After Zelenskyy called for a no-fly zone and more U.S. assistance, he played a brief video that displayed a montage of video clips and images showing Russia's attacks on Ukraine. 

The video first appeared to show Ukrainians in their country before the invasion, and then it continued by showing numerous shots of Russian missiles hitting Ukrainian buildings. 

It showed Ukrainian people crying, including children, as well as wounded civilians and bodies lying all over the streets. The video also showed dead bodies being tossed into a trenchlike ditch to bury them. 

"Close the sky over Ukraine," the video said at the end. 

Throughout his address to Congress, Zelenskyy made a plea for the U.S. to take more action against Russia, including imposing a no-fly zone over his country, saying "Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for the Ukrainian people."

"This is a terror that Europe has not seen for 80 years. We are asking for a reply, for an answer to this terror from the whole world. Is that a lot to ask for, to ask for a no-fly zone?" he said. 

Zelenskyy also called for:

• anti-aircraft defense systems
• additional sanctions 
• a new international alliance 

He also invoked Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I have a dream" speech as he said he needed military aircraft from the West. "I have a dream — these words are known to each of you. Today I can say, I have a need. I need to protect our sky.”

"We need to create new tools to respond quickly and stop the war, the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine," he said. 

BRUSSELS — The Council of Europe on Wednesday expelled Russia from the continent’s foremost human rights body in an unprecedented move over its invasion and war in Ukraine.

The 47-nation organization’s committee of ministers said in statement that “the Russian Federation ceases to be a member of the Council of Europe as from today, after 26 years of membership.”

The decision comes on the heels of weeks of condemnation of Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Early in the week, the group’s parliamentary assembly already initiated the process of expulsion and unanimously backed that Russia would be kicked out.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov insisted Wednesday that it would have left the body regardless. In an interview with Russian broadcaster RBK, he accused NATO and EU countries of “abusing their majority in the council, eventually transforming it into a tool for anti-Russian policy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy opened his virtual address to members of Congress from the capital city of Kyiv stating that Russia has not just attacked his country but "basic human values." 

Russia is using tanks and planes against Ukrainians' freedom and "our right to live freely," he said. He said he remembers Mount Rushmore and seeing the faces of prominent U.S. presidents, who laid the foundation of America as it exists today.

"Democracy, independence, freedom and care for everyone for every person, for everyone who works diligently, who is honest, who respects the law. We in Ukraine want the same for our people. All that is normal part of your own life," he said. 

Zelenskyy told lawmakers to remember Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 and the 9/11 terror attacks.

"Servant of the People," a Ukrainian television series starring Volodymyr Zelenskyy before he became president, is available on Netflix in the United States, the streaming service tweeted Wednesday.

The show, which was also produced by Zelenskyy, is a political satire that ran for three seasons from 2015 to 2019. Zelenskyy plays a high school history teacher who goes viral after a student records him going on an anti-government corruption tirade, catapulting him into politics and eventually helping him win an election as president of Ukraine.

As it turned out, life imitated art: Zelenskyy, who had no prior experience or solid policies, was elected Ukrainian president in 2019 with a pledge to bring integrity to his country's leadership.

The International Energy Agency has cut its 2022 forecast for global oil demand amid the disruption to Russian oil production which threatens a “global oil supply shock.”

“The implications of a potential loss of Russian oil exports to global markets cannot be understated,” it said in a monthly report released Wednesday. “Faced with what could turn into the biggest supply crisis in decades, global energy markets are at a crossroads,” it said.

As the world’s largest oil exporter, Russia continues to send oil due to deals made before the invasion, but new business has “all but dried up,” it said. According to the report, after the exports are shunned, only the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia hold the spare capacity to offset the Russian shortfall.

“Indeed, today’s alignment of energy security and economic factors could well accelerate the transition away from oil,” the agency said.

More than 100 children have died since Russia's invasion began three weeks ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday, as he vowed to hold Moscow responsible for "war crimes."

“We are stepping up work to bring the occupiers to justice," Zelenskyy said in a video message posted to his Telegram page, adding that he had spoken with Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

Zelenskyy said that 103 children had died since the start of the conflict. NBC News has not been able to verify this number. 

He added that in the besieged southern city of Mariupol, Russian soldiers had captured the regional hospital and patients and doctors had been taken hostage.