Summary
Here’s a summary of the day’s main developments:
- A further 386 people – all members of the Russian Duma who supported the breakaway of the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk – were sanctioned by the UK government. The Foreign Office said the sanctions would “ban those listed from travelling to the UK, accessing assets held within the UK and doing business here”. But Downing Street declined to say whether any of those sanctioned have any assets in the UK.
- The prime minister acknowledged government plans to pass the burden of welcoming Ukrainian refugees on to individuals as they ask Britons to open up their homes. The proposal is part of a “sponsored” humanitarian route to belatedly begin admitting Ukrainians without family links to the UK.
- The Russian military will probably launch a renewed offensive, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said. Officials concluded it was “highly unlikely” the Kremlin had successfully achieved its invasion plan so far.
That’s all from me for today. Thanks very much for reading and commenting. My colleague Léonie Chao-Fong is continuing to cover all of the developments in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Scotland’s main political parties, aside from the Scottish Conservatives, have together written to the UK government urging them to waive visa requirements for Ukrainian nationals and put in place a funded resettlement programme for refugees.
In a letter co-signed by the leaders of Scottish Labour, the Scottish Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Greens, the Scottish National party leader and the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, raised concerns that a lack of clarity from the UK government around settlement programmes and complex visa processes is delaying Scotland from welcoming refugees from Ukraine. Sturgeon wrote:
It is neither reasonable nor morally acceptable to expect people fleeing war to go through complex bureaucratic processes in order to reach safety within the UK. We must provide sanctuary first and treat people with respect and humanity.
Scotland stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and deeply wishes to provide them with practical support, aid and refuge. We are ready to provide that to people in need right now.
Earlier on Friday, the Scottish government announced Europe minister Neil Gray is to be given responsibility for its approach to supporting Ukrainian refugees.
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Premier League managers have extended their sympathies to Chelsea’s manager, Thomas Tuchel, and the players and staff at Chelsea after the club was hit by the freezing of owner Roman Abramovich’s assets.
Although he said he felt sorry for the Chelsea staff, Liverpool’s manager, Jürgen Klopp, said he felt the sanctions were the right thing to do. “It is still not cool for the people at Chelsea and for all the supporters. I get that. But I think that the things that the government did are right,” he said.
Manchester City’s manager, Pep Guardiola, and Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta also offered sympathy for the Chelsea team and staff, but would not be drawn on whether they agreed with the sanctions.
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Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, has announced that the Department for Education is planning to accommodate up to 100,000 refugee Ukrainian children at schools in England.
Speaking to the Association of School and College Leaders annual conference in Birmingham this morning, Zahawi said his team wants to find room for the Ukrainian children, and announced that the DfE-backed online lesson provider, the Oak National Academy, was applying auto-translation functions to its lessons to allow them to be used by Ukrainian refugees.
Zahawi also announced a minor shake-up of the troubled national tutoring programme, following sustained criticism from schools and MPs that the service provider Randstad was failing to meet targets. Zahawi said schools would receive more funding to arrange their own tutoring rather than using the Randstad-led route.
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The peer acknowledged that his father, Alexander Lebedev, was a KGB officer, but insisted that was “a long time ago” as he denied being a UK security risk.
At the moment, many with Russian roots are under scrutiny, including myself.
I understand the reason for this as it is inevitable when events of such magnitude occur and the world order as we have known it in recent decades suddenly gets torn up.
But I am not a security risk to this country, which I love. My father a long time ago was a foreign intelligence agent of the KGB, but I am not some agent of Russia.
I may have a Russian name but that makes me no less a committed or proud British citizen than anyone else in this country of ours.
Being Russian does not automatically make one an enemy of the state, and it is crucial we do not descend into Russiaphobia, like any other phobia, bigotry or discrimination.
The crossbench peer pointed to his use of the Standard’s front page on which he appealed last week for Vladimir Putin to end his invasion to show he is a critic of the war.
Alexander Lebedev worked at the Russian embassy in London until 1992 under the KGB cover of an economics attaché.
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Evgeny Lebedev has said he is “not some agent of Russia” after allegations surfaced that a security services assessment saying the newspaper owner posed a national security risk was withdrawn after Boris Johnson intervened.
Speaking to the Evening Standard, where he was installed as proprietor after his billionaire former KGB agent father bought the paper in 2009, Lord Lebedev said:
Accusations are coming from credible media outfits which are posing incredible questions to me so I feel I have no option but to respond.
But I am not a security risk to this country, which I love. My father a long time ago was a foreign intelligence agent of the KGB, but I am not some agent of Russia.
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The final minister to issue an apology, Sinn Féin’s finance minister, Conor Murphy, acknowledged that their delivery had taken too long.
The apology we offer you is unconditional. We should have protected you and we did not. We are sorry.
You were harmed by those who should have cared for you. We are sorry.
You told the truth, yet you were not believed. We are sorry.
We are responsible. And we are so very, very sorry.
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The SDLP infrastructure minister, Nichola Mallon, said no apology could make up for the failings of the past.
But we hope that our clear and outright acknowledgment will bring some relief.
We know that many children suffered greatly as a result of being separated from their families.
Some experienced neglect and emotional, physical, and sexual abuse at the hand of those who were supposed to care for them.
We know that many of you were exposed to a harsh environment.
The Ulster Unionist health minister, Robin Swann, said the experiences of victims and survivors had taught ministers a lot.
We want to acknowledge all of you who had the courage to speak up and highlight the most horrendous abuse, abuse that no child should have to endure.
This was often done at great personal cost. What happened to each and every one of you was wrong.
It should not have happened and it is critical that every possible step is taken to ensure that nothing like this happens to any other child in the care of the state, ever again.
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Delivering the first apology, the DUP education minister Michelle McIlveen said:
Today, we say that we are sorry. Whilst in the care of the state, you were made vulnerable. We did not ensure all our residential homes were filled with love and safety.
We did not ensure these homes were all free from hunger and cold, from mistreatment and abuse.
It was the state’s responsibility to do that, and it failed you.
The Alliance party justice minister Naomi Long said the assembly chamber was a “fitting and proper venue” for the apologies to be delivered.
This is where our laws are made, where we ministers and those responsible for governing are held to account.
We are united in our acceptance of responsibility. No one can undo the past; nor can we undo your past.
Children suffered in the most vile and unimaginable ways, with life-changing and lifelong consequences for many of the victims.
The damage experienced by many is not in the past but is a heavy burden they have continued to carry into adulthood; into day-to-day engagement with society; and into relationships.
It is a burden that continues, to this day, to have an impact on victims and on their families.
Victims of historical institutional abuse in Northern Ireland have been told they were failed by the state during a long-awaited public apology at Stormont.
Survivors watched in the assembly chamber as a minute’s silence was held before five ministers, representing each of the main Stormont parties, offered their apology on behalf of the government.
The public apology was recommended in the final report of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIAI), which was published more than five years ago.
Apologies are also being delivered by representatives from six institutions that ran facilities where abuse took place, the religious orders De La Salle, Sisters of Nazareth, Sisters of St Louis and the Good Shepherd Sisters, as well as Barnardo’s and the Irish Church Missions.
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A black refugee from Ukraine hoping to join family in the UK has said “nobody is talking to us” after he and other people of colour were split up from a group of Ukrainians in France.
Uwandu Michael, originally from Nigeria, said he was “really shocked” when he realised he had been sent to a hotel around 70 miles away from other Ukrainian refugees when they were bussed out of Calais this week.
The PA news agency reports that the 37-year-old, who moved to Ukraine in 2009 and secured permanent residency eight years ago, said he was granted Ukrainian citizenship in late February but had to flee before he could collect his passport.
As he attempted to travel across the border into Poland, he became separated from his Ukrainian ex-partner and nine-year-old daughter and has not been able to contact them since.
Hoping to join his sister and cousin in London, he made his way alone to Calais, where he was helped to apply online for a visa by a charity.
The majority of Ukrainians who had gathered at the port town were taken to hotels near Lille on Wednesday, close to where a pop-up visa centre is being set up, or nearer to existing centres in Paris or Brussels.
But Uwandu Michael and around five other people of colour with UK relatives were taken to a hotel on a remote industrial estate near Boulogne-sur-Mer.
They say they have been given no information about why they were separated and are unclear which authorities put them into the mini van. They have received no update about their visa applications, nor had any help from officials since they arrived.
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Downing Street has warned of a “robust” response against Russia if the Kremlin uses chemical weapons in Ukraine. Asked how the UK responded to chemical attacks before, a spokesperson for the prime minister said:
You saw after the Salisbury poisoning the UK’s response as well as the response of other nations.
But I wouldn’t get into hypotheticals, you’ve seen what the prime minister said about the use of chemical weapons and the fact we are calling for Russia not to use them.
The international community has always responded robustly following the use of chemical weapons. I’m not going to get into hypotheticals and try and look into the future, but you’ve seen what the prime minister has said and we continue to call for Russia not to use chemical weapons.
Asked about the technology minister Chris Philp’s warning of an “increased response” in the event of a chemical attack (see 11.29am), the spokesperson said:
You heard what the minister said this morning, I think that mirrors what I’ve just said, the international community has always responded robustly.
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Coronavirus infections have risen across the UK, with levels in Scotland reaching a record high, analysis of figures shows.
The figures show that since the end of January, it is the first time that all nations have seen a simultaneous increase in infections week by week.
PA reports:
Around one in 25 people in private households in England had Covid-19 in the week to 5 March, or 2.1 million people, according to the Office for National Statistics.
This is up from one in 30, or 1.9 million people, in the previous week, and comes after three successive weeks where infections in England were estimated to have fallen.
By contrast Scotland has now seen infection levels rise for six weeks in a row, with 299,900 people likely to have had coronavirus last week, the equivalent of one in 18.
This is the highest figure for Scotland since estimates began in autumn 2020, according to analysis by the PA news agency.
The previous record was 297,400 people in the first week of this year.
Wales and Northern Ireland both saw a jump in prevalence last week following a period of falling infections, with the estimate for Wales up from 94,200 people to 97,900, one in 30, and Northern Ireland up from 106,300 people to 143,800, one in 13.
Across the UK as a whole, 2.6 million people were estimated to have coronavirus last week, up from 2.4 million.
The number stood at 4.3 million at the start of the year.
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In a statement after the high court ruling that the Metropolitan police breached the rights of the organisers of the Sarah Everard vigil, Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said he welcomed the judgment.
Khan said:
The murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met officer damaged the confidence of Londoners in the police. In the wake of such a horrendous crime, the policing of the vigil in her memory eroded trust in the police further.
“I was very clear with the Met at the time, that the scenes we saw at the vigil were unacceptable. I welcome today’s judgment.
“A series of events in the past year have damaged confidence in the police and urgent and wide-reaching action is needed to restore it. I remain committed to doing everything in my power to hold the police to account and working with the Met to deliver on the changes needed.
“We know tens of thousands of dedicated Met officers have gone above and beyond throughout this pandemic – but it is clear today that there are still serious lessons to be learned in how their duties are carried out.”
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The Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has defended his decision to withdraw his demand for Boris Johnson to resign over the partygate saga.
Ross said “anything else just seems trivial” compared with the war in Ukraine, saying he would support the government in its efforts to help Ukraine defend itself against the Russian invasion.
The prime minister is expected to attend the Scottish Conservative conference in Aberdeen next week.
The SNP said his decision was an “utterly humiliating U-turn” while the Liberal Democrats said he had “the backbone of a jellyfish”. Speaking to the BBC, Ross has said:
We should be supporting the government to support the people of Ukraine, to support the government of Ukraine, because the real threat to everything at the moment is from Vladimir Putin.
It’s not actions that took place a couple of years ago, serious though they are.
It’s the actions that are happening right now, with people dying, children losing their lives and a country being destroyed through no fault of their own.
I know political opponents will criticise me for this, that’s fine.
I’ve had to take a decision looking at what’s happening on the world scene at the moment.
Looking at the issues that people are contacting me about or speaking about, it dominates our conversations wherever you go at the moment.
And anything else just seems trivial, it really does seem so small in comparison to a country defending itself against atrocious actions from the Russians and Vladimir Putin.
And that’s why I think our focus should be on supporting and helping the people in Ukraine, not on personal differences we may have with each other in the UK.
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The transport industry has called on the government to cut VAT on petrol and diesel as rising prices create “a really quite tough” situation for drivers. Simon Williams, the fuel spokesman for the RAC, told BBC Radio 4:
We know from our long-term research that eight in 10 drivers would struggle to be without their car, so having access to a car in a pandemic has also become more important, and so it’s really quite tough now. The cost of filling up is over £88 for petrol and £92 for diesel.
He added that the Covid-19 pandemic had already caused prices to rise and said the RAC is calling on the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to take action.
One thing he could do is reduce VAT on petrol and diesel. At the moment, just the VAT, which is of course called a tax on a tax, is bringing 26p per litre so, bringing that back to 15% would instantly cut it by about 6p per litre.
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The Home Office minister, Baroness Williams of Trafford, has said 1,305 visas for Ukrainian refugees had been issued as of Thursday morning, telling peers:
Those figures are going up rapidly and that is a good thing.
Lord Ricketts, who served as the head of the diplomatic service and also as the UK national security adviser, earlier stressed the need for close UK-EU cooperation to keep citizens safe and to ensure there are effective arrangements for refugees to come to the UK. The independent crossbench peer told the House of Lords:
These objectives are intrinsically linked. That has been shown by the tensions with the French authorities over recent days over what I regard as wholly inadequate arrangements that have been made in and around Calais for the reception of desperate Ukrainian families.
Given the number of traumatised Ukrainian citizens who are now leaving the country, this flow of refugees is bound to continue for months, conceivably years, and we really do need to be working well with our EU partners if we are going to avoid damaging the climate of confidence, which is so important for good law enforcement and judicial cooperation.
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The shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, has welcomed the sanctions imposed on members of the Duma, but said they “should have happened weeks ago”.
Ministers must urgently implement the other sanction measures Labour has been calling for to cut Putin and his criminal cronies out of our economic system.
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Downing Street has declined to say whether any of the 386 sanctioned members of the Russian Duma have any assets in the UK. A spokesman for the prime minister said:
The measures we put in place will ensure that any assets they do have in the UK will be frozen and they will no longer be able to travel to the UK or do any business here, but I wouldn’t go through the details of individuals.
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Foreign secretary announces further Russian sanctions
The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has sanctioned 386 members of the Russian Duma for their support for the Ukrainian breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, the Foreign Office has said.
Officials said the sanctions “will ban those listed from travelling to the UK, accessing assets held within the UK and doing business here”. They added:
The Russian State Duma ratified treaties in February which recognised the independence of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions – part of Ukrainian sovereign territory – and authorised the permanent presence of Russian military there, acting as a pretext for Russia’s invasion.
Truss said:
We are targeting those complicit in Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and those who support this barbaric war. We will not let up the pressure and will continue to tighten the screw on the Russian economy through sanctions.
Together with our allies, we stand firmly beside our Ukrainian friends. We will continue to support Ukraine with humanitarian aid, defensive weapons and diplomatic work to isolate Russia internationally.
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Further domestic fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine: the National Farmers Union (NFU) has called on the government to act as “a matter of urgency” as rising gas prices hit UK agriculture. The NFU president, Minette Batters, told BBC Radio 4:
The cost of a chicken is now even 50% higher than it was this time last year.
We’ve really got to look at the gas requirements for the whole industry and ask the government that they do that as a matter of extreme urgency, and they pull together a marketing core group effectively that will monitor this situation with industry experts so we can plan and prepare, prioritise, and then look at where we potentially would want to intervene, because otherwise we are going to see less British production.
We are seeing wheat prices go to a place that they have never ever been to before. Ukraine and Russia are massive exporters of wheat – 30% of global wheat is produced there.
Commodity prices are driven globally, so of course it’s going to drive massive inflation and we have to act to make sure that everybody, consumers, can have affordable food, but most importantly that we don’t contract production.
So, that’s it, the essential bit – food supply and food production on one in the same thing – and with 60 million people you have to take it very seriously, you have to plan ahead.
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During the same interview, Philp said he was “very confident” Abramovich and other sanctioned Russian oligarchs would not be able to successfully challenge the measures.
I’m very confident that these sanctioned individuals would not be able to successfully challenge these measures legally, we have been very careful to make sure this is totally legally watertight.
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Philp criticised those Chelsea fans who apparently chanted Roman Abramovich in support of the club owner sanctioned over the Russian invasion. He told Times Radio:
I’m a football fan myself, I’m a Palace fan, in south London. So I understand why fans are very attached to their football clubs. But Roman Abramovich is someone who has been sanctioned now, yesterday morning, for his very close links to Vladimir Putin and the Putin regime.
I just say respectfully to the Chelsea fans, I know he’s done a lot for the club, but the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and what the Russian regime are doing to civilians – shelling maternity hospitals and shooting civilians who are fleeing down humanitarian corridors – that is more important than football.
I say that as a football fan myself and I would just ask them to keep that in mind.
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The chancellor of the exchequer, Rishi Sunak, said:
We have provided unprecedented support throughout the pandemic which has put our economy in a strong position to deal with current cost-of-living challenges.
We are continuing to help people where we can, including through over £20bn of support this financial year and next.
We know that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is creating significant economic uncertainty and we will continue to monitor its impact on the UK, but it is vital that we stand with the people of Ukraine to uphold our shared values of freedom and democracy, and ensure Putin fails.
Chris Philp, the technology minister, warned Russia of a “dramatic increased response” from the west if Putin uses chemical weapons in Ukraine. He told Times Radio:
Clearly, the use of chemical weapons, especially in an invasion where there are a very large number of civilians, would be an outrage against humanity.
I would say to anybody in Russia thinking about this: do not cross that line, do not inflict any more misery and suffering on the Ukrainian people.
They have already been shooting civilians who are fleeing down humanitarian escape corridors, they’ve been bombing and shelling hospitals including a children’s/maternity hospital, do not go any further in inflicting misery on the Ukrainian people.
It will trigger an increased response from the west, there’s a dramatic increased response, there’s no question about that. I’m not going to speculate about the form that’s going to take or pre-empt it, but that’s a line that Russian governments should not cross.
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The technology minister, Chris Philp, has accused Russia of sharing disinformation online to create a “false narrative” that Ukraine is preparing to use chemical weapons, possibly as a pretext to Moscow launching a “barbaric” attack. He has told Sky News:
We have seen in the last 24 or 48 hours what appear to be bits of disinformation published by Russian state outlets – including, in fact, the Russian embassy here in London – putting on things like Twitter information that appear to be creating a false narrative that Ukrainians are considering using chemical weapons, which is clearly ridiculous and totally untrue.
Sometimes, they do that in preparation. But I hope that’s not what they’re contemplating, the use of chemical weapons in any theatre of war, certainly one where there are lots of civilians, is totally unacceptable.
I’m not going to talk about intelligence but using chemical weapons in an area which has lots of civilians would be a barbaric thing to do and I would say to Vladimir Putin and the Russian regime not to cross that line, do not do that to Ukrainian civilians.
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MoD predicts renewed Russian offensive in Ukraine
The Russian military will probably launch a renewed offensive, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said, as officials concluded it was “highly unlikely” the Kremlin had successfully achieved its invasion plan so far. An MoD intelligence update said:
Russian ground forces continue to make limited progress. Logistical issues that have hampered the Russian advance persist, as does strong Ukrainian resistance.
Russia is likely seeking to reset and re-posture its forces for renewed offensive activity in the coming days. This will probably include operations against the capital Kyiv.
A “cynical, barbaric” Kremlin regime appears to be preparing to use chemical weapons in Ukraine, the prime minister Boris Johnson has suggested, as Russian forces continued to struggle to make the expected gains in the face of fierce resistance.
The stuff which your are hearing about chemical weapons is straight out of the Russian playbook.
They start saying that there are chemical weapons that are being stored by their opponents or by the Americans, so that when they themselves deploy chemical weapons – as I fear they may – they have a sort of a maskirovka, a fake story, ready to go.
In its latest intelligence assessment, the UK Ministry of Defence said the Russian forces were committing increasing numbers to encircling key cities, reducing the forces to continue their advance which “will further slow Russian progress”.
Johnson said he believed the conflict would only end when Putin accepted he had made “a disastrous miscalculation” and withdrew his forces.
Vladimir Putin has himself made it very difficult to find an off ramp, and he has, I think, driven his tank, so to speak, down a cul de sac from which it will be very hard to extricate himself but he must.
The home secretary Priti Patel has been urged to do more to make it easier for Ukrainians to find sanctuary in the UK after announcing a limited series of changes to the visa regime.
From Tuesday, many Ukrainians will be able to apply online for permission to come under the scheme allowing family members to be reunited with relatives already settled in the UK.
But the British Red Cross has said the quickest way of fixing the problem would be to remove the requirement for a visa, while the Refugee Council said Patel’s announcement “does not go anywhere near far enough”.
Boris Johnson has again ruled out imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine, despite Russia’s strike on a maternity hospital in the besieged city of Mariupol.
The attack on Wednesday was said to have killed three people, including a child, and injured 17 others. It led to renewed calls from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for Western warplanes to intervene.
However, Johnson said that, while Vladimir Putin had abandoned “all norms of civilised behaviour”, a no-fly zone would bring the UK and Nato into direct conflict with Russia – something he was determined to avoid.
A Ukrainian MP has said her “very big concern” is that the West will turn Ukraine’s plight into a “humanitarian question” instead of helping the country defend itself.
With up to four million people expected to flee the war zone, demands have been made for the UK to take in more Ukrainians. However, Inna Sovsun, the deputy leader of the Holos Party, said that, with “enough support from the West to win in this war, the refugees problem will be automatically solved”. She told the PA news agency:
I know this is a big issue ... there are two million people who are refugees. But there are 35 million more who stay in Ukraine. So I believe that the world should really concentrate on helping make Ukraine secure.
I’m very much afraid that, when we turn all the attention to the refugee issues, we normalise the situation as it is here in Ukraine. Then we forget about the 35 million who are still in the country, and the constant bombardment by the Russians.
So I would expect other countries to do more for the refugees. But I don’t want that to be an excuse for not doing something here in terms of helping us, like closing the skies and everything.
Government to detail plans to ask for volunteers to take in Ukrainian refugees
The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to dominate the domestic political agenda.
Ministers are setting out plans to pass the burden of welcoming Ukrainian refugees on to individuals as they ask Britons to open up their homes as part of a new “sponsored” humanitarian route to belatedly begin admitting Ukrainians without family links to the UK. The prime minister Boris Johnson told Sky News:
On Monday, you’ll get from the Levelling Up Secretary, you’ll get the programme that will allow people to come in, so (if) people want to welcome (refugees) into their own homes, they can do so.
But the government would only commit to allowing refugees who enter through the new route to stay for an initial period of 12 months during which they will be entitled to work, claim any benefits they might be eligible for and access public services.
Ministers have been heavily criticised in recent days for refusing to take in anyone other than the relative few Ukrainians who already have family ties in the UK – and for making it difficult even for those people to demonstrate they meet the criteria the government has deemed necessary.
Meanwhile, EU leaders are meeting in Versailles to determine their next steps in respect of the crisis, with calls being made to give Ukraine immediate candidacy for membership of the bloc.
Also today, a long-awaited public apology to the victims of historical institutional abuse is due to be delivered later at Stormont.
For all the latest on the Russia-Ukraine crisis, our global liveblog can be found here:
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