Russia-Ukraine live updates: U.S. and Europe take aim at Russian oil and gas imports

Life continues with some normality in Odessa, though signs of the Russian invasion are ever present. The Ukrainian Navy Band played in front of the opera house amid sandbag barriers. Flags waved on street corners while people went about their shopping.

Elsewhere in the city, civilians participated in weapons training in preparation for a seemingly imminent invasion.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has driven more than 2 million people out of the country, the United Nations said Tuesday, equaling in less than two weeks the historic flow of mainly Syrian refugees into Europe in 2015 and 2016.

Half of the 2 million from Ukraine are children, according to UNICEF.

In historic crisis, 2 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of Russian invasion, U.N. says

BRUSSELS — The European Commission on Tuesday presented a plan to cut Russian gas imports by two-thirds this year, steeply reducing — but not severing — energy ties to Moscow.

The proposal, to be discussed by leaders at a summit in Paris this week, is a dramatic shift for a bloc that remains heavily reliant on relatively cheap and abundant Russian energy. But it falls short of the full-scale boycott that some have called for in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

There has been strong European pushback to the idea of a ban because of the potential impact on European economies and consumers. Europe imports about 40 percent of its gas and more than a quarter of its oil from Russia. The United States and Britain import far less.

Still, if the E.U. in fact meets the two-thirds goal, it could have a major impact. The proposal presented Tuesday presents the curbs to Russian imports as a first step toward full independence from fossil fuels “well before” 2030. To start, the E.U says it will find new gas suppliers, boost the production and import of biomethane and renewable hydrogen, as well as upgrade buildings to reduce energy consumption.

IRPIN, Ukraine — Civilians on the outskirts of Kyiv describe ongoing attacks by Russian troops as they attempt to evacuate.

“People who stayed there have no water, no gas, no electricity,” Elena Stolyar told The Post. “Our parents stayed, they didn’t evacuate. They didn’t want to leave the home they had been building their whole lives.”

BERLIN — A truck driver in overalls grabbed a package of toilet paper from a volunteer and placed it in his trailer. The truck was nearly full. The driver said he was feeling powerful.

“Somebody has to do this. It’s my war — my war is to deliver goods,” said Vadim Pashkiuskiy, 29, as he prepared to return to Ukraine. “It may be dangerous, but it’s my responsibility to my country. I’m not hiding. I’m doing whatever I can to help.”

Pashkiuskiy lives in Zhytomyr, a city about 90 miles west of Kyiv, and he last saw his family the day before the war broke out. He was driving a route in northern Germany when Russian troops invaded his country.

The Ukrainian government says more than 66,000 nationals have since returned from abroad, galvanized by the call of President Volodymyr Zelensky for citizens to join the fight.

And now that supply chains for food and medicine have been disrupted by the war, people going back have become all the more valuable — especially people driving cavernous tractor-trailers.

As many as 4,000 Russian troops may have died since President Vladimir Putin launched Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, a senior U.S. military officer said Tuesday, as the Kremlin’s military forces continued to face fierce resistance.

Lt. Gen. Scott D. Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told House lawmakers that the best estimate is between 2,000 and 4,000 Russian fatalities. But he said he had low confidence in that figure, citing “some intelligence sources, but also open-source” information. The general’s reference to open-source information probably refers to assessments made public by credible outside groups monitoring the conflict.

The estimate is an indication of the significant toll the much smaller Ukrainian military is believed to have exacted on Russian forces, even as the Kremlin wages a bombardment of military and civilian targets in numerous Ukrainian cities. By comparison, the entire 20-year U.S. war in Afghanistan resulted in 2,461 U.S. combat fatalities, according to Pentagon figures.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday thanked President Biden for announcing plans for the United States to ban oil and natural gas imports from Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

“Thankful for US and @POTUS personal leadership in striking in the heart of Putin’s war machine and banning oil, gas and coal from US market,” Zelensky tweeted. “Encourage other countries and leaders to follow.”

The move from Biden, one of the most far-reaching actions by the United States to penalize Moscow since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, carries enormous geopolitical consequences, including the price of oil skyrocketing in recent days.

“Americans have rallied to support the Ukrainian people and have made it clear we will not be part of subsidizing Putin’s war,” Biden said.

Speaking to the British Parliament on Tuesday, Zelensky repeated his calls for more support, including tougher sanctioning of Russia, at a time when more than 2 million people have fled the country since the start of the invasion.

“We will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost,” Zelensky said via video. “We will fight in the forests, on the shores, in the streets.”

After a five-day trek that included hunkering in bomb shelters, squeezing into trains packed with Ukrainian refugees and staying awake for one 36-hour stretch, Maksim Chmerkovskiy finally escaped Ukraine and made it to Poland.

Hours later, he felt the guilt creep in.

Chmerkovskiy, a Ukrainian-born American citizen famous for his longtime stint on “Dancing With the Stars,” was one of the only men fleeing Ukraine after the Russian military invaded on Feb. 24. As an American, he was allowed to go, even as Ukrainian men were forced to stay and fight. Surrounded by women and children on a train headed west out of Kyiv, the professional dancer said he felt like he was taking up space.

A week after his escape, Chmerkovskiy told CNN’s Anderson Cooper he’s still experiencing “survivor’s remorse” and plans to return to Eastern Europe soon, “joining efforts on the ground.”