Russia-Ukraine updates: Ammonia leak at chemical plant

(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.

For previous coverage please click here.

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

Mar 21, 6:48 pm
‘We will make them remember that they are not welcome,’ Zelenskyy says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged the Ukrainians defending their country in his address Monday, in which he described the Russian forces as “slaves” whose consciousness has been replaced by propaganda.

Zelenskyy called out to Ukrainians in several cities, including those trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol, telling them, “Never think even for a moment that Ukraine does not remember you.”

The Ukrainian president also acknowledged the “heroes emerging among the millions” as Ukrainians continue to take up arms against the invaders.

“Once, ordinary Ukrainians, and now, fighters,” Zelenskyy said. “Men and women who stand up for our state. Everywhere — in the south, in the east, in the north, in the center, in the west and abroad.”

Zelenskyy urged the public to continue to stand up so the “enemy does not believe that this is a reality.”

“We will make them remember that they are not welcome,” he said.

-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou

Mar 21, 6:36 pm
‘The Russians have been flummoxed,’ Pentagon says of Ukrainian resistance

Russian forces have “failed to achieve a lot of their objectives on the ground” due to heavy Ukrainian resistance, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday.

“When you look at what they’ve managed to do in 26 days, it’s not that impressive,” Kirby said during a press briefing. “I think what we’re seeing here is the Russians have been flummoxed, they’ve been frustrated, they have failed to achieve a lot of their objectives on the ground.”

Kirby declined to say whether Russia’s operations had entered a “new phase” as they shift to launching artillery and missile attacks on Ukraine’s cities but said that they are stepping up their long-range bombardment “because they are essentially still stalled.”

“They’re lobbing an awful lot of hardware into the cities to try to force their surrender, and it’s increased over the last few days,” he said, adding that the tactic has led to more civilian casualties and damage to civilian areas.

-ABC News’ Luis Martinez

Mar 21, 6:22 pm
Moscow court bans Instagram and Facebook, alleging ‘extremist activity’

A Moscow court has ruled that the use of Instagram and Facebook are to be banned effective immediately under Russia’s anti-extremist legislation, Russian state-run news agency TASS reported on Monday.

The court banned the operations of Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, “on the grounds of realizing extremist activity,” Judge Olga Solopova announced Monday in a Moscow court.

The ban does not apply to WhatsApp, the messenger app also owned by Meta, “as it has no option to publicly spread information,” Solopova said.

-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou

Mar 21, 4:11 pm
Pro-Kremlin newspaper unwittingly publishes Russian troops death toll

Pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that nearly 10,000 Russian troops have died as a result of the invasion into Ukraine.

The newspaper published an article Monday that included a paragraph stating that Russia’s defense ministry said its losses in Ukraine are 9,862 dead and 16,153 injured.

“Russia’s Ministry of Defense denies the information of the Ukrainian General Staff about alleged large-scale casualties among the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine,” the article stated. “According to the data of the Russian ministry of defense, in the course of the special operation in Ukraine, Russia’s armed forces have lost 9,861 dead, 16,153 have received wounds.”

Not long after journalists online spotted the number, the article vanished and then was reposted without any mention of Russian casualties, indicating that the newspaper likely published the figure unwittingly.

If a journalist deliberately posted the death toll, they could be severely prosecuted under a new Russian law.

Russia has not published an official death toll for its forces since March 3, when it said just 498 of its troops had been killed.

The U.S. has estimated that between 2,000 and 10,000 Russians have been killed in the conflict.

Mar 21, 3:48 pm
Russian defense minister claims nearly 350,000 Ukrainians evacuated to Russia

Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defense Control Center, claimed that about 347,000 Ukrainians have evacuated to Russia.

The evacuations occurred “without the participation of the Kyiv authorities,” Mizintsev alleged during a press conference Monday, claiming that officials in Kyiv “again have not approved any of the four humanitarian corridors in Russia’s direction proposed by the Russian side.”

Mizintsev also alleged that Kyiv refuses to conduct humanitarian operations in the besieged city of Mariupol by withdrawing Ukrainian forces from the city.

“At 2 a.m. on March 21, 2022, we received an unsubstantiated refusal to rescue people, and a surrender and laying down arms are out of the question,” Mizintsev said, adding that more than 130,000 people remain blockaded in the city.

Mizintsev claimed that in the past 24 hours alone, 16,054 people, including 4,631 children, were evacuated “from dangerous areas of Ukraine and the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics” into Russia.

Moscow had had offered safe passage out of Mariupol in return for the city’s surrender before 4 a.m. Monday, but Ukraine rejected the offer well before the deadline.

Mar 21, 2:09 pm

 

Nazi concentration camp survivor killed in Kharkiv bombardment

 

A man who survived multiple Nazi concentration camps was killed in the Russian bombardment of Kharkiv, a city in northeastern Ukraine, on Friday, the country’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

Kuleba announced the news on Twitter Monday, saying 96-year-old Boris Romantchenko died after a “Russian bomb” hit his home.

“Survived Hitler, murdered by Putin,” Kuleba wrote.

Romantchenko survived four Nazi concentration camps: Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Mittelbau-Dora and Peenemünde.

The Buchenwald Memorial Institute issued a statement saying it is “appalled at the news of Boris Romantschenko’s violent death in the war in Ukraine.”

The institute confirmed a projectile hit the multistory building where Romantchenko lived and ignited his flat.

-ABC News’ Luisa Rollenhagen and Christine Theodorou

Mar 21, 1:46 pm
US officials says Russian missiles are ‘failing to launch’

A senior U.S. defense official said at a Monday press briefing that Russian missiles are “failing to launch” as they are fired into Ukraine.

Russia has fired more than 1,100 missiles since the invasion last month, according to U.S. assessments, but there are indications they have been facing problems with the reliability of precision-guided munitions.

Some Russian missiles are “failing to launch, or they’re failing to hit the target, or they’re failing to explode on contact,” the official said.

Additionally, Russian forces are no closer to Kyiv than they were more than a week ago.

“They haven’t achieved anything in terms of what we assessed to be their objectives, which was population centers so that they could occupy and take over Ukraine,” the official said.

“They are looking for a chance to gain some momentum – not even regain momentum … because they never really had it. And that’s what’s so frustrating for them,” the official continued.

The official said most credit for the stalled Russian efforts goes to the Ukrainian forces and citizens, and the leadership of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Mar 21, 12:37 pm
Nazi concentration camp survivor killed in Kharkiv bombardment

A man who survived multiple Nazi concentration camps was killed in the Russian bombardment of Kharkiv, a city in northeastern Ukraine, on Friday, the country’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

Kuleba announced the news on Twitter Monday, saying 96-year-old Boris Romantchenko died after a “Russian bomb” hit his home.

“Survived Hitler, murdered by Putin,” Kuleba wrote.

Romantchenko survived four Nazi concentration camps: Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Mittelbau-Dora and Peenemünde.

The Buchenwald Memorial Institute issued a statement saying it is “appalled at the news of Boris Romantschenko’s violent death in the war in Ukraine.”

The institute confirmed a projectile hit the multistory building where Romantchenko lived and ignited his flat.

Mar 21, 11:55 am
Secretary Blinken condemns Russia during tour of Holocaust Museum

Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Russia while visiting the U.S. Holocaust Museum Monday to tour its Rohingya exhibit.

At the top of his remarks, Blinken discussed the Russian government’s “unprovoked, brutal war on Ukraine,” including the strike that damaged the Ukrainian Holocaust memorial Babyn Yar.

He also said the Kremlin is falsely claiming to be stopping a genocide in Ukraine, “abusing the term that we reserve for the greatest atrocities, disrespecting every victim of this heinous crime.”

Blinken then pivoted to discuss atrocities elsewhere in the world including China, Ethiopia and Myanmar.

“The day will come when those responsible for these appalling acts will have to answer for them,” he said.

Mar 21, 10:50 am
Pope Francis makes strong anti-war statement as Russian invasion continues

Pope Francis made a strong anti-war statement Monday as the Russian invasion of Ukraine entered its 26th day.

In a speech in a private meeting at the Vatican with volunteer members of the I Was Thirsty organization, which promotes clean drinking water to poor areas of the world, the pope decried war and the money spent on weapons.

“Why make war on each other for conflicts that we should resolve by talking to each other as men?” he said to the audience in the Clementine Hall.

“Why not rather unite our forces and our resources to fight together the true battles of civilization: the fight against hunger and thirst; the fight against disease and epidemics; the fight against epidemics; the fight against the poverty and slavery of today?” the pope continued. “We must create the consciousness that continuing to spend on weapons dirties the soul, it dirties the heart, it dirties humanity.”

It comes just one day after Pope Francis denounced the “repugnant” war against Ukraine as “cruel and sacrilegious inhumanity” during a noontime prayer in St. Peter’s Square, although he stopped short of naming Russia as the aggressor.

Mar 21, 9:53 am
Ammonia leak at chemical plant in besieged city of Sumy

An ammonia leak has been reported at a chemical plant in the northeastern city of Sumy, the regional governor Dmytro Zhyvytskyy said Monday.

On his official Telegram channel, Zhyvytskyy said the leak was caused by Russian shelling.

He warned those within a 3-mile radius of the Sumykhimprom plant should leave the area because the gas is hazardous but that workers have contained the leak.

Zhyvytskyy said, so far, just one injury has been reported among employees of the plant.

-ABC News’ Joseph Simonetti

Mar 21, 9:05 am
Refugee numbers reach 3.4 million

More than 3.4 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded, according to the latest figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Monday’s update showed that, of those refugees, more than 2 million have crossed the border into Poland. Additionally, about 535,000 have entered Romania and 365,000 have crossed into Moldova.

Refugees are also going to Hungary, Slovakia, Russia and Belarus.

UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi tweeted Sunday that since the Russian invasion, 10 million people in Ukraine fled, either displaced in the country or as refugees abroad.

“Among the responsibilities of those who wage war, everywhere in the world, is the suffering inflicted on civilians who are forced to flee their homes,” he wrote.

UNICEF told ABC News that half of the internally displaced Ukrainians and half of those who have fled are children.

-ABC News’ Zoe Magee

Mar 21, 5:21 am
No surrender in besieged Mariupol, Ukraine says

Ukrainian officials rejected Russia’s demand that they surrender the southern port city of Mariupol on Monday morning.

Officials instead called on Russia to allow residents to evacuate safely from the city.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an early morning video address said his government was preparing to send buses to Mariupol on Monday to continue the evacuation.

“In besieged Mariupol, Russian aircraft dropped a bomb on an art school. People were hiding there. Hiding from shelling, from bombing,” Zelenskyy said, according to an official translation from his office. “There were no military positions. There were about four hundred civilians. Mostly women and children, the elderly. They are under the debris. We do not know how many are alive at the moment.”

Some who’ve left Mariupol have described dire circumstances, with constant shelling and little access to essentials, including food, water, and medicine, according to a report published Monday by Human Rights Watch.

“Mariupol residents have described a freezing hellscape riddled with dead bodies and destroyed buildings,” Belkis Wille, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “And these are the lucky ones who were able to escape, leaving behind thousands who are cut off from the world in the besieged city.”

Mar 20, 10:17 pm
Biden traveling to Poland Friday to discuss efforts to support Ukraine, humanitarian crisis

In addition to his trip to Brussels, President Joe Biden will also travel to Warsaw, Poland, on Friday, where he will hold a bilateral meeting with President Andrzej Duda.

“The President will discuss how the United States, alongside our Allies and partners, is responding to the humanitarian and human rights crisis that Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked war on Ukraine has created,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Sunday.

Psaki’s statement did not specify if Biden will do anything else during his trip to Poland, which has taken in more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees since the start of the conflict with Russia.

-ABC News’ Molly Nagle

Mar 20, 5:36 pm
Russia gives Ukrainian forces in Mariupol until morning to surrender: Reports

Russia has given Ukrainian forces in the besieged city of Mariupol until Monday at 4 a.m. local time to surrender, according to reports.

Gen. Col. Mikhail Mizintsev, a senior Russian commander, warned the city’s local authorities, including the mayor, that if they do not surrender they will face a “military tribunal,” according to Russian state media.

He called on the official authorities in Kyiv to “see reason” and to cancel orders given earlier that he said oblige Ukrainian fighters “to sacrifice themselves and to become the ’martyrs of Mariupol.’”

Russian forces have been trying to push deep into Mariupol, engaging in street-to-street fighting while indiscriminately bombarding the city. Ukrainian troops defending the city are believed to be under severe pressure right now.

Mizintsev said Russia has proposed opening humanitarian corridors beginning at 9 a.m. Monday to allow Ukrainian troops and civilians to leave Mariupol.

He claims Russia’s goals in the city are “purely humanitarian” and repeated Russia’s false claims that it was Ukrainian “nationalist” forces that have destroyed several major civilian buildings, which in reality have been struck directly by Russian air and missile strikes.

“We call on the units of the Ukrainian armed forces, the battalions of the Territorial Defense, foreign mercenaries, to cease military action, lay down their arms and to leave for the territories controlled by Kyiv via the humanitarian corridors agreed with the Ukrainian side,” Mizintsev reportedly said. “Moreover, the safe exit of all those laying down their arms is guaranteed and the sparing of their lives.”

Mar 20, 4:27 pm
Zelenskyy criticizes Israel for not providing arms to Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed members of the Knesset, the legislature of Israel, on Sunday, criticizing the country for not doing more to help Ukraine.

During the address, Zelenskyy drew parallels between Ukraine and Israel’s challenges with their neighbors and questioned why Israel has not sent arms to Ukraine or imposed sanctions on Russia.

“Everyone in Israel knows that your missile defense is the best,” Zelenskyy said. “It is powerful. Everyone knows that your weapon is strong. Everyone knows you’re doing great. You know how to defend your state interests, the interests of your people. And you can definitely help us protect our lives, the lives of Ukrainians, the lives of Ukrainian Jews. One can keep asking why we can’t get weapons from you. Or why Israel has not imposed strong sanctions against Russia.”

Zelenskyy described the Russian invasion as “a large-scale and treacherous war aimed at destroying our people,” quoting former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, who was born in Kyiv.

“We intend to remain alive. Our neighbors want to see us dead,” Zelenskyy said. “This is not a question that leaves much room for compromise.”

During Zelensky’s speech, the Knesset’s cyber unit and the National Cyber Directorate fought off a number of cyberattacks aimed at interrupting the live-streamed speech, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing the Knesset.

-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou

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