Russia-Ukraine live updates: Russia sticks to demand for Crimea and other territory as casualties climb

More than 50 senior military, diplomatic, academic and political figures from across the Asia-Pacific region signed a statement released Monday calling for and end “to Russia’s legally and morally indefensible aggression against Ukraine,” highlighting the risk of nuclear escalation.

“Nuclear-armed powers must maintain restraint,” the statement read. “Events in Europe prove that we need to work harder and faster to ensure that nuclear weapons are put beyond use and eventually eliminated.”

Coordinated by the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, which includes leaders from Pakistan, China and India, the statement also called for immediate action to alleviate the worsening humanitarian crisis on the ground.

“Those in need require prompt, safe and unfettered access to humanitarian aid,” the statement said. “We urge political leaders to show courage and take the necessary steps to end hostilities and pursue a political solution to the war.”

The White House on Monday addressed its outreach to Venezuela amid criticism of a recent trip during which U.S. officials discussed the possibility of resuming oil imports from the socialist state.

News of the visit — and the potential easing of sanctions on Venezuela — comes as the Biden administration weighs a ban on imports of Russian oil and gas.

Asked about the discussions, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said it would be “leaping several stages ahead” to suggest the United States is considering doing business with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to drive down gas prices at home.

“There was a discussion that was had by members of the administration over the course of the last several days,” Psaki told reporters Monday at a regular news briefing. “Those discussions are also ongoing. And part of our focus is also on the health and welfare of detained U.S. citizens. While a separate process, still, that is part of our engagement with them. So at this point in time, I don’t have anything to predict. It’s ongoing.”

John Hudson contributed to this report.

A senior member of Ukraine’s government is expected to ask members of Congress to impose stiff new penalties on all corporations that pay taxes in Russia, according to a copy of the letter to lawmakers obtained by The Washington Post.

Davyd Arakhamia, the parliamentary leader of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s political party, is sending a letter to Congress asking lawmakers to delist from the U.S. stock exchange all corporations that pay taxes in Russia. The letter also asks the U.S. government to freeze the assets of all Russian oligarchs on the Forbes 100 list if they do not denounce Russian President Vladimir Putin within 48 hours.

Both steps would represent dramatic escalations in America’s economic countermeasures against Moscow, which were undertaken against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Dozens of firms on the U.S. stock exchange retain operations in Russia — though many have pulled out over the past week — and pay billions of dollars to Russia’s government in taxes, according to Maryan Zablotskyy, a member of the Ukrainian parliament’s finance committee who spearheaded the effort.

“The taxes that these companies pay in Russia finance bombs that kill our military and innocent civilians, including children,” Arakhamia, who is also the chairman of the U.S.-Ukraine caucus, says in the letter. “We ask you to consider action of giving these companies a choice: stop paying money to [the] Russian government, or get delisted from the U.S. stock market.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that questions about the increasing price of gas should be directed to oil companies that have been given the green light to drill more in the United States but have not done so.

Psaki said that the country is at record levels of domestic oil production but that less oil is being produced than has been allowed.

“There are 9,000 unused approved drilling permits” in the United States, Psaki told reporters during the daily briefing. “So I would suggest you ask the oil companies why they’re not using those if there’s a desire to drill more.”

The Biden administration and allies answered Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with sanctions that have disrupted economies globally. In the United States, drivers have seen the national average gas price per gallon top $4 — close to record highs in 2008, according to AAA.

Psaki said that President Biden is working to address this concern and that the war in Ukraine only made the issue worse for American consumers concerned with inflated costs.

“The president’s message is that he is going to do everything we can, everything he can to reduce the impact on the American people, including the price of gas at the tank,” she said, adding that Biden has already taken steps, such as a “historic release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, one that’s done in a coordinated fashion.”

“And clearly, we will continue to have conversations with large oil producers and suppliers around the world about how to mitigate the impact and consider domestic options as well,” Psaki added.

The Pentagon will send an additional 500 U.S. troops to Europe to bolster American forces in the eastern part of the continent in light of the war in Ukraine, a senior U.S. defense official said Monday.

The forces include KC-135 tanker planes that will be based in Souda Bay, Greece, and forces that will establish an air operations center in Romania and Poland, the defense official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon. The forces will join more than 12,000 troops that have deployed since the crisis prompted by Russian aggression against Ukraine began.

The moves are not meant to be permanent, the official said.

“Factoring in additional enablers was always a part of the plan,” the official said.

As the pope pleads for peace in Ukraine with Russian forces encroaching on its land each day, the Holy See is working to avoid an escalation of the war, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, said Monday.

In an interview with Italian broadcaster TV2000, Parolin said the fighting must cease, Vatican News reported.

“The religious level is that of inviting an insistent prayer that God may grant peace to that tormented land and involve believers in this choral prayer,” he said, according to the outlet. “Then there is the humanitarian aspect, above all through Caritas and the dioceses that are very committed to receiving refugees from Ukraine.”

Parolin also said that the Holy See is prepared to negotiate a solution to end the strife, according to Vatican News.

The proclamation comes just a day after Pope Francis announced that the Holy See has sent humanitarian reinforcements to help those fleeing for safety.

Francis said Sunday that the Vatican has sent two cardinals to Ukraine to serve people impacted by the Russian invasion.

Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, is charged with bringing aid to the needy, and Cardinal Michael Czerny will serve as the interim prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the pope announced, according to Vatican News.

“The presence of the two Cardinals there is the presence not only of the Pope, but of all the Christian people who want to get closer and say, ‘War is madness! Stop, please! Look at this cruelty!’ ” he said, according to the outlet.

The pope has recently come under scrutiny for not outwardly condemning Russia’s actions despite his public stances of declaring nuclear weapon ownership to be immoral and warning about the environmental impact of radiation leaks, the Associated Press reported.

A third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine ended without a breakthrough, as Russian attacks continued and civilian casualties increased.

Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said the talks yielded some progress in logistical arrangements for local cease-fires and evacuation corridors, after several days of failed efforts to enable civilians to leave cities and towns under Russian attack, including Mariupol.

He said there were intense discussions on a cease-fire and end to Russian hostilities without agreement but that negotiations will continue in coming days.

“As of today there are no results that significantly improve the situation,” he said.

The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said he hoped there would be progress in a fourth round of talks in coming days. He said Ukraine had taken away Russia’s written draft agreement to study. He said he hoped that the humanitarian corridors would begin working Tuesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Ukraine’s statehood is at risk, and has told Western leaders he plans to push on unless Ukraine gives up fighting and bows to Russia’s demands, including that it accept neutrality, give up on joining NATO and demilitarize.

Before the talks began, Podolyak posted an image of a destroyed civilian residences on Twitter with the words “Barbarians of the 21st century.” Underscoring the gulf between the two sides, he added, “The Russian army doesn’t know how to fight against other armies. But it’s good at killing civilians.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia expects Ukraine to enshrine neutrality in its constitution, Reuters reported. Moscow demands that Ukraine recognize Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, as Russian territory, and two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine as independent states.

Earlier, Podolyak said the negotiating process was “very difficult,” discounting rumors alleging Russian proposals to install “toxic” pro-Kremlin Ukrainians in political positions in Kyiv as part of a settlement. The rumors were “fakes,” he said, citing speculation about ousted former pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych and a former pro-Kremlin Ukrainian prime minister, Yuri Boyko.

Moscow is turning to Syria to help fuel its war effort as “nearly 100 percent” of Russian troops pre-positioned around Ukraine have been sent into the country to fight, according to a senior U.S. defense official.

“We know that they’re trying to recruit Syrians for the fight,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under terms set by the Pentagon. “We find that noteworthy, that he believes he needs to rely on foreign fighters to supplement what is a very significant commitment of combat power inside Ukraine.”

The official said there was no indication that Moscow was sending or preparing to dispatch additional Russian forces to supplement the 127 battalions that had been staged around Ukraine, even as their advances have been selectively slowed and blocked by logistical problems and Ukrainian resistance.

Instead, Russia appears to be increasing its bombardments of population centers and using long-range missiles “to make up for the lack of ground movement that they’ve had,” the official said. The official noted that Kharkiv, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv and Mariupol are under heavy bombardment and that “civilians are being hit as they attempt to flee” — but cautioned that the United States could not say with authority whether those civilians were being targeted intentionally.

The Pentagon has tracked more than 625 Russian missile launches since the fighting began. Initially, most of those consisted of short-range projectiles, but “the short-range ballistic missiles which had been the majority, for quite some time, are no longer the majority,” the official said.