February 10, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Russian strikes on Friday damaged Ukraine's energy infrastructure in several parts of Ukraine, authorities say.

Strikes hit high-voltage infrastructure in western, central and eastern Ukraine, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said, reporting damage in Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv during a government meeting.

"Zaporizhzhia suffered one of the largest air attacks since the beginning of the war. Kharkiv also came under a large-scale attack overnight," said Shmyhal.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office reported damage at a power supply facility in the western city of Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine. There were no casualties and fires resulting from the attack have been extinguished, according to regional authorities. 

Ukrainian air defense forces also shot down one cruise missile in the Khmelnytskyi district, the head of the region's military administration, Serhiy Hamaliy, said in a Telegram post. 

A critical infrastructure facility in the Shepetivka district was also hit around 4:00 am local time (9:00 pm ET), Hamaliy said.

"Most of Khmelnytskyi city, as well as the Khmelnytskyi, Starokostiantynivka, and Krasylivka territorial communities, are without power supply," Hamaliy added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky returned to Kyiv on Friday after his unannounced trip to western Europe, where he called for more modern tanks, long-range missiles and fighter jets.

Zelensky reacted to the latest nationwide Russian missile attacks, saying in a video on his Telegram channel that “this is terror that can and must be stopped. Stopped by the world.”

Here are the latest headlines:

Romanian authorities have denied Ukraine’s suggestion that a Russian missile on Friday crossed the NATO member country’s airspace.

Following a comment from Ukraine’s top general, Romania's Defense Ministry said in a statement that its fighter jets and radar tracking the missile showed that it got no closer than 35 kilometers (more than 21 miles) to Romania’s border.

Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander in chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, claimed on Telegram Friday morning that two Russian cruise missiles had crossed Romanian air space at around 10:33 a.m. local time (3:33 a.m. ET). That claim was echoed later in the day by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a video posted to his official Telegram channel.

Romanian authorities said Friday that there was no truth to that claim.

Two Romanian MiG-21 fighter jets on a routine air policing mission were diverted at 10:38 a.m. local time (3:38 a.m. ET) to monitor a Russian missile launched from a ship in the Black Sea, near Crimea, the Romanian Defense Ministry said.

Other incidents involving NATO members: A Russian missile crossing NATO airspace would have the potential to be extremely provocative. The only time a NATO-member country has been directly impacted by Ukraine’s war was in November, when a Ukrainian air defense missile, defending against a Russian attack, landed in Poland and killed two people.

A NATO official directed CNN to the Romanian government.

Russian missile crosses Moldova: A Russian missile did appear to fly over Moldova, a non-NATO country, according to Moldova's government.

“The responsible structures within the institution detected, at 10:18 a.m. local time (3:18 a.m. ET), a missile, which crossed the airspace of the Republic of Moldova, over the town of Mocra in the Transnistrian region and, later, over the town of Cosauți in the Soroca district, heading towards Ukraine,” the Moldovan Defense Ministry said on Facebook.

Moldova's Foreign Minster summoned the Russian ambassador Friday over what it said was an "unacceptable violation of our airspace by a Russian missile."

What the US is saying: In response to the incidents involving Moldova and NATO member Romania, Vedant Patel, State Department principal deputy spokesperson, said Friday that the United States currently has “no indication of a direct military threat by Russia against Moldova or Romania.”

“We support Moldova's sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as its constitutionally guaranteed neutrality,” Patel said during a phone briefing. 

“We remain in close contact and communication with our Moldova partners and our Romanian allies,” Patel added.

CNN's Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting to this post.

Ukrainian authorities carried out a “large-scale” search operation at offices of the State Customs Service on Friday, according to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

The SBU claimed that it identified about 50 "economic entities" that allegedly helped customs officials implement illegal schemes, and blocked their operations.

The operation was a conducted jointly between the SBU, the State Bureau of Investigation (DBR), and the General Prosecutor’s Office.

Searches were conducted in the agency's central office and in the regional offices of Volyn, Zhytomyr, Lviv, Ternopil, Chernivtsi, Odesa, Kyiv, Rivne and Zakarpattia, according to SBU.

SBU is expected to conduct an initial investigation and then release a detailed report on corruption committed by agency officials.

The Swiss government has rejected a request from Madrid to re-export two anti-air guns made in Switzerland to Ukraine, citing a violation of the country’s war material law, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) told CNN Friday.

“It’s for this same reason that we turned down similar request from Denmark and Germany last year,” SECO spokesperson Fabian Maienfisch told CNN. 

Switzerland has strict federal law regulating re-exportation of Swiss-made weapons and other war materials. 

The Swiss parliament is examining a bill submitted on February 3 with the aim to loosen this restriction.

Remember: At the beginning of the war, Switzerland broke with its tradition of neutrality to adopt European Union sanctions on Russia, citing an "extraordinary situation."

Russia on Friday launched nationwide missile strikes, as it has done with grim regularity for months. It fired a notably high number of S-300 missiles at Zaporizhzhia city and the Kharkiv region – up to 35, according to Ukrainian officials.

It came a day after the leader of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, Serhiy Hayday, said that Russia was escalating its attacks in that part of the country, something he believed was “part of the full-scale offensive that Russia has been planning.”

While the balance of momentum now certainly seems to lie with Russian forces, a dramatic and triumphant spring offensive from Russia still appears to be absent.

Ukrainian warnings: As 2022 ended, it seemed as though Ukraine had the advantage in beating back Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Months after regaining large swaths of territory in the northeastern Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, Ukraine’s military retook all land west of the Dnipro River, including the regional capital of Kherson.

But the new year brought a raft of warnings from Ukrainian officials about a coming Russian offensive, likely around the February 24 anniversary of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said that Russia was planning for “maximum escalation” and that the coming months would be “defining.” Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, said that February and March would be “very active.” President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia “wants revenge.”

Those warnings came in conjunction with dire requests for more advanced western weapons – something that was partially fulfilled when German, the US., and others agreed to send Ukraine main battle tanks at the end of January.

The Russian position: Though it is incredibly difficult to assess, there has been some indication from both Ukrainian and Russian sources that Russia has been able to build up its mobilized reserves in eastern Ukraine.

“Our units, which were mostly formed from mobilized men, gained experience, which made it possible to increase the stability of the units on the front line,” a pro-Kremlin Russian military blogger, Evgeny Poddubny, wrote on Telegram Thursday. He conceded, though, that Ukraine has also been able to replenish its own “depleted units.”

Hayday, the Ukrainian Luhansk leader, said at the end of January that there was an “incredible number” of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine.

"There are huge numbers of them [Russian troops in the Svatove-Kreminna area]. And a very large number of mobilized. And they are constantly being thrown into the offensive — almost all the time.”

Russian attacks: So can those numbers be seen on the battlefield? Perhaps, though not yet in a dramatic way.

Hayday said on Thursday that Russia is on the offensive near the Svatove-Kreminna frontline, though so far without “much success.”

“We can conclude that a certain escalation has already begun,” he said. “And we can say de facto that this is part of the full-scale offensive that Russia has been planning.”

Russia plans to voluntarily reduce oil production by 500,000 barrels per day – around 5% of output – in March, following a string of price limits on products such as gasoline and fuel oil imposed by the United States and its allies amid the war in Ukraine.

"Russia believes that the price ceiling mechanism for the sale of Russian oil and oil products is an interference in market relations and a continuation of the destructive energy policy of the countries of the collective West," Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in a statement published on the government's website Friday.

"To date, we have been able to sell the entire volume of oil produced; however, as stated earlier, we will not sell oil to those who directly or indirectly adhere to the principles of the price ceiling," he said. "In relation to this, Russia will voluntarily reduce production by 500,000 barrels per day in March. This will contribute to the restoration of market relations."

Novak said the price ceiling mechanism, in the future, "may not only lead to a decrease in investment in the oil sector and, accordingly, an oil shortage, but also be extended to other sectors of the world economy with similar consequences."  

"When making further decisions, we will act on the basis of the current market situation," he added. 

Novak's statement comes after the introduction of additional sanctions from the West over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Oil production is a vital source of revenue for the Russian government.

Ukraine’s Air Force Command said it has shot down 61 out of 71 missiles launched by Russia on Friday, as air raid sirens blared across the country earlier amid a series of attacks.

Ukraine’s military says that in addition, Russian launched around 35 S-300 missiles at the southern city of Zaporizhzhia and the northeastern Kharkiv region – a missile designed to be surface-to-air, but used by Russia to strike the ground.

The military also claimed to have down five Iranian-made Shahed drones overnight.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise visit to western Europe this week, forming an unannounced diplomatic tour aimed at persuading allies to send more modern weapons and military support to Kyiv.

The Ukrainian leader has made strides to keep the spotlight on Russia's war on his country as we approach the one-year anniversary of the invasion later this month. Meanwhile, officials in Kyiv have warned of an expected Russian offensive this spring.

Zelensky returned to Kyiv on Friday and posted a video to his Telegram channel from his office in the Ukrainian capital.

Referring to Friday’s nationwide missiles attacks, he said: “This is terror that can and must be stopped. Stopped by the world.”