Russia-Ukraine live updates: Biden to accept 100,000 refugees; G-7 to warn Putin against chemical, nuclear weapons

As the war in Ukraine intensified, foreign governments were quick to impose sanctions on Russia, President Vladimir Putin — and the oligarchs. These incredibly wealthy business executives have financial interests outside of Russia. They own super-yachts and mansions. One even has stakes in the English premier league, while another was a large donor to New York’s Guggenheim Museum.

Repeated attempts by the United States’ top defense and military leaders to speak with their Russian counterparts have been rejected by Moscow for the last month, leaving the world’s two largest nuclear powers in the dark about explanations for military movements and raising fears of a major miscalculation or battlefield accident.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have tried to set up phone calls with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gen. Valery Gerasimov, but the Russians “have so far declined to engage,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement Wednesday.

The attempted calls by Austin and Milley, which have not previously been reported, come as Russia conducts operations near the borders of NATO members Poland and Romania while the United States and its European allies carry out air-policing operations over the Baltic Sea and pour weapons and equipment into Ukraine by ground transport.

BERLIN — The leaders of Germany’s three-way coalition government said Thursday they would aim to alleviate the pain of rising energy prices by temporarily lowering the price of fuel, providing a one-time income tax rebate and making public transport cheaper, among other measures.

Fuel prices have skyrocketed in recent weeks as a result of geopolitical instability, as well as lingering bottlenecks from the coronavirus pandemic. The economic pain has underscored unease in Germany about more fully cutting off supplies of Russian oil and natural gas. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said this week that such a move would wreak havoc on the economy.

The relief measures illustrate how European countries are seeking to soften the blow of early moves away from Russian products. The German government will slash the tax on fuel for three months — by 30 cents a liter for gasoline and 14 cents a liter for diesel. Taxpayers will also get a one-time payment of 300 euros, or about $330. Families will get an additional rebate of 100 euros per child, while welfare recipients will receive 200 euros. For 90 days, public transport will cost just 9 euros per month.

BRUSSELS — President Biden in Brussels on Thursday is expected to announce plans for the United States to accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and others fleeing Russian aggression against Ukraine, according to two senior administrations officials briefed on the plan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share candid details.

One of the officials said the number of Ukrainian refugees the United States plans to accept could change before the announcement, but the goal would be to admit 100,000. They would be admitted to the United States through a variety of legal pathways, including the conventional U.S. refugee program and more agile mechanisms such as “humanitarian parole,” which the Biden administration used for tens of thousands of Afghans last year during Operation Allies Welcome, the official said.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Brussels on Wednesday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the growing flood of refugees into Europe was one of the topics on the agenda for Biden’s trip, adding that it was important “that we all work together to do our part on the humanitarian element of this crisis, both to suffering inside Ukraine and the refugee crisis outside Ukraine.”

“Here Europe has really stepped up in a huge way, and it’s the United States that will be coming with additional commitment on both humanitarian assistance and refugees tomorrow,” Sullivan said Wednesday.

The second part of Biden’s three-day trip, a stop in Poland, will also have a focus on refugees. Poland so far has faced the largest influx of fleeing Ukrainians, and on Friday, Biden plans to hold an event in Poland addressing the refugee crisis, including meeting with humanitarian assistance experts.

Recently photos surfaced on social media of a roughly four-foot-wide tan, airplane-shaped drone that had fallen out of the sky in the Kyiv region, crashing into the sandy ground.

While that one failed to explode on impact, the images verified by The Washington Post provide some of the first evidence Russia is using a new and terrifying weapon in its war against Ukraine: a killer drone that can dive bomb into targets, destroying them with little notice.

The Russian kamikaze drones, also known as loitering munitions, will soon be joined on the battlefield by ones sent to Ukrainian forces by the United States, making the war the largest direct conflict between two countries in which they’ve been deployed on both sides. Researchers who specialize in the field say it shows that these drones are becoming the norm in modern warfare, and are likely to make the conflict more deadly and unpredictable.

A bill that would add Russia and Belarus to a short list of pariah states that do not enjoy preferential U.S. trade status has stalled in the Senate as lawmakers spar over whether to attach other measures, such as a ban on Russian oil and gas imports.

The trade bill passed the House on a 424-to-8 vote last week, and Democrats are pushing to quickly pass it in the Senate so President Biden can sign it as he meets with key allies in Europe later this week to strategize further responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“It is so important we show unity right now [as] President Biden meets with our European allies,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in floor remarks Wednesday. “Swift Senate action, combining Democrats and Republicans with one voice supporting [an end to Russia’s trade preferences] would do just that.”

But Sen. Mike Crapo (Idaho), the top Republican on the powerful Senate Finance Committee, objected to Schumer’s request to immediately pass the House bill — citing the other chamber’s decision to drop language on banning Russian energy imports that had previously been included in a handshake agreement between key congressional leaders.

Brittney Griner, the WNBA star who has been detained in Russia since mid-February, was visited by a U.S. Embassy official Wednesday and “is doing as well as can be expected,” U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said during a news conference.

“The consular officer who visited with Brittney Griner was able to verify that she is doing as well as can be expected under these very difficult circumstances,” Price said. “We’ll continue to work very closely with her legal team, with her broader network, to see to it that she is treated fairly and that her rights are respected.”

Griner, 31, was arrested Feb. 17 and accused by Russian officials of having vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage at Sheremetyevo International Airport near Moscow, an offense that could carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. A seven-time all-star with the Phoenix Mercury, Griner was returning at the time to Russia, where she plays for UMMC Ekaterinburg during the WNBA offseason.

The United States has concluded that Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday, a week after President Biden first publicly called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a “war criminal.”

The United States has led the global response to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, but it is not the first country to accuse Putin’s troops of war crimes.

In early March, more than three dozen nations — mostly in Europe, but also including Australia, Canada, Colombia and Costa Rica — expedited an investigation into alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine by submitting a referral to the International Criminal Court. (The United States has not ratified the Rome Statute, the tribunal’s founding document.)

Even among the countries that have refused to publicly condemn Russia’s invasion, most have called for restraint and an end to violence.

Here are some of the world powers that have accused Russia of war crimes in Ukraine and the specifics of what they say Putin is responsible for.