Summary
Here’s a roundup of Friday afternoon’s news in response to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, as the BBC has stopped its news operation in Russia.
- The BBC will “temporarily suspend” the work of all its BBC News journalists and support staff in Russia. This is after new legislation has been passed by the Russian authorities, which imposes a jail term of up to 15 years for people who intentionally spread “fake” information about Russia’s armed forces.
- The Metropolitan police’s war crimes team is gathering evidence in relation to alleged war crimes in Ukraine to support the international criminal court (ICC) investigation, the force said.
- The shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been strongly condemned by both the foreign secretary Liz Truss and defence secretary Ben Wallace. Truss called it a “completely reckless act”.
- The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has asked government lawyers to “find literally any way” to crack down on “Slapps” – or strategic lawsuits against public participation – where the wealthy exploit lengthy and expensive legal procedures to silence journalists, critics and watchdogs.
- The Disasters Emergency Committee’s (DEC) Ukraine appeal has raised 55 million in its first day.The total includes “generous” donations from the Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge, DEC said.
- Priti Patel has said Ukrainians fleeing into Poland were escaping “the most atrocious set of circumstances where they are being persecuted by President Putin”.
- Boris Johnson is concerned for the safety of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, Downing Street has said. The prime minister has regularly spoken to the Ukrainian leader and has expressed his personal admiration of him.
- Former prime minister Gordon Brown criticised Russia for not making a statement regarding safety on the nuclear power station in south-eastern Ukraine it has taken control of, saying that is a “failure to respond to the pleas of the international community”.
That’s it from us for today. For the latest news on Ukraine, follow our dedicated live blog:
Updated
Here’s a bit more detail from Reuters about the legislation that has prompted the BBC to suspend its work in Russia:
Russia’s upper house of parliament approved a draft law on Friday that would impose a jail term of up to 15 years for people who intentionally spread “fake” information about Russia’s armed forces, the TASS news agency reported.
The bill will become law once President Vladimir Putin signs it, as he is widely expected to do. Moscow says it is fighting back in what it casts as an information war with the West over the conflict in Ukraine.
Meanwhile The Moscow Times reports that the document was adopted unanimously.
Examples of “fakes” about military operations that are punishable by up to 15 years in prison were provided to the lawmakers including the use of old photos of burned military equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces that have been photoshopped to have markings of the Russian military.
The explanatory note to the bill also states that Ukrainian media is using footage of the devastation in the Donbas region from 2014-2015 and passing it off as crimes perpetrated by the Russian military in order to “create a global negative image of Russia as a ‘bloody aggressor’ and whip up panic in society.”
The news about the BBC suspending operations in Russia comes amid a debate about the Kremlin-backed RT news channel, formerly known as Russia Today.
Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has opened 27 investigations into the “due impartiality” of programmes broadcast on the channel.
Meanwhile culture secretary Nadine Dorries has said RT should lose its licence and “never again” be able to broadcast “poisonous propaganda”.
But Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, warned earlier this week that the BBC risked being banned in Russia if RT was shut down in the UK.
Reports that BBC News services were being blocked in Russia prompted the broadcaster to issue a statement on Friday morning, saying it would “continue our efforts to make BBC News available in Russia, and across the rest of the world”.
It also shared a link to an article reminding viewers that its Ukrainian and Russian language services are available on the dark web.
The BBC has made its international news website available through the Tor network, a privacy-focused software used to access the dark web, in a bid to thwart censorship attempts.
The Metropolitan police’s war crimes team is gathering evidence in relation to alleged war crimes in Ukraine to support the international criminal court (ICC) investigation, the force said.
The team is part of counter-terrorism command and has “national responsibility for carrying out any UK enquiries into war crimes and core international crimes”.
Detectives are appealing for anyone in the UK who may have direct evidence of war crimes in Ukraine from 21 November 2013 onwards to come forward, and are particularly keen to hear from anyone who may have witnessed or been the victim of any war crimes in Ukraine during this period, PA News reports.
Evidence given to and gathered by the war crimes team may then be shared with the international criminal court to assist with their investigation.
Updated
BBC suspends BBC News operations in Russia following new legislation
The BBC will “temporarily suspend” the work of all its BBC News journalists and support staff in Russia.
This follows the news that new legislation has been passed by the Russian authorities, which BBC director general Tim Davie said appeared to “criminalise the process of independent journalism”.
The Russian parliament approved the law on Friday. It would make it a criminal offence punishable by up to 15 years in prison to spread “fake” or “false” news about the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
It comes after the Kremlin accused the BBC of playing a “determined role in undermining the Russian stability and security”.
Davie said:
It leaves us no other option than to temporarily suspend the work of all BBC News journalists and their support staff within the Russian Federation while we assess the full implications of this unwelcome development.
Our BBC News service in Russian will continue to operate from outside Russia.
Davie said the safety of the BBC’s staff was paramount and they are are “not prepared to expose them to the risk of criminal prosecution simply for doing their jobs”.
He continued:
I’d like to pay tribute to all of them, for their bravery, determination and professionalism.
We remain committed to making accurate, independent information available to audiences around the world, including the millions of Russians who use our news services. Our journalists in Ukraine and around the world will continue to report on the invasion of Ukraine.
Updated
As the UK government seeks ways to take on Russian oligarchs with links to Vladimir Putin’s regime, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has asked government lawyers to “find literally any way” to crack down on “Slapps” – or strategic lawsuits against public participation – where the wealthy exploit lengthy and expensive legal procedures to silence journalists, critics and watchdogs.
How do Slapps differ from ordinary defamation lawsuits?
While Slapps generally arise out of defamation lawsuits and ostensibly have the same purpose – of protecting the claimant’s reputation – they are seen as an attempt to shut down public criticism, with the claimant often indifferent about whether they actually win the case.
What is the threat posed by Slapps?
The fear is that they discourage investigative reporting into rich and powerful people because of the potential costs of defending a claim, even if it has little or no merit.
In a parliamentary debate on Slapps in January, David Davis, a Conservative MP and former cabinet minister, said “nefarious” actors were using the justice system “to threaten, intimidate and put the fear of God into British journalists, citizens, officials and media organisations”. He described such tactics as “lawfare”.
The Foreign Policy Centre said the UK was “the most frequent country of origin” for foreign legal threats against investigative journalists.
How are Slapps connected to Russian oligarchs?
The use of Slapps is not confined to Russians but one of the most notorious recent examples, characterised as such by MPs as well as free speech campaigners, related to Putin’s People, a book written by the journalist Catherine Belton about the Russian leader.
She and her publisher, HarperCollins, were sued over a number of matters in the book by multiple Russian billionaires, including Roman Abramovich, who owns Chelsea football club, Mikhail Fridman, the owner of Russia’s largest non-state bank, and the Russian state oil company Rosneft. All of the claims were subsequently settled or withdrawn. Abramovich ended his case after HarperCollins accepted some information concerning him was inaccurate and agreed to make revisions to the book. HarperCollins apologised and agreed to make a payment to charity in recognition of a particular error, but otherwise no damages were paid and both sides agreed to pay their own costs.
Read more here:
Updated
Anas Sarwar praised the “inspirational bravery” of the Ukrainian people in the face of the Russian invasion.
Having led applause in support of Ukraine earlier in the day, the Scottish Labour leader argued that Vladimir Putin “will not win” and insisted peace will prevail.
Sarwar said:
We unequivocally reject any - any - false attempts to justify Russian aggression, and we stand in solidarity with those fleeing war and those who are staying to defend their homeland.
Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine is unprovoked and unjustifiable. Across the world today the message is clear - peace and democracy must prevail and we will not bend to Vladimir Putin’s imperial ambitions.
We must provide more humanitarian assistance to defeat the horrors of war: hunger, destitution and need.
We must further tighten the economic measures taken against Vladimir Putin’s regime and we must, once and for all, root out the free flow of Russian money and influence and the Russian disinformation campaign from our public life, across the UK and here in Scotland.
The first minister of Wales has said that he regrets the ending of free coronavirus testing, but that it was inevitable after the UK government ended the programme.
Mark Drakeford said he had attempted to persuade the UK government to take a “more gradual” approach to the running down of test and trace but had been rebuffed.
Drakeford said:
I think that is a genuine anxiety and it is why we have attempted unsuccessfully to persuade the UK government to take a more gradual approach to the rundown of testing and the infrastructure that has served us so well over the last two years,
We will devote some of the testing that we have available to us through our own means in ways that will allow surveillance to continue.
We continue to have conversations with the UK government about the need to ensure both that there is sufficient surveillance in place and that should it be necessary to step up the level of protection again through a more widespread testing regime, there’s a proper plan and proper capacity to be able to do that.
In the end, when the UK government makes these decisions, they have a direct effect on us. We’ve had to plan within the constraints that we unavoidably face.
Updated
Covid-19 infection levels have fallen in England and Northern Ireland but increased in Scotland, while the trend in Wales is “uncertain”, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The ONS figures reveal that in England, around one in 30 people in private households are estimated to have had the virus in the week to 26 February, or 1.9 million people – down from one in 25, or 2.1 million people in the week to 19 February.
For Northern Ireland the proportion of people with Covid-19 has fallen to one in 17, or 106,300 people, from one in 14, 132,700 people.
But Scotland saw a slight increase week-on-week, up from one in 20, or 240,700 people, to one in 19, or 280,500.
In Wales the estimate remains around one in 30, or 94,200, with the ONS describing the trend in the most recent week as “uncertain”.
Updated
The Disasters Emergency Committee’s (DEC) Ukraine appeal has raised 55 million in its first day.
The total includes “generous” donations from the Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge, DEC said.
It said hundreds of thousands of members of the public donated to the humanitarian appeal within hours of its launch on Thursday.
The total includes 20 million donated by the UK Government as part of its UK Aid Match scheme - the largest commitment ever made to a DEC appeal through the initiative.
Saleh Saeed, the chief executive of the DEC, said:
We are also very grateful for the generous support of the royal family.”
We also thank the UK Government who have matched pound for pound the first 20 million donated by the public, as well as our broadcast partners and celebrities for having aired and joined the appeal, reaching millions of viewers and listeners.
Giving through the DEC is the most effective way to get the right assistance to the right people. While wanting to collect clothes and other items for people in need is laudable, the things people give today may not be what people need tomorrow and aid workers say they can’t use much of what is arriving. Donating through the DEC is the most helpful way people
Updated
Ben Wallace accused Russia of “playing with fire” by shelling a nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
Speaking at a news conference in Copenhagen, the defence secretary added that the UK government “call upon the Russian president in the strongest possible terms to absolutely cease attacking sites” such as the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
He said:
It is incredibly dangerous. It is not just dangerous for Ukraine and Russia, it is dangerous for Europe, and it is playing with fire that really is beyond anything that has to do with logic or necessity.
Liz Truss, who is in Brussels to meet with her counterparts to discuss next steps in responding to Russia’s aggression, has said the meeting will be used to show “the strength of our unity in challenging Vladimir Putin”.
The foreign secretary said:
We are doing all we can to support the Ukrainians through defensive weapons where the UK led – we were the first European country to donate defensive weapons – and we are also going to be talking about sanctions.
We have been very co-ordinated in sanctions, we have shown huge unity, it is having a big effect in Russia – but we now need to do more.
We particularly need to look at the oil and gas sector, how do we reduce our dependence across Europe on Russian gas, how do we cut off the funding to Vladimir Putin’s war machine? That is what I am going to be advocating at both the G7 and the discussions with the EU.
Updated
Nuclear power plant shelling condemned by Liz Truss
The shelling of a nuclear power plant in Ukraine by Russian troops is “a threat to European security and stability”, Liz Truss has said.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has been seized by Russian military forces, according to regional authorities, after a fire sparked by overnight shelling burned for several hours at the largest facility of its kind in Europe.
Speaking in Brussels, where ministers from across the West are gathering today to discuss how to respond to Russian aggression, the foreign secretary told journalists that those responsible for the “completely reckless act” must be “held to account”.
Asked how concerned she is about the incident, Truss said:
Well this was a completely reckless act.
We’ve heard now that the fire has been extinguished, but it is extremely concerning that forces are prepared to do this. We have called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council.
This is a threat to European security and stability and we need those responsible to be held to account.
Here’s more about what has happened at the nuclear plant:
Updated
Priti Patel has said Ukrainians fleeing into Poland were escaping “the most atrocious set of circumstances where they are being persecuted by President Putin”.
Speaking on a visit to the Polish border, the home secretary told reporters she was in the country “very much in terms of standing in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, but also with our friends here in Poland”.
She said she wanted to “to see the work that they’re doing and also to see how we can support Poland much more in terms of helping those Ukrainians with links to the United Kingdom to come to Britain, and actually we’ve been discussing some of that work here today”.
Patel said:
We’re also launching our new family extension route today to enable Ukrainian families with links to the UK to come over to Britain. That scheme is live, that is now working, that’s up and running.
We stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Ukraine but also with our dear friends here in Poland, who are working really [hard] night and day, we can all see this, under incredible circumstances.
Boris Johnson concerned for safety of Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Boris Johnson is concerned for the safety of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, Downing Street has said.
The prime minister has regularly spoken to the Ukrainian leader and has expressed his personal admiration of him and a spokesman for the PM was asked whether Johnson was worried about attempts reportedly made on Zelenskiy’s life.
He said:
Of course, everybody’s concerned for the safety and welfare of the president of Ukraine and the rest of the government, as well as the people of Ukraine who we’ve seen indiscriminately targeted over recent days.
Updated
Former prime minister Gordon Brown criticised Russia for not making a statement regarding safety on the nuclear power station in south-eastern Ukraine it has taken control of, saying that is a “failure to respond to the pleas of the international community”.
He told an online event organised by the Chatham House thinktank:
I am surprised that this morning, now that the Russian government have taken over a second nuclear power station in Ukraine, and now are in control of it, they have not made a statement that they will not allow that nuclear station to be used to endanger and to threaten human life.
It is these very instances of Russia’s failure to respond to the pleas of the international community, that make us determined that we will step up our campaign to make sure that Russia is brought to justice for what is a crime of aggression but of course could – and I support the international criminal court’s actions – be in other areas too.
Updated
Boris Johnson does not want someone in Russia to assassinate Vladimir Putin, HuffPost UK reports.
Republican US senator Lindsey Graham last night called for the Russian president to be killed on Twitter, asking if there was a “Brutus” in Russia.
For those who don’t know Brutus, Marcus Junius Brutus was a Roman politician and the most famous of Julius Caesar’s assassins.
Asked if the Johnson agreed with Graham, the prime minister’s spokesperson said:
No.
We stand with the Ukrainian people in demanding the immediate end to the Russian invasion.
We have said before Putin must be held account in front of an international court for the horrific acts he has committed.
Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the US, said Graham’s comments, see below, were “unacceptable and outrageous”.
Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military?
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 4, 2022
The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out.
You would be doing your country - and the world - a great service.
The only people who can fix this are the Russian people.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 4, 2022
Easy to say, hard to do.
Unless you want to live in darkness for the rest of your life, be isolated from the rest of the world in abject poverty, and live in darkness you need to step up to the plate.
Updated
The price of food including pork is likely to rise significantly as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a UK environment minister has warned.
Victoria Prentis, the Defra minister responsible for farming, also suggested Britons may want to stop buying Russian white fish, which makes up about a third of the volume consumed in the UK.
Prentis warned that British people would have to become more willing to pay premium prices for quality food produced domestically.
Speaking at the launch of the Conservative Environment Network’s Green Albion essay collection, she said: “I’ve been having really important meetings with the fishing industry. Thirty per cent of our white fish, for example, is imported from Russia. Get real, guys.”
The minister told the Guardian that further sanctions were being considered, which could affect the fishing industry, but suggested consumers boycott the fish. She said: “For now, do we really want to be buying Russian fish?”
Prior to the invasion, Prentis had been mostly focused on the cost of living crisis as well as the shift to more environmentally-friendly farming, implementing the environmental land management schemes (Elms) which would have farmers paid subsidies for improving biodiversity and nature on their land.
However, she has found herself dealing with potential supply-chain failures as a result of the war.
“I am going to dial down the optimism because we are in the middle of the most extraordinary series of world events,” she said.
You can read the full story here:
Gordon Brown calls for special tribunal to punish Putin for aggression against Ukraine
Former prime minister Gordon Brown has called on countries to support the creation of a special tribunal to punish Vladimir Putin for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.
He joined Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba at an online event organised by the Chatham House think-tank, where pleas were made for Western nations to set up a tribunal to prosecute the Russian president and his accomplices, PA Media reports.
Brown said the plan to set up a new international tribunal is modelled on the actions of the nations which met in London during the Second World War to draft a resolution on Nazi war crimes, which led to the creation of the international military tribunals and the Nuremberg trials.
Brown said a new international tribunal is needed as well as existing international investigations by the international criminal court.
The former Labour leader said:
Ukraine wants our full support to expose and punish the crime of aggression, and that can be done by setting up a special tribunal on the lines proposed in 1942.
President Putin has posed a fateful challenge to the post-1945 international order. He has sought to replace the rule of law with a misuse of force.
If we were to acquiesce in any way, none of us could ever take freedom or democracy for granted ever again.
For all these reasons, and because of the scale of the suffering of the people of Ukraine, I believe that most people would agree that this act of aggression cannot go uninvestigated, unprosecuted or unpunished.
The proposal Brown is supporting has been formulated by senior international legal experts who are demanding that the UK and other countries join Ukraine to grant jurisdiction to a dedicated criminal tribunal to investigate both the perpetrators of the crime of aggression and those complicit in that crime.
Brown added:
Currently the ICC can investigate crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes. As evidence mounts acts against innocent civilians including children and the use of vapour bombs, it may be that Russia can be prosecuted for these crimes.
But we lack a crucial extra weapon in the legal fight against Putin. because Russia has not signed up to a separate ICC statute under which nations pledge not to commit so-called ‘crimes of aggression’. We need the special tribunal.
Mr Kuleba wants us to act and I believe we must do so now. Putin must not be able to escape justice.
Updated
Keir Starmer said it was clear Ukraine wanted the strongest possible response from Nato members, adding that the people of the country were “bravely” fighting back.
Asked for his view of Vladimir Putin’s state of mind and the way he was acting, the Labour leader answered:
Putin is a dangerous aggressor who is in breach of international law.
I think he is gambling that Ukraine and our allies, the United Kingdom and Nato would not be united. He will be surprised by how united we are.
Conservative fundraiser and co-chair Ben Elliot should be sacked, says Starmer
Keir Starmer called for Conservative fundraiser and co-chair Ben Elliot to be sacked for his role in links between the Tories and Russian money.
Speaking during a visit to Birmingham Erdington following his party’s byelection success, the Labour leader, said there was “growing concern” about the links between the Conservative Party and Russian money.
He said:
Ben Elliot is at the heart of that. We need to strip Russian money away from our politics, not to allow it to influence our politics.
There will always be this danger if the Conservative government doesn’t go really hard on this that people will say it must be because you are reliant on Russian money that you are not going more quickly.
So, it’s in everybody’s best interests that Ben Elliot steps back from his role – and I think he should actually be sacked from it.
Updated
Russian elites could have their property seized and handed over to Ukrainian refugees, the deputy prime minister has suggested.
Dominic Raab made the remarks as he defended the UK’s response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and the prime minister, Boris Johnson, called for an emergency UN summit after a Russian attack on a nuclear power station in Ukraine.
Asked on LBC radio whether Britain could capture property assets owned by Russian oligarchs in punishment for Moscow’s invasion on Ukraine, Raab said: “If we’ve got the evidence and the legal basis, then we’ll do it.”
Pressed on whether he would back using those properties to house Ukrainian refugee – a move called for by the Liberal Democrats and reportedly argued for in government by the housing secretary, Michael Gove – Raab replied: “Yes, absolutely.
“We are looking at everything in the round, it is a team effort across government, from the foreign and defence secretary through to Michael Gove and, of course, the prime minister is driving this very hard.”
The UK government has faced criticism for being too slow in its approach to implementing sanctions against Russian figures and linked assets.
The Labour party chairwoman, Anneliese Dodds, said the UK had got to “stop dragging” its feet in clamping down on funds that have come from figures linked to Putin.
Read the full story here:
Keir Starmer has said Labour wants to see a rule brought in to force oligarchs to register assets over a “very, very short” period measured in days.
The Labour leader said:
Otherwise what will happen – it’s inevitable – is that people will remove their assets ... they will remove and sell their properties in the UK, and put the money somewhere else.
This is the powerful weapon we have to support Ukraine. We’ve got to use it.
I say to the government – get rid of the 18-month timeline. Bring it down to a number of days and we will vote it through on Monday.
The strongest provisions, we will be united in voting through. But I don’t want to see the government slowing down here or losing the ambition to take that opportunity.
Updated
Liz Truss said the UK government was doing “all we can to support the Ukrainians”.
Speaking in Brussels, the foreign secretary said she was holding various meetings to show “the strength of our unity in challenging Vladimir Putin, in stopping Vladimir Putin, in Ukraine”.
We’re doing all we can to support the Ukrainians through defensive weapons, where the UK led – we were the first European country to donate defensive weapons, and we’re also going to be talking about sanctions.
She said sanctions were having a “big effect in Russia” but she said she was looking at how to speed up the process.
We’ve sanctioned more companies than our counterparts across the world, we’ve just sanctioned two more major oligarchs last night.
What I’m doing is looking how we can speed up that process to make even more progress on that front.
The number one thing (that’s) important though, is that we are unified with our partners across the world in putting the toughest ever sanctions we’ve had on Russia.
Updated
Asked for his view of the UK government’s efforts to sanction Russian oligarchs, Keir Starmer said the government could go “further and faster”.
The Labour leader said:
Where the government is taking action on sanctions, we support them. But they have got to go further and faster.
We must go after every oligarch. This is the weapon we have to use and we need to use it now.
I am particularly concerned about the arrangements where the government is suggesting there could be 18 months for those overseas owners to register their assets and their ownership.
That gives them 18 months to remove their assets from this country, so I want to see the government move on this.
Keir Starmer says it seems there is evidence of war crimes and that those responsible needed to be held to account.
Asked how Nato and western governments could stop the escalating attacks on Ukraine, the Labour leader said:
We need the retreat from the Russian aggression in Ukraine – it’s as simple as that.
Every day we are seeing these attacks and the devastation that they are bringing about.
Starmer said of Putin:
From what I’ve already seen, it seems to me there is evidence of war crimes and it’s very important that all of those responsible are held to account.
What’s really important now is the gathering of evidence to make sure that the most powerful case can be brought whenever it can be brought.
Keir Starmer described the overnight attack on a nuclear plant in Ukraine as “deeply alarming”.
Speaking during a visit to Birmingham, the Labour leader said:
I think the whole world will be shocked. I think it’s very important that we unite now and renew that message that Russia must withdraw.
We need a ceasefire – and we need to stop this aggression from Russia because this escalation is deeply, deeply concerning.
Meanwhile, the head of the UN’s atomic watchdog said there has been no release of radioactive material at the Ukrainian nuclear plant following shelling by Russian forces.
Vladimir Putin is “at risk” of ending up in prison for war crimes carried out by his Russian forces in Ukraine, the Justice Secretary said.
Dominic Raab was asked on Times Radio whether he saw the conflict ending with the Russian president “imprisoned for war crimes”.
The deputy prime minister said:
I think it is a very real risk that he must now contemplate.
Beyond his personal situation, every commander operating in Ukraine, or indeed Moscow, when they are faced with illegal orders, whether it is to target civilians or otherwise, attack illegal or unlawful sites, they now know the ICC [international criminal court] is investigating and the chief prosecutor Karim Khan is, I believe, travelling to Ukraine.
They must now know that they face the very real risk of ending up in the dock of a court and, ultimately, in a prison if they follow through on those illegal, unlawful orders.
Updated
The Welsh government is to provide £4m in aid to Ukraine.
The first minister, Mark Drakeford, who told Sky News that Wales hoped to be “a nation of sanctuary” for Ukrainian refugees, said the aid would help people on the frontline.
He told the programme:
We know that cash is what is really needed here and now on the ground for people who can obtain those goods and put that money to good use - and that is why the £4m from the Welsh government will go to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal that we launched here in Wales yesterday.
He could not say how many refugees that Wales could be dealing with and that many of them might like to stay near family or friends who may live elsewhere.
He said:
What we would like to see through the UK government is a simple, fast, safe and legal route for those needing to seek sanctuary elsewhere in the world and in Wales to be able to come here.
For those people for whom Wales could be even a temporary home, a temporary place of sanctuary, we will want to do everything we can to welcome them and to provide for them.
Updated
The UK has got to “stop dragging” its feet in clamping down on funds that have come from figures linked to Vladimir Putin, the Labour party chair, Anneliese Dodds, has said.
She told Sky News:
I certainly would say that we have been far too soft, especially over the last 10 years, on those funds that have come from Putin-linked oligarchs and business people.
She rejected the government’s claims that it has been working strongly against economic levers for Putin-linked individuals.
She said:
I have got to say that, for many, many years, Labour has been calling on the Conservatives to, for example, force transparency around property ownership, especially in London where we know that many of these Putin-linked oligarchs have been stashing their funds in property.
We see, even with the new measures that finally have been extracted from the government now that they say they will announce on Monday, an 18-month window before they will come into action – that’s just not good enough.
We need immediate action now. We can put those registers of foreign-owned property into place in 28 days, we believe we could get those running and force that transparency.
We should have had it many years ago but, above all, we need it right now. We have got to act right now and we have got to stop dragging our feet as the Conservative government has been doing.
Updated
Keir Starmer has tweeted his congratulations to Paulette Hamilton, Labour’s new MP for Birmingham Erdington.
Hamilton won the byelection with a majority of 3,266 and is the city’s first black MP.
The Labour leader said in the tweet that she had “made history”.
He added: “As a dedicated community champion I know that you will bring security, prosperity and respect to the people of Erdington.”
Congratulations to @PauletteHamilto, Labour’s new MP for Birmingham Erdington and the city’s first Black MP.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) March 4, 2022
You’ve made history.
As a dedicated community champion I know that you will bring security, prosperity and respect to the people of Erdington.
In her victory speech last night, Hamilton said:
I’m truly humbled and honoured to be elected as a member of parliament. I will not take your vote for granted, I have met many of you and I have heard what you have to say and I commit to you now, I will work for you … I will be your voice in Westminster.
The byelection was triggered by the sudden death in January of the Labour MP Jack Dromey, who had held the seat since 2010.
If you are just catching up, here’s the full report on the byelection results from my colleague Jessica Murray:
Dominic Raab said it was “doubly reprehensible” that Russian forces had continued to shell a nuclear site after Ukrainian emergency services had looked to put a fire out at Europe’s largest power station.
The deputy prime minister told Sky News the Russians had inflicted a bombardment on a “very sensitive, precarious and dangerous facility” in Zaporizhzhia.
He said:
The fact that the Russians kept on bombarding after there was the fire and the Ukrainian emergency rescue team were trying to get to that makes it doubly reprehensible.
Raab said the UN security council meeting being called for by Boris Johnson was needed to “ramp up the pressure on these appalling tactics we are seeing from the Kremlin”.
The international community needs to “come down hard on Putin” after Russian forces shelled a nuclear power station in the south-eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, according to Dominic Raab.
The deputy prime minister told Times Radio:
It is clearly reckless, irresponsible and not only the fact they were shooting, bombarding that particular site, but when the Ukrainian emergency authorities were trying to put out the fire, the shelling continued.
It must stop.
We support the Ukrainians in dealing with the security situation there but also I think come down hard on Vladimir Putin.
That’s why the prime minister has called for an emergency United Nations security council meeting in New York so the entire international community can address this, because of course it is a much wider threat, given the nuclear implications.
It is an affront to the world at large.
The UK is “at the vanguard” of imposing sanctions on Kremlin-linked money, according to the deputy prime minister, as he sought to defend the government’s actions on targeting Russian oligarchs.
Dominic Raab was asked during broadcast interviews why the European Union had sanctioned more individual Russian elites than Britain.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Raab said it was a “false distinction” to make, adding:
The question is not whether it is individuals or companies – it is where the money is flowing.
Separately, he said:
There has been a running commentary that the UK has somehow been slow – we’ve not been slow.
We’ve been at the vanguard of taking action and, of course, what is really important is we act in concert with our allies, European, American and other Nato allies.
For example, we have sanctioned more Russian banks than the EU, including Sberbank, which is the biggest Russian bank. We’ve made it clear and introduced measures so that three million Russian companies cannot raise loans or get listed on the UK stock market.
These measures – and each country has slightly different sanctions regimes – are all aimed at tightening the noose, if you like, and starving off the finance that is going into Putin’s war machine.
Here’s more on why the UK seems so slow at acting against Putin’s oligarchs:
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Raab says he would support giving oligarchs’ seized properties to refugees
Dominic Raab said he would “absolutely” support giving over seized Russian oligarch property in the UK to Ukrainian refugees.
Asked on LBC whether Britain could capture property assets owned by Russian elites in punishment for Moscow’s invasion on Ukraine, the deputy prime minister said: “Yeah, if we’ve got the evidence and the legal basis, then we’ll do it.”
Pressed on whether he would back using those properties to house Ukrainian refugees – a move called for by the Liberal Democrats and reportedly argued for in government by housing secretary Michael Gove – Raab replied:
Yes, absolutely.
We are looking at everything in the round, it is a team effort across government, from the foreign and defence secretary through to Michael Gove and, of course, the prime minister is driving this very hard.
Welcome to today’s politics live blog. I’m Nicola Slawson and I’ll be taking the lead today. You can contact me on Twitter (@Nicola_Slawson) or via email (nicola.slawson@theguardian.com) if you have any questions or think I’m missing something.
I will be covering UK elements of the crisis in Ukraine here, but for full coverage of the story, and for the global perspective, do read our dedicated live blog. It’s here.
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