Russia-Ukraine war latest: Zelenskiy calls for Nato military aid ‘without restrictions’, as western leaders gather – live

Thousands of residents from the besieged city of Mariupol have been “forcibly deported” to Russia, according to Ukraine’s foreign ministry.

Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesperson for the ministry, accused Russian of moving “to the next level of terror”.

The Biden administration and European Union are expected to announce a major initiative to direct shipments of liquefied natural gas to Europe during the US president’s visit to Brussels this week, according to US officials familiar with the plan.

The announcement would come as European officials have asked the US to do more to help them cut their dependence on Russian energy sources.

President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said an agreement would be announced as soon as Friday. According to one US official, it is intended to ensure supplies of American natural gas and hydrogen for Europe.

Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday:

A major priority for both the president and his European allies is to reduce the dependence of Europe on Russian gas, full stop, and the practical road map for how to do that – what steps have to be taken, what the United States can contribute, what Europe has to do itself.

Speaking to EU lawmakers in Brussels on Wednesday, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said all EU members “can contribute in reducing our dependency on Russian gas”.

Here’s more from President Zelenskiy’s address to Nato leaders today. Speaking via video link, the Ukrainian leader compared Russia’s advantage in the sky to the use of weapons of mass destruction.

Ukraine did not have powerful anti-missile weapons, and had a much smaller aircraft fleet than Russia, he said.

Therefore, their advantage in the sky is like the use of weapons of mass destruction. And you see the consequences today – how many people were killed, how many peaceful cities were destroyed.

Russia had been deploying “its entire arsenal” without restrictions in Ukraine, Zelenskiy said.

Destroys all living things. Any objects – from houses to churches, from food warehouses to universities, from bridges to hospitals.

He urged Nato countries to provide Ukraine with tanks to “unblock our cities that are now dying: Mariupol, Berdyansk, Melitopol, others”.

You have at least 20,000 tanks! Ukraine asked for a percent, 1% of all your tanks to be given or sold to us! But we do not have a clear answer yet.

The worst thing during the war is not having clear answers to requests for help.

The United States plans to accept up to 100,000 Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, two sources familiar with the forthcoming announcement told Reuters.

It was not immediately clear how the effort would work, including travel and immigration logistics.

Not all of the accepted Ukrainians would come through the US refugee programme, one Biden administration official said. Others would come on family-based visas or another process known as humanitarian parole.

The UK prime minister Boris Johnson is “the most active” anti-Russian leader, the Kremlin has said, the Russian state-owned news agency Ria reports.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the Russian news agency as saying:

As for Mr Johnson, we see him as the most active participant in the race to be anti-Russian.

It will lead to a foreign policy dead end.

Speaking before Nato and G7 summits in Brussels today, Johnson said the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, had already “crossed a red line”.

Allies must send new weapons to Ukraine, expand curbs on international payments and target Russia’s gold reserves, the PM said.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has been addressing the Nato summit where he appealed to leaders to increase military support for his country against Russian forces.

Speaking to leaders via video link today, Zelenskiy said:

To save people and our cities, Ukraine needs military assistance without restrictions.

In the same way that Russia is using its full arsenal without restrictions against us.

He thanked Nato members for the defensive equipment provided to Ukraine so far, but appealed for offensive weapons.

You can give us 1% of all your planes. One per cent of your tanks. One per cent!

The Ukrainian leader also accused Russia of deploying phosphorus weapons, without providing evidence or details.

This morning, by the way, phosphorus bombs were used. Russian phosphorus bombs. Adults were killed again and children were killed again.

The alliance can once more prevent the death of Ukrainians from Russian strikes, from Russian occupation, by giving us all the weapons we need.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has been addressing the Nato summit in a pre-recorded video address, where he appealed to leaders to increase military support for his country against Russian forces.

Zelenskiy warned Russia would next target alliance members in eastern Europe including Poland, Reuters reports.

I am sure you understand that Russia has no intention of stopping in Ukraine.

It wants to go further. Against eastern members of Nato. The Baltic states. Poland for sure.

The Ukrainian leader said he was grateful for the support Ukraine had received from individual member states.

But Nato has yet to show what the alliance can do to save people.

It feels like we’re in the grey zone between the west and Russia, but we’re protecting all our and your shared values.

The alliance can still prevent the deaths of Ukrainians from Russian strikes, from Russian occupation by giving us all the weapons we need.

Around 5.75bn Swiss francs (£4.68bn) worth of Russian assets in Switzerland, the world’s biggest centre for offshore wealth, have been frozen as a result of sanctions, a Swiss government official said.

That figure is likely to rise further, Erwin Hollinger, a senior official at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) agency overseeing sanctions, told a news conference today, as cited by Reuters:

Today, for the first time, I can give you an indication of the amount of frozen funds.

To date, SECO has been notified of funds and assets totalling around 5.750 billion Swiss francs.

Until now, the SECO had declined to provide an estimate of the extent of assets frozen or potentially subject to sanctions.

Bollinger added:

The cited number of far over 5 billion francs relates to a snapshot in time.

With further reports coming in and potential additions to EU sanctions lists, which Switzerland would also assume, it is likely this number will rise further.

Switzerland’s secretive banks hold up to $213bn (£161.42bn) of Russian wealth, the country’s financial industry association has estimated.

Hello, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong with you as we unpack all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.

• Western nations will warn the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Thursday that his country will pay “ruinous” costs for invading Ukraine during an unprecedented one-day trio of Nato, G7 and EU summits that will be attended by the US president, Joe Biden, in Brussels.
• Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he hoped for “meaningful steps” at the round of summits, noting they would reveal “who is a friend, who is a partner, and who betrayed us for money”.
• Zelenskiy has addressed the Swedish parliament, and told them that Ukraine deserves to be a full member of the European Union.
• Seven humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from Ukrainian towns and cities have been agreed for Thursday, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said.
• Ukraine appears to have struck against the large Russian landing ship Orsk which was unloading supplies at the port of Berdyansk, about 75km away from Mariupol. Video footage appears to show a large fire in the port.
• Russian forces have been accused of taking hostage the people of the besieged Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, as local officials imposed drinking water rationing on trapped civilians.
• The UK government has announced that it is applying 65 new sanctions against Russia “targeting strategic industries, banks and business elites” including the Wagner Group – sometimes described as Vladimir Putin’s private army – and Polina Kovaleva, the Russian foreign minister’s stepdaughter.
• UK prime minister Boris Johnson has said Putin has already “crossed a red line” that merits ramping up the west’s response, and that the West could target Russia’s gold reserves.
• Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has said that paying for Russian oil and gas in roubles, as Putin is demanding, would be ‘helping Russians kill Ukrainians’.
• Norwegian media is reporting that Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is set to extend his term as head of the alliance by another year due to the war in Ukraine.
• Russia has confirmed that at one point sanctioned Roman Abramovich did play a part in peace talks, but that now “the negotiations are between the two teams”.
• Russia’s ambassador to Warsaw has said that Poland has blocked the embassy’s bank accounts for allegedly financing “terrorist activity”. Bulgaria is recalling its ambassador from Russia “for consultations”.
• Our Today in Focus podcast today features the stories of people who have escaped from the besieged port city of Mariupol.

I am now handing over to Léonie Chao-Fong to take you through the next few hours of developments.

Bulgaria’s prime minister Kiril Petkov has announced that the country is recalling its ambassador to Russia for consultations, according to a snap report from Reuters.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has addressed the Swedish parliament this morning, and told them that Ukraine deserves to be a full member of the European Union.

He told lawmakers via videolink “We are not fighting just for the people of Ukraine, but for Europe’s security and we have shown that we deserve to be a fully-fledged member of the EU.”

The official account of Swedish prmie minister Magdalena Andersson tweeted it has an honour to have hosted Zelenskiy, saying that Swedish assistance to Ukraine was “increasing by the day”.

Later today Zelenskiy will also address the emergency Nato meeting in Brussels via video.