Air raid sirens have been sounding in many places in Ukraine since early morning, including in the capital Kyiv. The Ukrainian army thinks a major attack by the Russian forces against the capital city is still possible even though their advance stalled a long time ago due to food and fuel supply shortages, as well as because of the stout Ukrainian resistance. According to a US official however, Moscow is not getting ready to attack Kyiv. According to the Russian army headquarters the first phase of the offensive has been completed, and military action would now focus on Donbas.

Volodymyr Zelensky called for urgent talks with Russia. “Ukrainian sovereignty must be guaranteed. Ukraine’s territorial integrity must be ensured. That is, the conditions must be fair. The Ukrainian people will not accept others,” he said.

Meanwhile, France President Emmanuel Macron is expected to hold talks with Vladimir Putin in the coming days on organizing a humanitarian operation in Mariupol. “Its inhabitants are living a great tragedy,” he said. “We are going to work with Turkey and Greece to launch a humanitarian operation to evacuate all those who wish to leave Mariupol.”

US President Joe Biden will make an important announcement "soon", the White House says. During his visit to Poland he met with US soldiers bolstering NATO’s Eastern flank. “The world isn’t going to be the same — not because of Ukraine — it is not going to be the same 10, 15 years from now in terms of our organizational structures,” he said and added:

“So the question is: Who is going to prevail? Are democracies going to prevail — and the values we share? Or are autocracies going to prevail? And that’s really what’s at stake.”