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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

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

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 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.

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

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

Concerts were held at Rynok Square and Svobody street by Lviv Symphony Orchestra and Mikola Lisenko Music Academy. 

— Adam Jeffery

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.

The U.S. House will vote on revoking Russia’s “most favored nation” trade status soon, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said.

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 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. 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

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. 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

Zelenskyy invoked the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11 terror strikes on America on Wednesday as he pleaded with the U.S. Congress for more aid for his embattled country to fight against its invasion by Russia.

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

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

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on world leaders to “cut all ties” with Russia on Wednesday.

— Chloe Taylor

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 Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address Congress in hopes of getting more aid as Kyiv and other key cities come under heavy fire from Russia.

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

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

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 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

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 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

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

Ukraine’s capital Kyiv has been heavily fortified in anticipation of a largescale Russian attack but analysts fear the city could face the same scale of destruction that the Chechen capital Grozny, and Aleppo in Syria, experienced in recent conflicts.

Read the full story here.

— Holly Ellyatt

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.

Read the full story here.

— Karen Gilchrist

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

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

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 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

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.

NBC News first reported on the Switchblade 300 in December.

AeroVironment officials did not respond to requests for comment.

— Ted Kemp

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

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 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

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

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

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

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.”

https://twitter.com/Podolyak_M/status/1503818663866023942

— Chloe Taylor

You can read Tuesday’s live coverage here:

Biden heading to Brussels for NATO meeting; two Fox News journalists killed in Ukraine