MOSCOW, 14 March 2022, (TON): A local official said “Russian missiles hit a large Ukrainian base near the border with NATO member Poland on Sunday, killing 35 people and wounding 134, in an escalation of the war to the west of the country as intense fighting was reported elsewhere.”

Russia’s defense ministry said the air strike had destroyed a large amount of weapons supplied by foreign nations that were being stored at the sprawling training facility, and that it had killed up to 180 foreign mercenaries.

The attack on the Yavoriv International Center for Peacekeeping and Security, a base just 15 miles (25 km) from the Polish border that has previously hosted NATO military instructors, brought the conflict to the doorstep of the Western defense alliance.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister had warned on Saturday that convoys of Western arms shipments to Ukraine could be considered legitimate targets.

Britain said “the incident marked a significant escalation of the conflict. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking on CBS’s Face the Nation.”

NEW DELHI, 14 March 2022, (TON): The Indian embassy in war-hit Ukraine has been temporarily relocated to neighbouring Poland amid deteriorating security situation in the eastern European country facing Russian invasion.

The government said "in view of the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Ukraine, incuding attacks in the western parts of the country, it has been decied that the Indian Embassy in Ukriane will be temporarily relocated in Poland.”

It added "the situation will be reassessed in the light of further development.”

A significant number of officials in the Indian embassy in Kyiv was already working from its camp office in Lviv for the last few days. Lviv is a city in western Ukraine that is around 70 kilometres from the border with Poland.

The decision comes as Russian troops are closing in on key Ukrainian cities and towns including the capital Kyiv.

KABUL, 14 March 2022, (TON): The General Directorate of Passports says that it will resume the processing of passports in Kabul on Monday, and will process 300 passports each day.

Shafiullah Tassal, press director of the General Directorate of Passports said “in the past, the process of distributing passports in Kabul was such that we were distributing passports to people who urgently needed to travel for medical care, and 300 applicants who registered online, and this process will start again.”

Officials in the department also said that the processing of passports in the provinces was halted due to the new solar year and the need to process a backlog of applications.

Shafiullah Tassal said “In the provinces, we have stopped the process of distributing passports for a while. This is due to three problems. First, as you know, the fiscal year is coming to an end, and the process will stop for a while in the provinces due to the settlement of accounts.”

KABUL, 14 March 2022, (TON): Afghanistan’s delegation during its visit to Turkey met with Turkish officials and discussed the pending deal on operating Kabul airport and several other international airports in Afghanistan.

Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu and discussed a range of issues, including the Afghan airports.

According to the Foreign Ministry, the two sides agreed to resolve the remaining issues in the near future.

The Foreign Ministry said “the two sides talked on Kabul Airport and other Afghan International Airports, assessing provisions of the contract that needed further discussions, pledging that both countries, including Qatar, would work on solving outstanding issues through technical discussions at the earliest.”

Meanwhile, the Islamic Emirate’s acting Minister of Information and Culture, Khairullah Khairkhwa, told Turkey’s Daily Sabah that an agreement with Doha and Ankara is close.

He said “Turkey and Qatar and the Afghan government have been nearing an agreement, so hopefully in the near future it will be finalized.”

WASHINGTON, 13 March 2022, (TON): The United States urged Moscow and Tehran to take the decisions needed to revive the 2015 nuclear accord, putting the ball squarely in their camp as last-minute Russian demands threatened to derail the process.

State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters “there will need to be decisions made in places like Tehran and Moscow.”

Price said “we are confident that we can achieve mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA if those decisions are made in places like Tehran and Moscow.”

The current round of talks between world powers and Iran, taking place in the Austrian capital Vienna, had appeared close to its goal until Russia made a sudden new set of demands last week.

Russia said “it wanted guarantees that the Western economic sanctions imposed in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine would not affect its trade with Iran.”

NAIROBI, 13 March 2022, (TON): Police said “five people were killed and three others, including a Chinese national, were wounded when bandits ambushed a construction site in a coastal region of Kenya.”

The attack took place on Friday in Lamu County which lies close to the Somalia border.

Workers had been constructing a bridge on the Lamu Port, South Sudan, Ethiopia Transport Corridor when they came under attack.

A police report seen by AFP said “four people were shot fatally.”

The report said “a motorcycle rider who was caught in the crossfire was also killed,

It added that the anti-terror police unit was investigating the incident.

The attack was claimed by the Al-Shabab Islamist militant group.

TEHRAN, 13 March 2022, (TON): The US seizure of Iranian tankers in recent months has not stopped sanctions-hit Tehran from increasing oil exports, Iran’s oil minister said.

Javad Owji said in an interview carried by Iranian media “the United States has on several occasions in the past months violated Iranian oil tankers to prevent export of shipments.”

Owji said “when the enemy realized it could not stop our exports and contracts, they went after our ships.”

His remarks follow reports of a recent seizure of an Iranian oil tanker in the Bahamas, even as indirect Iran-US talks in Vienna to revive a 2015 nuclear deal could see the lifting of US sanctions in return for Tehran curbing its nuclear work.

A last-minute demand by Russia, a close ally of Iran, has forced world powers meeting in the Austrian capital to pause for an undetermined time, despite having a largely completed text.

WASHINGTON, 13 March 2022, (TON): The commander of the Royal Saudi Air Force, Lt. Gen. Turki bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz, recently visited the air force team participating in the Red Flag 2022 exercise at the Nellis Air Force Base in the US.

The commander and his accompanying delegation were received by Lt. Col. Talal bin Abdulaziz bin Bandar, the commander of the Saudi air force team participating in the drill, and other staff members.

At the venue, Lt. Gen. Turki was briefed on the progress of operations in the 10-day drill.

He also visited the aircraft maintenance headquarters and met with the technical crews, lauding the high combat capabilities and skills that the Saudi air force team has acquired and urging them to take more advantage of this opportunity.

The Saudi team air, technical and support crew are participating with six modern combat F-15SE aircraft.

WARSAW, 13 March 2022, (TON): The Polish authorities are discussing with neighboring countries the possibility of restricting the movement of trucks with goods to Russia and Belarus, bypassing the consent of the European Union.

This was announced on Saturday at a press conference by the press secretary of the government of the republic Peter Muller.

Answering a question about the prospects for restricting the movement of trucks to Belarus and Russia, a representative of the Polish government stressed that “sanctions relating to the restriction of trade are adopted by the decision of the European Council.”

He said “in accordance with the treaties, such decisions are made by the EU.”

Muller said “given that, unfortunately, there is no agreement at the level of the entire EU, we are looking for such legal solutions and loopholes to limit this type of activity.”

He explained “but this is only possible if we make such a decision simultaneously with other countries in our part of the region. If we close the border, the movement of goods will go, for example, through Lithuania.”

PARIS, 13 March 2022, (TON): The French presidency said after three-way talks “France and Germany urged Russia’s Vladimir Putin to end the deadly days-long siege of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.”

The situation is very difficult and humanly intolerable” in Mariupol, a source in the Elysee presidential palace said, after what it termed a very frank and difficult discussion with the Russian leader.

“The only decision President Putin must take is to lift the siege.”

French President Emmanuel Macron’s office also accused Putin of lies for alleging that Ukrainian forces had committed human rights abuses by using civilians as human shields.

Sources in the French and German leaders’ offices said “the 75-minute three-way phone call with Macron, the Russian leader and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz focused on France and Germany’s call for an immediate cease-fire and steps toward a diplomatic solution.”