Russia-Ukraine live updates: Red Cross team unable to reach Mariupol for evacuations

Five members of the Ukrainian parliament finished a whirlwind week of meetings with members of Congress to press for more assistance. Their journey to D.C. was not insignificant. For some delegation members, it took days to navigate block posts and shelled areas to get to their flight from Warsaw. All five are mothers who had to make the choice of leaving their children behind for the trip.

“It’s really hard to not be moved and be motivated,” said Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), who met with the delegation Monday as co-chair of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus. “I know it’s impacted me on this. Look, I’m the liberal Democrat from Chicago talking about a no-fly zone.”

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a co-chair of the same caucus who served as an FBI agent in Ukraine, said: “There’s a lot of things that they’re asking for that there is broad bipartisan support here in Congress to give them. But there is still this concern in the administration about provocation and escalation. And I think that’s really where, to the extent that there’s a rift between the two branches, that’s where it is.”

MYKOLAIV, Ukraine — Dozens of people remain unaccounted for after a cruise missile struck Mykolaiv’s main government building Tuesday morning, said Dmytro Pletenchuk, a press officer of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration.

Mykolaiv Gov. Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram on Friday that 28 people are confirmed dead. But the death toll is expected to rise. More than 30 were injured, and rescue operations are ongoing, Pletenchuk said.

“We keep looking; there are dozens of people under there still,” Pletenchuk said. “Because it was the canteen that was damaged most, and it was working all the time. Those under the rubble are the people who were having breakfast and the canteen staff.”

Out of staff of about 700 people, 200 had continued coming to work at the government office, even after the start of the war, Pletenchuk said.

Funerals were held Friday for many of the victims. At Mykolaiv’s oldest cemetery, men and women dressed in military fatigues moved from one service at a small Orthodox church to another scheduled just after it.

Andrii Tanulin, a volunteer with the Territorial Defense Forces, died guarding the Regional State Administration building. He was 51.

“Forgive me,” his mother sobbed over his casket at the funeral Friday. “I couldn’t protect him.”

After Russian forces captured the southeastern port of Kherson, they have been unable to advance westward past Mykolaiv. Ukraine’s military, instead, has driven the Russians back and retaken some territory around the southern front line.

The Ukrainians have pushed Russian artillery out of range of downtown Mykolaiv, but Tuesday’s strike on the administration building came from a cruise missile that originated from Russia’s naval fleet on the Black Sea, Pletenchuk said.

“It’s because they can’t succeed in fighting us, the military,” he said. “So they resort to common terrorism.”

BRUSSELS — Top officials from China and the European Union met Friday for a virtual summit overshadowed by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

In a series of two meetings, E.U. leaders pressed Premier Li Keqiang and President Xi Jinping to rethink their tacit support for the Russian invasion and warned Beijing against offering material support for the war.

“We called on China to end the war in Ukraine,” European Council President Charles Michel told reporters in Brussels after the meeting. “China cannot turn a blind eye to Russia’s violation of international law.”

The 460-foot superyacht that pulled into port in the Turkish Mediterranean playground of Bodrum last week can house 36 guests across eight decks. Eight luxurious teak decks rise from its light gray hull. Solaris — the name of this barge of barges — has been linked to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, whose name now appears on European Union and British sanctions lists.

Yet, as Abramovich and other Russian oligarchs are finding, somebody always loves a billionaire.

Luckily for Abramovich, those somebodies appear to include Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Abramovich, who has attended the ongoing Russian and Ukrainian peace talks being hosted by Erdogan in Istanbul, has reportedly moved not one, but two superyachts to Turkish waters. Reports emerged that he has flown his lavish private jet to Turkey, a country that has not sanctioned Russian oligarchs.

A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon, said Moscow could be planning to seize Mariupol as a springboard into the eastern Donbas region, where Russians troops may try to envelop Ukrainian forces. Russia’s military has increasingly tried to seize towns in that part of Ukraine, the Pentagon has said, and forces pulled from the country’s north appear to be heading there.

The focus on Mariupol came as Western officials attempted to assess Russia’s next moves, with troops withdrawing from the Chernobyl nuclear plant, diplomats preparing for more discussions Friday and the war continuing to disrupt oil and natural gas supplies around the world.

There were also new claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin is being further isolated from his advisers, with a picture of chaos emerging around Russia’s front lines and tensions at the highest levels of the Kremlin.

The contested port city of Mariupol is among several key areas that Russians have prioritized for devastating airstrikes, the Pentagon said Thursday, as both sides engineer a temporary humanitarian cease-fire.

The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, has also been slated for more airstrikes in recent days, as the Russian military reprioritizes its assets to bombard cities and reinforce the eastern Donbas region, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon.

There has been an increase in Russian sorties, totaling more than 300 in the past day, according to the Pentagon’s daily assessments, which are focused on the previous 24 hours. It was unclear to the Pentagon if the proposed cease-fire had an effect on strikes in Mariupol.

One potential strategy, the official said, was to seize Mariupol as a springboard into the Donbas region, where the Russians may try to envelop Ukrainian forces. Russian troops have increasingly tried to seize towns in the region, the Pentagon has said, and forces pulled from the north appear to be heading there.

U.S. stocks turned upward in morning trading Friday following the release of a robust jobs report. Oil prices, meanwhile, continued to decline.

The Labor Department said the economy added 431,000 jobs in March, lowering the U.S. unemployment rate from 3.8 to 3.6 percent, a pandemic low. That marks the 11th consecutive month in which job growth topped 400,000, which is considered to be a particularly strong pace of growth.

The Dow Jones industrial average was trading up about 80 points, or 0.2 percent, shortly after the opening bell. The broader S&P 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.3 and 0.4 percent, respectively.

Oil prices fell by about 1.1 percent, pushing the U.S.-based West Texas Intermediate crude oil benchmark down to about $99 per barrel. The international Brent crude dropped 0.8 percent, to just under $104 per barrel.

Oil prices have been volatile since Russia invaded Ukraine, exceeding $130 per barrel in early March. Although prices have eased, they remain elevated, and consumers have been feeling it at the pump. On Friday, the U.S. average for a gallon of gasoline stood at $4.21, according to AAA. That’s 60 cents higher than a month ago and $1.34 more than a year ago.

Two low-flying attack helicopters swept over the southern Russian city of Belgorod early Friday, firing rockets and blowing up fuel tanks, according to Russian media.

Local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov immediately blamed Ukraine for the attack. The claim could not be verified. Video of the attack surfaced early Friday on Russian Telegram channels, while local media reported that eight fuel tanks were burning, with a risk the fire could spread, and that at least 19 residents from adjacent areas were evacuated.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, when asked about the allegations of Ukrainian involvement, said he could not confirm or deny the claim because he did not have all the relevant military information. Ukraine has not previously attacked targets in Russian territory during the war. Ukrainian forces at first mounted a defensive operation focused on Kyiv and other major cities, and in recent days they have been retaking settlements near the capital and along the front lines.

Russia’s military said on March 27 that it struck a fuel depot in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv in a rare strike on the city that’s become a refuge for diplomats and Ukrainians.

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