Former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt is calling for the UK to increase its defence spending to the same level of GDP as the US, writing in The Daily Telegraph: “Peace comes from strength, not luck.”
The Times says that Kyiv is “ready to face the onslaught” – and reports that the capital’s remaining residents are preparing to defend themselves by “relying on trenches, sandbags and relentless optimism”.
Vladimir Putin is closing on Kyiv, the i reports – and on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, Russian forces are “systematically targeting people who try to escape siege or find food supplies, leaving the streets littered with corpses”.
Britain became the first country to sanction Roman Abramovich on Thursday with ministers accusing him of having “blood on his hands” because of links to President Putin, The Times says.
Oligarch Roman Abramovich will be facing his own cost of living crisis after being hit with UK sanctions, the Daily Star writes.
Priti Patel’s changes to the UK’s scheme to welcome Ukrainian refugees do not go “anywhere near far enough”, The Independent says.
Another two million people are set to flee Ukraine within days – the Daily Mail claims – raising pressure on Britain to welcome more refugees.
The Daily Express says Vladimir Putin hit back at the West’s crippling sanctions on Thursday by threatening to send global food prices soaring and imposing his own export bans.
