Putin agrees ‘in principle’ to Mariupol evacuations

International Atomic Energy Agency team to assess, make repairs at Chernobyl

A team from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Ukraine on Tuesday to assess the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and make repairs following its seizure and occupation by Russian troops, officials said.

Russia’s military seized Chernobyl, known for the 1986 nuclear disaster, on the first day of its Feb. 24 attack and invasion of Ukraine. They held it for around five weeks before withdrawing in late March.

“The IAEA will continue to support Ukraine,” IAEA Director Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said, according to a statement.

The team will repair remote data control systems which were disabled, will make assessments at the site and will deliver protective equipment, the IAEA said.

Tuesday marked the 36th anniversary of the April 26, 1986, disaster at a reactor at the now-decommissioned nuclear power plant. It is surrounded by a large exclusion zone, and the site requires radiological monitoring by workers.

Grossi told a news conference that he saw some of the excavations dug in the vicinity of the plant. “It is visible that there is damage, and we are assessing that because our job is to give precise information,” Grossi said.

Chinese drone maker DJI suspends sales in Russia, Ukraine

Chinese drone maker DJI says it is temporarily suspending all sales in Russia and Ukraine to make sure that its devices are not being used in combat or for military purposes.

DJI in a statement Tuesday said that it was pausing sales “in light of current hostilities.”

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News, but told the news agency Reuters that it was suspending sales “to help ensure no-one uses our drones in combat.”

It was not clear if DJI had any information that its drones have been used for military purposes.

The drone maker has said that it abhors any attempt to use its drones to cause harm, that it does not market or sell them for military use and does not allow its business partners to do so.

DJI, headquartered in Shenzhen, is the biggest maker of consumer and commercial drones in the world.

U.S. embassy staffers travel to Ukraine ahead of Kyiv return

U.S. embassy staff members traveled from Poland to Ukraine on Tuesday as the State Department prepares to resume operations in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

The U.S. evacuated staff members from Kyiv ahead of Russia’s Feb. 24 attack and invasion. U.S. staff members have been in Poland. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier Tuesday that U.S diplomats would return this week and would first be based out of Lviv.

The embassy tweeted that Tuesday’s trip was “a first step ahead of more regular travel in the immediate future.” The deputy chief of mission and members of the embassy team traveled to Lviv, State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

U.S. announces $10M reward, wants info on 6 Russians in 2017 cyberattack

The U.S. announced a $10 million reward Tuesday for information about six Russian officials accused in a 2017 cyberattack that infected computers worldwide.

The six officers of Russia’s intelligence service were charged criminally in absentia in the U.S. in 2020 in connection with the 2017 NotPetya malware attack.

The attack has been called the most destructive and costly in history. It caused almost $1 billion in damage to three U.S. companies, including a Pennsylvania hospital system, alone, according to the Justice Department.

The Treasury Department imposed sanctions in 2018 over the cyberattack.

The State Department said in announcing the reward Tuesday that all six officers work for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, or GRU. The six were also indicted in the U.S. in connection with cyberattacks that caused blackouts in Ukraine.

Putin reportedly agrees ‘in principle’ to U.N., Red Cross role in evacuation of Mariupol steel plant

Russian President Vladimir Putin “agreed, in principle,” to the involvement of the United Nations and the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians from a steel plant in Mariupol, according to the U.N.

A spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement that Guterres and Putin met Tuesday in Moscow and that Mariupol was discussed.

Putin “agreed, in principle, to the involvement of the United Nations and the International Committee for the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol,” a statement about the discussions released by the U.N. said.

“Follow-on discussions will be had with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Russian Defence Ministry,” it said.

Ukrainian soldiers and civilians are inside the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. City officials on Tuesday put the number of civilians sheltering there at 2,000.

Putin last week declared victory in Mariupol and ordered Russian troops not to storm the steel plant. But Russia has been shelling it and attacking it from the air, Ukrainian officials have said. NBC News cannot independently verify the claim. Mariupol’s mayor called it a humanitarian catastrophe.

A U.S. Defense Department official said Sunday that the U.S. still considers Mariupol to be contested and that Ukrainians are still there resisting.

Russia suspending gas supplies to Poland, Bulgaria

WARSAW, Poland — Officials in Poland and Bulgaria say Russia is suspending their countries’ natural gas deliveries starting Wednesday.

The governments of the two European countries said Tuesday that Russian energy giant Gazprom informed them it was halting gas supplies.

The suspensions would be the first since Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that “unfriendly” foreign buyers would have to pay the state-owned Gazprom in rubles instead of other currencies.

Europe imports large amounts of Russian natural gas to heat homes, generate electricity and fuel industry. The imports have continued despite the war in Ukraine. Putin’s demand was apparently intended to help bolster the Russian currency amid the war in Ukraine.

Blinken: ‘Russia has failed’ in what it set out to do in Ukraine

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that “Russia has failed” in its mission to eliminate Ukrainian sovereignty.

Blinken said that he is not predicting a scenario in which Ukraine loses its sovereignty and that the country and its allies are looking toward long-term sustainability in self-defense.

“It’s important to try to make sure that when that is accomplished, Russia is not in a position to repeat this exercise next month, next year or in five years,” Blinken said.

Blinken says U.S. diplomats in Lviv will evaluate whether to reopen embassy in Kyiv

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that U.S. diplomats are returning to Ukraine this week and will first be based out of the western city of Lviv. 

Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the Biden administration’s 2023 budget request, Blinken said U.S. diplomats will evaluate from Lviv whether it’s safe to reopen the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Kyiv. He suggested that it is very possible the U.S. would make such a move. 

Speaking about his trip to Ukraine, he said: “In Kyiv, we saw the signs of a vibrant city coming back to life, people eating outside, sitting on benches, strolling. It was right in front of us. The Ukrainians have won the battle for Kyiv.”

Blinken also confirmed that Congress should expect a supplemental funding request for additional aid to Ukraine.