Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of top news as of 10.03.22:

Russian FM Sergey Lavrov and Ukrainian FM Dmitry Kuleba held 1,5 hour talks on Thursday in Antalya, Turkey.

Negotiations mediated by Ankara are the first high-level contacts between the two sides since the escalations.

Before this meeting, officials from Kyiv and Moscow had held several rounds of discussions in Belarus, but the meeting in the southern city of Antalya marked the first time Russia sent a minister for discussions on the crisis.

After the meeting, Ukraine’s FM said he discussed a 24-hour ceasefire with his Russian counterpart but no progress was made since, as he put it, ‘Moscow’s representative defended the invasion’ and said it was going as planned.

Dmytry Kuleba added he secured ‘no promise from Russia’s Sergey Lavrov’ to halt firing so that aid could reach civilians, including the main humanitarian priority – evacuating hundreds of thousands of people trapped in the besieged port city of Mariupol.

Lavrov, meanwhile, said Russia wants to continue talks with Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin would not refuse a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss “specific” issues.

Russian FM said Russia would not have started the conflict in Ukraine if the West had not rejected “our proposal on security guarantees“.

“Until the end, we wanted to resolve the situation in Ukraine through diplomatic means,” he said.

The Russian FM also said he did not believe the standoff with the West over Ukraine would lead to nuclear war.

Meanwhile, Russia had never used its oil and gas as weapons and it will always have markets for its energy exports, added Lavrov.

Turkish FM Mevlut Cavusoglu said the aim of the meeting was to pave the way for a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, which would be facilitated by Turkey’s president.

The Ukrainian war has led to a series of financial sanctions on Russia. As a retaliatory move against the military actions of Russia in Ukraine, the US imposed an immediate ban on Russian oil and other energy imports.

The UK too said that it will phase out its imports by the year-end.

The European Union, however, did not join the bandwagon, due to its heavy dependence on Russian oil and gas supplies. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union and Vice President of EU Commission, confirmed that the EU will not impose a ban on Russian oil and gas because of its heavy dependence. He explained that the import of Russian oil forms a small part for the US and the country almost doesn’t need it but that’s not the case for the EU as Russia is a big supplier of energy over here.

Borrell clarified that the EU is expressing its displeasure on Russia by imposing sanctions on its financial sector, freezing its assets and reserves but not contemplating a ban on Russian energy as yet.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Russia refused to participate in the Council of Europe session.

“The EU and NATO states, unfriendly to Russia, abusing their absolute majority in the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe continue the line of destroying the Council of Europe and the common humanitarian and legal space in Europe,” Russian MFA noted.

Russia's withdrawal from the Council of Europe will mean a withdrawal from all its mechanisms, said Dmitry Peskov, Russian president's spokesperson.

Russia faces deepening isolation and economic turmoil as it continues to be hit with sanctions from Western markets.

Today YouTube has completely suspended all monetization features for Russian users, including Premium subscription and Music Premium. The video hosting announced this in letters sent to Russian users.

Earlier, YouTube banned advertising for Russian users, and also blocked the channels of the Russian state TV channel RT and the host of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Vladimir Solovyov, Solovyov Live.

Azerbaijan continues violating the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Over several days for now they opened fire and shelled the village of Khramort in Artsakh.

The Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) police reported that Khramort village resident Suren Baghdasaryan was wounded in the back while doing agricultural work in the yard of their house as a result of a shot fired from a grenade launcher by the Azerbaijani side.

The mine that was launched exploded in the yard of their house.

Baghdasaryan was immediately taken to a medical facility. His injury is not life-threatening.

The moment of the shelling of the village of Khramort in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) by the Azerbaijani armed forces was caught on video camera during the shooting of a report.

Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan reflected on the situation noting that they are working with the authorities of Karabakh and international partners to normalize the situation.

“In recent days, we have a certain tension in the situation, especially in Artsakh, which is emphasized also by the disruption of the pipeline supplying natural gas to Artsakh,” he said referring to a cut of gas supplies in the capital of Stepenakart.

Natural gas supply has been disrupted since Tuesday in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

According to Artsakh capital Stepanakert authorities, the pipeline, which originates in Armenia, was damaged near Azerbaijani military positions in the Shushi region.

Negotiations are in progress with the Azerbaijani side so that this section is repaired.

Representatives of the Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in Artsakh, and members of the Security Council office staff are also engaged in these negotiations

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had an informal meeting in Paris with President of the European Council Charles Michel.

The interlocutors discussed various issues on the agenda of Armenia-European Union cooperation.

The situation around Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) was also touched upon. The Prime Minister presented the current situation in Artsakh and on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and considered unacceptable the continuing provocative actions by Azerbaijan in recent days.

The parties also exchanged views on the processes taking place in the international arena.

Nikol Pashinyan's working visit to France concluded.

Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan will visit Antalya on March 10-12 to participate in the Diplomatic Forum in Antalya, said Armenian MFA spokesperson Vahan Hunanyan.

A number of meetings with colleagues will also take place, the press secretary of the Foreign Ministry added.

The European Parliament held Thursday debates on the destruction of cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The draft resolution expresses deep concern about the narrative spread by Azerbaijan, in which Armenian cultural heritage sites are presented as having Albanian origin, and Armenian monuments are renamed as Caucasian-Albanian.

The creation of a new working group in Azerbaijan, which is tasked with erasing inscriptions from religious or historical monuments in the part of Nagorno-Karabakh under its control, is condemned as an unlawful plunder of the cultural heritage of neighboring peoples in order to deprive them of their historical memory.

This decision violates the spirit of the judgments of the International Court of Justice of December 7, 2021, the document says.

The document also expresses concern over the renewed clashes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, which resulted in human casualties, and calls on the parties to refrain from the use of force and continue the recently launched political dialogue.