WASHINGTON—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pressed the U.S. Congress for further military assistance and new sanctions in a speech Wednesday broadcast from Kyiv, making a personal plea to lawmakers and President Biden to expand and accelerate shipments of weapons.
“In the darkest time for our country, for the whole of Europe, I call on you to do more,” said Mr. Zelensky to a rapt bipartisan audience at the Capitol complex.
This is CNBC’s live blog tracking Wednesday’s developments on the war in Ukraine. See below for the latest updates.
Residential buildings in the Ukrainian capital have come under fire again on Wednesday, with Russian shelling attacks leading to the partial collapse of an apartment block, authorities have said.
The fresh bombing of homes in Kyiv comes ahead of more negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian officials. Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian participant in the talks, said Tuesday that although the process was “difficult,” there was “definitely room for compromise.”
U.S. lawmakers gave Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy several standing ovations in his address to Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said “glory to heroes” in Ukrainian in introducing the war-weary president, according to an English interpretation of her remarks.
Pentagon says Russian forces haven’t made a lot of progress on the ground
A senior U.S. Defense official said Russian forces have not made significant progress in the ongoing 21-day war in Ukraine.
“They have not made a lot of progress on the ground,” the official said, adding that Russian forces are plagued by logistics and supply issues and are facing a tough resistance by Ukrainian fighters.
“Let’s not forget that they [the Russians] still have an awful lot of combat capability available to them,” the official said adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin has dedicated approximately 75% of his total military to the fight in Ukraine.
The official added that Russian troops remain largely stalled in their advance on Kyiv.
— Amanda Macias
Russia increases shelling from warships
The Pentagon has seen an increased tempo in shelling on Ukrainian cities near the Black Sea, a senior U.S. Defense official said on a call with reporters.
“We have observed on our own the shelling of some cities, some towns near Odesa, but not in Odesa,” explained the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to share new details from U.S. military reports.
The official said the missiles are believed to be coming from Russian warships located in the Black Sea.
“I really don’t want to speculate but it could be that they’re simply preparing the way to make it easier for some sort of ground assault on Odesa,” the official said, cautioning that the Pentagon does not have a full view of the Kremlin’s war plans.
Russian forces have launched more than 980 missiles into Ukraine since the Feb. 24 invasion, according to the official.
— Amanda Macias
Biden calls Putin a ‘war criminal’
President Joe Biden called Russian leader Vladimir Putin “a war criminal” for his attacks on Ukraine.
It appears to be the first time that Biden has publicly branded Putin with that phrase.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki later said Biden was speaking from his heart and from what he’s seen on the news, which are “barbaric actions by a brutal dictator.”
She noted that there’s a separate legal process to determine whether Putin has violated international law and committed war crimes, which is currently underway at the State Department.
— Dan Mangan
NATO chief tells Putin ‘stop this war immediately,’ says the military alliance has been strengthened
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to “immediately” stop the war in Ukraine, adding that Russia’s efforts to undermine the alliance had failed.
“President Putin must stop this war immediately [and] engage in diplomacy in good faith,” Stoltenberg said at an extraordinary meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, Belgium.
The military alliance had agreed to double down on its support for Ukraine, providing further military supplies, financial help and humanitarian aid, he said.
Stoltenberg added that member states would expand their defenses across land, air, sea and space in response to the “new reality for our security,” applauding recent finance commitments from Germany and Denmark.
“President Putin’s aim was to undermine NATO. What he’s done is to strengthen NATO … He’s getting more NATO on its borders,” he said.
Putin is committing ‘war crimes right out in public,’ Sen. Elizabeth Warren says
Russian President Vladimir Putin is “willing to commit war crimes right out in public,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren told CNBC, as she reflected on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s address to Congress earlier in the day.
“We want to help Ukraine in every way possible that will be helpful to Ukraine,” the Massachusetts Democrat said in an interview on “The Exchange.”
When asked specifically about Zelenskyy’s calls for a no-fly zone, Warren said it’s important the U.S. stays on the same page with its European allies on how to best lend support.
“Where everyone is right now is giving lots and lots of military and humanitarian aid to help support the Ukrainians but not going into direct conflict,” she said.
— Kevin Stankiewicz
Biden vows to do everything to end ‘tragic and unnecessary war’
U.S. President Joe Biden condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine as an “outrage to the world,” just before sending $800 million in military and humanitarian support to the war-torn nation.
“This is a struggle that pits the appetites of an autocrat against humankind’s desire to be free,” Biden said of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “And let there be no doubt, no uncertainty, no question — America stands with the forces of freedom. We always have, we always will.”
The funds will go toward 800 anti-aircraft systems, 9,000 anti-armor systems, 7,000 small-arm machine guns, as well as grenade launchers and shotguns.
Biden said Putin was inflicting “appalling devastation.” He cited reports of Russian forces holding hundreds of doctors and patients hostage at a hospital in Mariupol.
“These atrocities are an outrage to the world,” Biden said.
— Dawn Kopecki
Russian attacks protested with concerts in Lviv
Concerts were held at Rynok Square and Svobody street by Lviv Symphony Orchestra and Mikola Lisenko Music Academy.
— Adam Jeffery
NATO chief tells Putin ‘stop this war immediately,’ says the military alliance has been strengthened
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to “immediately” stop the war in Ukraine, adding that Russia’s efforts to undermine the alliance had failed.
“President Putin must stop this war immediately [and] engage in diplomacy in good faith,” Stoltenberg said at an extraordinary meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, Belgium.
The military alliance had agreed to double down on its support for Ukraine, providing further military supplies, financial help and humanitarian aid, he said.
Stoltenberg added that member states would expand their defenses across land, air, sea and space in response to the “new reality for our security,” applauding recent finance commitments from Germany and Denmark.
“President Putin’s aim was to undermine NATO. What he’s done is to strengthen NATO … He’s getting more NATO on its borders,” he said.
U.S. House will vote on revoking normal trade relations with Russia soon, Hoyer says
The Democrat from Maryland said lawmakers “are working very hard on getting agreement” on legislation that would end normal trade relations with Moscow. Taking the step would allow the U.S. to impose punishing tariffs on Russian goods.
“There is no doubt that there is consensus in the Congress that we want to remove permanent normal trading relations with Russians,” Hoyer said, adding that the House could vote this week if lawmakers reach a deal.
Both the House and Senate would have to pass a bill to remove Russia’s most favored nation status.
— Jacob Pramuk
International Criminal Court prosecutor meets with Ukrainian officials
International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova to discuss the Kremlin’s war.
“Grateful to Ukrainian authorities for receiving me in incredibly challenging circumstances. Pursuit of #justice requires us to work together,” the Hague wrote on Twitter.
Khan also met virtually with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of war crimes after repeated reports of Russian strikes killing civilians.
— Amanda Macias
U.S. and international law enforcement officials hold oligarch task force meeting
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Attorney General Merrick Garland met virtually with their counterparts from Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the European Commission to launch their multilateral task force to track down the assets of Russian oligarchs.
The Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs task force, or REPO, was created last month to coordinate an international effort to enforce sanctions imposed against Russia, its President Vladimir Putin, his allies and their families.
In the last three weeks, the group has seized multiple yachts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the Treasury. The group discussed the need to preserve evidence and whether frozen assets should be subject to forfeiture. The Justice Department set up Task Force KleptoCapture earlier this month to aid in the hunt.
— Dawn Kopecki
Putin says Western attempt at global dominance will fail
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the West would not succeed in what he called its attempt to achieve global dominance and dismember Russia.
If the West thought that Russia would step back, it did not understand Russia, Putin said on the 21st day of the war against Ukraine.
“Behind the hypocritical talk and today’s actions of the so-called collective West are hostile geopolitical goals. They just don’t want a strong and sovereign Russia,” Putin said.
He said Russia was ready to discuss Ukraine’s neutral status in talks aimed at ending hostilities, but it would still meet the objectives of its military operation, which was “going to plan.” In remarks to government ministers that were broadcast on state television, Putin said the West would only strengthen Russia with its hostile actions.
— Reuters
U.S. warns Russia against using chemical or biological weapons
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan warned Russian Security Council Secretary Gen. Nikolai Patrushev of the consequences should Moscow decide to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine.
The warning follows claims by Russian officials that the United States is working on secret biological weapons in Ukraine. The United States, Ukraine and western allies have denied the claim.
Biden’s top security adviser also reiterated U.S. “commitment to continue imposing costs on Russia, to support the defense of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank, in continued full coordination with our allies and partners,” the White House wrote in a readout of the call.
— Amanda Macias
‘Flooded with our blood’: Zelenskyy pushes U.S. companies to leave Russian market
The Ukrainian president, who was greeted with three standing ovations from an audience of lawmakers, asked the U.S. to implement a no-fly zone over Ukraine to stem the Russian attacks, additional weapons, sanctions and humanitarian support.
He also urged members of Congress to get companies in their legislative districts to leave the Russian market “because it is flooded with our blood.”
Zelenskyy was introduced for his address, which was delivered remotely from the Ukraine capitol Kyiv, by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
— Dan Mangan
Ukrainian forces stalling Russian invasion, UK says
Russian forces are “struggling to overcome the challenges posed by Ukraine’s terrain,” the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense said Wednesday.
“Russian forces have remained largely tied to Ukraine’s road network and have demonstrated a reluctance to conduct off-road maneuver,” the ministry said in an intelligence update. “The destruction of bridges by Ukrainian forces has also played a key role in stalling Russia’s advance.”
British officials added that Russia’s continued failure to gain control of the skies had “drastically limited their ability to effectively use air maneuver, further limiting their options.”
“The tactics of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have adeptly exploited Russia’s lack of maneuver, frustrating the Russian advance and inflicting heavy losses on the invading forces.”
— Chloe Taylor
Ukraine foreign minister calls for ‘deputinization’
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on world leaders to “cut all ties” with Russia on Wednesday.
— Chloe Taylor
Kremlin: Making Ukraine a neutral state like Sweden ‘can be seen as a compromise’
Moscow has hinted that its objectives in talks with Ukraine could include seeing Ukraine become a so-called neutral state like Sweden.
“The Russian Federation believes that the Swedish version of a neutral state in Ukraine can be seen as a compromise,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.
He added that Western sanctions on Russian big business could “only be called banditry at the state level.”
“Personal sanctions of Russia against the leaders of unfriendly countries will follow,” he said, but he noted that Moscow’s imposition of sanctions on U.S. President Joe Biden this week “does not mean a rejection of contact.”
— Chloe Taylor
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to address U.S. Congress
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address Congress in hopes of getting more aid as Kyiv and other key cities come under heavy fire from Russia.
90% of Ukrainians could face poverty if war escalates, UN warns
An early projection released by the U.N. Development Program Wednesday said 90% of the Ukrainian population could face poverty and “extreme economic vulnerability” if the war deepens.
This would “set the country – and the region – back decades and leave deep social and economic scars for generations to come,” the UNDP warned.
The organization found that in the event of a continuing war, 18 years of socio-economic achievements could be lost, with almost one in three people living below the poverty line and a further 62% at high risk of falling into poverty within a year.
“While the need for immediate humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians is of the utmost importance, the acute development impacts of a protracted war are now becoming more apparent,” UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said in a press release.
“An alarming economic decline, and the suffering and hardship it will bring to an already traumatized population must now come into sharper focus. There is still time to halt this grim trajectory.”
— Chloe Taylor
International Chess Federation suspends Russian and Belarusian teams
The International Chess Federation said Wednesday that the national teams of Russia and Belarus were suspended from participating in its tournaments until further notice.
— Chloe Taylor
President Zelenskyy: International Criminal Court collecting evidence in Ukraine
A team working for the International Criminal Court is working in Ukraine to collect evidence of war crimes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address on Wednesday.
“We are doing everything to bring occupiers to justice,” he said. “There will be an international tribunal for all they did against Ukraine and our people for every act of terror by the Russian troops on the territory of our country.”
He added that Ukraine’s prosecutor general was also working on this.
Zelenskyy said that Moscow’s forces had continued to shell peaceful Ukrainian citizens overnight, but said the number of Russian troops killed in the conflict was approaching 14,000. CNBC has not been able to independently verify this figure.
A total of 103 children had been killed so far in the war, Zelenskyy said.
— Chloe Taylor
Switzerland announces further sanctions on Russia
Switzerland has announced further sanctions on Russia in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Guy Parmelin, head of Switzerland’s Federal Department of Economic Affairs, approved the sanctioning of more than 200 individuals and entities connected to what the Swiss government called “serious violations of international law by Russia in Ukraine.”
The move meant Switzerland’s sanctions list now “fully mirrors that of the EU,” the government said in a statement on Wednesday.
“A further 197 individuals are now subject to financial sanctions and travel restrictions and 9 additional entities are now subject to financial sanctions,” the government said. “Among those individuals are further oligarchs and prominent businesspeople. Assets in Switzerland belonging to these individuals must be frozen and reported to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.”
The sanctions came into force on Wednesday at midday local time.
— Chloe Taylor
At least 500 civilians killed in Kharkiv since start of war, Ukrainian officials say
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, more than 500 civilians have been killed in the conflict in Kharkiv alone, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said on Wednesday.
CNBC has not been able to independently verify the figures.
Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second-largest city. Two people were reportedly killed when airstrikes hit apartment buildings in Kharkiv early this morning.
— Chloe Taylor
Secretary Austin reiterates U.S. commitment to NATO at start of two-day meeting
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin arrived at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, for a two-day meeting of defense ministers.
During his brief opening remarks, Austin reiterated U.S. commitment to Article 5 of the alliance’s founding treaty.
A cornerstone of the 30-member alliance is the principle of collective defense, known as Article 5, which states that an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all allies.
“We believe that our commitment to NATO, our Article Five commitment is ironclad. You can expect that, as the president has said a number of times that we will abide by that commitment,” Austin said alongside Stoltenberg.
Austin’s trip comes one week before President Joe Biden heads to NATO to attend a leaders’ meeting.
— Amanda Macias
West should consider sanctioning China if it helps Russian effort in Ukraine: Estonia foreign minister
Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets has told CNBC that Ukraine’s allies should consider imposing sanctions on China if Beijing does move to help Russia with its invasion of Ukraine.
Asked by CNBC’s Silvia Amaro whether the West should respond with sanctions if China assisted Russia in the war, Liimets said: “Yes, we should discuss it definitely.”
“So far, we have seen that Belarus has helped Russia in this war, and from the European Union side we have also approved sanctions against Belarus because they are part of the conflict,” she said. “And of course, if other countries continue to support Russia’s unjustified war in Ukraine, we have to consider these kind of actions.”
Reports emerged in recent days that Moscow had asked Beijing for military equipment to help with its invasion of Ukraine. Both countries vehemently denied those allegations.
— Chloe Taylor
Remember the destruction of Aleppo or Grozny? Kyiv could suffer the same fate, analysts fear
Three million migrants flee Ukraine — with more than half going to Poland
More than 3 million people have now fled the conflict in Ukraine, with more than half going to Poland.
In less than three weeks, the east European country has welcomed 1.85 million refugees — almost twice the 1 million authorities had anticipated and increasing its population by 4.8%.
As the number of refugees requiring humanitarian assistance spirals well beyond initial estimates, it is putting considerable strain on governments and the relief agencies, raising questions about what more the European Union will do to provide support.
So far, the EU has assigned 500 million euros ($547 million) for humanitarian aid. Yet estimates from the Economist Intelligence Unit suggest that the cost of supporting 5 million refugees could be 50 billion euros in 2022 alone.
Japan reportedly set to downgrade Russia’s trade status
Japan is set to strip Russia of its “most favored nation” status, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported on Wednesday, paving the way for Tokyo to slap tariffs on imported Russian goods.
“Most-favored nation” status is a classification within the World Trade Organization that exempts a country from tariffs.
The U.S., the U.K., Canada and the EU have already unveiled plans to revoke Russia’s MFN status.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported Wednesday that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Japan would work with G-7 countries to prevent Russia from accessing IMF loans.
— Chloe Taylor
Ukrainian officials say Russian troops holding hostages in Bucha
Officials in Bucha — a city just outside Kyiv — has said Russian forces have ransacked the city’s main administrative building and have captured six hostages.
The hostages are made up of employees and volunteers, the city council said.
CNBC has not been able to independently verify the claims.
“On Tuesday evening, March 15, the Russian occupiers ransacked the administrative building of the Bucha City Council and captured our staff and volunteers, who helped the residents of our city under fire,” Bucha City Council said in a post on Telegram Wednesday morning.
The post called on the Ukrainian Presidential Office and Kyiv Regional State Administration to “help release our people.”
— Chloe Taylor
21 killed in attack on TV tower
A total of 21 people were killed in an airstrike on a television tower in the Ukrainian city of Rivne, local authorities have said.
In a briefing on Wednesday morning, Vitaliy Koval, head of the Rivne regional administration, confirmed that rescue work in the wake of the strike on Monday had been completed, and that 21 people had died in the attack while nine had been wounded.
— Chloe Taylor
Russian forces have widened their attack, Ukraine says
Russian forces have targeted the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia for the first time since invading Ukraine, local authorities said Wednesday.
Oleksandr Starukh, head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said in a statement that civilian infrastructure in the city had been attacked for the first time.
“The morning was not good,” he said, according to an NBC News translation. “The main news is that for the first time in Zaporizhzhia, civilian objects have been bombed. The rockets landed in the area of the Zaporizhzhia-2 railway station. According to preliminary data, no one was killed.”
A second rocket had landed in the city’s botanical gardens, Starukh added.
In recent days, Zaporizhzhia has been the government-designated destination for civilians fleeing the besieged city of Mariupol.
According to Starukh, Zaporizhzhia had received and resettled more than 3,000 people, including 772 children, as of 2 a.m. on Wednesday.
— Chloe Taylor
Biden administration may provide ‘Switchblade’ killer drones to Ukraine
The United States may provide Ukraine with killer drones that fly directly into targets before detonating, NBC News reported Tuesday night, citing unnamed congressional officials.
“Switchblade” drones are made by U.S.-based AeroVironment and carry explosives. They come in two varieties, one designed for pinpoint strikes on personnel, and a bigger one for attacking tanks and armored vehicles.
The smaller, single-use Switchblade 300s cost only about $6,000 each, NBC News reported.
No decisions have been made on the drones, the report said, but U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to discuss the Switchblades on Wednesday as part of the next round of military aid to Ukraine.
AeroVironment officials did not respond to requests for comment.
— Ted Kemp
Ukraine says Russian forces holding hostages in Mariupol hospital
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Wednesday morning that Russian forces have seized a hospital in Mariupol, where they are holding 400 hostages.
She also said in a video address that Russian troops were firing from the hospital.
CNBC has not been able to independently verify or confirm the reports.
Vereshchuk added in her address on Wednesday that Ukraine had not received a response to its proposals to open humanitarian corridors today, but said officials were still open to discuss establishing evacuation corridors in the cities of Izyum and Mariupol. In the current circumstances, she said, authorities could not safely evacuate civilians.
Early attempts to evacuate civilians from Mariupol had to be halted because Ukrainian authorities said Russian forces had violated cease-fire agreements in the city.
Mariupol is crucial in the war for Ukraine, as its capture could help Russian forces create a land corridor to Crimea — a peninsula in the country’s south that Moscow invaded and annexed in 2014.
— Chloe Taylor
Russia’s Lavrov says there’s ‘some hope of reaching a compromise’ in talks with Ukraine
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has signaled some optimism toward the ongoing talks between Russia and Ukraine.
“In the talks between Russia and Ukraine, there is some hope of reaching a compromise,” Lavrov said in a televised interview with Russia’s RBC.
“The neutral status of Ukraine is now being seriously discussed in the negotiations in conjunction with other security issues. There are already specific formulations that are close to being agreed upon.”
Lavrov added that Russia’s so-called special operation in Ukraine was “not so much about Ukraine, but about the world order.”
“The United States under Biden subjugated Europe, and the current crisis is an epochal moment in defining the world order,” he said.
Talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials are scheduled to resume today following continued negotiations on Tuesday.
— Chloe Taylor
NATO defense ministers to discuss long-term consequences of Ukraine war
NATO defense ministers are meeting in Brussels today to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the military alliance would “of course address the brutal invasion of Ukraine by Russia.”
“This is devastating for the Ukrainian people, and it will also change our security environment,” he told reporters. “It will have long-lasting consequences for our security for all NATO allies.”
He noted that hundreds of thousands of troops were already on “heightened alert,” with 100,000 U.S. troops in Europe and 40,000 troops under NATO command deployed to the alliance’s eastern flank.
“Of course, the United States [is] playing a key role in these efforts,” Stoltenberg said. “More U.S. troops in Europe is a strong message of transatlantic unity, and we are extremely grateful for your support to what we do together in the eastern part of the alliance.”
At Wednesday’s meeting, ministers would address both the immediate consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the longer-term consequences, Stoltenberg said, including the “long-term adaptation of our alliance” and how to “remove any room for misunderstanding and miscalculation in Moscow about our readiness to protect and defend all our allies.”
“NATO has a responsibility to ensure that this crisis does not escalate beyond Ukraine, and that’s also the reason we have increased our presence in the eastern part of the alliance,” Stoltenberg said.
— Chloe Taylor
2 reportedly killed in airstrikes on Kharkiv apartment buildings
Two people have been killed in airstrikes that hit apartment buildings in Kharkiv in the early hours of Wednesday morning, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said in a statement Wednesday morning that over the past 24 hours, emergency workers had “not stopped eliminating the consequences of air bombardments and artillery shelling of residential areas of Kharkiv” — Ukraine’s second biggest city.
Two residential high-rise buildings had caught fire after artillery strikes in the city’s Nemyshliany district overnight, the SES said.
The organization added that as of 7:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday, four people had been rescued from the rubble and two bodies had been found.
“Search work does not stop,” the SES said. “Rescuers on the site … managed to save 189 people.”
One person had also been injured during a shelling of a school in Kharkiv at around 3 a.m. local time, officials added.
— Chloe Taylor
Zelenskyy says peace agreement with Russia beginning to ‘sound more realistic’
Securing an agreement with Moscow on ending the war in Ukraine is beginning to “sound more realistic,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
In an address to the nation on Tuesday, Zelenskyy said while “we all want peace,” efforts to secure an end to the hostilities were still needed.
“It takes patience,” he said. “And work … in particular, [from] our representatives, our delegation in negotiations with the Russian Federation.”
“It is difficult, but important, because any war ends in an agreement,” Zelenskyy added. “Meetings continue. As I am told, the positions in the negotiations sound more realistic. However, time is still needed for the decisions to be in Ukraine’s interests.”
— Chloe Taylor
Kyiv homes hit with more shelling strikes
Homes in Kyiv were hit with fresh shelling strikes early this morning, Kyiv emergency services said in a statement.
Emergency services said a 12-storey apartment block in the capital’s Shevchenko district had partially collapsed due to shell fragments damaging the building. A neighboring nine-storey building was also damaged, they said.
“According to preliminary information, 37 people were evacuated, 2 of whom were injured,” Kyiv’s emergency services said.
— Chloe Taylor
Ukrainian official says there’s room for compromise ahead of more Russia-Ukraine talks
Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a participant in talks with Russian officials, said as talks ended yesterday that officials would pick negotiations back up on Wednesday.
Despite calling the process “very difficult,” he said there was “definitely room for compromise.”
The Texas Department of Public Safety, which is investigating the wreck along with the National Transportation Safety Board, said in a statement on Wednesday that the truck had veered into the lane that the team van was traversing “for unknown reasons” just after 8:15 p.m. on Tuesday. State officials said both vehicles erupted into flames, and that the driver and lone passenger in the pickup also had died. The authorities did not immediately release their identities.
Two students were also in critical condition on Wednesday, officials said, after they were flown to Lubbock, Texas, by helicopter.
The golf teams had traveled to Texas, where many of their players had gone to high school, to compete in a collegiate tournament in Midland. The crash happened in nearby Andrews County, and tournament organizers said Wednesday that the remainder of the two-day, 11-school competition had been canceled.
James was new to the university, hired just last summer as coach after he had worked at other Christian universities and at a high school about 120 miles southwest of Fort Worth.
The U.S.W. sports program, which is a part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, is a part of the undergraduate experience for many of its hundreds of students, according to federal records. It is like many small athletic programs that exist more as providers of extracurricular activities than as financial engines; between July 2019 and June 2020, it pulled in about $3.8 million, less than the base salaries for many of the country’s most famous college football coaches.
LONDON, March 16 (Reuters) – A Russian woman who burst into a state TV studio to denounce the Ukraine war during a live news bulletin told Reuters on Wednesday she was worried for her safety and hoped her protest would open Russians’ eyes to propaganda.
In her first television interview since her on-air protest on Monday, Marina Ovsyannikova said the harrowing images from Ukraine had jolted her own childhood memories of growing up in Chechnya, the southern region torn apart by war after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
“I absolutely do not feel like a hero…You know, I really want to feel like this sacrifice was not in vain, and that people will open their eyes,” the editor at Channel One told Reuters from Russia.
“I believe in what I did but I now understand the scale of the problems that I’ll have to deal with, and, of course, I’m extremely concerned for my safety,” Ovsyannikova said.
Thousands of Russians have been detained for taking to the streets to protest the war but Ovsyannikova went further, holding up an anti-propaganda sign behind a studio presenter reading the news at prime time and shouting anti-war slogans.
State TV is a vital platform for the Kremlin, which portrays the invasion as a “special military operation” essential to prevent what it says is genocide against Russian-speakers.
Ukraine and the West dismiss that justification as a false pretext for an invasion of a sovereign country.
“The worst thing is when Ukrainians ring Russians and Russians ring Ukrainians, there’s always a conflict because the media and propaganda have divided us and put us on opposing sides of the barricades,” Ovsyannikova said.
The 43-year-old, whose father was Ukrainian, said she had no plans to leave Russia.
She told Reuters she was held in a police station and questioned overnight and had no access to a lawyer until the following afternoon when she was taken to court and fined 30,000 roubles ($280).
The Kremlin denounced her act of protest as “hooliganism” and commended Channel One for its news coverage. read more
Marina Ovsyannikova, a Channel One employee who staged an on-air protest as she held up a anti-war sign behind a studio presenter, speaks to the media as the leaves the court building in Moscow, Russia March 15, 2022 in this still image taken from a video. REUTERS TV via REUTERS
Reuters submitted a written request on Wednesday to ask the interior ministry for further comment on her case and whether legal proceedings had been closed.
Her case stirred fears among her sympathisers that she could be prosecuted under new legislation criminalising actions that discredit the Russian army with a jail term of up to 15 years.
Ovsyannikova, mother to children aged 11 and 17, said she hoped she would not face criminal charges.
“If I end up having to serve time in jail for what I believe in then I hope it’s a minimal sentence,” she said.
MEMORIES OF CHECHNYA
Ovsyannikova said she had initially supported President Vladimir Putin, but had grown disillusioned with politics and that the war in Ukraine had first reduced her to a state of shock and then tipped her over the edge.
“The war in Ukraine was like a trigger for me. Very vivid images from my childhood (in Chechnya) came flooding back. I understood… I could feel what those unfortunate people (in Ukraine) are going through. It’s really beyond the pale,” she said.
As a child, she lived in Chechnya’s Grozny and remembers gathering up her things and having to leave suddenly in 1991 as the southern Russian region where the Russian army later fought two wars to put down a separatist and Islamist movement.
“There was shelling, I was 12 years old, we gathered up our things and left,” she said.
She first considered taking to a square near the Kremlin to protest, but concluded that would have little actual effect.
She said she wanted not only to protest against the war but also to sent a message to Russians directly:
“Don’t be such zombies; don’t listen to this propaganda; learn how to analyse information; learn how to find other sources of information – not just Russian state television.”
KYIV, Ukraine—Ukraine said its military had launched a counteroffensive in its capital, Kyiv, and other key cities, as President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the U.S. Congress to provide more weapons and increase economic pressure on Russia.
The thump of distant shelling echoed through the center of Kyiv overnight, while Ukrainian forces appeared to counterattack in the outlying towns of Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel, which have been severely damaged in weeks of street fighting and artillery exchanges. The city and the surrounding region were under an all-day curfew Wednesday.
A high-profile social justice activist in Boston and her husband used a nonprofit they founded to scam at least $185,000 from donors who included a Black Lives Matter chapter and the local district attorney’s office, federal authorities allege.
Monica Cannon-Grant and Clark Grant allegedly treated their Violence in Boston organization as a personal piggy bank to pay for rent, shopping sprees, delivery meals, visits to a nail salon and a summer vacation trip to Maryland.
Cannon-Grant, 41, and Grant, 38, established the nonprofit in 2017, the same year she made headlines for helping organize a “Fight Supremacy” march in Boston following the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va.
In a 2019 interview, she boasted of having the personal cellphone numbers of then-Mayor Marty Walsh, now the US secretary of labor; the current mayor, Michelle Wu, who was a council member at the time; and the local district attorney.
Monica Cannon-Grant, 41, founder of the nonprofit Violence in Boston, was charged Tuesday — along with her husband, Clark Grant.AP
The following year, she was named “Best Social Justice Advocate” by Boston magazine and one of the Boston Globe’s “Bostonians of the Year.”
One of the earliest victims of the alleged fraud scheme was the Cambridge, Mass., chapter of Black Lives Matter, according to an 18-count indictment unsealed against the couple in Boston federal court on Tuesday.
The BLM chapter made a $3,000 donation via PayPal to support Violence in Boston’s program to feed needy children in August 2017, only to have the money secretly transferred two days later to a bank account belonging to one of Cannon-Grant’s family members, the indictment says.
In June 2019, Cannon-Grant also took part in a ceremony at the Suffolk County (Mass.) District Attorney’s Office, where her nonprofit was awarded $6,000 in forfeited assets to take “10 at risk young men” from Boston’s crime-ridden Roxbury neighborhood to a three-day “Violence Prevention Retreat” in Philadelphia.
Monica Cannon-Grant and her husband have been charged with using a $6,000 grant for at-risk youth for a getaway to Maryland, restaurants and a shopping spree.Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald
But instead of using the money that way, Cannon-Grant and her hubby — who at the time had balances of just $1.35 and $21.01 in their personal checking accounts, respectively — allegedly blew it on a trip to Columbia, Md., the following month.
The spending included more than $1,200 at a Sonesta Suites hotel, as well as hundreds more for a rental car, fuel, parking and meals at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Shake Shack and other restaurants in Connecticut, New Jersey and Maryland, according to the indictment.
At the time, the Suffolk DA was Rachael Rollins, who last year was named the US attorney for Massachusetts and whose office brought the charges against Cannon-Grant and her husband.
Monica Cannon-Grant received the grant money to show at-risk youth “communities outside of the violence-riddled neighborhoods that they navigate daily.”Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via AP
Rollins is recused from the case due to the Justice Department’s policy on conflicts of interest and declined to comment, a spokeswoman told the Boston Globe.
Black Lives Matter Cambridge didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
The couple’s alleged fundraising fraud allegedly accelerated in 2020 when their nonprofit began raking in donations of up to $50,000 a month, with some of the proceeds withdrawn in cash from ATMs or transferred to investment accounts at the Robinhood and E-Trade websites, according to the indictment.
Cannon-Grant and Grant are also accused of scamming a total of more than $100,000 in federal pandemic-related unemployment benefits.
During that time, she collected more than $27,000 in consulting fees for assisting an unidentified media company with “diversity, equity and inclusion” training and later paid herself a $2,788 weekly salary from Violence in Boston, and he had a full-time job with a commuter services company, according to the indictment,
At one point in March 2021, Cannon-Grant allegedly texted her husband, “Unemployment caught my a–! Asked me to provide documents by June unless I’ll have to pay it all back.”
Monica Cannon-Grant and her husband, Clark Grant, were charged with defrauding donors, lying on a mortgage application and illegally collecting about $100,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits.Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images
Grant allegedly told her to have an unidentified associate write a letter falsely claiming that Violence in Boston’s headquarters was closed.
The associate — who previously created fake letters so the couple could qualify for housing benefits and also attend a Boston Celtics game on the basis of negative COVID-19 test results — didn’t draft that document but did prepare a back-dated, four-page letter that Grant allegedly used to scam unemployment payments, according to the indictment.
In addition, the couple is accused of using Violence in Boston assets to qualify for a mortgage to purchase a house in the Boston suburb of Taunton.
Cannon-Grant was arrested Tuesday and was released without bail following a court appearance at which the judge allowed her to continue working at Violence in Boston, which runs a twice-weekly food pantry, but said she can’t handle its finances, the Globe reported.
She declined to comment afterward but her lawyer, Robert Goldstein, accused prosecutors of having “rushed to judgment” and said Cannon-Grant and Violence in Boston “have been fully cooperating and their production of records remains ongoing.”
“Drawing conclusions from an incomplete factual record does not represent the fair and fully informed process a citizen deserves from its government, especially someone like Monica who has worked tirelessly on behalf of her community,” Goldstein said in a prepared statement.
A judge released Monica Cannon-Grant on personal recognizance and told her she may continue to work her nonprofit but cannot handle its finances.Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
“We remain fully confident Monica will be vindicated when a complete factual record emerges.”
The arraignment of her husband, who was busted last year in the alleged pandemic-relief and mortgage scams, has yet to be scheduled, according to the Boston US Attorney’s Office.
The Senate unanimously approved a measure Tuesday that would make daylight saving time permanent across the United States next year.
The bipartisan bill, named the Sunshine Protection Act, would ensure Americans would no longer have to change their clocks twice a year. But the bill still needs approval from the House, and the signature of Joe Biden, to become law.
“No more switching clocks, more daylight hours to spend outside after school and after work, and more smiles – that is what we get with permanent daylight saving time,” said Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, the original cosponsor of the legislation, in a statement.
Markey was joined on the chamber floor by senators from both parties as they made the case for how making daylight saving time permanent would have positive effects on public health and the economy and even cut energy consumption.
“Changing the clock twice a year is outdated and unnecessary,” said Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Americans want more sunshine and less depression – people in this country, all the way from Seattle to Miami, want the Sunshine Protection Act,” added Senator Patty Murray of Washington.
Nearly a dozen states across the US have already standardized daylight saving time.
Daylight saving time is defined as a period between spring and fall when clocks in most parts of the country are set one hour ahead of standard time. Americans last changed their clocks on Sunday. Standard time lasts for roughly four months in most of the country.
Members of Congress have long been interested in the potential benefits and costs of daylight saving time since it was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942. The proposal will now go to the House, where the energy and commerce committee had a hearing to discuss possible legislation last week.
Representative Frank Pallone, the chairman of the committee, agreed in his opening statement at the hearing that it is “time we stop changing our clocks”. But he said he was undecided about whether daylight saving time or standard time is the way to go.
Markey said Tuesday: “Now, I call on my colleagues in the House of Representatives to lighten up and swiftly pass the Sunshine Protection Act.”
LVIV, Ukraine/KYIV, March 15 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden will make his first visit to Europe since the invasion of Ukraine to discuss the crisis with NATO allies next week, the White House said on Tuesday as the refugee tally hit 3 million amid more Russian air strikes.
Moscow has not captured any of the 10 biggest cities in the country following its incursion that began on Feb. 24, the largest assault on a European state since 1945.
Local authorities said Tuesday’s bombardments on Kyiv killed at least five people as buildings were set ablaze and people were buried under rubble. read more
About 2,000 cars left the southern port city of Mariupol, location of the worst humanitarian crisis, the local council said.
Just over 3 million have now fled Ukraine, according to the United Nations, with over 1.8 million arriving in neighbouring Poland. Its prime minister and those of Slovenia and the Czech Republic were in Kyiv on Tuesday to show solidarity.
NATO leaders will meet at the military alliance’s headquarters in Brussels on March 24 to discuss the crisis that has prompted fears of wider conflict in the West unthought-of for decades.
“We will address Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, our strong support for Ukraine, and further strengthening NATO’s deterrence & defence,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter.
Biden will be in attendance, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.
“His goal is to meet in person face-to-face and talk about and assess where we are at this point in the conflict,” she said.
Asked if Biden would also visit Poland, do something tied to Ukrainian refugees or meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Psaki declined to comment, saying trip details were still being worked out.
Russia calls its actions a “special military operation” to demilitarise and “denazify” Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin has also called its neighbour a U.S. colony with a puppet regime and no tradition of independent statehood.
Talks between Russia and Ukraine via a video link resumed on Tuesday. Ukrainian officials played up hopes the war could end sooner than expected, saying Moscow may be coming to terms with its failure to impose a new government by force.
In a hint of a possible compromise, Zelenskiy said Ukraine was prepared to accept security guarantees from the West that stop short of its long-term objective of joining NATO. Moscow sees any future Ukraine membership of the Western alliance as a threat and has demanded guarantees it will never join.
“If we cannot enter through open doors, then we must cooperate with the associations with which we can, which will help us, protect us … and have separate guarantees,” said Zelenskiy.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was too early to predict progress in the talks. “The work is difficult, and in the current situation the very fact that (the talks) are continuing is probably positive,” he said.
The crisis is being felt in the form of spiralling energy costs in many Western countries with some heavily reliant on exports from Russia and after a U.S. ban on imports of oil from the country.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits the Middle East on Wednesday to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed in the United Arab Emirates before seeing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia in efforts to secure more oil flows.
“We will work with them to ensure regional security, support the humanitarian relief effort and stabilise global energy markets for the longer term,” said Johnson.
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Rescuers work next to a residential building damaged by shelling, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine, in this handout picture released March 15, 2022. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS
FORK IN THE ROAD?
In Kyiv, around half of the 3.4 million residents have fled and some spend nights sheltering in metro stations.
Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that 97 children had died so far in the invasion. Hundreds of civilians have been killed.
On the Romanian border, a woman named Tanya said she had fled the southern frontline town of Mykolaiv to save her child. “Because the people that are there now are Russians, Russian soldiers, and they kill children.”
A convoy with supplies for Mariupol, where residents have been sheltering from repeated Russian bombardments and are desperate for food and water, was stuck at nearby Berdyansk, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
Fox News said a second journalist working for the cable network was killed in Ukraine in the same incident in which a Fox cameraman died when their vehicle was struck on Monday by incoming fire. read more
But one of Zelenskiy’s top aides predicted the war would be over by May or even within weeks as Russia had run out of fresh troops.
“We are at a fork in the road now,” Oleksiy Arestovich said in a video. He said he expected either a peace deal within one or two weeks or another Russian attempt with new reinforcements, which could prolong the conflict for another month.
At the United Nations, Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow would end what it calls its “special military operation” when its goals were achieved, including demilitarisation.
LUXURY SANCTIONS
In Rivne in western Ukraine, officials said 19 people had been killed in a Russian air strike on a TV tower. If confirmed it would be the worst attack on a civilian target so far in the northwest where Russian ground troops have yet to tread.
Russia denies targeting civilians.
More than 100 buses carrying a few thousand civilians left the besieged northeastern city of Sumy in a “safe passage” operation, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Tuesday. They were heading towards Lubny in central Ukraine after Russians gave a green light for the evacuation.
Russia said it now controlled the Kherson region in southern Ukraine. Reuters could not independently verify the report.
The conflict has brought economic isolation upon Russia.
The United States, the European Union and Britain announced further sanctions on Tuesday, while Moscow retaliated by putting Biden and other U.S. officials on a “stop list” that bars them from entering Russia.
The latest EU sanctions include bans on energy sector investments, luxury goods exports to Moscow, and imports of steel products from Russia.
They also freeze the assets of more business leaders believed to support the Russian state, including Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich. read more
Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff arrive before President Joe Biden speaks at an event to celebrate Black History Month in the East Room of the White House, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, in Washington.
Patrick Semansky/AP
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Patrick Semansky/AP
Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff arrive before President Joe Biden speaks at an event to celebrate Black History Month in the East Room of the White House, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, in Washington.
Patrick Semansky/AP
Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Harris, has tested positive for COVID-19, a spokeswoman for Harris said on Tuesday.
The vice president has so far tested negative, said spokeswoman Sabina Singh.
Both Emhoff and Harris withdrew from a scheduled appearances at an Equal Pay Day event this evening at the White House.
Emhoff appeared Tuesday afternoon at the Marvin Gaye Greening Center in Washington helping AmeriCorps members with a community service project in an urban garden and park.
In his remarks at the Equal Pay Day event, President Biden said that the vice president “chose not to take a chance since her husband had contracted COVID, although he’s feeling very well, I’m told.”
Earlier in the day, Harris attended a bill-signing event with President Biden, 79, and a large group of Democratic lawmakers, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy.
The 81-year-old Democrats are respectively second and third-in-line for the presidency, behind Harris.
Vice President Kamala Harris listens as President Joe Biden speaks before signing the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2022 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Tuesday, March 15, 2022. Harris’ office later announced that her husband, second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, had tested positive for COVID-19.
Patrick Semansky/AP
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Patrick Semansky/AP
Vice President Kamala Harris listens as President Joe Biden speaks before signing the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2022 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Tuesday, March 15, 2022. Harris’ office later announced that her husband, second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, had tested positive for COVID-19.
Patrick Semansky/AP
Later in the day, Harris hosted an event at the White House with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and current and former members of the U.S. women’s soccer team.
The second gentleman has been active in promoting the administration’s pandemic response measures, including travelling the country last year to visit clinics and vaccination sites.
The White House has not released information about whether Emhoff, who has received three doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, is experiencing symptoms.
Four other nominees, including Fed Chair Jerome Powell, were also being held up because of the impasse over Raskin. Powell, chosen by Biden for a second term, is now serving as chair on an acting basis.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who hails from the second-biggest coal-producing state in the country, and moderate Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski had said Monday they would not support Raskin’s nomination, all but dooming her chances of confirmation. Raskin’s withdrawal was first reported by the New Yorker.
Raskin, a former Fed governor and deputy Treasury secretary during the Obama administration,had been confirmed twice before for those posts with no opposition from Republicans. But she faced blowback this time from GOP lawmakers and Manchin over her calls for regulators to more closely scrutinize bank lending to fossil fuel companies and help mitigate climate-related risks to the financial system.
“Their point of contention was my frank public discussion of climate change and the economic costs associated with it,” she wrote in a letter to Biden obtained by POLITICO. “It was – and is – my considered view that the perils of climate change must be added to the list of serious risks that the Federal Reserve considers as it works to ensure the stability and resiliency of our economy and financial system.”
While the financial industry raised no public objections to Raskin’s nomination, Republicans such as Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania expressed fear that she might pursue measures that would make it more expensive for banks to lend to oil companies. She wrote in an op-ed last September that regulators should “ask themselves how their existing instruments can be used to incentivize a rapid, orderly, and just transition away from high-emission and biodiversity-destroying investments.”
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the chair of the Senate Banking Committee, in a statement Tuesday said “too many of my colleagues” ignored the wide, bipartisan support Raskin enjoyed, and instead “fell for talking points written by the oil and gas industry.”
“Republicans engaged in a disingenuous smear campaign, distorting Ms. Raskin’s views beyond recognition and made unsubstantiated attacks on her character,” he said.
Toomey, the top Republican on the committee, said many Democrats are pushing for the central bank to go far beyond its role. The “bipartisan rejection” of Raskin’s nomination “sends a powerful message to the Fed, and to all financial regulators, that it is not their job to allocate capital or stray from their mission to pursue extraneous or politically charged campaigns.”
“The Biden administration should nominate in her place an individual who will focus exclusively on implementing the Fed’s statutory mandates of stable prices, full employment, and supervision of bank holding companies,” he said in the statement.
Raskin’s withdrawal is a further blow to the president’s efforts to fill financial regulatory jobs. Saule Omarova, Biden’s nominee to be the comptroller of the currency, which regulates national banks, withdrew last year following a bitter and at times nasty nomination fight that ended after several moderate Democrats made clear they could not support her confirmation. The agency is being run by Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu, and the White House has no immediate plans to announce a new nominee.
Progressives had high hopes for Raskin but may now be forced to choose between a more moderate nominee or risk being unable to fill the job at all if Republicans take back the Senate next year.
In the near term, Raskin’s withdrawal also likely breaks the logjam on Biden’s remaining Fed nominees at a critical time for the central bank, which is set to begin raising interest rates this week in a bid to fight surging inflation.
Powell’s first term as chair officially expired in February. Fed board member Lael Brainard is waiting to be confirmed to a promotion as Powell’s No. 2, while two other candidates — Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson — would fill vacant seats.
Biden urged the Senate to swiftly confirm the other Fed nominees. Brown said the committee would vote on the remaining four picks, but did not announce when.
A cameraman who was injured alongside Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall when their vehicle was attacked in Ukraine has died.
The network announced the death of Pierre Zakrzewski in a statement on Tuesday morning, before reports emerged Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra Kurshynova also died in the same attack.
“It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that we share the news this morning regarding our beloved cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski. Pierre was killed in Horenka, outside of Kyiv, Ukraine. Pierre was with Benjamin Hall newsgathering when their vehicle was struck by incoming fire,” the statement from Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott read.
“Pierre was a war zone photographer who covered nearly every international story for FOX News from Iraq to Afghanistan to Syria during his long tenure with us. His passion and talent as a journalist were unmatched. Based in London, Pierre had been working in Ukraine since February. His talents were fast and there wasn’t a role that he didn’t jump in to help with in the field – from photographer to engineer to editor to producer – and he did it all under immense pressure with tremendous skill.
“He was profoundly committed to telling the store and his bravery, professionalism and work ethic were renowned among journalists at every media outlet. He was wildly popular – everyone in the media industry who has covered a foreign story knew and respected Pierre.”
“We extend our deepest condolences to Pierre’s wife Michelle and family – please keep them all in your prayers. And please continue to pray for Benjamin Hall, who remains hospitalized in Ukraine. We will continue to be in touch with any further updates as needed.”
Ms Scott announced the hospitalisation of Mr Hall – a British-American journalist serving as the network’s State Department correspondent who has previously written for The Independent – in a memo to colleagues on Monday afternoon which did not reveal what had happened, the extent of his injuries or that Mr Zakrzewski was also injured in the same attack.
Fox News shared this image of Pierre Zakrzewski reporting in the field in the statement announcing his death in Ukraine
“Earlier today, our correspondent Benjamin Hall was injured while news gathering outside of Kyiv in Ukraine,” the Monday memo read. “We have a minimal level of details right now. Ben is hospitalised and our teams on the ground are working to gather additional information as the situation quickly unfolds.
“The safety of our entire team of journalists in Ukraine and the surrounding regions is our top priority and of the utmost importance. This is a stark reminder for all journalists who are putting their lives on the line every day to deliver the news from the war zone. We will update everyone as we know more. Please keep Ben and his family in your prayers.”
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence said Mr Hall had lost part of his leg.
Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall is seen reporting from Ukraine
The attack on Mr Hall and Mr Zakrzewski came just a day after American journalist Brett Renaud was shot and killed by Russian forces in Irpin while on an assignment for TIME magazine.
Mr Renaud was in a car on route to report on Ukrainian refugees trying to evacuate when the vehicle was ambushed by Vladimir Putin’s troops, according to Ukrainian officials. A second American journalist was also wounded and taken to hospital.
American journalist Brett Renaud was shot and killed by Russian forces in Irpin while on an assignment for TIME magazine
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Joe Biden was thinking of Mr Hall when asked about the situation and the president’s previous pledge to “respond forcefully” if any Americans were harmed in Ukraine.
“Well, let me first say, your colleague, Benjamin Hall, I know there’s not final reports yet or we would wait for your news organization to confirm those but our thoughts, the president’s thoughts, our administration’s thoughts are with him, his family and all of you at Fox News as well,” she said in Monday’s press briefing.
She added that Mr Biden has been “leading the world” in putting “consequences” and “repercussions” in place in the form of crippling economic sanctions.
Tributes to Mr Zakrzewski poured in following the announcement of his death.
Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer shared the news live on air, calling Mr Zakrzewski “an absolute legend” whose loss is “devastating”.
“He was a professional, he was a journalist, and he was a friend,” Mr Hemmer said. “We here at the Fox News Channel want to offer our deepest condolences to Pierre’s wife, Michelle, and his entire family. Pierre Zakrzewski was only 55 years old, and we miss him already.”
Fellow anchor John Roberts tweeted: “I worked with Pierre many times around the world. He was an absolute treasure. Sending our most heartfelt prayers to Pierre‘s wife and family.”
“I don’t know what to say. Pierre was as good as they come. Selfless. Brave. Passionate. I’m so sorry this happened to you,” Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst tweeted.
As the Fox News community mourns the loss of Mr Zakrzewski and prays for Mr Hall’s recovery, some of the networks own hosts have come under fire for promotive misleading narratives about the Russia-Ukraine conflict that increasingly flatter the Kremlin’s version of events.
The most controversial host is Tucker Carlson, whose show is reliably among the most-watched pundit on cable news. Having often questioned before the conflict why anyone in the US should root for Ukraine (a well-established American ally) against Russia (an authoritarian adversary), he has lately helped introduce a conspiracy theory about US-funded and operated biolabs in Ukraine that have supposedly been developing bioweapons.
The host asserted that the US “provoked” Russia by allowing the prospect of Ukraine becoming a member of Nato.
“They made very clear that there was a red line,” she said. “The red line was a neutrality for Ukraine, that they could not enter Nato.” (Ukraine is still not a Nato member.) “And in the end, if they get this peace agreement … that’s probably going to end up being the case anyway.”
The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.
CHICAGO — Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx announced Tuesday there would be no charges in two deadly police-involved shootings that occurred last year.
Adam Toledo,13, was shot and killed by Chicago police officer Eric Stillman in March 2021 during a foot chase in Little Village. Video footage of the shooting showed Stillman shooting Toledo once in the chest around 2:30 a.m. on March 29 in the alley of the 2300 block of South Spaulding.
Adam Toledo
Toledo was shot after the 13-year-old and another man, 21-year-old Ruben Roman, ran away from police. Officers were responding to the area for a report of gunfire.
In the video, Toledo had his hands up after ditching a gun less than a second before Stillman opened fire.
“Adam Toledo was turning his body towards officer Stillman with his left hand raised while also discarding the firearm that he held in his right hand,” Kim Foxx said in a Tuesday press conference.
Several protests were held in the wake of Toledo’s shooting.
Anthony Alvarez
Two days later, 22-year-old Anthony Alvarez was shot during a foot chase in Portage Park by CPD officer Evan Solano. Body camera footage shows Alvarez was walking near a gas station and carrying a gun. He was shot in his back and left knee.
On bodycam footage, Alvarez crumples to the ground and asks the officer: “Why’d you shoot me?”
Solano replied: “You had a gun.”
Alvarez later died at a hospital.
On Tuesday, Foxx said no charges would be filed in either case. Prosecutors said they could not meet the necessary burden of proof to bring charges, according to Foxx.
In the Alvarez shooting, Foxx said Solano did violate police foot pursuit policies.
“These policy violations may have further exacerbated conditions that led to this deadly encounter,” Foxx said.
Following the two shootings, Lightfoot called for a review of the CPD’s foot pursuit policy.
On Tuesday afternoon, the attorneys who represent the Toledo family released the following statement saying the Toledo family is “profoundly disappointed.” They said a civil complaint has been filed seeking monetary damages against Officer Stillman and the City of Chicago.
“We are profoundly disappointed, as is the Toledo family, to learn that the Cook County State’s Attorney has declined to prosecute Officer Eric Stillman. Despite that decision, we will continue fighting for Adam and have filed our civil complaint seeking monetary damages against Officer Stillman and the City of Chicago in our effort to get justice for Adam and the Toledo family. Officer Stillman’s use of deadly force was excessive and posed a threat to the safety of Adam and others. We will be contacting the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division to address this horrific travesty.
“Adam obeyed the police officer’s commands, stopped running, had his hands up in the surrender position, and was nevertheless shot and killed by Officer Stillman. Despite the painful loss of Adam, the Toledo family continues to call for peace on the streets of Chicago as they pursue justice through the court system.”
Mayor Lightfoot released the following statement.
“Every shooting death in our city–every loss of life–is a tragedy. The loss of Adam Toledo and Anthony Alvarez remains tragic and painful for their families, loved ones, and friends. We must continue to support the families of Adam Toledo, Anthony Alvarez, and their respective communities as they continue to grieve. Keeping their communities, as well as the rest of Chicago safe, remains the top priority for me and my administration. However, in order to accomplish this, trust must be a two-way street between our residents and our officers. This trust is vital to their safety and the safety of entire communities. Following today’s announcement by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office regarding their Office’s evaluation of criminal charges related to the shooting deaths of Adam Toledo and Anthony Alvarez, that work to build that trust continues, in partnership with the Chicago Office for Police Accountability and our Chicago Police Department. As part of our commitment to reform, over the past year, we have implemented a new foot pursuit policy and have begun working alongside community partners and the City Council to create the new civilian police oversight body. But there remains much more to do.”
Just hours before Mr Zelensky’s morning address, Canada announced new penalties on 15 of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s allies, follow nearly 500 sanctions from the Canadian government targeting individuals and companies from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus since the invasion into Ukraine began on 24 February.
KYIV, Ukraine—A delegation of European leaders arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday night to meet with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky as Russia lobbed more missiles at the embattled capital amid heightened fighting in the city’s outskirts.
One missile destroyed a building associated with an arms maker in central Kyiv in a predawn strike, blowing the windows out of buildings in a one-block radius. Separately, two apartment buildings were hit, setting fire to one of them.
A Russian court has fined Marina Ovsyannikova 30,000 roubles (£215) for violating protest laws after she broke onto a live news broadcast on Channel One in an extraordinary demonstration against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The fine was a relatively light sentence for an act of protest that shocked Russian television viewers and earned plaudits from western leaders. Emmanuel Macron of France even offered her consular “protection” and said he would raise her case with Vladimir Putin.
In a legal twist, Ovsyannikova was fined not for breaking onto the Channel One set but for a video statement she made before the protest in which she said she was “ashamed” of having worked at Channel One and spreading “Kremlin propaganda”.
‘I spread Kremlin propaganda’: Russian TV news protester’s pre-recorded statement – video
“These were indeed some of the hardest days of my life,” she told reporters following the short hearing. “I spent two days without sleep. I was questioned for more than 14 hours. They didn’t allow me to reach my family or give me any legal aid. I was in a fairly difficult position.” She also said she wasn’t surprised at her release because she had two children.
Friends and supporters feared the worst after Ovsyannikova disappeared into police custody for nearly 24 hours after her arrest, suspecting that prosecutors may be preparing serious criminal charges against her. Russian state media also reported that the powerful investigative committee had opened a case against her.
Lawyers spent much of the night scouring local police precincts to find her. She was detained on Tuesday evening after running on to the set of the evening news with a poster that read: “Stop the war. Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here.”
She finally reappeared on Tuesday evening in a Moscow courtroom. In a photograph alongside a lawyer, she appeared unharmed and was wearing the same outfit and necklace in the colours of the Ukrainian flag as a day earlier.
The Kremlin had suggested that Ovsyannikova had violated laws on hooliganism that can carry a sentence of years in prison. Lawyers said it was still possible that prosecutors would press tougher charges against Ovsyannikova, but that it was less likely following Tuesday’s hearing.
“There are still risks that a criminal case will be opened against Ovsyannikova, but the chances of that have sharply decreased after the fine that she received today,” said Pavel Chikov, the head of Agora International Human Rights Group. “She has been fined not for her performance, but for her video message in which she urged people to protest.”
“No case has been opened yet against her performance, and the prosecutor’s office might still decide to do so,” he continued. “But, the fact that she has already received a quick punishment indicates that a political decision has been made not to persecute her further.”
Tatiana Stanovaya, a political analyst and founder of R Politik, said that there were probably differing views among Kremlin advisers about how to deal with Ovsyannikova’s case. While some may have lobbied for a tough response, others could have feared a backlash if the mother of two was treated too harshly.
“Nobody was ready for something like this ahead of time,” she said. “And the Kremlin wouldn’t have a ready template for how to react.”
Several prominent journalists have reportedly left their positions at state media since Ovsyannikova’s protest.
“I’m interested by the amount of discontent inside of the system,” said Stanovaya. “Either right now this wave comes to nothing. Or we can see similar protests more and more often – these vocal, desperate acts where people make similar gestures.”
A Fox News cameraman was killed Monday in the same attack that left the network’s correspondent Benjamin Hall injured as they reported near Ukraine‘s capital Kyiv, the network said on Tuesday. Fox News said in a statement that cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski was killed when the vehicle that both he and Hall were riding in “was struck by incoming fire.”
Anton Gerashchenko, advisor to Ukraine’s ministry of internal affairs, said Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra Kuvshinova was also killed in the attack. Gerashenko said Kuvshinova and Zakrzewski were killed by “artillery fire from Russian-fascist forces.”
“Horrible news to report,” Fox News anchor John Roberts said in a tweet, adding, “I worked with Pierre many times around the world. He was an absolute treasure. Sending our most heartfelt prayers to Pierre’s wife and family.”
Horrible news to report: Fox cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski was killed in the same attack that wounded correspondent Benjamin Hall. I worked with Pierre many times around the world. He was an absolute treasure. Sending our most heartfelt prayers to Pierre’s wife and family.
Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott said that Zakrzewski, who was based in London, had “covered nearly every international story for Fox News from Iraq to Afghanistan to Syria during his long tenure with us,” adding that “his passion and talent as a journalist were unmatched.”
“He was profoundly committed to telling the story and his bravery, professionalism and work ethic were renowned among journalists at every media outlet,” Scott said.
“Pierre Zakrzewski was an absolute legend at this network and his loss is devastating,” Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer said on the air Tuesday. He quoted Fox president Jay Wallace as saying that other staff “always felt an extra sense of reassurance when they arrived on the scene, and they saw that Pierre was there.”
“He was a professional, he was a journalist, and he was a friend,” said Hemmer. “We here at the Fox News Channel want to offer our deepest condolences to Pierre’s wife, Michelle, and his entire family. Pierre Zakrzewski was only 55 years old, and we miss him already.”
This image released by Fox News Channel shows cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski while on assignment with colleagues, Fox News correspondent Steve Harrigan and Jerusalem-based senior producer Yonat Friling, background right, in Kyiv.
Pierre Zakrzewski / AP
Just last year, the network honored Zakrzewski with a Fox News Media Spotlight Award, which are meant to recognize “extraordinary employees who go above and beyond, inside and outside the workplace.”
Fox’s statement offered no update on the condition of Hall, their correspondent wounded in the same attack, but he remained hospitalized on Tuesday.
Gulnoza Said, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, said in a statement that she was “deeply saddened” by reports of Zakrzewski and Kuvshinova’s deaths.
“Reporting on this war is a vital public service, and it has already claimed the lives of at least two other journalists in just a few weeks,” she said. “Ukrainian and Russian authorities must do their utmost to ensure safety of all journalists, and to thoroughly investigate attacks on the press.”
On Monday, the network confirmed that Hall “was injured while newsgathering outside of Kyiv in Ukraine.”
Scott said in a Monday memo to employees that the network had a “minimal level of details right now, but Ben is hospitalized and our teams on the ground are working to gather additional information as the situation quickly unfolds.”
News of the attack on the Fox crew came just a day after another American journalist, Brent Renaud, was shot and killed in Ukraine. The head of Kyiv’s regional police force said Renaud was killed and another journalist was wounded by Russian forces in the town of Irpin, outside the capital of Kyiv, as they were traveling to film refugees.
State Department Correspondents’ Association President Shaun Tandon said he was “horrified” by the news of Hall’s injury.
“We know Ben for his warmth, good humor and utmost professionalism,” Tandon said in a statement. “We wish Ben a quick recovery and call for utmost efforts to protect journalists who are providing an invaluable service through their coverage in Ukraine.”
Hall recently made headlines for rebuking Greg Gutfield, co-host of the Fox News political talk show “The Five,” after he said on-air that the reporting from Ukraine “is a lot like other stories that we’ve gone through in the digital age in which an image is taken and then played over and over and over again to create some kind of emotional response out of you, because that makes a profit for news companies.”
“This is not the media trying to drum up some emotional response,” Hall said. “This is absolutely what’s happening.”
“It is an absolute catastrophe,” he added. “And the people caught in the middle are the ones who are really suffering.”
After a prolonged back and forth, Congress passed a $1.5 trillion government spending bill last week but dropped from the final package $22.5 billion in pandemic relief that Democrats wanted to include.
On Tuesday, the same day as President Joe Biden signed the 2,741-page bill into law, his aides warned that the omission could “have severe consequences as we will not be equipped to deal with a future surge.”
The U.S. could soon run out of funding for COVID responses such as booster shots, treatments efforts, and tests if the legislation remains stuck in Congress, officials warned. The warning — which came in the form of a letter to Congressional leadership and a press release — focused on the possibility of future variants as current caseloads have dropped since the record-breaking omicron-fueled numbers from over the winter.
Vaccine “shortages will be even more acute if we need a variant-specific booster vaccine,” the White House noted. Moreover, Biden aides warned, a lack of funding could thwart efforts to develop a “pan-COVID vaccine” to stop a range of variants.
And in a call with reporters, a senior administration official warned that “in the next couple of months we could see COVID cases increase here in the U.S., just as we’re seeing cases rising abroad right now.”
Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla echoed a concern about variants in a Yahoo Finance interview this week. He described new variants as “a likely scenario,” adding that we have to “outsmart the virus and be always ahead of it.”
“I cannot promise a new variant won’t come but I can promise you we’ll do everything within our power to be ready if it does,” Biden said during his recent State of the Union address. “If Congress provides the funds we need, we’ll have new stockpiles of tests, masks, and pills ready if needed.”
The White House announced other consequences Tuesday including the canceling of plans to purchase additional monoclonal antibody treatments and the expiration of a fund that reimburses doctors caring for uninsured individuals.
‘Set us back in this fight’
Lawmakers still want to pass the funding as a separate bill, but the Senate may not even consider it given Republican opposition.
“Once we lost it in the House, it’ll be tough to get back,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told reporters on Monday. “I don’t know if those House members deluded themselves into believing that there was some other path, but I think it’s hard to find an alternative path other than in the budget.”
But inaction, the White House says, will cost lives. Democrats have voiced frustration over the funding cut for COVID; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it “heartbreaking” to drop the money from the package.
Republicans have been largely unified in opposing the funds. Sen. Richard Shelby (R- AL) sounded skeptical to Punchbowl News on Monday, saying: “If there’s a need for it and they can show there’s a need, you’d get — I think — overwhelming votes up here. But there’s a doubt there that they need this money, with a lot of us.”
Ben Werschkul is a writer and producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, DC.
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