Top story: Putin ‘creating a pretext for war’
Hello. Warren Murray once again presenting the news you need.
UN security council members have blasted Russia after Vladimir Putin officially recognised two breakaway areas of Ukraine and ordered his troops to go in as purported “peacekeepers”. Addressing an emergency session of the council held in the last few hours, the US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said: “He calls them peacekeepers. This is nonsense. We know what they really are.” Thomas-Greenfield accused Putin of making a “series of outrageous, false claims” that were aimed at “creating a pretext for war … Putin wants to travel back to a time when empires ruled the world. This is not 1919.” We have rolling coverage at our Ukraine crisis live blog.
Russia’s security council representative, Vasily Nebenzya, claimed the west was “nudging” Ukraine towards conflict and accused other nations of overlooking the plight of those in the Donbas. Ukraine’s ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, replied that his country’s borders remain “unchangeable” despite Russia’s actions. “We demand from Russia to cancel the decision on recognition and return to the table of negotiations.”
As Shaun Walker writes, Putin on Monday performed in an angry, absurdist double-billing on Russian television – first, snapping across a vast room at his assembled security council, effectively daring any of them to disagree with him; then afterwards, making a national address hectoring Ukraine as “a colony with a puppet regime” that had no historical right to exist. The TV spectacle carries on from a series of clumsy, readily debunked fake films supposed to show Ukrainian aggression but actually based, for example, on purloined recordings of Finnish military exercises from years ago, and pre-staged footage of “evacuations” from supposedly besieged areas of Ukraine held by Russian-backed rebels.
As we send today’s briefing, Boris Johnson is due to be chairing a Cobra meeting about the UK response including immediate sanctions. Earlier on Monday, Joe Biden signed an executive order to prohibit trade and investment between US individuals and the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk republics that Putin recognised. The US announced potential sanctions against anyone operating within the Moscow-backed territories. A senior administration official said more US sanctions would be announced on Tuesday, and would be proportionate to Russian actions overnight.
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Farmers blast Brexit policies – The government has shown a “total lack of understanding” of British food production and risks “repeatedly running into crises” through the lack of a post-Brexit plan for farming, Minette Batters, president of the National Farmers’ Union, will say today. The savaging of ministers’ failures comes as farmers suffer plunging exports and reams of new red tape, staff shortages from EU workers leaving, and the prospect of floods of cheap low-quality imports.
Batters will highlight the fate of the pig industry – producers are looking after 200,000 pigs that they can’t get slaughtered, and around 40,000 have had to be culled, about which Boris Johnson made jokes. Batters will tell the NFU conference in Birmingham: “We have completely contradictory government policies. It is raising the bar for environmental standards at home but pursuing trade deals which support lower standards overseas.”
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‘Tidal wave’ – The number of homeless people in England is predicted to jump by a third to 66,000 by 2024, as councils warn of a “tidal wave” of need caused by benefits freezes, soaring food and energy bills and the end of Covid eviction bans. Councils in London, where living costs are highest, are predicting the biggest surge. The projections come as government measures to prevent homelessness during the pandemic are unwound. The government has announced a homelessness prevention fund for councils but the housing charity Crisis is calling on the government to further increase the local housing allowance – the amount the state will pay to cover rent for people on benefits – so it truly covers the cost of rent across the country.
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‘Progress is slow’ – The number of women in FTSE 100 boardroom roles has jumped to 39.1% from 12.5% 10 years ago, data has revealed. However, the Fawcett Society says the figures do not capture the “shocking lack of diversity” laid bare in its 2022 Sex and Power Index, with “women of colour, disabled women and LGBTQ people missing from positions of power”. Jemima Olchawski, the Fawcett Society’s chief executive, said: “In the majority of boardrooms men continue to be overrepresented. When we look at the most senior positions of CEO and chair the progress is painfully slow.” Women make up only eight of the chief executives at the UK’s top 100 listed companies.
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Ovarian cancer going undiagnosed – GPs and women are still ignoring key symptoms of ovarian cancer despite better awareness of the disease, a charity has warned. Symptoms include frequently having a swollen tummy or feeling bloated; pain or tenderness in the tummy or the pelvis; having no appetite or feeling full quickly after eating; and an urgent need to pee or needing to pee more often, according to the NHS. Katy Stephenson, 47, from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, told of being diagnosed with early-stage ovarian cancer when admitted to hospital with suspected appendicitis. “If that hadn’t happened, the cancer probably would have spread, and I hate to think about what would have happened.” Target Ovarian Cancer has called for more government support for awareness campaigns.
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Hedgehogs claw way back – Britain’s hedgehogs are showing signs of an urban-led recovery, according to a new report. Overall they have been experiencing a dramatic fall in numbers due to loss of habitat, attacks by dogs, vanishing prey and being run over. Fay Vass, head of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), said rural populations had been declining by between 30% and 75% since the year 2000.
“In contrast, the urban hedgehog seems to have stabilised and might even be starting to recover … So that’s a glimmer of hope.” The total UK hedgehog population was believed to be about 879,000 in 2018. They are primarily threatened by habitat loss and the accompanying lack of prey such as beetles and earthworms. Hugh Warwick, an ecologist, encourages gardeners to keep messier, hedgehog-friendly gardens rather than succumbing to the “cult of tidiness driven by gardening programmes and glossy magazines”.
Today in Focus podcast: Democrats’ crime conundrum
While US Democrats struggle to follow through on promises of police reform, Republicans are trying to keep voters’ attention on rising crime rates. Lauren Gambino reports.
Lunchtime read: ‘Quite fed up’ – Britons on the storms
“Last January was bad, but this is even worse. My neighbour next door but one, he’s lived here for over 10 years – he’s never seen anything like this.” Flooding, power cuts and destruction to homes continue to impact people in parts of the country after three named storms struck the UK in a week.
Sport
What price an Olympic gold medal these days? We know about the blood, sweat and tears, but the costs paid by the 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva in pursuit of the glittering prize rose exorbitantly over the past week in Beijing. The already unstable Olympic currency of values, integrity and humanity devalued further. Team GB’s Winter Olympics curling success has drawn a new generation to the ice, with Scotland’s rinks inundated with inquiries since the weekend’s medal-winning performances.
Novak Djokovic returned to competition for the first time since his deportation from Australia last month, defeating the wildcard Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 6-3 to reach the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. Romelu Lukaku has mostly been a conundrum since returning to Chelsea last summer and, while the £97.5m striker has not done much talking off the pitch since that ill-advised chat with Sky Italia at the end of December, nothing summed up his struggles more than when he produced a performance of record-breaking anonymity against Crystal Palace last Saturday. Christian Eriksen has stepped up his push to return to frontline football after another impressive friendly run-out for Brentford.
Business
Oil has jumped to a seven-year high, safe havens rallied and US stock futures dived after Vladimir Putin ordered troops into eastern Ukraine. Asian stocks have fallen while the safe-haven yen rose as much as 0.2% at one point to a nearly three-week high of 114.50 per dollar. Understandably the FTSE is tracking to open lower this morning while the pound is sitting on $1.358 and €1.203 at time of writing.
The papers
The late edition of the Guardian today leads with “Putin scorns west as Russian troops enter eastern Ukraine” – earlier versions had Putin on a “collision course with west” after recognising the breakaway regions of Ukraine. The Express kept Covid as its splash – “Boris: time to get our confidence back” – but updated its late-edition Ukraine headline to “‘Bloodshed’ warning as Putin sends in troops”.
The Mail as well stays with the end of restrictions in England: “Boris throws off shackles” – it also updated its Ukraine headline to reflect Putin’s troop deployment. The i is more glass half empty about the post-restrictions era with “New Covid plan: pay for your own test” – the front page also says “UK to hit Russia with sanctions as Putin ‘orders troops into Ukraine to keep peace’”. The Mirror says “Lateral blow” about the end of free testing and accuses Boris Johnson of a “bonfire of virus safeguards”. Its front-page picture is of fiery Russian exercises in Belarus – the accompanying words in the late edition, “Putin orders troops in”.
The Metro has “PM: now it’s over to you” and its final edition has a strapline across the bottom of page one: “‘Troops cross border’ as Putin backs Ukraine rebels”. The Telegraph has “Putin warns of bloodshed as he moves troops into Ukraine” while the Times says simply “Putin sends tanks into Ukraine”.
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