 |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| It's Hump Day, OnPolitics readers. |
| Russian troops targeted a maternity and children's hospital complex in the southern Ukrainian city Mariupol Wednesday. |
| The Mariupol City Council posted a video of shelled buildings to social media and called the destruction "enormous." |
| "The building of the medical institution where the children were treated recently was completely destroyed. Information about the affected children is being clarified," the council said. |
| In a plea to Western nations to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said people were still trapped in the wreckage in Mariupol. |
| "Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror?" Zelenskyy said in a Twitter post. "Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity." |
| U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Wednesday that establishing a no-fly zone would drag the U.S. and its allies further into the conflict. |
| In other international news: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates have snubbed President Joe Biden in recent weeks , refusing Biden's efforts to engage them in Ukrainian relief efforts and help lessen spikes in oil prices resulting from the Russia-Ukraine War. The snubs come as both countries have bristled at U.S. involvement in the Persian Gulf. |
| It's Amy and Chelsey with today's top stories. |
Would sending fighter jets to Ukraine turn the tide in the war? |
| The Biden administration has proposed "backfilling" a transfer of Soviet-era jets to Ukraine from Poland or other Eastern European countries with American-made F-16s and additional security enhancements or protections to defend against retaliation from the Kremlin. |
| The artillery would help Ukraine fight back against Russia's larger, more sophisticated air force, but Zelenskyy said he would accept the aircrafts only if the U.S. and allies refuse to establish no-fly zones and use their planes to patrol Ukrainian airspace. |
| "If you do not do that, if you at least do not give us aircraft for us to be able to protect ourselves, there, there can only be one conclusion: You want us to be slowly killed," Zelenskyy said in a video posted Sunday. |
| A no-fly zone would lead to American or allied aircrafts attacking Russian fighter planes and air defenses in Ukraine, which could easily escalate, according to retired Air Force Lt. Col. David Tretler. |
| "And we don't want to do that," Tretler said. "There is nothing about Ukraine that is important enough to us to risk being in a war with a country that has as many nuclear weapons as we do." |
| Want this news roundup in your inbox every night? Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter here. |
Real quick: stories you'll want to read |
| • | Who are Russia's oligarchs? The Russian oligarchs who surround the Kremlin – a small cadre of several dozen men who have made their riches thanks to connections to Putin's government – are seen by U.S. and European officials as key to curbing the Russian invasion of Ukraine and potentially building a post-Putin Russia. | | • | Pentagon closes leaking Navy fuel tank in Hawaii: The Pentagon is permanently closing a U.S. Navy fuel storage tank in Hawaii that leaked petroleum into the Pearl Harbor water supply, after nearly 1,000 households complained about water contamination. | | • | Controlling cryptocurrency: The Biden administration is tackling cryptocurrency and blockchain with a new executive order meant to promote future innovation in the industry while minimizing the financial risks to Americans and the global financial system. | | • | Senate passes antilynching act: After 122 years of effort, the Senate unanimously passed the bipartisan Emmett Till Antilynching Act to allow crimes to be prosecuted as a lynching if a victim is killed or injured as a result of a hate crime. | |
Ukrainian refugees carry only their most prized possessions as they flee Russian attack |
| The life of a refugee is about leaving everything behind: family, house, job, school. It often means fleeing with little more than the clothes on your back and whatever you can carry. Many flee with just the most basic necessities to keep their families warm or to stave off hunger. |
| Yet many also refuse to part with items or tokens whose value is exceptionally important to them, more for the memories they invoke or the emotional comfort they afford than their monetary value. |
| For 17-year-old Anastasia Oleksienko, from near Kyiv, it was her high school diploma. She escaped Ukraine for Poland this week with her family. Russian missile attacks and artillery shut down all the schools in her area. Oleksienko has ambitions to be a lawyer. |
 | | Yusef Grinchak's waterpool swimsuits sit on a chair at the Chem Railway Station, Tuesday March 8, 2022. Before the war, Grinchak played water polo competitively, training morning and the evening for seven years. | | Jessica Koscielniak, USA TODAY | |
| For Yusef Grinchak, 15, it was two swimsuits for playing water polo, both with Ukraine's national colors of blue and gold. Yusef and his mother, Irina, fled from Kharkiv, in northeast Ukraine, which has suffered some of the heaviest bombardment from Russian forces. At least 21 civilians have died in Kharkiv. Before the war, Yusef diligently trained in the sport twice a day – early in the morning and late at night. |
| How many people have left Ukraine? Russia's invasion of Ukraine has caused the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. More than 2 million people have fled Ukraine , the majority of whom have been transiting through train stations in tidy, modest provincial towns such as Chelm, in southeastern Poland, that dot the border. |
| Beyond Ukraine: Here are six more humanitarian crises where donations can make a difference. -- Amy and Chelsey |
| |
| |
| |
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment