While some civilians have been evacuated from the Steel Works in the port city of Mariupol in Ukraine, Russia has unleashed rockets on to the area
A ceasefire supported by the UN and Red Cross allowed some to escape to Ukrainian-controlled Zaporizhzhia but many more remain trapped beneath the plant.
This comes as Russia continues its attack, particularly targeting Ukraine’s east and south with little luck in taking over the capital of Kyiv.
The West of Ukraine has also been a target in a bid to limit Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea from which the country receives much of its grain, metal exports and military aid.
Russia’s defence ministry claims its forces hit a military airfield near the port of Odesa with missiles, damaging or destroying missiles, drones and ammunition provided to Ukraine by Western countries.
The European Union is now planning on imposing new sanctions on Russia in response… affecting Moscow’s oil industry, banks and those behind disinformation.
“We are working on the sixth package of sanctions which aims to de-SWIFT more banks, list disinformation actors and tackle oil imports”
The EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell tweeted
Russia’s top lender Sberbank is expected to be targeted, excluding it from the SWIFT messaging system and a ban on imports of Russian oil by the end of this year is also in consideration.
The proposed measures will be presented to the 27 EU member states for approval on Wednesday.
Meanwhile US President Joe Biden has also urged Western nations to support Ukraine, emphasising how much US aid has helped Ukrainians in their fight against Russian aggression.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has hit back saying he could stop exports and deals.
The President signed a broad decree that prohibits the export of products and raw materials to those on a sanctions list that Russia’s government has been working on over the past 10 days.
This could cause chaos in markets allowing Moscow to stop exports and tear up contracts with an entity or individual it has sanctioned.
Putin specified that this move is a direct response to what he calls the illegal actions of the US and its allies to deprive “the Russian Federation, citizens of the Russian Federation and Russian legal entities of property rights or the restricting their property rights”.
