You can follow the latest developments around the clock in Ukraine in our main blog:
A summary of today's developments
- The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said he has extended a UK flight ban on Russian aircraft to include private jets. The government previously announced it was banning Russia’s flag carrier Aeroflot from landing in the UK.
- Boris Johnson has told Nato leaders that “immediate action” must be taken to ban Russia from the Swift payment platform to “inflict maximum pain” on Vladimir Putin. The prime minister, who attended the virtual meeting of the leaders, warned Nato that Mr Putin was “engaging in a revanchist mission to overturn post-cold war order”, according to a No 10 spokesperson.
- Nato will deploy more troops to eastern Europe after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the alliance’s leaders have announced. “No one should be fooled by the Russian government’s barrage of lies,” the 30 leaders said in a statement after a virtual summit chaired by secretary general Jens Stoltenberg.
- The UK is no longer accepting visa applications from Ukrainians stuck in the country. This means there is no safe and legal route for them to seek asylum in Britain unless they have close family in the UK. Labour MP Nadia Whittome tweeted to say the move was “completely inhumane”.
- Vladimir Putin has urged the Ukrainian army to overthrow its leadership whom he labelled as a “gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis who have lodged themselves in Kyiv and taken hostage the entire Ukrainian people.” Addressing the Ukrainian military in a televised address, a visibly angry Putin urged the military to “take power in your own hands”.
- An effort is under way to isolate Vladimir Putin diplomatically by challenging Russia’s right to a permanent seat of the UN security council on the grounds that Russia took the seat from the defunct Soviet Union in 1991 without proper authorisation. Diplomats are also looking to see if there is a basis for removing Russia from the presidency of the council.
- The Belarus ambassador to London, Maxim Yermalovich, was summoned to the Foreign Office and told new members of its ruling elite will be sanctioned as a result of their role in facilitating the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces. James Cleverly, the Europe minister, said afterwards: “The UK condemns the role Belarus is playing in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Belarus must stop supporting Russia’s illegal and unprovoked actions.”
- In the first 24 hours of its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has not taken any of its major objectives and has lost more than 450 personnel, according to the defence secretary. Ben Wallace told Sky News it was the government’s view that Vladimir Putin intends “to invade the whole of Ukraine”.
- Keir Starmer has said he believes “further financial restrictions” against Russia are needed. He said if Boris Johnson brought forward tougher sanctions on Russia, they would be voted through Parliament “very, very quickly” with the Labour Party’s support.
- The UK has said it will work “all day” to persuade fellow European states to cut Russia off from the international Swift payment system. The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, ended the pretence that Britain was not at odds with its fellow European leaders over the issue. He said there was still time for Russia to be excluded, and the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said: “The UK is working with allies to exclude Russia from the Swift financial system.”
-
A total of 1,000 UK troops are on standby to support Ukraine’s neighbours with refugee responses, the armed forces minister has said. James Heappey
told MPs: “The 1,000 troops that are on standby are there to support Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Poland with the expected humanitarian challenges that they will face as people make their way out of Ukraine.”
