral. Both states and companies. We must fight against an inhuman force that wants to destroy humanity itself," President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed.
Volodymyr Zelensky noted the successes of the Ukrainian army and also announced new attacks by the Russian military on Nikolaev from rocket artillery, Kharkiv, and other cities of the state.
Online conference with US senators
During an online conference on March 5 with representatives of both chambers and both parties of the US Congress, Vladimir Zelensky focused on war crimes committed by the Russian army: shelling of schools, residential buildings, kindergartens, churches.
In total, more than two hundred politicians joined the conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky to hear firsthand about the situation in Ukraine and ask questions, the press service of the President of Ukraine reports.
Separately, Volodymyr Zelenskyy raised the issue of a threat to the environment of Ukraine and Europe. According to him, the invaders pose a danger to chemical and nuclear facilities. They have already captured two atomic power plants and are moving toward.
Russia is doomed to defeat
Political technologist Dmitry Bachevsky notes that, based on the results of the previous two rounds of negotiations, Ukraine has shown that it will never go for the loss of territories, and the Kremlin is not yet ready to leave in disgrace without receiving anything.
"Therefore, it makes no sense to discuss the stated issues at the level of delegations. More substantive negotiations will be held in Antalya between Kuleba and Lavrov on March 10. However, our principles and positions are so different from Russia's that we can't count on peace due to negotiations. This is a war of mutual destruction, and it will end only with the complete defeat of Russia, as during the first Chechen war," Dmitry Bachevsky notes in a commentary to the Voice of America Russian Service correspondent.
Ukraine's positions, he said, are based on the support of the entire civilized world, military, and financial assistance from the West, while Russia's resources are dwindling.
"Russia is doomed to a heavy and humiliating defeat, which may end in its collapse and collapse," Dmitry Bachevsky believes.
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