A mosque in Ukraine’s Mariupol – which was sheltering 80 civilians – has been bombed by Russian forces. The war-torn eastern European country’s foreign ministry tweeted ‘the mosque of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roxolana (Hurrem Sultan) in Mariupol was shelled by Russian invaders’. “More than 80 adults and children are hiding there from the shelling, including citizens of Turkey”.
The de facto leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have reportedly declines calls from the White House. The calls from President Biden and the U.S. were based on the agenda to build international support for Ukraine and contain a surge in oil prices. Saudi and Emirati officials have also become more vocal in their criticism of American policy in Gulf.
Despite mounting pressure by the West to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Pakistan chose not to take sides on the matter during UN General Assembly vote. Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations on Wednesday delivered a carefully worded speech at the emergency session of the UNGA, calling for de-escalation of tensions and sustained dialogue.
Western media and political figures have been accused of double standards for using their outlets to not only commend Ukraine’s armed resistance to Russian troops, but also to underlying their horror at how such a conflict could happen to a “civilised” nation. The Ukraine refugees were even termed “prosperous middle-class people” as compared to refugees of Iraq and Afganistan.