Australia news LIVE: Russian troops surround Kyiv as Ukrainian President urges citizens to fight; NSW braces for floods amid heavy rain across the state

And this is where Sunday’s coverage ends. But I’ll be continuing our live coverage at Monday’s blog.

Please do join me there.

Here’s a recap of the top stories today:

Ukraine battles Russian troop surge as West sends weapons, cuts off Russian banks

Australia promises places for refugees fleeing war in Ukraine

Australia to send weapons to Ukraine, stepping up military aid

Trump calls Putin ‘smart’, warns of potential ‘world war’

Australian swimmers to boycott Russian meet as athletes join protests

Fleeing to the border: More than 150,000 Ukrainians seek refuge

Billionaire mining magnate Andrew Forrest says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine must add greater urgency to Australia’s push to reduce its exposure to international fossil fuel markets and become “energy independent” by shifting to green power

“We must be able to produce all our own electrons, our own energy molecules, make them right here in Australia ... reliant therefore on no one,” the Fortescue Metals Group founder and chairman said on Sunday. “The Middle East has taught us this before and [Russian president Vladimir] Putin is teaching us this now.”

Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, the chairman and biggest shareholder of iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group, is embarking on a major push into clean energy.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer.

Because Russia is a key supplier of coal, oil and natural gas, the impact of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine has rattled global commodities markets.

“The world’s dependence on Russia for certain commodities cannot be overstated,” analysts at natural resources consultancy Wood Mackenzie said. “There will be lasting implications.”

Click here to read the story.

Earlier the Ukrainians issued a plea asking for foreign fighters to come and join their defence against the Russian invasion.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss appears on the BBC’s Sunday Morning, Sunday, February 25, 2022.Credit: Screengrab/SundayMorning

Asked on the BBC’s Sunday Morning program if the UK would let its citizens join the fight, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the government would.

“I do, I do support that and of course that is something that people can make their own decisions about,” she said.

She added that the people of Ukraine were fighting for the whole of Europe.

“And absolutely if people want to support that struggle I would support them doing that.”

This map has just been released by the UK’s Ministry of Defence.

It shows the locations of Russian troops in Ukraine and the dual axes of attack.

As we were discussing in the previous post, you can see more clearly here how Putin used Belarus to such an advantage, positioning troops so that they could advance on Kyiv which the Russians have encircled.

A map released by the UK’s Ministry of Defence shows Russian troop locations in Ukraine.Credit: @DefenceHQ

Zelensky has just updated his Telegram channel again with a just a snippet of an update.

He said that he had spoken with Belarus’ Alexander Lukashenko.

Lukashenko let Putin use Belarus as a base for Russian troops, who invaded Ukraine via the Belarus-Ukraine border. He has been condemned by the international community as Putin’s “enabler.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko pose for a photo during their meeting in St Petersburg, Russia in July, 2021.Credit: Sputnik

The Belarusian capital, Minsk, was proposed by Putin as the place for “negotiations” to take place, although the Russian leader insisted on Ukraine surrendering and giving up its arms, as well as denouncing its NATO ambitions for those talks to proceed.

Zelensky rejected that offer and also said that he would not conduct any negotiations in Minsk given Belarus enabled the Russian invasion.

We’ll bring you more details of what was said in that conversation if and when more details come in.

Hello, it’s Latika Bourke here in London taking you through the unfolding war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has released another video on his Telegram channel and, interestingly, with English subtitles.

He said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine constituted actions that showed signs of “genocide.”

He said he spoke with the UN’s Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about stripping Russia of its veto rights on the UN Security Council.

And just a short time ago, he said in a Twitter post that Ukraine wants the International Court of Justice to order Russia cease military action and wants a trial to begin as soon as this week.

The Czech Republic joined Poland and Sweden on Sunday in rejecting the to play Russia in the 2022 World Cup qualifying next month in response to that nation’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Czech soccer association’s executive committee said it “unanimously approved a decision that the Czech national team will not, in any case, play Russia.”

The soccer federations of Poland and Sweden made the same decision on Saturday.

The Czech Republic is a potential opponent of Russia in next month’s playoffs. The winner of the Poland-Russia match is due to host Sweden or the Czech Republic on March 29 for a place at the World Cup being played in Qatar from Nov. 21-Dec. 18.

The executive committee asked Czech soccer federation head Petr Fousek to lead negotiations with UEFA and FIFA about the Czech position.

“The Czech FA executive committee, staff members and players of the national team agreed it’s not possible to play against the Russian national team in the current situation, not even on the neutral venue,” the federation said in a statement.

“We all want the war to end as soon as possible.”

AP

Germany will sharply hike its spending on defense to more than two per cent of its economic output in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told an extraordinary session of the Bundestag lower house of parliament on Sunday.

“We will have to invest more in the security of our country to protect out freedom and democracy,” he said, adding the government had decided to supply 100 billion euros for military investments from its 2022 budget.

Germany has long resisted pressure from the United States and others to raise its defense spending to two per cent of economic output in the light of its bloody 20th century history and resulting strong pacifism among its population.

But it has made a turnabout on various longstanding policies in recent days, including its refusal to deliver weapons to conflict zones, agreeing to send Ukraine defensive anti-tank weapons, surface-to-air missiles and ammunition.

“There could be no other answer to Putin’s aggression,” Scholz told lawmakers.

Reuters

Britain’s defense ministry says overnight fighting in Kyiv was less intense than the night before, but battles are raging in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv.

The UK’s Ministry of Defense has been posting intelligence updates on social media since Russia invaded.

An armed civil defense man patrols an empty street due to curfew in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday.Credit: EFREM LUKATSKY

It said Sunday that “Ukrainian forces have engaged the remnants of Russian irregular forces within the city of Kyiv for the second night in a row, fighting has been at a lower intensity than the previous evening.

“After encountering strong resistance in Chernihiv, Russian forces are bypassing the area in order to prioritise the encirclement and isolation of Kyiv,” it said. “Intensive exchanges of rocket artillery overnight have been followed by heavy fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in Kharkiv.”

The ministry said Russian forces are continuing to advance into Ukraine from multiple axis but they are encountering stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces.

AP

Jaroslav Koptchak moved to Australia from Ukraine in 1992 but has returned most years to see his mother and brother who still live in the city of Lviv, in the country’s west.

Even though his family, more than 700 kilometres from the Russian border, was comparatively safe, when he was asked on Sunday how they were coping with the Russian invasion, he filled with emotion.

Jaroslav Koptchak marches on Sunday with his four-year-old daughter Margaret.Credit: Paul Jeffers

“I need to be there,” said Mr Koptchak, who was at a rally in Federation Square to support the people of Ukraine.

He said his brother could drive to Poland 20 kilometres away if he needed to flee quickly.

Click here to read the story.