Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

President Joe Biden will travel to Warsaw, Poland, on Saturday to meet with Ukrainian refugees and Americans providing humanitarian aid before delivering a “major address,” the White House said.

Biden’s speech “will speak to the stakes of this moment, the urgency of the challenge that lies ahead, what the conflict in Ukraine means for the world, and why it is so important that the free world sustain unity and resolve in the face of Russian aggression,” national security advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One.

“He’ll also talk about the context and history of this conflict, and where he sees it going from here,” Sullivan said.

The president will give the speech Saturday afternoon before boarding his flight back to the U.S., Sullivan said.

Biden will also meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda on Ukraine’s western border that has quickly become a magnet for Ukrainians fleeing Russian aggression.

— Kevin Breuninger

Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed the West is trying to cancel some of the nation’s cultural icons, Reuters reported, citing the works of composers such as Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

His reported comments come after a number of music venues have moved to cancel performances of Russian artists in the wake of the Kremlin’s unprovoked war with Ukraine.

For instance, the Chubu Philharmonic Orchestra of Japan and the Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra of Wales both recently dropped performances”1812 Overture,” Tchaikovsky’s popular military-themed piece.

— Sam Meredith

Russian stocks closed lower on their second day of trade, with flag carrier Aeroflot and state-owned energy giant Gazprom leading the losses.

The Moscow Exchange closed down 3.7% in another shortened session. Wild moves on Thursday saw the bourse close 4.4% higher.

Prior to reopening in the previous session, Russian stocks had not traded on the benchmark exchange since Feb. 25, the day after the Kremlin launched its unprovoked assault on Ukraine.

Aeroflot tumbled 18.2% on Friday, adding to losses of 16% in the previous session. Gazprom, meanwhile, closed 12.1% lower.

— Sam Meredith

Ukraine’s northern city of Chernihiv has effectively been cut-off by Russian troops, Reuters reported, citing the regional governor.

“The city has been conditionally, operationally surrounded by the enemy,” Governor Viacheslav Chaus reportedly said in televised remarks.

He added the city was under attack from artillery fire and warplanes.

— Sam Meredith

The U.N. refugee agency says over 3.7 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its unprovoked assault on Feb. 24, the vast majority of whom are women and children.

To date, over 2.2 million people have fled Ukraine to neighboring Poland, while around 570,000 have sought safety in Romania and roughly 370,000 have fled to Moldova.

— Sam Meredith

Mariupol city council has said, citing eyewitness accounts, that about 300 people are thought to have been killed in the bombing of the besieged city’s theater earlier this month.

CNBC has not been able to independently verify this claim.

More than 1,000 people were estimated to have been sheltering in the Mariupol theater when it was leveled in an attack on March 16.

“The Drama Theater in the heart of Mariupol has always been the hallmark of the city,” Mariupol’s city council said via Telegram, according to a translation.

“Now there is no more Drama Theater. In its place, a new point of pain for Mariupol residents appeared, ruins that became the last refuge for hundreds of innocent people.”

— Sam Meredith

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday is slated to visit the city of Rzeszów in southeast Poland, approximately 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

Biden is expected to meet with U.S. troops stationed in Poland who have recently been deployed to provide further assistance to NATO’s eastern flank. He is also scheduled to meet aid workers assisting refugees in the country.

More than 2 million people have fled Ukraine to Poland since Russia launched its full-scale attack on Feb. 24.

— Sam Meredith

The U.S. has said it will work with international partners to provide at least 15 billion cubic meters more of liquified natural gas to Europe this year.

U.S. President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a joint task force to reduce the bloc’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels as the Kremlin’s war with Ukraine continues.

It comes amid heightened concern that energy-importing countries continue to top up President Vladimir Putin’s war chest with oil and gas revenue on a daily basis.

— Sam Meredith

Ukraine has re-occupied control of towns and defensive positions up to 35 kilometers east of the capital Kyiv, according to the U.K.’s Defense Ministry, with Russian troops seen falling back on “overextended supply lines.”

The Defense Ministry said via Twitter that Ukrainian forces are likely to continue to attempt to push Russian forces back along the northwestern axis from Kyiv toward Hostomel Airfield.

Meanwhile, in the south of Ukraine, Russian forces are seeking to circumvent Mykolaiv as they look to move west toward the port city of Odesa, the ministry said. Their progress is being slowed by logistical issues and Ukrainian resistance, it added.

— Sam Meredith

Russia will have to comply if China wants Moscow to end the war in Ukraine, says Phillips Payson O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews.

If Beijing told Moscow that they want the war to end, Russia would have “no choice but to try and end this war relatively soon,” O’Brien told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Friday.

“China has that much influence,” he said.

However, China doesn’t want to look like it is abandoning one of its important partners, and is playing a very “intricate and delicate game.”

“There’s a strategic interest not to abandon Russia and not have Russia be too humiliated. But there’s an enormous economic interest to have good relations with the West,” he said.

China’s economic interest in Russia is “tiny” compared to the interest in NATO or European Union countries, O’Brien added.

— Abigail Ng

U.S. President Joe Biden has insisted NATO “would respond” if Russian President Vladimir Putin uses chemical weapons in Ukraine, without providing further details of what this might mean.

“We would respond if he uses it,” Biden said at a press conference, referring to Putin. “The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use.”

His comments came after a flurry of meeting summits with the European Union, G-7 partners and NATO allies.

— Sam Meredith

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says European sanctions against Russia over its invasion came “a little bit too late” and pushed for the EU to swiftly bring Europe’s second-largest country into the bloc.

“You implemented sanctions — we are thankful,” Zelenskyy said, according to a translation of a video posted on his official Telegram channel. “These are powerful steps, but it was a little bit too late. Because if it happened preventatively, Russia would not have started a war, or at least — nobody knows for sure — there was a chance.”

Zelenskky said Ukraine needed to be in the EU “soon” and called on lawmakers to make sure Kyiv’s accession to the bloc did not happen too late.

“And now we are preparing the membership of Ukraine in the European Union. Finally. And here I am asking you to not be too late. Please.”

— Sam Meredith