Russia-Ukraine live updates: Biden to go to Europe next week for NATO summit; European leaders head to Kyiv

President Biden will travel to Belgium later this month to participate in person at a summit at NATO headquarters in Brussels on “Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.

The March 24 trip is also intended to “reaffirm our ironclad commitment to our NATO allies,” Psaki told reporters.

She said Biden’s trip will also include attendance at a scheduled European Council summit “to discuss our shared concerns about Ukraine, including transatlantic efforts to impose economic costs on Russia.”

The trip will follow visits to Europe by several top administration officials, including Vice President Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The European Union on Tuesday approved additional sanctions on Russia and confirmed that it will stop treating Russia as a most-favored-nation within the World Trade Organization framework, the latest in a coordinated effort to hit Putin and weaken Russia’s war effort.

The new package, the fourth since late February, adds new people and companies to the sanctions list, including Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich. The measures take aim at Russia’s energy sector, block the export of luxury goods costing more than 300 euros, and ban the import of Russian iron and steel.

The sanctions were first previewed by E.U. leaders at a meeting in Versailles last week but go into force Tuesday.

“As President Putin’s war against Ukrainian people continues, so does our resolve to support Ukraine and cripple the financing of Kremlin’s war machinery,” the E.U.'s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said in a statement Tuesday.

Though the E.U. has stopped short of banning Russian energy imports, the new sanctions include a freeze on new E.U. investment in Russia’s energy sector, with a few exceptions. The export ban on luxury goods includes luxury cars, boats and aircraft worth more than 50,000 euros, as well as things such as fur, spirits, wine, truffles, pearls, clothing, shoes, handbags and musical instruments.

The E.U. and Group of Seven countries said Friday that they plan to revoke Russia’s WTO benefits and work to suspend its membership rights in organizations such as the International Monetary Fund.

“This unprecedented decision sends a political signal of the highest magnitude,” said E.U. trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis in a statement Tuesday.

“In practice, it deprives Russia of key trade advantages as a WTO member, by ensuring that the products of Russian companies no longer receive Most-Favoured-Nation treatment in our economies,” the statement said. “It therefore deepens Russia’s pariah status in the eyes of the global community.”

An unidentified number of employees and patients are trapped inside a hospital in the besieged city of Mariupol amid heavy shelling and airstrikes, according to a message posted on Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko’s Telegram channel.

The news was shared by a hospital worker who said it was “impossible” to leave the Regional Intensive Care Hospital in the southern port city. Staffers and patients have moved to the basement.

“They are shooting hard, and we sit in the basement. Cars have not been able to drive to the hospital for two days. High-rise buildings are burning all around. … The Russians drove 400 people from neighboring houses to our hospital. We can’t go out,” the employee said in the message.

The hospital worker added that Russian forces had “practically destroyed” the hospital and described “floor slabs” falling because of the bombing.

In the message, the employee pleaded with international human rights organizations to “respond to these malicious violations of the norms and customs of war, to these egregious crimes against humanity.”

Mariupol has endured continuous bombardment in recent days, which has caused widespread devastation and loss of life. Last week, a strike tore through a maternity hospital, killing at least three, including a baby, and injuring 17.

“Russia and every citizen involved in crimes in Ukraine must be punished!” the message declared.

Russia announced sanctions on President Biden and several senior Democratic officials Tuesday, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

The Russian government also imposed sanctions on Hillary Clinton, the former Democratic presidential nominee, as well as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the sanctions were the inevitable result of the “extremely Russophobic” actions taken by the Biden administration. The ministry said similar measures are expected in the future. The United States has imposed sanctions on hundreds of Russian entities and individuals since Russia invaded Ukraine, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

U.S., European allies announce first wave of sanctions after Russian troops enter eastern Ukraine

The sanctions on the American officials are largely symbolic. The sanctions are expected to bar travel to Russia and freeze assets held there, but it’s unlikely many top Democratic officials will be affected by those measures. Adam Smith, a sanctions expert who served in the Obama administration, pointed out that many U.S. officials will see being hit by Russian sanctions as a badge of honor.

“It’s obviously a tit-for-tat, but the impact of this is going to be pretty minimal,” Smith said. “The sanctions are denying access to funds in Russia and potentially travel to Russia, and I’m assuming neither President Biden or Antony Blinken is interested in traveling to Russia in the near term.”

BERLIN — Three European leaders traveled on Tuesday to the besieged Ukrainian capital to meet with the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and to pledge the European Union’s “unequivocal support” and offer financial assistance.

The dramatic visit, as Kyiv went under a curfew in response to renewed Russian attacks, was made by the prime ministers of Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, who crossed into Ukraine by train.

They would be the first foreign leaders to enter the capital since Russia’s attack began 20 days ago. Their visit unfolded against the backdrop of intensifying missile strikes on Kyiv, which killed at least four people Tuesday, according to the mayor, Vitali Klitschko, who placed the city under a 35-hour curfew in light of what he described as a “difficult and dangerous” moment.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned Tuesday that Russia may be preparing to use chemical weapons as part of a false flag attack.

The remarks, made at a news conference in Brussels, come as concern mounts that Russia’s unsubstantiated claims about bio weapons could signal the use of chemical weapons in the war.

“Any use of chemical weapons will be a violation of international law,” Stoltenberg said. “We call on Russia not to use chemical weapons.”

Asked about China’s role in the war in Ukraine, Stoltenberg said Beijing should “join the rest of the world” in condemning the invasion “strongly.”

Stoltenberg will meet Wednesday with NATO defense ministers for an extraordinary summit. He said the 30-member alliance will discuss longer-term plans to bolster the alliance’s eastern flank in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This new posture could include substantially more forces on land, as well as a strengthening of air and missile defense, the NATO chief said, as well as “more and larger” military exercises.

It’s going to be a busy few weeks on the International Space Station.

Tuesday morning, a pair of NASA astronauts are scheduled to step outside the station for a spacewalk. Next week, Russia is flying three more cosmonauts to the station. By the end of the month, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and two Russian colleagues are to fly back to earth on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. And a few hours later, a group of private astronauts is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX rocket for a week-long visit to the station.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has heightened tensions between the United States and Russia to levels not seen since the Cold War. But that has not affected the countries’ partnership in space, which has endured for more than two decades — at least for now.

“All these activities have continued for 20 years, and nothing has changed in the last three weeks,” Joel Montalbano, NASA’s space station program manager, said at a briefing Monday. “We’re aware of what’s going on, but we are able to do our jobs to continue operations.”

Oil prices swung lower Tuesday and U.S. stocks rallied in morning trading as investors reckoned with renewed coronavirus lockdowns in China and more cease-fire talks between Russia and Ukraine against an increasingly battle-scarred backdrop.

Several of China’s industrial hubs have been hit with business and travel restrictions as the country grapples with its worst coronavirus outbreak since 2020, with daily cases doubling on Tuesday, according to Chinese authorities. The resurgence, in a country that has taken a “zero tolerance” approach to the virus, has sparked fears of major slowdown in one of the world’s biggest economic engines, as well as worries about an even more snarled global supply chain.

For the first time in about two weeks, oil prices were trading below $100 per barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, shed more than 7.8 percent to roughly $98.50 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, was trading 8.2 percent lower, around $94.50.

“The resurgence in [Chinese coronavirus] cases has provided a stark reminder that the pandemic is still lingering,” Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said Tuesday in comments emailed to The Washington Post. “Investors might have become too complacent over the risks of lockdowns returning once again.”

Despite the tensions, U.S. stocks opened higher, with the Dow gaining 300 points, more than 0.9 percent, shortly after the opening bell. The S&P 500 climbed 0.8 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 1 percent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index cratered more than 5.7 percent, while the Shanghai Composite closed nearly 5 percent lower. European indexes were broadly negative in midday trading, with the benchmark Stoxx 600 index sliding 1 percent.