Biden says Putin is ‘more isolated than ever’ and tells oligarchs ‘we’re coming for you’

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Joe Biden warned Russia that President Vladimir Putin ‘has no idea what’s coming’ as he opened his first State of the Union address Tuesday evening by accusing the Russian leader of ‘underestimating’ western allies and Ukrainian people and announced the closure of U.S. air space to all Russian flights. 

‘Six days ago, Russia’s Vladimir Putin sought to shake the very foundation of the free world, thinking he could make it bend to his menacing ways. But he badly miscalculated,’ Biden said with Vice President Kamala Harris sitting behind his right shoulder and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on his left.

‘He thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over,’ Biden continued of Putin. ‘Instead, he [was] met with a wall of strength he never anticipated or expected – he met the Ukrainian people.’

Biden spent the first 12 minutes of his address to the nation from Congress speaking about Russia and their invasion of Ukraine – as well as the U.S. response. 

‘He has no idea what’s coming,’ Biden warned in a deviation from the prepared script that was sent out ahead of the remarks. 

The remarks came as new blasts rocked Kyiv Tuesday night after Russia was slammed as ‘barbaric’ for bombing a TV tower near the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial in Ukraine’s capital on the site of one of the biggest single massacres of Jews during the Holocaust. 

‘We in the United States of America stand with the Ukrainian people. Throughout our history, we’ve learned this lesson – When dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos, they keep moving.’

Several lawmakers showed their solidarity with Ukraine by wearing the colors of their flag – blue and yellow – while others wore brightly colored pins and scarfs as Ukraine continues to face a full-scale attack from Russia.

‘Along with twenty-seven members of the European Union including France, Germany, Italy, as well as countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and many others, even Switzerland are inflicting pain on Russia and supporting the people of Ukraine,’ Biden listed.

‘Putin is now isolated from the world more than he has ever been,’ the president added.

The Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova attended as guest to first lady Jill Biden and received a several-seconds standing ovation from members of Congress and all others in attendance.

‘She’s bright, she’s strong, she’s resolved,’ Biden said in the midst of the clapping.

Many in the first lady’s visitor box were wielding mini Ukrainian flags.

The White House said: ‘In a sign of support for the Ukrainian people, the FLOTUS has an embroidered appliqué of a sunflower, the national flower of Ukraine, sewn to the sleeve of her dress near her wrist.’ 

Other guests in the first lady’s viewing box in Congress on Tuesday evening were Joshua Davis (Midlothian, Virginia), a 7th Grader from Virginia who is a diabetes advocate and attended with his mother; former Facebook Lead Product Manager on Civil Misinformation Frances Haugen; Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger; Refynd Duro, a Progressive Care Unit Nurse at The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and the widow of Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson, among others. 

Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin underestimated the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the way world governments would rally against his invasion of Ukraine.

He also announced the U.S. is closing its air space to Russian aircraft – taking the directive from partner and ally countries that already enacted their own ban on Russian aircraft in their air space.

Lawmakers at the Capitol were told Monday that even though all signs lead toward Russia ultimately losing the war it kicked off in Ukraine, it’s likely to last up to 20 years.

The United Kingdom’s foreign secretary estimated a 10-year conflict between given the durability of the Ukrainian resistance.

At least 136 civilians have been killed by Russia’s assault as of Tuesday, according to the United Nations’ human rights office – among those casualties are 13 children.

Biden’s address was initially intended to focus on his domestic agenda, especially after he failed to get through Congress his Build Back Better plan, but with the waging conflict between Russia and Ukraine, priorities have shifted.

During his remarks to the nation Tuesday night, Biden took credit for the sweeping global sanctions that hit Russia following its full-scale invasion into Ukraine last week. 

‘Together along with our allies we are right now enforcing powerful economic sanctions,’ Biden said Tuesday night.

He then listed some of those sanctions: ‘We’re cutting off Russia’s largest banks from the international financial system, preventing Russia’s central bank from defending the Russian Ruble, making Putin’s $630 billion ‘war fund’ worthless. We are choking off Russia’s access to technology that will sap its economic strength and weaken its military for years to come.’

‘Tonight I say to the Russian oligarchs and corrupt leaders who have built billions of dollars off this violent regime no more,’ Biden continued. ‘The United States Department of Justice is assembling a dedicated task force to go after the crimes of Russian oligarchs. We’re joining with European allies to find and seize their yachts, their luxury apartments, their private jets.’

‘We’re coming for you ill-begotten gains,’ he warned. 

At the very end of Biden’s speech, which lasted almost one-hour on the dot, the president said: ‘Go get ’em.’

It’s unclear what the president was referencing, but with the continued conflict in Eastern Europe, many suggested he could be referencing more sanctions and responses to Russia attacking Ukraine.

Several of Kyiv’s neighborhoods are currently under attack, according to local reports. The Kyiv Independent reported at 11:29 p.m. local time (4:29 p.m. EST) that Russian bombs have struck Vyshneve, a town outside the capital. 

It also said the residential neighborhoods of Rusanivka, Kurenivka and Boiarka – as well as the area near Kyiv International Airport – were coming under attack. Rusanivka in particular is very central.

It also reported a loud explosion was heard at Bila Tserkva, a city in Kyiv Oblast, when a duel depot was attacked, according to the UNIAN news agency.

The locations of the reported attacks suggest Russian forces are tonight closing in from multiple sides of the capital, particularly from the west. They come as a 40-mile long Russian military convoy inches closer to Kyiv. 

Biden on his new domestic agenda and the economy 

President Joe Biden sought to reboot his domestic agenda on Tuesday night during his State of the Union address by calling on Congress to pass legislation that will lower costs for the American people, vowing that ‘my top priority is getting prices under control.’

‘So many families are living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to keep up with the rising cost of food, gas, housing, and so much more,’ the president said in his remarks. ‘ Inflation is robbing them of the gains they might otherwise feel. I get it. That’s why my top priority is getting prices under control.’

Americans have seen record high prices of gas and groceries as the pandemic comes to a close, with inflation hitting 7.5% in January.

But, despite that, Biden argued the state of America was ‘strong’ and growing stronger.

‘The State of the Union is strong – because you, the American people, are strong,’ he said. ‘We are stronger today than we were a year ago. And we will be stronger a year from now than we are today.’

Many of Biden’s ideas for domestic policy mirror his signature Build Back Better legislation, his approximately $2 trillion social services bill. The bill, however, is stalled in the Senate and all but dead after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin declined to support it, citing concerns about its costs.

But Biden argued his plan will ‘lower your costs, not your wages.’ He urged Congress to pass incentives to help combat climate change, to cut the cost of prescription drugs, cut the cost of childcare, offer more affordable housing, and have Pre-K for every 3- and 4-year-old.

‘I call it building a better America,’ Biden said to great applause.

The president outlined his vision for the nation as his poll numbers have tanked, Americans are suffering from covid fatigue and the cost of food and gas has increased dramatically. Democrats are worried that voters’ frustration will translate into a loss of the House and Senate this November.

‘My plan to fight inflation will lower your costs and lower the deficit,’ Biden said.

Biden tried to put a positive spin on his handling of the economy, pointing out his successfully passed American Rescue Plan and bipartisan infrastructure law, that 6.5 million jobs have been created during his presidency, and the strong growth of the economy.

He also put the blame on Republicans – and perhaps too a hit at Donald Trump’s tax cut – saying trickle-down economics didn’t work.

‘For the past 40 years we were told that if we gave tax breaks to those at the very top, the benefits would trickle down to everyone else,’ Biden said. ‘But that trickle-down theory led to weaker economic growth, lower wages, bigger deficits, and the widest gap between those at the top and everyone else in nearly a century.’

Biden argued the infrastructure bill will provide jobs to ‘millions of Americans.’

‘It is going to transform America and put us on a path to win the economic competition of the 21st Century that we face with the rest of the world—particularly with China,’ Biden said, mentioning the United States’ trade rival.

‘We’ll create good jobs for millions of Americans, modernizing roads, airports, ports, and waterways all across America,’ he said.

He vowed his administration will start fixing over 65,000 miles of highway and 1,500 bridges in disrepair this year alone.

Biden also outlined other initiatives: buying American, increase the maximum Pell Grant award by $2,000, raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, and create a national paid family-leave program. 

Biden’s approval rating has hit one of the lowest point of his presidency and its voters disappointment with his handling of the economy that is driving those numbers. 

Only 37 percent saying they approve of the job Biden is doing as president, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Sunday with 55% disapproving.

And 54 percent say the economy is worse off under Biden while 36% say that they are personally in worse off.  

Meanwhile 36 percent of voters told a CBS News poll that things in American are going ‘very badly’ and only 27% said things were going ‘somewhat well.’ And 63 percent described the economy as ‘bad.’

Americans have been facing rising prices in the grocery store and at the gas pump as the economy struggles to recover from the COVID pandemic and Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine has raised energy prices. 

Inflation hit a record 7.5 percent in January, rising for the six straight month. It has not been that high since 1980.    

Prices at the gas pump raised 40 percent last month after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine. Russia is the second-largest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia, and is the largest producer of natural gas in the world. 

In response to the ballooning prices, the United States and its 30 fellow International Energy Agency members agreed on Tuesday to release 60 million barrels from their oil reserves.  

The president originally intended to focus his speech on his legislative agenda, economic plans and the COVID pandemic in his remarks but Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine caused a pivot.

But the situation in the Ukraine forced a pivot. 

Lawmakers go maskless to SOTU the day after indoor mandates were lifted 

 Also during his speech Tuesday night, Biden lauded improvements in the nation’s battle against the pandemic Tuesday at the top of his State of the Union speech.  

‘Last year COVID-19 kept us apart. This year we are finally together again,’ Biden said after entering the House chamber maskless – for a speech that was a reunion for cheering and maskless lawmakers.

It was Biden’s first applause line of the night – where he cited ‘progress’ against the virus, and called for Americans to resume some of their routines.

He also spoke to the angry confrontations that have broken out over schools, masks, and vaccines – as well as furious clashes in Congress, on a night when he touted a ‘unity agenda.’ 

 ‘Let’s use this moment to reset. Let’s stop looking at COVID-19 as a partisan dividing line and see it for what it is: A God-awful disease,’ Biden said.

‘Let’s stop seeing each other as enemies, and start seeing each other for who we really are: Fellow Americans,’ he added.

Then he spoke about ending some of the measures health and political officials ordered to contain the virus – drawing political backlash in some communities.

‘We can end the shutdown of schools and businesses. We have the tools we need. It’s time for Americans to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again,’ said Biden.

‘People working from home can feel safe to begin to return to the office. We’re doing that here in the federal government. The vast majority of federal workers will once again work in person. Our schools are open. Let’s keep it that way. Our kids need to be in school,’ said Biden.

‘And with 75 percent of adult Americans fully vaccinated and hospitalizations down by 77 percent, most Americans can remove their masks, return to work, stay in the classroom, and move forward safely,’ he said.  

Biden acknowledged Americans were ‘frustrated’ with the pandemic – amid a series of polls showing Americans say they think the country is on the wrong track. The pandemic has also led to fierce divisions within the Congress – where lawmakers clashed over mask mandates, lockdowns, school policies, and figures including Biden’s coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci. 

‘For more than two years, COVID-19 has impacted every decision in our lives and the life of the nation. And I know you’re tired, frustrated, and exhausted. But I also know this. Because of the progress we’ve made, because of your resilience and the tools we have, tonight I can say we are moving forward safely, back to more normal routines,’ Biden said. 

He pointed to recent improvements in coronavirus cases, after a devastating two years.

‘We’ve reached a new moment in the fight against COVID-19, with severe cases down to a level not seen since last July,’ he noted, pointing to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest mask guidance. 

‘Under these new guidelines, most Americans in most of the country can now be mask free. And based on the projections, more of the country will reach that point across the next couple of weeks. Thanks to the progress we have made this past year, COVID-19 need no longer control our lives. I know some are talking about ‘living with COVID-19′. Tonight – I say that we will never just accept living with COVID-19. We will continue to combat the virus as we do other diseases. And because this is a virus that mutates and spreads, we will stay on guard,’ he said. 

But his remarks acknowledged the virus was not yet vanquished, even as he touted a drop in hospitalizations and infections.

‘We will continue to combat the virus as we do other diseases. And because this is a virus that mutates and spreads, we will stay on guard,’ he said. 

Biden touted vaccines and boosters, anti-viral drugs, and testing – after millions of Americans were caught without tests when omicron hit this past fall.

He warned: ‘We must prepare for new variants. Over the past year, we’ve gotten much better at detecting new variants. If necessary, we’ll be able to deploy new vaccines within 100 days instead of many more months or years.’

‘And, if Congress provides the funds we need, we’ll have new stockpiles of tests, masks, and pills ready if needed. I cannot promise a new variant won’t come. But I can promise you we’ll do everything within our power to be ready if it does,’ Biden said. 

Maskless lawmakers glad-handed inside the House chamber for the first time in months as they gathered to hear Biden deliver his speech. 

Biden and his team of speechwriters faced a delicate task Tuesday. The nation has been climbing out of the omicron surge, but the toll of the pandemic continues to mount.

The U.S. has already experienced more than 900,000 deaths due to COVID-19. Although the omicron surge that ripped through the country late last year appears to be fating, total cases remain about 70,000 in a rolling seven-day average, and daily deaths are still above 1,500.

The Centers for Disease Control relaxed its mask guidance on Friday for areas that aren’t experiencing high levels of infection or burden on hospitals, and Washington DC rolled back some of its restrictions on Monday.

His speech came in a House chamber that contained many unmasked lawmakers for the first time in months. 

It had the feeling of a more traditional state of the union, with members of the Supreme Court, the president’s cabinet, and lawmakers all going mask-less following a weekend letter from Capitol Physician Brian Monahan, who wrote that lawmakers could decide whether to mask. 

There has not been a mask mandate in the Senate. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi first imposed mask mandate for House floor in July 2020. 

There have been angry episodes involving a series of lawmakers who were fined by the House Sergeant at Arms for refusing to comply. 

New blasts rock Kyiv after TV tower was hit by Russian bombs which also struck Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial, killing at least five – following Kremlin’s chilling threat telling civilians to flee or die

According to a British correspondent in Kyiv, a new round of explosions were heard at around 10:50 p.m. local time (3:50 p.m. EST). ‘Sounds of heavy explosions in #Kyiv just now,’ journalist Sara Firth tweeted. 

Elsewhere, at least three people were killed and 10 houses destroyed in an airstrike in the city of Zhytomyr – around 85 miles west of Kyiv – at 10:16 p.m., according to Ukraine’s emergency services. More might still be trapped in the rubble, the state emergency services said in a Tweet.

Earlier, explosions erupted around the capital’s 1,300ft TV tower, built by the ravine where nearly 34,000 Jews were killed by SS troops in two days in 1941 during Adolf Hitler’s campaign against the Soviet Union.

At least two large blasts were seen near the foot of the tower, around three miles from central Kyiv, around 5:30pm local time. The first missile struck the TV tower but the second hit the memorial. 

Five people were confirmed killed in the latest onslaught which came just hours after Russia told Ukrainian civilians to evacuate because it was about to begin bombarding ‘strategic’ targets. Footage of the immediate aftermath of the explosions showed bodies in the streets below.

It was not immediately clear whether the tower had been the target of the strikes, or whether they had been targeting nearby buildings. The tower remained standing, but several state broadcasts went off air. 

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reiterated on Tuesday the Russian military ‘strikes only military facilities and uses exclusively precision weapons’ despite abundant evidence of shelling of homes, schools and hospitals.

After the attack, Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted: ‘To the world: what is the point of saying ‘never again’ for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar? At least 5 killed. History repeating…’

Meanwhile the Ukrainian foreign ministry said: ‘Russian troops fired on the TV tower, near the Memorial complex #BabynYar. Russian criminals do not stop at anything in their barbarism. Russia = barbarian.’

Israel’s Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Centre voiced ‘vehement condemnation’ of what it described as a ‘deadly Russian attack on the vicinity of the (Babyn Yar) Holocaust memorial site’, although government statements on the incident did not mention Russia. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned Putin against committing a ‘unalterable moral humanitarian catastrophe’ amid several attacks on civilian targets in the capital Kyiv.

Urging the Russian leader not to ‘double down’, Mr Johnson told ITV News on a visit to Poland and Estonia: ‘I think that he’s gone into a cul-de-sac and it’s very difficult for him to back out, and that’s the problem we’ve got.

‘And if you’re sitting where he is, his only instinct is going to be to double down and to try and ‘Grozny-fy’ Kyiv if you know what I mean. And to reduce it to [rubble], and I think that that would be an unalterable moral humanitarian catastrophe and I hope he doesn’t do that.’

His ‘Grozny-fy’ comment refers to the capital city of the Chechen Republic in Russia’s south which Russian forces spent more than a decade suppressing – resulting in thousands of deaths and large areas being laid to waste.

It came shortly after Moscow’s ministry of defense said it would be launching strikes into the city targeting Ukraine’s security service and intelligence agencies with what it called  ‘precision munitions’.

That raised fears that Kyiv was about to come under heavy bombardment after the cities of  Kharkiv, Mariupol and Kherson were hit by indiscriminate shelling earlier in the day. 

A column of Russian artillery units and tanks 40 miles long has been pictured snaking its way towards Kyiv as analysts warned it will likely be tasked with surrounding the city, besieging it and bombing it into submission as Putin resorts to ‘medieval’ tactics in an attempt to force victory.

But the convoy has reportedly stalled as its forces face logistics challenges, including a shortage of food for some units, and Russians appear to be reevaluating how to move forward on the city, a senior U.S. defense official said on Tuesday.

‘One reason why things appear to be stalled north of Kyiv is that the Russians themselves are regrouping and rethinking and trying to adjust to the challenges that they’ve had,’ the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said. Another official claimed the Russian advance is ‘basically… where it was yesterday’.

Meanwhile Ukraine warned that Belarus had also thrown its own soldiers into the fight with an attack on the north eastern city of Chernihiv. 

Day 6 of the biggest ground war in Europe since World War II has found Russia increasingly isolated by tough economic sanctions that have thrown its economy its disarray and left the country practically friendless, apart from China and Belarus.   

In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, with a population of about 1.5 million, at least six people were killed when the region’s Soviet-era administrative building was hit. Explosions tore through residential areas, and a maternity ward was moved to an underground shelter.

Kharkiv’s Freedom Square – Ukraine’s largest plaza, and the nucleus of public life for the city – was struck with what was believed to be a missile, in an attack seen by many Ukrainians as brazen evidence that the Russian invasion wasn’t just about hitting military targets but also about breaking their spirits.

The strike blew out windows and walls of buildings that ring the massive central square, which was piled high with debris and dust. Inside one building, chunks of plaster were scattered, and doors, ripped from their hinges, lay across hallways.

‘People are under the ruins. We have pulled out bodies,’ said Yevhen Vasylenko, representative of the Emergency Situations Ministry in Kharkiv region. In addition to the six killed, 20 were wounded in the strike, he said.

Zelensky called the attack on Kharkiv’s main square ‘frank, undisguised terror,’ blaming a Russian missile and calling it a war crime. ‘This is state terrorism of the Russian Federation,’ he said.

In an emotional appeal to the European Parliament later, Zelensky said: ‘We are fighting also to be equal members of Europe. I believe that today we are showing everybody that is what we are.’

He said 16 children had been killed on Monday, and he mocked Russia’s claim that it is going after only military targets.

‘Where are the children, what kind of military factories do they work at? What tanks are they going at, launching cruise missiles?’ Zelensky said.

In a worrying development, Human Rights Watch said it documented a cluster bomb attack outside a hospital in Ukraine’s east in recent days. Local residents have also reported the use of the munitions in Kharkiv and the village of Kiyanka, though there was no independent confirmation.

If confirmed, that would represent a worrying new level of brutality in the war and could lead to even further isolation in Russia.

The Kremlin denied Tuesday that it has used such weapons and insisted again that its forces only have struck military targets – despite evidence documented by Associated Press reporters of shelling of homes, schools and hospitals.

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said earlier this week that he plans to open an investigation into possible war crimes.

Unbowed by Western condemnation, Russian officials upped their threats of escalation, days after raising the specter of a nuclear attack. A top Kremlin official warned that the West’s ‘economic war’ against Russia could turn into a ‘real one.’

The first talks Monday between Ukraine and Russia yielded no stop in the fighting, though the two sides agreed to another meeting in the coming days.

Throughout the country, many Ukrainian civilians spent another night huddled in shelters, basements or corridors. More than a half-million people have fled the country, and the U.N. human rights office said it has recorded the deaths of 136 civilians. The real toll is believed to be far higher.

‘It is a nightmare, and it seizes you from the inside very strongly. This cannot be explained with words,’ said Kharkiv resident Ekaterina Babenko, taking shelter in a basement with neighbors for a fifth straight day. ‘We have small children, elderly people and frankly speaking it is very frightening.’

A Ukrainian military official said Belarusian troops joined the war Tuesday in the Chernihiv region, without providing details. But just before that, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said his country had no plans to join the fight.

One after the other, explosions burst through a residential area of Kharkiv in one video verified by the AP. In the background, a man pleaded with a woman to leave, and a woman cried.

Determined for life to go on despite the attacks, 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.

Russia’s goals in hitting central Kharkiv were not immediately clear. Western officials speculated that it is trying to pull in Ukrainian forces to defend the city while a larger Russian force encircles Kyiv.

Russian troops continued their advance toward the capital, a city of nearly 3 million. The convoy 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.

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

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.

Ukrainians used resourcefulness to try to stop the Russian advance: On a highway between Odesa and Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, residents piled tractor tires filled with sand and topped with sandbags to block Russian military convoys. In Kyiv, sandbags were heaped in front of doors and windows of City Hall.

Russia’s war on Ukraine is now in its sixth day, but Ukrainian fighters are putting up a fierce resistance and surprisingly, Russia has not been able to dominate the skies. 

There are increasing fears that as Russia becomes more isolated under an avalanche of Western sanctions, Vladimir Putin could become even more reckless and set off a world-altering war.

Across Ukraine, civilians continue to bear the brunt of the conflict with families and children huddled in underground subway stations, basements and other shelters.

The Red Cross appealed Tuesday for $272 million to help people affected by the war. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Red Cross federation said they fear ‘millions of people face extreme hardship and suffering without improved access and a rapid increase in humanitarian assistance.’

On Monday, a Ukrainian delegation held talks with Russian officials at the border with Belarus, though they ended with no agreements except to keep talking.

Meanwhile, Western sanctions triggered by the invasion sent the Russian ruble plummeting, leading ordinary Russians to line up at banks and ATMs. And Russian teams were suspended from all international soccer matches, including qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, pushing the country toward sports pariah status.  

The cultural backlash against the Kremlin has also intensified. Several major Hollywood entertainment companies said they are pausing the upcoming release of films in Russia in response to the ongoing ‘humanitarian crisis’ in Ukraine.

The Cannes Film Festival also said no Russian delegations would be welcome this year and the Venice festival announced free screenings of a film about the 2014 conflict in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. 

The sporting backlash also continued, with Russian flags and the playing of its national anthem banned in Formula One, the FIA announced on Tuesday in response to the country’s invasion.

Ukrainian authorities say the center of Kharkiv was hit Tuesday by renewed Russian shelling that struck the administration building along with residential buildings. An emergency official said the bodies of at least six people had been pulled from the ruins, and at least 20 other people were injured.

The Russian military convoy threatening Kyiv – a city of nearly 3 million people – is far bigger than initially thought, with satellite images showing it occupying much of a 40-mile (64-kilometer) stretch of road north of the Ukrainian capital. The convoy was no more than 17 miles (25 kilometers) from the city center on Monday, according to satellite imagery from the Maxar company.

Kyiv’s outgunned but determined troops have slowed Russia’s advance and held onto Kyiv and other key cities – at least for the time being. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – who had earlier cut diplomatic ties with Moscow and declared martial law and whose defiance has drawn much admiration from the West – asked NATO to impose a complete no-fly zone over Ukraine for Russian airplanes, helicopters and missiles.

Britain’s deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, rejected the call Tuesday, saying it would risk widening the war by putting the alliance in direct conflict with Russian forces.

Zelensky called the attack Tuesday on Kharkiv’s main square ‘frank, undisguised terror,’ blaming a Russian missile and calling it a war crime. ‘Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget.’ Later, in an address to the European Parliament, he said Ukrainians are ‘fighting also to be equal members of Europe.’

‘I believe that today we are showing everybody that is what we are,’ he said.

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said Tuesday her government wanted to boost the country’s military capabilities following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as the ‘general threat level’ had increased.

‘Sweden’s defensive capabilities need to be strengthened, the rearmament needs to be brought forward,’ Andersson said during a televised speech to the nation. 

‘Sweden should have a strong defense,’ she said, announcing they would initiate talks for additional resources.

‘We are not under a direct threat of an armed attack against Sweden, but the general threat level has increased,’ she said.

After the end of the Cold War, Sweden slashed military spending. It was only after Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 that parliament agreed on a turnaround.

Sweden reintroduced mandatory military service in 2017 and reopened its garrison on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea in January 2018.

In October, it bumped up defense spending by 40 percent with an extra 27 billion Swedish kronor ($2.8 billion, 2.5 billion euros) to be added to the defense budget from 2021 to 2025.

Sweden is not a NATO member, but cooperates closely with the alliance. 

Sweden’s decision came after Germany announced last week that it would be increasing its defense spending over 2 percent of its GDP for the first time since the Second World War.

Over the weekend, Russian artillery hit a military base in Okhtyrka, a city between Kharkiv and Kyiv, where more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed, the head of the region wrote on Telegram, posting photographs of the charred shell of a four-story building and rescuers searching through the rubble.

Ukrainian authorities say Russian forces have blocked Kherson, a major port on the Black Sea. Russian troops have made significant gains along Ukraine’s coast in an apparent effort to cut it off from both the Black and the Azov seas. 

For many, it has meant sheltering in basements and subway stations while Russian forces attack cities and street fights rage. Others have scrambled to escape, leaving homes and husbands, fathers and sons to fight, taking trains and buses or walking for miles to a safer country.

Across Ukraine and in refugee shelters across the borders, parents have struggled to comfort their children. Mothers rock them on subway platforms or carry them for miles in the cold. At one border station in Poland, refugees were met by boxes of donated clothes and toys.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have sought safety at night in Kyiv’s subway system and other makeshift shelters around the country, where parents try to calm their children’s fears.

On Monday, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said her office had confirmed that 102 civilians, including seven children, have been killed in the Russian invasion and 304 others wounded since Thursday, though she cautioned the tally was likely a vast undercount. 

Western officials believe Putin wants to overthrow Ukraine’s government and replace it with a compliant regime, reviving Moscow’s Cold War-era influence. His comments have raised fears that the invasion of Ukraine could lead to nuclear war, whether by design or mistake.

The United States and the European Union have levied sanctions on Russia’s biggest banks and its elite, frozen the assets of the country’s Central Bank located outside the country, and excluded its financial institutions from the SWIFT bank messaging system – but have largely allowed its oil and natural gas to continue to flow freely to the rest of the world.

Sanctions experts expect Russia to try to mitigate the impact of the financial penalties by relying on energy sales and leaning on the country’s reserves in gold and Chinese currency. Putin also is expected to move funds through smaller banks and accounts of elite families not covered by the sanctions, deal in cryptocurrency and rely on Russia’s relationship with China. 

The U.N.’s two major bodies – the 193-nation General Assembly and the more powerful 15-member Security Council – held separate meetings Monday to discuss Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The council meeting opened with the news that the United States was kicking out 12 Russian U.N. diplomats whom Washington accuses of spying.

The assembly will give all U.N. members an opportunity to speak about the war and more than 110 signed up to do so, with speeches to continue Tuesday. The assembly, which allows no vetoes, is expected to vote later in the week on a resolution coordinated by European Union envoys, working with Ukraine.

The draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, demands that Russia immediately stop using force against Ukraine and withdraw all troops.

In Geneva, meanwhile, scores of diplomats walked out of two meetings at the U.N. in which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was beamed in for a video statement, as a protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said he plans to open an investigation ‘as rapidly as possible’ into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine – both alleged crimes committed before the Russian invasion, but also any new crimes that either side might have committed since the invasion started. 

The U.N. refugee agency says that about 660,000 people have fled Ukraine for neighboring countries since the Russian invasion began. The number, given on Tuesday, was up from a count of more than 500,000 a day earlier.

UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo said in Geneva that ‘at this rate, the situation looks set to become Europe’s largest refugee crisis this century.’

Earlier, when the overall figure still stood at around half a million, she said the count included 281,000 in Poland, more than 84,500 in Hungary, about 36,400 in Moldova, over 32,500 in Romania and about 30,000 in Slovakia. The rest were scattered in other countries, she said.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, has said the U.N. expects the total to reach 4 million in the coming weeks.

Putin’s war on CHILDREN: Battle to save Polina’s little brother as he lies unconscious in hospital unaware his mother, father and sister were shot dead – as Russian missile strike on KINDERGARTEN kills six  

The lives of the brother and sister of Polina, the Harry Potter mad Ukrainian 10-year-old girl shot dead by the Russians with their parents, still hang in the balance today as a little girl blown up with five others when a missile hit a kindergarten was also named. 

Polina was among three members of the same family murdered in their car by one of Putin’s sabotage and reconnaissance units operating in the capital on Saturday.

Anton Kudrin, and wife Svetlana Zapadynskaya and their middle daughter died in a hail of bullets, their eldest daughter Sofia and youngest son Semyon are wounded and in a critical condition in hospital, unaware their family has been killed.

A poignant picture of a relative, head bowed, while clutching Semyon’s hand as he lies stricken on a ventilator epitomises how Putin’s war is targeting civilians and continues to take a terrible toll on Ukraine‘s youngest and most vulnerable. 16 children have died and 45 wounded since last Thursday, with the death toll expected to rise later today.  

The brutal treatment suffered at the hands of the Russians by Ukraine’s children has appalled the world as it was also revealed that one child with gunshot wounds died on the way to hospital after his ambulance came under fire from the invaders. 

Yesterday images charting the senseless death of the so-called girl in the pink unicorn pyjamas shocked the world. Surrounded by doctors and nurses, the girl of six lay fatally wounded on a paramedic’s trolley being held by her bloodsoaked father – one of the youngest victims of Putin’s murderous onslaught on her country.

A picture of the smiling pink-haired schoolgirl Polina was shared by Vladimir Bondarenko, the deputy mayor of Kyiv yesterday. Mr Bondarenko said: ‘Her name was Polina. She studied in the 4th grade of school in Kyiv. Her and her parents were shot by Russian DRG.’ The 10-year-old loved the Harry Potter books and was in her final year at primary school when she was murdered.

Seven-year-old Alisa Hlans was one of six people who died when her kindergarten was hit on Friday, the second day of the Russian invasion. Pictures of the aftermath of the attack showed bodies strewn around the entrance as the staff tried to flee with the children.

At least one child hiding at the nursery was wounded in the attack.

Prosecutor general Irina Venediktova said Alisa, who was three months away from her eighth birthday, died in hospital on Saturday after the attack in the small town of Okhtyrka, an hour’s drive from Ukraine’s north-east border.

The Russian military were accused of using cluster bombs in the attack, with the shattered kindergarten showing signs of multiple explosions from a single bomb. The Kremlin has denied the claims.  

A six-year-old girl called Sofia Fedko and her brother Ivan, who was only a few weeks old, died when five members of the same family came under fire near the southern city of Kherson. The children’s mother Irina and two grandparents, aged 56, also died on the first day of the conflict.

An unnamed boy was killed on the second day of fighting in the small town of Chuhuiv in eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, after a shell struck apartments.

While one local doctor told Sky News that a boy of ten died of gunshot wounds on his way to Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv on Friday night. Dr Andrey Vysotskyi said the boy was ‘in the ambulance and also the ambulance was under gunfire’. 

Children not killed or injured are among the 500,000-plus people trying to flee Ukraine for the West – many have been forced to say goodbye to their fathers, who are staying behind to fight.

Putin’s disgraceful war waged on the people of Ukraine was laid bare in heart-wrenching pictures capturing the death of an innocent six-year-old –  dubbed the girl in the pink unicorn pyjamas – one of 16 children now killed in the conflict.

The upsetting pictures charted the fight to save the unnamed little girl who was fatally injured when the Russians shelled her Mariupol apartment block on Sunday – and epitomised the terrible toll war is having on civilians, especially children.

During the rescue attempt, a doctor in blue medical scrubs, pumping oxygen into the girl, turned to the AP photographer and said: ‘Show this to Putin: The eyes of this child, and crying doctors.’  

Clutching her blood-covered hand to her mouth and carrying the child’s slippers, pompom scarf and bobble hat, one woman, who could be her mother, was photographed as attempts were made to resuscitate the six-year-old in the back of an ambulance after the artillery strike.

The next picture, too graphic to be published, shows the girl’s father holding his lifeless child’s hand as the paramedic performs CPR on her tiny body. He is sobbing while covered in what appears to be her blood.

A team of doctors then tenderly carries the child, who is still wearing her red-stained unicorn pyjamas, into the hospital in the coastal city. Her bedclothes are then cut away so a team of seven doctors work on her body, which is still being gripped by her praying father. 

The final image shows the child alone on a gurney in an empty ward, having been declared dead in a war that had by Sunday claimed civilian victims of at least 210, including more than a dozen children. 

More than 500,000 refugees, mainly women and children, are fleeing Ukraine for the West, with some children separated or even orphaned since the invasion began. Queues of up to 25 miles are reported at the border with Poland and Romania.

It came as Mail readers donated an extraordinary £268,000 on the first day of our Ukraine Appeal. The newspaper’s owner also pledged £500,000 – sending the first day’s monumental total soaring past £750,000 to be given to reputable charities that are already on the ground doling out hot food, blankets and vital shelter to stricken families. 

The gut-wrenching picture of the six-year-old child’s pale and lifeless body could become the defining images of the conflict in the same way the photo of three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi, washed up drowned on a Turkish beach 2015, horrified the world and laid bare the plight of refugees fleeing the wartorn country. 

Her death, and of other children, exposes Putin’s filthy lie that he is not waging war on the Ukrainian people amid calls for him to be treated as a war criminal for his bombing of civilians. Several nurseries and kindergartens have also been hit. 

President Zelensky said in a TV address yesterday that 16 Ukrainian children have been killed and 45 wounded in the four days since the invasion began.  

Little boy Mark Goncharuk was filmed fleeing with others in a van toward the Ukrainian border, fighting the tears as he spoke about how his father stayed behind to help support the fight against the Russians.

As tears poured down his face he said: ‘We left our Dad in Kyiv. He is helping our heroes, our army, and may even fight himself’. The family were picked up by a team from the Reuters press agency. Mark said: ‘We were walking for three hours and planned to walk for three days. You saved us’. 

Putin dramatically escalated East-West tensions by ordering Russian nuclear forces put on high alert on Sunday, while Ukraine’s embattled leader agreed to talks with Moscow as Putin’s forces drove deeper into the country.

Putin cited ‘aggressive statements’ by NATO in issuing a directive to increase the readiness of his country’s nuclear weapons – a step that raised fears that the invasion of Ukraine could boil over into nuclear war, whether by design or mistake.The Russian leader is ‘potentially putting in play forces that, if there’s a miscalculation, could make things much, much more dangerous,’ said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity.