January 16, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

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

A high-level United States delegation met Monday in Kyiv with top Ukrainian officials “to reaffirm the United States’ strong and steadfast commitment to Ukraine and its defense against Russia’s unprovoked aggression,” according to a State Department readout. 

Here’s who was on the US delegation:

Here’s who they met with in Ukraine:

“Prior to the visit, the delegation made stops in Germany and Poland to review U.S. security assistance to Ukraine,” the readout said. 

During the meetings, the leaders talked about how international assistance “has helped stabilize Ukraine’s economy” as well as how the US and Ukraine could continue to have an economic and trade relationship when the war is over, according to the readout.

Leaders also discussed efforts to repair Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, it added.

Lithuania’s minister of foreign affairs said the only way to end the war in Ukraine is for Western allies to send weapons, particularly tanks, to counter Russian attacks. 

“The discussion in the West is still about the end of the war, and there are those who believe that maybe a frozen conflict would be suited better, which I completely disagree with that notion,” Gabrielius Landsbergis told CNN’s Becky Anderson in an interview on Monday. “This thinking I think is the main obstacle for some countries to send the weapons that Ukrainians need.”

As Russian attacks increase on civilian areas of Ukraine, Western allies have stepped up their support for Ukrainian forces with more advanced weaponry. Germany, however, has received some heightened criticism over its reticence to send Leopard 2 battle tanks. 

Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called on the German government to supply “all sorts of weapons” to Ukraine on Monday.

Asked whether the Germans should be doing more, Landsbergis agreed. And he also noted that many countries had procured German-made tanks.

“They are willing to send the tanks to Ukraine. So far, they have not got a greenlight from Berlin, and I truly truly hope that this might change – and that will reduce the pressure on Germany itself,” he added. 

Rescue crews in Ukraine are still working to reach victims under debris after a Russian missile hit an apartment building in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro this weekend.

The strike killed at least 40 people — making it one of the deadliest single attacks of the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack a “war crime.”

Meantime, the UN nuclear watchdog is working on setting up a permanent presence at all of Ukraine’s nuclear power facilities.

Here are the top headlines:

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday visited the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant to mark the permanent presence of the nuclear watchdog at the site.

The head of the agency is in Ukraine this week to “establish a continuous presence of nuclear safety and security experts at all the country’s nuclear power facilities,” the IAEA previously announced.

“Now we are setting this permanent presence here,” Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a video posted to his Twitter account. “I think it is highly symbolic that we start this cold evening here, but with a warm spirit and with great determination.”

While the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant already has IAEA team members on location, experts will also be stationed at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant in western Ukraine in “the coming days,” the IAEA said in a statement on Saturday, ahead of the director’s visit.

Grossi will also visit the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant, as well as Chernobyl. Two IAEA members are expected to be posted at each site, the watchdog said.

A former commander in Russia’s private military company, Wagner, has fled to Norway and is seeking asylum after crossing that country’s arctic border, according to Norwegian police and a Russian activist. 

Andrei Medvedev, in an interview with a Russian activist who helps people seek asylum abroad, said that he feared for his life after refusing to renew his service with Wagner.

Medvedev said that after completing his contract and refusing to serve another, he was afraid of being executed in the same way asYevgeny Nuzhin — a defector from Wagner who was killed on camera with a sledgehammer.

“We were just thrown to fight like cannon fodder,” Medvedev told Vladimir Osechkin, head of Gulagu.net, a human rights advocacy group, in a conversation published on YouTube.

A spokesperson for Norway’s Police Security Service confirmed to CNN on Monday that Medvedev was in Norway and seeking asylum.

“This is so far a local police investigation,” Eirik Veum told CNN. “But the Security Service, we are informed, and follow the investigation of course.”

In a phone call from Norway with Osechkin, which was published online, Medvedev said that he crossed the border near the Russian town of Nikel. That aligns with the account of the Finnmark Police District, which without naming Medvedev said that it made an “undramatic” arrest of a man in Pasvik on the Norwegian side of the border at 1:58 a.m. on Jan. 13.

In his own account, Medvedev said that he crossed the border and approached the first house he could find. “It was a miracle I managed to get here,” he told Osechkin in the phone call.

Medvedev had previously tried to cross into Finland twice and failed, Osechkin told CNN Monday. The head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, confirmed on Telegram on Monday that Medvedev had served in his company, and said that he “should have been prosecuted for attempting to mistreat prisoners.” 

In a December conversation with Osechkin, which was published on YouTube, Medvedev denied that he had committed any crimes in Ukraine.

“I signed a contract with the group on the 6th of July 2022. I had been appointed commander of the first squad of the 4th platoon of the 7th assault detachment,” he recalled. “When the prisoners started arriving, the situation in Wagner really changed. They stopped treating us like humans.”

He claimed that prisoners were “shot dead for refusing to fight, or betrayal.”

“I am afraid for my life,” Medvedev said in December. “I did not commit any crime. I have refused to participate in maneuvers of Yevgeny Prigozhin.”

Osechkin told CNN that he began helping Medvedev after being approached by a friend at the end of November.

Ukrainian troops have arrived at Fort Sill in Oklahoma to begin training on the Patriot missile system, the US Army base announced Monday. 

CNN was first to report that the training was set to begin as soon as this week.

Fort Sill is home to the Fires Center of Excellence where the US conducts Patriot training for its own military and other countries.  

“The same instructors who teach U.S., allied and partner nations will conduct the Ukrainian training, and these classes will not detract from the ongoing training missions at Fort Sill,” the base said in a statement. 

The training will take “several months” on the advanced but complex long-range aerial defense system, according to Pentagon officials. It’s not clear how much the military can accelerate the training program.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday called the Russian attack on an apartment building in Dnipro a “war crime” and vowed to bring its perpetrators to justice.

“There is no doubt: everyone who is guilty of this war crime will be identified and brought to justice,” Zelensky said in his evening address. 

At least 40 people have died and 25 remain missing following the attack.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) named six members of the Russian military whom it claimed were involved in the strike, according to what the agency described as “preliminary investigation” findings.

“This strike on Dnipro, as well as other similar strikes, falls under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court,” Zelensky said. “And we will use all available opportunities — both national and international — to ensure that all Russian murderers, that everyone who gives and executes orders on missile terror against our people, receive legal sentences. And that they serve their sentences.”

Russian fighters from the Wagner private military company appear to have captured the main train station west of Soledar, the town in the Donetsk region over which Russia appeared to have largely established control last week, according to a video posted on Wagner’s Telegram channel Monday.

CNN has been unable to verify that claim and Ukrainian and Russian authorities have not commented on the claim.  

The station is Sil (or Sol, in Russian) just about three kilometers northwest of Soledar and about 14 kilometers north of Bakhmut. It lies along the main north-south railway and road.

In the video, seven Russian fighters are holding a Wagner flag in front of Sil’s train station. “Well, look here, we’ve taken Sol,” one man says. The men then fire their weapons in the air, and the camera pans to the rail tracks.

In the Ukrainian military’s regular update Monday morning, it said that an attack on Sil had been repelled “over the past 24 hours.”

Rescuers in Dnipro, Ukraine, have removed 8,500 metric tons of debris in an effort to rescue victims of Russia’s strike on an apartment block Saturday.

The State Emergencies Service (SES) said that 25 people are still missing.

“Search and rescue operations and dismantling of dangerous structural elements continue,” the SES said on Telegram Monday evening. “Utilities have removed more than 8 thousand 500 tons of construction debris and 41 damaged vehicles.”

The SES said that as of 2 p.m. ET (9 p.m. local), the toll still stood at 40 killed, 77 injured (including 14 children) and 39 rescued. From 47 reports of missing people, 18 have been confirmed dead, four were found alive at relatives’ houses or in the hospital and 25 are still missing.

“Psychologists of the State Emergencies Service provided assistance to 174 victims,” the SES said. “In total, 418 people and 60 units of equipment are engaged in the works, including 65 people and 21 units of equipment from the State Emergencies Service.”

Correction: An earlier version of this post included the wrong amount of debris removed from the Dnipro site. It is 8,500 metric tons.

The collapse of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure “could happen any second,” Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said Monday.

“We don’t talk about a collapse, but it can happen any second, because any second Russian rockets can destroy our critical infrastructure in our hometown in Kyiv and not just in Kyiv, in other cities,” he told Reuters in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “We have a deficit of energy around 30% right now in Kyiv,” Klitschko added.

Klitschko’s warning comes amid a winter that has seen millions of Ukrainians without access to electricity, water, and central heating as a result of relentless Russian strikes on critical energy infrastructure. 

“Now in Ukraine it’s pretty cold – negative 10, negative 20, sometimes in winter negative 30 degrees. And in these weather conditions, to live without electricity, to live without heating is almost impossible, and that’s why the situation is critical, we’re fighting to survive,” Klitschko said.

The British defense secretary said Monday that Ukraine needed a “new level of support” to expel Russian troops from its territory, after announcing the donation of main battle tanks for the country.

“President Putin cannot win,” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in the House of Commons. “But he’s equally certain he can continue inflicting this wanton violence and human suffering until his forces are ejected from their defensive positions and expelled from the country.” 

“That requires a new level of support — the combat power only achieved by combinations of main battle tank squadrons operating alongside divisional artillery groups, and further deep precision fires, enabling targeting of Russian logistics and command nodes at greater distance,” he said.

Wallace said that the UK would send “a squadron of Challenger 2 tanks, with armored recovery and repair vehicles” to Ukraine. He called it “the most significant package of combat power to date to accelerate Ukrainian success.”

 It is the first time that western main battle tanks will be sent to Ukraine, Wallace said.

“Today’s package will help accelerate the conclusion of Putin’s occupation and all its brutality, and ensure that in 2023 and beyond if necessary, Ukraine retains its momentum, supported by the international community,” the defense secretary added.

He also said that the UK would send Ukraine AS-90 self-propelled artillery, and “hundreds more armored and protective vehicles.”

Wallace called the replacement of Russia’s commander for its war in Ukraine “the visible tip of an iceberg of factionalism in the Russian command.” 

“Putin apparently remains bullish. And with Gerasimov’s deference to the president never in doubt, we now would expect a trend back towards a Russian offensive, no matter how much loss of life accompanies it.”

Ukraine’s military warned on Monday that the joint Russia-Belarus aviation drills that began Monday were a “guise.”

“There is a high danger of further Russian air and missile strikes on objects throughout Ukraine,” Ukraine’s General Staff said in its regular evening statement on Monday.

“On Jan. 16, near the Ukrainian border, a joint flight and tactical training of aviation units of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus and Russia, which are part of a regional grouping of troops involving combat aircraft of both countries, began,” it added. “Thus, under the guise of joint training, the enemy has strengthened the combat aviation group in Belarus. In view of this, the threat of missile and air strikes from the airspace of Belarus is growing.”

Kyiv has, for some time, warned that Russia may once again attempt an invasion of Ukraine from Belarus. 

Military exercises in Belarus were “sufficient to threaten Ukraine,” and Kyiv was “closely monitoring what is being transferred from Russia to the territory of Belarus,” Serhii Naev, commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, had said on Dec. 20.

Earlier this month, the Belarusian Ministry of Defense announced that Minsk and Moscow were planning to hold joint aviation drills from January 16 to February 1.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said Monday that it had examined the wreckage of the munition that hit an apartment building in the city of Dnipro on Saturday and that it was identified as a cruise missile.

The SBU also named six members of the Russian military whom it claimed were involved in the strike, according to what the agency described as “preliminary investigation” findings.

“As a result of the inspection of the tragedy site, the type of Russian cruise missile Kh-22, which the enemy hit the residential building, was preliminarily confirmed,” the SBU said in a statement Monday.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed Monday that a Ukrainian air-defense missile had hit the apartment building, without presenting evidence.

“Each Russian war crime has a specific perpetrator,” SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk said, in a statement. “The Security Service will identify and publish all of them by name – so that no murderer escapes punishment.”

Some more context: A Russian missile strike on a Dnipro apartment building has left at least 40 people dead, making it one of the deadliest single attacks of the war, and the deadliest in months.

Dnipro is still reeling after a Russian cruise missile struck a nine-story apartment building in the central Ukrainian city on early Saturday afternoon, killing at least 40 people and injuring another 75, with 46 people reported missing.

The core of that building is now gone, transformed into a mountain of jumbled concrete. Apartments were sliced in half when the missile – with a warhead of nearly one metric ton – penetrated all the way to the basement.

Here are some pictures from the ground:

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call Monday that Western weapons supplies to Ukraine are intensifying hostilities and that Kyiv’s rejection of a ceasefire proposed by Russia for the Orthodox Christmas period is an example of Kyiv’s “hypocritical policy,” according to a statement by the Kremlin. 

“Vladimir Putin drew attention to the destructive line of the Kyiv regime, which relied on the intensification of hostilities with the support of Western sponsors, increasing the volume of transferred weapons and military equipment,” the statement reads. “An example of the hypocritical policy of Kyiv was the rejection of the proposal to cease fire for the period of Orthodox Christmas.”

“On the initiative of the Turkish side and taking into account recent contacts in Ankara, the commissioners of Russia and Ukraine for human rights will touch upon the issue of the exchange of prisoners, primarily the wounded,” the Kremlin said. 

Russian missile strike: The call between Putin and Erdogan came just a few days after a Russian missile hit an apartment building in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. The missile strike left at least 40 people dead, making it one of the deadliest single attacks of the war, and the deadliest in months.

The implementation of the package of agreements on the export of Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea ports and the unblocking of food and fertilizer supplies from Russia were also discussed, according to the Kremlin. 

“Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to the further comprehensive development of Russian-Turkish cooperation,” the Kremlin said, adding “among the priorities is cooperation in the energy sector, including the supply of Russian natural gas and the creation of a regional gas hub in Turkey.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has failed to destroy German industry amid his war in Ukraine, Germany’s economy minister Robert Habeck told a Monday conference.  

“It was Putin’s plan to cause a meltdown of German industry, but his plan has failed,” Habeck told the energy conference in Berlin, hosted by the business newspaper Handelsblatt. 

Habeck added he hoped Germany’s energy crisis would be overcome by 2024, adding that thanks to the fast construction of gas import infrastructure, gas storage facilities were expected to be full for 2023 and into the winter of 2024. This would lead to “safe and stable” gas deliveries at “moderate prices,” Habeck added. 

After a short period of freezing temperatures in December, a warm January so far has helped to keep Germany’s gas storage facilities around 90% full, according to the country’s gas network regulator. 

While a shortage of gas this winter seems unlikely, the situation could still deteriorate, according to the network regulator’s website. 

If temperatures drop below zero degrees Celsius, Germany consumes around one percent of its gas storage per day,” Habeck warned. 

Russia has sanctioned the UK foreign Minister James Cleverly, according to a tweet from Cleverly Monday. 

“I’ve been sanctioned by the Russian government. Good,” he said. “If this is the price for supporting Ukrainian freedom, then I’m happy to be sanctioned.”

Ukraine soccer club Shakhtar Donetsk has launched a $25 million project for Mariupol soldiers and their families, the club announced Monday. 

“I am allocating the $25 million (UAH 1 billion) today to help our soldiers, defenders and their families. The money will be used to cover different needs – from providing medical and prosthetic treatment and psychological support to meeting specific requests,” Shakhtar president Rinat Akhmetov said in a statement.

“Their acts of bravery are unparalleled in modern history. It is them, their sacrifice and courage that helped contain the enemy in the first months of the war and let all of us feel the inevitability of the Victory of Ukraine now,” Akhmetov added. 

The launch of the project, called the Heart of Azovstal project, comes after Shakhtar finalized a deal for Mykhailo Mudryk to join English Premiership side Chelsea FC. 

Shakhtar said they will receive a Ukrainian record-breaking transfer fee of $75 million (or about 70 million euros) for 22-year-old Mudryk with an additional $35 million (30 million euros) expected as a bonus payment, the club confirmed in a statement Sunday. 

Mudryk scored three goals for Shakhtar in the Champions League group stages despite their elimination.

Akhmetov added that he is confident that Ukraine will win the war against Russia, and one day “we will play a friendly against Chelsea at Donbass Arena in a Ukrainian Donetsk.” 

Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has called on the German government to supply “all sorts of weapons” to Ukraine. 

Morawiecki, during a visit to Berlin Monday, tweeted “The defeat of #Ukraine may become a prelude to World War III, so today there is no reason to block support for Kyiv and postpone matters indefinitely. I call on the German government to act decisively by supplying all sorts of weapons to Ukraine.”

This comes after Polish President Andrzej Duda promised “a company of Leopard-tanks” to Ukraine during his visit to the city of Lviv last week.

However, Poland needs permission from Berlin to these German-produced Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine. If granted, Germany must also deal with the sensitive idea of German battle tanks in eastern Europe.

Some background: Thirteen European countries, including Poland and Finland, are in possession of modern German Leopard 2 tanks, which were introduced in 1979 and have been upgraded several times since, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank.

The death toll from a Russian strike on a residential building in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Saturday has risen to 40, and Moscow’s forces also struck the cities of Nikopol and Zaporizhzhia overnight into Monday.

Elsewhere, Germany’s defense minister Christine Lambrecht has resigned amid increasing pressure on Berlin to step up military aid to Ukraine, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says that Western arms shipments will only “drag out” the war.

Here are the latest headlines:

The Kremlin has denied rumors of a conflict between the Wagner mercenary group fighting in Ukraine and the Russian defense ministry.

“This conflict mainly exists in the information space,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a regular press briefing Monday, adding that it is “mainly the product of information manipulations.”

“It [the country] knows both the heroes who serve in the Armed Forces and show miracles of heroism, and the heroes with the PMC Wagner,” Peskov said.

Some context: While Kyiv argues the fight for the embattled eastern town of Soledar is ongoing, the head of private military group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claimed its exclusive role in capturing the town. The Russian defense ministry acknowledged its role in a public statement Saturday.

“As for the direct assault on the city blocks of Soledar occupied by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, this combat mission was successfully solved by the courageous and selfless actions of the volunteers of the Wagner PMC assault squads,” the statement read.

Residents of the Ukrainian region of Chernihiv, which borders both Russia and Belarus, have been told to expect air raid sirens to “increase significantly” over the next two weeks due to the joint Belarus-Russia military drills. 

Viacheslav Chaus, head of the Chernihiv regional military administration, said on Monday: “The number of air raid alarms in the territory of Chernihiv region and the country as a whole may increase significantly.”

On Monday, aviation drills between Russia and Belarus began. The Belarusian defense ministry said the drills would “increase operational compatibility in the joint performance of combat training missions.”

The drills are due to run from January 16 to February 1.

The Russian strike on a residential building in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro has killed 40 people, according to an updated death toll from the Ukrainian emergency services.

In a Telegram update on Monday the emergency services agency said that 40 people, including three children, had died.

In addition, 39 people have been rescued, 75 were injured and 46 are still reported missing.

The building was hit on Saturday, and a Russian Kh-22 missile was used in the attack, the Air Force Command of the Ukrainian Armed forces said Sunday.

Originally designed as an anti-ship missile, the Kh-22 is an older and less accurate weapon than most modern missiles.

Deliveries of more advanced military equipment from the UK and other European countries “will not be able to change the situation on the ground” in Ukraine and will only “drag out” hostilities, the Kremlin said Monday.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov added that the Challenger 2 tanks the UK is planning to send to Ukraine “will burn like the rest.”

Downing Street announced on Saturday plans to send 12 Challenger 2 tanks and additional artillery systems as part of efforts to “intensify” support for Ukraine.

Asked about the UK’s decision, Peskov told journalists deliveries from Western nations will only “bring about more trouble to the state of Ukraine.”

According to Peskov, these countries are using Ukraine as a “tool to achieve their anti-Russian goals.”

Other allies: France and Poland have pledged to soon send tanks for the Ukrainian military to use in its efforts to protect itself from Russia. Finland is also considering following suit.

Ukrainian units are “conducting hostilities in Soledar,” according to an update from the Ukrainian Armed Forces Eastern Group on the situation for the fight for the town.

Ukrainian troops “inflict constant fire on the enemy,” said group spokesman Serhii Cherevatyi. “Ukraine maintains its positions in the town,” he added.

On Friday, Russia said Friday its forces had taken the small town in eastern Ukraine following weeks of fierce fighting, although Ukraine denied the claim.

The capture of Soledar would represent a symbolic win for Russian President Vladimir Putin following a long string of military setbacks dating back to last summer.

However, the town is not hugely important strategically, and its capture would not suggest a significant capitulation of Ukrainian forces, nor a substantial change to the overall complexion of the war.

Seven Ukrainian drones have been “shot down over the sea” near Sevastopol in the illegally annexed region of Crimea, according to governor Mikhail Razvozhaev.

Razvozhaev said in a Telegram post on Monday that the drones were downed “by the air defense forces and our Black Sea Fleet.”

The attack was a “psyop” (psychological operation) by Ukrainian forces, said Razvozhaev, who maintained that there have been no explosions in the city.

“Everything is calm,” he said, adding that there had been no damage.

German Minister of Defense Christine Lambrecht has resigned, a ministry spokeswoman has told CNN, following growing skepticism about her suitability for the role against the backdrop of the Ukraine war.

“The focus on my person for months hardly allows objective reporting and discussion about the soldiers, the German armed forces and security policy issues in the interest of the citizens of Germany,” Lambrecht said in a written statement. “Thus I have decided to resign from my office.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz backed Lambrecht in December, calling her a “first-class MoD,” according to government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner, and reiterated support for her in January. 

However, Lambrecht has faced growing criticism as Germany is under increasing pressure to ramp up military support for Ukraine, which has been insignificant compared to support from other Western allies during her time as minister.

At the outbreak of the Ukraine war, Lambrecht pledged to deliver 5,000 helmets as military assistance to Ukraine. At the time, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called the move a joke.

Lambrecht’s resignation comes just days before a high-profile meeting at the Ramstein US Air Base in Germany on Friday to discuss further support for Ukraine. Her successor has not been announced.

Lambrecht was also criticized after her son posted about taking a ride in a military helicopter on social media, as well as for a clumsily delivered New Year’s Eve address which was disrupted by the sound of firecrackers.

Joint military aviation drills involving Belarusian and Russian forces are underway, the Belarusian defense ministry said in a press release Monday.

“Today, a joint tactical flight exercise of the aviation units of the armed forces of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation, which are part of the aviation component of the regional grouping of troops, has started,” reads the statement.

The exercises are taking place on Belarusian territory and the main goal is to “increase operational compatibility in the joint performance of combat training missions,” said the ministry.

The exercises will involve conducting aerial reconnaissance, joint patrols along the border, air support for groups of troops and landing tactical troops, as well as the delivery of goods and the evacuation of the wounded, the ministry said.

“To ensure the conduct of the exercise, all airfields and ranges of the Air Force and Air Defense Forces of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus are involved,” it added.

Earlier this month, the Belarusian Ministry of Defense announced that Minsk and Moscow were planning to hold joint aviation drills from January 16 to February 1.

In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the two countries would continue joint drills and other combat training measures, which would involve the joint group of forces of the so-called “Union State,” according to Russian state news agency TASS.

The death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment block in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to 36, including two children, according to Ukraine’s National Police. 

“The debris of a high-rise building hit by a Russian missile continues to be dismantled in Dnipro,” the police said on Telegram Monday, adding that 75 people were injured in the strike. 

Search and rescue operations continue and 39 people have been rescued so far. 

A CNN team on the ground in Dnipro at the site of Saturday’s apartment block strike reported air raid sirens early Monday morning.

Russian claims: Also on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the strike was the result of counter-missiles and air defense.

In response to a question about the strike, Peskov said the Russian Armed Forces only strike “against military targets, whether they are obvious or disguised,” and not at residential buildings.

Some context: On Sunday, the Air Force Command of the Ukrainian Armed forces said that there was “no doubt” that a Russian Kh-22 missile was used in the strike.

Originally designed as an anti-ship missile, the Kh-22 is an older and less accurate weapon than most modern missiles.

“The Armed Forces of Ukraine lack the firepower capabilities for shooting down this type of missile,” the Ukrainian command said on Facebook.

“Since the beginning of Russia’s military aggression, more than 210 missiles of this type have been launched at the territory of Ukraine. None of them have been shot down by our air defense systems.”

CNN reported last June that a Kh-22 missile hit a shopping center in Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, killing at least 18 people.

Ever since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine, one question has troubled European governments more than almost any other: What happens if Moscow turns off the gas?

The threat of cutting Russian gas supplies for European countries, many of whom have relied on it for years to heat their homes and power their factories, was a trump card that Putin could play if the war he started last February dragged into a long winter.

Citizens from countries who were not directly at war with Russia might wonder, as the cold started to bite, why their comfort and livelihoods were being sacrificed on behalf of Ukraine. National leaders, feeling domestic pressure, might agitate for sanctions to be softened or for peace to be brokered on terms favorable to Moscow, it was thought.

“In this case, Russia sought to exploit winter to augment the power of another tool in its box: the energy weapon. Russia was counting on a winter freeze to bring Europe to its senses and convince publics across the continent that support for Ukraine was not worth the pain in their wallets,” Giles adds.

But that long chill has yet to pass. Western and Central Europe have enjoyed a milder winter than expected, which, along with a coordinated drive to reduce gas consumption, has taken one of Putin’s largest bargaining chips out of his hands.

As we head further into 2023, European governments now have a window of opportunity to get their ducks in a row and reduce reliance on Russian gas before another winter comes around. Doing so could play a crucial role in maintaining the West’s united front as the war drags on.

Read the full analysis here.

Three rockets hit Donetsk in eastern Ukraine early Monday, the head of the city’s Russia-backed administration said.

In a Telegram post, Alexei Kulemzin said a shopping complex, pharmacy, meat-packing plant and residential building in the Kalininsky district were damaged as a result of the strike.

Search and rescue operations are underway and there are no reported casualties so far, Kulemzin added. 

Remember: The city of Donetsk has been held by Moscow-backed separatists since 2014. Moscow regards it as Russian territory since claiming last year in violation of international law that it had annexed all of the Donetsk region — including the approximately 40% that lies outside Russian control.

The southern Ukrainian city of Nikopol was struck by shells in the early hours of Monday, a Ukrainian military official said.

Valentyn Reznichenko, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said in a Telegram post that more than a dozen homes, several power lines and a gas main were damaged.

At least 15 shells struck Marhanetsk and Chervonohryhorivsk, two settlements on the outskirts of Nikopol, he said.

No casualties were reported, he added.

Russian forces shelled the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia overnight, according to a Ukrainian official.

In a Telegram post Monday, Zaporizhzhia city council secretary Anatoliy Kurtiev said several people were injured and homes were damaged in the attacks.

Three people, including a 9-year-old and a 15-year-old, were taken to the hospital for treatment, he added.

Zaporizhzhia was among a number of Ukrainian regions targeted by Russia over the weekend as missile strikes against the country’s utility infrastructure led to emergency power cuts.

In Dnipro, there is grief, exhaustion and anger.

Early on Saturday afternoon, as families relaxed at home in the central Ukrainian city, a Russian cruise missile struck a nine-story apartment building overlooking a park near the river, killing at least 35 people.

The core of that building is now gone, transformed into a mountain of jumbled concrete. Apartments were sliced in half when the missile — with a warhead of nearly one metric ton — penetrated all the way to the basement.

Svitlana Lishchynska, who lives in a neighboring building, said the impact shook everything from the walls of her home.

“When I got there, I froze — the two entrances simply did not exist anymore. They had turned into a pile of concrete and a gaping hole. It was a picture of the apocalypse. Everyone was in a kind of stupor, because it was impossible to believe that this was happening to us.”

Some 36 hours after the strike, smoke was still drifting into the frozen air as heat was released from its impact. Rescue crews clambered over the debris, their hopes of finding anyone else alive dimming by the hour.

Up to 35 people remain unaccounted for, according to Ukrainian officials. The last person to be rescued was heard calling out soon after midnight on Saturday. It took nine hours to reach her, by which time she had severe hypothermia.

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The fight for the embattled eastern town of Soledar is ongoing, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address Sunday. 

“The battle for Soledar, for Bakhmut, for the whole Donetsk region, for the Luhansk region continues without any respite, without any stop,” Zelensky said, referring to eastern territories that have seen some of the conflict’s fiercest fighting.

Russia claims its forces have taken Soledar after weeks of brutal clashes, which Kyiv has denied. The leader of the Wagner mercenary group has taken credit for the bulk of the fighting on Moscow’s side and also claimed victory there.

Ukrainian authorities reported “heavy battles” were ongoing in the town Saturday.

The death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment block in Dnipro rose to 35, Ukrainian officials said on Monday, after missiles and explosions were heard across the country.

Valentyn Reznichenko, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said 39 people, including 14 children, had been rescued so far and up to 35 people could still be under the rubble.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had previously said that “dozens” of people, including a 3-year-old girl, were rescued from the building even though most of the floors were “smashed” in the strike.

According to the president, 72 apartments were destroyed and more than 230 apartments were damaged in Saturday’s strikes.

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Grain is once again leaving Ukrainian ports. The price of fertilizer is falling sharply. Billions of dollars in aid has been mobilized.

Yet the world is still in the grips of the worst food crisis in modern history, as Russia’s war in Ukraine shakes global agricultural systems already grappling with the effects of extreme weather and the pandemic. Market conditions may have improved in recent months, but experts do not expect imminent relief.

That means more pain for vulnerable communities already struggling with hunger. It also boosts the risk of starvation and famine in countries such as Somalia, which is contending with what the United Nations describes as a “catastrophic” food emergency.

“All the major causes of the food crisis are still with us — conflict, Covid, climate change, high fuel prices,” Cary Fowler, the US special envoy for global food security, told CNN. “I do think we have to prepare for 2023 being a rough year.”

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that his so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine was showing a “positive” dynamic and he hoped Russian soldiers would achieve more results on the battlefield after Soledar. 

“The dynamics are positive, everything is developing within the framework of the plan by the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff, and I hope that our fighters will continue pleasing us with the results of their combat work,” Putin told Rossiya 1 state television.

Putin also said the economic situation in Russia was “stable” and “much better” than forecasts. 

According to Ukrainian officials, “heavy battles” are continuing in Soledar after Russia claimed Friday that it was in control of the eastern town.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said late Saturday that “the enemy does not abandon its intentions to completely take over Donetsk region.”

“To do so, it focuses its main efforts on offensive operations on Bakhmut direction. Heavy battles for Soledar continue,” the General Staff said. “Ukrainian forces repel enemy attacks round the clock. The occupiers suffer heavy losses.”

Last fall, as Ukraine won back large swaths of territory in a series of counterattacks, it pounded Russian forces with American-made artillery and rockets. Guiding some of that artillery was a homemade targeting system that Ukraine developed on the battlefield.

A piece of Ukrainian-made software has turned readily available tablet computers and smartphones into sophisticated targeting tools that are now used widely across the Ukrainian military.

The result is a mobile app that feeds satellite and other intelligence imagery into a real-time targeting algorithm that helps units near the front direct fire onto specific targets. And because it’s an app, not a piece of hardware, it’s easy to quickly update and upgrade, and available to a wide range of personnel.

US officials familiar with the tool say it has been highly effective at directing Ukrainian artillery fire onto Russian targets.

The targeting app is among dozens of examples of battlefield innovations that Ukraine has come up with over nearly a year of war, often finding cheap fixes to expensive problems.

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