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Russia on Sunday rescinded earlier pledges to pull tens of thousands of its troops back from Ukraine’s northern border, a move that U.S. leaders said put Russia another step closer to what they said was the planned invasion of Ukraine. Residents of Ukraine’s capital filled a gold-domed cathedral to pray for peace, Associated Press reported.

Russia’s action extends what it said were military exercises, originally set to end Sunday, that brought an estimated 30,000 Russian forces to Belarus, Ukraine’s neighbor to the north. They are among at least 150,000 Russian troops now deployed outside Ukraine’s borders, along with tanks, warplanes, artillery and other war materiel.

The continued deployment of the Russian forces in Belarus raised concern that they could be used to sweep down on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, a city of about 3 million people less than a three-hour drive away.

In Kyiv, life outwardly continued as usual for many on a mild winter Sunday, with brunches and church services, ahead of what U.S. President Joe Biden said late last week was an already decided-upon Russian attack. 

Katerina Spanchak, who fled a region of eastern Ukraine when it was taken over by Russian-allied separatists, was among worshippers crowded into the capital’s St. Michael’s monastery, smoky with the candles burned by the faithful, to pray that Ukraine be spared. 

“We all love life, and we are all united by our love of life,” Spanchak said, pausing to compose herself. “We should appreciate it every day. That’s why I think everything will be fine.”

“Our joint prayers will help to elude this tragedy, which is advancing,” said another worshipper, who identified himself only by his first name, Oleh.

A U.S. official said Sunday that Biden’s assertion that Putin has made the decision to roll Russian forces into Ukraine was based on intelligence that Russian front-line commanders have been given orders to begin final preparations for an attack. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive intelligence.

The United States and many European countries have charged for weeks that Putin has built up the forces he needs to invade Ukraine — a westward-looking democracy that has sought to move out of Russia’s orbit — and is now trying to create pretexts to invade. 

Western nations have threatened massive sanctions if Putin does. 

U.S. officials on Sunday defended their decision to hold off on their planned financial punishments of Russia ahead of any invasion, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called passionately Saturday for the West to do more.

“If you pull the trigger on that deterrent, well then, it doesn’t exist anymore as a deterrent,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told Fox on Washington’s sanctions threat.

India’s Minister for External affairs minister S Jaishankar has warned nations not to get sucked into a debt trap by accepting Chinese aid.

The Indian minister made the remarks while participating in a discussion on the theme “Regional order and security in the Indo-Pacific” at the Munich Security Conference on February 19.

Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momen, who was in the audience, raised the issue of his country requiring funds for infrastructure projects to meet the aspirations of the people, and China offering a “basket of money” and aggressive and affordable proposals while aid from other partners came with a lot of strings, The Hindustan Times reported.

According to The Hindustan Times, Jaishankar responded by cautioning countries against getting caught in a debt trap while accepting China’s assistance. “International relations are competitive, every country will look for opportunities and see what it can do but while doing so, it’s in their own interest to be prudent about what they’re getting into,” he said.

“We have seen countries, including in our region, being saddled with large debts. We have seen projects which are commercially unsustainable – airports where an aircraft doesn’t come, harbours where a ship doesn’t come. I think people would be justified in asking themselves what am I getting into,” he said.

Nepal logged 262 new Covid-19 cases and four deaths on Sunday.

With this, the country's active caseload mounted to 1,114, 156. Similarly, the death toll has climbed to 11,921.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 6, 572 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 229 returned positive. Likewise, 3, 243 people underwent antigen tests, of which 33 tested positive.

The Ministry said that 1, 338 infected people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours.

As of today, there are 12, 244 active cases in the country. 

The Ministry said that 11, 754 people are staying in home isolation while 490 are in institutionalized isolation.

CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said that they will stand against the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in the Parliament.

Soon after tabling the MCC in the Parliament, Chairman Dahal took to the Twitter and said that the party and Parliamentary Party will stand against the MCC.

"The government tabled the MCC amid protest. Our party and Parliamentary Party will stand against the MCC in the Parliament," Dahal said.

He also condemned the government action against protesters in New Baneshwor.

Nepal has always been pursuing an independent, balanced and non-aligned foreign policy.

In pursuant to this policy, as a sovereign country, Nepal has accepted and utilized development assistance as per the national requirement and priority, read a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to the media queries about the views appeared in various media on the Millennium Challenge Compact assistance to Nepal

Development assistance has played an important role in the building of infrastructures and development in Nepal.

The Government of Nepal remains grateful to our neighbors and those friends with whom Nepal has traditionally been enjoying strong partnership and cooperation as well as regional and multilateral development partners including the United Nations for their continued support to the socio-economic development of Nepal, the statement further read.

Nepal takes the decision to accept development assistance in terms of the country’s national interest and priority.

The sovereign parliament of Nepal alone decides what development assistance is needed in the best interest of Nepal and Nepali, the Ministry said.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index plunged by 39.40 points to close at 2,693.10 points on Sunday, the first trading day of the week.

Similarly, the sensitive index fell 4.99 points to reach 513.64 points.

A total of 7,122,299 units of shares of 230 companies were traded for Rs 4.08 billion.

Likewise, all sub-indices saw red in today’s market except for others.

Meanwhile, United IDI Mardi RB Hydropower Limited was the top gainer today with its price surging by 10 percent. Likewise, Narayan Development Bank Limited was the top loser with its price dropped by 4.74 percent.

The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) has worried that the first half-year review of the monetary policy of the current fiscal year unveiled recently by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) could affect the economic activity that has grasped momentum, struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Although conducting a study on concessional loans in the productive sector would help assist in industrialisation, the FNCCI has stated that trade, business and investment would be affected as most of the recommendations of the private sector were not addressed. 

Releasing a viewpoint of FNCCI today, it said chances remain of crises remain high for businesspersons and financial institutions despite knowing the fact that deposits collection on the banks and financial institutions could not increase amid the interest rate in the deposit. 

The FNCCI has drawn the attention of the central bank towards adverse impacts on production, price hike, revenue collection and employment generation as the review was focused on imports reduction. RSS

The government tabled Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in the Parliament on Sunday, 32 months after it was registered in the Parliament Secretariat. 

Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gyandendra Bahadur Karki  on behalf of Minister for Finance Janardan Sharma tabled the $500 million compact in the Parliament this afternoon. 

Signed in September 2017, the MCC compact was registered in the Parliament in July 2019.

The next meeting of the Parliament has been scheduled for 1 pm on Thursday.