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The EU is expected to launch legal action against the UK government on Wednesday over its decision to scrap some post-Brexit trade arrangements, BBC reported.

Ministers insist current checks on some goods travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland must end to avoid harm to the peace process.

They published a parliamentary bill on Monday aimed at overriding parts of the deal signed with the EU in 2020.

But Brussels says going back on the arrangement breaks international law.

The Northern Ireland Protocol is the part of the Brexit deal which keeps Northern Ireland in the EU's single market for goods.

This prevents a hard border with the Republic of Ireland - including checks there on the movement of people and goods - which both the UK and EU want to avoid in order to ensure peace is maintained.

But instead it means checks on some goods arriving into Northern Ireland from other parts of the UK.

That is opposed by unionists in Northern Ireland who argue it creates a trade border in the Irish Sea and could lead to the break-up of the UK, according to BBC.

Following elections in Northern Ireland last month, the Democratic Unionist Party is refusing to serve in a power-sharing executive with Sinn Fein until the protocol is changed.

But other parties in Northern Ireland - including Sinn Fein, the Alliance Party and the SDLP - accept the deal as it stands, BBC reported.

Russia has barred top UK-based journalists and defence figures as part of sanctions, in response to UK measures on Russian public figures, BBC reported.

The BBC's Clive Myrie, Orla Guerin, Nick Robinson and Nick Beake, who have reported from Ukraine, and Director General Tim Davie are on the list.

The BBC "will continue to report independently and fairly", a spokesperson said.

Sky TV, Times, Guardian, Channel 4 and ITV journalists are also barred.

Russia has already banned hundreds of elected British MPs.

The foreign ministry in Moscow announcedthat work on expanding the list, which includes 29 members of the media and 20 persons "connected to the defence complex", would continue, according to BBC.

"The British journalists included on the list are involved in deliberate dissemination of false and one-sided information about Russia and events in Ukraine and Donbas," Russia's foreign ministry said. "With their biased assessments they also contribute to fuelling Russophobia in British society."

In her most recent piece for the BBC, Orla Guerin reported from the Ukrainian city of Lysychansk, where she said the fabric of the city was being destroyed in a deliberate scorched earth policy. Clive Myrie reported live from Kyiv as Russian troops invaded Ukraine, attempting to capture the capital in the early days of the war.

The other BBC staff on the list are diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams, who has also reported from Ukraine, and corporation chairman Richard Sharp. 

Sky News chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay, who is also on the list, was wounded in a Russian ambush while reporting outside Kyiv at the same time.

Among the other high-profile journalists on the list are John Witherow, editor of The Times, Chris Evans of the Telegraph, Katharine Viner of the Guardian and Ted Verity of the Daily Mail.

Correspondents Shaun Walker and Luke Harding of the Guardian are on the list, along with presenters Sophy Ridge of Sky News and Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News, columnists Con Coughlin of the Daily Telegraph and Gideon Rachman of the FT, and Russia academic Mark Galeotti, BBC reported.

Russian troops control about 80% of the fiercely contested eastern city of Sievierodonetsk and have destroyed all three bridges leading out of it but Ukrainians were still trying to evacuate the wounded, a regional official said Tuesday, Associated Press reported.

Serhiy Haidai, governor of the eastern Luhansk region, acknowledged that a mass evacuation of civilians from Sievierodonetsk now was “simply not possible” due to the relentless shelling and fighting. Ukrainian forces have been pushed to the industrial outskirts of the city because of “the scorched earth method and heavy artillery the Russians are using,” he said.

“There is still an opportunity for the evacuation of the wounded, communication with the Ukrainian military and local residents,” he told The Associated Press by telephone, adding that Russian soldiers have not yet completely blocked off the strategic city.

About 12,000 people remain in Sievierodonetsk, from a pre-war population of 100,000. More than 500 civilians are sheltering in the Azot chemical plant, which is being pounded by the Russians, according to Haidai.

In all, 70 civilians were evacuated from the Luhansk region in the last day, the governor said.

A Russian general, meanwhile, said a humanitarian corridor will be opened Wednesday to evacuate civilians from the Azot plant. Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev said evacuees would be taken to the town of Svatovo, 60 kilometers (35 miles) to the north in territory under the control of Russian and separatist forces.

He said the plan was made after Ukraine called for an evacuation corridor leading to territory it controls, according to Associated Press.

Mizintsev, head of the National Defense Management Center, is accused by Ukraine of human rights violations while commanding troops during the long siege of Mariupol, Ukraine’s key port on the Sea of Azov, which has been taken over by the Russians.

Russian forces in the past few weeks have pressed hard to capture Ukraine’s eastern industrial Donbas area, which borders Russia and is made up of the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.

“The losses, unfortunately, are painful, but we have to hold out,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Tuesday in his nightly video address. “The more losses the enemy suffers there, the less strength it will have to continue the aggression. Therefore, the Donbas is key to determining who will dominate in the coming weeks.”

As he does almost every day, Zelenskyy pleaded for more and faster deliveries of Western arms, this time specifically asking for anti-missile defense systems. 

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said Tuesday the military had only received around 10% of the Western weapons it had requested “to create parity with the Russian army.”

“No matter how much effort Ukraine makes, no matter how professional our army, without the help of Western partners we will not be able to win this war,” Malyar said in a televised news conference, Associated Press reported.

She said Ukraine uses 5,000 to 6,000 artillery rounds a day, while Russia uses 10 times more.

In recent days, Ukrainian officials have spoken of the heavy human cost of the war, with the fierce fighting in the east becoming an artillery battle that has seen Kyiv’s forces outgunned and outnumbered.

Malyar said every day of delay means the loss of lives of more Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. “And therefore, unfortunately, we cannot wait very long, because the situation is very difficult,” she added, according to Associated Press.

Commanding General of the US Army Pacific Charles Flynn has termed his four-day visit to Nepal as terrific.

"I want to express my gratitude to Nepali Chief of Army Staff Gen. Sharma for a terrific visit to Nepal this week," he wrote on Twitter.

“We cherish our decades long defense partnership & look forward to future opportunities for collaboration,” he further said.

General Flynn, who arrived here on a four-day official visit on Thursday, held meetings with President Bidya Devi Bhandari, Prime Minister Deuba and General Sharma, among others, on Friday.