Today at 1: 05 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 1: 54 p.m. EDT
Today at 1: 05 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 1: 54 p.m. EDT
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — This Ukrainian-held city is awaiting the expected arrival of about 100 evacuees from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, setting up a reception center for those who faced a fraught journey to reach a safer location. After weeks of ceasefire talks, the UN-backed “safe passage” was established. The Donetsk region patrol chief said that Russia continues to shell the facility despite the agreement. One family from Mariupol told The Washington Post they passed through more than 20 Russian checkpoints over four days.
Following a surprise visit to Kyiv, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) met with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw, offering “America’s deep gratitude to the Polish government and Polish people” for its aid to Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s “brutal and unprovoked war.” Later this week, first lady Jill Biden will travel to Romania and Slovakia, where she will meet with displaced Ukrainian families; Kristina Kvien, the U.S. charge d’affaires for Ukraine, announced Monday that U.S. diplomats will resume limited activities, at first making day trips to Lviv from Poland before establishing a presence in Kyiv.
In Brussels, European Union energy ministers are meeting to discuss the energy crisis and debate a ban on imports of Russian oil. The talks were moving quickly Monday with Germany, which was still opposed to an embargo, indicating that it doesn’t depend anymore on Russian oil. However, Hungary and Slovakia — both more reliant on Russian oil — were holding up the deal with objections, according to officials.
Here’s what else to know
- A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows a large, bipartisan majority supporting increased sanctions against Russia and most also backing military and humanitarian support for Ukrainians, with almost three-quarters saying the United States is doing the right amount or too little to support Ukraine.
- Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky downplayed attempts to have him assassinated, saying that many fellow Ukrainians have it worse.
- In Belgorod, a Russian city near Ukraine’s eastern border, the regional governor said he was awakened early Monday by two explosions, the latest in a series of unexplained fires and blasts at strategic locations in Russia.
- The Post has lifted its paywall for readers in Russia and Ukraine. Telegram users can subscribe to our channel.
Evacuees from Mariupol plant could be taken to Russian territory, Zelensky says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday in an interview with Greek state television that the civilians being evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol risked being taken to Russian territory against their will, stating that a half-million Ukrainians have been “illegally, forcefully deported to other cities in Russia” since the invasion.
In an interview with TV ERT, Zelensky said he had warned United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres that when civilians board the buses outside the plant, “there’s a possibility of Russia taking these people to Russian Federation territory.”
Zelensky said Guterres assured him that the civilians will get to Ukrainian-controlled territory safely. The Ukrainian leader stated that he was still cautious due to his “low trust” in Russia.
Despite the challenges and risks, there are around 50 buses at Azovstal’s gates ready to take people from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia, Zelensky added.
The “safe passage” operation is being led by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The Russian military said Monday that since the Mariupol evacuations began this weekend, 57 people who left the steel plant and surrounding areas chose to stay in areas under Russian control, while 69 civilians decided to leave for Ukrainian-controlled territory and were handed over to U.N. and ICRC personnel.
The figures could not be independently verified.
More than 70 U.S. howitzers have been delivered to Ukraine, Pentagon says
More than 70 of the 90 American howitzers that the Pentagon has earmarked for Ukraine have been delivered, the Pentagon said Monday, part of a stepped-up international effort to flow weapons to Ukraine to help it defend against Russia.
The cannons have been delivered along with about half of the 140,000 155 mm artillery rounds that the United States has promised Ukraine, a senior U.S. defense official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon.
Additional weapons are on their way each day. In the past 24 hours, the United States made 14 weapons flights to the region, while five other Western nations made 23 more, the official said.
The West also continues to train Ukrainian forces on how to use the artillery it is delivering. Fifty more artillerymen were expected to complete a roughly one-week familiarization course on Monday, bringing the total number to have received the instruction to about 220, the official said.
About 20 Ukrainian troops began training Sunday on how to use unmanned Phoenix Ghost aircraft, the official said. These are an unmanned, loitering munition which can be used to fly directly into troops or vehicles.
The United States also is expected to begin delivering Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters in the next few days, the official said. The helicopters were originally promised by the President in an earlier weapons package. However, the Pentagon and Ukrainian officials prioritized other weapons and equipment delivery.
Russia making ‘minimal progress, at best,’ in Donbas, Pentagon assesses
The Russian military, risk-averse and still struggling with logistical issues, is making “minimal progress, at best,” in the Donbas region of Ukraine, the Pentagon assessed Monday.
The assessment came after Russian forces launched offensive operations east and south of Izyum, a midsize eastern city that they seized in late March. According to ground rules established by the Pentagon, a top U.S. defense officer spoke on condition of anonymity to describe Russia’s operations as “very cautious” and “very tepid.”
The official described Russia’s operations as “very cautious” and “very tepid.”
“In some cases, quite frankly, the best way to describe it would be anemic,” he added.
The majority of Russian airstrikes remain concentrated in Mariupol. According to the official, Russian troops continue to pull out unspecified numbers of troops from Mariupol’s largely demolished southern port. They will then send them north for participation in the Donbas offensive.
Russia’s top general visited Ukraine last week, Pentagon says
Russia’s top military officer, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, visited Ukraine for a few days last week, the Pentagon said Monday, but is believed to have returned home.
Gerasimov visited the eastern region of Donbas, where Russia has shifted its military operations after failing to capture Kyiv and other cities in its nine-week-old invasion of Ukraine, said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon. According to the Pentagon’s ground rules, an official could not confirm that Gerasimov had been injured in Ukraine.
Gerasimov was in Ukraine to probably assess Russia’s operations, the Pentagon official said.
“It’s certainly possible that his trip was a manner of oversight,” he said.
Ukrainian villages mark days with funerals as bodies found, identified
OZERA, Ukraine — The sun had broken through the clouds as Nadia Voznenko, a black veil tied around her head, stepped over trash left by Russian soldiers to receive the body.
She recognized the vehicle waiting at her shrapnel-pocked home. The vehicle was once a delivery truck that her son Andriy drove, but it had been transformed into an emergency hearse. Voznenko stared intently at the black-and orange-colored casket. To hide the tortured signs, it would be kept closed.
“My sonny, my dear!” she cried. The truck echoed her screams.
German interior minister asks people to stock up in case of power outages
BERLIN — Germany’s interior minister said Monday that it “makes sense” for people to keep emergency stockpiles of food and medicine at home, as the war in Ukraine threatens energy supplies and increases the risk of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure.
“If the power goes out for a longer period of time or daily life is restricted in some other way, then it definitely makes sense to have an emergency supply at home,” Nancy Faeser said in an interview with Handelsblatt newspaper.
“We have to get up to speed here in order to be able to cope with the various crises — pandemics, the consequences of climate change, the dangers of war,” the interior minister added.
Faeser said her ministry is also making an inventory of the 599 bomb shelters in the country. She said that it was sensible to reactivate some bomb shelters.
Danish foreign minister makes Ukraine trip, visits devastated Irpin
Denmark’s foreign minister, Jeppe Kofod, toured the ruined Kyiv suburb of Irpin on Monday during a visit to the Ukrainian capital to reopen the Danish Embassy.
Most homes in Irpin were destroyed in March during the early weeks of Russia’s invasion as its forces attacked the suburb and shelled it with heavy artillery. In nearby Bucha, scenes of massacred civilians have sparked calls from Ukraine and its allies to investigate Russia for war crimes.
On his tour, Kofod met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. The Danish Foreign Ministry stated in a statement that they planned to meet to discuss Denmark’s humanitarian and military support to Ukraine.
Kofod said in a statement that reopening the Danish Embassy in Kyiv was a way to signal Denmark’s support for Ukraine.
“Our diplomatic staff has been working tirelessly on strengthening Danish-Ukrainian relations and helping both Danes and Ukrainians in the highly challenging situation following Russia’s invasion,” he said. “Today, I am happy to announce that we are back in the heart of the Kyiv.”
Zelensky discusses assassination attempts, threats to his family
President Volodymyr Zelensky opened up about Russian threats to his life and his family in an interview with “60 Minutes Australia” that aired Sunday.
When asked by journalist Tom Steinfort about reports of at least 10 foiled attempts to kill him, Zelensky replied: “Ten assassination attempts means that there’s only 10 people willing to have me killed. That’s not bad.”
Zelensky also said his personal situation could not be compared to the fate suffered by Ukrainians in towns such as Bucha, where mass graves were discovered and civilian bodies lay in the streets after Russian troops retreated in April. The Russian military was accused of atrocities and killing many civilians.
“When people are being tortured, when the bodies of people are found in the wells, I think, considering all of that, my situation is not that horrible,” Zelensky said.
Last week, Ukraine said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces twice attempted to storm Zelensky’s family compound at the beginning of the invasion. According to Time magazine, Zelensky was told by advisers that a Russian squad had been sent to abduct him.
Olena Zelenska, Zelensky’s wife, has since fled Kyiv with their 17-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son, while the president has remained in the capital, meeting with world leaders and heading to devastated towns to survey the damage.
U.S. diplomats to resume limited activities in Ukraine
U.S. diplomats will resume limited activities in Ukraine, based out of the western city of Lviv, with the goal of returning to Kyiv within a month, Kristina Kvien, the U.S. charge d’affaires for Ukraine, announced Monday.
Kvien said she and U.S. Embassy personnel will continue making day trips from neighboring Poland to Lviv for the next week or two and, depending on security conditions, plan to extend those trips to Kyiv, the capital. She stated that the goal is to establish a permanent, long-term presence in Kyiv where many foreign diplomatic missions have been reopened.
“When they tell us we can go back, we go back,” Kvien said of security updates, speaking in front of the sandbagged walls of the city hall in Lviv.
Lviv will serve as a base for U.S. personnel to meet with Ukrainian officials, civil society groups and humanitarian agencies, as well as to perform basic consular work to assist U.S. citizens. For now, that work is not expected to include visa processing related to the Biden administration’s pledge to admit up to 100,000 people fleeing Ukraine.
In mid-February, just before the Russian invasion, the State Department temporarily moved operations to Lviv, with U.S. personnel commuting from Poland. Lviv, despite being under constant attack from the outside, has remained a safe haven for aid groups, U.N staff and diplomats, who consider it too dangerous.
At the time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized the move as “a big mistake,” saying it sent the wrong message to Russia about Western support for Kyiv.
Israel wants apology after Russia’s Lavrov compares Zelensky to Hitler
JERUSALEM — Israeli officials reacted with fury Monday after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine’s Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelensky, of supporting Nazism and asserted that “Hitler also had Jewish blood.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said Russia’s ambassador to Israel would be formally summoned to explain the comments, which Lapid called “both unforgivable and outrageous.” He said Israel would demand an apology from the Russian government for employing a discredited antisemitic trope: that Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazis’ Third Reich and perpetrator of the Holocaust, was of Jewish ancestry.
In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Lavrov’s “words are untrue and their intentions are wrong.”
“The goal of such lies is to accuse the Jews themselves of the most awful crimes in history, which were perpetrated against them, and thereby absolve Israel’s enemies of responsibility,” he said. “The use of the Holocaust of the Jewish people as a political tool must cease immediately.”
Lavrov made the comments in an interview Sunday on Italian television as he sought to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that he had been forced to conduct a special military operation in February because Ukraine was dominated by neoNazis. Lavrov refused to acknowledge the relevance of these claims about “denazification”.
“So what if Zelensky is Jewish,” Lavrov said, according to a translation of his remarks, which he made in Russian. The fact that Hitler also had Jewish blood does not make the Nazi elements of Ukraine less real. I believe that Hitler also had Jewish blood.”
“Some of the worst antisemites are Jews,” Lavrov said.
Over a quarter of Russian units rendered ‘combat ineffective,’ U.K. says
More than a quarter of Russian units sent into Ukraine during the Kremlin’s invasion are now likely to be “combat ineffective,” the British Defense Ministry said Monday in its latest intelligence update, which estimated the scale of Russian losses.
At least 120 Russian battalion tactical groups, making up about 65 percent of the country’s entire ground combat force, were deployed to Ukraine but have since been weakened.
“Some of Russia’s most elite units, including the VDV Airborne Forces, have suffered the highest levels of attrition,” the ministry said, adding that it would probably “take years for Russia to reconstitute these forces.”
Jill Biden to meet with displaced Ukrainians on Mother’s Day in Slovakia
Jill Biden will travel to Romania and Slovakia this week to meet with Ukrainian families displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The first lady will depart the United States on Thursday evening, arriving at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base in Romania on Friday — a base for troops of NATO’s response force — where she will meet with U.S. service members, the White House said in a statement.
The tour from Thursday through May 9 also includes meetings with government officials, U.S. Embassy staffers and humanitarian aid workers helping to teach displaced Ukrainian children and support them and their families during the crisis.
On Mother’s Day, the first lady will meet in Kosice and Vysne Nemecke, Slovakia, with Ukrainian mothers and children who have been forced to flee their homes.
Big majority of Americans back sanctions on Russia, aid to Ukraine, poll finds
Two months after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, Americans are stalwart in their support for the embattled country, with a large, bipartisan majority favoring increased sanctions against Russia and most also backing military and humanitarian support for Ukrainians, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.
In all, 73 percent say the United States is doing either the right amount or too little to support Ukraine.
At the same time, 72 percent oppose direct U.S. military action against Russian forces, while 21 percent support the idea. Even among those who say the United States is doing too little to support Ukraine, 57 percent oppose direct military action. President Biden has said that direct U.S. military involvement in Ukraine is off the table, repeatedly warning that such a move could lead to “World War III.”
E.U. close on plan to phase out Russian oil, but Hungary, Slovakia object
BRUSSELS — The European Union is close to a deal on phasing out Russian oil imports in response to the war in Ukraine — but objections from Hungary and Slovakia are holding up an oil agreement, according to two E.U. Two diplomats from the E.U. official.
To seal the deal, the E.U. The E.U. may give the countries either exemptions or carve outs to seal the deal, officials stated under anonymity. They noted that details of the negotiations are still being worked out.
Talks gained momentum last week after a major holdout, Germany, softened its opposition and signaled support for a ban in phases. Over the weekend, officials and diplomats in Brussels discussed the idea of a phaseout by the end of 2022, but Hungary and Slovakia pushed back, according to the diplomats and the official.
