As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tells Russia "it’s time to talk" about peace, drone footage reveals the effect of the Russian assault on cities across the country.
Look back on all of Saturday's updates as they happened.
Key events
- Zelenskyy says Russia is creating a 'humanitarian catastrophe' as a deliberate tactic
- Ukraine 'temporarily' loses access to Sea of Azov, Defence Ministry says
- Russian asylum seekers stopped at US border as Ukrainians waved through
- Zelensky calls for peace talks so Russia won't need 'generations to recover'
- Mariupol 'good as lost', Zelenskyy adviser says
- Western nations accuse Russia of using UN Security Council to launder disinformation
- Hundreds feared trapped under rubble of Mariupol theatre
- Russian delegate sounds promising note on peace talks; Ukraine stands firm
- Belarus denies any intention of hosting Russian nuclear weapons
- Greece offers to rebuild Mariupol maternity hospital
- Unexploded shells, bombs, mines will be a problem for years, Interior Minister says
- US President Joe Biden presses his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on Russia support
- Technical glitch cuts off Putin, live, as he tells war rally that Russia will prevail in Ukraine
- UK intelligence chief warns Russia is shifting to a 'strategy of attrition'
Live updates
By Caitlyn Davey
That's all from the blog today
But stay up-to-date with any new developments via ABC News or app.
By Caitlyn Davey
US father desperate to get 2-year-old son home from Ukraine
Mr Quintana got a US court order showing he had sole legal custody of 2-year-old Alexander. He was granted the passport, bought plane tickets and a few days later headed to the airport for a flight home.
But they never boarded the plane.
Police who he said were summoned by Alexander's Ukrainian grandmother — the mother of Mr Quintana's estranged wife — ordered the boy be turned over to her.
Now, three months later, Ukraine is ravaged by war. The city of Mariupol where Alexander has been living with his mother at his grandmother's home is under siege. Mr Quintana, who is back in the US, has lost contact with them and is so distraught he’s considering going into the war zone to find his son.
“I am willing to do everything and anything,” Mr Quintana told The Associated Press. “I just want my son to be back.”
Mr Quintana, 35, said he last spoke with Alexander over FaceTime on March 2. He said he sent money to his estranged wife, Antonina Aslanova, for supplies but never heard back.
By Caitlyn Davey
Putin likely to 'double down' despite Ukrainian determination
“His instinct will be always to double down, because he’s got himself into a dreadful mess, a huge strategic blunder,” said Michael Clarke, former head of the British-based Royal United Services Institute, a defense think tank.
“And I don’t think it’s in his character to try to retrieve that, except by carrying on, going forward,” he said.
Mr Putin’s forces in Ukraine are waging Russia’s largest, most complex combined military campaign since taking Berlin in 1945. His initial objective, which he announced in a television address on Feb. 24 as the invasion began, was to “demilitarise” Ukraine and save its people from “neo-Nazis," a false description of Ukraine’s government, which is led by a Jewish president.
Fatefully, Putin underestimated the national pride and battlefield skills that Ukrainians have built up over the past eight years of battling Russian-backed separatists in the country's east.
At the start, Russians thought “they would install, you know, some pro-Russian government and call it a day and declare victory,” said Dmitry Gorenburg, a researcher on Russia’s security at the Virginia-based CNA think tank. “That was sort of Plan A, and as near as we can tell, they didn’t really have a Plan B.”
By Caitlyn Davey
Biden tells Xi China will face consequences if it offers support to Russia
Chinese President Xi Jinping has raised Taiwan during his two-hour long phone conversation with US President Joe Biden, that mainly dealt with Ukraine.
Mr Xi said the issue of Taiwan - which China claims as part of its territory - needs to be "handled properly" to avoid a deterioration in China-US relations.
Mr Biden said Washington remains opposed to any unilateral changes to the status quo regarding Taiwan.
During the call, Mr Biden warned that China would face consequences from the US and the wider world if it offered material support to Russia in its war with Ukraine.
By Caitlyn Davey
109 prams in Lviv to commemorate each of the 109 children killed in conflict
By Caitlyn Davey
US oilfield service companies suspend operations in Russia
US oilfield companies, Halliburton Co and Schlumberger said they have suspended or halted operations in Russia in response to sanctions placed against the federation.
Halliburton said it immediately suspended future business and would wind down its operations in Russia after earlier ending shipments of sanctioned parts and products to the country.
Schlumberger has ceased new investment and technology deployment while continuing with existing activity in compliance with international laws and sanctions, the company said in a statement late on Friday.
"We urge a cessation of the conflict and a restoration of safety and security in the region,” Schlumberger Chief Executive Olivier Le Peuch said.
Oilfield services provider Baker Hughes declined to comment on its Russia operations.
By Caitlyn Davey
Indian students say racism kept them trapped in the war zone between Russia and Ukraine
By Caitlyn Davey
Price spike caused by the war will push 40 million into poverty according to Center for Global Development
A study has revealed that the price increases stemming from Russia's invasion of Ukraine will push more than 40 million people into extreme poverty, according to the Center for Global Development.
The centre writes: "The G20 and other grain producers must keep markets open and avoid sanctions on food, even if further disruptions arise, to avoid artificially exacerbating the impacts.
"Governments and international agencies will need to act quickly and generously to anticipate and support humanitarian needs—but they should also use the crisis as an opportunity to reform agricultural policies in the EU and US that are undermining food security."
By Caitlyn Davey
Duke and Duchess of Sussex donate to Ukrainian organisations
Prince Harry and Meghan have made donations through their charity Archewell Foundation to support Ukrainians on the ground. The foundation released a statement that it supports HIAS (helping Ukrainian families to resettle), The Halo Trust (protecting families from unexploded ordnance) and a coalition of Ukrainian Media including The Kyiv Independent though organisation We Are Europe.
The statement read: "Our hearts are heavy as we acknowledge the recent loss of a member of our veteran community in Ukraine, who was defending his country from attack.
"We also pay tribute to the brave men and women from our global veteran community, past and present, who have long protected their countries and families with unparalleled strength and determination. We are continuing to work and speak with the Invictus Games Foundation daily to help however we can."
By Caitlyn Davey
By Jonathan Hepburn
Zelenskyy says Russia is creating a 'humanitarian catastrophe' as a deliberate tactic
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russian forces are blockading Ukraine's largest cities to create a "humanitarian catastrophe" with the aim of persuading Ukrainians to cooperate with them.
He says Russians are preventing supplies from reaching surrounded cities in the centre and south-east of the country.
"This is a totally deliberate tactic," Mr Zelenskyy said in his nighttime video address to the nation, filmed outside in Kyiv, with the presidential office in the lamplight behind him.
He said more than 9,000 people were able to leave besieged Mariupol in the past day, and in all more than 180,000 people have been able to flee to safety through humanitarian corridors.
He noted that the 200,000 people Putin gathered in and around a Moscow stadium on Friday for a flag-waving rally was about the same number of Russian troops sent into Ukraine three weeks ago.
Zelenskyy then asked his audience to picture the stadium filled with the thousands of Russians who have been killed, wounded or maimed in the fighting.
By Jonathan Hepburn
Some of the 3.2 million Ukrainians who have fled the country
By Jonathan Hepburn
Cosmonauts enter International Space Station wearing yellow and blue flight suits - read the story
Three Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station on Friday wearing yellow flight suits with blue accents, colours that appeared to match the Ukrainian flag.
Video of Oleg Artemyev taken as the spacecraft prepared to dock with the space station showed him wearing a blue flight suit.
It was unclear what, if any, message the yellow uniforms they changed into were intended to send.
When the cosmonauts were able to talk to family back on Earth, Mr Artemyev was asked about the suits. He said every crew chooses their own.
"It became our turn to pick a colour," he said.
"But in fact, we had accumulated a lot of yellow material so we needed to use it.
"So that's why we had to wear yellow."
By Jonathan Hepburn
Ukraine 'temporarily' loses access to Sea of Azov, Defence Ministry says
Ukraine's Defence Ministry says it has lost access to the Sea of Azov "temporarily" as invading Russian forces were tightening their grip around the sea's major port of Mariupol.
"The occupiers have partially succeeded in the Donetsk operational district, temporarily depriving Ukraine of access to the Sea of Azov," Ukraine's Defence Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry did not specify in its statement whether Ukraine's forces have regained access to the Sea.
The Sea of Azov is an internal sea separated from the Black Sea by the narrow Strait of Kerch.
The Strait of Kerch passes between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
Russia said on Friday its forces were "tightening the noose" around Mariupol, where an estimated 80 per cent of the city's homes had been damaged and some 1,000 people may still be trapped in makeshift bomb shelters beneath a destroyed theatre.
Mariupol, with its strategic location on the coast of the Sea of Azov, has been a target since the start of the war.
The city lies on the route between the Russian-annexed peninsula of Crimea to the west and the Donetsk region to the east, which is partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
Russia claimed as early as March 1 that its forces had cut off the Ukrainian military from the Sea of Azov.
By Jonathan Hepburn
Residents of Kyiv recreate national coat of arms with 1.5 million tulips
Residents of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv came out to a central square in the sunshine on Friday to arrange some 1.5 million tulips in the shape of the country's coat of arms, a trident.
Kyiv resident Oleksandr Malykhin told the Associated Press that locals are not afraid because they draw strength from their city.
"We are continuing to live our lives as we do in peaceful times," he said.
"Children and grandchildren must be happy for the coming of spring, to breathe freely. We feel confident and we are not afraid. We are not afraid of the enemy and our home city of Kyiv helps us with that, the native walls of Kyiv."
Anastasiya Zhuravlyova said the project would boost the mood of the threatened city.
"Then, we will distribute these flowers to hospitals and to all the women."
Reporting and images by AP
By Jonathan Hepburn
By Jonathan Hepburn
Russian asylum seekers stopped at US border as Ukrainians waved through
About three dozen would-be asylum seekers from Russia found themselves blocked from entering the US while a group of Ukrainians flashed passports and were escorted across the border.
The scene reflected a quiet but unmistakable shift in the differing treatment of Russians and Ukrainians who enter Mexico as tourists and fly to Tijuana, hoping to enter the US for a chance at asylum.
The Russians — 34 as of Friday local time — had been camped for several days at the busiest US border crossing with Mexico, two days after city of Tijuana officials gently urged them to leave.
Days earlier, some Russians were being admitted to the US at the San Ysidro crossing, while some Ukrainians were blocked. But by Friday, Russians were denied while Ukrainians were admitted after short waits.
"It's very hard to understand how they make decisions," said Irina Zolinka, a 40-year-old Russian woman who camped overnight with her family of seven after arriving in Tijuana on Thursday.
Erika Pinheiro, litigation and policy director for advocacy group Al Otro Lado, said the US began admitting all Ukrainians on humanitarian parole for one year around Tuesday, while at the same time blocking all Russians. There was no official announcement.
A Homeland Security Department memo dated March 11 but not publicly released until Thursday told border officials that Ukrainians may be exempt from sweeping asylum limits designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
It says decisions are to be made case-by-case for Ukrainians but makes no mention of Russians.
"The Department of Homeland Security recognises that the unjustified Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has created a humanitarian crisis," the memo states.
Homeland Security indicated in a statement on Friday that anyone deemed "particularly vulnerable" may be admitted for humanitarian reasons on a case-by-case review, regardless of nationality.
Russian migrants in Tijuana sat off to the side of a line of hundreds of border residents waiting to walk across the border to San Diego on Friday. The line was unimpeded.
A 32-year-old Russian migrant who had not left the border crossing since arriving in Tijuana with his wife about five days earlier had no plans to leave, fearing he may miss any sudden opportunity.
Within hours of arriving, the migrant, who identified himself only as Mark because he feared for his family's safety in Russia, saw three Russian migrants admitted to the United States.
After six hours, US authorities returned his passport and said only Ukrainians were being admitted.
"Ukrainians and Russians are suffering because of one man," Mark said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He fled shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Even before Russia's invasion, the United States was seeing an increase in Russian and Ukrainian asylum seekers, most trying to enter at official crossings in San Diego rather than trying to cross illegally in deserts and mountains.
More than 1,500 Ukrainians entered the US on the Mexican border from September through February, according to US Customs and Border Protection, about 35 times the 45 Ukrainians who crossed during the same period a year earlier.
Ukrainians who can reach US soil are virtually guaranteed a shot at asylum. Only four of the 1,553 who entered in the September-February period were barred under a public health order aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19.
The number of Russian asylum seekers entering at US land crossings from Mexico surpassed 8,600 from September through February, about 30 times the 288 the same time a year earlier. All but 23 were processed under laws that allow them to seek asylum.
Mexican officials have been wary of migrants sleeping at the border. Last month they dismantled a large migrant camp in Tijuana with tents and tarps that blocked a walkway to San Diego.
Eager to stop another camp from forming, the city distributed a letter on Wednesday asking migrants to leave their campsites for health and safety reasons and offered free shelter if they couldn't afford a hotel.
By Jonathan Hepburn
By Jonathan Hepburn
Satellite photos show devastation of war
Maxar Technologies has released a new batch of satellite images showing destruction around Ukraine.
Cars on fire on the Irpin River bridge
The Irpin River flows past Kyiv. The main vehicular bridge across the Irpin River was destroyed by Ukrainian forces in an attempt to stop Russian forces from advancing into Kyiv.
Many fleeing civilians abandoned their vehicles and continued on foot amid ongoing Russian shelling.
Damaged and burning apartment buildings and stores in Mariupol
