Russia-Ukraine live updates: US citizen killed in northern Ukraine

(NEW YORK) — 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. Heavy shelling and missile attacks, many on civilian buildings, continue in Kyiv, as well as major cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol. Russia also bombed western cities for the first time this week, targeting Lviv and a military base near the Poland border.

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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Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Mar 17, 7:31 pm

State Department calls for consular access to Brittney Griner

State Department spokesperson Ned Price called on Russia to provide consular access to WNBA star and Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner in an interview with ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis on Thursday.

In the weeks since her detention, U.S. officials from the embassy in Moscow have been unable to meet with her and “evaluate the conditions, her conditions, the conditions in which she is being detained and to provide all forms of support,” Price said.

“The Russians are obligated to permit, to allow this type of consular access,” Price added. “We’re going to continue to insist that they allow us access to Brittney Griner just as we be permitted to access all Americans who are detained in Russia.”

Another State Department spokesperson confirmed to ABC News that Griner is in pretrial detention, and that Russia must provide consular access in those circumstances.

The State Department has been “in constant contact” with Griner’s legal team and the WNBA, Price said.

Griner, who plays for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury as well as in Russia, was arrested last month at a Moscow airport after Russian authorities said they found vape cartridges in her luggage.

Her detention has been extended to May 19, the Russian news agency TASS reported Thursday.

-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan and Tanya Stukalova

Mar 17, 6:34 pm

Putin launched ‘unconscionable war,’ Biden says

During a St. Patrick’s Day event at the White House Thursday evening, President Joe Biden briefly remarked on the war in Ukraine, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin “has launched an unconscionable war against Ukraine, against the very pillars of international peace and stability.”

Biden said the U.S. and Ireland understand the Ukrainians’ defense of their liberty.

“As two nations that have fought for freedom, we recognize the courage and determination of the Ukrainian people who defend their liberty now,” Biden said. “The Republic of Ireland and our nation have lived through war. We’re determined though to help the Ukrainian people bring an end to Putin’s brutal assault, and restore peace to the Ukrainian people.”

He said that the U.S. and Ireland understood the plight of Ukrainian refugees and “stay united” with their international partners “to keep pressure on Putin.”

“As nations that have been marked by immigrants who departed Ireland in coffin ships and immigrants who sought the safety of new beginnings in the United States, we are open, and our hearts are open, and our arms are open to help more than 3 million Ukrainian refugees who’ve already fled Putin’s onslaught,” Biden said.

-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson

Mar 17, 4:29 pm

House overwhelmingly passes bill to end normal trade relations with Russia, Belarus

In the latest move to try to cripple Russia’s economy, the House of Representatives has voted 424-8 to end normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus.

Eight Republicans voted no: Andy Biggs, Dan Bishop, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Glenn Grothman, Thomas Massie and Chip Roy.

The legislation strips Russia and Belarus of their permanent normal trade relations statuses and expands President Joe Biden’s power by allowing him to raise tariffs on the countries’ products.

It also gives the Biden administration the authority to impose further sanctions on Russia and its allies by expanding the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act; according to the bill’s text, Biden may impose sanctions on foreign persons who are “responsible for or complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuse.”

The legislation also calls on the World Trade Organization to suspend Russia’s participation by revoking its “most favored nation” status, which would allow higher tariff rates to be imposed on Russian goods.

The legislation now heads to the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has vowed to move it along quickly.

-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Mariam Khan

Mar 17, 4:02 pm

No Russian progress on Kyiv in 1 week: Pentagon

The nearest Russian forces to Kyiv are still about 9 miles to the northwest of the city’s center, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters on Thursday. This is the same distance the troops were estimated to be last Friday.

The Russians haven’t been able to advance because Ukrainian forces “are very actively resisting any movement,” the official said. But Russia maintains an advantage with long-range weaponry, the official added.

While those nearest Russian troops have stalled, other forces are coming to join them, bringing long-range artillery pieces, the official said.

“So it appears that they continue to want to conduct a siege of Kyiv, that’s what you want to use artillery for,” the official said. “We haven’t seen that manifest itself, we’re just seeing them move them into place.”

The only notable movement since Wednesday is that Russian forces are assessed to have taken control of Izyum, a city in eastern Ukraine, the official said. The Pentagon believes the Russians intend to push south toward Donetsk and Mariupol to seal off the Donbas area, the official said. This could be to prevent Ukrainian troops in the east from moving westward to defend other areas.

Russia has now launched more than 1,000 missiles against Ukraine, up from an estimate of 980 on Wednesday, according to the official. These estimates count missile launches, not necessarily effective hits, the official said.

“We have seen an increase of strikes on civilian infrastructure and civilian targets,” the official said, but could not offer numbers.

-ABC News’ Matt Seyler

Mar 17, 3:13 pm

Blinken says he ‘personally’ agrees Russia committed war crimes

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Thursday that he “personally” agrees with President Joe Biden that Russia is committing war crimes by intentionally targeting civilians in Ukraine.

Blinken said State Department experts from the Office of Global Criminal Justice are documenting and evaluating evidence for a formal determination and will share those findings with those responsible for accountability.

“There’s going to have to be, one way or another, accountability for this war of aggression,” Blinken said.

While Ukrainian officials have been engaged in talks with Russian counterparts, Blinken expressed pessimism about the talks, saying the U.S. hasn’t seen “any meaningful effort” by Russia to end the war through diplomacy. If anything, Blinken warned, Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated in his remarks Wednesday that he’s doubling down on military aggression.

Mar 17, 2:31 pm

23 killed in shelling on school, community center

Twenty-three people were killed and 26 others were wounded from shelling on a school and community center in Merefa, which is near Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, the Kharkiv Region Prosecutor’s Office said.

-ABC News’ Fidel Pavlenko

Mar 17, 1:55 pm
US citizen killed in Chernihiv, Ukraine

A U.S. citizen was killed Thursday in Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, a State Department official confirmed to ABC News, after Chernihiv regional police reported an American was killed by Russian shelling.

The State Department official did not provide more details.

-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan

Mar 17, 1:46 pm
Hundreds of bulletproof vests meant for Ukraine stolen in NYC

About 400 bulletproof vests that were set to be sent to aid Ukraine were stolen from the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America’s headquarters in Manhattan’s East Village, according to the New York City Police Department.

No arrests have been made in the burglary, which took place early Wednesday, police said.

-ABC News’ Derricke Dennis

Mar 17, 12:35 pm
Biden calls Putin’s actions ‘inhumane’ in talk with Irish Taoiseach

During a virtual bilat with Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Thursday, President Joe Biden said the world is “united” as Russia’s invasion in Ukraine continues.

“We have to be united and we certainly are,” Biden said. “But Putin’s brutality and what he’s doing, and his troops are doing in Ukraine, is just inhumane.”

The Taoiseach told Biden, “I share with you our horror at the barbaric attack on the civilians,” and said Biden’s leadership through this has been “firm,” “determined” and “strong.”

Biden commended Ireland for taking in Ukrainian refugees, saying it “speaks so loudly about your principles.”

-ABC News’ Justin Ryan Gomez

Mar 17, 8:49 am
Biden to speak with Chinese President Xi on Friday

President Joe Biden will speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday about “Russia’s war against Ukraine,” among other topics, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.

It’s the first time the two will speak since Russia’s invasion began and it follows National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s seven-hour face-to-face meeting in Rome with his Chinese counterpart earlier this week.

The U.S. has been ramping up its warnings to China over concerns that it could assist Moscow with military equipment and other aid.

Mar 17, 6:59 am
Russia ‘stalled on all fronts,’ UK military says

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has “largely stalled on all fronts,” the UK Ministry of Defence said on Thursday.

“Russian forces have made minimal progress on land, sea or are in recent days and they continue to suffer heavy losses,” the Ministry said in an update posted to Twitter.

The Ukrainian resistance “remains staunch and well-coordinated,” the update said.

“The vast majority of Ukrainian territory, including all major cities, remain in Ukrainian hands,” the Ministry said.

Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 17 March 2022

Find out more about the UK government’s response: https://t.co/OdjSV0U43C

🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/gxOTw78P0M

— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 17, 2022

Mar 16, 9:00 pm
Theater sheltering civilians hit by Russian airstrikes, Ukrainian official says

A Ukrainian official claimed Wednesday that Russian airstrikes destroyed a theater in the besieged city of Mariupol where civilians were taking shelter.

The number of victims from the bombing of the Donetsk Regional Theatre of Drama “is impossible to count,” Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk Region administration, said in a Facebook post.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during an address tonight that hundreds of people were hiding in the theater and that the death toll is still unknown.

“Russia is killing civilians!” Kyrylenko said, adding that it is also “impossible to determine” the number of victims in Mariupol since the start of the invasion.

The city has been burying its dead in a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol as it endures heavy shelling.

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