At least 32 journalists have lost their lives in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion on 24 February, the country’s Institute of Mass Information said. This comes shortly after a French journalist died in a Russian bombardment that struck a vehicle he was riding in evacuating civilians from eastern Ukraine, officials said. French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the journalist saying: “Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff was in Ukraine to show the reality of war.”
Meanwhile, Russia on 24th February launched its invasion of Ukraine. And, according to the latest updates, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier lamented the delay in EU leaders imposing heavier sanctions against Vladimir Putin. “The pause in agreeing on new sanctions in Europe has been too long,” he said. Zelenskiy claims that Russia is blocking the export of 22m tons of grain from Ukraine’s ports and warned it posed a threat of famine. “Russia’s blockade of our exports is destabilising the situation on a global scale,” he said in his latest national address. Also, the latest sanctions package also includes removing access to Swift payments for Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank; banning three more Russian state-owned broadcasters; and further sanctions against “individuals responsible for war crimes in Ukraine”.