Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday have announced a 9 am-9 am ceasefire along several evacuation routes for civilians in besieged or occupied cities, though it is unclear whether Russian forces will respect it.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Russian authorities on Wednesday confirmed the cease-fire along the evacuation corridors to Ukrainian counterparts and the Red Cross. She said the routes lead out of Sumy in the northeast, Mariupol on the Azov Sea coast, Enerhodar in the south, Volnovakha in the southeast, Izyum in the east, and several towns in the Kyiv region. All the corridors lead to sites elsewhere in Ukraine that are currently held by the Ukrainian government.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the international community would be responsible for a mass “humanitarian catastrophe” if it does not agree to a no-fly zone and warned that the country is at maximum threat level

In this edition of Top News Podcast, CNBCTV18.com’s Kanishka Sarkar shares the latest on stock markets, commodities, the pandemic, the ongoing geopolitical tensions, elections and more.

The market extended gains to the second day with financial, IT and oil & gas shares being the biggest contributors to the gains. Sensex ended 1,223.2 points higher at 54,647.3 and the broader Nifty50 benchmark settled at 16,345.4, up 331.9 points.

Shares of InterGlobe Aviation, SpiceJet and Jet Airways surged up to 8 percent in intra-day trade after the government announced the resumption of international flights from March 27.

The geopolitical tension has led to some uncertainty about the launch timeline of the mega LIC IPO as government officials and investment bankers believe March may not be the best time for its launch. Sources claim that the LIC IPO may see the light of day in April.

Meanwhile, the US has banned oil and other energy imports from Russia. The European Union, however, did not join the bandwagon, due to its heavy dependence on Russian oil and gas supplies.

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