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
Brittney Griner, one of America’s most decorated women’s basketball players, has reportedly been detained by Russian Federal Customs Service authorities after the discovery of vape cartridges that contained hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow.
The Customs Service confirmed “the detainee is a professional basketball player” who played in the Women’s National Basketball Association and won two Olympic gold medals with the United States in a statement issued on Saturday, but did not release the player’s name.
Continue reading...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...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...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
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.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy criticises Nato for refusing to introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine; UN security council condemns Russia nuclear power plant attack
Continue reading...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...$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...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...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%.
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