February 10, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage for the day has ended. Follow the latest Ukraine news here or read through the updates below.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks to reporters following his meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday in Washington.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told reporters at the White House he thinks world leaders should create a coalition aimed at ending the war in Ukraine — and that he expressed the idea to US President Joe Biden during their meeting at the White House Friday.

Lula said he’d also mentioned the idea to French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

In an interview with CNN Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour Friday, Lula said if a country is invaded, “of course it has the right to defend itself,” but that he wants to “fix the error” Russia made.

“I don’t want to join the war,” the Brazilian leader said. “I want to end the war.”

Lula has sought to be a global statesman who could broker a truce between Russia and Ukraine, telling CNN that he began this work by speaking to Scholz, who visited Brazil in January.

US President Joe Biden meets with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the Oval Office of the White House on Friday in Washington.

Lula reiterated that hope Friday evening, telling reporters he’d like to see, “a partnership capable of building a group of negotiators which both sides believe in.”

What the US is saying: The Biden administration has repeatedly deferred to Ukraine on the decision to open peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.

Pressed on Lula’s earlier comments around Ukraine during Friday’s press briefing, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that while the administration “would like to see this war end today,” Russia’s attacks on civilian infrastructure would appear to belie that hope.

The cooling towers of the Rivne nuclear power plant are seen March 25, 2022, in Varash.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said it was informed by Ukraine’s energy regulator on Friday that the power output at two nuclear power plants was reduced as a precaution after sustained Russian shelling.

The IAEA said in a statement that the power plants in Rivne and in southern Ukraine “had reduced power output as a precautionary measure due to renewed shelling of the country’s energy infrastructure.” 

The shelling of a third plant — the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant in western Ukraine — caused one of the plant’s reactor units to “shut down,” continued the statement. The UN watchdog added that its own support and assistance missions present on the ground had confirmed that “all nuclear safety systems at Khmelnytskyi worked as expected.”

Talks with Russia: IAEA chief Rafael Grossi held talks with senior Russian officials in Moscow this week. According to the IAEA, the talks were part of the lengthy efforts to “agree and implement a much-needed nuclear safety and security protection zone around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP).”

The UN watchdog said it has been unable to rotate its team of experts present in the plant in southern Ukraine due to “increased military activity.”

After meeting on Thursday with the head of Russian state nuclear company Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev, and an intergovernmental group of the Russian Federation, Grossi met representatives from the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday, according to the statement.

As the meetings wrapped, Grossi said he remained hopeful that the safety zone will be established while acknowledging it should’ve been done earlier. He also raised the idea of the zone during recent talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials, according to the IAEA statement. 

Ukrainian authorities have warned of a drone attack threat in the Kyiv region.

Air raid alarms sounded Friday night across several regions of Ukraine as Russia escalated attacks on the country. 

The Russian-occupied city of Melitopol was hit with a series of explosions on Friday night, according to both Ukrainian and pro-Russian officials. 

Ukrainian forces have repeatedly struck Melitopol in the last several weeks in an effort to reclaim land in the south of the country and underline the importance of longer-range weaponry.

Vladimir Rogov, a member of the region’s pro-Russian military-civilian administration, said on Telegram that “a series of explosions were heard in the city for the second time this evening,” adding that the Russian Armed Forces air defense system was working to combat the attacks. 

Rogov claimed the Armed Forces of Ukraine were striking the city with heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems. He said that “fragments of downed rockets” hit private residential houses.

Meanwhile, Ivan Fedorov, the Ukrainian Mayor of Melitopol, said in a Telegram post on Friday that the southern city was shuddering from powerful explosions.

“The power of incoming hits is such that the windows are shaking,” he said.

Ukrainian air defense systems are defending the central city of Dnipro against a Russian attack, the region’s military administration said on Telegram on Friday.

“Explosions in Dnipro city — air defense is working,” said Serhii Lysak, the head of the Dnipropetrovskk region military administration.

Russia attacked the Mykolaiv, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions of Ukraine using drones on Friday, regional officials said.

Vitalii Kim, the head of the Mykolaiv region military administration, said in a Telegram post that there were drones flying in the area. He also suggested three drones had been downed by Ukrainian forces in Mykolaiv. 

In the Odesa region, air defense units shot down four Iranian Shahed-136 drones “that were trying to hit energy infrastructure facilities,” according to Maksym Marchenko, head of the regional military administration.

Meanwhile, Mykola Lukashuk, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk region council, said on Telegram that unmanned aerial vehicles had been spotted in the region.

Earlier on Friday, the Ukrainian Military general staff update said Russia carried out two attacks using Iranian Shahed-136 drones.

President Joe Biden gives remarks at the White House on Friday in Washington, DC.

President Joe Biden will visit Poland this month to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, returning to the region as the war enters a volatile new phase without a clear path to peace.

The president is planning to visit Poland from February 20 to 22. The White House said he would meet Poland’s President Duda and other leaders from the region. He’ll deliver remarks ahead of the official anniversary on February 24. 

Biden’s aides have been planning for several weeks how they will mark the anniversary of the invasion, including potentially a major address. They hope to emphasize the resilience of the Ukrainian people while stressing the importance of unity in the uncertain months ahead.

The US president hopes to reiterate American support for Ukraine on his upcoming trip to the region, a top White House official said, including making clear additional assistance would be forthcoming.

Preparing for an offensive: Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky is currently preparing for an expected Russian offensive in the spring, appealing to Western governments for additional assistance and weaponry — including fighter jets and tanks — to help sustain the fight. He visited London, Paris and Brussels this week to deliver his requests in person, a rare trip outside his country that lent his appeals new urgency.

Some background: Polish President Andrzej Duda said allied relations are “stronger than ever” after the White House’s announcement.

Biden last visited Poland, a key NATO ally, in April, traveling near the Ukraine border to visit with US and Polish troops. He also met with refugees fleeing Ukraine after the invasion.

In a speech delivered from the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Biden said for the first time that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” edging toward calling for regime change in Moscow.

A US State Department spokesperson condemned the latest Russian attacks against Ukraine, which damaged energy infrastructure in several regions of the country.

The strikes are “yet another reminder that Russia seeks the full destruction of Ukraine,” principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said during a phone briefing.

According to Patel, Russia launched a barrage of ballistic missiles and Iranian-made drones against not just transformer stations, but thermal generation stations and hydroelectric stations as well.

“This is a deliberate targeting of infrastructure that keeps Ukrainians alive in winter. Today is yet another reminder that Russia seeks the full destruction of Ukraine,” he said. “They literally want to bring darkness to Ukraine.”

“There is right and there is wrong, and Russia is wrong,” Patel added.

Damage is seen in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on February 10.

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.”

Local residents clear the rubble of a private house following a Russian rocket attack in Komyshevakha in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, on February 10.

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.”

The Russian oil producer Gazprom Neft Moscow refinery on the southeastern outskirts of the capital in April 2022.

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.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after his arrival in England, on February 8.

Zelensky addresses British MPs in Westminster Hall, inside London's Palace of Westminster, on February 8.

King Charles III holds an audience with Zelensky at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday.

Zelensky and Sunak arrive to meet Ukrainian troops being trained to command Challenger 2 tanks at a military facility in Lulworth, England, on February 8.

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Zelensky for a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, on February 8.

Macron, Zelensky and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrive to give a joint statement at the Elysee Palace on February 8.

Macron and Zelensky walk on the tarmac of Velizy-Villacoublay airbase as they prepare to board a flight together, en route to Brussels for a summit at the EU parliament, on February 9.

Zelensky delivers a speech at the start of a summit at the EU parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on February 9.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Zelensky and European Council President Charles Michel shake hands at the end of a news conference during the European leaders summit in Brussels on Thursday.

Zelensky and King Philippe of Belgium pictured during a diplomatic meeting at the Royal Palace in Brussels on February 9.

Zelensky attends a meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Rzeszow, Poland, on February 10.

Russian ambassador to Moldova Oleg Vasnetsov speaks to media in Chisinau, Moldova, in November 2022.

Moldova’s Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu has instructed authorities to urgently summon the Russian ambassador, after the Ukrainian and Moldovan governments alleged a Russian cruise missile crossed the territory of Moldova.

The move has been made to “point out to the Russian side the unacceptable violation of our airspace by a Russian missile over the sovereign territory of the Republic of Moldova,” the ministry tweeted Friday.

“We call on Russia to stop its military aggression against Ukraine that causes loss of human life and material destruction,” it added.

Russian missiles have crossed over Moldova, which borders Ukraine, several times over the course of the nearly year-long war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrives in Poland to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda on February 10.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Polish President Andrzej Duda discussed “the need for further joint actions for military support” in a meeting Friday, as the Ukrainian leader makes an unannounced diplomatic tour of European capitals.

The pair also talked about “the current situation at the front and the security in our region” and “the agenda before the upcoming summit #NATO in Vilnius,” the Office of International Policy of the President of the Republic of Poland said in a series of tweets. 

Zelensky thanked Duda “for the support that Poland provides to Ukraine, including the care for millions of Ukrainian refugees,” the office added. 

Some context: Zelensky gave an emotional address to EU lawmakers in Brussels Thursday, following a surprise visit to London and Paris as part of a trip aimed at persuading the West to send more weapons and military support to counter an expected Russian spring offensive.

Russia’s invasion exacerbated the global refugee crisis, with millions of refugees from Ukraine spilling into countries in Europe as the conflict rages on at home.

Over 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees have been recorded in neighboring Poland, according to the latest figures from the UN’s refugee agency.