Russia-Ukraine updates: US sanctions Russian military shipbuilder, diamond miner

Russia's largest military shipbuilding and diamond mining firms were targeted.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's "special military operation” into Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with troops crossing the border from Belarus and Russia. Moscow's forces have since been met with “stiff resistance” from Ukrainians, according to U.S. officials.

Russian forces retreated last week from the Kyiv suburbs, leaving behind a trail of destruction. After graphic images emerged of civilians lying dead in the streets of Bucha, U.S. and European officials accused Russian troops of committing war crimes.

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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 11, 2022, 11:15 AM EST

US Restricts the export of luxury goods to Russia, Belarus

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced Friday that it will restrict the export of U.S. luxury goods to Russia and Belarus, as well as "certain Russian and Belarusian oligarchs and malign actors located worldwide," as a result of their actions in Ukraine.

The Department of Commerce said it will impose restrictions on the export, reexport and transfer of luxury items including certain spirits, tobacco products, clothing items, jewelry, vehicles and antique goods.

"Putin’s war of choice in Ukraine continues to take a devastating toll on innocent civilians in Ukraine, fueling one of the worst humanitarian crises Europe has seen in decades," Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement.

Raimondo added, "Putin and the oligarchs who fund him have gotten rich off of Putin’s rampant corruption and the exploitation of the Russian people. We will not allow Putin and his cronies to continue living in opulence while causing tremendous suffering throughout Eastern Europe. Today’s action takes away another source of comfort and reminds them that Russia is increasingly isolated."

-ABC News' Luke Barr

Mar 11, 2022, 10:16 AM EST

WHO advised Ukraine to destroy pathogens to prevent 'accidental spill'

The World Health Organization said Friday that it is urging Ukraine to now destroy its pathogen samples because Russia's war in the country risks an "accidental spill," according to WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević.

The logo of the World Health Organization (WHO) is pictured on the facade of the WHO headquarters.
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images

"This is part of us providing a public health advice to every country to try to ensure there is a minimized risk of any harm to population because of any possible accidental leak of pathogens," Jašarević said Friday from Lviv.

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan

Mar 11, 2022, 10:13 AM EST

UN has credible reports of Russian cluster bomb use, attacks on health care

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has "received credible reports of several cases of Russian forces using cluster munitions, including in populated areas," spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell said Friday.

"Due to their wide-area effects, the use of cluster munitions in populated areas is incompatible with international humanitarian law principles," Throssell said.

Throssell added, "We remind Russian authorities that directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects as well as so-called bombardment in towns and villages and other forms of indiscriminate attacks are prohibited under international law and may amount to war crimes."

To date, there have been 26 attacks on health care facilities in Ukraine, killing at least 12 people and injuring 34 people, according to Jašarević. Two of those killed and eight of the injured were healthcare workers.

That number is "shocking," said Throssell.

Throssell and WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević declined to pin the blame for all of them on Russia.

This number of attacks includes Wednesday's strike on a children's hospital and maternity ward in Mariupol. On Thursday, Russian officials claimed that the attack was staged, but they first confirmed they bombed it and claimed the hospital was being used by Ukrainian "radicals."

Throssell told reporters that is not true; "It was a functioning hospital," she said.

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan

Mar 11, 2022, 9:22 AM EST

Ukraine fighting 'four times longer than the enemy expected,' says Zelenskyy

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy Friday said Ukrainians have been fighting "four times longer than the enemy expected," in a statement posted online.

"Ukrainians are proud people who defend their land and won't give up the tiniest part of this land to the occupier, nor the tiniest part of our freedom," Zelenskyy said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a message to Facebook, March 11, 2022, stating, "The Ukrainians are proud people who won’t give up even a percent of their independence."
Volodymyr Zelenskyy via Facebook

Zelenskyy said it is impossible to say how many days Ukraine will need to "liberate" its land, "but it's possible and necessary to stress that this day will come and we will win, because we've already achieved a strategic breakthrough and we will continue down this path to victory."

He also spoke about Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure saying, "In many regions of Ukraine there's no power or water supply, no heating. It's a real humanitarian catastrophe. "

Zelenskyy said said that if Russian attacks continue, then sanctions placed on Russia "aren't enough."

"They continue to torture Mariupol and Kharkiv, fire missiles on Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk. If all this is still going on it means that sanctions already imposed on Russia are not enough and new tougher measures are urgently needed. Russia has to pay for this terrible war, pay every single day," Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian government set up 12 humanitarian corridors, according to Zelenskyy.

"If the other side will break the agreements again, our response will be so strong, that humanitarian corridors will be needed for occupiers themselves," he said.

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