Russia Ukraine War March 18 Latest News: Russian President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during a phone call on Friday that Kyiv was attempting to stall peace talks with Russia but that Moscow was still keen to continue negotiations, reported Reuters. “It was noted that the Kyiv regime is attempting in every possible way to delay the negotiation process, putting forward more and more unrealistic proposals,” the Kremlin said in a readout of the call.

Meanwhile, the White House announced that U.S. President Joe Biden will speak with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping today. “This is part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication between the United States and the (People’s Republic of China),” according to the statement, as per Reuters. “The two leaders will discuss managing the competition between the two countries as well as Russia’s war against Ukraine and other issues of mutual concern.” 

The United States, which this week announced $800 million in new military aid to Kyiv, is concerned that Beijing is “considering directly assisting Russia with military equipment to use in Ukraine,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said, reported Reuters. President Joe Biden will make clear to China’s President Xi Jiping that Beijing “will bear responsibility for any actions it takes to support Russia’s aggression, and we will not hesitate to impose costs,” Blinken had told reporters.

The Russia-Ukraine war that began on February 24 last month is in its fourth week now!

Here are the top 10 latest updates surrounding the Russia Ukraine War

1. US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke on a video call on Friday about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Chinese media said Xi underlined that such conflicts are in no-one’s interests, reported Reuters. Biden was expected to tell the Chinese leader that Beijing would pay a steep price if it supports the invasion, a warning that comes at a time of deepening acrimony between the two nations. The call lasted just under two hours, the White House said.

2. The Embassy of India in Kyiv issues an advisory for all Indian nationals in Ukraine

3. Russian rockets struck an area near the airport of Ukraine’s western city of Lviv on Friday, its mayor Andriy Sadovy said, reported Reuters. The Mayor added that the airport itself had not been attacked. There is no further information on the attack yet. A bipartisan group of US lawmakers led by Congressman Joe Wilson and Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna, had a call with India’s top envoy to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, on Thursday where they urged India to speak out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine’s capital Kyiv came under renewed Russian shelling as rescuers in the besieged port of Mariupol dug survivors from the rubble of bombed buildings. Officials from the two countries met again for peace talks but said their positions remained far apart, reported Reuters.

4. Australia on Friday placed sanctions on Russia’s finance ministry and 11 additional banks and government organisations, covering the majority of the country’s banking assets along with all entities that handle Russia’s sovereign debt, reported Reuters. “With our recent inclusion of the Central Bank of Russia, Australia has now targeted all Russian government entities responsible for issuing and managing Russia’s sovereign debt,” Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne said in a statement.

5. According to a Reuters report, thousands more refugees crossed into Eastern Europe on Thursday, many hoping that peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv may end the war soon, though more people were expected to flee in the days ahead. The UN data on Thursday showed about 3.2 million have fled abroad.

6. President Vladimir Putin warned the “traitors” on Wednesday, saying the West would try to use them as a fifth column to destroy Russia, but that Russians would be quickly able to tell the difference.

7. Three current and former members of the Tennessee National Guard who were falsely identified in a Russian media report as mercenaries who were killed in Ukraine are in fact alive and well, the Tennessee National Guard revealed on Thursday.

8. Biden had on Thursday called Putin a war criminal in comments the Kremlin said were “unforgivable” as it insisted the war in Ukraine was “going to plan” amid talk of compromise at peace talks, reported Reuters. Although Reuters could not independently verify the information, it did report that Ukraine’s foreign ministry informed that Russian forces dropped a bomb on the theatre in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, leaving many civilians trapped and an unknown number of casualties.

9. Western sources and Ukrainian officials have said that Russia’s assault has faltered since its invasion on Ukraine, further dashing Moscow’s expectations of a swift victory and the removal of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government, reported Reuters.

10. “We will continue to increase the costs on Russia until it ends this war of choice. And we will continue to provide life-saving aid to the #Ukrainian people,” US Secy of State Antony J Blinken said, reported ANI.