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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Samantha Lock (now); Maanvi Singh, Gloria Oladipo, Léonie Chao-Fong and Martin Belam (earlier)

Zelenskiy says he had a ‘very active diplomatic day’ with world leaders – as it happened

Thanks for following today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

We have moved our liveblog to the link below.

Summary

It is approaching 7am in Ukraine in the second month of the war in Ukraine.

Here is a comprehensive rundown on where the situation currently stands:

  • Face-to-face peace talks between Ukraine and Russia are likely to start in Turkey today after negotiators arrived in Istanbul for their first face-to-face peace talks in more than two weeks. Both sides have played down the chances of a major breakthrough and a senior US official said Vladimir Putin did not appear ready to compromise.
  • Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly address that he had had a “very active diplomatic day” after speaking with British prime minister Boris Johnson, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, German chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian prime minister Mario Draghi and the president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.
  • Zelenskiy also urged for sanctions packages to be “effective and substantial” and called for countries to keep supplying weapons to Ukraine. “Ukrainians should not die just because someone cannot find enough courage to hand over the necessary weapons to Ukraine,” he said. “Fear always makes you an accomplice.”
  • Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia feels it is “amongst war” with the west after an array of sanctions were imposed on Russian businesses and individuals. Referencing Russia’s ongoing tension with Nato, Peskov told broadcaster PBS: “For a couple of decades, we were telling the collective west that we are afraid of your Nato’s moving eastwards. We too are afraid of Nato getting closer to our borders with its military infrastructure. Please take care of that. Don’t push us into the corner. No.”
  • Peskov added “no one is thinking about using” or “even about [the] idea of using a nuclear weapon”.
  • Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and a Ukrainian peace negotiator suffered symptoms consistent with poisoning earlier this month, according to a source with direct knowledge of the incident. Abramovich was taking part in informal peace negotiations in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, early in March when he began to feel ill, the source told the Guardian. Ukrainian MP Rustem Umerov was also part of the negotiation.
  • UK military intelligence says that Russia is expected to send more than 1,000 mercenaries into eastern Ukraine as they continue to suffer heavy losses. Russia’s private military company, the Wagner group, has already deployed to eastern Ukraine and is expected to send more than 1,000 mercenaries, including senior officials in the organisation, according to the Ministry of Defence.
  • Kyiv sees no signs on the ground that Russia has given up a plan to surround the Ukrainian capital, Ukrainian defence ministry spokesperson Oleksander Motuzyanyk said. “For now we don’t see the movement of enemy forces away from Kyiv,” he said in a televised briefing. Ukraine’s general staff of the armed forces claimed Russian troops are “weakened, disoriented” and “cut off from logistics and the main forces”.
  • Ukrainian forces have seized back full control of the town of Irpin, a few miles from Kyiv. The area’s mayor, Oleksandr Markushyn. said Irpin had been “liberated” and that Russian soldiers were “offering to surrender”. The United States cannot confirm who is in control of the city of Irpin, a senior US defence official said.
  • Russian soldiers who seized the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster drove unprotected through a highly toxic zone called the “Red Forest”, kicking up clouds of radioactive dust, Chernobyl workers told Reuters. The two sources said they had witnessed Russian tanks and other armoured vehicles moving through the Red Forest, which is the most radioactively contaminated part of the zone around Chernobyl.
  • Almost 5,000 people, including about 210 children, have been killed in the devastated city of Mariupol since Russia invaded Ukraine last month, a spokesperson for the mayor said. Vadym Boichenko said Mariupol was on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe and must be completely evacuated, with about 160,000 civilians were trapped in the city without power.
  • Ukraine’s economy minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, said the war has so far cost the country $564.9bn (£429.3bn) in terms of damage to infrastructure, lost economic growth and other factors. Eight thousand kilometres (4,970 miles) of roads and 10m sq metres of housing have been damaged or destroyed as a result of fighting, she said in an online post.
  • Video footage purporting to show the torture of Russian prisoners of war is being investigated by the Ukrainian government. The film, which has not been verified, appears to show Ukrainian soldiers removing three hooded Russians from a van before shooting them in the legs.
  • US president Joe Biden said he will “make no apologies” after appearing to call for Putin’s removal last week. When asked by a reporter if he regretted saying that Putin should not remain in power, Biden said: “I wasn’t then, nor am I now, articulating a policy change. I was expressing moral outrage that I felt.”
  • Britain’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, accused Putin’s forces of abducting innocent civilians, describing the move as an “abhorrent tactic” after Ukrainian human rights group, ZMINA, claimed to have identified dozens of individuals who had been abducted, with thousands more deported to Russia.

Updated

Earlier, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his people should not die just because someone cannot find enough courage to hand over the necessary weapons to Ukraine.

“Fear always makes you an accomplice”, he said. ‘If someone is afraid of Russia ... it makes these people responsible for the catastrophe created by Russian troops in our cities, too”.

Zelenskiy was lost for words at the thought that some countries were waiting for Russia to use chemical weapons before putting an embargo on Russia oil exports. “Waiting for chemical weapons”, he said. “We, living people, have to wait? Doesn’t everything that the Russian military is doing and has already done deserve an oil embargo?”

Thousands of Ukrainians continue to use subway stations as makeshift bomb shelters.

Many sleep just inches away from railway tracks.

People stay inside a subway station used as a bomb shelter in Kharkiv, northeast Ukraine.
People stay inside a subway station used as a bomb shelter in Kharkiv, northeast Ukraine. Photograph: Roman Pilipey/EPA
A cat sits on luggage as people stay inside a subway station used as a bomb shelter.
A cat sits on luggage as people stay inside a subway station used as a bomb shelter. Photograph: Roman Pilipey/EPA
A man sits inside a subway station with a bed close to the railway tracks.
A man sits inside a subway station with a bed close to the railway tracks. Photograph: Roman Pilipey/EPA

'Don’t push us into the corner' Kremlin spokesperson warns

Peskov described recent sanctions as a war against Russia in trade.

Unfortunately, those conditions, they are quite unfriendly. And they are enemy, enemy-like for us. We entered the phase, the phase of a total war. And we in Russia, we will feel ourselves amongst war, because Western European countries, United States, Canada, Australia, they actually — they actually — they are leading war against us in trade, in economy, in seizing our properties, in seizing our funds, in blocking our financial relations.

And we have to adapt ourselves to new reality. You have to understand Russia. You have to understand Russia.”

Referencing Russia’s ongoing tension with Nato, Peskov said:

For a couple of decades, we were telling the collective west that we are afraid of your Nato’s moving eastwards. We too are afraid of Nato getting closer to our borders with its military infrastructure. Please take care of that. Don’t push us into the corner. No.

Now we said, listen, guys, we are not happy with this coup in Ukraine. And you have guarantees by Poland, by France and by Germany. You would probably remember the document with the signatures of the relevant foreign ministers. No reaction.

Then, we said, listen, guys, we’re not happy with the possibility of Ukraine’s getting into Nato, because it will endanger us additionally, and it will ruin the balance of mutual deterrence in Europe. No reaction.

Then we said, listen, guys, we want equal relationship. We want to take into account each other’s concerns. If you don’t into account our concerns, then we will be a little bit nervous. No reaction completely.”

Regarding the possible stalemate emerging in Russia’s supply of gas to Europe after Vladimir Putin said he wants payment in rubles, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is not “going to make a charity out of it”.

PBS reporter Ryan Chilcote said it “looks like we have a stalemate here” and asked: “Will Russia turn off the tap? Will it cut off its gas exports to Europe if those countries refuse to pay for that gas in rubles?”

Peskov replied: “I don’t know what is going to happen when they reject this possibility.

So, as soon as we have the final decision, we will look what can be done. But, definitely, we are not going to make a charity out of it and to send gas free of charge to Western Europe.”

When continued to be pressed, Peskov added: “No payment, no gas.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said “no one is thinking about using” or “even about [the] idea of using a nuclear weapon” in an interview with PBS on Monday evening.

Reporter Ryan Chilcote asked Peskov to clear up the confusion surrounding Russia’s position on a possible nuclear attack after the Russian official previously said that Russia would only use nuclear weapons if its very existence were threatened.

“There’s still quite a bit of confusion about Russia’s position. We heard yet another official over the weekend, this time former President Dmitry Medvedev, say that Russia reserves the right to use nuclear weapons if it faces an existential threat, even if the other side has not employed nuclear weapons,” Chilcote said.

“So could you please clarify for us what exactly would amount to an existential threat to Russia?”

Peskov replied:

Well, first of all, we have no doubt that all the objectives of our special military operation in Ukraine will be completed. We have no doubt about that.

But any outcome of the operation, of course, is not a reason for usage of a nuclear weapon. We have a security concept that very clearly states that only when there is a threat for existence of the state in our country, we can use and we will actually use nuclear weapons to eliminate the threat or the existence of our country.”

Peskov continued to clarify that the existence of the state and Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine “have nothing to do with each other” while reminding Chilcote that Putin previously warned different states not to interfere in the affairs between Ukraine and Russia during the operation.

“He meant that he would use nuclear weapons? He was suggesting he would use nuclear weapons if a third party got involved in the conflict?” Chilcote pressed.

“I don’t think so,” Peskov replied.

Chilcote continued to push the Kremlin’s spokesperson, saying if he stuck to the dictionary definition of existential threat then “clearly, nothing that is taking place or that is even really, quite frankly, imaginable that could take place could reach that bar of threatening the existence of the Russian state.”

“So, why not just clear this up right now? Why can’t you, on behalf of Russia, rule out the use of nuclear weapons in this conflict, right here?”

Dmitry Peskov replied: “No one is thinking about using, about — even about idea of using a nuclear weapon.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov sits in front of a screen displaying Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov sits in front of a screen displaying Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photograph: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images

Here are some of the latest images to come out of Ukraine today.

On the outskirts of the capital, a woman looks up at the destruction of her home after a Russian missile plummeted through the roof near Brovary, Ukraine.

In the city of Kyiv, a man rides a bicycle past a statue of Grand Princess Olga, covered in sandbags.

In Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine, two people sit next to a wall of sandbags for protection against Russian shelling.

And in Odesa, a couple says goodbye before boarding the train to Przemysl, Poland.

Halyna Falko looks at the destruction caused after a Russian attack inside her house near Brovary, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine.
Halyna Falko looks at the destruction caused after a Russian attack inside her house near Brovary, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/AP
A man rides a bicycle backdropped by a statue of Grand Princess Olga of Kyiv, in the process of being covered in sandbags to avoid damage from potential shelling, in Kyiv, Ukraine.
A man rides a bicycle backdropped by a statue of Grand Princess Olga of Kyiv, in the process of being covered in sandbags to avoid damage from potential shelling, in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Vadim Ghirdă/AP
A volunteer smokes next to sandbags used for protection, at a Ukrainian volunteer centre in Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine.
A volunteer smokes next to sandbags used for protection, at a Ukrainian volunteer centre in Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine. Photograph: Petros Giannakouris/AP
Ukrainian refugees say goodbye while boarding the train to Przemysl, Poland, in Odesa, Ukraine.
Ukrainian refugees say goodbye while boarding the train to Przemysl, Poland, in Odesa, Ukraine. Photograph: Vladimir Sindeyeve/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

Ukraine’s military has just released its latest operational report as of 10pm this evening, claiming Russian troops are “weakened, disoriented” and “cut off from logistics and the main forces”.

“The command of the Russian occupying forces is trying to compensate for the decline in the combat potential of the enemy’s units by indiscriminate artillery fire and rocket-bomb attacks, thus destroying the infrastructure of Ukrainian cities,” officials from the general staff of the armed forces said.

Ukrainian forces “continue to maintain the circular defence of the city of Mariupol and defend and deter the advance of the enemy in the Chernihiv region,” the report added.

Ukrainian forces are also continuing to defend Kyiv and the settlements of Motyzhyn, Lisne, Kapitanivka and Dmytrivka, officials said.

An armoured convoy of pro-Russian troops near the besieged city of Mariupol.
An armoured convoy of pro-Russian troops near the besieged city of Mariupol. Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

Updated

In case you missed Joe Biden’s earlier remarks regarding his comments in Warsaw, you can watch the video from his press conference below.

During an appearance in Poland at the weekend, Biden said that Russian president Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”, which then prompted hurried efforts by other senior figures in the administration to play down the comment in the face of international criticism.

However, Biden on Monday defended the unscripted remarks, saying it reflected his own moral outrage, not an administration policy shift.

“I wasn’t then nor am I now articulating a policy change. I was expressing moral outrage that I felt and I make no apologies,” he said. Biden added that he was “not walking anything back” by clarifying the remark. Asked whether the remark would spur a negative response from Putin, Biden said: “I don’t care what he thinks ... He’s going to do what he’s going to do”.

Putin is resorting to 'desperate measures' by abducting innocent civilians, Truss says

Britain’s foreign secretary has accused Putin’s forces of abducting innocent civilians, describing the move as an “abhorrent tactic”.

Ukrainian human rights group, ZMINA, claimed to have identified dozens of individuals who had been abducted, with thousands more deported to Russia.

Liz Truss condemned the “abhorrent tactic” and said Putin was resorting to “desperate measures” in statements released by PA Media.

Putin continues to use abhorrent tactics against the Ukrainian people, including abducting innocent civilians.

He is not achieving his objectives and is resorting to desperate measures.

Putin must fail in Ukraine.”

Truss, in a statement to the House of Commons, later told MPs: “We know that Putin is not serious about talks, he is still wantonly bombing innocent citizens across Ukraine and that is why we need to do more to ensure that he loses and we force him to think again.

We must not just stop Putin in Ukraine but we must also look to the long term. We need to ensure that any future talks don’t end up selling Ukraine out or repeating the mistakes of the past.”

ZMINA’s chief Tetiana Pechonchyk said: “Russia is detaining and disappearing civilians in an attempt to break the spirit of the Ukrainian people.

Today we are publishing our first list of those who have been taken so the Kremlin knows the world is watching and will not allow them to come to harm.

In total we have so far documented 39 cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions in the Ukrainian territories newly occupied by Russia.”

Updated

Britain should use its leading role in the Ukraine war urgently to repair its relations with the EU by offering to help strengthen European security both via Nato and rapidly evolving EU defence plans, the director of Chatham House, Dr Robin Niblett, has proposed.

That will require working more formally with Brussels on foreign policy and defence, including issues such as cyber, intelligence and disinformation, said Niblett, who heads Britain’s leading foreign policy thinktank.

He said the move would not only strengthen Europe following “Vladimir Putin’s decision to rip up the post-cold war security arrangements in Europe”, but help indirectly to repair EU-UK economic trade relations.

Read the full story by the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, below.

Amnesty International also accused Russia of committing war crimes in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

The human rights organisation said it will soon release an in-depth report on the devastation caused by Russia’s assault on the city on the Sea of Azov. Amnesty’s Secretary-General Agnes Callamard made the announcement in a press conference in Johannesburg, as reported by the Associated Press.

The siege of Mariupol, the denial of humanitarian evacuation and humanitarian escape for the population, and the targeting of civilians, according to Amnesty International’s investigation, amounts to war crimes.”

The crisis in Ukraine right now, the invasion ... is not just any kind of violation of international law. It is an aggression. It is a violation of the UN charter of the kind that we saw when the US invaded Iraq.”

A service member of pro-Russian troops walks near an apartment building destroyed in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine.
A service member of pro-Russian troops walks near an apartment building destroyed in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine. Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

Updated

Russia’s assault on Ukraine is “a repetition of what we have seen in Syria,” Amnesty International has said.

Agnes Callamard, secretary general of the global rights watchdog, told Agence France-Presse:

What is happening in Ukraine is a repetition of what we have seen in Syria.

We are in the midst of deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure,” she said, accusing Russia of turning humanitarian corridors into ‘death traps’.

We see the same thing [in Ukraine], just as Russia did in Syria”.

Amnesty’s director in Eastern Europe and Asia, Marie Struthers concurred, telling a separate briefing in Paris that researchers in Ukraine had “documented the use of the same tactics as in Syria and Chechnya, including attacks on civilians and the use of arms prohibited under international law.

Comparing the besieged city of Mariupol, to Syrian city of Aleppo, bludgeoned by President Bashar al-Assad, with the help of Russian airpower, Callamard said the rights lobby group’s “observation at this point, is a rise in war crimes,” she said.

Russia was the main backer of the Syrian governments in the war that erupted in March 2011.

'Fear always makes you an accomplice,' Zelenskiy warns

Wrapping up his late-night address, Zelenskiy urged other countries to act with courage.

Ukrainians should not die just because someone cannot find enough courage to hand over the necessary weapons to Ukraine.

Fear always makes you an accomplice.

If someone is afraid of Russia, if he or she is afraid to make the necessary decisions that are important to us, in particular for us to get planes, tanks, necessary artillery, shells, it makes these people responsible for the catastrophe created by Russian troops in our cities, too.

Because if you could save, you had to save.”

Updated

Weak sanctions creates 'dangerous illusion' for Russia, Zelenskiy says

Finally, Zelenskiy delivered some emphatic lines regarding sanctions imposed on Russia.

Ukraine cannot and will not agree with the passive sanctions position of some entities towards Russia. There should be no ‘suspended’ sanctions packages - that if the Russian troops do something, then there will be some answer...

We went through this story last year when we said that strong preventive sanctions against Russia were needed to prevent an invasion. The preventive package was not made. A full-scale war has begun.

There are now many hints and warnings that sanctions will be tightened, such as an embargo on Russian oil supplies to Europe, if Russia uses chemical weapons. There are simply no words.”

Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy said w sanctions creates a ‘dangerous illusion’ for Russia.
Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy said w sanctions creates a ‘dangerous illusion’ for Russia. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Reuters

Zelenskiy continued to claim a tightening of sanctions now depends on Russia’s use of chemical weapons.

Just think about what it all came down to. Waiting for chemical weapons... We, living people, have to wait… Doesn’t everything that the Russian military is doing and has already done deserve an oil embargo? Don’t phosphorus bombs deserve that? Do the shelled chemical production or nuclear power plant deserve that?

Zelenskiy urged for sanctions packages to be “effective and substantial”.

If the sanctions packages are weak or do not work enough, if they can be circumvented, it creates a dangerous illusion for the Russian leadership that they can continue to afford what they are doing now. And Ukrainians pay for it with their lives. Thousands of lives.”

The Ukrainian president announced he would be creating a group of experts at the President’s Office - Ukrainian and international, who will “constantly analyse the sanctions against Russia” and what they influence.

Our goal is for the sanctions to work as intended. And so that there is no possibility to circumvent them. This must be a goal for the whole democratic world, without exception. No exception...

No one has the right to use the lives of Ukrainians to save any income in Russia or income common with Russia.”

Updated

Zelenskiy also described a “very active diplomatic day” after speaking with British prime minister Boris Johnson, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian prime minister Mario Draghi and the president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

We agreed with Britain to further support our defence and strengthen sanctions against the Russian Federation.

Canada also supports a tougher response from the world to the catastrophe created by Russian troops in Ukrainian cities.

In a conversation with German Chancellor Scholz, I also paid considerable attention to the need to increase sanction pressure on Russia.

Italy has agreed to become one of the guarantors of Ukraine’s security in the relevant new system of guarantees that we are elaborating.”

Zelenskiy said he will continue with talks tomorrow and during the week will speak in the parliaments of Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Greece and Australia.

“It is important that these are speeches not only in front of politicians, but also in front of societies,” he said. “In front of millions of people who want to hear Ukraine and are ready to hear it to help and support. Who feel that we are fighting for our common freedom. One for all people on our Earth.”

Updated

Hello, it’s Samantha Lock with you as my colleague Maanvi Singh signs off.

In what has become a wartime signature for the Ukrainian president, Zelenskiy has given another late-night national address.

Noting his country’s military successes over the past day, Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces liberated Irpin, are advancing in the Kyiv region and are regaining control over Ukrainian territory.

“The occupiers are pushed away from Irpin. Pushed away from Kyiv,” he said adding that “it is too early to talk about security in this part of our region. The fighting continues.”

Describing the situation in and around the capital, Kyiv, Zelenskiy said:

Russian troops control the north of Kyiv, have the resources and manpower. They are trying to restore the destroyed units.

The level of their losses, even at 90%, is not an argument for them to stop. Hundreds and hundreds of units of burned and abandoned enemy equipment do not convince them that this will happen to everyone.”

Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv regions, Donbas, southern Ukraine - the situation everywhere remains tense, very difficult.”

The besieged southern city of Mariupol “remains blocked”, Zelenskiy confirmed adding that “Russian troops did not allow any humanitarian corridor to be organised today”.

Updated

Catch up

  • Face-to-face peace talks between Ukraine and Russia are likely to start in Turkey on Tuesday. As negotiators arrived in Istanbul for their first face-to-face peace talks in more than two weeks, both sides played down the chances of a major breakthrough and a senior US official said Vladimir Putin did not appear ready to compromise.
  • The billionaire Roman Abramovich and a Ukrainian peace negotiator suffered symptoms consistent with poisoning earlier this month, according to a source with direct knowledge of the incident. Abramovich was taking part in informal peace negotiations in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, early in March when he began to feel ill, the source told the Guardian. Ukrainian MP Rustem Umerov was also part of the negotiation.
  • Russian soldiers who seized the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster drove unprotected through a highly toxic zone called the “Red Forest”, kicking up clouds of radioactive dust, Chernobyl workers told Reuters. The two sources said they had witnessed Russian tanks and other armoured vehicles moving through the Red Forest, which is the most radioactively contaminated part of the zone around Chernobyl.
  • Kyiv sees no signs on the ground that Russia has given up a plan to surround the Ukrainian capital, Ukrainian defence ministry spokesperson Oleksander Motuzyanyk said. “For now we don’t see the movement of enemy forces away from Kyiv,” he said in a televised briefing.
  • President Zelenskiy accused Russian authorities of disrespect towards the families of their own dead soldiers. Criticising Moscow for not agreeing on a scheme to have the remains of those killed in action returned to Russia, Zelenskiy claimed the Kremlin was affording less respect to those killed during its invasion of Ukraine than is usually given to dead pets.
  • Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s last remaining independent news outlets, has said it will suspend operations after it received a second warning from the state censor for allegedly violating the country’s “foreign agent” law. The warning came a day after its editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, spoke with Zelenskiy in a group interview with Russian journalists that was quickly banned by the state media watchdog, Roskomnadzor.
  • Video footage purporting to show the torture of Russian prisoners of war is being investigated by the Ukrainian government. The film, which has not been verified, appears to show Ukrainian soldiers removing three hooded Russians from a van before shooting them in the legs.
  • US president Joe Biden said he will “make no apologies” after calling for Putin’s removal last week. When asked by a reporter if he regretted saying that Putin should not remain in power, Biden said: “I wasn’t then, nor am I now, articulating a policy change. I was expressing moral outrage that I felt.”
  • Earlier today, Ukraine experienced a large cyberattack against telecom provider Ukrtelecom. The State Special Communications Service of Ukraine (SSSCIP Ukraine) reported that Russian forces had launched an attack against Ukrtelecom, Ukraine’s singular telephone company.
  • UK military intelligence says that Russia is expected to send more than 1,000 mercenaries into eastern Ukraine amid heavy losses. Russia’s private military company, the Wagner group, has already deployed to eastern Ukraine and is expected to send more than 1,000 mercenaries, including senior officials in the organisation, tweeted the Ministry of Defence.

– Léonie Chao-Fong, Gloria Oladipo

Updated

The Guardian view on Zelenskiy’s strategy: giving war – and peace – a chance

A political gaffe, Michael Kinsley wrote, “is when a politician tells the truth – some obvious truth he isn’t supposed to say”. President Joe Biden, a self-proclaimed “gaffe machine”, did not fail to deliver at the weekend by declaring that the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, “cannot remain in power”. A Freudian slip, perhaps, from a US president who has already called Mr Putin a “butcher” and a “murderous dictator”. But regime change in Russia is not official US policy – and nor should it be, given the nuclear, chemical and biological weapons Mr Putin possesses.

The uproar caused by Mr Biden’s comment led to it being walked back by the White House. This was the mature and correct way for Washington to proceed. Mr Biden had made the unfortunate comment on the eve of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Progress has been slow. But the US president’s statement threatened to bring negotiations to a halt. If Mr Biden’s words had not been withdrawn, Mr Putin’s worst fears – that the US wanted him gone – would be confirmed. The Russian president, who has hitherto shown no restraint, would have no reason to compromise, with everything to lose.

The Roman statesman Cicero thought that the purpose of war was peace. The Ukrainian army has bravely fought Russian forces to a standstill, but cannot retake the ground it has lost. Mr Putin’s blitzkrieg to topple the Kyiv government failed. There’s no end in sight for the first major European conflict this century. Ukraine is fighting a just war of self-defence. Russia is engaged in an unjust war of aggression. Cicero believed that “an unjust peace is better than a just war”. But terms of peace that were too favourable to Russia would simply be an agreement for further fighting.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has adopted a twin-track strategy to deal with Moscow. He is softening his diplomatic position – telling Russian journalists that Ukraine could be neutral and compromise over the status of the eastern Donbas region as part of a peace deal – while hardening his military position by calling for more tanks, missiles and even fighter jets from Nato. Mr Zelenskiy wants to secure as much sovereignty and autonomy as possible. He deserves our support. Mr Putin does not appear to be taking the talks anywhere near as seriously as Ukraine is. This might explain Mr Zelenskiy’s call for a face-to-face meeting with Mr Putin.

The Russian president does not want to be seen to lose. Mr Putin has become drunk on his success in extending his influence across the former Soviet republics and in the Middle East. Yet his immoral and illegal war in Ukraine has galvanised Nato and united the EU. Mr Putin has made real what he most feared: a Ukraine proudly distinct from Russia in which liberals and nationalists have found common cause.

Read more:

Updated

Analysis: There is a murky history behind the apparent targeting of Roman Abramovich and two Ukrainian negotiators

An alleged poisoning targeting, apparently, one of the country’s best known international figures. Such a story could only really involve Russia, the state accused of being behind dozens of poisonings over the past century.

The plot, in its initial telling, appears bizarre: Roman Abramovich, now the outgoing owner of Chelsea FC, and Ukrainian negotiators engaged in back channel talks were targeted after a meeting in Kyiv – developing symptoms including peeling skin, irritable eyes and were, it is said, painful tears.

Can we be sure they were poisoned? Not really; the three men were too busy to provide samples to German toxicologists quickly enough. And their symptoms, never life-threatening, appear to have improved. So like a true Russian mystery, the truth may never be known.

But the Kremlin has enough form in this area for poisoning to be a plausible cause, a 100-year history that dates back to the founding of Moscow’s Lab X poisoning laboratory by Vladimir Lenin back in 1921.

Names, leaders and possibly ideologies may have changed over the intervening period, but the current regime of Vladimir Putin is accused of being behind multiple poisonings of those who opposed the Kremlin, including the use of the nerve agent novichok.

The FSB is accused of trying to kill opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who collapsed on an internal flight in August 2020 and only survived because he was able to get to specialists in Germany for treatment. It was administered, an FSB agent later inadvertently revealed to Navalny himself, in the “inner seams” of his underpants.

A couple of years before that, two agents from GRU military intelligence took a trip to Salisbury, although they had no intention of admiring the city’s 123-metre-high cathedral spire, as they later claimed. Novichok, carried in a disguised perfume bottle, was sprayed on the door handle of the house of defector and former colleague Sergei Skripal.

It was March 2018 and Sergei’s daughter Yulia was visiting. A few hours after the agents had visited, the two were found on a park bench in the centre of the Wiltshire city, foaming at the mouth and drifting in and out of consciousness.

They were lucky to survive. Like Navalny, they were able to receive timely treatment and the dose was not large. Not so fortunate was Dawn Sturgess, a Briton, whose partner found the discarded perfume bottle in a bin and gave it to her thinking it was a gift. After spraying it on her wrists in July 2018, she fell ill within 15 minutes and died a few days later.

Read more:

Updated

Here’s a report from the Observer’s Mark Townsend on how the Wagner group’s mercenaries have been linked to white supremacists and other far-right groups:

Russian mercenaries fighting in Ukraine, including the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group, have been linked to far-right extremism including an organisation designated by the US as terrorist, analysis reveals.

Although Vladimir Putin says his “special military operation” is aimed at the “denazification” of Ukraine, an investigation has found links between pro-Russian forces and violent rightwing extremism, including those directly affiliated with Wagner.

One post on the messaging app Telegram, dated 15 March, shows the flag of the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM), a white-supremacist paramilitary organisation which the US lists as terrorist, allegedly flown by Moscow-backed separatists in Donetsk. The post was shared by a pro-Putin channel.

Much of the extremist content, posted on Telegram and the Russian social media platform VKontakte (VK), relates to a far-right unit within the Wagner Group called Rusich with others linked to pro-Kremlin online communities, some bearing the name and logo of Wagner Group.

Adam Hadley, the executive director of Tech Against Terrorism, a London-based initiative supported by the UN counter-terrorism executive directorate, said their analysis indicated that Russian-backed forces in Ukraine, including the Wagner Group, are “almost certainly connected with extreme far-right organisations”.

Read the full article here.

Updated

UK military intelligence says that Russia is expected to send more than 1,000 mercenaries into eastern Ukraine amid heavy losses.

Russia’s private military company, the Wagner group, has already deployed to eastern Ukraine and is expected to send more than 1,000 mercenaries, including senior officials in the organisation, tweeted the Ministry of Defence.

Wagner group personnel have reportedly been pulled from separate missions in Syria and other parts of Africa as Ukraine remains prioritized.

Updated

A collective of journalists working in Ukraine have asked president Zelenskiy and other Ukrainian officials to end harassment of journalists in the country and provide transparent rules for covering Russian shelling.

The statement, which was published on the Institute of Mass Information’s website, says:

We, Ukrainian and foreign journalists, as well as media organisations and NGOs, demand that all measures be taken immediately to end the harassment of journalists who are Ukraine’s greatest allies in this war. We also demand to involve qualified technical specialists and to develop transparent rules for the coverage of Russian shelling.

The contribution of journalists is extremely valuable for Ukraine. It is through their work that the world and the citizens of Ukraine learn about Russia’s crimes, about the humanitarian catastrophe they caused, and about the destruction and victims of the Russian shelling. It is thanks to the free and unhindered work of foreign journalists that the world now supports Ukraine. Instead, the Russian dictatorship is making every effort to exterminate independent journalists and newsrooms.

Due to systematic unsubstantiated statements by officials and official structures, the society began to see betrayal and “adjustment of fire” in the work of all journalists without exception, which is extremely harmful for Ukraine.

We call for immediate resolution of key issues which are necessary to improve the situation with the work of journalists in Ukraine.

1. Settle the issue of accreditation of journalists from the Ministry of Defence. Explain to the Territorial Defence Units and the Security Service of Ukraine on the ground what this accreditation means. If journalists are required to provide additional documents to confirm the MoD’s accreditation, indicate what these documents should be in order to remove questions to journalists.

2. Stop the practice of “manual mode” of journalists’ access to filming locations. Army generals must solve combat tasks, not spend their precious time on micromanagement of film crews on the ground.

3. Involve technical specialists and finally resolve the issue of coverage of artillery and missile shelling and places of destruction. Allow journalists to work on the spot immediately after the shelling, but, if necessary, impose an embargo on the publication of information after the shelling. The decision to not cover the shelling should be reasoned by experts and transparent.

4. Settle issues related to the coverage of humanitarian aid distribution points, bomb shelters, the life of peaceful cities, etc. We remind you that information about these places is publicly available, and on the contrary, the authorities and activists ask the media to disseminate it to inform citizens.

5. Provide all possible assistance to the work of Ukrainian journalists, on a par with foreign media, and end “double standards” in relation to foreign and Ukrainian journalists.

We call on the parties to engage in dialogue and build transparent rules for the work of journalists in Ukraine. In order for Ukraine to win, it is very important to build the most favourable conditions for the work of a free press, as much as possible in conditions of war.

The full statement is also available here.

Updated

Earlier today, Ukraine experienced a large cyberattack against telecom provider Ukrtelecom.

The State Special Communications Service of Ukraine (SSSCIP Ukraine) reported that Russian forces had launched a cyberattack against Ukrtelecom, Ukraine’s singular telephone company.

SSSCIP chairman Yurii Shchyhol confirmed that the cyberattack has been neutralised and said that efforts were underway to resume service.

Amid the cyberattack, Ukretelecom is not providing service to the majority of its private users and business clients to protect its network infrastructure and continue providing service to the Ukraine army.

Updated

1,009 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities via humanitarian corridors today, reported Reuters citing a senior Ukrainian official.

A total of 1,099 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors on Monday, a senior official said.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president’s office, said in an online post that 586 people had left the besieged the city of Mariupol by car and 513 were evacuated by bus in the Luhansk region.

An alleged poisoning targeting, apparently, one of the country’s best known international figures. Such a story could only really involve Russia, the state accused of being behind dozens of poisonings over the past century.

The plot, in its initial telling, appears bizarre: Roman Abramovich, now the outgoing owner of Chelsea FC, and Ukrainian negotiators engaged in back channel talks were targeted after a meeting in Kyiv – developing symptoms including peeling skin, irritable eyes and were, it is said, painfully crying.

Can we be sure they were poisoned? Not really; the three men were too busy to provide samples to German toxicologists quickly enough. And their symptoms, never life threatening, appear to have improved. So like a true Russian mystery, the truth may never be known.

But the Kremlin has enough form in this area for poisoning to be a plausible cause, a hundred-year history that dates back to the founding of Moscow’s Lab X poisoning laboratory by Vladimir Lenin back in 1921.

Names, leaders and possibly ideologies may have changed over the intervening period, but the current regime of Vladimir Putin is accused of being behind multiple poisonings of those who opposed the Kremlin, including the use of the nerve agent novichok.

The FSB is accused of trying to kill opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who collapsed on an internal flight in August 2020 and only survived because he was able to get to specialists in Germany for treatment. It was administered, an FSB agent later inadvertently revealed to Navalny himself, in the “inner seams” of his underpants

Read the rest of Dan Sabbagh’s here: A familiar plot but truth may never be known about latest ‘Russian poisoning’

Here are updates on where ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine currently stand, from the Financial Times’ Max Seddon, Roman Olearchyk, and Henry Foy:

Russia is no longer requesting Ukraine be “denazified” and is prepared to let Kyiv join the European Union if it remains military non-aligned as part of ongoing ceasefire negotiations, according to four people briefed on the discussions.

Moscow and Kyiv are discussing a pause in hostilities as part of a possible deal that would involve Ukraine abandoning its drive for Nato membership in exchange for security guarantees and the prospect to join the EU, the people said under the condition of anonymity because the matter is not yet finalised.

The draft ceasefire document does not contain any discussion of three of Russia’s initial core demands — “denazification”, “demilitarisation”, and legal protection for the Russian language in Ukraine — the people added. Envoys from both sides meet in Istanbul on Tuesday in a fourth round of peace talks designed to end president Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The concessions on Russia’s side come as its month-long ground offensive has largely stalled as a result of fiercer Ukrainian resistance than expected and Russian operational deficiencies. But Ukraine and its western backers remain sceptical of Putin’s intentions, worrying that the Russian president could be using the talks as a smokescreen to replenish his exhausted forces and plan a fresh offensive.

David Arakhamia, head of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s party in parliament and a member of Kyiv’s negotiating team, told the FT the parties were close to agreement on the security guarantees and Ukraine’s EU bid but urged caution about prospects for a breakthrough.

“All the issues” have been “on the table since the beginning” of negotiations but “lots of points — like in every single item there are unresolved points”, Arakhamia said.

Read the full article here (paywall).

US president Joe Biden said he will “make no apologies” after calling for Putin’s removal last week, adding that he was expressing “moral outrage”.

When asked by a reporter if he regretted saying that Putin should not remain in power, Biden said:

I’m not walking anything back … I wasn’t then, nor am I now, articulating a policy change. I was expressing moral outrage that I felt and I make no apologies for it.

Biden added: “Nobody believes I was talking about taking down Putin … nobody believes that. I was expressing my outrage at the behavior of this man.”

Previously, while making a speech in Poland, Biden said that Putin “cannot remain in power.” US officials quickly amended Biden’s comments, saying that Biden was not calling for regime change in Russia.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, in turn, responded to Biden’s earlier remarks saying: “This [Putin remaining in power] is not to be decided by Mr Biden. It should only be a choice of the people of the Russian Federation.”

Updated

Ukraine’s foreign minister reiterated today that Ukraine’s most ambitious goal ahead of peace talks with Russia this week is to agree to a ceasefire, reported Reuters.

While answering questions about the scope of upcoming peace negotiations, Dmytro Kuleba said:

The minimum programme will be humanitarian questions, and the maximum programme is reaching an agreement on a ceasefire.

The latest peace talks between Russia and Ukraine will likely begin tomorrow in Turkey.

Ukraine has proof that Russian forces used banned cluster bombs in two southern regions of the country, reported AFP.

Ukraine prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova told reporters today that while Ukraine officials did not have proof that Russian forces used cluster bombs on Kyiv, they had proof that cluster bombs were used in the Odesa and Kherson regions.

“We have proof of the utilisation of cluster bombs in the Odesa region and in the Kherson area,” said Venediktova.

Venediktova also added, without providing further details:

But … I can only mention instances where I have very concrete proof, for example … when I have (bomb) fragments or soil samples and analyses …

Human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also said that they have proof that, during the Ukraine invasion, Russia used cluster bombs in areas where civilians were present.

Cluster bombs spread dozens of tiny explosive charges in an area. Some of the explosives may not immediately explode and, in effect, become anti-personnel mines that pose a threat to civilians after a conflict ends, said AFP.

A 1997 UN treaty concluded that the use of anti-personnel mines was banned. Though Russia and the US never signed, Ukraine did.

Updated

UK prime minister Boris Johnson says that the UK will continue to help Ukraine defend itself while commenting on talks he had today with Ukraine president Zelenskiy.

From Boris Johnson’s twitter:

President [Zelenskiy] updated me today on the humanitarian situation in Mariupol, as well as the current negotiations with Russia.

The UK will continue to step up our efforts to help Ukraine defend itself from aggression.

Updated

The governor of Ukraine’s Rivne region said that an oil depot has been hit by a rocket strike, reports Reuters.

During a short video address, Vitaliy Koval, head of Rivne regional administration, said that the oil tanks had been struck by Russian forces, reported Euromaidan Press.

Updated

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, spoke today about the unity between Ireland and Ukraine during Russia’s ongoing invasion, following a conversation he had today with Ireland’s foreign minister.

From Dmytro Kuleba’s twitter:

Spoke with Irish foreign minister [Simon Coveney] Ireland remains our dedicated partner and friend. Grateful for Ireland’s active stance and comprehensive support within the EU, as well as taking care of Ukrainian citizens. Discussed efforts to put an end to Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine.

Updated

The UK will increase its economic pressure on Russia, said UK prime minister Boris Johnson to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy today, Reuters has reported.

“The prime minister reiterated the UK would maintain and strengthen economic pressure on Putin’s regime,” said Johnson’s office in a readout of the call between the two world leaders. “President Zelenskiy provided an update on negotiations and the two leaders agreed to coordinate closely in the days ahead.”

Johnson and Zelenskiy’s conversation comes ahead of face-to-face peace talks between Russia and Ukraine that will likely begin on Tuesday in Turkey.

Updated

Catch up

It is 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand now:

  • Face-to-face peace talks between Ukraine and Russia are likely to start in Turkey on Tuesday. As negotiators arrived in Istanbul for their first face-to-face peace talks in more than two weeks, both sides played down the chances of a major breakthrough and a senior US official said Vladimir Putin did not appear ready to compromise.
  • The billionaire Roman Abramovich and a Ukrainian peace negotiator suffered symptoms consistent with poisoning earlier this month, according to a source with direct knowledge of the incident. Abramovich was taking part in informal peace negotiations in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, early in March when he began to feel ill, the source told the Guardian. Ukrainian MP Rustem Umerov was also part of the negotiation.
  • Russian soldiers who seized the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster drove unprotected through a highly toxic zone called the “Red Forest”, kicking up clouds of radioactive dust, Chernobyl workers told Reuters. The two sources said they had witnessed Russian tanks and other armoured vehicles moving through the Red Forest, which is the most radioactively contaminated part of the zone around Chernobyl.
  • Kyiv sees no signs on the ground that Russia has given up a plan to surround the Ukrainian capital, Ukrainian defence ministry spokesperson Oleksander Motuzyanyk said. “For now we don’t see the movement of enemy forces away from Kyiv,” he said in a televised briefing.
  • President Zelenskiy accused Russian authorities of disrespect towards the families of their own dead soldiers. Criticising Moscow for not agreeing on a scheme to have the remains of those killed in action returned to Russia, Zelenskiy claimed the Kremlin was affording less respect to those killed during its invasion of Ukraine than is usually given to dead pets.
  • Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s last remaining independent news outlets, has said it will suspend operations after it received a second warning from the state censor for allegedly violating the country’s “foreign agent” law. The warning came a day after its editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, spoke with Zelenskiy in a group interview with Russian journalists that was quickly banned by the state media watchdog, Roskomnadzor.
  • Video footage purporting to show the torture of Russian prisoners of war is being investigated by the Ukrainian government. The film, which has not been verified, appears to show Ukrainian soldiers removing three hooded Russians from a van before shooting them in the legs.

That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, for today as I hand over the blog to my colleague Gloria Oladipo. See you tomorrow.

Updated

EU ministers have unanimously endorsed a 10-point plan to create registration and co-ordination hubs for people fleeing Ukraine into Europe, at a meeting of home affairs and justice ministers on Monday.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, 3.8 million people, half of them children, have arrived in Europe. Some 800,000 have so far applied for temporary protection. EU member states, particularly the countries bordering Ukraine, have put in place reception capacities.

Ukrainian refugees arrive at the reception centre about three kilometers from the Moldova-Ukraine border, in Palanca Village, Moldova, 19 March 2022.
Ukrainian refugees arrive at the reception centre about three kilometers from the Moldova-Ukraine border, in Palanca Village, Moldova, 19 March 2022. Photograph: Dumitru Doru/EPA
A view of a reception point for refugees from Ukraine established near the Warszawa Wschodnia (Warsaw East) train station on 22 March 2022.
A view of a reception point for refugees from Ukraine established near the Warszawa Wschodnia (Warsaw East) train station on 22 March 2022. Photograph: Paweł Supernak/EPA

Ukrainian refugees have the right to live and work in the EU for three years under an emergency plan, the temporary protection directive (TPD) agreed earlier this month in response to Europe’s biggest refugee crisis this century.

The EU has also provided support to the most affected member states through its civil protection mechanism and EU agencies, and is working to unlock additional funds to provide emergency support.

The arrivals to the EU are slowing, with 200,000 people per day initially, down to 40,000 per day. Poland has the most, at 1.5 million.

Updated

The United States cannot confirm who is in control of the city of Irpin, west of Kyiv, a senior US defence official said.

The official said Ukrainian forces have retaken the town of Trostyanets from the Russians, and are also actively attempting to seize control of Kherson.

From the Washington Post’s Dan Lamothe:

Irpin mayor Oleksandr Markushin earlier announced that the city, which has been under heavy attack since the early days of the invasion, had been “liberated” from Russian forces.

Updated

Russian soldiers who seized the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster drove unprotected through a highly toxic zone called the “Red Forest”, kicking up clouds of radioactive dust, Chernobyl workers said.

The soldiers drove their armoured vehicles without any anti-radiation gear, according to two sources who spoke to Reuters. Both were on duty when Russian tanks entered Chernobyl on 24 February and took control of the site.

The two Chernobyl employees said they had witnessed Russian tanks and other armoured vehicles moving through the Red Forest, which is the most radioactively contaminated part of the zone around Chernobyl.

One of the Chernobyl employees said it was “suicidal” for the soldiers because the radioactive dust they inhaled was likely to cause internal radiation in their bodies.

Chernobyl nuclear site
The hernobyl nuclear site, about 100km (65 miles) north of Kyiv. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters

A vast area around Chernobyl is off-limits to anyone who does not work there or have special permission, but the Red Forest is considered so highly contaminated that even the nuclear plant workers are not allowed to go there.

The Russian military convoy went through the zone, the two sources said. One of them said it used an abandoned road.

One of the sources said:

A big convoy of military vehicles drove along a road right behind our facility and this road goes past the Red Forest.

The convoy kicked up a big column of dust. Many radiation safety sensors showed exceeded levels.

Reuters could not independently verify their accounts. Asked about the accounts from Chernobyl staff, Russia’s defence ministry did not respond.

Updated

Ukraine government investigates video alleged to show torture of Russian PoWs

Video footage purporting to show the torture of Russian prisoners of war is being investigated by the Ukrainian government.

The film, which has not been verified, appears to show Ukrainian soldiers removing three hooded Russians from a van before shooting them in the legs.

The Ukrainian military commander Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi accused Russia of staging the videos.

“The enemy produces and shares videos with the inhuman treatment of alleged ‘Russian prisoners’ by ‘Ukrainian soldiers’ in order to discredit the Ukrainian defence forces,” Zaluzhnyi said.

However, the government in Kyiv said they were taking the allegations of mistreatment “very seriously” and that there would be an immediate investigation.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said:

We are a European army, and we do not mock our prisoners. If this turns out to be real, this is absolutely unacceptable behaviour.

Arestovych added:

I would like to remind all our military, civilian and defence forces once again that the abuse of prisoners is a war crime that has no amnesty under military law and has no statute of limitations.

Oleksander Motuzyanyk, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military, said they did not know who was involved or where the incidents took place.

He said

Currently, no one can confirm or deny the veracity of this video. It’s not known where it’s happening, or who the participants are.

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a warehouse after it was hit by Russian shelling on Monday in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a warehouse after it was hit by Russian shelling on Monday in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Chris McGrath/Getty Images
A local resident looks a damaged Russian tank in the town of Trostyanets, about 400km (250 miles) east of Kyiv.
A local resident looks a damaged Russian tank in the town of Trostyanets, about 400km (250 miles) east of Kyiv. Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/AP
Ukrainian soldiers ride a tank through the town of Trostyanets.
Ukrainian soldiers ride a tank through the town of Trostyanets. Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/AP

Updated

Carlsberg has said it will pull out entirely from Russia over the country’s invasion of Ukraine, hours after a similar announcement from Heineken.

In a statement, Carlsberg said:

We have taken the difficult and immediate decision to seek a full disposal of our business in Russia, which we believe is the right thing to do in the current environment.

Upon completion we will have no presence in Russia.

The decision to exit Russia would result in a “substantial non-cash impairment charge” this year, it said without providing further details.

Carlsberg owns Russian brewer Baltika Brewery, whose employees represent a fifth of Carlberg’s global workforce.

We deeply regret the consequences of this decision for our 8,400 employees in Russia.

Bottles of Carlsberg beer are seen in fridge in a bar in St Petersburg
Bottles of Carlsberg beer are seen in fridge in a bar in St Petersburg Photograph: Alexander Demianchuk/Reuters

Updated

Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiator 'suffer symptoms consistent with poisoning'

The billionaire Roman Abramovich and a Ukrainian peace negotiator suffered symptoms consistent with poisoning earlier this month, according a source with direct knowledge of the incident.

Abramovich was taking part in informal peace negotiations in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, early in March when he began to feel ill, the source told the Guardian. Ukrainian MP Rustem Umerov was also part of the negotiation, and the men later left Ukraine for Poland, and then flew to Istanbul, where they received medical treatment.

“It was during his first trip to Kyiv. Roman lost his sight for several hours. In Turkey, they were treated in a clinic, together with Rustem,” said the source.

The account backs up the claims of a potential poisoning first reported in the Wall Street Journal and by the investigative journalism outlet Bellingcat.

“Bellingcat can confirm that three members of the delegation attending the peace talks between Ukraine and Russia on the night of 3 to 4 March 2022 experienced symptoms consistent with poisoning with chemical weapons. One of victims was Russian entrepreneur Roman Abramovich,” wrote the outlet in a tweet.

Bellingcat said the symptoms included eye and skin inflammation, and piercing pain in the eyes.

“The three men experiencing the symptoms consumed only chocolate and water in the hours before the symptoms appeared. A fourth member of the team who also consumed these did not experience symptoms,” wrote Bellingcat, which said one of its investigators had been asked to provide an opinion on the incident by chemical weapons specialists.

“Based on remote and on-site examinations, the experts concluded that the symptoms are most likely the result of international poisoning with an undefined chemical weapon,” said Bellingcat,

Abramovich’s condition improved and he later returned to Kyiv to take part in another round of negotiations, said the source.

A fourth round of negotiations between official Russian and Ukrainian delegations is due to begin in Istanbul on Tuesday.

Asked for comment A spokesperson for the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said: “There is a lot of speculation at the moment, and we recommend to only follow official information.”

Updated

Here’s more on that report in the Wall Street Journal that Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiators suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning after a meeting in Kyiv.

My colleague Shaun Walker has spoken with a source who said Abramovich “lost his sight for several hours”.

The investigative journalism group, Bellingcat, confirmed that three members of the Ukrainian delegation experienced symptoms “consistent with poisoning with chemical weapons”.

Nearly 5,000 people - including 210 children - killed in Mariupol, mayor's office says

Almost 5,000 people, including about 210 children, have been killed in the devastated city of Mariupol since Russia invaded Ukraine last month, a spokesperson for the mayor said.

It was not immediately clear how Vadym Boichenko had calculated the toll, Reuters reports.

Meanwhile, Tetyana Lomakina, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, told AFP at least 5,000 people had died in Mariupol.

About 5,000 people were buried, but the burials stopped 10 days ago because of continued shelling.

She added that the death toll could only be estimated with bodies stuck under the rubble.

We could be talking about 10,000 dead.

A view of destruction and damage after shelling in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on March 27, 2022.
A view of destruction and damage after shelling in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on 27 March 2022. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
A view shows an apartment building which was heavily damaged during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine March 27, 2022.
A heavily damaged apartment building in Mariupol. Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

Boichenko, who is no longer in Mariupol, earlier said that about 160,000 civilians were still trapped in the city.

The situation in the city remains difficult. People are beyond the line of humanitarian catastrophe.

We need to completely evacuate Mariupol.

Updated

Summary

It is 7pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand now:

  • Face-to-face peace talks between Ukraine and Russia are likely to start in Turkey on Tuesday, the Kremlin has said. Vladimir Putin, and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, agreed on Sunday that ceasefire talks would be held in Istanbul, possibly beginning as early as the following day. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said today, however, that Tuesday was more likely.
  • The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Ukraine is willing to discuss “neutral status” at face-to-face talks with Russia. In a video interview with independent Russian media outlets, Zelenskiy suggested he could make compromises about the status of the eastern Donbas region but he said he was not willing to discuss demilitarisation, and said Ukrainians would need to vote in a referendum to approve their country adopting a neutral status.
  • Ukraine is not willing to sacrifice its “territorial integrity”, Alexander Rodnyansky, a senior adviser to the Ukrainian president, said. He told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme that “now the pressure is on Russia” and suggested that a “more concrete” version of the “Budapest memorandum” - which gave Ukraine security assurances - would be necessary to secure peace.
  • Ukrainian forces have seized back full control of the town of Irpin, a few miles from Kyiv, the local mayor said. Mayor Oleksandr Markushyn said Irpin had been “liberated” and that Russian soldiers were “offering to surrender”. The information could not immediately be verified.
  • The southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe and must be completely evacuated, its mayor said. Vadym Boichenko said about 160,000 civilians were trapped in the city without power. Twenty-six buses were waiting to evacuate civilians but Russian forces had not agreed to give them safe passage, he said
  • Kyiv sees no signs on the ground that Russia has given up a plan to surround the Ukrainian capital, Ukrainian defence ministry spokesperson, Oleksander Motuzyanyk, said. “For now we don’t see the movement of enemy forces away from Kyiv,” he said in a televised briefing.
  • President Zelenskiy accused Russian authorities of disrespect towards the families of their own dead soldiers. Criticising Moscow for not agreeing on a scheme to have the remains of those killed in action returned to Russia, Zelenskiy claimed the Kremlin was affording less respect to those killed during its invasion of Ukraine than is usually given to dead pets.
  • Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s last remaining independent news outlets, has said it will suspend operations after it received a second warning from the state censor for allegedly violating the country’s “foreign agent” law. The warning came a day after its editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, spoke with Zelenskiy in a group interview with Russian journalists that was quickly banned by the state media watchdog, Roskomnadzor.

Hello. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’ll continue to bring you the latest news from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.

Updated

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has accused Russian authorities of disrespect towards the families of their own dead soldiers, criticising Moscow for not agreeing on a scheme to have the remains of those killed in action returned to Russia, Shaun Walker and Pjotr Sauer report.

Zelenskiy claimed the Kremlin was affording less respect to those killed during its invasion of Ukraine than is usually given to dead pets.

We’ve all had a moment in our lives when someone has passed away, maybe not even close people or relatives. Listen: even when a dog or a cat dies, that’s just not how to behave.

Zelenskiy said in an online interview with Russian journalists on Sunday evening.

I’m saying this to you as the president of a country that is fighting with Russian soldiers … It’s a war, but they are not animals.

Ukrainian servicemen Chernikov Pavlo is laid to rest during his burial service at the Lychakiv Cemetery on March 28, 2022 in Lviv, Ukraine.
Ukrainian servicemen Chernikov Pavlo is laid to rest during his burial service at the Lychakiv Cemetery on March 28, 2022 in Lviv, Ukraine. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk, who is responsible for negotiations with Moscow on returning the remains, said that despite repeated offers for Russia to present lists of the missing and have them returned, officials in Moscow were more concerned about covering up the scale of the losses.

She said she had spoken by telephone or Zoom to several Russian officials, including the deputy defence minister, Alexander Fomin, and Tatyana Moskalkova, the Kremlin’s ombudsman for human rights.

The Russian authorities don’t want these bodies. I talked to her, and said: ‘Take your bodies away.’ She had no response. She just said: ‘We’ll work on it.’

Updated

Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiators ‘victims of suspected poisoning’ - WSJ

Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiators suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning after a meeting in the capital, Kyiv, earlier this month, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Abramovich and at least two senior members of the Ukrainian delegation developed symptoms that included “red eyes, constant and painful tearing”, the paper cites sources familiar with the matter.

The paper said individuals familiar with the matter blamed the suspected attack on Moscow who they said wanted to sabotage talks to end the war. A person close to Abramovich said it wasn’t clear who had targeted the group, the WSJ said.

Abramovich and the members of the Ukrainian delegation have since improved, the people said. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has met with Abramovich, was not affected, they said.

Updated

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he discussed the progress of peace talks with Russia in a call with Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz.

Zelenskiy earlier said he had spoken with the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, to “discuss the course of countering Russian aggression”.

“We appreciate Italy’s willingness to join the creation of a system of security guarantees for Ukraine,” he said.

Updated

Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s last remaining independent news outlets, has said it will cease operations until the end of the war in Ukraine after it received a second warning from the state censor for allegedly violating the country’s “foreign agent” law.

The warning came a day after its editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, spoke with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a group interview with Russian journalists that was quickly banned by the state media watchdog, Roskomnadzor.

Novaya Gazeta is one of the country’s most important independent publications. A number of its journalists have been killed since the 1990s in retaliation for their reporting, including on the war in Chechnya.

The Roskomnadzor warning to Novaya Gazeta was allegedly prompted by the newspaper’s failure to identify a “foreign agent” in an unspecified publication. But it appeared to be an act of retaliation for the newspaper’s decision to report on the war and Muratov’s participation in the interview with Zelenskiy.

In an effort to avoid being shut down, the newspaper announced its surprise decision to halt publications until the end of Russia’s “special operation”, the Kremlin’s official term for the invasion.

“We have received another warning from Roskomnadzor,” Novaya Gazeta’s editorial board wrote in statement.

Following this, we will suspend the publication of the newspaper online and in print until the end of the ‘special operation on the territory of Ukraine’.

Residents of the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol despair at the destruction they find when they return to inspect their homes.

“What is left for us?” asks Valentina, whose home lies in ruins after Russian bombardment.

The city’s mayor has warned that Mariupol is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe and must be evacuated, with about 160,000 civilians trapped in the city without power.

Earlier we reported that Ukraine’s emergency services said a fuel depot in the north-western city of Lutsk had been struck by enemy shelling and caught fire.

The attack was part of a volley of Russian missiles aimed at several cities across Ukraine on Sunday night, which struck the capital, Kyiv, as well as Kharkiv, Rivne and Zhytomyr.

The head of the provincial military administration, Yuriy Pohuliaiko, said the attack in Lutsk had been carried out with cruise missiles launched from neighbouring Belarus. There were no immediate details about casualties.

Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko said the strikes on Sunday night were part of a new Russian strategy to take out Ukrainian oil and petrol reserves.

Updated

Ukrainian forces retake town near Kyiv, mayor says

Ukrainian forces have seized back full control of the town of Irpin, a few miles from Kyiv, the local mayor said.

Irpin is a commuter town west of the capital that has seen heavy fighting and has come under intense Russian bombardment since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine last month.

In a video post on Telegram, local mayor Oleksandr Markushyn said:

We have good news today - Irpin has been liberated.

We understand that there will be more attacks on our town and we will defend it courageously.

Markushyn spoke to CNN today:

Irpin was freed last night.

Now we need to clear the town totally. There are wounded Russian soldiers. They are offering to surrender or they will be destroyed. Irpin is a staging area for an attack.

We will [next] liberate Bucha, Vorzel and Hostomel.

The information could not immediately be verified.

My colleague Shaun Walker has written about some of the last residents of Irpin, people who were too old, too frail or too sick to leave the town that has seen no gas, water or electricity and almost no medicine since early March.

Updated

Ukraine not 'willing to give up any territory', Zelenskiy adviser says

Ukraine is not willing to sacrifice its “territorial integrity”, a senior adviser to the Ukrainian president said, on the eve of further talks between Ukraine and Russia.

Alexander Rodnyansky, an adviser to President Zelenskiy, told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme that “now the pressure is on Russia”.

He said:

Clearly, they cannot sustain this war for years and their morale is so low they can’t even keep up their supplies and logistics.

Ukraine would not sacrifice its “territorial integrity”, he added.

If you ask the people who live in these areas, they wouldn’t want to live in Russia. How can we leave them? Let alone the whole idea of slicing up our country.

Rodnyansky suggested that a “more concrete” version of the “Budapest memorandum” - which gave Ukraine security assurances - would be necessary to secure peace.

Russia to restrict entry for people from 'unfriendly countries'

Russia is preparing to restrict entry for citizens of “unfriendly” countries, which would include the UK, all EU countries and the United States, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said.

In a set of televised remarks, Lavrov said:

A draft presidential decree is being developed on retaliatory visa measures in response to the ‘unfriendly’ actions of a number of foreign states.

He added that the act would introduce “a number of restrictions on entry into Russia”, without elaborating.

Russia expanded its list of “unfriendly” countries following the introduction of Western sanctions on Moscow. Countries that now belong on that list include the US, Australia, Canada, Britain, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, all EU member states and several others.

Marichka Padalko, 46, is among a small coterie of TV news anchors with a platform to guide the country through the daily and nightly war developments while teasing out psychological advice from studio experts and offering practical tips on everything from shelter etiquette to surviving a chemical weapons attack.

She became central to people’s lives when, two days after Vladimir Putin announced his “special military operation”, the four main channels on Ukrainian television decided to work together to create one 24/7 “marathon” news show.

Ukrainian TV presenter Marichka Padalko and her husband Yegor Sobolev.
Ukrainian TV presenter Marichka Padalko and her husband Yegor Sobolev. Photograph: handout

With journalists and technicians – particularly those with young families – fleeing the shelling, leaving channels understaffed and given the risk of a studio being hit by a Russian bomb, the peacetime professional rivals combined their efforts to guarantee the news would stay on air.

The result is that Padalko, a host on 1+1, which was one of Ukraine’s biggest channels in peacetime, and a further 11 anchors who appear during any given 24-hour period, have a captive audience.

“It is something like if BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 [came together]. Technically we’re not united. I mean, we are all in different locations, but all channels now have their own slot, six hours a day. Sometimes we are in the morning, sometimes at night,” she said.

For the viewers, she said, the broadcasting teams were “somehow a symbol of normality or some connection to their previous life where they used to see us and we were part of the routine of their life”.

Read more of Daniel Boffey’s piece from Lviv: ‘I love my job’: life as a Ukrainian TV news anchor and mother

Updated

Our video team have just put up the clip of Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy saying during an interview with independent Russian journalists that Ukraine is willing to discuss neutrality as part of peace talks with Moscow.

Our Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth has an explainer Q&A asking will Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s interview with Russian media make a difference?

Why did Zelenskiy choose to speak to the Russian press
The Ukraine president has made several attempts to appeal directly to Russians about the war and has said repeatedly that they can best convince Putin to abandon his invasion of Ukraine.

What has Zelenskiy put on the table?
Zelenskiy has said that Ukraine is ready to discuss a “neutral status” with Russia, presumably one that would preclude the country from joining Nato, in exchange for security guarantees from attack in the future.

This is not a new statement from Zelenskiy, but it nonetheless generated headlines as Ukraine and Russia go into a new round of negotiations in Istanbul this week.

Zelenskiy also said that any agreement about “neutrality” would need to be confirmed in a nationwide referendum that would include Ukrainians who have been forced to flee the country. More than 10 million people have been displaced by the Russian invasion, according to some estimates.

Read more of Andrew Roth’s analysis here: Will Zelenskiy’s interview with Russian media make a difference?

Updated

The sale of a piece by Bristol-based street artist Banksy has raised £81,000 ($106,000) for a children’s hospital in Ukraine. All the money raised will be sent to the Ohmatdyt Children’s hospital in Kyiv.

PA Media reports that an anonymous donor auctioned the 2005 work CND Soldiers via website MyArtBroker.com, which depicts two soldiers painting the symbol of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament on a wall.

‘CND Soldiers’ by Banksy on display at the Tesla Soft Gallery in Budapest in 2020.
CND Soldiers by Banksy on display at the Tesla Soft Gallery in Budapest in 2020. Photograph: Zsolt Szigetváry/EPA

In a statement on its website, MyArtBroker’s managing director Charlotte Stewart said: “An incredibly generous client offered to sell their ever-relevant CND Soldiers print by Banksy.

“With starting bids of £20,000, the highest bid has far exceeded our expectations at £81,000.”

She continued: “Such extraordinary generosity from our seller could not have been better reciprocated by the winning bidder, whose donation of £81,000 will make an enormous difference to the lives of staff, children and their families in the weeks ahead.”

Updated

A couple of travel related pieces of news here. Agence France-Presse are reporting that Sri Lanka’s national carrier has ended direct flights between Sri Lanka and Russia with immediate effect. The airline cited the spiralling cost of insuring the flights between Moscow and Colombo.

Sri Lanka is heavily reliant on tourist income, and Russia is one of the island’s biggest source of tourists.

Meanwhile, in another break of relations in Europe, Reuters is reporting that Russian Railways has said it has halted rail freight shipments to Finland. Finland’s national railway operator VR Group said it would no longer accept freight trains because of economic sanctions.

Kyiv sees no signs on the ground that Russia has given up a plan to surround the Ukrainian capital, according to Ukrainian defence ministry spokesperson Oleksander Motuzyanyk.

Reuters are carrying his remarks, made in a televised briefing. “According to our information, the Russian Federation has not abandoned its attempts, if not to capture, then to surround Kyiv. For now we don’t see the movement of enemy forces away from Kyiv,” he said.

At the same time Reuters are reporting that Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of Russia, has said that a change of government in Ukraine is not the goal of what he insisted on calling Russia’s “special operation”.

A reminder that most observers have assumed that Russia’s goal has been to capture Kyiv and install a government friendlier to Moscow, while also potentially seizing control of Ukraine’s southern coast – hence the attacks on Odesa, Kherson and Mariupol – and opening up a land corridor in the east between the Crimea and the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk.

Heineken, the world’s second-largest brewer, said it will end its operations in Russia in a move that will cost the Dutch brewer €400m (£334m).

The company said in a statement:

We have concluded that Heineken’s ownership of the business in Russia is no longer sustainable nor viable in the current environment.

As a result, we have decided to leave Russia.

Heineken had previously said it would only halt new investment and exports to Russia. This latest announcement makes Heineken the first international brewing company to exit the country and is likely to increase pressure on its Danish rival, Carlsberg, which owns Russia’s biggest brewer, Baltika.

Heineken logo
Heineken logo Photograph: Amanda Perobelli/Reuters

The company added:

We are shocked and deeply saddened to watch the war in Ukraine continue to unfold and intensify.

Heineken said it would transfer its Russian business to a new owner, adding that it would not profit from any transfer of ownership. It added that its 1,800 Russian employees would be paid until the end of 2022.

Updated

The UK’s Home Office has granted 21,600 visas to Ukrainians with family links in the UK, Downing Street said.

As of 5pm Sunday, 76,200 applications had been opened through the family route of which 37,400 had been completed and submitted, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said.

The UK government is due to start publishing figures for visas issued through the Homes for Ukraine scheme this week.

Istanbul will host the next round of peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, which could begin as soon as Tuesday, according to the Ukrainian MP and negotiator David Arakhamia.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, discussed the talks during a phone call yesterday, but did not state publicly when this week the talks would begin.

Turkey has worked to position itself as a neutral ally to both Ukraine and Russia and a key diplomatic partner at the entrance to the Black Sea region. This includes hosting tripartite talks with the Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers in the southern city of Antalya as well as the foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, conducting shuttle diplomacy during recent visits to Lviv and Moscow. Turkey viewed the talks as successful, despite a lack of progress around the main discussion point of humanitarian corridors, particularly for the besieged city of Mariupol.

The opportunity to host both the Ukrainian and Russian negotiating teams represents a step up for Turkey’s involvement in negotiations, after the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said that the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, came to Antalya earlier this month “to discuss but not decide”, adding he was surprised at Lavrov’s lack of authority to negotiate.

The Times is also reporting that Roman Abramovich held backchannel talks with the Ukrainian MP and Crimean Tartar Rustem Umerov in Istanbul, calling Abramovich “President Putin’s unofficial envoy in talks with Ukraine”. The series of talks were coordinated by presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin, who reportedly proposed that “Crimea and Donbas should be held by Moscow under a long-term lease, similar to Britain’s control over Hong Kong from 1898 to 1997, with their future decided at a later date”, according to the Times.

Finding a swift solution to the crisis in Ukraine is a critical issue for Turkey, due to its reliance on Russian gas as well as wheat from both countries amid a prolonged economic crisis in which the lira halved in value last year alone.

The talks are occurring as the Ukrainian president, Vlodomyr Zelensky, told a group of Russian journalists that Ukraine was willing to discuss “security guarantees and neutrality”, in exchange for Russia withdrawing their forces. Kalin told local outlet Hurriyet last week that both sides were “close to agreement” on key issues, notably that Ukraine will not join Nato and “demilitarisation”.

Updated

Russia's Novaya Gazeta suspends publication after official warning

Novaya Gazeta, the Russian newspaper whose editor, Dmitry Muratov, was last year awarded the Nobel peace prize, has said it will suspend its activities until “the end of the special operation in Ukraine”.

It comes after the newspaper received a second official warning from the Russian state communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor.

Roskomnadzor said Novaya Gazeta failed to mark a non-governmental organisation mentioned in one of its stories as a “foreign agent” in accordance with Russian legislation.

Updated

Footage posted on social media by the Ukrainian air reconnaissance unit, Aerorozvidka, purports to show its attacks on a 40-mile column of Russian armoured vehicles outside Kyiv.

The unit’s commander, Lt Col Yaroslav Honchar, said the small team of 30 drone operators and special forces was able to halt the column’s advance in a series of night ambushes.

Not all the details of these claims could be independently verified, but US defence officials have said Ukrainian attacks contributed to the halting of the armoured column. The amount of aerial combat footage published by Ukrainian forces underlines the importance of drones to their resistance.

Germany has said individuals who display the letter “Z” to show support for Russia’s war in Ukraine could be liable to prosecution.

The letter “Z” has been used as a marking on Russian military vehicles taking part in the conflict and has become the main symbol of public support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The letter Z has been used by Russian forces as an identifying sign on their vehicles in Ukraine.
The letter Z has been used by Russian forces as an identifying sign on their vehicles in Ukraine. Photograph: Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA

A spokesperson for the German interior ministry told reporters today:

The letter Z as such is of course not forbidden, but its use may in individual cases constitute an endorsement of the Russian war of aggression.

They added:

The Russian war of aggression on the Ukraine is a criminal act, and whoever publicly approves of this war of aggression can also make himself liable to prosecution.

The federal security authorities have an eye on this, and in this respect we welcome the announcement that several federal states will also examine in individual cases whether this could be a criminal act and to take action accordingly.

A T-shirt with the symbol ‘Z’ on it is being sold in a souvenir shop in Moscow.
A T-shirt with the symbol ‘Z’ on it is being sold in a souvenir shop in Moscow. Photograph: Vlad Karkov/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

The European Commission has called on governments to halt the sale of citizenship to investors and to suspend the sale of visas to Russians and Belarusians.

The move comes amid concerns that people hit by EU sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may be holders of EU golden visas or passports, Reuters reports.

The European Commission said:

Some Russian or Belarusian nationals who are subject to sanctions or are significantly supporting the war in Ukraine might have acquired EU citizenship or privileged access to the EU, including to travel freely in the Schengen area, under these schemes.

Nearly 700 top politicians, business and military individuals accused of supporting the Kremlin have been blacklisted by the EU since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month.

Governments should check whether these sanctioned individuals were holding a golden passport or visa, the Commission said, and should determine whether to annul those passports or immediately withdraw residence permits.

Russia's invasion has cost Ukraine $564.9bn so far, minister says

Ukraine’s economy minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, said the war has so far cost Ukraine $564.9bn (£429.3bn) in terms of damage to infrastructure, lost economic growth and other factors.

Eight thousand kilometres (4,970 miles) of roads and 10m sq metres of housing have been damaged or destroyed as a result of fighting, she said in an online post.

Local resident Valentina Demura, 70, next to the building where her apartment is located in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine March 27, 2022.
Local resident Valentina Demura, 70, next to the building where her apartment is located in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol. Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
A Ukranian serviceman walks between debris outside the destroyed Retroville shopping mall in a residential district after a Russian attack on the Ukranian capital Kyiv on March 21, 2022.
A Ukranian serviceman walks between debris outside the destroyed Retroville shopping mall in a residential district after a Russian attack on the Ukranian capital, Kyiv, last week. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The Guardian could not independently verify these figures.

Updated

Kremlin says Biden’s remark on the end of Putin is ‘alarming’

The Kremlin has described a remark by Joe Biden calling for an end to Vladimir Putin’s rule of Russia as “alarming”, Reuters reports.

On Saturday, while addressing a crowd in Warsaw, the US president cast Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a battle in a much broader conflict between democracy and autocracy, and said of the Russian president:

For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.

The White House attempted to clarify his remarks and Biden later said he had not been calling for regime change in his speech.

Asked about Biden’s comment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today:

This is a statement that is certainly alarming.

He told reporters that Russia will continue to track Biden’s statements “in the most attentive way”.

Hello. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong with you on the live blog today, I’ll be bringing you all the latest news from the war in Ukraine. Please feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.

Updated

Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany has publicly rowed with the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, over a solidarity concert featuring Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian musicians.

Steinmeier, who is in quarantine with a Covid-19 infection, on Sunday morning remotely opened a classical concert “for peace and freedom” by the Berlin Philharmonic at the presidential Bellevue Palace.

The concert opened and closed with pieces by the 84-year-old Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov, who has been living in exile in Berlin since 8 March after fleeing Kyiv. The programme also included compositions by Chopin, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky.

According to a report in Der Spiegel, the Ukrainian ambassador Andrij Melnyk had declined to attend the event last Tuesday, citing other commitments. In a tweet on Sunday, however, Melnyk explained his absence with political reasons: “Only Russian soloists, no Ukrainians”, the diplomat said. “An affront. Sorry, I’m keeping a distance.”

A spokesperson for the German federal president responded with a series of tweets that seemed to mildly tick off the ambassador for his absence. The concert, she said, was meant as “a joint statement against the criminal Russian war against Ukraine”, adding “it is a shame that we couldn’t send this message together”.

Melnyk replied: “My dear God, why is the federal president finding it so hard to realise that we Ukrainians don’t fancy ‘great Russian culture’ while Russian bombs are falling on cities and thousands of civilians are being murdered night and day?”

Cautious German rhetoric around the war, at times favouring appeals for reconciliation rather than unequivocal statements of support, has frustrated politicians in Ukraine, eastern Europe and the Baltics since the start of the conflict.

In an interview with the Economist magazine, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Germany was “making a mistake” by trying to maintain its deep economic ties with Moscow.

Updated

A view of destroyed buildings and vehicles after shelling in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, on March 27, 2022.
Destroyed buildings and vehicles after shelling in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Sunday. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
A view of a heavily damaged building after shelling in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, on March 27, 2022.
A heavily damaged building after Russian bombardment in Mariupol on Sunday. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Updated

Today so far …

  • The Kremlin has said peace talks between Russia and Ukraine may get under way in Turkey on Tuesday and said it was important that the talks would be held face-to-face despite scant progress in negotiations so far.
  • Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, used a video interview with independent Russian media outlets to signal his willingness to discuss having Ukraine adopt a “neutral status”, and also make compromises about the status of the eastern Donbas region, in order to secure a peace agreement with Russia. But he said he was not willing to discuss Ukrainian demilitarisation, and that Ukrainians would need to vote in a referendum to approve their country adopting a neutral status.
  • Russia’s foreign affairs minister, Sergei Lavrov, appears to have ruled out any direct meetings between Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, saying it would be counter-productive at this point.
  • The southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe and must be completely evacuated, its mayor said. Vadym Boichenko said about 160,000 civilians were trapped in the city without power.
  • Ukraine has no plans to open any humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from besieged cities on Monday because of intelligence reports warning of possible Russian “provocations” along the routes, deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
  • The Ukrainian military claimed Russia has withdrawn troops that were surrounding Kyiv after suffering significant losses in its latest operational report.
  • The UK’s Ministry of Defence released its latest intelligence report, claiming there has been “no significant change” to Russian forces’ dispositions in Ukraine over the past 24 hours.
  • US president Joe Biden has denied he is calling for regime change in Russia, after he said during a visit to Poland that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”. When asked by a reporter if he wanted to see the Russian president removed from office, he said “no”.
  • Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russian investigators would look into a video circulating on social media that purported to show Ukrainian forces mistreating captured Russian soldiers. He also said that Joe Biden’s comments that Vladimir Putin could not remain in power were a cause for concern.
  • Schools in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv will reopen today via remote learning online.
  • The UK government’s Cabinet Office has issued a procurement policy note for public sector organisations holding contracts with Russian or Belarusian suppliers, urging them to investigate where they can cancel contracts.
  • UK, the education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, said he had no doubt that Russia had carried out war crimes in Ukraine.

Updated

Kremlin says Russia-Ukraine talks in Turkey may start on Tuesday

The Kremlin has said that peace talks between Russia and Ukraine may get underway in Turkey on Tuesday and said it was important that the talks would be held face-to-face despite scant progress in negotiations so far.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan agreed in a telephone call on Sunday for Istanbul to host the talks, which Ankara hopes will lead to a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Turkey said the talks could begin as early as Monday, but Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that was unlikely as the negotiators would only be arriving in Turkey on Monday.

Peskov told reporters that no progress had been made on the idea of a potential meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Reuters report he also said that the talks had so far failed to yield any substantive progress or breakthroughs.

A quick snap from Reuters that Russian ambassador to Poland says that the 45 Russian diplomats expelled by Poland have all now left the country.

Kremlin describes video circulating on social media as evidence of torture and 'monstrous images'

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russian investigators would look into a video circulating on social media that purported to show Ukrainian forces mistreating captured Russian soldiers.

Peskov said the video, which he described as containing “monstrous images”, needed to be legally assessed and for those who took part in what he described as torture to be held responsible.

Peskov also said that Joe Biden’s comments that Vladimir Putin could not remain in power were a cause for concern. Reuters reports he said Moscow would continue to closely follow Biden’s statements. Biden made the comments in Warsaw on Saturday, then later said the US does not have a policy of regime change in Russia.

On energy issues, Peskov said Russia was working out methods for accepting payments of its gas exports in roubles and said it would take decisions in due course should European countries refuse to pay in the Russian currency.

Updated

Russia’s foreign affairs minister Sergei Lavrov appears to have ruled out any direct meetings between Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, saying it would be counter-productive. Reuters quotes him saying that a meeting between them should only happen when the two sides are close to agreeing on key issues.

Ukraine’s interior ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko earlier said he did not expect “any breakthrough on the main issues” in talks due to take place today.

Updated

There are a few more words here on the UK Labour opposition leader Keir Starmer talking on LBC Radio about the invasion of Ukraine. He said the UK’s government had got the response to the Ukraine refugee crisis “completely wrong” and they have acted “too slowly, they are too mean”.

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer (right) takes part in Call Keir, his regular phone-in on LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast show.

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer (right) takes part in Call Keir, his regular phone-in on LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast show. Photograph: Ian West/PA

PA Media quotes him saying:

They’ve still got this DIY package really, which is all over the place, where we hear the refugees who were supposed to be on their way here still haven’t got visas and clearance.

On sanctions, I think they should have gone further and faster.

On the other hand, I have, on a number of occasions in the House of Commons, made it clear that politically the United Kingdom stands united in the face of Russian aggression.

I do think there are times in history where it’s the role of the leader of the opposition to show the unity of purpose when it comes to something as significant as this.

Updated

A quick snap from Reuters here that Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said that his nation’s relations with China were at their strongest level ever.

China has been one of the countries that has not condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and has been highly critical of western sanctions and the mooted attempt to expel Russia from the G20 group of major economies over it.

Kirsty Mackay has set up a photo-project to capture images of people in Britain taking action to help the people of Ukraine since Russia invaded.

This photo project is intended to inspire others to recognise the power they hold and to take action. It includes Marc Wilson, in Bristol, who drove to Paris to fill out visa applications for a family of six, Zac and Isky who baked cookies and sold them to their neighbours, and Genia Mineeva, who is helping to match Ukrainian refugees with hosts here in the UK.

We have a photo essay from her this morning featuring some of the images: The people helping Ukraine from the UK – photo essay

UK government advises public sector to end contracts with Russian and Belarusian companies

The UK government’s Cabinet Office has issued a procurement policy note for public sector organisations holding contracts with Russian or Belarusian suppliers, urging them to investigate where they can cancel contracts.

The statement says:

The guidance issued today to public sector buying team recommends that public bodies, including government departments and hospitals, immediately seek to identify any contracts with Russian and Belarusian companies and, if possible to switch suppliers with minimal disruption, pursue legal routes of cancelling them.

Downing Street chief of staff Steve Barclay is quoted as saying:

Public money should not fund Putin’s war machine. We are asking hospitals, councils and other organisations across the public sector to urgently look at all the ways they can go further to sever their commercial ties to Russia.

The government will continue to work closely with these organisations, ensuring they are able to take the necessary steps as quickly as possible, including taking legal routes where necessary.

Updated

Here is a selection of some of the latest images we have have received from Ukraine.

A Ukrainian serviceman stands next to a tank in a village of Lukyanivka, Kyiv region, Ukraine.
A Ukrainian serviceman stands next to a tank in a village of Lukyanivka, Kyiv region, Ukraine. Photograph: AP
People take shelter in the basement of a school where they have been living for a month, along a front line district of Kharkiv.
People take shelter in the basement of a school where they have been living for a month, along a front line district of Kharkiv. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images
Servicemen of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic inspect a vehicle at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Mariupol on Sunday.
Servicemen of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic inspect a vehicle at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Mariupol on Sunday. Photograph: Alexei Alexandrov/AP
People in a metro station being used as a bomb shelter in Kharkiv on Saturday.
People in a metro station being used as a bomb shelter in Kharkiv on Saturday. Photograph: Felipe Dana/AP

Support from many African leaders and governments for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine – or at least reluctance to condemn it – has dismayed western officials.

At the UN general assembly, on resolution 17 African nations abstained – almost half all abstentions – and one voted against, condemning Russia for its “aggression” and demanding a withdrawal from Ukraine, though a majority of African countries gave it their backing. The resolution passed by 141 to five.

Some observers have raised the possibility of a new strategic split across Africa, similar to that during the cold war.

“It harks back to cold war days and the divisions we saw then. But … the objective reality of the international system is so different now this raises a lot of questions about some African countries’ commitment to the post-cold war order and its values,” said Priyal Singh, a researcher at Institute for Strategic Studies in Pretoria.

Read more of Jason Burke’s piece from Johannesburg: Cold war echoes as African leaders resist criticising Putin’s war

Updated

In the UK, Labour’s opposition leader Keir Starmer has been critical of US president Joe Biden’s words during his trip to Europe, describing them as “not helpful”.

Updated

My colleague Shaun Walker has been tweeting about his experience reporting from Irpin in Ukraine. He said:

The few people who didn’t leave Irpin were mostly those too old and to frail to walk. For them, the last month has been hell. Death, illness and frayed nerves, a few miles from Kyiv. I found it difficult to listen to these stories & keep it together. To leave Irpin you have to walk over a destroyed bridge that has come under shelling, so for many old people it seems just too much, combined with abandoning their homes and going somewhere uncertain. Volunteers are begging them to leave but many of the oldest simply refuse to go.

You can read Shaun Walker’s piece here: Escape from Irpin – frail residents helped to safety after month of hell

The southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe and must be completely evacuated, its mayor said.

Reuters report mayor Vadym Boichenko said about 160,000 civilians were trapped in the city without power.

Twenty-six buses were waiting to evacuate civilians but Russian forces had not agreed to give them safe passage, he said. “The Russian Federation is playing with us,” he said.

Updated

Ukraine: no plans to open humanitarian corridors because of warning of Russian 'provocations'

Ukraine has no plans to open any humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from besieged cities on Monday because of intelligence reports warning of possible Russian “provocations” along the routes, deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said this morning, according to reports from Reuters.

Updated

Ukraine’s emergency services have tweeted to say that a fuel depot that had been struck by enemy shelling in Lutsk and caught fire is under control.

Lutsk is in the north-west of Ukraine, and is the administrative centre of the Volyn Oblast.

Updated

Gazprom, Russia’s energy giant, has issued its daily figures, saying that it continues to ship gas to Europe via Ukraine – giving a volume of 109.5m cubic metres.

One company that has announced a change of plan, however, is Dutch brewing company Heineken. It had previously announced that it would halt new investments and exports to Russia, but not pull out of the country.

Reuters are carrying a statement from the company today updating that position, saying: “We have concluded that Heineken’s ownership of the business in Russia is no longer sustainable nor viable in the current environment.”

Updated

Another Ukrainian figure has been speaking ahead of proposed peace talks in Turkey. Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, said “Turkey is among those countries that could become guarantors of our security in the future,” according to a quote from Reuters.

Updated

There has been some dampening of expectation ahead of peace talks from the Ukrainian side. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been widely quoted as hailing the new negotiations, saying he hoped they would bring peace “without delay”.

However, Reuters has just posted a quote from interior ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko, ahead of talks between Ukrainian and Russian representatives in Turkey, saying: “I don’t think there will be any breakthrough on the main issues.”

Updated

On television in the UK, the education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, was asked about US president Joe Biden’s words, and whether they meant that the west was aiming for regime change in Russia. On Sky News, Zahawi said:

It’s up to the Russian people to decide who governs them in the future. I think Russian people are pretty fed up. Not only because they’re watching their friends, and some of them have family, in Ukraine, who have been attacked by the Putin regime.

Clearly war crimes have been committed, because they’re targeting innocent civilians in civilian areas. The deputy prime minister is working with the international criminal court, to make sure that that evidence is in place.

But I think President Biden is right to say that Putin has no place in the Ukraine. They have to make sure that they withdraw from Ukraine because it’s an illegal invasion.

He went on to double-down on that accusation of war crimes, saying:

War crimes have been committed in the Ukraine, no doubt in my mind. The evidence is clear on that.

It’s right to collect that evidence because it’s also important, you know, my family had experience with Saddam Hussein. It’s important that despots and dictators understand that there will be a reckoning. And that reckoning will come through the international criminal court in The Hague, as we’ve seen in Bosnia, and of course, in other parts of the world. It’s really important.

This is not something that should be taken lightly, that someone can go into a country illegally, and start bombing civilians, and feel that there is no there is no response from the global community.

Updated

Russian writer Mikhail Shishkin contributes to our site today, saying that neither Nato nor Ukraine can de-Putinise Russia. We Russians must do it ourselves:

Two attempts to introduce a democratic social order in Russia have already failed. The first Russian democracy, of 1917, lasted only a few months. The second, in the 1990s, lasted a few years with great difficulty. Every time my country tries to build a democratic society by establishing elections, a parliament and a republic, it finds itself in a totalitarian empire.

Do a dictatorship and a dictator give birth to a slave population or does a slave population give birth to a dictatorship and a dictator? The chicken and the egg. How can this vicious circle be broken? How can a new Russia begin?

There was no de-Stalinisation in Russia and there were no Nuremberg trials for the Communist party. Now Russia’s fate depends on de-Putinisation. Just as the “ignorant” German population was shown concentration camps in 1945, so “ignorant” Russians must be shown destroyed Ukrainian cities and the corpses of children. We Russians must openly and courageously acknowledge our guilt and ask for forgiveness.

Read more here: Mikhail Shishkin – Neither Nato nor Ukraine can de-Putinise Russia. We Russians must do it ourselves

Today so far …

Here is where the situation in Ukraine currently stands:

  • Representatives from Russia and Ukraine will meet this week for a new round of talks aimed at ending the war. Ukraine said the two sides would meet in Turkey on Monday.
  • The Ukrainian military claimed Russia has withdrawn troops that were surrounding Kyiv after suffering significant losses in its latest operational report.
  • Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, used a video interview with independent Russian media outlets to signal his willingness to discuss having Ukraine adopt a “neutral status”, and also make compromises about the status of the eastern Donbas region, in order to secure a peace agreement with Russia. But he said he was not willing to discuss Ukrainian demilitarisation, and that Ukrainians would need to vote in a referendum to approve their country adopting a neutral status.
  • In a separate late-night video, Zelenskiy promised to press this week for fresh sanctions against Russia and spoke of the impending new round of negotiations, saying: “We are looking for peace without delay.”
  • Zelenskiy also claimed that 2,000 children from Mariupol have been taken by Russia, according to a press release published by the president’s office late on Sunday. “According to our data, more than 2,000 children were deported. Which means they were abducted. Because we do not know the exact locations of all these children. There were children with and without parents. It’s a catastrophe, it’s horrible.” Zelenskiy said the city remained blocked by the Russian military, describing the situation as a humanitarian catastrophe. “Food, medicine, and water can’t be delivered. The Russian troops are shelling humanitarian convoys and killing drivers.”
  • US president Joe Biden has denied he is calling for regime change in Russia, after he said during a visit to Poland that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”. When asked by a reporter if he wanted to see the Russian president removed from office, he said “no”. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, had already distanced himself from Biden’s comments, while the UK cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi distanced the UK government from his remarks.
  • Ukraine’s deputy prime minister accused Russia of “irresponsible” acts around the occupied Chernobyl power station that could send radiation across much of Europe, and urged the United Nations to dispatch a mission to assess the risks in an update to her Telegram account.
  • The UK’s Ministry of Defence released its latest intelligence report, claiming there has been “no significant change” to Russian forces’ dispositions in Ukraine over the past 24 hours. An earlier report said Russia is “effectively isolating Ukraine from international maritime trade”, in an update late on Sunday. It also said Russian naval forces were continuing to conduct sporadic missile strikes against targets across Ukraine.
  • Putin is seeking to split Ukraine into two, emulating the postwar division between North and South Korea, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief has said. In comments that raise the prospect of a long and bitter frozen conflict, Gen Kyrylo Budanov, warned of bloody guerrilla warfare.
  • The French foreign minister said on Sunday there would be “collective guilt” if nothing was done to help civilians in Mariupol, the Ukrainian city besieged by Russian forces.
  • Schools in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv will reopen today via remote learning online.

Updated

Schools in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv will reopen today via remote learning online.

Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko made the announcement in a Telegram update on Sunday.

“On March 28, the educational process will resume in the capital – online. It will be more adapted to current conditions. And using different educational platforms for students,” he said.

“An important task today is for the city to live and work even in such difficult conditions of martial law. They are trying to intimidate us. That will not work! We will not give up!”

The UN estimates more than half of the nation’s children have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded on 24 February.

Updated

Ukraine’s emergency services are reporting a house in Kyiv caught fire as a result of fallen debris from a downed missile overnight.

The agency said it received a report of a fire in the Darnytskyi district of the capital at 11.12pm.

By 0.27am the fire was localised on an area of 100 sq metres and by 1.24am it had been extinguished.

Updated

A monument to the famed Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko has been covered with sandbags to protect it from shelling in the city of Kharkiv, north-east Ukraine.

Ukraine’s second-largest city of 1.5 million people lies close to the Russian border and has been heavily shelled by Russian forces over the past weeks.

A monument to a Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko is covered with sandbags, in Kharkiv, northeast Ukraine.
A monument to the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko is covered with sandbags, in Kharkiv, north-east Ukraine. Photograph: Roman Pilipey/EPA

Updated

The UK’s Ministry of Defence has released its latest intelligence report, claiming there has been “no significant change” to Russian forces dispositions in Ukraine over the past 24 hours.

The report, released at 6am GMT, reads:

In the last 24 hours there has been no significant change to Russian forces’ dispositions in occupied Ukraine.

Ongoing logistical shortages have been compounded by a continued lack of momentum and morale amongst the Russian military, and aggressive fighting by the Ukrainians.

Russia has gained most ground in the south in the vicinity of Mariupol where heavy fighting continues as Russia attempts to capture the port.”

Updated

Occupation of Chernobyl power station risks radiation leak across Europe, official says

In case you missed this earlier report from late on Sunday evening, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister accused Russia of “irresponsible” acts around the occupied Chernobyl power station that could send radiation across much of Europe.

Iryna Vereshchuk posted an update to her Telegram account late Sunday, where she said Russian forces continue to militarise the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

This poses a very serious risk of damaging the insulation structures built over the station’s fourth unit after its 1986 explosion.

Such damage will inevitably lead to the entry into the atmosphere of a significant amount of radioactive dust and contaminate not only Ukraine but also other European countries.”

Vereshchuk continued to claim that the occupying Russian forces “ignored these threats, continuing to transport and store a significant amount of ammunition in the immediate vicinity of the nuclear power plant” and through the city of Pripyat.

Russian occupiers transport tens of tons of rockets, shells and mortar ammunition every day. Hundreds of tons of ammunition are being stored in the neighbouring city of Pripyat Chernobyl, which is also a short distance from the nuclear power plant.”

Vereshchuk noted the dangers of Russia’s use of “old and substandard ammunition” that “increases the risk of their detonation even during loading and transportation”.

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister has accused Russia of “irresponsible” acts around the occupied Chernobyl power station.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister has accused Russia of ‘irresponsible’ acts around the occupied Chernobyl power station. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters

In addition, she said significant fires have started in the exclusion zone, which can have “very serious consequences”.

As a result of combustion, radionuclides are released into the atmosphere, which the wind can carry over long distances, which threatens radiation not only in Ukraine but also in other European countries. Loss of control over the exclusion zone and the inability to fully extinguish the fire could threaten radiation facilities in the area.”

In the context of nuclear security, the irresponsible and unprofessional actions of the Russian military pose a very serious threat not only to Ukraine but also to hundreds of millions of Europeans.”

Vereshchuk urged the UN security council to “take immediate measures to demilitarise the Chernobyl exclusion zone and establish a special UN mission” to eliminate the risk of a recurrence of the Chernobyl accident.

Updated

The Guardian’s Shaun Walker, based in Lviv, brings us this report of residents escaping the town of Irpin, near Kyiv.

Some of the last people to leave describe constant noise, near misses and unbearable conditions.

They are those who were too old, too frail or too sick to leave earlier. Instead they have endured a month of hell as Russian forces pushed into the surrounding area during the first days of the war. The town has seen heavy fighting and has come under intense Russian bombardment.

Read the full story below.

Updated

Powerful images from the the missile attack that hit Ukraine’s western city of Lviv over the weekend have emerged.

Five people were wounded after two rocket strikes hit the outskirts of the city, regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy said.

Firefighters battled a massive blaze after a fuel storage facility was hit.

Firefighters battle a massive blaze in Lviv on Sunday in a fuel storage facility hit on Saturday by Russian cruise missiles as thick smoke and flames were seen rising from the fuel depot.
Firefighters battle a massive blaze in Lviv on Sunday in a fuel storage facility hit on Saturday by Russian cruise missiles as thick smoke and flames were seen rising from the fuel depot. Photograph: EyePress News/REX/Shutterstock
The facility was targeted by Russian rockets on Saturday, destroying two oil tanks, according to authorities.
The facility was targeted by Russian rockets on Saturday, destroying two oil tanks, according to authorities. Photograph: EyePress News/REX/Shutterstock
Russia struck military targets in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv with high-precision cruise missiles, the Russian defence ministry confirmed on Sunday.
Russia struck military targets in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv with high-precision cruise missiles, the Russian defence ministry confirmed on Sunday. Photograph: EyePress News/REX/Shutterstock

Biden denies calling for regime change in Russia

US President Joe Biden has said that he was not calling for regime change in Russia when he said on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.”

“Mr President, do you want Putin removed? Mr President, were you calling for regime change?” a reporter asked Biden as he left a church service in Washington on Sunday.

“No,” the president replied.

US President Joe Biden seen attending church in Washington where he denied calling for a regime change in Russia.
US President Joe Biden seen attending church in Washington where he denied calling for a regime change in Russia. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

On Saturday, Joe Biden condemned Vladimir Putin as a “butcher” who could no longer stay in power in a historic speech in Poland as Russian missiles rained down on Ukraine’s most pro-western city, just 40 miles from the Polish border, and Ukraine’s president called for more military aid.

“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said in his most belligerent speech since the war began a month ago.

US officials later said that Biden had been talking about the need for Putin to lose power over Ukrainian territory and in the wider region.

Ukraine prepared to discuss neutrality status as part of peace deal, Zelenskiy says

In an interview with Russian journalists and later published to the presidential office of Ukraine, president Zelenskiy said Ukraine was prepared to discuss its neutrality status as part of a peace deal.

The most important issues in the negotiations with Russia are security guarantees, neutrality and Ukraine’s nuclear-free status.”

Zelenskiy was speaking to Russian journalists in a 90-minute video call, an interview that the Russian authorities had pre-emptively warned Russian media to refrain from reporting. Zelenskiy spoke in Russian throughout.

We do not discuss ‘denazification’ and demilitarisation at all. I said that we will not sit at the negotiating table at all if we talk about some kind of demilitarisation, some kind of ‘denazification’. For me, these are completely incomprehensible things.”

In additional remarks aired on Sunday, he said:

Ukraine is prepared to discuss adopting a neutral status as part of a peace deal with Russia but it would have to be guaranteed by third parties and put to a referendum.”

Zelenskiy said Russia’s invasion had caused the destruction of Russian-speaking cities in Ukraine, and said the damage was worse than the Russian wars in Chechnya.

“Security guarantees and neutrality, non-nuclear status of our state. We are ready to go for it. This is the most important point,” Zelenskiy said.

Updated

Zelenskiy ‘looking for peace without delay’

In Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s latest national address, the Ukrainian president promised to work this week for new sanctions against Russia and spoke of an impending new round negotiations.

A new round of negotiations is ahead, because we are looking for peace. Really. Without delay. As I was informed, there is an opportunity and a need for a face-to-face meeting already in Turkey. This is not bad. Let’s look at the result.

Our priorities in the negotiations are known. Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are beyond doubt. Effective security guarantees for our state are mandatory. Our goal is obvious - peace and the restoration of normal life in our native state as soon as possible.”

The Ukrainian president promised to continue to appeal to the parliaments of other countries, describing a busy diplomatic weeks ahead.

No one will be able to hide the Ukrainian interest somewhere in political offices or in bureaucratic loopholes.

In Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s latest national address, the Ukrainian president promised to work this week for new sanctions against Russia and spoke of an impending new round negotiations.
In Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s latest national address, the Ukrainian president promised to work this week for new sanctions against Russia and spoke of an impending new round negotiations. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Reuters

Zelenskiy also spoke of the “global marathon for peace in Ukraine” where he thanks those who gathered in support of Ukraine across dozens of cities around the world.

An impressive number of people in the squares of Europe, on other continents. And this is extremely important. Because when people are in the square, politicians will no longer pretend not to hear us and you, not to hear Ukraine.”

We will not let anyone forget about our cities, about Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities that the Russian militaries are destroying. More and more people in the world are on the side of Ukraine, on the side of good in this battle with evil. And if politicians don’t know how to follow people, we will teach them. This is the basis of democracy and our national character.”

Updated

The Guardian’s world affairs editor, Julian Borger, brings us this report on the drone operators who halted Russian convoy headed for Kyiv.

One week into its invasion of Ukraine, Russia massed a 40-mile mechanised column in order to mount an overwhelming attack on Kyiv from the north.

But the convoy of armoured vehicles and supply trucks ground to a halt within days, and the offensive failed, in significant part because of a series of night ambushes carried out by a team of 30 Ukrainian special forces and drone operators on quad bikes, according to a Ukrainian commander.

The drone operators were drawn from an air reconnaissance unit, Aerorozvidka, which began eight years ago as a group of volunteer IT specialists and hobbyists designing their own machines and has evolved into an essential element in Ukraine’s successful David-and-Goliath resistance.

However, while Ukraine’s western backers have supplied thousands of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles and other military equipment, Aerorozvidka has been forced to resort to crowdfunding and a network of personal contacts in order to keep going, by getting hold of components such as advanced modems and thermal imaging cameras, in the face of export controls that prohibit them being sent to Ukraine.

Read the full story below.

The Ukrainian military has released its latest morning operational report as of 6am.

According to Ukraine’s general staff of the armed forces, Ukrainian forces continue to restrain Russian troops from taking control of key highways and settlements in the city of Kyiv.

A total of 5 enemy attacks were repelled from Donetsk and Luhansk with Ukrainian soldiers destroying 2 tanks, a combat machine infantry and one car, the report reads.

An earlier report published by Ukraine’s ministry of defence claimed Russia was forced to withdrawal troops that were surrounding Kyiv after suffering significant losses.

The withdrawal “significantly decreased” the intensity of Russia’s advance and forced some units to regroup in Belarus, the general staff of the armed forces said.

Officials added that they believed Russia was also transporting ‘Iskander’ missiles to Kalinkovichy in the Gomel region of south-eastern Belarus.

Ukrainian servicemen stand in the village of Lukyanivka outside Kyiv.
Ukrainian servicemen stand in the village of Lukyanivka outside Kyiv. Photograph: Marko Đurica/Reuters

Updated

Summary

Hello it’s Samantha Lock with you as we deliver all the latest news from Ukraine. It is approaching 7am in Kyiv.

Here is where the situation currently stands:

  • US president Joe Biden has denied he is calling for regime change in Russia, after he said during a visit to Poland that Putin “cannot remain in power”. When asked by a reporter if he wanted to see Russian president Vladimir Putin removed from office he said “no”. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, had already distanced himself from Biden’s comments, while the UK cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi distanced the UK government from his remarks.
  • Representatives from Russia and Ukraine will meet this week for a new round of talks aimed at ending the war. Ukraine said the two sides would meet in Turkey on Monday.
  • The Ukrainian military claimed Russia has withdrawn troops that were surrounding Kyiv after suffering significant losses in its latest operational report.
  • Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy used a video interview with independent Russian media outlets to signal his willingness to discuss having Ukraine adopt a “neutral status”, and also make compromises about the status of the eastern Donbas region, in order to secure a peace agreement with Russia. But he said he was not willing to discuss Ukrainian demilitarisation, and that Ukrainians would need to vote in a referendum to approve their country adopting a neutral status.
  • In a separate late-night video, Zelenskiy promised to work this week for new sanctions against Russia and spoke of the impending new round negotiations, saying “we are looking for peace without delay.”
  • Zelenskiy also claimed that 2,000 children from Mariupol have been taken by Russia, according to a press release published by the president’s office late on Sunday. “According to our data, more than 2,000 children were deported. Which means they were abducted. Because we do not know the exact locations of all these children. There were children with and without parents. It’s a catastrophe, it’s horrible.” Zelenskiy said the city remained blocked by the Russian military, describing the situation as a humanitarian catastrophe. “Food, medicine, and water can’t be delivered. The Russian troops are shelling humanitarian convoys and killing drivers.”
  • Ukraine’s deputy prime minister has accused Russia of “irresponsible” acts around the occupied Chernobyl power station that could send radiation across much of Europe, and urged the United Nations to dispatch a mission to assess the risks in an update to her Telegram account.
  • The UK Ministry of Defence said Russia is “effectively isolating Ukraine from international maritime trade”, in an update late Sunday. It also said Russian naval forces were continuing to conduct sporadic missile strikes against targets across Ukraine.
  • Russia’s communications and internet regulator said in a public statement it would investigate the outlets that interviewed Zelenskiy, and has told them not to distribute the interview.
  • Putin is seeking to split Ukraine into two, emulating the postwar division between North and South Korea, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief has said. In comments that raise the prospect of a long and bitter frozen conflict, General Kyrylo Budanov, warned of bloody guerrilla warfare.
  • The French foreign minister said on Sunday there would be “collective guilt” if nothing was done to help civilians in Mariupol, the Ukrainian city besieged by Russian forces.
  • The UK government’s top legal adviser has appointed a war crimes lawyer to advise Ukraine on the Russian invasion. The attorney general, Suella Braverman, announced on Sunday that Sir Howard Morrison QC would act as an independent adviser to the Ukrainian prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, Press Association reported.
  • Germany is considering purchasing a missile defence system to shield against a potential attack from Russia, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said late on Sunday.
  • Despite reports that Zelenskiy had been pushing to speak on video during the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles tonight, attendees instead observed a 30-second silence as tribute to the people of Ukraine.
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