Biden meets with Polish President Duda; Russia's signals of shifting goals in Ukraine met with skepticism

Russia's military goals in Ukraine have been hazy since it began its invasion more than a month ago, and new statements suggest Moscow may consider claiming victory without completely overthrowing the Ukrainian government or capturing Kyiv.

Western analysts and leaders were skeptical of the Friday statements, where the deputy chief of the Russian general staff said his forces had largely achieved the "main objectives" of a first phase of the conflict. The power of the Ukrainian military has been "considerably reduced," freeing up troops to "focus on the main efforts to achieve the main goal, liberation of Donbas," said Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi.

The implications of the statement are difficult to determine, according to Stephen Biddle, a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University who has studied U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

"It's plausible that they’re basically trying to ratchet their perceived war aims down to something they’ve already accomplished," he said.

The pronouncement of shifting goals comes as President Joe Biden is in Warsaw Saturday to confer with Polish President Andrzej Duda, meet Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw and deliver what the White House is billing as a major speech before he departs for the U.S.

Before the invasion, portions of the Donbas in southeastern Ukraine were already controlled by Russian-backed forces.

Similarly skeptical, French President Emmanuel Macron said “it’s too soon to say” whether the Russians have changed their approach.

But what does appear clear: In the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance, the progress of Russian forces has largely stalled. Kyiv — while battered — remains under the control of the Ukrainian government.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis caused by the war continues. A Russian airstrike last week on a Mariupol theater that was being used as a shelter killed about 300 people, Ukrainian authorities said Friday. That would make it the deadliest known attack on civilians in the war yet.

Latest developments

►President Joe Biden, who is in Warsaw, on Friday expressed support for Poland's efforts in helping Ukrainian refugees. More than 2 million Ukrainians have fled to Poland since the start of Russia’s invasion of their country.

►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.

► The governor of the Kyiv region says that Russian forces have entered the city of Slavutych in northern Ukraine and seized a hospital there.

Biden arrives for meeting with Duda

With pomp and fanfare, President Joe Biden arrived at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw on Saturday for a meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda on how allies are responding to the humanitarian crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine.

Biden’s limousine pulled into the palace courtyard shortly after 12:30 p.m. local time.

Duda greeted the president as he stepped out of the car. The two chatted briefly, shook hands with a line of dignitaries and then participated in a formal arrival ceremony that included the playing of each country’s national anthem and a military procession.

– Michael Collins

Russian troops enter city of Slavutych, seize hospital

LVIV, Ukraine -- The governor of the Kyiv region says that Russian forces have entered the city of Slavutych and seized a hospital there.

Slavutych is located north of Kyiv and west of Chernihiv, outside the exclusion zone that was established around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after the 1986 disaster. It is home to workers at the Chernobyl site.

Governor Oleksandr Pavlyuk said Saturday that the Russians also kidnapped the city’s mayor, but some media reported later in the day that the mayor was released swiftly. Neither claim could be verified independently .

The governor said that residents of Slavutych took to the streets with Ukrainian flags to protest the Russian invasion.

“The Russians opened fire into the air. They threw flash-bang grenades into the crowd. But the residents did not disperse, on the contrary, more of them showed up,” Pavlyuk said.

- Associated Press

Death toll of children reaches 136

In the month since the Russian invasion began, 136 children have been killed.

Reuters reported that 64 of the children were killed in the Kyiv region and 50 were killed in the Donetsk region. An additional 199 children have been wounded.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human rights said Thursday, the civilian death toll in Ukraine has exceeded 1,000 since the start of the war.

- Ana Faguy

Top Ukrainian officials to attend Biden speech in Warsaw

A pair of top Ukrainian officials will be on hand in Warsaw Saturday when President Joe Biden delivers a speech on holding Russia accountable for its month-long war against Ukraine.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in a message on Twitter that he and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba will attend the president’s address.

Biden started the final day of his four-day trip to Europe by dropping by a meeting between Reznikov and Kuleba and their U.S. counterparts – Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Reznikov tweeted a photo of the meeting – sans Biden – and said they were discussing “current issues & cooperation in political & defense directions.”

“In the evening we’ll also be present at @POTUS speech on the Russian war against Ukraine,” Reznikov wrote.

Biden will deliver his remarks at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

– Michael Collins

100,000-plus flee Ukraine on Friday

More than 100,00 people left Ukraine Friday, the State Border Guard Service Ukraine said.

Two-thirds of those who left crossed Ukraine's western borders with EU countries as well as Moldova. The State Border Guard Service estimated 45,000 left Friday night alone.

Meanwhile, many men are returning to Ukraine to defend the country, the Ukrainian government said. 21,000 people arrived in Ukraine Friday night. The State Border Guard Service said more than 420,000 Ukrainians have returned since Russia first invaded.

The United Nations estimates that 10 million people have fled Ukraine since the conflict began last month. Friday's flow of refugees was significantly higher than in recent days. On Wednesday, about 43,000 fled and around 62,000 fled Thursday, according to government figures.

- Ana Faguy

Ukraine president Zelenskyy makes surprise appearance at Doha Forum

DOHA, Qatar — Ukraine's president made a surprise video appearance Saturday at Qatar's Doha Forum, calling on the energy-rich nation and others to boost their production to counteract the loss of Russian energy supplies.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the United Nations and world powers to come to his aid, as he has in a series of other addresses given around the world since the start of the war Feb. 24. He compared Russia's destruction of the port city of Mariupol to the Syrian and Russian destruction wrought on the city of Aleppo in the Syrian war.

"They are destroying our ports," Zelenskyy said. "The absence of exports from Ukraine will deal a blow to countries worldwide."

The loss of Ukrainian wheat already has worried Mideast nations like Egypt, which relies on those exports.

Zelenskyy called on countries to increase their exports of energy — something particularly important as Qatar is a world leader in the export of natural gas.

Zelenskyy criticized Russia for what he described as threatening the world with its nuclear weapons, raising the possibility of tactical nuclear weapons being used on the battlefield.

"Russia is deliberating bragging they can destroy with nuclear weapons, not only a certain country but the entire planet," Zelenskyy said.

He also noted that Muslims in Ukraine would have to fight during the upcoming holy fasting month of Ramadan.

"We have to ensure this sacred month of Ramadan is not overshadowed by the misery of people in Ukraine," he said.

– Associated Press

President Biden to meet with refugees, deliver speech

President Joe Biden on Saturday will cap his European trip talking to Ukrainian refugees in Poland and delivering a speech on holding Russia accountable for its invasion and upholding democratic values.

Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, previewed Biden’s remarks as a major address that will “speak to the stakes of this moment, the urgency of the challenge that lies ahead, what the conflict in Ukraine means for the world, and why it is so important that the free world sustain unity and resolve in the face of Russian aggression.”

Biden will also put the war in historical context and describe where he sees it going from here, Sullivan said.

Before delivering those remarks at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Biden will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda at the Presidential Palace

“The suffering that is taking place now is at your doorstep,” Biden told Duda on Friday at a meeting in Rzeszów, where the influx of refugees is the largest. “You're the ones who are risking, in some cases, your lives and risking all you know to try to help. And the American people are proud to support your efforts.”

On Thursday, Biden announced the U.S. will take in up to 100,000 Ukrainians and provide more than $1 billion in humanitarian assistance.

Poland has taken in more than 2 million refugees, and the numbers continue to grow.

“We have never experienced anything like that throughout our history,” Duda told Biden.

On Saturday, Biden will meet with refugees at the National Stadium in Warsaw. The stadium is a processing center where refugees are issued identification cards allowing them to work, live, go to school and get social benefits.

“I'm here in Poland to see firsthand the humanitarian crisis,” Biden said Friday, expressing his disappointment that he can’t cross the border into Ukraine for security reasons.

Biden has been in Europe since Wednesday, meeting with NATO allies and other European and world leaders.

The U.S. and its allies announced new sanctions on Russia, additional help for Ukraine, and discussed beefing up force presence in Eastern Europe in the near and longer-term.

– Maureen Groppe

UK sees Russians reluctant to enter urban war

LONDON — Britain's Defense Ministry says Russia continues to besiege a number of major Ukrainian cities including Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol.

A daily update says Russian forces are proving reluctant to engage in large scale urban infantry operations, rather preferring to rely on the indiscriminate use of air and artillery bombardments in an attempt to demoralize defending forces.

The assessment says it is likely Russia will continue to use its heavy firepower on urban areas as it looks to limit its own already considerable losses, at the cost of further civilian casualties.

– Associated Press

Zelenskyy: Ukraine will not cede territory to end Russian invasion

Zelenskyy has again appealed to Russia to negotiate an end to the war, but says Ukraine would not agree to give up any of its territory for the sake of peace.

In his nightly video address to the nation Friday, Zelenskyy appeared to be responding to Col. Gen Sergei Rudskoi, deputy chief of the Russian general staff, who said Russian forces would now focus on “the main goal, the liberation of Donbas.”

Russian-backed separatists have controlled part of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine since 2014, and Russian forces have been battling to seize more of the region from Ukraine, including the besieged city of Mariupol.

Rudskoi’s statement also was a suggestion that Russia may be backing away from trying to take Kyiv and other major cities where its offensive has stalled. Zelenskyy noted that Russian forces have lost thousands of troops but still haven’t been able to take Kyiv or Kharkiv, the second-largest city.

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

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 of oil imported from Russia, which in turn caused gas prices to rise.

— Christal Hayes

Pence fine tunes a message for 2024: Pro-Trump, to a point

In the past five weeks, former Vice President Mike Pence has broken with former President Donald Trump in more ways and more times than at any point in the previous five years.

That’s no coincidence.

The once loyal number two has been carefully uncoupling himself from Trump as he girds for a potential presidential bid in 2024. Speaking to Republican donors last weekend as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine ravaged the democratic nation, Pence said, “There is no room in this party for apologists for Putin.” That unmistakable swipe at Trump — who had recently called Putin’s tactics leading up to the invasion “genius” — came after an even more direct condemnation.

“President Trump is wrong,” he said in a speech last month, responding to Trump’s argument that Pence could have overturned the 2020 election results by refusing to certify the electors.

It’s a marked shift from Pence’s deferential posture as vice president, when he was so wary of appearing out of step with his boss that he’d review speech drafts submitted by his aides and edit in Trump’s name with a Sharpie to be sure the president was getting enough credit, according to a former administration official.

But if Pence enters the 2024 presidential race, he’d need a rationale that distinguishes him from others, including Trump, a possible candidate himself. Some Pence allies say, and his recent moves suggest they're right, that Pence is settling on an a la carte approach: embracing parts of Trump’s record while rejecting others.

“He’s doing a good job of highlighting the successes of the [Trump] administration and, when it comes to Jan. 6, and, more recently, comments on Putin, he’s drawing that line,” a person close to Pence said, requesting anonymity to discuss private deliberations. Pence’s argument, this person said is, “If you like the policies of the Trump administration but not the rest of the stuff, then I’m the guy who’s going to fight for it.”

Pence has been giving speeches across the country since leaving office, mixing pointed attacks on President Joe Biden with a defense of the Trump administration’s efforts to cut taxes, reduce regulations and safeguard the southern border. He got a laugh from an audience at Stanford University last month when, as a prank, a student asked him about the location of the nearest bathroom. "Hey, this is a real thing,” Pence said. "President Harry Truman said, ‘Don’t ever pass up the opportunity to use the restroom.’” At the same time, he’s drawn his sharpest contrasts with Trump yet over Russia and a 2020 election the ex-president continues to falsely insist he won.

Another way Pence may differentiate himself in a presidential race is by reverting to a more traditional Republican platform, a second person close to him said. Under Trump, the GOP took a different turn as the former president courted authoritarian leaders and considered withdrawing from NATO, the military alliance that has been a bulwark against Russia for decades. Pence would champion more classic GOP positions while stressing the value of democratic governance, this person said. Firming up his foreign policy credentials, Pence last week met with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and also toured the Poland-Ukraine border with his wife, Karen.

"It's going to be OK," Pence told a Ukrainian refugee carrying a small child, according to a video of his comments.

Making repeated appearances in early presidential primary states, Pence looks and sounds like a candidate-in-waiting. South Carolina, which typically holds the first presidential primary in the South, is becoming something of a home base. Pence is scheduled to give a commencement address in the state at the end of April and return in the first week in May to deliver a keynote speech at a Christian pregnancy center. South Carolina’s large evangelical population is a natural constituency for the former vice president, who describes himself as a Christian first, a conservative second and a Republican third.

The presidency is “not something that he’s thinking about, but if that time comes, then he’s said he and Karen will consider it and will pray on it,” said an aide for Advancing American Freedom, an issue advocacy group Pence founded, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Still, Pence's positions of late show “he is moving inexorably toward running in 2024 and maybe has already made that decision,” John Bolton, former national security adviser who served with Pence in the White House, said in an interview.

In doing so he risks making a permanent enemy of Trump, if he hasn’t already. But he appears to be on the right side of public opinion, including among the GOP. A Quinnipiac poll last month suggested that 52 percent of Republicans believed that Pence’s view that he had no authority to overturn the 2020 election results was closer to their own view than Trump’s, which was that Pence did have such power.

As for Russia, Trump still faces criticism for an interview he gave last month in which he said Putin showed “genius” and “savvy” for recognizing two Moscow-backed breakaway regions in the eastern part of Ukraine as independent, a step that was quickly followed by troops moving into those regions ahead of a full-scale invasion.

"He was wrong, pretty obviously," Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said in an interview.

Praise for Putin appears out of step with both American voters and Republican Party leaders who sympathize with Ukraine’s plight. A Reuters/Ipsos poll earlier this month found the vast majority of Americans favored aggressive measures to help Ukraine fend off the Russian attack. Nearly three-quarters said the U.S. and its allies should set up a no-fly zone in Ukraine, an escalatory step that the Biden administration has refused to take.

“Anyone who associates themselves with any positive comments about Putin isn’t being very smart, if you look at how everyone is aghast at what’s going on in Ukraine,” said John Kelly, Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff.

The midterm elections in November present a fresh opportunity for Pence to move out from under Trump’s huge shadow and expand his own political network. His advocacy group announced last week it was pumping $10 million into an ad campaign aimed at 16 different Democratic House members that urges them to expand domestic oil production, among other actions. The ad buy could help him win the gratitude of Republican lawmakers in tough re-election fights. More ads will be coming, the aide to the group said.

It is unclear how much money Trump plans to invest in midterm campaigns from the $120 million-plus war chest he’s amassed. One national GOP strategist worried that it would be too little, too late.

“No one is banking on that $120 million coming in,” the strategist said, speaking on condition of anonymity to talk more freely. “It’s not something that people are assuming is going to be there.”

Trump has made a slew of endorsements as he looks to oust sitting Republican officials he has deemed disloyal. The gambit has the potential to backfire if his endorsed candidates don’t win. In the Georgia governor’s race, for example, Trump has endorsed former Sen. David Perdue, who’s running against incumbent Brian Kemp in the Republican primary. Kemp angered Trump by upholding the 2020 election result in which Trump lost the state. By contrast, Pence has vowed to support all incumbent Republican governors, even if they’re challenged by candidates Trump has endorsed. Kemp was leading Perdue by 11 points in a recent Fox News poll.

In a Republican National Committee podcast, chair Ronna McDaniel asked Trump what he planned to do to help Republicans recapture the House and Senate in the midterm elections. Trump mentioned that he would be holding rallies — his favorite forum. A spokesman for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

Pence is “making decisions completely separate from what Trump is doing,” the second person close to Pence told NBC News.

Pence seldom revealed his thinking in meetings and waited instead until he was alone with Trump, former officials have said. Now he is writing two books that will help reintroduce himself to voters on his terms. One will focus on his work in the conservative movement over the years; another will be devoted to his vice presidency.

“I’m sure it will tell stories previously untold,” the Pence advocacy group aide said. “But it will also pull back the curtain on the many successes the Trump-Pence administration had, and his involvement in them.”

Other ex-officials who ran afoul of Trump, such as former Attorney General William Barr and former press secretary Stephanie Grisham, have come out with books that have had a retaliatory flavor.

It’s not Pence’s style to write a tell-all, but “the person who could give Donald Trump the most headaches could be Mike Pence,” a third person close to him said.

Ukraine says shelling damaged cancer hospital

LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials accused Russia damaging a cancer hospital and several residential buildings in the southern city of Mykolaiv with shelling from heavy artillery.

The hospital’s head doctor, Maksim Beznosenko, said several hundred patients were in the hospital during the attack but that no one was killed. The assault damaged the building and blew out windows.

Russian forces have stepped up their attacks on Mykolaiv, located 470 kilometers (292 miles) south of Kyiv, in an attempt to encircle the city.

Ukrainian and Western officials earlier accused Russia of shelling a maternity hospital in the southern city of Mariupol on Wednesday. Three people died in that attack.

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LVIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia on Friday of kidnapping the mayor of the city of Melitopol, equating it to the actions of “ISIS terrorists.”

“They have transitioned into a new stage of terror, in which they try to physically liquidate representatives of Ukraine’s lawful local authorities,” Zelenskyy said in a video address Friday evening.

Kirill Timoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, posted a video on the social media site Telegram which he said showed a group of armed men carrying the mayor, Ivan Fedorov, across a square.

Russian forces captured the southern port city of Melitopol, with a population of 150,000, on Feb. 26.

The prosecutor’s office of the Luhansk People’s Republic, a Moscow-backed rebel region in eastern Ukraine, said on its website that there was a criminal case against Fedorov. The prosecutor’s office accused Fedorov of “terrorist activities” and of financing the nationalist militia Right Sector to “commit terrorist crimes against Donbass civilians.”

The office said it was looking for Fedorov and called for anyone with information about his whereabouts to contact them.

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SAVANNAH, Ga. — U.S. soldiers are continuing to deploy to Europe, joining thousands already sent overseas to support NATO allies amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

About 130 soldiers from the 87th Division Sustainment Support Battalion, 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade gathered Friday at Hunter Airfield in Savannah, Georgia and departed on a chartered flight.

The soldiers are in addition to the estimated 3,800 soldiers from the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division who deployed recently from nearby Fort Stewart.

A division commander said that soldiers are being told to prepare for about six months overseas. The Pentagon has ordered roughly 12,000 total service members from various U.S. bases to Europe.

The soldiers’ mission is to train alongside military units of NATO allies in a display of force aimed at deterring further aggression by Russia. The Pentagon has stressed U.S. forces are not being deployed to fight in Ukraine.

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LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian authorities have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the port city of Mariupol, which has been encircled by Russian forces and cut off from deliveries of food and medicine.

Mariupol officials said Friday that 1,582 people had been killed in the 12 days since the siege began.

“There is a humanitarian catastrophe in the city and the dead aren’t even being buried,” Mariupol’s mayor’s office said in a statement Friday, calling for Russian forces to lift the siege.

Ukrainian authorities have accused Russian forces of shelling evacuation routes and preventing civilians from escaping the city of 430,000 people.

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BERLIN — Ukraine told the International Atomic Energy Agency on Friday that technicians have started repairing damaged power lines at the decommissioned Chernobyl power plant in an effort to restore power supplies, the U.N. nuclear agency said.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian authorities said that Chernobyl, the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster, was knocked off the power grid, with emergency generators supplying backup power.

The Ukrainian nuclear regulator said Friday that workers repaired one section of the lines, but there still appears to be damage in other places, the IAEA said. Repair efforts would continue despite “the difficult situation” outside the plant, which was taken by Russian forces early in the invasion, it said.

The Ukrainian regulator said additional fuel was delivered for generators, but it remains important to fix the power lines as soon as possible. The IAEA reiterated that the disconnection “will not have a critical impact on essential safety functions at the site.”

The Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog said that it still isn’t receiving data from monitoring systems installed to monitor nuclear material and activities at Chernobyl, but transmission from the Zaporizhzhia plant — Ukraine’s biggest, which Russian forces seized last week — has been restored after being lost earlier this week.

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PARIS — Interpol is restricting Russia’s ability to input information directly into the global police organization’s vast network, deciding that communications must first be checked by the general secretariat in Lyon, France.

The French Foreign Ministry said Friday that the beefed-up surveillance measures follow “multiple suspicions of attempted fraudulent use” of the Interpol system in recent days, but it did not elaborate.

Interpol stressed in a statement Thursday that it is maintaining its pledge of neutrality amid war between two of its members, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But it said that “heightened supervision and monitoring measures” of Moscow’s National Central Bureau were needed “to prevent any potential misuse of Interpol’s channels” like targeting individuals in or outside Ukraine.

The ministry noted that Interpol’s decision has multiple impacts from communications, to putting out so-called “red notices” for criminals on the loose or even feeding data on lost or stolen documents — all of which must now get compliance checks from Interpol headquarters.

Interpol, which has 195 members, said it had received calls to suspend Russia from the network, along with calls by law enforcement leaders looking for continued cooperation to better fight crime.

“In addition to the tragic loss of life, conflicts invariably lead to an increase in crime,” as organized crime groups try to exploit desperation, Interpol said. Risks include human trafficking, weapons smuggling and trafficking in illicit goods and medicines.

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BOSTON — YouTube announced Friday that it has begun blocking access globally to channels associated with Russian state-funded media. It had previously blocked them — specifically RT and Sputnik — across Europe.

YouTube, which is owned by Google, announced the move in a Twitter post and said that while the change is effective immediately, “we expect our systems to take time to ramp up.”

YouTube also said it was now removing content about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that violates its policy that “minimizes or trivializes well-documented violent events.” The Kremlin refers to the invasion as a “special military operation” and not a war.

YouTube previously paused YouTube ads in Russia. Now, it is extending that to all the ways it makes money on the platform in Russia.

Ukraine’s digital transformation minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, predicted in his Telegram channel that the Kremlin would soon move to block YouTube in Russia. “It’s a question of time.”

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ANTALYA, Turkey— With the Ukrainian refugee crisis, European countries that had previously been reluctant to share the burden for refugees have found themselves seeking solidarity and burden-sharing, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Friday.

Grandi spoke at a diplomacy forum near the Turkish Mediterranean city of Antalya as the number of refugees fleeing Ukraine passed 2.5 million.

“European countries, including countries that have been rather hesitant in the past to any notion that you should share that responsibility, now find themselves … in the situation to hold hundreds of thousands,” Grandi said. “And what do they do? They ask for that international solidarity and sharing, which means financial assistance.”

Grandi said: “I think that we need to capitalize on what is happening now to restate this notion, that if refugees move, everybody should share responsibility.

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WARSAW, Poland – Ukraine’s president and NATO chief remotely joined Poland’s leaders and lawmakers Friday for a session marking Poland’s 23 years in the defensive military alliance at a time when neighboring Ukraine is fighting Russian invasion.

In a video link to the gathering in Poland’s parliament, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Poland for supporting his nation’s struggle against the aggressor and also for opening its borders to refugees fleeing the war. Over 2.3 million people have fled Ukraine since the Feb. 24 invasion. Over 1.5 million of them have made their way to Poland.

In a veiled way Zelenskyy said he hopes Ukraine will eventually receive Soviet-designed MiG-29 fighter jets from Poland. The delivery implications of the jets recently led to an apparent misunderstanding between Warsaw and the U.S. administration.

“I am grateful for the efforts you are taking to allow us to protect Ukraine’s skies,” Zelenskyy said. “I trust that we will be able to arrive at a result that is very important to us.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Poland is safer for being a member of the alliance, and stressed the task is now to make sure the armed conflict does not spread but comes to an end.

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda condemned Russia’s bombings of Ukraine’s cities and housing areas as “war crimes.”

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UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations human rights office has received “credible reports” that Russian forces are using cluster munitions in Ukraine, including in populated areas which is prohibited under international humanitarian law, the U.N. political chief said Friday.

Undersecretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo told a U.N. Security Council meeting that residential areas and civilian infrastructure are being shelled in Mariupol, Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv and “the utter devastation being visited on these cities is horrific.”

Most of the civilian casualties recorded by the U.N. human rights office — 564 killed and 982 injured as of Thursday — “have been caused by explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes,” she said.

“Indiscriminate attacks, including those using cluster munitions, which are of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction, are prohibited under international humanitarian law,” DiCarlo said. “Directing attacks against civilian and civilian objects, as well as so-called area bombardment in towns and villages, are also prohibited under international law and may amount to war crimes.”

As of Thursday the U.N. World Health Organization has verified 26 attacks on health facilities, health workers and ambulances, including the bombing of the Mariupol maternity hospital, which caused 12 deaths and 34 injuries, DiCarlo said.

All alleged violations of international humanitarian law must be investigated and those found responsible must be held accountable, she said.

DiCarlo stressed that “the need for negotiations to stop the war in Ukraine could not be more urgent.”

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Footage recorded on the outskirts of Kyiv by Radio Free Europe on Wednesday shows Ukrainian soldiers with rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers slung over their shoulders traversing snow-dusted fields and woods and expressing disdain toward the Russians.

One unidentified soldier called their adversaries “orcs,” a reference to the monstrous and malevolent foot soldiers in the “Lord of the Rings” series.

Another soldier said they planned to kill all their enemies over the bombing of Mariupol.

“We’ll multiply them by zero,” the unidentified soldier said.

Gunfire and explosions erupt during the 3-minute, 30-second clip. At one point in the woods, shots split the air near the group, and soldiers drop to their stomachs in an instant and return fire. The assailants are not visible in the clip, but the crack-crack-crack from the gunfire exchange carries on for 15 seconds in one part of the clip.

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The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has opened an online portal to gather evidence of war crimes in Ukraine, as he renewed his call to combatants to abide by the laws of war.

Prosecutor Karim Khan said in a written statement Friday that he is “closely following the deeply troubling developments in hostilities.” There have been reports in recent days of Russian strikes on civilian infrastructure in Ukrainian towns and cities, including the deadly strike on a maternity hospital in Mariupol earlier this week.

Khan notes in a written statement that “if attacks are intentionally directed against the civilian population: that is a crime. If attacks are intentionally directed against civilian objects: that is a crime. I strongly urge parties to the conflict to avoid the use of heavy explosive weapons in populated areas.” He says there is no legal justification or excuse “for attacks which are indiscriminate, or which are disproportionate in their effects on the civilian population.”

Khan also said that two more of the global court’s member states, Japan and North Macedonia, have formally requested him to investigate in Ukraine, bringing the number of so-called state party referrals to 41.

The information will bolster evidence gathered by an investigative team Khan sent to the region last week to begin gathering evidence.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine is an ICC member state, but Kyiv has recognized the court’s jurisdiction, allowing Khan to investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

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BELGRADE, Serbia — A flight from Belgrade to Moscow was reverted and evacuated following a bomb alert, Serbian police said Friday.

The Belgrade airport received an email saying that an explosive device has been planted on the Air Serbia flight to Moscow, police said in an email.

The plane was then turned back shortly after take-off, and is being checked by police, the statement said. No other details were immediately available.

Serbian media said there were more than 200 passengers and crew on the plane.

Air Serbia carrier is the only one in Europe that still flies to and from Russia as Serbia has refused to join Western sanctions against its traditional ally over Ukraine.

Air Serbia has increased the number of flights to Russia amid high demand.

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ATHENS, Greece — The leader of Greece’s Orthodox Church has contacted the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to offer support in housing refugees fleeing the war-torn country.

Archbishop Ieronymos, who heads the Greek church, said in a statement on Friday that he had telephoned Metropolitan Bishop Epiphanius of Kyiv, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church leader, and promised “full support” for Ukraine, adding that parishes across Greece had been sent a request to provide assistance.

Only several thousand refugees from Ukraine have traveled to Greece so far — out of the 2.5 million that have fled the country — but Greek authorities expect that number to increase in the coming weeks.

The Greek church has recognized the independence of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine despite strong opposition from the Russian Orthodox Church.

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ISTANBUL — Turkey on Friday evacuated its embassy in Kyiv, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Tanju Bilgic said staff at the mission would move to Chernivtsi near the Romanian border for security reasons, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

The order to leave Kyiv came as Russian forces fanned out around the city and appeared likely to step up artillery and rocket attacks. Many countries ordered diplomatic staff to leave Kyiv before Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24.

Turkey has close ties to both Ukraine and Russia and has been seeking to mediate between its warring Black Sea neighbors.

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VERSAILLES, France — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is underlining the importance of keeping in contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but is stressing that “we will not make decisions for the Ukrainians.”

Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, who has spoken frequently with the Russian leader, together spoke to Putin on Thursday. After a European Union summit on Friday, Scholz said “it is absolutely necessary that we do not let the thread of talks break.”

The Elysee said Friday that Macron and Scholz would speak again with Putin on Saturday.

Scholz stressed that he and Macron are consulting closely among themselves and with the Ukrainian leadership — and that a cease-fire is the top priority. Scholz said it’s good that there are talks, but they shouldn’t just drag on while “weapons every day destroy people’s lives, buildings, infrastructure and dreams.”

The chancellor said that there is “one very clear principle: we will not make decisions for the Ukrainians. They must know themselves what from their point of view is the right thing for their country in this threatening situation.”

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BELGRADE, Serbia — Germany’s foreign minister has urged Serbia, which has not imposed sanctions on traditional ally Russia over the war in Ukraine, to align policies with the European Union if it wants to join the bloc.

Annalena Baerbock said Friday in Serbia’s capital Belgrade that “we all must have a clear position” over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Baerbock said, launched a “shameless campaign of destruction” that is targeting “maternity wards, schools, (people’s) homes.”

While Serbia has criticized the attack on Ukraine and voted in the United Nations for the condemnation of the attack, Belgrade has refrained from joining Western sanctions against Moscow.

Historically considered a friendly nation, Russia remains popular among the Serbs, particularly because of Moscow’s support for Serbia’s opposition to the Western-backed independence of the breakaway former Kosovo province.

Baerbock praised Serbia’s U.N. vote and the offer to host Ukrainian refugees. But she added that “joining the European Union means readiness to align with the positions of the union.”

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic said that “Serbia has a very determined and clear position” and has done “nothing that would hurt Ukraine.”

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MOSCOW — Russia’s communications and media regulator says it's restricting national access to Instagram because the platform is spreading “calls to commit violent acts against Russian citizens, including military personnel.”

The regulator, called Roskomnadzor, took the step Friday as Russia presses ahead with its invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier on Friday, Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said in a statement tweeted by its spokesman Andy Stone that it had “made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules on violent speech, such as ‘death to the Russian invaders’.”

The statement stressed that the company “still won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians.”

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PRAGUE — Prague City Hall has started readying temporary accommodation for a surge in refugees from Ukraine after the Czech capital ran out of housing options for them.

The government estimates that up to 200,000 refugees — 55% of them children — have arrived in the Czech Republic, a European Union and NATO member that doesn’t border Ukraine. About 25% of the refugees entering the country have gone to Prague.

Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib has asked the heads of 22 city districts to prepare at least 100 beds each in school gyms and also provide food for the refugees there.

Hrib compared the current situation in Prague to Germany facing the waves of refugees during a European migrant crisis in 2015-16.

“The difference is that Germany had months to react, we have just days,” Hrib said. “The demand for accommodation in Prague is enormous and by far surpasses what we can offer.”

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ANTALYA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested that the war in Ukraine could have been avoided had the world spoken out against Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

“Would we have faced such a picture if the West, the whole world, had raised their voices?” Erdogan asked. “Those who remained silent in the face of Crimea’s invasion are now saying some things.”

Erdogan spoke Friday at a diplomacy forum near the Turkish Mediterranean city of Antalya, where the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met a day earlier for talks facilitated by Turkey’s foreign minister.

Erdogan said Turkey would continue its efforts for peace.

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Finnish President Sauli Niinistö spoke in a phone call Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine.

Niinistö's office said in a statement that he informed Putin that he, earlier in the day, had a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and that Zelenskyy was prepared to talk directly with Putin.

The statement said Niinistö called for an immediate ceasefire and the safe evacuation of civilians, but also spoke to Putin about the security of nuclear energy facilities in Ukraine.

Niinisto is one of the few Western leaders who has kept a regular dialogue with Putin ever since the Finnish leader took office in 2012.

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BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary’s prime minister said Friday that sanctions imposed against Russia by the European Union would not involve a ban on imports of Russian oil and gas.

In a video on his social media channels following a meeting of EU leaders in Versailles, France, Viktor Orban said it was possible that the war in Ukraine “would drag on,” but that “the most important issue was settled in a way that was favorable to us.”

“There will be no sanctions covering oil and gas, which means that Hungary’s energy supply is guaranteed for the next period,” Orban said.

Orban, widely considered to be the Kremlin’s closest ally in the EU, has supported the bloc’s sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, Hungary’s neighbor.

But he has remained firm in insisting that the energy sector be left out of sanctions, arguing that such a move would damage EU countries more than Russia.

Last year, Hungary extended by 15 years a natural gas contract with Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom, and has entered into a 12 billion-euro ($13.6 billion) Russian build-and-finance agreement to add two nuclear reactors to Hungary’s only nuclear power plant.

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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s president says his country’s military forces have reached “a strategic turning point,” while Russia’s president says there are “certain positive developments” in talks between the warring countries.

Neither leader explained clearly what they meant, however.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday: “It’s impossible to say how many days we will still need to free our land, but it is possible to say that we will do it because ... we have reached a strategic turning point.” He didn’t elaborate.

He said authorities are working on 12 humanitarian corridors and trying to ensure needy people receive food, medicine and basic goods.

He spoke on a video showing him outside the presidential administration in Kyiv, speaking in both Ukrainian and Russian about the 16th day of war.

Meanwhile, in Moscow Russian President Vladimir Putin said there have been positive developments in talks between the warring countries, but he didn’t offer any details about what those developments were.

Putin hosted Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko for talks on Friday and told him that negotiations with Ukraine “are now being held almost on a daily basis.”