The message from Mariupol, Ukraine’s besieged port city on the Sea of Azov, was stark. “We’re still holding on,” a resident, Ihor, concluded his brief 34-word message
…

The price of oil jumped more than $10 a barrel and shares were sharply lower Monday as the conflict in Ukraine deepened amid mounting calls for harsher sanctions against Russia.
…

The Ukrainian father of two took off with a sprint when he saw the GPS coordinates from his wife’s cellphone draw nearer to the border crossing into Poland.

Yevgen Chornomordenko had been waiting for 11 days on the Polish side of the border for his wife, Alina, and two children to arrive from the Ukrainian capital, which had woken up to Russian shelling Feb. 24.

War had broken out at home just days after his arrival in the Polish city of Wroclow, near Germany, for a job installing solar panels.

“I never believed war would start,” Chornomordenko said, as he checked the GPS position of his arriving family.

Nearby, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, visited the same Medyka border crossing, proclaiming the number of refugees leaving Ukraine the fastest-growing humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II. In just 11 days, 1.5 million people had sought safety in neighboring countries.

Just moments after the U.N. official spoke, Chornomordenko’s wife and two children made the crossing themselves, in a small white Kia, which Alina had driven across Ukraine from Kyiv, in normal times an eight-hour drive.

He lifted 4-year-old son David onto his shoulders, and cradled the baby, 8-month-old Sofia, in his arms, looking lovingly at the tiny face, murmuring, “so beautiful.”

“I am so grateful,” he said.

Asked if he would return to Ukraine to fight, Chornomordenko said that for now his priority was to find a safe place for his family to stay. He remains worried about his brother, a charity worker, and retired parents back in Kyiv, trading frequent messages with them as he awaited his family.

“I feel pity for the situation. I know it is very difficult for the people that are still there,” he said.

The flow of refugees continued unabated Sunday, even as humanitarian corridors meant to ease the flight of refugees collapsed as quickly as they were agreed upon inside Ukraine.

Grandi said the humanitarian corridors also were critical to allowing basic goods to arrive to those in need and to evacuate the most vulnerable.

“But what is needed really is a cease-fire, the end of hostilities, because that’s the only way to stop this tragedy,” Grandi said.

The sentiments were echoed by Pope Francis, who made a powerful appeal for peace at the Vatican Sunday, imploring “an end to the armed attacks, and that negotiations prevail.”

In a highly unusual move, the pontiff said he had dispatched two cardinals to the war-ravaged country, signaling that the “Holy See is ready to do everything in the service of this peace.”

“In Ukraine, rivers of blood and tears are flowing,” the pope said during his traditional Sunday blessing. “This is not just a military operation, but a war that is spreading a lot of destruction and misery. The victims continue to become more numerous, just like the people who are fleeing.”

One 11-year-old boy made it all the way to Slovakia from the city of Zaporizhzhia, the site of Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant taken by Russian troops that caught fire after a building was hit with a projectile. The boy’s frightened mother sent him on the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) journey alone by train to find relatives, staying behind to care for her sick mother who can’t be moved.

“He came with a plastic bag, passport and a telephone number written on his hand, all alone,” according to a statement by Slovakia’s Interior Ministry, who hailed the boy as “a true hero.”

Volunteers took care of him, took him to a warm shelter and gave him food and drinks, and later reunited him with family in Bratislava.

In a video provided by Slovak police, the mother thanked the Slovak government and police for taking care of her son.

“People with big hearts live in your small country. Please, save our Ukrainian children,” said the mother, identified as Yulia Volodymyrivna Pisecka.

In Romania, Ukrainian refugees gathered at the Saints Peter and Paul Christian Orthodox Church in Suceava, to pray for peace. They were welcomed by Rev. Mihai Maghiar who is himself, Ukrainian-Romanian.

“The first thing that we do as servants of the Church is talk to them, help them trust again, and understand that life doesn’t end at the Ukrainian border, or any other border,” said Maghiar, who has seen many refugees come by his church since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Oksana Oliinykova sought strength in the church. She is bringing her daughter to the Netherlands, where friends have offered her a place to say. But a journalist who has covered the brutalities of war, Oliinykova is planning to go back to Ukraine, where her father and son remained to fight.

“And we can’t help with anything. It’s scary. It’s scary to understand that our boys, who go to fight have nothing. We can’t provide bulletproof vests and helmet(s),” she said.

Text messages from friends tell her just how desperate the situation at home has become. “Please help!” they ask. “We are without electricity for three days. The (Russians) are close, we can’t leave, we don’t even have blankets, we can’t feed our children,” they write.

For now, Oliinykova prays.

“As a Christian it’s very hard for me to hate,” said Oliinykova, who said she has relatives in Russia.

“And I know that they are also shocked. I don’t know how could I hate them. They are also sending young boys (to the war). How to get through all of this?” she asked. “I think we need less hate and more love.”
…

A day after many of them spoke with Ukraine’s president, U.S. lawmakers are pledging to provide additional military aid to Kyiv as the government there continues to fight for its survival amid the invasion by Russia.

Congress will soon approve emergency funding, putting “$10 billion into both defensive equipment for Ukraine, but also humanitarian assistance to get civilians out,” said Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, on Fox News Sunday.

Despite generally bipartisan and robust support for Kyiv, members of Congress are drawing the line at another Ukrainian request: a no-fly zone for the country’s airspace to deter Russian aerial attacks.

That would mean “World War III,” Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida told ABC’s “This Week” program Sunday. “I think there are a lot of things we can do to help Ukraine protect itself… but I think people need to understand what a no-fly zone means.”

Another senator, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a Democrat, expressed a less strict stance.

“I would take nothing off the table,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Murphy, a Democrat, commented on Fox News: “If I were President Zelenskyy, I would be asking for a no-fly zone. The problem is, there is no such thing as a no-fly zone over Ukraine.”

U.S. President Joe Biden is in regular contact with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, about Ukraine’s request for more fighter jets, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“Yes, we’re talking very actively about this, looking at what we could do to backfill Poland, if it chooses to send the MiGs and the SU planes that it has to Ukraine, how we can help by backfilling what they’re giving to the Ukrainians,” Blinken, in Moldova, told “Meet the Press.”

Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, in an interview with Fox News on Sunday, renewed her nation’s appeal for the United States to provide it with anti-aircraft weapons and other military aid, saying, “We should treat Russia as a terrorist state.”

Zelenskyy said Russia is planning to bombard the port city of Odessa. Zelenskyy said in a televised statement Sunday that if that occurs, it “will be a war crime … a historic crime.”

Zelenskyy spoke in Russian for part of the statement, urging Russians to choose between life and slavery in “the time when it is still possible to defeat evil without irreparable losses.”

The United States has “seen very credible reports of deliberate attacks on civilians which would constitute a war crime,” Blinken told CNN’s “State of the Union” show. “We’ve seen very credible reports about the use of certain weapons.”

There must be an investigation into whether Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a CNN interview Sunday.

“Putin must be tried for war crimes — and I urge my colleagues to support my resolution to hold him accountable for the crimes he’s committed against humanity,” tweeted Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York, a Democrat. “History will remember.”  

“We assess that the Russians have now committed inside Ukraine somewhere near 95% of the combat power they had amassed along the border,” a senior U.S. defense official said on Sunday. “As of today, we assess that approximately 600 Russian missile launches have occurred since the invasion began.”  

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday contended his military campaign in Ukraine was proceeding as planned and will not end until the Ukrainians stop fighting.

In a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who appealed for a cease-fire, Putin expressed readiness for dialogue with Ukraine and foreign partners but any attempt to draw out negotiations would fail, according to a Kremlin statement.

Putin’s remarks came as efforts at an evacuation effort for the bombarded port city of Mariupol failed for a second consecutive day.

“Amid devastating scenes of human suffering in Mariupol, a second attempt today to start evacuating an estimated 200,000 people out of the city came to a halt. The failed attempts yesterday and today underscore the absence of a detailed and functioning agreement between the parties to the conflict,” said the International Committee of the Red Cross in a statement.

Pope Francis made his strongest statement yet on Sunday about the conflict.

“In Ukraine, rivers of blood and tears are flowing. This is not just a military operation but a war which sows death, destruction and misery,” the pontiff said in his weekly address to a crowd in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City.  

Along with its European partners, Washington is considering a ban on Russian oil, confirmed the U.S. secretary of state.

“We are now in very active discussions with our European partners about banning the import of Russian oil to our countries, while of course, at the same time, maintaining a steady global supply of oil,” Blinken said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Some lawmakers want the White House to do more to increase domestic production as oil prices surge and Americans pay more to fuel their vehicles.  

U.S. gasoline prices jumped 11% over the past week to the highest since 2008, according to AAA.    

“President Biden would rather import oil from our adversaries in Russia, Iran and Venezuela than increase U.S. energy production at home,” tweeted Rep. Greg Murphy of North Carolina, a Republican, saying the energy security for the country equates to national security.  

Meanwhile, another social media platform announced restrictions on Russia-related content.   

TikTok, known for short user-generated videos, said Sunday that it is blocking users in Russia from posting new content.  

“In light of Russia’s new ‘fake news’ law, we have no choice but to suspend livestreaming and new content to our video service while we review the safety implications of this law,” read a tweet Sunday from TikTok’s communications team.   

An increasing number of corporate entities, including financial services, energy and technology companies, has cut ties to Russia in response to economic sanctions and outrage since the invasion of Ukraine.

VOA State Department Bureau chief Nike Ching, National Security correspondent Jeff Seldin, Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb, Istanbul foreign correspondent Heather Murdock, White House correspondent Anita Powell, and senior diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine contributed to this report.

Some information for this report came from The Associate Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

 
…

The impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — a country long known as the “breadbasket of Europe” because of the prodigious amounts of wheat, corn and other cereal grains that it produces — will extend far beyond Europe, wreaking havoc on global food supplies, experts from aid agencies say.

Ukraine produces 16% of the world’s corn, and Ukraine and Russia combined produce 29% of the wheat sold on world markets. Much of what they export goes to Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, and with virtually no cargo moving out of either county’s Black Sea ports, prices for the staple foods are spiking. Still unknown is whether an enduring war in Ukraine will damage this year’s harvest or prevent the sowing of crops for the next growing season.

Preexisting food crisis

Globally, food prices were already at a 10-year high before Russia invaded Ukraine, according to the United Nations World Food Program. Since Feb. 25, the day after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, wheat futures have risen by as much as 40% and corn futures by as much as 16%.

Because the war is already disrupting global fuel supplies — a problem that will worsen dramatically if sanctions on Russia are expanded to cover its energy exports — higher transportation costs are contributing to the rise in prices.

“We’re already facing a hunger crisis globally that we haven’t seen, at least this century,” Jordan Teague, an interim director for the charity group Bread for the World, told VOA.

“This is yet one more example of conflict generating hunger around the world, and the world just can’t sustain this,” said Steve Taravella, a senior spokesperson for the U.N. WFP. “We’ve got Yemen, we’ve got South Sudan, we’ve got Afghanistan. A significant amount of WFP resources is devoted to addressing hunger caused by man-made conflicts around the world, and this is just one more on top of that,” he told VOA.

Areas of concern

Teague said that while multiple countries are facing serious food shortages, her group is particularly concerned about several in the Middle East and East Africa, all of which rely on imports from Ukraine and Russia.

In Yemen, she said, tens of thousands of people are experiencing famine and another 16 million are facing a food crisis and in danger of famine. Even before the current crisis, she said, price inflation, currency depreciation and depleted foreign reserves had left Yemen struggling to import food.

Similarly, Lebanon, which, Teague said, imports about 60% of its wheat from Ukraine, is having difficulty buying enough food. More than one-third of the population there is already food insecure, and that doesn’t count the thousands of refugees displaced by the conflict in Syria, who are largely dependent on humanitarian assistance.

Ethiopia, currently locked in a brutal civil war, also faces a hunger crisis that the Ukraine conflict is likely to make worse. The country relies on imports for about 25% of its wheat, Teague said.

UN to continue aid

Ukraine is the WFP’s largest supplier of wheat and split peas, two key staples it uses to feed the hungry, Taravella said. However, while the shortages caused by the Ukraine conflict will increasingly strain his organization’s ability to deliver food to the more than 135 million people it serves around the world, the WFP’s programs will continue to operate.

“Because we have supply chain expertise and we have, for years, developed strategies for making sure we can get commodities into hard-to-reach countries in difficult times, we have other sources,” he said. “I’m not concerned that WFP won’t be able to find wheat or split peas or other things that we rely on Ukraine for. What we’re concerned about is what we and others will have to pay for them, because prices are going to go up.”

The agency might be forced to reduce the per-person ration of food it provides, he said. “It will cost us more, which will mean we may have to cut rations. Those are very real implications,” he said.

Ukraine food situation shaky

Within Ukraine, the fighting appears not to not have cut off food supplies, but media reports indicate that stores are finding it increasingly difficult to remain open.

Fozzy Group, the country’s largest supermarket chain, continued to operate most of its stores this week, even in cities such as Kharkiv and Kyiv, which are facing direct attacks from Russian troops. Stores have had to close on an ad hoc basis, sometimes with little notice, when managers determine that the risks of remaining open are too great.

According to the news agency Interfax-Ukraine, a group of retail outlets and the country’s Ministry of Digital Transformation have created an online map that indicates whether a grocery store is open and its hours of operation.
…

As international sanctions on Moscow have triggered a decrease in the ruble’s value, North Korean workers in Russia are struggling to meet the remittance quotas set by Pyongyang, according to multiple sources in Russia and official North Korean documents obtained by VOA’s Korean Service.

North Korea is believed to use the hard currency to fund development of its weapons.

North Koreans working at Pyongyang’s entities and front companies contracted with enterprises in Russia are paid in rubles. As of 2020, there were 1,000 North Koreans working in Russia, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Because the regime prefers dollars to rubles, the North Koreans convert their rubles before remitting them to Pyongyang. The sharp drop of the ruble has slashed the amount of dollars North Korean workers can send back to Pyongyang. When Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, $1 was worth 84.05 rubles. On March 4, $1 was worth 106.47 rubles.

VOA’s Korean Service is in regular contact with several sources in Russia who are familiar with the situation of North Korean workers there. Only the most trusted North Koreans are allowed to work in Russia and elsewhere outside their country.

Workers are “feeling extreme pressure from their supervisors” at North Korean enterprises operating in Russia, said one source who said the workers fear further devaluation of the ruble and are in a panic-driven rush to convert rubles to dollars.

The service has verified the credibility of the sources in Russia and to protect their identities, cannot reveal further information about them.  The sources provided several documents including the list of monthly remittance quotas and instructions for meeting them.

Devalued ruble

The ruble plunged below $0.01 in value this week after the U.S. and European countries imposed sanctions against Russia on Feb. 26 to financially isolate and punish Moscow for invading Ukraine.

Included in the sanctions was a ban on several Russian banks from accessing the SWIFT global bank payment system.

Eager for foreign currency, Pyongyang has long dispatched North Korean workers to Russia to make money. The U.S. estimated 30,000 were in Russia before the U.N. issued sanctions in December 2017 banning countries from authorizing work permits to North Koreans. Many remain in Russia and work using student or travel visas.

North Koreans work in various sectors but most are employed on construction or logging projects.

From January to August 2022, each North Korean construction worker was expected to remit $6,500 in dollars, according to a monthly list of quotas set by Pyongyang and obtained by VOA’s Korean Service.

That was equivalent to 710,000 rubles using the current exchange rate of 110 rubles per dollar. In October 2021, $6,500 was equivalent to 460,000 rubles when the exchange rate was 70 rubles per dollar.

This means North Koreans must now earn 30% to 40% more to fulfill the required remittance quotas.

North Korea “doesn’t need rubles and requires the payments in dollars only,” said a source.  “It won’t reduce the quota amounts that were ordered to be submitted unconditionally” despite the ruble’s fall.

A copy of a document obtained by VOA’s Korean Service included instructions for workers to meet quotas “unconditionally.”

In addition to the money destined for Pyongyang, each worker must earn approximately 30,000 rubles per year to pay to Russian universities to obtain a student visa.

Financial pressure

In December, the U.S. ostracized Moscow-based university European Institute Justo and its provost for sponsoring student visas for North Korean workers whose income the Treasury Department said supported Pyongyang’s weapons program.

Additionally, the SWIFT ban on Russian banks restricted North Korean workers from sending money to Pyongyang. The dollar-based SWIFT global messaging network is used by more than 11,000 financial institutions in 200 plus countries to send and receive information about cross-border transactions.

North Korean workers in Russia now “can’t send money” using their old method, said Heo Kang Il, a former manager of a North Korean restaurant in China, who spoke with VOA’s Korean Service.

Heo said North Korean entities in Russia used to deposit their earnings to North Korean banks operating secretly in Russia. Then the banks would wire the money to a global online payments system using online accounts created under pseudonyms in China. From there, the money was sent to Pyongyang.

VOA’s Korean Service contacted the North Korean mission to the U.N. to obtain Pyongyang’s position on the economic impact the drop in the ruble’s value is expected to have on Pyongyang but did not get a reply.

William Brown, a former CIA analyst who closely monitors the North Korean economy, said difficulties faced by heavily sanctioned countries like North Korea and now Russia could lead them to forge closer trade and financial relations.

“They are going to create a sort of an island of sanctioned countries – North Korea, Russia now, and Iran,” said Brown.

“So the more this island gets bigger, the more they’ll trade and invest within that group,” he said. “In the Cold War era, we didn’t do much business with any of the bloc [made of] China, Russia, Eastern Europe, all those countries. There were essentially two separate financial systems. They did a lot of trade finance amongst themselves.”

Bradley Babson, a former World Bank adviser and current advisory council member of the Korea Economic Institute of America, said Pyongyang will now forge even closer economic ties with its top trading partner China.

The North Koreans “are going to have to rely almost entirely on China for whatever economic benefits that they can get out of opening up their trade relationship and whatever remittances they might be able to receive from North Koreans working in China as opposed to Russia.” 
…

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has pledged Washington’s support to Moldova, a small, Western-leaning former Soviet republic that is contending with an influx of refugees from neighboring Ukraine.

Moldova says that more than 230,000 refugees have crossed its border with Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24. At least 120,000 of them remain in the country, officials said.

Moldova is appealing for international assistance in dealing with the refugees, while also seeking security reassurances against potential Russian aggression.

Speaking alongside Moldovan President Maia Sandu in Chisinau on March 6, Blinken said that the United States supported Moldova’s aspirations to join the European Union but that the process would be decided by the EU.

Moldova formally applied to join the European Union on March 3. The move was likely to anger Russia, which has an estimated 1,500 troops based in the breakaway region of Transdniester in Moldova’s east. 

Sandu said that there had not yet been any indication that the Russian soldiers in Transdniester had changed posture but stressed that it was a concern given what is happening in Ukraine.

“This is a subject of high vulnerability and we watch it carefully,” Sandu said. “In this region now there is no possibility for us to feel safe.”

Blinken said the United States was providing $18 million over the next few years to “strengthen and diversify” Moldova’s energy sector. Moldova depends heavily on Russian gas.

Information from AFP and AP was used in this report. 

 
…

The International Organization for Migration or IOM is calling on governments to stop discriminating against third-country nationals trying to flee conflict in Ukraine to neighboring countries.

Nearly 1.4 million Ukrainian refugees have so far reached Poland, Moldova, Hungary, and other European countries, this according to the latest figures from the U.N. Refugee Agency.

Among them are more than 78,800 third-country nationals — migrant workers and students in Ukraine when Russia invaded.

Paul Dillon, a spokesman for the U.N. migration agency, says these third-country nationals, from dozens of countries, face discrimination and other problems as they try to escape.

“We are, of course, deeply concerned about the plight of these people and the verified reports we have received of discrimination, violence and xenophobia directed at them in the course of their journeys both on the Ukrainian side and on the other sides of the borders,” he said.

Dillon said IOM is in touch with the authorities in Ukraine and in other countries about these allegations. He calls on governments to investigate reports of discrimination, physical assaults, and other misconduct.

He also calls on countries to act to ensure those fleeing conflict, including third-country nationals, are treated humanely, and granted access to, and protection on, their territories.

“We are now looking at roughly 138 countries represented amongst those who have left Ukraine. So, clearly this issue of the third-country nationals and their ongoing needs and their continuing needs is going to be one of the things that we will be addressing in the weeks to come,” he said.

Dillon said dozens of countries have contacted IOM asking for help in returning their people home safely.

The U.N. migration agency is appealing for $350 million to respond to the accelerating needs of the Ukrainian crisis on both sides of the border. It says the money will assist thousands of people displaced inside Ukraine, as well as those who have fled to neighboring countries.
…

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi dismissed suggestions his country’s “neutral” stance in the Russia-Ukraine conflict is straining Islamabad’s relationship with the United States or the West at large, in an interview Sunday with VOA.

The South Asian nuclear-armed Muslim country has resisted Western pressure to condemn Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, instead advocating dialogue and diplomacy to end the crisis.

Pakistan has argued that it needs to step back from global bloc politics to improve ties with all countries, including Russia, and to tackle its own domestic economic challenges.

“We do not want to be part of any camp. We have paid a price for being in camps. That is why we are very carefully treading. We don’t want to compromise our neutrality, and that’s why we abstained,” Qureshi told VOA.

“The only sensible course is a diplomatic solution,” Qureshi stressed, while speaking by phone from southern Sindh province, where he was attending a political rally of his ruling Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaaf party.

Pakistan, a key non-NATO ally of Washington, abstained last week from voting from both a U.N. Security Council resolution “deploring” Russia’s aggression against its neighbor and a General Assembly vote condemning the invasion. So did 34 other nations, including India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Western diplomatic missions in Pakistan on the eve of the General Assembly vote had collectively urged the host country to denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and support international calls for Moscow to immediately stop the war.

Qureshi said that claims that his country has put itself in “Russia camp” were “false” and “misreading” of Islamabad’s stated neutrality in respect to the Ukraine crisis.

“I think our relationship with the United States is a good one. We consider the United States an important partner and we would like continued support from the U.S.,” he noted.

“I have asked for a call with [U.S.] Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken and I was told that he is traveling for the next seven days. But I would be more than happy explain Pakistan’s perspective [on Ukraine] to him,” Qureshi added.

He also contradicted reports that Pakistan’s diplomatic tensions with Washington have increased in the wake of last month’s visit by Prime Minister Imran Khan to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Khan was already in Moscow when Putin ordered his military to attack Ukraine. But the trip reportedly did not go down well in Washington.

“We have briefed the government of Pakistan on the impact that Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine could have on regional and global security,” a State Department spokesperson was quoted on Saturday as telling Pakistani English-language Dawn newspaper. 

Qureshi-Lavrov talk

Qureshi said he spoke to Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov by telephone Saturday and “underlined” Islamabad’s “concern at the latest situation in Ukraine.” He told VOA Lavrov conveyed to him that Moscow was not “averse to the idea of negotiations” with Kyiv “on reaching some sort of a conclusion.”

The chief Pakistani diplomat said his Russian counterpart had “noted” that a “positive outcome” of two rounds of talks with Ukrainian officials was the agreement on establishing a “humanitarian corridor” to allow residents from two Ukrainian cities that were surrounded by Russian forces to evacuate. Qureshi and Lavrov spoke before Russian forces attacked the evacuation corridors.

“We are ready for the third round of talks. Our people are there. In fact, we are waiting for the Ukrainian representatives to come and begin the talks,” Qureshi quoted Lavrov as telling him.

Khan has defended his trip to Moscow, the first by a Pakistani prime minister in 23 years, saying his country’s economic interests required him to do so.

The Pakistani leader avoided criticizing Putin in a statement issued after his meeting with the Russian president. The statement said Khan “regretted the latest situation between Russia and Ukraine and that Pakistan had hoped diplomacy could avert a military conflict.”

Islamabad sided with Washington during the Cold War and played an instrumental role in arming and training U.S.-funded Afghan resistance in the 1980s to the decade-long Soviet occupation of neighboring Afghanistan.

However, Pakistan’s traditionally uneasy relationship with the United States has lately come under increased pressure over allegations that covert support from the Pakistani military helped the Taliban to sustain their insurgency against U.S.-led international forces in neighboring Afghanistan for 20 years and retake power last August. Pakistan rejects those allegations.

Russia and Pakistan, once bitter adversaries, have in recent years moved to restore ties, that analysts say is an outcome of the South Asia country’s frosty relations with the United States.

“A leader of lesser mettle would have thought of abandoning the visit and plunging back into a past of adversity,” Raoof Hasan, a special assistant to Khan on Information, wrote in an article published Friday on the prime minister’s landmark visit to Moscow.

“Instead of backing off, Prime Minister Khan used the opportunity to reiterate his deep belief in peaceful resolution of conflicts,” Hasan said in the commentary published by The News, a local newspaper.

For their part, U.S. officials maintain they view their “partnership with a prosperous, with a democratic Pakistan as critical” to Washington’s interests. They say the United States is Pakistan’s largest trade partner and it considers the South Asian nation “an important regional” country.

U.S. officials acknowledge that Pakistan continues to play a crucial role in assisting international efforts aimed at evacuating Afghans at risk since the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan. A dialogue between Washington and Islamabad is also taking place on how to jointly counter terrorism threats emanating from Afghan soil.

Pakistani officials say Khan is preparing to make “important visits” to Western countries after hosting a meeting of foreign ministers of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad later this month. But they have not yet disclosed further details about the expected visits.
…

Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita urged the United States on Sunday to provide more humanitarian support as the number of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine to the small European country hit 120,000.

At the beginning of a meeting with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, she said her country of 2.6 million, one of Europe’s poorest, was straining under the weight of those fleeing Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

“As of this morning, we had more than 230,000 people who have crossed the border from Ukraine, and 120,000 stayed in Moldova. 96,000 of them are Ukrainian citizens. For a small country like Moldova, proportionately, this is a very large number,” she told Blinken.

“Everybody has come together to host, to provide shelter, to provide food, to provide assistance to those who are fleeing war,” she said.

“But we will need assistance to deal with this influx, and we need this quickly,” she added.

Blinken, on the third stop of a trip in Europe to shore up unity against the Russian attack, said Moldova “can count on us across the board” for support.

“We admire the generosity, the hospitality, the willingness to be such good friends to people who are in distress. And indeed we want to do everything we can to help you deal with the burden this is imposing.”

In Poland on Saturday, Blinken said the White House was seeking $2.75 billion in funds for humanitarian support related to the war, which has already driven more than one million people from Ukraine. 
…

When Russia invaded her home country of Ukraine, Maria decided she had to get there and help defend it — even if it meant leaving her fiancé behind in Chicago days after getting married.

Maria and her fiancé, David, married Saturday before about 20 people in the backyard of an Oak Park home — the venue offered last minute after Maria asked for advice in a neighborhood Facebook group. The couple met last year and got engaged in October.

On Monday, she plans to fly to Poland, then make her way to the Ukrainian border, ultimately aiming to volunteer to fight for her home country.

“People are running out of there and she is running in,” said a friend at the wedding, Pamela Chinchilla of Lombard.

Seven guests at the wedding brought medical supplies, masks and other items for Maria to take to Ukraine. People hugged each other, and Maria at one point spoke with family members in Odesa.

Maria, who asked that her last name not be published because she fears for her family’s safety in Ukraine and the U.S., said she lived with her parents in Kyiv until 1991 when the family moved to Poland.

For Maria, a previous marriage ended in divorce. She met her ex-husband while studying music in Austria and more than 20 years ago they moved to his hometown of Chicago — which has the second-largest Ukrainian-born population among U.S. cities.

Since the war began, she used messages and calls through Facebook to keep in touch with her parents, who have been sheltering in a parking garage during attacks on Ukraine’s largest port city of Odesa. But she said she has been unable to reach cousins in Kyiv in recent days.

Three days into the invasion, Maria made up her mind to return to Ukraine, determined to find some way to be useful. She said she doesn’t have medical or military training but worries that a Russian takeover of Ukraine will embolden the country to threaten more places around the world.

“I have to go,” Maria, 44, said. “I can’t do protests or fundraising or wave flags. We’ve done this since 2015, Ukrainians, and I just can’t do it anymore.”

Her fiancé refused to stay behind despite Maria’s resistance to him accompanying her. But since David first needs to apply for a passport, she plans to leave Monday and wait in Poland before crossing the border.

“He knows how stubborn I am and knew he’d have no chance to convince me otherwise,” Maria said.

David, 42, said he feels a responsibility to do what he can to keep her safe.

“Because complacency and compliance are pretty much the same thing,” he said. “And you can only turn a blind eye to people being bullied for so long. And if it happens to them, it might be you next.”

He also asked that his last name not be published to avoid endangering Maria’s family.

Ukraine’s forces are outnumbered and outgunned, but their resistance did prevent a swift Russian victory. Ukrainian leaders called on citizens to join in guerrilla war this week as Russian forces gained ground on the coast and took over one major port city.

Associated Press reporters at the border checkpoint in Medyka in southeastern Poland found Ukrainians lining up to return from other countries in Europe in recent days in response to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s call for volunteers to come assist the country’s military.

The White House has since urged Americans not to travel to Ukraine, but Maria and David said that didn’t change their plans.

The couple had planned to be married at a courthouse on March 5, a nod to Maria’s grandmother’s birthday.

After deciding they would try to reach Ukraine, they accepted the offer to hold a backyard celebration. They also asked people to purchase items needed by Ukrainian troops through an Amazon list that includes rain ponchos, medical supplies and boots rather than wedding gifts.

Maria said she’s not certain what she will have to do after arriving at the Polish border with Ukraine; friends who live near border crossings have told her it’s taking days to get through. Her parents also questioned her decision to volunteer, she said, because they don’t want to be worried about her safety on top of their own.

“If the army doesn’t take us, we’ll be as close as possible,” Maria said Wednesday. “There’s always a need for volunteers. I’m pretty strong, I’m not afraid of blood, I’m good under pressure.”

Natalia Blauvelt, a Chicago immigration attorney who has assisted dozens of clients trying to help family leave Ukraine and Russia in recent weeks, said she hasn’t heard of others seeking to get into Ukraine in order to join the country’s defense.

But she advised that anyone considering it contact the Ukrainian Embassy in the U.S. and speak with an immigration attorney to talk through plans for returning to the U.S. 
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Full developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine   
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WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner was arrested last month at a Moscow airport after Russian authorities said a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges.

The Russian Customs Service said Saturday that the cartridges were identified as containing oil derived from cannabis, which could carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The customs service identified the person arrested as a player for the U.S. women’s team and did not specify the date of her arrest. Russian media reported the player was Griner, and her agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, did not dispute those reports.

“We are aware of the situation with Brittney Griner in Russia and are in close contact with her, her legal representation in Russia, her family, her teams, and the WNBA and NBA,” Kagawa Colas said Saturday. “As this is an ongoing legal matter, we are not able to comment further on the specifics of her case but can confirm that as we work to get her home, her mental and physical health remain our primary concern.”

On Saturday, the State Department issued a “do not travel” advisory for Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine and urged all U.S. citizens to depart immediately, citing factors including “the potential for harassment against U.S. citizens by Russian government security officials” and “the Embassy’s limited ability to assist” Americans in Russia.

Griner, who plays for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, has played in Russia for the last seven years in the winter, earning over $1 million per season — more than quadruple her WNBA salary. She last played for her Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg on Jan. 29 before the league took a two-week break in early February for the FIBA World Cup qualifying tournaments.

More than a dozen WNBA players were playing in Russia and Ukraine this winter, including league MVP Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley of the champion Chicago Sky. The WNBA confirmed Saturday that all players besides Griner had left both countries.

The 31-year-old Griner has won two Olympic gold medals with the U.S., a WNBA championship with the Mercury and a national championship at Baylor. She is a seven-time All-Star.

“Brittney Griner has the WNBA’s full support and our main priority is her swift and safe return to the United States,” the league said in a statement.
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China has decided to raise its defense spending by 7.1%, which is the largest increase since 2019. The rise is significant because the country’s economy is expected to grow this year at the lowest level in decades at 5.5%.

China’s defense spending is being carefully watched around the world in view of the atmosphere of political uncertainties caused by the Ukraine war. China has refused to pick sides or condemn the Russian attack. Some experts believe China will look for opportunities to invade Taiwan. Beijing regards Taiwan as a rogue province and has often indicated plans to take it over by force.

“While the world’s attention is diverted to Ukraine, an escalation across the Taiwan Straits, in the South China Sea and along the disputed Himalayan borders with India cannot be ruled out,” Mohan Malik, visiting fellow at the Washington-based Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA) told VOA.  

“For the Indo-Pacific, this is indeed the decade of living dangerously,” he said.

China will spend $229.47 billion on defense this year, according to estimates presented to the National People’s Congress, the Chinese parliament, by the country’s premier, Li Keqiang. Its defense budget rose 6.8% in 2021 and 6.6% in 2020.

Analysts said that the actual expenditure will be in the region of $270 billion, and a lot more would be spent on military-related infrastructure, like border roads that are shown under non-defense headings in the budget.

“We will enhance military training and combat readiness, stay firm and flexible in carrying out our military struggle, and safeguard China’s sovereignty, security and development interests,” Li said.  

Making a strong case for the higher defense expenditure, Li said, “Government at all levels must give strong support to the development of national defense and the armed forces, so unity between the military and government and between the military and the people will remain rock solid.” He emphasizes the need to modernize the military’s logistics and build a modern weaponry and equipment management system.

China, which has two aircraft carriers, plans to invest in two more. It has engaged in a sea rivalry with the U.S. Navy, which has 11 of them. The U.S.-China rivalry is evident because the U.S. sent aircraft carrier strike groups and amphibious groups into the South China Sea 13 times last year, according to Beijing-based research group the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative.

The Reuters news agency quoted Fu Qianshao, a retired Chinese air force equipment specialist, as saying, “Equipment is needed to fill performance gaps, and aircraft carriers, large warships, stealth fighters, third and fourth generations of tanks are expensive.”

Analysts said China is now forced to spend more on defense-related research and development because the U.S. is cutting off the flow of technology and there are similar actions in some European countries.

China may also reconsider planned arms purchases from Russia, including the proposed acquisition of Ka-52 attack helicopters, because the performance of Russian weapons in Ukraine has reportedly disappointed many arms experts.  

A major area of focus is China’s military behavior in its neighborhood. Most of the country’s neighbors, including countries around the South China Sea, feel threatened by the rise in the strength of the People’s Liberation Army, which represents the land army, the navy and the air force.

Malik said China now spends more on its military than the combined military expenditures of Russia, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, India and Australia. That is significant because China is engaged in military disputes with Japan and India and wants to take over Taiwan.  

“The growing power gap and military buildup in Asia doesn’t bode well for regional peace and stability at a time of heightened tensions over unresolved territorial and maritime disputes,” he said.
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U.N. aid agencies are calling for unimpeded access to all areas of Ukraine in need of humanitarian assistance and protection. The call comes amid reported efforts to establish humanitarian corridors in Ukraine.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, welcomes a reported agreement between Ukraine and Russia to facilitate safe passage for civilians out of conflict areas. Delegates from the opposing sides proposed the agreement Monday in Belarus.

However, OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke says U.N. officials have not yet received anything in writing from the two sides on the establishment of humanitarian corridors.  He says people are terrified by the violence unfolding around them across Ukraine, and millions urgently need safe passage and life-saving aid.

“We look to both sides to ensure the passage is organized in a manner that allows for safety, dignity, and protection of those civilians. Humanitarian organizations stand ready to work with the parties to protect and care for the civilians, whether they choose to stay or to leave the concerned areas,” Laerke said.  

The U.N. children’s fund says escalating violence over the past week has forced half-a-million children to flee their homes. UNICEF spokesman James Elder, who is in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, some 60 kilometers from the Polish border, says the scale and speed of the forced displacement is unprecedented.  

“And if the violence, the explosive munitions do not stop, many, many more children will be forced to flee their country in a very short space of time. And we fear many more will be killed. We must also remember those who cannot escape the bombardment currently rocking Ukraine. Tens of thousands of children are in child-care institutions; many of these are disabled,”  Elder said.

U.N. refugee agency media chief Joung-ah Ghedini-Williams, who is in the Moldovan city of Palanca, describes the rate of the ongoing refugee exodus from Ukraine as without comparison.

“We have seen the numbers increase not only day on day, but hourly, and I think that …what we are seeing is the devastating toll that over a week of just unabated tragedy is having on people,” Ghedini-Williams said.  

The latest UNHCR figures show more than 1.3 million Ukrainians have fled to Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, and other European countries. The agency is preparing to assist up to 4 million Ukrainian refugees, making this the biggest refugee crisis this century.
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Two men originally from China are among the 1 million refugees fleeing Ukraine into neighboring countries this week after Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24.

VOA chronicled the journeys of Ibrahim Abliz, a Uyghur, and Ersin Erkinuly, a Kazakh.

Abliz and Erkinuly were among thousands of Uyghurs and Kazakhs who fled China because of its “anti-terrorism” policy in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where rights groups and some Western countries accuse China of crimes against humanity and arbitrarily detaining more than 1 million people in internment camps in recent years.

Beijing denies the mistreatment as lies and fabrication and says China’s policy in Xinjiang is about fighting extremism and that the facilities are vocational training centers.

Abliz and Erkinuly each found his way to Ukraine and had lived there for several years until everything changed on the day Russian troops entered Ukraine.

Ibrahim Abliz’s story

Abliz, a 31-year-old father, has lived with his toddler son in Ukraine since 2018, with the hope of reuniting with his wife, who has been living in Germany.

Abliz is no stranger to a nomadic life. He said he left China in 2013 and ever since had been looking for a safe place to live, away from China’s reach.

“I first spent almost one and half years in Pakistan and later safely arrived in Turkey where I studied and worked,” Abliz told VOA.

In 2016, he met and married a Uyghur woman living in Turkey who was also originally from China.

Two years later, Abliz lost hope of getting Turkish citizenship. He decided to leave Turkey for Europe in pursuit of a safer country where he could raise his family.

Many Uyghurs in Turkey live in constant fear of being sent back to China. In recent months, Turkey has rejected some Uyghur applications for citizenship citing “national security” and “public order.” Uyghurs see this as an attempt by China to persecute them outside its borders.

“In November 2018, my pregnant wife was able to fly to Germany from Ukraine and seek asylum,” Abliz said.

His 11-month-old son was not allowed to leave Ukraine because the boy had a Turkish ID. Abliz had no choice but to stay behind with his child.

“I had to be with my son in Ukraine and find a way to reunite with my wife,” Abliz said.

After Ukraine denied applications for refugee status for Abliz and his son, he tried to cross the border three times before the war broke out.

“I had to run away from Ukraine after my application was denied,” Abliz said. “But each time we were handed over to Ukraine from neighboring countries like Poland and Slovakia.”

Abliz said over the past three years he and his son have spent four months in detention in a Ukraine facility and two months in a refugee camp because of crossing borders to other countries without permits.

“In November 2021, my application for refugee status was approved thanks to Ukrainian authorities,” Abliz said.

On March 1, Abliz and his son were able to cross the border to Poland. They were reunited with his wife and other son, now 3 years old, who came from Germany to meet them.

“I am so happy that my son and I have met my wife and my second son I had never seen in person,” Abliz said.

Abliz said he is applying for entry into Germany because he is eligible to get a family reunification visa.

Ersin Erkinuly’s story

Erkinuly, a 25-year-old Kazakh refugee from China, arrived in Ukraine from Turkey in 2020.  He too applied for refugee status but did not get it.

“I fled China to Kazakhstan in late 2019 after I had witnessed some people around me disappeared into internment camps,” Erkinuly told VOA.

But in Kazakhstan, according to Erkinuly, he didn’t feel safe and worried about possible deportation to China.

“Kazakhstan has very close relation with China, and I felt insecure and decided to leave for Turkey,” Erkinuly said.

Erkinuly was still not able to secure refugee status in Turkey, so he decided to go to Europe.

“I came to Ukraine and lost my passport and faced deportation to China,” Erkinuly told VOA. “I pleaded on the social media, and after Ukraine got pressured by democratic countries like the U.S. government, the authorities didn’t (deport) me.”

When the fighting started, Erkinuly left Kyiv and traveled for days. He reached the Polish border and was able to cross on March 3.

“I now feel that I am free,” Erkinuly told VOA from Poland. “They gave me a document which states I am allowed to remain in Poland until May.”

What happens after May is still uncertain.  Erkinuly said he’s reached out to human rights group and the U.S. for help, as his search for a permanent safe haven continues.
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The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine said that attacking a nuclear power plant is a war crime, after Russia on Friday seized a Ukrainian nuclear facility that is the biggest in Europe.

The statement on the embassy’s Twitter account went further than any U.S. characterization of Russia’s actions in Ukraine since it launched its invasion Feb. 24.

“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,” U.S. Embassy Kyiv said in its post.

Russian invasion forces seized Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant in heavy fighting in southeastern Ukraine, triggering global alarm, but a blaze in a training building was extinguished and officials said the facility was now safe.

Russia’s defense ministry blamed a fire at the plant on a “monstrous attack” by Ukrainian saboteurs and said its forces were in control.

The State Department sent a message to all U.S. embassies in Europe telling them not to retweet the Kyiv Embassy’s tweet calling the attack a war crime, according to CNN, which said it reviewed the message.

The State Department did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters asking if the Kyiv Embassy’s tweet reflects the position of the entire U.S. government.

Rights groups have alleged violations of international war crimes law in Ukraine, including the targeting of civilians, as well as indiscriminate attacks on schools and hospitals.

On Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden stopped short of calling Russia’s actions war crimes, saying, “It’s too early to say that.”

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby on Friday declined to answer the question, saying he would leave that determination to the International Criminal Court.

“This just underscores how reckless the Russian invasion has been and how indiscriminate their targeting seems to be. It just raises the level of potential catastrophe to a level that nobody wants to see,” Kirby said in an interview with CNN.

“It is certainly not the behavior of a responsible nuclear power.”

Britain has publicly accused Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government of war crimes.

The ICC, the world’s top war crimes prosecutor, on the request of 39 member states, is investigating reports of cluster bombs and artillery strikes on Ukrainian cities.

Karim Khan, a British lawyer named as the chief prosecutor of the ICC last year, said the crisis in Ukraine is a chance to demonstrate that those committing war crimes would be held to account.

Intentionally targeting civilians and civilian objects is a war crime, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told Reuters, adding that it is backing the investigation, particularly Khan’s efforts to preserve evidence of possible atrocity crimes.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has strongly denied claims that Russian forces have struck civilian infrastructure targets or residential complexes.
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Formed in a fury to counter Russia’s blitzkrieg attack, Ukraine’s hundreds-strong volunteer “hacker” corps is much more than a paramilitary cyberattack force in Europe’s first major war of the internet age. It is crucial to information combat and to crowdsourcing intelligence.

“We are really a swarm. A self-organizing swarm,” said Roman Zakharov, a 37-year-old IT executive at the center of Ukraine’s bootstrap digital army.

Inventions of the volunteer hackers range from software tools that let smartphone and computer owners anywhere participate in distributed denial-of-service attacks on official Russian websites to bots on the Telegram messaging platform that block disinformation, let people report Russian troop locations and offer instructions on assembling Molotov cocktails and basic first aid.

Zahkarov ran research at an automation startup before joining Ukraine’s digital self-defense corps. His group is StandForUkraine. Its ranks include software engineers, marketing managers, graphic designers and online ad buyers, he said.

The movement is global, drawing on IT professionals in the Ukrainian diaspora whose handiwork includes web defacements with antiwar messaging and graphic images of death and destruction in the hopes of mobilizing Russians against the invasion.

“Both our nations are scared of a single man — (Russian President Vladimir) Putin,” said Zakharov. “He’s just out of his mind.” Volunteers reach out person-to-person to Russians with phone calls, emails and text messages, he said, and send videos and pictures of dead soldiers from the invading force from virtual call centers.

Some build websites, such as a “site where Russian mothers can look through (photos of) captured Russian guys to find their sons,” Zakharov said by phone from Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.

The cyber volunteers’ effectiveness is difficult to gauge. Russian government websites have been repeatedly knocked offline, if briefly, by the DDoS attacks, but generally weather them with countermeasures.

It’s impossible to say how much of the disruption — including more damaging hacks — is caused by freelancers working independently of but in solidarity with Ukrainian hackers.

A tool called “Liberator” lets anyone in the world with a digital device become part of a DDoS attack network, or botnet. The tool’s programmers code in new targets as priorities change.

But is it legal? Some analysts say it violates international cyber norms. Its Estonian developers say they acted “in coordination with the Ministry of Digital Transformation” of Ukraine.

A top Ukrainian cybersecurity official, Victor Zhora, insisted at his first online news conference of the war Friday that homegrown volunteers were attacking only what they deem military targets, in which he included the financial sector, Kremlin-controlled media and railways. He did not discuss specific targets.

Zakharov did. He said Russia’s banking sector was well fortified against attack but that some telecommunications networks and rail services were not. He said Ukrainian-organized cyberattacks had briefly interrupted rail ticket sales in western Russia around Rostov and Voronezh and knocked out telephone service for a time in the region of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014. The claims could not be independently confirmed.

A group of Belarusian hacktivists calling themselves the Cyber Partisans also apparently disrupted rail service in neighboring Belarus this week seeking to frustrate transiting Russian troops. A spokeswoman said Friday that electronic ticket sales were still down after their malware attack froze up railway IT servers.

Over the weekend, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, announced the creation of an volunteer cyber army. The IT Army of Ukraine now counts 290,000 followers on Telegram.

Zhora, deputy chair of the state special communications service, said one job of Ukrainian volunteers is to obtain intelligence that can be used to attack Russian military systems.

Some cybersecurity experts have expressed concern that soliciting help from freelancers who violate cyber norms could have dangerous escalatory consequences. One shadowy group claimed to have hacked Russian satellites; Dmitry Rogozin, the director general of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, called the claim false but was also quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying such a cyberattack would be considered an act of war.

Asked if he endorsed the kind of hostile hacking being done under the umbrella of the Anonymous hacktivist brand — which anyone can claim — Zhora said, “We do not welcome any illegal activity in cyberspace.”

“But the world order changed on the 24th of February,” he added, when Russia invaded.

The overall effort was spurred by the creation of a group called the Ukrainian Cyber Volunteers by a civilian cybersecurity executive, Yegor Aushev, in coordination with Ukraine’s Defense Ministry. Aushev said it numbers more than 1,000 volunteers.

On Friday, most of Ukraine’s telecommunications and internet were fully operational despite outages in areas captured by invading Russian forces, said Zhora. He reported about 10 hostile hijackings of local government websites in Ukraine to spread false propaganda saying Ukraine’s government had capitulated.

Zhora said presumed Russian hackers continued trying to spread destructive malware in targeted email attacks on Ukrainian officials and — in what he considers a new tactic — to infect the devices of individual citizens. Three instances of such malware were discovered in the runup to the invasion.

U.S. Cyber Command has been assisting Ukraine since well before the invasion. Ukraine does not have a dedicated military cyber unit. It was standing one up when Russia attacked.

Zhora anticipates an escalation in Russia’s cyber aggression — many experts believe far worse is yet to come.

Meantime, donations from the global IT community continue to pour in. A few examples: NameCheap has donated internet domains while Amazon has been generous with cloud services, said Zakharov.
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As Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine’s cities intensifies, hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing the country. The United Nations has appealed to donor countries for help, as Henry Ridgwell reports from the Polish-Ukrainian border.
Camera: Henry Ridgwell
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that Russian forces “are increasingly using brutal methods in Ukraine, including going at civilian populations.”

His comments followed a Russian attack on a Ukrainian nuclear plant — the largest facility of its kind in Europe — that had sparked a fire in a building at the plant compound.

Speaking to reporters before a meeting with his European Union counterparts in Brussels, Blinken said, “We are faced together with what is [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin’s war of choice: unprovoked, unjustified, and a war that is having horrific, horrific consequences.”

“We’re committed to doing everything we can to make it stop,” he added, but ruled out imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying such an action could lead to a broader conflict.

“We have a responsibility to ensure the war does not spill over beyond Ukraine. … A no-fly zone could lead to a full-fledged war in Europe,” he said.

The meeting in Brussels came after Ukraine accused Russia of “nuclear terror” for shelling and starting a fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant before taking control of it. The plant is in the city of Enerhodar, in the country’s southeast.

Ukraine’s nuclear inspectorate said that no radiation had leaked at the plant and that personnel were continuing to operate the facility safely. Firefighters were able to get the blaze under control, Ukrainian officials said.

The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting Friday to discuss the attack at the request of the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Norway and Albania.

“The world narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe last night,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said during the meeting. “We’ve just witnessed a dangerous new escalation that represents a dire threat to all of Europe and the world.”

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said a Russian “projectile” hit a training center at the plant.

“This just demonstrates the recklessness of this war,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said of the power plant attack before Friday’s meeting in Brussels with Blinken and EU foreign ministers.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov blamed the attack on a Ukranian “sabotage group” that he said had occupied the plant’s training building, attacked a Russian patrol and set the building on fire as it left. He offered no evidence, and no other country appeared to take the claim seriously.

The Zaporizhzhia facility produces about 25% of Ukraine’s power.

Nuclear safety experts have expressed concern that fighting so close to the power station could cut off the plant’s power supply, which would adversely affect its ability to keep nuclear fuel cool and would increase the possibility of a nuclear meltdown.

On the ground

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Friday that Russian ground forces were attacking a Ukrainian town near Odesa and that the United States was watching to see what it meant for the city.

A Russian convoy outside the capital, Kyiv, was still trying to reach the city, he said, but the “actions by the Ukrainians have in fact stalled that convoy … stopped it in some places.”

Ukraine’s use of its air and missile defenses has been “quite extraordinary,” Kirby said.

On Thursday, local Ukrainian government officials and the Russian military confirmed the seizure of the strategic port of Kherson, but a U.S. defense official said Washington was unable to confirm the development.

Russian troops were besieging the port city of Mariupol, east of Kherson, an attempt Mayor Vadym Boichenko said was aimed at isolating Ukraine.

A Russian diplomat said Friday that Russia had no intention of occupying Ukraine should its invasion be successful, and that its troops would withdraw once it had fulfilled its objective.

Speaking to reporters at U.N. headquarters in Geneva, Russian Ambassador Gennady Gatilov called the invasion a “military operation with limited objectives,” which he said were to “denazify the regime and demilitarize Ukraine.”

Ukraine is a country with a democratically elected Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust. Historians and political observers view Russia’s invocation of World War II as disinformation.

Possibility of more sanctions

Blinken said Friday that the United States was considering additional sanctions against Russia and had not ruled out anything.

“Nothing is off the table. We are evaluating the sanctions every day,” he said.

On Thursday, Washington heaped another round of sanctions on Putin’s inner circle.

“Today I’m announcing that we’re adding dozens of names to the list, including one of Russia’s wealthiest billionaires, and I’m banning travel to America by more than 50 Russian oligarchs, their families and their close associates,” President Joe Biden said Thursday before a Cabinet meeting. “And we’re going to continue to support the Ukrainian people with direct assistance.”

VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching, National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin, Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb, Istanbul Foreign Correspondent Heather Murdock, White House Correspondent Anita Powell and Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday that the reactors at Ukraine’s largest nuclear plant had not been affected during a Russian attack on the site in the early hours Friday that shocked the globe and raised fears of a possible nuclear accident.

“We confirm through our contacts at the regulator, but also directly from plant — we were able to confirm that no security or safety systems have been compromised, neither of the reactors themselves have been hit by this projectile,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

Unusually, the nuclear watchdog chief spoke by video connection from an airplane. He said he was on a flight to Iran to deal with outstanding nuclear issues there.

Grossi told council members that Ukraine has four large nuclear sites, 15 reactors and associated facilities, as well as the defunct Chernobyl site, which experienced a catastrophic meltdown in 1986.

He did not name Russia when describing the attack, saying only that “a projectile” hit a building adjacent to the block of reactors at Zaporizhzhia and sparked the fire, which was later extinguished.

“After this, the operation of and at the plant continued,” he said. “We consider from a technical point of view that operation continues normally, although as I have stressed to the board of governors of the IAEA, there is no, of course, ‘normalcy’ about this situation when there are military forces, of course, in charge of the site.”

Grossi said his agency was in contact with the Ukrainian government, its nuclear regulators, and the company and operators at the Zaporizhzhia site.

“At the same time, today, I indicated in the morning my readiness to travel, as soon as practicable, to Chernobyl in order to consult, of course, with our Ukrainian counterparts, but also if necessary and when necessary to the forces in charge, in order to establish a stable framework so the observance of the basic principles of safety and security, starting with the physical integrity of the facilities, can be observed,” Grossi said.

He emphasized that any such mission would be strictly to deal with the safety and security of the facilities, not the political or diplomatic dimensions.

Violation of international law

“Attacks on nuclear power facilities are contrary to international humanitarian law,” U.N. Undersecretary for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo told the council. “Specifically, Article 56 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions states that: ‘Works or installations containing dangerous forces, namely dams, dikes and nuclear electrical generating stations, shall not be made the object of attack, even where these objects are military objectives, if such attack may cause the release of dangerous forces and consequent severe losses among the civilian population.'”

DiCarlo said it is critical that all parties work with the IAEA to establish a proper framework to ensure the safe, secure and reliable operation of the country’s nuclear power plants, as well as to grant swift and safe passage to IAEA personnel if they need to enter Ukraine.

Council members expressed concern that nuclear sites must not become part of the conflict.

“Russia’s attack last night put Europe’s largest nuclear power plant at grave risk,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said. “It was incredibly reckless and dangerous, and it threatened the safety of civilians across Russia, Ukraine and Europe.”

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia denied that his country’s military had shelled Zaporizhzhia, saying such accusations were part of a “massive anti-Russian propaganda campaign.” He said, without offering evidence, that Ukrainian nationalist saboteurs orchestrated the attack and wanted Moscow to be blamed for it.

“The danger to the civilian population of Ukraine is not emanating from Russian troops. It is coming from Ukrainian nationalists who are holding the civilian populations of a number of large cities hostage and carrying out acts of sabotage and provocation, one of which is what we are now discussing,” Nebenzia said. “After that, they try to blame Russia for all of it.”

Possible war crimes

Ukraine’s envoy said Russia has retaliated against the people of Ukraine with war crimes and crimes against humanity that it no longer tries to hide.

“Indeed, every day provides us with newer and newer evidence that it is not only Ukraine under Russian attack, it is Europe. It is the entire world. It is humanity,” Sergiy Kyslytsya said. “And finally, it is the future of the next generations.”

Kyslytsya renewed his government’s appeal for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying he had sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council president regarding it.

“In this regard, we request you to consider the issue of protection of nuclear power plants and other critical infrastructure in Ukraine,” the envoy added. “Urgent discussion on establishing a ban on all flights in the airspace of Ukraine should be a top priority for the Security Council.”

Asked by reporters after the meeting if a no-fly zone was possibile, British Ambassador Barbara Woodward said that such zones require guarantees.

“And in order to guarantee it, NATO would have to put troops in the air, and that would or could bring them into direct conflict with Russian troops,” she said. “So, it would be a very high risk of escalating the conflict, and what we want to see is the de-escalation of the conflict and for Russian troops to go home and for Putin to end the war.”

There have been “thousands of casualties,” the U.N. said Friday, and more than 1.2 million people have fled Ukraine for safety as the Russian military continues to intensify its offensive.

Earlier Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke by phone with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. They discussed liaison mechanisms for the safe evacuation of civilians and coordination to deliver humanitarian aid to all those who need it through out Ukraine, Guterres’ spokesperson said.
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The head of Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, is again threatening to end service to the International Space Station, saying Russia will stop supplying rocket engines to the United States and may curtail cooperation on the station in retaliation for Western sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. NASA says operations on the orbiting observatory are normal.  

In an interview with Russian state television Thursday, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said, considering the situation, “We can’t supply the United States with our world’s best rocket engines. Let them fly on something else, their broomsticks, I don’t know what.”

Rogozin said Russia has delivered 122 RD-180 engines to the U.S. since the 1990s, of which 98 have been used to power Atlas launch vehicles. The Washington Post said the engines are also used by United Launch Alliance, the joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing to launch national security missions for the Pentagon. 

Russia said it would cut off the supply of the RD-181 engines used in Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket, which is used to fly cargo and supplies to the International Space Station. 

Projects with Germans scrapped

Rogozin tweeted Thursday that Russian cosmonauts would not cooperate with Germany on joint experiments on the Russian segment of the ISS. Roscosmos will conduct them independently. He went on to say the “Russian space program will be adjusted against the backdrop of sanctions; the priority will be the creation of satellites in the interests of defense.” 

Earlier in the week, in another interview with state television, Rogozin noted Russia is responsible for space station navigation, as well as fuel deliveries to the orbiting lab. He said Roscosmos “will closely monitor the actions of our American partners and, if they continue to be hostile, we will return to the question of the existence of the International Space Station.”

Russia had announced earlier that it was suspending cooperation with Europe on space launches from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana in response to Western sanctions.

Cooperation in space has traditionally avoided politics, and when asked about the situation Tuesday during a meeting of the NASA Advisory Council, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said, “Despite the challenges here on Earth, and they are substantial …. NASA continues the working relationship with all our international partners to ensure their safety and the ongoing safe operations of the ISS.”

Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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Russian internet regulator Roskomnadzor on Friday said it has blocked access to Facebook in the country.

It said it took the action following “26 cases of discrimination against Russian media and information resources by Facebook.”

It said Facebook “has restricted access to accounts: the Zvezda TV channel, the RIA Novosti news agency, Sputnik, Russia Today, the Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru information resources.”

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last week, social media companies have taken measures to restrict access to Russian state media.

On February 27, the European Union announced it was “banning Russia Today and Sputnik from broadcasting in the EU.” YouTube reportedly also blocked RT in the EU.

Twitter announced Monday that it will start labeling and making it harder for users to see tweets about the invasion of Ukraine that contain information from Russian state media like RT and Sputnik.

Facebook has taken similar measures.

Also on Friday, Russia’s legislature advanced a new law that would make publishing “fake news” about the army a crime punishable with jail time.

“If the fakes lead to serious consequences, (the legislation) threatens imprisonment of up to 15 years,” the lower house of parliament said in a statement, according to AFP.

The new law led the BBC to suspend activities in Russia.

Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels, said NATO allies are not seeking conflict with Russia, but they are ready for it if it comes.

Speaking to reporters ahead of Friday’s NATO foreign ministers’ meeting, Blinken added that the alliance “will defend every inch of NATO territory,” if it comes to that. 

Stoltenberg condemned Russia’s overnight assault on civilians and Ukraine, particularly the shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, near the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar. 

He said the attack “demonstrates the recklessness of this war and the importance of ending it, and the importance of Russia withdrawing all its troops and engaging in good faith in diplomatic efforts.”

Stoltenberg emphasized NATO is a defensive alliance and is not seeking conflict with Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeatedly has called for NATO to establish no-fly zone around Ukraine since the invasion began, but NATO allies have resisted a step that would draw them into a direct war with Russia.

The secretary general noted Friday there should be “no misunderstanding about our commitment to defend and protect all allies.” He said they have increased the presence of NATO forces in eastern Europe “as a defensive presence.”

NATO’s chief added that U.S. and Canadian troops have joined their European allies in the region and are “stepping up with more presence in the eastern part of the Alliance, on land, at sea and in the air.”

The secretary general noted NATO foreign ministers are meeting to coordinate and consult the alliance’s response to Russian invasion of Ukraine and consider its long-term implications.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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