Ukraine Says Russia Has Violated Ceasefire Agreement in Two Cities

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said more than 700,000 people had crossed the border from Ukraine to Poland since Russia launched its invasion.

“To help support the needs of Ukrainians in Poland and other countries, the Biden administration just requested to Congress $2.75 billion in humanitarian assistance,” he said in a joint press conference with Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau.

“That’s both to meet the needs of vulnerable people and communities inside Ukraine, as well as to support refugee services, including here in Poland.”

Blinken said the U.S. had also sent a disaster response team to Poland, which was working closely with humanitarian agencies to provide critical services and supplies to refugees.

“We provided funding for emergency supplies to sustain health care for up to 100,000 people for three months, and up to 500 emergency surgical procedures,” he added.

— Chloe Taylor

Britain’s Foreign Office has updated its advice on visiting Russia, telling its nationals to leave the country if possible.

“If your presence in Russia is not essential, we strongly advise that you consider leaving by remaining commercial routes,” the U.K. Foreign Office said in its latest travel advice, updated Saturday.

“The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office advises against all travel to the whole of Russia due to the lack of available flight options to return to the U.K. and the increased volatility in the Russian economy.”

S7 Airlines, Russia’s biggest commercial air carrier, ceased all international flights on Saturday after Western sanctions targeted Russia’s aviation sector.

The British government added: “If you are in Russia, you should be aware that it may not be possible to fly directly to the U.K., or via EU countries, and should amend any travel plans accordingly.”

It said connecting flights via the Middle East and Turkey remained operational.

— Chloe Taylor

A Russian plane reserved for high-ranking officials of Russia is traveling to Washington, Ukrainian Interior Ministry advisor Anton Geraschenko said on Telegram Saturday.

“Right now it’s passing near Iceland,” Geraschenko said, suggesting that negotiations between Moscow and the U.S. may be about to start.

“If I learn anything, will let you know later,” he added.

— Chloe Taylor

Iryna Vereshchuk, deputy prime minister of Ukraine, says that Russia has violated the ceasefire agreement in the cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha.

Earlier Saturday, Russia and Ukraine had announced a temporary ceasefire in the cities to allow the evacuation of civilians. The fighting was due to stop at 10 a.m. Moscow time (9 a.m. Ukraine, 2 a.m. ET).

But in a video posted to Telegram on Saturday, Vereshchuk said Russian forces started shelling Volnovakha with heavy weapons at 11.45 a.m. local time.

“I hereby state that Russia has violated [the ceasefire] agreement, failed to fulfill its duty and shells the town of Volnovaksha,” she said, according to an NBC News translation. “Moreover, there has been fighting in the direction between Mariupol and Zaporizhia.”

Civilians in Mariupol were supposed to be evacuated to Zaporizhia, a city to the west, but authorities postponed the evacuation as attacks continued in the city and along the route to Zaporizhia.

“We address the Russian side to stop shelling and provide a ceasefire and let us form columns of humanitarian corridors to evacuate women, children and elderly. We also ask Russia to let us send humanitarian aid from Zaporizhia and Dnipro,” Vereshchuk said.

The statement came as Ukraine’s Parliament said that Russia was “thwarting” the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol.

“The Russian military does not adhere to the [ceasefire] and continues the shelling of Mariupol and its environs. The evacuation of civilians is suspended for security reasons,” it said.

“Currently, negotiations with the Russian Federation are underway to establish a regime of silence and ensure a safe humanitarian corridor.”

 — Chloe Taylor

Mariupol City Council has said its evacuation of civilians is being postponed as Russian shelling continues in the city despite a ceasefire agreement.

“Due to the fact that the Russian side does not adhere to the ceasefire and continued shelling both Mariupol and its environs, for security reasons, the evacuation of the population is postponed,” the council said in a post on Telegram.

Mariupol is one of two cities subject to a temporary ceasefire agreement between Ukraine and Russia. The ceasefires, announced Saturday morning, were supposed to be implemented to allow the evacuation of civilians.

“We ask all Mariupol residents to disperse and follow to the places of shelter,” Mariupol City Council said on Saturday afternoon local time.

“More information about the evacuation will be posted soon. Negotiations are currently underway with the Russian Federation to establish a [ceasefire] and ensure a secure humanitarian corridor.”

Police will inform Mariupol residents via loudspeakers that the evacuation had been cancelled, the council added.

— Chloe Taylor

Orlov Sergei, deputy mayor of Mariupol, told the BBC on Saturday that although Russia had confirmed a ceasefire would begin in the city today, shelling and bombing continued.

“At first our people told [us] that the shelling stopped for a little time, but then it continued and they continue to use hard artillery and rockets to bomb Mariupol,” he said. 

City officials had made plans to evacuate civilians from three locations on municipal buses, with a route to Zaporizhzhia, a city to the west, also subject to the ceasefire.

“[The Russians] told us that road from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia is safe, but we received information that there are hard fights on this road and it’s not safe to go on this road because of these fights,” Sergei told the BBC. “So we have two objections, first of all of the continuous shelling of Mariupol and next the fights [along the route out of the city], so we understand that it was not approved from Russian side and they continue to destroy Mariupol.”

He added: “We decided to move our citizens back because it’s not safe to be on the streets.”

— Chloe Taylor

PayPal says it is suspending its services in Russia, adding to the number of firms retreating from the country over its invasion of Ukraine.

“Under the current circumstances, we are suspending PayPal services in Russia,” Dan Schulman, PayPal’s CEO, said in a letter addressed to the Ukrainian government.

The payment processor had already discontinued domestic services in Russia in 2020. This latest action relates to its remaining business in the country, including send and receive functions and the ability to make international transfers via PayPal’s Xoom remittances platform.

PayPal is the latest payment organization to sever ties with Russia, which faces a slew of sanctions from the West over President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.

The sanctions saw SWIFT, the global interbank messaging network, bar several Russian banks, while Visa and Mastercard have said they will block Russian financial institutions from their networks.

— Ryan Browne

In an address on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had spoken to the presidents of France and Poland and had been “able to solve a humanitarian crisis on the border.”

“We managed the situation so that Ukrainian women and children were able to get a safe place,” he said, according to an NBC News translation. “No one is asking what’s their nationality, what’s their faith, how much money they have. De facto we don’t have any borders with Poland anymore.”

Poland’s Border Guard said Saturday that since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, more than 787,000 people had fled Ukraine into Poland.

Zelenskyy added in his speech that he was “certain” authorities would soon be able to tell people it was safe to return to Ukraine.

“We are already thinking about the future for all of Ukrainians after the war, about how we will rebuild our cities, our economy,” Zelenskyy said. “I talked to the head of the World Bank, to the CEO of the IMF — the [world’s] biggest financial institutions support Ukraine.”

— Chloe Taylor

Videos have emerged of protesters gathering in Kherson, a port city in southern Ukraine that was taken by Russian forces this week.

In one video, posted by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, residents of the city are seen in Kherson’s Svobody Square — many waving Ukrainian flags — when gunfire is heard.

— Chloe Taylor

Russian forces are continuing their “broad-front offensive” in Ukraine, according to Moscow-based news agency Interfax.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov was speaking at a press briefing Saturday, according to the report.

His comments came after Russia announced a temporary ceasefire in the cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha to allow civilians to evacuate.

— Chloe Taylor

Mariupol, one of the two Ukrainian cities where a temporary ceasefire has been implemented, has released its plans for the evacuation of civilians.

The City Council said Saturday that the ceasefire would be in place between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. local time (2 a.m. and 9 p.m. ET), with the evacuation beginning at 11 a.m. local time.

Civilians will be evacuated from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia, a city to the west, via municipal bus.

Authorities will run evacuations from three locations in the city, the council said, and noted that private transportation would also be permitted along the designated route and asked drivers to make full use of the space in their vehicles.

Veering away from the agreed route was strictly forbidden, officials said.

— Chloe Taylor

Elon Musk said Saturday that SpaceX’s Starlink would not block Russian news outlets “unless at gunpoint,” claiming that some governments — excluding Ukraine’s — had told the company to do so.

Starlink is a division of SpaceX planning to build an interconnected network with thousands of satellites to deliver high-speed internet anywhere on the planet.

“Sorry to be a free speech absolutist,” Musk said on Twitter.

— Chloe Taylor

The U.K. Ministry of Defense has said it appears that four cities in Ukraine are surrounded by Russian troops.

“Ukraine continues to hold the key cities of Kharkiv, Cherniv and Mariupol,” the ministry said in its daily intelligence update on Saturday.

“There have been reports of street fighting in Sumy. It is highly likely that all four cities are encircled by Russian forces.”

According to the U.K., “the overall rate of Russian air and artillery strikes observed over the past 24 hours has been lower than in previous days.”

The ministry added that Russian forces were also “probably” advancing on the southern port city of Mykolaiv, but noted that it was possible some forces would attempt to circumvent the city to prioritize progression toward the port city of Odesa.

— Chloe Taylor

Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the Ukrainian Presidential Office who took part in negotiations with Russian officials this week, confirmed on Saturday that a temporary ceasefire had been declared in two Ukrainian cities.

The ceasefire, which was expected to begin at 10 a.m. Moscow time (2 a.m. ET), would allow civilians to leave the cities, which have been ravaged by fighting in recent days.

Russia’s state-controlled media claimed that the country’s Defense Ministry had agreed the exit routes with Ukrainian authorities.

— Chloe Taylor

Samsung Electronics joined the slew of tech and consumer electronics companies that have ceased sending products into Russia.

The South Korean smartphone giant said it will suspend shipments into Russia and donate $6 million to humanitarian efforts “around the region.”

Companies in Silicon Valley, including Apple, Google and Meta, have made it harder for people in Russia to access some of the most widely used technologies in the world as President Vladimir Putin continues his invasion of Ukraine.

Samsung Electronics is the top handsets maker in Russia, with 30% market share as of the fourth quarter, according to Reuters. China’s Xiaomi and Apple are second and third, respectively.

—Ted Kemp

Amazon said Friday various teams across its cloud-computing unit have been informing Ukrainian organizations and world governments of cybersecurity threats from state actors and other malicious actors.

“Our teams have seen new malware signatures and activity from a number of state actors we monitor,” Amazon said. “As this activity has ramped up, our teams and technologies detected the threats, learned the patterns, and placed remediation tools directly into the hands of customers.”

AWS has also detected an increase in activity from non-state actors where malware has been targeted at charities, NGOs and other aid organizations “in order to spread confusion and cause disruption,” Amazon said. In these cases, malicious actors sought to disrupt medical supplies, food and clothing relief.

Amazon said it’s also working with Ukrainian customers and partners to keep their applications secure, including helping them to move their on-premises infrastructure to AWS in order to safeguard it from any potential physical or virtual attacks.

Western companies have responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a number of ways. Microsoft said it was helping to keep Ukraine informed of cyberattacks, and it also suspended the sale of new products and services in Russia. Apple said Tuesday it would stop selling products on its Apple store in the country.

AWS has no data centers, infrastructure or offices in Russia, and it has a “long-standing policy of not doing business” in the country, Amazon said. Amazon’s biggest customers using AWS in Russia are companies who are headquartered outside of the country and have some development teams there, the company added.

— Annie Palmer

The full U.S. Senate has been invited to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy via Zoom on Saturday morning, NBC News reported, citing anonymous sources.

The meeting was set up by the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States, and it will come a day after Zelenskyy vowed to leaders of European capitals that Ukraine will repel the invasion Russian forces launched last week.

Since the start of Russia’s unprovoked offensive, both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been overwhelming supportive of the Biden administration’s efforts to bolster Ukraine’s resistance as well as of U.S. sanctions meant to cripple Russia’s economy.

During President Joe Biden‘s State of the Union speech Tuesday, many lawmakers wore the blue and yellow of Ukraine’s flag, or wore the flag itself on their lapels.

At one point, Biden asked the audience to stand and “send an unmistakable signal to the world and Ukraine” of American support.

They did, and saluted Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova, who was seated with first lady Jill Biden.

– Dan Mangan