Ukraine: Russian forces advanced into the center of Severodonetsk, one of the last Ukrainian strongholds in the eastern Donbas region, where Moscow is now concentrating its offensive.
The battle for Severodonetsk has in many ways resembled the fight for Mariupol, where Russian-backed forces worked to encircle the city while constant shelling reduced most buildings to rubble.
A French journalist was killed while reporting on evacuation efforts in Luhansk, the province’s governor said.
Strains to infrastructure will impair Ukraine’s ability to export its coming grain harvest, as the country tries to work around Russia’s Black Sea blockade, likely depriving the world of more than 8% of all cereal exports.
EU: The European Union said for the first time that it will impose an oil embargo on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, taking a big step forward in the bloc’s economic fight against Moscow that is already reverberating in global markets. EU leaders were meeting in Brussels. The embargo will include an exemption for oil delivered from Russia via pipelines, an amount that makes up one-third of EU oil purchases from Russia.
U.S.: President Biden said the U.S. won’t send rocket systems that strike Russia, as the U.S. considers sending Multiple Launch Rocket Systems for battlefield use.
Russia: President Putin told his French and German counterparts that Moscow was open to resuming talks with Ukraine, but that the supply of Western weapons risked exacerbating the crisis, the Kremlin said.
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