(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.

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(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.”

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(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.

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