Russia-Ukraine updates: US to ban Russian carriers from its airspace

Biden will announce the news in his State of the Union address, a source said.

ByMorgan Winsor, Libby Cathey, Meredith Deliso, Nadine El-Bawab, Emily Shapiro, Julia Jacobo, Ivan Pereira, Mark Osborne, Celia Darrough, Kevin Shalvey, and Bill Hutchinson
Last Updated: March 22, 2022, 4:04 AM EDT

Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymr Zelenskyy, are putting up "stiff resistance," according to U.S. officials.

The attack began Feb. 24 as Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation."

Russians moving from Belarus towards Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, don't appear to have advanced closer towards the city since coming within about 20 miles, although smaller advanced groups have been fighting gun battles with Ukrainian forces inside the capital since at least Friday.

Russia has been met by sanctions from the U.S., Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting Russia's economy and Putin himself.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Feb 23, 2022, 9:47 PM EST

Russia issues notices for air travel to avoid northeastern Ukraine

Russia has issued a series of NOTAMs, or Notice to Air Missions, in northeastern Ukraine as a warning to civilian aircraft in the area.

There are 12 NOTAMs from Russia providing coordinates that map in northeastern Ukraine. They include warnings to airports in Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro and Odesa and say they are "due to potential hazard for civil aviation."

These alerts are a warning from Russia to flights entering these areas that they do so at their own risk.

-ABC News' Christine Theodorou

Feb 23, 2022, 8:53 PM EST

Russian military leaders have gone to command center

In another indication that an invasion of Ukraine may be very close to taking place, Russian military leaders have gone to their command center, and cyberattacks are underway, according to a U.S. official.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, believes any invasion has to happen during the night, the official said.

-ABC News’ Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz

Feb 23, 2022, 7:34 PM EST

UN Security Council to meet again

The U.N. Security Council will meet in another late-night session at 9:30 p.m. ET, a U.N. diplomat told ABC News.

Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba called for the meeting earlier Wednesday evening.

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan

Feb 23, 2022, 7:08 PM EST

Ukrainian president posts video, says he tried to call Putin but got ‘silence’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave an impassioned televised address, in which he said Ukraine doesn’t want war and rejected Russia’s claims that Ukraine is a threat or home to Nazism.

Zelenskyy said he tried to call Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. “The result -- silence,” he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy makes a direct appeal to the Russian people to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine in an address posted to Telegram, Feb. 23, 2022.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy via Facebook

Zelenskyy spoke in Russian for part of the address to appeal directly to the Russian people.

“We don’t need war. Not a cold one, nor a hot one, nor a hybrid one,” Zelenskyy said.

“We are separated by more than 2,000 kilometers of shared border. Along it today stand your troops, almost 200,000 soldiers, thousands of military vehicles,” he added. “Your leadership has approved their step forward, onto the territory of another country. And this step can become the start of a big war on the European continent," he said.

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell

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