Russia-Ukraine updates: US sanctions Russian military shipbuilder, diamond miner

The U.S. Department of State has not yet confirmed reports that Russia is forcibly moving Ukrainian civilians to Russia but is investigating the claims, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Monday.

"We are in close consultation with our Ukrainian partners, with others who may be able to provide firsthand accounts of what is taking place on the ground," Price told reporters at a briefing. "Of course, these reports are deeply concerning, and if true, they would be -- amount to additional evidence of what would appear -- to be the mistreatment of civilians."

Beyond that, Price said the U.S. is seeing "evidence everyday pointing to acts, actions, activities that may constitute war crimes."

"We continue to call on the Russian government to allow genuine safe passage so that civilians can depart cities and towns in Ukraine that are besieged by Russian forces and allow deliveries of humanitarian goods," Price said. "The reality continues to be that while humanitarian goods are gathered and en route to the areas most in need, the convoys typically are not able to reach people in besieged cities."

On Monday, Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defense Control Center, claimed that about 347,000 Ukrainians have evacuated "from dangerous areas of Ukraine and the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics" into Russia.

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan

Pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that nearly 10,000 Russian troops have died as a result of the invasion into Ukraine.

The newspaper published an article Monday that included a paragraph stating that Russia’s defense ministry said its losses in Ukraine are 9,862 dead and 16,153 injured.

"Russia’s Ministry of Defense denies the information of the Ukrainian General Staff about alleged large-scale casualties among the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine," the article stated. "According to the data of the Russian ministry of defense, in the course of the special operation in Ukraine, Russia’s armed forces have lost 9,861 dead, 16,153 have received wounds."

Not long after journalists online spotted the number, the article vanished and then was reposted without any mention of Russian casualties, indicating that the newspaper likely published the figure unwittingly.

If a journalist deliberately posted the death toll, they could be severely prosecuted under a new Russian law.

Komsomolskaya Pravda later claimed in a statement that it was hacked and that a "fake" was added to one of its articles.

"On March 21, website admin interface was hacked and a fake was added to a publication about the situation around the special operation in Ukraine," the statement read.

Russia has not published an official death toll for its forces since March 3, when it said just 498 of its troops had been killed.

The U.S. has estimated that between 2,000 and 10,000 Russians have been killed in the conflict.

Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defense Control Center, claimed that about 347,000 Ukrainians have evacuated to Russia.

The evacuations occurred "without the participation of the Kyiv authorities," Mizintsev alleged during a press conference Monday, claiming that officials in Kyiv "again have not approved any of the four humanitarian corridors in Russia's direction proposed by the Russian side."

Mizintsev also alleged that Kyiv refuses to conduct humanitarian operations in the besieged city of Mariupol by withdrawing Ukrainian forces from the city.

"At 2 a.m. on March 21, 2022, we received an unsubstantiated refusal to rescue people, and a surrender and laying down arms are out of the question," Mizintsev said, adding that more than 130,000 people remain blockaded in the city.

Mizintsev claimed that in the past 24 hours alone, 16,054 people, including 4,631 children, were evacuated "from dangerous areas of Ukraine and the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics" into Russia.

Moscow had had offered safe passage out of Mariupol in return for the city's surrender before 4 a.m. Monday, but Ukraine rejected the offer well before the deadline.

A senior U.S. defense official said at a Monday press briefing that Russian missiles are "failing to launch" as they are fired into Ukraine.

Russia has fired more than 1,100 missiles since the invasion last month, according to U.S. assessments, but there are indications they have been facing problems with the reliability of precision-guided munitions.

Some Russian missiles are "failing to launch, or they're failing to hit the target, or they're failing to explode on contact," the official said.

Additionally, Russian forces are no closer to Kyiv than they were more than a week ago.

"They haven't achieved anything in terms of what we assessed to be their objectives, which was population centers so that they could occupy and take over Ukraine," the official said.

"They are looking for a chance to gain some momentum – not even regain momentum ... because they never really had it. And that's what's so frustrating for them," the official continued.

The official said most credit for the stalled Russian efforts goes to the Ukrainian forces and citizens, and the leadership of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

-ABC News’ Matthew Seyler