Tag: Live updates: Russia's war in Ukraine

China is providing technology and equipment to Russia that is increasingly important to Moscow’s war in Ukraine, according to a newly released report compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. 

The report is unclassified and largely cites open-source data and western press reporting to support its claims. But it includes the US intelligence community assessment that China “has become an increasingly important buttress for Russia in its war effort.”  

The report — mandated by the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 passed by Congress, and released by House Intelligence Committee Democrats — says that as of March, China “had shipped more than $12 million in drones and drone parts” to Russia, citing a “third-party analysis” of Russian customs data. 

Chinese state-owned defense companies have also been providing sanctioned Russian government-owned defense companies with other dual-use technology “that Moscow’s military uses to continue the war in Ukraine,” the report says, including “navigation equipment, jamming technology, and fighter-jet parts.”  

Semiconductor exports from China to Russia have also jumped considerably since 2021, it adds, with “hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of US-made or US-branded semiconductors flowing into Russia” despite heavy western sanctions and export controls. 

The report says Chinese firms are “probably” helping Moscow to evade these sanctions — though it is “difficult to ascertain the extent” of that help. The report says the intelligence community cannot be sure whether Beijing is deliberately interfering with the US’ ability to conduct export control checks, via interviews and investigations, inside China. 

The report does say, however, that China “has become an even more critical economic partner for Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.”

CNN has asked the Chinese Embassy in Washington for comment on the report.

What the US has said: The Biden administration has repeatedly raised concerns with China about evidence it has suggesting that Chinese companies have sold non-lethal equipment to Russia for use in Ukraine, but US officials say they have seen no signs so far that China has provided weapons or lethal military aid to Russia. 

The US believes that at the outset of the war, China intended to sell Russia lethal weapons for use in Ukraine, a US official previously told CNN. But China significantly scaled back on those plans as the war progressed, this person said — something the Biden administration has considered a victory.

What China has said: China has claimed neutrality over the war in Ukraine and called for peace in the conflict. But Beijing has also avoided publicly criticizing Russia’s war efforts and the two countries have repeatedly emphasized their cooperation, with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu declaring a “boundless” military partnership after a meeting in April.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed Sunday that the US will allow European countries to start training Ukrainian fighter pilots to use F-16 fighter jets, after reports that Europe was awaiting formal approval. 

“Yes, we will,” Sullivan told CNN’s Jake Tapper when asked. “The president has given a green light and we will allow, permit, support, facilitate and in fact provide the necessary tools for Ukrainians to begin being trained on F-16s, as soon as the Europeans are prepared.” 

Sullivan noted that European leaders have said they need several weeks to prepare training abilities and that the US would meet whatever timeline they set out.

Remember: Ukraine’s quest for the superior US-made fighter jets received a huge boost when the Biden administration said in May that it would back a training program for pilots and would not disallow allies from supplying Kyiv with the planes. But the US has not said that it will supply Kyiv with F-16s directly.

What US lawmakers are saying: Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat and former Navy pilot who sits on the Armed Services Committee, defended the timeline for directly supplying the fighting aircraft to Ukraine.

Responding to perceived criticism that the administration is slow-walking the decision to send F-16s, Kelly said in an interview with CNN on Sunday that it will take time and resources to train Ukrainian pilots on how to fly the aircraft in the first place.

“This is going to take some time. I don’t think it’s been slow-walked, but the process is a lot longer,” Kelly said, adding that during a visit to Ukraine in April, President Volodymyr Zelensky and his team still weren’t certain what specific combat missions they wanted to use the jets for.

By contrast, Sen. Dan Sullivan, an Alaska Republican and former Marine who also sits on the Armed Services Committee, criticized the Biden administration’s approach.

While he praised Biden for his actions at the recent summit for the NATO military alliance, he criticized the administration for “slow-rolling” weapons systems to Ukraine, specifically citing the F-16s.

“As I predicted, they’re eventually going to do it, but it’s too darn long. That’s exactly what happened,” said Sullivan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed to Wagner fighters that a senior mercenary named Andrey Troshev now command the private military group, according to comments the Russian leader made to the Kommersant newspaper that were published Friday.

Putin appears to have created a split between senior fighters from the mercenary group and its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin — whose whereabouts are currently publicly unknown — at least in terms of the narrative emerging from his comments to Kommersant. The paper was reporting on a meeting held by the Russian president five days after Wagner’s short-lived rebellion collapsed at the end of June – a meeting also attended by Prigozhin and several dozen senior Wagner combatants.

Responding to a question from Kommersant, Putin said Wagner “does not exist” under Russian law, adding that the Russian government needs to determine how to handle the organization legally.

According to the paper, Putin outlined a number of options for the future of Wagner mercenaries, including continuing to fight under their direct commander, a man going by the call sign “Sedoy,” meaning “Gray Hair.”

So who is “Gray Hair”? Sedoy is the call sign of Andrey Troshev, a retired Russian colonel and a founding member and executive director of the Wagner Group, according to sanctions documents published by the European Union and France. He has also been sanctioned by Ukraine.

Troshev served as the group’s chief of staff for its previous operations in Syria, according to EU sanctions from December 2021.

“He was particularly involved in the area of Deir ez-Zor,” sanctions documents state, referring to an eastern city where Wagner fighters have had direct encounters with the US military during the Syrian civil war. “As such, he provides a crucial contribution to (Syrian President) Bashar al-Assad’s war effort and therefore supports and benefits from the Syrian regime.”

United Kingdom sanctions from June 2022 also identify Troshev as a chief executive with the private military group who “has repressed the civilian population in Syria.” 

Troshev is associated with top Wagner Group leaders, including founder Dmitriy Utkin, a former Russian GRU military intelligence officer, according to EU sanctions.

“Gray Hair” is a veteran of the wars in Chechnya and Afghanistan, for which he was awarded several medals, according to Russian media. 

Troshev was among those invited to a reception at the Kremlin in December 2016. A photograph, believed to be from that 2016 reception, emerged in Russian media and shows Putin alongside Troshev and Utkin, who are both wearing several medals. 

Troshev was born in April 1953 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in the former Soviet Union, according to sanctions documents. 

CNN’s Andrew Carey and Josh Pennington contributed reporting to this post.

The Ukrainian Air Forces claims to have hit a Russian ammunition dump in the occupied Kherson region early Sunday.

Air forces spokesman Yurii Ihnat said Ukraine had hit the ammunition depot in Rykov village in the Henichesk area of Kherson.

“The less ammunition is there, the more of it on fire, the more enemy ammo depots are detonating – the less of it will strike our defenders,” Ihnat said on live television.

In a Telegram post Sunday, Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa military administration, said Ukrainian forces had taken out a “significant” ammunition depot in Henichesk.

A separate statement from the Armed Forces of Ukraine Sunday claimed to have hit several targets over the past 24 hours.

“Over the past day, missile and artillery units struck three command posts, two areas of manpower concentration, five ammunition depots, and three artillery units at firing positions,” the Ukrainian Armed Forces stated Sunday.

CNN is unable to verify any of the claims, which come amid Ukraine’s counteroffensive aimed at recapturing Russian held territory.

So called shaping operations, strikes on Russian infrastructure, were a feature of the build-up to the campaign,

At least 14 people have died and more than 2,700 have been evacuated from flooded areas in southern Ukraine after the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam, Ukrainian officials reported on Sunday. 

Some 190 children are among the evacuees, said Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs.

In Ukrainian-controlled flooded areas in the Kherson region, Klymenko said five people have died and 35 people are missing, including seven children. He also said one person has died in the Mykolaiv region.

In the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, which lies upstream of the shattered dam, almost 162,000 people were without water, he added. 

In Russian-occupied flooded territory, at least eight people have died in the town of Oleshky, Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson region military administration, told Ukrainian media Sunday.

Prokudin accused Russian-installed authorities of obstructing the evacuation from the east bank of the river, “by setting up checkpoints and not letting people out.” He said only people who had switched to Russian passports were being allowed through.

According to the Kherson regional military administration, shelling by Russian forces also continues despite the evacuation efforts.  

Key context: Ukraine controls the west bank of the Dnipro River and the city of Kherson after its counteroffensive last year, while Russian troops remain on the east bank in the greater Kherson region.

Both Russia and Ukraine have accused one another of shelling during the effort to evacuate civilians from areas they control.

Kyiv and Moscow have also blamed one another for causing the breach in the first place, although it is unclear whether the dam was deliberately attacked, or whether the collapse was the result of structural failure.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has given his clearest indication yet that his military’s long-awaited push to liberate territory held by Russia’s occupying forces is underway, saying “relevant counteroffensive and defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine.”

Speaking in Kyiv Saturday, the Ukrainian leader was asked to respond to comments by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who claimed Friday that the Ukrainian counteroffensive has certainly begun — and was not finding success.

Zelensky shrugged off Putin’s suggestions that Ukraine’s armed forces were struggling and sought to apply some psychological pressure of his own.

Zelensky said “relevant counteroffensive and defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine,” but said he “will not give any details about the stage it is at.”

Key context: After spending most of the winter embroiled in fighting around the eastern city of Bakhmut, as well as training its soldiers and waiting for the arrival of Western military aid, like tanks and longer-range strike weapons, the last few weeks have seen Ukraine clearly step up military activities.

These have included shaping operations – strikes on targets far behind front lines, like fuel depots and soldiers’ barracks. And more recently, Ukraine’s military has conducted probing operations, designed to test the enemy’s weak spots as well as its combat readiness. 

However, it is still far from clear that Ukraine has begun moving large numbers of ground forces forward in an attempt to recapture the swathes of territory held by Russian occupying forces.

Moscow’s battlefield reports: Russia’s Ministry of Defense is reporting further Ukrainian offensive operations along the front line to the south and east of Zaporizhzhia, at a level of intensity consistent with that seen since the start of the week. 

Troops from the Vostok brigade immediately to the southeast of the frontline town of Orikhiv had repelled two attempted advances by Ukrainian tank units, according to a Telegram post from the defense ministry. One was near the village of Novopokrovka, the post stated. 

In addition, it said two Ukrainian armored columns had been repelled near the villages of Novodanilovka and Mala Tamkachka. In the same area, Russian military bloggers said Russian troops in positions close to the road south of Orikhiv toward Tokmak were continuing to report extremely heavy Ukrainian artillery fire.

Further east along the front line, to the southwest of Velyka Novosilka in the Donetsk region, the Russian Ministry of Defense said Ukrainian forces had made three further attempted advances, which it said had all been defeated.

CNN is unable to verify the Russian claims, and the picture is no clearer from the Ukrainian side. Officials in Kyiv have disclosed little information since they stepped up activities along the front between Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk roughly six days ago.

Fresh shelling from Ukraine rocked Belgorod overnight, the governor said in a video posted Sunday morning, as Russian dissidents ramp up pressure on the western border region.

Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said there had been Ukrainian attacks in several locations under his administration.

Due to the violence, 4,000 people are being housed in temporary accommodations. Children in the area are being moved to a camp in Crimea for their own safety, Gladkov added.

Dissidents appear near shelled area: Also Sunday, the Freedom for Russia Legion, one of two dissident Russian units fighting under Ukrainian command, posted a video which they said showed their fighters on the streets of a village on the outskirts of Shebekino, one of the areas Gladkov said was attacked.

The footage appeared to show the legion in Novaya Tavolzhanka, according to geolocation by CNN, and groups of people moving through the streets as a unit.

“We’re going in! The advance assault group of the Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corp entering the suburb of Shebekino,” the group said in the clip’s caption.

CNN cannot verify the legion’s claim, but the video’s release will be seen as a further attempt to destabilize Russia in the information space, as well as disrupting its military plans.

Meetings requested: In another bold move, the legion posted a video in which its leader and that of a second dissident group, the Russian Volunteer Corps, request a meeting with Gladkov. In exchange, they offered to release two Russian soldiers allegedly in their custody.

The video shows the purported soldiers giving their names and those of their hometowns in Russia. The dissident leaders — who have made no secret of their opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin — say they want to talk to Gladkov about the fate of the country and the war. No threat is made to the lives of the men they are holding.

Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina refused to shake hands with her Russian opponent after winning a match Friday, saying she did so out of respect for the men and women defending Ukraine from Moscow’s invasion.

After Friday’s victory, Svitolina avoided Blinkova while the two took turns shaking the hand of the chair umpire.

The Ukrainian said she would continue to snub any opponents from Russia or Belarus, the close Moscow ally.

“What the Russian government and Russian soldiers are doing on our land is really, really terrible,” the 28-year-old Svitolina said. “It touches many different areas. It touches sport. It touches acting. It touches all different areas. So, we are all united Ukrainians and this is our position.”

Svitolina said she would like to see Russian and Belarusian players speak out and call for their countries to end the war.

Belarusian bows out of media appearance: World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, meanwhile, did not participate in a customary post-match news conference Friday.

In her last media appearance Wednesday, the Belarusian had been repeatedly asked to comment on the war in Ukraine and Belarus’ role, but she repeatedly declined to do so. This continued until the moderator halted the line of questioning.

Sabalenka said she had not felt safe during the Wednesday news conference.

“For my own mental health and well-being, I have decided to take myself out of this situation today, and the tournament has supported me in this decision,” she said in an interview released by tournament organizers.

Top Russian player weighs in: Last month, Daria Kasatkina, Russia’s top-ranked women’s tennis player, expressed her sympathy for Ukrainian players who refuse to shake her hand after matches.

“Well, the saddest part is the war still going on,” Kasatkina said. “So, of course, players from Ukraine have got a lot of reasons to not shake our hands. I accept it and it is how it is. It’s a very sad situation and I understand.”

Ninth seed Kasatkina will face the unseeded Svitolina in the fourth round Sunday.

It’s a familiar routine for Ukrainians: Explosions ring out in the city, then videos emerge of drones overhead. Air defenses spring into action, and the authorities put out preliminary statements confirming a strike.

But this time, the shattered glass and concrete is in the Russian capital, not Kyiv. Russia’s war on Ukraine, it seems, has come home to Moscow.

Here’s what we know so far. On Tuesday morning, a wave of drone strikes hit the Russian capital. According to state news agency RIA-Novosti, one unmanned aerial vehicle struck the upper floors of a residential high-rise in southwestern Moscow, damaging the facade of the building. Another hit a flat on the 14th floor of an apartment building on Leninsky Prospekt, one of the city’s main arteries.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin gave updates on Telegram, telling residents that emergency services were on the scene and that two people were injured, with none hospitalized. A few hours later, Sobyanin said residents evacuated from apartment buildings hit by drones were returning home.

But it’s unlikely that Moscow can return to its uneasy status quo of life during what the Kremlin euphemistically refers to as the “special military operation” in Ukraine. Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of last year, most of Russia has been spared the kinds of scenes that Ukrainians routinely endure.

In the months since, regions of Russia bordering Ukraine have come under fire, with local officials reporting occasional shelling by the Ukrainian side. The Kremlin accused Ukrainian helicopters of striking inside Russian territory Friday, claims Kyiv neither confirmed nor denied.

And earlier this month, drones penetrated the rings of security surrounding the Kremlin, the very seat of power in Russia.

Read the full analysis here.

With just a few words and a slickly produced piece of military propaganda, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces ratcheted up speculation Saturday that a long-awaited counteroffensive could be imminent.

The video came online following weeks of speculation regarding when Ukraine would start its counteroffensive — or whether it might have already begun.

Despite its language, Zaluzhyni’s post made no explicit mention of an impending military operation, and there have been few details reported on the ground of specific build-ups of troops and weapons — though it should be noted that any such reporting would likely fall foul of Ukraine’s martial law restrictions.

Information wars: Both Russia and Ukraine have been known to engage in disinformation campaigns to confuse enemy forces.

Ukrainian officials are keeping details of the operation under wraps, including whether or not it has already begun. That is likely an attempt to confuse the Russian military.

There are also public relations factors at play. Declare the counteroffensive underway, and the clock ticks immediately for the first results. Avoid doing so, and any mounting losses Russia sustains are just considered part of normal frontline attrition.

Russia taking fire: The Ukrainian military has been spotted moving military hardware toward the front lines and carrying out attacks against Russian targets that could facilitate an offensive, including strikes on Thursday and Saturday in the Russian-occupied southern port city of Berdiansk.

The Kremlin said Saturday that, in the past 24 hours, its forces had shot down 12 Ukrainian drones flying over Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia, a trio of Ukrainian territories that are all part-occupied by Russian forces.

Also on Saturday, explosions hit the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol, and attacks on Russian soil killed one person in Belgorod, targeted a pipeline and killed a construction worker near the border, according to Russian authorities.

A senior US official confirmed to CNN earlier this month that Ukraine has begun conducting “shaping” operations, striking strategic targets to shape the battlefield in favor of Kyiv’s advancing forces. Shaping is a standard tactic used prior to major combined operations, but it can also be used simply to confuse the enemy.

Read more here.

The head of the Russian paramilitary company Yevgeny Prigozhin told CNN Thursday that he has handed the body of a retired US Army Special Forces soldier who was killed in the battle for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut over to Ukraine. 

In a response to CNN asking if Wagner had returned the body of Retired Army Staff Sgt. Nicholas Maimer as promised by Prigozhin last week, Prigozhin said in an audio recording: “Today at 1500 hours we handed over the body of the American Nicholas Maimer to the Ukrainian side.” 

In a video shared with CNN by Prigozhin’s press service, the Wagner boss stands next to two coffins, one draped with an American flag and one with a Turkish flag, and says: “The American died in battle in the ‘nest’” — one of the last contested areas in west Bakhmut — and added that the second coffin contained the body of a Turkish citizen who was in Bakhmut with his female partner. 

CNN cannot independently verify the location in the video or the date it was filmed. 

Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War confirmed to CNN that Maimer’s body, along with the body of a Turkish citizen, had been returned to Ukraine on Thursday during a POW exchange. A video shared by the group showed a coffin covered with an American flag which matched the coffin seen in the video with Prigozhin. 

CNN is unable to independently confirm that the coffin contains Maimer’s body, or the circumstances in which he died.

Maimer’s decades in uniform: According to Maimer’s service record provided to CNN, he served more than 20 years in uniform before retiring in 2018, according to his service record provided to CNN.

He served more than two years in the active-duty Army, leaving in December 1998; he then joined the National Guard in November 2000, and served about 18 years between three different Guard units before retiring in December 2018.

Among his awards and decorations are the Special Forces Tab, Army Commendation Medal and four Army Achievement Medals.

His uncle Paul Maimer told the Idaho Statesman his nephew had gone to Ukraine “as a humanitarian trying to do good for this world” and that the family wanted to bring him home for a “proper burial.”

“I think he’s deserving to be put to rest in a veterans cemetery,” he told the Statesman. “He might not have been fighting for our country, but he was fighting for the right reasons.”

CNN’s Josh Pennington, Sandi Sidhu, Jennifer Hansler, Haley Britzky and Alex Marquardt contributed to this post.

According to Wagner, the battle for the city of Bakhmut has come to an end, as the Russian private military group claims that forces have taken complete control of the long-contested city in eastern Ukraine.

CNN could not independently verify Wagner’s claim, and a message from a Ukrainian defense official disputed it, saying Kyiv’s troops still hold a small part of the city.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed his forces will hand control of Bakhmut to the Russian military on May 25.

The city’s capture can be viewed largely as a symbolic target for Moscow, though it also provides important road connections to other parts of the Donetsk region: eastward to the border with Luhansk, northwest to Sloviansk and southwest to Kostiantynivka.

Here’s what else you should know in a day of major developments for the war in Ukraine:

G7 summit: G7 members are meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a surprise attendee. The G7 comprises the world’s most advanced industrialized democracies: the US, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan and Italy. Tokyo has also invited Australia, South Korea, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, all rising economic powerhouses and key Asian regional players.

At the summit, leaders decided on a plan to counter Moscow and agreed to “support Ukraine for as long as it takes in the face of Russia’s illegal war of aggression.” The G7 also called on China to press Russia to “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine,” and stop its military aggression.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov characterized the decisions made at the G7 summit as cynical ploys to hold back Russia and China.

Next up, all eyes are on a meeting between Zelensky and US President Joe Biden, set for Sunday afternoon local time (1 a.m. ET).

On the ground: Russia launched another “massive drone attack” at Kyiv during the early morning hours Saturday, marking their 11th airstrike this month, the city’s military administration said.

Meanwhile, Russian troops in occupied Mariupol, a city in Ukraine’s southeast, are receiving backup after explosions rocked a Russian base there Friday, a local Ukrainian official said.

Military aid: Zelensky thanked the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for the leadership he says the UK has shown building an international coalition to help Ukraine procure F-16 fighter jets. Russia’s deputy foreign minister denounced the coalition, warning Western countries of “enormous risks for themselves” if Ukraine is provided with F-16 fighter jets, Russian state media TASS reported Saturday.

Chinese envoy Li Hui wrapped up a two-day visit to Ukraine Wednesday, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said — completing the first stop on a European tour focused on the war there, as Beijing attempts to fashion itself as a peacemaker in the grinding conflict, despite its close ties with Russia.

A seasoned former diplomat, Li served as ambassador to Russia from 2009 to 2019 and is the highest ranking Chinese official to travel to Ukraine since the start of Moscow’s devastating war.

Western leaders have hoped Chinese leader Xi Jinping might use his close rapport with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to end the conflict — an outcome that analysts say may be unlikely at this stage, given Beijing’s interests in maintaining the relationship.

Li met with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba during his visit on May 16 and 17, according to a statement from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, which did not specify if Li met President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The parties discussed “topical issues of cooperation between Ukraine and China,” as well as “ways to stop Russian aggression,” the statement said.

China has remained tight-lipped about the visit of Li, Beijing’s Special Representative on Eurasian Affairs, which it had billed as part of a five-country tour to promote communication toward “a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.”

When asked about Li’s trip at regular press briefings through Wednesday this week, China’s Foreign Ministry said information would be shared “in due course.”

Last week, the Foreign Ministry said Li would visit Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany and Russia starting May 15 — just days before the Group of Seven (G7) leaders are expected to affirm their solidarity against Moscow in a summit in Hiroshima, Japan.

Read the full story here.