China's foreign minister on Monday called Russia his country's "most important strategic partner" as Beijing continues to refuse to condemn the invasion of Ukraine despite growing pressure from the U.S. and European Union to use its influence to rein Moscow in.

Wang Yi said Chinese ties with Moscow constitute "one of the most crucial bilateral relationships in the world."

The U.N. human rights office says it has been able to confirm the deaths of 406 civilians in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion.

It said that another 801 injured civilians had been confirmed as of midnight Sunday. The rights office uses strict methodology and only reports casualties it has confirmed.

FlyDubai on Monday reported a $229 million profit last year as the state-owned budget carrier saw its business rebound from the coronavirus pandemic and as regulators allowed it to again fly the Boeing 737 Max.

FlyDubai nearly doubled its revenue in 2021 to over $1.4 billion, compared to just $773 million the year before in the thick of pandemic restrictions and after two crashes saw the 737 Max grounded. In 2020, the airline saw a loss of $194 million.

Leading Russian banks are looking into issuing cards that operate on a Chinese payment system after Visa and Mastercard said they would cut their services in Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.

Sberbank and Tinkoff Bank said that they are considering the possibility of payment cards powered by China's UnionPay system. Sberbank, Russia's largest bank, said it would announce the launch date later.

Netflix and TikTok have suspended most of their services in Russia as the government cracks down on what people and media outlets can say about Russia's war in Ukraine.

Pulling the plug on online entertainment — and information — is likely to further isolate the country and its people after a growing number of multinational businesses have cut off Russia from vital financial services, technology and a variety of consumer products in response to Western economic sanctions and global outrage over the invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine pleaded with the United Nations' top court Monday to order Russia to halt its devastating invasion, saying Moscow is already committing widespread war crimes and "resorting to tactics reminiscent of medieval siege warfare" in its 12-day-old military onslaught.

Russia snubbed the International Court of Justice hearings and its seats in the Great Hall of Justice remained empty.

With his surprise visit to Moscow on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is assuming the unlikely role of mediator between Russia and Ukraine.

Bennett, who has helmed the country for less than a year and is largely untested on the world stage, positioned Israel in an uncomfortable middle ground between Russia and Ukraine in the lead up to the war, creating a launching pad from which to emerge as a player in diplomatic efforts.

If the Russian war on Ukraine is prolonged, Lebanon could face wheat shortages starting July.

That could create food insecurity and throw more people into poverty in Lebanon, where diets are dominated by government-subsidized bread.

The official global death toll from COVID-19 is on the verge of eclipsing 6 million — underscoring that the pandemic, now entering its third year, is far from over.

The milestone is the latest tragic reminder of the unrelenting nature of the pandemic even as people are shedding masks, travel is resuming and businesses are reopening around the globe. The death toll, compiled by Johns Hopkins University, stood at 5,999,158 as of Monday midday.

Even as Russia announced a ceasefire starting Monday morning and the opening of humanitarian corridors in several areas, its armed forces continued to pummel Ukrainian cities, with multiple rocket launchers hitting residential buildings.

The limited ceasefire announcement came a day after hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians attempting to flee to safety were forced to shelter from Russian shelling of cities in Ukraine's center, north and south. Officials from both sides planned a third round of talks Monday.