Ukraine: Zelenskyy accuses Russia of attacking aid route in Mariupol — live updates
- Zelenskyy says Russia launched “tank attack” on humanitarian corridor in Mariupol
- UN Security Council to hold meeting at Russia’s request
- Ukraine claims Russia shelled nuclear institute in Kharkiv
- Satellite images show Russian convoy near Kyiv appears to have dispersed
- Biden expected to call for an end to normal trade ties with Russia, paving way for more tariffs
This article was last updated at 07:41 UTC/GMT
Catch up on Thursday’s events as Germany’s Olaf Scholz demanded a cease-fire in a call with Putin
Ukraine will no longer buy Russian nuclear fuel
Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear power firm Energoatom will no longer buy Russian nuclear fuel, Reuters news agency reported the company as saying.
The country operates nuclear reactors from the Soviet era and imports its fuel from Russia and the United States.
Last week, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine, was caught in the crossfire after fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces caused a fire at the power station.
While no radiation leaks were detected and staff continue to work on the site, the incident sparked fears of a possible nuclear disaster among global leaders.
Air Astana and Pegasus Airlines suspend flights to Russia
Kazakhstan’s national airline Air Astana and Turkey’s Pegasus Airlines said Friday they were temporarily suspending flights to Russia.
The Kazakh airline tweeted: “Air Astana sincerely regrets to advise that due the withdrawal of insurance coverage for commercial flights to, from and over the Russian Federation, all flights to the Russian Federation are suspended with immediate effect.” In a statement, Air Astana said it hoped to “restore flights as soon as possible.”
Turkish budget airline Pegasus Airlines said that its flights to Russia will be suspended from March 13 to 27.
Pegasus said the decision to halt flights was brought about by “operational risks” from the sanctions imposed by the European Union.
Russia to declare cease-fire, open evacuation corridors
Russia’s Defense Ministry will announce a partial cease-fire on Friday, enabling an opening of routes for the evacuation of Ukrainian citizens from five cities, according to the RIA and Interfax news agencies.
The agencies quoted the ministry as saying people could travel to Russia or other cities in Ukraine.
“From 10:00 am Moscow time (0700 GMT/UTC) on March 11, 2022, the Russian Federation will declare a ‘regime of silence’ and is ready to provide humanitarian corridors,” Interfax reported, citing a statement.
The five cities are Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Chernihiv.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said she hopes the route for the besieged city of Mariupol will be successfully opened. Previous attempts to open such a corridor came under fire by Russian forces, Ukrainian officials said.
Vereshchuk added that buses would be sent to multiple Kyiv suburbs to bring people to the capital, and to bring aid to those staying behind.
Civilian targets shelled in Dnipro, Lutsk
Civilian targets came under Russian shelling in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, killing one, emergency services said.
It appeared to be the first direct attack on the city.
Emergency services said three airstrikes hit a kindergarten, an apartment building and a shoe factory.
Shelling was also reported Friday near the airport in Lutsk, a city in north-western Ukraine, the mayor wrote on Facebook.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its troops targeted airports in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk, another western Ukrainian city some 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Lutsk.
Orban: EU will not impose sanctions on Russian gas or oil
The European Union will not impose sanctions on Russian gas or oil, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday.
“The most important issue for us has been settled in a favorable way: there won’t be sanctions that would apply to gas or oil, so Hungary’s energy supply is secure in the upcoming period,” Orban said in a video posted on his Facebook page.
Orban’s comments came as EU leaders gathered in France to discuss ways of helping Ukraine.
Over 200,000 flee Ukraine to Russia
Since the conflict began on February 24, more than 200,000 people have been evacuated from Ukraine to Russia from Ukraine and its two Russian-backed rebel regions — Donetsk and Luhansk — the Russian state-owned TASS news agency reported on Friday, citing an unidentified source.
The United Nations has estimated that 2.2 million people have fled the fighting since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.
Facebook allows posts calling for violence against Russian soldiers, Putin
Meta Platforms will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russian troops, Reuters reported Friday. It represents a temporary shift in Meta’s hate speech policy.
The social media giant is also temporarily allowing some posts that call for the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
A Meta statement on the issue read: “As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules like violent speech such as ‘death to the Russian invaders.’ We still won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians.”
The Russian Embassy in the United States demanded that Washington stop Meta’s “extremist activities,” Reuters news agency reported.
“Users of Facebook Instagram did not give the owners of these platforms the right to determine the criteria of truth and pit nations against each other,” the embassy said on Twitter.
US and allies plan to cut Russia’s trade status
US President Joe Biden is expected to call for an end of normal trade relations with Russia later on Friday.
Despite the tense relationship between Washington and Moscow, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US currently still affords “most favored nation status” to Russia.
The designation means that a country with the clause must give the same concessions, privileges, or immunities to nations with it as to any other World Trade Organization member.
Removing the special status from Russia would allow the US and allies to impose tariffs on Russian imports, increasing the isolation of the Russian economy in retaliation for the invasion.
The move is expected to be coordinated with other G7 allies, including the UK.
In the US, removing Russia’s “Permanent Normal Trade Relations” (PNTR) status will require an act of Congress.
However, lawmakers in both houses of Congress — and on both sides of the aisle — have already signaled their support, officials say.
US passes bill for $14 billion to Ukraine
US lawmakers have passed a huge spending bill that includes almost $14 billion (about €12.7 billion) in humanitarian and military aid for Ukraine.
The money for Kyiv, which piggybacked on wider spending legislation, had support from both Democrats and Republicans who have both rallied behind sending aid to the country.
“We’re keeping our promise to support Ukraine as they fight for their lives against the evil Vladimir Putin,” Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Senate Democrats, said in a statement.
The emergency aid was said to be more than double what US President Joe Biden’s administration had originally requested.
The House of Representatives had passed the bill a day earlier, with the bill now heading to Biden’s desk. The aid package is certain to be signed into law by the US president.
Around half the money is for arming and equipping Ukraine and for the Pentagon’s costs for sending US troops to Ukraine’s next-door neighbors.
Much of the remaining sum includes humanitarian and economic help, protecting energy supplies, and cybersecurity.
UN Security Council to meet at Russia’s behest
The US Security Council is set to meet later on Friday to discuss Russia’s claims about alleged US “military biological activities” in Ukraine.
The allegations were made earlier this week, without evidence, by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
Washington has responded, saying the claim was “exactly the kind of false flag effort we have warned Russia might initiate to justify a biological or chemical weapons attack.”
That statement suggested Russia might seek to create a pretext for further escalating the two-week-old conflict that has seen the Russian offensive slowed, but not stopped, by Ukraine’s troops.
“We’re not going to let Russia gaslight the world or use the UN Security Council as a venue for promoting their disinformation,” Olivia Dalton, spokesperson for the US Mission to the United Nations said late Thursday.
For years, the international community for years has assessed that Russia has used chemical weapons in carrying out assassination attempts against opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia also backs Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, whose regime has used chemical weapons against its people in an 11-year-long civil war.
Satellite pics show Kyiv-bound convoy dispersal
Satellite images appear to show a huge Russian convoy, mired outside the Ukrainian capital since last week, has broken up and redeployed.
The pictures from Maxar Technologies showed the 40-mile (64-kilometer) line of vehicles, including tanks and artillery, has dispersed.
Armored units have been seen in towns near the Antonov Airport north of the city and some have moved into forests, Maxar reported.
The convoy’s advance on Kyiv appeared to have stalled last week amid reports of food and fuel shortages.
According to US officials, Ukrainian troops also targeted the line of hardware with anti-tank missiles.
Convoy elements appear to have deployed further north of the airport near the town of Lubyanka, with towed artillery howitzers in firing positions.
Summary of events in Ukraine-Russia crisis on Thursday
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said nearly half of the capital’s residents had fled and the city had been turned into a fortress on Thursday.
Russian troops have taken over the outskirts in the north and northwest of the city. But the former boxing champion Klitschko said the city was determined not to fall.
“Every street, every building, every checkpoint has been fortified,” he said in a televised address. “Even people who in their lives never intended to change their clothes, now they are in uniform with machine guns in their hands.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russian forces of targeting a humanitarian corridor in the city of Mariupol in an operation of “outright terror.”
Zelenskyy said that, while some 100,000 people have been evacuated from the country’s cities in just two days, some city residents have no way out.
The president said he had decided to send a convoy of trucks with food, water and medicine, but that “the occupiers launched a tank attack exactly where this corridor was supposed to be.”
After international condemnation of a Russian strike on a hospital in Mariupol, Russia’s Defense Ministry later denied hitting the building.
More than 2.3 million people have fled Ukraine so far, according to the latest UN tally, around half of them children.
In a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron called for a halt to military action in Ukraine.jo
However, Ukraine and Russia made “no progress” toward agreeing on a 24-hour cease-fire after talks in Turkey. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had been meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“It seems that there are other decision-makers for this matter in Russia,” Kuleba said, in a thinly veiled reference to Putin.
Putin on Thursday said his compatriots would find a way to “adapt” to the massive international sanctions and withdrawals of Western corporations in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
rc/wd (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)
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