Russia-Ukraine Conflict, Day 16 HIGHLIGHTS | Direct Confrontation Between NATO & Russia Is World War III: Biden
Russia-Ukraine Crisis HIGHLIGHTS: Follow this page for all the updates and Breaking News on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Russia will pay a severe price for the use of chemical weapons, US President Joe Biden said on Friday, stressing that Washington will not fight Moscow in Ukraine as a direct confrontation between NATO and Kremlin would trigger World War III.
"We're going to continue to stand together with our allies in Europe and send an unmistakable message. We'll defend every single inch of NATO territory with the full might of the United States and galvanise NATO. We will not fight a war against Russia in Ukraine. Direct confrontation between NATO and Russia is World War III. Something we must strive to prevent," Biden told reporters at the White House.
Russian President Vladimir Putin approves bringing ''volunteer'' fighters from the Middle East & elsewhere to join Russia's war in Ukraine. Moscow said the fighters would include those who fought the Islamic State group, a clear reference to the war in Syria.
Bombs hit near airports in west Ukrainian cities Ivano-Frankiivsk and Lutsk, far from Russia's main push.
President Joe Biden will announce that, along with the EU and the Group of Seven countries, the US will move to revoke the “most favoured nation” trade status for Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
China on Friday expressed deep concern over the worsening situation in Ukraine and offered to help play a positive role to restore peace but opposed the US and the EU sanctions against Russia, stating that they will hurt the world economy to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.
The US Senate has given final congressional approval to a $13.6 billion emergency package of military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine. The Senate approved a $1.5 trillion federal spending bill, including billions in aid for Ukraine, and President Biden is expected to sign it.
Facebook said that due to the invasion of Ukraine it has temporarily eased its rules regarding violent speech to allow statements like "death to Russian invaders," but not credible threats against civilians
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky Thursday said around 100,000 people had evacuated the country's cities in two days, but accused Russian forces of targeting a humanitarian corridor in the city of Mariupol.
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday during a visit to Poland that his country will take as many refugees fleeing war in Ukraine "as we can".
Trudeau said "our hearts break" to see millions of Ukrainians fleeing for their lives and leaving all they have behind.
"Canada will help, Canada is there to help," Trudeau said in Poland, a fellow NATO member which neighbors Ukraine and has opened its border to the refugees. Almost 1.5 million people have fled to Poland since February 24, when Russia's army invaded Ukraine.
In talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Trudeau expressed support for Poland's openness to the refugees and discussed ways of supporting Ukraine and continuing tough sanctions on Russia.
In Warsaw, Trudeau also held talks with visiting US Vice-President Kamala Harris.
Civilians trapped inside Mariupol desperately scrounged for food and fuel as Russian forces kept up their bombardment of the port city Thursday amid international condemnation over an airstrike a day earlier that killed three people at a maternity hospital.
Western and Ukrainian officials called the hospital attack on Wednesday a war crime by Moscow. Meanwhile, the highest-level talks held since the invasion began two weeks ago yielded no progress, the number of refugees fleeing the country topped 2.3 million, and Kyiv braced for an onslaught, its mayor boasting that the capital had become practically a fortress protected by armed civilians.
More than 1,300 people have died in the 10-day siege of the frigid city of Mariupol, according to Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
Background
Russia Ukraine Crisis HIGHLIGHTS: Amidst the crisis between Russia and Ukraine worsening, President Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday shared a video of the wreckage of the hospital on Twitter, he called the attack 'an atrocity'.
"Today is the day that defines everything. It defines who is on which side. Russian bombs fell on a children's hospital and maternity hospital in Mariupol. As of now, 17 people are injured. Rescuers are still going through the debris," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was quoted by ANI.
UKRAINE-RUSSIA CONFLICT: FULL COVERAGE
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has publicly warned that Russia might seek to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine as the White House rejected Russian claims of illegal chemical weapons development in the country it has invaded.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova this week, without evidence, accused Ukraine of running chemical and biological weapons labs in its territory, supported by the US White House press secretary Jen Psaki called Russia's claim "preposterous" and said it could be part of an attempt by Russia to lay the groundwork for itself using such weapons of mass destruction against Ukraine.
On the other hand, US Vice President Kamala Harris' trip to Warsaw to thank Poland for taking in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Russia's invasion took an unexpected turn before she even left Washington. She's parachuting into the middle of unexpected diplomatic turbulence over fighter jets.
The Polish government on Tuesday came out with a plan to transfer its Russian-made fighter planes to a US military base in Germany, with the expectation that the planes would then be handed over to Ukrainian pilots trying to fend off Russian forces.
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