Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has demanded a new round of sanctions on Russia, reports Reuters. He has been discussing the situation with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who is in eastern Europe.
The International Monetary Fund has announced that it could approve $1.4bn emergency funding as early as next week as the body warns of war’s “severe impact” on the global economy.
The United Nations recorded 351 civilians killed and 707 injured just on Friday in Ukraine, according to the UN high commissioner for human rights, as reported by BuzzFeed.
Russia and Ukraine plan another round of talks on Monday, even though previous talks that produced an agreement to a limited ceasefire in order to protect corridors for civilian have not been honoured by Russia.
The US government has warned American citizens living or travelling in Russia to “depart immediately” in new guidelines published today by the US state department.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy reportedly made a “desperate plea” for eastern Europe to provide Russian-made aircraft to Ukraine. In a call with US senators, he is also understood to have called for a no-fly zone, lethal aid, a ban on Russian oil and a suspension of Visa and Mastercard in Russia.
Partial ceasefire talks in the cities of Volnovakha and Mariupol are “ongoing” after Ukraine accused Russia of continuing attacks despite agreeing to allow civilians to flee. Ukraine has said attacks on the cities continued on Saturday, meaning the evacuation of civilians had to be halted.
Vladimir Putin has said Ukraine’s statehood will be threatened if its leaders continued to resist his military invasion. He also described western sanctions on Russia as being akin to a declaration of war.
The number of refugees fleeing the Russian invasion could reach 1.5 million by the end of the weekend, the head of the UN refugee agency has said. The figure is currently above 1.3 million.
Zelenskiy said Nato has given the “green light for further bombing of Ukraine” by ruling out a no-fly zone. He said: “All the people who die from this day forward will also die because of you, because of your weakness, because of your lack of unity.”
Nato warned on Friday that imposing a no-fly zone could provoke full-fledged war in Europe with nuclear-armed Russia. “The only way to implement a no-fly zone is to send Nato fighter planes into Ukraine’s airspace, and then impose that no-fly zone by shooting down Russian planes,” Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said.
Britain has urged UK nationals to consider leaving Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “If your presence in Russia is not essential, we strongly advise that you consider leaving by remaining commercial routes,” the Foreign Office said.
Italian police have seized villas and yachts worth at least €140m (£115m) from four high-profile Russians who were placed on an EU sanctions list, sources told Reuters.
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the largest of its kind in Europe, was seized by Russian forces on Friday, after an attack that started a fire close to one of its six reactors. No release of radiation was reported, but Ukrainian officials said workers had not been able to check all the safety infrastructure in the wake of the attack.
An emergency summit of the UN security council was summoned after the attack on Zaporizhzhia. The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the world narrowly averted a “nuclear catastrophe” and condemned Russia’s actions as “reckless” and “dangerous”. The US embassy in Ukraine says the attack on the nuclear plant is a war crime.
