More than a year after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the countries are fighting for control of areas in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
May 02, 2023, 6:58 PM EDT
Explosions reported in Kyiv
Explosions were reported in Kyiv around 1:00 a.m. Wednesday local time, according to Suspilne, the Ukrainian public broadcaster.
The Ukrainian Air Defense Forces were activated in response, the Kyiv City Military Administration reported.
S-300 missiles belonging to Ukrainian Armed Forces were hit in Zaporizhzhia, the spokesman of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, Serhiy Bratchuk, said on Telegram.
Reports of damage, and number of people injured or killed were not immediately available.
-ABC News' Ellie Kaufman and Max Uzol
May 02, 2023, 12:38 PM EDT
Marine veteran killed while evacuating civilians in Ukraine
A 26-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran was killed in a mortar strike last month in Ukraine while working to evacuate civilians, his family confirmed to ABC News this week.
Cooper Andrews died on April 19 in the Bakhmut area, his cousin Willow Pastard, who is speaking on his family's behalf, told ABC News.
Cooper Andrews in an undated photo.
Andrews family
The State Department announced Monday that an American citizen died in Ukraine, though did not provide more details or an identity "out of respect for the family's privacy during this difficult time."
"We are in touch with the family and providing all possible consular assistance," a spokesperson for the agency said in a statement.
At least nine deaths of U.S. citizens who have volunteered to fight in Ukraine have been officially reported since the war began last year, according to the State Department.
-ABC News' Shannon Crawford
May 01, 2023, 3:54 PM EDT
2 dead, 40 wounded in latest Russian strikes
Two men were killed and at least 40 people, including children, were injured after Russian missiles struck Pavlograd, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other officials said.
Serhii Lysak, the head of the military administration of the Dnipropetrovsk, said 19 high-rise buildings, 25 private houses, six schools and preschool education institutions and five shops were hit by the missiles.
Five children were among the wounded officials said. The youngest victim is 8 years old, according to officials.
-ABC News' Wil Gretsky
May 01, 2023, 5:21 PM EDT
Russia suffered 100K casualties since December: White House
The U.S. estimates that Russia has suffered over 100,000 casualties, including over 20,000 killed in action, since it stepped up its winter offensive in December, a White House National Security Council told ABC News.
Half of the 20,000 killed in action were members of the Russian-backed private military Wagner Group, according to White House spokesman John Kirby. The majority of Wagner fighters killed were allegedly ex-convicts, according to Kirby.
Ukrainian servicemen run to take cover during shelling near the frontline city of Bakhmut, Donetsk region on April 30, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images
Kirby said that the data came from "some downgraded intelligence" that the U.S. has been able to collect. He was unable to provide data on deaths of Ukrainian fighters.
Kirby had earlier told reporters that the Russian casualties took place from battles in Bakhmut since December, however, the National Security Council member said the data encompasses all winter battles.
Many, but not all, of these Russians were injured or killed in the Bakhmut fighting, according to the official.
Kirby emphasized that the U.S. thinks Bakhmut holds "very little strategic value for Russia" and if captured by Russia, it "would absolutely not alter the course of the war in Russia’s favor."