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Key updates
The most visible assault came when a missile strike hit Kyiv’s main TV tower and a nearby Holocaust memorial, killing at least five people, officials said. Footage of the aftermath, obtained by The Washington Post, showed a gruesome scene of blown-out cars and buildings and several bodies on fire. Kyiv was bracing for an all-out assault amid fears that Russian troops would encircle the capital, as they’ve apparently done in the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, its mayor told The Post.
In his State of the Union address, President Biden applauded the bravery of Ukrainians fighting the invasion and called for the United States and its allies to continue to support the resistance to Russian forces. But, Biden acknowledged, “the next few days, weeks and months will be hard” for Ukraine, with Russian President Vladimir Putin expected to continue escalating his offensive. Biden also announced that the United States would close its airspace to Russian airlines, “further isolating Russia and adding additional squeeze on their economy,” he said.
Here’s what to know
When Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia, Nixon promised not to ‘embarrass’ LBJ
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Late on the night of the military invasion of a small Eastern European country, the U.S. president phoned a leading political rival to give him the news and suggest how he should comment. You might “say this concerns you, that it dismays you,” he said, but that “you’re not trying to second-guess” the president.
The response: “I won’t say a d--- word that’s going to embarrass you, you can be sure of that.”
The president was Lyndon B. Johnson, and Soviet tanks had just rolled into Czechoslovakia on Aug. 20, 1968. Johnson’s call was to Richard M. Nixon, the Republican nominee for president, on the eve of the Democratic convention in Chicago.
It was crisis politics in a different time. Nixon blasted the invasion as an “outrage” but made no personal criticism of LBJ, in contrast to former president Donald Trump’s comments about Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Speaking at a meeting of conservatives in Orlando on Saturday night, Trump charged that Russian President Vladimir Putin had played President Biden “like a drum” and called the attack “an outrage and an atrocity that should never have been allowed to occur.” Trump has come under fire for also praising Putin’s actions as “genius” and “smart.”
China’s foreign minister says easing violence in Ukraine is top priority
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China’s foreign minister expressed concern about the escalating violence against Ukraine in a Tuesday phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, and said Beijing supported a political solution to the crisis.
“China deplores the outbreak of conflict between Ukraine and Russia, and is extremely concerned about the harm to civilians,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during the call with Dmytro Kuleba at the latter’s request, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Kuleba also expressed Ukraine’s hope that China would mediate a cease-fire, according to CCTV.
Wang’s remarks represented some of the strongest China has made about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Beijing has been loath to directly criticize. As Russia was preparing for the assault, Wang had called the Kremlin’s security concerns in Eastern Europe “legitimate.” China abstained from a U.N. Security Council vote last week that would have deplored Russia’s invasion.
During the call, Wang told Kuleba that the top priority was to ease the situation on the ground as much as possible, and to prevent the conflict from escalating or getting out of control. He urged Ukraine to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens.
China’s embassy in Ukraine on Tuesday advised Chinese citizens who want to evacuate, especially from the country’s eastern regions, to leave “as soon as possible” by train, according to a statement posted on its WeChat account.
In the statement, the embassy called traveling by train “the relatively appropriate” method given Ukraine’s security conditions, and also posted schedules for trains heading to cities including Lviv, which hosts several Western diplomatic operations, as well as neighboring countries.
U.S. to close airspace to Russian planes, further weakening its aviation industry
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The Biden administration’s decision to prohibit Russian airlines from entering American airspace will further isolate the nation, as Western governments weaken Russia’s aviation system and hinder its ability to access the portion of its fleet owned by other countries.
President Biden announced Tuesday during his State of the Union address that the United States will join Canada and several European nations in limiting Russia’s access to the global aviation network in response to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. Federal transportation officials said the ban would go into effect by the end of Wednesday.
“Tonight, I am announcing that we will join our allies in closing off American airspace to all Russian flights, further isolating Russia and adding an additional squeeze on their economy,” Biden said.
Airlines have scrubbed more than 100 flights into and out of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport this week as restrictions come into force. The new measures announced Tuesday are part of an expansive set from Western nations that could rapidly hamstring Russia’s commercial aviation industry.
The global restrictions target Russian aviation on multiple fronts. The most immediate measures are airspace closures that severely limit where Russian national carrier Aeroflot, and private airlines from the country, can fly. Sanctions and export controls also threaten Russia’s access to spare aviation parts and the hundreds of leased aircraft that comprise about half the nation’s commercial fleet.
9:34 p.m.
Karen DeYoung: Moving quickly into the Ukraine crisis at the beginning of his speech, Biden declared, “American diplomacy matters. American resolve matters.” Russian President Vladimir Putin “thought the West wouldn’t respond,” Biden said as he launched into the measures he and the rest of the West have taken to isolate Russia. “He thought he would divide us at home,” Biden said amid frequent interruptions for standing ovations across the aisle. “But Putin was wrong.”
Karen DeYoung, Associate editor and senior national security correspondent
9:32 p.m.
Amber Phillips: As Biden announced a Justice Department task force to go after Russian oligarchs, he used language quite similar to what one of the most hawkish Republicans in Congress said: “We are joining with our European allies to find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets,” Biden said Tuesday. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) last week noted that imposing sanctions on oligarchs is quite bipartisan and said: “I want to see cops go in and take apartments, fine art, and seize yachts from a bunch of thugs and crooks.”
Amber Phillips, Politics Reporter
Biden leads chamber in standing ovation for Ukrainian ambassador
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Biden focused on Ukraine almost immediately in his remarks, leading a standing ovation for the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova.
The courage and determination of the Ukrainian people, Biden said, “literally inspires the world.”
“Groups of citizens blocking tanks with their bodies, everyone from students to retirees to teachers turned soldiers defending their homeland,” Biden said. “In this struggle, as President Zelensky said in his speech to the European Parliament, light will win over darkness.”
Biden noted that Markarova was sitting in the House chamber with first lady Jill Biden.
“Let us, each of us, if you’re able to stand, stand and send an unmistakable signal to the world, and to Ukraine,” Biden said, prompting a sustained standing ovation from those gathered in the chamber.
“Yes, we, the United States of America stand with the Ukrainian people,” he said.
Map: Latest ground advances of Russia into Ukraine
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Russian troops have moved into Ukraine from the north, south and east. Forces around Kyiv have been waiting for reinforcements and are now attempting to envelop the city. The bombing of Kharkiv continues, but the city remains under Ukrainian control. In the southern front, Russia has claimed control over the coastal city of Mariupol.
‘My friends were just killed’: Videos show aftermath of Russian rocket attack in Kharkiv
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Videos, obtained and verified by The Post, show the aftermath of an apparent attack by Russian forces near a hospital in the town of Kharkiv.
“My friends were just killed,” said local resident Misha Rogozianskiy, who narrates the footage filmed around 11:30 a.m. on March 1. The footage shows what appears to be at least one casualty. A body lies covered by clothing next to a shrapnel-pocked red sedan as young men struggle to move the disabled vehicle.
The strike appears to have leveled several buildings less than 300 feet from Kharkiv City Hospital Number 3. Across the street, the blast heavily damaged the facade of an apartment building, mangling balconies and shattering windows. White smoke billows out of a second-story apartment as a firefighter is seen climbing a ladder to it.
While narrating the destruction captured in the footage, Rogozianskiy rushes over to a man, his face smeared with blood, and identifies him as the godfather of one of Rogozianskiy’s children.
“He's lucky to be alive,” Rogozianskiy said.
A second person filming the scene from a damaged apartment building also captures a blaze inside what appears to be an industrial area, before showing the damage in their own apartment.
Exxon begins pullout from landmark Russian oil and gas project
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Exxon is halting its operations at Sakhalin Island, a massive oil and gas project that had provided billions of dollars in royalties and other payments to the Russian government since its inception.
The Exxon project at Sakhalin, which began production in 2005, was one of the largest foreign investments in Russia, according to the company website.
The Sakhalin-1 project has produced more than $16 billion in taxes, royalties and other payments to Russian governments, federal and regional, according to a company website.
“ExxonMobil supports the people of Ukraine as they seek to defend their freedom and determine their own future as a nation,” the company said in a statement Tuesday night. “We deplore Russia’s military action that violates the territorial integrity of Ukraine and endangers its people.”
The company added that it will not make new investments in Russia.
Exxon’s exit is part of an exodus of Western companies from Russia, and follows similar moves recently by BP and Shell.
“In response to recent events, we are beginning the process to discontinue operations and developing steps to exit the Sakhalin-1 venture,” the statement said. “The process to discontinue operations will need to be carefully managed and closely coordinated with the co-venturers in order to ensure it is executed safely.”
When it began, the Sakhalin project, which Exxon operates on behalf of an international consortium, had been touted as the sign of a new era of cooperation after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
"The project underscores exciting new opportunities for U.S. investment in Russia, and sends a strong signal from Russia’s leaders that foreign investment on a large scale is welcome,” Donald Evans, then U.S. commerce secretary, said in 2001.
Ukrainian American Rep. Spartz takes leading role in GOP response to Russian invasion
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Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) never thought that she would have the life she has now.
Growing up in Ukraine when it was a Soviet republic, she did not imagine immigrating to the United States at the age of 21 after falling in love with an American she met on a train while living in Kyiv. Once in Noblesville, Ind., Spartz said she prioritized raising her two daughters before becoming an accountant and embracing public service, first as a state senator, then getting elected to Congress in 2020.
It never crossed her mind that she would serve in Congress at a time when her native land was being invaded by Russia.
“I never wanted to think that I would have to deal with a crisis like that. I never, you know, thought that I’d be in the place where I am. Sometimes it makes me wonder if God has a reason for that,” Spartz said in an interview. “I want to be an asset for our country, to be helpful to deal with this situation. I have that experience.”
As the first Ukrainian-born immigrant to serve in the U.S. Congress, the freshman lawmaker has taken a leading role for Republicans in voicing both the horror of what the world is witnessing during the Russian invasion and arguing for what the United States should do in response. On Tuesday night, she will be part of the group of lawmakers who will escort President Biden into the House chamber for a State of the Union address that is expected to focus heavily on the conflict happening in her home country.
Many nuclear reactors in Ukraine disconnected, curbing key electricity source
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More than a third of Ukraine’s working nuclear reactors are disconnected from the power grid, according to authorities, curbing a significant source of the nation’s electricity.
Six out of 15 reactors were listed as disconnected on Tuesday by the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine, up from two last week, before Russia launched its full-scale attack.
The six offline include half of the reactors at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in the country’s southeast. The International Atomic Energy Agency said this week that, according to Ukraine, Russian forces were “advancing close” to the Zaporizhzhia facility but had not entered it.
The IAEA’s director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said Tuesday that he remains “gravely concerned about the situation in Ukraine, especially regarding the safety and security of its nuclear power plants.” He warned that an accident “could have very severe consequences.”
The IAEA noted that, according to Ukrainian officials, missiles hit a radioactive waste disposal facility in Kyiv. But there were not reports of a “radioactive release,” the group said.
The IAEA said Ukraine reported it was “communicating regularly with the plants and they were continuing to operate safely and securely.”
Ukraine said last week that Russian forces had taken control of the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear plant, the site of a 1986 meltdown with deadly and historic fallout. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said at the time that the Chernobyl disaster could “happen again in 2022” if war goes on.
Key update
Footage shows aftermath of missile strike targeting Kyiv’s TV Tower and Holocaust memorial, killing five
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DNIPRO, Ukraine — A Russian missile strike that appeared to target Kyiv’s TV Tower also hit the nearby Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial and killed five people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Twitter.
Photographer Sergi Mykhalchuk and videographer Yuri Gruzinovand were on the ground moments after the strike. In footage that is exclusive to The Washington Post, Gruzinovand captured a chaotic scene with cars and buildings blown out, smoke filling the area and at least four bodies on fire. Firefighters rush to extinguish the flames.
Shots are heard in the background of the footage. A Ukrainian man wearing military gear and holding a rifle approaches a blown-out Toyota SUV.
Tuesday’s strike is the latest example of what international observers have said is indiscriminate attacks by Russia’s forces on civilian targets. Moscow has said it’s only blasting military infrastructure, but missiles and artillery shells have struck residential areas in Kyiv, Kharkiv and other parts of Ukraine.
The Babyn Yar Memorial is the site of a 1941 massacre that claimed tens of thousands of lives over two days during Nazi Germany’s campaign against the Soviet Union. The complex, which is less than a year old, is believed to be the largest Holocaust memorial in Europe.
"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 …” Zelensky tweeted.
The Kyiv TV tower was struck on Tuesday. Videos verified by The Post appeared to show the structure and the area immediately surrounding it was hit at least two times.
In one video, a man stopped at an intersection is filming the TV tower from approximately a quarter of a mile away. A few seconds into the video, a ball of fire explodes at the site. It takes a few moments for the sound of the blast to reach the onlookers.
“Everyone get down,” a man yells as he exits the car. “Closer to the ground, further away from the glass. There may be one more strike.”
From another vantage point, the bomb appears to hit close to the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial site, which sits just west of the tower.
The frame of the TV tower was still standing after the strike. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said that the strike on the tower interrupted service, adding that backup channels would be accessible soon. Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to the Interior Ministry, claimed on his Telegram channel that the strike on tower left at least five people dead.
Social media users also pointed out that after President Vladimir Putin said his intention was to “denazify” Ukraine, the site where victims were shot by Nazis was hit.
“Nazis killed over 33 thousand Jews here,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter. “80 years later, Russian Nazis strike the same land to exterminate Ukrainians. Evil and barbaric.”
G-7 to plan further sanctions against Russian elites, Yellen says
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The Group of Seven allies will plan to freeze and seize the assets of key Russian elites in an effort to punish those around Putin over the attack on Ukraine, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said Tuesday.
In addition to other sanctions imposed by the United States, Britain and the European Union that have effectively isolated Russia from the financial system, the G-7 will convene a task force targeting the elites to “make clear that no one is beyond our collective reach,” Yellen said in a statement. Already, the collective efforts of the G-7, including endorsing the removal of key Russian financial institutions from the SWIFT banking system, have “had a strong impact on Russia, visible in the financial market reactions.”
Yellen and G-7 counterparts also spoke with Ukraine’s Minister of Finance Sergii Marchenko.
Over time, the sanctions against Russia, Yellen said, will debilitate Russia’s economy and “hamstring the Russian government’s ability to fund its invasion.”
With the ruble destabilized, it remains to be seen if Russia can find other streams for financing.
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