December 28, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The electricity deficit in the Ukrainian power grid grew on Wednesday due to shelling of gas infrastructure in eastern Ukraine, according to the latest update from state power utility Ukrenergo.

“As of December 28, the electricity deficit in the system has increased. This is due to the stop of some units of power plants due to the shelling of gas infrastructure in the eastern region,” Ukrenergo said in a statement.

Ukraine has been facing a wide assault on critical infrastructure and power sources since early October. 

The deficit did not mean further power restrictions because of “relatively warm weather," Ukenergo said, but added: "the available capacity in the system is not enough to meet all the needs of consumers in the country. In this regard, all regions were informed about consumption limits, the excess of which leads to the need for emergency outages.”

In the last three months, the power grid has suffered nine missile and 12 Russian UAV attacks, according to Ukrenergo.

“As a result, generation facilities and transmission systems suffered large-scale and complex damage. Their restoration requires significant resources and time. Repair teams of Ukrenergo, electricity producers and distribution system operators are working continuously,” the statement said.

Russian soldiers taking part in the war on Ukraine will be eligible for free sperm freezing and storage in cryobanks, according to Russia’s state news agency Tass, citing a lawyers union.

“The families of those called up for military service as part of the partial mobilization will receive free access to fertility treatment and the storage of biomaterial in a cryobank,” said Igor Trunov, the president of the Russian Union of Lawyers, which represents several couples, according to Tass.

The Russian health ministry responded to a request for the creation of "a free cryobank of genetic material" and amendments to the mandatory health insurance system to allocate a free fertility treatment quota for Russian citizens taking part in what Moscow calls its "special military operation,” according to Trunov.

“The RF Ministry of Health has decided it is possible to use money from the federal budget to fund the fee-free conservation and storage of sex cells (sperm) for citizens mobilized into the Special Military Operation, in 2022-2024," he said, per Tass.

"Any subsequent free use of conserved genetic material in assisted reproductive technology is governed by the law, provided it is indicated as a part of [the individual's] mandatory health insurance package," he added.

Russia’s foreign ministry has slammed Ukraine’s calls to remove Russia from the UN Security Council (UNSC), according to Russian state news agency TASS.

On Monday, the Ukrainian foreign ministry in a statement said Russia should be both excluded from the UNSC, and from being a member of the UN as a whole. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for Russia’s expulsion from the United Nations in the past.

Maria Zakharova, Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman, dismissed Kyiv's statement Wednesday, saying, "Do nothing. This is precisely the case when dogs bark but the caravan moves on.”

Zakharova made the comments to Sputnik radio station on Wednesday in response to a question on Moscow’s reaction.

Here's some background: Ukraine's foreign ministry alleges “gross violations of the norms and principles of international law as well as for crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine, in particular, for war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as the crime of genocide.”

It suggests Russia could be re-admitted upon recommendation for UN membership once it “fulfils the conditions for membership in the Organization.”

 A district of the northeastern city of Kharkiv was hit with rockets on Wednesday, injuring one civilian, according to the regional military administration.

Russia captured swathes of Kharkiv in the early days of its invasion, before Ukrainian forces retook most of the region in an offensive in the fall.

The French minister for the armed forces, Sebastien Lecornu, has arrived in Kyiv. After arriving via train from Warsaw, he went to the city's wall of remembrance where he laid a wreath, CNN affiliate BFM reported.

Lecornu will later meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Oleksiy Reznikov, BFM said, to discuss the defense of Ukraine. It was not yet clear if he would meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, BFM said.

This is the first time the minister has been to Ukraine since the war began in February.

Russian attacks on Ukraine’s southern Kherson region continued over the past 24 hours, injuring three civilians, according to the head of the regional military administration.

“Russian occupiers shelled the territory of Kherson region 50 times. Peaceful settlements of the region suffered from attacks from artillery, MLRS, mortars and tanks,” Yaroslav Yanushevych, head of the Kherson regional military administration, said in a Telegram post.

The city of Kherson was hit 23 times in the past 24 hours, Yanushevych said, adding that three people had sustained injuries of "varying severity."

In November, Russia’s military retreated from Kherson city, the only regional capital Moscow had captured since the invasion began, in a major setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Since then, Russian forces have stationed themselves across the river from Kherson and regularly shell the city from there.

On Tuesday, a hospital maternity ward in the city of Kherson was hit by Russian shelling, according to Ukrainian officials.

For Andrei Soldatov and his friends, Feb. 24 marked the end of Russia as they knew it.

In the early hours of that day, President Vladimir Putin announced that he had ordered Russian troops into Ukraine. “And all of a sudden, everything we still believed in got completely compromised,” Soldatov, a Russian investigative journalist who lives in self-imposed exile in London, told CNN.

Life in Russia had for many years been getting more difficult for dissidents, independent journalists and anyone speaking up against Putin’s regime, but Soldatov said people like him still had some hope to hold on to. The war changed that, he said.

Read the dissidents' stories here.

An Australian man has died fighting to defend Ukraine from Russia's invasion, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) confirmed to CNN on Wednesday. 

Sage O'Donnell "died in action defending the freedom of the Ukrainian people," his mother said in a statement released by DFAT.

DFAT is providing consular assistance to the family, a spokesperson said.

At least 6,884 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since Russia’s invasion of the country began in February, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said.

The figures, compiled up to Dec. 26, include 429 children, according to OHCHR, which added it believed the actual numbers were higher.

Nearly 11,000 people have been injured, it said.

CNN cannot independently verify the OCHR figures.