Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelenskiy to meet King Charles after landing in UK for surprise visit

Britain has added 15 new designations to its Russia-related sanctions list, including six entities providing military equipment such as drones for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The sanctions also target 8 individuals and 1 entity connected to financial networks that help “maintain wealth and power amongst Kremlin elites,” the UK government said in a statement.

Those sanctioned include five individuals who the government said were “connected to Putin’s luxury residences, including the 100 billion rouble ‘Putin’s palace’ and Putin’s lakeside Dacha”.

• Boris Titov - Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneur’s Rights, which he was awarded after purchasing 740 acres of vineyards on the grounds of the palace.

• Nikolay Egorov - Until recently, Deputy Chairman of the largest privately owned oil refinery in Russia.

• Sergey Rudnov - the owner of pro-Kremlin news outlet Regum.

• Svetlana Krivonogikh - a shareholder in Bank Rossiya and the National Media Group, who consistently promote the Russian assault in Ukraine.

• Viktor Myachin – Owner of Aerostart, a Russian aircraft maintenance and repair company.

Also being sanctioned are the organisations “that Putin’s military relies on to maintain its illegal invasion of Ukraine”, the government said.

• CST, a manufacturer of Russian drones which have been used to destroy Ukrainian combat vehicles.

• RT-Komplekt who produce parts for helicopters used by Russia in its assault on Ukraine.

• Oboronlogistics who organise the transportation and delivery for Russian military equipment.

• Universalmash and Lipetsk, who manufacture or modify the tracked chassis for anti-aircraft missile systems used by Russia’s armed forces in Ukraine.

• Topaz, a software company involved in military aviation.

Foreign secretary, James Cleverly said:

Ukraine has shown Putin that it will not break under his tyrannical invasion. He has responded by indiscriminately striking civilian areas and critical national infrastructure across the country. We cannot let him succeed. We must increase our support.

These new sanctions accelerate the economic pressure on Putin – undermining his war machine to help Ukraine prevail. I am determined, consistent with our laws, that Russia will have no access to the assets we have frozen until it ends, once and for all, its threats to Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty and integrity.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy is expected to visit Brussels on Thursday, Reuters is reporting, citing an EU diplomat.

The Ukrainian president was reported to be planning a trip tomorrow to meet EU leaders in person at a summit and address the European parliament in an extraordinary session.

Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here again, taking over the live blog from Geneva Abdul to bring you the latest from the Russia-Ukraine war. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.

Zelenskiy has arrived in the UK and was greeted by the UK prime minister Rishi Sunak.

The King will hold an audience with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy today, Buckingham Palace has said.

The audience between the King and President Zelensky will take place at Buckingham Palace this afternoon.

In a surprise visit, Ukraine’s president Zelenskiy arrives in the UK today on his first visit since Russia’s invasion to address parliament and meet with prime minister Rishi Sunak and Ukrainian troops being trained by British armed forces.

More to come…

The 2023 international security report added Russia continues to keep the “nuclear card” on the table as an instrument of anti-western leverage and to dissuade western nations from helping Ukraine.

“While Putin still seems to believe that time will play in Russia’s favour and he will be able to “bomb” Ukraine to the negotiating table, reality will dawn on the Kremlin sooner or later,” the report says.

World heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk has urged the International Olympic Committee not to allow Russian athletes to compete under a neutral banner in Paris next year, saying any medals they win will be “medals of blood”, Reuters reports.

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s president Zelenskiy also urged partners to counter the International Olympic Committees’ (IOC) exploration of options to permit Russian athletes to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

In a direct video message to IOC president Thomas Bach posted on his official Instagram account, Usyk said:

You want to allow Russian athletes to compete at the Olympics … Russian Armed Forces invaded our country and kill civilians. Russian army is killing Ukrainian athletes and coaches and destroying sports grounds as well as sports halls … The medals that Russian athletes are going to win are medals of blood, death and tears. Let me wish you to have peaceful sky above you and to be in good health and happy.

The remarks come a day after five Olympic committees in the Nordic region – Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway – urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from participating in international sports, according to AP news.

Earlier we reported on Ivan Kovbasnyuk saying athletes from Russia and Belarus should not be allowed to compete at the next Olympics – or in any international sports events.

Kovbasnyuk told AP news:

It’s not fair when Ukrainian sportsmen don’t have a chance to participate in the Olympics because they are dying on the battlefields while Russian athletes are just silently supporting (Vladimir) Putin’s crime regime.

A fire broke out on Wednesday at an oil refinery in Russia’s southern Rostov region near the border with Ukraine and was later extinguished, state media reported, citing the emergencies ministry.

“In Rostov Region, Novoshakhtinsk city ... a message was received at 10:24 a.m. Moscow time about a fire on the territory of an oil products processing plant,” the ministry said, according to Reuters.

The fire broke out over an area of about 100 square metres and was extinguished around an hour later, Interfax news agency reported, adding that the small refinery belonged to a company called Resource LLC.

Wednesday’s fire was the second in two days to hit a Russian refinery, following an incident on Tuesday at a Lukoil unit in Nizhny Novgorod, east of Moscow.

Luke Harding

Ukraine has released extraordinary video footage that appears to show Russian fighters dragging their badly wounded commander away from the battlefield and then beating him violently with what appear to be shovels.

A Ukrainian drone captured the incident near the eastern city of Bakhmut, where intense fighting has been raging for months. Four soldiers from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group carry their colleague through a landscape of ruined houses, holding his arms and legs.

Warning: video contains footage that some viewers may find distressing

Here are the latest images coming from Ukraine:

A British lawmaker said his private email was hacked by a group, thought to be Russian, and he wanted to speak out publicly to warn others about the attackers’ tactics, Reuters reports.

Stewart McDonald, until last year a defence spokesperson for the Scottish National party, said he was worried his emails would be published after he clicked on a document and entered his password.

In January, McDonald opened an email that appeared to be from a member of his staff and accessed a password-protected document said to be a military update about Ukraine, he told the BBC.

Later, he discovered the member of staff had not sent the email.

On Twitter, McDonald said:

Over the past couple of weeks I have been dealing with a sophisticated and targeted spear phishing hack of my personal email account, and the personal email account belonging to one of my staff. These hacks are a criminal offence.

News of the hack follows a warning from Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre on 26 January that Russia and Iran-based groups were targeting politicians, journalists, academics and defence experts to extract sensitive information from what is known as a “spear-phishing” campaign.

Read more here:

Hello and welcome to those joining the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Geneva Abdul and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold over the next couple of hours.

Russian forces have ramped up a winter assault in eastern Ukraine, bringing tens of thousands of freshly mobilised troops to the battlefield, Reuters reports. Kyiv expects Moscow to broaden its offensive as towns in the northeast and south came under fire.

It’s 11am in Ukraine, here’s the latest:

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrives in the UK today on his first visit since Russia’s invasion to address parliament and meet with prime minister Rishi Sunak and Ukrainian troops being trained by British armed forces. Sunak will expand the training offered by the UK to include fighter jet pilots and marines “ensuring Ukraine has a military able to defend its interests well into the future”.

• Ahead of his UK visit, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged partners on Wednesday to counter the International Olympic Committee’s exploration of options to permit Russian athletes to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

• Russia said on Wednesday that work to unblock Russian exports under the Black Sea grain deal was unsatisfactory, accusing the European Union of failing to deliver on its promises, the Tass news agency reported. The comments refer to the United Nations-brokered agreement between Moscow and Kyiv that aimed to free up grain exports held up at Black Sea ports by the war in Ukraine.

• The latest update from the UK’s Ministry of Defence says since Russia withdrew its forces from the west bank of the Dnipro in November, “skirmishing and reconnaissance” has continued on the network of islands comprising the Dnipro delta. “It is highly unlikely that Russia will attempt an assault crossing of the Dnipro,” the update said. “It would likely be extremely complex and costly”.

• Russian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday that European Union moves to add what he called “exemptions” to its price cap on oil products showed that Russian oil was still in demand, Reuters reports.

• Russia has demanded that the US embassy in Moscow stop spreading what Moscow regards as fake news regarding its military operation in Ukraine and has threatened to expel US diplomats, Reuters reports, citing an original report in the Tass news agency.

• President Joe Biden promised on Tuesday that the US will support Ukraine for as long as it takes to fight off the Russian invasion. “We’re going to stand with you, as long as it takes. Our nation is working for more freedom, more dignity, more peace – not just in Europe, but everywhere,” Biden said, addressing Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington.

• The Kremlin is expected to target the north-eastern Kharkiv or southern Zaporizhzhia regions in a new thrust, Ukraines national security chief Oleksiy Danilov said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday.

• Ukraine’s military claimed on Tuesday that the last 24 hours were the deadliest of the war for Russian troops. It increased its tally of Russian military dead by 1,030 overnight to 133,190, the biggest increase in daily Russian military deaths since the war began in February 2022. Russia has also said it killed large numbers of Ukrainian troops in recent weeks, claiming it inflicted 6,500 Ukrainian casualties in the month of January. These figures could not be independently verified, but the assertion that the fighting was the deadliest so far fits descriptions from both sides of an escalating campaign of close-contact trench warfare in Ukraine’s east.

• Ukraine’s parliament has approved the appointment of Ihor Klymenko as the new interior affairs minister and Vasily Malyuk as new head of the security services, known as the SBU. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked parliament for approving his proposed candidates and called for an end to “rumours or any other pseudo-information” that could undermine unity.

• Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands have announced they plan to provide Ukraine with at least 100 refurbished Leopard 1 battle tanks. In a joint statement, their defence ministers said the shipment of the older Leopard 1 was part of an effort “to support Ukraine in their endeavour to withstand Russian aggression”. The delivery would occur “within the coming months” and include logistical support and training.

• Germany’s defence ministry has said Leopard 2A6 battle tanks will be available to Ukraine by the end of March. The head of the German arms maker Rheinmetall has also said it expects to send 20 to 25 Leopard 1 tanks to Ukraine this year. Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Tuesday.

• Ukraine’s top national security official, Oleksiy Danilov, has said he is confident his country will eventually receive US-made F-16 fighter jets. It was “only a matter of time” before Kyiv gets the F-16s, Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, told CNN. He also suggested Ukraine may be capable of striking Russia on its own territory, beyond occupied Ukraine.

• Ukraine has released extraordinary video footage that appears to show Russian fighters dragging their badly wounded commander away from the battlefield, then beating him violently with what appear to be shovels. A Ukrainian drone captured the incident near the eastern city of Bakhmut, where intense fighting has been raging for months.

• Russia almost certainly lacks the munitions and units required for successful offensives, the UK Ministry of Defence has said. Its intelligence update stated it remained unlikely that Russia could build up the forces needed to substantially affect the outcome of the war in the coming weeks.

• Recriminations have broken out among EU officials after a possible visit to Brussels by Zelenskiy was leaked, raising concerns over his security. Zelenskiy was reported to be planning a trip to Brussels this Thursday to meet EU leaders in person at a summit and address the European parliament in an extraordinary session.

• Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has warned that western arms supplies to Ukraine are effectively “dragging” Nato into the conflict, which could lead to an “unpredictable level of escalation”. In remarks during a conference call with military officials, quoted by state-owned Tass news agency, Shoigu accused the US and its allies of “trying to prolong the conflict as much as possible” by supplying Kyiv with what he described as “heavy offensive weapons”.

Ahead of his UK visit, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged partners on Wednesday to counter the International Olympic Committees’ exploration of options to permit Russian athletes to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The remarks come a day after five Olympic committees in the Nordic region – Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway – urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from participating in international sports, according to AP news.

On Tuesday, Paris’s mayor Anne Hidalgo also said no Russian team should be allowed to compete at the Paris Olympics next year if Moscow continues its war against Ukraine, in an interview with France Info. The mayor went back on her previous remarks that Russian competitors could participate under a neutral flag.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrives in the UK today on his first visit since Russia’s invasion to address parliament and meet with prime minister Rishi Sunak and Ukrainian troops being trained by British armed forces.

Sunak will expand the training offered by the UK to include fighter jet pilots and marines “ensuring Ukraine has a military able to defend its interests well into the future”.

Sunak said:

President Zelenskiy’s visit to the UK is a testament to his country’s courage, determination and fight, and a testament to the unbreakable friendship between our two countries … Since 2014, the UK has provided vital training to Ukrainian forces, allowing them to defend their country, protect their sovereignty and fight for their territory.

According to Downing Street, under the training programme already running in the UK 10,000 Ukrainian troops have been brought to battle readiness in the last six months, and it will upskill a further 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers this year.

The UK will continue to work with the Ukrainian armed forces and the international community to scale the programme up in 2023, said No 10.

An announcement of further sanctions is also expected today, including the targeting of those who have “helped Putin build his personal wealth, and companies who are profiting from the Kremlin’s war machine”, the statement said.

In November, the UK government announced a fresh round of sanctions against 22 Russians, including those the Foreign Office said were involved in enlisting criminals to fight in Ukraine.

The Russian officials joined more than 1,000 others, including 120 the UK has sanctioned since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, among them Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian prime minister, and Roman Abramovich, the former owner of Chelsea FC.

Russia said on Wednesday that work to unblock Russian exports under the Black Sea grain deal was unsatisfactory, accusing the European Union of failing to deliver on its promises, the Tass news agency reported.

In October, the Russian government had written to the UN telling the international body that it was suspending for an “indefinite term” the Black Sea grain deal that allowed vital exports of food from occupied parts of southern Ukraine.

The July deal was designed to allow essential Ukrainian grain exports, that were backing up in the occupied area even as developing countries faced the threat of starvation without such supplies, to leave Russian-controlled Ukrainian territory.

A two-time Ukrainian Olympian skier is unable to train at home in the Carpathian Mountains because war in the country has damaged the power grid so severely that there’s not enough energy to make the chairlifts operate.

That’s one of the reasons why Ivan Kovbasnyuk thinks athletes from Russia and Belarus should not be allowed to compete at the next Olympics – or in any international sports events, AP reports.

After competing at the Alpine skiing world championships on Tuesday, Kovbasnyuk told the news agency through a translator:

It’s not fair when Ukrainian sportsmen don’t have a chance to participate in the Olympics because they are dying on the battlefields while Russian athletes are just silently supporting (Vladimir) Putin’s crime regime.

Kovbasnyuk added:

We will do everything in our powers to prevent them from being a part of the Olympic family again. And we will defend ourselves until the end, down to the last soldier, to the last person in Ukraine … Russia is killing my people. Not good situation for Olympic Committee.

The remarks came as five Olympic committees in the Nordic region – Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway – urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from participating in international sports, according to AP news.

On Tuesday, Paris’s mayor Anne Hidalgo also said no Russian team should be allowed to compete at the Paris Olympics next year if Moscow continues its war against Ukraine, in an interview with France Info. The mayor went back on her previous remarks that Russian competitors could participate under a neutral flag.

Here are the latest images coming from Ukraine: