Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelensky is winning hearts with his bravery -- but he may be winning in fashion too ... because another national leader seems to be taking some dress cues from him.

Here's French President Emmanuel Macron taking care of business in the Golden Room of the Élysée Palace ... where he's hard at work in his office, taking international calls and dealing with the Ukraine crisis -- all while looking super gruff and incredibly dressed-down.

Compared to how Macron normally gets done up --suited, booted and clean-shaven -- this is kind of the exact opposite appearance ... the guy's in a hoodie and jeans for crying out loud!

No shade on Macron (these threads actually work for him) ... but some think Zelensky may have something to do with his attire choice here, because as you know -- VZ has been all about the casual, man-of-the-people getup throughout all this.

Zelensky has constantly been seen rockin' green T-shirts and hoodies and the like ... all while letting a little stubble grow on his mug. Here, too, Macron is growing out his beard and sporting a similar appearance.

Like we said ... this may be perceived as Macron ripping off Zelensky's style -- perhaps even for some brownie points with the international community -- but even if that's the case ... you could consider it the ultimate compliment and the utmost flattery, which ain't terrible.

Fact is ... the dude is a total badass, and the world seems to have caught on to that. So, if some presidents wanna pay homage with a little mirror imaging ... so be it! The more the merrier.

A pregnant woman and her baby were killed when Russian forces bombed a maternity ward in Ukraine last week -- and the images of the destruction are shocking.

The expecting mother -- who has gone unidentified -- lost her life last Wednesday shortly after her child was delivered via emergency C-section following an airstrike that rained down on a hospital in Mariupol, which treated some soon-to-be moms.

Unfortunately, shortly after the newborn was delivered, it was declared dead. While everything was going on, the expectant mother realized she might lose her baby and reportedly cried out ... "Kill me now!"

After the baby died, medics attempted to save the woman, but after 30 minutes she succumbed to her injuries.

It's just a snapshot of the horror being inflicted in Ukraine right now -- highlighting that the most vulnerable of people are being targeted and killed in this ongoing war.

BTW, the moment this woman was being rushed out of the destroyed hospital on a stretcher was captured on video by AP reporters ... and it's incredibly difficult to watch.

The woman appears pale as volunteers run to try to get her to safety. She's bleeding from the waist down and seems completely out of it as she stares off into space. Unclear how many months along she was, but she appeared to be in at least the 2nd trimester.

As far as what Russia is saying about this ... they're claiming they bombed this hospital because it was being used as a hideout for Ukrainian extremists -- also insisting that no patients or medics were left inside. Clearly, that's BS.

"The Challenge" star Jordan Wiseley is finding more ways to make an impact on the ground in Ukraine ... distributing much-needed supplies brought over the border from Poland.

Check out these images from Ukraine, where Jordan and his actor roommate Kevin Pasdon are making a daily trek across the border to aid the humanitarian efforts underway.

Jordan's routine includes loading up vans with boxes full of supplies ... driving the goods in from Poland and handing them out to the Ukrainians, who are having their cities and towns shelled by the Russians.

Remember ... Jordan and Kevin flew to Poland earlier this month with the goal of helping out in Ukraine, but they didn't have a plan ... and they quickly found work transporting supplies, thanks in part to their U.S. passports, which allow them to cross the border with ease.

As you see in the videos, the folks in Ukraine are desperate to get their hands on whatever supplies they can ... and Jordan's working hard to unload the boxes and distribute essential items, like food and blankets.

They have started a fundraising campaign for donations that will go towards Ukrainian aid for both military and humanitarian relief.

'SNL' managed to walk the line Saturday night, with a hilarious cold open about TikTokers making the trek to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., advising the Prez on how to fight the Russians.

The premise -- President Biden meets TikTok stars in the Oval for a brainstorming meeting on how to fight the Russian disinformation campaign and Putin himself.  After all, these are influencers, so maybe they can influence the right folks.

It's actually a real thing ... White House officials briefed 30 social media influencers this week about the Russian invasion.

Well, in the skit, a CW actress goes all AnnaLynne McCord and suggests the best way to tame Putin is with a poem.

Not to be outdone, another TikToker suggests the solution is a prank ... throwing Putin down a flight of stairs.

Another influencer seems to swing far right, as she suggests Hunter Biden started the war.

There's a hysterical mix-up when a dude named Charles D'Amelio said he didn't know why he was there, but he assumed they meant to invite Charli. Honest mistake ... on his way out he asked if there were any extra stimi checks.

And then the influencer with the plunger ... you just gotta watch it. Super funny.

The Ukraine crisis is no laughing matter, but that doesn't mean people fleeing couldn't use a smile -- especially the little ones ... to which one group of clowns has devoted itself.

Check out these clips shot by journo Andrew Kimmel, who's on the ground there documenting the devastation ... but also, a bit of magic at the same time. In this case, the much-needed clownery comes courtesy of a nonprofit called The Dream Doctors Project.

TDDP teams up with hospitals around the world and drops in these professional performers wherever they're needed, acting as a therapeutic way for folks -- especially children -- to cope with whatever they're going through ... and in this case, you see it's working wonders.

Kimmel reports that this specific group of clowns -- who go by the names of Slinky, Buzz and Shemesh -- met these families at the Ukrainian border near Palanca, Moldova ... and right off the bat, were happy to entertain the children in a variety of ways.

As you can see ... they were well prepared to get a chuckle by any means necessary -- be it via gag toys, balloons, pranks, jokes, juggling and even some tasty treats they had on hand.

Even on the bus ride over to a camp where they were treated/housed ... the show went on, and you can tell that not only the kids appreciated the gesture -- but their parents did as well. Considering the horror of what they'd just left behind ... this obviously goes a long way.

In addition to lifting spirits and serving as a morale boost, the Dream Doctors also had a ton of supplies at the ready, including clothing, food, and yes, even toys ... and were willing to help in any possible.

Bill Maher has a fascinating take on America's view of Ukraine ... everyone here is making the war about them. Let us explain.

As the "Real Time" host says ... "Everything proves what we already believed and everything goes back to the thing we already hate."

As he puts it ... Biden supporters blame Trump's policies for the war, and vice versa. He hilariously references a comment Trump made about the war, saying it wouldn't have erupted but for a rigged American presidential election. Maher's reaction ... "Kanye thinks less about Pete Davidson than Trump thinks about the rigged election." BTW ... it wasn't rigged.

He points to groups like the 1619 Project, that have invoked race into the Ukrainian mix.  Maher's reaction ... it's not always about race. It's not like an avocado, he says, that you put on everything.

As he puts it, this is just "reflexive partisanship" ... we're now conditioned to viewing anything that happens through our own, sometimes narrow world view. He says, "We put everything new in our mouths and nothing new in our brains."

Comedian Jordan Carlos sees no problem making jokes about the tragedy in Ukraine ... but he says there's a delicate balance, with some lines that cannot be crossed.

We got Jordan at LAX and asked about some jokes he made when a woman in the audience at one of his gigs brought up Ukraine.

Jordan made some jokes about some folks online who are obsessed with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky ... saying he's hot.

Jordan says comedy helps the audience escape the woes of the real world, so he indulged with a few Zelensky jokes.

Aliia Roza, the ex-Russian spy who once fell in love with one of her targets, is turning on Putin over his invasion of Ukraine ... she says he's desperate to win and will stop at nothing.

Aliia issued the chilling warning recently, telling overseas publications Putin will fight to the end because he knows a loss would be a stain on his reputation in Mother Russia.

The former spy says she actually trained in the same Russian military program that produced Putin, where she says trainees learn how to "stay calm and cold-blooded in a very stressful situation."

Aliia, who fled Russia after her oligarch husband was jailed, says she's terrified for her friends and family in both Russia and Ukraine ... because Putin hates to lose.

Aliia's life journey is pretty wild ... she was born in the former Soviet Union and says she was forced to become a Russian spy when she was only a teen. She was taught to seduce both men and women and says she was sexually assaulted by her superiors along the way.

For her first assignment, Aliia says she had to infiltrate a criminal gang of drug suppliers by pretending to be a prostitute ... and she ended up falling for the ring leader, a man named Vladimir.

Aliia says the gang eventually discovered she was a spy and took her to a forest in the dark of night and started beating her ... but she says the gang leader stepped in and saved her life.

After her lifesaver died, Aliia says she married a Russian oligarch in 2006 ... but when he was jailed and then died in prison, she and their young son fled Russia and never looked back.

Aliia bounced around from Switzerland to London before settling in California, and she now lives in a fancy mansion in Beverly Hills ... where she runs a PR firm and rubs elbows with Hollywood celebs.

President Biden is continuing to tighten the screws on Russia, announcing a ban on Vodka, caviar and diamonds imported from the country.

On Friday, 46 announced that he -- along with the nations that make up the EU and G7 -- will revoke Russia's "most favored nation" trade status ... allowing the U.S. and other allies to impose higher tariffs on Russian imports.

The downgrade will also put a ban on Russian vodka, certain seafood and Russian diamonds.

We should note, Russian vodka makes up a small percentage of vodkas on the shelves in the U.S. ... a few Russian-made brands include Russian Standard, Beluga Noble Russian Vodka and Beluga Noble Russian Gold Vodka.

Back in 2019, Russia was the 26th largest goods trading partner of the U.S. ... the majority of those goods being Russian oil and gas -- which Biden banned earlier this week.

This ghastly image is swirling around the world, bringing home the horrors of Putin's war.

We can now put faces to the innocent civilians who were killed by Russian mortar fire as they tried to escape Irpin, Ukraine.

Tatiana Perebeinis was the chief accountant for SE Ranking ... it's a Silicon Valley startup which has a large presence in Kyiv. The 43-year-old mother of 2 died, alongside her daughter, Alise, 9, and son Nikita, 18.

Tatiana's husband, Sergii Perebeinis, was not with his family when they were killed. He posted on Facebook, "Trying to hold on but it's really hard." He said the family dogs were also killed in the attack.

It's heartbreak heaped on heartbreak ... their funerals are on hold because the morgues in the city are all filled to capacity.

The family's apartment building was bombed the day before Tatiana and her kids were slaughtered on the street by Russian force.

Tatiana's company issued a statement, saying she was "a very friendly, brave, courageous woman with a great sense of humor. She always cheered everyone around her up. She was truly like a big sister to all of us."

Her son was supposed to attend a university this year. He was required to stay in Ukraine ... 18 to 60-year-old men cannot leave the country.

Two Ukrainians have emerged as war heroes who have inspired their nation and the world with their bravery and fortitude ... both improbable leaders who rose to the occasion.

Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky was born in 1978 to Jewish parents in southern Ukraine. His family moved to Mongolia for 4 years and then returned to their homeland.

He studied at the Kyiv National Economic University and graduated in 2000 with a law degree.

And then, the turn to acting. While he was a student, he became interested in theatre, and from 1997-2003 he appeared on an improv show on Ukrainian TV.

In 2003, Zelensky founded a TV studio, serving as the creative director until 2011. Under his watch, the studio became one of the most successful in the country.

He went on to star in some farce comedies. He also tried his hand at romantic comedies -- one called "8 First Dates" and another called "8 New Dates."

He appeared on "Dancing with the Stars" and won the whole thing. He also was the voice of Paddington the bear in Ukraine's version of the films.

In 2014, as the then-Ukrainian President was toppled, Zelensky starred in a new show -- "Servant of the People" ... about a school teacher's improbable rise to power as President of Ukraine. The show became a huge hit.

Then another big turn. He decided to imitate his art and run for President of Ukraine in 2019 ... and his celebrity was enough to garner 73% of the vote.

The first real exposure Americans had to Zelensky was during the first Donald Trump impeachment, when Trump tried pressuring him to investigate Hunter Biden in return for receiving aid, something he refused to do.

You know the rest ... a guy who never dipped his toe in politics led the nation and stood firmly against Russian occupation. Zelensky has become a modern-day Winston Churchill, even quoting him in his resolve to save his country.

Vitali Klitschko is an equally improbable war hero. He was born 50 years ago in the U.S.S.R. and developed a love of boxing at age 13. He and his brother, Wladimir, both became amateur boxers and Vitali won a gold medal.

Vitali graduated from the Pedagogical Institute in Ukraine in 1996 and did postgraduate work at Kyiv University. He ended up with a Ph.D. in Sports Science.

Vitali and Wladimir both became professional boxers in 1996, and both excelled.

The 6'7" Vitali became the WBC champ and retired in 2005, but returned to boxing in 2008.

Vitali played a big role in Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, and ran twice for mayor of Kyiv -- both times unsuccessfully.

In 2010, Vitali became the leader of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform. He gave up the WBC title in 2013 for a life in politics.

Vitali ran for mayor of Kyiv and won in 2014, and remains mayor to this day.

The Utah Jazz organization is stepping up to help the Ukrainian people amid the Russian invasion ... by providing more than 32,200 nights of housing for refugees fleeing the country.

The team made the announcement on Wednesday ... saying it teamed up with Airbnb.org -- a nonprofit devoted to providing housing to those in need -- to make the gesture happen.

Jazz Executive chairman and co-owner Ryan Smith spoke about the decision to help out ... saying, "Connection and community have never been more important than it is today."

"Millions of people have been forced to leave behind their entire lives in Ukraine. Airbnb.org is connecting host families with refugees in need, creating safe havens when so many communities are being torn apart."

He added ... "And we can’t stop there. I encourage every organization to support Airbnb.org’s important initiative, to magnify their impact and house enough refugees to fill their arenas or workplaces.”

The incredibly kind gesture comes at a time when Ukraine is being ravaged every day by violence at the hands of Vladimir Putin and Russian troops -- forcing many of its citizens to flee out of safety concerns.

In fact, more than 2.1 million people have evacuated since February 24.

Airbnb co-founder and chairman of Airbnb.org, Joe Gebbia, was extremely thankful for the commitment from the team ... saying, "I cannot begin to express my thanks to the Utah Jazz Foundation for their support of Airbnb.org’s work."

Trent Hartsfield and his wife were supposed to permanently welcome a Ukrainian orphan to their family ... now he's in a terrifying race against time, as the brutal Russian invasion continues in Ukraine.

Trent joined TMZ live Tuesday from Bucharest, Romania -- he's flown there in hopes of finding 9-year-old Angelina, a little girl his family's trying to adopt as Putin's assault on Ukraine grows more and more brutal.

We spoke to Trent just hours after the Russians shelled a children's hospital ... putting him even more on edge. He says he and his wife fell in love with Angelina back in December when they hosted her for a month. They had to send her back in January, per Ukraine law, but they simultaneously started the process to permanently adopt her.

Once Putin declared war, Trent says he and his wife, Muff, were worried about Angelina's safety and lost all communication with her ... with the exception of one brief video call on Feb. 25.

Quite frankly, he's scared and devastated by the news out of Ukraine ... and wants to do everything in his power to bring Angelina back to the U.S. -- but, right now, it's like finding a needle in a haystack.

Trent says he'll start by going to the Romanian border with Ukraine in hopes missionaries and other volunteers can point him in the right direction.

Hundreds of American families in the process of adopting Ukrainian children are in the same plight as Trent, who says "timing is everything" in his search.

Russia's devastating invasion of Ukraine is now taking a direct toll on what should have been a safe haven for kids -- a maternity and children's hospital is in complete shambles.

After the attack -- which appears to have been a direct hit -- President Zelensky tweeted out video from inside the hospital, showing the devastation ... and calling it an absolute atrocity.

Zelensky also noted there were several children and adults still trapped under the wreckage and asked, "How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror?"

He referenced the calls for NATO and/or the U.S. to institute a no-fly zone over his country, saying ... "Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity."

It's unclear at this point what the casualties are at the hospital. Sadly, it's just the latest building taken down in Putin's gruesome invasion.

"The Challenge" star Jordan Wiseley wanted to find a way to help the crisis unfolding in Ukraine, so he flew to neighboring Poland ... and now he's got a key role in the war effort.

Jordan's staying about a kilometer from the Ukraine border at a small border crossing in Poland, along with his actor roommate Kevin Pasdon, and they're crossing the border in a truck and delivering crucial supplies to Ukrainian troops.

As Jordan explains, he felt drawn to the crisis and recently bought plane tickets to Poland with Kevin ... and while they landed last week without a plan, they knew they would find a way to pitch in, and they did.

Jordan and Kevin say their U.S. passports are being put to good use ... the travel docs allow them to cross into the country with relative ease, unlike other truck drivers who came to help from countries in the European Union.

It also helps Jordan knows how to use a manual transmission ... he says he grew up driving all sorts of vehicles back in the States ... and Jordan's tale of how they got their gig is pretty incredible.

While the deliveries are being made to Ukraine military forces, Jordan and Kevin are not exactly running firearms here ... they say they are delivering essential items, like food, blankets and gasoline.

There's also a bunch of manual labor involved ... they've got to load up the trucks each day with boxes, then unload them once they make it to their drop spots in Ukraine.

The mass exodus from Ukraine has created a crisis with the pets residents had to leave behind, but in the middle of Putin's brutal war, some Ukrainians have stepped up to save the animals.

Katya Kurletz is on the ground in Ukraine, leading the efforts to track down dogs in destroyed cities and transport them to safety in Poland and Romania ... and she joined us on "TMZ Live" Tuesday to tell us about her dangerous mission.

In the face of constant fear of encountering advancing Russian forces, Katya says she and others are doing everything they can to save Ukrainian pets from the rubble.

Katya tells us there are hundreds of dogs being evacuated ... and her group, Transform a Street Dog, still needs help transporting dogs and cats and finding them new homes.

It's pretty scary .... Katya tells us she saw a Russian missile destroy an entire block, but she couldn't let it derail her mission, because the blast left more pets in need of her help.

We've seen upwards of 1 1/2 million people flee war-torn Ukraine, including the elderly, and it's sad to think about the pets ... but there are some good folks out there looking out for the animals.