Ukraine

The Helsinki Times reports: Finnish Customs has placed a total of 21 yachts under a transfer ban on grounds of suspicion that they are owned by oligarchs or other individuals falling within the sanctions regime of the EU, Sami Rakshit, the head of the enforcement department at Finnish Customs, confirmed to YLE on Monday. Rakshit told YLE that customs officials …

Reuters reports: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that it would not be possible to negotiate an end to the war in his country without meeting Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin. Zelenskiy told European public television networks such a meeting could discuss the future of occupied Ukrainian territory, but more time would be required to resolve the issue. He also …

The Hollywood Reporter reports: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his thanks to Mila Kunis and her husband, Ashton Kutcher, for their efforts to help the people there amid its war with Russia. Kunis, a native of Ukraine who moved to the United States when she was a child, and Kutcher have set up a GoFundMe campaign that has so far …

ABC News reports: President Joe Biden has added a stop in Poland to his trip this week to Europe for urgent talks with NATO and European allies, as Russian forces concentrate their fire upon cities and trapped civilians in a nearly month-old invasion of Ukraine. Biden will first travel to Brussels and then to Poland to meet with leaders there, …

The New York Times reports: A Russian missile strike reduced a sprawling shopping mall in Kyiv to a smoldering ruin, one of the most powerful strikes to rock the center of the Ukrainian capital since the war began last month. City officials said at least eight people were killed, though the toll was likely to rise from the explosion around …

The Associated Press reports: Ukrainian officials defiantly rejected a Russian demand that their forces in Mariupol lay down arms and raise white flags Monday in exchange for safe passage out of the besieged strategic port city. Even as Russia intensified its attempt to bombard Mariupol into surrender, its offensive in other parts of Ukraine has floundered. Western governments and analysts …

The Associated Press reports: Ukrainian authorities said Sunday that Russia’s military bombed an art school sheltering some 400 people in the port city of Mariupol, where heavy street fighting is underway weeks into a devastating Russian siege. The strike on the art school was the second time in less than a week that local officials reported an attack on a …

Reuters reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin is healthy, sane and “in better shape than ever”, his close ally Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has said in an interview with the Japanese television channel TBS. “He and I haven’t only met as heads of state, we’re on friendly terms,” Lukashenko said in a recording of the interview. “I’m absolutely privy to all …

Politico Europe reports: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson compared the invasion of Ukraine by Russia to the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union in 2016. He argued both examples showed countries’ willingness to fight for their freedom. “I know that it’s the instinct of the people of this country, like the people of Ukraine, to choose freedom every time,” …

The Guardian reports: A gay rights activist from Kharkiv, Elya Shchemur was killed during the Russian bombardment of the city centre, her colleagues at Kharkiv Pride said on Thursday. She was killed at the local territorial defence office where she volunteered, they said. “Elya was an activist and a patriot: she participated in all possible actions and democratic events of …

The Hill reports: Former Presidents George W. Bush and Clinton visited a Ukrainian church in Chicago on Friday, laying down flowers in a show of solidarity with the nation. A video shared by the George W. Bush Presidential Center shows the 42nd and 43rd presidents each carrying yellow sunflowers in their hands, wrapped in blue and yellow cloth to represent …

Politico reports: The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last week quietly renamed its “Russian Lounge” — a room featuring the country’s art and culture paid for by one of its richest men, Vladimir Potanin — amid a backlash against Russia since the invasion of Ukraine. In 2011, Potanin [photo] donated $5 million to the Kennedy Center. He paid to …

The Verge reports: PayPal is expanding the services available to its Ukrainian users and waiving fees to help with humanitarian efforts in the country during Russia’s ongoing invasion. According to a news release, Ukrainians will be able to send and receive peer-to-peer PayPal or Xoom payments, and the company won’t apply its normal fees to either side of the transaction. …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis on Friday denounced the “perverse abuse of power” on display in Russia’s war in Ukraine and called for aid to Ukrainians who he said had been attacked in their “identity, history and tradition” and were “defending their land.” Francis’ comments, in a message to a gathering of European Catholic representatives, marked some of his …

Reuters reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin justified the invasion of Ukraine before a packed soccer stadium on Friday but coverage of his speech on state television was unexpectedly interrupted by what the Kremlin said was a technical problem with a server. Speaking on a stage at the centre of Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, Putin promised to tens of thousands of people …

Axios reports: Ukraine’s top national security official asked earlier this month for the U.S. to go beyond traditional military aid and provide the country with the funding, training and weaponry to support a long-term resistance movement, according to a letter obtained by Axios. Russia’s advances on the battlefield have largely stalled, prompting fears of a long, grinding war of attrition. …

The Washington Post reports: Russians “will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and will simply spit them out like a gnat that accidentally flew into their mouths,” said Putin, using language reminiscent of the Stalinist era. “I am convinced that such a natural and necessary self-purification of society will only strengthen our country.” He said …

The Insider reports: Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a direct appeal to Russian people and soldiers on Thursday, detailing the lies behind the Kremlin’s propaganda for the war on Ukraine. “Your lives, your limbs, and your futures are being sacrificed for a senseless war condemned by the entire world,” Schwarzenegger said in a video published by Attn. “So every …

Business Standard reports: A slew of drugmakers, including from the US, France, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK have halted exports of non-essential medicines to Russia, in the wake of its invasion into Ukraine, while continuing supply of critical medicines. Eli Lilly has said it will be stopping the exporting of medicines such as Cialis, a treatment for erectile dysfunction, while …

CNN reports: A theater where hundreds of people had taken shelter in Mariupol was bombed on Wednesday, according to local authorities, as hundreds of thousands of people remain trapped in the coastal Ukrainian city that has been encircled for weeks by Russian forces. Mariupol City Council, who shared an image of the destroyed building, said Russian forces had “purposefully and …