Yesterday at 12:20 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 11:30 p.m. EDT
Yesterday at 12:20 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 11:30 p.m. EDT
The United States and the European Union on Wednesday both pledged additional military equipment for Ukraine as that nation braces for a Russian offensive attack in the east that could be more challenging than earlier battles near Kyiv.
President Biden said he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he is authorizing $800 million more in security assistance, including weapons and ammunition. Earlier Wednesday, the European Council said it agreed to 500 million euros ($544 million) in additional support for Ukrainian forces.
The fresh vows for support come as world leaders reacted to Biden’s comment that Russia is carrying out a “genocide” in Ukraine — with French President Emmanuel Macron warning against “an escalation of rhetoric” and a Kremlin spokesman calling it “unacceptable.”
Here’s what to know
- Biden’s off-the-cuff ‘genocide’ comment marked the latest example of the tension between his often-emotional response to Putin’s brutal war and the international implications of a president’s words.
- Russia acknowledged that a key missile cruiser in its Black Sea Fleet had suffered significant damage as Ukrainian authorities claimed credit for immobilizing the ship.
- Finland will launch an immediate debate on joining NATO, as the country reconsiders its longtime stance outside the Western military alliance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan called Ukraine a “crime scene” during a visit to Bucha.
- The risk is growing that the conflict in Ukraine will tip a fragile global economy into a slump.
- The Post has lifted its paywall for readers in Russia and Ukraine. Telegram users can subscribe to our channel for updates.
As Russia’s war in Ukraine founders, ominous rhetoric gains ground
RIGA, Latvia — After a month of fighting, the architects of Moscow’s war against Ukraine had to explain to Russians why Kyiv had not fallen. That’s when the most menacing rhetoric began.
On state television, a military analyst doubled down on Russia’s need to win and called for concentration camps for Ukrainians opposed to the invasion.
Two days later, the head of the defense committee in the lower house of parliament said it would take 30 to 40 years to “reeducate” Ukrainians.
And on a talk show, the editor in chief of the English-language television news network RT described Ukrainians’ determination to defend their country as “collective insanity.”
“It’s no accident we call them Nazis,” said Margarita Simonyan, who also heads the Kremlin-backed media group that operates the Sputnik and RIA Novosti news agencies. “What makes you a Nazi is your bestial nature, your bestial hatred and your bestial willingness to tear out the eyes of children on the basis of nationality.”
Biden’s blunt comments on Ukraine can veer from U.S. policy
President Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal,” although U.S. officials had not made that legal determination. During his trip to Europe last month, he seemingly urged regime change in an ad-libbed line at the conclusion of a speech in Warsaw, then clarified he was expressing “moral outrage” rather than articulating American policy.
Then on Tuesday, the president once again veered from his prepared remarks, labeling Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine a “genocide,” despite top U.S. officials saying last week they had not yet seen evidence of actions meeting that definition, and even though a legal review on the matter has not been completed.
Biden’s off-the-cuff comment marked the latest example of the tension between his often-emotional response to Putin’s brutal war and the international implications of a president’s words. Throughout his political career, Biden has cultivated a reputation for unscripted candor, a trait allies laud as humanizing but adversaries deride as undisciplined.
Russia acknowledges damage to key missile cruiser
The Russian Ministry of Defense on Wednesday acknowledged that a key missile cruiser in its Black Sea Fleet had suffered significant damage but said little about what caused it as Ukrainian authorities claimed credit for immobilizing the ship.
The Moskva, named after the Russian capital, is the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet and was the vessel at the center of the widely reported attack on Snake Island, when Ukrainian border guards went viral for insulting the Kremlin’s forces during the early days of the invasion.
Russia’s state-run media, citing the Defense Ministry, reported Wednesday that “ammunition detonated as a result of a fire on the Moskva missile cruiser.”
The ship, the ministry said, “was seriously damaged” and the “entire crew was evacuated.”
The ministry said it was investigating the cause of the fire and did not release further details. But Moscow’s acknowledgment of the significant setback came hours after the governor of Odessa claimed responsibility for the strike in a post to Telegram. He wrote that anti-ship Neptune missiles had caused the cruiser “very serious damage,” adding: “Glory to Ukraine!”
The Washington Post has not been able to independently verify that Ukrainian forces hit the ship.
The latest on key battlegrounds in Ukraine
Russian-held areas and troop movement
BELARUS
RUSSIA
POL.
Chernihiv
Separatist-
controlled
area
Kyiv
Lviv
Kharkiv
UKRAINE
Mariupol
Odessa
ROMANIA
200 MILES
Control areas as of April 13
Sources: Institute for the Study of War,
AEI’s Critical Threats Project, Post reporting
Russian-held areas
and troop movement
BELARUS
RUSSIA
Chernihiv
POLAND
Chernobyl
Kyiv
Sumy
Lviv
Kharkiv
UKRAINE
Separatist-
controlled
area
Odessa
Mariupol
Berdyansk
ROMANIA
Kherson
Crimea
Annexed by Russia
in 2014
100 MILES
Black Sea
Control areas as of April 13
Sources: Institute for the Study of War, AEI’s Critical Threats Project, Post reporting
Russian-held areas
and troop movement
BELARUS
RUSSIA
Chernihiv
POLAND
Chernobyl
Kyiv
Sumy
Lviv
Kharkiv
Separatist-
controlled
area
UKRAINE
Mykolaiv
Mariupol
Berdyansk
Kherson
ROMANIA
Odessa
Kherson
Crimea
Annexed by Russia
in 2014
100 MILES
Control areas as of April 13
Sources: Institute for the Study of War, AEI’s Critical Threats Project, Post reporting
Mariupol: Long the site of some of the most ferocious fighting, this key port city continued to endure heavy shelling in recent days. The city council said Wednesday that Russia has sought to “create a humanitarian catastrophe” by destroying the city’s food supply and essential infrastructure. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe determined Moscow broke international humanitarian law with its targeted attacks here, and a chemical weapons watchdog said it was monitoring the battle for treaty violations.
Bucha: This suburb northwest of Kyiv became a symbol for the brutality of the Kremlin invasion when images of atrocities there emerged in recent weeks. On Wednesday, more than a dozen bodies were unearthed from a Bucha mass grave, and investigators were examining them for signs of torture and execution. International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan called the area a “crime scene” during a visit on the same day.
Kharkiv: Ukraine’s second-largest city is only 25 miles from the Russian border, which has made it a vulnerable target since the beginning of the invasion. On Wednesday, the head of the regional administration reported that recent attacks have killed seven people and injured 22 more. Elsewhere in the region, Moscow has been amassing troops, military vehicles and equipment in preparation for its expected assault on Donbas to the east.
Luhansk Oblast: New video footage and images from this region — which is part of Donbas — showed burned bodies among the rubble of a nursing home that was destroyed last month. Ukrainian authorities say Russian shelling killed more than 50 people there. It has become the latest example of a catastrophe for which Ukrainian and Russian forces blame each other while offering little clear evidence. Controlling this region, along with neighboring Donetsk Oblast, is now one of Russia’s central objectives in the war.
Pentagon meets with arms makers to discuss ‘accelerated production’ for Ukraine
Senior Pentagon officials met Wednesday with leading defense manufacturers to discuss the potential for “accelerated production” of certain weapons systems as the United States continues its significant arms assistance to Ukraine, a senior defense official said.
“The dialogue focused on accelerating the production and fielding of systems that are critical to the Department’s ongoing security assistance to Ukraine, as well as broader efforts to increase the readiness of U.S., Ally, and partner forces,” the Defense Department said Wednesday afternoon in a readout of the meeting, led by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks.
Officials focused primarily on “weapons and equipment that can be exported rapidly, deployed with minimal training, and prove effective in the battlefield,” the Pentagon said.
The senior defense official, who spoke to reporters before the meeting on the condition of anonymity under Pentagon ground rules, said that such meetings with the defense industry are part of “a normal battle rhythm” and that Wednesday’s discussions were not occurring “because our stocks are so low that our readiness is impaired.”
“But we have been giving an awful lot of stuff to the Ukrainians. And so it would be the prudent thing to do, before it becomes a crisis issue for our own readiness, to have a discussion with [the defense industry] about accelerated production and advance production,” the official said.
The meeting included leaders of Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin, the companies that produce Javelin antitank missiles and Stinger antiaircraft missiles, which have been among the most useful tools employed by the Ukrainian military to thwart Russia’s advances.
The Pentagon said in a statement that the discussion covered various weapons capabilities in the realms of “air defense, anti-armor, anti-personnel, coastal defense, counter-battery, and communications.”
The defense official noted that the United States has been the leading supplier of weapons assistance to Ukraine.
“We are providing an immense amount of material … more than roughly 2½ billion dollars’ worth, just since President Biden has been in office. That equates to more than half of Ukraine’s defense budget for last year.”
A Brit fighting in Ukraine said his unit would surrender. He’s now missing.
Aiden Aslin, a British man fighting in Ukraine, spent weeks defending the besieged city of Mariupol from Russia’s advances, as battles raged block by block for control of the strategic port. As Aslin’s unit — Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade — ran out of food, water and ammunition, he called his friend Brennan Phillips. “The first thing he said was, ‘I’m surrendering to the Russians,’” Phillips, a 36-year-old American, told The Washington Post of their call early Tuesday local time.
Aslin said his commander was planning to surrender the unit within hours. And when Russian forces came for him, Aslin said, he would “destroy his phone and dump it in the toilet,” Phillips said. They knew it could be their last call. After they hung up, Aslin sent him a message. “The last thing he said to me was, ‘Please don’t let them forget about me,’” Phillips said.
Phillips hasn’t heard from him since.
In the days after Russia’s invasion, Ukraine sought volunteers to fight from all over the world. Some heeded the call, despite the risks. But Aslin joined the Ukrainian marines long before the war — in 2018, according to Phillips — following a three-year stint fighting the Islamic State alongside Syrian Kurdish forces.
Aslin’s unusual story provides a window into the desperate situation in Mariupol, which has reportedly been destroyed after a blockade left it cut off from food, water, heat and humanitarian aid for over a month. Constant Russian bombardment made civilian evacuations difficult.
Ukrainian fighter pilots in old jets take on better-equipped Russians
ODESSA, Ukraine — The fighter pilot known as “Juice” usually just has a few minutes to scramble. When he is on-call, which is pretty much always these days, he cannot be more than a bathroom break away from his cockpit. When a cruise missile or a Russian fighter is spotted moving toward the area Juice is assigned to by the Ukrainian air force, he doesn’t even have time to run through standard safety checks before taking off.
“We’re ready to be killed,” said Juice, who provided only his call sign for security reasons.
“But we don’t want this, of course,” the 29-year-old added. “We want to kill Russians and take down their bombers that are killing our cities and our families.”
Juice is one of the pilots helping Ukraine pull off the biggest surprise of this war: Its military has kept the airspace over Ukraine contested despite Russia’s more advanced jets and superior numbers. But he and other pilots say that’s not enough. While Kyiv’s forces have perhaps even outperformed Moscow’s on the ground, Russia has continued to inflict heavy losses on Ukraine from the sky.
White House points to atrocities in Ukraine to defend Biden use of term ‘genocide’
Biden called Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine a “genocide” because of the “atrocities” that have been committed in the Eastern European country at the hands of the Russian military.
“The president was speaking to what we all see,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday. “What he feels is clear as day in terms of the atrocities happening on the ground.”
“As he also noted yesterday, of course, there will be a legal process that plays out in the courtroom,” she added. “But he was speaking to what he has seen on the ground, what we’ve all seen in terms of the atrocities on the ground.”
While in Bucha for a month, Russian soldiers killed hundreds of Ukrainians in the city about 37 miles from Kyiv. After Ukrainian forces recaptured the city last week, investigators from across the country have spent days searching neighborhoods for the dead.
Biden’s use of the word “genocide” Tuesday was a significant escalation of the president’s rhetoric. And the shift was quite notable given how much U.S. officials have tried to avoid using the term that depicts an intentional effort to wipe out a specific group.
“I don’t think anyone is confused by the horrors on the ground,” Psaki said, adding that Biden is “calling it like he sees it.”
French President Emmanuel Macron declined Wednesday to call the actions of Russian troops in Ukraine “genocide,” saying that “an escalation of rhetoric” would not help stop the war after both Biden and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas used the term.
Psaki had no comment on Macron’s response.
Burned bodies in rubble of Luhansk region nursing home, new images show
New video footage and images show burned bodies among the rubble of a nursing home in Ukraine’s Luhansk region that was partly destroyed last month in a disaster that Ukrainian authorities say killed more than 50 people.
The imagery, published by a pro-Russian Telegram account, shows a correspondent for Russian state television touring the wreckage of the home with a man who appears to be a pro-Russian fighter. The home is between the cities of Kreminna and Rubizhne and was close to a front line of the war when it was partly destroyed.
The Washington Post verified the location of the video and some of the images by comparing them with pictures of the home published in recent years. Satellite photographs also appear to show the facility was burned and badly damaged last month.
Serhiy Haidai, the region’s governor, said on March 12 that the nursing home was one of several buildings in the area shelled by Russian forces on March 11. He later said a Russian tank “cynically and intentionally” fired on the facility, killing 56 people. He said 15 survivors were captured by Russians and taken about 40 miles north to the Russian-held city of Svatove.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general and the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv made statements supporting Haidai’s account, and Ukrainian authorities filed war crimes charges against Russia.
But pro-Russian separatists in the region claim that Ukrainian forces caused the disaster. A representative of the militant Luhansk People’s Republic group alleged Ukrainian troops stationed themselves inside the nursing home, using residents as shields, and then shelled it on March 10 while Ukrainians were retreating from the area.
Video shows police in eastern Ukraine rescuing puppy from rubble
In a video shared by police in eastern Ukraine, crouched rescuers dig through a pile of rubble, moving dirt and debris to find more dirt and debris.
Then, a tiny form emerges: a puppy. Pulled free, the trembling brown-and-white dog wags its tail.
“Every life is important — this is the slogan of the police and rescue personnel of the Donetsk region,” the Donetsk Regional Police said in a Facebook post accompanying the footage.
The agency said the rescue happened in Mykhailivka, where shelling damaged a building. In its aftermath, police said, the dog’s 77-year-old owner “was desperately trying to find his four-legged friend.”
“Law enforcement officers,” the post continued, “did not lose hope.”
The video included a clip of the man holding the puppy outside of a destroyed building, offering a “huge thank you” to rescuers who reunited them.
More bodies unearthed in Bucha mass grave
BUCHA, Ukraine — More than a dozen bodies were unearthed from the cold soil of a mass grave in Bucha on Wednesday, adding to the grim toll in a village that has become synonymous with Russian atrocities.
Workers in white protective jumpsuits probed a dugout trench for bodies of civilians killed in the Kyiv suburb during the Russian occupation here. The crew lifted out the corpses on a door used as a makeshift hoist, bringing them to investigators looking for signs of torture and execution. About a dozen bodies in zipped bags were lined up near the grave by the afternoon, pushing the number uncovered in the grave past 60.
Oleg Doroshuk, a local man who said he brought dead civilians to the church grounds for burial, watched the workers exhume some of the bodies. A mother and two young daughters were among the victims, he said.
International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said in a visit to Bucha on Wednesday that “Ukraine is a crime scene” that must be investigated.
“We’re here because we have reasonable grounds to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the court are being committed,” he said, according to Agence France-Presse. “We have to pierce the fog of war to get to the truth.”
Biden authorizes additional $800 million in security assistance for Ukraine
President Biden said Wednesday that his administration has authorized an additional $800 million in security assistance for Ukraine, a figure that is $50 million more than some officials had suggested.
After speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden issued a statement saying the package “will contain many of the highly effective weapons systems we have already provided and new capabilities tailored to the wider assault we expect Russia to launch in eastern Ukraine.”
“These new capabilities include artillery systems, artillery rounds, and armored personnel carriers,” Biden said.
Biden also said that he has approved the transfer of additional helicopters.
A U.S. defense official had told The Washington Post on Tuesday night that Mi-17 helicopters would not be included. However, according to the Pentagon on Wednesday, 11 of the Soviet-designed helicopters would be included, along with eighteen 155 mm howitzers, 40,000 artillery rounds and 300 switchblade drones.
Zelensky referenced the aid package in a tweet Wednesday afternoon.
“Continued constant dialogue with @POTUS,” Zelensky said. “Assessed Russian war crimes. Discussed additional package of defensive and possible macro-financial aid. Agreed to enhance sanctions.”
Pentagon: Some evidence Russian troops plagued by poor morale
A senior American defense official on Wednesday said the Biden administration has seen evidence of “significant morale issues” throughout Russia’s military, as it has confronted fierce resistance and weathered high casualties during its seven-week war in Ukraine.
“We don’t have perfect visibility on the morale of all Russian forces, but anecdotally, we know that throughout the force, in various units and in various places, they continue to have significant morale issues,” the official said Wednesday, during a briefing with reporters. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity in accordance with Pentagon guidelines.
Almost half of the Russian military’s enlisted troops are conscripts “who don’t receive a lot of training” and who have “been disillusioned by this war, weren’t properly informed, weren’t properly trained, weren’t ready — not just physically, but weren’t ready mentally — for what they were about to do,” the official said.
The Pentagon has also seen indications of frustration among higher-ranking officers. “[Officers are] frustrated with their troops’ performance, frustrated with their colleagues’ performance,” the defense official said. “There still are morale and unit-cohesion problems that are bedeviling the Russians, even as they now try to refit, resupply and focus on a more concentrated geographic area.”
U.S. and Ukrainian officials said last week that Russia had fully withdrawn its forces from the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and the city of Chernihiv, to the north, after heavy bombardment of the cities and attempts to gain a foothold in Kyiv failed.
Pentagon officials say Russian forces that had been concentrated in the capital and some other cities have since moved to regroup in neighboring Belarus and Russia, to focus the offensive more narrowly on the besieged southern city of Mariupol — where the city’s mayor recently estimated that Russia’s sustained assault had killed 10,000 of the city’s residents — as well as on the eastern Donbas region that has been under the control of Russian-backed separatists since 2014.
The defense official told reporters Wednesday that all Russian ground forces in Ukraine are in “an arc of southeastern Ukraine” that includes the contested Donbas region in the east, and then extending from there westward along the southern coast to Mykolaiv. “That’s where all their ground troops are,” the official said.
Medvedchuk captured as Russians tried to help him escape, Ukraine says
MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — The head of Ukraine’s SBU state security service revealed details on Wednesday of the capture of Viktor Medvedchuk, a fugitive Ukrainian oligarch and close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that Medvedchuk was seized as Russian agents were trying to help him escape Ukraine.
Speaking on Ukrainian television, Ivan Bakanov said that agents from Russia’s FSB intended to take Medvedchuk across the border by boat into Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region, where Russian forces are stationed, and from there to Russia.
“In fact, they allegedly wanted to take Medvedchuk to the Ukrainian border under the guise of a member of the Ukrainian armed forces, accompanied by colleagues,” Bakanov said. His comments were later posted on the Ukrainian security service’s Telegram channel.
Bakanov said that an “evacuation group of FSB special forces” was waiting in Transnistria, which was then supposed to take Medvedchuk to Moscow. The Russians, he said, were assisted in their plan by members of Ukraine’s criminal world and “corrupt law enforcement officers.”
However, Ukrainian security agents arrested Medvedchuk as he was leaving the Kyiv region on Tuesday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Medvedchuk’s arrest by posting a photo of him, visibly distraught, in military camouflage fatigues and handcuffs.
At the end of February, Ukrainian officials announced that Medvedchuk, who had been under house arrest on charges of treason, had gone missing shortly after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s SBU also posted on its Telegram channel a video of man who identified himself as Medvedchuk’s bodyguard of 20 years and said he was with him during the period he was hiding from Ukrainian authorities.
Medvedchuk’s wife, Oksana Marchenko, posted a video appeal to Zelensky, calling for her husband’s “immediate release” and saying that he had “broken no law” and that he had been “illegally detained by the SBU.”
Medvedchuk was a leader of Ukraine’s main pro-Russian political party, the Opposition Platform-For Life party, and is among Putin’s strongest Ukrainian supporters. Putin is godfather to Medvedchuk’s daughter — one of the closest relationships for a non-family member in Ukraine.
French forensic experts joined Ukrainian investigators examining civilians’ bodies in Bucha as Russian President Putin called the deaths “fake” on April 12. (Video: Reuters, Photo: Reuters)Yesterday at 12:20 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 11:30 p.m. EDTYesterday at 12:20 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 11:30 p.m. EDTPlaceholder while article actions loadThe United States and the European Union on Wednesday both pledged additional military equipment for Ukraine as that nation braces for a Russian offensive attack in the east that could be more challenging than earlier battles near Kyiv.President Biden said he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he is authorizing $800 million more in security assistance, including weapons and ammunition. Earlier Wednesday, the European Council said it agreed to 500 million euros ($544 million) in additional support for Ukrainian forces.The fresh vows for support come as world leaders reacted to Biden’s comment that Russia is carrying out a “genocide” in Ukraine — with French President Emmanuel Macron warning against “an escalation of rhetoric” and a Kremlin spokesman calling it “unacceptable.”Here’s what to knowBiden’s off-the-cuff ‘genocide’ comment marked the latest example of the tension between his often-emotional response to Putin’s brutal war and the international implications of a president’s words.Russia acknowledged that a key missile cruiser in its Black Sea Fleet had suffered significant damage as Ukrainian authorities claimed credit for immobilizing the ship.Finland will launch an immediate debate on joining NATO, as the country reconsiders its longtime stance outside the Western military alliance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan called Ukraine a “crime scene” during a visit to Bucha.The risk is growing that the conflict in Ukraine will tip a fragile global economy into a slump.The Post has lifted its paywall for readers in Russia and Ukraine. Telegram users can subscribe to our channel for updates.As Russia’s war in Ukraine founders, ominous rhetoric gains groundReturn to menuRIGA, Latvia — After a month of fighting, the architects of Moscow’s war against Ukraine had to explain to Russians why Kyiv had not fallen. That’s when the most menacing rhetoric began.On state television, a military analyst doubled down on Russia’s need to win and called for concentration camps for Ukrainians opposed to the invasion.Two days later, the head of the defense committee in the lower house of parliament said it would take 30 to 40 years to “reeducate” Ukrainians.And on a talk show, the editor in chief of the English-language television news network RT described Ukrainians’ determination to defend their country as “collective insanity.”“It’s no accident we call them Nazis,” said Margarita Simonyan, who also heads the Kremlin-backed media group that operates the Sputnik and RIA Novosti news agencies. “What makes you a Nazi is your bestial nature, your bestial hatred and your bestial willingness to tear out the eyes of children on the basis of nationality.”Biden’s blunt comments on Ukraine can veer from U.S. policyReturn to menuPresident Biden talked about why he called the war in Ukraine a “genocide” on April 12. “It sure seems that way to me,” he said. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: The Washington Post)President Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal,” although U.S. officials had not made that legal determination. During his trip to Europe last month, he seemingly urged regime change in an ad-libbed line at the conclusion of a speech in Warsaw, then clarified he was expressing “moral outrage” rather than articulating American policy.Then on Tuesday, the president once again veered from his prepared remarks, labeling Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine a “genocide,” despite top U.S. officials saying last week they had not yet seen evidence of actions meeting that definition, and even though a legal review on the matter has not been completed.Biden’s off-the-cuff comment marked the latest example of the tension between his often-emotional response to Putin’s brutal war and the international implications of a president’s words. Throughout his political career, Biden has cultivated a reputation for unscripted candor, a trait allies laud as humanizing but adversaries deride as undisciplined.Russia acknowledges damage to key missile cruiserReturn to menuThe Russian Ministry of Defense on Wednesday acknowledged that a key missile cruiser in its Black Sea Fleet had suffered significant damage but said little about what caused it as Ukrainian authorities claimed credit for immobilizing the ship.The Moskva, named after the Russian capital, is the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet and was the vessel at the center of the widely reported attack on Snake Island, when Ukrainian border guards went viral for insulting the Kremlin’s forces during the early days of the invasion.Russia’s state-run media, citing the Defense Ministry, reported Wednesday that “ammunition detonated as a result of a fire on the Moskva missile cruiser.”The ship, the ministry said, “was seriously damaged” and the “entire crew was evacuated.”The ministry said it was investigating the cause of the fire and did not release further details. But Moscow’s acknowledgment of the significant setback came hours after the governor of Odessa claimed responsibility for the strike in a post to Telegram. He wrote that anti-ship Neptune missiles had caused the cruiser “very serious damage,” adding: “Glory to Ukraine!”The Washington Post has not been able to independently verify that Ukrainian forces hit the ship.The latest on key battlegrounds in UkraineReturn to menu Russian-held areas and troop movement BELARUS RUSSIA POL. Chernihiv Separatist- controlled area Kyiv Lviv Kharkiv UKRAINE Mariupol Odessa ROMANIA 200 MILES Control areas as of April 13 Sources: Institute for the Study of War, AEI’s Critical Threats Project, Post reporting Russian-held areas and troop movement BELARUS RUSSIA Chernihiv POLAND Chernobyl Kyiv Sumy Lviv Kharkiv UKRAINE Separatist- controlled area Odessa Mariupol Berdyansk ROMANIA Kherson Crimea Annexed by Russia in 2014 100 MILES Black Sea Control areas as of April 13 Sources: Institute for the Study of War, AEI’s Critical Threats Project, Post reporting Russian-held areas and troop movement BELARUS RUSSIA Chernihiv POLAND Chernobyl Kyiv Sumy Lviv Kharkiv Separatist- controlled area UKRAINE Mykolaiv Mariupol Berdyansk Kherson ROMANIA Odessa Kherson Crimea Annexed by Russia in 2014 100 MILES Control areas as of April 13 Sources: Institute for the Study of War, AEI’s Critical Threats Project, Post reporting Mariupol: Long the site of some of the most ferocious fighting, this key port city continued to endure heavy shelling in recent days. The city council said Wednesday that Russia has sought to “create a humanitarian catastrophe” by destroying the city’s food supply and essential infrastructure. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe determined Moscow broke international humanitarian law with its targeted attacks here, and a chemical weapons watchdog said it was monitoring the battle for treaty violations.Bucha: This suburb northwest of Kyiv became a symbol for the brutality of the Kremlin invasion when images of atrocities there emerged in recent weeks. On Wednesday, more than a dozen bodies were unearthed from a Bucha mass grave, and investigators were examining them for signs of torture and execution. International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan called the area a “crime scene” during a visit on the same day.Kharkiv: Ukraine’s second-largest city is only 25 miles from the Russian border, which has made it a vulnerable target since the beginning of the invasion. On Wednesday, the head of the regional administration reported that recent attacks have killed seven people and injured 22 more. Elsewhere in the region, Moscow has been amassing troops, military vehicles and equipment in preparation for its expected assault on Donbas to the east.Luhansk Oblast: New video footage and images from this region — which is part of Donbas — showed burned bodies among the rubble of a nursing home that was destroyed last month. Ukrainian authorities say Russian shelling killed more than 50 people there. It has become the latest example of a catastrophe for which Ukrainian and Russian forces blame each other while offering little clear evidence. Controlling this region, along with neighboring Donetsk Oblast, is now one of Russia’s central objectives in the war.Pentagon meets with arms makers to discuss ‘accelerated production’ for Ukraine Return to menuSenior Pentagon officials met Wednesday with leading defense manufacturers to discuss the potential for “accelerated production” of certain weapons systems as the United States continues its significant arms assistance to Ukraine, a senior defense official said.“The dialogue focused on accelerating the production and fielding of systems that are critical to the Department’s ongoing security assistance to Ukraine, as well as broader efforts to increase the readiness of U.S., Ally, and partner forces,” the Defense Department said Wednesday afternoon in a readout of the meeting, led by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks.Officials focused primarily on “weapons and equipment that can be exported rapidly, deployed with minimal training, and prove effective in the battlefield,” the Pentagon said.The senior defense official, who spoke to reporters before the meeting on the condition of anonymity under Pentagon ground rules, said that such meetings with the defense industry are part of “a normal battle rhythm” and that Wednesday’s discussions were not occurring “because our stocks are so low that our readiness is impaired.”“But we have been giving an awful lot of stuff to the Ukrainians. And so it would be the prudent thing to do, before it becomes a crisis issue for our own readiness, to have a discussion with [the defense industry] about accelerated production and advance production,” the official said.The meeting included leaders of Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin, the companies that produce Javelin antitank missiles and Stinger antiaircraft missiles, which have been among the most useful tools employed by the Ukrainian military to thwart Russia’s advances.The Pentagon said in a statement that the discussion covered various weapons capabilities in the realms of “air defense, anti-armor, anti-personnel, coastal defense, counter-battery, and communications.”The defense official noted that the United States has been the leading supplier of weapons assistance to Ukraine.“We are providing an immense amount of material … more than roughly 2½ billion dollars’ worth, just since President Biden has been in office. That equates to more than half of Ukraine’s defense budget for last year.”A Brit fighting in Ukraine said his unit would surrender. He’s now missing.Return to menuAiden Aslin, a British man fighting in Ukraine, spent weeks defending the besieged city of Mariupol from Russia’s advances, as battles raged block by block for control of the strategic port. As Aslin’s unit — Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade — ran out of food, water and ammunition, he called his friend Brennan Phillips. “The first thing he said was, ‘I’m surrendering to the Russians,’” Phillips, a 36-year-old American, told The Washington Post of their call early Tuesday local time.Aslin said his commander was planning to surrender the unit within hours. And when Russian forces came for him, Aslin said, he would “destroy his phone and dump it in the toilet,” Phillips said. They knew it could be their last call. After they hung up, Aslin sent him a message. “The last thing he said to me was, ‘Please don’t let them forget about me,’” Phillips said.Phillips hasn’t heard from him since.In the days after Russia’s invasion, Ukraine sought volunteers to fight from all over the world. Some heeded the call, despite the risks. But Aslin joined the Ukrainian marines long before the war — in 2018, according to Phillips — following a three-year stint fighting the Islamic State alongside Syrian Kurdish forces.Aslin’s unusual story provides a window into the desperate situation in Mariupol, which has reportedly been destroyed after a blockade left it cut off from food, water, heat and humanitarian aid for over a month. Constant Russian bombardment made civilian evacuations difficult.Ukrainian fighter pilots in old jets take on better-equipped RussiansReturn to menuODESSA, Ukraine — The fighter pilot known as “Juice” usually just has a few minutes to scramble. When he is on-call, which is pretty much always these days, he cannot be more than a bathroom break away from his cockpit. When a cruise missile or a Russian fighter is spotted moving toward the area Juice is assigned to by the Ukrainian air force, he doesn’t even have time to run through standard safety checks before taking off. “We’re ready to be killed,” said Juice, who provided only his call sign for security reasons.“But we don’t want this, of course,” the 29-year-old added. “We want to kill Russians and take down their bombers that are killing our cities and our families.”Juice is one of the pilots helping Ukraine pull off the biggest surprise of this war: Its military has kept the airspace over Ukraine contested despite Russia’s more advanced jets and superior numbers. But he and other pilots say that’s not enough. While Kyiv’s forces have perhaps even outperformed Moscow’s on the ground, Russia has continued to inflict heavy losses on Ukraine from the sky.White House points to atrocities in Ukraine to defend Biden use of term ‘genocide’Return to menuOn April 13, White House press secretary Jen Psaki stood by President Biden’s use of the word “genocide” when describing Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: The Washington Post)Biden called Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine a “genocide” because of the “atrocities” that have been committed in the Eastern European country at the hands of the Russian military.“The president was speaking to what we all see,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday. “What he feels is clear as day in terms of the atrocities happening on the ground.”“As he also noted yesterday, of course, there will be a legal process that plays out in the courtroom,” she added. “But he was speaking to what he has seen on the ground, what we’ve all seen in terms of the atrocities on the ground.”While in Bucha for a month, Russian soldiers killed hundreds of Ukrainians in the city about 37 miles from Kyiv. After Ukrainian forces recaptured the city last week, investigators from across the country have spent days searching neighborhoods for the dead.Biden’s use of the word “genocide” Tuesday was a significant escalation of the president’s rhetoric. And the shift was quite notable given how much U.S. officials have tried to avoid using the term that depicts an intentional effort to wipe out a specific group.“I don’t think anyone is confused by the horrors on the ground,” Psaki said, adding that Biden is “calling it like he sees it.”French President Emmanuel Macron declined Wednesday to call the actions of Russian troops in Ukraine “genocide,” saying that “an escalation of rhetoric” would not help stop the war after both Biden and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas used the term.Psaki had no comment on Macron’s response.Burned bodies in rubble of Luhansk region nursing home, new images showReturn to menuPro-Russian Telegram channel posted video on April 11 of the charred wreckage of a nursing home in the war-torn Luhansk region. (Video: Dolg Z via Telegram, Photo: Dolg Z via Telegram)New video footage and images show burned bodies among the rubble of a nursing home in Ukraine’s Luhansk region that was partly destroyed last month in a disaster that Ukrainian authorities say killed more than 50 people.The imagery, published by a pro-Russian Telegram account, shows a correspondent for Russian state television touring the wreckage of the home with a man who appears to be a pro-Russian fighter. The home is between the cities of Kreminna and Rubizhne and was close to a front line of the war when it was partly destroyed.The Washington Post verified the location of the video and some of the images by comparing them with pictures of the home published in recent years. Satellite photographs also appear to show the facility was burned and badly damaged last month.Serhiy Haidai, the region’s governor, said on March 12 that the nursing home was one of several buildings in the area shelled by Russian forces on March 11. He later said a Russian tank “cynically and intentionally” fired on the facility, killing 56 people. He said 15 survivors were captured by Russians and taken about 40 miles north to the Russian-held city of Svatove.Ukraine’s prosecutor general and the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv made statements supporting Haidai’s account, and Ukrainian authorities filed war crimes charges against Russia.But pro-Russian separatists in the region claim that Ukrainian forces caused the disaster. A representative of the militant Luhansk People’s Republic group alleged Ukrainian troops stationed themselves inside the nursing home, using residents as shields, and then shelled it on March 10 while Ukrainians were retreating from the area.Video shows police in eastern Ukraine rescuing puppy from rubbleReturn to menuVideo released on April 13 by the Donetsk Regional Police showed Ukrainian rescuers pulling a puppy alive from the rubble of a building in Mykhailivka. (Video: Reuters, Photo: Reuters)In a video shared by police in eastern Ukraine, crouched rescuers dig through a pile of rubble, moving dirt and debris to find more dirt and debris.Then, a tiny form emerges: a puppy. Pulled free, the trembling brown-and-white dog wags its tail.“Every life is important — this is the slogan of the police and rescue personnel of the Donetsk region,” the Donetsk Regional Police said in a Facebook post accompanying the footage.The agency said the rescue happened in Mykhailivka, where shelling damaged a building. In its aftermath, police said, the dog’s 77-year-old owner “was desperately trying to find his four-legged friend.”“Law enforcement officers,” the post continued, “did not lose hope.”The video included a clip of the man holding the puppy outside of a destroyed building, offering a “huge thank you” to rescuers who reunited them.More bodies unearthed in Bucha mass graveReturn to menuBUCHA, Ukraine — More than a dozen bodies were unearthed from the cold soil of a mass grave in Bucha on Wednesday, adding to the grim toll in a village that has become synonymous with Russian atrocities.Workers in white protective jumpsuits probed a dugout trench for bodies of civilians killed in the Kyiv suburb during the Russian occupation here. The crew lifted out the corpses on a door used as a makeshift hoist, bringing them to investigators looking for signs of torture and execution. About a dozen bodies in zipped bags were lined up near the grave by the afternoon, pushing the number uncovered in the grave past 60.Oleg Doroshuk, a local man who said he brought dead civilians to the church grounds for burial, watched the workers exhume some of the bodies. A mother and two young daughters were among the victims, he said.International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said in a visit to Bucha on Wednesday that “Ukraine is a crime scene” that must be investigated.“We’re here because we have reasonable grounds to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the court are being committed,” he said, according to Agence France-Presse. “We have to pierce the fog of war to get to the truth.”Biden authorizes additional $800 million in security assistance for UkraineReturn to menuPresident Biden said Wednesday that his administration has authorized an additional $800 million in security assistance for Ukraine, a figure that is $50 million more than some officials had suggested.After speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden issued a statement saying the package “will contain many of the highly effective weapons systems we have already provided and new capabilities tailored to the wider assault we expect Russia to launch in eastern Ukraine.”“These new capabilities include artillery systems, artillery rounds, and armored personnel carriers,” Biden said.Biden also said that he has approved the transfer of additional helicopters.A U.S. defense official had told The Washington Post on Tuesday night that Mi-17 helicopters would not be included. However, according to the Pentagon on Wednesday, 11 of the Soviet-designed helicopters would be included, along with eighteen 155 mm howitzers, 40,000 artillery rounds and 300 switchblade drones.Zelensky referenced the aid package in a tweet Wednesday afternoon.“Continued constant dialogue with @POTUS,” Zelensky said. “Assessed Russian war crimes. Discussed additional package of defensive and possible macro-financial aid. Agreed to enhance sanctions.”Pentagon: Some evidence Russian troops plagued by poor moraleReturn to menuA senior American defense official on Wednesday said the Biden administration has seen evidence of “significant morale issues” throughout Russia’s military, as it has confronted fierce resistance and weathered high casualties during its seven-week war in Ukraine.“We don’t have perfect visibility on the morale of all Russian forces, but anecdotally, we know that throughout the force, in various units and in various places, they continue to have significant morale issues,” the official said Wednesday, during a briefing with reporters. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity in accordance with Pentagon guidelines.Almost half of the Russian military’s enlisted troops are conscripts “who don’t receive a lot of training” and who have “been disillusioned by this war, weren’t properly informed, weren’t properly trained, weren’t ready — not just physically, but weren’t ready mentally — for what they were about to do,” the official said.The Pentagon has also seen indications of frustration among higher-ranking officers. “[Officers are] frustrated with their troops’ performance, frustrated with their colleagues’ performance,” the defense official said. “There still are morale and unit-cohesion problems that are bedeviling the Russians, even as they now try to refit, resupply and focus on a more concentrated geographic area.”U.S. and Ukrainian officials said last week that Russia had fully withdrawn its forces from the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and the city of Chernihiv, to the north, after heavy bombardment of the cities and attempts to gain a foothold in Kyiv failed.Pentagon officials say Russian forces that had been concentrated in the capital and some other cities have since moved to regroup in neighboring Belarus and Russia, to focus the offensive more narrowly on the besieged southern city of Mariupol — where the city’s mayor recently estimated that Russia’s sustained assault had killed 10,000 of the city’s residents — as well as on the eastern Donbas region that has been under the control of Russian-backed separatists since 2014.The defense official told reporters Wednesday that all Russian ground forces in Ukraine are in “an arc of southeastern Ukraine” that includes the contested Donbas region in the east, and then extending from there westward along the southern coast to Mykolaiv. “That’s where all their ground troops are,” the official said.Medvedchuk captured as Russians tried to help him escape, Ukraine saysReturn to menuMUKACHEVO, Ukraine — The head of Ukraine’s SBU state security service revealed details on Wednesday of the capture of Viktor Medvedchuk, a fugitive Ukrainian oligarch and close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that Medvedchuk was seized as Russian agents were trying to help him escape Ukraine.Speaking on Ukrainian television, Ivan Bakanov said that agents from Russia’s FSB intended to take Medvedchuk across the border by boat into Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region, where Russian forces are stationed, and from there to Russia.“In fact, they allegedly wanted to take Medvedchuk to the Ukrainian border under the guise of a member of the Ukrainian armed forces, accompanied by colleagues,” Bakanov said. His comments were later posted on the Ukrainian security service’s Telegram channel.Bakanov said that an “evacuation group of FSB special forces” was waiting in Transnistria, which was then supposed to take Medvedchuk to Moscow. The Russians, he said, were assisted in their plan by members of Ukraine’s criminal world and “corrupt law enforcement officers.”However, Ukrainian security agents arrested Medvedchuk as he was leaving the Kyiv region on Tuesday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Medvedchuk’s arrest by posting a photo of him, visibly distraught, in military camouflage fatigues and handcuffs.At the end of February, Ukrainian officials announced that Medvedchuk, who had been under house arrest on charges of treason, had gone missing shortly after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.On Wednesday, Ukraine’s SBU also posted on its Telegram channel a video of man who identified himself as Medvedchuk’s bodyguard of 20 years and said he was with him during the period he was hiding from Ukrainian authorities.Medvedchuk’s wife, Oksana Marchenko, posted a video appeal to Zelensky, calling for her husband’s “immediate release” and saying that he had “broken no law” and that he had been “illegally detained by the SBU.”Medvedchuk was a leader of Ukraine’s main pro-Russian political party, the Opposition Platform-For Life party, and is among Putin’s strongest Ukrainian supporters. Putin is godfather to Medvedchuk’s daughter — one of the closest relationships for a non-family member in Ukraine.