Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of top news as of 07.03.22

The agreement on the creation of humanitarian corridors and a possible temporary ceasefire in Ukraine has been reached during the second round of Russia-Ukraine talks in Belarus.

Russia has informed the relevant organizations of the UN, OSCE, ICRC, and some other international organizations about these humanitarian corridors in Ukraine.

The Russian Armed Forces will oversee via drones this evacuation through the humanitarian corridors, and the attempts of the Ukrainian side to prevent the departure of the people are meaningless. The two previous attempts to organize humanitarian corridors failed during the weekend. These corridors are essential especially for the south-east city of Mariupol, where 200 000 people are deprived of water and electricity.

Meanwhile, new talks are scheduled Monday hosted by Belarus. The third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine were due  on Monday on the Polish-Belarusian border.

Erdogan stressed the intention of Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet with Putin in Turkey.

Russia confirmed its readiness to engage in dialogue with the Ukrainian authorities and foreign partners with a view to resolving the conflict.  But the Russian side said suspension of the special operation would only be possible if the Ukrainian Government ceased hostilities and complied with Russia's well-known demands.

  • The Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey will be remarkable this year.

Amid the Ukrainian conflict, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday that a meeting of Foreign Ministers of Russia and Ukraine Sergey Lavrov and Dmitry Kuleba may take place on March 10 on the sidelines of the diplomatic forum in Antalya.

Meanwhile, Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan will also attend the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey, Armenian foreign ministry spokesman Vahan Hunanyan noted.

The Antalya Diplomacy Forum is scheduled for Friday to Sunday.

  • A huge range of companies have dumped Russia following its military operation of Ukraine last Thursday.

Mastercard and Visa suspend all transactions and operations in Russia.

Meanwhile, Microsoft said it would suspend all new sales of its products and services in Russia.

Apple halted product sales and restricted Apple Pay Russia and removed Russian state media outlets from its App Store. Dell has suspended product sales as well.

What comes to retail, Mango, which employs 800 people in Russia, said it would temporarily close its stores and its online platform.

Ikea has closed its 17 stores in Russia.

H&M, the world's second-largest clothing retailer, has paused all of its sales in Russia.

And Nike has stopped taking online orders for Russian customers.

Meanwhile, Netflix has temporarily halted all future film and television projects, while TikTok said it will also close its access in Russia.

Airbnb suspended all operations in Russia and Belarus. And Spotify has “indefinitely” closed its Russian offices and removed state-backed media content from its platform.

What comes to cars and planes, Mercedes-Benz Group has halted the sale of cars and vans in Russia. Harley-Davidson has paused the shipment of motorcycles to Russia, while BMW has stopped the export of cars to Russia and said it would stop production on the ground there.

Airbus pledged to cease its support for Russia’s aviation industry and Boeing has said it will suspend parts, maintenance and technical support to Russia.

Today New Zealand imposed a ban on entry into the country for persons associated with a special operation in Ukraine. In total, the published list has about 100 people in it, including Russian president Vladimir Putin, FM Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu.

  • The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has also shaken up the global commodities market. Russia is the world’s largest exporter of wheat, with Ukraine in fourth place. Together, they account for 30 percent of global wheat exports, 19 percent of corn exports, and 80 percent of sunflower oil exports.

Meanwhile, the Armenian opposition MP Vahe Hakobyan noted that the wheat issue is one of the most important ones for Armenia because Armenia imports most of it from Russia.

According to MPs, the longer the Russian military operations continue in Ukraine, the longer Russia will restrict exports.

Also, he considered an "amateur approach" the proposal of the Armenian Ministry of Economy to sow wheat at 3,000 hectares of fields. "You can't sow wheat and get a harvest everywhere," Hakobyan said.

Ruling MP Eduard Aghajanyan also noted that wheat is one of the risks that may arise from the current Russian-Ukrainian crisis.

The Moscow-Yerevan route is in high demand now as due to the economic situation in Russia, most of its citizens are moving temporarily to Yerevan to work remotely.

Now there are almost 30-50 flights in a day from Russia to Yerevan.

Meanwhile, Russian airlines had to cancel all international flights - including to Armenia.

As much of the world continues to shut out Russia, its airlines are starting to face new problems. Russia has been isolated due to Airbus and Boeing stopping the supply of spare parts to the nation.

Due to US and EU sanctions, Russian airlines cannot accept the over 60 planes on order from Airbus and Boeing, according to the planemakers' websites, further reducing the number of available parts.

His remarks came in a congratulatory message to French President Emmanuel Macron on the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

In fact, the President of Azerbaijan is ready for peace with Armenia—but being guided solely by selective principles. Aliyev completely ignores some other basic international principles, such as the right of peoples to self-determination and non-use of force.

Azerbaijani FM Jeyhun Bayramov also said that “Azerbaijan has numerously offered Armenia to sign a peace treaty.”

However, Armenian MFA spokesperson Vahan Hunanyan noted that the signing of a peace treaty is one of the agenda priorities of the Armenian government.

Vahan Hunanyan also commented also on Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu’s statement on the “Zangezur corridor.

”This is an incomprehensible term for us, and everyone knows this,” he noted. “On the other hand, the opening of regional connections is also among the priorities of the Armenian government.”

  • The situation both on the Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh border with Azerbaijan has been unstable this weekend as the Azerbaijani side had been violating the truce or opening fire on Armenians.

Azerbaijan opened sniper fire Monday on the Armenian military positions located in the western part of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, leaving one person dead and one injured.

During the weekend Azerbaijanis even shelled the village of Nor Shen in Artsakh, calling on loudspeakers to leave the area.

Norshen's prefect Gevorg Harutyunyan said that shots are often heard, but the calls from the loudspeaker were made for the first time on March 4.

Along the lines of a fabricated criminal case, Baku accuses them of "illegally crossing the border of Azerbaijan, as well as placing landmines before the supply routes of Azerbaijani Defense Ministry units passing through the Kelbajar [(Karvachar)] region in May 2021.