March 5, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

New video posted to social media shows at least one man getting hit by gunfire during a protest against the Russian military in the small town of Novopskov in northeastern Ukraine.

CNN has geolocated and confirmed the authenticity of the video.

CNN cannot confirm the reported casualty figures.

The video from Saturday showed a crowd walking up a street carrying Ukrainian flags and chanting "Ukraine." A man in front of the crowd walked toward troops before shots rang out. He fell to the ground, apparently wounded in the leg.

"Everybody must leave the area now," a voice is heard saying in the distance.

A photograph from the scene showed a man with a bloodied leg being carried away; it appears to be the same individual.

A few sporadic shots rang out, and then a barrage of small arms fire followed as the crowd scatters. It's unclear whether the gunfire is being directed at or above the crowd.

Additional videos from the scene show that prior to the man being shot, the Russian military was firing their guns — not hitting the protesters — and giving apparent warning shots. 

One of the videos, taken before the protester was hit, showed the crowd walking forward toward the Russian troops, who have set up camp in an open-air market, surrounded by grocery stores and shop in the center of town. 

Despite the gunshots, the crowd did not move.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the Korczowa Refugee Reception Center in Poland today with Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau to meet with Ukrainians who have recently fled their country following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

According to reporters traveling with Blinken, waves of Ukrainian refugees walked across the border into Poland as Blinken was there. They each dragged one or two bags behind them, with young children with backpacks holding hands with adults and infants being carried while they slept. Polish soldiers escorting them carried babies for their tired parents, helped the elderly and carried bags. 

They could be seen walking into processing tents as they made their way into Poland, according to the pool producer.

Blinken, who traveled to Poland today from a stop in Brussels, spoke earlier in the day about the role Poland is playing responding to the crisis.

“I’m going to have the opportunity to speak to some of the folks who’ve come over just recently from Ukraine, but I have to say it’s an incredibly powerful reflection of Poland’s values that vulnerable people know that here, they will find refuge,” he said.

Blinken also met with members of Ukrainian civil society during his visit to Poland, where he praised and thanked them for the work they were doing.

“One of the things that Vladimir Putin is trying to tear apart is the brave work that you are doing. I think that’s in a sense not a coincidence because to the extent Ukraine is a successful, strong democracy, with a strong civil society at its core, stands in very stark juxtaposition the society and system that President Putin has constructed in Russia,” Blinken said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that the sanctions introduced on his country are “equivalent of a declaration of war.”

Putin also said there are not planning on a state of emergency in Russia or enlisiting conscripts for the “operation" in Ukraine. 

“We could have taken a different course of action," he said. "We could have helped the republics of Donbas at the contact line and reinforced them with the Russian army, but in this case, and I mean with the unwavering support from the west, we would have radicals on the other side coming endlessly… with support from the west."

Putin said they have almost completed the destruction of the Ukrainian air defense systems.

CNN cannot independently confirm Putin's claims.

“Hence the demand to close the sky, but the implementation of this demand is associated with colossal and catastrophic consequences not only for Europe, but for the whole world,” he said.

“The current [Ukrainian] leadership needs to understand that if they continue doing what they are doing, they put under question the future of Ukrainian statehood. And if that happens, it will be entirely on their conscience,” Putin added.  

Ukrainians under heavy bombardment for a week in the northwest outskirts of Kyiv finally were able to flee, CNN's Clarissa Ward reported from the entrance to the city of Irpin.

A bridge was destroyed by Ukrainian forces to prevent Russian forces from moving on central Kyiv, she reported.

"We're seeing a lot of people who are clearly, visibly shaken, petrified because they have been trapped in terrible bombardment for days on end and are just now starting to get out," Ward said.

She said there has been the sound of constant artillery in the background.

People with pets and other belongings, including many elderly Ukrainians, made their way through twisted metal.

Ward paused reporting for a few seconds to assist an elderly man who was struggling to walk and to help a woman carry her bag.

Watch here:

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Clarissa Ward stops live report to help elderly evacuees - CNN Video

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) “understands” that civilian evacuations from Mariupol and Volnovakha will not go ahead on Saturday as planned, after operations were postponed by Ukrainian authorities citing continued Russian shelling in the area. 

"We understand that the safe passage operations from Mariupol and Volnovakha will not start today,” the ICRC said in a statement posted on Twitter. 

“We remain in dialogue with the parties about the safe passage of civilians from different cities affected by the conflict,” the statement added. 

Russia was accused earlier Saturday of “violating” an agreement on two evacuation corridors from Mariupol and Volnovakha as shelling continued, said Iryna Vereshchuk, the Ukrainian minister of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories.

The US State Department has once again urged Americans not to travel to Russia on Saturday, citing the “unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces in Ukraine,” and “the potential for harassment against U.S. citizens by Russian government security officials.”

The alert comes after the department told Americans in Russia earlier this week in a similar alert to considering “immediately” departing the country while there are still commercial flights leaving the country. The security alert on Monday reiterated those warnings.

Editor's note: Photos may be deemed upsetting to readers

Marina Yatsko, along with her boyfriend, Fedor, rushed to the hospital Friday after her 18-month-old son, Kirill, was wounded in a shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine.

Associated Press photographer Evgeniy Maloletka captured the scene as medical workers frantically tried to save the boy’s life. He didn’t survive.

The key city of Mariupol is under siege by Russian forces determined to tighten their grip on Ukraine. On Saturday, Ukrainian officials accused Russia of shelling the city and civilian corridors out of it, despite Russia's own agreement to hold fire. Western officials have noticed a shift in Russian strategy with increasing attacks on civilians and residential areas.

Poland's Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau vehemently stated his country's position on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying that Poland will "never recognize territorial changes" brought on by Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Speaking to the press, Blinken and Rau confirmed their unified approach in assisting refugees and standing against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Rau reiterated his country’s support to the people of Ukraine, adding the importance of an evacuation corridor "that would facilitate the evacuation of Ukrainian citizens.” 

Responding to Rau, Blinken reaffirmed his country’s commitment toward the people of Ukraine and thanked Poland for its work in housing the many refugees from Ukraine.

Blinken also touched upon the United States’ efforts to assist “vulnerable” populations within Ukraine but also in neighboring countries, saying, “to help refugees in Poland, the Biden administration just requested from Congress $2.75 billion dollars in humanitarian assistance that is both to meet the needs of vulnerable communities and people inside of Ukraine as well as support refugee services here in Poland.” 

The growing exhaustion of staffers confined for “10 days” at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is not only “difficult," but could pose “a danger to the world,” Yuriy Fomichev, the mayor of Slavutych, told CNN in a telephone interview on Saturday.

“People are tired; they are exhausted, both mentally and emotionally, but mainly physically,” Fomichev said, adding that more than 100 people in the plant are shift personnel who should have been handed over after 12 hours.

Staffers in the plant only eat one meal per day and have limited amount of time to contact their families, Fomichev said. 

Slavutych, a city in northern Ukraine, was purposefully built in 1986 to house evacuated personnel from the Chernobyl power plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.

CNN's Irina Morgan in London contributed to this report.