Chernobyl Loses Power

Good evening. This is your Russia-Ukraine War Briefing, a weeknight guide to the latest news and analysis about the conflict.

• The Kremlin accused the U.S. of waging an “economic war” against Russia.

• Several videos verified by The New York Times show an apparent Russian strike on a hospital in the besieged city of Mariupol.

• An agreement to evacuate civilians from six cities appeared to fail for the third day in a row.

• Congress is finalizing a bill to send $13.6 billion in aid to Ukraine.

• These maps show Russian troop movements and Ukrainian lines of resistance.

• Follow our live updates.

Chernobyl loses power

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, has lost access to electricity amid the fighting in Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials said damage by Russian forces to the power grid left the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant “disconnected” from outside electricity, powered only by backup diesel generators. It was not clear whether those generators were working, or how much fuel they might have on hand.

Russia troops seized control of Chernobyl in northern Ukraine during the early days of the invasion. The plant hasn’t produced electricity in decades, but it is still staffed by several thousand workers who oversee the plant’s fuel and waste storage.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said today that it saw “no critical impact on safety” at the complex. The American Nuclear Society agreed, saying, “The loss of power is a serious matter, but it does not pose a threat to the public.”

In general, nuclear plants need electricity for pumps that circulate water to keep nuclear material from overheating. But the used fuel assemblies at Chernobyl are old enough that circulating pumps are not needed. And the I.A.E.A. said Chernobyl had enough water in its cooling ponds, which store radioactive waste.

More worryingly, the I.A.E.A. said it had lost communications with its radiation monitors and other sensors at the plant. Although that does not pose an immediate threat, it means that there would be no effective way of detecting a rise in radiation levels or determining quickly where it was coming from.

Rafael Grossi, the director of the I.A.E.A., said he would attend meetings in Turkey tomorrow with Russia and Ukraine on ensuring the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities. The shelling last week at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex in southern Ukraine, a massive and fully functioning nuclear power site, was denounced by President Biden as “reckless.”

Poland’s fighter plane offer

The U.S. and its NATO allies have been shipping large quantities of weapons and armaments to Ukraine. But when Poland tried to send Kyiv more than two dozen MiG-29 fighter planes, it quickly got messy.

The Polish government issued a statement yesterday offering to hand over the planes to the U.S. via its air base in Germany, where they could then be transported to Ukraine, whose pilots are already trained to fly them.

The Pentagon quickly rejected the offer, saying that flying the jets into Ukraine’s contested airspace could lead to an escalation and draw NATO into direct conflict with Russia.

“We will continue to consult with Poland and our other NATO allies about this issue and the difficult logistical challenges it presents, but we do not believe Poland’s proposal is a tenable one,” a Pentagon spokesman said in a statement.

The Biden administration has been discussing a plan under which Poland would supply Ukraine with the MiG-29s and in turn receive American F-16s. But the Polish announcement appeared to catch the administration off guard.

The disagreement is expected to come up when Vice President Kamala Harris arrives in Poland today for talks on providing assistance to Ukraine.

NATO countries have been sending antitank missiles, surface-to-air missiles and other weapons into Ukraine at a furious pace since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24. That is risky, even if no NATO soldier ever crosses into the country, because the arms supplies will very likely be seen by the Kremlin as a direct intervention in the war.

The Perebyinis family

A New York Times photograph of a family lying motionless after a mortar attack in the city of Irpin, taken by Lynsey Addario, has encapsulated the indiscriminate slaughter by the Russian army as it targets heavily populated civilian areas.

Our reporters went back to Irpin to learn about the people killed on Sunday: Tetiana Perebyinis, 43; her son, Mykyta, 18; and her daughter, Alisa, 9. A volunteer from their local Baptist Church, Anatoly Berezhnyi, 26, was also killed.

Tetiana Perebyinis’s husband, Serhiy, was away in eastern Ukraine caring for his ailing mother when his wife decided it was time to take her children and run.

“I told her, ‘Forgive me that I couldn’t defend you,’’ he told The Times. “I tried to care for one person, and it meant I cannot protect you.”

“She said, ‘Don’t worry, I will get out.’”

The Perebyinis family had already been displaced once by war, in 2014, when living in Donetsk in the east. They moved to Kyiv to escape the fighting and started rebuilding their lives. When Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine last month, they could hardly believe it was happening again, Serhiy said.

He said he felt it was important that their deaths had been recorded in photographs and video. “The whole world should know what is happening here,” he said.

What else we’re following

Sanctions

• The E.U. updated its sanctions on Russia to add hundreds of names and a Belorussian bank, and to close a crypto loophole.

• U.S. and European advisers who have helped sanctioned Russian oligarchs are wrestling with what to do with their lucrative clients.

• At least 38 businessmen or officials linked to President Vladimir Putin own dozens of properties in Dubai, which may be undermining sanctions by welcoming targeted oligarchs.

• Russia and the West are in a contest of economic and political endurance whose costs will be borne by their citizens, our columnist writes.

• Here are some of the companies pulling out of Russia.

What they said

• Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, has accused Russian forces of engaging in the “mass murder of civilians.”

• Republicans who once dismissed Ukraine as a corrupt backwater, are now among the most vocal champions for the U.S. to amp up its military response.

• The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged that conscripts were sent into battle in Ukraine, contradicting President Vladimir Putin’s earlier statement.

We also recommend:

• The outflow of refugees from Ukraine is a reminder of how much of literature is fueled by such crises, our book critic Dwight Garner writes.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Carole

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