February 3, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

The death toll from Russian missile strikes on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on Thursday has risen to four, with 18 others injured, Ukrainian officials said Friday.

On Thursday, two S-300 missiles were fired at the center of the city in the Donetsk region, landing about a minute apart and less than a hundred meters from a CNN team.

Four others were killed in a Russian missile attack Wednesday in the same area — an entirely residential zone with shops, a hospital and a clinic.

Rescue and recovery operations have now been completed, Ukraine's Emergency Service said Friday.

Russia's response: Moscow's Defense Ministry said the strikes against Kramatorsk had destroyed a long-range HIMARS artillery system. But it is inconceivable the Ukrainians would keep such a high-value weapon in such a public place given its size; they have gone to great lengths to disguise their locations, even building replicas.

Two people were killed and nine others injured in Russian attacks on Ukraine's southern Kherson region over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian officials said Friday.

The Kherson regional military administration said a 5-year-old boy was wounded in the strikes and taken to hospital.

It did not say where the casualties had occurred but added that Russian forces had attacked civilian settlements in the region some 65 times over the past 24 hours.

Russia is bringing its war against Ukraine closer to the industrial cities of Donetsk with a series of missile strikes against densely populated areas.

On Thursday, two S-300 missiles were fired at the center of the city of Kramatorsk, landing about a minute apart and less than a hundred meters from a CNN team.

An earlier Iskander missile strike had killed four people and hospitalized several more in the same area — an entirely residential zone with shops, a hospital and a clinic. One of those killed was a well-respected school principal, Hanna Valeriivna, weeks before her 48th birthday.

Rescue crews still at the scene had no warning of Thursday’s attack. CNN witnessed the second missile’s last moments in flight before a large fire erupted and smoke billowed into the air.

There were no further fatalities, though at least five civilians were injured. Some people ran in panic from the scene; others seemed fatalistic. “Of course, we are frightened,” said Natalia, a middle-aged woman cowering in a doorway. “But what option do we have?”

Read the full story:

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When Antony Blinken touches down in Beijing in the coming days for the first visit to China by a US secretary of state since 2018, he will be cutting a stark contrast to the scene in the Chinese capital one year earlier.

Then, Chinese leader Xi Jinping welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the opening of the Beijing Olympics — meeting for talks and dinner in Putin’s honor, and declaring a “no limits” partnership between the two neighbors.

Weeks later, as Russian tanks rolled across the border into Ukraine starting an invasion that would devastate the country and cause a humanitarian crisis, Chinese leaders did not shrink from that declaration.

Though Beijing claimed impartiality in the conflict and no advance knowledge of Russia’s intent, it also refused to condemn Moscow. Instead, it parroted Kremlin lines blaming NATO for provoking the conflict — further fracturing relationships with both Europe and the US.

A year on, the contrast of Blinken’s visit is no coincidence. Economically drained by its now-abandoned zero-Covid strategy, Beijing has been softening its tone on foreign affairs and upping its diplomacy with Western governments, analysts say, in a bid to win back lost ground and stabilize its relations.

In meetings with Blinken during his expected early February trip — as well as European leaders who’ve signaled they may visit in the coming months — Chinese counterparts are likely to emphasize their long-standing calls for a peaceful resolution and play up what they claim is China’s “objective and impartial position” on the conflict, analysts say.

But while the optics may be different from this time last year, China’s support for Russia — when measured by its annual trade, diplomatic engagements and schedule of joint military exercises — tells a different story.

Read the full analysis here.

A former senior Russian army officer says he saw his comrades torturing prisoners of war in Ukraine, in a rare eyewitness account from within Moscow’s ranks to address widespread allegations of Russian war crimes.

Speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday, former Lt. Konstantin Yefremov said he witnessed a deputy commander torturing prisoners of war and threatening them with sexual violence, adding that no one dared to speak out against the officer for fear he would attack them too.

“Besides, he was drunk nonstop, and he was driving around the nearby villages where there were other prisoners of war. As far as I know, there were about 20 others, Ukrainian prisoners of war,” he said.

Yefremov is the most senior Russian officer to speak openly about what he saw in Ukraine.

He is now hoping the United States will grant him asylum after he fled Russia last month following his dismissal from the military for refusing to return to Ukraine.

Read the full story here.

The CIA assesses that the next six months will be “absolutely crucial” in determining the final outcome of the war in Ukraine, agency Director Bill Burns said Thursday. 

The Russian leader, Burns said, is “betting that he can make time work for him.” Putin believes that he can “grind down” Ukraine, while political fatigue will grip Europe and the United States will become distracted, Burns said.

But Burns said he told one of his Russian counterparts, Sergey Naryshkin, in November that “that Russian calculation is as deeply flawed as the original decision to go to war last Feb. 24 was.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he reached "important mutual understandings" with the president of the European Commission regarding Ukraine’s bid for accession into the European Union.

Zelensky said he had productive talks with the commission leader, Ursula von der Leyen, and members of the College of the European Commission Thursday. 

The talks showed that all parties understood "the fact that Ukraine needs constant and full support in defense against Russia," the Ukrainian president said in his evening address Thursday.

Zelensky thanked von der Leyen and her colleagues in the EU for the military, financial and social support of Ukraine "on the path of integration."

Kyiv will host the 24th EU-Ukraine summit Friday. European leaders plan to discuss financial and military support for the Ukrainian resistance against Russian aggression.

More background: The European Commission is the EU's executive arm, made up of one leader from each member state, which is responsible for proposing and enforcing legislation.

Leaders of the 27 EU member states have given Ukraine candidate status, starting the process for formally considering granting the country membership.

It is still likely to be years before Ukraine is able to join the EU. The process is lengthy and requires agreement from all the member states at almost every stage. This means that there are multiple opportunities for member states to use their veto as a political bargaining chip. The average time it takes to join the EU is just under five years, according to the think tank UK in a Changing Europe. However, some member states in eastern Europe have had to wait as long as 10 years. 

Zelensky has said his government is working on new reforms that will make Ukraine “more human, transparent and effective” as he prepares for further talks on the country’s possible addition to the bloc. That includes a push to tackle corruption.

A spokesperson for the commission said last month that anti-corruption measures are “an important dimension of the EU accession process."

CNN's Luke McGee contributed reporting to this post.

The US is expected to include longer-range missiles in a new Ukraine security package worth approximately $2.2 billion, according to a senior administration official and multiple US officials.

The package will include a commitment to provide Ukraine with the Ground-launched Small Diameter Bomb, a guided missile with a range of 90 miles (145 kilometers), two officials said.

Though the missiles will effectively double the range of Ukrainian weaponry, the package won’t include the long sought-after ATACMS missile with a range in excess of 200 miles. The US has constantly rebuffed Ukraine’s requests for that system over concerns they may be used to hit targets deep inside Russia.

This is the first security package since the US committed to providing Ukraine with advanced M-1 Abrams tanks in January — a decision made in concert with European countries providing German-made Leopard 2 tanks.   

The package, which could be announced as early as Friday, will be split between $500 million in weapons and equipment pulled directly from US inventories and approximately $1.7 billion in supplies purchased from military contractors, known as the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI).

Details of the package were first reported by Reuters.

On Tuesday, White House spokesperson Olivia Dalton said there would be another announcement of security assistance to Ukraine “soon” without providing further details.

Some background: The Ground-launched Small Diameter Bomb, which is fired from a HIMARS rocket launcher, has an effective range of some 90 miles, according to Saab, the company that developed the weapon in conjunction with Boeing.

That’s more than twice the range of the GMLRS munitions that Ukraine currently launches from the HIMARS rocket launchers. The long-range missile then unfolds small wings and uses a rocket engine to fly toward its target. 

But the new weapon will not arrive in Ukraine immediately, since it will not come directly out of US inventories. Instead, the US will contract with the weapons manufacturers to provide the long-range missile to Ukraine, a process which could take weeks or months.

The package also includes ammunition for artillery and HIMARS, as well as support systems and equipment for the Patriot missile system, one official said. Ukrainian forces have not completed training on the Patriot system at Fort Sill, Oklahoma — but the US is making sure the logistics and maintenance are in place well before the first Patriot battery is operational in Ukraine, the official said.

Within the last month, the US has announced three of the largest aid packages to Ukraine in a sign of ongoing support as the war nears its one-year mark. 

Russian forces are preparing for a "covert mobilization" in the eastern Donetsk region, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Thursday on its official Facebook page. 

Russian forces continue "active reconnaissance and preparation for an offensive in several directions,” it said, adding that "offensive operations" continue toward Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Novopavliv.

For context: Ukrainian officials have repeatedly warned that Russia planned on using its claimed annexations as a pretext to draft Ukrainians in occupied areas. In October, the military said Russian forces were carrying out “door-to-door” checks in occupied areas, looking for young men of conscription age.