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Summary
Here is a comprehensive rundown on where the crisis currently stands:
- Western nations will warn the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Thursday that his country will pay “ruinous” costs for invading Ukraine during an unprecedented one-day trio of Nato, G7 and EU summits that will be attended by the US president, Joe Biden, in Brussels.
- Zelenskiy said he hoped for “meaningful steps” at the round of summits, noting they would reveal “who is a friend, who is a partner, and who betrayed us for money”.
- The Ukrainian president also called for a global rally to protest Russia’s war on Ukraine, urging citizens of the world to publicly stand against the war.
- Russian forces have been accused of taking hostage the people of the besieged Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, as local officials imposed drinking water rationing on trapped civilians. About 150,000 people are stuck in the northern city with little hope of aid after Russia cut them off from the capital, Kyiv, when a key bridge was bombed on Wednesday.
- Ukraine is increasing pressure on Russian forces north-east of Kyiv while carrying out successful counterattacks against Russian positions in towns on the outskirts of the capital, the UK defence ministry has said.
- Nato announced it will double its troops along the alliance’s eastern flank. “The first step is the deployment of four new Nato battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, along with our existing forces in the Baltic countries and Poland,” said the alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg.
- Nato countries are also expected to agree at Thursday’s meeting to provide special kit to help protect Ukraine against chemical, biological or nuclear attacks launched by Russia.
- The White House has quietly assembled a team of national security officials to sketch out scenarios of how the United States and its allies should respond if Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashes his stockpiles of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, the New York Times reports.
- Britain will provide 6,000 defensive missiles and extra funds to support the Ukrainian military, as well as BBC journalists providing news coverage in the region.
- The US government has said it believes war crimes have been committed in Ukraine based on its assessment of evidence that civilians have been deliberately targeted.
- Between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the war, Nato estimates. By way of comparison, Russia lost about 15,000 troops over 10 years in Afghanistan, the Associated Press has reported.
- Ukraine is using facial recognition software to identify the bodies of Russian soldiers killed in combat and to trace their families to inform them of their deaths, Ukraine’s vice prime minister said.
- The Russian climate envoy Anatoly Chubais has stepped down and left the country in protest against Putin’s war in Ukraine. He is the highest-level official to break with the Kremlin over the invasion.
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Israel has blocked Ukraine from buying Pegasus spyware, fearing Russia’s anger. The revelation, after a joint investigation by the Guardian and Washington Post, offers new insight into the way Israel’s relationship with Russia has at times undermined Ukraine’s offensive capabilities – and contradicted US priorities.
- Putin has said Russia plans to demand payment in roubles for its gas sales to “unfriendly” countries. The announcement sent European futures soaring over concerns the switch would exacerbate a looming energy crisis by jamming up deals that run to hundreds of millions of dollars every day.
- The risk of coup by Russia’s federal security service (FSB) against President Putin is growing every week that the war in Ukraine continues, a whistleblower at the heart of Russian intelligence has said, according to a report from The Times.
As usual, for any tips and feedback please contact me through Twitter or at samantha.lock@theguardian.com
The Guardian keeps you up to the minute on the crisis in Ukraine with a global perspective and from our team around the world and around the clock. Thank you for reading and please do stay tuned.
Russia’s failure to score a quick victory has led to a grimmer phase of the war, and much still hangs in the balance.
The Guardian’s Shaun Walker writes how the tragedy has unfolded in Ukraine, one month on.
The United States Embassy in Moscow on Wednesday received a list of its diplomats that were declared “persona non grata”, a state department spokesperson said, in what Russian media said was a response to a US move ousting Russian staff at the United Nations.
Washington last month said it was expelling the Russian diplomats at the country’s UN mission in New York over national security concerns, and later announced it would oust an additional Russian at the UN who it claimed was a spy.
Russia, which denies the allegations, told the United States on Wednesday it would throw out an unspecified number of American diplomats in response to the moves, Interfax news agency said.
“The American side was told very firmly that any hostile U.S. actions against Russia would provoke a decisive and comparable response,” the agency said.
It is not clear how many US diplomats will be affected by the order, and when they will be expelled from Russia.
For weeks the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol has been under constant bombardment from Russian artillery. With the city in ruins, residents who risked everything to escape can now tell their stories.
As Isobel Koshiw tells Hannah Moore, the story of Mariupol in the past month has been one of siege, bombardment and almost unimaginable hardship. Residents tell of having to drink water from their radiators and cook over fires in the street, as electricity, gas and water supplies have all been cut off. And with the internet and phone lines down, the city has become not only unreachable but also uncontactable, for the most part.
Listen to the Guardian’s latest Today in Focus episode below.
We have reported on what Putin’s rouble gambit might mean for Europe and gas - and the Japanese government has also weighed in, saying that it did not understand how the change would work in practice.
“Currently, we’re looking into the situation with relevant ministries as we don’t quite understand what is (Russia’s) intention and how they would do this,” finance minister Shunichi Suzuki said in a parliament session.
Japan takes 9% of its liquified natural gas from Russia and 4% of its crude oil.
Suzuki said the government will closely monitor the “side effects” of its Russia-oriented sanctions on the Japanese economy and financial markets and take appropriate steps in coordination with the Group of Seven and the international community.
Meanwhile, Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, rose 45c, or 0.4%, to $122.05 a barrel on Thursday morning. US West Texas Intermediate futures were up about 15 cents, or 0.2%, at $115.07 a barrel.
The British gas benchmark for day-ahead delivery jumped by 11.8% to close at 246.00 pence per therm on Wednesday.
Repeated attempts by the United States’ top defence and military leaders to speak with their Russian counterparts have been rejected by Moscow, leaving officials in the dark about explanations for military movements and raising fears of a major miscalculation or battlefield accident, the Washington Post reports.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, defense secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, have tried to set up phone calls with Russia’s defense minister Sergei Shoigu and Gen. Valery Gerasimov but the Russians “have so far declined to engage,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement Wednesday.
James Stavridis, who served as the supreme allied commander at Nato from 2009 to 2013, said:
There is a high risk of escalation without the firebreak of direct contact between the most senior officials.
Very young people are flying in jets, operating warships, and conducting combat operations in the Ukrainian war. They are not seasoned diplomats, and their actions in the heat of operations can be misunderstood.
We must avoid a scenario of Nato and Russia sleepwalking into war because senior leaders can’t pick up a phone and explain to each other what is happening.”
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier called for the world to show solidarity with Ukraine by marking one month since Russia’s invasion began by gathering in their city centres and making themselves heard.
“Come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life.”
Speaking in English, Zelenskiy also said that he would be watching to see which nations “sell out” on the issues of bolstering sanctions and energy. “Life can be protected only in unity. Freedom must be armed,” he said.
Watch the video of Zelenskiy’s remarks below.
Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN has said Russia retains the right to use nuclear weapons if the country is “provoked” by Nato.
In an interview with Sky News, Dmitry Polyanskiy was asked if Putin was right to hold the prospect of nuclear war over the rest of the world. He replied:
If Russia is provoked by Nato, if Russia is attacked by Nato, I don’t know ... we are a nuclear power, why not?
When pressed if his remarks were a “legitimate thing to be saying” Polyanskiy responded:
I don’t think it’s the right thing to be saying. But it’s not the right thing to threaten Russia, and to try to interfere. So when you’re dealing with a nuclear power, of course, you have to calculate all the possible outcomes of your behaviour.”
White House 'Tiger Team' strategises nuclear scenarios and attacks on Nato territory
The White House has quietly assembled a team of national security officials to sketch out scenarios of how the United States and its allies should respond if Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashes his stockpiles of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, the New York Times is reporting.
The group, known as the Tiger Team, is also examining responses if Putin reaches into Nato territory to attack convoys bringing weapons and aid to Ukraine, according to several officials involved in the process.
The team is also looking at responses if Russia seeks to extend the war to neighbouring nations, including Moldova and Georgia, and how to prepare European countries for the refugees flowing in on a scale not seen in decades, the Times reports.
These plans are expected to be discussed in Brussels on Thursday, when US President Biden meets leaders of the 29 other Nato nations.
As Biden flew to Europe on Wednesday, both he and Stoltenberg warned of growing evidence that Russia was in fact preparing to use chemical weapons in Ukraine.
One major issue the Tiger Team is reportedly looking at is the threshold that could prompt the alliance to use military force in Ukraine. Biden has made clear that he is reluctant to to do so, fearing that direct confrontation with Russia could escalate the conflict beyond control. “That’s World War Three,” he said recently.
Updated
The rouble has recovered more ground against the US dollar on Thursday in the wake of Vladiumir Putin’s decision to make “unfriendly countries” pay for Russian gas in the country’s currency.
It rose 1.5% to 96.7 to the dollar in early trade on Thursday after closing up 6% at 97.7375 per dollar on Wednesday.
The value of the rouble plummeted to as lows as 154 to the dollar in the first couple of weeks of the war after the US and its allies imposed sanctions on Russia and banned its central bank for intervening to prop up the currency.
Putin’s move is clearly intended to ensure that the rouble rises again as other countries use their currencies to buy roubles to pay for the natural gas. (Nearly all Russian gas purchases are made in euros and dollars by the way.) They may also have to ignore their own sanctions and sell things to Russia in order to earn roubles.
However, analysts painted some different scenarios for what might happen, including noting that the Russian gambit might just incentivise European countries to cut the umbilical cord of gas supplies more wquickly than they had already planned.
Rystad Energy’s senior analyst Vinicius Romano said:
Gas supply agreements are generally considered sacrosanct: and in an extreme scenario, insisting on rouble payments may give buyers cause to re-open other aspects of their contracts – such as the duration - and simply speed up their exit from Russian gas altogether.
At face value this appears to be an attempt to prop up the Ruble by compelling gas buyers to buy the previously free-falling currency in order to pay.
What is clear however, is that this has added another element of uncertainty to the already chaotic European gas market by complicating gas purchases that many countries have been reluctant to cut.
It may also accelerate attempts by the EU to strike a deal with the US to supply more liquefied natural gas when leaders meet in Brussels today. US president Joe Biden may announce more details on this on Friday. Russia supplies 40% of the EU’s collective gas needs, 27% of its oil imports and 46% of coal imports.
The list of countries that will need Russian Rouble the most to pay their gas bills: pic.twitter.com/l9M04ybUP9
— V (@v3nd37a) March 23, 2022
Risk of coup against Putin 'growing every week', whistleblower says
The risk of coup by Russia’s federal security service (FSB) against President Putin is growing every week that the war in Ukraine continues, a whistleblower at the heart of Russian intelligence has said.
The whistleblower claims that chaos and discontent have engulfed the security services after Russia’s botched invasion of Ukraine.
Letters written by an anonymous Russian intelligence analyst to Vladimir Osechkin, an exiled Russian activist and founder of the human rights group Gulagu.net, have since been published online.
Osechkin told The Times that the risk taken by intelligence agents in speaking out was a sign of their growing anger towards Putin and discontent from the effect that sanctions have had on FSB officers who will no longer be able to “go on holidays to their villas in Italy and take their kids to Disneyland Paris”.
Speaking from his home in France, where he has lived in exile since 2015, Osechkin told the newspaper:
For 20 years Putin created stability in Russia. FSB officers, policemen, state prosecutors — those people inside the system — were able to live good lives.
But now that has all gone. They recognise that this war is a catastrophe for the economy, for humanity. They don’t want to go back to the Soviet Union.
For every week and every month that this war continues, the possibility of a rebellion by those in the security services increases.”
Updated
Russia’s communications regulator has blocked the news aggregator service of Alphabet Inc’s Google, accusing it of allowing access to what it calls fake material about the country’s military operation in Ukraine, Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday.
Google said in statement:
We’ve confirmed that some people are having difficulty accessing the Google News app and website in Russia and that this is not due to any technical issues on our end.
We’ve worked hard to keep information services like News accessible to people in Russia for as long as possible.”
Interfax said Roskomnadzor, the regulator, had acted on a request from the office of Russia’s prosecutor general.
“The American online news resource in question provided access to numerous publications and materials containing inauthentic and publicly important information about the course of the special military operation on the territory of Ukraine,” Interfax quoted the regulator as saying.
Zelenskiy calls for global rally
Ukraine’s president has called for a global rally to protest Russia’s war on Ukraine, urging citizens of the world to publicly stand against the war.
I ask you to stand against the war! Starting from March 24 – exactly one month after the Russian invasion… From this day and after then.
Show your standing! Come from your offices, your homes, your schools and universities. Come in the name of peace. Come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life.
Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard. Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters.
From March 24.
In downtowns of your cities.
All as one together who want to stop the war.”
Ukraine is using facial recognition software to identify the bodies of Russian soldiers killed in combat and to trace their families to inform them of their deaths, Ukraine’s vice prime minister told Reuters.
Ukraine’s ministry of defence this month began using technology from Clearview AI, a US facial recognition provider that finds images on the web that match faces from uploaded photos.
Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice prime minister who also runs the ministry of digital transformation, told Reuters Ukraine had been using Clearview AI software to find the social media accounts of dead Russian soldiers.
From there, authorities are messaging relatives to make arrangements to collect the body, he said. Fedorov tweeted late on Wednesday:
A month ago, we all worked on FaceID and CRM systems to process calls for eServices. Now, we work on automatic identification of occupiers’ corpses and autodial RU subscribers to tell the truth about the war.”
“As a courtesy to the mothers of those soldiers, we are disseminating this information over social media to at least let families know that they they’ve lost their sons and to then enable them to come to collect their bodies,” Fedorov added in an interview.
A month ago, we all worked on FaceID and CRM systems to process calls for eServices. Now, we work on automatic identification of occupiers' corpses and autodial RU subscribers to tell the truth about the war. We have all changed. And we all do different things. Glory to Ukraine!
— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) March 23, 2022
Fedorov declined to specify the number of bodies identified through facial recognition but he said the percentage of recognised individuals claimed by families has been “high.”
Opponents of facial recognition, including civil rights groups, have decried Ukraine’s adoption of Clearview, citing the possibility of misidentification. Fedorov said Ukraine was not using the technology to identify its own troops killed in battle. He did not specify why.
Ukraine’s ministry of internal affairs has been overseeing the country’s Look For Your Own project, a Telegram channel where it posts images of unidentified captured or killed Russian soldiers and invites claims from relatives.
The Ukrainian government has an online form where Russian relatives can submit a claim to collect a body.
Julian Borger, the Guardian’s world affairs editor, provides some more detail surrounding the formal accusation from the US that Russian forces are committing war crimes in Ukraine.
The US has formally accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in Ukraine and said it would pursue accountability “using every tool available”.
The announcement came as Joe Biden left for a trip to Europe to bolster western unity in the face of an increasingly brutal invasion. The secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said that the US had come to its conclusion using both public and intelligence sources.
“Today, I can announce that, based on information currently available, the US government assesses that members of Russia’s forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine,” Blinken said.
“As with any alleged crime, a court of law with jurisdiction over the crime is ultimately responsible for determining criminal guilt in specific cases,” he added, saying the US would continue its efforts to gather evidence and share it with international institutions.
“We are committed to pursuing accountability using every tool available, including criminal prosecutions,” Blinken said.
UK doubles number of missiles sent to Ukraine ahead of Nato summit
Jessica Elgot, the UK’s chief political correspondent, brings us more detail on Boris Johnson’s announcement Britain will provide of 6,000 weapons and £25m for Ukraine’s military.
The UK will double the number of missiles it sends to Ukraine and urge western allies to step up provisions of lethal aid to the country, as the Russian invasion turns into a prolonged war of attrition.
Boris Johnson will tell world leaders at the Nato summit on Thursday that the conflict is entering a new phase of aggression and humanitarian catastrophe with the siege of Mariupol and the indiscriminate attacks on civilians.
Western officials have said that both the Ukrainians and the Russians are running short of weapons as the conflict grinds on due to Ukrainian defence that was far better than expected – and that they had anticipated they would be supporting a smaller Ukrainian insurgency by this stage.
Ahead of the summit, Johnson said the UK would provide 6,000 new defensive missiles, including high-explosive weapons, and £25m from Foreign Office funds to help Ukraine pay its military and police forces. Not all of the missiles are expected to be next-generation light anti-tank weapons (NLAWs) – of which the UK has already provided more than 4,200.
The additional weaponry means that the UK has now provided more than 10,000 missiles. It will be supplying Starstreak high-velocity anti-air missiles to help Ukrainians defend themselves against aerial bombings, as well as body armour, helmets and combat boots.
A group of 54 Ukrainian orphans fleeing the horrors of Vladimir Putin’s bloody war arrived safely at Heathrow airport on Wednesday night.
None of the children, from orphanages in Dnipro, central Ukraine, had been on a plane before. Aged between two and 18, they ran up and down the aisles, watched TV shows and played with Disney stuffed toys as they escaped the escalating Russian violence.
Accompanied by five carers and a translator, the group were due to arrive from Poland on Monday but were held up by 48 hours due to a delay in providing crucial paperwork.
Read the full story from Guardian reporter, Tom Ambrose, below.
More images of the destruction of Ukraine’s cities has emerged.
Abandoned tanks lie next to bombed apartment complexes while once-bustling city streets are seen reduced to rubble.
Ukraine counter attacks disrupt Russia's offensive towards Kyiv: UK defence
Meanwhile, the UK’s ministry of defence has released its latest intelligence update, suggesting Ukraine is increasing pressure on Russian forces north-east of Kyiv while carrying out successful counter attacks against Russian positions in towns on the outskirts of the capital.
Russian forces along this axis are already facing considerable supply and morale issues.
Ukrainian forces are carrying out successful counter attacks against Russian positions in towns on the outskirts of the capital, and have probably retaken Makariv and Moschun.
There is a realistic possibility that Ukrainian forces are now able to encircle Russian units in Bucha and Irpin.
It is likely that successful counter attacks by Ukraine will disrupt the ability of Russian forces to reorganise and resume their own offensive towards Kyiv.”
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 23 March 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 23, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/FPfp8ZAOdc
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/qUBKoclPnD
Zelenskiy expects ‘meaningful steps’ at Nato, EU and G7 summits
Referencing the Nato, EU and G7 summits that will take place in Brussels on Thursday, Zelenskiy urged for “meaningful steps” while noting the talks will reveal “who is a friend, who is a partner, and who betrayed us for money.”
Politicians must also support freedom. All of them. They must support the struggle for life.
We are waiting for meaningful steps. From Nato, the EU and the G7.
We know that the Russians have already begun to lobby their interests. These are the interests of war. We know that they are working with some partners. We know that they want to put this issue out. The struggle against war. But this is the war that needs to be put out.
Our firm position will be represented at these three summits. At these three summits we will see: Who is a friend, who is a partner, and who betrayed us for money.”
Zelenskiy continued to say Ukrainian sky has not been made safe from Russian missiles and bombs, urging for more support in weapons.
We have not received aircraft and modern anti-missile weapons. We have not received tanks, anti-ship equipment. Russian forces can keep killing thousands of our citizens, destroying our cities. Just because there are too many invaders. Just because Russia has been preparing for such a war for decades.
We asked to close our sky. And we asked for assistance from Nato to be effective and without limits. Any support in weapons that we need. We asked the Alliance to say it will fully help Ukraine win this war, clear our territories of the invaders and restore peace in Ukraine.”
Updated
Zelenskiy addressed the citizens of Russia separately.
I am sure that there are many of you who are disgusted by the policy of your state. Who are already just sick of what you see on TV. Of the lies of your propagandists on the Internet. Propagandists who are paid by your taxes. And they lie about the war, which is paid for by your taxes. And which makes all the citizens of Russia poorer. Poorer every day.
Isn’t that stupid? Your state collects taxes from you to make you poorer. To isolate you from the world. To make it easier for them to control you. And easier to send you to the war to die.
The president continued to assert that Ukraine “has never threatened the security of Russia”.
We are doing everything to end this war. And when we succeed - it will certainly happen - you will be sure of at least one thing: your children will no longer be sent to die on our land, on our territory.
Therefore, you, the citizens of Russia, are also interested in peace. Save your sons from the war. Tell the truth about the war. And if you can leave Russia so as not to give your taxes to the war, do it.”
Zelenskiy has drawn on the wider existential implications of Russia’s war.
The war of Russia is not only the war against Ukraine. Its meaning is much wider.
Russia started the war against freedom as it is.
Zelenskiy continued to state that it is “only the beginning for Russia” by invading Ukrainian land.
Russia is trying to defeat the freedom of all people in Europe. Of all the people in the world. It tries to show that only crude and cruel force matters.
It tries to show that people do not matter, as well as everything else that makes us people.
That’s the reason we all must stop Russia. The world must stop the war.”
The Ukrainian leader added: “This is a war for independence. And we must win.”
Hello it’s Samantha Lock with you as we continue to provide today’s rolling coverage of the crisis unfolding in Ukraine.
In what has become a nightly routine, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has once again given a moving national address.
Noting the significance of 24 March as marking one month since Russia launched its war against Ukraine, he said:
It’s already a month of our defence against the attempt to destroy us. Wipe off the face of the earth.
The original plan of the Russian troops failed already in the first days of the invasion. They thought Ukrainians would be frightened. They thought Ukrainians would not fight. They were wrong.
They know nothing about us, about Ukrainians. They know nothing at all about freedom. About how valuable it is. They do not know how freedom enriches life. Gives meaning to life.”
Catch up
- The US government announced that it believes that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine based on its assessment of evidence that civilians have been deliberately targeted. The US also said it would announce a package of Russia-related sanctions against political figures and oligarchs on Thursday while US president Joe Biden meets with Nato leaders on Ukraine.
- Nato announced it will double its troops along the alliance’s eastern flank. “The first step is the deployment of four new NATO battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, along with our existing forces in the Baltic countries and Poland,” said the alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg.
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Russian climate envoy Anatoly Chubais has stepped down and left the country in protest against president Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. He is the highest-level official to break with the Kremlin over the invasion.
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Ludmila Denisova, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, claimed that the population in the city of Chernihiv, just north of Kyiv, had effectively been turned into hostages by Russian forces who have cut off the main routes for humanitarian aid. Officials in Chernihiv said they were now running out of drinkable water.
- The Pentagon, in a briefing with reporters, said Russian troops are adopting defensive positions north of Kyiv, rather than advancing, while Russian efforts elsewhere have stalled. Ukraine’s counter-offensive near Kyiv has pushed Russian forces further from the capital, having been driven back about 15 miles.
- Vladimir Putin said Russia planned to switch payments for its gas sales to “unfriendly” countries to roubles, in a move which has alarmed international markets. The announcement sent European futures Soarin over concerns the switch would exacerbate a looming energy crisis by jamming up deals that run to hundreds of millions of dollars every day.
– Guardian staff
Updated
“We all must stop Russia. The world must stop the war,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his latest address, posted on Telegram.
“The acts of terror against peaceful people go on. One month already. That long. It breaks my heart, hearts of all Ukrainians and every free person on the planet. That’s why I ask you to stand against the war,” he said.
Britain is providing Ukraine with 6,000 new defensive missiles and extra funds to support the Ukrainian military and BBC journalists providing news coverage in the region.
Reuters reports:
British prime minister Boris Johnson will announce the new package of support on Thursday at the Nato and G7 leaders’ meetings while also signalling a willingness to bolster Ukraine’s defence capabilities further, his office said on Wednesday.
“The United Kingdom will work with our allies to step up military and economic support to Ukraine, strengthening their defences as they turn the tide in this fight,” Johnson said.
“One month into this crisis, the international community faces a choice. We can keep the flame of freedom alive in Ukraine, or risk it being snuffed out across Europe and the world.”
As part of the package, the UK will provide 6,000 missiles and £25m in financial backing for the Ukrainian military. It will also provide £4.1m for the BBC World Service to help support its Ukrainian- and Russian-language services, and tackle disinformation.
Britain said with the new commitment it will have provided up to 10,000 missiles and that the additional funds come on top of £400m committed in humanitarian and economic aid.
Thursday’s Nato summit in Brussels is expected to unlock additional aid for Kyiv including equipment to help Ukraine protect against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.
Updated
A US state department spokesperson has confirmed that the US embassy has received a list of diplomats from Russia who are considered “persona non grata” by the Russian foreign ministry.
The spokesperson characterized the move as unhelpful and counterproductive, emphasizing the need to keep diplomatic communication open.
The move is a reaction to the US’s expulsion of 12 Russian diplomats at the UN. The US characterized those diplomats as “intelligence operatives” who were “engaging in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security”.
Updated
Russia death toll could be 15,000 – Nato
Nato estimates that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the war.
The AP reports:
By way of comparison, Russia lost about 15,000 troops over 10 years in Afghanistan.
A senior Nato military official said the alliance’s estimate was based on information from Ukrainian authorities, what Russia has released intentionally or not and intelligence gathered from open sources. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by Nato.
Ukraine has released little information about its own military losses, and the west has not given an estimate, but Volodymr Zelenskiy said nearly two weeks ago that about 1,300 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed.
When Russia unleashed its invasion Feb. 24 in Europe’s biggest offensive since World War II, a swift toppling of Ukraine’s government seemed likely. But with Wednesday marking four full weeks of fighting, Moscow is bogged down in a grinding military campaign.
With its ground forces slowed or stopped by hit-and-run Ukrainian units armed with western-supplied weapons, Russian president Vladimir Putin’s troops are bombarding targets from afar, falling back on the tactics they used in reducing cities to rubble in Syria and Chechnya.
Updated
A Russian call for aid in Ukraine – one that doesn’t at all mention Russia’s role in creating a humanitarian crisis there – was voted down by the UN security council.
Reuters reports:
Only Russia and China voted yes, and the remaining 13 members of the security council abstained from voting on the Russia-drafted proposal.
“If Russia cared about the humanitarian situation, it would stop bombing children and end their siege tactics. But they haven’t,” Britain’s UN ambassador, Barbara Woodward, told the council after the vote. Russia denies attacking civilians.
A security council resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, Britain, France or the United States to be adopted.
Moscow had scrapped a planned security council vote last Friday after accusing western countries of an “unprecedented pressure” campaign against the measure. The United States rejected Russia’s allegation.
Russia proposed the text after France and Mexico withdrew their own push for a security council resolution on Ukraine’s humanitarian situation because they said it would have been vetoed by Moscow. That draft would have criticized Russia for its role in creating the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.
Ukraine and its allies are instead planning to put a similar draft resolution to a vote this week in the 193-member general assembly where no country wields a veto. General assembly resolutions are nonbinding, but they carry political weight.
“In one month Russia caused one of the fastest growing humanitarian catastrophes in the world,” the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the general assembly earlier on Wednesday.
A diplomatic tit-for-tat has been escalating at the world body since Russia launched what it calls a “special military operation” on Feb. 24 that is says aims to destroy Ukraine’s military infrastructure. UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres on Tuesday blasted Russia’s “absurd war”.
Updated
Officials in Chernihiv said they were now running out of drinkable water, in a grim forewarning of a humanitarian disaster to match that of the flattened port of Mariupol, in the south-east of the country, from where 100,000 people are struggling to flee.
“The number of tanks for drinking water is limited,” Chernihiv officials said in a warning to civilians on Wednesday. “Due to this, in order to protect the population of the city, starting from [Thursday] restrictions are imposed on the distribution of drinking water. Water will be poured in the amount of 10 litres per person.”
Lyudmila Denisova, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, claimed that the population was being held hostage, with the Ukrainian government fearful that the Kremlin is seeking to push its “maximalist” demands in the current peace negotiations with Kyiv by ratcheting up the targeting of civilians.
Denisova said: “Today Chernihiv remains completely cut off from the capital. The occupiers bombed the bridge across the River Desna, through which we transported humanitarian aid to the city and evacuated civilians.
“The city has no electricity, water, heat and almost no gas, infrastructure is destroyed. According to local residents, the occupiers are compiling lists of civilians for the ‘evacuation’ to Lgov [in the Kursk region of Russia]. The racists, cutting off Chernihiv from the capital, turned its inhabitants into hostages.”
Read more:
Satellite images show the extent of the damage that Russian forces have caused in Mariupol.
The images show fires burning in residential neighborhoods and burned-up apartment buildings. An estimated 300,000 people in the city are without food and water.
Exclusive: Israel blocked Ukraine from buying Pegasus spyware, fearing Russia’s anger
Israel blocked Ukraine from buying NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware for fear that Russian officials would be angered by the sale of the sophisticated hacking tool to a regional foe, according to people familiar with the matter.
The revelation, following a joint investigation by the Guardian and Washington Post, offers new insight into the way Israel’s relationship with Russia has at times undermined Ukraine’s offensive capabilities – and contradicted US priorities.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has been critical of Israel’s stance since Russia launched its full and bloody invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, saying in a recent address before members of Israel’s Knesset that Israel would have to “give answers” on why it had not given weapons to Ukraine or applied sanctions on Russians.
People with direct knowledge of the matter say that, dating back to at least 2019, Ukrainian officials lobbied Israel to try to convince it to license the spyware tool for use by Ukraine.
But those efforts were rebuffed and NSO Group, which is regulated by the Israeli ministry of defense, was never permitted to market or sell the company’s spyware to Ukraine.
When it is successfully deployed against a target, Pegasus can be used to hack into any mobile phone and intercept phone conversations, read text messages, or view a user’s photographs. It can also be used as a remote listening device, because a government user of the spyware can use it to remotely turn a mobile phone recorder on and off.
Read more:
The US held off on sanctioning Roman Abramovich after Ukraine’s president said the Russian oligarch could prove an important go-between in Ukraine-Russia peace talks, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The UK and EU have imposed sanctions on Abramovich, with the EU claiming his ‘privileged access’ to Putin has “helped him to maintain his considerable wealth”.
Abramovich, who owns Chelsea football club, has not been named on the US sanctions list, although a number of US-based hedge funds have reportedly agreed to freeze his assets under guidance from the UK.
On Monday the New York Times reported that Abramovich had used shell companies to “quietly place billions of dollars with prominent U.S. hedge funds and private equity firms”.
Although Zelensky reportedly believed Abramovich could help negotiate peace, US officials told the WSJ “they have no reason to believe Mr. Abramovich has been particularly helpful in the talks between the Ukrainian and Russian governments, and intelligence assessments have, in fact, suggested otherwise”.
The newspaper reported that there was skepticism within the Ukrainian government and other western administrations about exactly how helpful Abramovich had been so far.
Several UK and European officials say they have no knowledge of Zelensky making a specific plea to their leaders not to levy sanctions on Mr Abramovich. Several Ukrainian officials and officials from other Western governments are also skeptical about how deeply Mr Abramovich is involved in the peace talks.
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Russians adopting defensive positions outside Kyiv – US
The Pentagon, in a briefing with reporters, said Russian troops are adopting defensive positions north of Kyiv, rather than advancing, while Russian efforts elsewhere have stalled.
US security correspondents have been tweeting details from the briefing.
Jack Detsch, a reporter at Foreign Policy, tweeted that Ukraine’s counter-offensive near Kyiv has pushed Russian forces further from the capital. Russian fighters have been driven back 15 miles in the past few days, Detsch reported.
NEW: Ukraine's counteroffensive near Kyiv has pushed Russian forces ~35 mi to the east of the capital: senior U.S. defense official
— Jack Detsch (@JackDetsch) March 23, 2022
Russia was ~20 mi to the east of Kyiv earlier in the week. Ukraine has begun to take back territory from the Russians this week, officials said.
The Pentagon said Russia has now launched more than 1,200 missiles, Jeff Seldin, a correspondent at Voice of America, reported. The Pentagon also said Russian troops north of Kyiv were now assuming defensive positions, rather than continuing their assault.
Potentially an important moment. US defence officials have been saying that when when Russian forces start digging in, it means they don't think they can advance any further. https://t.co/E2BHWY9HuB
— Julian Borger (@julianborger) March 23, 2022
Carla Babb, a correspondent at Voice of America, said Russian troops have also stalled outside Chernihiv, towards the Belarus border. About 150,000 people are stuck in Chernihiv after Russia cut them off from the capital, Kyiv, 100 miles south, by bombing a road bridge across the Desna River.
#Russians are still trying to encircle #Chernihiv and are eight to 10 kilometers away from the city centre. They are "stalled" and have ceded some ground in some places there, per sr defense official #UkraineUnderAttaсk
— Carla Babb (@CarlaBabbVOA) March 23, 2022
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Vladimir Putin said Russia planned to switch payments for its gas sales to “unfriendly” countries to roubles, in a move which has alarmed international markets.
The announcement sent European futures soaring, Reuters reported, over concerns the switch would exacerbate a looming energy crisis by jamming up deals that run to hundreds of millions of dollars every day.
Russian gas accounts for some 40% of Europe’s total gas consumption.
Reuters reported:
Moscow has drawn up a list of “unfriendly” countries which corresponds to those that imposed sanctions. They include the United States, European Union members, Britain and Japan, among others.
Russia would continue to supply natural gas in line with previously concluded contracts, Putin said at a televised meeting with government ministers.
“The changes will only affect the currency of payment, which will be changed to Russian roubles,” he said.
With a host of European countries still dependent on Moscow for much of their energy supplies, Putin is counting that receiving payment in roubles could boost the decimated Russian currency.
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The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is “gravely concerned” about the “safety and security of [Ukraine’s] nuclear facilities”, the group’s director general said.
Rafael Mariano Grossi said “the need to prevent a nuclear accident becomes more pressing with each day that passes”, in a statement urging authorities to allow IAEA experts and equipments to evaluate Ukraine’s nuclear reactors.
Russia took control of the abandoned Chernobyl power plant in February, and on Tuesday Ukraine warned that the Russian control was hampering efforts to control forest fires within the Chernobyl exclusion zone.
Ukraine has 15 nuclear reactors, several of which are now under Russian control, and Grossi said IAEA is hoping to send in experts to “ensure the safety and security of its nuclear facilities and prevent the risk of a severe accident that could threaten both people and the environment”.
Updated
Catch up
Here’s the summary of the key events from the afternoon of day 28 of the Russian invasion in Ukraine:
- The US government announced that it believes that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine based on its assessment of evidence that civilians have been deliberately targeted.
- The US also said it would announce a package of Russia-related sanctions against political figures and oligarchs on Thursday while US president Joe Biden meets with Nato leaders on Ukraine.
- The mayor of Kyiv said one person was killed and two seriously wounded on Wednesday after shells hit a shopping centre’s parking lot in a northern district of the Ukrainian capital.
- Nato said it was considering whether to ramp up military forces on its border with Ukraine, with an announcement anticipated on Thursday.
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Russian climate envoy Anatoly Chubais has stepped down and left the country in protest against president Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, making him the highest-level official to break with the Kremlin over the invasion.
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Ludmila Denisova, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, claimed that the population in the city of Cherniv, just north of Kiev, had effectively been turned into hostages by Russian forces who have cut off the main routes for humanitarian aid
That’s all from me for today. I’m now passing you over to my colleague in New York, Adam Gabbatt, who’ll be keeping you updated for the rest of the evening. Thanks for tuning in.
Updated
A Russian journalist has died after she was hit by Russian shelling in Kyiv while filming destruction from rocket fire in a shopping centre in the Podolsky district.
Oksana Baulina, a video journalist for the Insider, an independent news website based in Russia, and also an activist, died alongside one other civilian, while two people accompanying her were wounded and hospitalised.
Baulina was in Ukraine as a correspondent, where she dispatched reports from Lviv and Kyiv, with a focus on Russian government corruption.
Baulina began her career working lifestyle magazines including Time Out Moscow and In Style, but after a decade she shifted to more political work, becoming a producer for the Anti-Corruption Foundation.
She was briefly jailed after the Russian police stormed the headquarters of the independent Anti-Corruption Foundation where she was coordinating a live broadcast from a national rally. After the Russian government classified the organisation as extremist, she had to leave the country, where she continued her reporting work for the Insider, which specialises in investigations, fact-checking and political analysis, and Coda Story, which investigates authoritarianism.
In a new article reporting her death, the Insider said it “expresses its deepest condolences to Oksana’s family and friends”.
The publication added: “We will continue to cover the war in Ukraine, including such Russian war crimes as indiscriminate shelling of residential areas which result in the deaths of civilians and journalists.”
There are growing concerns over the dangers faced by Ukrainian journalists covering Russia’s invasion of their country. Photojournalist Maks Levin has not been heard from since 13 March.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said two other journalists, Oleh Baturyn and Viktoria Roshchina, had previously gone missing but have since been released by their abductors, who are presumed to belong to the Russian armed forces.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that targeting journalists was a war crime, and added that three other journalists had been abducted since the invasion.
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Nato must face a Russian adversary that is more unpredictable and ready to take greater risks to project power in Europe, according to a US general, warning that studying Russian capabilities and military doctrine was no longer enough.
Reuters reports:
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow launched on 24 February and calls a “special military operation”, has jolted analysts’ assumptions that Russian president Vladimir Putin would always take calibrated risks, use limited ground forces and find diplomatic exit strategies, as he did in his 2014 annexation of Crimea and his intervention in Syria from 2015.
By contrast, Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – the biggest military mobilisation since World War Two – involves siege warfare, escalation tactics such as putting nuclear forces on alert and exposing the Russian economy to massive western sanctions to achieve military goals.
Speaking to reporters during Nato exercises in Norway, US general David Berger said:
“We have a clear understanding of what their capabilities are. And we’ve studied their doctrine for a long time.
“Their decision-making on the part of the president, that’s another factor, whether or not they would do something.
“I think the lesson learned here is you can’t predict what a dictator might do,” he said of Putin, who the west says has become increasingly authoritarian, crushing dissent at home.
Updated
Russia has said it will throw out a number of American diplomats in response to a US move to expel Russian staff from the permanent UN mission.
Interfax news agency also said the foreign ministry had told the United States any hostile actions against Russia would provoke a decisive response.
US government concludes that Putin has committed war crimes
The US government believes that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine based on its assessment of evidence that civilians have been deliberately targeted.
Here’s the statement by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, published today (edited for length):
Since launching his unprovoked and unjust war of choice, Russian President Vladimir Putin has unleashed unrelenting violence that has caused death and destruction across Ukraine. We’ve seen numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities. Russia’s forces have destroyed apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, critical infrastructure, civilian vehicles, shopping centers, and ambulances, leaving thousands of innocent civilians killed or wounded.
Last week, I echoed President Biden’s statement, based on the countless accounts and images of destruction and suffering we have all seen, that war crimes had been committed by Putin’s forces in Ukraine. I noted then that the deliberate targeting of civilians is a war crime. I emphasised that Department of State and other U.S. government experts were documenting and assessing potential war crimes in Ukraine.
Today, I can announce that, based on information currently available, the US government assesses that members of Russia’s forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.
As with any alleged crime, a court of law with jurisdiction over the crime is ultimately responsible for determining criminal guilt in specific cases. The US government will continue to track reports of war crimes and will share information we gather with allies, partners, and international institutions and organisations, as appropriate. We are committed to pursuing accountability using every tool available, including criminal prosecutions.
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US to announce sanctions on Russian political figures and oligarchs
The United States will announce a package of Russia-related sanctions against political figures and oligarchs on Thursday while US President Joe Biden meets with Nato leaders on Ukraine.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who spoke to reporters as Biden headed to Brussels for the Nato summit, said G7 leaders will also agree on Thursday to coordinate on sanctions enforcement and plan to issue a statement.
He also said officials will have more to say on Friday about European energy issues, adding that the US would look to increase supplies of liquified natural gas to Europe in the coming weeks.
Updated
Google has promised to pause all ads containing content that exploits, dismisses or condones the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, joining a raft of major social media platforms that have introduced new content restrictions.
This includes blocking Russian state media RT and Sputnik in the European Union.
Earlier this month, Google said it had stopped selling all online ads in Russia.
French companies including carmaker Renault and retailer Auchan must leave the Russian market, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told French lawmakers on Wednesday.
In an address via video link to France’s national assembly, Zelenskiy said:
Renault, Auchan, Leroy Merlin must stop being sponsors of the Russian war machine, stop financing the murder of children and women, of rape.
“French companies must leave the Russian market.”
Updated
Russia held a funeral service for the deputy commander of its Black Sea Fleet in annexed Crimea on Wednesday, the latest in what Ukraine says is a string of high-ranking Russian military casualties.
Reuters reports:
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak on Sunday named six Russian generals who he said had been killed in Ukraine along with dozens of colonels and other officers.
Russia’s defence ministry has not confirmed any of those casualties. It has not revised its troop casualties since 2 March, a week into the war, when it said that 498 of its soldiers had died. Ukraine puts the figure at 15,600.
Reuters could not independently verify most of Ukraine’s claims, but some have been confirmed from Russian sources.
The Guardian’s defence editor, Dan Sabbagh, has been speaking to officials in the west with knowledge of the situation in Ukraine to understand their perspective on how the conflict is evolving:
Western officials’ “greatest concern” for Ukraine’s military prospects is that Russia is grinding its way to an inevitable and bloody victory in Mariupol, which will in turn free up its force to move north and attack Kyiv’s elite troops defending the Donbas from three directions.
They say that Russia has lost the ability to fight an offensive on “multiple axes” because of the casualties it has suffered - around 7,000 to 8,000 killed - on its disastrous offensive and is now focusing on one principal battle at a time while its attack on the Ukrainian capital has essentially stalled.
“I think the challenge is once Mariupol falls and is taken, and I think there’s a grim reality around Mariupol with the kind of reckless and inhumane nature of the operation there,” one said. An estimated 100,000 people remain in the bombed and encircled port city.
Another official said this would give Russia “the opportunity to bring in more firepower and to move north”, which could allow Moscow’s forces to encircle the Ukranian’s most experienced fighting forces in the east of the country. “This is probably the area where we have the greatest concern,” the official added.
Updated
One person killed, two wounded in Kyiv on Wednesday
The mayor of Kyiv said one person was killed and two seriously wounded on Wednesday after shells hit a shopping centre’s parking lot in a northern district of the Ukrainian capital.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in an online post:
The enemy continues to fire at the capital.”
Russia denies targeting civilians.
Updated
Updated
European Union countries will start discussing “fair burden sharing” in hosting millions of Ukranian refugees.
The EU will not allocate a number of refugees each country must take, Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said, avoiding a repeat of failures during the last major refugee influx in 2015-16 when the 27 member states squabbled bitterly over who should take in how many refugees among the 1 million who had fled the war in Syria.
She said “fair burden-sharing” would be addressed by the bloc’s 27 national migration ministers at emergency talks on Monday. “It needs to be developed,” she told a news conference.
Updated
Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the conflict in Ukraine by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday, the Kremlin said in a statement.
Bennett “shared his assessment of the situation around Ukraine, taking into account his contacts with leaders of a number of foreign countries, and expressed several ideas in relation to the ongoing negotiations”, the statement said.
Updated
Sweden will provide Ukraine with an additional 5,000 anti-tank weapons, the Swedish defence minister told the country’s TT news agency.
Sweden has already sent 5,000 anti-tank weapons, along with other military materiel to Ukraine.
Updated
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday said he had spoken with the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, who had assured his support for Ukraine ahead of Nato, G7 and EU summits.
“Received assurances of his [Johnson’s] support on the eve of tomorrow’s important meetings. Discussed the course of hostilities and defense assistance to Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said on Twitter.
Thursday’s Nato summit in Brussels is expected to agree additional aid for Kyiv including equipment to protect against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.
Had a phone conversation with @BorisJohnson. Received assurances of his support on the eve of tomorrow's important meetings. Discussed the course of hostilities and defense assistance to Ukraine. We will win together.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 23, 2022
Updated
Reporting from the New York Times estimates that at least 1,500 civilian buildings, structures and vehicles in Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed in the weeks since the invasion began.
According to @nytimes’s reporting, in the weeks since Russia began its invasion, at least 1,500 civilian buildings, structures and vehicles in Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed. https://t.co/2A3x2VyxBb
— Muyi Xiao (@muyixiao) March 23, 2022
Nato expected to ramp up military forces on border with Ukraine
Nato will likely decide on Thursday to ramp up military forces on its eastern flank, according to the alliance’s chief Jens Stoltenberg.
Reuters reports:
Nato has sharply increased its presence at the eastern border of the alliance, with some 40,000 troops spread from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and is seeking to deploy four new combat units in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia.
“I expect leaders will agree to strengthen Nato’s posture in all domains, with major increases in the eastern part of the alliance. On land, in the air and at sea,” Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference ahead of a Nato summit in Brussels on Thursday.
The additional multinational battlegroups come on top of four existing combat units, with a total of some 5,000 troops, deployed by Nato to the three Baltic states and Poland after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Updated
A regular war bulletin from Ukraine’s embassy in the US contains the following summary of the conflict:
- 121 children have died and 167 children have been wounded since the conflict began, from the unified register of pre-trial investigations and unconfirmed sources
- Russian combat losses recorded by Ukraine between 24 February and 23 March included 15,600 personnel, 517 tanks and 101 aircraft
- 9 million Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said
- Ukraine is continuing to mount a defence operation in the eastern, southern, and north-eastern directions, including holding defences in the besieged cities of Mariupol and Chernihiv and holding back Russia’s advancement towards Kyiv.
Updated
Russian Olympic athletes who participated in a rally supporting Vladimir Putin and the invasion of Ukraine are facing a backlash, with one losing a sponsorship deal and facing a disciplinary investigation.
Medalists from cross-country skiing, gymnastics, figure skating and swimming gathered on stage at the Luzhniki Stadium on Friday as part of the concert and entertainment program around Putin’s speech.
Olympic champion swimmer Evgeny Rylov is under investigation for attending the event, the sport’s governing body told the Associated Press. Rylov has also lost his endorsement deal with swimwear manufacturer Speedo because of his involvement in the rally.
Most of the athletes, including Rylov, were pictured wearing jackets with a “Z” on the chest at the rally. The letter isn’t part of the Russian alphabet but has become a symbol of support for Russian troops after it was used as a marker on Russian armoured vehicles operating in Ukraine.
Other Olympic medalists in attendance included figure skaters Victoria Sinitsina, Nikita Katsalapov, Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov; cross-country skier Alexander Bolshunov; and rhythmic gymnastics twin sisters Dina and Arina Averina.
The athletes stood on stage as the national anthem was played in an apparent reference to how Russian teams at last year’s Summer Olympics in Tokyo and this year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing didn’t have the anthem at their ceremonies due to a worldwide ban for Russia’s state-sponsored doping programme.
Read more here: Russian athletes face backlash after wearing ‘Z’ symbol at Putin rally
Updated
The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has made public a letter dated from yesterday that it says it has sent to YouTube, asking them to remove a video clip of a hoax call to the defence secretary, Ben Wallace.
Wallace took the call from Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, who are known as Vovan and Lexus, believing it was Denys Shmyhal, the Ukrainian prime minister.
In the letter, the MoD say that the clips which have emerged have been doctored, and object to two passages in particular. They write:
The doctored clip asserts that the UK’s supply of NLAWS to Ukraine have ‘often failed’. Our NLAWS have not failed, this is factually incorrect.
They also dispute the accuracy of Wallace appearing to say that the UK has weapons supply issues. The letter says:
We have no supply shortages. Information of this nature affects the UK’s ability to maintain our national defensive capability and reputation as an international and Nato ally.
It concludes:
I am confident you would not wish to be a conduit for Russian propaganda or be in any way associated with the potential consequences of this type of media manipulation.
We are calling on YouTube to help us support Ukraine by taking down videos doctored by the Russian state and disseminated to try and sap the morale of a people fighting for their freedom 🇺🇦
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 23, 2022
👇 pic.twitter.com/586ydI4VAp
Updated
The invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces has taken place while the world is still dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
Surplus personal protective equipment (PPE) stock worth £3.5m is now being sent to Ukraine by the Department of Health in Northern Ireland. The items include masks, coveralls, oxygen therapy consumables and sterile gowns.
PA Media quote Northern Ireland’s health minister Robin Swann saying:
These supplies have played an important role in the acute phase of the crisis response. My officials continue to work closely with the UK government, UK Health Security Agency and the other devolved administrations to mobilise a variety of items including equipment, such as monitors and medical consumable items, personal protective equipment and medicines, in response to specific requests from the government of Ukraine.
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The Russian Football Federation has unexpectedly declared an interest in hosting either Euro2028 or Euro2032, despite their teams currently being banned from Uefa and Fifa competitions because of the invasion of Ukraine.
A meeting of the Russian Football Union executive committee today decided to “support the decision to declare interest”.
“We are going to file a bid for hosting of the 2028 and 2032 European Championships,” RFU board member Sergei Anokhin said on broadcaster Match TV.
It had been anticipated that Uefa would shortly select the UK and Ireland as hosts of Euro2028 on the basis that they were the sole bid.
The venue of the 2018 World Cup Final, Luzhniki Stadium, was used last week for a national rally featuring President Vladimir Putin.
Updated
Rajan Menon is senior research fellow at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, and he writes for us today on how, one month in, the war on Ukraine has not unfolded as many had predicted it might:
The Ukrainians mounted a surprisingly stiff resistance from the get-go, partly because they were defending their homeland, partly because they had been preparing for this eventuality, and partly because of the weapons and training provided them since 2015 by the United States, Britain, and Canada.
Still, the balance of power overwhelmingly favored Russia, whether in the number of troops, the quantity of major armaments, and their technological caliber. So lopsided was the advantage that it was hardly unreasonable to assume that the Russian juggernaut would roll over the Ukrainians’ valiant resistance and conquer their major cities.
Assaying the military balance between two putative adversaries involves, in part, bean counting – so many of this weapon, so many of that, and so on – but the exercise generally proves valid when the results massively favour one side. The exceptions are remembered because they are uncommon.
This war has been one of those atypical instances. Even if it ends with Ukraine’s defeat – something that remains possible – this surely is not the campaign Putin and his generals had in mind.
You can read more of Rajan Menon’s analysis here: Nearly a month in, the Russia-Ukraine war is defying all expectations
There’s more detail on Reuters on Belarus’s decision to expel Ukrainian diplomats:
Close Russia ally Belarus has told Ukraine to cut its diplomatic presence in the country citing unfriendly actions and meddling in its internal affairs, the Belarusian foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
Russia has used Belarusian territory as a staging post for its attack on Ukraine and the Ukrainian president’s office on Sunday warned it saw a high risk of an attack on western Ukraine’s Volyn region being launched from Belarus.
The foreign ministry said in a statement that an unspecified number of Ukrainian diplomats would have to leave within 72 hours and that the Ukrainian consulate in the city of Brest would be closed due to a lack of staff.
It said the Ukrainian ambassador and four other diplomats would be allowed to stay.
Updated
A Russian reporter under investigation for spreading false information about the war in Ukraine has defended his claims on social media that Russian forces had shelled a maternity hospital.
Reuters reports:
In an open letter to Russia’s top investigator, Alexander Bastrykin, prominent journalist Alexander Nevzorov said he was being blamed for drawing his conclusions from the international media, which had access to proof of what happened, rather than from the Russian defence ministry.
He also said the criminal law, which could see journalists jailed for up to 15 years for purposefully spreading false information, contradicted freedom of speech provisions in the Russian constitution and media law.
The Investigative Committee law enforcement agency said it had opened a case against Nevzorov for posting on Instagram and YouTube that Russia’s armed forces had deliberately shelled a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
Nevzorov said the case against him was meant as a signal to journalists in Russia that “the regime is not going to spare anyone, and that any attempts to comprehend the criminal war will end in prison”.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on Nevzorov’s specific case, but said the tough new law was justified by what he called the most brutal information war being waged against Russia.
Iran’s priority is to strengthen strategic ties with Syria in response to a changing geopolitical landscape following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Reuters reports:
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told reporters on his arrival in Damascus that his country stood with Syria in “the same trench” and that ties with were going through their best phase.
“We are talking about strategic ties and today, aside from all the dimensions of our relationship, the issue of economic relations is the priority,” he told reporters.
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said the Ukraine crisis and its repercussions would be a focus for talks between the two Middle East allies, both under Western sanctions.
“We are holding talks after the major developments after the Russian operation [in Ukraine] and we will discuss our joint positions towards these developments,” Mekdad added.
Updated
The initial impact of the EU’s sanctions against Moscow in response to its invasion of Ukraine has led to a greater drop in trade between Finland and Russia than when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Reuters reports:
Finnish Customs recorded a roughly 60% drop in both imports from Russia and exports from Finland to Russia in the last two weeks compared with the previous two weeks before the EU began to impose sanctions, director of statistics at Finnish customs Olli-Pekka Penttila told Reuters.
“In the 1990s there were no sanctions, payment transactions functioned and there were no reputational risks (for companies). Now all these three are reality and it means that the impact is certainly bigger than it was in the 1990s,” Penttila said.
He said financial sanctions were having a greater impact than export sanctions, with the biggest impact resulting from reputational risks as Western companies withdraw voluntarily from Russia to avoid being reprimanded by clients for staying.
Updated
There is “a real threat” of Russia using chemical weapons against Ukraine, according to US President Joe Biden, who answered questions as he departed for Europe to attend the Nato summit.
Updated
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Gazprom to convert oil and gas contracts with hostile countries into roubles to boost the currency.
Russian newspaper Kommersant reports:
In Putin’s opinion, supplying Russian goods to the EU and the USA and receiving payment in dollars and euros “does not make any sense for us”. In response, the rouble rose on the Moscow Exchange.
Updated
Videos circulating on social media purport to show a volley of missiles being launched from a ship near the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Crimea. The Russian military said a combat ship launched eight cruise missiles against Ukrainian military infrastructure on 22 March.
Belarus has told some Ukrainian diplomats to leave the country and plans to shut the Ukrainian consulate in the southwestern city of Brest, which is close to the borders of Poland and Ukraine, according to the Belarusian news agency Belta.
On Tuesday the Belarusian security service, the KGB, accused eight Ukrainian diplomats of espionage.
Updated
High-level Russian official steps down in protest against Ukraine war
Russian climate envoy Anatoly Chubais has stepped down and left the country in protest against President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, making him the highest-level official to break with the Kremlin over the invasion.
Bloomberg reports:
Chubais, 66, is one of the few 1990s-era economic reformers who’d remained in Putin’s government and had maintained close ties with Western officials. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since the war, the government has stepped up pressure on domestic critics of the invasion. Putin warned on 16 March that he would cleanse Russia of the “scum and traitors” he accuses of working covertly for the US and its allies. Facing economic meltdown, the Russian leader accused the West of wanting to destroy Russia.
Updated
Nestlé is suspending brands including KitKat and Nesquik, among others, in Russia.
A Nestlé spokesperson said:
We are focused on providing essential foods such as baby food and medical/hospital nutrition products. This means we will suspend the vast majority of our pre-war volume in Russia.”
Updated
Citizens in France, Germany, Italy and Sweden overwhelmingly support stronger and further-reaching sanctions against Russia, even if they lead to increased economic hardship at home, new polling shows
The poll, commissioned by the Kyiv School of Economics and undertaken in mid-March, revealed that 47% believe that current sanctions against Russia do not go far enough, while 76% said “sanctions should remain for as long as is needed to stop the war, even if this negatively impacts my cost of living”, compared with 24% who said “due to their impact on my cost of living, sanctions should be removed and normal trade should resume”.
This consensus held in each of the four countries polled. Just 13% believe current sanctions go too far.
When asked what they thought to their country purchasing Russian oil and gas, 30% thought cutting off oil and gas would increase prices too much; 23% thought continuing to import Russian oil and gas was morally wrong; 22% said it was a risk to European security and 18% said it was a national embarrassment.
Many Europeans (26%) are also considering opening their homes to refugees from the war, and are either planning to do so (7%), have seriously considered at some point (17%) or are already hosting a Ukrainian refugee family (3%).
The Kyiv School of Economics is calling for European countries to introduce five measures, including disconnecting Russian and Belarussian banks from the Swift payment system, banning exports of arms and other military equipment to Russia, an energy export embargo, closing ports to all Russian ships and imposing personal sanctions on individuals connected to Putin.
Updated
The Guardian’s UK tech editor, Alex Hern, has some insight on video game Fortnite’s fundraising effort:
The video game Fortnite has raised $50m (£38m) in aid for Ukraine in just three days, after Epic Games announced it would be donating 100% of its income from the game’s current chapter, which runs from 20 March through to 3 April.
It’s an astronomical sum to have raised, a fifth of the total raised by the entire Disasters Emergency Committee fundraising appeal over its first two weeks, and will be split between the UN’s UNHCR, Unicef and World Food Programme appeals, as well as the charity Direct Relief.
Epic Games has been donating 100% of its net proceeds from Fortnite since its latest chapter launched, and hit the $50m total less than a quarter of the way through the run.
As well as the important impact of the donation, it’s a canny effort to head off some potential bad press: the latest update to Fortnite is rather unfortunately themed around an invasion plot line that calls on the player to “join the resistance in the final battle to free the zero point”.
Owing to the timescales of game development, that decision will have been made months before Russia invaded, but Epic Games possibly felt it had to make clear that the company wasn’t trying to cash in on the invasion.
Updated
Concern over Chernihiv population cut off from Kyiv after claims Russians destroy bridge
There are growing concerns about the situation in the encircled city of Chernihiv, north of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Ludmila Denisova, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, claimed that the population had effectively been turned into hostages by Russian forces who have cut off the main routes for humanitarian aid.
She said: “Today Chernihiv remains completely cut off from the capital. The occupiers bombed the bridge across the river Desna, through which transported humanitarian aid to the city and evacuated civilians.
“The city has no electricity, water, heat and almost no gas, infrastructure is destroyed. According to local residents, the occupiers are compiling lists of civilians for the ‘evacuation’ to Lgov [Kursk region of Russia]. The racists, cutting off Chernihiv from the capital, turned its inhabitants into hostages.”
Chernihiv, which has a population of nearly 290,000 people, has been under siege by Russian forces for 12 days.
Updated
Today so far …
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, accused Russian forces of seizing a humanitarian convoy near Mangush west of Mariupol. “Employees of the state emergency service and bus drivers have been taken captive,” he said, adding that 100,000 people remained in the city living “in inhumane conditions. In a total blockade. Without food, water, medication. Under constant shelling, under constant bombing”.
- Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said agreement had been reached to try to evacuate civilians trapped in Ukrainian towns and cities through nine “humanitarian corridors” on Wednesday, but no agreement had been reached to establish a safe corridor from the heart of Mariupol.
- The governor of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine said agreement had been reached on a local ceasefire to evacuate civilians trapped by fighting.
- The assessment by the UK’s MoD is that the battlefield across northern Ukraine remains largely static with Russian forces likely conducting a period of reorganisation before resuming large-scale offensive operations.
- Russia’s defence ministry has said Russian forces hit a Ukrainian arms depot outside the country’s northwestern city of Rivne on Tuesday, destroying an arsenal of weapons and equipment.
- Russia has warned Nato of dire consequences if it were to agree to send some peacekeeping forces into Ukraine. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “It would be a very reckless and extremely dangerous decision.”
- Ukraine needs more long-range anti-tank weapons, the country’s ambassador to the UK has said.
- China has backed Russia over suggestions that G20 expulsion could follow their invasion of Ukraine. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said: “The G20 is the main forum for international economic cooperation. Russia is an important member, and no member has the right to expel another country.”
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has addressed the Japanese parliament over videolink, thanking them for leading the way among Asian countries in condemning Russia’s invasion and introducing sanctions.
- Poland’s internal security and counter-espionage service ABW has identified 45 Russian diplomats as suspected spies and called on the foreign ministry to expel them. Russia has threatened to retaliate.
- Speaking to the Italian parliament, Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, said Russian President Vladimir Putin did not appear to be interested in agreeing a ceasefire that could allow negotiations to end the conflict to succeed.
I am handing you over now to my colleague Rachel Hall.
Updated
Some more images are coming through this morning of the impact the latest Russian bombardment is having on Kyiv.
Kremlin: sending peacekeepers to Ukraine would be 'reckless and extremely dangerous'
Russia has warned Nato of dire consequences if it were to agree to send some peacekeeping forces into Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “It would be a very reckless and extremely dangerous decision.”
He told reporters on a conference call that any possible contact between Russian and Nato forces “could have clear consequences that would be hard to repair”.
Poland said last Friday it would formally submit a proposal for a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine at the next Nato summit. US President Joe Biden is flying to Europe for an emergency Nato summit in Brussels tomorrow.
Reuters report that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also attacked the proposal in remarks to staff and students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations on Wednesday.
“This will be the direct clash between the Russian and Nato armed forces that everyone has not only tried to avoid but said should not take place in principle,” he said.
Updated
Also on the energy supplies front, Agence France-Presse report from France that TotalEnergies’ chief executive said his company could not stop buying Russian natural gas in retaliation for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, saying it would force a partial economic shutdown in Europe.
The French energy giant had announced yesterday that it would stop buying Russia’s oil and petroleum products by the end of this year, the latest of several multinationals to halt or curtail their operations in the country.
But CEO Patrick Pouyanne said ending its natural gas purchases from Russia would effectively hand over billions of euros to Russian investors.
“I know how to replace this oil and diesel fuel,” Pouyanne told RTL radio, but “with gas, I don’t know how to do it. I don’t know how to replace it, there isn’t any other available, and I have 25-year contracts that I can’t get out of.”
Unless European governments impose sanctions on Russian gas, which would allow companies to declare force majeure to break contracts, he argued that pulling out of existing deals would require TotalEnergies to pay billions in penalties to its Russian partners.
In a budget speech to parliament, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz struck a more cautious tone on reducing Germany’s energy dependence on Russia than some of his ministers have done in recent days.
Scholz told the Bundestag lower house of parliament: “Yes, we will end this dependency - as soon as possible. But to do this from one day to the next would mean plunging our country and the whole of Europe into a recession.”
“Hundreds of thousands of jobs would be in danger. Whole branches of industry would be on the brink,” he said. “Sanctions should not hurt European states harder than the Russian leadership.”
“Putin needs to hear the truth about the war in Ukraine. And that truth is: the war is destroying Ukraine. But with the war, Putin is also destroying Russia’s future,” Scholz told the lawmakers.
Ukraine ambassador to UK: we need long-range anti-tank weapons
Ukraine needs more long-range anti-tank weapons, the country’s ambassador to the UK has said. Vadym Prystaiko also told Sky News that the Ukrainian army need their weapon stocks replenishing.
He said: “We didn’t have enough [weapons] in the first place. So, we’re running out of weaponry. That’s what we’ll be seeing in the week to come.”
PA Media quote him adding “Tomorrow, President Zelensky will talk to Nato, the whole of Nato, and we will see how can we replenish our stocks and what we can have that has a much longer range and is stronger than ever.
“We have enough weapons to stop tanks immediately when they approach us. But to clear out our land we need to have something with a much greater distance.”
Emergency services in Ukraine hves issued a couple more handout photos today of damage done to Mykolaiv. The city is near the Black Sea, in between Odesa and Kherson.
China backs Russia over threat of G20 expulsion
Yesterday there was some chatter about the possibility that Russia might be expelled from the G20 group of the world’s largest economies, sparked by a Polish minister saying they had raised the possibility in a meeting with Washngton where it received a warm welcome.
Jake Sullivan, the US White House National Security Advisor, has gone on record saying: “On the question of the G20, I will just say this: We believe that it cannot be business as usual for Russia in international institutions and in the international community.”
China, today, have indicated that they would not be on board with any such plan. Agence France-Presse report from Beijing that Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters:
The G20 is the main forum for international economic cooperation. Russia is an important member, and no member has the right to expel another country.
This has not gone unnoticed in the Kremlin, where Reuters report that a spokesperson has said that some countries in the G20 are holding their own sovereign points of view, despite pressure from the US.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has given his latest videolink address to a foreign parliament to Japan. In the session he thanked them for leading the way among Asian countries in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and introducing sanctions.
Reuters report he also asked Japan to increase sanctions pressure on Russia by introducing a trade embargo on Russian goods.
Zelenskiy looks set to address the Swedish parliament on Thursday.
Updated
Poland looks set to expel 45 Russian diplomats they accuse of spying
Poland’s internal security and counter-espionage service ABW has identified 45 Russian diplomats as suspected spies and called on the foreign ministry to expel them, its spokesperson has said.
Agence France-Presse report that Stanislaw Zaryn told reporters “The internal security agency has drawn up a list of 45 people working in Poland under the cover of diplomatic activities,” accusing the suspects of targeting Poland.
He said the list of suspects had been transferred to the foreign ministry, tweeting that “ABW is requesting that they be expelled from Polish territory”.
The ABW “has detained a Polish national on suspicion of espionage for the Russian secret services,” the spokesperson added on Twitter.
It is reported that the Russian ambassador had been summoned to the foreign ministry in Warsaw. The RIA news agency in Russia is reporting that the foreign ministry there is already committed to retaliating if its diplomats are expelled from Poland.
Shelling has taken place overnight and again this morning in Kyiv, leading to some more dramatic images as firefighters attempt to control the impact.
Last night, in his nightly address, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that bus drivers and emergency services personnel seeking to rescue people from the port city of Mariupol through a route agreed by the Russian forces had been taken prisoner.
On Wednesday, Iryna Vereshchuk, a deputy prime minister, provided more details. In total, more than 7,000 civilians in Mariupol were rescued on Tuesday, she said, but the Russian forces violated a deal on providing safe passage through a number of agreed humanitarian corridors.
Vereshchuk said: “Unfortunately, the occupying forces violated the agreement and did not allow buses to evacuate Mariupol residents from the village of Nikolske and the village of Melekino.
“There are eleven buses and two vehicles of the State Emergency Service that were seized at a Russian checkpoint at the entrance to the city of Mangush and taken away in an unknown direction.
“The occupiers also took hostage 4 [emergency service] officers and 11 drivers. We demand from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations to do everything urgently to ensure that our people are released immediately”.
The Financial Times newspaper in the UK is carrying a letter today from Carl Scott, formerly a UK defence attaché in Moscow. He is keen to point out that in his view the UK prioritised the City of London’s economic relationship with Russian money over the ominous developments taking place under Putin’s watch while Scott was in Moscow from 2011 to 2016. He writes:
This long, dark march to war was obvious, the path to conflict lit by the many pronouncements emanating from the dark red walls of Vladimir Putin’s palace. We reported the inevitability of conflict in detail, regularly and with the despair of Cassandra. The evidence of Putin’s chosen path was never concealed. His many declarations were meant to be heard and understood.
It was not until I returned to the UK on the eve of our withdrawal from the EU, a manoeuvre which greatly emboldened those in Moscow, that I understood how our society had changed in the years I was serving overseas. All was subjugated to the City, all served the interests of our lucrative status as a safe haven for corrupt, and corrupting, wealth.
Read more here: FT Letters – A defence attaché despairs at inevitability of conflict
Updated
Former Surrey fast bowler Stuart Meaker has been interviewed by Sky News in the UK this morning. He is currently in Poland working with volunteers helping refugees process their visa applications to reach the UK after fleeing Ukraine. He left The Kia Oval with a vanful of aid for refugees a week ago.
He was critical of the process being forced upon refugees by the British government, saying that they are being obliged to ask 3-years-olds, who have fled with just a teddy and a bag of clothes, whether they have a military background or any prior convictions.
For adults, Meaker complained that they are being asked to produce mortgage deeds, which they are unlikely to have packed, and he said that it is taking five to six hours on average to process the applications for the refugees.
He said: “We’re struggling to be able to get people to connect with families in the UK, and it’s just not working. It’s almost like we don’t want them to come.”
There are quite a lot of diplomatic lines floating around on the newswires at the moment. Two that have caught the eye are Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warning that sending peacekeepers into Ukraine might lead to direct conflict between Russia and Nato, and that negotiations with Ukraine are “difficult” because Kyiv is constantly changing its position.
In Poland, meanwhile, Reuters are suggesting that the Russian ambassador has been summoned to the Polish foreign ministry, as rumours swirl that Poland is about to expel as many as 40 Russian diplomats.
Italian PM Draghi: Putin doesn't appear to be interested in ceasefire
Speaking to the Italian parliament, Italian prime minister Mario Draghi said Russian President Vladimir Putin did not appear to be interested in agreeing a ceasefire that could allow negotiations to end the conflict to succeed.
Reuters also report that Draghi urged China not to support Russia and to join efforts to bring peace to Ukraine.
Updated
The Ukrainian central bank has asked the SWIFT network to switch the Russian central bank off from its financial messaging system.
“We hope for your support and assistance in order to save the lives of thousands of Ukrainians and protect the sovereignty of our country,” Governor Kyrylo Shevchenko said in a statement, Reuters report.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has been speaking at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. It has been a basic re-stating of Russia’s case for war, saying that the West considers the invasion to have started on 24 February because they discount all the things that happened before then, and sprinkled with references to neo-Nazis and “cancel culture” and the West “playing with words”.
We have a photo gallery today featuring Orthodox monks at the remote 15th-century Putna Monastery in the hills of north-eastern Romania have opening their doors to Ukrainians fleeing war.
Russia’s Defence Ministry has said Russian forces hit a Ukrainian arms depot outside the country’s northwestern city of Rivne on Tuesday, destroying an arsenal of weapons and equipment.
The ministry said it had struck the depot using high-precision, long-range weapons fired from the sea. Reuters says it was unable to independently verify the report.
Estonia is calling for Nato to abandon its current “tripwire” posture in eastern Europe and build up a permanent force in the region capable of stopping a Russian offensive.
Ahead of Thursday’s Nato summit, Jonatan Vseviov, the permanent secretary of the Estonian foreign ministry, said the Europe and the North Atlantic alliance could never return to the world it knew before the 24 February Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“We will be in a totally new security environment. There will be a new Ukraine. There will be a new Russia. There will be a new Europe. There is no going back to 23 February,” Vseviov told the Guardian in an interview in Washington.
More than 20,000 Nato troops, the overwhelming majority of them US forces, have been deployed to the Baltic states, Poland and the rest of eastern Europe in the aftermath of the invasion.
Read more of Julian Borger’s report from Washington: Nato needs permanent force in eastern Europe to deter Russia, says Estonia
Nine humanitarian corridors agreed for Wednesday – Ukraine's deputy PM
A quick snap from Reuters here that nine humanitarian corridors have been agreed for Wednesday according to Ukraine’s deputy prime minister.
Iryna Vereshchuk said agreement has been reached to try to evacuate civilians trapped in Ukrainian towns and cities through nine “humanitarian corridors”, but no agreement had been reached with Russia to establish a safe corridor from the heart of Mariupol.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will meet the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, in Moscow in Thursday, the Russian foreign ministry has announced.
Reuters report that the foreign ministry said in a statement “The agenda of the meeting envisages discussion of the key areas of the ICRC’s work in the field of humanitarian response.”
An ICRC spokesperson had already said on Tuesday that Maurer would be in Moscow for talks on the Ukraine conflict
A four-generation family of 10 who fled the war-torn Ukrainian city of Kharkiv are moving into a home in Cambridgeshire, donated for their use by a businessman.
The family, ranging in age from 10 to 90, have come to the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme and were helped by their relative Roman Starkov, who is a British citizen. The software developer helped his family through the visa process which he described as “pretty involved”.
“You have to fill out arcane forms, and for such a big group there’s a lot of repetition,” he said. His 90-year-old grandmother Ludmila Starkova does not have a valid international passport. “On every border that was a challenge,” he said.
Sam Russell reports for PA that Mick Swinhoe bought the house next to his own just before the war broke out, and initially planned to use it as a “project house”, but said he wants the house to be used for “something more useful. I can do what I want to do later when things get better.”
Starkov’s sister Valeriia Starkova, 37, said her journey by car to the UK took 20 days and they were “exhausted”.
“We were in the basement,” she said. “We couldn’t go outside. We stayed five days in the basement without going anywhere. Then we decided that we had to leave as we couldn’t sleep, it was so scary. We just put our bags in the cars and went.”
Starkov said he has “mixed emotions” now his family have safely fled Ukraine. “Yes they are safe, that’s amazing,” he said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty about their future here. Will they fit in, will they find a place, will they feel comfortable? I don’t know. They’ve still lost everything.”
There are some strong words being quoted this morning from former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. He has said that “The West has acted in a disgusting, criminal, and amoral way” in relation to Russia.
According to quotes posted by Reuters, he additionally said that the United States has tried to “humiliate, limit, divide and destroy Russia”, and that the US “risks becoming the last refuge of those who are falling into senility.”
The 56 year old is currently the Kremlin’s Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia.
UK MoD: Russia 'likely reorganising before resuming large-scale offensive operations'
Hello, it is Martin Belam in London taking over from Samantha Lock in Sydney. In the last few minutes the UK’s Ministry of Defence has issued its latest daily “Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine”.
They claim:
- The battlefield across northern Ukraine remains largely static with Russian forces likely conducting a period of reorganisation before resuming large-scale offensive operations.
- Russian forces are attempting to envelop Ukrainian forces in the east of the country as they advance from the direction of Kharkiv in the north and Mariupol in the south.
- Russian forces are still attempting to circumvent Mykolaiv as they look to drive west towards Odesa.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 23 March 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 23, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/PCEfBZMADk
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/gmDkmzjI7F
Updated
Luhansk Governor says local ceasefire agreed to evacuate civillians
The governor of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine said agreement had been reached on a local ceasefire to evacuate civilians trapped by fighting.
Reuters note that Governor Serhiy Gaidai said on the Telegram messaging app that the ceasefire would come into force at 9am local time, which is 0700 GMT.
Unconfirmed reports are filtering in that a bridge that was crucial for bringing in humanitarian aid and evacuating civilians was bombed by Russian forces overnight in Chernihiv.
Advisor to Ukraine’s interior ministry, Anton Gerashchenko, reported the news on his Telegram account early this morning, citing confirmation from the head of the Chernihiv Regional State Administration, Vyacheslav Chaus.
Chernihiv is located about 150km north-east of Kyiv.
Russian forces have apparently destroyed a bridge linking Chernihiv with road to Kyiv. The northern Ukrainian town has been hammered since day 1, but has offered remarkable resistance. Russia attempting siege tactics. pic.twitter.com/bIlsluowtS
— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) March 23, 2022
Summary
Here is a comprehensive rundown on where the crisis currently stands:
-
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russian forces of seizing a humanitarian convoy near Mangush west of Mariupol. “Employees of the state emergency service and bus drivers have been taken captive,” he said, adding that 100,000 people remained in the city living “in inhumane conditions. In a total blockade. Without food, water, medication. Under constant shelling, under constant bombing”.
- Russian forces are now inside Mariupol, a senior US defence official said. Two “super-powerful bombs” rocked the city on Tuesday even as rescue efforts were ongoing, local authorities said.
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Ukraine’s armed forces say its military continues to defend the southern port city of Mariupol as well as Chernihiv to deter Russia’s advance towards Kyiv, according to a report as of 6am this morning. Officials said rebels operating in Belarus against Russia’s war on Ukraine partially removed a railway connection between Belarus and Ukraine. The Ukrainian army also claimed that Russia has resorted to recruiting former soldiers to join its war effort in order to make up for heavy losses.
- Russia’s combat power in Ukraine has declined below 90% of its pre-invasion levels for the first time since its attack began, a senior US defence official said on Tuesday, suggesting heavy losses of weaponry and growing casualties and describing morale issues, command-and-control problems, a reliance on conscripts and a stalled advance to Kyiv.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to rule out the use of nuclear weapons in an interview with CNN on Tuesday. Peskov told the broadcaster that such arms could be used if Russia faced an “existential threat”. Russia has the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear warheads.
- The Pentagon later condemned Peskov’s refusal to rule out the use of nuclear weapons.
- US President Joe Biden will depart on Wednesday to fly to Brussels where he is expected to announce new sanctions against Russia and new measures to tighten existing ones.
- The deputy head of Kyiv’s police force has accused Russia of using white phosphorous munitions in the city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk. Oleksiy Biloshytskiy shared online footage, which could not be independently verified, of material burning fiercely underneath a pile of aggregate. “Another use of phosphorus ammunitions in Kramatorsk,” he said.
- Zelenskiy will speak virtually at the Nato summit in Brussels on Thursday, where US president Joe Biden is also planning to push for new sanctions against Russia. “Three important summits are scheduled this week: G7, Nato and the EU,” he said. “New packages of sanctions, new support.”
- About 300,000 people in the occupied southern city of Kherson are running out of food and medical supplies, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry said. Kherson was the first major Ukrainian city to fall into Russian hands since the invasion began on 24 February.
- Russia plans to unleash a “great terror” on Kherson by kidnapping residents and taking them across the Russian border, an FSB whistleblower has claimed. The Kremlin was no longer willing to “play nicely” with protesters in the Ukrainian city, a letter said.
- Russian forces have only three further days of fuel, food and ammunition left to conduct the war after a breakdown in their supply chains, Ukrainian military commanders have claimed. The statements were described as “plausible” by western officials.
- Russian forces have “kidnapped” 2,389 children from the Russian-controlled territories of Luhansk and Donetsk, the US embassy in Kyiv has said, citing figures by Ukraine’s foreign ministry. The embassy said: “This is not assistance. It is kidnapping.”
- The Ukrainian health minister, Viktor Lyashko, said 10 hospitals had been completely destroyed since Russia invaded. Other hospitals could not be restocked with medicines and supplies because of nearby fighting, the minister added.
- The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said it is time for Russia to end its “absurd” and “unwinnable” war in Ukraine, as the EU prepared to set up a “trust fund” aimed at helping Kyiv repel the invasion and rebuild afterwards. Speaking to reporters at the UN’s headquarters in New York, Guterres said the war was “going nowhere, fast”.
- The United States and its western allies are assessing whether Russia should remain within the Group of Twenty (G20) grouping of major economies following its invasion of Ukraine, sources involved in the discussions told Reuters on Tuesday.
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The war in Ukraine has killed 121 children so far, the office of the prosecutor general said on Wednesday in a message on Telegram, adding that the number of wounded children stood at 167.
- The United Nations will face three resolutions today on the worsening humanitarian situation in Ukraine after Russia decided to call for a vote on its Security Council resolution that makes no mention of its attack on Ukraine.
Updated
Russia’s combat power declined to below 90% of pre-invasion levels: US official
In case you missed this briefing from senior US defense officials, here is a quick recap.
Russia’s combat power in Ukraine has declined below 90% of its pre-invasion levels for the first time since its attack began, a senior US defence official said on Tuesday, suggesting heavy losses of weaponry and growing casualties.
The United States has estimated Russia assembled more than 150,000 troops around Ukraine before the 24 February invasion, along with enough aircraft, artillery, tanks and other firepower for its full-scale attack.
The US defence official, on condition of anonymity and according to a transcript published by the US department of defense, told reporters:
We assess Russian combat power at just below 90 percent.
They’re expending an awful lot, but they also built up an awful lot since the early fall, and they just have a lot available to them.
For the first time they may be just a little bit below 90 percent.”
The official did not provide evidence for the claims.
The defense official also gave a critical review of Russia’s ability to take over Ukraine, describing morale issues, command-and-control problems, a reliance on conscripts and a stalled advance to Kyiv.
The official said:
We still hold them about 30 kilometres to the east of Kyiv, which is where they were last week.
The official also described morale issues inside Russian ranks
Anecdotally, we still assess that the Russians are experiencing morale issues at various levels and at various places ... They did not expect this level of resistance.
Describing a reliance on conscript soldiers, the official added:
Some of them were not told what they were actually going to be doing inside Ukraine. We know they relied on conscripts, and they still do. I mean, still it has been largely a conscript army. And so these are very young men who haven’t -- don’t have a long experience with soldiering and -- and we believe that all those factors are combining to affect their morale.”
Additionally, the official said Russian forces continue to be plagued by logistical problems.
We believe that they are having command-and-control problems just in terms of communications. I mean, they just weren’t fully-prepared for operations of this intensity for this long on so many different multiple lines of attack.”
Ultimately, the official said Russia has not achieved its objectives, which is population centres so that they could occupy and take over Ukraine.
The war in Ukraine has killed 121 children so far, the office of the prosecutor general said on Wednesday in a message on Telegram, adding that the number of wounded children stood at 167.
The latest United Nations report on civilian casualties as of 10pm 21 March recorded 2,510 civilian casualties, including 953 killed and 1,557 injured. Of the 953 who have been killed, the agency said this comprised of 192 men, 142 women, 12 girls, and 26 boys, as well as 40 children and 541 adults whose sex is yet unknown.
#RussiaTerroristCountry #StopRussia pic.twitter.com/MxVKRFnGQq
— Верховна Рада України (@verkhovna_rada) March 23, 2022
Updated
The United Nations will face three resolutions today on the worsening humanitarian situation in Ukraine after Russia decided to call for a vote on its Security Council resolution that makes no mention of its attack on Ukraine.
The General Assembly is scheduled to start considering two rival resolutions Wednesday morning — one supported by Ukraine and western nations that makes clear Russia is responsible for the escalating humanitarian crisis and the other sponsored by South Africa that doesn’t mention Russia, the Associated Press reports.
The Security Council will vote on the third resolution, which is sponsored by Russia and widely criticised for not referring to its invasion of Ukraine. Russia had cancelled a council vote on the measure last Friday as diplomats predicted it would be overwhelmingly defeated.
Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, told reporters on Tuesday that Russia had now asked for a vote on Wednesday. It was scheduled to be held after the Security Council’s scheduled meeting Wednesday morning on its cooperation with the Arab League.
Polyansky said if Western nations don’t support the Russian resolution it will be “a reflection of their hypocrisy” and refusal to support a purely humanitarian measure “without any politicisation,” just like other humanitarian resolutions adopted by the 15-member council.
Ukrainian civilians continue to flee their homeland.
According to UNHCR figures, more than 3,557,245 Ukrainians have fled since Russia invaded on 24 February.
Russian troops continue to advance on key cities across Ukraine.
Navalny conviction reflects Russia's 'intensified crackdown on dissent', Human Rights Watch says
The latest conviction of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Tuesday reflects the Russian government’s intensified crackdown on dissent and free expression, Human Rights Watch has said.
Hugh Williamson, Europe and central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement:
This verdict is apparently intended not only to silence Navalny but to serve as a warning to Russian civil society and anyone who dares to stand up to the Kremlin’s policies.”
Navalny is already serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence and was found guilty of embezzling money from his own Anti-Corruption Foundation and sentenced to a further nine years in prison.
The cases against Navalny are part of the Kremlin’s grim landscape of repression against Russia’s civil society and peaceful dissent, which has drastically intensified since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin seems determined to isolate Russian society from the outside world to cut Russians off from uncomfortable facts, including about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. So it’s hardly surprising that Russian authorities are doubling down on smearing and silencing Navalny and others who can tell people not to believe the Kremlin’s lies and that the world is watching.”
Ukraine’s armed forces has released its operational report as of 6am this morning, claiming its military continues to defend the southern port city of Mariupol as well as Chernihiv to deter Russia’s advance towards Kyiv.
Notably, officials said rebels operating in Belarus against Russia’s war on Ukraine partially removed a railway connection between Belarus and Ukraine.
“On the territory of Belarus, representatives of the opposition forces and caring citizens, who condemn the contribution of the current illegal power of the Russian Federation in the war with Ukraine, partially removed the railway connection between the Republic of Belarus and Ukraine. The information is being specified,” the report, published by Ukraine’s the ministry of defence, read.
The Ukrainian army also claimed that Russia has resorted to recruiting former soldiers to join its war effort in order to make up for heavy losses.
Russian military officials have been actively recruiting former servicemen particularly “those who already have combat experience”, the Ukrainian military said.
Officials added that 17 Russian air targets were destroyed over the past 24 hours, including 6 aircraft, 5 UAVS, 1 helicopter and 5 winged missiles.
Updated
Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to attend a G20 summit being hosted by Indonesia later this year, Russia’s ambassador in Jakarta said on Wednesday, following calls by some members for the country to be barred from the group.
“Not only G20, many organisations are trying to expel Russia....the reaction of the west is absolutely disproportional,” ambassador Lyudmila Vorobieva told a news conference on Wednesday.
The United States and its western allies are assessing whether Russia should remain within the Group of Twenty (G20) grouping of major economies following its invasion of Ukraine, sources involved in the discussions told the news agency earlier on Tuesday.
Updated
Pentagon condemns Kremlin refusal to rule out use of nuclear weapons
The Pentagon has condemned Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s refusal to rule out the use of nuclear weapons during the Ukraine conflict.
Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the threat of using nuclear weapons and in an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Peskov refused to rule out their use.
Peskov told the broadcaster that such arms could be used if Russia faced an “existential threat”. Russia has the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear warheads.
President Putin has raised the threat of using nuclear weapons – and his spokesperson Dmitry Peskov refused to rule out their use, in an interview with me tonight. pic.twitter.com/uxQqncLGYN
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) March 22, 2022
US department of defense spokesman John Kirby said Moscow’s nuclear remarks were “dangerous”.
Speaking to reporters, he said:
It’s not the way a responsible nuclear power should act.”
However, Kirby added that Pentagon officials “haven’t seen anything that would lead us to conclude that we need to change our strategic deterrent posture”.
“We monitor this as best we can every day,” he added.
Former US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also criticised Peskov’s comments.
“I don’t see how you can see it any other way but as dangerous when Russia is looking for a possible excuse for the use of low-yield nuclear weapons,” Panetta told CNN.
“And basing it frankly on a very false premise that somehow Russia is being threatened. I think that presents a real concern that Russia at least is considering that possibility.”
Scenes of normality contrast with the catastrophic attacks Russia continues to launch on Ukraine.
The United States and its western allies are assessing whether Russia should remain within the Group of Twenty (G20) grouping of major economies following its invasion of Ukraine, sources involved in the discussions told Reuters on Tuesday.
The likelihood that any bid to exclude Russia outright would be vetoed by others in the club - which includes China, India, Saudi Arabia and others - raised the prospect of some countries instead skipping G20 meetings this year, the sources said.
The G20 along with the smaller Group of Seven - comprising just the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and Britain - is a key international platform for coordinating everything from climate change action to cross-border debt.
According to Reuters, a senior G7 source said:
There have been discussions about whether it’s appropriate for Russia to be part of the G20.
If Russia remains a member, it will become a less useful organisation.”
Asked whether US President Joe Biden would move to push Russia out of the G20 when he meets with allies in Brussels this week, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House Tuesday: “We believe that it cannot be business as usual for Russia in international institutions and in the international community.”
However, the United States plans to consult with its allies before any other pronouncements are made, he said.
A European Union source separately confirmed the discussions about Russia’s status at forthcoming meetings of the G20, whose rotating chair is currently held by Indonesia.
“It has been made very clear to Indonesia that Russia’s presence at forthcoming ministerial meetings would be highly problematic for European countries,” said the source, adding there was however no clear process for excluding a country.
Biden heads to Europe to announce new sanctions on Russia's Duma
US President Joe Biden is expected to announce new sanctions against Russia and new measures to tighten existing ones when he visits Brussels this week.
Biden will meet with leaders of Nato, the EU and G7 on Thursday, where he is expected to announce new sanctions on more than 300 members of Russia’s lower house of parliament as soon as Thursday, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed officials and internal documents.
“No final decisions have been made about who we will sanction and how many we will sanction,” said a White House spokesperson.
“We will have additional sanctions measures to announce that will be rolled out in conjunction with our allies on Thursday when the President has the opportunity to speak with them.”
Biden’s Europe trip is also set to include an announcement on joint action to enhance energy security on the continent, which is highly reliant on Russian gas, and a visit to Poland to show solidarity with Ukraine’s neighbour.
The US president will also announce more US aid to help tackle the growing refugee crisis in Poland and other eastern European countries, the White House said.
In a statement, the White House said Biden will also outline “further American contributions to a coordinated humanitarian response to ease the suffering of civilians inside Ukraine and to respond to the growing flow of refugees”.
Mariupol under 'constant bombing', Russia seizes humanitarian convoy, Zelenskiy says
In Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s nightly national address, the Ukrainian president provided an update on the situation unfolding in Mariupol, saying there are still 100,000 people in the city living in “inhumane” conditions while accusing Russian forces of seizing a humanitarian convoy near Mangush, just 20km south-west of Mariupol.
As of today, there are about 100,000 people in the city. In inhumane conditions. In a total blockade. Without food, water, medication. Under constant shelling, under constant bombing.”
The president added that officials are continuing to attempt to organise humanitarian corridors for Mariupol residents but efforts have been sabotaged by continued shelling.
Sadly, almost all of our efforts are sabotaged by Russian occupants, by [their] shelling or deliberate terror.
Today, one of the humanitarian convoys was seized by occupants on an arranged route near Mangush.
Employees of the State Emergency Service and bus drivers have been taken captive. We are doing everything to set our people free and unblocked the movement of humanitarian cargo.”
Despite the difficulties, Zelenskiy said 7,026 people were able to be saved from Mariupol with efforts continuing to arrange humanitarian corridors in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, and Luhansk regions.
Zelenskiy wrapped up his nightly address by promising he was continuing to work “to push Russia towards peace”.
We are continuing to work on various levels to push Russia towards peace, towards the end of this brutal war. Ukrainian representatives are continuing negotiations that basically take place daily. It is very hard, sometimes, scandalous. But step by step we are moving forward.”
Zelenskiy also noted the three summits scheduled for this week: G7, Nato and the EU.
New packages of sanctions, new support. We’ll keep working and will keep fighting as much as we can. Until the end. Courageously and openly. On all of those platforms. With full energy. With all our strength. And we will not get tired. We will have rest when we win. And it will definitely happen.”
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Summary
Hello it’s Samantha Lock with you and we unpack all the latest developments in Ukraine.
It is the morning of day 28 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Casualties are in the thousands and millions have fled the country seeking refuge abroad.
Here is a comprehensive rundown on where the crisis currently stands:
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Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russian forces of seizing a humanitarian convoy near Mangush west of Mariupol. “Employees of the state emergency service and bus drivers have been taken captive,” he said, adding that 100,000 people remained in the city living “in inhumane conditions. In a total blockade. Without food, water, medication. Under constant shelling, under constant bombing”.
- Russian forces are now inside Mariupol, a senior US defence official said. Two “super-powerful bombs” rocked the city on Tuesday even as rescue efforts were ongoing, local authorities said.
- Russia’s combat power in Ukraine has declined below 90% of its pre-invasion levels for the first time since its attack began, a senior US defence official said on Tuesday, suggesting heavy losses of weaponry and growing casualties and describing morale issues, command-and-control problems, a reliance on conscripts and a stalled advance to Kyiv.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to rule out the use of nuclear weapons in an interview with CNN on Tuesday. Peskov told the broadcaster that such arms could be used if Russia faced an “existential threat”. Russia has the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear warheads.
- The Pentagon later condemned Peskov’s refusal to rule out the use of nuclear weapons.
- US President Joe Biden will depart on Wednesday to fly to Brussels where he is expected to announce new sanctions against Russia and new measures to tighten existing ones.
- The deputy head of Kyiv’s police force has accused Russia of using white phosphorous munitions in the city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk. Oleksiy Biloshytskiy shared online footage, which could not be independently verified, of material burning fiercely underneath a pile of aggregate. “Another use of phosphorus ammunitions in Kramatorsk,” he said.
- Zelenskiy will speak virtually at the Nato summit in Brussels on Thursday, where US president Joe Biden is also planning to push for new sanctions against Russia. “Three important summits are scheduled this week: G7, Nato and the EU,” he said. “New packages of sanctions, new support.”
- About 300,000 people in the occupied southern city of Kherson are running out of food and medical supplies, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry said. Kherson was the first major Ukrainian city to fall into Russian hands since the invasion began on 24 February.
- Russia plans to unleash a “great terror” on Kherson by kidnapping residents and taking them across the Russian border, an FSB whistleblower has claimed. The Kremlin was no longer willing to “play nicely” with protesters in the Ukrainian city, a letter said.
- Russian forces have only three further days of fuel, food and ammunition left to conduct the war after a breakdown in their supply chains, Ukrainian military commanders have claimed. The statements were described as “plausible” by western officials.
- Russian forces have “kidnapped” 2,389 children from the Russian-controlled territories of Luhansk and Donetsk, the US embassy in Kyiv has said, citing figures by Ukraine’s foreign ministry. The embassy said: “This is not assistance. It is kidnapping.”
- The Ukrainian health minister, Viktor Lyashko, said 10 hospitals had been completely destroyed since Russia invaded. Other hospitals could not be restocked with medicines and supplies because of nearby fighting, the minister added.
- The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said it is time for Russia to end its “absurd” and “unwinnable” war in Ukraine, as the EU prepared to set up a “trust fund” aimed at helping Kyiv repel the invasion and rebuild afterwards. Speaking to reporters at the UN’s headquarters in New York, Guterres said the war was “going nowhere, fast”.
- The United States and its western allies are assessing whether Russia should remain within the Group of Twenty (G20) grouping of major economies following its invasion of Ukraine, sources involved in the discussions told Reuters on Tuesday.
As usual, for any tips and feedback please contact me through Twitter or at samantha.lock@theguardian.com
The Guardian keeps you up to the minute on the crisis in Ukraine with a global perspective and from our team around the world and around the clock. Thank you for reading and please do stay tuned.
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