WAR IN UKRAINE<\/b> -
\nUkraine wants peace and is willing to hold talks with Russia, also with respect
\nto Ukraine’s neutrality status in connection with NATO, Mykhailo Podolyak,
\nadvisor to the Ukrainian presidential office has told Reuters. President
\nVolodymyr Zelensky called for direct negotiations with his Russian counterpart,
\nVladimir Putin, but the Kremlin announced it is willing to accept talks at the
\nlevel of the two countries’ defense and foreign ministries in Minsk. I want to
\naddress the Russian president again. There is fighting all across Ukraine. Let
\nus sit down and negotiate in order to put an end to the killing, Zelensky said
\nin a televised address. On the ground, the Ukrainian army said it is fighting
\nRussian forces in the extended Kyiv region. The population was urged to take up
\narms and use Molotov cocktails against the Russian occupation troops. Dozens of
\ncivilians were injured in Mariupol, in southern Ukraine, which is also facing a
\nfull-on Russian assault. <\/p>\n
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ROMANIA AND UKRAINE<\/b> – Romania’s president,
\nKlaus Iohannis, on Friday attended a videoconference meeting of the Bucharest 9
\nFormat, co-hosted with Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda. The president posted
\non social media that he called for strengthening the deterrence and defense
\nposture on the eastern flank, especially in the Black Sea. B9 countries have
\nexpressed solidarity with the Ukrainian people and democratic institutions. At
\nthe same time, they continue to fully support the sovereignty and territorial
\nintegrity of Ukraine, as well as its right to decide its own foreign policy.
\nThe same goes for the Republic of Moldova and Georgia. At the end of the
\nNATO emergency summit, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gave assurances that
\nNATO will defend each of its members, adding that the Alliance is deploying its
\nresponse forces. Secretary Stoltenberg went on to say that NATO is determined
\nto continue to assist Ukraine. On Friday, the Council
\nof Europe decided to suspend any participation of Russian diplomats and
\ndelegates in its main bodies, effective immediate, in response to the armed
\nattack on Ukraine. The decision doesn’t apply to the European Court for Human
\nRights, which will continue to provide protection to Russian citizens. <\/p>\n
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REFUGEES <\/b>– Romania is ready
\nto receive a large number of refugees from neighboring Ukraine, Interior
\nMinister Lucian Bode said on Friday. Control measures have intensified and
\nadditional shifts introduced, due to the high flow of Ukrainian migrants
\ncrossing the border. Minister Bode said Romania has the technical, logistic and
\nhuman resources required to organize refugee camps, in response to the
\nhumanitarian crisis in Ukraine. The location of the camps has already been
\nidentified, and the Ministry is permanently coordinating with NGOs, the Red
\nCross and UNICEF. Asylum seekers will benefit from free-of-charge medical
\nservices for 90 days, and if they are granted refugee status they will have the
\nsame rights as Romanian citizens. Bucharest General Mayor said he has prepared
\nsome 25,000 beds for emergency accommodation, adding that the City Hall can
\noffer 5,000 daily meals via its soup kitchens. <\/p>\n
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MOLDOVA <\/b>– The Moldovan
\nParliament has voted the declaration of a state of emergency for 60 days in the
\ncontext of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 88 out of the total of 101 MPs
\nvoted in favor. The MPs belong to all parliamentary groups: the pro-Western
\nAction and Solidarity Party (PAS), the pro-Russian communist and socialist
\nleft-wing and the Shor populist party. The state of emergency bans mass
\ndemonstrations and allows authorities to banish undesirable persons. According
\nto Radio Chi\u0219in\u0103u, Ukrainian
\ncitizens will be able to enter the territory of the Republic of Moldova using
\ntheir identification documents, without providing the COVID-19 certificate.
\nUnderage children will be admitted based on their birth certificates,
\nidentification documents or passports. Prime Minister Natalia Gavrili\u021ba said over
\n4,200 refugees from Ukraine have entered the Republic of Moldova on the first
\nday of the invasion. Most refugees are on their way to European Union states,
\nalthough 100 people have filed for asylum in the Republic of Moldova. According
\nto the 2014 census, Moldova is home to some 180 thousand Ukrainian ethnics
\n(accounting for 6.5% of the total population) and some 110 thousand Russian
\nethnics (4%). (VP)<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of domestic and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":105208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[29000,35890,36583,36572],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-105727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-president-klaus-iohannis","tag-state-of-emergency-in-moldova","tag-ukrainian-refugees","tag-war-in-ukraine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n