Russia-Ukraine live updates: 3 killed in Ukraine hospital strike ahead of high-level talks

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday authorized $1.4 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine to help the country keep its economy afloat as it fights Russia’s invasion.

The announcement comes as Ukraine’s central bank has sought to prevent bank runs and stabilize its currency, the hryvnia, during the ongoing Russian attack that has forced millions of residents to flee the country. The National Bank of Ukraine has urged citizens to leave their hryvnia-denominated cash in Ukraine even if they go abroad, but has also promised to let Ukrainians “in areas under threat of occupation” withdraw their cash without restrictions, in an apparent bid to comfort depositors.

The IMF has lauded those efforts, noting that Ukraine has so far “stayed current on all debt obligations.” The IMF’s emergency aid will be delivered as part of a rapid financing instrument — a loan that Ukraine is required to repay within 3¼ to five years.

Ukrainian refugees who have fled abroad with hryvnias in their pockets have been either forced to accept expensive exchange rates or outright unable to convert the funds into foreign cash, Oleksii Shaban, the deputy chief of Ukraine’s central bank, said Tuesday in a news release. He advised Ukrainians to use their credit cards.

“In cashless payments, conversion rates are much better than the black market exchange rate for cash,” Shaban said. The National Bank of Ukraine hasn’t imposed caps on cashless transactions abroad, it said in the same release.

The White House is weighing new sanctions against lawmakers in the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, as the United States seeks to increase financial pressure on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

The potential U.S. sanctions on members of Russia’s Federation Council — also known as the country’s senate — would represent just the latest measure of at least a half-dozen major actions already taken by the White House to harm Russia’s financial elite and its economy more broadly over the assault on Ukraine.

The European Union on Wednesday moved to impose financial penalties on approximately 150 members of the Federation Council who voted to ratify Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authorization of military force in the Donetsk and Luhansk sections of eastern Ukraine.

Russia has effectively legalized patent theft from anyone affiliated with countries “unfriendly” to it, declaring that unauthorized use will not be compensated.

The decree, issued this week, illustrates the economic war waged around Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as the West levies sanctions and pulls away from Russia’s huge oil and gas industry. Russian officials have also raised the possibility of lifting restrictions on some trademarks, according to state media, which could allow continued use of brands such as McDonald’s that are withdrawing from Russia in droves.

The effect of losing patent protections will vary by company, experts say, depending on whether they have a valuable patent in Russia. The U.S. government has long warned of intellectual property rights violations in the country; last year Russia was among nine nations on a “priority watch list” for alleged failures to protect intellectual property. Now Russian entities could not be sued for damages if they use certain patents without permission.

On its Instagram account, McDonald’s Russia doesn’t peddle celebrity menu collaborations, clever cultural memes or corporate-branded swag, as does its counterpart in the United States. Mickey D’s in Russia takes a different approach to cultivating customer relationships: It gives them video walking tours of Moscow and St. Petersburg, inviting locals to better appreciate the architecture of the cities they call home.

The tour guide will, with his preferred McCafe drink in hand, traverse the snow-covered streets of the city to point out, say, the St. Petersburg Mutual Credit Society building, the first building specifically constructed in Russia for a commercial bank. “The building resembles the palace buildings of the Renaissance era,” according to a translation of the video post.

The relationship McDonald’s has with its Russian customers is unusual: It is part hustler, part history professor, part corporate benefactor, part Stuart Smalley.

Nearly two weeks after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, and after activists and investors pressed the company, McDonald’s announced Tuesday that it would temporarily close 850 restaurants in Russia. In the announcement, Chris Kempczinski, chief executive of McDonald’s, said, “Our values mean we cannot ignore the needless human suffering unfolding in Ukraine.” He also acknowledged the tight relationship that the chain has developed with Russians in the 32 years since the Golden Arches opened its first restaurant in 1990, when the country was still under Soviet control.

The Philippines will proceed with the purchase of 17 Russian transport helicopters for about $250 million despite Russia’s ongoing attacks on Ukraine, the Southeast Asian nation’s defense secretary said Wednesday, poking a hole in the United States’ hopes of maximizing economic pressure on Moscow.

The move comes despite the Philippines being one of the 141 countries to vote for a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly this month that demanded Russia end military operations in Ukraine, and although it is a treaty ally of the United States.

A down payment on the helicopters was made before Russia began its military incursion into Ukraine on Feb. 24, according to remarks by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana that were confirmed by the Philippine Department of National Defense. The Philippines plans to receive the first batch of Russian-made Mi-17 choppers in a few years, the Associated Press reported.

Compared with the financial damage expected to be inflicted on Russia by Western sanctions, the Philippine payment into the Kremlin’s coffers is a relatively small sum. But Manila’s decision to keep buying Russian weapons reflects a broader dilemma for some American allies in Asia that do not have the budgets of the Pentagon or wealthier democracies.

The Philippine defense budget for 2020 was about $3.7 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) think tank. That figure was less than 1 percent of the $714 billion the Pentagon spent in the 2020 fiscal year.

Russia offers countries such as the Philippines a way to modernize their armed forces on a budget by selling cheaper weapons. Moscow’s arm sales to Southeast Asia from 2000 to 2019 amounted to $10.7 billion, according to SIPRI. The United States sold $7.86 billion worth of arms in the region during the same period.

The European Union has told Google to wipe Russian state media organizations RT and Sputnik from search results in Europe as part of its sanctions on the two entities, a sharp escalation in government attempts to shut down Russian propaganda on tech platforms and sparking fresh concerns regarding regulation of free speech.

Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Google’s YouTube all said last week they would block posts from Russian state media accounts in Europe, responding to public pressure and government requests. An official order from the E.U. banning the “broadcast” of RT and Sputnik came on March 2, but it was not clear immediately how it applied to Internet companies.

Now, a document uploaded by Google to a database of government requests shows E.U. officials explaining how the order applies not just to the social media accounts of RT and Sputnik, but also to search results and to posts from individuals who “reproduce” content from the two media organizations on any social media platform.

Gas prices have hit record highs in recent days as reactions to Russia’s assault on Ukraine diminish the availability of crude oil and create a stark imbalance between supply and demand.

The cost per gallon of gasoline in the United States hovered around $4.30 on Wednesday, shattering a record of $4.10 set just before the financial crisis in 2008, according to the price-tracking service GasBuddy. In the first week of March, prices rose by about $0.49 — roughly 14 percent.

Customers filling up their tanks are expressing frustration with the increased cost of commuting to work, dropping off their children at school or driving to visit family members. Amid the fallout from the invasion by Russia, the world’s top oil exporter, the economic pain is unlikely to end soon.

Pavel Khodorkovskiy is the son of a Russian oligarch-turned-dissident who was famously jailed for a decade on charges of fraud and tax evasion after posing a political threat to President Putin. On Wednesday, Khodorkovskiy joined Washington Post Live for a conversation about the latest news out of Ukraine, how the sanctions are affecting oligarchs and what the invasion means for young Russians.

To watch the highlights, click here.