Newspaper headlines: Zelensky channels Churchill and US-UK oil ban
- Published
Many of the front pages carry images of Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky receiving a standing ovation from MPs after his unprecedented video address to Parliament.
"Hear Hear, Hero" headlines the Metro, external, while the Daily Express declares "Zelensky echoes Churchill, external".
The i also notes the Ukrainian president "channelled" Britain's wartime leader, external while telling MPs that his people would fight Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion in "the forests and the streets - to the death if necessary".
The Daily Mirror similarly quotes Mr Zelensky as insisting: "We will never surrender, external". The accompanying picture shows a Ukrainian police officer in the besieged city of Irpin saying an emotional goodbye to his toddler son. His family is fleeing, while he remains to fight.
The leader columns deliver their equivalent of a standing ovation. The Times says, external Mr Zelensky spoke not just for Ukraine, but for law, liberty and civilisation itself, while the Daily Mail declares: "We salute him and his indefatigable nation, external". The Sun says the speech was "as stirring as it was historic, external".
The headline the Guardian's front page reads: "Blow to Putin". The paper says that the ban on Russian oil by Britain and the US, external could cost Moscow five billion pounds, but also warns that the West will feel the squeeze too, as the measures push up prices at the pumps. It points out that 8% of Britain's oil and 4% of its gas come from Russia and claims that, as a result, Conservative MPs are "clamouring" for a reduction in fuel duty.
The front page splash for the Daily Telegraph is what it describes as the "Rent-a-Mig" scheme, external, which would see Poland's entire fleet of 28 Russian-made fighter-planes put at the disposal of the US for potential deployment in Ukraine.
The Times warns, external that such a deal would risk a "new confrontation", and says such a move could mean that Nato aircraft, flown by Ukrainian pilots, would go into combat with Russian forces, potentially dragging the alliance into direct conflict with Moscow. Since the plan was announced, US officials have said they were not consulted in advance and that it is not "tenable".
The faces of young and old, external leaving the city of Irpin are the focus of a double page spread of photos in The Daily Mirror.
Under the headline "Inhumane - Refugees under attack" it examines the human cost of war and attacks the response of the UK Home office to the growing refugee crisis.
It publishes a league table of European countries according to the number of visas they've granted to fleeing Ukrainians since the crisis began. At the top is Poland with more than 1.2 million. At the bottom is the UK, with what The Mirror describes as a "paltry" 500. The Times reports that senior Tory MPs have called for Home Secretary Priti Patel to quit, external over what's described as Britain's "chaotic" response.
The Sun's front page headline reads: "Queen's Guard Awol to fight Vlad, external". The story reports that a 19-year-old Coldstream Guardsman has abandoned his post at Windsor Barracks and left a note for his parents explaining that he has gone to join the fighters defending Ukraine.
The paper says defence chiefs are now trying to intercept him amid fears that Russia could claim Britain had entered the war were he to be captured by the Russian military.
