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 akin to a declaration of war.
The number of refugees fleeing the Russian invasion could potentially 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.
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Nato has given the “green light for further bombing of Ukraine” by ruling out a no-fly zone. Zelenskiy 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”.
Zelenskiy is due to address US senators via videolink on Saturday.
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 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 the Zaporizhzhia power plant. 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.