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, 7:05 AM EST

Russia and Ukraine to resume talks Thursday

A second round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators will be held at the previously planned venue in neighboring Belarus on Thursday at around 3 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET), according to Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation and aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation and aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaks to the media ahead of expected talks with the Ukrainian delegation, in the Brest region, Belarus, March 3, 2022.
Maxim Guchek/BelTA/Handout via Reuters

"The talks will take place -- we are now in contact with the Ukrainian side -- at the same venue where they were planned, on the territory of the Brest region of Belarus," Medinsky told reporters Thursday, adding that Russian negotiators are "waiting calmly."

"I think the talks will begin at 3 p.m.," he said.

Ukraine's presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak from the Ukrainian delegation later posted a photo of himself on his official Twitter account on Thursday, saying they were en route via helicopter to the talks in Belarus

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell and Tanya Stukalova

Mar 03, 2022, 6:50 AM EST

Russian foreign minister declines to comment on civilian deaths in Ukraine

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov wouldn't comment on civilian deaths from Russia's invasion of Ukraine when pressed during an interview Thursday with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America."

"I cannot comment," Lavrov said, adding that there are "a great deal" of "conjectures."

George Stephanopoulos presses Sergey Lavrov on the country’s devastating invasion of Ukraine as Russia escalates its attacks on the country.
6:32

Russian foreign minister talks attacks on Ukraine

George Stephanopoulos presses Sergey Lavrov on the country’s devastating invasion of Ukraine as Russia escalates its attacks on the country.
ABCNews.com

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

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