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Vladimir Putin is determined to continue bombing Ukraine “until the end” despite a plea last night from Volodymyr Zelensky for face to face talks to halt the military assault.In a series of phone and video calls on Thursday, the Russian president accused Kyiv of using human shields and behaving “like Nazis”, hailed his fallen soldiers as heroes and claimed the invasion was going “according to plan”. He told members of his Kremlin security council that Russia has only bombed military facilities and his troops haven’t targeted residential areas – despite another day of carnage in which the bodies of Ukrainian civilians were recovered from destroyed homes.Putin reaffirmed his claim that the Russian military was fighting “neo-Nazis”, adding that some Ukrainians were also “fooled by nationalist propaganda”. In a call with French president Emmanuel Macron, Putin was so undaunted by international condemnation that an Elysee official bleakly concluded: “We expect that the worst is yet to come.”The official said Putin initiated the one and half hour call but insisted there would be no let-up in the invasion, blamed the West for the conflict and also “denied having bombarded Kyiv”. More

Ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine took place on the worst day of bloodshed so far since the invasion began, with dozens killed in attacks on the city of Kharkiv, and more heavy missile attacks on Kyiv, in which a major military radar complex was destroyed.The bombardment of the capital came after warnings of intense rocket and artillery barrages led to another exodus of residents. Ukrainian commanders said they expected Russian troops to once again try to push through towards the city centre, after previous attempts were repulsed.Western allies fear that the increasing use of rockets and tube artillery marks a shift in tactics, and will be stepped up in the coming days.“I fear that the way in which Russia has been frustrated in achieving its aims on the ground is leading to more indiscriminate fire, and as a consequence we are going to see more civilian casualties,” said one official.The violence, and the negotiations, took place on a day that saw increased sanctions by the international community further hammering the Russian economy, leading to interest rates being doubled to 20 per cent, while at one point the rouble sank by 30 per cent. Moscow’s stock exchange was shut down and will remain closed on Tuesday.Talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations at the Belarusian border ended in the early evening, with both sides returning to report to their respective governments. A second round is due to take place in the coming days, but expectations of a resolution of the conflict remain low. Kyiv has asked for a ceasefire along with the withdrawal of Russian troops. The Kremlin has not announced its position, but Vladimir Putin had previously demanded the full “demilitarisation” of Ukraine.As the talks were taking place, the French government said Mr Putin had told Emmanuel Macron he was prepared to suspend operations that targeted infrastructure and could lead to civilian casualties.But the assault on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, was said to have included the use of a BM-21 122mm Grad rocket launcher, which The Independent reported at the weekend was among weapons being moved towards Ukrainian cities by Russian forces. The arsenal also included TOS-1A thermobaric launchers along with BM-21 220mm Uragan and 300mm Smerch systems. All are area-denial systems, which are used not for precision strikes but for clearing stretches of ground.Senior western officials confirmed on Monday that the thermobaric rocket launchers had been seen near major cities, and warned that the Kremlin may want to revert to the Soviet doctrine of overwhelming force, with the probability of massive civilian casualties, if the lack of success they have so far experienced continues.Oksana Markarova – the Ukrainian ambassador to the US – claimed on Monday that Russia had used a thermobaric weapon as part of its assault on the country.The officials said that western states were keeping a close watch on the actions of the Russian military for any human rights abuses, and that those responsible, including individual commanders on the ground, would be held to account before international courts of law in the future.The Russian military went into Kharkiv on Sunday, mainly using armoured personnel carriers rather than tanks, along with comparatively light weaponry, and were driven out by Ukrainian forces after intense firefights. On Monday they resumed the assault with heavier weapons, using, it has been claimed, cluster ammunition.A school was destroyed in Okhtyrka, killing three people including a child. Amnesty International said the attack “appears to have been carried out by Russian forces, which were operating nearby, and which have a record of using cluster munitions in populated areas”.The organisation’s secretary general, Agnes Callamard, stated that “there is no possible justification for dropping cluster munitions in populated areas, let alone near a school”.American and British officials said there was further evidence of Russian armour advancing to surround Kyiv. One set of satellite images showed armour formations at Antonov airport on the outskirts of the city.Western intelligence sources have told The Independent that two Russian armies – the 41st Combined Arms Army (CAA) and the 1st Guards Tank Army – are heading towards Kyiv as part of an encirclement operation from three sides, with a fourth being considered.The threats of further attacks have led to more people leaving the capital. In Yaroslaviv Val Street in the city centre, the Bondarenko family were saying goodbye to each other. Two sons, Nicolai and Valentin, were staying behind to fight with the newly mobilised volunteer force, while their mother and three siblings were leaving for Lviv in the west of the country.Their mother, Ludmilla Bondarenko, said: “My heart breaks to leave my sons, but they want to stay and defend our city. I hope God will keep them safe and we can return here again soon. I also hope God punishes Putin for the terrible things he is doing, and that those Russians who support him are also punished.”Washington imposed severe new sanctions on Monday, blocking American institutions from transactions involving Russia’s central bank, finance ministry and national wealth fund.Switzerland has set aside its historic neutrality and announced that it would adopt all sanctions already imposed on Russia by the European Union.The EU has also barred all Russian planes from using its airspace, forcing Aeroflot to cancel its flights to Europe until further notice.“The economic reality has considerably changed,” acknowledged Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. “These are heavy sanctions, they are problematic, but Russia has the potential to offset the harm. Russia has been making plans for quite a long time.” More

Boris Johnson has said Vladimir Putin’s announcement that he is putting Russia’s nuclear deterrent on high alert are a “distraction” from the “difficulties that the Russian forces are experiencing” in Ukraine.Mr Putin said that Moscow’s nuclear forces are now on a “special regime of combat duty” in response to “aggressive statements” coming from Western powers and economic sanctions – an escalation branded “completely unacceptable” by the US.However Mr Putin’s brinkmanship on Sunday was dismissed by Mr Johnson, who said his actions were more to do with the fact that Russian military forces were meeting with “more resistance than the Kremlin had bargained for”.Mr Johnson also cast doubt on possible negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations to try to resolve the crisis.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed the two sides could meet on the Ukraine-Belarus border having initially rejected an offer of talks in Belarus.However Mr Johnson said he had seen nothing to suggest that Mr Putin was genuine in his offer.Follow our Ukraine war live blog hereFormer national security adviser McMaster says Putin is no longer ‘a rational actor’ More

The world is facing “a moment of peril” over the Ukraine crisis, the UN has warned, as the White House said Russian troops massed at the border were “ready to go” for a full invasion.The UN secretary general, António Guterres, told the UN general assembly in New York that it is time for “restraint, reason and de-escalation” to avoid “a scale and severity of need unseen for many years”.“It is time to establish a ceasefire and return to the path of dialogue and negotiation,” he said.But there were increasing signs that diplomatic efforts to avoid a war in Europe may be too late.A senior US defence official in Washington said the Russian forces arrayed along Ukraine’s border are “as ready as they can be” for an invasion, with about 80% in “forward positions, ready to go” within three to 30 miles of the border.In Kiev, Russia began evacuating its embassy and by Wednesday afternoon the Russian flag no longer flew over the building.Ukraine’s national security and defence council chief, Oleksiy Danilov, declared a national state of emergency, which was approved by parliament along with a law allowing citizens to carry firearms.Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has also called up reservists to the country’s army.In Britain, the culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, wrote to the regulator Ofcom about the Russian state-backed RT news channel, warning it could “look to spread harmful disinformation about the ongoing crisis in Ukraine”.In a response, Ofcom’s chief executive, Dame Melanie Dawes, said it had “already stepped up our oversight of coverage of these events by broadcasters in the UK”.The British defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said Vladimir Putin had gone “full tonto”, comparing him to Tsar Nicholas I during the Crimean War.Mr Wallace, a former Scots Guards officer, said his regiment had “kicked the backside” of the tsar in the Crimea and “we can always do it again”.The unguarded comments came as the cabinet minister spoke with serving military personnel at the Horse Guards building in Westminster.The crisis took a turn for the worse on Monday when the Russian president recognised two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, Donetsk and the neighbouring self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic. The move prompted a backlash and seemed to undermine diplomatic attempts to resolve the crisis.With a growing prognosis that the situation could end in war, the European Union was set to announce a stringent set of sanctions targeting Russian MPs and Moscow’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu. Also expected to be on the list was a St Petersburg troll factory. An announcement was expected later on Wednesday.The sanctions are expected to target several members of President Putin’s inner circle.The EU has been joined by Japan, the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada in announcing plans to target Russian banks and elites, while Germany has halted a major gas pipeline project from Russia.Pope Francis on Wednesday said the threat of war in Ukraine had caused “great pain in my heart”, and urged politicians to make a serious examination of conscience before God about their actions.On the ground in Ukraine, the Russian-backed leader of the breakaway Donetsk region said he wanted to peacefully settle its borders with Ukraine but reserved the right to ask “big Russia” for help.Denis Pushilin, who heads the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said he favoured dialogue with Ukraine. But he told a news conference the situation in their long-running conflict had become critical and that the separatists had accelerated a mobilisation of forces, in which healthy men between 18 and 55 have been called up to fight.“We will win. With people like this, we will win. With such a country, with big Russia, which we respect and value,” he said. “We have no right to lose, or even to doubt in our victory.” More

Belgian workers have been given the right to request a four-day working week from their employer without any loss of pay.The country’s government confirmed the change on Tuesday after negotiations with unions and business groups over labour reforms. Flemish liberal prime minister Alexander De Croo said the Covid-19 pandemic had led to “new ways of working” and that workers and employers would now be given more flexibility.Under the change, full-time employees will be allowed to do their job across four days if their employer agrees.Though bosses can reject the request, they will have to give a formal justification with “solid grounds” for doing so, in writing.Under the new settlement, workers will be allowed to work a maximum of 9.5 hours a day – the equivalent of 9am to 6.30pm. This is extendable to ten hours through a workplace trade union agreement.Announcing the measure on Tuesday in Brussels prime minister Mr De Croo said: “We have experienced two difficult years. With this agreement, we set a beacon for an economy that is more innovative, sustainable and digital. The aim is to be able to make people and businesses stronger.“Although the coronavirus is widely seen as having a negative impact on employees, it has forced us to work more flexibly and combine our private and working lives. This has led to new ways of working.He added: “The goal is to give people and companies more freedom to arrange their work time.”“This has to be done at the request of the employee, with the employer giving solid grounds in case of refusals,” Economy Minister Pierre-Yves Dermagne, of the Socialist Party, said.Under the changes, which are part of Belgium’s wider labour deal, employees will also be given the right to choose to work more one week and then less the following week.But four-day week campaigners warned that the details of the reform – which sees working hours compressed into fewer days rather than significantly reduced – needed improvement.Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, told The Independent: “We welcome more flexibility for workers to choose when they work but compressing a normal five day week into four-days is not the answer to tackling burnout, stress and overwork.“It’s essential that the move to a four-day week involves a reduction in working hours, with no loss of pay for employees.“To ensure the four-day week is implemented properly and the benefits are shared by all workers, trade unions must be at the heart of this transition.”Trials of four day weeks with no loss of pay and reduced working time have found significant increases in productivity and health and well-being benefits for workers. The largest such trial of reduced working time, in Iceland, where 1 per cent of the country’s population cut their hours to 35-36 a week, was branded an “overwhelming success” by researchers.Since 2020 Belgium has had a seven party coalition government taking in liberals, socialists, Christian democrats, and greens from across the country’s French-speaking and Dutch-speaking regions. More

Multiple offensives are being planned by Russia along Ukraine’s borders, with Kiev the main target if Vladimir Putin decides to attack, according to western officials.More than 60 per cent of Russia’s ground combat power, half of its air force, and a significant proportion of its special forces will take part in a huge invasion, with a Kremlin-backed regime installed if the capital is occupied, they claim.The alarming assessment comes amid last-ditch diplomatic efforts to prevent conflict, including a visit to Moscow on Tuesday by German chancellor Olaf Scholz.Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia was finalising its response to US proposals for easing tensions, indicating some room for talks.But Ukraine repeated its commitment to joining Nato – a key sticking-point – and president Volodymyr Zelensky declared that Wednesday, which US officials warned could be the date of a Russian invasion, would be a “day of unity” in his country.“We will hoist national flags, put on blue and yellow ribbons and show the world our unity,” he said.Foreign secretary Liz Truss, who chaired a Cobra meeting on Monday afternoon, repeated Britain’s warning that Russia could launch an invasion “almost immediately” and reiterated calls for Britons to leave Ukraine now.Boris Johnson and US president Joe Biden agreed in a phone call on Monday night that there remains a “crucial window for diplomacy and for Russia to step back from its threats towards Ukraine”.A Downing Street spokesperson added: “The leaders emphasised that any further incursion into Ukraine would result in a protracted crisis for Russia, with far-reaching damage for both Russia and the world.”Analysis of forces movements show that 100 battalion tactical groups (BTGs) out of a total of 170 in Russia’s armed forces are in place, with another 14 on their way, according to intelligence officials.The alarming scenario is the latest to be presented alongside western claims that military action is now imminent – but it does not stipulate that attacks could begin on Wednesday. More