Biden to meet with Ukrainian refugees during Poland visit
President Joe Biden will meet with refugees who have fled the war in Ukraine during his time in Poland this weekend, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.
Biden is expected to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda to discuss the humanitarian response to the conflict.
"He will also have the opportunity to meet with Ukrainian refugees, and with American humanitarians who are there trying to help feed and respond to the material needs of the refugee population in Warsaw," Sullivan said.
More than 3.7 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion, according to the United Nations refugee agency. At least 2.2 million have sought refuge in neighboring Poland.
Sullivan said Biden would also be giving a major address that will "speak to the stakes of this moment, the urgency of the challenge that lies ahead, what the conflict in Ukraine means for the world, and why it is so important that the free world sustain unity and resolve in the face of Russian aggression."
"He'll also talk about the context and history of this conflict, and where he sees it going from here," Sullivan said.
Ukrainian adviser claims attack on 'nuclear city' of Slavutych has been repulsed
Ukrainian troops fended off a Russian attack on the northern city of Slavutych, which is home to workers from the nearby Chernobyl nuclear plant, a presidential adviser said Friday.
Slavutych was built to house Chernobyl workers following the plant's deadly 1986 nuclear disaster.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said that a "first attack" Friday on the "city of nuclear weapons" had been repulsed.
His statement came just hours after the Slavutych city council warned citizens to stay in their homes, citing the threat of snipers. Officials have been warning for days that Russian troops were close to the city and that it was impossible to evacuate.
Putin says West trying to 'cancel' Russian culture
President Vladimir Putin on Friday said the West was trying to cancel Russian culture, including the works of great composers such as Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Dmitry Shostakovich and Sergei Rachmaninov.
"Today they are trying to cancel a whole thousand-year culture, our people," Putin said in a televised meeting with cultural figures, referring to the cancellation of events involving Russian masters in some Western countries in recent weeks.
"In this way they are banning Russian writers and books," Putin said.
A man walks on the debris of a burning house, destroyed after a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Thursday.
U.N. rights office says evidence growing of Mariupol mass graves
The head of the U.N. human rights team in Ukraine said Friday that monitors had received more information about mass graves in the besieged port city of Mariupol, including one that appeared to hold 200 bodies.
"We have got increasing information on mass graves that are there," Matilda Bogner told journalists by video link from Ukraine, saying some of the evidence came from satellite images.
The U.N. rights office, which has some 50 staff in the country, has so far counted 1,035 civilian deaths since Russia invaded Feb. 24. But verification difficulties meant that toll included "very few" from Mariupol, which has been under heavy bombardment for weeks, Bogner said.
Bogner's team is probing alleged human rights violations, such as reports that Russian forces had shot and killed civilians in their cars as they were fleeing; dozens of cases of disappearances of Ukrainian officials and journalists; and the forced movement of civilians into Russian-held territory. Russia, which has called its actions since Feb. 24 a "special operation", has denied targeting civilians in Ukraine.
Bogdan said her team have also received reports of violations by Ukrainian forces including indiscriminate shelling in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, and two alleged killings of civilians due to their perceived support for Russia. Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly said that they have never targeted civilians, adding that the people who are in Donetsk and Luhansk are Ukrainians.
4 killed after aid center in Kharkiv hit by Russian shelling, local police say
Four people were killed after a facility in Kharkiv being used as a humanitarian aid center was hit by shelling Friday morning, Kharkiv police said.
“Today at about 7:45 a.m., the Russian Federation fired on a city polyclinic in the Osnoviansky district of the city, where the humanitarian aid center is located. There are no military facilities nearby, ” local police said in a statement.
“Police are documenting the crime against the Ukrainian people and gathering all the necessary material evidence to bring the perpetrators to justice,” the statement said.
A child holds a loaf of bread as civilians are evacuated along a humanitarian corridor from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Thursday.
Ukraine, Russia agree on evacuation corridors from Mariupol and Melitopol
Ukraine and Russia have agreed upon two humanitarian corridors for Friday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a televised statement.
Vereshchuk said that an evacuation corridor was being established from the besieged city of Mariupol, which has been severely bombarded by Russian troops for weeks, to Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine. Evacuees were expected to arrange their own transport, she said.
A centralized plan has also been approved from the port city of Berdyansk to Zaporizhzhia by bus for which 48 buses are already stationed at the entrance to Berdyansk, she said.
A second humanitarian corridor links Melitopol to Zaporizhzhia, for which cargoes and buses have already arrived, Vereshchuk said.
Russia has previously been accused of failing to uphold its end of agreements to provide safe corridors.
Ukraine asks E.U. to block land and sea transport with Russia and Belarus
Ukraine has appealed to the European Union to completely block land and sea transport with Russia and Belarus and to prohibit the movements of goods, its ministry of infrastructure said Friday.
In a statement on Facebook, it said that "despite the restrictive measures already in place, Russian businesses are finding workarounds and continuing to operate in other countries.”
It proposed that the European Commission prohibit the provision of custom services for goods delivered to the two countries. “These measures are necessary to stop the supply to the aggressor country of dual-use goods that can be used for military purposes,” it said.
Earlier, the ministry had called on the E.U. to shut its ports for Russian and Belarusian related companies and demanded closure of the road network for their carriers, it said.
Israel tries to leverage Russia ties to try to end war in Ukraine
JERUSALEM — On the surface, it seems like a doomed diplomatic gambit — the untested leader of Israel, which is known for its unresolved conflict with the Palestinians and wars with its neighbors, tries to help end the most serious combat in Europe since the end of World War II.
That’s what happened when Prime Minister Naftali Bennett flew to Moscow on Feb. 26, a Saturday, two days after Russia invaded Ukraine, despite being an observant Jew for whom travel on the Sabbath is forbidden unless it’s a matter of life and death.
Once there, he met with President Vladimir Putin for three hours in a bid to help end the war. Leaders from other top negotiator countries — NATO members France, Germany and Turkey — have spoken with Putin only by phone, according to Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the United States.
Israel, which has failed to negotiate a two-state resolution with the Palestinians, could seem poorly cast as a diplomatic powerhouse in efforts to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The close ally of Washington has also been criticized for not having taken a stronger stance and joining many of its Western allies in sanctioning Russia.