PreferredArmenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of top news as of 23.03.22:
- Kyiv has agreed a deal with Russia to set up nine humanitarian corridors through which civilians can be evacuated, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister has said.
Iryna Vereshchuk said in a Facebook post that the routes would be opened in the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv and Luhansk regions.
She did not announce any safe corridor out of the heart of Mariupol, saying instead that people wishing to leave the city would find transport in nearby Berdyansk.
The agreement does not cover the besieged southeastern port city of Mariupol, but includes routes out of Luhansk, where a ceasefire has been announced
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says about 100,000 civilians remain trapped in Mariupol without food, water and medicine.
He has accused Russian forces attacking Mariupol of thwarting attempts to evacuate civilians from the port city.
- Russia’s security policy dictates that the country would only use nuclear weapons if its very existence were threatened, Russian president’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has told CNN.
The Kremlin spokesman made the comment in an English-language interview when asked whether he was confident that the Russian president would not use nuclear weapons.
“We have a concept of domestic security and it’s public, you can read all the reasons for nuclear arms to be used,” he said.
“So if it is an existential threat for our country, then it [the nuclear arsenal] can be used in accordance with our concept,” Peskov added.
- Belarus has told some Ukrainian diplomats to leave the country and is closing its neighbor’s consulate in the city of Brest, according to a report by the country’s state news agency, Belta.
On Tuesday the Belarusian security service, the KGB, accused eight Ukrainian diplomats of espionage.
Polish interior minister Mariusz Kaminski says Warsaw, in turn, has expelled 45 Russian diplomats suspected of spying against the country.
“Poland has expelled 45 Russian spies pretending to be diplomats,” Kaminski tweeted. “We are dismantling the Russian special services network in our country.”
Russian ambassador to Poland Sergey Andreyev confirmed the expulsions, telling reporters that the individuals concerned had been given five days to leave Poland.
- It is the third day that the supply of natural gas has been stopped in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).
In the conditions of heavy snowfall, about 120,000 people in Artsakh are left without vital natural gas.
However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Azerbaijan has unclearly denied its involvement in the suspension of natural gas supply in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).
"Armenia's non-constructive approach, baseless allegations reveal the real intentions of that country," said Leyla Abdullayeva, head of the press service department of the Azerbaijan MFA.
But one can only guess what exactly Abdullayeva considers "baseless allegations."
The supply of natural gas to Artsakh was stopped on March 8, when the natural gas pipeline coming from was damaged in the area under the control of the Azerbaijani armed forces.
The Azerbaijani side was creating obstacles for nine days to repair this damaged natural gas pipeline. And finally on March 16, according to the Artsakh Info Center, thanks to negotiations with the assistance of the Armenian government and Russian peacekeepers, the Azerbaijani side began repairing this natural gas pipeline, and the repair was completed on March 19.
On Monday, however, the Artsakh Info Center informed that the natural gas supply to Artsakh was stopped again—and due to the direct interference of the Azerbaijani side.
Meanwhile, the EU has already expressed concern over the cessation—yet again—of natural gas supply to Artsakh.
“It is urgently needed to resume supplies to affected local population,” Peter Stano, Lead Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the EU European Commission, tweeted.
- The "Shushi Declaration" has been publicized in the Turkish state official newspaper: Resmi Gazete.
Following its signing by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the document was made public in Resmi Gazete, announcing the entry into force of this declaration, Anadolu Agency reported.
On June 15, 2021, the presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey signed—in the occupied Armenian city of Shushi in Artsakh this unprecedented agreement in bilateral relations.
- In Armenia, people are discussing whether a grain shortage should be expected in the country amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, sanctions on Russia and amid decision of the Russian authorities to temporarily limit grain exports.
Based on the analysis made by the Ministry of Economy, the level of wheat self-sufficiency in 2021 is about 26.4% in Armenia.
The 2021 sown area of grain crops was 123,314 hectares, of which wheat was 58,967 hectares. And according to the information received from the provincial halls, about 53,335 hectares of autumn wheat were sown in the fall of 2021.
Also in the provincial halls, the gross harvest of grain crops was about 144,055 tons, of which wheat was about 96,262 tons.
- More than 12 million people were infected with the coronavirus infection last week, with more than 32,000 deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported Wednesday night.
The number of detected infections rose 7 percent over the previous seven days, and the number of deaths fell 23 percent.
After a substantial decline since late January, the number of new cases of COVID-19 increased for the second week in a row, with a 7% increase from 14 March to 20 March. At the same time, deaths were declining. In the past seven days, there were 23% fewer deaths than in the previous week. A total of 12,384,300 people were reported to the WHO. There have been 32,959 deaths.
Armenia has reported a total of 422,382 COVID-19 cases, while the death toll has exceeded 8,500.
