What the papers say – March 4

The slumped figure of a father crying over the dead body of his teenage son is one of the images splashed across the front pages.

04 March 2022

The papers remain in-step with the horror unfolding from Ukraine.

The Guardian, the Financial Times and The Sun all run the same photo of a father slumped and weeping over a body covered with a blood-soaked sheet which the papers say was the man’s teenage son.

The Guardian reports Vladimir Putin has said he is “prepared to go all the way” in Ukraine, prompting fears that the “worst is yet to come”. The FT’s headline quotes the words of an aide to the mayor of Mariupol which was “pummelled by missiles” as saying: “They’re trying to wipe this city off the face of the Earth”. And The Sun calls the Russian president an “extreme gangster” after he used the same term to describe Ukrainian citizens.

The Daily Telegraph‘s front features a Ukrainian mother cradling her baby while looking skywards. It is accompanied by Mr Putin’s “chilling warning” that the “worst is yet to come” as he vows to “seize the whole of Ukraine”.

The Daily Mirror, the Daily Express, Metro and i all splash with the cluster of apartment buildings in Kyiv which were reduced to blackened shells of rubble by missile strikes yesterday. The papers accompany the image with the Kremlin’s various threats of intensifying his bombardment while President Zelensky pleads for face-to-face talks with the Russian leader.

“Who’ll rid the world of this ranting mad man?” asks the Daily Mail.

Meanwhile, the Daily Star takes aim at former Chelsea manager John Terry over his social media tribute to the club’s outgoing owner and Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, with the retired footballer branded a “numbskull” and a “plonker”.