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

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked President Joe Biden to designate Russia a "state sponsor of terrorism" during their call earlier this week, a U.S. official confirmed.

The White House and State Department have not responded to questions about Zelenskyy's appeal or the designation, but last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed an openness to it.

"In terms of other designations based on actions that Russia's taking, we are and we will look at everything," he told reporters during a press conference.

The designation, which is normally reserved for states that are arming and funding terror groups, carries some of the most severe sanctions under U.S. law -- although Russia is already under many of them.

Currently there are four countries on the list: Syria, Iran, North Korea and Cuba. The latter two were added by the Trump administration.

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed it prevented an attempt by the Ukrainians to hit Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station with two Tochka-U tactical missiles on Friday morning.

Russia claimed the missiles were shot down in mid-air and shrapnel from one of them fell on Novaya Kakhovka, Kherson region, damaging Kindergarten and residential buildings.

The facility regulates the flow of the Dnepr River, supplies electricity to Kherson region, and supplies water to agricultural areas in southern Ukraine and northern Crimea, according to Russia.

Russia claimed if the station was hit, it would have caused the release of Dnepr water and caused flooding of Kherson region settlements.

More than 900 bodies of civilians were discovered in the Kyiv region following the withdrawal of Russian forces, Kyiv region Police Chief Andriy Nebytov said in a press briefing.

"I want to say that the number of killed civilians has surpassed 900 - and I emphasize, these are civilians, whose bodies we have discovered and handed over for forensic examination," Nebytov said.

He later said, "Bucha has the most significant number of victims. This suggests that the occupiers, the units, that operated in Bucha, were the most brutal. The most victims were found in Bucha, where there are more than 350 corpses."

Nebytov claimed Russian forces were forcing Ukrainians to work for Russia.

"We understand that during the occupation, the Russian army established a certain modus operandi, trying to find people who have influence over the community and force them to work for Russia," Nebytov said.

Nebytov said the bodies had been abandoned in the streets or were buried in temporary graves.

"There were two mass graves, if we can say so. There was a person, a communal worker, who worked before the war in Bucha. He stayed in the city and actually asked the occupiers to allow him to take away the people's bodies from the streets. He buried them in two graves. The first was for 40 dead people, the second for 57 dead people," Nebytov said.

He added: "Among them was one of our policemen, a criminal investigation officer, who unfortunately was also shot with a small weapon. Most of these bodies have been examined, and I want to say that 95% of the people were killed by sniper rifles or small arms. That is, we understand that during the occupation, people were shot in the streets."

-ABC News' Alexandra Faul

Senior U.S. defense officials believe Russia's sunken Moskva cruiser was hit by two Ukrainian-launched Neptune missiles, bolstering claims from Ukrainian officials on Thursday.

The officials could not confirm how many Russian crew members were injured or killed in the attack or subsequent fire and eventual sinking.

-ABC News' Matt Seyler