March 3, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

By Kathleen Magramo, Aditi Sangal, Leinz Vales, Tori B. Powell and Matt Meyer, CNN

Updated 10:06 p.m. ET, March 3, 2023

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6:32 a.m. ET, March 3, 2023

Vital supply bridge to Ukraine's Bakhmut blown up overnight by Russian forces

From CNN's Seb Shukla and Alex Marquardt

A vital supply bridge to Bakhmut, Ukraine, destroyed by a Russian attack, on March 3. (Social media)

A vital bridge connecting the besieged city of Bakhmut to the nearby village of Khromove, and the last main supply route from Bakhmut to the city of Chasiv Yar, has been blown up overnight by Russian forces, according to multiple sources speaking with CNN.

A soldier in Bakhmut and a local official told CNN that the bridge was taken out by Russia and a photo that confirmed the destruction appeared on social media.

The bridge was hit with a Russian missile and left a large crater, according to the soldier, who added that he believes it was an Iskander missile.

Without any more paved roads for Ukraine to use in or out of Bakhmut, the supply and evacuation route will now be forced to go through dirt roads, according to both sources.

The local official told CNN that they hope to repair the bridge in the coming days.

Some context: A mandatory evacuation order is in place in the Donetsk region and about 5,000 people remain in Bakhmut, according to Ukrainian officials.

Russian forces are advancing on Bakhmut, but the Ukrainian military says it is holding its ground in the battle for the eastern city and not planning to withdraw.

This post has been updated with additional details.

5:15 a.m. ET, March 3, 2023

Ukraine orders drone unit to leave Bakhmut, commander says

From CNN’s Vasco Cotovio and Olga Voitovych

Ukrainian commander Robert Brovdi delivers a message via Telegram on March 3. (Telegram)

A Ukrainian drone reconnaissance unit based in Bakhmut has been ordered to leave the besieged eastern city, its commander said in a video posted on Telegram on Friday.

“In the middle of the night, the Madiar Birds unit received a combat order to immediately leave Bakhmut for a new place of combat operations,” Commander Robert Brovdi said.

Russian forces have advanced on Bakhmut over the past few days after months of intense shelling and fighting around the battered city, which sits toward the northeast of the Donetsk region and has been a target for Moscow for months.

“We are following the order,” Brovdi said, adding he did not know why the unit was being moved.

3:24 a.m. ET, March 3, 2023

Ukraine war sends message to "aggressors everywhere," says Blinken at Quad meeting

From CNN's Manveena Suri in New Delhi

Antony Blinken speaks during a Quad ministers' panel at the Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi on Friday, March 3. (Olivier Douliery/AP)

Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, and the support flooding in to Kyiv from countries across the world, sends a powerful message to “would be aggressors everywhere,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

“Part of the reason countries way beyond Europe are also so focused on this and are working to support Ukraine and deal with the challenge is because they know it could have effect here,” Blinken said in New Delhi.

“If we allow, with impunity, Russia to do what it’s doing in Ukraine, then that’s a message to would-be aggressors everywhere that they may be able to get away with it too.”

The comments came as Blinken met with his counterparts from India, Japan and Australia — a grouping known as the “Quad,” or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue.

Left to right - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japan Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar pose for a photograph after the Indo-Pacific Quad Foreign Ministers panel discussion in New Delhi, India, on March 3. (Money Sharma/AFP/Getty Images)

The Quad is an informal group focused on security that dates back to the early 2000s, though it has become more active in recent years as part of efforts to counter China’s reach and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific.

Blinken added that the challenges faced by people around the world cannot be dealt with by “any one country acting alone.”

“The great power of the Quad is you have four like-minded countries, united in their basic values, united in their basic interests, bringing different strengths, experiences, different comparative ways to tackle these problems,” he said.

Though he didn’t specify any “would-be aggressors,” he made several veiled references, saying the Quad is working on increasing countries’ maritime domain awareness — meaning greater surveillance on things happening in their waters — and tamping down on illegal fishing.

Read more here.

2:54 a.m. ET, March 3, 2023

Blinken never raised the case of detained US citizen, Russian Foreign Ministry claims

From CNN's Fred Pleitgen and Olga Voitovych

Maria Zakharova attends a meeting in Moscow on February 15. (Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)

A Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman on Friday claimed that Antony Blinken did not raise the issue of a US citizen detained in Russia during a meeting with the Kremlin's foreign minister — directly contradicting earlier comments by the US Secretary of State.

Blinken said Thursday that he pressed his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Paul Whelan's detention and a US offer to free him during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in New Delhi.

But on Friday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed: “It turned out that the US Secretary of State did not even mention it," referring to Whelan's case.

"Everything the State Department said yesterday about Blinken expressing concern about the situation around the US citizen is a lie. Unbelievable behavior by the US administration,” she said.

Some context: Whelan, a former US Marine, was detained in Moscow 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.

12:51 a.m. ET, March 3, 2023

Russia and China reaffirm partnership after foreign ministers meet on G20 sidelines

From CNN's Wayne Chang and Josh Pennington

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang pose for photo on the sideline of G20 foreign minister's meeting in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, March 2. (Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service/AP)

Russia and China have once again reiterated their cooperation following a meeting of the two countries' foreign ministers in India amid rising geopolitical tensions over Moscow's war in Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang on Thursday on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in New Delhi.

In statement released after the meeting, Russia's Foreign Ministry said "there was a unanimous rejection by the two of attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, or imposing unilateral approaches using blackmail and threats, or to oppose the democratization of international relations," in an apparent reference to the United States and its NATO allies,

According to a Chinese Foreign Ministry readout, Qin said Beijing supports any efforts conducive to peace in Ukraine and will continue to play a constructive role in that regard.

Both sides affirmed cooperation and coordination and enhanced strategic communication, according to the Chinese and Russian readouts.

Some context: Tensions between the United States and China have intensified in recent weeks, including over concerns from Washington that Beijing is considering sending lethal aid to the Kremlin’s struggling war effort. Beijing has denied those claims and instead sought to portray itself as an impartial agent of peace — in contrast to the US, which it has accused of “adding fuel to the fire” in the conflict and damaging the global economy with sanctions targeting Russia.

11:47 p.m. ET, March 2, 2023

US will announce more military aid for Ukraine on Friday, White House says

From CNN's Sam Fossum

National Security Council strategic communications coordinator John Kirby answers questions during the daily press briefing at the White House on March 2 in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The White House will announce another round of military assistance for Ukraine on Friday, which is the same day that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will meet with President Joe Biden, according to National Security Council strategic communications coordinator John Kirby.

"The US will have another round of assistance for Ukraine coming tomorrow. And it will include mostly ammunitions and munitions that the Ukrainians will need for the systems that they already have, like the HIMARs and the artillery," Kirby told reporters at the White House.

Kirby declined to provide a dollar figure for Friday's announcement. He added that Biden and Scholz will discuss "additional support for Ukraine going forward."

The announcement comes just one week after the Biden administration announced another $2 billion in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds. That funding was for purchases and new contracts for equipment for Ukraine, including:

HIMARS rockets
155m artillery ammunition
Multiple types of drones (UAVS)
Counter UAV equipment
Mine clearing equipment
Secure communications equipment
Funding for training and maintenance

8:20 p.m. ET, March 2, 2023

Russian forces lay siege to Bakhmut as Ukraine tries to repel attacks, Ukrainian military says

From CNN's Radina Gigova and Svitlana Vlasova

Ukrainian service members prepare to shoot from a howitzer at a front line near the city of Bakhmut on March 2. (Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters)

Russian forces continue to press their offensive in the Bakhmut area as Ukrainian forces try to repel ongoing attacks near the key eastern city and nearby areas in the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian military's General Staff said in an evening update on Thursday.

"They are assaulting the town of Bakhmut," the General Staff said, echoing an earlier update suggesting Russian presence within the city and not just on the outskirts. CNN reported earlier Thursday that an assessment by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) also says Russian forces “advanced within Bakhmut and continued ground attacks around the city.”

Over the past 24 hours, Russian forces launched rocket attacks on the cities of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk, located just 5 kilometers (about 3 miles) west of Bakhmut, and Zaporizhzhia, the General Staff said.

"The threat of further missile strikes remains high throughout Ukraine," the Ukrainian military said.

There were unsuccessful Russian offensive attempts in the Kupyansk and Lyman directions, it added.

In the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson directions, Russian forces continue "to try to create conditions for an offensive" and have fired artillery at more than 40 settlement areas, it said.

Ukraine also responded with 13 strikes over the past day in areas where Russia has personnel and military equipment, the General Staff said, adding that the missile and artillery units hit one Russian ammunition depot.

8:10 p.m. ET, March 2, 2023

Putin accuses Ukraine of border attack as Kyiv dismisses Russian "provocation"

From CNN's Anna Chernova, Olga Voitovych, Vasco Cotovio, Nathan Hodge and Rob Picheta

Russian security officials claimed on Thursday that a small Ukrainian armed group had crossed the Russian border into the southern Bryansk region, allegations dismissed by Kyiv as a “classic deliberate provocation” by the Kremlin.

The Security Service of Russia (FSB) said in a statement via state-run news agency RIA Novosti on Thursday that the agency was carrying out operations to counter what it said were “armed Ukrainian nationalists who violated the state border” in the district. President Vladimir Putin later described the incident as a terrorist attack, and a local official said two civilians were killed.

CNN cannot independently verify the Russian claims, and local media have not carried any images of the supposed incidents, any type of confrontation or an alleged raid reported by Russian authorities.

US and Ukrainian officials have in the past warned that Russia has planned so-called “false flag” attacks along Russia’s border with Ukraine as a pretext for military escalation, including Russian claims ahead of last year’s full-scale invasion that Ukraine was sending “saboteurs” over the Russian border.

The Bryansk region shares a border to its south with Ukraine, and to its west with Belarus, the close Russian ally nation that helped facilitate Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

Read more here.

8:07 p.m. ET, March 2, 2023

Kremlin pre-planned and helped finance Kherson torture centers, international investigators say

From CNN's Vasco Cotovio

Standing outside a Russian detention center in Kherson, days after the southern Ukrainian city was liberated, 29-year-old Ihor shivered as he recalled what he endured inside.

“I was kept here for 11 days and throughout that time I heard screaming from the basement,” said Ihor, who asked CNN not to reveal his last name for his protection.
“I was stabbed in the legs with a taser, they use it as a welcome. One of them asked what I’d been brought in for and another two of them started hitting me in the ribs.
“People were tortured, they were beaten with sticks in the arms and legs, cattle prods, even hooked up to batteries and electrocuted or waterboarded with water.”

Kherson was the first large city and only regional capital Russian troops were able to occupy since the start of the invasion. Moscow’s armies took over the city on March 2, 2022, and occupied it for several months before being forced to withdraw in early November, after a months-long offensive by Ukrainian forces.

The detention center Ihor was held in was part of a network of at least 20 facilities that Ukrainian and international lawyers said was part of a calculated Russian strategy to extinguish Ukrainian identity.

“These detention centers are linked, they follow a very similar, if not identical way of behaving,” Wayne Jordash, head of the Mobile Justice Team, a collective of international investigators supporting Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General, told CNN.

The investigation found that Russian forces followed a very specific blueprint in several occupied areas, with clear patterns that point to the overarching plan of Moscow’s occupation of Ukraine.

Read more here.