People sheltering in a theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol are emerging from the building after it was bombed, the former head of the Donetsk region said Thursday.

Hundreds of people were thought to have taken shelter in the theater amid the ongoing Russian siege of Mariupol. Hundreds of thousands of people are trapped in the coastal city and as many as 2,500 civilians have died in Mariupol, Ukrainian officials estimate.

“After an awful night of not knowing, we finally have good news from Mariupol on the morning of the 22nd day of the war. The bomb shelter [of the theatre] was able to hold. The rubble is beginning to be cleared. People are coming out alive,” the former Donetsk region head Sergei Taruta wrote in a Facebook post Thursday.

It was not yet clear whether all those who sheltered in the theater had survived.
After the bombing on Wednesday, Mariupol City Council shared an image of the building and said Russian forces had “purposefully and cynically destroyed the Drama Theater in the heart of Mariupol.”

Michigan Republicans’ effort to get around Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s vetoes and implement new voting restrictions via a petition drive is set to ramp up this weekend, with a new push to gather signatures in time to meet a late-spring deadline and make the changes ahead of November’s midterm election.

As warmer weather arrives in the Upper Midwest, “Secure MI Vote,” the group behind the petition drive, is starting to dispatch hundreds of signature-gatherers across the state to festivals, parades, farmer’s markets and outdoor sporting events.

It’s the beginning of a sprint to a June 1 deadline. And “Secure MI Vote” is the highest-profile petition out of several being circulated head of summer deadlines — including one backed by progressive groups and dubbed “Promote the Vote” that effectively seeks to undo the Republican effort.

The petition drive is the latest in a years-long effort by Michigan Republicans, seizing on former President Donald Trump’s lies about widespread election fraud being responsible for his 2020 election loss, to halt what had been a Democratic-led march toward more expansive mail-in voting, early voting and more there.

Another day of horrific civilian carnage in Ukraine underscored the desperate need for a ceasefire — and explained why an end to the barbaric war may still be far away.

Russian forces Wednesday escalated their assault on soft targets, which prompted President Joe Biden to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal. The fate of hundreds of people sheltering in a theater in the coastal city of Mariupol is unknown after a Russian barrage slammed into a building flanked with the word “children” on the ground to ward off attacks. People at the theater began emerging alive, according to a short statement posted Thursday on Facebook by the former head of the Donetsk region, though it was not yet clear if this means all those inside the building survived. Another bombardment hit a swimming pool in the same city used as a shelter.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, after delivering a moving virtual address to the US Congress, revealed that at least 103 children have perished so far in Moscow’s onslaught. The World Health Organization criticized what it said were deliberate attacks on Ukraine’s health care infrastructure. More than 3 million Ukrainians have fled in a refugee exodus, according to the UN.

These are not simply tales of unfortunate, innocent civilians caught in the crossfire or a larger conflict. There are too many attacks for this to be anything but a deliberate Russian strategy of trying to bomb Ukraine into submission one civilian at a time. This assault designed to cause maximum pain and destruction is likely to further deepen the schism between the two countries and make it harder to find an accommodation to end the killing.

Last week, a drone flew more than 350 miles beyond Ukraine’s western border before crashing in Croatia, a NATO member country. The drone was carrying a bomb, Croatian officials said, and it’s still not clear whether it belonged to Ukrainian or Russian forces.

Another drone recently entered the airspace of Romania, south of Ukraine. And on Tuesday, Ukraine’s military said it shot down a Russian drone that had reentered Ukraine through Polish airspace.

The trio of drone incidents has amplified concerns that Russia’s war in Ukraine could spill over into NATO countries, even if unintentionally, forcing the alliance to decide how to respond — if at all — to incidents that occur inside its borders.

US defense officials say the errant drones that entered NATO territory appeared to be largely inadvertent. Since the start of Russia’s invasion, the US military has established a deconfliction line with Russia to reduce the risk of miscalculation and make sure the two militaries operating so close together don’t inadvertently clash. The US has tested the line “once or twice a day,” according to a senior defense official, but so far, it hasn’t been needed.

President Biden is scheduled to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday, the White House said, as the U.S. steps up warnings to China against aiding Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine.

“This is part of our ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication between the United States and the PRC,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Thursday, referring to the People’s Republic of China. “The two Leaders will discuss managing the competition between our two countries as well as Russia’s war against Ukraine and other issues of mutual concern.”

News of the meeting comes days after Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, held a lengthy meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Rome, during which he said Beijing would face consequences if it helped Russia financially or militarily, according to administration officials.

Britain is very disappointed with India’s stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said on Thursday ahead of the conclusion of a second round of trade talks.

India has avoided condemning Russian actions since it invaded Ukraine three weeks ago, to the frustration of allies including the United States, and abstained from voting at the United Nations calling out Russia’s aggression.

Earlier this week two Indian officials also said the country may take up a Russian offer to buy crude oil and other commodities at a discount.

Britain launched talks over a free trade agreement with India in January, and the second round of negotiations is due to finish on Friday. Both sides have said they aim to conclude discussions this year.