At least 925 people have been killed and nearly 1,500 wounded since Russia launched a war on Ukraine on Feb. 24, while the number of people fleeing Ukraine has reached almost 3.5 million, the UN said on Monday.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said it has recorded 2,421 civilian casualties in Ukraine since "Russia's armed attack" with 925 people, including 39 children, killed and 1,496 injured.

Most of the civilian casualties recorded in Ukraine were caused by explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery, multiple-launch rocket systems, missiles, and airstrikes.

The “OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, especially in the government-controlled territory and especially in recent days,” the rights office said.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said Poland has taken more than 2 million of the people who have fled the Russia-Ukraine war, with more than 535,000 fleeing to Romania, over 365,000 to Moldova, and above 312,120 to Slovakia.

Nearly 232,000 people have also gone to Russia, according to UN records./agencies

Germany's Bundesbank warned on Monday that Russia's war on Ukraine could slow down the nation’s economic recovery and push up prices.

The effects of the war are likely to have a noticeable impact on economic activity in Germany starting in March, the bank said in a report.

High energy prices due to war reduced the consumption of households and the production of energy-intensive industry, the bank said, adding that inflation is likely to rise further in the coming months, especially due to energy prices.

Problems in the supply chains have worsened again with the war, and the recovery of the German economy in the second quarter of the year will be much weaker than expected, the bank stressed.

Food and industrial good price hikes are possible as a result of the decline in wheat exports from Ukraine and Russia, or new disruptions in supply chains, it added.

Annual inflation in Germany rose from 4.9% in January to 5.1% in February before even the latest rise in oil and gas prices, fueled by Russia's war on Ukraine launched on Feb. 24.

The Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), one of Germany's leading economic institutes, stated on March 17 that the sharp increase in raw material and production costs has not yet been fully reflected to consumers.

It added that high inflation will be seen in Germany throughout the year, with the additional costs being fully reflected on consumer prices.

Institute economists expect inflation in Germany to rise to an average of 5.8% this year – the highest level since East and West Germany reunited in 1990./aa

At least 3.1 million Kenyans are in need of urgent food relief as malnutrition, food insecurity and drought have rocked the East African nation, Kenya's interior minister said on Monday.

Speaking to journalists, Fred Matiangi said 3.1 million Kenyans are severely food insecure, especially in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) regions of Kenya.

The official added that a hybrid program of cash transfer and food distribution has been adopted to provide relief to those in need.

Matiangi warned that the number might increase to 3.5 million if the weather situation does not improve, adding most of the regions in Kenya have recorded failed rains with ASAL regions being the worst impacted.

According to government records, the number of people facing hunger due to drought was 2.5 million in January./agencies

Myanmar is increasingly at risk of collapse due to the state of its economy, education, health, and social protection systems, the UN human rights chief warned Monday.

Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, delivered an oral update on the country to the 49th session of the Human Rights Council, which is meeting until April 1.

"Thirteen months after the military coup of 1 February 2021, the human rights of the people of Myanmar are in profound crisis," said Bachelet.

"Myanmar is increasingly at risk of state collapse, with shattered economic, education, health, and social protection systems."

She also cited the health system's collapse as having "devastating consequences" for Myanmar's COVID-19 response.

"The country's precious development gains have been destroyed by the conflict and military's abuse of power," said Bachelet.

Localized resistance

The UN rights chief said hundreds of localized armed resistance groups have formed across Myanmar, and there is now widespread violence in many previously stable areas.

"As a result, the country's humanitarian crisis continues to expand. The economy is on the brink of collapse.

"Over 14.4 million individuals are now assessed as being in humanitarian need," said Bachelet.

UN partners indicate that food scarcity will sharply increase in the coming months, and the UN Development Program has forecast that the combined impact of the coup and the COVID-19 pandemic could force nearly half of Myanmar's population into poverty in 2022.

"Credible sources have recorded the deaths of over 1,600 individuals, many engaged in peaceful protest," said Bachelet.

"At least 350 of those killed died in military custody, over 21% of the total deaths."

The UN rights chief said that since February 2021, over half a million people have been forced from their homes, with at least 15,000 recorded to have fled the country.

They add to nearly 340,000 people internally displaced before February 2021 and over 1 million Rohingya refugees, said Bachelet.

"The plight of the Rohingya people – a population, persecuted for decades – remains dire, with no solution in sight," she said of the country's Muslim-minority group.

"Rohingyas remaining in Myanmar are denied freedom of movement and access to services. There are still no durable solutions for internally displaced people, nor are their conditions conducive to secure, sustainable, dignified, and voluntary returns in Rakhine state."

Bachelet cited more than 400 attacks by government security forces on populated areas, destroying thousands of houses and other buildings, including churches and food stores.

"The World Health Organization also recalls at least 286 attacks on healthcare facilities and personnel since February 2021," she said, adding, "the military's attempt to crush all opposition to it has intensified with heightened attacks against civilians."/aa

A Moscow court on Monday banned Meta-owned social networks Facebook and Instagram in Russia over "extremist activity."

The Tverskoy district court said in a ruling that it agreed to "the claims of the Prosecutor General's Office to ban the activities of Meta corporation" and the decision "takes effect immediately."

The ban, however, does not apply to WhatsApp messenger, which is also owned by the US tech giant, it added.

Prosecutors sued Meta for temporarily lifting the ban on posting calls for violence against Russians in the context of Moscow’s war on Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24.

Meta has also been prohibited from opening branches and conducting commercial activities in Russia.

Separately, the country's Investigative Committee had opened a criminal case over the "illegal calls for murder and violence against citizens of the Russian Federation."

Roskomnadzor, the federal media regulator, had already temporarily banned Facebook for restricting access to Russian media, and Instagram was blocked after Meta relaxed the rules on hate speech./aa

Although discrimination is generally referred to as treating a certain group of people unfavorably due to differences in race or color, the world's indigenous communities, especially Amazonian people, are also facing various unfair treatment over threats to their lands.

On March 21, 1960, sixty people were killed and 180 others injured in Sharpeville, South Africa, when police opened fire at a peaceful demonstration.

Six years later, March 21 was declared International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, as the UN General Assembly called on the international community to boost efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination.

To honor the lives of those who died to fight for equal human rights for all in South Africa during apartheid, an institutionally racist system built upon racial discrimination, March 21 is a public holiday celebrated annually.

The UN announced that this year's theme for the international day is "voices for action against racism".

"This edition aims, in particular, at highlighting the importance of strengthening meaningful and safe public participation and representation in all areas of decision-making to prevent and combat racial discrimination," according to the UN.

However, today indigenous people have become one of the communities that face discrimination the most, not only legally or economically but also environmentally as lands of indigenous communities that also play key roles in environmental health are targeted by governments or companies for the sake of reaping profits.

Indigenous communities are defined as having distinct social, economic, or political systems, as well as language, culture, or beliefs.

They are also seen as marginalized and discriminated against by states while they maintain their ancestral environments and systems as distinct peoples.

According to UN data, there are more than 476 million indigenous peoples living in 90 countries across the world, adding up to some 6.2% of the world population.

"Indigenous peoples are the holders of a vast diversity of unique cultures, traditions, languages, and knowledge systems. They have a special relationship with their lands and hold diverse concepts of development based on their own worldviews and priorities," according to the UN.

However, during times of crisis like COVID-19 or devastating fires, the rights of indigenous peoples can be at greater risk.

As the UN also said in a statement released on the occasion of Aug. 9, International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, COVID-19 "has exposed and exacerbated many existing inequalities, disproportionately affecting populations all over the world that were already suffering from poverty, illness, discrimination, institutional instability or financial insecurity."

According to Amnesty International, discrimination is the reason why indigenous peoples make up 15% of the world's extreme poor, and globally, they also suffer higher rates of landlessness, malnutrition, and internal displacement than other groups.

Threats to indigenous communities in Amazon

In the environmental context, Amazonian indigenous peoples are often in the media spotlight on the deforestation issue, which directly affects thousands of lives in Latin America.

For thousands of years, the Amazon has been home to at least 400 distinct indigenous peoples from eight different South American countries whose lives are intrinsically connected to the land, water, and spirits for daily and cultural survival.

This connection is also seen as what protects the rich biodiversity of life and our global climate for all life and future generations.

According to Amazon Watch, an environmental NGO that focuses on rainforests and indigenous peoples living in these areas, indigenous people, who are on the frontlines of conservation battles, now need more support than ever.

Along with huge fires, land grabs, and illegal loggers, the main drivers of deforestation in the Amazon include industrial mining, oil and gas projects, and hydroelectric dams.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency in 2020, Eloy Terena, an indigenous leader and legal counsel of the Articulation of the Indigenous People of Brazil (APIB), said that although indigenous lands are demarcated, registered, and controlled by their own people in Brazil, environmental destruction continues.

"The forest is our mother, is our home, where we live, fish, hunt, and plant. Without our territory, we cannot grow our food or have water to drink,” he said. “We cannot raise our children. We cannot maintain our existence. We were born with a deep connection to the land, which is our greatest patrimony.”

Additionally, the smoke caused by fires in the Amazon rainforest can also pose significant health risks to indigenous people as it often results in premature deaths, according to the Rainforest Alliance group.

Great risks for indigenous people, seen as guardians of forests and the environment, continue to rise, as the Amazon rainforest saw its worst level of deforestation ever this January, with around 360 square kilometers (139 square miles) of forest lost, according to data from Brazil's national space research institute, the INPE./agencies

A potential EU embargo on Russian oil supplies will seriously affect the global oil market and harm Europe's energy balance, the Kremlin said on Monday.

"This topic is very complicated, because such an embargo will affect, and will affect very seriously, the global oil market in general," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a daily briefing in Moscow.

Only the US is more or less secure against the risks of such an embargo, while the EU and the rest of the world could face difficulties, added Peskov.

"Americans will remain with their own -- this is obvious -- and will feel much better than the Europeans. The Europeans will have a hard time. Probably, this is a decision that will affect everyone," he said.

EU officials gathered on Monday in Brussels to discuss a fifth package of sanctions against Russia since the war between it and Ukraine began last month.

Ahead of the meeting, representatives of the Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania said they would insist on an embargo against Russian oil.

Pressure on Kyiv for humanitarian corridors

Turning to the situation in Ukraine, Peskov said Russia would not declare a unilateral cease-fire because "nationalists use this time to regroup and to reinforce positions."

"This has happened repeatedly and, of course, it complicates the process," he said.

Welcoming the efforts of countries trying to help secure a settlement between Russia and Ukraine, he warned of the consequences for others that he said advocated interference in the war.

If they have any, countries should use their influence over Kyiv to make it "more compliant, more constructive in these negotiations," he said.

The spokesman urged international humanitarian organizations, in particular, to pressure Ukrainian officials on the issue of opening humanitarian corridors.

"Humanitarian corridors are being organized. And the statement that no one is allowed to leave the surrounded cities is a lie, an absolute lie. There are humanitarian corridors. They are provided by our military," said Peskov, accusing Ukrainian "nationalists" of barring residents from using these routes.

"Therefore, it would be reasonable to put pressure on the Kyiv authorities so that they somehow try to influence these nationalists so that they do not hide behind people as a shield," he said.

On the possibility of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Peskov said there had been no agreements that the two leaders could seal.

He also regretted what he called the persecution of Russians and anything linked with Russians abroad due to Russia's war on Ukraine, which started on Feb. 24 and has drawn international condemnation, leading to financial restrictions on Moscow and spurring an exodus of global firms from Russia.

At least 900 civilians have been killed and 1,459 injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, said the UN, noting conditions on the ground make it difficult to verify the exact number.

More than 3.32 million people have also fled to neighboring countries, said the UN refugee agency./aa

The Russian editor and anti-war protester who interrupted a live news bulletin on Russia's state TV Channel One holding a sign behind the studio presenter and shouting slogans denouncing the war in Ukraine, called Sunday for other Russians to speak out against the "gruesome war."

While working for Channel One television in Moscow, Marina Ovsyannikova barged onto the set of an evening newscast Monday, holding a poster reading "No War."

She was subsequently detained, fined 30,000 rubles ($280), and then freed pending possible further prosecution, but has turned down a French offer of asylum.

On Sunday she described to United States media her decision to protest as "spontaneous," but said a sense of deep dissatisfaction with her government had been building for years – a feeling she said many of her colleagues shared.

"The propaganda on our state channels was becoming more and more distorted, and the pressure that has been applied in Russian politics could not leave us indifferent," she told ABC News program "This Week."

"When I spoke to my friends and colleagues, everyone until the last moment could not believe that such a thing could happen – that this gruesome war could take place," she said from Moscow, speaking through an interpreter.

"As soon as the war began, I could not sleep, I could not eat. I came to work, and after a week of coverage of this situation, the atmosphere on (Channel One) was so unpleasant that I realized I could not go back there."

Ovsyannikova said she considered joining a protest in a public square, but saw that protesters were being arrested and faced jail time.

"I decided that maybe I could do something else, something more meaningful... and I could show to the rest of the world that Russians are against the war, and I could show to the Russian people that this is just propaganda."

She said she hoped to "maybe stimulate some people to speak up against the war."

The sign she held up behind a news reader said: "Stop the war. Don't believe propaganda. They are lying to you here."

Ovsyannikova, who has resigned from her job, told France 24 television on Thursday that her protest had "broken the life of our family," with her young son particularly anxious.

"But we need to put an end to this fratricidal war."/AFP