Russia-Ukraine war latest news: rouble crashes as markets open; US condemns Vladimir Putin’s nuclear deterrence order – live updates | World news

It is 9.30am in Ukraine. Here is where the crisis currently stands:

• Recent British intelligence appears to corroborate with a recent report from Ukraine’s military that Russia had “slowed down” its offensive. Britain’s defence ministry has said Russia’s advance on Kyiv has been slowed by logistical failures and fierce Ukrainian resistance.
• The Russian central bank has increased interest rates to 20% from 9.5% after the rouble plunged up to 40% on Monday in the wake of western sanctions.
• The UK government announced a slew of measures “to prohibit any UK natural or legal persons from undertaking financial transactions involving the Russian central bank, the Russian national wealth fund, and the country’s ministry of finance”.
• Meta Platforms, the company formerly known as Facebook, said a hacking group used Facebook to target a handful of public figures in Ukraine, including prominent military officials, politicians and a journalist.
• The Russian rouble plunged nearly 30% to an all-time low versus the US dollar on Monday as markets opened for trading on the first day after western nations announced punishing economic sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
• The US stepped up the flow of weapons to Ukraine, announcing on Sunday it will send Stinger missiles as part of a package approved by the White House.
• A referendum in Belarus on Sunday reportedly approved a new constitution renouncing the country’s non-nuclear status at a time when the former Soviet republic has become a launchpad for Russian troops invading Ukraine, Russian news agencies report.
• A US official believes Belarus is preparing to send soldiers into Ukraine in support of the Russian invasion. The Washington Post spoke to an unnamed US administration official on Sunday evening who said the deployment could begin as soon as Monday.
• An update from Ukraine’s interior ministry late last night said 352 Ukrainian civilians have so far been killed during Russia’s invasion, including 14 children.The ministry said a further 1,684 people, including 116 children, have been wounded.
• Blasts were heard in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and in the major city of Kharkiv early on Monday morning, Ukraine’s state service of special communications reported. Meanwhile, about 150km north-east of Kyiv in Chernihiv, a missile reportedly hit a residential building in the centre of the city, causing a fire to break out, the agency added.

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Recent British intelligence appears to corroborate with a recent report from Ukraine’s military that Russia had “slowed down” its offensive.

Britain’s defence ministry has said Russia’s advance on Kyiv has been slowed by logistical failures and fierce Ukrainian resistance.

The ministry said on Monday:

The bulk of [President Vladimir] Putin’s ground forces remain more than 30km to the north of Kyiv their advance having been slowed by Ukrainian forces defending Hostomel airfield, a key Russian objective for day one of the conflict.

Logistical failures and staunch Ukrainian resistance continue to frustrate the Russian advance.”

Heavy fighting continues around Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine, and the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, the defence ministry said in an intelligence update posted on Twitter. Both cities remain under Ukrainian control, it said.

According to the latest operational report released by the Ukrainian military this morning, Russia has “slowed down its offensive” after firing on military and civilian airfields, military control points, air defence facilities and critical infrastructure.

The force added that Ukrainian artillery fire destroyed “more than five columns of enemy equipment and enemy manpower”.

“The enemy is demoralised and bears heavy losses,” the general staff of the armed forces said.

“Frequent cases of desertion and disobedience were noted. The enemy realised that propaganda and reality were different.”

Meanwhile, the military said approximately 5,300 Russian personnel had died since the invasion begun, as well as the destruction of 191 tanks, 29 planes, 29 helicopters and 816 armoured fighting vehicles.

The Guardian has not been able to independently verify these numbers.

The Russian central bank has increased interest rates to 20% from 9.5% after the rouble plunged up to 40% on Monday in the wake of western sanctions.

More on the financial curbs announced in the UK this morning. The government said:

The UK government will immediately take all necessary steps to bring into effect restrictions to prohibit any UK natural or legal persons from undertaking financial transactions involving the CBR, the Russian national wealth fund, and the ministry of finance of the Russian Federation.”

Britain said there would be more designations announced this week.

“These measures demonstrate our determination to apply severe economic sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” finance minister Rishi Sunak said.

“The Bank of England continues to take any and all actions needed to support the government’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said.

The new sanctions also include new restrictions on Russian financial institutions and measures to prevent Russian companies from issuing transferable securities and money market instruments in the UK.

Britain said it would have “a power to prevent designated banks from accessing sterling and clearing payments through the UK”.

The UK government has just announced a slew of measures “to prohibit any UK natural or legal persons from undertaking financial transactions involving the Russian central bank, the Russian national wealth fund, and the country’s ministry of finance”.

Specifically, it also aims to:

• prevent the Central Bank of Russia from using its foreign reserves of $630bn “in ways that undermine sanctions imposed by us and our allies”;
• stop designated banks from accessing sterling and clearing payments through the UK;
• strengthen significantly trade restrictions against Russia;
• prevent Russian companies from issuing transferable securities and money market instruments in the UK.

The Moscow Exchange has also delayed the start of trading this morning.

The exchange platform will open forex and money market trading at 10am Moscow time on Monday, three hours later than the usual opening time for the forex market, and will suspend trading on the forex repo market, the bourse said.

The Belarusian currency and stock exchange similarly said it would push back the start of trading by one hour on Monday as the market braced for a huge sell-off.

The news comes as the Russian rouble plunged to an all-time low on Monday, and the dollar soared against nearly all peers after western nations announced fresh sanctions to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s central bank confirmed on Monday it has ordered brokers to suspend the execution of all orders by foreign legal entities and individuals to sell Russian securities.

The bank also said in a statement it had yet to decide whether to open markets other than the forex and money market on Monday.

Powerful photos of Ukrainian citizens preparing homemade molotov cocktails to defend their territory are emerging.

Below, a group of women use empty bottles and other materials in the city of Uzhhorod in western Ukraine.

More than 90% of Ukrainians say they support president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, according to a poll conducted by the Rating Sociological group this weekend.

According to the data compiled from 2,000 respondents from across Ukraine, 91% of respondents backed Zelenskiy, while 6% said they did not support him and 3% remained undecided.

The support is a threefold increase from December last year.

Residents in Crimea and the rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine were excluded from the survey, according to the BBC.

When asked about the chances of Ukraine being able to repel the Russian assault, 70% said they believed it was possible.

The Belarusian foreign ministry has published a photo of the venue of today’s Russia-Ukraine negotiations.

“In Belarus, everything is ready to host Russia-Ukraine negotiations. Waiting for delegations to arrive,” the ministry said in a tweet around 9am local time.

It follows the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s announcement on Sunday that Ukrainian and Russian delegations will meet without preconditions at Pripyat in Belarus.

Zelenskiy said he was not confident that any progress would be made, but that he would try.

“I’ll say frankly, like always, that I don’t believe in the result of this meeting,” he said. “But let’s try, so that no citizen of Ukraine would have any doubt that I, as president, tried to stop the war when there was even a chance.”

While thousands of refugees are fleeing Ukraine as Russia continues its invasion, others have sought to return to their embattled homeland from Poland – some to reunite with family, some to fight.

“I am afraid, but I am a mother and I want to be with my children”, Lesa explained, as she readied herself to enter Ukraine, adding “it’s scary, but I have to”.

Watch their stories in the video below.