Ukraine–Russia war latest: Zelensky pushes for Nato to back his ‘victory plan’

Laws that would outlaw “propaganda” discouraging Russians from having children were overwhelmingly approved on Thursday in the first of three readings in the lower house of parliament.

The legislation would ban materials on the internet, in the media and in advertising that are deemed to portray a child-free lifestyle as attractive, and subject the authors to fines.

Vladimir Putin, who portrays Russia as a bastion of “traditional values” locked in an existential struggle with a decadent West, has encouraged women to have at least three children to secure the demographic future of the country – but data last month revealed Russia’s birth rate had fallen to its lowest in around 25 years.

Deputy Duma speaker Anna Kuznetsova said earlier this month that the law was part of Russia’s “national security strategy”, and it is being championed by Vyacheslav Volodin, a powerful Putin ally who is chair of the lower house.

Mr Volodin has accused what authorities have described as the “child-free movement” of devaluing the institution of family with an ideology that encourages a “conscious refusal to have children”. He has said, however, that the law is not about criminalising women who decide not to become mothers.

The UK has imposed sanctions on 18 further Russian oil tankers and four liquified natural gas vessels, marking the largest batch of sanctions to date against Moscow’s so-called “shadow fleet”, the government said.

The 18 oil tankers will be barred from UK ports and unable to access British maritime services, bringing the total number of sanctioned Russian oil tankers to 43, while the UK is also sanctioning Russian gas company Rusgazdobycha JSC.

“The UK’s relentless action against the shadow fleet is putting grit into the system and starving Putin’s war machine of crucial revenues,” the government said, adding the targeted oil tankers have transported an estimated £4.9bn last year.

The Department for Transport is also working with maritime authorities to demand that Russian vessels with suspected dubious insurance provide details of their insurance status as they pass through the Channel.

“Any actor that facilitates and supports Russia’s malign activities could be exposing themselves to sanctions,” the government said.

Australia will give 49 of its aging M1A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine months after Kyiv requested the redundant fleet, defence minister Richard Marles has said.

The Australian government is giving Ukraine most of its American-made M1A1 tanks, which are valued at around £126m, Mr Marles said. They will be replaced in Australia by a fleet of 75 next-generation M1A2 tanks.

In February, Marles had said that giving Ukraine the tanks as they were phased out was not on his government’s agenda. But on Thursday he said he did not regard the donation as a U-turn on his government’s previous position.

“We talk with the Ukrainian government consistently around how best we can support them,” Mr Marles told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that support from Ukraine’s Western allies is key to his “victory plan” to end the country’s war with Russia, as he laid out details of the plan to European Union leaders.

The plan aims “to strengthen Ukraine” and pave the way for a diplomatic solution to end the conflict on Europe’s eastern flank, Mr Zelensky told reporters ahead of the EU summit.

“I think that this plan doesn’t depend on Russian will, only on the will of our partners,” he said.

Russia has claimed that its forces have taken control of the village of Maksymilianivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Russian state-run news agency RIA reported.

It comes a day after Ukraine rejected Russian claims to have captured the villages of Krasnyi Yar and Nevske, insisting that its forces had repelled Russian attacks in both locations.

The UK’s involvement in European air defence and long-range missile development is a sign of the “new determination to work more closely” with continental allies, defence secretary John Healey has said.

Thousands of UK troops will be put on stand-by to deploy to Estonia’s border with Russia under a new agreement Britain has signed with the Baltic nation in another sign of the commitment to European defence, Mr Healey said at a meeting of Nato counterparts.

Arriving at Nato headquarters in Brussels, Mr Healey said: “Today, we will make the commitment to reinforce Nato’s eastern flank with a new plan alongside Estonia for our forces there.

“And we will make a commitment, a UK commitment, to bolstering the future of Europe’s defences, leading a new initiative to net together the European air defence systems and to work together with other European allies to develop long-range missiles.

“This is part of the UK’s new determination to work more closely with other European allies on security for the future, and Europe’s security is guaranteed by this Nato alliance.”

Volodymyr Zelensky is seeking to persuade EU officials and Nato members to back his “victory plan” to end Russia’s war as he attends two crucial meetings in Brussels.

The Ukrainian president will address a summit of EU leaders on Thursday before making his case to Nato defence ministers, at a meeting which marks the first time the Western military alliance has met since the Ukrainian president unveiled the five-point plan.

Mr Zelensky outlined the five-point plan to Ukraine’s parliament on Wednesday without disclosing confidential elements that have been presented in private to key allies, including the United States.

Reaction was muted at Nato, however, where secretary-general Mark Rutte said only that he and the allies “take note” of it. He did not discuss when Ukraine might join the world’s biggest military alliance – one of five key points of the plan – beyond insisting that it would eventually become a member.

“The plan has many aspects and many political and military issues we really need to hammer out with the Ukrainians to understand what is behind it, to see what we can do, what we cannot do,” Mr Rutte said at Nato headquarters in Brussels.

Nato must boost its support of Ukraine in the months ahead to pressure Russia and to ensure Ukraine can prevail in the war, the UK’s defence secretary John Healey has said.

Speaking ahead of the Nato meeting in Brussels, Mr Healey told reporters: “We must do everything we can to step up our support for Ukraine in the weeks and months ahead, to put more pressure on Russia to ensure that Ukraine can prevail, because the defence of Europe starts in Ukraine.

“We owe them that duty to stand with them as long as it takes,” he said.

Latvia supports Volodymyr Zelensky’s “Victory Plan”, the country’s defence minister Andris Spruds has said.

Speaking to reporters ahead of today’s Nato meeting, Mr Spruds added that air policing by the Western military alliance over the Baltic states to the defence mission must be upgraded.