Russia to 'cut back operations' near Kyiv, government minister says

Russia has banned the UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson and a list of other senior ministers from entering the country over what it describes as the UK’s “hostile” position regarding its war with Ukraine.

Boris Johnson has met President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. The Ukrainian embassy in London tweeted a picture of the two leaders meeting face to face.

Boris Johnson has been pictured in a meeting with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, after the UK’s Prime Minister arrived in Kyiv for an unannounced visit.

For the second time in roughly as many weeks, President Joe Biden called Russia’s Vladimir Putin “a war criminal” on Tuesday.

Dozens of people have reportedly been killed in a rocket strike on an eastern Ukrainian train station used for evacuating civilians. More than 30 people have been killed and dozens injured in the Donetsk region, in the city of Kramatorsk, when two rockets hit the station, according to the head of Ukraine’s railways Olexander Kamyshin.

who last month threatened to “smelt” his Oscars in public if Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky wasn’t invited to the 94th Academy Awards, made the assertions in a number of interviews on US television.Penn told The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC that Ukraine is “going to win this thing…it’s a certainty.” He pressed on the unity of the nation, adding: “It’s an exciting moment in history…They look at each other and they say we’re together.”The actor, who was in Ukraine recently to make a documentary film about Russia’s invasion, said that President Zelensky was an inspiration for the American people.“This is freedom of thought and true leadership that is just so moving. It’s the kind of moving that we need to be able to get [to the US], which is borderline a kind of populist lap dance of a nation at this point.

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky has compared Russian forces to Islamist terrorists for the horrific war crimes carried out by retreating soldiers.

The Oscar telecast included a moment of silence to show support for Ukraine, while making an appeal for donations.

Sean Penn gives the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences an ultimatum regarding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ahead of the Oscars tomorrow.  Penn, who took home the awards for Best Actor for the films Mystic River and Milk, told Acosta that the Oscars must have Zelensky on the program — otherwise, viewers and guests should boycott the ceremony.

said in an appearance on CNN Saturday afternoon.Penn, 61, has won two Oscars and vowed to “smelt mine in public” if Zelensky is snubbed by the Academy.The Ukrainian leader has been in talks with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to make a video appearance during Sunday’s broadcast of the Oscars ceremony. Penn met with Zelensky while in Ukraine in February, when he was filming a documentary about the nation’s tensions and now war with Russia.

Bill Maher has Oscar fever, as he admitted at the top of his HBO Real Time on Friday. The malady always makes him think of his mortage. That’s because “it seems to last 30 years and I have a very low interest rate.”

The head of France Télévisions Delphine Ernotte Cunci has said she “wouldn’t personally have applied censorship” to Russian news networks.

Amy Schumer has claimed that Oscars producers turned down her idea for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to appear via video link at the ceremony.The comedian is set to host next weekend’s ceremony alongside Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall, and noted how there are “so many eyes on the Oscars” that it would be an opportunity to highlight the Russian-Ukrainian war.Russia sent military forces into Ukraine on February 24, and The United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights estimates that the conflict has claimed 1,900 civilian casualties between that date and March 15. The UN (via the BBC) has also estimated that there are around 1.85million internally displaced people within Ukraine.Zelensky has also appeared via video link to appeal to a number of governments over the past few weeks, including the UK Parliament and the US Congress.Speaking on The Drew Barrymore Show, Schumer explained how she wanted to use the Oscars to put a spotlight on serious issues.“I actually pitched, I wanted to find a way to have Zelensky satellite in or make a tape or something just because there are so many eyes on the Oscars,” she said (via Yahoo).

Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has called for the country to ban all the work of Ukraine-born super-producer Alexander Rodnyansky as well as any film and TV work of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to Russian news site The Insider.