Russia-Ukraine live updates: Biden arrives in Poland; Russia might be changing course of its invasion

Russian soldiers have attacked and injured their commanding officer after their brigade suffered heavy losses in the fighting outside the capital, Kyiv, according to a Western official and a Ukrainian journalist.

Troops with the 37th Motor Rifle Brigade ran a tank into Col. Yuri Medvedev, injuring both his legs, after their unit lost almost half its men, according to a Facebook post by Ukrainian journalist Roman Tsymbaliuk. The post said the colonel had been hospitalized.

A senior Western official said he believed Medvedev had been killed, “as a consequence of the scale of the losses taken by his own brigade.”

The incident offers an insight into the plummeting morale of Russian soldiers as they face continued fierce opposition from Ukrainian forces, said the official, who briefed journalists on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive subjects.

The brigade had been operating in the town of Makariv, around 30 miles west of Kyiv, which was reported to have been recaptured by Ukrainian forces this week. The Ukrainians have pushed the Russians more than 34 miles away from Kyiv, gaining more than 20 miles in the past week, according to U.S. and other Western officials.

Earlier this week, a senior NATO official said that as many as 40,000 troops of the original Russian force of an estimated 190,000 may have been killed, wounded or captured or are missing. The enormous losses “raise questions about Russia’s ability to sustain the fight,” the Western official said.

RZESZOW, Poland — President Biden said Friday that he was disappointed he was unable to travel to Ukraine to see the humanitarian crisis resulting from Russia’s invasion up close.

“Quite frankly, part of my disappointment is that I can’t see it firsthand like I have in other places,” Biden said from this city about 60 miles from Ukraine’s border. “They will not let me — understandably, I guess — cross the border and take a look at what’s going on in Ukraine.”

Biden made the comments at the start of a humanitarian briefing on the refugee crisis, during which he was joined by Polish President Andrzej Duda, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and USAID Administrator Samantha Power, among others.

Biden praised Duda and the Polish people for their work to assist in the humanitarian crisis and touted the West’s unity in opposing Russian aggression.

“The single most important thing that we can do from the outset is keep the democracies united in our opposition, and our effort to curtail devastation that is occurring at the hands of a man who quite frankly I think is a war criminal,” Biden said.

On Thursday, Biden pledged that the United States would accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.

Duda said more than 2.5 million Ukrainians have crossed into Poland since the Russian invasion began a month ago. He profusely thanked Biden for traveling to Rzeszow, saying his presence sent a clear signal of unity. He also thanked the U.S. troops who are working with the Polish on deterrence efforts on NATO’s eastern flank.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been criticized before for twisting history to suit his narrative, claimed Friday that the West was trying to cancel Russia, comparing this to Nazi book burnings. He even roped in the name of “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling as an example to support his cause.

“Not so long ago, they canceled children’s author Joan Rowling whose books were spread all over the world in the hundreds of millions of copies, because she did not please fans of so-called gender freedoms,” Putin said, speaking by video at a ceremony to award Russian literature and culture prizes.

Like the writer, he argued, “Today they are trying to abolish an entire thousand-year-old country, our people,” as he complained about “discrimination” in the West against Russian culture. “The notorious culture of cancellation has turned into the cancellation of culture.

“Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff are erased from concert posters, and books by Russian writers are banned,” he claimed. “The last time such a mass campaign to destroy unwanted literature was carried out was almost 90 years ago by Nazis in Germany.”

Carnegie Hall cancels appearances by pro-Putin musicians

Putin has claimed his war in Ukraine is against “neo-Nazis” and “drug addicts,” and his speeches equating Ukrainians with Nazis are echoed on Russian state television. He and other top officials have repeated several times recently that Russia is facing an existential threat, worrying language because Russia’s nuclear doctrine allows the use of nuclear weapons if the nation’s existence is threatened.

Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s head negotiator in peace talks, said Thursday that “the very existence of Russia as a Russian civilization is at stake. I see few analogies for today’s moment in history.” He claimed that the West was pushing Russia “toward the destruction of the political system, the destruction of the country.”

Putin makes an unlikely advocate for freedom of speech and the written word. His government has branded journalists and activists “foreign agents,” leveled criminal charges against antiwar activists, jailed critic Alexei Navalny, shuttered the renowned human rights organization Memorial that is known for its research into Soviet-era repressions and forced hundreds of independent journalists to flee the country to avoid criminal charges.

Tough new laws have criminalized reporting about Moscow’s war in Ukraine, such as Russia’s shelling of cities and residential areas, with penalties of up to 15 years in jail. The word “war” is barred from use in news reporting.

Rowling replied to Putin’s comments in a tweet Friday, responding that “Critiques of Western cancel culture are possibly not best made by those currently slaughtering civilians for the crime of resistance, or who jail and poison their critics.”

The global outpouring of solidarity shown toward Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion should “set the example for all refugee crises,” the head of the United Nations refugee agency said Thursday.

“Even as the Ukraine crisis intensifies, we must not forget the millions more children, women and men displaced by conflict, persecution, violence and human rights abuses,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a statement.

More than 6.5 million people have been displaced inside Ukraine and about 3.7 million have fled the country since Russia invaded Ukraine a month ago, according to U.N. figures — the fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II. European countries and other wealthy nations have opened their doors.

The treatment stands in stark contrast to Europe’s past resistance to taking in asylum seekers from Muslim-majority countries and Africa, leading some to accuse European leaders of racism and Islamophobia. Those charges have been fueled by accounts of third-country, non-White nationals who tried to leave Ukraine being pushed to the back of the line at border checkpoints.

“The right to seek and gain asylum is universal. It is not conditional on the colour of your skin, your age, gender, beliefs or birthplace. Respect for refugee rights is not open to interpretation or negotiation,” Grandi said.

The United Nations has documented at least 37 cases of the forced disappearance or arbitrary detention of Ukrainian officials, journalists and civil society activists opposed to the Russian invasion.

Matilda Bogner, head of the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, told a news conference Friday that her agency had also received “increasing information” and satellite images of mass graves in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

One mass grave identified appears to hold some 200 bodies, she said, though it remained unclear how many of the deceased were civilian casualties of the war.

The U.N. is also looking into allegations by Kyiv that Moscow is forcibly deporting Ukrainians into Russia or Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine, which would constitute a war crime.

“We are looking into these allegations closely,” Bogner said. She said they had received reports of civilians moving from Ukrainian cities such as Mariupol into Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine and then on to the Russian Federation, “but we have not yet been able to identify whether that has been forced movement or not.”

Bogner said the U.N. human rights office of the high commissioner had documented 22 cases of Ukrainian officials being forcibly detained or who disappeared in Russian-controlled territories, 13 of whom have since been released. Fifteen journalists and civil society activists publicly opposed to the Russian invasion have also been forcibly detained or have disappeared in or around Kyiv, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia: Five journalists and three activists from among them have been released, while the location and situation of the others remains unknown, Bogner said.

“This does seem to be a pattern that is occurring in areas that are occupied by the Russian Federation,” Bogner said. “That does in some cases appear to be a form of hostage taking.”

She added that those targeted are seen as “pro-Ukrainian.”

The U.N. agency also confirmed Friday the killing of seven journalists and media workers in Ukraine since the war began. An additional 12 have come under armed attack, six of whom were injured. UNCHR has verified at least one other missing journalist.

“Day after day, the death toll and human suffering in cities, towns and villages across Ukraine is increasing,” Bogner said.

At the same news briefing Friday, the World Food Program reported that one in five people in Ukraine are estimated to be using “food coping strategies,” said Emergency Coordinator Tommy Thompson.

“It is getting desperate … they are reducing food portions,” Thompson said. “They are reducing the number of meals that they consume.”

Thompson said the WFP was already providing food aid to 716,000 Ukrainians: The agency plans to scale up deliveries to 1.2 million people over the next two weeks, and to reach 2.4 million Ukrainians within one month, he said.

As the White House announces plans for the United States to welcome tens of thousands of refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion, a recent AP-NORC poll shows that a majority of Americans favor accepting refugees from Ukraine into the country.

The poll, published Wednesday, found that 67 percent approve of accepting refugees, compared with 13 percent who oppose it and 21 percent who express no preference.

It also found that 82 percent favor providing humanitarian support to refugees from Ukraine, with 5 percent opposed.

President Biden made the announcement on refugee admissions during a trip to Brussels for emergency talks with NATO leaders.

The United States is working out details of how refugees from Ukraine will be admitted, and one senior administration official said the number of admissible refugees may change.

According to AP-NORC, more Americans are now saying that the United States should take on a major role in the conflict, compared with a month earlier. Among those who think the country should have a “major role” in the war, there is strong backing for humanitarian support.

In the week since President Biden warned Chinese President Xi Jinping not to provide military aid to Russia, the United States has seen no movement in that direction, Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters Friday.

“We have not seen the Chinese move forward with the provision of military equipment to Russia, but it’s something we continue to watch every day,” Sullivan told reporters traveling with Biden on Air Force One to Poland.

In call with Xi last week, Biden “described the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians,” according to a White House readout.

Days before, Sullivan sought to deliver the same message to his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, during lengthy talks in Rome amid reports that Russia had asked China for help with weapons.

As he spoke to reporters Friday, Sullivan noted that both NATO and the European Union are united in opposition to China aiding Russia.

“Collectively we’re going to speak with one voice in saying to China that they should not provide military or other forms of assistance to Russia in the prosecution of its brutal war in Ukraine, and all of the allies agreed to carry that message individually as well as speaking collectively on it,” he said.

Wall Street’s rosy mood continued Friday, with stocks on track to notch their second straight week of gains, even as investors remained lasered in on the war in Ukraine and surging inflation at home.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 200 points, or 0.6 percent, in morning trading. The S&P 500 edged 0.4 percent higher and the tech-heavy Nasdaq was nearly flat.

Stocks, which sold off sharply after the Russian invasion as the United States and its allies rushed to sanction Moscow, have recovered ground. As one of the world’s top energy producers, Russia can sow major disruption in energy markets. Oil prices spiked after the invasion and remain elevated, causing pain at the gas pump.

Earlier this week, the Federal Reserve signaled that it might take an even tougher path in reining in inflation, after having already signaled a series of increases to its benchmark rate for the rest of 2022. Investors are typically wary of rate increases, as they limit the amount of money in the economy and can hit highflying companies especially hard. But as the economy tries to shake off the highest inflation in 40 years in tandem with the war in Ukraine, investors seem to welcome the intervention from the central bank.

“The upward momentum continues even with no concrete progress toward a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine and an increasingly more aggressive Fed,” Ivan Feinseth, chief investment officer at Tigress Financial Partners, said Friday in comments emailed to The Post.

Oil prices drifted lower Friday but remained above $110 per barrel. Prices have been under severe pressure since the invasion but have eased as optimism about cease-fire talks has grown. The national U.S. average for a gallon of gas was $4.24 Friday, up 67 cents from a month ago.