Boris Johnson Meets With Zelenskyy In Kyiv; YouTube Pulls Russian Parliament Channel.

The European Commission will pledge 1 billion euros to support Ukraine and countries receiving refugees fleeing the war following Russia’s invasion, the president of the EU’s executive, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Saturday.

“Six hundred million of those will go to Ukraine, to the Ukrainian authorities and partially to the United Nations,” von der Leyen said at a fundraising event for Ukraine in Waraw, Poland.

“And 400 million euros will go to the frontline states that are doing such an outstanding job and helping the refugees that are coming,” she said.

—Reuters

British PM Boris Johnson’s office said he has traveled to Ukraine to meet with President Zelenskyy to show solidarity, the Associated Press reported. The visit was not announced in advance.

The Facebook page of Andriy Sybiha, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, posted a photo which showed Johnson and Zelenskyy sitting across from each other at a table. with the flags of their respective countries next to them.

“Right now Boris Johnson’s visit to Kiev began with a tet-a-tet meeting with President Zelensky. Great Britain leader in defense support of Ukraine. The leader in the anti-war coalition. Leader in sanctions on Russian aggressor,” a translated version of the Facebook post said.

The Ukrainian Embassy in London shared the photo on their Facebook page with the caption “#StrongerTogether.”

The two leaders meeting Saturday will discuss the “UK’s long term support to Ukraine” including a new package of financial and military aid, the prime minister’s office said, AP reported.

— Annie Nova and Riya Bhattacharjee

The European Union’s ambassador has returned to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv after his delegation’s evacuation from the country on Feb. 24, when Russian forces first invaded the country.

“Our delegation is coming back, the EU is coming back to Kyiv, and I am sure that other delegations and embassies from member states will follow,” Josep Borrell, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, said. He made the announcement during a visit to Kyiv and also outlined plans to provide another 500 million euros in military aid to Ukraine.

The EU delegation in Ukraine had been moved to Poland since the invasion began. Borrell said he expected other countries would return to the country as well.

Italy’s foreign minister has reportedly told staff that Italy will reopen its embassy in the Ukrainian capital after Easter.

News agency ANSA quoted Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio on Saturday as telling his ministry’s crisis unit that Italy “will be among the first to return” to Kyiv.

He called it “another gesture to demonstrate support for the Ukrainian population, a concrete way to affirm that diplomacy must prevail.”

Di Maio said the return would be coordinated with other European Union nations.

The EU itself announced the return of its ambassador on Friday. On Saturday, EU ambassador Matti Maasikas tweeted a picture of an EU flag atop a flagpole with the words “First things first.”

— Associated Press

Google’s YouTube suspended broadcasts from the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, sparking ire from the Kremlin.

The technology giant said the move was in response to applicable sanctions and trade compliance laws. “If we find that an account violates our Terms of Service, we take appropriate action,” a Google spokesperson confirmed in a statement.

But Russian officials, who are already upset with YouTube, called for the platform to reverse course. Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor called for YouTube to immediately reverse the decision.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called for users to transfer their video content to Russian platforms. Zakharova, in a translated Telegram post, said the company signed its own “warrant.”

—Jessica Bursztynsky

Ukrainian minister Olga Stefanishyna says she expects Ukraine to be given European Union candidate country status in June.

Ukraine is “ready to move fast” with its application to become an EU member, Stefanishyna, who is Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, said.

On Friday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged to offer Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a quicker start to Ukraine’s bid to become a member of the European Union. The process typically takes years.

“It will not as usual be a matter of years to form this opinion but I think a matter of weeks,” von der Leyen said. Zelenskyy said he would come back with answers in a week.

— Natasha Turak

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged an another £100 million ($130 million) in high-grade military equipment to Ukraine, which will include Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles, a further 800 anti-tank missiles, and precision munitions capable of hovering in the sky until ready to fire at their target.

He also said Ukraine would be getting more helmets, body armor and night vision equipment, which will be added to the roughly 200,000 pieces of non-lethal military equipment already pledged from the U.K.

Johnson condemned Friday’s rocket strike on the Kramatorsk train station that killed at least 52 people, saying that both the U.K. and Germany expressed “revulsion at the brutality being unleashed, including the unconscionable bombing of refugees fleeing their homes,” and that the train station attack “shows the depths to which Putin’s vaunted army has sunk.”

— Natasha Turak

The missile attack on a train station in Ukraine’s eastern city of Kramatorsk that killed at least 52 people Friday must be part of a future war crimes tribunal for Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address late that night.

Kyiv and Washington have blamed Russia for the strike, detailing the type of missile used. Moscow has denied involvement.

“Like the massacre in Bucha, like many other Russian war crimes, the missile strike on Kramatorsk must be one of the charges at the tribunal, which is bound to happen,” Zelenskyy said.

“All the efforts of the world will be aimed to establish every minute: who did what, who gave orders. Where did the rocket come from, who was carrying it, who gave the order and how the strike was coordinated,” he said.

Russian forces are continuing their missile strikes and air activity is expected to increase in Ukraine’s south and east, though troops continue to face stiff Ukrainian resistance, the U.K.’s Ministry of Defence outlined in its daily security update on Twitter Saturday.

— Natasha Turak

Despite major losses, Russia still has a lot of manpower and that could drag on the conflict for a long time, a senior U.S. Defense official said.

“This will be a knife fight,” the official said. “This could be very bloody and very ugly.” 

After failing to capture capital city Kyiv, Moscow is refocusing its efforts on eastern Ukraine, where Russia and Ukraine have fought for eight years.

“The Russians are limiting their geographic aims, but they still have a lot of combat power available. This could go on for a long time,” the official said.

The official also said some of the Russian units that attacked Kyiv were “severely mauled.”

“We’ve seen indications of some units that are literally … eradicated — there’s just nothing left at the BTG except a handful of troops and maybe a small number of vehicles,” the official said.

Military developments in Ukraine remain difficult or impossible to confirm as the situation on the ground changes rapidly.

— Christine Wang

The European Union on Friday announced a sweeping new slate of individual sanctions targeting 216 Russian nationals and 18 entities. They include two of the adult daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as the aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska and Herman Gref, the CEO of Sberbank, Russia’s largest lending bank.

Katerina Tikhonova and Mariya Putina (above), who are in their 30s, are rarely seen in public and almost never mentioned by their father.

The sanctions are part of a broader package of restrictions announced by the European bloc that includes a ban on imports of Russian coal set to take effect in August. This is the first time the EU has placed an embargo on Russian energy products, a controversial decision in a region that is highly dependent upon Russian oil, coal and gas.

Additionally, the EU imposed full blocking sanctions on four major Russian banks that together represent 23% of the Russian banking sector: VTB Bank, Sovcombank, Novikombank and Otkritie Bank (formerly known as NOMOS Bank).

Finally, the new sanctions bar Russian-flagged maritime vessels from docking in EU member state ports, although it includes a carveout for energy and agricultural shipments.

E.U. officials said the latest round of sanctions came in response to growing evidence of scores of atrocities committed by Russian soldiers against Ukrainian civilians, including rape, torture and execution-style killings.

— Christina Wilkie

The devastating attack on the Kramatorsk railway station in eastern Ukraine was carried out by a Russian short-range ballistic missile fired from inside Ukraine, a senior U.S. Defense official said.

The strike killed dozens of people as civilians wait at train stations to flee the eastern part of the country.

The U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to share new details the Pentagon has gathered about the war, added that the U.S. believes the missile was a Russian OTR-21 Tochka, also known as an SS-21 “Scarab” missile. The SS-21 is a Russian-made mobile, short-range, single-warhead ballistic missile with a warhead payload of about 1,000 pounds.

The U.S. military has observed more than 1,500 Russian missile launches since the start of the war, according to the official. Russia has focused in particular on the coastal city of Mariupol.

Following the attack on the Kramatorsk train station, the Pentagon announced that it would reposition a Patriot missile battery in Slovakia to bolster air defense systems.

— Amanda Macias