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As Ukraine-Russia war intensified, Tuesday (March 1, 2022) brought itself a very sad development for India. A student of medicine, originally from Karnataka, was killed in the shelling in Kharkiv. PM Narendra Modi attended another high-level meeting to take stock of the situation. "PM Modi expressed deep anguish over the loss of life of Indian citizen in Kharkiv," said Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla after meeting on Ukraine crisis.

Shringla said, "We had an estimated 20,000 Indian students in Ukraine at the time that we issued our first advisory. From that number approximately 12,000 have since left Ukraine, which is 60% of the total number of our citizens in Ukraine. Of the remaining 40%, roughly half remain in the conflict zone in Kharkiv, Sumy area and the other half have either reached the western borders of Ukraine or are heading towards the western part of Ukraine - they are generally out of conflict areas."

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to Twitter on Tuesday with a message for the world. Referring to the Babyn Yar (also known as Babi Yar) site in the country's capital Kyiv, where the Nazis had brutally exterminated Jews and their other opponents during the Second World War, Zelenskyy said “history is repeating”.

“To the world: what is the point of saying never again for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar? At least 5 killed. History repeating…” Zelenskyy's post on the microblogging site read.

Russia stood almost isolated at the United Nations on Monday as member states unloaded on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. The UN Secretary Antonio Guterres himself berated Russia for its actions, calling its decision to put its nuclear arsenal on higher alert a "chilling development".

"This escalation of violence, which leads to civilian deaths, including children, is completely unacceptable. Enough is enough!...the fighting in Ukraine must stop,” Guterres said in his opening remarks at a rare special emergency session of the UN General Assembly that even a Russian veto could not prevent. Urging Moscow to pull back its troops, Guterres said Russia's nuclear posturing was "simply inconceivable", adding “nothing can justify the use of nuclear weapons”.

Russia on Monday banned all its residents from transferring money abroad, the Kremlin was cited as saying by an international news agency.

The measure is seen as part of an attempt to prop up the Russian economy after the value of the ruble plummeted due to sanctions imposed by several Western nations over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In a decree signed by Putin, the exporters would be required to hold at least 80 per cent of revenue in rubles, AFP reported.

The ban on scheduled international passenger flights to and from India has been extended 'till further orders', the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stated in a new order on Monday. Scheduled international flight services were suspended till February 28 in view of the Omicron wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a partial modification of the previous circular dated November 26, 2021, the DGCA said, “The competent authority has decided to extend the suspension of scheduled international commercial passenger services to/from India till further orders.”

The aviation regulator added that the restriction does not apply to international all-cargo operations and flights approved by DGCA and that flights under bubble arrangement will also not be affected.