Photograph of teacher bloodied by Russian attack on Ukraine dominates front pages as Putin sends his troops to war
The front pages in Britain and around the world are devoted to the shocking events in Ukraine, with graphic images of the destruction unleashed by Vladimir Putin.
A photograph of a woman with a bloodied and bandaged head in the wake of a Russian attack dominates the front of the Guardian with the headline “Putin invades”.
Continue reading...Anti-war protesters have taken to the streets in Moscow and St Petersburg to voice their opposition to their country's military intervention in Ukraine. Protesters chanted slogans against the war and Russian president Vladimir Putin while police made arrests
Vladimir Putin has plunged Europe back into war and a conflict that ‘I think will reverberate far beyond Ukraine and have huge implications for Europe, for the rest of the world’, says Guardian foreign correspondent Luke Harding. Reporting from Kyiv, he examines why the Russian president launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour, if Putin can be stopped, and what might come next
Continue reading...President takes aim at Russia’s largest banks and companies but is emphatic US troops will not engage in conflict in Ukraine
Joe Biden on Thursday unveiled a fresh round of what he said would be crippling sanctions on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, declaring that Vladimir Putin “chose this war” and that he and his country would bear the consequences.
The harsh new sanctions target Russia’s largest banks and companies, effectively cutting them off from western financial markets, while imposing restrictions on the exports of advanced technology used to power the country’s military and tech sector.
Continue reading...'Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war, and now he and his country will bear the consequences,' said US president Joe Biden during an address at the White House. Biden described Russian president Vladimir Putin as an assailant who launched 'a war without a cause' and a misguided dream of recreating the Soviet Union. His comments come after Ukrainian forces battled Russian invaders on three sides after Moscow mounted an assault by land, sea and air, prompting tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. 'Putin's aggression against Ukraine will end up costing Russia dearly,' Biden said
Officials in western capitals concerned by ‘despotic mindset’ of Russian president and rambling Monday speech increased doubts
Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch a catastrophic new European war, combined with the sheer weirdness of his recent public appearances, has raised questions in western capitals about the mental stability of the leader of a country with 6,000 nuclear warheads.
They worry about a 69-year-old man whose tendency towards insularity has been amplified by his precautions against Covid, leaving him surrounded by an ever-shrinking coterie of fearful obedient courtiers. He appears increasingly uncoupled from the contemporary world, preferring to burrow deep into history and a personal quest for greatness.
Continue reading...Latest updates: US secretary of state says Russia plans to encircle and threaten Kyiv; Ukrainian spokesman condemns ‘totally pointless attack’
We’re beginning to get a picture of what the Russian invasion may be aiming to achieve although with the huge caveat that everything is incredibly chaotic.
CNN has pictures of what appears to be a column of tanks crossing in the area of the Senkivka border crossing with Belarus.
Latest updates: prime minister condemns Russian president Vladimir Putin and promises to stand with Ukraine
General Sir Richard Shirreff, the former British officer who was Nato’s deputy supreme allied commander, told the Today programme this morning the possibility of the war in Ukraine leading to military conflict between Britain and Russia could not be ruled out. Asked if this was possible, he replied:
Absolutely there is a possibility that we as a nation could be at war with Russia, because if Russia puts one bootstep across Nato territory, we are all at war with Russia. Every single one, every single member of the Nato alliance.
Article 5 [of the Nato alliance] says an attack on one is an attack on all, so we need to change our mindset fundamentally, and that is why I say our defence starts in the UK on the frontiers of Nato.
What became evident in the days leading up to this invasion is that Vladimir Putin is increasingly isolated. That bizarre video of him berating his senior officials shows that he’s making these decisions increasingly in isolation and illogically.
And unfortunately I think that that is part of the reason why the initial round of international sanctions that [were] put in place by ourselves, by France, Germany, the US, Canada and others, didn’t have the deterrent effect.
The sanctions package that will be put in response to this is already actually having an effect. Just the announcement that it’s coming - we’ve seen the Russian stock market, the equivalent of the FTSE, drop by over 30%. That is a huge reduction in Russia’s economic abilities to fund this invasion.
And those sanctions will be laid today and over forthcoming days to really prevent Russia from funding this invasion.
Continue reading...Some congressional Republicans have attempted to blame Joe Biden’s foreign policy for enabling Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“These developments were not inevitable,” congressman Andy Barr said. “The Biden Administration’s weak and feckless foreign policy not only failed to deter this aggression, it invited this outcome.”
Continue reading...People on the streets of Moscow express anger and a sense of hopelessness after Putin’s move
A dark, sombre mood filled the Moscow air on Thursday morning as Russians were coming to terms with the fact that their president had launched a broad military offensive targeting Ukraine.
“I am embarrassed for my country. To be honest with you, I am speechless. War is always scary. We don’t want this,” said Nikita Golubev, a 30-year old teacher.
Continue reading...PM says ‘we will not just look away’ and Putin’s ‘barbaric adventure’ in Ukraine must end in failure
Boris Johnson has said that “a vast invasion is under way, by land, by sea and by air” in Ukraine, as he promised to impose “massive” sanctions that would “hobble” the Russian economy.
Speaking as world leaders scrambled to respond to the attacks that began in the early hours of Thursday morning, the UK prime minister said Russia had “attacked a friendly country without any provocation and without any credible excuse”.
Continue reading...The EU's foreign policy head, Josep Borrell, said as Russia launched an invasion in Ukraine on Thursday that it was 'among the darkest hours for Europe since the end of world war two'.
Russian forces have unleashed the attack on the orders of Vladimir Putin, who announced a 'special military operation' at dawn, as world leaders warned it could spark the biggest war in Europe since 1945.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said there would be 'massive and targeted sanctions' against Russia
Continue reading...Queues of traffic were seen on the road leading out of Kyiv as Russian forces launched an attack on Ukraine on the orders of Vladimir Putin.
Within minutes of Putin’s short televised address, at about 5am Ukrainian time, explosions were heard near major Ukrainian cities, including the capital.
Air raid sirens sounded over Kyiv and residents of Kharkiv sheltered in the metro, scenes that had not been seen in those cities since 1941
Russia appears to be targeting military infrastructure in early strikes with explosions reported at airfields, military headquarters and military warehouses
Russian forces have unleashed an attack of Ukraine on the orders of Vladimir Putin, who announced a “special military operation” at dawn, amid warnings from world leaders that it could spark the biggest war in Europe since 1945.
Within minutes of Putin’s short televised address, at about 5am Ukrainian time, explosions were heard near major Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv.
Continue reading...As members of UN security council poured out calls for restraint, Russian president was already launching attack on Ukraine
It will go down as one of the most surreal sessions the United Nations chamber has ever witnessed, as the very war it was supposed to prevent broke out while it was sitting.
Vladimir Putin, with brutal timing, delivered a speech announcing that Russia would start a “special military operation” in Ukraine – while an emergency session of the UN security council was under way.
Continue reading...It’s time for the US and its allies to show their steel in the face of Putin’s aggression. We have learned that nothing else will work
The Syria crisis continues unnoticed. It holds key lessons for the west about Putin yet it has gone virtually unnoticed by the rest of the world. War crimes and crimes against humanity continue in the Russian-sponsored dictatorship, even as some misguided leaders want to usher Bashar al-Assad, the architect of these crimes, back into acceptable society.
We can rest assured that the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, unlike Assad, is not welcoming Putin with open arms. But in responding to the Ukraine emergency, there are lessons the west can and should learn from the situation in Syria.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon is a chemical weapons expert, fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge and an adviser to the Union of Syrian Medical Charities
Continue reading...Ukraine crisis has thrust Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik into centre of events, amid claim they are puppets of Putin
For many Russians, it was an unfamiliar sight to see the faces of the two leaders of the pro-Kremlin proxy states in eastern Ukraine pop up on their television screens last Friday, announcing the mass evacuation of Donbas citizens to Russia.
Since then, however, Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik, heads of the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk, have seen their political profiles rocket, culminating on Monday with the two leaders asking the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to recognise their “republics”.
Continue reading...House speaker Nancy Pelosi is now holding a press conference on Capitol Hill, after attending the Munich Security Conference last week.
Pelosi attacked Russian President Vladimir Putin for recognizing the two self-proclaimed republics in east Ukraine and ordering troops into the region, repeatedly describing him as a “tyrant”.
Continue reading...Kyiv mobilises reserves and advises estimated 3 million people to depart in latest sign it believes Putin plans to invade
Ukraine has declared a state of emergency, mobilised reserves and told nearly 3 million of its citizens to leave Russia, as the US warned that Vladimir Putin had assembled almost 100% of the forces needed to launch a large-scale invasion of the country.
As Russian diplomats evacuated their embassy in the capital, the Ukrainian government said a massive cyber-attack had targeted ministries and banks on Wednesday. Officials have warned that Russia could use elements of hybrid warfare to sow confusion before launching an all-out military assault.
Continue reading...Vladimir Putin has said Moscow is ready to look for 'diplomatic solutions' over Ukraine, but stressed that Russia’s interests were non-negotiable.
In a video address on Wednesday morning, the Russian president said his country would continue to develop state-of-the-art weapons.
His speech follows Russia’s unanimous approval to deploy 'peacekeepers' to two self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk now recognised by Moscow as independent
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