For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT:

1:56 a.m.: The governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region says Russia shelled the region 26 times Wednesday, including nine times in the city of Severdonetsk, Al Jazeera reports.

1:23 a.m.: Reuters reports that Siemens will leave Russia because of the conflict in Ukraine. 

“We join the international community in condemning the war in Ukraine and are focused on supporting our people and providing humanitarian aid,” the company wrote on its website. “Siemens will exit the Russian market as a result of the Ukraine war. The company has started proceedings to wind down its industrial operations and all industrial business activities.”

On its website, Siemens AG describes itself as a technology company focused on “industry, infrastructure, transport, and health care.” In September 2021 it had some 303,000 employees worldwide. It has about 3,000 people in Russia, Reuters says.

1:03 a.m.: A Ukrainian serviceman at the besieged steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, turned to Twitter to ask Elon Musk for help, the BBC reports.

“People say you come from another planet to teach people to believe in the impossible,” Serhiy Volyna tweeted. “Our planets are next to each other, as I live where it is nearly impossible to survive. Help us get out of Azovstal to a mediating country. If not you, then who?”

12:30 a.m.: Japan and the European Union demanded Russia immediately end its invasion of Ukraine and said they support “further expanding sanctions against Putin’s Russia.”

In a joint statement following talks among Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, EU Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the EU and Japan said they would coordinate on political, financial and humanitarian support for Ukraine. They also pledged to mitigate other effects of the conflict, including working to stabilize world energy markets.

12:02 a.m.: Canada plans to charter three flights to bring Ukrainian refugees from Poland to Canada, The Washington Post reports.

The flights will be May 23, to Winnipeg, Manitoba; May 29 to Montreal and June 2 to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…