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Ukraine rejected a Russian plan Monday to let civilians escape the Russian assault and flee to Russia or Belarus during a cease-fire.
Russia announced the cease-fire in major cities across Ukraine on Monday morning to let people evacuate, but only offered designated routes out of Kyiv and Kharkiv that Ukraine branded "unacceptable" and an effort to manipulate world leaders.
Both Russia and Ukraine say they’ve made a little progress during a third round of talks, and Russia’s top negotiator says the corridors are expected to start functioning Tuesday.
More than 1.5 million people have left Ukraine since the conflict began, according to the United Nations refugee agency, which called it the biggest refugee crisis since World War II.
In an impassioned address to the nation on Sunday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainians would not forgive or forget the Russian aggression.
WNBA star Brittney Griner still detained in Russia as war escalates
Ukraine says Russian general killed in fighting near Kharkiv
LVIV, Ukraine — A Russian general was killed in the fighting around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, which Russian forces have been trying to seize since the invasion began, the Ukrainian military intelligence agency said.
It identified him as Maj. Gen. Vitaly Gerasimov, 45, and said he had fought with Russian forces in Syria and Chechnya and had taken part in the seizure of Crimea in 2014.
It was not possible to confirm the death independently. Russia has not commented.
Another Russian general was killed earlier in the fighting. A local officers’ organization in Russia confirmed the death in Ukraine of Maj. Gen. Andrei Sukhovetsky, the commanding general of the Russian 7th Airborne Division.
Sukhovetsky also took part in Russia’s military campaign in Syria.
'Parched and freezing cold nightmare' in besieged city of Mariupol, human rights group says
A human rights group described an unfolding catastrophe in the city of Mariupol, where a temporary cease-fire collapsed over the weekend and the Russian invasion has left hundreds of thousands of people without water, electricity and heat for days.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement Monday that civilians have been trapped in a “parched and freezing cold nightmare” for six days and urged Ukraine and Russia to agree to the terms of a humanitarian corridor between the large seaside city in Ukraine’s southeast and Zaporizhzhia, about 140 miles away.
The evacuations had been set to begin Saturday, but Ukrainian authorities postponed the effort and accused Russian forces of continuing to shell the route.
Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, said Monday that “radicals in Mariupol” were responsible for violating the agreement.
Hundreds of civilians in the city are believed to have been killed since the invasion began Feb. 24, Human Rights Watch said, and acute water shortages pose a grave risk to 200,000 residents unable to flee.
The group said a Russian shell is believed to have struck the city’s last remaining cellphone tower Sunday, preventing emergency coordination. Continued attacks have halted repairs to damaged infrastructure, including groundwater pumps and water treatment facilities, and left people drinking rainwater and collecting snow.
How the Russian invasion has upended life for Ukrainians
Proposed plan for sending fighter jets to Ukraine hits logistical snag
A proposal to provide Ukraine with Soviet-era fighter jets via Poland is struggling to gain traction in the Biden administration, and the U.S. is reviewing whether the plan is feasible, according to three U.S. officials.
Allied efforts to help Kyiv obtain fighter jets from its Eastern European neighbors have resulted in a proposal in which Poland would send Ukraine its old Russian-made MiG fighters and the U.S. would replace them by sending F-16 jets to Warsaw.
U.S. officials caution that such a plan is not expected to be enacted any time soon.
“It’s a lot easier to give hand-held weapons than it is to transfer a plane,” a source familiar with the discussions said Monday.
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Russia is recruiting Syrian fighters for Ukraine invasion, Pentagon says
The Defense Department confirmed a report Monday that U.S. officials believe Russia is recruiting Syrian fighters to assist in its invasion of Ukraine.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters there was “truth” to a Wall Street Journal report Sunday that cited a U.S. assessment of the effort and said Moscow was seeking Syrian fighters with urban combat skills.
The Journal reported the fighters were being offered $200 to $300 for six-month stints operating as “guards.” Some were already in Ukraine to help Russian forces take Kyiv, according to The Journal.
Kirby declined to speculate about a motive behind the effort or say who the fighters are, how many are being sought or what they will be paid, saying there isn’t “perfect visibility” into the issue.
“I can’t get into Mr. Putin’s head,” Kirby said. But he added that Russian forces “are having morale problems.”
“They are having supply problems. They are having fuel problems. They're having food problems,” he said. “They are meeting a very stiff and determined Ukrainian resistance.”
A senior U.S. defense official said separately Monday that Russia had deployed “nearly all” of the troops who were amassed around Ukraine before the invasion. President Joe Biden has previously said as many as 190,000 Russian troops had assembled near Ukraine’s borders.
Russia deployed its military to Syria in 2015 to help President Bashar al-Assad put down a rebel-led effort to topple him. The United Nations in 2020 accused Russia of committing war crimes in the country. Russia has denied the claim.
What is a no-fly zone, and why has NATO so far rejected calls for one?
WASHINGTON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on NATO to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine to limit attacks from Russian warplanes — a request the West has firmly rejected even as the death and destruction mounts.
Top leaders of NATO — the alliance of 30 nations, including the U.S. — have repeatedly ruled it out, saying that imposing a no-fly zone over key parts of Ukraine could drag the alliance directly into Moscow’s war against its neighbor. They're unlikely to budge on the issue for that reason, experts said, since a no-fly zone would essentially require NATO to take over the air war that Ukraine is currently waging against Russian attacks.
As recently as Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated NATO's position, saying on NBC News' "Meet the Press" that President Joe Biden has been "very clear about one thing all along, as well, which is we're not going to put the United States in direct conflict with Russia."
What is a no-fly zone, and what would enforcing one take?
'There will be nothing left,' Zelenskyy says after Russia reportedly fires on bakery, killing 13
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that his country will have to “rebuild everything” after reports that Russian forces fired on a bread factory, killing 13 people, and destroyed a 160-year-old church.
“There will be nothing left from the enemy,” Zelenskyy said in a video on Telegram, according to an NBC News translation. “We will rebuild everything. We will make cities that the occupier destroyed that are better than any city in Russia.”
Reuters reported that an air strike targeted the bakery in Makariv, west of Kyiv. Emergency workers recovered 13 bodies from the rubble, according to Reuters.
“An old bread factory,” Zelenskyy said. “Just think about it — shooting at a bread factory. Who do you have to be to do such a thing?”
Zelenskyy also said a 160-year-old church southwest of Kyiv was destroyed by the Russian military. NBC News could not immediately confirm the claim.
U.N. says it can't meet needs of millions caught in conflict
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations is unable to meet the needs of millions of civilians caught in conflict in Ukraine today and is urging safe passage for people to go “in the direction they choose” and for humanitarian supplies to get to areas of hostilities, according to the U.N. humanitarian chief.
Undersecretary-General Martin Griffiths told a U.N. Security Council meeting Monday that his office has sent a team to Moscow to coordinate with the Russian military to try to scale-up the delivery of humanitarian aid to the level needed. He said this followed a phone call Friday between U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
The first U.N.-Russia meeting has been held, he said, welcoming cooperation by both sides and expressing hope of “further progress in the hours ahead.”
Griffiths said the U.N. and its partners have already provided food to hundreds of thousands of people and the World Food Program “is setting up supply chain operations to deliver immediate food and cash assistance to 3 million to 5 million people inside Ukraine,” and the Ukrainian Red Cross has distributed hygiene and food kits, warm clothing and medicine to thousands of people.
The U.N. humanitarian chief also expressed deep worry at the consequences of “this unnecessary conflict” on “vulnerable people living half a world away” affected by spiking food prices and uncertain supplies and record-level prices. “People in the Sahel, Yemen, the Horn of Africa, Afghanistan, Madagascar, and beyond already face profound food inseucirty,” Griffiths said, and high gas prices means “life becomes harder still in places like Lebanon.”
