March 16, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

Russia is ramping up its presence in the Black Sea with what Ukraine’s military says is a “rather atypical number of ships.” The increased number of vessels could be intended as a “demonstration of dominance at sea” after Tuesday’s downing of a US drone by a Russian fighter jet, the military said.

If you’re just now catching up, here’s what else you should know:

Drone downing: The US is conducting an assessment of its drone operations in the Black Sea area, weighing the costs and benefits of the flights, several officials told CNN. The Pentagon plans to compare the potential intelligence value of a particular route versus the risk of escalation with Russia, they said. In the meantime, the US believes Russia has recovered some debris from the surveillance drone, an official familiar with the matter told CNN. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Thursday that it’s important to keep open the lines of communication between Washington and Moscow following the incident. In Washington, US Sen. Mark Warner said the Senate Intelligence Committee awaits more information on the drone downing, but that it was a clear sign Moscow was “on its back heels.”

Putin’s address: President Vladimir Putin accused the West of hitting Russia with a “sanctions war,” which he blamed for the country’s decline in GDP.  In an address to business executives, the president also said despite some “systemic issues with logistics, finances and technologies,” huge opportunities are opening up in the country for almost any area of business activity.

Poland’s fighter jets: Poland is set to provide Ukraine with four MiG-29 fighter jets in the coming days, Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Thursday, becoming the first NATO country to do so. According to the White House, the decision won’t spur President Joe Biden to send US F-16 aircraft. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the decisions countries make to provide Ukraine with military aid are “sovereign decisions.”

Other news:

The US has seen a “significant spike” in aggressive Russian military flights in Syria this month, the commander of US Central Command said Thursday, two days after Russian jets collided with a US drone over the Black Sea. 

Gen. Erik Kurilla told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that Russian ground attack aircraft fly over US bases loaded with weapons “in an attempt to try and be provocative.” He described the Russian flights as “not what we expect of a professional air force.” 

Asked if the aggressive flights were new, Kurilla responded, “It’s not new, but we have seen a significant spike since about 1 March in Syria.”

“What we are seeing though is an increase recently in the unprofessional and unsafe behavior of the Russian air force in the region,” he said.

The US has approximately 900 troops in Syria at two different bases as part of the ongoing campaign to defeat ISIS. The US and Russia have a deconfliction line between the two militaries to ensure operations do not result in a miscalculation or an unintentional escalation.

On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at a press conference that the US has observed a “pattern of aggressive, risky and unsafe actions by Russian pilots in international airspace.”

He added that the aggressive operations are not just pointed at the US, but at the UK and other countries as well.

The US is conducting an assessment of its drone operations in the Black Sea area, weighing the costs and benefits of the flights after Russia forced down one of the aircraft earlier this week, several officials told CNN.

The US has not stopped the flights entirely while it completes the analysis — the military sent the same model of drone, an MQ-9 Reaper, on a mission in approximately the same area over the Black Sea shortly after the collision occurred, US officials said. That aircraft was meant to survey the crash site and monitor Russians looking for the debris.

But the US military is “taking a close look” at the drones’ routes and assessing how to better reduce the risk of conflict with Russia’s military, which regularly flies fighter jets in and out of Crimea, the officials said.

The Pentagon plans to analyze the overall costs and benefits of flying these missions, comparing the potential intelligence value of a particular route versus the risk of escalation with Russia.  

There is concern among some in the US military that limiting drone routes will impact intelligence gathering related to the Ukraine war, the senior military official said. But the US has potential alternatives for gathering the intel, such as spy satellites. 

The US is considering another drone flight over the Black Sea in the coming days, the officials said, which would be consistent with its typical operating schedule.

More background: The collision between the Russian Su-27 fighter jets and the US drone happened around 40-50 nautical miles southwest of Crimea, over the Black Sea in international airspace, the US Air Force said Thursday. 

Russia accused the US of violating airspace they claim to have created for their “special military operation” in Ukraine—a designation the US does not accept. The officials also said Russia has not communicated any such airspace restriction. 

New footage released by the Pentagon on Thursday shows the Russian fighter jets rapidly approaching the drone, pouring fuel on it, and appearing to damage the drone’s propellor. The US was forced to take the drone down over the Black Sea after the impact made it effectively inoperable, officials said.

At least one person was killed and seven others wounded in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on Thursday as a result of Russian shelling, the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office said in a Telegram post.

Russian forces fired on the city of Kostiantynivka and several villages with artillery and Uragan multiple rocket launchers, the prosecutor’s office said, adding that the shelling hit “the railway station, market and private houses.”

The woman who died was 50 years old and living in Pivdenne, where one other person was hurt, according to the prosecutor’s office. The six other people who were injured were in Kostiantynivka, including one Polish citizen, it added.

Shell fragments damaged more than 30 residential buildings, the prosecutor’s office said. 

Ukrainian officials have held a number of discussions with leaders of other countries today. Here’s what they spoke about:

Separately, UK Foreign Minister James Cleverly made an official state visit to Moldova, where he said he believes that the best way to protect the country from a Russian attack is not by sending it military support, but by protecting Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Latvia’s Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins in Kyiv Thursday, Zelensky’s office said in a statement. 

Zelensky thanked Latvia for the “powerful political, defense, financial and humanitarian support since the first days of the full-scale Russian invasion,” his office said.

“Even from the first days of 2014, when this war actually began, (you) have shown that you are with us, you support our sovereignty, our people, our society, territorial integrity,” Zelensky is quoted as saying.

The Ukrainian president noted the Latvian government’s recent approval of a new military assistance package. The defense support provided by Latvia to Ukraine has already reached 1% of the small European country’s GDP, according to Zelensky’s office. 

The two leaders also discussed the situation on the front line, and Zelensky emphasized the importance of coordinating efforts between Ukraine’s allies to make sure Kyiv’s military is supplied with the weaponry it needs in the fight.

The parties also discussed the negotiations for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and preparations for the NATO Summit in Vilnius, according to the statement. 

Zelensky praised Latvia’s advocacy for using international legal mechanisms to punish Russia for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, and for finding means to compensate the country “for the damage caused by Russia,” the president’s office said.

Earlier Thursday, Karins met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. 

Negotiations about a possible conversation between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are ongoing, but it is too early to say whether a conversation will actually take place, according to a Ukrainian presidential adviser. 

“We can’t say for sure, because negotiations are ongoing,” Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said on national television Thursday.

The Ukrainian president is open to conversations with other leaders as well, not just Xi, “in order to explain the nature of the war and to say why, without taking into account Ukraine’s position, this war cannot be ended,” Podolyak said. 

“Why supporting for instance only the Russian side firstly will not lead to the finalization of the war, and secondly, it will not add points to China as a global player that understands the nature of war and understands how to end it,” he added. 

Earlier on Thursday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he had a telephone conversation with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang. The two discussed Ukraine’s peace plan and “the significance of the principle of territorial integrity,” Kuleba said in a post on his official Twitter account.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the decisions countries make to provide Ukraine with military aid are “sovereign decisions.”  

His comments come after Poland announced Thursday that the country would be sending four of its MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine in the coming days.

“With regard to the decision by Poland to provide jets to Ukraine, look, these are sovereign decisions for countries to make what they will provide to Ukraine to help defend itself against the Russian aggression,” Blinken said at a press conference in Niger. “We of course, are working closely with dozens of countries on these questions, but different countries are doing different things in response to what they have and what the perceived needs are.”

Blinken gave no indication that Poland’s decision would change the Biden administration’s position against sending fighter jets to Ukraine right now.

“Our focus has been on doing everything we can to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs, what it can use, and what it particularly needs in this moment, dealing both with the offensive that we’re seeing from Russia, across the eastern front, but also in preparation for its own actions in the weeks and months to come as it seeks to take back more of the territory that Russia has seized from it,” Blinken said. 

Blinken said it is a mistake to focus on any one weapons system at any one time. He spoke to the vast nature of military resources that Ukraine needs including air defenses, artillery, ammunition and armored vehicles.

“Secretary Austin has, you know, led a very, very successful process of bringing together dozens of countries to help find and coordinate that assistance,” he added.

Ahead of the Black Sea grain agreement expiring this weekend, the United Nations emphasized that the deal states it would be extended for 120 days — even though Russia said it agreed to a 60-day extension of the deal after negotiations in Geneva on Monday.  

The Black Sea Grain Initiative is an agreement between Ukraine and Russia, brokered by the UN and Turkey, that was established in July 2022 to guarantee safe passage for ships carrying grain and oilseeds — some of Ukraine’s most important exports.   

Russian state-run news agency RIA, citing Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko, reported on Monday that Russia and the UN had agreed to a 60-day extension of the grain deal after the negotiations in Geneva.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that the addition of 60 days was a “goodwill gesture” on Russia’s part when asked by reporters why the deal had not been extended by 120 days.  

When asked Thursday about the difference in the duration of the extension between Russian and the UN versions, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that it may be a display of “UN’s incompetence.”  

Dujarric responded to Zakharova’s remark, saying, “I was just stating and reading a line from the agreement, which talks about the fact that the agreement foresees a renewal for 120 days.”  

The spokesperson stressed that the UN doesn’t direct the talks or terms to the deal. The Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey are the parties involved in the agreement, with the UN as a witness, Dujarric said.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters on Wednesday that Ankara hopes to resolve the issue in a positive way “as soon as possible,” according to Turkish state media Anadolu. 

“We started negotiations with the idea of extending the grain corridor for another 120 days in line with the initial version of the agreement. Our friends with the Russian and Ukrainian sides held talks at the technical level. We also continue our talks at the ministerial level,” he said.  

The US believes Russia has recovered some debris in the Black Sea from the downed US surveillance drone, a US official familiar with the matter told CNN. The official described the recovered wreckage as pieces of fiberglass or small bits of the MQ-9 Reaper drone. 

CNN reported on Wednesday that Russia had reached the location where the US surveillance drone went down in the Black Sea, approximately 70-80 miles southwest of Crimea.

But the Biden administration downplayed the significance of the drone wreckage or the potential to glean any sensitive intelligence from the remains of the aircraft. 

“We made it impossible for them to be able to glean anything of intelligence value off the remnants of that drone, whatever remnants there might be on the surface of the water,” John Kirby, the National Security Council strategic communications coordinator, told CNN on Wednesday. 

After the collision between the US drone and the Russian fighter jets early Tuesday morning, the drone operators took steps to erase the sensitive software of the drone before it fell into the Black Sea, according to US officials.

“Whatever’s left … that’s floating will probably be flight control surfaces, that kind of thing. Probably nothing of real intrinsic value to them in terms of terms of reengineering or anything like that,” Kirby said.

The drone landed in water that may be nearly a mile deep, Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley said at a press conference on Wednesday. 

“That’s US property and, and we’ll, we’ll leave it that at this point, but it probably broke up. There’s probably not a lot to recover, frankly,” he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday about the latest at the front lines around the eastern city of Bakhmut, Zelensky said in a post on his official Twitter account.

“As always, we have concrete results in increasing defense and economic support for Ukraine. Appreciate UK’s unwavering position,” he added. 

The stunning aerial video of a Russian jet buzzing and then apparently hitting a US drone over the Black Sea vividly shows how the war in Ukraine could spin out of control.

Clearly, the showdown, which has resulted in angry rhetoric between Washington and Moscow but nothing more, would have been far worse if the US Reaper drone had been a manned aircraft.

The fact a drone was involved has allowed both sides to calibrate their language to avoid an escalation, but the reverberations of the incident are still likely to have prolonged consequences.

The US and its allies are pumping billions of dollars of ammunition and sophisticated arms into Ukraine to be used against Russian forces, prompting worries that a miscalculation or incident could cause direct clashes between Russian and NATO assets.

And one of the most alarming aspects of the drone downing is that it took place in international airspace – not over Russian territory or the battlefield – and thus underscores how US and Russian forces could come into contact even outside the war zone.

Senior Russian defense officials approved the harassment of the drone, CNN’s Natasha Bertrand and Kylie Atwood reported Wednesday, citing two US officials familiar with intelligence on the incident.

So it’s plausible this escalation was a deliberate decision to send some kind of message to the US, or to try to deter US intelligence gathering near Ukraine.

Russia has complained that the US drone infringed its self-declared air rules over the Black Sea. But this is a risible position, given its own huge violation of international law with an unprovoked invasion of a sovereign state.

Regardless, the footage of the high-speed airborne clash shows that as long as the Ukraine war goes on — and the West is involved, even indirectly — the possibility for escalation that expands the conflict disastrously will constantly exist.

It will take careful management in both Washington and Moscow to lower the risk.

Read more here.

It’s important to keep the lines of communication between Washington and Moscow open following Tuesday’s drone incident, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a news conference Thursday, according to state news agency TASS. 

Zakharova reiterated that Russia is not seeking a confrontation and stands for pragmatic cooperation in the interests of the people of both countries.

“That said, we are capable of protecting these interests,” Zakharova added. 

Some background: Moscow and Washington have been in contact through military and diplomatic channels following the incident.

US officials and their Russian counterparts have been in an open dispute over what led to the downing of a US drone over the Black Sea. The US has maintained that Russian fighter jets dumped fuel on the drone before clipping its propeller and forcing it to be flown down; Russians have denied that there was physical contact between a Russian jet and US drone.  

Regardless of the intent of the Russian fighter jet that forced the downing of a US drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday, it was “intentional harassment,” according to John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council.

“We can’t get between the ears of the Russian pilot and know what the intent was there in terms of striking the drone. It’s just – I don’t know that we’ll ever know. What we do know, and what is clearly evident, is this was intentional harassment. It was intentional dumping of fuel to try to disrupt the flight profile … and it was intentionally aggressive,” Kirby said.

Kirby added that the pilot shouldn’t have been in the same airspace as the drone in the first place.

“The drone was acting in accordance with international law doing absolutely nothing wrong,” he said.  

Pressed on whether the US will actively investigate the intent of the pilot, Kirby simply said that “we’re not going on a fact-finding mission.” 

Kirby said there were no conversations that he was aware of between US officials and Russian counterparts since the video was released Thursday morning.

“We’re not tracking any outreach either way since the release of the video and frankly … I wouldn’t be surprised if there was none. The video is pretty darn conclusive about what happened and it absolutely just decimates the Russian lie,” he added.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal met with his Latvian counterpart Krisjanis Karins in Kyiv on Thursday, Shmyhal said in a post on his official Twitter account. 

“Ukraine and Latvia will develop new logistics routes. We discussed strengthening trade and economic ties and the restoration of Ukraine,” Shmyhal said. 

“Appreciate Latvia’s support on the road to EU membership and NATO,” he added. 

A delegation from Estonia is also in Kyiv on Thursday, according to a statement released by the Ukrainian presidency. 

Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Ihor Zhovkva met with Estonia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Kyllike Sillaste-Elling, according to the statement. Some of the topics they discussed included military aid, reconstruction efforts and a Ukraine peace formula, according to the statement.

Poland’s decision to send Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine is a “sovereign decision” that won’t spur President Joe Biden to send US F-16 aircraft, according to the White House.

Biden has said shipments of US fighter jets aren’t in the cards at the moment, though he hasn’t ruled it out entirely.

The pledge from Poland to send four jets, which is a step beyond other allies’ commitments, doesn’t alter that decision-making, said John Kirby, a top official at the US National Security Council.

“It doesn’t change our calculus with respect to F-16s,” he said.

“These are sovereign decisions for any country to make and we respect those sovereign decisions,” he said, adding later, “They get to determine not only what they’re going to give but how they’re going to characterize it.”

Kirby declined to endorse the decision, saying he didn’t think it was the US’ place “to characterize Poland’s decision one way or another.”

Russia is increasing its presence in the Black Sea with a “rather atypical number of ships,” Ukraine’s military said Thursday.

The increased number of vessels, made up of 21 units, may be intended as “a demonstration of dominance at sea” after Tuesday’s downing of a US drone by a Russian fighter jet, said a Facebook post from Ukraine’s Operational Command South, a formation of the country’s army.

The US has said it will take measures to ensure the drone won’t fall into the wrong hands.

“It is also possible that the Russians themselves will conduct a search operation,” the statement added. 

Threat to Ukraine: The military’s post said Russia’s increased presence in the Black Sea also means a greater threat of missile strikes on Ukraine.

Ukraine’s military said the presence of five missile carriers in the Black Sea, including two underwater, “increases the missile threat enormously.”

The vessels could be carrying as many as 32 Kalibr-type cruise missiles, the statement said.

“Do not ignore air raid alarms,” the Operational Command South warned.

The formation also warned of Russia’s growing Black Sea missile carrier presence in an earlier update, which was published Monday.

Video of a mid-air incident between a US drone and a Russian fighter jet clearly demonstrates that Russia has been “just flat out lying” about what happened over the Black Sea, said John Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator at the National Security Council.

“It clearly demonstrated our narrative of what happened, and I think if any of you have seen that video you can see clearly that it does,” he said Thursday, adding that the decision to release the footage was in part to “lay bare and to make clear to the rest of the world the manner in which the Russians have been just flat out lying” about the episode.

US officials and their Russian counterparts have been in an open dispute over what transpired that led to the downing of a US drone over the Black Sea. The US has maintained that Russian fighter jets dumped fuel on the drone before clipping its propeller and forcing it to be flown down; Russians have denied that there was physical contact between a Russian jet and US drone.  

The video doesn’t show the actual moment of collision, but it does show a damaged propeller blade after the pass by the Russian jet. Kirby said the video provided “clear and convincing evidence of the account that we laid out.” 

Still, Kirby said the video could not provide evidence of the Russian pilot’s intentions. “At best, it’s reckless flying. At worst, it’s reckless and incompetent. We don’t know whether it is also intentional, the video doesn’t just show us that,” he added.

A court in Yekaterinburg, Russia, has sentenced Kremlin critic and former mayor of the city Yevgeny Roizman to 14 days in prison on charges of displaying extremist symbols for reposting a video, titled “Why is Putin imprisoning Navalny” on social media, according to Russian state news agency TASS. 

The video was reposted on the VKontakte social network in a social media group of Roizman supporters, but it is not his personal page, as he says in a video published by TASS that he does not have a VK account. 

A separate criminal case was opened against Roizman in August for discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation. He was also banned from going online. 

Roizman, a close ally of Alexey Navalny, has also been declared a “foreign agent” in Russia. 

Nine people belonging to an alleged espionage ring suspected of “collaborating” with the Russian secret service agency FSB have been detained in recent days, Poland’s Interior Minister, Mariusz Kamiński, announced Thursday. 

Those detained are “foreigners from across the eastern border,” he said. “The suspects conducted intelligence activities against Poland and prepared acts of sabotage at the request of Russian intelligence.” 

Kamiński said the prosecutor’s office charged six people with espionage and participation in an organized criminal group. 

The court decided on pre-trial detention of the six people, he said, adding that proceedings are pending against three others detained Wednesday.

“Evidence shows that the group monitored railway routes. Its tasks included recognizing, monitoring and documenting transports with weapons delivered to Ukraine,” the minister said. “The suspects were also supposed to be preparing for sabotage activities aimed at paralyzing the supply of equipment, weapons and aid to Ukraine.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had phone conversations with top diplomats in China and the United States on Thursday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken: Kuleba said in a tweet that he and Blinken discussed Ukraine’s “peace formula” and ways to speed up the delivery of artillery ammunition.

“We are working with the US and other partners around the clock to ensure that Ukraine has all of the ammunition we need for defense and counter-offensive operations,” Kuleba wrote.

Ukraine is burning through ammunition faster than the US and NATO can produce it and the Pentagon is leaning on US manufacturers to help fill the gap, CNN reported last month.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang: In his call with China’s foreign minister, Kuleba said he “discussed the significance of the principle of territorial integrity,” and promoted Ukraine’s peace proposal as the means “for ending the aggression and restoring just peace in Ukraine.”

Kuleba did not share additional details about either conversation held Thursday. 

More on China’s role in the war: China’s recent call for the resumption of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine has been met by skepticism in the West, as Beijing comes under increasing pressure from the US and its allies over its growing partnership with Moscow.

At the time of China’s proposal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was pleased Beijing was talking about how to end the conflict and was open to seeing what came next.

He said, however, that China had talked about territorial integrity in general terms without specifying which country is to blame. Beijing has so far avoided calling Russia’s war in Ukraine an “invasion.”

“It doesn’t say whose territorial integrity,” Zelensky said at the time, adding: “Our country’s territorial integrity has been violated.”

CNN’s Nectar Gan and Simone McCarthy contributed to this report.

The US Air Force released a graphic map of the approximate locations and times of the MQ-9 Reaper collision with a Russian fighter jet and the crash into the Black Sea earlier this week.

US Air Forces in Europe noted in a follow up tweet that the “points on the map are not plotted to scale, the distances provided in the text boxes are an estimation of the incident’s location.”

Earlier today, the US military also released newly declassified video of the Tuesday encounter between the drone and Russian fighter jet as it played out over the Black Sea.

While US officials say they likely will not be able to retrieve the downed drone, Russia has said the decision on whether to retrieve it from the Black Sea will come from Russia’s Ministry of Defense. 

Poland is set to provide Ukraine with four MiG-29 fighter jets in the coming days, Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Thursday, becoming the first NATO country to do so.

Warsaw has taken a lead among NATO allies in supplying Kyiv with heavy weapons, including the Soviet-designed fighters. “When it comes to the MI-29 aircraft, which are still operating in the defense of Polish airspace, a decision has been taken at the highest levels, we can say confidently that we are sending MIGs to Ukraine,” Duda said.

“We have a dozen or so MIGS that we got in the 90s handed down from the German Democratic Republic and they are functional and play a part in the defense of our airspace. They are at the end of their operational life but are still functional,” Duda added.

“In the coming days we will hand over four planes to the Ukraine, remaining machines are being serviced and prepared for handover. We will replace them with deliveries of South Korean FA-50s and American F-35s,” the Polish president said.

Speaking at a press conference in Warsaw, along with his new Czech counterpart Petr Pavel, the Polish president expressed their joint backing for Kyiv.

“The Czech Republic and Poland are countries that are in the absolute vanguard when it comes to supporting Ukraine, both at humanitarian and military levels,” President Duda said.

More background: Thursday’s announcement comes after NATO allies agreed earlier this year to send modern Western battle tanks to Ukraine.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced his country would provide 14 Leopard 2 tanks in January, bowing to intensifying international pressure – led by the United States, Poland and a bloc of other European nations, which called on Berlin to step up its military support and commit to sending their sought-after vehicles.

The announcement was matched by the US, with President Joe Biden saying that he would provide 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, reversing the administration’s longstanding resistance to requests from Kyiv for the highly sophisticated but maintenance-heavy vehicles.

Since the decision on the tanks, top Ukrainian officials have escalated their public lobbying campaign for US-made F-16 fighter jets, arguing they need them urgently to defend against Russian missile and drone attacks.

But that push has been met with skepticism by US and allied officials who say the jets would be impractical, both because they require considerable training and because Russia has extensive anti-aircraft systems that could easily shoot them down.

CNN’s Natasha Bertrand and Alex Marquardt contributed reporting to this post.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Wednesday, reiterated his stance on the Ukraine war to Russian state-run media RIA, saying that Damascus recognizes the territories claimed by Russia in Ukraine.

“I say that these are Russian territories, and even if the war had not happened, these are historically Russian territories,” Assad told RIA.

Some background: Ukraine and Syria cut diplomatic ties last summer. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the severing of ties with Assad’s government after Damascus recognized the independence of the two Russian-backed separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, located in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. 

Syria was the first country, after its close ally Russia, to recognize the independence of the breakaway regions and state its intention to build diplomatic relations with them last month.

In September 2022, Russia also declared the annexation of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions — parts of which are occupied by Russia troops — in defiance of international law after so-called referendums in the regions that were universally dismissed as “shams” by Ukraine and Western nations.

Russia began a military operation in Syria to prop up the Assad regime six years before its invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has perpetrated a range of war crimes during its war in Ukraine, according to a United Nations commission.

The country has “committed a wide range of violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law” in Ukraine, according to a report from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine released on Thursday.

The report claims that the war crimes carried out by the Russians included “attacks on civilians and energy-related infrastructure, willful killings, unlawful confinement, torture, rape and other sexual violence, as well as unlawful transfers and deportations of children.”

The report also documented a small number of violations perpetrated by the Ukrainian forces, “including likely indiscriminate attacks and two incidents qualifying as war crimes, where Russian prisoners of war were shot, wounded and tortured,” according to a UN statement.

Some more background: This week, the International Criminal Court said it is planning to open two war crimes cases tied to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and issue arrest warrants against “several people,” according to The New York Times and Reuters, citing current and former officials with knowledge of the decision who were not authorized to speak publicly.

In February, the US government said it had determined that Russia has committed crimes against humanity.

Back in March 2022, the US government declared that members of the Russian armed forces had committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of hitting Russia with a “sanctions war,” which he blamed for the country’s decline in GDP. 

“It was 4.7% (GDP drop) for well-known reasons, as you know — the sanctions war, the unprecedented challenges from the global economy and in the system of international relations,” Putin said. “These problems, as you know, were not created by us.” 

He made the comments at an annual congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs — his first address to the business community since the start of the war in Ukraine

Russia was shifting its economy toward countries that had not introduced sanctions, he added, urging business leaders to help build a new Russian economy and thanking them for their efforts to help the Russian state.

“Russian entrepreneurs always have — in the pre-Revolutionary era, in the last decade — played a big constructive role in Russia, undertaking great responsibilities in developing new territories, social protection, and charity. And (they) have always been rightly proud of this. They have been the pride of our country,” Putin said. 

Russia now has more opportunities than before Western sanctions were introduced, President Vladimir Putin said at the annual congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Thursday.

Despite some “systemic issues with logistics, finances and technologies,” huge opportunities are opening up in the country for almost any area of activity, Putin said about the Russian economy’s resilience.

He went on to say those who had remained in Russia turned out to be “smarter” compared to the citizens who had left the country. “Those who stayed here and really work turned out to be smarter, more energetic, more efficient than those who left and give advice to our ill-wishers.”

Official figures show the Russian economy contracted 2.1% last year — less than anticipated after nearly a year of tough western sanctions. However, rising expenditures and declining revenues have led to a $34 billion budget deficit, according to the finance ministry.

The fallout from Tuesday’s encounter between a Russian fighter jet and a US surveillance drone continues, with new footage showing how the warplane damaged the drone and ultimately forced the US to bring down the drone into the Black Sea.

In Ukraine, fighting in the eastern city of Bakhmut continues as Ukrainian forces show no sign of retreating from the area.

Here are the latest headlines:

US Vice President Kamala Harris Wednesday night rebuffed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent comments that US support for Ukraine is not a “vital” national interest.

“If you really understand the issues, you probably would not make statements like that,” she said during her appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

She said that understanding comes “when you’ve had the experience of meeting and understanding the significance of international rules and norms, and the importance of the United States of America standing firm and clear about the significance of sovereignty and territorial integrity, the significance of standing firm against any nation that would try to take by force another nation.”

Some background: On Monday, DeSantis, who has not yet announced a presidential bid, said in a statement responding to a questionnaire from Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that “while the US has many vital national interests … becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them.”

The explosions at the Security Service building in the Russian city of Rostov were caused by an electrical short-circuit, Vasily Golubev, governor of the Rostov region, said.

It was “determined that the cause of the fire was a short circuit in the electrical wiring inside the building. The spreading fire caused explosions of containers with fuel and lubricants,” Golubev said. “The fire spread over an area of 800 square meters (8611 square feet), resulting in the collapse of two walls.”

Golubev said that one victim had been hospitalized with moderate injuries.

Earlier, social media video showed a large fire in the southern Russian city, geolocated by CNN to the vicinity of a building used by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).

Footage released by US European Command Thursday morning of the dramatic encounter between a US drone and Russian fighter jet over the Black Sea “absolutely confirms” that there was a physical collision and dumping of fuel, a senior US official has told CNN.

However, the video does not confirm the Russian pilot’s intent.

“Don’t know,” the official said on the key question of whether the Russian pilot actually intended to strike the US drone’s propeller.

The official did say that there’s no question that the footage confirms that Russian fighter jets were engaging in “aggressive flying” and “recklessness,” echoing what other US officials have been saying consistently over the last few days.

According to two US officials familiar with the intelligence, senior officials at the Russian Ministry of Defense gave the order for the Russian fighter jets to harass the US drone over the Black Sea this week.

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

But there is no indication that high-level 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.

Some background: US officials and their Russian counterparts have been in an open dispute over what transpired that led to the downing of a US drone over the Black Sea.

CNN’s Kylie Atwood and Natasha Bertrand contributed reporting.

Britain believes that the best way to protect Moldova from a Russian attack is not by sending it military support, but by protecting Ukraine, according to Foreign Minister James Cleverly.

“We strongly believe that one of the best ways of protecting Moldova from physical attack is helping the Ukrainians defend themselves against Russian aggression,” Cleverly said Thursday at a press conference during an official state visit to Moldova.

“Few societies understand the underhand tactics of Russian malign activity more than Moldova and Georgia,” said Cleverly, adding that “the UK will not stand idly by while Moscow blatantly undermines their democracy, sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

The visit is part of the United Kingdom’s plan to announce additional financial support for Moldova and Georgia.

Moldova is set to receive more than $12 million (£10 million) in “funding for economic and governance reforms, including in the energy sector.”

“The new pledge for Moldova comes on top of the £12 million (over 14 million dollars) already contributing to critical anti-corruption and transparency work in the country,” a UK government statement said Thursday.

Cleverly will also announce a more than $600,000 (£500,000) contribution “aimed at creating an environment for free and fair elections in 2024, protecting them from external interference.”

“The UK is ramping up its financial support to Moldova and Georgia, as they continue to suffer from the destabilising impact of Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine,” the statement said. 

Social media video shows a large fire in the southern Russian city of Rostov on Don, geolocated by CNN to the vicinity of a building used by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).

The video shows thick plumes of black smoke rising from the area.

It is unclear what caused the blaze, and Russian authorities have not yet issued any comment on the fire.

Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that “a building with garages and a warehouse is on fire near the Border Guard of the Federal Security Service of Russia in the Rostov Region.”

“People were evacuated,” adds the report, citing a source from the emergency services.

The agency did not comment on the cause of the fire. 

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the combative boss of Russia’s Wagner private military group, relishes his role as an anti-establishment maverick, but signs are growing that the Moscow establishment now has him pinned down and gasping for breath.

Prigozhin placed a bet on his mercenaries raising the Russian flag in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, albeit at a considerable cost to the ranks of his force and probably to his own fortune.

He spent heavily on recruiting as many as 40,000 prisoners to throw into the fight, but after months of grinding battle and staggering losses he is struggling to replenish Wagner’s ranks, all the while accusing Russia’s Ministry of Defense of trying to strangle his force.

Many analysts think his suspicions are well-founded – that Russia’s military establishment is using the Bakhmut “meat-grinder” to cut him down to size or eliminate him as a political force altogether.

Read the full analysis here.

The Kremlin has said a decision on whether to retrieve the downed US Reaper drone from the Black Sea will come from Russia’s Ministry of Defense. 

Peskov said he did not know what the ministry has decided to do.

A Russian fighter jet forced a US Air Force drone into the Black Sea on Tuesday, according to the US military.

Moscow and Washington have been in contact through military and diplomatic channels following the incident.

The leader of the self-declared and pro-Russian Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, says that the situation in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut remains “complicated” and that Ukrainian forces show no sign of leaving.

Pushilin was quoted Thursday by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti as saying that “the situation in Artemivsk [the Russian name for Bakhmut] remains complicated, Kyiv is not going to withdraw its troops.”

Pushilin said that the only road to Bakhmut for Ukrainian forces is “now under even more significant fire control of the Wagner Group. Because of this, it is extremely difficult for the enemy to deliver ammunition, food, and reinforcements.”

Irina Rybakova, a press officer of Ukraine’s 93rd separate mechanized brigade, told Ukrainian television Thursday that “for two weeks now there has been a difficult situation with the roads [into Bakhmut], which complicates logistics.”

“The center of Bakhmut is controlled by the Ukrainian forces. Russian artillery is constantly working on our section of the front,” said Rybakova. “They are now focused on the road.”

Forces from Russia’s Wagner private military group have made very limited gains in the last week in and around Bakhmut.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin Wednesday spoke of ammunition shortages and heavy fighting around the city, and claimed that his fighters had taken a very small settlement 8 kilometers (5 miles) northwest of the city.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that “manpower, artillery, and equipment losses in fights for Bakhmut will likely constrain Wagner’s ability to complete a close encirclement of Bakhmut or gain substantial territory in battles for urban areas.”

“It seems that the Wagner offensive itself will not be sufficient to seize Bakhmut,” added the ISW.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has warned that it is crucial to urgently provide Ukraine with fresh ammunition to counter Russia’s invasion.

“It is very important that we quickly supply Ukraine with the necessary ammunition and do so quickly,” Scholz told lawmakers at Germany’s lower house of parliament on Thursday, promising action at a European Union summit next week.

“At the European Council, we will decide on further measures together with our EU partners to achieve an even better, continuous supply,” he said, adding that ”we are prepared to open our procurement approaches with other countries as well.”

Scholz said that over the last 12 months Germany has supported Ukraine with nearly $15 billion to help fend off Russia’s invasion, which is ”a considerable sum – but it is appropriate for our country,” he said.

”And then there is Germany’s participation in the comprehensive European Union support for Ukraine – for example in the form of direct budget aid – which is 18 billion euros (more than $19 billion) this year alone,” said Scholz.

Europe’s sanctions package ”continues to make it harder for Russia to pursue their war of aggression – and we will keep up the sanction pressure,” said Scholz, adding that ”we will be ensuring together that third party countries do not find loopholes in these sanctions.”

Scholz said that the 27 European leaders are due to discuss issues such as competitiveness and energy, as well as the war in Ukraine, in Brussels next Thursday and Friday.

The US military’s European Command has released footage of the Tuesday encounter between a US surveillance drone and a Russian fighter jet as it played out over the Black Sea.

The newly declassified video depicts critical moments in the mid-air encounter, which the Pentagon said lasted 30-40 minutes.  

The video shows the camera of the MQ-9 Reaper drone pointed backward toward its tail and the drone’s propeller, which is mounted on the rear, spinning.

Then, a Russian Sukhoi SU-27 fighter jet is shown approaching. As it draws closer, the Russian fighter dumps fuel as it intercepts the US drone.

In another portion of the footage, the Russian jet makes another pass. As it approaches, it again dumps fuel.

The video from the drone is then disrupted as the Russian fighter jet collides with the MQ-9 Reaper, damaging the propeller and ultimately forcing the US to bring down the drone in the Black Sea. Russia has denied that a collision occurred. 

When the camera comes back online in the footage, the view is again pointed backward, and the propeller is shown damaged from the collision.

With the propeller damaged, the drone operators effectively flew the aircraft as a glider as it descended over the Black Sea, bringing it down in international waters southwest of Crimea.

On its way down, two US officials told CNN the operators remotely wiped the drone’s sensitive software, mitigating the risk of secret materials falling into enemy hands before it crashed into the water.

On Wednesday, National Security Council communications coordinator John Kirby told “CNN This Morning” that the drone had not been recovered, and that he was “not sure” the US would be able to recover it. 

Moscow had made clear it would attempt to retrieve the wreckage of the drone, and two officials told CNN Wednesday that Russia had reached the MQ-9 crash site in the Black Sea.

Kirby would not confirm the reported development, but said the US had “made it impossible for them to be able to glean anything of intelligence value off the remnants of that drone, whatever remnants there might be on the surface of the water.”

Watch the video here:

Russian police have detained Kremlin critic and former mayor of the city of Yekaterinburg, Yevgeny Roizman, his wife said Thursday.

Roizman was accused of reposting a comment by imprisoned opposition leader Alexey Navalny on the Russian social media network Vkontakte, said Yulia Kruteyeva.

Kruteyeva added that Roizman does not have an account on VKontakte, and the repost was allegedly made in a group named after him which “he has nothing to do with.”

Roizman’s lawyer Vladislav Idamzhapov confirmed to state news agency TASS that Roizman is accused of having made a repost on the VKontakte social network.

Idamzhapov added that Roizman has “never had a personal page on VKontakte, he never used this social network.“

The case will be considered in court Thursday, the lawyer said.

“On this unfounded accusation, [Roizman] faces an arrest for either 10 or 15 days,” Idamzhapov told TASS.

One of the few remaining politicians critical of Putin’s war who has not been jailed or forced out of Russia, Roizman was previously detained in August on allegations of “discrediting” the Russian army.

The court banned him from using the phone and Internet as well as from visiting public places.

Roizman came to prominence as a mayor of Yekaterinburg from 2013-18. His popularity and his opposition views resulted in authorities abolishing direct mayoral elections in Yekaterinburg in 2018.

Despite the loss of public office, Roizman has continued to be one of the most influential voices in Russian opposition and was a close friend of Navalny. 

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.

“A year ago, Russia deliberately and brutally dropped a powerful bomb on the Drama Theater in Mariupol downtown. Next to the building was the inscription ‘Children,’ which was impossible to overlook. Hundreds of people were hiding from the shelling there,” Zelensky said on the anniversary of the attack.

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.

Read more here.

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.

Here’s everything to know to get up to speed:

Here are the other key headlines from the war:

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.

“Our aircraft, our drones have been harassed by Russian pilots almost consistently. And to say that that consistent pattern is the — consequence of pilots doing this, Russian pilots doing this on their own volition, that just didn’t ring true,” Price told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Wednesday night. “The fact that we’ve seen a pattern on the part of the forces of the Russian Federation suggests to us at least there’s at least some senior level approval of this kind of activity.”

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.

“Whatever’s left of that that’s floating will probably be flight control surfaces, that kind of thing,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “Probably nothing of real intrinsic value to them in terms of re-engineering or anything like that. We’re not overly concerned about whatever they might get their hands on.”
He added: “It’s our property and they have no business recovering anything.”

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

“I don’t know if we will be able to get it or not, but we need to do it… And we will definitely look into it,” Nikolai Patrushev said on Russian state TV Rossiya 1.

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. 

“They completely ignore the fact that after the start of a special military operation, our military declared the relevant areas of the Black Sea, adjacent in certain places, as areas with a limited status for the use of any aircraft,” Lavrov said in an interview with Russian state TV Rossiya-1.

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.

“It is noted that the US flights of strategic unmanned aerial vehicles off the coast of Crimea are provocative in nature, which creates preconditions for the escalation of the situation in the Black Sea area,” the readout said.

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 soldiers of the 93rd Brigade, along with other defenders, are holding back the enemy’s fierce pressure there. Due to their work, enemy tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, MLRS and ammunition depots are blown up,” Syrskyi said in a Telegram post. 

“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. 

“One of them caught fire — rescuers have already extinguished the fire. A shop, a cultural center and a dormitory were damaged,” the regional administration said. 

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley said the United States does not know if the Russian fighter jet intentionally hit the American drone over the Black Sea.

This is something officials are looking into, he said at a news conference Wednesday, adding that he has a call scheduled with his Russian counterpart to discuss that point, among other things.

As for the physical contact between the jet and drone “that remains to be seen.”

However, Milley said the US has “absolute evidence of the contact and the intercept.”

US officials have said two Russian jets dumped fuel on the US MQ-9 drone Tuesday in international airspace. Then, one jet “struck our MQ-9 aircraft, resulting in a crash,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

Russia has denied that it had direct contact with the drone.

“There’s no question that that part of it’s intentional,” Milley said, referring to the jets dumping fuel on the drone. “The actual physical contact of the aircraft, that I’m not so sure.”