March 8, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

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

Explosions were heard in southwestern Kyiv on Thursday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on his official Telegram account. 

Missiles struck the Odesa region’s energy infrastructure and damaged residential buildings early Thursday, according to Maxim Marchenko, head of the Odesa regional military administration.

Northwest of Odesa, missiles also struck in the Khmelnytskyi region. 

In Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said there was a series of explosions.

Oleh Syniehubov, head of Kharkiv’s military administration, wrote there were at least 15 strikes.

Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a meeting in Kyiv, on March 8.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky can’t currently envisage a situation in which he would meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Personal life: The Ukrainian leader also spoke about how he and his family are dealing with the war, which is now in its second year.

“My daughter joined the university and she studies there, and my son is attending school in Ukraine,” he said. “They’re both in Ukraine. They’re very much like other Ukrainian kids. We live with sirens.”

“We want victory. We don’t want to get used to war, but we got used to the challenges. Everyone wants one thing — to end the war,” he said. 

John Kirby, White House national security spokesman, said the US is focused on providing Ukraine with the necessities of artillery, armor, ammunition and air defense.

The US is focused on providing Ukraine with the necessities: artillery, armor, ammunition and air defense, said John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, when asked about sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

He said Ukrainians are using the air defense systems they currently have “quite effectively.”

He noted the Russians “have not achieved anything near, or even approaching, air superiority over the skies of Ukraine” and attributed it to the support provided to Ukraine by the US and its allies.

President Volodymyr Zelensky is inviting House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to visit Ukraine to see the situation on the ground firsthand – an invitation that comes as the Republican Party faces a divide over whether the United States should continue to provide aid to the country under attack from Russia.

How McCarthy responded: When asked about the invitation, McCarthy told CNN’s Manu Raju that he does not plan to visit Ukraine, and he argued that President Joe Biden has not acted quickly enough to aid the country. McCarthy, a California Republican, has said he supports Ukraine but does not support “a blank check,” a position he repeated on Tuesday – even though there is federal oversight of all the dollars that are spent there.

“Let’s be very clear about what I said: no blank checks, OK? So, from that perspective, I don’t have to go to Ukraine to understand where there’s a blank check or not,” McCarthy told CNN.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer he is “very grateful” for US President Joe Biden’s visit to Ukraine last month. 

“It’s an important signal to the whole world that the US is supporting us. And I think that US believe that we will prevail,” Zelensky said.

But on the question of whether the US will send Ukraine F-16 fighter jets to help the battle for control in the skies, Zelensky said, “The fighter jets issue is difficult. We’re waiting for this decision to be taken.”

Asked if the supply of Western jets will “make or break” a Ukrainian success in the war, Zelensky said: “Yes, we believe so.”

Recalling a discussion with Biden over jets, Zelensky said Biden and his aides felt jets “were not needed” at the moment.

“And I said, ‘No, we need those jets,’” Zelensky said.

“What fighter jets could do, they could help us to defend ourselves,” Zelensky said. “That’s why we need it urgently.”

More on Ukrainian pilots: The US is working with Ukrainian pilots in the United States to determine how long it would take to train them to fly F-16 fighter jets, three sources briefed on the matter told CNN.

Two Ukrainian pilots are currently at a military base in the US having their skills tested in flight simulators to see how much time they would need to learn to fly various US military aircraft, including F-16s.

A US military official added that “there are no updates to provide regarding F-16s to Ukraine” and there are no immediate plans to increase the number of Ukrainian pilots in the US.

Russian troops will have “open road” to capture key cities in eastern Ukraine if they seize control of Bakhmut, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in an interview with CNN, as he defended his decision to keep Ukrainian forces in the besieged city.

“This is tactical for us,” Zelensky said, insisting that Kyiv’s military brass is united in prolonging its defense of the city after weeks of Russian attacks left it on the cusp of falling to Moscow’s troops.

Zelensky said his motivations to keep the city are “so different” to Russia’s objectives.

“We understand what Russia wants to achieve there. Russia needs at least some victory – a small victory – even by ruining everything in Bakhmut, just killing every civilian there,” Zelensky said.

He said that if Russia is able to “put their little flag” on top of Bakhmut, it would help “mobilize their society in order to create this idea they’re such a powerful army.”

Read more about Zelensky’s warning here.

The United States has obtained a warrant to seize an airplane owned by Igor Ivanovich Sechin, who heads a Russian oil company and has been described by the European Union as one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “most trusted and closest advisors, as well as his personal friend.”

The US Justice Department announced Wednesday the unsealing of a warrant for the seizure of a Boeing 737-7JU aircraft owned by PJSC Rosneft Oil Company, according to a DOJ news release.

The US District Court for the Eastern District of New York authorized the seizure of the airplane after “finding probable cause that the Boeing aircraft was subject to seizure based on violations of the Export Control Reform Act (ECRA) and the recent sanctions issued against Russia,” the release said.

The aircraft is believed to be worth approximately $25 million, the Justice Department said.

Ukrainian servicemen walk along a muddy road near the frontline town of Bakhmut, Ukraine on Wednesday, March 8.

Russian forces continue to advance in the battered eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, relying heavily on artillery supported by multiple launch rocket systems and some air power, the Ukrainian military said Wednesday.

Fighters of the private military company Wagner are the predominant forces in the area “with occasional support from Russian regular forces, and that appears to be dwindling down at the moment,” Western officials said.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday he can’t rule out that Russian forces will soon take over Bakhmut. And Avril Haines, the US director of National Intelligence, told Congress Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin could carry on the war in Ukraine possibly for years.

If you’re just now catching up, here’s what you need to know:

Visits to Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to Kyiv for discussions on extending the grain initiative that allows Ukraine to export its agricultural produce from Black Sea ports. And one of Ukraine’s top military commanders Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi visited the city of Bakhmut for the third time in less than a week, according to a video posted on his official Telegram account on Wednesday.

Invite to Ukraine: Zelensky invited US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to visit Ukraine to see the situation on the ground firsthand, as the Republican Party faces a divide over whether the United States should continue to provide aid to the country. But when told of the invitation, McCarthy told CNN he does not plan to visit Ukraine, and argued that President Joe Biden has not acted quickly enough to aid the country. 

Support for Ukraine: Zelensky thanked Georgian protesters for holding his country’s flag and playing the national anthem during demonstrations on Tuesday and Wednesday. Georgians have been coming out in force, protesting a foreign agents law they say will leave Georgia further from joining the European Union and NATO. On Wednesday, the EU’s Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said the organization is “at the decisive moment now” for the bloc’s support to Ukraine. He urged that “it is absolutely mandatory that we move towards a sort of war economy mode in terms of supply and defense industry.”

Nuclear weapons: US intelligence agencies said in their unclassified annual threat assessment report that Moscow will grow more dependent on its nuclear, cyber and space capabilities. Heavy losses on the battlefield in Ukraine “have degraded Moscow’s ground and air-based conventional capabilities and increased its reliance on nuclear weapons,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in the report.

Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi posted a video on his official Telegram account on Wednesday reportedly showing him Bakhmut.

One of Ukraine’s top military commanders visited the city of Bakhmut for the third time in less than a week, a video posted on his official Telegram account on Wednesday showed. 

Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who is the second highest-ranked general, said his men were doing everything they could to ensure Russian forces made the wrong move, referencing a chess strategy. 

“Zugzwang in chess is a situation where any move by a player leads to a deterioration of his position,” the post read. “We are doing everything we can to ensure that the enemy is in this situation in this war.”

He went on to say Ukrainian forces were holding their ground. Other military leaders have said it is a priority for Ukraine to continue defending Bakhmut, where fighting has intensified.

CNN could not independently verify where the video was recorded but metadata on the file suggested it had indeed been recorded Wednesday.

Syrskyi organized and lead the defense of Kyiv, successfully driving back Russian forces that had nearly encircled the Ukrainian capital at the beginning of Russia’s invasion. He has paid regular visits to frontline units in the Donbas and elsewhere, including Bakhmut. His previous visit to the city was at the end of last week.

Protesters wave the Georgian, Ukrainian and European flags during a demonstration outside Georgia's Parliament in Tbilisi on March 8.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Georgian protesters for holding his country’s flag during demonstrations on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Georgians have been coming out in force, protesting a foreign agents law introduced by the country’s ruling party that’s widely seen as very similar to legislation currently in place in Russia. 

Protesters say the law will leave Georgia further from joining the European Union and NATO. 

Ukrainian forces may have repaired a bridge on the main road connecting the village of Chasiv Yar to the city of Bakhmut, according to video and a still image geolocated by CNN. 

The bridge had been hit by Russian artillery, which left a large crater that made the road unusable and forced Ukrainian forces to use dirt roads to supply their forces defending the fiercely contested city.

The footage shows a temporary bridge has been placed on top of the crater, and a vehicle is seen driving over it.

CNN could not independently verify when the video was filmed but the potential repair of the bridge could mean the re-opening of a vital supply line for Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut.

Officials pose for a group photo during a meeting of European Union defense ministers on Wednesday.

The European Union is “at the decisive moment now” for the bloc’s support to Ukraine, its Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said Wednesday. 

Speaking at the EU defense ministers meeting in Stockholm, Breton urged that “it is absolutely mandatory that we move towards a sort of war economy mode in terms of supply and defense industry.”

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, called for EU defense leaders to work on a standard procurement scheme in the short term and increase defense capacity in the long term. 

In a separate interview with CNN Wednesday, Borrell’s spokesperson Peter Stano said the EU’s top diplomat proposes that the bloc spend $1 billion on joint procurement of “crucially needed” ammunition for Ukraine.

“Right now, at this particular point, the ammunition is something the Ukrainians are needing most,” Stano said.

During the meeting, Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson echoed Borrell’s called for a plan, saying, “The Ukrainians direly need the ammunition in order to continue this war. And the other aspect of it is that we have to ramp up production in Europe.” 

“There are some talks about the EDA (European Defence Agency). I think it’s very important that the European Defence Agency has a coordinating role. There are also being proposals launched,” Jonson said. 

Meanwhile, Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur urged leaders to make sure they are not “digging into the bureaucracy,” adding that “the aim is 1,000,000 rounds for Ukraine.” 

CNN’s Mostafa Salem in Abu Dhabi contributed reporting to this post.

The Ukrainian military has acknowledged that Russian forces continue to advance in the battered eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, its General Staff said in an evening update Wednesday.

“The enemy continues to advance in the Bakhmut sector. They do not stop storming the city of Bakhmut,” according to the update.  

The Ukrainian military also said it had been able to hold Moscow’s forces in several areas in and around the city. 

“Our defenders repelled attacks in the areas of Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Dubovo-Vasylivka, Bakhmut and Ivanivske,” it said. 

According to Ukraine, Russia continues to rely heavily on artillery, supported by multiple launch rocket systems and some air power. 

“During the day, the enemy carried out 22 air strikes and fired 29 times from multiple launch rocket systems. In particular, the enemy used 1 Shahed-136 UAV. The drone was eliminated,” it said. 

What Russia said: Earlier Wednesday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian private military company Wagner, claimed that the eastern part of Bakhmut is now under its control. CNN cannot independently confirm Prigozhin’s claim.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testifies during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday.

The US intelligence community believes that Russia “probably does not want a direct military conflict with U.S. and NATO forces, but there is potential for that to occur,” according to the unclassified annual threat assessment report of the intelligence community on Wednesday. 

“Russian leaders thus far have avoided taking actions that would broaden the Ukraine conflict beyond Ukraine’s borders, but the risk for escalation remains significant,” the report said. 

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told Congress that the war in Ukraine has become a “grinding attritional war in which neither side has a definitive military advantage,” but said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was likely to carry on, possibly for years. 

Haines said that Russia will likely be unable to sustain even its currently modest level of offensive operations in Ukraine without an additional mandatory mobilization and third-party ammunition sources.

“They may fully shift to holding and defending the territories they now occupy,” she said.

But Haines cautioned that a potential spring offensive by Ukraine may be limited by “the extent to which Ukrainian forces are having to draw down their reserves and equipment as well as suffer further casualties” defending against current Russian operations.

Haines and the other top intelligence officials — CIA Director William Burns, FBI Director Chris Wray, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier and National Security Agency Director Gen. Paul Nakasone – testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday at the panel’s annual public worldwide threats hearing.

A group of Ukrainian sports stars paid tribute to a Ukrainian soldier who appeared to be executed by Russian troops in a video, reciting the Ukrainian battle cry “Heroyam Slava (Glory to the heroes).” 

The athletes involved include tennis star Elina Svitolina and Premier League soccer players Oleksandr Zinchenko and Mykhailo Mudryk.

The athletes’ video comes in response to an impassioned call from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Monday evening address where he implored people to “respond to his (the soldier’s) words in unity: ‘Glory to the hero. Glory to heroes. Glory to Ukraine.’”

The original video that provoked Zelensky’s plea shows an unarmed troop allegedly in Russian captivity wearing Ukrainian combat fatigues and smoking a cigarette, near what appears to be a fighting position. The man is then shown pulling the cigarette from his mouth, blowing out the smoke and saying, “Slava Ukraini (Glory to Ukraine),” before being executed, with fighters off camera firing several shots at him.

Oleksandr Usyk, former boxing heavyweight world champion and Olympic gold medalist, separately issued a video of himself reading a poem in tribute to the soldier via his Telegram.

“Glory to Ukraine,” the poem reads. “You took a bullet for saying that. And you are gone.”

“But eternal memory, warrior, to you. You crushed the enemies for the homeland, you showed the strength, the strength of the AFU. Yes, glory to heroes, and to you in heaven.”

As Russia deals with “extensive damage” from its war in Ukraine, Moscow will grow more dependent on its nuclear, cyber and space capabilities, US intelligence agencies said in their unclassified annual threat assessment report.

Heavy losses on the battlefield in Ukraine “have degraded Moscow’s ground and air-based conventional capabilities and increased its reliance on nuclear weapons,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in the report, which intelligence officials testified on before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday.

“Although its cyber activity surrounding the war fell short of the pace and impact we had expected, Russia will remain a top cyber threat as it refines and employs its espionage, influence, and attack capabilities,” according to the report.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “nuclear saber-rattling” an attempt to “deter the West from providing additional support to Ukraine.”

“He probably will still remain confident that Russia can eventually militarily defeat Ukraine and wants to prevent Western support from tipping the balance and forcing a conflict with NATO,” she said before Congress on Wednesday.

Yana Rykhlitska, a 29-year-old paramedic of the 93rd brigade, died near Bakhmut, Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed gratitude on International Women’s Day to all the women who have fought or died for Ukraine as the war with Russia continues.

Zelensky dedicated his message to “all the women who work, teach, study, rescue, heal, fight — fight for Ukraine,” as well as “all the women who gave their lives for our country.”  

A Ukrainian woman who recently died, Yana Rykhlitska, was a 29-year-old paramedic working with the 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade. She was killed on March 3 near the embattled city of Bakhmut, the country’s defense ministry said in a post featuring several pictures of Rykhlitska.  

One of Rykhlitska’s friends, Tetiana Samsonova, who is a volunteer, told CNN on Monday that Rykhlitska worked at a stabilization point in Bakhmut, which “is a place where the wounded are being prepared for the long journey to the doctors to ensure their survival.”

“A few days before she died, I texted to her, ‘take care of yourself’. There was some sense of anxiety for her. Later I saw that other people were texting her the same thing at the same time,” she said.  

“The last time we spoke with Yana was the same day she passed away, a few hours earlier. I texted her and asked how she was doing. She replied, ‘fun,’ which meant that there was a lot of work, and that ‘everyone was still alive’,” Samsonova said. 

Samsonova said she met Rykhlitska eight years ago.

“I taught her drawing. She had her own unique magic. Even when she wasn’t wearing makeup or costumes. This, of course, helped her at the front. This magic, and her sense of humor,” she said. 

“When we asked her parents if they needed help, they flatly refused. They said that all the money people wanted to raise would go to help the Ukrainian army, just like Yana wanted,” she said. “She was extremely heroic. I don’t know who among my acquaintances has done more for Ukraine than she has.” 

Rykhlitska’s funeral was on Tuesday in the western-central city of Vinnytsia, where she lived before the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. 

Polish President Andrzej Duda talks to CNN’s Becky Anderson on Wednesday.

The training of Ukrainian pilots to operate F-16 fighter jets is “necessary,” Poland’s President Andrzej Duda told CNN’s Becky Anderson. 

The Polish president said he believes that Ukraine’s armed forces will want to be “up to the NATO standard” and therefore will want to use F-16 fighter jets. 

In the US: The United States is working with Ukrainian pilots in the US to determine how long it would take to train them to fly F-16 fighter jets, three sources briefed on the matter told CNN. Two Ukrainian pilots are currently at a military base in the US having their skills tested in flight simulators to see how much time they would need to learn to fly various US military aircraft, including F-16s.

Duda is also in Abu Dhabi on Poland’s first bilateral visit in 13 years to warn Emirati leaders of Russian propaganda and to relay how the situation in Ukraine looks from his “very close perspective.”

More than a year since Russia launched its war on Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates’ wider policy — as is the case with much of the Middle East — is one of neutrality. Energy-rich Gulf states have benefited from the rise in prices brought by the war in Ukraine, which has added tens of billions of dollars to their coffers, while Russia continues finding financial escape routes into UAE markets.  

“I’m convincing them to be very sensitive to Russian propaganda,” Duda said about his meetings with Emirati leaders.