NATO's chief says the alliance sees no need to change its nuclear weapons alert level, despite Russia's threats.

NATO's secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, spoke to The Associated Press following talks on European security with Polish President Andrzej Duda an air base in Poland where NATO's Polish and U.S. fighter jets are based.

In the dust and debris — and the dead — in Kharkiv's central square, Ukrainians on Tuesday saw what might become of other cities if Russia's invasion isn't countered in time.

Not long after sunrise, a Russian military strike hit the center of Ukraine's second-largest city, badly damaging the symbolic Soviet-era regional administration building. Closed-circuit television footage showed a fireball engulfing the street in front of the building, with a few cars continuing to roll out of the billowing smoke.

Top-seeded Elina Svitolina, a 27-year-old professional tennis player from Ukraine, says she will withdraw from the Monterrey Open rather than face a Russian opponent at the Mexican tournament unless tennis's governing bodies follow the International Olympic Committee's lead and insist that players from Russia and Belarus are only identified as "neutral athletes."

Svitolina wrote Monday on Twitter that she did not want to play her opening-round contest against Anastasia Potapova "nor any other match against Russian or Belarussian tennis players until" the WTA women's tour, ATP men's tour and International Tennis Federation "follow the recommendations of the IOC" and bar those countries' competitors from using any national symbols, colors, flags or anthems.

Warner Bros. is halting the release of "The Batman" in Russia, just days before it was to open in theaters there, as Hollywood moved to cease distribution plans in the country following Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Warner Bros., the Walt Disney Co. and Sony Pictures said Monday that they would "pause" the release of their films in Russia. Each studio has significant upcoming releases that had been set to debut internationally in the coming weeks. "The Batman," one of the year's more anticipated films, launches Friday in North America and many overseas territories, including Russia.

U.S. markets were headed for declines on Tuesday after talks between Russia and Ukraine aimed at ending the war yielded only an agreement to meet again.

On Wall Street, futures for both the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials slipped 0.7%. Major European indices fell sharply while Asian shares were mostly higher. Oil prices continue to spike and U.S. benchmark crude eclipsed $100 for the first time since the summer of 2014.

Cash-strapped Egypt increased transit fees Tuesday for ships passing through the Suez Canal, one of the world's most crucial waterways, with hikes of up to 10%, officials said.

The Suez Canal Authority said on its website the increases were "in line with the significant growth in global trade" and cited the canal's "development and enhancement of the transit service."

Valery Gergiev has been fired as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic because of his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin and for not rejecting the invasion of Ukraine, the German city's mayor said Tuesday.

Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter announced the decision after Gergiev didn't respond to Reiter's demand that the 68-year-old Russian conductor change course.

It's a globalized world — a planet stitched together by intricate supply chains, banking, sports and countless other threads of deep connection. Until it isn't.

Exhibit A: Russia this week, abruptly cut off from the larger world on multiple fronts. Its ability to bank internationally has been curtailed. Its participation in major international sports is crumbling. Its planes are restricted over Europe. Its vodka may no longer be welcome in multiple U.S. states. Even Switzerland, whose very name is shorthand for neutrality, is carefully turning its back on Vladimir Putin.

Russia has some of the best hackers in the world, but in the early days of the war in Ukraine, its ability to create mayhem through malware hasn't had much of a noticeable impact.

Instead, it's Ukraine that's marshalled sympathetic volunteer hackers in an unprecedented collective global effort to make the Kremlin pay for making war on its neighbor. It's a kind of cyber free-for-all that experts say risks escalating a moment already fraught with extraordinary danger after Russian President Vladimir Putin put his nuclear forces on alert.

The harsh sanctions imposed on Russia and the resulting crash of the ruble have the Kremlin scrambling to keep the country's economy running. For Vladimir Putin, that means finding workarounds to the Western economic blockade even as his forces continue to invade Ukraine.

Former Treasury Department officials and sanctions experts expect Russia to try to mitigate the impact of the financial penalties by relying on energy sales and leaning on the country's reserves in gold and Chinese currency. Putin also is expected to move funds through smaller banks and accounts of elite families not covered by the sanctions, deal in cryptocurrency and rely on Russia's relationship with China.