Ukraine updates: Ukrainians wait in Mexico City for U.S. entry

What's happening in Ukraine today and how are countries around the world responding? Read live updates on Vladimir Putin and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

MEXICO CITY - Hundreds of Ukrainian refugees are camping out in Mexico City and waiting for the U.S. government to allow them into the country.

About 500 evacuees were waiting Tuesday in large tents under a searing sun on a dusty field on the east side of Mexico's sprawling capital. The camp has been open only a week and from 50 to 100 people are arriving every day.

Some refugees have already been to the U.S. border in Tijuana where they were told they would no longer be admitted. Others arrived at airports in Mexico City or Cancun.

The U.S. government announced in late March that it would accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. Hundreds entered Mexico daily as tourists in Mexico City or Cancun and flew to Tijuana to wait for a few days to be admitted to the U.S. at a San Diego border crossing on humanitarian parole.

Giorgi Mikaberidze, 19, arrived in Tijuana April 25 and found the U.S. border closed. He went from being just yards from the United States to some 600 miles (966 kilometers) away in the Mexico City area. He said he traveled to Mexico alone.

"It's very difficult to wait. We don't know how the program will work," he said.

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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden's national security adviser met Tuesday with a Swedish foreign affairs officials and committed to continuing “close coordination” on security issues, a U.S. National Security Council spokesperson said.

NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson said National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Oscar Stenström, state secretary for foreign affairs to Sweden's prime minister, discussed the security situation in Europe in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The topics included ongoing efforts to support Ukraine and impose costs on Russia, Watson said.

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WASHINGTON -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the war in Ukraine has worsened problems in the Western Hemisphere caused by the coronavirus pandemic, such as rising poverty.

Concerns about the war decreasing the availability of food and increasing prices have sparked fears of increasing hunger and starvation in other nations. Blinken told the annual Conference of the Americas Luncheon on Tuesday that the effects of the war are being felt after the pandemic inflicted "massive economic harm throughout the region."

Giving the luncheon's keynote address in Washington, Blinken said: "Now, with the Russian government's brutal war of aggression on Ukraine, many of these preexisting problems, these preexisting conditions, have been made worse, raising the price of essential commodities throughout the Americas, from fertilizer to wheat to petroleum, cutting off key export markets for many industries in the Americas, and forcing households across the region to make very wrenching choices as the cost of living skyrockets."

Blinken plans to chair two United Nations meetings later this month aimed at spotlighting how the war in Ukraine and other conflicts is affecting the availability of food and prices.

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UNITED NATIONS -- The United States says it will put a spotlight on the impact of the war in Ukraine and other conflicts on the diminishing availability of food and rising prices at two UN events later this month.

The issue is sparking fears of increasing hunger and starvation in many countries.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a news conference Tuesday that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will chair a ministerial meeting on food insecurity across the globe on May 18 to review current and future humanitarian needs.

The United States holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council this month and on May 19, Blinken will chair a meeting where its 15 members will consider how to make sure that food insecurity does not “drive new conflicts, instability, particularly in fragile states,” she said.

Thomas-Greenfield said Ukraine used to be a breadbasket for the developing world but since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion, Europe has seen its largest refugee crisis since World War II, crucial Ukrainian ports have been blocked and civilian infrastructure and grain silos have been destroyed. She said “desperate hunger situations in Africa and the Middle East are getting even more dire.”

David Beasley, executive director of the UN World Food Program, said already high food prices are skyrocketing and the war in Ukraine is turning “the breadbasket of the world to breadlines” for millions of its people. He said it also is devastating countries like Egypt, which normally gets 85% of its grain from Ukraine, and Lebanon, which got 81% from there in 2020.

Russia and Ukraine together produce 30% of the world's wheat and export about three-quarters of the world's sunflower seed oil.

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KYIV, Ukraine - Ukrainian officials say the Russian military has struck railroad infrastructure across the country.

Oleksandr Kamyshin, the head of the Ukrainian railways, said the Russian strikes on Tuesday hit six railway stations in the country's central and western regions, inflicting heavy damage.

Kamyshin said at least 14 trains were delayed because of the attacks.

Dnipro region Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko said Russian missiles struck railway infrastructure in the area, leaving one person wounded and disrupting train movement.

The Ukrainian military also reported strikes on railways in the Kirovohrad region, saying there were unspecified casualties.

Ukraine's railroads have played an important role in moving people, goods and military supplies during the war as roads and bridges have been damaged.

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TROY, Ala. - U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday credited the assembly line workers at a Javelin missile plant for doing life-saving work in building the antitank weapons that are being sent to Ukraine to stifle Russia's invasion as he made a pitch for Congress to approve US$33 billion so the U.S. can continue hustle aid to the front lines.

“You're allowing the Ukrainians to defend themselves,” Biden told the workers, his podium flanked by Javelin missile launchers and shipping containers. “And, quite frankly, they're making fools of the Russian military in many instances.”

The president's visit to the Lockheed Martin factory in Alabama also drew attention to a growing concern as the war drags on: Can the U.S. sustain the cadence in shipping vast amounts of arms to Ukraine while maintaining a healthy stockpile it may need if conflict erupts with North Korea, Iran or elsewhere?

The U.S. has provided at least 7,000 Javelins, including some transferred during the Trump administration, or about one-third of its stockpile, to Ukraine in recent years, according to an analysis by Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies international security program. The Biden administration says it has committed to sending 5,500 Javelins to Ukraine since the Feb. 24 invasion.

Analysts also estimate that the United States has sent about one-quarter of its stockpile of shoulder-fired Stinger missiles to Ukraine. Raytheon Technologies CEO Greg Hayes told investors last week during a quarterly call that his company, which makes the weapons system, wouldn't be able to ramp up production until next year, due to parts shortages.

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UNITED NATIONS - The UN humanitarian chief in Ukraine says about 30 people who came out of the besieged Avostal steel plant in Mariupol chose not to leave the city, saying they were “horrified” at its total devastation and first wanted to find out if their loved ones were still alive.

Osnat Lubrani told a virtual press conference from the Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia soon after the arrival Tuesday of 127 people evacuated from the plant and the town of Manhush on Mariupol's outskirts that she wants to believe the successful operation will be “a stepping stone to more such operations” from Avostal and other towns and cities being shelled and bombarded by the Russians.

She said “there is knowledge that there are civilians still trapped in the Avostal plant,” but the UN has no numbers.

“Some of them may have been afraid to come out, some of them probably couldn't make it,” Lubrani said. “It's a huge area” and some of the elderly people could hardly walk and a broken bus with flat tires was used to help some of them leave.

Speaking of the people who wanted to stay in Mariupol, she said, “These are people that have lived their lives and worked in Mariupol and so it was difficult for them to just leave without knowing what the fate of their loved ones is.”

Lubrani said the people still trapped underground in the Avostal plant will hear about the safe evacuation to Zaporizhzhia which is very important, “so if we do another operation, I think hopefully more will come out.”

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The Russian military says its artillery has hit over 400 Ukrainian targets during the last day.

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Tuesday that the targets included Ukrainian artillery positions, troops strongholds and two fuel depots.

Konashenkov said Russian aircrafts have hit 39 other targets, including concentrations of troops and weapons and two command posts.

He charged that a U.S.-supplied artillery radar, four air defense radars and six ammunition depots were among the targets destroyed with precision-guided weapons over the last day.

Konashenkov's claims couldn't be independently verified.

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LVIV, Ukraine - Russian strikes have apparently targeted the western Ukraine city of Lviv.

The strikes happened just before 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday in multiple directions. At least four distinct explosions could be heard from downtown Lviv.

It wasn't immediately clear what was targeted. Mayor Andriy Sadovyi wrote on a social message app that those in the city should take shelter. Trains coming out of Lviv stopped service.

Car alarms went off after the blasts and emergency sirens could be heard.

Electricity flickered momentarily in the city. Sadovyi acknowledged in another message the attacks had affected the power supply, without elaborating.

The city on Monday had a news conference with the country's top U.S. diplomat, discussing how America planned to reopen its diplomatic presence in the city.

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PARIS -- French President Emmanuel Macron, in a phone call Tuesday with Vladimir Putin, stressed the extreme gravity of the consequences of Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, and called on the Russian leader to allow evacuations from the Mariupol steel mill to continue, the Elysee Palace said.

Macron urged Russia to rise to the level of its responsibility as a permanent member of the U.S. Security Council by ending this devastating aggression, an Elysee statement said.

Macron asked Putin to restart evacuations at the Azovstal plant, which has served as a refuge for Ukrainians, in coordination with humanitarian units, while allowing evacuees to choose their destination, as called for under international law.

It was the first time that the French president has had a conversation with Putin since March 29 -- before the discovery of the exactions in the Ukrainian town of Bucha -- after multiple telephone talks. The call came three days after Macron last spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Concerned about world food security, Macron said he was willing to work with international organizations to try to help seek a lifting of the Russian blockade on exports of food goods via the Black Sea, according to the statement.

He also restated his willingness to work on conditions for a negotiated solution to the war, for peace and for full respect of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and reiterated his oft-stated demand for a ceasefire, the statement said.

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KYIV, Ukraine -- The Donetsk regional governor said the Russian troops on Tuesday shelled a chemical plant in Avdiivka, a city in eastern Ukraine, killing at least 10 people and wounding 15 more.

"The Russians knew exactly where to aim -- the workers just finished their shift and were waiting for a bus at a bus stop to take them home," Pavlo Kyrylenko wrote in a Telegram post. "Another cynical crime by Russians on our land."

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GENEVA -- A top Red Cross official helping oversee a dramatic, five-day effort that led to the evacuation of dozens of civilians from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol to a government-held city said he remains "extremely concerned" about new clashes between Ukrainian and Russian forces there -- with some other civilians still inside.

Pascal Hundt, who heads the Ukraine office of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the humanitarian agency and the United Nations carried out the evacuation after Russia and Ukraine agreed that it would only include civilians. He said some people simply chose not to leave, and he didn't know why -- but suspected fear about continued fighting played a part.

A total of 127 people were evacuated from Azovstal and the Mariupol area in buses that arrived in government-controlled Zaporizhzia on Tuesday.

"We are today with a mixed feeling. We have done everything to help these people to basically leave the place where they were -- to leave hell," Hundt said in a call with reporters from Kyiv. "But we would have hoped that much more people would be able to join the convoy and to get out of hell."

Hundt said about a dozen people taken out in the convoy were sick or injured, but none were in critical condition.

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Latvia has summoned Russia's ambassador to the Baltic country over Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's anti-Semitic statements, the Latvian foreign minister said Tuesday.

The ambassador was "to provide explanations" on May 5 and receive a protest, Edgars Rinkevics wrote on Twitter.

In an interview with an Italian news channel, Lavrov said that Ukraine could still have Nazi elements even if some figures -- including the country's president -- were Jewish, claiming that "Hitler also had Jewish origins."

Ņemot vērā Krievijas Ārlietu ministrijas nepieņemamos antisemītiskos paziņojumus un Krievijas vēstniecības komunikāciju sociālajos tīklos, Ārlietu ministrija 5.maijā ir izsaukusi Krievijas vēstnieku Latvijā M. Vaņinu paskaidrojumu sniegšanai un protesta izteikšanai

— Edgars Rinkēvičs (@edgarsrinkevics) May 3, 2022

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BRUSSELS -- The European Union's top diplomat says the bloc's executive branch is on the cusp of proposing a new raft of sanctions against Russia, including on oil.

EU policy commissioners have been discussing the new sanctions and are set to send their proposals later Tuesday to the 27 member countries for debate.

The union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a tweet that the executive is "working on the 6th package of sanctions which aims to de-swift more banks, list disinformation actors and tackle oil imports." Swift is the most widely used international system for bank transfers.

Member countries have been involved in drawing up the proposals, but they routinely take days to endorse them. The sanctions can only enter force once they are published in the EU's Official Journal. Hungary and Slovakia have already expressed reservations about signing on.

EU ambassadors are scheduled to meet on Wednesday. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is also likely to explain the proposals early Wednesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine affects global security.

We are working on the 6th package of sanctions which aims to de-swift more banks, list disinformation actors and tackle oil imports.

These measures will be presented to the Council for approval.

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) May 3, 2022

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MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has told French President Emmanuel Macron that Moscow is ready for talks with Ukraine.

The Kremlin said in its readout of Tuesday's call that "despite Kyiv's inconsistency and its lack of readiness for serious work, the Russian side is still ready for dialogue."

The Kremlin added that Putin also informed Macron about the course of Russia's "special military operation." It added that the two leaders also discussed the global food security and Putin underlined that Western sanctions have exacerbated the situation.

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ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine -- The UN's aid co-ordinator for Ukraine says 127 people have been evacuated from the besieged Azovstal plant in Mariupol and nearby areas in an operation carried out along with the international Red Cross.

Osnat Lubriani, the humanitarian co-ordinator for Ukraine, said Tuesday that those evacuated included 101 people who "could finally leave the bunkers below the Azovstal steelworks and see the daylight after two months."

Another 58 people joined the convoy in Manhush, a town on the outskirts of Mariupol.

"Today, we brought people safely to Zaporizhzhia," Lubriani said. "However, I worry that there may be more civilians who remain trapped."

The evacuees were receiving humanitarian assistance, including health and psychological care, from the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and partner agencies after arriving in Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday.

Some of the evacuees opted to be dropped off before arriving in the city, which is in government-controlled territory, Lubriani said in a statement.

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KYIV, Ukraine -- The deputy commander of the Azov Regiment that is holed up in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol has confirmed to The Associated Press that Russian forces have started to storm the plant on Tuesday.

The move comes almost two weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered its military not to storm the plant, but rather block it off.

Asked about the reports in Ukrainian media that the huge steelworks -- the last holdout of Ukrainian resistance in a city otherwise controlled by Moscow's forces -- was being stormed, Sviatoslav Palamar told the AP that "it is true."

Earlier on Tuesday, Mariupol patrol police chief Mykhailo Vershinin was quoted by Ukrainian television as saying that the Russian military "have started to storm the plant in several places."

The reports come amid a UN effort to evacuate civilians from the plant, which helped scores of people escape the sprawling facility.

According to Denys Shlega, commander of the 12th Operational Brigade of Ukraine's National Guard who is also currently at Azovstal, 200 civilians including children remain at the plant.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told reporters Tuesday that about 150 civilians have been taken from Azovstal and a few hundred remain at the plant. "We need a few more days to continue this operation," Vereshchuk said.

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has urged her visiting Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, to try to influence Russia to end the war in Ukraine.

"Putin has to stop this war," Frederiksen said Tuesday, adding immediately, "I hope that India will influence Russia."

India's neutral stance in the war has raised concerns in the West and earned praise from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who lauded India for judging "the situation in its entirety, not just in a one-sided way."

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LONDON -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told Ukraine's parliament that their country has achieved the "greatest feat of arms of the 21st century" by repelling Russia's attempt to capture Kyiv.

Johnson addressed lawmakers in Ukraine's legislature, the Verkhovna Rada, by video link on Tuesday. He is the first world leader to do so since Ukraine was invaded on Feb. 24.

Johnson, one of Ukraine's most prominent international supporters, announced a new 300 million pound (US$375 million) package of military aid to Ukraine, including radar, drones and armoured vehicles.

Johnson said Ukraine had "exploded the myth of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's invincibility," and expressed confidence Ukraine would win the war.

The British leader said Western allies had not done enough to stop Russia after it annexed Crimea and triggered a conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014, and said Ukraine's allies should not press it to give up territory to make peace.

He said "you are the masters of your fate, and no-one can or should impose anything on Ukrainians. We in the U.K. will be guided by you and we are proud to be your friends."

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The Russian military says they have resumed strikes on the Azovstal steel plant in the port city of Mariupol.

Vadim Astafyev, a Defence Ministry spokesman, said Tuesday Ukrainian fighters holed in at the plant "came out of the basements, took up firing positions on the territory and in the buildings of the plant." Astafyev said Russian forces along with rebel forces from Donetsk were using "artillery and aircraft ... to destroy these firing positions."

The steel plant is the last holdout of Ukrainian resistance in a city that is otherwise controlled by Moscow's forces. More than 100 civilians, including small children, were making their way out of the steelworks in an evacuation effort overseen by the United Nations and the Red Cross.

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TIRANA, Albania - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reiterated his call on the world to shut Russia out of all international financial and trade systems.

In an online Zoom speech to the Albanian Parliament Tuesday, Zelenskyy called on Europe and the world to stop buying oil from Russia, shut Russian banks out, stop trading with Russia, close ports to Russian ships and limit the arrival of Russian tourists "because you don't know who is coming, a killer in the prisons or Mariupol's hangmen."

"It is simply unfair," Zelenskyy said of the United Nations buying some US$2.5 billion of materials from Russia for its humanitarian operations.

He thanked the tiny Western Balkan country for its full support, especially at the United Nations Security Council, where it is a temporary member.

"Our history when half a million Albanians were forcefully deported in an ethnic cleansing from their land in Kosovo, and found shelter in Albania, helps us feel from far away Ukraine's heavy pain," Prime Minister Edi Rama said.

A bloody 1998-1999 conflict between Serbia and ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, then a Serbian province, left more than 12,000 dead and forced almost a million Kosovars to flee their homeland.

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BERLIN -- The leaders of Finland and Sweden have indicated that their governments haven't yet decided whether to join NATO, but stressed close security cooperation with other European countries in the face of Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

Speaking Tuesday after a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz near Berlin, Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin said "Russia's attack on Ukraine has changed our security environment completely" and there was "no going back."

"We have to decide on whether to apply for NATO membership or continue on our current path," she said. "That is the discussion we are having now in our national parliament."

Her Swedish counterpart, Magdalena Andersson, said the Nordic nation's parliament is conducting a security review that will be presented on May 13.

"The analysis includes future international defence partnerships for Sweden, including a discussion on NATO, and all options are on the table," she said.

"While our respective security arrangements are of course decided nationally, we coordinate very closely with Finland," Andersson added.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has said both countries would be welcomed if they decide to join the 30-nation military organization and could become members quite quickly.

The foreign ministers of NATO's member countries are scheduled to meet in Berlin on May 14-15.

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LJUBLJANA, Slovenia -- A group of 20 children from an orphanage in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine has arrived in Slovenia where they will stay until the end of the war.

Officials said Wednesday that the children are mostly toddlers who travelled together with orphanage staff, doctors, nurses and their families.

The group will be staying near the western town of Postojna and will be granted temporary protection status in the small European Union country.

Local civil protection commander Sandi Curk says "the arrival was quite emotional." Curk says there have been no problems along the route and that the trip lasted for 24 hours.

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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia -- Slovakia's energy minister says the country is not ready to join a European Union embargo on imports of Russian oil as part of a new package of sanctions to be imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Slovakia is almost fully dependent of Russian oil it receives through the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline. Economy Minister Rchard Sulik told reporters Tuesday that the sole Slovak refiner, Slovnaft, cannot immediately switch from Russian crude to any different oil. To change the technology would take several years, he said.

"We will insist on the exemption, for sure," Sulik said.

European Union leaders are debating Tuesday new proposals for sanctions, which could include a phased-in embargo on oil. The 27 member countries are likely to start debating the plans on Wednesday, but it could be several days before the measures enter force.

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STRASBOURG, France -- Italian Premier Mario Draghi is calling for Europe to move more rapidly toward greater defence integration following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Draghi told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg on Tuesday that European defence spending "is a deeply inefficient distribution of resources, that blocks the construction of a true European defence." He called for a conference to improve coordinated of defence spending.

Draghi praised the European Council's ambitious plan of action to strengthen the EU's security and defence policy by 2030, but said "it is necessary to go quickly beyond these first steps and construct an efficient coordination among defence systems."

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GENEVA -- The World Health Organization's incident manager for Ukraine says evacuees from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol "are on the way" toward government-controlled areas away from the most intense combat zones where Ukrainian and Russian forces are fighting.

Dr. Dorit Nitzan, speaking by video to reporters in Geneva from government-controlled Zaporizhzhia, said WHO teams have been among workers from the UN and other aid groups who have deployed to help dozens of evacuees -- up to 100 -- from the plant.

"Things are moving," she said Tuesday. "We know that they are on the way."

Nitzan said the UN health agency was not clear what kind of health needs that the evacuees would present but that hospitals nearby and trauma teams were on standby to help the arriving evacuees.

The United Nations humanitarian aid co-ordinator and the International Committee of the Red Cross were leading the evacuation, after securing agreement from Ukrainian and Russian authorities in recent days.

Nitzan said about 100 people have been trickling out in their own vehicles from Mariupol in recent days.

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LVIV, Ukraine -- The British military says it believes the Russian military is now "significantly weaker" after suffering losses in its war on Ukraine.

The British Defence Ministry made the comment Tuesday in its daily statement on Twitter regarding the war.

It said: "Russia's military is now significantly weaker, both materially and conceptually, as a result of its invasion of Ukraine. Recovery from this will be exacerbated by sanctions. This will have a lasting impact on Russia's ability to deploy conventional military force."

The ministry added while Russia's defence budget has doubled from 2005 to 2018, the modernization program it undertook "has not enabled Russia to dominate Ukraine."

"Failures both in strategic planning and operational execution have left it unable to translate numerical strength into decisive advantage," the ministry said.

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Russia’s defence budget approximately doubled between 2005 and 2018, with investment in several high-end air, land and sea capabilities. From 2008 this underpinned the expansive military modernisation programme New Look.

— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) May 3, 2022

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LVIV, Ukraine -- Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press show nearly 50 Russian military helicopters at a base close to the Ukrainian border.

The image captured Monday by Planet Labs PBC shows the helicopters in Stary Oskol, Russia, some 175 kilometres (110 miles) northeast of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

The helicopters are stationed on the tarmac, runway and grass of the otherwise civilian airport. Military equipment is stationed nearby to support the aircraft.

Russia has been using its military attack helicopters in its war on Ukraine, flying low to the ground to try to avoid anti-aircraft missiles.

Meanwhile, another satellite image showed a bridge repeatedly targeted by Moscow near the Black Sea port city of Odesa still standing as of around noon Monday. That strategic bridge connects Odesa to the wider countryside and would be key to defending the area.

A breakaway region of neighbouring Moldova home to Russian troops nearby has seen a series of mysterious explosions in recent days, raising concerns about the conflict widening.

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ROME -- Pope Francis has told an Italian newspaper that he offered to travel to Moscow to meet the Russian president about three weeks into the invasion, but that he has not received a response.

Francis was quoted Tuesday by Corriere della Sera as saying his offer to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow was made through the Vatican's No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, 20 days into Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

He said, "Of course, it would be necessary for the leader of the Kremlin to make available some window of opportunity. But we still have not had a response and we are still pushing, even if I fear that Putin cannot and does not want to have this meeting at this moment."

Francis said he spoke with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, for 40 minutes by videoconference and for the first half "with paper in hand, he read all of the justifications for the war. I listened and told him: I don't understand any of this. Brother, we are not clerics of the state, we cannot use language of politics, but that of Jesus. For this we need to find the paths of peace, to stop the firing of arms."

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KYIV, Ukraine -- Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod says his visit to Ukraine's capital showed "the full support from the Danish side" on transfer of weapons, sanctions on Russia, but also humanitarian assistance.

Kofod reopened the Danish embassy in Kyiv and met with his counterpart Dymtro Kuleba and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday. His meetings come as Denmark's neighbours, Sweden and Finland, are debating joining NATO. Denmark is a founding member.

Moscow has warned that such a move would have consequences, without giving specifics. Yet on Friday, a Russian military plane violated Swedish and Danish airspace.

"I have to say to Russia that it's a sovereign right of each country to arrange themselves when it comes to security. Denmark is not threatening anybody. Sweden, Finland is not threatening anybody," Kofod told The Associated Press. "It's totally unjustified if Russia or anybody else is trying to, in a way, violate our airspace or doing some kind of other hybrid attacks on us, this is totally unjustified. And we will, of course, protect ourselves against that."

Earlier in the day, Kofod visited Irpin in the suburbs of Kyiv to witness firsthand the destruction and devastation.

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OTTAWA -- Ukraine's ambassador-designate to Canada says Russia must be held accountable for its troops committing sex crimes, including against children.

Yulia Kovaliv told a Canadian House of Commons committee Monday that Russia is using sexual violence as a weapon of war and said rape and sexual assault must be investigated as war crimes.

She said Russia also has kidnapped Ukrainian children and taken them to Russian-occupied territories and now Russia itself. Ukraine is working with partners to find the children and bring them back.

"Russians, a few days ago, killed a young mother and taped her living child to her body and attached a mine between them," the ambassador said. She said the mine detonated.

All of Russian society, and not just President Vladimir Putin "and his proxies," should bear responsibility for the war on Ukraine because more than 70% of Russians support the invasion, Kovaliv said.

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