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 is expected to announce Friday that the U.S. and its European allies will move to revoke “most favored nation” trade status for Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, allowing higher tariffs to be imposed on some Russian imports.
Friday, March 11, 2022
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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