Demonstrators gathered in cities across Europe, the US and South America to demand an end to Russia’s invasion
Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in cities including Santiago, Vancouver Paris and New York in support of Ukraine, demanding an end to Russia’s invasion.
The protesters rallied on Saturday against Russian president Vladimir Putin’s attack, which began on 24 February and appeared to be entering a new phase with escalating bombardment.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy shared a video on social media where he had spoken to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and invited him to visit after the war. The meeting came as Ukraine announced it would receive more Starlink satellite internet terminals for destroyed cities from the company next week
Continue reading...Transactions to be cut off after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged companies to take action
Visa and Mastercard have announced tonight they will be suspending operations in Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.
Visa said in a statement that it would cut off transactions “over the coming days” and consequently cards issued in Russia would not work abroad as well as foreign issued cards in Russia.
Continue reading...Ukraine told: your statehood is in doubt as Russian bombs end ceasefire in Mariupol
Vladimir Putin delivered a chilling warning to the west over the imposition of sanctions on Russia on Saturday, warning that measures designed to cripple his country’s economy were “akin to an act of war”.
In comments that were both defiant and threatening, the Russian president also told Ukraine’s leaders that their nation risked being dismantled as an independent sovereign state if they continued to resist Russia’s invasion.
Continue reading...Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has hailed advances made by Kyiv's forces against Russia, asserting that 'Ukraine is bleeding, but it has not fallen and stands with both feet on the ground.'
Kuleba reiterated his demand for Moscow to withdraw its forces from Ukrainian territory
United Nations calling exodus Europe’s fastest-moving refugee crisis since end of second world war
More than 1.3 million Ukrainians have crossed borders since the Russian invasion started on the 24 February in what the United Nations is now calling Europe’s fastest-moving refugee crisis since the end of the second world war.
Figures released today by the United Nation’s Refugee Agency (UNHCR) show that to date 1.37 million people have fled Ukraine into neighbouring European countries after the military offensive ordered by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Continue reading...Vladimir Putin criticises economic sanctions imposed on Russia, and warns western countries against implementing a no-fly zone over Ukraine
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said 66,224 Ukrainian men had returned from abroad to help fight against Russia’s invasion.
That’s how many men returned from abroad at this moment to defend their country from the horde. These are 12 more combat and motivated brigades! Ukrainians, we are invincible,” Reznikov said in statement posted online.
Continue reading...Local authorities in Ukrainian city ask residents to return to shelters and wait for further information
Authorities in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol have said an evacuation of civilians has been postponed because Russian forces encircling the city were not respecting an agreed ceasefire.
In a statement, the city council asked residents to return to shelters in the city and wait for further information on evacuation.
Continue reading...Warning: some viewers may find the following footage distressing
Gunfire was reportedly heard as thousands protested in the Ukrainian city of Kherson on Saturday to protest against the arrival of Russian troops. Residents flooded into its main square on Saturday and protested peacefully and noisily against the occupation.
As protesters took to the streets, local media reported that some armed men fired shots in the air to disperse the crowd. The Black Sea port has become the first major Ukrainian target to fall under the de facto control of Russia forces
Analysis: despite the EU’s solidarity in helping those escaping war, aid agencies are overwhelmed with many people stuck at borders
Just over a week after Russian rockets first began to slam into Ukraine, more than 1.3 million people have fled over the borders of neighbouring European countries into a frightening and uncertain future. What we are witnessing, the United Nations has warned, is the largest refugee crisis in a century.
All week, the world has watched families fighting to board trains in chaotic crowds, fathers kissing their children goodbye through car windows, and seen the shock and exhaustion on the faces of those who have made it to safety.
Continue reading...Disasters Emergency Committee chief says ‘things people give today might not be what is needed tomorrow’
More than £85m has been raised to provide aid in Ukraine, in an “absolutely incredible” show of support from the UK public.
But the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has urged people to donate money rather than goods to help those affected by the conflict.
Continue reading...Prime minister says press reporting conflict will not be cowed after Sky News team ambushed near Kyiv
Boris Johnson has praised British journalists who were hit by bullets in Ukraine and said press reporting on the conflict “will not be intimidated or cowed”.
The prime minister commended the “astonishing” courage of the Sky News journalists, who he said were “putting themselves in terrifying and dangerous situations”.
Continue reading...Footage released by the Ukrainian national police shows burning debris and damaged buildings after an airstrike on the town of Bila Tserkva, just over 60 miles from Kyiv
Ordinary citizens are volunteering time and money – but the pleas for the government to do more are getting urgent
In a giant food depot in Poland, a few miles from the border with Belarus, thousands of people, many of them women and children wrapped in woollen blankets, are crammed together in corridors and hallways. As Polish locals and volunteers frantically work alongside soldiers to try to distribute food and water to those most in need, buses pull up outside carrying more shellshocked and exhausted people needing help.
There is no attempt to register the new arrivals. There is no time. Just over a week since Russia invaded Ukraine, those working here know that this crisis has just begun. Since the violence began, more than 650,000 people have crossed into Poland, leaving their lives behind and becoming refugees.
Continue reading...Hearing parents say ‘It’s OK to feel scared and I’m here to listen’ might provide comfort
How should we deal with children’s anxiety over what’s happening in Ukraine?
I wonder if the question should be: how do we deal with our own? Our kids will pick up on how we are feeling and are likely to mirror our own emotive state. Even if you don’t mean to expose them to news, children will realise that something is going on. It may not concern younger children at all but those who are a bit older or old enough to have a smartphone may well be worried, and even work themselves up into a bit of a frenzy.
Continue reading...Website update advises Britons to ‘consider leaving by remaining commercial routes’
The UK government has urged British nationals in Russia whose presence is “not essential” to consider leaving the country amid the mounting crisis in Ukraine.
The Foreign Office said it had updated its travel advice to say that Britons who can should use the remaining commercial routes to leave Russia.
Continue reading...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...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
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
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.