Russia-Ukraine live updates: U.S. citizen killed in Chernihiv; strike near Kharkiv leaves at least 23 dead

More than two dozen Senate Republicans are demanding that President Biden do more to aid war-torn Ukraine and arm its forces against Russia’s brutal assault, after voting last week against $13.6 billion in military and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine.

Democrats quickly condemned what they saw as glaring hypocrisy among the Republicans who voted against the aid but were quick to criticize Biden as a commander in chief leading from behind in addressing Ukraine’s needs.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has highlighted the divisions in the Republican Party on U.S. involvement overseas and the standing of the NATO alliance. For decades, during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, the GOP embraced a hawkish view with robust military spending and certainty about coming to the aid of allies.

Former president Donald Trump’s “America First” outlook and efforts to undermine NATO, including questioning why the military alliance even existed, secured a foothold in the GOP.

Potential 2024 presidential candidates such as Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) have been highly critical of Biden, who also announced Wednesday that the Pentagon was sending nearly $1 billion in military equipment to Ukraine, including 800 Stinger antiaircraft systems, 100 drones, 25,000 helmets and more than 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenade launcher and mortar rounds.

Parts of a Russian missile caused damage in Kyiv on Thursday after authorities said it was shot down by the Ukrainian air defense.

Heidi Levine, a photographer working on assignment for The Washington Post, was there and took these photos in the city as people cleaned up and continued on with their lives amid the ongoing invasion.

The European Union signed an agreement with Moldova on Thursday enabling the deployment of guards from the bloc’s border agency to help with a record influx of refugees.

The border agency, known as Frontex, will help Moldovan authorities with screening, registration, surveillance, and identity checks of new arrivals, the E.U. said in a statement. The European Union noted that Moldova has received the highest number of per capita refugees in the region — some 300,000 people, among the 3 million who have fled Ukraine.

“Moldovan border guards are facing challenges both in view of the high number of arrivals and sharing a border with an active war zone,” the E.U. said.

The deal is notable because it shows how the security challenges of the war are expanding the bloc’s reach. Moldova applied earlier this month for E.U. membership but is years away, at minimum, from joining the 27-nation group.

Moldova had long tried to straddle the divide between Russia and the West, but amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is leaning decisively toward Europe. Nicu Popescu, Moldova’s foreign minister, said on Twitter that the Frontex deal would allow the country to “better protect its borders.”

He called the agreement a result of “excellent cooperation” with Europe.

Two police officers were killed near Ukraine’s capital when Russian forces fired on evacuation convoys, Ukrainian officials said Thursday.

Andriy Nebytov, head of police in the Kyiv region, said invaders’ tanks targeted an evacuation in the Bucha district, according to Ukraine’s Telegram channel for media information on the war. One police officer was killed, and another was wounded, Ukrainian officials said, citing Nebytov.

Another police officer’s body was retrieved after a similar attack in Irpin, in which Russian forces shelled a police car, Nebytov said, according to the Telegram channel. He said bodies of both Russian troops and residents lie in the streets in the Kyiv area.

Ukrainian leaders have repeatedly accused the Kremlin of targeting civilians and breaking cease-fires meant to allow residents to flee to safer areas.

In a move to assert congressional power amid the international crisis in Ukraine, the House on Thursday voted to strip Russia and Belarus of key trade preferences and expand presidential human-rights sanctions authority — a move the Senate is expected to ratify and send to President Biden in the coming days.

But the legislation, which largely mirrors trade sanctions already undertaken by President Biden, could be the last significant Ukraine-related matter to pass Congress for months to come — especially after lawmakers delivered $13.6 billion in military and humanitarian aid as part of a massive federal spending bill that Biden signed this week.

Among the measures that could be left on the sidelines are bills that would codify the ban on Russian oil-and-gas imports that Biden imposed earlier this month, a resolution urging the transfer of Soviet-era fighter jets from NATO countries to Ukraine, tax penalties for U.S. corporations that continue to do business with Russia and scads of other bills that lawmakers have introduced as they try to put their own stamp on a conflict of grand global and historical import.

Ukrainian officials said Russian artillery Thursday hit the town of Merefa, in the outskirts of Kharkiv, killing 23 people and leaving 26 injured.

The Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office wrote in a Facebook post that Russian military fired artillery shells on the town Merefa, just outside the eastern city around 3:30 a.m. Thursday. As a result of the attack a secondary school and a city cultural center were destroyed, authorities said. The office did not identify those killed and injured.

Videos posted online Thursday and verified by The Washington Post show extensive damage to a school in Merefa. Video from the night before, verified by The Post as the same location, shows a large fire near the school.

According to the Ukrainian foreign affairs ministry, rescue services were called to the scene at 3:39 a.m. and there were no casualties as of early Thursday morning. An Instagram account for the school, posted photos and videos of the building in tatters and smoke still rising up from the piles of debris.

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, has seen wide devastation, with countless administrative buildings and homes either severely damaged or destroyed.

U.S. stocks extended their gains Thursday — lifting the Dow more than 400 points — a day after the Federal Reserve’s first interest rate increase since 2018 spurred an emphatic rally and as investors continued to track developments in Ukraine.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 417.66 points, or 1.2 percent, to close at 34,480.76. The broader S&P 500 index advanced 53.81 points, or 1.2 percent, to land at 4,411.67. The tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 178.23 points, or 1.3 percent, to end regular trading at 13,614.78.

Oil prices soared, again surpassing $100 per barrel, as fighting intensified in Ukraine. Brent crude, the global benchmark, jumped 8.7 percent to $106.58 while its U.S. equivalent, West Texas Intermediate, added 8.7 percent to $103.28. After eclipsing $130 per barrel earlier this month, prices had been declining amid hopes for a cease-fire even as evidence of progress remains to be seen.

The Russian invasion has introduced a fresh degree of uncertainty to markets already grappling with a bevy of challenges, from a tight labor market to a supply chain crisis and the highest inflation in 40 years. Russia’s role as one of the world’s biggest energy producers means that the financial fallout from the conflict will quickly ripple through a global economy still trying to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

The International Energy Agency warned Wednesday that “the prospect of large-scale disruptions to Russian oil production is threatening to create a global oil supply shock.” It estimated that by April, Russian output could be reduced by 3 million barrels per day.

Although the United States has minimal direct exposure to the Russian economy, consumers are feeling the burn: The national average for a gallon of gas Thursday was $4.29, up 77 cents from a month ago, according to data from AAA.

Investors got some comfort Wednesday from the Fed’s long-telegraphed move to raise its benchmark interest rate and set the stage for further rate increases this year, as the central bank harnessed its best weapon against surging prices that are burdening American businesses and households. But the Ukraine war’s potential impacts on inflation and global growth remain “highly unpredictable,” according to Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“Central bankers can’t both bring inflation under control and provide a soft landing for economies and markets, which have been shaken by the conflict,” Mould said Thursday in comments emailed to The Washington Post. “In fact, they may well struggle to do either.”

Government bonds swung lower, with the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note sliding to 2.164 percent. Bond yields move inversely to prices.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that the United States believes Russia may be preparing to roll out a new campaign of terror in Ukraine, including chemical weapon attacks, mercenary deployments and systematic kidnappings of local officials, forecasting an even grimmer outlook for the nearly three-week-old conflict.

The top U.S. diplomat also said he agrees with President Biden’s assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a war criminal — a view he characterized as an “opinion” that would require documentation and other legal findings.

“Intentionally targeting civilians is a war crime,” Blinken told reporters at the State Department. “After all the destruction of the past three weeks, I find it difficult to conclude that the Russians are doing otherwise.”

Blinken said Russia’s operation mirrors other notorious bombardments the Kremlin carried out in the Chechen capital of Grozny and the Syrian city of Aleppo.

“We believe that Moscow may be setting the stage to use a chemical weapon and then falsely blame Ukraine to justify escalating its attacks on the Ukrainian people,” said Blinken. “We believe Russia will bring its mercenaries from private military groups and foreign countries to Ukraine.”

“They’re also likely to systematically kidnap local officials and replace them with puppets,” added Blinken, noting the kidnapping of two mayors in southern Ukraine. “This has already begun.”