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

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

ByMorgan Winsor, Emily Shapiro, Nadine El-Bawab, Ivan Pereira, Julia Jacobo, Meredith Deliso, Bill Hutchinson, Kevin Shalvey, Celia Darrough, Mary Kekatos, and Samara Lynn
Last Updated: March 14, 2022, 8:25 PM EDT

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

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Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Mar 14, 2022, 8:25 PM EDT

Former US ambassador to Ukraine: 'There’s no path to victory for Russia'

Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, doubted Russia’s ability to win the war it started, "because the Ukrainian people will continue to resist."

"Ukrainians are never going to turn back to Russia at this point -- never," she told ABC News. "Not after he has invaded them and destroyed their families and destroyed their livelihoods and destroyed their homes. It is appalling what he has done, all in the name of allegedly protecting people in Ukraine. "

While Yovanovitch said she does not believe a ceasefire is currently on Russian President Vladimir Putin's agenda, "It’s important to keep the lines of communication open."

"It's important to keep on talking, at least hopefully to get humanitarian corridors set up so that people can, you know, can leave cities that are no longer habitable because of the barbaric aggressiveness of Russia," said Yovanovitch, who served as ambassador to Ukraine under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, between 2016 and 2019.

Yovanovitch also said she believes that Trump was dismissive of Ukraine during his presidency, adding that his praise of Putin "emboldened" the Russian leader.

"There's no question that President Trump's actions and his statements presumably emboldened Putin, and I think that Putin was getting what he needed from President Trump in terms of while our official policy was very strong with regard to supporting Ukraine," she said.

-ABC News' Penelope Lopez

Mar 14, 2022, 8:13 PM EDT

UN to allocate $40 million for Ukraine relief

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has allocated $40 million "to ramp up aid agencies' efforts to reach the most vulnerable people," it announced in a press release Monday.

"These funds are critical to get operations off the ground immediately," U.N. OCHA chief Martin Griffiths said in a statement. "In the early days of our response, fast and flexible funding can make all the difference."

The U.N. is also deploying staff to get food and medicines closer to those in need, according to the release.

A satellite image shows a color infrared view of fires burning near Fontanna street, in eastern Mariupol, Ukraine, March 14, 2022.
Maxar Technologies via Reuters

Griffiths described Mariupol, the eastern city being heavily bombed by Russia with hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped inside, as the "center of hell" in an interview with CNN on Monday.

"The most important priority … is to get civilians out," Griffiths said.

-ABC News' Matt Foster

Mar 14, 2022, 6:20 PM EDT

International Court of Justice ruling on Russia expected Wednesday

The International Court of Justice will soon issue a ruling on allegations brought against Russia by Ukraine.

Ukraine had launched a case against Russia at the United Nations' highest court, located in Hague, The Netherlands, accusing Moscow of planning genocide.

Ukraine also asked the court to intervene to halt the invasion and to order Russia to pay reparations.

The court will deliver the ruling at 11 a.m. EST on Wednesday, the U.N. announced in a press release.

-ABC News' Matt Foster

Mar 14, 2022, 5:34 PM EDT

'Patients first,' Pfizer CEO says of continuing to send supplies to Russia

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Monday defended the company’s decision to continue supplying medicine to Russia, saying “patients first.”

The pharmaceutical company announced Monday that it would donate all profits from sales in Russia to Ukraine. Despite the hefty sanctions placed on Russia by countries around the world, Bourla said at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin that a humanitarian exemption to continue operations in Russia applies.

“Always with sanctions, medicines are excluded,” he said, citing other previous instances, including Iran. “We debated a lot what needs to be done, and we felt it’s so foundational in our principles that patients should come first that we cannot stop the flow of our medicines to Russia.”

Bourla emphasized that medicine is not comparable to goods such as the latest smartphone, saying that treatments for conditions such as lung and metastatic breast cancer “can’t stop.”

However, Pfizer is not "continuing business as usual" in Russia, Bourla said.

“Though we will maintain the flow of the medicines, we will not make money out of it -- all the profits of the Russian subsidiary going forward effective immediately will be donated to causes to alleviate the pain that the invasion is causing to Ukrainians.”

-ABC News' Sasha Pezenik

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