April 11, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

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Two videos emerged on social media this past week that appear to show beheadings of Ukrainian soldiers. The videos appear to be of separate events. One of them may have been filmed very recently, while the other — from the amount of foliage seen on the ground — looks like it was filmed during the summer.

The first video was posted to a pro-Russian social media channel on April 8. It was purportedly filmed by Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group and appears to show the beheaded corpses of two Ukrainian soldiers lying on the ground next to a destroyed military vehicle.

In the video, a voice can be heard, behind the camera, the sound seemingly distorted to prevent the speaker’s identification.

“[The armoured vehicle] got f**ked by a mine,” the voice, speaking Russian, says. 

Apparently referring to the bodies on the ground, the voice, laughing, continues, “They killed them. Someone came up to them. They came up to them and cut their heads off.” 

The dead soldiers also appear to have had their hands cut off. 

Russian social media accounts say the video was shot near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, which has been the scene of the war’s fiercest fighting for many months, with Wagner fighters very heavily involved. CNN is unable to independently confirm the video’s location.

The second video, which was posted on Twitter and is heavily blurred, looks to have been filmed during the summer because of the amount of plant life on the ground. It purports to show a Russian fighter using a knife to cut off the head of a Ukrainian soldier. A voice at the beginning of the video suggests the victim might have still been alive when the brutal attack began.

Shortly after the videos emerged, Andriy Yermak, a top advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, tweeted: “There will be an accountability for everything.”

An official Ukrainian government Telegram channel said the tweet was a direct reference to “another execution video published by Russians.” 

Monday, the Institute for the Study of War said that Wagner was “reportedly continuing to commit war crimes by beheading Ukrainian servicemen in Bakhmut,” referencing a photo shared on pro-Russian social media sites showing what appeared to be a severed head mounted on a spike, which they claimed belonged to a Ukrainian soldier. The ISW has reported similar incidents in Popasna, in the Luhansk region, where Wagner troops were also operating earlier in the war.

Some pro-Russian social media accounts have suggested Ukrainian forces were responsible for the beheadings in an effort to conceal identification. This echoes a similar claim made by Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin in January after his fighters apparently found bodies with severed hands and heads near Bakhmut.

The CIA assesses that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “not serious about negotiations at this stage” of the war in Ukraine and it is “Ukrainian progress on the battlefield that is most likely to shape prospects for diplomacy” to end the ongoing conflict, CIA Director Bill Burns said on Tuesday.

Speaking publicly for the first time, at Rice University, since leaked classified US military documents appeared online, Burns stressed the importance of Ukraine’s planned offensive, saying “a great deal is at stake in the coming months.”

The CIA director specifically mentioned that Ukraine continues to defend the Donbas region, which one of the leaked intelligence documents says is likely heading for a stalemate.

“Real countries fight back,” Burns said on Tuesday, adding that Ukraine and its president have done just that. “Putin was profoundly mistaken” in his assumptions about Ukraine before the war, Burns added.

Burns emphasized the importance of continued US support for Ukraine, including through intelligence sharing, at a time when the leaked classified documents are raising questions about the administration’s view of the conflict.

The CIA director made these statements at Rice University, where he’s discussing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s aggressive posturing, Iran’s nuclear enrichment and other pressing foreign policy issues at school’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, according to the school’s website.

CIA Director Bill Burns said Tuesday he expects more nuclear saber rattling from Russia as its war in Ukraine continues, but his agency does not “see evidence of preparations for any potential use of nuclear weapons.”

Burns said the CIA does not see any “significant change in nuclear deployments by Russian leadership.”

He also said the leak of classified military documents represents an urgent problem for the US that is “as intense as anything” in the current moment.

Burns — stressing the importance of balancing both short-term and long-term issues — specifically pointed to the leak as an immediate problem the US intelligence agencies are grappling with.

The CIA director noted that the Justice Department is currently investigating the leak and declined to elaborate further on his understanding of the issue.

Burns made these statements at Rice University Tuesday, where he’s discussing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s aggressive posturing, Iran’s nuclear enrichment and other pressing foreign policy issues at school’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, according to the school’s website.

The highly classified leaked Pentagon documents posted to social media offer a pessimistic US view of the war’s progress in Ukraine.

The documents highlight flaws in Ukraine’s weaponry and air defenses and predict a stalemate in the war for months to come.

The documents, which appear to date from February and March, detail many of Ukraine’s perceived military shortfalls as Kyiv prepares for a spring counteroffensive against Russia. 

Several of the classified documents warn Ukraine’s medium-range air defenses to protect front-line troops will be “completely reduced by May 23,” suggesting Russia could soon have aerial superiority and Ukraine could lose the ability to amass ground forces in a counteroffensive. 

The documents also underscore lingering problems with Russia’s own military offensive, predicting that the result will be a stalemate between the two sides for the foreseeable future.

Officials familiar with the situation tell CNN the documents appear to be part of a daily intelligence briefing deck prepared for the Pentagon’s senior leaders, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley. 

The leaking of the documents — many of which are marked top secret — represents a major national security breach, and the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into who may have leaked them while the Pentagon is investigating how the leak impacts US national security.

In addition to the assessment of the Ukraine war, the documents include intelligence gathered on allies and adversaries alike.

Here are the latest headlines:

Russia successfully conducted a test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Tuesday, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense. 

The launch from the Kapustin Yar test range in the Astrakhan region was part of testing on next-generation ICBM combat equipment, the defense ministry reports. 

“On April 11, 2023, a Strategic Missile Forces combat crew conducted a successful launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile from the Kapustin Yar state central joint forces test range in the Astrakhan region,” the statement said.

The launch helped confirm the correctness of schematic and structural and technical solutions used in developing new strategic missile systems the defense ministry said. The missile’s test warhead hit the target at the Sary Shagan firing range (Republic of Kazakhstan) with the target accuracy, according to the statement.

Back in February, Russia carried out a test of an ICBM that appears to have failed around the time President Joe Biden was in Ukraine, according to two US officials familiar with the matter.

CNN’s Oren Liebermann and Natasha Bertrand contributed to this report.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia’s failure to grant consular access to wrongfully detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich “puts it, once again, in violation of international commitments it’s made.”

“I think it sends a very strong message to people around the world to beware of even setting foot there, lest they be arbitrarily detained,” he said.

Blinken noted that he had designated Gershkovich as wrongfully detained Monday, and reiterated that he called on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to immediately grant consular access and release the detained journalist.

Blinken did say what measures are being taken to free Gershkovich, only saying that the US is “engaged every single day in pressing for that access as well as pressing for Evan’s release.”

There was no physical damage to Canadian energy infrastructure after leaked US intelligence documents appeared to show that Russian hackers were attempting to cause damage to pipelines earlier this year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed Tuesday.

Trudeau is hosting Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, in Toronto for an official visit where Canada announced more military and humanitarian aid for the country. 

Trudeau also confirmed that his government website was down after a denial of service attack Tuesday morning. The website appeared to be functioning normally by 2:30 p.m. ET after being down for several hours. 

In February, Canada’s Communications Security Establishment (CSE), which oversees Canada’s foreign intelligence and cybersecurity, issued an alert warning.

CSE said it would not confirm or deny any specific cyberattacks for security reasons.

Canada pledged another $2.4 billion (CDN) loan to Ukraine to support essential services, such as pension payments, purchasing fuel and restoring damaged energy infrastructure. This funding will be distributed through an IMF facility and brings Canada’s total contribution in this regard to about $8 billion (CDN).

Canada also signed a major nuclear supply contract to provide for Ukraine’s uranium needs to fuel its nuclear generators until 2035.

The United States has “engaged with allies and partners at high levels” in the days since the leak of classified documents came to light “to reassure them about our own committed to safeguarding intelligence and, of course, our commitment to our security partnerships,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a news conference at the State Department, Blinken noted that he had spoken Tuesday with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and emphasized: “our enduring support for Ukraine and for its efforts to defend its territorial integrity and sovereignty, its independence, reaffirmed the extraordinary support that we have provided to Ukraine along with dozens of other countries.”

The top US diplomat said he would not comment specifically on the “purported documents” when asked about a report that documents showed Ukraine had engaged in attacks outside of its territory.

However, Blinken noted that “Ukraine has to make decisions about how it can most effectively defend itself against Russian aggression and take back the territory that’s been seized from it.”

The leak of classified Pentagon documents is being taken very seriously, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday.

Austin added that the Defense Department will “turn over every rock until we find the source” of the leaked intelligence documents. 

Austin said the documents they are aware of are dating February 28 and March 1, and that they do not know if there are “other documents” that had been posted. 

“Again,” he said, “we will continue to investigate in and try to determine the full scope of the activity.”

Austin said that he was first briefed on the “unauthorized disclosure” of documents on April 6 and has been convening senior leaders daily since then.

More background: Highly classified Pentagon documents leaked online in recent weeks have provided a rare window into how the US spies on allies and foes alike, deeply rattling US officials, who fear the revelations could jeopardize sensitive sources and compromise important foreign relationships.

Many of the documents, which US officials say are authentic, had markings indicating that they had been produced by the Joint Staff’s intelligence arm, known as J2, and appear to be briefing documents.

CNN’s Celine Alkhaldi and Mostafa Salem contributed to this report.

The White House says it has no indication Egypt is providing Russia with deadly arms for its war in Ukraine. 

A leaked US intelligence document obtained by the Washington Post indicated Egypt’s military was planning to produce 40,000 rockets for Russia. It said that President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi instructed officials to keep production and shipment secret “to avoid problems with the West.”

Kirby said Egypt remained “a significant security partner” and would remain so.

“The United States military has a longstanding defense relationship with Egypt that goes back many, many years,” he said, speaking to reporters on board Air Force One. 

The February-dated “top secret document” purported conversations between Sisi and senior Egyptian military officials referencing plans to supply Russia with artillery and gunpowder, and to keep the plans a secret, the Washington Post said.

CNN has not seen the document cited by the Washington Post and is not able to confirm its authenticity.

An Egyptian official, unnamed by state-affiliated media, called the Washington Post report “informational absurdity” and said that Egypt follows a “balanced policy” with all international parties, Al Qahera News, a state-affiliated media outlet said. The statement was carried by several Egyptian state-affiliated news outlets.

Kirby refused to confirm the validity of the document and declined to detail any diplomatic conversations between Washington and Cairo. 

Evan Gershkovich is seen in a picture taken on July 24, 2021.

The family of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained in Russia, released a statement on Tuesday calling for his release.

“We are encouraged that the State Department has officially designated Evan as wrongfully detained. We appreciate President Biden’s call to us today, assuring us that the U.S. government is doing everything in its power to bring him home as quickly as possible,” the statement said.

The statement continued:

The United Arab Emirates rejected reports suggesting that Russian intelligence was touting deepened ties with the Emirati government and planned to work against the United States and the United Kingdom, as reported by the Associated Press — citing an apparent intelligence document from the US. 

The purported intelligence document which was posted online and viewed by the AP cited research reportedly from March 9 with the title “Russia/UAE: Intelligence Relationship Deepening,” that said US spies caught Russian intelligence officers boasting that they had convinced the UAE to “work together against US and UK intelligence agencies.” 

CNN has not seen the document cited by AP, and both have been unable to confirm its authenticity.   

“UAE officials have not seen any of the referenced materials, and any purported claims referenced in the Associated Press regarding the FSB enquiries are categorically false,” an official from the UAE told CNN in a statement on Tuesday.

The source spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing longstanding norms around the government’s communications with the media.

More background: Highly classified Pentagon documents leaked online in recent weeks have provided a rare window into how the US spies on allies and foes alike, deeply rattling US officials, who fear the revelations could jeopardize sensitive sources and compromise important foreign relationships.

Many of the documents, which US officials say are authentic, had markings indicating that they had been produced by the Joint Staff’s intelligence arm, known as J2, and appear to be briefing documents.

Evan Gershkovich in an undated image

US President Joe Biden spoke with the parents of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal correspondent detained in Russia, Tuesday.

It’s their first time speaking since Gershkovich was arrested in Russia last month.

Biden told reporters, before boarding Air Force One, that he planned to speak with Gershkovich’s parents. He connected with them aboard the plane as he flew to Northern Ireland, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. 

“The president made it clear that his national security team has been and will remain focused on securing Evan’s release as well as that of Paul Whelan,” she said, referring to a second American who has been detained in Russia for several years.

She said the charges of espionage against Gershkovich were baseless and said “he should be released immediately.”

The apparent leak of US classified information “has demonstrated a serious level of inaccuracy,” the UK’s Ministry of Defence said Tuesday. 

“Readers should be cautious about taking at face value allegations that have the potential to spread disinformation,” the ministry said in a brief statement posted on its official Twitter feed. 

Ukraine’s response: Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said on his Telegram channel Friday that he believes the documents that have been disseminated are inauthentic, have “nothing to do with Ukraine’s real plans” and are based on “a large amount of fictitious information” spread by Russia.

But while Ukrainian officials brushed off the leak, Ukraine has already altered some of its military plans because of it, a source close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN.

What’s in the documents: CNN has reviewed 53 leaked documents, all of which appear to have been produced between mid-February and early March.

They contain a wide range of highly classified information – providing a rare window into how the US spies on allies and adversaries alike.

US allies are doing damage assessments, scrambling to determine whether any of their own sources and methods have been compromised by the leak.

“We expect the US to share a damage assessment with us in the coming days, but we cannot wait for their assessment. Right now, we are doing our own,” said an official from a country that is part of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangement with the US, which includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Read more about the documents here.

CNN’s Zachary Cohen, Natasha Bertrand and Kylie Atwood contributed to this post.

The US government investigations into a leak of highly classified Pentagon documents — which includes intelligence on the war in Ukraine — are starting to take shape, with the Pentagon examining how the leak impacts US national security and the Justice Department launching a criminal investigation into who may have been behind the breach.

The interagency probe is being led by the Pentagon’s Office of Intelligence and Security, according to three US officials, and could take months to complete. It will chiefly examine whether any sources and methods have been compromised since the documents, many of which are marked “top secret,” were posted on a social media platform earlier this year.

Milancy Harris, the deputy under secretary of defense for intelligence and security, will be in charge of the effort on the Pentagon side, officials said. The investigation will also try to determine the scope of the leak, since officials do not yet know whether it has been contained or whether there are more classified documents still circulating online.

The Pentagon effort is not focused on the source of the leak, one senior Pentagon official said. But the Defense Department will be examining how it distributes highly classified information and whether it needs to change who receives it on a daily basis.

The leaked materials appear to be photos of documents that were crumpled up and wrinkled, as though they had been folded and stuffed in a pocket.

While many officials tend to take classified information home, one senior US official said, the fact that the paper was folded up “tells me this person did not have that authority.”

Read more about the investigations here.

Wagner founder and financier Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed on Tuesday that Russian forces now control much of the embattled eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. 

“We are fully concentrated on Bakhmut, continuing to carry out combat missions. In Bakhmut, most of it — that is, more than 80% — is under our control, including the entire administrative center, plants, factories, the city administration,” Prigozhin said. “What is left is part of the multi-story residential areas, where fortification districts were made. There are tunnels under these high-rise buildings.”

Ukrainian officials have denied Prigozhin’s claim.

“Prigozhin needs to show at least some victory in the city, which they have been trying to capture for nine months in a row, so he makes such statements,” Cherevatyi added. 

The Wagner founder has been known to make incorrect claims about his forces’ advance on the ground in Ukraine. Last week, he posted a grainy video raising a flag at dawn, saying Bakhmut had “been taken,” despite ongoing fighting in and around the city. His claim was seen as a “pretty desperate” attempt, Western officials said.

What Western officials are saying: The officials conceded Russia had been able to make some progress in Bakhmut, but added it could be “measured in meters.”

“The Russians at the moment, despite trying for six months, with huge numbers of personnel and huge numbers of losses, have been unable to take the town, and at the moment have made very, very slow progress,” the officials said at a briefing last Wednesday. 

In the video this Tuesday, Prigozhin said Wagner fighters had relinquished control of some areas around Bakhmut to the Russian military. 

“We handed over the flanks to the Ministry of Defence. Units of the Ministry of Defence, including the airborne troops, have today taken over both the right and left flanks,” he said. “That is why Zaliznyanskoye, Nikolaevka, and other settlements, which were stormed by units of the Wagner PMC in previous months, are in the area of responsibility of the airborne troops and other units of the Ministry of Defence.”

CNN’s Max Foster contributed to this post.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reassured Ukraine of the United States’ support following a leak of classified Pentagon documents, according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

During a call on Tuesday, Blinken “reaffirmed the ironclad U.S. support and vehemently rejected any attempts to cast doubt on Ukraine’s capacity to win on the battlefield,” Kuleba wrote Tuesday on Twitter, adding that the US “remains Ukraine’s trustworthy partner.”

The comments come after a number of highly classified Pentagon documents were released online in recent weeks. Some divulge key weaknesses in Ukrainian weaponry, air defense, and battalion sizes and readiness at a critical point in the war, as Ukrainian forces gear up to launch a counteroffensive against the Russians – and just as the US and Ukraine have begun to develop a more mutually trusting relationship over intelligence-sharing.

CNN’s Natasha Bertrand and Kylie Atwood contributed reporting to this post.

US President Joe Biden told reporters that he planned to speak to the family of jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich during his flight to Northern Ireland today.

The US State Department formally designated Gershkovich as wrongfully detained by Russia, and Biden said that he tried to speak to Gershkovich’s family on Monday but would attempt again today.

“We’re making it real clear that it’s totally illegal what’s happening. And we declared it, so changes the dynamic,” he said.

A senior Egyptian official denied that Egypt’s military was planning to produce 40,000 rockets for Russia, following a report from The Washington Post citing a leaked US intelligence document, Egyptian state-affiliated media said.

A leaked US intelligence document obtained by The Washington Post said Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi instructed officials to keep production and shipment secret “to avoid problems with the West.”

The “top secret” document from February contains purported conversations between Sisi and senior Egyptian military officials, according to the newspaper. It referenced plans to supply Russia with artillery and gunpowder, with Sisi asking officials to keep the plans a secret, The Washington Post reported.

CNN has not seen the document cited by the Washington Post and is not able to confirm its authenticity.

The unnamed Egyptian official called the report “informational absurdity” and said that Egypt follows a “balanced policy” with all international parties, according to Al Qahera News, a state-affiliated media outlet. The statement was also carried by several other Egyptian state-affiliated news outlets.

Egypt is one of the world’s top recipients of US military aid, receiving $1.3 billion in military financing annually.

What Russia says: Russia’s Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the information a “hoax.”

“It looks like another hoax, of which there are plenty now. This is how you should treat such publications,” Peskov said in response to a question from a journalist on the report.

CNN has reached out to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.

Remember: Highly classified Pentagon documents leaked online in recent weeks have provided a rare window into how the US spies on allies and foes alike, deeply rattling US officials, who fear the revelations could jeopardize sensitive sources and compromise important foreign relationships.

Many of the documents, which US officials say are authentic, had markings indicating that they had been produced by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff’s intelligence arm, known as J2, and appear to be briefing documents.