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

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."

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

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.

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.