March 27, 2022
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 27.03.2022, 14:00
UKRAINE – The Russian army continues to bomb urban areas in Ukraine, although the Ukrainian forces have recaptured a city in the northwest, some 50 km from Sumi. To cut its losses, the Russians are resorting to long-rage artillery fire. Mariupol, Kharkiv and Chernihiv are still under siege and have suffered considerable losses. The city close to Chernobyl, home to the staff working at the nuclear plant, has been captured by the Russian army. Russia and Ukraine on Sunday agreed to create two humanitarian corridors to evacuate the civilian population from the first line of fire, also allowing the population of Mariupol to evacuate the city using their private cars, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk announced. The population of Mariupol and Rubezny will be evacuated towards Zaporizhzhia and Bakhmut. According to the mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, 50% of the city’s population has been evacuated. Some 60,000 people fled via the humanitarian corridor to other areas in Ukraine, while another 30,000 were forcefully deported to areas under Russian control or to Russia. Several thousands of protesters, mostly Russians, gathered on Saturday in Prague to condemn the military offensive of president Vladimir Putin and to call a stop to the war, AFP reports.
CONVOY – A French humanitarian convoy delivering intervention vehicles and medical supplies arrived on Sunday in the humanitarian hub in Suceava, northern Romania, from where it will be taken over by the Ukrainian side and transported to Chernivtsi, Ukraine. The convoy includes 100 French firefighters and rapid response workers, 11 fire trucks, 16 intervention vehicles and 23 trucks carrying 49 tons of medical and rescue supplies. Nearly 9,000 Ukrainian citizens entered Romania on Saturday, the Border Police reports. So far, over 500 thousand Ukrainian refugees have entered Romania, of whom only 4,300 have filed for asylum. The Government announced it can accommodate 400 thousand refugees.
BLINKEN – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel for a historic meeting with counterparts from Arab states that have normalized relations with this country, as part of a tour of the Middle East and North Africa. On Sunday, Blinken is expected to meet counterparts from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain and Egypt. Blinken previously traveled to Poland together with US president Joen Biden. During his visit in Israel, Secretary Blinken will also meet with Israel’s Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett. From here we will travel to Ramallah for a meeting with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. The US Secretary of State wants to prove the USA is interested in the Middle East, although its focus seems to be China and Ukraine, more recently. Antony Blinken will continue his tour on Monday by travelling to Algeria, then to Morocco. As part of his meeting with the de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, Blinken hopes to secure support for the efforts of the USA and NATO to counter the Russian invasion in Ukraine, in a context marked by serious economic fallout from the war, especially energy price hikes and wheat shortages, which could deal a serious blow to Arab economies, AFP writes.
VISIT – EU Commissioner for Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, is paying an official visit to Bucharest on Monday and Tuesday. The EU official will meet president Klaus Iohannis, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă and other Romanian officials. Talks will focus on economic prospects and the situation in Romania, a month after the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine. On Monday, Commissioner Gentiloni will visit a center of the Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, while on Tuesday he will give an opening speech at an economic debate.
DST – Romania on Sunday switched to Daylight Savings Time. Clocks were advanced one hour, making Sunday the shortest day of the year. The measure was introduced with a view to ensuring maximum use of sunlight. The National Rail Company (CFR) announced the switch will not impact rail traffic. Until the last Sunday in October, Romania’s standard time will be UTC +03:00.
COVID – 1,939 new cases of COVID infection were reported on Sunday, in addition to 10 related fatalities. Some 390 patients are intensive care.
BLACK BOX – The second black box containing data about the flight crashed in China this week during an internal flight was found on Sunday. It contains data about the aircraft’s speed, altitude and flight direct at the time of the crash. The first black box with recordings of the pilots’ conversations was found on Wednesday and sent to Beijing for decoding. The 129 passengers and 9 crew members onboard, all Chinese nationals, died. This is the most serious aviation disaster in China reported in nearly 12 years. (VP)
