Footage shared on social media appears to show explosions, gunfire and anti-aircraft tracer fire across multiple areas of Kyiv. The invading Russian forces tried to push their way towards the city centre and were met with resistance. The Ukrainian military said Russian troops attacked an army base on a main Kyiv avenue but the assault was repelled.
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The antisemitism animating Putin’s claim to ‘denazify’ Ukraine | Jason Stanley
The Russian leader’s pretext for invasion recasts Ukraine’s Jewish president as a Nazi and Russian Christians as true victims of the Holocaust
When Vladimir Putin announced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at dawn on Thursday, he justified the “special military operation” as having the goal to “denazify” Ukraine. The justification is not tenable, but it would be a mistake simply to dismiss it.
Vladimir Putin is himself a fascist autocrat, one who imprisons democratic opposition leaders and critics. He is the acknowledged leader of the global far right, which looks increasingly like a global fascist movement.
Continue reading...Ukrainian ambassador calls for a moment of silence at UN security council – video
Ukraine's UN ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, addressed an emergency meeting of the UN security council on Friday 26 February in New York. During his address, Kyslytsya called for a moment of silence to pray for peace, and for the souls of those already killed after Russia invaded his country on 25 February.
- Russia-Ukraine latest news: fighting inside Kyiv after Zelenskiy warns tonight will be ‘the hardest’
Russian forces advance inside Ukraine: what we know so far
Russian forces have pressed towards the capital, Kyiv, as the death toll in the conflict rose to at least 198
Russian troops pressed towards Ukraine’s capital on Saturday after a night of explosions and street fighting that sent Kyiv residents seeking shelter underground.
The death toll so far in the Russian invasion of Ukraine is at least 198, according to the Ukrainian health ministry. Three children are among those dead. The ministry’s head was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying 1,115 people had been injured, including 33 children.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said at press briefing that his country would triumph over Russian forces. He said Ukrainian forces controlled Kyiv and key areas, adding: “We are defending our land and the future of our children.”
More European countries are in favour of cutting Russia out of the Swift global payments system, Zelenskiy and the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, have said. France supported the move, said Kuleba, while the Cypriot finance minister said his country was not opposed. In Italy, the leader of PD, a main coalition party, said Rome would support a block.
Germany is in talks over approving the delivery of 400 RPGs to Ukraine by a third country but a decision has not been taken yet.
Russia now has at least 50% of its invasion force inside Ukraine but is making slow progress due to unexpectedly stiff resistance, a senior US defence official has said. The official said that the Russian military had still not taken control of any Ukraine city, nor has it gained air superiority over the country, and the US had “indications that the Russians are increasingly frustrated by their lack of momentum over the last 24 hours.”
Russia’s former president, Dmitry Medvedev, said Russia could cut diplomatic ties with the west. The Russian RIA news agency reported that the senior lawmaker Andrei Klimov said Russia would decide in which areas it would work with the west and where it no longer made sense to cooperate.
A Russian shell has hit a residential building in the centre of Kyiv, Ukraine says. Video shared by Zelenskiy’s press service shows the missile exploding in a private flat, sending smoke and debris into the living room.
Continue reading...Video of Ukrainian ‘tank man’ trying to block Russian military convoy goes viral
Thirty-second clip shared by Ukrainian news outlet HB shows a man standing in front of what appears to be military vehicles
A video which apparently shows a Ukrainian man attempting to block a Russian military convoy has gone viral online, with comparisons being drawn to the “tank man” of Tiananmen Square.
The 30-second clip, shared by Ukrainian news outlet HB, shows a man standing in front of what appear to be military vehicles. As the vehicles try to swerve around him, the man jockeys to the side, seemingly in an attempt to block their progress.
Continue reading...Russian forces tighten hold on Kyiv in attempt to topple government
Bombing intensifies as Volodymyr Zelenskiy warns ‘This night will be the hardest’
Russian forces have tightened their stranglehold on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and carried out amphibious assaults on the country’s Sea of Azov coast in an attempt to topple the government.
Almost exactly 30 years after the devastating siege of Sarajevo, another major European capital came under heavy bombardment with shells hitting apartment blocks, driving up the civilian death toll. The onslaught of bombing intensified on Friday night, accompanied by artillery rounds and heavy gunfire on the city’s streets.
Ukrainians prepared a last-ditch defence of their capital, with barricades, and called for civilians to arm themselves with molotov cocktails.
According to US estimates, Russia has fired 200 ballistic and cruise missiles at Ukraine, mostly hitting military targets but some landing in residential areas.
As human rights groups accused Russia of war crimes, the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court issued a reminder he has jurisdiction to investigate atrocities committed inside Ukraine.
Continue reading...Fears mount for safety of Ukraine’s nuclear reactors amid Russian invasion
Core meltdowns due to operational challenges cause concern even as direct strikes to facilities remain remote possibility
Concerns are mounting about the safety of Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors and the possibility of an ecological disaster in the midst of the Russian invasion.
Experts said that those reactors, at four power plants around the country, had layers of safeguards to prevent a catastrophic meltdown of their cores, but in a full scale war of the kind Vladimir Putin has unleashed, there was a heightened risk of those safety layers all failing at once.
Continue reading...Putin references neo-Nazis and drug addicts in bizarre speech to Russian security council – video
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Friday briefed his country’s security council on the invasion of Ukraine. He claimed that most Ukrainian military units have been reluctant to engage with Russian forces and said the units offering resistance are mostly volunteer battalions made up of rightwing Ukrainian nationalists. He offered no evidence for his claims, which could not be independently verified
Continue reading...Zelenskiy tells Ukrainians he will remain in Kyiv – video
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Friday said he is remaining in Kyiv, even as Russian forces pounded the capital and other cities with airstrikes for a second day. Russian troops bore down on Ukraine’s capital, with gunfire and explosions resonating ever closer to the government quarter, in an invasion of a democratic country that has fuelled fears of wider war in Europe and triggered worldwide efforts to make Russia stop
- Russia-Ukraine latest news: explosions heard in Kyiv; Nato to deploy more troops to eastern Europe
- Ukraine soldiers told Russian officer ‘go fuck yourself’ before they died on island
Ukrainian man survives after military vehicle swerves and drives over his car – video
An armoured vehicle has been filmed crashing into and then crushing a civilian car in a Kyiv suburb. Before the incident, recorded from multiple angles, the vehicle was being driven down a main road leading through a residential area. Separate footage showed that the driver survived after local residents helped free him from the wreckage. It is not yet clear whether Russian or Ukrainian forces were driving the vehicle.
Russian forces are approaching Kyiv from the north and north-east, Ukraine's army said, with many fearing that the capital could fall on the second day of Moscow's offensive
- Russia invades Ukraine latest: Putin urges Ukrainian army to overthrow Kyiv government - live updates
- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: what we know so far
‘It’s not rational’: Putin’s bizarre speech wrecks his once pragmatic image
Analysis: President makes appeal to Ukraine’s military to abandon its ‘drug-addicted, neo-Nazi’ leaders
• Russia-Ukraine crisis: live news
Looking dead-eyed into the camera on Friday, Vladimir Putin gave one of the most bizarre speeches of his 22 years as Russia’s leader, a directive that managed to sound alarming even in a week when he has ordered tanks into Ukraine and missile strikes on Kyiv.
“Once again I speak to the Ukrainian soldiers,” he said, addressing his enemy. “Do not allow neo-Nazis and Banderites to use your children, your wives and the elderly as a human shield. Take power into your own hands. It seems that it will be easier for us to come to an agreement than with this gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis.”
Continue reading...Nato to deploy extra troops to alliance nations in eastern Europe
Forces not being sent to Ukraine itself to avoid ‘existential’ war with Russia, say UK ministers
Nato will deploy significant extra troops to countries in eastern Europe which are part of the alliance, but UK ministers warned there would be no forces going to Ukraine itself to avoid an “existential” war between Russia and the west.
Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, chaired a virtual summit of 30 leaders on Friday, where the agreement was made to amass forces in eastern Europe.
Continue reading...How can Europe wean itself off Russian gas?
Analysis: whether tapping other suppliers or switching energy sources, there is no quick and easy option to loosen Putin’s economic grip
As Boris Johnson told parliament that Europe must wean itself off Russian gas – to loosen Vladimir Putin’s “grip on western politics” – the Nikolay Zubov tanker was making its way back from British waters to the port of Sabetta, in northern Siberia.
The 300m-long vessel had recently dropped off a consignment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the Isle of Grain terminal, in the Thames Estuary, operated by the National Grid.
Continue reading...‘We are defending our country alone,’ Zelenskiy tells Ukrainians as Russia approaches Kyiv – video
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has pressed Ukraine's allies to do more to help the country defend itself against Russian aggression. The president said western sanctions imposed on Moscow were not enough. He said: 'The most powerful forces in the world watch from afar. Have yesterday’s sanctions persuaded Russia? We see in our skies and feel on the ground that they are not enough'
Continue reading...The battle for Kyiv: ‘People are grieving. This is already a tragedy’
Residents of Ukrainian capital express shock and anger as invading Russian troops bring death and destruction
The missile left a crater two metres deep, twisted shards of metal beside a playground slide, and shattered glass below the windows of a nearby kindergarten. Dozens of homes were scorched or shredded, their inhabitants turned into some of Kyiv’s first war refugees.
In one apartment block 10 floors of kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms sat open to the skies, their balconies, doors and windows broken off or shattered into pieces by the weapon that brought the Russian invasion to this corner of the city.
Continue reading...Russia is banned from Eurovision after invasion of Ukraine
After a U-turn, organisers say Russia’s inclusion could ‘bring the competition into disrepute’
Russia will no longer be allowed to compete in this year’s Eurovision song contest, with organisers saying its inclusion could “bring the competition into disrepute”.
On Thursday, the European Broadcasting Union said Russia would still be allowed to compete, despite its invasion of Ukraine. But after pressure from broadcasters across Europe, the EBU made a U-turn, publishing a statement on Friday stating the country would no longer be allowed to take part.
Continue reading...Prominent Russians join protests against Ukraine war amid 1,800 arrests
As invasion continues, people from worlds of entertainment, business and journalism voice opposition
Prominent Russians shocked by the invasion of Ukraine have gone public with their opposition to the war, despite the professional and personal risks that come with dissent on such a sensitive issue in Russia.
More than 1,800 people were arrested at rallies across the country on Thursday night as prominent Russians from the worlds of entertainment, business and journalism have risked their livelihoods in order to speak out.
Continue reading...Western powers have realised Russia is largely immune to sanctions
Analysis: Only the financial equivalent of unleashing a nuclear arsenal will dent Russia’s foreign assets war chest
The war against Russia is one western countries want to fight with only economic sanctions, not guns.
Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, despite its long gestation and planning by Vladimir Putin and his supporters in the Kremlin, was supposed to end quickly once financial retaliation began. Yes, there would be military skirmishes on the ground, but little more than a few casualties were expected once a range of penalties began to bite.
Continue reading...Ukrainian woman offers seeds to Russian soldiers so ‘sunflowers grow when they die’ – video
A woman is being hailed on social media after she confronted a heavily armed Russian soldier and offered him sunflower seeds – so that flowers would grow if he died there on Ukraine’s soil. 'You’re occupants, you’re fascists,' she shouts, standing about a metre from the soldier.
'Take these seeds and put them in your pockets so at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here'
Continue reading...Russian soldiers captured on CCTV disabling surveillance cameras – video
Russia continued to press its invasion of Ukraine to the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv, on Friday, with troops and tanks moving in from three sides. Ground forces coming from Crimea were caught on CCTV cameras as they advanced toward Kherson to the north-west. The footage shows troops stopping and climbing up the masts to point the cameras downwards
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