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 28, 2022, 7:35 PM EST
Disney pausing theatrical releases in Russia
The Walt Disney Company will not be releasing any new movies in Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine.
"Given the unprovoked attack on Ukraine and the tragic humanitarian crisis, we are pausing the release of theatrical films in Russia, including the upcoming 'Turning Red' from Pixar," the company wrote in a statement released on Twitter. "We will make future business decisions based on the evolving situation."
Disney is also working with NGO partners to provide urgent humanitarian aid for the refugee crisis, the company wrote.
The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of ABC News.
Feb 28, 2022, 6:29 PM EST
Russian bombardment of civilian areas constitutes a war crime, Zelenskyy says
Russian forces deliberately fired upon civilian areas in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alleged in an address Monday.
"Today, Russian forces brutally fired on Kharkiv from jet artillery," Zelenskyy said. "This is clearly a war crime."
Zelenskyy described the bombarded neighborhoods as "peaceful residential areas" with "no military facility."
"Dozens of eyewitness accounts prove that this is not a single false volley, but deliberate destruction of people," Zelenskyy said. "The Russians knew where to shoot. There will definitely be a tribunal for this crime, international. This is a violation of all conventions. No one in the world will forgive you for killing peaceful Ukrainian people."
This photograph shows a view of a school destroyed as a result of fight not far from the center of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, located some 50 km from the Ukrainian-Russian border, on Feb. 28, 2022.
Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images
Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., accused Russia of using a vacuum bomb, or a thermobaric weapon, amid their attacks, which is also a war crime, she said.
"They used the vacuum bomb today, which is actually prohibited by Geneva convention, so you know the devastation Russia is trying to inflict on Ukraine is large," Markarova said during a meeting with the U.S. House of Representatives Ukraine Caucus on Monday afternoon.
It is a war crime to deliberately target civilians or civilian infrastructure is a war crime, including the use of cluster munitions that groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say they've confirmed Russia has used.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan, Mariam Khan and Christine Theodorou
Feb 28, 2022, 6:25 PM EST
UN warns of humanitarian crisis, potential 4 million refugees
Russia's war against Ukraine could create a refugee crisis of up to 4 million people in the coming days and weeks, a U.N. commissioner told the Security Council on Monday afternoon.
"I have rarely seen such an incredibly fast rising exodus of people -- the largest, surely, within Europe since the Balkan wars," United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told the New York-based council via video teleconference from Geneva.
At least 520,000 refugees have already fled Ukraine, but Grandi said the number is "rising exponentially, hour after hour." That includes 280,000 to Poland, 94,000 to Hungary, 40,000 to Moldova, 34,000 to Romania, 30,000 to Slovakia, tens of thousands in other countries, and a "sizable number" to Russia.
In Ukraine itself, Grandi said the U.N. is "not even scratching the surface of meeting the needs of Ukrainians."
Ukrainian refugees rest in a temporary shelter located in a gym of a primary school on Feb. 28, 2022, in Przemysl, Poland.
Aleksander Kalka/ZUMA Press
"The situation is moving so quickly, and the levels of risk are so high by now, that it is impossible for humanitarians to distribute the help that Ukrainians desperately need," he said.
Monday's U.N. Security Council session was meant to more narrowly focus on the humanitarian crisis, as opposed to the war itself. U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths announced the U.N. will make an urgent humanitarian appeal by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday -- a three-month flash appeal for the crisis in Ukraine and a longer-term appeal for the refugee crisis in the region.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Mar 01, 2022, 1:04 PM EST
European Council extends sanctions to include dozens more individuals
The European Council extended sanctions against Russia to include 26 more individuals and an additional entity, the Council said in a statement Monday.
The new listings include oligarchs and businessmen active in the oil, banking and finance sectors as well as government members, high-level military personalities and propagandists who contributed to the spread of anti-Ukrainian propaganda and promoted a positive attitude toward the invasion of Ukraine.
Some prominent individuals on the list include Igor Sechin, CEO of Rosneft, a Russian state oil company; Nikolay Tokarev, CEO of Transeft, a major Russian oil and gas company; Alisher Usmanov, a pro-Kremlin oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin; and Petr Aven, one of Putin's closest oligarchs.
In this May 12, 2020, file photo, the CEO of Rosneft company Igor Sechin attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow.
Kremlin via Sputnik via Reuters, FILE
The EU’s restrictive measures now apply to a total of 680 individuals and 53 entities.
