Posted at 6:15 p.m.
- Russia expanded its military offensive in Ukraine on Friday, striking for the first time near airports in the west of the country.
- The main areas where the Russians are concentrating their efforts are Kyiv, Mariupol, Kryvyi Rih, Kremenchuk, Nikopol, Zaporizhia, Dnipro, Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk.
- Russian troops, long stuck in a convoy outside Kyiv, are now maneuvering in an attempt to encircle the capital.
- There are just under two million inhabitants left in the Ukrainian capital. Half the population has already fled.
- More than 2.5 million Ukrainians have already taken refuge abroad, mostly in Poland, and around two million are displaced within Ukraine itself, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
- The UN Security Council turned Friday into a field of accusations of disinformation and manipulation between the West and Russia, on the occasion of a meeting requested by Moscow on an alleged presence in Ukraine of bioweapons coordinated with the United States, which has denied it outright.
- US President Joe Biden warned on Friday that Russia would pay “a heavy price” for the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine, while pledging to “avoid” a direct confrontation between NATO and Moscow, because it would cause “World War III”.
- The United States, the European Union and the G7 countries have announced a reduction in their trade with Russia as well as new economic sanctions.
With Agence France-Presse, The Canadian Press and The Associated Press