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.
Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Feb 26, 2022, 3:12 PM EST
Germany drops opposition to sending lethal aid
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced that Germany is dropping its historic position of not providing lethal military aid to conflict zones, saying Russia's "invasion marks a turning point."
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks with the media as he arrives for an extraordinary EU summit on Ukraine at the European Council building in Brussels, Feb 24, 2022.
John Thys/Pool via AP
Germany will provide 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger missiles, he said.
The Netherlands is also announcing new lethal aid, according to its Defense Ministry.
The $350 million military aid package from the U.S. will include “anti-armor, small arms and various munitions, body armor, and related equipment in support of Ukraine’s front-line defenders facing down Russia’s unprovoked attack," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. The U.S. package also includes portable surface-to-air missiles (MANPADS) in the Pentagon's inventory, a U.S. official told ABC News.
At a border crossing near Zosin, Poland -- due west of Kyiv -- Ukrainians are waiting for 40 hours to cross into Poland in a nearly 10-mile backlog, said Chris Meltzer of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Meltzer said one woman with her two children told him it took her 12 hours to get out of Kyiv and then they spent another 38 hours waiting in their car without heat or a bathroom.
He said the biggest needs are blankets, clothes and accommodations.
A woman walks with her dogs after arriving from Ukraine, crossing the border in Beregsurany, Hungary, Feb 26, 2022. Hungary has extended legal protection to those fleeing the Russian invasion.
Anna Szilagyi/AP
Meltzer said, once they cross, most Ukrainians are staying in the border region because they want to return home as soon as possible.
A Ukrainian woman holds her child as they wait to enter Romania after crossing the Danube river at the Isaccea-Orlivka border crossing point between Romania and Ukraine, Feb. 25, 2022.
Daniel Mihailescu/AFP via Getty Images
-ABC News' Cindy Smith
Feb 26, 2022, 2:07 PM EST
Zelenskyy says Russia will be disconnected from SWIFT
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday Western countries have agreed to disconnect Russia from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) banking network.
A man clears debris at a damaged residential building at Koshytsa Street, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where a military shell allegedly hit, Feb. 25, 2022.
Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images
"For Russia it will mean being cut off [from] normal financial civilization. This is a big diplomatic victory," he said. "Russia will suffer billions upon billions of financial losses -- their price for invasion."
Ukraine’s foreign minister said earlier that technical preparations have begun for disconnecting Russia from SWIFT and that the last holdouts, Germany and Hungary, have signaled they're no longer opposed.
Zelenskyy also said Turkey’s president has agreed to close the straits into the Black Sea to Russia.
Zelenskyy continued, "You know, it was a beautiful sunny day in Kyiv today that occupiers tried to ruin. But today is also the first day in the life of the baby girl born in the shelter in Kyiv metro station."
"We fight back strongly … and we will do our best to liberate our country," he said. "When babies come into this world even under shelling and fire, then the enemy has no chance in this war.”
-ABC News' Patrick Reevell
Feb 26, 2022, 1:08 PM EST
Biden responds to Trump calling Putin 'genius'
President Joe Biden responded to former President Donald Trump's comments this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine are “genius."
"I put as much stock in Trump saying that Putin's a genius as I do when he called himself a stable genius," Biden said in a pre-recorded interview with Brian Tyler Cohen.
In a radio interview this week, Trump said it was "genius" that Putin declared a portion of Ukraine independent.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with representatives of the business community at the Kremlin in Moscow, Feb. 24, 2022.
Sputnik/Aleksey Nikolskyi/Kremlin via Reuters
"Putin is now saying, 'It’s independent,' a large section of Ukraine. I said, 'How smart is that?' And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force … We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen," Trump said on the conservative talk radio program "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show."
"Here’s a guy who’s very savvy," Trump said. "I know him very well. Very, very well."
Biden in the interview defended his sanctions on Russia as “nothing like” what the U.S. has done before and weighed what the other option could have been.
“You have two options: start a third World War, go to war with Russia physically. Or two, make sure that a country that acts so contrary to international law ends up paying the price," he said.
Ukrainian servicemen walk by a damaged vehicle, at the site of a fighting with Russian troops, after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2022.
Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
"There's no sanction that is immediate. It's not like you can sanction someone and say, 'You no longer are going to be able to be president of Russia,'" he continued. "But I think the sanctions -- I know -- I know the sanctions are the broadest sanctions in history."
“Russia will pay a serious price for this short term and long term, particularly long term," Biden said.
Biden held a secure call with his national security team Saturday morning on the latest developments, according to a White House official.
