December 5, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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

Explosions at two Russian air bases Monday have focused attention on Ukraine’s efforts to develop longer-range combat drones.

The Russian Defense Ministry says the attacks were carried out by Ukrainian drones, which it claims were brought down by Russian air defenses. 

Imagery — both satellite and photographs — indicates some damage was done to Russian military planes at one base in Ryazan region.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has offered no official comment on the explosions, and the Ukrainian government has not acknowledged adding long-range attack drones to its arsenal.

However, the state-owned weapons manufacturer Ukroboronprom has indicated several times in recent weeks that it is close to finishing work on a new long-range drone.

In October, it posted on Facebook — along with an image of what appeared to be part of the drone’s structure: “Range is 1000 km, weight of the combat unit is 75 kg. Putting the final touches on this one.”

On Nov. 24, Ukroboronprom published another post: “The next stage of UAV testing - On behalf of the Chief of the General Staff, we are getting ready for flight tests under the action of electronic warfare.”

“Weather, on the one hand, becomes a problem, and on the other hand, it’s an additional test for the complex. A kind of crash test.”

A photo showed the words “az vozdam” inscribed on what was purported to be the drone — meaning “I will repay.”

And on Saturday, company spokeswoman Natalia Sad was reported by news agency Ukrinform to have told Ukrainian television:

“As of today, a number of stages of successful tests have been completed. In accordance with the instructions of the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, we are moving to the stage of tests involving an e-warfare jamming environment.”

However, there is no public indication that the drone in question has been readied for deployment or was involved in the explosions inside Russia.

The two bases hit, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, are hundreds of miles inside Russian territory and beyond the reach of Ukraine’s declared arsenal of drones. No footage or images of the remnants of drones have been published.  

Dolyna, Ukraine — A soldier in a Ukrainian uniform morosely contemplates the ruins of an Orthodox monastery in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

“This is a result of Putin’s war,” he says, angrily, as he paces through the wreck. “As a Christian, this is very offensive to me.”

The soldier, whose name CNN agreed not to reveal to protect his identity, goes by the call-sign “Caesar.” He is one of hundreds, if not thousands, fighting to keep the town of Bakhmut, the current epicenter of the war, in Ukrainian hands.

But there’s one thing that sets him apart from most of those who share the same goal: he’s Russian.

“From the first day of the war, my heart, the heart of a real Russian man, a real Christian, told me that I had to be here to defend the people of Ukraine,” Caesar explains. “We are now fighting in the Bakhmut direction, this is the hottest part of the front.”

Few, if any, buildings of the eastern Ukrainian town have been spared by the unending artillery barrages fired from side to side. Many of the structures have been completely destroyed, others left uninhabitable with collapsed sections, in apocalyptic scenes reminiscent of the battered city of Mariupol, captured by Russia earlier in the war.

“After the (Russian) mobilization (in September), Putin threw all his forces (at Bakhmut) in order to achieve a breaking point in the war, but we are putting up a fierce defensive fight,” Caesar says.

Much of Ukraine’s resisting force have had to hunker down in muddy trenches, fighting tooth and nail to deny Russian forces a victory they desperately crave.

“The fighting is very brutal now,” Caesar explains.

To read more, click here

A Russian oligarch has warned the United States against designating his Wagner Group as a “terrorist” organization.

Wagner — a private military contractor — has been active in the conflict in Ukraine, and in countries across Africa and the Middle East.

Asked about the US government not following through with reported plans to designate the Wagner group as a foreign terrorist organization, Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the group, said in a statement on the company’s social media page:

“When you are put on the list of terrorist organizations, then, as they say, you do what is necessary to achieve your goals. They’ve already put one organization on the list of terrorist organizations once, and they got a response that made them tremble.”

His response came via the Telegram channel of his holding company, Concord.

He added: “As the saying goes, let sleeping dogs lie. Do not wake Wagner PMC, Americans, while it’s still sleeping.”

CNN reported Nov. 30, citing a US official, that the Biden administration was considering designating the Wagner Group a foreign terrorist organization amid efforts to impose costs on Russia for the Ukraine war.

No final decision has been made, the official said, and it’s unclear “how far out the administration is from potentially making this designation given the laborious legal process in making this determination.”

Wagner is already sanctioned by the US, but the Biden administration has its sights on labeling it a terrorist organization amid pressure — both from the Ukrainians and from Congress — to declare Russia as a state sponsor of terror due to the invasion of Ukraine and the constant attacks on the civilian population.

In his Telegram post, Progizhin said: “We have never overstepped the bounds of what is allowed, we have never oppressed civilians, we have always saved the oppressed from violence, we have never fallen into any category of terrorist organization, we have never crossed and are not going to cross the laws of morality.”

CNN reporting, over the past four years, has uncovered extensive human rights abuses by Wagner in Syria, Libya and the Central African Republic. Human rights groups also allege its contractors have carried out atrocities in Mali. 

The Russian Foreign Ministry appears to have dealt a blow to proposals by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to create a demilitarized and protected zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova responded to a question from a Russian news agency about the status of the plant, which has been occupied by Russian forces since early March.

The news agency asked: “The head of the IAEA R[afael]. Grossi said that experts are close to an acceptable agreement between Ukraine and Russia on the creation of a security zone around the Zaporizhzhya NPP (ZNPP). How would you comment on this statement? Is it possible to transfer control over ZNPP to a third party? Is the visit of the head of the IAEA R. Grossi to Russia expected?”

Zakharova responded: “There can be no talk of any withdrawal of the Zaporizhzhya NPP from Russian control or transfer of control over it to some ‘third party.’ The station is located on Russian territory and is fully controlled by Russia. We presume that only we are able to ensure the physical and nuclear safety of ZNPP.”

There has been no response from the IAEA to the latest word from Moscow.

Last week, Director General of the IAEA Rafael Grossi said he hoped to reach an agreement with Russia and Ukraine on protecting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant by year’s end.

“My commitment is to reach a solution as soon as possible. I hope by the end of the year. I know that President Putin is following the process and I do not rule out another meeting with him soon, as well as with Ukrainian President Zelensky,” Grossi said in an interview published Friday with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

He told La Repubblica: “There is a concrete proposal on securing Zaporizhzhia and important progress has been made….The two sides now agree on some basic principles. The first is that of protection: it means accepting that you don’t shoot ‘on’ the plant and ‘from’ the plant. The second is the recognition that the IAEA is the only possible way forward: that was the heart of my meeting with President Putin in St. Petersburg on October 11.”

“Russia is not against an agreement and the principle of protecting the plant,” he added.

As for the Ukrainian side, Grossi said: “The withdrawal of armaments from the plant is what, understandably from their point of view, the Ukrainians are demanding. And it would still be part of the overall agreement.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that “maximum efforts” are continuing throughout Ukraine to stabilize the power grid in the wake of another wave of Russian missile attacks Monday.

Zelensky said, in his daily message, that repair work continues “in the central regions of Ukraine, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv.”

“In order to stabilize the power grid, it was necessary to switch to emergency shutdowns in many regions. From Zakarpattia to Kyiv region, from Kirovohrad to Sumy and Kharkiv regions,” he said.

Zelensky said several regions, including Kyiv and Odesa had extensive power outages.

Referring to the number of Russian missiles intercepted Monday, Zelensky said he was grateful to our partners for the air defense systems we are using now.

“Unfortunately, there are victims,” he said. “As of this time, the list of those killed by Russian strikes today is four.”

Dmytro Sakharuk, CEO of DTEK — a major energy distributor — said the overall situation was difficult but under control. “Almost all regions of Ukraine are subject to emergency blackouts. Power engineers have started to repair the damage, the work will continue overnight. We will try to return to the scheduled outages as soon as possible to stop emergency outages.”

Sakharuk said on Telegram: “The most complicated situation is in Kyiv region, Kyiv city, Odesa city and northern regions of the country. This is due to both the damage and the number of consumers.”

Fighting in eastern Ukraine continues to be concentrated in the Bakhmut area of Donetsk, according to Ukrainian officials.

Serhiy Hayday, head of Luhansk region military administration, said on Ukrainian television that the “Donetsk sector is the most difficult as Russians are trying to capture Bakhmut — and all settlements from Lysychansk to Bakhmut are important for them.”

Lysychansk is in neighboring Luhansk region and was captured by Russian forces in June.

Hayday said that the Ukrainian military had destroyed a “huge number of occupiers’ personnel and their equipment” in the village of Bilohorivka.

“Now they are trying to break through the defense line, as they plan to make an additional bridgehead to expand the offensive. Attacks are taking place there around the clock, this territory is being constantly shelled. Six people remain in the village; those are elderly people who do not want to leave. It is difficult to take out people who do not want to leave,” the official said.

Amid difficult weather conditions, Hayday said that the “liberation of Luhansk region is very difficult. However, there is a positive thing. Our troops are not far from Kreminna,” a town north of Lysychansk that has been occupied since the spring,

Meanwhile, Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of Donetsk region military administration, said that after Russian missile strikes on parts of Donetsk Monday, “emergency power outages continue. Power engineers are feeding the system with backup sources. In general, the situation is stable. After emergency shutdowns, generators are switched on.”

He said the situation around Bakhmut “is extremely tense. Claims of the enemy that Bakhmut is taken and they are on the outskirts of the city are not true.”

“Most of the people have evacuated from Bakhmut. There are now about 12,000 residents in Bakhmut out of 81,000 before the invasion. The enemy is trying to destroy the civilian population.”

The Ukrainian military said that the center of  Bakhmut was hit — and an administrative building, a dormitory, and a residential building were damaged. 

Kyrylenko said the Russians also shelled the town of Vuhledar, as well as Kurakhove and Hostre — a kindergarten, four high-rise buildings and seven private houses were damaged.

Four people have been killed by Ukrainian shelling of the center of the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, according to the head of the Russian-backed Donetsk administration.

“As a result of the shelling of central areas of Donetsk tonight, four people were killed. Four civilians were injured to varying degrees of severity,” Alexei Kulemzin said on Telegram.

Russian state news agency RIA/Novosti reported that “Ukrainian troops shelled the center of Donetsk, the fire was aimed on residential buildings.”

The shelling targeted int Voroshilovsky district according to Kulemzin. The shelling allegedly struck the Church of Nativity of Christ, where the building has “partially collapsed,” he said.

Earlier the Russian Investigative Committee released a statement saying they will “establish all the circumstances of the incident and the persons involved in the commission of crimes.”

It’s the second consecutive night that Donetsk has come under fire.

Earlier Monday, RIA Novosti reported that two buildings caught fire in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic after strikes by Ukrainian forces.

The Ukrainian military has not yet confirmed or commented on the attack. Donetsk has been held by Russian-backed separatists since 2014. 

CNN’s Josh Pennington and Alex Stambaugh contributed reporting to this post.

The Israeli satellite imagery company ImageSat International has published images showing what appears to be the aftermath of an explosion at the Dyagilevo air base in Russia.

“On an image from 05.12.2022, burn marks and objects are seen near a Tu-22M aircraft that was probably damaged,” it said. ISI made the images available to CNN.

Some background: The base is one of two which the Russian Defense Ministry says were attacked by Ukrainian drones on Monday.

In a statement carried on the official Russian news agency RIA Novosti, the Ministry said the attacks were “in the Saratov and Ryazan regions” but the “Ukrainian drones flying at low altitude” were intercepted by air defenses.

Ukraine has not confirmed that it attacked either airfield. Recent satellite imagery shows a substantial number of Russian strategic bombers at the Engels airbase in Saratov.

CNN’s Tim Lister and Darya Tarasova contributed reporting to this post.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made it more difficult to stage protests in the country by signing a new law which bans any kind of rally from taking place at a range of locations.

Protests will be banned in areas like, government buildings, universities, schools, anywhere near churches, airports and ports, railway stations and vital infrastructure, state news agency RIA said Monday.

Previously, rallies were forbidden from taking place near presidential residences, courts, prisons and emergency operational services.

Regional authorities can additionally introduce further bans on demonstrations based on “historical, cultural, and other objective characteristics of the subject.” 

Putin signed almost 50 laws on Monday according to RIA.

The Biden administration downplayed concerns that a price cap on Russian oil could backfire and hurt the global economy Monday, reiterating that the US reserves the right to adjust the price going forward as the cap begins to be implemented. 

On Friday, the European Union’s 27 member states capped Russian oil at $60 a barrel, days before G7 and Australia begin to implement a price cap, set to start Monday. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Moscow will “not recognize any price caps” and warned that it was “a step towards destabilizing the world energy market.”

Global crude prices were up 2.6% on Monday as investors watched nervously for Russia’s next move.

National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby dismissed long-term effects of the price cap.

Kirby said the US believes that “this cap will lock in a discount on Russian oil,” adding that the US “fully” supports the $60 price cap announced last week and “stand behind it.”

Kirby suggested that the price cap will allow countries to “bargain for steeper discounts on Russian oil” but was “not intended to eliminate Russian oil from the market.”

“We believe it’s going to help limit Mr. Putin’s ability to profiteer off the oil market. It’s also, you know, adjustable. It doesn’t mean we can’t come back and revisit it if we need to,” he said.

CCTV footage geolocated by CNN to the Russian city of Engels, where a Russian air base is located, appears to show an explosion lighting up the sky at around 6 a.m. on Monday morning.

Engels is a port city on the Volga River located in Saratov Oblast, in western Russia, around 500 miles (more than 800 kilometers) southeast of Moscow. The CCTV footage shared on social media was recorded approximately 3.7 miles (nearly 6 kilometers) away from where the Engels-2 airfield is located, a strategic bomber airbase.

Saratov region Gov. Roman Busargin, reassured residents on Telegram that no civilian infrastructure was damaged but said “information about incidents at military facilities is being checked by law enforcement agencies.”

He acknowledged information about “about a loud bang and a burst in Engels in the early morning” was spreading on social networks and the media.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was asked about this incident and another explosion at a Russian airfield near the city of Ryazan, around 200 kilometers (about 124 miles) southeast of Moscow, during a regular call with journalists on Monday.

“I do not have the exact information, I only saw media reports, but I do not have the exact details and I cannot comment. I recommend contacting the Defense Ministry,” Peskov said when asked about this. He said “of course” President Vladimir Putin had been informed.

CNN had contacted the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment.

Later Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukraine used drones to attack two Russian military airfields on Monday morning.

In a statement carried on the official Russian news agency RIA Novosti, the ministry said the attacks were “in the Saratov and Ryazan regions” but had been intercepted by air defenses.

Russian state media also reported three people were killed and six injured after a fuel truck exploded at the Russian airfield near the city of Ryazan. The explosion occurred at an aircraft parking lot at the airfield, emergency services told state news agency TASS on Monday.

Pro-Russian bloggers have said that the incidents were likely an act of sabotage from Ukraine.

Yurii Ihnat, spokesperson for the Command of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, shared a social media report of a “blast at the Engels airfield” on Facebook but made no claim of responsibility. “And who did it?,” he wrote.

Later on national television Ihnat referenced the blasts while announcing the launch of a new Russian missile attack towards Ukraine, saying: “We have information that today there were blasts at the Engels airfield. And immediately after that there was a commotion at this airfield.

“Perhaps it is not connected with this, but still we see that strategic bombers have taken off and the first wave of missiles was already launched. There may be several of them [waves], they may use several waves of attacks to disperse the missiles throughout Ukraine and to confuse the actions of our air defense.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukraine used drones to attack two Russian military airfields on Monday morning.

In a statement carried on the official Russian news agency RIA Novosti, the ministry said the attacks were “in the Saratov and Ryazan regions” but had been intercepted by air defenses.

“On the morning of December 5, the Kiev regime, in order to disable Russian long-range aircraft, attempted to strike with Soviet-made jet unmanned aerial vehicles [drones] at the Diaghilevo military airfields in the Ryazan region and Engels in the Saratov region,” the report said.

“The air defense of the Russian Aerospace Forces intercepted these Ukrainian drones flying at low altitude,” the Ministry added. “Three Russian soldiers were killed, four more were injured in the attack.”

“As a result of the fall and explosion at the Russian airfields of the wreckage of [the] jet drones, the skin of two aircraft was slightly damaged,” it said.

Ukraine has not confirmed that it attacked either airfield. Recent satellite imagery shows a substantial number of Russian strategic bombers at the Engels airbase in Saratov.

Several regions of Ukraine have reported interruptions to power and water supplies amid freezing temperatures after about 70 Russian missiles were fired at targets across the country.

The Ukrainian Air Force said the great majority of missiles were intercepted, but some appear to have reached their targets.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Russia “tried to implement its criminal plan — to plunge Ukraine into darkness and cold. The enemy once again failed in its plan.”

“The country’s energy system is functioning and remains intact,” Shmyhal added.

But he said there were “hits to power facilities in Kyiv region, Vinnytsia region and Odesa region. In some regions, emergency shutdowns were forced to balance the system and avoid accidents. Rescuers are already working to eliminate the consequences of the attack.”

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that the missile attacks showed Ukraine still needed more air defenses.

“Russia has fired another barrage of missiles at our critical civilian infrastructure trying to deprive people of power, water, and heating amid freezing temperatures. The more war crimes Russia commits, the more weapons should be provided to Ukraine to end Russian terror sooner,” Kuleba tweeted.

Impacted areas: Odesa appears to have been among the worst affected regions. Maksym Marchenko, head of Odesa regional state administration, said energy infrastructure was damaged and there were also hits to civilian buildings, wounding two people.

“Currently, there is no electricity supply in Odesa city and most communities of Odesa district. All services are on the ground and have already started to restore power supply,” the official said.

One of Ukraine’s major electricity providers, DTEK, said there were “emergency blackouts” in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. These are in addition to scheduled power outages already in effect.

“We will resume the stabilization schedules as soon as the situation in the power system stabilizes,” DTEK said.

Oleksiy Kuleba, head of Kyiv region military administration, said on Ukrainian television that “one energy infrastructure facility was hit in the Kyiv region. The attack was extremely dynamic, there were many targets. We will be able to give a clearer analysis of what happened within the next two hours. I can say that we do not see any critical consequences.”

Kuleba added: “Emergency shutdowns continue in Kyiv region now. Currently, about 40% of subscribers are without power supply. This is an emergency shutdown. We are currently consulting on when we will be able to supply power to all consumers.”

The Ivano-Frankivsk region also reported power cuts as a result of Russian missile attacks Monday, with the head of the region’s state administration, Svitlana Onyshchuk, saying the regional power distribution company had reported that “due to massive shelling of the energy infrastructure facilities,” NPC Ukrenergo had reduced electricity capacity in the Prykarpattia area by one-third. Prykarpattia is located near the Carpathian mountains in western Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Air Force said that more than 60 Russian missiles were intercepted on Monday.

In a statement on Telegram, the air force said that a “massive attack on critical infrastructure” had been repelled.

“In total, more than 70 missiles were launched. According to preliminary information, 38 cruise missiles (Kh-101 /Kh-555) were launched from eight strategic missile Tu-95M (bombers) from the Caspian Sea and Volgodonsk, Rostov region,” it said.

“The enemy also struck with 22 ‘Kalibr’ cruise missiles from the Black Sea Fleet ships,” it noted. “In addition, Ukraine was attacked from the Black Sea by Tu-22m3 long-range bombers with three cruise missiles, as well as Su-35 fighters with six guided missiles.”

In the past, Ukrainian air defenses have been able to take out about two thirds of the missiles fired in barrages by Russian forces. The last such wave was on Nov. 23.  

President Vladimir Putin was filmed driving and walking on the Kerch Bridge, according to Russian state media and video. 

The bridge has been a major flashpoint in the war in Ukraine. On Oct. 8, a large explosion took place on the bridge that destroyed a large section. The bridge is the only land route that connects mainland Russia to illegally-annexed Crimea.

In one of the videos from state media, Putin is seen at the wheel of a Mercedes vehicle, sitting beside the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin. In another, he is seen walking along a section of the bridge with a hood pulled up on his coat.

Five images released by the Kremlin website show Putin accompanied by the deputy prime minister. 

In the driving video, Khusnullin says to Putin that “metal was available for bridge parts, so the metal was brought over to build these structures, and within two weeks all the 1214 tonnes were assembled and brought here,” an apparent reference to the damaged that the Kerch Bridge sustain on Oct. 8.

In the video released by Russian state TV, President PO Putin is heard asking “how many people worked on the repairs.” Khunsnullin replies, “500 people, 3 floating cranes, 4 barges and 31 pieces of equipment around the clock.”

CCTV from the time when the bridge sustained damage in October showed a truck exploding and the Kremlin was quick to point the finger at Kyiv. Putin alleged that the act was an “sabotage” by Ukrainian special services.

In 2018, Putin symbolically drove a truck across the Kerch Bridge to mark its opening. It was greeted with much fanfare on Russian state TV at the time.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill banning so-called LGBTQ “propaganda” in Russia, in the latest crackdown on human rights in the country.

The new laws significantly broaden the scope of a 2013 law which banned the dissemination of LGBTQ-related information to minors. The new iteration extends the ban on promoting such information to adults as well.

The new laws make it illegal to promote or “praise” LGBTQ relationships, publicly express non-heterosexual orientations or suggest that they are “normal.”

The package of amendments signed by Putin include heavier penalties for anyone promoting “non-traditional sexual relations and/or preferences,” as well as pedophilia and gender transition. Under the new law, it will be banned across the internet, media, books, audiovisual services, cinema, and advertising.

Under the new law, individuals can be fined up to 400,000 rubles ($6,370) for “LGBT propaganda” and up to 200,000 rubles ($3,185) for “demonstrations of LGBT and information that encourages a change of gender among teenagers.”

These fines rise to up to 5 million rubles ($80,000) and 4 million rubles ($64,000) respectively for legal entities.

The law was approved by the Russia’s upper and lower houses in recent weeks.

More background: The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2017 that the 2013 law is discriminatory, promotes homophobia and violates the European Convention on Human Rights.

The court found that the law “served no legitimate public interest,” rejecting suggestions that public debate on LGBT issues could influence children to become homosexual, or that it threatened public morals.

Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, but homophobia and discrimination is still rife. It is ranked 46th out of 49 European countries for LGBTQ+ inclusion by watchdog ILGA-Europe.

Speaking before Putin signed the bill into the law on Monday, Tanya Lokshina, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch said: “The 2013 ‘gay propaganda’ law was an unabashed example of political homophobia, and the new draft legislation amplifies that in broader and harsher ways.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement Monday that Kyiv’s air defenses have “intercepted most of the missiles.”

Earlier Monday, officials in three regions of Ukraine have claimed that most Russian missiles fired were intercepted.

The Kyiv City Military Administration said that 10 missiles had been identified flying over Kyiv. “Preliminary, nine of them were intercepted,” it said.

In Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Reznichenko, head of the military administration, said that “defenders from the Air Command ‘East’ shot down 15 Russian missiles.”

And Dmytro Lunin, governor of Poltava region in central Ukraine, said on Telegram that “there have been no hits in Poltava. Air Defense has been excellent. Up to ten Russian missiles were intercepted.”

Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (DI) says that while Russian missile stocks may have fallen to “critical levels,” it still has enough to inflict heavy damage on Ukrainian infrastructure.

Andrii Yusov, the DI spokesperson, told Ukrainian television Monday that attacks during the day were “another terrorist attack on peaceful, civilian infrastructure, primarily energy infrastructure.”

Yusov said that “regarding high-precision weapons in Russia, by many indicators the stockpiles of missiles have fallen to critical levels.”

“The Russians cannot afford regular massive [missile attacks) now, but this does not reduce the damage to infrastructure and losses for Ukraine. This is a serious test for us. There are a lot of S300 missiles left, so the frontline cities can be hit more,” the official said.

As for reports of explosions at or near airfields in the Russian cities of Ryazan and Engels, Yusov said they “can neither confirm nor deny. When terrorists have something burning, it can only be positive.”

Debris from a missile has been found in Moldova, in a town called Briceni about 3 kilometers (almost 2 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The Moldovan Interior Ministry said on Facebook:

“A short time ago, near the city of Briceni, in an orchard, a rocket was discovered. The explosive object was discovered by a border police patrol, which, due to today’s Russian bombings, have intensified their attention”.

It is not immediately clear from the images what type the rocket is. CNN is working on confirming the type of missile.

The Moldovan Interior Ministry added in their statement “the area where the rocket was discovered has been isolated by police patrol and border police. The specialized services of the interior ministry” are on the scene.

The Ukrainian cities of Odesa and Kryvyi Rih reported that they are without water or electricity. 

In Odesa: The water supply company Infoksvodokanal, said, “all pumping station and reserve lines are without power – thus consumers don’t have water.”

In Kryvyi Rih: “Part of the city is without electricity, some boiler houses and pumping stations are off,” said Oleksandr Vilkul the head of city military administration.

Russian forces have launched fresh missile strikes, with several waves of attacks possible over the course of the day, according to officials, following on from shelling in central, southern and eastern Ukraine earlier Monday.

Here are the latest headlines:

Two people have been killed and another two injured in Zaporizhzhia region following a wave of Russian missile strikes, according to a Ukrainian official.

“Several private houses were destroyed” in the strikes, which hit 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of Zaporizhzhia city, wrote Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukraine’s presidential administration, on Telegram.

Earlier “several” explosions were reported in the city of Zaporizhzhia, according to Anatolii Kurtev, secretary of the city council.

“Some of them are the echoes of enemy incoming hits in the suburbs. Another part is the successful work of the Air Defense Forces,” he wrote on Telegram. He did not confirm the target of the missiles.

Russian forces have launched a fresh set of missiles towards Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials.

“We see that strategic bombers have taken off and the first wave of missiles was already launched,” said Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force.

There may be several waves of attacks, added Ihnat.

Air defense systems are operating, but there is “no information” on the number of missiles launched or how many have been shot down, he said.

The governors of Odesa, Poltava and Vinnytsia regions have announced that missiles are incoming on social media.

Kyiv’s air defense systems are “working” around the Ukrainian capital as there is a “movement of missiles towards the region,” said Oleksii Kuleba, head of Kyiv’s regional military administration, on Telegram. He urged residents to stay in shelters.

CNN teams in Kyiv have reported that air raid sirens have sounded.

As of yet there have not been any confirmed strikes.

Ukraine continues to suffer a “difficult” energy situation, according to state energy provider Ukrenergo.

“We all have a difficult heating season ahead,” the company said in an update Monday.

Russian forces have deliberately targeted energy infrastructure in Ukraine, where authorities have been battling to maintain power, water and cell phone connectivity.

This weekend, however, Ukrenergo said “it was possible to apply the minimum amount of emergency shutdowns,” due in part to increased capacity at nuclear power plants.

The company also noted an increase in electricity consumption “due to both the beginning of the week and drop in temperatures throughout the country.”

Temperatures in Kyiv hit -7 degrees Celsius (44 Fahrenheit) on Monday, according to the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center.

Russian attacks on critical facilities have dropped off in the past week or so, but Ukrenergo is struggling to bring damaged facilities back online.

Moscow will not recognize a price cap on its oil exports implemented by a group of western nations, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

“One thing is obvious here - we will not recognize any price caps,” Peskov said Monday during his daily conference call with journalists, adding that Russia would prepare a response to the measure.

On Friday, the European Union’s 27 member states capped the price of Russian oil at $60 a barrel, with Australia and the Group of 7 nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – implementing the price cap from Monday.

The move is aimed at reducing Russia’s income from oil exports and is designed to be enforced by companies that provide shipping, insurance and other services for Russian oil.

If a buyer has agreed to pay more than the cap, they would withhold those services. Most of these firms are based in Europe or the United Kingdom.

The decision to impose the cap would not affect Russia’s ability to carry out its “special military operation” in Ukraine, said Peskov.

“The Russian economy has the necessary potential to fully meet all the needs and requirements of the special military operation,” he said. “Such measures will not affect it.”

However the price cap would have an effect on the stability of the energy market, said Peskov.

“One thing is obvious and indisputable: the adoption of these decisions is a step towards destabilizing the world energy markets,” he said.

The best day of Eric’s life came just days before the worst.

After years of waiting, dozens of tests and a two-week stay on a psychiatric ward, Eric was finally getting his first testosterone shot. Eric is a 23-year-old transgender man from Ukraine. Assigned female at birth, he says starting hormone therapy was a major step in his quest to become his true self.

“It was utter happiness. I was euphoric, it was the moment that I’ve been waiting for for so long,” Eric, who asked for his last name to not be used because he is concerned for his safety, told CNN in Chisinau, Moldova, in July.

But just days after Eric had what should have been the first in a series of testosterone injections administered at a clinic in Kyiv, Russia invaded Ukraine. Everything changed.

Russia’s brutal assault on Ukraine has upended the lives of millions of Ukrainians. But for Eric and many other trans people, the war has also made it much more difficult to be who they are.

Many lost access to vital medication and psychological help. Some were completely cut off from their communities and forced into spaces where LGBTQ people were not welcome, according to the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe.

Bureaucratic problems, such as having personal documents issued under a different gender, can put them at extra risk.

The Ukrainian transgender rights group Cohort says it has helped more than 1,500 people since the start of the war, assisting them to move to safer areas and helping them pay their bills. The NGO also works with shelters to make sure they have the basic supplies they need.

But the number one request Cohort has been receiving in recent months is for help getting hormone therapy, or HRT, according to Anastasiia Yeva Domani, Cohort’s co-founder and executive director.

HRT can be used by trans women, trans men and non-binary people to make their physical appearance more aligned with their gender identity. The drugs alter the body’s testosterone or estrogen hormone levels and trigger physical changes that normally occur during puberty.

Read more here.

The Donetsk region has continued to face shelling as fighting rages in Ukraine’s east.

In the city of Bakhmut, besieged for months by Russian forces, an administrative building, a dormitory and a residential building were hit, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk region military administration. There were no casualties, he added.

Bakhmut and the surrounding area has seen some of the most ferocious fighting of the war.

The neighboring towns of Soledar and Chashiv Yar were also targeted by Russian shelling, Kyrylenko said, adding that Kurakhove and Hostre came under fire, damaging a kindergarten, four high-rise buildings and seven private houses.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian shelling has injured two people in Donetsk city, according to the Russian Investigative Committee.

The shelling targeted Voroshilovsky district, according to Alexei Kulemzin, head of the city administration.

The shelling allegedly struck the Church of Nativity of Christ, which has “partially collapsed,” according to the statement. 

The Investigative Committee said it will “establish all the circumstances of the incident and the persons involved in the commission of crimes.”

Two buildings caught fire Monday in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) after strikes by Ukrainian forces, according to Russian state media.

The DPR’s mission at the Russian-backed Joint Center for Control and Coordination said Ukrainian forces shelled the Voroshilovsky district of Donetsk with Grad missiles on Monday morning, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

“Shelling by Ukrainian armed formations has been detected at 03:49 (a.m. local time) from the settlement of Tonenkoye toward the city of Donetsk (Voroshilovsky District), with 10 Grad rockets fired,” the mission said on Telegram, according to TASS.

State news agency RIA Novosti said the two buildings that caught fire were residential, with one also housing a funeral home.

Efforts to put out the fires have been complicated by water supply being turned off in the area, Russian media reported.

Information on injuries and casualties is being clarified and emergency responders are at the scene, according to Russian media.

The Ukrainian military has not yet confirmed or commented on the attack. 

Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, has been held by Russian-backed separatists since 2014. 

At least one person was killed and three others wounded after Russian strikes hit the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih early Monday morning, local authorities said. 

Three missiles hit an industrial enterprise, killing one employee and wounding three others who were taken to a hospital and assessed to be in stable condition, Valentyn Reznichenko, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said in a Telegram post Monday.

Southern strikes: Russian shelling was also reported in the southern Nikopol district and Zaporizhzhia region. 

In the city of Zaporizhzhia, industrial and energy infrastructure was struck and one private business was damaged, Zaporizhzhia official Anatoliy Kurtev said on Telegram Monday. 

Oleksandr Starukh, head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said there were no casualties. 

In his daily video address on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rallied residents to stay strong through the difficult winter months. 

“To get through this winter, we have to be even more resilient and even more united than ever,” Zelensky said in a video alongside the text: “It is worth perceiving this winter not as a test, but as time — time that brings us closer to the main thing — to victory.”

This weekend brought a fresh round of Russian attacks near the front lines in both southern and eastern Ukraine.

The map below shows the territories currently controlled by Moscow or Kyiv’s forces:

Nine “Grain from Ukraine” ships with a combined 336,000 tons of agricultural products have left Odesa ports in the past two days, the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure reported Sunday.

The program is a humanitarian initiative, with Ukraine planning to send more than 60 ships of critically needed food products to Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Congo, Kenya and Yemen.

“In the past two days, the ports of Greater Odesa sent 9 ships with 336,000 tons of agricultural products to the countries of Africa, Asia and Europe. Since the beginning of the implementation of the ‘grain initiative,’ the world has received 13 million tons of Ukrainian food,” the Infrastructure Ministry wrote in a Facebook statement.  

CNN previously reported that the first vessel from the humanitarian program, carrying about 25,000 tons of Ukrainian wheat, arrived at the port of Doraleh in Djibouti Saturday, en route to Ethiopia.

Russia will not export oil to countries that impose price caps even if production is cut, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on state TV Sunday. 

“I want to emphasize that our position is unchanged, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about this, and the government has repeatedly said that we believe that this instrument is non-market, inefficient, grossly interfering in the market, contrary to all the rules and the same WTO,” Novak said, as quoted by RIA Novosti.
“We will sell oil and oil products to those countries that will work with us on market terms, even if we have to somewhat reduce production.”

Novak also said Moscow is working on the mechanisms that would prohibit the use of the price cap instrument. 

Some context: On Friday, G7 nations and Australia agreed on a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian oil.

A price of $60 represents a discount of almost $27 to Brent crude, the global benchmark. Urals has been trading at discounts of around $23 in recent days. Reuters reported that the EU agreement included a mechanism to adjust the level of the cap to ensure it was always 5% below the market rate.

The risk of settling on a lower price is that Russia could retaliate by slashing its output, which would roil markets. Russia previously warned that it will stop supplying countries that adhere to the cap.

Officials in the recently liberated city of Kherson in southern Ukraine say two critical services have been largely restored after Russian strikes damaged infrastructure.

Electricity: Kherson city’s power supply is back to 85% across town, according to local officials. That marks a significant improvement in the southern city over recent days.

After being restored to roughly three-quarters capacity Friday, the city had been cut off from electricity entirely by Russian shelling.

By Saturday, power was restored to 75% in the city, and then Sunday marked another improvement.

Water: Some 70% of residents now have water supplied in their homes, according to local officials. The city’s pumping station had been without power due to the Russian strikes that knocked energy grids offline.

The eastern town of Bakhmut has become a prime target for Russian troops, a Ukrainian military official said Sunday. 

Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesman for the Eastern Group of the nation’s armed forces, said Ukrainian troops were holding out in Bakhmut, describing the situation as “very difficult, but under control.”

Russian units appeared to make some progress in the town a few days ago, though they also looked to be taking heavy casualties.

“Bakhmut has become a target number one for the occupation army in order to break through our defense, to reach the direction of Pokrovsk, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk … to demonstrate at least some success of their units directly on the battlefield,” Cherevatyi said.

Meanwhile in the Kherson region, head of the regional military administration Yaroslav Yanushevych said Russia’s forces have once again shelled residential areas.

That included attacks on private apartment buildings and other civilian infrastructure, according to Yanushevych.

One civilian in Kherson was killed and two were injured Saturday, he said.

Ukrainian officials say Russia left numerous mines, tripwires and other dangerous objects throughout the Kherson region, with the National Police reporting they have seized 4,200 explosive devices and destroyed another 1,250. 

In the city of Kherson, crews have restored electricity supply, with about 75% of the community gaining access to power as of Sunday morning, according to the regional military administration.

CNN’s Tim Lister and Julia Kesaieva contributed to this report.

Authorities in Ukraine have detained a group of people who allegedly tried to steal a mural by renowned graffiti artist Banksy from the wall of a building that was damaged by Russian shelling.

The mural, which shows a woman wearing a gas mask and carrying a fire extinguisher, was “ruthlessly cut off by attackers” in the town of Hostomel, northwest of the capital Kyiv on Friday, the head of the Kyiv Police Department, Andrey Nebitov, said Saturday in a statement on Telegram.

“A group of people dismantled the painting of the world-famous artist, tried to transport it using wooden boards and polyethylene, but was exposed by police and security forces,” Nebitov said.

Read more here.