(Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered the Russian military to cancel plans to storm the Azovstal steel plant inside the port city of Mariupol, where thousands of Ukrainian defenders and civilians are holed up.
FIGHTING
* Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said an agreed humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal factory had not worked as planned, blaming Russian forces. She said 1,000 civilians and 500 wounded soldiers needed to be brought out immediately.
* Russian forces are advancing from staging areas in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region towards Kramatorsk, which continues to be hit by rocket attacks, a British military update said on Thursday.
Russian warplanes are providing close air support to the offensive, and trying to suppress and destroy Ukrainian air defences, the UK Ministry of Defence tweeted in a regular bulletin.
* The mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, said it was under intense bombardment.
* British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said any peace talks were likely to fail, compared holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiating with a crocodile.
DIPLOMACY
* Top finance officials from Britain, the United States and Canada walked out of a meeting of finance officials from the world’s top 20 economies as Russian representatives spoke.
* The prime ministers of Spain and Denmark visited the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
* Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed a “global security initiative” that upholds the principle of “indivisible security” – the concept that no country may strengthen its own security at others’ expense.
* Italy’s ecological transition minister said his country could start being independent from Russian gas by the second half of next year.
* U.S. President Joe Biden will deliver an update at 9:45 a.m. (1345 GMT) as he works to complete a new arms package for Ukraine’s military.
ECONOMY
* G7 finance ministers said they have provided and pledged together with the international community additional support to Ukraine exceeding $24 billion for 2022 and beyond, adding they were prepared to do more.
* World Bank President David Malpass said the food security crisis caused by the war was likely to last months and perhaps into next year.
QUOTES
* “Russia likely desires to demonstrate significant successes ahead of their annual 9th May Victory Day celebrations. This could affect how quickly and forcefully they attempt to conduct operations in the run-up to this date.” – British Ministry of Defence bulletin
* “I cannot support the decision of Wimbledon, I think it is crazy. When politics interferes with sport, the result is not good.” – World number one tennis player Novak Djokovic on Wimbledon’s decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players
(Compiled by Philippa Fletcher, Tomasz Janowski, Grant McCool, Robert Birsel and Kim Coghill)
