The FT News Briefing is supported by Equinole, the UK's energy partner.

Learn more at equinole.co.uk

Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Friday, March 4th.

And this is your FT News Briefing.

Russian forces continue to lay waste to Ukrainian cities yesterday and the US

announced new sanctions on oligarchs. Meanwhile, prices of global commodities like

wheat and corn skyrocketed on supply fears. And big Western brands continued their mass

exodus from Russia. It is as certain as the entry into the market we saw more than 30 years ago.

And I think it raises one more very interesting question. Which brands will take their place?

I'm Mark Filipino and here's the news you need to start your day.

Russian missiles rain down on the Ukrainian port of Mary Yupal in the cities of Chernev and

Harkiv on Thursday. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a video address that he

would never give up his conviction that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.

As Putin vowed to press on with his war, US President Joe Biden announced more sanctions

on several Russian oligarchs and government officials. Here's the FT's US political correspondent

Lauren Feudor with more on that. This list of individuals who are facing these fresh sanctions

runs more than 50 people. I'm not going to run you through every single one of them. But some of

the biggest names include the Russian billionaire Alashar Uzmanov. It also includes Demetri Peskov,

who's the Kremlin spokesman. Interestingly, these sanctions for a lot of these individuals

are pertaining not just to them but to their families as well. So we see as you go down the list,

you'll see individuals who it's not just themselves but their spouses, their children,

and the White House really wanted to put the squeeze on Putin and put the squeeze on people close

...