Russia-Ukraine live updates: Russia shows signs of changing course; Biden to meet Ukrainian refugees

Russia has begun to mobilize military reinforcements to send into Ukraine as its combat losses in the month-old war continue to grow, the Pentagon said Friday, citing its latest intelligence assessments.

“We now have indications that they are drawing on forces from Georgia,” said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Biden administration. “Russian troops that are based in Georgia. We don’t have an exact number.”

Thousands of Russian troops are regularly stationed at military outposts from Georgia to Syria to Tajikistan, many of them in motorized rifle brigades that experts consider combat-capable and ready to deploy immediately.

Spotify announced Friday that it is pulling the plug on its services in Russia, citing a restrictive new media law passed by the Kremlin.

The audio streaming platform joins other social media and tech platforms suspending their business in the country out of concern for the repercussions for workers and users after the Russian parliament banned what it called “fake” news earlier this month. News outlets have also removed their Russian correspondents or suspended broadcasting in response to the law that carries a 15-year prison sentence.

Spotify, which also hosts podcasts, said in a statement that while it was “critically important” to stream independent news to Russians, the law “puts the safety of Spotify’s employees and possibly even our listeners at risk.” The company had closed its Russian offices indefinitely earlier this month.

Spotify’s announcement adds to a digital iron curtain building around Russia, as more tech companies have either left or been booted, an added hurdle for Russians seeking to get past Moscow’s propaganda bubble. Earlier this month, TikTok said it would suspend live-streaming and new content from Russia, while the country’s Internet censor said it would block access to Facebook.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced Friday that he’s working with Greece and Turkey to coordinate a humanitarian operation for people wanting to leave the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

Macron told reporters after a European Union summit in Brussels that he has been in talks with Mariupol’s mayor and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and that he intended to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the next 48 to 72 hours.

“We will then negotiate with the Russian side. I hope we will be able to have as many stakeholders as possible in this operation. So the sooner the better,” he said. “And for me, this is one of the most urgent and it is our duty, I believe.”

The southeastern Ukrainian city has been among the areas most devastated in Russia’s invasion of the nation. Mariupol officials announced Friday that at least 300 people died in an attack on a theater earlier this month.

Ukrainian mayors and other government officials have repeatedly spoken about Russian forces thwarting evacuation efforts to reach humanitarian corridors.

However, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a daily video update Friday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to two humanitarian corridors operating Friday, including one that would allow Mariupol residents to leave in private vehicles.

European Union leaders have endorsed a plan to make joint gas purchases as part of a broader push to secure supply and stabilize prices as Europe shifts away from Russian energy, officials and leaders said.

The plan was announced Friday evening in Brussels after hours of discussion about energy sanctions and prices. The decision paves the way for the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, and willing member states, to start working together.

The news came the same day the European Commission and the United States announced a joint task force to reduce Europe’s reliance on Russian fossil fuels. As part of E.U.-U.S. effort, the United States will work with other nations to increase liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to Europe by at least 15 billion cubic meters this year with the aim of providing larger shipments in the future.

E.U. officials did not provide much detail on how joint purchases might work. A statement published Friday calls on the bloc to “work together on voluntary common purchase of gas, LNG and hydrogen, making optimal use of the collective political and market weight of the European Union and its Member States to dampen prices in negotiations.”

“Instead of outbidding each other and driving prices up, we will pool our demand,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday in a news conference.

President Emmanuel Macron told reporters that joint purchases are “the best instrument for our gas price to decrease.”

Joyce Lee contributed to this report.

A Russian strike hit civilians in Kharkiv waiting for humanitarian aid on Thursday, leaving six dead and another 15 injured, according to a statement from Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration.

New security video posted Friday, verified by The Washington Post, shows the moment when people lined up near the entrance to a post office were struck. The video shows the explosion and then footage edited to zoom in on the attack. Survivors are seen fleeing the area. The attack occurred along a major avenue, just outside a market, in northeastern Kharkiv.

In another video, remnants of the weapon are strewn across the pavement and people tend to others on the ground.

The downtown area of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, has been ravaged by missiles, and at least half of its 1.4 million residents have fled, according to officials, though no one is sure of the exact figure.

Loveday Morris contributed to this report.

PRZEMYSL, Poland — The stream of people keeps arriving, safe at last in Poland, and for many, the next stop is a shuttered shopping mall four miles from the border. That’s where they encounter a place that some volunteers call the “decision room.”

It’s less a room than a bank of chairs, crammed among a sea of cots, near what used to be the mall’s supermarket. Now, it’s a riot of activity: volunteers, European national flags, information booths for various countries and refugees trying to make sense of the staggering choices at hand.

“Free transport to Estonia,” one sign reads. “Free housing 90 days” in Denmark, reads another, posted in front of a whiteboard listing the buses departing daily: for Zurich, Dresden, Munich and so many other cities that are everywhere but Ukraine.

Ukraine’s president has accused invading Russian forces of using white phosphorus, a controversial chemical substance that can cause severe and indiscriminate harm to civilians.

“This morning, by the way, there were phosphorus bombs. Phosphorus Russian bombs. Adults were killed again and children were killed again,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a virtual address to NATO leaders Thursday, as the military alliance held an emergency summit on Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Washington Post has not been able to independently verify reports of white phosphorous being used in Ukraine. Although the chemical is infamous because of the extreme damage it can cause, other incendiary weapons and chemicals used by militaries for illumination have been mistaken for white phosphorous in the past.

Asked by reporters about Zelensky’s comments on, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Russia “has never violated international conventions.”