President Zelensky has urged world leaders to stop Russia “before this becomes a nuclear disaster.”
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Russia has drawn widespread condemnation for shelling a Ukrainian nuclear power plant. According to Ukrainian authorities, Russian forces have “occupied” Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant following a fire at the facility early on Friday. The blaze has apparently now been extinguished.
Radiation levels so far appear normal according to U.S. and Ukraine officials, but Ukrainian President Zelensky has accused Russian forces of firing at the plant on purpose, and urged world leaders to stop Russia “before this becomes a nuclear disaster.”
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Friday morning’s attack demonstrated “the recklessness of this war,” while U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab admitted “it’s very difficult to believe that it wasn’t done deliberately.”
The United States Embassy in Ukraine has said that attacking a nuclear power plant constitutes a war crime. “It is a war crime to attack a nuclear power plant. Putin’s shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear plant takes his reign of terror one step further,” it tweeted.
Russian forces gain ground
Russia has apparently claimed its first major Ukrainian city as its onslaught against the crucial southern region intensifies. The mayor of Kherson on the Black Sea indicated that Russian forces had seized control, though there are still conflicting reports. Ukraine claims that more than 2,000 civilians have died since the invasion began a week ago.
Russian column hits roadbumps
A threatening 40-mile Russian column on the road to Kyiv appears to have stalled en-route. Troops are “literally out of gas” and “having problems feeding their troops,” according to a senior U.S .defense official. The delay comes as protests from ordinary Russians, who maintain that this war is not in their name, continue despite heavy state crackdowns.
Protesters of all ages are traveling from across Russia to Moscow and St. Petersburg to express their dissent. Police in St. Petersburg arrested at least 350 anti-war protesters Wednesday, taking the total detained or arrested to 7,624 since the invasion began, according to an independent organization tracking human rights violations in Russia.
China asked Russia to delay invasion until after Olympics, says new intel
A new report from Western intelligence suggests that China asked Russia to delay its invasion of Ukraine until after the Olympics. Though some details are open to interpretation, the report is broadly credible per U.S. officials, and indicates timing that corresponds to when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Beijing for the opening ceremony — and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. It’s not clear whether the leaders addressed the matter directly with one another.
China’s Foreign Ministry has called the story “totally false,” adding that it’s an attempt to “divert attention and blame.”
“We hope that those responsible for the crisis should reflect on their role in the Ukraine crisis, shoulder their due responsibilities and take concrete actions to ease the situation and solve the issue, instead of blaming others,” said ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin in a briefing Thursday.
Facing stronger than expected resistance on the ground, Russian forces are increasing their air assaults, raining shells on Ukraine’s cities, and according to international watchdogs, increasingly hitting civilians.
Russia claimed early Wednesday to have taken the southern city of Kherson, but the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has denied those reports. “According to the info from our brigade the battles are going on now,” a spokesperson for the ministry said. “The city is not captured totally, some parts are under our control.”
Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said Russian forces hit a television tower in Kyiv on Tuesday, killing five people. Rockets have also hit a maternity clinic and — in an especially grotesque turn given President Putin’s avowed aim to “denazify” Ukraine — a Holocaust memorial site. Kyiv’s sick children are being treated in basements and bomb shelters.
Biden denounces ‘menacing’ Putin in State of the Union address
President Biden condemned Russia’s invasion during his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, denouncing Putin, and affirming his “unwavering resolve that freedom will always triumph over tyranny.”
“Six days ago, Russia’s Vladimir Putin sought to shake the very foundations of the free world, thinking he could make it bend to his menacing ways. But he badly miscalculated,” Biden said.
The president pledged solidarity with the Ukrainian people, but reiterated that the U.S. will not deploy troops to Ukraine.
Ukrainian President gets standing ovation in European Parliament
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy received a standing ovation from the European Parliament on Tuesday as he vowed to keep fighting the Russian onslaught. During an emergency session just a day after he officially asked the bloc to “urgently admit Ukraine,” he urged the Union to “prove that you are with us.”
I am “extremely happy with what I have seen here and I am happy that we have united all of you, but I didn’t want this unity at this price,” he continued. “Thousands of people killed, two revolutions, one war, and five days of full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation.”
Terrified Ukrainians flee the capital, or stay to fight
A week into the invasion, a million Ukrainians have fled the country, according to the United Nations. That number may rise to four million in the days ahead. Kyiv’s stations were crowded with terrified civilians hoping to flee to Poland as the Russians continued to advance on Monday.
In an incredibly courageous show of solidarity, world heavyweight champ Oleksandr Usyk, 35, has returned home to take up arms in Ukraine. “I’m defending my home, wife, children, my close ones,” he said. “It’s my duty.”
Asked whether he’d be prepared to take a life, he said “if they are going to take my life, or the life of my close ones, I will have to do it.”
Russians blast government building in Kharkiv
At least six people, including a child, were injured in an explosion in Ukraine’s second-biggest city, Kharkiv, on Tuesday. “Russia is waging war in violation of international humanitarian law. Kills civilians, destroys civilian infrastructure. Russiaʼs main target is large cities that are now fired at by its missiles,” the Ukrainian MOFA tweeted, sharing a video that appeared to show a missile attack on the Kharkiv Regional State Administration building.
Investigation into Russian ‘war crimes’
Hours after Monday’s talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegates ended without a clear resolution, the International Criminal Court said that it would open an investigation into whether Russia has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. Ukraine’s President Zelensky accused Russia of war crimes for bombing the city of Kharkiv. Russian forces rained rockets on a residential area as yesterday’s meeting came to an end, while several huge explosions were heard in Kyiv.
More civilian casualties
Nine civilians, including three children, were killed during Russia’s bombardment of Kharkiv on Monday, while 37 others were wounded. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova called the situation “hellish,” posting a Facebook video of a missile that struck a kitchen window and tore a woman’s leg off. Per CNN, the woman died later in hospital.
As another child dies, a heartbroken doctor says ‘show this to Putin’
Heartbreaking — and extremely — graphic photos shared by CNN show a six-year-old girl who was hit by Russian shelling on a supermarket in the southeastern city of Mariupol on Sunday. She was rushed to hospital, where doctors and nurses fought to revive her, but she died of her injuries shortly after.
A doctor who’d been pumping oxygen into the child spoke to an Associated Press video journalist’s camera in the room.
“Show this to Putin,” he said. “The eyes of this child, and crying doctors.”
