Vladimir Putin claimed on Saturday that western sanctions were akin to a declaration of war, as Russia was blamed for the collapse of a ceasefire designed to allow tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians to escape the besieged cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha.
Moscow and Kyiv traded blame over the failure to provide safe passage to civilians fleeing the two bombarded cities, on the tenth day of the conflict that has fuelled one of Europe’s gravest humanitarian disasters and forced at least 1.3 million people to flee Ukraine.
