LIVE: Russia-Ukraine talks begin ‘without preconditions’

Hello. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments on the unfolding crisis in Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.

Talks between Ukraine and Russia have begun, the foreign ministries of both countries have confirmed.

Ukraine has said its goal for the talks is an “immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Russian troops”. Its delegation includes several high-ranking officials, but not its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, himself.

The Kremlin has declined to comment on its aim in negotiations, but Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky has said Russia wants to reach an agreement that was in the interests of both sides.

Roman Abramovich has accepted a Ukrainian request to help negotiate an end to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, his spokesperson has said.

A spokesperson for the Chelsea owner said:

I can confirm that Roman Abramovich was contacted by the Ukrainian side for support in achieving a peaceful resolution, and that he has been trying to help ever since.

Considering what is at stake, we would ask for your understanding as to why we have not commented on neither the situation as such nor his involvement.

The Jerusalem Post reports that Abramovich is in Belarus assisting in the Ukraine-Russia talks, at the request of Ukraine.

The Guardian’s Italy and migration correspondent, Lorenzo Tondo, arrives at the main border crossing Poland and Ukraine.

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Smoke rises over a long queue of people trying to flee on the Ukrainian side of the border checkpoint in Medyka, Poland, on Monday. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters

We arrived this morning in Medyka, a village in eastern Poland and the main border crossing Poland and Ukraine.

More than 300,000 Ukrainians have left the country since the beginning of the Russian invasion. More than half went to Poland and the majority of them passed through Medyka.

They are mostly women, with their children or grandchildren. There are also many foreigners, from the Congo, Morocco, Turkey, Ghana and Pakistan. Some were students in Kyiv universities, others worked in cities bombed by the Russians.

Their fate is uncertain. It is unclear whether the Polish authorities will allow them to stay. Some would like to go back to their country. Others fear they will be sent back.

As for the Ukrainians, the European Commission will soon ask member states to grant temporary asylum to all Ukrainians for up to three years.

It has just gone 1pm in Ukraine. Here is a round-up of the latest headlines:

• Talks between Ukraine and Russia got under way on the border with Belarus this morning. Ukraine had agreed to talks with Russia “without preconditions”, the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said yesterday.
• Recent British intelligence appears to corroborate a recent report from Ukraine’s military that Russia had “slowed down” its offensive. Britain’s defence ministry has said Russia’s advance on Kyiv has been slowed by logistical failures and fierce Ukrainian resistance.
• The Russian central bank has increased interest rates to 20% from 9.5% after the rouble plunged up to 40% on Monday in the wake of western sanctions.
• The EU is expecting Ukraine’s application to join the European Union “imminently” and officials in Brussels said “this will need to be assessed very rapidly by the council and the decision made as to whether to request an urgent opinion from the European Commission”.
• Residents in Mariupol this morning said the port city on the Sea of Azov was surrounded by Russian forces and under heavy attack.
• Amnesty International has condemned Russia’s reported use of cluster munitions in Ukraine, saying an attack on a pre-school “may constitute a war crime”.
• Russian invasion forces seized two small cities in south-eastern Ukraine and the area around a nuclear power plant, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday, but ran into stiff resistance elsewhere as Moscow’s diplomatic and economic isolation deepened.
• The UK government announced a slew of measures “to prohibit any UK natural or legal persons from undertaking financial transactions involving the Russian central bank, the Russian national wealth fund, and the country’s ministry of finance”.
• The Russian rouble plunged nearly 30% to an all-time low versus the US dollar on Monday as markets opened for trading on the first day after western nations announced punishing economic sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
• The US stepped up the flow of weapons to Ukraine, announcing on Sunday it will send Stinger missiles as part of a package approved by the White House.
• At least 102 civilians in Ukraine have been killed since Russia launched its invasion last Thursday, with a further 304 injured, but the real figure is feared to be “considerably higher”, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Monday.
• An update from Ukraine’s interior ministry late last night said 352 Ukrainian civilians have so far been killed during Russia’s invasion, including 14 children.The ministry said a further 1,684 people, including 116 children, have been wounded.
• Blasts were heard in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and in the major city of Kharkiv early on Monday morning, Ukraine’s state service of special communications reported. Meanwhile, about 150km north-east of Kyiv in Chernihiv, a missile reportedly hit a residential building in the centre of the city, causing a fire to break out, the agency added.
• About 800 people were arrested as Belarus voted to ditch its non-nuclear status in a referendum that raises the stakes at a time when the country has become a staging ground for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the government said on Monday.
• Forty Ukrainian civil society groups have come together to call on the West to establish safe zones for refugees inside Ukraine, and provide technology to help document Russian war crimes as part of a plan to make Vladimir Putin and his inner circle face justice at the international criminal court.

That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for now. My colleague Léonie Chao-Fong will be along shortly to continue bringing you all the latest news from Ukraine.

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A satellite image taken on Sunday Feb 27, 2022 by private satellite company Maxar shows Russia army ground forces northeast of Ivankiv heading in the direction of Kyiv. Photograph: EyePress News/REX/Shutterstock

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has appealed to the European Union to allow Ukraine to gain membership immediately under a special procedure, as it defends itself from invasion by Russian forces.

‘Our goal is to be with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be equal. I’m sure that’s fair. I am sure we deserved it,’ he said in a speech shared on social media.

Amnesty International has condemned Russia’s reported use of cluster munitions in Ukraine, saying an attack on a pre-school “may constitute a war crime”.

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FILE- Russian Army BM-27 Uragan self-propelled multiple rocket launcher system during a live firing drill at the ‘Opuk’ interspecific training ground in Crimea, 15 February 2022. Photograph: Russian Defence Ministry Press Service Handout/EPA

The human rights charity said “a 220mm Uragan rocket dropped cluster munitions on the Sonechko nursery and kindergarten in the town of Okhtyrka in Sumy Oblast” on Friday. It added: “The strike may constitute a war crime.”

Amnesty said three people were killed in the attack, including a child, while another child was wounded, PA Media reported.

Cluster munitions scatter or release smaller munitions or bomblets over a wide area, increasing the potential for casualties and damage. More than 100 countries have committed never to use the weapons under the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including the UK, but neither Russia nor Ukraine have signed the agreement.

Agnes Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International, said:

It is stomach-turning to see an indiscriminate attack on a nursery and kindergarten where civilians are seeking safe haven. Plain and simple, this should be investigated as a war crime.

As this human tragedy unfolds in Ukraine, any person who commits war crimes should be held individually accountable before the International Criminal Court (ICC) or another international criminal justice process at the national or international level.

It is imperative that UN member states and the ICC urgently consider how to ensure the timely and effective collection and preservation of evidence of any crimes under international law committed in Ukraine.

Human Rights Watch said it has also identified examples of cluster munition use.

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is trying to broker a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine, his spokesman said.

The Russian-Israeli billionaire has come under pressure to speak out following the invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin’s forces, PA Media reported.

There have been calls in parliament for him to face sanctions as a major oligarch “with links to the Russian state”.

A spokesman for the Chelsea owner said:

I can confirm that Roman Abramovich was contacted by the Ukrainian side for support in achieving a peaceful resolution, and that he has been trying to help ever since.

Considering what is at stake, we would ask for your understanding as to why we have not commented on neither the situation as such nor his involvement.

Abramovich’s involvement followed a request from the Ukrainian film producer Alexander Rodnyansky. There were no further details about Abramovich’s role, although it was acknowledged his influence was “limited”.

“I can confirm that the Ukrainian side have been trying to find someone in Russia willing to help them in finding a peaceful resolution,” Rodnyansky said. He added:

They are connected to Roman Abramovich through the Jewish community and reached out to him for help. Roman Abramovich has been trying to mobilise support for a peaceful resolution ever since.

Although Roman Abramovich’s influence is limited, he is the only one who responded and taken it upon himself to try.

If this will have an impact or not, I don’t know, but I am in contact with (Ukraine president Volodymyr) Zelenskiy’s staff myself, and know that they are grateful for his genuine efforts.

Abramovich stepped back from day-to-day running of Chelsea on Saturday night, handing stewardship to the west London club’s charitable foundation trustees.

The EU is expecting Ukraine’s application to join the European Union “imminently” and officials in Brussels said “this will need to be assessed very rapidly by the council and the decision made as to whether to request an urgent opinion from the European commission”.

Earlier today, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy had made a video address in which he appealed to the European union for urgent accession to the 27-member bloc for the country under special procedures.

For Ukraine to become an EU member state it will go through a pre-accession period of varying length, during which the candidate country adapts its institutions, standards and infrastructure to enable it to meet its obligations as a member state.

Albania, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey are currently candidate countries.

Lithuania’s government has announced it will ask prosecutors at the international criminal court to investigate “war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine”.

“There is new material coming in every day, but we have enough of it by now to file the request,” Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Simonyte said in a televised cabinet meeting.

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Damage to the upper floors of a building in Kyiv after it was reportedly struck by a Russian rocket. Photograph: Daniel Leal/AFP/Getty Images

PEN International, the literary and free expression organisation, has released a letter signed by 1,040 writers from around the world, expressing solidarity with writers, journalists, artists and the people of Ukraine.

The letter condemns the Russian invasion and calls for an immediate end to the bloodshed, with signatories including Nobel laureates Sveltana Alexievitch, Orhan Pamuk, Maria Ressa, and Olga Tokarczuk.

Among the writers who have signed it are Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Max Porter, Paul Auster and Edmund de Waal.

It reads:

To our friends and colleagues in Ukraine,

We, writers around the world, are appalled by the violence unleashed by Russian forces on to Ukraine and urgently call for an end to the bloodshed.

We stand united in condemnation of a senseless war, waged by President Putin’s refusal to accept the rights of Ukraine’s people to debate their future allegiance and history without Moscow’s interference.

We stand united in support of writers, journalists, artists, and all the people of Ukraine, who are living through their darkest hours. We stand by you and feel your pain.

All individuals have a right to peace, free expression, and free assembly. Putin’s war is an attack on democracy and freedom not just in Ukraine, but around the world.

We stand united in calling for peace and for an end to the propaganda that is fuelling the violence. There can be no free and safe Europe without a free and independent Ukraine. Peace must prevail.

The Kremlin has accused the European Union of hostile behaviour towards Russia, saying weapons supplies to Ukraine were dangerous and destabilising and proved that Russia was right in its efforts to demilitarise its neighbour.

The west has stepped up arms supplies to Ukraine in order to help it defend against a Russian invasion that Moscow calls a “special military operation” aimed at protecting civilians, Reuters reported.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the number of casualties Russian forces have suffered, or to elaborate on President Vladimir Putin’s instructions at the weekend for Russia’s nuclear deterrence forces to be placed on a “special regime”.

There was fighting around the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol throughout last night, Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional administration, said on television on Monday.

He did not say whether Russian forces had gained or lost any ground or provide any casualty figures.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian negotiating team have arrived for talks with Russia on the border with Belarus, according to a tweet from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence.

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Members of the Ukrainian delegation disembark from a helicopter as they arrive for talks with Russian representatives in the Gomel region, Belarus. Photograph: BELTA/Reuters

This is the building where the crucial talks will take place…

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An outside view of the venue of the forthcoming Russian-Ukrainian talks. Photograph: Sergei Kholodilin/BELTA/TASS

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The venue of the forthcoming Russian-Ukrainian talks. Photograph: Sergei Kholodilin/BELTA/TASS

The Ukrainian president’s office has said it’s main aim for the talks is to secure a ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of Russian troops from the country.

At least 102 civilians in Ukraine have been killed since Russia launched its invasion last Thursday, with a further 304 injured, but the real figure is feared to be “considerably higher”, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Monday.

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United Nations high commissioner for human rights Michelle Bachelet delivers a speech at the opening of a session of the UN human rights council on 28 February in Geneva. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

Bachelet, addressing the opening session of the Human rights council in Geneva, said:

Most of these civilians were killed by explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and air strikes. The real figures are, I fear, considerably higher.

Some 422,000 Ukrainians have fled their homeland, with many more displaced within the country, she told the Geneva forum which earlier agreed to hold an urgent debate on Ukraine later this week.

A Ukrainian MP who has taken up arms to defend the country’s capital city from the Russian invasion has said she will do so “as long as needed”.

Kira Rudik, the leader of the Voice party in the Rada parliament, said she was confident she could shoot a Russian soldier if one came to her home.

Her comments came as the economic toll of sanctions against Russia started to become clear, with the rouble falling by 26% against the US dollar after western nations moved to block Russian banks from the Swift global payment system.

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland on Monday, the MP said:

I don’t have any plans to leave. This is my city, this is my country, and I plan to defend it for as long as will be needed.

There is no chance that some Russian crazy dictator would be able to push me away from where I live and where I love.

Rudik is one of many in Ukraine who have taken up the offer of arming themselves, with military forces looking to bolster key positions.

“We received rifles in the Ukrainian parliament and for the last couple of days I was training to use it, so right now I’m pretty confident I would be able to shoot somebody if they come to my home,” she said.

“I assembled a resistance crew which now consists of 15 people, and we were able to stand up for ourselves and help our army patrol the streets.”

She predicted the invasion would last between 10 days and two weeks, due to Russia’s high casualties, low morale and unpreparedness for a drawn-out conflict.

Russian invasion forces seized two small cities in south-eastern Ukraine and the area around a nuclear power plant, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday, but ran into stiff resistance elsewhere as Moscow’s diplomatic and economic isolation deepened.

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A damaged Russian army vehicle is pictured on the outskirt of Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine. Photograph: Future Publishing/Getty Images

Blasts were heard before dawn on Monday in the capital of Kyiv and in the major city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian authorities said. But, Russian ground forces’ attempts to capture major urban centres had been repelled, they added.

Russia’s defence ministry, however, said its forces had taken over the towns of Berdyansk and Enerhodar in Ukraine’s south-eastern Zaporizhzhya region as well as the area around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, Interfax reported. The plant’s operations continued normally, it said.

Ukraine denied that the nuclear plant had fallen into Russian hands, according to the news agency.

Residents in Mariupol this morning said the port city on the sea of Azov was surrounded by Russian forces and under heavy attack.

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People take shelter inside a building in Mariupol, Ukraine. Street fighting broke out in Ukraine’s second-largest city and Russian troops squeezed strategic ports in the country’s south. Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP

They were not able to confirm that Russian marines had landed on the coast and seized the port, home to Ukraine’s tiny fleet and the command ship Donbas.

“We hear planes in the sky. It’s overcast and we can’t tell whether there are ours or Russians,” Anatoliy Lozar told the Guardian this morning, speaking from a Mariupol basement where he was sheltering with his family.

Lozar said he was helping evacuate civilians following another night of heavy bombardment. He said Russian warplanes had bombed the village of Shyrokyne, 20km west of Mariupol, with Ukrainian soldiers wounded.

The village on the frontline with the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic was still under Ukrainian control, he said.

He added: “We have become the new Stalingrad. We are killing Russians. Some have been taken prisoner. Families are sheltering in basements. They are terrified by what is happening. Huge numbers of volunteers have been joining the army. We have weapons. We will fight to the last man.”

Lozar said attempts had been made to evacuate the wounded by helicopters, which has come under Russian fire. He said some Russian diversionary groups had rented apartments inside the city ahead of the invasion and had been plotting attacks.

Despite a slow start to its military offensive, and fierce Ukrainian resistance, Russia was getting closer to its strategic goal of capturing the 250km strip along the Sea of Azov, between the Crimean peninsula and Mariupol.

Russian forces captured the small port city of Berdyansk last night, its mayor, Oleksandr Svidlo, confirmed last night, and took over the administration building.

Video showed armoured vehicles marked with “Z” patrolling Berdyansk’s residential streets.

Forty Ukrainian civil society groups have come together to call on the West to establish safe zones for refugees inside Ukraine, and provide technology to help document Russian war crimes as part of a plan to make Vladimir Putin and his inner circle face justice at the International Criminal Court.

The appeal called the Kyiv Declaration has been put together by the groups in Kyiv and other cities coordinating via encrypted app’s, and face-to-face in underground shelters. The signatories include Ukrainian Helsinki Group for Human Rights, Come Back Alive, Ukraine Crisis Media Centre and Women’s Perspectives says the world has to act now before the Russians seize power.

The Declaration is a sign that despite the huge practical difficulties Ukrainian civil society is still operating, largely supporting its government and trying to urge the West to maintain the momentum of its support.

The six humanitarian demands include safe zones for refugees inside the country; the provision of anti-tank missiles; sanctions to be broadened to include a ban on energy trading with Russia; a faster crack down of the wealth of Russian oligarchs abroad including withdrawal of family visas; requisition fuel, logistics support and emergency medical equipment, such as field hospitals, mobile clinics and trauma supplies. It also calls for the supply of technology and support to human rights groups, as well as lawyers, recording Putin’s war crimes.

Safe or buffer zones were set up in North East Syria in 2019 following an agreement between Turkey and Russia. A less consensual zone was declared by US Britain and France in Iraq to protect the Kurdish minority after the Gulf War of 1991, when the US, Britain and France declared two no-fly zones in the north and south.

An imposed safe zone in Ukraine would require air power, something that so far has been ruled out by Nato leaders since it would take Nato into direct conflict with the Russian air force.

Lyubov Maksymovych, Chair of Women’s Perspectives, said:

We are issuing this declaration on behalf of Ukrainian women and men who stand together to fight for their liberty and freedoms. At this moment, it’s not too late to draw a line in the sand, here in Ukraine rather than through the centre of Europe – which is what will happen if we fail. We hope that western powers have learnt from the long failures of appeasement, and the obvious duplicity and inhumanity of Vladimir Putin. This is the most important declaration I have ever signed. If it is not answered, it could also be my last.

Olga Aivazovska, Chair of Elections Watchdog Opora, said:

Now is the moment the world must demonstrate its support not only for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, but also for the values of democracy, human rights and freedom. With the Kyiv Declaration, we ask for your help in defeating an autocratic dictator to defend not only Ukraine but the whole democratic world and the principles it is founded on.

Oleksandr Pavlichenko, the Executive Director of Ukrainian Helsinki Group for Human Rights, said:

Vladimir Putin and his henchmen believe they are above the law, that they can get away with this bloodshed because the world needs their gas and oil. We must prove them wrong. We must expose the truth. We must hold them to account in a court of law.

As Moscow’s economy appears to be going into meltdown, all European airspace is closed to Russian airlines, sanctions are proliferating, and Russian oligarchs are moving their superyachts out the harm’s way, it’s worth recalling a key theory of how authoritarian leaders hold on to power.

This theory – known as “coup-proofing” – was popularised by Edward Luttwak in his book Coup D’Etat: A Practical Handbook.

The essence of Luttwak’s argument is that non-democratic leaders require other tools than simply coercion to coup-proof their regimes. Crucially that includes securing broader support among financial, political and security elites by sharing the spoils and prestige.

In the Russian context it’s always been clear that there are enormous financial benefits to supporting Putin for a small circle. But the benefits that a lot of other individuals lower down the food chain have enjoyed are now seriously under threat.

Families have been torn apart in the biggest European conflict since the second world war, as Ukrainian women and children left their husbands and fathers behind after the authorities ordered men aged 18-60 to stay and fight Russian forces.

“We left dad in Kyiv and dad will be selling things and helping our heroes, our army, he might even fight,” Mark Goncharuk, a young boy choking with tears, said as he and his relatives fled the capital.

Here is the full video.

Russia is interested in coming to an agreement that is in the interests of both sides at talks with Ukraine, Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky claimed on Monday, as officials prepare to meet near the border.

Medinsky said talks were expected to begin at 12pm local time (9am GMT).

Ukraine had agreed to talks with Russia “without preconditions”, the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said yesterday.

Zelenskiy did not sound hopeful of success, but said: “Let them try so that later not a single citizen of Ukraine has any doubt that I, as president, tried to stop the war.”

About 800 people were arrested as Belarus voted to ditch its non-nuclear status in a referendum that raises the stakes at a time when the country has become a staging ground for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the government said on Monday.

The vote sparked the biggest protests in months as thousands took to the streets in Belarus, where President Alexander Lukashenko has imposed a sweeping crackdown on dissent after a contested election challenged his grip on power in 2020.

The vote to change the constitution, passed by 65% according to official data, could see nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil for the first time since the country gave them up after the fall of the Soviet Union, Reuters reported.

It comes at a time when Lukashenko has fallen in line behind Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military assault on Ukraine after earlier playing an intermediary role between the two neighbours.

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Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko talks to reporters at a polling station after casting his vote in the 2022 Belarusian constitutional referendum. Photograph: Peter Kovalev/TASS

“Despite the numerous calls from destructive Telegram channels to destabilise the situation, which were spread by citizens outside the country, mass protests did not happen. Police officers were focused on prompt response and suppression of provocations,” the interior ministry said.

The new constitution also gives powers to an assembly created by Lukashenko and populated by party loyalists, officials and pro-government activists, and gives lifetime immunity from prosecution to the president if he leaves office.

On Sunday, speaking at a polling station, Lukashenko said that he could ask Russia to return nuclear weapons to Belarus.

“If you (the west) transfer nuclear weapons to Poland or Lithuania, to our borders, then I will turn to Putin to return the nuclear weapons that I gave away without any conditions,” Lukashenko said.

Hello. Tom Ambrose here. I’ll be bringing you the latest news from Russia’s war in Ukraine over the next couple of hours.

We start with news that the British defence minister Ben Wallace has said he does not expect Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons in his pursuit of Ukraine.

“We should be worried that a state like Russia believes that the rules don’t apply to them, whether that is invading Ukraine or using nerve agent in Salisbury, but fundamentally a deterrent is what it is, a deterrent,” Wallace told Times Radio.

“As much as he might be ambitious for Ukraine, I don’t think he wants to go into that space.”

It comes after Putin ordered his military to put Russia’s nuclear deterrence forces on high alert, in the latest signal from the Russian leader that he is prepared to resort to the most extreme level of brinkmanship is his effort to achieve victory.

Recent British intelligence appears to corroborate with a recent report from Ukraine’s military that Russia had “slowed down” its offensive.

Britain’s defence ministry has said Russia’s advance on Kyiv has been slowed by logistical failures and fierce Ukrainian resistance.

The ministry said on Monday:

The bulk of [President Vladimir] Putin’s ground forces remain more than 30km to the north of Kyiv their advance having been slowed by Ukrainian forces defending Hostomel airfield, a key Russian objective for day one of the conflict.

Logistical failures and staunch Ukrainian resistance continue to frustrate the Russian advance.”

Heavy fighting continues around Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine, and the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, the defence ministry said in an intelligence update posted on Twitter. Both cities remain under Ukrainian control, it said.

The Russian central bank has increased interest rates to 20% from 9.5% after the rouble plunged up to 40% on Monday in the wake of western sanctions.

It is 9.30am in Ukraine. Here is where the crisis currently stands:

• Recent British intelligence appears to corroborate with a recent report from Ukraine’s military that Russia had “slowed down” its offensive. Britain’s defence ministry has said Russia’s advance on Kyiv has been slowed by logistical failures and fierce Ukrainian resistance.
• The Russian central bank has increased interest rates to 20% from 9.5% after the rouble plunged up to 40% on Monday in the wake of western sanctions.
• The UK government announced a slew of measures “to prohibit any UK natural or legal persons from undertaking financial transactions involving the Russian central bank, the Russian national wealth fund, and the country’s ministry of finance”.
• Meta Platforms, the company formerly known as Facebook, said a hacking group used Facebook to target a handful of public figures in Ukraine, including prominent military officials, politicians and a journalist.
• The Russian rouble plunged nearly 30% to an all-time low versus the US dollar on Monday as markets opened for trading on the first day after western nations announced punishing economic sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
• The US stepped up the flow of weapons to Ukraine, announcing on Sunday it will send Stinger missiles as part of a package approved by the White House.
• A referendum in Belarus on Sunday reportedly approved a new constitution renouncing the country’s non-nuclear status at a time when the former Soviet republic has become a launchpad for Russian troops invading Ukraine, Russian news agencies report.
• A US official believes Belarus is preparing to send soldiers into Ukraine in support of the Russian invasion. The Washington Post spoke to an unnamed US administration official on Sunday evening who said the deployment could begin as soon as Monday.
• An update from Ukraine’s interior ministry late last night said 352 Ukrainian civilians have so far been killed during Russia’s invasion, including 14 children.The ministry said a further 1,684 people, including 116 children, have been wounded.
• Blasts were heard in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and in the major city of Kharkiv early on Monday morning, Ukraine’s state service of special communications reported. Meanwhile, about 150km north-east of Kyiv in Chernihiv, a missile reportedly hit a residential building in the centre of the city, causing a fire to break out, the agency added.

For any tips and feedback please contact me through Twitter or at [email protected]

According to the latest operational report released by the Ukrainian military this morning, Russia has “slowed down its offensive” after firing on military and civilian airfields, military control points, air defence facilities and critical infrastructure.

The force added that Ukrainian artillery fire destroyed “more than five columns of enemy equipment and enemy manpower”.

“The enemy is demoralised and bears heavy losses,” the general staff of the armed forces said.

“Frequent cases of desertion and disobedience were noted. The enemy realised that propaganda and reality were different.”

Meanwhile, the military said approximately 5,300 Russian personnel had died since the invasion begun, as well as the destruction of 191 tanks, 29 planes, 29 helicopters and 816 armoured fighting vehicles.

The Guardian has not been able to independently verify these numbers.

Tensions are rising at the £3bn Surrey estate in England where Russian oligarchs call home.

The secretive owners of mansions at St George’s Hill will be nervous about making an appearance on Liz Truss’s hitlist after the foreign secretary warned rich Russians linked to Putin that the UK government “will come after you” and ensure oligarchs have “nowhere to hide”.

Russians and those from former Soviet states own more than a quarter of the 430 luxurious homes in St George’s Hill, a heavily guarded 964-acre estate near Weybridge, Surrey, where mansions have changed hands for more than £20m each.

Read the full story from the Guardian’s Rupert Neate below.

Related: Tensions rise at the £3bn Surrey estate Russian oligarchs call home

More on the financial curbs announced in the UK this morning. The government said:

The UK government will immediately take all necessary steps to bring into effect restrictions to prohibit any UK natural or legal persons from undertaking financial transactions involving the CBR, the Russian national wealth fund, and the ministry of finance of the Russian Federation.”

Britain said there would be more designations announced this week.

“These measures demonstrate our determination to apply severe economic sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” finance minister Rishi Sunak said.

“The Bank of England continues to take any and all actions needed to support the government’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said.

The new sanctions also include new restrictions on Russian financial institutions and measures to prevent Russian companies from issuing transferable securities and money market instruments in the UK.

Britain said it would have “a power to prevent designated banks from accessing sterling and clearing payments through the UK”.

The UK government has just announced a slew of measures “to prohibit any UK natural or legal persons from undertaking financial transactions involving the Russian central bank, the Russian national wealth fund, and the country’s ministry of finance”.

Specifically, it also aims to:

• prevent the Central Bank of Russia from using its foreign reserves of $630bn “in ways that undermine sanctions imposed by us and our allies”;
• stop designated banks from accessing sterling and clearing payments through the UK;
• strengthen significantly trade restrictions against Russia;
• prevent Russian companies from issuing transferable securities and money market instruments in the UK.

The Moscow Exchange has also delayed the start of trading this morning.

The exchange platform will open forex and money market trading at 10am Moscow time on Monday, three hours later than the usual opening time for the forex market, and will suspend trading on the forex repo market, the bourse said.

The Belarusian currency and stock exchange similarly said it would push back the start of trading by one hour on Monday as the market braced for a huge sell-off.

The news comes as the Russian rouble plunged to an all-time low on Monday, and the dollar soared against nearly all peers after western nations announced fresh sanctions to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s central bank confirmed on Monday it has ordered brokers to suspend the execution of all orders by foreign legal entities and individuals to sell Russian securities.

The bank also said in a statement it had yet to decide whether to open markets other than the forex and money market on Monday.

More than 90% of Ukrainians say they support president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, according to a poll conducted by the Rating Sociological group this weekend.

According to the data compiled from 2,000 respondents from across Ukraine, 91% of respondents backed Zelenskiy, while 6% said they did not support him and 3% remained undecided.

The support is a threefold increase from December last year.

Residents in Crimea and the rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine were excluded from the survey, according to the BBC.

When asked about the chances of Ukraine being able to repel the Russian assault, 70% said they believed it was possible.

Powerful photos of Ukrainian citizens preparing homemade molotov cocktails to defend their territory are emerging.

Below, a group of women use empty bottles and other materials in the city of Uzhhorod in western Ukraine.

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Local residents prepare Molotov cocktails to defend the city of Uzhhorod, Ukraine. Photograph: Serhii Hudak/Reuters

© Provided by The Guardian
A woman uses an empty bottle and other materials to make a handmade weapon. Photograph: Serhii Hudak/Reuters

The Belarusian foreign ministry has published a photo of the venue of today’s Russia-Ukraine negotiations.

“In Belarus, everything is ready to host Russia-Ukraine negotiations. Waiting for delegations to arrive,” the ministry said in a tweet around 9am local time.

It follows the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s announcement on Sunday that Ukrainian and Russian delegations will meet without preconditions at Pripyat in Belarus.

Zelenskiy said he was not confident that any progress would be made, but that he would try.

“I’ll say frankly, like always, that I don’t believe in the result of this meeting,” he said. “But let’s try, so that no citizen of Ukraine would have any doubt that I, as president, tried to stop the war when there was even a chance.”

While thousands of refugees are fleeing Ukraine as Russia continues its invasion, others have sought to return to their embattled homeland from Poland – some to reunite with family, some to fight.

“I am afraid, but I am a mother and I want to be with my children”, Lesa explained, as she readied herself to enter Ukraine, adding “it’s scary, but I have to”.

Watch their stories in the video below.

We also have a fantastic rundown from the Guardian’s Shaun Walker in Kyiv detailing the past week for those currently in Ukraine.

It was a week of grim transformation for the lives of almost every Ukrainian, after Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch a ruthless assault on the supposed “brotherly nation” of Ukraine, which began in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Hundreds of thousands have fled to the west of the country to avoid Putin’s advancing troops and missiles, with many spending long hours in queues at checkpoints on the way and at the borders with Poland and Hungary. Many more have stayed and made the decision to fight.

“I’ll be honest, I’m really scared. It’s the first time I’ve held a gun,” said 50-year-old Alexander, brandishing a shotgun at a barricade near a village outside Kyiv on Saturday. Behind him, an elderly man looked out across nearby fields through a pair of binoculars, while women were preparing crates of molotov cocktails, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Related: From budgets and cocktails to all-out war: Ukraine’s week of grim transformation

Here’s a report from the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, on how the phone has become the Ukrainian president’s most effective weapon.

In a string of phone calls from a besieged Kyiv, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has persuaded the west to agree to a set of sanctions against Russia that were inconceivable a week ago.

Sensing how European public opinion is responding to the bravery of his people, Zelenskiy has been constantly on the phone to western leaders, using his Twitter feed to cajole, encourage, scold and praise his allies. In the process, sanctions regarded as unthinkable a week ago have become a moral baseline. The pace at which the west has been agreeing to the new sanctions has also left the lawyers, officials and bankers gasping for air, officials admit, as they work under severe pressure to turn headlines into reality.

One leader’s office said: “We are in awe of him. He may not eventually be able to save Ukraine, or change Russia, but he is changing Europe.”

Read the full story here:

Related: The phone has become the Ukrainian president’s most effective weapon

Amid the mounting tensions, western nations have said they will tighten sanctions and buy and deliver weapons for Ukraine, including Stinger missiles for shooting down helicopters and other aircraft.

The US stepped up the flow of weapons to Ukraine, announcing on Sunday it will send Stinger missiles as part of a package approved by the White House.

Germany also plans to send 500 Stingers and other military supplies.

However, the Biden administration has said the US will not “put boots on the ground” and US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield reiterated this stance in an interview with CNN on Sunday.

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Ukraine received shipment of military aid including Stinger anti-aircraft missiles form Lithuania at an airport outside Kyiv earlier this month. Photograph: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters

Meta Platforms, the company formerly known as Facebook, said a hacking group used Facebook to target a handful of public figures in Ukraine, including prominent military officials, politicians and a journalist, amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country.

Meta said in the last 48 hours it had also separately removed a network of about 40 fake accounts, groups and pages across Facebook and Instagram that operated from Russia and Ukraine targeting people in Ukraine, for violating its rules against coordinated inauthentic behaviour, Reuters reports.

A Twitter spokesperson said it had also suspended more than a dozen accounts and blocked the sharing of several links for violating its rules against platform manipulation and spam.

It said its ongoing investigation indicated the accounts originated in Russia and were attempting to disrupt the public conversation around the conflict in Ukraine.

In a blog post on Monday, Meta attributed the hacking efforts to a group known as Ghostwriter, which it said successfully gained access to the targets’ social media accounts.

Meta said the hackers attempted to post YouTube videos from the accounts portraying Ukrainian troops as weakened, including one video which claimed to show Ukrainian soldiers coming out of a forest and flying a white flag of surrender.

The rouble plunged nearly 30% to an all-time low versus the US dollar on Monday as markets opened for trading on the first day after western nations announced punishing economic sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

The rouble dropped to as low as 119 per dollar, and was last down 28.77% at 118 from its closing price 83.64 on Friday.

The sanctions include blocking some Russian banks from the Swift international payments system, leading investors to anticipate a run on the Russian currency as people try to change their money for dollars and other denominations.

“The escalating crisis in Ukraine will force markets to price in a substantially higher geopolitical risk premium,” strategists at the Australian bank Westpac said on Monday. “The Ukrainian situation is volatile.”

“We will not give up the capital, Ukraine is already winning,” are the remarks Ukraine’s minister of defence has given this morning in response Russia’s attempt to break into the capital overnight.

Oleksii Reznikov said it has so far been “96 hours of resistance” and “4 days of dedication, courage and faith” for the Ukrainian people, vowing his country will win the war.

In an statement given late last night which has seen been published on the Ukrainian ministry of defence website, Reznikov said: “The enemy who came to our land will go in a known direction. Therefore, we advise the occupiers to go home. It’s not too late.

“It is useless to intimidate Ukrainians. It will not be possible to break our defenders.”

Amid reports of a referendum in Belarus approving a proposal to renounce its non-nuclear status, a US official believes Belarus is preparing to send soldiers into Ukraine in support of the Russian invasion.

The Washington Post spoke to an unnamed US administration official on Sunday evening who said the deployment could begin as soon as Monday.

It’s very clear Minsk is now an extension of the Kremlin,” they said.

The Guardian has not been able to independently verify the claim.

A referendum in Belarus on Sunday reportedly approved a new constitution renouncing the country’s non-nuclear status at a time when the former Soviet republic has become a launch pad for Russian troops invading Ukraine, Russian news agencies report.

The move could theoretically allow Russia to place nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil for the first time since the country gave them up after the fall of the Soviet Union. The referendum result will come into force 10 days after its official publication, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.

On Sunday, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said: “If you [the west] transfer nuclear weapons to Poland or Lithuania, to our borders, then I will turn to Putin to return the nuclear weapons that I gave away without any conditions.”

According to RIA, the head of the Belarus central elections commission, Igor Karpenko, said that 65.16% of citizens voted for the amendments to the constitution in a referendum.

This number was also reported in the Kyiv Independent newspaper, also citing that 65.16% of citizens allegedly supported these constitutional amendments.

The west has already said it will not recognise the results of the referendum, which is taking place against the background of a sweeping crackdown on domestic opponents of the government.

An update from Ukraine’s interior ministry late last night said 352 Ukrainian civilians have so far been killed during Russia’s invasion, including 14 children.

The ministry said an additional 1,684 people, including 116 children, have been wounded.

Blasts were heard in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and in the major city of Kharkiv early on Monday morning, Ukraine’s state service of special communications reported.

Kyiv had been quiet for a few hours prior to that, it said in a brief statement on the Telegram messaging app.

“Explosions are heard again in Kyiv and Kharkiv. Before that, it was calm in the Ukrainian capital for several hours,” the agency said.

The mood in the city, however, remains defiant.

Meanwhile, about 150km north-east of Kyiv in Chernihiv, a missile reportedly hit a residential building in the centre of the city, causing a fire to break out, Ukraine’s state service of special communications also reported.

“A rocket hit a residential building in the centre of Chernihiv. A fire broke out, two lower floors are on fire. The number of injured is currently unknown,” the agency said in a brief statement on the Telegram messaging app.

The development follows reports from the Kyiv Independent newspaper of an air raid alert that sounded in the city about 4.30am local time with residents being urged to head to the nearest shelter.

Hello it’s Samantha Lock with you as we unpack all the latest developments on the unfolding crisis in Ukraine.

As dawn breaks in Kyiv and Ukrainians across the country wake for the fifth day since their Russian neighbour invaded, here is where the situation currently stands:

For any tips and feedback please contact me through Twitter or at [email protected]

• Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered his military command to put nuclear deterrence forces on high alert, in response to what he called “aggressive statements” by Nato countries. The US condemned the order and said Putin was “manufacturing threats that don’t exist in order to justify further aggression”.
• The rouble plunged nearly 30% to an all-time low versus the US dollar on Monday as markets opened for trading on the first day after western nations announced punishing economic sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. The European Central Bank said on Monday morning that Sberbank Europe, a fully owned subsidiary of Sberbank Russia, which in turn is majority owned by the Russian state, is failing or likely to fail.
• Belarus reportedly approved in a referendum a new constitution renouncing the country’s non-nuclear status at a time when the country has become a launch pad for Russian troops invading Ukraine, Russian news agencies report. The move could theoretically allow Russia to place nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil for the first time since the country gave them up after the fall of the Soviet Union. The package of constitutional reforms also extended the rule of leader Alexander Lukashenko.
• Ukraine’s interior ministry says 352 Ukrainian civilians have been killed during Russia’s invasion, including 14 children. It says an additional 1,684 people, including 116 children, have been wounded. The ministry did not give any information on casualties among Ukraine’s armed forces. Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, claimed Russian forces had lost about 4,300 servicemen, a figure it was not possible to verify independently.
• Satellite imagery taken on Sunday showed a large deployment of Russian ground forces including tanks moving in the direction of the capital Kyiv from approximately 40 miles (64 km) away. The city remains in Ukrainian hands. The images released by Maxar Technologies showed a deployment comprising hundreds of military vehicles and extending more than 3.25 miles (5km), the company said. The convoy contained fuel, logistics and armoured vehicles including tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and self-propelled artillery, it said.
• Ukraine has agreed to peace talks with Russia “without preconditions”, the office of Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. The Ukrainian president said he was not confident that any progress would be made, but “let’s try, so that no citizen of Ukraine would have any doubt that I, as president, tried to stop the war when there was even a chance”.
• British prime minister Boris Johnson said he called the Ukrainian president who said he believed the next 24 hours was a “crucial period” for Ukraine. Johnson said he would do all he could to help ensure defensive aid from the UK and allies reached Ukraine.
• The EU will buy weapons for Ukraine. Multiple European countries are offering military aid to Ukraine, including Sweden, which hasn’t sent weapons to a country in armed conflict since the Soviet Union’s invasion of Finland in 1939.
• The EU plans to close its airspace to Russian aircraft, including the private jets of Russian oligarchs. The bloc will also ban Russian-state backed television channels RT and Sputnik.
• A rare emergency special session of the UN general assembly is due to be held on Monday in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, marking the first time in 40 years the security council has made such a request.
• The UN refugee agency has said more than 368,000 people have fled Ukraine into neighbouring countries. Up to 4 million people could become refugees if the situation continues to worsen, the UN said.
• The World Health Organization warned that thousands of lives are at risk from falling Ukrainian oxygen supplies.
• Russian billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Oleg Deripaska have spoken out against Putin’s invasion. Fridman said: “I am deeply attached to Ukrainian and Russian peoples and see the current conflict as a tragedy for them both.” Deripaska called for peace talks to begin “as fast as possible”.
• Pope Francis said he was “heartbroken” by the war and appeared to take direct aim at Putin by condemning people who “trust in the diabolic and perverse logic of weapons”.
• The UK will send an additional £40m in humanitarian aid to Ukraine, while the US said it is sending nearly $54m (£40m) in new humanitarian aid
• Russian police detained more than 1,400 people at anti-war protests on Sunday, an independent monitoring organisation said, lifting the tally for crackdown arrests to over 4,000.