Summary of the day
It’s been a comparatively quiet day for news relating to the Ukraine invasion, but there have still been some important developments.
The EU has imposed a new round of sanctions on Russia, expanding import and export bans and blacklisting individuals over Moscow’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions.
Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told European heads of state gathered in Prague that Ukraine must win so that Russia does not “advance on Warsaw or again on Prague”.
Ukrainian emergency services said three bodies have been pulled from rubble after a Russian rocket strike destroyed a five-storey apartment block in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.
The Kremlin denied reports that 700,000 Russians had fled the country since Moscow announced a mobilisation drive it said would call up hundreds of thousands to fight in Ukraine.
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Updated
Leaders of the European Union, the United Kingdom and Turkey met on Thursday to discuss the security and energy crises resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in a symbolic summit seen as underlining Moscow’s isolation.
The gathering in Prague was the inaugural meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), the brainchild of French president, Emmanuel Macron, and was intended to unite the EU’s 27 member states with 17 other European countries.
The meeting at the ancient Prague Castle was perceived as a grand show of solidarity for a continent grappling with multiple crises - from the security implications of the war in Ukraine to energy shortages and a looming recession.
“This meeting is a way of looking for a new order without Russia,” the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said, adding that Moscow may not always be excluded but for now, President Vladimir Putin’s Russia “does not have a seat”.
Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, addressing the meeting via video link, urged leaders to turn the new political community into a “European community of peace”.
“Let today be the starting point. The point from which Europe and the entire free world will move to guaranteed peace for all of us. It is possible,” he said, calling on leaders to “direct all possible powers of Europe to end the war” in Ukraine.
Updated
