For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.
The latest developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, all times EST:
11:15 p.m.: U.S. authorities allowed a Ukrainian woman and her three children to seek asylum Thursday, a reversal from a day earlier when she was denied entry under the Biden administration's sweeping restrictions for seeking humanitarian protection. The Associated Press has the story.
10:43 p.m.: VOA's Margaret Besheer reports that the United National Security Council will have a special meeting at 11 a.m. Friday, at Russia's request.
10:17 p.m.: Desperate Ukrainians seek asylum.
9:42 p.m.: Ukrainians fleeing Russia's invasion refuse to leave their pets behind. ABC News has the story.
9:12 p.m.: Facebook is easing its rules against violent speech in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Agence France-Press reports.
8:42 p.m.: U.S. troops have deployed in the forested mountains of eastern Poland, just a few kilometers from the Ukrainian border. This puts them in close proximity to recent Russian airstrikes on targets in western Ukraine – and could make them a target if NATO were to become involved in the war. Henry Ridgwell reports from Arlamów in Poland.
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8:10 p.m.: Russian planes have bombed the Institute of Physics and Technology in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, a Ukrainian official said, according to Reuters.
The institute houses an experimental nuclear reactor, said Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the minister of internal affairs, and it contained "sources of radiation used for scientific purposes."
A neighboring hostel caught fire but that has been extinguished.
7:50 p.m.: The head of the International Monetary Fund says the rebuilding of Ukraine, physically and economically will be massive. The top economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy estimated the cost at a minimum of $100 billion.
Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, acknowledged it could be close to that amount. She spoke one day after approving $1.4 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine.
Georgieva added that the sanctions placed on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine are likely to bring a deep recession
7:10 p.m.: Afghans who fled the war in their country have had their lives uprooted again by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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6:20 p.m.: VOA’s Jeff Seldin reports that praise for the way U.S. agencies secured and shared intelligence on Russia’s plans to invade Ukraine are being tempered by growing concern that one of the Kremlin’s disinformation campaigns is starting to take hold in the United States and the West.
For days, officials at the White House, State Department and the Pentagon have been pushing back against Moscow’s claims — increasingly repeated by far-right and far-left social media channels, as well as by some mainstream media in the United States — that Russian forces have found, and in some cases destroyed, Ukrainian biological weapons labs funded by the U.S.
“I'm fearful that this could be the new direction of a Russian false flag operation,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman, Democrat Mark Warner told top U.S. intelligence officials at a hearing Thursday.
5:40 p.m.: Russia has requested a United Nations Security Council meeting Friday on biological weapons in Ukraine.
The United States denied again Wednesday a Russian accusation that the U.S. operates biological warfare labs in Ukraine, calling them laughable.
However, Ukraine does have research facilities, U.S. Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland, told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Tuesday.
“In fact, we are now quite concerned Russian troops, Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of,” she said.
5:20 p.m.: Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers met at a Turkish Mediterranean Sea resort Thursday but failed to end the fighting in Ukraine, with mutual recriminations. Both ministers indicated the diplomatic door remained open. VOA’s Dorian Jones has more from Istanbul.
4:20 p.m.: As health care facilities are increasingly being targeted in Russia’s war on Ukraine, the U.N. Population Fund said Thursday that about 80,000 women are due to give birth in the coming three months and must be protected, VOA’s United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer reports.
“All these women who are giving birth in makeshift shelters, in subway stations, in the basements of buildings — oftentimes without skilled attendants — all of these women are also casualties of war,” said Jaime Nadal, the U.N. Population Fund’s representative in Ukraine.
Nadal said that since Russia’s invasion began, 4,311 women are known to have given birth. He spoke from inside the country, where UNFPA is continuing to assist women and girls through its network of community-based facilities.
3:50 p.m. : VOA’s Eastern Europe Chief Myroslava Gongadze reports on a recent opinion poll in Ukraine that shows a surge in optimism as the country fights Russia’s two-week-old invasion.
3:35 p.m. : As Russia wages war against Ukraine, many people in Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea only have access to Kremlin-controlled media. Calling the invasion a war and not a “special military operation” is now a criminal offense under Russian law. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has this report on how Russia’s media leave people oblivious to the death and destruction in Ukraine.
3:17 p.m. : A Russian airstrike decimated a maternity ward in Ukraine’s besieged port city of Mariupol on March 9. Since then, western leaders have widely condemned Russia’s attack. But Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov mocked outcries over the attack, claiming without evidence that the Russian military had targeted “radicals.” Polygraph.info, a fact-checking website produced by VOA, found Lavrov’s comments to be false.
3:01 p.m. : U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris sat down Thursday for a roundtable discussion with people recently displaced from Ukraine. Harris is on a three-day trip to Poland and Romania to rally NATO allies against Russian aggression in Ukraine. The White House shared remarks from the discussion.
2:47 p.m. : Twitter says it has created a version of its microblogging service that can be used by Russians despite the regular version of the service being restricted in the country. The service will be available via a special “onion” URL on the darkweb that is accessible only when using a Tor browser, VOA News reports.
2:18 p.m. : VOA’s Russian service said Thursday its news and information is now being blocked on the Russian social media network VKontakte. VOA Russian had around 30,000 subscribers on the VKontakte platform, before it was cut off.
In communications with VOA's Russian service Wednesday, VKontakte said it was "forced to comply" with the blocking order "otherwise access to the entire social network may be limited." VKontakte has an estimated 100 million active users, and it did not want to risk being shut down altogether.
Russia’s general prosecutor issued the order, citing VOA’s reporting on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. According to VKontakte, VOA was being blocked because Russian authorities claim it was posting “deliberately false socially significant information” that poses a threat to Russian citizens, law and order, and public safety. It cited information on “the alleged Russian attack on the territory of Ukraine.”
In response to earlier threats by Russia to block VOA content, Acting VOA Director Yolanda Lopez said, “Our viewers and listeners in Russia deserve access to our factual news content at this critical time, not only about the ongoing war in Ukraine, but also about all vital global events that impact their lives and actions.” In her statement issued March 4, she added, “Our journalists will continue their reporting, an example of free press in action.”
Current Time network, a news show produced by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in co-operation with VOA, was also blocked by Russia's two leading social networks at the request of the country's media regulator. Current Time reported Thurday about the latest government move to clamp down on independent news organizations.
1:57 p.m. : Russian forces captured several Kyiv suburbs and were trying to take Chernihiv in the north, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Thursday, according to The Associated Press. The Russians were also advancing on the southern cities of Mykolaiv, Kryviy Rih, Voznesensk, and Novovorontsovka, it said.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said about 2 million people – half the residents of the Ukrainian capital’s metropolitan area – have left the city, which has become a virtual fortress.
“Every street, every house…is being fortified,” he said in televised remarks. “Even people who in their lives never intended to change their clothes, now they are in uniform with machine guns in their hands.”
Civilian authorities reported Russian bombing overnight in the suburbs of Kyiv, and two other cities, as well as shelling in the eastern city of Kharkiv, which is the country’s second largest city.
1:49 p.m. : Ukrainian troops launched a counterattack to drive occupying Russian forces from a village in the Kyiv region on Thursday. Maryan Kushnir, a reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian Service, joined them as they battled for control. For security reasons, the exact location of the village could not be revealed. The Ukrainian military has not made any statement about casualties or if the mission was successful.
1:38 p.m.: The U.N. World Health Organization on Thursday verified 26 attacks on healthcare centers in Ukraine since Russia invaded the country. VOA’s UN Correspondent Margaret Besheer has the breakdown.
1:14 p.m. : President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that sanctions imposed against Russia would rebound against the West, including in the form of higher food and energy prices, and that Moscow would solve its problems and emerge stronger, Reuters reported.
His comments were designed to portray Western sanctions as self-defeating and reassure Russians that the country can withstand what Moscow is calling an "economic war" against its banks, businesses and business oligarchs.
Putin said there had been no alternative to what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, and that Russia was not a country which could accept compromising its sovereignty for some sort of short-term economic gain.
"These sanctions would have been imposed in any case," Putin told a meeting of the Russian government. "There are some questions, problems and difficulties but in the past we have overcome them and we will overcome them now.”
"In the end, this will all lead to an increase in our independence, self-sufficiency and our sovereignty," he told a televised government meeting two weeks after Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine.
1:09 p.m. : Russian Ruble Continues to Plummet against Dollar
12:50 p.m.: Ukraine Thursday decided to recall all its remaining advisors and peacekeepers from UN missions around the world, as VOA’s UN Correspondent Margaret Besheer reports.
12:14 p.m.: In the U.S., some ordinary New Yorkers are stepping in to help Ukrainians affected by Russia’s invasion. The United Nations estimates that more than 12 million Ukrainians inside the country and about 4 million refugees will need assistance in the coming months. Nina Vishneva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
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12:06 p.m.: Updated: Countries and organizations that have announced aid to Ukraine since the Russian invasion.
12:01 p.m.: Russia's defense ministry on Thursday denied having bombed a maternity and children's hospital in Ukraine's seaport town of Mariupol the previous day, accusing Ukraine of a "staged provocation" there, Reuters reports.
The ministry said that Russia carried out no air strikes on ground targets in that area on Wednesday, respecting an agreed "silent regime". Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier that Ukrainian forces had taken over the hospital, while the Kremlin said there was a need to establish clear facts.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday three people including a child were killed in Wednesday's air strike on the hospital in Mariupol. The attack on the hospital has drawn widespread condemnation by western leaders.
11:51 a.m.: Acts of vandalism. Cancel culture. Financial hits. Putin’s war on Ukraine is causing problems for some Russians living in the United States. As VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports, many oppose Moscow’s aggression and are speaking out for peace.
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11:35 a.m.: Ukraine under Russian attacks on Day 15 in Pictures
11:12 a.m. : Russia's Economic Development Ministry has drafted legislation aimed at preventing the mounting exit of international businesses from Russia over the war in Ukraine, and potentially laying the groundwork for nationalizing them. The bill comes as a growing number of major international companies have announced they will suspend operations in the country, or pull out altogether, in connection with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The legislation "is the first step toward the nationalization of foreign organizations leaving Russia," said the ruling United Russia party, which dominates parliament and routinely rubber-stamps government or Kremlin initiatives. Current Time, a joint production between VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has the story.
10:57 a.m.: Ukraine is dominating a two-day European Union summit outside Paris, where leaders are discussing ways to cut their energy ties with Russia, shore up their defense, and consider Kyiv’s membership application, as VOA’s Lisa Bryant reports.
The European Union is not following the United States in immediately banning imports of Russian oil and gas. But EU leaders, meeting at Versailles outside Paris, are looking to phase out the bloc’s energy reliance on Moscow as quickly as possible as part of a broader autonomy drive, including in European defense.
10:06 a.m.: The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee is holding an open hearing on worldwide threats Thursday. VOA’s National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin reports on Twitter.
10:05 a.m.: Chairman of the African Union Macky Sall has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to seek a lasting cease-fire in Ukraine. VOA’s Annika Hammerschlag reports that African nations have interests in seeing an end to the war but also in not upsetting Putin.
9:27 a.m.: Speaking to reporters during a trip to Poland Thursday, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has accused Russia of committing "atrocities of unimaginable proportions" in its unprovoked attack on Ukraine and called for an international war crimes investigation into Moscow's invasion. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has this report.
9:16 a.m.: Each Ukrainian who has fled the Russian invasion has a heartbreaking story of separation and loss. VOA followed the Nochovna family – four women, age 3 to 73 – as they fled Ukraine’s capital Kyiv for Poland. As Henry Ridgwell reports from Krakow, it is the second time the Nochovnas have been forced from their home.
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8:32 a.m.: The Director General of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, held meetings with the foreign ministers of both Russia and Ukraine in Turkey on Thursday, he announced on Twitter. He said that he will hold a press briefing later Thursday, upon his return to Vienna. He is expected to address mounting international concern over the safety and security of nuclear power sites in Ukraine, following Russia’s invasion.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dymtro Kuleba tweeted earlier Thursday, confirming that talks were held with the IAEA, and insisting that Russia withdraw its forces from the Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia nuclear facilities in Ukraine “to avert a disaster in Europe.”
8:20 a.m.: “During her trip to Warsaw, Poland, today, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced nearly $53 million in new humanitarian assistance from the United States government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), to support innocent civilians affected by Russia’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine,” according to a statement issued by the White House. VOA’s Patsy Widakuswara shared the details on Twitter.
8:11 a.m.: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris thanked Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki for all that Poland is doing to help Ukrainian refugees, in remarks ahead of their bilateral meeting Thursday. “I have been watching and reading about the work of ordinary people doing extraordinary things in this time of great difficulty,” she said. “And so, I bring you thanks from the American people to the Polish people,” she added. Harris is on a three-day trip to Poland and Romania to rally NATO allies against Russian aggression in Ukraine.
8:08 a.m.: Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted his disappointment at the outcome of talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, held Thursday in Turkey.
7:53 a.m.: The foreign ministers of Ukraine and Russia held talks in Turkey Thursday marking the first high-level discussions between the two countries since Russia launched an all-out invasion of its neighbor. But after a 90-minute dialogue, both sides said there had been no breakthrough. VOA’s Jamie Dettmer has this analysis.
7:09 a.m.: The United States is rapidly processing requests from Americans to export firearms and ammunition to Ukraine, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Wednesday. Americans are collecting weapons for Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on his citizens to defend the country from invading Russian forces and promised to arm them. Americans are donating thousands of sets of body armor and millions of rounds of ammunition in response to Ukraine's pleas for military support. Reuters has this report.
6:45 a.m.: Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, China's tightly controlled media and heavily censored Internet have provided increasingly skewed coverage to its domestic audience. In addition, China's censors are silencing views of citizens protesting Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Reid Standish filed this analysis for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
6:29 a.m.: China's censors, who quietly determine what can be discussed on the country's buzzing social media platforms, are silencing views of citizens protesting against Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported Thursday. In the days after Russia's Feb. 24 attack, comments on Chinese social media platforms Weibo, WeChat and Douyin broadly backed Russia and President Vladimir Putin. Many posts challenging that, or even advocating peace, quickly disappeared from view. Some posts by prominent historians who tried to organize petitions against the war were removed from messaging service WeChat. China and Russia have forged an increasingly close partnership in recent years. Beijing has not condemned Russia's attack on Ukraine and does not call it an invasion, but has urged a negotiated solution. China's internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), which oversees the country's news and social media firms, did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they were not aware of posts being removed or accounts suspended. "What I can tell you in terms of principle is, China's stance on the Ukraine issue is open, transparent, and consistent," the spokesperson said.
6:13 a.m. : Increasing numbers of residents are leaving their homes from a combat zone northwest of Kyiv, assisted by Ukrainian police. One police bus evacuated people from the town of Hostomel to the Ukrainian capital, carrying people fleeing after spending days in basements without electricity and heating. Reporter Roman Sukhan has this story for Current Time, a co-production of VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
5:34 a.m.: During a high-level meeting with his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Thursday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged Russian troops to leave Ukraine’s territory where the country’s gas and nuclear facilities are based.
5:21 a.m.: Russia has denied targeting civilians in its invasion of Ukraine, calling allegations it bombed a maternity hospital “fake news.” It said the building was a former maternity hospital that had long been taken over by troops.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the hospital attack “genocide”
5:02 a.m.: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris met with Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in Warsaw Thursday to discuss issues that “will force Russia to pay a price for its invasion of Ukraine,” Reuters reports.
Harris commended Poland for its “extraordinary work” in providing shelter for refugees fleeing the war since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
4:43 a.m.: The U.N. migration agency said Thursday that the number of people fleeing Ukraine seeking refuge in neighboring countries has topped 2.3 million since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two weeks ago.
4:37 a.m.: The U.K. government sanctioned 7 Russian oligarchs Thursday in what it said was a “£15bn sanction hit,” including Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch and the owner of the English Premier League soccer club Chelsea.
4:21 a.m.: An airstrike on a hospital in the port city of Mariupol killed three people, including a child, the city council said Thursday, as Russian forces intensified their siege of Ukrainian cities, as the top Russian and Ukrainian diplomats met for the first time since the war began.
3:44 a.m.: Ukraine’s spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko tweeted that a high-level meeting between Russia and Ukraine foreign ministers began Thursday.
3:40 a.m.: Agence France-Presse breaks down media boycotts, bans and restrictions:
3:12 a.m.: As Turkey and Israel take their biggest step in years toward reviving strained relations, some analysts say the two regional powers prefer going it alone in another diplomatic effort -- trying to mediate a peaceful resolution of Russia’s war on Ukraine. VOA's Michael Lipin has the story.
2:46 a.m.: Rich Russians are trying to shift some of their wealth from Europe to Dubai to shield assets from a tightening wave of Western sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, financial and legal sources said.
Dubai, the Gulf’s freewheeling financial and business hub, has long been a magnet for the globe’s ultra-rich and the United Arab Emirates’ refusal to take sides between Western allies and Moscow has signaled to Russians that their money is safe there. Reuters has the story.
2:26 a.m.: Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba arrived in Antalya, Turkey, to meet with his counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
1:55 a.m.: Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began two weeks ago, the World Health Organization said it has confirmed 18 attacks on medical facilities.
The latest such attack includes a children’s hospital in the southern port city of Mariupol with a bomb leaving a crater several meters deep. Rights groups say siege tactics there have left residents without running water or electricity for days. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb reports.
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1:33 a.m.: The British Ministry of Defence said Russian forced “made little progress in over a week” in its latest battleground intelligence report released Thursday.
“As casualties mount, Putin will be forced to draw from across Russian armed forces and other sources to replace losses,” the report added.
1:22 a.m.: In its latest daily operational report issued Thursday, Ukraine’s military said Russian advance into Kyiv has slowed down, including in Donetsk, Slobozhansky and part of the Tavrij districts. It has now been 15 days since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Russian forces have “reduced the pace” the report by Ukraine’s general staff of the armed forces said, adding that Moscow’s soldiers are “demoralized” and that “the number of cases of desertification and looting has increased significantly.”
1:10 a.m.: Ukrainian Paralympians make a statement.
12:40 a.m.: Ukraine is preparing to protect its data and servers from Russian forces. Reuters has the story.
12:04 a.m.: CNN looks at the plight of Ukrainian refugees in Romania.
12:01 a.m.: The U.S. House of Representatives approved a spending bill Wednesday that includes $13.6 billion in aid to Ukraine as it continues to fight back against Russian aggression.
The aid to Ukraine has been endorsed by bipartisan leaders in the Senate but is part of a larger omnibus bill still being negotiated. The support includes:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi celebrated the bill’s passage and said she spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, assuring him of continued U.S. support.
“We talked about a range of issues, including Putin’s heinous murder of babies, children and mothers, and America's unwavering support for Ukraine,” she tweeted. “We will also pass our strong, bipartisan bill to ban Russian oil and energy products and taking further actions to diminish Russia’s economy,” Pelosi added.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters.