LIVE – War in Ukraine: Putin 'must pay', urges Biden to announce new sanctions

In a press release on Friday, Joe Biden confirmed hundreds of new sanctions to ensure Russian President Vladimir Putin “pays even higher prices for aggression (towards Ukraine) and repression” in Russia.

“If Putin doesn't pay for the death and destruction he is spreading, he will continue,” the US president warned in a statement, announcing an arsenal of moves targeting people linked to the imprisonment of Russian war opponent Alexei Navalny. machine, as well as a hundred companies that help Moscow circumvent the sanctions already in place.

After a two-year war of aggression against Ukraine, the European Union adopted its 13th round of sanctions against Russia.

“The package aims to further restrict access to Russia's military technology, for example drones, and to add new companies and individuals to the list of participants in Russia's war effort,” the number of entries on the list now exceeds 2,000. A blow to Russia's military and security,” the EU said in a statement.

“This package of measures provides an unprecedented number of 194 individual designations, including 106 individuals and 88 companies. The Union now exceeds the overall limit of 2,000 entries on the list supporting Ukraine,” the EU describes. “The new records target ten (Russian) companies and individuals involved in transporting North Korean weapons to Russia, the North Korean Defense Minister and several Belarusian companies and individuals who support the armed forces of Russia.

The Ukrainian military said on Tuesday that the Russian military had carried out about hundreds of attacks in the past 24 hours on Ukraine's eastern front, nearly half of them around Mariyinka, a new “hot spot” along with the Avtivka region.

“The enemy tried 43 times to break through the defenses of our troops” in the Mariyinka area, located in the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian General Staff noted in its morning report. The completely destroyed town of Mariinka was captured by the Russian army in December. The front in the region has largely frozen since then, but in recent days Moscow has stepped up its offensive to the west.

Public servants cite the Novomykhaïlivka and Pobeda areas in particular, which the Russian army claimed on Thursday, days after capturing the town of Avdivka after months of bloody fighting.

India's foreign ministry confirmed on Friday that some of its nationals had enlisted for “support jobs” in the Russian military, saying it was working with Moscow to secure their leave.

Around 20 Indians are stranded in various border towns on the Russian front in Ukraine, The Hindu reported on Wednesday. At least three of them were “forced” to fight alongside the Russians, the newspaper said.

The External Affairs Ministry has not confirmed that Indians have played a combat role in the conflict, but said in a statement that it is aware that a few Indian nationals have signed up for support jobs in the Russian military.

After two years of war, many Ukrainian soldiers are exhausted, explains our special correspondent at Q.

Vladimir Putin praised the “real heroes of the people” fighting for the Kremlin in Ukraine in his greetings on “Defenders of the Fatherland” Day, the second anniversary of an offensive against armed forces in Russia on Friday. Ukraine.

“In recent years, the enterprises of the military-industrial complex have increased the production of highly demanded weapons and supply to the troops,” greeted the Russian president, in a video released by the president, leading Moscow amid war efforts.

In its daily report published Friday morning, the Ukrainian General Staff announced overnight attacks by Russian drones and missiles in the country, noting that Ukrainian air defenses shot down 23 drones.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region (central east), Governor Sergey Lizak reported in a telegram a “horror night” where rescuers searching for people “searched among the ruins of a seriously damaged building” with “completely destroyed” apartments.

Ukraine continued to experience Russian missile and drone attacks on Friday, one of which killed three people in Odesa (south).

“Russian troops again attacked Odesa with drones and missiles,” Ukrainian police said in a Telegram, setting fire to civilian infrastructure before being brought under control. “As a result of the bomb attack, three people died,” the police added.

The head of state decided to organize a working meeting in support of Ukraine this Monday in Paris. Two years after the Russian invasion, the conference will help find solutions and aid for Ukraine. Emmanuel Macron calls on Europeans for a “collective explosion”.

• President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the US Congress to approve more military aid to his country, during an interview broadcast Thursday on Fox News, a channel favored by conservatives, which is currently blocking the $60 billion envelope. “Will Ukraine survive without the support of Congress? Of course. But not all of us,” Zelensky said, referring to civilian casualties since the Russian invasion nearly two years ago. According to the Ukrainian leader, the cost of helping Kyiv today is far less than the potential cost of confronting Russian President Vladimir Putin if he wins his war against Ukraine.

• Weakened by the failure of its summer counteroffensive and a lack of ammunition, the Ukrainian army faces a “very difficult” situation on the front line, which, by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's own admission, had to decide to give up last week. Fortified city of Avdivka (East). The Russian military said on Thursday it had captured the eastern village of Popeda, which Kiev did not immediately confirm, as it vowed to fight “in the area”.

• In the occupied part of the Kherson region (south), Ukrainian forces said on Thursday that around sixty Russian soldiers were “killed or seriously injured” when they attacked a training ground.

• The IMF announced on Thursday that the IMF will provide $880 million to Ukraine, the equivalent of the third tranche of a $15.6 billion aid package adopted in March 2023, nearly two years after the Russian invasion. The aid still needs to be approved by the IMF's Board of Directors.

• The United States will announce new sanctions against Russia on Friday, targeting more than 500 companies linked to “its supporters and its war machine,” a U.S. Treasury Department spokesman said Thursday. Two years ago, on February 24, 2022, he said, “This will be the biggest installment since Putin's invasion of Ukraine began.”

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday evening that he had told European Commission President Charles Michel that the border blockade by Polish farmers was “absolutely unacceptable.”

• Vladimir Putin took a thirty-minute flight on Thursday in a Tu-160M ​​supersonic strategic bomber from Russia's nuclear deterrent forces. According to Russian news agencies, it took off from the runway of an aircraft factory in Kazan, the capital of the Central Russian Republic of Tatarstan. The Tu-160M ​​is a heavy bomber capable of long-range nuclear and conventional strikes.

• France has trained around 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the French Armed Forces Ministry said during a press conference on Thursday. These training courses, offered “in France or Poland”, focus on handling specific equipment such as French Caesar artillery, specific techniques (mining clearance, tactical first aid), as well as general training knowledge. In combined arms warfare, the ministry said.

• French President Emmanuel Macron is organizing a meeting in Paris with leaders of other countries in support of Ukraine on Monday, two years after the Russian offensive, the Elysée announced on Thursday. The French president pointed out that it will “bring together many heads of state and government or their ministerial representatives in support of Ukraine.”

Hello everyone and welcome to this live broadcast dedicated to events in Ukraine.