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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Russia and Ukraine to resume talks Thursday

A second round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators will be held at the previously planned venue in neighboring Belarus on Thursday at around 3 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET), according to Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation and aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"The talks will take place -- we are now in contact with the Ukrainian side -- at the same venue where they were planned, on the territory of the Brest region of Belarus," Medinsky told reporters Thursday, adding that Russian negotiators are "waiting calmly."

"I think the talks will begin at 3 p.m.," he said.

Ukraine's presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak from the Ukrainian delegation later posted a photo of himself on his official Twitter account on Thursday, saying they were en route via helicopter to the talks in Belarus

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell and Tanya Stukalova


Russian foreign minister declines to comment on civilian deaths in Ukraine

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov wouldn't comment on civilian deaths from Russia's invasion of Ukraine when pressed during an interview Thursday with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America."

"I cannot comment," Lavrov said, adding that there are "a great deal" of "conjectures."


Ukraine claims to have raised flag over town outside Kyiv

Ukraine claimed Thursday to have raised its flag over the town of Bucha, close to the Ukrainian capital where some of the most intense fighting has been taking place in recent days and where Russia's push south on Kyiv appears to have stalled.

A video posted on the official Facebook page of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' ground troops purportedly shows soldiers hoisting the national flag outside Bucha's town hall. The town is just a few miles north of the edge of Kyiv and about 15 miles from the center of the capital. Fighting is reported to be ongoing nearby and, in the video, an explosion can be heard in the distance as they raise the blue and yellow flag.

-ABC News' Yulia Drozd


Ukraine requests no-fly zone over Chernobyl

Ukraine is asking the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to call on NATO to close access to the airspace over the country's Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the surrounding exclusion zone.

The deserted exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where the world's worst nuclear accident took place in 1986, was seized by Russian forces last week.

A joint appeal to the IAEA was signed Wednesday by Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko, Oleh Korikov, head of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine, and Petro Kotin, head of Ukraine's state nuclear energy company Energoatom.

"The fact of the seizure of the world-famous Chernobyl nuclear power plant has all the hallmarks of an act of nuclear terrorism committed against Chernobyl nuclear facilities and its personnel by Russian military units," they said in the appeal.

-ABC News' Yulia Drozd


US Restricts the export of luxury goods to Russia, Belarus

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced Friday that it will restrict the export of U.S. luxury goods to Russia and Belarus, as well as "certain Russian and Belarusian oligarchs and malign actors located worldwide," as a result of their actions in Ukraine.

The Department of Commerce said it will impose restrictions on the export, reexport and transfer of luxury items including certain spirits, tobacco products, clothing items, jewelry, vehicles and antique goods.

"Putin’s war of choice in Ukraine continues to take a devastating toll on innocent civilians in Ukraine, fueling one of the worst humanitarian crises Europe has seen in decades," Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement.

Raimondo added, "Putin and the oligarchs who fund him have gotten rich off of Putin’s rampant corruption and the exploitation of the Russian people. We will not allow Putin and his cronies to continue living in opulence while causing tremendous suffering throughout Eastern Europe. Today’s action takes away another source of comfort and reminds them that Russia is increasingly isolated."

-ABC News' Luke Barr