Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the Polish minister of defense on Wednesday that the U.S. is not interested in participating in its plan to transfer its fight jets to the U.S., who would them give them to Ukraine.

The Polish government announced Tuesday that it was prepared to immediately transfer its MiG-29s to Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The Pentagon responded that the proposal did not appear tenable, and after Austin’s call, DoD announced it would not play a role in such a transfer.

“Secretary Austin thanked the minister for Poland’s willingness to continue to look for ways to assist Ukraine, but he stressed that we do not support the transfer of additional fighter aircraft to the Ukrainian air force at this time, and therefore have no desire to see them in our custody, either,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

The U.S. intelligence community’s opinion figured into the decision, Kirby said.

While the U.S. and others have sent military aid to Ukraine, fighter jets “may be mistaken as escalatory,” Kirby said. “That could result in significant Russian reaction that might increase the prospects of a military escalation with NATO.”

From the Pentagon’s point of view, anti-air and anti-armor missiles are doing a good job of slowing Russia’s assault on Ukraine.

“We believe the best way to support Ukrainian defense is by providing them the weapons and the systems that they need most to defeat Russian aggression, in particular, anti-armor … and we know that they are being used with great effect.”

Further, Kirby added, it’s the Pentagon’s assessment that given Russia’s widespread anti-aircraft capabilities, adding fighter jets to Ukraine’s inventory will have little payoff for the high risk involved.

With his country under increasing aerial bombardment, including an airstrike on a maternity hospital in the besieged city of Mariupol, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued yet another plea to politicians around the world, including House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat.

“The partners are fully informed about what is happening in our Mariupol. And about the situation in all other regions of Ukraine, where hostilities continue,” he said in a message contained in the daily “War Bulletin” produced by the Ukrainian embassy in Washington D.C. this evening and shared with Military Times. “We are working to make Russia feel the consequences of its actions. We are doing everything to finally secure our sky.”

But, Zelenskyy said, despite what the Pentagon said, his country needs the jets.

“Together we must return courage to some Western leaders,” he said. “So that they finally do what they had to do on the first day of the invasion. Either close the Ukrainian sky from Russian missiles and bombs, or give us fighter jets so that we can do everything ourselves. A pause without a decision has become simply deadly.”

Whether Poland wants to provide aid directly to Ukraine is a separate issue, Kirby added, as they’re free to provide security assistance on their terms.

“What I’m talking about today is this particular proposal about the MiG-29s … we believed it was important to lay flat our concerns about that and that’s what we’ve done here,” Kirby said.

Russian invasion still slowed, airspace over Ukraine still contested, Pentagon says

6:33 p.m. EST March 6

Though Russia has now committed about 95% of the combat power it amassed along Ukraine’s borders, the Pentagon has seen “limited changes on the ground” while the airspace remains contested, a senior U.S. defense official said Sunday evening.

After 11 days of war, “Russian forces continued efforts to advance and isolate Kyiv, Kharkiv and Chernihiv across the north and east are being met with strong Ukrainian resistance,” the official said, in an email to reporters.

“There does not appear to be any significant movement along the Russian axes,” the official said. “Leading elements remain outside these city centers. We cannot give specific distances today.”

The long convoy of Russian troops and vehicles headed south to Kyiv “continues to be stalled,” the official said, offering details on the condition of anonymity.

“We assess that the Russians have now committed inside Ukraine somewhere near 95% of the combat power they had amassed along the border.

Fighting continues in the south, near the cities of Kherson and Mykolaiv, the official said.

“We cannot independently verify reporting of Russian forces firing on protesters in Kherson,” said the official, who added that the Pentagon has not observed an amphibious landing in or near Odessa either.

“Nor do we assess one is imminent,” the official said.

“We’ve observed continued ongoing fighting and efforts to encircle Mariupol,” the official said. “There continue to be reports of wide-spread utility outages (water and electricity).”

Earlier in the day, Ukraine claimed Russia violated a second ceasefire agreement. The official could not independently verify those claims.

“We continue to observe that the airspace over Ukraine is contested,” said the official. “Ukrainian air and missile defenses remain effective and in use. The Ukrainian military continues to fly aircraft and to employ air defense assets.”

The official could not independently verify Ukrainian claims of Russian aviation losses.

“We are aware of the Ukrainian military’s release of videos and numbers of Russian aircraft shot down,” the official said. “We cannot independently verify those incidents, but neither are we in a position to refute them. Both sides have taken losses to both aircraft and missile defense inventories. We are not going to speak to numbers. We assess that both sides still possess a majority of their air defense systems and capabilities.”

As of today, the Pentagon said that approximately 600 Russian missile launches have occurred since the invasion began, the official said.

“Again, these are of all different types of missiles,” the official said. “We believe the Ukrainian people in most parts of the country still have means of communication, access to internet and the media.

The official added a list of reports that could not be verified or corroborated, including:

*reports of the use of cluster munitions or thermobaric weapons.

*reports that the Russians are calling up reserves.

*reports of Russian naval infantry loading on LSTs.

*reports of Ukrainian claims that they shot down one enemy Su-25 fighter jet, two Su-34 fighter-bombers, two Su-30 SM planes, and four helicopters today.

*reports that Russia dropped 1,000 pound bombs near Chernihiv.

US gives ‘green light’ for NATO allies to send military planes to Ukraine, Blinken says

1:25 p.m. EST March 6

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday said the United States would approve of NATO allies sending fighter jets to Ukraine.

“That gets the green light,” said Blinken on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“In fact, we’re talking with our Polish friends right now about what we might be able to do to backfill their needs if in fact they choose to provide these fighter jets to the Ukrainians,” Blinken said.

Blinken said the countries are in close contact about the proposal for the U.S. to provide fighter jets to Poland if Poland sends jets to Ukraine, confirming a Wall Street Journal report released earlier Sunday.

Earlier Sunday, Poland’s prime minister’s office tweeted Poland would not send fighter jets to Ukraine.

On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked U.S. lawmakers to help provide more warplanes for his military.

-Jessica Edwards, Military Times

Russian forces tightening grip on Zaporizhzya nuclear plant, IAEA says

12:30 p.m. EST March 6

The International Atomic Energy Agency has said Russian forces are tightening their grip on the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant, Ukraine’s largest, that they seized last week.

The director general of the agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said Sunday Ukrainian staff members are now required to seek approval for any operation, even maintenance, from the Russians, and that they have impeded normal communications by switching off some mobile networks and internet at the site.

Ukraine’s regulatory authority said that phone lines, as well as e-mails and fax, are no longer working. Grossi said he is “extremely concerned about these developments,” adding that for the plant to operate safely, “staff must be allowed to carry out their vital duties in stable conditions, without undue external interference or pressure.”

-The Associated Press

Evacuation effort in Mariupol halted for second day

9:55 a.m. EST March 6

Plans to evacuate civilians from a besieged port city in Ukraine collapsed Sunday for the second time along with an expected Russian cease-fire, Ukrainian officials said as they tried to persuade Russia to agree on terms for safely getting residents out of areas under fire near Ukraine’s capital.

Residents expected to leave the port city of Mariupol during a 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. local ceasefire, Ukrainian military authorities said earlier in the day. Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko said the planned evacuations were halted because of an ongoing assault by Russian troops.

“There can be no ‘green corridors’ because only the sick brain of the Russians decides when to start shooting and at whom,” Gerashchenko said on Telegram.

The news dashed hopes of progress in easing, much less ending, the war in Ukraine, which is now in its 11 day and has caused 1.5 million people to flee the country. The head of the U.N. refugee agency on Sunday called the exodus “the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

The presidents of Turkey and France, as well as Pope Francis, appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate to end the conflict.

Separately, Ukraine’s national security service said Russian forces fired rockets at a physics institute in the city of Kharkiv that contains nuclear material and a reactor. Russian troops already took control of the Zaporizhzhia plant in Ukraine, as well as Chernobyl, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.

The security service said a strike on the nuclear facility in Kharkiv could lead to “large-scale ecological disaster.” The service said on Facebook Sunday that the Russians were firing from Grad launchers. Those missiles do not have precise targeting, raising concern that one would go astray.

Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelenskyy reiterated a request for foreign protectors to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which NATO so far has ruled out because of concerns such an action would draw the West into the war.

“The world is strong enough to close our skies,” Zelenskyy said in a video address on Sunday.

Putin warned Saturday that Moscow would consider a third-party declaration to close Ukrainian airspace to be a hostile act.

The disappointment for women, children and older adults who waited to leave Mariupol and the nearby city of Volnovakha while able Ukrainian men stayed behind to fight came after a similar cease-fire deal collapsed Saturday and foreign leaders sought to bring diplomacy to bear on ending the war.

Putin told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could be halted only “only if Kyiv ceases hostilities and fulfills the well-known demands of Russia,” according to the Kremlin’s readout of the phone call the two leaders held on Sunday.

Putin earlier listed “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine, recognition of Crimea as part of Russia, and recognition of the separatist regions in eastern Ukraine as independent states as the Kremlin’s main demands.

“Hope was expressed that during the planned next round of negotiations, the representatives of Ukraine would show a more constructive approach, fully taking into account the emerging realities.” The third round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators is scheduled for Monday.

In a highly unusual move, Pope Francis said Sunday that he had dispatched two cardinals to Ukraine, saying the Vatican was will to do everything it could to bring peace to end a conflict that began on Feb. 24 when Russia invaded Ukraine.

“In Ukraine, rivers of blood and tears are flowing,” the pontiff said in his traditional Sunday blessing. “This is not just a military operation, but a war that sows death, destruction and misery.’’

Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Zelenskyy, said Sunday that Ukrainian officials and international humanitarian organizations were working with Russia through intermediaries to establish humanitarian corridors from Bucha and Hostomel, which are Kyiv suburbs where there has been heavy fighting.

After the cease-fire in Mariupol failed to hold Saturday, Russian forces intensified their shelling of the city and dropped massive bombs on residential areas of Chernihiv, a city north of Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said.

In Mariupol, bereft mothers mourned slain children, wounded soldiers were fitted with tourniquets and doctors worked by the light of their cellphones as bleakness and desperation pervaded.

–Yuras Karmanau, The Associated Press

Blinken says US considering a “backfill” of Polish combat jet stock

7:50 a.m. EST March 6

The U.S. government is considering sending fighter jets to Poland, should that country decide to provide Ukraine with Soviet-era combat jets, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

“We are looking actively now at the question of airplanes that Poland may provide to Ukraine and looking at how we might be able to backfill should Poland choose to supply those planes,” Blinken said in Moldova, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The statement came after a desperate plea by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for more aircraft — especially those his pilots can fly — and a no-fly zone as his nation faces an increasingly devastating Russian onslaught. Blinken made his comments during a stop through Europe to reassure allies there about U.S. support in the wake of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Blinken, according to the Wall Street Journal, said the U.S. is working with Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials to get an “up-to-the-minute assessment of their needs.”

Poland’s prime minister’s office, however, on Sunday dismissed reports that an arrangement was in the works to provide Ukraine combat aircraft, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“Poland won’t send its fighter jets to #Ukraine as well as allow to use its airports,” the chancellery of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki tweeted, calling one synopsis of that report “Fake News.”

Poland flies MiG-29 combat jets that were produced by the Soviet Union in the late 1970s, along with U.S. Lockheed Martin Corp. F-16 fighter jets, as well as other aircraft types, according to published reports.

NBC reported that the deal would involve Poland donating its old Russian-made MiG fighters to Ukraine, and then selling Poland U.S.-made F-16 jets to replace the Soviet-era fighters.

“We are working with the Poles on this issue and consulting with the rest of our NATO allies,” a White House spokesperson told NBC. “We are also working on the capabilities we could provide to backfill Poland if it decided to transfer planes to Ukraine.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a “desperate plea” to U.S. senators on Saturday to send more planes to help the country fight the Russian invasion.

Zelenskyy made the request on a call joined by more than 300 people, including senators, some House lawmakers and aides.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said in a statement that Zelenskyy made a “desperate plea for Eastern European countries to provide Russian-made planes to Ukraine.”

“I will do all I can to help the administration to facilitate their transfer,” Schumer said.

Schumer told Zelenskyy the U.S. lawmakers are inspired by him and by the strength and courage of the Ukrainian people, according to another person on the call who was granted anonymity to discuss it.

Zelenskyy’s focus “was on control of Ukrainian airspace, asking either for a [no-fly zone] or sending Ukraine Russian-made airframes and drones so that they can protect themselves,” Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat and former acting assistant Defense Secretary and CIA analyst, said in a Tweet Saturday morning,

The U.S. Congress also is working on a $10 billion package of military and humanitarian aide, and Schumer told Zelenskyy that lawmakers hope to send it quickly to Ukraine, the person said.

Zelenskyy told senators he needs planes and drones more than other security tools, according to a senior Senate aide granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

-Howard Altman, Military Times, Associated Press reporter Lisa Mascaro in Washington

Russians shell Ukraine cities as safe passage again promised in south

7:30 a.m. EST March 6

On Day 11 of Russia’s war on Ukraine, Russian troops shelled encircled cities and a pro-Russian official said safe-passage corridors would open again for residents of the besieged port city of Mariupol.

The number of Ukrainians forced from their country increased to 1.5 million and the Kremlin’s rhetoric grew, with Russian President Vladimir Putin warning that Ukrainian statehood is in jeopardy. He likened the West’s sanctions on Russia to “declaring war.”

Here’s a look at key things to know about the conflict Sunday:

Promise of safe passage from two cities — again

A pro-Russian official said safe-passage corridors would open again for residents of Mariupol on Sunday, a day after a promised cease-fire in the besieged port city collapsed.

Ukrainian officials confirmed that evacuations from the city would take place starting from 12 p.m. local time.

Ukrainian officials said Russian artillery fire and airstrikes had prevented residents from leaving before the agreed-to evacuations got underway Saturday. Putin accused Ukraine of sabotaging the effort.

Russia has sought to cut off Ukraine’s access to the Sea of Avrov in the south. Capturing Mariupol could allow Russia to establish a land corridor to Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.

Eduard Basurin, spokesman for the military in separatist-held Donetsk territory, said safe passage corridors for residents would also be opened for residents of Volnovakha.

What else is happening on the ground?

Russian forces launched hundreds of missiles and artillery attacks across the country, including dropping powerful bombs on residential areas of Chernihiv, a city north of the capital of Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said. But a mileslong Russian armored column threatening the capital was still stalled outside Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces were holding key cities in the central and southeastern part of the country, while the Russians were trying to block and keep encircled Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv and Sumy.

Ukrainian forces were also defending Odesa, Ukraine’s biggest port city, from Russian ships, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich said.

Russian troops took control of the southern port city of Kherson last week. Ukrainian forces have managed to keep control of key cities in central and southeastern Ukraine, Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy pushes for a no-fly zone

Zelenskyy pushed his call for foreign countries to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Establishing a no-fly zone would risk escalating the conflict by involving foreign militaries directly. Although the United States and many Western countries have backed Ukraine with weapons shipments, they have sent no troops.

Zelenskyy said in a video address on Sunday that “the world is strong enough to close our skies.”

NATO countries have ruled out policing a no-fly zone, which would bar all unauthorized aircraft from flying over Ukraine. Putin said Saturday that Moscow would consider any third-party declaration of a no-fly zone over Ukraine as “participation in the armed conflict.”

Directly witnessed by The Associated Press

Onlookers in Chernihiv cheered as they watched a Russian military plane fall from the sky and crash, according to video released by the Ukrainian government. In Kherson, hundreds of protesters waved blue and yellow Ukrainian flags and shouted, “Go home.”

In Mariupol, Associate Press journalists witnessed doctors make unsuccessful attempts to save the lives of wounded children, pharmacies ran bare and hundreds of thousands of people faced food and water shortages in freezing weather.

In Irpin, near Kyiv, a sea of people on foot and even in wheelbarrows trudged over the remains of a destroyed bridge to cross a river and leave the city. Assisted by Ukrainian soldiers, they lugged pets, infants, purses and flimsy bags stuffed with minimal possessions. Some of the weak and elderly were carried along the path in blankets and carts.

Kyiv’s central train station remained crowded with people desperate to leave, and frequent shelling could be heard from the center of the capital city.

Diplomatic efforts

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Moldova pledging America’s support to the small Western-leaning former Soviet republic. The country is coping with an influx of refugees from Ukraine and keeping an eye on Russia’s intensifying war with its neighbor.

A third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine will take place Monday, according to Davyd Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegation. He gave no additional details.

Previous meetings were held in Belarus and led to the failed cease-fire agreement to create humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians from besieged cities.

Putin continued to blame the war on the Ukrainian leadership and slammed their resistance to the invasion. He said if they continued to resist, “They are calling into question the future of Ukrainian statehood.” His comments came as Zelenskyy made a “desperate plea” on Saturday to the U.S. Congress for more planes as Russian forces continued to batter strategic locations.

Meanwhile, Israel’s prime minister returned Sunday from a trip to Russia where he met Putin and discussed the war.

Naftali Bennett flew to Moscow on Saturday, where he met the Russian leader for three hours. Bennett spoke to Zelenskyy after his meeting with Putin.

Bennett’s trip was the latest attempt at diplomacy in the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Israel is one of the few countries that has good working relations with both Russia and Ukraine.

The humanitarian situation

The death toll of the conflict has been difficult to measure. The U.N. human rights office said at least 351 civilians have been confirmed killed since the Feb. 24 invasion, but the true number is probably much higher.

The U.N. World Food Program says millions of people inside Ukraine, a major global wheat supplier, will need food aid “immediately.”

Ukrainian refugees continued to pour into neighboring countries, including Poland, Romania and Moldova. The number of people who have left since fighting began has now reached 1.5 million, according to U.N. refugee agency..

During the Cold War, the CIA covertly supplied Stingers to Afghan guerrillas fighting Russian forces. Now Ukrainian forces locked in an intensifying fight to repel Russia will get more of the shoulder-fired weapon, which has a 4-kilometer range.

With the Raytheon Technologies-made Stingers, Ukrainian forces gain a tool for fighting Russian helicopters being used to transport troops and as close-air support. They have relied on missile defenses and aircraft to, so far, keep Russian aircraft from completely dominating their skies.

“Once the Stinger’s employed, it has the ability to be a game changer,” said retired Army Lt. Gen. Jim Dubik, now a senior fellow with the Institute for the Study of War. “The Russians don’t have air dominance, but they do have air superiority ― and the Stingers won’t take that away, but it’ll be contested airspace, and that hurts the Russians’ ability to conduct operations and increases Ukraine’s ability to defend.”

There’s been a steady stream of new commitments from the European Union and western countries to send arms and other aid to Ukraine, which had asked for Stingers and Javelin missiles.

The Associated Press was first to report the Stingers would be part of a $350 million tranche of supplies U.S. President Joe Biden authorized last week. Defense News confirmed the report with an administration official granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

The U.S. decision follows Germany’s announcement it will send 500 Stinger missiles and 1,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, marking a reversal of Germany’s long-standing policy of never sending lethal munitions to war zones.

The Baltic states have also been providing Ukraine with Stingers since January, and in order to do that had to get U.S. permission.

While it’s unclear when this tranche of U.S. aid will arrive, the Pentagon says it has not seen any Russian efforts to interdict western aid to Ukraine or problems with previous tranches.

“The assistance continues to flow, and we are comfortable that is it getting into hands that need it,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday.

Jim Townsend, who was the Pentagon’s top Europe and NATO policy official throughout the Obama administration, speculated that the previous U.S. reluctance to send Stinger missiles stemmed from a fear that, if Ukrainian forces did not mount as successful a fight as they have, the highly effective weapon could fall into Russian hands.

But now it’s time for Ukraine’s western allies to make sure Ukraine’s supply lines don’t run dry, and for Ukraine to get weapons and other gear it needs, Townsend said.

“Ukraine is great, but if they run out of ammunition, if their supply lines are cut, if Russians dominate the air, it’s going to be a different picture,” he said. “We’ve got to keep resupply routes open, and we’ve got to hurry. … We have Stingers in stock, and we’ve got to put them on trucks and get them the hell over there.”

This week, Russia has already targeted airfields and fuel facilities, in what appeared to be the next phase of an invasion slowed by fierce resistance.

Ukraine Brig. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, head of that nation’s defense intelligence agency, told Military Times Monday morning the Russians could use missile barrages to continue to destroy Ukrainian airfields. That in turn could be used to choke off Ukrainian supplies.

Budanov said Ukraine could benefit from the U.S.-made Patriot, a sophisticated surface-to-air missile defense system that would take time for the U.S. to send. Meanwhile, Russia is getting close to air dominance, in spite of Ukraine’s anti-aircraft systems, bombers and other war planes.

Adding another challenge for Kyiv’s defenders, the Russians have moved their Pantsir-S1 mobile air defense systems closer to the city, according to Budanov. The system can track up to 20 tactical aircraft-sized targets at a range of 32-36 km.

“They almost control the sky,” Budanov said.

Biden will ban Russia from US airspace amid Ukraine invasion, sources say

7:50 p.m. EST March 1

President Joe Biden will vow to make Vladimir Putin “pay a price” for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in his first State of the Union address, rallying allies abroad while also outlining his plans at home to fight inflation and the fading but still dangerous coronavirus.

In addition to recounting U.S. and allied economic sanctions against Russia, Biden planned to announce that the U.S. is following Canada and the European Union in banning Russian planes from its airspace in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine, according to two people familiar with his remarks. They spoke only on the condition of anonymity before the speech.

Biden planned in his Tuesday night remarks to highlight the bravery of Ukrainian defenders and the resolve of a newly reinvigorated Western alliance that has worked to rearm the Ukrainian military and cripple Russia’s economy through sanctions. He was set to deliver an ominous warning that without consequences, Russian President Putin’s aggression wouldn’t be contained to Ukraine.

“Throughout our history we’ve learned this lesson – when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos,” Biden was to say, according to advance excerpts released by the White House. “They keep moving. And, the costs and threats to America and the world keep rising.”

Even before the Russian invasion sent energy costs skyrocketing, prices for American families had been rising, and the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hurt families and the country’s economy.

Biden planned to outline plans to address inflation by reinvesting in American manufacturing capacity, speeding supply chains and reducing the burden of childcare and eldercare on workers.

“We have a choice,” Biden was to say. “One way to fight inflation is to drive down wages and make Americans poorer. I have a better plan to fight inflation. Lower your costs, not your wages.”

Set against disquiet at home and danger abroad, the White House had conceived Tuesday night’s speech as an opportunity to highlight the improving coronavirus outlook, rebrand Biden’s domestic policy priorities and show a path to lower costs for families grappling with soaring inflation. But it has taken on new significance with last week’s Russian invasion of Ukraine and nuclear saber-rattling by Putin.

In an interview with CNN and Reuters, Zelenskyy said he urged Biden to deliver a strong and “useful” message about Russia’s invasion. Ahead of the speech, the White House announced that Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova would join first lady Jill Biden in the galleries to watch Biden’s address.

Russian troops step up attacks on urban areas

6:35 p.m. EST March 1

Russian forces escalated their attacks on crowded urban areas Tuesday, bombarding the central square in Ukraine’s second-biggest city and Kyiv’s main TV tower in what the country’s president called a blatant campaign of terror.

“Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed after the bloodshed on the square in Kharkiv.

Ukrainian authorities said five people were killed in the attack on the TV tower, which is a couple of miles from central Kyiv and a short walk from numerous apartment buildings. A TV control room and power substation were hit, and at least some Ukrainian channels briefly stopped broadcasting, officials said.

Zelenskyy’s office also reported a powerful missile attack on the site of the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial, near the tower. A spokesman for the memorial said a Jewish cemetery at the site, where Nazi occupiers killed more than 33,000 Jews over two days in 1941, was damaged, but the extent would not be clear until daylight.

At the same time, a 40-mile (64-kilometer) convoy of hundreds of Russian tanks and other vehicles advanced slowly on Kyiv, the capital city of nearly 3 million people, in what the West feared was a bid by Russian President Vladimir Putin to topple the government and install a Kremlin-friendly regime.

The invading forces also pressed their assault on other towns and cities, including the strategic ports of Odesa and Mariupol in the south.

Day 6 of the biggest ground war in Europe since World War II found Russia increasingly isolated, beset by tough sanctions that have thrown its economy into turmoil and left the country practically friendless, apart from a few nations like China, Belarus and North Korea.

As the fighting in Ukraine raged, the death toll remained unclear. One senior Western intelligence official estimated that more than 5,000 Russian soldiers had been captured or killed. Ukraine gave no overall estimate of troop losses.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said it had seen an increase in Russian air and artillery strikes on populated urban areas over the past two days. It also said three cities — Kharkiv, Kherson and Mariupol — were encircled by Russian forces.

‘Concrete evidence’ Russia using cluster munitions, rights groups say

3:25 p.m. EST March 1

Rights groups and observers say Russia is using cluster bombs in its invasion of Ukraine, a charge Moscow denies. If confirmed, deployment of the weapon, especially in crowded civilian areas, would usher in new humanitarian concerns in the conflict, Europe’s largest ground war in generations.

Proponents of banning cluster bombs say they kill indiscriminately and endanger civilians long after their use. From Syria and Yemen to the Balkans, Afghanistan and Southeast Asia, unexploded ordnance from cluster bombs continues to kill and maim people years or even decades after the munitions were fired.

Though many countries have joined a global convention limiting their use, cluster munitions are still used in conflict zones around the world.

Here is a closer look at the weapon and why its use sparks particular concern:

WHAT IS A CLUSTER BOMB?

Cluster bombs are weapons that open in the air, releasing submunitions, or “bomblets,” that are dispersed over a large area, intended to wreak destruction on multiple targets at once. Cluster bombs can be delivered by planes, artillery and missiles, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Beyond the initial harm caused by the munitions upon impact, bomblets have a high rate of failure to explode, up to 40% in some recent conflicts, according to the ICRC.

That leaves swaths of land dotted with bomblets that could explode. Return to normal life in those areas becomes hazardous, particularly in heavily populated areas. Some formerly war-torn countries spend years trying to clear unexploded cluster bomblets.

IS USING THEM A WAR CRIME?

Use of cluster bombs itself does not violate international law, but using them against civilians can be a violation. As in any strike, determining a war crime requires looking at whether the target was legitimate and if precautions were taken to avoid civilian casualties.

“The part of international law where this starts playing (a role), though is indiscriminate attacks targeting civilians,” Human Rights Watch’s associate arms director Mark Hiznay told The Associated Press. “So that’s not necessarily related to the weapons, but the way the weapons are used.”

A convention banning the use of cluster bombs has been joined by more than 120 countries who agreed not to use, produce, transfer or stockpile the weapons and to clear them after they’ve been used.

Russia and Ukraine have not joined that convention. Neither has the United States.

WHERE HAVE THEY BEEN USED?

The bombs have been deployed in many recent conflicts.

Syrian government troops have often used cluster munitions — supplied by Russia — against opposition strongholds during that country’s civil war, frequently hitting civilian targets and infrastructure.

Israel has used cluster bombs in civilian areas in south Lebanon, including during the 1982 invasion that saw Israeli troops reach the capital Beirut.

During the monthlong 2006 war with Hezbollah, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations accused Israel of firing as many as 4 million cluster munitions into Lebanon. That has left unexploded ordnance that threatens Lebanese civilians to this day.

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has been criticized for its use of cluster bombs in the war with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels that has ravaged the southern Arabian country.

In 2017, Yemen was the second deadliest country for cluster munitions after Syria, according to the U.N. Children have been killed or maimed long after the munitions originally fell, making it difficult to know the true toll.

The last large-scale American use of cluster bombs was during the 2003 Iraq invasion, according to the Pentagon. The U.S. initially considered cluster bombs an integral part of its arsenal during the invasion of Afghanistan that began in 2001, according to HRW. In the first three years, it is estimated the U.S.-led coalition dropped more than 1,500 cluster bombs in Afghanistan.

The U.S. Defense Department had been due by 2019 to stop use of any cluster munitions with a rate of unexploded ordnance greater than 1%. But the Trump Administration rolled back that policy, allowing commanders to approve use of such munitions.

Cluster munitions were also used in the Balkan wars in the 1990s. In the 1980s the Russians made heavy use of cluster bombs during its 10-year invasion of Afghanistan. As a result of decades of war, the Afghan countryside remains one of the heaviest mined countries in the world.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN UKRAINE?

Russian forces have “most definitely” used cluster bombs in Ukraine, Human Rights Watch’s Hiznay said.

He pointed to at least two instances: a missile attack that hit outside a hospital in the town of Vuhledar on the first day of the invasion last week. and another Monday on Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, with a population of 1.4 million.

Hiznay retweeted photos of what he said was unexploded 9N235 cluster submunitions scattered around in Kharkiv. Human Rights Watch said four people were killed in the Vuhledar strike.

Rights groups have said three people were killed after Russian cluster bombs hit near a pre-school in the northeastern city of Okhtyrka. The open-source intelligence group Bellingcat says that its researchers found cluster munitions in that strike as well as multiple cluster attacks in Kharkiv.

Amnesty International said Russian forces have a “shameful record of using cluster munitions in populated areas.”

Justin Bronk, a research fellow at Royal United Services Institute, a London defense think tank, said images of munitions parts recovered from residential areas of Kharkiv are “concrete evidence” that Russia is using cluster bombs.

“Their use suggests the Russians are trying to break morale, inflict terror on the on the civilian population and the defenders in order to try and force a negotiation or just retreat,” he said.

Russia denies using cluster munitions in Ukraine.

Russian advance on Kyiv at a standstill, US official says

11:54 a.m. EST March 1

Russian troops staged around the outside of Ukraine’s capital city appear to be in a holding pattern of some kind, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Tuesday.

Formations that had been moving toward Kyiv are essentially in the same spot today as they were Monday, the official sending, roughly 17 miles outside the city center.

“We believe that that’s for a number of reasons,” the official said. “Obviously, the resistance that they’re facing, the fuel and sustainment problems that they’re having. We are also picking up signs that they’re having problems feeding their troops, that they’re not only they’re running out of gas, but they are running out of food.”

The Pentagon’s assessment echoes multiple reports from recent days, that Russian troops are looking for fuel and sustenance as they roll toward Kyiv.

There’s also the possibility, the official said, that the Russians are taking a strategic pause to regroup after a possibly unanticipated defense from the Ukrainian armed forces.

“There has been in the last six days evidence of a certain risk-averse behavior by the Russian military,” the official said. “Now I say risk-averse, I mean risk to their own force.”

Without commenting on whether Russia’s initial invasion plans have been upended, the official echoed other media reports that many of the Russian troops seem ill-prepared for the fight.

“We do believe that a significant number of them are conscripts — very young men drafted into service,” the official said. “And apparently … not all of them were apparently fully trained and prepared or even aware that they were going to be sent in to a combat operation.”

The official said that while the Pentagon assesses that the Russians have launcher systems that could be used for a thermobaric weapons, “we cannot confirm the presence of a thermobaric weapon and we cannot confirm the use of a thermobaric weapons, but we certainly believe that they have the launching systems capable of using basically a fuel air explosive that’s fired by rocket.

The Pentagon doesn’t believe that Belarusian troops have entered Ukraine, the official said.

Russia has raised the specter of nuclear war

11:35 a.m. EST March 1

NATO’s chief said Tuesday that, despite Russia’s threats about nuclear weapons, the alliance sees no need to change its own nuclear weapons alert level.

The alliance’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, spoke to The Associated Press following talks on European security with Polish President Andrzej Duda at an air base in Lask, central Poland, where NATO’s Polish and U.S. fighter jets F-15 and F-16 are based.

“We will always do what is needed to protect and defend our allies, but we don’t think there is any need now to change the alert levels of NATO’s nuclear forces,” Stoltenberg said.

The Kremlin began an invasion of Ukraine last week and on Tuesday shelled the center of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Russia has raised the specter of nuclear war, reporting on Monday that its land, air and sea nuclear forces were on high alert following President Vladimir Putin’s weekend order. NATO itself has no nuclear weapons, but three of its members do — the United States, Britain and France.

“We strongly believe it’s reckless and irresponsible the way Russia is speaking about nuclear weapons,” Stoltenberg said, standing in one of the base’s hangars, which has been turned into a conference room with Polish and NATO flags and jets around it.

Stoltenberg stressed that Russia has signed a number of deals agreeing that nuclear war cannot be won and should not be fought.

He called on Russia to “stop the attacks and withdraw all its forces and engage in good faith in diplomatic efforts” to end the war.

Government delegations from Ukraine and Russia met for talks in southeastern Belarus on Monday, but the outcome was not immediately clear.

“This is a horrendous, horrific invasion of an innocent country and we see that civilians are killed. It’s a brutality that has to stop immediately,” Stoltenberg said.

The United States recently reinforced the eastern flank of NATO’s territory with some 5,000 additional troops deployed to Poland and Romania. Both NATO countries border Ukraine, which is not part of NATO. A number of French troops were traveling to Romania on Tuesday to further strengthen the region, Stoltenberg said.

The alliance is to discuss further reinforcement steps at its next summit in June in Madrid.

It is NATO’s responsibility to “ensure that we don’t see a development where a conflict in Ukraine spiraled out of control and becomes a full-fledged confrontation between NATO and Russia in Europe,” Stoltenberg said.

He said alliance commanders are insisting that they are “able to maintain deconfliction (contacts) with Russia,” he said.

From Lask, Stoltenberg flew to Tallin, Estonia, for talks on security of the Baltic region which borders Russia and its ally Belarus.

President Zelenskyy appeals for EU membership

7:51 a.m. EST March 1

From his embattled capital city under intense Russian attack, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered an impassioned speech to the European Parliament Tuesday, seeking approval to join the European Union.

“The last couple of days, I don’t know how to welcome and greet everybody because I cannot say good morning,” he said through an interpreter. “Or I cannot say good afternoon or good evening. And I cannot and that’s true. Because every day for some people, this day is not good. For some people this day is the last one. I speak today now about my citizens of Ukraine who are defending and paid the ultimate price. They are defending freedom.

“I don’t read off the paper,” he continued. “Because paper fades in the life of my country and now we’re dealing with reality. We’re dealing with killed people. And, you know, I believe that today we’re giving lives for families. For the right for freedom. For the desire to be equal as much as you are. We’re giving away our best people. The strongest ones. the most value-based ones. Ukrainians are incredible.”

This was a difficult morning, Zelenskyy said.

“This morning was a very tragic one for us,” he said. “Two cruise missiles hit Kharkiv, the city, which is located [near] the borders of the Russian federation.”

Kharkiv, he said, is a city with many Russians who enjoyed friendly relations with Ukrainians.

“There are more than 20 universities are there,” he said. “It’s the city that has the largest number of universities in our country. Bright, smart people who gathered there all the time for celebrations, and the largest square in our country. The Freedom Square. And this is the largest square in Europe and that’s true. This is called the Freedom Square. Can you imagine this morning two cruise missiles hit this Freedom Square. Dozens were killed. This is the price of freedom.”

Ukrainians, said Zelenksyy, “are fighting for our land. For our freedom despite the fact that all large cities of our country are now blocked. Nobody is going to answer and intervene without freedom and believe you me every square up to date, no matter what it’s called, it’s going to be called as of today. Freedom Square.”

Zelenskyy said his country would stand strong in the face of difficult odds as Russian forces hit cities with missiles and airstrikes, and a long column of troops and supplies wends its way closer to Kyiv.

“Nobody is going to break us,” he said. “We are strong. We are Ukrainians. We have a desire to see our children. Alive. I think it’s a fair one. Yesterday 16 children were killed. Again and again. President Putin is going to say that is some kind of operation and we are hitting a military infrastructure. Where our children? What kind of military factories do they work at? What tanks are they going with? Launching cruise missiles, he killed 16 people just yesterday.”

Despite the odds, Ukrainians “are very much motivated, very much so,” Zelenskyy said. “We are fighting for our rights. For our freedoms. For our life and now we’re fighting for our survival.”

And that, he said, “is the highest of our motivation. But we are fighting also to be equal members of Europe. I believe that today. We are showing everybody that’s exactly what we are.”

The European Union, said Zelenskyy, “is going to be much stronger with us. So that’s for sure. Without you, Ukraine is going to be lonesome.

“We have proven our strengths,” he said, closing out his speech. “We have proven that as at a minimum we are exactly the same as you. So do prove that you are with us. Do prove that you will not let us go. Do prove that you indeed are Europeans and then life will win over death and light will win over darkness. Glory be to Ukraine.”

Russians get closer to Kyiv

5:40 a.m. EST March 1

Russian shelling pounded civilian targets in Ukraine’s second-largest city again Tuesday and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital — tactics Ukraine’s embattled president said were designed to force him into concessions in Europe’s largest ground war in generations.

With the Kremlin increasingly isolated by tough economic sanctions that have tanked the ruble currency, Russian troops attempted to advance on Ukraine’s two biggest cities. In strategic Kharkiv, an eastern city with a population of about 1.5 million, videos posted online showed explosions hitting the region’s Soviet-era administrative building and residential areas.

Throughout the country, many Ukrainian civilians spent another night huddled in shelters, basements or corridors.

The casualty toll mounted as Ukraine faced Day 6 of a Russian invasion that has shaken the 21st century world order. Hopes for a negotiated solution to the war dimmed after a first, five-hour session of talks between Ukraine and Russia yielded no stop in the fighting, though both sides agreed to another meeting in coming days.

With Western powers sending weapons to Ukraine and driving a global squeeze of Russia’s economy, President Vladimir Putin’s options diminished as he seeks to redraw the global map — and pull Ukraine’s western-leaning democracy back into Moscow’s orbit.

“I believe Russia is trying to put pressure (on Ukraine) with this simple method,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday in a video address, referring to stepped-up shelling. He did not offer details of the talks between Ukrainian and Russian envoys, but he said Kyiv was not prepared to make concessions “when one side is hitting another with rocket artillery.”

As the talks along the Belarusian border wrapped up, several blasts could be heard in the capital, and Russian troops advanced on the city of nearly 3 million. The convoy of armored vehicles, tanks, artillery and support vehicles was 25 kilometers (17 miles) from the center of the city and stretched about 65 kilometers (40 miles), according to satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies.

“They want to break our nationhood, that’s why the capital is constantly under threat,” Zelenskyy said, saying that it was hit by three missile strikes on Monday and that hundreds of saboteurs were roaming the city.

Kharkiv, near the Russian border, is another key target. One after the other, explosions burst through a residential area of the city in one video verified by AP. In the background, a man pleaded with a woman to leave, and a woman cried.

Determined for life to go on despite the shelling, hospital workers transferred a Kharkiv maternity ward to a bomb shelter. Amid makeshift electrical sockets and mattresses piled up against the walls, pregnant women paced the crowded space, accompanied by the cries of dozens of newborns.

The Russian military has denied targeting residential areas despite abundant evidence documented by AP reporters around Ukraine of shelling of homes, schools and hospitals.

Regional administration chief Oleh Sinehubov said that the administration headquarters in the city center also came under Russian shelling. Images posted online showed the building’s facade and interior badly damaged by a powerful explosion that also blew up part of its roof. The state emergencies agency said that attack wounded six people, including a child.

Sinehubov said that at least 11 people were killed and scores of others were wounded during Monday’s shelling of the city.

Meanwhile, flames shot up from a military base northeast of Kyiv, in the suburb of Brovary, in footage shot from a car driving past. In another video verified by AP, a passenger pleads with the driver, “Misha, we need to drive quickly as they’ll strike again.”

And Ukrainian authorities released details and photos of an attack Sunday on a military base in Okhtyrka, a city between Kharkiv and Kyiv, saying more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed along with some local residents. The attack could not be immediately confirmed.

The Russian military’s movements have been stalled by fierce resistance on the ground and a surprising inability to dominate Ukraine’s airspace.

In the face of that resistance, the Kremlin has twice in as many days raised the specter of nuclear war and put on high alert an arsenal that includes intercontinental ballistic missiles and long-range bombers. Stepping up his rhetoric, President Vladimir Putin denounced the United States and its allies as an “empire of lies.”

Western nations have increased weapons shipments to Ukraine to help its forces defend themselves — but have so far ruled out sending in troops. Still, the embattled country moved to solidify its ties to the West by applying to join the European Union — a largely symbolic move for now, but one that won’t sit well with Putin, who was already infuriated by Ukraine’s desire to join the NATO alliance.

Messages aimed at the advancing Russian soldiers popped up on billboards, bus stops and electronic traffic signs across the capital. Some used profanity to encourage Russians to leave. Others appealed to their humanity.

“Russian soldier — Stop! Remember your family. Go home with a clean conscience,” one read.

Fighting raged in other towns and cities. The strategic port city of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, is “hanging on,” said Zelenskyy adviser Oleksiy Arestovich. An oil depot was reported bombed in the eastern city of Sumy.

Isachenkov reported from Moscow, and Miller from Washington. Francesca Ebel, Josef Federman and Andrew Drake in Kyiv; Mstyslav Chernov and Nic Dumitrache in Mariupol, Ukraine; and other AP journalists from around the world contributed to this report.

“As of this moment I’m convinced he’s made the decision,” Biden said during a televised address. “We have reason to believe it.”

When pushed on what evidence he has, Biden said “really significant intelligence capability.”

Biden said that “over the last few days, we’ve seen reports of a major uptick in violations of the ceasefire. by Russian-backed fighters attempting to provoke Ukraine in Donbas.. a shelling of a Ukrainian kindergarten yesterday, which Russia has falsely asserted was carried out by Ukraine. We also continue to see more and more disinformation be pushed out by to the Russian public, including Russian backed separatists, claiming that Ukraine is planning to launch a massive offensive attack.”