Harris vows ‘ironclad’ support of NATO amid Ukraine invasion
Vice President Harris said the U.S. commitment to the defense of NATO members is “ironclad” in a news conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Associated Press, USA TODAY
The Kremlin defended its bombing of a Ukraine hospital Thursday while the highest-level talks yet failed to reach agreement on a humanitarian cease-fire aimed at protecting Ukraine cities battered by fierce Russian assaults.
In Poland, Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated the U.S. commitment to NATO and defense of its members is “ironclad.” Harris, during a joint news conference in Warsaw with Polish President Andrzej Duda, said America is deeply appreciative of Poland’s efforts to aid refugees fleeing the carnage in Ukraine.
“This is a moment that requires severe and swift consequences for Russian aggression against Ukraine,” Harris said. “What is at stake, this very moment, are some of the guiding principles around the NATO alliance.”
The meeting came after the Biden administration rejected a plan from Poland that would involve U.S. involvement in providing fighter jets to Ukraine, a decision drawing questions from some Republican senators. U.S. defense officials also have distanced themselves from Ukraine requests for a NATO-backed no-fly zone over the country.
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In Turkey, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov met, the most pressing issue the southern port of Mariupol. The city has been rocked by two weeks of unrelenting bombardment leaving inhabitants struggling to obtain, food, water, shelter and other basic necessities. Multiple rounds of talks aimed at protecting Ukraine’s civilians have also failed to make headway toward peace.
A hospital complex in Mariupol bombed Wednesday resulted in at least three deaths, including one child, Ukraine authorities say. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed the claim Thursday, saying the hospital had been emptied of patients and was being used as an extremist base.
“This is not the first time when we see pathetic cries about so-called atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces,” Lavrov said. “Our delegation presented facts at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council proving that the maternity hospital had long been seized by fighters of the Azov battalion and other radicals. They kicked all patients, all nurses, and all service personnel out.”
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, however, has said the building was a hospital and called the attack an “atrocity.”
Latest developments:
►Russian President Vladimir Putin shrugged off sanctions from the West, saying they are nothing new for Russians. ″Just as we overcame these difficulties in the previous years, we will overcome them now,” he said at a televised meeting of government officials. He acknowledged the sanctions create “certain challenges.”
►French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the Mariupol hospital bombing as “a shameful and amoral act of war.”
►Former Vice President Mike Pence and wife Karen visited Thursday with Ukraine refugees at the Korczowa border crossing in Poland. “The impact of the Russian invasion on these families is heartbreaking and the need for support is great,” Pence said on Twitter.
►The U.N. refugee agency says more than 2.3 million Ukraines have fled the country, over 1.4 million of them through Poland.
►A Ukrainian man learned his family was killed through graphic images circulating on Twitter. Serhiy Perebyinis told The New York Times he first recognized the luggage in the photo where the lifeless bodies of his wife and two children were lying on the ground after being hit by shrapnel from a Russian mortar shelling Sunday.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday attacked what he called the Biden administration’s “confusing mismanagement and mixed signals” on the Ukraine crisis. The Kentucky Republican was referring to the Polish government’s surprise offer this week to give its Soviet-era fighter jets to the U.S., which would then give the planes to Ukraine. The administration, which had anticipated Poland would directly provide the planes to Ukraine, called Poland’s offer “untenable.” Involving the U.S. and a NATO air base would run a “high risk” of escalating the war, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
GOP Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Ben Sasse of Nebraska said they didn’t buy the administration’s reliance on a recent U.S. intelligence assessment that concluded that transferring jet fighters could drag the U.S. deeper into the war. But Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said U.S. military and intelligence officials do believe providing planes could prompt Putin to lash out.
“I do believe that there is an escalation ladder,” Berrier said. “And there’s a difference between an anti-tank weapon, a shoulder-fired air defense weapon and a combat aircraft and a jet that could cross a border and actually conduct operations on Russian soil.”
– Maureen Groppe and Josh Meyer
Russian President Vladimir Putin has masked the costs of the Ukraine invasion in his own country through the dominance of state media and the “strangulation of independent media” but won’t be able to hide the truth indefinitely, according to CIA Director William Burns. Burns, a former ambassador to the Russian federation, told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday that many Russians have virtual private network accounts and retain access to YouTube and other sources of independent information.
As the damage mounts, Burns said Putin’s propaganda bubble would be punctured by the number of troops killed and wounded, the economic consequences of a worldwide trade embargo and the horrific scenes of hospitals and schools being bombed.
“I don’t believe that he is going to be able to seal Russians off entirely from the truth,” Burns said. “I don’t think he can bottle up the truth indefinitely.”
– Bart Jansen
Ukraine is not pursuing biological or nuclear weapons, as Russia has falsely spread through propaganda, the top U.S. intelligence official told a Senate panel Thursday.
Russia has accused the U.S. of sponsoring biological weapons research in Ukraine since invading the neighboring country two weeks ago. Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, accused Ukraine of preparing a chemical attack. Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, testified that Ukraine has a dozen biological research labs developing countermeasures and how to prevent the spread of pandemics, but not weapons labs.
“I want to be absolutely clear that we do not believe that Ukraine is pursuing biological or nuclear weapons. We’ve seen no evidence of that,” Haines told the Senate Intelligence Committee. “This influence campaign is completely consistent with longstanding Russian efforts to accuse the United States of sponsoring bio weapons work in the former Soviet Union. This is a classic move by the Russians.”
Borislav Bereza, former member of Ukrainian parliament and member of Ukrainian delegation in Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, posted a statement on social media warning that Russia could have a dangerous motive: “This is actually an announcement and confession that Russia is planning to use chemical weapons in the near future.”
– Bart Jansen
Vice President Kamala Harris said Russia’s airstrikes on hospitals were “atrocities of unimaginable proportion” and said the United Nations has a process to review and investigate to investigate such attacks. The World Health Organization says at least 18 attacks have been conducted on medical facilities since the invasion began Feb. 24.
Harris noted that “the eyes of the world are on this war and what Russia has done in terms of this aggression and these atrocities.”
Ukraine said Russian bombs severely damaged a maternity and children’s hospital complex in the besieged city of Mariupol on Wednesday, killing at least three people including a child and wounding at least 17 more.
“Russians are committing war crimes,” Polish President Duda said. “I hope that also in the future, it will be obvious for a court investigating those issues who bears responsibility for that.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Thursday that about 2 million people – half the population of the capital’s metropolitan area – have fled the city amid constant bombings from the Russian military. But he said the spirit of the city remains strong. Fighting is fierce, and the city has become a fortress, he said.
“Everyone says ‘Nothing will happen, we will not surrender our city,'” Klitschko said. “I can repeat these words: The city stood, the people will stand. They won’t give up. And the enemy won’t pass.”
Roman Abramovich’s attempt to sell British soccer team Chelsea has been halted after the Russian oligarch was sanctioned by the U.K. government. Last year, Forbes magazine estimated Chelsea’s value at $3.2 billion. Abramovich put the team up for sale last week, shortly before his assets were frozen.
The team cannot sell game tickets or merchandise. The British government is allowing the team to play its games, including one scheduled for Thursday night. Ticket-holders will be allowed to attend matches and staff will be paid. Abramovich, who made his fortune in oil and aluminum, has not condemned Russia’s invasion.
Ukrainian leaders say civilians are increasingly suffering and dying as Russia’s assault on Ukraine enters its third week. Multiple hospitals have been shelled, more than 2.3 million people have fled the country and more are struggling to leave. On the outskirts of Kyiv, hundreds of residents in towns occupied by Russian troops fled Wednesday. Some said they hadn’t eaten in days, while others told harrowing tales of war.
“Occupiers came to our house and they were ready to shoot us,” said Iuliia Bushinska, a Vorzel resident. “They took away our house, our car, they took away our documents. So we need to start our life from the beginning. We survived things that I never experienced in my life.”
What is NATO? Here’s why it was founded and what it does today.
NATO was founded as a political and military alliance to counter Soviet influence and militant nationalism in Europe following WWII.
USA TODAY
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has given the smaller nation’s embassy in Washington an unexpected role: recruitment center for Americans who want to join the fight.
Diplomats working out of the embassy, in a townhouse in the Georgetown section of the city, are fielding thousands of offers from volunteers seeking to fight for Ukraine, even as they work on the far more pressing matter of securing weapons to defend against an increasingly brutal Russian onslaught.
“They really feel that this war is unfair, unprovoked,” said Ukraine’s military attaché, Maj. Gen. Borys Kremenetskyi. “They feel that they have to go and help.”
U.S. volunteers represent just a small subset of foreigners seeking to fight for Ukraine, who in turn comprise just a tiny fraction of the international assistance that has flowed into the country. Still, it is a reflection of the passion, supercharged in an era of social media, that the attack and the mounting civilian casualties have stirred.
“This is not mercenaries who are coming to earn money,” Kremenetskyi said. “This is people of goodwill who are coming to assist Ukraine to fight for freedom.”
The U.S. government discourages Americans from going to fight in Ukraine, which raises legal and national security issues.
– The Associated Press
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