Russia-Ukraine live updates Official says ‘battle continues’ in key city, rebuffing Russian claim of control
Earlier, videos from Kherson showed defiant people waving blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags in front of Russian troops.
As fighting continued, the United Nations General Assembly voted 141 to 5, with 35 abstentions, in favor of a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The resolution demands that Russia “immediately cease its use of force against Ukraine” and withdraw its military forces.
Here’s what to know
Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities increase, but forces remain stalled on their outskirts
Return to menuRussian forces remain “stalled” outside Kyiv’s city center, despite having accelerated the pace of missile and artillery attacks, according to a senior defense official.
The picture is replaying itself around other northern cities as well, including Chernihiv, which sits near the Belarusian border north of Kyiv, and Kharkiv, near the Russian border in Ukraine’s northeast. There has been “no appreciable movement by the Russians to take either one,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss particulars on the ground.
The Pentagon is crediting a variety of factors for the stalled Russian advance, among them the stiff resistance that Russian troops have met from Ukrainians. But some of the contributing factors appear to be self-inflicted, the official said, listing “logistical and sustainment problems” with keeping the Russian forces adequately fed and fueled, as well as “morale problems that have led to less-than-effective operational success north of Kyiv.”
The official cautioned that Russian forces “will learn and they will adapt and they will try to get past these challenges” — and noted that despite the frozen position of the forces, they are acting with “increasing aggressiveness, in terms of just the iron that they’ve lobbing” into Kyiv especially. The Pentagon has tracked 450 missile launches thus far.
‘Battle continues,’ Ukrainian official says as Russia claims control of port city
Return to menuA caption for a photo accompanying this post incorrectly said the picture was of Kherson's city hall. It was of Kharkiv's. The photo has been removed.
A spokesperson for the Ukrainian armed forces told The Washington Post late Wednesday that a “battle continues” over the port city of Kherson, while Russian state media said Russian forces have taken control.
The mayor of Kherson — a city of more than a quarter-million people in southern Ukraine — said in a statement earlier Wednesday that armed troops visited his office and that they reached an agreement about civilian movement in the city.
Still, Mayor Igor Kolykhaev wrote on Facebook, “the flag above us is Ukrainian.” For that to continue, he said, “these requirements will have to be met.”
The agreement included a nighttime curfew, limitations on what cars could enter the city and a stipulation that pedestrians walk “one by one,” or at most by “two,” according to the mayor. He said drivers should be ready for inspection of their vehicles and travel at “minimum speed.”
“Don’t provoke soldiers,” he wrote on Facebook. “Stop at the first request. Don’t get into conflicts.”
Asked whether Russians control Kherson, a Ukrainian military spokesperson said, “The battle continues.” Earlier, videos from Kherson showed defiant people waving blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags in front of Russian troops.
Hannah Knowles contributed to this report.
Biden said U.N. vote shows world is united in its opposition to Russian invasion
Return to menuPresident Biden said Wednesday’s United Nations vote shows just how much the majority of the world is unified in its opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We’re united folks,” he said in Superior, Wis., at an infrastructure event, a day after delivering his State of the Union address that opened with a condemnation of the invasion. “That’s how we were able to make sure we kept Europe united and the free world united to vote in the United Nations to condemn Putin.”
More than 140 countries voted to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In an emergency special session, the U.N. General Assembly demanded that Moscow cease its attacks on Ukraine and withdraw all Russian troops from the country. Thirty-five countries — including India, Cuba and China — abstained. Only four delegations — Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea — joined Russia in voting against the resolution.
Biden said that Putin underestimated how Europe and other countries were ready to come to the aid of Ukraine.
“He did it because he thought he could split NATO, split Europe and split the United States,” he said. “We’re going to demonstrate to the whole world: No one can split this country.”
House passes bill supporting Ukraine with overwhelming support
Return to menuThe House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine and the full withdrawal of Russian forces from the county with overwhelming support.
Only three Republicans — Reps. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Matthew M. Rosendale (R-Mont.) — voted against the resolution, which also backs the sanctions that the Biden administration has placed on Russian banks and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The resolution also calls for the U.S. and its allies to deliver additional and immediate defensive security assistance to Ukraine.
Moments before the vote, the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s chair, Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (D-N.Y.), and ranking Republican, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), noted the importance of bipartisan support for the measure, with McCaul saying that the bill is meant to “prove that the American people stand for the Ukrainian people and against Mr. Putin.”
McCaul praised the courage of Ukrainians and their leader, President Volodymyr Zelensky, and said the bill sends “a strong message to these brave men and women that they are not alone.”
House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) noted that he hoped the resolution, brought forward by Meeks and McCaul, would be passed “with not a single negative vote.”
“Let there be no mistake throughout the globe that yes, we have differences between Republicans and Democrats, but we in this House are all Americans committed to freedom, committed to democracy, committed to the peaceful relations between nations,” Hoyer said.
Pentagon delays strategic missile test as nuclear tensions rise
Return to menuThe Pentagon is delaying a test of the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile that was planned for this week, according to its spokesman John Kirby, who said the move was intended “to demonstrate that we are a responsible nuclear power.”
Nuclear tensions spiked earlier this week after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he was putting the Russian arsenal on heightened alert, following a decision by the United States, Canada and the European Union to impose punishing sanctions on Russia’s central bank and cut all Russian banks that are under sanctions off from the international financial transaction processing system known as SWIFT.
“This is not a diminution in our readiness whatsoever,” Kirby said. “It’s not going to change our strategic posture one bit.”
The test has not yet been rescheduled. Such tests of the Minuteman III occur multiple times a year, and are planned three to five years in advance, Kirby said.
Pentagon officials have denounced Putin’s move as unnecessary and escalatory, and, Kirby added, “unacceptable.” The United States has not responded to Putin putting his nuclear arsenal on heightened alert with any similar gesture.
Kirby added that the delayed test was aimed at sending a “strong, clear, unambiguous message to Putin” that United States has “no intention in engaging in any action.”
China asked Russia to delay Ukraine invasion until after Olympics, intelligence report says
Return to menuA Western intelligence report indicated that Chinese officials in early February requested that senior Russian officials wait until after the Olympics to begin an invasion of Ukraine, Biden administration officials said Wednesday.
Chinese Communist Party officials conveyed the information to Russian officials at the time, according to U.S. officials. It was not clear whether Chinese President Xi Jinping directly discussed invasion timing with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But his desires were clear, said a U.S. official familiar with the intelligence.
“That was one of Xi’s biggest concerns” — that an invasion not happen “until after the Closing Ceremonies,” said the official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.
The existence of the intelligence report was first reported earlier Wednesday by the New York Times.
Putin met with Xi at the start of the Olympics, on Feb. 4, and was one of a few world leaders who attended. Many others boycotted the event in protest of China’s repression of Uyghurs, its ethnic Muslim minority population.
As the Olympics opened, in a show of solidarity and shared grievance, the two leaders issued a lengthy joint statement reaffirming their partnership and firmly opposing NATO enlargement.
The United States since November had been privately urging Beijing to use its influence to pressure Moscow to refrain from attacking Ukraine. China was unmoved by the overtures.
Beijing was concerned that an invasion would be destabilizing and upset the Olympics, according to a second U.S. official. Such a move would have been similar to when Russia invaded the former Soviet republic of Georgia as the 2008 Beijing Olympics were starting.
Instead, last month, four days after the Olympic torch was extinguished, Russia began to invade Ukraine.
Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich says he will sell English soccer team Chelsea
Return to menuRussian billionaire Roman Abramovich says he will sell the English soccer team Chelsea amid the fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Abramovich said in a statement Wednesday that he would sell the storied London team “in the best interest of the Club, the fans, the employees, as well as the Club’s sponsors and partners.”
The move comes in the face of growing pressure to sanction Russian oligarchs who are believed to be part of President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.
In 2021, Forbes valued Chelsea at $3.2 billion, seventh in the soccer world and fourth among Premier League teams behind Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City.
From Russian vodka to soccer, a list of global boycotts underway in support of Ukraine
Return to menuAs Western countries respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many of them have sought to hit Moscow where it hurts — the pocketbook — with sanctions against President Vladimir Putin and his allies, as well as restrictions on Russian airlines and banks.
Taking a cue from those efforts, international sporting bodies and retailers have also announced boycotts of Russian goods and benched Russian teams in a symbolic global movement designed to show solidarity with Ukraine.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of some of the boycotts launched globally since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Drone footage shows citizen blockade in Enerhodar, home to Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
Return to menuVideo shows residents of Enerhodar, home to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on the banks of the Dnieper River, blocking Russian troops from entering the city, according to the mayor.
The drone footage, posted Wednesday, captures a large crowd gathering in front of and around makeshift barricades of cars, trucks, tires and sandbags. Ukrainian flags fly next to the blockage.
Dmitry Orlov, the city’s mayor, wrote in a Telegram post Wednesday that Russians soldiers and plant employees had met for negotiations.
In a Facebook post, Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, pleaded with Russian generals to bypass Enerhodar and the nuclear plant so as not to create conditions for a new Chernobyl.
A Polish video game lets players experience the anguish of the war in Ukraine
Return to menuAs soldiers stalk an eerily quiet European city, a young boy asks a stranger to help find his mom, while in a bombed-out building a parent gives a plush toy to his child hoping it will provide some reassurance.
The images evoke scenes in Kyiv and Kharkiv as the Ukrainian cities face a growing Russian invasion. But the tableau in fact comes from “This War of Mine” — an award-winning video game from 2014 that has seen its popularity soar since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops descended on the country last week.
The game, from Polish developer 11 Bit Studios, is helping people in Europe and beyond empathize with and even vicariously experience the feelings of everyday Ukrainians. It is one of several examples of cutting-edge immersive technologies — besides video games they include a slick reality-distortion app and virtual reality — to which a younger generation is increasingly turning to explain the war.
Video: Kyiv children’s hospital moves into basement bomb shelter
Return to menuThe Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital, the largest pediatric hospital in Ukraine, moved patients into its basement bomb shelter amid shelling in Kyiv.
“If we stop [treatment], they will die,” Lesia Lysytsia, an onco-ophthalmologist, told The Washington Post on Tuesday.
Doctors continue to provide chemotherapy and radiation treatment to cancer patients. They’ve also treated multiple children with shrapnel and bullet wounds from nearby fighting in Kyiv, Reuters reported.
Patients in more serious conditions were transported to other cities or to Poland. Those who could stay home were urged to do so, with medical consultations taking place over the phone or online.
“I still can’t imagine this is happening. When you work, you don’t think about it — you have a lot of duties to perform,” Lysytsia said. “They’re underground. It’s not normal treatment for patients.”
Toyota suspends sales and production in Russia and Ukraine
Return to menuToyota is temporarily halting all of its sales and production activities in Russia and Ukraine because of safety concerns, the company announced Wednesday.
The company’s Ukraine business unit had already stopped all of its activities as of Feb. 24, the company said, including sales and distribution at 37 retail locations there. It also halted imports of vehicles at its 168 retail locations in Russia until further notice, citing supply-chain disruptions.
As of March 4, it plans to shut down its factory in St. Petersburg, where it produces Toyota RAV4 and Camry models.
“Like everyone around the world, Toyota is watching the ongoing developments in Ukraine with great concern for the safety of people of Ukraine and hopes for a safe return to peace as soon as possible,” the company wrote in a statement. “As a company with operations in Ukraine and Russia, our priority in dealing with this crisis is to ensure the safety of all our team members, retailer staff, and supply chain partners.”
The company said it has taken unspecified actions to support Ukrainian employees and their families, including facilitating their exit from the country.
Russian convoy may be coming under occasional attack from Ukrainian forces
Return to menuThere are indications that Ukrainian forces have tried to selectively target the long Russian military convoy snaking toward Kyiv, according to a senior U.S. defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss developments on the ground.
“We’ve seen indications that at times and at certain places that the convoy may have been resisted by Ukrainian forces,” the official said, noting that Ukrainians had been “conducting a stiff resistance north of Kyiv.”
Russian forces have been bombarding Kyiv with increasing intensity, but the 40-mile-long convoy of Russian combat vehicles appeared to stall in recent days as invading forces have struggled with shortages of food, fuel and morale, the official said.
At this point, about 82 percent of the forces Russia had massed around Ukraine are inside the country, the senior defense official said.
Turkey says Russia withdrew request to send warships through Turkish Straits to Black Sea
Return to menuISTANBUL — Turkey’s foreign minister said Russia had withdrawn a request to send warships through the Turkish Straits toward the Black Sea in the days after Moscow began its invasion of Ukraine.
The foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, speaking in an interview with the Haberturk news channel Tuesday, said that Moscow had canceled a request to send four warships through the straits, the Dardanelles and the Bosporus after Turkey objected. He did not specify when the request was made but said the warships were scheduled to transit Feb. 27 and 28.
A 1936 treaty, the Montreux Convention, gives Turkey the right to prohibit the passage of warships through the straits during times of war, with exceptions for vessels returning to their home bases.
“We said amicably not to send these ships to Russia,” Cavusoglu said. “Russia or others should not be offended here. Three of these four ships had no right of way in case of war. According to the information we have, they were not ships registered to the bases in the Black Sea.”
The conflict in Ukraine has put Turkey in a difficult position, as it balances its close relationships with both Russia and Ukraine involving commercial and military ties.
Turkey, a NATO member, has condemned Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine as illegal and supplied Ukraine with armed drones.
But it has not joined Western allies in barring Russian flights or imposing financial sanctions.
“We are not planning to apply any sanctions to Russia at this point, because we don’t want our economy to be affected negatively by this,” Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday.
War in Ukraine: What you need to know
The latest: The United Nations General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. An assassination plot against President Zelensky was foiled, according to Ukraine.
The fight: Casualties are mounting as Russia advances and adopts siege tactics. Moscow is facing mounting allegations that it has used cluster and vacuum weapons.
Maps: Russia’s assault on Ukraine has been extensive with strikes and attacks across the entire country. We’re tracking the invasion here.
The response: President Biden announced that the United States has closed its airspace to Russian aircraft, a move that came two days after Canada and the European Union issued similar restrictions.
How we got here: The conflict playing out between Russia and Ukraine is one marked by land borders and shaped by strategic influence.
How you can help: Here are ways those in the U.S. can help support the Ukrainian people.
Read our full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
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