March 27, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

US Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner holds a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC in April 2021.

US Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner avoided directly criticizing President Biden’s remark Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” instead shifting focus onto Putin, saying, “There is one individual that’s trying to make regime change in Europe, and that’s Vladimir Putin trying to change the regime in Ukraine.”

Asked by CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” if he thinks the United States’ policy should be for a regime change, Warner said, “The stated policy is the White House’s point and that has not changed. It is up to the Russian people to determine who’s going to be in power in the Kremlin.”

Rep. Michael McCaul, lead Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was more forceful in his interview a short time later on the show, saying “I know it was off the cuff, but whatever the President says, it carries a lot of weight … In this case, it sends a very provocative message to Mr. Putin.”

Warner said he was surprised Russia has not launched “their A-team cyberattacks against Ukraine,” which Warner called, “top-notch.” Asked why he thinks they haven’t, Warner said, “We don’t honestly have a good answer yet,” adding, “I don’t think it’s the lack of capability but this is a question that we are constantly posing.”

Asked whether cyberattacks would invoke NATO’s Article 5, Warner said, “There are cyberattacks from Russia and China going on on a daily basis for years,” but added that if a cyberattack results in the loss of life, that would be “uncharted territory”

“In terms of literally causing loss of life, there’s always been what we call strategic ambiguity about what is defined as an Article Five violation. I think that it is still an appropriate grayness at this point.”

Reactions continue to come in on Sunday after US President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “butcher” and said Putin “cannot remain in power.” French President Emmanuel Macron responded saying: “I wouldn’t use terms like that because I’m still in talks with President Putin.”  

US ambassador to the NATO Julianne Smith called Biden’s surprising comments a “principled human reaction,” made after he spent the day seeing the firsthand tragedies of war, when he visited with hundreds of Ukrainian refugees, in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Dana Bash. Still, Smith added that the “US does not have a policy of regime change in Russia, full stop.” 

Here are more of the latest headlines from the Ukraine-Russia conflict:

Ukrainian Ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova speaks during a hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 23 in Washington, DC.

Ukrainian Ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova on Sunday tore into Russia over its invasion of her country, saying it’s “a terrorist state led by a war criminal.”

“And everyone should be brought to justice. So, I think it will be difficult to run a state from The Hague,” she added, referring to the International Criminal Court located in the Netherlands.

Markarova told Bash that Russian forces “are killing civilians, killing children, destroying our hospitals, you know, civilian infrastructure, residential homes, everywhere. It’s an act of war criminal, that’s why we have opened (an) investigation in Ukraine, that’s why Ukraine submitted all the application to all international courts.”  

“And, yes, (Russian President) Vladimir Putin, together with everyone, every Russian that is responsible for it, will have to end up in jail for this war crimes,” she said.

The comments come just a month after Russia began its war in Ukraine, and several days after the US also declared that members of the Russian armed forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine. In doing so, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cited “credible reports” of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, including the destruction of apartment buildings, schools and hospitals. The State Department specifically cited attacks on a maternity hospital and theater in Mariupol. The theater, the State Department said, was marked with the Russian word for “children” in letters visible from the sky.

A volunteer from the initiative 'Sila Uzhhoroda' (The Power of Uzhhorod) serves meals to fleeing refugees at Uzhhorod train station on March 24 in Uzhhorod, Ukraine.

Chef José Andrés praised Ukrainians who are helping supply and distribute food to fellow citizens, calling them “food fighters” and “heroes” who are battling the war in their country in a different way.

Andrés’ non-profit, World Center Kitchen, has provided more than 4 million meals in Ukraine and surrounding countries to where refugees have fled, he told CNN.

Andrés met with US President Joe Biden on Saturday as he toured the food distribution site in Warsaw, Poland.

Julianne Smith, the US’s ambassador to NATO, discussed Russia’s supposed changing focus, on Sunday with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”

Smith said she didn’t think “we have evidence of that quite yet,” that the Kremlin will limit their sights on the Donbas region, but that the US and allies will be looking for it. 

Smith also defended the new actions NATO and the US introduced to continue to punish Russia in the wake of the US President’s trip, even as Ukrainian officials have voiced disappointment in the lack of support. Asked if NATO will give Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fighter jets, Smith said, “this is an evolving conversation,” but ultimately no.

“We’ve spoken with President Zelensky many times in recent weeks. We’ve heard their requests for assistance. In many cases, we’ve delivered those anti-aircraft, anti-armor capabilities, we are assessing their air defense needs,” she said. “But the answer is no if you’re asking about the Soviet-era jets, the United States has decided that the particular proposal put forward by Poland is untenable. But honestly, if any NATO ally wanted to provide those types of pieces of equipment, the fighter jets, the MiGs, that is a sovereign decision, they can take that sovereign decision. But right now, the United States is very much focused on their air defense needs. And we’re delivering multiple capabilities to try and address those requirements.”

On the potential for cyberattacks to be included into the NATO charter, Smith declined to “walk through hypotheticals,” but said she did not doubt that if an ally were to “come forward,” and invoke Article 5, the alliance “would be ready to respond and take action.”

US President Joe Biden delivers a speech at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland on March 26.

US President Joe Biden’s administration continued on Sunday to clean up his off-the-cuff remark that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” made on his final day in Europe.

Julianne Smith, the US’s ambassador to NATO, called Biden’s surprising comments a “principled human reaction,” made after he spent the day seeing the firsthand tragedies of war, when he visited with hundreds of Ukrainian refugees, in a Sunday interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”

Still, Smith said, the “US does not have a policy of regime change in Russia, full stop.”

Her comments come hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken also tried to downplay the President’s remarks while in Israel, saying, “I think the President, the White House, made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else.”

Asked by Bash to clarify if the US believes Putin should remain in power, Smith pivoted to the White House talking point that “the full administration, the President included, believes that we cannot empower Putin right now to wage war in Ukraine or pursue these acts of aggression.”

Smith did not agree that the quick walk back from White House officials over the President’s comments show his aides undermining him on the world stage, instead she said officials “feel great,” about the President’s snap trip.

Sen. Jim Risch speaks at a US Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington in April 2021.

Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, the ranking member on the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN on Sunday that he’s hopeful Congress can pass bipartisan legislation that would impose additional sanctions on Russia.

“From my standpoint, I’d like to see secondary sanctions on every bank in Russia. I think that with what’s going on there, we really can’t be too tough on sanctions. We just really need to bring the hammer down,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” 

He added: “I get that every administration wants to be in full control. Obviously, I think Congress plays a role in this. I’d like to see some language passed through Congress. We’ve struggled with it. We’ve made a good faith effort but came very close but didn’t quite get it done. Look, they’re putting their sanctions on. The sanctions really have surprised us as far as how, how effective they’ve been, and I’d encourage them to keep up and heading down that road.”

Risch also criticized US President Joe Biden for saying Saturday that there should be a regime change in Russia, a remark that was quickly walked back by White House officials following their delivery in a speech in Warsaw, Poland.

“There was a horrendous gaffe right at the end of it, I wish he would stay on script. Whoever wrote that speech did a good job for him. But my gosh, I wish they would keep him on script. I think most people who don’t deal in the lane of foreign relations don’t realize that those nine words that he uttered would cause the kind of eruption that they did, but anytime you say or even as he did suggest, that the policy was regime change, it’s going to cause a huge problem,” he said. “Please, Mr. President, stay on script.”

TIVAT, MONTENEGRO - MARCH 12: The superyacht, Solaris, owned by Roman Abramovich, arrives in the waters of Porto Montenegro on March 12, 2022 in Tivat, Montenegro. The yacht left a Barcelona port earlier this week as the UK government sanctioned Abramovich, a Russian billionaire who owns the Chelsea football club, in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Filip Filipovic/Getty Images)

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Maksym Kozytskyi, head of the Lviv regional military administration, said late Saturday that police had detained two individuals in the Lviv region on suspicion of sharing information with Russia. 

Lviv was hit Saturday by two sets of missile strikes, including one that caused a blaze at a fuel depot that burned overnight before being extinguished by emergency responders. 

Kozytskyi said police going to the scene of a missile strike detained a man who was allegedly filming the missile’s flight and its impact, and said police also found photos of checkpoints in the region that had been sent to Russian numbers. 

Those individuals were handed over to the Security Service of Ukraine following their arrest, Kozytskyi said. 

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, right, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken address the media following their meeting at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, on March 27.

Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says Israel stands firm with Ukraine, has set up a field hospital in Ukraine to care for those injured and is doing what they can to help to end this war, in a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Jerusalem. 

Pope Francis renewed his appeal for peace in “battered” Ukraine on Sunday and said now is the time to abolish war before it erases humanity from history.

“More than a month has passed since the invasion of Ukraine, since the start of this cruel and senseless war, which, like every war, is a defeat for all, for all of us,” he said Sunday during his weekly Angelus address. 

The Pontiff reiterated his appeal for an end to the conflict in Ukraine.

“Enough. Stop. Let the weapons fall silent. Negotiate seriously for peace,” he said. “War cannot be something that is inevitable. We cannot get used to war.”

Leonid Pasechnik, leader of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), on Feb. 21 at the Kremlin in Moscow.

The head of one of two breakaway republics in the far east of Ukraine says he expects to hold a referendum soon on whether his pro-Moscow statelet should become part of Russia. 

Leonid Pasechnik said he expected the vote to go in favour because people in the region were, in his words, tired of “having lived under constant shelling for eight years.” 

The referendum would see people in the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) “exercise their absolute constitutional right and express their opinion on joining the Russian Federation,” he told journalists. 

The LPR, along with the neighbouring Donetsk People’s Republic, emerged as de facto separatist entities in 2014, as Moscow stoked unrest in Ukraine following the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych. Vladimir Putin recognised their independence on the eve of launching his “special military operation” against Ukraine last month.  

If the LPR did hold a vote on joining Russia, it would be following the path taken by Crimea in March 2014, where a referendum was held after the peninsular was effectively captured by Putin’s forces over the course of a couple of weeks. In a vote widely held by the international community to be illegitimate, 97% voted in favour of joining Russia, according to official results. 

French President Emmanuel Macron seemed to warn against labeling Putin on Sunday. 

“I wouldn’t use terms like that because I’m still in talks with President Putin,” Macron said during an interview on French Channel France 3.

This comes comes after US President Joe Biden issued intense criticism against the Russian leader during a meeting with Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw, Poland on Saturday.

After initially looking to downplay a personal rivalry between himself and Putin, Biden has ramped up his rhetoric against Putin over the last 10 days. Last week, Biden for the first time called Putin a “war criminal” and then later referred to him as a “murderous dictator, a pure thug who is waging an immoral war against the people of Ukraine.” He’s also called the Russian invasion of Ukraine “inhumane.” 

Macron added: “Our goal is to stop the war Russia launched in Ukraine, while avoiding a war and escalation.”

Before the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Macron emerged as a central figure in Europe’s diplomatic efforts to diffuse the situation between Moscow and the West. The French leader repeatedly engaged with Putin to try and avert the war.

This post has been updated.

Denis Pushilin, the leader of the pro-Russian Donetsk People’s Republic, said Sunday that around 1,700 people were being “evacuated” daily from the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol and other towns “to the Volodar temporary accommodation center for evacuees.”

“In turn, the same number of people are leaving it,” Pushilin said in a statement on Telegram, referring to a settlement known as Nikolske, about 13 miles (21 kilometers) northwest of Mariupol. 

“Residents of Mariupol and other settlements that are being liberated from the occupation of the Kyiv regime arrive here,” Pushilin said. “People are provided with basic necessities, medical care, and then evacuated to the Russian Federation.”

Ukrainian officials have accused the Russian government of engaging in a policy of deportation, moving civilians into the Russian Federation against their will.  

On Saturday, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said the Ukrainian government estimated the number of Ukrainians forcibly deported to Russia since the beginning of the war on February 24 to be nearly 40,000.  

She previously accused the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of taking a “very questionable decision” to open an office in Rostov-on-Don, a city in southern Russia, saying the office “legitimized” Russia’s deportation, a claim the ICRC rejected. 

Russia has blocked access to the website of German newspaper Bild, according to state media outlet RIA Novosti.

A reason for the move was not immediately given.

Restriction of the website came at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office, with Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor implementing the decision, RIA reported.

In a statement emailed to CNN, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief Johannes Boie say Bild “reports around the clock on Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine, in German and increasingly also in Russian. Russian censors‘ decisions to block our website confirms our journalistic work for democracy, freedom and human rights.”

Boie continued: “And their decision motivates us further to give Russian citizens even more opportunities to find news and facts beyond Russian government propaganda.“

Bild is a widely read newspaper in Germany, reaching “more than 13.5 million people daily,” according to a spokesperson for the publication.

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People hold signs as choirs participate in the ''Coros por la Paz'' (Choirs for Peace) concert, at the Juan Goytisolo Square in Madrid, Spain on March 27. The signs read: ''Peace.''

Choirs for Peace, a group founded just days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, says it mustered 1,000 choirs to sing for peace on Sunday, on streets and squares in Spain, Portugal and eight other nations, organizers told CNN. 

A total of 805 choirs in Spain, 160 in Portugal, and 52 in eight other nations in Europe and Latin America signed up to sing in 185 cities, mainly at midday local time according to the group’s website, corosporlapaz.org. The website streamed a live signal of the singing from dozens of Spanish cities, with the marquee event in central Madrid.  

“Choirs for Peace was born as a result of the war in Ukraine. It’s asking for peace in Ukraine and all of the other forgotten wars in the world,” Spanish journalist Juan Ignacio Garcia Mostazo, a participant in one of the Madrid choirs, told CNN. 

He said the group was founded on March 5 when some choirs in Madrid sang for peace in the Ukraine war. Since then, the movement has expanded. 

The principal song that all of the choirs were singing Sunday was Dona Nobis Pacem in Latin (Give Us Peace), Mariano Garcia, general coordinator of the group and a choral director in Madrid, told CNN. 

“It’s to remember that the (Ukraine) war is very close,” Garcia said. 

Choirs from the United Kingdom, Italy, Luxembourg, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela also signed up to participate, the group’s website said. 

The group’s name, Coros por la Paz, on its website bears the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag. 

Sunday mass at Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Catholic Church in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on March 27.

Ukraine has reclaimed several villages from Russian forces in a series of counterattacks, including to the east of Kharkiv and northwest of Mariupol, after Russian missiles struck the western city of Lviv on Saturday.

Here are the latest developments in the war on Ukraine:

Ukrainian counterattacks: Kharkiv’s regional administrator said a number of villages around Malaya Rogan were retaken by Ukrainian forces. Video verified by CNN shows Ukrainian troops in control of Vilkhivka, one of the settlements roughly 20 miles from the Russian border. The success of Ukrainian forces around Kharkiv has been mirrored further north, near the city of Sumy, where Ukrainian troops have liberated a number of settlements, according to videos geolocated and verified by CNN. A separate counterattack in the south also led to the liberation of two villages from Russian forces northwest of Mariupol, according to the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration.

Lviv strikes: The Russian military on Sunday confirmed strikes on fuel depots on Lviv and outside of Kyiv Saturday, saying it had targeted fuel supplies for Ukrainian troops. At least five people were reportedly injured after at least two missiles struck Lviv, a city in western Ukraine that had been previously spared the worst of Russia’s brutal onslaught.

Biden speech: The US President said Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” during a speech in Poland Saturday. The White House followed up, saying that it was not a direct call for regime change. Biden is now back in DC.

Zelensky calls for more aid: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeated his plea to international partners for stronger military assistance, saying his country is only asking for 1% of NATO’s tanks and planes. In a video message posted to social media Saturday, Zelensky said the need to strengthen common security in Europe was raised during his two conversations with Polish President Andrzej Duda.

Red Cross deportation claims: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has categorically denied Ukrainian claims it has opened an office in the Russian city of Rostov on Don and is thereby facilitating the deportation of Ukrainian citizens to Russia. The ICRC, which generally keeps a low public profile, issued the statement following what it called “false information circulating online” that it was helping Russia move tens of thousands of people out of the country. 

Evacuations: More than 5,200 people escaped through humanitarian corridors on Saturday, according to Ukrainian officials. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said two seriously injured children and an infant with pneumonia were among 4,331 residents who fled the besieged city of Mariupol, reaching the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia. The evacuations came amid reports from Ukrainian authorities Saturday that bus convoys were being held by Russian forces, as part of what they called a pressure campaign to force some residents to Russia. 

Captured city: The Ukrainian president also said Russia will not “subdue” Slavutych after Russian forces entered the city Saturday following days of fighting. The city was built to house workers of the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Hundreds of residents congregated in its main square to protest the arrival of troops. Russian forces briefly detained the city’s mayor but eventually released him, a statement from Ukrainian political party Sluha Narodu said.

CNN’s Julia Kesaieva, Nathan Hodge, Paul P. Murphy, Tim Lister, Josh Pennington, Olena Mankovska and Hira Humayun contributed to this post.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has categorically rejected Ukrainian claims it has opened an office in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and is facilitating the deportation of Ukrainian citizens to Russia.

The ICRC, which generally keeps a low public profile, issued the statement following what it called “false information circulating online” that it was helping Russia move tens of thousands of people out of the country. 

“We never help organize or carry out forced evacuations. This is true in Ukraine. This is true for everywhere we work around the world. We would not support any operation that goes against people’s will,” the Red Cross tweeted. 

On Friday, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk accused ICRC head Peter Maurer of taking a “very questionable decision” to open an office in Rostov – which lies about 37 miles (60 kilometers) from the border with Ukraine. Such an office “legitimized” Russia’s deportations, she suggested. 

In its statement, the Red Cross said it had no office in Rostov, but was, “scaling up our regional set up to be able respond to needs where we see them. Our priority is to ensure a steady supply of lifesaving aid reaches people, wherever they are.” 

On Saturday, Vereshchuk accused Russia of creating an “alternative humanitarian reality” by forcibly deporting 40,000 people from occupied parts of Ukraine. Last week, a senior Russian official said more than 62,000 people had been evacuated from Mariupol to protect them from what he said were the “bandits” fighting to keep the besieged city in Ukrainian hands. 

Ukrainian regional officials have also accused Russian forces of stopping and holding up bus convoys trying to evacuate civilians to Ukrainian-occupied territory – calling it a pressure campaign to force some people to Russia. 

Ukrainian musician and frontman of popular rock band Okean Elzy Sviatoslav Vakarchuk.

Morale in Ukraine remains high despite over a month of brutal fighting and Russian bombardment, according to one of the country’s best-known singers who is traveling the country to lift spirits.

Speaking live to Hala Gorani from Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, Sviatoslav Vakarchuk said despite his efforts to visit troops, patients in hospitals and civilians suffering through the war he “doesn’t have to raise morale because the morale is very high.”

“The whole country is fighting against Russia. United we are. We will win this war, no doubt for me. The only question is, what will be the price for that?” Vakarchuk told CNN.

Vakarchuk, who is the lead singer of popular band Okean Elzy, said his fans in Russia will find it hard to access his music in Putin’s “Orwellian” society. 

“They’ve been so brutally supressed, so all those who are against war are very silent.”

“I don’t know what to say to Russians anymore,” he said. “The only thing that can work now is harsh sanctions.”

Firefighters try to extinguish the fire after Russian guided missiles hit a fuel storage facility in Lviv, Ukraine, on March 27.

The Russian military on Sunday confirmed strikes on fuel depots on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and outside of Kyiv, saying it had targeted fuel supplies for Ukrainian troops.

“On March 26, high-precision long-range air-launched weapons destroyed a large fuel base near the city of Lviv, which provided fuel for Ukrainian troops in the western regions of Ukraine, as well as near Kyiv,” Russian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said in a briefing Sunday.

Konashenkov confirmed a separate strike on Lviv Saturday, saying cruise missiles had targeted the workshops of the Lviv radio repair plant, which he claimed carried out the overhaul and modernization of Ukrainian weapons systems. 

Ukrainian authorities have confirmed the strike on the fuel base in Lviv. The State Emergency Service of Ukraine said Sunday the fire that broke out at the fuel storage depot in Lviv had been extinguished at 6:49 a.m.. 

The mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, said in a post on Twitter on Sunday that it took firefighters 14 hours to put out the fire.

Separately, Konashenkov claimed that sea-launched weapons had targeted a Ukrainian missile storage facility 18 miles (30 kilometers) southwest of Kyiv.

Ahead of World Theater day on Sunday, the Deutsches Theater in Berlin showed solidarity with the destroyed Academic Drama Theater in Mariupol by writing the word “children” in front of its entrance, the Ukrainian Embassy in Berlin said on its official Facebook page Saturday.

Actors, activists, and Ukrainian diplomats in Berlin wrote “children” in large white letters, just as the same word was written in Russian on the ground outside the theater in Mariupol.

“This symbolized that Deutsches Theater Berlin stands together with the destroyed Academic Drama Theater of Mariupol,” the Embassy said. “Together with the theater where children hid from the Russian bombings, while Mariupol cried out and pleaded to at least not drop bombs there by writing this word in large letters that could be seen from the air. Unfortunately, this didn’t stop the enemy.”

Ukrainian authorities said nearly 300 people died and up to 1,300 people sought refuge at the theater on March 16 when it was bombed by Russian forces. CNN has been unable to verify the death toll. 

Russia has denied its forces hit the theater, claiming instead that it was blown up by the Ukrainian army’s Azov Battalion.

Images published by the Ukrainian Embassy and video posted on the Deutsches Theater’s Instagram account show how actors, activists and diplomats paint the letters, while a Ukrainian flag with the words “we stand united” hangs above the theater’s entrance. 

A number of events dedicated to Mariupol took place on the six stages of the Deutsches Theater on Saturday for World Theater Day, the Embassy said. 

This post has been updated.

A Ukrainian soldier stands on top of a destroyed Russian armored personnel carrier after recent battle in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 26.

Missiles hit the western city of Lviv and Ukrainian counterattacks retook several villages from Russian forces on Saturday, according to local officials.

Here are some of the developments on the ground as of Saturday:

Lviv: The western city and cultural hub was hit by a series of airstrikes, with air raid sirens going on and off throughout the day. Three powerful blasts were heard in the center of the city, and plumes of thick black smoke could be seen rising in the distance. The missiles struck a fuel storage facility and a military infrastructure site, injuring at least five people. No deaths have been reported so far. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi called for air defense of Ukraine after the strikes.

Kyiv: The city’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko canceled an extended curfew planned for the capital. In a statement on Telegram, Klitschko said the curfew — planned to begin Saturday at 8:00 p.m. local time and run until 7:00 a.m. on Monday — would not be introduced. 

Suburbs in west and east of Kyiv: The Kyiv region’s military administration said Saturday that suburbs to the west and east of the capital had come under Russian shellfire and in some districts Russian forces were digging in. The western suburbs of Маkariv, Bucha and Irpin were being shelled, and the community of Bilohorodka had come under rocket attack and missile strikes, according to Oleksandr Pavliuk, the head of the Kyiv regional military administration. Pavliuk added that Russian forces were attempting to fortify positions in Bucha and another western suburb, Nemishaeve.

Slavutych, north of Kyiv: Russian troops entered the city of Slavutych after several days of shelling, a move that sparked protests among hundreds of Ukrainian civilians. The city was built to house workers of the nearby Chornobyl nuclear power plant and the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said it was monitoring the situation.

Kharkiv: Ukrainian forces have staged a counteroffensive in areas around Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, local officials said. A counterattack that began on Friday to the east of Kharkiv led to the recapture of several villages, according to the regional administrator Oleg Synegubov. He said a number of villages around Malaya Rogan were retaken by Ukrainian forces. The villages are roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) from central Kharkiv, which has been nearly encircled by Russian forces since the early weeks of the invasion.

Ukrainian counterattacks: The success of Ukrainian forces around Kharkiv has been mirrored further north, near the city of Sumy, where Ukrainian troops have liberated a number of settlements, according to videos geolocated and verified by CNN. A separate counterattack in the south also led to the liberation of two villages from Russian forces northwest of Mariupol, according to the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration. And Ukrainian counterattacks north and west of the capital appeared to have made some headway earlier this week, with Ukrainian forces restoring control of the town of Makariv, some 40 miles west of Kyiv.

Chernihiv: The mayor of the northern city said Chernihiv is surrounded by Russian troops. There is no stable electricity supply, and water is delivered by volunteers as the water supply hasn’t been fully restored. “The enemy consciously destroyed the only bridge connecting Chernihiv with a southern highway towards Kyiv,” Mayor Vladyslav Atroshenko said. “There are currently no humanitarian corridors or any safe way to bring or supplies, aid or wounded in or out.” He said the population has more than halved since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

People watch smoke rising behind buildings following explosions in Lviv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 26.

At least five people were reportedly injured Saturday after a series of missiles struck Lviv, a city in western Ukraine, close to the Polish border, that had been previously spared the worst of Russia’s brutal onslaught.

Here’s what we know:

Read the full story here.

President Joe Biden delivers a speech about the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the Royal Castle, Saturday, March 26 in Warsaw, Poland.

At nearly the same moment President Joe Biden declared him a “butcher,” Vladimir Putin’s missiles began falling in Lviv.

Sending black smoke and flames billowing into the air, and injuring at least five people, the strikes on a fuel depot pierced what had been relative calm in the western hub city that had seen relatively little of the war that has engulfed the nation.

The target hardly seemed coincidental. Biden was 250 miles away, visiting Ukrainian refugees in bitter cold at Poland’s national stadium. He heard pleas from young mothers to pray for the men – husbands, fathers, brothers – they had left behind.

When he returned to his hotel, aides briefed Biden on the strikes in Lviv. A few hours later, propelled by heartache and anger, Biden walked into the courtyard of an old Polish castle to declare the Russian President “cannot remain in power.”

The very final words Biden would utter on his last-minute swing through Europe ended up being the most consequential, reverberating widely as Air Force One departed for Washington. He left Europe more directly at odds with the Russian leader than ever.

Read the full story:

President Joe Biden delivers a speech about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at the Royal Castle, Saturday, March 26, 2022, in Warsaw. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Related article Biden's personal rivalry with Putin more intense than ever after dramatic final day of US President's Europe trip

Smoke rises after an airstrike, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Lviv, Ukraine March 26. 

US President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” during a speech in Poland and a Ukrainian city, which until now has been largely spared from Russian assault, was hit by missiles on Saturday.

Here are the latest developments in the war on Ukraine:

Missiles strike Lviv: The city’s Mayor Andriy Sadovyi called for air defense of Ukraine after a series of Russian missiles struck a fuel storage facility and a military infrastructure site in the western Ukrainian city, close to the Polish border. At least five people were reportedly injured in Lviv, which been previously spared the worst of Russia’s brutal onslaught, local officials said.

Biden’s speech: In neighboring Poland, Biden declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” during a sweeping speech that called on democracies to stand together. The White House said afterward that it was not a call for regime change. The US President also said that Russia has “strangled democracy” in its invasion of Ukraine and warned Putin to not “even think about moving on one single inch of NATO territory.” He also labeled Putin a “butcher” after visiting with Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw earlier in the day. The US also said it intends to provide “an additional $100 million in civilian security assistance” to Ukraine.

Zelensky calls for more aid: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated his plea for international partners to step up their military assistance, saying his country only asks for 1% of NATO’s tanks and planes. In a Saturday video message, Zelensky said the need to strengthen common security in Europe was raised during his two conversations with Polish President Andrezj Duda Saturday. 

Ukrainian counterattacks: Ukrainian officials say the country’s military has retaken several villages from Russian troops in a series of counterattacks. Kharkiv’s regional administrator said a number of villages around Malaya Rogan were retaken by Ukrainian forces and video shows Ukrainian troops in control of Vilkhivka, one of the settlements. The success of Ukrainian forces around Kharkiv has been mirrored further north, near the city of Sumy, where Ukrainian troops have liberated a number of settlements, according to videos geolocated and verified by CNN. A separate counterattack in the south also led to the liberation of two villages from Russian forces northwest of Mariupol, according to the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration.

Captured city: Zelensky said Russia will not “subdue” the captured Slavutych, after Russian forces entered the city Saturday following days of fighting. The city was built to house workers of the nearby Chornobyl nuclear power plant and hundreds of locals amassed in the city square protesting the arrival of the troops. Russian forces briefly detained the city’s mayor but eventually released him, according to a statement from Ukrainian political party Sluha Narodu. 

Evacuations: Two seriously injured children and an infant with pneumonia were among 5,208 people evacuated Saturday, the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine said. Among them were 4,331 residents of the besieged city of Mariupol, who reached the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia. It came as Ukrainian authorities said bus convoys trying to evacuate civilians were being stopped and held by Russian forces, as part of what they claimed to be a pressure campaign to force some residents to go to Russia. 

A Ukrainian counterattack that began on Friday to the east of the city of Kharkiv has led to the recapture of several villages, according to the regional administrator.  

CNN has geolocated and verified a video showing Ukrainian troops in control of Vilkhivka, one of the settlements that’s roughly 32 kilometers (20 miles) from the Russian border in Ukraine’s northeast.

Oleg Synegubov, Kharkiv regional administrator, said that a number of villages around Malaya Rogan were retaken by Ukrainian forces. The villages are roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) from central Kharkiv, which has been nearly encircled by Russian forces since the early weeks of the invasion.

Video shows firefight: Additional video, published on Telegram Saturday, shows an intense firefight between Ukrainian forces — including members of the Azov Battalion — and Russian forces in the village of Vilkhivka. The Azov Battalion began as an ultra-nationalist militia in eastern Ukraine, and has since been absorbed into the Ukrainian military.

In the video, the firefights between Russian and Ukrainian forces are seen among the houses and backyards of the village. At one point, Ukrainian troops move toward the village school, where Russian forces appear to be holed up.

The soldier who uploaded the edited the video, claimed on Telegram the battalion had killed “about 70 troops,” and commandeered a number of Russian military vehicles. CNN could not confirm the Russian military deaths, or the vehicle captures.

Claims of Russian prisoners: The soldier also claimed the battalion took 27 Russian troops prisoner. In the edited video, a number of apparently captured Russian soldiers are seen blindfolded and some are stripped of most of their clothes.

They are seen in the video being crammed into the back of cars and trucks and driven away by members of the battalion. Some were clearly injured.

Ukrainian counterattacks: The success of Ukrainian forces around Kharkiv has been mirrored further north, near the city of Sumy, where Ukrainian troops have liberated a number of settlements, according to videos geolocated and verified by CNN. A separate counterattack in the south about 63 miles (103 kilometers) northwest of Mariupol also led to the liberation of two villages from Russian forces, according to the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration.

A counterattack by Ukrainian forces 63 miles (103 kilometers) northwest of Mariupol has led to the recapture of two villages from Russian forces, according to the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration.

“The Melitopol Territorial Defense Battalion, together with other units of the Zaporizizhia Defense Forces, have successfully liberated the villages of Poltavka and Malynivka east of Huliaipole from the Russian occupiers,” the administration said on their Telegram channel Saturday evening.

Sensory satellite data from the NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System provided additional evidence, and confirmation, that intense fighting took place in the two villages.

The data showed that dozens of explosions took place in the two villages over the last 14 hours.

Earlier Saturday, hundreds of locals amassed in the city square in a protest following the arrival of Russian troops.

Russia will not “subdue” the captured city of Slavutych, a defiant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday.

Russian forces that entered the city are encountering the same spirit of resistance evident in other parts of the country, the president said in a video posted to social media.

“Free Slavutych which the invaders cannot subdue,” he said. 

Earlier Saturday, hundreds of locals amassed in the city square in a protest following the arrival of Russian troops.

Images and video geolocated by CNN showed a crowd of about several hundred people.

“Slavutych is Ukraine!” they chanted in the main square. “Glory to Ukraine.”

Zelensky said every “demonstration of our resistance … proves that Ukraine is a country full of life.”

Russian forces briefly detained the city’s mayor but eventually released him, according to a statement from Ukrainian political party Sluha Narodu. 

The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), condemned Russia’s seizure of the city, which was built to house workers of the nearby Chornobyl nuclear power plant. 

The IAEA said in a statement it was closely monitoring the situation. The agency’s director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, voiced concerns about the ability of power plant staff to return safely to their homes.

Some background: The arrival of Russian forces in Slavutych came after several days of shelling against the city, which is strategically located close to the Dnieper River, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) north of Kyiv and close to the border with Belarus.

According to local officials, the city has been isolated almost since the beginning of the Russian invasion.

US President Joe Biden delivers a speech at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland on March 26.

US President Joe Biden declared forcefully Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” but the White House said afterward that it was not a call for regime change.

“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden announced at the very conclusion of a capstone address delivered at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

“The President’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change,” a White House official said.

Biden’s line that Putin “cannot remain in power” was not in his prepared remarks, a White House official said.

US officials had said previously said removing Putin from power was not their goal.

“For us, it’s not about regime change. The Russian people have to decide who they want to lead them,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this month.

The Kremlin’s response: “This is not to be decided by Mr. Biden,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “It should only be a choice of the people of the Russian Federation.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Saturday that the United States intends to provide “an additional $100 million in civilian security assistance” to Ukraine.

The money is intended “to enhance the capacity of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs to provide essential border security, sustain civil law enforcement functions, and safeguard critical governmental infrastructure in the face of President Putin’s premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack,” according to the statement.

“The increased funding will continue a steady flow of personal protection equipment, field gear, tactical equipment, medical supplies, armored vehicles, and communication equipment for the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service and the National Police of Ukraine,” the statement said.