15:52
Heineken, the second largest brewer in the world, has announced that it will cease operations in Russia. The cessation of operations will cost the Dutch company 400 million euros. In an official statement the company announced: “We have decided that Heineken’s ownership of businesses in Russia is no longer possible due to the current environment. As a result, we have decided to leave Russia.”
Earlier this month, the company stated that it would stop new investments and exports to Russia. Heineken is now the first international beer company to leave Russia, increasing pressure on rival Denmark’s Carlsberg, which owns Russia’s largest brewery, the Baltics.
In her statement, Heineken added that she is “sad and appalled as the war in Ukraine intensifies”, noting that she will transfer her business in Russia to new non-profit owners and stressed that all 1,800 workers in Russia will receive their salaries by the end of 2022.
Earlier, the liberal Russian newspaper Nubia Gazeta, whose editor Dmitry Mortov won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, announced that he would suspend his publication until “the end of the special operation in Ukraine.” The announcement comes after the newspaper received a second warning from the Russian media organization Roskumendzor, noting that Nubia Gazeta did not refer to a non-governmental organization in one of its publications as a “foreign agent”, as is customary in Russian law.
15:37
Ukraine’s Minister of Economic Development and Trade wrote in a Facebook post that the cost of the Russian invasion of Ukraine stands at $ 564.9 billion in terms of infrastructure damage, unrealized economic growth and other factors.
Minister Yulia Svirdenko noted in the post that the fighting hit 8,000 kilometers of paved roads and 10 million square meters of houses.
11:15
Ukraine has no plans to open humanitarian corridors to evacuate a civilian population today, due to intelligence reports warning of Russian “provocations” in civilian evacuation routes. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Varchuk officially announced this morning. Recall that last night only a total of two lanes were opened, with one of them being to and from Mariupol.
Even in Mariupol, the city is facing a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions and must be completely evacuated, Mayor Vadim Boychenko said today. He stressed that about 160,000 citizens are trapped in the besieged city without electricity or running water, and the food supply is running low. According to city officials, 26 buses were ready to evacuate residents from the city, but Russian military forces are preventing the evacuation and refusing to allow a safe passage. “The Russian Federation is playing in us,” Boychenko said.
In addition, the International Committee of the Red Cross has officially announced that it can not reach Mariupol to rescue the wounded.
9:16
Authorities in several German provinces have announced they will ban the display of the letter Z in public if it expresses support for the war Russia launched against Ukraine about a month ago. The Senate of Internal Affairs in the state of Berlin said that the use of the letter, displayed on Russian weapons of war as part of the invasion of Ukraine, was “against the law” because it was incitement to war. In recent days, several vehicles have been documented in Germany and abroad whose owners express solidarity with the Russians through the use of the letter. The states of Bavaria and Lower Saxony have already announced a similar move over the weekend, and initiatives to ban the display of the signal are gaining momentum in other provinces. The Berlin senator noted that the display of the letter “expresses support” for the crimes, and the maximum penalty for that is three years in prison.
6:45
Ahead of the resumption of talks between the Russian delegation and the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zalansky calls for “immediate peace.” In addition, the Ukrainian president attacked Western countries that he claimed were not helping his country enough and once again asked for tanks and planes. After it was reported that Ukraine would agree to compromises regarding the separatist districts in the east of the country, Zalansky stressed the importance of the territorial integrity of his country. Another Ukrainian official claimed that Russia was trying to split Ukraine in two – like the division of North and South Korea.
US President Joe Biden denies calling for the ouster of Russian President Vladimir Putin in his speech in Warsaw.