NEW YORK (1010 WINS/AP) -- Russia widened its military offensive in Ukraine on Friday, striking near airports in the west of the country for the first time, as observers and satellite photos indicated that its troops, long stalled in a 40-mile convoy outside Kyiv, were maneuvering in an attempt to encircle the capital. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden announced Friday that the U.S. and its European allies were stripping Russia of its “most favored nation” trade status, allowing higher tariffs to be imposed on some Russian imports. The U.S. is also banning Russian alcohol, seafood and diamond imports.
Friday, March 11, 2022
4:33 p.m. - IAEA: Power line repairs begin at Chernobyl
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.
12:45 p.m. - YouTube begins blocking Russian state-funded media channels worldwide
YouTube said it would block access to channels “associated with Russian state-funded media” globally. It had previously blocked access to the channels across Europe.
The Google-owned video site said it was also pausing all monetization on its platform in Russia. It had previously paused all YouTube ads in the country.
Among the media channels impacted was RT News, which went down by 1:30 p.m. A message on the channel reads: "This channel is not available in your country."
YouTube posted the following message on Twitter announcing the move:
“Our Community Guidelines prohibit content denying, minimizing or trivializing well-documented violent events. We are now removing content about Russia’s invasion in Ukraine that violates this policy. In line with that, we are also now blocking access to YouTube channels associated with Russian state-funded media globally, expanding from across Europe. This change is effective immediately, and we expect our systems to take time to ramp up. Since our last update, our teams have now removed more than 1,000 channels and over 15,000 videos for violating not only our hate speech policy, but also our policies around misinformation, graphic content and more. Our systems are also connecting people to trusted news sources. So far, our breaking news and top news shelves on our homepage have received more than 17M views in Ukraine. In addition, we recently paused all YouTube ads in Russia. We’ve now extended this to all of the ways to monetize on our platform in Russia. Our teams continue to closely monitor the situation, and are ready to take further action. We will continue to share updates as they become available.”
12:00 p.m. - Biden speaks with Zelenskyy as Ukraine war in 16th day
President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke “for some time” again on Friday, when Biden reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to Ukraine as they “bravely fight to defend their country.”
The White House released a readout of the call between the two leaders: “President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine to underscore his support for the Ukrainian people as they continue to defend their country against Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified attack. President Biden highlighted how the United States is continuing to surge security, humanitarian, and economic assistance to Ukraine. He also updated President Zelenskyy on the actions the United States is taking today in coordination with the G7 and the EU to further raise the costs on Russia.”
After the conversation, Zelenskyy tweeted: “Had a substantive conversation with [Biden]. Gave him the assessment of the situation on the battlefield, informed about the crimes of Russia against the civilian population. We agreed on further steps to support the defense of Ukraine and increase sanctions against Russia.”
11:45 a.m. - U.S. accuses Russia of using U.N. Security Council to promote disinformation
The Biden administration accused Russia of using the U.N. Security Council to promote disinformation from Moscow ahead of a Friday meeting on allegations of U.S. “biological activities” in Ukraine — a charge made without any evidence and denied by both Washington and Kyiv.
“This is exactly the kind of false flag effort we have warned Russia might initiate to justify a biological or chemical weapons attack,” said Olivia Dalton, spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.
The Russian request for the Security Council meeting, tweeted Thursday by its first deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, followed a U.S. rejection of Russian accusations that Ukraine is operating chemical and biological labs with U.S. support.
“We’re not going to let Russia gaslight the world or use the U.N. Security Council as a venue for promoting their disinformation,“ Dalton said.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had made the accusation earlier this week, following a warning from White House press secretary Jen Psaki that Russia might use chemical or biological weapons against Ukraine in the invasion.
Psaki called Russia’s claim “preposterous” and tweeted: “This is all an obvious ploy by Russia to try to justify its further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also denied Russia’s accusation. Like Psaki, he said the accusation itself was a bad sign.
“That worries me very much because we have often been convinced that if you want to know Russia’s plans, they are what Russia accuses others of,” he said late Thursday. “No chemical or any other weapon of mass destruction has been developed on my land. The whole world knows this.”
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby called the Russian claim “a bunch of malarkey.”
Dalton said “Russia has a well-documented history of using chemical weapons and has long maintained a biological weapons program in violation of international law" as well as “a track record of falsely accusing the West of the very violations that Russia itself is perpetrating."
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric reiterated Thursday that the World Health Organization, which has been working with the Ukrainian government, “said they are unaware of any activity on the part of the Ukrainian government which is inconsistent with its international treaty obligations, including on chemical weapons or biological weapons.”
10:45 a.m. - US, allies to revoke Russia's 'most favored nation' status, ban import of Russian alcohol, seafood, diamonds: Biden
President Joe Biden said the U.S. and its allies will revoke Russia's “most favored nation” trade status and that the U.S. is banning imports of Russian alcohol, seafood and diamonds.
The status means two countries have agreed to trade with each other “under the best possible terms,” with low tariffs, few barriers to trade and the highest possible imports allowed, Biden said, adding that it’s usually referred to as “permanent normal trade relations,” or PNTR, by the U.S.
Speaking from the White House Roosevelt Room, Biden said new sanctions and export controls would make it harder for Russia to do business with the U.S. and other nations—another “crushing blow” to the Russian economy.
Biden said the U.S. was also banning the import of goods from several “signature sectors” of the Russian economy, including vodka, seafood and diamonds.
“We’re going to continue to squeeze [Vladimir] Putin,” the president said of Russia's leader.
The G7 will also seek to deny Russia the ability to borrow from leading multinational institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Biden said.
“Putin is an aggressor—he is the aggressor—and Putin must pay the price,” Biden said. “He cannot pursue a war that threatens the very foundations of international peace and stability and then ask for financial help from the international community.”
The G7 is also stepping up pressure on Russian billionaires by adding new names to the list of oligarchs and their families for sanctions and increasing coordination to seize their assets like super-yachts and vacation homes.
The U.S. is also banning the export of luxury goods to Russia.
Additionally, Biden said the U.S. is sending “tens of thousands of tons” of humanitarian resources to Ukraine, including food.
The president reiterated that NATO would “not fight a war against Russia in Ukraine.”
“Direct confrontation between NATO and Russia is World War III, something we must strive to prevent,” he said.
Biden said Putin has “failed” at dominating Ukraine, fracturing European resolve and weakening the transatlantic alliance.
“We will not let autocrats and would-be emperors dictate the direction of the world,” he said.
Biden took one question from a reporter, who asked about what the U.S. would do if Russia launched a chemical weapons attack in Ukraine.
“I’m not going to speak about the intelligence, but Russia would pay a severe price if they used chemical weapons,” the president said.
10:15 a.m. - Russian regulator cracks down on Instagram
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.”
10:00 a.m. - US will reportedly ban Russian alcohol, seafood imports
The U.S. is reportedly planning to ban imports of Russian alcohol and seafood.
Sources told the Wall Street Journal that President Joe Biden is expected to lay out the ban during an address at the White House Friday morning.
Biden is also expected to announce that the U.S. and its European allies will revoke Russia’s “most favored nation” trade status over its invasion of Ukraine, allowing higher tariffs to be imposed on some Russian imports.
The White House declined comment to the Wall Street Journal.
9:00 a.m. - Biden to announce US, European allies revoking ‘most favored nation’ trade status for Russia
President Joe Biden will announce Friday that, along with the European Union and the Group of Seven countries, the U.S. will move to revoke “most favored nation” trade status for Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, a source told the Associated Press.
Biden is expected to make the announcement at 10:15 a.m. ET from the Roosevelt Room of the White House.
Biden’s move comes as bipartisan pressure has been building in Washington to revoke what is formally known as “permanent normal trade relations” with Russia.
The move would allow the U.S. and allies to impose tariffs on Russian imports.
8:45 a.m. - Zelenskyy says Ukraine at ‘turning point,’ Putin says there are ‘positive developments’
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.”
8:30 a.m. - Russian strikes hit western Ukraine as offensive widens
New airstrikes in western Ukraine were likely a message from Russia that no area is safe.
Strikes on the western Lutsk airfield killed four Ukrainian servicemen and wounded six, according to Lutsk Mayor Ihor Polishchuk. In Ivano-Frankivsk, residents were ordered to shelters after an air raid alert, Mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv said.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Russia used high-precision long-range weapons Friday to put military airfields in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk “out of action.” He did not provide details.
In another potentially ominous movement, new satellite photos appeared to show that the massive Russian convoy outside the Ukrainian capital had fanned out into nearby towns and forests.
Howitzers were towed into positions to open fire, and armored units were seen in towns near the Antonov Airport north of the city, according to Maxar Technologies, the company that produced the images.
The 40-mile line of vehicles, tanks and artillery had massed outside Kyiv early last week. But its advance had appeared to stall amid reports of food and fuel shortages while Ukrainian troops also targeted it with anti-tank missiles.
The new moves suggest the convoy forces were now moving west around the city, making their way south to encircle it, according to Jack Watling, a research fellow at British defense think-tank Royal United Services Institute.
“They’re about half-way around now,” he told BBC radio. He said they were likely preparing for a “siege rather than assault” on Kyiv because of continuing low morale and logistical problems.
8:15 a.m. - China amplifies unsupported Russian claim of Ukraine biolabs
China is helping Russia spread inflammatory and unsubstantiated claims that the U.S. is financing biological weapons labs in Ukraine, the target of a Russian invasion.
The U.S. has refuted Russia’s conspiracy theory, and the United Nations has said it has received no information that would back up the allegations. But that hasn’t prevented the claims from proliferating.
The partnership between the two authoritarian countries appears aimed at muddying the waters of the rationale for Russia’s invasion — part of what American officials have called an “information war.”
China’s Foreign Ministry has helped fuel the fire this week, repeating the Russian claim several times and calling for an investigation into “the secret of the U.S. labs in Ukraine.”
8:00 a.m. - VP Harris arrives in Romania after Poland visit
Vice President Kamala Harris wrapped up her visit to Poland by meeting with U.S. and Polish troops, as Russia pressed ahead with its invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
Harris is on a whirlwind trip to meet with the leaders of Poland and Romania. Those two countries are eastern flank NATO allies and have witnessed an influx of refugees since war broke out last month.
“We stand as partners,” Harris said. “We work together, we train together, we form friendships that are based on solidarity, mutual values and shared principles,” she told the troops.
Harris was due to meet later Friday with Romania’s president to discuss a response to the influx of refugees from Ukraine due to the war.
7:30 a.m. - Moscow indicates it plans to bring fighters from Syria into the conflict
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered that so-called volunteer fighters should be brought into Ukraine.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia knew of “more than 16,000 applications” from countries in the Middle East, many of them from people who he said helped Russia against the Islamic State group, according to a Kremlin transcript.
They want “to take part in what they consider a liberation movement,” Shoigu said, on the side of Russia-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.
Since 2015, Russian forces have backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against various groups opposed to his rule, including Islamic State.
Putin told Shoigu that Russia should help would-be volunteers to “move to the combat zone” and contrasted them with what he called foreign “mercenaries” fighting for Ukraine.
7:00 a.m. - Russian forces continue offensive toward Kyiv
Russian forces are continuing their offensive toward Kyiv on Friday from the northwest and east, notably trying to break through Ukrainian defenses from Kukhari, 56 miles to the northwest through to Demidov, 25 miles north of Kyiv, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in a statement.
The general staff said Russian troops had been halted in efforts to take the northern city of Chernihiv, notably by Ukraine’s re-taking of the town of Baklanova Muraviika, which Russian troops could use to move toward Kyiv.
Russian forces are blockading Kharkiv and pushing their offensive in the south around Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kryvyi Rih, Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown.
Rough weather on the Azov and Black Seas has stalled Russian ships’ efforts to come ashore, the general staff said.
Three Russian airstrikes hit the important industrial city of Dnipro in eastern Ukraine on Friday, killing at least one person in strikes that hit near a kindergarten and apartment buildings, according to Interior Ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko.
One strike hit a shoe factory, sparking a fire, he said. He released video showing flashes over residential areas of the city, home to nearly 1 million people.
Meanwhile, Russia’s deputy energy minister, Yevgeny Grabchak, said Thursday that power was restored to the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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