Russian President Vladimir Putin's "special military operation” into Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with troops crossing the border from Belarus and Russia. Moscow's forces have since been met with “stiff resistance” from Ukrainians, according to U.S. officials.
Russian forces retreated last week from the Kyiv suburbs, leaving behind a trail of destruction. After graphic images emerged of civilians lying dead in the streets of Bucha, U.S. and European officials accused Russian troops of committing war crimes.
A look at the two leaders at the center of the war in Ukraine and how they both rose to power, the difference in their leadership and what led to this moment in history.
Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Mar 28, 2022, 7:00 AM EDT
Russian forces attempt to seize key highways, settlements
Russian forces on Monday morning were attempting to breach defenses from the northwest and east of Ukraine to seize key highways and settlements, which are held by Ukrainian troops, according to Ukrainian officials.
A Ukrainian serviceman looks out from a tank in Lukyanivka, a neighborhood of Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 27, 2022.
AP
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said that hypersonic missiles for the Russian military's Iskander-M short-range ballistic missile system were being delivered to the Belarusian town of Kalinkovichi. Two of the latest strikes to hit Lutsk, a city in northwestern Ukraine, were launched from neighboring Belarus, according to Ukrainian officials.
-ABC News' Julia Drozd
Mar 28, 2022, 6:20 AM EDT
New round of talks could start Monday in Turkey
Ukraine and Russia have both said that a new round of peace negotiations with be held in person in Turkey at the start of this week, but it remains unclear whether the talks begin Monday or Tuesday.
One of the Ukrainian negotiators, David Arakhamia, has said the talks would be held Monday through Wednesday.
Russia's lead negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, has said the talks would start Tuesday.
A Russian Government Special Flight Squadron carrying members of the Russian delegation lands at Ataturk Airport, ahead of the expected peace talks with Ukrainian officials, in Istanbul, March 28, 2022.
Yoruk Isik/Reuters
Arakhamia said the decision to hold the negotiations in person was reached during the latest round of talks via video link, which are taking place everyday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told Russian journalists that his country is ready to compromise on Moscow's demand for neutral status, but wants meaningful security guarantees from Western countries. He said any peace deal is only possible if Russia withdraws all of its troops to areas occupied before the war began.
-ABC News' Patrick Reevell
Mar 28, 2022, 6:16 AM EDT
Ukraine intel chief says Russia plans a 'Korean scenario'
Russian President Vladimir Putin may be seeking to split Ukraine in two after failing to seize the capital, Kyiv, according to the head of Ukraine's defense intelligence agency.
Brig. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov said in a statement Sunday that Putin may now be pursuing a "Korean scenario" that would see Russian forces try to occupy the east and south of Ukraine since they no longer have the strength to "swallow the whole state."
"After the failures near Kyiv and the impossibility to overthrow the central government in Ukraine, Putin is already changing his main direction of operations -- to the south and east," Budanov said. "There are grounds to suggest that he is considering the Korean scenario for Ukraine. That is to attempt to lay down a new line of contact between the non-occupied and occupied regions of our country. In fact, it's an attempt to create in Ukraine a North and South Korea. Indeed, he definitely doesn’t have the strength to swallow the whole state."
Ukrainian servicemen inspect a house that was destroyed by Russian forces in the village of Bachtanka near Mykolaiv, a key city on the road to Odesa, Ukraine, on March 27, 2022.
Oleksandr Gimanov/AFP via Getty Images
Budanov said he believes Putin still wants to open a land corridor between the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula and the other Russian-controlled regions in eastern Ukraine, which would mean the occupation of besieged Mariupol, a strategic port city in the southeast that has been under heavy Russian bombardment. But he said Ukraine's continued counterattacks as well as resistance by local people in the occupied areas were disrupting Putin's plans.
Budanov also predicted the start of guerrilla warfare that would make it impossible for Russia to hold territory.
"Soon the season of the total Ukrainian partisan safari will start," he said. "Then for the Russians will remain only one relevant scenario -- how to survive."
-ABC News' Patrick Reevell
Mar 28, 2022, 5:07 AM EDT
Ukraine says no humanitarian corridors for Monday
Ukraine's government announced for the first time in nearly three weeks that no humanitarian corridors for evacuating civilians will be open on Monday due to concerns about possible "provocations" from Russian forces.
"Our intelligence has informed us of possible provocations from the side of the occupiers on the routes of the humanitarian corridors," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a statement on her official Telegram channel. "And so in interest of citizens’ safety today we are not opening humanitarian corridors."
A Ukrainian flag is installed on an apartment building damaged by fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops in Lukyanivka, a neighborhood of Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 27, 2022.
AP
The Ukrainian government has been evacuating hundreds of thousands of civilians from cities and towns in the north, east and south of the country through established corridors. Officials have previously accused Russian forces of shelling some of the evacuation routes, despite agreeing to cease-fires.
