Russia-Ukraine updates: Putin says 'certain positive movements' in negotiations

A third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine ended without any resolution.

Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are putting up "stiff resistance," according to U.S. officials.

The attack began Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation."

Russian forces moving from neighboring Belarus toward Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, have advanced closer to the city center in recent days despite the resistance, coming within about 9 miles as of 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.

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Two Men at War

A look at the two leaders at the center of the war in Ukraine and how they both rose to power, the difference in their leadership and what led to this moment in history.

Mar 03, 2022, 5:34 AM EST

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 satellite image with overlaid graphics shows military vehicles alongside the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, Feb. 25, 2022.
BlackSky/Handout via Reuters

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.

-ABC News' Yulia Drozd

Mar 03, 2022, 5:06 AM EST

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.

-ABC News' Tanya Stukalova

Mar 03, 2022, 4:37 AM EST

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.

-ABC News' Tanya Stukalova

Mar 02, 2022, 11:25 PM EST

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.

A view of the TV Rain (Dozhd) online news channel studio in Moscow, Aug. 20, 2021.
Denis Kaminev/Reuters, FILE

"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.

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan and Patrick Reevell

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