War in Ukraine. Day five. What's happening now. Updated

On the night of February 24, Vladimir Putin announced the start of a “special military operation” in Ukraine with the aim of “protecting the residents of Donbass.”

We continue to monitor the main events in our online. Read about how events developed online for February 24 . About the main events on February 25 here

We reported on the events of the third day online here. Read the main events of the fourth day here.

Please remember: during military operations, you cannot trust anyone completely with information about the progress of a military operation.

13:00

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry reported that the platform for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine has been prepared, and the arrival of delegations is expected. Negotiations are due to take place in the coming hours.

12:45

Oil prices have risen sharply amid the introduction of new Western sanctions against Russia.

The price of April futures for Brent on the London ICE Futures exchange at 8:15 Moscow time was $103.15 per barrel, which is $5.22 (5.33%) higher than the closing price of the previous session. Following the results of trading on February 25, these contracts fell in price by $1.15 (1.2%), to $97.93 per barrel.

12:30

Kiev City State Administration reports :

“In general, this night passed peacefully, there were several clashes and battles, but that night the city prepared for defense.” The administration warned residents that grocery stores would open in the city at 8 a.m. (9 a.m. Moscow time). Residents were warned that fortifications, anti-tank hedgehogs and other fortifications were installed on the streets.”

The curfew has not been lifted. From February 28, it will last, as previously reported, from 22:00 to 7:00.

12:15

South Korea has banned the export of strategic materials to Russia. South Korea, “as part of joining international sanctions against Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine,” has banned the export of strategic materials to Russia, the Yonhap news agency reported , citing the Foreign Ministry. According to the agency, Seoul also plans to join in the exclusion of Russia from the SWIFT payment system.

12:00

Trading in shares on the Moscow Exchange will begin no earlier than 15:00. The Central Bank said that a decision on the exact opening time will be made at one o'clock in the afternoon.

Currency trading, as previously reported, will open at 10 am.

11:40

Kharkov resident Elena Kalinina tells how last night went:

“Another night passed, passed in relative silence. I woke up abruptly and incomprehensibly at 5:12. By itself or from barking dogs. Homeless dogs bark, which means everything is still fine. Not scared means good. A woodpecker chirping means spring and peace. I watched the news, contacted those who were online, everything was fine with everyone.”

According to Elena, the airport was shelled.

“Near me, in Pisochin, they hit the courtyard of a residential building and damaged the water delivery pipeline at 0:25. I don’t think that an emergency light will be brought to them; they will most likely sit without water. Pisochin and Vysoky are the road to Kyiv, they are trying to “close” Kharkov. The tall one was also fired upon. I understand that most of the air defenses are shot down, if everything that was fired fell, we would not exist.”

At the same time, the woman writes that residents of the Belgorod region are also sitting in cellars.

“I’m a terrible coward, I’m even afraid to leave the house, forgive me! I'm not afraid of dogs, the dark, bandits, but I'm afraid of what's happening! I'm so afraid that words can't describe it! Please note, I am the granddaughter, daughter and ex-wife of a military man and I am afraid! Both of my cases went through the war, both said that it was dirt, death and blood! And all these propaganda films were horror and a nightmare for me, because I knew that they were all lies! I have always been a pacifist, I was against weapons, because at the genetic level I knew that war is the most terrible thing in the world!”

11:20

The Guardian writes that UK authorities are considering banning Russian ships from entering British ports.

11:00

The Moscow Exchange has scheduled the start of currency trading at 10:00. This decision was made by the Central Bank, the site said in a statement. There will be no trading or settlement of currency repo transactions in the money market.

10:30

The ruble weakens against the dollar and euro during currency trading on the Forex market. The euro is trading at historical highs.

As of 06:46 Moscow time, the euro on Forex was trading at 127.15 rubles (+32.73%), the dollar at 83.89 rubles (+0.03%).

10:00

New EU sanctions officially come into force

• Operations related to the management of reserves and assets of the Central Bank of Russia are prohibited
• EU airspace is closed to Russian airlines

09:30

The third State Duma deputy condemned the war in Ukraine. It turned out to be a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Markhaev.

“Under the auspices of recognizing the DPR and LPR, we hid plans to unleash a full-scale war with our closest neighbor. <...> I am convinced that neither the peoples of Russia nor the peoples of Ukraine need such a war,” Markhaev wrote on Facebook. Markhaev is a State Duma deputy from the Republic of Buryatia. Earlier, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was condemned by two other members of parliament from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation - Mikhail Matveev and Oleg Smolin.

The main thing for the night

Australia has imposed sanctions on Putin, Lavrov, Shoigu, Mishustin and Kolokoltsev. According to the office of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrisson, Russian politicians are banned from visiting Australia and are subject to personal financial sanctions.

“President Putin, Foreign Minister Lavrov and Defense Minister Shoigu are directly responsible for Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. <...> Putin joins a very small group that includes Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya and Bashar al-Assad of Syria,” Morrisson’s website says.

The EU may impose sanctions against the richest people in Russia, writes Bloomberg. According to the publication, the European Union is studying the possibility of introducing personal restrictions against Alisher Usmanov, Mikhail Fridman, Pyotr Aven, and Alexey Mordashov.

In addition, cellist Sergei Roldugin, press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov, and head of Rosneft Igor Sechin may be subject to sanctions.

Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will begin in the morning. They write about this with reference to sources from Ukrayinska Pravda and TASS .

“This is not a postponement, the meeting will be in the morning, the reason is the logistics of the Ukrainian delegation,” the TASS source said.

In Russia, during the day of February 27, 2,667 people were detained for participating in anti-war rallies. Since February 24, 5,814 people have been detained.

A petition demanding to stop the war has collected almost 950 thousand signatures.