Russia-Ukraine live updates: Ukrainian leader directs emotional plea to Russian citizens amid fears of imminent assault

With the world absorbed by months of geopolitical brinkmanship, high-stakes diplomacy and scrutiny of Russia’s military encirclement of Ukraine, lost in the din has been this sobering fact: If President Vladimir Putin proceeds with a large-scale invasion, thousands will probably die.

U.S. officials estimate a major assault could leave as many as 50,000 civilians dead or wounded, as Western nations warn of Putin’s intent to drive deeper into the former Soviet state.

Experts and humanitarian groups have assessed the conflict could take a particularly devastating toll on noncombatants due to Moscow’s massive arsenal, its record of targeting civilians and the wider potential for punishing urban battles. Such a state-to-state showdown would represent a break from the insurgencies of recent decades, one that could usher in a new era of deadly modern warfare.

As the United States seeks to rally its allies and impose tough penalties for Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine, a vocal group of Republicans and right-leaning commentators is expressing praise and admiration for the president’s strength and shrewdness. President Vladimir Putin, that is.

While most congressional Republicans back Biden’s tough line against Moscow — or argue it should be even tougher — a faction made up of conservative Republicans, supporters of former president Donald Trump and conservative media figures says Putin should be left alone, or even congratulated, by Americans.

Trump complimented Putin on Tuesday, saying it was a “smart move” by the Russian president to send “the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen” to the Ukraine border.

Russian forces are “at the final point of readiness” for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday night on NBC News.

“Everything seems to be in place for Russia to engage in a major aggression against Ukraine,” he told NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt.

Holt had asked if Blinken had “reason to believe that before this night is over Russian forces will be engaged in something akin to a full invasion of Ukraine.” Blinken said yes, but soon clarified that he “can’t put a date or an exact time” on such an escalation.

Speaking on CBS Evening News, Blinken pushed back on suggestions that warnings of an imminent invasion signal a “failure of American diplomacy.”

“To the contrary — first of all, diplomacy succeeded very effectively in bringing the world together, the United States and Europe together, in standing up to Russian aggression,” Blinken told anchor Norah O’Donnell. “At the same time, we’ve made it clear that if Russia continues to escalate, if it engages in a full-scale invasion of Ukraine beyond what it’s already doing, we’ll escalate too.”

He noted Germany’s decision to halt authorization of a natural gas pipeline from Russia, a major project that Blinken said Russia “was counting on to be a cash cow for selling energy to Europe.”

“Why is … the world going to wait for this to happen?” O’Donnell asked. “And do you believe Putin will stop at Ukraine?”

Blinken insisted: “We’re not waiting. We’re acting.”

The U.N. Security Council will hold an emergency meeting in New York on Wednesday night in a session requested by Ukraine, said a U.N. diplomat familiar with the matter.

The push for the gathering — which is expected to begin at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time — comes amid fears of a Russian military invasion deep into Ukraine and beyond its separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Russia is currently the president of the Security Council.

The meeting is expected to be open and televised, said the diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic moves.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that his country had requested an urgent meeting of the Security Council in response to the Kremlin claiming that two separatist leaders had asked Russia for help in countering Ukrainian forces’ “aggression.”

Kuleba tweeted that the plea was “due to the appeal by Russian occupation administrations in Donetsk and Luhansk to Russia with a request to provide them with military assistance, which is a further escalation of the security situation.”

Ukraine denies any aggression, and the United States and the West have characterized these claims as false-flag operations that are a possible pretense for a full-scale military invasion.

María Luisa Paúl contributed to this report.

Americans are paying nearly a dollar more for a gallon of gas — to roughly $5 in some markets — than they did last year as the growing threat of war in Ukraine moved oil prices higher.

The U.S. average for regular unleaded gasoline hit $3.53 gallon on Wednesday, according to AAA. That’s 21 cents higher than last month and a hefty jump from the $2.65 recorded a year ago.

Oil prices climbed as the Russia-Ukraine crisis played out, pushing them within striking distance of $100 a barrel. They’ve eased slightly, with Brent crude, the international benchmark, trading Wednesday at roughly $97 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, hovering above $92. But both are up about 40 percent from their early December low points.

A previously unknown strain of malicious software appeared on hundreds of computers in Ukraine on Wednesday and began destroying data, security experts said.

Jean-Ian Boutin, head threat researcher at the Slovakia-based security firm ESET, which first reported the detections, said that the malware was “very effective” and had been used against large organizations. It had probably been used against many more companies that had not reported it, he added.

Another security firm, Broadcom’s Symantec, confirmed that the malware hit at least three organizations, including a bank and two government contractors.

Vikram Thakur, technical director for Symantec’s threat intelligence division, said that it was probably more widespread but that Symantec security software was not installed as widely in Ukraine as in other markets and therefore could not detect many of the infections.

Boutin said it was not clear how the malware had been deployed or if it took advantage of new or known security flaws. Time stamps indicated the software had been created two months ago, he said.

ESET did not attribute the software to any specific actor, but Boutin said he assumed it was related to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, which has used similar malware against Ukrainian targets in past years.

Other experts said they expected a variety of computer attacks to escalate. “There will likely be a long campaign of cyberattacks against Ukrainian targets,” said John Hultquist, vice president of security firm Mandiant. “The financial sector appears to be a consistent target of these efforts, which could be designed to undermine confidence.”

Meanwhile, the Ukraine government’s cyber-service warned of an increase in “destructive actions” and urged technology professionals to isolate “all workstations and servers that are not related to critical functions in the interests of citizens, businesses and the state.”

The agency said operators should update their systems to the latest versions and back up critical information to external storage.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke directly to the Russian people during an emotional video address late Wednesday, warning them the Kremlin had approved the movement of nearly 200,000 forces into Ukrainian territory in what could “become the start of a big war on the European continent.”

Zelensky, speaking in Russian, said he attempted to call President Vladimir Putin earlier in the day but was met with silence. The Ukrainian president said Russia and Ukraine share more than 2,000 kilometers of border that is now lined with nearly 200,000 Russian troops and thousands of armored vehicles.

“Your leadership has approved them to move forward onto the territory of another country,” Zelensky warned. “This step could become the start of a big war on the European continent.”

Zelensky warned the Russian people that they were being duped by what they are hearing on Russian state news channels. “You are being told that this is a plan to free the people of Ukraine,” he said. “But the Ukrainian people are free.”

His voice laden with emotion and anger, Zelensky aggressively challenged the image of Ukraine projected onto the televisions of Russians through Kremlin-controlled news.

“The Ukraine on your news and the Ukraine in real life are two completely different countries — and the main difference is that ours is real,” Zelensky said. “You are being told that we are Nazis. How could a people that lost more than 8 million people in the fight against Nazism support Nazism?”

“How could I be a Nazi?” said Zelensky, who is Jewish, citing his grandfather’s service in the Soviet army fighting the Germans during World War II.

Zelensky said that even though Russians and Ukrainians have differences, that is not a reason to be enemies.

PARIS — France urged its citizens to leave Ukraine “without delay,” changing course Wednesday night after it had become increasingly isolated among European nations in having refrained from issuing such guidance.

In a statement, the French foreign ministry said the decision had been taken “in the context of the intense tensions created by the concentration of Russian troops on the borders of Ukraine, by the Russian decision to recognize the independence of the provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk and in light of the establishment of the state of emergency passed by the Ukrainian Parliament today.”

The French government also said it advises against travel to Ukraine until further notice.

“Any travel to the border areas in the north and east of the country is strictly discouraged,” the French statement read.

French officials said that the country’s embassy in Kyiv continues to be operational and that French Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe observers will remain on the ground.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, France said in a statement.

“The two Presidents took stock of the latest developments in the situation in the east of the country. The President of the Republic reiterated his support for Ukraine and his attachment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. He also praised the composure of the Ukrainian President in the present situation,” the statement said.

Ukraine will be on the agenda for a meeting of the European Council on Thursday.

The cyberattacks that disrupted the websites of several Ukrainian government agencies Wednesday were a continuation of the attacks that hit government sites and banks last week, Ukrainian officials said.

The attacks “have been going on continuously since February 15″ and “intensified today,” said a statement issued by the State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection of Ukraine, a government cybersecurity agency.

Last week’s attacks were attributed to the Russian military spy agency GRU by the White House. “While of limited impact, this recent spate of cyberattacks in Ukraine are consistent with what a Russian effort could look like in laying the groundwork for more disruptive cyberattacks accompanying a potential further invasion of Ukraine’s sovereign territory,” Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, said Friday.

The aggressors overwhelmed the Ukrainian sites with Internet traffic in what is known as a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, causing servers to crash and temporarily disrupting service. On Wednesday, the websites of the cabinet of ministers, the Rada or parliament, the foreign affairs ministry and the Security Service of Ukraine, among others, were targeted, the cyber agency said in its statement.

At the same time, attempts to penetrate public- and private-sector networks “have intensified,” the agency said.

Teams of cyber defenders, Internet service providers and IT specialists at critical infrastructure firms have been working “24/7” to ensure the availability and integrity of the systems, the agency said.

“Today’s cyberattacks no longer even require detailed technical attribution,” the agency said. “Attackers, without much hiding,” use automated networks of hijacked computers to carry out their assault, “which our special services unambiguously identify as connected with the secret services of the aggressor country.”