Live news updates: Ukrainian and Russian negotiators will begin peace talks in Istanbul later on Monday, a senior Turkish official said, without elaborating. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed in a telephone call on Sunday for Istanbul to host the talks, which Ankara hopes will lead to a ceasefire.
French President Emmanuel Macron warned against an escalation of “words or actions,” a day after US president Joe Biden said the Russia’s Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”. The comments “narrow the window of opportunity for normalizing dialogue, so much needed now, with the current US administration,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response.
A group representing employees of state-owned banks will join central trade unions in a nationwide strike Monday and Tuesday to protest against the government’s economic policies.
The unions, after a meeting of their joint platform, on March 22 announced the strike against “the anti-worker, anti-farmer, anti-people and anti-national policies”. The All India Bank Employees Association will support the strike to protest against the government’s plan for privatisation of state-owned lenders and the Banking Laws Amendment Bill 2021.