This live blog is closed. For the latest updates click here.
The House passed legislation Tuesday night that would provide $40 billion in new military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine as the U.S. looks to step up its support for Kyiv in its defensive fight against Russia.
Ukraine claimed new battlefield gains in the fight, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying his country's forces had pushed invading troops out of four villages near Kharkiv in the northeast and back toward the Russian border.
Meanwhile, Kyiv said it would halt the flow of Russian gas to Europe through a key transit hub in the country's east, citing interference from Moscow-backed troops. It will instead seek to redirect the gas through Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Meta withdraws Ukraine war content policy guidance request
Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc said Wednesday it has withdrawn a request for policy guidance from its Oversight Board about the content moderation of posts related to Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine.
“This decision was not made lightly — the PAO (policy advisory opinion) was withdrawn due to ongoing safety and security concerns,” the company said in a blog post.
The board, which can make binding decisions on specific thorny content moderation appeals and give policy recommendations, said it was “disappointed” by the decision.
A Meta spokesman declined to give more information about the policies on which it was seeking guidance or about the specific concerns.
Russia banned Facebook and Instagram in March, finding Meta guilty of “extremist activity” amid Moscow’s crackdown on social media during its invasion of Ukraine. Meta’s messaging service WhatsApp is not affected by the ban. Russia has also throttled Twitter by slowing its service.
Meta’s Oversight Board, which includes academics, rights experts and lawyers, was created by the company as an independent body to rule on a small portion of content moderation cases, but it can also advise on site policies.
“While the Board understands these concerns, we believe the request raises important issues and are disappointed by the company’s decision to withdraw it,” the Oversight Board said in tweets on Wednesday.
“The importance for the company to defend freedom of expression and human rights has only increased.”
Remote data from Chernobyl plant is transmitting to U.N. nuclear agency again
BERLIN — The U.N. nuclear agency says it is again receiving remote data from the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine following an interruption caused by the Russian occupation of the site.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said late Wednesday that data transmission was re-established following a visit by its inspectors and technicians in April, after Russian forces withdrew.
The agency said it was the first time in two months that it has received remote data from all nuclear power plants and spent fuel storage facilities in Ukraine where monitoring systems are in place.
Its head, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said this was “a very important step for the IAEA to continue to implement safeguards in Ukraine.”
Grossi cautioned, though, that on-site verification at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant “continues to be challenging owing to the presence of Russian forces and Rosatom personnel at the site,” calling the situation “unsustainable.”
Grossi said he has proposed leading an expert visit to Zaporizhzhia “after the necessary consultations and at the earliest possible opportunity.”
A cyberattack took down one of Russia’s largest video platforms for days
One of Russia’s largest video streaming websites was rendered inoperable for three days after it was the target of a cyberattack.
RuTube, designed as a Kremlin-friendly counterpart to YouTube, came back online Wednesday afternoon after it went dark Monday. RuTube said in messages on its official Telegram channel that it had been the target of the “largest cyberattack” it had ever seen.
The site still loads slowly, and it’s unclear when full service will be restored.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted a near-constant stream of low-level cyberattacks on websites in both countries. Ukraine’s government has even given the “IT Army,” a group of so-called hacktivists, approval to launch almost daily attacks at targets it wants to overwhelm with web traffic.
Ban on sales of semiconductors, other tech to Russia having 'very serious effect,' U.S. commerce secretary says
WASHINGTON — Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said a ban on sales of semiconductors and other technology to Russia by the U.S. and its allies is having a serious impact on Russia’s ability to manufacture military equipment.
“We have reports from Ukrainians that when they find Russian equipment, military equipment, on the ground, it’s filled with semiconductors that they took out of dishwashers and refrigerators,” Raimondo said Wednesday at a Senate hearing, adding that she met a few weeks ago with Ukraine’s prime minister.
Raimondo said two of Russia’s tank manufacturing plants have shut and that many of its automakers have furloughed workers and closed down.
“And so the point is, we are having a very serious effect,” she said. “What we need to do in order to continue this is enforcement, enforcement, enforcement.”
Raimondo said U.S. exports of technology to Russia are down by nearly 70 percent since late February, when the Biden administration, in coordination with European and Asian allies, imposed sanctions and export controls on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine to hold first war crimes trial of captured Russian
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — Ukraine’s top prosecutor disclosed plans Wednesday for the first war crimes trial of a captured Russian soldier as fighting raged in the east and the south and the Kremlin left open the possibility of annexing a corner of the country it seized early in the invasion.
Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said her office charged Sgt. Vadin Shyshimarin, 21, in the killing of an unarmed 62-year-old civilian who was gunned down as he was riding a bicycle in February, four days into the war.
Shyshimarin, who served with a tank unit, was accused of firing on the man through a car window in the northeastern village of Chupakhivka. Venediktova said the soldier could get up to 15 years in prison. She did not say when the trial would start.
'Negotiations are ongoing' over freeing wounded Azovstal fighters, Ukraine's deputy PM says
Negotiations are “ongoing” about exchanging wounded fighters in the Azovstal steel plant for Russian prisoners, Ukraine's deputy prime minister said Wednesday.
It has been “impossible to unblock Azovstal by military means,” Iryna Vereshchuk said in a post on Telegram that was translated by NBC News.
She added that the Ukrainian fighters holding out in the sprawling site in the port city of Mariupol “do not want to surrender.”
She said her government had asked to take its “seriously wounded guys” away from the plant along a humanitarian corridor in return for the transfer of Russian prisoners.
Acknowledging that Russia had not agreed to Ukraine’s terms, she said her government was "working on different options."
“None of them are perfect. But we are not looking for an ideal option, but a working one,” she said.
Two Romanian journalists detained in Russian-backed region bordering Ukraine
Romania's Foreign Affairs Ministry said two Romanian journalists were arrested in Transnistria, a Russian-backed region bordering Ukraine that broke away from Moldova in the 1990s.
The ministry said security forces detained the journalists in Tiraspol, the area’s capital. They were released several hours later following diplomatic efforts from Romania and Moldova.
Officials wrote that Romania’s diplomatic mission in Moldova’s capital, Chisinau, “was not informed in advance about the intention of the two journalists,” noting that “so-called Transnistrian authorities” had recently banned foreign journalists.
The detainments follow a series of attacks in the area that have alarmed officials in Chisinau. Grenades were launched in the region's state security office last month, and explosives were dropped from a drone in a village last week.
Around 1,500 Russian soldiers are stationed in the Transnistrian area.
In long run, Putin has ‘lost,’ U.K. defense secretary says
Russian President Vladimir Putin will have to face the reality that his invasion of Ukraine has failed and that his country will emerge from the war as a “lesser” power, Britain’s defense secretary told reporters during a visit to Washington.
Russian forces are struggling to gain traction in a new offensive in eastern Ukraine, its forces are depleted, and its economy is reeling under international sanctions, Defense Minister Ben Wallace said.
“Only President Putin can know where his off-ramp is going to be,” Wallace said. “He’s got to reconcile that in the long run he’s lost. So whatever happens in Ukraine, let’s consider that Russia is a lesser country now than it was before this invasion.”
Wallace, who was due to meet his U.S. counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, on Wednesday, said that Russian “armed forces are worn out” and that Moscow will face difficulties shoring up its army, especially as sanctions hinder Russia’s ability to import Western technology needed for much of its military equipment.