Russia-Ukraine updates: US sanctions Russian military shipbuilder, diamond miner

Germany's economy and climate action minister Robert Habeck says G-7 leaders find Russia's demand for "unfriendly" countries to pay for gas in Russia's currency, rubles, "not acceptable."

"All G-7 ministers agreed completely that this would be a one-sided and clear breach of existing contracts," Habeck said Monday, according to The Associated Press.

"Payment in ruble is not acceptable and we will urge the companies affected not to follow Putin's demand," Habeck said, according to the AP.

Habeck said the leaders of the G-7 nations -- Germany, the U.S., France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada -- discussed the issue on Friday.

Radiation levels remain stable in Russia despite fires in the occupied Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Russian public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said Monday.

Rospotrebnadzor said it was continuing to monitor the situation.

The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is a 1,000-square-mile restricted area of deserted, contaminated land around the shuttered Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986. Russian forces seized the defunct plant and surrounding exclusion zone just hours after launching an invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

The State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management has warned that the radiation hazard is growing due to the blazes in the area, which it said have the potential to spread. The fires observed at more than 30 spots in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone over the past two weeks have exceeded 8,700 hectares in total, according to the agency.

However, Vadym Denysenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, said on Monday that the situation was currently "more or less stable."

Russia is concerned by U.S. President Joe Biden's recent remark seemingly regarding the need for a change of administration in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.

In an address on Saturday from Poland's capital, Warsaw, Biden made a comment that appeared to be directed at Russian President Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine.

"For god's sake, this man cannot remain in power," Biden said.

After the speech, the White House released a statement clarifying that Biden wasn't calling for a regime change.

"The President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change," a White House official said.

When asked by reporters on Monday about Biden's remark, Peskov replied: "Indeed, this statement makes us worry."

"We will continue to closely monitor statements made by the U.S. president," he added. "We are thoroughly recording them and will be continuing to do so."

The cost of direct damage to Ukraine's infrastructure amid Russia's ongoing invasion has already reached almost an estimated $63 billion, according to an analysis by the Kyiv School of Economics.

As of March 24, at least 4,431 residential buildings, 92 factories and warehouses, 378 institutions of secondary and higher education, 138 health care institutions, 12 airports, seven thermal power plants and hydroelectric power plants have been damaged, destroyed or seized in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, according to the Kyiv School of Economics.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's overall economic losses due to the war range from $543 billion to $600 billion, the Kyiv School of Economics said.