Russia-Ukraine live updates: Moscow steps up assault on residential areas, Biden closes U.S. airspace to Russian planes

Biden focused on Ukraine almost immediately in his remarks, leading a standing ovation for the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova.

The courage and determination of the Ukrainian people, Biden said, “literally inspires the world.”

“Groups of citizens blocking tanks with their bodies, everyone from students to retirees to teachers turned soldiers defending their homeland,” Biden said. “In this struggle, as President Zelensky said in his speech to the European Parliament, light will win over darkness.”

Biden noted that Markarova was sitting in the House chamber with first lady Jill Biden.

“Let us, each of us, if you’re able to stand, stand and send an unmistakable signal to the world, and to Ukraine,” Biden said, prompting a sustained standing ovation from those gathered in the chamber.

“Yes, we, the United States of America stand with the Ukrainian people,” he said.

Russian troops have moved into Ukraine from the north, south and east. Forces around Kyiv have been waiting for reinforcements and are now attempting to envelop the city. The bombing of Kharkiv continues, but the city remains under Ukrainian control. In the southern front, Russia has claimed control over the coastal city of Mariupol.

Videos, obtained and verified by The Post, show the aftermath of an apparent attack by Russian forces near a hospital in the town of Kharkiv.

“My friends were just killed,” said local resident Misha Rogozianskiy, who narrates the footage filmed around 11:30 a.m. on March 1. The footage shows what appears to be at least one casualty. A body lies covered by clothing next to a shrapnel-pocked red sedan as young men struggle to move the disabled vehicle.

The strike appears to have leveled several buildings less than 300 feet from Kharkiv City Hospital Number 3. Across the street, the blast heavily damaged the facade of an apartment building, mangling balconies and shattering windows. White smoke billows out of a second-story apartment as a firefighter is seen climbing a ladder to it.

While narrating the destruction captured in the footage, Rogozianskiy rushes over to a man, his face smeared with blood, and identifies him as the godfather of one of Rogozianskiy’s children.

“He's lucky to be alive,” Rogozianskiy said.

A second person filming the scene from a damaged apartment building also captures a blaze inside what appears to be an industrial area, before showing the damage in their own apartment.

Exxon is halting its operations at Sakhalin Island, a massive oil and gas project that had provided billions of dollars in royalties and other payments to the Russian government since its inception.

The Exxon project at Sakhalin, which began production in 2005, was one of the largest foreign investments in Russia, according to the company website.

The Sakhalin-1 project has produced more than $16 billion in taxes, royalties and other payments to Russian governments, federal and regional, according to a company website.

“ExxonMobil supports the people of Ukraine as they seek to defend their freedom and determine their own future as a nation,” the company said in a statement Tuesday night. “We deplore Russia’s military action that violates the territorial integrity of Ukraine and endangers its people.”

The company added that it will not make new investments in Russia.

Exxon’s exit is part of an exodus of Western companies from Russia, and follows similar moves recently by BP and Shell.

“In response to recent events, we are beginning the process to discontinue operations and developing steps to exit the Sakhalin-1 venture,” the statement said. “The process to discontinue operations will need to be carefully managed and closely coordinated with the co-venturers in order to ensure it is executed safely.”

When it began, the Sakhalin project, which Exxon operates on behalf of an international consortium, had been touted as the sign of a new era of cooperation after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

"The project underscores exciting new opportunities for U.S. investment in Russia, and sends a strong signal from Russia’s leaders that foreign investment on a large scale is welcome,” Donald Evans, then U.S. commerce secretary, said in 2001.

Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) never thought that she would have the life she has now.

Growing up in Ukraine when it was a Soviet republic, she did not imagine immigrating to the United States at the age of 21 after falling in love with an American she met on a train while living in Kyiv. Once in Noblesville, Ind., Spartz said she prioritized raising her two daughters before becoming an accountant and embracing public service, first as a state senator, then getting elected to Congress in 2020.

It never crossed her mind that she would serve in Congress at a time when her native land was being invaded by Russia.

“I never wanted to think that I would have to deal with a crisis like that. I never, you know, thought that I’d be in the place where I am. Sometimes it makes me wonder if God has a reason for that,” Spartz said in an interview. “I want to be an asset for our country, to be helpful to deal with this situation. I have that experience.”

As the first Ukrainian-born immigrant to serve in the U.S. Congress, the freshman lawmaker has taken a leading role for Republicans in voicing both the horror of what the world is witnessing during the Russian invasion and arguing for what the United States should do in response. On Tuesday night, she will be part of the group of lawmakers who will escort President Biden into the House chamber for a State of the Union address that is expected to focus heavily on the conflict happening in her home country.