WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department says it’s paying more than $2 million per month to provide 24-hour security to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a former top aide, both of whom face “serious and credible” threats from Iran.
The department told Congress in a report that the cost of protecting Pompeo and former Iran envoy Brian Hook between August 2021 and February 2022 amounted to $13.1 million. The report, dated Feb. 14 and marked “sensitive but unclassified,” was obtained by The Associated Press on Saturday.
Pompeo and Hook led the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran and the report says U.S. intelligence assesses that the threats to them have remained constant since they left government and could intensify. The threats have persisted even as President Joe Biden’s administration has been engaged in indirect negotiations with Iran over a U.S. return to a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.
As a former secretary of state, Pompeo was automatically given 180 days of protection by the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security after leaving office. But that protection has been repeatedly extended in 60-day increments by Secretary of State Antony Blinken due to “a serious and credible threat from a foreign power or agent of a foreign power arising from duties performed by former Secretary Pompeo while employed by the department,” the report said.
Hook, who along with Pompeo was often the public face of the Trump administration’s imposition of crippling sanctions against Iran, was granted the special protection by Blinken for the same reason as Pompeo immediately after he left government service. That has also been repeatedly renewed in 60-day increments.
The latest 60-day extensions will expire soon and the State Department, in conjunction with the Director of National Intelligence, must determine by March 16 if the protection should extended again, according to the report.
The report was prepared because the special protection budget will run out in June and require a new infusion of money if extensions are deemed necessary.
Current U.S. officials say the threats have been discusses in the nuclear talks in Vienna, where Iran is demanding the removal of all Trump-era sanctions. Those sanctions include a “foreign terrorist organization” designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that Pompeo and Hook were instrumental in approving.
The Vienna talks had been expected to produce an agreement soon to salvage the nuclear agreement that President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from in 2018.
But the talks have been thrown into doubt because of new demands made by Russia and a small number of unresolved U.S.-Iran issues, including the terrorism designation, according to U.S. officials.
Source Article from https://apnews.com/795eb3faae6dc4803faafa3ee6615f4a
LIVE UPDATES
This is CNBC’s live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine. See below for the latest updates.
More cities in Ukraine have been targeted by Russian airstrikes Friday, local authorities say, in a move that suggests Moscow is expanding its attack further into the country.
It comes after new satellite images appear to show that a large Russian convoy approaching Kyiv has been redeployed to towns and forests outside the city, potentially signaling a renewed push to bear down on the capital.
The Ukraine Ministry of Defense on Friday night posted a video which it says shows a Ukraine drone attack on the “enemy control point” near Kyiv.
“A few minutes ago, the enemy control point in the Kyiv direction was destroyed. Our Air Force is working!” the Ukraine ministry’s post on Telegram said, according to an NBC News translation.
CNBC was unable to independently verify the content of the video.
A senior U.S. Defense official told CNBC on Friday that Russian forces near Kyiv have moved forward some of their rear elements, including troops and military equipment, but the frontline has not advanced on the capital.
Russian forces are about 10 miles (16 km) outside Kyiv’s city center, according to the most recent Pentagon assessment.
— Ted Kemp and Amanda Macias
Russian aircraft are relying on unguided, “dumb” munitions to support their troops on the ground, raising the likelihood of Ukrainian civilians being killed and wounded.
Dumb bombs and rockets are less accurate than guided weapons, which means they’re less likely to strike what they’re aimed at and more likely to randomly hit something else.
Russia is using rockets and other weapons that fire from greater distances — so-called “stand-off” weapons — so its pilots can avoid being shot down, the U.K. ministry said in an intelligence update on Friday night local time.
“The staunch resistance of the Ukrainian air defence forces is compelling Russia to rely on ‘stand-off’ munitions to conduct attacks against targets deep inside Ukraine,” the ministry said.
The ministry said Russian air and missile forces had carried out strikes on two cities in Ukraine’s west in the last 24 hours.
Ukraine’s Parliament reported strikes on Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk at around 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. local time respectively on Friday. Those locations are further west than most Russian attacks on Ukraine so far.
In a video message posted to Telegram on Friday morning, Yurii Pohuliaiko, head of the Lutsk regional council, said four rockets had been fired into the city’s military airport, killing two soldiers and injuring six.
— Ted Kemp and Chloe Taylor
Locals from the village Chervone, occupied by Russian troops, evacuate to an area controlled by Ukrainian forces near Vyshgorod on Thursday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba spoke over the phone following Kuleba’s trilateral meeting with his Russian and Turkish counterparts, the State Department said.
Blinken updated Kuleba on efforts by the Biden administration, the European Union and the Group of Seven powers to “raise the costs on Russia” by revoking its “most favored nation” trade status, State spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Blinken reaffirmed the U.S.’ commitment to “continue surging security, economic, and humanitarian support to the people of Ukraine as they face increasingly brutal bombardment by Russian forces,” the statement said.
The two diplomats also “shared their concerns that Russia is escalating its disinformation campaigns to deceive the world, including at the United Nations,” Price said.
— Kevin Breuninger
The major U.S. stock averages fell Friday to end another week of losses as Russia’s war in Ukraine continued.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down more than 200 points, or 0.7%. The S&P 500 slid 1.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.2%.
For the week, the Dow fell 2% — notching its fifth straight week of losses. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted back-to-back weekly losses, dipping 2.9% and 3.5%, respectively.
Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors ended the week lower. Energy as the only advancer. Energy stocks have gotten a recent boost as oil prices rallied amid the conflict.
— Fred Imbert
European leaders say so-called golden passport programs have become a backdoor for dirty money, creating an easy route for many Russian oligarchs to live and conduct business in Europe.
Russian billionaires have been among the world’s largest buyers of multiple citizenships, using alternate passports to help protect their assets and allow freer travel.
The EU Parliament voted this week to phase out citizenship-by-investment programs run by some EU countries. The three EU countries offering golden passports — Bulgaria, Cyprus and Malta — are all phasing out or considering ending their programs. The 12 EU countries offering golden visas, or residency permits for investments, including Greece, Spain and Hungary, are also now considering new limits or phasing them out.
The U.K. is planning to abolish its golden visa program, which gives foreign nationals a path to residency if they invest at least $2.7 million.
— Robert Frank
Orest Hromnadzkiy, a Ukrainian refugee, greeted his sister Yuliia and mother Alla after he crossed into Medyka, Poland this week.
— Scott Mlyn
The Russian ambassador to the United Nations told the international forum that Moscow did not start the current war in Ukraine.
“We did not start this war. We want to end it and it is true that the war was not begun by us. It started eight years ago by Kyiv,” Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said referencing the ongoing conflict in the Donbas region of Ukraine.
Russia has been condemned by global leaders for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
“We are dismayed by the dirty campaign to blame us for intentionally shelling civilian infrastructure,” he said, adding that the West is dismissing legitimate claims as Russian propaganda.
– Amanda Macias
President Joe Biden emphatically rejected the idea of sending American troops or offensive weaponry into Ukraine, telling House Democrats on Friday that such a move would trigger a third World War.
“We will not fight the Third World War in Ukraine,” Biden said at a House Democratic retreat in Philadelphia.
“Putin’s war in Ukraine must never be a victory,” he said. “We are showing strength and we’ll never falter. But, look. The idea, the idea that we’re going to send in offensive equipment and have planes and tanks and trains going in with American pilots and American crews? Don’t kid yourself.”
“That’s called World War III. Okay? Let’s get it straight here guys,” Biden said.
The United States has provided the Ukrainian military with munitions, defensive weaponry and intelligence support. But Biden has so far resisted appeals from Ukrainian leaders for NATO to institute and defend a no-fly zone in the air over Ukraine.
Biden is also under pressure from a faction of congressional Republicans to deliver fighter planes from Poland to Ukraine. But senior Defense Department officials caution that this would be “very risky.”
— Christina Wilkie
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield called on China to halt the spread of Russian disinformation amid the Kremlin’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
“Russia is attempting to use the Security Council to legitimize disinformation and deceive people to justify resident Putin’s war of choice against the Ukrainian people. And China too has been spreading disinformation in support of Russia’s outrageous claims,” she said, referencing recent claims by the Kremlin that the U.S. is working with Ukraine on biological weapons programs.
The representative for China rejected Thomas-Greenfield’s comments and instead called on the international forum to investigate Russia’s claims that the U.S. is supporting biological weapons work in Ukraine.
“The concerns raised by Russia should be properly addressed,” said the Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun.
– Amanda Macias
YouTube said it will block all channels associated with Russian-funded state media globally.
The Google-owned company had previously blocked Russian state media channels in Europe and Ukraine. YouTube said the latest action follows its guidelines, which “prohibit content denying, minimizing or trivializing well-documented violent events.”
“We are now removing content about Russia’s invasion in Ukraine that violates this policy,” the company said in a statement on Twitter. “This change is effective immediately, and we expect our systems to take time to ramp up.”
The move comes more than two weeks into the war started by Russian President Vladimir Putin. It also comes as other companies, including Twitter, crack down on content that denies events of the war.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield slammed Russian claims that the United States operates a secret biological weapons program in Ukraine.
“I will say this once,” Thomas-Greenfield said before the UN National Security forum. “Ukraine does not have a biological weapons program. There are no Ukrainian biological weapons laboratories supported by the United States, not near Russia’s border or anywhere.”
She added that the Biden administration believes “Russia is attempting to use the Security Council to legitimize disinformation and deceive people to justify President Putin’s war of choice.”
“We have serious concerns that Russia may be planning to use chemical or biological agents against the Ukrainian people,” she said.
Thomas-Greenfield’s comments echo those of White House press secretary Jen Psaki, State Department spokesman Ned Price and Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
– Amanda Macias
United Nations Under Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo said 564 civilians have been killed and 982 more have been injured in Russia’s attack on Ukraine, citing new data from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The total casualties and injuries are likely higher due to delays in real-time reporting, DiCarlo said during a UN Security Council forum.
“Most of the recorded civilian casualties, which include children have been caused by explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including heavy artillery, and multi-launch rocket systems and missile and airstrikes,” she said.
– Amanda Macias
Russian forces are approximately 10 miles outside of Kyiv’s city center, according to the Pentagon’s latest assessment of the war in Ukraine.
Russian troops have moved some of their rear elements, including troops and military equipment, up but the frontline has not advanced on Kyiv, a senior U.S. Defense official told reporters.
The official added that the Pentagon still assesses that Russian forces plan to encircle Kyiv. When pressed, the official declined to provide a potential timeline of such an advance.
– Amanda Macias
German luxury-car maker Mercedes-Benz AG warned that its assets in Russia, worth about 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion), could be at risk if Moscow follows through on its proposal to expropriate assets of foreign companies that leave the country following its invasion of Ukraine.
Mercedes listed the possibility of expropriation as one of several risks to the company raised by the Russian invasion in its annual report, released on Friday. Russia on Thursday proposed measures to take control of businesses left behind by departing companies. If adopted, Russian courts would be able to freeze the companies’ assets and force the businesses to choose between restoring their operations or selling the assets, likely at very steep losses.
Mercedes’ assets in Russia include a factory near Moscow that can produce about 20,000 vehicles a year, as well as raw materials, inventories of finished vehicles and related properties.
In addition to the assets at risk, Mercedes’ Russian subsidiaries owe banks about 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion). Mercedes said on Friday that it has issued guarantees for those debts.
— John Rosevear
A large Russian military convoy, widely tracked by satellite imagery, appears to be stalled on its route to Kyiv.
“The convoy is not really going anywhere,” a senior U.S. Defense official said on a call with reporters when asked about the latest satellite imagery provided by Maxar Technologies.
“We still do not believe that the convoy has made any progress towards linking up with other elements or being able to resupply or contribute in any meaningful way,” the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, added.
“The only thing that we have seen is that in some places, some of their vehicles have moved off of roads that they were on into tree lines,” the official said, adding that it was unclear how many vehicles are in the convoy.
– Amanda Macias
President Joe Biden signed an executive order blocking U.S. imports of key Russian products, including vodka, and banning exports of high-end goods to Russia.
The executive action bans imports from key sectors of Russia’s economy, such as seafood, alcohol and non-industrial diamonds, according to the text of the order. That move will block more than $1 billion in Russian revenues, the White House said in a fact sheet.
The order will also stop the U.S. from exporting what the administration called “luxury items” to anyone in Russia. Those items include high-end watches and clothes, jewelry, top-shelf liquor and luxury vehicles — all of which feature prominently in the lifestyles of mega-rich Russian oligarchs.
The new export restrictions are valued at nearly $550 million per year, the White House said.
— Kevin Breuninger
After 16 days of war in Ukraine, the Kremlin has approximately 90% of its devoted combat power still available for the fight, according to the Pentagon’s latest assessment of the fighting.
Of Russia’s deployed combat power, including armored vehicles and munitions, almost all of it has survived the armed conflict, a senior Defense official said.
“Obviously the Russians have the advantage in sheer numbers across all different combined arms capabilities,” the official said, referencing the Kremlin’s total arsenal.
The official declined to comment on Ukraine’s combat power.
– Amanda Macias
The Pentagon has observed Russian forces launch more than 810 missiles since the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
A senior Defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to share new details from the U.S. assessment of the war, said the majority of the missiles are being fired from mobile platforms inside of Ukraine.
The official said that the missiles are a variety of short-range, medium-range, ballistic as well as cruise missiles.
– Amanda Macias
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday that the NATO alliance has strengthened amid Russia’s invasion and subsequent war in Ukraine.
“Whatever Moscow seeks to achieve through violence and aggression. It will fail. It is failing already,” Stoltenberg said before the Polish National Assembly marking Poland’s anniversary of joining NATO.
“President Putin wants less NATO on Russia’s borders, but he is getting more NATO. He wants to divide Europe and North America. But we stand more united than ever.”
– Amanda Macias
U.S. President Joe Biden spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday shortly before he announced broad new measures designed to hamper Russia’s economy.
In a tweeted statement, Ukraine’s leader said he gave Biden “the assessment of the situation on the battlefield” and informed him about “the crimes of Russia against the civilian population.”
“We agreed on further steps to support the defense of Ukraine and increase sanctions against Russia,” he added.
In a separate readout of the call, the White House said Biden “highlighted how the United States is continuing to surge security, humanitarian, and economic assistance to Ukraine” and briefed Zelenskyy on the steps he took Friday to undermine the Russian economy.
— Jacob Pramuk
President Joe Biden called for the U.S. to revoke Russia’s “most favored nation” status, which would downgrade Russia as a trading partner and open the door to damaging new tariffs on Moscow.
The European Union and the Group of Seven nations are expected to take the same step. Canada already removed Russia’s most favored nation status last week.
The aim, Biden said, is “to squeeze Putin and hold him even more accountable for his aggression in Ukraine.”
Biden will need action from Congress to cancel permanent normal trade relations with Russia, but he is expected to have cooperation. Both Republicans and Democrats have strongly supported non-military efforts to punish Russia, and some have already proposed legislation to revoke Russia’s WTO membership.
— Kevin Breuninger
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis speaks from Versailles Palace in France, discussing his proposals for EU intervention in the natural gas market and European sanctions on Russian energy.
—Matt Clinch
Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš said Friday that Europe has become “extremely united” and that NATO has been “reinvigorated” following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking to CNBC’s Silvia Amaro at Versailles Palace in France, he added that he’s confident that a democracy in Russia will emerge when the war is over.
—Matt Clinch
Mariana Vishegirskaya survived the Russian airstrike on a children’s and maternity hospital in Mariupol on Wednesday. She gave birth to her daughter, Veronika, in Mariupol on Friday.
— Adam Jeffery
Firefighters responded Friday after Russian airstrikes hit civilian settlements in Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine.
— Adam Jeffery
President Joe Biden will announce that the U.S. is moving to revoke Russia’s status as a “most-favored nation,” a senior administration official told reporters at CNBC and NBC News.
“Most-favored nation” status is a classification within the World Trade Organization that exempts a country from tariffs.
Changing Russia’s trade status will allow Congress to slap tariffs on any or all goods imported from Russia to the U.S., with caviar, vodka, plywood and various other goods among those likely to be affected.
It is unclear whether Biden himself is revoking Russia’s trade status or whether he will call on Congress to do so.
Last year, Russian exports to the U.S. amounted to $29 billion, 60% of which was comprised of oil and gas products, which were banned from being imported to the U.S. altogether earlier this week.
Since Moscow launched its attack on Ukraine, there have been bipartisan calls in Congress for Russia’s trade status in the U.S. to be changed.
— Chloe Taylor
The U.K. has announced fresh sanctions on Russia, targeting 386 Russian lawmakers who voted to recognize the independence of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine shortly before the country was invaded.
British Foreign Minister Liz Truss said on Friday that the new sanctions would prohibit those on the list from traveling to the U.K., accessing assets held in the U.K. and doing business in the U.K.
“We’re targeting those complicit in Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and those who support this barbaric war,” she said in a statement. “We will not let up the pressure and will continue to tighten the screw on the Russian economy through sanctions.”
It comes a day after the U.K. added seven Russian oligarchs, including billionaire Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich, to its sanctions list.
— Chloe Taylor
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reportedly said Ukrainian has reached a “strategic turning point” in its war with Russia, calling for time and patience until victory is achieved.
“It is impossible to say how many days we still have to free Ukrainian land. But we can say we will do it. For we have already reached a strategic turning point,” Zelenskyy said in a televised address, according to Reuters.
Zelenskyy also reiterated his push for stronger moves from the European Union to punish the Kremlin, adding that further economic measures would be required if the war continues.
His comments come as Russia widens its attack on Ukrainian cities, and as satellite images show a large military convoy regrouping northwest of Ukraine’s capital.
— Sam Meredith
Russian President Vladimir Putin says some progress has been made in talks between the Kremlin and Ukraine, without providing any further details.
“There are some positive shifts there, as I have been told by our delegation,” Putin said, according to a translation by NBC News.
His comments came as he met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow. Putin said talks between Russia and Ukraine were “taking place almost daily.”
European markets jumped on the news. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was last seen trading 2% higher, having traded up around 1% in late morning deals.
U.S. stock futures also jumped, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures up more than 300 points and the Nasdaq 100 jumping some 1.4%.
— Sam Meredith
The U.N. human rights office says it has received credible reports of multiple cases of Russian military forces using cluster bombs in populated areas of Ukraine, according to Reuters.
The use of such weapons could amount to war crimes, the U.N. added.
“Due to their wide area effects, the use of cluster munitions in populated areas is incompatible with the international humanitarian law principles governing the conduct of hostilities,” U.N. spokesperson Liz Throssell told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland, Reuters reported.
“We remind the Russian authorities that directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, as well as so-called area bombardment in towns and villages and other forms of indiscriminate attacks, are prohibited under international law and may amount to war crimes.”
— Sam Meredith
Ukrainian state-run energy company Energoatom says nuclear power plants in the country “continue to operate stably.”
The update comes amid heightened concern about Ukraine’s nuclear safety as Russia steps up its onslaught.
Ukraine on Thursday informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog that it had lost all communications with the Russia-controlled Chornobyl nuclear power plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency said this development came shortly after the defunct nuclear power plant lost all external power supplies.
The Chornobyl plant’s disconnection from the grid “will not have a critical impact on essential safety functions at the site,” the IAEA has said.
— Sam Meredith
The United Nations says more than 2.5 million people have now fled Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24.
A further 2 million people have been displaced inside the country, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said via Twitter.
— Sam Meredith
Airstrikes hit the western cities of Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk at around 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. local time respectively on Friday, Ukraine’s Parliament said in a statement.
Explosions were heard in both cities, the statement said, adding that air raid sirens did not sound before either city was hit with airstrikes.
In a video message posted to Telegram on Friday morning, Yurii Pohuliaiko, head of the Lutsk regional council, said four rockets had been fired into the city’s military airport, killing two soldiers and injuring six.
The airstrikes on Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk are further west than recent Russian attacks on Ukraine.
— Chloe Taylor
U.K. officials said Friday that although it seems unlikely Russia has successfully achieved its invasion objectives, it was likely that Moscow is seeking “to reset and re-posture its forces for renewed offensive activity in the coming days.”
“This will probably include operations against the capital, Kyiv,” the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense said in an intelligence update Friday.
“Russian ground forces continue to make limited progress,” the ministry’s update added. “Logistical issues that have hampered the Russian advance persist, as does strong Ukrainian resistance.”
The U.K. update came after satellite images appeared to show a large Russian convoy that has been approaching Kyiv for over a week has been redeployed to towns and forests outside the city, potentially signaling a renewed push to bear down on the capital.
— Chloe Taylor
Russian forces have killed more civilians than soldiers in Ukraine, the country’s defense minister said Friday.
“As of 10 March, the number of Ukrainian civilians killed by Russian interventionists is bigger than the number of our military personnel from all defense corps killed in action,” Oleksii Reznikov said in a Facebook post.
“The Kremlin is bombing schools and hospitals, including maternity hospitals. Moscow does not protect anyone. It destroys,” he added. “They are not able to fight with our army, the national guard and territorial defense forces — so they attack the most vulnerable.”
— Chloe Taylor
President Joe Biden will announce new actions on Friday that will see the U.S. “continue to hold Russia accountable for its unprovoked and unjustified war on Ukraine,” the White House said yesterday.
The president will announce the measures from the White House at 10:15 a.m. ET before traveling to Philadelphia, where he will deliver an address at the House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference.
— Chloe Taylor
Russia’s large military convoy, last seen northwest of Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv near Antonov Airport, has “largely dispersed and redeployed,” satellite images taken on Thursday by U.S. firm Maxar Technologies appear to show.
The photos appear to show that armored units have fanned out through the towns close to the airport, with artillery howitzers thought to be situated in firing positions nearby.
Maxar said damage to commercial and residential property could be seen in and around Kyiv and in Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine.
The latest batch of satellite images come as Russia’s onslaught of Ukraine enters its 16th day, with invading Russian troops seeking to maintain pressure on Kyiv and the besieged port city of Mariupol.
— Sam Meredith
Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukraine’s President, said Friday that Ukrainian cities are being hit by “devastating blows.”
— Chloe Taylor
Ruslan Martsinkiv, mayor of Ivano-Frankiivsk, said Friday morning that the city in western Ukraine was under attack and there had been explosions on the ground. He urged residents in a series of Facebook statements not to leave their homes, adding that the military and emergency services were on the scene.
Meanwhile Ihor Polishchuk, mayor of Lutsk — another city in Ukraine’s west — also said on Facebook that there had been explosions there this morning. He said the airstrike had taken place near the airport.
CNBC has not yet been able to independently verify the reported attacks on either city.
Elsewhere, the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine came under attack early on Friday morning, being hit by three airstrikes. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said the strikes had hit a kindergarten, an apartment building and a shoe factory. One person died in the attacks, while 20 were injured, authorities said.
— Chloe Taylor
You can read CNBC’s live coverage from Thursday here:
Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/11/russia-ukraine-live-updates.html
March 11 (Reuters) – The United Nations on Friday said it had no evidence Ukraine had a biological weapons program while Washington and its allies accused Russia of spreading the unproven claim as a possible prelude to launching its own biological or chemical attacks.
Russia called the meeting of the 15-member U.N. Security Council to reassert through its envoy Vassily Nebenzia, without providing evidence, that Ukraine ran biological weapons laboratories with U.S. Defense Department support.
Member countries called the claim “a lie” and “utter nonsense” and used the session to accuse Russia of deliberately targeting and killing hundreds of civilians in Ukraine, assertions that Russia denies in a 15-day offensive it calls “a special military operation.”
Izumi Nakamitsu, the U.N. High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, told the council the United Nations is “not aware” of any biological weapons program in Ukraine, which joined an international ban on such arms, as has Russia and the United States along with 180 other countries.
Under a 2005 agreement, the Pentagon has assisted several Ukrainian public health laboratories with improving the security of dangerous pathogens and technology used to research. Those efforts have been supported by other countries and the World Health Organization.
The WHO told Reuters on Thursday that it had advised Ukraine to destroy high-threat pathogens housed in its public health laboratories to prevent “any potential spills” that would spread disease among the population. read more
The U.S. envoy to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said Washington was “deeply concerned” that Russia called the session as a “false flag effort” to lay the groundwork for its own use of biological or chemical weapons in Ukraine.
Although she provided no evidence of an imminent Russian threat during the meeting, she said: “Russia has a track record of falsely accusing other countries of the very violations that Russia itself is perpetrating.”
She added: “We have serious concerns that Russia may be planning to use chemical or biological agents against the Ukrainian people.
“The intent behind these lies seems clear, and it is deeply troubling,” she said. “We believe Russia could use chemical or biological agents for assassinations, as part of a staged or false flag incident, or to support tactical military operations.”
RUSSIA CITES U.S. 2003 IRAQ ASSERTION
Responding to Thomas-Greenfield’s statement, Nebenzia recalled then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s 2003 Security Council testimony when he presented what Washington claimed was proof that Iraq was hiding banned weapons of mass destruction programs.
The United States used the assertion, which turned out to be false, to justify its 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Answering the Russian envoy, Thomas-Greenfield said: “I know that you expect me to respond but we’re not going to give any more airtime to the lies that you’re hearing today.”
U.S. allies echoed Thomas-Greenfield’s concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government was spreading the claim of a U.S.-backed bioweapons program in Ukraine to prepare its own chemical or biological attacks in Ukraine.
“The council should not be served with fantasies or starry-eyed stories, but with proof independently verified and collaborated,” said Ferit Hoxha, the ambassador of NATO member Albania.
“We should therefore be very worried that in spreading such disinformation, a crescendo of allegations about weapons of mass destruction could serve as yet another pretext for Russia to prepare the ground and use chemical or biological weapons during its ongoing invasion of Ukraine,” he said.
French Ambassador Nicholas de Riviere noted, as did several other envoys, that Russia allegedly used a nerve agent in failed attempts to kill jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and a former Russian intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, who defected to Britain, and his daughter.
Russia denies these allegations.
Speaking to reporters earlier on Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden warned Russia that it would pay a “severe price” if its military should use chemical weapons against Ukraine.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/un-says-not-aware-any-biological-weapons-program-ukraine-2022-03-11/
President Biden announced Friday that the U.S. will suspend normal trade relations with Russia as part of the ongoing effort to punish President Vladimir Putin for his unprovoked war in Ukraine.
“Putin is the aggressor and he must pay the price,” Biden said in remarks from the White House, declaring that sanctions already imposed by the West are “crushing” Russia’s economy and warning that Moscow would pay “a severe price” if it deploys chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, as the White House suggested this week it may be plotting to do.
The latest move, which came in concert with the Group of 7 and European Union, paves the way for the administration to increase tariffs on Russian imports above the levels pledged to all World Trade Organization members.
Thanking lawmakers for holding off on legislation until he could coordinate with allies, Biden announced that “each of our nations is going to take steps to deny most favored nation status to Russia,” which he said will “make it harder for Russia to do business with the United States.”
Biden’s remarks from the White House Roosevelt Room came shortly after a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who sought to bolster his country’s resolve in a video message on the 16th day of fighting and as Russian forces slowly move closer to the capital city of Kyiv.
Russia intensifies its assault on Ukraine, edging toward Kyiv as more Ukrainians attempt to flee the war and Biden bans Russian imports including vodka.
Zelensky tweeted that it was a “substantive” conversation that focused on the next steps of the West’s response to Russia. A short White House readout said that Biden “highlighted how the United States is continuing to surge security, humanitarian, and economic assistance to Ukraine” and updated Zelensky on the latest moves.
Biden on Friday emphasized the importance of moving in lockstep with Europe against Russia, adding that “doing it in unison with other nations that make up half of the global economy will be another crushing blow to the Russian economy that has already suffered very badly from our sanctions.”
The president fully threw his support behind a bipartisan proposal that has gained steam in Congress in recent days that would revoke Russia’s Permanent Normal Trade Relations status and direct the U.S. trade representative’s office to seek Russia’s ouster from the WTO.
The Times’ Marcus Yam, no stranger to war photography, gives a first-person account from Ukraine.
The top Democrats and Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee first proposed the move in a letter Monday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said that the House will take up legislation to formalize the revocation next week and that she anticipates a bipartisan vote.
Booting Russia from the WTO requires a vote and support from two-thirds of the organization’s 164 member nations. As such, most experts don’t believe it is likely to occur. But nothing prevents individual countries from revoking Russia’s WTO privileges, as Canada and Ukraine have already done.
As the war in Ukraine rages, ordinary Russians face a degree of international isolation not seen in decades. What will Putin do next?
Biden also announced a newly signed executive order banning Russian imports of seafood, vodka and diamonds. And the Department of Treasury imposed additional sanctions Friday afternoon on more than 24 individuals, 10 of whom serve on the board of VTB, Russia’s second-largest bank. A dozen more are members of the Duma and the family of Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov.
The U.S. is not a major destination for Russian goods, which account for only about 1% of total imports. Thus, the new potential tariffs on Russian products are unlikely to have a major impact on American consumers, who are already bearing the brunt of inflation spiking to a 40-year high.
More than half of what the U.S. buys from Russia are petroleum crude and oil products. Other major imports include iron, frozen crabs and such precious metals as palladium, which is a critical component of catalytic converters.
In a joint statement by all G-7 members, the world’s leading democracies vowed to work toward barring Russia from obtaining financing from major multilateral institutions including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. “Russia cannot grossly violate international law and expect to benefit from being part of the international economic order,” the statement read.
When the war began more than two weeks ago, the administration focused its initial response by leveling sanctions against Russian oligarchs and the country’s banks. As support has deepened for Ukraine across the West, the U.S. and Europe have taken additional steps, expanding sanctions to Putin himself and members of his inner circle. Earlier this week, they took action to reduce their dependence on Russian energy.
On Tuesday, Biden announced the U.S. would ban imports of Russian oil, gas and coal. Europe, which is far more reliant on Russian energy, has also proposed a plan to cut its use of natural gas from Russia by two-thirds this year.
Analysts believe Washington can still go further in squeezing Russia economically. Brian O’Toole and Daniel Fried of the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank, suggested that the U.S. could expand sanctions on major Russian state-owned banks such as Gazprombank and Russian Agricultural Bank by locking them out of the international financial system and target Russian stock markets.
Friday’s move to halt trade was largely symbolic, indicating that the U.S. doesn’t see Russia as a trading partner. But coming in coordination with European allies that trade more heavily with Russia, the move will further isolate Russia from the global trading system.
Gary Hufbauer, a trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said even if the move is mostly symbolic, doing it legislatively would establish a significant and likely enduring precedent.
Once Permanent Normal Trade Relations “is revoked for Russia, the path will be established for congressional voices to call for revocation against China, and then, as conflicts arise, against other countries,” he said. “And once PNTR is revoked, it will take a new act of Congress to restore PNTR. This will put a burden on future presidents, since side issues will likely be attached to restoration, even when U.S. relations with the partner country are harmonious.”
President Biden announces the U.S. will ban Russian oil imports, the latest sanction against the Kremlin over its unprovoked war in Ukraine.
Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-03-11/biden-revokes-russias-trade-status-ratcheting-up-economic-consequences-for-putin
To keep up with major developments from our reporters across the globe, sign up for WSJ’s free daily newsletter.
In Ukraine: Ukraine killed a third Russian general since Moscow’s invasion began more than two weeks ago, officials said Friday, as Russia repositioned its beleaguered forces in the north of the country in what Western officials worry is a prelude to a renewed attack on the capital.
Russian airstrikes pounded Ukrainian cities far from the front lines as its military grappled for control over territory it nominally captured. Russian forces kidnapped the mayor of the occupied southern city of Melitopol, who had refused to cooperate with them and continued to fly a Ukrainian flag in his office, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry said.
In the West: President Biden said the U.S. will move to revoke normal trade relations with Russia, joining Western allies in a coordinated action to further punish Moscow.
Markets: Technology stocks extended their declines, dragging broader indexes to weekly losses, as volatility reigned and inflation fears heightened.
Source Article from https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-03-11
The latest: Russia expands attacks to Ukraine’s west, as ground forces maneuver near Kyiv as the Russian military sees limited gains at a heavy cost. Meanwhile, in the U.S., President Biden will seek to end normal trade relations between U.S. and Russia.
Oil exports: Russia is the world’s largest oil exporter, sending more than 7 million barrels of crude oil to countries around the world, including to Germany and other E.U. members.
The fight: Casualties are mounting in Ukraine — including civilians, while Moscow is facing allegations that it has used cluster and vacuum weapons. As many as 4,000 Russian soldiers may have died, according to a U.S. general.
Map: Russia’s assault on Ukraine has been extensive with strikes and attacks across the entire country.
The response: Russia’s war could be a global economic “game changer,” with rising gas prices and shifting trade decisions suggesting change that will be felt for years. Meanwhile, in Russia, online access has been significantly curtailed by censors at home and businesses abroad.
How you can help: Here are ways those in the U.S. can help support the Ukrainian people as well as what people around the world have been donating.
Read our full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/11/un-council-ukraine-russia-chemical-weapons-zelensky/
Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/11/politics/kamala-harris-poland-romania/index.html
“No,” she said.
“What did you make of the instruction to not put anything in writing?”
“It was very unethical,” Ms. Mulanax said.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services has struggled for years to care for children in its foster care system and to conduct investigations into child abuse.
The agency has been the subject of a decade-old federal lawsuit over its foster care system, in which children faced abuse as well as long waits to be adopted or placed in safer homes. Federal monitors have been overseeing the process of carrying out judicial orders since 2019, among them a directive to improve the handling and investigation of reported child abuse.
A federal court held an emergency hearing on Thursday, unrelated to the fight over transgender children, regarding a report of sex trafficking, abuse and neglect of children at a foster care facility in Bastrop that is under contract to the state. Mr. Abbott called the report “abhorrent” in a statement, and said that “child abuse of any kind won’t be tolerated in the state of Texas.”
But the bounds of what constitutes child abuse was the question being wrestled with at the hearing on Friday in front of Judge Meachum.
Ms. Mulanax, the state investigations supervisor, said that she disagreed with the governor’s order and with her agency’s response to it, and that she had decided to resign because of it. “I have always felt that the department has the children’s best interest at heart,” she said. “I no longer feel that way with this order.”
Reports of parents possibly providing puberty-blockers, hormones or other medically accepted treatments to their transgender children were being handled differently from other reports of child abuse, she testified. “These are not being treated the same,” Ms. Mulanax said during the hearing. “We had to be investigating these cases.”
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/11/us/texas-transgender-child-abuse.html
A powerful, late-winter storm combining rivers of moisture and frigid temperatures is expected to dump snow from the Deep South all the way north to the Canadian border over the weekend, forecasters said Friday.
With snowfall totals ranging from about 4 inches (10 centimeters) in northern parts of Alabama and Mississippi to about 13 inches (33 centimeters) in northern Maine, the storm could cause travel problems and power outages across a wide part of the Eastern United States from late Friday through early next week.
The system is referred to by some as an ominous-sounding “bomb cyclone.”
“With this bomb cyclone, maybe what’s the biggest concern is how late in the season its coming and that it’s traveling over inland areas,” said Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for Atmospheric Environmental Research, a commercial firm outside of Boston. And that’s bad news for plants that acted as if spring was here.
Many crops and plants in the Southeast have started to bud because of warmer weather until now and the freezing cold temperatures — maybe record low — that are expected on the back end of this bomb cyclone can cause some serious damage, Cohen said.
A bomb cyclone has nothing to do with explosions, except in how explosive a storm develops. It is when a storm intensifies rapidly by losing pressure quickly, dropping at least 24 millibars in 24 hours. In this case, computer models forecast this storm to drop from around 1006 millibars in Alabama, be down to around 976 in Boston and in the 960s by the time it hits Canada, Cohen said.
There are usually several bomb cyclones a winter near the East, but many are over the ocean and no one is affected, Cohen said. This is at least the third for the East Coast this winter, he said.
“This one is happening a little closer to land so it gets a little more attention, because if it’s just a fish storm, who cares?” Cohen said. “It’s not like it’s that unusual.”
It’s late in the season for bomb cyclones so this is likely the last one at least for the Southeast, maybe even the rest of the coast too, Cohen said.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning from the Deep South to northern Maine.
In New York’s state capital of Albany, a St. Patrick’s Day parade that had been scheduled for Saturday was postponed a week because of the approaching storm. After two years of coronavirus cancellations, “the Parade Committee would rather wait one more week to put this snowstorm behind us, so we can enjoy the event safely together,” co-chair Tim Carey said in a statement.
Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/bomb-cyclone-dump-snow-mississippi-maine-83391171
Disney CEO Bob Chapek issued a rare mea culpa Friday, following two weeks of criticism over the company’s response to Florida’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
In full damage-control mode, Chapek said via a memo to staff: “Speaking to you, reading your messages, and meeting with you have helped me better understand how painful our silence was,” he wrote. “It is clear that this is not just an issue about a bill in Florida, but instead yet another challenge to basic human rights.”
He continued: “You needed me to be a stronger ally in the fight for equal rights and I let you down. I am sorry.”
Chaepk has taken heat from some in recent days over remaining silent over the bill, which would ban Florida teachers from discussing LGBTQ topics like sexual orientation or gender identity with students until after third grade.
At Disney’s annual shareholder meeting Wednesday, Chapek said Disney was opposed to the bill and had been fighting it behind the scenes to no avail.
He said the company would donate $5 million to organizations to the Human Rights Campaign, which work to protect LGTBQ+ rights, and that he would meet with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to discuss his concerns.
Meanwhile, employees of Pixar, Disney’s animated studio, circulated an angry letter, calling Chapek’s earlier claims that the company supported LGBTQ rights “hollow.”
They demanded that the Mouse House stop funding politicians who supported the Florida bill, and accused the company of censoring LGBTQ storylines in Pixar flicks.
The Human Rights Campaign echoed Pixar staff on the political contributions issue and said it wouldn’t accept the donation, putting egg on Disney’s face.
To make matters worse, Chapek’s boss, chairman of Disney General Entertainment Content Peter Rice, told The Hollywood Reporter after the shareholder meeting that “the law is a new and painful iteration of a history of discrimination against an already vulnerable group.”
“Personally, I see this law as a violation of fundamental human rights, and I condemn any attempt to marginalize individuals on the basis of their identity,” he continued. “I appreciate that Bob recognized that we must do more to support the LGBTQ+ community.”
As part of Friday’s memo, Chapek said Disney will cease all political donations in Florida due to the bill. He added that the company is reviewing its approach to advocacy.
“I missed the mark in this case but am an ally you can count on — and I will be an outspoken champion for the protections, visibility, and opportunity you deserve,” Chapek said.
The entertainment giant has made diversity and inclusion a big part of its corporate policies, culture and storytelling across theme parks, movies and TV shows. But some have said the company’s silence on the bill was a statement of its own.
“Our employees see the power of this great company as an opportunity to do good,” Chapek said. “I agree. Yes, we need to use our influence to promote that good by telling inclusive stories, but also by standing up for the rights of all.”
DeSantis doubled down on his support for the bill Thursday. Speaking to supporters in Boca Raton, the governor said there was a “zero” chance he was going to reverse his position on the bill, according to a video obtained by Fox News.
“You have companies, like at Disney, that are going to say and criticize parents’ rights, they’re going to criticize the fact that we don’t want transgenderism in kindergarten in first-grade classrooms,” he said.
“If that’s the hill they’re going to die on, then how do they possibly explain lining their pockets with their relationship from the Communist Party of China? Because that’s what they do, and they make a fortune, and they don’t say a word about the really brutal practices that you see over there at the hands of the CCP,” he claimed.
“And so in Florida, our policies got to be based on the best interest of Florida citizens, not on the musing of woke corporations,” he added.
DeSantis’ comments about Disney’s relationship with the Communist Party of China has been a common criticism of the entertainment giant in the last week. Disney was one of several studios to suspend film releases in Russia over the country’s invasion of Ukraine, but has not made similar moves in China for the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang province, who are facing human rights abuses.
Two years ago, Disney thanked government entities in Xinjiang in the credits for its live action adaption of “Mulan,” which was partially filmed in the province.
Source Article from https://nypost.com/2022/03/11/disney-ceo-bob-chapek-apologizes-over-dont-say-gay-flap-i-let-you-down/
President Biden has a message for members of Congress: the U.S. response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will be in coordination with U.S. allies.
Why it matters: Biden used the first part of his appearance before House Democrats on the last day of their retreat in Philadelphia Friday to defend his decisions on Russia — and the timing and scope of his actions.
What he’s saying: “Literally I spend hours and hours and hours and hours keeping our alliance together. You, NATO, our allies — including our Asian allies,” Biden said.
The big picture: Over the past three weeks, Congress has largely been a step ahead of the Biden administration in terms of calling for punitive actions against Russia.
The bottom line: “I want to be clear though, we’re going to defend every inch of NATO territory,” Biden said leaning into the podium. “But we will not fight a Third World War.”
Go deeper:
Source Article from https://www.axios.com/biden-defends-russia-sanctions-invasion-ukraine-4c02b09b-3bcf-44b1-b687-3f626ca220f1.html
LIVE UPDATES
This is CNBC’s live blog tracking Friday’s developments on the war in Ukraine. See below for the latest updates.
More cities in Ukraine have been targeted by Russian airstrikes Friday, local authorities say, in a move that suggests Moscow is expanding its attack further into the country.
It comes after new satellite images appear to show that a large Russian convoy approaching Kyiv has been redeployed to towns and forests outside the city, potentially signaling a renewed push to bear down on the capital.
European leaders say so-called golden passport programs have become a backdoor for dirty money, creating an easy route for many Russian oligarchs to live and conduct business in Europe.
Russian billionaires have been among the world’s largest buyers of multiple citizenships, using alternate passports to help protect their assets and allow freer travel.
The EU Parliament voted this week to phase out citizenship-by-investment programs run by some EU countries. The three EU countries offering golden passports — Bulgaria, Cyprus and Malta — are all phasing out or considering ending their programs. The 12 EU countries offering golden visas, or residency permits for investments, including Greece, Spain and Hungary, are also now considering new limits or phasing them out.
The U.K. is planning to abolish its golden visa program, which gives foreign nationals a path to residency if they invest at least $2.7 million.
— Robert Frank
Orest Hromnadzkiy, a Ukrainian refugee, greeted his sister Yuliia and mother Alla after he crossed into Medyka, Poland this week.
— Scott Mlyn
The Russian ambassador to the United Nations told the international forum that Moscow did not start the current war in Ukraine.
“We did not start this war. We want to end it and it is true that the war was not begun by us. It started eight years ago by Kyiv,” Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said referencing the ongoing conflict in the Donbas region of Ukraine.
Russia has been condemned by global leaders for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
“We are dismayed by the dirty campaign to blame us for intentionally shelling civilian infrastructure,” he said, adding that the West is dismissing legitimate claims as Russian propaganda.
– Amanda Macias
President Joe Biden emphatically rejected the idea of sending American troops or offensive weaponry into Ukraine, telling House Democrats on Friday that such a move would trigger a third World War.
“We will not fight the Third World War in Ukraine,” Biden said at a House Democratic retreat in Philadelphia.
“Putin’s war in Ukraine must never be a victory,” he said. “We are showing strength and we’ll never falter. But, look. The idea, the idea that we’re going to send in offensive equipment and have planes and tanks and trains going in with American pilots and American crews? Don’t kid yourself.”
“That’s called World War III. Okay? Let’s get it straight here guys,” Biden said.
The United States has provided the Ukrainian military with munitions, defensive weaponry and intelligence support. But Biden has so far resisted appeals from Ukrainian leaders for NATO to institute and defend a no-fly zone in the air over Ukraine.
Biden is also under pressure from a faction of congressional Republicans to deliver fighter planes from Poland to Ukraine. But senior Defense Department officials caution that this would be “very risky.”
— Christina Wilkie
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield called on China to halt the spread of Russian disinformation amid the Kremlin’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
“Russia is attempting to use the Security Council to legitimize disinformation and deceive people to justify resident Putin’s war of choice against the Ukrainian people. And China too has been spreading disinformation in support of Russia’s outrageous claims,” she said, referencing recent claims by the Kremlin that the U.S. is working with Ukraine on biological weapons programs.
The representative for China rejected Thomas-Greenfield’s comments and instead called on the international forum to investigate Russia’s claims that the U.S. is supporting biological weapons work in Ukraine.
“The concerns raised by Russia should be properly addressed,” said the Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun.
– Amanda Macias
YouTube said it will block all channels associated with Russian-funded state media globally.
The Google-owned company had previously blocked Russian state media channels in Europe and Ukraine. YouTube said the latest action follows its guidelines, which “prohibit content denying, minimizing or trivializing well-documented violent events.”
“We are now removing content about Russia’s invasion in Ukraine that violates this policy,” the company said in a statement on Twitter. “This change is effective immediately, and we expect our systems to take time to ramp up.”
The move comes more than two weeks into the war started by Russian President Vladimir Putin. It also comes as other companies, including Twitter, crack down on content that denies events of the war.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield slammed Russian claims that the United States operates a secret biological weapons program in Ukraine.
“I will say this once,” Thomas-Greenfield said before the UN National Security forum. “Ukraine does not have a biological weapons program. There are no Ukrainian biological weapons laboratories supported by the United States, not near Russia’s border or anywhere.”
She added that the Biden administration believes “Russia is attempting to use the Security Council to legitimize disinformation and deceive people to justify President Putin’s war of choice.”
“We have serious concerns that Russia may be planning to use chemical or biological agents against the Ukrainian people,” she said.
Thomas-Greenfield’s comments echo those of White House press secretary Jen Psaki, State Department spokesman Ned Price and Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
– Amanda Macias
United Nations Under Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo said 564 civilians have been killed and 982 more have been injured in Russia’s attack on Ukraine, citing new data from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The total casualties and injuries are likely higher due to delays in real-time reporting, DiCarlo said during a UN Security Council forum.
“Most of the recorded civilian casualties, which include children have been caused by explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including heavy artillery, and multi-launch rocket systems and missile and airstrikes,” she said.
– Amanda Macias
Russian forces are approximately 10 miles outside of Kyiv’s city center, according to the Pentagon’s latest assessment of the war in Ukraine.
Russian troops have moved some of their rear elements, including troops and military equipment, up but the frontline has not advanced on Kyiv, a senior U.S. Defense official told reporters.
The official added that the Pentagon still assesses that Russian forces plan to encircle Kyiv. When pressed, the official declined to provide a potential timeline of such an advance.
– Amanda Macias
German luxury-car maker Mercedes-Benz AG warned that its assets in Russia, worth about 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion), could be at risk if Moscow follows through on its proposal to expropriate assets of foreign companies that leave the country following its invasion of Ukraine.
Mercedes listed the possibility of expropriation as one of several risks to the company raised by the Russian invasion in its annual report, released on Friday. Russia on Thursday proposed measures to take control of businesses left behind by departing companies. If adopted, Russian courts would be able to freeze the companies’ assets and force the businesses to choose between restoring their operations or selling the assets, likely at very steep losses.
Mercedes’ assets in Russia include a factory near Moscow that can produce about 20,000 vehicles a year, as well as raw materials, inventories of finished vehicles and related properties.
In addition to the assets at risk, Mercedes’ Russian subsidiaries owe banks about 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion). Mercedes said on Friday that it has issued guarantees for those debts.
— John Rosevear
A large Russian military convoy, widely tracked by satellite imagery, appears to be stalled on its route to Kyiv.
“The convoy is not really going anywhere,” a senior U.S. Defense official said on a call with reporters when asked about the latest satellite imagery provided by Maxar Technologies.
“We still do not believe that the convoy has made any progress towards linking up with other elements or being able to resupply or contribute in any meaningful way,” the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, added.
“The only thing that we have seen is that in some places, some of their vehicles have moved off of roads that they were on into tree lines,” the official said, adding that it was unclear how many vehicles are in the convoy.
– Amanda Macias
President Joe Biden signed an executive order blocking U.S. imports of key Russian products, including vodka, and banning exports of high-end goods to Russia.
The executive action bans imports from key sectors of Russia’s economy, such as seafood, alcohol and non-industrial diamonds, according to the text of the order. That move will block more than $1 billion in Russian revenues, the White House said in a fact sheet.
The order will also stop the U.S. from exporting what the administration called “luxury items” to anyone in Russia. Those items include high-end watches and clothes, jewelry, top-shelf liquor and luxury vehicles — all of which feature prominently in the lifestyles of mega-rich Russian oligarchs.
The new export restrictions are valued at nearly $550 million per year, the White House said.
— Kevin Breuninger
After 16 days of war in Ukraine, the Kremlin has approximately 90% of its devoted combat power still available for the fight, according to the Pentagon’s latest assessment of the fighting.
Of Russia’s deployed combat power, including armored vehicles and munitions, almost all of it has survived the armed conflict, a senior Defense official said.
“Obviously the Russians have the advantage in sheer numbers across all different combined arms capabilities,” the official said, referencing the Kremlin’s total arsenal.
The official declined to comment on Ukraine’s combat power.
– Amanda Macias
The Pentagon has observed Russian forces launch more than 810 missiles since the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
A senior Defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to share new details from the U.S. assessment of the war, said the majority of the missiles are being fired from mobile platforms inside of Ukraine.
The official said that the missiles are a variety of short-range, medium-range, ballistic as well as cruise missiles.
– Amanda Macias
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday that the NATO alliance has strengthened amid Russia’s invasion and subsequent war in Ukraine.
“Whatever Moscow seeks to achieve through violence and aggression. It will fail. It is failing already,” Stoltenberg said before the Polish National Assembly marking Poland’s anniversary of joining NATO.
“President Putin wants less NATO on Russia’s borders, but he is getting more NATO. He wants to divide Europe and North America. But we stand more united than ever.”
– Amanda Macias
U.S. President Joe Biden spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday shortly before he announced broad new measures designed to hamper Russia’s economy.
In a tweeted statement, Ukraine’s leader said he gave Biden “the assessment of the situation on the battlefield” and informed him about “the crimes of Russia against the civilian population.”
“We agreed on further steps to support the defense of Ukraine and increase sanctions against Russia,” he added.
In a separate readout of the call, the White House said Biden “highlighted how the United States is continuing to surge security, humanitarian, and economic assistance to Ukraine” and briefed Zelenskyy on the steps he took Friday to undermine the Russian economy.
— Jacob Pramuk
President Joe Biden called for the U.S. to revoke Russia’s “most favored nation” status, which would downgrade Russia as a trading partner and open the door to damaging new tariffs on Moscow.
The European Union and the Group of Seven nations are expected to take the same step. Canada already removed Russia’s most favored nation status last week.
The aim, Biden said, is “to squeeze Putin and hold him even more accountable for his aggression in Ukraine.”
Biden will need action from Congress to cancel permanent normal trade relations with Russia, but he is expected to have cooperation. Both Republicans and Democrats have strongly supported non-military efforts to punish Russia, and some have already proposed legislation to revoke Russia’s WTO membership.
— Kevin Breuninger
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis speaks from Versailles Palace in France, discussing his proposals for EU intervention in the natural gas market and European sanctions on Russian energy.
—Matt Clinch
Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš said Friday that Europe has become “extremely united” and that NATO has been “reinvigorated” following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking to CNBC’s Silvia Amaro at Versailles Palace in France, he added that he’s confident that a democracy in Russia will emerge when the war is over.
—Matt Clinch
Mariana Vishegirskaya survived the Russian airstrike on a children’s and maternity hospital in Mariupol on Wednesday. She gave birth to her daughter, Veronika, in Mariupol on Friday.
— Adam Jeffery
Firefighters responded Friday after Russian airstrikes hit civilian settlements in Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine.
— Adam Jeffery
President Joe Biden will announce that the U.S. is moving to revoke Russia’s status as a “most-favored nation,” a senior administration official told reporters at CNBC and NBC News.
“Most-favored nation” status is a classification within the World Trade Organization that exempts a country from tariffs.
Changing Russia’s trade status will allow Congress to slap tariffs on any or all goods imported from Russia to the U.S., with caviar, vodka, plywood and various other goods among those likely to be affected.
It is unclear whether Biden himself is revoking Russia’s trade status or whether he will call on Congress to do so.
Last year, Russian exports to the U.S. amounted to $29 billion, 60% of which was comprised of oil and gas products, which were banned from being imported to the U.S. altogether earlier this week.
Since Moscow launched its attack on Ukraine, there have been bipartisan calls in Congress for Russia’s trade status in the U.S. to be changed.
— Chloe Taylor
The U.K. has announced fresh sanctions on Russia, targeting 386 Russian lawmakers who voted to recognize the independence of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine shortly before the country was invaded.
British Foreign Minister Liz Truss said on Friday that the new sanctions would prohibit those on the list from traveling to the U.K., accessing assets held in the U.K. and doing business in the U.K.
“We’re targeting those complicit in Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and those who support this barbaric war,” she said in a statement. “We will not let up the pressure and will continue to tighten the screw on the Russian economy through sanctions.”
It comes a day after the U.K. added seven Russian oligarchs, including billionaire Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich, to its sanctions list.
— Chloe Taylor
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reportedly said Ukrainian has reached a “strategic turning point” in its war with Russia, calling for time and patience until victory is achieved.
“It is impossible to say how many days we still have to free Ukrainian land. But we can say we will do it. For we have already reached a strategic turning point,” Zelenskyy said in a televised address, according to Reuters.
Zelenskyy also reiterated his push for stronger moves from the European Union to punish the Kremlin, adding that further economic measures would be required if the war continues.
His comments come as Russia widens its attack on Ukrainian cities, and as satellite images show a large military convoy regrouping northwest of Ukraine’s capital.
— Sam Meredith
Russian President Vladimir Putin says some progress has been made in talks between the Kremlin and Ukraine, without providing any further details.
“There are some positive shifts there, as I have been told by our delegation,” Putin said, according to a translation by NBC News.
His comments came as he met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow. Putin said talks between Russia and Ukraine were “taking place almost daily.”
European markets jumped on the news. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was last seen trading 2% higher, having traded up around 1% in late morning deals.
U.S. stock futures also jumped, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures up more than 300 points and the Nasdaq 100 jumping some 1.4%.
— Sam Meredith
The U.N. human rights office says it has received credible reports of multiple cases of Russian military forces using cluster bombs in populated areas of Ukraine, according to Reuters.
The use of such weapons could amount to war crimes, the U.N. added.
“Due to their wide area effects, the use of cluster munitions in populated areas is incompatible with the international humanitarian law principles governing the conduct of hostilities,” U.N. spokesperson Liz Throssell told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland, Reuters reported.
“We remind the Russian authorities that directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, as well as so-called area bombardment in towns and villages and other forms of indiscriminate attacks, are prohibited under international law and may amount to war crimes.”
— Sam Meredith
Ukrainian state-run energy company Energoatom says nuclear power plants in the country “continue to operate stably.”
The update comes amid heightened concern about Ukraine’s nuclear safety as Russia steps up its onslaught.
Ukraine on Thursday informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog that it had lost all communications with the Russia-controlled Chornobyl nuclear power plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency said this development came shortly after the defunct nuclear power plant lost all external power supplies.
The Chornobyl plant’s disconnection from the grid “will not have a critical impact on essential safety functions at the site,” the IAEA has said.
— Sam Meredith
The United Nations says more than 2.5 million people have now fled Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24.
A further 2 million people have been displaced inside the country, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said via Twitter.
— Sam Meredith
Airstrikes hit the western cities of Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk at around 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. local time respectively on Friday, Ukraine’s Parliament said in a statement.
Explosions were heard in both cities, the statement said, adding that air raid sirens did not sound before either city was hit with airstrikes.
In a video message posted to Telegram on Friday morning, Yurii Pohuliaiko, head of the Lutsk regional council, said four rockets had been dropped on the city’s military airport, killing two soldiers and injuring six.
The airstrikes on Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk are further west than recent Russian attacks on Ukraine.
— Chloe Taylor
U.K. officials said Friday that although it seems unlikely Russia has successfully achieved its invasion objectives, it was likely that Moscow is seeking “to reset and re-posture its forces for renewed offensive activity in the coming days.”
“This will probably include operations against the capital, Kyiv,” the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense said in an intelligence update Friday.
“Russian ground forces continue to make limited progress,” the ministry’s update added. “Logistical issues that have hampered the Russian advance persist, as does strong Ukrainian resistance.”
The U.K. update came after satellite images appeared to show a large Russian convoy that has been approaching Kyiv for over a week has been redeployed to towns and forests outside the city, potentially signaling a renewed push to bear down on the capital.
— Chloe Taylor
Russian forces have killed more civilians than soldiers in Ukraine, the country’s defense minister said Friday.
“As of 10 March, the number of Ukrainian civilians killed by Russian interventionists is bigger than the number of our military personnel from all defense corps killed in action,” Oleksii Reznikov said in a Facebook post.
“The Kremlin is bombing schools and hospitals, including maternity hospitals. Moscow does not protect anyone. It destroys,” he added. “They are not able to fight with our army, the national guard and territorial defense forces — so they attack the most vulnerable.”
— Chloe Taylor
President Joe Biden will announce new actions on Friday that will see the U.S. “continue to hold Russia accountable for its unprovoked and unjustified war on Ukraine,” the White House said yesterday.
The president will announce the measures from the White House at 10:15 a.m. ET before traveling to Philadelphia, where he will deliver an address at the House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference.
— Chloe Taylor
Russia’s large military convoy, last seen northwest of Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv near Antonov Airport, has “largely dispersed and redeployed,” satellite images taken on Thursday by U.S. firm Maxar Technologies appear to show.
The photos appear to show that armored units have fanned out through the towns close to the airport, with artillery howitzers thought to be situated in firing positions nearby.
Maxar said damage to commercial and residential property could be seen in and around Kyiv and in Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine.
The latest batch of satellite images come as Russia’s onslaught of Ukraine enters its 16th day, with invading Russian troops seeking to maintain pressure on Kyiv and the besieged port city of Mariupol.
— Sam Meredith
Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukraine’s President, said Friday that Ukrainian cities are being hit by “devastating blows.”
— Chloe Taylor
Ruslan Martsinkiv, mayor of Ivano-Frankiivsk, said Friday morning that the city in western Ukraine was under attack and there had been explosions on the ground. He urged residents in a series of Facebook statements not to leave their homes, adding that the military and emergency services were on the scene.
Meanwhile Ihor Polishchuk, mayor of Lutsk — another city in Ukraine’s west — also said on Facebook that there had been explosions there this morning. He said the airstrike had taken place near the airport.
CNBC has not yet been able to independently verify the reported attacks on either city.
Elsewhere, the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine came under attack early on Friday morning, being hit by three airstrikes. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said the strikes had hit a kindergarten, an apartment building and a shoe factory. One person died in the attacks, while 20 were injured, authorities said.
— Chloe Taylor
You can read CNBC’s live coverage from Thursday here:
Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/11/russia-ukraine-live-updates.html
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden on Friday said the U.S. would join the European Union and G7 allies to strip Russia of its preferential trade status and impose a series of new penalties in the latest effort to punish Moscow for its ongoing assault on Ukraine.
Revoking Moscow’s trade status “is going to make it harder for Russia to do business with the United States and doing it in unison with other nations that make up half of the global economy will be another crushing blow to the Russian economy,” Biden said.
The president, who spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy just before his remarks, said the U.S. and European allies would ban imports from several signature sectors of Russia’s economy including seafood, vodka and diamonds as well as impose sanctions on additional oligarchs and their families. The president said the U.S. and allies are working to ban the export of certain luxury goods to Russia including watches, vehicles, alcohol, jewelry and other high-end products.
“They (Russian elites) support Putin. They steal from the Russian people and they seek to hide their money in our countries,” he said. “They must share in the pain of these sanctions.”
He said the G7 would also seek to deny Russia the ability to borrow from leading multinational institutions including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Biden said the new penalties are “the latest steps we’re taking but they’re not the last steps we’re going to take.”
The decision, which opens the door for new tariffs on Russian imports, will need approval from Congress for the U.S to make the change. The move would put Moscow’s trade relationship with the U.S. in the same category as North Korea and Cuba.
Larry Ward, a trade expert at the international law firm Dorsey & Whitney, said it’s striking that Russia will now join those ranks.
“It’s now in a very isolated group of countries,” he said.
The White House already has a groundswell of support in Congress, where a group of bipartisan lawmakers proposed legislation earlier this week that would have moved to suspend normal trade relations between the U.S. and Moscow.
But the provision was ultimately left out of a bill to ban Russian energy imports that passed in the House on Wednesday and instead called for a review of Moscow’s membership in the World Trade Organization.
Biden praised leaders from both parties in Congress for backing the move and thanked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for holding off on the provision to suspend Russia’s trade status until he could line up support from key allies for a unified response.
“The free world is coming together to confront Putin. Our two parties here at home are leading the way,” Biden said, adding that he looked forward to signing legislation to revoke Russia’s normal trade status.
The Biden administration has already announced a broad range of severe economic sanctions, including a ban on all Russian energy imports and cutting off Russia’s banks and oligarchs from the global financial system in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The World Trade Organization grants all its members “most favored nation” trading status, also known in the U.S. as “permanent normal trade relations.” The preferential treatment allows goods to flow between nations at lower tariff rates.
Russia was the 20th largest supplier of imports to the U.S. in 2019, amounting to $22 billion in goods, according to the U.S. Trade Representative’s office. The top imports were oil and gas, platinum, iron and steel, fertilizers and inorganic chemicals.
Ward said the most likely impact on American consumers will be on food prices because of the higher tariffs that could be imposed on imports of fertilizer components and Russian grain.
“There will either need to be replacement of those imports from elsewhere, which can lead to rising prices,” he said, “or we’ll have to continue to rely on those imports from Russia, and that obviously would have an impact because of the tariffs.”
Shortly before Biden spoke, Ukraine’s Zelenskyy tweeted that he and Biden had spoken and “agreed on further steps to support the defense of Ukraine and increase sanctions against Russia.”
Zelenskyy said he gave Biden an assessment of the battlefield situation and informed him “about the crimes of Russia against the civilian population.”
Pelosi said in a statement the House would take up legislation to formalize the trade penalties when it returns next week with the “hope that it will receive a strong, bipartisan vote.”
More:Russian airstrikes hit western Ukraine; Congress passes billions in aid money: Live updates
Explained:Biden says the Ukraine crisis shows why the U.S. must become energy independent. Is that possible?
Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/03/11/biden-congress-suspend-russia-trade-status/6998922001/
Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
The Texas Supreme Court dealt a final blow to abortion providers’ federal challenge to the state’s latest abortion restrictions Friday.
The court ruled that state medical licensing officials do not have authority to enforce the law, which bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. This was the last, narrowly cracked window that abortion providers had left to challenge the law after the U.S. Supreme Court decimated their case in a December ruling.
The law has a unique private-enforcement mechanism that empowers private citizens to sue anyone who, in the law’s language, “aids or abets” an abortion after fetal cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy.
The law is designed to evade judicial review, a goal at which it has been largely successful so far. Abortion providers have tried to argue that the law is actually enforced by state officials — the clerks who docket the lawsuits, the attorney general and medical licensing officials who could discipline doctors, nurses or pharmacists who violate the law — which would give them someone to bring a constitutional challenge against in court.
The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed with all of those arguments but one, allowing a challenge against the medical licensing officials to proceed. That case then went back to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which sent it to the Texas Supreme Court to weigh in on.
In a hearing last month, Texas Solicitor General Judd Stone argued that there was no “ordinary English interpretation that entertains any possibility of public enforcement.”
On Friday, the justices issued a ruling that seemed to agree with Stone’s “ordinary English interpretation” of the law.
“The Court concluded that Texas law does not authorize the state-agency executives to enforce the Act’s requirements, either directly or indirectly,” they wrote.
Abortion advocates, including those who brought this challenge, were unhappy with the ruling.
“We have been fighting this ban for six long months, but the courts have failed us,” Amy Hagstrom Miller, president and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health and Whole Woman’s Health Alliance, said in a statement. “The situation is becoming increasingly dire, and now neighboring states—where we have been sending patients—are about to pass similar bans. Where will Texans go then?”
Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, also issued a statement. “The courts have allowed Texas to nullify a constitutional right,” she said. “We will continue to do everything in our power to right this wrong.”
Meanwhile, anti-abortion groups cheered the court’s decision.
“The court recognized what we already knew: this law is constitutional,” said Chelsey Youman, state director and national legislative advisor with Human Coalition Action, in a statement. “It is the most successful piece of pro-life legislation in 50 years and should be replicated everywhere in states that are serious about rescuing pre-born lives.”
There are other ongoing challenges to the law, including multidistrict litigation in which a state district judge found the law to be unconstitutional. That case is under appeal.
Source Article from https://www.texastribune.org/2022/03/11/abortion-texas-supreme-court/
A picture taken in Moscow in March 2018 shows the Russian language version of Facebook’s “about” page, featuring the face of founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Mladen Antonov /AFP via Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Mladen Antonov /AFP via Getty Images
A picture taken in Moscow in March 2018 shows the Russian language version of Facebook’s “about” page, featuring the face of founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Mladen Antonov /AFP via Getty Images
Russian authorities called for Facebook parent Meta to be labeled an extremist organization and said they would restrict access to its Instagram app, after the social media giant said it would temporarily permit some calls for violence against Russian soldiers.
Russian regulators have already banned access to Facebook in the country. Now, Russia’s prosecutor general’s office is seeking the extremist designation because of what it terms “illegal calls for the murder of Russian nationals” by Meta employees.
In launching their criminal probe, prosecutors also accused Instagram of serving as a platform for organizing “riots, accompanied by violence.”
Communications regulator Roskomnadzor said that access to Instagram would be restricted beginning on Monday in Russia. It said “messages shared on Instagram encourage and provoke violent actions toward Russians.”
WhatsApp, a Meta messaging app popular in Russia, was not mentioned in the government statements. Meta did not have a comment on the criminal case or restrictions on Friday.
In recent years, Russian authorities have expanded the extremist designation beyond widely viewed terrorist groups like al-Qaida to include the political movement of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny as well as Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The prosecutor general’s case comes after Meta made an unusual exception on Thursday to its rules prohibiting most overtly violent speech. The company initially said it would permit Facebook and Instagram posts calling for violence against Russian soldiers from users in Ukraine, Russia and some other countries in eastern Europe and the Caucasus.
Users in Russia, Ukraine and Poland would also temporarily be allowed to call for the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus. The company said it will still remove calls for violence against Russian civilians.
But on Friday, Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg said the exception to its policies would apply only “in Ukraine itself.”
“Our policies are focused on protecting people’s rights to speech as an expression of self-defense in reaction to a military invasion of their country,” he said in a statement posted to Twitter. “The fact is, if we applied our standard content policies without any adjustments we would now be removing content from ordinary Ukrainians expressing their resistance and fury at the invading military forces, which would rightly be viewed as unacceptable.”
He added, “we have no quarrel with the Russian people,” and said the company “will not tolerate Russophobia or any kind of discrimination, harassment or violence towards Russians on our platform.”
The policy changes were first reported by Reuters on Thursday under a headline that said the company would allow “calls for violence against Russians,” raising broad alarm on social media. The news outlet later changed its headline to clarify that it applied to threats against “Russian invaders.”
Almost 14,000 Russian antiwar protesters have been arrested in the past two weeks as the Kremlin has criminalized public statements with words like “war” and “invasion.”
Editor’s note: Meta pays NPR to license NPR content.
Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/03/11/1086005218/russia-instagram-meta-extremist-group
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Warsaw’s mayor is appealing for international help as the city becomes overwhelmed by refugees, with more than a tenth of all those fleeing the war in Ukraine arriving in the Polish capital.
Some seek to wait out the war or settle in the city, while others merely use Warsaw as a transit point to head further west, turning its train stations into crowded hubs where people are camping out on floors.
“We are dealing with the greatest migration crisis in the history of Europe since World War II. … The situation is getting more and more difficult every day,” Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski said, adding that “the greatest challenge is still ahead of us.”
The welcome Warsaw has given Ukrainians as the neighboring nation struggles to resist Russia’s invasion is wholehearted. Across the city, people have mobilized to help. They are taking Ukrainians into their homes, gathering donations and volunteering at reception centers. City monuments and buses fly Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow flag in solidarity.
But the challenge is enormous. Much of the burden so far is being carried by volunteers taking time off work, a situation not sustainable in the long run.
Trzaskowski noted on Friday that child psychologists, in one example, had been volunteering to help refugees but soon will need to return to their jobs.
Housing is also a growing problem. When the war began, 95% of Ukrainians arriving in Warsaw were people who already had friends or family here and were taken in by them. Today that group is 70% of the new arrivals meaning that 30% of them “need a roof over their heads” and other support, the mayor said Friday.
The decline in the city’s ability to absorb a massive number of new arrivals comes as the people fleeing war are those who have witnessed greater trauma than those who arrived earlier, or who are more vulnerable.
Late Thursday 15 disabled Ukrainian children arrived at the Medyka border crossing in Poland, and were put on a special makeshift medical train taking them to various hospitals in the country.
Dr. Dominik Daszuta, an anesthesiologist at Central Medical hospital MSWIA in Warsaw, described how the medical train was outfitted with intensive care capabilities. He spoke as medical staff lifted children in their strollers onto the train bound for Gdynia.
“At the beginning the people who came here were running away in panic from the war they saw in the media and that they heard about. Now we find there are people escaping from bombs,” said Dorota Zawadzka, a child psychologist volunteering at a center for refugees set up in the Torwar sports center.
“This is a completely different kind of refugee. They are afraid of everything. They sit in their jackets. Children are scared, they don’t want to play, their mothers have such empty eyes.”
Lena Nagirnyak, a 35-year-old from Kyiv, found shelter at Torwar with her children after initially hoping to stay in Ukraine. They finally fled on foot from Bucha to Irpin after hearing a bomber flying low overhead.
“The next day, the street we were walking on was bombed. If we had left a day later, we might have died,” she said.
The war has already forced 2.5 million people to flee, according to the International Organization for Migration on Friday, and more than half of those go to Poland. As of Friday more than 1.5 million refugees had entered Poland, according to the country’s Border Guard agency.
Trzaskowski said over 320,000 people have traveled through Warsaw since the start of the war and 230,000 people were staying in the city of more than 1.7 million.
Other parts of the region are also under strain. Even the Czech Republic, which does not border Ukraine directly, has an estimated 200,000 refugees, many in Prague. As the capital runs out of housing options, city hall has begun preparing temporary accommodation.
“The demand for accommodation in Prague is enormous and by far surpasses what we can offer,” Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib said.
Meanwhile, the national government appealed to Czech citizens to house refugees in their own homes, promising that it would find a way to compensate them.
Poland has already taken a similar step, with the parliament approving a law offering people 40 zlotys ($9.20) per day for each refugee they give shelter to. It’s part of a new legislative package that also offers some financial help and health insurance to the Ukrainians.
In Poland’s western neighbor, Germany, the influx so far has been concentrated on on the capital, Berlin, which is about an hour from the Polish border and the main destination for trains and buses from Poland.
Authorities there have been seeing over 10,000 people per day arrive. Officials are trying to spread new arrivals around the country, noting that they have better chances of getting somewhere to live and quick access to medical care elsewhere in Germany.
On Friday, Germany’s Interior Ministry tweeted in several languages that “rumors that arrival and registration is only possible in Berlin” are not true and that they can register and receive help in any city in Germany.
___
Karel Janicek in Prague and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
Source Article from https://apnews.com/6f640889d074dbdb69e7426ad2d56cd5
An unusual and mostly forgotten pledge Chinese President Xi Jinping signed eight years ago that China would protect Ukraine in the event of a nuclear attack is getting fresh attention following Russia’s invasion of its Eastern European neighbor.
China’s 2013 promise to Ukraine of unspecified security guarantees echoed the kind of commitment nuclear-armed states—including China—have long made to nonnuclear ones, assurances that the U.S., U.K. and Russia had earlier also extended directly to Ukraine for relinquishing Soviet-era weapons. Yet Beijing appeared to be promising more than it had in past commitments, and why it singled out Ukraine for such an arrangement has confounded nuclear experts ever since.
Source Article from https://www.wsj.com/articles/under-new-scrutiny-chinas-nuclear-pledge-to-ukraine-11647007200
KYIV, Ukraine—Russian airstrikes pounded Ukrainian cities far from the front lines Friday as Moscow’s ground offensive appeared to reposition some forces in the north of the country in what Western officials worry is a prelude to a renewed attack on the capital.
Missiles hit airports at dawn in the western Ukrainian cities of Ivano-Frankivsk and Lutsk, where attacks have been rare since the beginning of the invasion more than two weeks ago.
Source Article from https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-airstrikes-intensify-in-western-ukraine-11646994808
NEW DELHI, March 11 (Reuters) – India said on Friday it accidentally fired a missile into Pakistan because of a “technical malfunction” during routine maintenance.
“On 9 March 2022, in the course of a routine maintenance, a technical malfunction led to the accidental firing of a missile,” the government said in a statement.
“It is learnt that the missile landed in an area of Pakistan. While the incident is deeply regrettable, it is also a matter of relief that there has been no loss of life due to the accident.”
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/india-says-it-accidentally-fired-missile-into-pakistan-2022-03-11/
