President Biden will hold talks with other Western leaders Friday afternoon about the Ukraine crisis and then deliver remarks, as 11th-hour efforts to prevent a Russian attack continue against the grim backdrop of widespread shelling in eastern Ukraine and Moscow’s continued troop buildup at the border.

The fear of an imminent assault rose Friday when the Russian-backed leader of a separatist-controlled area of eastern Ukraine said officials there were launching a mass evacuation of civilians into neighboring Russia, citing the threat of military action by Ukrainian troops. He said the evacuation was “by agreement” with Russian leadership.

But confusion surrounded the announcement by Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in Ukraine’s Donbas region. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had “no information about what is happening.” Read more: https://wapo.st/35ac4tW. Subscribe to The Washington Post on YouTube: https://wapo.st/2QOdcqK

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