American journalist killed at checkpoint, Russian airstrike kills 35, wounds 134: LIVE UPDATES

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for an end to Russian "brutality.”

The Air Force Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces says military downed 7 Russian aircraft and an unmanned aerial vehicle on March 13 using anti-aircraft missiles, the Kyiv Independent reported.

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his condolences for the death of American journalist Brent Renaud and discussed Russia's invasion of Ukraine in a call with President Biden on Sunday.

"They reviewed recent diplomatic engagements and underscored their commitment to hold Russia accountable for its actions and to support the government and people of Ukraine," a White House readout of the call said.

After his call with Biden, Macron also talked to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday.

Many Western leaders have shunned contact with Putin after he launched the invasion on Feb. 24, but Macron has kept a line of communication with the Kremlin open.

On Saturday, Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had a 75-minute phone conversation with Putin, the latest of several calls between Macron and the Russian president.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that his side is pushing for a meeting between him and Russian President Vladimir Putin during ongoing negotiations.

"Representatives of our countries’ delegations speak in video format every day. Our delegation has a clear task - to do everything to ensure a meeting of the presidents. The meeting that I am sure people are waiting for," Zelenskyy said in a video posted to his Facebook page Sunday evening.

On Saturday, Zelenskyy said he would meet with Putin in Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visited Moscow to meet with Putin earlier this week and has been trying to mediate and end to the war.

Zelenskyy also reiterated pleas for a no-fly zone over Ukraine after Russian forces targeted a military training facility just 15 miles from the Polish border, killing 35 people.

"Last year, I made a clear warning to NATO leaders that if there were no tough preventive sanctions against Russia, it would start a war. We were right," Zelenskyy said.

"And now I repeat again - if you do not close our sky, it is only a matter of time before Russian missiles fall on your territory. NATO territory. On the homes of citizens of NATO countries."

At least 864 people were arrested for protesting the invasion of Ukraine across 37 Russian cities on Sunday, according to the human rights group OVD-Info.

One protester, 31-year-old pianist Luka Zatravkin, was arrested Moscow's Pushkin Square after handcuffing himself to the first McDonald's to ever open in Russia.

"Why am I talking about McDonald's in the first place? Because this chain of restaurants became the first breath of free air back in 1990," Zatravkin wrote on his Telegram account, according to OVD-Info.

Nearly 15,000 Russians have been arrested in demonstrations since Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Elsewhere in Europe, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Warsaw, London, Berlin, Rome, and other cities.

In Kherson, the first major Ukrainian city to fall to Russian forces, thousands of residents have been protesting Russia's occupation.

Ukrainian nationals and anti-war protesters also staged a demonstration in Taipei, Taiwan, on Sunday.

Ukraine restored a damaged power line to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on Sunday, four days after the line was broken, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

IAEA Director Rafael Mariano General Grossi praised the "positive development" but expressed concern for the 211 technical personnel and guards at the site, which is under the control of Russian forces.

"Earlier today, the Ukrainian regulator informed the IAEA that staff at [Chernobyl] were no longer carrying out repair and maintenance of safety-related equipment, in part due to their physical and psychological fatigue after working non-stop for nearly three weeks," IAEA said Sunday.

Workers haven't rotated since Russia invaded on Feb. 24 and communication between the power plant's staff and officials has been cut off.

An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a fourth "negotiating session" will be held on Monday between Russia and Ukraine. 

"We will not concede in principle on any positions. Russia now understands this. Russia is already beginning to talk constructively," presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in a video posted online Sunday. "I think that we will achieve some results literally in a matter of days."

A third round of face-to-face peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials in Belarus earlier this week ended with an agreement on safe corridors for refugees, but without any other major breakthroughs. 

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Sunday that while she believes Putin is "intent on destroying Ukraine," unprecedented sanctions from the West may be forcing him to the bargaining table. 

"That pressure is beginning to have some effect," Sherman told "Fox News Sunday." "We are seeing some signs of a willingness to have real serious negotiations."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Russia would stop its invasion "in a moment" if Ukraine met a list of demands, including recognizing Crimea as Russian territory and the separatist regions of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent states.

About 80 million Russians who use Instagram were told that their access to the social media platform will be cut off at midnight on Sunday. 

Russia's communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, informed users Friday that the service would be shut down and told them to move their photos and videos off the platform. 

It comes after Meta, Instagram's parent company, announced last week that it would temporarily allow "for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules like violent speech such as 'death to the Russian invaders.'"

In response, Russian prosecutors asked a court to designate Meta as an "extremist organization."

Nick Clegg, the President of Global Affairs at Meta, said the temporary policy change only applies to people in Ukraine. 

"I want to be crystal clear: our policies are focused on protecting people's rights to speech as an expression of self-defense in reaction to a military invasion of their country," Clegg said. 

Russia has already blocked other social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter. 

Reuters contributed to this report. 

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby on Sunday said that Russia appears to be "broadening its target set" following a series of airstrikes in western Ukraine that are creeping closer toward the Polish border, the beginning of NATO’s eastern flank.

Kirby appeared on ABC's "This Week" and addressed the latest Russian airstrike on a Ukrainian airbase located just 13 miles east of Ukraine’s border with Poland, a NATO member. Kirby said it was Russia’s third airstrike on military facilities and airfields in western Ukraine in the last couple of days.

"We have been consistently concerned about NATO’s eastern flank and that airspace … and we continue to look for ways to bolster defense of NATO allies, we continue to look for ways to try to protect that airspace," Kirby said.

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Brent Renaud, an American journalist who was killed by Russian forces near Kyiv on Sunday, was working on a TIME Studios project about the global refugee crisis, the magazine confirmed.

"We are devastated by the loss of Brent Renaud. As an award-winning filmmaker and journalist, Brent tackled the toughest stories around the world often alongside his brother Craig Renaud," executives from the magazine said in a statement on Sunday. "It is essential that journalists are able to safely cover this ongoing invasion and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine."

A passenger train evacuating refugees, including 100 children, was hit by Russian shelling near the Brusyn station in the separatist-controlled Donetsk region of Ukraine, the country’s national railroad wrote on Facebook.

One conductor was killed and other was injured during the attack. The railroad was working to evacuate the crew and passengers

"This is a terrible blow to those who rescue civilian Ukrainians every day and paved the 'road of life' for more than 2 million rescued," the railway wrote on Facebook.

Buildings were destroyed in Ternivka, a town in western Ukraine about 120 miles south of Kharviv, a satellite image taken by ImageSat International on Sunday afternoon shows.

Russian forces have targeted both military and civilian infrastructure during Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

A satellite image taken by ImageSat International around 1:30 p.m. on Sunday shows a destroyed railroad bridge near Voznesensk, a town in southern Ukraine that is about 175 miles south of Kyiv.

Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton paid tribute on Sunday to American journalist Brent Renaud, a Little Rock native who was shot and killed by Russian forces in a suburb of Kyiv.

“Arkansans are saddened today at the death of Brent Renaud in Ukraine. I join them in expressing deepest condolences to the Renaud family," Sen. Cotton said in a statement. "And I reiterate to Vladimir Putin and his military leaders that the intentional targeting of innocent civilians, including reporters, is a war crime.”

Renaud, an award-winning journalist and former New York Times contributor, was killed when he came under fire from Russian forces, the Main Directorate of the National Police in Kyiv Region said Sunday. Two others were wounded.

After Congress passed a spending bill this week that will send $13.6 billion in aid to Ukraine, the bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus called for the U.S. and NATO allies to send additional military assistance in the fight against Russia, including stinger missiles, S-300 surface-to-air missile systems, and U.S.-made aircraft. 

"We commend the Polish government for taking proactive steps to deliver MiG-29 jets to the Ukrainian Air Force. We urge assistance to help facilitate this deal, commit to replenishing our allies’ fleets with American-made aircraft and help advance the transfer of Su-25 aircraft to Ukraine as well," the group, which is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, said in a statement on Sunday. 

"We also believe that the U.S. should seriously consider strategies to provide further drone capability to the Ukrainians, as they have already used Bayraktar TB2 drones with success on the battlefield."

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he spoke with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday, saying they "coordinated further support for Ukraine."