(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymr Zelenskyy, are putting up “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The attack began Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.”
Russian forces moving from neighboring Belarus toward Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, don’t appear to have advanced closer to the city since coming within about 20 miles, although smaller advanced groups have been fighting gun battles with Ukrainian forces inside the capital since at least Friday.
Russia has been met by sanctions from the United States, Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting the Russian economy as well as Putin himself.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 03, 6:08 am
Ukraine claims to have raised flag over town outside Kyiv
Ukraine claimed Thursday to have raised its flag over the town of Bucha, close to the Ukrainian capital where some of the most intense fighting has been taking place in recent days and where Russia’s push south on Kyiv appears to have stalled.
A video posted on the official Facebook page of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ ground troops purportedly shows soldiers hoisting the national flag outside Bucha’s town hall. The town is just a few miles north of the edge of Kyiv and about 15 miles from the center of the capital. Fighting is reported to be ongoing nearby and, in the video, an explosion can be heard in the distance as they raise the blue and yellow flag.
Mar 03, 5:34 am
Ukraine requests no-fly zone over Chernobyl
Ukraine is asking the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to call on NATO to close access to the airspace over the country’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the surrounding exclusion zone.
The deserted exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where the world’s worst nuclear accident took place in 1986, was seized by Russian forces last week.
A joint appeal to the IAEA was signed Wednesday by Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko, Oleh Korikov, head of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine, and Petro Kotin, head of Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company Energoatom.
“The fact of the seizure of the world-famous Chernobyl nuclear power plant has all the hallmarks of an act of nuclear terrorism committed against Chernobyl nuclear facilities and its personnel by Russian military units,” they said in the appeal.
Mar 03, 5:06 am
Russia claims to have hit another TV tower in Kyiv
Russia claimed Thursday that its forces have “disabled” another television tower in Ukraine’s capital.
Russian troops fired precision-guided weapons at a TV and radio center in the Lysa Hora region of Kyiv, according to Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
“A strike delivered by a long-range precision-guided weapon disabled a reserve TV and radio center in the Lysa Hora area in Kyiv which the Ukrainian Security Service has been using for psychological operations against Russia,” Konashenkov said at a press briefing Thursday. “There are no casualties and there is no damage done to residential buildings.”
There were reports of more explosions in Kyiv on Thursday morning, but Ukrainian officials have yet to confirm that a second TV tower was hit.
A Russian missile struck Kyiv’s main TV tower in the heart of the capital on Tuesday.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov has said that Russia is aiming to cut off a large part of Ukraine from the internet and communications.
Mar 03, 4:37 am
Russia claims to have seized eastern Ukrainian city
Russia claimed Thursday that its forces have seized the eastern Ukrainian city of Balakliya.
Russian troops worked together with Russia-backed separatist forces on the “successful offensive,” according to Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
“The city of Balakliya has been freed from nationalist battalions,” Konashenkov said at a press briefing Thursday.
Balakliya is about 55 miles southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, where heavy shelling continued Thursday.
Mar 02, 11:25 pm
US condemns Kremlin’s ‘full assault’ on ‘truth’ in media
The U.S. State Department is condemning Moscow’s attack on the media, saying the Kremlin “is engaged in a full assault on media freedom and the truth, and Moscow’s efforts to mislead and suppress the truth of the brutal invasion are intensifying.”
“The people of Russia did not choose this war. Putin did,” Ned Price, State Department spokesman, said in a statement. “They have a right to know about the death, suffering and destruction being inflicted by their government on the people of Ukraine. The people of Russia also have a right to know about the human costs of this senseless war to their own soldiers.”
The statement comes 24 hours after the Russian government blocked the country’s only two major independent news broadcasters, Dozhd TV and Radio Ekho Moskvy, accusing them of spreading “false information” about Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Ekho Moskvy has been respected for its even-handed treatment of breaking news since its founding 32 years ago, and, until yesterday, its broadcasts reached some 1.8 million daily listeners throughout Russia and beyond,” the State Department said in a statement Wednesday night. “Dozhd, which has been operating for more than a decade, is similarly known for high-quality reporting.”
Russian state channels, such as RT and Sputnik, are banned from using the word “war” or “invasion” in relation to Russia’s assault on Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin instead has referred to it as a “special military operation.”
The State Department said the Russian Parliament will consider a bill Friday to make “unofficial” reporting on the invasion punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
(WASHINGTON) — Russia is hitting civilian targets in Ukraine, killing innocent people and destroying hospitals, schools and critical infrastructure like running water, electricity and gas, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken alleged Wednesday.
But President Joe Biden and his administration have stopped short of accusing the Kremlin of conducting war crimes in its invasion of Ukraine so far, with the top U.S. diplomat saying instead they are “looking very closely at what’s happening” and “documenting it.”
The U.S. and its NATO allies continue to provide Ukraine with assistance, including anti-aircraft missiles known as Stingers, a senior U.S. official confirmed. But that lethal military aid, overwhelming condemnation at the United Nations and the flight of Western businesses and crippling sanctions, including new ones announced Wednesday, have yet to change Vladimir Putin’s calculus as he seeks to topple Ukraine’s government.
Instead, Russia is increasingly switching to using indiscriminate bombardment to terrorize cities into submission — a tactic Putin’s forces honed previously in Chechnya and Syria and that seems to have secured them their first major Ukrainian city, Kherson.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, has been pummeled with heavy artillery, rockets and airstrikes, destroying apartment buildings and government offices alike. Another major city, Mariupol, is under ferocious, continual bombardment with rocket barrages and ballistic missile strikes, knocking out the power.
Schools, hospitals and residences; buses, cars and ambulances; and infrastructure like drinking water, electricity, and gas amid Ukraine’s bitter winter have all been hit.
“These aren’t military targets. They are places where civilians work and families live,” Blinken told reporters, adding, “This is shameful.”
But while Biden said Wednesday morning he believed Russia is intentionally targeting civilian infrastructure, Blinken stopped short of that, saying the U.S. is still assessing particular strikes.
“We’re looking very closely at what’s happening in Ukraine right now, including what’s happening to civilians. We’re taking account of it, we’re documenting it, and we want to ensure, among other things, that there’s accountability for it,” he told reporters Wednesday.
The International Criminal Court announced Wednesday it would launch an immediate investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine after 38 member states, including the United Kingdom and Canada, referred reported atrocities to the ICC.
“Our work in the collection of evidence has now commenced,” ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan said in a statement. Khan announced Monday that he would request to open a probe, which requires either authorization from a pre-trial ICC chamber or a referral by member states. Ukraine, like Russia and the U.S., is not a member state.
Under the ICC’s founding document, the Rome Statute, “intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities” is a violation of international law.
Russia has outright denied that it has struck any civilians or civilian infrastructure.
Amnesty International, among other human rights groups, reported Tuesday that it had documented “the escalation in violations of humanitarian and human rights law, including deaths of civilians resulting from indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas and infrastructure.”
“Strikes on protected objects such as hospitals and schools, the use of indiscriminate weapons such as ballistic missiles, and the use of banned weapons such as cluster bombs may all qualify as war crimes,” the group said.
While Blinken wouldn’t go that far, he compared Russia’s tactics in Ukraine to previous conflicts, where its forces were “absolutely brutal in trying to cow the citizenry of a given country, and that includes at the very least indiscriminate targeting and potentially deliberate targeting as well.”
To fight back, the U.S. provided several hundred anti-aircraft missiles, known as Stingers, to the Ukrainian military Tuesday, a senior U.S. official confirmed to ABC News. The missiles were part of a $350 million package Biden approved late Friday night, bringing total U.S. military aid to approximately $1 billion.
Before Putin launched his war, U.S. aid had been shipped in on regular flights to the capital Kyiv, where the airport has been shut down. Still, the U.S. has been successfully delivering military aid, according to Blinken, who declined to offer details on how.
“We are very actively working — every day, every hour — to provide that assistance,” Blinken said of the U.S. and its NATO allies, adding, “Vitally needed assistance is getting to where it needs to go.”
The U.S. also unveiled new sanctions Wednesday that target Russia’s oil and gas sector, its defense industry and its ally Belarus.
New export controls will bar oil and gas extraction equipment and refining technology, preventing Russian firms “from maintaining and upgrading current projects and, to some degree, from launching new projects,” the White House said.
The State Department is also implementing “full blocking sanctions” on 22 entities in Russia’s defense sector, while the Commerce Department is extending export controls on Russia to include Belarus, to prevent the country from transferring semiconductors and other technology to its powerful neighbor and ally.
ABC News’ Patrick Reevell, Ben Gittleson, and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Skirmishes around Ukraine’s nuclear facilities provoked a heated exchange Wednesday at the U.N. Environment Assembly between representatives of the warring countries and prompted a U.N. nuclear watchdog group to warn the “unprecedented” nature of the fighting could lead to “severe consequences.”
With worries already at an alarming level over Russian President Vladimir Putin putting his nuclear forces on high alert, a battle being waged in Ukraine for Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is upping the anxiety over a possible calamity that would likely wreak havoc far beyond the boundaries of the war zone.
“Barbarians who pretended to be rescuers, right now attack our cities, destroy infrastructure, kill my fellow citizens and try to destroy everything,” a Ukrainian official told the U.N. Environment Assembly gathered in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Ukrainian official said Russian troops are trying to seize the country’s nuclear power plants, adding, “Russia is conducting genocide against humanity.”
“They say they’ve come to save Ukraine, but they are here to destroy my beautiful country,” said the official, who received a standing ovation at the end of his remarks.
A Russian representative countered that Ukraine’s military forces have been attacking so-called pro-Russian “separatists” in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine for eight years without any protest from the international community.
“The war, which led to the death of 12,000 people in the east of the country, killed by the hands of Ukraine soldiers and neo-Nazi units,” the Russian official told the assembly, espousing claims the U.S. and its Western allies say are false and were concocted by the Kremlin as an excuse to invade Ukraine.
“You have just supported them, distinguished delegates. It’s them that you were offering your ovation. We didn’t begin that war,” the Russian official said.
Fighting continued Wednesday at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in Enerhodar, Ukraine, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, both sides claimed.
The battle over the Zaporizhzhia plant prompted the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog group, to issue a warning over the “unprecedented” nature of this situation.
Rafael Grossi, director-general of the IAEA, said he and members of the agency are “gravely concerned” that a military conflict is happening for the first time amid the facilities of a large, established nuclear power program.
During an emergency IAEA board of governors meeting, Grossi said an incident affecting nuclear facilities “could have severe consequences, aggravating human suffering and causing environmental harm” beyond Ukraine’s borders.
He said Russia informed the agency Tuesday that it had taken control of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant, but ABC News has not been able to independently confirm the report.
Last week, Russia seized control of the Chernobyl power plant, now shut down and sealed with a containment dome after an infamous disaster in April 1986.
Ukraine’s nuclear regulatory agency SNRIU has requested “immediate assistance” from the IAEA to ensure the safety of Chernobyl and other nuclear facilities, Grossi said. He said the IAEA is assessing the request.
“Despite the extraordinary circumstances of an armed conflict causing increasing challenges and dangers, Ukraine’s nuclear power plants are operating normally,” Grossi said. “But while we may use expressions like ‘normal operations’ in a technical context, I want to emphasize there is nothing normal about the circumstances under which the professionals at Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants are managing to keep the reactors that produce half of Ukraine’s electricity working.”
(NEW YORK) — When 25-year-old Yulia Yemelianenko crossed the border from Lviv, Ukraine into Poland earlier this week, she broke down in tears.
“I cried a lot,” she told ABC News at a train station in Przemysl, Poland. “…I was forced to quit my country, and I didn’t want it.”
“I want to live in my city with my mother and my friends,” she added.
Yemelianenko spoke with ABC News about the difficult journey as she waited at the train station for a friend. She is one of the hundreds of thousands of people who were forced to flee from Ukraine into neighboring European countries like Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary amid ongoing attacks from Russia.
Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said on Wednesday the number of Ukrainians who’ve fled their country has so far climbed to 874,000, which is believed to be the biggest number of people displaced in the shortest amount of time since World War II.
“I don’t know what will happen in Ukraine,” she said. “I don’t know when I will come back.”
The emotional toll that the journey took on Yemelianenko was magnified because she had to leave her mother, who is recovering from COVID-19, behind.
Asked if she feels that she has been displaced, she said, “I’m trying not to think about this at all, because I don’t know when I can see my mother next time.”
“Every time I start, like, crying and tears, won’t help in this situation.”
She said she hopes to return to Ukraine as soon as possible and reunite with her friends, some of whom stayed back to fight in the war.
‘There’s panic, there’s chaos’
At the train station in Lviv, Ukraine, volunteers have been working to organize thousands of people seeking to board trains to Poland. According to UNHCR, more than 453,000 of those who fled Ukraine have gone to Poland.
“There’s panic, there’s chaos,” Yuliana Shchurko, a volunteer, told ABC News. “Those people are waiting for the train to call and they don’t want to go to any other country,” she said, adding that it could be days before the next train would be scheduled to depart for Poland.
Amid the congestion, some immigrants and students living in Ukraine expressed fear they are being discriminated against as they wait at the border, hoping to cross into Poland.
“The Ukrainians are given priority, which is to children and women,” Adeyemo Abimbole, a student from Nigeria, told ABC News on Sunday, adding that he and a group of African students have been waiting for a train to cross into Poland for nearly three days.
“Our lives also matter,” he added. It is unclear if Abimbole and his friends entered Poland.
UNHCR’s Grandi confirmed during a press conference on Tuesday that “there are instances” of differentiation of treatment at the borders based on race, but said he was assured that “these are not state policies.”
“We will continue to intervene, as we have done several times, to try to ensure that everybody is received in the same manner,” he said, urging all nations to welcome those fleeing Ukraine without discrimination.
Marcus Lawani, who is also waiting with the group, told ABC News that he believed some of his African friends were “turned back based on their color” because “they want more Ukrainians to leave.”
“Mostly they give power to women, children, and their men follow,” he said.
Women and children have been given priority at congested border crossings and many Ukrainian men of fighting age have stayed behind after Ukraine began drafting reservists aged 18-60 to fight for their country.
A ‘heartbreaking’ decision
Alyona Tec said that her family’s decision to leave Ukraine was difficult and leaving her country has torn her apart.
“I felt really bad that I had to leave,” Tec told ABC News on Friday as her family arrived in Korczowa, Poland, explaining that she had wanted to stay behind and help her people in any way she could but left with her husband and son because they worried about the baby’s safety.
“I couldn’t [stay] because I knew [my son] is here and I need to take care of him and I’m responsible,” she said. “It was like heartbreaking for me because I saw people gonna go fight, like regular civilians gonna take up guns and fight, and I’m just gonna leave.”
While Tec grapples with guilt as she thinks of those she left behind, her husband Juan Tec said that they initially considered staying in Ukraine.
“Things that are happening now in Kyiv are just really bad,” he said. “Shelling, gunfights, tanks, rolling over cars, people getting hurt civilians. And now that I look back, I’m really glad we made that decision.”
According to UNICEF, the 7.5 million children in Ukraine are at heightened risk. Many have been traumatized, wounded and at least 13 children have been killed by Tuesday — a number that is expected to rise as the war rages on, UNICEF said.
Alyona Tec said that her family’s decision to leave Ukraine was difficult and leaving her country has torn her apart.
An uncertain future
For families who separated at the border, it is unclear when they can see their loves ones again.
In an emotional embrace, husband and wife Sasha and Svetlana Olekciirak said goodbye on Saturday at the Polish border in Korczowa.
The couple spoke with ABC News as Sasha dropped off his wife and two children after what they said was a 30-hour trip from Ternopil, not knowing when he will see them again.
“I don’t want to go,” Sasha said, explaining that he wanted to stay in Ukraine to fight for his country.
Asked how she felt not knowing when she can see her husband again, a tearful Svetlana said, “it’s fear … you don’t know what is your future.”
Their story is one of many playing out on the borders of Ukraine, like that of Sergei and Marina, a couple that was also separated at a border.
Sergei spoke with ABC News as he waited with his wife Marina and their two children – a 5-month-old and a 3-year-old – at a train station in Lviv.
Sergei said that that amid the bombings in Kyiv, he was worried for his family’s safety and decided to send them to Poland while he stayed behind to fight.
“I have to ensure that my family [is safe], so that’s why we’re here,” he said.
Asked how she feels about leaving her husband behind, Marina said, “I have no other choice.”
“We will start from zero there,” she said. “I will be better for my kids and I don’t care about stuff.”
ABC News’ Jessica DiMartino contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As Ukrainians flee across Europe amid the onslaught of attacks from Russia in Ukraine, non-white refugees have faced discrimination from extremist groups patrolling the border, reporters and residents in the area told ABC News.
On March 1, dozens of self-identified right-wing nationalists marauded through the city center of Przemysl, Poland, and harassed refugees who looked to be people of color, the witnesses said. Many non-white refugees have arrived in the city while they evacuate Ukraine.
As this humanitarian crisis goes on, many fear extremism will continue to cause trouble for refugees of color trying to escape the war.
More than 836,000 people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries since Russian forces invaded the eastern European country on Feb. 24, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
At least 453,000 of those refugees have escaped to Poland as of March 2, UNHCR said.
Near the Przemysl train station on Tuesday, where thousands of refugees are passing through, anyone who looked to be African or Arab were being targeted by the extremists in the attack, witnesses reported.
Julian Würzer, a reporter for the German newspaper Berliner Morgenpost who is stationed in Poland, told ABC News that extremists aggressively shouted at refugees to get out of the country and allegedly assaulted them.
Online videos seen by ABC News show police in riot gear diffusing the incident, which Würzer said went on for about 20 minutes before police arrived.
There have been no reports of injuries.
Local authorities did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment on the incidents.
These extremists are a minority in the country, however. There has been an overwhelming effort by local citizens to help those fleeing across the Polish-Ukrainian border. ABC News reporters on the ground say that volunteers across the region have been offering to house, feed, and clothe the many refugees.
At the border, witnesses tell ABC News that extremists have reportedly been accepting Ukrainians but vowing to “defend” Poland against an influx of non-Christians. These extremists are believed by some to be backed by Russia.
Poland’s government has aligned itself in recent years with right-wing ideals and has been criticized for anti-refugee sentiment. Last year, Poland refused to let thousands of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the country after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko forcibly drove them out of his country.
Commissioner Filippo Grandi of the UNCHR has confirmed that there have been instances of discrimination in the admission of certain refugees from Ukraine. Some third-country nationals have reported being stuck or being rejected from passage in their attempts to flee, he said.
Grandi said that state policies are not causing instances of discrimination, and that “there should be absolutely no discrimination between Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians, Europeans and non-Europeans.”
“Everybody is fleeing from the same risks,” Grandi said at a March 1 press conference. “We will continue to intervene, as we have done several times to try to ensure that everybody is received in the same manner.”
ABC News’ Tomek Rolski and Christopher Donato contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymr Zelenskyy, are putting up “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The attack began Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.”
Russian forces moving from neighboring Belarus toward Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, don’t appear to have advanced closer to the city since coming within about 20 miles, although smaller advanced groups have been fighting gun battles with Ukrainian forces inside the capital since at least Friday.
Russia has been met by sanctions from the United States, Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting the Russian economy as well as Putin himself.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Mar 02, 6:18 am
Third world war would be nuclear and destructive, Lavrov warns
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned Wednesday that if a third world war were to take place, it would involve nuclear weapons and be destructive, according to Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.
Mar 02, 5:55 am
Putin’s fiercest critic Navalny calls for daily anti-war protests
Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is urging people in Russia and around the world to stage daily protests against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We — Russia — want to be a nation of peace. Alas, few people would call us that now,” Navalny said Wednesday in a series of posts on Twitter via his spokesperson. “But let’s at least not become a nation of frightened silent people. Of cowards who pretend not to notice the aggressive war against Ukraine unleashed by our obviously insane czar.”
“They say that someone who cannot attend a rally and does not risk being arrested for it cannot call for it. I’m already in prison, so I think I can,” he tweeted. “We cannot wait any longer. Wherever you are, in Russia, Belarus or on the other side of the planet, go to the main square of your city every weekday and at 2 pm on weekends and holidays.”
“Yes, maybe only a few people will take to the streets on the first day. And in the second — even less,” he added. “But we must, gritting our teeth and overcoming fear, come out and demand an end to the war. Each arrested person must be replaced by two newcomers.”
Navalny called on people to not just “be against the war” but to “fight against the war.”
“If in order to stop the war we have to fill prisons and paddy wagons with ourselves, we will fill prisons and paddy wagons with ourselves,” he tweeted. “Everything has a price, and now, in the spring of 2022, we must pay this price. There’s no one to do it for us.”
Navalny, the most prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin, was imprisoned last year when he returned to Russia from Germany after recovering from an attempted assassination with nerve agent poisoning in Siberia. Russia has denied carrying out such an attack.
Mar 02, 5:19 am
‘You can’t stay neutral right now,’ Zelenskyy warns
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Wednesday that the international community “can’t stay neutral,” as the Russian invasion entered its seventh day.
“Neutral Switzerland has supported EU sanctions against Russian oligarchs, officials, the state, and companies. Once again – neutral Switzerland. So why do other countries wait?” Zelenskyy said in a televised address. “Our anti-war coalition has already been joined by those countries that Moscow was counting on a week ago. This is an extraordinary result. You can’t stay neutral right now.”
“We are in our homeland and there will be an international tribunal for waging the war against us,” he added.
Zelenskyy also praised his fellow Ukrainians for being “united.”
“During this time, we have truly become one,” he said. “Today you, Ukrainians, are a symbol of invincibility. A symbol that people in any country can become the best people on Earth at any moment.”
Mar 02, 4:37 am
Russia claims to have captured Ukrainian port city
Russia claimed Wednesday to have captured Ukraine’s southern port city of Kherson, the largest Ukrainian city to fall to Russian forces since the start of the invasion.
“Russian forces have taken full control of the Kherson regional center,” Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov said at a press briefing Wednesday.
Russia-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine have also seized several cities and towns, advancing nearly 100 miles since launching the offensive, according to Konashenkov.
“Ukrainian servicemen will go home as soon as they make a written pledge not to take part in the hostilities,” he said.
Meanwhile, Russian forces have “disabled” the instrument room of the the main television tower in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, “putting an end to information attacks on Russia,” according to Konashenkov, who noted that “no damage was done to residential buildings in the course of the strike.”
Konashenkov also claimed that Russian aircraft had delivered a “massive strike” on Ukraine’s military infrastructure on Wednesday.
“Sixty-seven sites have been hit,” he added. “In all, 1,502 elements of Ukrainian military infrastructure have been disabled in the course of the operation. These include 51 command and communications centers belonging to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, 38 S-300, Buk M-1 and Osa air defense missile systems and 51 radar stations.”
Mar 01, 10:59 pm
Boeing suspends all plane maintenance support for Russian airlines
The Boeing Company has suspended all parts, maintenance and technical support for Russian airlines as the conflict continues, the company announced Tuesday.
This is expected to have a significant impact on Russian carriers, as planes need constant maintenance.
“We have suspended major operations in Moscow and temporarily closed our office in Kyiv,” Boeing said in a statement. “We are also suspending parts, maintenance and technical support services for Russian airlines. As the conflict continues, our teams are focused on ensuring the safety of our teammates in the region.”
Mar 01, 10:56 pm
GOP points at Biden for Russian invasion in State of the Union response
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds implied Russia’s attack on Ukraine is connected to a lack of leadership from President Joe Biden in the Republican response to the State of the Union address, saying Biden has “sent us back in time” to the 1970s and ’80s, when the “Soviet army was trying to redraw the world map.”
Reynolds said Biden has failed on his promise to make America respected around the world once more and criticized Biden for the lead-up to the invasion, including waving sanctions against Russia and “focusing on political correctness.”
“Weakness on the world stage has a cost,” Reynolds said. “… We can’t project strength abroad if we’re weak home.”
Mar 01, 10:17 pm
‘Free world is holding Putin accountable,’ Biden says in SOTU address
In his first State of the Union address, President Joe Biden began by discussing the war in Eastern Europe and condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Biden invoked the strength of the Ukrainian people amid the attack, lauding the civilians who took up arms to defend their country and highlighting the work Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova has done on behalf of her people.
“She’s bright. She’s strong, and she’s resolved,” Biden said as first lady Jill Biden hugged Markarova.
Many lawmakers in attendance showed their support for Ukraine by wearing color-coordinated outfits and lapel pins in blue and yellow.
Biden described the invasion as “premeditated and totally unprovoked,” vowing, alongside NATO allies, to hold Putin accountable with sanctions on the Russian economy and Putin and the oligarchs themselves.
“When dictators do not pay a price for their aggressions, they cause more chaos,” Biden said. “They keep moving.”
Biden announced that American airspace would be closed to all Russian flights and pledged $1 billion in direct assistance to help “ease suffering” in Ukraine.
The president also “made clear” that while American forces would not go fight in Ukraine, he has mobilized the military to protect NATO countries.
“The United States and our Allies will defend every inch of territory that is NATO territory with the full force of our collective power,” he said.
Mar 01, 9:45 pm
Biden announces ban on Russian flights in US airspace
President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address announced the U.S. will ban Russian flights from its airspace, joining Canada and the European Union, which issued bans on Russian planes in their respective airspaces over the weekend.
“Tonight I am announcing that we will join our allies in closing off American air space to all Russian flights — further isolating Russia — and adding an additional squeeze on their economy,” Biden said.
The ban will apply to “operations of all aircraft owned, certified, operated, registered, chartered, leased, or controlled by, for, or for the benefit of, a person who is a citizen of Russia,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration. “This includes passenger and cargo flights, and scheduled as well as charter flights, effectively closing U.S. air space to all Russian commercial air carriers and other Russian civil aircraft.”
The ban will be “fully effective” by the end of the day Wednesday, the FAA said.
Mar 01, 9:12 pm
Lawmakers working to court ambassadors, diplomats ahead of UN vote to condemn Russia
While all eyes in Washington are on President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, some lawmakers have been working the phones to rally support at the United Nations for a resolution before the General Assembly to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and call for a peaceful resolution.
Working with the United States Mission to the United Nations, Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee have identified more than a dozen countries to target and called for ambassadors and key diplomats to leverage relationships to build more support for the nonbinding resolution.
“This has been a way for Congress to really play an important role working with the executive branch in getting this done and showing the world that Russia’s actions are illegal and should be condemned,” Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, a senior member of the committee that is leading the effort, told ABC News.
The vote “is an opportunity for countries to take a stand, and it’s especially a chance for the United States to demonstrate leadership among the nations of the world,” he said.
“President Biden and his administration, and now Congress, I believe, have demonstrated our ability to marshal our allies to condemn something the world has worked for decades to root out — which is a sovereign nation invading another,” Castro said.
Republicans have also been working to build support for the measure in the General Assembly, Castro said.
Mar 01, 8:35 pm
Ukrainian foreign minister addresses reports of racism
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba addressed the accounts of racism at the border by people of color attempting to flee, tweeting Tuesday, “Ukraine’s government spares no effort to solve the problem.”
Germany Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also addressed the reports of racism and discrimination during a powerful speech at the U.N. Assembly on Tuesday.
“Every refugee must receive protection, no matter what their nationality, no matter what their religion, no matter of the color of their skin,” Baerbock said.
(NEW YORK) — Since Russia invaded Ukraine last week, an estimated 660,000 refugees have fled to other countries — with the number only expected to grow.
The UNHCR said in a statement Tuesday the conflict could lead to “Europe’s largest refugee crisis this century” as displaced people pour into Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Moldova.
Non-profit organizations and other groups are warning many could wind up lacking access to basic health and medical needs including food, clean water, shelter, hygiene supplies and medication. And they say cases of communicable diseases, such as COVID-19 and polio, have the potential to grow along with gastrointestinal ailments.
That’s on top of trekking, on foot in cases, in the middle of winter in Eastern Europe.
“Fleeing your home is a last act of desperation,” Chris Skopec, executive vice-president of global health at Project Hope, a humanitarian nonprofit organization providing assistance to Ukrainian refugees, told ABC News. “All of your support networks are within your immediate community and, once you leave that, you excessively become more vulnerable to all kinds of things.”
Refugees may not have access to food, water or sanitation
Humanitarian groups say there are many health concerns for refugees fleeing the crisis in Ukraine.
Although there are public transit buses, trains and taxis that have been taking people to border checkpoints, some refugees have had to reach checkpoints on foot.
Additionally, stories have circulated of Ukrainians waiting up to 60 hours at border crossings just to get into a neighboring country, Skopec said.
“If you have less than sanitary conditions, if you’re walking on the road for days or sitting in your car, you don’t have access maybe to clean drinking water or the ability to wash or access proper hygiene facilities,” he said. “Then you’ve got concerns about gastrointestinal diseases, which can lead to other health conditions and really overall weaken the body.”
Refugees could also fall ill as they wait in long lines at the border in freezing temperatures. Temperatures usually don’t go much higher than 38 degrees Fahrenheit and fall to the low 20s at night.
“We’re talking about winter in central Europe,” Dr. Andrea Barschdorf-Hager, CEO of Care Austria, a nonprofit also helping Ukrainian refugees, told ABC News. “The weather conditions are hard and people are literally fleeing with just one winter jacket.”
When Russia invaded, Ukraine was already dealing with two public health crises, the first linked to the COVID pandemic.
Even while daily average COVID cases peaked at 37,000 last month, as data from Johns Hopkins University shows, less than 40% of Ukrainians aged 60 and older have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, according to the World Health Organization.
The country has also been trying to beat back a polio outbreak since October 2021 due to low immunization rates. During that time frame, at least one child was identified with paralytic polio and 19 other children have been infected, but not paralyzed, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.
People traveling in large groups without masks or social distancing, drinking contaminated water or coming in contact with an infected person could lead to surges of these diseases in the refugee population.
“When you have a large population in mass movement fleeing the country, you don’t have the kind of personal protective equipment required to prevent the spread of infections,” Skopec said.
Right now, there are no reports that COVID-19 is spreading among the refugee population.
‘Stress and anxiety’ for those fleeing their homes
There are mental health concerns for refugees as well.
Skopec said one of the concerns is for those with chronic mental health conditions, who will be traveling without access to care or their medications. The other concern is broader and affects all those who are stressed due to fleeing.
“Everybody doing this is going through a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety,” Skopec said.
Barschdorf-Hagersaid said it will be important to provide psychosocial support to refugees when they cross the border.
“Not everyone is traumatized, but they have to digest what has happened,” she said. “We need to set up social workers for people who want to talk to a social worker. The refugees need help to integrate and some moments will haunt them for the rest of their lives.”
She continued, “We are in a war situation and we have to make them feel welcome and let them know they have a safe space to stay, come and go.”
Refugees need to be met with care packages and hygiene kits
Skopec said Project Hope is currently deploying four different teams to Poland, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine, and focusing on the medical and health needs of refugees, including those who have not crossed into neighboring countries.
“So in Poland, we are simultaneously looking to get medical supplies into Ukraine to distribute to medical facilities while at the same time offering support to the Polish health authorities in terms of receiving refugees and making sure that they’ve got proper screening and proper basic care available for them,” he said.
Skopec added the organization has also put together interagency emergency kits, which are described by the WHO as being filled with medicines such as ibuprofen and morphine and medications to treat conditions including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and pulmonary diseases.
Each kit can treat 30,000 people for one month and Project Hope has seven kits on standby whenever governments request them.
Meanwhile, Barschdorf-Hagersaid said CARE Austria is working with its partner organization, People in Need, to supply care packages of clean water and food, including baby food, to refugees as well as hygiene kits.
“I don’t know of any border where there are enough sanitation places. There are not enough toilets, not enough washing stalls,” she said. “So the kits include diapers for babies, sanitary pads for young girls and women and so on.”
Barschdorf-Hagersaid also said the refugees need cash assistance so they can buy tickets to get their families living elsewhere in Europe or so they can buy things.
“Cash assistance is important to meet the needs of the moment because banks are not functioning in Ukraine,” she said. “It’s really key that people get cash assistance.”
(NEW YORK) — President Joe Biden repeatedly has said the United States will not be sending troops to fight Russia in Ukraine, but vowed that the U.S. would defend its NATO allies.
“As I made crystal clear, the United States will defend every inch of NATO territory with the full force of American power,” he reiterated in an address Thursday.
The main goal of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s founding in 1949 was to foster mutual assistance in response to the Soviet Union’s expansion in Europe. A key component of the treaty, Article 5, covers “collective defense,” which means that an attack on one ally is considered an attack on all allies.
Amid the current crisis, Article 5 could mandate a more direct response from the U.S. and other treaty members if Russian aggression escalates beyond Ukraine.
NATO announced last week it launched its response force, a deployment of about 40,000 troops to provide land, air and naval assistance across the alliance. This is the first time the force has been deployed for a “deterrence and defence role,” a NATO spokesperson said.
Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and professor of international affairs at Georgetown University, told ABC News it is possible Article 5 could be invoked while the U.S. and its allies are providing military aid to Ukraine.
“Let’s say that Russia succeeds in toppling the government. And it then tries to occupy and pacify Ukraine. Assuming that the U.S. and its allies attempt to get arms to a Ukrainian resistance movement, there’s a not insignificant risk that Russia might try to interdict that flow. And that whether by design or by accident, an artillery shell or a missile or a bomb could land in Poland or another NATO country,” Kupchan said.
“And then we’re looking at the prospect of an attack on NATO territory and the potential trigger of the Article Five collective defense guarantee, which then raises the prospect of potential military conflict between NATO and Russia,” Kupchan said.
All participating countries agree to the form of solidarity outlined in the article, making it a key component of the alliance. While Ukraine is not a member of NATO, it borders Poland, Hungry, Slovakia and Romania, which are members.
Ukraine has been moving toward the West and away from Russia, attempting to join both NATO and the European Union. Kupchan said its geographical location could be strategic during this conflict.
“In the current moment, Ukraine’s border with four NATO countries affords it two important advantages,” Kupchan said. “One is refugees are able to seek asylum in NATO countries, and we’re seeing hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians head west. And the other is that now that Ukraine’s airspace is … dominated by Russia, the long border between Ukraine and NATO affords an opportunity to continue to funnel weapons and other sources of support to Ukraine.”
The first time Article 5 was invoked was after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The alliance had already identified terrorism as a risk affecting its security in 1999. In response to the attack, NATO engaged in the fight against terrorism, launching its first operations outside the Euro-Atlantic area to patrol the skies over the U.S.
In 2008, NATO appeared to open the door for Ukraine’s membership saying it would become a member of the alliance, despite a lack of consensus between members, Kupchan said. NATO did not specify a pathway or timeframe for Ukraine to join the alliance.
“In 2008, the Bush administration wanted to proceed with what’s called a Membership Action Plan for Ukraine and Georgia. And European partners were reluctant, in part because neither Ukraine nor Georgia was ready to join NATO and because of concern that NATO’s enlargement to Georgia and Ukraine would be seen as provocative in Russia,” Kupchan said.
“Given the lack of consensus within NATO, the alliance agreed to issue a generic statement that Georgia and Ukraine would become NATO members, but didn’t specify a timeframe or a pathway,” Kupchan said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin linked the current crisis to Russia’s NATO demands, including a guarantee that NATO will stop expanding to the East, in a video address days before Russia invaded Ukraine. Putin accused the U.S. and NATO of ignoring his demands and blamed the West for the Ukraine crisis.
“[Putin] has said explicitly that he wants to see NATO’s military presence [reduced] in the eastern flank and that would include the three Baltic countries, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, ” Kupchan said. “He wants to see NATO pull its capability back.”
“One of the tragic dimensions of this conflict is that the Russians knew full well, that Ukrainian membership in NATO was not under consideration. It was not on the table. And NATO governments were quite explicit about that. Nonetheless, Putin decided to invade the country,” Kupchan said.
Its unlikely Putin would launch an attack on a NATO ally because he would be looking at a “full-scale war,” he said.
“My guess is that he understands that this is a non-starter,” Kupchan said.
In addition to NATO’s deployment of its response force, it also said it was deploying a quick response brigade of 3,500 troops that could deploy on short notice while the larger unit gathers its troops from various member nations.
“Our measures are and remain preventive, proportionate and non-escalatory,” a statement from NATO said last week.
Kupchan said it is still unclear how far west Russia will go into Ukraine.
“It’s conceivable that there could be a rump in Ukraine that Russia does not try to grab hold of and Western Ukraine has generally been much more integrated into Europe, than into Russia,” Kupchan said.
(WASHINGTON) — A member of the U.S. Capitol Police Dignitary Protection Detail was arrested in Israel last month after allegedly being intoxicated and getting into a fight while working in an advance role ahead of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to the Middle East, according to four sources familiar with the situation.
This information was later confirmed by the U.S. Capitol Police in a statement to ABC News.
Typically, when someone is under protective detail, agents are sent to the location ahead of time to scout out secure locations for the protectee.
The speaker and seven other Democratic lawmakers traveled to Israel while the House was out of session in February. ABC News does not know the name of the DPD agent.
The detail member was hospitalized before being released and given a plane ticket back to the United States, according to two sources briefed on the incident.
Capitol police told ABC News in a statement they would not be releasing the agent’s name since he wasn’t charged with a crime and it was a “discipline/personnel matter.” However, the agency said they had been with the USCP since April 2018 and had worked three details for members of Congress.
“On February 14, a United States Capitol Police Dignitary Protection special agent was doing advance work for a Congressional Delegation in Israel when the agent was accused of having a physical altercation while the agent was believed to be under the influence of alcohol,” Capitol police said in the statement. “The agent was not charged by the Israeli National Police, however U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger immediately sent the agent home, revoked the agent’s police powers and suspended the agent pending the outcome of an internal investigation by the USCP’s Office of Professional Responsibility.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office declined to comment.
U.S. Capitol Police have been under fire since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection when a Senate report found Capitol police were underprepared for the riot.
Since then they have implemented sweeping changes to the agency, including hiring a new police chief.
(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymr Zelenskyy, are putting up “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The attack began Feb. 24 as Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.”
Russians moving from Belarus towards Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, don’t appear to have advanced closer towards the city since coming within about 20 miles, although smaller advanced groups have been fighting gun battles with Ukrainian forces inside the capital since at least Friday.
Russia has been met by sanctions from the U.S., Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting Russia’s economy and Putin himself.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 01, 7:54 pm
Putin will ‘put Ukraine in a vice grip,’ US official says
Despite debate within the U.S. administration on whether Russia is suffering military setbacks in Ukraine, a senior U.S. official reiterated to ABC News that the invasion will be devastating for Ukraine.
“Putin is going to put Ukraine in a vice grip,” the official said, adding that Putin has ratcheted up his determination to carry on.
The dominant analysis within the administration involves Putin acting out with incredible ferocity and intent, believing this is his destiny, the official said.
The massive Russian convoy heading toward Ukraine is just as mighty as it looks from satellite imagery, the official added.
Taking out just half a dozen of those tanks would seriously slow down the convoy, because the roads are surrounded by mud in many places, so it would be difficult for the tanks to maneuver around the crippled vehicles, the official said.
President Joe Biden is under pressure to act, but the U.S. military is wary about any proposals that would bring American troops into open conflict with Russia. The U.S. military is also adamant that about avoiding anything that would trigger conflict, the official said.
-ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz
Mar 01, 7:51 pm
Biden to announce ban on Russian carriers from US airspace
President Joe Biden is expected to announce the U.S. will ban Russian carriers from its airspace in his State of the Union address, according to a person familiar with his remarks.
The U.S. now joins Canada and the European Union, which issued bans on Russian planes in their respective airspaces over the weekend.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
Mar 01, 7:33 pm
ExxonMobil to stop Russian investments
Oil giant ExxonMobil announced Tuesday it will be ending current and future investments in Russia.
Specifically, it will cease operations at its Sakhalin-1 venture, which the company operates on behalf Japanese, Indian and Russian companies.
“As operator of Sakhalin-1, we have an obligation to ensure the safety of people, protection of the environment and integrity of operations. Our role as operator goes beyond an equity investment,” the company said in a statement.
ExxonMobil said its stoppage of investments in Sakhalin-1 will “need to be carefully managed and closely coordinated with the co-venturers.”
The company added that it wouldn’t invest in future developments in Russia.
Mar 01, 5:50 pm
Jewish groups condemn attack on Ukrainian Holocaust memorial
Several Jewish groups condemned Russia for a missile attack that struck a Ukrainian Holocaust memorial.
The missiles struck the site of the Babyn Yar massacre where 33,000 Jewish men, women and children were killed in September 1941.
The Auschwitz Memorial and Museum in Poland tweeted, “It’s hard to expect the Russian army to respect the dead if it is not capable of respecting human lives.”
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum noted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the site last year to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the event.
“We stand with him and the Ukrainian people during these critical times,” the museum said in a statement.
Israel’s Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, called on the international community to protect sites such as Babyn Yar as well as the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire.
“Rather than being subjected to blatant violence, sacred sites like Babi Yar must be protected,” Yad Vashem said in a statement.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Mar 01, 4:14 pm
Apple pauses sales in Russia
Apple is taking “a number” of actions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including pausing product sales in Russia, stopping exports into the country and limiting Apple Pay there, according to a statement from the tech giant on Tuesday.
In addition, RT, Russia’s state-run news network, and Sputnik have been removed from the AppStore outside of Russia.
Apple has also disabled traffic and live incidents in Apple Maps in Ukraine for safety of Ukrainian citizens.
“We are deeply concerned about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and stand with all of the people who are suffering as a result of the violence,” Apple said in the statement. “We are supporting humanitarian efforts, providing aid for the unfolding refugee crisis, and doing all we can to support our teams in the region.”
-ABC News’ Zunaira Zaki
Mar 01, 3:04 pm
UK imposes sanctions on Belarus for its role in invasion
The United Kingdom is imposing sanctions on Belarus in response to the role the country is playing in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including facilitating the invasion from within its borders.
Four senior defense officials have been sanctioned, leaving them unable to travel to the U.K. and freeing any of their U.K.-based assets. Also sanctioned are a Belarusian aircraft repair plant and a military semiconductor manufacturer.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said, “We are inflicting economic pain on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and those closest to him. … The [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko regime actively aids and abets Russia’s illegal invasion and will be made to feel the economic consequences for its support for Putin.”
ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 01, 3:14 pm
UK imposes sanctions on Belarus for its role in invasion
The United Kingdom is imposing sanctions on Belarus in response to the role the country is playing in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including facilitating the invasion from within its borders.
Four senior defense officials have been sanctioned, leaving them unable to travel to the U.K. and freeing any of their U.K.-based assets. Also sanctioned are a Belarusian aircraft repair plant and a military semiconductor manufacturer.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said, “We are inflicting economic pain on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and those closest to him. … The [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko regime actively aids and abets Russia’s illegal invasion and will be made to feel the economic consequences for its support for Putin.”
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 01, 3:10 pm
Russian missile hits Kyiv TV tower killing at least 5
The tower that provides the main signal to TV and radio in Kyiv has been struck by a Russian missile, leaving at least five dead, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that the tower “is situated on the territory of Babyn Yar. On September 29-30, 1941, Nazis killed over 33 thousand Jews here. 80 years later, Russian Nazis strike this same land to exterminate Ukrainians. Evil and barbaric.”
Ukraine’s President President Volodymr Zelenskyy tweeted, “What is the point of saying «never again» for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar? At least 5 killed. History repeating.”
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 01, 1:51 pm
Russians running out of food, gas: US official
The Russian forces charging toward Kyiv haven’t made progress in the last day as they face Ukrainian resistance and low food and gas supply, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Tuesday.
However, it could be a deliberate pause, the official said. “Part of the stall could be … as a result of their own self-determined sort of pause in operations — that they are possibly regrouping, rethinking, reevaluating,” the official said.
The U.S. believes Russian forces “have committed now more than 80% of what was their pre-staged combat power,” the official added.
The official said some Russian soldiers weren’t told they were going into combat. The official said “not all of them were apparently fully trained and prepared.”
The strong Ukrainian resistance has also hurt morale, according to the official.
Russia has now launched more than 400 missiles on Ukraine, the official said. The U.S. believes Russia has launchers that could be used for thermobaric weapons, but cannot confirm their use, the official said.
Russian forces are making the most progress in the south. Russians are attacking Kherson in south Ukraine, which “appears very much to be contested city at this point,” the official said.
Russians are also approaching Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, and while they haven’t yet entered the city, “they are close enough now that they could attack Mariupol with long range fires,” the official said.
Two towns on the path to Mariupol are believed to be occupied by the Russians, according to the official.
The U.S. believes the Russians hope to move north out of Mariupol up to the heavily-contested city of Kharkiv. The official said they believe Russian forces are trying to encircle Kharkiv.
The U.S. official noted that they’ve seen “certain risk-averse behavior by the Russian military” over the last week.
“Take the amphibious assault, for instance. They put those troops ashore a good 70 kilometers away from Mariupol because they knew Mariupol was going to be defended and they could put them ashore in an uncontested environment. And they still haven’t reached Mariupol,” the official said.
“They are not necessarily willing to take high risks with their own aircraft and their own pilots,” the official said.
“And of course we’re seeing that on the ground — the fairly slow and steady progress that they have made, and you guys are seeing it for yourselves on the ground where … units are surrendering, sometimes without a fight.”
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Mar 01, 11:43 am
136 civilian deaths reported
A spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said 136 civilians have been killed in Ukraine, including 13 children.
Mar 01, 11:14 am
US, allies agree to release of 60 million barrels of oil from emergency reserves
The 31 countries on the International Energy Agency’s Governing Board have agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil from their 1.5 billion barrels of emergency reserves “to send a unified and strong message to global oil markets that there will be no shortfall in supplies as a result of Russia’s invasion,” the IEA said in a statement.
Russia is the biggest oil exporter on the globe and the third-largest producer, the IEA said.
Mar 01, 10:57 am
677,000 people have fled Ukraine
Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said the number of Ukrainians who’ve fled their country has climbed to 677,000.
Mar 01, 10:16 am
Western officials walk out during Lavrov remarks
Diplomats from Western countries were seen on video walking out in protest as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov addressed the U.N. Human Rights Council and Conference on Disarmament.
The meeting was held Tuesday in Geneva and Lavrov gave his address via video.
The Human Rights Council has faced criticism for years for including human rights abusers, including Russia. In a prerecorded video to the council, Secretary of State Antony Blinken questioned whether Russia should be allowed to keep its seat.
“One can reasonably ask whether a U.N. member state that tries to take over another U.N. member state — while committing horrific human rights abuses and causing massive humanitarian suffering — should be allowed to remain on this council,” he said.
Blinken accused Russia of hitting civilian targets like schools, hospitals, residential buildings, critical infrastructure, and cars, buses, and ambulances — including the “monstrous rocket strikes” on an apartment complex in Kharkiv.
“Reports of Russia’s human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law mount by the hour,” he said.
“These are the human rights abuses this council was created to stop. If we cannot come together now, when will we come together?” he asked.
-ABC News’ Fergal Gallagher, Conor Finnegan
Mar 01, 9:43 am
‘Growing number’ of unaccompanied and separated refugee children
Filippo Grandi, U.N. high commissioner for refugees, told the Security Council Monday there’s “a growing number of unaccompanied and separated children” in the unending lines of refugees fleeing Ukraine.
UNICEF said there are “anecdotal reports of heartbreaking stories of fathers — or families — arriving at the border with their children and relinquishing them to the border guards, then remaining in Ukraine.”
UNICEF said it doesn’t have numbers yet on unaccompanied or separated children.
Mar 01, 9:23 am
Six killed in attack on Kharkiv civilian building
A rocket attack on an administrative building in Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine has killed at least six people and injured another seven, Ukrainian officials said.
An Indian student was among those killed, according to the Indian government.
A senior administration official told ABC News the U.S. has learned that Russia continues to plan for a “devastating” attack on Ukraine, warning that “the Russians … will crush Ukraine.”
Mar 01, 7:40 am
YouTube blocks RT, Sputnik in Europe
Google on Tuesday said it had blocked RT and Sputnik, Russian state-linked channels, from YouTube in Europe.
Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, we’re blocking YouTube channels connected to RT and Sputnik across Europe, effective immediately. It’ll take time for our systems to fully ramp up. Our teams continue to monitor the situation around the clock to take swift action.
“Our teams continue to monitor the situation around the clock to take swift action,” the company said.
Mar 01, 6:39 am
Zelenskyy calls Russian attack ‘undisguised terror’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday said the Russian attack on Kharkiv’s main square was an act of “undisguised terror.”
“After that, Russia is a terrorist state. No one will forgive. Nobody will forget,” he said on Facebook.
Mar 01, 6:22 am
About 660,000 refugees have fled Ukraine: UN
At least 660,000 people have fled Ukraine into neighboring countries in the six days since the Russian invasion began, the U.N. Refugees Agency said.
At the Polish border, UNHCR staff reported queues that were miles long.
“Those who crossed the border said that they had been waiting up to 60 hours,” the agency said on Tuesday. “Most arrivals are women and children from all parts of Ukraine. Temperatures are freezing and many have reported spending days on the road waiting to cross.”
Agency staff said people were waiting up to 20 hours to enter Romania. In Hungary, arrivals were “steady and waiting times vary.” The 37-mile trip between Odessa, Ukraine, and the border with Moldova was taking some refugees 24 hours, the agency said. And arrivals in Slovakia, where asylum laws were rapidly changed, were lower than elsewhere, agency staff said.
An unknown number of Ukrainian citizens have also been displaced within the country, Filippo Grandi, the agency’s commissioner, told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday.
“The situation is moving so quickly, and the levels of risk are so high by now, that it is impossible for humanitarians to distribute systematically the aid, the help that Ukrainians desperately need,” he said.
The International Organisation for Migration said more than 470,000 people of various nationalities, “including a large number of overseas students and labour migrants,” are still in Ukraine.
Mar 01, 4:11 am
Russian bombardment strikes central square in Kharkiv
Russia on Tuesday launched a major bombardment of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, hitting a central square and its civilian administration building.
Video from the scene shows a large projective hitting next to the regional state administration building on Kharkiv’s Freedom Square, causing a huge blast. Aftermath shot on phones from the scene and inside the building, show it shattered with debris strewn around.
Ukraine’s emergency services ministry said at least six people, including one child were injured. It was unclear if anyone was killed.
Kharkiv Mayor Oleg Sinegubov confirmed the strike, calling it a “war crime.”
Monday’s shelling followed a sustained bombardment of civilian areas yesterday and overnight in Kharkiv by Russian heavy artillery, including multiple rocket launchers and an alleged use of cluster munitions.
“What is happening in Kharkiv is a war crime!” Sinegubov wrote on Facebook. “The Russian enemy is shelling whole residential neighborhoods of Kharkiv, where there is no critical infrastructure, no Ukrainian armed forces positions, which the Russians could be targeting.”
Sinegubov accused Russia of conducting the attacks during the day, when civilians were on the street. He said the city’s emergency services are unable to keep up with the number of attacks and injured.
So far at least 11 are dead, with dozens injured, he said.
Russian forces in Kharkiv appear to have shifted tactics to employing heavy artillery indiscriminately against the city, in an apparent effort to bombard and terrorize it into submission.
Sinegubov claimed the Russians were changing tactics because their offensive capabilities on the ground were running out and so they had nothing left but to launch aerial bombardments.
Mar 01, 3:28 am
‘Leave Kyiv urgently today,’ Indian Embassy tells citizens
The Indian Embassy in Kyiv on Tuesday urged Indians still in the capital to “leave Kyiv urgently today.”
“All Indian nationals including students are advised to leave Kyiv urgently today,” the embassy said on Twitter. “Preferably by available trains or through any other means available.”
Mar 01, 2:48 am
’We will fight until the end,’ says Ukrainian parliament member
Solomiia Bobrovska, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, on Monday said Ukrainians would “fight to the end” as they defend Kyiv from a Russian invasion.
“That’s the mood of Ukrainians. We are staying behind altogether, and we do understand that with the total second line staying behind their shoulders. And I think we will fight until the end,” Bobrovska told ABC News’ Linsey Davis.
Mar 01, 12:14 am
Russian troops ‘operational’ near Ukrainian nuclear power plant, agency says
Ukraine said its nuclear power plants are still being operated “safely and securely,” the International Atomic Energy Agency wrote in an update late Monday.
However, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said he “remained gravely concerned about maintaining their safety and security during the current conflict.”
Ukraine’s foreign ministry told the IAEA on Monday that Russian troops are “operational” near a functioning nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia, but the troops haven’t entered it so far. Any fighting near nuclear facilities causes alarm, and Ukraine has four sites in total with 15 reactors.
“It is extremely important that the nuclear power plants are not put at risk in any way,” Grossi said in a statement. “An accident involving the nuclear facilities in Ukraine could have severe consequences for public health and the environment.”
The IAEA Board of Governors will hold a meeting Wednesday to discuss the “safety, security and safeguards implications of the situation in Ukraine.”
