Russian energy giant Gazprom said Saturday it had halted gas exports to neighbouring Finland as it had not received payment in rubles. After Russia moved troops into Ukraine on February 24, Moscow asked clients from "unfriendly countries" – including EU member states – to pay for gas in rubles, a way to sidestep Western financial sanctions. Follow FRANCE 24's live blog for all the latest developments. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
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10:07pm: Ukraine rules out ceasefire or concessions to Russia
Ukraine on Saturday ruled out agreeing to a ceasefire with Russia and said Kyiv would not accept any deal with Moscow that involved ceding territory.
Acknowledging that Kyiv's stance on the war was becoming more uncompromising, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said making concessions would backfire on Ukraine because Russia would hit back harder after any break in fighting.
9:45pm: Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked Italian PM to impose more sanctions on Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he talked to Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Saturday and stressed the importance of imposing more sanctions on Russia and unblocking Ukrainian ports.
Zelensky tweeted that he had also thanked Draghi for his "unconditional support" of Ukraine's bid to become a member of the European Union.
9:02pm: Moscow considering swapping Ukrainian prisoners for a close friend of Vladimir Putin
Moscow is considering exchanging captured Ukranian Azov fighters for Viktor Medvedchuk, a close friend of Vladimir Putin, a Russian negotiator said on Saturday.
"We are going to study the possibility," said Leonid Slutsky, a senior member of Russia's negotiating team on Ukraine, speaking from the separatist city of Donetsk in southeastern Ukraine, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Medvedchuk, 67, is a Ukrainian politician and wealthy businessman reputedly close to the Russian president. He escaped from house arrest after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February but was re-arrested in mid-April.
4:34pm: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says there is 'no alternative' to Ukraine's EU bid
Any alternative to Ukraine's bid to join the European Union would be a "compromise" with Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday in reponse to the “European political community project” proposed by his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.
"We don't need alternatives to Ukraine's application to the European Union (EU), we don't need such compromises," Zelensky said during a press conference in Kyiv with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa.
"Because, believe us, it will not be compromises with Ukraine in Europe, it will be another compromise between Europe and Russia. I am absolutely sure of that. It is the political and diplomatic influence and pressure of Russian officials and lobbyists on a European country's decision to support Ukraine or not," he continued.
2:00pm: Russia declares travel ban on 963 Americans – including Morgan Freeman
Russia said on Saturday it was banning entry to 963 Americans including US President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and CIA chief William Burns.
The travel bans have only symbolic impact but form part of a constant downward spiral in Russia's relations with the United States and its allies.
Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg and Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman were among those banned from entering the country.
Moscow had already announced sanctions targeting many of those on the new list – in particular Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the head of the Pentagon Lloyd Austin and Zuckerberg – but Freeman had not previously been named by Russian authorities.
Moscow accuses the actor of having recorded a video in 2017 in which he claimed Russia was plotting against the US.
"The Russian counter-sanctions are necessary and aim to constrain the US which is trying to impose a neocolonial 'world order' on the rest of the planet ... to change its position and recognise new geopolitical realities," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Another 26 Canadians were also added to the list of those barred from travelling to Russia, including defence chiefs, defence industry executives and Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's wife.
1:56pm: 'Putin destroyed everything,' says Odesa mayor
Once derided as a Kremlin sympathiser, Odesa's Mayor Gennady Trukhanov likes to collect his thoughts before delving into his feelings about Russia and President Vladimir Putin.
"The Russians are on our soil today and they are bombing our cities, killing our people and our soldiers. Our people are dying," the mayor of the southern Ukrainian port city told AFP.
"It is hard for me to speak of any kind of future friendship or relationship. I can't imagine that," the mayor added, his steel-blue eyes flashing as he rails against Russian air strikes, the Black Sea blockade and the millions of tonnes of grain trapped in his ports.
"Putin destroyed everything," he fumed.
With Russian troops just 120 miles away, Trukhanov oversees the defence of the country's most valuable port amid a suffocating Russian naval blockade that has unleashed economic catastrophe in Ukraine and threatens famine elsewhere if Odesa's bountiful stocks of grain remain landlocked.
"They are not only destroying our cities and killing our residents, they are also triggering an economic collapse," the mayor said.
1:20pm: Biden signs $40 billion aid bill for Ukraine's war effort, says White House
US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed a $40 billion bill set to ensure a steady supply of weaponry and economic support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, the White House said.
Biden signed the bill passed earlier by Congress while visiting Seoul on his first trip to Asia as president. The bill, which will funnel support to Ukraine for about the next five months, includes around $6 billion budgeted for armoured vehicles and air defences.
11:20am: Britain wants to arm Moldova to protect it from Russian threat, reports UK's The Telegraph
Britain wants to send modern weaponry to Moldova to protect it from the threat of invasion by Russia, The Telegraph reported, citing Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.
She told the newspaper that Russian President Vladimir Putin was determined to create a "greater Russia" even though his invasion of Ukraine had failed to achieve quick success.
Truss said talks were taking place to make sure that Moldova's defences could deter any future attack.
"I would want to see Moldova equipped to NATO standard. This is a discussion we're having with our allies," she told The Telegraph.
"Putin has been absolutely clear about his ambitions to create a greater Russia. And just because his attempts to take Kyiv weren't successful doesn't mean he's abandoned those ambitions," she said.
If Truss's plans are adopted, NATO members would provide modern weaponry to Moldova, replacing its Soviet-era equipment, and will train soldiers on how to use it.
11:09am: Russia claims to have destroyed Western weapons sent to Ukraine
Moscow's forces destroyed a large shipment of Western-supplied weapons in northwestern Ukraine with long-range missiles, the Russian defence ministry said Saturday.
"High-precision long-range sea-based Kalibr missiles destroyed a large batch of weapons and military equipment near the Malin railway station in Zhytomyr region delivered from the United States and European countries," it said.
The ministry said the weapons were intended for Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbas region, a Russian-speaking area that has been partially controlled by pro-Moscow separatists since 2014 and is now the scene of some of the fiercest fighting in Ukraine.
10:55am: In Kyiv, 'people are just trying to have a normal life'
In Ukraine's capital city, nearly eighty days after the start of the Russian military invasion, people continue to display resilience with a "business as usual" approach as Kyiv begins to show more signs of life. FRANCE 24's senior reporter Cyril Payen reports.
10:06am: Zelensky says only 'diplomacy' can end Ukraine war
The Ukraine war can only be resolved through "diplomacy", Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday amid a deadlock in negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow.
"The end will be through diplomacy," he told a Ukrainian television channel. The war "will be bloody, there will be fighting but will only definitively end through diplomacy".
7:20am: Russia halts gas supplies to Finland
Russia on Saturday halted providing natural gas to neighbouring Finland, which has angered Moscow by applying for NATO membership, after the Nordic country refused to pay supplier Gazprom in rubles.
Natural gas accounts for about eight percent of Finland's energy consumption and most of it comes from Russia.
Follwing Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has asked clients from "unfriendly countries" – including EU member states – pay for gas in rubles, a way to sidestep Western financial sanctions against its central bank.
Finnish state-owned energy company Gasum said it would make up for the shortfall from other sources through the Balticconnector pipeline, which connects Finland to Estonia, and assured that filling stations would run normally.
"Natural gas supplies to Finland under Gasum's supply contract have been cut off," the company said in a statement.
Gasum said Friday that it had been informed by Gazprom Export, the exporting arm of Russian gas giant Gazprom, that the supply would stop on Saturday morning.
11:00pm: Ukraine orders end to defence of Mariupol
Ukraine on Friday ordered its last troops holed up in Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks to lay down their arms, while Russia said its months-long operation to capture the strategic port city is now complete.
Ukraine's Azov regiment commander Denys Prokopenko had earlier said only the dead remained.
"The higher military command has given the order to save the lives of the soldiers of our garrison and to stop defending the city," he said in a video on Telegram.
"I now hope that soon, the families and all of Ukraine will be able to bury their fighters with honours."
Ukraine wants to exchange the surrendering Azovstal soldiers for Russian prisoners. But in Donetsk, the pro-Kremlin authorities are in turn threatening to put some of them on trial.
The International Committee of the Red Cross urged both sides to grant it access to prisoners of war and civilian internees, "wherever they are held".
"Many more families need answers," it said in a statement.
10:00pm: Wimbledon stripped of ranking points by ATP, WTA over Russia, Belarus ban
Wimbledon had its ranking points stripped by the ATP and WTA Tours on Friday over its decision to exclude players from Russia and Belarus at this year's championships due to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Tennis's governing bodies have banned Russia and Belarus from international team competitions following the invasion, which Moscow calls a "special operation", but allowed players from the two countries to continue competing as neutrals.
The move by the men's and women's tours to strip Wimbledon of its ranking points will effectively reduce the world's most famous tennis tournament to an exhibition event.
"The ability for players of any nationality to enter tournaments based on merit, and without discrimination, is fundamental to our Tour," the ATP said in a statement.
"The decision by Wimbledon to ban Russian and Belarusian players from competing in the UK this summer undermines this principle and the integrity of the ATP Ranking system. It is also inconsistent with our Rankings agreement.
8:34pm: Russia claims full control of Mariupol
Russia’s defence chief says the country’s forces have taken full control of the massive steel plant in Mariupol that was the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in the city.
That would mark the end of a nearly three-month siege that reduced much of Ukraine's vital Black Sea port of Mariupol to ruins and left over 20,000 people there feared dead.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday that the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol has been “completely liberated” from Ukrainian fighters.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)
