UK politics live: Boris Johnson imposes sanctions against Putin and Lavrov – as it happened | Politics

Hundreds of people have protested in Belfast at the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian nationals were among the crowd that gathered outside City Hall for the demonstration and vigil on Friday evening.

Placards denouncing the war were held aloft and “we want peace” was chanted.

Several Ukrainians who live in Northern Ireland addressed the event, PA reports.

Everton football club are expected to silence the air-raid siren that sounds before matches at Goodison Park when Manchester City visit on Saturday out of consideration for the Ukraine internationals Vitalii Mykolenko and Oleksandr Zinchenko.

The move comes amid support from several Premier League clubs for players affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Royal Opera House have cancelled a tour from Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet following the invasion of Ukraine.

The Moscow-based ballet company, who were set to return to London this summer, has been called off as Kyiv was hit by air strikes and Russian fighters closed in on the city.

In a statement, the ROH said: “A summer season of the Bolshoi Ballet at the Royal Opera House had been in the final stages of planning.

“Unfortunately, under the current circumstances, the season cannot now go ahead.”

Downing Street said Boris Johnson spoke to the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, this evening to discuss how western allies could further ratchet up pressure on the Russian regime.

A spokeswoman said: “The prime minister thanked the Canadian leader for his diplomatic efforts and coordination with allies on sanctions, and said the UK and Canada held a shared ambition in ensuring President Putin failed and was seen to fail.

“The prime minister said allies needed to take immediate action on SWIFT, and the leaders discussed further options to increase coordinated economic pressure on Russia.

“The world also needs to remain vigilant to potential for the Russian regime to further exploit vulnerabilities in other countries too, the leaders agreed.

“Both leaders said President Putin’s attack on Ukraine was an attack on democracies everywhere, and the world needed to stand together and support the Ukrainians in any way possible in their hour of need.”

The expulsion of Russia’s ambassador in Ireland has not been ruled out, Leo Varadkar said.

The country’s deputy premier said the government is not currently planning to expel Yuri Filatov but it remains an option.

Varadkar suggested that the government in Ireland may move imminently to cut the number of Russian staff at the embassy in Dublin from 20 to around three, PA reports.

Asked if the government will expel Filatov, Varadkar told RTE: “It’s not something that we plan to do at the moment; it’s not something that we’re ruling out either.

“As is often the case, these things are done on an EU-coordinated level.”

Boris Johnson has addressed a message directly to the people of Russia, saying in Russian: “I do not believe this war is in your name.”

In a video posted on social media, the prime minister also spoke Ukrainian after urging an end to the conflict “because the world needs a free and sovereign Ukraine”.

He said: “The scenes unfolding in the streets and fields of Ukraine are nothing short of a tragedy.

“Brave young soldiers and innocent civilians are being cut down, tanks are rumbling through towns and cities, missiles raining indiscriminately from the skies.

“It’s a generation or more since we witnessed such bloodshed in Europe. We hoped we would never have to see such sights again.”

The transport secretary said he has extended a UK flight ban on Russian aircraft to include private jets.

The government previously announced it was banning Russia’s flag carrier Aeroflot from landing in the UK.

Grant Shapps tweeted:

The UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has tweeted: “Today the UK stood by Ukraine and other Council of Europe states and voted to suspend Russia.

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has exposed Putin’s disregard for the rule of law, democracy & human rights. We support Ukraine and condemn this abhorrent attack.”

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he is remaining in Kyiv even as Russian forces pounded the capital and other cities with airstrikes for a second day.

Russia has limited access to Facebook after the social media provider refused to stop fact-checking and labelling content from state-owned organisations, former deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg said.

Authorities in Russia announced the “partial restriction” after the social media network limited the accounts of several Kremlin-backed outlets over the invasion of Ukraine.

Russian state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said it had demanded that Facebook lifts the restrictions it placed on Thursday on state news agency RIA Novosti, state TV channel Zvezda, and pro-Kremlin news sites Lenta.Ru and Gazeta.Ru.

Clegg, vice president of global affairs at Facebook’s parent company Meta, said that “ordinary Russians are using our apps to express themselves and organise for action” and the company wants “them to continue to make their voices heard”.

Russian ambassador to Ireland Yuri Filatov has claimed that his country’s invasion of Ukraine is a “humanitarian intervention”.

Filatov said there was no proof that Russian forces had targeted civilians in the assault.

He claimed Ukraine had used engagement in diplomacy in recent times as a cover for preparing an offensive on the Donbas region of the country.

“It’s not our choice, the military option is not our choice,” he told RTE.

He added: “There was no other choice to end the suffering of Donbas through real humanitarian intervention – that’s what this special operation is exactly about.

“The only aim of the operation is to neutralise the ability of the Ukrainian military to inflict any more suffering on Donbas. Ukrainians should not be afraid of that.”

Here is the full story on BP being warned of government “concern” about its involvement in Russia in a telephone call between the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, and the oil company’s boss Bernard Looney.

Kwarteng is understood to have spoken to Looney in the light of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which has increased scrutiny on British business ties to the Kremlin and led to sanctions against Russian firms.

Speaking after the call, a Whitehall source said: “BP left the meeting with no doubt about the strength of the business secretary’s concern about their commercial interest in Russia.”

The British oil “supermajor” has been deeply entwined with Russia for years: it has a 22% stake in Russian state oil firm Rosneft and holds two seats on the 11-strong board of the company.