Russia-Ukraine live updates: Signs of progress in peace talks; U.S. expresses skepticism

President Biden has called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “killer,” a “butcher,” the leader of a “paranoid regime,” as well as a war criminal. He has repeatedly said the former KGB officer lacks a soul. Concerned about hurting Kremlin feelings, Biden is not. At all.

Still, Biden apparently felt he needed to personally clear up his comment over the weekend that Putin “cannot remain in power,” assuring the world he’s not planting a regime-change flag at the heart of the allied response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“I was expressing the moral outrage that I feel, and I make no apologies for it,” Biden told reporters at the White House. “But it doesn’t mean we have a fundamental policy to do anything to take Putin down in any way.”

Was it, as Biden said, “ridiculous” for anyone to hear his remarks and worry about a shift in U.S. policy? It’s not like Washington doesn’t have a rich history — a rich and recent history — of embracing regime change, albeit not in a nuclear-armed rival like Russia.

The price of oil briefly dipped below $100 per barrel and stocks climbed Tuesday as cease-fire talks raised hopes of progress, with Ukraine outlining a peace proposal and Russia promising to drastically reduce its military activity near Kyiv.

The U.S. crude benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, fell 6 percent to about $99.50 per barrel before inching back above the centennial mark. At midday, it was trading above $101. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was down 3.8 percent to roughly $108 per barrel.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up around 180 points, or 0.5 percent, in early afternoon after easing off earlier gains. The broader S&P 500 index jumped 0.6 percent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.2 percent.

Oil prices have shown significant volatility since Russia invaded its neighbor in late February, typically moving inversely to stocks amid news from Ukraine. Oil surged past $130 per barrel in early March before retreating, surging again, and falling again. The price fell 7 percent Monday as Shanghai said it would go into lockdown to combat a resurgence of the novel coronavirus.

The increase and volatility in oil prices have had a significant effect on retail fuel prices: On Tuesday, the U.S. average for a gallon of gasoline stood at $4.24 a gallon — 63 cents higher than last month and $1.38 more than a year ago.

Investors are also anticipating a string of reports this week that could refocus attention on the U.S. economy. A report on home prices from S&P Case-Shiller reported that home prices rose 19 percent in the one-year period ending in January. The results of the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey will be released Tuesday, as will new data on consumer confidence. The widely followed monthly jobs report is to be published Friday.

Several European Union countries announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats Tuesday, deepening the standoff between Europe and Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.

Belgium expelled 21 Russian diplomats based in the embassy in Brussels or the consulate in Antwerp, the country’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Tuesday. The ministry said the individuals were working for Russian intelligence services.

The move came as the Netherlands expelled 17 Russian diplomats for allegedly using diplomatic cover to do intelligence work. Around the same time, Ireland said it had asked four Russian diplomats to leave, saying their conduct was not in accordance with international standards of diplomatic behavior.

Last week, Poland expelled 45 Russian diplomats. “With full consistency and determination, we are breaking up the agents of the Russian secret services in our country,” Poland’s interior minister, Mariusz Kaminski, said on Twitter.

In 2018, more than two dozen countries expelled more than 150 Russian diplomats over a nerve-agent attack in Salisbury, England. It was the largest expulsion of Russian diplomats since the Cold War.

Natalia and her 7-year-old daughter, Varvara, were fleeing their home outside Kyiv — hoping to escape a constant barrage of Russian shelling in Ukraine — when a mine exploded near their car.

Shrapnel tore into their legs.

They are but two patients who have flooded into Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital since the start of the war on Feb. 24. Doctors and nurses — used to treating children for cancer — have found themselves grappling with war wounds like those suffered by Natalia and Varvara. Working tirelessly, hospital staffers have moved much of their operations into the basement to protect patients from Russian strikes.

Now, the hospital is getting help from an unlikely source — Banksy.

Or rather, the help is coming from one of the street artist’s most famous antiwar works. On Sunday, MyArtBroker sold one of 700 prints of “CND Soldiers” after a 10-day silent auction. Proceeds from the winning bid of $106,505 will go to Ohmatdyt, which normally treats about 20,000 patients a year in Kyiv as the country’s largest children’s hospital.

RABAT, Morocco — Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed skepticism about the latest round of talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey, saying Moscow’s continued military offensive leaves little room for optimism.

“There is what Russia says and what Russia does. We’re focused on the latter, and what Russia has been doing is the brutalization of Ukraine and its people,” said Blinken, during a joint news conference with his Moroccan counterpart in the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Blinken deferred to Ukrainian officials to characterize “whether there is genuine progress and whether Russia is engaging meaningfully,” he said.

He vowed that the United States would fully back Ukraine if it does see potential for progress, but underscored that Russia’s military offensive continues in Ukraine, noting that half of Ukraine’s children have been displaced from their homes.

When asked if the United States detects that Russia has been shifting its military offensive away from Ukraine’s capital and toward the country’s east, as it has stated, Blinken said he couldn’t say.

“I can’t tell you whether these statements reflect a reorientation on eastern and southern Ukraine or whether this is a means by which Russia is trying to deflect and deceive,” he said, speculating that Russia could be using negotiations to regroup its military.

Blinken also said that merely focusing on Ukraine’s east would be unacceptable to the United States.

“If they somehow believe that an effort to subjugate only the eastern part of Ukraine and the southern part of Ukraine can succeed, then once again they are profoundly fooling themselves,” he said.

The Pentagon’s top general overseeing U.S. troops in Europe said Tuesday that he sees “shifting dynamics in the ground domain” near the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, appearing to confirm that some Russian forces in the region are pulling back.

Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters responded to a question at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing from Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who noted numerous reports suggesting that Russian forces were withdrawing from the immediate Kyiv area.

Wolters, chief of the European Command, said “I can verify” that characterization is “exactly what we see.”

The Russian change in posture comes after Ukrainian forces have gone on the offensive in several parts of the country. Ukrainian officials said Monday that they have taken back control of Irpin, a Kyiv suburb.