October 18, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Grossi “expressed deep concern” Tuesday about the recent detentions of two Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant staff members.

“This is another concerning development that I sincerely hope will be resolved swiftly,” Grossi said in a statement. 

The Ukrainian state energy company Energoatom claimed in a Telegram post on Monday that two workers at the Russian-occupied nuclear power plant were “kidnapped” and had pleaded for Grossi to intervene. 

The IAEA statement on Tuesday confirmed the detentions, but did not name the staff, stating: “Director General Grossi expressed deep concern about the recent detentions of two other ZNPP staff members, which have been confirmed by the IAEA.”

Separately, the statement welcomed the release of a ZNPP Deputy Director General, Valeriy Martynyuk, who was detained early last week.

The nuclear plant, which sits in the Russian-occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region, is the largest in Europe. It has been held by Russian forces for more than seven months but is operated by its Ukrainian staff. 

The United States, France and the United Kingdom plan to discuss Iran’s drone transfers to Russia at a closed UN Security Council meeting Wednesday, a US official told CNN.

The meeting comes as Russia has launched Iranian-made drones against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, killing several people. 

The three countries have said that the transfer of Iranian-made drones is a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which restricts certain arms transfers to or from Iran. It is unclear whether they will raise this specific point in the meeting tomorrow or move to snap back sanctions on Iran for the arms transfers. 

UNSCR 2231 was tied to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and elements of that resolution, including a ban on the transfer of conventional weapons, were phased out in 2020. The Trump administration attempted to unilaterally snap back the arms embargo in September 2021 and the Biden administration told the UN Security Council it was reversing those efforts in February 2021.

Patel noted that UNSCR 2231 prohibits the transfer from Iran of all items, materials, equipment and goods and technology unless approved in advance by the UN Security Council on a case-by-case basis.

He also said the range of the drones being greater than 300km put them in violation of the resolution.

Russia struck more infrastructure targets in Ukraine on Tuesday and at least three cities, including Kyiv, are experiencing power interruptions, according to officials.

Since Oct. 10, nearly a third of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed, President Volodymyr Zelensky said as he urged people to conserve their energy use.

Here’s what else to know:

A Russian drone, which local authorities believe to be an Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicle, in Kyiv on Oct. 17.

Iran has sent military personnel to Crimea to train and advise the Russian military on the use of Iranian-built drones, according to two sources familiar with US intelligence. Moscow has used these drones to devastating effect in its war in Ukraine, the sources say.

Russia has launched many of what is believed to be a store of hundreds of Iranian-made drones from Crimea in a fusillade that has targeted Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure in increasing numbers in recent weeks. The drones have been seen as a signal of growing closeness between Tehran and Moscow. 

CNN has reached out to the Iranian mission at the United Nations. 

Earlier on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry said reports that Tehran was sending weapons, including military drones, to Russia for the war in Ukraine were “untrue.”

However, State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said Tuesday that the deepening of relations between Moscow and Tehran should be seen as “a profound threat.”

It was not immediately clear how many trainers traveled to Crimea – which was annexed by Russia in 2014 – and whether they remain present. One source briefed on US intelligence said “dozens” of Iranian personnel had been sent. 

US officials have said that when Russia first began testing and deploying the drones in Ukraine in August, many of them experienced numerous failures. Russian operatives had been training on the systems inside Iran, but Iranian personnel began traveling to Crimea in recent weeks to help Russia operate the systems and try to fix their problems.

Tehran has provided two types of drones: Shaheds, which explode on impact and have a range of upwards of 1,000 miles, and the Mohajer-6, which can both carry missiles and be used for surveillance. 

The Daily Mirror first reported the trainers’ presence in Ukraine.

US basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, is escorted in a court building in Khimki outside Moscow, Russia on August 4.

The lawyers for WNBA player Brittney Griner have told CNN that the athlete’s birthday is a “difficult” occasion for her as she awaits her appeal hearing next week.  

Griner, who turned 32 years old on Tuesday, spent the day “away from her family, from friends, from teammates” in her prison cell in Moscow’s suburbs, according to her lawyer Maria Blagovolina who spoke to CNN’s Matthew Chance on Tuesday.  

Blagovolina and her colleague Alexander Boykov spoke of how they spent a few hours with Griner as part of an effort to “cheer her up as much” as they could, relaying birthday messages from “all over the world.”  

Boykov said Griner is not doing any “better” or “worse” than her fellow inmates, adding that her “likable character” has helped with personnel in the prison. Blagovolina said the athlete is attempting to “do some exercises” every day despite the “limited” facilities available to her.  

Her lawyers told CNN as Griner’s Oct. 25 appeal hearing draws closer, the athlete is feeling anxious and is “very much concerned with the outcome of the appeal.”

“Brittney can’t help thinking that if this [prisoner] swap doesn’t happen, she will have to spend the whole period of the sentence in Russia. So that’s why she is very much concerned with the outcome of the appeal,” Boykov said.  

Griner’s anxiety ahead of the upcoming hearing stem from the fact the “legal process will be basically over after the appeal,” Boykov added, highlighting her concern that “if anything goes wrong, she will have to serve [her jail time] here in Russia.” 

Both lawyers reiterated the extreme nature of Griner’s nine-year sentence, with Blagovolina calling it “very severe for this type of crime and this amount of this substance,” expressing her strong hope that the “turnover sentence will be reduced.”  

When asked how much information the Russian legal team has about the negotiations between Russia and the US to secure her release, Blagovolina said: “We are in Russia….I would say we have very limited information about what is going on about the status of negotiations. What I can say is that as her lawyers we are doing as much as we can. So, we hope that the government does the same.” 

She added that Griner is “informed” about what’s going on and “really” appreciated the fact that President Joe Biden met with her wife Cherelle in September.  

“So, she knows what’s being done for her,” Blagovolina added. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during the video conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on October 11.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that Russia’s attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure meant that “very conscious consumption of electricity” was still required, especially during peak usage hours.

“Wherever possible, we are trying to speed up the restoration work,” he said.

He said the fact that Russia was “crawling to Tehran” for support with weaponry was a sign of weakness.

“We must remember that the very fact that Russia is asking Iran for such assistance is the Kremlin’s recognition of its military and political bankruptcy,” he said.

“Strategically, this will not help them in any way. It only further proves to the world that Russia is on the trajectory of its loss and is trying to involve someone else in its accomplices in terror,” the Ukrainian president said.

More background: Reuters reported earlier on Tuesday, citing two Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats, that Iran has promised to provide Russia with surface-to-surface missiles, and additional drones. The pledges were made when several Iranian officials visited Moscow in October, Reuters said.

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied claims that the country is sending weapons for Russia to use in Ukraine.

Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said he has seen the reports but does not have “have any information to corroborate at this time.”

US consular officers spoke by phone with detained Americans Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan on Tuesday, according to the State Department.

“A consular officer had the opportunity today to speak with Brittney briefly on the phone,” principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said at a State Department briefing. “A consular officer also had the opportunity to briefly speak with Paul Whelan.”

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said last week that the US Embassy has not had consular access to Griner since early August. 

Fighting for their release: The Biden administration has had communications with Russia as part of ongoing efforts to secure the release of Griner and Whelan “as recently as within past days” a senior administration official told CNN.

The US first put an offer for a prisoner swap on the table with Russia back in June — the details of which CNN exclusively reported -— and “conversations have not been static since then,” the official said.

Despite the “pretty persistent” pace of discussions between the US and Russia to secure the Americans’ release, the official said that the Biden administration has yet to receive a serious counteroffer from the Russian side.   

Tuesday was Griner’s 32nd birthday and she expressed gratitude for the support she has received, according to a statement shared by Maria Blagovolina, a partner at Rybalkin, Gortsunyan, Dyakin and Partners law firm.

“Thank you everyone for fighting so hard to get me home. All the support and love are definitely helping me,” Griner said in her message, according to the statement.

The new commander of Russia’s so-called Special Military Operation in Ukraine said on Tuesday that his country’s goal was a Ukraine that was “friendly” to Russia and independent of the West.

Surovikin took up his post commanding Ukraine operations just over a week ago, following an appointment approved by the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

“We do not strive for high rates of advance,” he said on Tuesday. “We protect each soldier and methodically ‘grind’ the advancing enemy.”

He described the state of Russia’s campaign in Ukraine as “tense.”

“The enemy does not abandon attempts to attack the positions of Russian troops,” he said.

A view of the damaged village located in the border of the Kherson region on October 7.

The Russian-backed leader in Ukraine’s Kherson region announced Tuesday that there would be a further “organized relocation” of civilians away from front-line settlements.

“This decision was prompted by the creation of large-scale defensive fortifications so that any attack could be repelled. There is no place for civilians where the military operate. Let the Russian army do its job,” he said.

Saldo said that any civilians who decided to move on “to the regions of Russia” would be given assistance with housing.

Some background: The newly appointed commander of Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine, General Sergey Surovikin, on Tuesday called the situation in the Kherson region “very difficult.”

“The Russian army will ensure the safe evacuation of the population,” Surovikin said.

Ukraine has made significant advances toward Kherson in recent weeks, along the western (or right) bank of the Dnipro river. The head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Agency said that he hoped to recapture the city by the end of the year.

The Ukrainian military said Monday that Russian forces were busy building fortifications in the Kherson region and that they were moving civilians to Crimea.

The deputy Ukrainian head of the Kherson region characterized Russia’s “evacuations” as “semi-voluntary deportation of the Ukrainian population.”

Iranian officials are denying reports which claim that the country is sending weapons, including military drones, to Russia for the war in Ukraine, calling it “untrue.”

Reuters reported earlier on Tuesday, citing two Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats, that Iran has promised to provide Russia with surface-to-surface missiles, and additional drones. The pledges were made when several Iranian officials visited Moscow in October, Reuters said.

“The Russians had asked for more drones and those Iranian ballistic missiles with improved accuracy, particularly the Fateh and Zolfaghar missiles family,” one of the Iranian diplomats, who was briefed about the trip, told Reuters. 

Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said he has seen the reports but does not have “have any information to corroborate at this time.”

CNN has reached out to the Iranian Foreign Ministry for comment. 

Ukraine has, in recent weeks, reported a number of Russian attacks with Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones.  

Iran has denied it is supplying weapons to Russia several times this month.

The head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Agency predicts “significant victories” for Kyiv by the end of the year and said “it should be over” by next summer.

He said that he hoped the victories would include the southern Russian-occupied city of Kherson, where Ukraine has made significant progress in recent weeks.

In remarks distributed by his agency, Budanov said: “At the end of spring it should be over. By the summer everything should be over.”

He said that Ukraine intended to return to its 1991 borders. That would mean recapturing Crimea and the areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions occupied since 2014.

Budanov also said that he does not believe Russia will use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

“Theoretically, they can, but it will only accelerate the disintegration of the Russian Federation, and they know and understand this very well. They are not as stupid as we would like them to be,” he said.

Budanov said he believes that those in the Kremlin had now coalesced on a central goal for the war in Ukraine: “Not to lose.”

“Some of them are notional ‘doves,’ others are notional ‘hawks,’” he said. “Both these towers understand that things are very bad, they just have slightly different opinions on how to get out of this situation.”

He added, “Some understand clearly that they should stop and look for some kind of peaceful resolution, others believe that Russia will cease to exist if they do not continue, if they are defeated, so to speak.”

“It is no longer a question of winning — it’s now ‘not to lose,’” he said of his assessment of Kremlin thinking.

With a Ukrainian victory, he said, a “very serious political process will begin, connected with changes in the current Russian Federation.”

Brittney Griner (L) and Paul Whelan.

The Biden administration has had communications with Russia as part of ongoing efforts to secure the release of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan “as recently as within past days” a senior administration official said, speaking to CNN on Griner’s birthday, which she will be spending in Russian jail.

The United States first put an offer for a prisoner swap on the table with Russia back in June — the details of which CNN exclusively reported — and “conversations have not been static since then” the official said.

Despite the “pretty persistent” pace of discussions between the US and Russia to secure the Americans’ release, the official said the Biden administration has yet to receive a serious counteroffer from the Russian side.  

They said the Russians have countered with “something not in our control, not in our ability to deliver,” but did not go into further specifics. 

“They’re not non-responsive. I would say that they continue to respond with something that they know not to be feasible or available,” the official said of the Russian response.

The official said the US has used multiple channels for discussions with the Russians and conversations have taken place both in-person, by phone, and “through other forms.” The US has dangled multiple ideas for “things that could be in play” to urge a serious response from the Russians.

With Griner spending her 32nd birthday in Russian prison the official said that “every day is too long” for her to remain wrongfully detained by Russia. 

“I wish you weren’t spending this birthday in Russian detention. I wish you weren’t spending the past weeks and months there,” the official said, speaking to Griner. “As far as we’re concerned, each day is too long and we will keep working this until we resolve it and get her home. Regrettably, the other side gets a vote in this. They’re the ones who created this horrific situation. They’re the ones we regrettably need to deal with to resolve it.”

Next week, Griner will appeal her nine-year prison sentence in Russian court. It is unclear if the passage of that court date will bolster ongoing efforts to get her home.

“To the extent that that different phases of that decidedly imperfect system pass and open the possibility on the other side of real negotiations, we would welcome that. But the most candid answer is, we don’t know,” the official said.

President Joe Biden said last week that he would consider meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 in November if he wanted to discuss Griner. When asked if there has been discussion between the US and Russia about that possible meeting on Griner the official said they would let Biden’s remarks “speak for themselves.”

The UN’s resident and humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine underlined on Tuesday “the utter devastation” in areas impacted by the war and the ever-changing dimensions of the humanitarian crisis there. 

The official also highlighted her deep concerns about the upcoming onset of winter.

The humanitarian situation in Ukraine is also influenced by several different factors, she said, one being changing frontlines.

“As the frontline moves, we have to adapt,” Brown said. But she added, “we are not soldiers” and the “humanitarian community is not a military force.”  

She said the second factor was the upcoming onset of winter, where the UN was addressing “very basic stuff” in order to offer to those in need a “safe, dignified and warm place to be over the winter months.” 

This includes things like winter clothes, blankets, and mattresses, Brown said. But, she underlined, the damage to the power and thermal stations is not something the humanitarian community would be able to address, which she called a matter that should be of great concern to member states.  

Brown said trauma from the war is also contributing to the humanitarian situation and Ukrainians will need some kind of support in the future, “that will be the next fight,” she said, adding whether they were “demobilized soldiers, children who hear air sirens every day, or people just going about their business.”  

The United States tracked and intercepted two Russian Tu-95 Bear-H bomber aircraft flying near the Alaskan coast on Oct. 17, a release from the Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said.

The Russian aircraft were “entering and operating within the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ),” the release said, and “remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace.”

The “recent Russian activity” in the ADIZ “is not seen as a threat nor is the activity seen as provocative,” NORAD said in the release. 

Some more context: The ADIZ is international airspace adjacent to Alaska that extends in places more than 100 miles (more than 160 kilometers) from US territory. The US military initiates identification procedures for aircraft in the ADIZ in the interest of national security. NORAD is the part of the US military that oversees the US military presence in North America.

Two Russian maritime patrol aircraft were identified operating within the ADIZ by NORAD on Sept. 11, a previous release from NORAD said. NORAD detected Russian military aircraft flying into the ADIZ three times in the same week in August, CNN previously reported. The three incidents occurred sometime between Aug. 8 and Aug. 10, NORAD said at the time.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gives an annual press conference on Russian diplomacy on January 14.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that there is “no point” in maintaining the country’s current level of diplomatic presence in the West, according to the country’s state media RIA Novosti.

“The main thing is that there is no work there since Europe decided to close itself from us and stop any economic cooperation. You can’t be forced to be nice,” he added.

Lavrov said that the Russian foreign ministry is currently carrying out a “geographical reorientation” of its activities both abroad and in the central office, suggesting a potential downgrade of Russia’s diplomatic presence in the West.

A general view of Exxonmobil refinery on April 23, 2020 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. 

ExxonMobil says it has “safely exited” its Russian oil business, accusing the government in Moscow of the “expropriation” of its share in a huge oilfield.

The US oil giant said the Russian government had “unilaterally terminated” its interest in the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas field in the far east of Russia.

In March 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, ExxonMobil said it was beginning the process of exiting the Sakhalin-1 Russian joint venture. In April it announced it would take a $3.4 billion charge in its second quarter results, related to its Russian operations.

Other big Western companies have also struggled with exiting Russia. In May, Shell announced the sale of its Russian lubricant and retail energy business, but said it was still in the process of phasing out its other Russian businesses.

In February, BP said it would exit its 19.75% stake in Rosneft but said that sanctions and Russian rules meant that it had not been able to sell its Rosneft shares yet. In September, Norwegian energy company Equinor confirmed it had fully completed its withdrawal from Russia, saying it has “no remaining assets or projects in Russia”. Equinor announced plans in May to pull out of four joint ventures with Russian oil firm Rosneft and leave an oilfield, the Kharyaga project.

The head of Germany’s cybersecurity agency has been fired over alleged connections with Russia.  

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser sacked Arne Schönbohm, the head of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), with immediate effect from his duties, a spokesperson for the ministry told CNN on Tuesday.  

“There was no longer any confidence in Schönbohm’s leadership,” the spokesperson told CNN.

His firing comes after recent media reports alleging he had links with people involved with Russian intelligence services. 

In the wake of the “current crisis situation regarding Russian hybrid warfare,” the allegations “have permanently damaged the necessary public trust in the neutrality and impartiality of Schönbohm’s conduct of office as president of Germany’s most important cybersecurity authority,” the spokesman said in a statement.  

The accusations “also affected the (interior) minister’s indispensable relationship of trust in the conduct of her office,” the spokesperson added. 

Schönbohm was the head of the BSI since February 2016.  

CNN has reached out to the agency for comment. 

Schönbohm hasn’t publicly commented since the allegations of his Russian ties surfaced.  

More on this: According to reports in German media, he was connected to Russia through his role in the Cyber Security Council of Germany. In 2012, Schönbohm co-founded the organization, which describes itself as politically neutral and advises the private and public sectors on cybersecurity issues. Among its members is a German company that is a subsidiary of a Russian cybersecurity firm founded by a former member of the KGB. 

While declining to comment on Schönbohm, the Cyber Security Council’s spokesperson told CNN on Tuesday that the company had “repeatedly warned that Russian actors could exploit weaknesses in German cyber defenses.” 

“Our focus in the future will continue to be on strengthening the national security architecture as best we can. This explicitly includes possible further threats from Russia,” the spokesperson added.

Aerican basketball star Brittney Griner has released a message on her 32nd birthday from a Russian jail, according to a statement shared by Maria Blagovolina, a partner at Rybalkin, Gortsunyan, Dyakin and Partners law firm. 

Griner’s attorneys, Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, spent a few hours with Griner on Tuesday and relayed numerous birthday wishes to her, the statement said. 

“Today is of course a difficult day for Brittney. Not only this is her birthday in jail away from her family, teammates and friends, but she is very stressed in anticipation of the appeal hearing on 25 October,” the statement added. 

Ukrainian soldiers patrol around the site in a village located in the border of the Kherson region on October 7.

Uraine’s Defense Intelligence Agency believes that Russia’s supply of several missile types is critically low.

“The Russian defense industry cannot produce enough new missiles, and the ones they went to war with on February 24 are already running out,” Brig. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Agency, said in remarks distributed by the Agency.

Budanov alleged that Russia’s supply of “Iskander” cruise missiles, for example, had fallen to 13% of normal levels.

More on Russia’s military supplies: Estimating Russian missile inventories is guesswork. In May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had launched 2,154 missiles and probably used up 60% of its precision-missile arsenal. That now looks like wishful thinking. 

The Pentagon’s view in May was that of its weapons stocks, Russia was “running the lowest on cruise missiles, particularly air-launched cruise missiles,” but that Moscow still had more than 50% of its pre-war inventory.

Budanov said that Russia has been “forced to look for some options to overcome the shortage of missiles. They came to the point that they began to use Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles.”

He said that Russia was “gradually exhausting” its supply of Iranian drones and that Russia continues to order more, Iran’s manufacturing “is not an instant process.”

A senior US military official said on Friday that Russian forces had used an “extensive” number of precision-guided missiles throughout the ongoing conflict with Ukraine.

“I think the fact that they’re now going to the Iranians to use drones speaks to their concern associated with precision munitions, so every one of them fired is probably a very careful consideration for the Russians,” the official said.

CNN’s Tim Lister and Ellie Kaufman contributed reported to this post.