Summary
We will be pausing our live coverage of the war in Ukraine for the next few hours.
Before we return, here is a comprehensive rundown of where things currently stand.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said President Vladimir Putin was the only Russian official he was willing to meet with to discuss how to end the war. “The president of the Russian Federation decides it all,” he said in a video address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Zelenskiy said. “I cannot accept any kind of meeting with anyone coming from the Russian Federation but the president.”
- A veteran Russian diplomat in Geneva has resigned over his country’s invasion of Ukraine, in a rare political protest from within the Russian foreign policy establishment. Boris Bondarev, a counsellor at the Russian permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva, wrote in a public statement: “Never have I been so ashamed of my country.” He confirmed he had submitted his letter of resignation.
- A court in Kyiv has sentenced a Russian soldier to life in prison for the killing of a Ukrainian civilian, in the first verdict in a trial related to war crimes carried out by the Russian army during its invasion of Ukraine. Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old sergeant, was found guilty of killing 62-year-old Oleksandr Shelipov in the Sumy region during the first days of the invasion.
- Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, said there were about 13,000 cases of Russian alleged war crimes being investigated as of Monday. Another 48 Russian soldiers are due to face war crimes trials, she said, adding that Ukrainian officials have a list of about 600 suspects thought to have engaged in war crimes.
- Twenty countries announced new security assistance packages and agreed to send more advanced weapons to Ukraine, including a harpoon launcher and missiles to protect its coast, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters on Monday. The new security packages included “donating critically needed artillery ammunition, coastal defence systems and tanks and other armoured vehicles”, he said. Denmark pledged to send Harpoon anti-ship missiles that could be used to push the Russian navy away from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, allowing exports of grain and other agricultural products to resume.
- “Low-level” discussions are reportedly underway on whether some US troops should be based in Ukraine and how the US may need to adjust its training of Ukrainian forces, General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added.
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, urged the west to intensify its economic sanctions against Russia as he said business leaders in Davos needed to decide whether “brute force” should rule the world. In a keynote video address to the World Economic Forum, Zelenskiy called for a full oil embargo, the severing of Russian banks from the global financial system, the complete isolation of the Russian IT sector and a ban on trade with Russia.
- The European Union will likely agree an embargo on Russian oil imports “within days” and may require capping global oil prices, Germany’s economy minister said on Monday. “We will reach a breakthrough within days,” Robert Habeck told German broadcaster ZDF, adding that the European Commission and the United States were working on a proposal to no longer pay “any price” for oil, but to cap global prices.
- Zelenskiy gave an insight into the level of losses being sustained by Ukrainian forces in the Donbas, saying between 50 to 100 Ukrainians could be dying every day. While Ukraine and its allies have made much of Russian losses since the war began, the issue of Ukrainian casualties has been something of a black hole.
- Nearly 90 people were killed in a Russian airstrike on the village of Desna in the northern Ukrainian region of Chernihiv, according to Zelenskiy. Ukrainian authorities said eight people were killed in the strike, which took place last Tuesday. Zelenskiy’s figure would give the Desna attack Ukraine’s biggest military death toll in a single strike of the war so far.
- The Ukrainian fighters who surrendered at the Azovstal steelworks in the port city of Mariupol are to be put on trial, the head of the separatist Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, told Russian state media. It was not clear what charges the soldiers would face.
- The war in Ukraine could cause a recession in weaker economies, the head of the IMF has warned. Kristalina Georgieva predicted that 2022 would be a tough year and declined to rule out a global recession if conditions worsened markedly.
- New satellite images reportedly show Russian theft of Ukrainian grain, according to a series of images released by Maxar Technologies, seemingly backing up claims from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy that food had been gradually stolen from the country, CNN has reported. In the photos, taken from 19 and 21 May, two bulk carrier ships with Russian flags can be seen loading grain from the grain silos they are docked by.
- Starbucks is leaving the Russian market, bringing an end to nearly 15 years of business in the country for the Seattle-based coffee company. Starbucks currently has 130 stores in Russia and the company employs nearly 2,000 people in the country. McDonalds has also removed the “golden arches” from Moscow as the company prepares to leave Russia for good.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that President Vladimir Putin was the only Russian official he was willing to meet with to discuss how to end the war.
In a video address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Zelenskiy said:
The president of the Russian Federation decides it all.
If we are talking about ending this war without him personally, that decision cannot be taken.
I cannot accept any kind of meeting with anyone coming from the Russian Federation but the president.
And only in the case when there is one issue on the (table): stopping the war. There are no other grounds for any other kind of meeting.”
Zelenskiy added that arranging any talks with Russia was becoming more difficult in light of what he said was evidence of Russian actions against civilians under occupation.
