Zelenskyy calls on German chancellor Scholz to visit Ukraine on May 9

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday to take a “powerful step” and visit Kyiv on May 9, the date when Russia commemorates the Soviet Union’s victory in World War Two. He offered the invitation to Scholz after the two countries’ relations were strained when the German president was stopped from visiting Kyiv last month.

Russia will not use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, says foreign ministry

Russia will not use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, foreign ministry spokesman Alexei Zaitsev said Friday. Zaitsev told reporters the use of nuclear weapons by Russia — a risk that Western officials have publicly discussed — was not applicable to what Moscow calls its special military operation in Ukraine.

CIA director William Burns said on April 14 that given the setbacks Russia had suffered in Ukraine, “none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons.”

Defenders inside Ukrainian steel mill refuse to surrender

Ukrainian fighters battling Russian forces in the tunnels beneath Mariupol’s immense steel plant refused to surrender in the face of relentless attacks, with the wife of one commander saying they had vowed to “stand till the end.”