NEWS.am digest: What we know about Ukraine conflict? Russian ruble hits record low

Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of top news as of 24.02.22:

LATEST ON UKRAINE

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine is breaking off diplomatic relations with Russia after Vladimir Putin announced the decision to start a military operation in Donbas at night.

“Ukraine is defending itself and will not give up its freedom no matter what they think in Moscow,” Zelenskyy said.

He added that all willing Ukrainians will be given weapons ‘to protect their land.’

Ukraine and Russia have already closed airspace.

An embassy of Armenia in Ukraine, in turn, said they are working in full staff, and are in constant contact with the Armenian citizens.

The situation is highly tense in the biggest cities of Ukraine, including Kharkiv and Kyiv. (VIDEO KARDRER ) Armenians in Ukraine’s Kharkiv noted there are long queues at ATMs.

MILITARY ACTIONS

The Ukrainian Presidency said that more than 40 soldiers have been killed since the Russian operation in Donbas began -- and a few dozen injured, although Russia said that they do not intend to inflict any strikes on civilian objects on the territory of Ukraine.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser in the President’s Office, said that in addition to the military casualties, “as far as I know, at the moment there are a few civilian deaths -- up to ten.”

Ukrainian media also noted that Russian troops have broken through the state border in the Kyiv region.

PESKOV

The Russian president’s spokesperson said the Kremlin sees no barriers to organizing talks between the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“But only if Ukraine is ready to talk about Moscow's security concerns,” Dmitry Peskov added.

He recalled that Putin had already formed his vision of what Russia would expect from Ukraine, so that "conceptual red-line problems were resolved."

“We formulated this quite clearly: this is a neutral status, this is a renunciation of weapons systems,” he noted.

INT. SOCIETY

The European Union said they impose sanctions against strategic sectors of the Russian economy and block the access of Russian banks to European financial markets.

According to the EU, it will be the toughest sanctions ever imposed against Russia.

RUBLE

The Russian stock market plunged by more than 11% at the start of the morning session on Thursday after the statements of Russian President Vladimir Putin about the decision to launch a special military operation in the Donbass, following from the dynamics of trading.

The dollar was up more than 10% against the Russian currency as the day began, sending the ruble to its lowest level ever against the dollar. Moscow’s equities index, the MOEX, fell as much as 45% after trading was temporarily suspended.

The ruble was trading at 89.89 to the dollar at 8:40 a.m. in Moscow.

ARMENIA, TURKEY

Special Representatives for the normalization process between Armenia and Turkey — the Armenian parliament deputy speaker, Ruben Rubinyan, and Ambassador Serdar Kilic, respectively — held a meeting Thursday in Vienna.

ARMENIAN PM

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has arrived in Kazakhstan on a working visit.

Pashinyan was welcomed at Kazakhstan's Nur-Sultan International Airport by Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Trade and Integration Bakhyt Sultanov.

In Nur-Sultan, the Armenian Prime Minister will take part in a meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council. The meeting will be held in a narrow format on Thursday and in an extended format on Friday.

ARMENIAN ARMY GENERAL

Acting President Alen Simonyan has signed a decree, according to which Artak Davtyan has been relieved from the post of Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia.

Artak Davtyan was the third army chief who was relieved from his post as soon as Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan came to power back in 2018.

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