Biden confirms Russia used hypersonic missiles

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Editor’s note: This page recaps the news from Ukraine on Monday, March. 21. Follow here for the latest updates and news from Tuesday, March 22, as Russia’s invasion continues.

President Joe Biden confirmed Russia’s use of hypersonic missiles in Ukraine, warning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “back is against the wall,” which means he could resort to using more severe tactics as the war stretches into another week.

Speaking at the Business Roundtable’s CEO Quarterly Meeting on Monday, Biden said Russia used the fast-flying missiles “because it’s the only thing that they can get through” Ukrainian defenses. He called it a “consequential weapon” that’s “almost impossible to stop.”

“There’s a reason they’re using it,” Biden said.

Russia has said it twice used its Kinzhal aviation missile system to strike targets in Ukraine. Hypersonic missiles can move at five times the speed of sound or more. The Russian military said these missiles are capable of hitting targets at a range of more than 1,200 miles, or roughly the distance from New York City to Kansas City.

Biden also said Putin didn’t anticipate how unified NATO and western allies would be in a global response to his invasion of Ukraine. “The more his back is against the wall, the greater severity of the tactics he may employ,” Biden warned.

The president said false-flag maneuvers like accusing the U.S. of housing biological and chemical weapons inside Ukraine — a claim the White House has vehemently denied — could be a pretext to escalate attacks.

“Whenever he starts talking about something he thinks NATO, Ukraine or the United States is about to do, it means he’s getting ready to do it,” said Biden, who reiterated a White House warning that Russia may be on the verge of a cyber attack against critical U.S. infrastructure.

“The magnitude of Russia’s cyber capacity is fairly consequential and it’s coming,” he said.

— Courtney Subramanian

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Latest developments

►Boris Romanchenko, a 96-year-old Holocaust survivor, was killed Friday when the building where he lived in Kharkiv, Ukraine, was hit by a Russian projectile, Germany’s Buchenwald concentration camp memorial said.

►Prime ministers Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland and Mark Rutte of The Netherlands on Monday discussed further sanctions on Russia, including banning imports of its oil and gas and closing European ports to Russian ships.

►AP video journalist Mstyslav Chernov has recounted his harrowing experience as the only international journalist, along with AP photographer Evgeniy Maloletka, in besieged Mariupol before fleeing last week. “We were the last journalists in Mariupol. Now there are none,” he said. Read Chernov’s account here.

►Russia reopened bond trading on the Moscow exchange Monday for the first time since the country invaded Ukraine. Stock trading remained closed.

►President Joe Biden hosted a 58-minute call Monday with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. “They discussed their serious concerns about Russia’s brutal tactics in Ukraine, including its attacks on civilians,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

Russia says relations with US on verge of rupture, but phone still works

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday that it had summoned the U.S. ambassador to warn that President Joe Biden’s recent remarks have put Russian-American relations on the verge of rupture.

Biden last week described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “war criminal” as Russia’s missile attacks on Ukraine cities intensified. The Foreign Ministry, in a social media post, called the statement and other references to Putin and the Russian invasion “unworthy of a statesman of such high rank.”

The Pentagon said in a statement that it established a phone line with Russian commanders on March 1 to prevent misunderstandings over the war. The line gets tested regularly, including Monday, and it works, the Pentagon said in a statement.

Still, the ministry warned Ambassador John Sullivan that hostile actions taken against Russia would be met with a “decisive and firm rebuff.”

The warning came hours after Ukraine firmly rejected a Russian offer to open two safe corridors out of Mariupol in exchange for the city’s surrender as the relentless missile strikes on the battered seaport city stretched deeper into a fourth week.

Russian forces, facing stiff resistance against their invasion of Ukraine, have sought to gain control of cities but can claim few successes thus far. The Kremlin says its “special operation” is going as planned. But a senior Pentagon official, who spoke on condition of anonymity Monday, said Russian President Vladimir Putin has not achieved his goals and is relying on bombardment of cities in a “near-desperate” effort to gain momentum.

Biden warns of Russian cyberattacks against US

President Joe Biden warned again Monday that Russia may be preparing to wage cyberattacks against the United States in retaliation for the economic sanctions the U.S. and its NATO allies have levied against Moscow.

Biden said the warning is based on “on evolving intelligence” that the Russian government is exploring options for potential cyberattacks. He did not elaborate.

“My administration will continue to use every tool to deter, disrupt, and if necessary, respond to cyberattacks against critical infrastructure,” he said in a statement. “But the federal government can’t defend against this threat alone.”

Most of the critical infrastructure in the U.S. is owned and operated by the private sector. The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has been working with organizations to rapidly share information and guidance to help protect their systems and networks, Biden said.

He urged the private sector to “harden your cyber defenses” by immediately implementing best practices developed over the past year.

– Michael Collins

European officials say Russia has committed war crimes, but still buy its oil

European officials are joining U.S. President Joe Biden in accusing Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine, but they fell short of calling for a ban on Russian oil, gas and coal, which Europe purchases at a cost of $1 billion a day.

With civilian deaths mounting in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock highlighted the increase in Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and theaters. The “courts will have to decide, but for me these are clearly war crimes,” Baerbock said.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who chaired a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers in Brussels, said that “what’s happening in Mariupol is a massive war crime. Destroying everything, bombarding and killing everybody in an indiscriminate manner. This is something awful.”

Yacht belonging to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich docks in Turkey

The yacht of sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich was greeted by a group carrying Ukrainian flags with the words “No War” emblazoned on them upon docking Monday in the resort city of Bodrum in the Turkish Riviera, the Sozcu newspaper reported.

It’s unclear whether Abramovich, owner of the British soccer club Chelsea, was aboard or if the yacht was moved to Turkey to avoid sanctions. Last week, the European Union imposed sanctions on Abramovich as it updated a list of individuals facing asset freeze and travel bans over their close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Turkey, a member of NATO, has criticized the Russian invasion of Ukraine but has not joined other countries in imposing sanctions as it positions itself as a neutral party trying to mediate.

Russian reliance on ‘dumb bombs’ puts civilians at greater risk

Russian forces appear to be running short of precision-guided weapons, said a senior Pentagon official, who spoke on condition of anonymity Monday. The so-called “smart bombs” use lasers and satellites to guide them to their target while the Russians increasingly are relying on “dumb bombs” – less precise weapons that put civilians at greater risk, the official said.

Russian commanders continue to have problems communicating and directing their forces in Ukraine, the official said. Commanders are using unsecured communication lines that can be intercepted. Ukrainian airspace remains contested, and Russian pilots are not flying far or often into Ukraine, fearing the air-defense systems – including long-range and shoulder-fired missiles that are being used with “great dexterity,” the official said.

Russia’s targeting of civilian areas could be an attempt to force Ukraine to make concessions in negotiations, the official said. In Ukraine, Parliament Member Dmytro Gurin said the Russian are trying to starve Mariupol to strengthen their positions in cease-fire talks.