Will deploy Sarmat N-missiles: Putin; G7 raise Ukraine support to $39 bn

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would pay increased attention to boosting its nuclear forces by deploying a much delayed new intercontinental ballistic missile, rolling out hypersonic missiles and adding new nuclear submarines.
 

A year since ordering the invasion of Ukraine, Putin has signalled he is ready to rip up the architecture of nuclear arms control - including the big powers’ moratorium on nuclear testing - unless the West backs off in Ukraine.
 

Putin on Tuesday sought to underscore Russian resolve in Ukraine by suspending a landmark nuclear arms control treaty, announcing new strategic systems had been put on combat duty and warning that Moscow could resume nuclear tests.
 

In an address to mark “Defender of the Fatherland”  public holiday, known in Soviet times as Red Army Day, Putin invoked the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany to argue that Russia needed modernised armed forces to guarantee its sovereignty.
 

“As before, we will pay increased attention to strengthening the nuclear triad,” Putin said, referring to nuclear missiles based on land, sea and in the air, in an address broadcast on state television.
 

Putin, who casts the conflict in Ukraine as an existential struggle to defend Russia against what he sees as an arrogant and aggressive West, said the Sarmat silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles would be deployed this year.
 

G7 lends support
 

The Group of Seven (G7) nations on Thursday raised economic support to Ukraine to $39 billion for this year and urged an IMF programme for the country by the end of March, according to a statement released by the bloc’s current president Japan.
 

The decision came after a meeting of the bloc's finance ministers and central bank governors on the eve of the war's first anniversary. The conflict continues to rage despite sanctions by western nations meant to cripple Russia's financing of its “special military operation”.
 

Ukraine is hoping to clinch a $15 billion programme with the International Monetary Fund that will cover immediate financial assistance and support for structural reforms to underpin efforts at post-conflict rebuilding.
 

Ukraine imposes 50-year sanctions on Russian financial sector
 

Ukraine’s parliament imposed sweeping 50-year sanctions on Thursday on Russian financial institutions including the central bank, all commercial banks, investment funds, insurers and other enterprises.
 

The sanctions are part of moves by Kyiv to maintain financial pressure on Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year.
 

“It is a complete block on financial institutions of the Russian Federation accessing markets and assets in Ukraine. A complete block,” Andriy Pyshniy, governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, said on Facebook.
 

“We should weaken it with all available means. It is the financial sector which is a strategic ‘donor’ of this war.” An overwhelming majority of 325 deputies voted to support the measures, intended to be in place for half a century.
 

Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said the sectoral sanctions would affect hundreds of banks and tens of thousands of financial institutions registered in Russia.
 

Russia will not win this war: Spain’s PM 
 

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is due to meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on his visit to the war-torn country.
 

Sanchez was greeted by Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Evhen Perebyinis after he arrived in Kyiv by train on Wednesday morning. The premier was brought on a tour of Irpin upon his arrival, a town in the Kyiv region that was devastated by Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

UK supermarkets put buy limit on fruits, vegetables

Some of Britain’s leading supermarket chains have imposed purchase limits on certain fruits and vegetables amid a supply shortage due to adverse weather conditions and the knock-on effects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with the UK government warning on Thursday that the situation could last up to a month.

Tomatoes, peppers or capsicums, cucumbers, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and boxes of raspberries are among the produce being limited to around three for each customer by the likes of Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Aldi.
 

The shortage has been linked with bad weather in southern Europe and Africa as well as high energy prices restricting greenhouse farming in the UK and the Netherlands.
 

“We anticipate the situation will last about another two to four weeks,” Environment Secretary Therese Coffey told the House of Commons in response to an urgent question in Parliament.
 

“It is important that we try and make sure that we get alternative sourcing options,” she said.