Tag Archives: 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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Alleged Ukrainian strike appears to kill large number of Russian troops housed next to ammunition cache

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A Russian defence ministry spokesperson talks about the Makiivka shelling in Moscow, Russia, on January 2. (Russian Defence Ministry/Reuters)

An apparent Ukrainian strike in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine appears to have killed a large number of Russian troops housed next to an ammunition cache, according to the Ukrainian military, pro-Russian military bloggers and former officials.

According to both Ukrainian and pro-Russian accounts, the strike took place just after midnight on Sunday, New Year’s Day, on a vocational school housing Russian conscripts in Makiivka, in the Donetsk region.

The attack has led to vocal criticism of the Russian military from pro-Russian military bloggers, who claimed that the troops lacked protection and were reportedly being quartered next to a large cache of ammunition, which is said to have exploded when Ukrainian HIMARS rockets hit the school.

The Ukrainian military claimed that around 400 Russian soldiers were killed and 300 were wounded, without directly acknowledging a role. CNN cannot independently confirm those numbers or the weapons used in the strike. Some pro-Russian military bloggers have also estimated that the number of dead and wounded could run in the hundreds.

The Russian Ministry of Defense on Monday acknowledged the attack and claimed that “63 Russian servicemen” died. 

Video reportedly from the scene of the attack is circulating widely on Telegram, including on an official Ukrainian military channel. It shows a pile of smoking rubble, in which almost no part of the building appears to be standing.

“Greetings and congratulations” to the separatists and conscripts who “were brought to the occupied Makiivka and crammed into the building of vocational school,” the Strategic Communications Directorate of the Chief Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Telegram. “Santa packed around 400 corpses of [Russian soldiers] in bags.”

The Russian Ministry of Defense said that the Ukrainian attack used HIMARS rockets. 

Daniil Bezsonov, a former official in the Russia-backed Donetsk administration, said on Telegram that “apparently, the high command is still unaware of the capabilities of this weapon.”

A Russian propagandist who blogs about the war effort on Telegram, Igor Girkin, claimed that the building was almost completely destroyed by the secondary detonation of ammunition stores. 

Girkin has long decried Russian generals whom he claims direct the war effort far from the frontline. Girkin was previously minister of defense of the self-proclaimed, Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic, and was found guilty by a Dutch court of mass murder for his involvement in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014. 

Sergey Markov, another pro-Russian military blogger, said there was “a great deal of sloppiness” on the part of the Russian command.

Boris Rozhin, who also blogs about the war effort under the nickname Colonelcassad, said that “incompetence and an inability to grasp the experience of war continue to be a serious problem.”

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December 23, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with defense industry officials in Tula, Russia, on December 23. (Sputnik/Russian Presidential Press Office/Kremlin/Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin is meeting on Friday with defense industry officials gathered from across the country in the city of Tula to discuss “problems” related to the supply of weapons to the Russian military, and how to improve deliveries and the weapons’ characteristics. 

“The most important, key task for the military-industrial complex enterprise is to supply everything necessary to the front-line units — weapons, equipment and munition — of the necessary volume and the required quality in the fastest way,” Putin said at the start of the meeting, which he said is taking place in the “city of guns.” There is a large arms plant in the city.

“Moreover, it is important to considerably improve the characteristics of supplied armaments in the context of the latest battle experience,” Putin said. “I look forward to your proposals on addressing the problems that are inevitable in this large piece of work and how we will move forward and make sure there are fewer of them.” 

“A key task in this is to set up a feedback loop between the military-industrial complex and the units involved in the special military operation,” he said, using his term for the invasion of Ukraine.  

“Your specialists go to the frontline helping to repair quickly the damaged equipment and making it operational again, to test how it works in combat and make changes to the prototypes to improve their characteristics,” he said. 

Putin meets with leadership of military industrial complex enterprises in Tula, Russia, on Friday. (Sputnik/Russian Presidential Press Office/Kremlin/Reuters)

Some context: There have been reports of basic equipment shortages for Russian troops since the beginning of the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian citizens are now crowdfunding to equip soldiers deployed to Ukraine as winter closes in on the battlefield.

In the Chuvashia region, where some of the mobilized staged protests in the fall, Telegram channels said that families had gone into debt buying equipment. And in Tambov, in central Russia, 8th grade schoolchildren also raised money for socks for the troops.

While many appeals focus on preventing hypothermia among soldiers fighting without adequate clothing and shelter in sub-zero temperatures, some also try to source thermal imagery devices, two-way radios, body armor and even drones.

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December 18, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at a press conference on June 16. (Ludovic Marin/Pool/AFP/Getty Images)

Ukraine is criticizing FIFA for refusing to show a video message from President Volodymyr Zelensky in Qatar’s Lusail Stadium ahead of the World Cup final Sunday. 

The video, which was recorded in English, was meant to be an “appeal for peace,” according to a written statement provided to CNN by Ukraine’s presidential office Saturday. 

“Qatar supported the President’s initiative, but FIFA blocked the initiative and will not allow the video address of the president to be shown before the final game,” the statement said. 

CNN has reached out to FIFA but has not received a comment. Qatar has not publicly commented on the request from Ukraine.

CNN first reported on the story when a source within Zelensky’s office said the request to deliver the video message had been rebuffed.  

CNN received a video copy of President Zelensky’s pre-recorded speech on Saturday.

During the 1 minute, 43 second video, Zelensky says soccer is meant to bring the world together and calls for “the World Cup, but not world war.”

“This World Cup proved time again that different countries and nationalities can decide who is the strongest in the fair play, but not in the playing with fire — on the green playing field and not on the red battlefield,” Zelensky says in the address. 

The Ukrainian presidential office told CNN they were informed that FIFA regarded the message as too political and said they had sent a copy of the text of the address to FIFA headquarters in Switzerland on Friday.

“There is nothing political in the president’s appeal that gives political color to the sporting event, namely, there are no subjective evaluations, political signals, and even more so no accusations,” the statement said. 

The Ukrainian presidential office added there is “still time for FIFA to correct their error.” 

“FIFA should not be afraid that words of peace will be heard at the global soccer celebration that represents peace,” the statement said.

Ukraine’s presidential office also said it will distribute the video independently if FIFA doesn’t air it. It said the organization’s decision to block the clip would show “FIFA has lost its valuable understanding of soccer — as a game that unites peoples, rather than supporting existing divisions.”

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Satellite imagery appears to show damage at Russian air base

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Members of the public pray at Kyiv Pechersk Lavra in Kyiv on December 4. (Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)

Several regions of Ukraine have reported interruptions to power and water supplies amid freezing temperatures after about 70 Russian missiles were fired at targets across the country.

The Ukrainian Air Force said the great majority of missiles were intercepted, but some appear to have reached their targets.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Russia “tried to implement its criminal plan — to plunge Ukraine into darkness and cold. The enemy once again failed in its plan.”

“The country’s energy system is functioning and remains intact,” Shmyhal added.

But he said there were “hits to power facilities in Kyiv region, Vinnytsia region and Odesa region. In some regions, emergency shutdowns were forced to balance the system and avoid accidents. Rescuers are already working to eliminate the consequences of the attack.”

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that the missile attacks showed Ukraine still needed more air defenses.

“Russia has fired another barrage of missiles at our critical civilian infrastructure trying to deprive people of power, water, and heating amid freezing temperatures. The more war crimes Russia commits, the more weapons should be provided to Ukraine to end Russian terror sooner,” Kuleba tweeted.

Impacted areas: Odesa appears to have been among the worst affected regions. Maksym Marchenko, head of Odesa regional state administration, said energy infrastructure was damaged and there were also hits to civilian buildings, wounding two people.

“Currently, there is no electricity supply in Odesa city and most communities of Odesa district. All services are on the ground and have already started to restore power supply,” the official said.

One of Ukraine’s major electricity providers, DTEK, said there were “emergency blackouts” in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. These are in addition to scheduled power outages already in effect.

“We will resume the stabilization schedules as soon as the situation in the power system stabilizes,” DTEK said.

Oleksiy Kuleba, head of Kyiv region military administration, said on Ukrainian television that “one energy infrastructure facility was hit in the Kyiv region. The attack was extremely dynamic, there were many targets. We will be able to give a clearer analysis of what happened within the next two hours. I can say that we do not see any critical consequences.”

Kuleba added: “Emergency shutdowns continue in Kyiv region now. Currently, about 40% of subscribers are without power supply. This is an emergency shutdown. We are currently consulting on when we will be able to supply power to all consumers.”

The Ivano-Frankivsk region also reported power cuts as a result of Russian missile attacks Monday, with the head of the region’s state administration, Svitlana Onyshchuk, saying the regional power distribution company had reported that “due to massive shelling of the energy infrastructure facilities,” NPC Ukrenergo had reduced electricity capacity in the Prykarpattia area by one-third. Prykarpattia is located near the Carpathian mountains in western Ukraine.



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Putin signs law to mobilize Russian citizens convicted of serious crimes 

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Russian soldiers under the partial mobilization train in Rostov, Russia on October 21. (Arkady Budnitsky/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law Friday that allows for conscripting citizens with un-expunged or outstanding convictions for various serious crimes.

Russians convicted of murder, robbery, larceny, drug trafficking and other grave offenses under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation can be called up for military service, according to the law.

That makes it possible to mobilize hundreds of thousands of people who have been sentenced to probation or have recently been released from colonies who were previously forbidden to serve.

The only group of criminals exempted from the decree are those who committed sex crimes against minors, treason, spying or terrorism. Also excluded are those convicted of the attempted assassination of a government official, hijacking an aircraft, extremist activity and illegal handling of nuclear materials and radioactive substances.

The Kremlin has already mobilized an additional 18,000 soldiers above its goal of 300,000 to fight in its war in Ukraine from the general male population of Russia, Putin said Friday.  

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October 15, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Russian Armed Forces service personnel who took part in operations in Syria, including Sergey Surovikin, at the Kremlin on December 28, 2017. Russian Presidency

There’s a new general in charge of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s devastating war on Ukraine — and he has a reputation for brutality.

After Ukraine made gains in its counteroffensive in recent weeks, Russia’s Ministry of Defense named Sergey Surovikin its new overall commander for operations in the war.

Notably, he previously played an instrumental role in Russia’s operations in Syria as Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces. During these operations Russian combat aircraft caused widespread devastation in rebel-held area.

CNN spoke to a former Russian air force lieutenant, Gleb Irisov, who served under him in Syria.

He said Surovikin was “very close to Putin’s regime” and “never had any political ambitions, so always executed a plan exactly as ​the government wanted.”

Analysts say that while Surovikin’s appointment is highly unlikely to change how Russian forces are carrying out the war, it does speak to Putin’s dissatisfaction with previous command operations. It is also, in part, likely meant to placate the nationalist and pro-war base within Russia itself, according to Mason Clark, a Russia expert at the Institute for the Study of War think tank.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has called for Russia to “take more drastic measures” including the use of “low-yield nuclear weapons” in Ukraine following recent setbacks, welcomed the appointment of Surovikin.

Praise from Kadyrov, who is ​a key Putin ally, is significant, perhaps, as he himself is notorious for crushing all forms of dissent.

“They hated him”: As the commander’s one-time subordinate in Syria, Irisov said he saw Surovikin several times during some missions and spoke to high-ranking officers under him.

“He made a lot of people very angry – they hated him,” Irisov said, describing how the “direct” and “straight” general was disliked at headquarters because of the way he tried to implement his infantry experience into the air force.

Just two days after Surovikin’s appointment last Saturday, Russia launched its heaviest bombardment of Ukraine since the early days of the war.

Surovikin is “more familiar with cruise missiles, maybe he used his connections and experience to organize this chain of devastating attacks,” Irisov said​, referencing reports that cruise missiles have been among the weapons deployed by Russia.

But Clark, from the Study of War think tank, suggests the general’s promotion is “more of a framing thing to inject new blood into the Russian command system” and “put on this tough nationalist face.”

You can read Sarah Dean’s full report here.

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August 26, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies said Friday it complete the sale of its stake in a Russian company producing jet fuel.  

The comment followed the publication on Thursday of an article by the French newspaper Le Monde reporting that the “French oil and gas giant and its local partner Novatek manage a gas field whose product, once transformed into kerosene, is used to fuel Russian fighter planes engaged in the war in Ukraine. Terneftegaz, the company that runs the field, is 49% owned by TotalEnergies and 51% by Novatek.”

In response to the Le Monde report, TotalEnergies issued a statement Friday saying that while Terneftegaz produces jet fuel at its Purovsky plant in western Siberia, it does not have the certification to be sold inside Russia.

“The entirety of stable condensate produced at the Purovsky Plant from the feedstock coming from NOVATEK’s subsidiaries and affiliates, including Terneftegas, is delivered to the Ust-Luga processing complex in the Leningrad Region. The range of products derived during processing at the Ust-Luga Complex includes jet fuel (Jet A-1) that is exclusively exported outside Russia, and it does not even have the certification to be sold inside the country,” TotalEnergies said. 

The company said the media reports and calls to investigate its activities and activities by its joint companies have “absolutely no basis in fact.”

The company then concluded that “no, TotalEnergies does not produce jet fuel for the Russian army.”

Following that statement, TotalEnergies also that it sold “its 49% interest in the Russian Termokarstovoye gas field to Novatek,” and that it “continues to implement its principles of conduct.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Friday called on TotalEnergies to pull out of Russia. 

Kuleba said via Twitter that his country is “grateful to (French President) @EmmanuelMacron and the French people for supporting Ukraine,” but “against this background, it is a disgrace to France when French companies assist the murder of Ukrainians and the ruining of our cities. @TotalEnergies, pull out of Russia!”

Earlier this year, TotalEnergies also stated that it would stop buying Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022 at the latest.

The company, however, said that it will continue to purchase natural gas from Russia.

“Unlike oil supply, it appears that Europe’s gas logistics capacities make it difficult to do without Russian gas in the next two to three years without affecting the continent’s energy supply,” TotalEnergies said in a statement. 

The company said it will mobilize oil products from other places, especially diesel produced by the SATORP refinery in Saudi Arabia.

TotalEnergies’ contracts for Russian oil accounted for 12% of Russia’s diesel exports to the European Union in 2021, according to the statement.

The company reiterated that it doesn’t operate any oil or gas fields or liquified natural gas plants in Russia and is moving toward a gradual suspension of its activities in Russia, according to the statement. 



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At least 22 killed in attack on train station in southeastern Ukraine

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The threat of nuclear calamity has hung for months over Russia’s half-year war in Ukraine.

Those fears were renewed in the last two weeks after shelling intensified around the massive Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, which has been under Russian control since March.

Attacks at the complex, which have ramped up as fighting flares in Ukraine’s south, have sparked concerns about the specter of nuclear disaster, leading the United Nations’ watchdog and world leaders to demand that a mission be allowed to visit the site and assess the damage.

There’s been a barrage of accusations made by each side about security and military action at and around the plant. The lack of independent access to the plant makes it impossible to verify what is happening there. Over the past month, a number of rockets and shells have landed on the territory of the plant, according to satellite imagery analyzed by CNN.

So just how real is the risk that the fighting poses?

Nuclear experts are keen to defuse some of the more alarmist warnings, explaining that the main threat is closest to the plant itself and doesn’t justify Europe-wide alerts. Experts are particularly wary of any comparisons to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, a repeat of which is incredibly unlikely, they said.

“It’s not very likely that this plant will be damaged,” Leon Cizelj, president of the European Nuclear Society, told CNN. “In the very unlikely case that it is, the radioactive problem would mostly affect Ukrainians that live nearby,” rather than spreading throughout eastern Europe as was the case with Chernobyl, he said.

Russia’s invasion triggered fears about nuclear safety at the start of the war

In late February and March, the Russian occupation of Chernobyl in northern Ukraine triggered fears that safety standards inside the exclusion zone could be compromised.

During the first week of the war, the plant and its surrounding territory fell into the hands of Russian troops. They withdrew on March 31, according to Ukraine’s nuclear operator.

Ukraine’s government said that Russian forces had looted and destroyed a lab close to the abandoned nuclear plant, which was used to monitor radioactive waste.

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August 15, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz holds a joint press conference with the Prime Minister of Norway in Oslo, Norway on August 15. (Kay Nietfeld/picture alliance/Getty Images)

European leaders on Monday discussed a potential Schengen or European Union visa ban for Russian citizens.

It was important to impose sanctions on “those who are responsible for the war, and a lot of oligarchs and those who are financially and economically profiting from this Putin regime, and we will continue to do so,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters at a joint press conference in Oslo.

However he urged that leaders should “also understand that there are a lot of people fleeing from Russia because they disagree with the Russian regime. … And all the decisions that we make should not make it more complicated for them to go for freedom and to leave the country, to get away from their leadership and the dictatorship in Russia.”

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin disagreed. She noted that while it is “not a black and white issue,” she understood “the frustration that people have now in Europe about Russians traveling like nothing has happened.”

“I think it’s not right that Russian citizens can travel, enter Europe, enter the Schengen area, be tourists, see the sights while Russia is killing people in Ukraine. It’s wrong,” she said, adding that leaders would need to discuss the matter in the European Council and amongst Schengen area — which is a zone where 26 European countries — members.

The Prime Minister of Norway — a Schengen member but not, however, in the European Union — pointed that Russians have “limited” opportunity to travel because of severe air restrictions imposed by Europe.

He also added that travel allowed Russians to gain a different perspective on the war in Ukraine.

“They get a black and white picture in Russia because of the propaganda. So Russians being in other parts of the world, seeing this conflict from the other side, getting other information is also a perspective that needs to be taken into account,” Jonas Gahr Støre told reporters. 

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Ukrainian military says another Russian storage site in Kherson was destroyed

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Ukrainian officials say that another long-range attack on a Russian storage site in the Kherson region has caused substantial damage.

Serhii Khlan, adviser to the head of the Kherson civil military administration, said on Ukrainian television that “another depot of ammunition and military equipment, which was brought by the enemy from Crimea, was destroyed yesterday on the outskirts of Skadovsk.”

Skadovsk is on the Black Sea coast, about 80 kilometers from the nearest Ukrainian frontline position. A target there was struck last week.

Khlan said: “The turning point in the military operations in the Kherson direction took place more than two weeks ago – due to HIMARS, thanks to which we began to knock out depots in the rear positions of the enemy.”

He said that in Skadovsk “there was a large amount of fuel and lubricant materials, and engineering equipment, which they are now driving from Crimea to repair the logistics arteries that were damaged by our military forces.”

Social media video Saturday night showed a large and continuing fire in the region, according to community Telegram channels, but could not be exactly geolocated.

“From the evening until the morning there was such a flame, and according to the locals, they had never seen such a flame,” Khlan said.

Fighting continues along Kherson’s northern borders, where Ukrainian forces have made moderate progress against entrenched Russian defenses.

Dmytro Butriy, temporary acting head of Kherson region military administration, said 46 settlements had emptied because of the fighting, which is in an area of small villages and rolling farmland.

“There are villages that are practically destroyed, by 90%,” he said. “They are still under constant shelling, the lion’s share of the population has left there. But people still remain in some settlements.”

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