President Vladimir Putin dramatically escalated East-West tensions by ordering Russian nuclear forces put on high alert following new crippling Western sanctions that forced his Central Bank to sharply raise its key rate Monday to save the ruble from collapse.
Highlights
- Russia-born media mogul Evgeny Lebedev urges Russia to stop war
- President Putin, please stop this war, Evgeny Lebedev asks Russian President
- As a Russian citizen I plead you to stop Russians killing their Ukrainian brothers, sisters, he said
Russia-born media mogul Evgeny Lebedev has used the pages of a British newspaper he owns to implore Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the invasion of Ukraine.
London's Evening Standard on Monday features a front-page statement by Lebedev headlined “President Putin, please stop this war,” alongside an Associated Press photo of medics battling to save a 6-year-old girl killed by shelling in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
Lebedev wrote, “As a Russian citizen I plead with you to stop Russians killing their Ukrainian brothers and sisters. As a British citizen I ask you to save Europe from war.”
Lebedev, whose oligarch father Alexander Lebedev once worked for the KGB, was made a member of the House of Lords in 2020.
Oligarchs Oleg Deripaska, an ally of Putin, and Mikhail Fridman, who is on a US sanctions list, have also urged an end to the violence.
Meanwhile, Roman Abramovich, the billionaire Russian owner of Chelsea Football Club, has offered to help broker peace.
A spokesman said Abramovich “was contacted by the Ukrainian side for support in achieving a peaceful resolution, and that he has been trying to help ever since.” It was unclear what help he could provide.
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