Our live coverage of Russia's war in Ukraine has moved here.
August 9, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news
By Kathleen Magramo, Elise Hammond, Maureen Chowdhury, Sana Noor Haq, Caolan Magee and Hannah Strange CNN
Updated 12:00 a.m. ET, August 10, 2023
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Ukraine submits report to Pentagon on cluster munition use, Kyiv official says
From CNN's Alex Marquardt
Ukraine has provided the Pentagon with a report about the use of controversial American cluster munitions in the fight with Russia, a Ukrainian official told CNN on Wednesday.
The official said the information transmitted to the defense department included both the number of rounds fired and the number of Russian targets destroyed, though the official declined to say what those figures are.
The expected report was a request by the US as part of the agreement to send artillery rounds with cluster bomblets — known as DPICMs — to Ukraine. In an interview with CNN last month, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said he was planning to submit the report to his counterpart, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
CNN has asked the Pentagon for comment.
Ukrainian officials have said they expect the DPICMs to be more effective than standard artillery rounds, particularly against large groupings of Russian troops and equipment. Last month the White House’s John Kirby said they “having an impact on Russia’s defensive formations and Russia’s defensive maneuvering.”
The US, Russia and Ukraine are not signatories to the Convention on Cluster Munitions which bans the production and use of clusters and was signed by more than 100 countries.
Zelensky reiterates call for more air defenses following deadly Zaporizhzhia attack
From CNN's Radina Gigova
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated his call for more air defenses following a Russian attack that left two people dead in the city of Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday.
"Today, Russian terrorists hit Zaporizhzhia again — an ordinary building was hit, a church and a residential building were damaged," he said in his evening address. "Our entire territory needs much more air defense systems than we have now," he added.
He said the Ukrainian military is working "step by step" to ramp up Air Force capabilities.
"I have no doubt that F-16s will be in our skies," Zelensky said, something he has asked allies to provide for the last few months.
"Tomorrow I will continue this work, trying my best to provide more protection for the sky," he added.
Ukrainian shelling in Donetsk city leaves 1 dead and several wounded, Russian-appointed official says
From CNN's Josh Pennington
One person has been killed and three people were injured after Ukrainian shelling in the eastern city of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), said Wednesday.
"A little girl has been killed as a result of a Ukrainian shell hitting a two-story house in the Petrovskyi district of Donetsk. According to initial reports, two more people were injured. [Another] person was wounded in the Kyivsky district," the Russian-appointed official said in a Telegram post.
Pushiin added that "the enemy fired 163 rounds of ammunition" which included "cluster-type artillery." CNN is not able to independently verify this claim.
Rescue operations continue, Pushilin said.
Ukrainian officials also blamed Russia of attacks on Wednesday. At least two people were killed in shelling of the city of Zaporizhzhia in southeast Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said.
Death toll from Russian attack in Zaporizhzhia revised to 2 after medics save one of the victims
From CNN's Yulia Kesaieva, Radina Gigova and Nick Paton Walsh
Medics were able to save the life of one of the three people who authorities said was killed in the Russian attack on the city of Zaporizhzhia in southeast Ukraine on Wednesday, according to Ihor Klymenko, the country's minister of internal affairs.
Klymenko said two people were killed and seven have been injured in the attack.
"Initially, there was information about three dead. Fortunately, one person was resuscitated. Police paramedics assisted the doctors at the scene," Klymenko said.
"Rescuers quickly extinguished the fire in the outbuilding. The police conducted door-to-door checks of the residential buildings. No one was found dead or injured. People who are injured were outside at the time of a strike," he said.
"An air raid alert is now in effect in Zaporizhzhia region. Do not neglect safety rules," Klymenko said.
Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky had said three people were killed in the attack.
"The rescue operation is underway. All victims will be provided with the necessary assistance. And this war crime of Russia will certainly face its sentence. And the response to Russian terrorists will be on the frontline - thanks to our heroic warriors," Zelensky said in a Telegram post.
Yurii Malashko, head of the Zaporizhzhia region military administration, said the number of those injured "may increase as windows in many apartments were smashed and glass shattered."
A church and retail outlets were some of the buildings destroyed in the attack, Malashko added.
This post has been updated to reflect the latest death toll announced by authorities.
1 killed and several wounded in Ukrainian shelling of Russia's Belgorod region, governor says
From CNN's Josh Pennington
The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) shelled Russia's western Belgorod region, leaving one person dead and several wounded, the regional governor said Wednesday.
"The village of Gorkovsky in the Graivoron Urban District was shelled by the AFU [...] One man died from shrapnel wounds. Four others were injured," the Belgorod region's governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said in a Telegram post.
The governor also said that a drone was shot down over the town of Shebekino, but there were no casualties or damage.
"The air defense system was triggered over Shebekinsky (Shebekino) urban district. An aerial target on the approach to the city was shot down. ... According to preliminary data, there are no known casualties or damage," he said.
More background: In May, a group of anti-Putin Russian nationals, who are aligned with the Ukrainian army, claimed responsibility for an attack in the Belgorod region, which borders northeastern Ukraine.
Two areas of the region were then hit by drones, according to Gladkov, causing two houses to catch fire. On May 23, drone attacks sent at least nine people to hospital, Gladkov said.
White House downplays CNN poll showing majority of Americans oppose more US aid for Ukraine
From CNN's Nikki Carvajal
The White House is downplaying a CNN poll that shows most Americans oppose Congress providing additional funding to support Ukraine in its war with Russia ahead of a reported administration request for more aid.
“We have seen throughout this war solid support from the American people, solid support from the Congress in a bipartisan and bicameral way for continuing to support Ukraine and we're going to stay focused on that,” National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters Wednesday.
Kirby said the aid is not only important to the people of Ukraine but also to European and NATO allies "given that this fighting is on the doorstep" of many of those countries.
Additionally, he said, it's a matter of “national security of the American people.”
“I think it's important to remember that if we just sit back and we let Putin win, we let him take Ukraine, where does it stop next?” Kirby said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called for continued support for Ukraine during an event in Louisville, Kentucky, on Wednesday. He pushed back on arguments from House Republicans — and some Senate Republicans — that Russian aggression in Ukraine is not an issue for the US.
“Most of the money that we spend related to Ukraine is actually spent in the US, replenishing weapons, more modern weapons. So, it's actually employing people here and improving our own military for what may lie ahead," he said.
What the poll says: Last week a CNN poll showed that overall 55% of people said the US Congress should not authorize additional funding to support Ukraine. That's compared to 45% who said Congress should authorize such funding.
About 51% said that the US has already done enough to help Ukraine while 48% said it should do more.
A poll conducted in the early days of the Russian invasion in late February 2022 found 62% of people felt the US should have been doing more.
Partisan divisions have widened since that poll, too, with most Democrats and Republicans now on opposing sides of questions on the US role in Ukraine.
CNN's Morgan Rimmer contributed reporting to this post.
New history textbooks praising the conflict in Ukraine are Russia's latest attempt to sway young minds
From CNN's Ivana Kottasová and Uliana Pavlova
The Russian Ministry of Education this week unveiled new history textbooks with sections about the "special military operation," — a term President Vladimir Putin uses to refer his war in Ukraine — the annexation of Crimea and Western sanctions.
Critics say the move is a part of a sustained effort to indoctrinate school children and stifle any independent thinking.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has always maintained that Moscow's unprovoked aggression against Ukraine is an effort to liberate the country from a "Nazi regime" and Western influence. He even went as far as suggesting there was no such thing as an independent Ukraine, insisting instead that the country has traditionally been part of Russia and that Russians and Ukrainians are "one people."
The new textbooks endorse this narrative and include maps that show occupied regions in Ukraine as being part of Russia. Photos of the books published by state media show they call Ukraine an "ultranationalist state" where all dissent is persecuted and "everything Russian is declared hostile."
Elsewhere, the authors tell students that when they look for information about Ukraine on the internet, they should remember that there is a "global industry for the production of staged videos and fake photos and videos."
Since coming to power in 2000, Putin has always emphasized the importance of education and programs for young people, pushing for reforms, according to Katerina Tertytchnaya, an associate professor of comparative politics at University College London
"This is a long-term investment policy on the part of the Kremlin, they care about the younger generations and how they see the state and how they interact with it," she said.
Read the full story here.
Senior Ukrainian official defends speed of counteroffensive progress
From CNN's Gul Tuysuz
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, defended progress made by Ukraine in its counteroffensive.
He argued that before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian army was “hysterically feared and not even imagined to be effectively fought against.”
“In order to finally debunk another myth that yesterday people were afraid to even think about, everyone needs to be patient and closely monitor the high-quality work of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They will in any case achieve a mandatory and fair conclusion. Russia will cease to exist as a military threat after the war in Ukraine. At least for Ukraine and Europe. Meanwhile... offensive operations continue,” he tweeted.
In a video released on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the counteroffensive hasn't been easy and is "happening probably slower" than some had hoped.
His remarks came after CNN reported that Western officials describe increasingly “sobering” assessments about Ukrainian forces’ ability to retake significant territory as they struggle to break through Russia’s multi-layered defensive lines, according to senior US and Western officials briefed on the latest intelligence.
See Podolyak's full tweet:
