As Russia expanded its efforts, Ukrainian officials said roughly 1,300 people remained trapped in the basement of a theater struck Wednesday in the southern city of Mariupol. In the absence of significant territorial advances, Russia increasingly relies on sieges to wear down cities.
Here’s what to know
- The United Nations has confirmed 816 civilian deaths, including the deaths of 59 children, while warning that the real tolls are almost certainly far higher.
- The mounting death toll has forced President Volodymyr Zelensky to consider concessions to Russia in order to bring an end to the devastating conflict, said U.S. and European officials.
- Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Bulgaria said they would expel a total of 20 Russian diplomats, in a sign of worsening relations between Russia and former Soviet and allied states.
- Russia called a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to accuse the United States of conducting a biological weapons program in Ukraine — a claim that The Washington Post’s Fact Checker ruled “disinformation.”
- French President Emmanuel Macron expressed “extreme concern” to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Mariupol.
- The Washington Post has lifted its paywall in Russia and Ukraine, giving readers unlimited digital access to our comprehensive coverage.
UNDERSTANDING THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT
Photos: Strollers lined up in Lviv to commemorate children killed in invasion
More than 100 strollers were placed outside Lviv’s city hall Friday to commemorate the number of children killed so far during the Russian invasion, Reuters reported. The strollers were placed in central Lviv as part of an effort by activists to remember the civilian deaths caused by ongoing military operations during the Russian invasion.
The United Nations has confirmed 816 civilian deaths, including the deaths of 59 children, while warning that the real tolls are almost certainly far higher.
Russia sends 3 cosmonauts to International Space Station amid turmoil over Ukraine
Three Russian cosmonauts lifted off on a Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station Friday, a sign that despite the threats coming from the head of the Russian space agency the country remains committed to the partnership with the United States that has lasted more than two decades.
At 11: 55 a.m. Eastern time, the three Russians, Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov lifted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It orbited the Earth twice and arrived at the station shortly afterwards.
“Everything is fine on board, and the group is doing great,” a Russian ground controller said on NASA television through an interpreter shortly after liftoff.
Mounting death toll forces Zelensky to consider concessions but specifics remain mystery, U.S. and European officials say
The mounting death toll in Ukraine has forced President Volodymyr Zelensky to consider concessions to Russia in order bring an end to the devastating conflict, but the specific elements of any peace deal his government may be discussing with Moscow remain a mystery to Western leaders, said U.S. and European officials. The secretive meetings between Russian-Ukrainian negotiators may hold the key to ending conflict, but could also have wider implications for European security, depending on the way the warring sides settle their differences. U.S. officials and European officials worry that Russian President Vladimir Putin could resort to military force in order to force Ukraine’s political transition. The prospects for a short-term agreement look grim, according to diplomats. However, mixed signals from Zelensky regarding how close they are to reaching an agreement only increased anxiety.
Satellite images show damage, evacuations in Mariupol
New satellite images released Friday showed damage to civilian areas from Russian airstrikes and artillery fire in Ukraine’s besieged city of Mariupol, as well as large efforts to evacuate as Russia’s assault on the port city continues. Maxar Technologies released photos showing damaged apartments and shops. Another image shows cars lining up for the evacuation of the city.
Mariupol was severely damaged during the Russian invasion. Strikes hit schools, hospitals and communities as Moscow tries to seize the strategic center. Last week a maternity hospital was hit, killing at least four people, according to local officials. On Wednesday, Russian airstrikes destroyed a community theater, leaving the fate of more than 1,000 people unknown. The city’s residents are in dire need of food, water and heat according to aid groups.
The Pentagon on Friday said, “The Russians remain largely stalled across the country.”
Maxar also released imagery of further damage to areas in and around Kyiv, where homes, cars and grocery stores have been destroyed.
Additional damage was seen to apartment buildings in Chernihiv, which has also been heavily bombarded by Russian forces.
Ukrainian women stand strong against Russian invaders
KYIV — They patrol checkpoints and hold down front lines, evacuate civilians and provide crucial combat medical care.
Although the vast majority of Ukraine’s military is male, some 32,000 women belonged to the country’s armed forces before Russia invaded Ukraine. Since then, many more have joined the war effort.
The ban on men between the ages of 18 and 60 leaving the country means that most of the 3 million refugees who have left have been women and children. Many other women, however, have not left the country and have had to leave, as many Ukrainians have. Here are four stories about women who chose to remain.
Biden warns Xi in effort to head off China from providing economic or military help to Russia
President Biden, in a nearly two-hour video call Friday, warned China’s leader Xi Jinping that his country would face significant repercussions if it provides aid to Russia at a time when Moscow is pressing ahead with an invasion of Ukraine that has met with global condemnation. Biden described the consequences of China providing material support for Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilians and cities. The White House released a statement.
This call was made as part of an urgent U.S. effort, which was meant to stop any Chinese attempts to give economic or military support to Russia. America and its allies are trying to cut off Moscow’s financial resources. China is still a strong supporter of Russia in a period when the West has imposed harsh sanctions against Russia.
Wall Street wraps up best week since 2020 as oil prices climb
U.S. stocks overcame early-session losses Friday to notch a fourth consecutive day of gains and deliver their best weekly performance since 2020, even as traders kept a wary watch on Ukraine.
Markets were buoyed by the hope of a cease-fire in spite of Russian aggression. Investors were also pleased with the Federal Reserve’s clearly communicated decision to increase interest rates.
On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average surged 274. 17 points, or 0.8 percent, to close at 34,754.93. The broader S&P 500 index added 51. 45 points, or 1.2 percent, to close at 4,463. 12, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq swelled 279. 06 points, or 2.1 percent, to land at 13,893.84.
All three indexes posted their best weekly gains since November 2020, according to MarketWatch, with the Nasdaq surging 8.1 percent, the S&P jumping 6.2 percent and the Dow adding 5.4 percent.
Oil prices climbed, with Brent crude, the international benchmark, trading above $107. 50 a barrel. The U.S. benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, was hovering near $104. 40 per barrel. Prices have retreated from recent surges that sent them beyond $130.
The Ukraine war has weighed heavily on energy markets because Russia produces about 10 percent of the world’s oil supply, on par with the United States and Saudi Arabia. Rising energy prices tend to have a rapid ripple effect throughout the economy. This adds to inflation already high and gas shock. The average US gallon of gasoline was $4. 27, according to data from AAA. That’s a 4-cent drop since Monday but still nearly 75 cents more than a month ago and $1. 39 higher than last year.
Video shows attack on Kramatorsk that authorities say killed two people
Two people were killed and at least six were injured by a Russian airstrike on the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine on Friday morning, authorities said.
Video recorded by a surveillance camera and marked 9 a.m. showed a projectile hitting an area near the center of the city and exploding. Additional footage captured by witnesses showed a large plume of smoke rising behind city stores and serious damage to nearby apartments. The Washington Post verified the videos.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the surrounding Donetsk region, said in a Facebook post that an administrative building and a residential building were hit in the attack. Kirilenko stated that there would be punishment.
The administrative building housed regional offices of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), according to Google Maps and other directories.
Kramatorsk became the Donetsk region’s provisional capital after pro-Russian separatists seized the city of Donetsk during the Donbas War in 2014. City authorities issued new guidance to residents on Friday on how to deal with sudden shelling.
In call with Putin, Macron voices ‘extreme concern’ over situation in Mariupol
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron expressed “extreme concern” about the situation in Mariupol, Ukraine, on Friday, following a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a statement, the French president’s office said Macron had raised the “non-respect of humanitarian law while the negotiations between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations have so far not produced any progress.”
About 1,300 people remain trapped in the basement of a Mariupol theater, according to Ukrainian officials. According to Ukrainian officials, Russian troops may have also targeted the children’s hospital and university as well as other civilian locations in the area.
According to the Russian readout of Friday’s call, Putin told Macron that “Russian Armed Forces are doing everything possible to save the lives of civilians, including by organizing humanitarian corridors for their safe evacuation.”
In his call with Macron, Putin accused Ukraine of “numerous war crimes committed daily.” International rights watch groups vehemently dispute that this is the case.
Macron was one of few Western leaders who maintained contact after the Russian invasion.
United Kingdom revokes license of Russian TV network RT
Britain’s media regulator, Ofcom, announced Friday that it was revoking the license of Russian state-funded channel RT since it does not consider its licensee, ANO TV Novosti, “fit and proper to hold a UK broadcast license.”
In a statement, Ofcom said that the decision comes amid 29 ongoing investigations into the impartiality of news coverage by RT of the Ukraine invasion. Due to ongoing investigations and previous fines for similar violations, the U.K. regulator decided to launch a separate probe into whether RT should be allowed to keep its licence. This broader investigation considered that RT was funded by Russia. In particular, the Russian government has passed laws to criminalize independent journalism.
“We believe that RT cannot comply with our Broadcasting Code due impartiality rules in these circumstances,” said the Ofcom statement.
RT had been removed from air in Great Britain due to sanctions imposed the European Union. The news channel protested the move of Ofcom, its media regulator. RT’s deputy editor in chief, Anna Belkina, told Reuters that “Ofcom has shown the UK public, and the regulatory community internationally, that despite a well-constructed facade of independence, it is nothing more than a tool of government, bending to its media-suppressing will.”
The Russian Embassy in London issued a similar statement, saying that the embassy considered “the investigation and the decision of Ofcom to be absolutely politicized, biased and far-fetched.”
The statement continues, saying that if Ofcom “is truly concerned with the amount of complaints against the Russian media outlet,” it should also thoroughly investigate “numerous complaints against UK state-sponsored media, for example, the BBC and, possibly, look into revoking its license as well. Otherwise, the decision only argues in favor of UK hypocrisy.”
Mary Ilyushina contributed to this report.
Photos: A photographer working for The Post captures scenes after bombing in Kyiv
Heidi Levine has been photographing the Russian invasion in Ukraine for The Washington Post. Levine captured these images in the wake of another attack on the capital. She continues to highlight the devastating effects of war on humanity and their heartbreaking consequences.
Kevin McCarthy says Rep. Madison Cawthorn was ‘wrong’ to call Zelensky a ‘thug’
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) was “wrong” to label Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “thug” and that Putin is the real danger to the Ukrainian people.
“Madison said that Friday’s news briefing was incorrect. “If there’s any thug in this world, it’s Putin.”
Cawthorn recently called Zelensky a “thug” and said the Ukrainian government is “incredibly evil” — remarks that are at odds with the views of most U.S. lawmakers in the Republican and Democratic parties, who have expressed their support for Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion of that country.
“Remember that Zelensky is a thug,” Cawthorn told supporters at a recent event in North Carolina, according to video published Thursday by Raleigh-based TV station WRAL. “Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt, and it is incredibly evil, and it has been pushing woke ideologies.”
McCarthy pointed to the Russian military’s recent acts against Ukraine as proof of Putin’s thuggery. The Russian military had bombed Ukrainian maternity wards, inflicting great injury on the children of Putin’s command.
“This was atrocious,” McCarthy said. This is wrong. It is the aggressor. This aggressor is what must be stopped. This is the one that everybody should unite against.”
While McCarthy spoke out about a need for unity in support of Ukraine, he said he was unconcerned about the “small” number of Republican lawmakers voting against Ukraine aid or sanctions against Russia.
On Thursday, eight House Republicans voted against legislation to remove Russia and Belarus from key trade preferences. They also wished to expand the presidential authority to impose sanctions on human rights. On Thursday, eight House Republicans opposed a bill to remove Russia and Belarus from key trade preferences.
What are the challenges for reporters in Ukraine and Russia? Please send your questions.
By Washington Post Staff12: 31 p.m.
At 1 p.m. Eastern on Friday, Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan and Robert Mahoney, the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, are going to be discussing the dangerous challenges reporters are up against in Russia and Ukraine.
Russian reporters have seen their independent news organizations shut down or suspend operations, and many journalists have been forced to flee the country. The New York Times temporarily removed its reporting staff from Russia, and many other news organizations have curtailed their reporting from inside the country.
In Ukraine, Pierre Zakrzewski, a cameraman for Fox News, was killed Monday alongside a Ukrainian colleague, Oleksandra Kuvshynova, while reporting outside Kyiv, the capital. Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall, who was with them, was seriously injured. A few days earlier, Brent Renaud (American journalist) was shot and killed outside Kyiv.
What questions do you have regarding reporting in Ukraine and the Kremlin crackdown against Russian media outlets? Send in your questions here.
Russia again accuses U.S. of testing biological weapons in Ukraine
Russia called its second meeting in a week of the U.N. Security Council to accuse the United States of conducting a biological weapons program in Ukraine. He presented documents that he claimed were obtained in Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya also described the work orders and contracts signed by Pentagon’s Defense Risk Reduction Agency for research. The document was not available to Ukrainian officials.
He said that viruses could spread easily in Russia and Ukraine, such as the hantavirus and Crimean hemorhagic fever, and viruses transmittable by bats including coronavirus. He said that Ukrainian scientists working in facilities across the country were not informed about the possibility of viruses being transferred and kept secret the true purpose of their work.
In a briefing to the Security Council, Izumi Nakamitsu, the United Nations’ high representative for disarmament affairs, repeated her comments at the last meeting, saying that “the U.N. is not aware of any such violations” of international treaties against biological or chemical weapons.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield stated that there are no Ukrainian biological weapon laboratories — none near Russia’s borders, and not anywhere. There are only public health facilities, proudly supported and recognized by the U.S. government, the World Health Organization and other governments and international institutions.”
It is Russia that has used biological and chemical weapons in past violations of international law, Thomas-Greenfield said. She said that Russia’s continued “disinformation and conspiracy theories” was a sign of its “desperation.”
A number of members also claimed that Russia was wasting its time. Russia should immediately cease fire and withdraw troops from Ukraine, they stated. They also suggested that Russia follow international protocols to investigate its allegations.
