Russia shelling continues despite peace talks

Russian forces bombarded homes, stores, and other civilian locations around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv hours after committing to scale back operations in those areas. Ukrainian authorities Wednesday said Russia also redeployed troops from other areas to the eastern Donbas region, where attacks increased. Russia had agreed Tuesday to deescalate the fighting to allow for further negotiations. The warring sides are scheduled to resume talks via video on Friday.

How are the Ukrainians holding up? The United Nations on Wednesday said the number of refugees fleeing Ukraine had exceeded 4 million. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said the government was sending 45 buses to evacuate civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol on Thursday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recalled ambassadors to Georgia and Morocco because they could not persuade the countries to back Ukraine. Zelenskyy said he is awaiting concrete results from other representatives across Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa. On Wednesday, the Biden administration pledged to send an additional $500 million in direct aid to Ukraine, following $2 billion in humanitarian and security assistance last month. The funds are part of the $13.6 billion Congress approved this month for Ukraine as part of a spending bill.

Dig deeper: Read WORLD’s ongoing coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.