Top story: Kharkiv defenders fight Russian paratroopers
Hello, Warren Murray bringing you up to speed quickly but comprehensively.
Ukraine’s besieged cities have come under more heavy attack as Russian commanders, facing fierce resistance, intensified their bombardment of urban areas. Joe Biden, meanwhile, has given a state of the union address in which he announced Russian flights were banned from US airspace, and vowed Vladimir Putin would pay for what he is doing. The watching Ukrainian ambassador to the US received a standing ovation from the assembled members of Congress. More on that further down.
Facing emboldened Ukrainian troops bolstered by citizen soldiers, Russia has failed to capture and hold a single city since its full-scale invasion began nearly a week ago. Now, western analysts say, Russia is resorting to bombing built-up areas to try to crush fighters’ resolve. Independent analysts say they are collecting evidence of Putin’s military committing war crimes with its killing of civilians and use of cluster bombs. Here we list just some of the civilian victims.
Russian paratroops landed in Kharkiv overnight and were meeting with Ukrainian resistance as they attacked a military hospital, according to reports attributed to the Security Service of Ukraine. A Russian military strike tore through two apartment blocks in the small town of Borodjanka, north-west of Kyiv. West of the capital, in the city of Zhytomyr, four people including a child were killed on Tuesday by a Russian cruise missile, a Ukrainian official said. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have fled the fighting as a miles-long Russian military convoy advances on Kyiv from the north. The Russian drive to force a Ukrainian capitulation coincides with a second round of negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian officials, scheduled for today. The first round, held on the Belarus border, yielded no positive results.
Please keep our live blog open for further updates.
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‘Putin thought world would roll over’ – Joe Biden has delivered his first state of the union address, in which he announced the US would ban Russian aircraft from its airspace and pledged to go after Russian oligarchs in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine. “Throughout our history we’ve learned this lesson: when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos,” Biden said. “[Vladimir Putin] thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over.
“Instead, he met a wall of strength he never imagined. He met the Ukrainian people.” On domestic themes, the president said America should fight rising prices and high inflation by strengthening its supply chains – investing in American manufacturing, which would lower prices and create good-paying jobs. “Instead of relying on foreign supply chains, let’s make it in America.” Biden said the US was “moving forward safely back to more normal routines” after two years fighting Covid.
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Midweek catch-up
> A man, 21, has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a girl, 15, was shot in Toxteth, Liverpool, on Tuesday afternoon. She was in a stable condition in hospital last night. A man in his 20s went to hospital with a gunshot injury to his hand and police were investigating whether the two cases were linked.
> In Australia, floodwaters are rising in the New South Wales town of Ballina. Four people have died in flooding in the state – and nine in neighbouring Queensland – where more storms are forecast.
> England’s Environment Agency has downgraded 93% of prosecutions for serious pollution over four years despite frontline staff recommending the perpetrators face the highest sanction, a leaked report seen by the Guardian reveals.
> There were 358 human rights defenders murdered in 35 countries in 2021, analysis has found, including a Colombian conservationist, a young feminist activist in Afghanistan, and two poets in Myanmar opposing the military coup.
> The makers of Only Fools and Horses are suing for breach over copyright over dining events called Only Fools: The (Cushty) Dining Experience, where customers have a three-course meal and drinks while interacting with actors playing the show’s characters.
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Rush to private health – Declining access to and quality of NHS care has begun to “supercharge” a drive towards Britons paying for private medical treatment, the IPPR thinktank has warned. One in six people had been prepared to go private instead of waiting, its report says, in a shift that could create a “two-tier” health system. Polling found 17% of people would go private if they faced a wait of longer than 18 weeks – the maximum time the NHS says anyone should have to wait for planned hospital treatment. Another 59% would wait for NHS care because they could not afford private, but only 10% would do so because they were opposed to private healthcare.
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Pay rise for MPs – Amid the cost-of-living crisis and impending national insurance increase, MPs will still get a £2,200 pay rise from next month, the parliamentary spending watchdog has ruled. The 2.7% increase in MPs’ salaries is nearly half the current rate of inflation, effectively meaning a real-terms pay cut, but comes against a backdrop of significant economic hardship for many. The Bank of England has been urging workers not to ask for big pay rises to try to stop prices spiralling out of control. Naturally there is a certain amount of outcry, including from some MPs themselves.
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Say hello to Southend city – “I’m bursting with pride,” said Sharon Wuyts, 45, on the day her home town, Southend-on-Sea, was granted city status. She waited four hours in drizzle on the seafront for Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, to mark the occasion by greeting the crowd.
Southend was given city status after the murder of its MP, David Amess, last October. It was an issue he had campaigned on for years – he ended what turned out to be his last speech in the Commons with the words: “And of course, we must make Southend a city.” On Tuesday, Amess posthumously became the first freeman of the city of Southend at a ceremony in the civic centre attended by his widow and children and the royal couple.
Today in Focus podcast: Breaking Britain’s rouble habit
Oliver Bullough has traced how the British financial system has sheltered ill-gotten Russian wealth over many decades. Can the system be cleaned up?
Lunchtime read: Zelenskiy’s veteran performance
As the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has taken a defiant stand that has made him a hero across the world. Viv Groskop asks: could his success as a politician lie in his years as an entertainer?
Sport
After only 11 minutes of the pitch, Middlesbrough teenager Josh Coburn scored a deserved winner for Middlesbrough as Tottenham were dumped out of the FA Cup in extra time. Thomas Tuchel urged reporters to stop asking him questions about the invasion of Ukraine and Roman Abramovich’s plan to pass the stewardship and care of Chelsea to the club’s charitable foundation. Sergiy Stakhovsky says he will use a gun if necessary after the tennis player joined Ukraine’s reserve army following Russia’s invasion of the country last week. The International Paralympic Committee has admitted it will have to be “very careful” in deciding on Wednesday whether to allow Russian athletes to compete at the Winter Games.
Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, has defied the prevailing opinion across sport in allowing Russian and Belarusian drivers to continue to compete, though under a neutral flag. Tyson Fury has backed Ukrainian boxers, including the Klitschko brothers, who have joined their army to defend the country against Russia. Major League Baseball has cancelled its opening day, with the league set to lose regular-season games over a labour dispute for the first time in 27 years. And goalkeeper Zecira Musovic has spoken with the Guardian about the long road to Chelsea, her admiration for her parents and speaking out on social media.
Business
Apple has joined the growing phalanx of multinational companies who are suspending sales in Russia over the Ukraine invasion. Ford and the British carmaker Jaguar Land Rover have also suspended operations, along with Nike. Brent crude oil soared 5.8% earlier to $111.09 a barrel, its highest since 2014. The Russian rouble has fallen again in early trading to hit 109.2 to the dollar. The FTSE100 is set to open up after heavy losses yesterday. The pound is on $1.331 and €1.197.
The papers
The front page of the Guardian today goes to Shaun Walker’s report: “Desperate rush for the last train from Kyiv”. “Look at these faces around us, they are exactly the same as in the photographs from the second world war, and it’s just five days. Can you imagine what will happen in a month?” asked Tanya Novgorodskaya, 48, on the platform with her 15-year-old daughter. She had bought tickets for six different trains, but soon realised they counted for nothing. Instead, it was mothers with children first, then women, then old people. Others were kept away by the police and soldiers standing guard. Most people would not be able to board.
“The siege of Kiev” says the i over a full-page photo of a tree-lined avenue strewn with wrecked armoured vehicles. The Daily Mail says “Pray for Kyiv” while the Times has “Leave now, Putin warns, as he prepares to bombard Kyiv”. The Sun calls it “Barbaric” after “Putin’s butchers blitz Nazi victims’ memorial” – that was the strike on Kyiv’s central TV tower near a Holocaust monument. “Zelensky pleads with west to prevent genocide” says the Telegraph.
“Nobody will break us” – the Mirror displays a defiant Volodymyr Zelenskiy with his fist in the air. “Blitzed – but never beaten” – the Express has the same picture as well as smoke rising over Kyiv. “Shunned by the world”, says the Metro, and its front page depicts the moment nearly everyone walked out as the Russian foreign minister made a falsehood-laden big screen address to United Nations delegates. “China offers role as peacemaker” says the Financial Times, and you can read about that here.
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