At least 10 people have died and 15 are wounded after Russian forces shelled a coke plant in the city of Avdiivka, in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has passed a law that bans political parties that justify, recognise or deny Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine.
Putin told Macron “western countries could help stop the crimes of the Ukrainian military”. Putin is also reported to have told Macron about the Russian approach to negotiations with Kyiv.
Russia has launched an attack on the Azovstal steel works in Mariupol, Ukraine, where 200 civilians remain trapped underground.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that a convey of civilians evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in besieged Mariupol has reached Zaporizhzhia.
Germany’s opposition leader has travelled to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian officials, after the country’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, made clear he would not be visiting Ukraine any time soon.
Addressing the Ukrainian parliament virtually on Tuesday, Boris Johnson said “Ukraine will win” against Russia, and “will be free”. Johnson was the first world leader to address the Verkhovna Rada since the conflict began.
Moscow accused Israel of backing the “neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv”. The remarks are the latest in Russia’s diplomatic row with Israel, after the Kremlin’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Monday that Adolf Hitler “had Jewish blood”.
Putin ordered retaliatory sanctions against the west. The names of individuals or entities affected by the measures are not included on the document.
Britain has said it will provide £300m ($375m) more in military aid to Ukraine, including electronic warfare equipment and a counter-battery radar system, on top of around £200m pounds of assistance so far, Reuters reports.
