Russia-Ukraine live updates: Limited cease-fire reached for civilian evacuations as Russian forces cut off key cities

The U.S. and Russian militaries have established a special line to communicate with one another through the crisis spawned by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, two U.S. defense officials said Thursday, highlighting the significance of regional tensions.

The line will be used to ensure no there are miscalculations or accidents that occur outside Ukraine, where President Biden has promised U.S. troops will not be fighting, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Such lines have been used in the past, including in Syria, to keep open communication, avoid collisions among aircraft and prevent incidents that could spiral into greater conflict.

The news was first reported by NBC News.

Ukrainian mayors describe desperate conditions as Russia advances

The production company behind RT America will close up shop and lay off employees, signaling a potential end for the Kremlin-funded media outlet aimed at U.S. audiences.

Misha Solodovnikov, general manager and chief creative officer for T&R Productions, attributed the decision to “cease production” to “unforeseen business interruption events,” according to a memo he sent to employees Thursday that was reviewed by The Washington Post.

Most T&R employees, who are spread out between multiple locations in the U.S., will be laid off, he said. “We deeply regret and understand the uncertainty this action will cause our valued employees,” he wrote.

Solodovnikov’s memo was first reported by CNN and The Daily Beast. Earlier Thursday, a host for the network, Holland Cooke, broke the news of disarray at RT America in a column for industry trade publication Talkers, writing that company brass told staff in a meeting on Thursday that the network has “been canceled, by cable/satellite/online distribution platforms.”

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Russia’s last independent news and radio stations folded this week as journalists and other newsroom staffers left their positions to flee their country as the war against Ukraine intensifies.

TV Rain suspended its coverage Thursday, its director general, Natalya Sindeeva, announced in a statement on the station’s website and on the air.

“We need strength to exhale and understand how to work further,” she said. “We really hope that we will return to the air and continue to work.”

Russia blocked access to the station and declared it and fellow news station Radio Echo as foreign agents for using “war” and “invasion” — terms banned by the Kremlin — in their coverage of the attack on Ukraine, the New Yorker reported.

The blocking of TV Rain portended danger for its editor in chief, Tikhon Dzyadko, who left Russia with his family as some staffers received threats, according to Current Time TV.

Radio Echo, also known as Echo of Moscow, shut down Thursday based on the decision of its board of directors, a day after Russia pushed broadcasting barriers against TV Rain’s website and social accounts, CNN reported.

The radio station found itself facing immense scrutiny from Russia’s prosecutor general over its coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NBC News reported.

The last seconds of TV Rain’s broadcast, after one of its journalists walked off reportedly saying “No war,” was of a black-and-white broadcast of “Swan Lake.” The last time the station aired the performance was in 1991 when the Soviet Union was on the edge of collapsing, according to NBC News.

Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest oil producer, on Thursday called for an end to the “tragic events in Ukraine” in a message on its website, both Bloomberg News and Reuters reported.

The company’s website appeared to be down hours after it reportedly posted a message that supported “the immediate cessation of the armed conflict and fully support its resolution through the negotiation process and through diplomatic means.”

The company did not immediately respond to questions from The Washington Post about the reported statement and issues with their site.

The online post came as the invasion entered its second week. Russian President Vladimir Putin has pressed ahead despite warnings from Western leaders of sanctions that would cripple Russia’s economy.

Economic penalties — ranging from a halted gas pipeline to cutting off Russia from the international financial system — have harmed the ruble’s value, and the Moscow stock exchange closed for days. Russia appears to be on the brink of its worst economic crisis in decades.

Russian business executives — one of whom saw his yacht seized — have already expressed concern over the economic fallout, but Lukoil’s statement appears to be the first from one of Russia’s major companies.

Oil prices in the West have skyrocketed since the invasion. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. oil benchmark, reached $116 per barrel Thursday in premarket trading for the first time since 2008. Though the sanctions imposed do not directly target oil and gas sectors, continued fighting is expected to disrupt supply routes through Ukraine and the Black Sea.

Russia is the world’s third-largest oil producer, exporting more oil than any other country. The White House has stopped short of targeting Russia’s oil and gas exports, as sanctions could further elevate the price of crude and disrupt global markets.

Still, Russia’s actions in Ukraine have prompted international oil companies such as Shell and BP to pull out of their energy investments in the country.

In the days after Russian soldiers invaded Ukraine, prompting outcry across the globe, Ike Gazaryan started receiving threatening phone calls, negative reviews and cancellations at his California restaurant.

Gazaryan, 38, owns Pushkin Russian Restaurant in San Diego, where cooks serve up classics such as beef stroganoff. Though he is Armenian — and a U.S. citizen — Gazaryan speaks Russian, enjoys that nation’s cuisine and named his seven-year-old restaurant after Russian author Alexander Pushkin.

But the ties to Russia end there. Many of his family, friends and employees are from Ukraine and he supports their fight against Russia’s invasion. Nonetheless, that hasn’t stopped strangers from calling, shouting and telling him that he is to blame for the vicious bloodshed Russian President Vladimir Putin has unleashed on Ukraine. One caller even asked why he hasn’t spoken to Putin about putting a stop to the war.

As Putin’s invasion of Ukraine intensifies, some Russian-themed businesses and Russian Americans in the United States are suddenly getting a frosty reception — and in a few cases, outright hostility. A Russian restaurant in Washington, D.C., called Russia House, was vandalized and the owner indicated that he thought anti-Russian sentiment may be to blame. Some Russian Americans say their children are being bullied at school.

MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — The southern Ukrainian city of Kherson faces a “global catastrophe” if a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians to be evacuated, and food and medicines to be delivered, is not opened in the nearest future, the secretary of the city council said.

“In Kherson, we are running out of food — literally, we can still last for maybe three, four days,” Galina Luhova said by telephone from Kherson. “We’re running out of medicines, we’re out of baby food, we are running out of diapers, and we are running out of first aid in hospitals.”

Kherson was among the first cities Russian troops attacked as they swept into Ukraine last week, and local eyewitnesses say that it is the first major city to fall to Kremlin forces. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has not confirmed that it is controlled by Moscow, however.

But according to Luhova, Russian equipment and soldiers are “absolutely everywhere,” and Ukrainian forces are “currently not in the city.” Ukrainian city officials continue to carry out their duties, however, and the Ukrainian flag still flies over city hall.

What’s more, she said, Moscow’s forces encircle Kherson, as the fighting continues to rage in southern Ukraine, making it impossible for the city of 320,000 people to receive needed supplies and let civilians escape to safer areas.

The fighting has left large portions of Kherson without electricity and running water. The number of people killed in the fighting is hard to determine, she said, but the figures could be “in the dozens, maybe hundreds,” and their corpses are in “the city’s streets, parks and squares.”

Now that the fighting has stopped, it’s become possible to open some stores and points of distribution. Queues stretched “hundreds of meters,” she said.

“People tried to take everything that there is — flour, sugar, eggs — and there’s a very tense situation with bread in those areas that were shelled,” she said.

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators said Thursday that they had reached a tentative agreement to introduce temporary cease-fires in those areas that were facing a crisis, allowing humanitarian corridors to be opened.

This, Luhova says, is the “most important thing right now” that can avert a humanitarian disaster. “It will save the city from a global catastrophe,” she said.

“People are in a panic, people are tense, people are frightened just to the core of their souls,” she said. “Their eyes show insane fear at what is happening now.”

Two men arrested with firearms on Thursday near the Ukrainian Embassy in Georgetown told police they had driven from Indiana to volunteer to fight in the war in Ukraine, according two law enforcement officials familiar with the case.

One of the men was wearing military fatigues and police seized a long gun and two handguns during the arrest, the officials said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail an ongoing police investigation.

Uniformed members of the U.S. Secret Service arrested the men shortly after 9 a.m. at Wisconsin Avenue and M Street NW, according to a statement from the agency and D.C. police. That is a little more than two blocks from the embassy on M Street.