Mariupol, Lyiv – Military offensives widened in Ukraine with Russian strikes nearing airports in western Ukraine on Friday and invading troops kept up pressure on the capital Kyiv and the besieged port city of Mariupol.
According to the head of the surrounding Volyn region, Yuriy Pohulyayko, the recent airstrikes on the Lutsk military airfield left two Ukrainian servicemen dead and six people wounded.
Mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv said, the strikes also targeted an airport near Ivano-Frankiivsk, where residents were ordered to shelters after an air raid alert.
New satellite photos, meanwhile, appeared to show a massive convoy outside the Ukrainian capital had fanned out into towns and forests near Kyiv with artillery pieces raised for firing in another potentially ominous movement as reported by AP.
The convoy seen in satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showed the 40-mile (64-kilometer) line of vehicles, tanks and artillery had been redeployed, the company said. Armored units were seen in towns near the Antonov Airport north of the city. Some vehicles moved into forests, Maxar reported, with towed howitzers nearby in position to open fire.
Russia to lose "most favoured nation" status
The United States, together with the Group of Seven nations and the European Union, on Friday, will move to revoke Russia's "most favoured nation" status over its invasion of Ukraine, multiple people familiar with the situation as told to Reuters.
Stripping Russia of the status paves the way for the United States and its allies to impose tariffs on a wide range of Russian goods, which would heighten pressure on an economy already heading into a recession.
Removing Russia's status of "Permanent Normal Trade Relations" with the United States would significantly escalate pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to approve legislation providing $13.6 billion to help Ukraine finance ammunition and other military supplies, as well as humanitarian support.
The European Union however said it will not impose sanctions on Russian gas or oil, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a video posted on his Facebook page on Friday, amid a summit of EU leaders in France.
The United Nations Security Council will convene on Friday at Russia's request, diplomats said, to discuss Moscow's allegations, which Washington has described as disinformation.
Meta to allow war posts
The information war picked up on social media as well, with Russia demanding that Washington stop the "extremist activities" of Facebook owner Meta Platforms, which temporarily lifted a ban on calls for violence against the Russian military and leadership.
Meta Platforms said it will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, according to internal emails seen by Reuters on Thursday, in a temporary change to its hate speech policy.
The social media company will temporarily allow some posts that call for the death of Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in countries including Russia, Ukraine and Poland, according to internal e-mails to its content moderators.
A Ukrainian MP, Inna Sovsun, has tweeted, saying the strikes on new areas this morning shows that there are no "safe" cities in Ukraine, BBC reported.
The number of refugees fleeing the country topped 2.3 million, and some 100,000 people have been evacuated during the past two days from seven cities under Russian blockade in the north and center of the country, including the Kyiv suburbs, Zelenskyy said.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk in a video message announced efforts to create new humanitarian corridors to bring aid to people in areas occupied or under Russian attack around the cities of Kherson in the south, Chernihiv in the north and Kharkiv in the east. More than 1,300 people have died in the 10-day siege of the frigid city, Vereshchuk said.
-Reuters/AP/BBC