Russia-Ukraine live updates: U.S., Canada and European leaders vow to cut off some Russian banks

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Ukraine is a member of NATO. The article has been corrected.

The Pentagon on Saturday denied that the United States was involved in Ukrainian naval operations in the Black Sea, after Russian officials accused the U.S. military of operating reconnaissance and combat aircraft in the area.

“Russian claims that the United States was involved in any way with Ukrainian naval operations near the Zmiiny Island are false,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby wrote on Twitter, referring to a Ukrainian island in the Black Sea.

“We did not provide ISR or any other support," he said, using an acronym for Intelligence, Reconnaissance and Surveillance. "Chalk this up to just one more lie by the Russian Ministry of Defense.”

According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, U.S. combat and reconnaissance drones aided 16 Ukrainian navy boats in their Friday “attack” against the country’s Black Sea Fleet, the state-run news agency TASS reported.

“I would like to focus your attention that during the attack of Ukrainian boats, US strategic unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), Global Hawk and MQ-9A Reaper, were hovering over the area of provocation," TASS quoted Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov as saying.

“It is highly likely that the American UAVs were directing the Ukrainian boats against the ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet,” he said.

The Black Sea lies between Europe and Asia and is a point of contention for Moscow. Russia occupies its northeastern shores, while the rest is bordered by six other countries: Bulgaria, Georgia, , Romania, Turkey and Ukraine. Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey are NATO members.

When Nazar Cherniha, 34, heard the alarm on Saturday morning, he hurried toward the designated safe location with his wife and friends. As he stepped into the doorway, he heard a massive blast. A missile had ripped into a large apartment building nearby, raining glass and concrete onto the street.

Cherniha said his neighbors didn’t panic, but they were frightened. Two surveillance camera videos, verified by The Washington Post, show that the missile hit the building from the west. No one was killed in the blast, according to a report from Reuters.

Cherniha said he knows that at least one person was injured, and video posted by Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs shows firefighters rescuing a person from the building. After witnessing the missile hit, Cherniha said he no longer feels fear and is ready to fight. He added, “we will win this war.”

Dozens of private homes in the Donetsk and Sumy regions of eastern Ukraine have been destroyed by Russian shelling, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova said Saturday.

Increasing numbers of people have lost their homes in the past day, Markarova told reporters, and a 7-year-old girl in the Sumy region died in a blast. She said Russian troops also continue to attack civilian and military infrastructure in Kyiv and the northeastern city of Kharkiv.

Citing the tens of thousands of people who have fled Ukraine, Markarova called the crisis “a major humanitarian catastrophe in the center of Europe.”

Outnumbered Ukrainian forces continued to counter Russian attacks on their capital Kyiv early Saturday after hours of street fighting overnight. Earlier, Russian forces captured the Chernobyl nuclear power plant site, as well as Snake Island on the Black Sea.

A young man posted a live stream to TikTok while sheltering underground during an air raid on Thursday. In Russia, antiwar protesters posted images and videos of gathering crowds to Twitter. And massive open Telegram groups have filled with first-person updates, worries and chatter from residents of cities under siege.

These kinds of posts have flooded in since Russia launched its attack on Ukraine this week. Most of the accounts don’t belong to professional journalists or activists, but to people coping with a traumatic situation or to make their opposition heard. That means most people may not have the security experience or knowledge to protect their identities or location. Without the right settings, a simple social media update could expose people to Russian military intelligence and they could be targeted for retaliation, either online or in real life.

It’s a worst-case scenario that social media companies are all too familiar with from other conflicts around the world and even protests in the United States.

In the past few days, some major tech companies have announced ways to help Ukrainians and others protect and even delete their accounts. Google on Friday tweeted that it had automatically increased security protections for people with Google accounts in the area. Google’s announcement came after Twitter ran down the basic precautions people in conflict zones should take when posting online in a thread earlier in the week.Facebook’s head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said on Thursday the service had turned on a new feature in Ukraine that lets people lock their accounts by turning on certain privacy settings.

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine entered a third day on Saturday, calls on social media grew louder for a boycott of Russia and its goods, as an act of solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

In Canada, liquor stores in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador announced Friday that they would stop selling Russian spirits.

The Newfoundland Labrador Liquor Corporation, which is responsible for importing, selling and distributing alcohol within the province, announced on Twitter that it would “remove products of Russian origin from its shelves,” adding: “These include Russian Standard Vodka and Russian Standard Platinum Vodka.”

Some Canadian consumers welcomed the move, praising it as an “excellent decision” on Twitter, while others were more skeptical. “What is this gonna do?” one critic posted. “NL Liquor and other liquor boards have already bought and paid for the products. It is not going to hurt them one bit.”

Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich released a statement on Saturday stating that he was giving up control of the team. Abramovich, while ceasing control of the team, didn’t indicate that he planned to sell the team.

His announcement comes after members of British Parliament encouraged him to give up his assets, including the British soccer club. Abramovich, a Russian businessman who has owned the team since 2003, has been a supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin and could be making the move to protect the club from potential sanctions brought down against him.

“I have always taken decisions with the Club’s best interest at heart,” Abramovich said in the statement. “I remain committed to these values. That is why I am today giving trustees of Chelsea’s charitable Foundation the stewardship and care of Chelsea FC. I believe that currently they are in the best position to look after the interests of the Club, players, staff, and fans.”

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this week, the United States, Great Britain and the European Union issued retaliatory sanctions against Russia. Abramovich, who has ties to Putin and is known for his exploits in Western jurisdictions, is seen as someone who could be targeted.

A cargo ship and an oil tanker off the southern tip of Ukraine in the Black Sea were struck by missiles Friday, sparking fires, a Ukrainian shipping company said.

At about 12:10 p.m. local time, missiles hit the bunker of the Moldovan-registered vessel Millennium Spirit, according to a statement from Vladimir Ivantsov, manager of Stark Shipping Ukraine.

The ship was targeted, Ivantsov said, because it was carrying about 600 metric tons of fuel for Ukrainian forces.

Two members of the 10-person crew were seriously injured, Ivantsov said.

Less than an hour later, Ivantsov said, a rocket hit the stern of the Panamanian-registered vessel Namura Queen. The ship had been on its way to load grain at a port near Odessa when the missile struck, he said.

Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova confirmed to reporters Saturday that Ukraine attributes the attacks on both ships to Russia. She called it “a flagrant violation of the international law of the sea.”