Meanwhile, the outskirts of Kharkiv faced near-constant shelling throughout the morning Friday, and in Kyiv, a large fireball explosion was seen before Russia’s military claimed it destroyed a Ukrainian fuel base. In Chernihiv, city official Olexander Lomako warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” after a Russian strike destroyed a bridge and its forces had begun targeting food supplies.
►The U.N. human rights office said it has been challenging to confirm fatalities in Mariupol given the organization’s strict methodology for counting the number of civilian deaths in conflict. The office says at least 1,035 civilians have been killed in Ukraine and 1,650 injured, but acknowledges that is an undercount.
►Finland’s national rail company on Friday said it would suspend its service between Helsinki and the Russian city of St. Petersburg, closing one of the last public transit routes between the EU and Russia.
