Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

A firefighter works at a residential district that was damaged by shelling, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine March 23, 2022. REUTERS

Russian forces bombed areas of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Wednesday and U.S. President Biden arrived in Brussels for a series of summit meetings on the war while Nato’s chief said the alliance was bolstering battle groups in Eastern Europe.

Ukrainian President Zelenskiy called on people all over the world to take to the streets on Thursday, one month to the day since Russia invaded, to demand an end to the war.

Repercussions

* Russia plans to switch its gas sales to “unfriendly” countries to roubles, President Putin said, responding to a freeze on Russia’s assets by foreign nations.

* Anatoly Chubais, the architect of Russia’s post-Soviet economic reforms, has quit his post as a Kremlin special envoy and left the country due to the war in Ukraine, two sources told Reuters.

* The United States said it has assessed that members of Russia’s forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

* Renault , the Western carmaker most exposed to the Russian market, said it would suspend operations at its plant in Moscow while it assesses options on its majority stake in Avtovaz (AVAZI_p.MM), Russia’s No. 1 carmaker.

On the ground

* Satellite photographs showed massive destruction in Mariupol, once a city of 400,000 people, with columns of smoke rising from burning residential apartment buildings.

None of the following reports could immediately be verified:

* Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person was killed and two seriously wounded after shells hit a shopping center’s parking lot in a northern district of the capital.

* Russia said its forces used long-range weapons fired from the sea to hit a Ukrainian arms depot outside the northwestern city of Rivne and two Tochka-U missile launchers in an industrial zone in the outskirts of Kyiv.

Civilians

* A senior Ukrainian official said 4,554 people were evacuated from cities through humanitarian corridors on Wednesday.

* More than 145,000 babies are in urgent need of nutrition support in Ukraine, Unicef said.

Quotes

* “Come from your offices, your homes, your schools and universities, come in the name of peace, come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life,” Zelenskiy said in his appeal for a worldwide March 24 demonstration.

* “We, the French and Europeans, will do everything to stop this war without entering it,” said French President Macron.

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