March 8, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced in a letter that the US House would vote today on a bill to ban imports of Russian oil and energy products. 

According to Pelosi, the bill contains "three major provisions that will further isolate Russia from the global economy and leave it weaker in every way."

She went on to list the components:

Earlier today, US President Joe Biden said his administration is banning Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports to the US in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The US will make the move unilaterally, without its European allies, due to disagreement among European nations about whether to ban Russian energy imports. EU countries have significantly more exposure to Russian energy than the US.

Dmytro Zhyvytsky, head of the regional administration in the Sumy region, has said that the evacuation route out of the city is about to close at 7:30 p.m. local/12:30 p.m. ET.

The city of Sumy has seen heavy attacks in the last few days and is almost cut off from the rest of the country. Twenty-one people were reported killed in the city in an airstrike Monday night.

"At the moment, citizens are being evacuated by their own vehicles. The organized column set off in the direction of the city of Romny. There are private cars there. They are accompanied by a Red Cross car," Zhyvytsky said on his Telegram channel.

The Moscow Stock Exchange will remain closed on March 9, the Russian Central Bank announced in a statement on Tuesday.

Only limited operations will be allowed, according to the statement.

The exchange has been closed since Feb. 28, as the United States, European Union and other Western allies imposed sanctions and the Russian ruble plunged to record lows against the US dollar.

The US intelligence community estimates between 2,000 and 4,000 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine since Moscow launched its invasion last month, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency said Tuesday.

DIA Director Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier told the House Intelligence Committee Tuesday that the intelligence community has “low confidence” in its assessment of how many Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine, but that the range is between 2,000 and 4,000 troops. 

Berrier said that the estimate is based both on intelligence sources as well as open-source material. 

US President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin will never be successful in taking the whole of Ukraine.

"Putin seems determined to continue on his murderous path no matter the cost," Biden said at the White House.

Biden also commended the Ukrainian people for their resistance in the face of war.

"They've inspired the world with their bravery, their patriotism, their defiant determination to live free. Putin's war — Putin's war — has caused an enormous suffering and needless loss of life of women, children, everyone in Ukraine — both Ukraine and, I might add, Russians," he said.

US President Joe Biden acknowledged that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is already hurting American families, including rising gas prices. He admitted that his decision to ban Russian oil imports will cost at home.

Biden added, "I’m going to do everything I can to minimize Putin’s price hike here at home."

He also addressed the American oil and gas companies, saying the war and its impacts are "no excuse to exercise excessive price increases" that exploit the American consumer, adding that he will not tolerate it.

"Russia's aggression is costing us all. And it's no time for profiteering or price gouging. I want to be clear about what we'll not tolerate," he said.

But he also acknowledged the firms that were "leading by example" by pulling out of Russia.

"This is a time when we have to do our part," he said.

US President Joe Biden said banning Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports to the United States will have a price in the country, but lawmakers are united in taking action.

He also said the US has provided more than $1 billion in security assistance to Ukraine. 

"Shipments of defensive weapons are arriving in Ukraine every day from the United States, and we in the United States are the ones coordinating delivery of our allies and partners of similar weapons — from Germany to Finland to the Netherlands. We're working that out. We're also providing humanitarian support for the Ukrainian people," he said.  

The UK will phase out “the import of Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022,” UK Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said Tuesday.

“This transition will give the market, businesses and supply chains more than enough time to replace Russian imports – which make up 8% of UK demand,” he said on Twitter.

Kwarteng added that the government will work with companies to support them in finding alternative supplies. 

He added that while the UK is not dependent on Russian natural gas, it only makes up 4% of UK supply, he is exploring options to end this altogether.

Read his tweets:

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that he was elevating the readiness status of his nuclear forces was “very unusual,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told lawmakers on Tuesday, but she said that it was better understood as messaging rather than an immediate threat to the United States. 

“We obviously take it very seriously when he's signaling in this way,” Haines said. “But we do think [that] he is effectively signaling, that he's attempting to deter” NATO from getting involved in the conflict in Ukraine, she said during testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. “That’s been his main purpose in doing so.”

Haines also said that the Russian announcement that Russian strategic forces would be placed on “special alert status” did not refer to a “technical term as we understand it within their system.” 

The intelligence community has closely tracked any Russian strategic movements, Haines said, but “we're not seeing something at this stage that indicates that he is doing something different than what we've seen in the past.”