Russia-Ukraine updates: 2 US veterans who joined Ukrainian forces missing

The Americans, Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh and Alexander Drueke, are both from Alabama.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's "special military operation" into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered "stiff resistance," according to U.S. officials.

The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine's disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.

For previous coverage, please click here.

Two Men at War
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.
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12-year-old boy among 4 civilians killed by Russian shelling in Kharkiv region

Russian shelling in eastern Ukraine's Kharkiv Oblast over the past 24 hours left four civilians dead, the regional governor said Wednesday.

A woman was killed in the village of Zolochev, while a 12-year-old boy died in the village of Ivanivka, northwest of Kharkiv city. Two more people were killed in the village of Shestakove, northeast of Kharkiv city. Seven other civilians were injured in the region, according to Kharkiv Oblast Gov. Oleg Synegubov.

"The enemy is acting insidiously, striking at civilians and civilian infrastructure," Synegubov said in a statement via Telegram. "But he will answer for all his crimes! Ukraine will win!"


Russia now occupies over half of key city in Ukraine's east

Over half of Sieverodonetsk is now likely occupied by Russian forces, including Chechen fighters, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Wednesday in an intelligence update.

The ministry said fighting intensified in the streets of the key eastern Ukrainian city on Monday and Tuesday, "with Russian forces pushing closer to the town centre." Sieverodonetsk is located in the war-torn Luhansk Oblast of eastern Ukraine's disputed Donbas region.

"Russian ground operations remain tightly focused, with the weight of fire power concentrated within a small sector of Luhansk Oblast," the ministry said.

"Beyond the Donbas, Russia continues to conduct long-range missile strikes against infrastructure across Ukraine," the ministry added. "The strategically important bridge links Ukraine with Romania and with Ukraine's ports on the Danube, which have become critical to Ukrainian exports after the blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports by Russia."


US sending Ukraine 'more advanced' rocket systems, Biden says in op-ed

The U.S. will provide Ukraine with "more advanced rocket systems and munitions," President Joe Biden confirmed in a New York Times op-ed published Tuesday.

The systems "will enable them to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine," he wrote.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned last week that providing more advanced rockets would be a new "unacceptable escalation" because they could hypothetically be used to strike within Russian territory.

But Biden told reporters Monday that the U.S. will not "send to Ukraine rocket systems that can strike into Russia," and he and the administration are making efforts to emphasize that these new rocket systems will be used by the Ukrainians on the battlefield in their own country.

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan


5.2 million kids need humanitarian help

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has left 5.2 million kids in need of humanitarian help, according to UNICEF.

At least 262 children have been killed and another 415 have been hurt since Feb. 24, UNICEF said.

Nearly two-thirds have been displaced, UNICEF said.


New sanctions target enablers of forced adoptions

The United Kingdom announced a new wave of sanctions on Thursday targeting Russians involved in the barbaric treatment of children in Ukraine.

Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's Children Rights Commissioner, tops the new list of sanctioned individuals for her alleged involvement in the forced transfer and adoption of Ukrainian children. She has been accused of enabling 2,000 vulnerable children being violently taken from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions and orchestrating a new policy to facilitate their forced adoptions in Russia.

“Today we are targeting the enablers and perpetrators of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war who have brought untold suffering to Ukraine, including the forced transfer and adoption of children,” U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a press release.

More than 900 children were injured in Ukraine as a result of the full-scale armed aggression by the Russian Federation, according to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s latest report. Over 320 children were killed and more than 580 were injured.

These figures are far from being final, with more information slowly trickling in from places of active hostilities, as well as the temporarily occupied and liberated territories.

The UK's sanction list also includes Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, for his support and endorsement of Putin’s war.

Several members of Putin's political elite, along with four Military Colonels from a unit known to have killed, raped and tortured civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, appear on the list too.

“Putin’s allies continue to choose to turn a blind eye to alleged war crimes and support his bloody offensive,” the U.K. government said. With Putin’s aggression reaching beyond Ukraine as Russian exports fuel conflict across the globe, the official press release read, the new sanctions also hit Myanmar’s military Junta.

The Junta relies heavily on Russian air assets and limiting it will cut Putin off from profiting from sales that fund his war machine, the U.K. said.

-ABC News' Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Yulia Drozd and Max Uzol