January 19, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

The UN nuclear watchdog finalized the deployment of permanent missions to Ukrainian power plants — including the plants in Rivne, Chornobyl, and south Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian prime minister following his meeting with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Wednesday. 

The IAEA mission at Khmelnytsky nuclear power plant will also be functioning soon, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a news conference, with all the mission's work continuing during wartime and afterward to restore any damage. 

The IAEA is expanding its presence in Ukraine, Director General Rafael Grossi said.

Remember: Zaporizhzhia, with six reactors, is the largest nuclear power station in Europe. The area, and the nuclear complex, has been under Russian control since the beginning of the war. Grossi and other nuclear experts have been concerned about the threat of a nuclear accident amid shelling around the plant.

Shmyhal said Ukraine has asked that the control of the Zaporizhzhia facility be returned to Ukrainian authorities and for a "complete withdrawal" of Russian troops and Rosatom personnel from the plant. Grossi assured Ukraine the IAEA would never recognize Russia as the owner of the Zaporizhzhia plant, according to Shmyhal.

The prime minister added that Ukraine will "continue to insist on limiting Russia's rights and privileges in the IAEA and terminating cooperation with Russia in the nuclear sphere."

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday said he believed that Turkey would finalize the process for Nordic countries Finland and Sweden to join the US-led military alliance.

This would be the “fastest accession process in NATO’s modern history,” he noted. “Normally, accession to NATO takes years. It’s less than a year since Finland and Sweden applied.”

Remember: NATO decisions are made by consensus, which means all 30 alliance member states must approve the two nations joining. Turkey is the only member that has voiced opposition to their membership, on the grounds of terror concerns. 

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in video remarks to the forum Wednesday again reiterated his desire for Ukraine to join NATO, saying the alliance "is the best security guarantee for us, for our country, for our kids."

NATO’s Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană on Wednesday warned the alliance must be prepared “for the long haul” with regards to Russia's war on Ukraine.

Addressing defense chiefs at a NATO military committee meeting in Brussels, Geoană said allies should invest more in defense, ramp up their capacity to manufacture weapons and ammunition and “prepare for potential future wars.”

Echoing a warning issued previously by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Geoană said "underestimating Russia is dangerous.” He said Russian President Vladimir Putin had already mobilized more than 200,000 additional troops. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that the goal of what he calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine is to “end the war” in the eastern Donbas region, according to state news agency RIA Novosti.

Speaking at a meeting with World War II veterans and survivors of the siege of Leningrad, Putin reportedly said that effectively “full-scale hostilities in Donbas have not stopped since 2014 — with the use of heavy equipment, artillery, tanks and aircraft.”

In late December, Putin used the word “war” to refer to the conflict in Ukraine, the first known time he has publicly deviated from his carefully crafted description of Moscow’s invasion as a “special military operation.”

More on Donbas: The industrial region blankets much of eastern Ukraine and has been the front line of the country’s conflict with Moscow since 2014. The Donbas' longstanding industrial pull has attracted people from across Eastern Europe over the past century, and it has had strong social and economic ties to neighboring Russia as well as the rest of Ukraine.

Its distance from the capital Kyiv and other metropolitan centers has given rise to a vast collection of local movements, and that was the backdrop upon which pro-Russian separatists attempted to seize control following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea.

Putin’s annexation of Crimea and the occupation of parts of Donbas by Russian-backed rebels in 2014 brought to a crashing halt a period of increasing prosperity in the region.

War broke out in 2014 after Russian-backed rebels seized government buildings in towns and cities across eastern Ukraine. Intense fighting left portions of Luhansk and Donetsk in the hands of Russian-backed separatists.

CNN's Rob Picheta contributed reporting to this post.

A helicopter carrying the leadership team of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry crashed near a kindergarten and residential block in the Kyiv region on Wednesday, killing at least 14 people, including all nine people on board, according to officials.

A further 25 people were injured following the incident in the city of Brovary Wednesday, including 11 children, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Fourteen bodies were found at the crash site, including one child and all nine people who were on board the helicopter — six ministry officials and three crew members, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SES).

Ukrainian National Police confirmed that Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky, First Deputy Minister Yevheniy Yenin and State Secretary Yuriy Lubkovychis were among the dead.

The official cause for the crash has yet to be announced, and there has been no suggestion from any Ukrainian officials about Russian involvement.

When asked why the entire leadership of the Interior Ministry was traveling together, Gerashchenko replied: “I think this bloody lesson will be a clear example for us that such high politicians and ministers cannot travel altogether. But this tragedy brought the death of children which is amazingly horrible — and obviously everyone who died — every life of every Ukrainian is priceless.”

The crash has stunned the country at a critical moment in the war: Ukraine has been imploring Western allies for more weaponry as Russian strikes hit its critical infrastructure and civilian populations with abandon.

Read more here.