Russia-Ukraine live updates Zelensky open to ‘neutrality’ and negotiations over Donbas
Ukraine voted in 2014 to drop its “neutral” status and seek NATO membership after Russia attacked and annexed Crimea. But Zelensky said recently that joining NATO appears impossible, with the Kremlin viewing any expansion of the Western alliance as a threat.
Zelensky acknowledged in the new interview that Moscow would not liberate all contested territory and suggested further negotiations over “the complex issue of Donbas,” the eastern Ukrainian region where pro-Russian separatists have fought for years. In a video posted later to Telegram, Zelensky said, “We are looking for peace, really. Without delay.”
Here’s what to know
Here’s the status of Ukrainian cities under Russian attack
Return to menu- Kyiv: Pentagon intelligence suggests Russia has halted ground operations aimed at Kyiv, changing its focus instead to controlling the eastern Donbas region. Despite a pause of military operations northwest of Kyiv in the past day, some pro-U.S. military analysts remain skeptical that the Kremlin has abandoned its efforts to take the capital entirely.
- Lviv: Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed Sunday that it had struck what it said were military targets in this western Ukrainian city a day earlier, saying it used long-range and high-precision missiles. Lviv’s governor said a fuel depot was destroyed. The city, close to the Polish border, had previously avoided missile attacks, becoming a haven for diplomats and people fleeing violence elsewhere.
- Chernihiv: This city 95 miles north of Kyiv has been under near-constant attack. In recent days, after Russian forces reportedly bombed a major bridge, it has become even more isolated. Food and other supplies are dwindling.
- Mariupol: Russian forces appear to be trying to encircle Ukrainian troops in separatist-held regions in eastern Ukraine, advancing from the direction of Kharkiv in the northeast and Mariupol in the southeast, a British intelligence report said Sunday. Ukraine’s president has likened the destruction in this strategic port city to that wrought on Aleppo in the Syrian war.
- Slavutych: Russian forces have entered this northern city close to the Chernobyl nuclear site. The mayor told local media Sunday that officials have partially succeeded at replacing the plant’s shift workers. Shift changes were disrupted in the first days of the war, jeopardizing safety at the site, which was the scene of a 1986 nuclear disaster.
- Kherson: Ukrainian allied operations around this Russian-occupied city are tying down Kremlin forces, according to the latest assessment by Washington think tank the Institute for the Study of War — likely hindering Russian offensive operations in the southern direction.
Biden says he’s not advocating regime change in Russia, echoing Blinken
Return to menuPresident Biden said Sunday that he is not advocating regime change in Moscow, echoing aides who have scrambled to clarify Biden’s unscripted comment a day earlier that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.”
A reporter asked Biden on Sunday outside a church whether he wanted Putin removed and was calling for regime change. “No,” Biden responded.
Biden’s comment about Putin during a visit to Poland drew international scrutiny and a rebuke from Moscow as the president met with European leaders and sought to bolster the NATO alliance.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier that the remark was not meant to suggest that the United States would undertake military or economic action to unseat Putin. Blinken said it was instead intended to convey that Putin “cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else.”
“We do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia — or anywhere else, for that matter,” Blinken said, speaking Sunday during a visit to Israel.
He said the United States does have a strategy to support Ukraine to fend off Russia’s “onslaught of planes and tanks and other weapons,” and to provide humanitarian support to the country.
Blinken defended Biden’s address as an “incredibly powerful speech.”
Russian agency warns media not to publish Zelensky interview
Return to menuRussia’s communications regulator and Internet censor, Roskomnadzor, has warned Russian media outlets not to publish a new interview with the Ukrainian president.
The statement posted on the agency’s Telegram page comes after President Volodymyr Zelensky participated in an interview with Russian journalists — posting the discussion to his own Telegram channel on Sunday.
In the interview, Zelensky called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet him in a neutral country for eventual negotiations to end the war. He also called on Russians to “support the truth.”
Roskomnadzor referred to outlets, “including those that are foreign media outlets, carrying out the functions of foreign agents,” that participated in the interview. It said it had begun to investigate outlets that conducted the interview “to determine the extent of responsibility and the taking of measures of response.”
Russia’s crackdown on media has intensified during the war. This month, Putin signed into law a measure prohibiting what Russia calls “fake” news about its military, as well as language calling the invasion an “invasion” rather than a “special military operation.” Violators could face a 15-year prison sentence. Roskomnadzor had already warned outlets to delete pieces that used terms such as “invasion” or “war.”
As a result, major media organizations announced plans to curb activity in Russia over concerns about consequences for those reporting accurate news.
Later Sunday, Zelensky posted a video response to the Russian ban on his interview, which he said “would be ridiculous if it wasn’t so tragic.”
“They themselves are afraid of a relatively short conversation with several journalists,” the video’s English subtitles say. “Well, if there is such a reaction, then we are doing everything right, then they are nervous.”
Before summit, U.S. Middle East allies show Ukraine limited support
Return to menuJERUSALEM — Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel before a historic meeting of top Israeli and Arab diplomats in the Nagev dessert on Monday — the latest indication of a realignment of Middle Eastern relations following normalization deals struck two years ago.
But the rare meeting of Arab countries on Israeli soil — a byproduct of years of coaxing from U.S. officials — coincides with a much less cooperative approach from America’s Middle Eastern allies on the issue of the day: Ukraine.
Blinken has touted the unprecedented support Washington has marshaled from countries opposed to Russia’s war in Ukraine. But on Sunday, he acknowledged that more work needed to be done among U.S. allies in the Middle East — a challenge that could loom over Monday’s meetings.
“We will be talking throughout about various means of support that Israel and other countries can give to Ukraine, whether it comes to security assistance, whether it comes to humanitarian assistance, economic assistance, or, again, making sure that sanctions are implemented,” Blinken told reporters. “That will be a conversation that’s ongoing throughout this trip.”
Israel, the largest recipient of cumulative U.S. aid, has come under criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for refusing to provide security assistance to Kyiv or impose sanctions on Russia. “We can ask many times why we’re not getting weapons from you, why Israel hasn’t imposed serious sanctions on Russia. … You need to provide answers to these questions and live with them,” he told the Israeli Knesset last week.
‘Concert between explosions’ brings musical respite to people sheltering in Kharkiv’s subways
Return to menuIn a Ukrainian city hard hit by Russia’s invasion, five musicians brought their instruments underground — seeking to drown out the thunderous explosions with their violins, cello and bass for those taking shelter in subway stations.
The conflict halted plans for “Kharkiv Music Fest,” an annual international classical music festival in Ukraine’s second largest city. So the organizers said they scrambled to improvise their plans to hold the event amid war — descending down into a subway station and a business’s basement, hoping for safety from the incoming assaults overhead. “Music can unite,” art director Vitali Alekseenok said, “it’s important now for those who stay in Kharkiv to be united.”
The original concert would have included a recital by French pianist Lucas Debargue and was to be held in the grand hall of the Kharkiv Philharmonic on Saturday. Instead, the “concert between explosions” — as it was dubbed on social media — started with the Ukrainian anthem, drawing audience members to hold their hands to their hearts.
Russian troops’ tendency to talk on unsecured lines is proving costly
Return to menuRussian troops in Ukraine have relied, with surprising frequency, on unsecured communication devices such as smartphones and push-to-talk radios, leaving units vulnerable to targeting, and further underscoring the command-and-control deficiencies that have come to define Moscow’s month-long invasion, observers say.
“We’re seeing them use a lot more unclassified communications because their classified communications capability … for one reason or another, is not as strong as it should be,” a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under terms set by the Pentagon, told reporters in a recent news briefing.
The Russian military possesses modern equipment capable of secure transmission, but troops on the battlefield have reached for simpler-to-use but less-secure lines because of uneven discipline across the ranks, an apparent lack of planning for conducting a sustained fight over long distances, and Russian attacks on Ukraine’s communication infrastructure that it, too, has relied on, experts say.
German authorities move to ban political use of letter ‘Z’
Return to menuEuropean authorities, responding to Russian disinformation campaigns around the invasion of Ukraine, are increasingly scrutinizing the use of the war’s most recognizable pro-Russian symbol: the letter “Z.”
Authorities in at least two of Germany’s 16 federal states have said they will actively investigate anyone suspected of using the symbol for political purposes. Bavarian Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich told the German Press Agency on Friday that police in the state will investigate anyone “who publicly approves of the war of aggression, in violation of international law.”
Meanwhile, Switzerland’s Zurich Insurance company told Reuters on Saturday that it had temporarily removed its long-standing “Z” logo from its social media accounts to prevent the posts from being “misinterpreted.”
The symbol first caught the world’s attention when it was spotted on military vehicles clustered along the Russian border with Ukraine in the days ahead of the invasion, which began Feb. 24.
Experts and social media users have speculated on the meaning of the Z, as well as other letters, including O, X, A and V, that have appeared on Russian tanks, sometimes framed by squares, triangles and other painted shapes. Some have suggested that it is an official way to delineate infantries or identify enemies from allies.
But the letter Z of the Latin alphabet — which does not exist in the Cyrillic Russian alphabet — has also been deployed beyond the military, pointing to what some experts say is a state-led effort to ramp up support for the war. The Russian Defense Ministry in recent weeks has posted graphics with the Z on Instagram — in the first such case, it appeared with the phrase “Za pobedu,” or “For victory.” And later, “For peace” and “For truth.”
Paulina Villegas and Sammy Westfall contributed to this report.
Ukraine and Russia to meet for in-person talks this week
Return to menuThe next round of in-person talks between Ukraine and Russia will be held this week in Turkey, Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said Sunday.
Discussions are set to take place from Monday to Wednesday, he said in a Facebook post, adding that more details would be forthcoming. Anadolu Agency, a Turkish state-run news service, said on Twitter that talks would take place in Istanbul.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed his desire for a cease-fire in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the outlet said.
Negotiations have continued for much of the month-long Russian invasion of Ukraine, and officials from both countries have at times expressed cautious optimism about the possibility of coming to a consensus for an end to the war.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last week that the two sides were “close to an agreement on fundamental issues,” while noting that “it is not easy to come to an agreement while civilians are dying.”
Putin ‘cannot remain in power’: Biden’s ad-lib sparks uproar
Return to menuWith nine ad-libbed words at the end of a 27-minute speech, President Biden created an unwanted distraction to his otherwise forceful remarks by calling for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be pushed out of office. “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said.
It was a remarkable statement that would reverse stated U.S. policy, directly countering claims from senior administration officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who have insisted regime change is not on the table. It went further than even U.S. presidents during the Cold War, and immediately reverberated around the world as world leaders, diplomats and foreign policy experts sought to determine what Biden said, what it meant — and, if he didn’t mean it, why he said it.
Shortly after the speech, a White House official sought to clarify the comments. “The president’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia or regime change,” the official said.
Biden’s line was not planned and came as a surprise to U.S. officials, according to a person familiar with the speech, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation. In the immediate aftermath of the remark, reporters rushed to find Biden aides and seek clarity on the president seemingly supporting a regime change in Russia. But Biden aides demurred, refusing to comment as they scrambled to craft a response.
Russia’s invasion faces limitations in military, energy and economy
Return to menuRIGA, Latvia — As Russian President Vladimir Putin enters his second month of war against Ukraine, questions are mounting about what limitations he could face as he presses ahead with an invasion that has already inflicted great costs on the Russian military and left the country deeply isolated.
Putin for years has snuffed out dissent, muzzled independent media and bolstered a security state to prevent protests, meaning he faces far fewer domestic constraints in waging such a war than the leader of a democratic nation would. Continued revenue from foreign oil and gas sales — despite Western sanctions — also is helping him ease the blow of harsh economic sanctions at home.
But the Russian president does face certain tactical strictures on the battlefield, as well as some geopolitical and economic constraints. They all will probably make his ability to wage a longer-term war in Ukraine more difficult — but far from impossible.
“Time is not on Putin’s side,” said Russian political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of the Russia-monitoring consultancy R. Politik. She noted that, as the war grinds on and the sanctions set in, the fallout on Russia from the war is likely to compound.
U.S., Japanese leaders visit Hiroshima as Russia nuclear tensions rise
Return to menuHIROSHIMA, Japan — As Russia threatens the possibility of a “nuclear dystopia,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel paid tribute Saturday to victims of the atomic bombing here and warned of the human devastation caused by nuclear weapons.
During a somber moment in the rain, the men each laid a wreath at the Hiroshima victims memorial. They visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, near ground zero, and its exhibitions documenting the human toll of the atomic bombing. In 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, vaporizing the cities and instantaneously killing tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, in each.
Emanuel and Kishida’s visit was personal and symbolic, particularly in the face of rising regional tensions over nuclear threats from Russia and North Korea.
Mayor of hard-hit Chernihiv worries ‘worst is still ahead’
Return to menuThe mayor of Chernihiv, a city 95 miles north of Kyiv that has been under near-constant attack, is worried the “worst is still ahead of us.”
In an interview with Ukrainske Radio shared on Telegram, Vladyslav Atroshenko spoke of the “humanitarian catastrophe” in his city and said that “we don’t know what will happen in a week or two,” given the food shortages and dwindling supplies.
In recent days, after Russian forces reportedly bombed a major bridge, Chernihiv has become even more isolated — with another potential path for evacuations and aid cut off.
When residents have tried to evacuate, they have faced artillery shelling. Those in the city have struggled with declining food supplies, while power, water and gas have been largely cut off.
A U.S. citizen, identified by friends and family as James Whitney Hill, was among those killed in Chernihiv in recent weeks, with Ukrainian police reporting that he and several others died when Russian troops shelled the city.
Still, Atroshenko lauded the “general patriotism” among residents who have remained in the city. Although he does not expect the war to end soon, he said, once it does, he hopes to “be able to bury everyone” in a respectful manner.
Kangaroos evacuated from Kharkiv zoological park as shelling continues
Return to menuEight kangaroos were evacuated from the Feldman Ecopark in Kharkiv amid what staffers said is continued shelling over the besieged city, according to videos the preserve posted to social media over the weekend.
Early Sunday, park staff shared images of what they said were the remains of shells fired at the park — one of which struck a mandrill named Stepan.
Other animals, including the recently evacuated kangaroos, have been more fortunate.
“Today is a month since the beginning of the war, and we’re continuing the evacuation of the animals,” a man driving a passenger van full of marsupials says in one of the videos posted. It was unclear whether the driver was a staff member or volunteer with the park, but he also appears in other videos evacuating other animals, including turtles and monkeys.
(English below) Спасение животных с территории Экопарка продолжается! Этих кенгуру удалось вывезти позавчера, то есть сейчас уже они находятся в безопасности. Это очень приятно, ведь их вольеры, к сожалению, неоднократно подвергались обстрелам. Верим, что теперь у них все будет хорошо! Огромное спасибо волонтерам и сотрудникам, рискующим ради спасения животных, а также многочисленным нашим друзьям – обычным людям, бизнес-структурам и общественным организациям, помогающим нам финансово и делающим возможными наши спасательные операции. Ваша поддержка действительно спасает жизни! Пожертвования можно отправлять по реквизитам, размещенным на нашем сайте: https://feldman-ecopark.com/donation/ Rescue of animals from the territory of the Ecopark continues! These kangaroos were taken out the day before yesterday, that is, now they are already safe. This is very nice, because their enclosures, unfortunately, were repeatedly shelled. We believe that now they will be fine! Many thanks to volunteers and employees who take risks to save animals, as well as to our many friends - caring people, businesses and NGO's who help us financially and make our rescue operations possible. Your support truly saves lives! Donations can be sent using the details posted on our website: https://feldman-ecopark.com/donation/
Posted by Фельдман Экопарк on Saturday, March 26, 2022
Park staff said that although the kangaroos were safely removed Friday, shelling of animal enclosures continues. An alert on Feldman’s website Sunday soliciting donations was accompanied by a message saying: “Ecopark animals under fire! Help evacuate them to safety and provide them with food!”
Last week, the staff shared images of other animals killed in airstrikes, including deer, Welsh goats, large cats, primates and birds.
Zoos and animal parks have been collateral damage in cities such as Kharkiv and Kyiv, both of which have been heavily bombarded by Russian forces over the past month.
War in Ukraine: What you need to know
The latest: In a fiery speech marking the end of his European tour on Saturday, President Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “dictator,” saying, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.” The White House later clarified that Biden wasn’t calling for a regime change and meant only that Putin should not be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region.
Meanwhile, the Russian onslaught continued Saturday with two powerful rockets striking Lviv. The western Ukrainian city had been largely spared from attacks during the first month of the war. Russian forces also entered Slavutych, a northern city of about 25,000 people that houses workers from the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
The fight: Russia — which has launched more than 1,000 missiles so far — is increasingly relying on “dumb” bombs to wear cities and civilians down. Russia’s assault on Ukraine has been extensive with strikes and attacks across the entire country, and Russia has been accused of committing war crimes.
The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. Russia has used an array of weapons against Ukraine, some of which have drawn the attention and concern of analysts.
Oil prices: Sanctions on Russia are helping gas prices hit new highs. Here’s why — and how long the surge could last.
In Russia: Putin has locked down the flow of information within Russia, where the war isn’t even being called a war. “Information warriors” from around the world are working to penetrate Putin’s propaganda wall.
How you can help: Here are ways those in the U.S. can help support the Ukrainian people as well as what people around the world have been donating.
Read our full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for updates and exclusive video.
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