![](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/2022-03-08T171440Z_1773076829_RC2HYS95KRKG_RTRMADP_3_UKRAINE-CRISIS-ODESSA.jpg?resize=1200,630)
- Russia says it is ready to provide humanitarian corridors on Wednesday to evacuate civilians from Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
- Evacuations from southeastern city of Mariupol failed again, a Ukrainian official says, accusing Russia of firing on a humanitarian corridor.
- European Commission announces plan to cut Russian gas imports by two-thirds this year.
- US President Joe Biden bans imports of Russian oil and gas, while Britain says it will phase out Russian energy products by year’s end.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calls for more Western action against Moscow as Russian advance continues.
Here are all the latest updates:
Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline ‘dead’, says US
A senior US official says the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline that was halted over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is “now dead”.
“It is a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea,” Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland told US legislators. “I don’t think it will ever be revived.”
UK’s foreign minister travels to US for Russia talks
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will meet her US counterpart Antony Blinken on Wednesday to discuss the war in Ukraine, and reduce energy dependency on Russia.
“The Ukraine crisis is a wake-up call for free democracies,” Truss said in a statement.
“I am in the US to talk about what more we can do to deter hostile state actors, reduce strategic dependency on Russian energy – and authoritarian states more broadly – and build stronger economic and security alliances around the world.”
Thousands evacuated in the eastern city of Sumy
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said that 5,000 people, including 1,700 foreign students, were evacuated from the eastern city of Sumy.
Vereshchuk said the city faced a “catastrophic situation”, cut off from water, power and communications.
She also said that Ukraine will not accept Moscow’s offer to establish safe corridors for civilians to head towards Russia, saying it will only agree to safe exits leading westwards.
Universal Music Group suspends operations in Russia
Universal Music Group has said that it is suspending all operations in Russia and closing its offices – joining a growing list of companies protesting the war in Ukraine.
“We urge an end to the violence in Ukraine as soon as possible,” the company said in a statement.
“We are adhering to international sanctions and, along with our employees and artists, have been working with groups from a range of countries (including the U.S., U.K., Poland, Slovakia, Germany, Czech Republic and Hungary) to support humanitarian relief efforts to bring urgent aid to refugees in the region.”
It’s ‘clear’ Russia will lose conflict, says US official
Russia is destined to lose its war in Ukraine, US State Department Undersecretary Victoria Nuland has said.
“It is clear that Russia will lose this conflict – whether they lose it quickly or whether they lose it extremely slowly, it is only a matter of time,” Nuland said at a congressional hearing.
“The problem is that if this can be lost quickly, many, many, many lives will be saved, which is why we have to continue to pour on the economic pressure; we have to continue to support the defensive needs of the Ukrainian people.”
US says it was not consulted on Polish jet offer
Poland’s decision to put all its MIG-29 jets at the disposal of the US was not pre-consulted with Washington, State Department Undersecretary Victoria Nuland has said, even though the administration had been discussing Ukraine’s broader request for Polish aircraft.
“To my knowledge, it wasn’t pre-consulted with us that they planned to give these planes to us,” she said at a hearing of Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“I look forward when this hearing is over, to getting back to my desk and seeing how we will respond to this proposal of theirs to give the planes to us,” she said.
Coca-Cola and Pepsi suspend their sales in Russia
Coca-Cola and Pepsi have said they are suspending sales in Russia.
Coca-Cola said its business in Russia and Ukraine contributed about 1 to 2 percent of the company’s net operating revenue in 2021.
Pepsi, whose company is officially known as PepsiCo and whose drinks were one of the few Western products allowed in the Soviet Union before its collapse, said it would continue to sell daily essentials, such as milk, baby formula and baby food.
‘This war is not good for China,’ says US State Department official
Undersecretary Victoria Nuland has said US officials’ engagements with China – including a recent call between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi – aimed to get Beijing to influence Moscow to end the invasion.
“Our intention in our regular engagement with China, including Secretary Blinken’s call with his counterpart, was to underscore that this war is not good for China, that we want to see China use its influence with Russia to get this war ended, and at a minimum to help get these humanitarian corridors going,” Nuland told US lawmakers.
“And that if they are concerned about their economic situation as they should well be, with the lowest growth rates in 15 years, that this war is contributing to it.”
Ukrainian president’s wife condemns ‘mass murder’ of civilians
Olena Zelenska, the Ukrainian president’s wife, has thanked the country’s allies for their support and urged them to do more to deter Russia.
Zelenska also said in an open letter that the Russian invasion of Ukraine amounted to “the mass murder of Ukrainian civilians”.
“The most terrifying and devastating of this invasion are the child casualties,” she said, mentioning eight-year-old Alice, who died on the streets of Okhtyrka while her grandfather tried to protect her, and Polina, a child from Kyiv, who died in shelling alongside her parents.
She also cited 14-year-old Arseniy, who was hit in the head by wreckage and could not be saved because an ambulance could not get to him on time because of intense fires.
Bumble stops service in Russia
Bumble, the dating platform, has announced it is discontinuing its service in Russia, joining other companies that have suspended their operations in the country over the war in Ukraine.
The company said it is removing all of its apps from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in Russia and Belarus. Bumble said it expects to lose about $2m in first-quarter revenue as a result.
![Ukrainian refugees](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/AP22067365271367.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C502)
FIFA postpones Ukraine’s World Cup qualification playoff against Scotland
FIFA has postponed Ukraine’s World Cup qualification playoff match against Scotland on March 24, citing Russia’s invasion.
“Following consultation with UEFA and the four participating member associations in Path A of the European qualifying play-offs, it was unanimously agreed in the spirit of solidarity to accept,” FIFA said in a statement.
“The match between Scotland and Ukraine … will now be postponed to the existing June window, and consequently, the match between the winners of Scotland v Ukraine and Wales v Austria will also be postponed.”
Poland to donate fighter jets to Ukraine
Ukraine has pleaded for more warplanes, and now Poland said it would give all of its MiG-29 fighter jets to the US, agreeing to an arrangement that would allow them to be used by Ukraine’s military.
The Polish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Poland is ready to deliver the jets to the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
“At the same time, Poland requests the United States to provide us with used aircraft with corresponding operational capabilities,” it said.
Russia ready to provide humanitarian corridors from Kyiv, other cities: Tass
Russian forces will stop firing from 10am Moscow time (07:00 GMT) on Wednesday and are ready to provide humanitarian corridors so people can leave Kyiv and four other cities, the Tass news agency reported, citing a senior Russian official.
Information about corridors from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol will be sent to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, said Mikhail Mizintsev, who heads the Russian National Defence Control Centre.
Vereshchuk said earlier on Tuesday that authorities had once again not been able to evacuate civilians from Mariupol.
![Destroyed bridge in Ukraine](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/AP22067499560218.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513)
US House set to pass Russia sanctions bill, Pelosi says
Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives, has said the chamber is set to pass a Russia sanctions bill later on Tuesday. She said the legislation would support Biden’s decision to ban Russian oil imports.
“Our bill has three major provisions: it will ban the import of Russian oil & energy products into the U.S., it will take steps to review Russia’s access to the WTO and explore how we can diminish Russia in the global economy & it will reauthorize & strengthen the Magnitsky Act,” Pelosi wrote on Twitter.
US Congress edges closer to authorising aid for Ukraine
The US Congress appears to be on the cusp of an agreement that would allocate billions of dollars in emergency aid for Ukraine, among other things.
Sweeping legislation, awaiting final approval from Democratic and Republican congressional leaders, was expected to provide as much as $14bn to help Ukraine respond to Russia’s invasion.
“Republicans and Democrats are very, very close to finalizing the agreement. I expect there will be text released in a few hours,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters at a mid-afternoon news conference.
Blinken holds ‘productive conversation’ on Ukraine with UAE counterpart
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he held a “productive conversation” with his UAE counterpart Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.
“We value the close coordination on Ukraine and a strong international response to support Ukrainian sovereignty,” Blinken, who is currently in Europe, said on Twitter.
The UAE had abstained from a UN Security Council proposal condemning the Russian invasion but voted in favour of a similar resolution in the UN General Assembly last week.
Productive conversation today with UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs @ABZayed. We value the close coordination on Ukraine and a strong international response to support Ukrainian sovereignty. The U.S. will continue to bolster strong UAE defenses to deter regional threats.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) March 8, 2022
Evacuation from Mariupol fails again, Ukrainian official says
Ukraine has said residents of Mariupol seeking to leave the city along a safe corridor came under Russian fire on Tuesday.
“Ceasefire violated! Russian forces are now shelling the humanitarian corridor from Zaporizhzhia to Mariupol,” the Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko, wrote on Twitter.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Mariupol have been sheltering under bombardment without water or power as attempts to create corridors to safely evacuate civilians have stumbled amid continued fighting and objections to the proposed routes.
Photos: Residents suffer as Russian forces lay siege to Mariupol
Civilians in the besieged port of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine are anxiously waiting for news of evacuation efforts as they struggle to survive in a city where bodies have been left uncollected on the streets.
An estimated 200,000 people – nearly half the population of about 430,000 – hope to flee the city.
See the pictures here.
Welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the Ukraine-Russia crisis.
Read all the updates from Tuesday, March 8, here.