March 3, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

US Attorney General Merrick Garland made an unannounced trip to Ukraine on Friday, his second trip to the country since Russia invaded a little more than a year ago.

The trip was not announced for security reasons, according to a Justice Department official.

Garland was invited to Lviv by the Ukrainian prosecutor general, the official said, and joined President Volodymyr Zelensky at the “United for Justice Conference.”

The attorney general “held several meetings and reaffirmed our determination to hold Russia accountable for crimes committed in its unjust and unprovoked invasion against its sovereign neighbor,” the official said.

The trip comes nearly two weeks after President Joe Biden made his first trip to Ukraine since the war began and is one of several trips made by members of Biden’s Cabinet. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also recently made a trip to Ukraine to meet with Zelensky.

The Justice Department has taken several steps to hold the Russian government and its supporters accountable since the invasion began.

On Wednesday, Garland testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he believed the Russian government was committing crimes against humanity and said the Justice Department supports efforts by The Hague to investigate and prosecute those crimes.

China could still take the escalatory step of providing lethal military aid to Russia, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Friday. 

On fighter jets for Ukraine: Kirby also said that F-16 fighter jets are not a "key part" of the agenda for US President Joe Biden's meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz this afternoon, but the two leaders will speak extensively on what Ukraine will need this spring and summer for the tough fighting ahead. 

About US detainee in Russia: Asked about detained American Paul Whelan, Kirby said that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken "absolutely" brought it up with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, despite Russian claims otherwise. 

"Paul Whelan needs to be home with his family and with his friends," Kirby said. "We're going to keep working to get him released and get him back home."

Russian forces have continued their efforts to encircle the eastern city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region Friday, the Ukrainian military's General Staff said in an evening update.

The first two communities referenced in the report are small villages located just north of the city.

Elsewhere in Ukraine: Russian forces have also launched artillery fire near Lyman, which is north of Bakhmut, and on additional towns in the Donetsk region, the military said. Further attacks were reported near the city of Kupyansk in Kharkiv region, and Kreminna and Bilohorivka in the Luhansk region.

In the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, the General Staff said Russia "is on the defensive, attempting to improve their tactical position to resume the offensive." Moscow shelled 15 settlements with artillery, the Ukrainian military added.

"There are dead and wounded civilians," it said, without elaborating on the specific numbers. 

Over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian forces have also carried out strikes on enemy personnel and military equipment, the General Staff said. 

"Our defenders shot down an enemy Su-34 aircraft and a ZALA UAV," it said, repeating an earlier claim from the Ukrainian Air Force about downing a Russian fighter jet and drone.

CNN is not able to independently verify this claim. Russian state media has reported that a plane has been downed in the area indicated by the Ukrainian Air Force, but does not specify the plane's model and ownership.

The United States announced a new security assistance package for Ukraine on Friday that is valued at up to $400 million.

This is the thirty-third presidential drawdown on US inventories, totaling more than $32 billion, used to aid Ukraine since Russian's full-scale invasion began more than one year ago.

In a drawdown, the Defense Department pulls weapons and equipment from US inventories to send abroad, rather than purchasing new weapons from manufacturers.

CNN reported earlier Friday key details of the package, including that the aid would include Armored Vehicle Launched Bridges for the first time, a system used to launch bridges to cross trenches and narrow water obstacles.

Here's a look at the weapons, munitions and equipment included in the package:

Last week, the US announced $2 billion in aid under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which contracts with the industry to procure the supplies and takes more time.

Ukrainian officials have also been pushing to obtain US F-16 fighter jets, which President Joe Biden and other Western leaders have opposed so far. 

Ukrainian authorities have ordered a mandatory evacuation for vulnerable residents of the eastern city of Kupyansk, located in the Kharkiv region, due to "constant" Russian shelling. 

The city administration said utilities "are operating as usual" and that online classes are being organized for students. 

"The educational process continues in the Kupyansk community. According to the head of the education department, 480 students have already joined the online education program. Classes are being formed," the administration said. 

The Kharkiv region military administration announced the start of the mandatory evacuation on Thursday, saying the decision was made "due to constant shelling of the Kupyansk community by Russian troops." 

As of Thursday, there were 812 children and 724 people with disabilities, including 140 of low mobility, in the city, according to the regional military administration. 

Russian forces occupied the city in the early days of the invasion but Ukraine was able to recapture it in September 2022. 

The city remains close to the hotly contested frontline east of the city, and as close as some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from areas under Russian control, according to the latest assessment by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that the city of Kupyansk is located in southern Ukraine. It is located in eastern Ukraine.

The Biden administration on Friday sanctioned a number of Russian individuals connected to the arbitrary detention of Vladimir Kara-Murza, a prominent human rights advocate and Kremlin critic who has been jailed in Moscow for nearly a year after speaking out against the war in Ukraine in an interview with CNN.

The United States has called for Kara-Murza’s “immediate and unconditional release,” but Friday’s actions represent a long-awaited decision on imposing sanctions against Russia for his imprisonment.

Kara-Murza, who has survived two poisonings, has been incredibly critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s war in Ukraine, and he continues to speak out even as he is detained. 

In March 2022, Kara-Murza spoke before the Arizona House of Representatives and spoke out against the war. In an April 2022 interview with CNN, he called Putin’s government “a regime of murderers.” He was arrested shortly thereafter for “failing to obey the orders of law enforcement,” according to his wife.

The Treasury Department on Friday imposed sanctions under an expansion of the Global Magnitsky Act, which targets serious human rights abusers, more than five months after the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called on the Biden administration to take action under that law. 

The sanctions target Elena Anatolievna Lenskaya, Andrei Andreevich Zadachin, and Danila Yurievich Mikheev.

Russia could find itself with no money as soon as next year and needs foreign investment, outspoken Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska has said.

The remarks from the billionaire — who called for an end to Moscow’s war in Ukraine in the early days of the conflict last year — contrast with a more upbeat assessment of Russia’s economic fortunes by President Vladimir Putin last week. Putin praised the resilience of the country’s economy in the face of unprecedented Western sanctions imposed in the past year.

More background: Russia’s economic output shrank 2.1% last year, according to a preliminary estimate from the government. The contraction was more limited than many economists initially predicted.

But cracks are starting to show — Russia is cutting oil production this month — and Western sanctions could escalate further. Ultimately, Russia’s economic prospects are contingent on what happens in Ukraine.

Foreign investors, especially from “friendly” countries, also have a big role to play, Deripaska said. Whether they will come depends on whether Russia can create the right conditions and make its markets attractive, he was quoted as saying.

In a bid to starve Russia of funds for its aggression, Western countries have announced more than 11,300 sanctions since the February 2022 invasion, and frozen some $300 billion of Russia’s foreign reserves.

But China has thrown the Kremlin an economic lifeline by buying Russian energy, replacing Western suppliers of machinery and base metals among other products, and providing an alternative to the US dollar.

Read more here.

A Ukraine security aid package worth approximately $400 million is expected to be announced Friday around the visit of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the White House, according to two US officials.

The package will include ammunition for HIMARS rocket launchers and different artillery systems such as 155mm and 105mm. It will also include Armored Vehicle Launched Bridges for the first time, a system used to launch bridges to cross trenches and narrow water obstacles, the officials said. 

On Thursday, John Kirby, the National Security Council strategic communications coordinator, said the US will announce another round of assistance to Ukraine, including ammunition for HIMARS and artillery, but he did not specify how much.

This security assistance will be drawn directly from US inventories under Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), meaning the weapons and equipment can arrive in Ukraine quickly. Last week, the US announced $2 billion in aid under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which contracts with the industry to procure the supplies and takes more time.

Ukrainian officials have also been pushing to obtain US F-16 fighter jets, which President Joe Biden and other Western leaders have opposed so far. 

With the package expected Friday, the US will have committed more than $32 billion to Ukraine since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion more than one year ago.

The Ukrainian Air Force said Friday it has shot down a Russian fighter jet in the eastern Donetsk region. Russian state media is also reporting the incident, without specifying the model or ownership of the plane.

The Ukrainian Air Force claimed in a post published on its official Telegram channel that a Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber was shot down near the town of Yenakiieve, in the Donetsk Region. Yenakiieve is about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the city of Donetsk, inside territory controlled by Russian forces.

CNN is unable to verify the Ukrainian Air Force's claims about the model or ownership of the jet.  

A photo posted by the mayor shows black smoke rising in the sky not too far from several buildings in the city and the city's streets. 

Later, Khramenkov said he had visited the site of the plane crash, together with representatives from the police and emergency services. He said the current thaw is preventing access to the crashed plane, according to RIA Novosti. 

"The plane has crashed, there is smoke, it is on fire. We could see two pilots who ejected on parachutes," the mayor told Russian television, according to RIA Novosti. 

“No one is hurt on the ground because the crash site is a farm. Its owner says the plane is in the fields, in woodland. We are relying on his information. No one in the village or in the city has been affected," Khramenkov said.