Dripping flaming fuel as they go, a line of workers slowly descends a steep, snow-covered hillside above central Colorado's South Platte River, torching piles of woody debris that erupt into flames shooting two stories high.

It's winter in the Rocky Mountains, and fresh snow cover allowed the crew of 11 to safely confine the controlled burn.

Two weeks into its war in Ukraine, Russia has achieved less and struggled more than anticipated at the outset of the biggest land conflict in Europe since World War II. But the invading force of more than 150,000 troops retains large and possibly decisive advantages in firepower as they bear down on key cities.

Moscow's main objective — toppling the Kyiv government and replacing it with Kremlin-friendly leadership — remains elusive, and its overall offensive has been slowed by an array of failings, including a lack of coordination between air and ground forces and an inability to fully dominate Ukraine's skies.

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said Wednesday he hopes that corridors to evacuate civilians from under-fire cities in Ukraine will begin to work better after a sputtering start.

ICRC President Peter Maurer told Germany’s Deutschlandfunk radio that his organization has been working for days to bring the warring parties together and encourage them to hold detailed military-to-military talks on enabling civilians to flee.

Even though Russia has lost influence and friends since the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989, the nuclear superpower still holds sway over several of its neighbors in Europe and keeps others in an uneasy neutrality.

The Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine and the humanitarian tragedy it provoked over the past two weeks have raised a Western outcry of heartfelt support and spawned calls for a fundamental rethink of how the geopolitical map of Europe should be redrawn in the future.

Congressional leaders reached a bipartisan deal early Wednesday providing $13.6 billion to help Ukraine and European allies plus billions more to battle the pandemic as part of an overdue $1.5 trillion measure financing federal agencies for the rest of this year.

Though a tiny portion of the massive bill, the money responding to the Russian blitzkrieg that's devastated parts of Ukraine and prompted Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II ensured robust bipartisan support for the legislation. President Joe Biden had requested $10 billion for military, humanitarian and economic aid last week, and Democratic and Republican backing was so staunch that the figure grew to $12 billion Monday and $13.6 billion just a day later.

Russia's Defense Ministry said Wednesday its operation thwarted a large-scale plot to attack separatist-held regions of eastern Ukraine.

Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov cited from what he claimed was an intercepted Ukrainian National Guard document laying out plans for a weekslong operation targeting the Donbas region.

The royal court in Jordan has said that the half-brother of King Abdullah II has apologized for his role in a rare palace feud last year and is seeking the king's forgiveness.

Prince Hamzah was accused of involvement in a plot to destabilize the Western-allied kingdom and was placed under house arrest last April. In a video statement at the time he denied the allegations, saying he was being punished for speaking out against official corruption.

Amid a shutdown of domestic soccer during the invasion by Russia, FIFA has agreed to Ukraine's request to postpone the national team's World Cup qualifying playoff in Scotland in two weeks' time.

FIFA also awarded Poland a bye through its playoff semifinal against Russia that was also scheduled on March 24. That decision will be tested by an urgent Russian appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against a FIFA ban on its national teams.

A Kuwaiti court has acquitted two former ministers and their co-defendants of the corruption charges they faced in an explosive case that tarnished the government and was widely seen as a test of accountability.

The charges against Kuwait's former Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak Al Sabah and his ally, former Interior Minister Sheikh Khalid al-Jarrah Al Sabah, along with other officials, concerned the embezzlement of $790 million that had gone missing from a military aid fund years ago.

Riot police has set up barricades and fired pepper gas to block demonstrators from joining an International Women's Day march in central Istanbul. At least 38 women were detained, media reports said.

As in previous years, authorities declared the city's main square, Taksim, and surrounding areas off-limits for demonstrations. Riot police then put up metal barricades around Taksim and on side streets leading to the square as well as to a nearby pedestrian thoroughfare.