As it happened: US warns China against Russia support

External power has been restored at Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear plant, according to the International Automatic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In a statement, the IAEA said that while Ukraine reported on Sunday that the plant had been reconnected to Ukraine's power grid, transmission system operator Ukrenergo later said it had again been damaged "by the occupying forces".

Power, however, was restored at around 13:10 local time (12:10 GMT).

IAEA director-general Rafael Grossi said that the power issues at the plant "underline the urgency" of an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to regulate their nuclear sites.

The IAEA said it is also looking into reporters that Russian forces "have carried out munition explosions" at Europe's largest nuclear facility, the Zaporizhzhya plant.

If you're just joining us, here's some of the latest developments from Russia's invasion of Ukraine:

• Nearly all of the Russian military offensives remain stalled after making little progress over the weekend, says a senior US defence official
• Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will continue on Tuesday, according to Ukraine's president
• An anti-war protester has disrupted the evening news on one of Russia's main TV channels. She is reported to have been arrested
• The US warned China there would be consequences if Beijing helped Russia

• The UK is set to announce new sanctions on more than 100 individuals with links to Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime on Tuesday

BBCCopyright: BBC

US officials believe Russian ballistic missiles being fired into Ukraine are equipped with a previously unknown decoy device that allows them to avoid interception, according to the New York Times.

Citing an unnamed US official, the Times reported that the devices – attached to Iskander-M short-range ballistic missiles – are each about a foot-long and contain equipment that produces radio signals to jam radar detection.

Additionally, each device contains a heat source to attract incoming missiles. The US official told the Times that similar "penetration aids" have been used on nuclear warheads since the 1970s.

Various images of the devices have been shared on social media by weapons and munitions experts who had been unable to identify them.

Earlier on Monday, a senior US defence official told reporters Russia has launched 900 missiles since the invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February.

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Japan's finance ministry has frozen the assets of more Russian individuals over the country's invasion of Ukraine.

It has sanctioned 11 members of the State Duma, a chamber of Russia's Parliament, five relatives of banker Yuri Kovalchuk and billionaire Viktor Vekselberg.

This brings the number of Russians who have been targeted by Japanese sanctions to 61, the ministry said.

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New Zealand plans to take in 4,000 relatives of Ukrainian-born New Zealand citizens and residents, Minister of Immigration Kris Faafoi has announced.

"This is the largest special visa category we have established in decades to support an international humanitarian effort," Faafoi said.

The initiative will be open for one year. Successful applicants will be granted two-year visas with work rights, and their children will be allowed to attend schools in New Zealand.

Faafoi said the programme would allow "the estimated 1,600 Ukrainian-born citizens and residents in New Zealand to sponsor parents, grandparents and adult siblings or adult children and their immediate family who are ordinarily resident in Ukraine to shelter safely here".

More than 2.8 million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on 24 February.

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Arkady Dvorkovich, the head of the World Chess Organization (FIDE), who served as Russia's Deputy Prime Minister from 2012-18, has condemned the war in an interview with a US publication, Mother Jones.

"Wars are the worst thing in life. Any wars. Anywhere. Including this war," he said from an undisclosed location inside Russia.

"Wars do not just take precious lives. Wars take away dreams and aspirations, freeze and destroy relationships and ties."

Earlier this month, FIDE officials unanimously condemned Russia for its invasion, and banned Russia and Belarus from competition.

It also stripped the title of ambassador for life from former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov, a current Russian MP who voted in the State Duma for recognition of two separatist-backed regions of eastern Ukraine.

Several Ukrainian chess players have also criticised Dvorkovich for his previous work for the Russian government.

Facebook/ZelenskyCopyright: Facebook/Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says peace talks with Russia - now in their fourth round - will continue on Tuesday in Turkey.

Releasing a video address on Facebook, he said he was informed that talks have been going "pretty good".

"But let's see. They will continue tomorrow," he said.

He added that Ukrainian forces were able to help 3,806 people flee from the Luhansk and Kyiv regions on Monday.

A convoy of 100 tonnes of supplies was still stuck in Berdyansk, he said, unable to reach the besieged port city of Mariupol.

He added that Russian troops were "confused" and "did not expect such resistance" from Ukraine.

"They flee the battlefield. They abandon equipment" he claimed.

"We take trophies and use them to protect Ukraine. Today, Russian troops are, in fact, one of the suppliers of equipment to our army. They could not imagine such a thing in a nightmare."

Zelensky also thanked Russian civilians who have protested and sought to spread the truth about the war - paying his personal thanks to a protester who held up an anti-war sign on Russia's Channel One news earlier on Monday.

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The latest intelligence assessment from the UK Ministry of Defense says that Russia is baselessly continuing to accuse Ukraine of intending to commit a chemical or biological attack.

Russia, the MoD bulletin says without citing evidence, "could possibly be planning to use chemical or biological weapons in a false flag operation".

The operation "could" take the form of a failed attack, a staged discovery of Ukrainian agents or munitions, or fabricated evidence of alleged Ukrainian government decision-making.

It "would almost certainly be accompanied by extensive disinformation to complicate attribution", the ministry said on Twitter.

A false flag is a political or military action carried out with the intention of blaming an opponent for it.

Read more about the history of false flag operations here:

False flags: What are they and when have they been used?

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Russia's defence ministry says it will target Ukrainian defence industry companies in response to what it describes as a Ukrainian ballistic missile attack on the separatist stronghold of Donetsk earlier on Monday.

In an online post, the Russian defence ministry writes: "In response to the shelling of Donetsk with a Tochka-U missile, Russian armed forces will take operational measures to put out of use Ukrainian defence industry enterprises which produce weapons used by the nationalists.

"We call on Ukrainian citizens who work at these enterprises, as well as residents of nearby houses, to leave the potentially dangerous areas."

Moscow earlier alleged 20 civilians had died in a Ukrainian air strike on Donetsk, involving cluster munitions carried by a Tochka-U ballistic missile.

Ukraine denied carrying out the attack and claimed a Russian missile was responsible.

This is the second time Russia has warned of a strike against Ukrainian facilities.

After the first such warning on 1 March, at least five people died in an attack targeting the Kyiv TV tower.

US President Joe Biden has vowed to continue supplying weapons, food and money to help Ukraine.

In a tweet, Biden said the US would also "welcome Ukrainian refugees with open arms".

Earlier on Monday, Biden said the US was providing "tens of thousands of tons of humanitarian supplies" on a daily basis.

On Friday, Biden signed an emergency spending package that earmarked $13.6bn in aid for Ukraine, about half of which was for military aid.

On Monday, CNN also reported the Biden administration was considering expediting immigration proceedings for displaced Ukrainians with ties to the US.

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UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is likely to announce new sanctions on Tuesday on more than 100 individuals with links to Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime, the BBC has learned.

This is to be implemented via emergency legislation as part of the Economic Crime Bill, which has just passed the UK Parliament.

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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says he held a call with Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly to discuss "ways to stop Russian aggression" against Ukraine.

In a tweet, Kuleba said that he and Joly agreed that sanctions pressure on Russia will "increase".

"Canada supports Ukraine on all fronts," he added.

On Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced more sanctions on five Russian citizens - including Roman Abramovich - and said 32 Russian companies and government entities would be barred from receiving defence equipment or supplies.

Trudeau also said the Canadian government was looking at a number of options to help Ukrainian citizens and wouldn't rule out an airlift.

You'll Never Drink Alone were the words that hung above the bar at the Old Hem, an iconic pub in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

But the pub, named after legendary American writer Ernest Hemingway and popular among the city's young creatives, now lies in ruins.

It was completely destroyed during Russian shelling of the city. The Kharkiv prosecutor's office says two people died in the attack.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

The bar's owner, Kostiantyn Kuts, told the BBC that no staff were in the bar when it was hit, and those who died were in apartments above.

The Old Hem stopped pouring pints and turned into a makeshift bomb shelter when the Russian army invaded Ukraine on 24 February, Kuts says.

He initially hoped he'd only be shutting briefly.

• Read the full story here

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

President Putin has implemented a new law making it harder for foreign aircraft leasing companies to repossess their planes as Western sanctions begin to take effect.

The new law will allow foreign jets to be registered in Russia "to ensure the uninterrupted functioning of activities in the field of civil aviation". Critics say it will allow Russia to seize privately-owned planes and put them to domestic use in the vast country.

Russian airlines have 515 jets leased from abroad worth about $10bn (£7.7bn).

Foreign owners have until 28 March to get them back from Russian companies before sanctions kick in.

But, as BBC Business Correspondent Theo Leggett explains, it's one thing to steal aircraft, it's quite another to keep them operating for any length of time.

If Russia does go ahead and seize foreign owned planes, it will immediately struggle to maintain them.

Read more:

Putin changes law on leased jets to keep them flying

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Ukraine's defence minister has praised those defending the country and says strengthening air and missile capabilities are now the top priority.

"We are working around the clock to obtain respective support or purchase the required weaponry," Oleksiy Reznikov writes in a Facebook post.

"Our defenders, our brave men and women are continuing to inflict significant losses on the Russian invaders every single day," he says. "Our army, national and border guards, soldiers from all defence sectors are constantly sending these uninvited guests back home."

Reznikov goes on to say that the Ukrainian army is "among the best in the world and the strongest in Europe".

More news now following our earlier report on the anti-war protester who ran onto the set of a Russian state-controlled TV channel with a sign reading: "They are lying to you."

Before the stunt, which was broadcast live on Russia's Channel One, protester Marina Ovsyannikova recorded a video in which she called events in Ukraine a "crime".

"I'm ashamed that I allowed myself to tell lies from the television screen. Ashamed that I allowed Russians to be turned into zombies," Ovsyannikova, an editor at the channel, explained.

She called on the Russian people to protest against the war, saying that only they could "stop the madness".

Ovsyannikova is now in police custody.

• Read the full story here

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The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague has said it will rule on Wednesday on a case brought by Ukraine against Russia, accusing it of falsely justifying its invasion.

Ukraine filed the case soon after the Russian invasion on 24 February. It accuses Russia of using false claims that Ukrainian forces were committing genocide in separatist-held areas of the Donbas region as a pretext to attack.

Russian officials did not appear at an earlier hearing at the UN's World Court on 7 March.

In a statement, the ICJ said that the court will deliver its order at 1600 local time (1500 GMT) on Wednesday, 16 March.

A separate war crimes investigation has also been launched by the International Criminal Court to look into allegations of war crimes committed in Ukraine.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

We reported earlier about a missile strike in the separatist-controlled Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, which Russia claimed - without providing evidence - was launched by Ukrainian forces.

Now Ukraine's defence ministry is saying that it was "undoubtedly a Russian missile", according to local media.

"There's not even any point talking about it," Ukrainian military spokesman Leonid Matyukhin said during a televised address, accusing Russia of using the strike as "propaganda".

Russian media reported earlier that a Ukrainian missile hit the centre of Donetsk, killing 20 people and injuring several more, and accused Kyiv of committing a war crime.

Donetsk is one of the rebel-held separatist areas where fighting against Ukrainian forces has been taking place since 2014.

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Brent Renaud, 50, was a journalist and filmmaker and was shot dead in the town of Irpin, outside Kyiv.

He had been working in the region at the time of his death.

Kyiv's police chief Andriy Nebytov said he had been targeted by Russian soldiers. Two other journalists were injured and taken to hospital.

It is the first reported death of a foreign journalist covering the war in Ukraine.

Renaud had reported from Afghanistan, Iraq and Haiti. He won a Peabody Award for his work on a 2014 series on Chicago schools, Last Chance High.

He often worked alongside his brother, Craig, also a filmmaker. It is not known whether Craig also travelled to Ukraine.

Photographs are circulating online showing a press ID for Renaud issued by the New York Times.

In a statement, the newspaper said it was "deeply saddened" to hear of Renaud's death but that he had not been working for the newspaper in Ukraine.

Read more here.