John Kirby, spokesperson for the US Department of Defence, said the transfer of jets "may be mistaken as escalatory and could result in a significant Russian reaction".
This was Wednesday's live blog. For the latest updates on Thursday click here.
The United States said on Wednesday it would oppose any plan for NATO nations to provide fighter jets to Ukraine, saying it would be seen as "escalatory" by Russia.
John Kirby, spokesperson for the US Department of Defence, told reporters that Secretary Lloyd Austin had stressed to his Polish counterpart and that the US "do not support the transfer of additional fighter aircraft to the Ukrainian Air Force at this time, and therefore had no desire to see them in our custody either."
"The intelligence community has assessed the transfer of MiG-29s to Ukraine may be mistaken as escalatory and could result in a significant Russian reaction that might increase the prospects of a military escalation with NATO. Therefore, we also assess the transfer of the MiG 29 to Ukraine o be high risk," he said.
He added that they believe there are "alternative options that are much better suited to support the Ukrainian military in their fight against Russia."
His comments came after Russian troops carried out a "direct strike" on a maternity hospital in the besieged city of Mariupol, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
He said that people and children were under the rubble, calling the strike an "atrocity" as the Russian invasion continues.
A planned evacuation of the city — the third one — failed once more.
Here a recap of how Wednesday unfolded:
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Live ended
- Washington said it opposes any transfer of fighter jets from Ukraine by NATO members, arguing it is"'high risk".
- A Russian strike hit a children and maternity hospital in Mariupol on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
- Ukraine has banned the export of necessities including wheat, poultry and eggs in a bid to stave off shortages. The country is the fifth biggest exporter of wheat in the world.
- Another ceasefire attempt is underway to allow civilians to escape from Mariupol, Sumy in the northeast, Enerhodar in the south, Volnovakha in the southeast, Izyum in the east, and several towns in the Kyiv region.
- Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki has said the decision on whether to make the MiG-29 planes available to Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion is now in the hands of NATO and Washington.
- The UN's nuclear watchdog says it sees "no critical impact on safety" after a power loss was reported at the Chernobyl nuclear plant.
- More than one million children have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded on 24 February, according to the UN's children's agency.
- The EU has announced more sanctions against Moscow and Minsk, targeting Belarusian banks and blacklisting another 160 Russian oligarchs and senators.
- For a summary of Tuesday's developments click here.
US slams 'preposterous' Russian claims of biological weapons in Ukraine
Russia 'starving' Ukrainian cities: Washington
'We won't abandon' Mariupol: Kyiv
He said that "Ukraine's proposals on humanitarian corridors were not accepted by the aggressor party," according to a statement.
Russian shelling hit a maternity hospital and children's wad in Mariupol on Wednesday, injuring at least 17 people and creating a 10-metre round crater by the building.
The Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry accused Moscow of using "civilians as human shields" and said it now had two options to evacuate civilians: attempt to strike a fourth ceasefire deal with Russia or evacuate people by sea.
US against transfer of fighter jets to Ukraine
Amazon to stop shipments to Russia and Belarus
The e-commerce giant said late Tuesday in a blog update on its website that it will also suspend Prime Video access for customers based in Russia and will stop taking orders for New World, the only video game the company says it sells directly in Russia. The retailer added new Russia and Belarus-based third-party sellers won’t be able to sell on its site.
The retailer had said earlier in the day that its cloud computing network, Amazon Web Services, will also stop allowing new sign-ups in Russia and Belarus. Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov had called on the company to stop providing AWS in Russia, suggesting in a letter sent to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos that not doing so could be supporting “bloodshed and disinformation that can be leveraged through digital infrastructures.”
EU membership cannot be looked at on a case by case basis: Macron
Prague to allow Ukrainian refugees to work without permit
The Czech government has agreed to give refugees from Ukraine free access to the labor market without any work permit.
Labour and Social Affairs Minister Marian Jurecka said Wednesday that the refugees will be in a position “of any other citizen” if they want to get a job.
The refugees will only need to get a visa for their stay in the Czech Republic to work. Assistance centres in all regions of the Czech Republic are working around the clock to provide all necessary documents and other initial help, including housing, to the refugees.
It’s estimated some 150,000 people have arrived in the country that doesn’t border Ukraine invaded by the Russian troops.
Jurecka said there are some 350,000 jobs currently available in the Czech Republic.
Ukrainian civilian death toll now 516: UN
Russia admits conscripts were in Ukraine
Putin blames Ukrainian 'nationalists' for hampering evacuations
The Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Ukraine in Wednesday’s phone call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, with a “special emphasis given to the humanitarian aspects.”
It said that Putin told Scholz about Russian “efforts to organise humanitarian corridors for civilians to exit areas of fighting and attempts by militants from nationalist units to hamper safe evacuation of people.”
Ukrainian officials said that the continuous Russian shelling has derailed efforts to evacuate civilians from areas affected by fighting.
90% of Ukrainian military airports 'out of action': Russia
UK PM Boris Johnson condemns Russian strikes on maternity hospital
"The UK is exploring more support for Ukraine to defend against airstrikes and we will hold Putin to account for his terrible crimes," he said.
Blinken says US doesn't want war to expand to NATO territory
He said if the war was prolonged, it would be deadlier and involve more people. Sending American troops to Ukraine would prolong the conflict, Blinken said.
The US secretary of state said they were working to help Ukrainians to have the means to defend themselves, to exert pressure on Russia to change course and to support those who are suffering as a result of their actions.
"You can win a battle but that doesn't mean you win the war. On the contrary, you can take a city but you can't take the hearts and minds of its people. Ukrainians are demonstrating that every single day," Blinken said.
The economic sanctions the US and allies have taken have "erased thirty years of progress integrating Russia into the world," he added.
Why doesn't NATO impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine?
In his address to British lawmakers in the House of Commons, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: "Please make sure our Ukrainian skies are safe. Please make sure you do what needs to be done."
With his impassioned plea, delivered via video link, Zelenskyy was once again calling for a no-fly zone, under which his Western allies would deploy their fighter jets to chase away Russian forces, which for the past two weeks have been bombarding Ukrainian cities.
So far, however, Zelenskyy's call has been rebuffed.
Even if Western countries have shown an unwavering resolve to condemn Moscow's military aggression while simultaneously unleashing a set of ruinous sanctions to cripple its military apparatus, a no-fly zone remains the Rubicon that democracies are unwilling to cross.
Read the full story here.
Setting up a no-fly zone would lead to direct war with Russia, Truss says
"What we are looking at is making sure that the Ukrainians are able to defend their own country with the best possible selection of anti-tank weapons and anti-air defence systems."
She added that the UK would be supplying Ukraine with air defence systems.
17 adults injured in shelling of hospital in Mariupol, local official says
"There are 17 confirmed injured among hospital staff," he told Ukrainian television, adding that "there was no child" among the injured and no reported deaths.
(AFP)
Truss urges G7 to end use of Russian oil and gas
"We would be sending a message that sovereign nations can simply be trampled on," she said.
"We must go further and faster in our response. We must double down on our sanctions. That includes a full SWIFT ban and the G7 ending its use of Russian oil and gas," Truss explained.
UK response to Ukraine refugee crisis 'disgraceful', opposition says, as just 760 visas delivered
British lawmakers and France are increasing pressure on the UK government to simplify visa requirements for Ukrainian refugees as it emerged fewer than 1,000 visas had been issued so far.
Ian Blackford, the Westminster leader of the Scottish National Party, told Prime Minister Boris Johnson in parliament on Wednesday that "nobody should support" the British government's response to the refugee crisis sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Read the full story here.
'You have crossed the line of humanity': Ukrainian governor to Russians
Russian shelling hits Mariupol maternity hospital: official
'What kind of nonsense is this?'
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised what he described as a "witch hunt" against Russian people, literature and artists as part of a backlash against Russia for its war in Ukraine, reports Associated Press.
"We do not accept witch-hunt practices against the Russian people, Russian literature, (Russian) students and artists, just as (we do not accept) the abandonment of Ukraine," Erdogan said in a speech to members of his ruling party on Wednesday.
The growing cultural backlash against Moscow has included cancelled Russian releases for Hollywood films and the severing of ties with famed Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, who is close to President Vladimir Putin.
"What kind of nonsense is this?" Erdogan said.
Corporate exodus continues
Heineken said on Wednesday it will stop the production, advertising and sale of the beer brand in Russia. The company said it stands with the Ukrainian people and called the Russian government’s war “an unprovoked and completely unjustified attack.”
Discovery said in a brief statement that it decided to “suspend the broadcast of its channels and services in Russia.” The indefinite suspension is set to take effect by the end of Wednesday.
Universal Music Group said late Tuesday that it’s suspending all its operations and closing its offices in Russia, effective immediately.
Earlier Wednesday, Imperial Brands became the first of the so-called Big Four tobacco producers to halt all operations in Russia. It said the move includes halting production at its factory in Volgograd and ceasing all sales and marketing activity in the country.
Mariupol buries dead in mass grave
With the city under steady bombardment, officials had been waiting for a chance to allow individual burials to resume. But with morgues overflowing, and many bodies uncollected at home, they decided they had to take action.
A deep trench some 25 metres long has been opened in one of the city’s old cemeteries in the heart of the city. Social workers brought 30 bodies wrapped in carpets or bags on Wednesday, and 40 were brought on Tuesday.
The dead include civilian victims of shelling on the city as well as some soldiers. No mourners were present, no families said their goodbyes.
Mariupol, which nearly half of the population of 430,000 is hoping to flee, has been surrounded by Russian forces for days. Bodies have been lying in the streets, and people have been breaking into stores in search of food and melt snow for water.
Thousands huddle in basements, sheltering from the Russian shells pounding this strategic port on the Azov Sea.
(AP)
UN nuclear watchdog plays down Chernobyl danger
The International Atomic Energy Agency says it sees “no critical impact on safety” from the power cut at the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine.
The Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog said Wednesday that Ukraine had informed it of the loss of electricity and that the development violates a “key safety pillar on ensuring uninterrupted power supply.” But it tweeted that “in this case IAEA sees no critical impact on safety.”
The IAEA said that there could be “effective heat removal without need for electrical supply” from spent nuclear fuel at the site. (AP)
Civilian evacuations underway from Kyiv suburbs
There were few details by midday on Wednesday's new effort to establish safe evacuation corridors for civilians in besieged Ukrainian cities.
It was not clear if anyone was able to leave the southern port of Mariupol, where previous attempts to take people to safety have largely failed due to attacks by Russian forces.
But some people did start streaming out of Kyiv's suburbs, even as air raid sirens repeatedly went off in the capital and explosions could be heard there.
A corridor out of the northeastern city of Sumy was to reopen for 12 hours on Wednesday, using the buses that took people southwest to the city of Poltava the day before, regional administration chief Dmytro Zhyvytskyy said.
Priority was being given to pregnant women, women with children, the elderly and the disabled.
On Tuesday Ukrainian authorities said 5,000 civilians, including 1,700 foreign students, managed to escape from the embattled city of a quarter of a million people.
(with AP)
Over a million children have fled Ukraine since Russian invasion, UN says
After bombs started falling in her hometown of Kharkiv, she left her friends, her toys, and her life in Ukraine and set off on a days-long journey with her mother toward safety.
Read more on her story:
Poland's offer to supply Kyiv with fighter planes 'up to NATO', says Morawiecki
Poland is ready to make its Russian-made fighter jets available to Ukraine, via NATO, Poland's prime minister said on Wednesday. But he added that it's a “very serious decision” that should be taken by all NATO alliance members because it affects wider security.
Mateusz Morawiecki's appeal came as Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelenskyy called on the West in a new video address to "decide as quickly as possible, send us planes!"
Morawiecki says the decision on whether to make the MiG-29 planes available to Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion is now in the hands of NATO and the US.
“Poland is not a side in this war (...) and NATO is not a side in this war,” Morawiecki said during a visit to Vienna. “Such a serious decision like handing over planes must be unanimous and unequivocally taken by by all of the North Atlantic Alliance."
Morawiecki said talks on the subject are continuing.
Ukraine has been calling on the US and Western countries to provide fighter jets. Poland responded on Tuesday by offering to transfer its planes to a US military base in Germany, with the expectation that the planes would then be handed over to Ukrainian pilots.
The Pentagon reacted by saying it had not been aware of the plan which it finds “untenable”.
(AP, AFP)
More than 140,000 refugees flee Ukraine in a day
The number of Ukrainians to flee the country passed two million the day before, just 12 days after the start of the invasion.
Filippo Grandi, the UNHCR high commissioner, said that it was the fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II.
"I have worked in refugee for almost 40 years, and I have rarely seen such an incredibly fast-rising exodus of people," said UNHCR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi in a video posted to body's social media account.
The EU has a 'moral duty' to make Ukraine a member state: Estonia PM
The European Union has a “moral duty” to make Ukraine a member state and should consider using military force to counter Russian aggression, according to Kaja Kallas, the prime minister of Estonia.
Speaking at the EU summit in Strasbourg, Kallas said that the EU has “changed more in one week than in 30 years” and called for Brussels to invest in state-of-the-art defence technology.
“In stepping up European defence, we must find consensus within the EU that, sometimes, the best way of achieving peace is the willingness to use military force,” she said.
Read the full story here.
Russian troops suffer 12,000 losses, Ukrainian government claims
Western intelligence officials have said that Russia underestimated Ukraine's resistance to the invasion, resulting in thousands of casualties on the Russian side.
China sends humanitarian aide to Ukraine but doesn't condemn invasion
It comes despite that Beijing has refused to use the word "invasion" to describe the war in Ukraine and has blamed the conflict on the "expansion" of NATO.
In an meeting with Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz, however, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for "the greatest restraint" in Ukraine and said China would provide humanitarian aid.
Chinese foreign affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters on Wednesday that this aid, sent by the Chinese Red Cross, was worth 5 million yuan (€720,000).
The shipment, sent on Wednesday, includes relief food and other daily necessities, Zhao specified.
(AFP)
Thousands being evacuated from Kyiv, Zelenskyy says
There is an effort under way to evacuate some 18,000 people from the capital Kyiv and towns near it, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as part of broader evacuation attempts.
He urged once again the international community to send planes. Western nations have sent military equipment but are wary of providing air support and entering a direct war with Russia.
Zelenskyy also issued an appeal, unusually in Russian, to urge Russian soldiers to leave.
“Our resistance for almost two weeks has shown you that we will not surrender, because this is our home. It is our families and children. We will fight until we can win back our land," he said. "You can still save yourselves if you just go home.”
(AP)
Chernobyl nuclear plant 'completely stopped'
Ukraine’s energy minister said earlier Russian forces that now control the Zaporizhzhia plant, the largest in Europe, were forcing staff who are “physically and emotionally exhausted" to record an address that they plan to use for propaganda purposes.
Russian troops attacked the plant last Friday, setting a building on fire. But it was later determined that no radiation was released. (with AFP and AP)
'You are doing far too little!' Ukraine's Kuleba tells Germany
Latvian MP joins Ukrainian fighters, says party
A Latvian lawmaker has traveled to Ukraine to fight alongside Ukrainians, the Baltic country’s Justice Minister Janis Bordans said Tuesday.
Juris Jurass, 46, who is the chairman of the Saeima assembly’s Legal Affairs Committee and a member of the same party as Bordans, “has volunteered to defend the territory of Ukraine and to fight against the invaders,” the justice minister said.
“He made the decision based on his private and moral principles,” Bordans told the Baltic News Service. He was not immediately available for comment.
On Twitter, Ukraine 4 Freedom, a volunteer project by students of international relations at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, wrote that he had joined a foreign legion unit for international volunteers. (AP)
Utility services 'working normally' in Kyiv — deputy mayor
Heat, water and power supplies, and phone connections are working normally in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Deputy Mayor Mykola Povoroznyk said on television on Wednesday.
He said the authorities hoped to evacuate many more people from the bombarded communities of Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel in the Kyiv region.
"We have places to house (refugees), we have trains to send people west," he said, adding that it was not clear how many people the authorities would be able to help flee. (Reuters)
Moscow 'not trying to overthrow' Ukraine government — foreign ministry
EU agrees new sanctions against Russia and Belarus
Meeting in Brussels, the Council's permanent representatives also adopted new sanctions targeting the maritime sector and cryptocurrencies, and said that more Russian leaders and oligarchs will be added to the EU blacklist.
Ukraine confirms new evacuation agreement with Russia
Several corridors were also due to be established to evacuate civilians to Kyiv from several towns violently bombarded by the Russians to the west of the capital, including Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel.
Deadly Russian attacks reported on Severodonetsk and Malyn
Serguïi Gaïdaï said the Russian army "opened fire" on residential houses and other buildings. The statement did not immediately specify whether it was artillery fire. This region has been the scene of heavy fighting for several days.
Russia doesn't bomb cities and Zelenskyy is a Nazi, says Putin supporter
Putin 'may escalate' conflict, says top US intelligence official
The testimony before the House Intelligence Committee hearing amounted to the first public assessment of the two-week-old war by senior intelligence officials, who offered their insights into Vladimir Putin's thinking and motives.
They made clear that Russia's assault has been slowed by unexpected resistance by Ukrainian defenders, and that it was now uncertain if Putin would proceed with a “maximalist” strategy to try to capture all of Ukraine or would settle for something short of that.
Either way, they said they believed he was determined to press his invasion forward despite mounting casualties, global sanctions and efforts by Western nations to isolate the Kremlin.
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told the committee that Moscow had probably been surprised by the extent of Western sanctions.
"Nevertheless, our analysts assess that Putin is unlikely to be deterred by such setbacks and instead may escalate, essentially doubling down to achieve Ukrainian disarmament, neutrality, to prevent it from further integrating with the US and NATO,” she said.
Ukraine air defences having 'considerable success' against Russian jets
Britain on Wednesday said Ukraine’s air defences were having success against Russian jets, likely preventing Russia from controlling the airspace.
“Ukrainian air defences appear to have enjoyed considerable success against Russia’s modern combat aircraft, probably preventing them achieving any degree of control of the air,” the Ministry of Defence intelligence update posted on Twitter said.
Britain’s assessment also said Russian forces had failed to make any significant breakthroughs in fighting north west of Kyiv. (Reuters)
'Crimes against humanity' claim against ex-German chancellor Schröder
The former social-democratic chancellor (1998-2005) has been widely criticised in recent weeks because of his links with the Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Gerhard Schröder 77, has long displayed his closeness to Putin and is chairman of the supervisory board of Russian oil giant Rosneft,and of the shareholder committee of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
He is due in principle join the supervisory board of the Russian giant Gazprom in June.
Current Chancellor Olaf Scholz last week called on Schröder to resign from these posts.
"I don't think it's right for Gerhard Schröder to exercise these functions and I also think it would be right for him to step down," Scholz said on the public broadcaster ZDF.
Schröder, unlike other former European leaders such as former French and Italian prime ministers François Fillon and Matteo Renzi, has refused so far to give up his posts in Russia.
There have been calls in recent weeks in Germany for the benefits he enjoys as former chancellor to be removed. (AFP)
New ceasefires to come into effect for evacuations, Russia says
Air alert in Kyiv as Russia continues bombardments
An air alert was declared Wednesday morning in and around Kyiv, with residents urged to get to bomb shelters as quickly as possible.
“Kyiv region – air alert. Threat of a missile attack. Everyone immediately to shelters,” regional administration head Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram.
Russian aircraft on Tuesday night bombed residential areas around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and Zhytomyr, to the west of Kyiv, and its military also stepped up its shelling of Kyiv's suburbs, the Ukrainian emergency services said.
In Malyn, a town of 25,000 near Zhytomyr, the bombing killed at least five people, including two children, and destroyed a textile factory and seven homes, the agency said. Two people died, including a 7-year-old, in the bombing in Chuhuiv, near Kharkiv.
Ukrainian officials also reported dire conditions in the Kyiv suburbs of Bucha, Hostomel, Irpen, Vyshhorod and Borodianka, including bodies of the dead that couldn't be buried.
A humanitarian official said another 200 patients were stuck at Borodianka without food and medicines.
The mayor of Lviv said the city in far western Ukraine was struggling to feed and house the more than 200,000 people who have fled there. The displaced are being housed in the city's sport halls, schools and other buildings.
(AP)
Washington rejects Warsaw's offer to supply fighter jets for Ukraine
The Pentagon said Tuesday that Poland’s offer to give its MiG-29 fighter jets to the US so they can be passed to Ukraine raises serious concerns for the NATO alliance and the plan is not "a tenable one".
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in a statement that the prospect of jets departing from a U.S./NATO base in Germany to fly into airspace contested with Russia in the Ukraine war is concerning. He said it’s not clear to the US that there is a substantive rationale for it.
The US, he said, will continue to talk to Poland about the matter.
The plan — published in English on a Polish government website — would have seen Poland give its MiG-29 fleet to Ukraine in exchange for American F-16s. Washington would then have transferred them to Ukraine.
But in a statement published by the Pentagon, Washington rejected the idea.
"Poland's proposal shows just some of the complexities this issue presents. The prospect of fighter jets "at the disposal of the Government of the United States of America" departing from a U.S./NATO base in Germany to fly into airspace that is contested with Russia over Ukraine raises serious concerns for the entire NATO alliance," the US statement said.