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President Joe Biden called for revoking normal trade relations with Russia on Friday, which would pave the way for new tariffs — a move supported by both parties in Congress and joined by members of the Group of 7 nations and the European Union.
Meanwhile, Russian forces appeared to be stepping up their campaign across Ukraine, edging closer to the capital, Kyiv, and expanding their offensive west.
Satellite images appeared to show that a huge military convoy close to Kyiv had dispersed, prompting fears of an imminent ground offensive. Multiple airstrikes also hit the cities of Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk early Friday, Ukraine's Parliament said, striking farther west than before.
Ukraine continued to try to evacuate civilians from besieged cities, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying that as many as 100,000 people had been brought to safety over the past two days.
Follow our full coverage on the conflict here.
Russian forces around 15 miles from center of Kyiv, U.K. defense ministry says
Russian forces northwest of Ukraine's capital Kyiv were around 15 miles from the city center and fighting was continuing, the United Kingdom's defense ministry said Saturday.
The British assessment said that a larger Russian column north of the city had dispersed, which might be part of an attempt to encircle it. It could also be an attempt to reduce vulnerability to counterattacks, the ministry said.
Elsewhere, the cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol remained encircled and continue to be shelled by Russian forces, the U.K. said.
Over 600 Indian students stranded in Ukraine used social media to make it home
Hundreds of Indian students have made it home from Ukraine after being stranded at their schools for days with little food or water. Students from universities in Sumy and Odessa told NBC News that inaction from the Indian Embassy led them to take matters into their own hands.
“We decided ourselves that we should leave,” Ovais Choudhary, a medical student at Odessa National University, said in an interview translated from Hindi. “The more you wait, the more critical and tense the situation becomes.”
Choudhary traveled with a group of 50 students who left their school housing on foot Feb. 24 as tanks rolled through Odessa. They all moved into a set of three apartments where they spent two sleepless nights trying to figure out what to do.
Read the full story here.
Shelling damages cancer hospital, Ukraine says
Ukrainian officials accused Russia damaging a cancer hospital and several residential buildings in the southern city of Mykolaiv with shelling from heavy artillery.
The hospital’s head doctor, Maksim Beznosenko, said several hundred patients were in the hospital during the attack but that no one was killed. The assault damaged the building and blew out windows.
Russian forces have stepped up their attacks on Mykolaiv, located 292 miles south of Kyiv, in an attempt to encircle the city.
Ukrainian and Western officials earlier accused Russia of shelling a maternity hospital in the southern city of Mariupol on Wednesday. Three people died in that attack.
More U.S. soldiers deploy to Europe to support NATO allies
SAVANNAH, Ga. — U.S. soldiers are continuing to deploy to Europe, joining thousands already sent overseas to support NATO allies amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
About 130 soldiers from the 87th Division Sustainment Support Battalion, 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade gathered Friday at Hunter Airfield in Savannah, Georgia and departed on a chartered flight.
The soldiers are in addition to the estimated 3,800 soldiers from the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division who deployed recently from nearby Fort Stewart.
A division commander said that soldiers are being told to prepare for about six months overseas. The Pentagon has ordered roughly 12,000 total service members from various U.S. bases to Europe.
The soldiers’ mission is to train alongside military units of NATO allies in a display of force aimed at deterring further aggression by Russia. The Pentagon has stressed U.S. forces are not being deployed to fight in Ukraine.
Ukrainian photographer shares what it's like to live in a bunker
Valeria Shashenok's TikTok account used to portray the life of a travel photographer.
From the Eiffel Tower at sunset to behind-the-scenes clips of a photoshoot on the Mediterranean coast, Shashenok's TikTok gave viewers a glimpse of just how vast the world is.
Now, most of her TikToks are recorded in an underground bunker in Chernihiv, a war-torn city in northern Ukraine.
Read the full story here.
Actor, host Pasha Lee killed while helping evacuate people in Ukraine
Pasha Lee, a Ukrainian actor and TV host, was killed in Ukraine while helping evacuate people March 6, his employer, the Ukrainian channel DOM, wrote on social media.
Lee, 33, hosted “Day at Home” on DOM. When war broke out, he joined the fight against Russia with Ukraine’s Territorial Defense and was killed near the northern city of Irpin.
News of his death led to social media reaction recounting his career, including from the Odesa International Film Festival and president of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine.
Russia could block 80 million Instagram users
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri on Friday said that by blocking the platform in Russia, the country's media regulator would be preventing as many as 80 million people from the communication tool.
State news agency TASS on Friday said the prohibition by the telecommunication and media watchdog known as Roskomnadzor followed the decision by Instagram sister platform Facebook to allow publication of anti-Russian posts such as, "Death to the Russian invaders."
Russia’s Investigative Committee on Friday opened a probe of alleged propaganda, terrorism, threats of violence and hate speech at Meta in response to the Facebook policy.
Mosseri suggested in a statement Friday that Russia was only harming its own people by restricting access. "This decision will cut 80 million in Russia off from one another, and from the rest of the world," he said.
Research firm Insider Intelligence says Instagram has 50.8 million users in Russia.
Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs, said in a statement that Facebook's decision to allow highly critical and even threatening statements regarding Russian troops in Ukraine only applies to Ukraine-based users.
Russia has been in the midst of crackdown on foreign media, independent news, and social media — with the exception of free-for-all messaging and notification app Telegram. On March 4 Russia cut off access to Facebook, and on Thursday its media watchdog said Twitter will face slowdowns as a response to the platform allegedly failing to remove content banned there.
