“Ukraine is strong. Ukraine is fighting. Ukraine made Russian initial plans fail,” Ukraine’s Dmytro Kuleba said at a news conference following talks in Turkey with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “We are ready to seek balanced diplomatic solutions to put an end to this war, but we will not surrender.”
The meeting came amid news that at least three people, including a child, were killed and 17 more were injured in a Russian airstrike on a maternity hospital in Mariupol, which buried patients under rubble despite a cease-fire. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack, the latest underscoring the conflict’s civilian toll, as an “atrocity.”
As fighting entered its third week, Russian troops continued efforts to encircle Ukraine’s two largest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv but British defense officials said they observed a “notable decrease” in Russian air activity, possibly because Russia was encountering unexpected resistance from Ukrainian air defenses. Britain also announced sanctions on seven wealthy Russians, including Roman Abramovich, the high-profile owner of the Chelsea soccer club.
Here’s what to know
- Ukraine’s president said more than 60,000 people were evacuated Wednesday from conflict zones via three humanitarian corridors. About 1,000 people trapped for days near a nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine were shuttled out overnight.
- A United Nations migration agency said that more than 2.3 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine to neighboring countries. That figure includes 112,000 third-country nationals, said the agency, which appealed for “humanitarian support and protection.”
- White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Russia’s accusations of “alleged U.S. biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine” are false. She warned that Russia may be considering using chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine.
- Ukraine’s confirmed civilian casualty count rose Wednesday, according to the United Nations, which said at least 516 people have been killed, including 37 children, and more than 900 others have been injured. However, the U.N. human rights office acknowledged that the toll is incomplete and is surely much higher.
UNDERSTANDING THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT
Zelensky, having rallied world leaders, shames them for not joining the fight
As Russia’s assault on Ukraine enters its second week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has shifted from rallying world leaders — who have levied historic economic and financial sanctions against Russia — to shaming them for not doing more to hasten the war’s end.
On Wednesday, Zelensky shared with his 5.1 million Twitter followers video of what Ukrainian officials said was the aftermath of a Russian military strike on a maternity hospital in Mariupol.
“People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity!” Zelensky wrote. “How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror? Close the sky right now!” he demanded, repeating his call for Western nations to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine. The United States and other NATO members have refused, saying that would risk putting them in direct conflict with Russia and igniting a wider war.
Harris, in Poland, says commitment to NATO is ‘ironclad’ despite disagreement over fighter jets
Vice President Harris said Thursday that the U.S. relationship with Poland and the NATO alliance remains strong and united against Russia despite a disagreement over fighter jets that U.S. officials warned could draw the western alliance further into the war in Ukraine.
“I want to be very clear,” Harris said when asked about the fighter planes. “The United States and Poland are united in what we have done and are prepared to do to help Ukraine and the people of Ukraine, full stop.”
Harris, speaking at a joint news conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda, said the conversation continues about what the U.S. should do to help Ukraine and its NATO allies and that the United States remains “nimble.”
Harris’s meeting with Duda, and with Romanian leaders on Friday, is an effort to reassure NATO countries on Europe’s eastern flank who are increasingly anxious about Russian aggression.
“The United States’ commitment to Article 5 is ironclad. The United States is prepared to defend every inch of NATO territory,” Harris said, referring to a mutual defense agreement among nations in the alliance, including Poland. Ukraine is not a member of NATO.
On Tuesday, Poland announced it would deliver an unspecified number of MiG-29 fighter jets to a U.S. military base to help repel Russian forces in Ukraine, and asked the United States to essentially backfill Poland’s supply of warplanes with other aircraft.
The United States soundly rejected the offer, saying the Polish plan was not tenable, something that became the backdrop of the hourlong meeting.
Duda defended his country’s decision to offer the fighter jets to the United States.
“Simply, we decided to put those jets at the disposal of NATO not expecting anything in return,” he said. “We wanted NATO as a whole to make a common decision, so that Poland remains a credible member of NATO.”
He also thanked Harris for U.S. sanctions against Russia and for humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian refugees.
Zelensky says more than 60,000 Ukrainians were evacuated Wednesday
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that more than 60,000 Ukrainians were evacuated from besieged cities Wednesday, as the Russian invasion enters its third week.
The figure cited by Zelensky in a Thursday video on his Telegram account was higher than an earlier estimate that about 35,000 people were evacuated Wednesday.
The Ukrainian president said humanitarian corridors would continue to operate Thursday. Buses and supplies of food, water and medicine are expected to head toward the cities of Mariupol, Volnovakha, Izyum and Sumy, as well as towns outside Kyiv, he said. The humanitarian corridor for Mariupol continues a day after at least three people, including a child, were killed and 17 more were injured in a Russian airstrike on a maternity hospital in the southeastern port city.
Zelensky has condemned the attack as an “atrocity,” while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed, without evidence, that the maternity hospital was housing Ukrainian fighters.
“Russian troops have already created a humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine, but that is [just] a part of their plan,” Zelensky said in the Thursday video. “They want to humiliate our people so that they take bread and water from the occupants’ hands.”
More than 2.3 million people have fled the country since the start of the invasion, according to the United Nations. Nearly 183,000 people fled Ukraine on Wednesday.
White House warns Russia could use chemical weapons in Ukraine, rejects false ‘conspiracy’ of U.S. biolabs
The Biden administration warned Wednesday that Russia could use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, as it rejected Russia’s claims that U.S. biological weapons labs are operating in the war-torn country.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that Russia’s claims are “preposterous” and warned of “disinformation” campaigns.
“We took note of Russia’s false claims about alleged U.S. biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine,” she tweeted. “We’ve also seen Chinese officials echo these conspiracy theories.”
Psaki said the United States was in “full compliance” with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention, which bar countries from developing or possessing such weapons.
She said Russia has long “maintained a biological weapons program in violation of international law” and cited its military intervention in Syria in support of the Bashar al-Assad regime and its suspected poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny in 2020 with a Novichok-like nerve agent.
“Now that Russia has made these false claims, and China has seemingly endorsed this propaganda, we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false-flag operation using them. It’s a clear pattern,” she added.
Top diplomats from Russia and Ukraine end first high-level talks with no breakthrough
ANTALYA, Turkey — The first high-level talks between Ukraine and Russia since the invasion began failed to produce an agreement on Thursday, as Ukraine’s foreign minister said the country would not “surrender” while his Russian counterpart warned the West against sending more weapons to Ukraine and defiantly vowed to overcome a rising battery of sanctions.
Ukraine had received no response to its proposals for a 24-hour cease-fire as well as humanitarian relief for the besieged city of Mariupol, Ukraine’s Dmytro Kuleba said at a news conference following face-to-face talks in Turkey with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Kuleba indicated that Lavrov didn’t have the authority to agree to the cease-fire and would bring the issue to “other decision-makers” back in Russia.
“Ukraine is strong. Ukraine is fighting. Ukraine made Russian initial plans fail,” Kuleba said. “We are ready to seek balanced diplomatic solutions to put an end to this war, but we will not surrender.”
For his part, Lavrov struck a tough tone, declaring that Russia would not back down in the face of Western sanctions and boycotts, which continued to expand Tuesday, and would do “everything so that we will not be dependent on the West in any way.”
Lavrov also played down the possibility of direct talks between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, something that the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long been calling for. Russia was not interested in “talks for talks’ sake” until there was agreement between negotiating teams, Lavrov said.
Instead, the Russian envoy pushed back against international condemnation of a Russian airstrike on Wednesday that had leveled a maternity hospital, killing at least three people. He told reporters, without providing evidence, that the building was in fact housing Ukrainian fighters, and declared that Russia never attacked Ukraine in the first place. It was Moscow, he claimed, that was fighting a “life or death struggle for Russia’s place on the political map of the world.”
French and German leaders demand immediate cease-fire from Russia, ahead of high-profile E.U. talks
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Russian leader Vladimir Putin to order his forces to “immediately cease firing” in Ukraine, the French presidency said after the three leaders held an hour-long call Thursday.
The call took place as the first high-level talks between Ukraine and Russia since the beginning of the invasion failed to produce an agreement.
Scholz and Macron insisted to Putin “that any solution to the crisis must be negotiated between Russia and Ukraine,” according to French officials.
European leaders are set to meet in the French city of Versailles on Thursday evening to discuss their next steps on multiple fronts, including efforts to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas, and new momentum to strengthen their defense commitments.
France holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union, and Macron is the only European leader who has been in consistent public contact with Putin since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A call between the French leader and Putin last week left Macron convinced that “the worst is yet to come” in the Ukraine war and that Putin aims to take control of the entire country, an official said at the time.
Mariupol council says city faces renewed bombardment
MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — The council in Ukraine’s southern city of Mariupol accused Russian forces of bombarding buildings in the seaside hub on Thursday, a day after a strike on a maternity hospital there killed at least three people, according to officials.
The city council said the latest shelling hit a university building and part of the city center near a theater. It came shortly after Ukrainian officials announced that attempts to evacuate civilians from a number of cities would resume Thursday morning, including from Mariupol, which lies on the Sea of Azov.
Wednesday’s airstrike on the hospital had killed three people including a child and injured 17 more, despite a temporary cease-fire deal for civilians to flee through corridors out of the city, the council said, an accusation that Moscow denied Thursday.
An adviser to the Mariupol mayor’s office said Thursday that bodies littered the streets, residents were struggling after days without enough food or warmth, and the one remaining hospital was full. Local authorities have sought for days to deliver aid to the city and to open a corridor for civilians out of Mariupol, but they say shelling has prevented people from leaving.
Francis reported from London.
Prince William says conflict in Europe is ‘alien’ compared with Africa and Asia, drawing swift rebuke
Britain’s Prince William drew sharp criticism after he said Wednesday that unlike in Asia and Africa, it was “alien” to see war in Europe.
The Independent, a British newspaper, reported that he made the remark during a visit to the Ukrainian Cultural Center in London. Britons are used to seeing conflict in Africa and Asia, he said, according to the report, but “it’s very alien to see this in Europe.”
“We are all behind you,” he reportedly said, expressing support for the people of Ukraine, who have been subjected to widespread bombings by Russia during its invasion of their country.
The prince, second in line to the throne of a country with a long colonial history, received swift backlash online, as many pointed out that his ancestors were responsible for conflicts on the continents he mentioned.
From D.C. to Lithuania, road signs at Russian embassies are getting a makeover
“President Zelensky Way,” “Ukrainian Heroes’ Street” and “Free Ukraine Street.”
From Washington, D.C., to Lithuania, streets close to Russian embassies around the world are beginning to look a little different following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
A mock road sign paying tribute to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sprang up Sunday outside the Russian Embassy in Washington on Wisconsin Avenue NW, with activist Claude Taylor, telling HuffPost that the temporary marker was erected as a “small symbolic act” to show solidarity with Ukraine.
While the D.C. “road sign” was a symbolic act by protesters, some European countries are officially changing the addresses of Russian embassies on their turf.
In Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, the Russian Embassy can now be found on “Ukrainian Heroes’ Street.” On Wednesday, workers were photographed erecting street plates with the name written in Lithuanian and Ukrainian.
In Latvia, the road leading to the Russian Embassy has been officially renamed “Independent Ukraine Street,” the Independent reported.
Other countries are also facing calls to formally rename the streets outside their embassies.
Global reactions to Mariupol maternity hospital bombing
Officials in Mariupol, a port city in southeastern Ukraine, said Thursday that three people, including a child, had died after a Russian airstrike hit a maternity hospital, while 17 people — among them children, women and medical staff — were injured.
Ukrainian authorities blamed the attack on Russia, and the bombing sparked condemnation from many officials around the world.
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres called the attack “horrific” on Wednesday.
Today’s attack on a hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, where maternity & children’s wards are located, is horrific.
Civilians are paying the highest price for a war that has nothing to do with them.
This senseless violence must stop.
End the bloodshed now.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 9, 2022
Catherine Russell, the Executive Director of UNICEF, the U.N.’s agency for children, said in a statement: “I am horrified by the reported attack today on a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine — an attack which reportedly left young children and women in labor buried beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings.”
She said: “This attack, if confirmed, underscores the horrific toll this war is exacting on Ukraine’s children and families … The children of Ukraine desperately need peace.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that “it is horrifying to see” what she called “the barbaric use of military force to go after innocent civilians in a sovereign country.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Twitter called the bombing of the hospital “depraved.”
There are few things more depraved than targeting the vulnerable and defenceless.
The UK is exploring more support for Ukraine to defend against airstrikes and we will hold Putin to account for his terrible crimes. #PutinMustFail https://t.co/JBuvB78HVC
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 9, 2022
Johnson’s Minister for the Armed Forces, James Heappey, went further, calling it a “war crime.”
When asked on Sky News Thursday whether the United Kingdom wants the hospital bombing investigated as a war crime, Heappey answered, “Yes, absolutely. I mean, it is. What you see on your TV screens is a war crime.”
“Now clearly, there is evidence to be gathered in which to prove that it is a war crime,” he added, “and Western countries are working together to make sure that that evidence is gathered in the best way so that people can be held to account.”
He said Russia is waging a war, not just against the Ukrainian military, but also “Ukrainian civilians.”
Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday claimed, without evidence, that the maternity hospital was housing Ukrainian fighters. Some Russian officials categorized coverage of the bombing as “fake news,” while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who previously said that “Russian forces do not fire on civilian targets,” told Reuters Thursday that he would ask the military for more information, “because you and I don’t have clear information about what happened there.”
Videos and photos captured in the aftermath of the bombing, showing children and injured pregnant women being led away from the hospital.
Russians confine Chernobyl, Zaporizhzhia nuclear workers in exhausting conditions, Ukraine says
Limited access to medicine. No cellphone or landline connections. And no more electricity. Some 210 technical experts and guards inside the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant face “worsening” conditions, unable to leave the facility since Russian forces took control two weeks ago.
Over 340 miles southeast of Chernobyl, workers at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which was set ablaze and also captured by Russian forces last week, are in “very bad psychological conditions,” according to Petro Kotin, head of Ukraine’s state-owned atomic energy firm Energoatom. Nuclear technicians are being forced to work under gunpoint, Kotin told local media outlets Wednesday, adding that the plant is completely locked down by Russian forces.
Nuclear experts have raised concerns about the conditions faced by employees at both facilities as their occupation continues. The International Atomic Energy Agency, a nuclear watchdog for the United Nations, says sufficient rest is a pillar of nuclear safety: Employees must be able to rest and work in regular shifts and be able to make decisions free of “undue pressure.”
Roman Abramovich, Chelsea soccer club owner, sanctioned by U.K. in push to punish Russian oligarchs
LONDON — Britain announced sanctions Thursday on seven wealthy Russians, including Roman Abramovich, the high-profile owner of the Chelsea soccer club.
Like all of those on the list, Abramovich faces a travel ban, and his assets in Britain will be frozen. He also faces a prohibition on transactions with individuals and businesses in the United Kingdom.
Abramovich, whom the government said is worth more than 9 billion pounds (more than $12.2 billion), recently announced he was selling the London-based Chelsea soccer club.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “There can be no safe havens for those who have supported [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s vicious assault on Ukraine. Today’s sanctions are the latest step in the U.K.’s unwavering support for the Ukrainian people. We will be ruthless in pursuing those who enable the killing of civilians, destruction of hospitals and illegal occupation of sovereign allies.”
Photos: Ukrainian servicemen kiss their loved ones goodbye, head to Kyiv
At train stations across Ukraine, servicemen have been kissing and hugging their loved ones goodbye as they make their way toward the fighting in Kyiv and elsewhere.
Photos captured this week show military personnel boarding crowded trains en route to Kyiv, the capital and the country’s largest city, and Dnipro in the east.
The parting embraces for the many couples and families are laced with fear, with no one sure when — or if — they will see each other again.
Internet experts suggest ways to selectively block Russian military and propaganda sites
More than two dozen Internet experts on Thursday proposed creating an international committee that could impose targeted sanctions against Russian military and propaganda websites without knocking ordinary civilian sites offline.
The proposal comes at a time of growing isolation for Russia and a push by Ukrainian officials to impose broad sanctions against that country’s websites, further disconnecting Russia from the global Internet.
Thursday’s proposal — made in an open letter signed by politicians, Internet activists, networking experts, security researchers and others — opposes disconnecting all Russian websites as dangerously broad and likely to impede the ability of ordinary Russians to navigate the Internet. The signatories particularly worry about depriving Russians of news and information at a time when the government of President Vladimir Putin has almost totally choked off the nation’s free press.
“Ukraine is strong. Ukraine is fighting. Ukraine made Russian initial plans fail,” Ukraine’s Dmytro Kuleba said at a news conference following talks in Turkey with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “We are ready to seek balanced diplomatic solutions to put an end to this war, but we will not surrender.”The meeting came amid news that at least three people, including a child, were killed and 17 more were injured in a Russian airstrike on a maternity hospital in Mariupol, which buried patients under rubble despite a cease-fire. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack, the latest underscoring the conflict’s civilian toll, as an “atrocity.”As fighting entered its third week, Russian troops continued efforts to encircle Ukraine’s two largest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv but British defense officials said they observed a “notable decrease” in Russian air activity, possibly because Russia was encountering unexpected resistance from Ukrainian air defenses. Britain also announced sanctions on seven wealthy Russians, including Roman Abramovich, the high-profile owner of the Chelsea soccer club.Here’s what to knowUkraine’s president said more than 60,000 people were evacuated Wednesday from conflict zones via three humanitarian corridors. About 1,000 people trapped for days near a nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine were shuttled out overnight.A United Nations migration agency said that more than 2.3 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine to neighboring countries. That figure includes 112,000 third-country nationals, said the agency, which appealed for “humanitarian support and protection.”White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Russia’s accusations of “alleged U.S. biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine” are false. She warned that Russia may be considering using chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine.Ukraine’s confirmed civilian casualty count rose Wednesday, according to the United Nations, which said at least 516 people have been killed, including 37 children, and more than 900 others have been injured. However, the U.N. human rights office acknowledged that the toll is incomplete and is surely much higher.UNDERSTANDING THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICTZelensky, having rallied world leaders, shames them for not joining the fightReturn to menuAs Russia’s assault on Ukraine enters its second week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has shifted from rallying world leaders — who have levied historic economic and financial sanctions against Russia — to shaming them for not doing more to hasten the war’s end.On Wednesday, Zelensky shared with his 5.1 million Twitter followers video of what Ukrainian officials said was the aftermath of a Russian military strike on a maternity hospital in Mariupol.“People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity!” Zelensky wrote. “How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror? Close the sky right now!” he demanded, repeating his call for Western nations to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine. The United States and other NATO members have refused, saying that would risk putting them in direct conflict with Russia and igniting a wider war.Updates continue below advertisementHarris, in Poland, says commitment to NATO is ‘ironclad’ despite disagreement over fighter jetsReturn to menuVice President Harris said Thursday that the U.S. relationship with Poland and the NATO alliance remains strong and united against Russia despite a disagreement over fighter jets that U.S. officials warned could draw the western alliance further into the war in Ukraine.“I want to be very clear,” Harris said when asked about the fighter planes. “The United States and Poland are united in what we have done and are prepared to do to help Ukraine and the people of Ukraine, full stop.”Harris, speaking at a joint news conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda, said the conversation continues about what the U.S. should do to help Ukraine and its NATO allies and that the United States remains “nimble.”Harris’s meeting with Duda, and with Romanian leaders on Friday, is an effort to reassure NATO countries on Europe’s eastern flank who are increasingly anxious about Russian aggression.“The United States’ commitment to Article 5 is ironclad. The United States is prepared to defend every inch of NATO territory,” Harris said, referring to a mutual defense agreement among nations in the alliance, including Poland. Ukraine is not a member of NATO.On Tuesday, Poland announced it would deliver an unspecified number of MiG-29 fighter jets to a U.S. military base to help repel Russian forces in Ukraine, and asked the United States to essentially backfill Poland’s supply of warplanes with other aircraft.The United States soundly rejected the offer, saying the Polish plan was not tenable, something that became the backdrop of the hourlong meeting.Duda defended his country’s decision to offer the fighter jets to the United States.“Simply, we decided to put those jets at the disposal of NATO not expecting anything in return,” he said. “We wanted NATO as a whole to make a common decision, so that Poland remains a credible member of NATO.”He also thanked Harris for U.S. sanctions against Russia and for humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian refugees.Updates continue below advertisementZelensky says more than 60,000 Ukrainians were evacuated WednesdayReturn to menuUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that more than 60,000 Ukrainians were evacuated from besieged cities Wednesday, as the Russian invasion enters its third week.The figure cited by Zelensky in a Thursday video on his Telegram account was higher than an earlier estimate that about 35,000 people were evacuated Wednesday.The Ukrainian president said humanitarian corridors would continue to operate Thursday. Buses and supplies of food, water and medicine are expected to head toward the cities of Mariupol, Volnovakha, Izyum and Sumy, as well as towns outside Kyiv, he said. The humanitarian corridor for Mariupol continues a day after at least three people, including a child, were killed and 17 more were injured in a Russian airstrike on a maternity hospital in the southeastern port city.Zelensky has condemned the attack as an “atrocity,” while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed, without evidence, that the maternity hospital was housing Ukrainian fighters.“Russian troops have already created a humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine, but that is [just] a part of their plan,” Zelensky said in the Thursday video. “They want to humiliate our people so that they take bread and water from the occupants’ hands.”More than 2.3 million people have fled the country since the start of the invasion, according to the United Nations. Nearly 183,000 people fled Ukraine on Wednesday.Updates continue below advertisementWhite House warns Russia could use chemical weapons in Ukraine, rejects false ‘conspiracy’ of U.S. biolabsReturn to menuThe Biden administration warned Wednesday that Russia could use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, as it rejected Russia’s claims that U.S. biological weapons labs are operating in the war-torn country.White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that Russia’s claims are “preposterous” and warned of “disinformation” campaigns.“We took note of Russia’s false claims about alleged U.S. biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine,” she tweeted. “We’ve also seen Chinese officials echo these conspiracy theories.”Psaki said the United States was in “full compliance” with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention, which bar countries from developing or possessing such weapons.She said Russia has long “maintained a biological weapons program in violation of international law” and cited its military intervention in Syria in support of the Bashar al-Assad regime and its suspected poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny in 2020 with a Novichok-like nerve agent.“Now that Russia has made these false claims, and China has seemingly endorsed this propaganda, we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false-flag operation using them. It’s a clear pattern,” she added.Updates continue below advertisementTop diplomats from Russia and Ukraine end first high-level talks with no breakthroughReturn to menuANTALYA, Turkey — The first high-level talks between Ukraine and Russia since the invasion began failed to produce an agreement on Thursday, as Ukraine’s foreign minister said the country would not “surrender” while his Russian counterpart warned the West against sending more weapons to Ukraine and defiantly vowed to overcome a rising battery of sanctions.Ukraine had received no response to its proposals for a 24-hour cease-fire as well as humanitarian relief for the besieged city of Mariupol, Ukraine’s Dmytro Kuleba said at a news conference following face-to-face talks in Turkey with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Kuleba indicated that Lavrov didn’t have the authority to agree to the cease-fire and would bring the issue to “other decision-makers” back in Russia.“Ukraine is strong. Ukraine is fighting. Ukraine made Russian initial plans fail,” Kuleba said. “We are ready to seek balanced diplomatic solutions to put an end to this war, but we will not surrender.”For his part, Lavrov struck a tough tone, declaring that Russia would not back down in the face of Western sanctions and boycotts, which continued to expand Tuesday, and would do “everything so that we will not be dependent on the West in any way.”Lavrov also played down the possibility of direct talks between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, something that the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long been calling for. Russia was not interested in “talks for talks’ sake” until there was agreement between negotiating teams, Lavrov said.Instead, the Russian envoy pushed back against international condemnation of a Russian airstrike on Wednesday that had leveled a maternity hospital, killing at least three people. He told reporters, without providing evidence, that the building was in fact housing Ukrainian fighters, and declared that Russia never attacked Ukraine in the first place. It was Moscow, he claimed, that was fighting a “life or death struggle for Russia’s place on the political map of the world.”Updates continue below advertisementFrench and German leaders demand immediate cease-fire from Russia, ahead of high-profile E.U. talksReturn to menuPARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Russian leader Vladimir Putin to order his forces to “immediately cease firing” in Ukraine, the French presidency said after the three leaders held an hour-long call Thursday.The call took place as the first high-level talks between Ukraine and Russia since the beginning of the invasion failed to produce an agreement.Scholz and Macron insisted to Putin “that any solution to the crisis must be negotiated between Russia and Ukraine,” according to French officials.European leaders are set to meet in the French city of Versailles on Thursday evening to discuss their next steps on multiple fronts, including efforts to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas, and new momentum to strengthen their defense commitments.France holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union, and Macron is the only European leader who has been in consistent public contact with Putin since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.A call between the French leader and Putin last week left Macron convinced that “the worst is yet to come” in the Ukraine war and that Putin aims to take control of the entire country, an official said at the time.Updates continue below advertisementMariupol council says city faces renewed bombardment Return to menuMUKACHEVO, Ukraine — The council in Ukraine’s southern city of Mariupol accused Russian forces of bombarding buildings in the seaside hub on Thursday, a day after a strike on a maternity hospital there killed at least three people, according to officials.The city council said the latest shelling hit a university building and part of the city center near a theater. It came shortly after Ukrainian officials announced that attempts to evacuate civilians from a number of cities would resume Thursday morning, including from Mariupol, which lies on the Sea of Azov.Wednesday’s airstrike on the hospital had killed three people including a child and injured 17 more, despite a temporary cease-fire deal for civilians to flee through corridors out of the city, the council said, an accusation that Moscow denied Thursday.An adviser to the Mariupol mayor’s office said Thursday that bodies littered the streets, residents were struggling after days without enough food or warmth, and the one remaining hospital was full. Local authorities have sought for days to deliver aid to the city and to open a corridor for civilians out of Mariupol, but they say shelling has prevented people from leaving.Francis reported from London.Updates continue below advertisementPrince William says conflict in Europe is ‘alien’ compared with Africa and Asia, drawing swift rebukeReturn to menuBritain’s Prince William drew sharp criticism after he said Wednesday that unlike in Asia and Africa, it was “alien” to see war in Europe.The Independent, a British newspaper, reported that he made the remark during a visit to the Ukrainian Cultural Center in London. Britons are used to seeing conflict in Africa and Asia, he said, according to the report, but “it’s very alien to see this in Europe.”“We are all behind you,” he reportedly said, expressing support for the people of Ukraine, who have been subjected to widespread bombings by Russia during its invasion of their country.The prince, second in line to the throne of a country with a long colonial history, received swift backlash online, as many pointed out that his ancestors were responsible for conflicts on the continents he mentioned.Updates continue below advertisementFrom D.C. to Lithuania, road signs at Russian embassies are getting a makeoverReturn to menu“President Zelensky Way,” “Ukrainian Heroes’ Street” and “Free Ukraine Street.”From Washington, D.C., to Lithuania, streets close to Russian embassies around the world are beginning to look a little different following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.A mock road sign paying tribute to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sprang up Sunday outside the Russian Embassy in Washington on Wisconsin Avenue NW, with activist Claude Taylor, telling HuffPost that the temporary marker was erected as a “small symbolic act” to show solidarity with Ukraine.While the D.C. “road sign” was a symbolic act by protesters, some European countries are officially changing the addresses of Russian embassies on their turf.In Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, the Russian Embassy can now be found on “Ukrainian Heroes’ Street.” On Wednesday, workers were photographed erecting street plates with the name written in Lithuanian and Ukrainian.In Latvia, the road leading to the Russian Embassy has been officially renamed “Independent Ukraine Street,” the Independent reported.Other countries are also facing calls to formally rename the streets outside their embassies.Global reactions to Mariupol maternity hospital bombingReturn to menuOfficials in Mariupol, a port city in southeastern Ukraine, said Thursday that three people, including a child, had died after a Russian airstrike hit a maternity hospital, while 17 people — among them children, women and medical staff — were injured.Ukrainian authorities blamed the attack on Russia, and the bombing sparked condemnation from many officials around the world.United Nations Secretary General António Guterres called the attack “horrific” on Wednesday.Today’s attack on a hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, where maternity & children’s wards are located, is horrific.Civilians are paying the highest price for a war that has nothing to do with them.This senseless violence must stop.End the bloodshed now.— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 9, 2022 Catherine Russell, the Executive Director of UNICEF, the U.N.’s agency for children, said in a statement: “I am horrified by the reported attack today on a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine — an attack which reportedly left young children and women in labor buried beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings.”She said: “This attack, if confirmed, underscores the horrific toll this war is exacting on Ukraine’s children and families … The children of Ukraine desperately need peace.”White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that “it is horrifying to see” what she called “the barbaric use of military force to go after innocent civilians in a sovereign country.”British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Twitter called the bombing of the hospital “depraved.”There are few things more depraved than targeting the vulnerable and defenceless. The UK is exploring more support for Ukraine to defend against airstrikes and we will hold Putin to account for his terrible crimes. #PutinMustFail https://t.co/JBuvB78HVC— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 9, 2022 Johnson’s Minister for the Armed Forces, James Heappey, went further, calling it a “war crime.”When asked on Sky News Thursday whether the United Kingdom wants the hospital bombing investigated as a war crime, Heappey answered, “Yes, absolutely. I mean, it is. What you see on your TV screens is a war crime.”“Now clearly, there is evidence to be gathered in which to prove that it is a war crime,” he added, “and Western countries are working together to make sure that that evidence is gathered in the best way so that people can be held to account.”He said Russia is waging a war, not just against the Ukrainian military, but also “Ukrainian civilians.”Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday claimed, without evidence, that the maternity hospital was housing Ukrainian fighters. Some Russian officials categorized coverage of the bombing as “fake news,” while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who previously said that “Russian forces do not fire on civilian targets,” told Reuters Thursday that he would ask the military for more information, “because you and I don’t have clear information about what happened there.”Videos and photos captured in the aftermath of the bombing, showing children and injured pregnant women being led away from the hospital.Russians confine Chernobyl, Zaporizhzhia nuclear workers in exhausting conditions, Ukraine saysReturn to menuLimited access to medicine. No cellphone or landline connections. And no more electricity. Some 210 technical experts and guards inside the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant face “worsening” conditions, unable to leave the facility since Russian forces took control two weeks ago.Over 340 miles southeast of Chernobyl, workers at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which was set ablaze and also captured by Russian forces last week, are in “very bad psychological conditions,” according to Petro Kotin, head of Ukraine’s state-owned atomic energy firm Energoatom. Nuclear technicians are being forced to work under gunpoint, Kotin told local media outlets Wednesday, adding that the plant is completely locked down by Russian forces.Nuclear experts have raised concerns about the conditions faced by employees at both facilities as their occupation continues. The International Atomic Energy Agency, a nuclear watchdog for the United Nations, says sufficient rest is a pillar of nuclear safety: Employees must be able to rest and work in regular shifts and be able to make decisions free of “undue pressure.”Roman Abramovich, Chelsea soccer club owner, sanctioned by U.K. in push to punish Russian oligarchsReturn to menuLONDON — Britain announced sanctions Thursday on seven wealthy Russians, including Roman Abramovich, the high-profile owner of the Chelsea soccer club.Like all of those on the list, Abramovich faces a travel ban, and his assets in Britain will be frozen. He also faces a prohibition on transactions with individuals and businesses in the United Kingdom.Abramovich, whom the government said is worth more than 9 billion pounds (more than $12.2 billion), recently announced he was selling the London-based Chelsea soccer club.Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “There can be no safe havens for those who have supported [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s vicious assault on Ukraine. Today’s sanctions are the latest step in the U.K.’s unwavering support for the Ukrainian people. We will be ruthless in pursuing those who enable the killing of civilians, destruction of hospitals and illegal occupation of sovereign allies.”Photos: Ukrainian servicemen kiss their loved ones goodbye, head to KyivReturn to menuAt train stations across Ukraine, servicemen have been kissing and hugging their loved ones goodbye as they make their way toward the fighting in Kyiv and elsewhere.Photos captured this week show military personnel boarding crowded trains en route to Kyiv, the capital and the country’s largest city, and Dnipro in the east.The parting embraces for the many couples and families are laced with fear, with no one sure when — or if — they will see each other again.Internet experts suggest ways to selectively block Russian military and propaganda sites Return to menuMore than two dozen Internet experts on Thursday proposed creating an international committee that could impose targeted sanctions against Russian military and propaganda websites without knocking ordinary civilian sites offline.The proposal comes at a time of growing isolation for Russia and a push by Ukrainian officials to impose broad sanctions against that country’s websites, further disconnecting Russia from the global Internet.Thursday’s proposal — made in an open letter signed by politicians, Internet activists, networking experts, security researchers and others — opposes disconnecting all Russian websites as dangerously broad and likely to impede the ability of ordinary Russians to navigate the Internet. The signatories particularly worry about depriving Russians of news and information at a time when the government of President Vladimir Putin has almost totally choked off the nation’s free press.