March 8, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Ukraine’s Deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Yenin said Tuesday that foreign nationals who volunteer to fight for Ukraine will be eligible for Ukrainian citizenship, according to the Ukrainian National News Agency, Ukrinform.

“Ukraine is forming an International Legion of Territorial Defense composed of foreigners who want to join the resistance against the Russian aggressors and defend global security,” Ukrinform reported, citing Yenin.

Yenin reportedly said the number of foreign volunteers is growing.

“These people will sign a contract, receive a military passport, which then replaces their residence permit. In the future, if any among these foreign nationals would like to become Ukrainian citizens, our legislation provides a pathway for that,” he said, according to Ukrinform.

Some context: Last Thursday, Ukraine’s President said the first of 16,000 foreign fighters were making their way to the country to join the fight against Russia. CNN has not been able to confirm those numbers. Ukrainian embassies have been helping recruit foreign fighters, some without any military training.

Moldovan oil tanker “Millennial Spirit” is still smoking in the Black Sea, satellite images show, nearly two weeks after it was hit by an apparent Russian military strike.

Planet Labs PBC said they collected a new satellite image on Tuesday showing a large plume of black smoke coming from the tanker, which is floating about 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of the Ukrainian city of Odessa.

On Feb. 25, Ukrainian Armed Forces Lt. Gen. Valery Zaluzhny said a ship sailing under the flag of Moldova, 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of the port of Yuzhny, had been “damaged by a Russian ship.” The statement named the “Millennial Spirit” and said details were being confirmed. 

The ship was carrying 600 tons of fuel oil and diesel when it was hit by a Russian missile, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. Two crew members were seriously injured in the strike, the ministry said.

Japan’s Self-Defense Forces sent bulletproof vests to Ukraine on Tuesday — a rare move for the country, which must uphold its pacifist post-World War II constitution.

Strict guidelines that ban the transfer of defense supplies from Japan to parties in conflict were updated on Tuesday to allow defense equipment assigned by the defense minister to be given to Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, according to a statement from Japan’s Defense Ministry.

It’s the first time Japan’s defense force has sent bulletproof vests overseas.

The supplies were sent on a Japan Self-Defense Forces plane departing from Komaki Airbase in Aichi prefecture on Tuesday, according to a tweet by the Defense Ministry.

It came after a request from Ukraine’s defense minister last Friday. 

Japan is also planning to deliver other nonlethal emergency supplies such as food, hygiene products, cameras, power generators, tents and winter clothing to Ukraine, according to the Defense Ministry.

In a news conference Tuesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said it was “critically important” for Japan and its national security to respond firmly with other nations against Russian aggression and provide support to Ukraine. 

Japan is not planning to send lethal weapons to Ukraine, Matsuno added.

About 5,000 people and 1,000 cars evacuated the city of Sumy, northeastern Ukraine on Tuesday, according to deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office Kirill Timoshenko.

Timoshenko made the announcement on his Telegram channel. He also posted a video appearing to show people leaving during the evacuations.

CNN could not independently verify Timoshenko’s evacuation statistics.

Sumy has seen heavy attacks in the past few days and is almost cut off from the rest of the country. Some 21 people were reported killed in the city in an airstrike Monday night.

A tense and fleeting evacuation from Sumy took place on Tuesday, with civilians fleeing in private cars and buses taking people to Poltava, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) away in central Ukraine, according to Dmytro Lunin, head of the Poltava regional administration.

The United States is sending two Patriot missile batteries to Poland as a “defensive deployment” to counter any potential threat to US and NATO allies during Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, a spokesman for US European Command said Tuesday night.

Patriots are air defense missile systems: They are designed to counter and destroy incoming short-range ballistic missiles, advanced aircraft and cruise missiles.

“At the direction of the Secretary of Defense and at the invitation of our Polish allies, General Wolters, Commander, of US European Command has directed US Army Europe and Africa to reposition two Patriot Batteries to Poland,” Capt. Adam Miller, spokesman for EUCOM said in a statement.
“This is a prudent force protection measure that underpins our commitment to Article Five and will in no way support any offensive operations,” the statement said, referring to the principle that an attack on one member of NATO is an attack on all members. “Every step we take is intended to deter aggression and reassure our allies.”

CNN reported earlier this week that the US was considering sending Patriots to allies.

The recent trip by two top US foreign policy officials to Caracas, Venezuela, is a sign of just how much the geopolitical balance could be shifting in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

National Security Council Senior Director Juan Gonzalez and Venezuela Affairs Unit Chief James Story met embattled Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife on Saturday — the first since diplomatic relations between the two countries broke down in 2019.

Coverage of the meeting has, so far, focused on the possibility the White House might lift some of the sanctions it has imposed in recent years on the Venezuelan oil industry in order to replace imports from Russia, which US President Joe Biden banned earlier today.

Context: Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world — and historically, much of its crude oil has been exported to US refineries.

Venezuelan oil: Maduro confirmed Venezuela’s intention to increase its crude oil output on Monday, a move that comes as Russia’s oil exports are plummeting due to sanctions over its invasion in Ukraine.

“We are ready to regain production. One, two, or three million barrels, everything! Everything in the name of peace!” he said.

American deal might be easier said than done: Oil production in the country is at an almost all-time low after years of mismanagement and lack of maintenance of oil facilities.

It would take years, and billions of dollars of investments, to recover oil exports from Venezuela to what they used to be, suggests expert Francisco Monaldi, director of the Latin American Energy Program at the Baker Institute in Houston. So if the White House needs a short-term solution to lower the price of gasoline, it cannot come from Venezuela.

US citizens released: However, the US officials’ Venezuelan deployment did bring some immediate results. Venezuela released at least two US citizens late Tuesday, with speculation it was done as a “sign of goodwill” from Maduro (and as part of potential sanctions relief) that has yet to happen.

Gustavo Cárdenas is a US citizen detained in Caracas since 2017 and one of six detained oil executives from US refinery CITGO. Later, Jorge Alberto Fernandez, a Cuban-US dual citizen detained in Venezuela since February 2021, was released from prison. He is not one of the so-called “CITGO 6.”

The Caracas trip signals the intention that the White House might be ready to change its relationship to Venezuela in the long term. That’s because Caracas has grown much closer to Moscow under Maduro’s rule.

But it is a high stakes bet: Maduro has walked away from negotiations before — and if it doesn’t work out, Biden will likely pay a political price.

Governors across the United States broadly supported President Joe Biden’s decision to ban Russian energy imports to the country — but raised concerns about surging gas prices and the need to strengthen America’s energy independence.

Arkansas: Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) said Biden’s action is a unified message to Russian President Vladimir Putin but it will increase prices at the pump in the US.

“The Biden administration’s Russian oil embargo will have a reduced impact on Russia as long as Europe continues to buy Russian oil and gas,” Hutchinson said. “The US action is a unified message to Mr. Putin that his invasion and indiscriminate killing in Ukraine will result in consequences that will be harsh and protracted. Yes, the action will increase gas prices in the US and that is why I call upon the Biden administration to return the US to complete energy independence so we don’t have to depend upon despots for our energy supply.”

Florida: Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said: “The Biden administration needs to listen to Americans and increase domestic energy instead of relying on authoritarian regimes to fuel our country. Gas prices are out of control and people are getting hammered at the pump. The time is now to make America energy independent — again.”  

Washington: Gov. Jay Inslee (D) said the US needs to aggressively pursue clean energy alternatives. 

“Importantly, we have to recognize we can’t drill our way out of confrontation with authoritarian states. National security and economic security requires us to aggressively pursue clean energy alternatives,” Inslee said.

Gas tax: Six US governors — all Democrats — released a letter to congressional leaders calling for a suspension of the federal gasoline tax for the rest of the year. 

“At a time when people are directly impacted by rising prices on everyday goods, a federal gas tax holiday is a tool in the toolbox to reduce costs for Americans,” said the letter signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania and Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin. 

The White House relayed to Congress concerns over a bipartisan deal that was reached to clamp down on Russia — citing in particular provisions that would suspend normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus, according to multiple sources in both parties.

Now the House is moving ahead tomorrow on a different anti-Russia bill that would instead review Russia’s status in the World Trade Organization, while reauthorizing the Magnitsky sanctions law and banning Russian energy imports. That bill will be approved by the House tomorrow, sending it to the Senate.

Republicans are angry because they believe the White House undercut a bipartisan deal reached by the four top tax-writers in Congress.

“I thought revoking PNTR was a very strong sanction, and I was very disappointed that was dropped from the bill,” said Rep. Kevin Brady, the top GOP tax-writer, referring to “permanent normal trade relations.” 

Even though Brady characterized this bill as a weaker bill, he told CNN: “I think there’s certainly bipartisan support.”

The US House will now move on a bill to clamp down on Russia tomorrow after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said earlier that the bill would come to the floor tonight.

The reason for the change: They had originally tried to approve it under “suspension of the rules,” which requires two-third support to pass. But a Democratic leadership aide says that Republicans would not commit to giving them enough votes to get the bill through under suspension.

So they now plan to move the bill under a rule tomorrow so it can pass with a simple majority.

Following US President Joe Biden’s announcement today that his administration is banning Russian energy imports, Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues that the House would vote on a bill that follows similar steps. The bill would ban imports of Russian energy, take steps to scrutinize Russia’s role in the World Trade Organization, and reauthorize the Magnitsky Act to strengthen sanctions on Russia.

What is the Magnitsky Act? The act, signed into law in December 2012, blocks entry into the US and freezes the assets of certain Russian government officials and businessmen accused of human rights violations.

US Vice President Kamala Harris is set to begin her trip to Poland and Romania tomorrow as the Biden administration continues to show support for Ukraine and the US’ eastern NATO allies while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters a dangerous new phase.

Harris’ trip will take place from Wednesday through March 11, and will include stops in Warsaw and Bucharest, according to a Friday announcement by the White House.

She’ll meet with the leaders of both countries to coordinate on their response to Russia’s invasion and discuss how the US can further support Ukraine’s neighboring nations as they prepare to welcome Ukrainian refugees fleeing the conflict.

The White House says the leaders will also “discuss their continuing support for the people of Ukraine through security, economic, and humanitarian assistance and our determination to impose severe economic consequences on Russia and those complicit in Russia’s invasion.”

The trip comes as the Pentagon on Tuesday dismissed Poland’s proposal to transfer its MiG-29 fighter jets to the United States for delivery to Ukraine.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement that the Pentagon did not believe Poland’s proposal was “tenable,” just hours after Polish officials released a statement saying the government was ready to deploy all of its MiG-29 fighter jets to US Air Force’s Rammstein Air Base in Germany so they could then be provided to Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

Kirby said that the decision about transferring Polish-owned planes to Ukraine was “ultimately one for the Polish government,” adding that the proposal shows the complexities that the issue presents as Russia has made threatening statements over arms being provided to Ukrainians for use against Russian forces.

The idea as laid out by Poland was too risky, Kirby said, as the US and NATO seek to avoid an outright conflict between the alliance and Russia.

More background: The Defense Department statement was released Tuesday evening after the Polish proposal caught the Biden administration completely off guard, multiple sources told CNN.

While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pleaded for more aircraft amid the Russian invasion, the offer had not been discussed with the US before making it public and Polish officials did not bring it up with Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he was recently in Poland either.

US officials have privately weighed sending aircraft to Ukraine but have repeatedly noted the difficult logistical challenges of doing so.

Poland’s surprise announcement complicates what had already been a high-stakes visit by Vice President Kamala Harris, who is due to land in Warsaw late Wednesday.

Harris had been expected to discuss the fighter jet issue while in Poland, according to officials. The White House had previously said it was in discussions with the Polish government about a plan for Poland to supply Ukraine with its Soviet-era fighter jets and the US to backfill the planes with F-16s.

Harris is still scheduled to depart Wednesday morning for Poland, but now there are intensive conversations within the administration about how to work with Poland to come to some sort of agreement that allows the jets to reach Ukraine.

CNN’s Jeremy Herb, Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler and Oren Liebermann contributed reporting to this post. 

Ukrainian biathlete Dmytro Suiarko, who won bronze in middle distance vision impaired on Tuesday at the Paralympics in Beijing, said his house “was bombed and destroyed.”

Suiarko was part of a Ukrainian podium sweep in the biathlon event, with Vitaliy Lukyanenko winning gold and Anatoliy Kovalevskyi taking silver.

“I’m very happy. It’s an amazing day today, 8 March,” Suiarko said, according to quotes provided by Beijing 2022. “Today is (international) women’s day and my medal is for women in Ukraine. I’m very happy with the race because after my last shooting I lost 10 seconds on the bronze position, but (I did) the last loop very quickly and I took a medal,” Suiarko said.

“I am very happy my friends Vitaliy and Anatoliy took the gold and silver medals,” he added.

Suiarko said that despite feeling happy about his medal, the crisis in Ukraine is on his mind, he said that his home was bombed.

“I am happy, but you know the situation in Ukraine. Very hard concentration is needed in biathlon and I missed twice because yesterday my house where I live, it was bombed and destroyed,” Suiarko said.

Regarding the podium sweep, Suiarko said: “I am very happy because three athletes from Ukraine stand on the podium again. For me, it’s something amazing. I am very happy, but not 100% because in my country there is a very big situation and I want peace for Ukraine.”

The Pentagon dismissed Poland’s proposal to transfer their MiG-29 fighter jets to the United States for delivery to Ukraine, calling it not “tenable,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Tuesday.

The Pentagon is in touch with the Polish government about the issue, but Poland’s proposal shows the “complexities” of transferring the fighters to Ukraine, Kirby said in the statement.

“It is simply not clear to us that there is a substantive rationale for it,” Kirby said. “We will continue to consult with Poland and our other NATO allies about this issue and the difficult logistical challenges it presents, but we do not believe Poland’s proposal is a tenable one.”

Earlier Tuesday, the Polish government proposed moving all of their MiG-29s to the US Air Force’s Ramstein Air Base in Germany, according to a statement from the foreign ministry. The US government would then provide them to Ukraine, the ministry said. In exchange, Poland requested used fighter jets to replace the MiG-29s.

Kirby said the idea as laid out by Poland was too risky, as the US and NATO seek to avoid an outright conflict between the alliance and Russia.

Multiple sources tell CNN that the Biden administration was completely caught off guard by the Polish offer to provide the US with the fleet of used MiG-29 fighter jets.

The Polish offer had not been discussed with the US before making it public and Polish officials did not bring it up with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he was recently in Poland, either. 

US officials have privately weighed sending aircraft to Ukraine but have repeatedly noted the difficult logistical challenges that doing so would come with.

More background: Poland’s surprise announcement complicates what had already been a high-stakes visit by US Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Harris had been expected to discuss the fighter jet issue while in Poland, according to officials. The White House had previously said it was in discussions with the Polish government about a plan for Poland to supply Ukraine with its Soviet-era fighter jets and the US to backfill the planes with F-16s.

Harris is still scheduled to depart Wednesday morning for Poland, but now there are intensive conversations within the administration about how to work with Poland to come to some sort of agreement that allows the jets to reach Ukraine.

On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden announced a ban on Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports to the US in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Victoria Nuland, the US State Department undersecretary for Political Affairs, reacted to the ban on CNN, saying, “we need to remember that the villain here is President Putin and President Zelensky is right, every drop of Russian oil that is consumed, is another drop of Ukrainian blood spilled.”

Speaking live with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Nuland noted that at this point in the conflict, the purpose of sanctions is to directly impact the Russian president. The official said that 70% of Russian oil “is now offline” as a result of sanctions and bans like the one that Biden announced today.

“Now we have to punish him. And unfortunately, we have to make the Russian people, too, also feel what he has done to global peace and security,” Nuland told Tapper. “So that is the first purpose is to ensure that over the long-term, the medium-term, ideally over the short-term, that this is a strategic loss for President Putin.”

Should the sanctions force Putin into altering his offensive, Nuland said the US would respond in kind.

“If in fact, he gets out of Ukraine, if in fact, he gives back what he has stolen and makes reparations, obviously, we will work with the Ukrainians on lifting of sanctions,” she said. “I want to live for that happy day.”

Nuland offered Tapper and his viewers a glimpse into where Russia is currently at in terms of the invasion into Ukraine, a view that doesn’t reflect positively on Putin.

“He is losing tanks and aircraft. He has thousands of soldiers dying, who will go home in body bags to Russians. He has citizens now who have zero access to a free press or ATMs or western technology. The pressure on him is growing. And sooner or later, he will wake up or the Russian people will wake up,” she said.

“Unfortunately, it could be a long and difficult grind to get from here to there and I think all of us owe a huge debt to the Ukrainian people. Because it is they who are sacrificing, not just for their democracy but for all of our democracies,” she added.

Nuland spoke today at a US Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Russia’s invasion on Ukraine. She told lawmakers she believes the war will end “when Putin realizes that this adventure has put his own leadership standing at risk, with his own military, with his own people, that he is hemorrhaging the lives of the people of Russia, the army of Russia and their future to his own vain ambition.”

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler and Kyle Atwood contributed reporting to this post.

Check out Victoria Nuland’s full interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper:

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Just two weeks ago, residents of the Ukrainian capital were tending to their shops, teaching schoolchildren or parked at their office desks.

The Russian invasion changed all that. Fighting literally for their lives, civilians, turned into volunteer soldiers, helped construct defenses with military precision — and they are now manning them.

Trenches run deep into the woods that surround the highway leading in Kyiv from the south. Fortified fallback positions are ready for whatever comes next. Huge metal anti-tank barriers known here as “the hedgehogs” because of their spiky shape are placed at regular intervals along the road. And makeshift blockades made of sandbags and huge concrete blocks stand at every exit.

The people of Kyiv are determined to defend their city.

As Russian forces approach, the resolve of its residents is palpable — with many appearing in good spirits.

Some flash a victory sign as vehicles pass by. The blue and yellow national flag can be seen everywhere.

At one checkpoint en route to Kyiv on Tuesday, volunteer defenders were handing out flowers to women in their cars to mark International Women’s Day.

Many volunteers do not seem to be dressed warm enough for the freezing weather. They wear civilian clothes, with big coats and sweatpants an unofficial uniform. Their pants are mostly green, black or camouflage motif — not the military kind — but the civilian pattern made for hunting.

Some, but not all volunteers, are armed with automatic rifles and big knives.

Oleksiy Goncharenko, a volunteer manning one of the defense positions in Kyiv, told CNN that he works in four-hour shifts at the checkpoint.
His face is red from the cold. “It’s OK. Just cold,” he says, adding that “locals are giving us soups and things like that.”

Almost 40,000 volunteers joined the Territorial Defense Forces in the first two days after the invasion began, according to the Ukrainian armed forces’ chief of staff. In Kyiv alone, 18,000 picked up weapons when authorities called for volunteers and reservists to do so.

Those who couldn’t join the forces (so many people signed up that the Territorial Defense Forces had to start turning people away) are helping in other ways.

They are making Molotov cocktails, sewing camouflage nets for barricades, distributing food, hot drinks and cigarettes to those standing guard. They are raising money for the military, building more road blocks and even painting over traffic signs in an attempt to confuse invading forces.

Read more here.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued an order to restrict or prohibit imports and exports of certain products and raw materials from Russia in 2022, but a list of those products that will be restricted and/or prohibited has yet to be defined by the government, Russian state media RIA reports, quoting the decree on special foreign economic measures aimed to ensure Russia’s security.

The government will have to define the list of states to be covered by these decisions within two days, RIA says, but adds these restrictions will not cover products or raw materials being transported by citizens for their personal needs.

Putin’s ban comes as US President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that his administration is banning Russian energy imports — including oil, natural gas and coal — in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking in a video posted on Telegram on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed reports of an internal UN email advising staff not to refer to the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a “war.” 

“You may have seen in the news today the story that the United Nations allegedly does not consider the Russian invasion a war. I know this outraged many, and not only in Ukraine,” Zelensky said. 

“I am grateful to our team. We made everything clear and quickly received assurances: there will be no lies in the UN structures. There will be no playing along with the aggressor. The word “war” will be heard on this site. Because that is the truth. We will not allow anyone in the world to ignore the suffering and murder of our people, our children,” he added.

The United Nations in New York, for its part, walked back the email contents in a Tuesday news briefing, with UN spokesperson Stephan Dujarric saying that an unnamed regional office should not have issued a memo warning staff to not use the words “war” or “invasion” to describe what is happening in Ukraine, “because there are no official instructions on what words saying those things.”

The UN spokesperson said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has used the word “war” and so has his top political deputy in a tweet, saying, “This war is senseless.”

Speaking in a video posted on Telegram on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for committing to a new “Marshall Plan” for Ukraine and indicated the West will form the support for the plan.

The Marshall Plan was an initiative to rebuild Western Europe immediately after World War II in an attempt to stave off Communist influence, according to the US Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute.

“We are already expecting tough decisions from the European Union. Sanctions. Against Russia. For this war. For this aggression, which its authors will regret. They will. For sure. That is why it is so important that the Russian leadership realizes that the world will follow the example of the United States, Great Britain, the European Union, Canada, Australia, Japan and other free countries. So, the world cannot be fooled. Sanctions cannot be avoided,” Zelensky added.

The Ukrainian president also said he is grateful to the UK for offering to phase out the import of Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022. Zelensky’s comments come just hours after he spoke via video to the British Parliament.

Zelensky went on to thank Russian citizens who support peace saying: “I am grateful to those Russians who support us, take to the streets and fight. They are fighting daily for us and for themselves. Because they are fighting for peace.

“The war must end. We need to sit down at the negotiating table — honest, substantive, in the interests of the people, not obsolete murderous ambitions,” Zelensky said.

Bank of Russia announced new procedures for withdrawing funds from foreign currency deposits between March 9 and Sept. 9, 2022, limiting cash withdrawal to the equivalent of $10,000, Russian state media RIA reports.

“From March 9 to September 9, 2022, the Bank of Russia establishes the following procedure for issuing funds from foreign currency deposits or accounts of citizens: all customer funds from foreign currency accounts or deposits … the client can withdraw up to 10 thousand US dollars in cash, and the rest of the funds — in rubles at the market rate on the day of issue,” the statement read. 

During the period of this temporary order, the currency will be issued in US dollars, regardless of the currency of the account. Conversion of other currencies to USD will be at the market rate on the date of issue. Russia’s Central Bank notes that citizens can continue to keep funds in foreign currency deposits or accounts, RIA adds.

Currently, 1 Russian Ruble is equivalent to $0.0078 in US dollars.

A top State Department official said Tuesday that “Russia is trying to up the ante and broaden its demands” regarding the Iran nuclear deal “and we are not playing ‘Let’s Make a Deal.’”

Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland’s comments come after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier in the day that Moscow remains engaged in the effort to salvage the Iran nuclear deal, despite a recent demand by the Russian foreign minister for written guarantees that sanctions imposed for its invasion of Ukraine will not its impact future dealings with Tehran.

Nuland said “no” when asked at a US Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing if the administration has provided any written guarantees to Russia that their trade, investment or military cooperation with Iran will not be subject to sanctions.   

In his public comments, Blinken has stressed that the Ukraine and Iran nuclear deal issues are “totally different” and “not in any way linked together.” 

However, when asked by Sen. Todd Young, a Republican from Indiana, if “anything about your negotiations with the Russians changed as a result of their invasion of Ukraine,” Nuland replied: “Senator in this open setting, I will simply say that you are right. Russia is trying to up the ante and broaden its demands with regard to the JCPOA and we are not playing ‘Let’s Make a Deal.’”

Nuland said the US is not negotiating with Russia “vis-à-vis” Iran and echoed the top US diplomat that Russia and the US share the “same strategic objective” when it comes to efforts to salvage the nuclear deal: to ensure that Iran is never able to get a nuclear weapon.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Tuesday that while Hungary condemns Russia’s attack on Ukraine, it doesn’t support sanctions against Moscow covering ban on Russian energy imports.   

“While we condemn Russia’s armed offensive and we also condemn the war, we will not allow Hungarian families to be made to pay the price of the war; and so the sanctions must not be extended to the areas of oil and gas,” Orban said in a statement following bilateral talks in London with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.  

The extension of the sanctions to the Russian energy sector would represent a “disproportionately large burden” for Hungary, he said.  

Most of Hungary’s oil and natural gas imports come from Russia, and 90% of Hungarian families heat their homes with gas, Orban said, stressing that the Hungarian economy “simply cannot function” without Russian oil and gas.

In a brief response to Russia’s new ceasefire announcement, the Ukrainian Armed Forces noted that “the Russian side announces a ‘silence regime’ for the opening of humanitarian corridors tomorrow, March 9, from 9:00 am in Kyiv.”

In a Telegram post, the Armed Forces said that “Russia will request that Ukraine agree on the routes and opening hours of humanitarian corridors and notify representatives of foreign embassies, the UN, the OSCE, and the Red Cross by 02:00 in Kyiv on March 9.”

But it ends: “It is difficult to trust the occupier.”

More on Russia’s announcement: Russia announced a new ceasefire starting at 10 a.m. Moscow time (9 a.m. Ukrainian/2 a.m. ET) Wednesday, saying it’s ready to provide evacuation corridors from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol, along with other towns negotiated with the Ukrainian side.

Russian media reported the ceasefire parameters quoting the Russian Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine.

An apartment building and a major textile factory in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, were destroyed by Russian military strikes, Mayor Serhii Sukhomlyn said in two video messages posted to Telegram.

Sukhomlyn said that a dormitory, which was used by retired Army soldiers and civilians, was destroyed. He did not have any information on fatalities from the military strike at this time. 

In another video, Sukhomlyn said that a textile factory in the city, which manufactures roughly 70 percent of all cotton wool in the country, was destroyed by Russian military strikes.

Since the start of the Russian invasion, more than two million people have fled Ukraine. The European Union is being told to brace for as many as five million Ukrainian refugees, CNN’s Anderson Cooper reported from Kyiv.

Moving forward, the question stands: how are other European countries going to handle the steady influx of refugees?

“The numbers are just staggering. They’re coming in, in the hundreds of thousands at this point,” said Chris Skopec, executive vice president of Global Health at Project HOPE. “We’ve seen two million in 10 days. We’ve never seen anything like this.”

Poland alone has seen 1.2 million refugees cross its border, and as Skopec notes, the Polish government itself has offered an outpouring of support.

“They’re helping them get access to shelter, to clothes, to food,” he told Cooper.

As for Skopec’s organization specifically — Project HOPE — the emphasis is on the most immediate, basic needs, including medical services for refugees upon arrival. 

“The situation inside Ukraine is such that the primary health care system has been devastated. Hospitals are completely out of supplies … and just desperate for more support. People are coming after days and days of trying to travel and get into a refugee country, a hosting country. They are coming across. We’re seeing exhaustion, dehydration, gastrointestinal issues and certainly a lot of emotional and traumatic issues, just in how they are being able to cope with what’s happening,” said Skopec, adding, “The ability to get us medical care immediately as a matter of priority, screen them, try to understand what support and assistance they need … that’s really what our top priority is right now.”

With the number of refugees expected to increase in the coming weeks, Skopec is moved by the generosity of spirit he’s witnessing from humans willing to provide assistance and aid to each other.

“We’re seeing a huge number of people coming from around Poland, individuals out of the goodness of their heart, hoping to try to help out and provide people with rides, homes to stay in, temporary shelters, so they have [a] place to go. Really people are moving as quickly as they can through the border areas getting into major cities,” he said.

Skopec went on to share a story of a woman who was dealing with a range of emotions as she fled Ukraine for a safer space.

“I met a woman today right at the border, a Ukrainian woman, who on one hand was laughing at how ridiculous it was that she was getting on the first bus she could find to a city she’d never heard of in Germany, and then the next second turns around and is just weeping at the fact that she had to leave behind her two sons and her husband, and was all alone by herself and had no idea what she was going to do, and where she was going to go,” he said.

A Ukrainian refugee fled to Moldova. Here’s what she said to CNN’s Ivan Watson:

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Victoria Nuland, the US State Department’s undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, said Tuesday she believes the war will end “when Putin realizes that this adventure has put his own leadership standing at risk, with his own military, with his own people, that he is hemorrhaging the lives of the people of Russia, the army of Russia and their future to his own vain ambition.”

Speaking at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Nuland said at that point, Putin “will have to change course, or the Russian people take matters into their own hands.”

Asked what drove Putin to invade now, Nuland said such a question would have to be directed to the Russian leader, but added she believes that “over the years, President Putin’s imperial ambition has grown and he is dissatisfied with the last 30 years of Russian history and has longed for some time to be the guy that helps recreate the Soviet Union, the fall of which he said was one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century.”

“I think in the last couple of years he’s been particularly obsessed with this and particularly consumed. He has created, as you know, a whole bed of lies about how the US would use Ukraine as a springboard to Russia or that NATO would, and he has frankly made clear in the last couple of days that he doesn’t actually think that Ukraine is an independent country from Russia,” she continued.

“And so I think his interior mind is now out there and for everybody to see. So that’s what makes me worried that not only do we have to ensure that this Ukraine gambit is a strategic failure for Putin for Ukraine’s sake, but also for all of the other countries in the region, and his appetite has only grown with the eating. So you know, we can’t allow this to stand,” Nuland said.

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced his administration is banning Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports to the US in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a step he warned could lead to a spike in gas prices at home.

“Today I am announcing the United States is targeting the main artery of Russia’s economy. We’re banning all imports of Russian oil and gas and energy,” Biden said in remarks from the White House. “That means Russian oil will no longer be acceptable at US ports and the American people will deal another powerful blow to Putin’s war machine.”

Here are key things to know about Biden’s announcement today:

How we got here: Sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas industry had once been viewed as mostly off the table as officials in the United States and Europe worried about a global spike in prices. But pressure had been growing on Biden to act, including from Ukraine’s President and American lawmakers from both parties, as Russia’s onslaught in Ukraine increasingly targets civilians.

The US expected to make the move unilaterally, without its European allies, due to disagreement among European nations about whether to ban Russian energy imports. EU countries have significantly more exposure to Russian energy than the US. Not long before Biden’s announcement, the United Kingdom announced that it planned to phase out Russian oil imports by the end of the year.

Americans will feel the impact at the pump: Biden emphasized in his remarks that his decision will likely hurt Americans at the gas pump.

“The decision today is not without cost here at home,” Biden said. “Putin’s war is already hurting American families at the gas pump. Since Putin began his military build-up at Ukrainian borders, just since then, the price of gas at the pump in America went up 75 cents and with this action it’s going to go up further. I’m going to do everything I can to minimize Putin’s price hike here at home.”

The President also warned companies against price gouging during a time of crisis.

“To the oil and gas companies and to the finance firms that back them: We understand Putin’s war against the people of Ukraine is causing prices to rise. We get that. That’s self-evident. But, but, but, but — it’s no excuse to exercise excessive price increases or padding profits or any kind of effort to exploit this situation or American consumers, exploit them. Russia’s aggression is costing us all. And it’s no time for profiteering or price gouging,” Biden said.

The move comes as gas prices skyrocket in the US as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rocks the global oil market. The average price for a gallon of regular gas broke its 2008 record, hitting $4.14 on Monday, according to the Oil Price Information Service, the firm that collects and calculates prices for AAA. That breaks the previous record of $4.11 a gallon that has stood since July 2008.

Energy imports from Russia: US imports from Russia make up a small slice of American energy portfolio — roughly 8% in 2021, of which only about 3% was crude oil. White House economic officials have been engaged for more than a week as to how to manage any decision to cut off those imports, officials say. The Department of Energy reported that in the last two weeks of February, Russian oil imports dropped to zero as US companies cut ties with Russia, effectively implementing their own ban.

Impact on Russian economy: The sanctions the West has slapped on Russia following its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine had so far exempted oil exports.

Biden said the package of economic sanctions and export controls the US has already imposed on Russia has been causing “significant damage to Russia’s economy,” and that the value of the Russian ruble has tanked since Putin launched his attack on Ukraine.

“One ruble is now worth less than one American penny,” Biden said. The President said Russia would not be able to boost the value of the ruble because the West has cut off Russian’s largest banks from the international financial system.

The President noted major companies independently have suspended their services in Russia, including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Ford, Nike and Apple.

“The private sector is united against Russia’s vicious war of choice,” Biden said.

Read more about the announcement here and see Biden’s full executive order here.

The US estimates that as much as 8% to 10% of Russian military assets used in the invasion of Ukraine is now destroyed or inoperable, according to a US official familiar with the latest intelligence.

The equipment lost includes tanks, aircraft, artillery and other military assets. That is close to double the losses that CNN reported last week when it was estimated Russia had lost 3% to 5% of its military assets.

The US estimates the Ukrainian military has lost a similar percentage of its assets, the official said. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Tuesday that it has lost contact with remote data transmission from safeguards monitoring systems installed at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine, which was taken over by Russian forces last month.  

The Chernobyl site is not currently operational and handling of nuclear material has been halted, the IAEA said, citing information from Ukraine’s nuclear regulator. The facility holds decommissioned reactors as well as radioactive waste facilities. The regulatory authority told IAEA that it could only communicate with the plant via e-mail. 

“The Agency is looking into the status of safeguards monitoring systems in other locations in Ukraine and will provide further information soon,” the IAEA said in a statement.  

The agency said it had been informed by Ukrainian officials that it is becoming “increasingly urgent” to rotate staff for the “safe management” of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where some 210 personnel have been working for almost two weeks straight since Russian forces seized control of the facility.  

Staff have been effectively living at the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster for the past 13 days and while they have access to food, water and medicine to a “limited extend,” their situation is “worsening,” the IAEA said it was told by Ukraine’s nuclear regulator.  

“I’m deeply concerned about the difficult and stressful situation facing staff at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the potential risks this entails for nuclear safety,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in the statement.  

Eight of Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors are currently operating, Ukraine’s nuclear regulator told IAEA, and that radiation levels still appear normal. Staff have been able to swap shifts at the operational sites, including at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhya, which is also now under Russian control.   

Poland said on Tuesday that it was ready to deploy — immediately and free of charge — all their MiG-29 fighter jets to the US Air Force’s Ramstein Air Base in Germany and place them at the disposal of Washington to provide them to Ukraine, according to a statement from the Polish foreign ministry. 

“At the same time, Poland requests the United States to provide us with used aircraft with corresponding operational capabilities. Poland is ready to immediately establish the conditions of purchase of the planes,” it added. 

The Polish government in the statement urged “other NATO Allies — owners of MIG-29 jets — to act in the same vein.” 

A top State Department official said Tuesday that Poland did not consult with the United States prior to issuing its statement about readiness to transfer jets to the US in Germany.

“I saw that announcement by the government of Poland as I was literally driving here today,” Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

“So to my knowledge, it wasn’t pre-consulted with us that they plan to give these planes to us,” she said.

“I look forward when this hearing is over to getting back to my desk and seeing how we will respond to this proposal of theirs to give the planes to us,” she said, noting that the US and Poland have been in consultations for a couple of days on this topic. 

A senior US defense official, meanwhile, told CNN that they’ve seen the Polish government’s announcement and “have nothing to offer at this time.”

More background: It remains unclear where the US will pull the F-16s from in order to possibly send them to Poland or other Eastern European countries in the near term. But members of Congress are supportive of the effort. Sen. Ben Cardin asked Nuland for the Biden administration to notify them if there were going to be any delays to getting these F-16s to Poland.

Still, the complicated logistics behind the idea that both US and Polish officials have now discussed have yet been determined, two European diplomats told CNN. 

The Polish announcement comes after some Polish officials were frustrated by how forward leaning the US was on this subject over the weekend, the sources said. 

“In fact, we’re talking with our Polish friends right now about what we might be able to do to backfill their needs if, in fact, they choose to provide these fighter jets to the Ukrainians. What can we do? How can we help to make sure that they get something to backfill the planes that they’re handing over to the Ukrainians? We’re in very active discussions with them about that,” Secretary of State Tony Blinken said over on CBS on Sunday. 

The Poles believe that the visit Vice President Harris is making to Poland in the coming days would be a good time for the US to announce more details but did not know if that was going to happen or not, a Polish official said. 

Other countries that are in talks with the US about also partaking in a similar are conducting the conversations quietly, without raising expectations, said a central European diplomat. 

CNN’s Barbara Starr contributed reporting to this post.

The US intelligence community believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin views the conflict in Ukraine as a “war he cannot afford to lose,” suggesting he is likely to escalate the conflict without any concern for the number of civilians killed, the US’s top intelligence chiefs told Congress.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said at a congressional hearing Tuesday that US intelligence assesses Putin is unlikely to be deterred by the setbacks the Russian military has faced in Ukraine, suggesting he is doubling down on his campaign to keep Ukraine from joining NATO.

CIA Director William Burns said Putin had launched the invasion “determined to dominate and control Ukraine” based on a set of assumptions that the conflict would be successful, including that Ukraine was weak, that European allies like France and Germany were risk-averse, that he had “sanctions-proofed” his economy and that his military was capable of a quick and decisive victory at minimal cost.

“He’s been proven wrong on every count,” Burns said.

The discussion of Putin’s motivations that led to Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine last month — and the sweeping, crippling sanctions from the West in response — offered the most public assessment to date of the US view of Putin’s ill-fated war in Ukraine. The intelligence community — which forecast Putin’s moves in the lead-up to the invasion —testified before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday at an annual worldwide threats hearing.

“This is a matter of deep personal conviction for him,” Burns told the committee. “He’s been stewing in a combustible combination of grievance and ambition for many years.”

Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the intelligence community estimates with “low confidence” that between 2,000 and 4,000 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine since Moscow launched its invasion last month.

Read more about their comments to Congress here.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday spoke with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin separately. 

In a tweet, Zelensky said he thanked Bennett “for Israel’s mediation efforts. Discussed ways to end the war and violence.” 

A Kremlin statement on the call said the Israelis initiated the call, and that the two leaders “discussed various aspects of the situation with Russia’s special military operation to protect Donbass. Vladimir Putin shared his assessment of the third round of talks between the Russian delegation and representatives from Ukraine held on March 7 in Belarus.” 

Israel has not provided any readouts or statements on the calls so far.

The latest round of conversations comes three days after Bennett took a surprise trip to Moscow on Saturday where he spent three hours with Putin. Bennett said the following day that Israel will continue to help mediate “even if the chance is not great.” 

Russia has announced a new ceasefire starting at 10 a.m. Moscow time (9 a.m. Ukrainian/2 a.m. ET) Wednesday, saying it’s ready to provide evacuation corridors from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol, along with other towns negotiated with the Ukrainian side.

Russian media reported the ceasefire parameters quoting the Russian Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine.

Russia insists on the need of a continuous communication channel with Ukraine to exchange information regarding the evacuation of civilians and foreigners.

The Russian side proposes that Kyiv notify the representatives of the embassies of foreign states, and international organizations located on the territory of Ukraine about the ceasefire and the provision of humanitarian corridors by 3 a.m. Moscow time Wednesday (7 p.m. ET Tuesday).

Information on evacuation corridors from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol will be sent to Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk on Wednesday, said the Russian Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine.

The first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, published an open letter on her Facebook page reflecting on what has happened to Ukraine in the past two weeks since the Russian invasion.

“Despite assurances from Kremlin-backed propaganda outlets, who call this a ‘special operation’ — it is, in fact, the mass murder of Ukrainian civilians,” Zelenska said.

In the long and impassioned letter, she added: “Perhaps the most terrifying and devastating of this invasion are the child casualties. Eight-year-old Alice who died on the streets of Okhtyrka while her grandfather tried to protect her. Or Polina from Kyiv, who died in the shelling with her parents. 14-year-old Arseniy was hit in the head by wreckage and could not be saved because an ambulance could not get to him on time because of intense fires.”

“The first newborn of the war, saw the concrete ceiling of the basement, their first breath was the acrid air of the underground, and they were greeted by a community trapped and terrorized. At this point, there are several dozen children who have never known peace in their lives,” she wrote.

The Ukrainian first lady also discussed the challenges of getting essential medical care, as well as the growing tide of refugees.

She said Russian President Vladimir Putin has underestimated Ukrainians’ resistance.

“While Kremlin propagandists bragged that Ukrainians would welcome them with flowers as saviors, they have been shunned with Molotov cocktails,” she wrote.

Zelenska also thanked people from around the world for supporting her country.

And she echoed her husband’s demands for a no-fly zone over Ukraine. “Close the sky, and we will manage the war on the ground ourselves,” she said.

She concluded: “I testify and tell the world: the war in Ukraine is not a war “somewhere out there.” This is a war in Europe, close to the EU borders. Ukraine is stopping the force that may aggressively enter your cities tomorrow under the pretext of saving civilians.”

“If we don’t stop Putin, who threatens to start a nuclear war, there will be no safe place in the world for any of us,” she continued.

A bar owner and his team of volunteers in Kharkiv, Ukraine, have transformed the bar into an emergency shelter and food distribution center, and they are going around the battered city feeding about 1,800 people per day.

“We are not thinking about sleeping; we are not thinking about why we’re doing this. We just do it because for everyone here, that’s the only way,” Bohdan Yurov said to CNN’s John King in an interview.

Yurov said that seeing his city sustain heavy bombing now is “painful.”

“The last time bombs has fallen on Kharkiv was literally in the second World War, so it’s just unimaginable. … Like you just go the same streets, you try to visit houses where your relatives tried to hide from bombing and everything is just destroyed. Literally hundreds of houses. Every time we drive, we just think, ‘OK, which street is going to be next, which shelter is going to be next?’ Some places we cannot even recognize anymore so horrible they have destroyed,” he said.

He said they started out as a walk-in, but are now fielding requests through a direct helpline. “As soon as someone calls us, we are ready to deploy some supplies,” he added.

Yurov said he is in touch with several hundred supermarkets, stores and bakeries to help deliver free food to people around the city.

Watch Bohdan Yurov’s full interview with CNN’s John King:

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03:59 - Source: cnn

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked US President Joe Biden Tuesday for announcing the ban of Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports to the US.  

“Thankful for US and @POTUS personal leadership in striking in the heart of Putin’s war machine and banning oil, gas and coal from US market,” Zelensky tweeted.  

Speaking in a video posted on Telegram on Tuesday, Zelensky reiterated his thanks to Biden, saying: “The United States has taken a step that will significantly weaken the invaders. It will make them pay for aggression and be responsible for the evil they have done. For all the evil. America bans imports of oil from Russia, petroleum products, gas, coal. Prohibits US citizens from any investment in Russia’s fuel and energy sector.”

He added, “I am grateful personally to President of the United States Biden for this decision. For this leadership. For this most powerful signal to the whole world. It is very simple: every penny paid to Russia turns into bullets and projectiles that fly to other sovereign states.”

More on Biden’s actions: Sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas industry had once been viewed as mostly off the table as officials in the United States and Europe worried about a global spike in prices. But pressure had been growing on Biden to act, including from Zelensky and American lawmakers from both parties, as Russia’s onslaught in Ukraine increasingly targets civilians.

Biden acknowledged in frank remarks from the White House the step was likely to lead to higher costs for Americans, a potent political issue that is already leading to attacks from Republicans.

See Zelensky’s tweet:

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Jeremy Diamond, Kevin Liptak, Phil Mattingly, MJ Lee and Kate Sullivan contributed reporting to this post.

A nine-car long armored Russian military train has been moved into Ukraine’s Kherson region from Crimea, according to a video posted on social media.

CNN has geolocated, and verified the authenticity of the video. It was first posted online by Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov on Monday, but incorrectly located.

An eyewitness took video of the train as it was passing through Novooleksiivka, Ukraine. The small town of Novooleksiivka is roughly 20 miles northeast from Russia-annexed Crimea and 55 miles southwest of Melitopol, Ukraine, which is currently under Russian military occupation. 

The video shows that the train — the letter “Z” has been painted on some of the cars — has at least two apparent gunner cars.

The train is made up of two flatbed cars, one of which appears to be carrying a shrouded military vehicle and one other car.

In the video, a woman is heard yelling profanities at the Russian troops, in addition to, “Glory to Ukraine.”

A video report from Russian state media outlet Channel One in February 2020 gave an extensive look at the Baikal, one of Russia’s two armored trains. It’s unclear from the video whether the train seen in Novooleksiivka is the Baikal train.

The report claimed the Baikal has a communications jammer on-board to keep their communications covert and to not reveal their location. The Baikal is also were equipped with anti-aircraft turrets, 20mm thick walls, in addition to machine gun and sniper stations. It also has kitchen and dining room for the train crew.

Prior the invasion, Russia utilized its state-owned railroad company to transport and position many of its troops on the Ukrainian border in both Russia and Belarus. 

Josh Pennington contributed reporting to this post.

Despite using all of the forces it had concentrated in and around Ukraine, Russia is still making very little progress, with NATO’s current intelligence assessment suggesting Moscow is unlikely to make much progress in the foreseeable future, a NATO military official told CNN.

“We see very little change,” the official said, citing the alliance’s latest intelligence assessment. “For the first time, we don’t expect them to make any gains in the next few days.”

The official conceded Russia had been able to make some marginal gains, especially in the South, but said the expectation was Moscow should be moving much faster at this stage.

“With all their armor they should be moving much faster,” the official said.

The official also said the shift in strategy to more direct targeting of key urban centers, which led to heavier bombardment of some cities, also had produced “no big effect.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met for over an hour with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris Tuesday, according to the State Department.

Their meeting, which lasted from 6:05 p.m. to 7:18 p.m. local time, comes a day after President Joe Biden held a joint conversation with Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Macron spoke earlier on Tuesday with Scholz and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Blinken tweeted he was in Paris, which was not on his original itinerary, “to continue to work in solidarity with our French Allies to counter the threats that Kremlin aggression pose to democracy and peace in Europe.” 

“France’s leadership has been crucial to Europe’s unified, unprecedented response to Putin’s war of choice,” he wrote.

The US State Department is supporting international probes into potential war crimes and atrocities committed by Russia in Ukraine and is “committed to pursuing accountability for such acts using every tool available, including criminal prosecutions where appropriate,” a State Department spokesperson said.

According to the spokesperson, the State Department is “supporting Ukraine’s authorities, who are already working to document potential atrocity crimes for prosecution,” as well as the “the important work of human rights documenters in Ukraine.”

It is also supporting the UN Commission of Inquiry to investigate possible human rights violations by Russia and the OSCE expert mission invoked by the US and 44 other nations last week using the Moscow Mechanism. 

The Moscow Mechanism is used to establish short-term fact-finding missions on human rights concerns. It is a serious step, and according to the OSCE, it has been triggered only nine other times since its establishment in 1991. It was most recently used in 2020 to investigate human rights abuses in Belarus.

During a hearing Tuesday, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency said he did not believe the US had yet seen direct evidence that Moscow has committed war crimes in Ukraine.

“I don’t know that we have direct evidence besides what we see on social media. Certainly the bombing of schools and facilities that are not associated with the Ukrainian military would indicate to me that he’s stepping up right to the line if he hasn’t done so already,” Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier said.

In an interview on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, Secretary of State Tony Blinken has “seen very credible reports of deliberate attacks on civilians, which would constitute a war crime.” 

“We’ve seen very credible reports about the use of certain weapons. And what we’re doing right now is documenting all of this, putting it all together, looking at it, and making sure that as people and the appropriate organizations and institutions investigate whether war crimes have been or are being committed, that we can support whatever they’re doing,” Blinken said. “So right now we’re looking at these reports. They’re very credible. And we’re documenting everything.”

Last week, US Embassy Kyiv tweeted that “it is a war crime to attack a nuclear power plant. Putin’s shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear plant takes his reign of terror one step further. #TheHague #Zaporizhzhia #StandwithUkraine.” However, embassies in Europe were told by the State Department not to retweet that tweet.

CIA Director Bill Burns testified to the US House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that “something like 13 or 14,000” Russian citizens have been arrested for protesting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Burns said the current opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin among Russian citizens “is not a small thing” but noted the prevalence of state-run media will make it difficult for popular dissent to build quickly. 

“You see funerals in Russia of, you know, young Russian soldiers who were killed in Ukraine coming home and that clearly is going to have an impact over time. You also see, in relatively small numbers, but a lot of very courageous Russians out on the street protesting,” he said.  

Burns said the US will monitor Putin’s domestic popularity as the war in Ukraine continues but cautioned that Putin’s control of the media will help stave him stave off some popular unrest. 

“In an environment in which the Russian state media dominates what a lot of people hear about what’s going on in Ukraine, it’s going to take time, I think, for people to absorb the consequences of the choices that (Putin’s) made personally,” Burns said. 

Thirty-seven nations, including the United States, said in a joint statement Tuesday that Russia and Belarus “should not be permitted to host, bid for, or be awarded any international sporting events” in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Russia’s unprovoked and unjustifiable war of choice against Ukraine, enabled by the Belarusian government, is abhorrent and a flagrant breach of its international obligations. Respect for human rights and peaceful relations between nations form the foundation of international sport,” according to the joint statement, which was “was agreed upon by the ministers of sport or their equivalent.”

The statement also said that “individual athletes selected by Russia and Belarus, administrators and teams representing the Russian or Belarusian state should be banned from competing in other countries, including those representing bodies, cities or brands that are effectively representing Russia or Belarus, such as major football clubs,” and “wherever possible, appropriate actions should be taken to limit sponsorship and other financial support from entities with links to the Russian or Belarusian states.”

The nations called on all international sporting federations to do the same.

The statement also encouraged sports organizations “not to sanction athletes, coaches or officials who decide to unilaterally terminate their contracts with Russian, Belarusian or Ukrainian clubs, as well as not to pursue or to sanction sport organizers which decide to ban athletes or teams selected by Russia or Belarus.”

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she would be traveling to Washington, DC, on Tuesday to meet her American counterpart Antony Blinken. 

The United Kingdom will “drive forward” with “debilitating” the Russian economy alongside allies, Truss said in a briefing on Tuesday ahead of the visit to the US.

“What we’re (…) working with our allies to do is to debilitate the Russian economy, to stop the funding that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is using for his war machine. We’ve implemented sanctions on the Russian central bank, on the SWIFT system, we’ve frozen bank assets and in fact the UK is freezing more bank assets than any other country, we’ve frozen a total of 364 billion ($478 billion) worth of assets. We’ve also closed UK airspace to Russian planes as well as closing our ports to Russian vessels,” Truss said.

“Oil and gas (are) important and we are working with the G7 in terms of creating a timetable for a reduction on dependency on Russian oil and gas and we need to go further on banks, we need to completely eliminate access to the SWIFT system, we need to freeze more bank assets,” Truss added.

“It’s important that we remain strong and united with our allies and it’s important that we ensure that Putin loses in Ukraine. The consequences of him not losing are simply too awful to contemplate,” she warned.

Truss said Putin’s invasion of Ukraine had “shattered European security” and the UK and allies were now “in a battle for information with Russia.” The Foreign Secretary said that in consequence, the UK had re-established an information unit that had been abandoned after the end of the Cold War.

Aside debilitating the Russian economy, Truss said the UK’s strategy also consisted in providing defensive weapons and humanitarian aid to Ukraine as well as isolating Russia diplomatically.

“What we’re working to do together with our G7 allies is encourage more of those countries to supply defensive weapons in support to Ukraine and encourage more of those countries to join us in sanctioning Russia. And it’s significant that countries like Switzerland, South Korea, Singapore have all joined that effort,” she said.

“I’m traveling to America to forward this agenda and I think it’s important to note that global security is indivisible, what is good for the Euro-Atlantic is good for the Indo-Pacific, and a strong NATO will help deter aggressors everywhere. And that is why we need to step up our efforts to strengthen European security together with our allies in Europe, including the EU and our NATO allies but also with the United States and allies like Japan,” Truss said.

United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with the Defense Ministers of Slovakia, the United Kingdom, and France amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis, a senior US defense official told reporters Tuesday.

The calls were “all centered around the war in Ukraine and what the United States is doing to continue to provide security assistance to Ukraine,” the official said.

“He [Austin] thanked each of these leaders … for their country’s support to Ukraine, and for the assurance and deterrence measures they are all taking to help strengthen NATO’s Eastern Flank,” the official added.

McDonald’s is temporarily closing its locations in Russia. 

“McDonald’s has decided to temporarily close all our restaurants in Russia and pause all operations in the market,” CEO Chris Kempczinski said in a statement Tuesday.

There were 847 locations of McDonald’s in Russia at the close of last year, according to an investor document. 

Globally, most McDonald’s locations are operated by franchise operators. But that’s not the case in Russia, where 84% of locations are operated by the company, according to the document. 

Russia’s restaurants, along with another 108 in Ukraine, all operated by McDonald’s, accounted for 9% of the company’s revenue in 2021, according to the document. 

“In Russia, we employ 62,000 people who have poured their heart and soul into our McDonald’s brand to serve their communities. We work with hundreds of local, Russian suppliers and partners who produce the food for our menu and support our brand,” Kempczinski said. “And we serve millions of Russian customers each day who count on McDonald’s. In the thirty-plus years that McDonald’s has operated in Russia, we’ve become an essential part of the 850 communities in which we operate.” 

But, he added, “at the same time, our values mean we cannot ignore the needless human suffering unfolding in Ukraine.” 

Several Western companies across multiple industries have halted operations in Russia after the country’s attack on Ukraine. 

CNN’s Carolyn Sung contributed reporting to this post.

The United States cannot confirm Ukrainian claims to have killed Russian Maj. Gen. Vitaly Gerasimov, a senior US defense official said Tuesday.

The official also said the United States had no knowledge of a family relationship between Vitaly Gerasimov and Valery Gerasimov, who is the chief of staff of the Russian Armed Forces – the top ranking Russian military officer.

Earlier today, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said Gerasimov was killed in battle near Kharkiv.

The short statement on Monday offered no proof of the death of Gerasimov, and gave no details of when he was killed.

Unilever has suspended all imports and exports of its products to Russia is stopping all investment in the country.

The food and consumer goods giant, which owns household-name brands including Ben & Jerry’s and Dove, will also cease all media and advertising spending in Russia and says it will not profit from its presence in Russia.

In a statement the firm said “We will continue to supply our everyday essential food and hygiene products made in Russia to people in the country. We will keep this under close review.” It added “We join calls for an end to this war and hope that peace, human rights, and the international rule of law will prevail.”

Speaking about its operations in Ukraine, Unilever said “Our business operations in Ukraine have stopped and we are now fully focused on ensuring the safety of our Ukrainian employees and their families, including helping with their evacuation where necessary, and providing additional financial support. We have also committed to donate €5m of essential Unilever products to the humanitarian relief effort.”

Russia has conducted “several” cyberattacks in Ukraine in recent weeks, but the level of hacking has still not been “what we had anticipated” prior to the war, Gen. Paul Nakasone, National Security Agency director, told lawmakers Tuesday.

The relatively muted Russian activity in cyberspace is due to defensive measures from the Ukrainians, “some of the challenges that the Russians have encountered, and some of the work that others have been able to prevent their actions,” said Nakasone, who also heads US Cyber Command, said at the House Intelligence Committee’s worldwide threats hearing.

US officials have watched and tracked “very carefully” three of four of the Russian cyberattacks in Ukraine, Nakasone said without elaborating.

US national security officials from multiple agencies have provided Ukrainian officials with cybersecurity assistance to track threats and recover from hacking incidents.

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February, there were a series of cyberattacks that disrupted the websites of Ukrainian government agencies and, in other cases, wiped data from agency networks. The White House blamed Russia’s GRU military agency for the first set of website-disrupting cyberattacks that occurred in January. Moscow denied the allegation.

Washington has poured millions of dollars into bolstering Ukraine’s cyber defenses following a pair of alleged Russian cyberattacks in 2015 and 2016 that cut electricity in parts of Ukraine.

America’s oil and gas industry says it supports President Biden’s plan to ban Russian oil, natural gas, and coal imports into the US.

“Our industry is prepared to comply with the import ban in response to this aggression,” said Mike Sommers, president and CEO of the powerful American Petroleum Institute, on Tuesday, referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“The industry has already taken significant and meaningful steps to unwind relationships, both with respect to assets in Russia, as well as imports of Russian crude oil and refined products. We share the goal of reducing reliance on foreign energy sources and urge policymakers to advance American energy leadership and expand domestic production to counter Russia’s influence in global energy markets.”

Some context: Russia accounts for a small amount of the total energy imports into the US — about 8% last year. The API is the largest trade group for the U.S. oil and gas industry, whose members include Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP and Shell.

Shell announced earlier on Tuesday that it will stop purchasing Russian crude oil and completely withdraw from the Russian energy industry “aligned with new government guidance.”

In his speech Tuesday, Biden acknowledged the oil and gas firms pulling out of Russia, but once again warned companies not to take advantage of soaring oil costs to raise prices and pad profits. 

Sommers told CNN in an interview last month that U.S. oil companies would not seek to capitalize on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying his members want to do what’s best for consumers around the world. 

Russia has launched “nearly 670” missiles since the beginning of their invasion of Ukraine, a senior US defense official told reporters on Tuesday.

Almost half of the missiles launched have been fired from Russia, “the other half largely from inside Ukraine,” the official said. “A little bit more than 70” missiles have been fired from Belarus, and “only a half dozen or so” are coming from the Black Sea, the official added.

Putin has “nearly 100 percent” of the combat power that he amassed for this invasion inside of Ukraine and Putin “still has 95 percent of the combat power that he started with,” the official added.

“The combat power available to him if you count his estimated losses just in terms of aircraft and vehicles that are either inoperable or not moving or not available to him, he still has a lot of combat power available,” the official said.

Most of Ukraine is covered by “some sort of Russian surface-to-air missile capability,” the official told reporters.

“Very little of the nation of Ukraine is not covered by some sort of Russian surface-to-air missile capability, and they are also conducting offensive air strikes through missiles launched by aircraft as well as by mobile launchers,” the official said.

While Russians have more control of the airspace in some parts of the country, “up in the north more than anywhere else,” they don’t have control over the entire country, and the space overall remains contested, the official said.

“It’s very contested air space, and as I’ve said before, Russians have not achieved air superiority over the whole country,” the official said. “But as I’ve also said, there are parts of Ukraine where the Russians have been able to be more in control of the airspace, particularly you might imagine, up in the north more than anywhere else, but it changes, it’s very dynamic, every day.”

The city of Mariupol in the south of Ukraine has now been “isolated” by Russian forces, though Russian forces are only still bombarding the city and are not in Mariupol “in any significant way,” according to a senior US defense official.

CNN has previously reported that residents of Mariupol have been cut off from water and electricity for days.

The US is also seeing that Russian forces have not yet entered Mykolaiv, a key city that could be used as part of a coordinated assault against the city of Odessa, though there has been an increase in the bombardment and shelling of Mykolaiv, according to the official.

Russian forces are still trying to advance on the cities of Kharkiv and Chernihiv, but are still facing Ukrainian resistance and are making more progress in the south of Ukraine than elsewhere in the country, according to the official.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said a Russian general — Maj. Gen. Vitaly Gerasimov — was killed in battle near Kharkiv.

The short statement on Monday offered no proof of the death of Gerasimov, and gave no details of when he was killed.

Russian state media said nothing Tuesday about Gerasimov, although it did name other Russians killed in Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to CNN questions about Gerasimov on Tuesday, which is a national holiday in Russia.

Ukraine identified Gerasimov as “a Russian military commander, major general, chief of staff and first deputy commander of the 41st Army of the Central Military District of Russia” and said he was a veteran of Russian campaigns in Chechnya and Syria.

“A number of senior Russian army officers were also killed and wounded,” the Ukraine Defense Ministry statement said.

The ministry also alluded in its statement to communication problems that it says Russia’s army is facing. Christo Grozev, executive director of the open source investigative outlet Bellingcat, detailed in a Twitter thread that the information of the general’s death may have been gleaned from an intercept of a phone call on an unsecured network.

CNN has been unable to confirm those details.

Vitali Kim, Mykolaiv regional administrator, asked residents of the city to gather tires, which will be set on fire to impede the movement of Russian troops in the city. 

Once disoriented by the smoke, Kim said that Ukrainian forces would utilize weapons like rocket-propelled grenades to take out the vehicles. 

“We will stop them with smoke and will shoot them,” he said. “We know the city. This is our city, we know it by heart.”

Kim said that the Russian forces are regrouping. 

“We will avenge the victims in other cities — Kharkiv, Sumy, Kyiv,” he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the UK House of Commons via video on Tuesday, saying “we will fight to the end,” echoing former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s famous wartime speech.

“We will not give up and we will not lose. We will fight until the end at sea, in the air. We will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost,” he said in his comments translated by an interpreter.

Channeling a line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the Ukrainian leader said: “To be or not to be,” adding, “Thirteen days ago this question could have been asked about Ukraine, but now, absolutely not. It is obvious, we will be. It is obvious, we will be free.

Zelensky also expressed his gratitude to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and asked the parliament to “strengthen the sanctions” against Russia and recognize it “as a terrorist state.” He reiterated his request with NATO to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine, asking Britain to find a way to make the “Ukrainian skies safe.”

“Do what you can, what you have to, what the greatness of your country and your people obliges you to,” he added.

He criticized NATO for not delivering what Ukrainians were “looking for.”

“I don’t want to offend anyone, but we felt the alliances are not working, they can’t even close the skies. So there is a need to rebuilt European security from zero,” Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian president also used a portion of his remarks to describe how Russia’s invasion has unfolded in the country.

“I would like to tell you about the 13 days of war. The war that we didn’t start, and we didn’t want it,” he told British lawmakers.  

“We do not want to lose what we have what is ours, our country, Ukraine,” Zelensky said, adding “Just the same way as you once didn’t want to lose your country… And you had to fight for Britain.” 

The House of Commons gave Zelensky a standing ovation at the end of his address.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced in a letter that the US House would vote today on a bill to ban imports of Russian oil and energy products. 

According to Pelosi, the bill contains “three major provisions that will further isolate Russia from the global economy and leave it weaker in every way.”

She went on to list the components:

Earlier today, US President Joe Biden said his administration is banning Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports to the US in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The US will make the move unilaterally, without its European allies, due to disagreement among European nations about whether to ban Russian energy imports. EU countries have significantly more exposure to Russian energy than the US.

Dmytro Zhyvytsky, head of the regional administration in the Sumy region, has said that the evacuation route out of the city is about to close at 7:30 p.m. local/12:30 p.m. ET.

The city of Sumy has seen heavy attacks in the last few days and is almost cut off from the rest of the country. Twenty-one people were reported killed in the city in an airstrike Monday night.

“At the moment, citizens are being evacuated by their own vehicles. The organized column set off in the direction of the city of Romny. There are private cars there. They are accompanied by a Red Cross car,” Zhyvytsky said on his Telegram channel.

“The final time of departure from Sumy is 19:30. After 19:30 the checkpoint closes and it will be impossible to leave Sumy. The ceasefire regime has been agreed until 21:00.”

The Moscow Stock Exchange will remain closed on March 9, the Russian Central Bank announced in a statement on Tuesday.

Only limited operations will be allowed, according to the statement.

The exchange has been closed since Feb. 28, as the United States, European Union and other Western allies imposed sanctions and the Russian ruble plunged to record lows against the US dollar.

The US intelligence community estimates between 2,000 and 4,000 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine since Moscow launched its invasion last month, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency said Tuesday.

DIA Director Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier told the House Intelligence Committee Tuesday that the intelligence community has “low confidence” in its assessment of how many Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine, but that the range is between 2,000 and 4,000 troops. 

Berrier said that the estimate is based both on intelligence sources as well as open-source material. 

US President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin will never be successful in taking the whole of Ukraine.

“Putin seems determined to continue on his murderous path no matter the cost,” Biden said at the White House.

“He has already turned two million Ukrainians into refugees. Russia may continue to grind out its advance at a horrible price, but this much is already clear: Ukraine will never be a victory for Putin. Putin may be able to take a city, but he’ll never be able to hold the country. And if we do not respond to Putin’s assault on global peace and stability today, the cost of freedom, and to the American people, will be even greater tomorrow,” he said.

Biden also commended the Ukrainian people for their resistance in the face of war.

“They’ve inspired the world with their bravery, their patriotism, their defiant determination to live free. Putin’s war — Putin’s war — has caused an enormous suffering and needless loss of life of women, children, everyone in Ukraine — both Ukraine and, I might add, Russians,” he said.

US President Joe Biden acknowledged that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is already hurting American families, including rising gas prices. He admitted that his decision to ban Russian oil imports will cost at home.

“The decision today is not without cost here at home. Putin’s war is already hurting American families at the gas pump. Since Putin began his military build-up at the Ukrainian border, just since then, the price of gas in America went up 75 cents. With this action is going to go up further,” he said Tuesday.

Biden added, “I’m going to do everything I can to minimize Putin’s price hike here at home.”

He also addressed the American oil and gas companies, saying the war and its impacts are “no excuse to exercise excessive price increases” that exploit the American consumer, adding that he will not tolerate it.

“Russia’s aggression is costing us all. And it’s no time for profiteering or price gouging. I want to be clear about what we’ll not tolerate,” he said.

But he also acknowledged the firms that were “leading by example” by pulling out of Russia.

“This is a time when we have to do our part,” he said.

US President Joe Biden said banning Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports to the United States will have a price in the country, but lawmakers are united in taking action.

“There will be cost as well here in the United States. I said I would level with the American people from the beginning, and when I first spoke to this, I said defending freedom is going to cost, it’s going to cost us as well in the United States. Republicans and Democrats understand that alike. Republicans and Democrats alike are clear we must do this,” the President said from the White House.

He also said the US has provided more than $1 billion in security assistance to Ukraine. 

“Shipments of defensive weapons are arriving in Ukraine every day from the United States, and we in the United States are the ones coordinating delivery of our allies and partners of similar weapons — from Germany to Finland to the Netherlands. We’re working that out. We’re also providing humanitarian support for the Ukrainian people,” he said.  

The UK will phase out “the import of Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022,” UK Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said Tuesday.

“This transition will give the market, businesses and supply chains more than enough time to replace Russian imports – which make up 8% of UK demand,” he said on Twitter.

Kwarteng added that the government will work with companies to support them in finding alternative supplies. 

“The UK is a significant producer of oil and oil products, plus we hold significant reserves. Beyond Russia, the vast majority of our imports come from reliable partners such as the US, Netherlands and the Gulf. We’ll work with them this year to secure further supplies,” Kwarteng said.

He added that while the UK is not dependent on Russian natural gas, it only makes up 4% of UK supply, he is exploring options to end this altogether.

Read his tweets:

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that he was elevating the readiness status of his nuclear forces was “very unusual,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told lawmakers on Tuesday, but she said that it was better understood as messaging rather than an immediate threat to the United States. 

“We obviously take it very seriously when he’s signaling in this way,” Haines said. “But we do think [that] he is effectively signaling, that he’s attempting to deter” NATO from getting involved in the conflict in Ukraine, she said during testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. “That’s been his main purpose in doing so.”

Haines also said that the Russian announcement that Russian strategic forces would be placed on “special alert status” did not refer to a “technical term as we understand it within their system.” 

The intelligence community has closely tracked any Russian strategic movements, Haines said, but “we’re not seeing something at this stage that indicates that he is doing something different than what we’ve seen in the past.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin is “determined to dominate and control Ukraine” and went to war based on a set of assumptions that led him to believe Russia would have a favorable outcome, CIA Director Bill Burns testified Tuesday. 

Putin believed several assumptions about use of force, including the belief that Ukraine was weak and easily intimidated. Second, Putin believed that Europeans, especially the French and Germans, were distracted and risk-averse.  

Third, he believed he had “sanctions-proofed” his economy and created a large war chest to foreign currency reserves.  

And fourth, he was confident that he had modernized his military and they were capable of a quick decisive victory at minimal cost.  

Asked about what it would take for Putin to change his calculus in Ukraine, Burns offered a sober assessment, saying that “this is a matter of deep personal conviction for him.” 

Putin has “been stewing in a combustible combination of grievance and ambition for many years,” he said, adding that the Russian president has created a system in which his own circle of advisers is “narrower and narrower.” 

The global Covid-19 pandemic has also made his circle even smaller, Burns said during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats.  

Burns later predicted an “ugly next few weeks” with “scant regard for civilian casualties,” given Russia is unlikely to be able to install a puppet regime or pro-Russian leadership in the face of opposition from the Ukrainian people. 

“The Ukrainians are going to continue to resist fiercely and effectively,” he added. 

The US government is “very focused” on cybercriminals who might conduct ransomware attacks against US organizations during the Ukraine war, General Paul Nakasone, head of the National Security Agency, told the House Intelligence Committee on Friday.

US officials are also wary of the potential of Russian government-backed cyber operations aimed at Ukraine to inadvertently hamper US organizations, Nakasone and FBI Director Christopher Wray said at an annual hearing on worldwide threats to the US homeland.

“Even if the Russians think they have carefully calibrated some form of malicious cyber activity against our critical infrastructure, the reality is they’ve shown a history of not being able to manage the effects of it as well as they intend — even if you give them the benefit of the doubt, which I tend not to,” Wray told lawmakers.

Wray cited a 2017 cyberattack known as NotPetya that started by infecting Ukrainian accounting software but soon spread to major companies around the world, causing an estimated $10 billion in damages. The Justice Department later blamed Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency for the hack.

US officials say there aren’t any credible and specific threats to the US homeland stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But they have been warning for months about potential retaliatory hacking over Western sanctions on the Kremlin.

The US intelligence community assessed that Russia “does not want a direct conflict with US forces,” according to an annual unclassified threat assessment completed in late January and published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Tuesday. 

“Russia seeks an accommodation with the United States on mutual noninterference in both countries’ domestic affairs and U.S. recognition of Russia’s claimed sphere of influence over much of the former Soviet Union,” according to the document. 

The assertion comes as tensions between Russia and the United States have hit their lowest point in decades amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and as Russian President Vladimir Putin has publicly invoked the specter of nuclear weapons, unnerving U.S. officials. 

Moscow “views its nuclear capabilities as necessary for maintaining deterrence and achieving its goals in a potential conflict against the United States and NATO, and it sees a credible nuclear weapons deterrent as the ultimate guarantor of the Russian Federation,” according to the report.

Of the nearly 6,500 refugees who have been admitted to the US since October, 692 of them were from Ukraine as of Feb. 28, according to the latest data from the State Department.

Refugee resettlement advocates have urged US President Joe Biden’s administration to facilitate the resettlement of Ukrainians in the United States as the number of people fleeing Ukraine climbs to over two million. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday that the US is willing to accept refugees. 

“The United States is committed to doing everything we can, first of all, to support the countries bearing the immediate burden of taking in Ukrainians, and then, as appropriate if people seek refugee status in the United States, of course, we will look at that and I’m sure act on that,” he said.

Most people fleeing Ukraine have spilled into Poland, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

Germany’s federal prosecutor has opened a so-called ”structural investigation” into suspected war crimes committed by Russian troops since the invasion of Ukraine, the prosecutor’s office told CNN on Tuesday. 

”The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has opened a so-called structural investigation in connection with the international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine,” a statement sent to CNN said. 

”There are concrete indications that war crimes may have already been committed, in particular war crimes involving the use of prohibited methods of warfare against Ukrainian civilians as well as civilian objects,” the statement said.

Some more context: A structural investigation does not target particular suspects, Germany’s federal prosecutor in Karlsruhe said, but it aims to gather evidence of the suspected crimes and identify the structures behind them. The evidence can then be used in future criminal proceedings against individual suspects, Germany’s federal prosecutor explained to CNN. 

In the past Germany has repeatedly prosecuted atrocities committed abroad, including the war crimes in Syria. In January, a German court sentenced a former Syrian army colonel to life in prison, in the first-ever torture trial against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.  

The head of the Kyiv regional military administration, Oleksiy Kuleba, said that the humanitarian situation in areas around the city remains difficult.

“The main issue today remains humanitarian aid. Bucha, Irpin, Gostomel, Makariv, Borodyanka, Vorzel — residents of these settlements are forced to stay in bomb shelters for days without water and food. The occupiers do not give humanitarian corridors, do not give guarantees,” Kuleba said.

The five districts are to the north and west of Kyiv.

“Russian occupiers keep shelling residential areas. They keep bringing more military vehicles,” Kuleba said in a video statement on YouTube. 

“We demand silence every day, every hour, every minute. We will promptly and immediately send help and evacuate our people,” he said.

“We are doing everything to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Kyiv region,” he added.

More background: Russia had proposed a ceasefire Tuesday for five Ukrainian cities.

Ukrainian authorities have said that a long-awaited convoy of humanitarian aid for the besieged city of Mariupol on the south coast appears to have come under fire. CNN has been unable to verify the status of the convoy.

The Russian defense ministry said more than 700 people have been evacuated along an agreed evacuation route out of the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Tuesday. 

The European Union has outlined plans to eliminate its dependence on Russian energy.  

Speaking on Tuesday, it says it will cut Russian gas imports by two-thirds this year, and eliminate its overall need for Russian oil and gas “well before 2030.”

The EU said in a press release it plans to eliminate its dependence on Russian gas by “diversifying gas supplies, via higher LNG and pipeline imports from non-Russian suppliers, and larger volumes of biomethane and renewable hydrogen production and imports; and, reducing faster the use of fossil fuels in our homes, buildings, industry, and power system, by boosting energy efficiency, increasing renewables and electrification, and addressing infrastructure bottlenecks.”

The European Union depends on Russia for about 40% of its natural gas. Russia also supplies about 27% of the oil the EU imports each year.

Russian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said Monday Russia could cut off the supply of gas to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in retaliation for Scholz blocking the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.

The EU also announced a series of measures to counter soaring energy prices which the bloc has been facing for several months, now exacerbated by supply disruption worries, including potential temporary price limits and short-term state aid to companies affected by high energy prices.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “We must become independent from Russian oil, coal and gas. We simply cannot rely on a supplier who explicitly threatens us. We need to act now to mitigate the impact of rising energy prices, diversify our gas supply for next winter and accelerate the clean energy transition.”

EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said that the EU has “sufficient amounts of gas” for the remaining weeks of this winter but that “we need to replenish our reserves urgently for next year.” 

“The Commission will therefore propose that by 1 October, gas storage in the EU has to be filled up to at least 90%,” she added.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced to her caucus this morning that the House would be moving ahead with Russian oil ban legislation and that the bill is expected to include other items, according to a Democratic aide.

She also told her colleagues that the White House has been telling her for days that the President would be announcing the ban. Notably, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters yesterday that Biden had yet to make a decision on this front.

More on this: President Biden is now expected to announce later this morning a ban on Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports to the US.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has previously said the bill could be on the floor this week.

The UK government has been criticized for its response to Ukrainian refugees, with its newly announced Ukraine Family Scheme visa being described as complex and lengthy by people navigating the system.

Under the scheme, people can apply to join or accompany a UK-based family member and if granted a visa, they can live, work and study in the UK and access public funds. 

Some refugees who have made it to the French port city of Calais in the hope of traveling on to the UK are now being told to go to appointments in Paris or Brussels — both more than 100 miles away — as part of the administrative procedure. 

When asked why there is no processing center in Calais, Home Secretary Priti Patel said the government is setting up a centre away from the port to avoid creating “choke points.”

The UK Home Office said Monday it has issued 300 visas as part of its Ukraine Family Scheme, out of 8,900 applications submitted and 17,700 applications started.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin wrote last Saturday to his British counterpart Patel in a letter obtained by CNN: “[Taking] into consideration the distress suffered by these people, this response appears to be totally inappropriate and inhumane.”

In comparison, the European Union’s ”Temporary Protection Directive,” announced on March 2, allows people from Ukraine to enter the bloc without a visa and individually choose which country to go to. Those eligible, will receive protective status similar to that of a refugee, in any EU country for a one-year period which may be reviewed. 

Germany, for example, on Tuesday said over 64,000 refugees from Ukraine had arrived since the beginning of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24. An Interior Ministry spokesperson said the number could be much higher because there are no border controls. Meanwhile, an estimated 5,000 Ukrainians have so far arrived in France, with more arriving every day, Citizenship Minister Marlene Schiappa said.

Additional reporting from CNN’s Benjamin Brown and Niamh Kennedy in London, Nadine Schmidt in Berlin, Joseph Ataman and Xiaofei Xu and Anaëlle Jonah in Paris.

The Russian defense ministry said 723 people have been evacuated along an agreed evacuation route out of the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Tuesday. 

The ministry was quoted by the state news agency RIA Novosti. It said those evacuated included Indian, Chinese and Jordanian and Tunisian citizens.

The first convoy that left Tuesday morning reached the city of Poltava without incident, Ukrainian officials said.

A later convoy was delayed by an outbreak of firing at the outskirts of the city, according to the head of the regional administration, Dmitry Zhyvitsky.

But Zhyvitsky was quoted in local media as saying the Russian forces did not shoot on the convoy. 

It’s unclear whether the convoy proceeded toward Poltava. 

At least 474 civilians, including 29 children, have been killed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the United Nations Human Rights Office on Tuesday.  

A further 861 people have been injured in the conflict, bringing the total civilian casualty toll compiled by the UN to 1,335.

The true figure is likely to be “considerably higher” the UN believes, particularly in government-controlled territories where many reports are still pending corroboration. 

“This concerns, for example, the towns of Volnovakha, Mariupol, Izium where there are allegations of hundreds of civilian casualties. These figures are being further corroborated and are not included in the above statistics,” the statement reads.  

In the pro-Moscow separatist-held regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, the UN has registered 545 casualties, with 96 killed and 449 injured as of Tuesday

“Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke virtually with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, and reiterated that China is willing to “work actively” with the international community to mediate the crisis in Ukraine, without offering any details. 

Xi called the situation “worrisome,” according to a statement from the China’s foreign ministry.

“China will stay in communication and coordination with France, Germany and the EU and, in light of the needs of the parties involved, work actively together with the international community,” the statement said, adding that all efforts “conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis must be supported,” it added.

Xi also condemned Western sanctions, warning they will “dampen the global economy that is already ravaged by the pandemic.”

“This is in the interest of no one. We need to actively advocate a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security,” Xi said, according to the statement.

China has consistently refused to call the war in Ukraine a Russian invasion, and officials regularly point to NATO’s eastward expansion as a root cause to the conflict — parroting a key Russian talking point. 

Xi gave his support to French and German “actions” to reach a ceasefire in Ukraine, the Elysée Palace said following a call between the three leaders. He also recognized the “need to guarantee people’s access to humanitarian aid coordinated by the United Nations,” the statement read, adding that the foreign ministers of Germany, France and China are to enter into close consultation to coordinate further efforts to end the conflict.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov has told CNN he is “absolutely confident” his city will defeat Russian forces.

Under the siege of constant Russian bombardment, Ukraine’s second-largest city is still resisting and able to continue with life, Terekhov said Tuesday.

Shelling from heavy artillery, air raids and fire on residential districts has left the northeastern city devastated, but it has not yet fallen to the Russians and “will withstand” thanks to the Ukrainian army, Terekhov insisted. 

Over the past week, Russian forces have targeted residential areas in Kharkiv, hitting schools, shops, hospitals, apartment blocks and churches.

The city of 1.5 million inhabitants needs “everything” from food, medicine and warm clothes, Terekhov said. 

Kharkiv has been one of the most bombed areas in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion, with Terekhov calling the shelling of civilian districts an act of “genocide.”

“What else can it be? There is no military infrastructure, no military facilities in these areas. Strikes are happening in kindergartens, schools, maternity hospitals, clinics, ” Terekhov said.

“This isn’t an accident. I can understand when there’s an accidental strike. But when it’s hundreds of civilian buildings hit, that is no accident. That is a targeted attack.”

The Kremlin has denied targeting civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, despite multiple documented casualties.

US President Joe Biden is expected to today ban Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports to the US, according to three sources familiar with the decision.

The US will make the move unilaterally, without its European allies, due to disagreement among European nations about whether to ban Russian energy. EU countries have significantly more exposure to Russian energy than the US.  

US officials decided, given the extreme political pressure at home, they could move without the coalition and not create major issues. 

Biden is expected to address the news at 10:45 a.m. ET.

US imports from Russia make up a small slice of the energy universe — roughly 8% in 2021, of which only about 3% was crude oil. White House economic officials have been engaged for more than a week in how to manage any decision to cut off those imports, according to officials.

Biden administration officials traveled to Venezuela over the weekend for talks on potentially allowing the country to sell its oil on the international market, helping to replace Russian fuel. Biden may travel to Saudi Arabia as the US works to convince the kingdom to increase its production. And a looming nuclear deal could bring significant volumes of Iranian oil back to the market.

More than 64,000 refugees have arrived in Germany from Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, according to Germany’s interior ministry. 

On Tuesday, the ministry said it had registered 64,604 refugees from Ukraine, more than 14,310 refugees from the day before. 

The actual number of incoming refugees, however, could be significantly higher, an interior spokesperson told CNN Tuesday. 

More than two million people have fled Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian attack on Ukraine, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. 

French Minister Delegate for Citizenship Marlène Schiappa said an estimated 5,000 Ukrainians have so far arrived in France, with more arriving every day.

“We have close to 5,000 people from Ukraine who have arrived in France. It’s a current estimate; every day, we have new arrivals,” she said in an interview with French broadcaster Franceinfo Tuesday.   

Schiappa said that every Ukrainian in need of accommodation would receive it in France, but she added that Ukrainians were not collectively being granted refugee status, as many hope to return to their country. 

Instead, they are being offered a “temporary, immediate status” with the same guarantees of protection as refugee status, she said, adding that this will also offer recipients access to schooling and financial and medical support. 

She also announced a “refugee sponsorship system” via a new platform. The site parrainage.refugies.info will allow French households to host a Ukrainian family with the support of nongovernmental organizations. 

NATO has a “responsibility to ensure that the conflict does not spread beyond Ukraine,” said Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. 

Speaking during a joint press conference in Riga with the Latvian President Egils Levits on Tuesday, Stoltenberg remarked that the “suffering we now see in Ukraine is horrific.”

In response to the situation and to “make sure there is no room for miscalculation in Moscow” NATO has “significantly strengthened” its presence in the eastern part of the alliance, Stoltenberg added. 

“We have 130 jets at high alert. Over 200 ships from the high north to the Mediterranean, and 1000s of additional troops in the region,” the NATO chief continued. 

NATO will “protect and defend every inch of allied territory,” Stoltenberg said.

So far, NATO has refused to get directly involved in the conflict – including setting up a no-fly zone – beyond supporting Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion.

CNN’s Luke McGee contributed reporting to this post.

Ukrainian authorities have said that a long-awaited convoy of humanitarian aid for the besieged city of Mariupol on the south coast appears to have come under fire.

Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukrainian minister of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, said Tuesday: “Our humanitarian cargo is heading to Mariupol, and we are counting on the commitments made by Russia, that they are ready to adhere to the ceasefire. There are now signals that Russia is shelling the direction of humanitarian convoy.”

CNN has been unable to verify the status of the convoy

Russia had declared a ceasefire Tuesday for five Ukrainian cities, including Mariupol.

Vereshchuk said the convoy – consisting of eight trucks as well as more than 30 buses –had set out at 10 a.m. local time, heading towards Mariupol from the Zaporizhzia area. It was scheduled to pick up people – especially women, children and the elderly – on the way back.

Ukraine’s Joint Forces Operation (JFO) also provided an update on the convoy. On its Facebook page, the JFO said that in order to evacuate Mariupol’s civilians, “the defenders of the city took a number of measures: they have cleared the roads of mines, removed engineering barriers, etc.”

“However, the occupiers did not let children, women and the elderly out of the city,” the JFO said. “The enemy launched an attack precisely in the direction of the humanitarian corridor.”

CNN has reached out to the Russian side for a response.

Residents of the key city of Mariupol have been facing a deteriorating humanitarian situation in recent days, as the city remains under siege by Russian forces determined to tighten their grip on Ukraine’s south.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Tuesday that Russian forces are committing war crimes by holding 300,000 civilians “hostage” in the besieged city of Mariupol. He said one child died of dehydration on Monday. 

“People are now in their 10th day without water, without electricity, living in shelters, shelters are packed. The essentials are missing, a lot of healthcare needs as well,” Mirella Hodeib, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, previously told CNN, saying that the situation in the city remains “desperate.”

CNN’s George Ramsay and Laura Smith-Spark contributed reporting to this post.

In Chișinău, Moldova, small groups of people have taken to the streets for International Women’s Day. 

A national holiday in the country, the demonstration shows solidarity with the women of Ukraine, who have been forced to flee their homes while men aged 18-60 are mandated to remain to fight the Russian invasion. 

One woman holds a sign that reads: “Women of Ukraine you are heroes.”

Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, has already seen more than 230,000 people arrive from Ukraine. Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița has said every eighth child in the country is now a refugee.

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said it is “imperative” for European countries to stop relying on Russian energy, especially as the Ukrainian war continues, in order to ensure supply is “widely available.”

Speaking at a joint press conference in Tallinn with Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Blinken said there is a “significant, not only opportunity but imperative in this moment to finally move off of, for many countries in Europe, the dependence on Russian energy. Because Russia uses it as a weapon.”

Kallas called to fully exclude Russia and Belarus from the high security payment network SWIFT and restrict its access to cryptocurrencies. 

Countries must focus on Russia’s “full isolation” from the free world, she said. The deteriorating security situation “demands rapid changes to European security,” she stressed, adding that the world must be prepared for the worst, which is still to come.

“Hence, Putin’s violence must be in correlation with the further sanctions and also isolation decisions,” Kallas said. 

Kallas also called on NATO to work on an “updated strategy for defense in our region.” 

She thanked Blinken for the United States’ “heavy work” in building unity within NATO allies, adding that she had asked for a “permanent and meaningful NATO forward defense in the Baltic region.”

Despite the bleak situation on the ground, NATO is unwilling to get directly involved in the conflict – including setting up a no-fly zone – beyond supporting Ukraine’s resistance to an invasion that is killing civilians.

CNN’s Luke McGee contributed reporting to this post.

The price for a gallon of regular gas now stands at $4.17, according to AAA. That breaks the previous record of $4.11 a gallon that has stood since July 2008. 

As Russia continues its invasion in Ukraine, gas prices are rising faster than they have since Hurricane Katrina slammed into oil platforms and refineries along the US Gulf Coast in 2005.

Gas prices rose 10 cents since early Monday, gaining three of those cents overnight, according to the Oil Price Information Service, the firm that collects and calculates prices for AAA.

The price data is calculated on a dynamic basis with pricing information from 140,000 US gas stations. OPIS confirmed Monday evening that a new record of $4.14 a gallon had been reached. But enough stations raised their prices further later Monday and early Tuesday to lift the average to $4.17.

The $4.17 average means that the price is up 55 cents a gallon in just the last week, and 63 cents, or 18%, since Feb. 24, the day Russian forces invaded Ukraine.

Former heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko, the brother of Kyiv mayor and fellow Hall of Fame boxer Vitali Klitschko, said the shooting is “constant” around the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

Klitschko, who retired from professional boxing in 2017, joined the Ukrainian Defense Forces after enlisting in Ukraine’s reserve army last month.

“In the city of Kyiv, when you go to bed, you hear explosions, the launching of rockets to defend the city as well as landing, from bullets to rockets here on the territory of the city of Kyiv,” Klitschko said in an interview on CNN.

“This pressure is enormous and gigantic on us, Ukrainians, but we stand together against this Russian aggression,” he said.

Klitschko also warned about the potential of Russian missiles hitting a nuclear power plant.

Last week, Russian troops occupied Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s largest nuclear plant, after a fire caused by the attack was extinguished.

Countries around the world swiftly condemned it, with the United States embassy in Ukraine warning that an attack on a nuclear plant was a “war crime” and the United Nations Security Council convening an emergency meeting.

“Ukraine is under huge threat and the world is under huge threat,” Klitschko said.

“Not to forget that those missiles flying onto the Ukrainian side — the Russian missiles — could destroy one of the multiple nuclear power plants that we have. One was on fire two days ago,” he said.

“There is no clear leakage yet, but we still have multiple reactors and just to know this war needs to be stopped as soon as possible,” he said.

A senior Russian official threatened to cut off Europe’s natural gas supply on Monday in response to possible oil import bans Moscow could soon face over its invasion in Ukraine. 

“In connection with the unfounded accusations against Russia … and the imposition of a ban on Nord Stream 2, we have every right to take a mirror decision and impose an embargo on gas pumping through the gas pipeline Nord Stream 1, which today is loaded at the maximum level of 100%,” Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in a televised address, noting the decision by German regulators last month to halt the certification of Gazprom’s second pipeline, Nord Stream 2. 

Russia supplies about 40% of Europe’s gas. Germany, the bloc’s biggest economy, relies on Russia for almost 50% of its natural gas.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that the US and allies were actively exploring ways to ban Russian oil imports, which would damage Russia’s economy even further as it tries to cope with crippling economic sanctions.  

The West has been reluctant so far to impose significant sanctions on Russia’s energy sector because of how it might impact the global economy but are now getting closer to doing so as Europe works to diversify its energy sources.

CNN’s Natasha Bertrand contributed reporting to this post.

The outflow of refugees from Ukraine has reached two million, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

Speaking to French radio station France Inter on Tuesday, Grandi called the milestone a “terrifying” number.

“There are hundreds of thousands of people on the move, trying to flee the combat zone and seek refuge firstly inside Ukraine in the safe zones. But the safe space is reducing and people are inevitably trying to cross borders,” he said

Nearly all the refugees are women, children, and elderly people, according to Grandi, who said he hadn’t seen such a preponderance in his entire career.

“It’s a very specified population. It’s significant that on International Women’s Day, men make war and women pay the consequences,” Grandi continued.

He said most of the refugees have traveled to Poland, Moldova, and other neighboring countries, adding most move towards “where they have connections, family.”

“What we fear is a second wave of persons who have a good deal less resources and connections and who will be much more vulnerable,” Grandi warned.

Romania has taken in 281,000 refugees since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, the Romanian Border Police told CNN on Tuesday, although 208,000 of those have already departed the country.

The border police did not specify where the refugees were going after leaving Romania.

Watch more:

CNN’s Miguel Marquez in Bucharest contributed reporting to this post.

The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church said gay pride parades were part of the reason for the war in Ukraine.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, a long-time ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Sunday that the conflict in Donbas is about “a fundamental rejection of the so-called values that are offered today by those who claim world power.”

The “test” of which side you are on, said Kirill, is whether your country is willing to hold gay pride parades.

“In order to enter the club of those countries, it is necessary to hold a gay pride parade. Not to make a political statement, ‘we are with you,’ not to sign any agreements, but to hold a gay parade. And we know how people resist these demands and how this resistance is suppressed by force,” Kirill said during a sermon in Moscow.

Kirill categorized the war as a struggle of “metaphysical significance,” for humanity to follow God’s laws.

“What is happening today in the sphere of international relations has not only political significance. We are talking about something different and much more important than politics. We are talking about human salvation,” he said. 

“If we see violations of [God’s] law, we will never put up with those who destroy this law, blurring the line between holiness and sin, and even more so with those who promote sin as an example or as one of the models of human behavior,” Kirill said.

“Around this topic today there is a real war,” he said.

Patriarch Kirill is a major religious figure in Russia, where the Russian Orthodox religion is considered an integral part of Russian identity. He has come under pressure from within his own church since the beginning of the war to denounce Putin’s aggression, but his public statements so far have failed to do that. On the contrary, Kirill’s language has lent support to Putin’s vision of a spiritual and temporal Russian empire.

Shell said on Tuesday it intends to stop purchasing Russian crude oil and plans to completely withdraw from the Russian energy industry.

The energy giant says it plans “to withdraw from its involvement in all Russian hydrocarbons, including crude oil, petroleum products, gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) in a phased manner, aligned with new government guidance.”

It added in a press release that as an immediate first step it will stop all spot purchases of Russian crude oil and will shut “its service stations, aviation fuels and lubricants operations in Russia.”

“We are acutely aware that our decision last week to purchase a cargo of Russian crude oil to be refined into products like petrol and diesel – despite being made with security of supplies at the forefront of our thinking – was not the right one and we are sorry,” said Shell Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden. 

“As we have already said, we will commit profits from the limited, remaining amounts of Russian oil we will process to a dedicated fund. We will work with aid partners and humanitarian agencies over the coming days and weeks to determine where the monies from this fund are best placed to alleviate the terrible consequences that this war is having on the people of Ukraine.”

Van Beurden added that “threats today to stop pipeline flows to Europe further illustrate the difficult choices and potential consequences we face as we try to do this.”

Shell last week said it will exit its equity partnerships with Russian state energy giant Gazprom in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The news comes a day after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said coordinated energy sanctions against Moscow, including a ban on Russian oil, are still “very much on the table.”

Speaking during a Monday news conference alongside his Dutch and Canadian counterparts in London, Johnson said it was the “right thing” to move away from Russian hydrocarbons.  

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the United States is “now talking to our European allies and partners to look at a coordinated way” to ban Russian oil. 

Responding to a question as to whether Blinken was wrong in his remarks, Johnson replied, “No, I don’t think Tony Blinken was wrong.”  

Countries need to consider how to move away from Russian hydrocarbons “as fast as possible,” Johnson added.  

Johnson continued, “We’re going to work together on making sure that we all have the substitutes and the supplies that we need.”

The death toll from an overnight strike in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy has now risen to 21 civilians, according to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office.

The office confirmed “the death of 19 adults and 2 children as a result of an air strike in the city.”

“As a result of the bombing, one house was completely destroyed, 16 were partially destroyed. As of 7:00, the bodies of 21 people, including 2 children, were found during an inspection,” it added.

Ukraine and Russia agreed Tuesday to one evacuation corridor in Sumy, which has seen sustained Russian attacks and airstrikes in recent days.

Around 700 Indian students stuck in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy are en route to the town of Poltava, around 108 miles away, according to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.

The news comes as Ukraine and Russia agreed Tuesday to one evacuation corridor in Sumy, which has seen sustained Russian attacks and airstrikes in recent days.

“Happy to inform that we have been able to move out all Indian students from Sumy. They are currently en route to Poltava, from where they will board trains to western Ukraine,” ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted Tuesday evening local time, adding that flights were being prepared to repatriate them.

The news comes as Ukraine and Russia agreed Tuesday to one evacuation corridor in Sumy, which has seen sustained Russian attacks and airstrikes in recent days.

The announcement of an evacuation corridor in Sumy comes after a Russian airstrike on an apartment building in the city killed nine civilians, including two children, according to the State Emergency Services (SES) in Ukraine.

“694 Indian students were remaining in Sumy last night, all have now left for Poltava (Ukraine) in buses,” Press Trust of India, a news agency owned by multiple Indian newspapers, tweeted Tuesday citing Hardeep Singh Puri, an Indian cabinet minister.

Earlier Monday, the Indian embassy had attempted to evacuate students in buses, however the efforts were suspended after Russian airstrikes continued to hit evacuation corridors. 

The embassy also said Tuesday that 75 Indian sailors stranded in Mykolaiv Port had been evacuated.

The United Kingdom has warned Poland that sending fighter jets to Ukraine may put them into the “direct line of fire” from Russia. 

Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told Sky News on Tuesday that whilst the UK would “support” a Polish choice to supply Ukraine with fighter jets the country should be aware of Russia’s warning of “retribution.” 

The news comes a day after the US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith told CNN Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour that US officials are discussing with the Polish government the potential for Poland to send MiG-29 Soviet-era fighter jets in support of Ukraine. Smith emphasized that this is a “sovereign decision” for Poland take. 

“Poland borders a number of countries such as Belarus, that is an active participant with Russia. And Poland will understand that the choices are not only directly helping Ukraine, which is a good thing, but also may bring them into direct line of fire from countries such as Russia or Belarus,” Wallace said. 

He added that it wasn’t for him to “second guess” Poland’s choice, remarking that there is a “really big responsibility on the shoulders of the President of Poland and the defense minister.”

“It is for me as a fellow NATO member to say that we will support Poland and whatever choice she makes,” Wallace concluded.

So far, NATO has remained firm in its unwillingness to get directly involved in the conflict beyond supporting Ukraine’s resistance to an invasion that is killing innocent civilians, while US officials have made clear that American troops won’t engage directly with Russian forces.

Both parties on Friday also pushed back against calls for a no-fly zone to be set up in Ukraine, warning that it could lead to a “full-fledged war in Europe” and saying they’re doing what they can to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s invasion.

CNN’s Jeremy Herb and Paul LeBlanc contributed reporting to this post.

Ukrainian athletes showed support for their compatriots at the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, after securing a clean sweep of medals in two more para biathlon events at the games on Tuesday.

Iryna Bui led the first Ukrainian podium sweep of the day in the women’s middle distance standing, with Oleksandra Kononova and Liudmyla Liashenko earning silver and bronze, respectively.

“I was preparing for this special moment for 12 years. It was my aim and I’ve been training really hard all of this time,” Bui said of winning her first Paralympic medal at her third Games.

“But I came here with another thought. The whole world knows what’s going on in Ukraine at the moment and now I know that I have a mission here I represent the whole country. The whole country is behind me and with this medal I will just one more time promote the Ukrainian nation.”

“We would like to dedicate our results and medals to each and every Ukrainian and all the soldiers in the Ukrainian army who protect us. With our performance we represent the whole country and this is our battle, here,” she added.

And yet another Ukraine podium sweep was to follow just a few hours later in the men’s middle distance vision impaired.

Vitaliy Lukyanenko won comfortably and in the process secured the eighth Paralympic gold medal of his career, with Anatoliy Kovalevskyi and Dmytro Suiarko crossing the line to win silver and bronze, respectively. 

At 43-years-old, Lukyanenko becomes the most successful male biathlete of all-time.

“First of all, I would like to congratulate our beloved women on International Women’s Day. I want to wish them a peaceful sky over their heads, and to be happy in life and not to cry like they do now in Ukraine,” he said.

“We are fighting here, not only in Ukraine but here on the sporting stage.”

Iaroslav Reshetynskyi and Oleksandr Kazik followed Lukyanenko, Kovalevskyi and Suiarko as Ukrainian athletes secured the top five positions in the race. 

It was Ukraine’s third para biathlon podium sweep at the Beijing Paralympics after Lukyanenko, Kazik and Suiarko secured the top three spots in the men’s vision impaired sprint on Saturday. Ukraine so far has 6 gold medals at the Games, two behind China.

Ukrainian officials say the planned evacuation route to help civilians leave the northeastern city of Sumy, which has experienced sustained Russian attacks and airstrikes in recent days, is now operating.

The corridor is between Sumy and the Ukrainian city of Poltava – a journey of just under 100 miles.

“This route has been agreed by the Ukrainian and Russian sides,” Dmytro Lunin, head of the Poltava regional administration, said on his Telegram channel.

“The ceasefire regime is from 09:00 till 21:00 Kyiv time. Ukraine adheres to it,” he said.

Lunin added that several dozen buses have already left Lokhvytsia, a city southwest of Sumy, to pick up civilians, and that 20 tons of humanitarian aid, including food and medicine, has also been sent.

“We will welcome people, feed them,” Lunin said. “We are evacuating civilians, including foreign students. After they will go to the west of the country. Humanitarian aid should also arrive in Sumy through this humanitarian corridor – food and medicine.”

Some background: The announcement of an evacuation corridor in Sumy comes after a Russian airstrike on an apartment building in the city killed nine civilians, including two children, according to the State Emergency Services (SES) in Ukraine.

On Monday, Ukrainian officials rejected Russia’s unilateral proposal for evacuation corridors for civilians as an unacceptable non-starter, as most of the routes lead to Russia or its staunch ally Belarus and would require people to travel through active areas of fighting.

Several previous attempts to evacuate civilians failed earlier this week, with Western leaders accusing Russian forces of continuing to target pre-approved safe routes.

On Sunday, a Russian strike hit an evacuation crossing point outside Kyiv, killing eight people including two children trying to flee.

Read more:

A man carries a woman as they cross an improvised path while fleeing the town of Irpin, Ukraine, Sunday, March 6, 2022. In Irpin, near Kyiv, a sea of people on foot and even in wheelbarrows trudged over the remains of a destroyed bridge to cross a river and leave the city. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Ratushniak)

Related article Ukraine slams Moscow's offer to evacuate civilians to Russia and Belarus as 'immoral'

Oleksandr Markushyn, the mayor of the Kyiv suburb of Irpin, says he has rejected a demand from Russian forces to surrender the town.

In a Telegram account on Tuesday, Markushyn said he had received a threat on his “life and health and demanding for the complete surrender of Irpin” the previous day.

“I’m surprised that these monsters still haven’t understood – Irpin doesn’t give up, Irpin can’t be bought, Irpin fights!” he said.

“I have a counter-offer to the occupiers to leave [the] Irpin community within 24 hours and save the lives and health of several thousand Russian conscripts, whose mother, sister, daughter, grandmother and partner are waiting for them at home.”

The Russians declared a ceasefire for the Kyiv area on Tuesday. It’s unclear yet whether a cessation of hostilities is being held around the Ukrainian capital.

The UK defense ministry on Monday accused Russian forces of targeting evacuation corridors and killing “several civilians” trying to evacuate Irpin, according to the latest intelligence assessment released publicly by the department.

The ministry noted that due to heavy fighting Irpin has been without heat, water, or electricity for several days.

Eight civilians were killed in the midst of an evacuation of the town, Mayor Markushyn said in a statement on Telegram Sunday.

Smoke rises after shelling by Russian forces in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 4, 2022.(AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Related article 'A family died... in front of my eyes': Civilians killed as Russian military strike hits evacuation route in Kyiv suburb

The Ukrainian government has agreed on an evacuation corridor for fleeing civilians from the northeastern city of Sumy, which has seen sustained Russian attacks and airstrikes in recent days.

Iryna Vereshchuk, the Ukrainian minister of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, said the corridor had been agreed by the Russian Ministry of Defense in a letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross. 

The route for the evacuation corridor would lead from Sumy through Holubivka and Lokhvytsia to Poltava, a city in central Ukraine. It will open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Vereshchuk said, adding that “all obstacles … must be removed along the entire route.”

“No other routes were agreed,” she said. “We call on Russia to agree on these routes immediately and ensure a stable ceasefire on these routes.” 

She added that Ukraine hoped the Sumy corridor would be followed by others.

Bombing in Sumy: The announcement comes after a Russian airstrike on an apartment building in Sumy killed nine civilians, including two children, according to the State Emergency Services (SES) in Ukraine.

Several previous attempts to evacuate civilians failed earlier this week, with Western leaders accusing Russian forces of continuing to target pre-approved safe routes.

On Sunday, a Russian strike hit an evacuation crossing point outside Kyiv, killing eight people including two children trying to flee.

On Monday, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UN accused Russia of blocking attempts to evacuate civilians, adding it was “appalling” that Russian troops were opening fire on evacuees after both countries had allocated certain roads to be utilized as evacuation corridors. 

Nine people were killed by a Russian air strike of the northeastern city of Sumy on Monday night, according to the State Emergency Services (SES) in Ukraine.

Two children were among the dead, SES said.

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said the attack was an air strike against an apartment building. One injured woman was rescued from the rubble. 

The walls of Lviv’s National Museum stand bare. Elaborate gold lacquered panels, on display after being recovered from 17th century Baroque churches, have been bundled up and hidden in the basement in a race to save the city’s cultural treasures from possible Russian attack.

“Today we see how Russia is shelling residential areas (and) even people that are evacuating,” says National Museum Director of Lviv, Ihor Kozhan. “They guaranteed they wouldn’t but now we can’t trust them. And we need to take care of our heritage because this is our national treasure.”

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has already destroyed a museum containing works by renowned Ukrainian painter Maria Prymachenko, whose vivid and imaginative art was admired by both Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall.

Now, the city of Lviv, often dubbed Ukraine’s cultural capital, is racing to protect its rich collection of historic art.

Ancient artifacts in cardboard boxes: The rush to save its books, paintings and other artifacts has left little time to wait for specialized packing materials. Instead, volunteers make do by hastily nailing together crates from whatever wood is available.

On Monday, volunteers hastily packed ancient manuscripts into cardboard boxes originally intended for transporting bananas to supermarkets. Among them was a thousand-year-old bible decorated with gold thread.

At religious sites, people are also preparing for the worst. The Armenian Cathedral of Lviv removed a medieval wooden sculpture, depicting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, for safe storage. Having survived World War II, the giant stained-glass windows of Lviv’s Latin Cathedral have now been boarded up with steel plates. Many of the city’s landmark statues are now swaddled in bubble wrap.

Read the full story:

Related article Museums race against time to save Ukraine's cultural treasures

At least 1.2 million refugees have crossed the border from Ukraine into Poland since the Russian invasion began on February 24, the Polish Border Guard tweeted early Tuesday.

141,500 refugees passed through the border on Monday alone, according to the Border Guard.

In total, at least 1.7 million refugees have left Ukraine, according to the United Nations. Though the majority have crossed into Poland, many others have also entered Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova and Romania.

The mayor of Lviv said on Tuesday that the city, located in western Ukraine, was struggling to provide food and housing to some 200,000 displaced Ukrainians who fled there from war-torn parts of the country.

“About 200,000 Ukrainians have already arrived in Lviv. Women, children, the elderly, hiding from shelling and bombing, were forced to flee their homes. We accommodate everyone provide food and everything necessary. But the trains are going, and the numbers are growing,” said Mayor Andriy Sadovyi in a video statement. 

He urged international organizations to provide help “here in Lviv, in Ukraine.”

“We need mobile centers for temporary stay with equipped bathrooms and food outlets. Medical and psychological support, medicines, bulletproof vests, and helmets. Mobile hospitals for children and adults,” he said.

In a separate statement Monday, Sadovyi had said the city was reaching the limit of its capacity. About 440 cultural and educational facilities in Lviv are being used to house displaced persons, along with 85 religious buildings, the mayor’s office said.  

The US-based organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Russian forces had “violated their obligations under international humanitarian law not to conduct indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks that harm civilians.”

The comments come after eight civilians were killed over the weekend while fleeing the Russian army’s advance.

“For several hours on March 6, 2022, Russian forces bombarded an intersection on a road that hundreds of civilians were using to flee the Russian army’s advance in northern Ukraine to Kyiv,” the HRW said in a statement Tuesday.
“About a dozen Ukrainian security force members and at least two military vehicles were at the intersection during the attack, but they were vastly outnumbered by the large number of fleeing civilians,” the statement said, citing witnesses.

HRW added that over recent talks between Russia and Ukraine have “failed” to establish safe routes of evacuation, and urged all parties involved to “take all feasible steps to remove the civilian population from the vicinity of fighting or military objects.”

Some context: Several attempts to evacuate civilians during temporary ceasefires have failed, with Western leaders accusing Russian forces of continuing to target pre-approved routes.

Almost all of Russia’s proposed routes out of Ukraine lead to Russia or its close ally Belarus, which Ukrainian authorities described as unacceptable.

On Monday, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UN accused Russia of blocking attempts to evacuate civilians, adding it was “appalling” that Russian troops were opening fire on evacuees after both countries had allocated certain roads to be utilized as evacuation corridors. 

The US Embassy in Ukraine said Tuesday the security situation throughout Ukraine “continues to be unpredictable,” warning US citizens trying to flee that conditions at each border “can change very quickly.”

Wait lines can also change without warning, the embassy said.

Photos from various border points have shown long lines of thousands of people waiting to cross.

The embassy also reminded its citizens not to cross into Belarus, citing “the arbitrary enforcement of laws, the risk of detention, the Russian military attack on neighboring Ukraine and the build-up of Russian military in Belarus along the border with Ukraine.”

“Do not travel to Russia,” it added, warning of “the potential for harassment against US citizens by Russian government security officials” and the embassy’s “limited ability to assist US.citizens in Russia.”

The World Bank has approved a $723 million emergency financing package of loans and grants for Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion, it said in a statement Monday. 

The package includes a $350 million loan supplement to a prior World Bank loan. 

The bank also promised to work on creating another $3 billion dollar support package for Ukraine to be rolled out “in the coming months.” In its statement, it said it would provide additional support for Ukraine’s neighbours as they take in more than 1.7 million refugees,.

“The World Bank Group stands with the people of Ukraine and the region,” said World Bank President David Malpass in the statement. “This is the first of many steps we are taking to help address the far-reaching human and economic impacts of this crisis.”

The arrest of WNBA superstar and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner over alleged drug charges in Russia has left family members, friends and supporters with little information about her well-being and anxious for her safe return.

And the heightened tension between the US and Russia over the latter’s invasion of Ukraine means that a resolution may prove difficult to reach.

Griner’s wife, Cherelle, wrote on Instagram on Monday, “People say ‘stay busy.’ Yet, there’s not a task in this world that could keep any of us from wondering if you are safe.”

“My heart, our hearts, are all skipping beats everyday that goes by without hearing from you. I miss your voice. I miss your presence. You’re our person! There are no words to express this pain. I’m hurting, we’re hurting. We await the day to love on you as a family,” she wrote.

Playing overseas: Griner, like many other WNBA players, plays overseas in the offseason where salaries can be much higher. She won the EuroLeague Women championship last year with Russian club UMMC Ekaterinburg, where she has played since 2015 during her offseasons.

Her arrest: Details about her arrest and detention are murky. Russian officials say it was in February at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport upon arriving from New York, but have not given a date. Griner’s whereabouts aren’t publicly known.

CNN has reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment but has not heard back.

Read more:

Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner (42) during the first half of Game 2 of basketball's WNBA Finals against the Chicago Sky, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

Related article Family and friends await word about Brittney Griner after her arrest in Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s daily videos highlighting his country’s heroism make it impossible to look away from the horror of the Russian invasion.

But he’s also increasingly running headlong into the war’s harsh reality: President Joe Biden and European leaders face political and geopolitical red lines that Russian President Vladimir Putin, a nuclear-armed tyrant, simply does not in his relentless destruction.

Soaring oil prices are also playing into the underlying equation of the war: Will Western pressure strangle the Russian economy and force Putin’s hand before Ukraine and its people are destroyed or driven to a mass refugee exodus? And how long can public opinion in the US and Europe hold firm?

Call to the world: Zelensky’s poignant appeals have made lawmakers in the US and Europe cry on video calls, revived the West from its post-Cold War slumber and captivated the world with his defense of democracy. He’s the antipode to the cruelty of Putin. If one man ever changed the world, few have done so as quickly as Zelensky.

In the latest video message, Zelensky left his bunker and appeared defiantly in his government office, lauding Ukrainians protesting against Russian troops.

The West hitting a wall: But nearly two weeks after the invasion began, the question for the West is becoming what options there are for stepping up the economic heat rising on Russia while avoiding a parallel military escalation.

And there are increasing signs that for all his heroism, Zelensky may be coming up against the West’s prudent desire to avoid triggering a worstcase scenario that could lead to a third world war.

Read the full analysis here.

Japan has imposed further sanctions against Russia and Belarus over their invasion of Ukraine, freezing the assets of 32 Russian and Belarusian officials and oligarchs.

In a news conference on Tuesday, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said that Japan’s move comes as Russia intensifies its attack on Ukraine, with Belarus “clearly involved.”

Individuals targeted: In a statement Tuesday, Japan’s Ministry of Finance said that the newly unveiled sanctions target 20 Russians, including the First Deputy Chief of Staff for President Vladimir Putin’s administration, Deputy Chairmen of the State Parliament, and Head of the Chechen Republic. 

The sanctions also target executives of companies such as Transneft, Wagner and the Volga Group.

The sanctions include 12 Belarusian government officials and businessmen, including the President of the National Olympic Committee, Viktor Lukashenko, and 12 organizations in Russia and Belarus.

Financial pressure: Capital transactions such as deposit contracts, trust contracts and monetary loan contracts with those listed by Japan’s finance ministry will require government permits from today, the ministry added.

Japan is also banning exports of oil refinery equipment to Russia and general-purpose items to Belarus that could be “considered to strengthen military capabilities,” the ministry said.

Japan will also ban exports to Belarus’ Defense Ministry, armed forces, national guard, national police, state intelligence organizations and JSC Integral, a Minsk-based semi-conductor company.

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues in its second week, the civilian death toll is rising, with several cities in dire need of supplies after Russian troops broke pledges to uphold evacuation corridors. If you’re just tuning in, here’s the latest:

Zelensky’s warning: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared in his Kyiv office in a video published on Monday, in which he applauded the efforts of the military and said he would continue pursuing talks with Russia. 

In a separate interview on ABC World News Tonight with David Muir on Monday, Zelensky warned that the war will not stop at Ukraine.

“Everyone thinks that we are far away from America or Canada,” he said. “No, we are in this zone of freedom. And when the limits of rights and freedoms are being violated and stepped on, then you have to protect us. Because we will come first. You will come second. Because the more this beast will eat, he wants more, more, and more.”

Evacuation corridors: Several attempts to evacuate civilians during temporary ceasefires have failed, with Western leaders accusing Russian forces of continuing to target pre-approved routes.

On Sunday, a Russian strike hit an evacuation crossing point outside Kyiv, killing eight people including two children trying to flee the invasion.

On Monday, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UN accused Russia of blocking attempts to evacuate civilians, adding it was “appalling” that Russian troops were opening fire on evacuees after both countries had allocated certain roads to be utilized as evacuation corridors. 

Almost all of Russia’s proposed routes out of Ukraine lead to Russia or its close ally Belarus, which Ukrainian authorities described as unacceptable.

Russia proposed a new temporary halt to its attack on five cities on Tuesday – Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol – to allow civilians to flee. Ukraine has yet to formally respond.

The military standoff: Russia’s attacks intensified on Monday, though the main advance towards Kyiv by Russian forces remains “stalled,” according to a senior US defense official. The official did not have an update on how far away a large Russian military convoy is from Kyiv’s city center. 

Russia has already committed “nearly 100%” of the combat power that had been staged on the border of Ukraine and in Belarus, according to a senior US defense official on Monday. 

The US announced Monday an additional 500 US troops would be deployed to Europe to reinforce NATO’s flank, including Poland, Romania, Germany and Greece. These are meant to support US forces already in Europe, US officials said. The Biden administration has repeatedly said it would keep US troops out of the conflict.

Casualties and refugees: United Nations officials say more than 1,200 civilian casualties have been recorded in Ukraine, with at least 406 people killed – though they say it is difficult to identify the actual number of deaths and injuries. CNN cannot independently verify the casualty numbers.  

More than 1.7 million people have now fled Ukraine since the war began, with the UN warning the number could reach five million.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Western countries that the war will not stop at Ukraine – and an attack on freedoms there will affect the rest of the world.

During an interview on ABC World News Tonight with David Muir on Monday, Zelensky again highlighted the need to secure Ukraine’s airspace – something he has urged the US and NATO to help do, to no avail.

“We cannot allow Russia to be active there only, because they’re bombing us, they are shelling us, they are sending missiles, helicopters, jet fighters – a lot of things,” Zelensky said. “We don’t control our sky.”

He added that he believes US President Joe Biden “can do more” to stop the war. “I am sure he can and I would like to believe that. He is capable of doing that,” Zelensky said.

The US stance: The US and NATO oppose creating a no-fly zone in Ukraine, warning that such a move could lead to “full-fledged war in Europe.” Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday countries imposing such a no-fly zone would be considered to be participating in the conflict.

On Monday, the White House said Biden remains firm in his commitment to keep US troops out of the conflict.

Zelensky’s response: The Ukrainian president said missiles were hitting civilian structures including universities and pediatric clinics. If a missile is flying overhead, “I think there is no other answer … they need to be shot down. You have to preserve lives,” he said.

And he warned the war would affect the rest of the world:

“Everyone thinks that we are far away from America or Canada. No, we are in this zone of freedom. And when the limits of rights and freedoms are being violated and stepped on, then you have to protect us. Because we will come first. You will come second. Because the more this beast will eat, he wants more, more, and more.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to make a “historic” address to the British House of Commons on Tuesday at 12 p.m. ET.

Zelensky will address members of parliament via video link – “the first time they have done so in the Chamber,” while formal parliamentary business will be suspended, according to a news release from the House of Commons on Monday. 

Speaker of the House of Commons Lindsay Hoyle granted that request, saying, “Every parliamentarian wants to hear directly from the president, who will be speaking to us live from Ukraine, so this is an important opportunity for the House.”  

“Thanks again to our incredible staff for working at pace to make this historic address possible,” Hoyle added in the statement. 

MPs will be able to watch the speech on screens installed overnight above either side of the Chamber, with over 500 headsets enabling members to hear a simultaneous translation in English, the House of Commons said.   

There will be no questions-and-answers session at the end of the address, it added.

Russia has proposed a halt to its attack starting 10 a.m. Moscow time, which is 2 a.m. ET Tuesday, indicating it’s ready to open up evacuation corridors from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol, according to state media reports.

Ukraine has yet to formally agree, having previously rejected proposals as an unacceptable non-starter, pointing out the routes lead to Russia or its staunch ally Belarus and would require people to travel through active areas of fighting.

On Monday, a spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Moscow’s offer “completely immoral” and said Russia was trying to “use people’s suffering to create a television picture,” Reuters reported.

Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba has confirmed he plans to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday, March 10.

Kuleba said on Ukrainian television Monday that if Lavrov was ready for a serious substantive conversation, then he was ready as well. Kuleba said he would talk to anyone so that peace could be established.