A look at the most important developments of the day:

  1. Ukraine agrees to meet Russian delegation for ‘peace talks’ on Belarus border: Earlier in the day, the United Nations’ refugee agency said that as many as 3,68,000 people have fled Ukraine since the invasion by Russia began.
  2. 54.53% voter turnout recorded in the fifth phase of Uttar Pradesh elections: Polls took place for 61 seats across 12 districts, including Ayodhya, Amethi and Rae Bareli.
  3. Vladimir Putin orders military to put Russia’s nuclear arms forces on high alert: He said that western nations were putting ‘illegitimate sanctions’ on Russia.
  4. Clashes take place between BJP and Trinamool workers during West Bengal civic polls: The state was voting to elect members of 107 municipalities across the state.
  5. Kashmiri journalist Fahad Shah arrested again hours after getting bail: ‘The Kashmir Walla’ editor was arrested earlier on February 4 for posting allegedly anti-national content on social media.
  6. Government working tirelessly to bring back Indians from Ukraine, says Narendra Modi: India is evacuating its citizens through countries neighbouring Ukraine after Kyiv closed down its airspace for civilian aircraft.
  7. Western countries agree to cut off some Russian banks from global interbank payments system: Moscow heavily relies on the system called Swift for trading its resources, especially for the payments for its oil and gas exports.
  8. Second Air India evacuation flight lands in Delhi carrying 250 Indians from Ukraine: The plane took off from the Romanian capital of Bucharest as Kyiv has closed down its airspace for civilian aircraft due to the Russian offensive.
  9. Two killed, five injured after mortar explodes inside home in Manipur: The two had picked up the bomb from near a training centre of the Border Security Force.
  10. BJP chief JP Nadda’s Twitter account hacked, now restored: The tweets, which have now been deleted, had sought donations for Ukraine and Russia in the form of cryptocurrency.