Russian President Vladimir Putin's "special military operation" into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered "stiff resistance," according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine's disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Aug 17, 2022, 5:40 PM EDT
Large apartment block struck in Kharkiv, at least 7 dead
At least seven people are dead and another 13 injured by strikes on a large apartment block in Kharkiv, officials said.
Rescue workers and firefighters work at the site of a destroyed hostel, after a missile strike hit the city Kharkiv, Ukraine, Aug. 17, 2022.
Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images
Based on recovered shrapnel, authorities determined an Iskander-M missile system was used in the strike, said Ivan Sokol, Ukraine's director of the regional Department of Civil Defense.
Ukrainian women hug in front of a building destroyed during a missile strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Aug. 18, 2022.
Andrii Marienko/AP
>Search and rescue efforts are ongoing at the three-story residential building, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said.
-ABC News' Tatiana Rymarenko
Aug 15, 2022, 4:47 PM EDT
Shelling resumes near power plant, both sides claim the other is firing
More shelling was underway Monday in city of Enerhodar, which is under Russian control and where the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is located.
Residents, many of whom fled the war, bring items such as medicine, clothes and other personal care items, to be transported by volunteers to their relatives in areas controlled by Russia, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Aug. 14, 2022.
Andriy Andriyenko/AP
Enerhodar Mayor Dmytro Orlov urged residents to stay inside. He said Russian forces seized another government facility in Enerhodar, a lab where 30 of the employees are refusing to cooperate with the Russian-appointed administration.
Meanwhile, Russia's semi-official Interfax reported that Ukrainian forces opened fire in Enerhodar.
Ukraine's state nuclear regulator Energoatom said the plant remained occupied and controlled by Russian forces on Monday. The Ukrainian staff continues to work and make every effort to ensure nuclear and radiation safety, but Energoatom warned that periodic shelling by Russian troops with multiple rocket launchers since last week caused a serious risk to the safe operation of the plant.
In his daily address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian troops must immediately withdraw from the plant. If a catastrophe occurs, Zelenskyy warned it could affect neighboring countries.
Brittney Griner’s defense team filed an appeal for the verdict by Khimky City Court, according to Maria Blagovolina, a partner at Rybalkin Gortsunyan Dyakin and Partners law firm.
1st UN-chartered ship loaded with Ukrainian wheat set to depart for Africa
The first UN-chartered ship loaded with Ukrainian wheat is set to head for Africa from the near the port city Odesa, Ukrainian officials said Sunday.
The first UN-chartered vessel MV Brave Commander loads more than 23,000 tuns of grain to export to Ethiopia, in Yuzhne, east of Odessa on the Black Sea coast, Aug. 14, 2022.
Oleksandr Gimanov/AFP via Getty Images
The MV Brave Commander is loaded with 23,000 tons of wheat that will be shipped to Ethiopia as part of a mission to relieve a global food crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has halted grain exports for months, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Alexander Kubrakov announced at a news conference.
Kubrakov said the UN-chartered ship is scheduled to leave the Pivdenny port near Odesa on Monday.
The first UN-chartered vessel MV Brave Commander loads more than 23,000 tuns of grain to export to Ethiopia, in Yuzhne, east of Odessa on the Black Sea coast, Aug. 14, 2022.
Oleksandr Gimanov/AFP via Getty Images
"When three months ago, during the meeting of the President of Ukraine (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy and the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Kyiv the first negotiations on unlocking Ukrainian maritime ports began, we have already seen how critical it is becoming a food situation in the world." Kubrakov wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. "This especially applies to the least socially protected countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, for whom Ukraine has always been a key importer of agro-production."
He said Ethiopia is in desperate need of Ukrainian grain.
"This country has been suffering from record drought and armed confrontation for the second year in a row," Kubrakov said. "Ukrainian grain for them without exaggeration -- the matter of life and death."
He said he hopes the MV Brave Commander will be the first many more grain shipments under the U.N. World Food Program.
