Ukraine says it killed a top Russian general; U.S. collects evidence of possible Russian war crimes

Rose Gottemoeller, a former deputy secretary general of NATO, said there are signs Russian President Vladimir Putin retains strong support in certain parts of the country.

"There are a number of very strong nationalists in Russia. Apparently they were present in … motorcades outside of the Kremlin yesterday, waving flags, supporting the president," she told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" on Tuesday.

Some polls also suggest that his popularity in Russia is still growing, she added.

On the other hand, people who are informed or have a stake in this, "like the oligarchs who have investments all over the world and want to keep their wealth" may be growing concerned as international sanctions hit.

"I am not surprised that they are becoming increasingly worried," Gottemoeller said.

"I don't think he's going to lose his grip on power, but perhaps some messages will start to get through to him," she said.

— Abigail Ng

Ukraine's defense intelligence agency said that Russian Army Major General Vitaly Gerasimov was killed, and other senior Russian Army officers "were also killed or wounded" in action near the city of Kharkiv.

Gerasimov was identified by the intelligence agency as the chief of staff and first deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army.

The agency, which said Gerasimov had been "liquidated," claimed that data obtained related to his death near the city in northeast Ukraine "show significant problems with communication" in Russia's army, "and with the evacuation of their defeated units."

The post contains embedded audio files purporting to be intercepted communications between Russians discussing Gerasimov's death.

The reported killing comes days after another deputy commander of the 41st Combined, Gen. Andrei Sukhovetsky, was fatally shot by a Ukrainian sniper.

—Dan Mangan

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a new video Monday evening on Telegram, telling his fellow citizens that he is in central Kyiv at an official presidential residence, with no plans to leave the city despite the Russian assault.

"I am staying in Kyiv, on Bankova Street. Not hiding," Zelensky said, citing a street where both the Ukrainian president's office and the House of Chimeras official residence are located.

"I'm not afraid of anyone. For as long as it takes to win this war!" he added, according to an NBC News translation.

Zelenskyy's insistence upon staying in Kyiv as Russian missiles shell the capital and Russian troops advance on it has become a defining image of this conflict.

It has also helped inspire average Ukrainians to mount a fierce resistance to Russia's invasion, one that has surprised experts and military leaders around the world.

Speaking on Monday, Zelenskyy said Russian troops, "forgot that we are not afraid of police vans, of tanks, of machine guns when the most important thing is on our side - truth."

"You are not retreating. We are not retreating," he said.

--- Christina Wilkie

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned that the world should brace for the already-dire humanitarian crisis in Ukraine to worsen as Russia continues its invasion.

"The humanitarian toll of Putin's war on Ukraine is mounting," the ambassador said during a meeting of the UN Security Council, of which Russia is a member.

"Children are dying. People are fleeing their homes. And for what?" Thomas-Greenfield said after calling on Russia to commit to the establishment and protection of humanitarian corridors into and out of key areas of Ukraine.

"Young children have also been severely traumatized by the violence and destruction. They've witnessed so many things to the point that they've stopped speaking. The physical and psychological wounds of the is war will be long lasting," she said.

She said it was clear Putin plans to "destroy and terrorize Ukraine," even though many Russians don't want war and the Ukrainian people won't give up.

"Unfortunately, Mr. Putin doesn't seem to be listening, and we are concerned that the world needs to be prepared for a very long and very difficult road ahead," she said.

— Kevin Breuninger

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article contains a graphic photo of soldiers removing human remains.

The United States is collecting evidence of possible war crimes and human rights abuses by Russia during its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, a National Security Council spokesperson told NBC News.

The U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Michael Carpenter, earlier in the day condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for his "unprovoked war," which has driven more than 1.5 million refugees out of the country.

Some 45 participating states launched the so-called Moscow Mechanism last Thursday to document and gather evidence of violations of international law by Russia, he said.

"The brutality of this war is both revolting and heartbreaking," said Carpenter. "Children have been killed, grandparents driven from their homes, families forced to flee their country in the face of relentless strikes on civilian infrastructure," he said.

— Dan Mangan

Civilians continue to flee from Irpin due to ongoing Russian attacks.

Nearly all of the troops Russia amassed on Ukraine's border are now fighting inside the country, a senior Pentagon official said Monday.

President Joe Biden has previously said Russia positioned approximately 190,000 troops outside Ukraine.

Yet even with so much manpower deployed, the two main Russian convoys outside Ukraine's major cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv remain stalled, the official said, according to NBC News.

In the face of logistical and supply chain problems, Russians are increasingly turning to heavy artillery, the official said, effectively trying to bomb Ukraine into submission.

The official also said the United States will deploy another 500 troops to Europe, bringing the total number of American forces on the continent to more than 100,000.

— Christina Wilkie

Global consulting and accounting firm Deloitte said it will no longer operate in Russia and Belarus.

"While we know this is the right decision, it will have an impact on Deloitte's ~3,000 professionals located in Russia and Belarus," the company said in a press release. "Like others, we know our colleagues in Russia and Belarus have no voice in the actions of their government. We will support all impacted colleagues during this transition and do all we can to assist them during this extremely difficult time."

Deloitte's decision makes it the last of the Big Four global accounting firms to say that it will no longer conduct business in Russia as the Krelim wages war on Ukraine. It joins Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG in making similar announcements.

— Thomas Franck

The Russian government approved a list of dozens of nations and territories deemed "unfriendly" to Russia and its citizens, according to state media in Moscow.

The list includes all 27 European Union member states, as well as the United States, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan and others, according to Russian state media.

Those nations have imposed or joined the unprecedented array of crippling sanctions slapped on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin noted that Russians who are in debt to foreign creditors from the countries on that list will be allowed to pay them back, according to the state media outlet.

— Kevin Breuninger

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that more than 1.7 million civilians have fled Ukraine since the launch of Russia's unprovoked invasion on Feb. 24. In just 12 days, the exodus from Ukraine has created the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

The official figure cited by the UNHCR's data portal Monday was 1,735,068. Most of those fleeing are women and children, following Ukraine's decision to bar fighting-aged men from leaving the country.

So far Poland has absorbed the largest share of the refugees, the U.N. said, with approximately 1 million border crossings by civilians from Ukraine. Hungary has absorbed slightly more than 180,000, while Slovakia has processed 128,000 civilians.

Across Europe, government and private rail services are offering Ukrainians free passage on trains, and bus companies are organizing transport for children and the elderly, according to Reuters.

--- Christina Wilkie

United Airlines is suspending two of its four India routes after pulling out of Russian airspace last week.

United had said it would no longer use Russian airspace, shortly before the U.S. said it was banning Russian aircraft from United States airspace last Tuesday.

United had initially canceled its San Francisco-New Delhi and its Newark-Mumbai service last week, flights that are now suspended until further notice. It will continue to operate flights to New Delhi from its hubs in Chicago and from Newark, New Jersey.

"We continue to evaluate and adjust our schedule in response to the evolving situation in Ukraine," United said.

Tit-for-tat airspace closures and safety concerns after Russia's invasion of Ukraine have forced carriers to take longer routes, some of which require refueling stops.

— Leslie Josephs

U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the 82nd Airborne carry military equipment as they take part in an exercise outside the operating base at the Arlamow Airport in Wola Korzeniecka, Poland.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said the state is considering action against dozens of Russian-linked Lukoil gas stations as he aims to sever financial ties with the nation in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

"We're trying to figure out what to do with them," Murphy, a Democrat, said of the gas stations on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

There are about 33 Lukoil gas stations in New Jersey, Murphy said. He noted, however, that "they happen to be franchised by local New Jersey interests in most cases."

Lukoil, one of Russia's largest energy producers, has more than 200 gas stations in the U.S. As Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to wage war in Ukraine, Americans have called to boycott those stations, a small slice of the Lukoil's overall business that nevertheless has been targeted in the push to punish Moscow's economy.

— Kevin Breuninger

Envoys from Russia and Ukraine met in Belarus, close to the Polish border, Monday for a third round of talks as Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine entered its 12th day.

Neither side was optimistic for progress, especially after the humanitarian evacuation corridors that were agreed to in the last round of talks were subsequently attacked by Russian forces over the weekend.

Ahead of Monday's talks, Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, tweeted, "In a few minutes, we will start talking to representatives of a country that seriously believes that large-scale violence against civilians is an argument."

Kyiv has already rejected an initial list of Russian demands that included changing Ukraine's constitution and recognizing the Ukrainian territories of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent republics.

--- Christina Wilkie

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken promised fellow NATO member Lithuania the U.S. will act to repel any Russian military aggression against that country and other Baltic nations.

"The United States commitment to [NATO's] Article 5 – an attack on one is an attack on all," Blinken said, "that commitment is sacrosanct."

Blinken was speaking at a press conference in Lithuania's capital city Vilnius with that country's foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis. He made similar remarks in Latvia, another Baltic country that belongs to NATO.

"We will defend every inch of NATO territory if it comes under attack," Blinken said, reiterating comments made by President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address last week. "No one should doubt our readiness; no one should doubt our resolve."

— Dan Mangan

Canadian Forces personnel load lethal and non-lethal aid for Ukraine on a transport aircraft bound for Poland, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at CFB Trenton in Trenton, Ontario, Canada.

— Adam Jeffery

President Joe Biden will hold a secure video call with the leaders of France, Germany and the United Kingdom on Monday morning to discuss the latest developments in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the White House has announced.

The virtual meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be held in the secure White House Situation Room starting at 10:30 a.m.

The small number of participants on this call is noteworthy. Ever since Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine began last month, most of Biden's world leader calls have either been one-on-one or with larger groups like the G-7 or European powers.

— Christina Wilkie

The International Atomic Energy Agency said it wants to meet with Ukrainian and Russian authorities to ensure the safety of Europe's largest nuclear power plant, which came under attack by Russian forces on Friday.

Currently the IAEA, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, is remotely monitoring the situation at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia plant, but there may come a time for the physical presence of observers, the agency's chief said during a press conference in Vienna on Monday.

"I would not say it's being operated unsafely — we are getting the reports and the assessments from the Ukrainian regulator, and for the time being this is the situation," IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said. "That being said, the conditions are absolutely extraordinary. This 'normal operation' is a technical term, but there is nothing normal about what is going on," he added.

Russia has expressed support for talks with the IAEA and Ukraine, but rejected the IAEA's proposal of Ukraine's Chernobyl as the meeting site, Grossi said.

Russian forces are now in control the plant, with Ukrainian staff working under their orders. He said it's currently operating safely, "but there are many, many questions on the ability to sustain this for much longer if we don't support these in some way."

— Natasha Turak

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has reportedly said Russia is prepared to bring an abrupt halt to its military action in Ukraine if Kyiv meets a number of highly contentious conditions.

These include Ukraine ceasing military action, changing its constitution to enshrine neutrality, acknowledging Crimea as Russian territory and recognizing the rebel-held areas of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent territories, Peskov told Reuters.

Ukraine's policymakers were made aware of these conditions, Peskov said, "and they were told that all this can be stopped in a moment."

His comments were thought to be Russia's most explicit statement so far of the terms necessary to stop Moscow's onslaught of Ukraine, which entered its twelfth day on Monday.

— Sam Meredith

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has rejected calls for Britain to make it easier for Ukrainian refugees to enter the country, following sharp criticism that the government's visa routes for those fleeing the conflict are far too restrictive.

"We are a very, very generous country. What we want though is control and we want to be able to check," Johnson told reporters on Monday. "I think it's sensible given what's going on in Ukraine to make sure that we have some basic ability to check who is coming in."

"What we won't do is have a system where people can come into the UK without any checks or any controls at all — I don't think that is the right approach — but what we will do is have a system that is very, very generous," Johnson said.

"As the situation in Ukraine deteriorates people are going to want to see this country open our arms to people fleeing persecution, fleeing a war zone," he added.

His comments came during a visit to a British military base with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Canada's Justin Trudeau.

— Sam Meredith

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba have reportedly agreed to hold talks in southern Turkey on Thursday, in what will be the highest-level meeting between the two sides since Russia invaded Ukraine last month.

Speaking to the media on Monday, Turkey's Mevlut Cavusoglu said the two diplomats would meet in Antalya where Turkey will hold an international diplomatic forum.

Turkey, a member of the NATO military alliance, has sought to position itself as a mediator to the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

— Sam Meredith

A third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine will start at 4 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET), one of Ukraine's negotiators and an advisor to the Ukrainian presidential office, Mykhailo Podolyak, said via Twitter.

The talks come as Russia's onslaught of Ukraine entered its twelfth day and as Moscow's military forces continued to attack some Ukrainian cities.

— Sam Meredith

U.N. nuclear chief Rafael Mariano Grossi has called on the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation Board of Governors to do everything possible to avert a nuclear accident in Ukraine.

"We see what's happening on the ground in Ukraine. This time, if there is a nuclear accident, the cause will not be a tsunami brought on by mother nature. Instead, it will be the result of human failure to act when we knew we could, and we knew we should," Grossi said via Twitter.

His comments come after Russia's shelling of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant on Friday prompted widespread dismay.

— Sam Meredith

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on the international community once again to boycott Russian oil.

"If the invasion continues [and] Russia does not back off on its plans in Ukraine, we will need new sanctions, new steps against this war, for peace," Zelenskyy said in a video address, according to an NBC News translation.

"Boycott oil products from Russia," he continued. "You can call it an embargo, or you can call it a moral obligation when you refuse to finance the terrorist."

The president also urged other countries and global companies to stop imports to Russia, saying that "the international community should be more strict."

The future of the European continent was dependent on how the conflict in Ukraine plays out, he added.

"It is decided on our land whether any other European nation will become the next victim of the same aggression," he said. "The future of the continent depends on us, on our resistance."

He said that he had spoken to the leaders of Poland, the U.K., France, Italy and India, all of whom had given Zelenskyy "important messages that will only strengthen Ukraine."

— Chloe Taylor

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU Commission, said on Twitter on Monday that the bloc would hold discussions on Tuesday aimed at "quickly" reducing the EU's dependence on Russian fossil fuels.

— Chloe Taylor

The Polish zloty slumped on Monday, touching a record of 4.9734 against the euro during morning trade, data from Reuters showed.

The currency's previous low against the euro was in 2004, shortly before Poland joined the EU.

— Chloe Taylor

France did not ask Russia to evacuate Ukrainian civilians into Russian territory, a French government official told reporters on Monday.

Russia announced on Monday that it would allow a ceasefire from 10 a.m. Moscow time (2 a.m. ET) to enable to evacuation of civilians from four Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv. Russian state-controlled media said this had been done following a personal request from French President Emmanuel Macron to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But Ukraine has accused Moscow of creating "completely immoral" evacuation routes that lead civilians out of Ukrainian cities into Russian territory.

"To the question did you ask that the corridors go to Russia — the answer is obviously no," a French government source told journalists on Monday. "We asked the Russians to stop fighting, to protect civilians and to send aid."

They added: "The personal request of the President of [France] as of the rest of the allies and partners is that the Russian offensive cease. As long as the offensive is underway because the Russians refuse to put an end to it, it is to respect international humanitarian law."

— Chloe Taylor

Economist Stephen Roach said there's only one person in the world right now who has "leverage" over Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that's Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Roach told CNBC that China is holding the "trump card" here and the best thing it can do now is negotiate a deal between Russia and Ukraine.

"I think it's up to Xi to seize this moment," he added.