March 24, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The White House said Russia's planned partial reopening of its stock exchange amounts to a "Potemkin market opening" that will obscure the dire effects of Western economic sanctions.

(The original term "Potemkin Village" derives from a story dating back to 18th-century Russia, suggesting that an artificial place can be built to disguise or conceal the true -- and often less desirable -- identity of the original.)

Singh said it was "not a real market and not a sustainable model — which only underscores Russia’s isolation from the global financial system."

What is reopening:

More than 2 million Ukrainian refugees have crossed into Poland since Russian forces invaded Ukraine a month ago.

It's “the fastest displacement crisis we've seen since the Second World War," the International Rescue Committee said in a statement Thursday.  

The IRC said Poland has "acted quickly" to legalize the stay of Ukrainians and to provide access to social services like healthcare, education, and financial assistance.

IRC, a major US humanitarian group, has urged authorities in countries neighboring Ukraine to "make full use of the help offered by the EU Asylum Agency, EU funding, and other EU countries to make sure that refugees are supported in an equitable and sustainable way across the continent." 

A slew of emergency summits Thursday could help determine the next phase of the Western response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, which US officials warn is entering an uncertain but bloody stretch.

Announcements on new sanctions, NATO force posture and military assistance are all expected as part of the diplomatic burst, according to US and European officials.

Representatives from the White House and European governments spent days leading up to the summit in intensive conversations finalizing steps for leaders to unveil following their talks.

What they won’t do is what embattled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly asked: Enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

US and NATO officials have repeatedly said that such a move would risk provoking President Vladimir Putin and sparking a wider war with Russia.

Western allies have also found it difficult to take more aggressive steps, such as providing Russian-made fighter jets to Ukraine or deciding to cut themselves off from Russian energy supplies, which could potentially cripple Russia’s economy.

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Western leaders set for critical day of summits as they ready the next phase of their response to Russia-Ukraine war

War in Europe has triggered a massive flight of capital from an Asian island nearly 5,000 miles away.

Over the last month, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has heightened concerns about the risk that China could increase its military force against Taiwan, triggering what some analysts have described as an unprecedented exodus by overseas investors.

In the three weeks following the invasion, foreign investors dumped shares worth about 480 billion Taiwanese dollars ($16.9 billion), according to Alex Huang, director at Mega International Investment Services, a Taipei-based firm.

That outflow is the biggest on record, he said, exceeding the value of Taiwanese shares sold by foreign investors in the whole of 2021, which Bank of America analysts have estimated at $15.6 billion.

Goldman Sachs analysts project that Taiwan has seen an outflow of $15.6 billion over the past month, topping last year’s tally of $15.3 billion.

Read the full story:

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Russia's invasion of Ukraine has foreign investors fleeing Taiwan. Here's why

US President Joe Biden is in Europe to inaugurate the post-, post-Cold War era.

For the first time in at least 30 years, a US president has arrived with the continent rattled by Russian aggression and jarred by a return of nuclear brinkmanship. The West is also mourning its shattered illusion that it had entered an era of perpetual peace.

Biden’s visit to address NATO and European Union leaders in Brussels and his travel to Poland, an alliance frontline state, will underscore how the world changed — probably irrevocably — as soon as the first Russian tank rolled over Ukraine’s border four weeks ago.

Depending on your view, the West and Russia are now fighting the last struggle of the Cold War or the first in a new age of confrontation as autocracies like Moscow and Beijing form a broad hostile front against Western-style democracy.

Read the full analysis:

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Analysis: The post-Cold War era is over. Biden's Europe trip will shape what comes next

President Joe Biden is set to gather with world leaders in Brussels, Belgium, for emergency summits to respond to the war in Ukraine, a consequential visit that comes as the West continues to grapple with how to disrupt Russia’s invasion.

Here are five key questions for Biden’s day with world leaders:

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5 key questions for Biden's emergency summits on Russia's invasion of Ukraine

New videos from Mariupol show the desolation of the besieged Ukrainian city, with deserted, debris-filled streets, blown-out cars and destroyed buildings.

CNN has geolocated and verified the authenticity of two videos, filmed from a car that came under gunfire, uploaded on social media Tuesday.

The first video, which was filmed from a moving car, begins with a blown-up Mariupol police vehicle coming into view as the drivers pull south on Builders Avenue in Mariupol's western area. 

The street is littered with dirt, debris and splintered wood except for a small strip in the center of the road. Sporadic gunfire is heard in the video. 

In front of the car, the road appears blocked by burnt-out cars, and the camera pans suddenly downward. As it does, a body is seen on the ground to the right of a car. The car then sharply turns down a side road, and a man is seen running with a bag.

A second video begins as the same car is driving north in a parking lot.

More gunfire is heard in the video as the car pulls back onto Builders Avenue and heads north, back from where it came from.

As it does, the body on the side of the road is seen again. The driver floors it amid the pops of gunfire. The vehicle passes back by the busted police car, and other bombed-out cars sitting on the road.

The driver continues accelerating as destroyed buildings and downed wires whiz by.

More gunfire is heard, this time so close that the impact of the bullets can be heard. It's unclear if the bullets hit the car or the ground nearby.

The car then speeds off away from the gunfire.

Watch: Sporadic gunfire heard in new video from Mariupol

One month since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Moscow's forces have been pushed back around Kyiv and are taking defensive positions northwest of the capital, a US official said. On Wednesday evening, CNN teams on the ground saw a barrage of outgoing fire from the area.

Meanwhile, video has emerged from the eastern city of Izyum, showing widespread destruction and bodies in the street.

Here are the latest developments:

The mayor of Chernihiv said the northern Ukrainian city's cemetery cannot handle all the dead as the Russian onslaught takes its toll on the civilian population.

Badly damaged buildings line rubble-strewn streets, while still-burning fires fill the air with heavy smoke, as seen in a new video from Mayor Vladyslav Atroshenko.

The video, geolocated and verified by CNN, offers an extensive look from the ground at the city that has seen some of the most intense shelling since Russia invaded Ukraine four weeks ago.

When the person recording the video asked how many people have died so far, the mayor said the city is not keeping statistics but all cases will be handled by the prosecutor's office.

"There was a direct strike here. There is a tractor over there burning," he said. "We are located right now in the zone of combat."

Driving on Shevchenka street, located in the eastern part of the city, the mayor looks out at tattered billboards and homes with their roofs blown off or caved in.  

Watch: Video shows destroyed buildings, smoke and debris-filled streets in Chernihiv