US establishes direct line with Russia

The Pentagon has established a channel of direct communication with the Russian ministry of defense to avoid unintended conflict related to the war in Ukraine. A US defense official said the "de-confliction line" was established March 1 "for the purpose of preventing miscalculation, military incidents, and escalation." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the communication line has not been announced.

___ United Nations: More than 4 million refugees may end up fleeing Ukraine due to Russia's ongoing invasion, the United Nations said.

On Wednesday, the United Nations said that 1 million people have already fled since Russia began invading last week, an exodus without precedent in this century for its speed.

The United Nations says that "while the scale and scope of displacement is not yet clear, we do expect that more than 10 million people may flee their homes if violence continues, including 4 million people who may cross borders to neighbouring countries," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Thursday.

Syria, whose civil war erupted in 2011, remains the country with the largest refugee outflows — nearly 5.7 million people, according to UNHCR's figures. But even at the swiftest rate of flight out of that country, in early 2013, it took at least three months for 1 million refugees to leave Syria.

___ Berlin: The United Nations' atomic watchdog says Ukraine has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that staff who have been kept at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant since Russian troops took control of the site a week ago are facing "psychological pressure and moral exhaustion." IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said Thursday that the staff must be allowed to rest and rotate so their crucial work can be carried out safely and securely.

Grossi received "a joint appeal from the Ukraine Government, regulatory authority and the national operator which added that personnel at the Chornobyl site have limited opportunities to communicate, move and carry out full-fledged maintenance and repair work,'" the IAEA said in a statement.

Reactor No. 4 at the power plant exploded and caught fire in 1986, shattering the building and spewing radioactive material high into the sky. Even 36 years later, radioactivity is still leaking from history's worst nuclear disaster.

Ukraine has lost regulatory control over all the facilities in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to the Russians and asked the IAEA to undertake measures "in order to reestablish legal regulation of safety of nuclear facilities and installations" within the site, the statement added.

Grossi has repeatedly stressed that any military or other action that could threaten the safety or security of Ukraine's nuclear power plants must be avoided.

"I remain gravely concerned about the deteriorating situation in Ukraine, especially about the country's nuclear power plants, which must be able to continue operating without any safety or security threats," he said. "Any accident caused as a result of the military conflict could have extremely serious consequences for people and the environment, in Ukraine and beyond." ___ Chernihiv: Video taken in the aftermath of shelling in the city of Chernihiv shows firefighters standing in rubble dousing flames with hoses as rescue crews carried at least one person on a stretcher and another helper assisted a person down a ladder. Smoke spewed from a high-rise building just behind what appeared to be a children's swing set, according to video released Thursday by the Ukrainian government.

Ukraine's state emergencies agency says at least 33 civilians were killed and another 18 wounded in a Russian strike Thursday on a residential area in Chernihiv, a city of 280,000 in Ukraine's north.

___ Washington: US President Joe Biden's administration on Thursday announced new sanctions against Russian oligarchs and others in President Vladimir Putin's inner circle as Russian forces continue to pummel Ukraine.

Those targeted by the new sanctions include Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, and Alisher Burhanovich Usmanov, one of Russia's wealthiest individuals and a close ally of Putin. The US State Department also announced it was imposing visa bans on 19 Russian oligarchs and dozens of their family members and close associates.

"These individuals and their family members will be cut off from the US financial system; their assets in the United States will be frozen and their property will be blocked from use," the White House said in a statement announcing the new penalties.

The White House described Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, as a ''top purveyor of Putin's propaganda." The property of Usmanov and the others will be blocked from use in the US and by Americans. His assets include his superyacht, one of the world's largest. Usmanov's private jet, one of Russia's largest privately owned aircraft, is also covered by the sanctions.

___ Prague: The Czech Republic won't punish those Czech nationals who decide to join international brigades to help Ukraine fight the invading Russian army.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Thursday he and President Milos Zeman have agreed on the plan.

To serve in a foreign army is punishable by a prison term in the Czech Republic, but Fiala said that such a person would be pardoned by the president, with him co-signing it.

Several hundred Czechs have asked the presidential office and the Defense Ministry for approval to serve in foreign armed forces following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's call for international brigades of volunteers.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)