LIVE UPDATES: Zelensky Ready For Dialogue With Putin - Deputy Head of Ukrainian Presidential Office

The official added that Kiev has addressed German Chancellor to help with organising the meeting between Ukrainian and Russian presidents.

The energy ministers of the G7 countries will hold an emergency meeting on Thursday due to rising energy prices, UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Kwasi Kwarteng said.

Earlier, Kwarteng said that the UK would stop importing Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022. According to him, this transition will give the market, businesses and supply chains more than enough time to replace Russian imports, which make up 8% of UK demand.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Berlin would continue financial support for Ukraine, but "no fighter jets" would be delivered.

"We have organized support, as you know, it is about financial assistance that we started many years ago to strengthen the stability of the Ukrainian economy. We have continued this now in a crisis, there is a lot of financial support, we have launched humanitarian efforts, provided all possible military supplies, and as you know, a separate weapon that we informed about. In addition, we must decide very precisely what exactly we are doing, obviously, no fighters jets belong to this," the chancellor said at a briefing in Berlin when asked whether Berlin supported the delivery of MiG-29 fighters from Poland to Ukraine, and whether they were ready to provide a military base in Ramstein for this.

Canada is sending an additional 50 million Canadian dollars ($39 million) worth of defence aid to Ukraine, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

"Today I can announce an additional 50 million dollars worth of equipment that we will be sending towards Ukraine to help out," Trudeau said at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

"The donation of Starstreak high velocity man portable anti-air missiles [is considered]," Wallace told UK lawmakers, adding that the systems are "defensive."

The German Interior Ministry said that Berlin could not confirm the information that about a thousand German citizens are participating in hostilities in Ukraine.

"I cannot confirm the figure of one thousand. Inside the Schengen zone, people move freely, they don’t register, there is no regular control at internal borders, including on the eastern direction, in the direction of Poland. We assume that these are Ukrainians or people with German-Ukrainian roots, we cannot indicate their number," the ministry's spokesman said, answering a relevant question at a briefing in Berlin.

He added that, according to the data of the German agencies, "very few left for Ukraine, less than 10 German right-wing extremists."

Germany has been blocking the decision to disconnect Russia's Sberbank from SWIFT and has expressed concern about the restriction of Russia's access to ports, Bloomberg reported.

Energoatom CEO Petro Kotin said on Wednesday that there was highly enriched uranium in Ukraine until 2012.

"All nuclear material, highly enriched uranium, which was once located at the sites of scientific institutions of the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology and the Institute for Nuclear Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, was transferred by Ukraine to Russia in March 2012 under the control of the IAEA," Kotin said in a video address.

Defense ministers of Georgia, Ukraine, Finland and Sweden will take part in a NATO meeting at the level of defense ministers on 16 March, NATO said on Wednesday,

"A meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NAC) at the level of Defence Ministers will take place on Wednesday 16 March 2022. Ministers will meet in person. The meeting will be chaired by the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg. The Ministers of Defence of Georgia, Ukraine, Finland and Sweden, as well as the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs And Security Policy, will take part," NATO said in a statement.

US Ambassador in Moscow John Sullivan on Wednesday called on American citizens who are currently in Russia to leave the country immediately or think of a plan to do without the help of the embassy.

The diplomat told a briefing that the recommendation comes as the embassy can be closed.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Ukraine during a phone conversation on Wednesday, Sisi’s press office said.

"The presidents exchanged views on the events of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, the Egyptian leader stressed the importance of dialogue. Egypt supports all diplomatic efforts aimed at quickly resolving the crisis politically in order to prevent the situation from worsening," the office said in a statement, obtained by Sputnik.

Sisi also highly appreciated Russia’s efforts to ensure evacuation of Egyptians from Ukraine during his conversation with Putin, the office added.

"Yum! Brands is suspending KFC-owned restaurants in Russia and is finalising an agreement to suspend all Pizza Hut restaurant operations in Russia in partnership with its main franchisee. This action is based on our decision to suspend all restaurant investment and development in Russia and redirect all profits from operations in Russia to humanitarian purposes," the company said.

Canada plans to send another shipment of highly-specialized military equipment to Ukraine, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday after his phone conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"Just spoke with President @ZelenskyyUa. I let him know that Canada will send Ukraine another shipment of highly-specialized military equipment. We discussed sanctions against Russia and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine, too," Trudeau tweeted.

New EU sanctions against Russia will target some 100 individuals, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Wednesday.

"We need to continue increasing pressure through the options that we have. Member states are working on a new package of sanctions that involves around a 100 people responsible at different levels of government more economic sanctions. I hope that this package will be adopted before the end of this session today," Borrell said.