March 27, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of the war in Ukraine has moved here.

Ukraine is ready to accept a neutral status as part of a peace deal with Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday in an interview with Russian independent journalists.

Zelensky told the journalists that, “this was the first point of principle for the Russian Federation, as I recall. And as far as I remember, they started the war because of this.” 

Any agreement would have to be put to the Ukrainian people in a referendum, he said. But Zelensky once again stressed his desire to reach a concrete peace agreement.

“So this clause is a security guarantee clause for Ukraine. And since they say it’s for them [security guarantees] as well, it’s understandable to me, and it’s being discussed. It’s in-depth, but I’m interested in making sure it’s not just another piece of paper.” Zelensky added. 
“So we’re interested in having that paper turned into a serious treaty to be signed.”

Zelenksy also said, “the issues of Donbas and Crimea must be discussed and solved” in peace talks.

Some context: Zelensky’s comments come as the Turkish presidency said the next round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegates will be held in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Tuesday.

Earlier, Zelensky told the Russian journalists he would refuse to sit down with Russia’s negotiators if they seek to solely discuss the “denazification” of Ukraine. He said Ukraine will not discuss the terms “denazification” and “demilitarization” at all during talks with Russia. 

Russia’s independent news network, TV Rain, shuttered its Moscow operations in early March — its newsroom empty, broadcast signal shut off.

The decision followed the draconian “Fake News” law the Kremlin enacted, effectively making it a crime to report the truth about the war in Ukraine. But the husband-and-wife team behind the channel said they’re not deterred.

As Russia cracked down on independent media, correspondent Ekaterina Kotrikadze and TV Rain editor-in-chief Tykhon Dzyadko fled to Istanbul, then to Russia’s neighbor Georgia.

“You are facing up to 15 years in prison if you call this war a war, if you are quoting President Zelenksy,” Kotrikadze said on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” Sunday. “If you are reporting the truth, so we did not have any choice.”

Right now, TV Rain content is mainly found on its YouTube channel. Despite government efforts to control access to information, Dzyadko said, TV Rain’s livestreams are being viewed by many Russians.

Read the full story:

Related article These Russian journalists found a way to report from outside the country

The number of Ukrainian refugees that have arrived in France has reached around 30,000, according to Housing Minister Emmanuelle Wargon.  

Speaking to French broadcaster Franceinfo on Sunday, Wargon said about half of the refugees are passing through France to Spain and Portugal, but France is getting ready to house more refugees.

Peace and the restoration of normal life are the “obvious” goals of Ukraine as the country enters into a new round of talks with Russia next week, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday. 

Speaking in a video message posted to social media, Zelensky said as a new round of face-to-face negotiations kick off Tuesday in Istanbul, Ukraine is looking for peace “without delay.”

“Our priorities in the negotiations are known,” Zelensky said. “Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are beyond doubt. Effective security guarantees for our state are mandatory. Our goal is obvious: peace and the restoration of normal life in our native state as soon as possible.”

During a Sunday call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan emphasized the need for ceasefire in Ukraine “and peace between Russia and Ukraine as soon as possible,” according to the Turkish presidency.

US President Joe Biden told reporters Sunday he was not calling for regime change in Russia in his off-the-cuff remarks a day earlier.

“No,” Biden said, in response to a shouted question from a reporter in the press pool asking if he was calling for regime change.

The question stemmed from Biden’s comment Saturday at the conclusion of an address delivered outside the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland.

“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Other Biden administration officials have sought to walk back and clarify Biden’s comment.

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

Russian forces continued missile strikes across Ukraine Sunday evening, according to Mikhail Podoliak, an adviser to president Volodymyr Zelensky.

He mentioned the cities of Lutsk, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr and Rivne in a Twitter post.

“More and more missiles every day. Mariupol under the ‘carpet’ bombing,” he said.

“Russia no longer has a language, humanism, civilization. Only missiles, bombs and attempts to wipe Ukraine off the face of the earth,” he said.

Video has surfaced showing what appear to be Ukrainian soldiers shooting men who are apparently Russian prisoners in the knees during an operation in the Kharkiv region.

On the almost six-minute-long video, the Ukrainian soldiers are heard saying they have captured a Russian reconnaissance group operating from Olkhovka, a settlement in Kharkiv roughly 20 miles from the Russian border.

Asked about the video, a senior presidential advisor, Oleksiy Arestovych, said in an interview posted on YouTube Sunday: “The government is taking this very seriously, and there will be an immediate investigation. We are a European army, and we do not mock our prisoners. If this turns out to be real, this is absolutely unacceptable behavior.”

In a separate briefing, Arestovych said, “We treat prisoners in accordance with the Geneva Convention, whatever your personal emotional motives.”

CNN has reached out to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry for comment. In response, the ministry sent CNN a statement from the Armed Forces chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. The statement did not refer directly to the incident, but said, “In order to discredit Ukraine’s defense forces, the enemy films and distributes staged videos showing inhuman treatment by alleged ‘Ukrainian soldiers’ of ‘Russian prisoners.’ 

“I emphasize that servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other legitimate military formations strictly adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law,” Zaluzhnyi said. “I urge you to take into account the realities of informational and psychological warfare and trust only official sources.”

It’s unclear which Ukrainian unit may have been involved. The soldiers speak in a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian with Ukrainian accents.

The video comes as Ukrainian forces make gains east and south of Kharkiv. CNN geolocated and verified a long video uploaded on a Telegram Saturday showing a successful assault by Ukrainian troops of the Azov Battalion, in which they took a number of Russian prisoners in a rapid assault on Olkhovka, also known as Vilkhivka.

Some of the prisoners were stripped and blindfolded.

That video was posted by Konstantin Nemichev, a Kharkiv regional official who took part in the attack on Olkhovka. He told CNN he was not associated with the footage that emerged showing Ukrainian troops kneecapping Russian prisoners.

“This is not our location … I have not seen such a location,” he told CNN on Sunday.

He suggested the video was shot “maybe somewhere in the [Kharkiv] region.”

In the first response from Russian authorities, the chairman of the investigative committee of the Russian Federation, A.I. Bastrykin, said an investigation would be launched “to establish all the circumstances of the ill-treatment of captured soldiers by Ukrainian nationalists.”

In a statement, Bastrykin said: “Footage appeared on the Internet in which prisoners were treated with extreme cruelty by Ukrainian nationalists. The video circulating online shows captured soldiers, being shot in both legs and not given medical assistance. According to some reports, illegal actions took place at one of the bases of the Ukrainian nationalists in Kharkiv region.” 

CNN is not showing the video.

A loud explosion followed by sirens were heard in Kyiv early Monday (Sunday ET), according to CNN teams on the ground.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has refused to sit down with Russia’s negotiators if they seek to solely discuss the “denazification” of Ukraine.

Speaking with independent Russian journalists on Sunday, Zelensky said Ukraine is not discussing the terms “denazification” and “demilitarization” at all during talks with Russia. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has continuously framed his invasion of Ukraine – a country with a Jewish president – as a campaign of “denazification,” a description dismissed by historians and political observers alike.

“We won’t sit down at the table at all if all we talk about is some ‘demilitarization,’ or some ‘denazification.’ For me, these are absolutely incomprehensible things,” Zelensky said. 

A previous meeting during which the Ukrainian side told their Russia counterparts not to use these terms did not prove “substantive at all,” Zelensky added.

As the next set of talks between the two sides are set to kick off in Istanbul on Tuesday, Zelensky said he is “not against” conversations with Russia “as long as there is a result,” adding he had advocated for dialogue even before the war started. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine expanded Saturday and intensified its attacks on Ukraine, launching multiple cruise missiles into the heart of Lviv, a city once considered a safe haven for families fleeing violence. 

Everywhere is a target, and anyone can be a victim, it seems, but a few hundred families believe they’ve found the safest place in Ukraine, tucked away in the Carpathian Mountains. 

The remote urban settlement of Slavsko is a popular ski destination for locals, but as spring melted its snow-capped peaks and Russian troops invaded the country’s east, a lucky few found solace in the slopes.

Many of the hotels welcomed the families, offering a handful of rooms for free and others at discounted rates. Staicy Chernilevskaia, who fled with her partner Ramir Holubov from Kharkiv, is among 50 people staying at the Karpatsky Zatyshok hotel. 

“It’s mind boggling when you look at these mountains and read the news,” Chernilevskaia said. “It seems like it’s not real.”

The couple’s families are still in Kharkiv where Russian artillery consistently strikes residential areas, according to Ukrainian officials. 

After a terrifying week spent sheltering in the car park of their apartment block in Kyiv and two failed escape attempts, 12-year-old Diana Kovalyova and her mother finally squeezed onto one of the overcrowded trains leaving the capital. 

But they didn’t know where to go until they remembered a family trip one summer to the ski resort. 

Situated in a valley between two rivers, the idyllic town has one small gold-domed church and little interest to Russian firepower that has targeted military infrastructure and urban centers. 

“I feel safe here and also the view is perfect,” Diana said. “I like it so much, but I hope the war is over soon and we can go home because living at home is still much better.”

The town now hosts about 3,400 internally displaced people, nearly doubling its population, but the mayor says it’s not a burden. The community wants to share its mountain sanctuary. 

Some are staying in less traditional accommodations. Olesya Matiushenko found peace for her two children in a glamping pod perched atop the mountains. 

“My daughter wakes up every morning, opens the curtains, wipes the dew from the windows and says, ‘Mommy look!’” Olesya said with a smile as she looks out at her stunning view.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday called the Russian siege of the port city of Mariupol a “humanitarian catastrophe,” claiming that Russian forces had taken over 2,000 children out of the city as part of what Ukrainian officials have described as a wave of civilian deportations to Russia.

Asked in an interview with independent Russian journalists to describe the situation, Zelensky said, “The reality is this: The city is blocked by the Russian military. All entrances and exits from the city of Mariupol are blocked. The port is mined. A humanitarian catastrophe inside the city is unequivocal, because it is impossible to go there with food, medicine and water. The Russian military is shelling humanitarian convoys. Drivers are being killed.”

Zelensky added that Russian forces have engaged in the “forcible removal of people” to Russia.

“According to our information, more than two thousand children were taken out, that means stolen,” Zelensky said. “Their exact location is unknown. They can be there with or without parents. All in all, it’s a disaster. I can’t tell you what that looks like at all. It’s scary. They hold them like souls for an exchange fund.”

CNN cannot independently verify claims about the number of children taken out of Mariupol and other towns into Russia. A pro-Russian separatist on Sunday said around 1,700 people are being “evacuated” daily to Russia from Mariupol and other cities.

Zelensky painted a grim picture of the situation in the city, which has been shattered by weeks of fighting. 

“To make you understand in the city there are corpses lying on the roads, on the sidewalks,” he said. “Corpses are just lying around – no one cleans them – of Russian soldiers and citizens of Ukraine.”

The Russian military on Sunday confirmed strikes on fuel depots in 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.

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.

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

The next round of talks between Russia and Ukraine will be held in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Tuesday, according to the Turkish presidency.

A statement from the Turkish Presidency’s Communications Directorate said during a phone call on Sunday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “agreed that the next meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian delegations will be held in Istanbul.”

Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin told CNN International Anchor Becky Anderson on Sunday that the talks will take place Tuesday. 

However, Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said earlier that the meeting would take place Monday. Previous negotiations have yielded little result.

Erdogan and Putin discussed the “latest situation in the Russia-Ukraine war” and the negotiation efforts between Russia and Ukraine, according to the Turkish Presidency readout of the call.

“During the meeting, President Erdogan underlined the necessity of establishing a ceasefire and peace between Russia and Ukraine as soon as possible and improving the humanitarian situation in the region and stated that Turkey will continue to contribute in every possible way during this process,” the statement continued. 

Ukraine’s military intelligence head says Russian President Vladimir Putin could be looking to carve Ukraine in two – like North and South Korea. 

Brig. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Agency, said Russia’s operations around Kyiv had failed and it was now impossible for the Russian army to overthrow the Ukrainian government. Putin’s war was now focused on the south and the east of the country, he said. 

“There is reason to believe that he is considering a ‘Korean’ scenario for Ukraine. That is, [Russian forces] will try to impose a dividing line between the unoccupied and occupied regions of our country. In fact, it is an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine.” 

Budanov said Russia remained intent on establishing a land corridor from the Russian border to Crimea, and said he expected to see an attempt to unite Russian-occupied territories into a single entity. 

“We are already seeing attempts to create “parallel” authorities in the occupied territories and to force people to give up [the Ukrainian] currency,” Budanov said, adding that he expected Ukrainians to resist Russia’s political efforts. 

Moscow’s media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, issued a statement Sunday warning Russian news outlets against rebroadcasting or distributing an interview between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a group of independent Russian journalists.

The lengthy video interview, posted in full on Zelensky’s Telegram channel, featured questions from some of Russia’s most prominent independent journalists, including author Mikhail Zygar and Tikhon Dzyadko, the editor-in-chief of the recently shuttered channel TV Rain. 

“Russia must know the truth,” Zelensky said. “Russian journalists from the Zygar YouTube channel, TV Rain, the Meduza portal, and the Kommersant and Novaya Gazeta publications received answers to all questions.”

Roskomnadzor followed with a statement on Telegram noting that some of the outlets have formally been branded as “foreign agents” by the Russian government. 

“Roskomnadzor warns the Russian media not to publish this interview,” the statement said. “The media outlets conducting the interviews will be subject to scrutiny to determine the extent of responsibility and the appropriate response to be taken.”

FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021 file photo, journalists work at a newsroom of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Moscow Bureau in Moscow, Russia. Russian authorities have designated an investigative media outlet and several journalists as "foreign agents." The Justice Ministry said Friday July 23, 2021, it added the Insider online outlet and five journalists to the list. Russia also used the law to levy heavy fines on U.S.-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty for failing to identify its material as produced by foreign agents. (Anton Sergienko, RFE/RL via AP, File)

Related article More Russian media outlets close as Moscow cracks down

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Sunday that schools in the Ukrainian capital would reopen online on Monday. 

“On March 28, the educational process will resume in the capital — in online format,” Klitschko said in a statement on Telegram. “It will be more adapted to current conditions. And using different educational platforms for students.”

Klitschko added: “An important task today is for the city to live and work even under such strict martial law. They [the Russians] are trying to intimidate us. That will not work! We will not give up!”

Qatar’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, told CNN’s Becky Anderson in an interview that investment in Russia is currently “under a lot of review” and Qatar is not thinking about increasing its investments there until there is a “better environment and more political stability.”

“Right now with the current situation we are not thinking about any new investments there. Even in Europe, until we have some clarity on the stability of the situation … Well, not entire Europe, but the areas where we are feeling that there are some tensions or we might have any political risk, because we have to look at it from all the dimensions,” Al-Thani told CNN on the sidelines of the Doha Forum.

The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has sizable investments in the Russian oil giant Rosneft, which Al-Thani said was a decision made based on “commercial assessment and is still ongoing,” however, will not increase for the time being.

While Qatar’s stance is against any act of aggression or the use of power against a sovereign country, the foreign minister says he has been keeping his communication channels open with all parties. He said he speaks to his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts frequently to “offer our help or contribution to de-escalate the situation and put an end to this war,” and was in Moscow recently meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

“What I believe and from my conversation with my counterpart there in Russia is that they are willing to engage on the demands that they have put forward. Now, how far the Ukrainian government is willing to give on those demands, this is really the Ukrainian government and Ukrainian people’s decision … We should focus on having a ceasefire, humanitarian corridors, bringing the humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and instead of having this conflict and disagreement in a battlefield, to be around the table,”

Qatar has often played a mediation role in de-escalating conflicts and bringing adversaries to the table, especially between the Taliban and the United States and between the West and Iran over the JCPOA. The Foreign Minister told CNN he believes this policy is the best way forward. 

The French foreign minister Jean Yves Le Drian said during the Doha Forum that there will be “collective guilt” if we do nothing to help Mariupol.

“Mariupol is the new Aleppo,” Le Drian said. 

Speaking at the Doha Forum to CNN’s Becky Anderson, Le Drian said “there is an invading power, which to reach its own ends, it is taking a population hostage in Mariupol. This is truly unacceptable.”

“I think we’re at a tipping point where beyond the Ukrainian crisis, the parameters of stability and security in Europe are challenged,” he added. 

The next round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia will be held live from March 28-30 in Turkey, Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said on Facebook. 

He did not specify where in Turkey the two delegations would meet as of Monday.

Previous negotiations have yielded little result.

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 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.

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.

“I think everybody is obviously talking about the men and women defending Ukraine, but there are other people fighting the war in other ways. That’s why they’re called the food fighters. We see restaurants, we see food people in many of these cities doing what they can to feed women, children, elderly, that very often are in bunkers trying to escape from the bombing that arrived without nobody even telling them. That’s the heroes that I see in Ukraine. What you see is everybody doing whatever they can to provide comfort and relief to fellow Ukrainians,” Andrés told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” from Lviv, Ukraine.

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. 

“But what we do have evidence of is the fact that the Russians have not succeeded in their original aims. And that was, as you well know, to take Kyiv in just a couple of days,” she said. “So, because of that, I think Russia is reassessing and they’ve indicated that they’re going to alter their tactics, but let’s give it some time. Next couple days, the United States, working closely with allies and the Ukrainian government will be looking for evidence of this shift,” Smith added.

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’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.”

“He went to the National Stadium in Warsaw and literally met with hundreds of Ukrainians. He heard their heroic stories as they were fleeing Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine. In the moment, I think that was a principled human reaction to the stories that he had heard that day.”

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.

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. 

“Today, March 26, on Chornovil Avenue in Lviv, patrols stopped a suspicious car,” Kozytskyi said in a statement on Telegram.”While checking the driver’s documents and phone, police found videos and photos of our military movements. He also had photos of passports of men with Luhansk registration and a lot of contacts with Russian numbers.”

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. 

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. 

“As for the war in Ukraine, Israel stands firm with the people of Ukraine and is going to continue our effort to help reduce the suffering and end the bloodshed. We’ve already sent our top medical teams to set up the most advanced field hospital inside Ukraine on the western side. I’ve been reported that they’ve already taken care and treated over 500 patients. At this moment, at this very moment, doctors and nurses are risking their lives to save lives of those in need. I’m proud of what Israel is doing. And of course we’re doing what we can when asked to contribute to the efforts to end this war. We do this while maintaining close coordination to the United States and with our European partners.”

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. 

“We must repudiate war, a place of death where fathers and mothers bury their children, where men kill their brothers without even seeing them, where the powerful decide and the poor die. War does not only devastate the present but also the future of society,” he went on to say.

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

“Faced with the danger of self-destruction, humanity must understand that the time has come to abolish war. To erase it from human history before it erases man from history,” he said.

“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.”

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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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. 

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. 

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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.