Russia Ukraine war latest: Putin ‘ready to freeze war’ as Kyiv ‘secures combat control’ around Kharkiv

Norway on Thursday said it will further tighten its restrictions on the entry of people from Russia, saying those with tourist visas issued by Norway before regulations were tightened in 2022 or issued by another European country will be barred from entering the Scandinavian country as of next week.

Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl said the tightening was a response to “Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.”

Norway has a 198-kilometer (123-mile) -long border with Russia in the Arctic.

Russian strikes on a crowded DIY hardware store in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Saturday killed at least two people, wounded many more, and triggered a huge blaze that fire crews were battling to contain, regional officials said.

Oleh Syniehubov, Kharkiv regional governor, said via the Telegram messaging app that two guided bombs had hit the DIY hypermarket in a residential area of the city. He said 24 people were injured along with the two confirmed deaths.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said many people were unaccounted for but gave no immediate figures. Officials said up to 200 people could have been in the hypermarket at the time of the strikes.

“The attack targeted the shopping centre, where there were many people – this is clearly terrorism,” Terekhov said.

Reuters video footage showed huge clouds of dark smoke rising into the sky from the site with firefighters’ vehicles and rescuers heading to the scene.

Rescuers, medics and journalists rushed away from the building and lay flat on their stomachs, fearing the possibility of a second strike – a common feature of Russia‘s recent attacks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived Thursday in Belarus for a two-day visit as part of several foreign tours to kick off his fifth term in office, underscoring close ties with a neighboring ally that has been instrumental in Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.

Putin traveled to China earlier this month, and is expected in Uzbekistan on Sunday. Earlier on Thursday, the Russian president hosted Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in the Kremlin.

Finance officials from the Group of Seven rich democracies said they had moved toward agreement on a U.S. proposal to squeeze more money for Ukraine from Russian assets frozen in their countries. But the ministers left a final deal to be worked out ahead of a June summit of national leaders.

“We are making progress in our discussions on potential avenues to bring forward the extraordinary profits stemming from immobilized Russian sovereign assets to the benefit of Ukraine,” the draft statement said, without providing details.

Despite the progress made at the the meeting in Stresa, on the shores of Lago Maggiore in northern Italy, a final decision on how the assets will be used will rest with the G7 national leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, next month at their annual summit in Fasano, in southern Italy.

The Russian assault on the Ukraine’s northeastern region of Kharkiv threatens to leave thousands of newly-displaced civilians without homes, UN officials and aid workers have told The Independent, as the United Nations grapples with an “extremely worrying” shortage of humanitarian aid.

The Biden administration announced on Friday an additional $275 million in military aid for Ukraine as Kyiv struggles to hold off advances by Russian troops in the Kharkiv region.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the package, which was previewed on Thursday by two U.S. officials, “is part of our efforts to help Ukraine repel Russia’s assault near Kharkiv.”

“Assistance from previous packages has already made it to the front lines, and we will move this new assistance as quickly as possible so the Ukrainian military can use it to defend their territory and protect the Ukrainian people,” Blinken said in a statement.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Friday called the removal of Estonian buoys by Russian border guards on a river separating the Baltic country from Russia “unacceptable,” and demanded an explanation from Moscow and the immediate return of the orange floating devices.

Early Thursday, Estonian border guards noticed that their Russian counterpart had removed 25 of the 50 buoys that Estonia had installed on the Narva River to prevent boats from accidentally crossing the border.

Borrell said the incident “is part of a broader pattern of provocative behavior and hybrid actions by Russia.”

Hungary will seek to opt out of any NATO operations aimed at supporting Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Friday, suggesting that the military alliance and the European Union were moving toward a more direct conflict with Russia.

Orbán told state radio that Hungary opposes a plan NATO is weighing to provide more predictable military support to Ukraine in coming years to repel Moscow’s full-scale invasion, as better armed Russian troops assert control on the battlefield.

“We do not approve of this, nor do we want to participate in financial or arms support (for Ukraine), even within the framework of NATO,” Orbán said, adding that Hungary has taken a position as a “nonparticipant” in any potential NATO operations to assist Kyiv.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Saturday that a loan for Ukraine backed by the income from frozen Russian sovereign assets is the “main option” for G7 leaders to consider in June but added that she doesn’t want to “take anything off the table as a future possibility.”

Yellen told reporters at the end of a G7 finance meeting in northern Italy that the plan has broad-based support and there is “quite a bit of work to be done” to make it a reality, adding that the 27-member European Union needs to endorse it.

“It needs to be fleshed out within the EU so that it can become a proposal that the EU endorses, and that’s a lot of countries,” Yellen said. “It’s not a given, so I’m not saying this is a totally done deal.”