Russian foreign ministry said on Saturday that it will take tough measures against London because of its sanctions hysteria, reported RIA news agency.

Ukraine is preparing humanitarian corridors from three more cities - Sumy, Kharkiv and Kherson, apart from Mariupol, Volnovakha, RIA reported, citing Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.

The official also said evacuation is also planned from the suburbs of Kyiv.

The Olympic Cauldron was lit at the National Stadium during the Beijing 2022 opening ceremony on Friday. 

The Olympic flame has arrived inside the National Stadium at the opening ceremony.

A torch relay is underway at the stadium before the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron.

Chinese President Xi Jinping officially declared the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics open at the National Stadium on Friday night.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach on Friday called on governments around the world to honor their commitment to the Olympic Truce and give peace a chance.

Bach made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Cai Qi, president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, is now speaking at the opening ceremony.

Team China, led by flag bearers speed skater Gao Tingyu and skeleton racer Zhao Dan, marched into the National Stadium during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. 

Take a look at the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, held at Beijing's stunning National Stadium (aka the Bird's Nest)! (Photos: Xinhua)

Athletes and officials from participating delegations have started to march into the arena at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

The opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games has started at the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest.

Acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou has returned to direct the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Games.

World leaders attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics take their seats in the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest.

In pics: Audiences get ready for the upcoming Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics opening ceremony. (Photo: Xinhua)

World leaders who will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics are arriving at the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest.

China's Tianwen-1 Mars probe has sent back its very best wishes for the coming Winter Olympic Games.

One recent video shows Tianwen-1 emblazoned with the official Beijing 2022 logo. See if you can spot where it is!

Beijing 2022 fast facts: 

Acclaimed Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, who was the mastermind behind the spectacular opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Games, has come back to direct this year's ceremonies. The 71-year-old has said the cauldron lighting at the opening ceremony will be "unprecedented in the over 100-year history of the Olympic Games."

China is hoping that its athletes would bring home medals in one of the oldest sports in the history of Winter Olympics – curling. Let's take a look at how the sport has evolved and what to expect from the competition at Beijing 2022.

Challengers from China Media Group's Xinjiang bureau took up CGTN's Winter Games Challenge and tried curling with bottles and a container on the frozen surface of Sayram Lake in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Click here for more about the Winter Games Challenge. 

Beijing 2022 fast facts: 

More than 1 million applications for volunteer positions were received. There are 19,000 volunteers serving in Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou competition zones.

Dancers from France and China took up CGTN's dance challenge to embrace the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. CGTN has launched an online challenge inviting people from around the world to embrace the upcoming Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games with dance and music.

Can you see how many winter sports are imitated in this dance? The 2022 Winter Olympics are almost here. Come and feel the appeal of winter sports in this dance! Who's game to try?

Click here for more. 

Beijing 2022 fast facts: 

Natural CO2 refrigeration systems will be used to cool the ice venues, a first in Olympic history.

Sharpen your wits with this quiz about the year's most-sought-after sports event happening in Beijing from February 4 to 20. Questions range from competition venues to playbook rules. Good luck!

Click here for the quiz.

Beijing 2022 fast facts: Beijing 2022 will reuse five venues from the 2008 Summer Games, including the iconic "Bird's Nest" National Stadium, and the Water Cube, which has been transformed into the Ice Cube to host the curling events.

From an impoverished town to a ski "paradise" and one of the venues for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, Chongli District of north China's Zhangjiakou City has made a great leap. It's also a reflection of the booming ice and snow industry in China, with a market potential expected to hit one trillion yuan (about $150 billion) by 2025. How did all these come about? In this episode of Unboxing Beijing 2022, CGTN's Liu Xiaoxian will unbox China's policy "gift box" for its ice and snow industry.

Click here for more about the Unboxing Beijing 2022 series. 

Beijing 2022 fast facts: Beijing 2022 will be the first Olympic Games to power all venues by using renewable energy, with solar and wind as primary energy sources.

Beijing 2022 fast facts:

With women expected to account for 45 percent of all the participating athletes, Beijing 2022 will be the most gender-balanced Winter Olympic Games to date.

Beijing 2022 fast facts:

Seven new events were added to this year's Winter Olympics. They are Women's Monobob in Bobsleigh, Team Relay in Short Track Speed Skating, Mixed Team in Ski Jumping, Men's Big Air, Women's Big Air, Aerials Mixed Team in Freestyle Skiing, and Snowboard Cross Mixed Team in Snowboard.

A hundredth of a second separates the winners and losers in winter sports: every friction-inducing bump or groove on the ice rink matters. 

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics is around the corner, and 15 ice rinks are ready for athletes.

But how do the ice sheets prepared for these competitions endure the friction and pressure of the sports? Let's look closely at the technology beneath these rinks.

A mesh of around 120 kilometers of stainless steel pipelines containing high-pressure carbon dioxide runs under an ice rink, maintaining low temperatures. 

It is the first time in the Winter Olympics that carbon dioxide has replaced conventional refrigerants, known for polluting the atmosphere.
R507 is a widely used refrigerant for preparing ice rinks. Studies show carbon dioxide is around 4,000 times less polluting than R507.

Winter sports stadiums use the principle of ice layering, but the temperature, thickness and smoothness of the ice layers vary depending on the sports event.

For example, figure skating requires a thick but soft ice layer of around five centimeters to help players perform gravity-defying acrobatics.
The sharp metal blade and powerful jumps performed by skaters are forceful enough to damage and collapse the ice sheets, potentially causing severe injuries to athletes. 

So to assist athletes in maintaining balance while negotiating complex moves, the temperature of the surface is controlled at around minus 5 degrees Celsius, which is slightly warmer than other ice sports. The strategy helps to ensure the softness of the ice layer. 

In contrast, short-track speed skating requires a hard ice layer to provide fast and smooth movements to skaters. Thus, it requires a surface temperature of around minus seven to 9 degrees Celsius and a thickness of about 3.5 centimeters. 

And when athletes are crossing the curves, the skate must shave off the snow foam and not throw sharp pieces of ice residue that may hurt the athletes.

Meanwhile, the ice for curling is not as smooth as in other winter games. Instead, as players slide a roughly 20-kilogram stone over a sheet of ice to reach the target, they are actually gliding the stone on little bumps, which elevate the stone, reduce friction and speed up the movement.

The playing surface is created by spraying tiny water droplets on the ice that freeze to become bumps. The science behind ice-making is an embodiment of Beijing's "Green Olympics" idea. The venues are applying greener technologies for sustainable development.

Let's look forward to the wonderful winter games.

Scriptwriters: Hu Xuechen, Pan Zhaoyi

Video editor: Yang Shengji

Animation & graphics:  Zhang Tao, Li Jingjie,

Voiceover & copy editors: Matthew Arrington, Alok Gupta, John Goodrich

Chief editor: Chen Ran

Supervisor: Zhang Shilei

Yan Jiarong is one of the two spokespersons for the Organizing Committee for Beijing 2022. She gave an exclusive interview to CGTN ahead of the Games, in which she said Beijing is holding the Winter Olympics as scheduled because China has confidence in its ability to carry out the event despite COVID-19.