Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - ‘A real humanitarian disaster’

As Russia’s forces continue to pound Ukraine, more than 40,000 civilians were able to leave combat zones Thursday, bringing the total number of those evacuated since humanitarian corridors were opened to about 100,000, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. Most of Thursday’s evacuations came from Sumy, Trostyanets and Krasnopillya, cities to the northwest of Kharkiv. But the Black Sea port of Mariupol continues to be a major catastrophe, said Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk. “There is a real humanitarian disaster there.”

In just weeks, millions of Ukrainians have been displaced by Russia’s war. On March 10, a volunteer worker at an elderly hospice cried before an 88 year-old resident under her care was evacuated. Photographer: Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Cease-fire talks have made no progress. The Ukrainian military’s General Staff said Kremlin forces were trying to encircle Kyiv, moving from the north and west, but that their advance has slowed or even stopped. Ukrainian forces claimed to have pushed Russians out of the village of Baklanova Muraviika near Chernihiv, which sits on a road to the capital. 

See More: A Visual Guide to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry denied responsibility for striking a maternity hospital in Mariupol this week, claiming instead that Ukrainians staged the deadly attack so as to blame Russia. On Wednesday, Russian officials claimed the hospital was a target because it housed combat positions. Ukrainian officials said the bombing by Kremlin forces, during what was to be a pause in fighting to allow evacuations, killed three people, including a child, and wounded 17 others.  

Residents flee the city of Irpin, north of Kyiv, on March 10. Photographer: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

The hospital killings add to what a Mariupol official said are 1,300 deaths there since Kremlin forces surrounded the city. Elsewhere, refugees fleeing the country reportedly claimed Russian soldiers are purposely shooting at civilians. Neither claim could be confirmed. The United Nations said there have been at least 549 killed in Ukraine since Russia attacked—though the real number is likely higher. —David E. Rovella

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U.S. officials are warning of another potential false-flag endeavor by Russia. But rather than create a pretext to invade, this time it would allegedly pave the way for the use of biological or chemical weapons on Ukrainians. Earlier this week, Russia and China accused the U.S. military without evidence of operating “dangerous” biolabs in Ukraine. The comments—rejected by the U.S. as false—mirrored the diversion tactics Chinese diplomats previously used when questioned about the origins of Covid-19, and again referenced Fort Detrick in Maryland, which the Soviet Union falsely claimed in the 1980s was the source of the virus that causes AIDS. When asked during a Senate hearing Tuesday about the claims, Victoria Nuland, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, called it “a classic Russian technique to blame on the other guy what they’re planning to do themselves.”

The body of a civilian killed in Russian attacks on Irpin, Ukraine, is carried across a destroyed bridge on March 10. Photographer: Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Russia’s government moved closer to seizing and even nationalizing foreign-owned companies that are leaving over its invasion of Ukraine, while planning measures to coax others to stay. In the first explicit response to the exodus of foreign businesses, the Economy Ministry has outlined new policies to take temporary control of departing companies where foreign ownership exceeds 25%.

Goldman Sachs said it plans to close its operations in Russia, the first major Wall Street bank to leave in response to the invasion of Ukraine. 

As Putin amassed military forces on Ukraine’s borders in January, Vanguard Group and Northern Trust actually increased their holdings in Russia’s leading bank, and they did it via some unlikely portfolios.

The European Central Bank unexpectedly accelerated its wind-down of monetary stimulus, signaling it’s more concerned about record inflation than weaker economic growth as Russia’s war threatens to propel prices even higher. Calling the invasion of Ukraine a “watershed” moment for Europe, ECB officials pledged to slow bond buying from the start of May, and said they could halt the program as soon as the third quarter. In the U.S., consumer price gains accelerated in February on rising gasoline, food and housing costs. Here’s your markets wrap.

China’s new Covid-19 cases hit their highest rate since an earlier outbreak in Wuhan, where more than two years ago the deadly virus first appeared. In Europe, Germany posted a new record infection rate. In the U.S., the Biden administration will extend a requirement for airline travelers to wear masks for another month. Here’s the latest on the pandemic.

U.S. household net worth jumped to a fresh record in the fourth quarter on rising stock prices and higher home values. Household net worth increased by $5.3 trillion, or 3.7%, after a more moderate gain in the third quarter. The fourth-quarter advance pushed net worth to more than $150 trillion.

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So far, there aren’t many winners in Russia’s brutal conflict in Ukraine, Hal Brands writes in Bloomberg Opinion. But he says China is among the biggest losers. President Xi Jinping is watching from the sidelines as the world’s leading democracies show a willingness and ability to economically pummel Vladimir Putin—Xi’s new-found friend. And while China is a far harder economic target than Russia, Brands writes Xi must be wondering what financial carnage awaits his country if he attacks Taiwan. In the meantime, Beijing is stuck dealing with the blowback.

Putin and Xi Photographer: Kenzaburo Fukuhara /Getty Images  

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