An Emotional Appeal from Ukraine: Political Focus

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy delivered an impassioned address to the U.S. Congress asking for more help fending off Russia’s invasion and invoking Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11 to ask President Joe Biden to be “the leader of the world.”

In Ukraine, Russia’s army continued to strike civilian targets, including the leveling of a theater sheltering hundreds of civilians in Mariupol. That prompted Biden to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal.” The International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into war crimes in Ukraine.

Putin, in turn, warned he would cleanse Russia of the “scum and traitors” he accuses of working for the U.S. and its allies, as the government steps up pressure on domestic critics of his war.

More than three million people have escaped Ukraine, mostly to Poland, since the start of the invasion, according to UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency.

These were among the topics of this week’s most compelling political images.