Ukraine’s president accused Russia of war crimes on Monday after Vladimir Putin’s forces launched what were believed to be cluster and vacuum bomb attacks on the fifth day of their invasion.
Russia-Ukraine war: The latest Updates
- Russia promised on Monday that it would hit back against the EU following its support of Ukraine and warned the West against supplying weapons to the country
- A second round of talks aimed at ending Russia’s attack on Ukraine is set to take place after the first meeting ended without resolution
- Ukraine‘s MoD says Russia has lost 5,300 soldiers, 29 planes, 29 helicopters and 151 tanks
- Russia’s MoD has for the first time acknowledged suffering losses, but refused to say how many.
- Russian economy entered freefall as Western sanctions put in place over the weekend took effect, with ruble sliding to its lowest level ever
- Moscow’s central bank has more-than doubled the interest rate to 20 per cent
- Russia orders people and companies to sell 80 per cent of their revenue in foreign currencies, forcing them to buy the ruble to help prop it up
- Moscow stock exchange won’t open until at least 3pm in an attempt to head off all-out crash
- Zelensky has allowed Ukrainian prisoners to be freed if they join defence forces to ‘repay their debt’
- Ukraine president also announced creation of ‘international brigade’ for foreign volunteers wishing to join military, after ‘thousands’ applied.
- Spain’s foreign minister called Putin’s order to put nuclear forces on high alert ‘one more sign of [his] absolute irrationality’
- Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says his country should be open to hosting nuclear weapons
- Germany announced a $112million fund to rebuild the country’s armed forces, more-than double its current self-defence budget
- EU announced, for the first time in its history, that it will send funds to Ukraine for weapons – including fighter jets
Satellite images show Russian military convoy north of Kyiv
Ukrainian officials announced Monday that dozens of civilians were killed and hundreds more wounded when Russian forces began firing at civilian areas in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
Oleh Synehubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, called the attacks “a war crime,” saying “the Russian enemy is shelling entire residential areas of Kharkiv, where there is no critical infrastructure.”
Journalist Alyona Panina said on Ukraine 24 TV channel that Kherson is almost completely surrounded by Russian troops. “The city is actually surrounded, there are a lot of Russian soldiers and military equipment on all sides, they set up checkpoints at the exits,” she said.
