A U.S. senior Defense official said about 95% of the Kremlin’s combat power remains intact after nearly two weeks at war in Ukraine.

“Mr. Putin still has the vast majority of tactical surface-to-air capability available to him,” the official said.

The official added that nearly 100% of the troops that were once staged along Ukraine’s border are now fighting inside the country and slowly advancing on Kyiv in four lines of effort.

“We assess that nearly, not all, but nearly 100% of the forces that they had amassed are inside the country now and clearly they are inside the country with the intent to move along these multiple lines of access,” the official said.

The official added that the U.S. has no indications that Russian President Vladimir Putin is pulling troops from other parts of Russia to fight in Ukraine.

 — Amanda Macias

Photos show destroyed buildings in Kharkiv a day after shelling by Russian forces.

A senior U.S. Defense official said Tuesday that Russian forces have intensified missile strikes against Ukraine in the last 24 hours.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to share new U.S. details of the Kremlin’s campaign, said that the Russians have fired nearly 670 missiles since the invasion began. In the past 24 hours, the U.S. observed about 50 Russian missile launches.

The majority of the missiles are being launched from either inside Russia or from mobile platforms inside of Ukraine, according to the U.S. Defense official. Approximately 70 missiles have been fired from inside Belarus and less than 10 missiles have been launched from naval assets in the Black Sea.

 — Amanda Macias

A senior U.S. defense official said Russian forces are pursuing four different advances on Kyiv and are approximately 12 miles from the city center.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Russian troop movements deeper into Ukraine have slowed.

“They still seem to be plagued by logistics and sustainment challenges,” explained the official, adding that the Russians are facing substantial fuel and food shortages.

“We have every expectation that they will try to overcome those challenges,” the official added.

 — Amanda Macias

The U.S. intelligence community assesses that if Russian forces cut off food and water supplies to Kyiv, people in the Ukrainian capital could run out of supplies in about 14 days.

“I don’t have a specific number for days of supply that the population has but with supplies being cut off it will become somewhat desperate. I would say about 10 days to two weeks,” said Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier before the House Intelligence Committee’s hearing on “Worldwide Threats.”

 — Amanda Macias

President Joe Biden said his administration’s move to ban Russian oil imports could further squeeze consumers who face high prices at the gas pump.

“With this action, it’s going to go up further,” he said Tuesday of fuel costs in the U.S.

As he warned of possible price increases, Biden pointed to the White House’s decision to release oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to increase supply and blunt cost increases for consumers. Oil prices have climbed since Russia, a major producer, invaded Ukraine last month.

The U.K. and EU on Tuesday announced separate plans to wean themselves off of Russian energy.

— Jacob Pramuk

President Joe Biden announced U.S. plans to ban imports of Russian oil, a major escalation in the international response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The move came as Western-allied nations work to sever Moscow from the global economy to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for his unprovoked aggression.

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

“This is a step we’re taking to inflict further pain on Putin,” Biden said.

— Kevin Breuninger

The New York Times is pulling its journalists from Russia as Vladimir Putin’s government cracks down on media outlets that refuse to toe the Kremlin’s line on the war in Ukraine.

The decision was revealed in a tweet Tuesday from Times Deputy Managing Editor Clifford Levy, who shared an announcement from Michael Slackman, another top editor at the paper.

“Russian authorities are clamping down harder on news and free speech than at any time during President Vladimir V. Putin’s 22 years in power, pushing through a law that effectively criminalizes independent news reporting about the war against Ukraine,” Slackman wrote in a note to Times staff.

Russia’s new media law threatens potential violators with as many as 15 years in prison. The Times’ decision follows similar moves by other non-Russian media outlets.

The BBC, however, reversed its decision to cease reporting from inside Russia. “We will tell this crucial part of the story independently and impartially, adhering to the BBC’s strict editorial standards,” a representative for the UK outlet said. “The safety of our staff in Russia remains our number one priority.”

Slackman vowed that the Times would continue its “live, robust coverage” of the invasion. “We have had a team of journalists in Ukraine and the region bearing witness to the unfolding conflict,” he wrote.

– Mike Calia

A joint funeral takes place at Saint’s Peter and Paul Garrison Church for two Ukranian soldiers who died during recent fighting in Lviv, Ukraine.

The two servicemen, Victor, 44 who was killed in the Mykolaiv region and Ivan, 25, who was killed in the Zaporizhzhia region, were laid to rest at the Lychakiv Cemetery, surrounded by family, friends and colleagues.

Photos made by Dan Kitwood.

The U.S. intelligence community assesses that up to 4,000 Russian troops have been killed in the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.

The figure, which shared during an unclassified hearing with lawmakers, was presented by Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier.

“With low confidence, somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000. That number comes from some intelligence sources but also open sources,” Berrier said during testimony before the House Intelligence Committee’s hearing on “Worldwide Threats.”

 — Amanda Macias

— EDITOR’S NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Alaska Airlines is trimming its flights for the first half of the year to cope with a surge in fuel prices resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the first U.S. airline to alter its schedule as costs jump from the war.

The Seattle-based carrier says its capacity in the first half of the year will be down 3% to 5% from 2019, after forecasting flat-to-slightly bigger schedules in January. It said it expects to grow in the second half of the year but didn’t provide more detail.

Other airlines could follow suit, but executives face a dilemma: fly more to capture revenue after two bruising years or reduce schedules to cut costs.

— Leslie Josephs

KFC’s parent company Yum Brands is suspending all investment and restaurant development in Russia.

The restaurant company will also redirect all profits from its existing Russian restaurants to humanitarian efforts. Yum’s Russian footprint includes about 1,000 KFC locations and 50 Pizza Hut restaurants, nearly all of which are operated by franchisees.

“Like so many across the world, we are shocked and saddened by the tragic events unfolding in Ukraine,” Yum said in a statement.

— Amelia Lucas

The European Union on Tuesday announced plans to reduce its dependency on Russian energy, amid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, sky-high prices and a potential embargo of Russian crude.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, wants to cease its buying of fossil fuels from Russia before 2030, pledging to reduce its purchases of Russian gas by two-thirds before the end of the year.

Read the full story here.

—Matt Clinch

Ukrainian civilians face winter conditions as they continue to flee the city of Irpin.

The U.S. is expected to announce as early as today that it will ban imports of Russian oil, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC.

The White House and the Department of Energy did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment. But the White House on Tuesday morning updated President Joe Biden’s schedule for the day to include an announcement of new U.S. actions intended to “hold Russia accountable for its unprovoked and unjustified war on Ukraine.”

Biden will deliver those remarks from the White House at 10:45 a.m. ET, the updated schedule said.

— Kevin Breuninger

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron and French Foreign Minister Yves Le Drian in Paris on Tuesday evening, as European Union governments debate whether to join the U.S. in banning Russian oil imports.

France, which depends on nuclear power for most of its energy needs, has yet to take a position on whether the 27-member bloc should ban Russian oil.

Blinken said Tuesday that President Joe Biden discussed a Russian oil ban in a Monday call with Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

— Amanda Macias

The United Nations says there have been at least 1,207 civilian casualties since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24.

That includes 406 people killed and 801 injured — although the exact figures are likely to be much higher, according to Liz Throssell, spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Most civilian casualties were as a result of airstrikes and explosive weapons used by Russian forces, the U.N. said, with hundreds of residential buildings in several Ukrainian cities damaged or destroyed.

The latest figures say 12,700 people have been arbitrarily arrested for holding peaceful anti-war protests.

The U.N. said it was concerned by Russia’s new criminal code amendments that impose prison terms of up to 15 years on those charged with spreading information deemed to be fake or discrediting Russian armed forces.

— Sam Meredith

Chinese President Xi Jinping has reportedly called for “maximum restraint” in Ukraine and says Beijing is “pained to see the flames of war reignited in Europe.”

Speaking at a virtual meeting alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Xi said the three countries should jointly support peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv.

His comments, reported by state broadcaster CCTV, were thought to be his strongest yet on Russia’s onslaught of Ukraine.

China, an economic and strategic ally of Moscow, has not imposed any sanctions on Russia.

— Sam Meredith

Oil major Shell on Tuesday apologized for a buying a heavily discounted consignment of Russian oil last week, and announced it would gradually withdraw from its involvement in all Russian hydrocarbons.

“As an immediate first step, the company will stop all spot purchases of Russian crude oil. It will also shut its service stations, aviation fuels and lubricants operations in Russia,” it said in a statement.

On Friday, Shell purchased 100,000 metric tons of flagship Urals crude from Russia. It was reportedly bought at a record discount, with many firms shunning Russian oil due to Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of its neighbor. The purchase did not violate any Western sanctions.

— Matt Clinch

A child has died of dehydration in the city of Mariupol, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday.

In his latest video address, the Ukrainian president said Mariupol had been cut off from vital supplies and utilities.  

“Mariupol was surrounded, blocked and specially depleted,” he said, according to an NBC News translation. “The occupiers deliberately cut off communications and blocked the supply of food, cut off electricity. A child died of dehydration in the city.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday that 300,000 civilians were being held hostage in Mariupol by Russian forces.

Evacuation attempts were halted in Mariupol, a key port city in southeastern Ukraine, over the weekend, with Ukraine saying Russian forces had violated a cease-fire agreement by continuing to attack the city and the planned route out of it.  

— Chloe Taylor

The London Metal Exchange suspended the trading of nickel on Tuesday after prices surged above $100,000 per ton.

The LME said in a statement that trading will be suspended for at least the remainder of the day.

The exchange said it had been monitoring the evolving situation in Russia and Ukraine and it was evident this had affected the nickel market, citing extreme price moves in Asian trading hours.

“The LME will actively plan for the reopening of the nickel market, and will announce the mechanics of this to the market as soon as possible” it added.

Three-month nickel on the LME briefly jumped to a record high above $100,000 a metric ton, before paring gains.

— Chloe Taylor

Kirll Timoshenko, an advisor to Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy, shared footage on Tuesday of the evacuation of civilians from Sumy.

Sumy, a city in northeast Ukraine, has been the scene of intense attacks in recent days, with an airstrike killing 18 civilians, including two children, overnight.

Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, said Tuesday that a humanitarian corridor out of Sumy would be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time to allow the evacuation of residents and foreign students.

— Chloe Taylor

Two million people have fled Ukraine, according to U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

— Chloe Taylor

Alexander Markushin, the mayor of Irpin — a town on the outskirts of Kyiv — said Tuesday that Russian forces had contacted him to threaten his life and demand his surrender.

“Yesterday at 17:58, I received a message from the occupiers threatening my life and health,” Markushin said, according to a translation.

He added that the message included demands for “the complete surrender of Irpin.”

“I’m surprised that these monsters still haven’t understood — Irpin doesn’t give up, Irpin doesn’t sell, Irpin fights,” he said.

There has been intense fighting in Irpin over recent days. On Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian troops had opened fire on civilians attempting to flee the town, resulting in the deaths of a family of four. “How many such families have died in Ukraine? We will not forgive. We will not forget,” he said.

— Chloe Taylor

The Russian military on Tuesday declared a fresh cease-fire in five Ukrainian cities, according to state-run media. But evacuation routes will lead to Russia.

News agency Interfax reported that evacuation routes would take civilians “from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Mariupol to Russia,” citing Russia’s National Defense Control Center.

On Monday, Russian plans for a cease-fire to allow civilian evacuations were rejected as “completely immoral” by Ukrainian officials, after it emerged that the evacuation routes Russia planned to open would lead to Russian or Belarusian territory.

It came after evacuation attempts were halted at the weekend over claims that Russian forces were violating cease-fire agreements by continuing to attack cities and the routes out of them.

In a press briefing on Tuesday, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Kyiv had agreed an evacuation route out of Sumy to the Ukrainian city of Poltava. The route had been agreed with both Russia and the International Red Cross Committee, she told reporters.

“No other routes were agreed upon,” she said, according to a translation by NBC News. But she added: “We already have information that the Russian side is preparing a violation of this corridor, they prepare manipulations with the routes to make people go in [another] direction.”

On Monday, a U.N. official said civilians must be permitted to evacuate from conflict zones “in the direction they choose.”

— Chloe Taylor

A Russian airstrike on the city of Sumy killed 18 civilians, including two children, on Monday night, a Ukrainian official has said.

Anton Herashchenko, Ukraine’s deputy minister of internal affairs, said in a Telegram post on Tuesday that Russian pilots had “committed another crime against humanity in Sumy” by dropping bombs on residential buildings in Sumy.

“Debris clearing is still ongoing,” he said. “But the fact of the death of 18 civilians has already been established. Including two children.”

Herashchenko said the deaths were also “on the conscience of European politicians … who have not yet made a decision to give us powerful anti-aircraft missiles or close the sky.”

Western countries and the NATO military alliance have ruled out imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine, arguing that shooting down Russian planes would lead to an escalation of the conflict and greater human suffering.

— Chloe Taylor

In an intelligence update on Tuesday, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said that since the end of February, there has been “a notable intensification of Russian accusations that Ukraine is developing nuclear or biological weapons.”

“These narratives are long standing but are currently likely being amplified as part of a retrospective justification for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Last week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called Russian claims that Ukraine was developing nuclear weapons a “hallucination.”

“I once again refute this sick fake,” he said on Twitter.

— Chloe Taylor

In a statement on Monday, Martin Griffiths, the U.N.’s under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said there were three immediate priorities that needed to be addressed in Ukraine to “lessen the pain and suffering we are all watching unfold in real time.”

Firstly, he said, military operations must take constant care to spare civilians and civilian infrastructure from attacks — this included creating safe passages to allow civilians to leave areas of active hostilities “in the direction they choose.”

On Monday, Ukrainian officials accused Russia of allowing civilians to evacuate only to Russian or Belarusian territory, a move slammed by Ukraine’s government as “completely immoral.”

Griffiths said in his statement that safe passage for humanitarian supplies into conflict zones was also vital. The U.N. also wanted a system of “constant communication” with both Russia and Ukraine, as well as assurances that the delivery of humanitarian aid would be enabled, he said.

— Chloe Taylor

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its thirteenth day, officials in Kyiv have said the pace of the Russian advance has slowed.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a post on Facebook Tuesday that: “The opponent continues the offensive operation, but the pace of promotion of his troops has slowed significantly,” according to a translation.

As of 6 a.m. local time, defensive operations continued across the country, including in the city of Chernihiv, the capital Kyiv and on Ukraine’s southern coast, the post said.

Russian troops were “increasingly violating the rules of international humanitarian law on military conflict,” Ukrainian officials said.

In Kherson and Mykolaiv, which Ukraine said were currently occupied by Moscow’s forces, Russia had set up tactical groups designed to “conduct propaganda work with the local population,” according to Ukrainian officials.

— Chloe Taylor

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak has claimed that oil prices could climb beyond $300 a barrel if the West decides to move ahead with full sanctions on its energy exports.

“It is absolutely clear that a rejection of Russian oil would lead to catastrophic consequences for the global market,” Novak said in an address on state television.

“The surge in prices would be unpredictable. It would be $300 per barrel if not more.”

International benchmark Brent crude futures rose 3.5% to trade at $127.61 a barrel on Tuesday morning in London, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures jumped 3% to trade at $123.04.

— Sam Meredith

Rose Gottemoeller, a former deputy secretary general of NATO, said there are signs Russian President Vladimir Putin retains strong support in certain parts of the country.

“There are a number of very strong nationalists in Russia. Apparently they were present in … motorcades outside of the Kremlin yesterday, waving flags, supporting the president,” she told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Tuesday.

Some polls also suggest that his popularity in Russia is still growing, she added.

On the other hand, people who are informed or have a stake in this, “like the oligarchs who have investments all over the world and want to keep their wealth” may be growing concerned as international sanctions hit.

“I am not surprised that they are becoming increasingly worried,” Gottemoeller said.

“I don’t think he’s going to lose his grip on power, but perhaps some messages will start to get through to him,” she said.

— Abigail Ng

Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency said that Russian Army Major General Vitaly Gerasimov was killed, and other senior Russian Army officers “were also killed or wounded” in action near the city of Kharkiv.

Gerasimov was identified by the intelligence agency as the chief of staff and first deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army.

The agency, which said Gerasimov had been “liquidated,” claimed that data obtained related to his death near the city in northeast Ukraine “show significant problems with communication” in Russia’s army, “and with the evacuation of their defeated units.”

The post contains embedded audio files purporting to be intercepted communications between Russians discussing Gerasimov’s death.

The reported killing comes days after another deputy commander of the 41st Combined, Gen. Andrei Sukhovetsky, was fatally shot by a Ukrainian sniper.

—Dan Mangan