LAST UPDATE | 3 Mar 2022

RUSSIA AND UKRAINE have agreed to create humanitarian corridors for civilians fleeing intensifying fighting – the only tangible progress from a second round of talks between Moscow and Kyiv, according to an adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

A Russian negotiator, nationalist lawmaker Leonid Slutsky, confirmed the initiative and said it would be implemented soon.

The two sides met after the fall of the first major Ukrainian city to Russian forces on the eighth day of the Russian invasion.

Here are the main developments you need to know today:

• The European Union decided to grant temporary protection to refugees from Ukraine that will enable them to live, work and study in EU countries. The US has now followed suit and will do the same.
• Dozens of Ukrainian parliamentarians met secretly in person today to vote on “critical” legislation in the country’s parliamentary building.
• Ukrainian and Russian negotiators completed the second round of talks since the invasion, some progress was made on humanitarian corridors.  
• Putin said that the Russian military advance in Ukraine is “going to plan” and made the false claim that Russia is fighting “neo-Nazis”. He has also repeated that Ukrainians and Russians are “one people”. 
• Russian forces seized the Ukrainian city of Kherson, the first major urban centre to fall since Moscow invaded last week. A three-day siege left it short of food and medicine.
• Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv continues to come under severe Russian shelling, with police and university buildings among the latest struck.
• Russian troops are laying siege to the city of Mariupol, attempting to cut it off from electricity, water, heating and transportation, its mayor said. 
• The UN refugee agency says one million people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, in the swiftest exodus of refugees this century.
• The World Health Organisation again expressed concern at dwindling supplies of vital medical resources in Ukraine. 
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Western politicians of fixating on “nuclear war” after Putin placed his strategic forces on high alert.
• France’s Emmanuel Macron believes “the worst is to come” in Ukraine after a 90-minute call with Putin who appears intent on seizing “the whole” of the country. 
• Irish building supplies firm CRH announced it is pulling out of the Russian market.
• Formula One has announced that it will be removing Russia as a Grand Prix host for good due to the invasion of Ukraine.
• Swedish furniture giant Ikea is suspending its activities in Russia and Belarus, affecting nearly 15,000 employees, 17 stores and three production sites, in response to the war.
• The Ekho Moskvy radio station – a symbol of new-found media freedom in post-Soviet Russia – is shutting down after being taken off air over its coverage of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
• Russian and Belarusian athletes will be banned from the Beijing Winter Paralympics after the International Paralympic Committee reversed its original decision.
• New US sanctions will target more Russian oligarchs and their families.
• The leader of the Czech Republic said it will not punish citizens who leave for Ukraine to help defend it against Russia despite a law that prevents Czech’s from serving in another army
• Ireland’s charities regulator urged members of the public to make sure that their donations to Ukraine go to properly registered charities.
• And if you’re a Ukrainian travelling to Ireland, here’s what you need to know (Якщо ви – українець, який в’їжджає до Ірландії, ось що вам потрібно знати)