UN Calls for Unimpeded Access to Besieged Cities

A U.S. defense official said Ukrainian missiles destroyed the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, backing Kyiv’s version of events. With fears of Russian retaliation running high, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s allies can help shorten the war with “more and faster” arms deliveries. Shelling resumed near Kyiv, and the far western Lviv region saw its first known missile attack in weeks. Russia has pledged to step up its air strikes.

Russia warned the U.S. over its weapons shipments to Ukraine, according to a diplomatic note cited by the New York Times and Washington Post. Joe Biden said he’s considering sending a senior official to visit Ukraine, though the White House says it won’t be the president. Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and top finance officials will visit Washington next week. 

Ukraine said its spring planting outlook has improved slightly as Russia’s military narrows its focus to the country’s east. The U.K. said destruction of roads is hampering the delivery of humanitarian aid, and a UN agency demanded access to people in besieged cities running out of food and water. 

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More than 80% of the debt Ukraine has to repay this year is domestic, “which we can easily cover” or refinance, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said in a television interview. 

He said the repayment schedule for foreign debt is “quite moderate and simple,” with a peak in September when Kyiv is due to pay interest on $500 million in Eurobonds. The minister said Ukraine has cut spending by 180 billion hryvnia ($6 billion) and needs $5 billion to $7 billion a month to finance its budget while the war continues. 

The Ukrainian economy may shrink between 30% to 50%, but it’s too early to make a precise estimate, said Marchenko, who will reportedly travel to Washington for the International Monetary Fund meeting that starts Monday. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman gave a “positive assessment” of their cooperation in the OPEC+ producers group to stabilize the world oil market, the Kremlin said in a statement on Saturday.

The phone conversation came at the initiative of Saudi Arabia, the Kremlin said, and the leaders also discussed the situations in Ukraine and Yemen. The Crown Prince spoke on Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and also discussed Ukraine, according to state television. 

Saudi Arabia and other major Persian Gulf oil producers have so far resisted U.S. calls to increase output as prices have surged amid the crisis in Ukraine and concerns about possible sanctions on Russian exports.

Over half the civilians taken by Moscow’s forces are women, said Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, who demanded in a televised briefing that they be released immediately. “We won’t swap military people for civilians. It would violate the Geneva Conventions,” she said. 

Separately, Ukraine has captured more than 700 Russian soldiers, and Russia has captured about 700 of Ukrainian soldiers, with further prisoner exchanges possible, she said.

Ukraine and Russia agreed on nine humanitarian corridors on Saturday to evacuate civilians. In one instance, Russian troops shelled the center of Lysychansk in the Luhansk region while people were gathered for evacuation, she said.

President Gitanas Nauseda urged Finland and Sweden them to apply to join the NATO military alliance as soon as feasible, the Financial Times reported. 

He brushed off Moscow’s threats to increase its military presence in the Baltics, saying Russia has had such weapons in Kaliningrad, a Russian holding wedged between Poland and Lithuania, for years.  

“The Kaliningrad region is probably the most militarized region in Europe, and tactical nuclear weapons are already there,” Neuseda said. “I don’t think we should react to this rhetoric.”

Russia said it was retaliating against U.K. sanctions on its top officials with entry bans on Prime Minister Boris Johnson and much of his cabinet.

The move — largely symbolic as Western officials have all but stopped traveling to Russia since the war broke out — covers a dozen others, including Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Defense Minister Ben Wallace and former Prime Minister Theresa May, the Foreign Ministry said. The list will soon be expanded to include politicians and members of parliament Moscow blames for “fueling anti-Russian hysteria,” it added. 

The U.K. has been among the most assertive Western countries in imposing sanctions on Russia and supplying weapons to Ukraine. 

Russia made its first known attempted missile strike on Ukraine’s far western Lviv area in about two weeks, the region’s governor said. 

Maksym Kozytskiy said on Telegram that Russian SU-35 planes took off from the Baranovichi airfield in Belarus. Ukraine’s air defense system shot down four cruise missiles, he said, offering no details about damage or casualties.

Russia’s defense ministry claimed strikes overnight on military targets, including near Odesa and Mykolaiv in the south and Poltava in central Ukraine, Interfax reported, but didn’t mention Lviv.   

Polish authorities on Friday processed more departures to Ukraine than arrivals of refugees for the first time since the Russian invasion started on Feb. 24. There were 24,400 arrivals at crossings with Ukraine compared to 25,100 that left. 

As Russian ground forces gather for an expected assault in the eastern Donbas region, more Ukrainians are returning to the areas from which troops have withdrawn. 

Authorities have cautioned against rushing back, especially given Russian threats to step up attacks on the capital. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko on Saturday warned against returning for now. 

The United Nations World Food Program called for unimpeded access to families trapped in conflict areas, including the besieged city of Mariupol. 

“It’s one thing when people are suffering from the devastation of war. It’s another thing when they’re being starved to death,” WFP Executive Director David Beasley said in a statement after a three-day visit to Ukraine.  

No humanitarian aid has been allowed into Mariupol since it was encircled more than two weeks ago, and it’s thought to be running out of its last food and water. To the west, the city of Mykolaiv remains unreachable due to active conflict in the area. WFP said it’s also concerned about several cities in Ukraine’s east.

Widespread damage to roads in conflicted affected areas, as well as placement of land mines, “presents a significant challenge in delivering humanitarian aid” to areas where Russian troops have with withdrawn, the U.K. said in an intelligence update. 

As an example, the destruction of river crossings in and around Chernihiv has left only one pedestrian bridge across the Desna River. Before the war the northern Ukraine city had about 285,000 residents.  

The Kyiv region, including the Darnytsky district to the city’s southeast, sustained shelling from Russia on Saturday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on his Telegram channel, a day after Moscow threatened to step up attacks on the capital. Air raid sirens were heard a second time on the day. On Friday, the Russian defence ministry said it hit a plant making making anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles near Kyiv.  

Russia remains focused on taking control of Mariupol and pressing on to the administrative borders of the Kherson region, the Ukraine armed forces said. Mariupol has been subject to a brutal, month-long siege, part of a bid by Russia to create a land bridge to the Crimean peninsula. 

Shelling was also reported in Ukraine’s far west Lviv region, close to the Polish border. 

Ukraine army Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi reiterated calls for more weapons in a telephone conversation with General Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to a post on Facebook. 

The two discussed heavy fighting on the Kharkiv-Izyum border, the Russian offensive in Luhansk and Donetsk and the “critical situation” around Mariupol, as well as rocket attacks throughout Ukraine.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko and central bank governor Kyrylo Shevchenko will visit Washington during the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, Reuters reported.

They’re set to hold bilateral meetings with finance officials from the Group of Seven countries and take part in a roundtable on Ukraine that will be hosted by the World Bank on Thursday, according to the report. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy estimated Ukraine’s military casualties at between 2,500 to 3,000 dead and about 10,000 injured, according to excerpts from an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” set to be broadcast Sunday. 

He said it’s “very difficult” to estimate civilian losses, given that cities such as Mariupol and Kherson as well as other areas are inaccessible due to fighting.

Ukraine’s allies have it in their hands to avoid a drawn-out war,…