(Reuters) – Ukraine began evacuating civilians from besieged cities through humanitarian corridors agreed with Russia as the number of refugees who fled the country surged past 2 million.
HUMANITARIAN CORRIDORS
* Moscow was opening corridors on Tuesday from Ukrainian cities of Cherhihiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol, the capital Kyiv, and Sumy. Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.
RUSSIAN GENERAL KILLED
A second senior Russian commander had been killed, Ukrainian military and intelligence said. Reuters could not verify the report.
TALKS
* Negotiators warned not to expect a quick breakthrough in peace talks in Belarus after the third round brought little progress. The Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers are expected to meet in Turkey on Thursday.
MARKETS IN TURMOIL
* Shell to stop buying Russian oil
* Shell said on Tuesday it would stop buying Russian oil and apologised for buying one shipment last week.
* Russia warned oil prices could more than double to $300 a barrel and it might close the main gas pipeline to Germany if the West halts oil imports.
* Nickel trading halted
London trading in industrial metal nickel was halted after prices doubled on concerns about Russian supplies. nL3N2VB0PJ
* What would a U.S. ban on Russian oil mean for the world?
SANCTIONS
* EU targets more Russian oligarchs, Belarus banks
Brussels has prepared further sanctions targeting more Russian oligarchs and politicians and three Belarusian banks, according to three sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
FLEEING CONFLICT
* Two million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, according to the U.N. refugee agency. European Union officials have said the number could reach 5 million.
DEATH TOLL
* Ukraine says its forces have killed more than 11,000 Russian troops. Russia has confirmed about 500 losses. Neither side has disclosed Ukrainian casualties.
* Attacks on hospitals
The WHO said on Tuesday that attacks on hospitals, ambulances and other health care facilities in Ukraine have intensified in recent days.
INTERNATIONAL REPERCUSSIONS
* NATO says won’t let war spread beyond Ukraine
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called on Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine and said the pact had the obligation to prevent the conflict from spreading.
* Germany will host a virtual meeting of G7 agricultural ministers on Friday to discuss global food security and how to best stabilise food markets.
INSIGHTS* For foreign fighters, Ukraine offers purpose, camaraderie and a cause.* A war for life of our child’: Health crisis spills out of Ukraine conflict
* Shipping banned goods to Russia may get firms blacklisted, Washington warns
QUOTES
“The city is almost ruined, and the district where I’m living, it’s like there are no houses which were not bombed,” said one young mother in Kyiv frontline suburb of Irpin, cradling a baby beneath a blanket.
(Compiled by Michael Perry, Raju Gopalakrishnan and Tomasz Janowski)
