Russia-Ukraine updates: 2 US veterans who joined Ukrainian forces missing
The Americans, Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh and Alexander Drueke, are both from Alabama.
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.
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Russia says war in Ukraine is 'going to plan'
Russia's so-called special military operation in neighboring Ukraine is going according to plan, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
"The operation has been going to plan," Peskov said during a press briefing in Moscow on Friday.
When asked about reports that Putin's inner circle was not informed about the start of the operation, Peskov told reporters: "As you understand, naturally, information about the special military operation cannot be shared widely the day before it begins."
"That is because, clearly, such classified information is always shared with a rather limited circle of persons. This is an absolutely normal practice," he added. "The very essence of this operation does not imply that information about it will be shared widely."
US ambassador to UN calls out countries for remaining neutral
Presiding over her first open meeting of the United Nations Security Council since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield implored representatives still clinging to neutrality to speak out against Russian aggression.
"The truth is well known. Russia is the only perpetrator of this war. So it's hard to understand why some council members continue to call on all parties to desist," Thomas-Greenfield said, calling out countries like Brazil, India, and to some extent—China.
"Let's call a spade a spade. Members should call on Russia explicitly to stop its aggression against Ukraine," she said.
Speaking in her capacity as the United States’ permanent representative and not as the temporary president of the council, Thomas-Greenfield lamented that Russian envoys had repeatedly used the body to spread disinformation.
"Three months ago, Russian representatives told this council they had no intention to invade Ukraine. Now, Russia claims the attacks aren’t real or never happened," she said. "Russia even claims that Ukraine is attacking itself, that they bombed their own buildings, attacked their own people and assaulted their own democracy. These lies defy all logic, all evidence and common sense."
-ABC News' Shannon Crawford
New convoy heading to plant to evacuate civilians
Martin Griffiths, the United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, confirmed another convoy is heading to the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant in Mariupol and is expected to arrive on Friday to evacuate more trapped civilians.
"As we speak, a convoy is proceeding to get to Azovstal by tomorrow morning, hopefully, to receive those civilians remaining in that bleak hell that they have inhabited for so many weeks and months and take them back to safety," Griffiths said Thursday at the International Donor's Conference in Warsaw, Poland.
"This elaborate and dangerous operation has taken days and a herculean effort in coordination, advocacy agreements, deployment partnership to achieve," Griffiths said. "It would have been worth it to save one person. And we're now trying to do it for more, but it's a sobering reminder of the difficulties of operation for the safety and protection of the civilians of Ukraine."
Though many people have been evacuated this week, hundreds of Ukrainian fighters and civilians are said to still be trapped inside the plant. The sprawling industrial site is the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol as Russian forces claim to have taken full control of the strategic Ukrainian port city.
Israeli PM says Putin offered apology for Lavrov's Nazi remarks
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview last week with an Italian news channel that Ukraine could still have Nazi elements, even if some figures, including the country's president, were Jewish. Lavrov also claimed that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had Jewish ancestry.
Israeli Prime Minister Natfali Bennett spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone Thursday and, according to a readout from Bennett's office, the Israeli president "accepted President Putin's apology for Lavrov's remarks." There is no mention of an apology in the Kremlin's readout of the meeting.
The presidents also spoke about exploring options to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol. According to the Kremlin, Russian forces stand ready to ensure the safe exit of civilians. The Kremlin added that Ukraine should give an order for fighters at the plant to lay down their arms.
State Dept. reacts to train station attack
Jalina Porter, the State Department's deputy spokesperson, is responding to the Russian attack at a Ukraine train station that killed at least 50, saying, "We can no longer be surprised by the Kremlin's repugnant disregard for human life."
Five children were among those killed when Russian rockets struck the station in Kramatorsk in Donetsk Oblast on Friday morning, according to Ukraine's state-owned railway company. At least 100 people were injured, according to Donetsk Oblast Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Russia has denied involvement in the attack, which occurred as "thousands" of civilians fleeing the Russian invasion were at the train station waiting to be taken to "safer regions of Ukraine," according to Kyrylenko.
"Civilians are killed when they stay in their homes, and they're killed when they try to leave," Porter said. "Actions like these demonstrate why Russia did not belong on the U.N. Human Rights Council, and they also reinforce the U.S. assessment that members of Russian forces are committing war crimes in Ukraine."
Porter declined to say if the department considers the train station attack a war crime, saying, "Assessing individual criminal liability in specific cases is the responsibility of courts, as well as other investigatory bodies. But as the secretary, Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken, has said, 'Those responsible for war crimes and other atrocities committed in Ukraine will be held to account.'"
-ABC News' Conor Finnegan