Russia-Ukraine updates: 2 US veterans who joined Ukrainian forces missing

The U.S. Department of State's s ongoing review of atrocities in Ukraine could conclude with a determination that genocide has been committed by Russian forces, spokesperson Ned Price said Thursday.

The comments come after President Joe Biden described Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine as genocide.

Price told reporters during a briefing Thursday that there was some "misimpression" about the process, but that the department's effort to document, compile and analyze evidence of atrocities, which determined last month that Russian forces were committing war crimes, could include a determination on genocide.

"That same broader process the process to collect, analyze, share, document evidence of atrocities and potential atrocity crimes is the very same one that could ultimately inform other potential atrocity crime determinations, including the atrocity crime of genocide," Price said.

Price reiterated that the U.S. is working with the Ukrainian prosecutor-general, whose office has clear jurisdiction for potential war crimes trials.

The U.S. has been providing the Ukrainian prosecutor-general's office with the evidence it has collected, though it has not yet provided that information to the International Criminal Court, of which it's not a member.

Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court's chief, Karim A.A. Khan, currently is in Ukraine surveying scenes of atrocities in the Kyiv suburbs of Bucha and Borodyanka.

-ABC News' Shannon Crawford and Conor Finnegan

France is planning to move its embassy back to Kyiv "very soon" after relocating it more than 500 miles away in Lviv in western Ukraine when hostilities began to heat up around the capital city in March, the French foreign minister said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian made the announcement in a phone call Thursday with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba.

"This redeployment will take place very soon and will make it possible to further deepen the support provided by France to Ukraine in all areas to deal with the war launched by Russia on February 24," Le Drian said in a statement.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price was asked at a briefing if the United States was considering a similar move now that the bulk of the fighting has shifted in Ukraine from the south of the country to the east. The U.S. embassy in Ukraine was also moved from Kyiv to Lviv following the start of the Russian invasion, but embassy staff has been working from Poland in recent days, Price said.

Price told reporters that the State Department is "always reviewing" the possibility of moving the embassy back to Kyiv, but the embassy team remains in Poland and is not crossing the border into Lviv as they had been.

"Obviously, our goal is to have a functioning diplomatic presence in Ukraine as soon as it is safe and practical for us to do so," Price said.

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan

The Russian Ministry of Defense said Thursday that the Moskva, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, sank as it was being moved to a port after a fire broke out on board.

Ukrainian officials earlier Thursday claimed their troops had fired a direct missile hit on the ship, causing major damage. But Russian authorities have only said a fire erupted on the vessel, while U.S. officials have been unable to confirm the Ukrainian missile strike.

The Russian defense ministry said the Moskva lost its stability when it was towed to a port of destination "due to damage to the hull received during the fire from the detonation of ammunition." The ship sank in stormy seas, according to the ministry.

-ABC News' James Longman

Some of the new equipment the United States is sending to Ukraine as part of an $800 million military assistance package will require a few days of in-person training that could take place in Europe, a U.S. defense official said Thursday.

The official said Ukrainian forces would need training on how to use some of the weapons being deployed to Ukraine, including 155mm howitzer cannons and short-range radar systems, the official said.

With Ukrainian troops needed in eastern Ukraine, where Russia is purportedly gearing up for a new offensive in the Donbas region, U.S. officials are looking at only pulling small numbers of Ukrainian troops over the border and training them to pass along knowledge of the new systems to fellow soldiers in their country.

The official said Gen. Tod D. Wolters, commander of the U.S. European Command and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, is working out details on how the United States will provide the training without pulling "an exorbitant number of fighters" out of Ukraine.

-ABC News' Matt Seyler