Tag: Live updates: Russia's war in Ukraine

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the UK would not rush to a judgment about the origin of a missile which landed in a Polish village Tuesday, killing two people. 

“We are not going to rush to judgment. Our response will always be led by the facts,” Cleverly said Wednesday in a speech to the British Parliament, adding the investigation into the incident would be led by Poland. 

Cleverly’s warning comes after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a Brussels news conference that “preliminary analysis suggests that the incident was likely caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile fired to defend Ukrainian territory against Russian cruise missile attacks.” 

“But let me be clear, this is not Ukraine’s fault,” Stoltenberg said, adding, “Russia bears ultimate responsibility, as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine.”

The foreign secretary condemned Putin’s “brutal air campaign” on Ukraine on Tuesday, when waves of missiles hit cities across the country. 

Cleverly added the strikes were “Putin’s revenge for Ukraine’s successes on the battlefield, where Russian forces have been expelled from thousands of square miles of territory and now he is trying to terrorize the people of Ukraine and break their will by leaving them shivering in cold and darkness.” 

UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace also said Wednesday that he cannot speculate on the missile incident.

Asked what conversations he has had with NATO counterparts, Wallace said that he was in touch with his Polish counterpart on Tuesday, “offering my support.” 

His Polish counterpart “replied that they were obviously waiting for intelligence and indeed details to emerge,” Wallace said.

When Russian forces invaded their country in late February, Vladimir Bespalov and Maria Bespalaya feared their long-held dream of starting a family through adoption was over.

Instead, the situation pushed the couple to try to do it sooner, he said. “We were waiting to earn more money, have a better car, buy a house, and build something to give our children first. But when the war started, we thought why not adopt a child now and accomplish these things together as a family.”

That day, the married couple, who were living in eastern Ukraine, posted an appeal on social media.

“We want to adopt any boy or girl, any newborn or child,” it read.

Weeks later that message would reach a volunteer helping those fleeing Mariupol, a southern city that became emblematic of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ruthless campaign to take Ukrainian land, no matter the cost.

Residents were forced underground for weeks while Russian troops pummeled the city with artillery. It is now a virtual wasteland, with nearly every building damaged or destroyed, and an unknown number of dead beneath the rubble.

Among the survivors was 6-year-old Ilya Kostushevich, orphaned and alone. Both his parents were killed in the first week of the war.

His mother was struck down by Russian artillery after she left home to find food for her family, Bespalov and Bespalaya were later to learn from police.

Unaware of his wife’s fate, Ilya’s father went looking for her the next day, only to be killed by shelling from Moscow’s army, too, police said.

Little Ilya has told how he was left at a neighbor’s house, where he sheltered in a cold, dark basement with strangers for weeks.

He got so hungry he started to eat his toys, Bespalaya said.

Read more here.

One of the most senior Russian-appointed officials in occupied Ukrainian territory has been killed, according to the Russian-installed leader of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, and reported in Russian state news agencies.

Saldo called Stremousov, the Russian-appointed deputy head of the region, “one of the brightest, able to speak and present to people the truth about what is happening in the Kherson region.”

Stremousov died in a road accident, the press secretary of the head of the region said, according to Russian news agency TASS.

Russian state media company Vesti (VGTRK) said that, according to the Minister of Health of the Kherson Region Vadim Ilmiev, Stremousov was killed in an accident on the highway between Kherson and Armyansk in Crimea.

Valeria Petrusevich, head of the nonprofit organization Good Peace-Crimean Volunteers, also wrote on her Telegram channel that “Kirill Stremousov, deputy governor of the Kherson region, died. The information is accurate, I know personally. It was an accident. Details later.”

Stremousov, a Ukrainian who was quick to side with the Russian occupation when Kherson fell early in the invasion, had become one of the most vocal and outspoken of Russian appointees.

As deputy head of the Kherson region military administration, Stremousov was prominent in organizing and supporting the referendum on Kherson’s declared annexation by Russia and more recently had been the driving force in the evacuation of civilians from the west bank in Kherson, as Ukrainian forces pushed toward the Dnipro River.

On Tuesday, Stremousov said: “Most residents who decided to stay in Kherson are only now beginning to realize the gravity of the situation and my warnings.”

Stremousov frequently wrote on Telegram to describe Ukrainian officials and forces as “Nazis” and “fascists.” But he was also critical of missteps by the Russian military. He had blamed the military setbacks in Kherson on “incompetent commanders” who had not been held accountable for their mistakes.

Sevastopol Gov. Mikhail Razvozhaev said that Stremousov “was a true patriot of Russia, brave and courageous, in any situation he remained in touch and considered it his duty to inform the residents of the Kherson region about what was happening. This was the case this morning as well. This is an irreparable loss.” 

Earlier Wednesday, Stremousov had published a video on the situation on the front lines, particularly on the fighting around Snihurivska north of Kherson city, where there are reports that Ukrainian forces have broken through Russian defenses.

Stremousov was 45 years old, according to Vesti.

The Ukrainian capital of Kyiv is preparing for worst-case scenarios in the event of further Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure which could potentially leave the city without electricity or water, according to its mayor Vitali Klitschko. 

“This is not a war, this is terrorism, this is genocide,” the mayor said regarding Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.

The city’s mayor encouraged some residents to think about staying with family and friends outside of Kyiv if the city is left without electricity or water.

“If you have extended family — this is for if we consider the worst case, if we were left without electricity and water supply — or friends outside Kyiv, where there is autonomous water supply, an oven, heating, please keep in mind the possibility of staying there for a certain amount of time,” the mayor said.  

Some background: Russian forces have pounded Ukraine’s critical infrastructure in recent weeks, severely damaging its electrical grid and forcing many towns and cities across the country to impose scheduled hours-long blackouts. 

Preparing for emergency: The city’s Director for the Department of Municipal Security, Roman Tkachuk, relayed fears later in the afternoon on Sunday that all possible action plans are being considered in the case of an emergency but there were no plans to evacuate the city, according to a statement from the Kyiv City Council. 

Tkachuk said each district within the city will have about 100 heating centers to operate in case of emergencies in the winter. These heating centers will be equipped with heat, lighting, toilets, canteens, places to rest, warm clothes, blankets and an ambulance crew will be on duty near such centers, the statement said.  

Ukrainian officials say the military struck an important target in Kherson, as pro-Russian authorities press civilians to leave the southern region.

Serhii Khlan, member of the Kherson Regional Council, said Ukrainian forces hit Russian air defense systems close to the stadium in Kherson city. Those systems have also been used to shell Mykolaiv, sometimes with devastating effect.

Khlan posted a photograph purportedly showing the “remains of the equipment.”

Khlan said there had also been further hits in the area of the Antonivskyi bridge, where Russian forces and the pro-Russian administration have been operating ferries and pontoon bridges to resupply the west bank, where thousands of Russian troops remain.

He said that in the city of Kakhovka — on the east bank of the river Dnipro — the three streets closest to the river were being forcibly evacuated. He said the Russians “in the city are digging in, setting up concrete trenches.”

Khlan repeated what other Ukrainian officials have asserted: that the Russian-backed authorities have left the city of Kherson — which is on the west bank — to set up office in the city of Skadovsk, much closer to Crimea. 

Authorities in several Ukrainian cities are reporting rocket and missile attacks Monday morning.

In central Dnipropetrovsk, Valentyn Reznichenko, head of the regional military administration, said there had been a “massive rocket attack on the region. There are dead and wounded.”

Authorities in northeastern Kharkiv also reported attacks. Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv military administration, said there were explosions in the city.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said “initial reports indicate three strikes on Kharkiv.”

“The impact was at an energy infrastructure facility. Some areas of the city lost power, there is no water supply,” he said.

In the south, Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv region civil military administration, said Tu-95 bombers had launched waves of missile attacks, with 47 “projectiles” fired.  

Air defenses had shot down three rockets, he said. The Russians were also using Iranian-made attack drones, he added.

Explosions were also reported early Monday in the western city of Lviv and the capital, Kyiv, where at least five people were killed. Casualties were also reported in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia after a Russian missile strike destroyed an apartment block.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog condemned new shelling near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which just disconnected the plant from Ukraine’s power grid, according to its operator.

The resumed shelling is “tremendously irresponsible,” International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said Saturday in a press release.

The last power line connecting the plant to Ukraine’s power grid was damaged and disconnected Saturday due to attacks by Russian forces, according to the Ukrainian nuclear operator Energoatom. The plant is now relying on diesel generators.

“The resumption of shelling, hitting the plant’s sole source of external power, is tremendously irresponsible. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant must be protected,” Grossi said on Saturday. 

“Although the six reactors are in cold shutdown, they still require electricity for vital nuclear safety and security functions. The plant’s diesel generators each have sufficient fuel for at least ten days. ZNPP engineers have begun work to repair the damaged 750 kV power line,” according to the release.

Grossi stressed that the plant “must be protected” and added that he will “soon travel to the Russian Federation, and then return to Ukraine, to agree on a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the plant. This is an absolute and urgent imperative.”

What Russian officials say: The plant can be put back into operation, said Vladimir Rogov, who is a senior pro-Russian official in the regional Zaporizhzhia government. 

“Now the nuclear power plant has been switched back to the emergency mode of operation. The last power line that connected it with the right bank, with the territories controlled by [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky’s regime, has been cut. For now, the nuclear power plant can only be powered by diesel generators, and this is an unusual means,” Rogov said while speaking to the pro-Kremlin “Soloviev Live” show on Saturday.

“We have every possibility to restore the nuclear power plant and put it into operation,” he added.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov welcomed news reports in the United States that the US intelligence community suspected Ukrainian officials were behind the bombing that killed activist Darya Dugina near Moscow in August.

CNN reported Wednesday that the US intelligence community believed that the car bombing that killed Dugina, daughter of prominent Russian nationalist Alexander Dugin, was authorized by elements within the Ukrainian government.

The US was not aware of the plan beforehand, according to the sources who spoke with CNN, and it is still unclear who exactly the US believes signed off on the assassination. It is also not clear whether the US intelligence community believes that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was aware of the plot or authorized it.

The intelligence finding was first reported by The New York Times.

Peskov added that he hoped US was not trying to distance itself from any future crimes allegedly planned by Kyiv.

“We really want to believe that this is not an attempt by American colleagues, having obtained some information, to relieve themselves of responsibility from the preparation of future terrorist acts by the Kyiv state,” Peskov said during the daily Kremlin call with reporters. 

“If this is not a fake, then it is indeed positive that American intelligence agreed with this,” Peskov said.

More background: Ukrainian government officials did not immediately respond to CNN’s requests for comment. They have previously denied any Ukrainian involvement in the murder. 

“Quite promptly, those responsible were established, and who the customers were is clear enough,” he said. 

The Russian security service, the FSB, published the name of the alleged assailant within two days of the assassination, saying that she was working on behalf of Ukrainian special services. By then, she had left Russia via Estonia by car, according to the FSB. She has not been seen since. 

Ukrainian forces have entered Stavky, a village neighboring Lyman in the Kramatorsk district of Donetsk, Serhii Cherevatyi, the military spokesperson for the eastern grouping of Ukrainian forces, told local media on Saturday.

“The Russian group in the area of Lyman is surrounded. The settlements of Yampil, Novoselivka, Shandryholove, Drobysheve, and Stavky are liberated. Stabilization measures are ongoing there,” Cherevatyi said in a televised press conference. 

Cherevatyi said the Ukrainian troops actions are setting the tone to “break the course of these hostilities.” 

“Yes, there are many killed and wounded among them. However, the operation is not yet complete. And only after its completion, the headquarters will conduct an analysis and give more significant results,” he said.

Serhiy Hayday, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration, also spoke Saturday with further details on the Lyman takeover, suggesting Russian forces had offered to retreat, but to no avail from the Ukrainian side. 

“Occupiers asked [their command] for possibility to retreat, and they have been refused,” Hayday said.  

A Ukrainian member of Parliament and deputy head of the parliament’s committee on national security, Yurii Mysiagin, referenced the move into Stavky on Saturday by publishing a video on social media platform Telegram showing a Ukrainian tank moving up the road with a clear sign indicating the region of Stavky. CNN could not independently verify the original source or the date. 

There has been no official Russian response to the fighting in the region.