Russia-Ukraine war live: Vladimir Putin to sign decree formally annexing four Ukrainian regions on Friday | Ukraine

From make-up and cigars, to washing machines and toilet paper, the list of goods affected by European Union sanctions against Russia is about to get a lot longer.

Items targeted for export or import bans are listed in a draft sanctions law seen by the Guardian, following the announcement of headline measures by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday.

The EU executive has proposed capping the price of Russian oil and imposing further curbs on hi-tech trade, as part of its eighth round of sanctions to “make the Kremlin pay” for the escalation of the war against Ukraine. Other proposals include a ban on EU nationals serving on the boards of Russian-state companies, a provision that would catch former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

Since then further details have emerged of EU goods that will be banned from export to Russia. The Commission wants to stop the sale of European appliances, including dishwashers and washing machines, because officials believe the Russian army is raiding such products for their chips, because they have run out of semiconductors.

The EU also wants to tighten import curbs on goods generating income for Russia, ranging from wood, pulp and paper, cigarettes and cosmetics. Bags and suitcases, telephones and cars, paper and newsprint, women’s clothes, make-up and shaving products feature on a long list of items subject to trade restrictions that also includes many industrial goods, tools and chemical substances.

But a proposal to stop the EU from importing Russian diamonds has come unstuck, a move widely seen as appeasing Belgium, one of the world’s biggest traders of the stones.

Belgian diplomats insisted they had no intention to block the inclusion of diamonds, but other member states believe Belgium’s objections meant the previous stones were removed from the list. The Commission “explains that.. it affects one member state, so let’s forget about it,” said a diplomat who was unimpressed by the decision.

EU ambassadors will discuss the plans on Friday, with the aim of reaching a quick agreement. The measures must be agreed by unanimity to come into force.

Peter Beaumont

Russia is reportedly escalating its use of Iranian-supplied “kamikaze” drones in southern Ukraine, including against the southern port of Odesa and the nearby city of Mykolaiv, amid estimates that hundreds of weapons may now have been deployed by the Kremlin in Crimea and other occupied areas of the south.

The drones – also known as loitering munitions – have also been used against Ukrainian artillery positions in the country’s east, including in the Kharkiv region. Britain’s Ministry of Defence first noted the Russian use of the Iranian supplied weapons in mid-September.

Able to remain airborne for several hours and circle over potential targets, the drones are designed to be flown into enemy troops, armour or buildings, exploding on impact – explaining their description as kamikaze drones.

On Tuesday Ukrainian armed forces said they had successfully shot down three more Iranian suicide drones that attacked Mykolaiv region.

A day before Ukraine’s air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat suggested Iran may have supplied “several hundred” of the weapons to Russia.

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Finland will close its border to Russian tourists from midnight local time (2100 GMT), the Finnish government has announced.

The announcement by Finland’s foreign minister Pekka Haavisto comes after Vladimir Putin’s decision to order a mobilisation prompted a flood of Russians to flee the country.

The move is expected to lead to a significant drop in cross-border traffic, Haavisto told a news conference.

Entry for family visits, as well as for work and studies, will still be permitted, he added.

Here’s more from the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, who has announced that President Vladimir Putin will hold a signing ceremony tomorrow to add four territories of Ukraine into Russia.

A signing ceremony will take place at 3pm Moscow-time (1200 GMT) on Friday “on agreements on the accession of new territories into the Russian Federation”, Peskov said.

Agreements will be signed “with all four territories that held referendums and made corresponding requests to the Russian side,” Peskov said.

The total area set to become de facto part of Russia amounts to about 15% of Ukraine and includes an estimated 4 million people. The so-called referendums in the occupied regions of Ukraine have been denounced by the west as illegal and illegitimate.

Following the signing ceremonies in the Kremlin, Putin will give a major speech and will meet with Moscow-appointed administrators of the Ukrainian regions, the Kremlin said.

Vladimir Putin will sign a decree annexing four occupied regions in Ukraine tomorrow, the Kremlin has announced.

Russian state-owned news agency Tass cites Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, as saying that the ceremony of the signing of agreements into the Russian Federation will be held on Friday at 3pm Moscow time.

The Russian president will hold a signing ceremony in the Kremlin, after which he is expected to give a major speech and meet with Moscow-appointed administrators of the Ukrainian regions, Peskov said.

Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong with you today to bring you all the latest from the Russia-Ukraine war. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.

• Sweden’s coast guard earlier this week discovered a fourth gas leak on the damaged Nord Stream pipelines, a coast guard spokesperson told the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper.

• Politicians across Europe have warned that the suspected sabotaging of the two Nord Stream pipelines could herald a new stage of hybrid warfare targeting vulnerable energy infrastructure in order to undermine support of Ukraine. Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, said his country would step up its military presence at Norwegian installations after the country became Europe’s largest supplier of natural gas.

• Denmark’s foreign minister, Jeppe Kofod, has said that “intentional” explosions caused the leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines, and that it was an “unprecedented” attack.

• The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has proposed a fresh round of sanctions on Russia designed “to make the Kremlin pay” for escalating the conflict in Ukraine. The proposed eighth package of “biting” sanctions includes a cap on the price of Russian oil and further curbs on hi-tech trade.

• An EU official has given a briefing to Reuters saying that an agreement on the next sanctions package against Russia is expected before next week’s EU summit, or at least major parts of the package.

• On Moscow’s Red Square, giant video screens have been set up, with billboards proclaiming “Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson – Russia!”

• Russian state Duma deputies have been invited to an event at the Kremlin with Vladimir Putin for 3pm on Friday 30 September. It will possibly be the moment that the Russian president addresses in public the next stage of the inevitable annexation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson from occupied Ukraine.

• The UK ministry of defence has claimed in its latest intelligence briefing that more men have now likely fled conscription from Russia’s partial mobilisation than Russia initially used in its invasion force of Ukraine.

• President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said overnight Ukraine will “act to protect our people” in Russian-occupied regions after what he described as “an imitation of referendums”. Ukraine’s foreign ministry said Kyiv and its allies “condemn such actions of Russia and consider them null and worthless”.

• Britain’s prime minister, Liz Truss, told Zelenskiy in a phone call yesterday that the UK would never recognise Russian attempts to annex parts of Ukraine, Downing Street said. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, also denounced the “illegal referenda and their falsified outcome” in Ukraine.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be here shortly to continue our coverage.

Helena Smith

Over in Greece the Ukrainian president has been speaking about the importance of democracy in tyrannical times, Helena Smith reports from Athens.

Addressing the 10th Athens Democracy Forum, Volodymyr Zelenskiy underlined it was unity that reinforced democracy and unity that would ultimately ensure its success.

People feel that right now something is happening that could become decisive in the centuries-old confrontation between democracy and tyranny,” he said as the Forum opened in the Greek capital on Wednesday evening.

And it is precisely in this address, precisely to the Athens Democracy Forum, that I want to say that I am sure: we will be able to guarantee the future of democracy, we will be able to protect it.

We will, because we know what gives democracy strength, what serves as its heart, ensuring the supply of freedom, like blood, to every part of a democratic society – to every person. This is unity. Unity is the most important thing.

Zelenskiy, who was awarded the 2022 City of Athens Democracy prize in the name of the people of Ukraine by the mayor, Kostas Bakoyannis, insisted that the unity the west had shown in the face of Russian brute force was reflected in the setbacks the Russian military had suffered on the battlefield. Continuing his address he said:

We see this now in the war that Russia has waged against our people and against our common democratic system. The greater unity we have, the more tangible Russian defeats are.

Democracy does not live in the government offices or even in the parliament hall. Democracy lives between people. And that is why it is so important that there are no isolated groups in societies – be it the ruling group, or any other privileged groups, or any unintegrated minorities.

After the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine, we managed to achieve the greatest unity of Europe and the democratic community of the whole world in decades. But the greatest does not mean the maximum.

We have a lot to do to further strengthen our unity. And every such step to strengthen is a step to protect democracy. Not just somewhere, not just in some country, but in general – for all of us and for our children.

For all free nations. Forever free.

Greece has stalwartly stood by its Nato and EU allies in opposing Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine despite what were once strong ties with fellow Orthodox Russia. Athens’s stance has infuriated Russia with the two sides exchanging sharp words and anti-Putin graffiti appearing in the Greek capital.

Zelenskiy ended his speech thanking the country for its “significant support.”

“It is with great honour that I accept the award of the city of Athens for the Ukrainian people, for our people, for their contribution to the protection of democratic values.,” he said.