By Elizabeth Piper and Zohra Bensemra

KYIV/BUZOVA, Ukraine – Russian forces pounded targets in eastern Ukraine with missiles and artillery on Sunday as Austria’s leader planned to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Washington pledged to give Ukraine “the weapons it needs” to defend itself against a new Russian offensive.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he would meet with Putin on Monday in Moscow for the Russian leader’s first face-to-face meeting with a European Union counterpart since Russia’s invasion began on Feb. 24.

“We are militarily neutral, but (have) a clear position on the Russian war of aggression against #Ukraine,” Nehammer wrote of Austria on Twitter https://twitter.com/karlnehammer/status/1513193093784297476. “It must stop! It needs humanitarian corridors, ceasefire & full investigation of war crimes.”

Nehammer met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Saturday – the same day as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who promised to give Ukraine 120 armoured vehicles and anti-ship missile systems.

Russia has failed to take any major cities, but Ukraine says it has been gathering its forces in the east for a major assault and has urged people to flee.

Russian forces fired rockets into Ukraine’s Luhansk and Dnipropetrovsk regions on Sunday, officials said. Missiles completely destroyed the airport in the city of Dnipro, said Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region.

Russia’s defence ministry said high-precision missiles had destroyed the headquarters of Ukraine’s Dnipro battalion in the town of Zvonetsky.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the reports.

WEAPONS APPEALS

Since Russia invaded, Zelenskiy has appealed to Western powers to provide more defence help, and to punish Moscow with tougher sanctions, including embargoes on Russian energy exports.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told ABC News: “We’re going to get Ukraine the weapons it needs to beat back the Russians to stop them from taking more cities and towns.”

In an interview aired on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Zelenskiy said he had confidence in his own armed forces but “unfortunately I don’t have the confidence that we will be receiving everything we need” from the United States.

“They have to supply weapons to Ukraine as if they were defending themselves and their own people,” Zelenskiy added. “They need to understand this. If they don’t speed up, it will be very hard for us to hold on against this pressure.”

Zelenskiy said earlier on Twitter he had spoken on the phone with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about additional sanctions, as well as more defence and financial support for his country. Zelenskiy also discussed with Ukrainian officials Kyiv’s proposals for a new package of EU sanctions, his office said.

The EU on Friday banned Russian coal imports among other products, but has yet to touch oil and gas imports from Russia.

NEW SANCTIONS

Mounting civilian casualties have triggered widespread international condemnation and new sanctions.

A grave with at least two civilian bodies has been found in Buzova village near Kyiv, said Taras Didych, head of the Dmytrivka community that includes Buzova, the latest such reported discovery since Russian forces withdrew from areas north of the capital.

Sullivan said on Sunday he expected Russia’s newly appointed general overseeing Ukraine, Aleksandr Dvornikov, to authorise more brutality against the Ukrainian civilian population. He did not cite any evidence.

Moscow has rejected accusations of war crimes by Ukraine and Western countries.

Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians in what it calls a “special operation” to demilitarise and “denazify” its southern neighbour. Ukraine and Western nations have dismissed this as a baseless pretext for war.

Russia’s invasion has forced about a quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million people from their homes, turned cities into rubble and killed or injured thousands.

The World Bank on Sunday forecast the war would cause Ukraine’s economic output to collapse by a staggering 45% this year, with half of its businesses shuttered, grain exports mostly cut off by Russia’s naval blockade and destruction rendering economic activity impossible in many areas.

The bank forecast Russia’s GDP would contract by 11.2% this year due to punishing Western sanctions.

HEAVY SHELLING

Some cities in Ukraine’s east were under heavy shelling, with tens of thousands of people unable to evacuate.

Calls by Ukrainian officials for civilians to flee gained more urgency after a missile strike hit a train station on Friday in the city of Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region, that was full of people trying to leave.

Ukrainian officials said on Sunday the death toll from the strike rose to 57, while 109 were wounded. Russia has denied responsibility, saying the missiles used in the attack were only used by Ukraine’s military.

Reuters was unable to verify the details of the attack.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the powerful head of Russia’s Chechnya region, said in a video message that Russia would unleash an offensive on the besieged port of Mariupol, but also Luhansk, and Donetsk and then target Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said 2,824 people were evacuated on Sunday through humanitarian corridors, including 213 from Mariupol, which has been under siege for weeks.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Michael Perry, Tomasz Janowski and David Lawder; Editing by Robert Birsel, Frances Kerry, Matthew Lewis and Lincoln Feast.)

By Layli Foroudi, Tassilo Hummel and Ingrid Melander

PARIS -French leader Emmanuel Macron and challenger Marine Le Pen qualified on Sunday for what promises to be a very tightly fought presidential election runoff on April 24, pitting a pro-European economic liberal against a far-right nationalist.

With partial results putting Macron in first place ahead of Le Pen after the first-round voting, other major candidates admitted defeat. Except for another far-right candidate, Eric Zemmour, they all urged voters to block the far-right in the second round.

But after five years in power in which his abrasive style has upset many, while Le Pen succeeded in softening her image, Macron will have to fight hard to win back disgruntled voters. He cannot take it for granted that voters will rally around a traditional anti-far right front.

“Nothing is decided, and the battle we will wage in the next 15 days will be decisive for France and Europe,” Macron told supporters, urging all voters to rally behind him on April 24th to stop the far-right from ruling the European Union’s second-largest economy.

Ifop pollsters predicted a very tight runoff, with 51% for Macron and 49% for Le Pen. The gap is so tight that victory either way is within the margin of error.

Other pollsters offered a slightly bigger margin in favour of Macron, with up to 54%. But that was in any case much narrower than in 2017, when Macron beat Le Pen with 66.1% of the votes.

Le Pen, who had eaten into Macron’s once-commanding 10-point poll lead in recent weeks thanks to a campaign focused on cost-of-living issues said she was the one to protect the weak and unite a nation tired of its elite.

“What will be at stake on April 24 is a choice of society, a choice of civilisation,” she told supporters, who chanted “We will win!” as she told them: “I will bring order back to France.”

Macron, meanwhile, told supporters waving French and EU flags: “The only project that is credible to help purchasing power is ours.”

“DISASTROUS”

With 96% of the votes counted for Sunday’s first round, Macron garnered 27.41% of the votes and Le Pen 24.03%. A near total count of the vote was expected for later in the night.

A Le Pen victory on April 24 would be a similar jolt to the establishment as Britain’s Brexit vote to leave the European Union (EU) or Donald Trump’s 2017 entry into the White House.

France would lurch from being a driving force for European integration to being led by a euro-sceptic who is also suspicious of the NATO military alliance.

While Le Pen has ditched past ambitions for a “Frexit” or to haul France out of the euro zone’s single currency, she envisages the EU as a mere alliance of sovereign states.

Conservative candidate Valerie Pecresse warned of “disastrous consequences” if Macron lost, while the Socialists’ Anne Hidalgo urged supporters to vote for him “so that France does not fall into hatred.”

“Not one vote for Le Pen!” added hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, who, according to the estimates, placed third with around 20% of the votes.

But they all also had very harsh words for Macron and some of the very unpopular policies of his first mandate as well as an abrasive style that has put off many voters.

“Emmanuel Macron played with fire,” Pecresse told supporters.

“PAY ATTENTION”

Zemmour acknowledged disagreements with Le Pen, but said Macron was a worse choice.

Barely a month ago, Macron seemed on course for a comfortable re-election that, riding high in polls thanks to strong economic growth, a fragmented opposition and his statesman role in trying to avert war in Ukraine on Europe’s eastern flank.

But he paid a price for late entry into the campaign during which he eschewed market walkabouts in provincial France in favour of a single big rally outside Paris. A plan to make people work longer also proved unpopular, enabling Le Pen to narrow the gap.

Le Pen, an open admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin until his invasion of Ukraine, had for months toured towns and villages across France. She focused on cost-of-living issues troubling millions and tapped into anger toward rulers.

“Marine Le Pen knew how to talk to people about their more concrete problems. During the next two weeks he (Macron) will have to pay more attention to what is happening in France, take a diplomatic break,” said Adrien Thierry, a 23-year old Macron supporter.

As the vote count progressed, Melenchon’s score rose to close to Le Pen’s, with 21.57% of the votes, while none of the others were in the double-digits, leading some supporters to briefly hope for a change in the final line-up, which eventually seemed out of reach.

(Reporting by Makini Brice, Richard Lough, Layli Foroudi, John Irish, Sybille de La Hamaide, Tassilo Hummel, Michel Rose, Leigh Thomas, Hedy Beloucif, Gus Trompiz in Paris, Juliette Jabkhiro in La Villetelle, Mimosa Spencer in Sevres, Michaela Cabrera in Henin-Beaumont; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Mark Porter and Diane Craft)

By Mimosa Spencer and Layli Foroudi

PARIS -Supporters of France’s far-right and hard-left parties celebrated as presidential candidates for traditional mainstream parties failed dismally in Sunday’s first-round vote.

As vote counting continued, President Emmanuel Macron was ahead of far-right party leader Marine Le Pen and polling firms estimated that far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon would win over 22% of the vote, compared to under 20% five years ago.

In a hall at the edge of Paris, a few hundred Rassemblement National supporters erupted into cheers as TV stations announced Le Pen had again made it into the second round, and with a higher score than the 21.3% in 2017.

They waved French flags and shouted “Marine for president” as Le Pen spoke to her supporters and called on voters for conservative Valerie Pecresse and rival hard-right candidate Eric Zemmour to rally behind her.

Several militants said their party was no longer ostracised by the general public and that they had generally received a warm welcome when canvassing for Le Pen.

“We are greeted in a completely different manner when we distribute party leaflets, we see it when we go to markets, we see people who are much more receptive – something has changed,” longtime Le Pen supporter Nathalie Vaccari, 57, said.

With crowds jumping on stage and singing “on a gagne” (we have won), Le Pen’s deputy campaign manager Jean-Philippe Tanguy said he was confident Le Pen could win over voters who have voted for Zemmour and Melenchon in the first round.

At a packed Cirque d’Hiver theatre in central Paris, some Melenchon fans burst into tears when the first results were announced and hundreds of supporters sang for joy, chanting “on ne lache rien” (we won’t give an inch) throughout the night.

Actor Xavier Mathieu, who led the singing, said he regretted that Melenchon had not qualified for the second round, but was happy about his candidate’s strong showing.

“The race is not finished because change in society does not happen in elections, it happens in the street,” he said.

Jeroen Atputharajah, 18, blamed green candidate Yannick Jadot and socialist Anne Hidalgo for not backing Melenchon.

“They preferred to divide the left,” he said.

Polling firms forecast Jadot at under 5% of the first-round vote, while Hidalgo was seen getting under 2%, a record low for the party that helped Francois Hollande win the 2012 election.

At the conservative party’s venue, supporters had the blues, with Valerie Pecresse seen scoring less than 5%, compared to the 20.01% her predecessor Francois Fillon won five years ago.

Some 200 activists lingered after Precresse left, finishing the champagne, eating canapés, and pondering the outlook for their party, which dominated French politics for decades.

Kinata Kopi, wearing a T-shirt saying “Valerie je t’aime”, said Republicans now had to stick together to prepare the 2027 election.

“I hope General de Gaulle and (former president) Jacques Chirac will inspire us so that the Republicans’s flame remains alight,” she said.

(Reporting by Mimosa Spencer, Layli Foroudi, John Irish and Sybille de la Hamaide; Writing by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Diane Craft and Stephen Coates)

By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM -Israeli forces killed two Palestinian women on Sunday after one ran towards troops and the other stabbed a soldier in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank, Israeli security officials said.

With violence surging after a string of deadly Arab attacks in Israel, a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli soldiers during what local residents said were confrontations with stone-throwers near the West Bank town of Bethlehem, the Palestinian health ministry announced.

The Israeli military said troops shot a Palestinian throwing petrol bombs towards an Israeli vehicle.

The bloodshed has coincided with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when Israeli-Palestinian violence has erupted in the past and, last May, spiralled into an 11-day war between Gaza militants and Israel.

In Bethlehem, no weapon was found on the body of a Palestinian woman who was shot and killed after she ignored soldiers’ calls and warning fire to stop running towards them, the Israeli military said, adding it had begun an investigation.

Hours later, a Palestinian woman armed with a knife was shot dead after she slightly wounded a paramilitary border policeman in Hebron, outside the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which Muslims call al-Ibrahimi mosque, Israeli security officials said.

Israeli forces have been on high alert following attacks by three members of Israel’s Arab minority and two Palestinians from the West Bank that have killed 14 people in Israel since late March.

More than 20 Palestinians, many of them armed militants, have been killed by Israeli forces since January, while Palestinians have reported a rise in violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian official, said Israel’s expansion of settlements on occupied land Palestinians want for a state and visits by far-right Israelis to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem have led to escalation.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said Arab assailants were “trying to destroy us” and were “moved by hatred of Jews and of the State of Israel”.

Israeli forces have been mounting raids in and around the West Bank city of Jenin, a militant stronghold, to try to thwart what Bennett has called “a new wave of terrorism”.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Heller and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Alex Richardson)

By Brenda Goh

SHANGHAI -Lu, 99, was a long-time resident at Shanghai’s Donghai Elderly Care hospital, her loved ones secure that she was getting round-the-clock care at the city’s largest such centre.

That was before COVID-19 struck China’s biggest city last month, the country’s worst outbreak since the virus emerged in Wuhan in late 2019, infecting multiple patients, doctors and care workers at the 1,800-bed facility.

Orderlies posted cries for help on social media, saying they were overwhelmed. Relatives told Reuters that there had been several deaths.

    Lu, whose relatives asked that she be identified only by her surname, had coronary heart disease and high blood pressure. She caught COVID and, though she had no symptoms, was being transferred to an isolation facility, her family was told on March 25.

    She died there seven days later, the cause of death listed as her underlying medical conditions, her granddaughter said.

Among the questions she has about Lu’s final days was why elderly patients had to be quarantined separately, away from the care workers most familiar with their conditions under China’s quarantine rules.

Her frustrations reflect those of many with China’s no-tolerance COVID policy. Everyone testing positive must quarantine in specialised isolation sites, whether they show symptoms or not.

Shanghai has become a test case for the country’s strict policy. Home quarantine is not an option and, until public outrage prompted a change, Shanghai was separating COVID-positive children from their parents.

From March 1 to April 9, China’s financial hub reported some 180,000 locally transmitted infections, 96% of which were asymptomatic. It reported no deaths for the period.

A Donghai staffer who answered the phone on Sunday declined to answer questions, directing Reuters to another department, which did not respond to repeated calls.

Asked for comment, the Shanghai government sent a local media report with a first-person account of life at one of the quarantine centres. The unidentified author said he wanted to dispel fears that such sites were terrible, saying he received ample meals and medicine but recommending people bring earplugs and eye masks.

The authorities did not offer further comment.

The United States has raised concerns about China’s COVID approach, advising its citizens on Friday to reconsider travel to China “due to arbitrary enforcement of local laws and COVID-19 restrictions.” Beijing dismissed the U.S. concerns as “groundless accusations”.

    ‘DIDN’T DARE BELIEVE IT’

When Lu was being quarantined, the family asked, “Who is going to care for her? Will there be care workers, doctors?,” her granddaughter said. “My grandmother is not someone who can live independently.

“If the care worker had COVID and no symptoms, why couldn’t they stay together?,” she said. “The chaos and tragedies happening in Shanghai this time really boil down to cruel policies.”

A relative of Donghai patient Shen Peiying, who gave his surname as Qiu, said he believes the quarantine policy contributed to the April 3 death of the bedridden 72-year-old.

She had not caught COVID, he said, citing test records he saw on China’s health app. After weeks of little communication, staff rang to say Shen had died from a chest infection.

Qiu has refused to consent to her cremation, citing such unanswered questions as what care she received after her regular care worker was quarantined.

“If they were all in quarantine, who was there to take care of the patients?,” Qiu said.

Shanghai is doubling down on the quarantine policy, converting schools, recently finished apartment blocks and vast exhibition halls into centres, the largest of which can hold 50,000 people. Authorities said last week they have set up over 60 such facilities.

    These steps, including sending patients to quarantine sites in neighbouring provinces, have been greeted by the public with a mixture of awe at their speed and horror over conditions, prompting some Shanghai residents to call for home quarantine to be allowed.

    While Chinese state media has shown hospitals with just two or three patients per room, patients like those sent to Shanghai’s giant exhibition centres say they live side by side with thousands of strangers, without walls or showers and with ceiling lights on at all hours.

    Videos on Chinese social media have shown hastily converted quarantine sites, including a ramshackle vacant factory where a number of camping beds were placed, a site made out of shipping containers and a school with a poster saying blankets and hot water were not available.

A source verified the first video. Reuters could not independently verify the others.

    Management of such sites has been a concern.

    One viral video last week showed patients at a site called the Nanhui makeshift hospital fighting for supplies. Reuters could not reach the facility on Sunday for comment.

Among those posting on social media was Shanghai resident Li Tong, who asked for help after his wife was sent there. He said things got better when more staff arrived to organise the patients but that he was shocked by what the videos showed and what his wife told him.

“I didn’t dare believe it, that Shanghai in 2022 could be like this,” he said.

(Reporting by Brenda Goh; Additional reporting by Engen Tham and the Shanghai newsroom; Editing by William Mallard)