It’s almost midnight in Kyiv. Here’s what you need to know.

News Desk March 29, 2022 in EUROPE, UKRAINE WAR, USA, WORLD Tagged joe biden, Russia, Russia-Ukraine conflict, Ukraine, War - 5 Minutes

Ukrainian soldiers pass by a damaged Russian tank in the town of Trostsyanets

US President Joe Biden said he isn’t walking back his remarks that President Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power.

“I’m not walking anything back,” President Biden said Monday at the White House, emphasizing he wasn’t voicing a policy change but that he was expressing an opinion based on his emotions from the day. “I was expressing the moral outrage I felt toward the way Putin is dealing and the actions of this man.”

“I’d just come from being with those families,” he said, referring to Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw.

“I wasn’t then or wasn’t now expressing a policy change,” Biden said.

“I make no apologies for it,” he added.

Biden said he doesn’t care what Putin thinks of his comment that he shouldn’t be in power in Russia.

“I don’t care what he thinks. He’s going to do what he’s going to do,” Biden said when asked by a reporter whether he was concerned Putin would see the remark as escalatory.

Here are more of the latest headlines in the Russia-Ukraine conflict:

Children account for half of all Ukrainian refugees, EU commissioner says: Children make up half of the 3.8 million refugees from Ukraine that have arrived in the European Union since the Russian invasion, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson says. “The numbers of arrivals is going down,” Johansson said Monday of Ukrainians arriving in the EU. “At the peak, we had 200,000 arrivals per day now it’s down to 40,000 per day,” she said. Johansson, who was speaking after a meeting of EU interior ministers in Brussels, added that 800,000 of the 3.8 million arrivals have already applied for temporary protection in the EU.

President Biden says he was “talking to the Russian people” when he went off-script: Biden said that he was talking to the Russian people when he made the off-the-cuff remark that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” during a speech over the weekend. “I was talking to the Russian people,” Biden said, when asked on Monday by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins why he ad-libbed the line. “The last part of the speech was talking to Russian people,” he said. “I was communicating this to not only the Russian people but the whole world. This is, this is just stating a simple fact that this kind of behavior is totally unacceptable.” Moments before, Biden likened the meaning of his comment to a person saying objectively, “bad people shouldn’t continue to do bad things,” and not announcing a change in policy.

US deploying 6 Navy electronic warfare jets to Germany as it bolsters forces in eastern Europe: The Pentagon is deploying six US Navy electronic warfare jets and more than 200 accompany troops to Germany as the US bolsters its forces in eastern Europe amid Russia’s war with Ukraine. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters Monday that six Navy E/A-18G Growler jets were deploying from Naval Air Station Whidbey in Washington state to Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany, and the jets were expected to arrive today. In addition, they would be accompanied by about 240 Navy air crew, pilots and maintenance staff, he said. The Navy Growler jets are primarily used for flying electronic warfare missions, including radar jamming to help suppress air defenses.

Russian forces have stalled in several parts of Ukraine, senior US defense official says: Russian forces are largely stalled in several parts of Ukraine, a senior US defense official told reporters Monday. There have been “no changes” to the situation in Mariupol, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv or Kharkiv, the official said. “They’ve made no progress in moving towards Kyiv, they’ve made no progress elsewhere in the north, whether its Chernihiv or Kharkiv,” the official said of Russian forces. In Mariupol, Russian forces continue to use “long-range fires,” but “they have not been able to take Mariupol,” the official said. Russian forces “aren’t making any advances on Mykolaiv over the course of the weekend,” the official said, “so they are outside the city.”

Russian foreign minister: Putin-Zelensky meeting not necessary until key issues clarified: A meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is required after there is “clarity on all vital issues for Moscow,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday. The West has ignored these issues, despite having been raised by Moscow for years, he added. “Now, the main thing is to stop pandering to the Ukrainians who only seek to generate an image of negotiations and settlements. They succeeded in this when they sabotaged the Minsk agreements shortly after they inked them in February 2015, and as a result declared that they would not implement them,” Lavrov continued.

Russia-Ukraine talks to resume on Tuesday in Instanbul: Russia-Ukraine talks are set to resume in-person in Istanbul this week, Lavrov said earlier on Monday during a news conference. “These negotiations are ongoing. They will be resumed today-tomorrow in Istanbul in-person after a series of video conferences,” Lavrov said. “And we are interested that these negotiations would bring a result and that this result would achieve our fundamental goals,” he said. “The fact that it was decided to continue negotiations in person is important,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Monday during a call with journalists. Peskov said the talks between the two sides are likely to resume Tuesday.

Biden’s new budget proposal includes billions to counter Russia’s aggression in Ukraine: President Biden’s 2023 budget proposal includes increased funding for security – both domestically and internationally – and reduces the deficit, the White House said Monday morning, but officials admit inflation could continue to cause problems for the overall economy. As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, the proposed budget includes $6.9 billion for the European Deterrence Initiative and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and “countering Russian aggression to support Ukraine.”