Ukraine latest: All women, children flee Mariupol steel plant

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is in its third month, with casualties mounting on both sides.

Ukraine’s forces continue to resist, while its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy regularly calls on the world to do more to help. Governments around the globe have imposed heavy sanctions against Moscow but have stopped short of direct intervention for fear of sparking a wider conflict.

Meanwhile, rising geopolitical risk and volatile energy and financial markets are rocking Asia.

For all our coverage, visit our Ukraine war page.

Read our in-depth coverage:

— India says Ukraine crisis ‘wake-up call’ for Europe to look at Asia

— How Russia spread its fabricated pretexts for invading Ukraine

— Germany, Japan tap hydrogen to reduce Russia dependence

— Japan drops plan to send Ukraine refugees aid supplies via India

Entries include material from wire services and other sources.

Note: Nikkei Asia on March 5 decided to temporarily suspend its reporting from Russia until further information becomes available regarding the scope of the revised criminal code.

Here are the latest developments:

Sunday, May 8 (Tokyo time)

5:15 a.m. In a late night address, President Zelenskyy confirms a rescue mission at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, saying more than 300 civilians had been rescued at the plant, which has been pounded by Russian forces for several weeks. He says authorities will now focus on evacuating the wounded and medics as well as working on humanitarian corridors for all residents of Mariupol and surrounding settlements.

1:38 a.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin believes doubling down on the conflict will improve his outcome in the war, says CIA director William Burns.

“He’s in a frame of mind in which he doesn’t believe he can afford to lose,” said Burns, who was speaking at a Financial Times event in Washington. “I think he’s convinced right now that doubling down still will enable him to make progress.”

1:25 a.m. All women, children and elderly people have been evacuated from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister says. “This part of the Mariupol humanitarian operation is over,” Iryna Vereshchuk says. Kyiv announced on Friday an evacuation plan from Azovstal and other parts of Mariupol for Saturday. The Soviet-era steel mill, the last holdout in Mariupol for Ukrainian forces, has emerged as a symbol of resistance to the wider Russian effort to capture swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine in the 10-week-old war. Under heavy bombardment, fighters and civilians have been trapped for weeks in deep bunkers and tunnels that criss-cross the site, with little food, water or medicine.

Meanwhile, Russian forces backed by tanks and artillery renew attempts to storm Azovstal, Ukraine’s military command says, part of a ferocious assault to dislodge the last Ukrainian defenders in the strategic port city on the Azov Sea.

12:12 a.m. Pro-Russian forces say 50 more people are evacuated from the besieged Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, where scores of civilians have been trapped for weeks alongside Ukrainian fighters holed up in the Soviet-era plant. The defense headquarters of Russian-backed Donetsk separatists say on Telegram that a total of 176 civilians had now been evacuated from the steelworks. The report could not be independently verified.

Saturday, May 7

11:45 p.m. Jill Biden hears stories from Ukrainian women and children who fled the war and found safe haven across the border in Romania, and the American first lady praises the Romanian government and relief organizations for the range of humanitarian aid they are providing to refugees. “We stand with you,” Biden tells mothers at a Romanian public school hosting refugee students in Bucharest.

8:43 p.m. Six missiles hit the southern port city of Odesa, the spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern military command says. Four rockets strike a furniture factory in a residential area, while the other two strike an already damaged runway strip. The number of casualties is unclear.

3:10 p.m. The conflict in Ukraine is taking a heavy toll on some of Russia’s most capable units and most advanced capabilities, the British defense ministry tweets in a regular bulletin. At least one T-90M, Russia’s most advanced tank, has been destroyed in the fighting, the ministry said. Approximately 100 T-90M tanks are in service among Russia’s best equipped units, including those fighting in Ukraine, it said.

12:00 p.m. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is considering attending the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual Asian security conference to be held in Singapore in June, Nikkei has learned. Kishida plans to call for countries to cooperate in dealing with Russia, which recently invaded Ukraine, and China, which is strengthening its maritime expansion in the East and South China Seas.

8:40 a.m. The U.K. government says it will give Ukraine 287 mobile generators in addition to 569 generators it donated earlier. The new generators, which are enough to power nearly 8,000 homes, will be used for hospitals, shelters and other essential services in the face of ongoing destruction in eastern Ukraine, it says. The government has also relaxed rules on support for overseas fossil fuels to boost supply of vital energy to Ukraine.

7:00 a.m. U.S. President Joe Biden signs a new $150 million weapons package for Ukraine, providing additional artillery munitions, radars and other equipment in the latest in a series of transfers to help Kyiv repel Russia’s invasion. The new package will be worth $150 million and include 25,000 155mm artillery rounds, counter-artillery radar, jamming equipment, field equipment and spare parts, a U.S. official said. The U.S. has rushed $3.4 billion worth of armaments to Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, including howitzers, anti-aircraft Stinger missile systems, anti-tank Javelin missiles, ammunition and recently-disclosed Ghost drones.

2:29 a.m. Evacuations of civilians trapped in a bombed-out steelworks in Mariupol tentatively resumed late Friday, hours after Russia was accused of violating a truce intended to allow them to depart after weeks under siege.

Two buses carrying 25 civilians, including children, arrived at the staging post of Bezimenne, around 30 km east of the plant. Russian news agency Tass reports a third bus, carrying 23 civilian evacuees, left the Azovstal steel complex. Mariupol’s mayor has estimated 200 people remained trapped at the plant with little food or water.

Friday, May 6

6:00 p.m. Russia will not use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, foreign ministry spokesman Alexei Zaitsev says, according to Reuters. Zaitsev told reporters the use of nuclear weapons by Russia — a risk that Western officials have publicly discussed — was not applicable to what Moscow calls its special military operation in Ukraine. CIA Director William Burns said on April 14 that given the setbacks Russia had suffered in Ukraine, “none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons.”

5:30 p.m. Germany will deliver seven self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, on top of five such artillery systems the Dutch government has already pledged, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht says. Germany last week reversed a long-held policy of not sending heavy weapons to war zones, following pressure from at home and abroad for it to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s attacks. The weapons, which are expected to come from the Bundeswehr armed forces, are to be delivered as soon as they emerge from maintenance over the next weeks.

3:20 p.m. Hungary cannot support the European Union’s new sanctions package against Russia in its present form, including an embargo on Russian crude oil imports, Prime Minister Viktor Orban tells state radio. Orban said the European Commission’s current proposal would amount to an “atomic bomb” dropped on the Hungarian economy, adding that Hungary is ready to negotiate if it sees a new proposal that would meet Hungarian interests.

12:30 p.m. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the world to unite and end the war in Ukraine, calling it senseless, ruthless and “limitless in its potential for global harm.” The top U.N. human rights official said even a one-day cease-fire would prevent dozens of civilian deaths and injuries and allow several thousand people to flee Russian attacks.

11:05 a.m. The U.S. says it shared intelligence with Ukraine about the location of the Russian missile cruiser Moskva prior to the strike that sank the warship, the Associated Press reports. An American official said that Ukraine alone decided to target and sink the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet using its own anti-ship missiles. But given Russia’s attacks on the Ukrainian coastline from the sea, the U.S. has provided “a range of intelligence” that includes locations of those ships, said the official.

9:23 a.m. The Pentagon says the majority of Russian forces that had been around the port city of Mariupol have left and headed north, leaving roughly the equivalent of two battalion tactical groups, or about 2,000 troops. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that even as Russian airstrikes continue to bombard Mariupol, Moscow’s forces are still making only “plodding” and incremental progress as the main fight presses on in the eastern Donbas region.

2:30 a.m. Ukraine has large enough grain stocks in territory it still controls to feed the population in these areas and enough fuel to meet farmers’ daily needs, deputy agriculture minister Taras Vysotskiy says. Ukraine said last month that Russian forces had stolen “several hundred thousand tons” of grain in the areas of Ukraine they have occupied since the invasion began on Feb. 24 and this could affect the food security of local populations. The Kremlin has denied the allegation.

1:12 a.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin told Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in a phone call that Russia was still ready to provide safe passage for civilians from the besieged Azovstal steelworks in the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, the Kremlin says. It said Putin told Bennett in a “thorough exchange of views on the situation in Ukraine” that Kyiv should order Ukrainian fighters holed up in the vast Azovstal plant to put down their weapons.

Thursday, May 5

9:26 p.m. Authorities in Fiji have seized a $300 million yacht owned by Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov at Washington’s request, the U.S. Justice Department says. Kerimov was sanctioned by the U.S. and European Union.

9:02 p.m. Finland is prepared for the possibility of Russia cutting off its gas deliveries, Minister of European Affairs Tytti Tuppurainen tells Reuters, ahead of the Nordic country’s decision on whether to join NATO. Helsinki said on April 28 it would not abide by Moscow’s demand for gas payments to be made in rubles.

Finland is maintaining alternative energy sources, Tuppurainen says, and will lease a floating LNG terminal with Estonia. Roughly 60%-70% of the gas used in Finland originates from Russia. But it accounted for little more than 5% of the country’s total energy consumption last year, Statistics Finland’s preliminary data shows.

8:06 p.m. Ukraine is unlikely to launch a counter-offensive in its war with Russia before mid-June, when it hopes to have received more weapons from its allies, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says.

Political adviser Oleksiy Arestovych also says he does not expect Russia’s offensive in Ukraine to produce any “significant results” by May 9, when Russia will celebrate its victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

4:49 p.m. Russia says its artillery struck multiple Ukrainian positions and strongholds overnight, killing 600 fighters. The defense ministry also says its missiles destroyed aviation equipment at the Kanatovo airfield in Ukraine’s central Kirovohrad region and a large ammunition depot in the southern city of Mykolaiv.

Two villages in Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine have been shelled by Ukraine, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov says, adding that there were no civilian casualties.

1:39 p.m. Oil prices extend gains as a European Union proposal for new sanctions against Russia, including an embargo on crude in six months, offset concerns over slowing Chinese demand. Brent crude futures had climbed 60 cents, or 0.5%, to $110.74 a barrel by 0630 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 40 cents, or 0.4%, to $108.21 a barrel. Both benchmarks jumped more than $1 a barrel earlier in the volatile session after gaining more than $5 a barrel on Wednesday.

9:05 a.m. Women and children remain trapped inside Ukraine’s besieged city of Mariupol, and a prolonged ceasefire is needed to ensure their evacuation as Russia presses its assault, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says. “It will take time simply to lift people out of those basements, out of those underground shelters,” he said. “In the present conditions, we cannot use heavy equipment to clear the rubble away. It all has to be done by hand.”

6:49 a.m. Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi and American counterpart Lloyd Austin have agreed to maintain U.S. nuclear deterrence and align their nations’ security strategies in light of Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Russia’s baseless and “reckless invasion of Ukraine is an affront to the rules-based international order,” Austin said at the start of a 75-minute meeting in Washington. Kishi said the war means Japan can no longer separate the security of the Indo-Pacific from that of Europe.

2:55 a.m. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warns that global food security can not be solved without restoring Ukraine’s agricultural production and Russia’s food and fertilizer output. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has roiled financial markets, sending commodity prices higher and affecting logistics. “Our analysis indicates that the war in Ukraine is only making things worse, setting in motion a three-dimensional crisis that is devastating global food, energy and financial systems for developing countries,” Guterres told reporters in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

Wednesday, May 4

6:05 p.m. Russia’s foreign ministry announces sanctions against 63 Japanese officials, journalists and professors for engaging in what it called “unacceptable rhetoric” against Moscow. The list includes Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi, among other officials.

5:57 p.m. A Russian submarine in Black sea had fired two Kalibr cruise missiles at targets in Ukraine, Russia’s defence ministry says. “The crew of the Black Sea Fleet submarine launched two Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea at designated ground targets in the territory of Ukraine,” it says.

5:50 p.m. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu says the military would consider NATO transport carrying weapons in Ukraine as targets to be destroyed, according to RIA news agency. Shoigu also says that Ukrainian fighters holed up in the sprawling Azovstal plant in Mariupol have been kept under secure blockade after President Vladimir Putin ordered that they be hermetically sealed off.

5:00 p.m. Russia’s defense ministry says it has disabled six railway stations in Ukraine used to supply Ukrainian forces with Western-made weapons in the country’s east. The ministry says it has bombed railway stations’ power supplies using high-precision air and sea-based weapons. It did not say which Western-made weapons were supplied to Ukrainian forces via those stations.

3:50 p.m. The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is proposing a phased oil embargo on Russia, as well as sanctions on its top bank, Sberbank, and to ban Russian broadcasters from European airwaves, in its toughest measures yet to punish Moscow for invading Ukraine. The plan, if agreed by EU governments, would be a watershed for the world’s largest trading bloc, which is dependent on Russian energy and must find alternative supplies.

“Putin must pay a price, a high price, for his brutal aggression,” von der Leyen tells the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

1:53 p.m. Russia has deployed 22 battalion tactical groups near Ukraine’s eastern city of Izium in an effort to advance along the northern axis of the Donbas region, Britain said on Wednesday. In an update on Twitter, British military intelligence said it was highly likely that Russia intended to move beyond Izium to capture the cities of Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk.

5:00 a.m. Russia appears to have avoided a default as overdue payments on two sovereign Eurobonds were sent to creditors, four sources tell Reuters. A source familiar with the payment process and speaking on condition of anonymity on Tuesday said the funds had been transferred to some bondholders the day before. Two creditors holding the bonds confirmed the money had shown up in their accounts. A senior U.S. official confirmed on Monday that Moscow had made the payment without using reserves frozen in the United States, adding that the exact origin of the funds was unclear.

5:34 a.m. Russian attacks in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region kill 21 civilians and injure 27, regional Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko says in an online post. Kyrylenko says the death toll, from the previous day, is the region’s highest since an assault last month on a railway station in the town of Kramatorsk that killed more than 50.

12:30 a.m. Just over 100 people have been evacuated from the besieged Azovstal steel plant, the United Nations says, even as reports of attacks by Russian forces continue.

A U.N. official says 101 people have been ferried to safety, mostly to Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine. Reuters quotes the head of the Red Cross in Ukraine as saying an unknown number of civilians remain trapped in the plant in Mariupol.

The Azov Battalion, a Ukrainian paramilitary group, says in a social media posting that two women were killed Tuesday in a Russian attack on the plant.

Tuesday, May 3

9:55 p.m. Russian troops shell the Azovstal steel plant in Ukraine’s southern port city of Mariupol, confirming earlier reports of strikes on the encircled plant, where the mayor says over 200 civilians remain trapped.

Russian sources allege the country’s forces began to destroy Ukrainian firing positions established after the defenders “took advantage” of a U.N.-brokered cease-fire that let several groups of civilians escape the plant. A Mariupol police official has told public broadcaster Suspine that Russia is trying to seize the sprawling plant, the last pocket of Mariupol still held by Ukrainian forces.

6:54 p.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on retaliatory economic sanctions in response to the “unfriendly actions of certain foreign states and international organizations,” the Kremlin says. According to the decree, Russia will forbid the export of products and raw materials to people and entities that it has sanctioned. The decree also prohibits transactions with foreign individuals and companies hit by Russia’s retaliatory sanctions and permits Russian counterparties not to fulfill obligations towards them.

6:00 p.m. Russia has struck a military airfield near Ukraine’s southwestern city of Odesa with missiles, destroying drones, missiles and ammunition supplied to Ukraine by the United States and its European allies, the defense ministry says. “High-precision Onyx missiles struck a logistics center at a military airfield in the Odesa region through which foreign weapons were being delivered,” the defense ministry says. “Hangars containing unmanned Bayraktar TB2 drones, as well as missiles and ammunition from the U.S. and European countries, were destroyed.”

4:20 p.m. Slovakia will seek an exemption from any embargo on Russian oil decided by the European Union in its next set of sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, Slovakia’s economy ministry says.

3:07 p.m. A Fijian court rules that the U.S. can seize a Russian-owned superyacht 21 days after the luxury vessel Amadea arrived in the Pacific island nation and was detained by police. U.S. authorities assert that the Amadea is ultimately owned by Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, who has been sanctioned by the U.S. and the European Union. Fiji’s High Court will grant an order to register a U.S. seizure warrant, Fiji Broadcasting Corporation reports.

3:00 p.m. Russian forces shell Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, and have devastated several towns in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine’s general staff says its forces were defending the approach to Kharkiv from Izyum, a town on the Donets River, some 120 km (75 miles) to the southeast, as the enemy left a trail of destruction around Luhansk.

Ukraine’s military says Russian forces are trying to take the frontline Luhansk town of Rubizhne and prepare an assault on nearby Sievierodonetsk. The heaviest clashes were taking place around Popasna to the south. Shelling has been so intense it has not possible to collect bodies, says Serhiy Gaidai, the regional governor.

“I don’t even want to speak about what’s happening with the people living in Popasna, Rubizhne and Novotoshkivske right now,” Gaidai says. “These cities simply don’t exist anymore. They have completely destroyed them.”

1:00 a.m. The European Union will likely propose ending purchases of Russian crude oil by the 27-country bloc before the end of 2022, Nikkei and other media report.

The proposal is expected to be announced Tuesday. This follows the EU’s coal import ban agreed on in April.

The oil embargo will be the centerpiece of a sixth package of EU sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Monday, May 2

11:15 p.m. Hungary has moved its embassy in Ukraine back to Kyiv from Lviv as the capital’s security situation continues to improve, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto says.

9:07 p.m. Efforts to evacuate more civilians from the devastated Ukrainian port city of Mariupol run into delays, and hundreds of people remain trapped in the Azovstal steel works, the last stronghold of resistance to the Russian siege. The cause of the holdup is unclear, though a city official says Russian forces resumed shelling the plant on Sunday after a convoy of buses had left.

5:30 p.m. Russia’s defense ministry says that the Russian military has shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet near Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine. The ministry says in a briefing it has hit 38 military targets in Ukraine, including ammunition depots and control centers.

4:37 p.m. A Ukrainian Bayraktar drone destroyed two Russian Raptor-class patrol ships in the Black Sea on Monday, Ukraine’s military chief says. “Two Russian Raptor-class boats were destroyed at dawn today near Zmiinyi (Snake) Island,” Chief of General Staff Valeriy Zaluzhniy wrote on the Telegram messaging app. There was no immediate reaction from Moscow to the claim.

4:03 p.m. Finland will decide to apply for NATO membership on May 12, Finnish newspaper Iltalehti reported late on Sunday, citing anonymous government sources. The decision to join will come in two steps on that day, with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto first announcing his approval for the Nordic neighbor of Russia to join the Western defense alliance, followed by parliamentary groups giving their approval for the application, the paper reported. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has pushed Finland and Sweden to the verge of applying for NATO membership.

3:45 p.m. Ukraine could lose tens of millions of tons of grain due to Russia’s blockade of its Black Sea ports, triggering a food crisis that would affect Europe, Asia and Africa, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says. “Russia does not let ships come in or go out. It is controlling the Black Sea,” Zelenskyy told the Australian news program 60 Minutes. “Russia wants to completely block our country’s economy.” Ukraine is a major exporter of grain and other food products and also of metals.

3:04 p.m. Ukraine will be able to go on the offensive against Russia between late May and mid-June, thanks to weapons supplied by the U.S. and European countries, Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an online interview with Nikkei Asia. His remark suggests an acceleration in the pace of the war, as experts predict Russia will stage all-out attacks before its May 9 Victory Day, which commemorates the Soviet Union’s beating back Nazi Germany in World War II.

1:26 p.m. Russia’s unprovoked military aggression against Ukraine has come as a dire security warning for many countries. The horrifying destruction and huge casualties Ukraine has suffered have prompted political leaders around the world to start rethinking their security policies and strategies. Japan cannot remain insulated from the seismic shift triggered by the war in Ukraine. Nikkei commentator Hiroyuki Akita describes how the war underscores the urgency of buttressing the nation’s defense system and alliances. Read more.

6:30 a.m. The upcoming anniversary of Russia’s liberation at the end of World War II will have no bearing on Moscow’s military operations in Ukraine, the country’s foreign minister said on Italian television. “Our soldiers won’t base their actions on a specific date,” Sergey Lavrov said when asked whether the May 9 anniversary would mark a turning point in the conflict. “We’ll commemorate our victory in a solemn manner but the timing and speed of what is happening in Ukraine will hinge on the need to minimize risks for civilians and Russian soldiers,” he added.

6:00 a.m. About 70% of Asia’s biggest companies lost value in the first two months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with investors spooked by the economic fallout from the war and the impact of tough new COVID-19 lockdowns in manufacturing powerhouse China.

The market capitalization of prominent firms such as Tencent Holdings, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics dropped as high raw material costs and supply chain concerns weigh on manufacturers. But the value of energy and commodity companies in India, Thailand and Malaysia rose as their output commands higher prices. Read more.

5:55 a.m. Germany expects to completely wean itself off Russian crude oil imports by late summer, the Associated Press reports a German minister as saying.

Europe’s largest economy has cut its share of Russian energy imports to 12% for oil, 8% for coal and 35% for natural gas, according to Robert Habeck, who heads Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. Berlin has faced strong calls to reduce its reliance on Russian fossil fuels over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

12:35 a.m. More on the Mariupol evacuation from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Sunday, May 1

11:03 p.m. A “safe passage operation” for civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol is underway, a U.N. spokesperson confirms. The operation in the besieged Ukrainian city is being carried out in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross, Russia and Ukraine, having begun on Friday.

5:56 p.m. Russia’s defense ministry says it has struck at weapons supplied to Ukraine by the United States and European countries and destroys a runway at a military airfield near the Ukrainian city of Odesa. The ministry says it uses high-precision Onyx missiles to strike the airfield, after Ukraine accuses Russia of knocking out a newly-constructed runway at the main airport of Odesa. Odesa regional governor Maksym Marchenko says Russia had used a Bastion missile, launched from Crimea.

5:30 p.m. A Ukrainian fighter inside a shelter in the city’s bombed out Azovstal steel works says that 20 women and children had made it out of the sprawling plant. “We are getting civilians out of the rubble with ropes — it’s the elderly, women and children,” says the fighter, Sviatoslav Palamar. Palamar says Russia and Ukraine were respecting a local ceasefire and he hoped the evacuated civilians would be taken to the city of Zaporizhzhia to the northwest.

Two groups of civilians left the residential area around the Azovstal steel works in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Saturday, Russian news agencies cites the defense ministry as saying on Sunday. The ministry says a total of 46 civilians had left the area and were provided with food and shelter, RIA and TASS reports.

4:20 p.m. U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi makes an unannounced visit to Kyiv. Second in the line of succession to the president, Pelosi is the highest-ranking U.S. official to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy since the start of the war. Zelenskyy releases a video of the visit on Twitter.

7:55 a.m. Hollywood actress and U.N. humanitarian Angelina Jolie makes a surprise visit to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.

On Telegram, Lviv Gov. Maksym Kozytskyy says Jolie came to speak with displaced people who have found refuge in Lviv, including children undergoing treatment for injuries sustained in the missile strike on the Kramatorsk railway station in early April.

Jolie has been a UNHCR Special Envoy for Refugees since 2011.

1:07 a.m. Peace talks seem to be at a standstill as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says lifting Russia sanctions is part of negotiations with Ukraine, a claim denied by senior Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak. “The talks’ agenda … includes, among other things, the issues of denazification, the recognition of new geopolitical realities, the lifting of sanctions, the status of the Russian language,” Lavrov says in comments to China’s official Xinhua news agency published on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website.

But Podolyak is dismissive of those comments, saying Lavrov had not attended a single negotiating round, and Ukraine did not need lessons in “denazification” or use of the Russian language from those who had attacked and occupied Ukrainian towns and cities, according to Reuters.

Saturday, April 30

11:57 p.m. The Ukrainian military says a Russian missile strike on Odesa airport has damaged the runway and it can no longer be used.

11:25 p.m. Ukraine and Russia carry out a prisoner exchange, with seven soldiers and seven civilians coming home to Ukraine, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says. One of the soldiers was a woman who is five months’ pregnant, she adds.

9:00 p.m. French President Emmanuel Macron says France will step up military and humanitarian support to Ukraine during a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. According to Reuters, Macron reiterates his “strong concern” over Russia’s bombing of Ukrainian cities and the “unbearable situation” in the southeastern port city of Mariupol.

3:09 p.m. Russian forces have stolen “several hundred thousand tons” of grain in the areas of Ukraine they occupy, Ukraine’s deputy agriculture minister says. Speaking to Ukrainian national TV, Taras Vysotskiy expressed concern that most of what he said was 1.5 million tons of grain stored in occupied territory could also be stolen by Russian forces. Ukraine’s foreign ministry on Thursday accused Russia of stealing grain in territory it has occupied, an act it said increased the threat to global food security.

2:20 a.m. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is on a five-nation tour framed as “protecting peace” as Russia’s war against Ukraine divides the Group of 20.

On his first stop, in Indonesia, Kishida stood beside Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Friday to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Unilateral changes to the status quo by force are unacceptable, and we affirmed that we will urge a peaceful resolution to conflict based on international law,” Kishida said at a joint news conference in Jakarta. He is also visiting Vietnam, Thailand, Italy and the U.K. before returning to Japan next Friday. Read more.

1:57 a.m. Russia appears close to averting an expected debt default after claiming it made two overdue dollar-bond payments Friday totaling $649 million, sent in dollars.

After U.S. authorities this month stopped American banks from processing such payments, Russia said it would pay in rubles, which is not permitted by the terms of the bonds. It may now be taking a different approach. Russia could dodge default if investors get their dollars before a 30-day grace period that expires May 4.

1:30 a.m. Japan’s foreign minister calls on Kazakhstan to side with members of the international community taking a stand against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Yoshimasa Hayashi made the request at a meeting with Kazakh counterpart Mukhtar Tileuberdi in Nur-Sultan, following Kazakhstan’s abstention last month from the U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning Russia.

Friday, April 29

10:00 p.m. Russia has not decided whether President Vladimir Putin will attend the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia in person or virtually, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov says.

9:00 p.m. Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo says Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted his invitation to the Group of 20 summit.

Widodo says he emphasized the importance of ending the war immediately in a phone conversation with the Russian leader. “I also emphasize that a peaceful solution can continue to be put forward, and Indonesia is ready to contribute to the peace effort,” he says.

The Indonesian leader also says he turned down a request for arms from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a separate phone call, and urged both Zelenskyy and Putin to end the war in Ukraine.

Indonesia, the current chair of the Group of 20 major economies, has invited both Zelenskyy and Putin to the November leaders summit in Bali, despite pressure from some Western countries to exclude the latter. Ukraine is not a member of the G-20, but chairs of the group have previously invited guest countries.

8:07 p.m. The Bank of Russia cuts its key interest rate by 300 basis points for the second time this month, to 14%, looking to stimulate more lending in the economy amid high inflation, surprising analysts who had forecast a smaller reduction.

The Russian ruble strengthens to 74.0525 against the euro, the highest in more than two years, and reaches 70.3075 to the dollar in Moscow trade before paring some gains, supported by capital controls.

7:00 a.m. Efforts to create a humanitarian corridor for civilians trapped in a Mariupol steel plant continue after United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, with Guterres calling the situation in the besieged city an “apocalypse.”

“I can only tell you we are doing everything we can to make it happen,” Guterres tells reporters after the meeting. “I am not going to enter into any comments that would undermine that possibility, because my first and only priority is the people that suffer and the people that must be rescued.”

Zelenskyy later says five Russian missiles flew into Kyiv “immediately after the end” of his talks with the U.N. chief.

2:40 a.m. U.S. President Joe Biden asks Congress for $33 billion to support Ukraine — a dramatic escalation of American funding for the war with Russia — and for new tools to siphon assets from Russian oligarchs.

1:00 a.m. China’s biggest oil refiner, Sinopec Group, has been unloading excess liquefied natural gas to European buyers, the company says, in transactions that appear to run counter to China’s objections to Russian sanctions.

Sinopec’s Hong Kong-listed subsidiary confirms during a first quarter earnings call that it is reselling part of its LNG stockpile on the “international market” in commenting on sales to Europe.

“These are pure market transactions,” a Sinopec representative says. “We are trading LNG on a global scale based on commercialization and diversification principles.” Read more.

Thursday, April 28

11:00 p.m. As Western energy groups pull out of Russia, Chinese oil driller CNOOC says the company has “no plan to exit from any particular region.”

All of CNOOC’s overseas projects are operating smoothly, and the company has felt no impact from the Russia-Ukraine war or any related sanctions, Chief Financial Officer Xie Weizhi tells an earnings conference.

Xie says CNOOC “neither has a plan nor has taken specific actions” regarding assets in Russia being departed by Western energy groups. Read more.

10:30 p.m. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday is dominated by how to respond to Russia’s aggression and the economic impact of its war on Ukraine. The two leaders discuss help for Ukraine and agree that Scholz’s flight home on the government plane also will carry aid items from Japan to Ukraine.

Earlier, Scholz tells Japanese business leaders: “In the future, hydrogen will be an alternative to today’s gas and coal. By promoting the development of hydrogen through Japan-Germany cooperation, we can bring about prosperity on a wide scale.” Read more.

10:21 p.m. The U.S. accuses Moscow of planning to stage fake independence votes in captured areas of southern and eastern Ukraine to justify the Russian invasion.

10:18 p.m. Finland will not pay for Russian gas in rubles despite Russia’s request for European countries to do so, says Tytti Tuppurainen, the Finnish minister in charge of European affairs.

5:52 p.m. A Russian court has fined social media network Twitter 3 million rubles ($41,000) for not removing banned content from its site, Interfax news agency reports. The fine was imposed after Twitter failed to delete content banned in Russia, including posts with instructions on how to make Molotov cocktails, Interfax said, citing the court. Earlier, Interfax reported that Russia fined U.S. internet giant Google the same amount for refusing to remove banned content from video-sharing site YouTube.

5:00 p.m. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace says it would be legitimate for Ukrainian forces to target Russian logistics, but they were unlikely to use British weapons. Moscow has accused London of provoking Ukraine to strike targets in Russia, saying there would be an immediate “proportional response” if it continued. “If Ukraine did choose to target logistics infrastructure for the Russian army, that would be legitimate under international law,” Wallace told BBC TV. He said any long-range weapons were unlikely to come from Britain however, because Ukrainian forces tend to use mobile launchers, while the British Army would deliver them from the air or sea.

4:19 p.m. Japan Tobacco says it is considering selling off its Russian operations, JT International Russia, in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The company controls nearly 40% of the Russian cigarette market, but stated that it is “continuing to evaluate various options for its Russia business, including a potential transfer of ownership.”

12:52 p.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin warns of “lightning-fast” retaliation if countries intervene in Ukraine. Russia has told the United States to stop sending arms to Ukraine, saying large Western deliveries of weapons are inflaming the conflict. Addressing lawmakers in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, Putin said, “If someone intends to intervene in the ongoing events from the outside, and create strategic threats for Russia that are unacceptable to us, they should know that our retaliatory strikes will be lightning-fast,” according to video of his address supplied by Russian media. “We have all the tools for this, things no one else can boast of having now. And we will not boast — we will use them if necessary. And I want everyone to know that.”

12:36 p.m. In the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, which has been occupied by Russian forces since early in the war, a series of explosions boomed near the television tower late Wednesday and at least temporarily knocked Russian channels off the air, Ukrainian and Russian news organizations report. The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said missiles and rockets were fired at the city from the direction of the Ukrainian forces to the northwest. Russian channels began broadcasting from Kherson last week.

11:20 a.m. U.S. President Joe Biden will visit South Korea and Japan from May 20 to 24 to advance a “free and open Indo-Pacific” and strengthen ties with the two Asian allies, the White House says. It will be his first trip to the region since taking office last year. Through a series of meetings, including the Quad summit of the United States, Japan, Australia and India, Biden is likely to affirm with Indo-Pacific nations their responses to Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s assertiveness in the region and North Korea’s nuclear and missile ambitions.

10:00 a.m. U.S. President Joe Biden will deliver remarks on Thursday morning “on support for Ukrainians defending their country and their freedom against Russia’s brutal war,” the White House says.

6:29 a.m. Canadian lawmakers vote unanimously to call Russia’s attacks in Ukraine “genocide,” with members of parliament agreeing that there is “ample evidence of systemic and massive war crimes against humanity” being committed by Moscow.

4:38 a.m. The European Commission proposes a one-year suspension of import duties on all Ukrainian goods not covered by an existing free trade deal to help the country’s economy during the war with Russia. The measures apply in particular to fruit and vegetables, subject to minimum price requirements, agricultural products facing quotas and certain industrial goods.

The European Union also would exempt Ukraine from safeguard measures that limit steel imports, and lift anti-dumping tariffs the EU currently imposes on Ukrainian steel tubes, hot-rolled flat steel products and ironing boards. The proposal needs to be agreed on by the European Parliament and EU governments to come into force.

12:12 a.m. Exxon Mobil’s Russian unit Exxon Neftegas declares force majeure for its Sakhalin-1 operations, Reuters reports. The Sakhalin-1 project produces oil off the coast of Russia’s Far East, exporting crude mostly to South Korea but also to Japan and other countries.

Project stakeholders including Exxon and India’s Oil and Natural Gas are having difficulty chartering tankers to ship oil out of a region that generally needs ice vessels to navigate the journey, as shippers fear reputation risk, Reuters reports.

Wednesday, April 27

11:21 p.m. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweets that Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has invited him to attend the summit of Group of 20 major economies in the Southeast Asian country in November.

Zelenskyy did not confirm whether he would accept the invitation. Russia has said President Vladimir Putin plans to attend. Officials from Indonesia, the current G-20 chair, did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation.

10:20 p.m. The U.S. and Russia announce a prisoner swap that has freed a former U.S. Marine in an unexpected diplomatic breakthrough. Trevor Reed was released in exchange for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot sentenced to a lengthy term in the U.S. on cocaine-trafficking charges.

“Trevor, a former U.S. Marine, is free from Russian detention,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “I heard in the voices of Trevor’s parents how much they’ve worried about his health and missed his presence. And I was delighted to be able to share with them the good news about Trevor’s freedom.”

6:31 p.m. Greece will offer help to Bulgaria, which had its gas supplies cut off by Russia, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told his Bulgarian counterpart. The leaders discussed the matter by phone. “The prime minister said that Greece will help Bulgaria to deal with the new situation caused by the Russian decisions on energy,” Mitsotakis’ office said in a statement, without elaborating.

6:07 p.m. Russia expects its economy to contract by 8.8% in 2022 in its base case scenario, or by 12.4% under a more conservative scenario, an economy ministry document shows, giving apparent evidence that international sanctions are taking a toll. The conservative forecast is in line with that of former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who said earlier this month the economy was on track to contract by more than 10%, which would be its biggest decline since 1994.

5:09 p.m. Russia’s defense ministry says Kalibr missiles struck an arms depot in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region housing weapons from the United States and European countries. The ministry said its air force destroyed 59 Ukrainian military targets overnight. It added that “hangars with a large batch of foreign weapons and ammunition supplied to Ukrainian troops by the United States and European countries” were destroyed. Russia’s report could not be independently confirmed.

4:25 p.m. Russian energy giant Gazprom halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland for failing to pay for gas in rubles, the Kremlin’s toughest response yet to the crippling sanctions imposed by the West for the invasion of Ukraine. Poland and Bulgaria are the first countries to have their gas cut off by Europe’s main supplier since the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine that has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more and raised fears of a broader conflict.

For earlier updates, click here.