KYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces widened their bombardment of Ukraine on Friday, attacking more major cities, moving toward Kyiv and inching westward while also pounding targets farther from the front line.
The intensified assault came even as the United States insisted diplomacy still had a role in the conflict and as Moscow pressed its propaganda war at the United Nations, with the specter emerging of a Russian biological or chemical attack.
President Joe Biden on Friday turned up economic pressure on Moscow, an “aggressor” that “must pay the price,” he said, revoking trade relations with the nation and banning Russian products such as diamonds and vodka. But Biden again refused Ukrainian pleas for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which U.S. and NATO officials say would inevitably bring Russia and the United States into direct conflict and escalate the war.
