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

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

ByMorgan Winsor, Emily Shapiro, Julia Jacobo, Nadine El-Bawab, Meredith Deliso, Ivan Pereira, Kevin Shalvey, Bill Hutchinson, and Celia Darrough
Last Updated: March 22, 2022, 10:04 AM EDT

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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Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Mar 03, 2022, 6:08 AM EST

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.

People look at the gutted remains of Russian military vehicles on a road in the town of Bucha, close to the capital Kyiv, Ukraine, March 1, 2022.
Serhii Nuzhnenko/AP

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.

-ABC News' Yulia Drozd

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

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