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

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday announced that the State Deptartment has made a formal assessment that Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Last week, President Joe Biden said he believed Russia's President Vladimir Putin was a war criminal and Blinken told reporters he personally believed war crimes had been committed. But now, the agency has made a formal determination, Blinken said in a statement.

"Based on information currently available, the U.S. government assesses that members of Russia's forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine," Blinken said, citing a "careful review of available information from public and intelligence sources."

Blinken added: "As with any alleged crime, a court of law with jurisdiction over the crime is ultimately responsible for determining criminal guilt in specific cases. The U.S. government will continue to track reports of war crimes and will share information we gather with allies, partners, and international institutions and organizations, as appropriate."

Blinken said there are "numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities."

"Russia’s forces have destroyed apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, critical infrastructure, civilian vehicles, shopping centers, and ambulances, leaving thousands of innocent civilians killed or wounded," Blinken said.

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan

In an address to French lawmakers on Wednesday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Mariupol resembles the ruins of Verdun following the largest battle fought during WWI.

He said Russia brought "state terror" to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy called for increased sanctions against Russia, more arms for Ukraine and for French companies to leave the Russian market, naming Renault, Auchan and Leroy Merlin.

"You can help us. I know you can!" Zelenskyy said.

-ABC News' Christine Theodorou

Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Wednesday he believes the talks with Russia are absolutely "real" and that the Kremlin is not trying to use them to "stall for time" in order to regroup.

Podolyak, a senior aid to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told ABC News in an interview that he believes the Russians are looking to make a deal, but he warned Ukraine believes it's possible it may take months.

He said Russia has stopped issuing ultimatums and is now in the process of seeing how far it has to lower its goals.

Asked if Ukraine is ready to give up its ambitions to join NATO, Russia's key demand, Podolyak called on the U.S. to take the lead in forming a broader alliance that would give Ukraine security guarantees.

Zelenskyy has made it clear Ukraine is ready to potentially give up NATO membership, provided it gets security guarantees from Western countries that would protect it from a future Russian invasion.

When asked what that would look like, Podolyak suggested a potential security guarantee could be the U.S. and allies putting in writing that, in case of any future aggression from Russia, a no-fly zone would be put in place.

He has suggested that some NATO countries may be prepared to give those guarantees separate to NATO.

Podolyak also denied reports from several newspapers that claimed Russia and Ukraine are discussing a 15-point peace plan in which Ukraine would give up its NATO ambitions and accept some limits on its military in return for security guarantees from western countries.

He said for now, Russia and Ukraine both have drafts and Russia is leaking some of its drafts, pretending that it is a deal close to being signed.

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his cabinet on Wednesday that Russia will require payments for natural gas in rubles, saying he will refuse to accept payments in "compromised currencies," including the dollar and the euro, according to Russia's state-run news agency, TASS.

Putin said Russia will continue to supply natural gas to other countries.

"I made the decision to implement within the shortest possible time the package of measures to transfer payments - we will start with that - for our natural gas supplied to the so-called ‘unfriendly’ states to Russian rubles," Putin said.

-ABC News' Christine Theodorou