U.S. Says It Will Begin Training Ukraine on Abrams Tanks Within Weeks

The 31 M1 Abrams tanks promised by Washington could reach Ukraine by the fall, far sooner than expected, American officials say. Here is what we’re covering:

The arrival of Abrams tanks would be a major step in arming Ukraine.

The top U.S. defense officials say air defense, not fighter jets, is the allies’ top priority.

The Russian-held city of Melitopol sees signs of a looming battle, its exiled mayor says.

Three people are injured after Russia says it accidentally bombed its own city.

U.S. tanks might arrive soon, but Ukraine's allies are struggling to meet other weapons pledges.

Shocked by Russian atrocities, NATO is becoming the war-fighting alliance it was during the Cold War.

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — Ukrainian troops will begin training on American M1 Abrams tanks in Germany in the next few weeks, U.S. defense officials say, in what would be a major step in arming Kyiv.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III made the announcement on Friday morning during a meeting with allies at Ramstein Air Base. U.S. defense officials said that about 31 tanks were expected to arrive in Germany to kick off a training program for Ukrainian troops that is expected to take 10 weeks. The tanks could reach the battlefields in Ukraine by the fall, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss security matters.

"I am confident that this equipment, and the training that accompanies it, will put Ukraine's forces in position to succeed on the battlefield," Mr. Austin told a news conference after the meeting, standing alongside Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

General Milley said the M1 tanks coming are "training tanks," so they are not combat ready. But, he added, "I do think the M1 tank when its delivered, will make a difference."

That is a vastly accelerated timetable from what the Pentagon had initially projected, and officials said it means that Abrams tanks could get to Ukraine in time to play a part in the counteroffensive that Ukraine is expected to launch soon. The counteroffensive is expected to begin in weeks, and the Abrams tanks could arrive in time to help Ukrainian troops hold onto recaptured territory, one of the officials said.

Defense officials had initially said that the M1 Abrams tanks would not arrive in Ukraine until next year. But since January, when the Biden administration announced that it would send the tanks, senior defense officials have said that they wanted to speed up the timeline.

Mr. Austin, during remarks on Friday at U.S.-led talks with top defense officials from more than 40 nations, a collective known as the Ukraine Contact Group, said that the continued deliveries of weapons systems and ammunition and tanks to Kyiv "underscore just how badly the Kremlin miscalculated."

Mr. Austin's trip to Europe — he arrived in Germany on Thursday after meetings with top officials in Sweden — has been overshadowed by the investigation of the leak of hundreds of top-secret national security documents, said to have been carried out by a 21-year old National Guard airman in Massachusetts. Many of the documents relate to the war in Ukraine.

"I know many of you have been following the reports of unauthorized disclosure of sensitive and classified U.S. material," Mr. Austin said. "I take this issue very seriously."

He praised the Ukraine Contact Group for its "commitment to reject efforts to divide us."

Many of the countries in the group are NATO members. The group has met regularly at the base for the past year to discuss and coordinate military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine.

The Ukrainian troops training on the Abrams tanks will have to go through qualification testing, maintenance training and drills on how to operate the advanced American battle tank. They also will have to learn how to coordinate tank maneuvers with other military units, in what the American military calls "combined arms" maneuvers.

— Helene Cooper

Top U.S. defense officials on Friday stood by Washington's decision to not send Ukraine the modern fighter jets it has long requested, insisting after a meeting in Germany of Kyiv's allies that reinforcing Ukraine's air defense systems remained their top priority.

The theme of discussion at the meeting was "air defense, air defense, air defense," Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a news conference alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III.

Asked whether there was a chance the United States had changed its mind about providing Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets, General Milley noted that Ukraine's air defense system had been working effectively for more than a year and kept Russian air forces "cautious." Ensuring the rigor of that air defense system "is the most critical thing right now," he said.

Ukraine has so far received several MIG-29 fighter jets from two neighbors, Slovakia and Poland. But those jets, which are Soviet-designed, are not the sophisticated American-made F-16 warplanes that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has insisted his forces need, particularly ahead of an anticipated counteroffensive to retake Russian-occupied territory.

But Mr. Austin said Ukraine has received what its allies think is needed to begin an anticipated offensive aimed at dislodging Russian troops from areas they have captured since the invasion 14 months ago.

Responding to a question about Ukraine's preparedness for the offensive, he said the United States and other allies had "met our initial goals to provide what's required to get started."

The group has so far delivered more than 230 tanks and more than 1,550 armored vehicles, among other equipment and munitions, Mr. Austin said at the news conference on Friday, adding that the allies understand more aid will be required to help sustain Ukraine's efforts.

Ukrainian leaders have repeatedly expressed frustration with the pace of weapons deliveries from their supporters in the West.

This week, Ukraine received its first American-made Patriot air defense systems, which are considered among the most advanced for shooting down warplanes and cruise missiles, Ukraine's defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said on Twitter.

Helene Cooper contributed reporting from Germany.

— Anushka Patil

Deep inside Russian-controlled territory in southern Ukraine, there are already signs that a battle may be looming in the occupied city of Melitopol, according to Ivan Fedorov, the city's exiled Ukrainian mayor.

More than 20 explosions have gone off at Russian military sites in Melitopol in the past three weeks, including at an airfield and at a warehouse used by Moscow's forces to repair armored vehicles, Mr. Fedorov said in an interview. He declined to say whether the sites were hit by long-range Ukrainian artillery or by Ukrainian resistance fighters operating covertly in Russian-held areas.

Tass, the Russian state news agency, has in recent days carried at least one report of explosions in Melitopol. It was not possible to independently verify the accounts of Mr. Fedorov, whose regular social media updates on the situation in Melitopol have made him one of the more prominent Ukrainian mayors in exile from occupied territory.

"Russian bases are regularly bombed," he said in an interview this week in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. He declined to comment on Ukraine's military plans but said the uptick in explosions appeared to be "preparation for the liberation of our territory."

Regaining control of Melitopol, where road and railroad hubs link Russia and the occupied Crimean Peninsula, is believed to be one possible objective of an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive. In the past, Ukrainian officials have sought to both play up possible counteroffensives and also sow confusion about where and when they might be launched, part of the ongoing information battle in the nearly 14-month-long war.

Melitopol was seized by Russian forces early in their full-scale invasion. As residents protested the occupation, Mr. Fedorov was detained by Russian forces, then released. He has since relocated to another part of Ukraine, where he said he continues to perform mayoral duties.

Mr. Fedorov, who said his information comes from residents still living in Melitopol, offered a few examples of what he said indicated that Russia is preparing for a Ukrainian assault in the south. He said that the occupation authorities have recently appointed Russian citizens as mayors of small towns and villages around Melitopol, replacing Ukrainian collaborators drawn from the local population, in an apparent effort to solidify political control. They also are stepping up efforts to evacuate civilians from small towns near the front line, where trucks with loudspeakers pass through the streets calling on residents to leave, according to Mr. Fedorov.

"We understand there is some panic. Yesterday it was ‘Russia forever,’" he said, referring to the mantra of occupation officials. "Now they say ‘leave.’"

Regaining Melitopol could allow Ukraine to sever transportation lines that Russia uses to supply its troops in portions of the occupied Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. But fighting in the city would carry risks for civilians as well as Russian military and government personnel, Mr. Fedorov said.

Melitopol had a prewar population of about 150,000, about half of whom fled after the invasion last year, he said. Subsequently, between 50,000 and 70,000 internally displaced people and Russian government employees moved into the city, he said, describing it as "filled with civilians."

He acknowledged that any attempt by Ukrainian forces to recapture the city would "be hard" and echoed complaints from other Ukrainian officials that Western allies dallied in arming Ukraine for a counterattack.

"The partners waited a long time in providing weapons," he added. "The Russians had time to prepare."

— Andrew E. Kramer and Matthew Mpoke Bigg

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon's most recent package of weapons for Ukraine includes relics from the Cold War to help blunt Russian advances and limit their ability to maneuver during an expected spring offensive.

Those weapons, M21 anti-tank land mines, have been in service with the Defense Department since at least the early 1960s. An unknown number of them will be sent to Ukraine as part of a $325 million package of aid from U.S. military stockpiles that was announced this week, the 36th such transfer of lethal matériel to Kyiv since August 2021.

M21 mines — large metal-bodied weapons that are usually buried and explode when a vehicle drives over them — contain a specialized warhead built to punch through inches of armor plating.

"Anti-tank land mines are an important defensive capability against Russia's tanks and armored vehicles, helping Ukraine's forces repel Russia's attacks and shape the battlefield to Ukraine's advantage," Maj. Charlie Dietz, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement on Thursday.

The decision to provide M21s appears to carefully thread the needle between various areas of concern, given the controversy that has accompanied the use of land mines for decades.

— John Ismay

A Russian warplane accidentally dropped a bomb on one of its own cities, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday. The blast, which videos showed hit near an apartment block, wounded three people and spread panic in a major city along the border with Ukraine.

Reports first came in on Thursday night that an explosion had ripped through central Belgorod, a southern Russian city of 400,000 just across the border with Ukraine. Widely circulated video footage showed a burst of smoke and flames near an intersection that cars were passing through, sending one parked vehicle twirling through the air.

Suspicion initially fell on Ukraine: Since the beginning of the war last year, the Russian authorities have blamed Kyiv for a string of covert attacks on railway bridges and other strategic targets in Belgorod. The attacks have put Belgorod on edge; some residents have said that they’re worried the Ukrainians might even invade.

But on Friday morning, the Russian Defense Ministry released a statement saying that the explosion was caused by "an accidental discharge of aviation ammunition" by a Russian fighter jet flying over Belgorod at around 10 p.m. on Thursday. The jet was identified as an Su-34, considered one of the most advanced Russian aircraft.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, said that three people had been injured, including one who suffered a concussion. The blast shook a nearby apartment building so badly that local authorities decided to evacuate it.

"Thank God no one died," Mr. Gladkov said in a video posted on the Telegram social messaging app.

The Defense Ministry said the incident was under investigation.

Boris Rozhin, a pro-Russian military analyst and blogger, suggested in a post on Telegram that the accident could have been the result of a malfunction in a GPS guidance kit attached to a munition carried by the Su-34. Ukrainian officials and military analysts say that Moscow is using the kits in an effort to turn unguided munitions into cheap substitutes for precision aerial weapons.

The kits are still "raw" and can easily malfunction, possibly leading to accidents like the one in Belgorod, Mr. Rozhin wrote.

— Ivan Nechepurenko and Jeffrey Gettleman

The announcement that 31 M1 Abrams tanks could reach Ukraine by the fall brings one of America's most powerful weapons a step closer to the war. But even the quicker than expected delivery would not likely reach the battlefield in time for the start of an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive, one in which Western allies appear to have fallen short of providing the weapons that U.S. military officials believe Kyiv needs.

Documents that were among leaked classified military assessments of the war show that U.S. military planners believe that 253 tanks are needed for the coming counteroffensive. As of late February, however, only 200 had been committed, and of those, 60 were made by Western manufacturers — the kind of sophisticated weaponry that Ukraine has requested.

The documents, from late February and early March, offer a snapshot in time of preparations for the counteroffensive. More weapons and artillery have flowed into Ukraine in the weeks since the assessments were dated. Still, the documents reveal not just gaps in Ukraine's arsenal but also the struggles of Western allies to fulfill their pledged deliveries of tanks and other weapons systems.

Here is a look at five key pledged weapons:

The leaked assessments show that 140 tanks being lined up for the counteroffensive, well over half the total, would be refurbished Soviet-era machines, including some from Ukraine's current arsenal. A document dated Feb. 28 showed that three Ukrainian brigades gearing up for the campaign were short at least a dozen tanks each.

The documents also indicated that 60 Western tanks — from Britain, Canada, Germany, Poland and tank-like reconnaissance vehicles from France — would be delivered to Ukraine by April, before the 31 Abrams tanks are now expected to arrive.

This week, Ukraine received its first Patriot battery, an American-made air defense system that is considered among the most advanced for shooting down warplanes and cruise missiles. It came 19 months after Ukraine's defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said he had first asked for them, and allies have committed to sending only one more.

The United States has sent Ukraine two air defense systems known as NASAMs, and the documents say that six more are to come from the United States, one from Canada and one from Norway. Additionally, Germany recently delivered its second of four IRIS-T systems.

As of March 1, Ukraine was believed to have only about 9,800 American-supplied 155-millimeter rounds on hand and was expected to run out within days. Over the next 12 days, the U.S. delivered another 30,000 rounds.

But at this point, Ukraine's appetite for 155-millimeter rounds is essentially limitless, and ammunition manufacturers in the United States and Europe say it will take years to catch up with the demand.

This week, officials said, Slovakia finished transferring 13 of its MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, and Poland earlier this month shipped at least some of the four it has promised.

But Ukraine still wants sophisticated American-made F-16s, which the Biden administration has so far refused to send. A Ukrainian lawmaker this week accused the United States of preventing other nations from transferring their own F-16s to Kyiv.

The Biden administration also is adamant that it will not send Ukraine long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems, which can strike targets up to 190 miles away. Kyiv says the missiles could help Ukraine reclaim Crimea, the peninsula Russia illegally annexed in 2014, but U.S. officials are concerned that the weapons could be used to strike targets deep inside Russia.

The United States has offered to send munitions known as Ground Launched Small Diameter Bombs, which have a range of 90 miles. But they must first be built, and production of even a small batch could take months.

— Lara Jakes

BRUSSELS — Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the costliest conflict in Europe since World War II, has propelled the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into a full-throttled effort to make itself again into the capable, war-fighting alliance it had been during the Cold War.

The shift is transformative for an alliance characterized for decades by hibernation and self-doubt. After the recent embrace of long-neutral Finland by the alliance, it also amounts to another significant unintended consequence for Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin, of his war.

NATO is rapidly moving from what the military calls deterrence by retaliation to deterrence by denial. In the past, the theory was that if the Russians invaded, member states would try to hold on until allied forces, mainly American and based at home, could come to their aid and retaliate against the Russians to try to push them back.

But after the Russian atrocities in areas it occupied in Ukraine, from Bucha and Irpin to Mariupol and Kherson, frontier states like Poland and the Baltic countries no longer want to risk any period of Russian occupation. They note that in the first days of the Ukrainian invasion, Russian troops took land larger than some Baltic nations.

To prevent that, to deter by denial, means a revolution in practical terms: more troops based permanently along the Russian border, more integration of American and allied war plans, more military spending and more detailed requirements for allies to have specific kinds of forces and equipment to fight, if necessary, in pre-assigned places.

— Steven Erlanger

The soldiers, still outfitted in camo, arrived not by cargo plane or armored carrier but by wheelchair, and formed up before a crowd bearing flags, flowers and the traditional loaves of bread.

There were handshakes, hugs and song — the Ukrainian national anthem, of course — and a few photographs, but no long-winded speeches or squandered minutes.

This was the arrivals area of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, far from home. These soldiers had a lot to get done and not much time to do it.

Thirteen months ago, the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine had barely begun when Serhii Lukashchuk got the early-morning call. "They said, ‘The war has started,’ so I put on my uniform and went to the front lines," he said.

It was his second tour in the Ukrainian Army, but just weeks after arriving in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, he stepped on a land mine, losing his right leg below the knee and part of his left foot.

Surgery followed, and still more surgery.

"And then I was in America," he said.

Mr. Lukashchuk, 30, was part of the seventh group of Ukrainian amputees to find their way to the Protez Foundation rehabilitation clinic in Oakdale, Minn., where they were being fitted with new limbs.

Years of hostilities with Russia and its proxies have forced Ukraine to become skilled in the art of replacing limbs, but with the war in its second year, the need has become too great for Ukraine's medical workers alone. So since last summer, Protez, a nonprofit group, has been taking in Ukrainians who have lost limbs.

By March, almost 800 Ukrainians had signed up for help, said Dr. Yakov Gradinar, the chief medical officer at Protez. So far, the clinic has equipped almost 60 people, most of them soldiers, with prosthetic devices.

"The biggest part of their success has been their determination," said Dr. Gradinar, who spent his early childhood in Ukraine. All of the men photographed for this article volunteered for the military after Russia invaded. "That just shows their drive," he said.

David Guttenfelder contributed reporting.

— David Guttenfelder and Eric Nagourney

KOSTYANTYNIVKA, Ukraine — Standing outside her home, pointing out the rocket crater in her driveway, a Ukrainian resident of the frontline town was angry, and quick to assign responsibility for the attack.

"They are killing us," she said. "Our own guys are shelling us."

The woman, named Natasha, blamed the rocket strike in Kostyantynivka not on the Russian forces that have been attacking the nearby city of Bakhmut and surrounding towns for the past eight months, but on her own forces, the Ukrainian Army.

A year into the war, despite suffering months of artillery and rocket strikes at the hands of the Russian military, some residents of towns along the front line in eastern Ukraine still confound officials and the police with their support for Russia.

They repeat Russian propaganda lines, accusing the West of causing the war and the Ukrainian Army of shelling homes in order to force people to leave.

"They are doing it on purpose," Natasha said. "They said people need to be evacuated. They need the land."

Ukrainian soldiers call them "waiters," people who refuse to be evacuated and are holding out in their homes in anticipation of a Russian takeover of their region, even as the Russian bombardment endangers their lives. They represent a diminishing minority in Ukraine, which overwhelmingly supports independence from Russia, but nevertheless amount to thousands of civilians.

The eastern Donbas was already the most pro-Russian region in Ukraine, close geographically to Russia and featuring families with ties to both countries. Russian was spoken more often than Ukrainian in the cities.

But the local police chief, Dmytro Kirdiapkin, attributes the view of civilians like Natasha largely to the relentless and insidious Russian propaganda campaign that has been imposed on the local population for more than a decade. It has turned them against their own government, he said, and pushed them into the arms of the Russian proxy forces that took hold of parts of eastern Ukraine in 2014.

"In my opinion, it's the most brutal weapon the Russian Federation uses on our people," Chief Kirdiapkin said in an interview last month in his office in Kostyantynivka.

— Carlotta Gall, Oleksandr Chubko and Dyma Shapoval

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine says he has asked NATO's secretary general to help "overcome the reluctance" of some Ukrainian allies to provide long-range weapons and more modern aircraft and artillery.

"Delay with appropriate decisions is time lost for peace and the lives of our soldiers, who have not yet received the vitally necessary number of defense means," Mr. Zelensky said during a joint news conference with the alliance's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, in Kyiv on Thursday.

Mr. Zelensky has repeatedly expressed frustration with the pace of weapons deliveries from Western allies. He spoke on the eve of a meeting of defense and military officials from more than 40 countries supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia, a gathering known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III told the gathering on Friday that the members of the group had together provided more than $55 billion in security assistance to Ukraine.

"Our support has not wavered," Mr. Austin said. "And I’m proud of the progress that we have made together."

Ukraine's prosecutor general, Andriy Kostin, emphasized the urgency of new weapons deliveries this week during a visit to the United States, where he testified at a House panel's hearing on Russian wartime atrocities. Appearing on CNN on Wednesday evening, Mr. Kostin pushed back on the idea that Ukraine had what it needed on the battlefield.

"I don't think that anyone in Ukraine can say that we’re receiving everything we need," Mr. Kostin said, adding, "We need more and we need it quicker."

Every day of Russian aggression takes the lives of Ukrainians. We need a truly global effort to #StopRussia and hold its leaders accountable for international crimes. Spoke about it with @jaketapper on @TheLeadCNN https://t.co/sTLnKsyW2l

Before Friday's meeting of the contact group, several nations announced new aid packages for Ukraine.

Denmark and the Netherlands said on Thursday that they would buy 14 Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine, to be delivered next year.

Estonia also said it would provide 155-millimeter artillery shells, which Ukraine says it desperately needs, as part of a European Union effort to deliver more munitions. The $325 million weapons package the United States announced on Wednesday will include more than nine million rounds of small-arms munitions, as well as antitank mines.

Mr. Stoltenberg said during his visit to Kyiv that "Ukraine's rightful place is in NATO, and over time, our support will help you make this possible." But the alliance has not offered Ukraine a pathway to membership, and some member states have said that doing so now would further provoke Russia.

Germany's defense minister, Boris Pistorius, said on Thursday that it was too soon to discuss Ukraine's NATO membership.

"The door is open a crack, but this is not the time to decide this," he said on the German channel ZDF. "First you have to fend off this conflict, this attack, and then you have to weigh this step carefully."

NATO members have been divided over giving Ukraine a path to joining the alliance, with Central and Eastern European officials pushing for one and the United States, France and Germany resisting. Mr. Stoltenberg said in February that Ukraine would become a member, but called it a "long-term" project.

— Anushka Patil and John Yoon

A haunting picture taken by Evgeniy Maloletka, a photographer for The Associated Press, in March last year in Mariupol, Ukraine, was honored with the World Press Photo of the Year award on Thursday.

Mr. Maloletka, a Ukrainian, photographed a pregnant woman on March 9, 2022, in the southeastern Ukrainian city as she was being rescued from a maternity hospital that had been hit by shelling, adding a human element to the horrors being endured just weeks after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country. The haunting image — taken as Russian forces were carrying out one of Moscow's most brutal campaigns of the war — ended up on the front pages of newspapers and websites around the world.

The 32-year-old woman, Iryna Kalinina, died of her injuries a half-hour after giving birth to the lifeless body of her baby, named Miron, The A.P. reported.

"For me, it is a moment that all the time I want to forget, but I cannot," Mr. Maloletka told The A.P. before the announcement on Thursday. "The story will always stay with me."

The A.P. was the last remaining Western news organization in Mariupol after it came under fire from Russia, and its team of journalists documented the siege for almost three weeks before escaping. Mr. Maloletka and his colleagues were also the winners of a George Polk Award for war reporting in February.

At the time of the strike and in response to worldwide condemnation, Russian officials argued that the hospital had been commandeered as a base by Ukrainian forces. Moscow's ambassador to the United Nations dismissed the A.P. images as "fake news."

The World Press Photo award honorees were selected from 24 regional winners, which were chosen from more than 60,000 entries (still images and multimedia) submitted by 3,752 entrants from 127 countries, the organization said.

— Laurence Tan and Juston Jones

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine addressed Mexican lawmakers on Thursday, drawing Mexico, which has said little publicly about Russia's invasion, into the global discussion of the war as Ukraine prepares for a new counteroffensive.

"We are nine hours apart and over 10,000 kilometers apart," Mr. Zelensky told Mexico's lower house of congress — the Chamber of Deputies — in a virtual address shortly before 1 p.m. there. "We have traveled different state paths and we speak different languages. But we also have something that allows us to understand each other: our hearts."

"Ukrainians and Mexicans hurt equally when we see innocent lives taken by cruel violence, where true peace could reign," he said.

The president of Ukraine has spoken to dozens of legislatures in the past year. He has used those appearances, including one to the U.S. Congress, to rally support and ask for more weapons to fight Russia. But speaking to Mexican lawmakers, Mr. Zelensky did not ask for military hardware or money. He lashed out at Moscow and urged Mexico to defend international law.

"Nobody in the world can be above human life," he said. "Nobody in the world has the right to ruin peace. Nobody in the world can be more equal than international law. I’m sure Ukraine and Mexico in that are in solidarity."

As Mr. Zelensky spoke, Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, was wrapping up a five-day visit to Latin America to drum up support for Russia, making a final stop in Cuba. He visited Brazil, Venezuela and Nicaragua earlier this week.

Mexico has mostly been absent from the global discussion on the war. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico has said little publicly since he condemned the war days after it started in February 2022. And while Mexico's ambassador to the United Nations has voted in favor of resolutions against Russia, the nation has sent little humanitarian aid to Ukraine, has said it would not take sides by sending weapons and has refused to support sanctions imposed on Russia.

Mr. López Obrador, who leads the left-wing Morena Party, did not show up in the chamber where Mr. Zelensky spoke over a video link.

Opposition leaders, however, were more supportive of Ukraine. Santiago Creel, president of Mexico's lower house of Congress and a member of the conservative National Action Party, condemned the invasion, noting that Mexico itself had been invaded four times in its history and had lost territory.

Mr. Creel did not go into detail, but the United States invaded Mexico during a war that lasted from 1846 and 1848 and ended with Mexico giving up a vast amount of its territory, including what is now California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of several other states.

"We recognize in you the struggle that you have been waging all this time in defense of your homeland and the dignity of your people," he said, addressing Mr. Zelensky.

In the Ukrainian president's nightly address on Thursday, he said he was "grateful to Mexico for the attention to Ukraine and for supporting our view on international security, on the need for the broadest possible unity of the world to protect international law.

"Because if the law does not work, the threat to life will only grow."

— Emiliano Rodríguez Mega

When the Ukrainian social media influencer Anna Tsukur started building her business as a fitness guru several years ago, she made choices to maximize her appeal — focus on women, shoot in inspiring locations like Bali and, above all, speak in Russian.

That was then.

After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, she decided that as an influencer, her first task should be to try to influence people about the war, appealing to her Russian followers to protest their country's actions.

The result: a stream of insults from Russians insisting Ukraine was at fault.

Then she decided to ignore her own business model. She switched languages to teach in Ukrainian despite knowing that she would lose followers not just in Russia, but also in the countries that once made up the Soviet Union and where many people still speak Russian.

"I felt from my heart," she said, "that it was the right thing to do to show that I support my people, Ukraine."

Moscow's invasion last year has caused a cultural upheaval in Ukrainian society that has run parallel to the fighting. Monuments to Russian heroes have been torn down or defaced, and Russian writers, painters and composers, lionized for decades by the Soviet education system, are suddenly vilified in a process called "de-Russification."

At the heart of that transformation is language, with more Ukrainians — most of whom understand both languages — switching to use Ukrainian. The transition had begun years earlier, starting with independence, but accelerated last year.

Like Ms. Tsukur, thousands of influencers creating content about everything from children's games to beauty tips and from science to comedy switched to Ukrainian from Russian after the full-scale invasion, in many cases overnight, according to Vira Slyvinska, a senior executive at AIR Media-Tech, an international company founded by Ukrainians that supports online content creators.

Some have also drastically shifted focus, abandoning their original topics for videos that support the country's war effort.

But by far the bigger change was the switch in language.

— Matthew Mpoke Bigg