March 9, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

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Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), speaks at a news conference in Vienna, Austria, on March 6. (Leonhard Foeger/Reuters)

The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency said the loss of power at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant should serve as another reminder of the perilous situation facing the site and surrounding area.

“If we allow this to continue time after time, then one day our luck will run out,” said Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The plant lost all off-site power due to Russian missile attacks Thursday, according to Ukrainian officials. Grossi said it was the first time the plant had lost all power since November 23, 2022.

“This is the largest nuclear power station in Europe. … What are we doing?” Grossi asked. “How can we sit here in this room this morning and allow this to happen? This cannot go on.”

Some background: The plant has been under Russian control since March last year, but is still mostly operated by Ukrainian workers.

Attacks at the complex have sparked concerns about the specter of a nuclear disaster, and IAEA staff have been visiting the site to assess the damage. Recently, the UN nuclear agency said it has been unable to rotate teams at the plant because of increased volatility in the area.

The IAEA head has assured Ukraine his agency will never recognize Russia as the owner of the Zaporizhzhia plant, according to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. Grossi has also pledged a continuous IAEA presence at all of Ukraine’s nuclear plants.

Watch Grossi’s impassioned remarks Thursday here:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said six people were killed in a wave of Russian missile strikes across Ukraine on Thursday. Earlier, regional authorities said 11 people were killed in the Russian attacks, which included those who died in shellings and other kinds of attacks.

While energy has been restored to most of the country, Russian forces are keeping up their assaults near the invasion’s eastern front, especially around the strategic city of Bakhmut.

Here are the headlines to know:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said work to restore power to parts of the country hit by a wave of Russian strikes Thursday is still underway, but efforts will continue “for as long as necessary.”

The president said the situation in Kharkiv and the Zhytomyr region has been the most difficult.

“Another attempt by the terrorist state to wage war against civilization has led to temporary power, heat and water outages in some of our regions and cities,” Zelensky said.

Critically, power has already been restored to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The plant is under Russian control, but it is being operated mostly by Ukrainians. It was running on emergency mode after the shelling, according to the national energy company.

Nearly a dozen people were killed in the attacks, officials said. Zelensky expressed condolences to those families.

Ukraine’s air defense systems didn’t withstand some of Russia’s Kinzhal missiles, according to an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, following a widespread attack from Moscow on Thursday.

A total of 84 missiles were fired on Ukrainian infrastructure, including six Kinzhal ballistic missiles that have the ability to elude Kyiv’s air defenses, the Ukrainian military said.

“They are using hypersonic missiles. They are using new types of weapons, and they are seeing how our air defense systems can cope with it,” said Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to Zelensky. “They are not coping well enough.”

Rodnyansky outlined what he saw as the Kremlin’s tactical, economic and political objectives for Thursday’s strikes, including what he described as “economic terrorism.” 

“They’re sending a very strong signal to everyone in Ukraine — and to perhaps some of our refugees outside of Ukraine — that life is very far from returning to normal despite the fact that over recent weeks there was more quiet,” he said.

This could cause refugees to stay away and businesses to withhold investing in the country, Rodnyansky said.

What else to know: Russia used the Kinzhal missile, which it has described as a hypersonic weapon, on a few occasions in the first weeks of its invasion last year. But the powerful weapon has rarely been seen over the country’s skies.

Its first known use was last March, and then again in May, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko meets with foreign media at his residence in Minsk, Belarus on February 16, 2023.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday signed a law introducing the death penalty for “state treason” committed by government and military officials, state news agency Belta reported. 

Additionally, the law introduces criminal liability for “propaganda” of terrorism, discrediting of the country’s armed forces, other troops and military formations, paramilitary organizations, and violation of requirements for the protection of state secrets.

Belarus’ parliament last year passed a bill that would impose the death penalty for “high treason, in order to prevent” possible actions by “destructive elements” in the country, which Lukashenko signed into law on Thursday.

Human rights group Amnesty last year called the law the “latest display of Belarusian authorities’ profound disregard for human rights.”

Belarus’ role in the Ukraine war: Lukashenko, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said in February that “there is no way we are going to send our troops to Ukraine unless you are going to commit aggression against Belarus.”

“But don’t forget Russia is our ally — legally, morally and politically,” he added.

Lukashenko’s government has claimed on numerous occasions that Ukrainian drones and missiles have entered its territory, sometimes without providing evidence.

Belarus helped Russia launch its initial invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, allowing the Kremlin’s troops to enter the country through the Ukrainian-Belarusian border north of Kyiv.

A worker repairs a power line following a Russian strike in the village of Velyka Vilshanytsia, Lviv region, Ukraine, on March 9.

Engineers have restored electricity supply in most regions where energy facilities were damaged by Thursday’s massive Russian bombardment, Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said in a statement. 

Halushchenko said Russia used a new tactic in its latest large-scale assault, launching different types of missiles and drones at the same time.

Earlier Thursday, the mayor of Kyiv said utility crews had fully restored power in the Ukrainian capital, but about a third of the city’s homes were still without heat.

Halushchenko said this was Russia’s 15th massive shelling of Ukraine’s battered energy system.

This wave of strikes forced the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to switch to backup power from diesel generators.

“The whole world sees that Russians do not care about any risks of a possible nuclear accident. And today, thanks to the fact that Ukraine has always supported the plant’s safety systems, all diesel generators that provide backup power to ZNPP have been used. Currently, the power supply to the plant, which has been provided by Ukraine for more than a year of occupation of ZNPP, has been restored,” he said. 

Facing Russia’s regular attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities, the country’s power engineers have developed a number of mechanisms that help them restore service quickly despite the extreme conditions, the minister said. 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned the latest Russian missile barrage on Ukraine during a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

In a tweet, von der Leyen said “Russia’s deliberate targeting of civilians and energy grid is a war crime.”

Zelensky said that during the call, “we welcomed the new package of EU sanctions and agreed on further pressure on the aggressor. We also discussed in detail Ukraine’s progress in implementing the recommendations of the European Commission to start negotiations on Ukraine’s accession this year.”

Russia launched one of its biggest aerial assaults of the year on Thursday, with 84 missiles targeted at Ukrainian infrastructure across the country. 

This included six Kinzhal ballistic missiles that eluded Kyiv’s air defenses, the Ukrainian military said. At least 11 people were killed.

US President Joe Biden speaks during the House Democratic Caucus Issues conference in Baltimore on March 1.  

The 2024 fiscal year budget presented by US President Joe Biden’s administration requests $63.1 billion for the State Department and the US Agency for International Development, including specific funding for the war in Ukraine and countering China – a nearly $5 billion increase from the fiscal year 2023 adjusted enacted budget.

The request includes $1.7 billion “that will help Ukraine win the war and lay the reform and recovery foundation for winning the peace and help other partners impacted by the war stabilize their economies and prepare for recovery,” according to a State Department fact sheet.

In addition, the new budget requests a $1.5 million increase to funding for the Global Engagement Center, which would support programs countering propaganda and disinformation by Russia.

It also seeks $8.9 million “to support a priority U.S. strategic objective of increasing NATO common funding starting in 2023 as agreed to by the North Atlantic Council in December 2022.”

The Biden administration also requested $842 billion for the Defense Department, including $753 million for Ukraine to counter Russian influence and to help Kyiv with its security, energy and cybersecurity needs.

With the war in Ukraine in its second year, the latest budget requests $6 billion to support Ukraine, NATO and other European partners.

CNN’s Oren Liebermann contributed reporting to this post.

The Ukrainian military shared updates Thursday from multiple fronts in its defense against Russia’s invasion.

The battle for Bakhmut: Russian forces are still working to encircle the eastern city of Bakhmut, “with further access to the administrative borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said.

The military said it “repelled numerous attacks” surrounding the city, saying more than half a dozen villages northwest, west and southwest of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region have recently taken enemy fire.

Elsewhere on the eastern front: North of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, Russian forces are trying to break through Ukraine’s defenses in Kupyansk and Lyman, according to the General Staff.

South of Bakhmut, Russian forces conducted unsuccessful offensives on several towns near the eastern cities of Avdiivka and Shakhtarsk, Ukraine’s military said.

In southern Ukraine: Russian forces are on the defensive in the southern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, according to Ukraine.

The General Staff claimed that in some Russian-occupied settlements of Kherson, “Russian invaders have intensified looting,” using ammunition delivery trucks to smuggle out household appliances and other property.

CNN is unable to verify Ukraine’s claim.

Ukrainian strikes: Over the last 24 hours, Ukrainian forces have carried out seven strikes on areas where Russian personnel and military equipment are gathered.

Missile troops and artillery units hit a Russian command post, six areas where Moscow’s troops were concentrated, two logistics centers, three ammunition depots, an electronic warfare station and an anti-aircraft missile system, the General Staff said. 

US President Joe Biden informally dropped by a meeting between national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Finnish President Sauli Niinistö on Thursday, according to the White House. 

Biden, the White House said, “reiterated strong US support for the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO as soon as possible. The leaders also discussed their continued commitment to supporting Ukraine in the face of Russia’s aggression.”

Latest on Finland and NATO: Last year, the Nordic country ditched decades of neutrality and announced it would seek to join NATO, attempting to strengthen its security following the onset of the war in Ukraine. 

But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan objects to Sweden and Finland’s membership on what he claims are security grounds, and Hungary has also failed to ratify the accession of both Finland and Sweden.

NATO diplomats are split on whether they think Turkey will budge before the July 11 alliance summit. 

CNN’s Luke McGee contributed reporting to this post.

Russia launched a total of 84 missiles over the last 24 hours, and Ukraine’s air defenses intercepted 34 of them, the Ukrainian military said in a Thursday evening update.

An additional eight missiles in the assault did not reach their targets, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“The enemy also carried out 12 air strikes, in particular, using 8 Shahed-136 UAVs,” the General Staff said, referring to Iranian-made attack drones. “Half of them were shot down.”

Initially, Ukrainian authorities had said Russia fired 81 missiles in the barrage.

“Having no significant successes on the battlefield, the enemy continues to use terror tactics, thereby grossly violating the norms of International Humanitarian Law,” Ukraine’s military said.

CIA Director William Burns testifies before a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday.

CIA Director William Burns on Thursday emphasized the extent to which Russia’s war in Ukraine could color China’s thinking when it comes to Taiwan, telling lawmakers that “nobody has watched more intently” what’s happened in Ukraine than Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“That’s something that President Xi has to weigh as he comes out of zero-Covid, tries to restore Chinese economic growth, tries to engage with, you know, the rest of the global economy,” Burns added.

Congressional advocates of continued US support for Ukraine have echoed Burns’ comments about China, arguing to their skeptical colleagues that countering China is one of the key reasons to continue helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia.

Smoke billows near electricity towers after a Russian missile strike in Kyiv on March 9.

Utility crews have fully restored power in the Ukrainian capital, but about a third of the city’s homes are still without heat, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Thursday. 

“Work to restore heat supply is ongoing,” the mayor said in an update on Telegram. “The utility plans to restore heat in full within 24 hours,” he added.

Russia launched one of its biggest aerial assaults Thursday with 81 missiles targeting Ukrainian infrastructure across the country. In Kyiv, an air raid alert lasted for almost 7 hours overnight and officials implemented power outages as a preventative measure, regional authorities said.

In an earlier post, Klitschko said Russia’s attacks knocked out the heat supply and hot water service at the Oleksandrivska Clinical Hospital. About 700 patients are receiving inpatient treatment at the hospital, he said. 

Mobile boilers, diesel fuel and generators were delivered to the medical center while crews made repairs, according to the mayor.

CNN’s Robi Picheta contributed to this report.

Radio stations and television channels in Moscow broadcast false air raid alerts Thursday after their servers were hacked, the Russian capital’s Emergency Situations Ministry office told state news agency TASS.

“As a result of a hacking attack on the servers of radio stations and television channels, a false air raid alert has been issued in Moscow. Moscow’s office of the Emergency Situations Ministry is hereby informing that the alert is false and isn’t real,” the ministry said, according to TASS.

A similar incident occurred February 28, when false air raid alerts were issued in 15 Russian regions, according to TASS. 

Earlier Thursday, a false air raid alert was also broadcast on radio and television in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region after the servers used by broadcasters there were hacked too, state media said. 

Locals gather around a shelling crater after a rocket hit the Pisochyn neighborhood outside Kharkiv, Ukraine, on March 9.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said Thursday the barrage of missile strikes launched on Ukraine overnight was retaliation for what the ministry called “terrorist actions” organized by Kyiv in Russia’s Bryansk region last week.

“High-precision long-range air, sea and land-based weapons, including the Kinzhal hypersonic missile system, hit key elements of Ukraine’s military infrastructure, military-industrial complex enterprises, as well as energy facilities that serve them,” the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed in a statement.

It claimed that the target was reached and “all assigned objects have been hit.”

Ukrainian authorities said Russia fired 81 missiles into multiple Ukrainian regions, including the nation’s capital overnight into Thursday. At least 11 people were killed across Ukraine in the strikes, according to regional authorities.

Here’s what happened in Bryansk: Russian security officials claimed a small Ukrainian armed group had crossed the Russian border last week into the southern Bryansk region. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said the agency was carrying out operations following “armed Ukrainian nationalists who violated the state border.” Russian President Vladimir Putin described the incident as a “terrorist attack.” A local official said two civilians were killed.

An adviser in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, Mykhailo Podolyak, said the alleged raid was either a Russian provocation or the work of local partisans taking a stand against the Kremlin, denying any Ukrainian involvement.

CNN cannot independently verify the Russian claims, and local media have not carried any images of the supposed incidents, any type of confrontation or an alleged raid reported by Russian authorities.

Ukraine rejects Russia’s narrative: Kyiv responded dismissively to Moscow’s claim the overnight assault on “peaceful cities and villages of Ukraine” was retaliatory. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense issued a statement likening the Kremlin’s narrative to Nazi propaganda that sought to justify attacks on British civilians during WWII.

CNN’s Olga Voitovych, Vasco Cotovio, Nathan Hodge and Rob Picheta contributed to this post.

The US has issued a slew of sanctions against members of a China-based network that supplies critical parts for the attack drones that Iran exports to Russia for its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The US Treasury issued the sanctions Thursday in its latest attempt to undermine support for the Kremlin’s war machine and funding for the Iranian regime, as both countries forge closer ties.

The sanctions issued today designate a network of five China-based companies and one employee who support Iran’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) procurement network, and are responsible for the sale and shipment of “thousands of aerospace components,” according to the Treasury.

Specifically, the network supplies the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company, which the US government says helps produce the Shahed-136 UAV that’s been exported to Russia for use in its invasion. 

The latest crackdown started in earnest in February, on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Biden administration announced sanctions for “over 200 individuals and entities, including both Russian and third-country actors across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East that are supporting Russia’s war effort.” Those sanctions were imposed in partnership with the G7 and other allies.

Ukrainian servicemen load an armored car before being deployed to the frontline of Bakhmut, in Chasiv Yar, Ukraine, on March 9.

The importance of Ukraine holding on to the eastern city of Bakhmut is “constantly growing,” as every day of sustained resistance allows Kyiv’s forces to chip away at Russia’s offensive capabilities, one of Ukraine’s top military leaders said Thursday.

“The importance of holding Bakhmut is constantly growing. Every day of the city’s defense allows us to gain time to prepare reserves and to prepare for future offensive operations,” Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s land forces, said in a statement.

According to the Ukrainian commander, Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin has said if Bakhmut is captured by his fighters, Russia will be able to launch a “large-scale offensive” using army and airborne units.

“This once again proves the very important role of Bakhmut in the overall defense system of our grouping,” Syrskyi said. “Thousands of enemies who died during the assault on the town are a vivid confirmation of this.”

The latest from the front: Russian forces have kept up their assaults near the invasion’s eastern front in Kupyansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Shakhtarsk, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Thursday.

Ukraine’s military said its forces had recently repelled attacks in the villages of Orikhovo-Vasylivka and Dubovo-Vasylivka to the northwest of Bakhmut, in Ivanivske to the west of the city and in Oleksandro-Shultine to the southwest.

“The enemy continues to violate the norms of International Humanitarian Law, continues to carry out strikes, shell civilian objects and civilian homes, and tries to destroy the critical infrastructure of our country,” the General Staff said. 

The US and its allies have blocked or seized more than $58 billion worth of assets owned or controlled by sanctioned Russians in the past year as Western governments continue to dial up the pressure over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a joint statement from a multinational sanctions enforcement task force. 

The Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs (REPO) Task Force held its sixth multilateral deputies meeting Thursday morning to discuss the group’s continued work and pledge to “redouble” their efforts to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin and his associates. The task force is a joint effort between the US, Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, the UK and the European Commission.

“REPO will continue to identify, locate, and freeze the assets of sanctioned Russians, with the aim of depriving the Kremlin of the funds it needs to fight its illegal war,” it continued. 

Identifying sanctions evasion: The task force, which was formed last March, is also taking further steps to crack down on sanctions evasion as the US and its allies work to seal the cracks in a sanctions regime that has weakened but not crippled the Russian economy. 

Following Thursday’s meeting, REPO also issued a joint global advisory to help the private sector spot and prevent common sanctions evasion methods, like using family members to maintain access to sanctioned assets, creating complex ownership structures and using third-party jurisdictions and false trade information to ship controlled goods, including those that support the Kremlin’s war machine. 

The task force has blocked financial assets and seized luxury yachts, high-end real estate and even priceless art, with US officials recovering a possible Fabergé egg from one Russian oligarch’s seized yacht last summer.

A US Treasury official told CNN that REPO also provides the governments involved a valuable and streamlined mechanism to apply many of the same tools and best practices for the broader effort to crack down on sanctions evasion.    

Over one year into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden administration officials are focusing on how to plug the gaps on sanctions evasion — a problem that runs the gamut of adversaries like China and allies like Turkey, India and the United Arab Emirates. 

When Russia launched a total of 81 missiles at major cities across Ukraine on Thursday morning, it included six Kinzhal ballistic missiles that eluded Kyiv’s air defenses, the Ukrainian military said.

“The attack is really large-scale and for the first time using such different types of missiles. We see that this time as many as six Kinzhal were used. This is an attack like I don’t remember seeing before,” Yurii Ihnat, spokesperson for the Air Force Command of Ukraine, said on Ukrainian television Thursday.

Russia used the nuclear-capable Kinzhal missile, which it has described as a hypersonic weapon, on a few occasions in the first weeks of its invasion last year. But the powerful weapon has rarely been seen over the country’s skies. Its first known use was last March, and then in May, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The use of such a wide and unpredictable array of weaponry seemingly marks a shift in the Kremlin’s strategy.

About the Kinzhal: It is an air-launched variant of the Iskander short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) which has also, more frequently, been used in Ukraine, and was unveiled by Putin in 2018 as a cornerstone of a modernized Russian arsenal.

Like virtually all ballistic missiles it is hypersonic, which means they travel at least five times the speed of sound, but it is also particularly difficult to detect because it can be launched from MiG-31 fighter jets, giving it a longer range and the ability to attack from multiple directions.

CNN’s Svitlana Vlasova and Radina Gigova contributed reporting.

Correction: This post has been updated to clarify that virtually all ballistic missiles — not missiles in general — are hypersonic.