US expands Russian sanctions and plans to accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees

  • US targets more than half of members of Russia’s parliament
  • Country to step up assistance for Ukrainians fleeing war

The US has announced new sanctions on more than 400 Russians deemed to be part of the country’s elite – including more than half the members of parliament – as part of campaign to increase the price Moscow pays for the invasion of Ukraine, while stepping up assistance to Ukrainians.

The administration also announced it would accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, almost as many as the current cap for the total number of refugees the US accepts from around the world.

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Canada bars its soldiers from joining Ukraine’s foreign legion

Military authorities fear any captured service members could be used as propaganda tool by Russia

Canada has barred its soldiers from joining Ukraine’s “international brigade” of foreign fighters, amid growing concern that captured troops could be used as a Russian propaganda tool.

Speaking to Canadian parliament’s defence committee on Wednesday, Lt Gen Frances Allen, the vice-chief of the defence staff, said top brass had issued an order preventing full-time service members and part-time reservists from travelling to join Ukraine’s newly formed foreign legion.

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Lloyd’s moves to cancel insurance cover of Russian firms hit by sanctions

Action comes as Lloyd’s of London returns to profit but warns Ukraine war will present ‘major claim’

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

Lloyd’s of London has said it is working with the UK government to implement sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine as fast as possible, including cancelling Russian firms’ insurance cover.

Announcing a swing back to an annual profit as it recovers from the pandemic, the world’s biggest insurance market warned that the war will present a “major claim” for the insurance market this year, but said it was “manageable”.

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Military supplies depleted on both sides but Russia retains advantage

Analysis: Russia is facing logistical constraints while Ukraine is reliant on supply from the west

It has been a month since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, and such has been the intensity of the first phase of the fighting that both sides in the conflict have increasingly depleted their stocks of ammunition and other military supplies.

But while Ukraine is willing to claim that the Russian invaders have only three days of supplies left, while warning that its own troops are running out of anti-tank and anti-aircraft systems, the reality is hard to measure.

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Russian reporter killed in Kyiv shelling is fourth journalist to die in conflict

Oksana Baulina was killed with another civilian while reporting for the independent Russian news website the Insider

A Russian reporter has died after coming under Russian shelling while she filmed destruction at a shopping centre in Kyiv, becoming at least the fourth journalist to die since the conflict began almost a month ago.

Oksana Baulina, who previously also worked for the Russian opposition leader Alexander Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, was killed alongside another civilian on Wednesday while reporting for the independent Russian news website the Insider.

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Madeleine Albright, first female US secretary of state, dies at 84 – as it happened

In a sign of life slowly returning to normal, public tours of the US Capitol will resume on Monday in a limited capacity for the first time since March 2020, when the building closed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

We are pleased to announce that on Monday, March 28, 2022, public tours of the Capitol will resume with a limited number of member-led, staff-led tours, and school groups,” sergeant-at-arms William Walker and attending physician Brian Monahan wrote in a memo to lawmakers and Capitol staff.

“Since March 2020, the US Capitol, and the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) has been closed to tours. The decision to reinstate limited tours has been made in coordination with Congressional Leadership, the US Capitol Police Board, the Attending Physician, Capitol Visitor Services, and the US Capitol Police. We appreciate your continued patience and cooperation as we work together to resume public tours of the Capitol for the American people in a way that protects the health and safety of visitors and institutional staff alike.”

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Zelenskiy calls on Japan to impose trade embargo on Russian goods

The Ukrainian president thanked Japan for ‘leading the way’ in virtual address to MPs

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called on Japan to increase pressure on Russia by imposing a trade embargo on Russian goods, in a virtual address to MPs in Tokyo.

Zelenskiy, who has delivered carefully tailored speeches to lawmakers in the US, UK and other countries, thanked Japan for “leading the way” among Asian countries in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and imposing sanctions.

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Israel blocked Ukraine from buying Pegasus spyware, fearing Russia’s anger

Revelation of denial offers new insight into the way Israel’s relationship with Moscow has undermined Ukrainian objectives

Israel blocked Ukraine from buying NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware for fear that Russian officials would be angered by the sale of the sophisticated hacking tool to a regional foe, according to people familiar with the matter.

The revelation, following a joint investigation by the Guardian and Washington Post, offers new insight into the way Israel’s relationship with Russia has at times undermined Ukraine’s offensive capabilities – and contradicted US priorities.

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Russia-Ukraine war latest news: Nato puts Russian death toll ‘as high as 15,000’, as US says occupiers on the defensive outside Kyiv – live

Latest updates: death told could be as high as entire 1o-year Afghanistan campaign of 1980s; while the US says Ukraine has pushed Russian forces outside of Kyiv back

Russian troops continue to advance on key cities across Ukraine.

The latest conviction of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Tuesday reflects the Russian government’s intensified crackdown on dissent and free expression, Human Rights Watch has said.

This verdict is apparently intended not only to silence Navalny but to serve as a warning to Russian civil society and anyone who dares to stand up to the Kremlin’s policies.”

The cases against Navalny are part of the Kremlin’s grim landscape of repression against Russia’s civil society and peaceful dissent, which has drastically intensified since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin seems determined to isolate Russian society from the outside world to cut Russians off from uncomfortable facts, including about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. So it’s hardly surprising that Russian authorities are doubling down on smearing and silencing Navalny and others who can tell people not to believe the Kremlin’s lies and that the world is watching.”

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Ketanji Brown Jackson says Roe v Wade ‘the settled law of the supreme court’ – as it happened

Asked about her views of the second amendment’s right to bear arms, Jackson said that the supreme court had already established it as a “fundamental right.”

“There is precedent in the supreme court related to various rights that the court has recognized as fundamental,” she told Grassley. She added: “The court has said that the 14th amendment substantive due process clause does support some fundamental rights, but only things that are implicit in the ordered concept of liberty or deeply rooted in the history and traditions of this country, the kinds of rights that relate to personal individual autonomy.”

In that speech, I talked about my my parents growing up in Florida, attended and had to attend racially-segregated schools because by law when they were young, white children and black children were not allowed to go to school together.

And my reality, when I was born in 1970 and went to school in Miami, Florida was completely different. I went to a diverse public junior high school, high school elementary school. And the fact that we had come that far was to me a testament to the hope and the promise of this country, the greatness of America that in one generation – one generation – we could go from racially-segregated schools in Florida to have me sitting here as the first Floridian ever to be nominated to the supreme court of the United States. So yes, senator, that is my belief.

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UN head says time for Russia to end ‘unwinnable’ Ukraine war

Leaders from the bloc to meet on Thursday to discuss support above the €1.2bn emergency fund already agreed

The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, has said it is time for Russia to end its “absurd” and “unwinnable” war in Ukraine, as the EU prepared to set up a “trust fund” aimed at helping Kyiv repel the invasion and rebuild afterwards.

Speaking to reporters at the UN’s headquarters in New York, Guterres said the war was “going nowhere, fast”. For more than two weeks, the devastated southern city of Mariupol had been encircled by Russian forces, bombed and shelled, he said.

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UK running low on anti-tank weapons, defence secretary tells Russian hoaxers

Impostors posing as Ukrainian PM post new YouTube clip with Ben Wallace’s response to claim that arms have failed

The UK is running out of anti-tank weapons to send to Ukraine, the defence secretary appeared to tell Russian impostors posing as the Ukrainian prime minister, according to the latest video released by the pair.

Downing Street has said it believes Russian state actors were responsible for the hoax, in which an impersonator was put through for a video call with Ben Wallace about the situation in Ukraine.

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Inflation raises cost of UK government borrowing in February; crude oil up again – business live

Analysts say chancellor has wriggle room for limited package of measures in Wednesday’s mini-budget, as US Fed chair signals more aggressive rate rises to tame inflation

Bethany Beckett, UK economist at Capital Economics, has looked at what the chancellor might do tomorrow.

Notwithstanding the deterioration in the public finances in February, large revisions to the back data mean that borrowing in 2021/22 is on track to undershoot the OBR’s October 2021 forecast by a huge £23bn.

Even so, we suspect the sharper rise in debt interest costs in February than many expected may embolden the chancellor to keep a fairly tight grip on the public finances in tomorrow’s spring statement.

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US condemns Russia’s refusal to rule out use of nuclear weapons – as it happened

Latest updates: Ukraine president says convoy seized near Mangush in south; US embassy in Kyiv says children ‘illegally removed’ from Russian-controlled territories

The Ukrainian military claims its forces have retaken the town of Makariv, just 50km west of Kyiv.

In an update provided by the general staff of the armed forces, officials said its forces pushed Russian troops out of the town.

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Chechnya’s losses in Ukraine may be leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s undoing

Analysis: Putin’s ally needs to show enemies at home and abroad his strength, but needs his forces intact to prop up his brutal rule

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is primarily Vladimir Putin’s war, but if there is a second man whose name and reputation will be tied to the devastation unleashed by Moscow it is Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

His fighters were part of the first wave assault on the country, and died in large numbers around the Hostomel airbase, with one key commander among those killed.

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Boris Johnson ‘desperate’ to visit Ukraine, says Tory party chair

Oliver Dowden says PM has a ‘real emotional connection’ with the Ukrainian people but No 10 sources say a trip is unlikely

Boris Johnson is “desperate” to go to Ukraine and has a “real emotional connection” with the Ukrainian people, the Tory party chair has claimed.

It was reported at the weekend that Johnson wanted to go to Kyiv but on Monday No 10 sources indicated this is unlikely to happen.

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Supreme court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson tells Senate ‘I decide cases from a neutral posture’ – as it happened

With the clack of a gavel, Senate Judiciary Committee Dick Durbin opened the hearing. He began by noting Thomas’s hospitalization and wishing him a speedy recovery. He then laid out the rules, asking the audience to remain respectful and vowing to remove any loud or unruly protesters.

He then moved into the meat of his argument, touching on the significance of her nomination.

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Russia threatens to cut ties with US after Biden labels Putin a ‘war criminal’

US ambassador in Moscow summoned for an official protest as EU ministers meet to discuss further sanctions

Russia has warned of a breach of its relations with Washington and summoned the US ambassador in Moscow for an official protest over Joe Biden’s labelling of Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, as the US president held talks with European allies on efforts to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Biden talked to the leaders of the UK, France, Germany and Italy on Monday as part of his effort to maintain a unified front to Moscow, amid signs of cracks within the EU on how far to go in imposing sanctions on Russian oil and gas.

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Video released showing Russian hoax call with UK defence secretary

‘Russian state actors’ blamed for prank call made to Ben Wallace

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

A video of defence secretary Ben Wallace being duped into speaking by phone to an impostor posing as the Ukrainian prime minister was published on Monday – hours after Downing Street said it believed Russian state actors were responsible for the hoax.

In the short clip, Wallace replies with scepticism and apparent confusion when the caller asks him questions.

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