Vladimir Putin

U.S. Sends ‘Kamikaze Drones’ to Ukraine; Pentagon Weighs Permanently Stationing More Troops in Europe

This has been CNBC’s live blog covering Wednesday’s updates on the war in Ukraine. Follow the latest updates here. Russian attacks on Ukraine are continuing after Moscow said it would reduce its military activity in some parts of the country. Russia said Tuesday that it would cut back its military activity near Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv but the U.S., the U.K. and Ukraine have expressed skepticism over Moscow’s pledge to scale back the fighting. Russian and Ukrainian delegates held face-to-face talks in Istanbul yesterday, with Ukraine’s delegation calling for an international agreement under which other nations would guarantee Ukraine’s security. Russia continues shelling, holds positions near Kyiv despite Moscow’s promises to scale back Significant Russian shelling and missile strikes have continued on the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, and Russian troops are still holding positions close to Kyiv, despite promises to the contrary from Moscow, the United Kingdom said Thursday. Russian forces continue to hold positions to the east and west of Kyiv despite the withdrawal of a limited number of units, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence briefing. Chernihiv is about 90 miles north of Kyiv and 40 miles south of the Russian border. A Russian defense official said Wednesday that Moscow would drastically reduce military activity near Chernihiv and the capital of Kyiv, NBC News reported. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urged caution about believing Moscow’s promises. The Russian Defense Ministry’s press office was not immediately available to provide comment to CNBC. The British ministry said heavy fighting will likely take place in the suburbs of Kyiv in the coming days. Since last week, Ukrainian forces began to report retaking towns close to the capital. The situation around the capital is fluid, and those Ukrainian claims are difficult or impossible to verify. You do see the Ukrainians trying to take advantage of opportunities and roll back the Russians where they can, NBC News Global Security Reporter Dan De Luce said. Heavy fighting continues in Mariupol in the south, but the U.K. Ministry said Ukrainian defenders are still holding the city center. Mariupol has been largely destroyed by Russian artillery and missiles. Ted Kemp Putin may have been misinformed about Ukraine, U.S. intelligence shows According to newly declassified U.S. intelligence, Russian President Vladimir Putin feels he was misled by military leaders, who withheld details about the botched invasion of Ukraine out of fear. We believe that Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the Russian military is performing and how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions, because his senior advisers are too afraid to tell him the truth, said White House communications director Kate Bedingfield. As a result, there’s been persistent tension between Putin and his military leadership, she told reporters. A U.S. official told NBC News earlier that Putin didn’t know his military was using and losing conscripts in Ukraine, a sign that there was a clear breakdown in the flow of accurate information to the Russian President. When Putin actually realizes how badly his military is done in Ukraine, there might be a real potential here for escalation, said Pentagon press secretary John Kirby. Neither the White House nor the Pentagon would say how American intelligence agencies learned what Putin was and was not being told. Releasing intelligence strongly suggests the U.S. has a mole in Putin’s inner circle. Goh Chiew Tong, Christina Wilkie U.S. sends 100 killer drones to Ukraine, following Zelenskyy’s request for additional aid The U.S. will be sending 100 killer drones to Ukraine in a colossal weapons package that President Joe Biden approved earlier this month, officials have confirmed. The so-called kamikaze drones will be deployed to Ukraine soon, according to the Pentagon. It comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s request to U.S. lawmakers for additional military equipment. We’ve heard the Ukrainians and we take that request very seriously, said Celeste Wallander, assistant secretary of Defense for international security. It’s not clear how often the U.S. military has used the killer drones on the battlefield and AeroVironment, the U.S.-based firm that manufactures the weapon, declined to comment on the arms transfer. The Switchblades are equipped with cameras, navigation systems and guided explosives. They can be programmed to automatically strike targets that are miles away or can loiter above a target until engaged by an operator to strike. Goh Chiew Tong, Amanda Macias Congress hears sirens wail as Ukraine legislators visit Elizabeth Frantz Reuters U.S. Senator Rob Portman is flanked by Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova and U.S. Senator Dick Durbin as he speaks during a meeting between members of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus and members of the Ukrainian Parliament at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., March 30, 2022. As members of the Ukrainian parliament were pleading for aid on Capitol Hill, an air raid siren blared from one of their cell phones a wrenching alert from the war-torn country back home. One of the visitors reached into her bag, pulled out the phone and let the siren wail in the halls of Congress. Right now, you hear the sound? said Anastasia Radina, a member of the Ukrainian Rada. This is the air raid alarm in the community where my son is staying right now, she said at a press conference this week after meeting with members of Congress. I need you all to hear that. Associated Press Pentagon weighs stationing more troops permanently in Eastern Europe Allison Joyce AFP Getty Images US soldiers walk to board a plane from Pope Army Airfield in Fort Bragg, North Carolina on February 14, 2021 as they are deployed to Europe. The Pentagon is considering sending more U.S. troops to Eastern Europe on a permanent basis, citing significant changes in the security environment. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the issue is under discussion, but no decisions have been made. Earlier in the day, the top U.S. commander in Europe told lawmakers that the U.S. and NATO military footprint in Europe and specifically in the Baltics has got to change. Certainly this is an opportunity as a result of this senseless act on behalf of Russia, to re-examine the permanent military architecture that exists not only in Eastern Europe, but in our air policing activity in aviation and in our standing naval maritime groups, U.S. Air Force Tod Wolters said before the House Armed Services Committee. Amanda Macias Satellite images show Mariupol before and after destruction Satellite images from Maxar Technologies show total destruction from above in Mariupol. Here is a before and after view. Before Maxar Technologies Getty Images Maxar satellite imagery of homes and buildings before the invasion, Mariupol, Ukraine on June 21, 2021 After Maxar Technologies Getty Images Maxar satellite imagery of destruction of homes and buildings after the invasion, Mariupol, Ukraine on March 29th, 2022. Maxar Technologies via Getty Images U.S. will provide $500 million in direct budgetary aid to Zelenskyy’s government Courtesy: The White House President Biden has warned Putin that the U.S. and its allies are willing to impose swift and severe costs on Russia. President Joe Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the United States plans to provide his government with $500 million in direct budgetary aid, according to a White House readout of Biden’s secure call with the Ukrainian leader. In the world of international assistance, direct budgetary aid is relatively rare. More often nation-to-nation aid comes in the form of already paid-for things, like food or weapons or subject matter experts, and monetary loans. Direct budgetary aid, on the other hand, generally comes with few strings attached, the closest thing to a cash gift from one government to another. The monthlong Russian invasion of Ukraine has severely hampered Kyiv’s ability to collect tax revenue and remain operational, making this kind of cash aid especially important. Congress recently approved a separate, more than $13 billion package of supplemental aid for Ukraine. But nearly all of that money is already committed to specific things, like refugee housing, defensive arms and medical supplies. Christina Wilkie U.K. aims to stop sanctioned oligarchs from maintaining their planes and yachts James Manning Pa Images Getty Images The superyacht Phi owned by a Russian businessman in Canary Wharf, east London which has been detained as part of sanctions against Russia. The U.K. announced new legislation that aims to prohibit maintenance on aircraft or yachts belonging to sanctioned Russian elites and their businesses. The new measures come after Britain designated more than 1,200 individuals and entities close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. There is no doubt that Putin and his elite have been surprised by the strength of our sanctions, U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss wrote in a statement. We will continue to ramp up the pressure so long as Russian troops are in Ukraine, targeting not only the businesses of oligarchs but also their assets and international lifestyles, Truss added. Amanda Macias Top U.S. commander in Europe says Putin believed that Russians supported a Ukraine invasion Sergey Guneev Sputnik Reuters Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a concert marking the eighth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia March 18, 2022. America’s top commander in Europe gave his best assessment as to why Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine. I think he felt like he had the popular support of the citizens of Russia. I also felt like he was attempting to take advantage of fissures that could have appeared in NATO as a result of the post-Afghanistan environment, U.S. Air Force General and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Tod Wolters said during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee. Tom Williams Cq-roll Call, Inc. Getty Images General Tod Wolters, commander, U.S. European Command, testifies during the House Armed Services Committee hearing titled National Security Challenges and U.S. Military Activity in Europe, in Rayburn Building on Wednesday, March 30, 2022. I also think it has to do with his age and its efficacy. All those combined together put him in a position where he elected to go at this time, Wolters said when asked why Putin chose Feb. 24 to invade Ukraine. The overriding variable in my view is the fact that he believes that he has popular support from his citizens, said Wolters, who also serves as commander of U.S. European Command. Amanda Macias Zelenskyy says he and Biden discussed a new sanctions package Ukrainian Presidential Press Service Reuters Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addresses the members of Norwegian parliament via video link, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine March 30, 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hourlong secure call with U.S. President Joe Biden finished just after noon, the White House said. Ten minutes later, the Ukrainian leader tweeted that he and Biden had discussed a number of topics, most notably new sanctions on Russia and specific materiel that Ukraine needs. The White House has been working on a package of new sanctions to impose on Russia that would be aimed at making it harder for Russia’s military to get parts and material. Christina Wilkie Russia’s battlefield performance in Ukraine ‘baffling,’ top U.S. commander in Europe says Win Mcnamee Getty Images General Tod Wolters, U.S. European Command and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee March 29, 2022 in Washington, DC. America’s top commander in Europe described Russia’s largely stalled military campaign and overall battlefield performance in Ukraine as baffling. There was a degree of miscalculation and it’s evident by the performance of the Russian military up to this point, U.S. Air Force General and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Tod Wolters said during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee. This one has been baffling, said Wolters, who also serves as commander of U.S. European Command. He added that the U.S. military should be prepared to take a really good look at Russia’s military force posture. Since the Kremlin’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces have been increasingly beset by logistical and command and control issues, as well as morale problems. Amanda Macias The art of war: Murals show support for Ukraine Artists around the world created murals to show support for Ukraine as Russia’s invasion continues. Chesnot Getty Images Fresco murals by French street artists Kelu Abstract and Jeff Aerosol are displayed on the wall of a Parisian building on March 14, 2022 in Paris, France. Nikolay Doychinov AFP Getty Images A resident walks past mural painting by Bulgarian artist Stanislav Belovski depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin holding his own body in Sofia, on March 15, 2022. Juan Mabromata AFP Getty Images A woman walks pass the mural No to war by muralist Maximiliano Bagnasco in Buenos Aires on March 5, 2022. Mateusz Slodkowski Lightrocket Getty Images A mural of Putin, Hitler, and Stalin with a slogan No More Time is seen on the wall next to the PKM Gdansk Jasien train station. Huw Fairclough Getty Images A resident looks at new street art mural has appeared in Cardiff depicting Ukraine’s capital Kyiv under siege on March 01, 2022 in Cardiff, Wales. To see more murals from around the world, click here. Adam Jeffery 100 ‘killer drones’ included in latest U.S. arms package for Ukraine Courtesy: AeroVironment AeroVironment Switchblade 600 Drone American officials told lawmakers that the U.S. will send killer drones to Ukraine at the country’s request. We have committed 100 switchblade tactical unmanned aerial systems to be delivered in the most recent package of presidential drawdown, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander said in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters last week that the drones would arrive in Ukraine soon, but declined to elaborate further. There are two variants of the weapon, the Switchblade 300 and the 600, manufactured by U.S.-based firm AeroVironment. It was not immediately clear which variant of the weapon the U.S. deployed to Ukraine. The 300 version is designed to strike small targets. It can fit in a rucksack, weighs a little over 5 pounds and has a range of 10 miles. The 600 variant of the weapon is designed to destroy tanks and other armored vehicles. It weighs slightly more than 120 pounds and has a range of more than 40 miles. Amanda Macias Zelenskyy and Biden plan to speak by phone today Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via Reuters Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends an interview with some of the Russian media via videolink, as Russia?s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine March 27, 2022. President Joe Biden is slated to speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy around 10:45 a.m. ET, the White House said in a statement. The two leaders are planning to discuss our continued support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. The call follows Russia’s claim Tuesday that it would dramatically reduce its military activity around the capital Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv. The announcement from the Russian Ministry of Defense was met with deep skepticism by officials in both Washington and Kyiv. Christina Wilkie The aftermath of shelling in Donetsk Emergency specialists work at a residential building damaged by shelling in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk during Russia’s war in Ukraine. Alexander Ermochenko Reuters Emergency specialists work at a residential building damaged by shelling during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, Ukraine March 30, 2022. Alexander Ermochenko Reuters A woman carries a bottle of water as emergency specialists work at a residential building damaged by shelling during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, Ukraine March 30, 2022. Alexander Ermochenko Reuters Firefighters work at a residential building damaged by shelling during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, Ukraine March 30, 2022. Reuters Russia’s Lavrov says Moscow will move toward ‘multipolar world order’ with China Kirill Kudryavtsev Reuters Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a news conference following talks with President of the International Committee of the Red Cross Peter Maurer in Moscow, Russia March 24, 2022. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov touted a move toward a new world order during a visit to China on Wednesday. We are living through a serious stage in the history of international relations, he said. I am convinced that the outcome of this stage will substantially clarify the international situation. We will move towards a multipolar, equitable and democratic world order with China and other like-minded nations. China, a close ally of Russia, has so far refused to fully denounce Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and has not joined the coordinated move to impose economic sanctions on Moscow. Chloe Taylor Russia regrouping away from Kyiv but Ukraine still under constant attack, officials say Russia is regrouping its troops away from Kyiv to concentrate on its offensive in eastern Ukraine, Ukraine’s armed forces have said in a new update. Moscow was moving to increase the supply of troops in the Donetsk and Tavriya directions, the update said, while offensives were also underway in other parts of the country. In the northern direction, the occupier focused on shelling areas of Chernihiv and strengthening defensive positions, Ukraine’s armed forces said. Russia said Tuesday that it would cut back its military activity in and around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv. Oleksiy Arestovych, an advisor to the Ukrainian Presidential Office, said in a video message on Wednesday that Russia had ulterior motives for regrouping its troops away from the capital. The Russians are not simply removing their troops from Kyiv and from the north of Ukraine they are transferring them to the Joint Forces Operation zone in eastern Ukraine and near Mariupol in order to have a qualitative and quantitative advantage in these areas, he said, according to an NBC News translation. Meanwhile, Oleh Synegubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, said Wednesday that Russian forces had been constantly firing on multiple districts around Kharkiv, and Ukraine’s Human Rights Ombudsman said every day Ukrainian towns and cities were being shaken by constant shelling and bombing. Chloe Taylor China says relations with Russia are withstanding ‘test of international turbulence’: State-controlled media Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday that China-Russia relations have withstood the test of international turbulence, according to Chinese state-run television channel Phoenix TV. According to Phoenix TV, he made the comments during a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. Wang also said that China’s relations with Russia maintained the correct direction and continue to develop resiliently, according to the Chinese broadcaster. China, a close ally of Russia, has so far refused to fully denounce Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and has not joined the coordinated move to impose economic sanctions on Moscow. Chloe Taylor Kyiv officials say capital hit by multiple shelling strikes Metin Aktas Anadolu Agency Getty Images A completely destroyed building is seen after Russian shelling in the Sviatoshinsky district of Kyiv, Ukraine on March 30, 2022. The Kyiv region has been hit by more than 30 shelling strikes over the past 24 hours, officials said Wednesday. More than 30 shellings of housing estates and infrastructure facilities have been recorded, the Kyiv Regional State Administration said in a Telegram post translated by NBC News. Authorities said in the post that the most dangerous areas in the region were the settlements along the Zhytomyr highway, as well as the north of Vyshhorod district and the settlements of Baryshivska and Velikodimerska on the outskirts of the capital. On Tuesday, Russia said it would scale back its military operations in and around Kyiv. Chloe Taylor 45 of Ukrainians worried about finding enough food, UN says Thomas Peter Reuters People line up for food handed out by volunteers at a humanitarian aid distribution point, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, March 28, 2022. An estimated 45 of the Ukrainian population is worried about finding enough to eat, the U.N.’s World Food Programme said Wednesday. The organization said it was already supporting 1 million people on the ground in Ukraine by supplying them with food. Just one month ago, we had no presence on the ground, no staff, no network of suppliers or partners. To build an operation from the ground up and get food to one million people seemed a monumental challenge, Jakob Kern, WFP’s emergency coordinator for Ukraine, said in a press release. Now that the structures are in place, we need the funding to keep delivering assistance, and to help 3 million people in need. Chloe Taylor 145 children have died in the war, Ukraine says Yuriy Dyachyshyn AFP Getty Images In this picture taken on March 18, 2022, 109 empty strollers are seen placed outside the Lviv city council during an action to highlight the number of children killed in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, 145 children have been killed in the conflict in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudsman said Wednesday. A further 222 children have been injured, officials said, noting that children in the Kyiv region suffered the most. Chloe Taylor Russia state Duma speaker suggests switching to ruble payments for more exports Simon Dawson Bloomberg Getty Images Russian State Duma chairman and speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said Wednesday that Moscow should consider asking for payments in rubles for more of its exported goods. The Kremlin has repeatedly demanded that so-called unfriendly countries pay in rubles for gas, a demand that has been rejected by G-7 countries. European politicians need to stop talking, stop looking for excuses why their countries cannot pay in rubles, Volodin said on Telegram Wednesday, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin made the right decision by demanding payments for gas be made in the Russian currency. Most countries currently pay for Russian gas in euros or dollars. It would be right, where it is profitable for our country, to expand the list of goods exported for rubles: fertilizers, grain, oil, oil, coal, metals, timber, etc., Volodin added. I appeal to colleagues from the national parliaments of unfriendly countries: take the issue of ruble settlements more seriously. Volodin, an influential lawmaker in the Russian political sphere, has been an outspoken supporter of Moscow’s military action in Ukraine. Chloe Taylor 4 million have fled Ukraine, UN says Angel Garcia Bloomberg Getty Images A displaced Ukrainian and child make their way to board a bus for onward travel at a temporary refugee center, setup at a disused Tesco building, in Przemysl, Poland, on Wednesday, March 16, 2022. More than 4 million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in late February, the U.N.’s Office for the High Commissioner for Refugees said Wednesday. Chloe Taylor Chernihiv official says Russia continuing to attack the region despite claims it would pull troops back Oleh Holovatenko Reuters An external view shows hotel ‘Ukraine’ destroyed during an air strike, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in central Chernihiv, Ukraine March 12, 2022. Viasheslav Chaus, governor of Chernihiv, said Wednesday that Russian forces spent the whole night attacking the region despite Moscow’s claims yesterday that it would pull troops back from Kyiv and Chernihiv. Yesterday, the Russians publicly stated that they were reducing their offensive actions and activity in the Chernihiv and Kyiv areas. Do we believe that? Of course not, Chaus said in a Telegram post. The enemy demonstrated a ‘decrease in activity’ in the Chernihiv region by striking Nizhyn, including by air, and spent the whole night hitting Chernihiv, he added. Civil infrastructure has been destroyed again, libraries, shopping malls and other facilities have been destroyed, and many houses have been destroyed. Because, in fact, the enemy roamed Chernihiv all night. CNBC has not been able to independently verify these reports. A spokesperson for the Russian government was not immediately available for comment. Chloe Taylor Germany declares ‘early warning’ stage of gas supply emergency Kay Nietfeld Picture Alliance Getty Images German Economy Minister Robert Habeck holds a press conference on Wednesday, March 30, 2022. Germany is bracing for a potential disruption of natural gas supplies, activating the first early warning stage of an emergency amid a dispute with Russia. German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said in a news conference the measure was the first of three stages and does not yet imply a state intervention to ration gas supplies. Habeck called for consumers and companies to reduce consumption, however, reportedly saying that every kilowatt hour counts. It comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin urges so-called unfriendly countries to pay in rubles for Russian gas. The G-7, which induces Germany, has rejected that demand. Habeck has said Germany, which imported around 55 of its gas supplies from Russia last year, would not be able to achieve full independence from Moscow before mid-2024. Sam Meredith You can’t trust ‘what is coming out of the mouth of Putin’s war machine,’ UK’s deputy PM says Peter Summers Getty Images Foreign Minister Dominic Raab is pictured in Downing Street on March 25, 2020 in London, England. U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has expressed skepticism over Russia’s claims that it intends to scale back its military operations in some parts of Ukraine. We judge the Russian military machine by its actions, not just its words, he told Sky News on Wednesday, saying the U.K. was not putting a lot of faith in Russia’s stated intentions. There’s some skepticism that Russia will regroup to attack again rather than seriously engage in diplomacy or anything of that nature, Raab added. Of course, the door to diplomacy will always be left ajar, but I don’t think you can trust what is coming out of the mouth of Putin’s war machine. Chloe Taylor Sanctions on Russia to continue until we see de-escalation, Italy’s Di Maio says Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe that sanctions on Russia will continue until Italy sees military de-escalation in Ukraine. Chloe Taylor Japan skeptical over Russian pledge to cut military operations Japan has expressed skepticism over Russia’s pledge to reduce its military operations in and around the Ukrainian capital. We are aware that during the ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine on March 29, both sides made certain concessions, with the Russian side indicating its intention to drastically reduce military operations in and around the capital, Kyiv, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday. He noted that U.S. President Joe Biden and other U.S. government officials were taking a wait-and-see approach to Russia’s stated intentions, with some saying this is merely a repositioning of Moscow’s troops and not an actual withdrawal. Japan shares the belief that it is important to achieve a concrete cease-fire as soon as possible, and we will continue to monitor the situation with great interest, and at the same time, we will provide the various types of support to Ukraine that we have already announced in a prompt and steady manner, Matsuno said. In order to immediately stop Russia’s aggression and ensure the withdraw of its troops it is important for the international community to work together and continue to take strong measures against Russia. Chloe Taylor EU to pressure China over stance on Russia-Ukraine war Kenzo Tribouillard AFP Getty Images President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen delivers a statement in Brussels. The European Union wants to put pressure on China to be neutral with its stance over Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine, sources with knowledge of the matter told CNBC ahead of a virtual meeting between Brussels and Beijing on Friday. There is concern among western officials regarding the role that China might play in the war between Russia and Ukraine. The Chinese authorities have so far refused to fully denounce Russia’s unprovoked invasion of its neighbor having abstained during a vote for a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Moscow. China has also supported Moscow’s complaints about NATO expansion and U.S. officials have also said that Russia has asked China for military and economic support something that the Kremlin and Beijing have both denied. European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are speaking Friday with China’s Prime Minister Li Keqiang at 10 a.m. Brussels time and then with Chinese President Xi Jinping at 2 p.m. The goal of the summit is ensuring, in a way, the neutrality of China so they don’t help Russia, an EU official, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the discussions, told CNBC Tuesday. Read the full story here. Silvia Amaro Ukrainian official says Russia will target Kyiv ‘until the end of the conflict’ Gleb Garanich Reuters A Ukrainian service member walks on the front line near Kyiv as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, Ukraine March 29, 2022. Oleksiy Arestovtch, an advisor to the Ukrainian President’s Office, said Wednesday morning that ongoing talks between Russia and Ukraine would do nothing to decelerate the war. Negotiations will in no way slow down the war and will not cancel it, he said on Telegram in the early hours of Wednesday morning. This is a separate line that prepares a future peace agreement, because any war, even a hundred years’ war, ends with a peace agreement. He noted, however, that serious success had been achieved at Tuesday’s talks in Istanbul. Ukraine has improved its pre-war position in all areas of consultation, Arestovtch said. At some point the negotiating and military lines will converge and this will definitely be a victory for Ukraine. But he expressed skepticism over the pledge Russia made at the meeting to scale back its military activity near Kyiv and the city of Chernihiv. Russian troops will be targeting the cities until the very end of the conflict, he said. Including Kyiv. Chloe Taylor Russian attacks continue in Ukraine Alexander Ermochenko Reuters Service members of pro-Russian troops are seen atop of an armoured vehicle in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict on a road leading to the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine March 28, 2022. Ukraine’s armed forces said in an update Wednesday morning that more than 1,000 Russian troops had been transferred from occupied Georgia to reinforce Russia’s military presence in Ukraine. The enemy continues to conduct full-scale armed aggression against our state, officials said in the update, adding that Russian troops continue to loot the homes and apartments of local residents, detain pro-Ukrainian activists and government officials in Ukraine. CNBC has not been able to independently verify these reports. A spokesperson for the Russian government was not available for comment when contacted by CNBC. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said on Telegram Wednesday morning there had been shelling attacks in Kyiv’s Brovary district yesterday, which resulted in a fire. It was not specified if there were any casualties. Officials also said Russian troops had fired on residential neighborhoods in the Luhansk region early this morning. Authorities said there were victims in the attack, and were clarifying the information on casualties resulting from the attack. Rescuers are trying to save the living, Luhansk Governor Serhii Haidai said. Chloe Taylor Russian military is suffering ‘heavy losses’ but will likely continue with attacks, the U.K. says (https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/business/money-report/russias-pledge-to-scale-back-in-ukraine-met-with-skepticism-eu-to-put-pressure-on-china/3012080/)

Ukraine Claims 410 Bodies Found in Recaptured Towns; Zelenskyy Accuses Russia of Genocide. Follow Our Live Updates

This is CNBC’s live blog tracking Sunday’s developments on the war in Ukraine. See below for the latest updates. Ukraine’s top prosecutor said 410 bodies were found in towns near Kyiv as part of an investigation into possible war crimes by Russia. Some witnesses, however, are so traumatized by their ordeal that they are unable to speak, said Iryna Venedyktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor general. After Russia withdrew from some areas around Kyiv, the mayor in Bucha, a liberated town 23 miles northwest of the capital, said that 300 residents had been killed by Russian forces while fighters from Chechnya controlled the area. Russia has denied allegations its troops killed civilians in Bucha. Ukrainian prosecutors were only able to enter the towns of Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel for the first time on Sunday and they need more time to work out the extent of the crimes, Venedyktova said. We need to work with witnesses, Venedyktova said. People today are so stressed that they are physically unable to speak. For his part, Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskiy said it was clear hundreds of civilians had been killed but that he did not want to say exactly how many there were, as efforts were still under way to clear mines in the area Earlier, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of genocide against Ukrainian people, saying in an interview that: We have more than 100 nationalities. This is about the destruction and extermination of those nationalities. Zelenskyy made those comments after warning that forces want to seize the east and south of the country. He also said Ukrainian forces had regained control over communities in Kyiv and Chernihiv. Zelenskyy has also called for a ceasefire before meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Reuters Russia is using ‘a lot of manipulation’ to prop up the value of its currency, Blinken says Jakub Porzycki Nurphoto Getty Images Russian one ruble coin and Russian flag displayed on a screen are seen in this multiple exposure illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on March 8, 2022. The dramatic recovery in the value of the Russian ruble is due, in large part, to a lot of manipulation from the government in Moscow, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken claimed in an interview Sunday. The ruble traded at 84.62 per dollar, as of Friday, which is back near levels seen before the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine prompted historic economic sanctions against Russia. The ruble’s value initially plummeted, trading as low as 151.5 per dollar on March 7, according to FactSet data. When it comes to the ruble, it’s more than a little manipulation, it’s a lot of manipulation. People are being prevented from unloading rubles, Blinken said in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, referring to capital controls implemented by Russia’s central bank. That’s artificially propping up the value. That’s not sustainable, so I think you’re going to see that change, Blinken said, suggesting that the strict sanctions combined with Western businesses leaving Russia will, over the long term, weigh on the currency and economy writ large. The export controls that we’ve imposed on Russia, denying it the technology it needs to modernize industry after industry, that’s going to have an increasing bite, he said. Kevin Stankiewicz Wreckage of the Antonov An-225, once world’s biggest aircraft, seen in Hostomel, Ukraine A view of the wreckage of the Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo plane at an airshed in Hostomel, Ukraine, on April 3, 2022. The Mriya was once the world’s biggest aircraft but it was destroyed on or about Feb. 27, 2022, by Russian shelling as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continued. Metin Aktas Anadolu Agency Getty Images The wreckage of the world’s largest cargo plane Antonov An-225, which was severely damaged and rendered unusable due to Russian bombardments, was viewed by Anadolu Agency. Metin Aktas Anadolu Agency Getty Images A view of the wreckage of Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo plane, the world’s biggest aircraft, destroyed by Russian shelling as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, at an airshed in Hostomel, Ukraine on April 03, 2022. Metin Aktas Anadolu Agency Getty Images A view of the wreckage of Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo plane, the world’s biggest aircraft, destroyed by Russian shelling as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, at an airshed in Hostomel, Ukraine on April 03, 2022. Metin Aktas Anadolu Agency Getty Images A view of the wreckage of Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo plane, the world’s biggest aircraft, destroyed by Russian shelling as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, at an airshed in Hostomel, Ukraine on April 03, 2022. Metin Aktas Anadolu Agency Getty Images The wreckage of the world’s largest cargo plane Antonov An-225, which was severely damaged and rendered unusable due to Russian bombardments, was viewed by Anadolu Agency. Metin Aktas Anadolu Agency Getty Images A view of the wreckage of Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo plane, the world’s biggest aircraft, destroyed by Russian shelling as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, at an airshed in Hostomel, Ukraine on April 03, 2022. Anadolu Agency Russia denies killing civilians in Bucha, calls photos, film of alleged war crimes’staged’ EDITOR’S NOTE: Image in this post contains graphic content Russia denied widely reported allegations it had killed civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, describing footage and photographs of dead bodies as a provocation and a staged performance by Kyiv. Ukraine has accused the Russian military of massacring residents in the town, located northwest of the capital, an area Ukrainian troops said they recaptured on Saturday. All the photos and videos published by the Kyiv regime, allegedly testifying to the ‘crimes’ of Russian servicemen in the city of Bucha, Kyiv region, are another provocation, Russia’s defense ministry said, in a statement. Sergei Supinsky AFP Getty Images A mass grave is seen behind a church in the town of Bucha, northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on April 3, 2022. During the time that Russian armed forces were in control of this settlement, not a single local resident suffered from any violent actions, it said. Moscow has previously denied allegations that it has targeted civilians, and has rejected accusations of war crimes. Reuters Polish PM calls for EU meeting to impose harsh sanctions Metin Aktas Anadolu Agency Getty Images A photo shows damages from conflict areas in the Hostomel region, as Russian attacks on Ukraine continue, on April 03, 2022 in Bucha, Ukraine. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called for a meeting with European heads of state as soon as possible to impose hard-hitting sanctions on Russia following reports that the nation’s forces executed scores of Ukrainian civilians. The massacre in Bucha is more than an alarm bell for Europe and the world. It is a terrible cry for justice, freedom and the right to life; for basic and universal values, Morawiecki said in a Facebook post. He added that Russian troops committed acts of genocide. The EU must confiscate all Russian assets in its western banks as well as those of Russian oligarchs. It must sever all trade relations with Russia without delay. European money must stop flowing to the Kremlin. Putin’s criminal and increasingly totalitarian regime needs to have one thing imposed on it: SANCTIONS WHICH ACTUALLY WORK, he said. Jessica Bursztynsky Ukraine foreign minister: Russia’s war crimes make it ‘worse than ISIS’ Sopa Images Lightrocket Getty Images Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, pictured here at the Ukrainian Embassy in Warsaw, Poland, called Russia worse than ISIS after apparent evidence emerged of civilian atrocities near Kyiv. Ukraine minister of foreign affairs Dmytro Kuleba said in a video on Sunday that Russia is worse than ISIS, referring to the Islamic extremist group. In its atrocities, in its crimes both the scale of these crimes and the ruthlessness of the behavior of the Russian army in Ukraine, Kuleba said in a video on Twitter. I don’t know where these soldiers were educated what kind of values they have, if any, Kuleba added. It’s unspeakable. Rapes, tortures, murders of civilians. He noted that Ukraine has begun work to prosecute everyone involved in these crimes. Kuleba also said that he is trying to prepare myself for images and videos which will come from Mariupol when we liberate it. Probably they will be even more devastating, Kuleba said. Michael Sheetz Scholz says West to agree more sanctions on Russia in coming days Hannibal Hanschke Reuters German Chancellor Olaf Scholz gives a press statement about the war crimes discovered the day before in Bucha, Ukraine, at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany April 3, 2022. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday Western allies would agree further sanctions on Russia in the coming days over its invasion of Ukraine and the atrocities committed by Russian troops in a town near Kyiv. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his supporters will feel the consequences of their actions, he said, in a statement to reporters in the chancellery. And we will continue to make weapons available to Ukraine so the country can defend itself against the Russian invasion. Reuters Civilians take shelter from Russian artillery in Kharkiv Civilians are seen taking shelter from Russian artillery in the Kharkiv area of Ukraine. Wolfgang Schwan Anadolu Agency Getty Images Civilians are seen taking shelter from Russian artillery in the Kharkiv area of Ukraine on April 3, 2022. Wolfgang Schwan Anadolu Agency Getty Images Civilians are seen taking shelter from Russian artillery in the Kharkiv area of Ukraine on April 3, 2022. Wolfgang Schwan Anadolu Agency Getty Images Civilians are seen taking shelter from Russian artillery in the Kharkiv area of Ukraine on April 3, 2022. Wolfgang Schwan Anadolu Agency Getty Images Civilians are seen taking shelter from Russian artillery in the Kharkiv area of Ukraine on April 3, 2022. Wolfgang Schwan Anadolu Agency Getty Images Civilians are seen taking shelter from Russian artillery in the Kharkiv area of Ukraine on April 3, 2022. Getty Images U.S. to send more aid as Moldova embraces Ukraine war refugees Lev Radin Lightrocket Getty Images US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield makes a statement at a stakeout at the Security Council at UN Headquarters. Meeting was convened at the request of the Russian Federation who accused Ukraine of developing biological weapons under the tutelage of the United States without providing any evidence. The United States will give Moldova $50 million to help it cope with the impacts of Russia’s war against Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said during a visit to the former Soviet republic on Sunday. She said the funding would support programs, training and equipment for border management, efforts to counter human trafficking, help to improve accountability and transparency in the justice sector, and combat corruption and cybercrime. Nearly 400,000 refugees have already fled Ukraine through Moldova, with about a quarter remaining in the country, since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Moscow says it is carrying out a special military operation that aims to destroy Ukraine’s military infrastructure. The money pledged to Moldova by the United States on Sunday comes on top of $30 million announced last month to assist refugee relief efforts in Moldova over the next six months. Moldova, sandwiched between Ukraine and European Union member Romania, is one of Europe’s poorest countries and has 2.6 million people. Like Ukraine it aspires to join the EU. Reuters U.S. Secretary of State responds to claims of ‘genocide’ in Ukraine Jacquelyn Martin AFP Getty Images US Secretary of State Antony Blinken addresses the Media after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, on March 27, 2022. America’s top diplomat on Sunday stopped short of agreeing with those who claim Russia is committing genocide against Ukrainian civilians during its invasion. We will look hard and document everything that we see, put it all together, and make sure the relevant institutions and organizations that are looking at this, including the State Department, have everything they need to asses exactly what took place in Ukraine, who is responsible and what it amounts to, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on CNN’s State of the Union. In a CBS interview that aired Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed the Russian military is committing genocide against Ukrainian people. The U.S. government has formally accused Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine. That’s one of four main crimes over which the International Criminal Court has jurisdiction. Genocide, crime against humanity and crime of aggression are the other three. However, the U.S. is not a member of the ICC, which defines genocide as the specific intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group by killing its members or by other means. Kevin Stankiewicz EU must discuss import ban on Russian gas, German defense minister says Michele Tantussi Reuters German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht speaks with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during the weekly cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, January 26, 2022. Germany’s defense minister said on Sunday that the European Union must discuss banning the import of Russian gas after Ukrainian and European officials accused Russian forces of committing atrocities near Kyiv. There has to be a response. Such crimes must not remain unanswered, the defense ministry quoted Christine Lambrecht as saying in an interview with the public broadcaster ARD. Berlin has so far resisted growing calls to impose an embargo on energy imports from Russia, saying its economy and that of other European countries are too dependent on them. Russia supplies 40 of Europe’s gas needs. But Lambrecht said EU ministers would now have to discuss a ban, according to a tweet from her ministry. Reuters Boris Johnson says Putin and his troops ‘are committing war crimes’ Thomas Coex AFP Getty Images Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a press conference at NATO Headquarters in Brussels on March 24, 2022. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said graphic reports coming out of Bucha and Irpin are more evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his forces are committing war crimes in Ukraine. I will do everything in my power to starve Putin’s war machine, Johnson said in a statement. We are stepping up our sanctions and military support, as well as bolstering our humanitarian support package to help those in need on the ground. Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of executing civilians prior to their retreat of areas surrounding the capital of Kyiv. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry posted a video early Sunday that showed bodies in civilian clothing on the side of the road, accusing Russian forces of executing the residents. Earlier in the day, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss called for the attacks to be investigated as war crimes, adding the U.K. would support any investigations by the International Criminal Court. Russia has denied committing the atrocities, according to The New York Times. No denial or disinformation from the Kremlin can hide what we all know to be the truth Putin is desperate, his invasion is failing, and Ukraine’s resolve has never been stronger, Johnson said in a statement. Jessica Bursztynsky Zelenskyy says U.S. has not yet offered Ukraine security guarantees Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via Reuters Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends an interview with some of the Russian media via videolink, as Russia?s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine March 27, 2022. The U.S. has not provided Ukraine an official security guarantee, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CBS’ Face the Nation. In an interview that aired Sunday, Zelenskyy said he was grateful for the support Washington has offered Ukraine to date to assist the country in defending against Russia’s invasion. The U.S. has provided Ukraine more than $1 billion in security assistance, which includes more than 1,000 Stinger anti-aircraft systems and other military equipment like ammunition and body armor. But nevertheless, the United States have not provided the security guarantees to us, Zelenskyy said, according to a full CBS transcript. Ukrainian officials have recently focused on the concept of security guarantees in their diplomatic peace talks with Russia. According to Reuters, Ukraine has said it would be willing to adopt neutral status if it’s able to enter agreements with a group of countries that pledge to militarily defend Ukraine if Ukraine is attacked in the future. Zelenskyy described the security guarantees as an enforceable document, not just a piece of paper. He suggested that receiving such commitments from allies are critical for peace discussions with Russia to advance because so far, sanctions have yet to deter Russian aggression. We don’t believe in papers any longer. So we are very grateful for the support of the United States, Zelenskyy said. It’s a very powerful support. But in terms of security guarantees, we have not received them yet from anyone, and we have to get them. Kevin Stankiewicz At least 1,417 civilians killed in Ukraine, UN says Alexander Ermochenko Reuters Local resident Pavel, 42, stands next to the grave of his friend Igor, who was killed by shelling while they were riding together in a car during Ukraine-Russia conflict, in a residential area in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine March 30, 2022. At least 1,417 civilians, including 121 children, have been killed since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said. An additional 2,038 have been injured, including 171 children, from Feb. 24 to April 2, it added. The agency expects the actual figures to be considerably higher. It’s been difficult for officials to determine the extent of injuries and deaths in areas with heavy fighting or that have been taken over by Russian forces. The bulk of the injuries have been caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, such as shelling from heavy artillery and missile and air strikes, the agency said. Jessica Bursztynsky The war is exacerbating supply-chain disruptions that have sent U.S. auto prices sky-high Pablo Monsalve Corbis News Getty Images View of a used car dealership in Ridgewood, Queens New York on January 19, 2022. Inflation spiked to its highest level in four decades, sending consumer prices soaring 7 percent for the year ended. Russia’s war against Ukraine has thrown up a new obstacle to the global auto industry’s attempts to recover from a Covid-related global shortage of semiconductor chips and other key parts and the result is likely to keep prices of new and used vehicles sky-high for a while longer, The Associated Press reports. Ukraine is a key supplier of automotive wiring harnesses to automakers, particularly European automakers including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen or at least it was before the invasion. Now, the Associated Press is reporting that automakers find themselves scrambling to replace the Ukrainian production further hampering their efforts to restore full production and ease the new-car supply crunch that has driven auto prices sharply higher since the beginning of the pandemic. The average price of a new vehicle in the U.S. is up 13 in the past year, to $45,596, according to an Edmunds.com report cited by The Associated Press. Average used prices have surged far more: They’re up 29 to $29,646 as of February. Before the war, S&P Global had predicted that global automakers would build 84 million vehicles this year and 91 million next year. Now it’s forecasting fewer than 82 million in 2022 and 88 million next year, according to the AP. John Rosevear European leaders call on Russia to pay for ‘war crimes’ in Bucha EDITORS NOTE: Image contains graphic content European leaders are calling for Russia to be held accountable amid allegations that its forces killed scores of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry posted a video early Sunday that showed bodies in civilian clothing on the side of the road, accusing Russian forces of executing the residents. Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, shared several photos of casualties, some with their hands tied behind their backs. These people were not in the military. They had no weapons. They posed no threat. How many more such cases are happening right now in the occupied territories? Podolyak said on Twitter. Sergei Supinsky AFP Getty Images EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content: Communal workers carry a civilian in a body bag after he was killed during Russian army shelling in the town of Bucha, not far from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on April 3, 2022. CNBC could not immediately independently verify the claims of execution. But reporters on the ground from The New York Times, Associated Press and Reuters said they saw bodies in civilian clothing on the streets. The AP saw some with their hands tied behind their backs, and also saw two bodies wrapped in plastic, bound with tape and thrown into a ditch. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, called for an independent investigation into the atrocities. She added that perpetrators of war crimes would be held accountable. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the country would issue more severe sanctions in response to the reports. The images from Bucha are unbearable. Putin’s rampant violence is wiping out innocent families and knows no bounds, Baerbock said on Twitter, according to a translation. French President Emmanuel Macron said the images of dead civilians were unbearable. The Russian authorities will have to answer for these crimes, Macron said in a tweet. Jessica Bursztynsky Zelenskyy accuses Russia of committing ‘genocide’ in Ukraine Oleksandr Ratushniak Reuters Local residents ride bicycles past flattened civilian cars, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, on a street in the town of Bucha, in Kyiv region, Ukraine April 1, 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the Russian military of committing genocide against Ukrainian people. Zelenskyy made the comments in an interview on CBS’ Face the Nation, in light of the reported devastation in the town of Bucha, near the capital Kyiv. Russian forces have now retreated from the city after occupying it for weeks. This is genocide, Zelenskyy said. We have more than 100 nationalities. This is about the destruction and extermination of those nationalities. We are the citizens of Ukraine, and we don’t want to be subdued to the policy of Russian Federation. This is the reason we are being destroyed and exterminated. Ukrainian officials say bodies of dead civilians in Bucha show signs of torture and appear to be executed. Reuters reported some victims laid in mass graves while others were still on the city’s streets. Sergei Supinsky AFP Getty Images Editors Note: Graphic Content: A body of a civilian man with hands tied behind his back lies in the street as a communal worker prepares a plastic body bag to carry him to a waiting car in town of Bucha, not far from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on April 3, 2022. The International Criminal Court is traditionally where claims of alleged war crimes are adjudicated. The ICC defines genocide as the specific intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group by killing its members or by other means. Kevin Stankiewicz GOP Rep. Kinzinger: Tucker Carlson and politicians who supported Putin should ‘answer’ for their support Kevin Dietsch Getty Images Rep. Adam Kinzinger speaks after the Republican House caucus voted to remove Rep. Liz Cheney of her leadership, at the U.S. Capitol on on May 12, 2021 in Washington, DC. In a tweet from his personal account, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said that members of Congress and media figures who have expressed support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should now be held to account, given the emerging evidence of Russian atrocities in Bucha and other areas near Kyiv. He specifically called out Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in the tweet. Carlson’s and McCarthy’s offices didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. John Rosevear Russia’s move away from Kyiv not a ‘withdrawal’ but a ‘repositioning,’ NATO’s Secretary General says Halil Sagirkaya Anadolu Agency Getty Images NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gives a press conference after the Extraordinary Summit of NATO Heads of State and Government in Brussels, Belgium on March 24, 2022. Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that Russia’s retreat from Kyiv does not appear to be a withdrawal, but rather a shift in strategy. What we see is not really a withdrawal, we see that Russia is repositioning its troops, Stoltenberg told CNN’s Dana Bash. They are taking some of them back to rearm them, to reinforce them, and to resupply them. We should not in any way be too optimistic, the attacks will continue, and we are also concerned about potential increased attacks in the south and in the east. So this is not really a withdrawal, more a shift in strategy, focusing more on the South and East, he said. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed Stoltenberg’s comments, telling NBC’s Meet the Press that Russian forces may be regrouping. They may be recalibrating. We’re focused on on what they’re doing, not what they’re saying. John Rosevear Pope Francis prays for end to’sacrilegious’ war Grzegorz Galazka Mondadori Portfolio Getty Images General audience of Pope Francis with the presence of a small group of faithful in masks after the long pause due to the coronavirus pandemic in the Cortile San Damaso. Vatican City, May 26th, 2021. Pope Francis prayed Sunday for an end to the sacrilegious war in Ukraine and for the world to show kindness and compassion to refugees as he concluded a two-day visit to Malta that was dominated by his concern for the devastation unleashed by Russia’s invasion. Francis asked for prayers for peace in Ukraine, a day after he blasted Russia’s invasion as infantile and based on anachronistic claims of nationalistic interests. He urged the faithful to think of the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in the martyred Ukraine, which continues to be bombarded in this sacrilegious war. May we be tireless in praying and in offering assistance to those who suffer. The Associated Press Zelenskyy calls for ceasefire before meeting with Putin Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via Reuters Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives for a meeting with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine April 1, 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for a ceasefire so that he can meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. I can’t even have a meeting when the shelling is going on, Zelenskyy said on CBS’ Face the Nation. So, first the ceasefire and then we can have a meeting with the Russian president we will discuss a point in time where the end of the war will come. After discussions, Zelenskyy said Russian troops need to exit Ukrainian borders. This is the bare minimum, he said. Jessica Bursztynsky Ukraine says Bucha ‘massacre’ was deliberate, demands new Russia sanctions EDITORS NOTE: Image contains graphic content Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia on Sunday of carrying out a deliberate massacre in the town of Bucha outside Kyiv and called on the G-7 to impose devastating new sanctions on Moscow. We are still gathering and looking for bodies, but the number has already gone into the hundreds. Dead bodies lie on the streets. They killed civilians while staying there and when they were leaving these villages and towns, his ministry quoted him as saying on Twitter. Sergei Supinsky AFP Getty Images EDITORS NOTE: Graphic Content: A communal worker standing inside a van loaded with body bags, waits for another body to be wrapped and collected by a colleague following Russian shelling of the town of Bucha, not far from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on April 3, 2022. Russia has so far not commented publicly on the claims. Moscow has previously repeatedly denied Ukrainian claims that it has targeted civilians. Reuters Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister says more humanitarian corridors are set to open Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister, said in a message on the Telegram messaging app that more evacuations are planned. We continue to evacuate people from Mariupol to Zaporizhia, Vereshchuk wrote. There are currently 17 buses near Berdyansk 10 of them are for the evacuation of Mariupol residents and local residents. If they are not allowed into the city, we ask people to come to the checkpoint at the entrance to Berdyansk there they will be waiting for you. Seven additional buses will attempt once again to get near the battered port city of Mariupol, Vereshchuk said. Evacuations are also planned out of the towns of Lysychansk, Nyzhne, Popasna, Rubizhne, Severodonetsk, she added. Terri Cullen Russia will soon ask for ruble payments for other exports, Kremlin warns Dado Ruvic Reuters Russian rouble coins are seen in this illustration taken February 24, 2022. Russia will soon ask for ruble payments for other exports, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has warned, saying heavy economic sanctions imposed by the West have accelerated diminishing confidence in the dollar and euro. I have no doubt that it will in the future be extended to new groups of goods, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, Reuters reported, citing RIA news agency. Peskov’s comments referred to Moscow’s repeated demands that so-called unfriendly countries pay for Russian natural gas in rubles. The U.S. and international allies have imposed an unprecedented barrage of economic sanctions against Russia, seeking to isolate the Kremlin following its unprovoked onslaught in Ukraine. Sam Meredith Several missile strikes hit Ukraine’s southern port city of Mykolaiv, mayor says The Mayor of Mykolaiv Olexandr Senkevych has reported that several rocket attacks have hit Ukraine’s southern port city. Friends, we have had several missile strikes in the city. We are collecting data now, Senkevych said via Telegram, according to a translation. It comes shortly after a series of explosions could be heard in Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa, prompting thick black smoke to cover the sky. Like Mykolaiv, Odesa is a strategically important port hub on the Black Sea coast. Sam Meredith Ukraine sees sharp drop in March grain exports, economic (https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/business/money-report/missiles-slam-into-port-city-of-odesa-zelenskyy-says-russians-aim-to-seize-east-and-south-ukraine-follow-our-live-updates/2930821/)

Biden Blasts Putin in Powerful Speech; U.S. to Provide $100 Million in Assistance to Ukraine

This has been CNBC’s live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine. Follow the latest updates here. U.S. President Joe Biden delivered a major address in Poland on Saturday, rallying support for Ukraine and calling for unity in the face of Russian aggression. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged energy-producing countries to increase their energy output, so everyone in Russia understands that no one can use energy as blackmail. It comes as countries across Europe and beyond seek to reduce their energy dependency on Russia a major oil and gas producer and exporter. Russians may be trying to encircle Ukrainian forces in east Russian forces appear to be trying to encircle Ukrainian troops who are facing separatist fighters in the far east of the country, according to a new intelligence assessment. The U.K. Ministry of Defence, in its daily update, said on Sunday that Russian units are trying to advance southward from Kharkiv and northward from Mariupol. If successful, those maneuvers could cut off Ukraine’s soldiers who are already engaged against separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk. CNBC CNBC was unable to independently confirm the ministry’s report. Kharkiv and Mariupol are both still in Ukrainian hands but have been blasted for weeks by Russian artillery, killing civilians and defenders alike. Ukraine’s government this week refused a Russian demand that it surrender Mariupol. Russia claims that it isn’t using artillery against civilian targets, despite overwhelming evidence that it is. Meanwhile, tenacious Ukrainian defensive efforts continue to block Moscow’s invasion in the north of the country, which would include the long-stalled Russian drive toward Kyiv. The battlefield across northern Ukraine remains largely static with local Ukrainian counterattacks hampering Russian attempts to reorganise their forces, the British ministry said. Ted Kemp Ukraine says more than 5,000 people were evacuated from cities today Alexander Ermochenko Reuters Evacuees fleeing Ukraine-Russia conflict sit in the body of a cargo vehicle while waiting in a line to leave the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine March 17, 2022. A total of 5,208 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors today, a senior official said, fewer than the 7,331 who managed to escape the previous day. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president’s office, said in an online post that 4,331 people had left the besieged city of Mariupol. Reuters U.S. will provide $100 million in civilian security assistance to Ukraine Clodagh Kilcoyne Reuters Egor, 5, comforts his mother Helen Yakubets who cries in a ballroom, which has been converted to a temporary shelter, at the Mandachi hotel after fleeing from Chernihiv in Ukraine to Romania, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at the border crossing in Suceava, Romania, March 20, 2022. Her 18 year old son and husband remain in Ukraine to fight. The United States will provide $100 million to Ukraine in civilian security assistance, according to the State Department. The aid will enhance the capacity of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs to provide essential border security, sustain civil law enforcement functions, and safeguard critical governmental infrastructure, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. The announcement comes after Lviv, a city near the Poland border in western Ukraine, suffered rocket strikes earlier today. Darla Mercado Biden speaks in Poland, calls for further unity of NATO allies against Putin over Ukraine invasion Aleksandra Szmigiel Reuters U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during an event at the Royal Castle, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Warsaw, Poland, March 26, 2022. President Joe Biden spoke in Warsaw, saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power as a result of his invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness, Biden said. For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power, he said. Later Saturday, a White House official sought to clarify Biden’s remarks, saying that he was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia or a regime change. Click here for more details from CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger. Darla Mercado Another rocket strikes Lviv, mayor says Ronaldo Schemidt AFP Getty Images Dark smoke and flames rise from a fire following an air strike in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, on March 26, 2022. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi tweeted from his verified Twitter account that there has been another rocket strike in the city: In another tweet shortly after, the mayor said, As a result of the new missile strikes on Lviv, significant damage was caused to infrastructure facilities. Residential buildings were not damaged. Two rocket strikes hit Ukraine’s western city of Lviv earlier on Saturday, wounding five people, according to regional Governor Maksym Kozotskyy. Darla Mercado Londoners march in solidarity with Ukraine Londoners waved the Ukrainian national flags during a London stands with Ukraine march and vigil in central London. Aaron Chown Pa Images Getty Images People take part during a solidarity march in London for Ukraine, following the Russian invasion. Picture date: Saturday March 26, 2022. Aaron Chown Pa Images Getty Images People take part in a solidarity march in London for Ukraine, following the Russian invasion. Picture date: Saturday March 26, 2022. Aaron Chown Pa Images Getty Images People pass the Yoko Ono Imagine Peace sign at Piccadilly, during a solidarity march in London for Ukraine, following the Russian invasion. Picture date: Saturday March 26, 2022. Justin Tallis AFP Getty Images Demonstrators wave Ukrainian national flags during a ‘London stands with Ukraine’ protest march and vigil, in central London, on March 26, 2022 to send a unified message of support to the Ukrainian people. Getty Images 5 wounded after rocket strikes hit Ukraine’s western city of Lviv, says governor Adri Salido Anadolu Agency Getty Images Smoke rises in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv following Russia’s attacks on March 26, 2022. Two rocket strikes hit Ukraine’s western city of Lviv on Saturday, wounding five people, regional Governor Maksym Kozytskyy said, after local authorities told residents to seek shelter in the wake of powerful blasts on the city’s outskirts. There have been two rocket strikes within the limits of Lviv, said regional Governor Maksym Kozytskyy in an online post. Earlier he had reported three powerful explosions in the eastern edge of Lviv. Reuters witnesses saw heavy black smoke rising from the northeast side of the city. Nariman El-Mofty AP Smoke rises in the air in Lviv, western Ukraine, Saturday, March 26, 2022. Reuters President Biden meets with Ukrainian refugees in Poland, calls Putin a butcher President Joe Biden met with Ukrainian refugees at the PGE Narodowy Stadium in Warsaw, Poland. The United Nations estimates 12 million people inside Ukraine will need relief and protection. According to the UN, more than 4 million Ukrainian refugees may need protection and assistance in neighboring countries in the coming months. Biden, visiting NATO ally Poland, called Russian President Vladimir Putin a butcher. Biden said he was not sure Russia was changing its strategy in Ukraine to focus on efforts to liberate the breakaway eastern Donbass region, despite getting bogged down in some areas. Brendan Smialowski Afp Getty Images President Joe Biden holds a girl on his arm as he and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki meet with Ukrainian refugees at PGE Narodowy Stadium in Warsaw on March 26, 2022. Evelyn Hockstein Reuters President Joe Biden, flanked by Mayor of Warsaw Rafal Trzaskowski and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, hugs a woman as he visits Ukrainian refugees at the PGE National Stadium, in Warsaw, Poland March 26, 2022. Evelyn Hockstein Reuters President Joe Biden, flanked by Mayor of Warsaw Rafal Trzaskowski and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, visits Ukrainian refugees at PGE National Stadium, in Warsaw, Poland March 26, 2022. Evelyn Hockstein Reuters President Joe Biden visits Ukrainian refugees at the PGE National Stadium, in Warsaw, Poland March 26, 2022. Getty Images, Reuters, Adam Jeffery and Riya Bhattacharjee Turkey refuses to rule out purchasing more missile defense systems from Russia Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu suggested it could still buy more defense systems from Russia. We prefer to purchase them from United States and allies, Cavusoglu said at the Doha Forum on Saturday. But, he added, If we cannot purchase them from allies, I need to find another source. Annie Nova Biden to Poland: Your freedom is ours Kacper Pempel Reuters Polish President Andrzej Duda and the U.S. President Joe Biden interact, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, outside the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland March 26, 2022. U.S. President Joe Biden has told Poland’s President Andrzej Duda that your freedom is ours, echoing of one of Poland’s unofficial mottos. He assured Duda that the U.S. and other NATO allies would come to their aid if Russia should attack. The two gathered Saturday on Biden’s final day in Europe to speak about their shared effort to end the war in neighboring Ukraine. Biden called the collective defense agreement of the Western military alliance a sacred commitment, and said that the unity of NATO was of the utmost importance. He also acknowledged that Poland was bearing the brunt of the humanitarian crisis, with more than 2 million of the 3.5 million people fleeing Ukraine entering the country. He said the other NATO allies must do more. The U.S. has pledged to accept up to 100,000 refugees. Duda said that the relations between the two nations are flourishing, despite the difficult times. Associated Press Biden says Putin was counting on being able to divide NATO, calls on more countries to accept Ukrainian refugees Evelyn Hockstein Reuters Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, Polish President Andrzej Duda and Polish Foreign Affairs Minister Zbigniew Rau speak with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. President Joe BidenU.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and U.S. Ambassador to Poland Mark Brzezinski during a bilateral meeting, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in the Column Hall at the Presidential Palace, in Warsaw, Poland March 26, 2022. President Biden in a meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda stressed the importance of unity among NATO nations during the Russia-Ukraine crisis. I’m confident that Vladimir Putin was counting on being able to divide NATO, Biden said, and to be able to separate the eastern flank from the west, to be able to separate nations based on past histories. But he hasn’t been able to do it. Biden went on to say that NATO countries should follow Poland’s lead in accepting Ukrainian refugees, including the U.S. He compared the refugee crisis to the situation at the southern border in the U.S. And also we do acknowledge that Poland is taking on a significant responsibility, that I don’t think should just be Poland’s; it should be all of NATO’s responsibility. The fact that so many, so many Ukrainians seeking refuge in the country of Poland. We understand that because we have at our southern border thousands of people a day, literally not figuratively, trying to get into the United States. But we believe, that we, the United States, should do our part relative to Ukraine as well by opening our borders to another 100,000 people, Biden said. Evelyn Hockstein Reuters President Joe Biden visits Ukrainian refugees at the PGE National Stadium, in Warsaw, Poland March 26, 2022. Annie Nova TotalEnergies will not do more business with Putin, but will maintain Russian assets Patrick Pouyanne, chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies, says the company will never do business with President Vladimir Putin again. Still, Pouyanne said TotalEnergies won’t write off its oil and gas assets in Russia. Instead it will no longer provide capital for new projects in the country and not renew its Russian gasoil and crude supply contracts. Speaking to CNBC’s Hadley Gamble, Patrick Pouyanne, chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies, said he was not prepared to write off the company’s assets in Russia as it would effectively mean giving them to Putin for free. What do we do with the existing assets? I am not ready to give them for zero to Russian people, to Russian oligarchs because by the way, it would be contrary of the sanctions, he said on a CNBC-moderated panel at the Doha Forum in Qatar. These assets are there, I will not give them for free to Mr. Putin. Because this is what it means, leaving today. Annie Nova Russian forces have taken control of Chernobyl workers’ town, local officials say Maxar Technologies Reuters A satellite image shows a closer view of a sarcophagus at Chornobyl nuclear power plant, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine, March 10, 2022. Russian forces have taken control of the town of Slavutych in Ukraine, where workers at the Chornobyl nuclear plant live, Reuters reported, citing the governor of Kyiv region. Governor Oleksandr Pavlyuk said some residents had unfurled a large Ukrainian flag in protest, shouting Glory to Ukraine. Russian troops fired into the air and threw stun grenades into the crowd to try and disperse the protest. The inhabitants are carrying out heroic civil resistance to the invader, presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in a televised address, Reuters reported. Officials from Russia did not immediately reply to Reuters for comment about Slavutych. Terri Cullen Ukraine war is pushing countries toward a ‘parallel system’ of pricing oil, Qatar says Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani tells CNBC that the economic effects of the Ukraine-Russia crisis are being felt around the world and could lead some countries to move away from pricing oil in dollars. Honestly speaking, look at what happens and the dynamics around us right now. I’m sure there are a lot of other countries who are unhappy with what’s happened and the consequences of the Ukrainian-Russian crisis, especially the economic consequences, he told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble at the Doha Forum. And they are going to look and explore a parallel system of pricing oil going to hedge, at least, for them economically, he added. So as we are living through a transition, this transition will not be only a political transition but it is an economic transition as well. He added that Qatar was stepping up and holding talks with European countries about boosting gas supplies. It comes as European countries seek to diversify their energy supply away from Russia particularly gas. The EU imported 45 of its gas from Russia last year, according to the International Energy Agency. We are stepping up and helping some European partners who are starting to suffer from some gas shortages with the limited amount that we have, he said, stressing that the majority of its gas contracts are long-term. Katrina Bishop Blinken and Austin meet with Ukrainian counterparts in Poland Evelyn Hockstein Reuters U.S. President Joe Biden joins a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at the Marriott Hotel, in Warsaw, Poland March 26, 2022. Ukraine’s minister of defense and minister of foreign affairs have met with their U.S. counterparts in Warsaw, Poland. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukraine’s Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov and Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba. Kuleba said on Twitter that the special 2+2 format allows us to seek practical decisions in both political and defense spheres in order to fortify Ukraine’s ability to fight back Russian aggression. Katrina Bishop Over 100,000 people still need to be evacuated from Mariupol, Ukraine says Alexander Ermochenko Reuters Local residents walk near a fallen electricity pylon and an apartment building destroyed in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine March 25, 2022. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on national television that 100,000 people still need to be evacuated from the besieged city of Mariupol. It comes after Mayor Vadym Boichenko said street fighting continued in the city center. In a television interview earlier in the day, Boichenko said that he’d spoken to the French ambassador about options for evacuating civilians from the city. French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that he hoped to get Russia on board with a humanitarian operation, alongside Greece and Turkey, to help evacuate civilians from Mariupol. Katrina Bishop Biden set to make major address in Poland Kacper Pempel Reuters U.S. President Joe Biden reviews the Guard of Honor ahead of his meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, outside the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland March 26, 2022. As the conflict enters its second month, U.S. President Joe Biden is set to make a major address from Poland, which borders Ukraine. He will speak to the stakes of this moment, the urgency of the challenge that lies ahead, what the conflict in Ukraine means for the world, and why it is so important that the free world sustain unity and resolve in the face of Russian aggression, said Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, told NBC. Biden is expected to meet with refugees in Poland ahead of the speech; he country has welcomed over 2 million people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. Katrina Bishop Ukraine’s Zelenskyy to energy producers: I ask you to increase output Ibraheem Al Omari Reuters Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addresses the Doha Forum by video link, in Doha, Qatar March 26, 2022. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has spoken at the Doha Forum conference’s opening ceremony, urging energy producing countries such as Qatar to hike their output. Speaking via video link, he said: I ask you to increase output of energy so everyone in Russia understands that no one can use energy as blackmail, according to a translation. It comes as countries around the world seek to reduce their energy dependence on Russia a leading producer and global exporter of oil and gas. Posting on his verified Telegram channel after the address, Zelenskyy said it was only a matter of time before European countries stopped purchasing Russian oil and gas. The responsible states, in particular the State of Qatar, are reliable and reputable suppliers of energy resources. And they can contribute to stabilizing the situation in Europe. There is much that can be done to restore justice, he said, according to a translation. On Friday, the U.S. said it will look to provide at least 15 billion cubic meters more of liquified natural gas to Europe this year, with the volumes expected to increase going forward. U.S. President Joe Biden described the agreement as a groundbreaking new initiative designed to increase energy security, economic security and national security. U.K. Ministry of Defence says Russians likely to concentrate firepower on urban areas Sergei Supinsky AFP Getty Images Local residents retrieve what is left in their destroyed apartments, located in a five-storey residential building that partially collapsed after shelling the day before by Russian troops trying to encircle the Ukrainian capital as part of their slow-moving offensives, in Kyiv on March 20, 2022. The U.K. Ministry of Defence said Russia seems likely to focus its artillery on urban areas. Russian forces are proving reluctant to engage in large scale urban infantry operations, rather preferring to rely on the indiscriminate use of air and artillery bombardments in an attempt to demoralise defending forces, the ministry said in its daily intelligence update. It said, however, this strategy will likely come at the cost of further civilian casualties as Moscow looks to limit its own already considerable losses. The ministry said Russia’s onslaught continues in a number of Ukrainian cities, including Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol. Christine Wang Pentagon official says Russian forces focusing more on Donbas, less on Kyiv Alexander Ermochenko Reuters Service members of pro-Russian troops are seen atop of armoured vehicles in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in Dokuchaievsk in the Donetsk region, Ukraine March 25, 2022. Russian forces appear to be prioritizing efforts in Donbas in eastern Ukraine, a U.S. Department of Defense official said Friday. That’s where still there remains a lot of heavy fighting and we think they are trying to not only secure some sort of more substantial gains there as a potential negotiating tactic at the table, but also to cut off Ukrainian forces in the eastern part of the country, the official said. While airstrikes on Kyiv continue, the Pentagon official said Russian forces currently do not appear to be pursuing a ground offensive in Ukraine’s capital city. The official also said the Pentagon has seen Russian troop movements in Georgia, which they said could indicate reinforcements may be sent into Ukraine. Reports of military movements in Ukraine continue to be difficult to confirm as the situation across the country remains fluid and changes rapidly. The official also confirmed Ukrainian forces destroyed a Russian ship in Berdyansk earlier in the week, but declined to say what weapons were used, in order to protect operational security. The official also said the department does not know how many Russians were onboard when the ship was hit or how many casualties there were. Christine Wang We’re in a fight between democracy and oligarchs, Biden tells U.S. troops in Poland Omar Marques Getty Images US. President Joe Biden disembarks Air Force One at Rzeszow Airport on March 25, 2022 in Rzeszow, Poland. U.S. President Joe Biden stopped near Rzeszow, Poland to thank the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division ahead of his meeting with the country’s President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw. We’re in the midst of a fight between democracy and oligarchs, Biden said. Evelyn Hockstein Reuters U.S. President Joe Biden meets with U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at the G2 Arena in Jasionka, near Rzeszow, Poland, March 25, 2022. What’s at stake here is not just what we’re doing in Ukraine to try to help the Ukrainian people and try to keep the massacre from continuing, Biden said. Beyond that is what are your kids and grandkids going to look like in terms of their freedom. Evelyn Hockstein Reuters U.S. President Joe Biden meets with U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at the G2 Arena in Jasionka, near Rzeszow, Poland, March 25, 2022. What you’re engaging in is much bigger than whether or not you can alleviate the pain and suffering of the people of Ukraine. We’re in a new phase, we’re at an inflection point, he said. Biden added that the world will not be the same in 10 or 15 years and the question is: Who’s going to prevail, democracy or autocracy. Evelyn Hockstein Reuters U.S. President Joe Biden takes a selfie with U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at the G2 Arena in Jasionka, near Rzeszow, Poland, March 25, 2022. You are the finest fighting force in the history of the world, Biden said. Evelyn Hockstein Reuters U.S. President Joe Biden eats pizza as he meets with U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at the G2 Arena in Jasionka, near Rzeszow, Poland, March 25, 2022. In addressing the troops, Biden invoked his son Beau Biden, a lawyer and officer in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps who served in Iraq and Kosovo. There are hundreds of thousands of people like my son, like all of you. So thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Biden said. Brendan Smialowski AFP Getty Images US President Joe Biden takes a selfie photo as he meets service members from the 82nd Airborne Division, who are contributing alongside Polish Allies to deterrence on the Alliances Eastern Flank, in the city of Rzeszow in southeastern Poland, around 100 kilometres from the border with Ukraine, on March 25, 2022. Dawn Kopecki, Getty Images/Reuters Read CNBC’s previous live coverage Read Friday’s live blog here: Biden tells U.S. troops in Poland they are fighting for democracy; 300 people feared dead in Mariupol theater bombing (https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/business/money-report/biden-set-to-give-major-speech-in-poland-ukraines-zelenskyy-asks-middle-east-to-increase-energy-output-follow-our-live-updates/3189005/)

Ukraine Suspends Evacuations Amid Safety Fears; Russia, Ukraine Prepare for Face-To-Face Talks

This has been CNBC’s live blog covering updates on the war in Ukraine. Follow the latest updates here. Face-to-face talks between Ukraine and Russia are set to continue this week, with delegations from both countries traveling to Turkey today. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that discussions were likely to resume Tuesday. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said they would not be opening any humanitarian corridors Monday to allow the evacuation of civilians due to intelligence that suggested Russian forces may be planning an attack on the evacuation routes. Ukrainian counterattacks have pushed Russians back from a number of positions, Britain says The U.K. Ministry of Defence said Ukrainian forces have pushed Russian troops back in some locations as they conduct counterattacks northwest of Kyiv. Still, the ministry said in its daily update that Russia still poses a significant threat to the city through their strike capability. While Russian forces have continued their onslaught in Mariupol, the ministry said the city center remains under Ukrainian control. Military developments are difficult or impossible to confirm as the situation on the ground in Ukraine changes rapidly. Reports of Ukrainian units reclaiming territory north and west of Kyiv began to filter out of the region last week. Christine Wang Japan to ban luxury exports to Russia starting April 5 Japan is expected to ban the export of luxury products such as passenger cars and fashion items to Russia starting April 5, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Banned items include: alcohol, tobacco products, perfume, cosmetics, motorcycles, watches with precious metals, art and antique goods, the ministry said in a Tuesday statement translated by NBC News. The move is the latest response from Japan aimed at putting pressure on Russia for its unprovoked war against Ukraine. Sumathi Bala Ukrainians claim to retake ground ahead of latest talks Oleksandr Ratushniak Reuters A woman holds a child next to a destroyed bridge during an evacuation from Irpin, outside of Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 28, 2022. Ukrainian forces claimed to have retaken a Kyiv suburb and an eastern town from the Russians in what is becoming a back-and-forth stalemate on the ground, while negotiators began assembling for another round of talks Tuesday aimed at stopping the fighting. Ahead of the talks, to be held in Istanbul, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country is prepared to declare its neutrality, as Moscow has demanded, and is open to compromise on the fate of the Donbas, the contested region in the country’s east. The mayor of Irpin, a northwestern Kyiv suburb that has been the scene of some of the heaviest fighting near the capital, said Monday that the city has been liberated from Russian troops. Irpin gained wide attention after photos circulated of a mother and her two children who were killed by shelling as they tried to flee, their bodies lying on the pavement with luggage and a pet carrier nearby. Associated Press Biden says his ‘moral outrage’ at Putin does not signal a U.S. policy shift Kevin Lamarque Reuters U.S. President Joe Biden announces his budget proposal for fiscal year 2023, as Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young listens in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 28, 2022. President Joe Biden on Monday clarified that his statement that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power made over the weekend doesn’t reflect a policy shift by the United States. Biden spoke at the White House two days after he shocked the world and his closest aides on Saturday when he ad-libbed the line during a major speech in Poland, prompting a flurry of headlines saying Biden was calling for a regime change in Russia. On Monday, Biden tried to draw a line between her personal opinion and U.S. policy. I’m not walking anything back, said Biden. I was expressing the moral outrage I felt after having visited with Ukrainian refugees. I was not then, nor am I now, articulating a policy change, he added. Christina Wilkie Nuclear material at Kharkiv research site is undamaged after renewed shelling Leonhard Foeger Reuters International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi attends a news conference in Vienna, Austria March 4, 2022. A nuclear research facility in the war-torn city of Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine has been damaged, but the nuclear material within it remains unharmed, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said. The facility, which contains only a small amount of nuclear material, had already been attacked earlier in March as Russian forces blitzed Kharkiv. Ukraine told the IAEA on Saturday that the site had come under additional fire, according to a press release from the agency. In an update Monday, the IAEA said the building, its thermal insulation and the experimental hall were damaged, but the nuclear material-containing neutron source was not. The facility has been used for research and development and radioisotope production for medical and industrial applications, the IAEA said, adding that its nuclear material is subcritical there can be no nuclear chain reaction and the radioactive inventory is low. Kevin Breuninger Ukrainians race to protect their national monuments Ukrainians race to protect their national monuments and statues from Russian shelling. Aris Messinis AFP Getty Images Municipal employees cover the city’s monuments with sand bags to protect them from strikes in Kharkiv on March 26, 2022, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine. Aris Messinis AFP Getty Images Kharkiv municipal use sand bags to protect the city’s monuments from strikes on March 26, 2022 in Kharkiv where local authorities reported 44 Russian artillery bombardments and 140 rocket assaults in a single day. Aris Messinis AFP Getty Images Kharkiv municipal employees fill bags with sand to protect the city’s monuments from strikes on March 26, 2022 in Kharkiv where local authorities reported 44 Russian artillery bombardments and 140 rocket assaults in a single day. Alejandro Martinez Anadolu Agency Getty Images People prepare sand bags to cover statues in an effort to protect cultural and historical heritage amid Russian attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine on March 27, 2022. Mykhaylo Palinchak Lightrocket Getty Images A group of young people cover the monument of Hetman Sahaidachny with sandbags in fear of a possible bombardment as Russian forces continue their full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, triggering the largest military attack in Europe since World War II. Getty Images Biden’s budget proposal would send more defense assistance to Ukraine U.S. President Joe Biden’s 2023 budget proposal would direct even more money toward Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion. The White House called for an $813 billion defense budget, including $31 billion in new spending. The Biden administration said a chunk of the total, $6.9 billion, would go to NATO, European defense, Ukraine and countering Russian aggression. The budget request expresses Biden’s priorities but does not set policy. Congress ultimately proposes and approves federal spending. Christina Wilkie Negotiations with Ukraine moving forward, Russia’s Lavrov claims Kirill Kudryavtsev Reuters Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a news conference following talks with President of the International Committee of the Red Cross Peter Maurer in Moscow, Russia March 24, 2022. Negotiations with Ukraine are moving forward with some difficulty, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview on Monday. Speaking with a Serbian television channel, Lavrov claimed Ukraine’s delegation keeps going back on its own suggestions during talks with Russia, but he added that the negotiations are moving forward. Delegates from Russia and Ukraine are traveling to Turkey today for a fresh round of face-to-face talks. Negotiations will continue tomorrow in person, but we still don’t have a clear understanding on our main points, Lavrov said Monday, according to an NBC News translation. He said these were the demilitarization and what Russia has called the denazification of Ukraine a claim repeatedly laid out by Moscow as a justification for its invasion, and one widely rubbished by the international community. Lavrov also said in Monday’s interview that Russia still has a lot of allies, including Latin American, South-East Asian and African countries. The West will keep enforcing sanctions on Russia no matter what, because it’s purpose is not to solve any particular problem, but to stop Russian progress and development, Lavrov claimed. Chloe Taylor Kremlin says it’s monitoring Biden’s comments on Putin Evelyn Hockstein Reuters U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during an event at the Royal Castle, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Warsaw, Poland March 26, 2022. U.S. President Joe Biden’s remarks that his Russian counterpart cannot remain in power are alarming, the Kremlin said Monday. Well, this is a statement that is certainly alarming, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said at a press briefing. We will continue to closely monitor the statements of the U.S. president. We are carefully recording them and we will continue to do so. Biden said during a speech in Poland on Saturday that Putin cannot remain in power, referring to the Russian president as a dictator who was bent on rebuilding an empire. The White House later walked back Biden’s comments, saying the Biden administration was not calling for regime change in Russia and that the president had been referring to Putin attempting to exert power over the European continent. Chloe Taylor Heineken says it’s leaving Russia Simon Dawson Bloomberg Getty Images Bottles of Heineken lager in a supermarket in Slough, U.K. Drinks giant Heineken has announced it will leave the Russian market. We have concluded that Heineken’s ownership of the business in Russia is no longer sustainable nor viable in the current environment. As a result, we have decided to leave Russia, the company said in a statement on Monday. Heineken had earlier announced that it would stop new investments and exports to Russia as well as ending the production, sale and advertising of the Heineken brand in the country. It also said it would not accept any profit from its business in the country. We aim for an orderly transfer of our business to a new owner in full compliance with international and local laws, the company added on Monday. To ensure the ongoing safety and wellbeing of our employees and to minimize the risk of nationalization, we concluded that it is essential that we continue with the recently reduced operations during this transition period. Heineken would pay the salaries of its 1,800 Russian employees until the end of this year, and would not profit from the transfer of ownership of its business in Russia, the company said. Chloe Taylor Ukraine says Russian forces trying to capture Kyiv’s key roads and settlements Marko Djurica Reuters A Ukranian serviceman stands on top of a Russian tank captured after fighting with Russian troops in the village of Lukyanivka outside Kyiv, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, Ukraine, March 27, 2022. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has said that fighting is ongoing in several regions, with several cities including Kyiv restraining the advance of the Russian enemy. The grouping of Ukrainian forces and means of defense of the city of Kyiv is deterring the Russian enemy, which is trying to break through the Ukrainian defense from the northwest and east in order to take control of key roads and settlements, the ministry said in an update. Russian forces are also advancing on the settlements of Huliaipole, Zaporizhzhia and Verkhnotoretske, as well as cities in southern Ukraine, officials said. Chloe Taylor Kremlin says negotiations are unlikely to resume before Tuesday Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has told reporters that delegations from Russia and Ukraine are flying to Turkey today, with face-to-face negotiations likely to begin tomorrow. Negotiations are unlikely to continue today. Today, delegations are indeed going to Turkey. So, we know that this talks could theoretically happen tomorrow, he said during a press briefing. We cannot and will not talk about progress yet. But the very fact that it was decided to continue the talks in person is certainly important. But for now, we still adhere to the line of non-disclosure of any details related to the negotiations. David Arakhamia, a Ukrainian official who has been taking part in negotiations with Russia, said on Sunday that delegates had decided to hold this round of talks in-person between Monday and Wednesday this week. Chloe Taylor Officials say there were no attacks on Ukrainian capital overnight Sergei Supinsky AFP Getty Images Ukrainian soldiers stand guard at Independence Square in Kyiv on March 26, 2022. The Kyiv City Administration said Monday that Ukraine’s capital was calm overnight, and that there had been no attacks on the city. Officials said in a Telegram post that Kyiv’s infrastructure was working, and citizens were being provided with all utilities. They also urged residents of the capital not to leave their homes unnecessarily. Chloe Taylor Ukrainian official not expecting a major breakthrough at this week’s talks with Russia Pavlo Bahmut Ukrinform Future Publishing Getty Images Vadym Denysenko, an advisor to Ukraine’s interior minister, speaks during a briefing on March 14, 2022. Vadym Denysenko, an advisor to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, has said that he does not expect any major breakthroughs during this week’s talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials. Delegations from both countries are set to meet in Turkey on Monday for face-to-face talks, which are expected to run until Wednesday. Denysenko was speaking during a charity television marathon, shown around the world, in support of Ukraine. Chloe Taylor Ukraine won’t open humanitarian corridors Monday over fear of ‘provocations’ Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said that authorities will not be opening humanitarian corridors today, as officials fear a Russian attack is looming. Our intelligence reported possible provocations by the occupiers on the routes of humanitarian corridors, she said on messenger app Telegram. Therefore, for reasons of public safety, we do not open humanitarian corridors today. Ukrainian officials have operated safe exit routes in various locations across the country on an almost daily basis in recent weeks, with the corridors enabling the evacuation of civilians and the import of vital supplies. Early attempts to evacuate civilians from the cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha had to be halted, as Ukrainian authorities said Russian forces were violating cease-fire agreements along the evacuation routes. Chloe Taylor Ukraine says 143 children have been killed in the war Yuriy Dyachyshyn AFP Getty Images In this picture taken on March 18, 2022, 109 empty strollers are seen placed outside the Lviv city council during an action to highlight the number of children killed in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The office of Ukraine’s attorney general said Monday that 143 children have been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began on Feb. 24. A further 216 children had been wounded in the war, officials added. Children in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Donetsk suffered the most, the attorney general’s office said, but noted that children had been badly affected across 14 regions of Ukraine. Chloe Taylor Russia and Ukraine delegates to meet in Turkey for talks Maxim Guchek Reuters Ukrainian and Russian flags are seen on a table before talks between officials of the two countries in Belarus on March 3, 2022. Delegations from Ukraine and Russia are scheduled to meet in Turkey today to conduct more talks. David Arakhamia, a Ukrainian official who has been taking part in negotiations with Russia, said in a Facebook post on Sunday that delegates had decided to hold this round of talks in-person. Today, at the next round of talks on video connection, it was decided to hold the next live round by two delegations in Turkey on March 28-30, he said, according to an NBC News translation. Chloe Taylor Ukrainian officials reportedly say Russian forces are withdrawing from some locations The Mayor of Slavutych home to employees of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant said Monday that Russian troops have left the town, Reuters reported. They completed the work they had set out to do, Mayor Yuri Fomichev said in an online video post, according to the news agency. They surveyed the town, today they finished doing it and left the town. There aren’t any in the town right now. On Saturday, Ukrainian media reported that Slavutych had been captured by Russian forces. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s armed forces said in the early hours of Monday morning that some Russian troops were withdrawing from the Kyiv region to Belarus. The regrouping of individual units from the composition of the Russian Eastern Military District continues, the armed forces said in a Facebook update. Units that have suffered significant losses in the process of offensive actions are usually taken to the territory of Belarus for the restoration of militia, the update added, saying the withdrawal from the territory of the Kyiv region was celebrated. But officials noted that battles continued across the country, and that Russian forces continue missile and aviation strikes on important military infrastructure and advanced positions aimed at causing losses and personnel exhaustion. CNBC has not been able to independently verify these reports. Chloe Taylor Russia will likely launch cyberattacks on oil and gas infrastructure, warns cybersecurity firm Russian cyberattacks on oil and gas infrastructure are highly likely given the country’s history of tit-for-tat action against sanctions, said Rob Lee, co-founder and CEO of cybersecurity firm Dragos. In 2014 when Russia invaded Ukraine and took Crimea, there was a number of sanctions levied from the Western financial institutions, Lee said on CNBC’s Street Sign Asia. As a result, Russia ended up using cyberattacks back against those financial institutions. Now that we’re seeing sanctions against oil and gas infrastructure, Nord Stream 2 etc we absolutely expect to start seeing cyberattacks against oil and gas infrastructure, he said. Germany halted the certification of the Nord Stream 2 in late February the gas pipeline was designed to bring natural gas from Russia directly to Europe. Joe Raedle Getty Images An oil pumpjack pulls oil from the Permian Basin oil field on March 14, 2022 in Odessa, Texas. Such an attack could have an oversized impact even if the disruption is not big, due to the high connectivity of the global oil and gas sector, Lee said, citing how a recent attack by Yemen’s Houthis on a Saudi Aramco facility resulted in oil prices jumping. I think it’s really incumbent on these industries to try to be proactive, he said. U.S. President Joe Biden has warned U.S. corporations to strengthen their cybersecurity practices in light of intelligence reports indicating Russia is looking at potential attacks. Eustance Huang ‘No significant change to Russian forces’ dispositions,’ UK says Sefa Karacan Anadolu Agency Getty Images Russian soldiers in Volnovakha district in the pro-Russian separatist-controlled Donetsk, Ukraine, on March 26, 2022. The U.K.’s Ministry of Defense has said that over the last 24 hours there have been no significant change to Russian forces’ dispositions in occupied Ukraine. A continued lack of momentum and morale among the Russian military, as well as ongoing logistical shortages and aggressive resistance from the Ukrainians are all causing problems for Russia, the U.K. said in an intelligence update. Russia has gained most ground in the south in the vicinity of Mariupol where heavy fighting continues as Russia attempts to capture the port, it added. Chloe Taylor Read CNBC’s previous live coverage here: You can read Sunday’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine here: Zelenskyy says Ukraine ready to discuss neutrality status; Blinken says U.S. not seeking regime change India is buying up cheap Russian oil at ‘record discounts’ and China may follow suit Russia’s crude oil deliveries to India were fairly infrequent last year, but there’s been a significant uptick since the Russia-Ukraine war began, say industry observers. Russian crude is being sold at record discounts, says the International Energy Agency. Ellen Wald, president of Transversal Consulting, said a couple of commodity trading firms were also offering discounts of up to $30 per barrel two weeks ago for the Urals blend the main oil blend that Russia exports. While India’s motivations are economic, it would also likely weigh its friendship with Russia in purchasing its oil since both countries having a long history, said Samir N. Kapadia, head of trade at government relations consulting firm Vogel Group. Analysts say China, the largest oil importer in the world, could also go for discounted oil from Russia. China really would prefer much cheaper oil prices are way too high even in the $90 range that’s too high for China, said Ellen Wald, president of Transversal Consulting. Weizhen Tan Zelenskyy says Ukraine ready to discuss neutrality status Emin Sansar Anadolu Agency Getty Images President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy holds a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine on March 12, 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country is prepared to discuss adopting a neutral status as part of a peace deal with Russia, though an agreement would need to be guaranteed by third parties and put to a referendum. Security guarantees and neutrality, non-nuclear status of our state. We are ready to go for it. This is the most important point, Zelenskyy said in a 90-minute video address with Russian journalists. Zelenskyy said that while his government is discussing the use of the Russian language in Ukraine in its talks with Russia, other Russian demands such as demilitarization are not currently on the table. He said Russian-speaking cities in Ukraine have been destroyed during the invasion. Ian Thomas, with reporting from Reuters (https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/business/money-report/russia-and-ukraine-prepare-for-in-person-talks-after-zelenskyy-says-hes-ready-to-discuss-neutral-status-follow-our-live-updates/3010221/)

Ex-Hedge Fund CEO Wants to Be Hometown Boy in Pa.’s Key Senate Race

As CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund, David McCormick wore suits, lived on Connecticut’s ritzy Gold Coast, talked up bipartisanship and described China as America’s most important bilateral relationship. Now, as a Republican running for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, McCormick wears jeans and casual dress shirts. He recounts the greatest hits of the right’s culture war attacks on Democrats paranoia about illegal immigration and the left using school curriculum to teach a history of America that’s not the America I know and he frames China as an existential threat. For McCormick, spinning the narrative of a hometown boy-done-good and hewing to the politics of Trumpism is central to his candidacy in a premier battleground Senate race. But he is facing skepticism and, as a leading candidate, attack ads that his international business past is counter to former President Donald Trump’s America First governing philosophy and that he’s a carpetbagging political opportunist trying to buy the seat. Now, instead of Wall Street name-dropping or telling anecdotes about meeting with a Chinese CEO, he’s name-dropping small towns and telling anecdotes about growing up in Pennsylvania. PENNSYLVANIA IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST POLITICAL BATTLE GROUNDS IN THE COUNTRY AND HAVE ALREADY IN THE COUNTRY AND HAVE ALREADY PROBABLY SEEN OUR AIRWAVES. THEY ARE FLOODING WITH ADS. BUT IT u2019S NOT JUST CANDIDATES WITH THE MONEY. NO, THEY u2019RE SPENDING MILLIONS IN OUR HOME TO SWAY YOUR VOTE. TONIGHT INVESTIGATORS ARE PULLING BACK THE CURTAIN ON THE CASH. NBC 10 u2019S DANNY FREEMAN FOLLOWS THE MONEY. THE MONEY. Reporter: LISTEN, WE KNOW IT FEELS LIKE THERE ARE A MILLION CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR U.S. SENATE AND GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA RIGHT NOW. PENNSYLVANIA RIGHT NOW. TONIGHT WE u2019RE NOT TALKING ABOUT THE CANDIDATES OR THE CAMPAIGNS, WE u2019RE TALKING ABOUT SUPERPACS, POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES THAT SOUND ALMOST LIKE THIS. NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ADVERTISING. Reporter: THESE GROUPS CAN Reporter: THESE GROUPS CAN RAISE AND SPEND A VAST AMOUNT OF MONEY. IN PENNSYLVANIA $9 MILLION HAVE ALREADY BEEN SPENT BY SUPERPACS ALREADY BEEN SPENT BY SUPERPACS THIS YEAR ALONE. WE FOUND OUT THE BIGGEST SPENDERS AREN u2019T EVEN FROM PENNSYLVANIA. ACCORDING TO CAMPAIGN FINANCE RECORDS THAT HE WITH PULLED, THREE OF THE HIGHEST SPENDING SUPERPACS IN THIS CYCLE ARE FROM SUPERPACS IN THIS CYCLE ARE FROM HOUSTON, TEXAS, ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA AND BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS. I SHOULD SAY WE REACHED OUT TO ALL THREE FOR INTERVIEWS. ALL THREE FOR INTERVIEWS. TWO SAID NO, ONE NEVER GOT BACK TO US. BUT WHEN WE TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THE FILES, LET u2019S SAY, FOR AT THE FILES, LET u2019S SAY, FOR EXAMPLE, IN HONOR, PENNSYLVANIA BASED IN TEXAS, THEY ONLY HAVE SEVEN DONORS, NONE OF THEM FROM THE COMMONWEALTH. AND ONE OF THEM IS WHAT YOU MIGHT EXPECT, A VENTURE CAPITALIST FROM SAN FRANCISCO. SOMETIMES YOU CAN u2019T EVEN SEE A NAME. TAKE THIS DONOR RIGHT HERE. TAKE THIS DONOR RIGHT HERE. ON NEW YEAR u2019S EVE THIS NUMBERED NAMED DONOR GAVE $100,000 TO HONOR PENNSYLVANIA. HONOR PENNSYLVANIA. THE LLC IS BASED IF SANTA MONICA, BUT THE ADDRESS LIDED US TO A P.O. BOX. TO A P.O. BOX. THAT SAME P.O. BOX HAS BEEN USED BY ROBERT BOBBY CODIC. HE IS THE CEO OF ACTIVISION. SURE ENOUGH, IT WAS CONFIRMED THE NUMBER ONE DONOR BELONGED TO CODIC SAYING HE CONTRIBUTED TO CODIC SAYING HE CONTRIBUTED TO DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. ACCORDING TO THE AD TRACKING FIRM IMPACT, HONOR PENNSYLVANIA HAS RESERVED NEARLY $4 MILLION IN TV, DIGITAL AND RADIO ADS IN THE COMING WEEKS. MORALLY SHOULD THAT MUCH MONEY BE SPENT ON A RACE? THAT u2019S NOT MY QUESTION. THE QUESTION IS, DO YOU WANT TO WIN, YES OR NO? WIN, YES OR NO? Reporter: TO UNDERSTAND MORE ABOUT THE MONEY BEHIND THE PACS, ABOUT THE MONEY BEHIND THE PACS, WE SPOKE TO PAUL MARTINO. HE PUT HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS INTO LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS. HE u2019S STILL RUNNING THAT PAC, BUT HE ALSO CUT A CHECK FOR $100,000 TO A SEPARATE PAC THAT u2019S FOCUSED TO A SEPARATE PAC THAT u2019S FOCUSED ON THE U.S. SENATE RACE. DOESN u2019T MONEY FLOWING IN FROM OTHER PLACES ONLY ENSURE THE WEALTHIEST HAVE INFLUENCE IN OTHER PEOPLE u2019S HOMES? OTHER PEOPLE u2019S HOMES? NOT NECESSARILY AT ALL. YOU SEE A LOT OF RACES THAT ARE OUT OF STATE THAT HAVE TREMENDOUS NUMBERS OF $20 DONORS, $10 DONORS. Reporter: MARTINO ARGUES Reporter: MARTINO ARGUES ESPECIALLY WHEN THERE ARE COMPETITIVE RACES THAT HAVE NATIONAL STAKES, ALL DONORS, SMALL AND LARGE, SHOULD BE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE. TO PARTICIPATE. EVEN THOUGH YOU u2019RE 3,000 MILES AWAY, WHY SHOULD YOU BE SHUT OUT OF THE POLITICAL PROCESS BECAUSE YOU HAPPEN TO PROCESS BECAUSE YOU HAPPEN TO LIVE IN A ZIP CODE IN WHICH YOUR MONEY CAN u2019T POSSIBLY DO ANYTHING? Reporter: SO IF YOU HAVE MONEY, YOU u2019RE GOING TO SEND IT TO PENNSYLVANIA, BASICALLY? I DEFINITELY THINK SO. AND I THINK THAT u2019S ON THE REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRAT SIDE. REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRAT SIDE. Reporter: TOM PENSKE IS THE Reporter: TOM PENSKE IS THE DIRECTOR FOR NBC 10 NEWS. HE SAID THIS IS SPENDING FOR THE COMMONWEALTH. I WOULD SAY IN THE SENATE RACE ALONE, IT WILL SEE WELL OVER 100$100 MILLION. SO YOU CAN EXPECT MORE PACS AHEAD. AS THE CASH FLOWS IN, WE u2019LL BE WATCHING. YOU CAN GO DEEPER AND SEE A YOU CAN GO DEEPER AND SEE A LIST OF THE TOP SUPERPACS”,”video_id”:”2008442947830_465″,”video_length”:”252853″,”video_provider”:”mpx”,”short_video_excerpt”:””,”mpx_download_pid_mobile_low”:”RGkgYFItg3iG”,”pid_streaming_web_mobile_low”:””,”mpx_download_pid_mobile_standard”:”QzyqimSAiyWb”,”pid_streaming_mobile_standard”:”3Lm4g3zjmxPv”,”alleypack_schedule_unpublish”:””,”feed_remote_id”:”mpx_2008442947830″,”feed_thumbnail_url”:”” ” data-livestream=”false” data-title=”U.S. Senate Race in Pa. Already Attracting Big Bucks From Across the Country” data-vidcid=”1:12:3163290″ data-vidurl=”https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/investigators/u-s-senate-race-in-pa-already-attracting-big-bucks-from-across-the-country/3163290/” data-islead=”false” data-catnames=” “464210”:”Decision 2022″,”283390″:”Investigators” ” data-tagnames=” “48593”:”Conor Lamb”,”372323″:”danny freeman”,”477181″:”Dave McCormick”,”477182″:”David McCormick”,”375870″:”decision 2022″,”492755″:”honor pennsylvania”,”3128″:”John Fetterman”,”340353″:”malcolm kenyatta”,”285861″:”Mehmet Oz”,”309871″:”nbc10 investigators”,”1689″:”PAT TOOMEY”,”26″:”Pennsylvania”,”18″:”Rudy Chinchilla”,”307176″:”super PAC” ” data-customdata=” “ContentPartner”:”None”,”Source”:”WEBFM”,”SyndicationAllowed”:”true”,”mSNVideoCategories”:”MSN Video v4 Connector-most watched news”,”mSNVideoContentSupplierID”:”NBC_Local”,”mSNVideoCountry”:”us”,”subtitle”:”nosubtitle”,”uploadedByTeam”:”1″,”youtubeChannel”:”None” ” data-autoplay=”false” data-cplay=”true” I baled hay on my family farm. I trimmed Christmas trees, he recently told listeners seated on foldout chairs at foldout tables in a wood-paneled room in the rear of Heisey’s Diner about 75 miles west of Philadelphia. I was a busboy at the local hotel, played sports in little towns, football and wrestling, from Shikellamy to Shickshinny to Pottsville to Mount Carmel to Selinsgrove. It is places like these where McCormick is trying to convince conservative voters that he should be the Republican standard-bearer in a contest to replace the retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey. In doing so, McCormick, 56, must navigate a deep primary field as he balances his establishment Republican credentials with the demands of a base loyal to Trump in a state won by President Joe Biden. The primary election is May 17. For Democrats, Pennsylvania may be their best chance of picking up a seat in the closely divided Senate. That party’s primary is shaping up as a contest among Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta and U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb. Decision 2022 decision 2022 Mar 15 Who Filed to Run for Office in Pa.’s May 17 Primary? The Full List nbc10 investigators Mar 2 U.S. Senate Race in Pa. Already Attracting Big Bucks from Across the Country For Republicans, perhaps the biggest primary prize a Trump endorsement appears unlikely after Trump’s first choice, Sean Parnell, bowed out of the race in November. Parnell’s exit threw open the doorsto McCormick and Mehmet Oz, the celebrity heart surgeonbest known as daytime TV’s host of The Dr. Oz Show, and accelerated spending in what could be this year’s most expensive Senate race. Money is a strong suit for McCormick. He is wealthy enough to pay for his own TV ads, plus he is backed by a super PAC spending millions of dollars largely from hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin on ads hammering Oz as too liberal and too Hollywood. Virtually unknown to voters before declaring his candidacy just weeks ago, McCormick topped a recent Fox News poll of Pennsylvania GOP primary voters with 24. Still, nearly a third of respondents are undecided. Meanwhile, McCormick is tapping not only deep connections across the world of finance, but politics and government, too. That’s in part through his high-level service in President George W. Bush’s administration. It’s also through his wife, Dina Powell, a Goldman Sachs executive, longtime Republican operative and veteran of both the Bush and Trump administrations. For the last 12 years, McCormick lived in Connecticut and was a top executive of Bridgewater, notable for its sizable portfolio that catered to Chinese investors investing in China. That has brought accusations that McCormick is a carpetbaggerand a sellout to China. To counter the carpetbagging angle, McCormick bought a house in Pittsburgh and stresses his upbringing in Pennsylvania. He also points to his military service: a West Point grad first from his town, he says and a Bronze Star-winning veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division in the Gulf War. On China, McCormick insists his hedge fund experience he tells one diner audience it was a financial firm makes him uniquely qualified to go toe to toe with China, and turns the topic to Trump. He set us on the right direction with China, but then he owned his experience, McCormick told the crowd. He basically said: ‘I’m a global businessperson. And that experience is going to make me a better president.’ And for me, it’s going to be the same. That experience is going to make me a better senator. In Bush’s administration, McCormick dealt in trade issues. He likes to point out that his tough trade stances drew a complaint from the Chinese to Bush himself. Still, making McCormick into the candidate for Trump’s Republican Party is no small task. In 2015, McCormick held a fundraiser for Jeb Bush, once a contender for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination eventually won by Trump. Oz’s campaign pounced, saying in an ad, Wall Street insider David McCormick paid for attacks on Donald Trump. Last year, McCormick told a Bloomberg interviewer asking about Trumpism that it is important to recognize the frustrated masses that Trump tapped into. Then he brought up the divisiveness that’s characterized the last four years and the polarization, and I think the president has some responsibility, a lot of responsibility for that. Meanwhile, McCormick keeps getting plastered with the term globalist a derogatory slur with an antisemitic origin adopted by Trump and right-wing allies to conjure up an elite, international coterie that doesn’t serve America’s best interests. To shore up his pro-Trump credentials, McCormick has worked to land endorsements from GOP stalwarts, including Trump’s former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. McCormick also professes America First allegiance, saying it has helped people in small-town Pennsylvania where he grew up. And despite his ties to the wealthy and well-connected, he calls himself an outsider. Trump aside, primary campaign issues might be turning McCormick’s way, with Russia’s attack on Ukraine spurring an interest anew in global affairs. McCormick who has a doctorate in international relations from Princeton University is most animated by talking about how to confront China and Russian President Vladimir Putin, boiling down his ideas into bullet points for audiences in diners and restaurants. One diner patron, 69-year-old Carol Forster, asked McCormick about an ad linking him to China and appeared satisfied with McCormick’s answer that he won’t need on the job training to take on China. She also likes McCormick’s military background her husband and son served in the U.S. Marine Corps and seemed inclined to trust McCormick on matters of the border, war and international relations. Knowing he was in the military, I know he has some heartfelt feelings about that, and what’s going on with Ukraine, Forster said. (https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/decision-2022/dave-mccormick-ex-hedge-fund-ceo-wants-to-be-hometown-boy-in-pa-s-key-senate-race/3177716/)

Biden Tapping Oil Reserves for 1 Million Barrels a Day for 6 Months to Control Gas Prices

President Joe Biden is ordering the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve for six months, the White House said Thursday, in a bid to control energy prices that have spiked after the U.S. and allies imposed steep sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The White House said Biden is also calling on Congress to impose financial penalties on oil and gas companies that lease public lands but aren’t producing. And he intends to invoke the Defense Production Act to encourage the mining of critical minerals for batteries in electric vehicles, part of a broader push to shift toward cleaner energy sources and reduce the use of fossil fuels. The actions demonstrate forcefully that oil remains a key vulnerability for the U.S. at home and abroad. Higher prices have hurt Biden’s approval domestically, while also adding billions of oil-export dollars to the Russian war chest as it wages war on Ukraine. The release of reserves in the U.S. would create pressures that could reduce oil prices, though Biden has already twice ordered releases from the strategic reserves without causing a meaningful shift in oil markets. United States 12 hours ago Oil Prices Slide as Biden Announces Largest-Ever Strategic Petroleum Reserve Release politics Mar 30 Germany Warns of Possible Natural Gas Rationing Amid Dispute With Russia Part of Biden’s concern is that high prices have not so far coaxed a meaningful jump in oil production. The planned release is a way to increase supplies as a bridge until oil companies ramp up their own production, with administration officials estimating that domestic production will grow by 1 million barrels daily this year and an additional 700,000 barrels daily in 2023. The markets reacted quickly with crude oil prices dropping about 4 in Thursday trading to under $104 a barrel. Still, oil is up from roughly $60 a year ago, with supplies failing to keep up with demand as the world economy has begun to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic. That inflationary problem was compounded by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which created new uncertainties about oil and natural gas supplies and led to retaliatory sanctions from the U.S. and its allies. Biden has been in talks with allies and partners to join in additional releases of oil, such that the world market will get more than the 180 million barrels total being pledged by the U.S. Americans on average use about 21 million barrels of oil daily, with about 40 of that devoted to gasoline, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That total accounts for about a fifth of total global consumption of oil. Domestic oil production is equal to more than half of U.S. usage, but high prices have not led companies to return to their pre-pandemic levels of output. The U.S. is producing on average 11.7 million barrels daily, down from 13 million barrels in early 2020. Republican lawmakers have said the problem rests with the Biden administration being hostile to oil permits and the construction of new pipelines such as the Keystone XL. Democrats have countered that the country needs to move to renewable energy such as wind and solar that could reduce the dependence on fossil fuels and Putin’s leverage. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mt., blasted Biden’s action to tap the reserve without first taking steps to increase American energy production, calling its a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. Daines called Biden’s actions desperate moves that avoid what he called the real solution: investing in American energy production, especially oil and gas. Biden needs to stop appeasing the woke green activists and get oil and gas leases going again, Daines said. The Biden administration has countered that increasing oil output is a gradual process and the release would provide time to ramp up production. It also wants to incentivize greater production by putting fees on unused leases on government lands, something that would require congressional approval. Oil producers have been more focused on meeting the needs of investors than consumers, according to a survey released last week by the Dallas Federal Reserve. About 59 of the executives surveyed said investor pressure to preserve capital discipline amid high prices was the reason they weren’t pumping more, while fewer than 10 blamed government regulation. The steady release from the reserves would be a meaningful sum and come near to closing the domestic production gap relative to February 2020, before the coronavirus caused a steep decline in oil output. Still, the politics of oil are complicated with industry advocates and environmentalists both criticizing the planned release. Industry advocates want to make drilling easier, while environmental groups say energy companies should be forced to pay a special tax on windfall profits instead. The American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry’s top lobbying group, said Biden needs to stop focusing on interim steps such as the strategic reserve. Instead of managing from crisis to crisis, we should be focused on promoting policies that avoid them altogether through increased production of our nation’s domestic energy resources, said Frank Macchiarola, senior VP of policy, economics and regulatory affairs. Jamie Henn, spokesperson for STOP, said releasing more oil from the strategic reserve won’t address the root cause of these high gas prices: Big Oil’s coordinated campaign to gouge Americans at the pump. A better solution would be to pass the windfall profits tax proposed in Congress which guarantees immediate relief to Americans without undermining the administration’s climate goals. Big Oil should pay for the problem they’ve created. The Biden administration in November announced the release of 50 million barrels from the strategic reserve in coordination with other countries. And after the Russia-Ukraine war began, the U.S. and 30 other countries agreed to an additional release of 60 million barrels from reserves, with half of the total coming from the U.S. According to the Department of Energy, which manages it, more than 568 million barrels of oil were held in the reserve as of March 25. After the release, the government would begin to replenish the reserve once prices have sufficiently fallen. News of the administration’s planning was first reported by Bloomberg. ___ Associated Press writers Matthew Daly and Michael Balsamo contributed to this report. (https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/biden-tapping-oil-reserves-for-1-million-barrels-a-day-for-6-months-to-control-gas-prices/2928986/)

The Art of War: Artists Around the World Leave Their Mark in Support of Ukraine

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, artists around the world have created poignant murals to support Ukraine. Here’s how artists have depicted the war across continents: Paris Chesnot Getty Images Fresco murals by French street artists Kelu Abstract and Jeff Aerosol are displayed on the wall of a Parisian building on March 14, 2022 in Paris, France. Chesnot Getty Images A fresco mural by French street artist Julien Malland aka Seth Globepainter is displayed on the wall of a Parisian building on March 14, 2022 in Paris, France. Chesnot Getty Images A man takes a picture of a fresco mural by French street artist Sara Chelou displayed on The walls of peace on March 28, 2022 in Paris France. Chesnot Getty Images A man takes a picture of a fresco mural by French street artist Eric Ze King aka EZK displayed on The walls of peace on March 28, 2022 in Paris France. Joel Saget AFP Getty Images French street artist and painter Christian Guemy known as C215 poses in front of his fresco depicting a Ukrainian young girl with a quote attributed to Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky I really don’t want my photos in your offices, because I am neither a god nor an icon, but rather a servant of the Nation. Chesnot Getty Images A man takes a picture of a fresco murals displayed on The walls of peace on March 28, 2022 in Paris France. Rome Andrea Ronchini Nurphoto Getty Images Anti-Ukraine war mural by Italian street artist known by the name of ‘Laika’ depicting a hug between two women, one dressed in the Russian, the other in the Ukrainian national colors, respectively, above the word MIR In the Ostiense district on March 09, 2022 in Rome, Italy. Marilla Sicilia Mondadori Portfolio Getty Images Peace. The new mural by street artist Laika dedicated to the crisis between Russia and Ukraine. Andrea Ronchini Nurphoto Getty Images A mural depicting a Ukrainian child under the SOS writing, created by the street artist known as ‘Harry Greb’, is seen next to the Coliseum metro station on March 17, 2022 in Rome, Italy. Sofia, Bulgaria Buenos Aires, Argentina Juan Mabromata AFP Getty Images A woman walks pass the mural No to war by muralist Maximiliano Bagnasco in Buenos Aires on March 5, 2022. Barcelona, Spain Paco Freire Lightrocket Getty Images A passer-by is seen observing the graphic representation of Ukraine’s president Zelensky calling for an end to the Russian invasion is seen in Plaza de Sant Jaume. Paco Freire Lightrocket Getty Images A passer-by is seen taking photos of artist TvBoy’s new collage for peace in Ukraine. TvBoy, the Italian artist living in Barcelona, installs a new collage on the war in Ukraine in Plaza de Sant Jaume, representing three children installing a flag of peace on a Russian tank. Josep Lago AFP Getty Images A woman looks at a new work by Italian street artist TvBoy that depicts Russian President Vladimir Putin in prison, in Barcelona on March 31, 2022. Gdansk, Poland Mateusz Slodkowski Lightrocket Getty Images A mural of Putin, Hitler, and Stalin with a slogan No More Time is seen on the wall next to the PKM Gdansk Jasien train station. Michal Fludra Nurphoto Getty Images Yellow heart pierced by bullets on a blue background with inscription in Ukrainian and Polish Ukraine is fighting is seen in Gdansk, Poland on 6 March 2022 The mural was created to support Ukrainian people during the Russian war against Ukraine. Poznan, Poland Piotr Skornicki Reuters A mural by graffiti artist KAWU depicting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as Harry Potter with Z on his forehead symbolising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is seen in Poznan, Poland March 9, 2022. Cardiff, Wales Huw Fairclough Getty Images A resident looks at new street art mural has appeared in Cardiff depicting Ukraine’s capital Kyiv under siege on March 01, 2022 in Cardiff, Wales. Prague Michal Cizek AFP Getty Images A woman walks past a graffiti mural, showing a child protecting with a Ukrainian flag against the war, made by artist ChemiS, on March 19, 2022 in Prague. London Hesther Ng Lightrocket Getty Images A drawing describing the Russia-Ukraine war on the floor at Trafalgar Square. Demonstrations in support of Ukraine have been ongoing on an everyday basis in London since the Russia-Ukraine War started on 24th February 2022. Krakow, Poland Beata Zawrzel Nurphoto Getty Images A mural depicting Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and ‘Glory to Ukraine’ slogan written in Polish is seen in Krakow, Poland on 22 March, 2022. Los Angeles Mario Tama Getty Images A street stencil by artist 1GoodHombre depicts Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gripping submachine guns as a person walks past on Melrose Avenue on March 30, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. Mario Tama Getty Images A person walks past the ‘To Ukraine With Love’ mural by artists Corie Mattie and Juliano Trindade depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 14, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/business/money-report/the-art-of-war-artists-around-the-world-leave-their-mark-in-support-of-ukraine/3012242/)

Ukrainian President Says Defense Is at a ‘Turning Point,’ Pleads for More US Help

The Ukrainian president said his country’s defense against the Russian invasion is at a turning point and again pressed the United States for more help, hours after the Kremlin’s forces reneged on a pledge to scale back some of their operations. Russian bombardment of areas around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv and intensified attacks elsewhere in the country further undermined hopes for progress toward ending the brutal war. Talks between Ukraine and Russia were set to resume Friday by video, according to the head of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arakhamia. A delegation of Ukrainian lawmakers visited Washington on Wednesday to push for more U.S. assistance, saying their nation needs more military equipment, more financial help and tougher sanctions against Russia. We need to kick Russian soldiers off our land, and for that we need all, all possible weapons, Ukrainian parliament member Anastasia Radina said at a news conference at the Ukrainian Embassy. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made the case directly to U.S. President Joe Biden. If we really are fighting for freedom and in defense of democracy together, then we have a right to demand help in this difficult turning point. Tanks, aircraft, artillery systems. Freedom should be armed no worse than tyranny, Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation, which he delivered standing in the dark outside the dimly lit presidential offices in Kyiv. He thanked the U.S. for an additional $500 million in aid that was announced Wednesday. More Russia-Ukraine Coverage 10 hours ago Ukrainians Already in US Mobilize to Prepare for Up to 100,000 Inbound Refugees Gas prices 16 hours ago Biden Planning Bigger Tap Into Oil Reserve to Combat Gas Prices There seemed little faith that Russia and Ukraine will resolve the conflict soon, particularly after the Russian military’s about-face and its most recent attacks. Russia said Tuesday that it would de-escalate operations near Kyiv and Chernihiv to increase mutual trust and create conditions for further negotiations. Zelenskyy and the West were skeptical. Soon after, Ukrainian officials reported that Russian shelling was hitting homes, stores, libraries and other civilian sites in or near those areas. Russian troops also stepped up their attacks on the Donbas region in the east and around the city of Izyum, which lies on a key route to the Donbas, after redeploying units from other areas, the Ukrainian side said. Olexander Lomako, secretary of the Chernihiv city council, said the Russian announcement turned out to be a complete lie. At night they didn’t decrease, but vice versa increased the intensity of military action, Lomako said. A top British intelligence official said Thursday that demoralized Russian soldiers in Ukraine were refusing to carry out orders and sabotaging their own equipment and had accidentally shot down their own aircraft. In a speech in the Australian capital Canberra, Jeremy Fleming, who heads the GCHQ electronic spy agency, said President Vladimir Putin had apparently massively misjudged the invasion, he said. Although Putin’s advisers appeared to be too afraid to tell the truth, the extent of these misjudgments must be crystal clear to the regime, he said. U.S. intelligence officials have given similar assessments that Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about the poor performance of his military in Ukraine because they are too afraid to tell him the truth. Five weeks into the invasion that has left thousands dead on both sides, the number of Ukrainians fleeing the country topped a staggering 4 million, half of them children, according to the United Nations. I do not know if we can still believe the Russians, Nikolay Nazarov, a refugee from Ukraine, said as he pushed his father’s wheelchair at a border crossing into Poland. I think more escalation will occur in eastern Ukraine. That is why we cannot go back to Kharkiv. Zelenskyy said the continuing negotiations with Russia were only words without specifics. He said Ukraine was preparing for concentrated new strikes on the Donbas. Zelenskyy also said he had recalled Ukraine’s ambassadors to Georgia and Morocco, suggesting they had not done enough to persuade those countries to support Ukraine and punish Russia for the invasion. With all due respect, if there won’t be weapons, won’t be sanctions, won’t be restrictions for Russian business, then please look for other work, he said. During talks Tuesday in Istanbul, the faint outlines of a possible peace agreement seemed to emerge when the Ukrainian delegation offered a framework under which the country would declare itself neutral dropping its bid to join NATO, as Moscow has long demanded in return for security guarantees from a group of other nations. Top Russian officials responded positively, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying Wednesday that Ukraine’s willingness to accept neutrality and look outside NATO for security represents significant progress, according to Russian news agencies. But those statements were followed by attacks. Oleksandr Pavliuk, head of the Kyiv region military administration, said Russian shells targeted residential areas and civilian infrastructure in the Bucha, Brovary and Vyshhorod regions around the capital. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the military also targeted fuel depots in two towns in central Ukraine with air-launched long-range cruise missiles. Russian forces hit a Ukrainian special forces headquarters in the southern Mykolaiv region, he said, and two ammunition depots in the Donetsk region, in the Donbas. In southern Ukraine, a Russian missile destroyed a fuel depot in Dnipro, the country’s fourth-largest city, regional officials said. The U.S. said Russia had begun to reposition less than 20 of its troops that had been arrayed around Kyiv. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said troops from there and some other zones began moving mostly to the north, and some went into neighboring Belarus. Kirby said it appeared Russia planned to resupply them and send them back into Ukraine, but it is not clear where. The Ukrainian military said some Russian airborne units were believed to have withdrawn into Belarus. In northern Ukraine, Russian forces took no offensive actions Wednesday, focusing on reconnaissance and logistics, the general staff said in a statement. But Russia is expected to increase attacks soon to protect its own troops as they are repositioned, it said. The Russians also are expected to try to blockade Chernihiv. Top Russian military officials say their main goal now is the liberation of the Donbas, the predominantly Russian-speaking industrial heartland where Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian forces since 2014. Some analysts have suggested that the focus on the Donbas and the pledge to de-escalate may merely be an effort to put a positive spin on reality: Moscow’s ground forces have been thwarted and have taken heavy losses in their bid to seize the capital and other cities. In other developments: The U.N. is looking into allegations some residents of the besieged and shattered southern city of Mariupol were forcibly taken to areas controlled by Russian forces or to Russia itself. Germany said Russia had reassured it European companies won’t have to pay for Russian gas in rubles, a prospect that raised fears Russia could cut off supplies. Also, Poland said it would end Russian oil imports by the year’s end. Click here for complete coverage of the crisis in Ukraine. Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report. (https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/national-international/ukrainian-president-says-defense-is-at-a-turning-point-pleads-for-more-us-help/2859729/)

Calling Putin’s Bluff: Local Experts Explain Why EU Should Accept Ukraine Candidacy

In order to call Putin’s bluff, local experts say the European Union should fast-track Ukraine’s candidacy as the country’s president offers up neutrality. Diplomats from Ukraine and Russia have recently been holding peace talks in Turkey. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country is prepared to discuss adopting a neutral status as part of a peace deal with Russia, but has left E.U. candidacy and membership on the table. Harvard scholar Oleh Kotsyuba and Northeastern University professors Mai’a Cross and Pablo Calderon explained Wednesday how Zelenskyy can call Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bluff by joining the E.U. on NBC10 Boston’s weekly series, Russia-Ukraine Q&A. Sign up for our Breaking newsletter to get the most urgent news stories in your inbox. More from this series Local experts discuss the latest developments around the Russia-Ukraine war live on Facebook every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. russia-ukraine q&a Mar 24 Putin Will ‘Likely’ Use Chemical Weapons, Local Experts Say russia-ukraine q&a Mar 18 Will China Help Russia? Local Experts Weigh in While Zelenskyy has said Ukraine is prepared to offer neutrality to end the month-old war with Russia, which would mean giving up on joining NATO, he has left E.U. candidacy and membership on the table. In fact, he has submitted an application to the E.U. to grant Ukraine immediate membership. The two are not mutually exclusive, Cross explained. Six E.U. countries aren’t members of NATO: Austria, Cyprus, the Irish Republic, Malta, Finland and Sweden. One thing that’s interesting about E.U. candidacy and membership is there are neutral countries within the E.U., Cross said. So if Zelenskyy wants to continue with this strategy of sort of dangling neutrality as a way to call Putin’s bluff, neutrality and E.U. membership are actually compatible. The offer of neutrality is a near 180-degree flip from Zelenskyy’s previous stance, which sought to maintain Ukrainian sovereignty and the country’s right to determine its own alliances. Ukraine and Russia are still negotiating what neutrality would mean for the country, but Calderon said it would come in exchange for security guarantees. I do think this puts the ball firmly in Vladimir Putin’s court, Calderon said. And he has to now react to these responses and see if this going to be enough. Since Putin has long said he won’t accept the expansion of NATO eastward to include Ukraine, the shift puts the Russian president on the spot. But experts aren’t convinced that the offer will lead to meaningful change. The real motivation for Putin is not so much Ukraine’s joining NATO, Kostyuba said. It’s really kind of the broader integration with the West, it’s democratization and the danger that such a democratic country on Russia’s direct border will represent to Putin’s personal regime of power. Additionally, Kotsyuba noted that both countries are trying to buy time with these negotiations in the middle of a war that is draining their resources. Each side likely isn’t taking promises from the opposition seriously. PRIME MINISTERS OF POLAND PRIME MINISTERS OF POLAND AND CHECK REPUBLIC AND SLOVENIA ARE MEETING IN UKRAINE TODAY TO SHOW SOLIDARITY. TALKS BETWEEN UKRAINE AND RUSSIA WILL CONTINUE TONIGHT. WILL CONTINUE TONIGHT. REPORTS THAT PRESIDENT BIDEN IS STRONGLY TRAVELING TO EUROPE, POSSIBLY BRUSSELS, IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS. NEW SATELLITE IMAGES FROM A TOWN NORTHWEST OF KYIV APPEAR TO SHOW DAMAGED BUILDINGS AND HOMES WITH SEVERAL UP IN FLAMES AS ARTILLERY STRIKES COTINUE. ARTILLERY STRIKES COTINUE. PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY IS EXPECTED TO SPEAK TO CONGRESS TOMORROW CLEARLY HAS MORE OF A MOCHESS IN MIND HERE.”,”video_id”:”2012927043916_266″,”video_length”:”72673″,”video_provider”:”mpx”,”short_video_excerpt”:””,”mpx_download_pid_mobile_low”:”Ibfzp9MHiUNH”,”pid_streaming_web_mobile_low”:””,”mpx_download_pid_mobile_standard”:”sUN9yDDK3W97″,”pid_streaming_mobile_standard”:”V0zF_UHGNgnF”,”alleypack_schedule_unpublish”:””,”feed_remote_id”:”mpx_2012927043916″,”feed_thumbnail_url”:”” ” data-livestream=”false” data-title=”Peace Talks Continue Tuesday as Russian Attacks Intensify” data-vidcid=”1:5:2669311″ data-vidurl=”https://www.nbcboston.com/on-air/as-seen-on/peace-talks-continue-tuesday-as-russian-attacks-intensify/2669311/” data-islead=”false” data-catnames=” “1813”:”On Air”,”1814″:”As Seen On” ” data-tagnames=” “541481”:”peace talks”,”3727″:”Russia”,”542511″:”Russia-Ukraine War”,”413575″:”Volodymyr Zelenskyy” ” data-customdata=” “ContentPartner”:”None”,”Source”:”WEBFM”,”SyndicationAllowed”:”true”,”mSNVideoCategories”:”MSN Video v4 Connector-most watched news”,”mSNVideoContentSupplierID”:”NBC_Local”,”mSNVideoCountry”:”us”,”subtitle”:”nosubtitle”,”uploadedByTeam”:”1″,”youtubeChannel”:”None” ” data-autoplay=”false” data-cplay=”true” Meanwhile, Putin all but refuses to recognize that the European Union exists. Cross pointed to Putin’s refusal to receive a response from the E.U. to his letter of intent in the lead up to the war, demanding individual replies from every country. Putin, he doesn’t ever like to acknowledge the strength of the E.U. as an actor. He always treats E.U. member states as individual countries, Cross said. The European Union is a political and economic collective rather than a military alliance like NATO. In that regard, NATO is more basic in terms of its focus on security and defense, Cross explained, whereas the E.U. is extremely comprehensive. When I think about what is really ultimately a threat to Putin, it is what the E.U. represents. It’s integration, it’s policy sharing and convergence on so many levels that you practically can’t find a policy area that isn’t integrated within Europe. It’s the attraction of the West and this free market economy and democracy, Cross said. So the E.U. really represents so much more of what is a threat to Putin’s power in Russia than NATO does. Putin’s refusal to acknowledge the E.U. puts him in a precarious position if he were to take issue with Ukraine’s membership. If he has to kind of step up and say, ‘No, we’re also against E.U. membership, we see this as threatening,’ that’s a blatant acknowledgement of the strength of the E.U., which he continually tries to avoid, Cross said. So it could be quite a smart strategy on multiple levels. Zelenskyy has been pleading with Western leaders to accept Ukraine for years, Cross explained, noting that the country was waving E.U. flags in 2014. Cross remains hopeful, however, that the E.U. will invite Ukraine to be a formal candidate for membership. The process is usually a lengthy one, but given the Russian invasion, Cross said an expedited procedure would be appropriate. They see their future with the West and yet they’re not given some kind of public prospect for membership, Cross said. So I think this is a no brainer, in many respects. (https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/calling-putins-bluff-local-experts-explain-why-eu-should-accept-ukraine-candidacy/2682650/)

Biden Skeptical Russia Is Scaling Back Operations in Kyiv

President Joe Biden on Tuesday said he wasn’t yet convinced that Russia’s announcement that it would scale back military operations near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv will lead to a fundamental shift in the war. Biden, during an appearance with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong following bilateral talks at the White House, said he was waiting to see what Russia offers in ongoing talks with Ukraine and how Moscow readjusts its troop presence. U.S. and Western officials have expressed skepticism about Russia’s announcement earlier on Tuesday that it would dial back operations in an effort to increase trust in ongoing talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials in Turkey. We’ll see, Biden said. I don’t read anything into it until I see what their actions are. The Democratic president expressed his caution about the latest development after meeting with Lee for talks in which he sought to assure Singapore and other Pacific allies that his administration remains focused on the Indo-Pacific region even as they deal with the fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Biden at the start of an Oval Office meeting with Lee said it was essential that his administration continue to work on bolstering relations with Singapore and other nations in the region. The president has made adjusting U.S. foreign policy to better reflect the rise of America’s most significant military and economic competitor, China, a central focus of his foreign policy, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has complicated the effort. Even as we address the crisis in Europe, my administration is strongly supportive of moving rapidly to implement the Indo-Pacific strategy, Biden said. The two leaders discussed the relationship between the U.S. and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, promoting the return of democracy in Myanmar following last year’s military coup and advancing economic growth in the region. Biden said he and Lee consulted on the situation in Ukraine and freedom of the seas, an issue of heightened importance in the region as Beijing has made territorial claims over most of the South China Sea. Lee acknowledged that the timing of the visit underscored Biden’s commitment to the region and that the U.S. would continue to strengthen its strategic interests in the region. I’m sure you’re completely seized with what’s happening in Europe right now, Lee said. But we doubly appreciate the time you’re giving Singapore and to southeast Asian countries generally, especially ASEAN. Biden’s national security team has been pleased that Singapore and other Pacific partners Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea moved relatively quickly to hit Russia with sanctions following the invasion. Lee noted that the war in Ukraine has implications for the Asia Pacific region, a seeming reference to China’s saber-rattling toward Taiwan. Concerns were growing even before Russia invaded Ukraine about Beijing’s calculations about Taiwan. Biden administration officials have said that Chinese President Xi Jinping has closely watched the U.S. and Western reaction to the Russian invasion. White House officials have also said that China has offered Moscow military and economic help with its prosecution of the war. Any conflict over the self-governing island democracy stands to involve the U.S., which is legally obligated to ensure Taiwan can defend itself and treats threats to the island as matters of grave concern. The Biden administration has repeatedly underscored its One China policy, which recognizes Beijing as the government of China but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taipei. Biden also made clear that the U.S. strongly opposes China’s unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. There are potential flashpoints and contentious issues in our region to which if not managed, well, could escalate to open conflict, Lee said. Countries with interests in the region need to pursue all efforts to settle disagreements through peaceful means, so that we can avoid reaching a point of no return. Singapore, which typically waits for United Nations backing before implementing sanctions, has imposed restrictions on some exports and a ban on financial institutions from doing business with Russian banks. Russia-Ukraine War Coverage: 25 mins ago UN Nuclear Watchdog Chief in Ukraine to Talk Safety Support Russia-Ukraine Crisis 11 hours ago Russia Says It Will Scale Back Near Kyiv as Talks Progress Biden thanked Lee for Singapore being a reliable ally, saying the island manages to punch way above your weight. Biden was scheduled to host several national leaders from ASEAN this week, but the summit was postponed. Vice President Kamala Harris visited Singapore in August, announcing agreements involving cybersecurity, climate change and supply chain issues. The president on Tuesday said he still planned to host the ASEAN summit this spring. Associated Press writer Chris Megerian contributed reporting. (https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/politics/biden-skeptical-russia-is-scaling-back-operations-in-kyiv/2927065/)

Biden Waiving Ethanol Rule in Bid to Lower Gasoline Prices

With inflation at a 40-year high, President Joe Biden journeyed to corn-rich Iowa on Tuesday to announce a modest step aimed at trimming gasoline prices by about a dime a gallon at a limited number of stations by waiving rules that restrict ethanol blending. His action reflects the ways Biden is deploying almost every weapon in his bureaucratic arsenal to ease price pressures, yet the impact appears to be small and uncertain. Inflation has only accelerated in recent months, instead of fading as Biden once promised it would after the recovery from the coronavirus recession following last year’s $1.9 trillion relief package. A government report Tuesday that consumer prices jumped 8.5 in March from a year ago the worst reading since December 1981 only deepened the political challenge for Biden and fellow Democrats ahead of this year’s midterm elections. More than half the increase came from higher gas prices, which spiked in part because of Russia’s war in Ukraine, but costs also jumped for housing, food and other items. Biden called the inflation report Putin’s price hike. Your family budget, your ability to fill up your tank, none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide a half a world away, the U.S. president said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. But in his remarks at the POET biofuels facility in Menlo, west of Des Moines, Biden acknowledged that the waiver on ethanol mixes was a small step. I’m doing everything within my power by executive orders to bring down the price, he said. It’s not going to solve all our problems, but it’s going to help some people. Most gasoline sold in the U.S. is blended with 10 ethanol, a biofuel that is currently cheaper than gas. Biden was announcing that the Environmental Protection Agency will issue an emergency waiver to allow widespread sale of a 15 ethanol blend that is usually prohibited between June 1 and Sept. 15 because of concerns that it adds to smog in high temperatures. Senior Biden administration officials said the action will save drivers an average of 10 cents per gallon based on current prices, but at just 2,300 gas stations out of the nation’s more than 100,000. The affected stations are mostly in the Midwest and the South, including Texas, according to industry groups. Administration officials said the EPA has determined that the emergency step of allowing more E15 gasoline sales for the summer is not likely to have a significant air quality impact. That’s despite some environmentalists long arguing that more ethanol in gasoline increases pollution, especially during warmer summer months. More Gas Prices Coverage Business Apr 11 Gas Prices Can Vary a Lot Depending on Where You Live. Drivers in These 10 States Spend the Most Business Apr 1 How States Aim to Tackle High Gas Prices With Tax Holidays, Rebates for Residents The waiver is another effort to help ease global energy markets that have been rocked since Russia invaded Ukraine. Last month, the president announced the U.S. will release 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve over the next six months. His administration said that has helped to slightly reduce gas prices lately, after they climbed to an average of about $4.23 a gallon by the end of March, compared with $2.87 at the same time a year ago, according to AAA. Not only is this decision a major win for American drivers and our nation’s energy security, it means cleaner options at the pump and a stronger rural economy, Emily Skor, CEO of the biofuel trade association group Growth Energy, said in a statement. Members of Congress from both parties also had urged Biden to grant the E15 waiver. Homegrown Iowa biofuels provide a quick and clean solution for lowering prices at the pump, and bolstering production would help us become energy independent once again, said Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. He was among nine Republican and seven Democratic senators from Midwestern states who sent Biden a letter last month urging him to allow year-round E15 sales. The trip will be Biden’s first as president to Iowa, where his 2020 presidential campaign limped to a fourth-place finish in the state’s caucus. He will arrive saddled with sagging approval ratings and the high inflation while his party faces the prospect of big midterm election losses that could cost it control of Congress. The president also planned to promote his economic plans to help rural families and highlight the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law enacted last fall. That law includes money to improve internet access, as well as for modernizing wastewater systems, reducing flooding threats and improving roads and bridges, drinking water and electric grids in sparsely populated areas. Biden had hoped Democrats could run on the low 3.6 unemployment rate and an agenda geared toward lifting the middle class, but inflation has hijacked those ambitions and given Republicans a target for criticism. Iowa Republican Party Chairman Jeff Kauffman was unsparing in his criticism of Biden’s handling of the economy and inflation. But, he said, the temporary move on ethanol was the right one. First of all, let me say that that’s a good thing. Absolutely good thing. It would have been nice had he done it earlier, Kauffman said. Am I glad about this waiver? Yes I am. Is it enough? Nope. The high inflation also poses a threat to Biden’s broader domestic agenda that likely hinges on the vote of Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Manchin released a statement saying that the Biden administration and the Federal Reserve failed to act fast enough, to curb costs for the American people and that the problem of high prices predates the invasion of Ukraine. Manchin, whose opposition doomed Biden’s 10-year, roughly $2 trillion measure in December, had recently returned to the negotiating table with the White House. It remains unclear what impact the new inflation data will have on those negotiations. After Iowa, Biden will visit Greensboro, North Carolina, on Thursday. The EPA has lifted seasonal restrictions on E15 in the past, including after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The Trump administration did so in the summer two years later but had that action struck down by a federal appeals court. A group representing petroleum refiners blasted Biden’s decision, saying the only emergency was his dropping poll numbers. We are right there with the administration on wanting to see relief for consumers at the pump, but an unlawful executive order is not how to solve the problem, said Chet Thompson, president & CEO of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers. (https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/politics/biden-waiving-ethanol-rule-bid-lower-gasoline-prices/3022594/)

EXPLAINER: Why the Term ‘Genocide’ Matters in Russia-Ukraine War

When President Joe Biden declares Russia’s Ukraine war genocide, it isn’t just another strong word. Calling a campaign that’s aimed at wiping out a targeted group genocide not only increases pressure on a country to act, it can oblige it to do so. That’s partly because of a genocide treaty approved by the U.N. General Assembly after World War II, signed by the United States and more than 150 other nations. The convention was the work of, among others, a Polish Jew whose family was murdered by Nazi Germany and its accomplices. The advocates pushed for something that would make the world not just condemn but actually prevent and ensure prosecution for future genocides. In comments Tuesday, Biden accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian. Other world leaders have not gone as far. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said Russia’s behavior in Ukraine doesn’t look far short of genocide, but the U.K. has not officially used the term, saying only a court can make such a designation. A look at what’s involved in that decision, and what it means when a world leader declares a genocide: What Does ‘Genocide’ Mean? It’s a surprisingly modern word for an ancient crime. A Jewish lawyer from Poland, Raphael Lemkin, coined it at the height of World War II and the Holocaust. Lemkin wanted a word to describe what Nazi Germany was then doing to Europe’s Jews, and what Turkey had done to Armenians in the 1910s: killing members of a targeted group of people, and ruthlessly working to eradicate their cultures. Lemkin paired geno, a Greek word meaning race, and cide, a Latin word meaning kill. Lemkin dedicated his life to having genocide recognized and criminalized. In 1948, after Adolf Hitler and his accomplices systematically murdered 6 million Jews in Europe, the U.N. General Assembly approved the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide. More Russia-Ukraine War Coverage Coverage Russia-Ukraine War Apr 12 Biden: Russia War a ‘Genocide,’ Trying to ‘Wipe Out’ Ukraine business Apr 5 Zelenskyy Calls for a Nuremberg-Style Tribunal to Investigate and Prosecute Russian War Crimes What Is the Legal Definition of Genocide? Under the genocide convention, the crime is trying to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in part or in whole. That includes mass killings, but also actions including forced sterilization, abuse that inflicts serious harm or mental suffering, or wrenching children of a targeted group away to be raised by others. Is Russia Committing Genocide in Ukraine? The case may hang in part on Putin’s own words. Russian forces are widely accused of carrying out wholesale abuses of Ukraine’s civilians, including mass killings. Those would be war crimes. But do they amount to genocide? It’s all about intent, argues Bohdan Vitvitsky, a former U.S. federal prosecutor and former special adviser to Ukraine’s prosecutor general. Any attempt to determine whether the crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine are driven by genocidal intent must necessarily focus on the statements of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Vitvisky wrote for the Atlantic Council think tank this week. Putin long has denied any standing for Ukraine to exist as a separate nation, or Ukrainians as a separate people. He cites history, when Ukraine was part of the Russian empire, and later of the Soviet Union. In a long essay last year, On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians, Putin made clear the depth of his determination on the matter. He called the modern border dividing Russia and Ukraine our great common misfortune and tragedy. Putin and Russian state media falsely call Ukrainian leaders Nazis and drug addicts. Putin has called his military campaign in Ukraine one of de-Nazification. Gissou Nia, a human-rights lawyer who worked on war crime trials at the Hague, points to two alleged acts by Russia in Ukraine as also possibly showing intent of genocide: Reports of deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, and an account, from Ukraine’s government, of Russian soldiers telling 25 detained women and girls in Bucha that the Russians aimed to rape them to the point that they never bear any Ukrainian children. What Does It Matter If World Leaders Use ‘Genocide’ to Describe Russias Actions? Embedded in the genocide convention is an obligation that the U.S. and other signers of the treaty have treated warily if they acknowledge a genocide is occurring, they’re committed to ensuring investigation and prosecution, at the least. People and countries committing genocide shall be punished, the treaty declares, seeking to crush any wiggle room. U.S. leaders for decades dodged using the word genocide to avoid increasing the pressure on them to act as mass killings targeted classes of people or ethnic groups in Cambodia, Bosnia, Iraq, Rwanda and elsewhere. Regretting his failure to do more to stop the killing of 800,000 ethnic Tutsis by Hutus in Rwanda in 1994, Bill Clinton in June 1999 became the first U.S. president to recognize an act of genocide as it was playing out, saying Serb forces carrying out a deadly campaign against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo were attempting genocide. NATO intervened, lobbing 78 days of airstrikes that forced Serbian fighters’ withdrawal from Kosovo. An international tribunal charged Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic with war crimes, although Milosevic died before his trial concluded. Starting in 2005, world leaders embraced in principle responsibility for collective action to stop genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Atrocities and targeted campaigns against groups continue around the world, however, and the so-called responsibility to protect is seldom invoked. What Happens If the U.S. Does Declare Russian Actions to Be Genocide? U.S. leaders long have feared that acknowledging genocide would require them to intervene, even to send in troops, with all the risks, costs and political backlash that would entail. It’s been a main reason leaders limit themselves to angry statements and humanitarian aid. Biden is adamant the U.S. will not use its own military to confront Russian forces on behalf of Ukraine. Doing so would risk World War III, he says. He and allies in Europe and elsewhere already are intervening by sanctioning Russia and by sending weapons and other support to Ukraine for its defense. Biden and other Western leaders also have called for war crimes trials. The International Criminal Court already has started an investigation. But longstanding U.S. opposition to the International Criminal Court, over worries that U.S. troops could face prosecution there one day, complicates such prosecutions. So can Russia’s veto power on the U.N. Security Council. And practically speaking, bringing Putin before a court is a long shot. In the past, Americans’ opposition to entanglement in foreign wars also has helped discourage U.S. leaders from doing more to stop possible acts of genocide. But Russia’s invasion of a neighboring country and brutality against Ukraine’s people have angered Americans in a way that genocidal campaigns in Cambodia, Kurdish areas of Iraq and elsewhere did not. A recent poll by the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 40 of people in America believe the U.S. should have a major role in ending Russia’s invasion. Just 13 think the U.S. shouldn’t be involved at all. Click here for complete coverage of the crisis in Ukraine. (https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/explainer-why-term-genocide-matters-in-ukraine-war/2940146/)

Secret Intelligence Has Unusually Public Role in Ukraine War

The war in Ukraine is the conflict where spies came in from the cold and took center stage. Since Russia invaded its neighbor in late February, intelligence agencies in the U.S. and Britain have been remarkably willing to go public with their secret intelligence assessments of what is happening on the battlefield and inside the Kremlin. The U.S. this week declassified intelligence findings claiming Russian President Vladimir Putin is being misinformed about his military’s poor performance in Ukraine by advisers scared to tell him the truth. On Thursday a British spy chief said demoralized Russian troops were refusing to carry out orders and sabotaging their own equipment. Jeremy Fleming, who heads Britain’s electronic intelligence agency GCHQ, made the comments in a public speech where he said the pace and scale at which secret intelligence is being released really is unprecedented. NATO Alliance Positions Forces on Europe’s Eastern Flank Thousands of troops have been deployed across eastern Europe to protect allies near Russia and Ukraine. The U.S. has sent around 4,700 service members to Poland, 1,000 to Romania and over 7,000 to Germany with discussions of possibly sending more. According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, it is the first time the NATO Response Force has been activated. Source: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization Credit: Andrew Williams/NBC Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert at University College London, agreed that the very public intelligence campaign reflects the fact that we now live in a different age, politically and internationally. And this is a different kind of war. Officials say the stream of declassified intelligence which includes regular briefings to journalists in Washington and London and daily Twitter updates from Britain’s defense ministry has several aims. Partly it’s to let Putin know he is being watched, and to make him question what he’s being told. It’s also designed to embolden the Russian military to tell Putin the truth, and to convey to the Russian public that they have been lied to about the war. The U.S. and Britain also have released intelligence assessments in a bid to deter Russian actions. That was the case with recent warnings Russia might be preparing to use chemical weapons in Ukraine. It’s all part of a closely coordinated trans-Atlantic strategy that has been in the works for months. Biden administration officials say they decided to aggressively share intelligence and coordinate messaging with key allies, including Britain, as U.S. concerns about Russian troop movements in autumn 2021 put the intelligence community on high alert. In early November, President Joe Biden dispatched CIA director William Burns to Moscow to warn that the U.S. was fully aware of Russian troop movements. The White House has typically been tight-lipped about the director’s travels, but the Biden administration calculated that in this situation they needed to advertise the visit far and wide. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow announced that Burns had met with top Kremlin officials shortly after his trip was over. Soon after Burns’ Moscow mission, U.S. officials decided they needed to accelerate intelligence sharing. Russia-Ukraine War 12 hours ago Ukraine Accuses Russia of Massacre, City Strewn With Bodies business Apr 2 A Ukrainian Techie Combined ‘Code and People’ to Raise $3.5 Million So Far for Families Back Home Officials shared sensitive intelligence with other members of the Five Eyes alliance Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and also with Ukraine. Director of national intelligence Avril Haines was dispatched to Brussels to brief NATO members on intelligence underlying growing American concerns that Russia seemed intent on invasion, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue. Some allies and analysts were skeptical, with memories lingering of past intelligence failings, like the false claim Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that was used to justify the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Late last year, France and Germany led a group of European countries that appeared to be seeing similar military intelligence as the U.S. and Britain, but were less convinced that an invasion of Ukraine was imminent. At NATO, Germany initially blocked the use of a system for helping Ukraine to acquire certain military equipment. France and Germany also blocked NATO from launching an early crisis planning system in response to the buildup, before relenting in December. This week, French media reported that the head of France’s military intelligence agency, which failed to anticipate the Russian invasion, has been removed from his post. Eric Vidaud’s departure comes amid soul-searching among France’s leadership about why it was taken by surprise by the war which was particularly embarrassing for President Emmanuel Macron, who speaks regularly with Putin. Some see Vidaud as a scapegoat, and note that his removal comes just ahead of this month’s French presidential election. In January, as Russia amassed troops near Ukraine’s border, Britain’s Foreign Office issued a statement alleging that Putin wanted to install a pro-Moscow regime in Ukraine. The U.K. said it was making the intelligence assessment public because of the exceptional circumstances. Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24 largely silenced the doubters, and drew a unified response from NATO. The release of U.S. and British intelligence is partly designed to shore up that Western unity, officials and analysts say. Both Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson doubt Putin is serious about negotiating an end to the war and want to keep up the West’s military and moral support of Ukraine. The Breakdown: U.S. Security Aid for Ukraine The U.S. has commited over $2 billion to Ukraine in security assistance since the start of the Biden Administration $1 bilion of it in March alone. Security assistance takes the form of equipment from the Department of Defense and is meant to help Ukrainians defend their country against Russia. Note: Not all pledged government funding has been allocated yet Source: The White House Credit: Andrew Williams/NBC The impact inside Russia is hard to measure. The U.S. official who spoke to the AP said the White House hopes divulging intelligence that Putin is misinformed could help prod the Russian leader to reconsider his options in Ukraine. But the publicity could also risk further isolating Putin or make him double down on his aim of restoring Russian prestige lost since the fall of the Soviet Union. The official said Biden is in part shaped by a belief that Putin is going to do what Putin is going to do, regardless of international efforts to deter him. Galeotti said Western intelligence agencies likely don’t know how much impact their efforts will have on Putin. But there’s no harm in giving it a try, he said. Because when it comes down to it, in this kind of intensely personalistic system, if one line, or one particular notion, happens to get through and lodge itself in Putin’s brain, then that’s a really powerful result. ___ Madhani reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Ben Fox and Nomaan Merchant in Washington, Lorne Cook in Brussels and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this story. (https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/secret-intelligence-has-unusually-public-role-in-ukraine-war/2930850/)

The Invasion of Ukraine Has Serious, Unintended Consequences for Russia. Here Are Just 5 of Them

When Russia invaded Ukraine, it was widely believed to have expected an easy victory over its neighbor, but Ukraine has proven to be a much more formidable opponent than expected. Just over a month into the war, Moscow is facing unintended consequences of its aggression in Ukraine, ranging from high casualties among its troops to economic ruin for years to come. When Russia invaded Ukraine, it was widely believed to have expected an easy victory over its neighbor. But so far, Russia has little to show for what it has called its special military operation : Its forces have been bogged down in fighting mainly to the northern, eastern and southern fringes of Ukraine and have found the country to be much more organized and well equipped than they expected. Russian forces have seized only one city, Kherson, but even that occupation looks shaky, with Ukrainian forces launching a counter-offensive to retake the southern port. Similar moves have been seen elsewhere in Ukraine, with officials claiming that its forces are mounting an increasing number of counter-attacks. Just over a month into the war, Moscow is facing unintended consequences of its aggression in Ukraine, ranging from high casualties among its troops to economic ruin for years to come. Here are five of them: 1) Russian casualties are high Russia has been coy about releasing statistics on its losses, but one Russian defense ministry official said on Friday that 1,351 Russian soldiers had died in the war so far, and that 3,825 were injured. Ukraine’s authorities claim that more than 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the conflict, while a senior NATO official last week estimated that between 8,000 and 15,000 have been killed. Marcus Yam Los Angeles Times Getty Images Ukrainian soldiers salvage equipment from the body of a dead Russian soldier after a Russian vehicle was destroyed by Ukrainian forces near Sytnyaky, Ukraine, on March 3, 2022. If accurate, those numbers would be a heavy death toll for Russia comparable to the almost 15,000 Soviet soldiers who died during the 10-year war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. To this day, that incursion is unpopular in Russia because it gained the country little but cost much blood. To put the Russian forces’ casualties in context, the United Nations’ human rights office said Tuesday that it has recorded a total of 1,151 deaths among Ukrainian civilians, including 54 children, and over 1,800 injured civilians. It believes that the actual casualty figures are considerably higher. 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 multiple launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes, the OHCHR said. 2) Ukrainians now loathe Russia One of the likely consequences of this war is that many Ukrainians will harbor an abiding animosity toward Russia, particularly after the bombing of homes and civilian infrastructure including a children’s hospital and maternity ward in Mariupol, as well as a theater where families were seeking shelter. These are widely seen as war crimes by the international community. Russia claims it has not targeted civilians. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy summed up the mood in the country in early March when he stated we will not forgive, we will not forget, we will punish everyone who committed atrocities in this war on our land, before adding that there will be no quiet place on this Earth except the grave. Ukraine Military via Reuters A car burns after the destruction of a children’s hospital in Mariupol on March 9, 2022, in this still image from a handout video obtained by Reuters. Russian President Vladimir Putin has extolled the cultural, linguistic and historical ties between Russia and Ukraine, but he’s driven what’s likely to be a permanent wedge between the nations. One member of the Ukrainian parliament, Kira Rudik, tweeted Monday that seeing Ukrainian homes burning as a result of Russian attacks just makes us feel more rage while another joined calls for reparations of $400 billion from Russia in order to rebuild Ukraine. Putin has goaded Ukrainians in recent years, reiterating his belief that Ukraine is not even a state and that it’s a historical part and indeed a creation of Russia, a claim he’s made again in recent weeks. Oleksandr Ratushniak Reuters A woman holds a child next to a destroyed bridge during an evacuation from Irpin, outside of Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 28, 2022. Many Ukrainians, on the other hand, have spent much of the last two decades trying to assert its separateness from Russia, rejecting pro-Russian politics and instigating not one but two dramatic uprisings in 2004 and 2013. In the latter Euromaidan protests, thousands of Ukrainians braved police brutality and violent repression to call for political change, and for Ukraine to join the EU. This ambition has only deepened under President Zelenskyy, who has asked the EU to fast-track Ukraine’s accession to the bloc, while conceding that Ukraine might never join NATO one of Moscow’s intended consequences as it looks to compromise in order to find a peace deal with Russia. 3) Economic ruin The international community was accused of being slow and ineffective when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. This time, it upped the ante when Russia’s full-scale invasion began, with Western democracies imposing wide-ranging sanctions on key Russian sectors, businesses and individuals connected to the Kremlin or who support the invasion. As a result, the Russian economy is expected to fall into a deep recession this year. The Institute of International Finance predicts Russia’s economy will contract by as much as 15 in 2022 because of the war. It also predicted a decline of 3 in 2023 and warned in a note last week that the war will wipe out fifteen years of economic growth. Analysts at TS Lombard predict that Russian citizens will experience a serious hit to living standards from the combination of recession and high inflation. The annualized inflation rate stood at 9.2 in February and is expected to have risen markedly higher in March, and there is a plausible end-year range of 30-35, Christopher Granville and Madina Khrustaleva said in a note Monday. This, they added, may have important medium to longer-term consequences, especially on a political level, with Putin’s popularity likely to be tested as a result. They did, however, note one way Russia can mitigate the impact of sanctions on its economy: boosting its oil exports to China and India. Russia’s oil-producing allies in OPEC are also standing by it. 4) Europe is dropping Russian energy The war has also accelerated Europe’s transition away from Russian energy imports, putting a large dent in the revenues Russia receives from energy exports. It has also made the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline designed to bring more Russian gas to Europe redundant, perhaps for good. Hannibal Hanschke Reuters The landfall facilities of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Lubmin, Germany, on March 7, 2021. The Ukraine war has accelerated Europe’s transition away from Russian energy imports and has made the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline redundant, perhaps for good. The EU, which imported around 45 of its gas from Russia in 2021, has pledged to reduce its purchases of Russian gas by two-thirds before the end of the year, and the European Commission wants to stop buying Russian fossil fuels before 2030. In the meantime, the U.S. is looking to step into the breach by supplying its own liquefied natural gas to the region. The transition remains complex, however. We know that Europe allowed itself to become far too dependent on Russia for energy particularly Germany but it does take time to change sources of energy, it’s not just a light switch you turn off overnight, Fred Kempe, president and CEO of the Atlantic Council, told CNBC. An energy transition is a transition and in that time you need oil and gas, he added. 5) Russia has united the West During President Vladimir Putin’s 22 years or so in power, he has systematically and repeatedly tried to weaken and undermine the West, whether it has been interference in democratic processes in the U.S. and Europe or serious incidents such as the alleged use of nerve agents against his personal and political enemies. Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images Military personnel wearing protective suits remove a police car and other vehicles from a public car park as they continue investigations into the poisoning of Sergei Skripal on March 11, 2018 in Salisbury, England. Experts think Putin likely expected his invasion of Ukraine to have a disunifying effect on the West, with countries unable to agree on sanctions, or sending arms to Ukraine, but the opposite has proven true. The West’s reaction is unprecedented. It is beyond anyone could have anticipated united and much more than anyone in Russia was preparing or prepared for, Anton Barbashin, a political analyst and editorial director of the journal Riddle Russia, told CNBC. Essentially it is the ultimate economic warfare that will destroy Russia’s economy as we know it. Will those sanctions deter Putin’s war in Ukraine no, but it will certainly considerably limit the time we have with Putin’s Russia as it is today, Barbashin added. This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. (https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/business/money-report/russia-faces-5-unintended-consequences-for-its-invasion-of-ukraine/2926619/)

How to keep up with the news from Russia and Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine early Thursday, staging an assault on the country from three sides: the northern, eastern, and southern borders, NPR reports. Before dawn, Russian forces attacked locations near Ukrainian capital Kyiv with missiles, and are using long-range artillery against targets in Kharkiv, a Ukrainian city near the Russian border, according to CNN. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared martial law, but urged the public to remain calm. “The most important message is that Ukraine is united, we are strong,” he said Thursday morning in a public address. “We are optimistic. We are looking into the future with wide open eyes, and we shall overcome.” A map of Ukraine showing its border with Russia. Credit: Getty / DigitalVision Vectors As Russian military forces and Russian-backed separatists strike targets across Ukraine, it can be difficult to ensure you’re receiving the full breadth of information at hand. There is an ongoing joke that every time something big happens geopolitically, people on the internet take on overconfident stances as experts and that can lead to the spread of misinformation. Russia is also a country known for spreading misinformation to sow panic and confusion for its benefit. The internet is full of grifters who rely on our basic trust to amplify their message, whether it’s dipped in truth or not. On TikTok, for instance, some users are saying that they are livestreaming the “Ukrainian invasion” and asking for donations but the videos they’re posting are actually just shots of houses in the U.K. dubbed with sirens and gunshots, according to a report from NBC. So it’s important to navigate this time with care. Tweet may have been deleted If you’re following along with what the New York Times has called the “most significant European war in almost 80 years,” there are plenty of trustworthy experts to listen to so that you can understand what is happening in Ukraine. Here are some of our favorites, on a variety of platforms. Fact checking the Russian attack on Ukraine Even if you think you’re following reports from reputable sources, it’s still important to do your due diligence and fact check it yourself. Here are some pointers on how to do that: Investigative news site Bellingcat has created a frequently updated database of footage from Russia and Ukraine that is false, which they debunk. It’s very helpful if you find a piece of footage that you think might not be quite right. This piece from Poynter explains how to identify fake photos and videos. The Verge has a guide for how to navigate the internet when lies, tricks, and chaos abound. Live Blogs Some news organizations put together live blogs of the news coming out of Russia and Ukraine. There are plenty of trusted news organizations that are live blogging the war in other languages like elDiario in Spanish or Le Monde in French. But here are some of the English-language sites we’re following: BBC News The Guardian The Kyiv Independent TV stations If you want to see how different new sources are covering the invasion at the same time, Matt Taylor of the Financial Times put together a screening room with streams of coverage from BBC News, Sky News, NBC, CNN, ABC, Al Jazeera, and more. Tweet may have been deleted Twitter accounts You can, of course, follow trustworthy news sources on Twitter to get more information about the war, and there are a few well-curated lists of journalists covering the invasion. If you’re looking for individual journalists to follow on Twitter, here are a few we’ve been watching. Journalists to follow: Olga Rudenko, the chief editor of the Kyiv Independent Anastasiia Lapatina, a reporter for Kyiv Independent Igor Kossov, a journalist in Kyiv Nick Beake, the BBC News Europe correspondent Myroslava Petsa, a journalist for BBC Ukraine Sarah Rainsford, eastern Europe correspondent for BBC, currently reporting from east Ukraine Christopher Miller, BuzzFeed correspondent, former Mashable senior correspondent, reporting from Ukraine Steve Rosenberg, the Moscow correspondent for BBC News, reporting from Russia Christo Grozev, the executive director of Bellingcat Nic Robertson, reporting from Moscow for CNN Andrew Roth, the Moscow correspondent for Guardian Max Seddon, the Moscow bureau chief for the Financial Times Nataliya Vasilyeva, the Moscow correspondent for The Telegraph Nika Melkozerova, the executive editor of New Voice Ukraine Kristina Berdynskykh, a reporter at New Voice of Ukraine currently reporting from Kyiv Marichka Varenikova, a journalist in Kyiv Alec Luhn, a roving reporter across Ukraine and Russia Olga Tokariuk, a correspondent for EFE Noticias in Kyiv Nika Melkozerova, executive editor at New Voice of Ukraine Shaun Walker, the central and eastern Europe correspondent at Guardian Katerina Sergatskova, the editor-in-chief of Zaborona Media in Kyiv Myroslava Gongadze, the Eastern Europe chief at the Voice of America Alexander Khrebet, the international desk editor for ZN_UA Katerina Sergatskova, editor-in-chief at Zaborona Media Isobel Koshiw, a journalist in Kyiv Nataliya Gumenyuk, a journalist in Kyiv Tanya Kozyreva, a journalist in Ukraine Ollie Carroll, a journalist in Ukraine Luke Harding, journalist for Guardian currently reporting from Kyiv Valerie Hopkins, a reporter for the New York Times, currently reporting from Ukraine Mark MacKinnon, senior correspondent, the Globe and Mail, currently reporting from Ukraine Nataliya Gumenyuk, a journalist and founder Public Interest Journalism Lab Tim Mak, an NPR investigative correspondent currently reporting from Kyiv Frank Langfitt, an NPR London correspondent currently reporting from Ukraine Eleanor Beardsley, an NPR Paris correspondent currently reporting from Ukraine Nexta, large network covering Ukraine and Russia Public figures: Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine foreign minister Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine defence minister Lesia Vasylenko, Ukrainian MP tweeting in English Alona Shkrum, Ukrainian MP tweeting in English Sam Greene, King’s College professor of politics Michael McFaul, leading expert on Russia, former U.S. ambassador to Moscow Edward Lucas, security specialist and author Peter Pomerantsev, journalist and scholar Michael Kofman, Russian armed forces expert Michael McFaul, a Standford professor and former U.S. ambassador to Russia Open-source intelligence : Rob Lee, reliable source tracking military engagements in Ukraine OSINTtechnical, reliable source tracking military engagements Jane Lytvynenko, resources for journalists Elliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat Maria Avdeeva, disinformation analyst in Ukraine Aric Toler East European researcher, Bellingcat Oliver Alexander, geolocation analyst Karina Nguyen, visual investigations with the Human Rights Center, New York Times Conflict Intelligence Team, visual investigations in Ukraine Thomas Eydoux, OSINT journalist Michael A. Horowitz, geopolitical and security analyst Christiaan Triebert, visual investigations at the New York Times Christo Grozev, executive editor of Bellingcat Regardless of how you get your news, staying abreast with the goings on in Europe now and ensuring that you don’t contribute to the spread of misinformation is ever-important. (https://mashable.com/article/ukraine-russia-war-who-to-follow-misinformation)

Zelensky’s show matters more than ever. Let’s see it all.

If Americans have learned anything about Ukrainian president Vlodomyr Zelensky in the weeks since Russia invaded his country, it’s that he’s a masterful media strategist. In trolling Russian president Vladimir Putin, as in mobilizing world opinion behind Ukraine, his prior experience as an actor and comedian has served him well. Which is why this is a perfect time for western audiences to familiarize themselves with Zelensky’s Servant of the People one of the most intriguing and historically important shows you could possibly watch right now. And you should watch, as much and as fast as you can despite a bizarre number of obstacles in accessing the whole thing. This is the TV show that ran in Ukraine for three seasons from 2015 to 2018. Zelensky’s character is a history teacher who is unexpectedly elected president in a landslide after his students post a viral video of him complaining about corruption and crowdfund his campaign online. Life imitated art when Zelensky started a Servant of the People Party, ran for president in a campaign run almost entirely on social media, and won in a landslide. It may not explain why Russia started this war as well as, say, The Death of Stalin. Still, for outsiders, Servant of the People is something of a lesson in Ukrainian politics and culture, and yet the 24-minute episodes are easy to binge. The humor, a handful of references aside, is universal. This is satire of the fast-moving, widely-accessible kind. The show consistently tells the terrible truth about real-life villains the billionaire oligarchs who stop any government working for the people in a way only the court jester of a hopeful democracy can. SEE ALSO: Ukraine’s everyday heroes are owning social media Zelensky emerges from the show less a buffoon, more a heartfelt true believer in democracy. The nearest American analogue might be Jimmy Stewart in the classic Frank Capra movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, another great advertisement for democratic principles in dark times. In both stories a somewhat naive history-lover is elevated to high office, refuses to bow to corruption, suffers outrageous smears from the corrupt, and holds the line of morality with from-the-hip speeches. Via Giphy Servant of the People gives Mr. Smith a humor upgrade by way of Veep, with a little Walter Mitty-style daydreaming. I also saw scenes and setups that reminded me of The Office, Parks and Rec, The Great, The Thick of It, Yes Prime Minister, Arrested Development, and if you’re chomping at the bit to watch it all after that name-checking, you’re my kind of people. How to watch: with difficulty But therein lies the trouble: Watching it all. After tracking down the world’s most wondered-about show, the best I can suggest is that you time-travel back a couple of years and convince yourself to watch it on Netflix in its entirety before it vanishes from the streaming service for still-unexplained reasons. Search for it on Netflix now and you’ll get redirected to Winter on Fire, the documentary on the 2014 protests that forced Ukraine’s pro-Putin, police-state-loving president Viktor Yanukovych to flee the country If you’re in the UK, Servant of the People is now screening on Channel 4 but at a painfully slow rate. Currently, just three episodes out of the 24 in season 1 are available on the UK-only All 4 streaming app. The company that owns TV rights has been doing brisk sales, according to multiple reports, but will not reveal if there’s a U.S. taker yet. Given the amount of disinformation about Zelensky rife in certain dark corners of American politics Rep. Madison Cawthorn was just caught on video calling Ukraine’s leader a ” thug ” the show that proves the Putin apologists wrong can’t come to U.S. screens soon enough. For now, would-be Servant of the People viewers are left with YouTube, where there is good and bad news. Good news: Zelensky’s own production company has uploaded every episode, so we’re talking high-quality transfers, not bad user rips. Bad news for English speakers: Most of the episodes offer only Russian subtitles. Some of the episodes with English subtitles are more comprehensible than others. If YouTube wanted to do some good in the world, and thank Zelensky for the millions of ad impressions he’s brought to the online video giant, it could sink some money into a full-on worldwide Servant of the People translation project. In the meantime, here’s a quick guide to the best Servant of the People viewing experience currently possible. Episodes 1 and 2 The double-length premiere is a great place to start. Servant of the People wisely skips over the whole election part, dropping us into the story the morning that history teacher Vasily Petrovich Goloborodko learns his campaign for the president was successful. He’s then ushered through a dizzying round of interviews and makeovers by the prime minister, Yuri Ivanovich Chuiko, whose silky smoothness you would be right to distrust. The story of the viral video and the crowdfunding that kickstarted his campaign is told in flashback. And the shadowy oligarchs we’ll come to know later in the show are anonymous, their faces always covered by items of furniture as they plot nefarious schemes. And here, in all its glory, is the joke that was cut when the show aired in Russia. Vasily is offered a range of expensive watches, and is told which one Putin favors. “Putin Hublot?” he says innocently a phrase that sounds a lot like “Putin khuilo,” a Ukrainian football chant that translates roughly to “Putin is a dickhead.” Episode 3 Episode 3 focuses on Vasily’s family; in an early sign of the corruption that will surround him everywhere he goes, his mother, father, niece and sister are seen promising government positions to their friends and receiving “100 percent discounts” at their favorite stores. The fourth wall shatters when a couple of policemen ask the family if they can “do something about” comedians who criticize the government. Episode 4 Episode 4 opens with what is hands-down my favorite scene of the show: Vasily being shown around his swanky new presidential residence. He finds a chandelier so expensive that it caused the country to default on its debt during the 2008 financial crisis, and a parrot that squawks “no, you’re the idiot.” when it hears the name of ousted pro-Putin president Viktor Yanukovych; the show was actually filmed on the massive estate Yanukovych had vacated in a hurry less than two years earlier. Unfortunately the episode is the first to lose its English subtitles before the end, so if you want to see Zelensky’s character chatting about his inauguration address with Abraham Lincoln, you’ll need to watch this version. Episode 5 Episode 5 may be my favorite episode overall and certainly the show’s best example of physical comedy. In the first half, Vasily spends much of his time running away from his ridiculously large security detail. In the second, we’re introduced to his presidential predecessor, who has barricaded himself into his office with a shotgun and a bar full of booze. Much of the show hits differently now Russia has invaded Ukraine, but this is the first scene that hits differently in the wake of Donald Trump’s disastrous bid to cling on to power. The quality of the English translation starts to go downhill with episode 6, in which Vasily falls out with his family, yells “Putin has been overthrown” to get the attention of squabbling deputies, and has a chat with Che Guevara. Subtitles then disappear early in episode 7. In episode 8, the show takes a turn towards screwball office comedy, as Vasily brings in a cabinet of outsiders like himself only they all happen to be his old school pals. The show presents them as a cadre of trusted allies who are less likely to take bribes, but it’s hard for a viewer not to notice that such nepotism is a form of corruption in itself. In episodes 9 and 10, the oligarchs take a number of steps to bribe or bring down the new cabinet, including dosing one member with psychedelics. As promising a plotline as that may be, we’re lost without English subtitles for the next 13 episodes. Which brings us to the last and most epic English language experience in the current canon: Servant of the People 2: The Movie After Season 1 was a huge hit, Zelensky and company repackaged a planned plotline from Season 2 as a 90-minute movie, Servant of the People 2. Here you’ll encounter mild spoilers; Yuri Ivanovich, the prime minister, is in jail, having been unmasked as a stooge of the oligarchs, and Vasily is dating an assistant who is also revealed to be one of their people. To break up an alliance of the three most powerful oligarchs, Vasily and Yuri take a train to the east of the country. Classic road movie farce ensues. Meanwhile Ukraine has applied for a loan from the International Monetary Fund, which keeps piling on the onerous conditions even as Vasily’s hapless foreign minister tries to keep the IMF leadership drunk. Vasily’s speech at the end of the movie responding to the IMF loan offer is a thing of beauty, and in retrospect can be applied to any situation where Ukraine has been pushed too far. “We’re not a border region between orcs and elves,” Vasily says. “We are a nation of open, clever and talented people. When we understand this, when we understand that stealing is bad, that we need to roll up our sleeves and work hard. Then the whole world will say ‘glory to Ukraine.'” Slava Ukraini indeed. (https://mashable.com/article/zelensky-servant-people-how-to-watch)

Putin Appears at Big Rally as Troops Press Attack in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared at a huge flag-waving rally at a packed Moscow stadium Friday and lavished praise on his troops fighting in Ukraine, three weeks into the invasion that has led to heavier-than-expected Russian losses on the battlefield and increasingly authoritarian rule at home. Meanwhile, the leader of Russia’s delegation in diplomatic talks with Ukraine said the sides have narrowed their differences. The Ukrainian side said its position remained unchanged. The invasion has touched off a burst of antiwar protests inside Russia, and the Moscow rally was surrounded by suspicions it was a Kremlin-manufactured display of patriotism. Several Telegram channels critical of the Kremlin reported that students and employees of state institutions in a number of regions were ordered by their superiors to attend rallies and concerts marking the eighth anniversary of Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, which was seized from Ukraine. Those reports could not be independently verified. Elsewhere, Russian troops continued to rain lethal fire on Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, and pounded an aircraft repair installation on the outskirts of Lviv, close to the Polish border. Ukrainian officials said late Friday that the besieged southern port city of Mariupol lost its access to the Azov Sea, and Russian forces were still trying to storm the city. It was unclear whether they had seized it. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces are blockading the largest cities to create a humanitarian catastrophe with the goal of persuading Ukrainians to cooperate. He said the Russians are preventing supplies from reaching surrounded cities in central and southeastern Ukraine. This is a totally deliberate tactic, Zelenskyy said in his nighttime video address to the nation, which was recorded outside in Kyiv, with the presidential office behind him. In a rare public appearance by Putin since the start of the war, he praised Russian troops: Shoulder to shoulder, they help and support each other, he said. We have not had unity like this for a long time, he added to cheers from the crowd. Moscow police said more than 200,000 people were in and around the Luzhniki stadium. The event included patriotic songs, including a performance of Made in the U.S.S.R., with the opening lines Ukraine and Crimea, Belarus and Moldova, it’s all my country. Seeking to portray the war as just, Putin paraphrased the Bible to say of Russia’s troops: There is no greater love than giving up one’s soul for one’s friends. Taking to the stage where a sign read For a world without Nazism, he railed against his foes in Ukraine with a baseless claim that they are neo-Nazis. Putin continued to insist his actions were necessary to prevent genocide an idea flatly rejected by leaders around the globe. Video feeds of the event cut out at times but showed a loudly cheering crowd that broke into chants of Russia. Putin’s appearance marked a change from his relative isolation of recent weeks, when he has been shown meeting with world leaders and his staff either at extraordinarily long tables or via videoconference. In the wake of the invasion, the Kremlin has clamped down harder on dissent and the flow of information, arresting thousands of antiwar protesters, banning sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and instituting tough prison sentences for what is deemed to be false reporting on the war, which Moscow refers to as a special military operation. The OVD-Info rights group that monitors political arrests reported that at least seven independent journalists had been detained ahead of or while covering the anniversary events in Moscow and St. Petersburg. High above the conflict, three Russian cosmonauts arrived Friday at the International Space Station wearing bright yellow flight suits with blue accents matching the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Video of one of the cosmonauts taken as the capsule prepared to dock with the space station showed him wearing a blue flight suit. It was unclear what, if any, message the yellow uniforms were intended to send. When cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev was asked about the yellow suits, he said every crew chooses its own suits, and they had a lot of yellow material they needed to use so that’s why we had to wear yellow. Since the war started, many people have used the Ukrainian flag and its colors to show solidarity with the country. Back in Moscow, Putin stood on stage in a white turtleneck and a blue down jacket and spoke for about five minutes. Some people, including presenters at the event, wore T-shirts or jackets with a Z a symbol seen on Russian tanks and other military vehicles in Ukraine and embraced by supporters of the war. Putin’s quoting of the Bible and an 18th-century Russian admiral reflected his increasing focus in recent years on history and religion as binding forces in Russia’s post-Soviet society. His branding of his enemies as Nazis evoked what many Russians consider their country’s finest hour, the defense of the motherland from Germany during World War II. The Russian Invasion of Ukraine US-China Relations Mar 18 Don’t Help Russia’s Invasion, Biden Tells China’s Xi politics Mar 18 U.S. Officials Continue to Press Russia for Access to WNBA Star Brittney Griner The rally came as Vladimir Medinsky, who led Russian negotiators in several rounds of talks with Ukraine, said that the sides have moved closer to agreement on the issue of Ukraine dropping its bid to join NATO and adopting a neutral status. That is the issue where the parties have made their positions maximally close, Medinsky said in remarks carried by Russian media. He added that the sides are now halfway on issues regarding the demilitarization of Ukraine. Mikhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, characterized the Russian assessment as intended to provoke tension in the media. He tweeted: Our positions are unchanged. Ceasefire, withdrawal of troops & strong security guarantees with concrete formulas. Zelenskyy again appealed to Putin to hold talks with him directly. It’s time to meet, time to speak, he said. I want to be heard by everyone, especially in Moscow. In other developments, U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke for nearly two hours in a bid by the U.S. to deter Beijing from providing military or economic assistance for Russia’s invasion. Earlier Friday, one person was reported killed in the missile attack near Lviv. Satellite photos showed the strike destroyed a repair hangar and appeared to damage two other buildings. Ukraine said it had shot down two of six missiles in the volley, which came from the Black Sea. The early morning attack was the closest strike yet to the center of Lviv, which has become a crossroads for people fleeing from other parts of Ukraine and for others entering to deliver aid or join the fight. The war has swelled the city’s population by some 200,000. Zelenskyy boasted that Ukraine’s defenses have proved much stronger than expected, and Russia didn’t know what we had for defense or how we prepared to meet the blow. But British Chief of Defense Intelligence Lt. Gen. Jim Hockenhull warned that after failing to take major Ukrainian cities, Russian forces are shifting to a strategy of attrition that will entail reckless and indiscriminate use of firepower, resulting in higher civilian casualties and a worsening humanitarian crisis. In city after city around Ukraine, hospitals, schools and buildings where people sought safety have been attacked. Rescue workers continued to search for survivors in the ruins of a theater that was being used a shelter when it was blasted by a Russian airstrike Wednesday in Mariupol. Ludmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament’s human rights commissioner, said at least 130 people had survived the theater bombing. But according to our data, there are still more than 1,300 people in these basements, in this bomb shelter, Denisova told Ukrainian television. We pray that they will all be alive, but so far there is no information about them. Satellite images on Friday from Maxar Technologies showed a long line of cars leaving Mariupol as people tried to evacuate, as well as devastation to homes, apartment buildings and stores. Early morning barrages also hit a residential building in the Podil neighborhood of Kyiv, killing at least one person, according to emergency services, who said 98 people were evacuated from the building. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 19 were wounded in the shelling. Ukrainian officials said a fireman was killed when Russian forces shelled an area where firefighters were trying to put out a blaze in the village of Nataevka, in the Zaporizhzhia region. Two others were killed when strikes hit residential and administrative buildings in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, according to the regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko. Maj. Gen. Oleksandr Pavlyuk, who is leading the defense of the region around Ukraine’s capital, said his forces are well-positioned to defend the city and vowed: We will never give up. We will fight until the end. To the last breath and to the last bullet. (https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/putin-appears-at-big-rally-as-troops-press-attack-in-ukraine/2918801/)

UN Nuclear Watchdog Chief in Ukraine to Talk Safety Support

The U.N. nuclear watchdog’s director-general arrived in Ukraine on Tuesday for talks with senior government officials on delivering urgent technical assistance to ensure the safety of the country’s nuclear facilities, the agency said. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Rafael Mariano Grossi’s aim is to initiate prompt safety and security support for Ukraine’s nuclear sites. That will include sending IAEA experts to prioritized facilities, which it didn’t identify, and sending vital safety and security supplies including monitoring and emergency equipment. It said that Grossi will travel to one of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants this week, but didn’t say which one. Ukraine has 15 nuclear reactors at four active power plants, and also is home to the decommissioned Chernobyl plant, the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster. Russian forces have taken control of Chernobyl and of the largest active power plant, at Zaporizhzhia. The IAEA chief has been pressing for weeks for an agreement with Ukraine and Russia on the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants. He met the two countries’ foreign ministers in Turkey earlier this month. politics Mar 28 Ukraine Suspends Evacuations Amid Safety Fears; Russia, Ukraine Prepare for Face-To-Face Talks politics 9 hours ago ‘We Will Come and We Will Find You’: U.S. Issues Warning to Anyone Helping Russia Bypass Sanctions He said Tuesday that Ukraine has requested his agency’s assistance and we will now start delivering it. The military conflict is putting Ukraine’s nuclear power plants and other facilities with radioactive material in unprecedented danger, Grossi said in a statement. We must take urgent action to make sure that they can continue to operate safely and securely and reduce the risk of a nuclear accident that could have a severe health and environmental impact both in Ukraine and beyond. There have already been several close calls. We can’t afford to lose any more time, he added. This conflict is already causing unimaginable human suffering and destruction. The IAEA’s expertise and capabilities are needed to prevent it from also leading to a nuclear accident. The IAEA has, among other things, expressed concern about a lack of regular staff rotations at the Chernobyl site, questions over the ability of staff to work without undue pressure and interruptions to power supplies. It says it isn’t receiving data transmission from its monitoring systems installed at Chernobyl, but is getting data from Ukraine’s other plants. As of Monday, the IAEA said, Ukraine’s nuclear regulator told it that eight of Ukraine’s 15 reactors were continuing to operate, including two at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia. The others were shut down for regular maintenance, it said. (https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/un-nuclear-watchdog-chief-in-ukraine-to-talk-safety-support/2927059/)

Will China Help Russia? Local Experts Weigh in

China could provide a major buffer for the Russian economy, which has been hit with sanctions in response to its invasion of Ukraine. But local experts are hopeful that they will remain neutral. Sanctions, asset freezes and withdrawals of international companies are hammering the Russian economy and U.S. officials have warned that China would face similar measures should they step in. Harvard scholar Oleh Kotsyuba and Northeastern University professor Mai’a Cross explained Wednesday why they think China will remain neutral on NBC10 Boston’s weekly series, Russia-Ukraine Q&A. Sign up for our Breaking newsletter to get the most urgent news stories in your inbox. Russia asks China for help Before the invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping announced a no limits strategic partnership they said was intended to counter U.S. influence. China’s position has been to ultimately blame the U.S. and NATO’s eastward expansion for the conflict. As we all know, 20 days before the invasion, Xi and Putin were in talks and at the end of those talks, they declared that their friendship had no limits, Cross said. So now those limits are very much being tested. While China’s government has expressed concern over the conflict in Ukraine, it has refused to call it an invasion or condemn Russia, largely pushing Moscow’s narrative of the war on its state news outlets. If China does help Russia, China is looking at similar types of sanctions. Not necessarily immediate, but a ratcheting up of these types of sanctions, and Russia, for its part, would then benefit from this China buffer, it would buy some time and some resources, Cross said. So it’s a critical point right now for Russia and China. But China has close ties with both Ukraine and Russia, Cross noted. In 1992, China was among the first to establish close ties with the newly independent Ukraine. It trades with Ukraine but also gets arms from Russia, Cross said. It doesn’t necessarily want to choose between the two, and it’s put in this difficult position, Cross said. Now it’s in a situation where it essentially might find itself in a proxy war with the U.S., so in effect, it’s having to choose between the U.S. and Russia. The powerful alliance of the G-7 economies, composed of the U.S. and its European and Asian partners, can slap harsh secondary sanctions on any entity that supports Moscow. The problem is that China’s economy is the second largest in the world and is a key part of global supply chains. It impacts global markets far more than Russia does. Any move to sanction China would mean much greater global effects, and likely economic pain for the West, too. All of the sort of strategic rationale would point towards not helping Russia because the Chinese economy is so globalized and it’s now seen the power of these Western and global sanctions, Cross said. China is far more reliant on its foreign reserves. It has the largest foreign reserves in the world. And they’ve already seen how Russia no longer has access to its foreign reserves. Kotsyuba said sanctions against China would look different than what Russia has seen, but would likely still be effective, pointing to past attempts by the Trump administration to pressure various Chinese businesses. China produces, you know, the bulk, or at least a large amount of goods for the rest of the world. And so if the rest of the world, including those democratic countries, stopped it might be gradually but still stopped importing those goods, the Chinese economy would be in shambles, Kotsyuba said. And so I think that the choice here, indeed, is not just the United States versus Russia, but the world versus Russia. Who do you choose? Both Kotsyuba and Cross are hopeful that China will remain neutral in order to avoid taking on the credit and sanctions risks of Russia’s rapidly deteriorating economy. They said the line would likely be drawn at any supply of weapons as well as anything that would undermine sanctions against Russia. More from this series russia-ukraine q&a Mar 17 Would a No-Fly Zone Trigger World War III? Here’s What Local Experts Say russia-ukraine q&a Mar 9 Russia-Ukraine Q&A: ‘We Need to Do More,’ Experts Say (https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/will-china-help-russia-local-experts-weigh-in/2672609/)

Arnold Schwarzenegger, in Video to Russians, Tells Putin to’stop This War’

Film icon Arnold Schwarzenegger told Russians in a video posted on social media Thursday they’re being lied to about the war in Ukraine and accused President Vladimir Putin of sacrificing Russian soldiers’ lives for his own ambitions. Schwarzenegger is hugely popular in Russia, and apparently also with Putin. The President of Russia Twitter account follows only 22 accounts one of them the actor’s. In the nine-minute video, Schwarzenegger said Russian soldiers were told they’d be fighting Nazis in Ukraine, or to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine or that were going on military exercises, and that they’d be greeted like heroes. He said many of the troops now know those claims were false. This is an illegal war, Schwarzenegger said, looking straight into the camera while seated at a desk in a study. Your lives, your limbs, your futures are being sacrificed for a senseless war condemned by the entire world. Schwarzenegger posted his emotional video on Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. While some of those services are blocked in Russia, he also posted it on the Telegram messaging app which is not where it got more than a half-million views. It was subtitled in Russian. The former California governor brought up painful memories about how his own father was lied to as he fought with Adolf Hitler’s forces during World War II, and how he returned to Austria a broken man, physically and emotionally after being wounded at Leningrad. He asked Russians to let their fellow citizens know about the human catastrophe that is happening in Ukraine. The video showed bombed out buildings in Ukraine and people coming under Russian shelling. He then addressed Putin directly, saying: You started this war. You are leading this war. You can stop this war. Schwarzenegger described his long ties to Russia, having traveled there as a body builder and film action hero. In 2010, as California governor, he led a delegation of Silicon Valley business leaders and venture capitalists on a trip to Moscow. More Russia-Ukraine War Coverage 2022 grammy awards Mar 17 Trevor Noah Says Grammys Can Entertain and Tackle World Issues Russia-Ukraine Crisis Mar 4 Mila Kunis Says She’s ‘Never Been More Proud’ to Be Ukrainian Amid Invasion He called all the Russians who have been in the streets protesting the invasion of Ukraine, and who have been arrested and manhandled, my new heroes. An adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry who works to disseminate information about the course of the war urged Ukrainians to share the video with friends and relatives in Russia. Putin and his propagandists call us Ukrainians fascists and Nazis, the adviser, Anton Gerashchenko, said on Telegram. But their propaganda is blown to smithereens when super famous people all over the world speak with one voice: ‘No to war.’ Gerashchenko has more than 385,000 subscribers to his channel on Telegram. He included a link to a version of Schwarzenegger’s video with a Russian voice-over that he posted on his YouTube channel. Click here for complete coverage of the crisis in Ukraine. Associated Press writer Lynn Berry in Washington contributed to this report. This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. (https://www.nbcboston.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/arnold-schwarzenegger-video-to-russians-tells-putin-stop-this-war/2672458/)

Grassroots Groups Help Rescue Holocaust Survivors in Ukraine

Since the shelling began to intensify in Kyiv and Kharkivabout a week ago, Julia Entin has been working feverishly thousands of miles away in Los Angeles to evacuate Holocaust survivors in Ukraine who find themselves trapped in yet another conflict. For the last six years, the 39-year-old paralegal at Beth Tzedek Legal Services has helped connect Holocaust survivors with local services. Now, Entin is coordinating rescue efforts in Ukraine because she says she feels a personal connection to their painful predicament. These are already survivors of severe trauma, said Entin, a refugee from the former Soviet Union and granddaughter of a Ukrainian Holocaust survivor. And now with this war, they are experiencing that trauma all over again. Entin is a strand in an intricate web of grassroots organizations Jewish and non-Jewish that has been spinning round the clock in Ukraine, working with taxi and bus operators to ferry members of vulnerable communities out of the war zone. In a time of crisis when Jewish people from Ukraine are attempting to fleeto Europe and Israel, groups such as the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and partner organizations such as Entin’s, have been helping families stateside who want loved ones extricated. Many, Entin said, have reached out to her directly because her work with Holocaust survivors. Entin has been calling survivors in Ukraine, usually with a family member or friend on the line. It can be challenging to establish quick rapport with older people many with serious health issues huddled in their homes during wartime. Entin starts out by apologizing for speaking in Russian, instead of Ukrainian. Russia-Ukraine Crisis Mar 13 Ukraine’s Only Woman Rabbi Among the Many Jews Fleeing War Leon Schwarzbaum Mar 14 Auschwitz Survivor Leon Schwarzbaum Dies at 101 in Germany I identify myself and tell them who I am the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, she said. I tell them how my grandfather was not evacuated and lived through under Nazi occupation. It is a deep connection we have. And that helps build trust. Entin has still had trouble getting survivors to leave with trusted taxi or bus operators, who she says are vetted and recruited through referrals. This week, one man in his late 80s refused to leave because he was afraid he might die on the way. Convincing him has been a real challenge because you cannot guarantee no one can guarantee that it won’t happen, she said. This hesitation appears to be common among the elderly. Svetlana Jitomirskaya, a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Irvine, has been speaking with her father’s 87-year-old friend in Kharkiv, a Holocaust survivor. He refuses to leave, he doesn’t want to move, she said, adding that his 88-year-old wife has medical issues as well. This is the heartbreaking part. But there have been a few success stories that have kept Entin hopeful. On Sunday, 81-year-old Holocaust survivor Valery Semenovich Zharkovsky, his daughter Inna Valerievna Zharkovskaya and her 8-year-old daughter, were rescued from their home in Kharkiv. Entin said Wednesday that the family arrived in Germany, where Zharkovsky’s brother lives. She said Jewish refugees typically choose to go to Israel its Law of Return lets Jewish people make aliyah and acquire citizenship or other parts of Europe where they could receive benefits, such as health care, right away. Regardless of where they choose to go, it has to be a ‘warm handoff,’ which means someone will always be on the other side of the border to greet them and put them on the path to their destination, Entin said. Zharkovsky’s cousin, Marina Sonina, who lives in the Chicago area, said she was relieved to hear her relatives made it out safely. She spoke with him last Saturday, a day before he left Ukraine. He was scared because the situation was really bad, she said, choking up. He’s not in good health. I’m so relieved to hear they are all out of the danger zone and in a safe place. With attacks intensifying, volunteers have been arriving at the Polish border to assist evacuation efforts. Liana Georgi an artist, psychologist and LGBTQ activist who splits her time between Berlin and Istanbul is among a core group of volunteers with Safebow, a group formed by gender nonconforming actor and activist Rain Dove to conduct rescue operations. The group has been communicating via WhatsApp and started as a mental support group to give people the courage to flee, said Georgi, speaking from Warsaw. It’s about being there for each other, even if it’s virtually. Safebow has partnered with Entin’s organization to evacuate Holocaust survivors, as well. Georgi said the group is focusing on rescuing vulnerable minority groups, including those in the LGBTQ community, the disabled and people of color. The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and the Jewish Federation of North America have been involved in getting Jewish refugees from Ukraine to Israel, said Rabbi Noah Farkas, president and CEO of the former. He said his organization raised $1 million in four days, with the suffering in Ukraine resonating with members of other diaspora communities in Los Angeles. Many here in Los Angeles, even if they are not Russian or Ukrainian, see themselves in this story, Farkas said. We’ve received donations from children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. We have a diverse community in Los Angeles from Iran, Morocco and other Mizrahi communities. California is also home to nearly 60,000 Ukrainian immigrants, the second highest in the country after New York, according to the American Community Survey’s data from 2016 through 2020. The Los Angeles metropolitan area alone is home to about 17,000 Ukrainians. Jewish Federation of Los Angeles Vice President Aaron Goldberg, who is based near Jerusalem, has helped connect newly arrived refugees with much-needed services. Our goal is to support their immigration and integration into Israeli society, Goldberg said. Russian President Vladimir Putin has in what experts call a cynical ploy claimed he want to denazify Ukraine, which is led by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a Jewish president whose relatives were killed in the Holocaust. There are fears of renewed Jewish repression and some of Russia’s remaining 250,000 Jews are also trying to flee to Israel but the process has been more complicated because there are not nearly as many resources, Goldberg said. But, right now, we don’t know how the sanctions could affect the Jewish community there, he said. We’re keeping our ears to the ground to see what needs arise in the Russian Jewish community. The work of evacuating Holocaust survivors in Ukraine is continuing as bombings have escalated this week. On Tuesday, Entin said she was working to help three couples all Holocaust survivors who were struggling after a night of more shelling and devastation in Kharkiv. One of the couples has no water and heat, she said. I’ve been up now for 38 hours straight trying to figure things out. Entin said she was trying to get a taxi driver to check up on the couple without heat whose apartment was also starting to flood. It’s been a hard night, she said. The wife said she doesn’t think her husband is going to live for long. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. (https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/grassroots-groups-help-rescue-holocaust-survivors-in-ukraine/2919220/)

U.N. Urges Investigation Into Videos of Alleged POW Abuse by Russia and Ukraine

A top United Nations official has called on both Russia and Ukraine to investigate videos that appear to show their soldiers mistreating prisoners of war during the conflict in Ukraine. The government in Kyiv has said it is looking into one video that purports to show Ukrainians shooting Russian prisoners in the legs. The commander of Ukraine’s army has suggested that the graphic video is a staged act of propaganda.NBC News was unable to authenticate the video. Click here for complete coverage of the crisis in Ukraine. Russia 11 hours ago The Invasion of Ukraine Has Serious, Unintended Consequences for Russia. Here Are Just 5 of Them Russia-Ukraine Crisis 11 hours ago Russia Says It Will Scale Back Near Kyiv as Talks Progress The Kremlin whose own disinformation efforts have ranged from accusing the United States of running a network of nonexistent biolabs across Ukraine to denying it has launched a war at all said it is also investigating the video. Matilda Bogner, head of the U.N.’s human rights office in Ukraine, said at a news briefing Monday that her team was in the process of verifying a number of videos, but that on the face of it, it does raise serious concerns. Read the full story here on NBCNews.com (https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/u-n-urges-investigation-into-videos-of-alleged-pow-abuse-by-russia-and-ukraine/2926910/)

The fight to combat Russian misinformation via Google restaurant reviews

Restaurant reviews on Google have become a new digital territory in the fight against misinformation in Russia. On Feb. 28, the Twitter account @Konrad03249040 tweeted : “Get involved: find a random shop/cafe/restaurant in Russia in big city on google maps and write in the review what’s really happening in Ukraine. Please spread the idea.” The post tagged an account belonging to the hacktivist group Anonymous who then retweeted it to its 273,000 followers. The idea was later shared several times on the r/Ukraine subreddit, which received hundreds of upvotes in less than 48 hours. SEE ALSO: How to help refugees fleeing Ukraine The post was soon retweeted by hacktivist group Anonymous Credit: Screenshot: Twitter / @LiteMods The tactic is an attempt to circumvent state-run Russian media and communicate directly with Russian civilians who might be unaware or unable to access independent or credible news reports. Widely considered to be controlled and censored by its government, Russian media is being used to spread misinformation to justify the invasion and discredit those who stand in solidarity with Ukraine. Since the initial tweet, users across social media have continued to post comments and screenshots of “reviews” left on Google pages for restaurants, hotels, shopping malls, businesses, and government buildings. One translated review that was shared to Twitter read: “The food was great. Unfortunately, Putin spoiled our appetites by invading Ukraine. Stand up to your dictator, stop killing innocent people. Your government is lying to you. Get up. google “Kyiv” and putler sic and share it with all people in Russia.” “Thnx for the idea. I did just 60 random places in Moscow,” one user responded on Twitter. Later that afternoon, Redditor u/Sveets_Drops commented “Just added over 50 reviews” in a thread on the r/Ukraine subreddit asking for their message to be translated into Russian. Tweet may have been deleted On Tuesday morning, the top reviews for a Moscow restaurant named Romantic were the following: A reviewer named Louise wrote in English: “5800 Russian Soldiers died today 4500 yesterday Stop your agression sic dont let your kids suffer if you go to war you will not come back Another review posted by Karolina: “Food is great, but your leader is killing innocent people in Ukraine. Stop this war.” Reviews showing up on Tuesday morning. Credit: Screenshot / Google Both reviewers gave the restaurant five stars, since users have encouraged each other not to hurt businesses. Redditor u/Clipptube wrote in a post on Reddit, “Remember it’s 5 to the local businesses or owned privately, and 1 to the Government buildings and facilities. Most Russian’s do not want this war, but cannot actively speak out against Putin.” Another wrote in the description of their post, “And do NOT attack Russian people. They are not our enemy. Putin is all of our enemy.” In an attempt to effectively appeal to Russian civilians, some users are suggesting different rhetoric. “I’ve seen people review bombing, but in a way that may confuse/antagonize Russians. Idea is to empathize and help them understand, provide easily digestible material,” wrote u/True_Destroyer. However, some of the reviews were graphic and offensive. But the movement is running into some problems as some reviews on Google are already disappearing. The reviews mentioned above for the restaurant Romantic are no longer visible, and when sorted by most recent, the latest post was from three months ago. However, the keywords pulled from the missing reviews still remain on the Google page: “kids,” “soldiers,” “vladimir putin,” “invasion,” and “rocket.” Other users on Reddit have been running into the same issue, saying their reviews were deleted or not accepted. Comments to a post about Google Maps deleting their posts offer ways around that such as changing the messaging, including images, and reviewing lesser-known places. Later in the day, the reviews were gone, but the keywords remained. Credit: Screenshot: Google Maps It’s unclear who is removing these reviews. It may be because the posts possibly violate Google’s terms of service. Mashable has reached out to Google for comment and will update the story with a response. But even before reviews stopped showing up, several users on Twitter and Reddit recommended switching to Yandex Maps instead, which is a Russian equivalent of Google Maps. Users explained that it’s more widely used in Russia than Google. Will a post for local cafe convince Russians to denounce Putin and the Ukraine invasion? That remains to be seen. But the internet has never been more motivated to write a review. (https://mashable.com/article/google-reviews-share-misinformation-russia-ukraine)

Ukraine Accuses Russia of Massacre, City Strewn With Bodies

Bodies with bound hands, close-range gunshot wounds and signs of torture lay scattered in a city on the outskirts of Kyiv after Russian soldiers withdrew from the area. Ukrainian authorities on Sunday accused the departing forces of committing war crimesand leaving behind a scene from a horror movie. As images of the bodies of people whom residents said were killed indiscriminately began to emerge from Bucha, a slew of European leaders condemned the atrocities and called for tougher sanctions against Moscow. The bodies of 410 civilians have been removed from Kyiv-area towns that were recently retaken from Russian forces, Ukraine’s prosecutor-general, Iryna Venediktova, said. Associated Press journalists saw the bodies of at least 21 people in various spots around Bucha, northwest of the capital. One group of nine, all in civilian clothes, were scattered around a site that residents said Russian troops used as a base. They appeared to have been killed at close range. At least two had their hands tied behind their backs and one of those was shot in the head; another’s legs were bound. Ukrainian officials laid the blame for the killings which they said happened in Bucha and other Kyiv suburbs squarely at the feet of Russian troops, with the president calling them evidence of genocide. But Russia’s Defense Ministry rejected the accusations as provocation. The discoveries followed the Russian retreat from the area around the capital, territory that has seen heavy fighting since troops invaded Ukraine from three directions on Feb. 24. Troops who swept in from Belarus to the north spent weeks trying to clear a path to Kyiv, but their advance stalled in the face of resolute defense from Ukraine’s forces. Moscow now says it is focusing its offensive on the country’s east, but it also pressed a siege on a city in the north and continued to strike cities elsewhere in a war that has already forced more than 4 million Ukrainians to flee their country and many more to leave their homes. Russian troops rolled into Bucha in the early days of the invasion and stayed up March 30. With those forces gone, residents gave harrowing accounts Sunday, saying soldiers shot and killed civilians without any apparent reason. One resident, who refused to give his name fearing for his safety, said that Russian troops went building to building and took people out of the basements where they were hiding, checking their phones for any evidence of anti-Russian activity and taking them away or shooting them. Hanna Herega, a resident of Bucha, said Russian troops shot a neighbor who had gone out to gather wood for heating. He went to get some wood when all of a sudden they started shooting. They hit him a bit above the heel, crushing the bone, and he fell down, Herega said. Then they shot off his left leg completely, with the boot. Then they shot him all over. And another shot went slightly below the temple. It was a controlled shot to the head. The AP also saw two bodies, that of a man and a woman, wrapped in plastic that residents said they had covered and placed in a shaft until a proper funeral could be arranged. The resident who refused to be identified said the man was killed as he left a home. He put his hands up, and they shot him, he said. Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said scores of residents were found slain on the streets of the suburbs of Irpin and Hostomel as well as Bucha, in what looked like a scene from a horror movie. He alleged that some of the women found dead had been raped before being killed and the Russians then burned the bodies. This is genocide, Zelenskyy told CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday. But Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that the photos and videos of dead bodies have been stage managed by the Kyiv regime for the Western media. It noted that Bucha’s mayor did not mention any abuses a day after Russian troops left. The ministry charged said not a single civilian has faced any violent action by the Russian military in Bucha. Over the weekend, AP journalists witnessed Ukrainian soldiers gingerly removing at least six bodies from a street in Bucha with cables in case the Russians had booby-trapped corpses with explosives before their withdrawal. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko called on other nations to immediately end Russian gas imports, saying they were funding the killings. Not a penny should go to Russia anymore, Klitschko told German newspaper Bild. That’s bloody money used to slaughter people. The gas and oil embargo must come immediately. Officials in France, Germany, Italy, Estonia and the U.K. separately condemned what was being described and vowed that Russia would be held accountable. This is not a battlefield, it’s a crime scene, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas tweeted. Authorities said they were documenting evidence to add to their case for prosecutingRussian officials for war crimes. As Russian forces retreated from the area around the capital, they pressed their sieges in other parts of the country. Russia has said it is directing troops to the Donbas in eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for eight years. In that region, Mariupol, a port on the Sea of Azov that has seen some of the war’s greatest suffering, remained cut off. About 100,000 civilians less than a quarter of the prewar population of 430,000 are believed to be trapped there with little or no food, water, fuel and medicine. The International Committee of the Red Cross said Sunday that a team sent Saturday to help evacuate residents had yet to reach the city. Ukrainian authorities said Russia agreed days ago to allow safe passage from the city, but similar agreements have broken down repeatedly under continued shelling. A supermarket parking lot in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, meanwhile, has become the staging ground for helping people who have made it out. Peycheva Olena, who fled the besieged city, told Britain’s Sky News she was forced to leave the body of her husband unburied when he was killed in shooting. There was shelling, and we tried to drag him away but it was too much, we couldn’t do it, explained her daughter, Kristina Katrikova. The mayor of Chernihiv, which also has been under attack for weeks, said Sunday that relentless Russian shelling has destroyed 70 of the northern city. Like in Mariupol, Chernihiv has been cut off from shipments of food and other supplies. On Sunday morning, Russian forces launched missiles on the Black Sea port of Odesa, in southern Ukraine, sending up clouds of dark smoke that veiled parts of the city. The Russian military said the targets were an oil processing plant and fuel depots around Odesa, which is Ukraine’s largest port and home to its navy. The Odesa city council said Ukraine’s air defense shot down some missiles before they hit the city. Ukrainian military spokesman Vladyslav Nazarov said there were no casualties from the attack. The regional governor in Kharkiv, said Sunday that Russian artillery and tanks performed over 20 strikes on Ukraine’s second-largest city and its outskirts in the country’s northeast over the past day. The head of Ukraine’s delegation in talks with Russia said Moscow’s negotiators informally agreed to most of a draft proposal discussed during face-to-face talks in Istanbul this week, but no written confirmation has been provided. The Ukrainian negotiator, Davyd Arakhamia said on Ukrainian TV that he hoped the proposal was developed enough so Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet to discuss it. But the top Russian negotiator in talks with Ukraine, Vladimir Medinksy, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying it was too early to talk about a meeting between the two leaders. ___ Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, and Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report. ___ Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine (https://www.nbcboston.com/news/national-international/ukraine-sees-openings-as-russia-fixed-on-besieged-mariupol/2684581/)

Ukrainian Forces Retake Areas Near Kyiv Amid Fear of Traps

Ukrainian troops moved cautiously to retake territory north of the country’s capital on Saturday, using cables to pull the bodies of civilians off streets of one town out of fear that Russian forces may have left them booby-trapped. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that departing Russian troops were creating a catastrophic situation for civilians by leaving mines around homes, abandoned equipment and even the bodies of those killed. His claims could not be independently verified. Associated Press journalists in Bucha, a suburb northwest of Kyiv, watched as Ukrainian soldiers backed by a column of tanks and other armored vehicles used cables to drag bodies off of a street from a distance. Locals said the dead the AP counted at least six were civilians killed without provocation by departing Russian soldiers. Those people were just walking and they shot them without any reason. Bang, said a Bucha resident who declined to give his name citing safety reasons. In the next neighborhood, Stekolka, it was even worse. They would shoot without asking any question. Ukraine and its Western allies reported mounting evidence of Russia withdrawing its forces from around Kyiv and building its troop strength in eastern Ukraine. The visible shift did not mean the country faced a reprieve from more than five weeks of war or that the more than 4 million refugees who have fled Ukraine will return soon. Zelenskyy said he expects departed towns to endure missile and rocket strikes from afar and for the battle in the east to be intense. In his nightly video address Saturday, the Ukrainian leader said the country’s troops were not allowing the Russians to retreat without a fight: They are shelling them. They are destroying everyone they can. Russia, Zelenskyy said, has ample forces to put more pressure on Ukraine’s east and south. What is the goal of the Russian troops? They want to seize the Donbas and the south of Ukraine, he said. What is our goal? To defend ourselves, our freedom, our land and our people. Moscow’s focus on eastern Ukraine also kept the besieged southeastern city of Mariupol in the crosshairs. The port city on the Sea of Azov is located in the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas region, where Moscow-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian troops for eight years. Military analysts think Russian President Vladimir Putin is determined to capture the region after his forces failed to secure Kyiv and other major cities. The International Committee of the Red Cross had hoped to evacuate Mariupol residents Saturday but had not yet reached the city. A day earlier, local authorities said the Red Cross was blocked by Russian forces. An adviser to Zelenskyy, Oleksiy Arestovych, said in an interview with Russian lawyer and activist Mark Feygin that Russia and Ukraine had reached an agreement to allow 45 buses to drive to Mariupol to evacuate residents in coming days. The Mariupol city council said earlier Saturday that 10 empty buses were headed to Berdyansk, a city 84 kilometers west of Mariupol, to pick up people who managed to get there on their own. About 2,000 made it out of Mariupol on Friday, some on buses and some in their own vehicles, city officials said. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said 765 Mariupol residents on Saturday used private vehicles to reach Zaporizhzhia, a city still under Ukrainian control that has served as the destination for other planned evacuations. Among those escaping was Tamila Mazurenko, who said she fled Mariupol on Monday, made it to Berdyansk that night and then took a bus to Zaporizhzhia. Mazurenko said she waited for a bus until Friday, spending one night sleeping in a field. I have only one question: Why? she said of her city’s ordeal. We only lived as normal people. And our normal life was destroyed. And we lost everything. I don’t have any job, I can’t find my son. Mariupol has been surrounded by Russian forces for more than a month and suffered some of the war’s worst attacks, including on a maternity hospital and a theater that was sheltering civilians. Around 100,000 people are believed to remain in the city, down from a prewar population of 430,000, and they face dire shortages of water, food, fuel and medicine. Zelenskyy said a significant number of Russian troops were tied up in Mariupol, giving Ukraine invaluable time that is allowing us to foil the enemy’s tactics and weaken its capabilities. The city’s capture would give Moscow an unbroken land bridge from Russia to Crimea, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014. But its resistance also has taken on symbolic significance during Russia’s invasion, said Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Ukrainian think tank Penta. Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance, and without its conquest, Putin cannot sit down at the negotiating table, Fesenko said. About 500 refugees from eastern Ukraine, including 99 children and 12 people with disabilities, arrived in the Russian city of Kazan by train overnight. Asked if he saw a chance to return home, Mariupol resident Artur Kirillov answered, That’s unlikely, there is no city anymore. In towns and cities surrounding Kyiv, signs of fierce fighting were everywhere in the wake of the Russian redeployment. Destroyed armored vehiclesfrom both armies lay in streets and fields along with scattered military gear. Ukrainian troops were stationed at the entrance to Antonov Airport in suburb of Hostomel, demonstrating control of the runway that Russia tried to storm in the first days of the war. Inside the compound, the Mriya, one of the biggest planes ever built, lay wrecked underneath a hangar pockmarked with holes from the February attack. The Russians couldn’t make one like it so they destroyed it, said Oleksandr Merkushev, mayor of the Kyiv suburb of Irpin. Irpin has seen some of the fiercest battles, and Merkushev said Russian troops left behind them many bodies, many destroyed buildings, and they mined many places. A prominent Ukrainian photojournalist who went missing last month in a combat zone near the capital was found dead Friday in the Huta Mezhyhirska village north of Kyiv, the country’s prosecutor general’s office announced. The prosecutor general’s office attributed Maks Levin’s death to two gunshots allegedly fired by the Russian military and said an investigation was underway. Elsewhere, at least three Russian ballistic missiles were fired late Friday at the Odesa region on the Black Sea, regional leader Maksim Marchenko said. The Ukrainian military said the Iskander missiles did not hit the critical infrastructure they targeted in Odesa, Ukraine’s largest port and the headquarters of its navy. Ukraine’s state nuclear agency reported a series of blasts Saturday that injured four people in Enerhodar, a southeastern city that has been under Russian control since early March along with the nearby Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman said via Telegram that the four were badly burned when Russian troops fired light and noise grenades and mortars at a pro-Ukraine demonstration. The head of Ukraine’s delegation in talks with Russia said Moscow’s negotiators informally agreed to most of a draft proposal discussed during face-to-face talks in Istanbul this week, but no written confirmation has been provided. However, Davyd Arakhamia said on Ukrainian TV that he hopes that draft is developed enough so that the two countries’ presidents can meet to discuss it. ___ Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Andrea Rosa in Irpin, Ukraine, and Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report. ___ Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine (https://www.nbcboston.com/news/national-international/zelenskyy-russians-create-complete-disaster-with-mines/2684159/)

Trump Suit Against Clinton Fits in His Longtime Legal Strategy

When a Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic panned his plans for a new Manhattan skyscraper, Donald Trump responded with a lawsuit. When the tenants of a building he was trying to clear sued to halt their evictions, Trump slapped back by filing suit against the law firm representing the tenants. And when an author said the former president was worth far less than he’d claimed, Trump again took legal action. So when Trump last week filed a sprawling suit accusing his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party of conspiring to sink his winning presidential campaign by alleging ties to Russia renewing one of his longest-standing perceived affronts it wasn’t a surprise. Trump has spent decades repurposing political and personal grievances into causes of legal action. Throughout his business and political career, he has used the courts as a venue to air his complaints and as a tool to intimidate adversaries, sully their reputations and try to garner media attention. It’s part of his pattern of using the law to punish his enemies, as a weapon, as something it was never intended to be, said James D. Zirin, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan and the author of the book Plaintiff in Chief, which details Trump’s legal history. For him, litigation was a way of life. Trump’s latest lawsuit revisits a familiar grievance: that Democrats in 2016 concocted fictitious claims that his campaign was colluding with Russia and that the FBI as a result pursued an unfounded investigation. The 108-page suit, as much a political screed as a legal document, names as defendants familiar targets of his ire from both the political realm Clinton and her aides and the law enforcement community. It also piggybacks off the work of special counsel John Durham, listing as defendants the three people a cybersecurity attorney, an ex-FBI lawyer and a Russia analyst who have been charged in that criminal probe. Trump, in the suit, paints himself as the victim of a vast, racketeering conspiracy in which FBI officials who led the investigation knew that it was based on a false and contrived premise. It’s well-established through a Justice Department inspector general investigation that the FBI made errors and missteps during the Russia probe that Trump could look to seize on if his lawsuit advances. But Russia did meddle in the 2016 election. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January 2017 that Russia mounted a far-ranging influence campaign aimed at helping Trump beat Clinton. And the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, after three years of investigation, affirmed those conclusions, saying intelligence officials had specific information that Russia preferred Trump and that Russian President Vladimir Putin had approved and directed aspects of the Kremlin’s influence campaign. It also found clear ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia, concluding that Trump’s campaign chairman had had regular contact with a Russian intelligence officer and that other Trump associates were eager to exploit the Kremlin’s aid. Representatives for Trump did not respond to requests for comment. But Trump attorney Alina Habba defended his approach on Newsmax, telling the network more suits were coming soon. We have another suit being filed shortly, she said. And anybody that’s going to try and make up malicious stories about him while he was sitting as president, prior to his presidency or now is going to be sued. Trump, meanwhile, was already using the filing to rile up his crowds at a rally in Georgia Saturday night. To fight back against this corrupt establishment’s relentless hoaxes and lies, this week I filed a historic lawsuit to hold them accountable for the Russia, Russia Russia hoax, Trump said to cheers. His mention of Clinton prompted especially loud applause and a revival of the Lock her up. chant that was a defining feature of his 2016 campaign. In addition to serving as a useful political cudgel, Trump’s effort, which comes as he is mulling another run for the White House, could lend the imprimatur of credibility to campaign trail grievances, said Stephen Gillers, a New York University professor of legal ethics. To the unaware public, the fact that grievances are repackaged as legal claims adds credibility to the force of those grievances, Gillers said. Anyone who pays attention to what goes on in the courts will be able to see through these claims as claims of political victimization in another form. But the public by and large does not pay attention to the validity of the claims. Last year, Trump took similar action, filing suits against three of the country’s biggest tech companies, claiming he and other conservatives had been wrongfully censored after his accounts were suspended. It’s a tactic Trump has used again and again. In the real estate, casino and other industries where the former president made fortunes and lost them, Trump’s use of lawsuits as a business weapon was legendary. He sued or threatened to sue contractors, business partners, tax authorities and the media. Trump loved to sue, especially parties that could not afford a legal defense, said Barbara Res, a former longtime Trump Organization executive turned critic. She said one legal tactic he turned to often was the preventive strike suit to weaken rivals and create the impression he was the aggrieved party before they acted. Indeed, when Trump defaulted on a giant Deutsche Bank loan for his Chicago hotel and condo tower during the 2008 financial crisis, he didn’t wait to be sued. Instead, he filed a complaint accusing the lender of predatory lending practices that hurt his reputation and helped trigger the global depression. Instead of paying the bank, he argued, the bank should be paying him. It was a novel argument and one that ultimately succeeded. Deutsche Bank ended up forgiving some of his loan, then extending him hundreds of millions of dollars in new loans in the coming years. A 2016 USA Today investigation found Trump had been involved in at least 3,500 court cases over the course of three decades more than five other top U.S. real estate owners combined. In more than half of the cases, Trump was the one who had sued. The litigation continued while Trump was in the White House. In a desperate and futile attempt to remain in power, Trump and his allies filed dozens of baseless lawsuits challenging the 2020 election results. Again and again, judges said the plaintiffs had failed to prove fraud or misconduct. He’s exceptionally litigious, much of which is instituted not to win but rather to frustrate the opposing party by causing financial hardship, said Trump’s former fixer-turned adversary Michael Cohen, who went to jail for making hush money payments to a porn star who alleged an affair with Trump, as well as lying to Congress about a proposed Trump skyscraper in Moscow. The suits have proven beneficial in other ways. Trump spent more than a year and a half fighting efforts by then-Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. to obtain copies of his tax returns, taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court. While Trump ultimately failed, his stall tactics dragged the case out so long that Vance, who had appeared on the cusp of seeking an indictment, was replaced by a successor who has allegedly all but closed the case. Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Michael Sisak contributed to this report. (https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/trump-suit-against-clinton-fits-in-his-longtime-legal-strategy/2926604/)

Russia Says It Will Scale Back Near Kyiv as Talks Progress

Russia announced Tuesday it will significantly scale back military operations near Ukraine’s capital and a northern city, as the outlines of a possible deal to end the grinding war came into view at the latest round of talks. Ukraine’s delegation at the conference, held in Istanbul, laid out a framework under which the country would declare itself neutral and its security would be guaranteed by an array of other nations. Moscow’s public reaction was positive, and the negotiations are expected to resume on Wednesday, five weeks into what has devolved into a bloody war of attrition, with thousands dead and almost 4 million Ukrainians fleeing the country. Amid the talks, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said Moscow has decided to fundamentally cut back military activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv to increase mutual trust and create conditions for further negotiations. He did not immediately spell out what that would mean in practical terms. The announcement was met with skepticism from the U.S. and others. While Moscow portrayed it as a goodwill gesture, its ground troops have become bogged down and taken heavy losses in their bid to seize Kyiv and other cities. Last week and again on Tuesday, the Kremlin seemed to lower its war aims, saying its main goal now is gaining control of the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. U.S. President Joe Biden, asked whether the Russian announcement was a sign of progress in the talks or an attempt by Moscow to buy time to continue its assault, said: We’ll see. I don’t read anything into it until I see what their actions are. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had not seen anything indicating talks were progressing in a constructive way, and he suggested Russian indications of a pullback could be an attempt by Moscow to deceive people and deflect attention. There is what Russia says and there is what Russia does, and we’re focused on the latter, Blinken said in Morocco. And what Russia is doing is the continued brutalization of Ukraine. Western officials say Moscow is reinforcing troops in the Donbas in an attempt to encircle Ukraine’s best-trained and best-equipped forces, which are concentrated in the east. And in the country’s south, civilians trapped in the ruins of Mariupol and other bombarded and shattered cities continue to suffer. Even as negotiators gathered, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces blasted a gaping hole in a nine-story government administration building in a strike on the southern port city of Mykolaiv, killing at least 12 people, emergency authorities said. The search for more bodies in the rubble continued. It’s terrible. They waited for people to go to work before striking the building, said regional governor Vitaliy Kim. I overslept. I’m lucky. Ukraine’s military said it has noted withdrawals of some Russian forces around Kyiv and Chernihiv. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told CNN the U.S. hasn’t seen anything to corroborate a significant pullback from the capital, but what we have seen over the last couple of days is they have stopped trying to advance on Kyiv. Rob Lee, a military expert at the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, tweeted of the Russian announcement: This sounds like more of an acknowledgment of the situation around Kyiv where Russia’s advance has been stalled for weeks and Ukrainian forces have had recent successes. Russia doesn’t have the forces to encircle the city. The meeting in Istanbul was the first time negotiators from Russia and Ukraine talked face-to-face in two weeks. Earlier talks were held in person in Belarus or by video. Among other things, the Kremlin has demanded all along that Ukraine drop any hope of joining NATO. Ukraine’s delegation offered a detailed framework for a peace deal under which the nation would remain neutral but its security would be guaranteed by a group of third countries, including the U.S., Britain, France, Turkey, China and Poland, in an arrangement similar to NATO’s an attack on one is an attack on all principle. Ukraine said it would also be willing to hold talks over a 15-year period on the future of the Crimean Peninsula, seized by Russia in 2014. Vladimir Medinskiy, the head of the Russian delegation, said on Russian TV that the Ukrainian proposals are a step to meet us halfway, a clearly positive fact. He cautioned that the parties are still far from reaching an agreement, but said: We know now how to move further toward compromise. We aren’t just marking time in talks. Fomin likewise suggested there had been progress, saying negotiations on preparing an agreement on Ukraine’s neutrality and non-nuclear status, as well as on giving Ukraine security guarantees, are turning to practical matters. In other developments: In what appeared to be a coordinated action to tackle Russian espionage, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Ireland and North Macedonia expelled scores of Russian diplomats. The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency arrived in Ukraineto try to ensure the safety of the country’s nuclear facilities. Russian forces have taken control of the decommissioned Chernobyl plant, site in 1986 of the world’s worst nuclear accident, and of the active Zaporizhzhia plant, where a building was damaged in fighting. Russia has destroyed more than 60 religious buildings across the country in just over a month of war, with most of the damage concentrated near Kyiv and in the east, Ukraine’s military said. In the room at the Istanbul talks was Roman Abramovich, a longtime Putin ally who has been sanctioned by Britain and the European Union. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Chelsea soccer team owner has been serving as an unofficial mediator approved by both countries. But mystery about his role has been deepened by news reports that he may have been poisoned during an earlier round of talks. Over the past several days, Ukrainian forces have mounted counterattacks and reclaimed ground on the outskirts of Kyiv and other areas. Ukrainian soldiers gathered in a trench for photos with Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, who said that Ukraine had retaken control of a vast majority of Irpin, a key suburb northwest of the capital that has seen heavy fighting. We defend our motherland because we have very high morale, said Syrskyi, the top military commander in charge of the defense of Kyiv. And because we want to win. Ukrainian forces also took back Trostyanets, south of Sumy in the northeast, after weeks of occupation that left a landscape of Russian bodies, burned and twisted tanks and charred buildings. Putin’s ground forces have been thwarted not just by stronger-than-expected Ukrainian resistance, but by what Western officials say are Russian tactical missteps, poor morale, shortages of food, fuel and cold weather gear, and other problems. Repeating what the military said last week, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that liberating Donbas is now Moscow’s chief objective. While that presents a possible face-saving exit strategy for Putin, it has also raised Ukrainian fears the Kremlin aims to split the country and force it to surrender a swath of its territory. ___ Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report. ___ Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine (https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/new-round-russia-ukraine-talks-aims-stop-fighting/2926630/)

Ukraine’s Detention of Oligarch Close to Putin Angers Moscow

Ukraine’s detention of fugitive Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, the former leader of a pro-Russian opposition party and a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been met with enthusiasm in Kyiv and irritation in Moscow. Analysts saying Medvedchuk will become a valuable pawn in the Russia-Ukraine talks to end the devastating warthat the Kremlin has unleashed on its ex-Soviet neighbor. Medvedchuk was detained on Tuesday in a special operation carried out by Ukraine’s state security service, or the SBU. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has proposed that Russia could win Medvedchuk’s freedom by trading Ukrainians now held captive by the Russians. The 67-year-old oligarch escaped from house arrest several days before the hostilities broke out Feb. 24 in Ukraine. He is facing between 15 years and a life in prison on charges of treason and aiding and abetting a terrorist organization for mediating coal purchases for the separatist, Russia-backed Donetsk republic in eastern Ukraine. Medvedchuk has close ties with Putin, who is believed to be the godfather of his youngest daughter. His detention has sparked a heated exchange between officials in Moscow and Kyiv. Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council and the country’s former president, posted threats to Ukrainian authorities on the messaging app Telegram, referring to them as freaks and warning them to carefully look around and firmly lock the doors at night. Zelenskyy’s advisor Mykhailo Podolyak, in response, called Medvedev a nobody, and said his words were nasty and, as usual, stupid. The friendly relations between Putin and Medvedchuk turn him into a valuable trophy for Kyiv, and in the Kremlin they spark fury and a dangerous desire for revenge, Volodymyr Fesenko, an analyst at the Penta Center, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The fate of Medvedchuk will undoubtedly become a subject of bargaining and one of the points of undercover agreements between Kyiv and Moscow. Zelenskyy has released a photo of Medvedchuk sitting in handcuffs and wearing a camouflage uniform with a Ukrainian flag patch, in which he looks tired but visibly unharmed. Medvedchuk’s wife Oksana Marchenko has appealed to Zelenskyy, calling for her husband to be released and given guarantees that his life would not be in danger. My husband is being persecuted for political reasons against the laws of Ukraine, Marchenko said. Medvedchuk is the head of the political council of Ukraine’s pro-Russian Opposition Platform For Life party, the largest opposition group in the Ukrainian parliament. He is one of its 44 lawmakers in the 450-seat Rada. The activity of his party has been was suspended for the duration of the war at Zelenskyy’s initiative. The war automatically turned Medvedchuk into accomplice, since he personally advised Putin on Ukrainian affairs and directly or indirectly influenced many of the Kremlin’s decisions, Fesenko said. Zelenskyy no longer needs to be careful, and by arresting Medvedchuk, he wants to show that he is not afraid of the Kremlin and is ready to bargain, having different cards on the negotiating table. Ivan Bakanov, the head of Ukraine’s national security agency, said Wednesday that the Russian security service, the FSB, had planned to evacuate Medvedchuk, disguised as a Ukrainian serviceman, to Moscow through the disputed territory of Transnistria in Moldova, where Russia has troops stationed. ___ This is a live update. Click here for complete coverage of the crisis in Ukraine. (https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/ukraines-detention-of-oligarch-close-to-putin-angers-moscow/2939710/)

Biden Lashes at Putin, Calls for Western Resolve for Freedom

President Joe Biden delivered a forceful and highly personal condemnation of Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Saturday, summoning a call for liberal democracy and a durable resolve among Western nations in the face of a brutal autocrat. As he capped a four-day trip to Europe, a blend of emotive scenes with refugees and standing among other world leaders in grand settings, Biden said of Putin: For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power. It was a dramatic escalation in rhetoric Biden had earlier called Putin a butcher that the White House found itself quickly walking back. Before Biden could even board Air Force One to begin the flight back to Washington, aides were clarifying that he wasn’t calling for an immediate change in government in Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov quickly denounced Biden, saying it’s not up to the president of the U.S. and not up to the Americans to decide who will remain in power in Russia. While Biden’s blunt language grabbed headlines, in other pieces of his roughly 30-minute speech before Warsaw’s iconic Royal Castle he urged Western allies to brace for what will be a turbulent road ahead in a new battle for freedom. He also pointedly warned Putin against invading even an inch of territory of a NATO nation. The address was a heavy bookend to a European visit in which Biden met with NATO and other Western leaders, visited the front lines of the growing refugee crisis and even held a young Ukrainian girl in his arms as he sought to spotlight some of the vast tentacles of the conflict that will likely define his presidency. We must remain unified today and tomorrow and the day after, and for the years and decades to come. It will not be easy, Biden said as Russia continued to pound several Ukrainian cities. There will be costs, but the price we have to pay, because the darkness that drives autocracy is ultimately no match for the flame of liberty that lights the souls of free people everywhere. Biden also made the case that multilateral institutions like NATO are more important than ever if the West and its allies are going to successfully push back against autocrats like Putin. During his campaign for president, Biden talked often about the battle for primacy between democracies and autocracies. In those moments, his words seemed like an abstraction. Now, they have an urgent resonance. Europe finds itself ensconced in a crisis that has virtually all of Europe revisiting defense spending, energy policy and more, and so does the U.S. Charles Kupchan, who served as senior director for European affairs on the White House National Security Council during the Obama administration, called the invasion a game-changer that left Atlantic democracies with no choice but to bolster their posture against Russia. But the path ahead for Biden and the West will only grow more complicated, Kupchan said. The challenges Biden’s presidency faces have just grown in magnitude, said Kupchan, now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He now needs to lead the West’s efforts to protect the West from the pressing external threat posed by Russia. And he needs to continue strengthening the West from within by countering the illiberal populism that still poses internal threats to democratic societies on both sides of the Atlantic. In one of the most poignant moments of his trip, Biden on Saturday bent down and picked up a young girl, a Ukrainian refugee in a pink winter coat, and spoke of how she reminded him of his own granddaughters. I don’t speak Ukrainian, but tell her I want to take her home, Biden asked a translator to tell the smiling child. Hours later, Biden was in front of a crowd of a 1,000 including recent Ukrainian refugees at the Royal Castle, a Warsaw landmark that dates back more than 400 years and was badly damaged in World War II. He made clear that the West would need to steel itself for what will be a long and difficult battle. We must commit now, to be this fight for the long haul, Biden said. The Biden administration, which has been selective about putting too great of importance on any single policy speech, sought to elevate what White House officials billed as a major address. Biden spoke with grand palace behind him to an invited audience one bigger than just about any he’s spoken to during his presidency. He singled out Lech Walesa, the Polish labor leader who led the push for freedom in his country and was eventually elected its president, and connected the moment to the former Soviet Union’s history of brutal oppression, including the post-World War II military operations to stamp out pro-democracy movements in Hungary, Poland and what was then Czechoslovakia. And he urged Europe to heed the words of Pope John Paul II, the first pontiff from Poland: Be not afraid. Biden’s trip has reaffirmed the importance of European alliances, which atrophied under former President Donald Trump. He’s worked with his counterparts to marshal an array of punishing sanctions on Russia, and placed the continent on a course that could eliminate its dependence on Russian energy over the next several years. The collective response to the invasion of Ukraine has little parallel in recent history, which has been more characterized by widening divisions than close coordination. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine has changed that dynamic, with European nations stepping up defense spending and imposing crushing sanctions against Moscow, and some taking initial steps to reorient their energy needs away from Russia. I’m confident that Vladimir Putin was counting on dividing NATO, Biden said during a meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda on Friday. But he hasn’t been able to do it. We’ve all stayed together. Maintaining such unity will likely prove difficult as the war grinds on, and the refugee situation could become one source of strain. Much like NATO is committed to the collective defense of each member, Biden said, other nations should share the burden of caring for Ukrainian refugees. To that end, the U.S. administration announced it would admit up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees into the United States this year. It should be all of NATO’s responsibility, he told Duda, whose country has accepted roughly 2.2 million of the 3.7 million who have fled Ukraine. It’s not clear how many of those displaced Ukrainians who have come through Poland have now moved on to other nations. There’s also no clear path to ending the conflict. Although Russian officials have suggested they will focus their invasion on the Donbas, a region in East Ukraine, Biden wasn’t so sure if there was a real shift underway. Asked on Saturday if the Russians have changed their strategy, he told reporters that I am not sure they have. Despite the hazards ahead, Biden insisted there is more reason to be hopeful that the West and Ukraine can eventually succeed. A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never erase a people’s love for liberty, Biden said. Brutality will never grind down their will to be free. Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness. (https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/national-international/biden-ending-europe-trip-with-unity-message-that-echoes-past/2856461/)

Calls Grow for Schools to Show ‘Moral Standing’ and Cut Ties With Russia, Oligarchs

With each bomb dropped on Ukraine, and the Russian invasion entering its fourth week, scrutiny is intensifying at home. That includes growing calls for academic institutions to cut ties with Russia. Our universities have to show they have some moral standing, said Harvard Ukrainian Institute Manager of Publications Oleh Kotsyuba. As he discussed during NBC10 Boston’s weekly Russia-Ukraine Q&A series, Kotsyuba, a Ukrainian Harvard scholar, signed a petition by Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Center. Kotsyuba is calling on Harvard and other universities in Massachusetts to end their partnerships with companies, institutions, and oligarchs with links to Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. The petition specifically asks Harvard to rename programs and buildings named after Kremlin oligarch Len Blavatnik, who derives massive insider benefits from Putin’s regime. Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-born U.S. and U.K. citizen and self-proclaimed billionaire, pledged $200 million to Harvard’s School of Medicine in 2018 through The Blavatnik Family Foundation Harvard’s largest donation. The school now bears his name. If on the one hand, you make this symbolic gesture of condemning, but on the other hand you take millions and millions of dollars, and you rename schools and buildings after Russian, Kremlin oligarchs, you cannot have any moral superiority, said Kotsyuba. NBC10 Boston reached out to Harvard University, but the school said it has no comment. Blavatnik’s Access Industries said in a statement he has no involvement in Russian politics or in the Russian government and that he’s never been deemed a Kremlin oligarch by any U.S. government agency. More on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Russia-Ukraine War Mar 18 UN: 6.5 Million People Displaced Inside Ukraine Due to War Vladimir Putin 23 hours ago Putin Appears at Big Rally as Troops Press Attack in Ukraine Other universities that have faced similar calls to distance themselves from Russia include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tufts University. MIT announced last month that it had ended its program with the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, founded in Moscow in 2011 as part of a joint effort between the Cambridge university and Russia. Tufts announced Tuesday it ended its eight-year relationship with the Moscow State Institute of International relations. You buy yourself a department or you buy yourself a building, especially at a big-name university and that gives your overall project for the Russian state, a little bit of institutional legitimacy, said Dartmouth Sociology Professor Brooke Harrington. Harrington, who studies Russian oligarchs, warns of oligarchs using their wealth and power to indirectly fund Putin’s war in Ukraine. If the oligarchs insinuate themselves into our government and into our educational institutions and into our cultural institutions, then they are distorting those institutions’ ability to function for us, the American people, she noted. It’s unclear if the partnerships at MIT or Tufts will be reinstated in the future. Harvard told its school’s newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, that it does not hold direct investments with Russian companies, but it admitted it does not have complete transparency into every investment made by third-party managers. (https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/calls-grow-for-universities-to-show-moral-standing-and-cut-ties-with-russia-oligarchs/2673238/)