The Kremlin announced on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed a former bodyguard of his to the position of "emergency situations" minister.

Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at Russia’s state Channel One television, who was arrested for protesting against Vladimir Putin’s barbaric regime and the Ukraine invasion on a live television news program on Monday, has been fined and released following 14 hours of police interrogation.

A 61-year-old dual citizen of the U.S. and Russia charged for acting as an illegal agent of the Kremlin remains at large after moving from New York to Russia roughly a year and a half ago, the Department of Justice said on Tuesday.

Kremlin reportedly ordered about 400 mercenaries to assassinate Volodymyr Zelensky, who previously claimed that Russian special forces were searching for him as “target number one."

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its third day, the official website of the Kremlin, kremlin.ru, went down on Saturday amid reports of denial of service (DDoS) attacks on various other Russian government and state media websites.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the Kremlin for a meeting in an effort to seek a resolution to the looming crisis. 

Russian military force has been spotted close to the Ukraine border as reports speak of presence of high-powered military movements have been authenticated in Russia's Belgorod region.

As hostility between the United States and Russia rises, the Kremlin’s nationalist Rodina party added fuel to the fire after advocating on live television for the abduction of a U.S. Congressman over his controversial comments on the ongoing Ukraine-Russia crisis.