WORLD

North Korea opposes war but would use nuclear weapons if South Korea attacked, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said on Tuesday, in a warning that analysts said is probably aimed at the South’s incoming conservative president.

Kim Yo Jong, a senior official in the government and the ruling party, said it was a "very big mistake" for South Korea’s minister of defence to make recent remarks discussing attacks on the North, state news agency KCNA reported.

South Korean Defence Minister Suh Wook had said on Friday that his country’s military has a variety of missiles with significantly improved range, accuracy and power, with "the ability to accurately and quickly hit any target in North Korea."

According to reports, Ukraine's parliament has passed a new law to offer rewards of upto $1 million for defecting Russian soldiers who can hand over a warship or a combat aircraft to the country's Army.

The move by the Ukrainian lawmakers is being made as a "reward mechanism" for Russian soldiers. Reports claim giving up a tank or ground artillery by a Russian soldier would involve a reward of $100,000.

With the Russia-Ukraine crisis leading to rise in oil and gas prices, there is a rethink of energy dependency on Russia among the European nations. The Netherlands is looking at reducing its energy dependency with Russia “as soon as possible”, while exploring alternatives including green hydrogen in the coming times.

“One of the things that is crystal clear now is that we should have done more in the last 10 years as a continent as Europeans, but also as Dutch to make sure we create more energy independence. We have talked about it for 10 years, potentially even longer, and we’ve done too little. Now, this clearly is something that is very much a topic again and we will make sure we get that energy independence as quickly as possible. I talked to the US Secretary of State (Antony) Blinken and Minister (Annalena) Baerbock from Germany and to many other colleagues. We will make sure we see this through and we will make sure we become energy independent of Russia ASAP,” Netherlands’ Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said in an interaction with Indian journalists.

Russia on Friday accused Ukraine of carrying out its first airstrike on its soil since President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine on February 24. Moscow warned that the helicopter attack on a fuel depot in the town of Belgorod would hamper negotiations.

On Friday, Russia and Ukraine resumed peace talks by video conference, a negotiator said. "We are continuing talks by video conference," Moscow's chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said on Telegram. "Our positions on Crimea and Donbass have not changed."

The helicopters hit Rosneft's fuel storage facility in the western town of Belgorod, around 40 kilometres from the border with Ukraine.

Sanctions-hit Russia is offering hefty discounts to India for direct oil purchases, which will make it attractive for New Delhi to get into contracts with Moscow despite elevated freight costs, sources said.

Russia wants India to buy 15 million barrels this year, one of the sources said.© Provided by The Financial Express Russia wants India to buy 15 million barrels this year, one of the sources said.

Russia is offering a hefty discount of as much as $30-35/barrel on its flagship Ural grade to India; the discount will be applied on prices that were prevailing before its invasion of Ukraine on February 23, added the sources. Since Brent oil prices have since risen from about $97 per barrel to $107, the discounts may go up further.