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Your Friday Briefing: Russia’s Flagship Sinks

Good morning. We’re covering the sinking of a Russian warship, Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter and the U.K.’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

A survivor rode a bicycle past the ruins of the Ukrainian village of Andriivka, west of Kyiv, on Thursday.Credit…David Guttenfelder for The New York Times

Russia’s flagship sinks

The flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet sunk on Thursday after it suffered catastrophic damage.

Ukraine said it was the result of a missile strike by its coastal defense force; Russia claimed that the damage to the ship, the Moskva, was caused by a fire. Later, Russia claimed it had sunk while being towed during a storm. Here are live updates.

The damage to the Moskva was a potent symbolic victory for the Ukrainian military and an embarrassment for Moscow. It may also be a demonstration of new weapons: Ukraine said it struck the vessel with Ukrainian-made Neptune missiles, which have never before been used in combat.

Background: Ships from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet have been offshore since the start of the war, periodically launching rocket and missile attacks against targets inside Ukraine. The fleet has also cut off Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea, removing a key economic lifeline.

Diplomacy: E.U. leaders are considering an embargo on Russian oil products, which could increase energy prices and disrupt politics around the region.

State of the war:

  • Analysts expect Mariupol to fall soon. Russian forces have taken the city’s center after a siege lasting more than 40 days.

  • Russia has threatened to deploy nuclear weapons in and around the Baltic Sea if Finland and Sweden join NATO, Bloomberg reports.

  • Moscow claimed that Ukraine had launched airstrikes on a Russian town near the border.

Other updates:

  • The Ukraine crisis could tip more than one-fifth of humanity “into poverty, destitution and hunger,” the U.N. said.

  • Ukraine’s teachers are trying to keep school running for children who have experienced displacement and disruption.

  • Jeffrey Gettleman, a Jewish reporter for The Times, wrote about his struggle reconciling

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