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

Protests were held across the United States on Saturday as demonstrators called for Russian to cease its invasion of Ukraine.

Times Square in New York City was clogged with light blue and yellow, while Ukrainian supporters also rallied in Washington, Los Angeles and several other major cities Saturday.

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In response to a plea on Twitter from a Ukrainian official, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Saturday that his high-speed internet service Starlink is now active in Ukraine.

"More terminals en route," he tweeted in a reply to Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's vice prime minister and minister of digital transformation.

Earlier Saturday, Fedorov appealed directly to Musk and asked him to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations.

The terminals are small, portable satellite dishes on Earth that connect directly to Starlink satellites in space -- providing high-speed internet to rural and hard-to-reach locations. This is especially important for areas that have already lost access and could potentially help them avoid cyberattacks.

-ABC News' Gio Benitez

The White House announced further sanctions on Russia Saturday evening.

The U.S., along with the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Canada, are disconnecting some Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) banking network and are "imposing restrictive measures that will prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves in ways that undermine the impact of our sanctions," the White House said.

"This will ensure that these banks are disconnected from the international financial system and harm their ability to operate globally," the White House said in a statement.

The White House added, "We commit to taking measures to limit the sale of citizenship -- so called golden passports -- that let wealthy Russians connected to the Russian government become citizens of our countries and gain access to our financial systems."

The U.S. will also launch a trans-Atlantic task force "that will ensure the effective implementation of our financial sanctions by identifying and freezing the assets of sanctioned individuals and companies that exist within our jurisdictions."

On a call with reporters Saturday night, a senior administration official said the move to sanction the central bank will show that Russia's defense of claiming that sanctions don't hurt their economy "is a myth."

"The 600 billion-plus war chest of Russia's foreign reserves is only powerful if Putin can use it," the official said. "And without being able to buy the ruble from Western financial institutions, for example, Putin and the central bank will lose the ability to offset the impact of our sanctions. The ruble will fall even further, inflation will spike and the central bank will be left defenseless."

The Biden administration said it's also upping the fight against disinformation and "other forms of hybrid warfare."

-ABC News' Justin Ryan Gomez

Kyiv, which was a bustling, relaxed city three days ago, has now transformed to a war-time city as it braces for Russian forces.

Kyiv's mayor has imposed a 39-hour curfew beginning Saturday night, banning everyone except critical infrastructure workers from the streets. Ukrainian authorities say the curfew is to allow the city to hunt down Russian sabotage groups, get defenses organized and prevent friendly-fire incidents.

Checkpoints manned by tense, heavily armed Ukrainian soldiers are set up throughout Kyiv and authorities are setting up barricades.

The city’s lights have been dimmed, leaving an eerie silence, only punctured by the howls of air raid sirens or blasts of gunfire.

Since Friday morning there has been fighting in Kyiv's northern neighborhoods. For two nights, missiles have struck targets around Kyiv. Hundreds of people have begun sheltering in the deep subway system, sleeping on the platforms.

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell