Summary
Here is a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
Switzerland is set to hold a Ukraine peace conference “by the summer”. Addressing the UN general assembly on Friday, the Swiss foreign minister, Ignazio Cassis, said: “At Ukraine’s request, we intend to organize by the summer a high-level conference on peace in Ukraine,” Reuters reports.
Canada has announced additional sanctions against 10 individuals and 153 entities over Russia’s “illegal and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine”. In a statement released on Friday, the Canadian foreign minister, Mélanie Joly, said that the sanctions target individuals and entities who support the Russian military through finance, logistics and sanctions evasion.
The US has sanctioned three Russian officials over last week’s death of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Agence France-Presse reports. The individuals sanctioned include Valery Boyarinev, the deputy director of the Russia’s federal penitentiary service, which oversaw Polar Wolf, the penal colony where Navalny suddenly died last week. The other two sanctioned individuals are officials administering the penal colony.
Alexei Navalny’s mother has been given an ultimatum, “agree to secret funeral or he is buried in prison”, by Russian authorities holding her son. Lyudmila Navalnaya accused Russian investigators of “blackmailing” her on Thursday over the logistics of the funeral for her son, a Russian opposition leader who died in an Arctic prison last Friday.
The US has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia, which target Russian firms and individuals connected to Navalny’s death. The US Treasury, state department and commerce department announced on Friday that they will impose roughly 600 new sanctions on Russia and its “war machine” in the largest single tranche of penalties since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
The White House has accused the House speaker of aiding Iran in latest Ukraine aid push. “President Biden is standing up to Iran. But where is House Speaker [Mike] Johnson’s supposed commitment not to ‘appease Iran’ in all this? Nowhere. Instead, his inaction is benefiting Putin and the Ayatollah,” the deputy press secretary and senior communications adviser, Andrew Bates, said in a memo.
Protesting farmers have spilt Ukrainian rapeseed on Polish railway, the second incident this week amid protests by angry farmers. Farmers in Poland are protesting against what they call “uncontrolled” imports from its war-torn neighbour, souring otherwise friendly ties between Warsaw and Kyiv. Across Europe, angry farmers have been protesting over rising costs, high fuel prices, bureaucracy and EU environmental rules.
The Council of Europe confirms “unwavering support” for Ukraine. “We mark an anniversary that no one of wanted to see,” said Marija Pejcinovic Buric, secretary-general of the Council of Europe, adding, “Our thoughts today are with the Ukrainian people.”
The prominent Russian businessman Boris Mints can take his bid to pause an $850m fraud lawsuit brought by two Russian banks to the UK’s supreme court, his lawyers said in court filings on Friday.
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Switzerland is set to hold a Ukraine peace conference “by the summer”.
Addressing the UN general assembly on Friday, the Swiss foreign minister, Ignazio Cassis, said: “At Ukraine’s request, we intend to organize by the summer a high-level conference on peace in Ukraine,” Reuters reports.
He added: “I would therefore like to take this opportunity to invite all nations … to work together towards our common goal.”
Cassis’s address comes as the UN general assembly gathered to meet on the eve of the two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Also speaking at the UN general assembly was the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who stressed the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s peace plan.
“Russia cannot ignore the voice of the world majority if we all take a principled stance and act together. The peace formula ... represents exactly such an opportunity,” Kuleba said.
Zelenskiy’s 10-point peace plan includes restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity, withdrawal of Russian troops, food security, radiation and nuclear safety, and preventing conflict escalation.
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