Newspaper headlines: 'Merciless Putin' and PM's six-point plan

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By BBC News
Staff
Reuters

The Sunday Times describes Russian President Vladimir Putin's violation of a ceasefire as "merciless"

The Sunday Times describes Russian President Vladimir Putin's violation of a ceasefire in the southern Ukrainian port of Mariupol as "merciless" and creating "fury and fear" in the city.

The "world watched in horror as Russian artillery pummelled" the besieged city, the paper says.

The Sunday Mirror pictures the distraught parents of an 18-month-old boy who was fatally wounded in the shelling.

The Observer focuses on what it calls Mr Putin's "chilling" declaration that Western sanctions are akin to an act of war.

The paper notes that Russia's foreign ministry claimed that the UK was playing a leading - if not the main role - in what it called the "sanctions hysteria". A spokeswoman said it left Moscow no choice but to take tough retaliatory measures.

The Sun on Sunday dubs it "Russia's threat to the UK".

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, the UK's Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, warns Mr Putin neither to underestimate nor test Britain.

The Mail on Sunday examines a six-point plan put forward by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to defeat the Russians.

The Mail suggests the prime minister has turned from a beleaguered leader into an international statesman and that this crisis could prove to be his "Falklands moment", transforming his fortunes like the war of 1982 did for Margaret Thatcher.

In the Sunday Express, the Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, calls the conflict the "struggle of our generation", adding that it is a "fight for freedom, democracy and sovereignty". But she insists Ukraine "will ultimately prevail".

The Sunday People leads on a report that dockers at Stanlow refinery in Cheshire refused to unload Russian oil from a tanker - a day after similar action in Kent. The paper supports their actions and urges the government to close the loophole in UK sanctions that allows Russian fuel to be brought in on other nation's ships.

The editorial in the Sunday Times urges Western leaders to stop buying all Russian oil, despite the economic repercussions, saying the sales are propping up what it calls "Putin's murderous regime."

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The Mail reports that in the current climate, Mr Johnson is under pressure to reverse the government's commercial opposition to fracking.

But writing in the paper, Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng insists this shows a misunderstanding of the situation, saying that it would take decades to produce high volumes of shale gas and would not lower energy prices any time soon.

Finally, according to the Sunday Telegraph, the legal wrangle over two supermarket cakes - Colin the Caterpillar from M&S and Aldi's Cuthbert the Caterpillar - has taken a new turn.

Marks and Spencer had complained its rival's cake was too similar to its own.

But now the German retailer has lodged a trademark application for the name of its chocolatey swiss roll, Cuthbert. It's thought there could be a wider range of Cuthbert goods, including candles, jigsaws, bedding and even, the paper speculates, lavatory paper.

The Telegraph suggests in its headline that Cuthbert "may metamorphose as caterpillar-gate proves it has legs".