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Russia shifts focus in Ukraine; Biden arrives in Poland, expresses support for refugee effort: Live updates
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President Joe Biden on Friday expressed support for Poland’s efforts in helping Ukrainian refugees during a briefing on the humanitarian crisis sparked by the month-old war in Ukraine.
More than 2 million Ukrainians have fled to Poland since the start of Russia’s invasion of their country, and Biden will meet with Ukrainian refugees and American humanitarian workers Saturday in Warsaw, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.
“The suffering that’s taking place now is at your doorstep,” Biden said in remarks at Poland’s Rzeszów–Jasionka Airport. “You’re the ones who are risking, in some cases, your life and risking all you know to try to help. And the American people are proud to support your efforts.”
Polish President Andrzej Duda and other U.S. and international officials also attended. Duda thanked Biden for visiting Rzeszów, which has seen some of the largest influx of Ukrainian refugees in Poland.
Biden said he was disappointed that he would be unable to go to Ukraine to see firsthand what is happening in the country. Biden on Thursday pledged $1 billion in U.S. humanitarian assistance to refugees fleeing the invasion.
“It’s just devastating to see those little babies, little children, looking at mothers who you don’t have to understand the language they speak. You see in their eyes the pain,” Biden said. “I don’t think there’s anything worse for a parent than to see a child suffering, their child suffering.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces continue to mount fierce, effective resistance around the country with indications that they have pushed back Russian forces near some cities. Near Kyiv, Russian troops have dug into defensive positions and heavy fighting is happening just northwest of the city, a senior Defense official said Friday.
The Russians have largely turned their focus of ground troops and airstrikes on eastern Ukraine, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence assessments. The shift, which the Kremlin appeared to confirm, could signal an important narrowing of Moscow’s military objectives as Russian forces appeared to have halted, at least for now, in their ground offensive in capturing Kiev, the country’s capital.
Heavy fighting is now occurring in the Donbas region, where Russian-backed forces have fought with Ukrainians since 2014.
Col.-Gen Sergei Rudskoi, deputy chief of the Russian general staff, said the main objective of the first stage of the operation — reducing Ukraine’s fighting capacity — has “generally been accomplished,” allowing Russian forces to focus on “the main goal, liberation of Donbas.”
The seeming shift in Moscow’s stated war aims — after weeks in which Vladimir Putin denied Ukraine’s right to exist as an sovereign country and appeared bent on capturing many of its cities and toppling its government — could point to a possible exit strategy for Russia, which has suffered fiercer resistance and heavier losses than anticipated.
LATEST MOVEMENTS:Mapping and tracking Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
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Latest developments
►The U.N. human rights office said it has been challenging to confirm fatalities in Mariupol given the organization’s strict methodology for counting the number of civilian deaths in conflict. The office says at least 1,035 civilians have been killed in Ukraine and 1,650 injured, but acknowledges that is an undercount.
►Finland’s national rail company on Friday said it would suspend its service between Helsinki and the Russian city of St. Petersburg, closing one of the last public transit routes between the EU and Russia.
►The Council of the European Union concluded Russia’s war in Ukraine “grossly violates international law” after meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday.
►Russia’s military said it would offer safe passage to foreign ships that have been stranded in Ukrainian ports.
►Ukraine accused Moscow on Thursday of forcibly taking hundreds of thousands of civilians from shattered Ukrainian cities to Russia, where some may be used as “hostages” to pressure Kyiv to give up. Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine’s ombudsperson, said 402,000 people, including 84,000 children, have been taken against their will.
WAR’S IMPACT ON FOOD:How Russia’s war against Ukraine could make our food prices – from bread to beer – more expensive
Ukraine says 300 people killed in Mariupol theater attack last week
About 300 people were killed in the Russian airstrike last week on a Mariupol theater that was being used as a shelter, Ukrainian authorities said Friday in what would make it the war’s deadliest known attack on civilians yet.
For days, the government in the besieged and ruined port city was unable to give a casualty count for the March 16 bombardment of the grand, columned Mariupol Drama Theater, where hundreds of people were said to be taking cover, the word “CHILDREN” printed in Russian in huge white letters on the ground outside to ward off aerial attack.
In announcing the death toll on its Telegram channel Friday, the city government cited eyewitnesses. But it was not immediately clear how witnesses arrived at the figure or whether emergency workers had finished excavating the ruins.
The scale of devastation in Mariupol, where bodies have been left unburied amid bomb craters and hollowed-out buildings, has made information difficult to obtain.
Ukraine destroys Russian vessel; Moscow taps troops in Georgia
Ukrainian forces destroyed a Russian transport ship in the port city of Berdyansk that appeared to be on a resupply mission, a senior Defense official said Friday.
The attack on Thursday blew up a tank-landing ship at its pier, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence assessments. The Russians have 22 warships in the Black Sea.
Russian combat power in Ukraine, which dipped below 90% for the first time this week, is now between 85% and 90%, the official said. For the first time, Russia appears to be drawing reinforcements from its troops based in Georgia. Combat power includes troops, tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, warplanes, warships and ballistic missiles.
Russia has also drawn down its stockpile of precision-guided weapons and is relying more on so-called dumb bombs to bombard cities, the official said. Russia has used about 50% of its air-launched cruise missiles. Russia’s cruise missiles have at times failed to launch or hit their targets.
– Tom Vanden Brook
Biden thanks ‘finest fighting force’ in history during visit with US troops
President Joe Biden used his first stop in Poland on Friday to personally thank U.S. troops stationed near the border of Ukraine.
“You are the finest fighting force in the history of the world, and that’s not hyperbole,” Biden said during a visit with members of the 82nd Airborne Division in Rzeszów, Poland, about 60 miles from the border of Ukraine.
Thousands of U.S. troops are stationed in Poland to help shore up NATO’s eastern flank amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Minutes after landing in Poland, Biden stopped by a barbershop where around a dozen service members sat in folding chairs awaiting haircuts and others were getting a cut. He shook hands with several soldiers and joked about their closely shorn hair.
“You are an amazing group of women and men,” Biden said. “I just want to thank you for your service. As your commander in chief, I meant it from the bottom of my heart.”
– Michael Collins
US, EU creating new energy task force
The United States and the European Union announced a new task force Friday that aims to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian energy.
“Putin has issued Russia’s energy resources to coerce and manipulate his neighbors. He’s using the profits to drive his war machine,” President Joe Biden said following a bilateral meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Biden said the task force will focus on two initiatives: helping Europe reduce its dependency on Russian gas as quickly as possible and reducing Europe’s demand for gas overall.
The task force comes weeks after the United States announced a ban on all Russian energy imports. At the time, Biden said he made the decision in consultation with European allies and would create a long term plan with them.
“I know that eliminating Russian gas will have a cost for Europe,” Biden said. “But it’s not only the right thing to do from a moral standpoint, it’s going to put us on a much stronger strategic footing.”
— Rebecca Morin
Nuclear watchdog warns of attacks on town near Chernobyl plant
Russian shelling in Slavutych, a town near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant where many of its workers live, threatens the ability of the staff at the plant to rotate safely, an international nuclear watchdog said Thursday.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement Ukrainian personnel had informed the agency of the Russian attacks that threatened the Chernobyl plant’s operational staff, their families and homes.
The staff was able to rotate out for a shift change recently after four weeks, Grossi said, but the shelling poses concerns. Russian forces took control of the plant early on in their invasion of Ukraine, raising worries about the safety of nuclear operations at the site.
NATO chief: Chemical or nuclear weapons ‘totally change’ nature of war
NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday the use of nuclear or chemical weapons in Ukraine would “totally change the nature of the war in Ukraine. It will be absolutely unacceptable.”
Stoltenberg made the comments during a visit to a Cold Response drill, which occurs every two years and brings together NATO members and non-NATO members including Finland and Sweden.
Russia declined to participate, but Stoltenberg said NATO “always invite other countries to observe.”
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a meeting Friday that Russia was facing a “total war declared on us” as the West seeks to “to destroy, break, annihilate, strangle the Russian economy, and Russia on the whole.”
300 dead in Mariupol theater airstrike, city says
After a Russian airstrike targeted a theater in the southeastern city Mariupol where civilians were seeking shelter, about 300 people are dead, the city’s government said Friday.
Mariupol’s government made the announcement on its Telegram channel, citing eyewitnesses. It wasn’t immediately clear if excavation efforts at the theater were complete.
The site was hit on March 16 and the word “CHILDREN” was posted outside in Russian to deter an attack on the civilian shelter. Mariupol has faced some of the harshest conditions among Ukrainian cities as Russian forces laid siege to the city.
‘Need to look for peace’: Zelenskyy reassures Ukraine in address
In an evening address to Ukraine late Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of hope and determination as the war headed into its second month.
“It is already night. But we are working,” Zelenskyy said in a video address. “The country must move toward peace, move forward. With every day of our defense, we are getting closer to the peace that we need so much. We are getting closer to victory. … We can’t stop even for a minute.
Earlier in the week, Zelenskyy called on people worldwide to gather in public to show support for his embattled country. “Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard,” he said.
‘Catastrophe’ unfolding in Ukrainian city, government official says
Russian troops are purposefully targeting food stores in the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, a local government official said.
In an audio message to The Associated Press, city council secretary Olexander Lomako said a “catastrophe” is unfolding in the northern city. Lomako added that a Russian airstrike destroyed a bridge over the Desna River this week, a key route for bringing in food and other supplies from Ukraine-controlled territory further south.
“Humanitarian help, medicines and food used to be delivered into the city via this bridge,” he told The Associated Press.
Less than half of the residents, around 130,000, are left in the city from the pre-war population of 285,000, Lomako said.
— Celina Tebor
Poll shows Americans support Russian sanctions, think Biden should be tougher
A majority of Americans are supportive of the harsh sanctions on Russia but believe Biden needs to be tougher on the Kremlin after its invasion of Ukraine, according to a poll commissioned by the Associated Press and NORC released Thursday.
The poll, which surveyed 1,082 U.S. adults from Thursday to Monday, found 56% of Americans believe Biden’s response to Russia hasn’t been tough enough, including a majority of 53% of Democrats. A very small percent, about 6%, said they thought Biden had been “too tough,” the poll shows.
Across the board, Americans of both political parties were supportive of the harsh economic blows to Russia. The poll showed 68% were supportive of economic sanctions in general with 70% saying they supported the recent banning oil imported from Russia, which in turn caused gas prices to rise.
— Christal Hayes
Contributing: The Associated Press
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Travel
Razzies royally torch 'Diana' musical and 'Space Jam 2,' show love to Oscar favorite Will Smith
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In its proclamation of the worst films of 2021, the Razzies lambasted a critically reviled Princess Diana musical and LeBron James’ “Space Jam” sequel, but spread love instead of hate for Will Smith.
The Golden Raspberry Awards, annually announced the day before the Academy Awards, bestowed five dishonors on Netflix’s “Diana: The Musical,” a filmed production of the recent Broadway show that closed after 33 performances. “Diana” beat out “Infinite,” “Karen,” “Space Jam: A New Legacy” and “The Woman in the Window” for worst picture, plus picked up worst screenplay and worst actress for star Jeanna de Waal.
“New Legacy,” the live-action/animated hybrid basketball comedy featuring James hooping it up with Bugs Bunny and Co., earned three Razzie awards. James was named worst actor and also was saddled with worst screen couple – which went to James and “Any Warner Cartoon Character (or WarnerMedia Product) He Dribbles On” – while the movie snagged worst sequel.
How to watch the 2022 Oscars:Everything you should know about Sunday’s Academy Awards
“House of Gucci” star Jared Leto lost his Screen Actors Guild race for best supporting actor but nabbed the Razzie for worst. And Bruce Willis does so many VOD movies now that he received his own special category (worst performance by Bruce Willis in a 2021 movie) that, to no one’s surprise, he won – for “Cosmic Sin.”
Smith, who’s expected to win the best actor Oscar Sunday for “King Richard,” received this year’s Razzie Redeemer Award for previous Razzie honorees who’ve come back with quality efforts. Recent winners include Ben Affleck, Sylvester Stallone, Melissa McCarthy and Eddie Murphy.
The full list of this year’s Razzie “winners”:
Worst picture: “Diana: The Musical”
Worst actor: LeBron James, “Space Jam: A New Legacy”
Worst actress: Jeanna de Waal, “Diana: The Musical”
Worst supporting actress: Judy Kaye, “Diana: The Musical”
Worst supporting actor: Jared Leto, “House of Gucci”
Worst performance by Bruce Willis in a 2021 movie: Bruce Willis, “Cosmic Sin”
Worst screen couple: LeBron James and Any Warner Cartoon Character
(or WarnerMedia Product) He Dribbles On, “Space Jam: A New Legacy”
Worst remake, rip-off or sequel: “Space Jam: A New Legacy”
Worst director: Christopher Ashley, “Diana: The Musical”
Worst screenplay: “Diana: The Musical”
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Business
As more marijuana dispensaries get targeted by robbers, SAFE Banking Act lingers in Congress
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A bill that could allow electronic transactions at weed dispensaries nationwide is again make its way through Congress but the SAFE Banking Act might not be the cure-all that supporters envision.
In over a decade of operating cannabis shops in Washington, Shea Hynes never once worried about his stores getting robbed at gun point – until recently: In a span of three weeks, his stores were robbed three different times at gun point.
Reports of armed robberies at cannabis dispensaries like Hynes’ have nearly doubled in the first quarter of this year compared with all of last year, according to data maintained by the Craft Cannabis Coalition. The group, which represents more than 50 stores in Washington, has recorded more than 65 armed robberies so far this year, compared with 35 in 2021 and 29 in 2020.
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CHICAGO — In a ridiculous coincidence, the Saint Peter’s Peacocks wrote NCAA Tournament history on National Peacock Day with a thrilling upset of Purdue.
The mid-major became the first-ever No. 15 seed to reach the Elite Eight, outdoing previous No. 15 seeds Oral Roberts (2021) and Florida Gulf Coast (2013). Exactly 0.8% of people picked the Peacocks to get this far, with the school from Jersey City, New Jersey, defying all odds. Is Saint Peter’s the best Cinderella of all time?
Meanwhile, the ACC is sitting pretty with three teams – Duke and now North Carolina and Miami (Fla.) – in the Elite Eight on the same day the Big Ten saw its last team go down.
A look at three key takeaways from Friday:
Saint Peter’s writes NCAA history
Coach Shaheen Holloway has this team playing inspired basketball, and now the Peacocks (22-11) are just one win from the Final Four. The best Cinderellas of the last two decades to reach Final Fours – George Mason in 2006, VCU in 2011, Loyola-Chicago (2018) all were double-digit seeded mid-majors. But none was as highly seeded as this Saint Peter’s team that’s now beaten No. 2 seed Kentucky, No. 7 Murray State and No. 3 Purdue.
WINNERS, LOSERS:Poised Saint Peter’s keeps the dream alive; bye-bye, Big Ten; hello, ACC
OPINION:Saint Peter’s embodies wackiness and uncertainty of this NCAA Tournament
ANALYSIS:Purdue’s loss leaves Big Ten shut out of Elite Eight. We could see this coming.
MORE:Legendary Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson: Coach K’s farewell tour ends Saturday
OPINION:Houston is leaving Phi Slama Jama in the 1980s for good
While other bracket-busting NCAA Tournament darlings of yesteryear have had flair (FGCU’s “Dunk City”) or a lovable fan (Loyola’s Sister Jean), this team from the MAAC is doing it with defense, namely with nine steals. In spite of being undersized against the Boilermakers, the Peacocks used aggressiveness and hustle to outduel their seemingly superior opponent behind 6-8 freshman Clarence Rubert and 6-7 junior Hassan Drame. Daryl Banks III (14 points) is the go-to scorer for Saint Peter’s, but Mr. Clutch has been guard Doug Edert (10 points) off the bench. One stat to note: a 19-for-21 clip from the free-throw line. What’s been most impressive is the Peacocks’ ability to stay hungry and poised under pressure, winning close games in all three NCAA Tournament matchups.
Blue-bloods show title potential
Duke and Villanova advanced on Thursday, and fellow blue-bloods Kansas and North Carolina will now join them in the Elite Eight. And yes, if both the Blue Devils and Tar Heels win Sunday, we could see them meet in the Final Four.
Ever since North Carolina embarrassed Duke in coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final home game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Heels have been red-hot – knocking out No. 1 Baylor in the previous game in overtime. That continued against a UCLA team that reached the Final Four last year and seemed destined to get back. Caleb Love was brilliant again, finishing with 30 points off six three-pointers. Armando Bacot’s tip-in with 22 seconds left sealed the win in another impressive outing for coach Hubert Davis’ resilient team.
The last remaining No. 1 in the NCAA Tournament, Kansas stayed alive, escaping Providence by five points. It’s coach Bill Self’s ninth trip to the Elite Eight with Kansas and 11th of his career, as the Jayhawks (31-6) are one win from the Final Four. They’ve now won eight in a row and are looking like a title contender after entering the NCAA Tourney having won the Big 12 tournament.
The secret weapon for Kansas has been guard Remy Martin. For the third consecutive tournament game, Kansas got a jolt off the bench from the fiery Martin (23 points), the Arizona State transfer who has erupted in these NCAAs after playing a reserve role throughout 2021-22.
ACC > Big Ten
Despite garnering nine NCAA Tournament bids on Selection Sunday – the most of any conference – the Big Ten is out following Purdue’s stunning exit vs. Saint Peter’s. The league tanked in the first two rounds, with No. 5 Iowa – the conference tourney champ – getting upset by Richmond in the first round. No. 3 Wisconsin, No. 4 Illinois, No. 7 Michigan State and No. 7 Ohio State all lost in the second round. And now, with Michigan’s loss to Villanova, the overall underachievement is on full display. That’s a 9-9 finish in the tournament.
No Big Ten team has cut down the nets since 2000 (the Spartans), and it’s a depressing outlook for the league that posted the second-best NET score in 2021-22 and showcased several teams with Final Four potential.
The ACC, which finished with the sixth-worst NET score as a league, has Duke, North Carolina and Miami all in the Elite Eight. That’s after the Tar Heels, Hurricanes and Notre Dame were all bubble teams in early March. The NCAA Tournament is about matchups and pathways. No matter how well the Big Ten did in the regular season, much like the Pac-12’s surprising finish last year, the ACC is well-positioned with three teams still alive and two of them title contenders.
Follow college basketball reporter Scott Gleeson on Twitter @ScottMGleeson.
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