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

Ukraine is in the "initial stage of contacts" for possible negotiations with Russia to end the fighting, a spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told ABC News.

The two governments are discussing details such as the time and place of the talks, the spokesman, Sergiy Nykyforov, said. The meeting would take place between advisers and aides and not Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin, he added.

The Kremlin said earlier Friday it was ready to send a delegation for talks to Belarus' capital, Minsk, and claimed Zelenskyy was ready to discuss "neutral status" for Ukraine. Russia’s foreign ministry later claimed Zelenskyy's administration had said to postpone any more discussion of talks until Saturday.

The discussions come as Zelenskyy warned Ukrainians in a televised address that Russia will attempt to storm Kyiv tonight.

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell and Fidel Pavlenko

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned in a televised address moments ago that he believes Russian forces will "storm" the capital of Kyiv overnight.

“The night will be more difficult than the day,” he said, as the sound of shelling and loud booms from airstrikes could be heard over Kyiv.

"We cannot lose Kyiv," he said.

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell

The State Department expressed doubts Friday that Moscow-led efforts to set up talks between Kyiv and the Kremlin in Minsk, Belarus, could yield any meaningful results against the backdrop of an ongoing invasion.

"You've heard us say before that over the course of several weeks leading up to the events that we've seen recently in Ukraine -- the assault on Ukraine, its sovereignty, its territorial integrity, and really, its people -- that Moscow engaged in a pretense of diplomacy," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said during a briefing. "Now, we see Moscow suggesting that diplomacy take place at the barrel of a gun, or as Moscow's rockets, mortars, artillery, target the Ukrainian people. This is not real diplomacy. Those are not the conditions for real diplomacy."

Price added that if Putin were serious about diplomacy, "He should immediately stop the bombing campaign against civilians, order the withdrawal of his forces from Ukraine, and indicate very clearly -- unambiguously to the world -- that Moscow is prepared to de-escalate. We have not seen that yet."  

When pressed on if the U.S. would still support Ukraine entering into such talks, or if the State Department had specifically advised Ukraine against engaging with Russia, Price largely demurred, but said that the countries were "operating in pure lockstep."

-ABC News' Shannon Crawford and Zoha Qamar

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Friday that Russian troops aren't making as much progress in Ukraine as they hoped, and in some cases, Ukrainian forces are successfully fighting back.

However, "we have seen continued movement by Russian forces into Ukraine both from the north and from the south,” Kirby said, and the amphibious assault on Mariupol in eastern Ukraine “is being conducted today.”

Kirby stressed that the U.S. and other countries will continue providing defensive support to Ukraine.

-ABC News' Luis Martinez