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As many as 244 Nepalis affected by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict have safely reached their destinations.

The Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) formed a high level committee to support and rescue the Nepalis affected by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Issuing a statement on Monday, the committee said that the Nepalis have left Ukraine and reached Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and Moldova.

Similarly, 154 people have reportedly got stuck along the borders towards Poland ( 130), Slovakia ( 12), Romania( 10) and Moldova ( two) and they are likely to cross the borders by this evening.  

According to the NRNA Ukraine, 40 Nepali families are permanently residing in Ukraine.

A meeting of the committee headed by its chair and Nepal’s Ambassador for Germany Ramkaji Khadka decided to take necessary initiatives to transport those Nepalis affected by the conflict to safer locations.  

The ambassador apprised the meeting that the Embassy had so far issued a travel permit for 34 Nepalis displaced from Ukraine since the recent developments there.  RSS

CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal expressed his happiness over the endorsement of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) with an interpretative declaration.

Speaking at a press conference organised at his residence in Khumaltar on Monday, he said, “I am very happy that the MCC has been endorsed from the Parliament. Now, the country has been saved from being driven into deep conflict.”

Dahal defended the proposals and stances put forward by him and the party earlier on the US aid project.

He said that the $500 million US grant project was dragged into the controversy after then Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Gyawali during his visit to the United States said that Nepal has also become a part of the Indo Pacific Strategy.

Chairman Dahal said that he floated an alternative to ratify the MCC by endorsing the resolution motion after the then taskforce of the Nepal Communist Party suggested that the MCC should not be passed in its current form. But, the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli ignored his idea, he claimed.

Dahal claimed that he had an agreement with Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba to table the resolution motion to pass the MCC.

“I had also suggested Nepali Congress and UML forge consensus to endorse the MCC to safeguard the constitution and the country,” he claimed.

Rasriya Janamorcha has decided to pull out of the five-party alliance.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the endorsement of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), the Janamorcha concluded that it will have no meaning to stay in the coalition now.

Durga Paudel, who is the only lawmaker of the Janamorcha, stood against the $500 million grant agreement during the voting on the MCC held yesterday.

CPN (Maoist Centre), Nepali Congress, CPN (Unified Socialist) and Janata Samajbadi Party and Janamorcha had moved the court after the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli dissolved the House for the second time.

Janamorcha joined the alliance with an objective to institutionalise the democracy and change after the Supreme Court issued a mandamus order to appoint Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba as the Prime Minister of the country.

The party, however, had decided not to be a part of the government. Instead, the party decided to support the government from outside.

The price of the gold has increased by Rs 1,600 per tola in the domestic market on Monday.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association, the yellow metal is being traded at Rs Rs 98,200 per tola today.

It was traded at Rs 96,600 per tola on Sunday, the Association said.

Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 97,700 per tola today.

Similarly, the price of silver rose by Rs 45 per tola and is being traded at Rs 1,340 per tola.

A Nepal Army bomb disposal team defused a suspicious object found outside the Parliament building in New Baneshwor on Monday.

A pressure cooker wrapped in wires and written 'No MCC' was found outside the Parliament building this morning.

After the suspicious object was spotted outside the Parliament building, police cordoned off the area and a Nepal Army bomb disposal squad was called to defuse it.

A suspicious object has been found outside the Parliament building in New Baneshwor on Monday.

Police said that a pressure cooker wrapped in wires and written 'No MCC' was found outside the Parliament building this morning.

Police said that they have cordoned off the area and a Nepal Army bomb disposal squad has been called to defuse it.

The EU has imposed a blanket flight ban on Russian planes, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has announced, BBC reported.

"We are shutting down EU airspace for Russian-owned, Russian-registered or Russian-controlled aircraft," she said.

All such planes, including the private jets of oligarchs, will now be unable to land in, take off from or fly over any EU nation.

Russian planes have also been banned from UK airspace.

Russia's biggest airline, Aeroflot, said it would cancel all flights to European destinations until further notice in a retaliatory move on Sunday. 

Ahead of the decision, European countries had been closing their airspace one by one. Germany said its ban would last three months.

Departure boards at Moscow's Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo airports showed dozens of cancellations on Sunday, including flights to Paris, Vienna and Kaliningrad.

Russia's S7 Airlines said on Facebook it would cancel flights to many of its European destinations until at least 13 March.

Russia has been responding with tit-for-tat restrictions on countries banning its flights.

The Commission president said that the EU was also going to ban Russia's state-owned news outlets Sputnik and Russia Today, widely seen as a mouthpiece for the Kremlin. "We are developing tools to ban their toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe," she said.

The restrictions on flights will require Russian airlines to take circuitous routes, resulting in longer flight times.

President Vladimir Putin dramatically escalated East-West tensions by ordering Russian nuclear forces put on high alert Sunday, while Ukraine’s embattled leader agreed to talks with Moscow as Putin’s troops and tanks drove deeper into the country, closing in around the capital, Associated Press reported.

Citing “aggressive statements” by NATO and tough financial sanctions, Putin issued a directive to increase the readiness of Russia’s nuclear weapons, raising fears that the invasion of Ukraine could lead to nuclear war, whether by design or mistake.

The Russian leader is “potentially putting in play forces that, if there’s a miscalculation, could make things much, much more dangerous,” said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss rapidly unfolding military operations. 

Putin’s directive came as Russian forces encountered strong resistance from Ukraine defenders. Moscow has so far failed to win full control of Ukraine’s airspace, despite advances across the country. U.S. officials say they believe the invasion has been more difficult, and slower, than the Kremlin envisioned, though that could change as Moscow adapts.

Amid the mounting tensions, Western nations said they would tighten sanctions and buy and deliver weapons for Ukraine, including Stinger missiles for shooting down helicopters and other aircraft.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, meanwhile, announced plans for a meeting with a Russian delegation at an unspecified location on the Belarusian border.