Meanwhile, Ukraine’s forces have retaken towns and defensive positions on Kyiv’s eastern outskirts, according to the UK defense ministry, with a Ukrainian official saying forces are “going on the counterattack” around the capital.
About 300 people are now believed to have died in the attack on a theater in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol nine days ago, the city council said.
On a visit to Poland, US President Joe Biden thanked humanitarian organizations for sending aid to Ukraine and assisting refugees. The UN says more than 3.7 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began.
Want to help? Learn how to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine here.
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Mother of American freed from Russian detention: "You could hear the relief in his voice"
From CNN’s Andy Rose
Tina Hauser speaks with CNN Friday March 25, about the release of her son Tyler Jacob from Russian detention after 10 days.
(CNN)
After weeks of worry and fear, Tina Hauser and John Quinn finally got the call they were
waiting for on Friday evening: their son, Tyler Jacob, had been freed from Russian detention after 10 days.
Jacob, an American from Minnesota, had been living in Ukraine and was detained while trying to leave the country. Since then, US officials including Sen. Amy Klobuchar have been working to secure his release.
When they were notified Jacob had landed in an unnamed NATO member country, “I was ecstatic,” Hauser said. They called him on Facetime, and “he looks really tired, but he looks really good, too,” she said. “You could hear the relief in his voice.”
Jacob’s father, Quinn, told CNN his son was not mistreated in Russian custody, but they are still very relieved he will be coming home. “It was a roller coaster,” Quinn said. “It was up and down, the hurdles that we had to get over to get him to safety.”
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Pussy Riot's Nadya Tolokonnikova: Russian protesters defying Putin are "the future of my country"
Nadya Tolokonnikova, a member of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot spoke with CNN recently.
(CNN)
Nadya Tolokonnikova, a member of the Russian punk band and activist group Pussy Riot, expressed her support for Ukraine on Friday, telling CNN she was terrified for her loved ones’ safety.
In 2012, Tolokonnikova and another Pussy Riot member were imprisoned in Russia for two years after they performed an anti-Putin protest song called “Punk Prayer” in a Moscow cathedral.
Hearing Russian President Vladimir Putin make false claims about the war “makes me want to puke,” she said. “I never watch Russian television because it’s just too hard to see how they lie to their own people. My own family members back in Russia believe there are no civilians targeted by the Russian military.”
But “there is not much you can do,” she said — when she tries to show her family members photos of the destruction in besieged Ukrainian cities like Mariupol and Kharkiv, “they just say it’s fake news and propaganda from the West.”
With the amount of disinformation, censorship and Putin’s crackdown on dissent in Moscow, it’s even more remarkable that Russian protesters have taken to the streets to call for an end to the war, she said.
Referring to Putin, she added: “I can’t comprehend how just one person can cause so much pain to the whole humanity and I’m deeply sorry that we’re not able to get him out of power earlier.”
The war has already hit home for Tolokonnikova. One of her friends, an anti-corruption activist, was killed by shelling in Kyiv. Her ex-husband and father of her child is also in Kyiv right now. “Me and my daughter are terrified,” she said.
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"We have no information": Mexican President responds to US claims of Russian agents in Mexico
From CNN's Karol Suarez and Abby Baggini
Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks during a news conference at the National Palace in Mexico City on February 10.
(Edgard Garrido/Reuters)
Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Friday his government does not have information about any Russian agents based in the country, following comments from a US general.
On Thursday, Gen. Glen VanHerck told a Senate hearing that “the largest portion of the GRU members in the world is in Mexico right now, those are Russian intelligence personnel and they keep an eye very closely on their opportunities to have an influence on US opportunities and access.”
Lopez Obrador responded: “We have no information about that, and we do not prevent any foreigner who wants to carry out legal activities in the country from doing so.
“It’s a declaration, we are not going to question anything, we are respectful of the free expression of ideas, Mexico is a free, independent, and sovereign country, it should be known because sometimes it seems that it’s not understood enough. We must send them telegrams informing them that Mexico is not a colony of any foreign country.
CNN has requested comment from Russia’s Embassy in Mexico but has not yet received a response.
Some context:Russia’s GRU spy agency — formally known as Main Directorate of the General Staff — has long been accused by the West of orchestrating brazen and high-profile attacks, including the hacking of Democratic Party email accounts during the 2016 US presidential election and the 2018 nerve agent attack in Salisbury, England.
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American Tyler Jacob freed from Russian detention, senator says
From CNN’s Andy Rose
Tyler Jacob, seen in a Oct. 2021 family photo, was living in Ukraine and freed Friday March 25, from detention in Russia.
(From Tina Hauser/Facebook)
Tyler Jacob, an American living in Ukraine, was freed from detention in Russia on Friday, according to the office of Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
Klobuchar’s office said Jacob, who is originally from Winona, Minnesota, was taken by Russian forces about two weeks ago while trying to leave Ukraine. He was held in Russia for 10 days.
“I am grateful that Tyler, his wife, and their daughter are in a safe place,” said Jacob’s father, John Quinn, in the statement by Klobuchar’s office.
A State Department spokesman told CNN the department was aware of the reports but had no further comment due to privacy considerations.
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Wagner group contractors were involved in Zelensky assassination plot, top Ukrainian official says
From CNN’s David McKenzie and Ghazi Balkiz
Markian Lubkivskyi, an adviser to Ukraine's defense minister spoke with CNN recently.
(CNN)
A senior adviser to the Ukrainian Minister of Defense told CNN the notorious Russian private military group Wagner was involved in an alleged assassination plot against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
Lubkivskyi said the plot was confirmed by Ukraine’s intelligence service and special forces in charge of protecting Zelensky.
“All these documents and the necessary proof will be presented to the International Court,” he said, adding that he couldn’t reveal more due to operational reasons.
CNN was unable to independently confirm the claims.
The Wagner group first came to prominence during Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014. Since then, independent research and CNN investigations have found that the private military contractor has operated in Syria and multiple countries in Africa. They have been accused by US officials and human rights watchdogs of sustained human rights abuses.
The group is thought to be connected to — and financed by — Yevgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch so close to the Kremlin that he is known as Putin’s “chef.”
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any links to the group. Prigozhin denies any involvement in Wagner.
On Thursday, the United Kingdom became the latest country to sanction Wagner.
Lubkivskyi says that Ukrainian intelligence has tracked the group inside and outside of Ukraine and that several Wagner operatives have been killed inside the country, identified by their unique ID tags.
Zelensky has repeatedly committed to staying in Ukraine to marshal the country’s defense during the war, now in its second month.
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UK will welcome thousands of Ukrainian refugees but some say the complicated system puts paperwork over lives
From CNN’s Nada Bashir and Lauren Kent in London
People wave banners and hearts aboard a small flotilla of boats leaving Bristol harbour in support of Ukrainian refugees during a day of national action on March 21.
(Ben Birchall/PA/Reuters)
Ukrainian refugees hoping to settle in the UK say they are facing a host of obstacles in the process, including long lines at UK immigration centers, weeks spent paying for temporary housing and forms that require them to put their trust in strangers with sensitive personal documents.
So far, the British government says it has issued 20,000 visas to Ukrainian refugees hoping to reunite with relatives through the Ukraine Family Scheme, which allows those fleeing Ukraine to apply for a special visa that would allow them to live and work in the UK for up to three years. But there are still thousands of applications waiting to be processed.
While the UK government schemes are “certainly more generous” than previous re-settlement programs, it remains a complicated procedure, said Laura Kyrke-Smith, UK Executive Director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
Ukrainian refugees and their families who spoke to CNN described the process as frustrating and difficult to understand, while others said they feared they would struggle to meet the UK’s document requirements like having copies of their passports and birth certificates given their current circumstances — they’ve fled a war.
Victoria and Andriy, a Ukrainian-British couple who have lived in the UK for more than a decade, told CNN the process to bring Victoria’s elderly parents – who had fled their hometown of Berdyansk – was complicated.
“I was their only source of information. There were no clear instructions,” Victoria told CNN. Meanwhile, her husband’s family is still waiting in Poland.
A separate scheme aims to connect Ukrainians with sponsors in the UK who are willing to host refugees. But would-be hosts say it’s riddled with red tape. The fine print says host applicants need to identify a refugee to sponsor on their own.
Host Elsa De Jager took to Facebook and connected with Yana, a 32-year-old teacher who hopes to make it out of Ukraine with her 4-year-old.
The two are strangers, but they have been required to share sensitive personal documents as part of the application process.
De Jager told CNN she believes the British government has intentionally made the process difficult to deter Ukrainians from attempting to settle in the UK.
“There shouldn’t be this kind of red tape when people are getting bombed every day,” she said. “It’s a PR stunt … It’s lovely on paper, but when you go through the process, it’s nigh on impossible to actually do it.”
The British government says Ukrainian refugees are welcome, and according to the Home Office, Britain’s visa application process has been “streamlined” in order to help refugees through the process “as quickly as possible.”
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Ukraine's Zelensky claims more than 16,000 Russian troops lost
From Olena Mankovska, Masha Angelova and Hira Humayun
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a video message on Facebook Friday March 25.
(From Ukrainian Government/Facebook)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia has lost more than 16,000 troops so far.
“The number of the Russian losses has exceeded 16,000 casualties,” Zelensky said in a video message posted to social media on Friday. “Among them are the high-ranking commanders. So far no reports of killed Russian general colonels or admirals. However, in that number we have a commander of one of the occupiers’ armies and a second in command of the Black Sea Navy.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense said in a briefing Friday that 1,351 military personnel had been killed in Ukraine and 3,825 had been wounded, during the first major casualty update since March 2.
Meanwhile, two senior NATO military officials on Wednesday estimated the number of Russian soldiers killed in action in Ukraine to be between 7,000 and 15,000. Other US officials have put Russian losses in a similar range — between 7,000 and 14,000 Russian soldiers killed — but they have expressed “low confidence” in those estimates.
The Ukrainian president on Friday also said authorities were able to ensure 18 humanitarian corridors over the past week and managed to rescue 37,606 people including 26,477 from the besieged city of Mariupol who were taken to Zaporizhzhia.
“All of these war crimes against the civilians in Mariupol and other cities of Ukraine will continue informing nations of the world,” Zelensky said.
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Russian military remains in full control of city of Kherson, residents say
From CNN's Natalie Gallon, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Nick Paton Walsh, Tim Lister, Paul P. Murphy, Ellie Kaufman and Oren Liebermann
The Ukrainian flag is draped in front of the Kherson City Hall on March 24.
(From Ihor Kolykhaev)
The city of Kherson remains under total Russian control, four residents of the city told CNN, contrary to number of reports from other media outlets, citing a senior US defense official.
CNN is not naming the resident over concerns for their security.
The US official told the outlets, including CNN, that “we’ve seen reports of resistance there in areas that were previously reported to be in Russian control.”
“We can’t corroborate exactly who is in control of Kherson, but the point is, it doesn’t appear to be as solidly in Russian control as it was before,” the official said. “We would argue that Kherson is actually contested territory again.”
The assessment that the city of Kherson was contested was based in part on images and media reports from the city showing the Ukrainian flag draped from city hall, according to two other defense officials.
Previous CNN reporting confirmed that the Ukrainian military counteroffensive has reached the Kherson region’s northernmost villages. A CNN crew in one of the northernmost villages in the Kherson region, earlier this week, witnessed the Ukrainian counteroffensive there.
Despite that, in the city of Kherson, the situation is unchanged.
Ukrainian forces have been able to launch attacks from the Mykolaiv region just to the north, into Kherson region, for over a week. While the residents of the city continue to hold large protests, the Russians remain firmly in control of it and much of the region at this time.
For example, residents in town draped a large Ukrainian flag on Thursday down the side of city hall.
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Western scientists warn US policymakers against "shunning all Russian scientists"
From CNN's Danya Gainor
John Holdren, a professor of environmental science and policy at Harvard University is the the lead author on the letter is seen in Hyannis, Massachusetts on March 22.
(Merrily Cassidy/USAToday Network)
Five Western scientists have written a letter that calls on US policymakers and the rest of the scientific community to “avoid shunning all Russian scientists” in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
In their letter, published Thursday in the journal Science, the scientists said Putin and his associates deserve “every appropriately sized and targeted sanction against the Putin regime that the horrified world can devise.”
But, they said, it would be a major setback if the world punished Russian scientists for the actions of their government.
The lead author on the letter was John Holdren, a professor of environmental science and policy at Harvard University. Holdren was previously the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under the Obama administration.
The scientists noted that they had all participated in international collaborations, and welcomed the outpouring of support for Ukrainian scientists. However, they stressed that Russian scientists deserve the same security. The scientists noted the thousands of Russian academics and students living in the West who have criticized the Russian government publicly for their attack on Ukraine.
Nina Federoff at the Pennsylvania State University, Neal Lane at Rice University, Nick Talbot at the Sainsbury Laboratory and Toby Spribille at the University of Alberta were also authors on the letter.
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France's Macron will discuss "exceptional humanitarian operation" for Mariupol with Putin
From CNN’s Xiaofei Xu in Paris
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference after an EU summit in Brussels, Friday, March 25.
(Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron will speak with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to discuss the terms and conditions of an “exceptional humanitarian operation” to evacuate civilians in Mariupol, he announced at a press conference on Friday.
The operation will be carried out with Turkey and Greece to evacuate the civilians who want to leave the besieged city, according to Macron.
During the Macron-Putin call, France will demand Russia to lift its siege of Mariupol so that civilians who wish to leave can evacuate and humanitarians aid can go in for those who chose to stay, the Élysée Palace specified after the press conference.
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There's been no rotation of staff at Chernobyl nuclear plant since March 21, UN nuclear watchdog says
From CNN’s Pierre Meilhan
Ukraine informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that there has not been any rotation of technical staff at the Chernobyl nuclear plant since March 21, the UN nuclear watchdog said Friday.
According to an IAEA statement, Ukraine also did not know when the next rotation might take place.
Ukraine’s regulatory authority told the IAEA on Thursday that Russian shelling of checkpoints in the nearby city of Slavutych, where many Chernobyl nuclear power plant staff live, “prevented them from travelling to and from the plant,” the statement read.
The current staff who arrived at the plant on March 20-21 replaced the personnel who had been there since Russian forces took control of the site on Feb. 24, the IAEA said.
On Friday, Ukraine’s State Agency for the Management of the Exclusion Zone “provided additional detailed technical information about the Central Analytical Laboratory in Chernobyl town, which it earlier this week said had been ‘looted by marauders,’” the IAEA said.
The IAEA’S Director General Rafael Grossi said he has “in recent weeks expressed deep concern about the difficult situation facing staff operating Ukrainian nuclear facilities where the Russian military is present. He has stressed that their ability to carry out their important tasks without undue pressure” is critical in order to maintain nuclear safety.
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Top Russian general claims military efforts now centered on eastern part of Ukraine
From CNN's Nathan Hodge in Lviv
Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces' General Staff, Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy is seen in November 10, 2020.
Rudskoy’s remarks come as Russia’s advances appear to have stalled around major Ukrainian cities such as Kyiv and Kharkiv. Russia has also failed to achieve air superiority in Ukraine and has suffered heavy losses of personnel since the start of the invasion.
“The public and individual experts are wondering what we are doing in the area of the blockaded Ukrainian cities,” Rudskoy said. “These actions are carried out with the aim of causing such damage to military infrastructure, equipment, personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the results of which allow us not only to tie down their forces and prevent them from strengthening their grouping in the Donbas, but also will not allow them to do this until the Russian army completely liberates the territories of the DPR and LNR.”
Rudskoy was referring to the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, separatist territories in eastern Ukraine that Russia recognized on the eve of its invasion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that the goal of what Russian officials refer to euphemistically as the “special military operation” in Ukraine is the complete demilitarization of the country. Putin has said the war is going according to plan, but Russian forces have incurred serious losses: Rudskoy said in the same briefing that 1,351 military personnel had been killed in Ukraine and 3,825 had been wounded. US, NATO and Ukrainian officials estimate the Russian casualty count is much higher.
“Initially, we did not plan to storm them in order to prevent destruction and minimize losses among personnel and civilians,” Rudskoy said. “And although we do not exclude such a possibility, however, as individual groupings complete the tasks set, and they are successfully solved, our forces and means will be concentrated on the main thing – the complete liberation of Donbas.”
It is unclear if Rudskoy’s statement implies a shifting of the goalposts for the Russian military, or just represents a change in public messaging.
The Russian military has claimed it is not targeting civilians or residential areas, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
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UN says it has "increasing information" corroborating existence of mass graves in Mariupol
From CNN’s Niamh Kennedy
The United Nations has received “increasing information” corroborating the existence of mass graves in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, and it has been able to get “satellite information” on one such grave, said Matilda Bogner, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
She added one caveat: It is not guaranteed that all of the people buried in the graves “are civilian casualties, because when we document civilian casualties, we do not include both military casualties and we do not include people who die for other reasons apart from direct hostilities.”
Bogner made this note as she painted a stark picture of a city where “the ordinary rate of mortality has increased” due to a lack of basic utilities such as food, electricity, and water.
“People are dying in the city who are not just civilian casualties,” she stressed.
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Russian cruise missiles strike Ukrainian Air Force command center, according to Ukraine's military
From Yulia Kesaieva in Lviv
The Ukrainian military said in a statement Friday that Russian forces launched cruise-missile strikes on the Ukrainian Air Force command center in west-central Ukraine, causing “significant destruction” to infrastructure.
“Today, March 25, around 4:30 pm, Russian occupiers launched a missile strike on the territory of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Vinnytsia,” according to the statement.
“A total of six cruise missiles were released by the Russians. Some of them were hit by air defense. The rest struck several structures, causing significant destruction to the infrastructure,” it continued.
The statement said the consequences of the missile strike were being examined.
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About 600 people believed to have survived Mariupol theater attack, city official says
From CNN's Yulia Kesaieva and Andrew Carey in Lviv
Information about casualties and survivors has been slow to emerge since the attack on March 16, and the absence of a functioning police force and emergency responders’ network had made compilation of an official count impossible, Petro Andriushchenko said on his Telegram channel.
Instead, he unveiled details of what he called “almost official” numbers and explained how the council had reached the figure of around 300 fatalities, which was announced earlier in the day. CNN has not independently verified the casualty figures.
He said council officials had started with information about the number of people using the theater as a shelter, which changed day by day as new people arrived while others left.
They had also gathered data from people who lived near the theater or had gone to the site after the attack.
Finally, city officials had been helped by a local journalist who had specific information about people who had escaped and had left the city.
As a result, he concluded, the city’s “almost official” figures put about 900 people in the theater on the day of the bombing.
The estimated 300 people who died were on the upper floors of the building and in the back of the theater.
Many of the 600 who survived were in the process of making their way out of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia, he said.
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It's just past 8 p.m. in Kyiv. Catch up on the latest developments
From CNN staff
These are the biggest updates so far on Friday as the war in Ukraine gets into its fifth week:
Fighting on the ground: Ukrainian forces have retaken towns and defensive positions on the eastern outskirts of Kyiv, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said Friday in its latest intelligence update.
Meanwhile, Russian defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed Friday that Russian forces destroyed “the largest of the remaining fuel depots” near Kyiv, with a strike carried out with sea-launched Kalibr cruise missiles.
Mariupol theater survivors: An adviser to Mariupol’s mayor said about 600 people are believed to have survived a Russian airstrike on a theater in the city on March 16.
The Mariupol city council said earlier that based on eyewitness reports, it now believes around 300 people died in the strike. CNN has not independently verified the casualty figures. New footage has emerged on social media showing people making their escape from the theater.
Biden in Poland: US President Joe Biden lauded the bravery of Ukrainian civilians while speaking to US troops in Poland, saying they “have a lot of backbone.” He also addressed the growing refugee crisis, thanking humanitarian organizations in Poland for sending aid to Ukraine and assisting refugees. One in every two Ukrainian children has been displaced since Russia began its invasion on Feb. 24, according to a statement from the UN Children’s Fund on Thursday.
He is set to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda and deliver a “major address” on Saturday, according to the White House. Read more about Biden’s events in Poland here.
Russia gives update on military deaths: The Russian military said in a briefing on Friday that more than 1,300 military personnel had been killed in Ukraine and over 3,800 had been wounded, in the first major casualty update since March 2. US, Ukrainian and NATO estimates put Russian troop losses drastically higher.
Two senior NATO military officials on Wednesday estimated the number of Russian soldiers killed in action in Ukraine to be between 7,000 and 15,000. Other US officials have put Russian losses in a similar range — between 7,000 and 14,000 Russian soldiers killed — but they have expressed “low confidence” in those estimates.
Putin claims “cancel culture:” Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a complaint about so-called “cancel culture” in a videoconference Friday, saying the West was trying to “cancel” Russia.
He compared his country’s treatment to a public backlash against “Harry Potter” creator JK Rowling, who has come under criticism in the past for views that have been called transphobic. Putin, who casts himself as a flag-bearer for conservative cultural values, has railed against transgender and gay rights. Rowling responded, saying that critiques of cancel culture are “not best made” by those “slaughtering civilians” in Ukraine and posting a link to a news article on jailed Kremlin critique Alexey Navalny.
In his remarks, Putin went on to compare the current situation with Russian culture in the West to censorship in Nazi Germany. Putin has cast his invasion of Ukraine — a country with a Jewish president — as a campaign of “denazification,” a description roundly dismissed by historians and political observers.
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Russia is moving troops into Ukraine from Georgia as reinforcements, senior US defense official says
From CNN's Jeremy Herb and Ellie Kaufma
The Russian military is moving troops stationed in the country of Georgia into Ukraine as reinforcements, according to a senior US defense official.
The US had seen “movement of some number of troops from Georgia,” the defense official told reporters, adding that the Pentagon could not provide a number for how many troops Moscow was moving or the timeline that they were on.
“We now have indications that they are drawing on forces from Georgia to Ukraine,” the official said, adding they were not tracking their movements from the air.
Russian troops have been stationed in Georgia after Russia invaded the country in 2008. Georgia is on Russia’s southwestern border.
The Pentagon did not know where the troops from Georgia would be going in Ukraine, the official said, while noting that the Kremlin has said it is prioritizing its activity in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the US assesses Russian forces have 22 ships in the Black Sea and while 15 of them are “surface combatants,” the official said that “most of the rest are amphibious ships.”
The Russians could use those ships to strike Ukraine with missiles, but the US has not seen them do so yet, the official told reporters Friday.
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Russia has stopped ground movements toward Kyiv and moved in defensive positions, US official says
From Michael Conte and Ellie Kaufman
A Ukrainian soldier stands guard near a burning warehouse hit by a Russian shell in the suburbs of the capital Kyiv on March 24.T
(Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images)
Russian forces around Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv are now in defensive positions and have stopped “any interest in terms of ground movements” towards the capital city, though air attacks and long-range strikes still continue, according to a senior US defense official.
The US estimates that Ukrainian forces are still holding where they had pushed the Russians back further east of the city, adding that there are indications that Ukrainian forces are pushing back the Russians around the northern city of Chernihiv as well.
The nearby town of Makariv is “at the very least contested” and may be in Ukrainian control, the official said.
The US cannot confirm the Russian claim to have destroyed a military fuel depot near Kyiv, the official added.
Meanwhile, 1,250 missiles have been launched by Russia against Ukraine since the start of the invasion, according to the official.
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Finland will discontinue European Union's last direct train link with Russia on Monday due to sanctions
From CNN’s Abby Baggini and Arnaud Siad
Finland will cease to provide the European Union’s last direct train link with Russia on Monday due to sanctions, according to a statement from VR Group which operates the “Allegro” line between Helsinki and St. Petersburg.
In their statement posted on Friday, VR Group, which is Finland’s government-owned railway company, said: “VR will discontinue the Allegro train service until further notice, starting form March 28th, 2022.”
“On Sunday, March 27th, only the morning train from Helsinki to St Petersburg will be operated and the afternoon train, AE786, will be cancelled. Both services from St. Petersburg, on Sunday, will be operated,” it added.
Topi Simola, SVP for Passenger Services at VR Group, noted that the service is being discontinued “for now.”
“According to VR, Allegro is the only rail passenger connection between the European Union and Russia at present,” Taina Kuitunen, VR Group Communications Manager told CNN.
On Feb. 27, the EU imposed a blanket flight ban on Russian planes in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Biden expresses "disappointment" that he can't see the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine firsthand
Priests and Poland servicemen prepare for an Orthodox prayer at a refugee center in Nadarzyn, near Warsaw, Poland, on March 25.
(Petr David Josek/AP)
US President Joe Biden thanked humanitarian organizations in Poland for sending aid to Ukraine and assisting refugees while he is set to receive a briefing on the situation.
The humanitarian response is of “enormous consequence,” Biden said, adding that Ukrainians immediately need vital goods like food, blankets, cash and medicine.
The Biden administration yesterday announced the US is committing more than $1 billion in humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians affected by the war.
About 3.6 million refugees have fled Ukraine, according to estimates from the United Nations, with the majority of them arriving in Poland.
“The suffering that’s taking place now is at your doorstep. You are the ones risking, in some cases your lives … and the American people are proud to support your efforts,” he said.
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Ukrainian army says Russian general has been killed in Kherson fighting
From CNN's Yulia Kesaieva in Lviv
The Ukrainian army says its forces have killed Russian Lt. Gen. Yakov Rezantsev during fighting in Chornobaiivka, in the Kherson region in Ukraine’s south.
The army said Rezantsez was commander of the 49th Combined Arms Army of the Southern Military District of the Russian Federation.
Russia’s defense ministry has not commented on the Ukrainian claim.
So far, some six Russian generals are believed to have been killed since the start of Russia’s assault on Ukraine, as well as a deputy commander of the Black Sea fleet.
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Switzerland adopts further sanctions against Russia
From CNN’s Abby Baggini and Arnaud Siad
Switzerland has adopted further sanctions against Russia in line with the European Union’s latest package of sanctions, the Swiss Federal Council announced on Friday.
“The Federal Council decision of 25 March means that Switzerland remains in line with the measures imposed by the EU on 9 and 15 March in response to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. On 16 March, Switzerland had already adopted the extended list of persons and entities subject to financial sanctions imposed by the EU,” according to a statement from the council.
Switzerland has imposed bans related to the energy and financial sectors, plus dealing with luxury, iron and steel goods, the statement said.
“A ban is introduced on the import of iron and steel goods from Russia, or originating in Russia, as well as a ban on the export of luxury goods and maritime navigation goods to Russia. In the financial sector, transactions with certain state-owned companies and the provision of credit rating services are prohibited,” it also said.
However, the Federal Council noted it had decided to allow “certain exceptions from the financial sanctions for humanitarian purposes,” saying it would “ease” business relationships “necessary for the work of humanitarian organizations.”
The council also said it had taken the decision not to implement the EU measure of suspending the broadcasting of contents from some Russian media outlets, “namely Sputnik and Russia Today.”
“Despite the fact that these outlets are used to spread targeted propaganda and disinformation by the Russian Federation, the Federal Council is of the opinion that it is more effective to counter untrue and harmful statements with facts instead of preventing them from being broadcast,” the council said.
Russian defense ministry provides first major military personnel casualty update since March 2
From CNN staff
The Russian military said in a briefing on Friday that 1,351 military personnel had been killed in Ukraine and 3,825 had been wounded, in the first major casualty update since March 2.
US, Ukrainian and NATO estimates put estimates of Russian troop losses much higher. Two senior NATO military officials on Wednesday estimated the number of Russian soldiers killed in action in Ukraine to be between 7,000 and 15,000. Other US officials have put Russian losses in a similar range — between 7,000 and 14,000 Russian soldiers killed — but they have expressed “low confidence” in those estimates.
Rudskoy added that the military had received a “large number of applications from Russian citizens” hoping to enlist and fight in Ukraine.
More context: Friday’s announcement was the first major casualty update by the Russian military since March 2, when the Russian Ministry of Defense reported 498 Russian military personnel killed in Ukraine and 1,597 wounded.
In the same briefing, Russian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said, “The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will continue to carry out the special military operation until all the assigned tasks are completed.”
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In address to US troops in Poland, Biden praises Ukrainians for "stepping up" to defend their country
From CNN's Adrienne Vogt and Kevin Liptak
(Evan Vucci/AP)
US President Joe Biden lauded the bravery of Ukrainian civilians while speaking to US troops in Poland, saying they are “stepping up.”
“Ukrainian people have a lot of backbone. They have a lot of guts,” Biden said.
Biden said the stakes of the war in Ukraine extended beyond the country itself, framing the conflict as a test of democracies under threat from autocracies that could have global ramifications.
“What you’re engaging in is much more than just whether or not you can alleviate people of Ukraine. We’re in a new phase. Your generation, we’re in an inflection point,” he continued.
“The question is, who is going to prevail? Is democracy going to prevail and the values we share? Or are autocracies going to prevail? That’s really what’s at stake,” Biden said. “What you’re doing is consequential, really consequential.”
The conflict underway only is about 50 miles (more than 80 kilometers) from where Biden was standing in Rzeszów. Echoing the large foreign policy frame he’s used previously, but with a Russian addition, he said the assembled US service members were “in the midst of a fight between democracies and oligarchs.”
“What’s at stake, not just what we’re doing here in Ukraine to help the Ukrainian people and keep the massacre from continuing, but beyond that what’s at stake is what are your kids and grandkids going to look like in terms of their freedom?” Biden said.
He thanked the US troops, calling them the “finest fighting force in the history of the world.”
Watch his remarks:
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UN nuclear watchdog calls out Russia for shelling areas where Chernobyl power plant staff reside
From CNN's Niamh Kennedy in London
The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has called out Russia for shelling areas where staff who work at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant live.
In a statement Thursday evening, the IAEA said the Ukrainian regulator had informed it that “Russian forces were shelling Ukrainian checkpoints in the city of Slavutych where many people working at the nearby Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) live.”
Slavutych is located outside the exclusion zone that was established in the wake of the infamous 1986 accident at the plant.
The UN watchdog’s chief, Rafael Grossi, expressed his concern at the development, noting it took place just days after the plant’s technical staff were allowed to return home and rest after working for nearly four weeks without a change of shift.
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UK prime minister had “frank” conversation with Chinese President, according to Downing Street
From CNN’s Beijing Bureau and Alex Hardie
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson held a “frank” conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday, according to the prime minister’s spokesperson.
The two leaders discussed “a range of issues of mutual interest, including the situation in the Ukraine,” in what Johnson’s spokesperson called “a frank and candid conversation lasting almost an hour.”
They agreed to speak again soon, the spokesperson said.
Xi told Johnson that his country would play a “constructive role” in returning peace to Ukraine, according to a readout published by state media outlet Xinhua.
Some more background: Beijing has refused to condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine but wants to avoid being impacted by the sanctions it has repeatedly denounced as an ineffective way of resolving the crisis.
Beijing gave its full backing last Wednesday to comments made earlier in the week by China’s ambassador to Ukraine. “China will never attack Ukraine. We will help, especially economically,” Fan Xianrong was quoted as saying in a news release from the Lviv regional government.
CNN also reported last week that Russia has asked China for military support, including drones, as well as economic assistance for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, according to two US officials. The requests came after the invasion, one of the officials said. That official declined to detail the Chinese reaction but indicated that the Chinese had responded. Both the Chinese and Russian governments publicly denied that the request happened.
CNN’s Laura He contributed reporting to this post.
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Air raid sirens heard in Lviv
From CNN's Jennifer Hauser
Air raid sirens went off Friday afternoon (local time) in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.
They could be heard in the background where CNN’s John Berman was anchoring, and they sounded for about four or five minutes. CNN will continue to monitor.
Lviv is about 43 miles (70 kilometers) from the border with Poland.
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Plane carrying Polish president lands in Rzeszów for meeting with Biden
From CNN's Niamh Kennedy and Anna Odzeniak
The plane carrying Polish President Andrzej Duda has landed in Rzeszów, in southeastern Poland, after being forced to make an emergency landing and return to Warsaw earlier on Friday.
Duda was traveling from Warsaw to Rzeszów to meet with US President Joe Biden when the emergency landing occurred.
“There was an emergency landing of the plane with President Duda; the plane returned to Warsaw,” according to Polish government news agency PAP.
A White House official also confirmed the emergency landing.
Biden flipped his schedule this morning, meeting first with the members of 82nd Airborne Division and then participating in humanitarian events in Poland, according to pool reporters. The White House said Duda would participate as well if he arrived in time.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Allie Malloy contributed reporting to this post.
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Biden meets with US 82nd Airborne Division in Poland
President Joe Biden visits with members of the 82nd Airborne Division at the G2A Arena, on March 25, in Jasionka, Poland.
(Evan Vucci/AP)
US President Joe Biden is meeting with members of the 82nd Airborne Division in Rzeszów, Poland, alongside US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and other US officials.
“This is a big deal for the President to be meeting with these troops. It’s not just a big deal for these soldiers, it’s a big deal because it sends a powerful message of what the US is all about, bolstering this NATO presence in Europe,” CNN’s Wolf Blitzer reported.
Biden could be seen sitting down to eat pizza with service members.
Biden will next be receiving a briefing on the humanitarian response to the refugee crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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"We are going on the counterattack," Ukrainian government adviser says about fighting in Kyiv region
From CNN's Olga Voitovych and Andrew Carey in Lviv
A Ukrainian government adviser struck an upbeat note describing recent offensives in the region around Kyiv.
“We are going on the counterattack. We are moving forward,” Vadym Denysenko, an adviser to the interior minister, told Ukrainian television.
CNN reported earlier that Ukrainian forces appeared to have retaken territory around the small settlement of Lukianovka about 55 kilometers (about 34 miles) east of the capital. Social media geolocated by CNN depicted the aftermath of heavy battles there.
To the immediate northwest of Kyiv, the mayor of Irpin told CNN that 80% of the town was controlled by the Ukrainian army, but added it was still coming under sustained fire from Russian Grad rockets.
Defensive lines were being held, he said, with counter-offensives staged.
“Twelve tanks, several planes, more than 10 units of armored vehicles and at least 300 people were destroyed in the last 24 hours,” he said.
At the same time, Denysenko reported further Russian airstrikes to the south of the capital, near Vasylkiv, which is about 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) away, and Bila Tserkva, about 70 kilometers (about 43 miles) away.
According to Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Russia’s response to its loses is to continue building up troop numbers in neighboring Belarus, with many deployed from units in Russia’s east.
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US assesses Russia is running low on air-launched cruise missiles and is experiencing high rates of failure
From CNN's Barbara Starr
The US has assessed that Russian forces are running low on air-launched cruise missiles, and there are indications they are trying to preserve that inventory as part of their declining stocks of precision guided munitions, according to a US defense official.
Air-launched cruise missiles are the “lowest” part of the inventory, the official added.
In addition, these missiles are showing high failure rates at launch, the official said. The US currently assesses Russian failure rates of precision guided munitions, especially cruise missiles failure rates, range from “20 percent to as high as 60 percent,” the official said, depending on the type of weapon and mission.
The US has tracked this information in part by observing the number of Russian missions that appear to involve unguided, or “dumb,” bombs. Satellites and other airborne intelligence platforms can monitor the failure of some missile launches by gathering intelligence on infrared and radar signatures of the aircraft and the missiles.
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Biden has arrived in Poland, where he will be briefed on Ukrainian refugee situation
From CNN's Allie Malloy
Air Force One lands at Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport, Poland, as U.S. President Joe Biden arrives to visit on March 25.
(Kacper Pempel/Reuters)
US President Joe Biden has just arrived in Rzeszów, Poland.
Biden will be greeted by Polish President Andrzej Duda before receiving a briefing on the humanitarian response to ease the suffering of civilians inside Ukraine and to respond to the growing flow of refugees.
The US government believes they still “retain the capacity” to impose further non-military costs on Russia, like additional sanctions, over the Kremlin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One on Friday.
“We believe that we still retain the capacity to impose additional costs on Russia that are not strictly military costs,” Sullivan said. “We believe that, of course, there are additional measures to tighten the screws on sanctions and we’ll be constantly reviewing those.”
Sullivan also stressed the importance of enforcing the already announced sanctions.
“This point about enforcement though, I think is really central because in the period ahead, Russia’s main focus from an economic perspective is going to be to figure out how they can get around over or under the sanctions that have been imposed. And blocking off those pathways is going to be vital to producing the kinds of cost imposition effects and vital to shaping the thinking in the Kremlin,” Sullivan said.
When asked about concerns over sanctions backfiring and causing the Russian population to solidify behind Russian President Vladimir Putin, Sullivan acknowledged that it’s a narrative the Russian government will try to push, but the US believes the Russian people will be able to “connect the dots.”
When asked about whether the US is prepared to use secondary sanctions, Sullivan did not rule it out and said that the US is ready to designate any person or company “undertaking systematic efforts to weaken or evade them and those tools are at this point well understood by companies and countries around the world.”
“We’re prepared to use them if it becomes necessary to do so,” Sullivan said.
Regarding oil, Sullivan said that the administration is looking at “various actions” it can take alongside allies to address oil prices, saying it was a major topic of conversation when Biden met with G7 allies.
Sullivan did not go into details, but hinted the actions would be announced soon, saying, “I will not steal the thunder of the administration on that issue.”
“That was a major topic of conversation. The question of what tools we have at our disposal to deal with global oil prices and without getting ahead of the administration we are looking at various actions we can take and I’ll leave it at that for now,” Sullivan said.
CNN’s Allie Malloy contributed reporting to this post.
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US national security adviser clarifies Biden answer on responding to potential Russian chemical weapon attack
From CNN's Allie Malloy
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday the United States has “no intention of using chemical weapons period, under any circumstance” when asked about President Joe Biden’s comment Thursday that he would respond “in kind” if Russia used chemical weapons in Ukraine.
Asked about Biden’s comments, Sullivan said Biden also said in Thursday’s news conference that United States would respond “accordingly.”
Asked whether there is a consensus among allies for an “offramp” for Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the invasion, Sullivan said that is the “wrong concept because, of course, this was a war Putin chose to wage, it’s a war Putin could choose to stop at any moment.”
Sullivan said that a process is being conducted directly between the Ukrainians and the Russians as well as some communication between European allies like France and Germany, plus partners like Israel directly with the Russians.
“The United States is not directly participating in those negotiations, but we’re staying in close contact with our Ukrainian counterparts and with those other countries that are talking to both sides,” Sullivan said, adding that “the President [was] very clear yesterday that ultimately any diplomatic agreement is one that Ukraine itself will have to determine for itself and the United States is not going to push or pressure Ukraine into any particular outcome.”
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Biden will meet with Ukrainian refugees in Poland on Saturday and deliver "major address," White House says
From CNN's Sam Fossum
US President Joe Biden will meet with Ukrainian refugees and American humanitarians in Poland on Saturday, according to White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan.
He added that the President will also deliver a “major address” and meet with President Andrzej Duda of Poland.
Biden is traveling to Poland today after attending a round of emergency summits in Belgium Thursday.
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Putin instructed energy giant Gazprom to switch to ruble payments, Kremlin spokesperson says
From CNN staff
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a government meeting via a video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on March 23.
(Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP/Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed Russian state energy giant Gazprom to switch to ruble payments, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Friday.
Asked in a conference call with reporters whether Russia would continue to supply gas to the EU if the European countries refuse to pay in rubles, Peskov said, “Gazprom has been instructed by the Russian president to accept payment in rubles.”
Putin said Wednesday Russia will seek payments for gas in rubles from countries it considers “unfriendly.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Thursday rejected Putin’s demand that those countries begin paying for Russian gas in rubles.
The Russian president’s order does not apply to independent gas producer Novatek, Peskov added, as it is a private company.
The German Minister for Economic Affairs Robert Habeck said Putin’s demand amounts to “blackmail.”
Putin’s instruction is a breach of contract with Gazprom, Habeck said during a news conference in Berlin on Friday, during which he outlined how Germany is moving away from Russian energy.
“Germany is accelerating independence from Russian energy with high speed,” he said.
Germany is preparing for a possible scenario in which Putin stops energy supplies, with Habeck saying Berlin is well-prepared. By winter, Germany aspires to be completely independent from Russian oil, he added. He said that Germany was working on erecting liquefied natural gas terminals as quickly as possible.
US President Joe Biden has announced plans to supply Europe together with other nations with at least 15 billion cubic meters of LNG in 2022.
CNN’s Inke Kappeler contributed reporting to this post from Berlin.
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Half of all Ukrainian kids have been displaced since the Russian invasion began, UNICEF says
From CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Sana Noor Haq
Ukrainian refugees arrive at Hendaye train station, southwestern France, on March 9.
(Bob Edme/AP)
One in every two Ukrainian children has been displaced since Russia began its invasion on February 24, according to a statement from the UN Children’s Fund on Thursday.
UNICEF’s statement added that 4.3 million children have been displaced, which represents more than half of Ukraine’s estimated 7.5 million child population.
This figure includes over 1.8 million children who have crossed into neighboring countries as refugees, and 2.5 million children who are also internally displaced in Ukraine, the statement said.
The statement added that 78 children have been killed and 105 children have been injured in Ukraine since the invasion began over a month ago, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
However, these figures represent those that the UN has managed to confirm, and the true toll is expected to be higher, the statement said.
“It’s mind-boggling,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told CNN earlier this week. “Since the start of the war a month ago, out of every boy and girl in the country, one out of two now has had to flee their homes.”
Elder said UNICEF is trying to get blankets, water purification tablets, generators, medical supplies and obstetric kits for mothers giving birth into the country.
“Unless the war stops, unless the indiscriminate attacks stop, we’re going to see more children wrenched from their homes and the bombardments,” he added.
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Where have chemical weapons been used, and are they really a red line for the West?
From CNN's Rob Picheta
U.S. President Joe Biden attends a press conference after the special NATO summit at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on March 24.
(Michael Kappeler/picture alliance/Getty Images)
US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that NATO would respond if Russia used chemical weapons in Ukraine, and has previously warned that Moscow would “pay a severe price” if it did so.
The use of such weapons against Ukrainian people would mark a dramatic escalation to Russia’s invasion, and would likely demand heavy retaliation from the West.
But concerns have been growing that Russia may be planning to take the step, after the Kremlin planted the unsubstantiated idea that Ukraine and the US may use these weapons. “It’s a tell that they themselves may be preparing to do so, and then trying to pin the blame on someone else,” US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said earlier this month.
Why would their use be so significant? Chemical weapons contain toxic substances designed to cause death or harm to their targets. They can spread dangerous chemicals including choking, blister and nerve agents, which can attack the body and cause death on a vast scale, indiscriminately and across a wide area if they are deployed inside a bomb or an artillery shell.
Their use is banned by international law. Russia has signed those treaties and claims it doesn’t have chemical weapons, but the country has already been linked to the use of nerve agents against critics in recent years. Those cases include the poisonings of Alexander Litvinenko, Sergei Skripal and Alexey Navalny.
A painful history: Widespread horror over the use of chemical agents during World War I resulted in the Geneva Protocol, signed in 1925, which banned chemical weapons attacks.
Nonetheless, as many as 25 countries worked to develop chemical weapons during the Cold War, according to the United Nations’ Office for Disarmament Affairs. Lengthy negotiations eventually led to the adoption of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1992, requiring nations to destroy their stockpiles and prohibiting the development, production or use of chemical weapons.
There have, however, been limited occasions in which they have been used in combat – and those occasions have led to political fallout around the world.
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein used a variety of chemical weapons against Iran during the 1980s, and their use in Syria over the past decade brought the threat of US intervention in that country’s civil war.
Attacks in Ghouta in 2013, and in Khan Sheikhoun in 2017, both involved the alleged use of sarin gas, a nerve agent banned under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.
In 2013, the use of the gas, reported by United Nations investigators, crossed one of then-President Barack Obama’s self-declared red lines, yet no military action came. Instead, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) went into Syria to monitor the destruction of the country’s chemical weapons program.
Warnings to Russia: While Biden’s declaration may conjure memories of Obama’s ill-fated “red line” warning in 2013, the current US President has a united NATO on his side.
On Thursday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance would reinforce its chemical, biological and nuclear defense systems amid fears over Russia’s intentions.
In a joint statement Thursday, the leaders of the G7 warned Russia against the use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.
“Any Russian use of chemical or biological weapons “would be a breach of all rules, all agreements and all existing conventions,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz added. “We can only say: Don’t do it!”
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It's just past 2 p.m. in Kyiv. Here's what you need to know
It has now been over a month since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in late February. Here’s the latest in the ongoing conflict:
New death toll in theater bombing: Mariupol city council says that based on eyewitness reports, it now believes around 300 people died in a Russian airstrike on a theater in the city on March 16. CNN has not independently verified the casualty figures. The building was being used as one of the main shelters in Mariupol, with estimates of the number of people taking refuge there ranging from between 800 to 1,300. Information about the full extent of the attack has been slow to emerge due to the almost complete breakdown of essential services in the city, including communication networks.
Battles on the ground: The UK’s Ministry of Defense said Ukrainian forces have retaken towns and defensive positions on the eastern outskirts of Kyiv in its latest intelligence update. Further east, however, intense clashes around Izyum have left much of the city destroyed, city officials say, with new satellite images revealing the extent of the devastation in the region. The city has been caught in the crossfire as Russia attempts to link advances made in the Kharkiv region of northern Ukraine with its stronghold in the far east of the country.
Evacuation corridors: Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced two evacuation routes for Mariupol and occupied Melitopol on Friday. Speaking in a televised message, Vereshchuk said the corridors will link the two cities with Zaporizhzhia, which lies to the north and is still under Ukrainian control. A centralized evacuation is also planned by bus from the Russian occupied city of Berdyansk, the deputy prime minister said, adding that 48 buses are parked at the entrance to the city.
Biden heads to Poland: US President Joe Biden has departed Brussels, and is now heading to the Poland-Ukraine border region, where he plans to meet Polish President Andrzej Duda for a briefing on humanitarian aid efforts. Biden’s visit to Poland is will be the second stop of his wartime trip through Europe and is intended to highlight the massive refugee crisis that has ensued from Russia’s war in Ukraine, the White House said.
US and EU announce joint task force: US President Joe Biden announced a new initiative meant to deprive Russian President Vladimir Putin of European energy profits used to “drive his war machine,” adding that the United States would help Europe reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas, and would ensure the continent had enough supplies for the next two winters. The United States will work toward supplying Europe with at least 15 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas in 2022, in partnership with other nations, the White House said. Speaking alongside Biden, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, hailed the joint energy task force as a “big step” in efforts to diversify gas supplies away from Russia.
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Teen who escaped Mariupol says her city is now "a ghost"
An 18-year-old who fled from the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol said her city “turned into a ghost.”
“I don’t think nobody abroad can understand truly what just happened in my hometown,” Maria she told CNN’s John Berman in an interview. Her last name was withheld for security reasons.
She and her family sheltered in a huge basement with others before they escaped, and they are now staying with relatives in Dnipro.
Her family managed to secure a car to get out of the city, but she said soldiers at Russian checkpoints were telling them to delete photos and videos of destruction on their phones. The soldiers took their phones and were scrolling through to find footage. Her family deleted the majority of their photos to get through, “but the truth is that these photos cannot be hidden” because photos and videos from Mariupol have already sent to others worldwide, Maria said.
“It’s impossible to hide anything because we see it. We live in that condition so we can’t be defeated easily. … We are not fools,” she said.
Maria also said that 20 minutes after they left a Russian checkpoint, she heard rockets begin firing.
“Unfortunately, you cannot help Mariupol now. The only thing you can help is … to close the sky in Ukraine. Because the main weapon of Russian soldiers are rockets and bombs dropping from the sky,” she said.
Watch the interview:
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Germany takes in more than 250,000 Ukrainian refugees
From CNN's Benjamin Brown
Ukrainian war refugees are accommodated in a sports hall equipped with camp beds in the small Bavarian village of Eichenau near Munich, Germany, on March 24.
(Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images)
More than quarter of a million refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine have arrived in Germany, according to the German Ministry of the Interior.
As of Friday, 253,157 refugees had been registered by German police. The actual number of incoming refugees could be significantly higher due to the absence of border checks between Poland and Germany, an interior ministry spokesperson told CNN.
The majority of refugees arriving in Germany are women, children and elderly people, the spokesperson said.
Some background: Since the start of Russia’s invasion over four weeks ago, more than 3.6 million Ukrainians have fled the country with more than two million going to Poland, according to statistics from the United Nations.
Half of all Ukrainian children have been displaced since Russia’s attack began on February 24.
Turkish president says Ukraine and Russia have reached "an understanding" on certain topics of negotiation
From CNN's Yusuf Gezer and Radina Gigova
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference after an extraordinary NATO summit at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on March 24.
(Markus Schreiber/AP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday that Ukraine and Russia seem to have reached ‘an understanding’ on four out of six topics of disagreement discussed during negotiations.
Speaking to reporters on his way back from a NATO summit in Brussels, Erdoğan also said he will speak with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday and with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the weekend “or [during the] first days of the next week.”
Erdoğan also said Zelensky’s comments about the need for a referendum on compromises with Russia was “smart leadership.” Zelensky said Monday any constitutional changes that relate to security guarantees in the country would need to be decided through a referendum and not by him alone.
About his upcoming call with Putin, Erdoğan said “we should discuss and evaluate” NATO meetings. “We have to look for a way to smooth this business by saying ‘make an honorable exit to this,’” Erdoğan said.
“On the other hand, we [Turkey] certainly consider the use of weapons of mass destruction as a crime against humanity,” he added.
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As Biden heads to Poland, Europe's mounting refugee crisis comes into focus
From CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq, Maegan Vazquez, Kevin Liptak and Allie Malloy
Refugees from Ukraine line up as they wait for further transport at the Medyka border crossing in southeastern Poland, on March 23.
Photo by Angelos Tzortzinis / AFP) (Photo by ANGELOS TZORTZINIS/AFP via Getty Images)
One in every two Ukrainian children has been displaced since Russia began its invasion on February 24, according to a statement from the UN Children’s Fund on Thursday.
UNICEF’s statement added that 4.3 million children have been displaced, which represents more than half of Ukraine’s estimated 7.5 million child population.
This figure includes over 1.8 million children who have crossed into neighboring countries as refugees, and 2.5 million children who are also internally displaced in Ukraine, the statement said.
“It’s mind-boggling,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told CNN earlier this week. “Since the start of the war a month ago, out of every boy and girl in the country, one out of two now has had to flee their homes.”
Elder said UNICEF is trying to get blankets, water purification tablets, generators, medical supplies and obstetric kits for mothers giving birth into the country.
“Unless the war stops, unless the indiscriminate attacks stop, we’re going to see more children wrenched from their homes and the bombardments,” he added.
The news comes as US President Joe Biden has departed Brussels, and is now heading to the Poland-Ukraine border region, where he plans to meet Polish President Andrzej Duda for a briefing on humanitarian aid efforts.
Biden’s visit to Poland is will be the second stop of his wartime trip through Europe and is intended to highlight the massive refugee crisis that has ensued since Russia’s war in Ukraine began a month ago, the White House said.
The President confirmed on Thursday that he hopes to meet with Ukrainian refugees while in Poland. It’s not clear, however, when or where those potential meetings will take place.
Poland, which borders Ukraine to the west, has registered more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees crossing into the country. However, the number of refugees staying in Poland is lower, with many continuing on in their journey to other countries.
Meanwhile, the United States will welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainians and others fleeing Russia’s aggression, a senior administration official announced Thursday.
“To meet this commitment, we are considering the full range of legal pathways to the United States,” the official said, which includes US refugee admissions program, parole and immigrant and non-immigrant visas.
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First video emerges from inside Mariupol theater after Russian airstrike
From CNN's Celine Alkhadi
New footage has emerged on social media showing people making their escape from the Mariupol theater that was struck by a Russian bomb nine days ago.
The video shows debris on the floor and holes in the walls as people make their way down a staircase to leave the building.
“The missile hit right in the center of the drama theater,” a male voice can be heard saying.
In a second video, which shows massive internal structural damage to the building, a man’s voice offers reassurance that he and others with him on the ground floor of the building were not injured in the attack.
But he expresses fears that many others who were using the building as a shelter remain buried under the rubble.
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Some context: On Friday, Mariupol city council said that based on eyewitness reports, it now believes about 300 people died in the theater attack. CNN has not independently verified this number.
The building was being used as one of the main shelters in the besieged city, but was hit by a Russian airstrike on March 16. Estimates of the number of people taking shelter in the theatre ranged from between 800 to 1,300.
Aerial pictures before the attack showed the Russian word for children painted in large lettering on the ground outside the front and back of the theater building.
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"The Russians are not saving us, they are killing us," says Mariupol resident
From CNN's AnneClaire Stapleton in Zaporizhzhia
Natalia has just arrived in Zaporizhzhia from the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
The journey took her family two days after leaving their home in Mariupol, which was shelled by Russian forces just as the family happened to walk outside to try to get cell signal.
It’s the only reason she’s alive.
“The Russians are not saving us, they are killing us,” Natalia says, adding that the family has nothing to return home to.
Natalia has arrived in Zaporizhzhia from Mariupol
Some background: Mariupol has been under near-constant attack from Russian forces since early March with satellite images showing significant destruction to residential areas. The southeastern city was home to around 450,000 people before the war, but many have fled following Russia’s invasion.
On Friday, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced two evacuation routes from Mariupol and occupied Melitopol to Zaporizhzhia.
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Biden announces new energy task force with Europe to deprive Putin of profits used to "drive his war machine"
From CNN's Kevin Liptak
President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen talk to the press about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at the U.S. Mission in Brussels, Belgium, on March 25.
(Evan Vucci/AP)
US President Joe Biden announced a new initiative meant to deprive Russian President Vladimir Putin of European energy profits used to “drive his war machine.”
Speaking in Brussels alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Biden said Russia was using its hold on providing Europe with oil and gas to “coerce and manipulate its neighbors.”
Biden said the United States would help Europe reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas, and would ensure the continent had enough supplies for the next two winters.
“It’s going to take some time to adjust gas supply chains and infrastructure that was built for the last decade so we’re going to have to make sure the families in Europe can get through this winter and the next while we’re building an infrastructure for a diversified, resilient and clean energy future,” Biden said.
The panel, chaired by representatives from the White House and the European Commission, will be aimed toward finding alternative supplies of liquefied natural gas and reducing overall demand for natural gas moving forward.
Europe’s dependence on Russian gas and oil has proved a major sticking point in Western efforts to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. While the US banned Russian energy imports, Europe found it far more difficult to cut off its supplies.
The United States will work toward supplying Europe with at least 15 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas in 2022, in partnership with other nations, the White House said.
Senior administration officials said the 15 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas being sent to Europe is coming from multiple sources, including the United States and nations in Asia. But officials did not have an exact breakdown on where the gas was coming from.
The announcement Friday was the culmination of a US effort over the past months to identify alternate sources of energy for Europe, particularly in Asia. Officials said those efforts would continue through this year to hit the 15 billion cubic meter target.
One official said weaning Europe from Russian energy amounted to “replacing an unreliable supplier of LNG with a much more reliable supplier in the US.”
The group will also work toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions through reducing methane emissions and using clean energy to power operations.
“This crisis also presents an opportunity. It’s a catalyst,” Biden said. “A catalyst that will drive the investments we need to double down on our clean energy goals and accelerate progress towards our net zeroes emissions future.”
Von der Leyen has hailed the joint energy task force as a “big step” in efforts to diversify gas supplies away from Russia.
The US has also committed to ensuring stable demand and supply for an additional 50 billion cubic meters of US liquefied natural gas until 2030, which von der Leyen said will replace one third of Russian gas supply to Europe.
This puts the bloc “right on track now,” she said, stressing the need for the EU to secure supplies “not just for next winter, but also for the years ahead.”
Furthermore, as the current gas infrastructure may be used in future for clean hydrogen, it plays a part in the “decarbonizing of our economy,” she continued.
The cooperation between the EU and US “shows the power of our democracies,” and Biden’s presence in Europe sends a “powerful message to the world,” she added.
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Mariupol authorities estimate that 300 people were killed in Russian strike on theater
From CNN's Olga Voitovych and Andrew Carey in Lviv
Mariupol theater seen in the aftermath of the Russian strike in this satellite image from March 19.
(Maxar Technologies)
Mariupol city council says that based on eyewitness reports, it now believes about 300 people died in a Russian attack on a theater in the city nine days ago.
The building was being used as one of the main shelters in the besieged city of Mariupol, but was hit by a Russian airstrike on March 16. Estimates of the number of people taking shelter in the theatre ranged from between 800 to 1,300.
Information about the full extent of the attack has been slow to emerge due to the almost complete breakdown of essential services in the city, including communication networks.
“Unfortunately, we start the day with bad news,” Mariupol city council said on its Telegram channel on Friday.
“There is information, based on eyewitnesses, that about 300 people died in the Drama Theater in Mariupol as a result of a bombing by Russian aircraft.
Aerial pictures before the attack showed the Russian word for children painted in large lettering on the ground outside the front and back of the theater building.
“The occupier knew where he was hitting. He knew what the consequences might be, and anyway the bombs fell on this place,” the city council’s statement continued.
There is still no word on possible casualties after a separate attack on an art school building in Mariupol that was also being used as a shelter.
The school was hit five days ago. Officials estimated about 400 people were sheltering there.
Some context: Mariupol, the southeastern Ukrainian city home to around 450,000 people before the war, has been under near-constant attack from Russian forces since early March with satellite images showing significant destruction to residential areas.
New video shows inside bombed Mariupol theater:
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CNN’s Olena Mankovska and Sugam Pokharel contributed reporting to this post.
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IRC warns of "catastrophic health crisis" in Ukraine as health facilities are attacked
From CNN's Radina Gigova
Pregnant women walk in the basement of maternity hospital as air raid sirens are heard in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, on March 14.
(Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images)
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) warned Friday that civilians in Ukraine are facing a “catastrophic health crisis” as attacks on health infrastructure are limiting access to “life-saving services and supplies.”
The IRC said 64 attacks on healthcare facilities, transport, and personnel were recorded over the first four weeks of the invasion.
During this time, the IRC claimed more than 4,300 babies have been born in Ukraine and 80,000 births are expected in the next three months, but “as Ukraine’s health system continues to collapse, the risk to new mothers and babies will grow.”
“Lack of access to safe water and critical healthcare, and the potential for a surge in vaccine-preventable diseases like Covid-19 and polio may significantly exacerbate the ongoing humanitarian crisis,” the IRC said.
The organization’s Senior Director of Health Mesfin Teklu said people displaced in crowded reception centers and bunkers are at risk of contracting Covid-19 as fewer than 40% of Ukrainians have been vaccinated against the virus.
Teklu said Ukraine was also experiencing a polio outbreak and the conflict has disrupted vaccinations.
“In some areas most affected by the conflict, including Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv, polio vaccination rates are below 50%,” he said.
The IRC called for the protection of healthcare access “by ensuring the safety of providers and the free flow of medical supplies and equipment,” adding that “global leaders must prioritize support to the most vulnerable, including women, children and the elderly.”
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New evacuation corridors announced from Mariupol and Melitopol
From CNN's Niamh Kennedy
Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk speaks via a video message on social media on March 25.
(President of Ukraine/Facebook)
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced two evacuation routes for the besieged southern city of Mariupol and occupied Melitopol on Friday.
Speaking in a televised message, Vereshchuk said the corridors will link the two cities with Zaporizhzhia, which lies to the north and is still under Ukrainian control.
A centralized evacuation is also planned by bus from the Russian occupied city of Berdyansk, the deputy prime minister said, adding that 48 buses are parked at the entrance to the city.
Previous days have seen Ukraine announce up to nine corridors, serving badly-hit towns and cities in the country’s east and north, as well as the south. There was no word from Vereshchuk explaining why these locations were not on Friday’s list.
Some background: Fighting in Mariupol has lasted for weeks, with people who have escaped Russia’s bombardment saying that the city has been effectively wiped off the map. Russian troops gained control of Melitopol on February 26 and a new mayor was installed in the city earlier this month.
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The Russian ship destroyed in Berdyansk was the "Saratov," says Ukraine
From CNN's Andrew Carey in Lviv
In this satellite photo smoke rises after an attack that Ukraine's navy said sank a large Russian landing ship in the port city of Berdyansk, Ukraine, on March 24.
(Planet Labs PBC/AP)
Ukrainian armed forces named the Russian landing ship they say they attacked and destroyed in Berdyansk as the “Saratov,” in a statement on Friday.
“In the Azov operational zone, according to updated information, a large landing ship ‘Saratov’ was destroyed during the attack on the occupied Berdyansk port,” the statement said.
The statement identified the two other large landing ships – the “Caesar Kunikov” and “Novocherkassk” – that were also said to have been destroyed during the attack.
“Other losses of the enemy are being clarified,” the statement said.
Ukrainian armed forces said they destroyed the large Russian landing ship at the port of Berdyansk in southern Ukraine on Thursday.
The port, which had recently been occupied by Russian forces with several Russian warships in dock, was rocked by a series of heavy explosions soon after dawn.
Social media videos showed fires raging at the dockside, with a series of secondary explosions reverberating across the city.
Several Russian ships had been unloading military equipment at Berdyansk in recent days, according to reports from the port by Russian media outlets.
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Russia claims its forces destroyed large fuel depot in Ukraine with cruise missiles
From CNN's Radina Gigova
Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed Friday that Russian forces destroyed “the largest of the remaining fuel depots” near Kyiv, with a strike carried out with sea-launched Kalibr cruise missiles.
“On the evening of March 24, a strike was carried out with sea-launched Kalibr precision cruise missiles on a fuel base in Kalynovka, outside Kyiv,” Konashenkov claimed.
“The largest of the remaining fuel depot of the Ukrainian armed forces, which supplied fuel to military units in the central part of the country, was destroyed,” Konashenkov added.
CNN could not immediately verify that claim.
More details have emerged this week about the military arsenal that Russia is using in Ukraine.
“And if you’ll notice, (Russia has) just launched the hypersonic missile, because it’s the only thing that they can get through with absolute certainty,” Biden said. “It’s a consequential weapon … it’s almost impossible to stop it. There’s a reason they’re using it.”
But British intelligence and even Biden’s own defense secretary have downplayed Russia’s use of its air-launched Kinzhal missiles.
CNN’s Brad Lendon contributed reporting to this post.
US and EU announce task force on reducing dependence on Russian oil and gas
From CNN's Kevin Liptak
The Peakshaver liquid natural gas (LNG) installation and storage site, operated by NV Nederlandse Gasunie, at the Port of Rotterdam in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on July 13.
(Peter Boer/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
US President Joe Biden and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Friday announced a joint task force in an effort to wean Europe from its dependence on Russian oil and gas.
The panel, chaired by representatives from the White House and the European Commission, will aim to find alternative supplies of liquified natural gas and reduce overall demand for natural gas.
The United States will work toward supplying Europe with at least 15 billion cubic meters of liquified natural gas in 2022, in partnership with other nations, the White House said.
Some context: Europe’s dependence on Russian gas and oil has proved a major sticking point in Western efforts to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. While the US banned Russian energy imports, Europe found it far more difficult to cut off its supplies.
The group will also work toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions by paring down methane emissions and using clean energy.
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UK Defense Ministry: Ukraine has reoccupied towns and defensive positions east of Kyiv
From CNN's Radina Gigova
A Ukrainian military vehicle is seen on the road in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 24.
(Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images)
Ukrainian forces have retaken towns and defensive positions on the eastern outskirts of Kyiv, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said Friday in its latest intelligence update.
Meanwhile, the advance of Russian forces toward the Black Sea port city of Odesa was stalling, the ministry said.
“Russian forces are still attempting to circumvent Mykolaiv as they look to drive west towards Odesa with their progress being slowed by logistic issues and Ukrainian resistance,” the ministry added.
Some context: According to official Ukrainian accounts, the country’s forces have retaken territory to the east of Kyiv following intense fighting Thursday, reversing previous Russian gains. Social media videos geolocated by CNN showed Ukrainian troops along with some captured Russian armor in the small settlement of Lukyanovka, some 35 miles (55 kilometers) east of the capital.
In the United States, Biden’s warnings that democracy is under siege from menacing autocrats can seem remote, even after former President Donald Trump’s US Capitol insurrection and attempt to steal the 2020 election.
But in Poland, which neighbors Ukraine, freedom is fresh enough to still be a novelty. In a tortured 20th-century history, the country — torn between East and West — was repeatedly conquered, was ruled by foreign tyrants and saw millions of its people purged or driven as refugees from homes destroyed by warfare.
Poland again finds itself on the front line of conflict. It’s on the dividing line between states in the NATO club, to which it now belongs, and President Vladimir Putin’s Russian orbit, which includes another Polish neighbor, Belarus. Poland has opened its borders to more than 2 million of the nearly 3.7 million Ukrainians who have fled Putin’s onslaught, and the war came close to its borders with a Russian strike on a base in western Ukraine earlier this month.
Like Ukraine, Poland lived for decades under Moscow’s Communist iron fist. Like Ukrainians, Poles are often gritty, are deeply suspicious of Russians and have fighting for their freedom and sovereignty ingrained in their DNA. Unlike Ukraine, one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union, Poland made it to the West after decades under the Warsaw Pact umbrella. And in addition to being in NATO, it’s a member of the European Union, albeit one that has had tensions recently with Brussels over its own flirtations with populist nationalism.
As Putin’s threat mounted in recent years, Poland hosted rotations of US troops and jets. In February, before Putin invaded Ukraine, Poland was one of the nations to which Biden ordered 3,000 troops to bolster the alliance’s eastern flank. If the war in Ukraine spills over into a broader conflict between Russia and the West, a frightening prospect, there’s a good chance it could happen in Poland.
With world's eyes on war in Ukraine, North Korea tests a new long-range missile
From CNN's Yoonjung Seo, Gawon Bae, Emiko Jozuka and Brad Lendon
North Korean state media said on Friday that leader Kim Jong Un had directly guided the launch of the weapon, known as the Hwasong-17, its most advanced to date.
(Rodong Sinmun)
On Thursday, as Western leaders gathered in Brussels for security summits, North Korea launched what it said was a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) — its first long-range test in more than four years.
According to analysts, the recent spate of North Korean missile tests suggest the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, is attempting to show an increasingly turbulent world that Pyongyang remains a player in the struggle for power and influence.
FIRST ON CNN: Major infrastructure in central Izyum is destroyed, new satellite images show
From CNN's Paul P. Murphy
A satellite image shows a crater in a field in central Izyum. On one side of the crater is the burnt wreckage of a school, on the other side a football field is visible.
(Maxar Technologies)
Intense clashes around Izyum have left much of the city destroyed, city officials say, with new satellite images revealing the extent of the devastation in the eastern Ukrainian city.
The images were taken on Thursday by Maxar Technologies.
They show a massive crater about 40 feet (12 meters) wide in a field in the city’s central area. The burnt wreckage of a school lies on one side of the crater, with a football field on the other. Part of a hospital across the street is also seen destroyed.
A large boiler building and several residential building around it were destroyed.
(Maxar Technologies)
The city has been caught in the crossfire as Russia attempts to link advances made in the Kharkiv region of northern Ukraine with its stronghold in the far east of the country.
Council deputy Max Strelnyk told CNN on Thursday the city had been “completely destroyed” by Russian aircraft and artillery, even as fierce battles continued inside Izyum for control of the ground.
A convoy of Russian self-propelled artillery is seen moving south towards Izyum.
(Maxar Technologies)
North of the school in the satellite images, a large boiler building and every nearby residential building appears destroyed. There does not appear to be any identifiable military targets in this part of central Izyum.
About 3 miles (5 kilometers) northwest of Izyum, a convoy of Russian self-propelled artillery is seen moving toward the city.
Russian troops now control the city sectors on the northern bank of the Seversky Donets River, which splits Izyum in half, Strelnyk said. The Ukrainians control the city sectors on the southern bank of the river.
Three miles northeast of the city, Russian self-propelled artillery are also seen positioned in a field, their turrets pointing toward central Izyum.
Russian self-propelled artillery in a field, with their turrets pointing toward central Izyum.
(Maxar Technologies)
Another image shows two vehicle bridges crossing the Seversky Donets River have been partially destroyed, in what appears to be a purposeful strike to stop a Russian advance across the river.
But the Russians have found a way around, and are now advancing on the city from the south.
A pontoon bridge over the Seversky Donets River.
(Maxar Technologies)
To bypass the blown bridges, the Russians have erected two pontoon bridges over the Seversky Donets River to encircle the city. A mile from those bridges, on the southern bank of the river, a convoy of tanks are seen moving along a highway toward the Ukrainian-controlled sectors of Izyum.
A convoy of tanks moving north along towards Izyum.
(Maxar Technologies)
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Japan adds 25 more Russians to sanctions list in response to Ukraine war
From CNN’s Emiko Jozuka and Yuki Kurihara in Tokyo
Japan will freeze the assets of 25 more Russian citizens and ban exports to 81 Russian organizations, the country’s Ministry of Finance said in a news release on Friday.
It brings the total number of Russians targeted by Japan’s asset freezes to 101 people.
Targets of the new sanctions include Igor Shuvalov, a former Russian deputy prime minister and chairman of major state-owned bank Vnesheconombank, and five of oligarch Sergey Chemezov’s relatives, according to Japan’s Finance Ministry.
The export of luxury goods will also be banned, the ministry said.
Tokyo has unveiled a raft of punitive measures against Moscow in recent weeks. The latest sanctions come as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged on Wednesday to unveil more support for Ukraine at the G7 summit in Brussels.
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Western oil and gas companies have paid $15B in taxes to Russia since it annexed Crimea, NGOs say
From CNN's Angela Dewan
Nine European and US fossil fuel companies have paid a collective $15.8 billion to Russia in various forms of taxes and fees since the country annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a group of NGOs said Thursday.
The groups, Global Witness, Greenpeace USA and Oil Change International, used data from Oslo-based Rystad Energy, an independent energy research firm, to calculate how much money oil and gas companies based in North America and Europe had sent to the Russian state. They looked only at companies with exploration and production operations in Russia.
They looked at royalties, export duties, bonuses, taxes and fees, as well as “government profit oil,” which includes the value of any oil the companies may have given to Russia. It came up with a list of nine companies from these regions that had paid the most money to Russia. All those payments were legal, and other multinational companies outside the energy sector have also have made similar kinds of payments to the Russian state.
Shell, which is registered in the UK, sent $7.85 billion, the highest amount of the companies listed, the groups said in a statement, shared first with CNN. It was followed by US-based ExxonMobil ($2.81 billion). Two companies registered in Germany, Wintershall and Wintershall DEA, which have since merged, paid a combined total of $2.86 billion. BP, the British multinational oil and gas company, paid $817 million, the data from Rystad shows.
The data was shared amid criticisms that the West’s purchases of Russian coal, oil and gas — which are largely state-owned assets — have helped fund Russia’s war in Ukraine. The addition of taxes, fees and royalties for companies that have chosen to operate in Russia underscores how much capital Western energy companies have transferred to Russia.
The three groups that compiled the data said that while the $15.8 billion figure was substantial, the companies identified were also responsible for tens of billions of dollars more flowing to the Russian state because of stakes they hold in Russian oil and gas companies.
US President Joe Biden is heading to Poland following emergency summits in Brussels
From CNN's Maegan Vazquez
President Joe Biden will travel to Poland on Friday, his second stop on a last-minute trip through Europe aimed at coordinating the West’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The President’s day begins in Brussels, where he’ll meet with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen before departing for Poland.
Upon his arrival at Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport, Biden will be greeted by Polish President Andrzej Duda and receive a briefing on the humanitarian response to the war. He’ll meet with service members from the 82nd Airborne Division in Rzeszów before traveling to Warsaw in the evening.
On Saturday, the White House says Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with Duda to discuss how the US and allies are responding to the refugee crisis that has ensued as a result of the war. He’ll also deliver remarks before returning to Washington.
Biden’s travel to Poland comes after meetings on Thursday in Brussels, where he attended a slate of emergency summits, announced new actions — such as sanctions against hundreds of members of Russia’s parliament and a commitment to admit 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine — and conferred with global leaders on how the world will respond if Russia deploys a chemical, biological or nuclear weapon.
Refugee crisis: The White House has said the Poland visit is intended to highlight the massive refugee crisis that has ensued since Russia’s war in Ukraine began a month ago.
The President confirmed on Thursday that he hopes to meet with Ukrainian refugees while in Poland. It’s not clear, however, when or where those potential meetings would take place.
More than 3.6 million refugees have now fled Ukraine, according to data from the United Nations refugee agency. A vast majority of those refugees have fled to Ukraine’s western neighbors across Europe.
Poland, which borders Ukraine to the west, has registered more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees crossing into the country. However, the number of refugees staying in Poland is lower, with many continuing on in their journey to other countries.
Thursday marked one month since the war in Ukraine began, with world leaders gathering in Brussels for emergency meetings of NATO, the EU, and the G7.
Here’s the latest:
NATO summit: US President Joe Biden announced new sanctions on Russian politicians and a plan to accept up to 100,000 refugees in the United States. He also said he supported ejecting Russia from the G20, a group of the world’s 20 leading economies that is scheduled to meet in November. On the prospect of Russia using chemical weapons, Biden said only “we would respond.”
Zelensky’s appeal: Addressing the G7 on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged member nations to take greater action, including a “full embargo” on trade with Russia and creating security guarantees for Ukraine. He thanked countries for imposing sanctions, but called the action “a little late.” He stopped short of asking for a no-fly zone, and appealed to NATO leaders to provide fighter jets — something the US is still opposed to.
Where the fighting is: Intense combat is ongoing in several directions around Kyiv, though Ukrainian forces appear to have retaken territory to the east of the capital, pushing back Russian forces. The assault on Mariupol is continuing, with local leaders saying they need weaponry including artillery and anti-tank missiles. Six people were killed when a missile hit a shopping mall parking lot in Kharkiv as civilians lined up inside to receive humanitarian aid. The town of Izyum has been “completely destroyed” by Russian aircraft and artillery, a council deputy said. The Ukrainian Navy also said a Russian ship was destroyed in the occupied port of Berdyansk on the Azov Sea.
Civilian casualties: The civilian death toll in Ukraine has exceeded 1,000, the UN said Thursday — warning that “the actual figures are considerably higher.” Most casualties were caused by explosives, including missiles and air strikes. Among the deaths are 90 children.
Refugees: More than 3.6 million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion began, according to UN estimates. The majority have entered Poland.
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Ukraine likely conducted a successful attack against Russian ships, US assesses
From CNN's Oren Liebermann
The US has assessed that Ukraine likely did conduct a successful attack against Russian ships in Berdyansk, according to a defense official. It’s unclear, however, what type of weapon or weapons were used in the attack.
The assessment echoes a similar statement from the British Ministry of Defence, which said Ukrainian forces have attacked “high-value targets” in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, including a landing ship and ammunition depots at Berdyansk.
The Ukrainian armed forces on Friday named the ship they said they attacked as the “Saratov.” In earlier reporting, the ship was named as the “Orsk.”
This story has been updated with new information from Ukrainian officials.
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Biden says NATO "has never, never been more united than it is today"
From CNN staff
US President Joe Biden speak during a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels on March 24.
(Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)
US President Joe Biden spoke at a news conference Thursday at NATO headquarters in Brussels after meeting with other world leaders of NATO, the European Council and the G7. The key global figures are seeking to align their responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The President touched upon the unity of NATO, the prospect of Russian President Vladimir Putin using chemical weapons, and the possible role of China in the conflict.
Biden took questions from reporters and spoke for roughly 30 minutes.
Here’s what he said:
NATO: Biden told reporters NATO “has never, never been more united than it is today.” He also noted that Russian President Vladimir “Putin is getting exactly the opposite [of] what he intended to have as a consequence of going into Ukraine.”
Chemical weapons: On the prospect of Russia using chemical weapons in Ukraine, Biden said only that “we would respond.” He did not offer more specifics, saying only “the nature of the response would depend on the nature of use.”
Food shortages: Biden addressed the possibility that Russia’s invasion could trigger global food shortages. He said the issue was discussed by the assembled world leaders, and noted that food shortages will be “real,” calling Ukraine and Russia the “breadbasket” for Europe.
Refugees: Biden said he hopes to visit with Ukrainian refugees while he is in Europe. “I plan on attempting to see those folks … I hope I get to see a lot of people.” He noted that throughout his political career he’s frequently visited refugees, calling the scenes “devastating.” “The thing you look at the most is you see these young children that are in those camps,” Biden added.
Sanctions: Biden said “sanctions never deter,” but added that “increasing the pain” on Putin and sustaining what is being done is ultimately “what will stop him.”
G20: Biden said he believes Russia should be removed from the Group of 20, saying simply, “my answer is yes.”
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Ukraine tells the US it needs 500 Javelins and 500 Stingers per day
From CNN's Zachary Cohen and Oren Liebermann
Ukraine has updated its extensive wishlist of additional military assistance from the US government in the past several days to include hundreds more anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles than previously requested, according to a document provided to CNN that details the items needed.
The Ukrainians have submitted similar lists in recent weeks but a recent request provided to US lawmakers appears to reflect a growing need for American-made Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles — with Ukraine saying it urgently needs 500 of each, daily.
In both cases, Ukraine is asking for hundreds more missiles than were included in a similar list recently provided to US lawmakers, according to a source with knowledge of both requests.
The new list comes as the Ukrainians have claimed they face potential weapons shortages amid an ongoing Russian assault — prompting some pushback from US and NATO officials who stress that more military aid is already going into the country.
By March 7, less than two weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US and other NATO members had sent about 17,000 anti-tank missiles and 2,000 anti-aircraft missiles into Ukraine.
Since then, NATO countries, including the US, have kept the pipeline of weapons and equipment flowing, even as Russia has threatened to target the shipments.
Ukrainians claim to have destroyed large Russian warship in Berdyansk
From CNN's Tim Lister, Celine Alkhaldi, Olga Voitovych and Gianluca Mezzofiore
A screen grab of a video shared on social media of the Berdyansk port fire.
(Ukrainian Armed Forces/Twitter)
Ukrainian armed forces said they destroyed a large Russian landing ship at the port of Berdyansk in southern Ukraine on Thursday.
The port, which had recently been occupied by Russian forces with several Russian warships in dock, was rocked by a series of heavy explosions soon after dawn.
Social media videos showed fires raging at the dockside, with a series of secondary explosions reverberating across the city.
Several Russian ships had been unloading military equipment at Berdyansk in recent days, according to reports from the port by Russian media outlets.
This post has been updated with new information from Ukrainian officials.
