Nobel peace prize given to human rights activists in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine

Jailed campaigner Ales Bialiatski, Memorial and Center for Civil Liberties win award that will be seen as condemnation of Putin

The jailed Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties have won the 2022 Nobel peace prize, in an award the committee said was to honour champions of “peaceful coexistence” during the most tumultuous period in Europe since the second world war.

“The peace prize laureates represent civil society in their home countries,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee. “They have for many years promoted the right to criticise power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens.”

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Russia says it has full control of Luhansk region in Ukraine

Ukrainian military command confirms withdrawal of troops from city of Lysychansk to avoid ‘fatal consequences’

Russia has said it is in control of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region after taking over Lysychansk, the last Ukrainian-controlled city in the region.

The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, told Vladimir Putin on Sunday that their forces had established “full control” over Lysychansk and several nearby settlements, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

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Russia-Ukraine war: one killed as Kyiv hit by missile strikes; G7 leaders gather in Germany – live updates

Strikes hit Shevchenkivskiy district of Ukraine capital, says mayor Vitali Klitschko; G7 leaders to discuss energy and food crisis at Bavarian retreat

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, says two people have been taken to hospital after Sunday morning’s missile strikes, with search and rescue operations continuing. In a Telegram post, Klitschko said people may still be trapped under rubble at a residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district.

Some of the dozens of long-range Russian missile strikes on Saturday were, for the first time, launched from Tu-22 bombers deployed from Belarus, Ukraine’s military says.

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Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 123 of the invasion

Kyiv under attack as G7 leaders meet in Germany; focus of Russia’s campaign shifts to Lysychansk

Kyiv has come under attack for the first time since 5 June, with Russian missiles striking at residential buildings and a Kindergarten in the Shevchenkivskyi district of the capital. At least five people were injured, including a seven-year-old girl. There are unconfirmed reports that her father was killed in the attack. A Russian woman was among the injured.

Another civilian was killed in a missile attack on Cherkasy south-east of the capital. A bridge over the Dnipro river was also hit.

Both the attacks on Kyiv and Cherkasy are being seen message of defiance by Russia to G7 leaders gathering at a summit in Bavaria, Germany. Russia said it hit military targets in Chernihiv, Zhytomyr and Lviv. Joe Biden condemned the Russian attacks as “more barbarism”. Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz said they showed the importance of G7 unity.

Members of the G7 have confirmed a ban on imports of Russian gold. The move by Britain, the United States, Japan and Canada is part of efforts to tighten the sanctions squeeze on Moscow. Gold exports were worth $15.2bn to Russia in 2021, and their importance has increased since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The UK and France have agreed to provide more support for Ukraine, according to Downing Street. Leaders of the G7 have spoken of their solidarity for Ukraine. “We have to stay together,” Joe Biden said.

Russian forces are trying to cut off the strategic twin city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine, having reduced Sievierodonetsk to rubble. Lysychansk is set to become the next main focus of fighting, as Moscow has launched massive artillery bombardments and airstrikes on areas far from the heart of the eastern battles. Ukraine called its retreat from Sievierodonetsk a “tactical withdrawal” to fight from higher ground in Lysychansk on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river.

Russian news footage has showed defence minister Sergei Shoigu’s visiting troops involved in the Ukraine war. It is unclear if he visited Ukrainian territory, but the footage appeared to confirm that colonel-general Gennady Zhidko is now commanding troops in Ukraine.

The mayors of several European capitals have been duped into holding video calls with a deepfake of their counterpart in Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko. The mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, took part in a scheduled call on the Webex video conferencing platform on Friday with a person she said looked and sounded like Klitschko. “There were no signs that the video conference call wasn’t being held with a real person,” her office said in a statement.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Saturday that Ukraine will win back all the cities it has lost to Russia, including Sievierodonetsk. “All our cities – Sievierodonetsk, Donetsk, Luhansk – we’ll get them all back,” he said in a late-night video address. Zelenskiy also admitted that the war was becoming difficult to handle emotionally.

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Alleged Wagner Group fighters accused of murdering civilians in Ukraine

Belarusian pair are first international mercenaries to face war crimes charges since invasion began

Two alleged Wagner Group fighters from Belarus have been accused of murdering civilians near Kyiv, making them the first international mercenaries to face war crimes charges in Ukraine.

Ukrainian prosecutors late on Tuesday released the names and photographs of eight men wanted for alleged war crimes – including murder and torture – in the village of Motyzhyn. Several are believed to have fought in Syria.

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Leonid Kravchuk, first president of Ukraine, dies aged 88

Former leader relinquished his country’s Soviet nuclear arsenal, the third-largest in the world

Ukraine’s first president Leonid Kravchuk, who agreed to give up his country’s Soviet nuclear arsenal, the third-largest in the world, has died at the age of 88.

“Sad news and a great loss,” presidential aide Andriy Yermak said on Telegram, describing Kravchuk as “a wise patriot of Ukraine, a truly historical figure in gaining our independence”.

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Couple face Belarus prison and loss of surrogate child amid UK visa delays

Graeme Batsman says his Filipina wife’s passport has been caught up in an ‘admin issue’ in Britain

A British man and his Filipina wife say they are facing imprisonment in Belarus and will miss out on starting a family via surrogacy because of UK delays in visa processing.

Graeme Batsman, a data security expert from Harrow, north London, and his wife, Maura Mendez Arganda, travelled to Vitebsk oblast, Belarus, in February to arrange a surrogate birth that would cost them £25,000.

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US man charged in Capitol attack gets asylum in Belarus

Evan Neumann, accused of hitting police with metal barricade, tells Belarusian state TV he has ‘mixed feelings’ about the move

A former San Francisco Bay Area resident facing federal criminal charges from the January 6 attack at the US Capitol has been granted asylum in Belarus, the former Soviet nation’s state media reported on Tuesday.

Evan Neumann, 49, was charged a year ago with assaulting police, including using a metal barricade as a battering ram during the riot last year. In an interview with the Belarus 1 channel that aired last year, he acknowledged being at the building that day but rejected the charges and said he had not hit any officers.

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‘Humanitarian corridors’ leading to Russia or Belarus rejected by Kyiv

Ukraine president dismisses Moscow’s proposed routes for civilian evacuation as ‘completely immoral’

Kyiv has rejected an offer from Moscow to create “humanitarian corridors” allowing civilians to flee six heavily bombed Ukrainian cities after it emerged that most of the supposedly safe routes led directly to Russia or its ally, Belarus.

The Russian offer came before a third round of peace talks. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said in advance of the discussions that Moscow was ready to halt operations “in a moment” if Kyiv met a list of conditions. These included ceasing military action, changing its constitution to ensure neutrality, acknowledging Crimea as Russian territory and recognising the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states.

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Ukraine: UN says more than 1.3 million have fled since Russian invasion began

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.

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Ikea closes all stores and factories in Russia amid exodus of western firms

Top brands from M&S to Apple, Jaguar Land Rover, Expedia and Coca-Cola are suspending operations

Ikea has temporarily closed all stores and factories across Russia in a move affecting 15,000 workers, becoming the latest in a swathe of western firms to halt operations in the country since it invaded Ukraine.

The Swedish flatpack furniture company has mothballed its 17 outlets across Russia but said it would keep its Mega shopping centres open to allow access to essential retailers, such as food shops and pharmacies. The news prompted a rush of shoppers at the stores due to close.

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Russian and Belarusian athletes banned from Winter Paralympics after U-turn

Paralympic Committee reverses its original decision after threats of boycott over Ukraine conflict

A revolt among competing nations has forced the International Paralympic Committee to reverse its original decision and ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from this week’s Winter Games.

On Wednesday the IPC had said that Russian and Belarusian athletes would be allowed to take part in competition in Beijing, under a neutral banner and with no place on the medal table. Less than 24 hours after the announcement, however, the president of the IPC, Andrew Parsons, announced a u-turn following protests and a threat of a boycott from national participating committees (NPCs).

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Russian rocket strikes kill ‘dozens’ in Kharkiv as Kyiv-Moscow talks begin

Negotiations come as western nations agree to send advanced arms to Ukraine and rouble enters free fall

Russian rocket attacks killed “dozens” of people in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv as officials from both countries met for ceasefire talks, with Moscow facing unprecedented western sanctions that it said had created “a new economic reality”.

The Élysée Palace said after a call between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin that the Russian president had said he was “willing to commit” to ending attacks on civilians and civil infrastructure while the talks were taking place.

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Belarus may be about to send its troops into Ukraine, US official says

Move could happen this week as official says Minsk is ‘now an extension of the Kremlin’

Belarus may be preparing to send its soldiers into Ukraine in support of the Russian invasion, perhaps as soon as this week, according to a US defence official, amid mounting concern about Minsk’s military preparations.

Belarus has already been used as a staging post by Russian forces, who gathered there on the pretext of joint military exercises before last week’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Now there is increasing evidence that Minsk may be moving towards becoming an explicit participant in the war.

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Britain steps up Ukraine warnings despite assurance from Moscow

Analysis: evidence contrasts with statements from Russia that troops are being sent back to barracks

Britain believes that nearly half of Russian forces that have massed near Ukraine are now within 30 miles of the border, in contrast to statements from Moscow that its forces were being sent back to barracks.

Reinforcements from 14 battalions were in the process of arriving, officials added, while highlighting a pontoon bridge that had been briefly set up in Belarus in the past few days as an example of unusual military activity.

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Belarus military drills to begin as Russia ratchets up Ukraine tensions

Satellite imagery shows much Russian hardware has been moved to locations close to Ukraine border

Russia and Belarus will begin 10 days of joint military drills on Thursday, setting in train one of the most overtly threatening elements of the Kremlin’s buildup of forces around Ukraine’s borders.

Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian general staff, arrived in Belarus on Wednesday to oversee the drills.

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In limbo: the refugees left on the Belarusian-Polish border – a photo essay

Offered a route into Europe by the Lukashenko regime in Belarus, thousands of asylum seekers are now stranded on the EU’s frontier

By Lorenzo Tondo. Photographs by Alessio Mamo

On 13 August last year, a villager in Ostrówka, in the east of central Poland, posted two pictures on Facebook featuring groups of men, women and children walking through the cornfields with bags on their backs.

They were families from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraqi Kurdistan, and they were among the first asylum seekers to enter the country from Belarus. The post was accompanied by the following short text: “In the heat of day through wheat, at night through corn, they sneak through, they wander, just to get to the west. Great politics and slight refugees leave their print on the fields near Ostrówka.”

The makeshift shelter of a Syrian family with small children in the forest near Narewka, Poland

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‘We will defend our country’: Ukraine’s border guards brace for Russian assault

While some locals at Belarusian border see no cause for concern, troops and tanks are ready to swing into action

Standing next to the snowy Belarusian border, Vladyslav Gorban showed off Ukraine’s latest defences against Russian attack. New wooden posts topped with coils of gleaming razor wire ran alongside a slush-covered road. There was a shallow defensive ditch, dug some time ago, and a yellow and blue customs post. Plus a dog, used to sniff out narcotics.

Gorban, a border guard, admitted Russian tanks would be able to smash through this flimsy ensemble of barricades and continue towards Kyiv, 140 miles away. But he had a warning. “If the Russians come, they can expect a nasty surprise,” he said, hinting at the new portable anti-tank weapons sent by the UK to Ukraine’s embattled pro-western government.

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Ukraine urges west to be ‘vigilant and firm’ in Russia talks

US president announces small troop deployment to eastern Europe amid fears of invasion

Kyiv has urged the west to remain “vigilant and firm” in its talks with Russia, as Joe Biden announced a small troop deployment to eastern Europe amid fears Moscow could invade Ukraine.

Washington’s top defence officials warned on Friday that the Kremlin had massed enough troops and hardware at the border to threaten the whole of Ukraine, but called for further diplomatic efforts to avert a “horrific” conflict.

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Poland starts building wall through protected forest at Belarus border

Barrier will stretch for almost half the length of the border and cost 10 times migration department’s budget

Poland has started building a wall along its frontier with Belarus aimed at preventing asylum seekers from entering the country, which cuts through a protected forest and Unesco world heritage site.

The Polish border guard said the barrier would measure 186km (115 miles), almost half the length of the border shared by the two countries, reach up to 5.5 metres (18ft) and cost €353m (£293m). It will be equipped with motion detectors and thermal cameras.

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