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Congressional Democrats are preparing a plan that would boost President Joe Biden’s requested $33 billion Ukraine aid package to nearly $40 billion, and a House vote is possible as soon as Tuesday, two people familiar with lawmakers’ thinking said.

In a retreat, Biden conceded that the package should not contain any of the additional billions he’s requested to combat COVID-19. Republicans, whose backing would be crucial to pushing legislation through the evenly divided Senate, have opposed adding that money to the Ukraine aid.

“We cannot afford delay in this vital war effort,” Biden said in a written statement. “Hence, I am prepared to accept that these two measures move separately, so that the Ukrainian aid bill can get to my desk right away.”

Biden said he has “nearly exhausted” his authority to continue shipping military aid to Ukraine, adding, “We are approximately 10 days from hitting this critical deadline.”

Democrats have already offered their latest proposal to the GOP.

“I’m focused on getting it done without extraneous matters on it, and getting it done quickly,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, said of the proposal. He said the measure “may adjust some in the process.”

Details of the measure were described Monday by people who could speak only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. Biden’s statement provided no details, saying, “Congress is likely to pass it in substantially the form I proposed.”

Democrats’ movement on the proposal comes with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in its 11th week and showing signs of becoming a grinding, long-term war. Heavy fighting in Ukraine’s eastern and southern areas is causing widespread damage and significant losses on both sides, and the Russian offensive is showing few signs of progress.

Still, U.S. officials in and out of Congress have stressed that it will be critical to continue speeding assistance to Ukraine, whose forces are outnumbered.

Emphasizing the urgency facing U.S. officials, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the Pentagon’s ability to send weapons systems and other equipment from Defense Department stockpiles to Ukraine will run out in about three weeks. The Pentagon currently has about $100 million in drawdown authority left from a $13.6 billion Ukraine aid measure enacted in March.

“Which is why we encourage Congress to act quickly,” Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon. He said the Pentagon would like “no interruption” in its ability to send Ukraine weapons and other equipment.

While Democrats say more spending to combat COVID-19 is also crucial, their plan to seek votes on a package omitting those funds underscores their thinking that rushing assistance to Ukraine is their top priority. A push for a separate pandemic measure would come later, Democrats say.

The officials said Democrats’ Ukraine measure would include $3.4 billion more than Biden had requested for defense spending and another $3.4 billion over what the president sought for humanitarian aid.

Biden’s request, which he sent Congress on April 28, asked for $20 billion for defense spending for Ukraine, the U.S. and their allies. It also requested $3 billion for humanitarian assistance, including to help feed people around the world who rely on grains and other food from war-racked Ukraine.

Backed by Democrats, Biden has asked Congress for another $22.5 billion to buy vaccines, treatments and tests to better prepare the country for future COVID-19 variants and help staunch the virus’ spread in poor countries abroad. In a deal with Republicans, Democrats agreed last month to slice that request to $10 billion, but the compromise was derailed over other disagreements.

With elections approaching and the public tiring of dealing with the pandemic, Republican support for added COVID-19 spending has flagged. Democrats hoped wrapping the pandemic money into the widely popular Ukraine measure would ease approval of the COVID-19 funds.

In his statement, Biden said Congress should send him the Ukraine funds “in the next few days. And then, I urge Congress to move promptly on the COVID funding bill.”

Unwilling to slow the Ukraine package, Republicans also want to keep the pandemic spending separate so they can use that measure for a fight over immigration that could damage Democrats.

The GOP wants to force a vote on a proposal to continue curbs on admitting migrants crossing the Mexican border for fear of spreading the pandemic, restrictions imposed by former President Donald Trump.

With increases in border crossings expected soon, that proposal divides Democrats, with many reluctant to back Biden in ending those restrictions later this month.
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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern about the potential for Russia’s war in Ukraine to spread, during a visit to Moldova’s capital Monday. 

“The impact of the war in Ukraine across the region and the world is profound and far-reaching; the consequences of escalation are too frightening to contemplate,” Guterres said during a joint news conference with Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita in Chisinau.  

“I am deeply concerned about the continuation and possible spread of the war Russia is waging in Ukraine, and by the impact it is having not only in the region but around the world,” the U.N. chief said. 

Russia’s invasion has disrupted wheat, maize, sunflower oil and fertilizer exports from the Black Sea region, as well as spiked fuel prices globally. 

Guterres is in Moldova on a two-day visit to express international support for Ukraine’s western neighbor, which has seen about a half million refugees enter the country, and 90,000 remain, many in Moldovan homes.

“Moldova is a small country with a big heart,” he said, noting its resources are limited. 

There is also international concern that Moldova could be a possible second front in Russia’s war on Ukraine, via its Kremlin-backed breakaway region of Transnistria. 

“Moldova is in the front line of preservation [of] peace and stability in the world,” Guterres said.

When asked about Transnistria, he said he hopes actors on both sides would have a clear sense of responsibility and prevent any threat to the nation. 

“Your sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and the solid progress you have made over the past three decades must not be threatened or undermined,” Guterres said. 

The U.N. secretary-general added that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “must stop, the guns must be silenced, and I urge Russia and Ukraine to step up diplomatic efforts to dialogue to urgently achieve the negotiated settlement in line with international law and the U.N. Charter.”  

Prime Minister Gavrilita said in response to reporters’ questions about a possible military mobilization, that the government believes there is a “low risk of escalation of military actions” in Moldova and dismissed rumors of a mobilization. 

“So far, we have no reason to be worried and to resort to such actions,” Gavrilita said, adding that if their assessment changes, they will communicate it through official channels. 

Gavrilita stepped in Monday for the meetings with Guterres, confirming that President Maia Sandu had to cancel due to “health reasons.” 

On Tuesday, Guterres will meet with the speaker of Moldova’s parliament, Igor Grosu, and then visit a center for refugees. 
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The U.S. on Monday suspended 232 tariffs on Ukrainian steel for a year, in a new attempt to boost the war-torn country’s economy. 

“We can’t just admire the fortitude and spirit of the Ukrainian people — we need to have their backs and support one of the most important industries to Ukraine’s economic well-being,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in announcing the tariff rollback. 

“For steel mills to continue as an economic lifeline for the people of Ukraine, they must be able to export their steel,” she said. 

But how much the tariff curb might help Ukraine’s economy was not immediately clear. The U.S. is the world’s biggest steel importer, but Ukraine was not among the top 10 national exporters to the U.S. in 2019, according to a government report. 

The U.S. said the Ukrainian steel industry employs one in 13 workers in the country, but that the country’s steel plants have been among the hardest hit targets during Russia’s invasion of the country, including the massive Azovstal plant in the port city of Mariupol. 

Despite the devastation halting operations at the steel plants, the U.S. said some of the factories have continued to pay, feed and shelter their workers. Some of the steel plants have reopened even with fighting nearby.
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Protesters in Poland doused Russian Ambassador Sergei Andreyev with red paint as he attempted to lay flowers at a Soviet military memorial cemetery in Warsaw for Red Army soldiers who died during World War II.

Video of the attack Monday showed red paint being thrown from behind Andreyev before another activist standing beside him throws some on his face as they protested Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Andreyev was surrounded by the protesters, who were holding Ukrainian national flags and chanting, “Fascist! Fascist!”

He and his delegation were prevented from placing flowers at the cemetery to mark the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Poland has been one of the harshest critics of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

More than 3.2 million refugees have flooded into Poland from Ukraine as a result of the fighting, which began on February 24.
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Former French prime minister Francois Fillon will learn Monday whether an appeals court has upheld his conviction for setting his wife up with lucrative fake jobs.

Revelations about the probe torpedoed conservative Fillon’s 2017 presidential campaign, leaving the way clear for centrist Emmanuel Macron — re-elected to a second term last month.

The 68-year-old was convicted by a lower court in 2020 and sentenced to five years in jail, three of them suspended.

At the November appeals hearing, prosecutors said there was clear evidence that Fillon and his stand-in as MP for the Sarthe department, Marc Joulaud, employed Fillon’s wife Penelope in an “intangible” or “tenuous” role as a parliamentary assistant between 1998 and 2013.

On top of jail time and fines, the Fillons and Joulaud were ordered in 2020 to repay more than $1,055,000 to France’s National Assembly lower house.

The court also barred Fillon from holding public office for 10 years, while Penelope  — a serving local councilor — received a two-year ban.

Penelope also had a job as “literary consultant” at the Revue des Deux Mondes magazine owned by Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere, described by the prosecution as an “indulgence” for his friend Fillon.

Ladreit de Lacharriere himself pleaded guilty in a 2018 trial in which he acknowledged the job was partially fake.

Prosecutors have called for Fillon to face still harsher punishment in the appeals hearing, including five years’ jail and a fine of $395,000 for the charges of abuse of public funds, collusion and concealing abuse of company assets.

They also want a two-year suspended sentence for Penelope Fillon and a fine of $105,000.

Before the appeals court, the Fillons stuck to their defense that Penelope’s “on-the-ground” work in Sarthe was “immaterial” but very “real.”

Their lawyers attacked the “media frenzy” around “Penelopegate,” as the scandal was dubbed when it emerged.

Neither is expected to attend the court on Monday.

Since withdrawing from politics, Fillon had held jobs on the boards of Russian petrochemicals giant Sibur and hydrocarbons firm Zarubezhneft.

His has quit both posts since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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The United States Department of the Treasury has announced new sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has named entities and people that it says are critical to Russia’s ability to wage war, including the board members of two of Russia’s most important banks, a Russian state-owned bank and 10 of its subsidiaries, a state-supported weapons manufacturer, and three of Russia’s state-controlled television stations that generate revenue for the state, according to a department statement.  

OFAC is also taking action to cut off access to services that are used by the Russian Federation and Russian elites to evade sanctions.  

“Today we are further constricting Russia’s economy and access to services and technology it needs to conduct this unprovoked invasion,” said Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen said in the statement.  

“Preventing Russia from accessing the United States’ valuable professional services increases the pressure on the Kremlin and cuts off its ability to evade sanctions imposed by the United States and our partners. We are also targeting Putin’s ability to generate revenue that enables his aggression, as well as entities and their leaders who support his destructive actions.”

The penalties include cutting off Western advertising from Russia’s three biggest and most popular television stations — Channel One Russia, Russia-1 and NTV — which the U.S. says have been in the forefront of spreading misinformation about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The penalties also include banning U.S. accounting and consulting firms from providing services to any Russian and more restrictions on Russia’s industrial sector.  

Wealthy Russians have relied on U.S. expertise to set up shell companies, move wealth and resources to alternate jurisdictions, and conceal assets from authorities around the world, the Treasury statement said.  

In addition, Russian companies, particularly state-owned and state-supported enterprises, rely on these services to run and grow their businesses, generating revenue for the Russian economy that helps fund Putin’s war machine.

The U.S. also sanctioned eight current and recent members of the executive board of Sberbank, 27 executives from Gazprombank, a bank that facilitates sales by Russia’s energy giant Gazprom, and the Moscow Industrial Bank, a Russian state-owned bank, along with 10 of its subsidiaries. MIB has facilitated transactions for the Russian intelligence services, the Treasury statement said.

The U.S. has also imposed some 2,600 visa restrictions on Russian and Belarusian officials and issued a new visa restriction policy that applies to Russian military officials and authorities suspected of human rights abuses or corruption.
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Germany’s conservative CDU won an election in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein on Sunday, a boost to the party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, which was ousted from the national government in federal elections last year.

An exit poll by the political research group, Infratest dimap, put the Christian Democrats (CDU) at 43.5% of votes, up 11.5% from when Schleswig-Holstein last held a state election in 2017.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats, the main party in Germany’s “traffic light” coalition with the environmentalist Greens and liberal Free Democrats (FDP), meanwhile slumped to 15.9%, as it had presented a largely unknown candidate.

The exit poll put the Greens and FDP, which in Schleswig-Holstein have been in coalition with the CDU since 2017, at 18.1% and 6.4% respectively, meaning the conservatives may be able to form a government there with only one of the two parties.

CDU Secretary-General, Mario Czaja, said the party will not make a recommendation from Berlin about which way State Premier Daniel Guenther should proceed in deciding on a partner.

The CDU’s stronger standing in the state than at the national level – where it is polling at 26% following its worst ever federal election result in September – is partly down to the popularity of Guenther, analysts say.

Another term for 48-year-old Guenther, who polls show is the most popular state premier in Germany, could strengthen the role of moderates within the CDU, in a counterpoint to their more right-wing leader Friedrich Merz, CDU sources told Reuters.

The South Schleswig Party (SSW), which represents the ethnic Danish minority in the state, won 5.8% of the votes while both the far-right AfD and far-left Linke parties did not reach the 5% of votes necessary to secure seats in the state’s parliament.

More significant will be elections next week in Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), where the SPD and CDU are running neck and neck.

A loss by the conservatives in NRW, after losing in March in the tiny western state of Saarland, would be a significant blow to the party.

It would also make it easier for Scholz’s SPD-Greens-FDP coalition to pass laws in the upper house of the national parliament, where regional elections help to determine the distribution of votes.  

Energy transition

Regional issues such as the cost of child care or property purchase taxes typically dominate such state elections.

But national issues are also in particular focus this year given the tectonic shift in German foreign, energy and security policy since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

For one, Germany aims to accelerate the expansion of renewable energy to reduce its dependence on Russia as a supplier of oil and gas.

Located between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, Schleswig-Holstein is one of Germany’s leading states in wind power generation, with over 3,000 onshore and offshore wind turbines.

The Greens aim to increase the number of turbines and cut the minimum distance required between wind farms and residential buildings, while the CDU wants to raise the production capacity of existing wind farms without further increasing their number.

Schleswig-Holstein is also set to become home to one of Germany’s two planned liquid natural gas (LNG) terminals, whose construction has been brought forward due to the Ukraine war. The Greens and the SSW — had previously opposed the project.

But they are not expected to strongly object anymore if they become part of the government given concerns over energy supply, according to Christian Meyer-Heidemann, the state’s Commissioner of Civic Education, a non-partisan office.

Battery maker Northvolt plans to open a third battery cell giga factory in the town of Heide in 2025, citing the state’s high green power share.
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The United States and other leading economies in the Group of Seven nations Sunday agreed to ban or phase out the purchase of Russian oil, directly targeting a major source of income for Moscow to pay for its 10-week invasion of Ukraine.  

“This will hit hard at the main artery of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s economy and deny him the revenue he needs to fund his war,” the G-7 leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.S. said after a virtual meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.  

The U.S. has already ended its purchase of Russian oil, while the 27-nation European  Union, which gets about a quarter of its crude oil imports from Russia, has also announced plans to do likewise. It is still in talks on exactly how to end its reliance on Moscow’s oil.

“Putin has failed in his initial military objective to dominate Ukraine – but he has  

succeeded in making Russia a global pariah,” the White House said in a statement.  

“Today, the United States, the European Union and G7 committed to ratchet up these  costs” with further sanctions targeting “financial elites” in Russia who support Putin, as well as their family members.

The call with Zelenskyy took place on the day the G-7 leaders commemorated the end of World War II in the European theater and as Russia prepared for Monday’s annual celebration of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, which it calls Victory Day.

“We remain united in our resolve that President Putin must not win his war against Ukraine,” the G-7 statement said. “We owe it to the memory of all those who fought for freedom in the Second World War.”

The G-7 said Putin’s invasion of Ukraine brings “shame on Russia and the historic sacrifices of its people.”

As part of Sunday’s talks, Washington announced new sanctions against three highly watched Russian state television outlets, saying they “have been among the largest recipients of foreign revenue, which feeds back to the Russian state’s revenue.”

The U.S. also said it would ban Americans from providing financial services to Russian companies to keep elites from building wealth, “thereby generating revenue for Putin’s war machine, and to trying to hide that wealth and evade sanctions.”

The White House statement said the U.S. would also impose further export controls on a wide range of industrial products, to “further limit Russia’s access to items and revenue that could support its military capabilities.”

The U.S. said it has already imposed about 2,600 visa restrictions on Russians and Belarusians in response to what it said was their ongoing efforts to undermine Ukraine. Belarus is one of Russia’s closest allies.

The U.S. government has also sanctioned eight executives at Sberbank, the largest financial institution in Russia; 27 executives from Gazprombank, which handles business by Russia’s Gazprom, one of the largest natural gas exporters in the world; and Moscow Industrial Bank and its 10 subsidiaries.
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The U.K., U.S. and Irish governments have urged rival parties in Northern Ireland to come together to resurrect its power-sharing government after Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein scored a historic victory to become the biggest party in Northern Ireland’s Assembly.

Sinn Fein, which seeks union with Ireland, won 27 seats in the 90-seat legislature, beating the Democratic Unionist Party, which secured 25 seats. It’s the first time in Northern Ireland’s history that an Irish nationalist party has topped the voting.

But it’s not clear whether Sinn Fein will lead a new government because of Northern Ireland’s delicate power-sharing politics and ongoing tussles over the legacy of Britain’s exit from the European Union.

While Sinn Fein’s vice president, Michelle O’Neill, now has the right to the post of first minister, a functioning Northern Ireland Executive — or devolved government — cannot be formed unless the largest unionist party agrees to join in the role of deputy first minister.

In February the DUP’s Paul Givan quit as first minister in protest against post-Brexit border arrangements, collapsing the Executive. His party has said it will not return to government unless their demands over the customs arrangements are met.

Leaders in London and Dublin said all parties must now re-establish Northern Ireland’s government as soon as possible.

Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin late Saturday said, “It is now incumbent on all political parties and elected representatives to deliver on their mandate.”

“Power-sharing and principles of partnership, equality and mutual respect are at the heart of the Good Friday Agreement, through which peace has been secured and progress achieved for almost 25 years,” he added. “A new power-sharing Executive is vital for progress and prosperity for all in Northern Ireland.”

In London, Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said he will meet with party leaders Monday to discuss how to re-establish a functioning government.

Lewis reiterated his position that the U.K. government would like to reach an agreement with the EU to resolve disputes over post-Brexit rules known as the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The DUP is strongly opposed to the rules, which have imposed customs and border checks on some goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K. Unionists say the new checks have created a barrier between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. that undermines their British identity.

Britain’s Conservative government is trying to get the EU to agree to major changes, but negotiations have reached an impasse.

“The U.K. government’s position is we want to secure a deal with the EU. We’re very clear about that,” Lewis told the BBC Sunday. “We have worked very hard on that for over a year now across a series of conversations. We made proposals. The EU hasn’t shown any flexibility.”

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said post-Brexit problems are an “obstacle to stability” in Northern Ireland, and that the government in London will take “whatever measures are necessary” to try to resolve it.

“It’s clear from the dynamic that we now see that we won’t get to that position of stability unless and until it is fixed,” Raab said.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price also urged Northern Ireland’s political leaders to take the necessary steps to re-establish a functioning government.

Brexit’s legacy adds an extra challenge to Northern Ireland’s politics, which operates under a delicate system splitting power between the largest British unionist party and largest Irish nationalist party. The system was created by the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement that ended decades of Catholic-Protestant conflict.

If no power-sharing Executive can be formed within six months, a new election may be triggered.
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Refugees fleeing the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, now under Russian control, are heading to the cities of Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro to find safety. In Dnipro, the city has opened a special center to accommodate the newcomers. Yaroslava Movchan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera – Oleksandr Khoroshun.
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Stanislav Shushkevich, the first leader of an independent Belarus and one of the signatories of the accords that formally dissolved the Soviet Union, has died at the age of 87.

His wife Irina told Agence France-Presse that Shushkevich passed away Tuesday in the capital Minsk. He had been hospitalized in intensive care last month after contracting COVID-19.

The former electrical engineer was serving as interim chairman of the Supreme Soviet, or parliament, of what was then known as Byelorussia when the country voted to secede from the Soviet Union in September 1991, one month after the failed coup to remove then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev from power. Shushkevich was elected permanent chairman of the Supreme Soviet on September 18.

Nearly three months later, on December 8, Shushkevich met then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin and then-President Leonid Kravchuk at a resort in western Belarus and co-signed the Belavezha Accords, which ended the Soviet Union’s existence after nearly 70 years while creating the Commonwealth of Independent States. Gorbachev subsequently resigned as the final leader of the USSR more than two weeks later on Christmas Day.

In an interview with VOA in 2016, Shushkevich dismissed Gorbachev’s accusation that the men signed the accord because they were power hungry as “complete rubbish.”

Shushkevich served as head of state until January 1994, when he was removed by a vote of confidence after he was accused of corruption by Alexander Lukashenko, then chairman of a parliamentary anti-corruption committee. Several months later, Shushkevich came in a distant fourth place in Belarus’ first presidential election behind Lukashenko, who won the second round in a landslide.

Shushkevich became a strident critic of Lukashenko and his autocratic regime, which has remained in power since 1994.

In an interview with VOA in 2016, Shushkevich said the Belavezha Accords averted a civil war in the Soviet Union similar to the one that led to the demise of Yugoslavia. He also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to restore the old Russian Empire, instead of the Soviet Empire.

“He wants to make Russia dominate those lands and those countries that it used to dominate,” Shushkevich said.

Some information for this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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France’s Socialist Party and the hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party reached an agreement in principle on Wednesday to form an alliance for June’s parliamentary election.

The coalition pact, which the Greens and Communists agreed to earlier this week, is an attempt to deprive Macron of a majority in parliament in the June 12-19 vote and block his pro-business agenda, after he was re-elected president in April.

“We can and will beat Emmanuel Macron and we can do it with a majority to govern for a radical program,” LFI lawmaker Adrien Quatennens told Franceinfo radio.

If the agreement between the LFI and the Socialists is confirmed, the French left will be united for the first time in 20 years.

The deal was shaped under the leadership of LFI’s firebrand chief Jean-Luc Melenchon, who broke from the Socialist Party in 2008 after failing to dilute its pro-European Union stance. He wants to “disobey” the bloc’s rules on budget and competition issues and challenge its free-market principles.

A source in the Socialist Party (PS) said that there was agreement on who would run in what constituency and on overall strategy, but that negotiators still needed to finalize details of the joint program itself.

In particular, the wording on what the platform for the new alliance, which will run under the banner of the “Social and Ecological People’s Union,” would say on Europe was still being debated, sources said.

The deal would then need to be approved by the PS’s national committee.

‘Complicated’

Policies of the new alliance include plans to lower the retirement age to 60, raise the minimum wage and cap prices on essential products.

If confirmed Melenchon’s success in striking a deal with the Socialists, so far, the dominant force on the left, would mark a turning point for a party that gave the country two presidents since World War Two and has been a driving force for European integration.

PS veterans, including former party leader Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, have already called on fellow members to block the deal, saying it could mark the end of a pro-EU force on the left.

“It will be complicated to get it approved in the national committee,” Corinne Narassiguin, a former PS lawmaker, told Reuters.

But the Socialists had little leeway in the talks. Their candidate, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, garnered a meager 1.75% of votes cast in last month’s presidential ballot. However, they still control many local authorities.

In a sign of the Socialist Party’s collapse, a source close to the talks said the deal — which sees only one lawmaker from each party that joins the alliance run in any constituency — foresees that the PS would only have 70 candidates in mainland France, and possibly a few more in overseas territories.

The French lower house has 577 lawmakers.

A recent Harris Interactive poll showed a united left and an alliance between Macron’s party and the conservatives neck and neck, with each garnering 33% of the legislative vote. However, in France’s two round election system, projections show this could still translate into a majority of seats for Macron.
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His appeals for an Orthodox Easter truce in Ukraine went unheeded. His planned meeting with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church was canceled. A proposed visit to Moscow? Nyet. Even his attempt to showcase Russian-Ukrainian friendship fell flat.

Pope Francis hasn’t made much of a diplomatic mark in Russia’s war in Ukraine, seemingly unable to capitalize on his moral authority, soft power or direct line to Moscow to nudge an end to the bloodshed or at least a cease-fire.

Rather, Francis has found himself in the unusual position of having to explain his refusal to call out Russia or President Vladimir Putin by name — popes don’t do that, he said — and to defend his “very good” relations with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has justified the war on spiritual grounds.

While the long list of dead ends would indicate a certain ineffectiveness, it is par for the course for the Vatican’s unique brand of diplomacy that straddles geopolitical realities with spiritual priorities, even when they conflict. And in the case of Ukraine, they have: Francis has sought to be a pastor to his local flock in Ukraine, incessantly calling for peace, sending cardinals in with humanitarian aid and even reportedly proposing that a Vatican-flagged ship evacuate civilians from the besieged port of Mariupol.

But he has also kept alive the Holy See’s longer-term policy goal of healing relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, which split from Rome along with the rest of Orthodoxy over 1,000 years ago. Up until recently, Francis held out hope that he would secure a second meeting with Russian Patriarch Kirill, even while Moscow bombed Ukrainian civilians.

Francis recently revealed that their planned June meeting in Jerusalem had been called off, because Vatican diplomats thought it would send a “confusing” message. But he also told an Italian newspaper Tuesday that he had offered to go to Moscow to meet with Putin, and wondered aloud if NATO’s eastward expansion hadn’t provoked the war.

To his critics, Francis’ continued outreach to Moscow even amid reported atrocities harks back to the perceived silence of Pope Pius XII, criticized by some Jewish groups for failing to speak out sufficiently against the Holocaust. The Vatican insists Pius’ quiet diplomacy helped save lives.

“Francis is doing what he can, with the right priorities, to stop the war, stop people from suffering,” said Anne Leahy, who was Canada’s ambassador to the Holy See from 2008-12 and ambassador to Russia in the late 1990s.

“But he’s keeping channels of communication open in every way he can. Even if it doesn’t work, I think the idea is to keep trying,” she said.

Leahy noted that a pope must have as a top priority this Gospel-mandated objective to unify Christians, and that relations with the Orthodox therefore must remain at the forefront.

“Diplomacy is at the service of the church’s mission, and not the other way around,” she said in a telephone interview.

At times, Francis’ words and gestures seem contradictory: One day he sits down for a videoconference with Kirill that is prominently featured on the website of the Russian Orthodox Church with a statement saying both sides had expressed hope for a “just peace.” Three weeks later, he kisses a battered Ukrainian flag brought to him from Bucha, where Ukrainian civilians were found shot to death with their hands bound.

The Vatican has a long tradition of this dual-faceted diplomacy. During the Cold War, the policy of “Ostpolitik” meant that the Vatican kept up channels of communication with the same Communist governments that were persecuting the faithful on the ground, often to the dismay of the local church.

Francis’ decision to continue with the “classic Vatican diplomacy of Ostpolitik, of dialoguing with the enemy and not closing the door, is debatable,” said the Rev. Stefano Caprio, professor of church history at the Pontifical Oriental Institute.

“Those who are upset that the pope isn’t defending them more are right, but those from the diplomatic side who say ‘We can’t throw away these relations’ are also right. They are obviously in contradiction,” he said.

“But since we’re not talking about an argument of faith — we aren’t talking about the persons of the Holy Trinity — you can have opinions that differ from the pope,” he added.

In some ways, Francis’ role on the sidelines of the Ukraine conflict can be traced to his position when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and the Holy See appeared at least publicly neutral, despite appeals from Ukrainian Greek Catholics, who are a minority in the majority Orthodox country, for Francis to strongly condemn Moscow.

Instead, Francis described the ensuing conflict as the fruit of “fratricidal violence,” as if both sides were equally to blame and that the conflict was an internal Ukrainian matter.

“My experience in 2014 is that the existence of the (Ukrainian) Greek Catholics was seemingly an embarrassment and a frustration with the Holy Father and the Holy See,” said John McCarthy, who was Australia’s ambassador to the Vatican at the time. “Their priority was the relationship with the Russian Orthodox” and securing a meeting with Kirill.

Francis eventually obtained that long-sought meeting, embracing Kirill in a VIP room of the Havana, Cuba, airport on Feb. 12, 2016, in the first meeting between a pope with the Russian patriarch since the 1054 Schism.

The two men signed a joint statement that was hailed by the Holy See at the time as a breakthrough in ecumenical relations. But it enraged Ukraine’s Greek Catholics because, among other things, it referred to them as an “ecclesial community” as if they were a separate church not in communion with Rome, and didn’t mention Russia’s role in the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Fast forward to 2022, and Francis again upset the local Ukrainian church: The Vatican had proposed that a Ukrainian and Russian woman carry the cross together during the Vatican’s torchlit Good Friday procession at the Colosseum. The gesture, which preceded Francis’ unheeded Easter appeal for a truce, was an attempt to show the possibility of future Russian-Ukrainian reconciliation.

But the Ukrainian ambassador objected, and the head of Ukraine’s Greek Orthodox faithful, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, decried the proposal as “inopportune and ambiguous,” since it didn’t take into consideration the fact that Russia had invaded Ukraine.

In the end, the Vatican compromised: The women carried the cross but instead of reading aloud a meditation that had called for reconciliation, stood together in silent prayer.

Leahy, the former Canadian ambassador, said the outcome was a classic example of papal pastoral care bridging Vatican diplomacy: Francis listened to Shevchuk’s complaint and modified the ritual, while keeping his broader agenda of dialogue with Russia alive.

Recalling the word “pontiff” derives from the Italian word for “bridge,” she said: “It’s the job of a diplomat, and certainly of a supreme pontiff who has the word ‘bridge’ written in his name, to keep the channels open.”

The Rev. Roberto Regoli, a professor of church history and an expert in papal diplomacy at the Pontifical Gregorian University, said those diplomatic channels with the Orthodox are important now, but also in the future when eventually Ukraine will have to be rebuilt.

“The reconstruction of a country … requires the involvement of all forces, even religious ones,” he said. “So, keeping these channels open is useful for the present but even more for the future, because it will take decades to rebuild.”
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Pope Francis said in an interview published on Tuesday that he has asked for a meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to stop the war in Ukraine but had not received a reply.

The pontiff also told the Italian daily Corriere Della Sera that Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has given the war his backing, “cannot become Putin’s altar boy.”

Francis told the newspaper that about three weeks into the war, he asked the Vatican’s top diplomat to send a message to Putin about setting up a meeting.

“We have not yet received a response and we are still insisting,” the pope said.

He added: “I fear that Putin cannot, and does not, want to have this meeting at this time. But how can you not stop so much brutality?”

Francis also said that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had told him that Putin planned to end the war on May 9, which Russia celebrates as Victory Day marking Nazi Germany’s surrender in 1945.

The 85-year-old pontiff made an unprecedented visit to the Russian Embassy in Rome when the war started.

Information from Reuters and AFP was used in this report.
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The mayor of Ukraine’s besieged city of Mariupol said Tuesday 100,000 citizens remained in the city, while Ukrainian officials awaited the arrival of the first group of people who were able to leave a bombed-out steel plant.

Mayor Vadym Boychenko said those still in the city included some civilians trapped in the bunkers and tunnels under the Azovstal iron and steel works.  There are an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian troops holed up there as well.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Monday that only civilians had so far been able to leave the plant and that Ukraine’s government was continuing to work to negotiate an evacuation for soldiers holed up inside.  Evacuated civilians were heading to Zaporizhzhia, about 200 kilometers away, although their progress was reported to be slow.

Russia’s military said Monday that 69 people who came out of the steel mill chose to be evacuated to Ukraine-controlled territories, while 57 others asked to stay in areas controlled by Russia.  

Ukraine has previously accused Russia of taking Ukrainians to Russia against their will, a charge Moscow denies.  

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Greek state television Monday that the remaining civilians in the steel plant had been afraid to board buses because they believed they would be taken to Russia.  

Economic pressure

As soon as Tuesday the European Union is expected to propose a new package of sanctions on Russia, including limits on Russian oil. German officials indicated Monday that country could support a full EU embargo of Russian oil. 

“We have managed to reach a situation where Germany is able to bear an oil embargo,” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said. 

Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Monday, “We expect a new package from the European Union soon. This package should include clear steps to block Russia’s revenues from energy resources.”  

Tuesday U.S. President Joe Biden is visiting the state of Alabama where Lockheed Martin manufactures weapons including the Javelin anti-tank missiles that are among the arms the United States is sending to Ukraine.

The White House said Biden will also “deliver remarks highlighting his request to Congress to pass funding quickly to help Ukraine continue to succeed against Russian aggression and make sure the United States and our allies can replenish our own stocks of weapons to replace what we have sent to Ukraine.”

The CIA on Monday released instructions on social media explaining how Russians disaffected by the war could get in touch with U.S. intelligence.  

“We are providing Russian-language instructions on how to safely contact the CIA — via our dark web site or a reputable VPN — for those who feel compelled to reach us because of the Russian government’s unjust war,” a CIA spokesperson said.  

A senior U.S. defense official described continuing problems for Russia’s military, including poor command and control issues and low morale in many units.  

“We continue to see minimal at best progress by the Russians” in capturing the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine,” the official said, adding, “They’ll move in, declare victory and then pull out, allowing the Ukrainians to take it back.”  

The official described Russia’s advances as “very cautious, very tepid, very uneven,” adding that “in some places, quite frankly, the best word to describe it would be ‘anemic.'” 

VOA’s Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Press and Reuters. 
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Spain said Monday that the mobile phones of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Defense Minister Margarita Robles were tapped using Pegasus spyware in an “illicit and external” intervention.

Their phones were infected last year by software owned by the Israeli-based firm NSO, which is the target of numerous investigations worldwide, according to a senior official.

“It is not a supposition, they are facts of enormous gravity,” said the minister of the presidency, Felix Bolanos.

“We are absolutely certain that it was an external attack…because in Spain, in a democracy like ours, all such interventions are carried out by official bodies and with judicial authorization,” he said.

“In this case, neither of the two circumstances prevailed, which is why we have no doubt that it was an external intervention. We want the judiciary to investigate,” Bolanos said.

He did not say whether the Spanish authorities had any indication yet where the attack originated from or whether another country was behind it.

Bolanos said that Sanchez’s phone had been tapped in May 2021 and Robles’ in June of the same year.

“A determined amount of data” was extracted from both phones, he added.

“There is no evidence that there was other tapping after those dates.”

Official phones targeted

The El Pais newspaper said the hackers extracted 2.6 gigabytes of information from Sanchez’s phone and nine megabytes from Robles’s phone, but the government still does not know “the nature of the stolen information and the degree of sensitivity.”

The attack targeted their work phones provided by the state, not their private phones.

Bolanos said experts were checking whether other members of the Spanish government were targets of spying involving Pegasus.
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also led to another casualty: freedom of the press in Russia, according to a new report by Reporters Without Borders.

The media advocacy group has ranked Russia near the bottom of its 2022 World Press Freedom index, which was issued Tuesday in conjunction with World Press Freedom Day. The annual index classifies a record 28 countries as “having very bad media freedom.”

The Reporters Without Borders, also known as RSF, says Moscow’s assault on a free press ramped up as Russian troops invaded Ukraine through such means as propaganda, laws aimed at discrediting credible media, website bans and arrests.

Russia is just one of several countries highlighted in the updated index whose governments have either curtailed or outright suppressed media freedoms. They include:

– Afghanistan, where the Taliban pledged to uphold press freedom after regaining power last year, but instead imposed restrictive laws and blocked female journalists from the airwaves, and where media outlets are facing financial hardship after bans on entertainment and advertising cut revenue;

– Hong Kong, where pro-democracy news sites have been shut down after a series of raids and arrests since Beijing approved a sweeping national security law in 2020 after massive anti-government protests the year before;

– Ethiopia, which has imposed communications blackouts and restricted access amid the war in the Tigray region;

– and Myanmar, where the 2021 coup that overthrew the civilian government led to journalists being detained, media licenses revoked, and many news outlets driven back into exile, marking a 10-year setback for media rights.

“There is a contagion effect with authoritarian regimes,” said Clayton Weimers, the U.S. deputy director of RSF, “and when we allow a culture of impunity to exist where authoritarians are allowed to go after journalists, harass them, arrest them, beat them in the streets and kill them, it has a knock-on effect. It emboldens that same authoritarian to do it again next time, and it emboldens other authoritarians who are watching to do the same.”

More troubling, Weimars told VOA, is the impact media polarization and disinformation has on society: “In 2022, it’s really undeniable that media polarization and information chaos are really fueling social divisions in ways that are pretty new.”

Democracies play an important role in safeguarding press freedom. But this rise in disinformation and propaganda is having a disastrous effect on independent news, RSF finds.

The 2022 index reveals the United States made a slight improvement compared with 2021, but journalists and media outlets are flagging barriers to coverage, including of state governments and protests.

“We typically find that this is either due to just a blatant disregard for the laws governing open records or meetings, or they’re simply misinterpreting them,” Beth Francesco, the senior director of the National Press Club Journalism Institute, told VOA. “An individual is misinterpreting whether a journalist can be present at a particular event.”

Richard Green contributed to this report.
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Turkey is one of the few countries where Russian airplanes can fly and Russian passport holders can enter without visas, making it a prime destination for Russians seeking to escape both Putin’s crackdowns and the effects of economic sanctions. For VOA, Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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U.S. President Joe Biden has strong bipartisan support in Congress for his latest $33 billion aid request for Ukraine, in addition to the $13.6 billion in economic, humanitarian and military assistance already sent earlier this year.

In recent visits to Ukraine and Poland, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress was working quickly to pass Biden’s request, calling the aid package “an enormous amount of money” that lawmakers were “very proud” to provide.

But a handful of lawmakers on both the right and the left have raised concerns about the expansion of presidential authority to support a conflict in Europe. While Biden has made clear the U.S. will never commit ground forces to Ukraine to openly oppose Russia, the massive amount of support has revived questions about presidential war powers and the scope of American involvement overseas following two decades of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Ten of the 206 House Republicans voted against the Ukraine Lend-Lease Act, legislation that eased restrictions on Biden’s ability to transfer U.S. weapons to Ukraine. No Democrats voted against the bill.

Conservative Congressman Thomas Massie explained his vote against Lend-Lease, saying language of the legislation defined defensive weapons too broadly.

“Congress just authorized Biden to transfer virtually any weapon of war, other than a nuclear weapon, to Ukraine,” he tweeted. “Insane!”

Opponents of the Lend-Lease Act also expressed concerns that the flow of weapons to Ukraine could deplete the United States’ own stockpiles. They said the massive assistance to Ukraine should be more carefully considered when there are domestic concerns about rising costs due to inflation.

“President Biden is requesting billions more in aid for Ukraine that could potentially draw our military into another trillion-dollar conflict half a world away,” Rep. Tom Tiffany said in a statement after the vote.

“If the last two decades have taught us anything, it is that it’s always much easier to get our country into a foreign conflict than it is to get out. Intervening in an overseas military engagement — whether through the deployment of U.S. personnel or a blank-check for military assistance — is among the most serious decisions an American leader can make. It is a step that should only be taken when clear, vital national security interests of the United States are at stake,” he added.

Last month, 15 Republicans and two progressive Democrats voted against a ban of Russian oil and energy imports. Both Republicans and Democrats opposed to the ban said the move could not be made without considering the impact on Europe and without developing a better strategy for American energy independence.

Last week, four progressive Democrats and four conservative Republicans also voted against a non-binding resolution that would have given the Biden administration the ability to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat, tweeted that oligarchs “should suffer huge financial losses” but said she voted against the legislation because it would give Biden the ability to “violate the 4th Amendment, seize private property and determine where it should go — all without due process.”

The 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects against unreasonable search and seizure of property by the government. Ocasio-Cortez said the bill “sets a risky new precedent in the event of future presidents who may seek to abuse an expansion of power.”

Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives have largely supported Biden’s approach to the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine while continuing to emphasize there can be no military solution to the crisis.

Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee has kept the issue of presidential war powers in public discussion for more than two decades since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In the wake of those attacks, Congress passed the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMFs), authorizing U.S. presidents to take military action.

Lee and other lawmakers have noted that presidents of both parties interpreted AUMFs so broadly they were able to take action against individuals and groups that were not directly involved in the attacks and, in some cases, didn’t even exist.

With the stakes for confrontation with Russia so high, there has been concern with some lawmakers that U.S. aid could escalate the situation. Lee, who strongly condemned the Russian invasion in February, said in a statement, “I am confident in President Biden’s repeated commitment to keep U.S. military personnel out of any conflict in Ukraine itself. Should the ongoing situation compel the President to consider U.S. military intervention in addition to these sanctions, however, Congress must be consulted prior to any authorization as per the War Powers Resolution of 1973. The American people deserve to have a say before we become involved in yet another foreign conflict.”

But in Poland this week, Lee made clear she is in support of U.S. assistance to Ukraine, viewing it as a key tool in maintaining U.S. interests abroad.

“This is a moment in history — it’s a defining moment, quite frankly, whether or not the world goes forward with our democratic principles or moves backwards, which is what Putin is attempting to do,” Lee told reporters.
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The European Union on Monday accused Apple of abusing its dominant Apple Pay market position to prevent other companies from competing in contactless payment technologies. 

“Apple has built a closed ecosystem around its devices and its operating system, iOS. And Apple controls the gates to this ecosystem, setting the rules of the game for anyone who wants to reach consumers using Apple devices,” EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said. “By excluding others from the game, Apple has unfairly shielded its Apple Pay wallets from competition.” 

The 27-nation bloc’s executive arm, the European Commission, said Apple’s practice “has an exclusionary effect on competitors and leads to less innovation and less choice for consumers for mobile wallets on iPhones.”  

The commission has not disclosed what, if any, fines could be levied against Apple should it be found in violation of antitrust laws. 

In response, Apple said it would cooperate with the Commission. 

The company said it “will continue to engage with the Commission to ensure European consumers have access to the payment option of their choice in a safe and secure environment.”  

The Commission has been investigating several aspects of Apple’s business practices in Europe since 2020, including the possibility the company violates European antitrust laws over music streaming and the app store. 

Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press. 

 
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Russia’s Bolshoi Theatre has announced it is cancelling the performances directed by Kirill Serebrennikov and Timofey Kulyabin who have spoken out against Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine.

Late Sunday, Russia’s top theatre announced that instead of the three performances of “Nureev,” a ballet directed by Serebrennikov, the audiences this week will see a production of Aram Khachaturian’s ballet, “Spartacus.”

The prestigious theatre also said that instead of “Don Pasquale,” a comic opera by Gaetano Donizetti directed by Timofey Kulyabin, audiences this week will see a production of Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.”

The Bolshoi did not give any reason for the cancellations and spokeswoman Katerina Novikova told AFP on Monday that she had no “official” comment.

The Bolshoi performed “Spartacus” in early April, saying that proceeds would be used to help the families of Russian troops who died in Ukraine.

Serebrennikov, 52, was allowed in March to leave Russia, where he had been found guilty in 2020 of embezzling funds at Moscow’s Gogol Centre theatre.

His supporters say the conviction was revenge for his criticism of authoritarianism and homophobia under President Vladimir Putin.

Speaking to AFP in Berlin last month, Serebrennikov said he felt “just horror, sadness, shame, pain” about Russia’s military campaign in pro-Western Ukraine.

“Nureev” is based on the life of Russian dance legend Rudolf Nureyev, and its use of onstage nudity and profane language outraged Russian conservatives.

Kulyabin, 37, who is also believed to be now based in Europe, has spoken out against Putin’s decision to send troops to Ukraine.

Several dancers have in recent weeks quit the Bolshoi including prima ballerina Olga Smirnova.
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Ukrainian officials said they expect more civilians will be able to evacuate from the besieged city of Mariupol on Monday. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video message late Sunday that more than 100 civilians were able to leave Sunday, and that they were due to arrive Monday in Zaporizhzhia, about 200 kilometers away. 

With Russian troops taking control of the rest of Mariupol, hundreds of civilians and an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian troops have been holed up at the Azovstal steel works. Multiple earlier attempts to evacuate civilians from the site fell apart with Ukraine accusing Russia of shelling evacuation routes. 

“For the first time, there were two days of real cease-fire on this territory,” Zelenskyy said. 

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk called the situation at Azovstal “a real humanitarian catastrophe” with people running low on food, water and medicine. 

The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross conducted Sunday’s evacuations, calling it a “safe passage operation.” 

As many as 100,000 other Ukrainian civilians may still be in Mariupol, located on the northern coast of the Sea of Azov, after a two-month bombing campaign that has all but leveled it.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who along with six other Democratic lawmakers made an unannounced visit Saturday to Kyiv to meet with Zelenskyy, held talks Monday in Poland with President Andrzej Duda as she pledges support for NATO allies in their efforts to bolster Ukraine.

“Our meetings will be focused on further strengthening our partnership, offering our gratitude for Poland’s humanitarian leadership, and discussing how we can further work together to support Ukraine,” Pelosi said in a statement Sunday. 

Duda said at the start of their meeting that they would discuss “the situation in Ukraine, how to help them, what kind of support they need.”  He added that this is a “crucial” and “very difficult moment.”

About 5.5 million refugees have left Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in late February, according to the United Nations, with more than 3 million of them going to Poland. 

Romania has taken in the second most with more than 800,000. 

The White House announced Monday that first lady Jill Biden will begin a trip Thursday to Romania and Slovakia that will include meeting with Ukrainians displaced by Russia’s invasion. Biden will also meet with aid workers, local families supporting Ukrainian refugees and educators who are helping Ukrainian children continue schooling. 

Pelosi was the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Ukraine since the February 24 Russian invasion that has killed thousands of fighters on both sides and thousands of Ukrainian civilians.  

Speaking from Poland after leaving Kyiv, Pelosi said she had vowed to Zelenskyy, “We are with you until this fight is won.”    

She said the congressional delegation brought him “message of appreciation from the American people for his leadership” in fighting back against the Russian invasion. Pelosi has promised quick House passage of the new $33 billion aid request for Ukraine U.S. President Joe Biden sent to Congress last week.  

Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, the lead Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told ABC’s “This Week” show that he too expects Congress to approve the new arms and humanitarian aid package, more than double the $13.6 billion in assistance Congress had already approved.  

After early predictions by some military analysts that Russia would quickly overrun Ukraine and topple Zelenskyy, McCaul said he now believes Ukraine “can win it. That should be the goal.”  

“I think the fighting spirit of the Ukrainians is far superior to that of the Russians,” McCaul said.  

Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, told ABC, “None of (the Russians’) objectives are met. They are trying to scare Ukrainians. We have to win and we will.” She described Pelosi’s visit to Kyiv as “yet another sign of the very strong support from the United States.”   

Britain’s defense ministry said more than one-fourth of the 120 battalion tactical groups Russia committed at the start of the conflict in Ukraine have likely “been rendered combat ineffective.”  The ministry added that some of the most elite Russian units “have suffered the highest levels of attrition.”

The Associated Press, Agence France-Press and Reuters provided some information in this report.
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For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT:

1:45 a.m.: Ukrainian officials said they expect more civilians will be able to evacuate from the besieged city of Mariupol on Monday. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video message late Sunday that more than 100 civilians were able to leave Sunday, and that they were due to arrive Monday in Zaporizhzhia, about 200 kilometers away.

With Russian troops taking control of the rest of Mariupol, hundreds of civilians and an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian troops have been holed up at the Azovstal steel works. Multiple earlier attempts to evacuate civilians from the site fell apart with Ukraine accusing Russia of shelling evacuation routes. “For the first time, there were two days of real cease-fire on this territory,” Zelenskyy said. 

1:15 a.m.: Britain’s defense ministry said more than one-fourth of the 120 battalion tactical groups Russia committed at the start of the conflict in Ukraine have likely “been rendered combat ineffective.” The ministry added that some of the most elite Russian units “have suffered the highest levels of attrition.”

12:15 a.m.: The White House announced first lady Jill Biden will begin a trip Thursday to Romania and Slovakia that will include meeting with Ukrainians displaced by Russia’s invasion. Biden will also meet with aid workers, local families supporting Ukrainian refugees and also educators who are helping Ukrainian children continue schooling.

12:01 a.m.: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi became the highest-ranking elected official to visit Ukraine’s president in Kyiv. She led a U.S. congressional delegation that promised more support for Ukraine and unwavering solidarity in its fight against Russian aggression. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.

Some information came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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