NEW YORK (1010 WINS/AP) -- A week after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, more than 1 million people have fled in the swiftest refugee exodus this century, the United Nations said Thursday, as Moscow said it was ready for more talks to end fighting even as its forces pressed their assaults on the country’s major cities and seized the seaport of Kherson. Hundreds of civilians and troops have been killed eight days into the conflict.
Thursday, March 3, 2022
7:40 p.m.: Europe's largest nuclear power plant on fire due to Russian shelling
President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the fire and efforts to extinguish it.
"President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine this evening to receive an update on the fire at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant," said the White House in a statement. "President Biden joined President Zelenskyy in urging Russia to cease its military activities in the area and allow firefighters and emergency responders to access the site."
The statement continues: "President Biden also spoke this evening with Under Secretary for Nuclear Security of the U.S. Department of Energy and Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to receive an update on the situation at the plant. The President will continue to be briefed regularly."
Dmytro Orlov, the mayor of a town near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant demanded an end to the Russian shelling.
“I demand, stop! Immediately stop shelling the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant point blank,” the mayor said in a video message.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a Tweet that radiation levels are stable at the plant.
Ukrainian foreign affairs minister Dmytro Kuleba called for an immediate cessation of the attack and warned that "if it blows up, it will be 10 times larger than Chornobyl."
6:30 p.m. Biden administration offers temporary protected status to some Ukrainians in the US
The Biden administration offered humanitarian relief to Ukrainians in the United States on Thursday, which could protect as many as 30,000 people from being deported.
Ukrainians can remain for up to 18 months under the federal program known as Temporary Protected Status.
“Russia’s premeditated and unprovoked attack on Ukraine has resulted in an ongoing war, senseless violence” that has forced Ukrainians “to seek refuge in other countries,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said.
The program is for people fleeing ongoing armed conflict, environmental disasters, or extraordinary and temporary conditions. As many as 30,000 Ukrainians may benefit, according to The Migration Policy Institute.
The relief will extend to Ukrainians who have been living in the country without legal documentation since March 1 or earlier, according to The New York Times.
5:15 p.m. - US establishes direct line with Russia
The Pentagon has established a channel of direct communication with the Russian ministry of defense to avoid unintended conflict related to the war in Ukraine.
A U.S. defense official said the “de-confliction line” was established March 1 “for the purpose of preventing miscalculation, military incidents, and escalation.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the communication line has not been announced.
4:45 p.m. - UN says over 4M refugees might flee Ukraine due to Russia's invasion
More than 4 million refugees may end up fleeing Ukraine due to Russia’s ongoing invasion, the United Nations said.
On Wednesday, the United Nations said that 1 million people have already fled since Russia began invading last week, an exodus without precedent in this century for its speed.
The United Nations says that “while the scale and scope of displacement is not yet clear, we do expect that more than 10 million people may flee their homes if violence continues, including 4 million people who may cross borders to neighboring countries,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Thursday.
Syria, whose civil war erupted in 2011, remains the country with the largest refugee outflows — nearly 5.7 million people, according to UNHCR’s figures. But even at the swiftest rate of flight out of that country, in early 2013, it took at least three months for 1 million refugees to leave Syria.
3:50 p.m. - WH likely to send VP Harris to Warsaw, Bucharest
The Biden administration is actively discussing sending Vice President Harris to Warsaw, Poland, and Bucharest, Romania to show solidarity with Ukraine as the nation is besieged by Russian attacks, sources told The Hill.
The trip, which could take place in the coming weeks, would possibly include Harris making a stop to visit troops stationed in Romania and a visit to the border with Ukraine, where over 1 million refugees have fled the country.
However, one source said it is clear that President Joe Biden would not visit the region.
"A presidential visit is a heavier logistical lift,” the source said. “The vice president has a smaller footprint and is historically more nimble.”
3:30 p.m. - Putin alleges Ukraine invasion is going "according to plan"
President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the invasion of Ukraine is going as planned.
“I want to say that the special military operation is going strictly according to schedule, according to plan," he said during his televised meeting of his national security council.
“We are at war with neo-Nazis,” Putin added, “I will never give up on my conviction that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.”
2:45 p.m. - Macron said that he has again asked Putin to halt attacks on Ukraine, but that Putin "refuses."
French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that he has again asked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to halt attacks on Ukraine, but that Putin won’t do it.
“At this point, he refuses,” Macron wrote in Twitter post.
He confirmed that he had spoken to Putin on the phone earlier on Thursday and said he will continue the dialogue to prevent “more human tragedy.”
“We must prevent the worst from happening,” Macron also said in his post. Dialogue has to continue to “protect the (civilian) population, to obtain good will gestures ... to put an end to this war,” Macron said.
2:30 p.m.- Biden administration levies new sanctions on Russian oligarchs and Kremlin spokesperson
The White House announced new sanctions on Russian oligarchs who are described as "Putin's cronies."
Full blocking sanctions will target eight Russian elites, plus their family members and associates.
The White House said it will also impose visa restrictions on 19 oligarchs and 47 of their family members and close associates who are "known to direct, authorize, fund, significantly support, or carry out malign activities in support of Russia's destabilizing foreign policy."
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, "a top purveyor of Putin's propaganda," will also be sanctioned.
"The United States and governments all over the world will work to identify and freeze the assets Russian elites and their family members hold in our respective jurisdictions -- their yachts, luxury apartments, money, and other ill-gotten gains," the White House fact sheet said.
The full fact sheet can be read here.
2:00 p.m. - U.S. says Russia fired nearly 500 missiles at Ukraine with Russian forces making progress in south.
U.S. officials say Russia has fired 480 missiles at Ukraine as Russian troops make more progress in the south, but are largely stalled in the north.
The official says about 90% of the Russian combat power that had been arrayed around Ukraine is now in the country.
Specifically, the official said that the majority of the Russian missile launches since the war began – or more than 230 of them – are coming from mobile systems within Ukraine. More than 150 missiles have been fired from within Russia, more than 70 from Belarus and only a very small number from ships in the Black Sea. Ukrainian air defenses are still intact and have been effective against the missiles, the official said.
1:20 p.m. - Ukraine, Russia reach tentative agreement to create safe corridors for civilians backed by ceasefires
A member of Ukraine’s delegation in talks with Russia says the parties have reached a tentative agreement to organize safe corridors for civilians to evacuate and for humanitarian supplies to be delivered.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who took part in Thursday’s talks in Belarus near the Polish border, said that Russia and Ukraine reached a preliminary understanding that cease-fires will be observed in areas where the safe corridors are established.
Russian negotiators in talks with Ukraine said another round of talks will likely be held shortly.
Vladimir Medinsky, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adviser who led the Russian delegation in the talks Thursday in Belarus near the Polish border, said the parties’ “positions are absolutely clear, they are written down point by point,” including issues related to a political settlement of the conflict. He added without elaboration that “mutual understanding was found on part of them.”
He confirmed that Russia and Ukraine reached a tentative agreement to create safe corridors for civilians to exit besieged cities and observe local cease-fires in areas where they will be created.
Leonid Slutsky, a senior Russian lawmaker who was part of the Russian delegation in talks, said that the details of safe corridors will need to be worked out quickly. He said that the next round of talks could lead to agreements, some of which would need to be ratified by Russian and Ukrainian parliaments.
12:45 p.m. - Putin claims Russian military offering safe corridor to fleeing civilians
Russian President Vladimir Putin says the Russian military has offered safe corridors to civilians to allow them to leave areas of fighting in Ukraine.
Putin, speaking in a video call with members of his Security Council, has charged that Ukrainian nationalist groups are preventing civilians from leaving.
The Russian leader said the groups were also using civilians as shields, taking up firing positions to provoke the Russian retaliatory fire. Putin’s claim couldn’t be independently verified.
The Russian military says it has only struck military facilities and haven’t targeted residential areas, a claim that has been contradicted by the abundant evidence of massive casualties and damage to residential areas of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and other cities in Ukraine documented by The Associated Press.
Putin reaffirmed his claim that the Russian military was fighting “neo-Nazis,” adding that some Ukrainians were also “fooled by nationalist propaganda.”
He hailed the Russian military as heroes and ordered additional payments to families of the soldiers who were killed and servicemen who were wounded in action.
12:30 p.m. - Kyiv’s chief rabbi says most Jews have fled amid ‘catastrophe’ in Ukraine
The chief rabbi of Kyiv, Ukraine, says the Russian invasion has produced “a catastrophe,” and that most Jews have fled.
Jonathan Markovitch spoke as he arrived at Ben-Gurion International Airport Thursday. He said the scene on the ground in Ukraine is “a catastrophe.”
“Planes are bombing places right next to residential buildings,” as well as a train station “maybe 100 meters from where my son lives and 50 meters from the synagogue.”
Most Jews, he said, have left the country. As he spoke, a group of about 150 young men and women held banners and sang as part of a welcome ceremony for new immigrants arriving from Ukraine.
11:30 a.m. - Zelenskyy asks Putin to meet -- 'I don't bite'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet him, salting the proposal with sarcasm.
“Sit down with me to negotiate, just not at 30 meters," he said Thursday, apparently referring to recent photos of Putin sitting at one end of an extremely long table when he met with French President Emmanuel Macron.
“I don’t bite. What are you afraid of?” Zelenskyy said at a Thursday news conference.
Zelenskyy said it was sensible to have talks: “Any words are more important than shots.”
10:30 a.m. - UN says Ukraine civilian death toll up to 249, likely a vast undercount
The U.N. human rights office says its latest count of casualties in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion last week has risen to 249 civilians killed and 553 injured.
That was only a small increase from its previous tally a day earlier, when it counted 227 civilian deaths and 525 people injured, likely a testament to the difficulty it has had in confirming deaths amid the continued fighting and bloodshed. Seventeen of those killed were children, and 27 were women, the latest count found.
The rights office admits that its figures so far are a vast undercount. It uses a strict methodology and counts only confirmed casualties. The latest count is as of midnight local time from Tuesday to Wednesday. Ukrainian officials have presented far higher numbers.
10:15 a.m. - 2nd round of talks between Russia, Ukraine begins
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office says a second round of talks with Russia about the war in Ukraine has begun in neighboring Belarus.
A video released by Zelenskyy’s office Thursday showed the informally dressed Ukrainian delegation walking into the meeting room where they shook hands with Russian delegates in suits and ties.
The talks are aimed at stopping the fighting that has sent more than 1 million people fleeing over Ukraine’s borders, but the two sides appeared to have little common ground.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned Ukraine that it must quickly accept the Kremlin’s demand for its “demilitarization” and declare itself neutral, formally renouncing its bid to join NATO. Putin has long contended that Ukraine’s turn toward the West is a threat to Moscow, an argument he used to justify last week's invasion.
The talks came as the Russian military made significant gains in the south of Ukraine as part of an effort to sever the country’s connection to the Black and Azov seas.
9:50 a.m. - Macron believes ‘worst is yet to come’ after speaking with Putin
French President Emmanuel Macron believes “the worst is yet to come” in Ukraine after talking with Russian President Vladimir Putin for 90 minutes by phone Thursday, a senior aide to Macron said, according to the Washington Post.
Macron now believes Putin aims to seize the “whole” of Ukraine, the AFP News Agency reported, citing a Macron aide.
During the call, which was apparently more strained than previous calls, Macron condemned Putin’s “lies,” according to reports.
Putin told Macron that the conflict would continue “until the end” unless negotiations meet his terms, a French official said. Putin said negotiations must center on the “neutralization and disarmament of Ukraine,” according to the official, who said the two spoke at Putin's request.
Putin reportedly said he would attain that goal by military means, if not by political and diplomatic means.
A statement from the Kremlin following the call said Russia sought Ukraine’s demilitarization and neutrality.
"Vladimir Putin outlined in detail the fundamental approaches and conditions in the context of negotiations with representatives of Kyiv. It was confirmed that, first of all, we are talking about the demilitarisation and neutral status of Ukraine, so that a threat to the Russian Federation will never emanate from its territory," the statement said, according to Reuters.
"It was emphasised that the tasks of the special military operation will be fulfilled in any event, and attempts to gain time by dragging out negotiations will only lead to additional demands on Kiev in our negotiating position."
Russia’s “special operation” in Ukraine is going “according to plan,” the Kremlin said.
9:30 a.m. - Russia’s foreign minister says Ukraine conflict will continue until ‘the end’
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that Russia will continue its military operation in Ukraine until “the end,” but also said Moscow had no thoughts of nuclear war, according to Reuters.
"The thought of nuclear is constantly spinning in the heads of Western politicians but not in the heads of Russians," he said. "I assure you that we will not allow any kind of provocation to unbalance us."
Lavrov reportedly said he believed a solution to the conflict could be reached but that Moscow would not allow Ukraine to pose what he said was a military threat to Russia.
8:45 a.m. - Russia continues bombardment of Kharkiv, other major cities
Russian forces pounded Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, again overnight and air raid sirens were heard in the capital, Kyiv.
Photos from Ukrainian armed forces show battered buildings in Chernihiv, a city of nearly 300,000 near Belarus.
Despite heavy Russian shelling, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol remain in Ukrainian hands, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said.
The Russians have been pressing their offensive on multiple fronts, though a 40-mile column of tanks and other vehicles outside the capital of Kyiv has made little progress in recent days.
Russian forces said they took the strategic Ukrainian seaport of Kherson, a city of 280,000, and set siege to Mariupol as Moscow tries to cut its neighbor off from the Black Sea.
Heavy fighting continued Thursday on the outskirts of Mariupol, plunging it into darkness, isolation and fear. Electricity and phone connections are largely down, and homes and shops are facing food and water shortages.
8:00 a.m. - Estonia-owned cargo ship sinks off Odessa following explosion
A cargo ship called HELT sank off the Ukrainian port of Odessa following an explosion, Reuters reported.
The manager of the Estonia-owned vessel told Reuters: "Two of the crew are in a raft on the water and four others are missing. I don’t know where they are at the moment."
The manager, Igor Ilves, said the ship may have struck a mine in the Black Sea.
Ukrainian authorities said earlier this week that Russian sailors had captured the ship, which was built in 1985 and is owned by the VISTA Shipping Agency AS, according to Estonian media outlets.
7:00 a.m. - Adviser to Ukrainian president posts photo ahead of talks with Russia
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, posted a photo of himself in a helicopter ahead of a second round of talks with Russia later Thursday.
“For negotiations with the Russian Federation. Already in helicopters. We'll start in a couple of hours...” Podolyak tweeted.
Ukrainian and Russian delegations are expected to meet in Belarus, even as Russia’s invasion entered its seventh day with increasing attacks on major cities. The two sides appeared to have little common ground going into the talks.
“We are ready to conduct talks, but we will continue the operation because we won’t allow Ukraine to preserve a military infrastructure that threatens Russia,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, repeating an accusation Moscow has repeatedly used to justify its invasion.
Lavrov said that the West has continuously armed Ukraine, trained its troops and built up bases there to turn Ukraine into a bulwark against Russia. The U.S. and its allies have insisted that NATO is a defensive alliance that doesn’t pose a threat to Russia.
6:45 a.m. - Zelenskyy says Ukrainians will ‘drive out’ Russian troops
In a video address to the nation early Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave an upbeat assessment of the war and called on Ukrainians to keep up the resistance.
“We are a people who in a week have destroyed the plans of the enemy,” he said. “They will have no peace here. They will have no food. They will have here not one quiet moment.”
Zelenskyy didn’t comment on whether the Russians have seized several cities, including Kherson.
“If they went somewhere, then only temporarily. We’ll drive them out,” he said.
He said the fighting is taking a toll on the morale of Russian soldiers, who “go into grocery stores and try to find something to eat.”
“These are not warriors of a superpower," he said. "These are confused children who have been used.”
He said the Russian death toll has reached about 9,000.
“Ukraine doesn’t want to be covered in bodies of soldiers," he said. "Go home.”
6:30 a.m. - Military expert: Ukrainians ‘have more leverage’ if they hold out
British military expert says the longer Ukrainian cities can hold out against Russian attacks, the fewer troops Moscow will have at its disposal to encircle Kyiv, its main objective.
Jack Watling, an expert in land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute, said Thursday that if cities are able to resist they can draw out the conflict.
“If the conflict protracts, the Ukrainians have more leverage to be able to negotiate,” Watling said.
6:15 a.m. - UN says civilian death toll is 227, but likely far higher
The U.N. human rights office says 227 civilians have been killed and another 525 injured in its latest count of the toll in Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s military invasion that began a week ago.
The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights says the tally eclipses the entire civilian casualty count from the war in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces in 2014 — which left 136 dead and 577 injured.
The rights office admits that the figures so far are a vast undercount. It uses a strict methodology and counts only confirmed casualties. Ukrainian officials have presented far higher numbers.
6:00 a.m. - 40-mile Russian convoy stalled outside Kyiv
Britain’s Ministry of Defense says that a Russian military column heading for Kyiv has made “little discernible progress” over the past three days and remains over 19 miles from the center of the city.
The column has been delayed by Ukrainian resistance, mechanical breakdowns and congestion, the ministry said in its daily intelligence briefing Thursday.
Despite heavy Russian shelling, the cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol remain in Ukrainian hands, the department said. Some Russian forces have entered the city of Kherson, but the military situation remains unclear, it added.
The ministry also noted that Russia has been forced to admit that 498 of its soldiers have been killed in Ukraine and another 1,597 have been wounded. The actual number of those killed and wounded will almost certainly be considerably higher and will continue to rise, it said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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