Russia-Ukraine live updates: Mariupol tries another civilian evacuation; Russia to bomb Odessa, Zelensky says

ODESSA, Ukraine — Russian forces are preparing to bomb Odessa, which is a critical port and Ukraine’s third-largest city with about 1 million people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday in an emotional video.

“Russians always traveled to Odessa, always felt only warmth in Odessa,” Zelensky said. “And now what? Bombs against Odessa, artillery against Odessa, rockets against Odessa. … This will be a war crime.”

Odessa is the most economically strategic port of Ukraine’s southern cities, making it a clear target for Russian troops who have already laid siege to shipping hubs across the Black Sea coastline. The city’s beach — normally full of sunbathing tourists — is now littered with mines. Sand has been shoveled into sacks for roadblocks. Russian warships have been visible from the shore for days.

The threat on Odessa builds after a rocket blast tore through homes south of Kyiv, the capital, as Russia targets residential areas across several cities in a push to “break Ukrainian morale,” Britain’s Defense Ministry said.

Areas that were bustling 12 days ago — with people dining, shopping and taking afternoon strolls — now lack electricity, heat and running water. More than 1.5 million people have fled the country, and thousands of others are rushing to evacuate during a cease-fire planned for Sunday. But uncertainty looms over the escape effort: Russian shelling broke another temporary truce less than 24 hours earlier.

At least six people have been killed and nearly a dozen more injured following several attacks on health-care facilities in Ukraine, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed Sunday.

“Attacks on healthcare facilities or workers breach medical neutrality and are violations of international humanitarian law,” he tweeted, adding that additional incidents are being investigated.

The organization has recorded six deaths and 11 injuries as a result of the attacks since Russian forces began invading Ukraine on Feb. 24. The WHO reported that some health-care facilities were attacked by heavy weapons, which can include tanks, missiles or bombs.

Many in Ukraine are in dire need of health services, the organization tweeted Saturday, adding, “Even in times of conflict, we must protect the sanctity and safety of health care, a fundamental human right.”

Senate Republicans have issued a series of early threats against a still-forming deal to fund the federal government, signaling that they could delay the package — which may include emergency aid to Ukraine — over concerns about excessive spending and vaccine mandates.

The early warnings, delivered in two letters to Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), could slow lawmakers’ time-sensitive work as Russia’s incursion into Ukraine is intensifying — all while Washington faces a March 11 deadline to fund federal agencies and avoid a government shutdown.

In the first letter, sent Thursday, eight GOP lawmakers complained that “families are feeling the pressure of skyrocketing prices,” which they blamed on “reckless government spending.” In response, they said they “cannot allow another massive spending package to be rushed through Congress without proper consideration and scrutiny.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the fighting spirit of his people and called on them to “go on the offensive,” as Britain’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that four of the country’s cities — Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Mariupol and Sumy — are “highly likely” to be surrounded by Russian forces.

“This is a special heroism — to protest when your city is occupied,” Zelensky said Saturday evening local time, in a speech posted to his Telegram channel. “Our people, Ukrainians, do not retreat, do not give up, do not stop their resistance.”

The wartime president addressed people living in areas occupied by Russian forces, urging them to “fight for your freedom.” And he praised Ukrainians for responding in whatever way they could, from soldiers on the front lines to doctors saving lives and civilians working to provide essential services amid the violence.

Since the invasion began 11 days ago, reports have highlighted Ukrainians’ efforts to fight back, even when outgunned by Russian forces. Some have removed road signs to throw off incoming Russian forces, while a government unit has documented the invasion, one meme at a time.

“We are all rebuilding the country together,” Zelensky said.

Britain’s Defense Ministry also noted Sunday that the “scale and strength of Ukrainian resistance continues to surprise Russia.”

The effort by Western nations to make sure Russia does not succeed in its invasion of Ukraine could take “months, if not years,” a top British official said Sunday.

Dominic Raab, Britain’s deputy prime minister, said the effort to “ensure Putin fails in Ukraine … is going to take some time. We’re talking about months, if not years.”

Speaking on the Sky News show “Trevor Phillips on Sunday,” Raab added, “Therefore, we’ll have to show some strategic stamina, because this is not going to be over in days.”

The comments come as Britain’s Defense Ministry on Sunday said that the “scale and strength of Ukrainian resistance continues to surprise Russia,” which had anticipated a weaker response from Ukraine that would have allowed it to quickly take the capital, Kyiv — and, along with it, control over the government.

Raab noted that although “none of the major cities have yet fallen,” Russia has responded with “evermore brutal tactics.”

Governments around the world have responded to the invasion by hitting Russia with crippling sanctions, as companies — including major payment platforms like Visa, Mastercard and American Express — have joined in the effort.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said in an intelligence update Sunday that the “scale and strength of Ukrainian resistance continues to surprise Russia” as Moscow targets populated areas.

The Ukrainian military has hampered Russia’s advances by advising civilian defense volunteers to attack fuel trucks — which are unarmored and often driven by poorly trained Russian soldiers — instead of armored vehicles. Although Ukraine’s military is severely outmanned and outgunned, Russia has faced stronger resistance than anticipated, exacerbating struggles of its own accord, including supply shortages and low morale. Road signs have been painted over or torn down to confuse Russian troops, many of whom are young and inexperienced in combat.

In response to the Ukrainian tactics, Britain said there was a “realistic possibility that Russia is now attempting to conceal fuel trucks as regular support trucks to minimise losses.”

The intelligence update added that Russia has responded to the resistance “by targeting populated areas,” including Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol. The move was probably “an effort to break Ukrainian morale,” it said. Russia has used similar tactics of air and ground-based munitions in Chechnya, where heavy bombing took place in 1999 after Russian forces invaded following its declaration of independence, and in Syria in 2016. A month-long bombing campaign in Aleppo, Syria, that year amounted to war crimes and “barbarism,” the United States said at the time.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the network that broadcast uncensored news across the Iron Curtain in Cold War-era Europe, said Saturday it will shutter its operations in Russia, citing mounting fines over its refusal to be identified as a “foreign agent” and a new law stifling freedom of the press.

“This is not a decision that RFE/RL has taken of its own accord, but one that has been forced upon us by the Putin regime’s assault on the truth,” Jamie Fly, the network’s president and chief executive, said in a statement. “Following years of threats, intimidation and harassment of our journalists, the Kremlin, desperate to prevent Russian citizens from knowing the truth about its illegal war in Ukraine, is now branding honest journalists as traitors to the Russian state.”

Russia’s independent media, long under siege, teeters under new Putin crackdown

RFE said that on Friday, the tax authorities in Russia started bankruptcy proceedings against its operations there, stemming from more than $13.4 million in fines for 1,040 violations of Russia’s “unlawful demand” that RFE’s content be labeled as produced by a “foreign agent.”

RFE added that 18 of its journalists also had been designated “foreign agents.” Nine of its Russian-language websites were blocked in the past week, it said, over its refusal to delete information about the invasion of Ukraine.

A law signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday that threatened 15 years in prison for, as RFE said, “any journalist who deviates from the Kremlin’s talking points on the Ukraine war” played a role in its decision to shut down its Russian operations.

The network, which provides news programming online and through radio and television broadcasts, began as a radio network founded at the beginning of the Cold War “to transmit uncensored news and information to audiences behind the Iron Curtain.”

RFE’s website says it “played a significant role in the collapse of communism and the rise of democracies in post-communist Europe.”