Russia-Ukraine updates: US sanctions Russian military shipbuilder, diamond miner

The Russian Ministry of Justice on Monday added German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) to a list of media organizations it has labeled as "foreign agents."

The justice ministry said in a statement that it made the decision "based on the documents received from the authorized state authorities," without providing further details. The designation requires media outlets to publish a disclaimer on all its publications.

"This latest, arbitrary decision by the Russian authorities was unfortunately to be expected," DW director Peter Limbourg said in a statement. "It is a further attack on press freedom and a fresh attempt to cut the Russian population off from free, independent media."

"It started with the forced closure of our studio in Moscow at the beginning of February, then our website in all languages was blocked in Russia. There then followed the gradual restriction of social media services and now DW has been labeled a 'foreign agent,'" he added. "This will not stop us from continuing to provide comprehensive and independent coverage of Russia and the region from our new studio in Latvia and from Germany. We will have to put a lot more effort into censorship circumvention tools in the future. This includes VPN clients like Psiphon or the Tor browser, which we already use."

Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, whose editor was a co-winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize, announced Monday that it is suspending publication until the war ends in neighboring Ukraine.

Novaya Gazeta was the last remaining established independent media outlet still operating in Russia and trying to cover the invasion of Ukraine, despite strict censorship. Its decision to halt operations is another watershed moment in the silencing of free media across Russia.

The Moscow-based paper, famous for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime, said it made the decision after receiving a second warning from Russia's state communications and media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, for allegedly violating the country's repressive "foreign agent" law. Another alleged violation could allow a court to shut Novaya Gazeta down completely.

Novaya Gazeta is best-known by Western countries for the fact that six of its journalists have been murdered since 2000, including most famously Anna Politkovskaya. Last October, the paper's editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, was jointly awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize with Maria Rosa, one of the Philippines' most prominent journalists, for "their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace."

Before Russian forces attacked Ukraine on Feb. 24, there was still a very small number of popular, influential media outlets able to operate in Russia -- albeit under permanent pressure from the government. But since the war began, austerities have moved to crush all of them, and dozens -- likely hundreds -- of independent journalists have fled abroad. Most are now publishing articles from outside the country. Novaya Gazeta is arguably the most symbolic closure. The paper was co-founded in 1993 by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who still sits on its board.

Novaya Gazeta said in a statement Monday that it is suspending publication until the end of Russia's so-called "special military operation in Ukraine," the term the Russian government is using instead of war or invasion. Russia has banned media from using those words to describe the situation. But Novaya Gazeta had been getting around that ban with some symbolic gestures, including blank pages, and replacing the word "war" in its articles with phrases like "word forbidden by Russian government."

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell

Dmitry Bodyu, a Ukrainian-American pastor who was allegedly abducted in Ukraine earlier this month, has been freed, local church officials told ABC News on Monday.

It was unclear where he was released or in what condition.

Bodyu, 50, was taken by a group of about eight to 10 Russian soldiers from his home in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Melitopol on March 19, his family told NBC News. He is a pastor of Word of Life Church in Melitopol.

-ABC News' Dragana Jovanovic

At least 1,119 civilians have been killed and 1,790 others have been injured in Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

At least 99 children were among the dead, according to the OHCHR, which noted that the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine had reported at least 139 children were killed as of Sunday.

"Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes," the agency said in a statement Sunday.

The agency noted that the actual number of casualties are believed to be "considerably higher" because the receipt of information from some areas with intense hostilities, like the southeastern port city of Mariupol, have been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration.

Other areas where the number of casualties are still being corroborated include Volnovakha in the Donetsk Oblast, Izium in the Kharkiv Oblast, Popasna and Rubizhne in the Luhansk Oblast, and Trostianets in the Sumy Oblast, where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties, according to the OHCHR. Casualty numbers from these regions are not included.