Ukrainian officials had projected a more optimistic tone for the talks than on previous, fruitless occasions. Shortly before 5 p.m. local time Monday, Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser said in a message posted on Twitter that the talks had taken a “technical pause” until Tuesday, adding: “Negotiations continue.”
Meanwhile, in a letter to U.S. lawmakers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will deliver a virtual joint address to Congress on Wednesday. “Congress, our country and the world are in awe of the people of Ukraine,” they wrote.
Here’s what to know
- Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Monday officials would attempt to evacuate civilians through 10 humanitarian corridors, around Kyiv and the eastern Luhansk region. Meanwhile, Mikhail Mizintsev, the head of the Russian National Defense Control Center, said Ukrainian authorities had agreed to three out of 10 corridors proposed by Russia and also claimed Russia had agreed to 11 humanitarian corridors proposed by the Ukrainian side. In recent days, efforts around humanitarian corridors have faltered and Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of shelling such routes.
- Ukrainian authorities were also trying to facilitate the movement of a humanitarian convoy carrying food and medicines to Mariupol that was unable to reach the city Sunday because of intense fighting.
- Ukrainian officials said an American journalist, Brent Renaud, was fatally shot while reporting outside Kyiv.
- What questions do you have about the war in Ukraine? A team of Post reporters is answering your questions on Monday.
UNDERSTANDING THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT
You had questions about Ukraine and Russia. Here’s what The Post had to say.
Washington Post reporters Isabelle Khurshudyan, Max Bearak, Karoun Demirjian and Missy Ryan answered readers’ questions live Monday. Here’s an example:
Q: I’m a 14-year-old with a huge interest in politics. I have been tuned into the Ukrainian war since the beginning. I’m always the go-to when it comes to questions about politics with my friends. But I have no idea how to explain the war to politically disinterested 14-year-olds. Or, anyone in general. It’s so complicated. How do I explain to other teenagers the war in Ukraine?
Khurshudyan: Here’s a way to explain it, through a “Lord of the Rings” analogy a Ukrainian battalion commander I embedded with told me: “If you want to understand Russia and Ukraine, we Ukraine are Gondor. Russia is Mordor — very close and very dangerous. We need Gandalf and several hobbits.”
Chernobyl power line again damaged by Russia, Ukraine’s nuclear agency says
A high-voltage power line at the former Chernobyl nuclear plant has once again been damaged by Russian forces, Ukraine’s nuclear agency said Monday, the day after Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko announced that power had been restored following a Russian attack last week that disconnected the site from the electricity grid.
“Reliable power supply to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is critical from the point of view of nuclear safety,” Ukraine’s nuclear agency said.
Ukrenergo, the Ukrainian utility that carried out the repairs over the weekend, said in a Facebook post Monday that the power line has again been damaged by “the occupants.” The company said its workers would have to return to the site to continue restoration.
Officials have expressed concern that a lack of power at the closed plant and surrounding area would jeopardize cooling systems for more than 20,000 spent nuclear fuel rods that remain at the site.
Residential building shelled in Kyiv as rocket wreckage falls elsewhere in the capital
KYIV — The sidewalks were covered in bits of glass and bloodstains. A green trolley car sat crumpled, a taxi smashed into its side. Next to a crushed car laid what appeared to be a body, covered by a piece of tarp.
In a park across the way, Irina Kostiuk, 38, stood staring at the scene, clutching her bleeding hand. She had been inside one of the buildings damaged in the Monday morning attack in the Podilskyi district, volunteering at a humanitarian aid center to help disabled civilians. Around 11 a.m., she heard a loud boom and felt the windows shatter.
“The shock wave knocked me off my feet, and glass debris got me a bit,” she said. “I was lying on the floor for a few minutes, waiting to see what happens next.”
City officials later described the attack as a missile or rocket strike that hit near a checkpoint close to residential buildings. It killed at least one person and wounded several others.
As at many other temporary checkpoints in the capital, the trolley car damaged in the attack had been serving as a temporary barricade, dragged into the street to slow down traffic.
The strike Monday came only a few hours after apparent Russian shells struck a nine-story residential building in Kyiv’s Obolon district, at around 6 a.m. Residents fled the badly damaged building as firefighters tried to extinguish the flames and rescue those trapped inside. At least one person was killed in that incident as well, according to Red Cross volunteers at the scene.
The two attacks left residents in Kyiv on edge Monday, with fears mounting that if Russian forces continue to close in on the capital, it could soon face immense damage and high civilian casualties, comparable to what has unfolded in the besieged cities of Kharkiv and Mariupol.
Invasion not ‘going as fast as we would like,’ says Russian national guard leader
By Mary Ilyushina12:22 p.m.
The head of the Russian national guard, Viktor Zolotov, said that “not everything is going as fast as we would like” in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the state-run Tass news agency reported Sunday.
Zolotov was at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, where Patriarch Kirill handed over the August Icon of the Mother of God to the national guard. Zolotov thanked him and commented on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I would like to inform you and all the parishioners present here that the troops of the national guard, together with the armed forces of the Russian Federation, are fulfilling all the tasks assigned during this military counteroperation,” Zolotov said. “And I want to say that, yes, not everything is going as fast as we would like, but this is just because the Nazis hide behind the backs of civilians, behind the backs of the elderly, women, children, arrange firing positions in kindergartens, schools, residential buildings.”
In trying to justify its invasion, Russia has accused Ukraine, without evidence, of genocide akin to that of Nazi-led Germany in the 20th century.
“But we are moving toward our goal step by step, and victory will be ours,” Zolotov added.
New evacuation routes announced by Ukrainian, Russian officials
Ukrainian officials will attempt to evacuate civilians from besieged cities Monday through multiple humanitarian corridors and restart efforts to get a stalled aid convoy to the southern port of Mariupol.
Russia proposed 10 humanitarian corridors for Monday, and Ukrainian authorities agreed to three and proposed 11 additional routes, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, the head of the National Defense Control Center of the Russian Federation, said in a briefing Monday.
According to Mizintsev, Russia agreed to the 11 additional humanitarian corridors proposed by Ukrainian officials for Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Mariupol, Luhansk and Donetsk.
He said the Russians would open the corridors at 10 a.m. each day.
“Of the 10 routes we offer, the Ukrainian authorities have agreed on only three today, but again, cynically in relation to their own people, not a single humanitarian corridor [leads] to the Russian Federation,” he said.
Mizintsev claimed the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation “strictly observe cease-fire around proposed humanitarian routes.” He dubbed as “absurd” a request by the Ukrainian side to deliver “supposedly humanitarian supplies to Melitopol and Kherson.”
“These cities are under our full control, their population continues to live a peaceful life and is provided by the Russian Federation with everything necessary. There are no problems in providing assistance to residents of these settlements,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that more than 130,000 people had been evacuated from cities across Ukraine in the past six days. But without agreement from Russia on humanitarian corridors, many evacuation attempts have failed. A train set to take people from the east to the west of Ukraine was hit by debris during Russian shelling Saturday, killing one conductor and injuring another, an official in Donetsk said.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Monday that Ukrainian forces would “finally” attempt to free a convoy bound for Mariupol with food and medicine, which she had said could not leave nearby Berdyansk on Sunday due to Russian bombardments.
Mariupol has been surrounded by Russian forces for 10 days, leaving many residents stranded without access to food, water or electricity amid freezing temperatures. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called it “the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet” on Friday.
Parts of Ukraine are unrecognizable as people flee and buildings crumble
In less than three weeks, many of Ukraine’s apartment buildings — once warm homes to families and pets — have become impossible to live in. Infrastructure that once served millions of residents has become inoperable, unusable. City centers once full of shoppers have been reduced to rubble. Hospitals meant to provide care and sanctuary have become scenes of destruction.
Moscow’s shelling of civilians despite agreements for cease-fires and humanitarian corridors has sparked international outrage. On Wednesday, a maternity hospital in Mariupol — a strategically important city — was bombed, killing at least four people, including a pregnant woman. Children and medical workers were among more than a dozen injured.
Some of the buildings hit are in residential areas, where analysts have noted that there are no military targets nearby. Strikes on houses or apartment buildings often render the structure unlivable, leaving many displaced.
Kharkiv has been crushed by the war. Half of its population has fled. Damage to administrative buildings and public squares targeted in Ukraine’s second-largest city has not been contained to those areas.
Civilian infrastructure including power plants, radio towers and bridges have also been destroyed in the war. The impact of such attacks could have significant, long lasting repercussions.
More than 160 cars carrying civilians have left besieged port city of Mariupol, city council says
MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — More than 160 cars carrying civilians were able to leave the besieged port city of Mariupol on Monday, the city council said in statement posted online.
The city in southeast Ukraine has been surrounded for the past two weeks by Russian troops and is facing a growing humanitarian crisis after previous attempts to evacuate citizens failed.
The cars that left Mariupol on Monday departed along a “previously established” humanitarian corridor and were heading north to the city of Zaporizhzhia, on the Dnieper River, the city council said. The council’s message, posted Monday afternoon, said a cease-fire was being observed along the humanitarian corridor.
The city council said Sunday that 2,187 residents had died since the Russian invasion late last month. City leaders have accused Russia of targeting residential areas and warned that they are running out of food, water and basic supplies.
A humanitarian convoy attempting to reach the city was delayed Sunday because of heavy fighting, according to Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and a clergyman accompanying the aid trucks. The government of Turkey said Sunday that it was also trying to evacuate dozens of its citizens trapped in the city.
On Monday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced the opening of 10 humanitarian corridors around Kyiv and the eastern Luhansk region. Kirill Timoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said in a message posted Monday that more than 1,700 people were evacuated through humanitarian corridors in the Luhansk region.
Fahim reported from Istanbul.
U.S. stocks climb, oil sinks as investors monitor war
Wall Street mounted a fragile comeback on Monday, with the Dow climbing 300 points in morning trading even as investors remained focused on the war in Ukraine and a coronavirus spike in China.
Around 10:30 a.m., the Dow Jones industrial average had gained nearly 1 percent. The S&P 500 index had edged up nearly 0.7 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq had gained about 0.15 percent.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index suffered its steepest drop since 2016 on Monday, closing nearly 5 percent lower as investors feared that a growing surge in coronavirus infections in China could lead to renewed business and travel restrictions. The city of Shenzhen, a financial hub that borders Hong Kong, has already been thrust back into lockdown, and schools in Shanghai have been shuttered as the outbreak tests China’s tough pandemic policies.
“Shenzhen going into lockdown could have negative effects beyond China’s economy. It is known as ‘the world’s factory’ thanks to its concentration of electronics manufacturing,” Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said Monday in comments emailed to The Washington Post. “Any prolonged disruption to operations could cause yet another global supply chain crunch.”
Oil prices continued their slide down from recent highs Monday but remained elevated. Brent crude, the international benchmark, fell 3.8 percent to trade near $108 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, declined 4.8 percent to approximately $104 a barrel.
The national U.S. average for a gallon of gas was $4.32 on Monday, according to data from AAA, up 26 cents from a week ago.
It’s likely to be another volatile week for markets, as investors continue to monitor diplomatic talks between Russia and Ukraine and the conflict’s continuing economic ripple effects. Geopolitical turmoil is typically shrugged off by investors, but this conflict has vast ramifications because of Russia’s role as one of the world’s biggest energy producers. More disruption to energy markets could heat up inflation as the global economy tries to rebound from the pandemic.
Investors will be focused on the Federal Reserve’s upcoming meeting, as the central bank is widely expected to raise the benchmark interest rate, its best lever for tamping down inflation that had surged to a 40-year high even before the invasion of Ukraine.
War is exacerbating food prices and shortages, especially for food-insecure nations
Governments around the globe are struggling to deal with surging agriculture prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as the costs of core ingredients such as wheat, barley, corn and sunflower oil skyrocket.
Higher prices on these products have made food more expensive for businesses and families and are expected to worsen food insecurity in poorer countries, where staples such as flour and cooking oil were already hard to come by.
Agriculture ministers from the United States, Canada, Britain, Japan and other leading nations met Friday to discuss the crisis in a virtual meeting hosted by Germany, but there are no easy solutions.
While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has similarly sparked an energy crisis, there are efforts underway to boost oil production. But increasing production of wheat or corn is complicated, particularly as nearly a third of the world’s wheat exports comes from Russia and Ukraine.
Global agricultural prices were already reaching an all-time high because of the pandemic and extreme weather from climate change. Now, the indirect effects of the Russian invasion are sending prices soaring for bread, animal feed and fertilizer for nearly all crops.
Ukraine’s Zelensky will deliver virtual joint address to Congress on Wednesday, Pelosi and Schumer say
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will deliver a virtual address to members of the U.S. Congress on Wednesday morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced in a joint letter to their colleagues.
“The Congress, our country and the world are in awe of the people of Ukraine, who have shown extraordinary courage, resilience and determination in the face of Russia’s unprovoked, vicious, and illegal war,” Pelosi and Schumer said in the letter, dated Monday.
The leaders of the two chambers said the address will be broadcast in the Capitol Visitor Center Congressional Auditorium at 9 a.m. Eastern time and attended only by lawmakers.
“The Congress remains unwavering in our commitment to supporting Ukraine as they face Putin’s cruel and diabolical aggression, and to passing legislation to cripple and isolate the Russian economy as well as deliver humanitarian, security and economic assistance to Ukraine,” Pelosi and Schumer said in the letter.
“We look forward to the privilege of welcoming President Zelenskyy’s address to the House and Senate and to convey our support to the people of Ukraine as they bravely defend democracy.”
Squatters break into London mansion reportedly owned by Russian oligarch
LONDON — Squatters early Monday broke into a mansion reportedly owned by a Russian oligarch, unfurled a Ukrainian flag and declared the property “liberated” and ready for refugees.
The home is said to belong to Oleg Deripaska, an oil tycoon and metals billionaire who the British government says is worth $2.6 billion.
Last week, he was added to Britain’s sanctions list, alongside his former business partner Roman Abramovich and five others, in the government’s most aggressive crackdown yet on Russian elites they say have close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The mansion isn’t hard to find — the white stucco building is located in Belgrave Square, dubbed “billionaire row” by British tabloids — and it’s a highlight on “kleptocracy tours” in London given by anti-corruption campaigners.
On Monday, the street was filled with police vans. Images on social media showed police with riot shields entering the property.
The squatters made their presence known. In addition to the yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flag, they also hung banners outside the home that read “Power breeds parasites” and “This property has been liberated.”
The squatters said they broke in around 1 a.m. Monday.
Speaking to the Britain’s Press Association news service, one squatter referred to the group as the “London Mahknovists,” a reference to Nestor Makhno, a Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary. They said five people were inside but that a “way bigger group” was on its way.
The break-in comes a day after Housing Secretary Michael Gove said he was exploring ways the British government could offer Russian oligarchs’ mansions to Ukrainian refugees.
Soaring fertilizer costs could spark global food crisis, Russian billionaire Melnichenko warns
Soaring fertilizer prices could spark a global food shortage if the war in Ukraine continues, Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko warned Monday.
“The events in Ukraine are truly tragic. We urgently need peace,” Melnichenko said in a statement reported by Reuters. “One of the victims of this crisis will be agriculture and food.”
The war has already inflated fertilizer prices past the point of affordability for many farmers, he said. As of March 9, prices analyzed by the Minnesota-based data company DTN show they’ve climbed since last month but have not surpassed the 5 percent increase that would have been considered “significant.”
Melnichenko expressed concern that food shortages will soon follow as agriculture is disrupted. “Now it will lead to even higher food inflation in Europe and likely food shortages in the world’s poorest countries,” he said.
Melnichenko, who owns the fertilizer giant EuroChem and the coal company SUEK, is the latest of several Russian businessman who have raised concerns over the conflict’s humanitarian and economic toll. With a net worth estimated at $11.1 billion, according to Forbes, he is part of a cadre of wealthy Russians whose individual assets have been the subject of sanctions. His yacht was seized by Italian authorities over the weekend, according to multiple news reports.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned last week that food prices would jump if the West created problems for Russia’s export of fertilizers, which account for 13 percent of global output, according to Reuters. Russia is a major producer of potash, phosphate and nitrogen containing fertilizers — major crop and soil nutrients.
Analysis: Amid Russian aggression, NATO nonalignment creates risk for Finland and Sweden
In the wilds of Scandinavia, more than 30,000 troops are conducting live-fire drills at Cold Response, one of the West’s largest military exercises since the end of the Cold War. Planned long before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the training mission in NATO member Norway has nevertheless taken on new urgency — and is sending a powerful message to Moscow: United, the allies stand strong.
But for two of the 27 participating nations at Cold Response — Finland and Sweden — the drills are also cold comfort. As their presence suggests, both nations are deeply integrated into the West. But historically nonaligned, neither belongs to NATO. That leaves them standing uncomfortably outside the alliance’s defense umbrella that states an attack on one member is also an attack on all.
The surging Russian threat, however, is spurring a historic debate in both countries on the suddenly ironic risks of embracing caution on NATO membership.
Mariupol residents face ‘worst-case scenario’ without evacuation, Red Cross says
The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that the worst awaits residents trapped in besieged Mariupol if Russia and Ukraine cannot agree on ways to evacuate them to other cities.
“A worst-case scenario awaits the hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped by heavy combat in Mariupol unless the parties reach a concrete humanitarian agreement urgently,” the ICRC said Sunday in a statement, citing eyewitness accounts by its “operational leader in Mariupol.”
Mariupol, a city of more than 400,000 people that lies on the Sea of Azov in southern Ukraine, has been surrounded by Russian forces for two weeks. Attempts to evacuate civilians have failed, and a humanitarian convoy headed to Mariupol on Sunday with food and medicine never left a nearby town because of Russian bombing, Ukrainian officials said.
Russian airstrikes have hit civilian targets across Mariupol, including residential buildings and a maternity hospital, and the city council said Sunday that 2,187 residents have died in Russia’s invasion — a figure that was impossible to verify given the situation on the ground.
The ICRC in its statement described horrific conditions in the city, with “extreme or total shortages of basic necessities like food, water and medicine,” and with “people of all ages … sheltering in unheated basements.”
“Dead bodies, of civilians and combatants, remain trapped under the rubble or lying in the open where they fell. Life-changing injuries and chronic, debilitating conditions cannot be treated. The human suffering is simply immense,” the statement said.
The ICRC statement called on Russia and Ukraine to agree to a “concrete, precise, actionable” plan to evacuate those wishing to leave Mariupol and to get humanitarian aid to those staying behind.
Both sides have previously announced their own cease-fires and humanitarian corridors without agreement from the other, leading to confusion. “All those participating in the fighting need to agree to the modalities and timing of a ceasefire, the precise locations of the safe passage route, and then ensure that the agreement is respected,” the ICRC said, adding that it is ready to act as a mediator to broker such an agreement.
“History will look back at what is now happening in Mariupol with horror if no agreement is reached by the sides as quickly as possible,” it said.