December 9, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage for the day has ended. Follow the latest Ukraine news here or read through the updates below. 

The White House is continuing to sound the alarm at the flourishing military partnership between Iran and Russia, saying Friday the US would work to “expose and disrupt” the exchange of weapons and know-how between the two countries.

“This is a fullscale defense partnership that is harmful to Ukraine, to Iran’s neighbors and quite frankly to the international community,” said John Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator at the National Security Council.

Kirby said the US was imposing new sanctions on three Russian entities involved in acquiring and using Russian drones. The US also authorized an additional $275 million in military aid for Ukraine on Friday.

He said the several hundred drones Iran is providing to Russia are being used to kill innocent Ukrainians and destroy civilian infrastructure. He said Iran was providing Russia with an “unprecedented level” of military and technical support, including the potential sale of ballistic missiles and a new joint production line.

In return, Russia is seeking to collaborate with Iran on weapons development and advanced military components, Kirby said, and could be providing Tehran with helicopters and air defense systems along with training pilots in Russia.

He called the Tehran-Moscow pipeline a “full-fledged defense partnership” that the US expects to grow in the coming months.

He said the US has warned other Middle East nations the alliance could pose a threat to their region, and said the US would “bring together like-minded countries” to discuss Iran-Russia cooperation.

The brother of Paul Whelan said he doesn’t believe the US has run out of options when it comes to a possible prisoner swap involving his imprisoned sibling.

“Russia likes parity,” David Whelan told CNN on Friday. “They like getting equal things and it’s both when you hit them they want to hit you back and when you give them something, they want to give you the same thing only. So it’s a very careful and parsimonious view of the world.”

He said Moscow has labeled Paul a spy and speculated that the country could be “waiting for a Russian spy to be arrested somewhere else in the world, and then use Paul for that purpose.”

“But I think that the US government has shown that it can be creative and will be creative going forward,” he said.

Whelan said the previous days have been “pretty devastating” for his brother, and that his detainment has also been “very difficult” on their family.

“It’s hard to keep your own morale up,” he said. “You want to support Paul and keep his morale up, but you know that really each day is the clock ticking away.”

Some background: Russia refused to release Whelan — a former Marine convicted of espionage charges — alongside WNBA star Brittney Griner unless a former colonel from Russia’s domestic spy imprisoned in Germany was also released, a U.S. official told CNN. 

The US was unable to deliver on the request for the ex-colonel, Vadim Krasikov, because he is serving out a life sentence for murder in Germany.

Brittney Griner, the American basketball released by Russia in a prisoner exchange, was able to call her dad from the plane while flying home, according to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.

“I have spoken with a parent, and he was eagerly waiting for a call which was arranged, and so she was able to in midair call her dad. And I can assure you that made him more than ecstatic,” Jackson Lee, who represents Texas’ 18th Congressional District, told CNN.

“He is a veteran, which is what we kept saying as we pushed for the negotiations, that here is a veteran whose daughter has been taken by one the worst leaders in the world. So, he is happy obviously. They all want to see her and might even want to see her back here at home, but I know that was a happy phone reunion to hear his daughter’s voice,” she said.

As Ukraine grapples with an energy crisis, the country will have to set priorities for electricity supply, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

“The first priority is critical infrastructure, in particular water and heat supply facilities and hospitals,” Shmyhal told a government meeting. “The second priority is the military-industrial complex — facilities that work for the defense of the state. The principle, ‘Everything for the front,’ remains absolutely unchanged.”

He said the third priority is businesses that produce essential products — for example, bakeries and dairies. And the residential sector was fourth.

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, CEO of state electricity generator Ukrenergo, said that repairs were continuing after the last wave of Russian missile attacks on Monday.

Kudrytskyi said substations in southern Ukraine and power plants were damaged.

“Several power plants were forced to stop generating electricity after the damage. Now we are gradually trying to restore generation at thermal power plants, to bring them to the levels that existed on the eve of the last attack.”

Kudrytskyi said that since Oct. 10, more than 1,000 heavy missiles and drones have been fired at energy infrastructure facilities. The major difficulties with electricity supply were currently in the Odesa region, Kherson region, and Kharkiv region.

Nuclear generation has provided a little more than half of Ukraine’s needs in the recent past but Kudrytskyi said said the country needed other types of energy generation.

“There is not a single thermal power plant in Ukraine that was not damaged by the attacks,” he said. “Similarly, almost all hydroelectric power plants have suffered some damage and have a limited ability to generate electricity.”

He said as repairs continued, he hoped the country could transition to planned outages in the next few days. Much of Ukraine has also suffered emergency power cuts in recent weeks.

Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said more Russian targeting of infrastructure could be expected, and the energy supply might also be affected by heavy frosts.

“Ukraine has already received power equipment worth millions of euros. Our task today is not only to use the equipment for rapid restoration works but also to form a stock of equipment that may be urgently needed after the next shelling,” he said.

WNBA star Brittney Griner arrived at a Texas Army medical center Friday for a routine evaluation after she was released from Russian detention in a prisoner swap. 

And in Ukraine, some critical infrastructure for electricity is “totally destroyed” according to the country’s infrastructure minister. 

If you’re just reading in now, here are the latest developments: 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged Friday that the military situation in parts of eastern Ukraine was “very difficult” but said Ukrainian forces continued to resist Russian attacks.

In his daily video address, Zelensky said, “The frontline situation remains very difficult in the key areas of Donbas — Bakhmut, Soledar, Mariinka, Kreminna.”

The four towns are on the frontlines in Donetsk and Luhansk, which have moved little in the last three months.

“There is no living place left on the ground in these areas that is undamaged by shells and fire,” Zelensky said. “The occupiers have actually destroyed Bakhmut — another city of Donbas, which the Russian army turned into scorched ruins.”

Zelensky said Ukrainian forces were holding the front, repelling attacks and inflicting “tangible losses on the enemy in response to the hell that came to Ukraine under the Russian flag.”

Situation on the frontline: There’s been heavy fighting around the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk for months. The city has suffered extensive destruction, as have dozens of settlements along the front lines in Donetsk.

Earlier Friday, an adviser to the president’s office, Oleksiy Arestovych, said the Russians were making an unprecedented push towards Bakhmut. He also said that the situation around nearby Soledar “has worsened a little” with the Russians closing in on a village near an important highway.

In the Luhansk direction, Arestovych talked about dynamic front lines in which each side goes on the attack. But he said that at present, it was the Russians on the offensive, “meaning we are holding defenses.”

Russia refused to release Paul Whelan alongside Brittney Griner unless a former colonel from Russia’s domestic spy currently in German custody was also released as part of any prisoner swap, US officials told CNN, even as the US offered up the names of several other Russian prisoners in US custody that they would be willing to trade.

The US was unable to deliver on the request for the ex-colonel, Vadim Krasikov, because he is serving out a life sentence for murder in Germany. 

CNN first reported exclusively in August that the Russians had requested that Krasikov be released along with Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who was serving a 25-year sentence in the US, in exchange for Whelan and Griner. 

US officials made quiet inquiries to Germany about whether they might be willing to include Krasikov in the trade, a senior German government source told CNN earlier this year. But ultimately, the US was not able to secure Krasikov’s release. 

The German government was not willing to seriously consider including Krasikov — who had assassinated a Georgian citizen in broad daylight in Berlin in 2019 — in a potential trade, the German source said.  

The US made several other offers to the Russians, sources said, to get them to agree to include Whelan in the swap. Among the names floated by the US was Alexander Vinnik, a Russian national extradited to the US in August on allegations of money laundering, hacking and extortion. 

The US also offered to trade Roman Seleznev, a convicted Russian cyber-criminal currently serving a 14-year sentence in the US, sources said. 

A lawyer for Seleznev did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Frédéric Bélot, a lawyer who represented Vinnik in France before his extradition to the US, told CNN Friday that he was not aware of any current discussions between Moscow and Washington over including Vinnik in a potential prisoner swap. 

For the second time this week, President Vladimir Putin has floated the possibility that Russia may formally change its current doctrine that it will not be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict. 

Putin noted that United States’ policy was not to exclude the possibility of a “disarming” nuclear strike. 

“They have it in their strategy, in the documents it is spelled out – a preventive blow. We don’t. We, on the other hand, have formulated a retaliatory strike in our strategy,” Putin said.

Even if Russia were to retaliate immediately on seeing the launch of nuclear missiles towards it, Putin said, “This means that the fall of the warheads of enemy missiles on the territory of the Russian Federation is inevitable – they will still fall.” 

“So if we’re talking about this disarming strike, then maybe think about adopting the best practices of our American partners and their ideas for ensuring their security. We’re just thinking about it. No one was shy when they talked about it out loud in previous times and years,” he added. “If a potential adversary believes it is possible to use the theory of a preventive strike, and we do not, then this still makes us think about those threats that are posed to us.” 

Putin was speaking at a news conference in Bishkek. He described the preemptive nuclear strike as “applied to the control points, deprive the enemy of these control systems and so on,” implying that it could even prevent a retaliatory strike. 

Some background: On Wednesday, Putin acknowledged that the conflict is “going to take a while,” as he also warned of the “increasing” threat of nuclear war.

“As for the idea that Russia wouldn’t use such weapons first under any circumstances, then it means we wouldn’t be able to be the second to use them either — because the possibility to do so in case of an attack on our territory would be very limited,” he said Wednesday.

Putin’s comments come as the war enters winter, with Russia continuing to shell eastern and southern parts of Ukraine – and facing attacks on its own soil.

Biden administration officials have previously said that Moscow has been warned at the highest levels of the consequences for use of nuclear weapon in the war.

The Pentagon announced that an additional $275 million in security assistance for Ukraine has been approved. 

“This authorization is the Biden Administration’s twenty-seventh drawdown of equipment from DoD inventories for Ukraine since August 2021,” according to a statement from the Defense Department.

The package includes weapons and artillery rounds, as well as equipment to help Ukraine boost its air defense, according to the statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the United States for its “unwavering support” in this country’s “fight against Russian aggression” in a tweet Friday.

“No missile terror will stop our fight for freedom! It is important that the people of the United States are side by side with the people of Ukraine in this struggle,” Zelensky said.

The Defense Department said the US have provided more than $19 billion in aide to Ukraine since the beginning of the war in February.

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) says it has identified a Russian commander who ordered troops to fire at civilians in the early days of the invasion.

The SBU alleges that Lieutenant Colonel Yevgeniy Zelenov — a deputy commander in the Western Military District — ordered troops to shoot at civilian cars at the entrance to Kharkiv on Feb. 24, the first full day of the invasion. 

The SBU claims in a statement that on that day, Zelenov was commanding a Russian battalion-tactical group and “conducted active hostilities with the units of the Defense Forces in the eastern direction.”

“According to the investigation, his occupation group approached the Kharkiv ring road from the side of the village of Lyptsi and blocked the entrance to the regional center,” the SBU continues.

“At the same time, local residents who were traveling from the border settlements of the region demanded the traffic be unblocked and resisted the occupiers.”

The SBU claims that Zelenov ordered his subordinates to open fire on the cars with civilians.

CNN is reaching out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment on the accusations. Russia has consistently denied targeting civilians in what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

The CNN Film “Navalny” follows Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who was poisoned in August 2020 with a nerve agent during a flight to Moscow.

The film paints an intimate portrait of one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics and takes viewers inside the harrowing search for answers following his poisoning.

Directed by Daniel Roher, it won the best political documentary award at the 2022 Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards.

When and where to watch:

Saturday, Dec. 10 at 9 p.m. ET on CNN. You can also stream anytime on HBO Max.

Who is Navalny?

Navalny is a Russian opposition leader, Kremlin critic and activist. He has been a prominent organizer of street protests and has exposed corruption in the Russian government on social media.

Earlier this year, Navalny was sentenced to nine years in prison on fraud charges he said were politically motivated.

Where is Navalny now?

Navalny has been transferred into a solitary prison cell, according to tweets from himself and his staff, in what he described as a move designed to “shut me up.”

In his isolation, Navalny said he is allowed just two books, and his parents, children and wife can no longer see him.

President Joe Biden signed the official commutation for Viktor Bout last Friday, Dec. 2, according to the document that was posted on the Justice Department website.

The conditions of Bout’s commutation include that he not return to the United States and not profit from any book or movie about his arrest or release.

On Thursday, the White House said Bout’s commutation was not finalized until US officials saw Brittney Griner on the tarmac in Abu Dhabi. 

Here’s a look at the full document:

Brittney Griner “arrived at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas early Friday, December 9, and was taken to Brooke Army Medical Center for a routine evaluation,” a State Department official confirmed.

“The US government is focused on ensuring that Brittney Griner and her family’s well-being are prioritized and that all assistance available be offered in an appropriate manner,” the official said. 

“Due to privacy reasons and out of respect to the family, we do not have anything additional to provide,” they said.

Griner was released from a Russian jail in a Thursday prisoner swap for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout.

The Pentagon said Thursday there is some “concern” that Viktor Bout, who returned to Russia yesterday in a prisoner exchange for Brittney Griner, could return to the illicit international arms trade.

“I think there is a concern that he would return to doing the same kind of work that he’s done in the past,” a senior defense official told reporters after Bout’s release from US custody.

Bout is allegedly the most prolific arms dealer of the past decades, fueling conflicts in Africa and beyond. He was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the US on charges of conspiring to kill Americans, acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles, and provide material support to a terrorist organization.

The official said the Defense Department will continue to work with its partners in Africa to understand the current risk factors in the international arms trade.

“There are a number of actors out there who have influence in the Russian oligarchy,” the official said. “We will continue to work with African partners so that they understand the risks and the threats of the people that they’re working with and the organizations that they’re working with,” the official added.

Around 50% of Ukraine’s critical infrastructure for electricity have been “damaged more” and some has been “totally destroyed,” Oleksandr Kubrakov, the country’s infrastructure minister, has told CNN.

Ukraine was using “big bags of sand” to protect the targets, he added.

In a daily update to the energy situation across the country, the state energy supplier Ukrenergo maintained that the situation “remains difficult but under control”.

However, the company did admit that “all thermal and hydroelectric power plants are partially damaged,” and that the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is not supplying electricity to the grid.

The company noted that that there will be little “major improvement” on the restoration of power across the country over the weekend. Russian shelling and missile strikes have continued to impact Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Russian opposition figure Ilya Yashin said on Friday that the “authors” of the “hysterical verdict” of a Moscow court handing him eight and a half years of jail time are “optimistic about Putin’s prospects,” according to a post on Yashin’s official Telegram account.

“The authors of the verdict are optimistic about Putin’s prospects. In my opinion, they are too optimistic,” he said.

“With this hysterical verdict, the government wants to intimidate us all, but in fact, it only shows its weakness.

“Strong leaders are calm and self-confident, and only weaklings seek to shut everyone up, burn out any dissent. So today it only remains for me to repeat what was said on the day of my arrest: I am not afraid, and you should not be,” the post added. 

The reaction came after a Moscow court announced the sentencing after finding Yashin guilty of spreading “false information” about the Russian army, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti.

“But we also have no reason to be sad, because we have won this trial, friends,” Yashin continued. “We spoke the truth about war crimes and called for an end to the bloodshed.”

Russian investigators said his statements about the circumstances of the killings in Bucha are a criminal offense under recently introduced legislation, which considers discrediting the Russian armed forces to be illegal.

Some background: Yashin, also a close ally of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, came to prominence during the protests between 2011 and 2012, which he helped organize against Putin’s re-election for the third term and unfair elections. Yashin remained a fierce Putin critic for years to come, also serving as a municipal deputy in small Moscow municipality before being barred from running for a public office.

US basketball player Brittney Griner has landed in the US after being released in a high-profile prisoner swap.

And in Ukraine, settlements in the eastern Donetsk region and northeastern Kharkiv region have come under heavy Russian fire, officials said.

Here are the latest developments:

A Moscow court on Friday found Kremlin critic Ilya Yashin guilty of spreading “false information” about the Russian army, according to Russian state media TASS. 

Sentencing is expected later in the day. Yashin, a prominent opposition leader and former municipal deputy, faces up to nine years in prison.  

Russian investigators said his statements about the circumstances of the killings in Bucha are a criminal offense under recently introduced legislation, which considers discrediting the Russian armed forces to be illegal.

In his closing remarks to the court on Monday, Yashin said he was being prosecuted to “sew his mouth shut.”

“Everyone understands that this is the point. I am isolated from society because they want me to be silent. I promise as long as I’m alive I’ll never will be. My mission is to tell the truth. I will not give up the truth even behind bars,” he said, according to a post on Yashin’s official account on the encrypted messaging app Telegram.

Yashin, also a close ally of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, came to prominence during the protests between 2011 and 2012, which he helped organize against Putin’s re-election for the third term and unfair elections.  

Yashin remained a fierce Putin critic for years to come, also serving as a municipal deputy in small Moscow municipality before being barred from running for a public office.  

The exchange of WNBA star Brittney Griner for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout is not a sign of improvements in the relations between Russia and the United States, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. 

“The (Russia-US) negotiations dealt exclusively with the topic of the exchange,” Peskov told the Russian newspaper Izvestia. 

“It would be wrong to draw any hypothetical conclusions that this could be a step out of the crisis that we are having in bilateral relations. Bilateral relations remain in a sorry state,” he added. 

Peskov said the Kremlin wished Bout a “speedy rehabilitation” and said that the released prisoner is “well, but the doctors have yet to determine how healthy he is.”

Meanwhile, Bout’s wife Alla told state news agency TASS on Friday that he is “exhausted” and in a “terrible state.” 

“Viktor Anatolyevich (Bout) is in a terrible state, he is very exhausted. He had not slept for three days before that. This is due to the road, of course, and to the emotional component,” she said, adding that he was “treated very honorably, with respect” by the United States.

The Biden administration believes the Russian government will continue to engage with the United States on the issue of Russian and US nationals detained in each others’ country, a senior administration official told CNN.

Moscow knows that the two sides will reach “a mutually acceptable arrangement if they keep talking to us,” the official said.

The official’s comments came as Brittney Griner was exchanged for Viktor Bout. Griner, a WNBA basketball player, was imprisoned in Russia and convicted of drug smuggling after being caught with less than a gram of cannabis oil in her luggage earlier this year. Bout, a convicted arms dealer, was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the US on charges of conspiring to kill Americans.

Another American, Paul Whelan, remains in Russian custody. Whelan, a former marine who is a US, Irish, British and Canadian citizen, was detained at a Moscow hotel in December 2018 by Russian authorities who alleged he was involved in an intelligence operation. He was convicted and sentenced in June 2020 to 16 years in prison in a trial US officials denounced as unfair.

“We have shown an openness to talk about that which is actually available to us and gotten only in response a demand for something not available to us,” the senior Biden administration official said, reiterating that the Russians refused what had been offered to secure the release of Whelan. 

CNN previously reported that convicted Russian murderer Vadim Krasikov, who is in German custody, was one of Moscow’s requests, and the official did not rule out that his release had been a continued request.

In an exclusive interview with CNN, Whelan said he was happy that Griner was released but was “greatly disappointed” that more had not been done to secure his release.

War-related demands: Demands related to the war in Ukraine, however, did not come up in the negotiations to secure Griner’s release and attempt to secure Whelan’s, the official said, adding that the US would not makes concessions on that front.

“We’ve obviously thought about why that might be the case” that the Russians didn’t float it, the official said, “and I think we credit it to the fact that we’ve been so crystal clear, so consistent, that it is not for us to negotiate how that horrific situation gets resolved.”

“If it were raised, of course, it is not for bargaining. Another country’s future is not for bargaining and the defense of democracy against autocracy is not for bargaining,” the official said.

Pope Francis broke down in tears on Thursday while talking about the war in Ukraine during an annual prayer at Rome’s Spanish steps to mark the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a national holiday in Italy. 

The Pope’s voice cracked as he mentioned the suffering of the Ukrainian people and he trembled as he was forced to stop for around 30 seconds.  

“Instead, I still have to present to you the supplication of the children, of the elderly, of the fathers and mothers, of the young people of that tormented land.”

Watch moment:

Video Ad Feedback

f5609d55-f387-40ee-b311-57749144232c.mp4

00:54 - Source: cnn

Brittney Griner’s first stop back on US soil will likely be at a medical treatment facility, according to John Kirby, a spokesman for the US National Security Council.

Griner could also to take part in a Department of Defense Program known as PISA (Post Isolation Support Activities) to help her acclimate back to normal life. 

Americans detained abroad, like Marine Corps veteran Trevor Reed and the seven Americans who returned from Venezuela in October, also participated in PISA. 

Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, who traveled with Griner, confirmed her arrival early Friday morning on Twitter.

Britain on Friday announced new sanctions against 30 people around the world it alleged were “corrupt political figures, human rights violators and perpetrators of conflict-related sexual violence.”

Those targeted include “individuals and entities involved in a wide range of grievous activities – including the torture of prisoners, the mobilization of troops to rape civilians, and systematic atrocities,” the UK Foreign Office said in a statement.

The move was coordinated with international partners to mark International Anti-Corruption Day and Human Rights Day.

Several individuals from Russia and Crimea, which the Kremlin annexed in violation of international law in 2014, were targeted. They will not be permitted to enter the UK, channel money through its banks, or profit from its economy. 

A plane carrying WNBA star Brittney Griner arrived at San Antonio’s Kelly Field, in Texas, early Friday, a day after she was released from Russian detention.  

Griner spent 10 months behind bars in Russia before being released in a high-profile prisoner swap that involved convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. 

In February, authorities in a Moscow-area airport found Griner with less than a gram of cannabis oil in her luggage. She was later convicted of drug smuggling charges and sentenced to nine years in prison. In November, she was transferred to a penal colony to serve out her sentence.

The eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk remains the focus of Russian attacks, particularly Avdiivka and Bakhmut, a Ukrainian Armed Forces spokesman said.

In Bakhmut the situation is “difficult but controlled,” press officer Serhii Cherevatyi of the eastern division of the Ukrainian military said.

The head of the regional military administration of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said five people were killed in the region on Wednesday.

Ukrainian military officials said in their daily update that 25 “localities” near Avdiivka and Bakhmut had been targeting by shelling, mortars and rocket artillery.

Ukraine is a “human rights emergency,” United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said on Friday.

“You have 17.7 million in need of humanitarian assistance; you have 9.3 million requiring food and livelihood assistance,” Turk said at a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland. “You have about 7.4 million refugees, you have 6.5 million people internally displaced.”

Turk said the country is “suffering” from not only continued missile attacks but from destroyed civilian infrastructure.

“The energy sector is heavily affected, the heating system, the electricity grid, there are people who live in sub-zero temperatures without heating, and without electricity,” he said.

“There are these blackouts, so you can imagine these are millions of people who suffer this every day.”

On Monday, Russia launched a fresh barrage of missiles toward Ukraine, cutting off water and electricity supplies in some areas and killing at least one person in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih and at least two people in Zaporizhzhia, according to local authorities.

A hospital in Kherson city was hit by Russian shelling on Friday morning, Yaroslav Yanushevysh, head of the Kherson region military administration, said in a Telegram post.  

The pediatric ward and morgue were damaged in the shelling, according to Yanushevysh. No injuries or casualties have been recorded so far.

On Wednesday, two people died after Kherson was shelled 51 times, according to Yanushevysh, who said Russians had “fired at peaceful settlements of the region with artillery, MLRS, tanks and mortars.”

Some context: Last month, Russian troops withdrew from Kherson city after having occupied it for eight months, in a humiliating setback. But Russia still retains control of much of the broader Kherson region.

The US will “soon be able to call” Sweden and Finland NATO allies, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday following a meeting with his Swedish and Finnish counterparts, when asked about their admission into the defense alliance.

“I am convinced based on everything I know that we will soon be able to call both countries formally our allies … Finland and Sweden are already integrating into our work,” Blinken told reporters at the State Department. “There can be no doubt on anyone’s part that they are ready today to be members of the alliance.”

Some context: Finland and Sweden asked to join NATO earlier this year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but have faced ratification delays from Turkey and Hungary. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has accused both countries of harboring members of the separatist militant Kurdistan’s Workers Party, also known as PKK, which Turkey views as a terrorist organization. 

Erdoğan has also called on Finland to publicly abandon the arms embargo it imposed on Turkey in 2019, after it invaded northern Syria. A step which Sweden — which had joined the embargo — took in September. 

“Turkey has raised important security concerns in this process, and the process is being used effectively and productively to address those concerns. I won’t speak for either of my colleagues on that except to say as we’ve observed it, what both countries have done in engaging with Turkey and with NATO itself, has been to address those concerns in tangible ways,” Blinken said. 
“And we’ve seen these countries take tangible steps to again address the concerns that Turkey has raised. So, I’m confident that this is moving forward.”

NATO decisions are made by consensus, which means all 30 alliance member states must approve the two Nordic nations joining. Turkey is the only member that has voiced opposition to their membership, while Hungary is yet to ratify it.  

Swapping an American jailed for a minor drugs offense in Russia for one of the world’s most notorious arms traffickers known as “The Merchant of Death” might seem like a lopsided deal that could fuel dangerous national security precedents.

But President Joe Biden’s decision to exchange WNBA star Brittney Griner for Viktor Bout goes beyond the exchange’s bottom line. It represented a humane resolution to a painful dilemma that came after tortuous talks with a Russian regime that treats people as geopolitical pawns every day.

In that sense, the Biden administration demonstrated the gulf between its moral grounding and that of Russian President Vladimir Putin who is currently demonstrating his inhumanity on another front, with a fearsome assault on Ukrainian civilians.

But the tragic counterpoint to this diplomatic triumph — Biden’s failure to also secure the release of Paul Whelan, another American incarcerated in a Russian penal colony — underscored the unforgiving moral conundrum he faced. And it prompted top Republicans to charge that he had prioritized a basketball superstar over an ex-marine who benefited from a vocal political pressure campaign on Biden.

Read the full analysis here.

Brittney Griner’s family expressed gratitude to President Joe Biden and his administration “for the tireless work they did to bring Brittney home” in a statement released Thursday night.

The statement added:

“We sincerely thank you all for the kind words, thoughts and prayers — including Paul and the Whelan family who have been generous with their support for Brittney and our family during what we know is a heartbreaking time. We pray for Paul and for the swift and safe return of all wrongfully-detained Americans. 
“We ask that you respect our privacy as we embark on this road to healing.” 

The Biden administration has ideas about “new forms of offers” it is going to try with the Russians in an effort to secure American Paul Whelan’s release, a senior administration official said. 

The official said there is a recognition that the US needs to make available “something more, something different” from what it has offered thus far. 

This position comes as Whelan told CNN the administration would have to look at what it has “that these people want, and hopefully give it to them, or I’ll be here for a long time.”

Russia views Whelan as a spy, the administration official explained, which means it puts him in a different category. The official didn’t rule out the US offering a Russian spy in US custody. 

“There is a willingness to pay even a very big price on the part of this president,” the official said. “We have made clear to the Russians that we at least are open to talking about that which is at our disposal, that which we could actually deliver. It would be somebody in our custody.”

President Joe Biden had already personally informed Cherelle Griner that her wife was being released from Russian detention when aides arrived with more news: Brittney Griner was now securely out of Russia — and on the telephone.

Nearly 10 months after Brittney Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport, the jubilant moment in the Oval Office on Thursday amounted to the culmination of prolonged, frustrating negotiations and one painful decision that left another detained American disappointed and wondering what his fate may be.

In conversations across an array of government channels, Russian officials were clear with their American counterparts: they would release Griner — and only Griner — in exchange for a convicted Russian arms dealer nicknamed the “merchant of death.”

Because of the matter’s exceedingly high profile, it was certain those conditions had been set by Russian President Vladimir Putin himself, one US official said.

Despite Biden’s attempts to link Griner’s case to that of Paul Whelan, a former US Marine arrested on espionage charges in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years in prison two years later, it became plain recently that Putin would not budge.

“The choice was bringing Brittney Griner home right now, or bringing no one home right now,” one senior administration official said.

Read the full story here.

A plane carrying Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout landed in Moscow following a prisoner swap for US basketball star Brittney Griner, according to Russian state television channel Russia 24.

Bout’s wife and mother were waiting and hugged him as soon as he walked off the plane, Russia 24 footage shows.

The channel earlier released video of Bout boarding a plane, getting a quick medical check and calling his family.

Bout told a reporter in Moscow he learned that he’d be returning to his native country in the middle of the night — and that he “didn’t even get to say goodbye to anyone.”

Griner is expected to land in San Antonio, Texas, Thursday but the exact timing is unclear.

Who is Viktor Bout? Bout, nicknamed the “Merchant of Death” by his accusers, is a former Soviet military officer who was serving a 25-year sentence in the US on various charges, including conspiring to kill Americans.

Read more about the convicted arms dealer here.

The Ukrainian military said settlements in the eastern Donetsk region and northeastern Kharkiv region have come under heavy Russian fire.

“More than 20 attacks from [Russian] multiple rocket launchers [are] on the positions of our troops and settlements along the contact line,” the military said.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Russian forces were holding their lines along the border between the Kharkiv and Luhansk regions and had shelled nearly a dozen settlements in the course of the day. 

Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv region military administration, told Ukrainian television that in northern parts of Kharkiv, towns recently taken back by Ukrainian forces near the Russian border were constantly being shelled, including in Vovchansk.

“Settlements close to the front line on Kupiansk sector are under constant shelling,” he said, but insisted there was no prospect of a counteroffensive by the Russians. “We have enough forces and means in this and other areas to repel the enemy.”

Further south, the Donetsk front lines continue to see heavy Russian shelling in nearly 20 areas, according to the military, especially around Bakhmut and Avdiivka. Battles in the region have become a war of attrition involving mortars, tank fire, artillery and explosives dropped from drones — with much of the countryside pockmarked with craters. Neither side has taken any meaningful territory in several months along that part of the front line.

The General Staff said that in the southern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk, 22 settlements had come under fire, with two attacked by Russian aircraft. And there was also Russian tank and artillery shelling of nearly 20 settlements in recently liberated parts of Kherson region on the west bank of the Dnipro River.

Here’s the latest map of control:

Detained American Paul Whelan expressed his frustration that more has not been done to secure his release in an exclusive CNN interview hours after another detained American, Brittney Griner, was freed.

Whelan said he was happy that Griner was released, but told CNN, “I am greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release, especially as the four year anniversary of my arrest is coming up.”

The interview took place shortly after President Joe Biden, standing alongside Griner’s wife Cherelle at the White House, also expressed regret that the US had not been able to get Whelan out. Biden vowed the US would “never give up” on him. US officials said the Russians refused to negotiate his release.

“This was not a situation where we had a choice of which American to bring home. It was a choice between bringing home one particular American — Brittney Griner — or bringing home none,” a US senior administration official said Thursday morning.

Whelan said he was surprised that he had been left behind.

Read more here.

Local social media channels in the Russian-occupied city of Berdiansk reported loud explosions and a fire there Thursday morning, though Russian-appointed officials denied any attack.

Berdiansk is a city and port close to the Sea of Azov on Ukraine’s southern coast and has been occupied by Russian forces since the early days of the conflict. Its port has previously been targeted by Ukrainian forces.

The explosions were confirmed by Viktoria Galitsyna, the Ukrainian-appointed head of the city’s military administration, and Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol. Neither official is in Berdiansk.

Galitsyna said the explosions had occurred at a Russian-held airfield just north of the city. Andriushchenko said that, judging by what was being reported locally, something “very big detonates.” The sound of the explosions had been heard in nearby villages, he said.

Moscow-backed leaders reject reports: The head of the Russian-appointed administration in Berdiansk, Aleksandr Saulenko, denied the reports.

Saulenko said Ukrainian “couch officials” who had fled to Zaporizhzhia were trying to “mislead users of social networks and messengers by spreading fake messages about explosions near the airport in our wonderful and quiet city.”
“Trust only the official information of the Berdiansk (military administration), which is located in the city and has all the information first-hand,” Saulenko said.

A bottleneck is building across an important trading route for oil, which if left unresolved could knock global supply and boost prices at a fragile moment for energy markets.

As of Thursday, 16 oil tankers traveling south from the Black Sea were waiting to cross the Bosphorus strait into the Sea of Marmara, an increase of five from Tuesday, according to a report from Istanbul-based Tribeca Shipping Agency. A further nine tankers were waiting to cross southbound from the Sea of Marmara through the Dardanelles strait into the Mediterranean.

The snarl-up in waterways controlled by Turkey, which Turkish officials said is mostly affecting crude oil shipments destined for Europe, has caught the attention of UK and US government officials who are now in talks with Ankara to resolve the growing impasse.

The snag is linked to a Western price cap on Russian oil that came into effect on Monday. The cap is supposed to limit the Kremlin’s revenues without adding to stress on the global economy by reducing supply. But Turkey is insisting that vessels prove they have insurance that will pay out in light of the new sanctions, before allowing them to pass through the straits linking the Black Sea and Mediterranean.

Read more here.

President Vladimir Putin has made rare public comments specifically addressing Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. 

Speaking after an awards ceremony for “Heroes of Russia” at the Kremlin, he addressed a group of soldiers receiving the awards, clutching a glass of champagne.

He listed a series of events he blames on the Ukrainians: “Who hit the Crimean bridge? Who blew up the power lines from the Kursk nuclear power plant?” 

Some background: The reference to the bridge pertains to an explosion that took place on the Kerch bridge — which connects Crimea to Russia — on Oct. 8, when a truck crossing it exploded and caused it to be partially destroyed. The Ukrainians have never claimed responsibility, but the Kremlin was quick to point fingers toward Kyiv. In the days following the bridge explosion, Putin said “further acts of terrorism on the territory of Russia will be harsh … have no doubt about that.” Last week, Putin appeared on the bridge while he was shown repairs, and then he drove a car across it. 

Kursk appears to refer to Russia’s announcement that an airfield in the region, which neighbors Ukraine, was targeted in a drone attack. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has offered no comment on recent explosions, including in Kursk, which are deep within Russia. Officially, the targets are well beyond the reach of the country’s declared drones.

At the awards ceremony, Putin continued to list alleged aggressions: “Who is not supplying water to Donetsk? Not supplying water to a city of million is an act of genocide.”  

He ended his apparent off-the-cuff comments by claiming there is no mention of the water situation. “No one has said a word about it anywhere. At all! Complete silence,” he said.

Local Russian authorities in Donetsk — which Putin claimed to annex in defiance of international law — have reported frequent shelling of the city this week.

Putin tersely compared the difference in reactions between attacks on Russia and attacks on Ukraine.

“As soon as we make a move, do something in response — noise, clamor, crackle for the whole universe,” he said.

He ended by saying that “it won’t interfere with our combat missions.”