The Ukraine invasion as a “turning point for the world” said UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, adding that it would be a mistake to normalize ties with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

On the other hand, Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said that the Russian invasion has brought 30% of the Ukrainian economy to a standstill.

He said the figure was based on preliminary data from tax payments.

However, the minister said that the country was still servicing its debt, relying on borrowing due to the fall in taxes and customs revenues.

“A default did not threaten us and does not threaten us. Firstly, our debt load is not so large, especially this year. Secondly, we carefully service our debts. We do not use such words. But for our aggressors, we hope it [default] will come soon,” the Ukrainian Interfax news agency reported Marchenko as saying.

Meanwhile, nineteen children, many of whom are orphans, are reportedly stuck in a clinic in Mariupol, a city under siege since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.

Alexei Voloshchuk, who briefly took shelter in a Mariupol sanatorium for minors, told AFP the children were in “huge danger.”

The group consisted of childred aged four to 17. Before the war, the children had been sent to a sanatorium for minors specializing in pulmonary illnesses from nearby towns. Their caregivers have been unable to tend to them since Russia launched its invasion on February 24.