Russia-Ukraine war latest: Ceasefire talks ‘ongoing’ to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, says Ukraine – live

Aeroflot, Russia’s flagship carrier, has announced that it will halt all international flights except to Belarus starting March 8, reports the Associated Press.

It comes after the country’s aviation agency, Rosaviatsiya, recommended that all Russian airlines with foreign-leased planes to stop passenger and cargo flights abroad, citing the high risk of them being impounded as part of western sanctions.

Italian police have seized villas and yachts worth at least €140m (£126m) from four high-profile Russians who were placed on an EU sanctions list after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, sources told Reuters today.

A police source said a villa owned by the billionaire businessman Alisher Usmanov on Sardinia, and a villa on Lake Como owned by the Russian state TV host Vladimir Soloviev, had both been seized.

In addition, sources confirmed that yachts belonging to Russia’s richest man, Alexei Mordashov, and Gennady Timchenko, who has close ties with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, were impounded overnight in northern Italian ports.

Thousands have reportedly gathered in the city of Zaporizhia, in southeastern Ukraine, to join territorial defence forces against Russia.

Poland will not recognise any territorial changes brought about by “unprovoked, illegal aggression”, the country’s foreign minister, Zbigniew Rau, has said.

The comments, reported by Reuters, come after talks with US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

More from Kherson, where people have been demonstrating against Russia’s occupation:

Ceasefire talks with Russia are “ongoing” to create a humanitarian corridor out of Mariupol and Volnovakha, Ukraine has said after shelling halted the evacuation of civilians.

“The Russian side is not holding to the ceasefire and has continued firing on Mariupol itself and on its surrounding area,” said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, reports the Associated Press. “Talks with the Russian Federation are ongoing regarding setting up a ceasefire and ensuring a safe humanitarian corridor.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said Russia breached the deal in Volnovakha as well.

“We appeal to the Russian side to stop firing,” she said.

Zelenskiy has said that they are “doing everything on our part to make the agreement work”. He added: “This is one of the main tasks for today. Let’s see if we can go further in the negotiation process.”

Ukrainians in the city of Kherson, which was captured by Russia on Wednesday, have held a demonstration against the occupation:

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.

“This is the fastest moving refugee crisis we have seen in Europe since the end of World War Two,” the UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Grandi also said most refugees at the moment were connecting with friends and family already living in Europe, but warned future waves would be more complex.

Thousands of people from the rest of Ukraine have been arriving in the western city of Lviv each day. The city is less than 50 miles from the Polish border.

More than 1.3 million Ukrainian refugees have crossed the country’s borders after Russia invaded 10 days ago. Most have crossed into the European Union in eastern Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary and northern Romania. Here are some figures via Reuters:

• Poland has accepted nearly 800,000 Ukrainian refugees since the Russian invasion began on 24 February, according to the country’s deputy minister of internal affairs Pawel Szefernaker. More than 106,000 arrived from Ukraine in the last 24 hours, the highest figure since the invasion.
• Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said that 140,000 people have crossed into Hungary.
• Nearly 200,000 have fled to Romania. The government is expected to approve a decree on Saturday to use a buffer fund to finance the costs of housing an average 70,000 people per day for 30 days. Romania is asking for EU help too.
• Some 20,000 Ukrainians have entered Bulgaria, border police said.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Poland to discuss security and humanitarian assistance, Reuters reports.

Blinken is in Rzeszow, a south-eastern city close to the Ukrainian border where hundreds of thousands of people have crossed since the invasion began. Blinken will meet Polish officials, including the Nato and European Union member state’s foreign minister, Zbigniew Rau.

More than 1 million refugees have fled Ukraine since the invasion began on 24 February, mostly into Poland, according to the UN refugee agency.

Much of the military aid provided by Nato members to Ukraine’s government forces is passing through Poland. Nato has refused Ukrainian demands to enforce a no-fly zone over the country.

Blinken said on Friday that Nato, which he called a defensive alliance, was seeking to prevent the war from spreading beyond Ukraine. “We seek no conflict, but if conflict comes to us, we’re ready for it,” Blinken said, “and we will defend every inch of Nato territory.”

Reuters has this update on the partial ceasefire in Mariupol:

Authorities in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol said an evacuation of civilians planned for Saturday had been postponed as Russian forces encircling the city were not respecting an agreed ceasefire.

In a statement, the city council asked residents to return to shelters in the city and wait for further information on evacuation.

Mariupol’s deputy mayor told BBC News about the difficulties faced by the city’s civilians who were attempting to evacuate.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has called for safe routes to allow civilians to flee Mariupol. Multiple MSF staff members are sheltering in the city with their families – one staff member said:

The situation is the same as in recent days. This night the shelling was harder and closer. We collected snow and rain water yesterday to have some utility water. We tried to get free water today but the queue was huge. We also wanted to get ‘social’ bread but it is not clear the schedule and the places of distribution. According to people, multiple grocery stores were destroyed by missiles and the remaining things were taken by people in desperate need. Still no power, water, heating and mobile connection. No one heard about any evacuation yet. Pharmacies are out of medicine.”

Christine Jamet, MSF director of operations, called today for safe routes to allow civilians to leave the city, including MSF staff and their families: “Civilians must not be trapped in a war zone,” Jamet said. “People seeking safety must be able to do so, without fear of violence”.

From Shaun Walker, the Guardian’s Central Europe correspondent, in Ukraine. Bila Tserkva is the largest city in Kyiv Oblast.

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 British government said in a statement reported by Reuters.

It comes after Britain on Monday advised citizens against travelling to Russia due to a lack of available flight options and increased economic volatility.

The deputy mayor of Mariupol has said that people continue to be shelled as they try to leave the city. Deputy mayor Serhiy Orlov told BBC News: “At first our people said the shelling stops for a little time, but then it continues and they continue to use hard artillery and rockets to bomb Mariupol. People are very scared.”

Orlov said authorities in the city had received information that there is fighting “on the road to Zaporizhzhia” making it unsafe. “We understand that [the ceasefire] was not true from the Russian side, and they continue to destroy Mariupol. We decided to move our citizens back because it’s not safe to be on the streets.” He said the shelling of the city and fighting on the road to Zaporizhzhia makes it “impossible to evacuate people”.