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'You pray': Ukrainian American church sees influx of parishioners, welcomes new arrivals
The Rev. Volodymyr Steliac held Sunday service at St. Andrews Cathedral in Silver Spring, Maryland, like he has every Sunday before for 26 years. Only this Sunday, everything was different.
“When this started, I opened the church 24/7. Because what do you do when bombs are falling on your mother or brother or sister, your friend, what do you do?” Steliac said in an interview. “You pray.”
The Ukrainian American cathedral was overwhelmed with parishioners seeking community after a brutal week in Ukraine. Maryna Kapovska and her sister, Polina Olson, pray for their parents, who stayed in Kyiv even after the conflict had begun.
“It's definitely really hard to be so far away from them and know that you're helpless,” Kapovska said.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have fled their homes since the Russian invasion began, traveling by bus, car and even foot to reach bordering countries where they can settle temporarily or flying out of the region. Ivanna Ivanniv made the unexpected journey with her three young children, landing in the U.S. without her parents, the father of her children or her 11-year-old daughter's “favorite cat," she said.
Still, Ivanniv says she is lucky because she is safe. She joined dozens of others seated in the pews, holding one another, as Ukrainian prayer and song filled the brightly painted room.
“Ukrainians are very united right now. They feel strong because they are united with love to their motherland,” Ivanniv said. “But we need help."
Durbin wants Temporary Protected Status for 29,500 Ukrainians in the U.S.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Monday he is requesting that the Biden administration allow Ukrainians in the United States on visas to obtain Temporary Protected Status.
"There are 29,500 Ukrainians in the United States now on visas. We have a letter going out to the president this evening asking for Temporary Protected Status for all of them. They include tourists and students and people working here on visas and that sort of thing. So that is something we could and should do immediately," Durbin, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, told reporters.
"Some of them — the visas have expired and they're supposed to return to Ukraine. That's that is unacceptable under the current circumstances," he said.
The TPS designation can be made by the Secretary of Homeland Security. It does not confer a permanent benefit for recipients but allows them to temporarily stay in the U.S. without fear of deportation.
Durbin said he believes Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, will sign his letter and that additional Republican senators "are being asked right now."
Facebook parent company blocks Russian state media in E.U.
Facebook's parent company said Monday it would restrict state-affiliated media outlets Russia Today and Sputnik for users in the European Union, in response to an E.U. request.
"We have received requests from a number of Governments and the EU to take further steps in relation to Russian state controlled media," Nick Clegg, vice president for global affairs at Meta, said in a statement. "Given the exceptional nature of the current situation, we will be restricting access to RT and Sputnik across the EU at this time."
The restrictive step, sometimes called a geofence, also affects Ukraine, meaning Meta users in the country won't see RT or Sputnik content, the company said. Ukraine is not a member of the European Union.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday that she wanted to "ban the Kremlin's media machine" across the EU.
International Criminal Court to open investigation into Russia over allegations of war crimes
The International Criminal Court will open an investigation into potential war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine, prosecutor Karim Khan announced Monday.
The court, located in The Hague, Netherlands, is an independent international body responsible for investigating and trying large-scale international crimes, such as war crimes and genocide.
Based on a preliminary examination of the Russian invasion, Khan said, there is a "reasonable basis" to believe Russia has committed both war crimes and crimes against humanity.
"Given the expansion of the conflict in recent days, it is my intention that this investigation will also encompass any new alleged crimes falling within the jurisdiction of my Office that are committed by any party to the conflict on any part of the territory of Ukraine," he said in a statement.
First lady Jill Biden wears sunflower mask in honor of Ukraine
The sunflower is Ukraine's national flower.
Biden says Americans don't need to worry about nuclear war
President Joe Biden said on Monday that Americans do not need to be worried about a nuclear war, after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Sunday that he was putting his nuclear forces on high alert.
Asked by reporters as he was leaving a Black History Month event at the White House if Americans should be concerned, Biden responded: "No."
Over the weekend, Biden administration officials said that Putin's choice to put deterrence forces on alert was unnecessary and escalatory, and said that the Russian leader was not under any threat from the U.S., NATO or Ukraine.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC News on Sunday that Putin was "manufacturing threats that don't exist in order to justify further aggression."
Key Democrat backs Biden's opposition to no-fly zone over Ukraine
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told NBC News he supports the Biden administration's decision not to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
"It would invariably require our aircraft to come into contact with Russian aircraft. The possibility of miscalculation or deliberate confrontation would be very serious," Reed said on Monday.
"The other steps the administration is taking — and the incredible fighting skills of the Ukrainians — have made it something where [Russians] don't have as dominant air superiority as one would thing," he said. "And just yesterday, the Germans announced that they were sending several hundred Stinger missiles. And Ukrainians do have an air defense system."
Earlier on Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended Biden's opposition to a no-fly zone.
"What that'd require is implementation by the U.S. military. It would essentially mean the U.S. military would be shooting down planes, Russian planes. That is definitely escalatory. That would potentially put us into a place where we're in a military conflict with Russia," Psaki said in an interview on MSNBC. "That is not something the president wants to do."
Belarus national railway says online ticket sales disrupted
The national railway of Belarus has been unable to process online ticket sales, the company announced Monday, a day after hacktivists vowed to attack it. It is unclear whether the ticket sales issue was related to the hacktivists' efforts.
The hackers, who claimed to be from a group that calls itself Cyber Partisans, have conducted several cyberattacks in recent months against the Belarusian government, led by Putin ally Alexander Lukashenko.
On Sunday, the Cyber Partisans claimed on their Telegram channel that they had hacked Belarusian Railway in order to slow the deployment of Belarusian troops en route to join Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Cyber Partisans claimed in January to have hacked the railway.
Hungary won't allow weapons for Ukraine to cross its territory
Hungary will not send troops or weapons to Ukraine and will not allow lethal weapons to transit its territory in order to keep the country safe, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Monday during a visit to Kosovo.
"The reason for making this decision is that such deliveries might become targets of hostile military action and ... we have to ensure the security of Hungary ... that we are not getting involved in that war," Szijjarto said after meeting Kosovo Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla.
While Hungary is a member of both NATO and the European Union, its prime minister, Viktor Orban, is a close ally of Putin's who met with him in Moscow at the beginning of February. At the time, he said "Russia’s demands for security guarantees" from Ukraine are "normal and should be the basis for negotiations. And I agree with that."
He condemned Russia's “military action” after it began, but said his country would not send military aid to Ukraine, which shares a border with Hungary. Notoriously anti-immigration, he also declared that he would allow Ukrainian refugees to be given temporary protection in Hungary. "Everyone fleeing Ukraine will find a friend in the Hungarian state," Orban said Sunday.