(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 20, 2:34 pm
Ukraine accuses Russia of forcibly deporting some civilians to Russia
Local authorities in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol have accused Russian forces of forcibly deporting residents to Russia.
Mariupol’s city council said in a statement it received information Sunday morning that Russian troops were forcing residents of Azovstalkaya Street and from part of the Levoberezhny area to go to Russia. The statement said Russian forces were confiscating the Ukrainian passports of those being deported and issuing them a piece of paper.
ABC News has not independently confirmed the reports of people being forced to leave by Russian troops.
The Russian state news agency TASS reported on Saturday that 13 buses carrying 350 people were moving to Russia. About 50 of those people were to be sent by railway to the Yaroslavl region and the rest to temporary processing centers in Taganrog, a city in Russia’s southeastern Rostov region near Ukraine.
Ukraine has been trying to evacuate thousands of residents from Mariupol, with tens of thousands managing to escape in the past few days — mostly in private cars heading towards the Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia. Around 300,000 people are trapped in Mariupol, according to Ukrainian officials.
In some parts of Ukraine, Russia has opened “humanitarian corridors” to Russia. Some people in some cities have chosen to go to Russia to escape the fighting, though the vast majority are seeking to move to safety in other parts of Ukraine.
Mar 20, 12:50 pm
At least 900 killed, nearly 1,500 injured in Ukraine: UN
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Ukraine has recorded 2,361 civilian casualties in the country, including 902 dead and 1,459 injured.
In Ukraine’s Zhytomyr region, more than 100 Ukrainian troops and foreign mercenaries were killed by a missile strike, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed on Sunday.
“A strike using high-precision air-to-surface missiles has been carried out on a special operations forces training center of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, where foreign mercenaries in Ukraine were based near the populated locality of Ovruch in the Zhytomyr region,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said in a press conference.
Mar 20, 12:35 pm
Russian journalist who protested on live television: ‘It’s Putin’s war’
Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian state TV editor who protested the invasion of Ukraine on live television, continued her campaign against the war in an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.
“The Russian people are really against the war,” Ovsyannikova said. “It’s Putin’s war and not the Russian people’s war.”
Ovsyannikova ran onto the set of the main Russian state news live broadcast earlier this month with an anti-war sign to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, standing behind a Channel One anchor as they were speaking.
The sign read, “NO WAR” and “Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here,” in English and Russian, respectively.
Ovsyannikova said it was a “spontaneous decision” for her to go onto the set, but “the dissatisfaction with the current situation has been accumulating for years, because the propaganda on our state channels has become more and more distorted.”
“What we showed on our programs was very different than the reality,” she said.
Ovsyannikova hoped her demonstration would attract attention to the propaganda and “inspire more people to speak up.”
Ovsyannikova was fined 30,000 rubles (about $280) after being charged with an “administrative offense” stemming from an earlier video she recorded calling on Russians to take part in demonstrations against the war.
-ABC News’ Monica and Dunn Quinn Scanlan
Mar 20, 5:15 am
Zelenskyy accuses Russia of ‘war crimes,’ blocking aid to besieged Mariupol
Russia’s attacks on Mariupol will “go down in history” as a series of “war crimes,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address early on Sunday.
“The terror the occupiers did to the peaceful city will be remembered for centuries to come,” Zelenskyy said, according to an official translation.
More than 9,000 people were evacuated from the besieged city on Friday, followed by an additional 4,000 people on Saturday, according to Ukrainian officials.
But Russian forces blocked aid to those still trapped in the city, Zelenksyy said.
“This is a totally deliberate tactic,” Zelenskyy said in an earlier video address, posted just after midnight on Saturday morning. “They have a clear order to do absolutely everything to make the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukrainian cities an ‘argument’ for Ukrainians to cooperate with the occupiers.”
Blocking aid amounts to a “war crime,” Zelenskyy said, adding that every Russian soldier should be held “100%” accountable with a “compulsory one-way ticket to The Hague,” where the International Criminal Court is located.
Mar 20, 3:33 am
Russia increases ‘indiscriminate shelling’ on eastern cities, UK military says
Russian forces attempted to push into cities in eastern Ukraine have made “limited progress” in the last week, so they’ve turned instead to “indiscriminate shelling,” the UK Ministry of Defense said on Sunday.
The shelling of urban areas has caused “widespread destruction and large numbers of civilian casualties,” the Ministry said in an update.
“It is likely Russia will continue to use its heavy firepower to support assaults on urban areas as it looks to limit its own already considerable losses, at the cost of further civilian casualties,” the update said.
Mar 19, 5:44 pm
847 civilians killed since start of invasion: UN
At least 847 civilians, including 64 children, have been killed in Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, according to the United Nations.
Another 1,399 have been injured, it said.
The casualties, recorded by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, are believed to be “considerably higher” since officials have not been able to verify information in areas where there is intense fighting, the office said.
“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,” it said.
-ABC News’ Jason Volack
Mar 19, 2:32 pm
Kremlin confirms it used hypersonic missiles in Ukraine
The Kremlin confirmed Saturday that it used hypersonic missiles for the first time since invading Ukraine.
Russia used the Kinzhal aviation missile system, with hypersonic aeroballistic missiles, on the village of Delyatyn in Ukraine on Friday, according to Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry.
“On March 18, the Kinzhal aerial missile system equipped with hypersonic aero-ballistic missiles destroyed a large underground missile and air ammunition depot of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the settlement of Deliatyn in the Ivano-Frankivsk region,” Konashenkov said at a briefing on Saturday.
The Russian military claims it is capable of hitting targets at a range of more than 2,000 kilometers.
Mar 19, 2:23 pm
Ukraine says it has detained at least 562 Russian prisoners of war
At least 562 prisoners of war are being held in Ukraine, Irina Vereshchuk, the head of the country’s Ministry of Reintegration, a ministry established in 2016 to manage occupied Ukrainian territories, said in an interview with Ukrainian news service TSN on Saturday.
Vereshchuk said they are being treated according to international humanitarian law.
Ukrainian forces in Kyiv have detained 127 saboteurs, including 14 infiltration groups, since the Russian invasion began, Mykola Zhyrnov, the capital’s military administration head, (told BBC)[].
Mar 19, 1:12 pm
At least 30 killed in strike on Ukrainian military base: witness
At least 30 people were killed in a strike on a Ukrainian military barrack south of Mykolaiv on Friday, according to a witness.
A civilian working with the Ukrainian military told ABC News that more than 30 people were killed in the attack– believed to be in retaliation to damage done to the Russian controlled facility in Kherson.
On Friday, Mykolaiv’s mayor said that “dozens” of troops were killed in the strike.
Mykolaiv’s governor said the rescue operation is ongoing and no official figures on casualties will be released until it’s over.
-ABC News’ Dada Jovanovic
Mar 19, 11:25 am
UNICEF calls for strengthened measures to protect children fleeing Ukraine from human trafficking, exploitation
The United Nations Children’s fund warned Saturday that children fleeing the war in Ukraine are at an increased risk of human trafficking and exploitation.
“Traffickers often seek to exploit the chaos of large scale population movements, and with more than 1.5 million children having fled Ukraine as refugees since [Feb.24], and countless others displaced by violence inside the country, the threat facing children is real and growing,” UNICEF said.
According to an analysis conducted by UNICEF and the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking, 28% of identified victims of trafficking globally are children.
“In the context of Ukraine, UNICEF child protection experts believe that children would likely account for an even higher proportion of potential trafficking victims given that children and women represent nearly all of the refugees who have fled the country so far,” UNICEF said.
According to UNICEF, more than 500 unaccompanied children were identified crossing the Ukrainian border into Romania between Feb. 24 and March 17. It also estimates that the true number of separated children who have fled Ukraine is likely much higher.
“Displaced children are extremely vulnerable to being separated from their families, exploited, and trafficked. They need governments in the region to step up and put measures in place to keep them safe,” said Afshan Khan, UNICEF’s regional director for Europe and Central Asia.
Khan said children need to be screened for their vulnerability as they cross the border into another country.
“UNICEF is calling on governments to improve cross-border collaboration and knowledge exchange between and among border control, law enforcement and child protection authorities and to quickly identify separated children, implement family tracing and reunification procedures for children deprived of parental care,” UNICEF said.
UNICEF also said additional screening for protection risks should be implemented in shelters, large urban train stations and other locations where refugees gather or pass through.
Mar 19, 11:01 am
Lavrov calls West ‘unreliable’ as an economic partner
The West has proven to be unreliable as an economic partner and a place for keeping foreign exchange reserves, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday.
“Even disregarding the situation with Ukraine and the sanctions, conduct of the West proves that it is unreliable both as a part of the world where major reserve currencies are generated, as an economic partner, and as a country where forex reserves could be kept. They might easily be stolen,” Lavrov told finalists of the international stage of the Leaders of Russia competition.
This is why Russia is strengthening cooperation with other countries, including China, he said.
Lavrov also commented on the reinstatement of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which would allow Iranian oil supply on the global market.
“We never betray our friends in politics. Venezuela is our friend, and Iran is a state that is very close to us. Secondly, we do not pursue selfish interests, unlike the Americans,” Lavrov said in response to a question whether the JCPOA reinstatement was advantageous to Russia.
“You can see what they [the Americans] are actually doing, trying to spite Russia and teach it a lesson,” he said.
“So, the Americans have been contacting Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Qatar regarding oil and gas. All of those countries, just like Venezuela and Iran, clearly said: when we discuss issues pertaining to the appearance of new actors in the oil market, all of us are committed to the OPEC+ format, where quotas for every actor are discussed and agreed upon by consensus,” he said.
“For now, I see no reason to believe that this mechanism may somehow be dismantled. No one is interested in that,” Lavrov said.
Mar 19, 7:06 am
112 children killed in Ukraine conflict, officials say
At least 112 children have been killed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the local Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office said.
More than 140 children have been wounded during the first 24 days of the war, officials said.
Fifty-seven children have been killed in Kyiv, officials said. Another 36 were killed in Kharkiv and 28 were killed in the Donetsk Oblast, they said.
Mar 19, 5:38 am
Russia pursuing ‘strategy of attrition,’ UK military says
As Russia’s attempts to capture Ukrainian territory have been slowed by Ukrainian resistance, the invading forces have switched to a “strategy of attrition,” the UK Ministry of Defence said on Saturday.
“This is likely to involve the indiscriminate use of firepower resulting in increase civilian casualties, destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure, and intensify the humanitarian crisis,” the Ministry said on Twitter.
Mar 18, 8:31 pm
Zelenskyy responds to massive Moscow rally
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted to the massive concert that occurred Friday in Moscow in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and on the eight-year anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
“A big rally took place. And I want to pay attention to one detail. It is reported that a total of about 200,000 people were involved in the rally in the Russian capital — 100,000 on the streets, about 95,000 at the stadium. Approximately the same number of Russian troops were involved in the invasion of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in his latest national address Friday night.
“Just imagine 14,000 corpses and tens of thousands of wounded and maimed people at that stadium in Moscow,” he continued. “There are already so many Russian losses as a result of this invasion. This is the price of war. In a little more than three weeks. The war must end.”
Zelenskyy noted progress in evacuating more than 180,000 Ukrainians through humanitarian corridors, though charged that Russian invaders are blocking the supply of humanitarian aid to some besieged cities.
“This is a totally deliberate tactic. They have a clear order to do absolutely everything to make the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukrainian cities an ‘argument’ for Ukrainians to cooperate with the occupiers,” he said. “This is a war crime. They will be held accountable for this. 100%.”
Mar 18, 3:36 pm
Biden, Xi hold 1st call in months
President Joe Biden held a video call with Chinese President Xi Jinping for one hour and 50 minutes on Friday, marking the first time the two leaders spoke since November.
The White House readout of the call doesn’t say whether the conversation was constructive or not, but the White House said Biden made clear the “implications and consequences” if China aligns with Russia and provides them “material support.”
China’s readout of the call said China supports negotiations but passes the buck to the U.S. and NATO to “conduct dialogue with Russia to solve the crux of the Ukraine crisis and resolve the security concerns of both Russia and Ukraine.”
The call was “direct,” “substantive” and “detailed,” according to a senior administration official.
The official said Biden “really wasn’t making specific requests of China” on the call and instead was “laying out his assessment of the situation, what he thinks makes sense, and the implications of certain actions.”
The official said that the call was “less about coming away with a particular view out of conversation today and more about making sure, again, that they were able to really have that direct candidate and detailed and very substantive conversation at the leader level.”
Mar 18, 2:53 pm
Macron speaks to Putin about Mariupol
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone Friday, sharing “his extreme concern” about Russian attacks on the besieged city of Mariupol, the Élysée said.
Macron “asked him for concrete and verifiable measures to lift the siege of Mariupol, humanitarian access and an immediate ceasefire,” the Élysée said.
Russian attacks have prevented many civilians from escaping Mariupol and is keeping humanitarian supplies from being brought in. The Mariupol City Council reported Sunday that 2,187 residents had been killed since the start of the invasion. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk said last week that the city was “beyond a humanitarian disaster,” with most roads destroyed, little communication with the outside and no power, gas or heat.
Mar 18, 1:38 pm
Russians have launched 1,080 missiles at Ukrainian targets: US
The Russians remain largely stalled on day 23 of the invasion of Ukraine and haven’t moved further toward Kyiv, according to a senior U.S. defense official.
Reports of missile strikes near Lviv’s airport seem accurate, the official said, adding that there was no additional information at this time.
Russians stalled on the battlefield by Ukrainian resistance are resorting to artillery and long-range missiles to strike at Ukraine’s cities. Russians have now launched 1,080 missiles at Ukrainian targets — an increase of 80 missiles in one day, the official said.
Mar 18, 1:08 pm
US ambassador calls Russia’s biolab allegations ‘potential false flag effort in action’
During the meeting Russia convened to air its allegations of dangerous biolabs in Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told her fellow Security Council members that they may be witnessing one of Moscow’s battle tactics unfolding before their eyes.
“I will reiterate the United States’ deep and serious concern that Russia’s calling for this meeting is — is –a potential false flag effort in action. Russia has repeatedly — repeatedly–accused other countries of the very violations it plans to perpetrate,” she stated. “We continue to believe it is possible that Russia may be planning to use chemical or biological agents against the Ukrainian people.”
“Last week we heard from the Russian representative a tirade of bizarre conspiracy theories. This week, we’re hearing a whole lot more where that came from — things that sound like they were forwarded to him on a chain email from some dark corner of the internet,” she said.
“President Joe Biden has a word for this kind of talk: malarkey,” Thomas-Greenfield continued, again flatly denying claims that Ukraine has a biological weapons program.
Thomas-Greenfield reminded the room that it is Russia that maintains such a program in violation of international law and has a documented history of using nerve agents against enemies of the Kremlin as well as supporting the use of chemical warfare in Syria.
“We aren’t going to dignify Russia’s disinformation or conspiracy theories. But we will continue to sound the alarm and tell the world where we think Russia is heading,” she added. “And we will remind the world that Russia has repeatedly — repeatedly — lied to this council over recent weeks.”
Mar 18, 12:32 pm
Russian negotiator says Russia, Ukraine have made progress on issue of neutral status, sticking point is ‘security guarantees’
Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s lead negotiator in talks with Ukraine, said the two sides have made the most progress on the question of Ukraine’s “neutral status” during the negotiations, but that “nuances” remain around issues of security guarantees for Ukraine if it gives up joining NATO.
The “nuances are connected with what kind of security guarantees Ukraine gets in addition to ones it already has, in the case of renouncing joining the NATO bloc,” Medinsky told Russian media.
Medinsky said the two sides were “somewhere halfway” to meeting each other over the issue of Ukraine’s “demilitarization.”
“As for demilitarisation, I would say it’s 50-50. The issues is I am now authorised to divulge any details of the negotiations and I will not do that, nor concrete figures, nor arguments of the sides, but in this part we are somewhere halfway,” he said.
Mar 18, 10:28 am
Putin speaks at massive concert in Moscow
At a massive concert in Moscow on Friday in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the main goal of the military special operation to stop the genocide of the population of Donbass — a false claim Putin has been spreading.
“It is precisely to save people from this suffering, from this genocide that is the main, main reason, motive and goal of the military operation that we launched in the Donbass and Ukraine,” Putin told the packed crowd in the city’s main stadium.
The concert was timed to mark the eight-year anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
Mar 18, 6:48 am
Russian foreign minister threatens countries arming Ukraine
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that any foreign supplies to Ukraine containing military equipment will be considered “legitimate targets” for Russian strikes.
“We clearly said that any cargo moving into the Ukrainian territory which we would believe is carrying weapons would be fair game. This is clear because we are implementing the operation the goal of which is to remove any threat to the Russian Federation coming from the Ukrainian soil,” Lavrov said in an English-language interview with the RT television channel.
Mar 18, 6:29 am
Putin says Ukraine ‘seeking to drag out’ negotiations
The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call with Germany’s leader Olaf Scholz accused Ukraine of “seeking to drag out” negotiations with Russia to end the war by putting forward “new unrealistic proposals.”
Putin told Scholz Russia was “nonetheless ready to continue the search for a solution within the bounds of its well-known principled approaches,” the Kremlin said in a readout of the call.
It’s a negative sign for the ongoing talks with Ukraine that both sides have suggested have made some progress this week.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Mar 18, 4:41 am
Lviv struck by missiles for the first time
Russian missiles have hit the western Ukrainian city of Lviv for the first time Friday, a key location that had been spared from the assault until now.
The missiles struck the area around the city’s airport, according to the mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, around 6:30 a.m. local time, hitting an aircraft repair facility and destroying the building.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in the attack, according to the mayor.
Preliminary data indicated that six cruise missiles were fired from the Black Sea, according to the country’s western military command. Two were destroyed by anti-aircraft missile systems.
-ABC News’ Martha Raddatz
Mar 17, 8:34 pm
White House ‘focused’ on ways to help growing Ukrainian refugee crisis
The Biden administration is “focused” on ways to help Ukrainian refugees, as the number of people displaced by the war continues to grow, according to U.S. officials.
More than 3 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency, in Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.
“As the numbers increase, as the burden increases for European partners, we will certainly do everything we can to help,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Thursday, adding it was “something we’re very focused on right now.”
Without offering specifics, Blinken confirmed the administration is “looking at things that we can do ourselves and do directly — for example, looking at steps we may be able to take on family reunification and other things.”
One limited option is fast-tracking the process to admit refugees to the U.S. itself, which is defined by law and requires a referral from the U.N.’s refugee agency and thorough vetting. A senior administration official told ABC News that the refugee program “is not an emergency response program, so our goal would be to provide humanitarian assistance to keep people safe where they are for now.”
As Blinken told reporters, the referral process to be granted refugee status “takes time.” Refugee resettlement is a yearslong process, and there are already 7,000 Ukrainian refugees in the pipeline, according to resettlement agency Church World Service.
The senior administration official also said U.S. embassies and consulates in the region are processing emergency visa applications, but that they are overwhelmed. “We are not able to process the volume of the people who are thinking about that as an option,” the official said.
Refugee resettlement agencies say the administration is considering using the Lautenberg program, which allows religious minorities — including Ukrainian Greek Catholics and Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Christians — to bring family members to the U.S. with a potentially expedited refugee status. One agency told ABC News there are thousands of Ukrainian applicants who the U.S. could swiftly admit.
The administration has already approved temporary protected status for any Ukrainians in the U.S. before March 1 — allowing them to stay and work in the U.S. for at least the next 18 months.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson, Sarah Kolinovsky and Conor Finnegan
(STREPY-BRACQUEGNIES, Belgium) — A car slammed into about 100 people, killing six, on Sunday morning during a carnival in Strépy-Bracquegnies, Belgium, officials said.
At least 37 people were wounded, including 10 with life-threatening injuries, according to Belgium’s Interior Ministry.
A car driving at a high speed hit a crowd at about 5 a.m. local time, an official said. Two people were found inside the vehicle and arrested for murder; both are from La Louvière, deputy prosecutor Damien Verheyen said at a news conference. No charges have been filed yet.
Between 150 and 200 people were gathered for the annual folklore parade when the vehicle appeared, Jacques Gobert, mayor of the nearby town of La Louviere, told Reuters.
One member of the carnival troupe described the scene as “horrible,” telling Reuters that they “saw bodies flying everywhere.”
“It was supposed to be a celebration day, but it turned out to be a tragedy,” he said.
One woman who heard the crash from her apartment said her house shook as the car passed by. “A couple of seconds after” the driver struck the troupe, she added.
“Frankly, he wasn’t driving slowly,” she said, adding that her daughter was at the scene.
A preliminary investigation indicates the attack was not terror related, Verheyen said, adding that the two people are not known to the police for similar facts.”
The village of Strépy-Bracquegnies is in the municipality of La Louvière and about an hour south of Brussels.
Sunday’s event was planned as a launch for a post-COVID carnival, scheduled to run through Tuesday.
(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 19, 2:32 pm
Kremlin confirms it used hypersonic missiles in Ukraine
The Kremlin confirmed Saturday that it used hypersonic missiles for the first time since invading Ukraine.
Russia used the Kinzhal aviation missile system, with hypersonic aeroballistic missiles, on the village of Delyatyn in Ukraine on Friday, according to Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry.
“On March 18, the Kinzhal aerial missile system equipped with hypersonic aero-ballistic missiles destroyed a large underground missile and air ammunition depot of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the settlement of Deliatyn in the Ivano-Frankivsk region,” Konashenkov said at a briefing on Saturday.
The Russian military claims it is capable of hitting targets at a range of more than 2,000 kilometers.
Mar 19, 2:23 pm
Ukraine says it has detained at least 562 Russian prisoners of war
At least 562 prisoners of war are being held in Ukraine, Irina Vereshchuk, the head of the country’s Ministry of Reintegration, a ministry established in 2016 to manage occupied Ukrainian territories, said in an interview with Ukrainian news service TSN on Saturday.
Vereshchuk said they are being treated according to international humanitarian law.
Ukrainian forces in Kyiv have detained 127 saboteurs, including 14 infiltration groups, since the Russian invasion began, Mykola Zhyrnov, the capital’s military administration head, (told BBC)[].
Mar 19, 1:12 pm
At least 30 killed in strike on Ukrainian military base: witness
At least 30 people were killed in a strike on a Ukrainian military barrack south of Mykolaiv on Friday, according to a witness.
A civilian working with the Ukrainian military told ABC News that more than 30 people were killed in the attack– believed to be in retaliation to damage done to the Russian controlled facility in Kherson.
On Friday, Mykolaiv’s mayor said that “dozens” of troops were killed in the strike.
Mykolaiv’s governor said the rescue operation is ongoing and no official figures on casualties will be released until it’s over.
-ABC News’ Dada Jovanovic
Mar 19, 11:25 am
UNICEF calls for strengthened measures to protect children fleeing Ukraine from human trafficking, exploitation
The United Nations Children’s fund warned Saturday that children fleeing the war in Ukraine are at an increased risk of human trafficking and exploitation.
“Traffickers often seek to exploit the chaos of large scale population movements, and with more than 1.5 million children having fled Ukraine as refugees since [Feb.24], and countless others displaced by violence inside the country, the threat facing children is real and growing,” UNICEF said.
According to an analysis conducted by UNICEF and the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking, 28% of identified victims of trafficking globally are children.
“In the context of Ukraine, UNICEF child protection experts believe that children would likely account for an even higher proportion of potential trafficking victims given that children and women represent nearly all of the refugees who have fled the country so far,” UNICEF said.
According to UNICEF, more than 500 unaccompanied children were identified crossing the Ukrainian border into Romania between Feb. 24 and March 17. It also estimates that the true number of separated children who have fled Ukraine is likely much higher.
“Displaced children are extremely vulnerable to being separated from their families, exploited, and trafficked. They need governments in the region to step up and put measures in place to keep them safe,” said Afshan Khan, UNICEF’s regional director for Europe and Central Asia.
Khan said children need to be screened for their vulnerability as they cross the border into another country.
“UNICEF is calling on governments to improve cross-border collaboration and knowledge exchange between and among border control, law enforcement and child protection authorities and to quickly identify separated children, implement family tracing and reunification procedures for children deprived of parental care,” UNICEF said.
UNICEF also said additional screening for protection risks should be implemented in shelters, large urban train stations and other locations where refugees gather or pass through.
Mar 19, 11:01 am
Lavrov calls West ‘unreliable’ as an economic partner
The West has proven to be unreliable as an economic partner and a place for keeping foreign exchange reserves, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday.
“Even disregarding the situation with Ukraine and the sanctions, conduct of the West proves that it is unreliable both as a part of the world where major reserve currencies are generated, as an economic partner, and as a country where forex reserves could be kept. They might easily be stolen,” Lavrov told finalists of the international stage of the Leaders of Russia competition.
This is why Russia is strengthening cooperation with other countries, including China, he said.
Lavrov also commented on the reinstatement of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which would allow Iranian oil supply on the global market.
“We never betray our friends in politics. Venezuela is our friend, and Iran is a state that is very close to us. Secondly, we do not pursue selfish interests, unlike the Americans,” Lavrov said in response to a question whether the JCPOA reinstatement was advantageous to Russia.
“You can see what they [the Americans] are actually doing, trying to spite Russia and teach it a lesson,” he said.
“So, the Americans have been contacting Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Qatar regarding oil and gas. All of those countries, just like Venezuela and Iran, clearly said: when we discuss issues pertaining to the appearance of new actors in the oil market, all of us are committed to the OPEC+ format, where quotas for every actor are discussed and agreed upon by consensus,” he said.
“For now, I see no reason to believe that this mechanism may somehow be dismantled. No one is interested in that,” Lavrov said.
Mar 19, 7:06 am
112 children killed in Ukraine conflict, officials say
At least 112 children have been killed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the local Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office said.
More than 140 children have been wounded during the first 24 days of the war, officials said.
Fifty-seven children have been killed in Kyiv, officials said. Another 36 were killed in Kharkiv and 28 were killed in the Donetsk Oblast, they said.
Mar 19, 5:38 am
Russia pursuing ‘strategy of attrition,’ UK military says
As Russia’s attempts to capture Ukrainian territory have been slowed by Ukrainian resistance, the invading forces have switched to a “strategy of attrition,” the UK Ministry of Defence said on Saturday.
“This is likely to involve the indiscriminate use of firepower resulting in increase civilian casualties, destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure, and intensify the humanitarian crisis,” the Ministry said on Twitter.
Mar 18, 8:31 pm
Zelenskyy responds to massive Moscow rally
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted to the massive concert that occurred Friday in Moscow in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and on the eight-year anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
“A big rally took place. And I want to pay attention to one detail. It is reported that a total of about 200,000 people were involved in the rally in the Russian capital — 100,000 on the streets, about 95,000 at the stadium. Approximately the same number of Russian troops were involved in the invasion of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in his latest national address Friday night.
“Just imagine 14,000 corpses and tens of thousands of wounded and maimed people at that stadium in Moscow,” he continued. “There are already so many Russian losses as a result of this invasion. This is the price of war. In a little more than three weeks. The war must end.”
Zelenskyy noted progress in evacuating more than 180,000 Ukrainians through humanitarian corridors, though charged that Russian invaders are blocking the supply of humanitarian aid to some besieged cities.
“This is a totally deliberate tactic. They have a clear order to do absolutely everything to make the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukrainian cities an ‘argument’ for Ukrainians to cooperate with the occupiers,” he said. “This is a war crime. They will be held accountable for this. 100%.”
Mar 18, 3:36 pm
Biden, Xi hold 1st call in months
President Joe Biden held a video call with Chinese President Xi Jinping for one hour and 50 minutes on Friday, marking the first time the two leaders spoke since November.
The White House readout of the call doesn’t say whether the conversation was constructive or not, but the White House said Biden made clear the “implications and consequences” if China aligns with Russia and provides them “material support.”
China’s readout of the call said China supports negotiations but passes the buck to the U.S. and NATO to “conduct dialogue with Russia to solve the crux of the Ukraine crisis and resolve the security concerns of both Russia and Ukraine.”
The call was “direct,” “substantive” and “detailed,” according to a senior administration official.
The official said Biden “really wasn’t making specific requests of China” on the call and instead was “laying out his assessment of the situation, what he thinks makes sense, and the implications of certain actions.”
The official said that the call was “less about coming away with a particular view out of conversation today and more about making sure, again, that they were able to really have that direct candidate and detailed and very substantive conversation at the leader level.”
Mar 18, 2:53 pm
Macron speaks to Putin about Mariupol
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone Friday, sharing “his extreme concern” about Russian attacks on the besieged city of Mariupol, the Élysée said.
Macron “asked him for concrete and verifiable measures to lift the siege of Mariupol, humanitarian access and an immediate ceasefire,” the Élysée said.
Russian attacks have prevented many civilians from escaping Mariupol and is keeping humanitarian supplies from being brought in. The Mariupol City Council reported Sunday that 2,187 residents had been killed since the start of the invasion. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk said last week that the city was “beyond a humanitarian disaster,” with most roads destroyed, little communication with the outside and no power, gas or heat.
Mar 18, 1:38 pm
Russians have launched 1,080 missiles at Ukrainian targets: US
The Russians remain largely stalled on day 23 of the invasion of Ukraine and haven’t moved further toward Kyiv, according to a senior U.S. defense official.
Reports of missile strikes near Lviv’s airport seem accurate, the official said, adding that there was no additional information at this time.
Russians stalled on the battlefield by Ukrainian resistance are resorting to artillery and long-range missiles to strike at Ukraine’s cities. Russians have now launched 1,080 missiles at Ukrainian targets — an increase of 80 missiles in one day, the official said.
Mar 18, 1:08 pm
US ambassador calls Russia’s biolab allegations ‘potential false flag effort in action’
During the meeting Russia convened to air its allegations of dangerous biolabs in Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told her fellow Security Council members that they may be witnessing one of Moscow’s battle tactics unfolding before their eyes.
“I will reiterate the United States’ deep and serious concern that Russia’s calling for this meeting is — is –a potential false flag effort in action. Russia has repeatedly — repeatedly–accused other countries of the very violations it plans to perpetrate,” she stated. “We continue to believe it is possible that Russia may be planning to use chemical or biological agents against the Ukrainian people.”
“Last week we heard from the Russian representative a tirade of bizarre conspiracy theories. This week, we’re hearing a whole lot more where that came from — things that sound like they were forwarded to him on a chain email from some dark corner of the internet,” she said.
“President Joe Biden has a word for this kind of talk: malarkey,” Thomas-Greenfield continued, again flatly denying claims that Ukraine has a biological weapons program.
Thomas-Greenfield reminded the room that it is Russia that maintains such a program in violation of international law and has a documented history of using nerve agents against enemies of the Kremlin as well as supporting the use of chemical warfare in Syria.
“We aren’t going to dignify Russia’s disinformation or conspiracy theories. But we will continue to sound the alarm and tell the world where we think Russia is heading,” she added. “And we will remind the world that Russia has repeatedly — repeatedly — lied to this council over recent weeks.”
Mar 18, 12:32 pm
Russian negotiator says Russia, Ukraine have made progress on issue of neutral status, sticking point is ‘security guarantees’
Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s lead negotiator in talks with Ukraine, said the two sides have made the most progress on the question of Ukraine’s “neutral status” during the negotiations, but that “nuances” remain around issues of security guarantees for Ukraine if it gives up joining NATO.
The “nuances are connected with what kind of security guarantees Ukraine gets in addition to ones it already has, in the case of renouncing joining the NATO bloc,” Medinsky told Russian media.
Medinsky said the two sides were “somewhere halfway” to meeting each other over the issue of Ukraine’s “demilitarization.”
“As for demilitarisation, I would say it’s 50-50. The issues is I am now authorised to divulge any details of the negotiations and I will not do that, nor concrete figures, nor arguments of the sides, but in this part we are somewhere halfway,” he said.
Mar 18, 10:28 am
Putin speaks at massive concert in Moscow
At a massive concert in Moscow on Friday in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the main goal of the military special operation to stop the genocide of the population of Donbass — a false claim Putin has been spreading.
“It is precisely to save people from this suffering, from this genocide that is the main, main reason, motive and goal of the military operation that we launched in the Donbass and Ukraine,” Putin told the packed crowd in the city’s main stadium.
The concert was timed to mark the eight-year anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
Mar 18, 6:48 am
Russian foreign minister threatens countries arming Ukraine
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that any foreign supplies to Ukraine containing military equipment will be considered “legitimate targets” for Russian strikes.
“We clearly said that any cargo moving into the Ukrainian territory which we would believe is carrying weapons would be fair game. This is clear because we are implementing the operation the goal of which is to remove any threat to the Russian Federation coming from the Ukrainian soil,” Lavrov said in an English-language interview with the RT television channel.
Mar 18, 6:29 am
Putin says Ukraine ‘seeking to drag out’ negotiations
The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call with Germany’s leader Olaf Scholz accused Ukraine of “seeking to drag out” negotiations with Russia to end the war by putting forward “new unrealistic proposals.”
Putin told Scholz Russia was “nonetheless ready to continue the search for a solution within the bounds of its well-known principled approaches,” the Kremlin said in a readout of the call.
It’s a negative sign for the ongoing talks with Ukraine that both sides have suggested have made some progress this week.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Mar 18, 4:41 am
Lviv struck by missiles for the first time
Russian missiles have hit the western Ukrainian city of Lviv for the first time Friday, a key location that had been spared from the assault until now.
The missiles struck the area around the city’s airport, according to the mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, around 6:30 a.m. local time, hitting an aircraft repair facility and destroying the building.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in the attack, according to the mayor.
Preliminary data indicated that six cruise missiles were fired from the Black Sea, according to the country’s western military command. Two were destroyed by anti-aircraft missile systems.
-ABC News’ Martha Raddatz
Mar 17, 8:34 pm
White House ‘focused’ on ways to help growing Ukrainian refugee crisis
The Biden administration is “focused” on ways to help Ukrainian refugees, as the number of people displaced by the war continues to grow, according to U.S. officials.
More than 3 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency, in Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.
“As the numbers increase, as the burden increases for European partners, we will certainly do everything we can to help,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Thursday, adding it was “something we’re very focused on right now.”
Without offering specifics, Blinken confirmed the administration is “looking at things that we can do ourselves and do directly — for example, looking at steps we may be able to take on family reunification and other things.”
One limited option is fast-tracking the process to admit refugees to the U.S. itself, which is defined by law and requires a referral from the U.N.’s refugee agency and thorough vetting. A senior administration official told ABC News that the refugee program “is not an emergency response program, so our goal would be to provide humanitarian assistance to keep people safe where they are for now.”
As Blinken told reporters, the referral process to be granted refugee status “takes time.” Refugee resettlement is a yearslong process, and there are already 7,000 Ukrainian refugees in the pipeline, according to resettlement agency Church World Service.
The senior administration official also said U.S. embassies and consulates in the region are processing emergency visa applications, but that they are overwhelmed. “We are not able to process the volume of the people who are thinking about that as an option,” the official said.
Refugee resettlement agencies say the administration is considering using the Lautenberg program, which allows religious minorities — including Ukrainian Greek Catholics and Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Christians — to bring family members to the U.S. with a potentially expedited refugee status. One agency told ABC News there are thousands of Ukrainian applicants who the U.S. could swiftly admit.
The administration has already approved temporary protected status for any Ukrainians in the U.S. before March 1 — allowing them to stay and work in the U.S. for at least the next 18 months.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson, Sarah Kolinovsky and Conor Finnegan
(NEW YORK) — Search and rescue teams in Norway are looking for a missing American MV-22 Osprey aircraft that was taking part in a large NATO military exercise in northern Norway Friday.
There were four Marines aboard the aircraft, Norwegian officials said.
“We can confirm an incident has occurred involving a Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey aircraft,” Maj. Jim Stenger, a U.S. Marine Corps spokesperson said in a statement. “The aircraft was conducting training in Norway as part of Exercise COLD RESPONSE 22 at the time of the incident.”
Stenger said the incident remains under investigation.
Currently there are 3,000 U.S. Marines in northern Norway participating in the Cold Response 22 NATO exercise that is described as one of the largest NATO exercises since the end of the Cold War. There are 30,000 troops total participating in this year’s exercise.
Held every two years, the exercise was planned long before the Russian invasion of Ukraine and helps to train multinational NATO forces in how to operate in the Arctic.
Norway’s Armed Forces and the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre of Northern Norway issued statements Friday confirming they were conducting a search for a missing Osprey aircraft that had failed to land at its destination.
“The Osprey belongs to the U.S. Marine Corps and is taking part in the Norwegian military exercise Cold Response in Norway,” said the statement from Forsvaret, Norway’s armed forces. “The aircraft has a crew of four and was out on a training mission in Nordland County, northern Norway on Friday 18 March 2022.”
The statement said the Osprey was en route to Bodø, where it was scheduled to land just before 6 p.m. local time and was reported missing at 6:26 p.m. local time with its last known position being south of Bodø.
Search and rescue aircraft were launched but weather conditions in the area are described as “challenging and are expected to get worse.” An apparent crash site south of Bodø was located from the air three hours later.
“Due to the weather conditions, it has not been possible to enter the site from the air,” said the Norwegian armed forces statement. “Police and rescue crews are now on their way into the area.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(SAQQARA, Egypt) — Egypt announced on Thursday the discovery of five ancient tombs in Saqqara, marking the latest in a series of discoveries in the vast necropolis south of Cairo.
The stony tombs date back to the Old Kingdom (c.2700–2200 BC) and First Intermediate (c.2181–2055 BC) eras, Egypt’s antiquities ministry said.
They were excavated northeast of the Pyramid of Merenre, a 52.5 meters-tall structure that was built during the Sixth Dynasty. The tombs, which are engraved with colorful shapes, belong to “top officials,” the ministry added.
Mostafa El-Waziri, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Antiquities Council, said the first tomb belongs to an official named IRY.
“The tomb consists of a deep burial shaft leading to a chamber decorated with funerary scenes depicting offering tables, the seven oils and the façade of the palace. A limestone sarcophagus was also uncovered inside the tomb,” he said in a statement.
“The second tomb belongs to a woman that could be the wife of a man named Yaret and it has a rectangular burial shaft while the third tomb belongs to Pepi Nefhany, who was the supervisor of the great house, a priest, and the purifier of the house. It has a six meters deep burial shaft.”
El-Waziri said the fourth, also a six-meter deep burial shaft, belongs to a woman named Petty. She was the priest of Hathor, the goddess of fertility and love.
“The fifth is for a man named Henu, the overseer and the supervisor of the royal house. It consists of a rectangular seven meters deep burial shaft,” El-Waziri added.
“More work and studies will be carried out to reveal more secrets of these tombs,” he said.
Egypt has carried out extensive digging operations in Saqqara in recent years, which resulted in a string of discoveries, including the unearthing of a 4,400-year-old tomb of royal priest Wahtye in 2018 and the discovery of hundreds of mummified animals and statues a year later.
Last year, Egypt unearthed 52 burial shafts in Saqqara with more than 50 wooden coffins found inside. They date back 3,000 years, the oldest sarcophagi found in the ancient burial ground.
They also discovered the funerary temple of Queen Nearit, the wife of King Teti — the first pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt.
Egypt is hoping the discoveries, along with the expected opening of a new mega museum near the Giza Pyramids later this year, will revive its vital tourism industry.
Tourism was badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the last couple of years and could take a fresh battering because of Russia’s attempted invasion of Ukraine, with citizens of both countries comprising a big chunk of visitors to Egypt.
Up to 20,000 Ukrainians were stranded in Egypt’s Red Sea resorts when Russia started its offensive against Ukraine on Feb. 24, according to the Ukrainian embassy in Egypt.
Lil Baby‘s album My Turn came out in 2020, but it’s still hanging around on the Billboard chart — and setting records in the process.
My Turn has now spent 85 weeks in the top 10 of Billboard‘s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. That’s the longest any album has stayed in that top tier of the chart since it began back in 1965.
My Turn breaks the previous record set by Post Malone‘s album Hollywood’s Bleeding, which lasted 84 weeks in the top 10 between 2019 and 2021.
Overall, My Turn has been on the chart for 106 weeks, six of them at number one, and has spun off five top-10 hits on the Hot &RB/Hip-Hop Songs chart, including “Woah,” “Heatin Up,” featuring Gunna, and “The Bigger Picture.”
Currently, My Turn is at number eight on the chart.
(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 18, 6:48 am
Russian foreign minister threatens countries arming Ukraine
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that any foreign supplies to Ukraine containing military equipment will be considered “legitimate targets” for Russian strikes.
“We clearly said that any cargo moving into the Ukrainian territory which we would believe is carrying weapons would be fair game. This is clear because we are implementing the operation the goal of which is to remove any threat to the Russian Federation coming from the Ukrainian soil,” Lavrov said in an English-language interview with the RT television channel.
Mar 18, 6:29 am
Putin says Ukraine ‘seeking to drag out’ negotiations
The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call with Germany’s leader Olaf Scholz accused Ukraine of “seeking to drag out” negotiations with Russia to end the war by putting forward “new unrealistic proposals.”
Putin told Scholz Russia was “nonetheless ready to continue the search for a solution within the bounds of its well-known principled approaches,” the Kremlin said in a readout of the call.
It’s a negative sign for the ongoing talks with Ukraine that both sides have suggested have made some progress this week.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Mar 18, 4:41 am
Lviv struck by missiles for the first time
Russian missiles have hit the western Ukrainian city of Lviv for the first time Friday, a key location that had been spared from the assault until now.
The missiles struck the area around the city’s airport, according to the mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, around 6:30 a.m. local time, hitting an aircraft repair facility and destroying the building.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in the attack, according to the mayor.
Preliminary data indicated that six cruise missiles were fired from the Black Sea, according to the country’s western military command. Two were destroyed by anti-aircraft missile systems.
-ABC News’ Martha Raddatz
Mar 17, 8:34 pm
White House ‘focused’ on ways to help growing Ukrainian refugee crisis
The Biden administration is “focused” on ways to help Ukrainian refugees, as the number of people displaced by the war continues to grow, according to U.S. officials.
More than 3 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency, in Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.
“As the numbers increase, as the burden increases for European partners, we will certainly do everything we can to help,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Thursday, adding it was “something we’re very focused on right now.”
Without offering specifics, Blinken confirmed the administration is “looking at things that we can do ourselves and do directly — for example, looking at steps we may be able to take on family reunification and other things.”
One limited option is fast-tracking the process to admit refugees to the U.S. itself, which is defined by law and requires a referral from the U.N.’s refugee agency and thorough vetting. A senior administration official told ABC News that the refugee program “is not an emergency response program, so our goal would be to provide humanitarian assistance to keep people safe where they are for now.”
As Blinken told reporters, the referral process to be granted refugee status “takes time.” Refugee resettlement is a yearslong process, and there are already 7,000 Ukrainian refugees in the pipeline, according to resettlement agency Church World Service.
The senior administration official also said U.S. embassies and consulates in the region are processing emergency visa applications, but that they are overwhelmed. “We are not able to process the volume of the people who are thinking about that as an option,” the official said.
Refugee resettlement agencies say the administration is considering using the Lautenberg program, which allows religious minorities — including Ukrainian Greek Catholics and Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Christians — to bring family members to the U.S. with a potentially expedited refugee status. One agency told ABC News there are thousands of Ukrainian applicants who the U.S. could swiftly admit.
The administration has already approved temporary protected status for any Ukrainians in the U.S. before March 1 — allowing them to stay and work in the U.S. for at least the next 18 months.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson, Sarah Kolinovsky and Conor Finnegan
(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 Thursday on Day 22:
U.S. drones heading to Ukraine effective against Russian vehicles and artillery
After the White House on Wednesday announced 100 “tactical unmanned aerial systems” would be part of a new $800 million weapon package for Ukraine, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News these would be small “Switchblade” drones.
Unlike long-range Predator drones, which look similar to small planes and fire missiles at targets, Switchblade drones are the missiles, using GPS to guide themselves straight into their targets to detonate their payloads.
The smallest version, the Switchblade 300, fits in a backpack, weighs only 5.5 pounds, and has a range of about six miles. It can be sent into flight from a small mortar tube, its wings extending into place as it exits the launcher. The larger Switchblade 600 weighs nine times more, but carries an anti-armor warhead and can hit targets up to 25 miles away, according to the manufacturer.
Both models have a “wave-off” feature so that human operators can abort an attack if civilians appear near the target or if the enemy leaves the area.
The U.S. official could not confirm which versions the U.S. is sending to Ukraine, but a senior U.S. defense official told reporters on Thursday that they would be effective against various targets.
“These tactical UAVs can be useful against Russian vehicles and artillery,” the senior U.S. defense official said.
Taking out Russian long-range artillery is especially important for Ukraine as Russian forces ramp up their bombardment of major cities.
No Russian progress on Kyiv in 7 days
The Russian forces nearest Kyiv are still about nine miles to the northwest of the city’s center, the senior U.S. defense official said. This is the same distance away they were estimated to be last Friday.
They haven’t been able to advance because Ukrainian forces “are very actively resisting any movement by the Russians,” the official said, but adding that Russia maintains an advantage with “long-range fires” — missiles and artillery.
Although those nearest troops have stalled, other forces are coming to join them from behind, bringing with them long-range artillery pieces.
“So, it appears that they continue to want to conduct a siege of Kyiv, that’s what you want to use artillery for,” the official said. “We haven’t seen that manifest itself, we’re just seeing them move them into place.”
The only notable advancement of Russian forces since Wednesday is to the southeast of Kharkiv, where the Pentagon assesses they have taken control of Izyum. The official said their intent is likely to push south toward Donetsk and Mariupol to seal off the Donbas area and prevent Ukrainian troops in the east from moving westward to defend other areas.
Russian warships near Odessa
The U.S. continues to see Russian naval activity “not far from Odessa” in the northern Black Sea, the official said. This includes about six surface-war vessels: at least two amphibious landing ships, frigates, and one mine-warfare ship. Despite this activity, there are still no indications of an imminent amphibious assault.
Unlike on Wednesday, there have been no signs of Russian ships shelling towns around Odessa, the official said.
Russian bombardment of cities continues, more civilians hit
Russia has now launched more than 1,000 missiles against Ukraine, according to the official. This is up from an estimate of 980 on Wednesday. These estimates count missile launches, not necessarily effective hits. The official said they could not offer an estimate of how many of these munitions end up being duds.
Again the official said Russians are relying more on “dumb” munitions, meaning unguided weapons.
The official said it’s not clear why, but said it could be an effort to conserve their precision weapons, or a sign they’re running low on them. At any rate, these less-discriminate weapons are seen as a greater threat to civilians.
“We have seen an increase of strikes on civilian infrastructure and civilian targets,” the official said, but could not quantify the damage or casualties.
S-300s for Ukraine
The official would not directly address questions about whether the U.S. would help facilitate Russian-made S-300 long-range surface-to-air missile systems for Ukraine.
“We are working with allies and partners to continue to provide security assistance to the Ukrainians on short-range and tactical systems as well as long-range systems, to include long-range air defense. And there’s a lot that goes into that, and some countries just have access to inventory that are more suitable for the Ukrainians than some of our systems because they’re trained on them — they operate them, they know them, they’re comfortable with them. And it’s a whole suite of things. And I’ve stayed away from naming individual systems and I think it’s just better if I continue to do that. But we are in active conversations with countries about all these kinds of capabilities to see what they can do to continue to provide support to Ukraine,” the official said.
Russian disinformation campaign
“In Russia, anecdotally, we see their narratives having more of an effect. But then again, they shut down independent media. The only thing available for most Russians now is state media, and so you would expect that those narratives would be more widely consumed and even more widely believed. But outside of Russia, there’s little to no evidence that their information ops are working. In fact, we’ve seen quite the opposite,” the official said.
Low Russian morale
The U.S. has anecdotal evidence of low morale in some Russian units, according to the official.
“Some of that is, we believe, a function of poor leadership, lack of information that the troops are getting about their mission and objectives, and I think disillusionment from being resisted as fiercely as they have been,” the official said.
The official also said it’s “noteworthy” that Russians are considering bringing in more troops and supplies only three weeks into the invasion. The Pentagon believes this is due to poor logistical planning and stronger-than-expected resistance.
(WASHINGTON) — As Ukrainians continue to flee their homes and find safety in neighboring countries, some cities are becoming overwhelmed with refugees and are unable to provide them with the resources they need.
“We’ll continue helping. We will accept as many Ukrainians as we need to,” Rafal Trzaskowski, the mayor of Warsaw, Poland, told ABC News Live on Thursday. “But we need assistance, we need international institutions in place. We need a relocation system in Europe and in the world, because we can’t do it alone.”
More than 3 million refugees have fled Ukraine, with over half moving to Poland, according to the United Nations. Warsaw, the capital of Poland, has seen a 20% increase in its population in just a few weeks, according to Trzaskowski. He said the city has welcomed over 300,000 Ukrainians but are no longer able to improvise.
Trzaskowski is calling on the European Union and the United Nations to help set up a system, which would help move refugees in Warsaw to other cities that are less overwhelmed and can better provide the physical and psychological care that’s needed.
“I’m calling myself in the middle of the night, my friends from different cities in Poland and in Europe, and I ask them for assistance. We bus people to different places all over,” Trzaskowski told ABC News Live. “We cannot do it anymore. We need a workable system.”
Trzaskowski said it’s not just beds and food that people need, but that as time goes on, new refugees are coming in having seen more destruction and are in need of immediate mental health services.
“At the beginning, three weeks ago, people who were coming to Warsaw were taken care of by their families and by their friends. Now, people come traumatized by war. They escape rockets, they escape bullets, members of families have been killed, members of their families are stranded in basements,” he explained. “They not only need shelter, they need reassurance. They need a helping hand.”
The mayor said Poland has tried to provide a sense of normalcy for families. Earlier this week, a bill was passed in Polish Parliament to provide Ukrainian children with free education and schooling. The mayor told ABC News Live that more than 10,000 Ukrainian students are already learning in Warsaw classrooms.
“We welcome them and we treat them like citizens,” Trzaskowski said. “We provide any help we can, but there is only so much that we can coordinate.”
Trzaskowski said Warsaw and all of Poland have tried their best to help during this crisis. Polish families have stood at the border, inviting refugees into their homes, feeding people who have gone days without eating or drinking water while traveling and making them feel welcomed into the country while the war continues.
“Without volunteers, without non-governmental organizations, we wouldn’t go anywhere,” the mayor said.
He emphasized that though these efforts have been able to provide for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, more still needs to be done. And without a plan going forward, they will not be able to continue this effort, he said.
The mayor went on to thank the United States for providing support and said it’s made a significant impact throughout this crisis.
“I want to thank President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the whole Biden administration, and the U.S. Congress for being really tough on Russia, for imposing sanctions, for treating them seriously and for those words which are ringing in our ears, which say that the United States of America will defend every inch of NATO territory,” he told us. “And just because we can feel secure, all of us in Europe, because of that statement and because of the actions of the American government, we can do our job in a peaceful manner.”
Trzaskowski added that throughout this refugee crisis, he has looked to the bravery of leaders in Ukraine, which has given him courage to produce a plan that will give every refugee a place to call home while their nation is under attack.
“If President Zelenskyy in Kyiv is not panicking, we’re not going to either,” he said.
