Russia-Ukraine live updates: At least 17 injured after maternity hospital bombed, Ukrainian officials say

A new pro-Russian symbol is emerging as the nation continues its assault on Ukraine. The insignia is bold, recognizable and, importantly, according to some analysts, can be painted with one stroke: the letter Z.

It first caught the world’s attention when it was spotted on military vehicles clustered along the Russian border with Ukraine, in the days ahead of the invasion that began Feb. 24.

But it’s since been appearing across Russia: spray-painted on buildings, printed on T-shirts, plastered on billboards and brushed on tanks. Even children are forming Z-shaped lines at schools. Experts say it has quickly become a distinctive symbol of support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The White House on Wednesday defended its decision to all but decline an offer from Poland to deliver an unspecified number of MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, saying there are “a range of logistical operational challenges” that would come with delivering the warplanes.

Poland had said it was ready to deploy all of its MIG-29 jets to the Ramstein Air Base, an American military facility in Germany, but the Pentagon on Tuesday said fighter jets departing from a U.S. or NATO base could be seen as an escalation of tensions with Russia.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated those “obvious concerns” on Wednesday and also cited problems with alternative suggestions for transporting those planes from Poland into Ukraine in other ways, saying “carting them down the street” was not as easy as people may think.

“They have to be taken apart and put back together,” Psaki said. “You have to have people who are able to put those planes back together. You have to ensure that they can be safely moved through the course of a contested country.”

Psaki added the United States has “not held back” on providing other weapons, such as antimissile systems and tanks, throughout the war.

“There are important operational logistics concerns here and steps [and] conversations that should happen between military experts and that’s exactly what’s happening,” she said. “It doesn’t require a military expert to understand why having planes fly from a U.S. air base into … a country where there is a war is not in our interests and not in NATO’s interests.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken went out of his way Wednesday to say he sympathized with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s increasingly impassioned calls for the West to combat Russia, by sending fighter jets or imposing a no-fly zone, but gave little indication either was likely to happen anytime soon.

“If I were in President Zelensky’s position, I’m sure I would be asking for everything possible … to help the Ukrainian people,” Blinken said at a news conference with visiting British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

But while the United States, Britain and others “have done extraordinary things to make sure the Ukrainians have in their hands the means to defend themselves” and intend to do more, providing aircraft presents logistical as well as policy problems, he said.

Speaking of Poland’s public offer to deliver — via the United States — an unspecified number of MiG-29 fighter jets in its own air force for use against Russian aircraft, Blinken responded more diplomatically than the blindsided Pentagon, which called the proposal “not … a tenable one.”

U.S. all but declines Poland’s offer to give Ukraine its old warplanes

“It is simply not clear to us that there is a substantive rationale for doing it in the way put forward yesterday,” he said. “What we’re doing right now is continuing to consult closely with Poland and with other NATO allies on this, and the logistical complexities it represents.”

Truss was more direct.

“The best way to defend” Ukraine, she said, is “with antitank weapons and anti-air weapons.”

She noted that Britain’s defense secretary announced Wednesday that the United Kingdom would send Starstreak man-portable air defense missiles to Ukraine. The weapons are the British equivalent of U.S.-made Stinger missiles the United States and other countries have sent.

The two secretaries were even more definitive in their rejection of a Western-enforced no-fly zone over Ukraine.

“The reality is that setting up a no-fly zone,” the enforcement of which would likely include shooting down Russian aircraft, “would lead to a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia,” Truss said. “That is not what we are looking at.”

In addition to stopping Russian aggression and saving Ukrainian lives, Blinken said, “we also have to see to it that this war does not expand.”

“Our goal is to end the war, not to expand it, including expanding it to NATO territory … Otherwise, it’s going to turn even deadlier, involve more people, and potentially make it harder to resolve even in Ukraine itself,” he said.

Wall Street rallied in Wednesday, with the three major U.S. stock indexes surging while oil prices posted double-digit declines.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up about 800 points, or 2.4 percent, in early afternoon trading. The broader S&P 500 index advanced 2.8 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq soared 3.6 percent.

The stock rally comes as oil prices retreated from recent surges, with Brent crude, the international benchmark, tumbling 12.2 percent to about $112 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, fell 11 percent to less than $109 a barrel. U.S. and European governments have moved to limit purchases of Russian oil in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Overseas, Germany’s DAX index jumped 7.9 percent, while France’s CAC 40 was up 7.1 percent. The Pan-European Stoxx rose 4.7 percent. Asian indexes were mostly negative, with the Hang Seng off 0.7 percent and the Nikkei down 0.3 percent.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a maternity hospital in the city of Mariupol was directly hit by the Russian military.

“People, children are under the wreckage,” he wrote. “Atrocity!”

In a post on Telegram, the Mariupol city council wrote Russian forces “dropped several bombs on the children’s hospital. The destruction is colossal.”

The council wrote that “until recently, children were treated” at the building.

There were 17 people, mostly staff, injured — but no children were hurt in the attack, according to initial information shared by Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional and military administration, in a video posted on Telegram.

Zelensky and other local officials shared videos on social media showing images of a facility with shattered windows and blown-out walls.

Videos shared on social media and verified by The Washington Post show damage to a children and women’s clinic, in the center of Mariupol. People were seen injured leaving the facility, windows were blown out and medical gear destroyed.

The World Health Organization said earlier Wednesday it had so far verified 18 attacks on health facilities in Ukraine. The attacks included 10 deaths and 16 injuries, WHO said.

“These attacks deprive whole communities of health care,” said WHO director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) declined to echo Donald Trump’s praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a rare break by the top House Republican with the former president.

“I do not think anything’s savvy or genius about Putin,” McCarthy told reporters at his weekly news conference when asked about Trump’s comments. “I think Putin is evil. He’s a dictator. And I think he’s murdering people right now.”

During an interview on a right-wing radio program last month, Trump praised Putin’s handling of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

An 11-year-old Ukrainian boy who fled to Slovakia alone — with a plastic bag, a passport and a telephone number scrawled on his hand — was hailed by authorities. But it was not the first time fighting had uprooted the child, whose family fled Syria’s war about a decade ago.

His safe escape from Ukraine, traveling hundreds of miles by train on his own, marked a bright moment this week in a conflict that has escalated since Russian troops marched into the country. It showed “fearlessness and determination worthy of a real hero” from a boy whose smile has “won everybody’s hearts,” Slovakia’s Interior Ministry wrote on Facebook as the minister met with the child he called “Little Hassan.”

Once the boy crossed the border, volunteers used the number on his hand to contact his siblings in the Slovak capital, and they were reunited.

A day after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared there were no Russian conscripts serving in Ukraine and none would be sent, his Defense Ministry admitted Wednesday that wasn’t true.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov announced that “several facts” confirming the use of conscripts in Ukraine had been found.

The revelation raises questions about how much Putin knows about other problematic aspects of the war in Ukraine, including civilian casualties, Russia’s military losses and casualties, and apparent logistical and morale problems on the Russian side.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had categorically ordered the military not to send conscripts into battle in Ukraine. Putin on Wednesday ordered military prosecutors to investigate who was responsible for disobeying the order, he said.

Konashenkov offered no details on how many conscripts have been sent to Ukraine or from where. He said “almost all” conscripts in Ukraine have been withdrawn to Russia.

In recent days, officials in Ukraine have posted videos of prisoners. Many said they had been on a training mission and were not told they were going to war until the last minute. There is no way to assess whether they were coerced into speaking, and Ukraine has been criticized for releasing the videos.

Konashenkov said a number of service members, including conscripts, have been captured in Ukraine.

“Currently, comprehensive measures are being taken to prevent the deployment of conscripts to combat areas and the release of captured military personnel,” he said.

The Russian military has been highly secretive about casualties in its military operation, announcing a week ago that 498 service members were killed, with no announcements made