Biden says Putin has ‘failed’ on multiple fronts with Ukraine invasion: LIVE UPDATES
President Biden said Friday that “we already know Putin’s war against Ukraine will never be a victory” and that the Russian leader is racking up failures as the invasion continues.
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Russian troops shelled a cancer hospital in the southern city of Mykolaiv, Ukraine, with heavy artillery while hundreds of patients were inside, Ukrainian officials said.
No one was killed in the attack that left the building damaged, head doctor Maksim Beznosenko said.
Mykolaiv is just under 300 miles south of Kyiv.
The Russians bombed a maternity hospital in the besieged city of Mariupol this week, leaving at least three people, including one child dead.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Fox News correspondent Mike Tobin discusses how the war in Ukraine is impacting those with existing health conditions and Lviv train station serving as a hub for refugees on ‘Special Report.’
Fox News anchor provides insight on Biden's response to the Russia-Ukraine war on 'The Story.'
Videos circulating on social media Friday night captured what are believed to be rocket attacks being fired on the Black Sea town of Mykolaiv.
Russian forces reportedly began targeting the coastal town, which is nearby the city of Odesa, and hitting civilian areas, according to a post from local politician Vitaly Kim on Telegram.
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National security correspondent Jennifer Griffin provides insight into China-Russia relations on 'Special Report.'
Fox News foreign correspondent Trey Yingst reports on Russia's 'scorched earth campaign' to eliminate civilians on 'America's Newsroom.'
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby has updates on the Ukrainian resistance and the intensity of Russian attacks on ‘Your World.’
Fox News contributor Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg told "America Reports" Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be considered a war criminal for his actions during the invasion of Ukraine.
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Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said Friday that Russia has started to make ground in its attempts to advance on the capital city of Kyiv.
“There's Russian bombardment and shelling going on quite violently as we speak,” Kirby told reporters. “And we do assess that the Russians are beginning to make more momentum on the ground towards Kyiv, particularly from the east.”
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues past the two-week mark, the number of civilians who are fleeing is increasing.
Since Feb. 24, 2022, more than 2.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Refuge Agency, which is headquartered in Geneva.
More than a million of those refugees are children, many of whom are unaccompanied, UNICEF said on Thursday.
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lena Gnes gives insight on her daily routine in a bomb shelter during the Russia-Ukraine war on 'America Reports.'
"US citizens should not travel to Ukraine," State Dept. Spokesperson Ned Price said Friday. "Those in Ukraine should depart immediately if it is safe for them to do so using commercial or other privately available options. US citizens who travel to Ukraine, especially with the purpose of participating in fighting there, they face significant risks, including the very real risk of capture or death."
Gintare Gnedojute, a Lithuanian nurse, has rented a bus to help transport children and families from war zones in Ukraine to Lithuania.
Transporting one bus full of children and families can take between four and five days due to long lines of people trying to cross the Ukrainian border and the logistics of traveling through combat areas with a large group of people, she told Fox News Digital.
Using personal funds — as well as donations from friends — Gnedojute, 36, set out to rent the bus on her own and use it to travel to dangerous war zones to evacuate children and bring them to a safe place in Lithuania.
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Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said Friday that Russia has started to make ground in its attempts to advance on the capital city of Kyiv.
“There's Russian bombardment and shelling going on quite violently as we speak,” Kirby told reporters. “And we do assess that the Russians are beginning to make more momentum on the ground towards Kyiv, particularly from the east.”
The news comes as defense officials have been sounding the alarm for weeks that Russian President Vladimir Putin will attempt to encircle the city to overthrow the democratically elected government and install a “puppet regime” of its own.
Fox News' Caitlin McFall contributed to this report
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday verified that Russian forces have attacked 26 health care centers in Ukraine between Feb. 24, when the invasion began, and Wednesday.
The 26 health care facilities include the children's hospital/maternity ward that Russian forces attacked Wednesday in Mariupol, leaving three dead and 17 injured.
"In total, 12 people died and 34 have been injured," WHO said in a tweet. "More incidents are being verified. WHO strongly condemns these attacks."
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Ukrainians from all walks of life are seeking shelter from the violence, and many Jewish charities have stepped up to help.
The endeavor comes amid the uproar over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stated goal to "de-Nazify" the Ukraine's government — a suggestion observers have scoffed at, especially since its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish.
"We are people of faith, and it is of critical importance that we turn to God in prayer at this moment of upheaval for the world order," said Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union (OU), one of the largest Orthodox Jewish organizations in the United States. "We pray for peace, and specifically that God endow the leaders of the free world the courage and wisdom to act decisively to prevent further destruction."
The OU has raised over $1 million so far, and its affiliated synagogues have raised millions more to help Ukrainians in their hour of need. The aid, Hauer explained, is going to Jewish and non-Jewish people alike.
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More than 200 workers have been working at gunpoint since Russian soldiers seized the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) on Feb. 24. Overnight shift employees who were supposed to work only for 12 hours have been running operations at the plant for two weeks.
Among the nuclear engineers there is Natalia Ruemmele's 63-year-old father.
"Basically, the power plant is held by people who have no clue about the nuclear security protocols," Ruemmele told Fox News via Zoom from Munich, Germany.
For more than 40 hours now, the power has been cut off at the NPP, leaving facilities on reserve diesel generators that "have a 48-hour capacity," according to transmission system operator Ukrenergo.
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German ambassador to the U.S. Emily Haber speaks about Germany's role in the Ukraine-Russia crisis and Biden announcing new sanctions against Russia.
A senior U.S. defense official said Friday that Ukraine has 56 working fighter jets that are flying around 5 to 10 sorties daily inside the country, according to Fox News' Jennifer Griffin.
Russia has air defense systems that cover most of Ukraine, many of them based in Belarus and Russia.
The official added that Poland's offer earlier this week to send a fleet of MiG-29 fighter jets into Ukraine isn't going to help the country and the U.S. instead is working to get more ground missiles and air defense systems into Ukraine, which officials assess to be more useful.
The site of the drone crash in Croatia. (AFP via Getty Images)
A drone that flew over several NATO countries all the way from the Ukrainian war zon e crashed overnight on the outskirts of the Croatian capital, Zagreb, triggering a loud blast and damaging parked cars but causing no injuries, the Associated Press reported Friday.
A NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the alliance’s “integrated air and missile defense tracked the flight path of an object which subsequently crashed in Zagreb.”
Earlier, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said “it is clear” it came from Ukraine. A statement issued by Croatia’s government said the “pilotless military aircraft” entered Croatian airspace from neighboring Hungary at a speed of 430 mph and an altitude of 4,300 feet.
“According to information I have so far, this flying object was Russian-manufactured, we are not sure whether it belongs to the Russian or Ukrainian army,” Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said.
Military experts of The War Zone online magazine said the aircraft is likely a Soviet-era Tu-141 “Strizh” reconnaissance drone that must have severely malfunctioned, according to the Associated Press. It said Ukraine is the only known current operator of the Tu-141, which has a wingspan of nearly 12 feet and weighs just over 6 tons.
Ukrainian defense ministry adviser Markian Lubkivskiy was quoted by Interfax news agency as denying the drone that crashed in Croatia was Ukrainian. He blamed Russia, while the Russian Embassy in Zagreb said that the drone was made in Ukraine and that the Russian forces stopped using Tu-141s since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Joe Biden announced Friday that along with the European Union and the Group of Seven countries, the U.S. will move to revoke "most favored nation" trade status for Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. (AP/Andrew Harnik)
President Biden said Friday that “we already know Putin’s war against Ukraine will never be a victory” and that the Russian leader is racking up failures as the invasion continues.
“He hoped to dominate Ukraine without a fight – he failed. He hoped to fracture European resolve – he failed,” Biden told reporters. “He hoped to weaken the transatlantic alliance – he failed. He hoped to split apart American democracies in terms of our positions – he failed.”
“The American people are united, the world is united and we stand with the people of Ukraine. We will not let autocrats and would-be emperors dictate the direction of the world,” Biden continued. “Democracies are rising to meet this moment, rallying the world to the side of peace and the side of security. We are showing are strength and we will not falter.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that he has had a "substantive conversation" with President Joe Biden where he "informed [him] about the crimes of Russia against the civilian population.
"We agreed on further steps to support the defense of Ukraine and increase sanctions against Russia," Zelenskyy added.
President Joe Biden said Friday that the West is going to “jointly announce several new steps to squeeze Putin and hold him even more accountable for his aggression against Ukraine.”
Biden said the countries will move to end normal trade relations with Russia.
“We are also taking a further step of abandoning imports of goods from several signature sectors of the Russian economy including seafood, vodka and diamonds,” Biden continued. “The G-7 will seek to deny Russia the ability to borrow from leading multinational institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.”
“Putin is the aggressor and Putin must pay the price,” Biden said.
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Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., organized a bipartisan trip to Poland over the March 4, 2022 weekend. Here members of Congress are at the border of Ukraine as refugees enter the country. Photo courtesy of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, with permission. (Photographer Brennan Heil)
A bipartisan group of lawmakers recounted harrowing scenes from the Ukraine border after witnessing the humanitarian crisis of refugees fleeing the war into Poland.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee organized the trip last weekend to see firsthand the aftermath of Russian President Vladimir Putin's all-out war on Ukraine and its civilians.
"It's just horrific," Meeks told Fox News Digital of the scenes at the Poland-Ukraine border. "It made me and a number of others almost want to break down in tears."
The members of Congress saw scores of cold women and children crossing to Poland, having to abruptly leave their peaceful lives and their belongings to flee for safety in a neighboring country. They witnessed "heartbreaking" goodbyes at the border where men aged 18-60 had to return to Ukraine to fight for freedom, while their families sought refuge in Poland.
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Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday, responding to a question about Russian attacks on civilians in Ukraine, said “we are clear that any intentional attack or targeting of civilians is a war crime, period.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking Friday in Romania with its President Klaus Iohannis, said the world is seeing “the Russian playbook” unfold in Ukraine.
“It includes lies, misinformation and the acts of aggression we are now witnessing,” she continued.
“We maintain that diplomacy is the way to resolve these issues that coexist with our commitment to ensure that our allies are strong and that there must be serious consequences and accountability for what Russia is doing.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis at a press availability Friday, March 11, 2022.
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The co-founder of a grassroots campaign to cold call 40 million Russian citizens told Fox News he hopes his effort will change public opinions inside the country about the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.
"What we try to do through these phone calls is to ask them, how much do they know about what is going on in Ukraine," said Paulius Senuta, co-founder of CallRussia.org. "If we can swing the sentiment of ‘this is a war, people are dying’ … we can stop [the] population [from] basically taking protection of" Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Senuta, along with around 40 other people, set up CallRussia.org over the course of just 120 hours. He says the goal of the campaign is to speak with the millions of Russians who he says support "mad man" Putin.
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President Biden on Friday will call for an end to normal trade relations with Russia, allowing for increased tariffs on imports from the country in addition to the crushing sanctions already imposed as a consequence of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Biden will make the announcement in conjunction with other G7 and European Union leaders, a senior administration official confirmed to Fox News' Griff Jenkins.
The move to revoke Russia's "most favored nation" status has bipartisan support and will require Congress to act to repeal Russia's Permanent Normal Trade Relations status, according to Reuters.
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An eastern Ukrainian official claimed Friday that a Russian missile has struck a care facility for disabled people, reports say.
The official added there were 330 people inside the building near Oskil at the time of the attack and at least 63 of those people have been evacuated since, according to the AFP.
"Luckily, there are no victims," the news agency quoted local emergency services as saying.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that his country's military has reached “a strategic turning point" in its fight against invading Russian forces.
“It’s impossible to say how many days we will still need to free our land, but it is possible to say that we will do it because... we have reached a strategic turning point," he said, without elaborating.
Zelenskyy spoke in a video showing him outside the presidential administration building in Kyiv. He also announced that authorities are working on 12 humanitarian corridors and trying to ensure needy people receive food, medicine and basic goods.
Zelenskyy's comments come as Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that there have been "certain positive shifts" in its talks with Ukraine.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Benjamin Hall reports in Kyiv on Ukrainians bracing for an attack on the city.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin speak to each other during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, on Friday. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that progress is being made in talks with Ukraine, but declined to elaborate, according to Reuters.
"There are certain positive shifts, negotiators on our side tell me," Putin reportedly said. "I will talk about all of this later."
Putin made the comments after a meeting in Moscow Friday with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, where he insisted that mounting economic sanctions against Russia would not limit its development, Reuters also reported.
The United Nations' human rights office said Friday that it has received "credible reports of several cases of Russian forces using cluster munitions, including in populated areas."
"Due to their wide area effects, the use of cluster munitions in populated areas is incompatible with the international humanitarian law principles governing the conduct of hostilities," it said in a statement.
"We have so far recorded 549 civilian deaths and 957 injuries since the armed attack began on 24 February, although the actual figure could be much higher," it added.
NATO announced last week that it also has seen the use of cluster bombs being deployed in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that his country should help bring people into Ukraine that the Kremlin claims are willing to fight for its eastern separatist regions.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed during a Security Council meeting in Moscow that Russia has received "more than 16,000 applications" from Middle Easterners, a group he said "helped in the fight against ISIS".
"So if you see that there are people who want to come, especially on a voluntary basis, especially not motivated by money, ready to come and help people living in the Donbas, well, we should meet them halfway and help them to get to the combat zone," Putin said.
Shoigu also said he thinks Russian fighters in Donbas need more anti-aircraft and other sophisticated weapons -- and that they should be allowed to use the large quantity of “trophy” weapons taken off Ukrainian soldiers including javelin anti-tank missiles.
Fox News' Amy Kellogg and Amtissal Aboulissan contributed to this report.
(Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP)
Vice President Kamala Harris is seen meeting with U.S. and Polish troops at Warsaw Chopin International Airport in Warsaw, Poland, on Friday.
Current Russian military activity in Ukraine. (Fox News)
Russian forces are continuing their offensive toward Kyiv on Friday, trying to break through Ukrainian defenses in Kukhari, 56 miles to its northwest, and Demidov, 25 miles north, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in a statement.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk also said buses would be sent Friday to multiple Kyiv suburbs to bring people to the capital, and to bring aid to those staying behind.
Vereshchuk added that Ukrainian authorities are trying yet again Friday to send aid into the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol -- the site of a maternity and children's hospital bombing Wednesday -- and bring evacuees out to the city of Zaporizhzhia. Repeated previous attempts have failed, as aid and rescue convoys were targeted by Russian shelling.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ukrainian servicemen drive off Thursday in a Russian tank they captured after fighting with Russian troops near Brovary, outside of the capital of Kyiv. (Reuters)
The U.K. Ministry of Defense said Friday that Russia is "likely seeking to reset and reposture its forces for renewed offensive activity in the coming days."
"This will probably include operations against the capital Kyiv," it wrote on Twitter, adding that "it remains highly unlikely that Russia has successfully achieved the objectives outlined in its pre-invasion plan."
The development comes as two Ukrainian servicemen were killed and six people were wounded in Russian airstrikes Friday on the Lutsk military airfield, according to the head of the surrounding Volyn region, Yuriy Pohulyayko.
The mayor of Ivano-Frankiivsk, Ruslan Martsinkiv, had ordered residents in the neighboring areas to head to shelters after an air raid alert. The mayor of Lutsk had also announced an airstrike near the airport.
The strikes were far to the west from the main Russian offensive -- some in an area close to Ukraine's border with Belarus -- and could indicate a new direction of the war.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko is currently in Moscow Friday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
In an interview this week with a German newspaper, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy downplayed the most extreme threats from Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, calling them "a bluff."
Putin notched up his rhetoric as the fighting continued only because "nothing else is working for him," Zelenskyy told the newspaper Die Zeit.
Recent moves by Putin have included the placement of Russia’s nuclear preparedness on "high alert" as Western leaders imposed tough economic sanctions and made what Putin described as "aggressive statements," Die Zeit reported Wednesday. (The newspaper's name in English is "The Time.")
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U.S. doctors are providing free telehealth services for Ukrainian soldiers, civilians, and refugees amid Russia's invasion through an app connected to the Starlink internet that Tesla set up in the embattled eastern European country.
According to a news release provided exclusively to Fox News Digital, VSee developed Aimee, a telehealth app that "brings together more than 2,000 U.S.-based physicians to provide free on-demand doctor visits covering all medical specialties, including Emergency Room and trauma."
VSee is a video telehealth platform with a 14-year history supporting health efforts in North America, the Middle East, Africa, conflict zones, the International Space Station, and refugee camps.
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A Ukrainian serviceman takes a photograph of a damaged church after shelling in a residential district in Mariupol, Ukraine, Thursday, March 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
The Russian military has caused $119 billion in damage in Ukraine, the country's First Deputy Economy Minister of Ukraine Denys Kudin said, according to Ukrainian media.
Refugees fleeing Ukraine have reached 2.5 million and another 2 million people have been displaced within the country, according to the United Nations.
In the besieged city of Mariupol residents have had no water, heat or electricity for days.
Marina Levinchuk, who fled the city, told the New York Times residents are melting snow for drinking water.
“That’s what’s going on in Mariupol now,” she said. “There are just bodies lying in the streets."
At least 2.5 million Ukrainian have fled the country since Russia invaded late last month as of Friday, according to Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
That number includes more than 1 million children.
Grandi said the organization also estimates about two million people have been displaced within Ukraine. "Millions forced to leave their homes by this senseless war," he tweeted Friday morning.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson walks past children's sunflower pictures, made in solidarity with Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian invasion, displayed in a window as he leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Prime Minister's Questions at the Houses of Parliament, in London, Wednesday, March 9, 2022.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it has been "absolutely agonizing" to refuse Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's requests for a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
Both the U.K. and the U.S. have nixed the idea over fears it would lead to an escalation and potentially pull the countries into the war.
"We've had some very frank conversations and ones which have been deeply upsetting because there is a line beyond which, quite frankly, the UK and NATO would be deemed to be in direct conflict with Russia," Johnson told Sky News in an interview published Friday.
"It's agonizing, absolutely agonizing. I've had this conversation at least a couple of times with Volodymyr but I think the difficulty is that it will require me to order RAF jets, UK pilots into the air with a mission to shoot down Russian fast jets."
WARNING: Graphic footage— The Russians are getting ‘more and more brutal’ with their attacks, Oleksandr Danylyuk, former minister of finance, tells ‘Fox News Live.’
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris disembarks from Air Force Two upon arrival at Warsaw Chopin Airport in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, March 9, 2022, as she travels on a 3-day trip to Poland and Romania for meetings about the war in Ukraine. (Saul Loeb/Pool via AP)
Vice President Kamala Harris and Romania's president will meet Friday to discuss growing concerns about the influx of displaced people fleeing Ukraine for Romania and elsewhere in Eastern Europe due to Russia's invasion.
It's a problem that Biden administration officials and European leaders warn will likely get more complicated in the days and weeks ahead.
Harris' talks in Bucharest with President Klaus Iohannis come after she spent Thursday in Poland, which has already welcomed some 1.5 million Ukrainians since the invasion began.
She met in Warsaw with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Ukrainian refugees, and others in hopes of getting a fuller picture of the unfolding humanitarian crisis.
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The World Health Organization told Ukraine to safely destroy any potentially dangerous pathogens held in research laboratories before and during Russia’s invasion to prevent possible “spills” and the spread of a disease, according to a report.
The “WHO has strongly recommended to the Ministry of Health in Ukraine and other responsible bodies to destroy high-threat pathogens to prevent any potential spills," the agency told Reuters this week.
The WHO didn’t say if Ukraine actually destroyed the pathogens or if the recommendation was made in relation to the war.
The agency said it has advised Ukraine on pathogen safety for years and it encourages "the safe and secure disposal of any pathogens" for every country.
The report comes as Russia has made meritless claims that the U.S. is conducting biological weapons research in "biolabs" in Ukraine. Both the U.S. and Ukraine deny the claims, calling them "gaslighting."
A Chicago woman who spent more than a week helping displaced Ukrainians in Poland — and who will be returning there again soon — revealed to Fox News Digital what it was like assisting refugees who fled Ukraine as Russian troops attacked and ignited the Russia-Ukraine war.
Yulia Skuibida, 39, was born and raised in Kyiv; she's lived in Chicago for the past 17 years. When she heard that Russia had invaded Ukraine, she felt she had to take immediate action. The very next day, she boarded a flight to Poland.
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Bret Baier discusses the dispersed Russian convoy and where Ukrainian forces are pushing back on ‘Fox News @ Night.’
Ukrainians are so ready to fight back against the invading Russian army, some of them are being turned away because there aren't enough weapons for all of them.
But that doesn't mean they can't help in other ways in the fight for their nation.
One of them is Mark Savchuk, Kyiv-based coordinator of the Ukraine Volunteer Journalists Initiative, which was created by public relations and media experts as a way to better communicate with Western journalists and give a sense of what's happening on the ground.
Click here to read more on Fox News.
The United Nations Security Council on Friday will hold a meeting on Moscow's baseless claims that United States is conducting biological weapons research in "biolabs" across war-torn Ukraine.
The U.S. and Ukraine strongly deny the claims and warn they could be a "false flag."
“This is exactly the kind of false flag effort we have warned Russia might initiate to justify a biological or chemical weapons attack," Olivia Dalton, spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, said late Thursday. “We’re not going to let Russia gaslight the world or use the U.N. Security Council as a venue for promoting their disinformation."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his Thursday night address said the claims worry him because "we have often been convinced that if you want to know Russia’s plans, they are what Russia accuses others of."
Russia has been accused of using chemical weapons in the past such as the attempted poisoning of Putin critic Alexei Navalny and of suporting Syria, which has used chemical weapons on its own people.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
U.K's Ministry of Defense said in a Friday morning update it's "highly unlikely that Russia has successfully achieved the objectives outlined in its pre-invasion plan."
The update added that Russian troops are making "limited progress."
"Logistical issues that have hampered the Russian advance persist, as does strong Ukrainian resistance," the ministry said. Russia is likely seeking to reset and re-posture its forces for renewed offensive activity in the coming days. This will probably include operations against the capital Kyiv."
Russia and China are doubling down on claims that the United States is conducting biological weapons research in "biolabs" across war-torn Ukraine – assertions that leaders in Washington and Kyiv have called absurd.
Russian diplomat Dmitry Polyanski has requested the United Nations Security Council discuss the alleged research at a meeting Friday, the Kremlin-aligned media outlet RIA Novosti reported earlier.
The report also highlighted allegations from Russia’s Defense Ministry that claim the U.S. spent $200 million on Ukrainian labs for a purported "bioweapons program." Russia claims its troops uncovered evidence during Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which he calls a "special military operation."
"This is exactly the kind of false flag effort we have warned Russia might initiate to justify a biological or chemical weapons attack," Olivia Dalton, a spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, told Fox News Digital Thursday. "Russia has a well-documented history of using chemical weapons and has long maintained a biological weapons program in violation of international law."
After Russian President Vladimir Putin floated the idea of nationalizing companies that refuse to do business in Russia over the Ukraine invasion, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki suggested Thursday that such a move would further damage Russia economically.
"The rights of those investors and colleagues who are staying in Russia and are working in Russia, must be fully protected," Putin said Thursday, according to a report in RIA Novosti.
"I am asking the government to keep this in mind. Those who are planning to close business - we must act decisively… As the head of the government proposed, we must introduce external control and to transfer these business to those who want to work."
"We have seen reports that Russia may be considering seizing the assets of U.S. and international companies that have announced plans to suspend operations in Russia or to withdraw from the Russian market," Psaki noted in a string of tweets Thursday.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he joined President Biden and Colombian President Ivan Duque at the White House Thursday.
"From countering Russian aggression in Ukraine, to our partnership to address irregular migration and climate change, the U.S.-Colombia relationship is strong and effective," Blinken tweeted of the meeting.
Blinken just got back from a week-long trip to Europe where he met with NATO allies.
Biden said Thursday he planned to designate Colombia as a major non-NATO ally.
Click here to read Fox News' live coverage from Thursday.
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