Russia-Ukraine updates: Russian missiles hit close to nuclear reactors: IAEA director

Shelling is ongoing near the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.

Last Updated: August 24, 2023, 10:20 AM EDT

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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Jul 24, 2022, 11:13 AM EDT

Russia missile strike on Odesa jeopardizes agreement to lift grain blockade

Russia’s missile strike on the Ukrainian port of Odesa Saturday cast doubt on its commitment to a U.N.-backed agreement to lift the blockade that has trapped millions of tons of grain in Ukraine and has led to a global hunger crisis.

Ukrainian officials said they still hope the deal will continue and that ships are scheduled to begin leaving next week.

Ukrainian firefighters battle a fire on a boat burning in the port of Odessa after missiles hit the port of Odessa, Ukraine, July 23, 2022.
Odessa City Council Telegram channel via Getty Images

Vyacheslav, a Ukrainian farmer, told ABC News Sunday that his grain harvest from last year is still being held in storage and he showed ABC News 250 tons of it sitting in a pile across from this year’s crop.

Vyacheslav said he witnessed Saturday's missile strike from his fields as he was harvesting. Part of his land contains trenches dug by Ukraine’s military in preparation for an attack.

Ukrainian firefighters battle a fire on a boat burning in the port of Odessa after missiles hit the port of Odessa, Ukraine, July 23, 2022.
Odessa City Council Telegram channel via Getty Images

He said the missile strike made him skeptical of Russia following through on the agreement to lift the grain embargo.

"Russia will only start to agree once we punch it in the teeth,” Vyacheslav said.

For now, he said he doesn’t know when his grain will move. Even if the deal does hold, he’s unsure that it will solve the problem for Ukraine’s farmers since price speculation, he said, is making it unprofitable for him to move it.

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell

Jul 23, 2022, 10:51 AM EDT

2 Americans killed in eastern Ukraine

Two Americans thought to have been fighting for Ukraine have died in the eastern reach of the country, according to officials.

“We can confirm the recent deaths of two U.S. citizens in the Donbas region of Ukraine,” a State Department spokesperson said. “We are in touch with the families and providing all possible consular assistance.”

One of the Americans killed has been identified as Luke Lucyszyn, his mother confirmed to ABC News.

-ABC News Shannon Crawford, Patrick Reevell and Rashid Haddou

Jul 23, 2022, 10:11 AM EDT

Russian missile strikes Odesa port, after grain deal to let ships leave

A Russian missile struck the Ukrainian port of Odesa on Saturday, just one day after Russia signed an agreement to allow grain ships to begin leaving the port.

The deal between Russia and Ukraine was mediated by Turkey and the United Nations. Fears of a global famine loomed as Russian ships had imposed a blockade on Ukraine exporting grain.

"It took less than 24 hours for the Russian Federation to launch a missile strike on the territory of the city of Odesa to question the agreement and promises made by it to the UN and Turkey in the document signed yesterday in Istanbul," the Ukrainian Embassy of Turkey said in a statement. "The Russian rocket is a spit of Vladimir Putin in the face of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, who made a huge effort to reach the deal, and to which Ukraine is grateful."

The embassy added: "Ukraine stresses the need for persistent implementation of agreements to restore safe export of Ukrainian agricultural goods by the Black Sea from three ports: Odessa, Black Sea and South."

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell and Rashid Haddou

Jul 22, 2022, 3:12 PM EDT

Biden administration making 'preliminary explorations' into sending fighter jets

The Biden administration announced a new $270 million weapons package for Ukraine, which includes more HIMARS and drones. The administration is also in the very early stages of considering whether to send Ukraine fighter jets to counter Russia’s military, John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications at the White House, said Friday

Kirby stressed that this is "not going to be something that they're going to be able to execute immediately or even in the short term," because these are advanced U.S. aircrafts and not ex-Soviet aircrafts.

In this Nov. 23, 2016, file photo, a Ukrainian MIG-29 fighter jet is parked at the Vasilkov air base outside outside Kiev, Ukraine.
Efrem Lukatsky/AP, FILE

"You’ve got to think about things like training, sustainment, maintenance that these aircraft would be required, you know, spare parts. There's a whole supply chain that goes with keeping any airframe in the air and all that has to be factored in," he said.

For now, Kirby said, the U.S. will continue to provide weapons and equipment through security packages like the new one announced Friday.

Ukrainian servicemen fire at Russian positions from a U.S.-supplied M777 howitzer in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, July 14, 2022.
Evgeniy Maloletka/AP

In this Feb. 11, 2022, file photo, Ukrainian servicemen unpack Javelin anti-tank missiles, delivered as part of the United States of America's security assistance to Ukraine, at the Boryspil airport, outside Kyiv, Ukraine.
Efrem Lukatsky/AP, FILE

This package includes four more HIMARS advanced rocket systems, additional ammunition for those systems, anti-armor systems, vehicles and 36,000 rounds of artillery ammunition to go with the howitzers Ukrainians are using.

-ABC News’ Justin Gomez

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