Goodbye

That's the end of our updates for Friday, please join my colleague Alasdair Sandford for more live coverage of Ukraine's war on Saturday, from 9 am. 

In the meantime, here are some interesting reads to take you into the weekend:

• 'Tensions intensifying': Fears grow Ukraine war may spread to Moldova
• 'I went to rescue wife’s family from a tomb': Man's epic Ukraine trip
• Why is Bosnia not joining the rest of Europe in sanctions against Russia?
• Putin's rhetoric now more virulent amid Ukraine war, says expert
• Ukraine shows 'racial disparity' of Europe's attitude to refugees, says Syrian

Belgium delays nuclear power exit

Belgium, worried about surging energy prices amid the invasion of Ukraine, announced late on Friday it would delay its exit from nuclear power.

It had been planned for 2025, but it will now be put back a decade. 

Belgium prime minister Alexandre De Croo said: "The federal government has decided to take the necessary measures to prolong by 10 years the life of our two most recent nuclear reactors.

"We are accelerating at the same time the transition to renewables, which is the best path towards our energy independence." 

Peace possibilities

Ukraine's Interior Minister said on Friday he backs a deal with Russia only if invading Russian troops turn back to their pre-war positions.

Denys Monastyrsky told The Associated Press in an interview in the embattled capital of Kyiv that he has seen daily shelling from Russian artillery in the outskirts of the city.

"Any negotiations must start from the just position of Ukraine and starting from this point that the Russian troops must return to exactly where they started this major aggression 23 days ago," Monastyrsky said.

Both Ukraine and Russia this week reported some progress in negotiations.

Earlier this week, an official in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks, told the AP that Ukraine was prepared to discuss a neutral status for the country in return, in part, for binding security guarantees.

Russia has demanded NATO pledge never to admit Ukraine to the alliance or station forces there.

Powerful protest in Lviv

A hard-hitting demonstration took place in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Friday, reports the Kyiv Independent. 

Empty pushchairs were lined up to highlight the number of children killed since Russia's invasion on 24 February.

Prosecutors say at least 109 children have died in the war so far, with a further 130 injured. 

Lift siege on Mariupol, Macron tells Putin

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to lift the siege of Mariupol, allow humanitarian access and order an immediate cease-fire, Macron's office said.

Macron spoke with the Russian leader on the phone for 70 minutes. Earlier in the day, Putin had a conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who also pressed for an immediate cease-fire.

Macron, who has spoken numerous times with Putin, revisited complaints about repeated attacks on civilians and Russia’s failure to respect human rights in Ukraine, the presidential Elysee Palace said.

It said that Putin, in turn, laid the blame for the war on Ukraine.

Macron, who is campaigning to renew his mandate in April elections, said during a town hall-style meeting shortly before the call that he talks to Putin because he believes there is a way toward peace, between the Ukrainian resistance, tough Western sanctions and diplomatic pressure. “We must do everything to find it,” he said.

Greece ready to rebuild maternity hospital in Mariupol

The Greek prime minister tweeted that the country is ready to rebuild the maternity hospital in Mariupol that was bombed by Russian forces.

He said the southeastern port city of Mariupol is the centre of the Greek minority in Ukraine and "a city dear to our hearts and symbol of the barbarity of the war."

It came as Italy said they would rebuild the theatre of Mariupol.

Russia shifting to a 'strategy of attrition', British defence intelligence chief says

Russia is shifting to a "strategy of attrition" after it failed to reach its goals in Ukraine, according to British defence intelligence chief  Lt. Gen. Jim Hockenhull.

He said on Friday that the battle of attrition “will involve the reckless and indiscriminate use of firepower. This will result in increased civilian casualties, destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure and intensify the humanitarian crisis.”

Western officials say Russian forces have enough artillery ammunition to keep up the bombardments for weeks or even longer.

Russia and Ukraine negotiations on neutrality closer to agreement, Russian negotiator says, while Ukraine says their position is unchanged

Russia's negotiator said that they are closer to an agreement on a neutral status for Ukraine.

“The issue of neutral status and no NATO membership for Ukraine is one of the key issues in talks, and that is the issue where the parties have made their positions maximally close,” Medinsky said, according to Russian news agencies.

He said the parties were "somewhere halfway" on the issue of demilitarisation of Ukraine.

But Ukrainian negotiator Mikhailo Podolyak said that the Russians were only re-stating their requests in a tweet.

"Our positions are unchanged. Ceasefire, withdrawal of troops & strong security guarantees with concrete formulas," Podolyak tweeted.

UN says 6.5M displaced inside Ukraine

The UN migration agency estimates that nearly 6.5 million people have now been displaced inside Ukraine, on top of the 3.2 million refugees who have already fled the country.

The estimates from the International Organisation for Migration suggests Ukraine is fast on a course in just three weeks toward the levels of displacement from Syria’s devastating war – which has driven about 13 million people from their homes both in the country and abroad.

The findings come in a paper issued Friday by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It cited the IOM figures as “a good representation of the scale of internal displacement in Ukraine — calculated to stand at 6.48 million internally displaced persons in Ukraine as of March 16.”

Switzerland adopts latest round of EU sanctions

Switzerland is adopting the latest round of European Union sanctions against Russia targeting luxury goods and banning rating agencies from working with Russian clients.

The Swiss government said that “the ban on the export of luxury goods contained in the new sanctions affects only a small portion of Switzerland’s global exports of such goods.”

However, it said that “specific companies could be seriously affected,” without naming them.

Unlike the EU and the United States, Switzerland has not yet decided whether to remove Russia from its list of “most favoured” trading partners.

(AP)

Italian, Spanish, Greek and Portuguese PMs meet in Rome to discuss gas and Ukraine

The leaders of Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece called on Friday for a common EU strategy to ensure the bloc's energy security after the Ukraine conflict sent prices soaring. 

"Only with a European response can a European problem be solved urgently and decisively," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told a press conference in Rome after the four-way talks.

"We have to do it now... we cannot wait one more day."

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said they wanted "concrete measures on the table to protect all member states" at next week's summit of 27 European Union leaders in Brussels.

Draghi hosted Sanchez and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, while Greece's Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who tested positive for coronavirus earlier this week, attended via videocall.

(AFP)

Biden presses Chinese counterpart on Russia support

US President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping spoke for nearly two hours on Friday as the White House looked to deter Beijing from providing military or economic assistance for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

China’s foreign ministry was the first to issue a readout of the video conversation, deploring “conflict and confrontation” as “not in anyone’s interest,” without assigning any blame to Russia.

Ahead of the call, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden would question Xi about Beijing’s “rhetorical support” of Putin and an “absence of denunciation” of Russia’s invasion.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Chunying Hua pushed back, calling Biden's administration’s suggestions that China risks falling on the wrong side of history in the conflict “overbearing.”

(AP)

Italian rescues mother-in-law and dozens of relatives from Ukraine

It was a blunt and desperate message from his mother-in-law in Ukraine that convinced Alberto, 58, he had to act quickly.

"I am already dead," she told him on the phone from Kharkiv. "I don’t understand why you insist on calling me. Don’t call me anymore."

Alberto, an Italian living in Vienna with his Ukrainian wife Svetlana, said from that moment she stopped picking up the phone.

“I went to rescue my wife’s family from a tomb,” the former policeman told Euronews. “I told [myself] that if we don’t go there to get them, we will never see them again.”

Read the full story.
 

Kyiv Digital used to sell metro tickets. Now the app helps people in Ukraine's capital survive a war

Life for Kyiv's roughly 3 million inhabitants has changed beyond recognition since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24.

Kyiv's metro stations have become bomb shelters, ordinary citizens have become volunteers on the frontline of the war. In their pockets, the app that once sold them tickets for public transport now broadcasts air raid warnings dozens of times a day.

The app, Kyiv Digital, was transformed "overnight" by its developers into a wartime survival tool, one member of its staff told Euronews Next.

Read the full story here.

EU sends another instalment of €300 million to Ukraine

The EU sent another payment of €300 million to Ukraine this week, the second part of a €600 million instalment under Ukraine's €1.2 billion emergency financial aid programme.

The remaining funds (€600 million) will be disbursed later in the year, the Commission added in a statement.

Vladimir Putin speaks at rally marking Crimea annexation

Putin spoke at a massive flag-waving rally and praised his troops as Russia continued shelling Ukrainian cities.

The event marked the eighth anniversary of Russia's annexation of the Crimea peninsula.

The event included well-known singer Oleg Gazmanov singing “Made in the U.S.S.R.,” with the opening lines “Ukraine and Crimea, Belarus and Moldova, It’s all my country.”

At least 130 people survived Mariupol theatre bombing

At least 130 people survived the theatre bombing in Mariupol, according to Ukraine's human rights commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova.

“But according to our data, there are still more than 1,300 people in these basements, in this bomb shelter,” Denisova told Ukrainian television.

“We pray that they will all be alive, but so far there is no information about them.”

At least 816 civilians killed in Ukraine war, UN says

At least 816 civilians have been killed and 1,333 injured in the war in Ukraine, according to the UN's high commissioner for human rights.

The majority of civilian casualties were in regions in eastern Ukraine and were caused "by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes," the UN said.

The actual number of civilians killed in Ukraine is expected to be considerably higher, the UN said, as information has been delayed from areas with intense fighting.

The announcement came after Ukrainian officials reported that at least109 children had died since the beginning of the war.

109 children dead in Russian war: Ukrainian official

At least 109 children have died and more than 130 children have been injured since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine's commission for human rights.

The number was according to preliminary investigations and sources, but the actual number of dead and wounded is difficult to determine, she said.

There are about 3,000 babies in the besieged port city of Mariupol, she added.

Baltic states expel 10 Russian diplomats

Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia will expel ten Russian diplomats, their foreign ministries announced on Friday.

Estonia will expel three Russian diplomats, stating that they "have directly and actively undermined Estonia’s security and spread propaganda justifying Russia's illegal warfare."

Four employees of Russia's embassy in Lithuania will have to leave the country in five days, Lithuania's foreign ministry said.

“Russia's military attacks on civilians, civilian objects, hospitals, schools, maternity wards, and cultural objects are war crimes and crimes against humanity. Russian special services are actively involved in organising these crimes against the peaceful population of Ukraine, so we do not want the representatives of these structures to walk on our land and pose a threat to Lithuania’s national security,” said foreign affairs minister Gabrielius Landsbergis.

Latvian foreign affairs minister Edgars Rinkēvičs said that three Russian diplomats would be expelled saying their activities were "incompatible with their diplomatic status".
 

Bulgaria expels 10 Russian diplomats

The Bulgarian government announced the expulsion of ten Russian diplomats on Friday for "activities activities inconsistent with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations", according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

This formula is often used to report espionage activities. The diplomats must leave Bulgaria within 72 hours. 

Two Russian diplomats had already been expelled in early March for a similar reason.

Bulgaria, a member of the European Union and NATO, traditionally maintains close economic relations with Russia, but since October 2019, several espionage cases have caused tension.

With Friday's announcement, 20 Russian diplomats and a technical assistant at the embassy have been expelled in total over the last two and a half years. 

Germany to investigate Russian billionaire over possible sanctions evasion

Germany's economy ministry is investigating whether a Russian billionaire has dodged sanctions designed to target Vladimir Putin's inner circle.

Alexei Mordashov is the largest shareholder in tourism company TUI, but officials think he might have circumvented EU sanctions by transferring his shares to a company controlled by his wife.

"An investment review procedure is underway" a ministry spokeswoman said on Friday. 

Investigators will look into the recent transfer of 29.9% of the shares in TUI, worth €1.3 billion, to a company called Ondero Limited whose main shareholder is Marina Mordashova - Mr Mordashov's wife.

This sleight of hand could allow the Russian billionaire, who before this transaction held 34% of the capital of TUI, to continue to enjoy it through a company in the hands of his wife, while he himself is targeted by Western sanctions linked to the war in Ukraine

The economy ministry and TUI said the transfer of shares is currently suspended, while the investigation is underway.

Alexei Mordachov's assets have been frozen since 1 March, and he is banned from entering the EU.

Russia to be excluded from World Cup qualifiers, Court of Arbitration for Sport says

The Russian team will still be excluded from the qualifying play-offs for the 2022 World Cup at the end of March, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected the Russian Federation's request on Friday to suspend FIFA's sanctions.

Russian and Belarusian diplomats and government staff banned from European parliament premises

Diplomats and government staff from Russia and Belarus are now banned from the premises of the European Parliament, said its president, Roberta Metsola.

"There is no place in the House of Democracy for those who seek to destroy the democratic order," the EU parliament president said.

She had previously said she would seek a ban on any representative of the Kremlin from entering European Parliament premises.

Germany mulls imposing Russian oil embargo

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has indicated that her country should consider imposing an oil embargo on Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.

In a security policy speech on Friday, she said it was important to take a stance and not remain silent due to economic or energy dependency.

“Even if it’s difficult, including on questions now with regard to oil or other embargoes,” said Baerbock.

Germany receives about a third of its oil from Russia and half of its coal and natural gas.

(AP)

What is life like for Westerners in Russia amid the war in Ukraine?

A month ago, Mark*, a British teacher in Moscow, was making holiday plans with his expatriate friends.

Then, days later, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine and everything changed.

Mark says most of his expatriate friends -- including those with whom he was making travel plans -- have now left.

“I’ve spoken with people who’ve been here for years and have families and have been through a lot, but the Ukrainian invasion is too much,” said Mark, who moved to Russia at the end of 2019. “Even if there is a sense of being protected in Moscow, the risk they feel they’re taking is in relation to war,” he said. “You don’t mess around with that.”

Read the full story here.

Two dead and six wounded after missile strike in Kramatorsk, regional official says

At least two people have died and six people have been wounded after a missile strike in Kramatorsk hit a residential building and an administrative building, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration.

The city is located in the east, north of Donetsk.

Two million Ukrainian refugees have crossed into Poland, border guards say

The number of refugees from Ukraine that have crossed into Poland reached two million on Friday, the border guards said in a short statement, most of them women and children.

More than 3.2 million Ukrainians have fled the war since February 24, according to the UN refugee agency. The majority of them have gone to EU countries, including Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. Nearly 200,000 have gone to Russia.

Norway PM calls for increased military budget

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre wants an extra allocation of 3.5 billion kroner (€470 million) for 2022 to strengthen NATO member Norway’s Armed Forces and civil preparedness.

Gahr Støre told Norway's parliament that the money will be used to “strengthen our ability to prevent, deter and deal with digital attacks.”

“These are necessary measures because we are facing a more unpredictable and aggressive Russian regime,” Gahr Støre said, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has raised the alert of his nuclear weapons forces. It contributes to more uncertainty in an already tense situation.”

He said Norway “is NATO’s eyes in the north.”

(AP)

WATCH: Aftermath of cruise missile strike on Lviv airport

Read our full story here for all the details. 

Ukraine war: International Energy Agency calls for rapid reduction in oil use

The International Energy Agency unveiled a new 10-point plan on Friday to quickly reduce oil consumption, to help mitigate against rising prices or any shortages caused by the war in Urkaine. 

Some of the IEA's suggestions include lowering driving speeds, working from home more often, and making public transport cheaper. 

The IEA says taken together, these 10 measures could reduce oil consumption by 2.7 million barrels per day in four months. 

Fatih Birol, the IAE's Executive Director, says that national governments should take the lead to implement these measures, but that some "can be carried out directly by states, regions, cities or other layers of government – or voluntarily by citizens & companies."

Read more in our full story here.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has tweeted about collective responsibility in Russia for the actions the military takes in Urkaine. 

The minister said that some people want to believe Vladimir Putin is "solely responsible for the war" but the reality is that "someone actually drops bombs on Ukrainian cities, shoots evacuees, forms 'Zs'". 

He said "like in the 1930s, they bear responsibility, even if poisoned by propaganda."

So what is the Z symbol that's been appearing on Russian military equipment, social media accounts and in social media photographs? Find out more in our story here.

One person killed in Kyiv shelling 

At least one person has been killed in Kyiv during Russian shelling. 

The incident happened on Friday morning in Podil, a neighbourhood just north of central Kyiv. 

It is not yet clear what was hit in the barrage. 

Britain's broadcast regulator revokes RT's UK license 

The British broadcasting regulator Ofcom has revoked the broadcasting license for Russia's RT news channel to operate in the UK.  

"We have done so on the basis that we do not consider RT’s licensee, ANO TV Novosti, fit and proper to hold a UK broadcast licence" Ofcom says in a statement. 

Ofcom is currently investigating 29 complaints about impartiality in RT's news and current affairs coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the channel has previously been fined £200,000 (€237,000) for breaches of impartiality rules.

Although RT is anyway not broadcasting in the UK due to an EU ban, Ofcom says it took into consideration a range of different factors when making their own decision about the license: including RT’s funding from the Russian state. 

"We also note new laws in Russia which effectively criminalise any independent journalism that departs from the Russian state’s own news narrative, in particular in relation to the invasion of Ukraine. We consider that given these constraints it appears impossible for RT to comply with the due impartiality rules of our Broadcasting Code in the circumstances."

American and Chinese leaders to speak about Russia-Ukraine in 14:00 CET call

US President Joe Biden and China's President Xi Jinping are due to have a phone call at 14:00 CET on Friday afternoon to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine and ongoing war.

The White House has warned Beijing that providing military or economic assistance for the invasion will trigger severe consequences from Washington and beyond.

Planning for the call has been in the works since Biden and Xi held a virtual summit in November, but differences between Washington and Beijing over Russian President Vladimir Putin's prosecution of his three-week old war against Ukraine are expected to be at the center of the call.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden would question Xi about Beijing's “rhetorical support” of Putin and an “absence of denunciation" of Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine.

“This is an opportunity to assess where President Xi stands,” Psaki said.

World Health Organization catalogues attacks on dozens of Ukraine hospitals

The World Health Organization says it has catalogued dozens of attacks by Russian forces on hospitals and health clinics in Ukraine. 

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the UN Security Council that they've verified 43 attakcs on hospitals and other health facilities, with 12 people killed and 34 injured. 

In a virtual briefing, Tedros said “the disruption to services and supplies is posing an extreme risk to people with cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, HIV and TB, which are among the leading causes of mortality in Ukraine.”

The WHO chief said displacement and overcrowding caused by people fleeing fighting are likely to increase the risks of diseases such as COVID-19, measles, pneumonia and polio.

In addition, more than 35,000 mental health patients in Ukrainian psychiatric hospitals and long-term care facilities face severe shortages of medicine, food, health and blankets, he said.

Russia won't push for UN humanitarian vote

Russia's ambassador at the United Nations says he won't ask for a vote on Friday on a Russian resolution about the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. 

The resolution had been sharply criticised by Western countries for making no mention of Russia's own responsibility for the war against its neighbour, and causing the humanitarian crisis in the first place. 

Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the UN Security Council late Thursday that Russia decided at this stage not to seek a vote because of pressure from the United States and Albania on other UN members to oppose it, but he stressed that Moscow is not withdrawing the resolution.

Nebenzia said Russia plans to go ahead with a council meeting Friday to discuss again its allegations of US “biological laboratories” in Ukraine, backing the claim with new documents. His initial charge was made without any evidence and repeatedly denied by US and Ukrainian officials.

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield responded to Nebenzia’s announcement by saying “their farcical humanitarian resolution [...] was doomed to fail.”

“We know if Russia really cared about humanitarian crises, the one that it created, it could simply stop its attacks on the people of Ukraine” she said.

“But instead, they want to call for another Security Council meeting to use this council as a venue for its disinformation and for promoting its propaganda.”

Lviv airport targeted as air raid alarms sound before dawn

Residents of the western Ukraine city of Lviv have been woken by air raid sirens just before dawn on Friday morning in an attack that appeared to target the airport. 

Thick clouds of smoke were visible Friday morning towards the area of the airport, and mayor Andriy Sadovy wrote on his Facebook account that "missiles hit the Lviv airport area" but did not directly hit the airport itself.

Last Sunday the Russian army bombed a Ukrainian military base near Lviv although the city has been spared fighting so far, and has become a last staging post for many refugees fleeing west into Poland just a short distance away. 

Italy ready to rebuild bombed Mariupol theatre

Italy's culture minister said his country will rebuild Mariupol theatre, which was badly damaged in a Russian bombing earlier this week. 

Writing on Twitter, Dario Franceschini said that a proposal he made to the cabinet was approved, to offer Ukraine the "resources and means to rebuild it as soon as possible." 

"Theatres of all countries belong to the whole humanity" he added.