Your Monday Briefing – The New York Times

Ukrainian forces repel Russian advance

Russian forces launched a heavy artillery barrage against the strategic port city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine early this morning, a day after Ukrainian troops pushed Russia’s faltering army out of bounds from the city. Residents face increasingly difficult conditions in another port city, Mariupol, which was cut off from food, heat and electricity for days. Follow the latest updates here.

Russian forces have suffered from logistical problems, confusing tactical decisions and low morale, preventing them from quickly capturing Mykolaiv and other cities, as Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to have intended. Their biggest obstacle, however, has been a surprisingly effective defense of Ukrainian forces, though they are vastly outgunned.

Frantic efforts to save civilians from worsening violence in Ukraine came under direct attack from Russian forces yesterday as at least three people were killed in shelling outside the capital, Kyiv. The Ukrainian army said it was successfully defending its position in fierce fighting north of Kiev and holding back the Russians from the east.

Here are the latest maps of the Russian invasion.

Refugees: The UN said that 1.5 million people fled Ukraine within 10 days of the start of the Russian invasion, making it the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. Some Ukrainian families are already feel the pain of separation.

In other wartime news:

• The police said more than 3,000 people were arrested during anti-war protests across Russia, the highest national total in a single day of protest in recent memory. An activist group that tracks arrests, OVD-Info, reported detentions in 49 different Russian cities.

• The Biden administration is studying how supply Russian-made Polish fighter jets to Ukraine, according to US officials. Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, is asking for more deadly military aid, especially Russian-made planes that Ukrainian pilots know how to fly. Russia has threatened countries that allow the Ukrainian military to use their airfields.

• Zelensky repeated his calls for NATO to impose a no-fly zone over his country to stop Russia’s air attack, saying, “It’s easy when you have the will.” NATO was unwilling to take such a step, fearing to incite a wider war with Russia.

• Many Ukrainians face a bewildering and frustrating backlash from relatives in Russia who joined the official Kremlin email: that there is no war in Ukraine.

Doses of a life-saving Covid drug go unused

Evusheld, a new treatment developed by AstraZeneca, can prevent Covid-19 in people who also cannot produce antibodies after being vaccinated or cannot be vaccinated at all. Given in two consecutive injections, it appears to offer up to six months of protection for immunocompromised people, giving it considerable appeal for those who have had to continue to stay at home even as the United States reopens.

But there’s so much confusion about the drug among healthcare providers that about 80% of available doses in the United States go unused — even as patients go to great lengths, often unsuccessfully, to get them. In some cases, patients and doctors don’t know that Evusheld exists or how to get it. Government guidelines on who should receive the treatment are sparse.

Hesitation is also a problem. Some providers do not know how to use Evusheld and are therefore reluctant to prescribe it. The fact that it is an antibody treatment can be confusing, as most of these treatments are used after someone has contracted Covid rather than for preventive care. And at some medical centers, supplies are reserved only for patients most at risk, such as recent transplant recipients and cancer patients.

By the numbers: The Biden administration purchased 1.7 million doses — enough to fully treat 850,000 people — and had nearly 650,000 doses ready for distribution as of last week, according to a federal health official. But only about 370,000 doses have been ordered by states, and less than a quarter of those have been used.

here is latest updates and pandemic cards.

In other virus news:

German companies feel the pain as Russia goes to war

German companies do more business in Russia than any other EU country, exporting goods worth more than 26 billion euros ($28.4 billion) in 2021 and investing there 25 billion additional euros in their operations. But since the start of the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, some companies have chosen to cut ties with Russia. Others are trying to stay, despite the obstacles of sanctions and the collapse of the rouble.

Major German automakers – BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and Daimler Truck – announced last week that they were halting exports and production in Russia. Family businesses, including ZF Group, an auto parts maker, and Haniel, which runs several independent businesses in Russia, are doing the same.

Beyond the impact on companies that had invested in Russia, analysts predict that the German economy as a whole will be hit by increases in energy and food prices as a result of the war. Since the invasion, politicians have rallied the public to see their sacrifices from a broader perspective. “We are ready to bear the burden,” said the German ambassador to the United States. “Freedom has no price.”

Quoteable: What remains for many companies is a deep sense of sadness, coupled with disillusionment. “These are more than just business relationships, they are real friendships,” said Peter Fenkl, managing director of a German industrial fan maker with close ties to Russia. “We sat side by side in meetings, drank beers together.”

Written in 1938, WH Auden’s ‘Museum of Fine Arts’ is a short, ironic poem about suffering that references Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s ‘Landscape with the Fall of Icarus’. It is one of the best-known examples of ekphrasis, or poems inspired by works of art, along with Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and Rilke’s “Archaic Torso of Apollo”.

Step inside Auden’s poem and the painting that inspired it.

ARTS AND IDEAS

A plant world

This is the perfect time to be lactose intolerant. Grocery stores now carry milk made from soy, almonds, coconut, oats and even potatoes, and the trend won’t be slowing down anytime soonwrites Victoria Petersen in The Times.

Plant milks have been around for a long time. Coconut milk has been used for centuries in Southeast Asia, South America and the Caribbean, and almond milk has been a staple ingredient in North Africa, Europe and the Middle East for nearly 1 000 years. But the growing popularity of vegetarian and vegan diets has turned such milks into a booming business: in 2020, plant-based milks accounted for 15% of all retail milk sales.

“Living in a metropolitan center like London, I don’t need to drink milk from cows, goats or any other animal,” said Sarah Bentley, who runs a plant-based cooking school. His favorites: hemp milk for its low environmental impact and, for his son, oat milk enriched with vitamins B and D.