April 14, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

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The Discord app is displayed on the screen of an iPhone.

Images of the leaked classified US documents that led to the arrest of an Air National Guard member this week were posted to at least two chatrooms on the Discord social media platform, according to a CNN review of Discord posts and interviews with its users. 

The leaks began months ago on the first chatroom, called “Thug Shaker Central,” that Teixeira allegedly oversaw, multiple US officials told CNN. An FBI affidavit unsealed Friday corroborates this timeline.

It is unclear how, exactly, photos of the classified documents later ended up on a second Discord chatroom, known as “End of Wow Mao Zone,” in March. But four members of Wow Mao Zone told CNN they saw another user, who went by “Lucca” and does not appear to be Teixeira, repost some of the classified documents to that chatroom.  

CNN has been unable to contact Lucca or establish their identity. End of Wow Mao Zone members were reluctant to identify themselves beyond screen names.

Why the docs matters for the war in Ukraine: The documents included a wide range of highly classified information, including eavesdropping on key allies and adversaries, and blunt assessments on the state of the Ukraine war.

One document reveals that the US has been spying on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. That is unsurprising, said a source close to Zelensky, but Ukrainian officials are deeply frustrated about the leak.

More background: The second user tied to the spread of classified documents, Lucca, had stature and anonymity on Discord — two things that allowed the documents to remain on the platform for weeks without repercussions. And multiple users assumed the documents were fake, thinking no one would be brazen enough to post US military secrets to the platform.

Lucca was a “respected user,” one Discord user told CNN in a text conversation, and it was expected that Lucca would take the images down. But they didn’t. Many of the chat rooms are very lightly moderated, and the images stayed up for weeks, according to the four users who spoke to CNN. 

After posting the documents, Lucca would add “fresh off the press” or something along those lines, one user added. “He would post them for attention. It was very common for him to ping everyone,” the user said.

What Discord says: Discord is aware of Teixeira’s arrest and has cooperated with US law enforcement on the investigation, a spokesperson told CNN in a statement Thursday night.

“Our Terms of Service expressly prohibit using Discord for illegal or criminal purposes, which includes the sharing of documents on Discord that may be verifiably classified,” the spokesperson said.

A Russian attack on an eastern Ukrainian city left at least eight people dead as the missiles hit residential areas and “ordinary civilian buildings,” according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The man accused of leaking classified US intelligence documents was formally charged in Boston. Meantime, Ukraine’s prime minister declined to say anything about the documents as he met with US officials in Washington, DC, but emphasized the countries are united.

Here are the top headlines to know:

Russia has not indicated what it would want in exchange for the release of detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, said Roger Carstens, special presidential envoy for hostage affairs. The US has officially designated Gershkovich as wrongfully detained.

The envoy said it was “in a way too early” to speak on negotiations about Gershkovich’s release. 

Carstens said he met with Gershkovich’s family on Thursday, describing them as “positive” and “resilient.”

Asked about frustration from Paul Whelan’s sister at her brother’s continued detention, Carstens noted he had been talking with Elizabeth Whelan for years and reiterated that he also spoke with Paul Whelan earlier this week.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal speaks at a press conference at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, DC, on April 14.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Friday declined to say if he had discussed the mass leak of classified documents in meetings with US officials in Washington this week –but emphasized that the two countries are united.

Shmyhal also did not respond to a question from CNN if any US officials had apologized about the leak of the documents, many of which concern the war in Ukraine. 

“We discussed many very important questions and challenges and issues with all officials with whom we have meetings during this three days,” he said at a press conference at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington.

In his meeting with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Shmyhal said that they discussed “many very important strategic issues.” 

He elaborated that Ukraine and the US are united on issues such as training soldiers, ammunition and weapons supplies, including long-range missiles.

Shmyhal suggested without evidence that the leak of the documents was tied to Russia, but said, “I’m sure that the investigation will demonstrate all the conclusions.”

The documents: Some of the leaked documents divulged key weaknesses in Ukrainian weaponry, air defense, and battalion sizes and readiness at a critical point in the war just as the US and Ukraine have begun to develop a more mutually trusting relationship over intelligence-sharing.

One document reveals that the US has been spying on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. That is unsurprising, said a source close to Zelensky, but Ukrainian officials are deeply frustrated about the leak.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a press conference on September 9, 2021, in Moscow.

President Vladimir Putin signed a law Friday creating an electronic conscription registry that aims to make draft dodging harder in Russia.

The new system will deliver military call-up papers to a state government portal called GosUslugi. Once the summons appears in the portal, it will be considered delivered.

Previously, draft letters were only considered valid when physically presented and signed for.

The law also allows for any draftee ignoring an online summons to be legally declared a fugitive after a week, banned from leaving Russia and have their assets frozen.

During Russia’s partial mobilization last September, men dodged the draft by leaving their registered addresses, not signing for draft letters and warning their family and coworkers from doing the same for them.

Fears of a new draft: When the Russian parliament approved the law making the country’s conscription program more efficient and harder to evade on Wednesday, it spurred fears that more citizens may soon be mobilized to fight in Ukraine.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, characterized the law as an unremarkable streamlining of Russia’s biannual conscription process.

But CNN spoke to a number of Russians who dismiss the Kremlin’s reassurances, and say the move lays the groundwork for another attempt to force Russians onto the battlefields in Ukraine.

“This may well be an attempt to avoid the full-scale manhunt they employed before, which caused so much panic,” said a 25-year-old Russian named Artem. He dodged the September mobilization despite receiving a call-up.

You can read more here.

A residential building is partially destroyed after a shelling in Sloviansk on April 14.

Ukrainian authorities have updated the death toll for Russian missile strikes in the eastern city of Sloviansk, with the head of the Donetsk region military administration saying eight people were killed and 21 injured.

At least seven locations were hit by S-300 surface-to-air missiles, which Russia has often used to hit ground targets, Pavlo Kyrylenko told Ukrainian national television.  

“It is confirmed that seven S-300 missiles were launched on the multi-apartment buildings,” he said.

“A little boy was pulled out of rubble in front of my eyes, while he was still alive,” Kyrylenko said. “Unfortunately, he died in the ambulance.”  

The missiles hit residential areas and “ordinary civilian buildings,” according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“People are under the rubble. Everything is done to save them, everything is done to save the wounded,” Zelensky said in his nightly address.

The president said on his official Telegram that the attack is just another example of Russia’s brutality during its invasion.

Rescue operations in the areas hit are still ongoing. 

Kyrylenko said these incidents were not uncommon, calling on civilians to evacuate to parts of the country further away from the front line. 

“The evacuation is provided; the place for temporary location is provided,” he added.

According to Kyrylenko, Kramatorsk was also hit by an S-300 missile, and Kostianynivka was struck by multiple launch rocket system artillery.

This file image shows the Danish Army "Forsvaret" presenting their new CAESAR howitzer weapon system in Oksbol, Denmark, in 2021.

Ukrainian soldiers have finished their training on the Danish-donated CAESAR artillery system, and the equipment is expected to arrive in Ukraine “in the coming weeks,” Denmark’s defense ministry said in a statement on Friday. 

“Education and training [on the CAESAR system] has now been completed and the Ukrainians are ready to put the system into use,” according to the ministry statement.

Denmark had announced it would donate all of its 19 French-produced CAESAR artillery systems to Ukraine earlier in the year. 

“This is a newly developed artillery system which was still being implemented in the Danish defence,” the statement read. “The artillery system is expected to be delivered to Ukraine in the coming weeks.”

This courtroom sketch shows Jack Teixeira during his arraignment in Boston on Friday, April 14.

The suspect in the leak of classified US intelligence documents posted on social media was formally charged Friday during his first appearance in federal court in Boston.

The FBI arrested Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, Thursday in North Dighton, Massachusetts.

He faces two charges:

An affidavit revealed new details about Teixeira’s case, including that investigators suspect him of leaking information as early as December 2022. A member of his online chat group told the FBI Teixeira was scared to copy documents at work so he took them home to photograph, according to the court documents.

The affidavit also revealed a US government agency’s claim that Teixeira used his government computer to search for the word “leak” in classified intelligence reporting, and that he used his real home address to register for the social media platform where he allegedly shared the classified documents.

Why it matters for the war in Ukraine: The documents included a wide range of highly classified information, including eavesdropping on key allies and adversaries and blunt assessments on the state of the Ukraine war.

Follow live updates on the story here.

Elizabeth Whelan speaks in a video posted on Facebook about her brother, Paul Whelan.

The sister of Paul Whelan, who is wrongfully detained in Russia, on Thursday called on the White House to bring her brother home.

Paul Whelan has been detained in Russia for more than four years on espionage charges, for which he was sentenced to 16 years in prison in June 2020.

The US government was unable to secure his release last year when it brought home Trevor Reed in April and Brittney Griner in December.

Paul Whelan stands inside a defendants' cage during a hearing at a court in Moscow in 2019.

Paul Whelan is now one of two Americans who have been designated as wrongfully detained by Russia following the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. David Whelan said earlier this week that his brother expressed concern to their parents about being left behind again.

In her video, Elizabeth Whelan echoed those concerns, noting that her family has “repeatedly seen the US government talk about lines beyond which they will not go to bring Paul Whelan back to Michigan.”

“First it was trades. Then it was trades for certain people,” Elizabeth Whelan said, adding that lines had been “erased” to bring Reed and Griner home. 

US officials have said that Russia refused to negotiate a trade for Paul Whelan when they brought home Brittney Griner. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that the US has put forward a “serious proposal” to secure Paul Whelan’s release. 

“We need the White House to take charge and get the upper hand with the likes of the Kremlin,” Elizabeth Whelan said.

“As far as I can tell, there is no creative strategy to get Paul Whelan home,” she added. 

Over a dozen Russian diplomats expelled by Norway on Thursday were working for Russian intelligence agencies — the Chief Intelligence Office (GRU), Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) or Federal Security Service (FSB) — the Norwegian Police Security Service said Friday.

“We are certain these individuals are what we call intelligence officers under diplomatic cover,” Inger Haugland, counterintelligence chief of the Norwegian Police Security Service, said at a news conference in Oslo.

Risk posed by Russian intelligence in Norway has been reduced following this decision, yet it’s unlikely that Russia will cease its espionage operations in the country, Haugland said.

The move comes in response to an increasing intelligence threat from Moscow and a “deteriorating security situation” in Europe, according to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It said it had been monitoring the 15 embassy workers and have found them to be “engaging in activities that are not compatible with their diplomatic status.” They’ve been declared to be personae non gratae, stripped of diplomatic immunity, and must leave the country “shortly,” the ministry said in a statement.  

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in a tweet on Friday that Kyiv will “test and use” any non-banned weapons to retake Crimea.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly said since Russia’s full-scale invasion that Ukraine plans to retake Crimea.

Crimea was declared annexed by Russia in 2014. After the revolt that forced pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych from office, Russian troops poured into the Crimean peninsula.

Ukrainian soldiers of the 80th brigade firing artillery in the direction of Bakhmut, Ukraine, on April 13.

Russia’s Spetsnaz special forces have been gutted by President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, the The Washington Post reported Friday, citing more classified US intelligence documents leaked online.

CNN has not reviewed the documents and cannot verify the content.  

The Washington Post reports that the documents – obtained through the Discord social media platform — reference intelligence intercepts, which assess that the 346th Spetsnaz Brigade has lost almost its entire unit with “only 125 personnel active out of 900 deployed.”

US officials believe that the large numbers of casualties that Russia has sustained will have a dramatic effect in Ukraine and anywhere else its forces are operating. And US officials believe the highly trained forces will need up to a decade to be replenished, the Post reports. 

It also published satellite imagery from the leaked documents that — although not conclusive — suggest a depletion of vehicles among the 22nd Separate Spetsnaz Brigade’s motor pool in southwestern Russia. The images show a contrast in the size of its motor pool between November 2021 and November 2022; the later date, the Post reports, shows the force following its return from Ukraine last summer. 

CNN has contacted the Pentagon for comment. CNN has also contacted the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment.

According to Ukrainian officials, Russian special forces are currently deployed in the eastern city of Bakhmut, where the fiercest and heaviest fighting is currently being waged.

Some key background: Russian special forces were poorly deployed early in the invasion, especially around Kyiv, and took heavy losses. In the early days of the war, CNN’s Matthew Chance reported live as Russian Airborne Forces (VDV) engaged in a firefight with Ukrainian forces at Antonov Airport in Hostomel, a suburb of Kyiv, before they were heavily defeated and retreated by the beginning of April. 

CNN has previously reported how the Russian invasion has also been marked by an inordinate number of casualties among high-ranking Russian officers.

In the first months of this year, CNN also reported how Russian forces were badly hit in the hotly contested town of Vuhledar in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where the 155th Marine Brigade were prominently involved. At least two dozen Russian tanks and infantry vehicles were disabled or destroyed in a matter of days, according to videos, which were released by the Ukrainian military and analyzed by CNN and military experts.  

The perpetrators of the beheading of a Ukrainian soldier seen in a video released on social media earlier this week must be held accountable, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a phone call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky Friday.

“Discussing the abhorrent beheading of a Ukrainian soldier shown on social media in recent days, the Prime Minister said the video was appalling and those responsible had to be held to account,” Downing Street said in a statement.

Sunak also stressed the importance of continued Western support for Ukraine, including information exchange between NATO and Kyiv. The two leaders agreed to stay in touch.

Zelensky tweeted following the phone call, saying that the leaders spoke about the execution as well as the situation at the front line and defense support.

The family of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has spoken out for the first time since his detention in Moscow on spying charges, saying the journalist was passionate about showing people other sides of Russia and felt it was his duty to report there.

Here are other headlines you may have missed:

The Pentagon building is seen in Arlington, Virginia, on April 6.

Russia is analyzing leaked US classified documents and say the veracity of the information is questionable, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday during a media conference call.

The detention of a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, Jack Teixeira, in connection with the leaked documents, is the “prerogative of the US special services,” he said.

“Our focus is to thoroughly examine this data, while also critically assessing its authenticity, but to study it meticulously.”

Peskov said the responsibility of examining the data falls within the purview of the Russian special service when asked if any of the information could threaten Russia’s security.

Some background: Teixeira, 21, was arrested by the FBI on Thursday in connection with the leaking of classified documents that have been posted online, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday.

His arrest came following a fast-moving search by the US government for the identity of the leaker who posted classified documents to a social media platform popular with video gamers.

Teixeira was arrested in Massachusetts without incident, Garland said, and will be arraigned in federal court there. “This investigation is ongoing. We will share more information at the appropriate time,” the attorney general said, declining to answer questions.

Teixeira will first appear in court on Friday in Boston, according to the US attorney’s office there.

Reporter for The Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich appears in an undated handout image.

The family of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who the US State Department classifies as wrongly detained by Russia, have spoken out for the first time in an exclusive video interview with the newspaper.

WSJ reporter Shelby Holliday asked the journalist’s father, Mikhail, if the pair ever talked about what could happen to him as a journalist in Russia. Mikhail said “no” but said he trusted his son and his judgement.

“Of course, it makes things more difficult for me now. [Because] I feel I’ve failed in some way as a father,” he added.

Following Gershkovich’s detention on March 29, his mother Ella Milman, who left the Soviet Union for the United States in 1979, said she had a sixth sense that something had happened to him.

His sister Danielle spoke of how her parents, who emigrated from the Soviet Union separately but in the same year, raised her and Evan to have pride in where they came from.

She said she was “in awe of him” when reading about Russia through his reporting

Danielle noted that her and her brother are “so different. I’m a home body. He’s a thrill seeker, an adventure. I can’t even relate to him sometimes in the life he leads, as a reporter.

His parents told the WSJ he “loved having fun’ from an early age and was always very curious. His mother said he had “so many friends” and they saw Russia through his eyes, and it was “beautiful”.

The reporter began his role at the WSJ a month before the Russian invasion in Ukraine began in February last year. “He said that I’m one of the few left there, I know that he felt like it was his duty to report there,” his mother recalled.

“When we came to visit him in 2018, I said to him that this is the country that I left and this is the country that you love and he said, ‘what an interesting thought’,” she added.

His dad said he “couldn’t have stopped him” from going to Russia.

His sister said she hopes he’s writing in prison and she’s hoping he “can make friends” in there. She said seeing the publicity his case is getting is “strangely helpful for me” and as a family “they will do whatever it takes” to free him.

“It’s one of the American qualities that we absorbed, be optimistic, believe in… happy ending. That’s where we stand right now. But I am not stupid. I understand what’s involved, but that’s what I choose to believe,” his mother Ella concluded.

Some background: Gershkovich was detained last month by Russian authorities who accused him of spying, ratcheting up tensions between Russia and the US.

Gershkovich’s arrest marks the first time an American journalist has been detained on accusations by Moscow of spying since the Cold War.

Finland’s embassy in Moscow has alerted Russia’s Foreign Ministry after it received a delivery of three letters on Thursday, one discovered upon opening to contain white powder, Russian state media RIA Novosti reported on Friday.

An embassy statement obtained by RIA says “three letters were delivered to the Embassy of Finland in the Russian Federation, when opening the first of which a powder was found”.

The letters were handed over to Russian representatives, and the Finnish embassy alerted Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the statement added.

Relations between Helsinki and Moscow are tense with Finland’s recent ascension to NATO.

CNN has reached out to the Finnish embassy in Moscow for more details.

Russia has placed its Pacific naval fleet on high alert as part of spot drills aimed at assessing and improving its state of readiness, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced Friday.

“At 09:00 (Vladivostok time) today, Pacific Fleet was assembled by alarm in its full complement and began to be put on the highest degree of combat alert,” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told a Ministry of Defense leadership conference, according to a statement.  

“As part of the event, the Pacific Fleet is to repel massive missile and aviation strikes, practice submarine search and destruction, complete torpedo and artillery fire drills and missile launches to defeat the warship strike groups and ground activities of a mock adversary,” Shoigu continued.

This comes after Russia’s Pacific Fleet press service said on Thursday morning warships from the Pacific Fleet conducted anti-submarine exercises in waters off the country’s far eastern coast.

Read more:

MOSCOW, RUSSIA - 2022/05/20: The Russian tricolor flag is seen on top of the Kremlin Senate located inside the Kremlin Wall. (Photo by Vlad Karkov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Related article Russian warships conduct anti-submarine exercises in Asian waters | CNN

A man is seen looking at a Wikipedia page on an iPad in 2017.

A Moscow court has fined the Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Russian-language Wikipedia, for failure to remove an article about the “Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhia region,” Russian state media TASS reported Thursday.

According to TASS, a Moscow court found the Wikimedia Foundation guilty of not removing information from its web page and fined it 2 million rubles ($24,500).

The court documents state that Wikipedia refused to remove an [article] about hostilities within the framework of the special military operation and Russia’s annexation of the Zaporizhzhia region, TASS reports.

There have been debates about banning Wikipedia in Russia. Asked about the possibility of shutting the website down, the Kremlin said last Tuesday that a Russian alternative to the Wikipedia platform needs to be developed first.

Russia needs its own equivalent of the online encyclopedia due to the Kremlin’s concerns about its “inaccuracies, distortions,” and “historical and factual errors” on Wikipedia, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.