Russia asks China for military equipment, U.S. officials say

A monastery was among the civilian infrastructure damaged by Russian airstrikes this weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address.

He denounced the attack that damaged Svyatogorsk Lavra, a centuries-old monastery in eastern Ukraine, and said the Ukrainian Orthodox Church site was not near any military target, home only to monks and refugees.

Citing a bishop, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church said in a statement that a bomb fell near a bridge Saturday and blasted the monastery, breaking windows. More than 500 refugees — 200 of them children — were affected, the church said, with some injured by broken glass.

Ukrainian officials said their negotiations with Russia will continue Monday, and they projected optimism despite little to show from talks so far.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Sunday that Russia is “starting to talk constructively” and appears “much more sensitive to Ukraine’s points” as Ukrainians put up a fierce resistance. American intelligence officials say Russia has suffered significant casualties and underestimated its adversary.

Podolyak said in a video posted to Telegram on Sunday that “we will achieve some concrete results within a few days” but that Ukraine’s position is firm. His country wants all Russian troops gone.

“We will not, as a matter of principle, compromise on any of our points,” Podolyak said.

A Russian negotiator expressed similar hope for a breakthrough. Leonid Slutsky told RT Arabic, a Russian state news site, that “significant progress” in the talks could lead to an agreement soon.

“I am happy to report that, according to my personal expectations, in the next few days, this progress may develop into a joint position of the delegations and into documents to sign,” he said, according to RT Arabic.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said negotiators speak by video daily, and he emphasized his desire to speak directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

More than two weeks into their assault on Ukraine, Russian forces are fighting to press forward into a number of cities across the country. Here are updates on some Ukrainian cities:

Demonstrators in Serbia showed their support for Russian President Vladimir Putin in a Belgrade march Sunday, waving pro-Kremlin flags and sporting the letter Z, a mark Russian troops have used as a rallying cry against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the invasion of his country.

In other parts of the world, people marched to show support for Ukraine and to denounce Russia’s war there.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday asked President Biden to broaden America’s economic campaign against Russia, telling the U.S. president that more should be done to cut Russia off from international trade, according to two people familiar with the phone call.

Zelensky was grateful and supportive of the economic penalties announced by the Biden administration, such as a White House measure announced on Friday to end normalized trade relations with Russia. But Zelensky also requested that Biden seek to close loopholes in the existing sanctions, significantly broaden the list of sanctioned Russian government officials, and restrict Russia’s access to international waterways, the people familiar with the matter said.

The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect details of the private phone call.

Zelensky and the Ukrainian government have been adamant publicly that the Western allies need to move faster to punish Russia’s economy over its invasion, with Zelensky publicly calling for an international trade embargo on all Russian goods and products. Ukraine also wants the United States to ban Russian ships from its ports and channels.

A growing number of U.S. lawmakers ratcheted up pressure on President Biden on Sunday to increase military aid to Ukraine, including to send fighter jets and air defense systems that the administration denied last week.

The public calls from Republicans and Democrats to answer Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s pleas for air assistance come as the Biden administration declined an offer from Poland to deliver MiG-29 airplanes to Ukraine for fear such a move could be interpreted by the Russians as an escalation of the United States’ role in the war.

The bipartisan push underscores the growing hawkishness among many leaders on Capitol Hill, who have been urging Biden to do more to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian attacks as the war rages into its third week.

Clearview AI is providing its facial recognition technology to Ukrainian leaders during the war, CEO Hoan Ton-That said in a statement Sunday to The Washington Post.

The face-matching software could be used to detect Russian invaders, reunite refugee families and identify the dead, Ton-That told the Ukrainian government in a letter viewed by The Post. It is unclear whether or in what capacity Ukraine might be using the technology.

“My heart goes out to the Ukrainian people, and my hope is our technology could be used to prevent harm, save innocent people, and protect lives,” Ton-That wrote in the letter, reported earlier by Reuters.

Clearview AI is the latest tech company to come to the Ukrainian government’s aid, following a social media pressure campaign on major Silicon Valley companies. The company, which widely aids law enforcement in surveillance, has been seeking to expand its business beyond scanning faces for police. In a “pitch deck” viewed by The Post, Clearview AI said it was on track to include 100 billion facial photos in its database, the equivalent of several photographs of every person on Earth.

Facilities at a military base about 25 miles northwest of Lviv were struck by Russian munitions that killed at least 35 people and injured at least 134 over the weekend, according to Ukrainian officials. They are near Yavoriv, about 15 miles from Ukraine’s border with Poland.

Videos from the locations, about a mile apart, show the aftermath of the strikes. Building facades are heavily damaged, windows are shattered and debris is scattered. The first of the two videos, recorded at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center, shows structures on fire and a large crater near the center of the base.