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

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked the one-month anniversary of Russia's invasion by calling on the world's population to publicly and peacefully show their support for Ukraine.

"The war of Russia is not only the war against Ukraine, its meaning is much wider," Zelenskyy said, pivoting from speaking in Ukrainian to English during his latest address. "Russia started the war against freedom as it is."

"This is only the beginning for Russia on the Ukrainian land," he continued. "Russia is trying to defeat the freedom of all people in Europe, of all the people in the world. It tries to show that only crude and cruel force matters. It tries to show that people do not matter as well as everything else that make us people. That's the reason we all must stop Russia."

He urged the global community to "stand against the war" on March 24 -- the one-month anniversary of the start of the invasion.

"Come from your offices, your homes, your schools and universities. Come in the name of peace. Come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life," he said. "Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard. Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters."

-ABC News' Desiree Adib

The Ukrainian ambassador called attention to the humanitarian crisis that's unfolded in the weeks following Russia's invasion during an emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.

"Tomorrow will be another symbolic date, a month since the lives of millions of Ukrainians were split in two parts," Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said while speaking on a resolution put forward by Ukraine. "A peaceful past full of joy and positive plans, and the present with war, suffering, death, and destruction. Thousands of Ukrainians have lost their lives over this month -- young and old, women and men, civilians and military."

Kyslytsya further detailed the "humanitarian disaster" caused by the war.

"People are starving to death in the occupied or besieged areas. People are being killed in their attempt to flee from conflict-affected areas. Cities are razed to the ground by shelling and airstrikes," he said.

The ambassador urged countries to vote in favor of the resolution put forward by his country, entitled "Humanitarian Consequences of the Aggression Against Ukraine."

"It will be critical to prevent the spillover effect for the entire world," he said. "That is why the text also mentions the impact of the conflict on food security globally, in particular in the least-developed countries, as well as energy security."

-ABC News' Zoha Qamar

Russian forces west of Kyiv are “digging in” and moving into a "defensive position," according to a senior U.S. defense official.

"It's not that they're not advancing, they're actually not trying to advance right now," the official told reporters Wednesday. "They're taking more defensive positions."

East of Kyiv, Ukrainian forces near Brovary have pushed the Russians "back to about 55 km" (roughly 34 miles) east and northeast of Kyiv, according to the official. That update comes a day after the official said Russian forces had stalled at between 20 and 30 miles east and northeast of Kyiv.

Ukrainian authorities claimed earlier Wednesday that they have managed to encircle the Russian forces that had advanced on Kyiv and were in some key towns on the edge of the capital. They said they had managed to push back Russian troops from the northwestern town of Irpin, although it was still being shelled.

-ABC News' Luis Martinez and Patrick Reevell

Russia's Defense Ministry claimed on Wednesday that its forces have advanced another 2 kilometers and are fighting against units of Ukraine's 54th Separate Mechanized Brigade in the southern and southeastern outskirts of Novo-Mikhaylovka.

Russia said troops it backs in Donetsk inflicted fire damage to Ukraine's units of the 25th Airborne Brigade fighting for the capture of Kamenka and Novobakhmutovka.

Russia claimed it hit 86 Ukrainian military assets, among them six command posts; two rocket-launch systems and 49 areas of concentration of equipment and military hardware.

The ministry also claimed Russian forces shot down nine Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles near Izyum, Kiev, Sumy, Kharkov and Chernigov.

Russia said it destroyed 255 unmanned aerial vehicles, 189 anti-aircraft missile systems, 1,564 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 158 multiple launch rocket systems, 612 field artillery and mortars, as well as 1,367 units of special military vehicles since the beginning of the invasion.