LIVE UPDATES: Ukrainian Nationalists Blow Up Bridge to Town of Schastye Near Lugansk

The former prime minister said that Zelenskyy is "a puppet incapable of making his own decisions."

According to local authorities, the humanitarian route will be Mariupol-Nikolskoye-Rozovka-Pologi-Orekhov-Zaporozhye.

"The rampant campaign of the Western media, which is sometimes picked up by the Brazilian media as well, is the problem of information warfare, which is really unfolding in the media space," the ambassador concluded.

Last week, Russia began a special operation to demilitarize and "de-Nazify" Ukraine, responding to calls for help from the Donetsk and Lugansk People's republics in countering the aggression of Ukrainian troops. The Russian Defence Ministry said the special operation is targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only and the civilian population is not in danger. Moscow has repeatedly stressed that it has no plans to occupy Ukraine.

Singapore has introduced sanctions on the Russian Central Bank and some other Russian banks as well as imposed restrictions on the exports to the country over the Russian military operation in Ukraine, the Singaporean Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

"Financial institutions in Singapore will be prohibited from the following: ... entering into transactions or arrangements, or providing financial services that facilitate fund raising by: the Russian government; the Central Bank of the Russian Federation; any entity owned or controlled by them or acting on their direction or behalf. The prohibitions apply to buying and selling new securities, providing financial services that facilitate new fund raising by, and making or participate in the making of any new loan to the above entities," the ministry said in a statement.

The sanctions targeted four Russian banks: VTB, Vnesheconombank, Promsvyazbank and Bank Rossiya.

"In order to constrain Russia’s capacity to conduct its war in Ukraine and cyber aggression, all permit applications to Russia involving (a) all items on the List of Military Goods under the SGCO; and (b) all category codes under Category 3 - Electronics, Category 4 - Computers and Category 5 – Telecommunications and “Information Security” on the List of Dual-Use Goods under the SGCO will be rejected," the statement added.

The US TV-channels of ABC and CBS have stopped broadcasting from Russia amid the latter's military operation in Ukraine, media reported.

According to the Deadline news outlet, the decision was made after Russian President Vladimir Putin had signed a federal law criminalizing the spread of disinformation about the country’s armed forces, their defamation, as well as the calls for sanctions against Russia.

Samsung Electronics Co. has decided to suspend exports of all its products, including smartphones and chips, to Russia over the latter's military operation in Ukraine, the Bloomberg news agency reported.

“Our thoughts are with everyone who has been impacted and our priority is to ensure the safety of all our employees and their families,” Samsung said in a statement, as quoted by Bloomberg.

The company added that it would donate $6 million, including $1 million in electronic products, to humanitarian efforts in the region.

French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed concern over nuclear risks after the incident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (NPP), the Elysee Palace said.

"The president of the republic strongly condemns any encroachment on the integrity of Ukrainian civilian nuclear installations by the Russian forces during their external aggression against Ukraine. It is highly important to guarantee their reliability and safety ... [Macron] is very concerned over the nuclear security risks," the Elysee Palace said in a statement on late Friday.

The entire US Senate has been invited to meet Volodymyr Zelensky through a virtual conference call on Saturday, NBC News reported, citing sources.

The virtual meeting was arranged by the Ukrainian Embassy, the report said on Friday.

The US-media outlet Bloomberg News said it will temporarily suspend the work of its journalists in Russia after President Vladimir Putin signed into law legislation criminalizing the spread of disinformation about the Russian military, their defamation, as well as calls for sanctions against Russia.

"Bloomberg News will temporarily suspend the work of its journalists inside Russia after President Vladimir Putin signed legislation that criminalizes independent reporting in the country," the media outlet said in a statement on Friday.

The corporate-owned outlet CNN and British government-funded outlet BBC made similar announcements earlier in the day.

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission's (SMM) team in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv continues its evacuation westwards while the team in Kherson remains in shelter, the organization said.

"Following the instruction of 24 February to temporarily evacuate all SMM international mission members, the Kharkiv Monitoring Team continued its evacuation westwards through Ukraine, while the Kherson Monitoring Team remained sheltered in place awaiting a window to evacuate safely," the OSCE said in a statement on late Friday.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a video message has called the just concluded NATO summit "weak" amid the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

"A NATO summit took place today. It was a weak summit, a confused summit, a summit that shows that not everyone considers the fight for freedom in Europe the number one goal," Zelenskyy said on Friday.

Zelenskyy accused the members of the military alliance of giving Russia "the green light to start shelling Ukrainian cities and villages," adding that NATO did nothing but provided Ukraine with 50 tons of diesel fuel.

The impact of economic sanctions imposed against Russia by the West has already exceeded expectations, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.

"We've had already a dramatic impact far beyond I think what anyone would have expected on Russia," Blinken said during remarks in Belgium.

The suffering is likely to get worse before it gets better as long as the Ukraine crisis continues, Blinken added.

"The international community should stay cool headed and rational and adopt a responsible, impartial and objective approach to create a sound atmosphere and conditions for direct talks between the parties concerned," Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Zhang Jun said during a UN Security Council meeting on Friday.

He added that the radiation level is normal following the incident.

Intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and several other NATO countries are using Poland as a "logistical hub," for sending weapons and transferring fighters to Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service said Friday.

"The intelligence services of NATO countries are transferring foreign terrorist fighters to Ukraine... the US and UK intelligence services in recent weeks have de facto turned Polish territory into a 'logistical hub' used to supply weapons and smuggle fighters, including from the Middle East, to Ukraine," the statement read.

According to the Russian intelligence, fighters arriving in Ukraine from the Middle East were trained at the US-controlled Al-Tanf base in Syria to be used in the Donbass conflict.

"At the end of 2021, the Americans released from prisons… several dozen ISIS terrorists [Islamic State, banned in Russia] including citizens of Russia and CIS countries. These individuals were sent to the US-controlled Al-Tanf base, where they have undergone special training in subversive and terrorist warfare methods with a focus on Donbass region," the statement added.

As the Russian intelligence said, Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine has destroyed most of these fighters, yet the US continues to form new terrorist units in the Middle East and Africa, and they are planned to be sent to Ukraine via Poland.

"The CIA and the US Army Special Operations Command continue to form new ‘ISIS fighter echelons' in the Middle East and Africa. Their transfer to participate in subversive and terrorist activities in Ukraine is planned to be carried out through the territory of Poland," the statement added.

BBC is temporarily suspending its activities in Russia and will work outside the country, BBC Director-General Tim Davie said, commenting in the Russian legislation concerning the coverage of its special operation in Ukraine.

"This legislation appears to criminalise the process of independent journalism. It leaves us no other option than to temporarily suspend the work of all BBC News journalists and their support staff within the Russian Federation while we assess the full implications of this unwelcome development," he said.

The head of the BBC stressed that the corporation was not ready to expose employees "to the risk of criminal prosecution simply for doing their jobs."

"Our journalists in Ukraine and around the world will continue to report on the invasion of Ukraine," he added.

The United States can not confirm the existence or the use of cluster munitions or thermobaric weapons in Ukraine, a senior US Defence Department official told reporters on Friday.

"We cannot confirm the existence or the use of cluster munitions inside Ukraine, nor can we confirm the use or existence of thermobaric weapons inside Ukraine," the official said.

The US transportation and e-commerce company FedEx announced its decision to suspend services in Russia and Belarus due to the crisis over Ukraine.

“As we support the people of Ukraine, we also have made the decision to suspend all FedEx services in Russia and Belarus,” FedEx said in a statement.

US President Joe Biden will speak with Polish President Andrzej Duda at 11:30 a.m. EST on Friday, White House pool reporter said.

On Wednesday, Duda told journalists that his country would not send troops and military vehicles to Ukraine, the White House Pool reporter said via Twitter.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz held a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader informed his German counterpart about the upcoming third round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine during the weekend, German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said on Friday.

"In an hour-long conversation, the parties exchanged their differing positions. The Chancellor expressed his great concern. Bad footage and news have been coming from Ukraine for several days. The Chancellor called on the Russian leadership to immediately stop all hostilities, as well as to ensure humanitarian access to the areas of fighting," Hebestreit said during a briefing.

Hebestreit also said that President Putin informed the Chancellor that a third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine is scheduled for the weekend, adding that Putin and Scholz agreed to hold new talks soon.

Turkey will not close its airspace to Russia, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.

"Ankara will not close the airspace to Russia. The openness of Turkish airspace is important from a strategic and humanitarian point of view," the Anadolu news agency quoted the minister as saying.

The minister added that Ankara continues contacts with both Russia and Ukraine.

Microsoft is suspending all new sales of products and services in Russia due to the Ukraine conflict.

"We are announcing today that we will suspend all new sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia," the statement read.

"In addition, we are coordinating closely and working in lockstep with the governments of the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom, and we are stopping many aspects of our business in Russia in compliance with governmental sanctions decisions," it said.

NATO is considering a "significant" increase of its presence in the alliance's eastern flank amid current events in Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.

"Today we have some presence in the eastern allied countries, we have the battle groups in the Baltic countries and Poland, we have some presence also in Romania and in the southeast. We are now seriously considering a significant increase of that presence, both in more troops with more air defense with deterrence through defense," Stoltenberg said after an extraordinary meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

Restrictive measures include a ban on transactions with Russia's Central Bank, joining the EU's SWIFT move as well as an embargo on a number of exports to Russia.

NATO is strengthening cooperation with Finland and Sweden, allowing them to take part in alliance’s consultations about Ukrainian crisis, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday.

"In response to Russia’s aggression we have decided to strengthen our coordination and information sharing with Finland and Sweden. Both countries are now taking part in all NATO consultations about the crisis,” Stoltenberg said during a briefing.

Australia does not intend to participate in hostilities on the ground in Ukraine, but has sent a C-17 military aircraft with defensive cargo there as military support, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Friday.

“At this point in time there is not an intention of joining the military action on the ground. The intention is to provide that support to Ukraine, including with military assets, including the sorts of sanctions, strangulation if you like, that's the word that is being used, that we can,” she told 4BC.

Canberra will also allocate 35 million Australian dollars ($25.7 million) in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and neighboring countries receiving refugees, the minister said.

Under the Western sanction package against Moscow, Australia has frozen a bank account with 45 million Australian dollars owned by a sanctioned Russian entity, Payne added without specifying the name of the entity.

Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine last week after the breakaway Donbass republics appealed for help in defending themselves against the Ukrainian military. In response, Western nations have rolled out a massive sanctions campaign against Moscow.

Russian gas is being pumped through Ukraine at the maximum level, while transit through Belarus and Poland via the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline is growing and can now continue in daytime, according to the data of gas transmission system operators (GTS) and the GSA Platform.

Requests for Russian gas on Friday totaled 109.4 million cubic meters, according to the Ukrainian GTS operator. The volume of supplies via Ukrainian territory has increased since February 24 and has been at its maximum level in recent days. Contractual commitments of Russia's Gazprom regarding gas transit to Ukraine for 2022 are 109.6 million cubic meters per day.

Gas transit through Belarus and Poland, which resumed on February 26 and took place only at night, have increased, with Gazprom booking capacity of about 750, 000 cubic meters per hour at the Yamal-Europe natural gas pipeline for a full gas day on March 3 and 4, according to the GSA Platform. The company can use the capacity from 08:00 Moscow time (05:00 GMT) on Friday to 08:00 Moscow time on Saturday. Over last night, Russia pumped 13.7 million cubic meters of gas to Germany.

The Ukrainian military did not provide the residents of Mariupol with any corridors to exit the city, but used them as human shields, a city resident who managed to escape from the encirclement with his wife and underage daughter said.

"At first, they just covered themselves with a human shield, then they abandoned their people, then they began to destroy them, just smash them, destroy everything, just shoot, destroy the city. That’s all. Just destroy their civilians. And then probably tell global media that it was done by Russia and the DPR," he said.

When asked whether a humanitarian corridor was provided for civilians to leave the city, he answered in the negative.

US software company Autodesk has announced suspending its operation in Russia in light of the sanctions imposed on the country by the West.

"Autodesk is suspending our business in Russia immediately and continuing to comply fully with all sanctions currently in place. We’ll consider further limits to our business in the region should sanctions expand, and as the situation develops," the software manufacturer said in a statement issued on Thursday.

Meanwhile, another US tech company, Cisco Systems, is also ending all its activities in Russia, as well as in Belarus, according to Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins.

"Cisco is stopping all business operations in Russia and Belarus and will continue to focus on supporting our Ukrainian employees, customers and partners while providing humanitarian aid and accelerating our efforts to protect organizations in Ukraine from cyber threats," Robbins said in a letter to the staff, as quoted by the MarketWatch website.

"We understand the desperation but we also believe that if we did that (establishing a no-fly zone) we would end up with something that could lead to a full-fledged war in Europe, involving much more countries," he told reporters in Brussels.

Ankara intends to initiate a meeting between the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine at a diplomatic forum in Antalya with the consent of the parties, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday.

"We would like to bring together Russian Foreign Minister [Sergey] Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpartm [Dmytro] Kulebam at a diplomatic forum in Antalya, if conditions permit and there is agreement between the parties," Cavusoglu said, as quoted by the Anadolu news agency.

The European Union has no intention to conclude new agreements with Russia's research centres in the wake of Moscow's operation in Ukraine, European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said on Friday.

"The Commission has suspended cooperation with Russia and Belarus in the European Neighborhood Instrument cross border cooperation programs, as well as in the inter-Baltic sea region program. Likewise, the Commission has also decided not to conclude any new contracts or agreements with Russian research organizations. All ongoing projects are being reviewed," Mamer told a briefing.

The European Union does not rule out that more Russian banks can be added to the list of entities disconnected from the international SWIFT payment system, European Commission spokesman Daniel Sheridan Ferrie said.

"Of course, depending on the developments [in Ukraine], we stand ready to add additional banks to this list," the official told a briefing.

"At the moment this list concern these particular Russian banks, this does not apply to Belarus. But as we have said a couple of times already, nothing can be ruled out," he added.

Ukraine is ready to ensure the export and delivery of humanitarian cargoes, with Ukrainian troops guaranteeing the safe passage of the corridors, Volodymyr Zelensky's office said on Friday.

"The Ukrainian side is ready to ensure the export and delivery of humanitarian cargo. The armed forces guarantee the safe passage of the corridors. Ukraine expects this from the Russian side as well," the office said in a statement.

Kiev has also asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to urgently assist in creating humanitarian corridors and believes that they are needed in a number of settlements, the statement said. Kiev was not mentioned in the list.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has discussed the Western policy and conflict in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

"That’s what we talked about today with President Putin for two hours. They [Western states] clung to and will not let go until they think they will deal with us. Try to understand, they are pushing us into war in Ukraine. If only we intervened now in this conflict, where we are not expected, it would be a gift for them," Lukashenko told Belarus 1 broadcaster.

The next batches of weapons are prepared to be delivered to Ukraine, a German defence ministry spokesperson said on Friday, without providing any details.

"I can confirm that further cargoes are prepared for shipment in warehouses, the decision of the Security Council is awaited. I cannot give further details," the spokesperson told reporters when asked whether new arms supplies to Ukraine are planned and what they include.

The UN Human Rights Council adopted on Friday a resolution on the situation in Ukraine, which provides for the establishment of an independent commission to investigate alleged human rights violations in Ukraine, Sputnik correspondent reported.

The resolution was adopted in a 32-2 vote, with 13 abstentions. Russia and Eritrea opposed the document.

The UN body's resolutions are not binding.

The draft resolution was submitted on Monday on behalf of Ukraine. In particular, it called for the immediate creation of an independent commission to investigate "all alleged violations of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law in Crimea and certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions starting from 2014, as well as in other areas of Ukraine, starting from 22 February."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had a phone conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss the situation around the Zaporozhskaya nuclear power plant, deputy spokesman for the German government Wolfgang Buechner said.

"I would like to report on the events of last night that the chancellor spoke with ... Zelensky over the phone ... Zelensky called and informed the chancellor about the current developments of the situation around the nuclear power plant," Buechner told reporters.

Heads of Justice ministries of the EU member states are gathering in Brussels on Friday to discuss sanctions against Russia and coordination of probes into events in Ukraine, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said.

“We will have an opportunity to analyze the situation in Ukraine now, and I am sure it is important for the ministers of justice to play a role in the implementation of the sanctions but also in the fight against impunity for the crimes committed during the aggression and to organize a good coordination of all the possible investigations at the national level concerning oligarchs helping the Russian regime in such an aggression,” Reynders said ahead of the Justice and Home Affairs Council.

Russia launched an operation in Ukraine last week after the breakaway Donbass republics appealed for help in defending themselves against the Ukrainian military. The Russian Defence Ministry said the operation was solely targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure and the civilian population is not in danger.

According to the ministry, Ukrainian soldiers have voluntarily laid down arms in some parts of the country, and have been provided with medical aid and safety. Meanwhile, Ukrainian nationalists are reported to be engaged in killings, looting and robberies, Moscow said.

According to Russia's permanent representative to the United Nations office in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, the UN Council had ignored the sufferings of the Donbass people from attacks by the Ukrainian army for eight years. In addition, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow firmly denies Kiev’s accusations of war crimes in Ukraine.

"The Nordic Council of Ministers is suspending its co-operation with Russia and Belarus. This decision has been made in response to Russia’s military attack on Ukraine," the council said in a statement.

Switzerland has received a request for asylum from 120 Ukrainian citizens since the start of Russia's military operation, spokesman of the Swiss secretariat for migration Samuel Wyss said.

"As of today, 120 people from Ukraine have requested asylum in Switzerland," Wyss said.

On Wednesday, the German interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said that refugees from Ukraine do not need to go through the asylum procedure, and will receive immediate protection for up to three years in the European Union. More than a million refugees have left Ukraine already, according to the UNHRC.

Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine last week after the breakaway Donbass republics appealed for help in defending themselves against the Ukrainian military. In response, Western nations have rolled out a massive sanctions campaign against Moscow.

On Wednesday, Roscosmos urged OneWeb to provide a guarantee of non-use of its satellites for military purposes and to remove the UK government from the company's shareholders before the evening of March 4 or the launch of the Soyuz-2.1b rocket with new OneWeb satellites will be halted. Earlier on Friday, the launch was cancelled.

The NATO plan for Ukraine involved the blocking of Kaliningrad with the help of the Polish army, Ukraine’s ex-Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said on Friday.

"There is information that this plan was developed jointly with NATO curators, since the United States had previously transferred about 5,000 of their soldiers to Poland, plus there was also the Polish army. According to the plan, they were supposed to block the Kaliningrad group, so that it could not advance to the attacked territory of the south-east of Ukraine," Azarov said on Facebook.

According to Azarov, NATO's plan for Ukraine also provided for the blocking of peacekeepers in Transnistria by forces from the territory of Romania.

Volodymyr Zelensky once again demanded the immediate strengthening of sanctions against Russia and the closure of the Ukrainian airspace.

"We need an immediate strengthening of sanctions against a nuclear terrorist country. We need an immediate closure of the sky over Ukraine," Zelensky said in a video message.

Zelensky also claimed that almost the entire Russian army is waging war against Ukraine.

Spokesman for Polish Minister-Coordinator for Special Services Stanislaw Zaryn said on Friday that the service officers detained a man, whom he called an agent of the Russian military intelligence.

"The man was identified as an agent of the Russian military intelligence GRU. By court order, he was arrested for three months," Zaryn told the Telewizja Polska broadcaster.

The NATO chief added that the meeting will focus on the long-term consequences of the conflict in Ukraine.