March 4, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

"This is a game of Russia, a production. They brought their actors from the Crimea to make a movie about their claim that we want to be part of the Russian Federation," Yulia, a resident of Kherson, Ukraine, said in a video she posted to social media as she described the arrival of Russian aid trucks.

“The Russian military occupied Kherson and the Kherson region, cut off our telephone connection, we cannot contact relatives and families either in the city or outside,” she continued.

Earlier this week, Yulia said she saw and heard explosions, firefighting, soldiers, and trucks as Russians battled to take over her city from Ukrainian forces.

Yulia herself gave birth two months ago. Now she’s struggling to find diapers and baby products.

“There are catastrophically few in the city. We also have a grandmother with dementia who needs diapers and medicines on an ongoing basis, which are also not available in the city,” she shared.

Yulia said her close family is with her and they have food and electricity, although they are not going out.

 “We are in hiding. There is a curfew in the city, if people go out after eight in the evening, they shoot to kill. You can move in the company of no more than two people,” she said.

The woman declined to give more details about her extended family who live in different parts of the city.

"We have bunkers around the city, not all houses have basements. There is an alarm around the city when we need to go to cover,” Yulia explained.

“The Ukrainian flag is still over Kherson, the city did not surrender to the invaders. the military said not to provoke them and everyone would be alive," she added.

Editor's Note: CNN is only using the person's first name to protect their safety.

Following a missile attack on a large apartment block in Borodyanka on March 2, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service has told CNN that people may still be trapped in the wreckage of the building.

Viktoriya Ruban, spokesperson of the SES in the Kyiv region, told CNN on Friday that "about 100 people may be trapped under the rubble" in Borodyanka but "it is impossible to give a more precise figure at the moment."

"Rescuers do not have access to these people due to the constant shelling. We are ready to evacuate people as soon as there is an agreement on a 'green corridor,'" she said.

The town, which is just northwest of Kyiv, has seen persistent shelling over the past few days, as have small towns around it. 

The area has seen the heaviest fighting in the Kyiv region since the Russian invasion began just over a week ago.

The European Union is ready to adopt more sanctions against Russia if President Vladimir Putin does not stop the war in Ukraine, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday.

“We know that this conflict is far from over, and to be very clear, we are ready to take further severe measures if Putin does not stop and reverse the war he has unleashed,” she said alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Brussels.

Von der Leyen said over 40 countries were now “partially or completely” aligned with the sanctions, saying it was “testimony to the determination of the global community to reject this invasion.”

Speaking after von der Leyen, Blinken commended the European Union for its response to Russia, saying, “this union is strong, it’s united and it’s acting.”

“If we allow those principles to be violated with impunity, then we're opening a Pandora's Box, in every corner of the world for this to happen again and again and again,” Blinken said.

He also warned that the war in Ukraine “may not be over soon” and that the US and European allies must sustain tough pressure on Russia until it ends.

"Unfortunately, tragically, horrifically this may not be over soon," he said.

"We have to sustain this until it stops, until the war is over," he added.

Independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta said Friday that it was removing articles on the war in Ukraine, saying that new Russian censorship efforts necessitated removing those materials.

"Dear friends!!" a statement on the Novaya Gazeta Twitter account said. "Military censorship in Russia has shifted to [using] the threat of criminal prosecution against both journalists and citizens who disseminate information about hostilities that differs from Defense Ministry press releases. Therefore, we are removing materials on this topic."

Russian lawmakers have advanced legislation criminalizing the spreading of false information discrediting the Russian military. Russia's communications regulator issued warnings to the country's few remaining independent news outlets telling them to stop spreading what it calls false information, including references to the military operation in Ukraine as an "attack, invasion or declaration of war.”

Independent Russian television station TV Rain and Echo of Moscow, a storied radio station, have both shut down broadcasting amid the crackdown on Russian media.

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to travel to Poland early next week, a White House official told CNN, as the Biden administration continues to show support for Ukraine and its eastern NATO allies while Russia's invasion of Ukraine enters a dangerous new phase.

The Poland visit will take place on the heels of Harris' latest international travel to the Munich Security Conference, where she met with US allies and partners including Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky. Harris also spoke over the phone with several Eastern European leaders on Tuesday, including Poland's and Romania's prime ministers.

A source familiar with the discussions said the White House is also considering sending Harris to Romania, but no final decision has been made.

When White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked on Friday whether she could confirm any details about the vice president's trip, she said, "Not yet, but certainly the vice president has been deeply engaged."

"She's obviously already made a trip to Europe. I expect there'll be more soon but I don't have anything to report out to you at this particular moment," Psaki added.

US and other Western officials warned this week that Russia's strategy is shifting toward a "slow annihilation" of the Ukrainian military, warning that Russia could focus on violent bombardment of cities and civilian targets as the conflict becomes a grinding war of attrition.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine last week, the US and allies have ramped up their responses to the conflict, establishing a variety of economic sanctions and providing Ukraine aid.

Since the invasion began, Russia's military has launched more than 500 missiles, a senior US defense official said Friday.

A White House statement following Tuesday's calls said that in each of her conversations, "the Vice President underscored the strength and unity of our Alliance and welcomed each of her counterparts' leadership and coordination on robust response measures, including sanctions and other economic measures through the European Union. They also discussed the robust NATO response."

Harris also reiterated the US' support for Ukraine and "reaffirmed US support for the international rules and norms that have brought peace and security in Europe since World War II and that have served as the foundation of the NATO Alliance."

United States United Nations ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the world “narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe last night" following the fire at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

She called Russia’s reactions “reckless” and “dangerous” saying it put the largest nuclear power plant at grave risk and it threatened the safety of civilians in Russia and across Europe.

She called on Russia to withdraw its troops from the plant to ensure operators have full access to the site and are able to communicate with regulators, ensure shift changes, and the safety stability and security of the plant. 

Thomas-Greenfield said praised "the ability of the Ukrainian operators to keep all six reactors in safe conditions while under attack and to report as they were able to their nuclear regulator."

“We are gravely concerned that the Ukrainian operators are now doing their jobs under extreme duress," she added.

The US supports the IAEA Director in his efforts to ensure nuclear safety and “prevent nuclear catastrophe in Ukraine”

She called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to not send his troops on a “suicide mission” against a nuclear power plant.

“Nuclear facilities cannot become part of this conflict,” she said

What Russia is saying: Meanwhile, Russian UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council that the nuclear plant is fully operational and there is no threat of a release of radioactive material.

Nebenzia insisted there is “artificial hysteria” and “lies about how Russian troops attacked the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.” He claimed the area was taken by the Russian army back on Feb. 28. He said in the area adjacent to Zaporizhzhia, a Russian mobile patrol was attacked by a Ukrainian "sabotage group."

The plant and adjacent territory are being guarded and experts have been brought in to manage the facility, and a similar situation exists in Chernobyl, he said. The security of facility is being ensured by Russian Armed forces and Ukrainian operators, he added. 

“Together with the people of Belarus and Ukraine we lived through the tragedy of Chernobyl, so we are more interested than most in maintaining a normal radiation situation throughout the territory of Ukraine,” he said. 

There is a loud and growing chorus of calls for the International Criminal Court to pursue Vladimir Putin. On Wednesday, the court said it would immediately proceed with an active investigation of possible war crimes following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The US Embassy in Kyiv said on Friday that Russia committed a war crime by attacking a nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

"It is a war crime to attack a nuclear power plant," the embassy said on its official Twitter feed. "Putin's shelling of Europe's largest nuclear plant takes his reign of terror one step further."

Russia's suspected use of cluster bombs and so-called vacuum bombs in dense areas with many civilians has also been described as a war crime.

"I want to be very clear about this, that Mr. Putin is a war criminal," former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told the Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday. "He has to sit behind the bars in International Criminal Court."

However, if justice in general moves slowly, international justice barely moves at all. Investigations at the ICC take many years. Only a handful of convictions have ever been won.

Here's a very broad look at war crimes and the international justice movement:

Note: Some of what's below comes from CNN's research library, which compiled information about the International Criminal Court.

What is a war crime? The International Criminal Court has specific definitions for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. Read about them in this guide published by the ICC.

Specifically, targeting civilian populations, violating the Geneva Conventions, targeting specific groups of people and more could be potential Russian war crimes.

"One thing is certain, that intentionally directing shelling or targeting civilians or civilian objects is a crime within the jurisdiction of the court," the ICC's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Thursday.

"And even if there's military necessity, there's a clear obligation upon parties to a conflict to not use disproportionate force, to make sure the ordnance used and the weapons don't have a very wide footprint in heavy civilian areas," said Khan.

What are cluster bombs and vacuum bombs? The feared use of banned weapons meant to kill without discrimination is what people are discussing now as a very specific war crime.

With a cluster bomb, a missile is fired and explodes thousands of feet in the air, releasing smaller bombs that each detonate when they fall to the ground. See an illustration from The Washington Post. Amnesty International said a Russian cluster bomb fell on a Ukrainian preschool.

"Vacuum bombs," or thermobaric weapons, suck in the oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a powerful explosion and a large pressure wave that can have enormous destructive effects. Russia previously used them in Chechnya, and a CNN team spotted a Russian thermobaric multiple rockets launcher near the border with Ukraine late last month.

Read the full analysis here.

A top International Atomic Energy Agency official said “no security or safety systems have been compromised near the reactors themselves" at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine — the largest in Europe — which Russian troops have occupied.

He said he continues to be in contact with Ukraine officials, including the company that operates the facilities and operators at Zaporizhzhia. 

He is ready to travel as soon as practical to Chernobyl to consult with Ukrainian counterparts, he said, but “if necessary, when necessary” will consult with “the forces in charge in order to establish a stable framework so the observance of the basic principles of safety and security starting with the physical integrity of the facilities can be observed.”

He requested UNSC support of the IAEA's efforts.

He delivered the briefing virtually while airborne to Tehran for a separate issue.

US Labor Sec. Marty Walsh indicated Friday he didn’t think Russia’s war on Ukraine would impact job creation in the United States, but “certainly” had “potential to have impact on inflation in some cases.” 

He predicted more American companies will cut ties with Russia. 

“I hope companies and people continue putting pressure on Russia, every, every pressure point we can, so they realize that the world does not support their action in the world stands firmly behind Ukraine,” he said. 

US President Joe Biden imposed new sanctions Thursday on eight members of the Russian elite, along with members of their families.