March 9, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The US House of Representatives voted with a wide bipartisan majority Wednesday to pass a ban on importing Russian oil, natural gas and coal into the United States.

The bill will also take steps to revisit Russia’s role in the World Trade Organization and reauthorize the Magnitsky Act to strengthen sanctions on Russia for human rights violations.

The final vote was 414-17, with two Democrats —  Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota — and 15 Republican members voting against the bill.

Read more:

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 21: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks at her weekly press conference at the U.S. Capitol Building on October 21, 2021 in Washington, DC. Speaker Pelosi discussed a range of topics including the status of the negotiations for the Build Back Better agenda. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Related article House passes ban on Russian oil, gas and coal

An injured pregnant woman leaves the damaged hospital with her belongings.

Harrowing images show a heavily pregnant woman clutching her belongings, her face covered with cuts, as she walks down a bombed-out staircase at a maternity and children’s hospital in the city of Mariupol, southern Ukraine. Inside, smashed incubators and bloodied beds lay among the wreckage.

Russian forces bombed the hospital Wednesday, Mariupol officials said — an attack described by Ukraine’s President as an “atrocity” and “proof of a genocide.”

Here’s what we know:

Leader’s reaction: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the bombing is “proof of a genocide of Ukrainians taking place” and repeated his call for NATO to declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

More bombings: A city administration building and a university in Mariupol, less than a kilometer from the bombed-out hospital, has been identified by CNN as a second location in the city hit by an apparent Russian military strike.

Evacuation corridor: The attacks came as humanitarian corridors were set up around Ukraine to evacuate civilians to safety. It is unclear if any people made it out of Mariupol, which has been has been under siege for days and isolated by Russian forces.

“Desperate situation”: About 1,300 civilians have been killed in Mariupol since the Russian invasion began, two officials in the city said. Residents have been cut off from water and electricity for days, and on Tuesday Ukraine’s Foreign Minister accused Russia of committing war crimes by holding 300,000 civilians “hostage.” Photos show bodies being placed into a mass grave in the city.

Destruction of city: New satellite images Wednesday from Maxar Technologies show homes, buildings, grocery stores and shopping malls across Mariupol damaged or destroyed in the fighting.

The US House of Representatives voted late Wednesday night to pass a massive government funding bill that includes $13.6 billion in desperately needed aid for Ukraine as the country fights back against Russia’s deadly invasion. 

Congress is racing against the clock ahead of a Friday deadline when government funding is set to expire — but a shutdown is not expected.

That’s in part because many lawmakers are anxious to demonstrate support for Ukraine amid Russia’s unprovoked assault on the country.

As part of the effort to prevent a shutdown, the House also passed a stopgap bill to extend government funding through Tuesday.

US first lady Jill Biden.

Speaking to US military families at Fort Campbell in Kentucky Wednesday, first lady Jill Biden addressed the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying the US administration would hold Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable for his actions in the country.

Many of the relatives present had a family member deployed with the 101st Airborne, aka the Screaming Eagles, to assist American allies in Europe. 

Addressing them directly, Biden said, “The Screaming Eagles are there in Europe, standing with our allies and welcoming Ukrainian refugees.” 

Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear plant has been disconnected from the electricity grid and lost its supply of external power, Ukraine’s energy operator Ukrenergo and state-run nuclear company Energoatom said Wednesday.

It comes two weeks after Russian forces seized control of the plant, which was the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986.

Here’s what we know:

What happens if Chernobyl loses power?: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had been told by Ukraine that Chernobyl had lost power, but that it saw “no critical impact” on the plant’s safety. 

Is Chernobyl still active? 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.

However, the lack of power “is likely to lead to a further deterioration of operational radiation safety at the site,” Grossi said.

Chernobyl radiation leak warning: Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and the country’s security and intelligence service warned of a possible radiation leak after the plant was disconnected.

Ukraine’s technical security and intelligence service echoed Kuleba’s concerns, warning that “all nuclear facilities” in the Chernobyl exclusion zone were without power, and that if the pumps could not be cooled, a “nuclear discharge” could occur. 

Neither Kuleba nor the intelligence service commented on whether the diesel generators could be sustained beyond the 48-hour period.

Lines down: On Tuesday, the IAEA said it had lost contact with remote data transmission from safeguard monitoring systems at Chernobyl. 

Staff pushed to the limit: The loss of power at Chernobyl has raised further concerns for some 210 personnel that have been working for two weeks straight at the site since Russian forces seized control of the facility. Grossi said they have been effectively living there, working around the clock and unable to rotate shifts.

Eight of Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors are currently operating, including two at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhya — which is also now under Russian control —  and that radiation levels still appear normal, Ukraine’s nuclear regulator told IAEA.

The most effective way to support the Ukrainian military is with additional anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons — not MiG-29 fighter jets, according to America’s top general in Europe.

Echoing an earlier statement from Pentagon press secretary John Kirby, the commander of US European Command Gen. Tod Wolters said the Ukrainians were “making excellent use of these weapons now,” limiting the ability of Russian military aircraft to operate freely.

Wolters added that Ukraine already has “numerous” aircraft flying daily, and that adding more would not give the Ukrainian Air Force a relative advantage.

Any transfer of MiG-29s also risks escalating the conflict, he said.

Some context: On Tuesday, the Pentagon dismissed Poland’s proposal to transfer its MiG-29 fighter jets to the US for delivery to Ukraine, calling it not “tenable.” 

Kirby said Wednesday the US intelligence community believes transferring MiG-29s to Ukraine now could be seen by Russian President Vladimir Putin as an “escalatory step” that “could result in significant Russian reaction that might increase the prospects of a military escalation with NATO.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “all in all almost 35,000 people were rescued” via the humanitarian corridors established Wednesday.

“Today we were able to organize three humanitarian corridors: from the city of Sumy, from city of Kyiv and Kyiv region, and from Enerhodar,” he said, adding that efforts will continue Thursday.

Zelensky said Ukrainian authorities were preparing six humanitarian corridors to get people out of areas under attack by Russian forces.

While some routes were successful in evacuating people to safety, others had to be abandoned.

What happened: Local authorities in areas close to Kyiv that have been under attack for more than a week said efforts to evacuate people to safety Wednesday failed. The city council of Bucha said 50 buses had been blocked by the Russian military in nearby Stoyanka.

The dead bodies of people killed by Russian shelling lay covered in the street in the town of Irpin, Ukraine, Sunday, March 6.

Tatiana Perebeinis and her two children — Alise, 9, and Nikita, 18 — were killed on Sunday by Russian shelling as the family tried to evacuate Irpin, Ukraine, according to a statement from her employer, SE Ranking.

Another unidentified man, thought to have been a family friend, also died from the blast.

Perebeinis, 43, served as SE Ranking’s chief accountant. The Bay Area tech company issued a statement on Monday confirming the deaths.

Ksenia Khirvonina, a PR manager for SE Ranking, said Perebeinis was originally from Donetsk and fled to Kyiv in 2014 following the city’s occupation. Tatiana, her children, and her husband had been living in an apartment in the northern city of Irpin, just outside Kyiv, since 2018. 

Though much of Irpin had been left without water supply, electricity, and heating, Perebeinis was hesitant to leave the city because she had been taking care of her sick mother. One day before they fled, the apartments above their home were bombed, forcing them to take shelter in the basement of their building, where they remained until Sunday, according to Khirvonina.

“Even from there, she was telling us everything’s okay, was cheering everyone around her, and texting my colleagues that everything’s gonna be okay,” Khirvonina said. 

According to Khirvonina, Perebeinis had wanted to leave on Saturday, but ultimately decided to wait to leave through the “green corridor” with other civilians. 

Ukrainian photojournalist Andriy Dubchak captured the moment the family was struck by a mortar shell in a graphic video published by the New York Times. 

“The Russian army are criminals, and they should be stopped. Our hearts are broken. Our prayers are for all Ukrainians, who are fighting for their right to exist,” the company said.

Perebeinis was taken to a nearby hospital, where she later passed. Nikita, a university student, and Alise were killed immediately. The man with them also survived the initial blast but later died, according to the New York Times.

Previous media reports had mistakenly identified the man as the father of the children. Perebeinis’ husband — with whom SE Ranking has been in touch — was not fleeing Irpin with the family and was in a different city at the time of their deaths. 

Khirvonina said she did not know where Perebeinis and the children were planning on fleeing to, but that it likely would have been a western Ukrainian city. Ukrainian men over the age of 18 are banned from leaving the country, and Perebeinis had refused to leave her son Nikita.

“My overall impression was that they had a great family, they were united,” Khirvonina said. “Tatiana herself was very kind, very supportive person, you could always come to her to ask for advice for work advice or life advice, it didn’t matter. She always cheered everyone around her up or with her stories and with her jokes. She was truly a great person.”

SE Ranking, which specializes in search engine optimization (SEO), has a global presence, including in San Francisco; London; Minsk, Belarus; Kyiv and Moscow.

Hear from the photojournalist who captured the moment:

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Sirens blare in the distance. Everywhere she looks, there’s devastation. Windows are cracked and pieces of wood and building debris lie scattered in the streets. The streets are eerily empty.

This is the scene that Ukrainian photographer Valeria Shashenok witnesses every day when she walks down the street in war-torn Chernihiv, Ukraine. Shashenok is taking shelter in an underground bunker with her mother, father and dog “Tory” in the northern Ukrainian city. Her close friends have already fled.

But instead of wallowing in the destruction around her, Shashenok has turned the war into art.

Shashenok is using TikTok to document her daily life. Her videos have gone viral, some getting millions of views.

In another video, Shashenok stands before a pile of rubble. The caption says, “Today Putin destroyed one of the old building(s) in my city. It was a cinema that survived World War II.” Then she shows large windows nearby, the glass shattered on the ground. “Windows flew out from the force of impact in neighboring houses too.”

You can see more of Shashenok’s videos and read more of her story here.

Marek Magierowski, Polish ambassador to the US

Polish ambassador to the US Marek Magierowski said Wednesday that Poland was “acutely aware” of the consequences involved with its 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 Ramstein Air Base in Germany so they could then be provided to Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

Ginaa Raimondo, U.S. commerce secretary, during a meeting with business leaders and governors in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, March 9.

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Wednesday that the export controls that have been leveled against Russia by the United States and its allies in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine have “no expiration date.”

“There’s no expiration date,” Raimondo said. “We’re in it to win it and our allies are too.”

The comments, coming from a member of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet, is yet another indication that the administration is bracing for a potentially prolonged and protracted conflict in Europe that has already roiled financial markets and that the White House has assessed would hurt American consumers’ wallets.

“This is going to be messy and probably extremely long term,” Raimondo predicted about the crisis.

Raimondo also warned that any country that does not abide by US restrictions on exporting to Russia would pay a heavy price — including China. She said her administration was prepared, for example, to cut China off from American or European equipment and software that are necessary to make semiconductors.

“We’re going to prosecute any company, wherever they are, in China or elsewhere, who violates the rules,” she said. “So our expectation is that China won’t violate the rules, and if they do, there will be consequences.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that the administration had observed China “largely [abiding] by the sanctions that have been put in place.”

“I would note, though, that if any country tries to evade or work around our economic measures, they will experience the consequences of those actions,” Psaki said.  

The swift US rejection of a Polish plan to get MiG-29 fighter jets into Ukraine is the clearest example yet of the complications that the US and its NATO allies face trying to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s brutal assault while ensuring they don’t get dragged into a wider war.

The negotiations fell apart almost as quickly as they came together.

Poland’s announcement on Tuesday that it was ready to provide MiG fighter jets to Ukraine via a US Air Force base in Germany caught the US off-guard. By Wednesday morning, US and Polish officials were still discussing the prospect of providing fighter jets to Ukraine, an administration official told CNN.

But on Wednesday afternoon, the Pentagon bluntly announced it was opposed to the idea, which Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin conveyed in a call to his Polish counterpart.

“Secretary Austin thanked the minister for Poland’s willingness to continue to look for ways to assist Ukraine, but he stressed that we do not support the transfer of additional fighter aircraft to the Ukrainian air force at this time, and therefore have no desire to see them in our custody either,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said at a briefing.

The episode underscores how the US and its allies may be reaching the limits of what they can do to help Ukraine – while staying out of the conflict – and points to possible cracks in an alliance that has remained strongly unified in the early part of the war as members enacted stiff sanctions and provided security aid.

It also demonstrates that the Biden administration is still working to get on the same page.

You can read the rest of this story here.

The British army is imploring a “small number” of soldiers believed to have possibly traveled to Ukraine to immediately return to the United Kingdom, a British army spokesperson told CNN. 

The UK’s Ministry of Defense also said in a statement, “all Service Personnel are prohibited from travelling to Ukraine until further notice. This applies whether the Service Person is on leave or not. Personnel travelling to Ukraine will face disciplinary and administrative consequences.”

As CNN has previously reported, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has called upon “citizens of the world” to join the fight against Russia.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry says it has created a special unit — the International Legion — which has already started to carry out combat missions to counter Russian aggression.

More than 20,000 volunteers and veterans from 52 countries have expressed their desire to join, according to Brig. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, commander of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry that will run this legion said on Monday.

The US State Department echoed the White House in condemning what they called the Kremlin’s “outright lies that the United States and Ukraine are conducting chemical and biological weapons activities in Ukraine.”

“It is Russia that has active chemical and biological weapons programs and is in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention,” he said, adding, “Russia has a track record of accusing the West of the very crimes that Russia itself is perpetrating.”

“These tactics are an obvious ploy by Russia to try to justify further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attacks on Ukraine. We fully expect Russia to continue to double down on these sorts of claims with further unfounded allegations,” Price said.

Like White House press secretary Jen Psaki, Price also noted that they have “also seen [Chinese] officials echo these conspiracy theories.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street in London on March 9.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to tighten sanctions and “impose the maximum economic cost on Russia” during a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday,

According to a Downing Street spokesperson, Johnson told Zelensky of “the work the UK is doing to provide the military equipment Ukraine needed to defend itself.”

Zelensky and Johnson also discussed the bombing of a maternity hospital in the city of Mariupol on Wednesday:

Johnson also praised Zelensky’s “moving address” to the House of Commons on Tuesday.

“The PM ended by reaffirming the UK’s unwavering support for the people of Ukraine and said that President Zelenskyy had earned the admiration and love of the British people,” the spokesperson added.

Johnson’s comments also echo those made by British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who said Tuesday the United Kingdom will “drive forward” with “debilitating” the Russian economy alongside allies.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol is “proof of a genocide of Ukrainians taking place” in a video message posted to Telegram late Wednesday night.

Zelensky called on Europeans to condemn the “Russian war crime” saying, “Europeans! Ukrainians! Citizens of Mariupol! Today we have to be united in condemning this Russian war crime in which is reflected all the evil that Russian occupants brought to our land.”

The Ukrainian president addressed Europeans and called on them to ramp up sanctions on Russia. 

“Europeans you won’t be able to say you haven’t seen what was going on to the Ukrainians, what was going on in Mariupol, to the residents of Mariupol, you have seen it and you know what’s going on so you have to strengthen sanctions against Russia in a manner that leaves it no more chance to continue this genocide,” he said.

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Wednesday that she is “horrified, outraged, and heartbroken by credible reports that a Russian airstrike destroyed a maternity and children’s hospital in Mariupol.”

Although Sherman does not say the US has itself determined Russia was behind the strike, it is significant that she calls the reports “credible” and they are the strongest condemnation so far from a US official.

See the tweet:

US Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power tweeted Wednesday that a worker at one of USAID’s partner organizations “was killed by the Russian military just shy of her 32nd birthday.”

“I’m enormously sad to share the death of Valeriia ‘Lera’ Maksetska — proud Ukrainian, beloved @USAID implementing partner & brilliant, compassionate leader on building social cohesion & fighting disinformation,” Power wrote on Twitter.

“Lera, a trained medic, could’ve left Kyiv when the invasion began, but stayed to help others. Only when her mom Irina ran out of medicine did she evacuate. As Lera, Irina & their driver Yaroslav waited in a car for a Russian convoy to pass, a tank fired on them—killing all three,” added Power.

Power said Maksetska’s death was devastating to USAID, her organization Chemonics, and “all who knew her.”

Read her tweets:

White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a press briefing at the White House on March 9 in Washington, DC.

The White House warned Wednesday that Russia could use chemical weapons in Ukraine or manufacture a “false flag” operation that uses them. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki, slamming what she called false claims from Russia that the US is developing chemical weapons in Ukraine, tweeted: 

Psaki also noted Russia’s “long and well-documented track record of using chemical weapons” as well as its pattern of “accusing the West of the very violations that Russia itself is perpetrating.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned earlier this year of the possibility of Russia carrying out a fake or real chemical weapons attack as a manufactured pretext for an invasion into Ukraine. But his comments came before Russia’s full invasion began.

Read the tweets:

CNN’s Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked why a maternity hospital was a “threat” to Russia, in a video message posted to Telegram late Wednesday night.

The video comes after a maternity hospital in Mariupol was bombed earlier in the day.

“Russian bombs fell on a hospital and maternity center in Mariupol. A children’s hospital, a working maternity hospital, those buildings are ruined!” the president said.

Zelensky said at least 17 people were injured in the attack and authorities are continuing to through the rubble for more victims.

Russia claims Ukraine was establishing combat positions at the hospital, something CNN has not been able to verify. 

Several hours before the maternity hospital in Mariupol was bombed, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine of establishing combat positions at the hospital.

At her regular briefing, Zakharova said that “in Mariupol, the Ukrainian national battalions, having expelled the staff and patients from the maternity hospital, equipped combat positions in it.”

In a video message posted to Telegram on Wednesday, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko called on the global community for help and called on them to “close the sky over Ukraine” following the bombing of a maternity hospital in the city.

The mayor said he is sure the time will come when “all these occupiers will face justice at The Hague” and said this “war crime will be punished, and the perpetrators will burn in hell.”

But Russia claims Ukraine was establishing combat positions at the hospital, something CNN has not been able to verify. 

Several hours before the maternity hospital in Mariupol was bombed, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine of establishing combat positions at the hospital.

At her regular briefing, Zakharova said that “in Mariupol, the Ukrainian national battalions, having expelled the staff and patients from the maternity hospital, equipped combat positions in it.”

Russian forces bombed a maternity and children’s hospital in southern Ukraine, authorities there said Wednesday, an attack described by the country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky as an “atrocity.”

The reported attack came despite Russia agreeing to a 12-hour pause in hostilities to allow refugees to evacuate a number of towns and cities.

Mariupol city council posted a video of the devastated hospital in the city and accused Russian forces of dropping several bombs on it from the air.

“The destruction is enormous,” said the council. “The building of the medical facility where the children were treated recently is completely destroyed.”

Zelensky repeated his call for the NATO military alliance to declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

Here are some images from the scene:

A medical worker walks inside of the damaged hospital in Mariupol.

A woman holds her head in hand outside the hospital.

Ukrainian soldiers and emergency personnel work at the site of the shelling.

An injured pregnant woman leaves the damaged hospital with her belongings.

Smoke rises after shelling in Mariupol on March 9.

US Vice President Kamala Harris disembarks from Air Force Two upon arrival at Warsaw Chopin Airport in Poland on March 9.

Vice President Kamala Harris has arrived in Poland ahead of a high stakes visit that became more complicated by what the White House calls a “temporary breakdown in communications” over sending fighter jets to Ukraine. 

Air Force Two landed at the Warsaw Chopin International Airport just after 10 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET).

Harris is scheduled to begin meetings with Polish leaders on Thursday morning, where the issue of the jets is set to arise. Officials have said Poland’s surprise statement hours ahead of Harris’s departure regarding the jets won’t preclude a deal, though have downplayed the prospects of arriving at an agreement. 

While in Warsaw, Harris is also planning to meet with refugees from Ukraine and American diplomats from the US Embassy in Kyiv, who are now working out of Poland. 

More background: 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. 

The US does not support the transfer of combat aircraft to Ukraine, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said Wednesday.

There has been another air strike in Zhytomyr, according to the city’s mayor Serhii Sukhomlyn in two video messages posted to Facebook on Wednesday night.

This comes after Sukhomlyn said an apartment building and a major textile factory in Zhytomyr were destroyed by Russian military strikes on Tuesday night. There was also a Russian military strike that leveled a part of a Ukrainian tank factory outside of Zhytomyr on Saturday, substantiated by geolocated video of the aftermath.  

In Wednesday’s message, the mayor said, “An air strike has just been made. Thermal power plant of Zhytomir has been hit and a civilian building.”

In the civilian building hit, the mayor said an elderly woman living there was hiding in the basement and came out alive with minor injuries, which she is being treated for at a hospital.

The mayor also said all the windows were blown out at two hospitals including a children’s hospital but that there were no casualties and everyone was in a bomb shelter. Sukhomlyn added that he would write an appreciation letter to the doctors for “such a great job.” 

So far, there are no casualties associated with the strike on the thermal power plant but the plant will “most likely” have to be shut down, according to the mayor. The plant powers a large portion of the city, he said, providing heat to 30% of Zhytomyr. Sukhomlyn said officials will do their best to get it up and running again. 

Sukhomlyn said the city is shutting off its streetlights after the Ukrainian army advised officials to do so because the Russian air force “changed its strategy” with aircraft coming in “very low”.

“We are holding on. We’ve got a night ahead of us and we understand it can be very heated. Russians realize they are losing on all fronts. They don’t demand what they used to demand any more. We should survive and continue to hold on,” the mayor said.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said that “almost all of the missiles that have been fired” by Russian forces inside or outside of Ukraine have been fired at sites in the eastern part of the country, during a briefing at the Pentagon on Wednesday.

The US has not seen any missile launches anywhere near Ukraine’s border with Poland or in the western part of Ukraine, Kirby added.

Russian forces have fired “more than 710” missiles launches during their invasion of Ukraine, a senior defense official said earlier Wednesday.

Several hours before the maternity and children’s hospital in Mariupol was bombed, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine of establishing combat positions at the hospital.

She went on to claim that there were “numerous videos refuting Ukrainian fakes, confirming Kyiv’s crimes against its citizens are in abundance in the public domain.”

Video from the hospital after the bombing clearly showed there were both patients and staff there, including heavily pregnant women who were carried from the hospital.

About the attack: It came despite Russia agreeing to a 12-hour pause in hostilities to allow refugees to evacuate a number of towns and cities.

Mariupol city council posted a video of the devastated hospital in the city and accused Russian forces of dropping several bombs on it from the air.

“The destruction is enormous,” said the council. “The building of the medical facility where the children were treated recently is completely destroyed.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat to resort to nuclear weapons a “bluff.” 

Putin said on February 27 in a televised meeting with top Russian defense officials that he had ordered his country’s deterrence forces — which include nuclear arms — onto their highest state of alert. 

Zelensky went on to say that Putin’s nuclear threat “shows a weakness.”  

Many homes in the Moldovan village of Hîrtop sit empty, either uninhabitable or their owners live in larger cities and abroad. Roughly 140 kilometers, or roughly 87 miles, from Ukraine, residents told CNN they could hear the bombing on the first day of the Russian invasion. 

Resident and activist Rusanda Curca, 33, knew a humanitarian crisis would soon spill over into Moldova and she wanted to help. 

Already she has found housing for more than 50 refugees in her small village. 

“I want them to give the best that we can. Houses, not those spaces with 700 beds. But normal houses where they can cook for themselves. Have this private space and everything,” she said. 

Widower Boris Makeyev, 75, welcomed a family of four, including two children, into his home on March 5.

“I’m lonely. I live alone. So why don’t they live here until it calms down. I feel badly for them. The children are small. This little one is innocent,” he said while holding a squirming two year old Andrei. 

Andrei’s mother Olga Kuznetsova said the decision to flee came about 5 minutes before they left. They did not plan it at all. They just gathered a few belongings and ran. 

“With little kids, hiding in the basement every two, three hours, putting the little one to sleep, feeding and bathing them, it wasn’t possible,” Kuznetsova said. 

When the family left, they had no idea they would run across a border into Moldova. They thought they would leave for a day or two and then go back home.

“We hope that it will calm down. We hope our town isn’t destroyed. We hope this to all end soon and for us to have peace so that we can go home,” she said. 

Olga and her mother, Halina Parpacak, teared up talking about “Grandfather Boris,” saying she can never repay the kindness he has shown her family. 

Asked how long he could afford to continue hosting this family, Makeyev said as long as they need.  

The US does not support the transfer of combat aircraft to Ukraine, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said Wednesday. 

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told the Polish Minister of Defense that the US does not support the transfer of MiG-29s to the Ukrainian air force “at this time,” either by Poland transferring them to Ukraine with the US backfilling Poland’s fleet or by Poland transferring the MiG-29s to the US to then give those to Poland.

Austin and the Polish Minister of Defense spoke by phone this morning after the Pentagon released a public statement last night saying they did not believe the Polish proposal to transfer MiG-29s to a US military base in Germany was a “tenable” option.

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

The US also believes the “best way” to support Ukraine is “by providing the weapons and systems that they need most to defeat Russian aggression,” in particular, “anti-armor and air defense,” Kirby said.

More background: 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. 

Watch the moment:

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They came in droves, their cars loaded with anything they could cram in. The wind was blowing and small flecks of snow drifted across a huge parking lot, flanked on one side by a cohort of yellow buses.

Wednesday would be a chance for people to escape during an agreed ceasefire.

The evacuation point in Bilohorodka was the meeting place for people escaping to the capital city of Kyiv from the onslaught of Russian guns to the northwest of Kyiv, including the districts of Irpin, Bucha, Hostomel and Vorzel.

The scene was chaotic, people running from car to car searching for loved ones.

People told me that they literally threw their youngsters into vans. Those who can’t find their relatives were left in tears making frantic phone calls. 

We found Natasha, crammed into a van full of orphans in her care.

She said “the older children were really scared, but the younger ones didn’t really understand. We’ve had no water, no heat and no gas. We’ve been using wood to cook in the streets.”

Another car pulled up, packed to the rafters with Nadia and her family. In English, she told CNN that Vorzel was “dangerous occupied by a lot of Russians and a lot of Chechens.” She went on to say that she had spent most of the last 10 days underground.

The arriving cars are greeted with a cup of tea, some warm food and thorough checking by the police and intelligence services. The deputy mayor of Kyiv, Kostiantyn Usov, told CNN that they are checking that no Russian spies have infiltrated the masses leaving the area.

Over the course of several hours, the yellow buses fill with evacuees, and the condensation gathers on the windows.

A little boy sticks his head over the windowsill to see outside. He waves, not a care in the world, likely unable to comprehend that he may never return to the place he was born.

A woman sits in a bus as she is evacuated from Irpin, Ukraine, on March 9.

The Ukrainian Interior Ministry says more than 3,000 people managed to escape fighting “in occupied parts of Irpin and Vorzel,” localities north of Kyiv, on Wednesday.

The Interior Ministry repeated earlier statements by local authorities that many others had been prevented from leaving towns north of Kyiv, despite an agreement between Ukraine and Russia to create so-called “green corridors” for five areas near the capital to allow civilians to escape heavy fighting. 

“According to police, the occupiers stopped the humanitarian convoys that were leaving Bucha, Gostomel and Borodyanka today. Because of this, some people were forced to risk their lives to leave Bucha for Irpin and then leave with a column of locals,” they said.

Andrey Nebitov, the chief of police for the Kiev region, said: “Exhausted, frightened, hungry, but, most importantly, alive. People who came out of the blockade shared the horrors of the occupation — looting, executions, intimidation and looting in Russian-occupied cities.”

A senior official in the Kyiv region says lines of vehicles stretch for miles as people try to escape fighting in districts to the north and northwest of Kyiv.

Konstantin Usov, the deputy chairman of the Kyiv Regional administration, speaking from an assembly point to the west of Kyiv, said that the evacuation was underway, after a day in which thousands of people tried to use so-called “green corridors” agreed by Russia and Ukraine to escape widespread destruction north of the capital.

“Unfortunately, people could not leave all the cities today,” Usov said, long after darkness fell.

He added, “We try to let all cars go as early as possible, as soon as possible. There is a filtration, selection. We are checking the documents so that Russian saboteurs do not pass under the guise of evacuees. Difficult work, unfortunately, we are 100% beyond curfew. “

Curfew in the Kyiv region begins at 8 p.m. local time. 

“We continue to feed people, continue to heat them, give them tea,” Usov said.

Wladimir Klitschko stands at a checkpoint in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 6.

Former professional boxer and brother of Kyiv’s mayor, Wladimir Klitschko said his “heart is bleeding” following the bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol on Wednesday.

“My heart is bleeding,” the former Hall of Famer said in a video posted to Facebook.

Following the bombing, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage.”

The city council in Mariupol in southern Ukraine posted video of a devastated children’s and maternity hospital in the city and accused Russian forces of dropping several bombs on it from the air. The Donetsk region police say that according to preliminary information, 17 people were injured.

“Look at these images there, the concrete and real result of Putin’s special operations, so to speak. When he does not take the lives of these angels, he kills their parents, grandparents and destroys their homes and schools,” Klitschko said.

Klitschko said “to attack Children is to attack life, civilization itself,” and urged people to “stop Putin’s war now.”

Ukrainian troops are engaging in firefights with Russian troops in the Ukrainian city of Voznesensk, over 50 miles north of Mykolaiv, a video posted to social media shows. 

CNN has geolocated, and verified the authenticity of the video. 

In the video, a number of Ukrainian military troops are seen on the southern side of Voznesensk near market. The soldiers are seen armed with shoulder-fired missiles and the sound of gunfire is heard. 

Suddenly, an explosion is seen and heard near the side of the building where at least two Ukrainian troops are seen taking cover. As the camera suddenly backs away, one of the soldiers is seen falling back. It’s unclear if any soldiers were injured in the explosion. 

Continued fighting in Voznesensk is notable given that the Russian military have yet to defeat Ukrainian forces in Mykolaiv, 50 miles to the south. It suggests that some of the Russian military is bypassing the intense exchanges in Mykolaiv and attempting to advance further north.

Russian Central Bank will not resume trading on the Moscow Stock Exchange on Thursday, March 10 in the stock market section, with the exception of “Redemption: Direct Orders” mode with settlements in rubles, the bank announced on its website on Wednesday.

The foreign currency market will reopen at 10 a.m. local time (2 a.m. ET), forgoing the morning session, it added.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Putin’s “unprovoked invasion of Ukraine” has “already killed and injured innocent people” and forced more than 1.5 million people to “flee their country.”

Austin was speaking ahead of a bilateral meeting with Finland’s Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen at the Pentagon on Wednesday. Austin also thanked Finland for sending aid to Ukraine amid the crisis.

The two leaders are meeting a week after US President Joe Biden met with Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö at the White House last week.

Austin said the two would discuss “strengthening” the bilateral relationship between the US and Finland and “starting a new process of bilateral defense cooperation including space and irregular warfare.”

Kaikkonen said the crisis in Ukraine is not a European crisis, it’s a “global crisis.”

“The war in Ukraine has profound implications for European security, for EU, for NATO, for Finland. But as both of our Presidents have stressed, this is not a European crisis, this is a global crisis,” Kaikkonen said. “In these troubling times, Finland stands ready to work together with the United States.”

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova has called for a “new model” of investigative efforts to tackle alleged war crimes in Ukraine. 

Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Venediktova thanked 39 countries that reportedly joined Ukraine’s appeal to the International Court of Justice against Russia. 

Venediktova also called for a special tribunal to be created for the “unprecedented” crisis in Ukraine. 

Venediktova announced her office had already launched criminal investigations into “encroachment of territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine and waging an aggressive war” and issued warnings to 40 individuals that are part of Russia’s political elite.   

The prosecutor general said her office also “took action against those who incited war and provoked further atrocities in Ukrainian territory”. 

A warning was reportedly issued to a number of people she called Russian “propagandists,” including several Russian celebrities who Venediktova described as Putin supporters. 

Venediktova also unveiled a new government portal where the public can report war crimes they witness in Ukraine: warcrimes.gov.ua. 

Two officials in the besieged city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine say that about 1,300 civilians there have been killed since the Russian invasion began.

The city was first shelled in the opening days of the conflict and has been under siege for almost a week.

“We will fight for everyone,” he added.

Earlier Wednesday, Mariupol’s Deputy Mayor, Sergei Orlov, said that at least 1,207 victims of shelling had been confirmed through Tuesday. 

“Really we can’t calculate how many deaths we have — I mean three to four times more. We are not even able to count how many people on the streets have been killed by bombing and artillery,” Orlov told CNN.

Strollers for refugees and their babies fleeing the conflict from neighboring Ukraine are left at a train station in Przemysl, Poland, on March 2.

To help alleviate some of the stress and emotions that millions of refugees may be experiencing after fleeing Ukraine, strangers in Polish communities are helping strangers get settled with basic necessities in a place that may not feel anything like home.

Hundreds of thousands of children are among two million refugees who have fled Ukraine, since the Russian invasion began. Most of those who have fled have gone to Poland, to Ukraine’s west, with large numbers also entering Hungary, Moldova, Romania and Slovakia. The journey, in many cases, lasts several days and they arrive with next to nothing.

Polish citizens left shopping carts filled with diapers at the Przemyśl train station platform.

Strollers, carriers, jackets, toys, stuffed animals, diapers, even walkers for the elderly, have filled the area alongside the railway.

Dozens of volunteers with yellow vests, speaking multiple languages, are helping the refugees any way they can.

And help isn’t just available in the form of physical supplies — some people have been holding up signs, offering rides to different places across Europe and volunteers are helping refugees find a place to stay.

Read the full report here.

The Constitutional Court of Russia announced it has withdrawn from the Conference of Constitutional Courts of Europe (CECC) as of March 5, the court said in a statement posted on its website on Wednesday.

Russian state media said that the Russian Constitutional Court’s withdrawal comes after the CECC chairman emailed ballots on March 4 to all members of the organization members to vote on terminating or suspending the Russian Constitutional Court’s membership and associated membership of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus.

The statement went on to say the CECC efforts are also because the Russian Constitutional Court has “not clearly expressed their disapproval of the Russian Federation’s actions in Ukraine, therefore, no efficient loyal cooperation can be expected any longer between the CECC and the Russian Constitutional Court.”

“Taking into account the foregoing and reaffirming its commitment to the goals and values for which the Conference of European Constitutional Courts was originally formed, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, under the circumstances, considers its further participation in the Conference of European Constitutional Courts impossible and declares its withdrawal from it from March 5, 2022,” according to the statement.

The Constitutional Court of Russia emphasized that it can exercise its powers only within the procedural framework outlined by the constitution.

As the United Nations estimates more than two million people have fled Ukraine so far, the neighboring country of Romania is preparing for an influx of those escaping violence.

In the capital of Bucharest, CNN’s Miguel Marquez detailed how officials are readying the city’s convention center to accommodate up to 2,000 refugees.

Cots line the floor, and donations of food, water, blankets and clothing are being organized. There is also a separate area for mothers and babies.

As NATO and Western powers continue to economically isolate Russia via sanctions, companies are taking note of their ties to the country and are halting or modifying business as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Here are just some of the companies who have recently announced they are pulling back from Russia:

General Electric suspended operations in Russia, the company said in a statement Wednesday.

John Deere, the world’s largest agriculture equipment maker, halted shipments of its products to Russia two weeks ago, the company told CNN on Wednesday.

Amazon has suspended access to Prime Video in Russia, and the e-commerce giant is no longer shipping retail orders to customers in both Russia and Belarus, the company said Tuesday.

Papa John’s International announced Wednesday it has suspended all corporate operations in Russia. The company said it has stopped all operational, marketing and business support to, and engagement with, the Russian market. However, the Papa John’s brand will still exist in Russia. 

British American Tobacco (BAT) said Wednesday it will continue to operate in Russia, but it will suspend all planned investment into the country to focus on its portfolio of locally produced tobacco products.

Hilton has shut down its corporate office in Moscow and is suspending all new development activity in Russia, the hotel company announced Wednesday. Hilton said that it will “ensure continued work and pay” for employees impacted by the closure of its Moscow office. The company also announced it is donating up to 1 million room nights to support Ukrainian refugees and humanitarian relief efforts across Europe.

Hyatt is halting development in Russia and new investments there following the invasion of Ukraine, the hotel company told CNN in a statement on Wednesday.

3M has halted operations in Russia, the post-it maker said in a statement to CNN.

Whirlpool, one of the world’s largest appliance makers, told CNN the company is limiting production in Russia and it has suspended its sales operation in Ukraine. Whirlpool did not specify how much of its operations in Russia will be sidelined.

A full list of the companies and industries pulling back from Russia can be found here.

The White House suggested that there are “clearly logistical challenges” with a proposal from Poland to provide Soviet-era fighter jets to Ukraine.

She pointed to a statement from Pentagon press secretary John Kirby Tuesday, saying the Pentagon did not believe Polish proposal was “tenable.” 

Kirby “made clear that obviously the proposal from yesterday, that fighter jets manned by Americans departing a NATO base to fly into airspace contested with Russia raises serious concerns for the United States and NATO,” she said.  

Psaki cited some of the logistical and operational challenges: getting planes into Ukraine in a way that is not escalatory, potentially having to take the planes apart and putting them back together, and ensuring the planes’ safe movement amid a war. 

She later called it a “serious logistical bottleneck,” saying that discussions on the matter are ongoing.

The US, Psaki emphasized, has otherwise “not held back” on military aid to Ukraine, including weapons, anti-missile systems, and tank systems.

Buildings and homes in central Mariupol are seen in this image taken in June 2021.

The same buildings and homes in central Mariupol are seen in this image taken March 9, 2022.

As the dense clouds that have covered the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol for days break, the destruction of Russia’s invasion has waged in the city is beginning to be captured on new satellite images from Maxar Technologies.  

In the images, which were taken Wednesday at 10:16 a.m. local time, a number of homes, buildings, grocery stores and shopping malls have been damaged in the fighting. 

In a residential area in central Mariupol, a number of homes have sustained damage and at least two have been completely destroyed. 

In western Mariupol, a fire appears to have damaged the Silpo and Epicenter K supermarkets. 

Portcity Shopping Mall and other buildings are seen in this image taken in June 2021.

Portcity Shopping Mall and other buildings are seen damaged and destroyed in this image taken March 9, 2022.

A mile north, the Portcity Shopping Mall, also appears to have sustained significant damage from fire. 

It’s unclear from the satellite images how the fire began, but the buildings have clearly been gutted by fire. 

A number of homes in the left bank neighborhood, located in Mariupol’s east, also appear to have damaged. Entire roofs are missing on some of them. 

The United Kingdom is planning to send anti-air missiles to Ukraine to help Kyiv combat Russia’s “indiscriminate and murderous” airstrikes, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told the House of Commons on Wednesday.

“The Russians are changing their tactics, so the Ukrainians need to, too,” he said, adding that “it is therefore vital that Ukraine maintains its ability to fly and to suppress Russian air attack.”

Wallace told lawmakers that Ukraine’s defense “capability needs strengthening” and in response to Ukrainian requests, the UK government has “taken the decision to explore the donation of Starstreak high-velocity, man-portable anti-air missiles.”

The defense secretary also said that the UK has increased the supply of anti-tank weapons (NLAWs), small arms and ammunition to Ukraine. 

“As of today, we have delivered 3,615 NLAWs and continue to deliver more. We will shortly be starting the delivery of a small consignment of anti-tank Javelin missiles as well. I want to assure the House that everything we do is bound by the decision to supply defensive systems and is calibrated not to escalate to a strategic level,” Wallace said.

The United Nations is following up “urgently” on “shocking reports” of the bombing of a hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, saying health care facilities hospitals and health care workers should not “ever, ever be a target”

Dujarric said the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine “continues to deteriorate rapidly” – even as he described a productive meeting Wednesday between UN and Russian ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense.

At the high level meeting in Moscow partners agreed to strengthen their cooperation to continue to facilitate “timely humanitarian assistance.”

More than 2.2 million people have crossed international borders escaping Ukraine, Dujarric said.

The secretary-general also spoke with the President of Poland to thank him for welcoming refugees, Dujarric said.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told President Andrzej Duda that he will do everything possible to mobilize the UN system to support Poland’s generosity.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Moscow “to immediately allow Ukrainian civilians to safely depart the cities and towns of Ukraine that are besieged by Russian forces,” calling its proposal to create evacuation corridors to Russia and Belarus “absurd.”

On the Kremlin’s proposal to allow Ukrainians to flee to Belarus and Russia, Blinken said, “It’s offensive to suggest the Ukrainian people should seek refuge from the very government that has demonstrated such disregard for their lives.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that he is “absolutely convinced that Putin will fail and Russia will suffer a strategic defeat.”

The top US diplomat said that if Putin’s “goal is to impose some kind of puppet regime by displacing the existing government and putting in place one to his liking, I think it’s pretty evident by the response of the Ukrainian people that they will never accept that.”

“And if he tries to enforce such a puppet regime by keeping Russian forces in Ukraine, it will be a long, bloody, drawn-out mess in which Russia will continue to suffer grievously,” Blinken said.

Blinken said the US had sought to provide off-ramps to the Russian leader, but “every time there’s been an opportunity to” take them, “he’s pressed the accelerator and continued down this horrific road that he’s been pursuing.”

Blinken said Russia had already “failed in its chief objectives.”

The secretary of state went on to say the economic measures taken by the global community have “erased 30 years of progress integrating Russia into the world” and the “dramatic exodus” of global companies from Russia is having “a profound impact” in the short and long term.

At least 2,500 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Ireland so far with more set to arrive later Wednesday, Irish Justice Minister Helen McEntee said. 

Speaking to reporters at the Dublin Airport on Wednesday, McEntee said the Irish government is trying to process the arrivals “as quickly as possible” and “provide what they need to them.”  

Ireland has opted into the EU initiative to offer refugee’s temporary protection, waiving visa requirements for up to three years.  

At least two thirds of the Ukrainian arrivals are female, the justice minister said, adding that one third of all arrivals have sought out temporary accommodation.  

Irish Department of Justice officials are present in the airport greeting refugees and working with them to secure national identity numbers and accommodation, according to Roderic O’Gorman, Irish Minister for Equality. 

O’Gorman told Irish radio station RTÉ Radio 1 Tuesday that the Irish government is setting up a dedicated unit under his department to deal with Ukrainian refugees.  

Ireland has “significantly expanded” its short-term hotel capacity, O’Gorman said, stressing that hotel accommodation remains the “short term response” to the issue.  

The Irish government recognizes the need for “a long-term response as well,” adding that there is more work to be done before bringing proposals to the government. 

Amazon has suspended access to Prime Video in Russia, and the e-commerce giant is no longer shipping retail orders to customers in both Russia and Belarus, the company said Tuesday.

In addition, Amazon added, it is no longer selling New World, the company’s recently released online multiplayer video game, in Russia.

The decisions mark the latest steps by Amazon to back away from Russia, and coincide with a move CNN previously reported to halt new signups for Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s massively lucrative cloud computing platform.

The announcement follows an earlier Amazon statement that it has been providing cybersecurity assistance to Ukraine and had observed malicious state and non-state actors attempting to hack “charities, NGOs, and other aid organizations in order to spread confusion and cause disruption.”

Destruction from a bombing at a city administration building and a university in Mariupol are seen in this image made from video.

A city administration building and a university in Mariupol, less than a kilometer from the children’s and maternity hospital that Ukrainian officials say was bombed by Russian forces, has been identified by CNN as a second location in the city hit by an apparent Russian military strike.

CNN was able to identify Pryazov State Technical University and the Mariupol City Council Administration building as the second military strike location in Mariupol through videos posted to social media, which were geolocated and verified as authentic.

The videos show significant destruction at the university and city council building.

In one video, an alarm is heard echoing out as the remains of a minivan are seen. The video pans to show the destroyed buildings and debris-covered street. Explosions are heard in the video, but it’s unclear what is causing them. 

“This is [PSTU],”a man is heard saying, referring to the university. 

Another video showed the remains of a restaurant on the ground floor of one of the bombed-out buildings. 

“Behind the fighting remains, as you can hear,” the man said.

A third video shows that a portion of a building has collapsed. 

The explosion at the university and city council building took place around the same time as the explosion at the children’s and maternity hospital.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has verified 18 attacks on health care facilities in Ukraine so far, Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday. 

“More than 2 million people have left Ukraine and WHO is supporting neighboring countries to provide health care for refugees, most of whom are women and children. Some of the main health challenges we see are hypothermia, and frostbite, respiratory diseases, lack of treatment for cardiovascular disease and cancer, and mental health issues. WHO personnel and have been deployed to neighboring countries to provide mental health and psychosocial support.”

Tedros said the organization has delivered 81 metric tons of supplies to the region and is working on establishing a pipeline to get supplies to health facilities. 

Dr. Adelheid Marschang, senior emergency officer, said “remarkably” Covid-19 surveillance in the country remains in place and cases appear to be decreasing. 

“We have to say remarkably, Ukraine has maintained its Covid-19 surveillance and response system. And we have noted in the last week 731 Covid-19 deaths, the numbers of cases seem to decrease,” she said, noting that the organization is also monitoring the risk of spread of measles and polio in the crisis. 

“The reality is that the conditions we see in Ukraine are the worst possible ingredients for the amplification and spread of infectious disease,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme. 

“It doesn’t matter if it’s Covid, doesn’t matter if it’s polio, doesn’t matter if it’s measles, doesn’t matter if it’s cholera. You put that many people in desperation on the move, women and children packed together, people in basements. People stressed, people not eating, not sleeping. These are the conditions which immune systems are weak. People’s defenses are low, and infectious diseases can rip through populations like this,” Ryan said.

“WHO continues to call on the Russian Federation to commit to a peaceful resolution to this crisis and to allow safe, unimpeded access to humanitarian assistance for those in need. A peaceful resolution is possible, and that’s true in every war and humanitarian crisis to which WHO is responding around the world,” the director general said.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Wednesday that the UK will supply air defense systems to Ukraine. 

The UK is not seeking to set up a no-fly zone over evacuation corridors in Ukraine as that would “lead to a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia. And that is not what we are looking at,” she said.

Truss said the UK would like see a full ban on Russia from the SWIFT payment system and all the G7 countries ending its use of Russian oil and gas.  

“So we must go further and faster in our response. We must double down on our sanctions,” she added. 

The foreign secretary said that while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is causing “immense pain and suffering,” Russian President Vladimir Putin is “not making the progress he planned.” 

“We have surprised Putin with our unity and the toughness of our sanctions, hitting the banks, the ships, the planes, the oligarchs, and the oil and gas revenues. And the brave Ukrainian people have surprised him with their determination and their leadership,” she said.  

Russia has about “90% of their available combat power still ready for their use” in Ukraine, a senior US defense official told reporters on Wednesday.

The US assesses Russia no longer has “several hundred vehicles of different stripes and sizes” available to them, but the US does not know if those vehicles were captured, destroyed or abandoned, the official added.  

CNN first reported Tuesday that the US estimated that as much as 8% to 10% of Russian military assets used in the invasion of Ukraine are now destroyed or inoperable, according to a US official familiar with the latest intelligence as of Tuesday.

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.

People are assisted as they leave a building at the site of a bombing at a hospital in Mariupol.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday condemned the bombing of a children’s and maternity hospital in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, saying, “There are few things more depraved than targeting the vulnerable and defenceless.”

In a tweet, he said that Britain “is exploring more support for Ukraine to defend against airstrikes and we will hold Putin to account for his terrible crimes,” adding the hashtag “#PutinMustFail.” 

The city council of Mariupol has posted video of a devastated maternity and children’s hospital in the city and accused Russian forces of dropping several bombs on it from the air.  

A vehicle burns at the site of a maternity hospital that was bombed in this image taken from video.

The city council of the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol has posted video of a devastated children’s and maternity hospital in the city and accused Russian forces of dropping several bombs on it from the air.

“A maternity hospital in the city center, a children’s ward and department of internal medicine … all these were destroyed during the Russian air strike on Mariupol. Just now,” said Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional administration.

Donetsk region police say that according to preliminary information, at least 17 people were injured —mothers and staff — as a result of the Russian attack.

“Information on victims is being clarified,” the police said

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the air strike on the hospital in Mariupol.

The president again directed his anger at NATO for refusing to declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying “Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity.”

CNN’s Paul P. Murphy, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Katie Polglase and Celine Alkhaldi contributed reporting to this post.

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British American Tobacco (BAT) says it will continue to operate in Russia and will suspend all planned investment into the country to focus on its portfolio of locally produced tobacco products.

The statement added: “Furthermore, we are scaling our business activities appropriate to the current situation, including rationalising our marketing activities. This fast-moving and complex situation demands us to constantly assess a wide range of factors and considerations. We are complying, and will continue to comply with, all international sanctions related to this conflict in full.”

BAT currently employs around 2,500 people at its regional offices and St. Petersburg manufacturing plant.

British American Tobacco said it had suspended all business and manufacturing operations in Ukraine and was providing support and assistance to its staff there.

Earlier, tobacco firm Imperial Brands said that it had suspended all operations in Russia, including halting production at its factory in Volgograd and ceasing all sales and marketing activity. The firm said it would continue to pay all of its staff in Russia. Imperial Brands had already suspended its operations in Ukraine to prioritize the “safety and wellbeing” of its 600 employees.

US and Polish officials have had a number of conversations since United States officials were caught off guard by Poland’s statement yesterday about providing fighter jets, an administration official said, adding that the relationship between the two countries remains strong despite the disagreement.

And a senior administration official says providing Ukraine with MiG fighter jets remains a priority for the administration, even after the US rejected Poland’s proposal to transfer them first to the US, senior administration officials say. 

While the White House was caught by surprise when Poland made its offer publicly, officials do not believe the episode precludes coming to some type of agreement that would allow the jets to get to Ukraine.

But at the same time, Tuesday’s disagreement underscores the logistical difficulties that have so far prevented Ukraine from securing the jets. And officials indicated that the odds are stacked against finding a solution to provide the jets and that there are no immediate apparent solutions to facilitate the delivery.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday the United States is continuing to consult with Poland and other NATO allies on how to provide fighter jets to Ukraine.

There are also a handful of other countries with the jets — including Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria — and officials are not ruling out talks with those nations as they seek a way forward. One official said that Ukraine’s initial request was directed at Poland, plus those three countries, but that Poland was the only country initially willing to entertain a possible jet transfer.

Officials describe the issue as two-fold: a logistics problem of getting the jets to Ukraine, and a political problem of avoiding escalation with Russia. US officials described the Polish plan as failing to adequately address both.

One administration official said the US was concerned Russia could interpret jets flying into Ukraine from a NATO base as an attack.

Another official said pressure to get the jets to Ukraine noticeably ramped up after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded with US lawmakers to facilitate a transfer during a Zoom call on Saturday morning. 

Prior to the call, US officials had downplayed the prospects of helping with a transfer of the MiG planes, which Ukrainian pilots have been trained to fly. Officials said they were focused mainly on other areas of security assistance, including sending anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles. The logistical challenges of getting the aircraft to Ukraine appeared to some officials an unworkable challenge, and they questioned how effective the planes would be.  

But Zelensky’s request on the call, which lawmakers described as impassioned, seemed to change the calculus. Immediately after the session ended, both Republicans and Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, came out in support. 

That left the administration with little choice but to publicly get behind the idea, even if some officials were skeptical. By Sunday, Blinken said the US was working with Polish officials to transfer the planes to Ukraine and “backfill” with US jets.  

An administration official said the bilateral relationship between the two countries remains strong and that the additional US security assistance has continued to flow into Ukraine via Poland, including in the last day.

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting to this post.

The “majority” of the Ukrainian air fleet is still “intact and operable,” a senior US defense official told reporters on Wednesday.

The official said the reason the airspace over Ukraine remains “contested” is because Ukraine’s air defense system “remains viable” and “effective.”

The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed Wednesday that 90% of Ukrainian military airfields are now out of action.

“There are practically no trained Ukrainian pilots of the first and second class left. To date, only single attempts to sorties by combat aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force have been recorded,” MOD spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said in a video message.

The US official said, “Russians have surface-to-air missile umbrellas that virtually cover the whole country.”

On the proposal for Poland to provide MiG-29 aircraft to Ukraine, the official said those kinds of deals are the “sovereign decision” of each nation that decides to do something like that. 

“If another nation wants to consider the provision of aircraft, I mean that’s a sovereign decision they can make and they should make on their own and in consultation with Ukraine,” the official said.

The United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to Washington, Yousef Al Otaiba, told CNN that the UAE favors “oil production increases and will be encouraging OPEC to consider higher production levels.”

“The UAE has been a reliable and responsible supplier of energy to global markets for more than 50 years and believes that stability in energy markets is critical to the global economy,” he said.

The UAE had, last week, committed to the same oil production levels with Russia vis-à-vis the OPEC+ agreement. Otaiba’s comments signal, possibly, a change in Emirati policy from stabilizing oil production to an increase in oil production — and therefore helping decrease soaring energy prices. The UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure has not released a statement at the time of this writing. 

Meanwhile, the UAE is also working with the US to schedule a call between US President Joe Biden and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, an Emirati foreign ministry spokesperson told CNN on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are global oil producing powerhouses, capable of increasing production to decrease soaring energy prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Despite the price hikes, both countries recommitted last week to the OPEC+ oil production agreement with Russia. Both countries have also ​declined to give an outright condemnation of Putin’s invasion. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday the US shares “very important interests” with Gulf countries, including global energy supplies, “and we’ve had very constructive engagements with those interests in mind.”

Blinken noted recently-announced “Emirati support for increased production when it comes to OPEC+, which I think is an important thing to stabilize global energy markets, to make sure that there remains an abundant supply of energy around the world.”

The Gulf countries are close US allies, and most recently, the UAE received additional US military ​defensive support to help them against Houthi threats from Yemen. But the UAE has called on the US to re-designate the Iran-backed militia on the Foreign Terror Organization list, which the US has yet to do. 

The relationship between the US and the UAE is currently “under a stress test” the Emirati ambassador to the US said in a forum last week.

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting to this post.

Russia has launched 710 missiles against Ukraine since the start of the invasion, and Russian forces have gotten closer to the cities of Kharkiv and Mykolaiv, according to a senior US defense official.

Russian forces gained 20 km (or 12 miles) in the last day and are just outside Kharkiv now, said the official. Additionally, Russia is about 15 km (9 miles) to the north of Mykolaiv.

There have been “no significant movements” by Russian forces towards Kyiv or Chernihiv, though there continues to be “a lot of fighting” near Chernihiv, said the official

At least 516 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia began its invasion on Feb. 24, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in its latest update on Wednesday.

This is an increase of 42 deaths compared to the previous update on Monday.  

About 908 civilians have also been injured, the UN said Wednesday. 

“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,” the UN said.

The UN said that the increase in figures compared to the previous one “should not be attributed to civilian casualties that occurred on 8 March only, as during the day OHCHR also corroborated casualties that occurred on previous days.” 

Papa John's pizza boxes are seen in Moscow in 2017.

Papa John’s International announced Wednesday it has suspended all corporate operations in Russia, adding to a long roster of Western brands distancing themselves from Moscow following the invasion of Ukraine.

Up until now, Papa John’s had been among a shrinking group of major Western companies with a presence in Russia to keep its business intact there despite the outcry over the war in Ukraine. 

Papa John’s said it has stopped all operational, marketing and business support to, and engagement with, the Russian market. However, the Papa John’s brand will still exist in Russia. 

The company said all of its restaurants in Papa John’s are owned by independent franchisees and a master franchisee that controls operations and provides supplies and ingredients. 

Papa John’s said it is not currently receiving any royalties from these franchised stores in Russia and does not own or operate any restaurants in Russia. 

“Papa John’s stands with much of the globe in condemning aggression and violence,” the company said in a statement. “We hope for a peaceful resolution to the crisis in Ukraine, which today is hurting millions of innocent people, who are losing their homes, communities and people they love.”

Here’s a list of the companies that have said they are pulling back from Russia.

Local authorities in a town close to Kyiv that has been under attack for more than a week say that efforts to evacuate people to safety Wednesday have failed.

Ukraine and Russia had agreed what was called a “green corridor” to help thousands of people still trapped on the northern outskirts of the capital.

Two of the districts in that corridor are Bucha and Hostomel.

The city council of Bucha said that 50 buses had been blocked by the Russian military in nearby Stoyanka. 

“They do not allow the convoy to pass,” according to the city council.

CNN teams observed hundreds of residents from other districts around Kyiv where there has been heavy fighting arrive at a collection point to the west of the city aboard scores of buses.

Germany will not be sending fighter jets to Ukraine to help in its defense against the Russian invasion, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday.  

Speaking alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Berlin, Scholz said that a military solution to the war in Ukraine “makes no sense” and urged for a diplomatic solution. 

Germany has provided humanitarian aid, equipment and some weapons “but otherwise we have to think very carefully about what we are doing now and that certainly does not include fighter jets,” he said. 

In the US, the Pentagon has dismissed a proposal from Poland 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 Ramstein Air Base in Germany so they could then be provided to Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

Netherlands' Prime Minister Mark Rutte addresses the media at The Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris, France, on March 9.

It is “not possible” for the European Union to cut off its supply of Russian oil and gas completely, warned Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

“We have to discuss our vulnerabilities in terms of our dependency on Russian oil and Russian gas. I will not plead to cut off our supply of oil and gas today from Russia,” Rutte said in a joint news conference with his French counterpart in Paris on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the EU announced its plans to cut Russian gas imports by two-thirds this year and eliminate its overall need for Russian oil and gas “well before 2030.” 

Rutte added that the bloc’s sanctions against Russia are “pointed” at the Russian leadership, not the people.

A group of senior retired US military officers and former chiefs of defense of three Eastern European countries are advocating for supplying the Ukrainian military with air defense capabilities to defend against attacks by the Russian air force, according to an open letter obtained by CNN.

Supplying the Ukrainians with such weaponry would be effective in allowing them to shoot down aircraft or missiles in their airspace, and it is something that Ukrainians have specially asked the US and western countries to provide.

This move should would stop short of creating a no-fly zone, which the US and NATO have so far resisted supporting due to concerns that this could embroil the alliance in a war with a nuclear-armed power.

Earlier this week 27 foreign policy experts published an open letter calling on the Biden administration and the international community to establish a limited no-fly zone in Ukraine surrounding the humanitarian corridors.

The retired military leaders say that NATO’s decision to reject a no-fly zone was “devastating to the Ukrainian government and people’s morale.” They go on to assert that supplying the mid- and high-altitude air defense capability would prevent the Russians from dominating Ukrainian “airspace while delivering devastation of Ukraine’s cities.”

They note that, “Some nations have air defense systems similar to those which were previously destroyed in the opening days of the Russian campaign. Those nations could transfer existing stocks of Soviet-era and Russian-produced weapon systems to include radars. Other nations can purchase them on the international market and expedite their delivery to Ukraine.”

This proposal may have a better chance of success than implementing a no-fly zone because supplying the Ukrainian military with advanced air defense capabilities, 

The Ukrainians already have some S300 missile systems — which are a type of air defense — which means they are trained in operating these. The Croatians and few either other NATO nations have S300s in their inventory. 

Turkey could use this an opportunity to offload the S400s they bought from Russia, which was a purchase that created deep tensions within the NATO alliance. 

The letter’s signatories: They include General Phillip M. Breedlove, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and General Sir Richard Shirreff, former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

The former chiefs of defense of three Eastern European countries also signed on to the letter Lieutenant General Raimonds of Latvia; Lieutenant General Vytautas Jonas Žukas of Lithuania, and General Riho Terras of Estonia.

A number of key former leaders of US Special Operations Forces also signed the letter including Lieutenant General John F. Mulholland, former Deputy Commander, Special Operations Command, Vice Admiral Sean Pybus, former Deputy Commander, Special Operations Command; Lieutenant General Francis M. Beaudette, former Commanding General, Army Special Operations Command, and Major General Michael S. Repass, former Commander, Special Operations Command Europe.

CNN military analyst, Lieutenant General, Mark P. Hertling, was also a signatory to the letter.

More background: Their letter comes just a day after the  Chair of Ukraine’s Parliament requested surface-to-air defense systems, no-fly zones over critical areas and fighter jets for Ukraine in a letter to US lawmakers on Tuesday, according to the letter reviewed by CNN. 

The chair, Ruslan Stefanchuk, said that there is a need for “military assistance suitable for countering Russian attacks and military advances,” citing the Iron Dome as one example of the military equipment that Ukraine needs. 

When asked about providing this type of additional military assistance to Ukraine State Department Undersecretary for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, told lawmakers that some of it could be possible but cited challenges with certain highly advanced equipment. 

“I would only say with regard to Iron Dome, you can’t just, you know, snap your fingers and you have an Iron Dome. It takes training, it takes the ability to emplace it and all of those kinds of things. But there are other things on your list, on their list, which we think that we can do,” Nuland said. She added that she could get into more detail in a classified setting. 

Read the full letter below:

Ukrainian evacuees arrive at a France Terre d'Asile's welcome center for refugees in Paris, France, on March 7.

France is preparing accommodations for the first 10,000 refugees from Ukraine, French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said.

The French national defense council has activated an inter-ministerial unit to prepare for and coordinate the arrival of Ukrainian refugees in France, he added.

On Tuesday, the French Citizenship Minister Marlene Schiappa said that 5,000 Ukrainians have already arrived in France. A website has been established for French people to volunteer to host Ukrainian families fleeing the war.

“Today, nothing indicates a quick end to this tragic war. The bombings and Russian military manoeuvres could very easily get stronger in the days and weeks to come,” Attal said. “Our concern is quite obviously at its highest levels.”

China’s Red Cross will provide 5 million yuan (or around $791,000 USD) in humanitarian aid to Ukraine, China’s Foreign Ministry said in a briefing, adding that the first batch of the aid left Beijing on Wednesday,

The aid, which includes food and daily necessities, comes at the request of Ukraine and will be delivered to the Ukrainian Red Cross “as soon as possible,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Wednesday.

Remember: China has repeatedly called for parties to exercise “maximum restraint” to prevent a massive humanitarian crisis. Beijing has also consistently refused to call the war in Ukraine a Russian invasion.

Ukrainians enter a bus as they are evacuated from Irpin, Ukraine, on March 9.

The city council of Bucha, just north of Kyiv, has accused Russian forces of blocking the evacuation of people through an agreed evacuation corridor.

“We remind you that the “green corridor” was an agreement at the highest level,” it added.

While there has been no progress in getting an evacuation convoy moving from the beleaguered Kyiv suburb of Bucha, the evacuations agreed for two other nearby towns appear to have got underway.

Oleksandr Markushyn, mayor of Irpin, said on Facebook: “The evacuation from the city continues. There are buses in the center of Irpin. We are evacuating as many people as possible.”

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, an adviser in the president’s office, says that all the children stranded in an orphanage in nearby Vorzel have been rescued and evacuated, as has the local maternity hospital.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace arrives to attend the government weekly cabinet meeting at Downing Street on March 8 in London, England.

Britain is increasing its supply of weapons systems to Ukraine in “response to further acts of aggression by Russia,” UK Defence Minister Ben Wallace said Wednesday.  

Britain has now supplied 3,615 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, and will also shortly be supplying a small consignment of Javelin anti-tank missiles, he told lawmakers in parliament. 

Wallace said the “initial supply was to be 2,000 New Light anti-tank weapons, small arms and ammunition,” but that has been increased and the UK will continue to deliver more.

The UK is also considering supplying Ukraine with Starstreak high velocity anti-air missiles “in response to their request. The ministry of defence believes that this system “will remain within the definition of defensive weapons, but will allow the accredit force to better defend their skies.”

Russia has only been successful in one of its original objectives in Ukraine, according to UK intelligence and failed to take out Ukrainian air defenses, Wallace said. 

“The Ukrainian armed forces have put up a strong defense while mobilizing the whole population. President Putin’s arrogant assumption that he would be welcomed as the Liberator has deservedly crumbled as far as his troops morale.”  

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said there has been “no critical impact” to the safety of Chernobyl, following warnings by Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and the country’s security and intelligence service of a possible radiation leak, after the plant was disconnected from the state’s power grid. 

The warnings came in response to reports from Ukraine’s energy operator Ukrenergo and state-run nuclear company Energoatom that Chernobyl’s power had been “fully disconnected,” threatening cooling systems that are integral for preventing a “nuclear discharge.”

In a tweet Wednesday, the IAEA said it had been informed by Ukraine that Chernobyl had lost power, but that it saw “no critical impact” on the plant’s safety. 

“IAEA says heat load of spent fuel storage pool and volume of cooling water at #Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant sufficient for effective heat removal without need for electrical supply,” it added. 

Ukraine’s foreign minister repeated Energoatom’s warnings, saying that Chernobyl had “lost all electric supply” and calling on the international community to demand Russia “cease fire” to “allow repair units to restore power.”

“Reserve diesel generators have a 48-hour capacity to power the Chornobyl NPP. After that, cooling systems of the storage facility for spent nuclear fuel will stop, making radiation leaks imminent,” Kuleba said in a tweet Wednesday. 

Ukraine’s technical security and intelligence service echoed Kuleba’s concerns, warning that “all nuclear facilities” in the Chernobyl exclusion zone were without power, and that if the pumps could not be cooled, a “nuclear discharge” could occur. 

Neither Kuleba nor the intelligence service commented on whether the diesel generators could be sustained beyond the 48-hour period.

On Tuesday, the IAEA said it had lost contact with remote data transmission from safeguards monitoring systems installed at Chernobyl. 

In a statement Tuesday, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi expressed his willingness to travel to Chernobyl and expressed his concern for the staff operating the nuclear plant.

A Marathon Oil refinery is seen on March 8 in Anacortes, Washington, US.

Deputy US national security adviser Daleep Singh called on oil producers to boost supply as the United States continues to crack down on Russia with sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine, saying “this is the time” to dip in to reserves. 

Singh pointed to US President Joe Biden’s recent conversation with King Salman of Saudi Arabia as one way the US is looking to boost production.

“We want more supply in the world, more oil supply. We want it from producers that have spare capacity. They’re about 3 to 4 million barrels per day of spare capacity. Saudi has some of that spare capacity,” Singh said during an appearance on CNN’s “New Day.”

The US, he added, wants supply of oil “wherever it can be produced – that’s at home, that’s abroad.”

Pressed on comments from the Kremlin this morning, Singh stopped short of calling the US’s actions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine an “economic war.”

“This is a brutal and needless war of aggression. We said all along that the aggression escalates, so will the costs. And the strategic failure for Putin continues to mount. We have imposed the most severe and coordinated economic sanctions in history,” Singh said, noting a Russian economy in “tatters” and citing the “exodus” of global companies from Russian markets.

He said he “wouldn’t call it an economic war,” adding, “this is our way of demonstrating resolve.” 

Pressed by CNN’s John Berman on the Polish fighter jet situation, Singh deferred to the Department of Defense but touted defense and security assistance to Ukraine more broadly. Asked again whether the US has ruled out allowing MiG-29 aircraft into Ukraine, he again declined to comment but reiterated the US will not escalate the situation into a direct conflict with Russia, as has been the administration’s stance.

The damage in Yaroslava Kaminska's home village.

In the village of Nemishayevo on the outskirts of Kyiv, residents have been sheltering in their homes while Russian shelling continues on a regular basis.

One local, Yaroslava Kaminska, says she remained in Nemishayevo with her family — her husband and his parents and grandmother — after Russia’s invasion of the village on February 28, and says they were “naïve idiots” for first thinking Russian troops wouldn’t come.

Since the invasion, she says residents have been scared to leave their homes.

“If you come out from your house, you should stand behind the house so that you can’t be seen and heard, you should stand where the bullets won’t reach you,” Kaminska says.

Kaminska says shelling has been constant since the arrival of Russian troops – who, like other Ukrainians, she refers to as “Orcs” after the creatures in The Lord of the Rings.

Residents have been shot at by snipers and tanks have fired at houses on the family’s street, she says.

Having been without water, electricity and heating since February 28, the village lost gas this week.

After that, Kaminska says the family “broke down” – “we shouted at each other, we brought war to the house” – and took the decision on Tuesday to leave, although she won’t say where they departed for or how in order to protect the safety of others trying to escape Nemishayevo.

“We haven’t washed ourselves for a week. But it didn’t bother me for a long time. It does not matter. Only life is important, my family’s life and mine … I know what Russia is doing to us. This is not war; this is extermination.”

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko speaking on CNN's New Day on March 9.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has called for the people of Ukraine to “defend our future” against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s desire to “rebuild the Russian empire.”

Speaking on CNN’s New Day, Klitschko said Kyiv would have enough resources to last one or two weeks if Russian troops managed to encircle the capital, where recently he has been visiting defense posts of the Ukrainian military.

“The reason of the war, from the Russian side, is actually senseless. The reason Putin does this war is because we want to be a democratic European country and Putin wants to rebuild the Russian empire,” he said.

“Without Ukraine it’s difficult to do it. It’s his dream to rebuild the Soviet Union. We were in the USSR and don’t want to go back to the USSR,” he continued.

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian military agreed to a new 12-hour ceasefire with Russia to allow civilians to escape through evacuation corridors from several citi

Watch a part of the CNN interview:

es.

The fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues on a global scale. Here are the latest developments:

A brief ceasefire: The Ukrainian military has agreed to a a new 12-hour ceasefire with Russia on Wednesday. Russia agreed to provide evacuation corridors from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol, along with other towns negotiated with the Ukrainian side. Millions of people remain trapped in dire conditions across Ukraine, however, and Kyiv has transformed into a fortress.

Ukraine bans agricultural exports: Exporting key agricultural goods, including wheat, corn, grains, salt, and meat, is banned in Ukraine in order to “prevent a humanitarian crisis” and “meet the needs of the population in critical food products,” said Ukrainian minister Roman Leshchenko. Ukraine is one of Europe’s largest suppliers of agricultural produce.

UK outlaws Russian flights: The United Kingdom has made it a criminal offense for Russian aircraft to enter British airspace as part of further sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced via Twitter on Tuesday.

More companies hit the brakes in Russia: A growing number of international companies, including Apple, Disney and Ford, continue to disengage with Russia. A number of global consulting firms also announced a similar decision, including the four biggest worldwide, which are Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

NATO ramps up its defense deployment: The US is sending two Patriot missile batteries to Poland as a “defensive deployment” to counter any potential threat to US and NATO allies, a spokesman for US European Command said. Earlier Tuesday, the Pentagon dismissed Poland’s proposal to transfer its MiG-29 fighter jets to the US for delivery to Ukraine, calling it not “tenable.”

Roughly 300 personnel from peacekeeping forces will return to Ukraine, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser in the Ukrainian president’s office, told CNN on Tuesday.

Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba is set to meet Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov for talks on Thursday.

US Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to board Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on March 9.

US Vice President Kamala Harris departed for Poland on Wednesday under a cloud of uncertainty over a Western plan to provide Ukraine fighter jets.

Harris did not address reporters before she boarded her plane. Air Force Two left Washington just before 8 a.m. ET en route to Warsaw, where Harris plans to meet the country’s leadership on Thursday in an effort to rally international support and reassure one of NATO’s easternmost allies.

But her mission is complicated by the issue over Soviet-era jets, which Ukraine is requesting to sustain its fight against Russia. Poland’s proposal to first transfer ownership of MiG-29 aircraft to the United States caught Biden administration officials completely off-guard and was rejected by the Pentagon.

Harris will discuss the thorny issue this week, senior administration officials said ahead of her departure.

“A number of people have had a variety of ideas and we think all of them are worth discussing and that’s what we’re going to continue doing,” one official said. 

In Warsaw, Harris will also meet with refugees who have fled violence in Ukraine, as well as American diplomats who relocated to Poland from the US Embassy in Kyiv. 

She’ll travel onward to Romania, which has seen an influx of migrants fleeing violence in Ukraine.

People fleeing war-torn Ukraine arrive on a train from Poland at the city's Hauptbahnhof main railway station on March 9 in Berlin, Germany.

Germany’s interior ministry has registered a total of 80,035 people from Ukraine since Russia invaded the country, more than 15,000 refugees from the previous day.

The actual figures could be higher, the ministry added. 

Around 2.1 million people have fled Ukraine since Feb. 24, according to United Nations data. 

Crimea needs to be recognized as a Russian region, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday, commenting on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s readiness to discuss the status of Crimea and the separatist-held regions in eastern Ukraine, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.

“Our position is well known. Crimea is a Russian region and this must be recognized both de facto and de jure,” Peskov told journalists. 

Peskov went on to say the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk also have to be recognized as “sovereign independent states.”

“As for the republics of the DPR and LPR, these are sovereign independent states and they are recognized by the Russian Federation. This also needs to be recognized both de facto and de jure,” he added.

Zelensky signaled in an interview with ABC’s David Muir on Tuesday that he is ready to consider discussing the status of Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

Asked about Kremlin conditions to end the war, Zelensky said, “first, I’m ready for a dialogue,” according to ABC’s translation.

Muir asked: “When the Kremlin says these three conditions to end the war: that you must give up on joining NATO, recognize Crimea as part of Russia, and recognize the independence of those two separatist regions and the east to Vladimir Putin who will get this message from you. You say it’s a non-starter, not willing to those three conditions right now?”

Zelensky responded:

“The question is more difficult than simply acknowledging them. This is another ultimatum and we’re not prepared for ultimatums. But we have the possible solution, resolution, for these three items, key items. What needs to be done is for President Putin to stop talking, start the dialogue, instead of living in the informational bubble without oxygen,” he Ukrainian president said.

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said Wednesday that he does not have “high expectations” for his scheduled meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Turkey on Thursday.

Kuleba said on Facebook that the Ukrainian side was working hard to make the talks “as efficient as possible.”

“But I will tell you frankly that my expectations are discreet. I do not have high expectations, but we will definitely try to get the maximum out of it,” he continued.

Kuleba said that thanks to Ukraine’s defense forces and international sanctions, he was going to the Lavrov meeting “with a strong position. We are strong, we are confident.”

“What we will get at the end is another issue. It depends in particular on what instructions and directives Mr. Lavrov is going to these negotiations with. I hope he will approach these talks in good faith, not from a propaganda perspective, but really with the task of finding a solution to end this war started by Russia,” Kuleba said.

“This is a very important moment, and I am sure no matter how these negotiations end, we will pass it with dignity, because we are Ukrainians,” he said.

The United States has declared an “economic war” on Russia, the Kremlin said Wednesday.

Yesterday, President Joe Biden announced his administration was banning Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports to the US in order to target “the main artery” of the Russian economy.

When asked what his country needed to do in order to prevail in this economic environment, Peskov said that Russia would “do what is best for our interests.”

The West have slapped an array of economic sanctions on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine last month, the European Union continuing the trend today with a fourth round of sanctions.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas delivers a speech during a debate at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on March 9 about the security situation in Europe following Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has appealed to the people of neighboring Russia to make it clear the European Union is not acting against them, but against President Vladimir Putin following his invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking to lawmakers at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, Kallas stressed that current sanctions are “intended to isolate President Putin and his government which is conducting a brutal war against Ukraine.”

But she also cautioned the Russian people that the consequences of sanctions implemented against Moscow since the invasion will get much worse, warning that Putin is an “autocrat” who “does not care for the people” and “only cares for his power […] that is something that is so hard to understand in a democratic world.”

Kallas said Putin’s actions have left ordinary Russians living in an “isolated infospace” and without access to the truth. The task of the European Union is to “break the wall of lies,” she said.

“It is a complicated task. We need to mobilize our technological potential to win the war for truth,” said Kallas, warning that “we are in this for the long haul. We will have to exercise strategic patience because peace is not going to break out tomorrow.”

After Ukraine and Russia agreed on several evacuation corridors Wednesday for the evacuation of civilians, there was limited progress in moving people from the worst-affected areas.

Heavy weapons fire appears to have disrupted some routes.

In Kyiv, evacuations are planned from five districts hit hard by fighting in the last week: Vorzel, Borodyanka, Hostomel, Irpin and Bucha. 

The regional military administration said for the Kyiv region said that “departure is provided by police, representatives of the International Red Cross and the regional military administration.”

But several hours after the evacuation was due to begin, there was no sign of people being brought out of the affected areas in the bus convoys that had been organized. 

There appeared to be greater progress in organizing buses to get people out of the central city of Enerhodar. 

During an attempted evacuation from Demidova — a town north of Kyiv that was not among the agreed corridors — one police officer was killed and two more people seriously injured during an attempted evacuation of civilians, according to regional authorities.

The European Union has approved a fourth round of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine that includes another 160 oligarchs, Russian politicians and three Belarusian banks, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday. 

“We are further tightening the net of sanctions responding to Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine,” von der Leyen said on Twitter.

The French Presidency for the Council of the European Union also said on Twitter that EU ambassadors had approved “new sanctions aimed at leaders and Russian oligarchs and members of their families implicated in the Russian aggression against Ukraine.” 

“In particular the approved targeted measures exclude three Belarusian banks from the SWIFT system. They clarify the issue of cryptocurrencies and add to the list of goods and materials that cannot be exported,” the French presidency continued. 

Further details will be set out in the Official Journal of the European Union later Wednesday. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivers a video message on March 8 from Kyiv, Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that the threat to his country is “at maximum level” but affirmed the scale of its response is also at its highest.

As the war hits the two-week mark and millions of civilians flee the country, Zelensky said that the Ukrainian army would be recharged by weapons and supplies taken from Russians in combat.

Zelensky also made an appeal to Russian soldiers, speaking in Russian: “Leave.”

“Close the skies”: Zelensky repeated his global call to “send us the planes” in order to avoid “a massive humanitarian catastrophe.”

The Pentagon dismissed Poland’s proposal to transfer their Mig-29 fighter jets to the United States for delivery to Ukraine as not “tenable.”

The Ukrainian President cited Russia’s use of rockets and helicopters against civilians, cities and infrastructure.

The US has agreed to send two Patriot missile batteries to Poland as a “defensive deployment,” a spokesman for US European Command said Tuesday, but this is strictly to counter any potential threat to US and NATO allies and will not support “offensive operations.”

Zelensky added: “Listen, we are at war. We have no time for this media, for the signals … this is not a game of ping pong. This is about human life. We ask once again: make your decision quickly. Don’t transfer responsibility to one another. Send us the planes.”

A growing number of international companies, including Apple, Disney and Ford, are halting operations in Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine. Here are the latest:

Heineken will stop producing and selling beer in Russia.

The brewer announced Wednesday that it would “take immediate steps to ring-fence” its Russian business, “to stop the flow of monies, royalties and dividends” out of the country.

The beverage giant, which sells into more than 190 countries, had already announced a suspension on new investments and exports to Russia.

“We are assessing the strategic options for the future of our Russian operations,” it said in a statement. “We see a clear distinction between the actions of the government and our employees.”

Mothercare is also suspending business in Russia and stopping shipments there.

“Our local partner has confirmed that it will be immediately pausing operations in some 120 stores and online,” it said Wednesday.

Russia accounts for around 20% to 25% of sales for the retailer, which specializes in goods for parents and babies.

US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the IBEW local 553 apprentice training program in Durham Technical College on March 2, in Durham, North Carolina.

US Vice President Kamala Harris will discuss the thorny issue of delivering Soviet-era jets to Ukraine when she visits Poland this week, senior administration officials said ahead of her departure.

Harris’s visit was complicated when Poland issued a surprise statement saying it would hand over its MiG fighter jets to the United States instead of giving them directly to Ukraine, an idea that was roundly rejected by Washington.

“There are a lot of ideas on the table. As you’ve seen from the Pentagon statement, it is our judgment that this one is not a tenable one, but we want and certainly are encouraging all allies to bring ideas forward. And for us to stay in very close coordination across the board,” a senior administration official said.

The official said Harris would engage Polish leaders – including the President and Prime Minister – on the issue when she meets them Thursday in Warsaw.

“This is a key priority for us and for all of our NATO allies. And so we expect that we will continue talking about how to achieve this really important objective. A number of people have had a variety of ideas and we think all of them are worth discussing and that’s what we’re going to continue doing.”

A pair of MIG-29's belonging to the Polish Air Force at the 22nd Air Base Command in Malbork, Poland, on August 27.

Harris is traveling to Poland and Romania at a critical juncture for Europe and for the Biden administration.

“The past couple of months have all been very much focused on what has tragically become a defining issue for the entire administration,” a second senior administration official said.

Harris, for her part, has “really been immersed in this issue,” the first official said, “working intensively on a daily basis on all of the issues that are related to the ongoing crisis resulting from the Russian invasion.”

Also on the agenda: In Warsaw, Harris will also meet with refugees who have fled violence in Ukraine, as well as American diplomats who relocated to Poland from the US Embassy in Kyiv, which was closed.

She’ll also meet Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is visiting at the same time, and will speak to US and Polish troops on Friday.

The US has moved nearly 5,000 additional troops to Poland in a show of reassurance amid Russia’s aggression.

From Poland, Harris travels to Romania, where she’ll meet the country’s president and staff at the US embassy.

The officials said Harris arrived in Europe with a three-part message: that the US stands by its NATO allies, that it will continue to support the Ukrainian people, and that Putin has made a mistake that will result in “resounding defeat” for Russia.

Harvesting wheat in the fields of the Novovodolazhsky district of Kharkiv, Ukraine, on July 25, 2017.

The Ukrainian government will ban exports on key agricultural goods including wheat, corn, grains, salt, and meat, according to a cabinet resolution that passed Tuesday.

According to the resolution it is now “forbidden” to export oats, millet, buckwheat, sugar, salt, wheat, meat, as well as cattle and its by-products from Ukraine.

“This means a de facto export ban,” the cabinet statement read.

Ukraine’s Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Roman Leshchenko said the steps had been taken “to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Ukraine” and “meet the needs of the population in critical food products.”

Ukraine is one of Europe’s largest suppliers of agricultural produce, per data from the European Commission.

Combined, Russia and Ukraine are responsible for almost 30% of global wheat exports, according to Gro Intelligence, an agricultural data analytics firm.

Some context: Wheat prices spiked in the wake of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, reaching prices not seen since 2008.

Ukraine had been on track for a record year of wheat exports prior to the invasion, while Russia’s wheat exports were slowing, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

The mayor of Enerhodar, which was recently attacked by Russian forces, has welcomed the announcement of an evacuation corridor to and from the town.

Enerhodar is the site of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which is held by the Russian troops since they captured the facility late last week. Fierce fighting during that attack drew international condemnation and sparked fears of a potential nuclear incident.

Orlov urged women and children to join the convoy and leave.

The pace of evacuation from the nearby city of Zaporizhzhia has escalated since the plant’s capture, yet millions of civilians remain trapped in grim conditions across Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military has agreed to a 12-hour ceasefire with Russia on Wednesday to allow civilians to escape through evacuation corridors, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said earlier.

Read more on the nuclear power plant here:

Surveillance camera footage shows a flare landing at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant during shelling in Enerhodar, Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine March 4, 2022, in this screengrab from a video obtained from social media. Zaporizhzhya NPP via YouTube/via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. REFILE - ADDITIONAL CAPTION INFORMATION

Related article How dangerous was Russia's attack at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant? | CNN

The Spasskaya tower of the Kremlin, left, and Saint Basil's Cathedral, center, in Moscow, Russia, on February 15.

International companies are continuing to disengage with Russia following its ongoing invasion of Ukraine. This includes number of global consulting firms, including the four biggest worldwide, which are Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Deloitte announced on March 7 that it would stop operating in Russia and Belarus.

The firm said:

“We will support all impacted colleagues during this transition and do all we can to assist them during this extremely difficult time.”

EY, otherwise known as Ernst & Young, also said it would remove its Russian practice from its official global network, but allow it to “continue working with clients as an independent group of audit and consulting companies.”

“EY in Russia is a team of 4,700 professionals working in 9 cities of the country. The company has been operating in the Russian market for more than 30 years,” it said.

Consulting and accounting firm KPMG International said that its “Russia and Belarus firms will leave the KPMG network.”

“KPMG has over 4,500 people in Russia and Belarus, and ending our working relationship with them, many of whom have been a part of KPMG for many decades, is incredibly difficult,” the company said.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is also planning to break away from its Russian business.

“As a result of the Russian government’s invasion of Ukraine we have decided that, under the circumstances, PwC should not have a member firm in Russia and consequently PwC Russia will leave the network,” the “Big Four” consultancy said in a statement.

“Our main focus at PwC continues to be doing all we can to help our Ukrainian colleagues and support the humanitarian efforts,” it added.

“We are also committed to working with our colleagues at PwC Russia to undertake an orderly transition for the business, and with a focus on the wellbeing of our 3,700 colleagues in PwC Russia.”

Another big firm, Accenture, is also discontinuing its business in Russia as it “stands with the people of Ukraine,” it said.

The firm announced the move last week in a statement, where it thanked its “nearly 2,300 colleagues in Russia for their dedication and service to Accenture over the years.”

“We will be providing support to our Russian colleagues,” the company added.

The United Kingdom has made it a criminal offense for Russian aircraft to enter British airspace as part of further sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced via Twitter on Tuesday.

When Russia’s invasion began on February 24, Britain initially banned any aircraft “owned, chartered or operated by a person connected with Russia, or which is registered in Russia.”

This latest move places the matter in the hands of the police rather than aviation authorities.

The new law gives the government additional powers to detain Russian planes already present in the UK, according to an official press release.

New trade sanctions banning the export of aviation and space-related goods and technology to Russia were announced by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on Wednesday.

These include cancelling insurance policies in the sector and prohibiting UK insurers from paying claims.

People who fled the war in Ukraine rest inside a temporary refugee shelter after being transported from the Polish Ukrainian border on March 8 in Przemysl, Poland.

At least 1.33 million people have arrived in Poland from Ukraine since Russia launched its military invasion, Poland’s embassy to the European Union tweeted Wednesday, citing figures from the country’s border guard agency. 

“Among them 93% are Ukrainian, 1% are Polish and 6% are from 100 other different countries,” the post read. 

On Tuesday alone, some 125,800 people crossed into Poland according to the agency. 

People help an elderly woman in the streets of Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 7.

The Ukrainian military has agreed to a 12-hour ceasefire with Russia on Wednesday to allow civilians to escape through humanitarian corridors, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

Vereshchuk added that Prime Minister Denys Shmygal would be talking to the International Committee of the Red Cross Wednesday about the proposed routes for the ceasefire, which runs from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m local time.

Vereshchuk said the ceasefire would allow civilians to escape through “green corridors” in the following areas:

Vereshchuk highlighted two routes in particular — the evacuation of civilians from the port city of Mariupol and the eastern town of Volnovakha, both of which have been surrounded by Russian forces for several days.

Vereshchuk said there would also be a special operation to evacuate an orphanage near Kyiv, in the suburb of Vorzel. She said there were 55 children and 26 staff members there.

Maria Prymachenko's work is a celebrated example of "naïve art," a term used to describe work by artists without formal training.

Not only is Maria Prymachenko among the 20th century’s great self-taught artists, she is an icon of Ukrainian national identity.

Her fantastical paintings, praised during her lifetime by the likes of Pablo Picasso, are now found in some of the country’s most important museums. Her work has also been featured on postage stamps and her likeness is immortalized on commemorative coins.

But 25 years after her death, the Russian invasion is threatening Prymachenko’s legacy.

Last week, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said that several of the artist’s paintings were among those destroyed at a museum in her native region of Ivankiv, about 50 miles northwest of the capital, Kyiv, following an attack by Russian forces.

Her brightly-colored, almost childlike depictions of flora and fauna — as well as of farmers tending crops and plowing fields — were among the items initially thought to have been lost.

But reports have since emerged suggesting that an act of bravery may have saved more than a dozen of her works from the blaze.

Read the full story:

People stand around a mural of Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko's painting during a recent a San Francisco rally. (Photo by Mona Caron)

Related article Russian forces almost destroyed this Ukrainian artist's work. Now it's becoming a global symbol of peace

Heineken has become the latest major brand to halt operations in Russia.

The Dutch brewer said it is stopping the sale, production and advertising of its Heineken brand beer in the country.

It will also take immediate steps to ringfence its Russian operations from its wider business and said it will no longer “accept any net financial benefit derived from our Russian operations”. Heineken had already announced plans to stop all new investment and exports to Russia. 

Heineken said it will also step up support and donations for NGOs operating in Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

Some context: It comes as McDonald’s and Starbucks said they are shutting their restaurants and cafes in Russia, and Coca-Cola is suspending its operations there in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. PepsiCo is also pulling some products from the country. 

The New York Times (NYT) has pulled all its correspondents out of Russia, marking the first time in over a century that the paper will have no reporters on the ground there. 

“Very sad day for the history of @nytimes in Moscow. Pulling all its correspondents out of the country. We have had reporters there continuously since 1921, with one or two short interruptions due to visa hiccoughs. Not Stalin, not the Cold War, nothing drove us out,” Neil MacFarquhar, a former NYT Moscow bureau chief tweeted.

The paper announced its formal withdrawal from Russia in a statement Tuesday, citing new legislation which seeks to criminalize journalists reporting on Moscow’s invasion in Ukraine by outlawing any references to “war.”

 Read more on the difficult decisions news outlets are making in Russia:

The hammer and sickle emblem beneath a Russian national flag at the State Duma building in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022. The ruble tumbled the most since March 2020 after President Vladimir Putin recognized self-declared separatist republics in east Ukraine, deepening a standoff with the West. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Related article News outlets make difficult and varying decisions to navigate Russia's new media law

A Ukrainian serviceman walks past the vertical tail fin of a Russian Su-34 bomber lying in a damaged building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on March 8.

Ukraine’s air defenses have “enjoyed considerable success against Russia’s modern combat aircraft,” Britain’s Ministry of Defense tweeted Wednesday. 

In its latest intelligence update on Russia’s invasion, the ministry said Ukraine has “probably” prevented Russia from “achieving any degree of control of the air.”

In a separate update posted Wednesday, the ministry warned the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol remain “encircled by Russian forces and continue to suffer heavy Russian shelling.”

Residents evacuate from Sumy, Ukraine, on March 8.

An evacuation corridor from the city of Sumy, northeastern Ukraine will stay in operation Wednesday, regional governor Dmytro Zhyvytskyy said in a social media post.

People will be able to travel in their personal vehicles, he said. Also, 22 buses used during Tuesday’s evacuation will be returned to the city from the central city of Poltava to help the evacuations from about 2 p.m. local time, he said.

The corridor enabled some 5,000 civilians to evacuate the city on Tuesday, according to deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office Kirill Timoshenko.

Some context: Sumy has been subjected to heavy attacks by Russian forces in the past few days, with most of its population cut off from the rest of Ukraine. An overnight airstrike in the city on Monday killed at least 21 civilians. 

America’s immediate political future will turn on this critical point: whether drivers stung by record gas prices blame Russian President Vladimir Putin or US President Joe Biden.

A staggering surge in the elevated cost of filling up since Russia invaded Ukraine represents another gut punch for consumers already swamped by a 40-year peak in inflation coming out of the pandemic.

And Biden acknowledged on Tuesday there is more pain to come, telling reporters his executive order banning imports of Russian energy signed Tuesday will heap more pain on gasoline prices ahead of spring break and summer vacation.

The war in Ukraine created yet another extreme challenge for Biden, who took office in the face of the worst public health crisis in 100 years and has seen his personal approval ratings plunge after failing to quickly conquer Covid-19 last year.

The gas price issue encapsulates a dilemma that can often afflict presidents at times of international crises.

Biden is being compelled to take action in defense of critical global imperatives like the defense of international law, the plight of a people under vicious bombardment and a desire to deter a dangerous dictator. But he knows that his actions will have a detrimental impact back home.

In the current polarized national environment and with only eight months to go before congressional elections, the downside for the President will only be magnified.

Read Collinson’s full analysis here:

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House March 8, 2022 in Washington, DC. During his remarks, Biden announced a full ban on imports of Russian oil and energy products as an additional step in holding Russia accountable for its invasion of Ukraine.

Related article Analysis: Biden slams 'Putin's price hike' as high gas prices add to Democrats' woes

Western nations are targeting Russia’s oil exports as President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine — which has forced at least 2 million refugees to flee the country — enters a 14th day.

Here are the latest developments:

A dual Russian-American citizen has been charged with acting as a spy in the US, according to court filings that say she ran organizations that “sought to spread Russian propaganda.”

Elena Branson was charged Tuesday with acting and conspiring to act in the US illegally as an agent of the Russian government, willfully failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, conspiring to commit visa fraud and making false statements to the FBI, according to a criminal complaint.

The complaint alleges that Branson fled to Russia in 2020.

From at least 2011, Branson worked on behalf of the Russian government and Russian officials to advance Russian interests in the US, the complaint says. Prosecutors allege she coordinated meetings for Russian officials to lobby US political officials and businesspeople, and operated organizations to publicly promote Russian government policies.

CNN has attempted to contact Branson for comment on the charges.

The charges come as tensions between the US and Russia continue to intensify following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine last month, with the US front-and-center in a multinational effort to punish Russia for its actions.

Read more:

Related article Russian-American charged with acting as illegal Russian agent in the US

Civilians flee the city on March 8, in Sumy, Ukraine.

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.

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.

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.

This undated file photo posted on Twitter on June 18, 2020 by Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, shows CITGO oil executives, from left to right, Jose Angel Pereira, Gustavo Cardenas, Jorge Toledo, Jose Luis Zambrano, Tomeu Vadell and Alirio Jose Zambrano, standing outside the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service, in Caracas, Venezuela.

This undated file photo posted on Twitter on June 18, 2020 by Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, shows CITGO oil executives, from left to right, Jose Angel Pereira, Gustavo Cardenas, Jorge Toledo, Jose Luis Zambrano, Tomeu Vadell and Alirio Jose Zambrano, standing outside the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service, in Caracas, Venezuela.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

KYIV, UKRAINE - MARCH 08: Members of the Ukrainian military wait at a forward position on the eastern frontline near Kalynivka village as Russian forces advanced on March 08, 2022, in Kyiv, Ukraine. Russia continues assault on Ukraine's major cities, including the capital Kyiv, after launching a large-scale invasion of the country on February 24. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Related article Kyiv has transformed into a fortress, with its residents determined to defend it | CNN

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

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

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 US 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.

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.

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.