In the absence of major territorial advances, Russia — which has launched more than 1,000 missiles so far — is increasingly relying on sieges and unguided “dumb” bombs to wear cities and civilians down. The United Nations has confirmed 1,900 civilian casualties, including the deaths of 52 children, but its human rights agency and humanitarian groups have said the real tolls are far higher. The United Nations estimates that 55 children have fled Ukraine every minute.
President Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are set to speak at 9 a.m. Eastern time as concerns mount that Beijing will offer military equipment and aid to Moscow. The leaders of the world’s two largest economies “have a lot to discuss,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Thursday, adding: “This is an opportunity for President Biden to assess where President Xi stands.”
Here’s what to know
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a video address early Friday local time, pledged to fight for all Ukrainian cities under attack and appealed to Russian citizens to challenge the Kremlin. “We want you to love your children more than you fear your authorities,” he said.
- The United States denounced Russia’s decision to seek an emergency meeting at the United Nations Security Council on Friday to discuss what Moscow claims are American biological labs in Ukraine. Washington called the session a means for Moscow to promote “disinformation.”
- Nearly 4,000 people were evacuated from embattled Ukrainian cities on Thursday, officials said, continuing the halting and sporadic effort to rescue civilians from the country’s most war-torn regions.
- A U.S. citizen was killed amid Russian shelling in the besieged city of Chernihiv on Thursday. James Whitney Hill, 68, died while trying to obtain food for himself, his partner and other very ill patients at the local hospital, his sister told The Washington Post in an interview.
- In Kharkiv, where a Post reporter witnessed evidence of cluster bombs being used in civilian areas, body bags and coffins are in short supply.
UNDERSTANDING THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT
Kremlin calls Biden ‘irritable’ after he says Putin is ‘a murderous dictator,’ in St. Patrick’s Day address
President Biden continued to ramp up the rhetoric against Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling him a “murderous dictator” during an address Thursday in Washington to mark St. Patrick’s Day.
“I think we’re in an inflection point in history,” Biden said. “I think we’re in a genuine struggle between autocracies and democracies, and whether or not democracies can be sustained.”
He said nations were “standing together against a murderous dictator, a pure thug who is waging an immoral war against the people of Ukraine,” adding that “Putin is paying a big price for his aggression.”
The comments prompted the Kremlin to hit-back on Friday at the “personal insults” toward Putin.
“Given Mr. Biden’s irritability, his fatigue, and sometimes forgetfulness … which ultimately leads to aggressive statements, we probably will not give any sharp assessments so as not to cause more aggression,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call Friday.
Biden made headlines this week and angered Moscow after calling Putin a “war criminal” in a seemingly off-the-cuff response to a reporter’s question that came on the same day Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered an emphatic speech to Congress.
John Blaxland, professor of international security and intelligence studies at Australian National University, said Biden’s comments could be perceived as a having a “rhetorical morale effect” and show he is taking leadership.
“[It] can actually be seen as a clever ploy to put the heat back onto Putin,” Blaxland told The Washington Post. “It certainly resonates with his international partners in NATO and beyond and in countries like Australia and Japan who are looking for resolve from the United States, resolve that echoes in East Asia.”
While Russia wages war in Ukraine, life in much of Europe remains normal, but uneasy
Russia’s invasion, three weeks after it was launched, has devastated Ukraine and caused shock waves in surrounding countries that are dealing with an exodus of refugees. Farther afield — from Rome to Paris to London — daily life has not transformed in anywhere near the same way.
But on a continent that had convinced itself such wars were a thing of the past, the conflict has placed even the safer parts of Europe on uncertain emotional ground. The markers of normalcy are still there, including aspects of life that had disappeared during the height of the pandemic: traffic-clogged commutes, aperitivo hours with friends. But mixed in with that are feelings of unease. Some say they feel guilty about having carefree moments. Many say they’re anxious that the conflict could yet spread.
The sense of vulnerability comes just as countries were letting down their guard after numerous coronavirus waves. This time, the emotions are different; they are connected not just to the ideas of science and personal safety, but also to issues of sovereignty and aggression. But compared with the virus, the risks are also at more of a remove.
Russian missiles strike near Lviv airport, mayor says
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy said Friday morning that Russian missiles struck an aircraft repair plant next to the city’s airport but that the airport itself was not hit.
Sadovy wrote on his Telegram channel that no casualties were immediately reported and that work had been suspended at the facility before the attack. Local authorities were at the scene, he added, and at a nearby bus repair facility that was also damaged.
A large cloud of smoke was seen in the airport’s vicinity, according to images shared by news agencies and on social media. Lviv, a western Ukrainian city near Poland, has been a relatively safe haven for Ukrainians and foreign diplomats. But it has faced a growing number of Russian projectile attacks in recent days as Moscow’s invasion stalls.
The aircraft repair plant was targeted by six winged missiles that were launched from the Black Sea, the Ukrainian air force’s western command said Friday in a Facebook post. It added that two of the six missiles were shot down and that the “threat” was now over.
Lviv’s regional governor, Maksym Kozytskyi, told reporters Friday that the country’s air defense systems had worked, and he confirmed that two of the missiles were shot down. He said that while no fatalities were reported, one person was wounded, although not critically.
“This is an attack on the city of Lviv, on a humanitarian hub where there are currently at least 200,000 displaced people,” Kozytskyi said in a video. “The attack on the city of Lviv once again confirms that they [the Russians] are not fighting the Ukrainian army — they are fighting the population, children, women, displaced people.”
Amar Nadhir contributed to this report.
What a Russia-Ukraine peace deal might look like
With Russian troops bogged down in the fight against a defiant but battered Ukraine, both Moscow and Kyiv say the prospect of a negotiated settlement is growing. Yet, with the Kremlin seeking an end to Ukraine as a sovereign nation, and Ukraine still claiming land lost to pro-Russian forces almost a decade ago, can there really be a middle ground?
The short answer is: It’s possible.
Suspicion abounds over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions, with considerable fears that a Russian diplomatic opening is a ruse to buy time to gather reinforcements for a second-phase assault.
But with the tenacious Ukrainian resistance exceeding expectations in the face of a far superior Russian force — and with Western sanctions slamming the Russian economy — there’s a chance the new battleground calculus has the Kremlin fishing for a consolation prize.
With the two sides far apart, what could a deal look like?
She escaped Ukraine with her children. Now she watches her country’s fate unfold.
In this neighborhood of handsome homes and manicured lawns 30 miles from Washington, the war in Ukraine can feel like a faraway distraction. Kids are playing in yards and on trampolines on a warm March day. Trees are beginning to flower. There is no reason to worry about air raid sirens or bombs or apartment buildings being leveled to the ground.
But inside one of the homes, Ivanna Ivaniv, 36, can think of almost nothing else. Her life had been ordered, but now it is flooded with chaos and doubt. Just a few weeks ago, she was a dentist at a thriving practice in Lviv in western Ukraine, having wine and cheese with friends in a small cafe. Weeks before that, she was arranging swimming and dancing lessons for her kids and making summer vacation plans.
The war has made those plans pointless, those memories painful. Now living in her sister’s Maryland home, Ivaniv and her children are among the nearly 3 million Ukrainians who have fled a war where in just three weeks shelling has made neighborhoods unrecognizable and attacks and battles have left thousands dead and wounded, according to United Nations data.
Humanitarian corridors are meant to evacuate civilians in war. But they can be dangerous.
As shelling from Russian forces rains down on major Ukrainian cities, thousands of people are sheltering in subway stations, libraries and theaters while others try to escape.
To facilitate their evacuation and the arrival of aid into hard-hit areas, Ukrainian and Russian officials have periodically agreed to establish humanitarian corridors — with mixed results. While Ukraine has said that tens of thousands of people have used these routes, it has also accused Russia of repeatedly attacking protected areas.
Safe passageways during times of conflict date back to at least shortly before World War II, when 10,000 children were transported out of Nazi-controlled countries on trains, boats and planes called “kindertransports.” In 1949, the Geneva Conventions established protocols to ensure civilians have access to critical goods such as medicine during war.
But history shows that humanitarian corridors offer no guarantees. Time and again, civilians have been hit while trying to escape along a route that was supposed to be safe. Even when they work, they often aren’t a solution for the most vulnerable.
Biden and China’s Xi Jinping to discuss Ukraine crisis in phone call
President Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, are scheduled to discuss Ukraine by phone Friday in a call that appears unlikely to bridge the growing gap between the two sides’ positions on the crisis.
In their first conversation since Russia invaded Ukraine, Biden is expected to press Xi to use China’s influence and persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the attack. In a briefing Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the president would “make clear” that China would bear responsibility for “any actions to support Russia’s aggression.”
In official comments and state-media editorials before the call, Beijing has not signaled any willingness to change its position of avowed neutrality — neither endorsing nor condoning Russia’s actions, while supporting Moscow’s claims of security concerns and blaming the United States and NATO for the crisis.
“Both sides want to make sure the other side has no doubts about its own firm position,” said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. He said he doubts that the call would have any “major positive impact” on U.S.-Chinese relations.
“Both Beijing and Washington will understand each other’s positions. All these realizations will further harden confrontation between the two countries,” he said.
Hours before the call, scheduled for 9 a.m. Eastern time on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying reiterated accusations against Washington on Twitter, which is blocked within China but used by Chinese diplomats and state media to target international audiences.
Hua said that if the United States had “refrained from repeatedly expanding NATO and pledged that NATO would not admit Ukraine, and had not fanned the flames by supplying weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, the situation would have been very different.”
Canada and Russia get into diplomatic spat at U.N. over ‘kindergarten-level’ letter edits
Russia accused Canada on Thursday of childishly annotating a letter that it had sent to the United Nations about providing aid to Ukraine.
The United Nations had been due to vote on the draft resolution proposed by Russia on Friday but Moscow withdrew it, citing pressure from the United States on member countries to reject it. Instead, Russia said it would use the time to discuss American biochemical labs in Ukraine, which the United States denounced as a means to promote “disinformation.”
According to Reuters, the Russian letter dated March 16 about providing aid to Ukraine said: “Like other members of the international community, we are gravely concerned about its deterioration.”
Canada crossed out the first few words and changed it to read: “We are not gravely concerned about its deterioration,” and inserted at the end “because we are the primary cause.”
On the final page, Canada also wrote in red: “We want you to know just how little we care about the human life that we have destroyed.”
Thank you @CanadaONU for this kindergarten-level Russophobic libel! It only shows that your diplomatic skills and good manners are at lowest ebb and gives an idea why your country’s bid for a non-permanent seat in #SecurityCouncil was voted down twice in 20yrs by UN membership 👎🏻 https://t.co/3OOcvEP8R8
— Dmitry Polyanskiy (@Dpol_un) March 17, 2022
The spat spilled onto social media after Russia’s first deputy permanent representative at the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy, tweeted thanking Canada “for this kindergarten-level Russophobic libel.”
“It only shows that your diplomatic skills and good manners are at lowest ebb and gives an idea why your country’s bid for a non-permanent seat in #SecurityCouncil was voted down twice in 20yrs by UN membership,” he said, adding a thumbs-down emoji.
In Kharkiv, a furious rain of bombs and rockets takes a toll: ‘There are no coffins left’
KHARKIV, Ukraine — The morgue in Kharkiv was overflowing.
In the courtyard outside, scores of black and green body bags were stacked along two of its walls. On the other side, dozens more victims of Russia’s assault on this eastern city were exposed to the elements.
Some wore slippers; one had on army boots and fatigues. Pale, bloodied bellies lay open to the skies.
“We need body bags,” morgue director Yuriy Nikolaevich explained. Or at least plastic wrap, he said. There was nothing left to use to hand the dead back to their families: “There are no coffins left in the city.”
The grotesque scene was a small glimpse of the human toll of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine. Just 25 miles from the country’s eastern border with Russia, Ukraine’s second-largest city was an early target in Moscow’s advance.
American killed in Ukraine was trying to feed his sick partner and others in hospital, sister says
Friends and relatives of an American who died in Ukraine are mourning his loss and awaiting information about his partner.
James Whitney Hill, 68, was killed while trying to obtain food for himself, his partner and other very ill patients at Chernihiv Regional Hospital in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, his sister, Cheryl Gordon told The Washington Post in an interview.
Gordon said she told her brother to “get the hell out of there” when invasion seemed inevitable, but he said he couldn’t.
Instead, Hill and his partner, Iryna Teslenko, made at least a four-hour trek to reach the hospital so she could receive treatment for her progressive multiple sclerosis. Somewhere along the way, Teslenko came down with pneumonia, according to Gordon, extending their stay in the hospital as the country they both loved burned outside.
Tennessee National Guard denies Russian media report of three members killed in Ukraine
The Tennessee National Guard on Thursday denied a Russian state media outlet’s claim that three of its members were killed fighting in Ukraine.
“The three soldiers identified in the article are either current or former members of the Tennessee National Guard,” Nicholas Atwood, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Guard’s Office of the Adjutant General, said in a statement. “They are accounted for, safe and [are] not, as the article headline erroneously states, US mercenaries killed in Donetsk People’s Republic.”
The Guard called the reporting from Pravda “patently false.”
Members of Tennessee’s National Guard deployed in 2018 to help the Ukrainian military develop the Yavoriv Combat Training Center, officials said, but all of them went home the next year.
At least 35 people were killed and more than 100 were injured earlier this week when Russian missiles struck a Yavoriv military facility near Ukraine’s border with Poland, bringing Russia’s invasion closer than ever to NATO’s territory. NATO troops had trained Ukrainians there recently.
What to expect from Biden’s call with China’s Xi Jinping
President Biden and China’s Xi Jinping are set to speak Friday as their countries navigate political and economic differences over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The leaders of the world’s two largest economies last met virtually in November and “have a lot to discuss,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Thursday.
“This is an opportunity for President Biden to assess where President Xi stands,” Psaki said. There has been an “absence of denunciation by China of what Russia is doing,” which she added “speaks volumes” around the world.
The Biden administration has made clear to Beijing its “deep concerns” about any alignment with Russia, she said, adding that reports that China may supply Russia with military equipment were “a high concern.”
Now into its fourth week, China’s effort to displease neither Russia nor the West is looking increasingly untenable. However, slight changes in tone have been detected, such as Xi’s decision to call the invasion a “war” for the first time when speaking to his German and French counterparts last week — a departure from weeks of officials describing the invasion as a “special military operation” or a “situation.”
Earlier this week, national security adviser Jake Sullivan had an “intense” and “candid” seven-hour meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Rome about the potential consequences of any assistance that Beijing might provide Russia. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also issued an explicit warning to China on Thursday that there would be consequences for providing military assistance to Moscow.
“We believe China in particular has a responsibility to use its influence with President Putin and to defend the international rules and principles that it professes to support,” Blinken said. “Instead, it appears that China is moving in the opposite direction by refusing to condemn this aggression while seeking to portray itself as a neutral arbiter.”
Slovakia will send Ukraine S-300 missiles ‘immediately’ if NATO backfills its weapons
Slovakia’s defense minister said Thursday that his country is prepared to send long-range surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine “immediately” — provided that Western allies provide a “proper replacement” to avoid creating a security gap.
“The only strategic air defense system that we have in Slovakia is the S-300 system,” Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad’, said, referring to powerful Soviet-origin weapons that would enable the Ukrainian military to shoot down Russian warplanes flying several miles high. Ukraine had a few before the invasion and has pleaded for more as Russian forces have intensified their bombardment of key cities.
Speaking in Bratislava, Slovakia’s capital, alongside U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Nad’ said, “Should there be a situation that we have a proper replacement — or we have a capability guaranteed for a certain period of time — then we will be willing to discuss” equipping Ukraine with the air defenses it seeks.
Senate Republicans demand Biden do more for Ukraine after voting against $13.6 billion for Ukraine
More than two dozen Senate Republicans are demanding that President Biden do more to aid war-torn Ukraine and arm its forces against Russia’s brutal assault, after voting last week against $13.6 billion in military and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine.
Consider Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who heard Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s emotional plea in a virtual address to Congress on Wednesday for more weapons and a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
“President Biden needs to make a decision TODAY: either give Ukraine access to the planes and antiaircraft defense systems it needs to defend itself, or enforce a no-fly zone to close Ukrainian skies to Russian attacks,” Scott said in a statement. “If President Biden does not do this NOW, President Biden will show himself to be absolutely heartless and ignorant of the deaths of innocent Ukrainian children and families.”
Last week, Scott was one of 31 Republicans to vote against a sweeping, $1.5 trillion spending bill to fund government agencies and departments through the remainder of the fiscal year and that would also include $13.6 billion in assistance for Ukraine. Biden signed the bill into law Tuesday, casting the aid as the United States “moving urgently to further augment the support to the brave people of Ukraine as they defend their country.”
In the absence of major territorial advances, Russia — which has launched more than 1,000 missiles so far — is increasingly relying on sieges and unguided “dumb” bombs to wear cities and civilians down. The United Nations has confirmed 1,900 civilian casualties, including the deaths of 52 children, but its human rights agency and humanitarian groups have said the real tolls are far higher. The United Nations estimates that 55 children have fled Ukraine every minute.President Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are set to speak at 9 a.m. Eastern time as concerns mount that Beijing will offer military equipment and aid to Moscow. The leaders of the world’s two largest economies “have a lot to discuss,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Thursday, adding: “This is an opportunity for President Biden to assess where President Xi stands.”Here’s what to knowUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a video address early Friday local time, pledged to fight for all Ukrainian cities under attack and appealed to Russian citizens to challenge the Kremlin. “We want you to love your children more than you fear your authorities,” he said.The United States denounced Russia’s decision to seek an emergency meeting at the United Nations Security Council on Friday to discuss what Moscow claims are American biological labs in Ukraine. Washington called the session a means for Moscow to promote “disinformation.”Nearly 4,000 people were evacuated from embattled Ukrainian cities on Thursday, officials said, continuing the halting and sporadic effort to rescue civilians from the country’s most war-torn regions.A U.S. citizen was killed amid Russian shelling in the besieged city of Chernihiv on Thursday. James Whitney Hill, 68, died while trying to obtain food for himself, his partner and other very ill patients at the local hospital, his sister told The Washington Post in an interview.In Kharkiv, where a Post reporter witnessed evidence of cluster bombs being used in civilian areas, body bags and coffins are in short supply. UNDERSTANDING THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICTKremlin calls Biden ‘irritable’ after he says Putin is ‘a murderous dictator,’ in St. Patrick’s Day address Return to menuAt the annual Friends of Ireland Lunch on March 17, President Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “murderous dictator” and “pure thug.” (Reuters)President Biden continued to ramp up the rhetoric against Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling him a “murderous dictator” during an address Thursday in Washington to mark St. Patrick’s Day.“I think we’re in an inflection point in history,” Biden said. “I think we’re in a genuine struggle between autocracies and democracies, and whether or not democracies can be sustained.”He said nations were “standing together against a murderous dictator, a pure thug who is waging an immoral war against the people of Ukraine,” adding that “Putin is paying a big price for his aggression.”The comments prompted the Kremlin to hit-back on Friday at the “personal insults” toward Putin.“Given Mr. Biden’s irritability, his fatigue, and sometimes forgetfulness … which ultimately leads to aggressive statements, we probably will not give any sharp assessments so as not to cause more aggression,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call Friday.Biden made headlines this week and angered Moscow after calling Putin a “war criminal” in a seemingly off-the-cuff response to a reporter’s question that came on the same day Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered an emphatic speech to Congress.John Blaxland, professor of international security and intelligence studies at Australian National University, said Biden’s comments could be perceived as a having a “rhetorical morale effect” and show he is taking leadership.“[It] can actually be seen as a clever ploy to put the heat back onto Putin,” Blaxland told The Washington Post. “It certainly resonates with his international partners in NATO and beyond and in countries like Australia and Japan who are looking for resolve from the United States, resolve that echoes in East Asia.”Updates continue below advertisementWhile Russia wages war in Ukraine, life in much of Europe remains normal, but uneasyReturn to menuRussia’s invasion, three weeks after it was launched, has devastated Ukraine and caused shock waves in surrounding countries that are dealing with an exodus of refugees. Farther afield — from Rome to Paris to London — daily life has not transformed in anywhere near the same way.But on a continent that had convinced itself such wars were a thing of the past, the conflict has placed even the safer parts of Europe on uncertain emotional ground. The markers of normalcy are still there, including aspects of life that had disappeared during the height of the pandemic: traffic-clogged commutes, aperitivo hours with friends. But mixed in with that are feelings of unease. Some say they feel guilty about having carefree moments. Many say they’re anxious that the conflict could yet spread.The sense of vulnerability comes just as countries were letting down their guard after numerous coronavirus waves. This time, the emotions are different; they are connected not just to the ideas of science and personal safety, but also to issues of sovereignty and aggression. But compared with the virus, the risks are also at more of a remove.Updates continue below advertisementRussian missiles strike near Lviv airport, mayor saysReturn to menuLviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy said Friday morning that Russian missiles struck an aircraft repair plant next to the city’s airport but that the airport itself was not hit.Sadovy wrote on his Telegram channel that no casualties were immediately reported and that work had been suspended at the facility before the attack. Local authorities were at the scene, he added, and at a nearby bus repair facility that was also damaged.A large cloud of smoke was seen in the airport’s vicinity, according to images shared by news agencies and on social media. Lviv, a western Ukrainian city near Poland, has been a relatively safe haven for Ukrainians and foreign diplomats. But it has faced a growing number of Russian projectile attacks in recent days as Moscow’s invasion stalls.The aircraft repair plant was targeted by six winged missiles that were launched from the Black Sea, the Ukrainian air force’s western command said Friday in a Facebook post. It added that two of the six missiles were shot down and that the “threat” was now over.Lviv’s regional governor, Maksym Kozytskyi, told reporters Friday that the country’s air defense systems had worked, and he confirmed that two of the missiles were shot down. He said that while no fatalities were reported, one person was wounded, although not critically.“This is an attack on the city of Lviv, on a humanitarian hub where there are currently at least 200,000 displaced people,” Kozytskyi said in a video. “The attack on the city of Lviv once again confirms that they [the Russians] are not fighting the Ukrainian army — they are fighting the population, children, women, displaced people.”Amar Nadhir contributed to this report.Updates continue below advertisementWhat a Russia-Ukraine peace deal might look likeReturn to menuWith Russian troops bogged down in the fight against a defiant but battered Ukraine, both Moscow and Kyiv say the prospect of a negotiated settlement is growing. Yet, with the Kremlin seeking an end to Ukraine as a sovereign nation, and Ukraine still claiming land lost to pro-Russian forces almost a decade ago, can there really be a middle ground?The short answer is: It’s possible.Suspicion abounds over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions, with considerable fears that a Russian diplomatic opening is a ruse to buy time to gather reinforcements for a second-phase assault.But with the tenacious Ukrainian resistance exceeding expectations in the face of a far superior Russian force — and with Western sanctions slamming the Russian economy — there’s a chance the new battleground calculus has the Kremlin fishing for a consolation prize.With the two sides far apart, what could a deal look like?Updates continue below advertisementShe escaped Ukraine with her children. Now she watches her country’s fate unfold.Return to menuIn this neighborhood of handsome homes and manicured lawns 30 miles from Washington, the war in Ukraine can feel like a faraway distraction. Kids are playing in yards and on trampolines on a warm March day. Trees are beginning to flower. There is no reason to worry about air raid sirens or bombs or apartment buildings being leveled to the ground.But inside one of the homes, Ivanna Ivaniv, 36, can think of almost nothing else. Her life had been ordered, but now it is flooded with chaos and doubt. Just a few weeks ago, she was a dentist at a thriving practice in Lviv in western Ukraine, having wine and cheese with friends in a small cafe. Weeks before that, she was arranging swimming and dancing lessons for her kids and making summer vacation plans.The war has made those plans pointless, those memories painful. Now living in her sister’s Maryland home, Ivaniv and her children are among the nearly 3 million Ukrainians who have fled a war where in just three weeks shelling has made neighborhoods unrecognizable and attacks and battles have left thousands dead and wounded, according to United Nations data.Updates continue below advertisementHumanitarian corridors are meant to evacuate civilians in war. But they can be dangerous.Return to menuAs shelling from Russian forces rains down on major Ukrainian cities, thousands of people are sheltering in subway stations, libraries and theaters while others try to escape.To facilitate their evacuation and the arrival of aid into hard-hit areas, Ukrainian and Russian officials have periodically agreed to establish humanitarian corridors — with mixed results. While Ukraine has said that tens of thousands of people have used these routes, it has also accused Russia of repeatedly attacking protected areas.Safe passageways during times of conflict date back to at least shortly before World War II, when 10,000 children were transported out of Nazi-controlled countries on trains, boats and planes called “kindertransports.” In 1949, the Geneva Conventions established protocols to ensure civilians have access to critical goods such as medicine during war.But history shows that humanitarian corridors offer no guarantees. Time and again, civilians have been hit while trying to escape along a route that was supposed to be safe. Even when they work, they often aren’t a solution for the most vulnerable.Updates continue below advertisementBiden and China’s Xi Jinping to discuss Ukraine crisis in phone callReturn to menuPresident Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, are scheduled to discuss Ukraine by phone Friday in a call that appears unlikely to bridge the growing gap between the two sides’ positions on the crisis.In their first conversation since Russia invaded Ukraine, Biden is expected to press Xi to use China’s influence and persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the attack. In a briefing Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the president would “make clear” that China would bear responsibility for “any actions to support Russia’s aggression.”In official comments and state-media editorials before the call, Beijing has not signaled any willingness to change its position of avowed neutrality — neither endorsing nor condoning Russia’s actions, while supporting Moscow’s claims of security concerns and blaming the United States and NATO for the crisis.“Both sides want to make sure the other side has no doubts about its own firm position,” said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. He said he doubts that the call would have any “major positive impact” on U.S.-Chinese relations.“Both Beijing and Washington will understand each other’s positions. All these realizations will further harden confrontation between the two countries,” he said.Hours before the call, scheduled for 9 a.m. Eastern time on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying reiterated accusations against Washington on Twitter, which is blocked within China but used by Chinese diplomats and state media to target international audiences.Hua said that if the United States had “refrained from repeatedly expanding NATO and pledged that NATO would not admit Ukraine, and had not fanned the flames by supplying weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, the situation would have been very different.”Updates continue below advertisementCanada and Russia get into diplomatic spat at U.N. over ‘kindergarten-level’ letter editsReturn to menuRussia accused Canada on Thursday of childishly annotating a letter that it had sent to the United Nations about providing aid to Ukraine.The United Nations had been due to vote on the draft resolution proposed by Russia on Friday but Moscow withdrew it, citing pressure from the United States on member countries to reject it. Instead, Russia said it would use the time to discuss American biochemical labs in Ukraine, which the United States denounced as a means to promote “disinformation.”According to Reuters, the Russian letter dated March 16 about providing aid to Ukraine said: “Like other members of the international community, we are gravely concerned about its deterioration.”Canada crossed out the first few words and changed it to read: “We are not gravely concerned about its deterioration,” and inserted at the end “because we are the primary cause.”On the final page, Canada also wrote in red: “We want you to know just how little we care about the human life that we have destroyed.”Thank you @CanadaONU for this kindergarten-level Russophobic libel! It only shows that your diplomatic skills and good manners are at lowest ebb and gives an idea why your country’s bid for a non-permanent seat in #SecurityCouncil was voted down twice in 20yrs by UN membership 👎🏻 https://t.co/3OOcvEP8R8— Dmitry Polyanskiy (@Dpol_un) March 17, 2022 The spat spilled onto social media after Russia’s first deputy permanent representative at the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy, tweeted thanking Canada “for this kindergarten-level Russophobic libel.”“It only shows that your diplomatic skills and good manners are at lowest ebb and gives an idea why your country’s bid for a non-permanent seat in #SecurityCouncil was voted down twice in 20yrs by UN membership,” he said, adding a thumbs-down emoji.Updates continue below advertisementIn Kharkiv, a furious rain of bombs and rockets takes a toll: ‘There are no coffins left’Return to menuKHARKIV, Ukraine — The morgue in Kharkiv was overflowing.In the courtyard outside, scores of black and green body bags were stacked along two of its walls. On the other side, dozens more victims of Russia’s assault on this eastern city were exposed to the elements.Some wore slippers; one had on army boots and fatigues. Pale, bloodied bellies lay open to the skies.“We need body bags,” morgue director Yuriy Nikolaevich explained. Or at least plastic wrap, he said. There was nothing left to use to hand the dead back to their families: “There are no coffins left in the city.”The grotesque scene was a small glimpse of the human toll of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine. Just 25 miles from the country’s eastern border with Russia, Ukraine’s second-largest city was an early target in Moscow’s advance.American killed in Ukraine was trying to feed his sick partner and others in hospital, sister saysReturn to menuFriends and relatives of an American who died in Ukraine are mourning his loss and awaiting information about his partner.James Whitney Hill, 68, was killed while trying to obtain food for himself, his partner and other very ill patients at Chernihiv Regional Hospital in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, his sister, Cheryl Gordon told The Washington Post in an interview.Gordon said she told her brother to “get the hell out of there” when invasion seemed inevitable, but he said he couldn’t.Instead, Hill and his partner, Iryna Teslenko, made at least a four-hour trek to reach the hospital so she could receive treatment for her progressive multiple sclerosis. Somewhere along the way, Teslenko came down with pneumonia, according to Gordon, extending their stay in the hospital as the country they both loved burned outside.Tennessee National Guard denies Russian media report of three members killed in UkraineReturn to menuThe Tennessee National Guard on Thursday denied a Russian state media outlet’s claim that three of its members were killed fighting in Ukraine.“The three soldiers identified in the article are either current or former members of the Tennessee National Guard,” Nicholas Atwood, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Guard’s Office of the Adjutant General, said in a statement. “They are accounted for, safe and [are] not, as the article headline erroneously states, US mercenaries killed in Donetsk People’s Republic.”The Guard called the reporting from Pravda “patently false.”Members of Tennessee’s National Guard deployed in 2018 to help the Ukrainian military develop the Yavoriv Combat Training Center, officials said, but all of them went home the next year.At least 35 people were killed and more than 100 were injured earlier this week when Russian missiles struck a Yavoriv military facility near Ukraine’s border with Poland, bringing Russia’s invasion closer than ever to NATO’s territory. NATO troops had trained Ukrainians there recently.What to expect from Biden’s call with China’s Xi Jinping Return to menuPresident Biden and China’s Xi Jinping are set to speak Friday as their countries navigate political and economic differences over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.The leaders of the world’s two largest economies last met virtually in November and “have a lot to discuss,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Thursday.“This is an opportunity for President Biden to assess where President Xi stands,” Psaki said. There has been an “absence of denunciation by China of what Russia is doing,” which she added “speaks volumes” around the world.The Biden administration has made clear to Beijing its “deep concerns” about any alignment with Russia, she said, adding that reports that China may supply Russia with military equipment were “a high concern.”Now into its fourth week, China’s effort to displease neither Russia nor the West is looking increasingly untenable. However, slight changes in tone have been detected, such as Xi’s decision to call the invasion a “war” for the first time when speaking to his German and French counterparts last week — a departure from weeks of officials describing the invasion as a “special military operation” or a “situation.”Earlier this week, national security adviser Jake Sullivan had an “intense” and “candid” seven-hour meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Rome about the potential consequences of any assistance that Beijing might provide Russia. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also issued an explicit warning to China on Thursday that there would be consequences for providing military assistance to Moscow.“We believe China in particular has a responsibility to use its influence with President Putin and to defend the international rules and principles that it professes to support,” Blinken said. “Instead, it appears that China is moving in the opposite direction by refusing to condemn this aggression while seeking to portray itself as a neutral arbiter.”Slovakia will send Ukraine S-300 missiles ‘immediately’ if NATO backfills its weaponsReturn to menuSlovakia’s defense minister said Thursday that his country is prepared to send long-range surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine “immediately” — provided that Western allies provide a “proper replacement” to avoid creating a security gap.“The only strategic air defense system that we have in Slovakia is the S-300 system,” Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad’, said, referring to powerful Soviet-origin weapons that would enable the Ukrainian military to shoot down Russian warplanes flying several miles high. Ukraine had a few before the invasion and has pleaded for more as Russian forces have intensified their bombardment of key cities.Speaking in Bratislava, Slovakia’s capital, alongside U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Nad’ said, “Should there be a situation that we have a proper replacement — or we have a capability guaranteed for a certain period of time — then we will be willing to discuss” equipping Ukraine with the air defenses it seeks.Senate Republicans demand Biden do more for Ukraine after voting against $13.6 billion for UkraineReturn to menuUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a virtual speech before Congress on March 16. (Allie Caren/The Washington Post)More than two dozen Senate Republicans are demanding that President Biden do more to aid war-torn Ukraine and arm its forces against Russia’s brutal assault, after voting last week against $13.6 billion in military and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine.Consider Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who heard Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s emotional plea in a virtual address to Congress on Wednesday for more weapons and a no-fly zone over Ukraine.“President Biden needs to make a decision TODAY: either give Ukraine access to the planes and antiaircraft defense systems it needs to defend itself, or enforce a no-fly zone to close Ukrainian skies to Russian attacks,” Scott said in a statement. “If President Biden does not do this NOW, President Biden will show himself to be absolutely heartless and ignorant of the deaths of innocent Ukrainian children and families.”Last week, Scott was one of 31 Republicans to vote against a sweeping, $1.5 trillion spending bill to fund government agencies and departments through the remainder of the fiscal year and that would also include $13.6 billion in assistance for Ukraine. Biden signed the bill into law Tuesday, casting the aid as the United States “moving urgently to further augment the support to the brave people of Ukraine as they defend their country.”