November 23, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, urging the group to support the Ukrainian peace formula following a wave of Russian missile strikes that the president dubbed “the Russian formula of terror.”

“I emphasize yet again: it is high time to support the Ukrainian formula of peace. There should be no room for terror in the world,” Zelensky said. 

Zelensky emphasized the need for “modern and effective air and missile defense systems” after detailing the series of Russian air strikes that destroyed critical facilities, including energy infrastructure, residential housing, and a hospital, where a newborn baby in the hospital’s maternity ward was killed. 

This large-scale assault on energy infrastructure also led to widespread energy blackouts in Ukraine and neighboring Moldova, an act Zelensky said was “analogous to using weapons of mass destruction.”

“When the temperature outside drops below zero and tens of millions of people are left without electricity, heat and water as a result of Russian missiles hitting energy facilities, that is an obvious crime against humanity,” Zelensky stated. 

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield was one of several representatives to reiterate their support for Ukraine, with emphasis on condemning Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. 

“Putin’s motive could not be more clear and more cold-blooded. He is clearly — clearly —weaponizing winter to inflict immense suffering on the Ukrainian people. He has decided that if he can’t seize Ukraine by force, he will try to freeze the country into submission,” Greenfield noted.

Negotiations with Kyiv and Moscow on the establishment of a safety zone around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant continue — but in the meantime the director of the UN nuclear watchdog is warning about potential consequences.

“We cannot continue counting on good luck to avoid a nuclear accident,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi told CNN on Wednesday.

Grossi said negotiations are “moving forward” but “this is an active combat zone, therefore getting to agreed parameters for this is not such an easy thing to do.”

The IAEA director said he met with a Russian delegation in Turkey earlier Wednesday and spoke with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Tuesday.

“I am having consultations with both. I would not agree with the assessment that we are not making any progress, I think we are,” Grossi said. “Of course, we are talking about something which is very difficult. This is war. This is real war and the protection zone that I am proposing is precisely on the front line, on the line were both adversaries are in contact.”

“But we are moving forward I believe, and I hope that episodes as traumatic as the ones this past weekend may paradoxically help us move forward, in the sense that people need to realize that we cannot continue counting on good luck to avoid a nuclear accident,” he said. 

When asked who is “playing with fire,” referencing Grossi’s own remarks from Sunday following powerful explosions that rocked the nuclear power plant Saturday and Sunday, Grossi said “it is very difficult for us to identify from inside the plant who is doing that,” adding “by the way, our main goal is to get this to stop, not to get into a game of attribution.” 

Later on Wednesday, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant “once again lost access to external electricity” and was instead relying on its emergency diesel generators for the power it needs for reactor cooling and other essential functions, IAEA said in a statement. 

The Biden administration on Wednesday condemned Russian strikes on power generating infrastructure across Ukraine. 

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement that Russia “is increasingly turning to horrific attacks against the Ukrainian people with punishing strikes damaging energy grid infrastructure, and deliberately doing so as winter approaches.”

Watson said that the strikes “do not appear aimed at any military purpose,” but “instead further the goal of the Putin regime to increase the suffering and death” of Ukrainians. 

The US also warned that the actions show “Russia is willing to increase the risk of a nuclear safety incident that could not only further harm Ukraine, but affect the entire region as well.” 

Watson’s statement touted an additional $400 million security assistance package for Ukraine announced earlier Wednesday. 

CNN’s Yulia Keseiva reported moments ago that power has been restored to almost 90% of the Ukrainian city of Lviv, officials said, following the Russian air strikes that knocked out power to much of the country.

Power has been restored to almost 90% of the Ukrainian city of Lviv, officials said Wednesday, following another barrage of Russian strikes which knocked out electricity throughout much of the country. 

In a telegram statement, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said that scheduled blackouts, which have become regular during the invasion, will continue due to country’s war damaged energy infrastructure, “so some houses may be without electricity.” Water and heating have also been restored and all city services are working, he added.

The situation in Odesa is similar with water and heat restored, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

“Power supply — the region is supplied, consumers are being connected,” he said. Electricity in the Zaporizhzhia region has also been restored.

According to the Ternopil region military administration, the power system there is “being stabilized” with customers “gradually being connected to the grid.”

About one third of the region has electricity with critical infrastructure facilities being connected to the power supply first.

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant lost access to external electricity again on Wednesday and is relying on emergency diesel generators, the International Atomic Energy Agency said, warning of the “increasingly precarious and challenging nuclear safety and security situation” at the plant. 

The team of IAEA experts present at the power plant said it lost off-site power at 3:30 p.m. local time Wednesday when it was fully disconnected from the grid, “following reports of widespread military action targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure,” IAEA said in a statement.

“Initially all the site’s 20 diesel generators started operating automatically, and now eight of them are supplying the site with back-up electricity needed for all safety related equipment. The other 12 diesel generators are in stand-by mode,” IAEA said. 

“The IAEA team also reported that the plant’s operating personnel were performing all activities according to procedures for a loss of off-site power event and that the six reactors were in a safe and stable state,” IAEA said. “The two reactors that have been in a hot shutdown mode to provide the plant and the nearby town of Enerhodar with steam and heating will be prepared for cooling down. The four others remain in cold shutdown,” it added.

Some context: The Zaporizhzhia plant has been disconnected from the national grid several times during the fighting in Ukraine, “most recently in early November when it took two days to restore external power supplies,” the agency said.

IAEA also said it has received information from Ukraine’s national operator Energoatom that “due to a decrease in the frequency in the power system of Ukraine” all power units at two other plants — the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant and the Khmelnytskyy Nuclear Power Plants — were automatically disconnected as part of emergency protection.

“The need for secure off-site power supply from the grid for all nuclear sites is one of the seven indispensable pillars for ensuring nuclear safety and security during an armed conflict,” IAEA said. 

At least seven people were killed and 36 were wounded following a fresh wave of Russian strikes across Ukraine, according to officials. 

Four died in the region of Kyiv, the head of Kyiv region military administration, Oleksii Kuleba, said in a Telegram statement. In the city of Kyiv, three people were killed Wednesday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on Telegram. 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday that Germany’s energy security for this winter season is “guaranteed” amid Europe’s energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine. 

“It is guaranteed because the German government took a courageous turn in direction and because households and companies across the country save energy,” Scholz told German lower house of parliament Bundestag in Berlin. 

“Doing nothing would come at a very high price. That’s why we are doing away with the failings of an energy and trade policy that has led us into one-sided dependence on Russia and China in particular,” he added. 

Scholz also said that he shares the goal with French President Emmanuel Macron of a geopolitical Europe that is “significantly more capable of acting.”

The UN Security Council will hold an urgent meeting Wednesday on Russia’s latest strikes across Ukraine on the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 

The meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET.

Europe’s largest cities will donate power generators and transformers to Ukraine as part of a joint campaign. It comes as temperatures begin to drop and Russia continues to attack Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

The “Generators of Hope” initiative, launched Wednesday by European Parliament President Roberta Metsola and Dario Nardella, Mayor of Florence and president of Eurocities, a network of more than 200 large European cities, is aimed at providing energy to essential facilities in the country, including hospitals, schools, water supply stations, relief centers, shelters and phone masts. 

“The European Parliament and the EU have shown remarkable solidarity with Ukraine on the humanitarian, military and financial front. Now they need practical support to get through the winter,” Metsola said at a press conference Wednesday. “I call on all cities, towns and regions across Europe to join the Generators of Hope campaign.”

“As Mayors, my colleagues and I know the importance of local services,” Nardella said. “By launching this direct call to action for cities to get together and help Ukraine by donating generators and transformers, we can help ensure that Ukraine’s cities will be able to manage their day to day lives in the best way possible.”

Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who joined the launch virtually, said Ukraine is “proud that Europeans and their institutions” are “standing by Ukraine in responding to Russia’s terrorist tactics against Ukrainian civilians.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is requesting an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council following the latest Russian strikes on power-generating infrastructure across Ukraine.

“I have instructed our Ambassador to the UN to request an urgent meeting of UNSC following today’s Russian strikes. Murder of civilians, ruining of civilian infrastructure are acts of terror. Ukraine keeps demanding a resolute response of international community to these crimes,” he said on Twitter.

At least four people were killed in Kyiv in Wednesday’s strikes, according to officials. 

Zelensky thanked members of the European Parliament for its acknowledgment of Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism” in a statement following the strikes. He said Russia has “proved to the whole world” that it deserves the classification by “launching 67 missiles at our infrastructure, at our energy industry, at ordinary people.” 

He reassured Ukrainians that power engineers, rescuers and local authorities are hard at work in impacted areas. 

“We will restore all this. We will go through all this, because we are an unbreakable people,” Zelensky said.

Kyiv residents who lost power in their homes told CNN they are planning to stay with friends or family tonight as temperatures drop below freezing.

Sofia, 24, a sales manager at a cafe in the city center, said she carries a flashlight, knife and insulated flask with her “at all times” in case of a missile attack.

“My friend in the Osokorky district has power, so I will either go to his place for the night or to my other friend in the Borshchahivka district,” she said.

Tamara, 53, works at a meat market in Lukianivka. She described sheltering in the district’s metro station after air raid sirens sounded on Wednesday and then getting a message to say the power had been knocked out at her house.

“I’m going to stay with my daughter for the night on the east bank of Dnipro [River],” she said. “I saw in the news today that Europe recognized Russia as a terrorist country. This should have been done a long time ago! I hope for them to experience what they do to us! They are inhumane.”

Earlier Wednesday, the European Union Parliament voted in favor to recognize Russia as “a state sponsor of terrorism” in what has been considered a symbolic move.   

The people CNN spoke to declined to give their last names.

At least four people were killed and 34 injured after a Russian missile strike in the Kyiv region, the head of the region’s military administration, Oleksii Kuleba, said in an update.

Five of the injured are children, he said.

Power supply at the sites of the strikes will be repaired in the “coming hours,” he added, urging people not to panic. 

“All services and emergency teams are working at the sites of the strikes. Power engineers have already started to restore power supply. Repair teams are working,” he said. 

All critical infrastructure — including hospitals — are operating on generators, and temporary shelters have been established.

The large-scale Russian missile assault on Ukrainian energy infrastructure Wednesday left most power plants de-energized and the vast majority of people without power, Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy said in a statement on Facebook.

“Today’s missile attack led to temporary de-energization of all nuclear power plants, and most thermal and hydroelectric power plants,” it said. “Power transmission facilities were also damaged. As a result, the vast majority of electricity consumers across the country were de-energized. There are emergency outages. The lack of electricity may affect the availability of heat and water supply.”

Engineers were working to restore the power supply “as soon as possible” but the scale of the damage meant it “will take time,” the ministry said.

The European Union Parliament website has been hit by a “sophisticated cyberattack,” the parliament’s President Roberta Metsola said Wednesday.  

It came after the parliament earlier Wednesday voted in favor to recognize Russia as “a state sponsor of terrorism,” in what has been considered a symbolic move.   

“Our IT experts are pushing back against it & protecting our systems. This, after we proclaimed Russia as a State-sponsor of terrorism. My response: #SlavaUkraini,” Metsola said in a tweet.  

The EU parliament website is currently down and is “impacted from outside,” Jaume Duch, an EU parliament spokesperson, said in a tweet.  

“This traffic is related to a DDOS attack (Distributed Denial of Service) event,” he added.  

It is not clear who is behind the cyberattack.  

Russia launched 70 missiles at Ukraine on Wednesday in its latest “large-scale attack on crucial infrastructure facilities,” the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Telegram.

Fifty-one of the 70 missiles were intercepted, as well as five attack drones, the military’s statement read. 

The missiles were launched from two small missile-carrying ships in — and aircraft over — the Black Sea; from TU-95MS missile carriers in Volgodonsk in southern Russia; and from the Caspian Sea. 

More than 30 missiles flew towards the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Vitali Klitschko told Ukrainian television.

“According to the military, 31 missiles flew towards Kyiv. Twenty-one missiles were shot down,” he said. 

Some of the missiles hit critical infrastructure facilities, he added.

“Currently, part of the city is without electricity. There is no water supply,” he added. “We are doing everything to restore both the electricity and water supply tonight.” 

The blackouts are affecting businesses in the city. 

CNN’s Yulia Kesaieva reports that no shops, cafes or restaurants are open in the Podilskyi district. “There are huge traffic jams and some of the traffic lights are not working. Policemen are coordinating the traffic at the busiest junctions. Some people are waiting next to the entrances to the supermarkets, asking each other if they have power at home, and where to buy bread and hot meals,” Kesaieva said.

The US will provide $400 million in additional security assistance to Ukraine, the White House announced Wednesday in a memo.

According to a statement from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the drawdown “includes additional arms, munitions, and air defense equipment from U.S. Department of Defense inventories.”

A White House official said that the package has “additional munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), 150 heavy machine guns with thermal imagery sights to counter Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS); additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), 200 precision-guided 155mm artillery rounds,” and more.

Total US military assistance for Ukraine amounts to approximately $19.7 billion since the beginning of the Biden administration, Blinken’s statement added.  

“We will continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, so it can continue to defend itself and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table when the time comes,” Blinken said.

A 17-year-old girl was one of three people killed when Russia shelled the Ukrainian capital Kyiv Wednesday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on Telegram. 

“Three people were killed as a result of today’s missile shelling of the capital. A 17-year-old girl was among them,” he said. “Eleven residents of the capital were injured. 10 of them were hospitalized in medical facilities in the city. One victim was treated on the scene.” 

Thirty-five Russian prisoners of war were exchanged with Ukraine and returned to Russia following negotiations, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

“On November 23, as a result of the negotiation process, 35 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime, who were in mortal danger in captivity,” a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

“Aircraft of the military transport aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces will transport the released servicemen to Moscow for treatment and rehabilitation at medical institutions of the Russian Defense Ministry,” it said.

All those released will be given medical and psychological assistance, the Ministry of Defense said. 

Earlier, Denis Pushilin, the leader of the separatist Donetsk region, said on his Telegram channel that Russia and Ukraine conducted a prisoner exchange according to the formula “35 for 35.”

“Among our released people there were four from the Donetsk People’s Republic, two from the Luhansk People’s Republic,” he said.

There are power outages across every region of Ukraine following a barrage of Russian missile strikes targeting the country’s critical infrastructure on Wednesday afternoon, national power supply company Ukrenergo said in a statement posted to Facebook. 

“The missile attack is still ongoing, but there are already hits on energy infrastructure facilities. Emergency outages are taking place in all regions,” it said. “This is a necessary step to protect power grids from additional technological accidents and maintain the power system. Repair crews together with the units of the State Emergency Service will start repairing the damage immediately after the end of the air alert. But due to the frost and freezing rain in some regions, emergency repair works at the facilities damaged by terrorist missiles may take longer.” 

Ukrenergo advised everyone in Ukraine to make note of locations it described as “points of invincibility,” where “electricity, mobile communication and Internet, heating, water and first aid kits” would be available in the event of “significant” interruptions. 

Kyiv regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said that a residential building in the district of Vyshgorod had been hit, as well as the village of Chabany. More than 20 people were injured, he said.

The air raid warning in Kyiv ended at 3:08 local time (8:08 a.m. ET) after being active for just under two-and-a-half hours. 

Warnings were still in place in six regions of Ukraine, all of them in the north and eastern parts of the country, including Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk.

Moldova is suffering a “massive blackout,” following a fresh wave of Russian missiles targeting critical infrastructure in Ukraine, Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure Minister Andrei Spinu said Wednesday.

He added that the country’s transmission operator, Moldelectrica, “is working to reconnect more than 50% of the country to electricity.”

Last week, Moldova similarly suffered power cuts after Ukrainian energy facilities were targeted. Spinu had warned last week that the risks of power cuts remain high and that the Russian aggression against Ukraine “directly affects” Moldova.

The water supply in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv has been suspended after shelling in the region, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on Telegram.

Klitschko asked residents to “stock up on water” while experts tried to “return water to the homes of Kyiv residents.” 

Engineers were also working to restore power supply, Klitschko said. Parts of the city are without power after Moscow reportedly targeted infrastructure facilities in the region, the country’s biggest energy supplier, Yasno, said in a statement earlier Wednesday. 

At least three people have been killed and six were injured after a Russian missile strike in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the city administration reported in a post on Telegram. 

The strike in the capital comes amid ongoing attacks from Russia targeting critical energy infrastructure across the country.

There are power outages in parts of Ukraine after reported strikes on critical infrastructure. 

Emergency power cuts have been introduced in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv after strikes on infrastructure facilities in the region, according to the country’s biggest energy supplier, Yasno.

“The outage schedules are temporarily out of order until the situation is stabilized,” it said in a statement. 

In southern Ukraine, the entire Odesa region is without electricity, the regional state administration’s Maksym Marchenko said on Telegram.

“Due to the massive missile strike on the energy infrastructure of Ukraine, there is temporarily no electricity supply in Odesa region and other regions of Ukraine,” he said. 

Problems were reported as far west as Lviv.

“The whole city is without electricity,” Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said. “We are waiting for more information from the energy specialists. There may be interruptions in water supply. Stay in shelters.” 

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Head of the Office of President of Ukraine, said on Twitter that, “a new massive attack on [Ukrainian] infrastructure facilities is underway.” 

An infrastructure facility in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv was hit on Wednesday afternoon, according to the mayor of the city.

“One of the infrastructure facilities of the capital was hit,” Vitalii Klitschko said on Telegram, warning residents to stay in air raid shelters.

Ukrainian air defense systems were “working in the region,” according to Oleksii Kuleba, the governor of the wider Kyiv region.

The strike in the capital comes amid ongoing attacks from Russia targeting critical energy infrastructure across the country which have left millions without access to power or heat.

Air raid warnings remain in place across Ukraine.

Air raid warnings have been issued across Ukraine.

“There are a lot of missiles. From the south and from the east,” Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv region military administration, said on Telegram. “The air defense is working.”

The conflict has escalated in southern and eastern regions of Ukraine in recent days, with local officials citing “massive shelling” in towns and villages on the eastern front line of the Donetsk region.

Further south, Russian shelling on a maternity ward in Zaporizhzhia killed a newborn baby in a devastating attack Wednesday.

CNN’s Jo Shelley contributed reporting to this post.

A two-day-old baby was killed in a Russian missile strike on a maternity ward in southeastern Ukraine, amid ongoing assaults from Moscow on critical civilian infrastructure.

The mayor of Kyiv said the city was braced for the “worst winter” since World War II, following repeated Russian strikes on energy systems which have left millions nationwide without power.

Here are the latest developments:

In a symbolic move Wednesday, lawmakers in the European Parliament recognised Russia “as a state sponsor of terrorism and as a state which uses means of terrorism,” calling on the European Union “to further isolate Russia internationally.”

The EU Parliament made the decision in light of “the deliberate attacks and atrocities committed by Russian forces and their proxies against civilians in Ukraine, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and other serious violations of international and humanitarian law,” which “amount to acts of terror and constitute war crimes,” according to a press release.

“As the EU currently cannot officially designate states as sponsors of terrorism, Parliament calls on the EU and its member states to put in place the proper legal framework and consider adding Russia to such a list,” the press release said.

The non-binding resolution was adopted with 494 votes in favour, 58 against with 44 abstentions, the press release added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the decision.

“Russia must be isolated at all levels and held accountable in order to end its long-standing policy of terrorism in Ukraine and across the globe,” he tweeted.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also on Twitter thanked the European Parliament “for the clear stance.”

CNN has reached out to the Russian authorities for comment.

The Ukrainian capital of Kyiv is braced for the “worst winter since the Second World War,” according to the mayor of the city.

Vitali Klitschko told Germany’s Bild newspaper that his administration was working to avoid widespread power cuts, which could result in some areas having to be evacuated.

“That would be if there were widespread power cuts and the temperatures were even colder.

“Then parts of the city would have to be evacuated, but we don’t want it to come to that!”

Ukrainian energy suppliers were forced to impose additional blackouts earlier this week after a recent onslaught of Russian strikes targeting critical infrastructure wiped out much of the country’s power supply.

More than 10 million Ukrainians had no power following the attacks from Moscow’s forces.

Russia has been accused of deliberately targeting Ukraine’s civilian power grid in an effort to leave the civilian population without electricity and heat — an act that would amount to a war crime. A senior US State Department official said Monday that a consistent pattern of Russian attacks on civilian elements in Ukraine was “deeply troubling.”

Britain is sending its first delivery of helicopters and additional artillery to Ukraine, the country’s defense ministry announced Wednesday.

Sea King helicopters will be delivered for the first time “to provide key search and rescue capabilities,” while 10,000 artillery rounds will also be dispatched, according to the ministry’s statement.

The support was announced by UK defense secretary Ben Wallace on a visit to Norway, where he will host a meeting of the Northern Group of defense ministers, the statement said.

The UK has held six weeks of training in the UK for 10 crews of Ukrainian military personnel on the Sea King helicopters, the defense ministry added.

“Our support for Ukraine is unwavering. These additional artillery rounds will help Ukraine to secure the land it has reclaimed from Russia in recent weeks,” Wallace said.

The news came after UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made his first visit to Kyiv over the weekend, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and announced a $60 million air defense package for the country.

Correction: An earlier version of this post included the wrong amount of the UK’s air defense package announced this weekend.

The newborn baby who died in a missile strike on a maternity hospital in Vilnyansk in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region was two days old, said first lady Olena Zelenska.

“RF [Russian Federation] crimes are insane. This night, maternity hospital in Zaporizhzhia region became target. 2 days old boy died…” Zelenska tweeted in English.

President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier condemned the attack. “The enemy has once again decided to try to achieve with terror and murder what he wasn’t able to achieve for nine months and won’t be able to achieve,” he said, referring to Russia.

The hospital was hit by an S-300 missile, according to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office.

“A baby was killed, a woman in labor and a doctor were wounded. Private houses also suffered from the enemy shelling,” the prosecutor’s office said.

It has started a pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings over violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder, according to a statement on Telegram.

Some context: The World Health Organization (WHO) has verified some 703 attacks on health care facilities in Ukraine since February, according to its latest data, amid ongoing assaults from Moscow targeting critical civilian infrastructure.

Relentless attacks on the health infrastructure in Ukraine has impacted multiple services, Dr. Jarno Habicht, the World Health Organization’s representative in Ukraine, said on Monday. These include a devastating strike on a maternity and children’s hospital in the southern city of Mariupol in March.

About one in five people in Ukraine has difficulty accessing medicine, according to Habicht. The problem is worse in Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia, with one in three people there not able to get the medicine they need, Habicht added.

It is a problem that will be exacerbated by heavy snowfall during Ukraine’s harsh winter season, which poses a “formidable challenge” to the health system, the WHO official warned.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Russia’s strike Wednesday on a maternity ward in southern Ukraine that killed a newborn baby.

The child’s mother and a doctor were rescued from the rubble of the destroyed hospital in Vilnyansk, Zaporizhzhia region, following the rocket attack, according to Ukrainian authorities.

“The enemy has once again decided to try to achieve with terror and murder what he wasn’t able to achieve for nine months and won’t be able to achieve. Instead, he will only be held to account for all the evil he brought to our country.”

Vilnyansk is a Ukrainian-controlled city. Parts of the wider Zaporizhzhia region are occupied by Russia, which claims it as Russian territory in violation of international law.

Two people were killed in Russian shelling overnight in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, a senior Ukrainian official said Wednesday.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian President’s office, said on Telegram that a residential building, a health clinic and a school were hit in the town of Kupiansk.

For months, Russian shelling and missile strikes have targeted civilian infrastructure in various parts of Ukraine, including Kharkiv, where occupying Russian troops have been pushed out by Ukraine’s counteroffensive.

A mother was rescued Wednesday from the rubble of a hospital in southern Ukraine after a Russian strike destroyed the facility, killing her newborn baby, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Services said the woman had just given birth to the child at the maternity ward in the city of Vilnyansk, in the Zaporizhzhia region. A doctor was also rescued they said.

According to preliminary information, no one else is under the rubble, they added. 

Earlier, the head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration said on Telegram that Russian forces had “launched huge rockets at a small maternity ward at the Vilnyansk hospital.”

Vilnyansk is a Ukrainian-controlled city. Parts of the wider Zaporizhzhia region are occupied by Russia, which claims it as Russian territory in violation of international law.

November and December are known as the most depressing months in Moscow. The days are short and dark, and the weather is too cold and wet to be outdoors much but still too warm and rainy to enjoy the real Russian winter.

This year, the feeling of melancholy is increased by the sight of shuttered shops on many of the capital’s streets, as businesses face the economic fall-out from massive Western sanctions in response to the war in Ukraine, which Russian officials still call the “special military operation.”

“The mood in Moscow and the country is now extremely gloomy, quiet, intimidated, and hopeless,” said 34-year-old Lisa, who declined to give her last name and said she was a film producer. “The planning horizon is as low as ever. People have no idea what might happen tomorrow or in a year.”

While the shelves in most stores remain well stocked, Western products are becoming increasingly scarce and very expensive, further driving prices that are already hammering many Russian households.

“Familiar goods disappear, starting from toilet paper and Coca-Cola, ending with clothes,” said Lisa.

“Of course, you can get used to all this, this is not the worst thing at all,” she said.

But she also took a jab at Western governments and companies that have left the Russian market in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Read the full story here.

A newborn baby was killed in Russian strikes on a maternity ward in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region overnight, according to a Ukrainian military official.

Oleksandr Starukh, head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said on Telegram Wednesday that Russian forces had “launched huge rockets at a small maternity ward at the Vilnyansk hospital” in the city of Vilnyansk.

Starukh said rescue teams have responded to the site of the attack.

Some context: Vilnyansk is a Ukrainian-controlled city. Parts of the wider Zaporizhzhia region are occupied by Russia, which claims it as Russian territory in violation of international law.

Ukraine is demanding an apology from Hungary after Prime Minister Viktor Orban was seen wearing a scarf that appeared to show parts of western Ukraine in a map of Hungary.

Orban was pictured on his Instagram wearing the scarf at a football match between Greece and Hungary on Sunday.

The Hungarian Ambassador to Ukraine, Istvan Igyar, was summoned to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, where he was told the incident was “unacceptable,” according to a statement from the ministry.

“The attention of the Hungarian diplomat was drawn to the fact that such actions do not contribute to the development of good neighborly relations between Ukraine and Hungary,” MFA spokesperson Oleh Nikolenko said. “It was emphasized that Ukraine expects an apology for this incident and hopes that in the future the Hungarian side will refrain from steps that may be regarded as disrespect for the territorial integrity of our state.”

What was on the scarf: The map appeared to represent Greater Hungary as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was defeated in World War I. It also includes parts of Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, Austria, Croatia and Slovenia. 

A Romanian member of the European Parliament, Alin Mituta, called it an “irresponsible act” by Orban. 

“It’s a revisionist gesture that puts Orban alongside [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, who also dreams of border changes. He should be sanctioned and isolated by EU leaders in the European Council,” Mituta said on Twitter.

Russian energy giant Gazprom said it will reduce natural gas supply to Europe as of next Monday by pinching flow to a pipeline that runs through Ukraine.

On its official Telegram account, the state-owned company said gas meant for Moldova is being held in Ukraine so it will reduce supply to the Sudzha pipeline to account for the difference. 

“The volume of gas supplied by Gazprom to the GIS Sudzha for transit to Moldova through the territory of Ukraine exceeds the physical volume transmitted at the border of Ukraine with Moldova,” it said.
“While maintaining the transit imbalance through Ukraine for Moldovan consumers, on November 28, from 10:00, Gazprom will begin reducing gas supply to the Sudzha GIS for transit through Ukraine in the amount of the daily under delivery.”

A wider trend: Europe has raced to replenish its stocks this year ahead of winter as Russia dramatically cut its flows of pipeline gas, including halting all shipments through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in September.

But a bigger challenge could emerge in the spring when Europe tries to refill its stores with a much-reduced supply of Russian pipeline gas. Flows to Europe are just 20% of their pre-war levels, according to research firm Wood Mackenzie.

CNN’s Anna Cooban contributed reporting to this post. 

An attack last week by Russian forces on Ukraine’s power grid caused “colossal” damage, leaving no thermal or hydroelectric power plant in Ukraine intact, according to the head of the government-owned electricity transmission system operator. 

“This was the biggest attack, the biggest in history. Over 100 heavy missiles were launched. Their targets were Ukrainian energy system facilities, mainly, Ukrenergo substations and Ukrainian thermal power stations producing energy for Ukrainian consumers,” Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, CEO of Ukrenergo, said Tuesday.
“To understand the scale of these attacks, what we’re dealing with, almost all thermal and power generation from large power plants suffered damage from missile strikes. There are almost no Ukrenergo hub substations that are intact. Practically every key substation has been hit at least once, and some three, five or eight times.”

Ukraine’s grid is currently “stabilized” with scheduled blackouts due to the war’s massive damage to power stations, leaving them unable to provide enough electricity for the country. Kherson, located in southern Ukraine, remains the most “problematic” region for power, though local workers are concentrated on demining the grid in the wake of retreating Russian troops, he said. 

In the absence of new massive attacks the situation should be stable with four-hour outages a day planned, he added.

“As we see it, the role of the energy sector is to make the energy system work in a way that enables Ukrainians to remain in their country and spend the winter here. It is our everyday battle to make the energy system meet the electricity needs of Ukrainians,” he said.

Kherson authorities have urged residents to evacuate to areas of the country with more stable power supplies as the region is still without electricity.

Fighting raged on in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on Tuesday, as Russia launched “massive shelling” in towns and villages on the eastern front line, according to a local official.

The town of Avdiivka was hit by a wave of artillery fire, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk region military administration.

“Avdiivka suffered the most in the Donetsk direction: There were incoming hits overnight, and in the morning, there was massive shelling of the city center,” Kyrylenko said on Telegram. “According to preliminary information, there are no casualties.”

Avdiivka has been within a few miles of the front lines of the war for several months, but remains in Ukrainian hands.

There was also “massive shelling” in two areas near the strategic city of Lyman in the Donetsk region, Kyrylenko said. Four civilians in the region were killed on Monday, he added in a separate post.

The Ukrainian military said it was under sustained attack in the Donetsk region.

“The enemy does not stop shelling the positions of our troops and settlements near the contact line,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Tuesday. “They continue firing at the critical infrastructure and civilian housing … In the Bakhmut and Avdiivka directions the enemy is focusing its efforts on conducting offensive actions.”

Russia is pursuing offensive combat operations in Donetsk and Luhansk, which together form the Donbas, the eastern part of Ukraine where the conflict between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists started in 2014.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has claimed France was “in denial” about the prospect of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, and accused the German government of initially favoring a quick Ukrainian military defeat over a long conflict.

Johnson told CNN’s partner network CNN Portugal on Monday that the attitudes of Western nations varied widely before Moscow launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, singling out three leading EU countries in comments that are unlikely to be welcomed in European capitals.

While Johnson stressed that EU nations later rallied behind Ukraine and are now providing steadfast support, that was not universally the case in the period before the Russian invasion.

“This thing was a huge shock … we could see the Russian battalion tactical groups amassing, but different countries had very different perspectives,” Johnson told CNN’s Richard Quest in Portugal. “The German view was at one stage that if it were going to happen, which would be a disaster, then it would be better for the whole thing to be over quickly, and for Ukraine to fold,” Johnson claimed, citing “all sorts of sound economic reasons” for that approach.

“I couldn’t support that, I thought that was a disastrous way of looking at it. But I can understand why they thought and felt as they did,” Johnson went on. Germany has rapidly sought to reduce its reliance on Russian energy since Moscow’s invasion.

Read more here.