Zelensky ready to swap prisoners for civilians trapped in Mariupol

“We are still sending about $100 million every month to Russia to buy uranium.”

— Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), interviewed on Fox News, April 13

“In 2021 Russian imports [of uranium] cost almost $1 billion, money that helped underwrite Mr. Putin’s war machine.”

— Barrasso, in an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal, April 12

The Biden administration has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, including eliminating preferential trading privileges and banning imports of Russian oil, liquefied natural gas and coal. So we were surprised to hear these numbers from Barrasso — that Russia received nearly $1 billion for uranium products in 2021 and is on track to earn $1.2 billion this year. The uranium is generally used as fuel to generate electricity in nuclear power plants.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Wednesday that his military successfully test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile with the potential to carry a large nuclear payload, but the Pentagon said it was not a significant threat to the United States.

The RS-28 Sarmat, which NATO has dubbed “Satan 2,” is considered Russia’s most powerful ICBM: a super-heavy thermonuclear-armed intercontinental-range ballistic missile.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Wednesday that the United States did not consider the weapon a threat to Washington or its allies. Defense policy and strategy scholars told The Washington Post that although the weapon sounds intimidating, the escalating threats Putin has made since his unprovoked Feb. 24 invasion should be more concerning.

Plans to evacuate civilians from the battered southeastern city of Mariupol fell apart Wednesday, according to officials from Ukraine and Russia, who blamed each other for the breakdown.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Russia could not provide the necessary cease-fire and lacks control of its own forces.

“Due to the inherent disorganization and negligence of the occupiers, we were unable to provide timely transportation of people to the point where dozens of our buses and ambulances were waiting,” she said, adding that efforts would resume Thursday.

Donbas region: Ukrainian forces are battling to repel an escalating Russian offensive in the east along multiple fronts, an adviser to the Ukraine president’s office, Oleksiy Arestovych, said. In a late-night video address Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said the situation in the region remains “as severe as possible” amid new attacks, calling Russian armed forces a “terror organization.” The Kremlin has said it is pursuing “the complete liberation” of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. The city of Kreminna is already under Russian control.

As the world watches the last defenders of the key port city of Mariupol hold out against an advancing and larger Russian force, and with women and children trapped inside a steel plant, Zelensky said Wednesday that Ukraine is ready to exchange Russian military prisoners for Ukrainian civilians.

“We are ready for any formats for exchange,” he said during a news conference. “I am ready for the dialogue.”

Zelensky said the situation is increasingly dire in Mariupol, where troops are defending wounded soldiers and about 1,000 civilians, including women and children, sheltered inside the sprawling Azovstal iron and steel plant.

New videos recorded in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol show the lifeless bodies of more than a dozen civilians lying on streets.

The bodies were visible in several graphic video clips that were posted to social media since April 15 and verified by The Washington Post. Some of the footage was first geolocated by an open-source researcher on Twitter.

At least 17 bodies in civilian clothes were discovered along a half-mile section of Nikopolsky Avenue, a multilane highway that runs across the northeast part of the city, the video shows. The street is immediately to the south of the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works, which Russian forces captured last week.

Europeans are renaming streets — even an entire town — in symbolic actions aimed to reflect their support for Ukrainian troops in the war against Russia.

In Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, local officials announced Wednesday plans to rename and redesign the Lembitu Park, located behind the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as Ukraine Square, according to local media reports.

Last week, a small village in southern Spain changed its name to Ukraine and renamed streets Kyiv, Odessa and Mariupol in solidarity of those who have lost their lives in the conflict.

The fallout of the war in Ukraine took center stage in the French presidential debate Wednesday night, with President Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen trading fierce criticism of each other.

Macron implied that his opponent is beholden to Russian interests, calling her “dependent” on Russia and on President Vladimir Putin.

“You talk to your banker when you talk about Russia,” he said, referring to how Le Pen’s campaign in 2017 was partly funded through a loan from a Russian bank brokered by a Putin ally, according to French investigative outlet Mediapart. Le Pen has also expressed admiration for Putin in the past.

A plea for evacuations — Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, made an emotional plea Wednesday to Russian officials to hold discussions that would allow evacuations in Mariupol.

“Yes. Without any conditions. We’re ready to hold a “special round of negotiations” right in Mariupol,” he wrote on Twitter, echoing Zelensky’s earlier remarks about a potential exchange of Ukrainian civilians for Russian military soldiers. “One on one. Two on two. To save our guys, Azov, military, civilians, children, the living & the wounded. Everyone. Because they are ours. Because they are in my heart. Forever,” he wrote on Twitter.