The US ban on energy imports from Russia does not apply to uranium, according to US media

⚡️ Lavrov is scheduled to fly to Turkey for the Antalya Forum on Wednesday, where he plans to get in touch with Ukrainian FM Kuleba, the Russian Foreign Ministry says

⚡️ At 7:50 a.m. local time, Ukrainian troops fired two 120mm caliber mortars at Donetsk, according to the DPR representative in the JCCC

⚡️ Russian National Guard says situation at Zaporozhskaya NPP is under its full control

⚡️ Ukrainian troops shelled Panteleymonovka, fired fifteen 120-mm projectiles - DPR

❗️ Russian Defense Ministry:

▪️ The formations of Ukrainian troops, which were planned to be used in the Donbass, were trained by American and British instructors in Lvov;

▪️ Documents of the National Guard of Ukraine confirming the preparation by Kiev of an offensive operation in the Donbass for March came into the possession of the Russian military;

▪️ The special operation conducted by the Russian military preempted and disrupted a large-scale offensive by strike groups of Ukrainian troops in the LPR and DPR

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⚡️ Russian MoD makes public documents confirming preparation by Kiev of offensive operation in Donbass

⚡️ Russia reduces use of US dollar in reserves and external settlements against backdrop of sanctions, switches to non-western capital markets, Russian Foreign Ministry said

The MoD had in its possession an order issued by the Commander of the National Guard of Ukraine, Colonel-General Mykola Balan, dated 22 January 2022, which describes in detail the plan for preparing an offensive in the Donbass:

▪️ Kiev had planned a March offensive operation in the Donbass;

▪️ The order describes in detail plans for preparing one of the strike groups for offensive operations in the zone of the so-called "Joint Forces Operation in the Donbass";

▪️ Measures to build up the capabilities of the Ukrainian military in the Donbass area were carried out by order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from 19 January;

▪️ The document also contains instructions for all activities aimed at achieving “combat coordination of the nationalists” to be completed by 28 February, in order to ensure the fulfillment of “combat missions as part of the Ukrainian 'Joint Forces Operation' in Donbas"

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⚡️ Ukrainian authorities confirm Sumy-Poltava humanitarian corridor operates on 9 March

⚡️ Heineken has suspended the production and sale of beer under the Heineken brand in Russia; all factories continue to work, said the company

⚡️ Moscow intends to develop targeted trade and financial restrictions in response to western sanctions

⚡️ Several hundred people in Mariupol continue to be used as "human shields" for the national battalions of Ukraine, DPR head Pushilin said.

The national units of Ukraine are poorly controlled from Kiev, the situation with the evacuation from Mariupol is difficult, Pushilin added

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⚡️ Сhinese Foreign Ministry on ban on Russian oil imports: Beijing strongly opposes unilateral sanctions, they will not bring peace and security

❗️ Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik radio that if the activities of biolaboratories in Ukraine had not been stopped now, their development would have become uncontrolled;

🗣 She stressed that "these laboratories that were supposed to be set in motion to destroy the materials they worked with in case of an emergency (...) are the very places where American biowarfare experiments took place."

🗣 "This completely changes the picture of US involvement in the fate of Ukraine: it is not just an instrument of influence, it is not just an instrument of deterrence, it is the instrument of a direct threat to our country" she said.

Zakharova added that those responsible for such experiments, or the supply of weapons to Ukraine, will be held accountable

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