Poland will not take or pay for any more COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer



Poland has informed the European Commission and the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer that it will no longer accept nor pay for any more COVID-19 vaccines for now, Poland's health minister said Tuesday.

The decision to stop taking vaccine doses will set up a legal battle under a supply contract the European Union has negotiated with vaccine manufacturers.

Poland and other EU member nations have been paying for and receiving vaccine doses under agreements between the European Union and vaccine manufacturers such as Pfizer and Moderna. Pfizer is the chief supplier for Poland, Reuters reported.

Currently, the country has 25 million COVID-19 vaccines in storage and another 67 million to 70 million doses on order, according to the private news channel TVN24. But compared to other European nations, Poland has reported a below-average vaccine uptake. Just 59% of the country's 38 million people have been fully vaccinated, and only 31% have received a booster shot, below the EU average of 72.5% and nearly 53%, respectively.

As such, Poland's health minister said the country has a surplus of vaccine doses and does not intend to pay for any more.

"We asked both the European Commission and the main vaccine producing companies ... to spread these deliveries over 10 years and — most importantly — to pay when we receive vaccines," health minister Adam Niedzielski reportedly told TVN24 in an interview.

"Unfortunately, here we faced complete inflexibility on the part of the producers,” he said. “There was no way that we could seriously change the terms of this contract, and this contract was signed in a crisis situation."

Niedzielski explained that Poland has triggered a clause in its legal agreement with the European Commission and Pfizer to stop taking additional vaccine doses.

"At the end of last week, we used the force majeure clause and informed both the European Commission and the main vaccine producer that we are refusing to take these vaccines at the moment and we are also refusing to pay," he said.

"Indeed, the consequence of this will be a legal conflict, which is already taking place," he added.

According to the health minister, Poland cannot directly terminate the contract with Pfizer because the agreement is between Pfizer and the European Commission.

Pfizer's contract to supply vaccine doses to Poland alone is worth more than 6 billion zlotys ($1.4 billion), with more than 2 billion zlotys spent on vaccines for 2022.

In a comment to Reuters, Pfizer said its contract to supply vaccines to EU member states is with the European Commission.

"Our discussions with Governments and the details of vaccine deliveries are confidential," Pfizer said.

European Commission health spokesman Stefan de Keersmaecker said Tuesday that member states were bound by contractual obligations to continue purchasing vaccines, but that the commission understands Poland's "difficult position."

"We continue to facilitate discussion between the Polish government and the company in order to find a pragmatic solution to this specific situation the country is confronted with," he said.

Niedzielski said that Poland and 10 other EU countries have petitioned the EU to loosen regulations on COVID-19 vaccine contracts to allow for flexibility to spend money on health care for refugees from the war between Russia and Ukraine.

"We, in particular, and I am talking about Poland here, currently have financial pressures related to the influx of refugees, so we also feel that, on the EU scale, we have a certain right to expect special instruments that will give us ... greater flexibility in the contracts," Niedzielski said.

Ukrainian lawmaker accuses Russian soldiers of raping a woman in front of her child



A Ukrainian woman was raped by a Russian soldier in front of her child, according to a lawmaker who said Ukraine will "not be silent" about crimes committed during Russia's invasion of her country.

Member of Parliament Maria Mezentseva said in a TV interview that the alleged war crime took place in Brovary, an eastern suburb of Kyiv, the Guardian reported. She told the U.K.'s Sky News that the victim's husband was shot dead in his house before the alleged assault.

“There is one case which was very widely discussed recently because it’s been recorded and proceeded with [by] the prosecutor’s office, and we’re not going into details, but it’s quite a scary scene when a civilian was shot dead in his house in a small town next to Kyiv," Mezentseva said.

“His wife was – I’m sorry but I have to say it – raped several times in front of her underage child.”

According to the Guardian, the Russian soldier is believed to have threatened the child after the attack.

Ukrainian prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova has confirmed the alleged attack was reported to authorities and said Wednesday that an arrest warrant has been issued for the soldier.

Mezentseva, who serves as the head of Ukraine's permanent delegation to the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, said that war crimes committed during the invasion must be recorded. "Justice has to prevail," she said.

She added that sexual assault cases were being underreported.

“There are many more victims rather than just this one case which has been made public by the prosecutor general,” she said. “And of course, we are expecting many more of them, which will be public once victims will be ready to talk about that.

“That’s why you know, when we’ve been talking to Boris Johnson, when we will be talking to your Home Office, when we’ve been talking to MPs of UK, we’ve also raised this issue that this aftermath, which we are dealing with right now, the aftermath of war, has to be taken very cautiously, very seriously, and to take into account the UK experience and experience of other countries, which can help us in dealing with psychologists, and how to help these people to actually live over these cases, to keep going afterwards, to keep living.”

"We will definitely not be silent," she added.

There have been previous reports of sexual assaults committed by Russian soldiers, which is considered a war crime and violation of international humanitarian law.

Earlier in March, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba alleged there were "numerous cases" of Russian soldiers raping women in Ukraine. Another Ukrainian lawmaker, Lesia Vasylenko, said officials had reports of "women being gang-raped," including "senior citizens," and that "most of these women have either been executed after the crime of rape or they have taken their own lives."

While rape is common in times of war, sexual assaults are difficult to prove, and accusations of rape have been used as a powerful propaganda tool to rally opposition to the enemy.

The U.S. government determined last week that Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine, after a "careful review" of public and intelligence sources transmitting news from the war.

“We’ve seen numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities. Russia’s forces have destroyed apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, critical infrastructure, civilian vehicles, shopping centers, and ambulances, leaving thousands of innocent civilians killed or wounded,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

Report: Clandestine CIA program prepared Ukrainian troops for war with Russia



In the months leading up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden's administration pulled covert Central Intelligence Agency personnel out of the country, including war-zone-hardened agency paramilitaries. The CIA operatives had been there since 2014, training Ukrainian forces in modern warfare tactics, a report from Yahoo News revealed.

Although Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine 36 days ago, the Kremlin's forces have so far been unable to capture the capital of Kyiv or crush the Ukrainian military. The most conservative U.S. estimates believe that more than 7,000 Russian troops have been killed in less than three weeks of fighting, and Ukraine's military claims to have killed at least three Russian generals.

According to half a dozen former intelligence officials who spoke to Yahoo News, the CIA's training is what has helped Ukrainian forces stymie the Russian advance.

After Russia's illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, the U.S. military operated a publicly acknowledged training program for Ukrainian troops in the western part of the country, far from the front lines of a civil war with pro-Russian separatists in the east. But at the same time, the CIA reportedly developed a covert training program on the eastern front in the Donbas region, where Ukrainian forces were directly fighting Russia-backed troops and possibly even Russian soldiers.

The covert CIA training program operated under existing authorities for the CIA and did not require new authorization, according to Yahoo News. CIA paramilitaries trained Ukrainian troops in sniper techniques; taught them how to operate Javelin anti-tank missiles and other equipment; showed them how to evade Russian surveillance; and gave them training to draw out Russian and insurgent forces from their positions, Yahoo News reported.

Former U.S. officials involved with the program believe the training was effective. “I think we’re seeing a big impact from snipers. Especially as Russian forces get bogged down from lack of supplies,” one former senior official said. “I think the training really paid off.”

Yahoo News previously reported in January that the CIA had conducted a secret U.S.-based training program for Ukrainian special operations. The outlet also said that CIA paramilitaries had traveled to eastern Ukraine to assist Kyiv's forces there, but the CIA had denied their programs were offensively oriented.

“The purpose of the training, and the training that was delivered, was to assist in the collection of intelligence,” a senior intelligence official said in January.

That statement now appears to be false.

According to Yahoo News, the CIA paramilitaries sent to Ukraine were given a twofold mission. First, they were ordered to determine how best to train Ukrainian special operations forces to fight the Russian military and separatist forces in the Donbas region. Second, the CIA operatives were told to determine the "backbone" of the Ukrainians and assess their willingness and ability to fight.

Former officials acknowledged to Yahoo News that the program carried serious risks. "Everything we did in Ukraine had a chance to be misinterpreted, and escalate the tensions,” one former official said. The CIA reportedly wanted to avoid a direct conflict with the Russians that could result in a war. Accordingly, the number of personnel initially sent to Ukraine was limited to the "low single digits," Yahoo News reported. They were directed to advise and train, but were instructed not to take part in combat.

However, after President Donald Trump assumed office in 2017, the new administration raised concerns that the CIA's Ukraine mission "might be too far-ranging," according to a former national security official.

“How far can you go with existing covert action authorities?” the official recalled asking. "If, God forbid, they’ve shot some Russians, is that a problem? Do you need special authorities for that?”

Though the Trump White House was mindful of the risks, the program continued through his presidency and into the Biden administration. It wasn't until it became clear that Russian President Vladimir Putin intended to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine that President Biden pulled all CIA personnel out of the country, Yahoo News reported.

Biden's administration was "terrified of even clandestine folks being on the frontline" of Ukraine's war with Russia, a former official said.

Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski killed in Ukraine



Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski was killed in Ukraine on Monday in the same attack that hospitalized correspondent Benjamin Hall, the cable news channel said Tuesday.

In an internal memo to Fox News staff, CEO Suzanne Scott wrote that "our beloved cameraman" was killed in Horenka, a village near the capital city of Kyiv, when the vehicle he was riding in was struck by incoming fire. The memo was reported by Deadline.

"Pierre was a war zone photographer who covered nearly every international story for FOX News from Iraq to Afghanistan to Syria during his long tenure with us. His passion and talent as a journalist were unmatched," Scott said.

"Based in London, Pierre had been working in Ukraine since February. His talents were vast and there wasn't a role that he didn't jump in to help with in the field — from photographer to engineer to editor to producer — and he did it all under immense pressure with tremendous skill," Scott continued. "He was profoundly committed to telling the story and his bravery, professionalism and work ethic were renowned among journalists at every media outlet. He was wildly popular — everyone in the media industry who has covered a foreign story knew and respected Pierre."

The memo went on to praise Zakrzewski for his role in getting Afghan freelance associates of Fox News and their families out of Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal. He was given a Fox News "Unsung Hero" award in 2021 for his efforts.

Fox News President Jay Wallace said, "Pierre was a constant in all of our international coverage. I, like countless others, always felt an extra sense of reassurance when arriving on the scene and seeing him with a camera in hand. The legacy of his positive spirit, boundless energy and eye for the story will carry on."

Breaking the story on Fox News Tuesday morning, anchor Bill Hemmer called Zakrzewski "an absolute legend" and said "his loss is devastating."

#BREAKING: Fox News announces cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski was killed yesterday in the attack that left Benjamin Hall injured.\n\n@BillHemmer called him "an absolute legend" who "cover[ed] wars in Iraq & Afghanistan & Syria" and "his loss is devastating."pic.twitter.com/4YYrZcQD0l
— Curtis Houck (@Curtis Houck) 1647357354

"We extend our deepest condolences to Pierre's wife Michelle and family — please keep them all in your prayers. And please continue to pray for Benjamin Hall, who remains hospitalized in Ukraine," Scott wrote in her memo.

CNN anchor asks Biden official: 'Why won't the US shoot down' Russian planes?



A Biden administration official wouldn't give a straight answer when asked why the U.S. won't "shoot down" Russian planes that are bombing civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.

On Thursday, CNN anchor Jim Sciutto asked State Department spokesman Ned Price to explain why the U.S. won't take military action against Russia, given that the government considers Russian military strikes against civilian targets like hospitals to be war crimes.

The question came up after Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at a joint press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda Thursday, during which Harris called Russia's actions "atrocities of unimaginable proportion."

She also said that Russia "absolutely" should be investigated for war crimes.

Afterwards, Price joined "CNN Newsroom with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto" to discuss the vice president's comments, and he was asked if Russia had committed "war crimes."

"Lamentably, that's an apt description," Price said, adding that "we’re working with the international community, each group to create new mechanisms to ensure that we are holding Russia and will hold Russia accountable for any potential war crimes.”

Sciutto then asked why the U.S. won't take military action and "shoot down" the Russian planes attacking civilians.

"OK, hold them accountable, but not stop them because they’re continuing here. Why won’t the U.S. shoot down the planes that are bombing hospitals?" Sciutto asked.

"Well, Jim, we are providing our Ukrainian partners with what they need to engage in self-defense. And you have seen the effectiveness of that strategy. The Russian war effort really has been stalled," Price answered, deflecting the question. "President Putin has severely miscalculated if he thought he would roll into Ukraine, not find any resistance. Clearly, he was wrong. We have seen convoys stuck. We’ve seen Russians engaged and stopped really in a morass of their own making."

"And we’ve done that by providing over the course of the past year, as you heard from the vice president, more than $1 billion in defense of security assistance, more than $250 million in security assistance over the past week alone," he continued. "And by working with Congress, we’re grateful for Congress’ cooperation. We’ll be able to provide more than $13 billion to our Ukrainian partners, about half of which will be in the form of security assistance."

Sciutto followed up by asking if President Joe Biden is "in effect giving the Kremlin a veto, veto power over U.S. military options here?"

“Jim, we’ve heard a lot of rhetoric from Moscow. I wouldn’t put stock in Moscow’s rhetoric,” Price said, without giving the obvious response that taking direct military action against Russia, like shooting down planes, would start World War III.

(H/T: Mediaite)

Former Keystone pipeline worker says Biden, not Russia, is to blame for high fuel prices



A former Keystone XL pipeline worker says President Joe Biden's energy policies are the real cause of rising fuel prices and that the war in Ukraine "has nothing to do with" it.

Neal Crabtree, a welder who lost his job when Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, said that the energy industry "tried to warn" the Biden administration that opposing new oil and gas projects would jeopardize American energy independence and national security.

"We tried to warn this administration back when they canceled the Keystone pipeline" that it was also "canceling national security, foreign policy and energy," Crabtree told Fox News in an interview Tuesday.

The national average price for gasoline is now $4.25 per gallon, the highest ever recorded, according to the American Automobile Association. The White House has pointed to the ongoing war in Ukraine and sanctions against the Russian economy as causes for the surging fuel prices, noting that Russia is a major international exporter of energy. Biden on Tuesday announced that the U.S. would ban Russian oil and gas imports, a move he acknowledged would punish Russia's energy sector at the cost of even higher fuel prices for Americans.

The president called on U.S. energy companies to refrain from "profiteering or price gouging" and blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin's war for causing the energy crisis.

"Since Putin began his military buildup on Ukrainian borders – just since then – the price of gas at pumps in America went up 75 cents," he said Tuesday. "And with this action it’s going to go up further."

Crabtree disputed the president's claims. "Even if we can fix the Ukrainian problem, the prices are still going up," he told Fox News, adding that Biden's "policies have everything to do with the rising fuel prices in this country today.

"It has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine," he said.

Watch:

As one of his first acts as president, Biden issued a moratorium on new federal oil and gas leases and permits and ordered a review of existing permits for fossil fuel development to demonstrate his commitment to fighting global warming.

Republicans argue that Biden's executive actions on climate change have limited oil and gas production, contributing to rising prices.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday insisted that the administration is not opposed to oil and gas production and suggested that U.S. energy companies are at fault for not drilling.

"Federal policies are not limiting the supplies of oil and gas," she told reporters.

White House officials have pointed out that the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects American crude oil production to rise to an average of 12 million barrels per day in 2022, approaching the 2019 pre-pandemic high of 12.3 million barrels per day, and then hit a new record-high of 13 million barrels per day in 2023.

"There are 9,000 approved drilling permits that are not being used, so the suggestion that we are not allowing companies to drill is inaccurate," Psaki also said. "I would suggest you ask the oil companies why they’re not using those if there’s a desire to drill more."

Energy companies responded Tuesday, accusing Psaki of misleading Americans with a "red herring" argument.

"That accusation is a complete red herring," said American Exploration & Production Council (AXPC) CEO Anne Bradbury in an interview with FOX Business. "It's really a distraction from the fact that this administration has paused leasing on federal lands, something that we're concerned about and something that we think needs to continue right away."

American Petroleum Institute (API) president and CEO Mike Sommers added that Psaki appears to misunderstand how the process works.

"Once you lease land there is a whole process that you have to go through. First you have to actually discover whether actually there is oil and gas in that land. Second of all, you have to get a permit to actually develop that land," he explained to Fox Business.

"Right now we actually are developing more leases than we have in two decades so the White House certainly doesn't have their facts straight on this," Sommers added.

Crabtree responded as well: "There's no energy company [that's] gonna spend the money to develop a new lease if they can't build a pipeline to move the project," he told Fox News.

He also criticized the Biden administration's plans to approach Venezuela and Saudi Arabia to buy oil and potentially Iran as well, pending the renewed nuclear deal.

"When I’d first seen the reports of the president going to places like Iran and Venezuela to ask for more oil output, I said ‘this is fake news, he hasn’t gone this far off the rocker,’" Crabtree said. "But I guess that's the path they want to take."

"Why not invite North Korea?" he continued. "Maybe they’ve got a few barrels of oil that they can spare?"

Gas theft is on the rise as prices keep climbing



Gas prices in the U.S. are reaching record highs and are only set to keep rising after President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a ban on energy imports from Russia. And now some people are reporting incidents of gasoline theft.

In Southern California, a viewer shared photographs with KTVU-TV showing what happened to one vehicle — how a thief had drilled a hole in the fuel tank and drained it of all the gas.


According to the American Automobile Association, gas siphoning and other crimes of theft are on the rise as prices at the pump keep skyrocketing.

"This is a sign of the times you know," AAA spokesman Doug Shupe told KTVU. "It's thieves looking for ways that they can make money by stealing what is becoming an increasingly more expensive and valuable commodity, gasoline."

The average price for a gallon of regular gas in California is currently $5.44, up from $3.75 last year. Price increases related to inflation have been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, where Russia's full-scale invasion of the country has disrupted energy production. Additionally, U.S. economic sanctions and the Biden administration's action to ban oil and gas imports from Russia have restricted supply, further increasing prices.

"[It] used to be $60, then it went to $70, I think two weeks ago it was $90," California resident Mona Garcia told the local news station while filling up her car Monday night. When she had finished, the bill was $100.

Garcia said she uses a driveway camera and floodlight are meant to deter would-be thieves from stealing gas from her tank.

But for those who are victims of theft, the cost can be high. If thieves drill into your fuel tank, repairs can run more than $1,000, not including the stolen gas.

"Oftentimes vehicle owners who find themselves victims of this type of gasoline theft, they have to replace the entire gas tank," Shupe warned. "So it is a costly repair and replacement that needs to be made."

The risk isn't just to Californians. Last week, police in Atlanta, Georgia arrested a man suspected of drilling holes in multiple fuel tanks to steal thousands of dollars of gasoline, WAGA-TV reported.

AAA recommends that people take precautions against thieves while gas prices remain high, including parking the car in a locked garage if you have one. If you do not have access to a garage, it is recommended that you park in a well-lit area with high foot traffic or a fenced-in lot or parking garage, if available. When parking in a garage, vehicle owners should be mindful to park near the exit or elevator, areas with high visibility and foot traffic, AAA says.

Signs that your fuel tank may have been tampered with include the smell of gasoline, a puddle under your vehicle, or a lit check engine light. AAA recommends that anyone who suspects their gas was stolen file a police report and contact their vehicle insurance company to check if the repairs are covered.

UN tells staff to avoid using terms 'war' and 'invasion' to describe Putin's war in Ukraine



The words "war" and "invasion" are apparently too politically incorrect for the United Nations, which has instructed staff to avoid using those terms in reference to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Instead, the U.N. communications department would like staff to use terms such as "conflict" or "military offensive" to describe the nearly universally condemned war of aggression waged by Russian President Vladimir Putin against his country's smaller neighbor. Employees were also asked to refrain from describing the conflict as a war and from adding the Ukrainian flag to their personal or official social media accounts or websites.

“[USE] ‘conflict’ or ‘military offensive’ and NOT ‘war’ or ‘invasion’ when referring to the situation in Ukraine,” an email reported by the Irish Times stated. “Do NOT add the Ukrainian flag to personal or official social media accounts or websites."

The instructions were given to avoid harming the international body's reputation by offending Russia, which has killed hundreds of Ukrainian civilians and forced 2 million people to flee the country.

“This is an important reminder that we, as international civil servants, have a responsibility to be impartial,” the email stated. “There is a serious possibility of reputational risk that has been flagged by senior officials recently.”

Teachta Dala Neale Richmond, spokesman on European affairs for Ireland's Fine Gael party, blasted the "illegal war of aggression" and called on the U.N. to condemn Russia in a statement to the Irish Times.

“The fact is just because Russia is a big country that has an essential role in the UN, they’re influencing policy in a direction that’s simply false,” he said, referring to how Russia holds one of five permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council.

"Quite clearly this is not just any war, but an illegal war of aggression, that should be condemned from a height by all members of the U.N. and the U.N. itself," he added.

Russian officials refer to the invasion as a "special military operation," using Putin's preferred euphemism for the war. Putin's government has severely restricted what Russian media outlets are allowed to report about the war with a new law enacted Friday that could put journalists in prison for up to 15 years if they publish any stories the government considers "fake."

Thousands of Russian anti-war protesters have also been arrested, two local independent broadcasters were closed down, and international media websites have been blocked in the country.

Biden shields Ukrainians in US from deportation with temporary protection during war



The Biden administration will temporarily shield tens of thousands of Ukrainians in the United States from deportation and grant them work permits for as long as they are unable to return to Ukraine because of the ongoing war with Russia, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Thursday.

According to the agency, any Ukrainian resident in the U.S. who has been here since March 1 or earlier is eligible for Temporary Protected Status for a period of 18 months. Ukrainians who arrived in the country after March 1 are ineligible for this designation, DHS said in a release.

The federal government's action comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by land, air, and sea in what has become one of the largest wars in Europe since World War II. President Joe Biden strongly condemned Russia in his State of the Union address earlier this week, calling the attack "premeditated and unprovoked."

The president detailed economic sanctions the U.S. and European allies have placed on Russia in his address, and promised additional aid to the Ukrainian people during this conflict. He also announced that Russian flights would be cut off from American air space to "squeeze" the Russian economy as punishment for Putin's war.

Biden's administration has determined that the ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine and "extraordinary and temporary conditions" will prevent Ukrainian nationals in the U.S. from returning home safely. The TPS designation for Ukrainians in America will grant them access to work permits and enable them to remain in the U.S. after their visas expire, for as long as the status lasts.

"Russia’s premeditated and unprovoked attack on Ukraine has resulted in an ongoing war, senseless violence, and Ukrainians forced to seek refuge in other countries," DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a written statement.

Earlier Thursday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that it had paused deportation flights to Ukraine due to the "ongoing humanitarian crisis," Reuters reported.

Since the war began, more than 1 million Ukrainians have fled their country seeking refuge in European nations to the west. Half a million of these refugees are children, according to UNICEF, which said this could be the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, CNN reported.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Thursday, "I have worked in refugee emergencies for almost 40 years, and rarely have I seen an exodus as rapid as this one."

"International solidarity has been heartwarming. But nothing -- nothing -- can replace the need for the guns to be silenced; for dialogue and diplomacy to succeed. Peace is the only way to halt this tragedy," Grandi added.

Pentagon: Reluctant Russian troops are punching holes in their vehicle gas tanks to get out of fighting



Hampered by logistics problems, including lack of fuel and food, some Russian troops in Ukraine are reportedly surrendering en masse and even sabotaging their own vehicles to get out of the conflict, a U.S. defense official said Tuesday.

In some cases, entire Russian units have laid down their arms and surrendered without a fight after encountering stiff resistance from Ukrainian troops, a senior Pentagon official said, according to the New York Times. The official indicated that a significant number of Russian troops are young recruits who have been poorly trained and were not prepared for the full-scale invasion ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin last week. There are even reports that some Russian soldiers have deliberately punched holes in their vehicles' gas tanks, in what the U.S. official characterized as an attempt to avoid combat.

The Times reported that the Pentagon declined to say how military intelligence gathered this information, but it is presumed that statements from captured Russian soldiers or intercepted Russian communications played a role. There is no indication of how widespread these surrenders are.

But reluctant combatants may be one reason why Russia's advance into Ukraine has stalled, U.S. officials said.

Other reasons have to do with the reported shortages of fuel and food and with logistics problems that have prevented a nearly 40-mile long convoy of Russian tanks and armored vehicles from arriving at the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Pentagon officials said. Additionally, Ukraine's military is still organized and defending the country, and Ukrainian civilians have been armed and have joined the fight, engaging the Russians and attacking supply chains that are crucial to the war effort.

The U.S. officials indicated that Russian commanders leading the convoy may also be "regrouping and rethinking" their strategy, with a renewed push to put Kyiv under siege and capture the capital to come in the next several days.

“They have a lot of power available to them,” the Pentagon official said, noting that 80% of the more than 150,000 troops Russia had amassed along Ukraine's border over many months are now participating in the invasion.

Though Russia has vastly superior manpower and firepower, U.S. officials have been surprised by the apparent "risk-averse behavior" of Russia's forces, the Pentagon official said. The official noted, for example, that when the Russians launched an invasion from the Sea of Azov to capture the port city of Mariupol, they landed troops 40 miles from the city. The distance allowed the Russians more time to prepare their attack, but in turn gave the city time to mount a defense.

The Pentagon official also observed that Russia's reputably strong air force has yet to gain air superiority over Ukraine, as Ukrainian fighter jets, Stinger anti aircraft missiles, and other anti-air weapons are harassing the Russian warplanes.