(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymr 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, don’t appear to have advanced closer to the city since coming within about 20 miles, although smaller advanced groups have been fighting gun battles with Ukrainian forces inside the capital since at least Friday.
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 04, 6:45 am
US embassy calls nuclear power plant shelling ‘a war crime’
The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv took to Twitter on Friday to condemn Russia’s shelling of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.
“It is a war crime to attack a nuclear power plant,” the embassy tweeted. “Putin’s shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear plant takes his reign of terror one step further.”
Mar 04, 6:25 am
Blinken: ‘If conflict comes to us, we’re ready for it’
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on Friday morning to discuss the response to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
During a press conference prior to the meeting at NATO headquarters, Blinken and Stoltenberg condemned Russia’s attacks on civilians in Ukraine and expressed concern over the reports of Russian shelling at Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant.
“This just demonstrates the recklessness of this war and the importance of ending it, and the importance of Russia withdrawing all its troops and engage in good faith in diplomatic efforts,” Stoltenberg told reporters. “We provide support to Ukraine. At the same time, NATO is not part of the conflict. NATO is a defensive alliance, we don’t seek war conflict with Russia.”
Blinken emphasized that NATO and the United States “seek no conflict.”
“But if conflict comes to us, we’re ready for it,” he added. “And we will defend every inch of NATO territory.”
Mar 04, 5:41 am
No radioactive material released at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant: IAEA
The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Friday that no radioactive material was released at Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant amid shelling from Russian forces overnight.
The shelling sparked a fire in a training building at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, in the eastern Ukrainian city of Enerhodar. The blaze has since been extinguished, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
Two security employees at the plant were injured during the incident, according to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi.
“The safety systems at the six reactors were not effected,” Grossi said at a press conference in Vienna on Friday morning. “No radioactive material was released.”
“We are following the situation very, very closely,” he added.
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti
Mar 04, 2:57 am
Fire at Ukraine’s largest nuclear facility extinguished as Russian forces take control
A fire at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Enerhodar was extinguished Friday, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
The fire occurred in a training building at the site after shelling from Russian forces. There were no victims, the emergency service said.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is the largest in Europe.
Meanwhile, Energodar Mayor Dmytro Orlov told reporters Friday morning that the city is now under the control of Russian forces and fighting near the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant has stopped.
Ukraine’s national nuclear regulator has said that the plant’s employees are being permitted to work as normal, safety systems are currently functioning and there was no reported change in radiation levels at the site.
-ABC News’ Brian Hartman and Patrick Reevell
Mar 04, 2:12 am
UN nuclear watchdog warns of ‘severe danger if any reactors were hit’ at plant
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has appealed for a halt of the use of force at Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant and warned of “severe danger if any reactors were hit.”
The United Nations nuclear watchdog said in a statement early Friday that it was informed by Ukraine that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, had been shelled overnight in the eastern city of Enerhodar. IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi “immediately” spoke with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal as well as the country’s national nuclear regulator and operator about the “serious situation.” Grossi is expected to hold a press conference later Friday.
According to IAEA, the Ukrainian regulatory authority said a fire at the site had not affected “essential” equipment and plant personnel were taking mitigatory actions, and that there was no reported change in radiation levels at the plant.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said the blaze, which occurred in a training building after shelling from Russian forces, was extinguished Friday morning.
The IAEA said it is putting its Incident and Emergency Center (IEC) in “full response mode” due to the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The agency continues to closely monitor developments at the facility and remains in constant contact with Ukraine.
(KYIV, Ukraine) — While more than 1 million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion of Russian forces, some of the country’s most vulnerable children have stayed behind.
At Ohmadyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, pediatric patients are being cared for in the basement of the hospital.
Among the patients is a young boy named Yarik, who is hospitalized due to fluid in his brain.
And still they smile …Meet Yarik. He has water on his brain and is now hiding in the basement of the children’s hospital. Coming up on @GMApic.twitter.com/IPzD6rIXJI
Another patient, a young girl named Illiya, who is being treated for heart problems, is held by her father, who told ABC News he is caring for her while his wife and their six other children are hiding near the front lines.
The girl’s father, Valentine, told ABC News’ Ian Pannell the situation is hard, adding, “We do not give up. We fight. We stick to the last, because we cannot do otherwise.”
Illiya was born with heart problems. Now, she and her dad Valentin shelter in the basement of the Kyiv Children’s Hospital from Russian bombs. pic.twitter.com/Gq1nj195Pe
One 2-year-old boy, named David, remains in the hospital because he needs dialysis treatment, while another boy, Vova, 13, was brought to the hospital after being badly injured when his family’s car came under attack, the boys’ families told ABC News.
Vova’s father and cousin were killed in the attack, and now he is fighting for his life in intensive care, according to his mother.
Caring for the young patients are doctors and nurses who are risking their lives, too.
Dr. Oleg Gordyk told ABC News his family is staying with him in the underground clinic.
“This week was very, very terrible for me because my family is staying in our clinic,” he said. “My daughter, 17-years-old, now she works as [a] nurse.”
@IanPannell reports from Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital in Kyiv as staff risk their lives to care for sick children. pic.twitter.com/mjAkLvydC4
Ukraine has been under attack since Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.”
Russian forces don’t appear to have advanced closer to Kyiv since coming within about 20 miles, although smaller advanced groups have been fighting gun battles with Ukrainian forces inside the capital since at least Friday.
Gordyk told ABC News that even amid the horrors of war, he sees a sliver of hope.
“I believe in victory,” he said. “I believe in maybe, in the future — tomorrow, maybe next week or next month, I see sun in our clinic.”
(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymr 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, don’t appear to have advanced closer to the city since coming within about 20 miles, although smaller advanced groups have been fighting gun battles with Ukrainian forces inside the capital since at least Friday.
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 03, 6:50 am
Russian foreign minister declines to comment on civilian deaths in Ukraine
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov wouldn’t comment on civilian deaths from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine when pressed during an interview Thursday with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America.
“I cannot comment,” Lavrov said, adding that there are “a great deal” of “conjectures.”
Mar 03, 6:36 am
Russia says talks with Ukraine will resume Thursday
A second round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators will be held at the previously planned venue in neighboring Belarus on Thursday at around 3 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET), according to Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation and aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The talks will take place — we are now in contact with the Ukrainian side — at the same venue where they were planned, on the territory of the Brest region of Belarus,” Medinsky told reporters Thursday, adding that Russian negotiators are “waiting calmly.”
“I think the talks will begin at 3 p.m.,” he said.
Mar 03, 6:08 am
Ukraine claims to have raised flag over town outside Kyiv
Ukraine claimed Thursday to have raised its flag over the town of Bucha, close to the Ukrainian capital where some of the most intense fighting has been taking place in recent days and where Russia’s push south on Kyiv appears to have stalled.
A video posted on the official Facebook page of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ ground troops purportedly shows soldiers hoisting the national flag outside Bucha’s town hall. The town is just a few miles north of the edge of Kyiv and about 15 miles from the center of the capital. Fighting is reported to be ongoing nearby and, in the video, an explosion can be heard in the distance as they raise the blue and yellow flag.
Mar 03, 5:34 am
Ukraine requests no-fly zone over Chernobyl
Ukraine is asking the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to call on NATO to close access to the airspace over the country’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the surrounding exclusion zone.
The deserted exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where the world’s worst nuclear accident took place in 1986, was seized by Russian forces last week.
A joint appeal to the IAEA was signed Wednesday by Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko, Oleh Korikov, head of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine, and Petro Kotin, head of Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company Energoatom.
“The fact of the seizure of the world-famous Chernobyl nuclear power plant has all the hallmarks of an act of nuclear terrorism committed against Chernobyl nuclear facilities and its personnel by Russian military units,” they said in the appeal.
Mar 03, 5:06 am
Russia claims to have hit another TV tower in Kyiv
Russia claimed Thursday that its forces have “disabled” another television tower in Ukraine’s capital.
Russian troops fired precision-guided weapons at a TV and radio center in the Lysa Hora region of Kyiv, according to Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
“A strike delivered by a long-range precision-guided weapon disabled a reserve TV and radio center in the Lysa Hora area in Kyiv which the Ukrainian Security Service has been using for psychological operations against Russia,” Konashenkov said at a press briefing Thursday. “There are no casualties and there is no damage done to residential buildings.”
There were reports of more explosions in Kyiv on Thursday morning, but Ukrainian officials have yet to confirm that a second TV tower was hit.
A Russian missile struck Kyiv’s main TV tower in the heart of the capital on Tuesday.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov has said that Russia is aiming to cut off a large part of Ukraine from the internet and communications.
Mar 03, 4:37 am
Russia claims to have seized eastern Ukrainian city
Russia claimed Thursday that its forces have seized the eastern Ukrainian city of Balakliya.
Russian troops worked together with Russia-backed separatist forces on the “successful offensive,” according to Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
“The city of Balakliya has been freed from nationalist battalions,” Konashenkov said at a press briefing Thursday.
Balakliya is about 55 miles southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, where heavy shelling continued Thursday.
Mar 02, 11:25 pm
US condemns Kremlin’s ‘full assault’ on ‘truth’ in media
The U.S. State Department is condemning Moscow’s attack on the media, saying the Kremlin “is engaged in a full assault on media freedom and the truth, and Moscow’s efforts to mislead and suppress the truth of the brutal invasion are intensifying.”
“The people of Russia did not choose this war. Putin did,” Ned Price, State Department spokesman, said in a statement. “They have a right to know about the death, suffering and destruction being inflicted by their government on the people of Ukraine. The people of Russia also have a right to know about the human costs of this senseless war to their own soldiers.”
The statement comes 24 hours after the Russian government blocked the country’s only two major independent news broadcasters, Dozhd TV and Radio Ekho Moskvy, accusing them of spreading “false information” about Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Ekho Moskvy has been respected for its even-handed treatment of breaking news since its founding 32 years ago, and, until yesterday, its broadcasts reached some 1.8 million daily listeners throughout Russia and beyond,” the State Department said in a statement Wednesday night. “Dozhd, which has been operating for more than a decade, is similarly known for high-quality reporting.”
Russian state channels, such as RT and Sputnik, are banned from using the word “war” or “invasion” in relation to Russia’s assault on Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin instead has referred to it as a “special military operation.”
The State Department said the Russian Parliament will consider a bill Friday to make “unofficial” reporting on the invasion punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
(LONDON) — Princess Diana was once one of the most photographed women in the world, but one image of the late royal has yet to be seen in public — until now.
In a new royal photography exhibition at Kensington Palace, a rare picture of the Princess of Wales taken by photographer David Bailey will be on display.
The black and white portrait, which was taken by Bailey in 1988, shows Diana reserved, stoic and looking away from the viewer. The portrait was one of several shots during a shoot commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery. This particular photograph was kept by Bailey in his archive and has never been seen in public before.
In the press release for the exhibit, it notes that the princess personally chose Bailey to take the photo after being suggested several other established photographers for the commission.
The never-before-seen photo of Princess Diana will be featured alongside other photos of the royal family for the exhibit titled, “Life Through a Royal Lens,” which will explore the royal family’s relationship with the camera and offer a glimpse of them off-duty.
“Ever since Queen Victoria and Prince Albert first embraced the revolutionary technology of photography, the medium has shaped how the world views the British monarchy,” Claudia Acott Williams, curator at Historic Royal Palaces, said in a statement. “It has allowed the royal family to offer fascinating insights into their life and work, transforming the royal image and creating an unprecedented relationship between crown and subjects.”
(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymr 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, don’t appear to have advanced closer to the city since coming within about 20 miles, although smaller advanced groups have been fighting gun battles with Ukrainian forces inside the capital since at least Friday.
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 03, 6:08 am
Ukraine claims to have raised flag over town outside Kyiv
Ukraine claimed Thursday to have raised its flag over the town of Bucha, close to the Ukrainian capital where some of the most intense fighting has been taking place in recent days and where Russia’s push south on Kyiv appears to have stalled.
A video posted on the official Facebook page of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ ground troops purportedly shows soldiers hoisting the national flag outside Bucha’s town hall. The town is just a few miles north of the edge of Kyiv and about 15 miles from the center of the capital. Fighting is reported to be ongoing nearby and, in the video, an explosion can be heard in the distance as they raise the blue and yellow flag.
Mar 03, 5:34 am
Ukraine requests no-fly zone over Chernobyl
Ukraine is asking the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to call on NATO to close access to the airspace over the country’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the surrounding exclusion zone.
The deserted exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where the world’s worst nuclear accident took place in 1986, was seized by Russian forces last week.
A joint appeal to the IAEA was signed Wednesday by Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko, Oleh Korikov, head of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine, and Petro Kotin, head of Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company Energoatom.
“The fact of the seizure of the world-famous Chernobyl nuclear power plant has all the hallmarks of an act of nuclear terrorism committed against Chernobyl nuclear facilities and its personnel by Russian military units,” they said in the appeal.
Mar 03, 5:06 am
Russia claims to have hit another TV tower in Kyiv
Russia claimed Thursday that its forces have “disabled” another television tower in Ukraine’s capital.
Russian troops fired precision-guided weapons at a TV and radio center in the Lysa Hora region of Kyiv, according to Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
“A strike delivered by a long-range precision-guided weapon disabled a reserve TV and radio center in the Lysa Hora area in Kyiv which the Ukrainian Security Service has been using for psychological operations against Russia,” Konashenkov said at a press briefing Thursday. “There are no casualties and there is no damage done to residential buildings.”
There were reports of more explosions in Kyiv on Thursday morning, but Ukrainian officials have yet to confirm that a second TV tower was hit.
A Russian missile struck Kyiv’s main TV tower in the heart of the capital on Tuesday.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov has said that Russia is aiming to cut off a large part of Ukraine from the internet and communications.
Mar 03, 4:37 am
Russia claims to have seized eastern Ukrainian city
Russia claimed Thursday that its forces have seized the eastern Ukrainian city of Balakliya.
Russian troops worked together with Russia-backed separatist forces on the “successful offensive,” according to Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
“The city of Balakliya has been freed from nationalist battalions,” Konashenkov said at a press briefing Thursday.
Balakliya is about 55 miles southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, where heavy shelling continued Thursday.
Mar 02, 11:25 pm
US condemns Kremlin’s ‘full assault’ on ‘truth’ in media
The U.S. State Department is condemning Moscow’s attack on the media, saying the Kremlin “is engaged in a full assault on media freedom and the truth, and Moscow’s efforts to mislead and suppress the truth of the brutal invasion are intensifying.”
“The people of Russia did not choose this war. Putin did,” Ned Price, State Department spokesman, said in a statement. “They have a right to know about the death, suffering and destruction being inflicted by their government on the people of Ukraine. The people of Russia also have a right to know about the human costs of this senseless war to their own soldiers.”
The statement comes 24 hours after the Russian government blocked the country’s only two major independent news broadcasters, Dozhd TV and Radio Ekho Moskvy, accusing them of spreading “false information” about Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Ekho Moskvy has been respected for its even-handed treatment of breaking news since its founding 32 years ago, and, until yesterday, its broadcasts reached some 1.8 million daily listeners throughout Russia and beyond,” the State Department said in a statement Wednesday night. “Dozhd, which has been operating for more than a decade, is similarly known for high-quality reporting.”
Russian state channels, such as RT and Sputnik, are banned from using the word “war” or “invasion” in relation to Russia’s assault on Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin instead has referred to it as a “special military operation.”
The State Department said the Russian Parliament will consider a bill Friday to make “unofficial” reporting on the invasion punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
(WASHINGTON) — Russia is hitting civilian targets in Ukraine, killing innocent people and destroying hospitals, schools and critical infrastructure like running water, electricity and gas, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken alleged Wednesday.
But President Joe Biden and his administration have stopped short of accusing the Kremlin of conducting war crimes in its invasion of Ukraine so far, with the top U.S. diplomat saying instead they are “looking very closely at what’s happening” and “documenting it.”
The U.S. and its NATO allies continue to provide Ukraine with assistance, including anti-aircraft missiles known as Stingers, a senior U.S. official confirmed. But that lethal military aid, overwhelming condemnation at the United Nations and the flight of Western businesses and crippling sanctions, including new ones announced Wednesday, have yet to change Vladimir Putin’s calculus as he seeks to topple Ukraine’s government.
Instead, Russia is increasingly switching to using indiscriminate bombardment to terrorize cities into submission — a tactic Putin’s forces honed previously in Chechnya and Syria and that seems to have secured them their first major Ukrainian city, Kherson.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, has been pummeled with heavy artillery, rockets and airstrikes, destroying apartment buildings and government offices alike. Another major city, Mariupol, is under ferocious, continual bombardment with rocket barrages and ballistic missile strikes, knocking out the power.
Schools, hospitals and residences; buses, cars and ambulances; and infrastructure like drinking water, electricity, and gas amid Ukraine’s bitter winter have all been hit.
“These aren’t military targets. They are places where civilians work and families live,” Blinken told reporters, adding, “This is shameful.”
But while Biden said Wednesday morning he believed Russia is intentionally targeting civilian infrastructure, Blinken stopped short of that, saying the U.S. is still assessing particular strikes.
“We’re looking very closely at what’s happening in Ukraine right now, including what’s happening to civilians. We’re taking account of it, we’re documenting it, and we want to ensure, among other things, that there’s accountability for it,” he told reporters Wednesday.
The International Criminal Court announced Wednesday it would launch an immediate investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine after 38 member states, including the United Kingdom and Canada, referred reported atrocities to the ICC.
“Our work in the collection of evidence has now commenced,” ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan said in a statement. Khan announced Monday that he would request to open a probe, which requires either authorization from a pre-trial ICC chamber or a referral by member states. Ukraine, like Russia and the U.S., is not a member state.
Under the ICC’s founding document, the Rome Statute, “intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities” is a violation of international law.
Russia has outright denied that it has struck any civilians or civilian infrastructure.
Amnesty International, among other human rights groups, reported Tuesday that it had documented “the escalation in violations of humanitarian and human rights law, including deaths of civilians resulting from indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas and infrastructure.”
“Strikes on protected objects such as hospitals and schools, the use of indiscriminate weapons such as ballistic missiles, and the use of banned weapons such as cluster bombs may all qualify as war crimes,” the group said.
While Blinken wouldn’t go that far, he compared Russia’s tactics in Ukraine to previous conflicts, where its forces were “absolutely brutal in trying to cow the citizenry of a given country, and that includes at the very least indiscriminate targeting and potentially deliberate targeting as well.”
To fight back, the U.S. provided several hundred anti-aircraft missiles, known as Stingers, to the Ukrainian military Tuesday, a senior U.S. official confirmed to ABC News. The missiles were part of a $350 million package Biden approved late Friday night, bringing total U.S. military aid to approximately $1 billion.
Before Putin launched his war, U.S. aid had been shipped in on regular flights to the capital Kyiv, where the airport has been shut down. Still, the U.S. has been successfully delivering military aid, according to Blinken, who declined to offer details on how.
“We are very actively working — every day, every hour — to provide that assistance,” Blinken said of the U.S. and its NATO allies, adding, “Vitally needed assistance is getting to where it needs to go.”
The U.S. also unveiled new sanctions Wednesday that target Russia’s oil and gas sector, its defense industry and its ally Belarus.
New export controls will bar oil and gas extraction equipment and refining technology, preventing Russian firms “from maintaining and upgrading current projects and, to some degree, from launching new projects,” the White House said.
The State Department is also implementing “full blocking sanctions” on 22 entities in Russia’s defense sector, while the Commerce Department is extending export controls on Russia to include Belarus, to prevent the country from transferring semiconductors and other technology to its powerful neighbor and ally.
ABC News’ Patrick Reevell, Ben Gittleson, and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Skirmishes around Ukraine’s nuclear facilities provoked a heated exchange Wednesday at the U.N. Environment Assembly between representatives of the warring countries and prompted a U.N. nuclear watchdog group to warn the “unprecedented” nature of the fighting could lead to “severe consequences.”
With worries already at an alarming level over Russian President Vladimir Putin putting his nuclear forces on high alert, a battle being waged in Ukraine for Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is upping the anxiety over a possible calamity that would likely wreak havoc far beyond the boundaries of the war zone.
“Barbarians who pretended to be rescuers, right now attack our cities, destroy infrastructure, kill my fellow citizens and try to destroy everything,” a Ukrainian official told the U.N. Environment Assembly gathered in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Ukrainian official said Russian troops are trying to seize the country’s nuclear power plants, adding, “Russia is conducting genocide against humanity.”
“They say they’ve come to save Ukraine, but they are here to destroy my beautiful country,” said the official, who received a standing ovation at the end of his remarks.
A Russian representative countered that Ukraine’s military forces have been attacking so-called pro-Russian “separatists” in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine for eight years without any protest from the international community.
“The war, which led to the death of 12,000 people in the east of the country, killed by the hands of Ukraine soldiers and neo-Nazi units,” the Russian official told the assembly, espousing claims the U.S. and its Western allies say are false and were concocted by the Kremlin as an excuse to invade Ukraine.
“You have just supported them, distinguished delegates. It’s them that you were offering your ovation. We didn’t begin that war,” the Russian official said.
Fighting continued Wednesday at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in Enerhodar, Ukraine, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, both sides claimed.
The battle over the Zaporizhzhia plant prompted the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog group, to issue a warning over the “unprecedented” nature of this situation.
Rafael Grossi, director-general of the IAEA, said he and members of the agency are “gravely concerned” that a military conflict is happening for the first time amid the facilities of a large, established nuclear power program.
During an emergency IAEA board of governors meeting, Grossi said an incident affecting nuclear facilities “could have severe consequences, aggravating human suffering and causing environmental harm” beyond Ukraine’s borders.
He said Russia informed the agency Tuesday that it had taken control of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant, but ABC News has not been able to independently confirm the report.
Last week, Russia seized control of the Chernobyl power plant, now shut down and sealed with a containment dome after an infamous disaster in April 1986.
Ukraine’s nuclear regulatory agency SNRIU has requested “immediate assistance” from the IAEA to ensure the safety of Chernobyl and other nuclear facilities, Grossi said. He said the IAEA is assessing the request.
“Despite the extraordinary circumstances of an armed conflict causing increasing challenges and dangers, Ukraine’s nuclear power plants are operating normally,” Grossi said. “But while we may use expressions like ‘normal operations’ in a technical context, I want to emphasize there is nothing normal about the circumstances under which the professionals at Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants are managing to keep the reactors that produce half of Ukraine’s electricity working.”
(NEW YORK) — When 25-year-old Yulia Yemelianenko crossed the border from Lviv, Ukraine into Poland earlier this week, she broke down in tears.
“I cried a lot,” she told ABC News at a train station in Przemysl, Poland. “…I was forced to quit my country, and I didn’t want it.”
“I want to live in my city with my mother and my friends,” she added.
Yemelianenko spoke with ABC News about the difficult journey as she waited at the train station for a friend. She is one of the hundreds of thousands of people who were forced to flee from Ukraine into neighboring European countries like Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary amid ongoing attacks from Russia.
Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said on Wednesday the number of Ukrainians who’ve fled their country has so far climbed to 874,000, which is believed to be the biggest number of people displaced in the shortest amount of time since World War II.
“I don’t know what will happen in Ukraine,” she said. “I don’t know when I will come back.”
The emotional toll that the journey took on Yemelianenko was magnified because she had to leave her mother, who is recovering from COVID-19, behind.
Asked if she feels that she has been displaced, she said, “I’m trying not to think about this at all, because I don’t know when I can see my mother next time.”
“Every time I start, like, crying and tears, won’t help in this situation.”
She said she hopes to return to Ukraine as soon as possible and reunite with her friends, some of whom stayed back to fight in the war.
‘There’s panic, there’s chaos’
At the train station in Lviv, Ukraine, volunteers have been working to organize thousands of people seeking to board trains to Poland. According to UNHCR, more than 453,000 of those who fled Ukraine have gone to Poland.
“There’s panic, there’s chaos,” Yuliana Shchurko, a volunteer, told ABC News. “Those people are waiting for the train to call and they don’t want to go to any other country,” she said, adding that it could be days before the next train would be scheduled to depart for Poland.
Amid the congestion, some immigrants and students living in Ukraine expressed fear they are being discriminated against as they wait at the border, hoping to cross into Poland.
“The Ukrainians are given priority, which is to children and women,” Adeyemo Abimbole, a student from Nigeria, told ABC News on Sunday, adding that he and a group of African students have been waiting for a train to cross into Poland for nearly three days.
“Our lives also matter,” he added. It is unclear if Abimbole and his friends entered Poland.
UNHCR’s Grandi confirmed during a press conference on Tuesday that “there are instances” of differentiation of treatment at the borders based on race, but said he was assured that “these are not state policies.”
“We will continue to intervene, as we have done several times, to try to ensure that everybody is received in the same manner,” he said, urging all nations to welcome those fleeing Ukraine without discrimination.
Marcus Lawani, who is also waiting with the group, told ABC News that he believed some of his African friends were “turned back based on their color” because “they want more Ukrainians to leave.”
“Mostly they give power to women, children, and their men follow,” he said.
Women and children have been given priority at congested border crossings and many Ukrainian men of fighting age have stayed behind after Ukraine began drafting reservists aged 18-60 to fight for their country.
A ‘heartbreaking’ decision
Alyona Tec said that her family’s decision to leave Ukraine was difficult and leaving her country has torn her apart.
“I felt really bad that I had to leave,” Tec told ABC News on Friday as her family arrived in Korczowa, Poland, explaining that she had wanted to stay behind and help her people in any way she could but left with her husband and son because they worried about the baby’s safety.
“I couldn’t [stay] because I knew [my son] is here and I need to take care of him and I’m responsible,” she said. “It was like heartbreaking for me because I saw people gonna go fight, like regular civilians gonna take up guns and fight, and I’m just gonna leave.”
While Tec grapples with guilt as she thinks of those she left behind, her husband Juan Tec said that they initially considered staying in Ukraine.
“Things that are happening now in Kyiv are just really bad,” he said. “Shelling, gunfights, tanks, rolling over cars, people getting hurt civilians. And now that I look back, I’m really glad we made that decision.”
According to UNICEF, the 7.5 million children in Ukraine are at heightened risk. Many have been traumatized, wounded and at least 13 children have been killed by Tuesday — a number that is expected to rise as the war rages on, UNICEF said.
Alyona Tec said that her family’s decision to leave Ukraine was difficult and leaving her country has torn her apart.
An uncertain future
For families who separated at the border, it is unclear when they can see their loves ones again.
In an emotional embrace, husband and wife Sasha and Svetlana Olekciirak said goodbye on Saturday at the Polish border in Korczowa.
The couple spoke with ABC News as Sasha dropped off his wife and two children after what they said was a 30-hour trip from Ternopil, not knowing when he will see them again.
“I don’t want to go,” Sasha said, explaining that he wanted to stay in Ukraine to fight for his country.
Asked how she felt not knowing when she can see her husband again, a tearful Svetlana said, “it’s fear … you don’t know what is your future.”
Their story is one of many playing out on the borders of Ukraine, like that of Sergei and Marina, a couple that was also separated at a border.
Sergei spoke with ABC News as he waited with his wife Marina and their two children – a 5-month-old and a 3-year-old – at a train station in Lviv.
Sergei said that that amid the bombings in Kyiv, he was worried for his family’s safety and decided to send them to Poland while he stayed behind to fight.
“I have to ensure that my family [is safe], so that’s why we’re here,” he said.
Asked how she feels about leaving her husband behind, Marina said, “I have no other choice.”
“We will start from zero there,” she said. “I will be better for my kids and I don’t care about stuff.”
ABC News’ Jessica DiMartino contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As Ukrainians flee across Europe amid the onslaught of attacks from Russia in Ukraine, non-white refugees have faced discrimination from extremist groups patrolling the border, reporters and residents in the area told ABC News.
On March 1, dozens of self-identified right-wing nationalists marauded through the city center of Przemysl, Poland, and harassed refugees who looked to be people of color, the witnesses said. Many non-white refugees have arrived in the city while they evacuate Ukraine.
As this humanitarian crisis goes on, many fear extremism will continue to cause trouble for refugees of color trying to escape the war.
More than 836,000 people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries since Russian forces invaded the eastern European country on Feb. 24, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
At least 453,000 of those refugees have escaped to Poland as of March 2, UNHCR said.
Near the Przemysl train station on Tuesday, where thousands of refugees are passing through, anyone who looked to be African or Arab were being targeted by the extremists in the attack, witnesses reported.
Julian Würzer, a reporter for the German newspaper Berliner Morgenpost who is stationed in Poland, told ABC News that extremists aggressively shouted at refugees to get out of the country and allegedly assaulted them.
Online videos seen by ABC News show police in riot gear diffusing the incident, which Würzer said went on for about 20 minutes before police arrived.
There have been no reports of injuries.
Local authorities did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment on the incidents.
These extremists are a minority in the country, however. There has been an overwhelming effort by local citizens to help those fleeing across the Polish-Ukrainian border. ABC News reporters on the ground say that volunteers across the region have been offering to house, feed, and clothe the many refugees.
At the border, witnesses tell ABC News that extremists have reportedly been accepting Ukrainians but vowing to “defend” Poland against an influx of non-Christians. These extremists are believed by some to be backed by Russia.
Poland’s government has aligned itself in recent years with right-wing ideals and has been criticized for anti-refugee sentiment. Last year, Poland refused to let thousands of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the country after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko forcibly drove them out of his country.
Commissioner Filippo Grandi of the UNCHR has confirmed that there have been instances of discrimination in the admission of certain refugees from Ukraine. Some third-country nationals have reported being stuck or being rejected from passage in their attempts to flee, he said.
Grandi said that state policies are not causing instances of discrimination, and that “there should be absolutely no discrimination between Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians, Europeans and non-Europeans.”
“Everybody is fleeing from the same risks,” Grandi said at a March 1 press conference. “We will continue to intervene, as we have done several times to try to ensure that everybody is received in the same manner.”
ABC News’ Tomek Rolski and Christopher Donato contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymr 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, don’t appear to have advanced closer to the city since coming within about 20 miles, although smaller advanced groups have been fighting gun battles with Ukrainian forces inside the capital since at least Friday.
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 02, 6:18 am
Third world war would be nuclear and destructive, Lavrov warns
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned Wednesday that if a third world war were to take place, it would involve nuclear weapons and be destructive, according to Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.
Mar 02, 5:55 am
Putin’s fiercest critic Navalny calls for daily anti-war protests
Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is urging people in Russia and around the world to stage daily protests against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We — Russia — want to be a nation of peace. Alas, few people would call us that now,” Navalny said Wednesday in a series of posts on Twitter via his spokesperson. “But let’s at least not become a nation of frightened silent people. Of cowards who pretend not to notice the aggressive war against Ukraine unleashed by our obviously insane czar.”
“They say that someone who cannot attend a rally and does not risk being arrested for it cannot call for it. I’m already in prison, so I think I can,” he tweeted. “We cannot wait any longer. Wherever you are, in Russia, Belarus or on the other side of the planet, go to the main square of your city every weekday and at 2 pm on weekends and holidays.”
“Yes, maybe only a few people will take to the streets on the first day. And in the second — even less,” he added. “But we must, gritting our teeth and overcoming fear, come out and demand an end to the war. Each arrested person must be replaced by two newcomers.”
Navalny called on people to not just “be against the war” but to “fight against the war.”
“If in order to stop the war we have to fill prisons and paddy wagons with ourselves, we will fill prisons and paddy wagons with ourselves,” he tweeted. “Everything has a price, and now, in the spring of 2022, we must pay this price. There’s no one to do it for us.”
Navalny, the most prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin, was imprisoned last year when he returned to Russia from Germany after recovering from an attempted assassination with nerve agent poisoning in Siberia. Russia has denied carrying out such an attack.
Mar 02, 5:19 am
‘You can’t stay neutral right now,’ Zelenskyy warns
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Wednesday that the international community “can’t stay neutral,” as the Russian invasion entered its seventh day.
“Neutral Switzerland has supported EU sanctions against Russian oligarchs, officials, the state, and companies. Once again – neutral Switzerland. So why do other countries wait?” Zelenskyy said in a televised address. “Our anti-war coalition has already been joined by those countries that Moscow was counting on a week ago. This is an extraordinary result. You can’t stay neutral right now.”
“We are in our homeland and there will be an international tribunal for waging the war against us,” he added.
Zelenskyy also praised his fellow Ukrainians for being “united.”
“During this time, we have truly become one,” he said. “Today you, Ukrainians, are a symbol of invincibility. A symbol that people in any country can become the best people on Earth at any moment.”
Mar 02, 4:37 am
Russia claims to have captured Ukrainian port city
Russia claimed Wednesday to have captured Ukraine’s southern port city of Kherson, the largest Ukrainian city to fall to Russian forces since the start of the invasion.
“Russian forces have taken full control of the Kherson regional center,” Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov said at a press briefing Wednesday.
Russia-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine have also seized several cities and towns, advancing nearly 100 miles since launching the offensive, according to Konashenkov.
“Ukrainian servicemen will go home as soon as they make a written pledge not to take part in the hostilities,” he said.
Meanwhile, Russian forces have “disabled” the instrument room of the the main television tower in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, “putting an end to information attacks on Russia,” according to Konashenkov, who noted that “no damage was done to residential buildings in the course of the strike.”
Konashenkov also claimed that Russian aircraft had delivered a “massive strike” on Ukraine’s military infrastructure on Wednesday.
“Sixty-seven sites have been hit,” he added. “In all, 1,502 elements of Ukrainian military infrastructure have been disabled in the course of the operation. These include 51 command and communications centers belonging to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, 38 S-300, Buk M-1 and Osa air defense missile systems and 51 radar stations.”
Mar 01, 10:59 pm
Boeing suspends all plane maintenance support for Russian airlines
The Boeing Company has suspended all parts, maintenance and technical support for Russian airlines as the conflict continues, the company announced Tuesday.
This is expected to have a significant impact on Russian carriers, as planes need constant maintenance.
“We have suspended major operations in Moscow and temporarily closed our office in Kyiv,” Boeing said in a statement. “We are also suspending parts, maintenance and technical support services for Russian airlines. As the conflict continues, our teams are focused on ensuring the safety of our teammates in the region.”
Mar 01, 10:56 pm
GOP points at Biden for Russian invasion in State of the Union response
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds implied Russia’s attack on Ukraine is connected to a lack of leadership from President Joe Biden in the Republican response to the State of the Union address, saying Biden has “sent us back in time” to the 1970s and ’80s, when the “Soviet army was trying to redraw the world map.”
Reynolds said Biden has failed on his promise to make America respected around the world once more and criticized Biden for the lead-up to the invasion, including waving sanctions against Russia and “focusing on political correctness.”
“Weakness on the world stage has a cost,” Reynolds said. “… We can’t project strength abroad if we’re weak home.”
Mar 01, 10:17 pm
‘Free world is holding Putin accountable,’ Biden says in SOTU address
In his first State of the Union address, President Joe Biden began by discussing the war in Eastern Europe and condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Biden invoked the strength of the Ukrainian people amid the attack, lauding the civilians who took up arms to defend their country and highlighting the work Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova has done on behalf of her people.
“She’s bright. She’s strong, and she’s resolved,” Biden said as first lady Jill Biden hugged Markarova.
Many lawmakers in attendance showed their support for Ukraine by wearing color-coordinated outfits and lapel pins in blue and yellow.
Biden described the invasion as “premeditated and totally unprovoked,” vowing, alongside NATO allies, to hold Putin accountable with sanctions on the Russian economy and Putin and the oligarchs themselves.
“When dictators do not pay a price for their aggressions, they cause more chaos,” Biden said. “They keep moving.”
Biden announced that American airspace would be closed to all Russian flights and pledged $1 billion in direct assistance to help “ease suffering” in Ukraine.
The president also “made clear” that while American forces would not go fight in Ukraine, he has mobilized the military to protect NATO countries.
“The United States and our Allies will defend every inch of territory that is NATO territory with the full force of our collective power,” he said.
Mar 01, 9:45 pm
Biden announces ban on Russian flights in US airspace
President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address announced the U.S. will ban Russian flights from its airspace, joining Canada and the European Union, which issued bans on Russian planes in their respective airspaces over the weekend.
“Tonight I am announcing that we will join our allies in closing off American air space to all Russian flights — further isolating Russia — and adding an additional squeeze on their economy,” Biden said.
The ban will apply to “operations of all aircraft owned, certified, operated, registered, chartered, leased, or controlled by, for, or for the benefit of, a person who is a citizen of Russia,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration. “This includes passenger and cargo flights, and scheduled as well as charter flights, effectively closing U.S. air space to all Russian commercial air carriers and other Russian civil aircraft.”
The ban will be “fully effective” by the end of the day Wednesday, the FAA said.
Mar 01, 9:12 pm
Lawmakers working to court ambassadors, diplomats ahead of UN vote to condemn Russia
While all eyes in Washington are on President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, some lawmakers have been working the phones to rally support at the United Nations for a resolution before the General Assembly to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and call for a peaceful resolution.
Working with the United States Mission to the United Nations, Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee have identified more than a dozen countries to target and called for ambassadors and key diplomats to leverage relationships to build more support for the nonbinding resolution.
“This has been a way for Congress to really play an important role working with the executive branch in getting this done and showing the world that Russia’s actions are illegal and should be condemned,” Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, a senior member of the committee that is leading the effort, told ABC News.
The vote “is an opportunity for countries to take a stand, and it’s especially a chance for the United States to demonstrate leadership among the nations of the world,” he said.
“President Biden and his administration, and now Congress, I believe, have demonstrated our ability to marshal our allies to condemn something the world has worked for decades to root out — which is a sovereign nation invading another,” Castro said.
Republicans have also been working to build support for the measure in the General Assembly, Castro said.
Mar 01, 8:35 pm
Ukrainian foreign minister addresses reports of racism
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba addressed the accounts of racism at the border by people of color attempting to flee, tweeting Tuesday, “Ukraine’s government spares no effort to solve the problem.”
Germany Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also addressed the reports of racism and discrimination during a powerful speech at the U.N. Assembly on Tuesday.
“Every refugee must receive protection, no matter what their nationality, no matter what their religion, no matter of the color of their skin,” Baerbock said.
