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
Russia claims to have captured Ukrainian port city
Russia claimed Wednesday to have captured Ukraine's southern port city of Kherson, the largest Ukrainian city to fall to Russian forces since the start of the invasion.
"Russian forces have taken full control of the Kherson regional center," Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov said at a press briefing Wednesday.
Russia-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine have also seized several cities and towns, advancing nearly 100 miles since launching the offensive, according to Konashenkov.
"Ukrainian servicemen will go home as soon as they make a written pledge not to take part in the hostilities," he said.
Meanwhile, Russian forces have "disabled" the instrument room of the the main television tower in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, "putting an end to information attacks on Russia," according to Konashenkov, who noted that "no damage was done to residential buildings in the course of the strike."
Konashenkov also claimed that Russian aircraft had delivered a "massive strike" on Ukraine's military infrastructure on Wednesday.
"Sixty-seven sites have been hit," he added. "In all, 1,502 elements of Ukrainian military infrastructure have been disabled in the course of the operation. These include 51 command and communications centers belonging to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, 38 S-300, Buk M-1 and Osa air defense missile systems and 51 radar stations."
-ABC News' Anastasia Bagaeva
Boeing suspends all plane maintenance support for Russian airlines
The Boeing Company has suspended all parts, maintenance and technical support for Russian airlines as the conflict continues, the company announced Tuesday.
This is expected to have a significant impact on Russian carriers, as planes need constant maintenance.
"We have suspended major operations in Moscow and temporarily closed our office in Kyiv," Boeing said in a statement. "We are also suspending parts, maintenance and technical support services for Russian airlines. As the conflict continues, our teams are focused on ensuring the safety of our teammates in the region."
-ABC News' Sam Sweeney
GOP points at Biden for Russian invasion in State of the Union response
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds implied Russia's attack on Ukraine is connected to a lack of leadership from President Joe Biden in the Republican response to the State of the Union address, saying Biden has "sent us back in time" to the 1970s and '80s, when the "Soviet army was trying to redraw the world map."
Reynolds said Biden has failed on his promise to make America respected around the world once more and criticized Biden for the lead-up to the invasion, including waving sanctions against Russia and "focusing on political correctness."
"Weakness on the world stage has a cost," Reynolds said. "... We can’t project strength abroad if we’re weak home."
'Free world is holding Putin accountable,' Biden says in SOTU address
In his first State of the Union address, President Joe Biden began by discussing the war in Eastern Europe and condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Biden invoked the strength of the Ukrainian people amid the attack, lauding the civilians who took up arms to defend their country and highlighting the work Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova has done on behalf of her people.
"She’s bright. She’s strong, and she’s resolved," Biden said as first lady Jill Biden hugged Markarova.
Many lawmakers in attendance showed their support for Ukraine by wearing color-coordinated outfits and lapel pins in blue and yellow.
Biden described the invasion as "premeditated and totally unprovoked," vowing, alongside NATO allies, to hold Putin accountable with sanctions on the Russian economy and Putin and the oligarchs themselves.
"When dictators do not pay a price for their aggressions, they cause more chaos," Biden said. “They keep moving.”
Biden announced that American airspace would be closed to all Russian flights and pledged $1 billion in direct assistance to help "ease suffering" in Ukraine.
The president also "made clear" that while American forces would not go fight in Ukraine, he has mobilized the military to protect NATO countries.
"The United States and our Allies will defend every inch of territory that is NATO territory with the full force of our collective power," he said.
-ABC News' Julia Jacobo and Ben Gittleson
UN has credible reports of Russian cluster bomb use, attacks on health care
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has "received credible reports of several cases of Russian forces using cluster munitions, including in populated areas," spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell said Friday.
"Due to their wide-area effects, the use of cluster munitions in populated areas is incompatible with international humanitarian law principles," Throssell said.
Throssell added, "We remind Russian authorities that directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects as well as so-called bombardment in towns and villages and other forms of indiscriminate attacks are prohibited under international law and may amount to war crimes."
To date, there have been 26 attacks on health care facilities in Ukraine, killing at least 12 people and injuring 34 people, according to Jašarević. Two of those killed and eight of the injured were healthcare workers.
That number is "shocking," said Throssell.
Throssell and WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević declined to pin the blame for all of them on Russia.
This number of attacks includes Wednesday's strike on a children's hospital and maternity ward in Mariupol. On Thursday, Russian officials claimed that the attack was staged, but they first confirmed they bombed it and claimed the hospital was being used by Ukrainian "radicals."
Throssell told reporters that is not true; "It was a functioning hospital," she said.
-ABC News' Conor Finnegan