Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of top news as of 21.02.22:

The government in Kyiv has denied any such plans, and rebel leaders have produced no evidence to support their claim.

The eastern part of the country has witnessed the worst shelling in years over the last two days. Each side accuses the other of heavy shelling of civilian areas. 

Authorities in the breakaway states of Donetsk and Luhansk said they were organizing the evacuations after a vehicle exploded in Donetsk. The situation has been dismissed by Ukrainian and US officials as a staged attack designed to stoke tensions in eastern Ukraine.

"Russia is ready to provide organized reception and accommodation on its territory of residents of the Luhansk People's Republic," Leonid Pasechnik, a senior official in Luhansk noted.

Emil Taghiyev, head of the special investigation department of the Azerbaijani military prosecutor's office, Azerbaijani media reported noted that since February 1988, Kocharyan and Sargsyan had held assemblies of the Armenian employees of the organizations and institutions in Nagorno-Karabakh—and to incite national enmity and hatred between the peoples of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Besides the fact that the prosecutor of Azerbaijan is openly lying, attributing to the two former presidents of Armenia what they never said—the expulsion of the Azerbaijanis from those territories, and the burning of their houses—, it remains absolutely unclear as to the grounds on which the former presidents are declared wanted.

Interpol does not accept declaring persons wanted for political reasons.

The office of the third president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, responded to the statement.

The statement calls the accusations ‘cynical.’

The members of the legislatures of the Eastern Partnership countries and the European Parliament attend these meetings.

Maria Karapetyan, a member of the ruling majority Civil Contract faction, told reporters that two MPs and one escort have come from the Azerbaijani side.

The Azerbaijani parliament earlier noted that the event would be attended by Tair Mirkishili and Soltan Mammadov, members of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly.

Meanwhile, the participants of the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war in the fall of 2020 on Monday closed off the road to Zvartnots International Airport of Yerevan in protest at the arrival of an Azerbaijani delegation in the Armenian capital.

"If it continues again, we are going to do something worse," said one of the veterans.

The bullets damaged the outside of the walls of these houses, and one of the bullets hit the window of one of the locals' houses and penetrated inside.

The Artsakh Prosecutor's Office informed the prosecutor included in the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Artsakh about the incident, and preliminary evidence of this incident was passed on.

Shots were fired from the Azerbaijani military positions located near Karmir Shuka and Taghavard villages on February 11 as well.

As of Sunday, a total of 1,959,789 inoculations against COVID-19 have been administered in Armenia.

Armenia has confirmed a total of 415,757 COVID-19 cases. The death toll has reached 8,338.

These third straight Games in Asia, after Pyeongchang in 2018 and the delayed Tokyo Summer Games six months ago, were also the second pandemic Games.

The Olympic flag was handed over to the mayors of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. The 2026 Olympic Winter Games will be held in these cities.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has declared the Games closed.

And now that Beijing 2022 has come to a close, it's time to look back on its high and lows.

The Norwegian team leads the medal standings at the Beijing Olympics with 16 gold, 8 silver and 13 bronze medals.

Eileen Gu and Kamila Valieva became the teenage faces of the Games for very different reasons.

Hailed as the "pride of China" after winning her first gold, Gu has since won more medals than anyone else for the country at the Games.

By contrast, Valieva leaves Beijing under the cloud of an ongoing drugs test scandal and a "traumatizing" final skating performance.

A composed yet jubilant Nathan Chen gave the performance of his career in the men's single skating competition -- and claimed what was rightfully his after a shocking loss at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Meanwhile, the 18-year-old freeski superstar Gu won three medals at her first Winter Olympics, including two golds. And in her last program, after a near-perfect performance on the women's halfpipe, she even took a well-deserved victory lap.

The palace said the 95-year-old British monarch will continue with light duties at Windsor Castle over the coming week.

“She will continue to receive medical attention and will follow all the appropriate guidelines," the palace said in a statement.

Buckingham Palace added that the Queen will receive all necessary medical attention and will follow all medical advice.

Despite the confirmed COVID-19, Elizabeth II will continue to work. The 95-year-old queen plans to hold a series of online audiences and phone meetings this week. Most likely, only one event, which was supposed to take place in person, will be canceled.

The app, which allows users to post and share a "truth" as they would a tweet, has launched on Apple's App Store.

Truth Social has been touted as America's "Big Tent" social media platform that encourages free speech without discriminating against political ideology.