Live updates of Russia-Ukraine conflict: Ready for talks if Ukraine stops fighting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

Chennai

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine that opened with air and missile strikes on Ukrainian military facilities before troops and tanks rolled across the borders from the north, east and south. The Ukrainian military also fought back on multiple fronts. 

Russia pressed its invasion of Ukraine to the outskirts of the capital on Friday after unleashing airstrikes on cities and military bases and sending in troops and tanks from three sides in an attack that could rewrite the global post-Cold War security order. 

As many Ukrainians piled into trains and cars to flee the fighting, the U.S. and European leaders rushed to punish Russia with strong financial sanctions. NATO moved to strengthen its eastern flank. 

Here are the latest updates surrounding the conflict: 

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that Kremlin is ready for talks provided Ukrainian army stops fighting
• The Ukrainian army has informed that the Russian army is approaching Kiev from the East and Northeast. The Russian army entered Sumy in Northeastern Ukraine in the wee hours of Friday.
• Government to bear all the travel expenses of Indians' return to India and arrange special evacuation flights.

Hungary takes Ukraine refugees fleeing attack

Hungary has extended temporary legal protection to Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, as countries in eastern Europe prepare for the arrival of refugees at their borders. Hungary, which borders Ukraine to the west, has in the past taken a firm stance against all forms of immigration. It has controversially refused to accept refugees and asylum seekers from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

But in a decree published late Thursday, Hungary's government announced that all Ukrainian citizens arriving from Ukraine, and all third-country nationals legally residing there, would be entitled to protection.

The section applying to third-country nationals makes it possible for non-Ukrainians for example, Belarussian refugees living in Ukraine to receive protection in the European Union. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that Hungary will play no part in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, but that it would accept refugees arriving at its borders.

• Russia bans UK flights over its airspace after sanctions

Russia's civil aviation authority has banned U.K. flights to and over Russia in retaliation to the British ban on Aeroflot flights. Rosaviatsiya said that all flights by the U.K. carriers to Russia as well as transit flights are banned starting Friday. It said the measure was taken in response to the unfriendly decisions by the British authorities who banned flights to the U.K. by the Russian flag carrier Aeroflot as part of sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Both military and civilians being attacked: Zelensky

•  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the Russian military's claim it is not targeting civilian areas is a lie. He said that military and civilian areas in Ukraine are both being hit by Russian attacks.

• Russia's invasion of Ukraine began early Thursday with a series of missile strikes, many on key government and military installations, quickly followed by a three-pronged ground assault. Ukrainian and U.S. officials said Russian forces were attacking from the east toward Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city; from the southern region of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014; and from Belarus to the north.

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