Evening Standard owner Lebedev uses front page to urge Putin to halt invasion

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Media mogul LordEvgeny Lebedev has appealed to Vladimir Putin to stop the invasion of Ukraine, through the Evening Standard newspaper. Lord Lebedev, who owns the newspaper and is also a shareholder of The Independent, used the publication’s front page on Monday to write an open letter to the Russian leader. The Russian-born crossbench peer, who is a long-term friend of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said: “I plead with you to use today’s negotiations to bring this terrible conflict in Ukraine to an end.” In a statement published alongside a photograph of a paramedic performing CPR on a girl injured by shelling, Lord Lebedev said: “On this page are the final minutes of a six-year-old child fatally injured by shells that struck her Mariupol apartment block on Sunday. On Friday, the day after Russia launched its invasion into Ukraine, Lord Lebedev, who is the son of former KGB operative Alexander Lebedev, described the attack as an “unimaginable tragedy”.