Sevastopol bomb attack on the Crimean peninsula in the wake of the recent Russian-Ukrainian separatist attack on September 11

Russia has suffered a series of setbacks nearly eight months after invading Ukraine in a campaign many thought would be short-lived. Ukrainian forces have staged a counteroffensive in the past few weeks, retaking areas in the south and east, while Moscow has called up more troops, sparking protests and an exodus of Russians.

There was an important link in the Russian front line between ground communications and logistics. Located in an area of eastern Ukranian which is near the border with Luhansk region, it is the scene of a local referendum that was held at the hands of Russia.

The attacks on Monday were a clear sign of Putin lashing out at the setbacks he has taken in the war.

Russian forces crossed the Oskil River in late September andUkrainian troops are focused on pushing Russians eastwards, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

The leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, blamed the retreat, without evidence, on one general being “covered up for by higher-up leaders in the General Staff.” He called for even more drastic measures.

Meanwhile, on the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula, the governor of the city of Sevastopol announced an emergency situation at an airfield there. Explosions and huge billows of smoke could be seen from a distance by beachgoers in the Russian-held resort. The Belbek airfield is said to be where a plane rolled off the runway and caught fire.

Escalation in the war: Monday’s strikes come on the heels of other recent attacks across Ukraine. Zelensky states that Russian forces have intensified missile attacks on residential buildings over the past week with at least 43 civilians dead in the past week alone. Then the huge explosion occurred early Saturday severely damaging the only bridge connecting annexed Crimea to the Russian mainland, causing parts of the structure to collapse. At least three people were were killed, according to Russian officials. Putin called the explosions a “terrorist attack” and said the organizers and executors were “Ukrainian special services.”

The fighting has focused on the north of the peninsula. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lamented the latest attack in a Telegram post.

The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, said 24 civilians were killed in an attack this week on a convoy trying to flee the Kupiansk district. He said that it was “irrational” that can’t be justified. He said there were 13 children and a pregnant woman dead.

The Security Service ofUkraine posted pictures of the attack on the convoy. There were burned bodies in the truck’s bed, and there was at least one truck that was blown up. Another vehicle at the front of the convoy also had been ablaze. There were bodies on the side of the road and vehicles with bullet holes in them.

At least two people were killed in attacks on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region. Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional military administration, said four rockets had hit the city — likely S300s — and that critical infrastructure was the intended target.

In other developments, in an apparent attempt to secure Moscow’s hold on the newly annexed territory, Russian forces seized the director-general of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Ihor Murashov, on Friday, according to the Ukrainian state nuclear company Energoatom.

Russia did not publicly comment on the report. The International Atomic Energy Agency said that Russia had told it that the director general of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant had been temporarily held to answer questions.

Repair work to fix infrastructure facilities across Ukraine is ongoing. Most power plants are now supplying energy to the national grid after they were temporarily shut down in late November when Moscow sent a barrage of missiles to target energy “generation facilities,” Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s state-run energy operator, said.

The region is currently under military control, but it was annexed by Russia last month.

Kiev, Kiev and Belgrade attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant during the February 11 attack by the Russian-dominated Ukrainian military and economic aid

The military and economic aid for Ukraine was among the topics covered in the bill signed by the president in Washington.

The bombardment continued on a day when the Nobel Peace Prize was given to Human Rights activists in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, a rebuke to Russia and its president, Vladimir V. Putin.

A number of civilian businesses and residential buildings were damaged by the rockets at Nikopol which were across from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Ukrainian officials said. Russia and Ukraine have for months accused each other of firing at and around the nuclear plant, which is Europe’s largest. It’s run by its pre-occupation Ukrainian staff under Russian oversight.

Russia’s president blames Ukrainian special services for the attack on the bridge, despite the fact that there is no evidence that they were involved. Ukrainian intelligence said the strikes had been planned last week and Monday’s strikes was a response to the attack.

KYIV and DNIPRO, UKRAINE, and MOSCOW — Explosions rocked several cities across Ukraine in the most extensive attack on the country since the early days of Russia’s invasion in February. The attacks came only hours after Russia blamed Ukraine for a weekend explosion that partially damaged a strategic bridge that connects Russian-occupied Crimea to mainland Russia.

He said that they had established the route of the truck in various places, including Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia and Krasnodar.

On the attack of the Dnipro bridge to demoralize the Russian president and the supporters of the democrats and the fundamental rights fighters

There were explosion in Dnipro, a major southern city. One site hit was a bus stop, nestled between high rise apartment buildings. A missile slammed right in front of a bus on its morning route to pick up commuters, demolishing the vehicle and shattering the windows in the nearby apartments.

After hearing sirens, Tetyana and her husband took refuge in the hallway of their apartment. The explosion shook the building and sent their possessions flying. The couple looked at the damage to their home.

About 3 kilometers (2 miles) away in another neighborhood ravaged by a missile, three volunteers dug a shallow grave for a German shepherd killed in the strike, the dog’s leg blown away by the blast.

Abbas Gallyamov, an independent Russian political analyst and a former speechwriter for Putin, said the Russian president, who formed a committee Saturday to investigate the bridge explosion, had not responded forcefully enough to satisfy angry war hawks. He said the attack and response inspired the opposition while the loyalists were demoralized.

“Because once again, they see that when the authorities say that everything is going according to plan and we’re winning, that they’re lying, and it demoralizes them,” he said.

Ukraine’s devastating crisis after a Russian military shelling attack: Power and water supply outages at Lyman, Lviv, Donetsk and Odesa

Hardwiring newly claimed territory with expensive, record-breaking infrastructure projects seems to be a penchant of dictators. In 2018, Putin personally opened the Kerch bridge – Europe’s longest – by driving a truck across it. The world’s longest sea crossing bridge was built by Beijing immediately after it reclaimed Macau and Hong Kong. The road bridge opened after a couple of years of delays.

Crimea is a popular vacation resort for Russians. People trying to drive to the bridge and onto the Russian mainland on Sunday encountered hours-long traffic jams.

— In the devastated Ukrainian city of Lyman, which was recently recaptured after a months-long Russian occupation, Ukrainian national police said authorities have exhumed the first 20 bodies from a mass burial site. There are at least 200 civilians buried in one location, and the bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers are in another grave. The military were buried in a 40-meter trench while the civilians and children were buried in single graves.

Those towns and Donetsk are in the industrialized Donbas region, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Kyiv since 2014. The Donetsk region is among four that were illegally annexed by Russia last month.

— The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, meanwhile, said that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s biggest, had been reconnected to the grid after losing its last external power source early Saturday following shelling.

At least six civilian deaths have been caused by Russian air strikes on Ukrainian cities, which knocked out power and water service.

Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said that Lviv, Kyiv and Odesa were particularly hard hit, and experiencing emergency power outages – when the electricity is protectively turned off to diminish damage from the grid shorting out.

China and India want the situation in Ukraine to be deescalated. India has said it is “deeply concerned” by the escalation of the conflict and said that “escalation of hostilities is in no one’s interest,” urging an “immediate cessation of hostilities” and return to the “path of dialogue. European leaders have condemned the attack.

There is no doubt that this week’s missile attacks caused significant damage. Around 30% of the country’s energy infrastructure was damaged by Russian missiles on Monday and Tuesday, according to the Energy Minister.

“It’s a tough morning when you’re dealing with terrorists,” said Zelenskyy in the video, which recalled the selfie he took the night Russia invaded in February. They’re trying to harm as many people as possible.

Kiev’s Cultural Minister Viktor Shevchenko: “It’s hard to believe what happened in Kiev”, a diplomat told the Ukrainian Radio teleporter

The National Philharmonic concert halls and at least two museums were damaged in Kyiv, according to the Ukraine Culture Minister. The country’s main passenger terminal was damaged by a nearby strike and trains were delayed during the morning rush hour.

The head of the department of transport for the Dnipro city council was standing by the wreck, as he stated that the accident occurred at rush hour. He added that the bus driver and four passengers had been taken to the hospital with serious injuries.

“It’s difficult for me to find any logic to their so-called artillery work because all our transportation is only for civilian purposes,” Makovtsev said.

81-year-old Viktor Shevchenko looked out from what once were the windows of his first floor balcony, just next to the bus stop. Shattered glass covered the ground below. He went to make breakfast while he had been watering the plants on his balcony.

The explosion blew open all of my cabinets and almost knocked me to the ground. “Only five minutes before, and I would have been on the balcony, full of glass.”

“When Ukraine receives a sufficient number of modern and effective air defense systems, the key element of Russian terror – missile strikes – will cease to work.”

Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the Chechen republic and a loyalist to Putin, said in a letter that they warned Zelenskyy that Russia had not started yet.

The Kerch Bridge Bombing: From Kiev to Crimea, and back to life in Ukraine, and a way for Putin to rebuild confidence in business

Editor’s Note: Michael Bociurkiw (@WorldAffairsPro) is a global affairs analyst. He is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former spokesperson for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He is a regular contributor to CNN Opinion. His opinions are his own in this commentary. You can read more opinion at CNN.

Recent days have meanwhile shown that sites beyond the current theater of ground fighting are far from immune to attacks. It remains unclear exactly how the Kerch bridge bombing was carried out – and Kyiv has not claimed responsibility – but the fact that a target so deep in Russian-held territory could be successfully hit hinted at a serious Ukrainian threat towards key Russian assets.

Unverified video on social media showed hits near the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and close to Maidan Square, just a short stroll from the Presidential Office Building. Five people were killed as a result of strikes on the capital, according to Ukrainian officials.

As of midday local time, the area around my office in Odesa remained eerily quiet in between air raid sirens, with reports that three missiles and five kamikaze drones were shot down. (Normally at this time of the day, nearby restaurants would be heaving with customers, and chatter of plans for upcoming weddings and parties).

Russia hit at least eleven Ukrainian cities with missiles in its broadest aerial assault against civilian targets since the invasion began. But even amid destruction, many people sheltered for only a few hours. Some quickly went back to their lives. As my colleague Megan Specia, a foreign correspondent of the Times, left the shelter she was staying in, she saw people on scooters and walking dogs.

Indeed, millions of people in cities across Ukraine will be spending most of the day in bomb shelters, at the urging of officials, while businesses have been asked to shift work online as much as possible.

Just as many regions of Ukraine were starting to roar back to life, and with countless asylum seekers returning home, the attacks risk causing another blow to business confidence.

For Putin, the symbolism of the only bridge linking mainland Russia and Crimea cannot be overstated. That the attack took place a day after his 70th birthday (the timing prompted creative social media denizens to create a split-screen video of Marilyn Monroe singing ‘Happy Birthday, Mr President”) can be taken as an added blow to an aging autocrat whose ability to withstand shame and humiliation is probably nil.

The reaction among Ukrainians to the explosion was instantaneous: humorous memes lit up social media channels like a Christmas tree. Many shared their sense of jubilation via text messages.

The Kremlin is in danger: Russia’s most ambitious ambitions in the new millennium crisis and astrophysical consequences

It was also an act of selfish desperation: facing increasing criticism at home, including on state-controlled television, has placed Putin on unusually thin ice.

That won’t bode well for Russia’s plans. Right now, Mr. Putin seems to have two immediate goals: to sustain control of as much of the occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions as he can (with Russia’s desired boundaries not yet defined); and to freeze the front line, establishing a frontier Ukrainian forces cannot broach, possibly sealed by a cease-fire. That would allow for a sustainable defense, and allow the military to rotation troops and replenish its forces. Both of these conditions are not acceptable to the people of Ukraine and its supporters. It is not clear that Russia will be able to achieve either goal, as theUkrainians have continued to progress in the south.

It is important for Washington and others to use urgent phone diplomacy to encourage China and India not to use more deadly weapons because of their leverage over Putin.

High tech defense systems are needed to protect crucial energy infrastructure around the country. The need to protect heating systems is urgent as the winter nears.

The time has also come for the West to further isolate Russia with trade and travel restrictions – but for that to have sufficient impact, Turkey and Gulf states, which receive many Russian tourists, need to be pressured to come on board.

These measures will only allowPutin to continue his violence and cause a humanitarian crisis that will spread throughout Europe. A weak reaction will be taken as a sign in the Kremlin that it can continue to weaponize energy, migration and food.

Ukrainian officials say that Russia launched 84 cruise missiles in a single day, making it the largest missile attack on the country since it started the war. Nick Paton Walsh reports from Dnipro.

Are missile inventories accurate? Air defense systems in Ukraine are useful, but not as accurate as they might be: The example of the first time from the beginning of the war

The emergency services said there were over 30 blazes in the capital and that they had put them out.

Ukrainian air defense battalions have become innovative: One video from Monday, referenced by Zelensky, showed a soldier using a shoulder-held missile to bring down a Russian projectile, purportedly a cruise missile.

As Ukraine races to shore up its missile defenses in the wake of the assault, the math for Moscow is simple: A percentage of projectiles are bound to get through.

The great unknown is just how far such a blitz is depleting Russian inventories – and whether increasingly they will resort to stocks of older, less accurate but equally powerful missiles.

Estimating Russian missile inventories is guesswork. In May, President Zelensky said Russia had launched over 2,000 missiles and had used up most of the precision-missile arsenal. That seems like a bit of a stretch.

The S300 is an offensive weapon that the Russians have been adapting as an air defense missile. These have wrought devastation in Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv, among other places, and their speed makes them difficult to intercept. But they aren’t accurate.

He told CNN’s Richard Quest that this was the “first time from the beginning of the war” that Russia has “dramatically targeted” energy infrastructure.

Over the past nine months, the Ukrainians have also had plenty of practice in using their limited air defenses, mainly BUK and S-300 systems. But Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Force Command, said Tuesday said of these systems: “This equipment does not last forever, there may be losses in combat operations.”

Last month, the US deputy undersecretary of defense for policy said the US has seen some evidence that the Iranian drones have already experienced numerous failures.

Ukraine’s wish-list – circulated at Wednesday’s meeting – included missiles for their existing systems and a “transition to Western-origin layered air defense system” as well as “early warning capabilities.”

He said that the system wouldn’t control all the airspace overUkraine but they were designed to make sure priority targets were protected. What you’re looking at really is short-range low-altitude systems and then medium-range medium altitude and then long-range and high altitude systems, and it’s a mix of all of these.”

The systems of the western world are starting to trickle in. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Tuesday that a “new era of air defense has begun” with the arrival of the first IRIS-T from Germany, and two units of the US National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAM) expected soon.

This is just the beginning. And we need more,” Reznikov said Wednesday before tweeting as he met with Ukraine’s donors at the Brussels meeting:” Item #1 on today’s agenda is strengthening (Ukraine’s) air defense. Feeling optimistic.”

It was expected that the NASAMS from the US would deliver the IRIS-T that arrived this week.

The Russian War with Ukraine – a Warning to the Kremlin and to Europe, and a Challenge for the U.S.

Ukraine’s senior military commander, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, tweeted Tuesday his thanks to Poland as “brothers in arms” for training an air defense battalion that had destroyed nine of 11 Shaheeds.

He said “Ukrainian sky defenders” had shot down 10 of the 15 drones, but the damage was still “critical” and he suggested it will take a few days to restore electricity supply in the region.

Not for the first time, the war is teetering towards an unpredictable new phase. “This is now the third, fourth, possibly fifth different war that we’ve been observing,” said Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Programme.

The next weeks of the war should be crucial because both sides are trying to strike another blow and with the cold months coming, ground combat will likely slow down.

It means that, as winter approaches, the stakes of the war have been raised once more. Giles said that Russia would like to keep up with it. A direct message was sent to the Kremlin by the recent successes of the Ukrainians. Giles said, “They are able to do things that shock us so let’s get used to it.”

The senior Ukrainian military official said last week that his forces have captured about 120 settlements since late September. The Ukrainian government said on Wednesday it had liberated five settlements in Kherson.

In the summer, there was a suggestion that the Ukrainian army lacked the capacity to seize ground and that the war was starting to lose steam.

“The Russians are playing for the whistle – (hoping to) avoid a collapse in their frontline before the winter sets in,” Samir Puri, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the author of “Russia’s Road to War with Ukraine,” told CNN.

“If they can get to Christmas with the frontline looking roughly as it is, that’s a huge success for the Russians given how botched this has been since February.”

Landing a major blow in Donbas would send another powerful signal, and Ukraine will be eager to improve on its gains before temperatures plummet on the battlefield, and the full impact of rising energy prices is felt around Europe.

There are so many reasons why things can be done quickly in Ukraine. “The winter energy crisis in Europe, and energy infrastructure and power being destroyed in Ukraine itself, is always going to be a test of resilience for Ukraine and its Western backers.”

NATO leaders have vowed to stand behind Ukraine, regardless of how long the war lasts, but several European nations rely heavily on Russian energy, and are staring down a cost-of-living crisis, if not for signs of progress on the battlefield.

Russian commanders on the ground know that their supplies and weapons are running out, according to Jeremy Fleming, a UK’s spy chief.

“Russia’s use of its limited supply of precision weapons in this role may deprive Putin of options to disrupt ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensives,” the ISW assessed.

Justin Bronk, a military expert with the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), agreed with that assessment, telling CNN that, “Ukrainian interception success rates against Russian cruise missiles have risen significantly since the start of the invasion in February.”

The impact of such a military intervention in terms of pure manpower wouldn’t really change anything; Russia has around 20,000 troops in active duty and most of them aren’t very powerful. It would threaten an assault on the northern flank of the country.

Giles said that the reopening of a northern front would be a new challenge for Ukraine. It would provide Russia a new route into the Kharkiv oblast (region), which has been recaptured by Ukraine, should Putin prioritize an effort to reclaim that territory, he said.

By flipping the narrative of the conflict over the past two months, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has achieved one of his own key objectives: showing Ukraine’s Western allies that their military aid can help Kyiv win the war.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that Ukraine needed “more” systems to better halt missile attacks, ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

The Belgorod blasts: Evidence of Russian aggression in a democracy that is not under Putin’s wrath and its influence

The coming weeks are therefore crucial both on the battlefield, as well as in Europe and around the globe, experts suggest. Giles said that Putin’s next move depends on how the rest of the world responds. The failure of Western countries to confront and deter Russia has shaped its attitude.

They join an army already degraded in quality and capability. The composition of Russia’s military force in Ukraine — as much of its prewar active duty personnel has been wounded or killed and its best equipment destroyed or captured — has radically altered over the course of the war. The Russian military leadership is unlikely to know with confidence how this undisciplined composite force will react when confronted with cold, exhausting combat conditions or rumors of Ukrainian assaults. Recent experience suggests these troops might abandon their positions and equipment in panic, as demoralized forces did in the Kharkiv region in September.

The Kremlin could try to disrupt foreign military assistance to Kyiv, despite its reluctance to escalate the war beyond Ukraine. Such efforts might involve attacks on NATO satellites or other reconnaissance assets, jamming or “sensor blinding” them to render them temporarily or permanently inoperable. To inflict domestic costs on Kyiv’s supporters, Russia could also conduct cyberattacks against Europe or the United States, targeting critical infrastructure like energy, transportation and communications systems. The war wouldn’t be limited to the borders of Ukraine anymore.

The strikes in the Belgorod region next to Ukraine and the destruction of the municipal administration building in Donetsk, a city firmly controlled by Russia and its proxies since 2014, sent a powerful signal that the mayhem unleashed by President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion is spreading far beyond the front lines.

The blasts, which Russia attributed to Ukrainian shelling, came a day after another sign of disarray in Russia’s once-vaunted military machine: Two men opened fire on fellow Russian soldiers at a training camp in the Belgorod region, killing 11 and wounding 15 before being killed themselves.

KYIV, Ukraine — Pro-Kremlin officials on Sunday blamed Ukraine for a rocket attack that struck the mayor’s office in Donetsk, a city controlled by the separatists, while Ukrainian officials said Russian rocket strikes hit a town across from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, among other targets.

The Ukrainian Counteroffensive: Russia’s Front Line, Serbia’s Air Force, its French Defense Ministry and U.S. Military Forces

Zelenskyy accused Russia of including convicts “with long sentences for serious crimes” in its front-line troops in return for pay and amnesty — something Western intelligence officials have also asserted.

Zelenskyy’s office said Moscow was shelling towns and villages along the front line in the east Sunday, and that “active hostilities” continued in the southern Kherson region.

— France, seeking to puncture perceptions that it has lagged in supporting Ukraine, confirmed it’s pledging air-defense missiles and stepped-up military training to Ukraine. The french defense minister told Le Parisien that up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers will be in France for several weeks of combat training, specialized training in Logistics and other needs, and training on equipment supplied by France.

— The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank in Washington, accused Moscow late Saturday of conducting “massive, forced deportations of Ukrainians,” which it said likely amount to ethnic cleansing.

The statements made by Russian authorities this week claimed that several thousand children from a southern region occupied by Moscow had been placed in rest homes and children’s camps during the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The original remarks were made by Russia’s deputy prime minister.

Russian authorities have previously admitted to placing children from Russian-held areas of Ukraine, who they said were orphans, for adoption with Russian families, in a potential breach of an international treaty on genocide prevention.

— The Ukrainian military accused pro-Kremlin fighters of evicting civilians in occupied territories to house officers in their homes, an act it described as a violation of international humanitarian law. It said the evictions were happening in Rubizhne, in the eastern Luhansk region. It didn’t provide evidence for its claim.

The Russian commanders wanted for their role in the downing of the Malaysian airliner over eastern Ukraine are now in the front line, according to pro-Kremlin commentators. Posts by Maksim Fomin and others said Igor Girkin, also known as Strelkov, has been given responsibility for an unspecified Russian front-line unit.

Girkin has been on an international wanted list over his alleged involvement in the downing of Kuala Lumpur-bound flight MH17, which killed 298 people. He is the most high-profile suspect in a murder trial in a Dutch court and a verdict is expected in November.

Recently, Girkin’s social media posts have lashed out at Moscow’s battlefield failures. The defense intelligence agency of Ukraine is giving a $100,000 reward for his capture.

The lines were operating as usual midmorning Monday despite attacks on infrastructure near the city’s main rail station.

“”The enemy can attack our cities, but it won’t be able to break us. The occupiers will get only fair punishment and condemnation of future generations, and we will get victory,” wrote Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In the past, Zelenskyy’s chief-of-staff has called for more air defense systems for Ukraine. “We have no time for slow actions,” he said online.

The photo was removed from the site after commenters criticized him for suggesting a Russian strike on Iranian drones.

Kamikaze Drones and the Crimes of Ukraine, the EU’s Top Friend in Brussels, and NATO’s Lead Fast Noon

The European Union foreign ministers are having a meeting in Luxembourg. The EU’s top diplomat told reporters before the meeting that there would be concrete evidence of Iran’s involvement in the Ukrainian conflict.

At least 3 people were killed in what was called the biggest missile barrages since the war began in February, as bombs slammed into villages and cities across southern and eastern Ukraine on Thursday.

Kamikaze drones, or suicide drones, are small, portable aerial weapon systems that are hard to detect and can be fired at a distance. They can be easily launched and are designed to hit behind enemy lines and be destroyed in the attack.

The Mayor of Kyiv said one person was found dead under the ruins of a destroyed building. It’s possible that another one remains trapped, he said.

The attack on energy infrastructure in the Kamianske district of the Dnipropetrovsk region caused “fire” and “serious destruction,” according to regional military official Valentyn Reznichenko.

The consequences of shelling and electricity supply are being eliminated by all services. Each region has a crisis response plan,” Shmyhal added.

To calm the energy system, we require Ukrainians to take a conscious approach to economical consumption of electricity. Especially during peak hours.

Ukraine’s state energy supplier Ukrenergo said the power grid in the country remains “under control,” adding that repair crews are working to curb the consequences of the attacks.

Shmyhal’s announcement comes as Ukraine wrestles with attacks on critical energy facilities following Russian strikes over the past week.

NATO will hold nuclear deterrence exercises starting Monday. NATO insists the “Stead Fast Noon” drills are a routine, yearly training activity, even though it warned Russia not to use nuclear weapons on Ukraine.

The U.S. Embassy in Kiev in the Light of the Oct. 13 General Assembly Report on the Explosion on the Beloboron Bridge

Russian agents are thought to have held eight people who were suspected of being involved in the explosion on the bridge.

The General Assembly condemned Russia’s move to annex four regions of Ukraine. In the Oct. 13 session, four countries voted alongside Russia, but 143 voted in favor of Ukraine’s resolution, while 35 abstained.

You can read past recaps here. For context and more in-depth stories, you can find more of NPR’s coverage here. Listen to NPR’s State of Ukraine for updates throughout the day.

Grisly videos filmed by Ukrainian drones showing Russian infantry being struck by artillery in poorly prepared positions have partly supported those assertions, as has reporting in Russian news media of mobilized soldiers telling relatives about high casualty rates. The videos have not been independently verified and their exact location on the front line could not be determined.

The commander of the Ukrainian military said on the Telegram messaging app on Thursday that Russian forces had tripled their intensity of attacks along some parts of the front. He did not say what the time frame was or where the attacks were coming from.

We discussed the situation at the front. Ukrainian forces, he said he had told his U.S. colleague, were beating back the attacks, “thanks to the courage and skills of our warriors.”

The Institute for the Study of War said that the increase in infantry in the east didn’t result in Russia gaining new ground.

“Russian forces would likely have had more success in such offensive operations if they had waited until enough mobilized personnel had arrived to amass a force large enough to overcome Ukrainian defenses,” the institute said in a statement on Thursday.

The Russian forces shelled Ukrainian-held areas of the partially occupied Kherson region 71 times over the past 24 hours, including 41 attacks on the city of Kherson, the region’s Ukrainian governor Yaroslav Yanushevich reported on Sunday.

With Russian and Ukrainian forces possibly preparing for a battle in Kherson, the remaining residents of the city have been stocking up on food and fuel.

BLAHODATNE, Ukraine — Ukraine’s troops entered the key city of Kherson on Friday, its military said, as jubilant residents waved Ukrainian flags after a major Russian retreat.

Recapturing control of Kherson would also bolster the Ukrainian government’s argument that it should press on militarily while it has Russian forces on the run, and not return to the bargaining table, as some American officials have advocated.

The videos shared by Ukrainian government officials showed civilians cheering and waiting for a contingent of Ukrainian troops to arrive after Russia said it had pulled out of the Dnipro River.

Residents of Kherson contacted by telephone on Friday morning reported that there were many explosions and chaotic things during the last hours of the Russian occupation.

The region is a Russian one, according to the spokesman for the Kremlin. It was legally fixed and defined. There can’t be any changes here.

Observations of the Kherson city with a Ukrainian drone unit: Soldiers and civilians battling Russian forces in the night of Friday night

As he spoke, Ukrainian soldiers continued to move through towns and villages in the region, greeted joyously by tearful residents who had endured nine months occupation.

Oleh Voitsehovsky, the commander of a Ukrainian drone reconnaissance unit, said he had seen no Russian troops or equipment in his zone along the front less than four miles north of Kherson city.

“The Russians left all the villages,” he said. “We looked at dozens of villages with our drones and didn’t see a single car. We cannot comprehend how they are leaving. They don’t talk much at night.

Serhiy, a retired man living in the city who asked that his last name not be published for security reasons, said in a series of text messages that the city’s conditions had deteriorated overnight.

“At night, a building burned in the very center, but it was not possible even to call the fire department,” he wrote. No heating, no electricity, and no phone signal was present.

There was no noticeable Russian military presence in the city on Friday, but four residents said that they saw Russian soldiers dressed in civilian clothes moving around the city.

It said that Russian forces were setting up defensive positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro and shelling the advancing Ukrainians across the river.

The Russia-Russian War Between the G7, the G8, and the G19: The Case of the Polish Missing Air-borne Missile

Editor’s Note: David A. Andelman, a contributor to CNN, twice winner of the Deadline Club Award, is a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, author of “A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still Happen” and blogs at Andelman Unleashed. He was formerly a correspondent for CBS News in Europe and Asia. His views are not reflected in this commentary. View more opinion at CNN.

Poland is facing repercussions from the attacks, as is not the only bordering country. Russian rockets have also knocked out power across neighboring Moldova, which is not a NATO member, and therefore attracted considerably less attention than the Polish incident.

Whatever the exact circumstances of the missile, one thing is clear. “Russia bears ultimate responsibility, as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Wednesday.

Beyond the missile attacks lies a laundry list of horrors which has driven Putin’s country further from the civilized powers that he once wanted to join.

A growing number of Russian soldiers have rebelled at what they’ve been told to do and refuse to fight. Russian troops may be willing to shoot retreating or deserting soldiers, says the UK Defense Ministry.

Indeed a hotline and Telegram channel, launched as a Ukrainian military intelligence project called “I want to live,” designed to assist Russian soldiers eager to defect, has taken off, reportedly booking some 3,500 calls in its first two months of activity.

Putin attempted to establish black market networks abroad to source what he would need to fuel his war machine just like Kim was doing in North Korea. The United States has already uncovered and recently sanctioned vast networks of such shadow companies and individuals centered in hubs from Taiwan to Armenia, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, and Luxembourg to source high-tech goods for Russia’s collapsing military-industrial complex.

Diplomatically, Putin finds himself increasingly isolated on the world stage. He was the only head of state to stay away from a session of the G20, which Zelensky dubbed the “G19.” Though Putin once lusted after a return to the G7 (known as the G8 before he was ousted after his seizure of Crimea), inclusion now seems but a distant dream. The comparisons with North Korea were more striking due to Russia banning 100 Canadians, including Jim Carrey.

Many of the best and brightest in virtually every field have left Russia. This includes writers, artists and journalists as well as some of the most creative technologists, scientists and engineers.

One leading Russian journalist, Mikhail Zygar, who has settled in Berlin after fleeing in March, told me last week that while he hoped this is not the case, he is prepared to accept the reality – like many of his countrymen, he may never be able to return to his homeland, to which he remains deeply attached.

The Russian Civil War and the First Day of World War II: Emergency Power Cuts in the Ukrenergo Reactor in Mykolaiv

The West is trying to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and natural gas so they can focus on this war. Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission told the G20) that they learned from their mistake and want reliable and forward-looking connections.

Moreover, Putin’s dream that this conflict, along with the enormous burden it has proven to be on Western countries, would only drive further wedges into the Western alliance are proving unfulfilled. In the days that followed, it was reported that the long-stalled joint French and German project for a next- generation jet fighter was beginning to move forward.

Above all, Putin still does not appear to have learned that revenge is not an appropriate way to act on or off the battlefield and in the final analysis is most likely to isolate and weaken Russia, perhaps irreversibly.

Still, he continues to hold, as he did in a Tuesday address in the Kremlin, that “attempts made by certain countries to rewrite and reshape world history are becoming increasingly aggressive, ultimately and obviously seeking to divide our society, take away our guiding lines and eventually weaken Russia.”

Ukrainian energy operator Ukrenergo reported on Friday that more than 50% of the country’s energy capacity was lost due to Russian strikes on thermal and hydroelectric power plants and substations, activating “emergency mode.”

After a brief emergency interruption, the nuclear reactor were turned back on but were still not reconnected to the national grid, the company said.

Vitaliy Kim, military administrator of the southern regions of Mykolaiv, said the nuclear plant has been cut off from the grid, which leads to a risky shutdown of the reactor.

Ukrainian officials stress that the power cuts have the cascading effect of turning off the heat and water in many cases. And with temperatures often below freezing, the water in pipes could freeze, adding further complications.

Putin: “Who isn’t giving water to Donetsk”: An Israeli Prime Minister Explains the Ukraine’s “Genocide”

“We cannot trust a regime that leaves us in the dark and cold, that deliberately kills people for the purpose of keeping other peoples poor and humble,” President Maia Sandu wrote on Facebook.

The nation of Ukraine is preparing for winter. In a Tuesday night video address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there are now 4,000 centers to take care of civilians if there are extended power cuts.

He said they would provide internet access, phone charging, heat and water. Many of them will be in government buildings.

Speaking after an awards ceremony for “Heroes of Russia” at the Kremlin, he addressed a group of soldiers receiving the awards, clutching a glass of champagne.

At the awards ceremony, Putin continued to list alleged aggressions: “Who is not supplying water to Donetsk? It is an act of genocide to not supply water to a million people.

The reference to Kursk appears to reference Russia’s announcement that an airfield in the Kursk region, which neighbors Ukraine, was targeted in a drone attack. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has offered no comment on recent explosions, including in Kursk, which are deep within Russia. Officially, the targets are well beyond the reach of the country’s declared drones.

He ended his apparently off-the-cuff comments by claiming that people seem to refrain from mentioning that water has been cut off from Donetsk. People have never said anything about it. At all! Complete silence.”

Local Russian authorities in Donetsk — which Putin claimed to annex in defiance of international law — have reported frequent shelling of the city this week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was holding a glass of champagne as he talked about the attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

In his Kremlin appearance Thursday, he continued to say: “Who is not supplying water to Donetsk? Not supplying water to a city of million is an act of genocide.”

The Russian president compared the differences in reaction to attacks on Russia and Ukraine to a volcano, saying, as soon as we make a move, do something in response.

Kiev missile attacks on the Odesa region: a hoax for the reconstruction of urban infrastructure in the country, and an attempt to bring disaster to the city

It said that the restoration of household consumers is slowed down by difficult weather conditions and that the damage is made worse by the freezing and rupture of wires in distribution networks.

A top Ukrainian official said the attacks on the country’s energy grid amount to genocide. Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Andriy Kostin made the comments while speaking to the BBC last month.

The administrators in Moscow said four missiles hit the city, killing two and injuring ten, while the mayor reported that there were explosions at a church occupied by Russian forces.

Russia’s acting governor claimed that the missile attack on Melitopol had destroyed a recreation center where people were having dinner on Saturday night.

Alexei Kulemzin, head of the Russian-backed city administration, said Ukraine launched 20 Grad missiles around 5:54 a.m. local time Sunday in the direction of the Voroshilovsky and Kalininsky districts.

The unofficial Crimean media portal “Krymskyi veter” said an explosion at a Russian military barracks in Sovietske had set the barracks on fire and there were dead and wounded.

Sergey Aksenov said that the air defense system has worked over Simferopol. All services are working as usual.

The strikes, using Iranian drones, left many in the dark. Mr. Zelensky called the situation in the Odesa region “very difficult,” noting that only the most critical infrastructure there remained operational. He warned that although repair crews were working “nonstop,” restoring power to civilians would take “days,” not “hours.”

Authorities in Odesa, in southern Ukraine, said that emergency power outages had been rolled out amid the missile attacks. DTEK, a utility company, said that they were introduced due to the threat of missile attacks.

“This is the true attitude of Russia towards Odesa, towards Odesa residents – deliberate bullying, deliberate attempt to bring disaster to the city,” Zelensky added.

Russian strikes on Ukrainian power systems and their destruction,” said Norwegian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky in a nightly address on Saturday

Ukraine on Saturday received “a new support package from Norway in the amount of $100 million” that will be used “precisely for the restoration of our energy system after these Russian strikes,” Zelensky added.

In his nightly address on Saturday, Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine had shot down 10 of the 15 drones that Russian forces used. It was not immediately possible to verify his tally.

The repeated assaults on the plants and equipment that Ukrainians rely on for heat and light have drawn condemnation from world leaders, and thrust Ukraine into a grim cycle in which crews hurry to restore power only to have it knocked out again.

“The power system is now, to put it mildly, very far from a normal state — there is an acute shortage in the system,” he said, urging people to reduce their power use to put less strain on the battered power grid.

“It must be understood: Even if there are no heavy missile strikes, this does not mean that there are no problems,” he continued. There are missile attacks on a daily basis in various parts of the country. Energy facilities are hit almost every day.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that he will ban the Russian Orthodox church in Ukraine if there is any more raids on churches accused of ties to Moscow.

The president of France will host the head of the European Commission and the Norwegian Prime Minister for dinner on Monday.

Also in France, on Tuesday, the country is set to co-host a conference with Ukraine in support of Ukrainians through the winter, with a video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

An attack on the western port city of Kiev during a December 12 attack by the Russian military airfield, an airfield and a hypersonic aircraft

Fans, friends and family of the basketball player are celebrating her return to the US after serving time in Russia. Some Republican politicians are complaining about the issue of Americans still being held by Russia.

The measures targeting Russian oil revenue came into effect on December 5. There is a price cap and embargo on most Russian oil imports by the European Union.

President Zelenskyy had a phone call with President Biden on Dec. 11, as well as the leaders of France and Turkey, in an apparent stepping up of diplomacy over the 9 1/2-month-long Russian invasion.

Denys Shmyhal, the prime minister ofUkraine, said at the government meeting that they had set a goal to leave Ukrainians without light, water and heat.

“The enemy is massively attacking Ukraine. Increased danger. Stay in shelters,” Oleksiy Kuleba, the head of the Kyiv regional military administration, wrote on the Telegram messaging app, asking residents not to ignore the alarm.

An explosion shook windows near a playground. Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko urged residents to charge their electronic devices and fill water containers in case of shortages.

At least 10 missiles struck various targets in Kharkiv region, in the north, damaging energy facilities and a hospital, according to Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional military administration. The power was out in the city for most of the day. “There is a colossal infrastructural damage,” Kharkiv’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said, instructing residents to use so-called “invincibility points” – makeshift centers offering relief from power outages – to collect food and hot drinks, and recharge cellphones.

The incident took place in the western port city of Engels, which is close to the Russian capital and located on the Volga River. It is the second such attempted attack on the city, which houses the Engels-2 military airfield, a strategic bomber airbase, this month.

An MiG-31K, a supersonic aircraft capable of carrying a Kinzal hypersonic missile, was also seen in the sky over Belarus during the air attacks on Friday in Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s Armed Forces. But it was not clear from their statement whether a Kinzal was used in the attacks.

Kirby said that Russia’s defense industrial base is being taxed. They are having difficulty keeping up with that pace. We know that he’s (Russian President Vladimir Putin’s) having trouble replenishing specifically precision guided munitions.”

The Biden administration is close to sending the most advanced air defense system in the US to Ukraine, according to a senior administration official. The Ukrainian government long wanted the system to help defend it against Russian attacks. It would be the most effective defensive weapons system sent to the country and officials say it will help secure air space for members of the North Atlantic Treaty and NATO.

He declined to announce any details on the next security assistance package for Ukraine, but said that there “will be another one” and that additional air defense capabilities should be expected.

The Iranian-made Shahed-136/Shahed-131 Drones are Arriving in Kyiv During the Run-Up to Christmas

The Iranian-made, self-detonating Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 drones were launched from the “eastern coast of the Sea of Azov,” the Air Force said in a statement on Facebook.

“I thank everyone who carries out these repair works in any weather and around the clock,” Zelensky said. “It is not easy, it is difficult, but I am sure: we will pull through together, and Russia’s aggression will fail.”

The Ukrainians who are far from the eastern and southern fronts of the ground war want some semblance of normality in the run-up to Christmas.

An artificial Christmas tree in the center of Kyiv was installed and decorated over the weekend, set to be illuminated with “energy-saving garlands” that will be powered by a generator at specific times, the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.

Roughly 1,000 blue and yellow balls and white doves will decorate the tree in Sophia Square, with a trident placed at the tree’s summit. There will be flags of countries that support Ukraine at the bottom.

Zelensky said that the children of Ukrainian descent were asking St. Nicholas to provide air defense and weapons for victory.

The War on Everybody: And What It Means for You? The Russian Foreign Minister’s Outburst and the U.N. Security Council’s Cold War

Editor’s Note: Keir Giles (@KeirGiles) works with the Russia and Eurasia Programme of Chatham House, an international affairs think tank in the UK. He is the author of “Russia’s War on Everybody: And What it Means for You.” His views are not reflected in this commentary. Read more opinion on CNN.

Russia will continue to do this because it works. The reason why the Western leaders constantly reassure Russia that it works is because Russia wants to stoke fear.

Russia has been given permission to behave as it chooses without fear of interference from a global community who are either indifferent or powerless because of the UN Security Council veto.

Nuclear threats are Russia’s most effective deterrent. Russia has stopped saying they will use nukes recently, but a decade or more of driving home the fact that Russia will use nukes if it’s cornered has had an effect.

Meanwhile, Russia will continue to look for sources of replacement weapons as it scrapes the barrel for repurposed or adapted missiles to launch at Ukraine. And Iran may not be the only country willing to supply Russia in the future.

That sets a disastrous example for other aggressive powers around the world. It says possession of nuclear weapons allows you to wage genocidal wars of destruction against your neighbors, because other nations won’t intervene.

If that’s not the message the US and the West want other aggressor states around the world to receive, then supply of Patriot should be followed by far more direct and assertive means of dissuading Moscow.

The United Nations secretary general is expected to mediation by late February, but Russia can not be invited if it first faced, according to the Ukrainian foreign minister. It was not the first time that each country claimed to be open to peace talks but only if their terms were acceptable to the other.

The Kremlin has repeatedly stated in recent months, that it is not us who refuse talks, it is them.

“Russian forces will likely struggle to maintain the pace of their offensive operations in the Bakhmut area and may seek to initiate a tactical or operational pause,” the institute concluded.

Investigation of a drone shooting incident at an airfield in Saratov Oblast, Ukraine, after an incident in the January 24th cyber attack

A total of 16 people have been killed in the region, including three emergency workers who were demining the Berislav district. Yanushevich said that 64 more have been wounded.

Three Russian servicemen were killed Monday after a Ukrainian drone was shot down by air defenses as it approached a military airfield in Saratov Oblast, deep inside Russian territory, according to Russian state news agencies, citing the defense ministry.

Law enforcement agencies are now investigating the incident at the airfield, said Saratov Oblast Governor Roman Busargin on Monday. The comments, posted on his official Telegram channel, came after reports circulated of an explosion in the city.

There were no emergencies in the residential areas of the city, and there was no damage to the infrastructure. The government would help the families of the servicemen, he said.

On Monday, a spokes person for the South of Ukraine’s Security and Defense forces warned of a possible Russian strike, citing a similar incident earlier in the month.

A video appears to show an explosion in the sky. At the time, Gov. Busargin also reassured residents that no civilian infrastructure was damaged and that “information about incidents at military facilities is being checked by law enforcement agencies.”

The quiet night of Dec. 5 the Russians stopped shelling the Kherson region and attacked Kiev with air-field weapons, a U.S. official told Telegram

In Ukraine, the night from Sunday into Monday appeared unusually quiet. The Russian forces didn’t shell the district for the first time in a long while, the governor reported on Telegram.

“This is the third quiet night in 5.5 months since the Russians started shelling” the areas around the city of Nikopol, Reznichenko wrote. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is located across the Dnieper River in Nikopol, which is under Russian control.

Ukrainian-controlled areas of the neighbouring Kherson region were shelled 33 times over the past 24 hours, according to Kherson’s Ukrainian Gov. Yaroslav Yanushevich. No one was killed or injured.

Since some of the missiles in the air were launched from airfields hit by the Russians, the strikes on the airfields could destroy the missiles on the ground.

The man said that he did not speak for the government and could not confirm the strikes, adding that you cannot consider a person who will attack you. There is absolutely no strategic reason not to try to do this.”

The United States and Ukraine have agreed that Kyiv will not strike targets in Russia with American-provided weaponry. The Biden administration does not want the US to get involved in any confrontation with Russia. But American officials clarified they will not object to Ukraine striking back with its own weaponry.

The most sophisticated missile in Russia’s arsenal, the Kinzhal, a hypersonic weapon that can reach targets in minutes and is all but impossible to shoot down, is in even shorter supply, Mr. Budanov said.

“If the Russians thought that no one at home would be affected by the war, then they were deeply mistaken,” Colonel Ihnat said. He said that the bombing campaign against Ukrainian was complicated by the explosions at Russian airfields and that Moscow had to relocate some of its aircraft.

The U.S. reaction to the Dec. 5 assaults was muted. Lloyd J. Austin III said they weren’t trying to stop Ukraine from getting their own capability. Ned Price, the State Department spokesman, stated only that the United States was neither encouraging nor enabling attacks on Russia.

The Kremlin waged a limited war in the east of the country for eight years, causing the eastern border region to be thrown into a state of turmoil and causing cyberattacks on the infrastructure of its neighbor. Many military and cybersecurity observers around the world warned that Russia’s scorched-earth hacking was demonstrating a playbook that would, sooner or later, be used outside of Ukraine too—a warning that soon proved true, with cyberattacks that struck everything from American hospitals to the 2018 Winter Olympics.

“It’s like the central nervous system of the human body: If you mess with it, you put all sorts of systems out of whack,” says Rajan Menon, a director of the Defense Priorities think tank who recently returned from a trip to the Ukrainian capital, speaking about Russia’s power grid attacks. It is an enormous economic cost and it is an easy thing to do. It’s an effort to create pain for the civilian population, to show that the government can’t protect them adequately.”

Several residential buildings in the capital of the Ukranian republic were destroyed according to the lead for disaster response.

Maksym Marchenko, the regional administrator for that region along the Black Sea, said that the Ukrainian air defense systems shot down 21 cruise missiles. But successful missile strikes left the city without electricity or water.

Strikes of the scale like the one that happened on Thursday have stopped being as frequent since Oct 10. Earlier this week Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, said that’s because Russia is running low on its stock of cruise missiles.

In separate comments to Russian media Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted Moscow would continue to pursue its objectives in Ukraine with “perseverance” and “patience.”

The attack on Kyiv on New Year’s Eve by Russia is a ‘non-neutral’ threat to Ukraine, according to the Defense Ministry

Anna Kovalchuk, another Kyiv resident, said she was determined not to let the Russians ruin her upcoming celebrations. It is most likely that there will be no power on New Year’s Eve and the holiday will have to be spent in the dark. But I began to prepare myself for such a scenario in advance, stocked up on garlands, power banks, so the blackout would upset us, but not stop us,” she told CNN.

After the sirens gave the all clear, life in the capital went back to normal, Hryn said: “In the elevator I met my neighbors with their child who were in hurry to get to the cinema for the new Avatar movie on time.” People continued with holiday plans while parents took their children to school and people went to work.

Elsewhere in the capital, Halyna Hladka stocked up on water as soon as the sirens sounded and quickly made breakfast for her family so they would have something to eat. They heard the sounds of explosions after nearly two hours. She said that it seemed to her that they were close to her area, but that it was actually air defense. We will be celebrating the new year with the family, even if there are attacks on us.

At least three people, including a 14-year-old, were injured and two people pulled from a damaged home on Thursday, Klitschko said earlier. Homes, an industrial facility and a playground in the capital were damaged in attacks on Kyiv, according to the city military administration.

“Senseless barbarism.” Russia might launch new attacks on Ukrainian cities ahead of the New Year, but there can’t be “no neutrality” in the face of that, said Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister.

All of the targets have been neutralised. The attack has resulted in stopping the production and maintenance of military hardware and ordnance, as well as in terminating the redeployment of reserve forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from western regions of Ukraine,” the defense ministry said in a statement.

Ukrainian officials said that both Russian and Ukrainian forces are suffering losses. CNN was unable to confirm Russia’s claims.

But in spite of Russia’s purported victories on the battlefield, the ministry did not claim any territorial advances against Ukrainian forces, adding credibility to reports that the two sides are locked in a stalemate.