March 2, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

A member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) was killed during a shelling in Kharkiv on Tuesday, March 1, an OSCE spokesperson said in a statement. 

The member, Mayna Fenina, was a part of the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM).

She was killed while getting supplies for her family in Kharkiv, the OSCE statement said.  

"Despite repeated calls from across the international community, and from across the OSCE, the unprovoked military operation against Ukraine continues. We strongly condemn the increased shelling in urban areas centres causing death and injury to civilians and reiterate our call on the Russian Federation for an immediate cessation of hostilities and to engage in a meaningful dialogue,” Rau and Schmid said.

As the city of Kyiv braces for a major Russian attack, many residents are hunkering down in bomb shelters, basements and subway stations.

These photos, taken on Wednesday by Timothy Fadek, show life inside one of those subway stations in the capital. 

Blankets and sleeping beds stretch down the corridor. Some people have tents or air mattresses.

People use their phones or read books to pass the time. Many of them are women and children. 

There were also dogs and cats seen in the station as people brought their pets with them.

Despite the vast challenges and brutal violence facing the people of Ukraine, Senator Bob Menendez says he doesn't believe the situation is hopeless.

"I don't come to that conclusion, although they are facing what could be considered overwhelming odds," Menendez told CNN's Jake Tapper.

Meanwhile, Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues. Menendez noted that "Russia has a 40-mile caravan of critical equipment that it logistically [does] not seem to be able to deal with." As such, says Menendez, "they have turned to the indiscriminate bombing that we have seen in the last few days and that is condemnable."

The bombing of civilian buildings and hospitals, says Menendez, "[amounts] to war crimes."

The Democratic from New Jersey is part of a group of bipartisan senators asking for temporary protected status (TPS) for Ukrainians in the US.

Continuing his live conversation with Tapper, Menendez explained why such a cause is so important.

"You can't take Ukrainians who legally enter the United States and happen to be here, to then send them back to a war zone. You can't tell Europe and our allies ... that are doing the right thing by accepting hundreds of thousands of refugees, and then [have them] send back people from Ukraine back to Ukraine," Menendez said, concluding that he "would expect the administration to ultimately grant TPS. I don't see how they do not."

The European Union has sanctioned 22 Belarusian officials and military personnel for their involvement in supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

The bloc also announced further restrictions on Minsk, banning certain imports from Belarus into the EU, and EU’s exports of machinery to Belarus.  

"Certain sectors of the Belarusian economy in particular the wood, steel and potash sectors" are also set to be impacted by the measures, the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union announced in a tweet on Wednesday. 

Seven Russian banks have been removed from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a messaging service that connects financial institutions around the world.

The statement went on to say, “To this end, in compliance with the legal instruction in EU Council Regulation (EU) 2022/345 of 1 March 2022, we will disconnect seven designated Russian entities (and their designated Russia based subsidiaries) from the SWIFT network. This Regulation requires us to disconnect the identified entities on 12 March 2022, and we will do so accordingly. The SWIFT community will be kept regularly updated across multiple channels, including in the customer section on swift.com.”

On Wednesday in a statement the Council of the EU said the Russian banks removed from SWIFT are Bank Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Rossiya Bank, Sovcombank, VNESHECONOMBANK (VEB), and VTB BANK.

The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada said in a joint statement on Saturday warned they would disconnect "selected" Russian banks from SWIFT in order to punish Russia for invading its neighbor.

The House overwhelmingly voted 426-3 to approve a resolution declaring their support for Ukraine as the country continues to fend off a week-long Russian invasion.

Three Republican members, Rep. Tom Massie of Kentucky, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, and Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana, voted against the resolution. 

The US has given more than $1 billion in total security assistance to Ukraine over the past year including an additional aid package of $350 million authorized last week after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Feb. 26. 

The 17-point resolution also affirms the United States’ “ironclad commitment” to Article 5 of the NATO charter, which states that an attack on one NATO nation is an attack on all, with a mutual pledge to defend all other NATO nations, and warns Russian President Vladimir Putin that “it will never recognize or support any illegitimate Russian-controlled leader or government installed through the use of force.”

The move by the House follows a similar tack taken by the Senate in mid-February, when they unanimously approved a symbolic resolution condemning Russia for its aggressive actions towards Ukraine. That resolution was agreed to by a voice vote after the Senate failed to move a binding package of sanctions against Russia and its interests.

Biden administration officials have said they will continue to provide aid to Ukraine, and some lawmakers have called for additional humanitarian, lethal and non-lethal assistance to be sent amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country.

The US has delivered hundreds of Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine for the first time over the last few days, including over 200 on Monday, according to a US official and a congressional source briefed on the matter.  

Earlier this year the US gave the green light to Baltic countries including Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to send American-made weaponry that they have to Ukraine, including Stingers. But until now the Biden administration had held off on the US providing the Stingers directly to Ukraine, while they have provided other lethal weaponry.

Some members of Congress have been pushing for additional Stinger missiles to be sent to Ukraine for months. The Ukrainians have repeatedly made pleas more weaponry from the US, including anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons. 

US Secretary of State Tony Blinken told reporters on Wednesday that at this time Ukraine is still able to receive “vital defensive military equipment” that it needs.

More background: There are different generations of Stingers that the US produces and US officials have been cognizant of not providing the newest model to the Ukrainians in case they fall into the hands of the Russians who could steal the US technology.  

Earlier this week German announced that they would deliver 1,000 antitank weapons and 500 Stinger missiles to Ukraine, marking a change in its previous stance of not sending weaponry to Ukraine amid this crisis.

NBC News was first to report on the delivery of US Stingers to Ukraine.

Four Russian fighter jets violated Swedish airspace on Wednesday, according to a statement by the Swedish Armed Forces. 

Two Russian Su-27s and two Russian Su-24s violated Swedish airspace east of the island of Gotland, across the sea. The Swedish Air Force carried out an operation using its Jas 39 Gripen fighter aircrafts "out of emergency preparedness." 

"We were on site to secure territorial integrity and Sweden's borders," said Air Force Chief Carl-Johan Edström. "We have full control of the situation."

Sweden banned Russian aviation in its airspace on Monday, Feb. 28.

The mayor of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, has said that preliminary reports suggest there were no casualties in a blast that shattered windows at the city's railway station Wednesday evening. 

But he added: "We are clarifying the details." 

"The enemy was trying to breakthrough to our city, but Ukrainian defenders are repulsing the occupiers and defending our capital," he continued.

It's unclear what caused the blast near the station.

An Interior Ministry adviser said the damage was caused by the falling wreckage of a cruise missile after it had been intercepted by Ukrainian air defense systems.