President Joe Biden spoke by phone with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for almost an hour Wednesday, one day after Zelenskyy praised Biden for accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of “genocide.”
Biden said in a statement that he has authorized an additional $800 million in security assistance to Ukraine, including weapons and ammunition.
“The Ukrainian military has used the weapons we are providing to devastating effect,” Biden said. “As Russia prepares to intensify its attack in the Donbas region, the United States will continue to provide Ukraine with the capabilities to defend itself.”
Zelenskyy tweeted about their conversation, saying: “Continued constant dialogue with @POTUS. Assessed Russian war crimes. Discussed additional package of defensive and possible macro-financial aid. Agreed to enhance sanctions.”
Also Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that China and other nations declining to sanction Russia could face future economic fallout for failing to help end Russia’s “heinous war” in Ukraine. “Let’s be clear, the unified coalition of sanctioning countries will not be indifferent to actions that undermine the sanctions,” Yellen said.
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Latest developments
►Cyprus said it is moving to revoke citizenship for four Russians and 17 of their family members included among those sanctioned by the European Union.
►Russia has forcibly deported more than 500,000 Ukrainians to the Russian Federation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
►More than 720 people have been killed in Bucha and other Kyiv suburbs that were occupied by Russian troops and more than 200 are considered missing, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.
‘These are somebody’s children’: Russia asked to retrieve dead soldiers
Authorities in the east-central Ukraine city of Dnipro say they are willing to help return to Russia the bodies of more than 1,500 Russian soldiers now in city morgues.
“We already have four refrigerators full of bodies of Russian soldiers,” Deputy Mayor Mykhailo Lysenko said. “No matter what, these are someone’s children.”
The city’s airport and some infrastructure was destroyed by rocket attacks just days ago. Military analysts say Russia’s new focus on eastern Ukraine could include the city of 1 million people in the Donbas region, where Russian separatists have battled Ukraine troops since 2014.
Russia reloading helicopters, artillery for push into eastern Ukraine
Russia continues shipping additional helicopters, artillery and troops for a renewed push into eastern Ukraine, a senior Defense official said Wednesday. A miles-long Russian convoy remains headed toward the strategic town of Izyum, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe intelligence assessments. The convoy had been about 35 miles north of Izyum on Tuesday. It’s unclear how much progress has been made toward the town. South of Izyum, the Russians are seeking to improve their movement inside Ukraine, including the building of a temporary bridge.
The Russian focus in eastern Ukraine is consistent with a new offensive in eastern Ukraine after retreating from the country’s north, the official said. Russian airstrikes have concentrated on targets in the eastern Donbas region and the besieged city of Mariopul, the official said.
– Tom Vanden Brook
WHO chief challenges world to worry about black lives, too
The head of the World Health Organization slammed the global community Wednesday for turning a blind eye on crises outside Ukraine. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus questioned whether “the world really gives equal attention to black and white lives,” citing dire issues of war, disease and famine in countries such as Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Syria. He said the Horn of Africa are at high risk of famine and many people are “already starving or food insecure and increasingly on the move.”
“I need to be blunt and honest that the world is not treating the human race the same way,” he said. “Some are more equal than others.”
Alarmed Finns warm to joining NATO
Thousands of Finns have signed up with training associations to sharpen their military skills or learn new ones, an interest fueled by anxiety over Finland’s geographic proximity to Russia. For the first time in Finland’s history, a majority of Finns are in favor of joining NATO. Finland, with 5.5 million people, remains one of the few European nations with mandatory military service, primarily because of its lengthy 830-mile border shared with Russia. Read more here.
“Many people say they are alarmed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, they want to keep their military capabilities up to date, they want to learn new things, they want maybe to make up for mandatory service they didn’t take very seriously at the time,” said Ossi Hietala, training officer for the National Defense Training Association of Finland. “They want to make sure they are prepared for the worst.”
– Tami Abdollah
Ukrainian tennis pros to play Team USA in North Carolina
A team of Ukrainian tennis players will face Team USA in a Billie Jean King Cup qualifying tie this weekend in Asheville, North Carolina. The event will raise money for Ukrainian relief efforts. Dayana Yastremska, ranked number 93 in the world, had to flee her country when the war began. Yastremska, 21, and her 15-year-old sister took a small boat from Ukraine to Romania, and then continued to Lyon, France, where she rejoined the professional tennis tour, she told ESPN. Read more here.
Billie Jean King is personally donating $50,000 to the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund, the United States Tennis Association is donating 10% of ticket revenue from the event, and local sponsors have also pledged donations based on ticket sales.
– James Crabtree-Hannigan, Asheville Citizen Times
European security agency says Russia committing human rights abuses
Russia has violated international law and some Russians have committed war crimes in Ukraine, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe claimed in a report released Wednesday. The report, coming one day after President Joe Biden accused Russia of “genocide,” found that if Russia had “respected their (international law) obligations in terms of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack and concerning specially protected objects such as hospitals, the number of civilians killed or injured would have remained much lower. “
Fewer homes, hospitals, cultural properties, schools, residential buildings and infrastructure systems also would have been damaged or destroyed, according to the report from the Austria-based agency that includes 57 nations in Europe, North America and Asia.
Ukraine did not escape the agency’s review. Some “violations and problems” were also identified regarding practices of the Ukraine military, including treating captured Russian soldiers as criminals instead of prisoners of war.
The report notes, however, that a “detailed assessment of most allegations of International Humanitarian Law violations and the identification of war crimes concerning particular incidents has not been possible.”
Baltic leaders in Ukraine to show support for battered nation
The presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were in Ukraine on Wednesday for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – like Ukraine – were part of the Soviet Union for half a century.
Now the Baltic countries fear they could be the next targets of Russia’s belligerence, and together they total only about 6 million people compared to Ukraine’s 44 million. The Baltics have one advantage Ukraine did not – they are NATO members. NATO leaders have made it clear the alliance would defend all its members from Russian aggression.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda posted photos on social media of a burned out high-rise residential building. “The horrors of war that Ukraine has suffered could not have been committed by human beings. The creatures that did this don’t deserve the name. This is a conscious, targeted & extremely brutal annihilation of the Ukrainian nation. Ukraine will resist. Truth will win!”
Obama: Putin has ‘always been ruthless,’ but invasion is ‘reckless’
Former President Barack Obama weighed in on the Russian invasion of Ukraine in an interview with NBC News’ “TODAY,” answering questions about his handling of Russian relations while in office and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state of mind.
Obama said the war in Ukraine and the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 are a reminder “to not take our own democracy for granted,” adding that the Biden administration is “doing what it needs to be doing.”
“Putin has always been ruthless against his own people, as well as others,” Obama said. “What we have seen with the invasion of Ukraine is him being reckless in a way that you might not have anticipated eight, 10 years ago, but you know, the danger was always there.”
Contributing: The Associated Press