(NEW YORK) — Prince William and Duchess Kate are facing protests as they continue their week-long tour of the Caribbean to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee.
William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, were forced to cancel one of their first stops in Belize over the weekend when protests broke out ahead of their arrival.
The protests, led by indigenous people, some holding signs against colonialism, prompted the couple to visit another local cocoa farm instead of the one they originally planned to tour in the foothills of the Maya Mountains.
As William and Kate arrive in Jamaica on Tuesday, another protest is planned in that country.
A group known as The Advocates Network, which describes itself as a “non-partisan alliance of individuals and organizations advocating for human rights and good governance,” has published an open letter protesting the royals’ visit, saying that British rule has “perpetuated the greatest human rights tragedy in the history of humankind.”
“During her 70 years on the throne, your grandmother has done nothing to redress and atone for the suffering of our ancestors that took place during her reign and/or during the entire period of British trafficking of Africans, enslavement, indentureship and colonialization,” reads the letter, which was signed by 100 individuals.
The group has also taken to Twitter, publishing in a thread 60 reasons why they say an apology is due to the country, a nod to Jamaica celebrating the 60th anniversary of its independence later this year.
William and Kate have so far not commented on the controversy.
As monarch, Queen Elizabeth is the head of the British Commonwealth, representing 54 nations, including Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas, which William and Kate will visit next.
Another Caribbean country, Barbados, became a republic last year, no longer pledging allegiance to the queen.
Queen Elizabeth’s oldest son, Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, delivered a speech in Barbados at its independence ceremony, referencing Britain’s colonial past during which people were trafficked from Africa to the Caribbean.
“From the darkest days of our past, and the appalling atrocity of slavery, which forever stains our history, the people of this island forged their path with extraordinary fortitude,” said Charles. “Emancipation, self-government and independence were your way-points. Freedom, justice and self-determination have been your guides. Your long journey has brought you to this moment, not as your destination, but as a vantage point from which to survey a new horizon.”
William and Kate’s visit to the Caribbean this week is meant to thank people there for their support of Queen Elizabeth during her 70-year reign, the longest in Britain’s history.
“It’s more to support them and say thanks for all the support they’ve given the queen,” said Robert Jobson, an ABC News royal contributor, adding that William and Kate are implementing “soft-power diplomacy” on the tour.
In Belize, in addition to visiting a cocoa farm, William and Kate danced with locals and attended a special reception held by the country’s governor general.
In Jamaica, William and Kate are scheduled to meet with the governor general of Jamaica as well as the prime minister, in addition to other engagements, including visiting a school and hospital.
The Caribbean tour marks William and Kate’s first joint foreign tour since the start of the coronavirus pandemic two years ago.
(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 22, 4:40 pm
Russia claims more than 360,000 people evacuated from Ukraine to Russia
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Tuesday that it has evacuated 366,182 people from Ukraine to Russia since the invasion began.
Russia said 19,442 people, including 3,448 children, were evacuated from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions to Russia on Monday, without the participation of Ukrainian authorities, Mikhail Mizintsev, the head of Russia’s National Defense Control Center, claimed in a press briefing.
Mizintsev claimed more than 68,000 residents were also evacuated from Mariupol without the Ukrainian authorities’ involvement.
He claimed these people “are now completely safe under the Russian Federation’s protection, and all those in need are receiving necessary aid.”
Russia claimed it opened humanitarian corridors from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkiv on Tuesday.
Mar 22, 3:55 pm
No signs China has given Russia military aid: US official
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said there are no signs that China has given any military assistance to Russia to help with the war in Ukraine.
President Joe Biden held a video call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday and Sullivan met with his counterpart in Rome on Monday over U.S. concerns that Beijing would aid Moscow.
Over a week ago, the U.S. confirmed that Russia asked China for military support and other aid since the invasion began.
“What I can tell you is we have not seen … the provision of military equipment by China to Russia,” Sullivan said. “The president made clear to President Xi the implications and consequences of any such provision of equipment, and they very well understand one another.”
When pressed on whether NATO allies would “put specific concrete steps in place” if China does provide assistance, Sullivan said Biden would be consulting with NATO and the EU.
“On April 1, the European Union is having a summit with China. And so this will be an opportunity, Thursday, for the United States and our European partners, to coordinate closely on what our message is. We believe we’re very much on the same page with our European partners, and we will be speaking with one voice on this issue,” Sullivan said.
-ABC News’ Elizabeth Schulze
Mar 22, 3:44 pm
Biden, allies to roll out new coordinated plans on Thursday
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said President Joe Biden and NATO allies will roll out new coordinated plans on Thursday in response to Russia’s continued invasion.
Sullivan said Biden is traveling to Europe “to ensure we stay united” with our allies and to send a message that they are committed to help Ukraine “for as long as it takes.”
“There will be hard days ahead in Ukraine. Hardest for the Ukrainian troops on the front lines and the civilians under Russian bombardment. This war will not end easily or rapidly,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said NATO allies will announce new sanctions, tighten existing ones, adjust troops on the Eastern Flank and outline plans to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian energy.
Sullivan did not disclose any specific details about the sanctions but hinted that new ones will focus on a joint effort to crack down on countries helping Russia “undermine, weaken or get around the sanctions,” calling it an “important part” of this next phase.
“We have applied an enormous amount of economic pressure, and in order to sustain and escalate that pressure over time, part of that is about new designations, new targets, but a big part of it is about effective enforcement and evasion, applying the lessons that we’ve learned from other circumstances where we have, in fact, imposed sanctions on countries,” Sullivan said.
In Poland, Sullivan said Biden will “engage” with U.S. troops, hold a bilateral meeting with President Duda and meet with experts involved in the humanitarian response.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Mar 22, 3:14 pm
Zelenskyy addresses Italian lawmakers, saying Russia’s ‘goal is Europe’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed Italy’s Parliament on Tuesday, warning that “Ukraine is the gateway to Europe for Russian troops.”
He called for more sanctions so Russia “is looking not for military reserves or mercenaries somewhere in Libya or Syria, but for peace.”
“This is a war that Russia has been preparing for a long time. Which one person has been preparing for a long time. One! For decades,” Zelenskyy said. “Their goal is Europe.”
Zelenskyy compared the Russian invasion to the Nazis, saying, “The last one who did something like this in Europe were the Nazis, when they invaded other countries.”
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 22, 3:07 pm
Russia’s combat capability likely below 90%: US official
For the first time since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s combat capability has likely fallen below 90%, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters. The official said there are no tangible indications of reinforcements being brought in from elsewhere in the country.
“[This is] combat power that they assembled in Belarus and in the western part of their country prior to the invasion. It is not an assessment of all Russian military power,” the official said.
The official said there are “indications” that Ukrainian resistance is trying to retake some territory seized by Russian troops, such as the town of Izyum.
“What we’re starting to see are indications that they are now able and willing to take back territory that the Russians have taken,” said the official. “Whether this is a part of some sort of larger operational plan, we can’t say for sure.”
In Mykolaiv, northeast of Odessa, the Russians have been forced to reposition themselves to the area south of the city because Ukrainian resistance was so strong north of the city, the official said.
The logistical and resupply issues continue to plague Russian troops with the official noting that Russia now has concerns about fueling its ships in the Black Sea. Frostbite has also become an issue for Russian troops who continue to be inadequately supplied.
Ukrainian forces have mounted a strong resistance inside of Mariupol against the “significant number” of Russian forces that have made their way into the city, according to the official.
“The Ukrainians are fighting very, very hard to keep Mariupol from falling,” said the official.
Russia has fired more than 1,100 missiles in Ukraine, according to the official.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Mar 22, 2:21 pm
Russian Defense Ministry claims forces are making advances
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed its forces pursued the retreating Ukrainian units of the 54th separate mechanized brigade, and advanced 4 kilometers on Tuesday, approaching the settlement of Novomikhailovka.
Russian-backed Donetsk troops took control of the settlement of Verkhnetoretskoe and continues to attack units of the 25th Airborne Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry.
Russia claims two tanks, five infantry fighting vehicles, three field artillery pieces and seven off-road vehicles were destroyed.
Russia also claimed it fired air and sea-based high-precision long-range weapons at Ukrainian military facilities. It claimed it destroyed depots of fuel, lubricants, rocket and artillery weapons and ammunition.
The country’s defense ministry said its operational-tactical and army aviation hit 83 military facilities of Ukraine. Among them: four command posts, four anti-aircraft missile systems, three depots of rocket and artillery weapons and ammunition, as well as 68 places of military equipment accumulation.
Russia claimed air defense systems shot down 6 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in the air, including one Bayraktar TB-2 near the village of Merefa, Kharkiv region.
In total, since the beginning of the attack, 236 unmanned aerial vehicles, 185 anti-aircraft missile systems, 1,547 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 154 multiple rocket launchers, 612 field artillery guns and mortars, as well as 1,343 units of special military vehicles have been destroyed, Russia claims.
Mar 22, 1:11 pm
Hungarian president-elect visits town on border with Ukraine
Hungarian President-elect Katalin Novak visited the small town of Beregsurany on Tuesday. The town is a mile from the border with Ukraine.
Beregsurany, which has a population of about 600 people, has seen an influx in refugees fleeing Ukraine. Some days as many as 3,000 people pass through it.
The town has responded by setting up a local welcome center to facilitate registration, offering temporary beds until more permanent homes become available and providing counseling and care.
Novak is a member of Hungary’s far right, populist political party and closely works with Prime Minister Viktor Orban, known for his hardline stance on immigration and strict asylum policies.
Novak met with reporters after handing out pancakes to some of the refugees, a tradition started by a group of local women who make hundreds of pancakes daily for everyone coming over the border.
Novak said Hungarians are a welcoming people and want to help those who are fleeing violence and forced to leave their homes.
When pushed on why the politics are different for these refugees, compared to refugees from other countries like Syria, she said Hungary will always welcome people fleeing violence, but the country’s stance on mass migration remains the same.
She did not explain why certain people are considered “mass migration” and others are “seeking asylum.”
-ABC News’ Maggie Rulli
Mar 22, 12:50 pm
International Chess Federation imposes 6-month ban on Russian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin
Russian chess grandmaster Sergey Karjakin was found guilty of breaching an article in the FIDE Code of Ethics relating to public statements he has made in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Three days after the invasion, Karjakin published an open letter on his verified Instagram account expressing his support for the Russian regime.
“I express to you, our Commander-in-Chief, my full support in protecting the interests of Russia, our multinational Russian people, eliminating threats and establishing peace! I wish you a speedy fulfillment of all tasks assigned to our valiant army,” he said in the post.
Karjakin has 21 days to appeal the decision.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 22, 12:42 pm
Save the Children calls for immediate halt on intercountry adoptions
Save the Children is calling for an immediate ban on intercountry adoptions of children uprooted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to protect them from human traffickers or child abusers.
The international children’s charity warned in a statement Tuesday that “during mass movement of refugees, well-meaning people may attempt to ‘rescue’ children from the crisis-affected area in the mistaken belief that they will be better cared for in other environments.” But Save the Children stressed that “the best place for children is with their families and communities, and adoption is not an appropriate response for unaccompanied children until authorities and agencies have made all efforts to trace and reunite them with their families.”
The organization also warned that “not everybody attempting to foster or adopt children from Ukraine does so with the best intentions.”
Save the Children is calling on states to support a moratorium on all adoptions “until appropriate safeguards are in place” for the unaccompanied children who have fled Ukraine as well as those who have been uprooted within the country. Ukraine has suspended its intercountry adoption program until further notice in the wake of the ongoing war. But Save the Children noted that “it is important for receiving countries to also suspend intercountry adoption proceedings to ensure the appropriate international standards and safeguards.”
Save the Children staff in Romania have reported seeing some kids arriving from Ukraine unaccompanied, while others have been separated from their families in the chaos of fleeing their homes. The organization said many are under 14 and showing signs of psychological distress.
“There is so much upheaval in a child’s life during this time that the best place for them is with their families, relatives, and communities, rather than being removed to a foreign country and language. The most protective environment for a child is the safety and stability of their own family,” Amanda Brydon, global head of child protection advocacy for Save the Children, said in a statement. “At this stage of this crisis, an immediate moratorium on intercountry adoptions is critical to ensure that children are safe and that where possible and in their best interests, they are reunited with their caregivers or verified family members. Sending funds to trusted humanitarian agencies for their response to this crisis is one of the best ways to be able to support such children currently.”
Mar 22, 12:10 pm
US, St. Jude airlift 4 Ukrainian children with cancer
The U.S. Department of State announced Tuesday that it has coordinated with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital “to provide necessary life-saving and immediate care to four Ukrainian children whose ongoing cancer treatment was disrupted” by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The State Department helped airlift these pediatric cancer patients and some of their immediate family members from Poland to the international airport in Memphis, Tennessee, where they were subsequently transported to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“There, the patients will be able to safely resume critical cancer therapy disrupted by the Kremlin’s aggression,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement. “They will receive the specialized care they desperately need, and their family members will be afforded sustenance, security, and support from St. Jude.”
Over 3.5 million people have fled Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, and more than half went to neighboring Poland, according to the latest figures from the United Nations refugee agency.
“Children are among the most vulnerable in a crisis, and these pediatric oncology patients need urgent and highly specialized medical care. We are proud to stand with European partners who are also treating children whose life-saving care in Ukraine has been made impossible by Putin’s war,” Price added. “We recognize, however, that the children transported represent a small proportion of the thousands of patients whose cancer treatment has been interrupted and, who, even amid a pandemic and with compromised immune systems, were forced to flee their homes. That is why, together with our allies and partners, we will continue to support our Ukrainian partners as we seek to save lives and bring this needless war to a close.”
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Mar 22, 10:57 am
Nobel winner to auction medal to benefit refugees
Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov announced Tuesday that he and independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta have decided to auction off their 2021 Nobel Peace Prize Medal and donate the proceeds to the Ukrainian Refugee Fund.
“There are already over 10 million of refugees,” Muratov wrote on the Novaya Gazeta website, “I ask the auction houses to respond and put up for auction this world-famous award.”
Muratov is the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta and won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize with journalist Maria Ressa.
Mar 22, 10:00 am
Russian troops fire gas at peaceful protesters in Kherson
Russian troops fired gas into a crowd of peaceful protesters in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Tuesday.
Video from the scene, taken by journalists, shows projectiles landing in a square in central Kherson where residents had gathered to protest Russia’s occupation of the city. Loud bangs can be heard and the crowd suddenly disperses as people attempt to flee the smoke and gas emitting from the canisters around them. People are seen coughing and covering their faces as they run away.
-ABC News’ Julia Drozd and Fergal Gallagher
Mar 22, 7:58 am
Several loud explosions heard in Kyiv amid curfew
ABC News’ team in Kyiv reported hearing several loud explosions just before 1 p.m. local time.
The Ukrainian capital was reported to be relatively quiet earlier Tuesday, which marks the first full day of a 35-hour curfew, set to expire Wednesday morning.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said Tuesday that Ukrainian troops expelled Russian forces from Makariv, a suburb of Kyiv, after a fierce battle. However, Russian forces pushing toward Kyiv were able to take partial control of other northwestern suburbs, Bucha, Hostomel and Irpin, according to the defense ministry.
Mar 22, 7:57 am
Pope Francis calls Zelenskyy, gets invited to Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he received a telephone call from Pope Francis on Tuesday.
Zelenskyy made the comment at the start of his 11-minute impassioned speech to Italy’s parliament via video link, after which he received a standing ovation.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, Andryi Yurash, later took to Twitter to confirm the call, saying Zelenskyy had a “very promising” conversation with the pontiff and invited him to visit Ukraine.
The Holy See Press Office has not yet released a statement on the call.
Mar 22, 7:44 am
Several loud explosions heard in Kyiv
ABC News’ team in Kyiv reported hearing several loud explosions just before 1 p.m. local time.
The Ukrainian capital was reported to be relatively quiet earlier Tuesday.
Mar 22, 7:22 am
Several fires reported in Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
Several fires have erupted within the area around Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant, according to a press release from the Ukrainian parliament, which cited satellite images from the European Space Agency.
The Ukrainian parliament said the fires in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, a 1,000-square-mile restricted area of deserted land surrounding the shuttered plant, were likely caused by “shelling or arson” at the hands of Russian forces, which seized the site last month.
Mar 22, 7:06 am
Over 3.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine: UNHCR
More than 3.5 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the United Nations refugee agency.
The tally from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) amounts to just over 8% of Ukraine’s population — which the World Bank counted at 44 million at the end of 2020 — on the move across borders in 27 days.
More than half of the refugees are in neighboring Poland, UNHCR figures show.
Mar 22, 6:50 am
At least 925 civilians, including 75 children, killed in Ukraine: OHCHR
At least 925 civilians, including 75 children, have been killed in Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Meanwhile, at least 1,496 civilians, including 99 children, have been injured, OHCHR figures show.
The tallies are civilian casualties that occurred in Ukraine from Feb. 24 to March 20 and have been verified by OHCHR, though the agency cautioned that the true numbers are believed to be “considerably higher.”
“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,” OHCHR said in a statement late Monday. “OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, especially in Government-controlled territory and especially in recent days, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration.”
Mar 22, 6:43 am
Russia claims to have captured nine more localities in Ukraine
Russia claimed Tuesday that its troops have captured nine more localities in Ukraine.
According to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense, units of the Russian Armed Forces have advanced another 6 kilometers (about 3.7 miles) and have taken control of the southeastern village of Urozhaine in the Donetsk oblast, some 65 miles north of the besieged port of Mariupol where many civilians remain trapped under Russia bombardment.
Meanwhile, the defense ministry said Russia-backed separatist forces of southeastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region have also advanced and captured eight more areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
Mar 22, 6:28 am
Russia responds to Biden on biological, chemical weapons, claiming it has neither
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov on Tuesday denied allegations that Russia might be planning to use biological or chemical weapons in Ukraine.
“We have neither of these,” Ryabkov told reporters in Moscow. “What the Americans are saying are malicious insinuations — we’ve heard them all the time and we’ve given exhaustive answers to them for a long time. The problem is, the U.S. has no habit of listening to anyone but itself.”
Ryabkov’s comments came after U.S. President Joe Biden accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of falsely claiming that the United States and Ukraine are developing biological or chemical weapons for use against Russia — rhetoric that Biden said shows Putin is considering using those types of deadly weapons in Ukraine.
“He’s already used chemical weapons in the past, and we should be careful of what’s about to come,” Biden said Monday during remarks at the Business Roundtable’s CEO Quarterly Meeting in Washington, D.C.
Mar 22, 4:25 am
Russia-US relations ‘on the brink of a breakup,’ diplomat warns
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov warned Tuesday that the United States should stop supplying Ukraine with weapons and making threats to Moscow in order to “preserve relations” with Russia.
“They simply need to stop in their escalation, both verbal escalation and in terms of stuffing the Kyiv region with weapons. They need to stop producing threats to Russia,” Ryabkov said while answering questions from reporters in Moscow. “Meanwhile, if they do manage to somehow positively influence Kyiv, something that I not just doubt, but I am confident that it will not happen, unfortunately, then I think there will be a certain prospect for normalizing relations.”
“For now, we see a downward tendency in relations with our country through the fault of the U.S.,” he added. “We regret it, but it does not impact our determination to move toward accomplishing the goals of the special military operation and to adapt to the circumstances related to the American sanctions and the sanctions imposed by European satellites of the U.S. at its behest.”
When asked whether Moscow plans to recall its ambassador, Ryabkov told reporters that the future of Russia-U.S. relations depends on Washington.
“A note of protest was passed to the American ambassador yesterday. It said that the current developments put these relations on the brink of a breakup,” he said. “There is nothing here beyond what was said there: that the question is about a policy that the U.S. will choose.”
(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 22, 7:06 am
Over 3.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine: UNHCR
More than 3.5 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the United Nations refugee agency.
The tally from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) amounts to just over 8% of Ukraine’s population — which the World Bank counted at 44 million at the end of 2020 — on the move across borders in 27 days.
More than half of the refugees are in neighboring Poland, UNHCR figures show.
Mar 22, 6:50 am
At least 925 civilians, including 75 children, killed in Ukraine: OHCHR
At least 925 civilians, including 75 children, have been killed in Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Meanwhile, at least 1,496 civilians, including 99 children, have been injured, OHCHR figures show.
The tallies are civilian casualties that occurred in Ukraine from Feb. 24 to March 20 and have been verified by OHCHR, though the agency cautioned that the true numbers are believed to be “considerably higher.”
“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,” OHCHR said in a statement late Monday. “OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, especially in Government-controlled territory and especially in recent days, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration.”
Mar 22, 6:43 am
Russia claims to have captured nine more localities in Ukraine
Russia claimed Tuesday that its troops have captured nine more localities in Ukraine.
According to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense, units of the Russian Armed Forces have advanced another 6 kilometers (about 3.7 miles) and have taken control of the southeastern village of Urozhaine in the Donetsk oblast, some 65 miles north of the besieged port of Mariupol where many civilians remain trapped under Russia bombardment.
Meanwhile, the defense ministry said Russia-backed separatist forces of southeastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region have also advanced and captured eight more areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
Mar 22, 6:28 am
Russia responds to Biden on biological, chemical weapons, claiming it has neither
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov on Tuesday denied allegations that Russia might be planning to use biological or chemical weapons in Ukraine.
“We have neither of these,” Ryabkov told reporters in Moscow. “What the Americans are saying are malicious insinuations — we’ve heard them all the time and we’ve given exhaustive answers to them for a long time. The problem is, the U.S. has no habit of listening to anyone but itself.”
Ryabkov’s comments came after U.S. President Joe Biden accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of falsely claiming that the United States and Ukraine are developing biological or chemical weapons for use against Russia — rhetoric that Biden said shows Putin is considering using those types of deadly weapons in Ukraine.
“He’s already used chemical weapons in the past, and we should be careful of what’s about to come,” Biden said Monday during remarks at the Business Roundtable’s CEO Quarterly Meeting in Washington, D.C.
Mar 22, 4:25 am
Russia-US relations ‘on the brink of a breakup,’ diplomat warns
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov warned Tuesday that the United States should stop supplying Ukraine with weapons and making threats to Moscow in order to “preserve relations” with Russia.
“They simply need to stop in their escalation, both verbal escalation and in terms of stuffing the Kyiv region with weapons. They need to stop producing threats to Russia,” Ryabkov said while answering questions from reporters in Moscow. “Meanwhile, if they do manage to somehow positively influence Kyiv, something that I not just doubt, but I am confident that it will not happen, unfortunately, then I think there will be a certain prospect for normalizing relations.”
“For now, we see a downward tendency in relations with our country through the fault of the U.S.,” he added. “We regret it, but it does not impact our determination to move toward accomplishing the goals of the special military operation and to adapt to the circumstances related to the American sanctions and the sanctions imposed by European satellites of the U.S. at its behest.”
When asked whether Moscow plans to recall its ambassador, Ryabkov told reporters that the future of Russia-U.S. relations depends on Washington.
“A note of protest was passed to the American ambassador yesterday. It said that the current developments put these relations on the brink of a breakup,” he said. “There is nothing here beyond what was said there: that the question is about a policy that the U.S. will choose.”
(NEW YORK) — Since the war in Ukraine began, more than three million refugees have fled — by bus, train, car and foot — for neighboring countries. Some have destinations in mind, while others have no plan. But as these displaced citizens navigate different yet equally impossible conditions, doctors at the countries that border Ukraine say there’s a common thread: mental health is the most often reported medical problem.
Among the millions of refugees, acute stress disorder has been reported as a common ailment.
“Acute stress disorder is basically a fight-or-flight reaction that lasts a few days to a month and involves having been exposed to a threat to your life or limb and not being able to stop thinking about it,” Dr. Craig Katz, a clinical professor of psychiatry, medical education, system design and global health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told ABC News.
In cases where people are in a fight-or-flight mode, “They’re highly likely to have problems sleeping, being extremely anxious and not having much of an appetite, because they need to focus on survival,” Katz said.
Russia launched its full invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, exposing its citizens to death and destruction, as well as disruption to basic needs.
“It’s clearly a nation under stress,” Dr. Dan Schnorr, an emergency medicine physician with Doctors Without Borders, told ABC News. “Every child in [Ukraine] is now experiencing multiple adverse childhood events, and that is one of the uncounted casualties that will ripple throughout generations.”
Research suggests that firsthand exposure to traumatic events, such as the Ukraine war, can have lasting effects, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression and relapse of alcohol abuse. According to the American Psychiatric Association, prevalence of acute stress disorder ranges from 13%-50% depending on the type of event exposed to and about half of those individuals with acute stress disorder develop PTSD.
According to Katz, the risk of developing lasting effects of acute stress disorder increases depending on the extent of exposure to a traumatic event, prior trauma that was not well addressed previously, a history of psychiatric disorders and not having social support.
Alternatively, being spiritual, having social support, realistic optimism, being cognitively flexible and having a sense of purpose can all help to mitigate the effects of the acute stress.
“Psychological first aid is a way to attend to people’s mental health scratches and bruises so that they don’t become festering wounds,” Katz said. “You make sure people feel safe and secure, make sure they have meals to eat, you especially make sure they — as much as you can — they are together with loved ones or have some sort of communication that has support.”
At Palanca, the border crossing in Moldova, psychosocial clinics have been established to identify those struggling mentally and ease the effects of this trauma.
“It’s more about listening and giving a shoulder to cry on,” Dr. Axel Adolfo, an emergency medicine physician working with Doctors Without Borders, said. “It’s about having someone waiting there for them with arms fully open … They just want to let go of the two to three weeks they spent in fear or doubt and can feel that they are close to [safety].”
The challenge now becomes helping to integrate these populations into neighboring societies.
“People always say mental health is a good idea, but they need to start planning from now,” Katz said.
Refugees are at risk of forming lasting mental health effects. Eventually, according to Katz, screening will be important to identify who may need to be connected to a psychiatrist.
For now, though, “It’s about being here and saying, ‘The whole world is watching, and we are here to help you, and it’s OK to cry,'” Adolfo said.
(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 22, 4:25 am
Russia-US relations ‘on the brink of a breakup,’ diplomat warns
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov warned Tuesday that the United States should stop supplying Ukraine with weapons and making threats to Moscow in order to “preserve relations” with Russia.
“They simply need to stop in their escalation, both verbal escalation and in terms of stuffing the Kyiv region with weapons. They need to stop producing threats to Russia,” Ryabkov said while answering questions from reporters in Moscow. “Meanwhile, if they do manage to somehow positively influence Kyiv, something that I not just doubt, but I am confident that it will not happen, unfortunately, then I think there will be a certain prospect for normalizing relations.”
“For now, we see a downward tendency in relations with our country through the fault of the U.S.,” he added. “We regret it, but it does not impact our determination to move toward accomplishing the goals of the special military operation and to adapt to the circumstances related to the American sanctions and the sanctions imposed by European satellites of the U.S. at its behest.”
When asked whether Moscow plans to recall its ambassador, Ryabkov told reporters that the future of Russia-U.S. relations depends on Washington.
“A note of protest was passed to the American ambassador yesterday. It said that the current developments put these relations on the brink of a breakup,” he said. “There is nothing here beyond what was said there: that the question is about a policy that the U.S. will choose.”
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. government has determined the attacks by Myanmar’s military against the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority, constituted genocide and crimes against humanity, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Monday.
The legal determination comes nearly five years after the brutal violence killed approximately 9,000 Rohingya and drove nearly 1 million from the Southeast Asian country across the border into Bangladesh, fleeing murder, rape and arson.
Despite calls from Congress, human rights advocates, and other bodies to designate the atrocities a genocide, the State Department had held out. But now, with many of the same military leaders that were responsible for the genocide in power as part of a military coup last year, Blinken said recognizing the genocide was a key part of promoting accountability for its victims.
“The day will come when those responsible for these appalling acts will have to answer for them,” Blinken said firmly during remarks at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
The determination is only the eighth such one made by the State Department in the decades since the Holocaust, including in Bosnia and Rwanda, by ISIS and the Chinese government.
It doesn’t bring with it any automatic punishment. Instead, Blinken vowed to continue efforts toward accountability, including by announcing $1 million in new funding for the United Nations’ Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar.
U.N. investigators have already found that the military committed “genocidal acts,” but the IIMM is collecting evidence for potential future prosecutions of military commanders involved in atrocities, just as investigations continue at the International Criminal Court and elsewhere.
The U.N.’s top court, the International Court of Justice, also ruled in January 2020 that Myanmar must “take all measures within its power” to prevent the genocide of Rohingya after The Gambia, a small West African country, filed a lawsuit against Myanmar on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a coalition of countries with significant Muslim populations.
Still, activists and human rights groups say Blinken’s historic announcement could help spur action, ahead of the fifth anniversary of the military’s deadly campaign this August.
“Rohingya faced genocide, one of the most terrible crimes imaginable, and then faced the international community not even acknowledging it had happened. Today, the U.S. has gone a long way to correcting that,” said Tun Khin, a Rohingya activist.
But Myanmar, still called by its former name, Burma, by the U.S. government, is now led by the military commanders who oversaw and orchestrated the genocide, including Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the leader who deposed Myanmar’s democratically-elected government and its civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Myanmar has denied it has committed a genocide, instead calling it a military operation against Islamist extremists. It has rejected the ICJ’s findings and refused to cooperate with the ICC probe.
The Trump administration stopped short of designating the atrocities a genocide, in part because of concerns that pushing Myanmar’s government too strongly would cause a military coup that collapsed the power-sharing civilian-military government. But critics have argued the impunity the military largely faced laid the groundwork for its February 2021 coup, just days after President Joe Biden took office.
Trump’s first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, called the attacks “ethnic cleansing” and his successor, Mike Pompeo, quietly released a State Department report documenting the atrocities, but declined to speak to its significance.
But that report was one “key” basis for Blinken’s determination, he said Monday. When he took office, he said the department would conduct a new review of the evidence and make a determination.
Conducted in 2018, the State Department report documented through interviews with victims of grisly crimes that approximately three-quarters personally witnessed a killing, a majority witnessed sexual violenceand one-fifth witnessed a “mass casualty event” in which more than 100 people were killed or injured.
Blinken didn’t just cite those statistics Monday, he also read the firsthand accounts of some victims, including those documented by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s exhibit, “Burma’s Path to Genocide,” which he toured before his remarks.
“It’s painful to even read these accounts, and I ask you — I ask each and every one of you listening — put yourself in their place. … These stories force us to reckon with the immeasurable pain wrought by every heinous abuse. That pain ripples outward — from the individual victims and survivors to loved ones, to friends, to entire communities,” he said — adding a reference to his stepfather Samuel Pisar, a Holocaust survivor and renowned author, who he said “carried” that pain “for the rest of his life.”
But despite that pain, Myanmar’s military leaders have suffered few consequences for their bloody actions — not just the genocide, but last year’s coup — according to some activists. Successive rounds of U.S., European Union, British and Canadian sanctions, including on key economic sectors and military-owned enterprises, have not changed their course, especially amid continued support from Russia and China.
“Stronger actions must be followed to punish perpetrators, to protect remaining Rohingya in Myanmar, rebuild our lives,” Wai Wai Nu, a Rohingya activist, tweeted Monday.
Since the coup, the military has widened its attacks on civilians across the country and on other ethnic minority groups, while the same systems of persecution and violence that repressively targeted Rohingya for decades and presaged the genocide remain in place.
“We urge the administration, and the international community, to continue to do more to hold the military junta accountable, redouble efforts to restore democracy and bring about a genuine national reconciliation to Burma,” said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and James Risch, R-Idaho, the chair and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
But that kind of reconciliation seems increasingly out of reach. Over a year after the coup, the armed forces have killed more than 1,600 people and detained thousands more. An opposition “National Unity Government” has received some backing from the U.S., but the country is heading toward a protracted civil war with increasingly dangerous implications for Myanmar and the region, according to some analysts.
(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 21, 4:11 pm
Pro-Kremlin newspaper unwittingly publishes Russian troops death toll
Pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that nearly 10,000 Russian troops have died as a result of the invasion into Ukraine.
The newspaper published an article Monday that included a paragraph stating that Russia’s defense ministry said its losses in Ukraine are 9,862 dead and 16,153 injured.
“Russia’s Ministry of Defense denies the information of the Ukrainian General Staff about alleged large-scale casualties among the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine,” the article stated. “According to the data of the Russian ministry of defense, in the course of the special operation in Ukraine, Russia’s armed forces have lost 9,861 dead, 16,153 have received wounds.”
Not long after journalists online spotted the number, the article vanished and then was reposted without any mention of Russian casualties, indicating that the newspaper likely published the figure unwittingly.
If a journalist deliberately posted the death toll, they could be severely prosecuted under a new Russian law.
Russia has not published an official death toll for its forces since March 3, when it said just 498 of its troops had been killed.
The U.S. has estimated that between 2,000 and 10,000 Russians have been killed in the conflict.
Mar 21, 3:48 pm
Russian defense minister claims nearly 350,000 Ukrainians evacuated to Russia
Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defense Control Center, claimed that about 347,000 Ukrainians have evacuated to Russia.
The evacuations occurred “without the participation of the Kyiv authorities,” Mizintsev alleged during a press conference Monday, claiming that officials in Kyiv “again have not approved any of the four humanitarian corridors in Russia’s direction proposed by the Russian side.”
Mizintsev also alleged that Kyiv refuses to conduct humanitarian operations in the besieged city of Mariupol by withdrawing Ukrainian forces from the city.
“At 2 a.m. on March 21, 2022, we received an unsubstantiated refusal to rescue people, and a surrender and laying down arms are out of the question,” Mizintsev said, adding that more than 130,000 people remain blockaded in the city.
Mizintsev claimed that in the past 24 hours alone, 16,054 people, including 4,631 children, were evacuated “from dangerous areas of Ukraine and the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics” into Russia.
Moscow had had offered safe passage out of Mariupol in return for the city’s surrender before 4 a.m. Monday, but Ukraine rejected the offer well before the deadline.
Mar 21, 2:09 pm
Nazi concentration camp survivor killed in Kharkiv bombardment
A man who survived multiple Nazi concentration camps was killed in the Russian bombardment of Kharkiv, a city in northeastern Ukraine, on Friday, the country’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
Kuleba announced the news on Twitter Monday, saying 96-year-old Boris Romantchenko died after a “Russian bomb” hit his home.
“Survived Hitler, murdered by Putin,” Kuleba wrote.
Romantchenko survived four Nazi concentration camps: Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Mittelbau-Dora and Peenemünde.
The Buchenwald Memorial Institute issued a statement saying it is “appalled at the news of Boris Romantschenko’s violent death in the war in Ukraine.”
The institute confirmed a projectile hit the multistory building where Romantchenko lived and ignited his flat.
-ABC News’ Luisa Rollenhagen and Christine Theodorou
Mar 21, 1:46 pm
US officials says Russian missiles are ‘failing to launch’
A senior U.S. defense official said at a Monday press briefing that Russian missiles are “failing to launch” as they are fired into Ukraine.
Russia has fired more than 1,100 missiles since the invasion last month, according to U.S. assessments, but there are indications they have been facing problems with the reliability of precision-guided munitions.
Some Russian missiles are “failing to launch, or they’re failing to hit the target, or they’re failing to explode on contact,” the official said.
Additionally, Russian forces are no closer to Kyiv than they were more than a week ago.
“They haven’t achieved anything in terms of what we assessed to be their objectives, which was population centers so that they could occupy and take over Ukraine,” the official said.
“They are looking for a chance to gain some momentum – not even regain momentum … because they never really had it. And that’s what’s so frustrating for them,” the official continued.
The official said most credit for the stalled Russian efforts goes to the Ukrainian forces and citizens, and the leadership of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Mar 21, 12:37 pm
Nazi concentration camp survivor killed in Kharkiv bombardment
A man who survived multiple Nazi concentration camps was killed in the Russian bombardment of Kharkiv, a city in northeastern Ukraine, on Friday, the country’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
Kuleba announced the news on Twitter Monday, saying 96-year-old Boris Romantchenko died after a “Russian bomb” hit his home.
“Survived Hitler, murdered by Putin,” Kuleba wrote.
Romantchenko survived four Nazi concentration camps: Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Mittelbau-Dora and Peenemünde.
The Buchenwald Memorial Institute issued a statement saying it is “appalled at the news of Boris Romantschenko’s violent death in the war in Ukraine.”
The institute confirmed a projectile hit the multistory building where Romantchenko lived and ignited his flat.
Mar 21, 11:55 am
Secretary Blinken condemns Russia during tour of Holocaust Museum
Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Russia while visiting the U.S. Holocaust Museum Monday to tour its Rohingya exhibit.
At the top of his remarks, Blinken discussed the Russian government’s “unprovoked, brutal war on Ukraine,” including the strike that damaged the Ukrainian Holocaust memorial Babyn Yar.
He also said the Kremlin is falsely claiming to be stopping a genocide in Ukraine, “abusing the term that we reserve for the greatest atrocities, disrespecting every victim of this heinous crime.”
Blinken then pivoted to discuss atrocities elsewhere in the world including China, Ethiopia and Myanmar.
“The day will come when those responsible for these appalling acts will have to answer for them,” he said.
Mar 21, 10:50 am
Pope Francis makes strong anti-war statement as Russian invasion continues
Pope Francis made a strong anti-war statement Monday as the Russian invasion of Ukraine entered its 26th day.
In a speech in a private meeting at the Vatican with volunteer members of the I Was Thirsty organization, which promotes clean drinking water to poor areas of the world, the pope decried war and the money spent on weapons.
“Why make war on each other for conflicts that we should resolve by talking to each other as men?” he said to the audience in the Clementine Hall.
“Why not rather unite our forces and our resources to fight together the true battles of civilization: the fight against hunger and thirst; the fight against disease and epidemics; the fight against epidemics; the fight against the poverty and slavery of today?” the pope continued. “We must create the consciousness that continuing to spend on weapons dirties the soul, it dirties the heart, it dirties humanity.”
It comes just one day after Pope Francis denounced the “repugnant” war against Ukraine as “cruel and sacrilegious inhumanity” during a noontime prayer in St. Peter’s Square, although he stopped short of naming Russia as the aggressor.
Mar 21, 9:53 am
Ammonia leak at chemical plant in besieged city of Sumy
An ammonia leak has been reported at a chemical plant in the northeastern city of Sumy, the regional governor Dmytro Zhyvytskyy said Monday.
On his official Telegram channel, Zhyvytskyy said the leak was caused by Russian shelling.
He warned those within a 3-mile radius of the Sumykhimprom plant should leave the area because the gas is hazardous but that workers have contained the leak.
Zhyvytskyy said, so far, just one injury has been reported among employees of the plant.
-ABC News’ Joseph Simonetti
Mar 21, 9:05 am
Refugee numbers reach 3.4 million
More than 3.4 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded, according to the latest figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Monday’s update showed that, of those refugees, more than 2 million have crossed the border into Poland. Additionally, about 535,000 have entered Romania and 365,000 have crossed into Moldova.
Refugees are also going to Hungary, Slovakia, Russia and Belarus.
UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi tweeted Sunday that since the Russian invasion, 10 million people in Ukraine fled, either displaced in the country or as refugees abroad.
“Among the responsibilities of those who wage war, everywhere in the world, is the suffering inflicted on civilians who are forced to flee their homes,” he wrote.
UNICEF told ABC News that half of the internally displaced Ukrainians and half of those who have fled are children.
-ABC News’ Zoe Magee
Mar 21, 5:21 am
No surrender in besieged Mariupol, Ukraine says
Ukrainian officials rejected Russia’s demand that they surrender the southern port city of Mariupol on Monday morning.
Officials instead called on Russia to allow residents to evacuate safely from the city.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an early morning video address said his government was preparing to send buses to Mariupol on Monday to continue the evacuation.
“In besieged Mariupol, Russian aircraft dropped a bomb on an art school. People were hiding there. Hiding from shelling, from bombing,” Zelenskyy said, according to an official translation from his office. “There were no military positions. There were about four hundred civilians. Mostly women and children, the elderly. They are under the debris. We do not know how many are alive at the moment.”
Some who’ve left Mariupol have described dire circumstances, with constant shelling and little access to essentials, including food, water, and medicine, according to a report published Monday by Human Rights Watch.
“Mariupol residents have described a freezing hellscape riddled with dead bodies and destroyed buildings,” Belkis Wille, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “And these are the lucky ones who were able to escape, leaving behind thousands who are cut off from the world in the besieged city.”
Mar 20, 10:17 pm
Biden traveling to Poland Friday to discuss efforts to support Ukraine, humanitarian crisis
In addition to his trip to Brussels, President Joe Biden will also travel to Warsaw, Poland, on Friday, where he will hold a bilateral meeting with President Andrzej Duda.
“The President will discuss how the United States, alongside our Allies and partners, is responding to the humanitarian and human rights crisis that Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked war on Ukraine has created,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Sunday.
Psaki’s statement did not specify if Biden will do anything else during his trip to Poland, which has taken in more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees since the start of the conflict with Russia.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Mar 20, 5:36 pm
Russia gives Ukrainian forces in Mariupol until morning to surrender: Reports
Russia has given Ukrainian forces in the besieged city of Mariupol until Monday at 4 a.m. local time to surrender, according to reports.
Gen. Col. Mikhail Mizintsev, a senior Russian commander, warned the city’s local authorities, including the mayor, that if they do not surrender they will face a “military tribunal,” according to Russian state media.
He called on the official authorities in Kyiv to “see reason” and to cancel orders given earlier that he said oblige Ukrainian fighters “to sacrifice themselves and to become the ’martyrs of Mariupol.’”
Russian forces have been trying to push deep into Mariupol, engaging in street-to-street fighting while indiscriminately bombarding the city. Ukrainian troops defending the city are believed to be under severe pressure right now.
Mizintsev said Russia has proposed opening humanitarian corridors beginning at 9 a.m. Monday to allow Ukrainian troops and civilians to leave Mariupol.
He claims Russia’s goals in the city are “purely humanitarian” and repeated Russia’s false claims that it was Ukrainian “nationalist” forces that have destroyed several major civilian buildings, which in reality have been struck directly by Russian air and missile strikes.
“We call on the units of the Ukrainian armed forces, the battalions of the Territorial Defense, foreign mercenaries, to cease military action, lay down their arms and to leave for the territories controlled by Kyiv via the humanitarian corridors agreed with the Ukrainian side,” Mizintsev reportedly said. “Moreover, the safe exit of all those laying down their arms is guaranteed and the sparing of their lives.”
Mar 20, 4:27 pm
Zelenskyy criticizes Israel for not providing arms to Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed members of the Knesset, the legislature of Israel, on Sunday, criticizing the country for not doing more to help Ukraine.
During the address, Zelenskyy drew parallels between Ukraine and Israel’s challenges with their neighbors and questioned why Israel has not sent arms to Ukraine or imposed sanctions on Russia.
“Everyone in Israel knows that your missile defense is the best,” Zelenskyy said. “It is powerful. Everyone knows that your weapon is strong. Everyone knows you’re doing great. You know how to defend your state interests, the interests of your people. And you can definitely help us protect our lives, the lives of Ukrainians, the lives of Ukrainian Jews. One can keep asking why we can’t get weapons from you. Or why Israel has not imposed strong sanctions against Russia.”
Zelenskyy described the Russian invasion as “a large-scale and treacherous war aimed at destroying our people,” quoting former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, who was born in Kyiv.
“We intend to remain alive. Our neighbors want to see us dead,” Zelenskyy said. “This is not a question that leaves much room for compromise.”
During Zelensky’s speech, the Knesset’s cyber unit and the National Cyber Directorate fought off a number of cyberattacks aimed at interrupting the live-streamed speech, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing the Knesset.
(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 21, 5:21 am
No surrender in besieged Mariupol, Ukraine says
Ukrainian officials rejected Russia’s demand that they surrender the southern port city of Mariupol on Monday morning.
Officials instead called on Russia to allow residents to evacuate safely from the city.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an early morning video address said his government was preparing to send buses to Mariupol on Monday to continue the evacuation.
“In besieged Mariupol, Russian aircraft dropped a bomb on an art school. People were hiding there. Hiding from shelling, from bombing,” Zelenskyy said, according to an official translation from his office. “There were no military positions. There were about four hundred civilians. Mostly women and children, the elderly. They are under the debris. We do not know how many are alive at the moment.”
Some who’ve left Mariupol have described dire circumstances, with constant shelling and little access to essentials, including food, water, and medicine, according to a report published Monday by Human Rights Watch.
“Mariupol residents have described a freezing hellscape riddled with dead bodies and destroyed buildings,” Belkis Wille, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “And these are the lucky ones who were able to escape, leaving behind thousands who are cut off from the world in the besieged city.”
Mar 20, 10:17 pm
Biden traveling to Poland Friday to discuss efforts to support Ukraine, humanitarian crisis
In addition to his trip to Brussels, President Joe Biden will also travel to Warsaw, Poland, on Friday, where he will hold a bilateral meeting with President Andrzej Duda.
“The President will discuss how the United States, alongside our Allies and partners, is responding to the humanitarian and human rights crisis that Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked war on Ukraine has created,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Sunday.
Psaki’s statement did not specify if Biden will do anything else during his trip to Poland, which has taken in more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees since the start of the conflict with Russia.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Mar 20, 5:36 pm
Russia gives Ukrainian forces in Mariupol until morning to surrender: Reports
Russia has given Ukrainian forces in the besieged city of Mariupol until Monday at 4 a.m. local time to surrender, according to reports.
Gen. Col. Mikhail Mizintsev, a senior Russian commander, warned the city’s local authorities, including the mayor, that if they do not surrender they will face a “military tribunal,” according to Russian state media.
He called on the official authorities in Kyiv to “see reason” and to cancel orders given earlier that he said oblige Ukrainian fighters “to sacrifice themselves and to become the ’martyrs of Mariupol.’”
Russian forces have been trying to push deep into Mariupol, engaging in street-to-street fighting while indiscriminately bombarding the city. Ukrainian troops defending the city are believed to be under severe pressure right now.
Mizintsev said Russia has proposed opening humanitarian corridors beginning at 9 a.m. Monday to allow Ukrainian troops and civilians to leave Mariupol.
He claims Russia’s goals in the city are “purely humanitarian” and repeated Russia’s false claims that it was Ukrainian “nationalist” forces that have destroyed several major civilian buildings, which in reality have been struck directly by Russian air and missile strikes.
“We call on the units of the Ukrainian armed forces, the battalions of the Territorial Defense, foreign mercenaries, to cease military action, lay down their arms and to leave for the territories controlled by Kyiv via the humanitarian corridors agreed with the Ukrainian side,” Mizintsev reportedly said. “Moreover, the safe exit of all those laying down their arms is guaranteed and the sparing of their lives.”
Mar 20, 4:27 pm
Zelenskyy criticizes Israel for not providing arms to Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed members of the Knesset, the legislature of Israel, on Sunday, criticizing the country for not doing more to help Ukraine.
During the address, Zelenskyy drew parallels between Ukraine and Israel’s challenges with their neighbors and questioned why Israel has not sent arms to Ukraine or imposed sanctions on Russia.
“Everyone in Israel knows that your missile defense is the best,” Zelenskyy said. “It is powerful. Everyone knows that your weapon is strong. Everyone knows you’re doing great. You know how to defend your state interests, the interests of your people. And you can definitely help us protect our lives, the lives of Ukrainians, the lives of Ukrainian Jews. One can keep asking why we can’t get weapons from you. Or why Israel has not imposed strong sanctions against Russia.”
Zelenskyy described the Russian invasion as “a large-scale and treacherous war aimed at destroying our people,” quoting former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, who was born in Kyiv.
“We intend to remain alive. Our neighbors want to see us dead,” Zelenskyy said. “This is not a question that leaves much room for compromise.”
During Zelensky’s speech, the Knesset’s cyber unit and the National Cyber Directorate fought off a number of cyberattacks aimed at interrupting the live-streamed speech, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing the Knesset.
(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
