Russia-Ukraine updates: 2 US veterans who joined Ukrainian forces missing

The Americans, Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh and Alexander Drueke, are both from Alabama.

ByMorgan Winsor, Emily Shapiro, Meredith Deliso, Nadine El-Bawab, Ivan Pereira, Bill Hutchinson, and Kevin Shalvey
Last Updated: July 4, 2022, 10:37 AM EDT

Russian President Vladimir Putin's "special military operation" into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered "stiff resistance," according to U.S. officials.

The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine's disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.

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Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Apr 21, 2022, 3:02 PM EDT

US calls Putin's victory claim in Mariupol 'disinformation'

Russian President Vladimir Putin's comments Thursday morning claiming victory in Mariupol was "yet more disinformation" from Russia's "well-worn playbook," State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters.

Price called Putin's comments an attempt to "distract from what can only be considered the underperformance of Russia's military forces and its failure to achieve its original objectives in Ukraine."

PHOTO: Damaged and burned vehicles are seen at a destroyed part of the Illich Iron & Steel Works Metallurgical Plant, as smoke rises from the Metallurgical Combine Azovstal during heavy fighting, in Mariupol, Ukraine, April 18, 2022.
Damaged and burned vehicles are seen at a destroyed part of the Illich Iron & Steel Works Metallurgical Plant, as smoke rises from the Metallurgical Combine Azovstal during heavy fighting, in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol, Ukraine, April 18, 2022.
Alexei Alexandrov/AP

Price said Ukrainian forces in Mariupol "continue to hold their ground."

"Their ferocious stand stands in stark contrast to the plummeting morale that we've seen among Russia's forces. It stands in stark contrast to the tactics that we've seen Russia impose against those in Mariupol," he added.

Price said the U.S. has called for humanitarian access -- aid to get in and people to get out -- and has supported humanitarian groups working to do so. But he blamed Russia's attacks on humanitarian corridors for preventing it from happening.

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan

Apr 21, 2022, 2:20 PM EDT

Most Russian forces focused on Donbas: US

The U.S. has assessed that the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol remains contested, and that Russian airstrike activity remains focused there and on the Donbas region, a senior U.S. defense official said Thursday.

Russia now has 85 battalion tactical groups, each made up of roughly 800 to 1,000 troops, inside of Ukraine, the official said. More of these groups are headed to the Donbas region, the official said.

PHOTO: Alexandra Kusminova pets her cat, named Mouse, on a bed set up in a restaurant transformed into a shelter for internally displaced people from the eastern region, in Dnipro, Ukraine, April 20, 2022.
Alexandra Kusminova pets her cat, named Mouse, on a bed set up in a restaurant transformed into a shelter for internally displaced people from the eastern region, in Dnipro, Ukraine, April 20, 2022. "We pray every day for everything to be fine, so many people and children have died. For what? Why this war?" asks the 61-year-old woman, who left her home with her daughter and granddaughter, fleeing the Russian attacks in Avdiivka.
Leo Correa/AP

-ABC News' Luis Martinez

Apr 21, 2022, 1:14 PM EDT

Mariupol mayor thinks city will hold out

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko told ABC News he thinks his city will hold out, saying Russian forces have "been fighting our boys for 57 days and they still can’t win."

The mayor's comments come hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that his siege of Mariupol had been a success, congratulating his defense minister and thanking Russian troops. Putin also ordered troops to abandon their assault on the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant, the last holdout for Ukrainian troops in the port city.

Boychenko said 100,00 civilians remain, including 1,000 in the steel plant.

Smoke rises above a plant of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works company during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, April 20, 2022.
Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

President Joe Biden also pushed back on Putin's claim that Russia has control over Mariupol, saying at a news conference Thursday, "There is no evidence yet that Mariupol has completely fallen."

People fleeing fighting in the city of Mariupol meet with relatives and friends as they arrive at a registration center for internally displaced people in Zaporizhzhia on April 21, 2022.
Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images

-ABC News' James Longman

Apr 21, 2022, 12:51 PM EDT

19 Ukrainians released from Russian captivity in 2nd second prisoner swap this week

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 19 Ukrainians, 10 military and nine civilians, have been released from Russian captivity in the second prisoner swap this week.

-ABC News' Alexandra Faul

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