Live Updates: Putin Threatens to Strip Ukraine of Statehood, as Russian Advance Slows

Since the invasion, Russian forces have destroyed, attacked or captured several energy infrastructure facilities around the country, according to the Ukrainian military, witnesses and video evidence verified by The New York Times. Russian forces took control of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia on Friday after a fierce battle caused a fire in a training building and sparked worldwide alarm.

One day after the fire, Ukraine’s nuclear regulator told the International Atomic Energy Agency that it had been able to maintain communications with staff at the plant. The technical safety systems are intact and radiation levels are normal at the plant, the international agency said.

While operations have normalized, the situation inside the facility remained “tense,” said Rafael M. Grossi, the director general of the agency, who called for operating staff to be allowed to rest and undergo regular shift changes.

Two out of six reactors are now operating. One telephone communication line had been lost but another was still functioning, as was mobile phone communication.

The Ukrainian authority told the agency that the facility’s training center — located separately from the reactor units — had suffered significant damage during the events on Friday. There had also been damage to the site’s laboratory building and to an administrative structure, the Ukrainians told the international agency.

Since its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has moved swiftly to limit free speech and dissent, forcing Western companies to reassess. Bloomberg News, the BBC, CNN International and ABC News have also suspended their news reporting operations inside Russia. The Kremlin has blocked access to Facebook inside the country.

The suspension strikes at the heart of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Radio Free Europe was founded by U.S. officials in 1950 and had broadcast into Eastern bloc countries including Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland. Three years later, Radio Liberty, which was also founded by U.S. officials and was a separate organization, began broadcasting into the Soviet Union.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the now united Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty created new bureaus in countries just beginning to build their democracies. They trained journalists and tried to help develop local media.

Back then, President Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic thanked the organization for its role during the Cold War. He even offered the former parliament building as a headquarters for Radio Free Europe.

“We need your professionalism and your ability to see events from a broad perspective,” said President Havel.

In recent weeks, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said it had faced increasing pressure in Russia.

Friday, local tax officials initiated bankruptcy proceedings against one of its Russian entities, the group said. That is the same day that President Vladimir V. Putin signed a new law to punish anyone spreading “false information” about its Ukraine invasion with up to 15 years in prison.

The organization also said that it refused requests by the Russian government to delete information about the Ukraine invasion. After the refusal, Russian authorities blocked access within the country to its websites, the organization said.

In the statement, Mr. Fly said the Russian government is “now branding honest journalists as traitors to the Russian state,” adding that its journalists will “continue to tell the truth about Russia’s catastrophic invasion of its neighbor” from outside of the country.

As Ukrainian forces waged intense battles for Kyiv, the capital, Kharkiv and other major cities, people waited to see what might come of an escalating war, Western sanctions against Russia and sputtering diplomacy. Photographers and videographers in and around Ukraine provide a look at a populace coping with the uncertainty and fear of a military invasion.

Performances around the world have been affected. In New York, Anna Netrebko, one of opera’s biggest stars, saw her reign at the Metropolitan Opera end after she declined to denounce Mr. Putin. In Toulouse, France, the music director of an orchestra — who is also the chief conductor at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow — was instructed to clarify his position on the war before his next appearance.

Leaders of organizations are facing pressure from donors, board members and audiences, not to mention waves of anger on social media, where campaigns to cancel several Russian artists have rapidly gained traction.

They are also grappling with what to do about the Russians who are among their most important financial supporters. On Wednesday the Guggenheim Museum announced that Vladimir O. Potanin, one of Russia’s richest men and a major benefactor, was stepping down as one of its trustees.

Leila Getz, the founder and artistic director of a recital series in Vancouver, Canada, canceled an appearance by the Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev planned for August. Mr. Malofeev, 20, had not made any statements on the war, nor did he have any known ties to Mr. Putin.

In an interview, Ms. Getz defended her decision. “The first things that came to my mind were, why would I want to bring a 20-year-old Russian pianist to Vancouver and have him faced with protests and people misbehaving inside the concert hall and hooting and screaming and hollering?” she said.

Mr. Malofeev declined to comment.

In a statement posted on Facebook, he said, “The truth is that every Russian will feel guilty for decades because of the terrible and bloody decision that none of us could influence and predict.”

Russia’s assault on Ukraine has prompted the United States to pay closer attention to President Vladimir V. Putin’s allies in Latin America, which Washington believe could become security threats if the standoff with Russia deepens, according to current and former U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive policy matters.

As Russia’s economy craters, the United States is seizing on an opportunity to advance its agenda among Latin American autocracies that might start seeing Mr. Putin as an increasingly weak ally. Mr. Maduro and others have begun to distance themselves since the war began: Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba abstained or did not vote on the two resolutions proposed at the United Nations this week to condemn Russian aggression, and the leaders of Venezuela and Cuba have called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

When the United States and its allies began considering imposing sanctions on Russian oil and gas exports this month to punish the country for the invasion, prominent voices affiliated with both major American political parties pointed to Venezuela as a potential substitute.

Well-connected Republicans have been involved in talks about restarting the oil trade, including Scott Taylor, a former Republican congressman from Virginia who is working with Robert Stryk, a Washington lobbyist who briefly registered to represent Mr. Maduro’s regime in 2020 and remains in contact with people around it.

“Couch for 1 girl — 1 week,” read the sign being held up by one young woman.

An elderly German woman walked up to a Ukrainian teenager standing on a platform and pressed a 100 euro bill (about $109) into his hand, tears streaming down her cheek.

“Welcome,” she said.

Over the past few days, Berlin has become a major hub for refugees from Ukraine. Last Monday, the city administration reported finding beds for some 350 refugees. By Friday, more than 10,000 arrived in the German capital by train and bus, and city authorities are bracing for more.

The outpouring of help from ordinary Germans echoes the early days of the 2015-2016 migrant crisis, when hundreds of thousands of refugees from wars in Syria and Afghanistan found safe haven in Germany.

There was some backlash within Germany, but it subsided, the country gave asylum to far more people than its neighbors — more than one million — and the resettlement is now widely regarded as a success. It was a moment of redemption for the country that had committed the Holocaust.

But if the images are familiar, they are enhanced not just by the geographic proximity of the present war but by the memory of Germany’s Nazi past, when it brutalized both Russia and Ukraine.

“It’s an irony of history,” said Dima Chornii, a 15-year-old Ukrainian who arrived to Berlin with his family from their home in Kherson, and was departing Friday for Erfurt, a city in central Germany, where they have friends. His great-grandfather had been a Soviet Red Army soldier who died, fighting to take Berlin from the Nazis less than a week before the end of World War II. “But,” he added, “the Germans are a changed people.”

Hector is part of a surge of American veterans who say they are now preparing to join the fight in Ukraine, emboldened by the invitation of the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who earlier this week announced he was creating an “international legion” and asked volunteers from around the world to help defend his nation against Russia.

David Ribardo, a former Army officer who owns a property management business in Allentown, Pa., is acting as a sort of middle man for a group called Volunteers for Ukraine, identifying veterans and other volunteers with useful skills and connecting them with donors who buy gear and airline tickets.

Fund-raising sites such as GoFundMe have rules against collecting money for armed conflict, so Mr. Ribardo said his group connects those he has vetted with people who want to donate, describing his role as being “a Tinder for veterans and donors.”

Veterans said they are driven by past experiences. Some want to try to recapture the intense clarity and purpose they felt in war, which is often missing in suburban life. Others want a chance to make amends for failed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and see the fight to defend a democracy against a totalitarian invader as the reason they joined the military.

On Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, told the Russian News Agency that foreign fighters would not be considered soldiers, but mercenaries, and would not be protected under humanitarian rules regarding the treatment of prisoners of war.

“At best, they can expect to be prosecuted as criminals,” Mr. Konashenkov said.

U.S. officials have been trying to steer Americans toward other methods of support. During a news conference this week, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said people who want to help Ukraine can do so by supporting nongovernmental organizations that are providing humanitarian assistance and “by being advocates for Ukraine and for peaceful resolution to this crisis that was created by Russia.”

But other transactions may still go through. Cards branded with the Mastercard or Visa logo that were issued by Russian banks may still work inside the country, because the transactions are handled by a local processor, officials at both companies said.

In a statement, Mastercard — which has operated in Russia for more than 25 years — said it had not made the decision lightly. “As we take this step, we join with so many others in hoping for and committing to a more positive, productive and peaceful future for us all,” the company said.

Visa said it planned to “cease” all Visa transactions within Russia “in the coming days.” A spokesman for the company said those transactions should be cut off within a week.

Al Kelly, chairman and chief executive officer of Visa Inc., said in a statement: “This war and the ongoing threat to peace and stability demand we respond in line with our values.”

Shell said in the statement that it understood that governments wanted energy flows to continue from Russia for the time being. The company described the purchase of the oil as “a difficult decision” taken to “avoid disruptions to market supply.”

It went on, “Without an uninterrupted supply of crude oil to refineries, the energy industry cannot assure continued provision of essential products to people across Europe in the weeks ahead.”

Russia is one of the world’s largest oil exporters, and many refineries, especially in Europe, are probably configured for processing some Russian crude. “Cargoes from alternative sources would not have arrived in time” to avoid interruptions in supply, the company added.

The imbroglio shows the difficulty that oil companies and governments are having in calibrating their response to the invasion of Ukraine. Governments have been trying to impose sanctions on the Russian economy without disrupting flows of oil and natural gas. The idea is to punish Russia without inflicting pain on consumers in Europe, which is highly dependent on both Russian natural gas and oil, and the United States. Achieving these goals will probably prove difficult. Already, most buyers are shunning Russian oil, which is selling at a substantial discount.

Shell announced on Monday that it would pull out of joint ventures with Gazprom, the Russian natural gas monopoly, including a liquefied natural gas facility on Sakhalin Island in Russia’s Far East. Shell also said that it would end its involvement with the Nordstream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, a project that has been completed but was blocked.

Those moves, which will take time to be fully carried out, may not be sufficient to satisfy public opinion. Shell said that it would buy alternatives to Russian crude when possible, but completely dropping Russian oil could not happen overnight.

It ended its statement on Saturday by saying it would work with aid groups and humanitarian organizations to determine where best to put the money from its Russian oil fund “to alleviate the terrible consequences that this war is having on the people of Ukraine.”

“The ongoing war and associated sanctions will also have a severe impact on the global economy,” the monetary fund said in a statement on Saturday.

The fund’s executive board convened for a meeting on Friday that was led by Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the fund, to assess the economic impact of the war. The board is expected to meet again next week to consider a request from Ukraine for $1.4 billion of emergency financing.

The war presents a new round of economic challenges for a global economy that is emerging from the coronavirus pandemic and grappling with disrupted supply chains and high levels of inflation.

“In many countries, the crisis is creating an adverse shock to both inflation and activity, amid already elevated price pressures,” the monetary fund said.

The fund noted that Ukraine had already faced enormous damage to its physical infrastructure and that asset prices in Russia, including the value of the ruble, were down sharply as a result of sanctions. Countries with close economic ties to Russia and Ukraine could feel the effects of the tumult, the fund said.

The World Bank is also working to deploy economic assistance to Ukraine, and David Malpass, the bank’s president, spoke to the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Friday. Mr. Malpass said he was submitting a request to the bank’s board for a $500 million supplemental loan to help support Ukraine’s economy.

In one video, as the protesters chant “Ukraine, Ukraine,” a shot can be heard, and a man at the front of the crowd falls down clutching his leg. He is helped away by other protesters.

The regional governor wrote on Facebook that three people had been wounded in the shooting and were in the hospital.

The soldiers in the video appear to be Russian-backed separatists from the self-declared enclave known as Luhansk People’s Republic, which claims the region. They are wearing helmets that look similar to those worn by other separatist forces, and are not wearing the uniforms or insignia of Russian troops.

“Do you have any miners among you from the L.P.R.,” one protester asks the soldiers, referring to the region’s coal miners.

The video of the shooting was first geolocated by an open source researcher on Twitter.

The shooting occurred at the same location where a crowd gathered to protest on Friday. “War and death are coming for you,” those protesters yelled at the soldiers. “Get dressed and leave.”

Olga Dzyurak contributed translation.

Companies “need to consider whether doing business in Russia is worth the risk during this extraordinarily volatile time,” the chief of one big investor, New York state’s pension fund, said on Thursday.

McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Mondelez International, the maker of Oreos and Ritz Crackers, did not respond to messages seeking comment about their operations in Russia. Starbucks and Yum Brands, whose chains include KFC and Pizza Hut, have said in response to the invasion that they were supporting humanitarian relief efforts.

But unlike the retailers who have announced that they’re pausing operations in Russia, some fast-food companies do not actually own the restaurants that operate there under their names. In Russia, Starbucks, Papa John’s and Yum Brands chains including KFC and Pizza Hut are mostly run by franchisees, who often have close ties to Russian banks or investors.

Franchise experts say that, depending on the agreements, it is probably up to the franchise owner to decide whether to close a restaurant because of political turmoil, rather than the brands themselves.

Fast-food restaurants and food and beverage companies were some of the earliest entrants into the Russian market, and many have nimbly operated there for decades. Even during other times of political turmoil and tensions, the companies still found consumers eager to buy American soda and gobble up burgers, chicken and pizza.

When McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in Russia — in Moscow’s Pushkin Square in 1990 — an estimated 30,000 Russians lined up to sample its hamburgers for the first time. A few years later, Mikhail Gorbachev, the former leader of the Soviet Union, appeared in a commercial for Pizza Hut.

Unlike other chains, McDonald’s owns the vast majority of its 847 restaurants in Russia. According to a page for investors, Russia accounts for 9 percent of the company’s total revenues and 3 percent of its operating income.

McDonald’s has made no statement about the invasion. A company spokesman did not respond to questions about whether its restaurants in Russia were open, and how they are receiving supplies or handling payments. Global logistics and freight firms have halted shipments to Russia and access to critical international financial and payment systems is shut down in the country.

PepsiCo has also not made a statement about its operations in Russia, and spokesmen did not respond to multiple emails seeking comment. The company says on its website that it is the largest food and beverage manufacturer in Russia, has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in three manufacturing plants in the country. Last year, Russia accounted for $3.4 billion, or more than 4 percent, of PepsiCo’s $79.4 billion in revenues.

PepsiCo struck an agreement in the early 1970s that allowed Russia to bottle Pepsi, becoming the first American consumer product manufactured and sold in the Soviet Union. In exchange, a company subsidiary, which already marketed Soviet vodka, got the exclusive rights to also sell Soviet champagne, wine and brandy in the United States. In the late 1980s, the Soviets, in renewing their agreement with PepsiCo, gave it a fleet of ships.

In a statement to global employees on Friday, the chief executive of Starbucks, Kevin Johnson, condemned the “unprovoked, unjust and horrific attacks” on Ukraine by Russia.

Mr. Johnson added that the company would donate any royalties it receives from its operations in Russia to humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine along with other financial contributions. On Saturday, a cheery website for Starbucks in Russia, which is operated by the Kuwaiti conglomerate Alshaya Group, showed the roughly 130 stores in the country open and operating with normal business hours.

Yum Brands, which has more than 1,000 KFCs and 50 Pizza Huts in Russia — all owned and operated by franchisees — said it was making financial donations to various humanitarian relief organizations.

As for the operations in Russia, the company said in a statement that it is “monitoring the evolving situation very closely” and that it was too early to discuss the impact.

Mr. Putin has been holding most of his meetings with government officials by video conference, often appearing in a spartan room in his Moscow estate, Novo-Ogaryovo. Even when foreign dignitaries arrived, they sometimes didn’t get to see Mr. Putin in person; the secretary general of the United Nations, António Guterres, had to make do with a video meeting when he visited Moscow last year.

Now Mr. Putin has in-person visitors — including the Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, who met with Mr. Putin for about three hours on Saturday. (Mr. Putin’s residence and the Kremlin are outfitted with disinfectant tunnels that all visitors must pass through.)

Some of the world leaders who have met with Mr. Putin in recent diplomatic overtures were seated 20 feet from him at a behemoth of a table, having refused to submit to Russian P.C.R. tests that would make their DNA available to the Russians. Otherwise, people who meet him face-to-face generally have spent as long as two weeks in quarantine first.

Mr. Putin’s extreme caution reflects not only his age — he is 69, putting him at relatively high risk of severe illness from the coronavirus — but also what critics describe as paranoia honed during his former career as a K.G.B. spy.

And the Russian leader’s tendency, American intelligence officials have told the White House and Congress, is to double down when he feels trapped by his own overreach. So they have described a series of possible reactions, ranging from indiscriminate shelling of Ukrainian cities to compensate for the early mistakes made by his invading force, to cyberattacks directed at the American financial system, to more nuclear threats and perhaps moves to take the war beyond Ukraine’s borders.