AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EST
Russia hits Ukraine fuel supplies, airfields in new attacks
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Russia unleashed a wave of attacks on Ukraine targeting airfields and fuel facilities in what appeared to be the next phase of an invasion that has been slowed by fierce resistance. The U.S. and EU responded with weapons and ammunition for the outnumbered Ukrainians and powerful sanctions intended to further isolate Moscow.
Huge explosions lit up the sky early Sunday south of the capital, Kyiv, where people hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale assault by Russian forces.
Flames billowed into the sky before dawn from an oil depot near an air base in Vasylkiv, where there has been intense fighting, according to the town's mayor. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office said another explosion was at the civilian Zhuliany airport.
Zelenskyy's office also said Russian forces blew up a gas pipeline in Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city, prompting the government to warn people to protect themselves from the smoke by covering their windows with damp cloth or gauze.
'œWe will fight for as long as needed to liberate our country,'ť Zelenskyy vowed.
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West unleashes SWIFT bans, more crushing penalties on Russia
WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States and European nations agreed Saturday to impose the most potentially crippling financial penalties yet on Russia over its unrelenting invasion of Ukraine, going after the central bank reserves that underpin the Russian economy and severing some Russian banks from a vital global financial network.
The decision, announced as Ukrainian forces battled Saturday to hold Russian forces back from Ukraine's capital and residents sheltered in subway tunnels, basements and underground garages, has potential to spread the pain of Western retaliation for President Vladimir Putin's invasion to ordinary Russians far more than previous rounds of penalties.
'œPutin embarked on a path aiming to destroy Ukraine, but what he is also doing, in fact, is destroying the future of his own country," EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
The European Union, United States, United Kingdom and other allies have steadily stepped up the intensity of their sanctions since Russia launched the invasion late last week.
While U.S. and European officials made clear they still were working out the mechanics of how to implement the latest measures, and intend to spare Russia's oil and natural gas exports, the sanctions in total potentially could amount to some of the toughest levied on a nation in modern times. If fully carried out as planned, the measures will severely damage the Russian economy and markedly constrain its ability to import and export goods.
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Live updates: ICRC asked to repatriate bodies of soldiers
The latest on the Russia's invasion of Ukraine:
UNITED NATIONS -- The International Committee of the Red Cross says it is aware of requests by Ukraine's U.N. ambassador and others to repatriate the bodies of Russian soldiers killed in action in Ukraine but has no numbers.
Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya tweeted Saturday that Ukraine has appealed to the ICRC 'œto facilitate repatriation of thousands of bodies of Russian soldiers'ť killed during its invasion of Ukraine. An accompanying chart claimed 3,500 Russian troops have been killed.
Kyslytsya tweeted that parents in Russia should have a chance 'œto bury them with dignity.'ť 'œDon't let (Russian President Vladimir) Putin hide scale of tragedy,'ť he urged.
Laetitia Courtois, ICRC's permanent observer to the United Nations told The Associated Press Saturday night that the current security situation 'œis a primary concern and a limitation for our teams on the ground'ť and 'œwe therefore cannot confirm numbers or other details.'ť
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In a major shift, Germany will send weapons to Ukraine
VIENNA (AP) - In a significant shift, the German government said Saturday it will send weapons and other supplies directly to Ukraine, which is fighting to keep Russia from invading its capital city. Germany is also ready to also support some restrictions of the SWIFT global banking system for Russia, officials said.
Germany's chancellery announced Saturday evening that it will send 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 'œStinger'ť surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine 'œas quickly as possible.'ť
'œThe Russian invasion of Ukraine marks a turning point. It threatens our entire post-war order,'ť German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a statement. 'œIn this situation, it is our duty to help Ukraine, to the best of our ability, to defend itself against Vladimir Putin's invading army.'ť
The news came shortly after the German economy and climate ministry said in a Saturday evening statement that Germany is allowing the Netherlands to ship 400 German-made anti-tank weapons to Ukraine. The government has also approved the shipment of 9 D-30 howitzers and ammunition originally from Estonia.
Germany had long stuck to a policy of not exporting deadly weapons to conflict zones, including Ukraine. As recently as Friday, government officials said they would abide by that policy.
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Zelenskyy's unlikely journey, from comedy to wartime leader
WARSAW, Poland (AP) - When Volodymyr Zelenskyy was growing up in southeastern Ukraine, his Jewish family spoke Russian and his father once forbade the younger Zelenskyy from going abroad to study in Israel. Instead, Zelenskyy studied law at home. Upon graduation, he found a new home in movie acting and comedy - rocketing in the 2010s to become one of Ukraine's top entertainers with the TV series 'œServant of the People."
In it, he portrayed a lovable high school teacher fed up with corrupt politicians who accidentally becomes president.
Fast forward just a few years, and Zelenskyy is the president of Ukraine for real. At times in the runup to the Russian invasion, the comedian-turned-statesman had seemed inconsistent, berating the West for fearmongering one day, and for not doing enough the next. But his bravery and refusal to leave as rockets have rained down on the capital have also made him an unlikely hero to many around the world.
With courage, good humor and grace under fire that has rallied his people and impressed his Western counterparts, the compact, dark-haired, 44-year-old former actor has stayed even though he says he has a target on his back from the Russian invaders.
After an offer from the United States to transport him to safety, Zelenskyy shot back on Saturday: 'œI need ammunition, not a ride," he said in Ukrainian, according to a senior American intelligence official with direct knowledge of the conversation.
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Some Americans welcome new CDC mask guidance, others wary
CHICAGO (AP) - Grace Thomas is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 but still not ready to take off her mask, especially around the kids at the home day care she runs in Chicago.
But whether the children continue to wear masks remains to be seen after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that healthy people in most areas of the country can safely stop wearing masks as cases continue to fall.
Thomas, 62, plans to ask parents to have their children wear masks to prevent the day care from being a potential source of transmission, but "you can't make them wear masks if they don't want to,'ť she said.
Many Americans, including parents of school children, have been clamoring for an end to masking while others remain wary that the pandemic could throw a new curveball. Now, states, cities and school districts are assessing Friday's guidance to determine whether it's safe to stop mask-wearing - long after others threw out such mandates and many Americans ignored them.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said that the statewide school mask mandate will be lifted Monday in response the the new guidance, although Chicago Public Schools officials said they will continue to require masks 'œto maintain health and safety measures.'ť
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14 shot at Vegas hookah parlor; 1 dead and 2 critically hurt
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Fourteen people were shot during a party at a Las Vegas hookah lounge early Saturday, including one man who was killed and two others who were critically wounded.
The shooting happened about 3:15 a.m. and preliminary information indicated there was a party during which two people got into an altercation and exchanged gunfire, said police Capt. Dori Koren.
Koren told reporters no arrests have been made and no suspect descriptions were immediately available but that authorities did not believe there was any danger to the general public.
Police went to the hookah bar identified by the Las Vegas Review-Journal as Manny's Glow Ultra Lounge & Restaurant after receiving multiple 911 calls, Koren said.
Officers secured the scene and rendered aid, including applying tourniquets and administering CPR, Koren said.
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Path to war in Ukraine was laid in months of plans, warnings
The week before Russia attacked, a Ukrainian soldier peered through a periscope from the bottom of his trench. Mud seeped into his boots, his clothes and every crack in his gear as he walked the narrow space where he had spent his days for the past 10 months.
Zakhar Leshchyshyn was just 23. He had no memory of Ukraine as anything but a fully independent country. But now he was charged with helping to keep it that way, posted at Ukraine's eastern front line since early last spring, when 100,000 Russian land and naval forces first encircled most of his country.
'œThese wars for territory are madness,'ť he said, 'œbut probably this is human nature.'ť
Within days, Ukraine was engulfed by what the soldier in the trench saw as humanity's dark impulse. The largest invasion Europe has seen since World War II has imperiled a young democracy while risking geopolitical instability far beyond the flashpoints of the new war.
In the conflict's earliest days, each side has managed to surprise the other. Russia unleashed a broader, larger invasion than almost anyone had predicted. And Ukraine, at least by U.S. and other Western accounts, has put up a more tenacious fight than many thought possible against the neighboring superpower. Fortunes can turn at any moment.
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Anti-war sentiment grows in Russia despite govt crackdown
MOSCOW (AP) - As Russian troops were closing in on the Ukrainian capital, more and more Russians spoke out Saturday against the invasion, even as the government's official rhetoric grew increasingly harsher.
Street protests, albeit small, resumed in the Russian capital of Moscow, the second-largest city of St. Petersburg and other Russian cities for the third straight day, with people taking to the streets despite mass detentions on Thursday and Friday. According to OVD-Info, rights group that tracks political arrests, at least 460 people in 34 cities were detained over anti-war protests on Saturday, including over 200 in Moscow.
Open letters condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine kept pouring, too. More than 6,000 medical workers put their names under one on Saturday; over 3,400 architects and engineers endorsed another while 500 teachers signed a third one. Similar letters by journalists, municipal council members, cultural figures and other professional groups have been making the rounds since Thursday.
A prominent contemporary art museum in Moscow called Garage announced Saturday it was halting its work on exhibitions and postponing them 'œuntil the human and political tragedy that is unfolding in Ukraine has ceased."
'œWe cannot support the illusion of normality when such events are taking place,'ť the statement by the museum read. 'œWe see ourselves as part of a wider world that is not divided by war.'ť
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CBS' Chris Licht expected to be named as new CNN chief
NEW YORK (AP) - CBS executive Chris Licht, who is currently running Stephen Colbert's late-night show after helping to build two news programs, is expected to become the new president of CNN replacing Jeff Zucker.
Licht will be named as soon as next week to the job, according to an executive familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak on personnel. The selection was first reported Saturday by the website Puck. He would not be able to take over until the deal giving CNN new corporate ownership gets federal approval, expected early this spring.
The new chief is executive vice president of special programming at CBS. Before taking over as executive producer at Colbert's 'œLate Show" in 2016, guiding it to the top of the ratings, Licht ran 'œCBS This Morning,'ť the network's morning news show.
Before joining CBS in 2012, he was the top behind-the-scenes executive at MSNBC's 'œMorning Joe" in its formative years.
There was no immediate comment from a representative at WarnerMedia, CNN's corporate parent.