Russian airstrikes have hit Dnipro in central Ukraine, and military airfields at Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk in the west. The EU's top diplomat is proposing to double military aid for the country.
G7 nations downgraded Russia's trade status as airstrikes were reported on Friday on parts of Ukraine that have been largely spared up to now.
Stripping most-favoured nation status from Russia would allow Western allies to impose higher tariffs on some Russian imports, increasing the isolation of the Russian economy.
Other sanctions include a ban on exports of luxury products, the import of key goods in the iron and steel sector from Russia as well as new European investments across Russia's energy sector will also be banned.
At least one person was reported killed in Dnipro in central Ukraine when a residential area was bombed. There have also been strikes in the west of the country, on military airfields at Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk.
Meanwhile, satellite images also indicate Russian troop movements around Kyiv.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on the European Union to "do more" for Ukraine, in a new video.
Here's what happened on Friday — the 15th day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine:
For a summary of Thursday's developments click here.
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Friday's main developments:
- The EU and G7 allies — the US, UK, Canada, and Japan — said they would strip Russia of its "most-favoured" trade status, restricting access to their markets for some Russian products.
- Satellite images suggest Russia's large military convoy outside Kyiv may be on the move towards the capital. The convoy that had been stationary outside the Ukrainian capital has split up and fanned out into towns and forests, with artillery pieces moved into firing positions.
- The EU is ready to double its fund for military aid for Ukraine to a total of €1 billion. The bloc's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said leaders meeting in Versailles will agree to inject an extra €500 million euros.
- President Zelenskyy has accused Russia of "outright terror" by refusing evacuations from Mariupol. Tens of thousands of people in the southern port city are without heat, water and food and the government says more than 1,300 have died in the siege.
- More than 2.5 million people have now fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began, say latest figures from the UN migration agency and refugee agency.
- The UN Security Council will meet on Friday to discuss Russia's unsubstantiated claims that the United States is conducting “military biological activities" in Ukraine. The White House has called the claim “preposterous”. Zelenskyy says it shows Russia is planning to use such weapons itself in Ukraine.
- Russia says it will prosecute Meta for relaxing its hate speech policy in some countries, tolerating calls for violence among Facebook and Instagram users.
Sanctions have cost Russia 100,000 jobs: Ukraine
How are sanctions impacting everyday life in Russia?
The symbolic shuttering of McDonald's in Russia captured headlines this week because it was one of the first Western brands to open with the writing on the wall for the Soviet Union.
But, in truth, it was just the latest blow in a long line of foreign firms to suspend or stop operations following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
It comes after the West hit Moscow with a broad package of sanctions, including measures against Russia's central bank; cutting some of the country's banks from SWIFT, the global financial transactions system; limiting the supply of materials to Russian manufacturers; reducing energy imports from Russia and closing off airspace to Russian aircraft and airlines.
Firms that rely on imported goods are said to be in a panic.
Marina Albee, the owner of the Cafe Botanika vegetarian restaurant in Saint Petersburg's historic city centre, has already heard from her fruit and vegetable supplier that prices will be going up 10% to 50%.
Power lines to Chornobyl being restored: IAEA
Third Russian General killed in Ukraine
France to welcome 2,500 Ukrainian refugees currently in Moldova
Interpol restricts Russia's access
Interpol is restricting Russia’s ability to input information directly into the global police organisation’s vast network, deciding that communications must first be checked by the general secretariat in Lyon, France.
The French Foreign Ministry said Friday that the beefed-up surveillance measures follow “multiple suspicions of attempted fraudulent use” of the Interpol system in recent days, but it did not elaborate.
Interpol stressed in a statement Thursday that it is maintaining its pledge of neutrality amid war between two of its members, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But it said that “heightened supervision and monitoring measures” of Moscow’s National Central Bureau were needed “to prevent any potential misuse of Interpol’s channels” like targeting individuals in or outside Ukraine.
The ministry noted that Interpol’s decision has multiple impacts from communications, to putting out so-called “red notices” for criminals on the loose or even feeding data on lost or stolen documents — all of which must now get compliance checks from Interpol headquarters.
Interpol, which has 195 members, said it had received calls to suspend Russia from the network, along with calls by law enforcement leaders looking for continued cooperation to better fight crime.
“In addition to the tragic loss of life, conflicts invariably lead to an increase in crime,” as organised crime groups try to exploit desperation, Interpol said. Risks include human trafficking, weapons smuggling and trafficking in illicit goods and medicines.
Meet the Italian who drove 3,200-km to pick up Ukrainian refugees
Following Russia's attack on Ukraine and the subsequent humanitarian crisis, Bellofiore was left feeling profoundly concerned. Yet it was a close Ukrainian family friend – Oleg, a doorman in his mother’s apartment block in Rome – who triggered him into taking action.
“On the first night of the war, I asked him how I could help, and if there was someone I could help,” Bellofiore told Euronews. “A few days later, he told me he knew some people who wanted to escape.”
On the morning of 6 March, Bellofiore and his team left the Tuscan town of Siena. The group brought medical supplies, food, clothes, blankets and other necessities and met up with other helpers along the journey up the peninsula. The convoy had eight people in six cars.
How Ukraine’s tech industry is helping victims of Russia’s war
From rescue missions aiding Ukrainians to escape war-torn cities to offering translation services once they cross borders and helping them to start new lives and find jobs in Europe, Ukraine’s tech industry is banding together to save and support the victims of Russia’s invasion.
Ukrainian software company N-iX had already made contingency plans to evacuate its 300 staff in Kyiv and 150 others in eastern Ukraine before Russia’s latest invasion on February 24. As such, it loaded much of its staff onto buses to Lviv near the border with Poland.
N-iX’s staff volunteered to drive buses full of people from the hard-hit cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv to the relative safety of western Ukraine.
“I really am impressed with these heroes who were driving those buses through those conflict zones,” N-iX Chief Operating Officer Pavlo Deshchynskyy told Euronews Next.
Ukrainian mayor 'abducted' by Russian troops: Adviser to President
EU, G7 will also ban exports of luxury goods to Russia and imports of iron, steel products
The European Union will ban the export of its luxury goods to Russia in order to deal "a blow to the Russian elite", as part of new sanctions decided with G7 countries, says European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
"Those who sustain Putin's war machine should no longer be able to enjoy their lavish lifestyle while bombs fall on innocent people in Ukraine," she added in a statement.
The measure is part of a fourth package of sanctions that aims to cripple Russia's ability to fund its military assault against Ukraine. It will be introduced on Saturday.
Taken in coordination with G7 countries, which include the UK, the US, Canada and Japan, the package also includes denying Russia the status of most-favoured nation in their respective markets.
"This will revoke important benefits that Russia enjoys as a World Trade Organisation (WTO) member. Russian companies will no longer receive privileged treatment in our economies," she added.
International Criminal Court prosecutor opens online portal to report information on Ukraine
Karim Khan said that 41 states party to the ICC had referred the situation in Ukraine to his office, which has deployed a team to the region to collect evidence of war crimes amid reports that Russian strikes had hit civilian infrastructure in several cities.
He encouraged people to share the online portal: "There can be no bystanders in our effort to establish the truth and pursue those allegedly responsible for international crimes."
"I note, in particular, that if attacks are intentionally directed against the civilian population: that is a crime. If attacks are intentionally directed against civilian objects: that is a crime. I strongly urge parties to the conflict to avoid the use of heavy explosive weapons in populated areas," Khan said.
Targeting of civilians 'inexcusable' in Ukraine war, UN says
"We cannot emphasise it enough. the targeting of civilians, of residential buildings, hospitals, schools, kindergartens is inexcusable and intolerable," Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN's undersecretary-General for political and peacebuilding affairs, told a meeting of the security council.
She added that attacks on health facilities "cause not only death and destruction. They also deprive people of urgently needed care and endanger more lives."
DiCarlo said the UN human rights office had received credible reports of Russian forces using cluster munitions including in populated areas, something prohibited under international humanitarian law.
"We must do everything we can to find a solution and put an end to this war and we must do it now," DiCarlo said.
War in Ukraine to hurt poor nations importing grain, UN says
Poorer countries in northern Africa, Asia and the Middle East that depend on wheat imports risk suffering significant food insecurity because of Russia's war in Ukraine, and the conflict is poised to drive up already soaring food prices in much of the world, the UN food agency warned.
Ukraine and Russia, which is under heavy economic sanctions for invading its neighbour two weeks ago, account for one-third of global grain exports.
With the conflict's intensity and duration uncertain, “the likely disruptions to agricultural activities of these two major exporters of staple commodities could seriously escalate food insecurity globally, when international food and input prices are already high and vulnerable," said Qu Dongyu, director-general of the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation.
(AP)
From rescue missions to finding new jobs, Ukraine’s tech industry is helping victims of Russia’s war
From rescue missions aiding Ukrainians to escape war-torn cities to offering translation services once they cross borders and helping them to start new lives and find jobs in Europe, Ukraine’s tech industry is banding together to save and support the victims of Russia’s invasion.
Ukrainian software company N-iX had already made contingency plans to evacuate its 300 staff in Kyiv and 150 others in eastern Ukraine before Russia’s latest invasion on February 24. As such, it loaded much of its staff onto buses to Lviv near the border with Poland.
N-iX’s staff volunteered to drive buses full of people from the hard-hit cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv to the relative safety of western Ukraine.
“I really am impressed with these heroes who were driving those buses through those conflict zones,” N-iX Chief Operating Officer Pavlo Deshchynskyy told Euronews Next.
Read the full story here.
Germany urges Serbia to join EU sanctions against Russia
Germany’s foreign minister has urged Serbia, which has not imposed sanctions on traditional ally Russia over the war in Ukraine, to align policies with the European Union if it wants to join the bloc.
Annalena Baerbock said Friday in Serbia’s capital Belgrade that “we all must have a clear position” over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Baerbock said, launched a “shameless campaign of destruction” that is targeting “maternity wards, schools, (people’s) homes.”
While Serbia has criticised the attack on Ukraine and voted in the United Nations for the condemnation of the attack, Belgrade has refrained from joining Western sanctions against Moscow.
Historically considered a friendly nation, Russia remains popular among the Serbs, particularly because of Moscow’s support for Serbia’s opposition to the Western-backed independence of the breakaway former Kosovo province.
Baerbock praised Serbia’s UN vote and the offer to host Ukrainian refugees. But she added that “joining the European Union means readiness to align with the positions of the union.”
Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic said that “Serbia has a very determined and clear position” and has done “nothing that would hurt Ukraine.”
G7 confirms Russia's trade status downgrade, working to deny Russia IMF and World Bank funds
- " to take action that will deny Russia Most-Favoured-Nation status relating to key products. This will revoke important benefits of Russia’s membership of the World Trade Organization and ensure that the products of Russian companies no longer receive Most-Favoured-Nation treatment in our economies."
- "working collectively to prevent Russia from obtaining financing from the leading multilateral financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Russia cannot grossly violate international law and expect to benefit from being part of the international economic order."
- ensuring that "the Russian state and elites, proxies and oligarchs cannot leverage digital assets as a means of evading or offsetting the impact of international sanctions, which will further limit their access to the global financial system."
- "fighting off the Russian regime’s attempts to spread disinformation."
- being "ready to impose further restrictions on exports and imports of key goods and technologies on the Russian Federation."
Refugee arrivals in Poland slowing
EU and G7 downgrade Russia trade status
Russia to bomb Belarus and blame Ukraine: Defence Minister
To disguise the crime, Russia intends to carry out the attack from Ukrainian airspace.
"The purpose of the provocation is to force the incumbent leadership of Belarus into war against Ukraine," he wrote.
EU sanctions won't include ban on Russian oil and gas imports: Orban
Hungary’s prime minister said Friday that sanctions imposed against Russia by the European Union would not involve a ban on imports of Russian oil and gas.
In a video on his social media channels following a meeting of EU leaders in Versailles, France, Viktor Orban said it was possible that the war in Ukraine “would drag on,” but that “the most important issue was settled in a way that was favourable to us.”
“There will be no sanctions covering oil and gas, which means that Hungary’s energy supply is guaranteed for the next period,” Orban said.
Orban, widely considered to be the Kremlin’s closest ally in the EU, has supported the bloc’s sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, Hungary’s neighbor.
But he has remained firm in insisting that the energy sector be left out of sanctions, arguing that such a move would damage EU countries more than Russia.
Last year, Hungary extended by 15 years a natural gas contract with Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom, and has entered into a 12 billion-euro Russian build-and-finance agreement to add two nuclear reactors to Hungary’s only nuclear power plant.
Macron warns of new 'massive sanctions' if war continues
The French President said at the end of an EU summit in Versailles on Friday that the bloc is ready to take "massive sanctions" against Russia if the war in Ukraine continues.
"If things continue militarily, (...) we will take new sanctions, including massive sanctions," Macron told reporters, saying the EU would support Ukraine "to the end".
Russia restricting access to Instagram
The regulator, called Roskomnadzor, took the step Friday as Russia presses ahead with its invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier on Friday, Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said in a statement tweeted by its spokesman Andy Stone that it had “made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules on violent speech, such as ‘death to the Russian invaders’.”
The statement stressed that the company “still won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians.”
'Positive developments' in Russian-Ukraine negotiations
Ukraine’s president says his country’s military forces have reached “a strategic turning point,” while Russia’s president says there are “certain positive developments” in talks between the warring countries.
Neither leader explained clearly what they meant, however.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday: “It’s impossible to say how many days we will still need to free our land, but it is possible to say that we will do it because ... we have reached a strategic turning point.” He didn’t elaborate.
He said authorities are working on 12 humanitarian corridors and trying to ensure needy people receive food, medicine and basic goods.
He spoke on a video showing him outside the presidential administration in Kyiv, speaking in both Ukrainian and Russian about the 16th day of war.
Meanwhile, in Moscow Russian President Vladimir Putin said there have been positive developments in talks between the warring countries, but he didn’t offer any details about what those developments were.
Putin hosts Lukashenko in Moscow
Lukashenko has shown his support for Russia's special military operation in Ukraine.
In 2020, Lukashenko was widely seen to have rigged an election to remain in power, relying then on Moscow's support to repress and survive the largest and the most sustained wave of mass protests in the country's history.
Dnipro the latest city to suffer Russian destruction
AFP saw firefighters put out fires in smoking ruins in the morning. Some buildings were nothing more than a pile of twisted metal beams and structures.
So far spared by the Russian advance, Dnipro, a major industrial center of a million inhabitants on the Dnieper River, which marks the separation between the partly pro-Russian east of Ukraine and the rest of the country, has been early Friday the target of raids that left at least one dead, according to local authorities.
"There were three airstrikes on the city, on a kindergarten, a residential building and a two-story shoe factory where a fire then broke out," Ukrainian emergency services said. (AFP)
Zelenskyy calls on EU to 'do more' for Ukraine
"You have to go harder. This is not what we expect," Zelensky said in a video on Telegram. "The decisions of politicians must coincide with the mood of their people, the European people (...) The European Union must do more for us, for Ukraine."
Russia seeks to ban Meta over hate speech relaxations
Russia's prosecutor's office said it was investigating "public calls for extremist activities and assistance in terrorist activities".
Prosecutors are also seeking to classify the internet giant as an "extremist" organisation, a move likely to result in a ban on all Meta's activities in Russia.
Russia's telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor has been asked to block access to Instagram in the country, while Facebook has already been no longer accessible, or difficult to access, since March 4.
Instagram is extremely popular with Russian youth but is also a crucial online sales tool for many Russian small and medium-sized businesses, as well as artists and artisans. (AFP)
In Europe, soaring petrol prices become the new normal
Bashir Akram’s taxi business in the West Midlands is already feeling the crunch of soaring fuel prices. Less than a week after Russia invaded Ukraine, Akram said the price increased to £1.50 per litre, at times forcing him to panic buy.
“I’m making some money but I’m also spending more and that leaves me with nothing,” he said while driving to Birmingham New Street in the West Midlands.
Russia’s unprovoked Ukraine invasion since 24 February has seen global oil prices soar amid concerns over the reliability of supplies. The price per barrel of Brent crude - the most common way of measuring the UK's oil price - reached $139 dollars on Monday, its highest in 14 years.
Military drone likely from Ukraine crashes near Croatian capital Zagreb
A large military drone crashed on the outskirts of the Croatian capital Zagreb on Thursday night, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković confirmed.
There were no reported injuries but a loud blast was heard from the crash.
The unmanned Soviet-era drone entered Croatia from the east, crossing Hungarian airspace, Plenković said while at an EU meeting in Versailles.
He said it was unclear if it came from Russian or Ukrainian forces.
Military experts from the magazine the War Zone however identified the missile-like drone as a Tuk-141, currently in use by Ukrainian forces.
Read the full story here.
Russia claims '16,000 volunteers' ready to fight
Casualties reported as Russia targets new cities in central and western Ukraine
Russia attacks Kharkiv nuclear research institute
Russian forces on Thursday shelled a nuclear research institute in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, setting buildings on fire, said Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Interior Ministry.
Firefighters managed to extinguish the blazes, but Gerashchenko said a shell hit a building that houses equipment that could release radiation if it were damaged. According to the president’s office, there has been no change in the background radiation. (AP)
The reported attack followed more fighting in the northeastern city earlier in the day.
EU, US and G7 ready to hit Russia's trade status
Airstrikes reported in Dnipro and Lutsk
"There were three airstrikes on the city, on a kindergarten, a residential building and a two-story shoe factory where a fire then broke out. One person died", the emergency services said in a statement.
The town of Lutsk in northwestern Ukraine was also targeted by airstrikes.
"The military airfields of Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk (western Ukraine) have been decommissioned", said Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
"Explosions on the side of the airport. Everyone safe! Do not publish any photos, addresses or contact details!", the mayor of Lutsk Ilhor Polishchuk warnedon Facebook.
The municipal heating service Lutskteplo also posted on Facebook about interruptions "due to the explosions".
Zelenskyy accuses Russia of 'outright terror' in Mariupol
Russian military convoy outside Kyiv 'on the move'
The Ukrainian capital has been braced for an onslaught, its mayor boasting that the city has become practically a fortress protected by armed civilians.
The satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showed that 64-kilometre convoy of vehicles, tanks and artillery has broken up and been redeployed, the US company said. Armoured units were seen in towns near the Antonov Airport north of the city. Some of the vehicles have moved into forests, Maxar reported, with towed howitzers nearby in position to open fire.
The convoy had massed outside the city early last week, but its advance appeared to have stalled amid reports of food and fuel shortages. US officials said Ukrainian troops also targeted the convoy with anti-tank missiles.
A US defence official speaking on condition of anonymity said some vehicles were seen moving off the road into the tree line in recent days, but the official could not confirm whether the convoy had dispersed. (with AP)
The latest British military intelligence assessment of Russian activity suggest renewed offensive operations are likely, including against Kyiv.
US and Ukraine fear Moscow may be planning chemical attack
The UN Security Council will meet on Friday to discuss Russia's claims that the United States is conducting “military biological activities" in Ukraine.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki Psaki called the claim “preposterous.”
“This is all an obvious ploy by Russia to try to justify its further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine,” Psaki tweeted.
Ukraine's President Zelenskyy said the accusation itself is a bad sign.
“That worries me very much because we have often been convinced that if you want to know Russia’s plans, they are what Russia accuses others of,” he said in his nightly address to the nation.
"What does it mean, that we're being accused of preparing chemical attacks? Have you decided to conduct a dechemicalisation of Ukraine? With what? With ammonia? With phosphorus? What else have you prepared for us?"
"What do you plan to hit with chemical weapons? A maternity hospital in Maripul? A church in Kharkiv? A children's hospital ... Or a laboratory, most of which are from Soviet times and do regular science, regular. Not war technology," he went on.
Russia has a track record of stocking and occasionally using non-conventional weapons.
(with AP)
- Russia has launched new airstrikes, on civilian areas of the central city of Dnipro, and on airfields at Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk in the west.
- Satellite images suggest Russia's large military convoy outside Kyiv may be on the move towards the capital.
- President Zelenskyy has accused Russia of "outright terror" by refusing evacuations from Mariupol. Tens of thousands of people in the southern port city are without heat, water and food and the government says more than 1,300 have died in the siege.
- The UN Security Council will meet on Friday to discuss Russia's unsubstantiated claims that the United States is conducting “military biological activities" in Ukraine. The White House has called the claim “preposterous”. Zelenskyy says it shows Russia is planning to use such weapons itself in Ukraine.
- The US Congress has adopted a new federal budget which includes nearly $14 billion (€12.7 billion) for economic and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, as well as weapons and ammunition.
- Reuters reports that Meta is to change its hate speech policy in some countries in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, tolerating calls for violence among Facebook and Instagram users.