Ukrainian officials had projected a more optimistic tone for the talks than on previous, fruitless occasions. But early Monday evening, Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser, said on Twitter that the talks had been paused. The long-anticipated convoy of cars that would evacuate trapped Mariupol residents and deliver crucial food and medicine to the besieged city was also stalled Monday, with Ukrainian officials accusing Russian troops of repeatedly violating a cease-fire agreement.
Meanwhile, in a letter to U.S. lawmakers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will deliver a virtual joint address to Congress on Wednesday. “Congress, our country and the world are in awe of the people of Ukraine,” they wrote.
Here’s what to know
- Both Ukrainian and Russian officials announced proposals for humanitarian corridors Monday. Russia proposed 10 humanitarian corridors, and Ukrainian authorities agreed to three and proposed 11 additional routes, according to Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defense Control Center. Mizintsev also said Russia agreed to the 11 additional corridors proposed for Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Mariupol, Luhansk and Donetsk.
- A high-voltage power line at the former Chernobyl nuclear plant was again damaged by Russian forces, Ukraine’s nuclear agency said one day after it was announced that power had been restored after a previous attack.
- A United Nations human rights office, which has been tracking civilian casualties, says there have been at least 636 civilians killed and 1,125 injured since Russia began its invasion — though the office acknowledges that the figure is probably a significant undercount.
UNDERSTANDING THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT
Tens of thousands of Britons sign up to host Ukrainian refugees in their homes
Tens of thousands of British residents have volunteered to host Ukrainian refugees in their homes, the British government said Monday.
The new program, known as “Homes for Ukraine,” launched its website Monday, and within hours more than 25,000 people had signed up, Housing Minister Michael Gove said, including his own family. It is Britain’s first refugee pathway that can be used by Ukrainians who have no family ties to the country, and its rollout comes after criticism that the British government has not done enough to help those fleeing the Russian invasion.
“The United Kingdom has a long and proud history of helping others in their hour of need and our new Homes for Ukraine scheme offers a lifeline to those who have been forced to flee,” Gove said in a statement. “I’m asking people across our country who can provide a home for Ukrainians to consider being sponsors.”
More than three-fourths of surveyed Brits have said they support the country resettling some Ukrainian refugees, and British media reported that by late Monday, the list of volunteer hosts had grown to nearly 44,000.
The British government is offering roughly $450 per month to those who sponsor a Ukrainian family. Participating hosts would provide a room rent-free for as long as they can and for a minimum of six months. Ukrainians who arrive in the country this way will be granted a three-year visa, allowing them to work and access benefits and public services.
Those who wish to host must nominate a Ukrainian family by name, a step some critics have described as an unnecessary roadblock. Officials say that charities and community organizations are helping to connect volunteers with families.
Some have also floated an unorthodox way to house refugees: the British government seizing the properties of Russian oligarchs under sanctions and turning them into shelters for Ukrainians. Legal experts, however, say the idea is legally challenging.
Karla Adam in London contributed to this report.
Employee bursts onto live Russian state TV to decry war and ‘propaganda’
correction
An earlier version of this report, relying on information from OVD-Info, misstated the name of Marina Ovsyannikova.
A woman burst onto the set of Russian state TV’s flagship evening news program Monday, chanting “stop the war” and denouncing government “propaganda” — a striking moment of public protest as the Kremlin cracks down on any criticism of its invasion in Ukraine.
OVD-Info, a human rights group that tracks protest activity and detentions in Russia, identified the woman Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor and producer with the broadcaster, and said she has been detained. Before storming the set of Channel One, Ovsyannikova recorded a video message in which she said, “What is going in Ukraine a crime.”
“Unfortunately, I have been working at Channel One during recent years, working on Kremlin propaganda,” Ovsyannikova said. “And now I am very ashamed. I am ashamed that I’ve allowed the lies to be said on the TV screens. I am ashamed that I let the Russian people be zombified.”
She ended with a call to action, alluding to the high price of dissent in Russia: “It is only in our power to stop this madness. Take to the streets, do not be afraid. They can’t jail us all.”
Scenes of destruction in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city and home to 1.4 million people, has been devastated by Russian shelling.
The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Monday that a high-ranking national police official reported that 212 civilians had been killed in all of the Kharkiv region as of Sunday evening.
The strikes have destroyed residences, art museums, libraries and government buildings in a city known for its architecture.
Photos of Kharkiv show stately buildings with broken windows, offices strewn with debris, and vehicles reduced to little more than their frames — signs of the escalating toll that the war is having on civilians and infrastructure.
In all, 636 civilians have been killed in Ukraine and 1,125 injured since Russia began its invasion Feb. 24, the U.N. human rights office reported. The agency acknowledged that the actual figures probably are “considerably higher,” especially in the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine and the Donetsk region in the east.
Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons, including shelling from heavy artillery and rocket systems, and missile and airstrikes, causing wide impact to both infrastructure and human life, the agency said.
Police arrest people who broke into London mansion reportedly owned by Russian oligarch’s family
LONDON — Police have removed squatters who on Monday broke into a mansion reportedly owned by a Russian oligarch, Reuters reported.
The trespassers unfurled a Ukrainian flag and declared the property “liberated” and ready for refugees.
Police arrested the four people who stood on the balcony, an official told Reuters.
The home is said to belong to Oleg Deripaska, an oil tycoon and metals billionaire who the British government says is worth $2.6 billion.
Last week, he was added to Britain’s sanctions list, alongside his former business partner Roman Abramovich and five others, in the government’s most aggressive crackdown yet on Russian elites they say have close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“It’s truly a disgrace that this is happening in a country that is supposed to respect private property and the rule of law,” the unnamed spokesperson told Reuters.
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the outlet that the administration is “working to identify appropriate use for seized properties while owners are subject to sanctions.”
The mansion isn’t hard to find — the white stucco building is in Belgrave Square, dubbed “billionaire row” by British tabloids — and it’s a highlight on “kleptocracy tours” in London given by anti-corruption campaigners.
On Monday, the street was filled with police vans. Images on social media showed police with riot shields entering the property.
The squatters made their presence known. In addition to the yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flag, they also hung banners outside the home that read “Power breeds parasites” and “This property has been liberated.”
The squatters said they broke in about 1 a.m. Monday.
Zelensky says Ukrainians are mourning slain U.S. journalist
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky paid tribute to U.S. journalist Brent Renaud, who was killed Sunday while reporting outside Kyiv.
In a letter addressed to Renaud’s family in Arkansas and posted to his official Twitter account Monday, Zelensky offered condolences and called Renaud “a talented and brave journalist” who “lost his life while documenting human tragedy, devastation and suffering of the millions of Ukrainians.”
“The people of Ukraine, who are fighting against the Russian regime to defend their Homeland and democracy in the world, are mourning with you,” he wrote. “May Brent’s life, service and sacrifice inspire generations of people all around the world to stand up in the fight for the forces of light against forces of darkness.”
Renaud, 50, was an award-winning journalist and documentarian who filmed in conflict zones around the world. He was working on a project about the global refugee crisis for Time Studios at the time of his death, which prompted an outpouring of grief and outrage among his friends, colleagues and free-press advocacy organizations.
Zelensky joined the chorus on Monday. “With all his courage and determination, he traveled to the most dangerous war zones to film the unprecedented truthfulness and evil, also inflicted upon our nation by the aggressor state,” he wrote in his letter.
I extend my heartfelt condolences to the family of Brent Renaud who lost his life while documenting the ruthlessness & evil inflicted upon 🇺🇦 people by Russia. May Brent’s life & sacrifice inspire the world to stand up in fight for the forces of light against forces of darkness. pic.twitter.com/bvQjM470OU
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 14, 2022
Humanitarian convoy bound for Mariupol is again blocked by Russian troops, Ukrainian officials say
A convoy of trucks packed with food and medicine and bound for the besieged city of Mariupol was again turned away by fierce fighting on Monday, the latest attempt to deliver crucial supplies to a place surrounded by Russian troops.
The humanitarian caravan, which would also afford suffering residents their best chance yet to evacuate, remained stalled about 50 miles southeast of Mariupol, near Berdyansk, the Mariupol City Council said in a statement Monday. The parade of vehicles was originally slated to arrive Sunday afternoon, but Russian forces have repeatedly thwarted its journey and violated a cease-fire agreement, the city council said, noting that Mariupol’s 400,000 residents desperately need help.
“Tomorrow morning will be a new attempt,” the council’s statement said.
Mariupol, a strategically important port city, has been the site of some of Russia’s most brutal shelling since the invasion began. Images from the city, which has been cut off from water and electricity for days, show bombed-out homes, apartment buildings and hospitals.
“The occupation forces, without reason, are blocking in Berdyansk needed food and medicine for our people, in the city that they are mercilessly destroying,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a video address Monday.
However, Vereshchuk added, nearly 160 vehicles were able to evacuate from Mariupol on Monday — a small fraction of the residents who are trying to flee, but more than have escaped in previous days.
She added that close to 4,000 people were also evacuated Monday from the Kyiv and Luhansk regions.
Ukraine’s prime minister demands Russia’s expulsion from Council of Europe
Ukraine on Monday demanded that Russia be ousted immediately from the Council of Europe, a body charged with upholding human rights on the continent.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal urged the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, meeting in a special session to discuss the invasion, to expel Russia and said that those who “support the invasion have no place in the European family.”
“Ukraine is on fire,” Shmyhal said in a videoconference, standing in for Zelensky, who was scheduled to give the address. “We have to join our efforts not only to defend Ukraine but to defend all of Europe today. We must stop the aggression, to prevent nuclear disaster, to stop all of Europe from catching fire.”
Shmyhal accused Russia of carrying out gross violations of the laws of war, actions that he said accounted for “terrorism and genocide.” He reiterated Ukrainian leaders’ call to “close the sky” over Ukraine by creating a no-fly zone that would require countries — most likely NATO members and other U.S. allies — to declare that Russian military aircraft and missiles are no longer allowed in Ukrainian airspace.
The parliamentary assembly does not have the power to expel a member, but it could recommend that the committee of ministers, the council’s executive body, take such a step, which would signal Europe’s escalating isolation of Russia.
An expulsion would mean that Russians would no longer have recourse to the European Court of Human Rights, Europe’s top human rights court.
The committee of ministers suspended Russia from all its rights of representation a day after the invasion, but none of the 47 member states, including Russia and Ukraine, have been expelled from the council since its creation in 1949.
The assembly is expected to adopt a resolution Tuesday recommending that the committee “invite” Russia to withdraw from the body, Agence France-Presse reported.
Attack on Ukrainian base came from warplanes in Russia, Pentagon says, underscoring limits of a no-fly zone
Russia’s missile attack on a Ukrainian military base near the Poland border was launched from long-range bombers flying in Russian airspace, the Pentagon said Monday, detailing its latest assessment of the strike that killed at least 35 people and marked a significant escalation in the three-week war.
The attack Sunday in Yavoriv in western Ukraine, about 15 miles from NATO territory, did not disrupt shipments of Western military aid despite Russia’s claims to the contrary, said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon.
But it has amplified fears in the region, and in the United States, that a miscalculation could drastically widen the war. Thousands of U.S. troops have been sent to Poland and other countries along the alliance’s eastern edge, and President Biden and other Western leaders have maintained that a Russian attack on one would invite a ferocious response.
Psaki says Biden’s thoughts are with Fox News reporter injured in Ukraine
White House press secretary Jen Psaki expressed concern for the well-being of Fox News reporter Benjamin Hall, who was injured in Ukraine on Monday while covering the Russian invasion.
“I know there’s no final reports, or we would wait for your news organization to confirm those,” Psaki told a Fox News reporter during Monday’s news briefing, “but our thoughts, the president’s thoughts, our administration’s thoughts are with him, his family and all of you at Fox News.”
Hall was injured in Kyiv, Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said in a statement.
“We have 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,” Scott said. “This is a stark reminder for all journalists who are putting their lives on the line every day to deliver the news from a war zone.”
In terms of “specific actions” that the administration would take in response to an attack on an American journalist, Psaki said Biden has led “the world in putting in place consequences, putting in place repercussions and steps in response to the actions of Russia, the brutal actions that have certainly impacted Ukrainian people and now have certainly impacted some Americans.”
“But in terms of next steps or what the next consequence would be, I don’t have anything to preview for you at this point in time,” Psaki added.
Another American journalist, Brent Renaud, was fatally shot while reporting outside Kyiv on Sunday.
White House says there will be ‘significant consequences’ for China if it violates sanctions against Russia
China will face “significant consequences” if it violates the international sanctions against Russia, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.
Psaki did not detail what those repercussions might entail, saying only that the United States would coordinate with its partners and allies to make a determination.
Earlier Monday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan led a delegation of senior U.S. officials to Rome for talks with China on the issue.
“I think what we have conveyed — and what was conveyed by our national security adviser in this meeting — is that should they provide military or other assistance that of course violates sanctions or supports the war effort, that there will be significant consequences,” Psaki told reporters at a regular news briefing.
Psaki also said the White House is seeing no signs that Putin is deescalating his attack on Ukraine.
Fox News correspondent injured, hospitalized outside Kyiv
Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall was injured on Monday while reporting outside of Kyiv and is being treated in a hospital, the network announced.
CEO Suzanne Scott told Fox employees in an internal memo that the network has “a minimal level of details right now” regarding Hall’s condition. “Our teams on the ground are working to gather additional information as the situation quickly unfolds,” she wrote, asking colleagues to keep him and his family in their prayers.
Scott said that Hall’s injury is “a stark reminder for all journalists who are putting their lives on the line every day to deliver the news from a war zone.” The incident was first publicly reported Monday afternoon by Fox News anchor John Roberts.
Hall, who joined Fox News in 2015, works primarily as a Washington, D.C.-based State Department correspondent. But according to his Fox bio, he has also reported from conflict zones in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza.
Bus full of Ukrainian evacuees crashes, killing woman, news services report
A bus carrying dozens of refugees from western Ukraine overturned in Italy on Sunday, killing a young mother and injuring others, according to news reports.
The 32-year-old woman was crushed under the bus, Italian daily paper Corriere della Sera said, according to the Associated Press. The woman, who was not named in the news report, is survived by a 5- and 10-year-old, Italian news agency LaPresse reported.
At least five people were injured, and the other passengers aboard the bus that had been on the road for about 20 hours had been evacuated to police barracks for initial assistance before resuming their travels, Italy’s Interior Ministry told AP.
The bus, which was headed to an Italian port city, landed on its side near a field Sunday morning, AP reported. Firefighters had to use two cranes to set the bus upright for removal after survivors were rescued, according to the outlet.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
“We also estimate that about [two] million people are displaced inside Ukraine,” he said last week. “Millions forced to leave their homes by this senseless war.”
About 35,000 Ukrainians fleeing the war have entered Italy, the AP reported.
Analysis: Some of Trump’s rhetoric on Ukraine has changed, but he still praises Putin
Over the weekend, former president Donald Trump held a rally in South Carolina. Rallies are where Trump is at his most pure, unburdened by the constraints of tenor and rhetoric that often bind his media interviews, and focused solely on what gets the most applause from his audience. Trump often derides polling, but his rallies unquestionably serve the same purpose for him: giving him a chance to test ideas and lines with his most energetic supporters.
Trump’s stated views of the war in Ukraine have shifted over the past few weeks, with one exception. Even now, he’s unwilling to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Nobody can look at the bloodshed much longer, what’s happening,” Trump said of the current state of the war. He added that “it’s just so ridiculous and so senseless and so horrible.”
But in between, he offered his assessment of Putin.
“It’s a lack of respect — for a lot of people, a lot of things. But it’s just a total lack of respect,” Trump said. “And it happens to be a man that is just driven; he’s driven to put it together. … I’ll say it again and again: It should have never happened. If he respected our president, it would have never, ever happened.”
‘All art must go underground:’ Ukraine scrambles to shield its cultural heritage
LVIV, Ukraine — Emptying a museum is a gargantuan task, and the entire workforce of the Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum had been at it for a week before the final piece — a century-old portrait of the museum’s namesake — was taken down, leaving the last of its walls bare.
Ihor Kozhan, the director of the grand gallery opposite Lviv’s opera house, explained the rush.
“There is an egomaniac in Moscow who doesn’t care about killing children, let alone destroying art,” he said. “If our history and heritage are to survive, all art must go underground.”
Across Ukraine, artists, gallerists, curators and museum directors are desperately but carefully unhooking, wrapping and stashing away the country’s hefty cultural endowment as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s onslaught closes in. Statues, stained-glass windows and monuments are being covered with shrapnel-proof material. Basement bunkers are crammed with paintings.
Ukrainian officials had projected a more optimistic tone for the talks than on previous, fruitless occasions. But early Monday evening, Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser, said on Twitter that the talks had been paused. The long-anticipated convoy of cars that would evacuate trapped Mariupol residents and deliver crucial food and medicine to the besieged city was also stalled Monday, with Ukrainian officials accusing Russian troops of repeatedly violating a cease-fire agreement.Meanwhile, in a letter to U.S. lawmakers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will deliver a virtual joint address to Congress on Wednesday. “Congress, our country and the world are in awe of the people of Ukraine,” they wrote.Here’s what to knowBoth Ukrainian and Russian officials announced proposals for humanitarian corridors Monday. Russia proposed 10 humanitarian corridors, and Ukrainian authorities agreed to three and proposed 11 additional routes, according to Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defense Control Center. Mizintsev also said Russia agreed to the 11 additional corridors proposed for Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Mariupol, Luhansk and Donetsk.A high-voltage power line at the former Chernobyl nuclear plant was again damaged by Russian forces, Ukraine’s nuclear agency said one day after it was announced that power had been restored after a previous attack.A United Nations human rights office, which has been tracking civilian casualties, says there have been at least 636 civilians killed and 1,125 injured since Russia began its invasion — though the office acknowledges that the figure is probably a significant undercount.UNDERSTANDING THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICTTens of thousands of Britons sign up to host Ukrainian refugees in their homesReturn to menuTens of thousands of British residents have volunteered to host Ukrainian refugees in their homes, the British government said Monday.The new program, known as “Homes for Ukraine,” launched its website Monday, and within hours more than 25,000 people had signed up, Housing Minister Michael Gove said, including his own family. It is Britain’s first refugee pathway that can be used by Ukrainians who have no family ties to the country, and its rollout comes after criticism that the British government has not done enough to help those fleeing the Russian invasion.“The United Kingdom has a long and proud history of helping others in their hour of need and our new Homes for Ukraine scheme offers a lifeline to those who have been forced to flee,” Gove said in a statement. “I’m asking people across our country who can provide a home for Ukrainians to consider being sponsors.”More than three-fourths of surveyed Brits have said they support the country resettling some Ukrainian refugees, and British media reported that by late Monday, the list of volunteer hosts had grown to nearly 44,000.The British government is offering roughly $450 per month to those who sponsor a Ukrainian family. Participating hosts would provide a room rent-free for as long as they can and for a minimum of six months. Ukrainians who arrive in the country this way will be granted a three-year visa, allowing them to work and access benefits and public services.Those who wish to host must nominate a Ukrainian family by name, a step some critics have described as an unnecessary roadblock. Officials say that charities and community organizations are helping to connect volunteers with families.Some have also floated an unorthodox way to house refugees: the British government seizing the properties of Russian oligarchs under sanctions and turning them into shelters for Ukrainians. Legal experts, however, say the idea is legally challenging.Karla Adam in London contributed to this report.Updates continue below advertisementEmployee bursts onto live Russian state TV to decry war and ‘propaganda’ Return to menuMarina Ovsyannikova burst onto the set of Russia’s state TV flagship program on March 14, holding a poster that read “stop the war.” (Channel One)correctionAn earlier version of this report, relying on information from OVD-Info, misstated the name of Marina Ovsyannikova.A woman burst onto the set of Russian state TV’s flagship evening news program Monday, chanting “stop the war” and denouncing government “propaganda” — a striking moment of public protest as the Kremlin cracks down on any criticism of its invasion in Ukraine.OVD-Info, a human rights group that tracks protest activity and detentions in Russia, identified the woman Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor and producer with the broadcaster, and said she has been detained. Before storming the set of Channel One, Ovsyannikova recorded a video message in which she said, “What is going in Ukraine a crime.”“Unfortunately, I have been working at Channel One during recent years, working on Kremlin propaganda,” Ovsyannikova said. “And now I am very ashamed. I am ashamed that I’ve allowed the lies to be said on the TV screens. I am ashamed that I let the Russian people be zombified.”She ended with a call to action, alluding to the high price of dissent in Russia: “It is only in our power to stop this madness. Take to the streets, do not be afraid. They can’t jail us all.”Updates continue below advertisementScenes of destruction in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest cityReturn to menuKharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city and home to 1.4 million people, has been devastated by Russian shelling.The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Monday that a high-ranking national police official reported that 212 civilians had been killed in all of the Kharkiv region as of Sunday evening.The strikes have destroyed residences, art museums, libraries and government buildings in a city known for its architecture.Photos of Kharkiv show stately buildings with broken windows, offices strewn with debris, and vehicles reduced to little more than their frames — signs of the escalating toll that the war is having on civilians and infrastructure.In all, 636 civilians have been killed in Ukraine and 1,125 injured since Russia began its invasion Feb. 24, the U.N. human rights office reported. The agency acknowledged that the actual figures probably are “considerably higher,” especially in the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine and the Donetsk region in the east.Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons, including shelling from heavy artillery and rocket systems, and missile and airstrikes, causing wide impact to both infrastructure and human life, the agency said.Updates continue below advertisementPolice arrest people who broke into London mansion reportedly owned by Russian oligarch’s family Return to menuLONDON — Police have removed squatters who on Monday broke into a mansion reportedly owned by a Russian oligarch, Reuters reported.The trespassers unfurled a Ukrainian flag and declared the property “liberated” and ready for refugees.Police arrested the four people who stood on the balcony, an official told Reuters.The home is said to belong to Oleg Deripaska, an oil tycoon and metals billionaire who the British government says is worth $2.6 billion.Last week, he was added to Britain’s sanctions list, alongside his former business partner Roman Abramovich and five others, in the government’s most aggressive crackdown yet on Russian elites they say have close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.“It’s truly a disgrace that this is happening in a country that is supposed to respect private property and the rule of law,” the unnamed spokesperson told Reuters.A spokesperson for Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the outlet that the administration is “working to identify appropriate use for seized properties while owners are subject to sanctions.”The mansion isn’t hard to find — the white stucco building is in Belgrave Square, dubbed “billionaire row” by British tabloids — and it’s a highlight on “kleptocracy tours” in London given by anti-corruption campaigners.On Monday, the street was filled with police vans. Images on social media showed police with riot shields entering the property.The squatters made their presence known. In addition to the yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flag, they also hung banners outside the home that read “Power breeds parasites” and “This property has been liberated.”The squatters said they broke in about 1 a.m. Monday.Updates continue below advertisementZelensky says Ukrainians are mourning slain U.S. journalist Return to menuUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky paid tribute to U.S. journalist Brent Renaud, who was killed Sunday while reporting outside Kyiv.In a letter addressed to Renaud’s family in Arkansas and posted to his official Twitter account Monday, Zelensky offered condolences and called Renaud “a talented and brave journalist” who “lost his life while documenting human tragedy, devastation and suffering of the millions of Ukrainians.”“The people of Ukraine, who are fighting against the Russian regime to defend their Homeland and democracy in the world, are mourning with you,” he wrote. “May Brent’s life, service and sacrifice inspire generations of people all around the world to stand up in the fight for the forces of light against forces of darkness.”Renaud, 50, was an award-winning journalist and documentarian who filmed in conflict zones around the world. He was working on a project about the global refugee crisis for Time Studios at the time of his death, which prompted an outpouring of grief and outrage among his friends, colleagues and free-press advocacy organizations.Zelensky joined the chorus on Monday. “With all his courage and determination, he traveled to the most dangerous war zones to film the unprecedented truthfulness and evil, also inflicted upon our nation by the aggressor state,” he wrote in his letter.I extend my heartfelt condolences to the family of Brent Renaud who lost his life while documenting the ruthlessness & evil inflicted upon 🇺🇦 people by Russia. May Brent’s life & sacrifice inspire the world to stand up in fight for the forces of light against forces of darkness. pic.twitter.com/bvQjM470OU— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 14, 2022 Updates continue below advertisementHumanitarian convoy bound for Mariupol is again blocked by Russian troops, Ukrainian officials sayReturn to menuA convoy of trucks packed with food and medicine and bound for the besieged city of Mariupol was again turned away by fierce fighting on Monday, the latest attempt to deliver crucial supplies to a place surrounded by Russian troops.The humanitarian caravan, which would also afford suffering residents their best chance yet to evacuate, remained stalled about 50 miles southeast of Mariupol, near Berdyansk, the Mariupol City Council said in a statement Monday. The parade of vehicles was originally slated to arrive Sunday afternoon, but Russian forces have repeatedly thwarted its journey and violated a cease-fire agreement, the city council said, noting that Mariupol’s 400,000 residents desperately need help.“Tomorrow morning will be a new attempt,” the council’s statement said.Mariupol, a strategically important port city, has been the site of some of Russia’s most brutal shelling since the invasion began. Images from the city, which has been cut off from water and electricity for days, show bombed-out homes, apartment buildings and hospitals.“The occupation forces, without reason, are blocking in Berdyansk needed food and medicine for our people, in the city that they are mercilessly destroying,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a video address Monday.However, Vereshchuk added, nearly 160 vehicles were able to evacuate from Mariupol on Monday — a small fraction of the residents who are trying to flee, but more than have escaped in previous days.She added that close to 4,000 people were also evacuated Monday from the Kyiv and Luhansk regions.Updates continue below advertisementUkraine’s prime minister demands Russia’s expulsion from Council of EuropeReturn to menuUkraine on Monday demanded that Russia be ousted immediately from the Council of Europe, a body charged with upholding human rights on the continent.Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal urged the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, meeting in a special session to discuss the invasion, to expel Russia and said that those who “support the invasion have no place in the European family.”“Ukraine is on fire,” Shmyhal said in a videoconference, standing in for Zelensky, who was scheduled to give the address. “We have to join our efforts not only to defend Ukraine but to defend all of Europe today. We must stop the aggression, to prevent nuclear disaster, to stop all of Europe from catching fire.”Shmyhal accused Russia of carrying out gross violations of the laws of war, actions that he said accounted for “terrorism and genocide.” He reiterated Ukrainian leaders’ call to “close the sky” over Ukraine by creating a no-fly zone that would require countries — most likely NATO members and other U.S. allies — to declare that Russian military aircraft and missiles are no longer allowed in Ukrainian airspace.The parliamentary assembly does not have the power to expel a member, but it could recommend that the committee of ministers, the council’s executive body, take such a step, which would signal Europe’s escalating isolation of Russia.An expulsion would mean that Russians would no longer have recourse to the European Court of Human Rights, Europe’s top human rights court.The committee of ministers suspended Russia from all its rights of representation a day after the invasion, but none of the 47 member states, including Russia and Ukraine, have been expelled from the council since its creation in 1949.The assembly is expected to adopt a resolution Tuesday recommending that the committee “invite” Russia to withdraw from the body, Agence France-Presse reported.Updates continue below advertisementAttack on Ukrainian base came from warplanes in Russia, Pentagon says, underscoring limits of a no-fly zone Return to menuRussia’s missile attack on a Ukrainian military base near the Poland border was launched from long-range bombers flying in Russian airspace, the Pentagon said Monday, detailing its latest assessment of the strike that killed at least 35 people and marked a significant escalation in the three-week war.The attack Sunday in Yavoriv in western Ukraine, about 15 miles from NATO territory, did not disrupt shipments of Western military aid despite Russia’s claims to the contrary, said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon.But it has amplified fears in the region, and in the United States, that a miscalculation could drastically widen the war. Thousands of U.S. troops have been sent to Poland and other countries along the alliance’s eastern edge, and President Biden and other Western leaders have maintained that a Russian attack on one would invite a ferocious response.Updates continue below advertisementPsaki says Biden’s thoughts are with Fox News reporter injured in UkraineReturn to menuWhite House press secretary Jen Psaki expressed concern for the well-being of Fox News reporter Benjamin Hall, who was injured in Ukraine on Monday while covering the Russian invasion.“I know there’s no final reports, or we would wait for your news organization to confirm those,” Psaki told a Fox News reporter during Monday’s news briefing, “but our thoughts, the president’s thoughts, our administration’s thoughts are with him, his family and all of you at Fox News.”Hall was injured in Kyiv, Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said in a statement.“We have 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,” Scott said. “This is a stark reminder for all journalists who are putting their lives on the line every day to deliver the news from a war zone.”In terms of “specific actions” that the administration would take in response to an attack on an American journalist, Psaki said Biden has led “the world in putting in place consequences, putting in place repercussions and steps in response to the actions of Russia, the brutal actions that have certainly impacted Ukrainian people and now have certainly impacted some Americans.”“But in terms of next steps or what the next consequence would be, I don’t have anything to preview for you at this point in time,” Psaki added.Another American journalist, Brent Renaud, was fatally shot while reporting outside Kyiv on Sunday.White House says there will be ‘significant consequences’ for China if it violates sanctions against RussiaReturn to menuChina will face “significant consequences” if it violates the international sanctions against Russia, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.Psaki did not detail what those repercussions might entail, saying only that the United States would coordinate with its partners and allies to make a determination.Earlier Monday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan led a delegation of senior U.S. officials to Rome for talks with China on the issue.“I think what we have conveyed — and what was conveyed by our national security adviser in this meeting — is that should they provide military or other assistance that of course violates sanctions or supports the war effort, that there will be significant consequences,” Psaki told reporters at a regular news briefing.Psaki also said the White House is seeing no signs that Putin is deescalating his attack on Ukraine.Fox News correspondent injured, hospitalized outside KyivReturn to menuFox News correspondent Benjamin Hall was injured on Monday while reporting outside of Kyiv and is being treated in a hospital, the network announced.CEO Suzanne Scott told Fox employees in an internal memo that the network has “a minimal level of details right now” regarding Hall’s condition. “Our teams on the ground are working to gather additional information as the situation quickly unfolds,” she wrote, asking colleagues to keep him and his family in their prayers.Scott said that Hall’s injury is “a stark reminder for all journalists who are putting their lives on the line every day to deliver the news from a war zone.” The incident was first publicly reported Monday afternoon by Fox News anchor John Roberts.Hall, who joined Fox News in 2015, works primarily as a Washington, D.C.-based State Department correspondent. But according to his Fox bio, he has also reported from conflict zones in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza.Bus full of Ukrainian evacuees crashes, killing woman, news services reportReturn to menuA bus carrying dozens of refugees from western Ukraine overturned in Italy on Sunday, killing a young mother and injuring others, according to news reports.The 32-year-old woman was crushed under the bus, Italian daily paper Corriere della Sera said, according to the Associated Press. The woman, who was not named in the news report, is survived by a 5- and 10-year-old, Italian news agency LaPresse reported.At least five people were injured, and the other passengers aboard the bus that had been on the road for about 20 hours had been evacuated to police barracks for initial assistance before resuming their travels, Italy’s Interior Ministry told AP.The bus, which was headed to an Italian port city, landed on its side near a field Sunday morning, AP reported. Firefighters had to use two cranes to set the bus upright for removal after survivors were rescued, according to the outlet.The cause of the crash is under investigation.“We also estimate that about [two] million people are displaced inside Ukraine,” he said last week. “Millions forced to leave their homes by this senseless war.”About 35,000 Ukrainians fleeing the war have entered Italy, the AP reported.Analysis: Some of Trump’s rhetoric on Ukraine has changed, but he still praises PutinReturn to menuOver the weekend, former president Donald Trump held a rally in South Carolina. Rallies are where Trump is at his most pure, unburdened by the constraints of tenor and rhetoric that often bind his media interviews, and focused solely on what gets the most applause from his audience. Trump often derides polling, but his rallies unquestionably serve the same purpose for him: giving him a chance to test ideas and lines with his most energetic supporters.Trump’s stated views of the war in Ukraine have shifted over the past few weeks, with one exception. Even now, he’s unwilling to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin.“Nobody can look at the bloodshed much longer, what’s happening,” Trump said of the current state of the war. He added that “it’s just so ridiculous and so senseless and so horrible.”But in between, he offered his assessment of Putin.“It’s a lack of respect — for a lot of people, a lot of things. But it’s just a total lack of respect,” Trump said. “And it happens to be a man that is just driven; he’s driven to put it together. … I’ll say it again and again: It should have never happened. If he respected our president, it would have never, ever happened.”‘All art must go underground:’ Ukraine scrambles to shield its cultural heritage Return to menuLVIV, Ukraine — Emptying a museum is a gargantuan task, and the entire workforce of the Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum had been at it for a week before the final piece — a century-old portrait of the museum’s namesake — was taken down, leaving the last of its walls bare.Ihor Kozhan, the director of the grand gallery opposite Lviv’s opera house, explained the rush.“There is an egomaniac in Moscow who doesn’t care about killing children, let alone destroying art,” he said. “If our history and heritage are to survive, all art must go underground.”Across Ukraine, artists, gallerists, curators and museum directors are desperately but carefully unhooking, wrapping and stashing away the country’s hefty cultural endowment as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s onslaught closes in. Statues, stained-glass windows and monuments are being covered with shrapnel-proof material. Basement bunkers are crammed with paintings.