Russia is focusing its offensive action in the directions of Lyman, Bakhmut and Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in its situational update Wednesday.
“It is trying to improve the tactical situation at the Kupyansk direction,” the General Staff added.
“In the Kupyansk and Lyman directions, 15 settlements were shelled with tanks and the entire range of artillery,” the General Staff said.
Kupyansk, in Kharkiv region, and Lyman, in Donetsk region, were liberated by Ukrainian forces at the end of September.
“In the Bakhmut and Avdiivka directions, areas of more than 30 settlements were shelled,” it added.
Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service said it had repelled assaults and captured Russian positions in the Bakhmut direction, in an update on Wednesday.
“During the battle, 9 occupiers were killed, about 20 more were wounded. Currently, the Defense Forces have advanced 300 meters and are consolidating their positions,” the State Border Guard Service said.
Other impacted areas: Meanwhile, in the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, more than 40 settlements were fired on in the past day, the General Staff said.
“They do not stop terrorizing the civilian population of cities and towns along the west bank of the Dnipro river,” it added.
A screen grab from video shows the aftermath of shelling of a building in Makiivka, in the Russian controlled Donetsk region of Ukraine. (Reuters)
An apparent Ukrainian strike in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine appears to have killed a large number of Russian troops, according to the Ukrainian military, pro-Russian military bloggers and former officials.
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, according to both Ukrainian and pro-Russian accounts.
The attack has led to vocal criticism of Moscow’s 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 said later on Monday that the number of Russian servicemen killed in Makiivka is “being clarified” after claiming earlier that around 400 Russian soldiers were killed and a further 300 were wounded. It has not directly acknowledged a role in the strike. CNN cannot independently confirm those numbers or the weapons used in the attack.
Some pro-Russian military bloggers have also estimated that the number of dead and wounded could run in the hundreds.
The Russian defense ministry on Monday acknowledged the attack and claimed that 63 Russian servicemen died, which would make it one of the deadliest single episodes of the war for Moscow’s forces.
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.”
Putin reviews a military honor guard with Xi Jinping in Beijing in June of 2018. (Greg Baker/Pool/AFP/Getty Images/FILE)
In opening remarks during a video conference Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin invited his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to visit Moscow next spring. He added that the two countries would strengthen cooperation between their armed forces, and pointed to growth in trade despite “unfavorable market conditions.”
Bilateral relations are “the best in history, and withstand all tests,” he said. “We share the same views on the causes, course and logic of the ongoing transformation of the global geopolitical landscape.”
Xi also delivered opening remarks, saying “against the background of a difficult international situation, China is ready to increase political cooperation with Russia” and to be “global partners,” according to the Russian state media translation of the broadcast.
Moscow and Beijing have drawn closer in recent years, with Xi and Putin declaring the two countries had a “no limits” partnership weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
China has since refused to condemn the aggression, instead repeatedly laying blame for the conflict on NATO and the United States – and remaining one of Russia’s key remaining supporters as it grows increasingly isolated on the global stage.
But more than 10 months into the grinding war, the world looks much different – and the dynamic between both partners has shifted accordingly, experts say.
On Thursday, Russia launched what Ukrainian officials described as one of the biggest missile barrages since the war began in February, with explosions rattling villages and cities across Ukraine, damaging civilian infrastructure and killing at least three people.
Ukrainian officials have been cautioning for days that Russia is preparing to launch an all-out assault on the power grid to close out 2022, plummeting the country into darkness as Ukrainians attempt to ring in the New Year and celebrate the Christmas holidays, which for the country’s Orthodox Christians falls on January 7.
“China is eager for (the war) to end,” said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center.
“Xi will try to emphasize the importance of peace to Putin,” she added. “As Russia is getting impatient with the lack of progress on the battlefield, the timing is ripening for peace talk in China’s eyes.”
Putin reviews a military honor guard with Xi Jinping in Beijing in June of 2018. (Greg Baker/Pool/AFP/Getty Images/FILE)
In opening remarks during a video conference Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin invited his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to visit Moscow next spring. He added that the two countries would strengthen cooperation between their armed forces, and pointed to growth in trade despite “unfavorable market conditions.”
Bilateral relations are “the best in history, and withstand all tests,” he said. “We share the same views on the causes, course and logic of the ongoing transformation of the global geopolitical landscape.”
Xi also delivered opening remarks, saying “against the background of a difficult international situation, China is ready to increase political cooperation with Russia” and to be “global partners,” according to the Russian state media translation of the broadcast.
Moscow and Beijing have drawn closer in recent years, with Xi and Putin declaring the two countries had a “no limits” partnership weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
China has since refused to condemn the aggression, instead repeatedly laying blame for the conflict on NATO and the United States – and remaining one of Russia’s key remaining supporters as it grows increasingly isolated on the global stage.
But more than 10 months into the grinding war, the world looks much different – and the dynamic between both partners has shifted accordingly, experts say.
On Thursday, Russia launched what Ukrainian officials described as one of the biggest missile barrages since the war began in February, with explosions rattling villages and cities across Ukraine, damaging civilian infrastructure and killing at least three people.
Ukrainian officials have been cautioning for days that Russia is preparing to launch an all-out assault on the power grid to close out 2022, plummeting the country into darkness as Ukrainians attempt to ring in the New Year and celebrate the Christmas holidays, which for the country’s Orthodox Christians falls on January 7.
“China is eager for (the war) to end,” said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center.
“Xi will try to emphasize the importance of peace to Putin,” she added. “As Russia is getting impatient with the lack of progress on the battlefield, the timing is ripening for peace talk in China’s eyes.”
Residents and visitors in Kyiv on New Year’s Eve expressed a resolve to celebrate the new year, and also hope that 2023 could bring peace, as Russia’s invasion grinds on.
Anastasia Grimaylo and Daria Zhabinska. (Denis Lapin for CNN)
Daria Zhabinska, a 19-year-old student who works for Visit Ukraine, said her wish for 2023 is for Ukraine’s 1991 borders as an independent state to be restored.
“For us to return to the borders of 1991 is the only dream. And I want all my loved ones to be healthy,” she told CNN.
“We do not have a New Year’s mood like in previous years; in previous years, we had everything decorated and prepared for a month, and we still do not even have a Christmas tree. We are going to look for one now and if we find one, we will have one this year and if not, that’s OK,” she said.
“All this adrenaline, all this stress, when you read the news or talk to someone, you just want to celebrate this new year,” she added.
Twenty-year-old student Anastasia Grimaylo said she has stocked up on candles as Russian strikes cause repeated power outages across Ukraine.
“We’re ready for anything,” she told CNN.
Yurii Nagotnuk and Dariya Chesnokova. (Denis Lapin for CNN)
Dariya Chesnokova is a schoolteacher, and Yurii Nagotnuk works in the information technology sector. Both are 25 years old and are from the southern city of Kryvyi Rih.
“We came to Kyiv to visit friends, to get a sense of the New Year’s mood. We are also taking presents to our friends,” she said.
Chesnokova said her wish for 2023 is for Ukraine to win the war, “and then we will rebuild everything.”
Natalia Vaganova. (Denis Lapin for CNN)
Natalia Vaganova, 27, an employee of a consulting company who lives in Brovary in the Kyiv region, said she will celebrate at home with family.
“We expect victory and peaceful skies from 2023,” she said.
Olexander Oleksiyenko. (Denis Lapin for CNN)
Olexander Oleksiyenko, a 26-year-old who works in IT and lives in Kyiv, said he will not celebrate this New Year’s because his girlfriend is abroad, adding that he plans to “just drink some wine and eat something delicious.”
“In 2023, of course, I don’t expect the war to end, but I would like it very much. I am a realist, and I think the war could last another 2 years. But I would like minimum stability and some peace,” he said.
Alyona Bogulska. (Denis Lapin for CNN)
Alyona Bogulska, a 29-year-old financier from Kyiv, said she plans to celebrate the new year with “a glass of champagne and … a sandwich with red caviar.”
“From 2023 I really want to win, and also to have more bright impressions and new emotions. I miss it very much. I also want to travel and open borders. And I also think about personal and professional growth, because one should not stand still. I have to develop and work for the benefit of the country,” she said.
Tatiana Tkachuk. (Denis Lapin for CNN)
Tatiana Tkachuk, a 43-year-old pharmacy employee in Kyiv, said her Christmas tree this year symbolizes survival and victory.
“This year we had a family question whether to prepare for (the) new year and whether to put up a Christmas tree. We made up our minds — a Christmas tree should be at home. This year, it’s a symbol, not that it’s a small victory, but a symbol that we survived the year. There were a lot of scary things, but there were some good things, too. … Children are born, it is a good sign,” she said.
“And from the new year we expect only victory. And I know for sure there will be one. It is the desire of all Ukrainians, and if everyone wants something, it will happen,” she said.
“I want to thank everyone who helps Ukraine. We’ve made a lot of friends. And in order to understand that we have a lot of good things, unfortunately, we had to go through terrible things. But so many people are doing real miracles for Ukraine. In other circumstances, we would never have known that we were capable of it,” she added.
The Ukrainian military says Russian forces have diverted resources to the battle for the key city of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region but have made no advances.
Brig. Gen. Oleksii Hromov, deputy chief of the General Staff’s main operational directorate, told a briefing Thursday that the situation in the east remained difficult for Ukrainian forces, as the Russians conducted offensive actions on several fronts, including Bakhmut, Avdiivka and toward Kupyansk, which was liberated in September.
“The main efforts of the enemy concentrated on the Bakhmut direction,” Hromov said. “Around Bakhmut, the defenders of Ukraine are resisting up to 20 attacks of the enemy daily, which is persistently attacking the positions of our troops under the cover of artillery fire.
“In order to concentrate artillery fire around Bakhmut, the enemy has deliberately reduced the number of attacks on the positions of our troops in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia directions in recent weeks, with ammunition being delivered to the Bakhmut and Lyman directions.”
Lyman is another settlement in Donetsk liberated by Ukrainian forces at the end of September.
“More than 40% of the enemy’s artillery attacks along the contact line from Kupyansk to Mariinka are in the Bakhmut direction,” Hromov said.
Other advancements: Hromov said Ukrainian forces had made gradual progress towards the city of Kreminna in the eastern Luhansk region. The city fell to the Russians in the spring.
Ukrainian units had advanced up to 2.5 kilometers (more than 1 mile) in the direction of Kreminna this week, Hromov said. The area has been heavily mined by the Russians, according to Ukrainian officials.
Hromov also claimed that Russia was beginning to prepare defensive lines around the city of Luhansk “in case the Ukrainian Defense Forces break through the defensive borders of the Russian occupation troops on the Svatove-Kreminna line and, accordingly, move the hostilities closer” to the area.
Hromov said that following Russia’s partial mobilization, trained units continued to be moved to occupied territories of Ukraine. He said that in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, units of the Russian territorial reserve had been deployed.
“We are tracking the movement of enemy units. Currently, there is no significant threat of offensive grouping in the Zaporizhzhia sector.”
The Ukrainian military says Russian forces have diverted resources to the battle for the key city of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region but have made no advances.
Brig. Gen. Oleksii Hromov, deputy chief of the General Staff’s main operational directorate, told a briefing Thursday that the situation in the east remained difficult for Ukrainian forces, as the Russians conducted offensive actions on several fronts, including Bakhmut, Avdiivka and toward Kupyansk, which was liberated in September.
“The main efforts of the enemy concentrated on the Bakhmut direction,” Hromov said. “Around Bakhmut, the defenders of Ukraine are resisting up to 20 attacks of the enemy daily, which is persistently attacking the positions of our troops under the cover of artillery fire.
“In order to concentrate artillery fire around Bakhmut, the enemy has deliberately reduced the number of attacks on the positions of our troops in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia directions in recent weeks, with ammunition being delivered to the Bakhmut and Lyman directions.”
Lyman is another settlement in Donetsk liberated by Ukrainian forces at the end of September.
“More than 40% of the enemy’s artillery attacks along the contact line from Kupyansk to Mariinka are in the Bakhmut direction,” Hromov said.
Other advancements: Hromov said Ukrainian forces had made gradual progress towards the city of Kreminna in the eastern Luhansk region. The city fell to the Russians in the spring.
Ukrainian units had advanced up to 2.5 kilometers (more than 1 mile) in the direction of Kreminna this week, Hromov said. The area has been heavily mined by the Russians, according to Ukrainian officials.
Hromov also claimed that Russia was beginning to prepare defensive lines around the city of Luhansk “in case the Ukrainian Defense Forces break through the defensive borders of the Russian occupation troops on the Svatove-Kreminna line and, accordingly, move the hostilities closer” to the area.
Hromov said that following Russia’s partial mobilization, trained units continued to be moved to occupied territories of Ukraine. He said that in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, units of the Russian territorial reserve had been deployed.
“We are tracking the movement of enemy units. Currently, there is no significant threat of offensive grouping in the Zaporizhzhia sector.”
Police experts examine the remains of a downed missile in Kyiv, Ukraine, on December 29. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images)
Ukraine’s Air Force said that Russia had launched 69 missiles and that it had shot down 54, according to preliminary data, with the
The majority of cruie missiles fired at Ukraine by Russia on Thursday were i
The Ukrainian military said that the majority of cruise missiles fired at Ukraine on Thursday were intercepted, with defense forces shooting down 54 of 69.
ntercepted, said the Ukrainian military.
There were conflicting reports on the extent of the missile attacks on Ukraine.
“The enemy keeps resorting to its missile terror against the peacefulsea-based cruise missiles, as well as anti-aircraft guided missiles such as the S-300 at energy infrastructure facilities.
“According to preliminary data, “
He said the Russians had launched air and sea-based cruise missiles, as well as anti-aircraft guided missiles, such as the S-300, at energy infrastructure facilities. aunched in toalto sal. 54 enemy cruise missiles were shot eowneds
There were some conflicting reports on the extent of the missile attacks on Thursday. An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, said in an earlier post on Twitter that Russia had launched more than 120 missiles in the barrage, without offering further details.etsThe Ukraine Defense Ministry said in a tweet: “We. Shall. Not. Stop.”
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova is pictured at UN headquarters in New York on September 24. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/Shutterstock)
Russia’s foreign ministry has slammed Ukraine’s calls to remove Russia from the UN Security Council (UNSC), according to Russian state news agency TASS.
On Monday, the Ukrainian foreign ministry in a statement said Russia should be both excluded from the UNSC, and from being a member of the UN as a whole. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for Russia’s expulsion from the United Nations in the past.
Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, dismissed Kyiv’s statement Wednesday, saying, “Do nothing. This is precisely the case when dogs bark but the caravan moves on.”
Zakharova made the comments to Sputnik radio station on Wednesday in response to a question on Moscow’s reaction.
Here’s some background: Ukraine’s foreign ministry alleges “gross violations of the norms and principles of international law as well as for crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine, in particular, for war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as the crime of genocide.”
It suggests Russia could be re-admitted upon recommendation for UN membership once it “fulfils the conditions for membership in the Organization.”
Russian attacks on Ukraine’s southern Kherson region continued over the past 24 hours, injuring three civilians, according to the head of the regional military administration.
“Russian occupiers shelled the territory of Kherson region 50 times. Peaceful settlements of the region suffered from attacks from artillery, MLRS, mortars and tanks,” Yaroslav Yanushevych, head of the Kherson regional military administration, said in a Telegram post.
The city of Kherson was hit 23 times in the past 24 hours, Yanushevych said, adding that three people had sustained injuries of “varying severity.”
In November, Russia’s military retreated from Kherson city, the only regional capital Moscow had captured since the invasion began, in a major setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Since then, Russian forces have stationed themselves across the river from Kherson and regularly shell the city from there.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has neutralized more than 4,500 cyberattacks on the country this year, an official said Monday.
Ilya Vitiuk, head of the SBU cybersecurity department said in a statement that Ukraine had “entered 2022 with eight years of hybrid warfare experience behind us,” adding that “at the time of the invasion, we were already ready for the worst scenarios.”
“And the massive cyberattacks that we repelled in January and February became additional ‘training’ before the invasion,” he said.
The scale of cyberattacks is now much wider, particularly compared to previous years, he said. In 2020, nearly 800 cyberattacks were recorded, while in 2021 it jumped to 1,400, and in 2022 the number increased more than three times.
“Today, the aggressor country launches an average of more than 10 cyberattacks per day. Fortunately, Ukrainian society does not even know about most of them,” Vitiuk said.
He added that attackers are most likely to target energy, logistics, military facilities, government databases and information resources.
“We monitor risks and threats in real-time 24/7. We know most of the hackers from the Russian special services working against us by name. We are working on documenting them,” Vitiuk said, declaring they would face hearings at a future international military tribunal.
Russia is prepared to resume gas supplies to Europe via the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline, which was previously stopped for political reasons, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told Russian state news agency TASS on Sunday.
“The European market remains relevant, as the gas shortage persists, and we have every opportunity to resume supplies. For example, the Yamal-Europe pipeline, which was stopped for political reasons, remains unused,” Novak said.
There is an increase in demand for gas from Europe, Novak said, according to TASS.
“Today, we can confidently say that there is a demand for our gas. Therefore, we continue to consider Europe as a potential market for the sale of our products. It is clear that a large-scale campaign was launched against us, which ended with acts of sabotage against Nord Stream,” he said.
More background: Russia has been in an energy standoff with Europe since it invaded Ukraine in February.
In May, only 44 hours after Ukraine reduced the flow of natural gas across its territory into Europe, blaming interference by Russian troops, Gazprom stopped supplies through the Yamal-Europe pipeline running across Poland, and stopped sending gas to a distributor in Germany. Gazprom was forced to suspend supplies due to sanctions on its parent company EuRoPol GAZ, according to state news agency RIA Novosti.
In December, the West to East gas supply from Germany to Poland was also temporarily halted, “falling to zero,” TASS reports.
The Ukrainian military reports heavy shelling by Russian forces across the front lines in Zaporizhzhia region, with at least a dozen settlements being hit, but at the same time it has reported damaging strikes against Russian bases deep in occupied territory.
In Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian defense forces said the towns of Huliapole and Novoandriivka were among those hit.
“The enemy focuses its main efforts on holding the occupied borders, while shelling the positions of Ukrainian defenders with tank weapons, rocket and barrel artillery along the entire contact line,” they said.
Police had received nearly 30 reports on the destruction of civilian properties, it added.
But the Ukrainians have confirmed that three days ago they hit a “concentration” of Russian troops some distance behind the front lines in Kherson region. The strike occurred in the Skadovsk district, near the border with Crimea.
“Up to 140 Russian servicemen were wounded and 8 Kamaz trucks with ammunition were destroyed,” the Ukrainian military said.
It also claimed another strike on December 20 in Kherson had killed up to 150 Russian troops. Another 50 had been injured in the strike, which targeted an enemy airfield near Kakhovka.
“Up to 20 units of military equipment of various types were destroyed,” it said.
Local social media channels say there were also powerful explosions at a Russian base in the town of Tokmak in Zaporizhzhia on Thursday night, but neither side has made any official comment. Video shot at night showed several explosions but could not be geolocated.
Members of a demining team work to clear mines and unexploded ordinance from the side of the main road leading to Kherson city on November 16 in Kherson, Ukraine. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
In addition work continues on extensive demining operations in previously occupied areas.
The total area that is mined is about 880,000 hectares, of which about two-thirds are in Kherson region.
So far, engineering units have inspected 1,175 kilometers (730 miles) of roads, 456 kilometers of railroads and 660 kilometers of power lines as part of the demining operation.
“In total, about 40,000 explosive items were removed during these tasks,” the military said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint meeting of Congress at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, December 21. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
Unbroken, defiant, a civilian forced to don green military garb, the Ukrainian president spent Wednesday in Washington, DC, on his daring first trip out of his country since Russia’s brutal, unprovoked invasion in February. He expressed heartfelt gratitude for America’s multi-billion dollar weapons and ammunition lifeline — but made clear he’d never stop asking for more.
Appearing with extraordinary symbolism at the White House with President Joe Biden and before a joint meeting of Congress, Zelensky also bore sobering news. A long, bloody battle for freedom, democracy, and ultimately, the survival of a nation Russian President Vladimir Putin says has no right to exist — a fight for which it’s still not clear the free world has the stomach — is nowhere near over.
The comic actor-turned-wartime hero effectively put the fate of millions of Ukrainians in the hands of American lawmakers, taxpayers and families at a time when there is growing skepticism among the incoming Republican House majority about the cost of US involvement.
At an emotional peak of his speech in the House chamber, Zelensky handed Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris a Ukrainian flag he retrieved from the hottest battle front at Bakhmut on Tuesday.
“Our heroes … asked me to bring this flag to you, to the US Congress, to members of the House of Representatives and senators whose decisions can save millions of people,” he said. “So, let these decisions be taken. Let this flag stay with you.”
Editor’s note: This post was adapted from the Dec. 22 edition of CNN’s Meanwhile in America, the daily email about US politics for global readers. Read the full analysis here or click here to read past editions and subscribe.
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s White House visit Wednesday will symbolically bolster America’s role as the arsenal of democracy in the bitter war for Ukraine’s survival and send a stunning public rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
That his first trip outside Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February is to the United States will also highlight President Joe Biden’s historic role in reviving the Western alliance that kept the Soviet Union at bay and is now countering new expansionism by Moscow in an effective proxy war between nuclear superpowers.
Zelensky’s arrival will draw poignant echoes of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s arrival in Washington, 81 years ago on Thursday, days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. That Christmas visit cemented the alliance that would win World War II and built the post-war democratic world.
Zelensky compared his nation’s resistance against Russia with Britain’s lonely defiance of the Nazis in the days before the US entered World War II during a video address to the UK Parliament earlier this year, and his arrival in the US capital will sharpen the parallels to the earlier meeting of Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt.
His visit is unfolding amid extraordinary security. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t even confirm the early reports that she’d welcome Zelensky to the US Capitol in an unexpected coda to her speakership, saying on Tuesday evening, “We don’t know yet. We just don’t know.”
A White House reception for Zelensky will above all be an unmistakable sign of US and Western support for Ukraine’s battle against Putin, who says the country has no right to exist. The war exemplifies what Biden has framed as a global struggle between democracy and totalitarianism, which he has put at the center of his foreign policy.
Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, who visited Ukraine earlier this month, said on CNN’s “AC360” that Zelensky was coming to Washington on a specific mission.
“What he is trying to do is draw a direct correlation between our support and the survival and support and future victory of Ukraine,” Gallego, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said.
Ukrainian soldiers in front of the remains of the lighthouse of Zmiinyi island aka ‘Snake island’ (Pierre Bairin/CNN)
Snake Island has a special place in Ukraine’s folklore, now more than ever. Its defiant defense – when a Russian warship was famously told to “go f*** yourself” – and then reconquest rallied a nation in the early months of the conflict with Russia, puncturing the myth of the invaders’ superiority.
Now, whipped by winter winds, it remains firmly in Ukrainian hands – a speck of rock that has both symbolic and strategic significance.
A CNN team became the first foreign media to visit the island since it was recaptured in June, and to speak with the commander of the operation that led to its liberation.
A few acres of rock and grass, treeless and difficult to access, Snake Island, also known as Zmiinyi Island, lies around 30 miles (48 kilometers) off the Ukrainian coast, near its maritime border with Romania.
Getting there proved challenging: An hour being pitched from wave to wave in a small boat, showered with spray, in sub-freezing temperatures. The Black Sea can be unforgiving, and so can its hazardous coastline. On the way back our dirigible boat got stuck on a sandbar, and it took six hours before we were transferred, one-by-one, to another vessel in the darkness.
Snake Island is now a desolate place, strewn with wreckage, its few buildings reduced to shells, its half-sunken jetty battered by the tide. It’s a graveyard of expensive military hardware – and is littered with unexploded ordnance and mines. This is not a place to be careless.
The CNN team saw at least four different kinds of landmines, Russian Pantsir surface-to-air missile systems, and an almost intact Tor anti-air missile complex. There was also the carcass of a Russian military helicopter that was hit.
Russian forces bombarded Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region overnight using drones, Grad multiple rocket launcher systems and other heavy artillery, according to local authorities.
Nikopol was struck by more than 60 Russian shells, Valentyn Reznichenko, head of the region’s military administration, said Monday in a statement on the messaging platform Telegram. The district, which is controlled by Ukrainians, lies on the west bank of the Dnipro River, across from the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
Towns and villages in the district, including Chervonohryhorivka, Myrove and Marhanets, were targeted, according to Reznichenko. There were no casualties, but civilian infrastructure and power systems were hit, leaving a path of destruction. Shelling in Chervonohryhorivka alone damaged 11 houses, six outbuildings, cars, a gas pipeline and power line, Reznichenko said. Due to the attack, a water pumping station had been “disconnected,” he added, leaving several villages cut off from any water supply.
Reznichenko added that Ukraine’s air defense had intercepted two Russian drones flying in the region.
Heating has been fully restored in Kyiv Sunday, two days after a barrage of Russian missiles targeted the city.
“All heat supply sources are operating normally,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on Telegram, adding that public utilities will work throughout Sunday on “individual buildings, where there may be minor heating problems.”
The broader Kyiv region, however, continues to grapple with electricity supply issues. More than 600,000 people, which is 50% of the region’s residents, are currently without power, the head of Kyiv’s regional military administration said on Ukrainian TV.
Crews restored power supply to the areas most affected by the shelling over the course of the past two days, said the official, Oleksiy Kuleba.
But “there are still several difficult areas where there is no electricity,” Kuleba continued, adding that the district of Bucha in particular is facing supply issues.
Across the region, 410 service centers, known as “invincibility points,” are now operating, where the region’s residents can charge their phones and receive hot drinks, Kuleba said.
