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

Russian President Vladimir Putin has apparently "massively misjudged" his invasion of Ukraine, a U.K. intelligence chief said Thursday.

"It's clear he misjudged the resistance of the Ukrainian people. He underestimated the strength of the coalition his actions would galvanize. He underplayed the economic consequences of the sanctions regime, and he overestimated the abilities of his military to secure a rapid victory," Jeremy Fleming, head of the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), said during a speech in Australia's capital, Canberra.

"We've seen Russian soldiers, short of weapons and morale, refusing to carry out orders, sabotaging their own equipment and even accidentally shooting down their own aircraft," he added.

While Fleming agreed with a recent assessment by U.S. intelligence that Putin's advisers were believed to be too afraid to tell the truth, he said the "extent of these misjudgments must be crystal clear to the regime." He warned that Russia is searching for cyber targets and bringing in mercenaries to reinforce its stalled military campaign in Ukraine.

In his daily address Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he held a very "detailed" conversation with President Joe Biden on various topics.

Zelenskyy said he thanked Biden for $1 billion in new humanitarian aid and an additional $500 million in direct support.

Zelenskyy said he stressed the current moment is a turning point

"I told President Biden what Ukraine needs, and I was as sincere as possible with him," he said. "The support of the United States is vital for us, and now it is especially important to lend a hand to Ukraine, to show all the power of the democratic world."

The Ukrainian president said he reiterated his calls for more weapons and resources to fight Putin's forces.

He also said he didn't buy Russian's "withdrawal" from Kyiv and Chernihiv.

"We do not believe anyone," he said. "We will not give up anything, and we will fight for every meter of our land, for every our person."

-ABC News' Christine Theodorou

Over the last 24 hours, the Pentagon has seen less than 20% of the Russian troops that had been around Kyiv "reposition" northward, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

Kirby said Russian claims that they are withdrawing troops to deescalate fighting amid peace talks with Ukraine is just "spin."

Kirby said he was intentionally using the term "reposition" instead of withdrawal to describe the movement of Russian forces "because the way it's being spun by the Ministry of Defense is that they're pulling back and they're trying to deescalate and depressurize the situation. And we just don't believe we haven't seen any evidence of that."

Kirby said the U.S. assesses that the Russians are instead “going to refit these troops, resupply them, and then probably ... employ them elsewhere in Ukraine."

-ABC News' Luis Martinez

Shelling is continuing in Chernihiv and the suburbs of Kyiv, one day after the Kremlin said Russian operations near the two cities would be "scaled down dramatically."

In Chernihiv, in northern Ukraine, Gov. Viacheslav Chaus said shelling lasted all night and that civilian targets were being destroyed, including shopping malls and libraries. Local authorities said at least one civilian was killed and six were wounded.

Activity was relentless Wednesday in Irpin, near Kyiv, and bombardments in the suburbs have continued into the night.

Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, said Wednesday that Russian troops have not completely abandoned attempts to capture or at least surround Kyiv and Chernihiv. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said some Russian military units are being relocated but that there's no mass withdrawal of troops.

-ABC News' James Longman, Bruno Roeber, Irene Hanatiyuk and Oleksii Pshemyski