This photo combo shows Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and US President Joe Biden (PHOTO/XINHUA)
MOSCOW/KYIV/NEW YORK – The Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday announced sanctions on top US officials, including US President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Peace talks resumed
Ukrainian and Russian delegations resumed peace talks earlier on Tuesday, local media outlet Ukrayinska Pravda reported, citing David Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegation.
"The talks are already underway," Arakhamia said without giving further details.
The two delegations started the fourth round of their talks via video link on Monday. Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak, also a member of the delegation, said the two sides took a technical pause in the negotiations until Tuesday for "additional work in the working subgroups and clarification of individual definitions."
Members of delegations from Ukraine and Russia, including Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky (second left), Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak (second right), Volodymyr Zelensky's "Servant of the People" lawmaker Davyd Arakhamia (third right), hold talks in Belarus' Gomel region on Feb 28, 2022. (SERGEI KHOLODILIN / BELTA / AFP)
Meanwhile, Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, also the head of the Russian delegation, said on Monday that negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are being held daily.
"The negotiations with Ukraine are being held every day, seven days a week, in a format of video conferences," Medinsky posted on his Telegram account.
READ MORE: Ukraine seeking ceasefire, troop withdrawal in talks with Russia
Video meetings save time and are more efficient, he added.
"We are striving to do everything that is possible to fulfill the tasks set by (Russian President) Vladimir Putin for Russia's peaceful future," he wrote.
The negotiations with Ukraine are being held every day, seven days a week, in a format of video conferences.
Vladimir Medinsky, Russian presidential aide
Extension of martial law proposed
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has submitted a bill to the parliament, proposing the extension of the current martial law in Ukraine, the Ukrainian government-run Ukrinform news agency reported Tuesday.
If the lawmakers pass the bill, the martial law in Ukraine will be extended for another 30 days starting from March 26.
Ukraine imposed the martial law after Russia started a special military operation on Feb 24.
Putin isolation 'Western bias'
The suggestion that Russian President Vladimir Putin is isolated may still be something of a Western bias – an assumption based on a definition of the "world" as places of privilege, largely the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan, according to an analysis published by The Washington Post last week.
"Of the 193 members of the United Nations, 141 voted to condemn Moscow's unprovoked attack on its neighbor. But that majority vote doesn't tell the more nuanced story," read the analysis titled “Outside the West, Putin is less isolated than you might think”.
ALSO READ: Chinese humanitarian aid arrives in Ukraine
A Ukrainian firefighter helps a man remove belongings from a destroyed building after it was hit by artillery shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 14, 2022. (FELIPE DANA / AP)
The giants of the Global South, including India, Brazil and South Africa, are hedging their bets; even NATO-member Turkey is acting coy, moving to shut off the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits to all warships, not just the Russians, said the article.
"Some citizens in emerging economies are gazing at Ukraine and seeing themselves without a dog in this fight – and with compelling national interests for not alienating Russia," and "in a broad swath of the developing world, the Kremlin's talking points are filtering into mainstream news and social media," it said.
Meanwhile, "the gulf between the West and the Global South may also be worsening during the pandemic and the era of climate change, as developing nations grow increasingly resentful of the self-interested responses in the United States and Europe," added the article.
