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Labor has pledged to recruit 300 more nurses for South Australian hospitals if the party wins the March state election.

The promise includes 212 extra staff to support the party's commitment to open 300 extra beds across the public health system.

It also includes 12 specialist nurses for children's cancer and mental health care and 76 to target other priority needs to ensure safe staff ratios across the hospital network.

Labor has committed to enshrining nurse-patient ratios in law, in line with similar legislation in Victoria and Queensland.

Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said a Labor government would support the state's overworked frontline nurses who had been hard hit by overwhelmed emergency departments and the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Nurses have always been the backbone of our health public system, and this has been particularly true during the pandemic," Mr Malinauskas said on Tuesday.

"We will provide job security for our nursing workforce and observe nurse-to-patient ratios which will provide safe and quality care for patients while lifting some of the huge workload from nurses and midwives."

Premier Steven Marshall said the government had massively increased the nursing and wider health workforce as well as investing in major hospital upgrades since coming to office.

Also on Tuesday, the premier promised a returned Liberal government would establish an $18 million fund to attract more direct international flights into Adelaide while new trade offices would be established in Germany, India and Southeast Asia.

Mr Marshall said direct flights to new overseas locations would connect SA with key export and tourism markets.

The fund will target locations where there is a strategic relationship between tourism and trade - like the US, which has ties to the defence and space sectors and a population well-educated in the opportunities of an Australian holiday.

"We are recognised as a clean, green state that produces high-quality products that can't be found anywhere else," the premier said.

"Our wine, our seafood and our agriculture are viewed as outstanding on the international stage.

"We want to expand on that. We want to have more South Australian products in more overseas markets."

Among other destinations to be targeted for new direct flights are Japan, New Zealand, Vietnam and Singapore.

© AAP 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin has recognised two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent entities, drawing US and European vows of new sanctions and upping the ante in a crisis the West fears could unleash a major war.

In a lengthy televised address on Monday, Putin - looking visibly angry - described Ukraine as an integral part of Russia's history and said eastern Ukraine was ancient Russian lands and that he was confident the Russian people would support his decision. .

Russian state television showed Putin, joined by Russia-backed separatist leaders, signing a decree recognising the independence of the two Ukrainian breakaway regions along with agreements on cooperation and friendship.

Defying Western warnings against such a move, Putin had announced his decision in phone calls to the leaders of Germany and France earlier, both of whom voiced disappointment, the Kremlin said.

Moscow's action may well torpedo a last-minute bid for a summit with US President Joe Biden to prevent Russia from invading Ukraine. The rouble extended its losses as Putin spoke, at one point sliding beyond 80 per dollar.

Biden will issue an executive order soon prohibiting "new investment, trade, and financing by US persons to, from, or in" the two breakaway regions, the White House said.

The European Union "will react with sanctions against those involved in this illegal act," President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel said in a joint statement.

British foreign minister Liz Truss said in a Twitter post that on Tuesday the government will announce new sanctions on Russia in response to Putin's decision.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg accused Russia of continuing to fuel the conflict in eastern Ukraine and "trying to stage a pretext" for a further invasion. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

In his address, Putin delved into history as far back as the Ottoman empire and as recent as the tensions over NATO's eastward expansion - a major irritant for Moscow in the present crisis.

With his decision, Putin brushed off Western warnings that such a step would be illegal, would kill off peace negotiations and would trigger sanctions against Moscow.

"I deem it necessary to make a decision that should have been made a long time ago - to immediately recognise the independence and sovereignty of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic," Putin said.

He said earlier that "if Ukraine was to join NATO it would serve as a direct threat to the security of Russia."

Putin has for years worked to restore Russia's influence over nations that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union, with Ukraine holding an important place in his ambitions.

Russia denies any plan to attack its neighbour, but it has threatened unspecified "military-technical" action unless it receives sweeping security guarantees, including a promise that Ukraine will never join NATO.

Recognition of the rebel-held areas could pave the way for Moscow to send military forces into the two separatist regions - Donetsk and Luhansk - openly and argue that it is intervening as an ally to protect them against Ukraine.

Despite swift sanctions threats, it was not immediately clear how closely Western governments would coordinate their actions. Earlier this week, US and European officials said the United States and allies were not totally in agreement about how to respond in case of stepped-up support for pro-Russian separatists.

Putin's move will also narrow the diplomatic options to avoid war, since it is an explicit rejection of a seven-year-old ceasefire mediated by France and Germany, touted as the framework for future negotiations on the wider crisis.

Separately, Moscow said Ukrainian military saboteurs had tried to enter Russian territory in armed vehicles leading to five deaths, an accusation dismissed as "fake news" by Kyiv.

Both developments fit a pattern repeatedly predicted by Western governments, who accuse Russia of preparing to fabricate a pretext to invade by blaming Kyiv for attacks and relying on pleas for help from separatist proxies.

Washington says Russia has massed a force numbering 169,000-190,000 troops in the region, including the rebels in the breakaway regions, and could invade within days.

European financial markets tumbled at the signs of increased confrontation, after having briefly edged higher on the glimmer of hope that a summit might offer a path out of Europe's biggest military crisis in decades. The price of oil - Russia's main export - rose, while Russian shares and the rouble plunged.

© RAW 2022

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he will end all coronavirus restrictions in England including mandatory self-isolation for people with COVID-19 and free testing, drawing scepticism from some scientists and political opponents.

Johnson's "living with COVID" plan has sparked alarm that it is premature and will leave the country vulnerable to new viral variants but the government says it has provided more testing than most other countries and must now curb the cost.

As Hong Kong builds isolation units and Europe retains distancing and vaccine rules, Johnson is moving to repeal any pandemic requirements that impinge on personal freedoms, saying it is time the public took responsibility.

He will lean even more on the roll-out of booster vaccines, with the government offering extra booster doses to the most vulnerable, as well as other pharmaceuticals interventions such as antiviral treatments.

"Restrictions pose a heavy toll on our economy, our society, our mental well-being and on the life chances of our children, and we do not need to pay that cost any longer," Johnson told parliament.

"So let us learn to live with this virus and continue protecting ourselves and others without restricting our freedoms."

Johnson said that the legal requirement to self-isolate for people who test positive for COVID-19 would be removed on February 24 while free universal testing would end on April 1.

But he said that some surveillance of the coronavirus would remain in place, allowing for a rapid response to new variants, which could be quickly scaled up.

The plan to ditch remaining legal restrictions is a priority for many of Johnson's Conservative Party MPs whose discontent over his scandal-ridden leadership has threatened his grip on power.

The devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have set their own COVID-19 restrictions but the amount of money they have to spend on testing will flow from decisions made by the United Kingdom government.

Leaders in Scotland and Wales had criticised Johnson's plans to reduce the availability of testing ahead of the announcement while leader of the opposition Keir Starmer also said that the plan was ill-conceived.

"We can't turn off Britain's radar before the war is won. 'Ignorance is bliss' is not a responsible approach to a deadly virus," Labour Party leader Starmer said.

© RAW 2022