March 16, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday vowed to hold Russia accountable for the bombing last year of a theater in the southeastern city of Mariupol that killed hundreds of people.

The bombing of the theater, where Ukrainian officials say up to 1,300 people had sought refuge, was among the most brazen of Russia’s attacks on civilians since its invasion began in late February last year.

Painted on the ground outside the building — in giant Russian letters — was the word “CHILDREN.” The message — large enough to be viewed from the sky — was scrawled near a public square. Russia has denied its forces hit the theater, claiming instead that the Azov battalion, the Ukrainian army’s main presence in Mariupol, blew it up.

"Step by step, we are moving towards ensuring that the terrorist state is fully held to account for what it has done to our country and our people. We will not forgive a single life ruined by the occupiers," Zelensky said.

Driving deep into the forest, the hush between the towering pine trees and the clear blue skies was splintered every few seconds by the sound of distant explosions from the frontline battles for eastern Ukraine.

Guiding us through the woodland on foot, Ukrainian soldiers eventually brought us to a clearing where they showed us the wreckage of a weaponized drone which they said they shot down with their AK-47 automatic weapons over the weekend.

The drone was a Mugin-5, a commercial unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) made by a Chinese manufacturer based in the port city of Xiamen, on China’s eastern coast.

Some tech bloggers say the machines are known as "Alibaba drones" as they have been available for sale for up to $15,000 on Chinese marketplace websites including Alibaba and Taobao.

It’s the latest example of a civilian drone being retrofitted and weaponized since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a sign of the rapidly shifting patterns of warfare.

“Along the front lines, basically all the time we’re conducting aerial reconnaissance,” said Maksim, a 35-year-old territorial defense fighter who only wanted to go by his first name.

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US officials say they likely will not be able to retrieve a drone forced down by Russian jets in the Black Sea. The incident is part of a pattern of “aggressive, risky and unsafe" behavior from Russia, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the incident is under investigation and that the US is in "close coordination" with allies.

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Senior officials at Russia's Ministry of Defense gave the order for Russian fighter jets to harass a US drone over the Black Sea this week, according to two US officials familiar with the intelligence.

The high-level military officials’ connection to the incident suggests the fighter jet pilots were not taking rogue action when they interfered with the US drone.

However, at this time there is no indication that the highest of political leaders in Russia — particularly those in the Kremlin, including President Vladimir Putin — knew about the planned aggression in advance, one of the US officials said.

State Department Spokesperson Ned Price on Wednesday night indicated there was likely high-level approval of the harassment.

Whether or not the military officials set out to design an incident where the fighter jets would come into physical contact with the drone remains unclear. 

“We know that the intercept was intentional. We know that the aggressive behavior was intentional, and we also know it was very unprofessional and very unsafe,” said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley at a news conference on Wednesday. “The actual contact of the fixed-wing Russian fighter with our UAV, the physical contact with those two, not sure yet.”

Milley also sought to downplay any immediate rolling out of a repercussion for Russia, beyond the stern public and private warnings against Russian aggressions in international airspaces. 

“We do not seek armed conflict with Russia, and I believe that at this point, we should investigate this incident and move on from there,” Milley said.

The Russians have reached the MQ-9 crash site in the Black Sea, according to two US officials, as the Kremlin promises to attempt to recover the US surveillance drone.

Russia’s Navy has several ships in the Black Sea, including ships based in Crimean ports, which would have placed them in an advantageous position to attempt to recover the US MQ-9 Reaper drone after its encounter with Russian fighter jets on Tuesday.

The drone came down in international waters approximately 70 miles southwest of Crimea, one of the officials said. It is unclear if Russia was able to recover any of the wreckage from the drone when they arrived at the crash site.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby would not confirm that Russians were at the site. He reiterated however that the US took steps to make it "impossible" for Russia to acquire any useful information from the drone's remnants.

The Russian Security Council Secretary said Wednesday that Russia will try to obtain the drone wreckage to study it.

The drone landed in a part of the Black Sea that’s likely almost a mile deep, Gen. Mark Milley said, making any recovery effort extremely difficult. The US also has no Navy ships in the Black Sea, compounding the challenges in any US recovery attempt.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the United States on Wednesday of "ignoring" the airspace restrictions that Russia imposed in the coastal regions of the Black Sea since the start of the war with Ukraine. 

Lavrov also blamed the US for "constantly looking for provocations aimed at increasing tensions."

The main focus of a telephone conversation between Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his US counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, on Wednesday was on the "causes and consequences" of the downing of a US drone over the Black Sea, the Russian defense ministry said.

Shoigu told Austin the incident was "caused by the US actions of non-compliance with the flight restriction zone declared by the Russian Federation" established in connection with the special military operation in the region, according to a readout.

Shoigu said Russia "will continue to respond to all provocations in a proportionate manner," according to the readout of the call.

Some context: The US said that while flying in international airspace over the Black Sea, a Russian Su-27 jet dumped fuel on a US MQ-9 Reaper drone several times. One of the Russian jets then hit the drone, damaging it and forcing US officials to crash it into the water.

A soldier from Ukraine's 93rd Mechanized Brigade destroyed a Russian Su-25 jet over Bakhmut, according to a commander.

The announcement comes after the head of Ukraine's President’s Office, Andriy Yermak, also said forces from the 93rd Mechanized Brigade had shot down a Russian military plane near Bakhmut. 

Commander Oleksandr Syrskyi of the Land Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said the Russian military "continues to unsuccessfully try to surround the city and advance."

"The occupiers are also putting pressure on the Kupiansk and Lyman directions," he said, adding that soldiers from the 92nd Brigade have managed to destroy Russian radar systems and command centers in those directions. 

CNN has been unable to confirm the Ukrainian claims.

Russian shelling killed at least two people and injured five others in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region on Wednesday, Serhii Lysak, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said in a Telegram post. 

Two women, ages 62 and 57, were killed in the city of Marhanets, he said. According to preliminary information, a man and three women were hospitalized, and another injured woman will be treated on an outpatient basis, he said. 

More than a dozen multistory buildings and several private houses in Marhanets were damaged in the shelling, the regional administration said in a separate post.