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

The U.N. Security Council held a vote Friday evening on the U.S.- and Albania-led resolution to condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Eleven countries voted in favor of the measure while three -- China, India and the United Arab Emirates -- abstained. Russia predictably vetoed it.

In a speech prior to the vote, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield laid out a stark choice for the council's members: Vote yes to uphold the U.N. charter and defend any country's rights, or vote no or abstain and "align yourself with aggressive and unprovoked actions of Russia."  

"History will judge us for our actions or lack thereof, and so long as we have a Security Council, I believe we are to strive to ensure it lives up to the highest purposes -- to prevent conflict and avert unnecessary war," she said. "Russia has already subverted that mission. But at a minimum -- at the very minimum -- the rest of us have an obligation to object and to stand up for the U.N. charter."

The resolution condemned Russia's aggression; reaffirmed Ukraine's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity; and demanded that Russia immediately withdraw its forces.

In brief remarks after the vote, Thomas-Greenfield said that while Russia can veto a resolution, "you cannot veto our voices."

She confirmed they will bring the resolution to the U.N. General Assembly, where all countries have a vote and there is no veto power -- but where resolutions are nonbinding. 

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan

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