February 25, 2022
A roundup of local and foreign news.
Newsroom, 25.02.2022, 13:51
HIGH LEVEL MEETINGS – Romanian President Klaus Iohannis is today attending an extraordinary virtual meeting of the Bucharest Nine (B9) format and an extraordinary virtual summit of the NATO heads of states and governments. President Iohannis has announced that the decision of holding the B9 summit was taken jointly with his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, to coordinate the response of allies on NATO’s eastern flank in the context of the war in Ukraine. NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, said Thursday that NATO activated its defense plans to deploy more military forces in the East European member states, following Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Also on Thursday, in Brussels, the European Council condemned, in the strongest possible terms, Russia’s unjustified military aggression against Ukraine. The EU leaders agreed to impose fresh sanctions on Moscow, targeting financial, energy and transport sectors and put a number of Russians on the black list. EU foreign ministers are discussing today in an extraordinary Foreign Affairs Council meeting, Ukraine’s invasion by Russia.
DEFENCE COUNCIL — Romanian President Klaus Iohannis convened for Tuesday, March 1st, a new meeting of the Higher Defense Council. The meeting’s agenda focuses on evolutions of the Euro-Atlantic security situation in the context of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, its implications for Romania and the measures for an integrated management of a possible massive wave of refugees to the country. According to the Presidential Administration, other topical issues will be discussed at the meeting as well. We remind you that Romanian PM Nicolae Ciuca on Thursday set up a Government’s working group to monitor and manage the situation generated by the conflict in Ukraine. Stay tuned for more on this topic, after the news.
UKRAINE – Russia resumed its air raids on Ukraine overnight, but its troops have been stopped from advancing in most directions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced this morning, adding that the Russian strikes were aimed at both military and civilian targets. Previously, Zelenskyy said that 137 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians were killed since the beginning of the Russian invasion and that Russian sabotage groups have entered the country’s capital Kyiv and marked him and his family as the main targets. Thousands of people took shelter in metro stations during throughout the Ukrainian capital amid Russias assault. The UN announced on Thursday that 100,000 people have left their homes. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant, located 90 km off the Ukrainian capital, has been captured by Russian forces. Except for the offensive from Belarus, the Russian army launched an operation from the occupied Crimea. More Russian troops crossed the common border into Ukraine and are threatening the country’s second largest city, Kharkiv, which has also been bombarded. In Russia, security forces arrested on Thursday more that 1,600 people who took to the streets to protest against the war. Reuters reports that protests were held on Thursday in dozens of cities, including Moscow and Sankt Petersburg, in spite of the fact that authorities threatened to jail protesters. The Russian Defence Ministry announced that Russian air strikes destroyed more than 80 Ukrainian military objectives.
CORONAVIRUS — Some 8,974 new infections with Covid-19 have been confirmed in the last 24 hours, along with 120 related deaths, of which 5 from a previous interval, the Group for Strategic Communication has announced today. The Romanian authorities consider lifting some of the restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic, when the number of infected patients treated in emergency care units drops to 900, Health Minister Alexandru Rafila has announced. He has also said that no longer having to wear face masks outdoors could be the first such measure, followed by one allowing more people to restaurants, cinemas and theatre halls. (EE)
