Russia-Ukraine updates: Putin says 'certain positive movements' in negotiations
A third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine ended without any resolution.
Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are putting up "stiff resistance," according to U.S. officials.
The attack began Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation."
Russian forces moving from neighboring Belarus toward Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, have advanced closer to the city center in recent days despite the resistance, coming within about 9 miles as of Friday.
Russia has been met by sanctions from the United States, Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting the Russian economy as well as Putin himself.
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Latest headlines:
- Ukrainian air force claims Russia carried out false flag airstrike in Belarus
- UN has credible reports of Russian cluster bomb use, attacks on health care
- Putin claims 'certain positive movements' in Ukraine negotiations
- Russian general prosecutor wants Meta declared 'extremist organization'
- Putin orders Russian military to help volunteer fighters from Middle East travel to Ukraine
'They even sent skis': Donations pile up at Poland-Ukraine border
Deb Parry, who is currently leading Save the Children’s team in Poland, told ABC News she has never seen anything like the outpouring of help on the Polish border.
“I’ve worked for Save the Children for 30 years and I’ve never seen anything like it. There’s a phenomenal amount of aid being sent. Everything these families could possibly need.”
“They even sent skis!” she exclaimed.
The donations are piling up all over Poland and being dropped near the crossings and reception centers throughout the country. Piles of skis and snowboards were stacked up at Dolhobyczow, a village near the Ukraine border.
“I’m not sure why people think they need skis,” Parry said.
Because of this effort by local communities, Save the Children can focus on things other than the distribution of necessities. More than 700,000 refugees have streamed across the Poland border since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 -- almost all of whom are women and children.
Save the Children is helping parents talk to their children about war. They have teamed up with the telecom companies providing SIM cards and hand out leaflets with information for how best to cope in these trying conditions.
“It’s important to keep children in some sort of a routine,” Parry explained, adding that parents or caretakers need to be careful about what they expose children to.
“Don’t have the news on all the time,” she said.
-ABC News' Zoe Magee and Chris Donato
Facebook, Twitter respond to Russia blocking services
Representatives from Facebook and Twitter provided updates about their services after the Russian government announced it would block both services.
Twitter security chief Yoel Roth said the company has not confirmed its services are completely disabled in Russia during a public panel Friday evening.
Meta, Facebook's parent company, put out a statement contending, "despite the Russian government’s announcement that they will be blocking Facebook, we are working to keep our services available to the greatest extent possible."
Meta added that "ads targeting people in Russia will be paused, and advertisers within Russia will no longer be able to create or run ads anywhere in the world, including within Russia."
-ABC News' Quinn Owen
Key national security officials to testify on Capitol Hill over Ukraine crisis
As tensions rise between the United States and Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, national security officials will appear on Capitol Hill March 8 at 10 a.m. for the House Intelligence Committee's annual worldwide threats hearing.
The public portion of the hearing will include CIA Director Bill Burns, FBI Director Chris Wray and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines. Burns notably traveled to Moscow last fall reportedly to confront Russian President Vladimir Putin over the troop buildup on Ukraine's borders and his plans to invade the country.
Publicly and privately, lawmakers have criticized the Biden administration over the pace and scope of intelligence sharing with Ukraine over the last week.
The officials will also testify before the Senate later in the week.
-ABC News' Ben Siegel
Zelenskyy slams NATO for denying no-fly zone request
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy angrily denounced NATO in a televised address Friday over its refusal to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
"Knowing that new strikes and casualties are inevitable, NATO has consciously taken the decision not to close the sky over Ukraine. All the people who will die from this day, will die also because of you," he said.
Zelenskyy accused NATO of creating a narrative "that the closure of the sky will allegedly provoke a war with Russia."
"It's a self-hypnosis of those who are weak, unconfident inside, though it can possess weapons a lot bigger than we do. You should have thought about people, about humanity," he said.
Zelenskyy said the alliance did agree to purchase 50 tons of fuel, but the president scoffed at the move.
"I don't know who you can defend and whether you are capable. You can't pay off with liters of diesel fuel for the liters of our blood, shed for our common Europe, for our common freedom, for our joint future," he said.
-ABC News' Patrick Reevell and Yulia Drozd
Russians running out of food, gas: US official
The Russian forces charging toward Kyiv haven't made progress in the last day as they face Ukrainian resistance and low food and gas supply, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Tuesday.
However, it could be a deliberate pause, the official said. "Part of the stall could be ... as a result of their own self-determined sort of pause in operations -- that they are possibly regrouping, rethinking, reevaluating," the official said.
The U.S. believes Russian forces "have committed now more than 80% of what was their pre-staged combat power," the official added.
The official said some Russian soldiers weren't told they were going into combat. The official said "not all of them were apparently fully trained and prepared."
The strong Ukrainian resistance has also hurt morale, according to the official.
Russia has now launched more than 400 missiles on Ukraine, the official said. The U.S. believes Russia has launchers that could be used for thermobaric weapons, but cannot confirm their use, the official said.
Russian forces are making the most progress in the south. Russians are attacking Kherson in south Ukraine, which "appears very much to be contested city at this point," the official said.
Russians are also approaching Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, and while they haven't yet entered the city, "they are close enough now that they could attack Mariupol with long range fires," the official said.
Two towns on the path to Mariupol are believed to be occupied by the Russians, according to the official.
The U.S. believes the Russians hope to move north out of Mariupol up to the heavily-contested city of Kharkiv. The official said they believe Russian forces are trying to encircle Kharkiv.
The U.S. official noted that they've seen "certain risk-averse behavior by the Russian military" over the last week.
"Take the amphibious assault, for instance. They put those troops ashore a good 70 kilometers away from Mariupol because they knew Mariupol was going to be defended and they could put them ashore in an uncontested environment. And they still haven't reached Mariupol," the official said.
"They are not necessarily willing to take high risks with their own aircraft and their own pilots," the official said.
"And of course we're seeing that on the ground -- the fairly slow and steady progress that they have made, and you guys are seeing it for yourselves on the ground where ... units are surrendering, sometimes without a fight."
-ABC News' Matt Seyler