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.
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.
Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Apr 06, 2022, 12:05 PM EDT
Human Rights Watch racing to document war crimes
Hugh Williamson, director of the Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia division, wrote in an OpEd in the Telegraph that the HRW is racing to document war crimes in Ukraine.
Tanya Nedashkivska reacts as she recounts how her husband Vasyl Ivanovych, who served in the navy, was killed by Russian soldiers, as she stands near their residential building in Bucha, Ukraine, April 3, 2022.
Zohra Bensemra/Reuters
Williamson said one apparent war crime was when seven Ukrainian civilians were allegedly executed by Russian soldiers.
Regarding the images of civilian bodies in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, Williamson said they're concerned many of the deaths may be the result of war crimes, but "it's too early to say for certain now, and legal proceedings are still at a nascent stage."
Bodies are lined up for identification by forensic personnel and police officers in the cemetery in Bucha, north of Kyiv, on April 6, 2022, after hundreds of civilians were found dead in areas from which Russian troops have withdrawn around Ukraine's capital, including the town of Bucha.
Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images
This comes as a spokesperson for Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs doubled down on Russian claims that civilian killings in Bucha were staged.
"On April 3, the world witnessed another crime by the Ukrainian authorities, this time in the town of Bucha, where a criminal false flag operation [showing] the alleged killing of civilians by Russian troops had been staged," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Wednesday according to state-run TASS. Zakharova claimed that when Bucha was controlled by the Russian Armed Forces, not a single local resident was affected by acts of violence.
Volunteers unload bags containing bodies of civilians, who according to residents were killed by Russian army soldiers, after they collected them from the streets to gather them at a cemetery before taking them to the morgue, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Bucha, Ukraine April 4, 2022.
Zohra Bensemra/Reuters
-ABC News' Christine Theodorou
Apr 06, 2022, 11:25 AM EDT
New US sanctions target Putin's children, largest Russian bank
New U.S. sanctions are targeting "the key architects of the war" and their family members, including Russian President Vladimir Putin's adult children, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's wife and daughter and members of Russia's security council, a senior administration official told reporters.
"We believe that many of Putin's assets are hidden with family members and that's why we're targeting them," the official said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin seen on the big screen as he delivers his speech at the concert marking the eighth anniversary of the referendum on the state status of Crimea and Sevastopol and its reunification with Russia, in Moscow, March 18, 2022.
Vladimir Astapkovich/Sputnik Pool Photo via AP
The new sanctions are also the most severe sanctions yet on Russia’s largest private bank, Alfa Bank, and its largest financial institution, Sherbank, the official said.
This will "generate a financial shock" to Russia's economy," the official said. "[Sherbank] holds nearly one-third of Russia's total banking sector assets. That's over $500 billion. That's roughly twice the size of the second largest Russian bank, which we previously fully blocked. And in total, we've now fully blocked more than two thirds of the Russian banking sector, which before the invasion held about $1.4 trillion in assets."
The official warned that "Russia will very likely lose its status as a major economy."
The official noted how these sanctions will hurt everyday Russians.
"It means their debit cards may not work. They may only have the option to buy knockoff phones and knockoff clothes. The shelves at stores may be empty. The reality is the country's descending into economic and financial and technological isolation. And at this rate, it will go back to Soviet style living standards from the 1980s," the official said.
A monument to Taras Shevchenko, a Ukrainian poet and a national symbol, showing damage from bullets, stands against the background of an apartment house ruined in the Russian shelling in the central square in Borodyanka, Ukraine, April 6, 2022.
Efrem Lukatsky/AP
-ABC News' Mary Bruce and Molly Nagle
Apr 06, 2022, 11:14 AM EDT
DOJ charges Russian oligarch with sanctions violations, announces disruption of global botnet
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it has charged Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev with sanctions violations, alleging Malofeyev was one of the main sources of financing for Russians promoting separatism in Crimea and for providing material support for the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic.
These actions are part of the KleptoCapture Task force, which is a Justice Department task force established last month aimed at seizing Russian oligarch assets from around the country.
"After being sanctioned by the United States, Malofeyev attempted to evade the sanctions by using co-conspirators to surreptitiously acquire and run media outlets across Europe," U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters. "We are also announcing the seizure of millions of dollars from an account at a U.S. financial institution, which the indictment alleges constitutes proceeds traceable to Malofeyev’s sanctions violations."
Attorney General Merrick Garland is flanked by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and FBI Director Christopher Wray as he arrives to announce enforcement actions against Russia, during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., April 6, 2022.
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
One of Malofeyev's co-conspirators, according to the DOJ, is former U.S. TV producer Jack Hanick, who was arrested last month in the United Kingdom, where he had been living for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions stemming from Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The Justice Department also on Wednesday announced the disruption of a global botnet run by the GRU, Russia's Chief Intelligence Office. FBI Director Christopher Wray told reporters the team behind the global botnet was responsible for some of the most infectious cyberattacks in recent memory, including the cyberattacks against the Winter Olympics in 2018, attacks on Ukrainian power grid in 2015 and the attack on the country of Georgia in 2019.
The Justice Department seized a yacht that belongs to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in Marina Real in the Spanish port of Palma de Mallorca, according to court documents unsealed Monday. In addition to the seizure of Vekselberg's yacht, U.S. authorities also obtained seizure warrants unsealed in Washington, D.C., Monday that target roughly $625,000 associated with sanctioned parties at nine U.S. financial institutions, the Justice Department said.
At the news conference, Garland also expressed outrage over the images of civilian bodies in Ukraine.
People walk by an apartment building destroyed during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in Borodyanka, Ukraine, April 5, 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian troops of gruesome atrocities in Ukraine and told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that those responsible should immediately be brought up on war crimes charges in front of a tribunal like the one set up at Nuremberg after World War II.
Vadim Ghirda/AP
A woman walks amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, April 3, 2022.
Rodrigo Abd/AP
"We have seen the dead bodies of civilians, some with bound hands, scattered in the streets. We have seen the mass graves. We have seen the bombed hospital, theater, and residential apartment buildings. The world sees what is happening in Ukraine. The Justice Department sees what is happening in Ukraine," Garland said.
Garland said the DOJ is in the "collection of evidence" stage of any war crime prosecution.
-ABC News' Alex Mallin, Luke Barr
Apr 06, 2022, 11:12 AM EDT
School-turned-shelter attacked in Donetsk region, governor says
A school-turned-shelter in eastern Ukraine's war-torn Donetsk region came under attack on Wednesday, according to Donetsk Oblast Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko.
An injured woman is aided by another person in a photo the Ukrainian Governor of the Donetsk region released on April 6, 2022, showing at attack on a school that was being used as humanitarian aid center, in Vugledar, a small village about 40 miles from Donetsk city. ABC News has blurred parts of the image.
Pavlo Kyrylenko/Governor of Donetsk Oblast
Kyrylenko released images showing several wounded people lying on the ground among debris outside the school, which is currently being used as a humanitarian aid center. First responders were seen helping the victims. Another image showed the inside of a classroom that was damaged during the attack, with the windows shattered and some desks broken.
ABC News' Visual Verification team confirmed that the photos were taken at a school in Vugledar, a small village about 40 miles from Donetsk city.