Russia-Ukraine live updates: Russia widens assault in Ukraine, raising fears of a humanitarian disaster

The White House and Congress are rushing to enact an emergency aid package to stabilize Ukraine’s besieged economy, a dramatic bipartisan effort that reflects the economic challenges facing the country following its invasion by Russia.

Up-to-the-minute data on Ukraine’s economy is impossible to collect during the war, but Ukrainians have reported shortages of food, medicine, gasoline and other necessities. Russia’s war effort has choked off Ukraine’s primary source of imports, caused mass displacement within the country and destroyed vital parts of its infrastructure. Over 2 million people have fled, according to the United Nations, leaving displaced family members behind.

The highest oil prices since the 2008 financial crisis are dealing a heavy blow to the global economy, slowing Europe’s pandemic recovery to a near stall and complicating the fight against inflation in the United States.

China, the world’s largest oil importer, will probably strain to reach this year’s economic growth target, while developing countries in North Africa and the Middle East confront the danger of social unrest over rising energy and food costs, economists said.

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its third week, military and civilian casualties are mounting — but no one, not even the United Nations or the Ukrainian government, can provide an accurate count of how many people have been injured or killed.

According to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, which has been tracking civilian casualties, at least 549 civilians have been killed and 957 wounded since Russia invaded on Feb. 24. In the seaside hub of Mariupol, the target of relentless Russian shelling in recent days, an adviser to the mayor said that 1,300 people have been killed in the city alone and that at least 3,000 more have been injured.

For independent observers, the ongoing fighting across much of the country means that the effort to count the dead and wounded has become a painstaking but necessary struggle.

More than 40 Republican U.S. senators called Thursday for President Biden to aid “the transfer of aircraft and air defense systems” to Ukraine a day after officials quashed Poland’s offer to send fighter jets with American help.

The senators said in a letter that they “strongly disagree” with the Biden administration’s stance on Poland’s proposal and that the Ukrainian military is in “dire need of more lethal aid” as it fights Russia’s invasion. They urged the president to work with NATO allies on providing those resources — uniting behind a step that U.S. officials have warned could draw the Western alliance into war.

American officials have criticized Poland’s proposal to transfer MiG-29 jets through U.S. auspices as risking escalation without significantly changing the situation in Ukraine, given that Ukraine’s air force is largely intact.

A White House spokesman, Sean Savett, on Thursday evening noted comments from the U.S. military commander in Europe and Pentagon press secretary John Kirby.

“We believe the most effective way to support the Ukrainian military in their fight against Russia is to provide increased amounts of anti-tank weapons and air defense systems, which is on-going with the international community,” the commander of U.S. European Command, Gen. Tod D. Wolters, said in a statement.

President Biden on Friday is set to call on Congress to end normal trade relations between the United States and Russia, opening the door for the administration to impose new tariffs in response to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The United States is set to announce the move in tandem with the Group of Seven countries and the European Union, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the still unannounced plans. The effort marks a further escalation in the global strategy to impose maximum economic pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Twitter plans to add labels to state-owned media outlets from Belarus, the latest effort by Silicon Valley companies to limit the spread of pro-Russian propaganda on their platforms.

Twitter has been labeling tweets that include links from Russian state-controlled media. Those labels, the company said, have reduced the reach of these channels by 30 percent. They tell users that the news outlet is controlled by a particular government, so users understand that the content reflects that government’s viewpoint.

Now Twitter will add those labels to content from about 15 media outlets controlled by Belarus, a close Russian ally in the region.

Facebook, TikTok and YouTube blocked Russian state-owned media outlets in Europe late last month after requests from governments there.

Ukrainian authorities said Russian forces carried out strikes overnight Thursday in two cities located in western Ukraine, as well as in Dnipro, in central Ukraine, amid fears that the Kremlin could be seeking to expand a military assault that has been largely concentrated elsewhere.

Officials in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk said the two cities — situated close to NATO members Poland, Hungary and Slovakia — were hit with multiple explosions. The mayor of Lutsk said in a video that the local airport came under Russian attack and at least one person was killed. Ruslan Martsinkiv, mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk, urged residents to head to air raid shelters in the early morning after sirens apparently failed to go off.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted Friday that Dnipro was also attacked. According to the state emergency response agency, a kindergarten, an apartment building and a nearby shoe factory were hit. The specifics of the claim could not be immediately independently confirmed.

“Ukrainian big cities are again subjected to devastating blows,” Podolyak said. “Russia’s destructive war against civilians and major cities continues.”

Kazakhstan, a Central Asian nation that is closely allied with Russia, has said it will send more than 80 tons of humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

The country will dispatch medical supplies worth about $2.25 million after receiving a request from Kyiv, Kazakhstan said in a statement posted on the website of its embassy in Brussels. The move comes after Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said his country was ready to send humanitarian aid in a phone call this week with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Kazakhstan was one of the 35 countries to abstain from the U.N. General Assembly vote on a resolution that demanded Russia withdraw its forces from Ukraine. The resolution passed with 141 countries voting in favor and five, including Russia, voting against. Kazakhstan, like Ukraine, was part of the former Soviet Union and has attempted to build a national identity distinct from its Russian-ruled past.

Mass demonstrations erupted in Kazakhstan earlier this year, partly because of public frustration with the country’s sclerotic and authoritarian political system. Kazakhstan is a member of a defense alliance helmed by Russia, which led a contingent of 2,500 troops that deployed to Kazakhstan to help quell the deadly protests.