Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday gave the green light for up to 16,000 volunteers from the Middle East to be deployed alongside Russian-backed rebels to fight in Ukraine, doubling down an invasion that the West says has been losing momentum.

Nato must not allow Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to spill over into an open conflict between the alliance and Moscow, its chief Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday, warning a no-fly zone would likely lead to full-scale war.

Emmanuel Macron has led western European leaders in rebuffing appeals from Volodymyr Zelenskiy for fast-track EU membership for Ukraine despite the backing of eastern member states.

Russia has drawn up plans to seize the assets of western companies leaving the country as the Kremlin pushes back against sweeping sanctions and the exodus of international businesses since its invasion of Ukraine.

During the first week of war, Russia shifted from strategic strikes against military targets using cruise missiles to a stalled ground attack and, currently, a broader siege of major cities, including bombardments using rocket artillery and cluster munitions, sometimes against residential buildings and civilian infrastructure.

The body of engineer Md Hadisur Rahman, who was killed in a rocket attack on the Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) vessel stranded at a Ukraine port, is expected to reach Dhaka on March 13 or 14, said State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam today.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the green light on Friday for up to 16,000 volunteers from the Middle East to be deployed alongside Russian-backed rebels to fight in Ukraine, doubling down an invasion that the West says has been losing momentum.

More than 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine as of March 11, the UN migration agency said on its website on Friday.

The European Union will not impose sanctions on Russian gas or oil, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a video posted on his Facebook page today, amid a summit of EU leaders in France.

Meta Platforms (FB.O) will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, according to internal emails seen by Reuters on Thursday, in a temporary change to its hate speech policy.

The World Health Organization advised Ukraine to destroy high-threat pathogens housed in the country's public health laboratories to prevent "any potential spills" that would spread disease among the population, the agency told Reuters on Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday Western sanctions on Moscow for its actions in Ukraine could send global food prices soaring, as Russia was one of the world’s main producers of fertiliser, which is essential to global supply chains.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday he did not believe the conflict in Ukraine would spiral into a nuclear war but cautioned the United States and Europe that Moscow never again wanted to be dependent on the West.

China’s censors, who quietly determine what can be discussed on the country’s buzzing social media platforms, are silencing views of citizens protesting against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov claims the hospital was a base for Ukrainian Azov Battalion and “other radicals” and slams the West for supplying them with “deadly weapons”.

Russia’s massive assault on Ukraine is providing Western intelligence agencies and analysts with a rare live opportunity to verify their assessments of the Russian army’s strengths and weaknesses in the field.

The Pentagon on Wednesday conclusively rejected as too “high risk” a plan to transfer fighter jets from Poland to Kyiv to battle Russian forces, pouring cold water for now on Ukraine’s bid for more firepower in the skies.

Russian firms have encountered problems in securing financing for April contracts to sell crude and oil products, but the situation can be resolved, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency on Thursday.

China has refused to supply Russian airlines with aircraft parts, an official at Russia's aviation authority was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying on Thursday, after Boeing (BA.N) and Airbus (AIR.PA) halted supply of components.

The body of slain sailor Hadisur Rahman is in the process of being brought from Ukraine to Bangladesh via Romania and could reach Romania tomorrow, Bangladesh Ambassador to Poland, Sultana Laila, told The Daily Star today.