(WASHINGTON) — A growing number of conservatives are speaking out against the wave of anti-LGBTQ bills being proposed by Republican legislators nationwide.
Conservatives Against Discrimination, a group that aims to protect LGBTQ rights, denounced recent efforts as “dangerous” and have called on Congress to pass federal nondiscrimination protections.
“The inherent American values of freedom, liberty and equality are being placed in jeopardy by activist legislation that usurps local control and the very foundations of families and workplace fairness,” the group said in a statement.
Bills restricting gender-affirming care for transgender youth, trans participation in girls’ sports and trans bathroom usage as well as bills limiting LGBTQ discussions, books and curricula in schools have been introduced by Republicans in states across the country.
There are now more than 250 anti-LGBTQ bills in at least 37 states, according to the LGBTQ legislative tracker Freedom For All Americans and the Human Rights Campaign.
Opponents say these bills can have chilling and damaging effects on the well-being and mental health of young LGBTQ people who experience discrimination as a consequence of the legislation.
Much of the outrage against this kind of legislation has become bipartisan — in several Republican-led legislatures, these bills have been shot down.
In Idaho, the Republican Senate Majority Caucus killed HB 675, which would have banned gender-affirming health care for trans youth.
“HB 675 undermines parental rights and allows the government to interfere in parents’ medical decision-making authority for their children,” the caucus said in a statement.
In Arizona, Republicans stalled or killed several anti-trans bills. A bill that would force transgender people to use bathrooms that align with their assigned sex at birth has been stalled since January.
Legislation to block state identification documents from ever using nonbinary gender markers failed after Arizona state House Speaker Russell Bowers voted against it in February.
In Utah, Republican Gov. Spencer Cox has long expressed his plan to veto a ban against transgender girls’ participation in sports that align with their gender identity.
“We care deeply about Utah’s female athletes and our LGBTQ+ community,” Cox said in a Facebook post. “To those hurting tonight: It’s going to be OK. We’re going to help you get through this.”
At least 19 Republicans voted against the legislation.
In Wisconsin, a bill to ban transgender children from receiving gender-affirming care has been left untouched by the Republican-controlled state legislature.
Still, many Republican-led efforts across the country continue to target LGBTQ groups.
And many — including the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill against LGBTQ content in schools popularized this year in Florida and quickly replicated by other states — have been quickly backed by Republican-led state legislatures.
“These actions by state lawmakers also exacerbate the already inadequate, inefficient and confusing patchwork of nondiscrimination laws which presents challenges to American businesses,” Conservatives Against Discrimination said.
(COLUMBIA, South Carolina) — A man’s family is speaking out after he was shot and killed by a law enforcement officer in Columbia, South Carolina.
Irvin D. Moorer Charley, 34, whose family said he had various mental illnesses, was shot and killed by a sheriff’s deputy after police responded to a domestic violence call.
“The officer was very aware of my son’s condition,” Moorer Charley’s mother, Connie Craig, told reporters at a press conference. “They had been to the home many times, several times.”
While Moorer Charley’s family said he was having a mental health episode, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said the 911 call did not identify Moorer Charley as a person experiencing a mental health crisis.
“I tried to tell them that I’ve been dealing with him for a long time, and I probably could have gotten him to stop,” Craig said. “They said ‘Get back.’ I begged them. I begged them not to do that to him. I couldn’t do any more, and I dropped to the ground, but my son didn’t deserve this. He did not deserve this.”
The sheriff’s department released part of a dash cam video Tuesday in efforts to be “completely transparent with the community” and to provide “clarity to misstatements that this was a mental health call for service.”
In the released clip, the deputy who shot Moorer Charley is seen yelling at him multiple times, saying, “drop the weapon,” as Moorer Charley approached officers while holding a sharp wooden object. A second officer tried to use a stun gun on Moorer Charley, but according to Richland County Coroner Naida Rutherford, it was ineffective.
“It did not stick in the skin, and so it did not stop him as you would expect,” Rutherford told reporters at a press conference Sunday.
After the stun gun was deployed, officers said Moorer Charley charged at them, and one of the officers shot him.
The department defended the incident at the press conference.
“We can’t expect these deputies to go out here and be killed,” Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott told reporters. “They have to protect themselves.”
While some of the body cam video has been released, Moorer Charley’s family is calling on the department to release the video in its entirety.
“We are just calling for transparency and for actions to be taken not only in South Carolina but across the country to address these tragic and preventable mental health deaths,” Brendan Green, who is representing Moorer Charley’s family, told reporters.
Lott said that while he believes the officers’ actions were justified, “It’s sad all around,” he said.
“Mental health is a problem in our community,” the sheriff said. “We do not need to continue to ignore it. When someone cries out for help, they need to get help.”
(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are putting up “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The attack began Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.”
Russian forces moving from neighboring Belarus toward Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, have advanced closer to the city center in recent days despite the resistance. Heavy shelling and missile attacks, many on civilian buildings, continue in Kyiv, as well as major cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol. Russia also bombed western cities for the first time this week, targeting Lviv and a military base near the Poland border.
Russia has been met by sanctions from the United States, Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting the Russian economy as well as Putin himself.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 23, 8:58 pm
64 attacks on health care facilities since start of invasion: WHO
There have been over 60 attacks on health care facilities since Russia invaded Ukraine, according to the World Health Organization, which said it “condemns these attacks in the strongest possible terms.”
WHO has verified 64 such incidents between Feb. 24 and March 21 — about two to three attacks per day — resulting in 15 deaths and 37 injuries, the organization said in a statement Wednesday assessing the impact of the war on Ukraine’s health infrastructure.
“Attacks on health care are a violation of international humanitarian law, but a disturbingly common tactic of war — they destroy critical infrastructure, but worse, they destroy hope,” Dr. Jarno Habicht, WHO representative in Ukraine, said in a statement. “They deprive already vulnerable people of care that is often the difference between life and death. Health care is not — and should never be — a target.”
Among other health care impacts amid the war, many hospitals are limiting primary health care and essential services to focus on treating the wounded, it said. Nearly 1,000 health facilities are also close to conflict lines or in seized areas, and about half of the country’s pharmacies are believed to have closed, according to WHO.
“The consequence of that — limited or no access to medicines, facilities and health professionals — mean that treatments of chronic conditions have almost stopped,” it said.
Additionally, 1 in 4 Ukrainians have been “forcibly displaced” by the war, “aggravating the condition of those suffering from noncommunicable diseases,” the organization said.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 23, 8:26 pm
Russian humanitarian resolution on Ukraine defeated in UN
The United Nations Security Council defeated a resolution put forward by Russia on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
In a symbolic gesture, 13 members of the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday abstained from voting on the resolution, which made no mention of Russia’s role in creating the crisis and had been roundly criticized by members. Only Russia and China voted in favor.
No country voted against it, including the veto-wielding United States, United Kingdom or French envoys.
“To be honest, it was not necessary to veto, and I don’t think the resolution that was put before us was worthy of the U.S. using its precious veto power,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Mar 23, 7:48 pm
Zelenskyy marks 1 month of war with plea for global support
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked the one-month anniversary of Russia’s invasion by calling on the world’s population to publicly and peacefully show their support for Ukraine.
“The war of Russia is not only the war against Ukraine, its meaning is much wider,” Zelenskyy said, pivoting from speaking in Ukrainian to English during his latest address. “Russia started the war against freedom as it is.”
“This is only the beginning for Russia on the Ukrainian land,” he continued. “Russia is trying to defeat the freedom of all people in Europe, of all the people in the world. It tries to show that only crude and cruel force matters. It tries to show that people do not matter as well as everything else that make us people. That’s the reason we all must stop Russia.”
He urged the global community to “stand against the war” on March 24 — the one-month anniversary of the start of the invasion.
“Come from your offices, your homes, your schools and universities. Come in the name of peace. Come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life,” he said. “Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard. Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters.”
-ABC News’ Desiree Adib
Mar 23, 7:07 pm
Ukraine’s UN ambassador details ‘humanitarian disaster’
The Ukrainian ambassador called attention to the humanitarian crisis that’s unfolded in the weeks following Russia’s invasion during an emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.
“Tomorrow will be another symbolic date, a month since the lives of millions of Ukrainians were split in two parts,” Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said while speaking on a resolution put forward by Ukraine. “A peaceful past full of joy and positive plans, and the present with war, suffering, death, and destruction. Thousands of Ukrainians have lost their lives over this month — young and old, women and men, civilians and military.”
Kyslytsya further detailed the “humanitarian disaster” caused by the war.
“People are starving to death in the occupied or besieged areas. People are being killed in their attempt to flee from conflict-affected areas. Cities are razed to the ground by shelling and airstrikes,” he said.
The ambassador urged countries to vote in favor of the resolution put forward by his country, entitled “Humanitarian Consequences of the Aggression Against Ukraine.”
“It will be critical to prevent the spillover effect for the entire world,” he said. “That is why the text also mentions the impact of the conflict on food security globally, in particular in the least-developed countries, as well as energy security.”
-ABC News’ Zoha Qamar
Mar 23, 5:18 pm
Ukraine military forcing Russia into ‘defensive position’ near Kyiv: US official
Russian forces west of Kyiv are “digging in” and moving into a “defensive position,” according to a senior U.S. defense official.
“It’s not that they’re not advancing, they’re actually not trying to advance right now,” the official told reporters Wednesday. “They’re taking more defensive positions.”
East of Kyiv, Ukrainian forces near Brovary have pushed the Russians “back to about 55 km” (roughly 34 miles) east and northeast of Kyiv, according to the official. That update comes a day after the official said Russian forces had stalled at between 20 and 30 miles east and northeast of Kyiv.
Ukrainian authorities claimed earlier Wednesday that they have managed to encircle the Russian forces that had advanced on Kyiv and were in some key towns on the edge of the capital. They said they had managed to push back Russian troops from the northwestern town of Irpin, although it was still being shelled.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez and Patrick Reevell
Mar 23, 4:40 pm
Russia claims forces have made advances, destroyed Ukrainian military assets
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed on Wednesday that its forces have advanced another 2 kilometers and are fighting against units of Ukraine’s 54th Separate Mechanized Brigade in the southern and southeastern outskirts of Novo-Mikhaylovka.
Russia said troops it backs in Donetsk inflicted fire damage to Ukraine’s units of the 25th Airborne Brigade fighting for the capture of Kamenka and Novobakhmutovka.
Russia claimed it hit 86 Ukrainian military assets, among them six command posts; two rocket-launch systems and 49 areas of concentration of equipment and military hardware.
The ministry also claimed Russian forces shot down nine Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles near Izyum, Kiev, Sumy, Kharkov and Chernigov.
Russia said it destroyed 255 unmanned aerial vehicles, 189 anti-aircraft missile systems, 1,564 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 158 multiple launch rocket systems, 612 field artillery and mortars, as well as 1,367 units of special military vehicles since the beginning of the invasion.
Mar 23, 4:31 pm
IAEA ready to send experts, equipment to Ukraine
The International Atomic Energy Agency is ready to send experts and equipment to Ukraine to help ensure the safety and security of its nuclear facilities and prevent the risk of a severe accident, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said Wednesday.
In a video statement, Grossi said he is gravely concerned about the situation and stressed the urgent need to conclude an agreed framework that would enable the IAEA to provide technical assistance for the safe and secure operation of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities, which include 15 reactors a well as the Chernobyl site.
“I have personally expressed my readiness to immediately come to Ukraine to conclude such an agreement, which would include substantial assistance and support measures, including on-site presence of IAEA experts at different facilities in Ukraine, as well as the delivery of vital safety equipment,” Grossi said.
He added: “I hope to be able to conclude this agreed framework without further delay. We cannot afford to lose any more time. We need to act now.”
-ABC News’ Rashid Haddou
Mar 23, 4:10 pm
US watching Russian propaganda surrounding chemical weapons
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Wednesday that the U.S. is looking at the “deliberate drumbeat of misinformation” and propaganda from Moscow, which has “all the markers of a precursor” for them to use chemical weapons.
Earlier, President Joe Biden said there is a “real threat” of Russia using chemical weapons in Ukraine.
Sullivan declined to comment on whether Biden’s assessment was based on movements of weapons, or if it was based entirely on state propaganda.
Sullivan also commented on negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and said there are questions about Russia’s trustworthiness.
“I will point out that Russia has not been trustworthy in its public statements about its intentions with respect to Ukraine for months. So, we take everything that they say at the negotiating table, or from their podiums, with a very large grain of salt,” he said, talking to reporters on Air Force One.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Mar 23, 3:23 pm
US assesses ‘thousands’ of Ukrainian civilians have been killed
The U.S. has assessed that “thousands” of Ukrainian civilians have been killed by the war, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack said at a briefing on Wednesday.
Van Schaack declined to speak to particular incidents that back up this assessment, but when asked about the attack on the Mariupol theater, which had been marked that children were among those sheltering inside, she said it was a civilian target that the Russians should not have hit.
The U.S. earlier formally declared that Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Mar 23, 2:24 pm
At least 977 civilians killed, 1,594 injured in Ukraine: UN
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Wednesday that at least 977 civilians were killed and 1,594 have been injured in Ukraine since Feb. 24.
“Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes,” the OHCHR said in a statement.
The OHCHR said the actual number of casualties are considerably higher. Then receipt of information from some areas with intense hostilities, like Mariupol, have been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration.
Other areas where the number of casualties are still being corroborated include Volnovakha (Donetsk region), Izium (Kharkiv region), Sievierodonetsk and Rubizhne (Luhansk region), and Trostianets (Sumy region), where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties, according to the OHCHR. Casualty numbers from these regions are not included.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 23, 2:16 pm
US formally says Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday announced that the State Deptartment has made a formal assessment that Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.
Last week, President Joe Biden said he believed Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was a war criminal and Blinken told reporters he personally believed war crimes had been committed. But now, the agency has made a formal determination, Blinken said in a statement.
“Based on information currently available, the U.S. government assesses that members of Russia’s forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine,” Blinken said, citing a “careful review of available information from public and intelligence sources.”
Blinken added: “As with any alleged crime, a court of law with jurisdiction over the crime is ultimately responsible for determining criminal guilt in specific cases. The U.S. government will continue to track reports of war crimes and will share information we gather with allies, partners, and international institutions and organizations, as appropriate.”
Blinken said there are “numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities.”
“Russia’s forces have destroyed apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, critical infrastructure, civilian vehicles, shopping centers, and ambulances, leaving thousands of innocent civilians killed or wounded,” Blinken said.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Mar 23, 1:54 pm
Zelenskyy tells French lawmakers Mariupol resembles the ‘ruins of Verdun’
In an address to French lawmakers on Wednesday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Mariupol resembles the ruins of Verdun following the largest battle fought during WWI.
He said Russia brought “state terror” to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy called for increased sanctions against Russia, more arms for Ukraine and for French companies to leave the Russian market, naming Renault, Auchan and Leroy Merlin.
“You can help us. I know you can!” Zelenskyy said.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 23, 1:25 pm
Ukraine’s lead negotiator says talks with Russia may take months
Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Wednesday he believes the talks with Russia are absolutely “real” and that the Kremlin is not trying to use them to “stall for time” in order to regroup.
Podolyak, a senior aid to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told ABC News in an interview that he believes the Russians are looking to make a deal, but he warned Ukraine believes it’s possible it may take months.
He said Russia has stopped issuing ultimatums and is now in the process of seeing how far it has to lower its goals.
Asked if Ukraine is ready to give up its ambitions to join NATO, Russia’s key demand, Podolyak called on the U.S. to take the lead in forming a broader alliance that would give Ukraine security guarantees.
Zelenskyy has made it clear Ukraine is ready to potentially give up NATO membership, provided it gets security guarantees from Western countries that would protect it from a future Russian invasion.
When asked what that would look like, Podolyak suggested a potential security guarantee could be the U.S. and allies putting in writing that, in case of any future aggression from Russia, a no-fly zone would be put in place.
He has suggested that some NATO countries may be prepared to give those guarantees separate to NATO.
Podolyak also denied reports from several newspapers that claimed Russia and Ukraine are discussing a 15-point peace plan in which Ukraine would give up its NATO ambitions and accept some limits on its military in return for security guarantees from western countries.
He said for now, Russia and Ukraine both have drafts and Russia is leaking some of its drafts, pretending that it is a deal close to being signed.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Mar 23, 12:40 pm
Putin says ‘unfriendly countries’ will only be able to buy Russian gas in rubles
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his cabinet on Wednesday that Russia will require payments for natural gas in rubles, saying he will refuse to accept payments in “compromised currencies,” including the dollar and the euro, according to Russia’s state-run news agency, TASS.
Putin said Russia will continue to supply natural gas to other countries.
“I made the decision to implement within the shortest possible time the package of measures to transfer payments — we will start with that — for our natural gas supplied to the so-called ‘unfriendly’ states to Russian rubles,” Putin said.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 23, 12:07 pm
Putin blocking hundreds of ships filled with wheat in the Black Sea: von der Leyen
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday accused Russia’s President Vladimir Putin of blocking hundreds of ships filled with wheat in the Black Sea.
“Our continent is being rocked by a tectonic shift, not seen since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The consequences of this war on Europe’s security architecture will be far reaching. And I’m not just talking about security in military terms, but also energy security and even food security are at stake,” she said in a speech to the European Commission.
Von der Leyen addedd: “The effects of the Russian war go beyond energy of course, they also disrupting vital food supplies and driving food prices up.”
The consequences of this disruption will be felt from Lebanon, Egypt and Tunisia to Africa and the Far East, according to von der Leyen.
“We should not forget that Ukraine alone provides more than half of the world food programs’ wheat supply. The shelling and the bumping makes it impossible for Ukrainian farmers to do so,” she said.
“I call on Putin to let those ships go otherwise he will not only be responsible for one death, but also for famine and hunger. Let these ships go,” von der Leyen added.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 23, 11:23 am
NATO allies expected to announce major increases to forces in the east
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters Wednesday that he expects allies to announce major increases to forces in the eastern part of the defense alliance at Thursday’s summit.
Stoltenberg said the first step would be the deployment of four new NATO battle groups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. With the existing forces in place, there will be eight multi-national battle groups all along the eastern flank, from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
“We face a new reality for our security, so we must reset our deterrence and defense for the longer term,” Stoltenberg said.
Stoltenberg said he expects allies will agree to provide additional support to Ukraine, including cybersecurity assistance and equipment to help Ukraine protect against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.
He added that NATO has a responsibility to make sure the conflict does not escalate beyond Ukraine, as “this will cause even more death and even more destruction.”
Stoltenberg also called on Belarus to end its complicity in the war.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 23, 11:13 am
Bridge linking Chernihiv Oblast to Kyiv destroyed, governor says
The governor of Ukraine’s Chernihiv Oblast, Viacheslav Chaus, claimed Wednesday that Russian forces have destroyed the bridge linking the region to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
In a video posted on Telegram, Chaus shows the destroyed bridge over the Desna river, which he said effectively means that the road from Chernihiv to Kyiv is now severed.
-ABC News’ Fergal Gallagher
Mar 23, 10:53 am
Sending NATO peacekeepers to Ukraine would be ‘very reckless’, Russia warns
Russia warned Wednesday that sending NATO peacekeepers to Ukraine would be “a very reckless and extremely dangerous decision.”
Last week, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that Poland will formally submit a proposal at the NATO summit on Thursday for a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on Poland’s plans while speaking to reporters Wednesday.
“It would be a very reckless and extremely dangerous decision,” Peskov said. “A special military operation is going on, and any possible contact by our troops with NATO troops can lead to quite clear consequences that would be hard to repair.”
Mar 23, 10:32 am
Russia claims US isn’t interested in progress in Ukraine
Russia claimed Wednesday that the United States isn’t interested in the rapid progress of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
During a speech to students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in Russia’s capital, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Washington of wanting to keep Moscow and Kyiv “in a state of hostilities” for “as long as possible.”
“Negotiations are difficult because the Ukrainian side seems to have expressed understanding of the things that should be agreed upon during the negotiations, constantly changing its position, refusing its own proposals,” Lavrov said. “It is difficult to get rid of the impression that they are being held by the hand by their American colleagues.”
He alleged “it is unprofitable” for the U.S. “that this process be completed quickly.”
“They expect to continue pumping weapons to Ukraine. Provocative statements are being made,” he added. “Apparently they want to keep us as long as possible in a state of hostilities.”
Mar 23, 10:27 am
US military aid begins to arrive in Ukraine
The first deliveries from the $800 million-military assistance that President Joe Biden authorized for Ukraine a week ago have started to arrive, a White House official confirmed to ABC News.
The military aid package includes Stinger anti-aircraft systems; Javelin anti-armor weapons; light anti-armor weapons; AT-4 anti-armor systems and tactical unmanned aerial systems.
CNN first reported the deliveries.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Mar 23, 10:11 am
Video shows entire neighborhoods destroyed in Mariupol
Video has emerged showing the devastation in Ukraine’s besieged city of Mariupol.
Drone footage recorded Wednesday and released by a Ukrainian right-wing paramilitary group that has been incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard shows entire neighborhoods destroyed in Mariupol. Mere shells are all that remain of buildings and smoke is still rising from some of the wreckage. The video has been verified by ABC News.
Ukrainian troops are continuing to battle persistent efforts by Russian forces to seize the strategic port city in southeastern Ukraine.
-ABC News’ Fergal Gallagher
Mar 23, 9:39 am
Russia, Ukraine agree on nine humanitarian corridors for Wednesday
Russia and Ukraine have agreed on nine humanitarian corridors to try to evacuate civilians trapped in embattled Ukrainian towns and cities on Wednesday, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
But the agreement does not include a safe passage from the heart of Mariupol, Vereshchuk said in an address Wednesday, adding that she hopes people wishing to leave the besieged southeastern port city can make it to nearby Berdyansk, where humanitarian aid awaits them. She said 24 buses are on standby to transport people.
Some of the previous attempts to evacuate civilians from Mariupol have failed after Russian forces continued to shell the city, despite agreeing to temporary cease-fires.
Mar 23, 9:17 am
Belarus expels several Ukrainian diplomats, closes Ukrainian Consulate General
Belarus announced Wednesday its decision to expel several Ukrainian diplomats and close the Ukrainian Consulate General in Brest.
“The Ukrainian embassy will continue to work in Belarus in a 1+4 format, that is, an ambassador and four staff members,” Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Anatoly Glaz said in a statement, according to the state-run news agency BelTA.
Mar 23, 8:27 am
Ukraine says 100,000 remain trapped in besieged Mariupol
Fierce fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces continued in Mariupol on Wednesday morning, with the Ukrainian government warning that as many as 100,000 people remain trapped in the besieged port city.
One Mariupol resident, who managed to escape with her elderly parents and four cats, told ABC News her home had no electricity or heat and that she would have to scavenge for food and other supplies under Russian bombardment. She recalled seeing bodies strewn in the streets because residents had no choice but to leave them there.
“We understood anytime we might be killed by the next bomb,” she said during an interview Tuesday.
Pro-Russia separatist forces from the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic in Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region said Wednesday that 562 civilians, including 110 children, were evacuated from encircled Mariupol to the occupied town of Bezymenne in the past 24 hours. A total of 4,621 civilians were evacuated from Mariupol between March 5 and March 23, according to the separatist forces.
Mar 23, 7:59 am
Russia claims to have swapped prisoners with Ukraine
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners twice since the start of the war, according to Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova.
“Two prisoner exchanges have been completed between Russia and Ukraine,” Zakharova said in a statement Wednesday.
Mar 23, 7:56 am
Poland expels 45 Russian diplomats for espionage
Russia’s ambassador to Poland, Sergey Andreev, said Wednesday that he has received a note from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanding the expulsion of 45 Russian diplomats on charges of espionage.
The diplomats must leave Poland within five days, according to Andreev.
The news came after a spokesperson for Poland’s Internal Security Agency announced on Polish television that authorities had compiled a list of 45 Russian diplomats in the country who were suspected of spying.
Mar 23, 7:45 am
Two residential areas of Kyiv shelled overnight, officials say
Russian shelling hit two residential areas of Kyiv on Tuesday night, according to the city administration.
A shopping center and two private houses were damaged in the Sviatoshynskyi district of the Ukrainian capital, but no one was injured and the fires have been extinguished, officials said.
Several private houses and high-rise buildings were on fire in the Shevchenkivskyi district, where four people were injured. Rescuers and medics were still on the scene Wednesday, and the extent of the damage was under assessment, according to officials.
Mar 23, 7:32 am
Russia doesn’t believe claims of civilian deaths in Ukraine
Moscow doesn’t believe Kyiv’s claims of civilian deaths in Ukraine caused by Russian forces, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.
“We don’t believe the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office. Russian troops are carrying out no strikes, aren’t firing on civilians,” Peskov told reporters during a daily call. “Russian servicemen are helping civilians and, regrettably, more and more eyewitnesses get out of the cities saying that they are being held there as human shields, and that nationalist battalions are firing — and there are plenty of such cases — on civilians.”
Mar 23, 6:42 am
Over 3.6 million refugees have fled Ukraine: UNHCR
More than 3.6 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the United Nations refugee agency.
The tally from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) amounts to just over 8% of Ukraine’s population — which the World Bank counted at 44 million at the end of 2020 — on the move across borders in 28 days.
More than half of the refugees crossed into neighboring Poland, UNHCR figures show.
Mar 23, 5:45 am
Russian forces allegedly destroy Ukrainian weapons depot
Russia claimed Wednesday that its forces carried out an airstrike destroying a weapons depot of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The Russian Ministry of Defense also alleged that troops have destroyed 430 aircraft, including drones, as well as more than 1,500 tanks and other combat armoured vehicles belonging to the Ukrainian Armed Forces since the “special military operation” began Feb. 24.
Mar 23, 5:20 am
Talks with Moscow ‘are moving forward,’ Zelenskyy says
Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are “very difficult” but “moving forward,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday.
“It’s very difficult, sometimes confrontational,” Zelenskyy said in an early morning address. “But step by step, we are moving forward.”
Zelenskyy added that he is “grateful to all international mediators who are standing up for Ukraine.”
(NEW YORK) — Jennifer Dornan-Fish is marking two years grappling with the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on her body.
She said her road to recovery from the virus has been mired in a “bewildering array” of agonizing and debilitating new symptoms — which gradually emerged after she had already fended off her initial infection.
A couple weeks after testing positive in March 2020, it seemed like Dornan-Fish had made it mostly out of the woods. However, the healthy 46-year-old said she struggled with COVID fatigue and labored breath but avoided hospitalization.
She said she was “convincing myself I was on the mend” and was anxious “to jump back into” her busy life finishing her next book and homeschooling her son. But then, “everything started going haywire.”
Dornan-Fish told ABC News her doctors have diagnosed her with Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC) — the official term for long COVID symptoms. She has been tested for autoimmune issues like lupus, multiple sclerosis, Ankylosing spondylitis, along with blood cancers, to rule other, non-COVID causes out.
“It wasn’t like I just crashed all at once,” Dornan-Fish, now 48, said. “One little thing went wrong. Then another. And it just got worse and worse until – I have honestly very little memory of the first few months. I was so out of it.”
She began getting painful, itchy rashes on her thigh and shoulder, and her gums.
Then came “coat hanger pain” in her shoulders and neck. Then the brain fog. The front of her throat felt tight, as though an invisible hand was clamping down on her breath.
“I call it the ‘COVID choke,'” she said.
“I could barely talk,” she said. “The brain fog has really, to be honest, been the most disturbing symptom of them all. I make my living writing, thinking, so to not be able to do that was terrifying.”
Getting out of bed for more than a few minutes would take everything she had.
“My husband had to feed me, he would bring me meals. I could barely sit up. I couldn’t wash myself. I couldn’t take care of my child,” she said. “I was just surviving.”
In that first year of the pandemic, scant medical treatment existed for the mysterious virus which had overrun intensive care units around the world — let alone a tried-and-true way to fight COVID’s prolonged effects.
Dornan-Fish saw a “round-robin” of specialists — a “trial and error” process, which she said has been exhausting.
“I tried a million different things,” she said.
She started getting new allergies: she was hospitalized for a reaction to baby aspirin, which she had been taking to avoid the blood clots she had heard were associated with COVID. She had a reaction to her family’s longtime kitchen cleaner.
“I almost went into anaphylaxis from a scented trash bag,” she said.
About nine months out from her initial COVID infection, Jennifer started having tremors.
“My doctor called them ‘seizure-like,'” she said. “We don’t know what they were.”
Over time, her allergies seemed to start improving. Her brain fog got a little better. But the tremors got “much worse,” and took new forms.
“I’m not actually shaking on the outside, but it feels like a vibrating cell phone in my chest. Or, like there’s an earthquake inside me,” she said.
“For a little while — and it has gotten better — but a bird would cheep outside the window, and I would jump,” she said. “Not to be glib, but I’ve lived in the jungles of Belize and have killed poisonous deadly snakes with machetes. Like, I do not jump at cheeping birds.”
Her son, now 13 years old, has seen how post-COVID has ravaged her health.
“He sometimes says, ‘mom, when you’re better, I can’t wait ’til we play this game again,'” she said. “‘When you’re better–‘ it breaks my heart.”
What was once understood as a respiratory virus has emerged, for many, as an all-out attack on the system. Researchers are pushing to find better treatments to help long-haulers — and better answers to understand why they’re impacted for so long, with more than a billion federal dollars devoted to studying COVID’s prolonged health consequences.
Some theories from experts include a person having a particularly high viral load when they first get sick; or lingering COVID viral particles sticking around in the body even after a person has “cleared” their initial infection; or another virus that was previously latent getting reactivated, like Epstein-Barr.
After even a mild initial infection, many COVID survivors across a diverse age group still report exhaustion, cognitive problems and other symptoms. Studies so far estimate as much as 10% to 30% of people who get COVID may later develop long-hauler symptoms.
It has not been a comfortable adjustment for Dornan-Fish. Before COVID, she recalled being able to hike and run for more than 10 miles at a time.
“Before COVID, I took a daily multivitamin,” she said. “Now I take four medications, eight supplements, every day. Two years later, I still have tremors, rashes, crushing fatigue, nerve pain and a swelling throat.”
Of the treatments she has tried, it’s “hard to tell whether it’s my body naturally healing? Or are these things that I’m trying working?” she said.
Meanwhile, physicians have focused on managing symptoms. While firmer treatment protocols are under review, at this time, there are no conclusive data or recommendations regarding the use of supplements in the treatment of long-COVID.
At first Dornan-Fish said she took a beta blocker, a medication sometimes used for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), which helps to reduce heart rate. That seemed to help, she said, but had to stop when it dropped her blood pressure too low.
D-ribose, a carbohydrate naturally produced by the body and supplement aimed at boosting energy, was the first thing she said helped her move around more regularly. She’s been taking high-dose B vitamins, CoQ10, and NADH, which she said have helped boost her energy. She’s been taking Dexedrine for the brain fog — a stimulant approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat ADHD and narcolepsy, which works by increasing the release of neurotransmitters involved in memory, attention and mood.
She has also taken Ketotifen — an eyedrop antihistamine. She said she has also taken DHA; D and K vitamins; and Floradix for anemia.
She said meditation and breathwork have also helped calm her autonomic nervous system. Gradually, Dornan-Fish has felt some of her strength return.
“I’m ready for a game changer,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be a silver bullet, but I would definitely like something that makes a more significant difference in my ability to function.”
(NEW YORK) — One mother is dedicated to reaffirming that her daughter is beyond beautiful.
Nicole Hall’s daughter, Winry, was born with an extremely rare birthmark called congenital melanocytic nevi, or CMN. As such, the 13-month-old has a trait that makes her distinct from other children.
“When they first handed her to me, I thought it was a bruise,” Hall told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “It was then quickly apparent to my husband and I that it was not a bruise. And like the name, I thought it looked a lot like a mole.”
According to the report by the National Organization for Rare Diseases by Dr. Harper Price of Phoenix Children’s Hospital and Dr. Heather Etchevers of Marseille Medical Genetics, CMN can be light brown to black patches, can present in various ways, and may cover nearly any size area or any part of the body.
Instead of being sad about her daughter’s circumstances, Hall said she utilized the power of social media to promote awareness about CMN and to encourage others that being “different” is your superpower.
“For a lot of people, this is the first time seeing a birthmark like hers and that’s part of why I enjoy sharing,” Hall said. “This is a good conversation for parents with their children to see kids have differences, or for those parents who do have a kid that looks like Winry or has any kind of a birthmark to see their child represented.”
According to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Winry’s diagnosis could put her at a higher risk of developing melanoma. But Hall said she worries less about the risk of cancer than about the frequency of bullying she may experience as she gets older.
Still, Hall said she stays on top of things by taking extra measures to protect her skin.
“Her health and happiness are our top priority. We have to monitor her with sunscreen. I’m careful with hats and that sort of thing,” Hall said. “I know our regular dermatology appointment is probably going to be our best friend growing up.”
Her mom said Winry’s character is what truly sets her apart.
“She just radiates joy. She’s almost always laughing or shrieking. She is just the happiest baby I have ever seen,” Hall said. “She’s a big talker already. We haven’t got a whole lot of words out, but she tells you like it is and she’s already getting a little bit of sassiness, so I think we’re gonna have a lot on our hands.”
The massive following she has cultivated on TikTok has allowed Hall to virtually meet people from across the globe with a similar background to her daughter.
“We’ve got to talk to several people from Brazil with birthmarks,” Hall said. “One of them has one that is almost identical to Winry and it’s been so fun to talk to her because she’s almost exactly my age.”
(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are putting up “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The attack began Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.”
Russian forces moving from neighboring Belarus toward Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, have advanced closer to the city center in recent days despite the resistance. Heavy shelling and missile attacks, many on civilian buildings, continue in Kyiv, as well as major cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol. Russia also bombed western cities for the first time this week, targeting Lviv and a military base near the Poland border.
Russia has been met by sanctions from the United States, Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting the Russian economy as well as Putin himself.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 24, 5:48 am
NATO leaders pose for photo ahead of emergency summit
NATO leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, posed for a photo at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels on Thursday ahead of an emergency summit, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine grants into a second month.
Biden stood in the front row in between NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Biden and Stoltenberg were the last of the leaders to arrive for the photo-op. As they walked in the room, Biden ignored a question from a reporter about what his message is to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Instead, Biden went to shake hands with Johnson and then greeted French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi
Mar 24, 5:20 am
Biden arrives at NATO headquarters for emergency summit
U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Brussels on Thursday morning ahead of an emergency NATO summit to discuss the Western defense alliance’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The European diplomatic capital is also hosting a gathering of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and a summit of the 27 members of the European Union on Thursday. Biden is scheduled to attend all three meetings and hold a press conference at the end of the day.
Upon his arrival at NATO headquarters, Biden was greeted by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. The two leaders stood and spoke for a few moments, though their conversation was inaudible. Biden and Stoltenberg then walked into the building and down the hallway, where they did not stop to speak to reporters who asked whether Russia’s potential use of chemical weapons in Ukraine are a red line that would trigger a response from NATO.
Biden and Stolenberg will now meet privately before taking a photo with other NATO leaders.
Earlier Thursday, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced the same question from reporters when he arrived at NATO headquarters.
“Look, I think that the reality is that President Putin has already crossed a red line in barbarism and it’s now up to NATO to consider together the appalling crisis in Ukraine, the appalling suffering of the people of Ukraine,” Johnson replied. “And see what more we can do to help the people of Ukraine protect themselves. See what more we can do to tighten the economic vice around the Putin regime.”
Mar 24, 5:03 am
Ukraine calls Russian military ‘a gang of terrorists’
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov on Thursday lambasted Russia’s military as “a gang of terrorists, criminals and cowards” who she claimed are committing war crimes.
In a statement posted on her official Facebook account, Reznikov marked one month since Russian forces invaded Ukraine and warned that Ukrainians “still have a very difficult period ahead.”
“The Russian military machine will not stop until it is drenched in the blood of its soldiers,” Reznikov said.
Earlier this month, Russian troops opened fire on a nursing home in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kreminna, killing 56 people, according to Reznikov.
“This is not an accidental hit,” she said. “This is the deliberate killing of defenseless people — a war crime. That’s why the Russian army is a gang of terrorists, criminals and cowards.”
Still, Reznikov remained confident that Ukrainian forces will prevail with international support.
“We will drive them out. We will rebuild everything,” she added. “We will clean our land from the effects of war. It will take a lot of effort and time.”
Mar 24, 4:36 am
Russian military leaders repeatedly decline calls from US counterparts
Top Russian defense and military leaders have repeatedly declined telephone calls from their U.S. counterparts since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, according to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
Kirby said in a statement Wednesday that, over the last month, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, “have sought, and continued to seek, calls with” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. But the Russians “have so far declined to engage,” he said.
“We continue to believe that engagement between U.S. and Russian defense leaders is critically important at this time,” Kirby added.
Mar 24, 3:31 am
US slams Russia’s plans to partially reopen stock market
The United States is slamming Russia’s plans to reopen its stock market for limited trading on Thursday for the first time in a month since Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
“What we’re seeing is a charade: a Potemkin market opening,” White House deputy national security adviser Daleep Singh said in a statement early Thursday. “After keeping its markets closed for nearly a month, Russia announced it will only allow 15% of listed shares to trade, foreigners are prohibited from selling their shares, and short selling in general has been banned. Meanwhile, Russia has made clear they are going to pour government resources into artificially propping up the shares of companies that are trading.”
“This is not a real market and not a sustainable model—which only underscores Russia’s isolation from the global financial system,” he added. “The United States and our allies and partners will continue taking action to further isolate Russia from the international economic order as long it continues its brutal war against Ukraine.”
Shares plunged and the Moscow Exchange was shut down following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Mar 23, 11:39 pm
White House team plans for worst-case scenarios, including chemical attacks
A team set up by the White House has been gaming out worst-case scenarios in Ukraine, mostly focused on the possibility Russia carries out chemical and biological attacks, according to a National Security Council official.
The so-called “Tiger Team,” set up at the request of national security adviser Jake Sullivan in late February after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, has analyzed the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons, but the NSC official emphasized that is not the team’s focus. The official said the group is mostly focused on protecting supply chains, security operations of U.S. personnel and planning for chemical or biological weapon attacks.
U.S. officials have repeatedly warned that Russia may be considering using chemical weapons in Ukraine and say Russian allegations that Ukrainians were developing chemical weapons may be a pretense to use such weapons themselves.
(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon has been providing daily updates on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Ukraine’s efforts to resist.
Here are highlights of what a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Wednesday on Day 28:
Russian troops face major setback east of Kyiv and moving into defensive positions
In a significant movement, Ukraine’s military forces have pushed back Russian forces east of Kyiv to 55 kilometers from the city center, according to a senior defense official.
For weeks, and as recently as Tuesday, Russian forces have been kept at bay approximately 20 to 30 kilometers from the center of the capital city.
The official said that Ukrainian forces near Bovary “have been able to push the Russians back to about 55 kilometers east and northeast of Kyiv.”
The ability to push back Russian forces nearly twice as far as where they had been for weeks is in line with what the official had said on Tuesday were indications that in some areas Ukrainian forces were attempting to retake territory taken by Russia. “Ukrainians are not only in some of these places up sufficiently defending they’re going on the offense in some of these places and actually pushing the Russians backwards, or in the case of Kiev, they’re, they’re basically forcing them into a defensive position,” the official said Wednesday.
The U.S. now assesses that Russian troops that have been stalled 12 to 15 kilometers north of the city are “digging in” and establishing defensive positions according to the official. “They’re forcing them into a defensive position” the official told reporters on Wednesday. “So it’s not that they’re not advancing, they’re actually not trying to advance right now,” said the official. “They’re taking more defensive positions.”
“We’re starting to see him sort of dig in around Kyiv but really trying to go more on the offense than they have been, more energy applied, in that eastern part of Ukraine” said the official.
Ukrainians pushing back Russian troops in Cherniviv
Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops in the city of Chernihiv, northeast of Kyiv, have also succeeded in slightly pushing back some of the Russian forces that have surrounded the city for weeks. The official described Ukrainians forces there as continuing to fight “very hard” against Russian forces to keep them out of the city and in some cases Russian troops have been “ceding ground.” “They are actually moving in the opposite direction, but not by much,” the official said of Russian forces around the city.
Russian troops now prioritizing operations in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region
The official said Russia appears to be “starting to prioritize” their operations in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, particularly around Luhansk, to cut off Ukraine’s military that has been fighting there against Russian separatists for the past eight years. “We still believe that the Russians are trying to basically cut it off and therefore pin down Ukrainian forces that are that are in the Luhansk, Donetsk area,” said the official.
“What we’re seeing now is indications that the Russians are really starting to prioritize that part of eastern Ukraine,” said the official. “We believe that they are now going to start to apply, actually, they have applied a lot more energy in the Luhansk, Donetsk area, particularly around Luhansk. You’re seeing them really put more energy and effort into that part of Ukraine.”
The official has previously said that it appears that the Russian forces fighting to take over the southern port city of Mariupol so they can then push north into the Donbass to cut off the Ukrainian military. Meanwhile, the fighting in that city remains “very very contested” according to the official who also described the fighting there between Russian and Ukrainian troops as being “hardcore.” The official noted that Russian forces continue to heavily bombard the city with artillery and long range missile fire.
Meanwhile, it appears that recent Russian military activity around the western port city of Odessa that led to speculation of an attack on the city may have been a feint intended to “pin down Ukrainian forces.” “It’s not entirely it’s not entirely obvious that they actually will make a move on Odessa,” said the official. “So we’re just we’re just kind of watching that to see to see where it goes.”
More US troops going forward to eastern Europe?
The official said that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is always assessing the U.S. military presence in eastern Europe and has not “taken off the table” the possibility “that he will flow more forces in from the United States or reposition from elsewhere in Europe.”
But for now there are no announcements to make said the official who added that it’s unclear what the U.S. military posture in eastern Europe will look like going forward. “Certainly, the security environment in Europe is different now. And it will be different that it will be different no matter what the outcome is of this war,” said the official.
“I think it’s safe to say that the United States as well as other NATO nations will be taken a hard look at what it whether we have the footprint right and whether the posture is appropriate to the new security environment that results from all this,” the official said.
Russia has lots of missiles left to use
According to the official, Russia has now launched more than 1,200 missiles into Ukraine, but “we still assess that they have the vast majority of their of their assembled available inventory of surface to air missiles and cruise missiles available to them.” Though the Russian military has expended a lot of the missile inventory readied for operations in Ukraine the official noted that “they still have an awful lot left.”
The official said that Russia’s military is “running the lowest on our air launched cruise missiles” but that they still have “over 50% of what they had assembled prior to the invasion. But they still have a significant number of ground launched cruise missiles, short range ballistic missiles, and medium range ballistic missiles.
(NEW YORK) — During a news conference Wednesday, Chinese authorities said that they believe the recovered device is the cockpit voice recorder. It was found in the main impact point of the crash and has been sent to Beijing for repair and analysis, officials said.
Authorities publicly acknowledged for the first time that human remains were found at the crash site.
Investigators are still searching for the second recorder that stores flight data, including airspeed, altitude and wing flap positions.
Early data shows the Boeing 737-800 plunged from 29,000 feet to 8,000 feet, leveled off and then went into a freefall, exploding into a fireball that was seen and filmed by people nearby. One video showed the plane nose-diving into the ground.
“What that cockpit voice recorder is going to tell us is what were the pilots saying to each other. What were they doing? It will mean the difference between being able to say, okay, obviously, they had a major emergency they were fighting all the way down, or maybe there was only one person in the cockpit. We don’t know,” said ABC News contributor John Nance, a former commercial pilot.
The plane crashed after taking off from Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan province. The flight was headed to Guangzhou, a port city northwest of Hong Kong, Chinese officials said.
Air traffic controllers made repeated attempts to radio the flight crew when they noticed the aircraft’s rapid descent but were unable to restore communications with the crew before the crash, Chinese officials said.
U.S. intelligence doesn’t have a clear theory on what led to the plane crashing. A source tells ABC News they aren’t ruling anything out, including a possible intentional downing.
“Having an airliner impact the ground as fast as this is going, almost to the speed of sound, means that it’s going to pulverize the airplane and everything in it,” Nance said. “However, the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder are in the tail of the airplane, which slows down considerably by the time they reach the ground. Consequently, even though the box is mangled, the chip inside it can withstand almost 100 G’s, so that should be OK.”
As a precaution, China Eastern Airline grounded its fleet of Boeing 737-800s on Wednesday.
Members of the U.S. National Safety Transportation Board, the Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing and engine-maker CFM International are all joining the probe.
ABC News’ Amanda Maile contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The nation’s first Black woman nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, cleared 19-hours of grueling questioning at the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, appearing headed toward confirmation as a justice with support from all Democrats and a small number of Republicans.
“In my capacity as a justice, I would do what I’ve done for the past decade,” Jackson told the committee on her third day of testimony, “which is to rule from a position of neutrality, to look carefully at the facts and… to render rulings that I believe and that I hope that people would have confidence in.”
The three days of hearings reached an emotional climax during a dramatic soliloquy by Sen. Cory Booker who, reflecting on the historic nature of the moment, moved Jackson to tears.
“You did not get there because of some left wing agenda. You didn’t get here because of some dark money groups. You got here how every Black woman in America who has gotten anywhere has done,” Booker said. “You are worthy. You are a great American.”
Here are several key takeaways from testimony on Wednesday:
Judge Jackson fights back
Cool and restrained under fire on Tuesday, Judge Jackson’s performance Wednesday was noticeably more confident, emotive and dynamic in responding to Republican criticism of her record.
“I have spoken at length throughout this hearing about these cases. I have said what I’m going to say,” Jackson bluntly told Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who continued to press the judge over sentences she handed down in child porn cases.
Jackson sparred defiantly with Sen. Josh Hawley, who repeatedly pushed explosive allegations that the judge had endangered children by letting child porn offenders “off the hook.”
“My question is, do you regret it or not?” the senator asked of one of the cases, in which the offender was sentenced to three months behind bars.
“Senator, what I regret is that in a hearing about my qualifications to be a justice on the Supreme Court we’ve spent a lot of time focusing on this small subset of my sentences,” Jackson fired back.
Recusing from major affirmative action case
One of the first and most significant cases Jackson would hear as a justice, if confirmed, is a challenge to Harvard University’s use of race in college admissions. On Wednesday, Jackson said she plans to recuse herself from the case.
“That is my plan,” she told Cruz, a fellow Harvard graduate.
Jackson, a double Harvard graduate, currently sits on the school’s Board of Overseers that “provides counsel to the University’s leadership on priorities, plans, and strategic initiatives,” according to its website.
Jackson’s six-year term concludes on May 26, a school spokesperson said. Supreme Court oral arguments in the school’s case would be heard several months later.
Federal law stipulates that federal judges must recuse themselves from cases whenever their “impartiality might reasonably be questioned” or when “the judge has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party, or personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning the proceeding.”
Enforcement of the rules on the Supreme Court is by honor system, leaving it to each justice individually to decide when it’s appropriate to recuse from a case. Several independent ethics watchdogs have said it would be prudent for Jackson to step aside from the case if she’s on the bench.
Jackson mum on court expansion, cameras, shadow docket
The size of the Supreme Court at nine justices is determined by lawmakers in Congress – not the justices themselves. Nevertheless, several members of the committee asked Jackson about her view of progressive calls to expand the size of the court to compensate for its conservative majority.
“I’m a human being and I have an opinion on a lot of things. The reason why, in my view, it is not appropriate for me to comment is because of my fidelity to the judicial role,” she told Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. “I understand it’s a political question and that is precisely why I think that I am uncomfortable speaking to it.”
The current members of the court, including Jackson’s mentor Justice Stephen Breyer, have publicly come out against expanding the court.
“She refuses to rule out what the radical activists want,” Republican Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell said of her answer on the Senate floor. “I’m not sure Judge Jackson’s secret opinion on court-packing is as secret as she thinks it is.”
Several Democratic senators raised issues of transparency around the court — allowing cameras in the courtroom and reducing the use of so-called “shadow docket” cases to make significant pronouncements — and urged Jackson to consider them if she makes it there. She said she would discuss the matters with her would-be peers but declined to take a firm position.
Deciding porn punishments
Several Republicans sought to prompt Jackson to elaborate on the reasoning behind her sentences of some child pornography offenders to sentences below federal guidelines and below what government prosecutors requested.
“It seems as though you’re a very kind person and there’s at least a level of empathy that enters into your treatment of a defendant that some could view as — maybe beyond what some of us would be comfortable with respect to administering justice,” said Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.
Jackson explained that Congress tasked judges with delivering punishments aimed at rehabilitation, not just retribution, considering a multitude of factors beyond federal guidelines. (A Supreme Court decision authored by Justice Antonin Scalia said the guidelines could not be made mandatory, she noted.)
“My attempts to communicate directly with defendants is about public safety, because most of the people who are incarcerated via the federal system…will come out, will be a part of our communities again,” she said.
In a separate exchange, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., disparaged Jackson for coupling prison sentences for child porn offenders with “substantial supervision” after release.
“You think it is a bigger deterrent to take somebody who’s on a computer looking at sexual images of children, in the disgusting way, is to supervise their computer habits versus putting ’em in jail?” he asked.
“No, senator. I didn’t say ‘versus,'” Jackson shot back.
Praise from Republicans
While GOP Sens. Graham, Cruz, Hawley and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., grabbed attention with their highly critical exchanges with Jackson, several Republicans on the panel offered more thoughtful and measured scrutiny of her record — including praise for Jackson after their questions had ended.
“You’re going to be a hero. You are already a hero to lots and lots of kids,” Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska told the nominee.
“I believe we still haven’t heard the judicial philosophy, and I wish I’d made more progress with you on that,” Sasse said, but “I want to thank you…for what you have endured and for spending time with us.”
Tillis, one of the few GOP members of the committee who sat in the chamber for nearly the entirety of the 19 hours of questions, also had notably warm words for the nominee.
“I thought you’ve done a great job over the last two days,” Tillis told Jackson. “I thought that you presented yourself well. There was a lot of pressure. And that demonstrates a certain temperament or poise.”
“I just want to commend you, your family, your daughter, who has been glowing every time you talk, and I appreciate your service,” he said.
Neither Sasse nor Tillis has said whether they would vote in favor of Jackson. Both opposed her elevation to the federal appeals court last year.
(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are putting up “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The attack began Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.”
Russian forces moving from neighboring Belarus toward Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, have advanced closer to the city center in recent days despite the resistance. Heavy shelling and missile attacks, many on civilian buildings, continue in Kyiv, as well as major cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol. Russia also bombed western cities for the first time this week, targeting Lviv and a military base near the Poland border.
Russia has been met by sanctions from the United States, Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting the Russian economy as well as Putin himself.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 23, 8:58 pm
64 attacks on health care facilities since start of invasion: WHO
There have been over 60 attacks on health care facilities since Russia invaded Ukraine, according to the World Health Organization, which said it “condemns these attacks in the strongest possible terms.”
WHO has verified 64 such incidents between Feb. 24 and March 21 — about two to three attacks per day — resulting in 15 deaths and 37 injuries, the organization said in a statement Wednesday assessing the impact of the war on Ukraine’s health infrastructure.
“Attacks on health care are a violation of international humanitarian law, but a disturbingly common tactic of war — they destroy critical infrastructure, but worse, they destroy hope,” Dr. Jarno Habicht, WHO representative in Ukraine, said in a statement. “They deprive already vulnerable people of care that is often the difference between life and death. Health care is not — and should never be — a target.”
Among other health care impacts amid the war, many hospitals are limiting primary health care and essential services to focus on treating the wounded, it said. Nearly 1,000 health facilities are also close to conflict lines or in seized areas, and about half of the country’s pharmacies are believed to have closed, according to WHO.
“The consequence of that — limited or no access to medicines, facilities and health professionals — mean that treatments of chronic conditions have almost stopped,” it said.
Additionally, 1 in 4 Ukrainians have been “forcibly displaced” by the war, “aggravating the condition of those suffering from noncommunicable diseases,” the organization said.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 23, 8:26 pm
Russian humanitarian resolution on Ukraine defeated in UN
The United Nations Security Council defeated a resolution put forward by Russia on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
In a symbolic gesture, 13 members of the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday abstained from voting on the resolution, which made no mention of Russia’s role in creating the crisis and had been roundly criticized by members. Only Russia and China voted in favor.
No country voted against it, including the veto-wielding United States, United Kingdom or French envoys.
“To be honest, it was not necessary to veto, and I don’t think the resolution that was put before us was worthy of the U.S. using its precious veto power,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Mar 23, 7:48 pm
Zelenskyy marks 1 month of war with plea for global support
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked the one-month anniversary of Russia’s invasion by calling on the world’s population to publicly and peacefully show their support for Ukraine.
“The war of Russia is not only the war against Ukraine, its meaning is much wider,” Zelenskyy said, pivoting from speaking in Ukrainian to English during his latest address. “Russia started the war against freedom as it is.”
“This is only the beginning for Russia on the Ukrainian land,” he continued. “Russia is trying to defeat the freedom of all people in Europe, of all the people in the world. It tries to show that only crude and cruel force matters. It tries to show that people do not matter as well as everything else that make us people. That’s the reason we all must stop Russia.”
He urged the global community to “stand against the war” on March 24 — the one-month anniversary of the start of the invasion.
“Come from your offices, your homes, your schools and universities. Come in the name of peace. Come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life,” he said. “Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard. Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters.”
-ABC News’ Desiree Adib
Mar 23, 7:07 pm
Ukraine’s UN ambassador details ‘humanitarian disaster’
The Ukrainian ambassador called attention to the humanitarian crisis that’s unfolded in the weeks following Russia’s invasion during an emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.
“Tomorrow will be another symbolic date, a month since the lives of millions of Ukrainians were split in two parts,” Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said while speaking on a resolution put forward by Ukraine. “A peaceful past full of joy and positive plans, and the present with war, suffering, death, and destruction. Thousands of Ukrainians have lost their lives over this month — young and old, women and men, civilians and military.”
Kyslytsya further detailed the “humanitarian disaster” caused by the war.
“People are starving to death in the occupied or besieged areas. People are being killed in their attempt to flee from conflict-affected areas. Cities are razed to the ground by shelling and airstrikes,” he said.
The ambassador urged countries to vote in favor of the resolution put forward by his country, entitled “Humanitarian Consequences of the Aggression Against Ukraine.”
“It will be critical to prevent the spillover effect for the entire world,” he said. “That is why the text also mentions the impact of the conflict on food security globally, in particular in the least-developed countries, as well as energy security.”
-ABC News’ Zoha Qamar
Mar 23, 5:18 pm
Ukraine military forcing Russia into ‘defensive position’ near Kyiv: US official
Russian forces west of Kyiv are “digging in” and moving into a “defensive position,” according to a senior U.S. defense official.
“It’s not that they’re not advancing, they’re actually not trying to advance right now,” the official told reporters Wednesday. “They’re taking more defensive positions.”
East of Kyiv, Ukrainian forces near Brovary have pushed the Russians “back to about 55 km” (roughly 34 miles) east and northeast of Kyiv, according to the official. That update comes a day after the official said Russian forces had stalled at between 20 and 30 miles east and northeast of Kyiv.
Ukrainian authorities claimed earlier Wednesday that they have managed to encircle the Russian forces that had advanced on Kyiv and were in some key towns on the edge of the capital. They said they had managed to push back Russian troops from the northwestern town of Irpin, although it was still being shelled.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez and Patrick Reevell
Mar 23, 4:40 pm
Russia claims forces have made advances, destroyed Ukrainian military assets
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed on Wednesday that its forces have advanced another 2 kilometers and are fighting against units of Ukraine’s 54th Separate Mechanized Brigade in the southern and southeastern outskirts of Novo-Mikhaylovka.
Russia said troops it backs in Donetsk inflicted fire damage to Ukraine’s units of the 25th Airborne Brigade fighting for the capture of Kamenka and Novobakhmutovka.
Russia claimed it hit 86 Ukrainian military assets, among them six command posts; two rocket-launch systems and 49 areas of concentration of equipment and military hardware.
The ministry also claimed Russian forces shot down nine Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles near Izyum, Kiev, Sumy, Kharkov and Chernigov.
Russia said it destroyed 255 unmanned aerial vehicles, 189 anti-aircraft missile systems, 1,564 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 158 multiple launch rocket systems, 612 field artillery and mortars, as well as 1,367 units of special military vehicles since the beginning of the invasion.
Mar 23, 4:31 pm
IAEA ready to send experts, equipment to Ukraine
The International Atomic Energy Agency is ready to send experts and equipment to Ukraine to help ensure the safety and security of its nuclear facilities and prevent the risk of a severe accident, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said Wednesday.
In a video statement, Grossi said he is gravely concerned about the situation and stressed the urgent need to conclude an agreed framework that would enable the IAEA to provide technical assistance for the safe and secure operation of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities, which include 15 reactors a well as the Chernobyl site.
“I have personally expressed my readiness to immediately come to Ukraine to conclude such an agreement, which would include substantial assistance and support measures, including on-site presence of IAEA experts at different facilities in Ukraine, as well as the delivery of vital safety equipment,” Grossi said.
He added: “I hope to be able to conclude this agreed framework without further delay. We cannot afford to lose any more time. We need to act now.”
-ABC News’ Rashid Haddou
Mar 23, 4:10 pm
US watching Russian propaganda surrounding chemical weapons
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Wednesday that the U.S. is looking at the “deliberate drumbeat of misinformation” and propaganda from Moscow, which has “all the markers of a precursor” for them to use chemical weapons.
Earlier, President Joe Biden said there is a “real threat” of Russia using chemical weapons in Ukraine.
Sullivan declined to comment on whether Biden’s assessment was based on movements of weapons, or if it was based entirely on state propaganda.
Sullivan also commented on negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and said there are questions about Russia’s trustworthiness.
“I will point out that Russia has not been trustworthy in its public statements about its intentions with respect to Ukraine for months. So, we take everything that they say at the negotiating table, or from their podiums, with a very large grain of salt,” he said, talking to reporters on Air Force One.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Mar 23, 3:23 pm
US assesses ‘thousands’ of Ukrainian civilians have been killed
The U.S. has assessed that “thousands” of Ukrainian civilians have been killed by the war, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack said at a briefing on Wednesday.
Van Schaack declined to speak to particular incidents that back up this assessment, but when asked about the attack on the Mariupol theater, which had been marked that children were among those sheltering inside, she said it was a civilian target that the Russians should not have hit.
The U.S. earlier formally declared that Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Mar 23, 2:24 pm
At least 977 civilians killed, 1,594 injured in Ukraine: UN
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Wednesday that at least 977 civilians were killed and 1,594 have been injured in Ukraine since Feb. 24.
“Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes,” the OHCHR said in a statement.
The OHCHR said the actual number of casualties are considerably higher. Then receipt of information from some areas with intense hostilities, like Mariupol, have been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration.
Other areas where the number of casualties are still being corroborated include Volnovakha (Donetsk region), Izium (Kharkiv region), Sievierodonetsk and Rubizhne (Luhansk region), and Trostianets (Sumy region), where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties, according to the OHCHR. Casualty numbers from these regions are not included.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 23, 2:16 pm
US formally says Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday announced that the State Deptartment has made a formal assessment that Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.
Last week, President Joe Biden said he believed Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was a war criminal and Blinken told reporters he personally believed war crimes had been committed. But now, the agency has made a formal determination, Blinken said in a statement.
“Based on information currently available, the U.S. government assesses that members of Russia’s forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine,” Blinken said, citing a “careful review of available information from public and intelligence sources.”
Blinken added: “As with any alleged crime, a court of law with jurisdiction over the crime is ultimately responsible for determining criminal guilt in specific cases. The U.S. government will continue to track reports of war crimes and will share information we gather with allies, partners, and international institutions and organizations, as appropriate.”
Blinken said there are “numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities.”
“Russia’s forces have destroyed apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, critical infrastructure, civilian vehicles, shopping centers, and ambulances, leaving thousands of innocent civilians killed or wounded,” Blinken said.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Mar 23, 1:54 pm
Zelenskyy tells French lawmakers Mariupol resembles the ‘ruins of Verdun’
In an address to French lawmakers on Wednesday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Mariupol resembles the ruins of Verdun following the largest battle fought during WWI.
He said Russia brought “state terror” to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy called for increased sanctions against Russia, more arms for Ukraine and for French companies to leave the Russian market, naming Renault, Auchan and Leroy Merlin.
“You can help us. I know you can!” Zelenskyy said.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 23, 1:25 pm
Ukraine’s lead negotiator says talks with Russia may take months
Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Wednesday he believes the talks with Russia are absolutely “real” and that the Kremlin is not trying to use them to “stall for time” in order to regroup.
Podolyak, a senior aid to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told ABC News in an interview that he believes the Russians are looking to make a deal, but he warned Ukraine believes it’s possible it may take months.
He said Russia has stopped issuing ultimatums and is now in the process of seeing how far it has to lower its goals.
Asked if Ukraine is ready to give up its ambitions to join NATO, Russia’s key demand, Podolyak called on the U.S. to take the lead in forming a broader alliance that would give Ukraine security guarantees.
Zelenskyy has made it clear Ukraine is ready to potentially give up NATO membership, provided it gets security guarantees from Western countries that would protect it from a future Russian invasion.
When asked what that would look like, Podolyak suggested a potential security guarantee could be the U.S. and allies putting in writing that, in case of any future aggression from Russia, a no-fly zone would be put in place.
He has suggested that some NATO countries may be prepared to give those guarantees separate to NATO.
Podolyak also denied reports from several newspapers that claimed Russia and Ukraine are discussing a 15-point peace plan in which Ukraine would give up its NATO ambitions and accept some limits on its military in return for security guarantees from western countries.
He said for now, Russia and Ukraine both have drafts and Russia is leaking some of its drafts, pretending that it is a deal close to being signed.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Mar 23, 12:40 pm
Putin says ‘unfriendly countries’ will only be able to buy Russian gas in rubles
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his cabinet on Wednesday that Russia will require payments for natural gas in rubles, saying he will refuse to accept payments in “compromised currencies,” including the dollar and the euro, according to Russia’s state-run news agency, TASS.
Putin said Russia will continue to supply natural gas to other countries.
“I made the decision to implement within the shortest possible time the package of measures to transfer payments — we will start with that — for our natural gas supplied to the so-called ‘unfriendly’ states to Russian rubles,” Putin said.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 23, 12:07 pm
Putin blocking hundreds of ships filled with wheat in the Black Sea: von der Leyen
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday accused Russia’s President Vladimir Putin of blocking hundreds of ships filled with wheat in the Black Sea.
“Our continent is being rocked by a tectonic shift, not seen since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The consequences of this war on Europe’s security architecture will be far reaching. And I’m not just talking about security in military terms, but also energy security and even food security are at stake,” she said in a speech to the European Commission.
Von der Leyen addedd: “The effects of the Russian war go beyond energy of course, they also disrupting vital food supplies and driving food prices up.”
The consequences of this disruption will be felt from Lebanon, Egypt and Tunisia to Africa and the Far East, according to von der Leyen.
“We should not forget that Ukraine alone provides more than half of the world food programs’ wheat supply. The shelling and the bumping makes it impossible for Ukrainian farmers to do so,” she said.
“I call on Putin to let those ships go otherwise he will not only be responsible for one death, but also for famine and hunger. Let these ships go,” von der Leyen added.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 23, 11:23 am
NATO allies expected to announce major increases to forces in the east
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters Wednesday that he expects allies to announce major increases to forces in the eastern part of the defense alliance at Thursday’s summit.
Stoltenberg said the first step would be the deployment of four new NATO battle groups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. With the existing forces in place, there will be eight multi-national battle groups all along the eastern flank, from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
“We face a new reality for our security, so we must reset our deterrence and defense for the longer term,” Stoltenberg said.
Stoltenberg said he expects allies will agree to provide additional support to Ukraine, including cybersecurity assistance and equipment to help Ukraine protect against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.
He added that NATO has a responsibility to make sure the conflict does not escalate beyond Ukraine, as “this will cause even more death and even more destruction.”
Stoltenberg also called on Belarus to end its complicity in the war.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 23, 11:13 am
Bridge linking Chernihiv Oblast to Kyiv destroyed, governor says
The governor of Ukraine’s Chernihiv Oblast, Viacheslav Chaus, claimed Wednesday that Russian forces have destroyed the bridge linking the region to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
In a video posted on Telegram, Chaus shows the destroyed bridge over the Desna river, which he said effectively means that the road from Chernihiv to Kyiv is now severed.
-ABC News’ Fergal Gallagher
Mar 23, 10:53 am
Sending NATO peacekeepers to Ukraine would be ‘very reckless’, Russia warns
Russia warned Wednesday that sending NATO peacekeepers to Ukraine would be “a very reckless and extremely dangerous decision.”
Last week, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that Poland will formally submit a proposal at the NATO summit on Thursday for a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on Poland’s plans while speaking to reporters Wednesday.
“It would be a very reckless and extremely dangerous decision,” Peskov said. “A special military operation is going on, and any possible contact by our troops with NATO troops can lead to quite clear consequences that would be hard to repair.”
Mar 23, 10:32 am
Russia claims US isn’t interested in progress in Ukraine
Russia claimed Wednesday that the United States isn’t interested in the rapid progress of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
During a speech to students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in Russia’s capital, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Washington of wanting to keep Moscow and Kyiv “in a state of hostilities” for “as long as possible.”
“Negotiations are difficult because the Ukrainian side seems to have expressed understanding of the things that should be agreed upon during the negotiations, constantly changing its position, refusing its own proposals,” Lavrov said. “It is difficult to get rid of the impression that they are being held by the hand by their American colleagues.”
He alleged “it is unprofitable” for the U.S. “that this process be completed quickly.”
“They expect to continue pumping weapons to Ukraine. Provocative statements are being made,” he added. “Apparently they want to keep us as long as possible in a state of hostilities.”
Mar 23, 10:27 am
US military aid begins to arrive in Ukraine
The first deliveries from the $800 million-military assistance that President Joe Biden authorized for Ukraine a week ago have started to arrive, a White House official confirmed to ABC News.
The military aid package includes Stinger anti-aircraft systems; Javelin anti-armor weapons; light anti-armor weapons; AT-4 anti-armor systems and tactical unmanned aerial systems.
CNN first reported the deliveries.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Mar 23, 10:11 am
Video shows entire neighborhoods destroyed in Mariupol
Video has emerged showing the devastation in Ukraine’s besieged city of Mariupol.
Drone footage recorded Wednesday and released by a Ukrainian right-wing paramilitary group that has been incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard shows entire neighborhoods destroyed in Mariupol. Mere shells are all that remain of buildings and smoke is still rising from some of the wreckage. The video has been verified by ABC News.
Ukrainian troops are continuing to battle persistent efforts by Russian forces to seize the strategic port city in southeastern Ukraine.
-ABC News’ Fergal Gallagher
Mar 23, 9:39 am
Russia, Ukraine agree on nine humanitarian corridors for Wednesday
Russia and Ukraine have agreed on nine humanitarian corridors to try to evacuate civilians trapped in embattled Ukrainian towns and cities on Wednesday, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
But the agreement does not include a safe passage from the heart of Mariupol, Vereshchuk said in an address Wednesday, adding that she hopes people wishing to leave the besieged southeastern port city can make it to nearby Berdyansk, where humanitarian aid awaits them. She said 24 buses are on standby to transport people.
Some of the previous attempts to evacuate civilians from Mariupol have failed after Russian forces continued to shell the city, despite agreeing to temporary cease-fires.
Mar 23, 9:17 am
Belarus expels several Ukrainian diplomats, closes Ukrainian Consulate General
Belarus announced Wednesday its decision to expel several Ukrainian diplomats and close the Ukrainian Consulate General in Brest.
“The Ukrainian embassy will continue to work in Belarus in a 1+4 format, that is, an ambassador and four staff members,” Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Anatoly Glaz said in a statement, according to the state-run news agency BelTA.
Mar 23, 8:27 am
Ukraine says 100,000 remain trapped in besieged Mariupol
Fierce fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces continued in Mariupol on Wednesday morning, with the Ukrainian government warning that as many as 100,000 people remain trapped in the besieged port city.
One Mariupol resident, who managed to escape with her elderly parents and four cats, told ABC News her home had no electricity or heat and that she would have to scavenge for food and other supplies under Russian bombardment. She recalled seeing bodies strewn in the streets because residents had no choice but to leave them there.
“We understood anytime we might be killed by the next bomb,” she said during an interview Tuesday.
Pro-Russia separatist forces from the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic in Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region said Wednesday that 562 civilians, including 110 children, were evacuated from encircled Mariupol to the occupied town of Bezymenne in the past 24 hours. A total of 4,621 civilians were evacuated from Mariupol between March 5 and March 23, according to the separatist forces.
Mar 23, 7:59 am
Russia claims to have swapped prisoners with Ukraine
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners twice since the start of the war, according to Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova.
“Two prisoner exchanges have been completed between Russia and Ukraine,” Zakharova said in a statement Wednesday.
Mar 23, 7:56 am
Poland expels 45 Russian diplomats for espionage
Russia’s ambassador to Poland, Sergey Andreev, said Wednesday that he has received a note from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanding the expulsion of 45 Russian diplomats on charges of espionage.
The diplomats must leave Poland within five days, according to Andreev.
The news came after a spokesperson for Poland’s Internal Security Agency announced on Polish television that authorities had compiled a list of 45 Russian diplomats in the country who were suspected of spying.
Mar 23, 7:45 am
Two residential areas of Kyiv shelled overnight, officials say
Russian shelling hit two residential areas of Kyiv on Tuesday night, according to the city administration.
A shopping center and two private houses were damaged in the Sviatoshynskyi district of the Ukrainian capital, but no one was injured and the fires have been extinguished, officials said.
Several private houses and high-rise buildings were on fire in the Shevchenkivskyi district, where four people were injured. Rescuers and medics were still on the scene Wednesday, and the extent of the damage was under assessment, according to officials.
Mar 23, 7:32 am
Russia doesn’t believe claims of civilian deaths in Ukraine
Moscow doesn’t believe Kyiv’s claims of civilian deaths in Ukraine caused by Russian forces, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.
“We don’t believe the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office. Russian troops are carrying out no strikes, aren’t firing on civilians,” Peskov told reporters during a daily call. “Russian servicemen are helping civilians and, regrettably, more and more eyewitnesses get out of the cities saying that they are being held there as human shields, and that nationalist battalions are firing — and there are plenty of such cases — on civilians.”
Mar 23, 6:42 am
Over 3.6 million refugees have fled Ukraine: UNHCR
More than 3.6 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the United Nations refugee agency.
The tally from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) amounts to just over 8% of Ukraine’s population — which the World Bank counted at 44 million at the end of 2020 — on the move across borders in 28 days.
More than half of the refugees crossed into neighboring Poland, UNHCR figures show.
Mar 23, 5:45 am
Russian forces allegedly destroy Ukrainian weapons depot
Russia claimed Wednesday that its forces carried out an airstrike destroying a weapons depot of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The Russian Ministry of Defense also alleged that troops have destroyed 430 aircraft, including drones, as well as more than 1,500 tanks and other combat armoured vehicles belonging to the Ukrainian Armed Forces since the “special military operation” began Feb. 24.
Mar 23, 5:20 am
Talks with Moscow ‘are moving forward,’ Zelenskyy says
Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are “very difficult” but “moving forward,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday.
“It’s very difficult, sometimes confrontational,” Zelenskyy said in an early morning address. “But step by step, we are moving forward.”
Zelenskyy added that he is “grateful to all international mediators who are standing up for Ukraine.”
