Russia-Ukraine war: children trapped inside Mariupol steelworks, warns Kyiv, as Russia says it has ‘securely blocked’ the area – live

As well as addressing that conference organised by the Wall Street Journal, it is anticipated that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will give a live address to the Danish nation tonight.

4 May marks the anniversary of Denmark’s liberation from Nazi occupation during the second world war, which Danes traditionally commemorate by placing a candle in their windows.

Danish newspapers Politiken and Jyllands–Posten are sponsoring two open air events in Copenhagen and Aarhus where Zelenskiy’s speech will be broadcast on big screens. The events will feature speeches by Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen in Copenhagen and foreign minister Jeppe Kofod in Aarhus, and incorporate a minute’s silence for victims of the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy gave a video address to the Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit in London earlier, which he has posted to his official Telegram channel. One of the key lines out of it was a refusal to allow the conflict between Russia and Ukraine to become a “frozen conflict”. Zelenskiy said:

We will not go to a frozen conflict. I came to the presidency when there was Minsk-1, Minsk-2. There were documents that were violated, so I can say these were not serious. However, there were arrangements on paper. It was a frozen conflict. I am against it. We will definitely not have such a document.

Several conflicts that arose after the dissolution of the Soviet Union are regarded as “frozen conflicts”, where hostilities are not active, but there has not been a definitive peace treaty or agreement to end the dispute. Examples include Transnistria in Moldova, and the Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

EU representatives have not yet reached an agreement about a proposed embargo against Russian oil, but they are expected to move closer to a deal at a meeting on Thursday, Reuters cites an official familiar with the talks as saying.

Envoys from the EU countries had their first discussion about the proposal today, according to the source, who said the meeting ended without a formal backing for the plan.

Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria raised concerns about the oil embargo, the source said, noting that a deal could be achieved at a new meeting of envoys tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria’s deputy prime minister, Assen Vassilev, said his country will seek an exemption if the EU agrees to allow exemptions on any embargo on Russian oil.

Vassilev said in an interview with financial newspaper Capital:

Bulgaria, technologically, can do without Russian oil crude, but that would push up fuel prices significantly. So, if the European Commission considers exemptions, we would like to take advantage of such exemptions.

Britain has banned all service exports to Russia as new sanctions against 63 individuals and organisations have been announced.

The measures, announced by Britain’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, would cut off Russia’s access to the UK’s accounting, management consulting and PR services.

According to the UK government, Russia is “heavily reliant” on service companies in Western countries, and cutting off UK services will account for 10% of Russian imports in the sectors affected.

In a statement, Truss said:

Doing business with Putin’s regime is morally bankrupt and helps fund a war machine that is causing untold suffering across Ukraine.

Cutting Russia’s access to British services will put more pressure on the Kremlin and ultimately help ensure Putin fails in Ukraine.

The government has also announced 63 new sanctions, including travel bans and assets freezes for individuals linked to Russian broadcasters and newspapers, and sanctions against mainstream media organisations.

Those sanctioned today include employees of Channel One, a major state-owned outlet in Russia, as well as war correspondents embedded with Russian forces in Ukraine. Organisations including state-owned broadcaster, All Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting, will also face sanctions.

Other media companies sanctioned include InfoRos, a news agency spreading “destabilising disinformation about Ukraine”; SouthFront, a disinformation website; and the Strategic Culture Foundation, an online journal spreading disinformation about the invasion.

Ursula von der Leyen says Putin must pay ‘high price’ as she proposes oil ban

Daniel Boffey

Russia’s chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, has joined criticism of remarks by the country’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who said Adolf Hitler “had Jewish blood” and that the “most rabid antisemites tend to be Jews”.

Lazar described Lavrov’s remarks as “shocking” and said he wished the minister would apologise. In a reply to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Lazar wrote:

I do not consider myself entitled to give advice to the head of Russian diplomacy — but it would be nice if he apologised to the Jews and simply admitted that he was mistaken.

I think it would then be possible to consider the incident settled and turn the page.

Lazar’s comments come as Russia accused Israel of supporting the “neo-Nazi regime” in Kyiv amid an escalating diplomatic row that has threatened to unsettle Israel’s careful position over Russia’s war in Ukraine.

On Monday, Israel summoned Russia’s ambassador to the foreign ministry and its foreign minister, Yair Lapid, called Lavrov’s remarks “unforgivable and outrageous … as well as a terrible historical error”.

Russia’s foreign ministry then doubled down on Lavrov’s words, accusing Lapid of making “antihistorical” remarks about the Holocaust that “largely explain the course of the current Israeli government in supporting the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv”.

Here are some recent comments from Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, who said Russia has been looking into various options as it braces for an oil embargo from the European Union, Reuters reports.

Asked about speculation that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, plans to declare war against Ukraine in a speech on 9 May, Peskov replied:

There is no chance of that. It’s nonsense.

The 9 May Victory Day is one of Russia’s most important national events and there is speculation that Putin could be preparing for a major announcement with a range of possible scenarios ranging from an outright declaration of war to a declaration of victory.

Peskov said that people should not listen to speculation that there could be a decision on a national mobilisation.

He also said no agreement had been reached on a possible meeting between Putin and Pope Francis, after the pope said he had asked for a meeting in Moscow to try to stop the war in Ukraine but had not received a reply.

More than 30 children still trapped in Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant, says mayor

People have described the ordeal of constant shelling and not seeing the light of day for months as the first convoys of civilians have been evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

Elina Tsybulchenko reached the relative safety of the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday with just under 200 others during a brief ceasefire over the weekend, in an operation overseen by the UN and the Red Cross.

The Russian military said earlier that some evacuees chose to stay in separatist areas, including Russian-controlled Bezymenne.

Ukraine has accused Moscow of taking civilians against their will to Russia or Russian-controlled areas – something the Kremlin has denied.

Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here again, taking over the live blog from Martin Belam to bring you all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.

Moldova has been making contingency plans for “pessimistic” scenarios amid fears that it could be drawn into the conflict in neighbouring Ukraine, the country’s president, Maia Sandu, said.

Speaking at a press conference with the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, Sandu said Moldova does not see an “imminent” threat of unrest spilling over from the war in Ukraine despite “provocations” by pro-Russian separatists in the breakaway region of Transnistria, who have reported a number of attacks and explosions there, which they have blamed on Kyiv.

Sandu and her government have blamed the incidents on “pro-war” separatist factions, and denounced comments last month by a Russian general that Russia aimed to seize Ukrainian territory to link up with the separatists in Moldova.

Ukraine has accused Russia of trying to drag Moldova into the war. The Kremlin has expressed “concern” over the situation in Moldova’s separatist region.

Asked whether she was worried about unrest in coming days, Sandu replied:

We see no imminent threat for the nearest future, but of course we have contingency plans for such scenarios, which are less optimistic or which are pessimistic.

She repeated her description of the unrest as “provocations” by separatists, and said Moldova’s police were doing what they could on their side of the Dniestr River to ensure stability.