Ukraine has agreed to hold talks with Russia on the Belarus border on Sunday, shortly after Russian President Valdimir Putin ordered his defence chiefs to put the country's nuclear "deterrence forces" on high alert and accused the West of taking "unfriendly" steps against his country.
Moscow has the world's second-largest arsenal of nuclear weapons and a huge cache of ballistic missiles which form the backbone of the country's deterrence forces, making his order cause for further international alarm.
The EU on Sunday announced harsh new sanctions against Russia, closing its airspace to Russian aircrafts and banning the broadcast of Russian state media outlets in the bloc.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, announcing the measures, also said the European Union was taking the unprecedented step of financing arms to Ukraine, and was hitting Russian ally Belarus with sanctions for facilitating the invasion.
Russian troops also entered Ukraine's second city Kharkiv and fighting was under way on the fourth day of Russia's invasion of the pro-Western country. Later in the day, the governor of Kharkiv has said that Ukrainian troops have taken the city back, and managed to expel Russian forces.
PM Modi also held a high-level meeting on the Ukraine crisis on Sunday evening. Sources said the agenda of the meeting -- which started at 8 pm -- was the safe return of Indian students from Ukraine.
