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Brittney Griner: After meager rations in a Russian penal colony, the basketball star is welcomed back to the US with a Christmas tree and barbecue

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CNN
 — 

Freed from a Russian penal colony and back on American soil, WNBA star Brittney Griner got her first taste of a return to normal life over the weekend at a Texas military facility.

The Olympic gold medalist arrived Friday at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and is now staying with her wife, Cherelle Griner, in a residential environment on the base – one her agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, decorated with a Christmas tree.

Griner, 32, is “upbeat, thankful and hopeful,” Colas told CNN, after returning to the states from what US officials deemed wrongful detention in Russia.

For Griner – who spent nearly 10 months in Russian custody – “normal” has meant indulging in her favorites, including a Dr Pepper soda, the first drink she had in the airplane hangar after landing.

Griner’s relatives also have visited her off and on for hours, bringing San Antonio barbecue for her to enjoy.

The athlete has been eating far more nutritious food and supplements compared with her time in detention, Colas said. “Her energy level was really high,” she added.

Griner also got a haircut to clean up her “Russian fade,” as her friends and family jokingly call it, Colas said. Griner’s long, signature dreadlocks were cut while in captivity as she continuously battled the flu because her wet hair kept freezing, Colas said.

At the Texas military base, Griner hit the basketball court for the first time since she was imprisoned: Her first move was a dunk. Months ago, in pre-trial detention in Russia, Griner was offered a basketball and a hoop, but she declined to play, Colas said.

“I think it’s fair to say that her picking up a ball voluntarily and the first thing being a dunk … it was really encouraging,” Colas said. “She was really excited.”

Griner seems to be in good physical health, but whether she returns to the WNBA in the spring season will be up to her, according to Colas.

“Is she going to be ready? We’ll see,” Colas said.

Griner arrived at the San Antonio medical facility for a routine evaluation after her release Thursday as part of a prisoner exchange between the US and Russia for notorious convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Concerns had grown that Griner was being used as a political pawn amid Russia’s war on Ukraine after she was arrested on drug charges in February at an airport in Russia, where she plays basketball in the WNBA off-season, then later sentenced to nine years in prison.

Now, Griner’s focus will be on recuperating, including getting physical and psychological support from the government to help with her reintegration.

“She’s had a lot of psychological support,” Colas said. “The resources are very robust. It’s very supportive and very BG-centered. It’s about her developing agency.”

That care is heavily focused on helping formerly captive people regain a sense of control over their lives after lengthy detentions. Griner opted into the Department of Defense’s post-isolation program, which other wrongfully detained Americans, including Trevor Reed, have participated in, Colas said; Reed is former Marine released in April after three years of wrongful detention in Russia.

It’s not clear how long Griner and her wife will stay in San Antonio, but the decision is hers, Colas said.

But what’s become clear is that “normal” will always look different after the ordeal Griner went through. For security reasons, for instance, the Griners have already begun the process of finding a new home, Colas said.

Though it remains unknown if fans will see Griner back on the basketball court in May, one thing is certain, Colas said: Griner is eager to use her power and influence to help others – especially Paul Whelan, another American still imprisoned in Russia.

“It was one of the first things she asked me about,” Colas said. “She’s very, very concerned about that. And will be sending a message to Paul.”

Whelan already sent a message through US representatives who spoke with him in recent days: “Please tell Brittney that Paul said he’s happy she’s home,” he told her, according to Colas.

“She is absolutely thinking about the future,” Colas said. “She’s already talking about the position that she’s now in to help other people come home.”

Whelan – a US, Irish, British and Canadian citizen – is imprisoned in a Russian penal colony after he was arrested in December 2018 on espionage charges, which he has denied. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. He, like Griner, has been declared wrongfully detained by US officials.

The US tried to persuade Russia to swap both Griner and Whelan for arms dealer Bout, but Russian officials would not budge on the matter, with Russia saying both of the Americans’ cases were handled differently based on the charges each of them faced.

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World

Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

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Russian shelling leaves three Kherson civilians dead

The southern region of Kherson was shelled 57 times over the past 24 hours, according to an Ukrainian official Tuesday.

Three civilians were killed and another 15 were injured following attacks on the Kherson region yesterday, the head of the Regional Military Administration Yaroslav Yanushevych said on Telegram.

A school, a stadium, residences and medical and energy infrastructure suffered artillery and rocket bombardment, according to Yanushevych.

On Monday, Yanushevych described the recently liberated city of Kherson as coming under “massive fire” from Russian forces.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Belarus reportedly carries out more combat-readiness drills

Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko (C) attends a joint exercise of the armed forces of Russia and Belarus at a firing range near Osipovichi outside Minsk, on Feb. 17, 2022.

Maxim Guchek | Afp | Getty Images

Belarus’ armed forces have begun combat readiness drills on the instruction of the country’s President Alexander Lukashenko, according to news agency BelTA, which cited information from the Belarusian Defense Ministry.

As part of the drills, troops will have to carry out “engineering, protection and defense activities, and build bridges across the Neman and Berezina rivers,” BelTA reported Tuesday.

The movement of military equipment and personnel will take place during the drills, meaning there will be temporary restrictions on civilian movement on certain public roads and areas.

Russia’s ally Belarus has not participated directly in the invasion of Ukraine by sending its own troops into the country but it has provided logistical support to Russia, which has launched attacks on Ukraine from Belarusian territory.

Belarus’ president has insisted that the country’s armed forces won’t enter the war, but its armed forces have been conducting an increasing number of military drills, and have formed a joint military task force with Russian forces.

— Holly Ellyatt

Viktor Bout claims he and Brittney Griner shook hands at prisoner swap

Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer freed after 14 years in U.S. custody in exchange for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, attends a convention of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), in Moscow, Russia December 12, 2022. 

Liberal Democratic Party Of Russia | Reuters

Convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout said he shook hands with U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner when they were exchanged as part of a high profile U.S.-Russia prisoner swap last week.

Speaking to Russian media, Bout said they exchanged pleasantries and shook hands on the airport tarmac in Abu Dhabi where the exchange procedure took place.

“When we were passing by, I wished her good luck; she wished me good luck in turn and then extended her hand. I shook hands with her. This looked decent,” Bout said in an interview with the KP-Petersburg news outlet.

Video footage released of the swap shows several men accompanying Griner, who had been imprisoned in Russia earlier this year on drug charges, as she walks toward Bout, who was also accompanied by a man, on the tarmac of Abu Dhabi airport.

Bout embraces one of the men and shakes the hand of an other but there’s a jump cut in the video as Griner and Bout — once nicknamed the “Merchant of Death” by a British official who was commenting on Bout’s arms dealing operations — approach each other.

— Holly Ellyatt

Putin press conference likely canceled because of concerns over growing anti-war sentiment: UK

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual press conference appearance was canceled on Monday, and Britain’s Ministry of Defense said that’s likely because of the Kremlin’s concerns over rising anti-war sentiment in Russia.

“The press conference has become a significant fixture in Putin’s calendar of public engagement and has frequently been used as an opportunity to demonstrate the supposed integrity of Putin,” the ministry said on Twitter.

“Although questions are almost certainly usually vetted in advance, the cancellation is likely due to increasing concerns about the prevalence of anti-war feeling in Russia.”

“Kremlin officials are almost certainly extremely sensitive about the possibility that any event attended by Putin could be hijacked by unsanctioned discussion about the ‘special military operation’,” the ministry added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin during his annual press conference, on Dec. 17, 2020, in Moscow, Russia.

Mikhail Svetlov | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The Kremlin confirmed on Monday that Putin will not hold his traditional end-of-year press conference without citing a reason for the cancellation. Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said the press conference wouldn’t be held before the New Year but that the president would try to find an opportunity to speak to the media.

It’s the first time in 10 years that Putin will not hold the press conference. The annual public phone-in, in which Putin answers a wide range of (likely vetted) questions from the public, did not take place this year either.

Russian forces have experienced a series of setbacks in the war in Ukraine, with grumblings of discontent growing in Russia, particularly following the mass mobilization of reservists.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russian forces should withdraw from Ukraine this Christmas, Zelenskyy says

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a working session of G-7 leaders via video link, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv,on June 27, 2022.

Ukrainian Presidential Press Service | via Reuters

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Russian forces to withdraw from Ukraine this Christmas as he addressed leaders of the Group of Seven on Monday.

“Very soon we’ll have holidays celebrated by billions of people. Christmas – according to the Gregorian calendar or the New Year and Christmas – according to the Julian calendar. This is the time for normal people to think about peace, not aggression. I suggest Russia to at least try to prove that it is capable of abandoning the aggression,” Zelenskyy said in his address to G-7 leaders who met virtually Monday. 

“The occupier must leave. It will certainly happen. I see no reason why Russia should not do it now – at Christmas. The answer from Moscow will show what they really want – further confrontation with the world or finally [a] cessation of the aggression. The one who brought the war upon us has to take it away,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy suggested a “Global Peace Formula” summit should be convened at which Ukraine’s proposals could be discussed.

“It would be right to start the withdrawal of Russian troops from the internationally recognized territory of Ukraine this Christmas. If Russia withdraws its troops from Ukraine, it will ensure a lasting cessation of hostilities,” he added.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia has started to use a new batch of Iranian drones, official says

Russian forces have begun to launch a new batch of Iranian drones, according to the Ukrainian Air Force’s spokesperson, who said the launch point has shifted to the eastern side of the Sea of Azov.

“It is difficult to speak about the volumes. But what is known for sure is that they have already started using them. They began to launch them from the eastern part of the Sea of Azov,” Yuriy Ihnat, the spokesperson for the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said during a nationwide telethon reported by news agency Ukrinform late Monday.

Ihnat said drones had already been downed in the southern regions of Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa. Russia has been accused of using Iranian-made “Shahed” drones to attack multiple targets in Ukraine, particularly energy infrastructure, for months.

Although it has not officially admitted using them, Iran has admitted to supplying Russia with drones and there have been reports that Russia was awaiting a new batch of the unmanned aerial vehicles.

Local residents look at parts of an unmanned aerial vehicle, what Ukrainian authorities consider to be an Iranian-made drone Shahed-136, after a Russian drone strike in Kyiv on Oct. 17, 2022.

Vladyslav Musiienko | Reuters

Ihnat explained that the shift in the launch point of the drones was related to a shift in the position of the front line in Ukraine.

“The battle line has shifted. Therefore, the enemy can slightly pull back the launch point. For Shahed [drones], distance is not such a problem. After all, they simply moved those launch sites, fearing that our defense forces could get them,” Ihnat said, adding that the possibility of new missile attacks remains.

Noting that Russia had moved strategic bomber aircraft further inland following several explosions at Russian airfields last week, for which Ukraine did not claim responsibility, Ihnat said such movement “does not mean that they are not preparing some kind of attack. Therefore, we all need to be ready for this.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine PM requests air defenses to counter Russia attacks

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, accompanied by Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov, speaks during a news briefing, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine November 7, 2022. 

Murad Sezer | Reuters

Ukraine’s prime minister has appealed for Patriot missile batteries and other high-tech air defense systems to counter Russian attacks that knocked out electricity and water supplies for millions of Ukrainians, putting Europe on alert to brace for more refugees.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told French broadcaster LCI that in addition to making Ukrainians suffer, Russia wants to swamp Europe with a new wave of Ukrainian refugees by continuing to strike power stations and other infrastructure.

Poland’s president said his nation already has seen an increased demand to shelter refugees due to the combination of such attacks coupled with the freezing weather in Ukraine.

“The number of refugees in Poland has risen (recently) to some 3 million. That will probably also mean an increase in their numbers in Germany,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said following talks with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin.

— Associated Press

Putin will not hold annual press conference, Kremlin says

The European Commission has repeatedly condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine, accusing President Vladimir Putin of using energy as a weapon to drive up commodity prices and sow uncertainty across the 27-nation bloc.

Mikhail Metzel | Afp | Getty Images

The Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not hold his annual press conference this year.

The news conference, which typically last multiple hours, is one of the few opportunities for journalists outside of the Kremlin press pool to ask Putin questions.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed reports by Russian-state owned media that Putin will not hold a press conference this year. Peskov declined to give a reason for the cancellation. 

— Amanda Macias

G-7 nations meet with Zelenskyy and reaffirm support for Ukraine against Russia

Group of Seven allies convened with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and reiterated their commitment to helping the country combat Russian aggression.

In a statement released after the meeting, G-7 leaders promised to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” calling Russia’s actions an “illegal, unjustifiable and unprovoked war of aggression.” The group further condemned actors facilitating the war.

“There can be no impunity for war crimes and other atrocities,” the statement read. “We will hold President Putin and those responsible to account in accordance with international law. We reiterate that Russia’s irresponsible nuclear rhetoric is unacceptable and that any use of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons would be met with severe consequences.”

G-7 leaders vowed to have their finance ministers meet “shortly” to discuss how to support Ukraine financially into 2023. The leaders said the International Monetary Fund should be a central player.

The allies also reiterated they would continue to move away from purchasing Russian oil and would go ahead as planned with the plan to set a price cap on Russian oil in early February.

“Russia’s war of aggression must end,” the statement read. “To date, we have not seen evidence that Russia is committed to sustainable peace efforts. Russia can end this war immediately by ceasing its attacks against Ukraine and completely and unconditionally withdrawing its forces from the territory of Ukraine.”

— Emma Kinery

Nearly 8 million Ukrainians have become refugees from Russia’s war, U.N. estimates

Refugee children fleeing Ukraine are given blankets by Slovakian rescue workers to keep warm at the Velke Slemence border crossing on March 09, 2022 in Velke Slemence, Slovakia.

Christopher Furlong | Getty Images

Nearly 8 million Ukrainians have become refugees and moved to neighboring countries since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, the U.N. Refugee Agency estimates.

More than 4.8 million of those people have applied for temporary resident status in neighboring Western European countries, according to data collected by the agency.

“The escalation of conflict in Ukraine has caused civilian casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure, forcing people to flee their homes seeking safety, protection and assistance,” the U.N. Refugee Agency wrote.

— Amanda Macias

Kherson ‘under massive fire’ from Russian forces, official says

Kherson city, in the partially-liberated southern region of Kherson, is coming under “massive fire,” according to the head of the regional military administration there.

“Kherson is under massive fire from the Russian occupiers,” Yaroslav Yanushevych said on Telegram Monday, saying Russians had attacked two neighborhoods in the city. Five people were known to have been wounded in the attacks and two people to have died, he said.

“Emergency medical aid teams, together with the Red Cross, are heading to the Ostriv district. The number of victims [there] is currently unknown,” he said. CNBC was unable to verify the details within Yanushevych’s post.

Yanushevych called on civilians to stay within sheltered areas if they hear the sounds of explosions.

A destroyed school in Posad-Pokrovske in the Kherson region of Ukraine on Dec. 11, 2022.

Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Ukraine called on residents within Kherson to evacuate last month following the withdrawal of Russian forces from the city and the wider Kherson region to the west bank of the Dnieper river, given that Russian forces have tended to heavily bombard the settlements from which they have retreated.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russian mercenaries suffered ‘very significant’ losses in Luhansk, official says

A mural praises the Russian Wagner group and its mercenaries fighting in Ukraine on March 30, 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia.

Pierre Crom | Getty Images

Russian mercenaries fighting in eastern Ukraine suffered heavy losses after the hotel they were using as their headquarters was hit by Ukrainian forces this weekend, according to an official.

There were “very significant” losses after the guest house in Kadiivka in Luhansk was hit, the head of the Luhansk Military Administration Serhiy Haidai said on his Telegram account on Sunday.

Haidai claimed the hotel was being used as the headquarters of the private military force, the “Wagner Group,” a state-sanctioned group founded by an ally of President Vladimir Putin.

Wagner soldiers, widely seen as mercenaries, are fighting alongside the regular Russian army in Ukraine, particularly in the east of the country, where fighting is intense as Russian forces try to occupy more of the region and Ukrainian forces try to reclaim more territory.

Haidai said Russian forces are looking to mobilize all the men in the region and that age or health is no barrier to being forcibly mobilized. CNBC was unable to immediately verify Haidai’s claims.

Read CNBC’s previous live coverage here:

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US

Brittney Griner is back in the US and dunking again after almost 10 months detained in Russia

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CNN
 — 

Fresh off her elated return to the US after months in Russian custody, two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner is back on a basketball court.

But her reintegration into American life is far from over, as is the fight by WNBA players for equity as US professional athletes. The issue was highlighted by the 10-month detention of Griner, who’d gone to Russia to play basketball in the WNBA offseason.

Griner’s first move on a Texas basketball court Sunday was a dunk, her agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, told CNN on Monday.

Confirming news first reported by ESPN, Colas said Griner wore a pair of black Chuck Taylor shoes, Phoenix Suns shorts and a T-shirt touting Title IX as she played. Months ago, in pre-trial detention in Russia, Griner was offered a basketball and a hoop, but she declined to play, Colas said.

“I think it’s fair to say that her picking up a ball voluntarily and the first thing being a dunk … it was really encouraging,” Colas said. “She was really excited.”

The 32-year-old had arrived two days earlier at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio for routine evaluation after her release Thursday from what US officials deemed wrongful detention. She was freed amid Russia’s war in Ukraine in a prisoner swap for notorious convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

It’s not clear how long Griner will stay at the medical center, Colas said.

“She’s had a lot of psychological support,” Colas said. “The resources are very robust. It’s very supportive and very BG centered. It’s about her developing agency.”

Griner’s agent believes she will try to “utilize her fame for good” but did not detail what that would look like. Colas said Griner opted into the Department of Defense’s Post Isolation Support Activities, or PISA, program that has served other wrongfully detained Americans.

It’s also unclear whether the Phoenix Mercury center will return to the WNBA. The 2023 regular season begins May 19, with training camps typically opening a month before.

“If she wants to play, it will be for her to share,” Colas told ESPN’s T.J. Quinn. “She has the holidays to rest and decide what’s next without any pressure. She’s doing really, really well. She seems to have endured this in pretty incredible ways.”

But the fact that Griner typically plays basketball in Russia during her WNBA offseasons highlights the inequities faced by professional female athletes in the US, fellow WNBA players said.

For many years, WNBA players have spent their offseasons playing in international leagues, where they often can earn more money.

“We’ve been talking about the pay disparity for a long time, and players have been going overseas for a long time,” Elizabeth Williams, a Washington Mystics player and secretary for the Women’s National Basketball Players Association, told CNN on Monday.

“I think this is when people are realizing … the dangers and perils of people going overseas and the impact of what those pay equity issues are.”

Griner was arrested on drug charges at a Russian airport in February and sentenced to nine years in prison. As concerns grew that Griner was being used as a political pawn, efforts to negotiate her release took months.

Now back on US soil, it’s not clear how long Griner will stay in Texas for medical evaluation.

“I’m understanding that it’s going to be a few more days before she gets out,” former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson told CNN on Sunday.

Richardson and his center privately work on behalf of families of hostages and detainees. He previously traveled to Russia to discuss Griner’s release, as well as Paul Whelan, a US Marine veteran who was wrongfully detained and remains in custody.

Richardson said it’s important to give former detainees like Griner ample time to get settled.

“We’ve got to give them a little space, a little time to readjust because they’ve had a horrendous experience in these Russian prisons,” said Richardson, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations in the Clinton administration.

While held in a Russian penal colony, Griner was unable to perform the work done by many female prisoners due to her size, Griner’s Russian lawyer Maria Blagovolina told ESPN and confirmed to CNN.

Most of the women in the penal colony worked sewing uniforms, but the 6-foot-9 Griner was too tall to sit at a work table, and her hands were too big to manage the sewing. So instead, she carried fabric all day, her attorney said.

On the day of her release, Griner had a feeling she would be going home, said Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, who led the prisoner exchange mission in the United Arab Emirates.

But it didn’t feel real until he boarded the plane and told her: “On behalf of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and Secretary of State Tony Blinken, I’m here to take you home,” Carstens recalled to CNN.

He described Griner as an intelligent, compassionate, humble and patriotic person who immediately wanted to thank all the crew members who helped her.

“When she finally got onto the US plane, I said, ‘Brittney, you must have been through a lot over the last 10 months. Here’s your seat. Please feel free to decompress. We’ll give you your space,’” Carstens recalled.

“And she said, ‘Oh no. I’ve been in prison for 10 months now listening to Russian, I want to talk. But first of all, who are these guys?’ And she moved right past me and went to every member on that crew, looked them in the eyes, shook their hands and asked about them and got their names, making a personal connection with them. It was really amazing,” Carstens said.

Griner spent 12 hours of an 18-hour flight talking with Carstens “about everything under the sun,” he said.

When the government plane landed at Kelly Field, the person who emerged from the plane looked very different. Her long, signature deadlocks had been cut while in captivity. Griner continuously battled the flu while detained because her hair kept freezing and she was unable to dry them, Colas said.

The new do was not a surprise to her family, though, as she sent word home weeks earlier about her decision to cut her hair, Colas said.

In San Antonio this weekend, she received a real hair cut to clean up her “Russian fade” as her friends and family jokingly call it. After that, she hit the basketball court.

Griner’s life has been forever altered, and adjusting to everyday life could be difficult.

Jorge Toledo – one of the “Citgo 6” – was released in October as part of a prisoner swap after being detained during a 2017 business trip to Venezuela with other oil and gas executives from the Citgo Petroleum Corporation.

After returning home, Toledo told CNN, he’s had trouble sleeping and felt anxiety during normally mundane tasks such as driving.

But Toledo said he was part of a program in San Antonio that involved six days with a group of psychologists. He said the program was “extremely important” for his reintegration and hopes Griner can take advantage of similar resources.

While many celebrate Griner’s return, the fate of another American held in Russia remains uncertain.

Whelan – a US, Irish, British and Canadian citizen – is imprisoned in a Russian penal colony after he was arrested in December 2018 on espionage charges, which he has denied. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

With Griner back in the US, Richardson said he’s optimistic about Whelan’s release – noting Russia previously offer a trade for Whelan.

The US tried to persuade Russia to swap both Griner and Whelan for Bout, but Russian officials would not budge on the matter. Russia said the Americans’ cases were handled differently based on the charges each of them faced.

“This was not a choice of which American to bring home,” Biden said last week. “Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s. And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up.”

Whelan said he was happy Griner was released, but told CNN, “I am greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release, especially as the four-year anniversary of my arrest is coming up.”

Griner is eager to use power and influence to help others, her agent said, especially Whelan.

“It was one of the first things she asked me about,” Colas said. “She’s very, very concerned about that. And will be sending a message to Paul.”

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World

Burning through ammo, Russia using 40-year-old rounds, U.S. official says

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WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) – Russia is turning to decades-old ammunition with high failure rates as it burns through its stockpiles to carry out its nearly 10-month-old invasion of Ukraine, a senior U.S. military official said on Monday.

“They have drawn from (Russia’s) aging ammunition stockpile, which does indicate that they are willing to use that older ammunition, some of which was originally produced more than 40 years ago,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The United States accuses Russia of turning to Iran and North Korea for more firepower as it exhausts its regular supplies of ammunition.

The senior U.S. military official assessed that Russia would burn through its fully-serviceable stocks of ammunition by early 2023 if it did not resort to foreign suppliers and older stocks.

“We assess that at the rate of fire that Russia has been using its artillery and rocket ammunition in terms of what we would call fully serviceable artillery and rocket ammunition. They could probably do that until early 2023,” the official said.

Using the older stocks carried risks, the official said.

“In other words, you load the ammunition and you cross your fingers and hope it’s going to fire or when it lands that it’s going to explode,” the official said.

Iran has transferred drones to Russia for use in Ukraine, U.S. and Ukrainian officials say. Moscow is also attempting to obtain hundreds of ballistic missiles from Iran and offering Tehran an unprecedented level of military and technical support in return, Britain’s envoy the United Nations said on Friday.

Barbara Woodward also said Britain was “almost certain that Russia is seeking to source weaponry from North Korea (and) other heavily sanctioned states, as their own stocks palpably dwindle.”

Iran last month acknowledged it had supplied Moscow with drones, but said they were sent before the war in Ukraine. Russia has denied its forces used Iranian drones to attack Ukraine and has denied North Korea was supplying it weapons.

Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Editing by David Gregorio

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Phil Stewart

Thomson Reuters

Phil Stewart has reported from more than 60 countries, including Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, China and South Sudan. An award-winning Washington-based national security reporter, Phil has appeared on NPR, PBS NewsHour, Fox News and other programs and moderated national security events, including at the Reagan National Defense Forum and the German Marshall Fund. He is a recipient of the Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence and the Joe Galloway Award.

Idrees Ali

Thomson Reuters

National security correspondent focusing on the Pentagon in Washington D.C. Reports on U.S. military activity and operations throughout the world and the impact that they have. Has reported from over two dozen countries to include Iraq, Afghanistan, and much of the Middle East, Asia and Europe. From Karachi, Pakistan.

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World

Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

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Putin will not hold annual press conference, Kremlin says

The European Commission has repeatedly condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine, accusing President Vladimir Putin of using energy as a weapon to drive up commodity prices and sow uncertainty across the 27-nation bloc.

Mikhail Metzel | Afp | Getty Images

The Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not hold his annual press conference this year.

The news conference, which typically last multiple hours, is one of the few opportunities for journalists outside of the Kremlin press pool to ask Putin questions.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed reports by Russian-state owned media that Putin will not hold a press conference this year. Peskov declined to give a reason for the cancellation. 

— Amanda Macias

G-7 nations meet with Zelenskyy and reaffirm support for Ukraine against Russia

Group of Seven allies convened with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and reiterated their commitment to helping the country combat Russian aggression.

In a statement released after the meeting, G-7 leaders promised to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” calling Russia’s actions an “illegal, unjustifiable and unprovoked war of aggression.” The group further condemned actors facilitating the war.

“There can be no impunity for war crimes and other atrocities,” the statement read. “We will hold President Putin and those responsible to account in accordance with international law. We reiterate that Russia’s irresponsible nuclear rhetoric is unacceptable and that any use of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons would be met with severe consequences.”

G-7 leaders vowed to have their finance ministers meet “shortly” to discuss how to support Ukraine financially into 2023. The leaders said the International Monetary Fund should be a central player.

The allies also reiterated they would continue to move away from purchasing Russian oil and would go ahead as planned with the plan to set a price cap on Russian oil in early February.

“Russia’s war of aggression must end,” the statement read. “To date, we have not seen evidence that Russia is committed to sustainable peace efforts. Russia can end this war immediately by ceasing its attacks against Ukraine and completely and unconditionally withdrawing its forces from the territory of Ukraine.”

— Emma Kinery

Ukrainian and French first ladies meet in Paris

Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska said she met with the French first lady Brigitte Macron in Paris. Zelenska arrived in France on Sunday and leads a delegation that includes Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

“The First Lady of France, Brigitte Macron, is one of those whom I have the honor to call a colleague and friend. And, of course, a great friend of Ukraine,” Zelenska said on her Telegram channel.

Zelenska also wrote that she accompanied Macron to a school in Paris where Ukrainian children who fled the war in Ukraine are studying.

— Amanda Macias

WHO records more than 710 attacks on vital health services in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion

A soldier receives treatment at a medical stabilization point, located 6km from frontline and in Bakhmut, Ukraine on October 25, 2022. It is first place in the chain of treatments where all military personnel is treated before being moved to any other hospitals.

Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, there have been at least 715 attacks on vital health services in the country, the World Health Organization’s Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care estimates.

The organization reports that health care facilities were damaged 630 times, ambulances were targeted in 91 cases and at least 174 attacks affected crucial medical supplies. The group also estimated that attacks on health services led to at least 100 deaths and 129 injuries.

The Kremlin has previously denied that it targets civilian infrastructure like hospitals, schools and apartment buildings.

— Amanda Macias

Four vessels depart Ukraine’s ports under Black Sea Grain Initiative

A photograph taken on October 31, 2022 shows a cargo ship loaded with grain being inspected in the anchorage area of the southern entrance to the Bosphorus in Istanbul.

Ozan Kose | AFP | Getty Images

The organization overseeing the export of agricultural products said four vessels carrying wheat and vegetable oil left Ukrainian ports.

The ships are carrying corn, wheat, vegetable oil and rapeseed and are destined for Spain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands.

The amount of grain and other foodstuffs exported under the Black Sea Grain Initiative so far exceeds 13.7 million metric tons.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal brokered in July among Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations, eased Russia’s naval blockade and saw three key Ukrainian ports reopen.

The deal among the signatories is set to expire in about three months.

— Amanda Macias

Nearly 8 million Ukrainians have become refugees from Russia’s war, U.N. estimates

Refugee children fleeing Ukraine are given blankets by Slovakian rescue workers to keep warm at the Velke Slemence border crossing on March 09, 2022 in Velke Slemence, Slovakia.

Christopher Furlong | Getty Images

Nearly 8 million Ukrainians have become refugees and moved to neighboring countries since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, the U.N. Refugee Agency estimates.

More than 4.8 million of those people have applied for temporary resident status in neighboring Western European countries, according to data collected by the agency.

“The escalation of conflict in Ukraine has caused civilian casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure, forcing people to flee their homes seeking safety, protection and assistance,” the U.N. Refugee Agency wrote.

— Amanda Macias

Backlog of 82 ships waiting to transport crops from Ukraine

Ships, including those carrying grain from Ukraine and awaiting inspections, are seen anchored off the Istanbul coastline on November 02, 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Chris Mcgrath | Getty Images

The organization overseeing the export of Ukrainian crops said that there is a backlog of 82 vessels waiting to be loaded with cargo.

The U.N.-led Joint Coordination Center also said that 59 loaded vessels are waiting for inspection in Turkish territorial waters.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal brokered in July among Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and the United Nations, eased Russia’s naval blockade and saw the reopening of three key Ukrainian ports.

Since the deal was signed, more than 540 ships carrying 13.7 million metric tons of grain and other food products have left for destinations around the world.

Kyiv has previously blamed Moscow for holding up inspections and delaying vessel movements.

— Amanda Macias

More than 6,700 people have died in Ukraine, United Nations says

A volunteer places a cross onto a grave of one of fifteen unidentified people killed by Russian troops, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, during a burial ceremony in the town of Bucha, in Kyiv region, Ukraine September 2, 2022.

Vladyslav Musiienko | Reuters

At least 6,755 civilians have died and 10,607 have been injured in Ukraine since Russia invaded its ex-Soviet neighbor on Feb. 24, according to the United Nations.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the death toll in Ukraine is likely higher than that because armed conflict can delay fatality reports.

Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, as well as missiles and airstrikes, according to the organization.

— Amanda Macias

Russia ‘walked away’ from relationship with the West, NATO says

Russian President Vladimir Putin seen during bilateral talks at the Eurasian Economic Summit. Leaders of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Armenia gathered in the Kyrgyz capital for the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) Summit. 

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The West has tried to build bridges with Russia since the end of the Cold War but any trust that was established in recent years has been destroyed, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday.

“NATO strived for decades to develop a better, more constructive relationship with Russia,” he told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble.

“After the end of the Cold War we established institutions [like the] NATO-Russia Council, when I was prime minister of Norway I remember that President Putin attended NATO summits … so this was a different time when we worked for a better relationship. Russia has walked away from all of this,” he said.

Stoltenberg said a level of trust that had been established during a rapprochement between Western nations and Russia in recent decades had been destroyed by Moscow’s decision to invade Ukraine.

“Even if the fighting ends, we will not return to some kind of normal, friendly, relationship with Russia. Trust has been destroyed,” he said. “I think the war has had long-lasting consequences for the relationship with Russia.”

Read more on the story here: Trust between the West and Russia has been destroyed, NATO chief says

Kherson ‘under massive fire’ from Russian forces, official says

Kherson city, in the partially-liberated southern region of Kherson, is coming under “massive fire,” according to the head of the regional military administration there.

“Kherson is under massive fire from the Russian occupiers,” Yaroslav Yanushevych said on Telegram Monday, saying Russians had attacked two neighborhoods in the city. Five people were known to have been wounded in the attacks and two people to have died, he said.

“Emergency medical aid teams, together with the Red Cross, are heading to the Ostriv district. The number of victims [there] is currently unknown,” he said. CNBC was unable to verify the details within Yanushevych’s post.

Yanushevych called on civilians to stay within sheltered areas if they hear the sounds of explosions.

A destroyed school in Posad-Pokrovske in the Kherson region of Ukraine on Dec. 11, 2022.

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Ukraine called on residents within Kherson to evacuate last month following the withdrawal of Russian forces from the city and the wider Kherson region to the west bank of the Dnieper river, given that Russian forces have tended to heavily bombard the settlements from which they have retreated.

— Holly Ellyatt

NATO says ‘the time has now come’ for Sweden and Finland to be admitted into the alliance

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde and Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto attend a news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, after signing their countries’ accession protocols at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium July 5, 2022.

Yves Herman | Reuters

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday that “the time now has come” for Turkey and Hungary to ratify Sweden and Finland’s accession to the military alliance.

Stoltenberg told CNBC he was confident the two holdouts would join their fellow 28 member states in ratifying soon. He would not provide a specific timeline, though he said that the organization’s support for the prospective members was assured.

“It’s inconceivable that if Finland and Sweden were attacked or came under some kind of pressure from Russia, that NATO would not react. So I’m not saying that it doesn’t matter, the last two ratifications, but we are in a totally different place,” Stoltenberg said.

Stoltenberg added that with the two new accessions, President Putin would get “the exact opposite” of what he set out to achieve with his invasion of Ukraine: an expanded NATO presence along the Russian border.

— Karen Gilchrist

NATO’s Stoltenberg says it’s important to keep Ukraine weapons battle-ready

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg delivers remarks to the news media as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosts Stoltenberg at the State Department in Washington, U.S., June 1, 2022.

Leah Millis | Reuters

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has stressed the need to ensure that the weapons the alliance has already supplied to war-torn Ukraine can be deployed in combat.

“I understand this focus on new systems, but … [it’s] as important, if not even more important to ensure that the systems which are already delivered are working as they should be,” he said in a CNBC interview with Hadley Gamble. “Because there are a lot of systems which are now extremely effective, when they work, in Ukraine.”

He said NATO had already provided Ukraine with weapon systems such as artillery, battle tanks and armed vehicles and needed to maintain the supply of equipment to Kyiv.

“We need to ensure that there is a steady flow of ammunition, of spare parts and maintenance capacity,” Stoltenberg urged.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Ukraine says it has hit 9 Russian command posts, artillery and ammo depots

Members of the Ukrainian military watch TV in a bunker at a position on the outskirts of Donetsk on December 11, 2022 in Donetsk, Ukraine. A large swath of Donetsk region has been held by Russian-backed separatists since 2014. Russia has tried to expand its control here since the February 24 invasion.

Chris Mcgrath | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Ukraine’s forces have reportedly destroyed nine Russian command posts and an additional 17 areas where there was a “build-up of manpower,” one artillery cluster and two ammunition depots in the past 24 hours, according to an update from the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces.

In its latest military update, Ukraine said it had repelled Russian attacks in several areas of Luhansk and Donetsk, where fighting has been at its most intense in recent months.

It said Russian forces had launched two missile strikes on civilian infrastructure in the industrial city of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk as well as 11 airstrikes on the positions of Ukrainian troops along the front line, “as well as more than 60 MLRS (multiple launch rocket system) attacks on the civilian infrastructure of Kherson city and the positions of Ukrainian troops.”

“There is still a threat of missile and UAV strikes on the energy system and critical infrastructure objects throughout the territory of Ukraine,” the General Staff warned.

It said Russian forces continued to violate international humanitarian law, claiming it was using the civilian population as human shields. Russia claims Ukraine does the same thing.

The General Staff also reported that Ukraine’s air force had launched 14 strikes on areas where there was, it said, a “concentration of enemy manpower, weapons and military equipment, as well as air defense positions.” CNBC was unable to verify the information within the report.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia’s McDonald’s successor replacing Big Mac with ‘Big Hit’

This photograph taken on August 1, 2022, shows the logo of “Vkusno I Tochka” (“Tasty and that’s it” or “Delicious. Full Stop”) former McDonald’s fast food restaurant is seen in downtown Moscow. 

Natalia Kolesnikova | AFP | Getty Images

Starved of Big Macs since McDonald’s closed its Russian restaurants in March, Russians will from next year be treated to an alternative from the burger chain’s successor – the “Big Hit”.

Vkusno & tochka, or “Tasty & that’s it”, on Monday said the Big Hit would be available from February and a similar product to the McDonald’s Happy Meal would be making a comeback as “Kids’ Combo.”

McDonald’s closed its Russian restaurants soon after Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February, eventually selling to a local licensee, Alexander Govor, who unveiled the new brand in June.

CEO Oleg Paroev said Vkusno & tochka had now overcome all the supply chain issues it had faced, and was growing its share in a market traditionally dominated by foreign chains. Since acquiring Russia’s McDonald’s restaurants, Govor has snapped up Finnish packaging company Huhtamaki’s Russian business and a logistics firm, set to be renamed “Logistics & that’s it”.

On Monday, he said Vkusno & tochka may try to find a partner to produce children’s toys for the Kids’ Combo, which are currently being launched with a free book, but that his M&A appetite had been satisfied for now. Vkusno & tochka and meat producer Miratorg on Monday said they had agreed to build a factory in 2023 to supply the chain with chips and potato wedges.

Some Vkusno & tochka restaurants had to take fries off the menu earlier this year when faced with a potato shortage.

— Reuters

Putin’s old EU ally Viktor Orban is once again aggravating Brussels

Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban — a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin — has said that ending Russian oil purchases would be an “atomic bomb” on Hungary’s economy.

Attila Kisbenedek | Afp | Getty Images

Hungary is blocking new financial support for Ukraine as the country attempts to wrestle free its own EU funds, with nationalist leader Viktor Orban once again ruffling feathers in the heart of Brussels.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, in November proposed an 18 billion euro ($18.9 billion) package for the war-torn nation. The funds are supposed to be disbursed regularly throughout 2023. But, Hungary was the only nation among the 27 EU states to veto the plan.

Hungary Prime Minister Orban, often seen as a scourge to EU politics with once-warm relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, took to Twitter on Tuesday. “Today’s news was all about Hungary vetoing financial assistance to Ukraine. This is fake news. Hungary is ready to give financial assistance to Ukraine, on a bilateral basis. No veto, no blackmailing,” he said.

But Brussels disagrees. Some EU officials believe Budapest’s vote was an attempt to force through its own EU funding. An EU official, close to the ministers’ talks and who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, told CNBC: “They [Hungary] will deny it, [but] they want to create leverage and are taking two files under hostage.”

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Russia’s strategy of bombing Ukraine ‘into talking’ isn’t working, former ambassador says

Tony Brenton, former British Ambassador to Russia, says he doesn’t think serious negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are a near-time prospect.

Russia accuses U.S. of not having ‘constructive approach’ to technical talks

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin was quoted by Russian state news agency Tass as saying that Istanbul is a convenient platform for talks between Russia and the U.S. but that talks have not been so fruitful.

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A top official in Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Monday that Moscow does not see a “constructive approach” from Washington in talks that have been held between the two sides in Istanbul in the last few days.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin was quoted by Russian state news agency Tass as saying that Istanbul is a convenient platform for talks between Russia and the U.S. but that talks have not been so fruitful.

“Istanbul is a convenient platform for such contacts. I can say that any contacts are useful, but, unfortunately, we do not see a constructive approach from the American side aimed at concrete results,” Vershinin told Russian journalists.

A meeting was held between U.S. and Russian officials on Friday, Reuters reported, to discuss technical points of difference between the countries, with discussions over the issuance of visas one of the talking points.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine steps up diplomacy amid fighting, power outages

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a working session of G7 leaders via video link, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 27, 2022.

Ukrainian Presidential Press Service | via Reuters

The United States is prioritising efforts to boost Ukraine’s air defences, President Joe Biden told his Ukrainian counterpart on Sunday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stepped up efforts to secure international assistance over the Russian invasion that is dragging into a 10th month.

Heavy fighting in the country’s east and south continued unabated, while drone and missile strikes on key power infrastructure, notably in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, kept many Ukrainians in the cold and dark.

There are no peace talks and no end in sight to the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two, which Moscow describes as a “special military operation” and Ukraine and its allies call an unprovoked act of aggression.

“We are constantly working with partners,” Zelenskyy said after talking to Biden and the leaders of France and Turkey, adding that he expects some “important results” next week from a series of international events that will tackle the situation in Ukraine.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will hold on Monday an online meeting with Group of Seven (G-7) leaders and the European Union foreign ministers will to try to agree on further sanctions on Russia and Iran and on additional aid or arms deliveries to Ukraine.

While Zelenskyy has held numerous talks with Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan since Russian forces invaded in late February, the accumulation of discussions in just one day is not a regular event.

— Reuters

Russia unlikely to be able to fully occupy ‘annexed’ parts of Ukraine, UK says

Cadets attend an event in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on Sept. 30, 2022, marking the declared annexation of the Russian-controlled territories of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, after holding what Russian authorities called referendums that were condemned by Kyiv and governments worldwide.

Sergey Pivovarov | Reuters

Russia’s apparent war aims of “liberating” eastern Ukraine and extending control over the southern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson are likely to fail, Britain’s Ministry of Defense stated Monday, with little gains expected over the winter.

“Russia is likely still aiming to extend control over all of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson Oblasts [regions]. Russian military planners likely still aim to prioritise advancing deeper into Donetsk Oblast,” the defense ministry said on Twitter.

“However, Russia’s strategy is currently unlikely to achieve its objectives: it is highly unlikely that the Russian military is currently able to generate an effective striking force capable of retaking these areas,” the U.K. added.

“Russian ground forces are unlikely to make operationally significant advances within the next several months.”

Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov rearticulated the main goals of the “special military operation” (as Russia calls its invasion of Ukraine) last week, stating that these were to fully occupy the four regions of Ukraine that Russia declared it had annexed back in September.

Peskov stated there was “a lot of work ahead” to “liberate” these territories that were “occupied” by Ukrainian forces.

— Holly Ellyatt

1.5 million people left without power in Odesa after drone strike

Zelenskyy said the Odesa region is still among the regions with the largest number of energy shutdown.

Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Energy operators are working to restore the power supply to the southern port city of Odesa after its energy network was targeted by Russian drones over the weekend.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 1.5 million people were left without power after Russia launched drones strikes on the city. The president said Ukraine had managed to shoot down 10 of 15 Iranian drones used to target Odesa.

Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Sunday that “restoration work continues in the south of our country – we are doing everything to restore the light supply to Odesa.”

“As of this time, we managed to partially restore the supply in Odesa and other cities and districts of the region. We are doing everything to achieve the maximum possible after the Russian hits,” he said.

He said the Odesa region is still among the regions with the largest number of energy shutdowns, and that the situation remains “very difficult” in Kyiv, the capital’s surrounding region, as well as Lviv, Vinnytsia, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk, among others.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russian mercenaries suffered ‘very significant’ losses in Luhansk, official says

A mural praises the Russian Wagner group and its mercenaries fighting in Ukraine on March 30, 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia.

Pierre Crom | Getty Images

Russian mercenaries fighting in eastern Ukraine suffered heavy losses after the hotel they were using as their headquarters was hit by Ukrainian forces this weekend, according to an official.

There were “very significant” losses after the guest house in Kadiivka in Luhansk was hit, the head of the Luhansk Military Administration Serhiy Haidai said on his Telegram account on Sunday.

Haidai claimed the hotel was being used as the headquarters of the private military force, the “Wagner Group,” a state-sanctioned group founded by an ally of President Vladimir Putin.

Wagner soldiers, widely seen as mercenaries, are fighting alongside the regular Russian army in Ukraine, particularly in the east of the country, where fighting is intense as Russian forces try to occupy more of the region and Ukrainian forces try to reclaim more territory.

Haidai said Russian forces are looking to mobilize all the men in the region and that age or health is no barrier to being forcibly mobilized. CNBC was unable to immediately verify Haidai’s claims.

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Trust between the West and Russia has been destroyed, NATO chief says

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North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during the plenary session of the third day of the 68th Annual Session of the Parliamentary Assembly in the Auditorium Ground Floor Room at the Hotel Melia Castilla, Nov. 21, 2022, in Madrid, Spain.

Alberta Ortego | Europa Press | Getty Images

The West has tried to build bridges with Russia since the end of the Cold War but any trust that was established in recent years has been destroyed with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NATO Director-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday.

“NATO strived for decades to develop a better, more constructive relationship with Russia,” he told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble in Brussels.

“After the end of the Cold War we established institutions [like the] NATO-Russia Council, when I was prime minister of Norway I remember that President Putin attended NATO summits … so this was a different time when we worked for a better relationship. Russia has walked away from all of this,” he said.

Stoltenberg said a level of trust that had been established during a rapprochement between Western nations and Russia in recent decades had been destroyed by Moscow’s decision to invade Ukraine.

“Even if the fighting ends, we will not return to some kind of normal, friendly, relationship with Russia. Trust has been destroyed,” he said. “I think the war has had long-lasting consequences for the relationship with Russia.”

Stoltenberg’s comments come as the war in Ukraine shows no signs of slowing down over the winter period, despite expectations among some Western analysts that both Ukraine and Russia could look for a lull in the fighting to regroup before launching renewed counter-offensives in the spring.

That doesn’t appear to be the case, however, with fighting intense in eastern Ukraine and missile and drone strikes continuing to harass Ukrainian villages towns and cities in the south and east of the country.

Russia continues to pound Ukraine’s energy infrastructure too with devastating consequences for civilians; drone strikes on Saturday left 1.5 million people in the port city of Odesa without power, for example.

Russia President Vladimir Putin signaled last week that he was in it for the long-haul, saying the so-called “special military operation” could be a “lengthy process.” Russia insists that its aim is to “liberate” regions (Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south) that it unilaterally and illegally “annexed” after coercive referendums on whether to join Russia.

Ukraine has also showed no signs of letting-up, particularly as it tries to build on momentum that has allowed it to liberate chunks of Kharkiv in the northeast and Kherson in the south and to make advances in the east — although the war there, particularly in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, is seen as hellish for both sides with both forces dug into networks of trenches that now stretch across a devastated landscape reminiscent of World War I.

Stoltenberg insisted that the war could stop at any moment if Russia chose to end hostilities.

“They [Russia] can do as many other European countries have done since the end of the Second World War, they can choose peace, choose cooperation, choose to trust their neighbors instead of always being so aggressive and threatening neighbors as Russia has done again and again against Georgia, against Ukraine.”

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US

Donald Trump Says He Turned Down Russian Swap Deal for Paul Whelan

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Donald Trump claimed Sunday that he turned down a prisoner swap deal with Russia which would have seen Viktor Bout, the notorious Russian arms dealer, traded for ex-US Marine Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who has been in a Russian jail for four years.

Whelan, 52, is currently serving a 16-year sentence in Russia on espionage charges, which he denies. The U.S. says he has been wrongfully imprisoned in Russia since 2018.

He made the bombshell claim on Truth Social Sunday night, and continued to criticize the deal that saw WNBA star Brittney Griner freed from a Russian custody last week.

He originally blasted the deal shortly after it was announced, denouncing President Joe Biden and the administration for negotiating the release of Griner, who he said “hates our country.”

On Sunday Trump continued, claiming: “I turned down a deal with Russia for a one on one swap of the so-called Merchant of Death for Paul Whelan.”

However, according to the former U.S. president, he turned down the offer to free Bout – a former Soviet air force officer – and claimed he would have freed Whelan eventually. “I wouldn’t have made the deal for a hundred people in exchange for someone that has killed untold numbers of people with his arms deals,” Trump said.

Whelan’s Brother, David, took issue with Trump’s renewed interest in his brother’s case, tweeting on Friday: “Former President Trump appears to have mentioned my brother Paul Whelan’s wrongful detention more in the last 24 hours than he did in the 2 years of his presidency in which Paul was held hostage by Russia (zero). I don’t suggest he cares now any more than he did then (zero).”

Speaking to Face The Nation on Sunday, former National Security Council Russia specialist Fiona Hill confirmed that Russia asked the Trump administration to swap Bout and another Russian – drug smuggler Konstantin Yaroshenko – for Whelan following his 2018 arrest. Hill said Russia raised the issue “many times.”

The pair were “put on the table by the Russians,” Hill said, and made it “very clear that they had every intent of trying to swap Americans that had been wrongfully detained for individuals in the United States custody who were there for pretty good reasons.”

“This is all part of a political game for the Russian government.”

Hill claimed the swap was turned down at the time because “President Trump wasn’t especially interested in engaging in that swap.”

Yaroshenko was eventually swapped in April this year for former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed.

Whelan told CNN last week that while he was happy for Griner and her release, he was “greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release, especially as the four-year anniversary of my arrest is coming up. I was arrested for a crime that never occurred.”

“I don’t understand why I’m still sitting here,” he said.



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World

Ukrainian Forces Hit Occupied Southern City Of Melitopol, Claim Big Russian Losses

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The Ukrainian military said on December 10 that it is engaged in intense fighting in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine as Russian forces continue to attack cities.

Meanwhile, in the south, Russian drone strikes cut power in the Black Sea port city of Odesa a day after the West approved a new shipment of aid to Ukraine to bolster its air defenses.

Live Briefing: Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL’s Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia’s ongoing invasion, Kyiv’s counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL’s coverage of the war, click here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on December 9 that Moscow’s troops had brought “hell under the Russian flag” to his country.

He called the fighting in eastern Ukraine “very difficult,” particularly in Bakhmut, Soledar, and Kreminna. Zelenskiy said Russia’s army had turned Bakhmut — a city of around 70,000 before the invasion — into “burnt ruin.”

Russia has been besieging Bakhmut for months at extraordinary costs to its own armed forces.

The city is home to key rail and road routes and its capture would rupture Ukraine’s supply lines, potentially opening a route for Russian forces to press on toward Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk. Its sacking would also represent a psychological victory for Russia following months of setbacks at the hands of Ukrainain forces.

However, some analysts have questioned Russia’s strategic logic in sacrificing so many of its own men as well as equipment to take Bakhmut, with the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War saying on December 8 that the costs to Russia “far outweigh any operational advantage” from capturing the city.

The intense fighting in the Donbas has hastened the depletion of Russia’s weapons stockpile, especially missiles, forcing it to turn to countries such as Iran and North Korea for additional supplies, Western governments have said.

Iran Partnership

Russia has been sourcing drones from Iran for months with Moscow using them to target both military and civilian targets.

Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward said on December 9 that Russia is now attempting to obtain more weapons, “including hundreds of ballistic missiles,” from Iran.

She said London was “almost certain” that Russia is also seeking to source weapons from North Korea and other sanctioned nations as its own stocks “palpably dwindle.”

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya dismissed her comments, saying Moscow had already refuted “on many occasions” that it was being supplied by Iran.

However, Ukraine has captured dozens of Iranian drones since Russia launched its invasion in February, demonstrating the military cooperation between Moscow and Tehran.

To help combat Russia’s drone and missile attacks, the United States on December 9 approved another $275 million in military aid, much of which will be for anti-air defense.

A day later, the European Union approved $18 billion in financial aid to Ukraine for 2023. Russia’s invasion has decimated Ukraine’s economy, leaving it dependent on Western aid to finance expenses, including paying soldiers.

Saber-Rattling

The back and forth accompanied a Security Council meeting requested by Russia on weapons “falling into the hands of bandits and terrorists” in Europe and elsewhere.

But the Security Council meeting’s focus on weapons proliferation was partly overshadowed by a provocative statement from the Kremlin on December 9.

Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested at a regional economic summit in Kyrgyzstan that Moscow is eyeing adoption of what he implied was a U.S. posture on possible preemptive military strikes.

“We are just thinking about it,” he said after an allusion to Russia’s powerful nuclear arsenal, adding in a reference about U.S. officials: “They weren’t shy to openly talk about it during the past years.”

Putin and other Russian officials have repeatedly used high alerts and hints at a readiness to aim or use nuclear weapons since their invasion of Ukraine began.

Kyiv and Western leaders have accused Moscow of “nuclear blackmail” and “nuclear terrorism” in those statements and in Russian actions around captured Ukrainian civil nuclear facilities, including at Zaporizhzhya.

Putin’s nuclear saber-rattling prompted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to cancel his annual in-person summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Bloomberg News reported on December 9, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

While the two nations have long-standing ties, Bloomberg reported Modi felt it would be inappropriate to be seen at this time in the presence of Putin, who has been shunned by the West.

Odesa Power Cuts

Back in Ukraine, the Army General Staff said on December 10 it had repelled attacks by Russian forces in a heavy bout of fighting in the Luhansk region and nearly a dozen in the Donetsk region. The two regions make up the Donbas.

More than 20 settlements were hit in fighting in the fiercely contested Bakhmut area alone, it said.

Ukrainian regional officials said Russian troops had “massively” attacked the communities of Nikopol and Marhanets in the Dnipropetrovsk region overnight on December 9-10, causing at least four casualties.

WATCH: Ukraine’s Finance Ministry says demand for private bomb shelters has risen twentyfold since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of the country in February.

The head of the regional administration, Valentyn Reznychenko, shared images of bombed-out residences and said 11 high-rise and residential buildings had been and damage to a kindergarten and other civilian sites.

RFE/RL cannot independently corroborate claims of battlefield gains or losses or casualty counts by either side in areas of heavy fighting.

Early on December 10, the Ukrainian military claimed to have shot down 10 Iranian drones in the past day in the southern Kherson, Mykolayiv, and Odesa regions.

In Odesa, the local power-grid operator DTEK Odesa reported on December 10 that electricity was cut off to all but critical infrastructure facilities in and around the city after Russian forces fired on infrastructure overnight.

It said the power supply was affected in both Odesa, a port city that is Ukraine’s third-largest with about 1 million people before the war, and the surrounding region.

Ukrainian officials also say thousands more residents also remain cut off from power in bitter subzero temperatures in Kherson, farther east.

The Ukrainian General Staff also said via Facebook that it had liquidated nearly 94,000 enemy troops since the start of the invasion.

The White House announced a new $275 million aid package to help boost Ukraine’s air defenses, in particular against Russian drones, on December 9.

“We feel supported by states as well as international organizations and human rights institutions,” Zelenskiy said.

With reporting by Reuters and AP

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Competing claims to Crimea show why Russia and Ukraine cannot make peace

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After nine months of death and destruction, the key to Russia’s war against Ukraine lies in the craggy, sea-swept peninsula of Crimea — with its limestone plateaus and rows of poplar trees — which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

It was in Crimea in February 2014, not February 2022, that Russia’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine began. And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insists that only by retaking Crimea will the war end, with Ukraine defeating its Russian invaders.

“Its return will mean the restoration of true peace,” Zelensky declared in October. “The Russian potential for aggression will be completely destroyed when the Ukrainian flag will be back in its rightful place — in the cities and villages of Crimea.”

But for Russian President Vladimir Putin, the annexation of Crimea has become a pillar of his legacy, which would crumble if he loses the peninsula. Putin has indicated that any effort by Ukraine to retake Crimea would cross a red line that he would not tolerate.

Ukraine’s hope of recapturing Crimea long seemed a far-fetched fantasy, but Kyiv’s recent battlefield victories and Moscow’s missteps have suddenly made it seem plausible — maybe dangerously so.

The West, while backing Ukraine, fears that any Ukrainian military incursion into Crimea could incite Putin to take drastic action, potentially even the use of a nuclear bomb. Some Western officials hope that a deal relinquishing Crimea to Russia could be the basis for a diplomatic end to the war. Ukrainians dismiss that idea as dangerously naive, while Russians say they will not settle for what is already theirs.

The unwavering claims to Crimea illustrate the intractability of the conflict, and it is hard to imagine the fight over the peninsula will be resolved without further bloodshed.

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It was a shocking attack in early October on the Crimean Bridge — a $4 billion symbol of Putin’s imperial ambitions in Ukraine — that the Kremlin says triggered Moscow’s unrelenting bombing campaign of Ukraine’s critical infrastructure that now threatens to tip the country into a humanitarian crisis.

And following Kyiv’s liberation of Kherson — which Moscow vowed would be “Russia forever” — Russian officials have stepped up their rhetoric. Former president Dmitry Medvedev promised a “judgment day” in the event of any attack on Crimea, while a member of Russia’s parliament warned of a “final crushing blow.”

Ukraine, meanwhile, is developing detailed plans for the reintegration of Crimea, including the expulsion of thousands of Russian citizens who moved there after 2014.

“Absolutely all the Russian citizens who came to Crimea, with some rare exceptions, arrived on the territory of Crimea illegally,” said Zelensky’s permanent representative to Crimea, Tamila Tasheva. “Therefore, we have one approach: that all these Russian citizens must leave.”

Russia has its own maximalist view, demanding the surrender of four other Ukrainian regions — Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — that Putin has also declared, illegally, to be annexed.

The refusal by either side to back down threatens to turn the war into a decades-long conflict, much like the territorial standoffs over the West Bank and Gaza, Nagorno-Karabakh, or Kurdistan.

Crimea has been fiercely disputed for centuries. The Greeks, Mongols and Ottoman Turks all laid claim to this jewel of the Black Sea. Russia and the Ottoman Empire fought wars over it before Catherine the Great annexed Crimea in 1783, absorbing it into the Russian Empire.

During the Soviet Union, as in czarist times, Crimea became a favorite holiday resort for the Russian elite. Stalin brutally repressed the Crimean Tatars, the peninsula’s predominantly Muslim indigenous group, deporting some 200,000 to Central Asia and Siberia after accusing them of collaborating with Nazi Germany. That persecution would shape the peninsula’s politics for decades.

In 1954 — ostensibly to mark the 300th anniversary of a treaty joining Ukraine to Russia, but also for key economic reasons — Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred Crimea from Russia to Ukraine.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Crimea became an autonomous region of Ukraine, obligated to Kyiv, but with its own constitution and Ukrainian, Russian and Crimean Tatar as its official languages.

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The 1990s were marked by squabbles between Kyiv and Moscow, spurred in part by the Kremlin’s demand to maintain its Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol, which it did under long-term lease. But a sense of resentment toward Kyiv festered among Crimeans. The peninsula struggled economically. Many residents, overwhelmingly ethnic Russians, felt neglected and nostalgic for Soviet times.

In 2014, days after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled in response to the Maidan Revolution, Russian forces invaded Crimea. Russian-backed authorities quickly organized an illegal referendum on annexation, which was accomplished in a swift process that Putin hoped to repeat this year by conquering Kyiv.

The annexation was hugely popular in Russia, and Putin’s approval ratings shot up. “Much of the imperial projection of Russia, its entire founding myth, centers on Crimea,” said Gwendolyn Sasse, an analyst at Carnegie Europe.

“In people’s hearts and minds, Crimea has always been an inseparable part of Russia,” Putin said in a speech at the time. The annexation, however, was a violation of international law, and Western nations quickly imposed punishing sanctions.

For eight years, the fate of Crimea was overshadowed by the war in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region that was stoked by pro-Russian separatists. But Zelensky started formulating a de-occupation and reintegration plan for Crimea long before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February.

In 2021, his government established an annual summit called the Crimea Platform, intended to keep Crimea in the international spotlight. Tasheva, a Crimean Tatar, became Zelensky’s representative to Crimea in April, and now leads a team of 40 people working on a blueprint for reversing the annexation.

“It is imperative that Ukraine has a step-by-step plan … ready to go,” Tasheva said in an interview, noting a long list of complex issues related to transitional justice and citizenship.

An estimated 100,000 residents fled Crimea after Russia’s annexation, but the vast majority stayed and were joined by hundreds of thousands of Russians encouraged to settle there. Since 2014, Russian authorities have issued passports to many of the peninsula’s 2.4 million citizens.

Tasheva said the Crimeans who stayed “had the right to do so” and that after de-occupation, efforts would be made to distinguish between those who actively collaborated with the Russian authorities, and those who perhaps voted for annexation but became what Tasheva calls “victims of propaganda.”

“These people didn’t commit crimes,” she said. “They just had their opinions.”

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However, she said all Russian citizens who arrived illegally after 2014 must go. “This is a matter of our security,” Tasheva said. “If all these Russian citizens remain on the territory of Crimea, they will always threaten the territorial integrity of our country.”

Rory Finnin, associate professor of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Cambridge, said a compromise was unlikely.

“The idea that somehow Ukraine should just go back to the status quo post-2014 is foolish because all that will happen is another escalation,” Finnin said. “It is hard to imagine Ukrainians being comfortable with giving up this territory, knowing this means the abandonment of millions of people. The moral and geopolitical stakes of such an abandonment are grave.”

Russia, too, is intent on maintaining its grip on Crimea, raising concerns among Western officials about the extreme measures Putin might take to hold it.

Nikolay Petrov, a senior research fellow at Chatham House, the London-based policy institute, said that Putin relinquishing Crimea was “absolutely out of the question” and that Zelensky’s loudly articulated reintegration policies were among the “triggers” for Putin’s invasion.

“The creation of the Crimea Platform and the permission given by the West to play this card, started a very dangerous game,” Petrov said. “Finally it led to this war.”

In a recent interview, Lord David Richards, a former chief of staff of the British army, said Ukraine would risk nuclear war to defend Crimea. “If you rub Putin’s nose in it, he can do something very silly,” Richards told Times Radio. “He can use tactical nuclear weapons.”

Still, some Western officials hold out hope that a deal on Crimea could be the key to ending the war, and said they believed that Zelensky and his advisers were more open to potential concessions than their rhetoric has suggested.

During initial peace talks in March, Kyiv signaled it would be open to separate negotiations on the status of Crimea, raising the possibility that Zelensky might be open to treating Crimea differently than other Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine that he insists must be returned.

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“There could be some arrangement over Crimea, a properly monitored and executed referendum, perhaps a sort of Hong Kong deal whereby it’s allowed to remain in Russian hands for a number of years,” Lord Richards said.

Eight years on, Crimea is isolated by international sanctions. Its airport, once a hub for summer travelers from across Europe and beyond, now offers flights only to mainland Russia.

The Kremlin initially poured money into local infrastructure projects, including the Crimean Bridge, as well as pension schemes. It also imposed Russian state propaganda as the principal source of information. Though Russian tourists returned, the peninsula has struggled economically and is now led by a repressive, Moscow-installed government. Crimean Tatars, in particular, have faced persecution.

Given limited access to Crimea, and the domination of Russian state media, it is difficult to gauge the public opinion there, and whether it has shifted in response the war.

Still, many believe that the war that began in Crimea must end with Crimea.

“The question of Crimea, which I thought before the war would take decades to resolve, today is unambiguous,” said Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former Russian oil tycoon and longtime Putin critic. “It is difficult to imagine a real end to the war without the return of Crimea to Ukraine.”

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Russia drones smash power network in Odesa, leaving 1.5 million without power

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KYIV, Dec 10 (Reuters) – All non-critical infrastructure in the Ukrainian port of Odesa was without power after Russia used Iranian-made drones to hit two energy facilities, leaving 1.5 million people without power, officials said on Saturday.

“The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

“Unfortunately, the hits were critical, so it takes more than just time to restore electricity… It doesn’t take hours, but a few days, unfortunately.”

Since October, Moscow has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with large waves of missile and drone strikes.

Norway was sending $100 million to help restore Ukraine’s energy system, Zelenskiy said.

Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for Odesa’s regional administration, said electricity for the city’s population will be restored “in the coming days,” while complete restoration of the networks may take two to three months.

Bratchuk said an earlier Facebook post by the region’s administration, advising some people to consider evacuating, was being investigated by Ukraine’s security services as “an element of the hybrid war” by Russia.

That post has since been deleted.

“Not a single representative of the authorities in the region made any calls for the evacuation of the inhabitants of Odesa and the region,” Bratchuk said.

Odesa had more than 1 million residents before the Feb. 24 invasion that Russia calls a “special military operation” to “denazify” its smaller neighbour.

Kyiv says Russia has launched hundreds of Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones at targets in Ukraine, describing the attacks as war crimes due to their devastating effect on civilian life. Moscow says its attacks are militarily legitimate and that it does not target civilians.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said two power facilities in Odesa region were hit by Shahed-136 drones.

Ukraine’s armed forces said on Facebook that 15 drones had been launched against targets in the southern regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv, and 10 had been shot down.

Tehran denies supplying the drones to Moscow. Kyiv and its Western allies say that is a lie.

Britain’s defence ministry said on Saturday that it believed Iran’s military support for Russia was likely to increase in the coming months, including possible deliveries of ballistic missiles.

Reporting by Max Hunder and David Ljunggren; Editing by Ros Russell, Daniel Wallis and William Mallard

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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