Category Archives: Ukraine

Ukraine’s Zelenskiy calls for urgent peace talks and warns of catastrophe in Mariupol

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Russia has a chance to limit the damage by engaging in ‘meaningful’ talks, says Volodymyr Zelenskiy, amid fierce shelling in the south

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called urgently for “meaningful and fair” peace talks over Russia’s invasion amid further attacks, including a claim by Moscow that it had used a hypersonic missile for the first time, hitting a depot in the west of the country.

In a video address early on Saturday, Zelenskiy said: “It’s time to meet. Time to talk. It is time to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine. Otherwise Russia’s losses will be so huge that several generations will not be enough to rebound.”

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Russian cosmonauts board ISS wearing colours of Ukraine flag

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Trio appeared to get changed shortly before arrival at space station and one said every crew could choose their own suit

Three Russian cosmonauts have arrived at the International Space Station wearing yellow flight suits with blue accents, colours that match the Ukrainian flag.

The men were the first new arrivals on the space station since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine last month.

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Ukrainian refugees with UK relatives frustrated by Home Office visa delays

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People who have applied to join relatives in the UK face long waits for visa approvals

Ukrainian refugees waiting to travel to join relatives in Britain have voiced frustration at the length of time the Home Office is taking to process UK visas, despite government promises to streamline the system.

As the Homes for Ukraine scheme launched on Friday, allowing UK residents to sponsor visas for non-family members, Ukrainians who had already applied to join relatives in Britain under an earlier scheme expressed dismay at the long waits for visa approvals.

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Fighting reaches central Mariupol as shelling hinders rescue attempts

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Russia claims to be ‘tightening noose’ around south-eastern port city as thousands still stranded

Fighting has reached the centre of the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, as attempts to rescue people trapped under the rubble of a bombed-out theatre were again hampered by Russian shelling.

The Russian defence ministry said its forces were “tightening the noose” around the city, and that “fighting against nationalists” was taking place in the city centre. Mariupol’s mayor, Vadym Boichenko, appeared to confirm the claims, telling the BBC that fighting was “really active”. “Tanks and machine-gun battles continue,” he said. “Everybody is hiding in bunkers.”

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Gay rights activist among latest known victims of Ukraine war

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Details emerge of deaths of a Kharkiv Pride volunteer, an actor, and an American visiting his partner

A gay rights activist from Kharkiv, Shchemur was killed during the Russian bombardment of the city centre, her colleagues at Kharkiv Pride said on Thursday. She was killed at the local territorial defence office where she volunteered, they said.

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Russian oligarch’s yacht stuck in Norway as suppliers refuse to refuel

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Fuel sellers in Narvik say they will not sell to crew of Ragnar, which is owned by Vladimir Strzhalkovsky

A 223-foot (68-metre) luxury yacht owned by a former KGB agent and longtime acquaintance of Vladimir Putin is currently stranded at a Norwegian port after locals’ persistent refusal to sell it fuel.

The vessel, called Ragnar, an old norse word meaning “warrior”, is owned by Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, and its crew has been told by Norwegian fuel suppliers in the northern port of Narvik to “row home” or “raise the sails”. They say they will not refuel it because of the owner’s links to the Russian president.

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Syrians join Russian ranks in Ukraine as Putin calls in Assad’s debt

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Analysis: Safe in his palace, Syrian leader appears to have given Moscow carte blanche to airlift his army

After 11 years of war, the destruction of towns, cities and much of the Syrian military, Bashar al-Assad’s army has launched a recruitment drive. But the recruits are not fresh from bootcamps and will not fight on the home front. They are the vanguard of what could be the biggest state-backed mercenary force in the world. Within days, Syrian troops could be deployed to reinforce the stalled Russian frontlines in Ukraine, where Vladimir Putin is about to extract a lethal price for Moscow’s rescue of the Syrian leader.

The first Syrian troops to join Putin’s ranks – an advance force of 150 – arrived in Russia on Thursday, European intelligence officials claim. Ukrainian military intelligence, echoing a claim by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, believes 40,000 Syrians have signed up to fight – a figure that would represent a sizeable chunk of the battle-ready capacity of the country’s entire military.

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Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 23 of the invasion

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Food supply fears as Biden plans to warn Chinese president against providing military support for Russia

Russia’s bombardment in the east of Ukraine continued on Friday. In the streets of Mariupol, where 350,000 civilians have been stranded with little food or water, Russia’s armed forces were “tightening the noose” around the city, a spokesperson for the Russian defence ministry said. In the eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s state emergency service said a multistorey teaching building had been shelled on Friday morning, killing one person, wounding 11 and trapping one other in the rubble.

Russian missiles struck an aircraft repair plant in Ukraine’s western city of Lviv, 50 miles from the border with Poland and a safe haven for hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Ukrainians. Blasts were heard at about 6am on Friday, preceded by the sound of air raid sirens, and a mushroom-shaped plume of smoke could be seen rising in the sky.

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China’s decisive turning point: will it side with Russia and divide the world?

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Analysis: the world faces the possibility of a dramatic shift in the geopolitical balance of power as Beijing mulls support for Russia over the Ukraine war

Joe Biden is due to make a phone call to Xi Jinping on Friday at a potential tipping point in China’s role in the world as it decides how far to go in backing Russia’s war on Ukraine.

While China has abstained on United Nations security council resolutions on the invasion, it has sided with Moscow rhetorically, echoing Russian talking points blaming Nato, and recycling conspiracy theories, and the Biden administration believes it has already decided to bail Russia out economically.

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Russia-Ukraine war latest: Russian casualties estimated at 7,000; western officials say Kyiv assault now in doubt – live

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Western officials say Russia is struggling to make progress around the capital and question ‘whether Moscow now intends to try to assault Kyiv’

Hungary says it expects a “bigger wave” of refugees to arrive from Ukraine next week, prime minister Viktor Orban said in a video message posted to his official Facebook page.

Visiting a border crossing point near Hungary’s border with Romania and Ukraine, Orban said more border guards would be posted there next week to handle an increased number of refugees.

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Biden calls Putin a ‘murderous dictator’ and says Russia ‘waging an immoral war’ – as it happened

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It’s been a busy day so far, with the US political landscape dominated by foreign affairs, with focus on US-news related to Russia’s war in Ukraine. We’ll have more coming up.

Meanwhile, it if you want to follow our global, round-the-clock blog on the war in Ukraine itself, that is here.

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Tory MP backs calls for Marks & Spencer stores in Russia to close

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Retailer says it has stopped supplying its franchisee’s business in Russia, but the shops remain open

A Conservative MP has backed calls for dozens of Marks & Spencer stores across Russia to be shut immediately, suggesting Vladimir Putin is funnelling every rouble made in the country into the invasion of Ukraine.

Alicia Kearns, who hosted four Ukrainian parliamentarians in the House of Commons on Thursday, said any profits generated would be tainted by the killings and war crimes committed during the conflict.

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Boris Johnson open to attending European Council, say sources

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EU leaders and Joe Biden will meet next week to discuss war in Ukraine, but PM has not yet been invited

Boris Johnson is understood to be open to accepting an invitation to attend the European Council next week when EU leaders meet to discuss the war in Ukraine, though one has yet to be extended.

A Downing Street source said Johnson would be in Brussels next week for a Nato summit, along with the US president, Joe Biden, who will attend the council meeting later that afternoon. They said it remained a possibility for Johnson to attend the council meeting – which would be a major symbolic step post-Brexit.

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Hoax caller claiming to be Ukrainian PM got through to UK defence secretary

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Ben Wallace has launched an immediate inquiry to find out how apparent impostor was able to speak to him

An inquiry has been launched after an apparent hoax caller claiming to be the Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, was able to get through and speak directly to the defence secretary, Ben Wallace.

After Wallace revealed news of the call on Thursday, Priti Patel said something similar had happened to her earlier in the week. Both government ministers expressed solidarity with Ukraine.

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Six countries including UK and US accuse Russia of war crimes in Ukraine

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British foreign secretary says there is ‘very strong evidence’, and France says Putin is only pretending to negotiate

Russia has been accused by the UK, the US, France, Albania, Ireland and Norway of war crimes in Ukraine, as Paris claimed Vladimir Putin was only pretending to be interested in negotiating a peace deal.

The six countries challenged Russia before a UN security council meeting as the British foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said there was now “very, very strong evidence” of war crimes being committed by Russian forces.

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Aid agencies race to get food supplies to Ukrainian cities at risk of siege

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Efforts to stock up Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro are under way as the wider repercussions of the conflict are felt in Yemen and Lebanon

Aid workers are racing to deliver emergency food supplies to Ukrainian cities at risk of “medieval tactics of besiegement”, a spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP) has said.

In a dramatic turnaround for a country long hailed as the “breadbasket of the world”, the UN’s emergency food agency is now trying to get stocks into warehouses in Ukrainian cities such as Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro before it is too late, said Jakob Kern.

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Philippines considers four-day working week to combat rising costs

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Economist calls for compressed working hours with 10-hour days in response to higher fuel prices

The Philippines is considering a four-day working week to conserve energy, as the cost of fuel continues to rise globally, driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Officials are searching for ways to soften the impact of dramatic price increases, which have prompted calls for a rise in the minimum wage and greater assistance for drivers.

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‘First you cry, then get used to it’: Ukraine villagers find a kind of refuge in Mykolaiv

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Ukraine is holding out in the heavily bombarded port city and even as thousands of people try to leave, others are arriving

After an airstrike flattened the school behind his house and artillery shells ripped apart a circle of neighbouring homes, Dmitry Yakhshyboyev went out to look for petrol.

His family, from seven-month-old son to parents in their 70s, had been cowering in their basement without heating, electricity or running water for two days, as Russian forces assaulted their village.

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Biden calls Putin a war criminal after Zelenskiy speaks to Congress

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Ukrainian president receives standing ovation as he urges US to send more military aid and impose further sanctions

Joe Biden has denounced Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, delivering his sharpest rebuke yet of the Russian leader just hours after the Ukrainian president pleaded with Congress to provide more aid to his country.

“I think he is a war criminal,” Biden said of Putin on Wednesday.

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Joe Biden calls Vladimir Putin a ‘war criminal’ – as it happened

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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, addressed the US Congress seated in a high-backed office chair with a plain white wall behind him and a prominently-displayed Ukrainian flag to his right.

He was neatly turned out with a trimmed beard and wearing what has become his characteristic combat-green tee shirt, since Russia invaded Ukraine last month and he was forced to shelter in a hidden bunker somewhere in Kyiv with his top team.

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