BRUSSELS — The European Union announced late Monday that the 27-nation bloc has approved a fourth set of sanctions to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

France, which holds the EU presidency, said in a statement that the bloc approved a package targeting “individuals and entities involved in the aggression against Ukraine,” along with sectors of the Russian economy.

The exact details of the latest package will be revealed in the EU’s official journal.

Since the war started last month, the EU has adopted tough measures targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia’s financial system and the country’s oligarchs. Last week, the bloc agreed to slap further sanctions on 160 individuals and added new restrictions on the export of maritime navigation and radio communication technology.

A protester interrupted Russia’s main evening news broadcast Monday, holding a sign saying “No War” and telling viewers not to believe the station's “propaganda.”

The independent human rights group OVD-Info said the woman had been detained and taken into custody.

The Kremlin made it a crime punishable by a 15-year prison term this month for people to spread "fake news" and describe the Ukraine invasion as a “war.”

Several foreign news outlets removed their staff members or stopped broadcasting. Local independent news organizations have shuttered or submitted to censorship. The Russian investigative news website Agentsvo reported this month that more than 150 journalists had fled the country.

Russian officials have described the invasion as a special military operation, a term the channel has used while saying the effort aims to “denazify” Ukraine, according to Reuters.

Read the full story here.

The staff at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant continued efforts to repair the site Monday, a day after Russian forces damaged a line that had been reconnected to the power grid, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement.

The plant has been relying on a backup generator since Wednesday, and specialist teams succeeded in restoring one of two damaged power lines Sunday. Ukraine expected to have power running by Monday morning, but the line was compromised again by "occupying forces," Ukraine’s transmission system operator, Ukrenergo, told the atomic energy agency.

Eight of the country’s 15 reactors remained operating, including two at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where a fire broke out more than a week ago after an attack by Russian forces.

Radiation levels at all nuclear plants in Ukraine are in the normal range, according to the atomic energy agency.

Fox News reporter Benjamin Hall was injured while reporting outside of Kyiv on Monday and was hospitalized, the network said.

Hall is a Washington-based correspondent who covers the U.S. State Department for Fox News, where he has worked since 2015.

“We have a minimal level of details right now, but Ben is hospitalized and our teams on the ground are working to gather additional information as the situation quickly unfolds,” Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said in a message to Fox employees.

Fox’s John Roberts read Scott’s statement about Hall on the air at Fox.

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said in an interview Monday on MSNBC that "97 percent of Belarusian people are against the war in Ukraine."

Tsikhanouskaya said Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko supported Russia as a means of "paying back" Putin for support after the 2020 election, claiming Belarus troops don't want to be in Ukraine.

"They have [a] symbiotic relationship. They need each other now as never before," she said, attributing the relationship to Lukashenko's need for money and political support and Putin's need for an ally. 

"The fate of Ukraine and fate of Belarus are deeply interconnected in this occasion," Tsikhanouskaya added. "Without free Ukraine, there will be no free Belarus, and vice versa."

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his condolences Monday to the family of Brent Renaud, a U.S. journalist who was shot and killed by Russian forces Sunday. 

"I extend my heartfelt condolences to the family of Brent Renaud who lost his life while documenting the ruthlessness & evil inflicted upon [Ukraine's] people by Russia," Zelenskyy tweeted. "May Brent’s life & sacrifice inspire the world to stand up in fight for the forces of light against forces of darkness."

Zelenskyy also shared a letter addressed to Renaud's family, in which he called Renaud a "talented and brave journalist" and said the people of Ukraine "are mourning with you."

"We are thankful to Brent for his professionalism and commitment to the values of compassion, ethics, and justice," Zelenskyy wrote. 

A Russian oligarch has been charged with making illegal political contributions as a foreign national, known as "straw donations," in a case that stems from the investigation into Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two associates of Rudy Giuliani.  

Andrey Muraviev is charged with wiring $1 million to Fruman and Parnas to fund political contributions in November 2018. Federal prosecutors in New York say the purpose of the contributions was to bolster Muraviev and his fellow co-conspirators’ efforts with obtaining cannabis and marijuana licenses. 

The scheme has been extensively reported on, with Muraviev the unnamed “Foreign National-1” in the case (though NBC News has reported his name and involvement). 

According to prosecutors, the donations went to federal and state politicians in Florida, Nevada, and Texas. Muraviev also allegedly planned for politicians in New York and New Jersey to get money. 

First lady Jill Biden said Monday that her "heart has ached" seeing videos of innocent victims of the war.

"Sick kids fleeing on makeshift medical trains, the unthinkable bombing of a maternity ward. Parents weeping over their children’s broken bodies in the streets. The senselessness is staggering," she said.

Speaking at the 2022 International Women of Courage Award Ceremony in Washington, Biden continued: "We also know that there are horrors happening around the globe that never make the evening news. There are children’s broken bodies and women who bear the scars of war all around the world."

Her comments came hours after Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Ministry announced that a pregnant woman injured in the Mariupol hospital attack, whose image circulated the world, had died. The expectant mother was photographed while being wheeled on a stretcher from the maternity hospital where she was supposed to give birth. Her unborn baby died, as well, officials said Monday.

Protesters occupied a building reported to belong to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in London on Monday.

Nine people were killed and nine more were wounded in an airstrike on a TV tower outside the western Ukrainian city of Rivne, the regional governor, Vitalii Koval, said Monday. 

Koval announced the death toll in an on-camera briefing and said people were still under the rubble. 

Zelenskyy is expected to outline the urgent needs of his country, particularly air defense support, in his virtual address to the Congress, said Iuliia Mendel, his former press secretary.

Speaking Monday to MSNBC, Mendel said Zelenskyy “will explain the situation on the ground and will explain everything that Ukraine is doing to finish the conflict” in his address, planned for Wednesday.

“I know that Ukraine is very grateful for every type of help that was gotten from the West and from the U.S. and for the $13.6 billion of support that will go both to the Ukrainian army and for humanitarian help to Ukraine," she said. "But definitely, President Zelenskyy is looking for the support to stop this brutal bombing and shelling.”

Zelenskyy has repeatedly asked NATO to "close the skies" over parts of Ukraine — a move U.S. officials and other allies have warned could lead to a direct conflict with Russia. The White House and NATO allies denied the request, despite Zelenskyy's insistence that their refusal would cost innocent people their lives. 

"If it's not possible," Mendel said of a no-fly zone, "probably we are looking forward to seeing the military jets supplied to Ukraine."

"The victims are being counted in thousands already, thousands. They destroy civilian infrastructure, houses, hospitals, kindergartens and just kill ordinary people here," she added. "No time to wait. Time is people's lives."

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — Here in the middle of former President Donald Trump’s Midwest base, in a state where a sense of economic malaise lands hard on rural and working-class voters, many Republicans see higher gas prices as a small price to pay to help defend Ukraine.

“I don’t think we’re doing enough,” Mary King, an unemployed caregiver, said of President Joe Biden’s ban on Russian oil last week. She spoke while waiting for GOP Senate candidate J.D. Vance to hold a campaign event in this industrial city along the Ohio River. 

“Ask the public what they are willing to sacrifice,” King added. “I pray every day to St. Nicholas to save the children in Ukraine who are in danger.”

The sentiment was much the same upstate in Strongsville, a solidly Republican suburb of Cleveland that has one of the largest Ukrainian populations in Ohio. The comments of more than a dozen Ohio Republicans interviewed about the U.S. response to Russia’s war against Ukraine represent a departure from the “America First” mindset that helped Trump easily win the state twice.

Read the full story here.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., warned Monday that the U.S. needs to handle the Russian invasion of Ukraine properly to project strength to the rest of the world. 

Speaking at a roundtable discussion on the conflict and potential war crimes at the University of South Carolina School of Law, Graham said Iran is most likely looking at Ukraine "as an opportunity to break out" and said that if the U.S. doesn’t stand with Ukraine, Iran will think America is weak.

"Then you're going to have every Sunni Arab nation in the Mideast want to enrich at the same level," Graham said. "I can't think of a worse outcome for the planet. That is coming. If we get Ukraine wrong, China's licking their chops. This is a dress rehearsal for Taiwan."

Iran claimed responsibility Sunday for a dozen ballistic missiles that struck Iraq's Kurdish regional capital, Erbil. The missiles, which targeted the U.S. Consulate’s new building, caused only material damage, and one civilian was injured, the Kurdish interior ministry said.

Graham also said he doesn't support a no-fly zone over Ukraine but that he would if Russia launches a chemical attack.

"That would be a war crime of a monumental proportion," he said. "And all the treaties we've tried to construct around the use of chemical weapons will be considered a joke if he doesn't pay a price. So I would be for a no-fly zone then, just to protect the sanctity of the idea that chemical weapons are need to be banned."

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk pushed back on the Russian Ministry of Defense's claims that its military had allowed humanitarian aid to reach Mariupol, saying that shelling has prevented any aid from being delivered.

The head of Russia's National Defense Control Center, Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, said Monday that "almost all firing points of nationalist formations," referring to the Ukrainian army, had been destroyed in the city's suburbs, allowing corridors to open for aid and evacuees, according to the Russian state-run Interfax news service. 

But Vereshchuk said in an interview Monday that more vehicles are ready to pick up civilians and deliver aid, but Russia was still shelling the approaches to Mariupol, "preventing humanitarian cargo from entering."

"Our column from Berdiansk has not yet reached Mariupol. What the Russian Ministry of Defense writes is not true," she said. "No humanitarian aid got there. The cargo is just leaving and we demand a cease-fire, we demand that our cargo be allowed."

More than 1,700 people were evacuated to safety Monday through humanitarian corridors in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president's office.

Announcing the development on the messaging app Telegram, Tymoshenko added, "We also managed to deliver five buses with humanitarian aid."

With the humanitarian crisis growing by the day in Ukraine, 10 safe routes had been planned for Monday for trapped residents of hard-hit areas, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier that more than 130,000 people had been evacuated in the past six days, including 5,500 people Sunday.

Those escaping faced dire conditions in their besieged cities. In Mariupol, a southeastern port city, residents had been without water, heat, food and other supplies for more than a week.

The White House is considering the possibility of President Joe Biden’s traveling to Europe in the coming weeks, said three U.S. officials and two people familiar with the discussions. 

The trip, which would focus on the war in Ukraine and aim to reassure America’s allies in the region, has yet to be finalized, the sources said. A U.S. official said Brussels, home to NATO and the European Union, is under consideration as a possible location.

Read the full story here.

Cardinal Seán Patrick O'Malley, the archbishop of Boston, said Monday that he is authorizing a special collection at all parishes Saturday and Sunday to support Ukraine.

"Through news coverage of the war, we have witnessed the immediate human crisis needs, including those caused by the horrendous bombing of a maternity hospital," O'Malley said in the written announcement. "There will also be longer-term needs for rebuilding churches and hospitals and other recovery and reconstruction programs."

Proceeds will be sent to Catholic Relief Services and the Vatican's agency for outreach to churches in Eastern Europe, he said.

"The people of our archdiocese have a long history of generosity in times of local, national, and international disasters and for assisting with relief of human suffering," he said. "Please join me in supporting the people of Ukraine through our prayers, our concern, and our contributions."

The water and sewage system in the southern Ukrainian city of Vasylivka has been destroyed by Russian shelling, regional governor Oleksandr Starukh said Monday. 

He said the building that houses the sewage pumping system, which sends wastewater from the city to a sewage treatment plant, was destroyed.

"Even in the case of power recovery, the operation of treatment plants is impossible," Starukh said on his Telegram account, adding that the construction and equipment of the sewage pumping system need "major renovation." He said that "return water from the city now enters the Dnipro River without any treatment."

"As soon as possible, when access to these facilities will be available, repairs will be carried out," he said.

Gary Locke, a former U.S. ambassador to China, said Monday on MSNBC that China is a major "winner" in the energy and other sanctions the West is imposing on Russia.

Because Russia is unable to sell energy supplies and agricultural output to the West, it will turn to close ally China, he said. But he added that he expects Beijing to "play both sides" of the conflict given that it had previously recognized Ukraine's independence and has taken the position that countries shouldn't interfere with one another.

"It will try to present that image of being a conciliatory entity, a player on the world stage, without really doing anything," Locke said of China.

He also said Russia and China have set up collaborative, independent financial transaction systems over the last several years "so that they can evade these sanctions," adding that the heavy trade between the U.S. and China would make it "much harder" to sanction China for its support of Russia.

Pfizer says it will donate all profits of its Russian subsidiary to humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine. 

While other large companies in the private sector have scaled back or cut off trade entirely with Russia, many drugmakers said last week that they would not halt operations. 

In a statement Monday, Pfizer reiterated that stance, saying pausing the flow of lifesaving medications to Russia "would be in direct violation of our foundational principle of putting patients first."

However, the statement continued, "maintaining the supply of medicines to Russia does not mean we will continue doing business as usual in Russia."

In addition to donating its Russian profits to Ukrainian relief efforts, Pfizer said it will stop recruiting new patients for clinical trials in Russia and will not begin any new trials there. The company said it does not own or operate any Russian manufacturing sites, but it added that it will cease all planned investments with local suppliers intended to build manufacturing capacity. 

"These decisions align with our patient-first values and ensure that every dollar of profit derived from Russia will strengthen Ukraine and its people as they continue to valiantly defend their nation and freedom from this unprovoked and unjustified attack," the statement said. 

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Monday that while more than 6,300 sanctions have been levied against Russia, they must be strengthened to have a detrimental effect on its economy. 

"Our position is simple: If we are going to block the sources of Russian economy, then you have to do it fully," he said at a news conference. "There's no other way to stop the aggression by creating internal pressure on President Putin. We're not stopping at the sanctions already imposed. While Ukrainian children die under Russian bombs, sanctions are not enough."

Kuleba called on Western companies to stop buying Russia oil, gas and coal and for world ports to close to Russian ships. The U.S. announced a ban on Russian energy products last week. 

"Russia must be stopped now using all available resources, and while the Ukrainians are paying blood to stop Russians ruining cities, the least those companies can do is leave the Russian markets and help us just to stop the machine of Russian aggression," he said. 

Talks between Ukraine and Russia are taking a "technical pause" until tomorrow, according to a senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who is leading Kyiv's delegation.

The pause in negotiations was to allow "additional work in the working subgroups and clarification of individual definitions," Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter.

Podolyak earlier posted a photo of the two sides meeting via video link. "Communication is being held yet it’s hard," he said.

They are the fourth round of talks between the two countries, which have so far yielded some limited agreement on the establishment of humanitarian corridors but little broader progress toward an end to the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will deliver a virtual address to members of Congress on Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced Monday.

"As war rages on in Ukraine, it is with great respect and admiration for the Ukrainian people that we invite all Members of the House and Senate to attend a Virtual Address to the United States Congress delivered by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine on Wednesday, March 16th at 9:00 a.m.," the Democratic leaders said in a letter to members Monday announcing the address.

The virtual address will take place in an auditorium in the Capitol Visitor Center. Only lawmakers can attend in person, but a livestream will be available for public viewing.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com. 

A first group of civilians has been able to escape the besieged southeastern city of Mariupol along a humanitarian corridor.

More than 160 private cars were able to evacuate from the port city Monday, the Mariupol city council said in a post on Telegram, and were headed toward Zaporizhzhia further north. Russian forces were so far observing a cease-fire along the route, the city council added.

The news comes after days of failed attempts to evacuate civilians trapped in dire conditions under Russian shelling. The strategic city has been encircled and bombarded, leaving its residents without water, heat, food and supplies for more than a week.

The Ukrainian government is hoping to let civilians leave and also bring in a convoy of aid and supplies for the city.

A pregnant woman pictured being carried from a Ukrainian maternity hospital after it was shelled by Russian forces has died along with her unborn baby, Ukraine's foreign ministry said on Monday.

The woman, who has not been named, was photographed on a stretcher as she was being taken to an ambulance amid the devastation and ruin in the besieged city of Mariupol on March 9.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack “an atrocity” and said that three people died in the bombing. It’s unclear if the unnamed woman’s death is in addition to these.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry announced the woman’s death in a tweet, and repeated the government’s plea for Western powers to enforce a no-fly zone over the country to prevent future airstrikes.

Read the full story here. 

Beijing has pushed back on reports that Russia had asked China for military equipment and other support following the start of its invasion of Ukraine, saying on Monday that “the U.S. has been spreading disinformation and this is very dangerous.”

“We need to advance a diplomatic solution of the situation instead of further escalating the situation,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press briefing.

As fighting intensified across Ukraine, three American officials said on Sunday that the U.S. government had reason to believe that Russia had asked China for the help.

News of the requests came amid the intensifying Russian bombing of Ukrainian cities and residential areas, and was expected to be a key topic of discussion between President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and China’s senior diplomat, Yang Jiechi, during a meeting scheduled for later on Monday in Rome.

On Sunday, a particularly deadly Russian airstrike on a military base in western Ukraine killed at least 35 people.

On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that Moscow had requested military aid from other countries.

The officials with knowledge of Russia’s request to China declined to elaborate on whether Beijing agreed to supply military aid, or whether the United States even knows the answer to that question. They declined say what kind of equipment was requested, and whether it was lethal.

Read the full story here.

LVIV, Ukraine — Lifelong Lviv residents Myroslav Pavlyshyn, 63, and Myron Beheza, 72, were enjoying a rare sunny afternoon in the city’s historic district on Sunday.

Earlier that morning, a Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Yavoriv military base just 40 miles away killed 35 people and wounded at least 130. It was a wakeup call for the residents of still-peaceful Lviv, in western Ukraine. The war is getting closer. But the influx of refugees has already dramatically changed the city. 

“So many people, so many people came,” Pavlyshyn said.

Beheza said they went to a railway station on Sunday. “Buses, trains are coming one after another. So many people — it makes me tear up," he said. "It’s hard but our people are very welcoming. They give out coffee, sandwiches and send the [refugees] farther to Poland. In every household, people are sheltering refugees.”

He added that the mayor said it's been hard on the city, but said the residents were coping "just fine." 

"It’s so hard for me,” Beheza said as he wiped away tears with a handkerchief. “Poor people, small children, elderly, they have nothing with them. They have been kicked out of their warm apartments and came here. But our people are very kind. We help them with everything we can. It will be fine, we will win.”

Ukrainians from Pavlyshyn and Beheza’s generation were born in the then-Soviet Union and spent more than half their lives under its power. Pavlyshyn had no nostalgia for the past.

“In the Soviet Union, everyone was stealing everything,” he said. "There were huge lines to the shops, shelves were empty. Every now and then, you can see elderly people saying how great things were under the Soviet Union. They had to stand in the line for the whole night just to buy some milk. F--- the Soviet Union.”

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on Monday.

Lavrov said the two spoke at length about the situation in Ukraine, including the creation of humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians. He also reiterated Russia's claim that the conflict is aimed at protecting territory controlled by Russian-backed separatists from direct military threats, though the Kremlin invaded after months of military buildup and political demands and the war has extended far beyond those areas.

Ninety Ukrainian children have died and more than 100 wounded since the start of the conflict, the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said Monday in a statement posted on Telegram, citing juvenile prosecutors.

The statement said most victims were in the Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Zhytomyr regions.

It added that more than 379 educational institutions have been hit by bombs and shelling, of which 59 have been completely destroyed. 

NBC News was not able to independently verify the numbers.

Russian forces fired on a high-rise in Kyiv, killing one and injuring seven, Kyiv state administration said on Telegram. Officials added that shelling was also directed at the Antonov aircraft plant in the capital. 

A fourth round of negotiations were set to take place between Moscow and Kyiv on Monday, according to a tweet from a senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also pleaded for additional support and weapons from "those abroad scared of being dragged into 'WWIII.'"

"Apply more sanctions on Russia and isolate it fully," he added in the post on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military claimed on Monday that Russia had in total lost more than 12,000 personnel, 389 tanks, 77 aircraft and 90 helicopters, among other losses.

NBC News could not independently verify those figures.  

Russian naval forces have established a "distant blockade" of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, effectively isolating the country from international maritime trade, Britain's ministry of defense said on Monday. 

In addition, 2.5 million Ukrainians had fled their homes as a result of the invasion, it said.

"Indiscriminate Russian shelling and air attacks are causing widespread destruction," it added.

There have already been 1,663 civilian casualties since the Russian invasion began, according to the United Nations. True figures are expected to be much higher, the ministry said. 

Russian forces have also conducted one amphibious landing in the Sea of Azov, the ministry added on Twitter. 

LVIV, Ukraine — The U.S. government has reason to believe Russia asked China for military equipment and other support following the start of its war in Ukraine, three U.S. officials confirmed Sunday.

The officials declined to elaborate on whether China agreed to the request, or whether the U.S. even knows the answer to that question. They declined say what kind of equipment was requested, and whether it was lethal.

News of the request was first reported by the Financial Times.

U.S. concerns about Russia’s request were expected to be a key issue when President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, meets Monday in Rome with China’s senior diplomat, Yang Jiechi. The White House announced that meeting earlier Sunday.

Russia’s Embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said he had not heard about the request.

"China is deeply concerned and grieved on the Ukraine situation," he added. "We sincerely hope that the situation will ease and peace will return at an early date.”

The White House had no comment.

Earlier Sunday on NBC News' "Meet the Press," Sullivan warned non-allies against aiding Russia's war effort, and he singled out China.

Read the full story here.

TAIPEI — The Taiwanese personal computer maker ASUS will consider its reputation and put in place a plan to "evacuate" its staff and business in Russia, Taiwan's economy minister said on Monday, after a Ukrainian minister asked it to leave the country.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's deputy prime minister and minister of digital transformation, tweeted a letter on Thursday to ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih calling on the company to end its business in Russia. Moscow has invaded Ukraine in what the Russian government calls a "special operation."

Taiwanese Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua, asked about the letter, said Taiwan stands with other democracies and has taken action against Russia, but could not comment on what individual companies were doing.

The company, formally called ASUSTeK Computer Inc, did not respond to a request for comment.