Category Archives: Ukraine

Italy seizes yachts and villas from Russian oligarchs, say state sources

Posted on by

Authorities clamp down on wealthy individuals placed on EU sanctions list over Russian invasion of Ukraine

Italian police have seized villas and yachts worth at least €140m (£126m) from four high-profile Russians who were placed on an EU sanctions list after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, sources said on Saturday.

A police source said a villa owned by the billionaire businessman Alisher Usmanov on Sardinia, and a villa on Lake Como owned by the Russian state TV host Vladimir Soloviev, had both been seized.

Continue reading...

Zelenskiy attacks Nato ‘weakness’ for refusing no-fly zone over Ukraine – video

Posted on by

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has criticised Nato for refusing to implement a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying the decision gave 'the green light for further bombing' of the country.

In an emotional nighttime address, he said: 'All the people who die from this day forward will also die because of you, because of your weakness, because of your lack of unity.'

Nato warned on Friday that imposing a no-fly zone could provoke full-fledged war in Europe with Russia. 

Zelenskiy said Nato countries had created a narrative that a no-fly zone would provoke Russian aggression against Nato

Continue reading...

‘I can’t believe this is happening’: the refugees trying to escape Ukraine – video

Posted on by

Volunteers at a railway station in Lviv in western Ukraine are doing all they can to help refugees flee the violence of Putin’s invasion and reach safety. Lviv is less than 50 miles from the Polish border and thousands of people have been arriving daily from the rest of country. The Guardian spends the day with one volunteer named Sergyi Mykolaiv 

Continue reading...

Missile interrupts Kharkiv blogger’s live recording – video

Posted on by

A blogger in Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv had been recording a video message to his followers as an airstrike hit near him. Nikita Demenkov was telling his followers about the use of donations they had sent when a missile exploded above him on Wednesday. The blast sent him scrambling to seek shelter in a basement.

Continue reading...

‘The worst possible nightmare’: voices from Ukrainian football as war rages

Posted on by

Four players and a coach with Ukrainian clubs reveal how their lives have been turned upside down by Russia’s invasion

On the day the war began, I was in Kyiv with my family. I have been injured recently, so could not train with the team. At 5am my young son awoke, and my wife got up to calm him. Then we heard the explosions, one after the other. We thought there had been an accident, but then we read online that the war had begun. We quickly began to gather our belongings. I am Georgian, and was in Georgia in 2008 when Russia attacked our country, so this is not the first time I’ve been through a war. I told my wife: “Let’s get ready more quickly.” I drove the car closer to our house, loaded it with things and then waited for a couple of my teammates. They are foreigners and also have young families. We drove away from Kyiv together.

Continue reading...

Sky News journalists evacuated after being shot at by Russian ‘death squad’

Posted on by

Footage shows team’s vehicle being attacked by a Russian ambush squad on Monday near Kyiv

A Sky News crew has been evacuated back to the UK from Ukraine after journalists were shot during an ambush by a suspected Russian “death squad” on Monday.

The team of five were attacked while out in a car, after unsuccessfully trying to visit the town of Bucha near Kyiv.

Continue reading...

Italian police seize yacht owned by Russia’s richest man

Posted on by

$27m boat impounded after EU blacklists owner Alexei Mordashov following Moscow’s attacks on Ukraine

Italian police have seized a yacht owned by Alexei Mordashov, the richest man in Russia before being blacklisted this week by the European Union following Moscow’s attack on Ukraine.

The 65-metre (215-ft) “Lady M” was impounded in the northern Italian port of Imperia.

Continue reading...

Cheers erupt as Ukraine president addresses huge protest in Prague via video link – video

Posted on by

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, addressed crowds in several European cities remotely, appealing for support as the Russian invasion of his country continued. 

Zelenskiy appeared via video link in cities including Prague, Paris and Frankfurt. He appealed for people to do what they could to support Ukraine, and led the crowd in a moment of silence for those who had died in the conflict, according to local media

Continue reading...

International students trapped in Ukraine appeal for urgent evacuation

Posted on by

At least 1,200 foreign students are thought to be stranded in Sumy, with some running out of food and water

International students trapped in a Ukrainian town near the Russian border have made desperate appeals for evacuation, as the number thought to be stranded in Sumy has risen to between 1,200 and 1,500, and they are running out of basic supplies.

Jana Kalaaji, a Syrian-Lebanese student who has been at the city’s university for a year, said: “There’s no electricity now. There is no water. There is no tapwater. There are no supplies. There is no heat because the heat comes with electricity.”

Continue reading...

Ukraine war a ‘catastrophe’ for global economy as stock markets plunge

Posted on by

Moscow stock exchange remained closed during the week, while the rouble fell to record lows

The London stock market has suffered its biggest weekly losses since the start of the global pandemic in March 2020, as investors took fright at the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.

Shares plunged in the City following news of a fire and Russian capture of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, with the one-day drop of more than 250 points in the FTSE 100 index taking the weekly loss to 6.7%.

Continue reading...

Footage shows damage inside Ukraine nuclear power plant after Russia attack – video

Posted on by

Footage shows damage to a walkway at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after it was attacked by Russia. 

The footage was posted by Energoatom, the Ukrainian state enterprise that operates all four nuclear power stations in Ukraine. It shows a hole in the roof of the walkway, a smashed window and damage to pipes, as well as what appears to be a shell casing

Continue reading...

Russian forces push to take key port of Odesa as fighting near Kyiv rages

Posted on by

The shipbuilding city of Mykolaiv seen as next key stepping stone for Russian forces in Ukraine

Russian ground forces began their long expected push west towards the key port of Odesa in the south of Ukraine with an assault of the shipbuilding centre of Mykolaiv, as the area around the capital Kyiv came under fresh heavy attack.

Mykolaiv, where Ukrainian officials say they repelled a Russian attack, is seen as the next key stepping stone for Russian forces on the road to Odesa, which came under naval shell fire on Friday, after taking the key southern city of Kherson earlier this week.

Continue reading...

BBC, Bloomberg and CBC ‘temporarily suspending’ work of all news journalists in Russia

Posted on by

BBC’s director-general says new Russian legislation ‘appears to criminalise the process of independent journalism’

Global news media said they were temporarily suspending reporting in Russia to protect their journalists after a new law cracking down on foreign news outlets was passed that threatened jail terms of up to 15 years for spreading “fake news”.

Britain’s BBC said Friday it had temporarily halted reporting in Russia, and by the end of the day, the Canadian Broadcasting Company and Bloomberg News said their journalists were also stopping work. CNN and CBS News said they would stop broadcasting in Russia, and other outlets removed Russian-based journalists’ bylines as they assessed the situation.

Continue reading...

Russia appears to have no way out as Putin goes ‘all in’

Posted on by

Analysis: Rising stakes seem to lure the president deeper into the Ukraine war, with polls backing him and his officials compromised

The first week of Vladimir Putin’s invasion into Ukraine has not gone to plan, with the Russian military admitting the deaths of 500 soldiers (Ukrainian estimates are higher) and western sanctions dealing a body blow to the Russian economy that will only grow worse in the coming weeks.

And yet the Russian leader seems even more invested in his campaign to conquer Ukraine, lured in by the growing stakes of the most ambitious and dangerous gamble of his 22 years in power.

Continue reading...

Student stranded in Ukraine: ‘The fear is: how long will we be like this?’ – video

Posted on by

More than 500 international students are trapped in Sumy, a town 40km from Ukraine’s north-east border that has been battered by days of shelling by Russian forces.

Oyinkan Juliet Ibikunle, a final-year medical student from Nigeria, studying at Sumy University, explains the situation of many students stranded in Ukraine. The town was left with no water and power.

Most of the students are Nigerian, while others are from Ghana, Ethiopia, Angola, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ireland, India, Lebanon and Turkey. They have all found themselves stranded in a war zone

Sumy: more than 500 international students trapped in Ukrainian town battered by shelling

Continue reading...

A beloved New York restaurant becomes place of unity for Ukraine

Posted on by

Veselka, a restaurant raved about by celebrities and food critics alike, has become a meeting place and fundraising operation

In New York’s East Village neighborhood, home to a wide array of popular restaurants and bars, is a decades-old staple in the city’s famous food scene. Veselka, located in a smaller pocket of the area once known as “Little Ukraine”, now sits at the corner of food and international politics.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has displaced millions and forced ordinary citizens to take up arms, or flee across borders to safety. Those problems aren’t just affecting the people of Ukraine, but thousands of their loved ones abroad – including some at this beloved New York restaurant.

Continue reading...

Russia steps up onslaught after Ukraine ‘narrowly’ escapes nuclear disaster

Posted on by

Putin forces intensify strikes on civilian areas as Zelenskiy issues furious rebuke to Nato over no-fly zone refusal

The US envoy to the UN said the world had narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe in Russia’s attack on Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, as Moscow’s forces intensified their devastating campaign of artillery and airstrikes against civilian areas of Ukraine.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN security council in New York on Friday, the US envoy said Russia’s actions, which caused a major fire at the Zaporizhzhia compound, reflected a “dangerous new escalation” in its invasion of Ukraine. “Russia’s attack last night put Europe’s largest nuclear power plant at grave risk,” she said. “It was incredibly reckless and dangerous. And it threatened the safety of civilians across Russia, Ukraine and Europe.”

Continue reading...