First and second, links to Reuters and Associated Press reports from early afternoon EDT, both linked to the news services’ related stories. Then, via Popular Resistance, an assessment by Moon of Alabama. Next, from TeleSUR, a report on the Kremlin response to a U.S. State Department statement on possible additional sanctions. — MCM

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CIvilians evacuated from Mariupol; U.S. Speaker Pelosi visits Kyiv. From Reuters. * U.N. confirms ‘safe passage’ operation under way from Mariupol * Pelosi says U.S. stands with Ukraine after meeting Zelenskiy * Russia says it destroyed weapons supplied by Western nations * Moscow steps up assault in Ukraine’s south, eastern Donbas * Kharkiv residents warned to stay in bomb shelters today | KYIV/BEZIMENNE, Ukraine — Around 100 Ukrainian civilians were being evacuated from a ruined steelworks in the city of Mariupol today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, after the United Nations had confirmed a “safe passage operation” was in progress there. Mariupol, a strategic port city on the Azov Sea, has endured . . . READ MORE . . .

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Evacuations underway in Mariupol; Pelosi visits Ukraine, by Cara Anna and Yesica Fisch | The Associated Press ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — A long-awaited effort to evacuate people from a steel plant in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was underway today, the United Nations said, while U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed she visited Ukraine’s president to show unflinching American support for the country’s defense against Russian aggression. . . . As many as 100,000 people are believed to still be in blockaded Mariupol, including up to 1,000 civilians who were hunkered down with an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters beneath the Soviet-era steel plant — the only part of the city not occupied by the Russians. Like other evacuations . . . READ MORE . . .

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Ukraine — Doubling Down, by Moon of Alabama | Educate! The Russian side is making some progress in the war In Ukraine. While the differences on the map look small, the repositioning of forces that had threatened Kiev is finished and the Russian military is now seriously degrading and grinding down the Ukrainian forces in Donbas. According to the daily reports of Russia’s Ministry of Defense the Ukraine is losing several hundred soldiers and some 30 armored vehicles per day, most of them to artillery. . . .  “Western” propagandists are noting that their side is losing. . . . The typical U.S. reaction to losing is to double down. This can be done financially . . . Most of above sums will go the U.S. arms industry to deliver weapons for which the Ukraine has little use or which never will reach the frontline. The rest will be pilfered by Ukrainian oligarchs. . . . . There is also the possibility of . . . READ MORE . . .

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Russia: US Bill on Frozen Assets Is a Distortion of Int´l Law. From TeleSUR. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that Washington is considering the possibility of seizing the sanctioned assets of the Russian government and using them in projects to help Ukraine. Moscow views the U.S. bill allowing the transfer of the seized Russian assets to Ukraine as a “flagrant” distortion of the law, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. According to Peskov, such legislation is nothing but “expropriation of private property”. “This clearly . . . READ MORE . . .

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TO BE CONTINUED