March 1, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

By Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt, Helen Regan, Adam Renton, Jessie Yeung, Rob Picheta, Ed Upright, Melissa Macaya and Meg Wagner, CNN

Updated 2305 GMT (0705 HKT) March 8, 2022
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10:22 p.m. ET, February 28, 2022

Twitter will label all content that contains links to Russian state media, company says

From CNN’s Brian Fung

Twitter will now label all content that contains links to Russian state media and will demote that content algorithmically, the company said, as tech platforms have come under greater pressure to respond to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

The move goes beyond previous steps that Twitter has taken in years past to label Russian state media accounts on the platform.

Since the invasion began, the "overwhelming majority" of Russian state media content appearing on Twitter has been shared by individuals, not the state media organizations' own accounts, the company said. Over the past week, individuals have shared more than 45,000 tweets per day containing media from Russian state outlets. 

Monday's change will mean that any link shared by a user to a Russian state media organization's website will automatically receive a label, warning viewers that the tweet "links to a Russia state-affiliated media website."

"In addition to the label, we will reduce the visibility and amplification of this content site-wide, no matter who it comes from," said Twitter spokesperson Trenton Kennedy. "This means that Tweets sharing state media content won’t be amplified — they won’t appear in Top Search and won’t be recommended by Twitter."

Content from state media outlets of other countries will also receive the same treatment "in the coming weeks," Kennedy added.

More context: Twitter has not permitted advertising by state-run media outlets since 2019, and the company suspended all ads in Ukraine and Russia last week amid the unfolding crisis to prioritize public safety information. 

The move follows requests by government leaders for tech giants to clamp down on pro-Russian propaganda, including by applying algorithmic controls that limit the amplification and recommendation of Russian-backed media.

See how other social media companies are responding to Russia's invasion:

10:39 p.m. ET, February 28, 2022

Analysis: A nuclear Belarus? What the referendum means to the rest of the world

Analysis from CNN's Nathan Hodge

On Sunday, Russia’s close ally Belarus held a referendum, the result of which — in theory — opens the door for the former Soviet republic to host nuclear weaponry. 

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, newly independent states in addition to Russia appeared on the map with nuclear weapons stationed on their territory: Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

The prospect of three new countries armed with nuclear weapons alarmed world leaders, and with the signing of the Budapest Memorandum in 1994, the three agreed to give up their nuclear arsenals in exchange for security guarantees.

The vote in a referendum to approve a new constitution allows Belarus to shed its non-nuclear status. But does that mean it can acquire nuclear weapons? After all, the country does not have a weapons complex for designing, building or testing nuclear weaponry. 

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko seems to be hinting at something else: stationing Russian warheads on Belarusian soil. 

Addressing journalists at a polling station in Minsk on Sunday, Lukashenko said he could ask his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to “return the nuclear weapons” Belarus formally gave up when his country signed up to the Budapest Memorandum.

"If America, or you France, two nuclear powers, start transferring nuclear weapons to Poland or Lithuania, on our borders... I will go to Putin so that he will return to me the nuclear weapons that I, without any special conditions, gave to them," Lukashenko said. 

Poland and Lithuania do not possess nuclear weapons.

It’s unclear what plans Russia may have, in practice. But it’s worth noting that, days before Russia started its invasion of Ukraine, Lukashenko sat in the Kremlin situation center with Putin to observe nuclear drills, watching the launch of a series of missiles at different test ranges. 

There are several layers of irony in the nuclear rhetoric over Belarus: In stating his case for the invasion of Ukraine, Putin has made a baseless claim about supposed Ukrainian aspirations to acquire nuclear weaponry, something the Kremlin leader cast as an existential threat. 

And it’s worth remembering that Ukraine gave up its own nuclear stockpile in exchange for security guarantees to its territorial integrity from several countries — including Russia — that Putin has now broken.

10:11 p.m. ET, February 28, 2022

FIFA and UEFA ban Russian national football teams and clubs from competition

From CNN's Kevin Dotson and Wayne Sterling

Russian national football teams and club teams have been suspended from competition until further notice by global football governing body FIFA and European football governing body UEFA. 

“Football is fully united here and in full solidarity with all the people affected in Ukraine,” the joint statement said on Monday. “Both (FIFA and UEFA) Presidents hope that the situation in Ukraine will improve significantly and rapidly so that football can again be a vector for unity and peace amongst people."

Shortly after this joint announcement, UEFA said it has ended its partnership with the Russian state-owned energy company, Gazprom, across all competitions, effective immediately.

UEFA made the announcement on Monday, saying, "The decision covers all existing agreements including the UEFA Champions League, UEFA national team competitions and UEFA EURO 2024."

9:59 p.m. ET, February 28, 2022

How Russia's strategy is unfolding along Ukraine's strategic Black Sea coast

From CNN's Nick Paton Walsh and Barry Neild

Battered by intense shelling, peppered with gunfire and then ... everything goes quiet.

Along Ukraine's strategic Black Sea coast, Russian forces are playing a strange game, testing defenses, spilling blood and raising tensions but failing to drive home any significant gains.

The small city of Mykolaiv, located on an inlet that would be a useful access point for Russians to bring in troops and supplies, was on Monday picking up the pieces from a weekend of heavy fighting that saw Ukrainian hardware destroyed and civilians targeted.

Broken glass and burnt-out tanks littered the streets. The skyline was dominated by the unusual site of a raised road bridge, the structure elevated for the first time in years to hamper any further ground incursions.

And in the air, as well as the sound of intermittent air raid sirens, the mystery of what Russia's probing attacks in Mykolaiv and other Black Sea towns are trying to achieve.

They've clearly managed to instill fear. Ukrainian troops were on edge in the wake of the fighting, wary of the threat of saboteurs. As CNN toured the city, we saw people pulled from cars and thrown to the ground, suspected to be infiltrators.

Ukrainian troops were trying to put on a brave face. Guarding the wreckage of military vehicles, clearly hit by a ballistic missile with significant firepower, one soldier initially claimed they were Russian before admitting they belonged to Ukrainian forces.

The fighting along this region of the Black Sea has been some of the most intense in Ukraine in the past few days, with unconfirmed reports of Russian paratroopers on the ground, as well as very visible blasts lighting up the skyline.

Yet, in similar strikes on other towns, it's been almost the same picture. Intense Russian bombardment followed by a pause that has allowed the Ukrainian side to claim victory.

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