Cyprus, Greece and Malta expect the European Union to take into account their concerns over a planned EU ban on transporting Russian oil, as the bloc hammers out the details of its proposed embargo on Russian crude, Cyprus’s president said on Friday.

Brussels outlined embargo plans this week as part of its toughest-package of measures yet against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

The plans call for a ban on purchases and prohibit the shipping industry based in EU member countries from handling Russian oil. The proposals are now being tweaked to address concerns of various member states.

Greece, Malta and Cyprus have the largest shipping fleets in the 27 member EU, and host large ship-management centres.

“It’s necessary to take into account concerns of Greece, Malta and of course Cyprus in specific matters relating to the sanctions,” Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades told reporters in Athens.

Anastasiades, who earlier met with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said this was a “common position” of both.

“We are both clear. We are against the Russian invasion and of course in favour of sanctions. But these sanctions should be targeted, and not selective in serving some member states and leaving others exposed,” Anastasiades said.

Ukraine hopes to grow export capacity by 50 per cent in the next few months by expanding facilities on its western border, but it will still be far short of pre-war levels, the deputy infrastructure minister said on Friday.

More than ten seaports carried 7 per cent of Ukraine’s foreign trade, but they were closed after the Russian invasion and the country was forced to trade through small Danube river ports and use railway terminals on its western border.

“Western borders and Danube ports today is the only way to export and import. We have already quadrupled the volume of trade through the Danube ports,” Yuri Vaskov told a news conference.

He said 3.5 million tonnes of cargo was transported across the western borders by rail alone last month and the national railway operators are developing border terminals for general and liquid cargoes, as well as for reloading from wide to narrow gauge and vice versa.

“All this should lead to the fact that the capacity of the western border should increase by 50 per cent in the next few months,” Vaskov said.

“But even taking this into account, this (larger capacity) will not be enough even to serve at least half of the volumes that were transported through seaports in peacetime,” he said.

Volodymyr Zelensky said he would not be prepared to cede any of Russia’s territorial gains in peace talks, my colleague Liam James writes.

Appearing over video-link at a Chatham House Q&A session, the Ukrainian president said: “The minimum step before we stop the war … should be regaining the situation as of the 23rd of February”.

He said Russia needs to approach Ukraine for peace talks to resume, adding there was still hope for negotiations.

He said: “Despite the fact that they are destroying our bridges, I think that not all the bridges are yet destroyed, figuratively speaking.”

Mercenaries from the notorious Wagner Group have been caught on camera fighting in the Ukraine for the first time since Russia’s war on its neighbour began.

They were filmed fighting as Russian troops go house-to-house in the battle for control of Donbas.

The mercenaries could be seen in drone footage from the town of Popansa storming a house and throwing grenades in an attempt to force Ukrainian defenders to surrender.

Russia appears to be planning Victory Day celebrations in the battered Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

Observers have speculated for months that Vladimir Putin would take the opportunity on 9 May – when grand ceremonies will be held to remember the Russian sacrifices of the Second World War – to hold a parade in the city which has become a desperate symbol of Moscow’s attack on Ukraine.

My colleague Liam James reports:

It was said to have been sailing close to Snake Island in the Black Sea south of Odesa.

My colleague Liam James reports:

My colleagues Thomas Kingsley and Joe Sommerlad have a recap on the war in Ukraine.

During two decades in power, Putin has had an ability to sense the popular mood, writes Mary Dejevsky. But in recent times his judgement has seemed less sure – and the Ukraine invasion may prove a step too far for his citizens.

Ready Mary’s full piece here:

More civilians have been rescued from the tunnels under a besieged steel plant in Mariupol, a Ukrainian official said Friday, even as fighters holed up at the sprawling complex made their last stand to prevent Moscow’s complete takeover of the strategic port city.

“We conducted another stage of a complex operation to evacuate people from Mariupol and Azovstal. I can say that we managed to take out almost 500 civilians,” the head of Ukraine‘s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said Friday on the Telegram messaging app.

Hungary will not support the European Union’s sanctions package on Russia, which includes an embargo on oil imports, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday.

Our international editor David Harding reports: