June 14, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

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

Drone footage obtained by The Wall Street Journal appears to show a Russian soldier surrendering to a Ukrainian drone on the battlefield of Bakhmut in May.

A Russian soldier surrendered to a Ukrainian drone on the battlefield of Bakhmut in May, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. 

Reporters at the Wall Street Journal interviewed the Russian soldier at a detention facility in the Kharkiv region on May 19. According to the Wall Street Journal, the soldier spoke while under the supervision of a guard. CNN cannot verify whether the soldier spoke under duress. 

The reporters also spoke with the drone pilot, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Wall Street Journal also published drone footage from a unit of Ukraine’s 92nd Mechanized Brigade showing the surrender taking place. The video is edited with music playing. CNN has not viewed the raw video. 

The drone footage appears to show a Russian soldier running from Ukrainian assault drones in the trenches of the battlefield Bakhmut, according to the Wall Street Journal. The soldier then stops and attempts to communicate with the drone through hand gestures. 

The Ukrainian drone pilot told the Wall Street Journal he decided to spare his life after watching his pleas.

In a statement to CNN, Yuriy Fedorenko, commander of the assault drone division “Achilles” of the 92nd Brigade, confirmed the surrender had occurred.  

The pilot dropped a note to the soldier telling him to follow the drone if he wanted to surrender, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The footage appears to show the soldier following the drone, dodging a mortar along the way. Upon arriving at a Ukrainian position, the soldier dropped to his knees and removed his helmet and flak jacket, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Ukrainian forces took him into their custody, loaded him into a Humvee truck, and he was later brought to a detention facility in the Kharkiv region, the Wall Street Journal reported.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Russian soldier and former prison marshal who was working as a liquor-store manager said he was drafted in September of last year.

Before being sent to Bakhmut, he said he had performed guard duties and built fortified positions in Luhansk, the Wall Street Journal reported.

President Joe Biden and his team are in the midst of a high-stakes conversation with fellow NATO members on how and when Ukraine may join — a debate that could expose strains in the alliance ahead of a summit. 

The matter of Ukrainian membership in NATO is one of several issues leaders will tackle when they meet in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius in mid-July. Also up for discussion are new defense spending commitments and a successor to Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who is planning on leaving his post in the autumn.

Yet it is the issue of Ukrainian membership that will prove one of the biggest flash points for the group, which has managed to remain remarkably united amid Russia’s unprovoked invasion.

At past NATO summits, the allies have produced a joint declaration outlining their shared views. A failure to reach a consensus this year would be hugely consequential and would signal trouble for the unity of the alliance as the war in Ukraine continues.

Where there is a dispute: Some allies, particularly those in Eastern Europe who are located closer to Ukraine and Russia, have advocated for a more concrete path for Kyiv to join the defensive alliance once the war ends. 

Other European officials, particularly those in western and southern Europe, have argued an expedited entrance of Ukraine into NATO could be too provocative and that it could amount to an extremely risky gamble for the alliance even if there is an end to the fighting, particularly if Russia still stakes claim over Ukrainian territory. 

Biden and members of his administration have remained committed to the alliance’s current posture — which states Ukraine will eventually join NATO but without any certainty of when.

The divide has prompted urgent discussions ahead of the summit. The result of the conversations could determine whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attends.

The invasion and its aftermath have increased pressure on all NATO members to provide Ukraine with some type of security guarantee going forward, even as there remains disagreement on exactly what they might look like.

Read more here.

There is a “fierce battle” happening on Ukraine’s front lines, according to its deputy defense minister, as Kyiv’s fighters also start to carry out counteroffensive attacks in the southeastern parts of the country.

NATO allies are continuing to pledge their support for Ukraine and making it clear that “Russia doesn’t get a voice or a veto” in whether or not Kyiv joins the alliance, according to Julianne Smith, Washington’s top diplomat to NATO.

Here’s what else to know:

Russian occupation army launched four Kalibrs at civilian infrastructure in Odesa, Ukraine Wednesday night, June 14. 

There is a “serious confrontation ongoing” on Ukraine’s front lines, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister said Wednesday, describing it as a “fierce battle.”

“We’ve got an offensive in several directions, but the enemy also conducts an offensive in several directions. So as of now we are simultaneously on the defense and [on the] offensive but in different directions,” Hanna Maliar told Ukrainian national TV.

Russian forces are trying to stop Ukraine’s offensive by increasing shelling and aviation strikes, Maliar said. “We also see the enemy actively using anti-tank guided missiles and self-destroying drones in attempts to stop our offensive and inflict various damage.”

Ukraine’s troops are experiencing “difficulties” advancing in the south as “the fields are mined,” she added, saying the troops are advancing “slowly but surely.”

In an update that echoed Maliar’s description of the fighting, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Russia had carried out “37 air strikes and fired 32 times from multiple launch rocket systems at Ukrainian troops’ positions and settlements” in the past day.

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya attends the Globsec regional security forum in Bratislava, Slovakia on May 30.

Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is calling on the global community to “react strongly” to Russia’s deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to the country.

The opposition leader said that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s statement announcing that the deployment has begun “creates a serious threat to regional security and sets us on a dangerous path for nuclear escalation.”

Lukashenko claimed that Belarus has already received some tactical nuclear weapons from Russia, in an interview with Kremlin propagandist Olga Skabeeva released Tuesday.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons has pushed back against the move, calling it “dangerous and reckless” in a tweet Tuesday. 

“The nuclear ban treaty is crystal clear — hosting another country’s nuclear weapons is illegal. Deploying nuclear weapons outside your own territory is wrong — and no state (we’re looking at you US) can be considered responsible when they do,” it added.

Some context: Belarus is one of Russia’s few allies in its war on Ukraine. While the country’s military isn’t directly involved in the fighting, Belarus helped Russia launch its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, allowing the Kremlin’s troops to enter the country from its territory.

CNN’s Brad Lennon, Anna Chernova and Lindsay Isaac contributed reporting to this post.

Ukrainian military officials have claimed some success in attempted advances in the Zaporizhzhia region on Wednesday, as Kyiv mounts early stages of a sweeping counteroffensive across southeastern parts of the country.

Both sides have reported clashes in the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.

Ukraine’s top general also said Tuesday that the military has seen “certain gains” in its offensive and is “moving forward.”

These are the areas of focus right now:

Ukrainian servicemen ride by boat through a flooded neighborhood in Kherson on June 8.

Floodwaters from the Nova Kakhovka dam collapse in southern Ukraine are predicted to fully recede by June 20, according to Andrey Alekseenko, the Russian-backed head of the government of the Kherson region.

The breach of the Nova Kakhovka dam on the morning of June 6 unleashed a mass of water down the Dnipro River and flooded towns and villages on both sides.

“As of today, the water in Oleshky and the district remains only in the lowlands - up to 1.6 m. Supplies have returned to normal - vehicles with food products were able to enter,” he said on Telegram. Oleshky is around 70 kilometers (about 43 miles) west of Nova Kakhovka.

The head of the Russian-appointed Kherson region administration, Vladimir Saldo, said Tuesday that the water level in Nova Kakhovka was unchanged at 5 meters.

Remember: Ukraine controls the west bank of the Dnipro River and the city of Kherson after its counteroffensive last year, while Russian troops remain on the east bank in the larger Kherson region.

On the Ukrainian side: Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said “everything” is being done to return citizens “to a normal, peaceful and safe life as soon as possible” nine days after the collapse.

“Starting today, we have planned the work of sappers - 33 groups are working in Kherson region. 66 motor pumps are pumping out water from basements and streets,” he said in a message on Telegram.

He said more than 3,000 people in Ukraine-controlled Kherson have filed police reports about flooded homes, and 3,761 people have been evacuated from Ukrainian-controlled parts of the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin during his speech at the Grand Kremlin Palace, on June 12, in Moscow, Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to meet with leaders of African countries on Saturday in St Petersburg, according to presidential aide Yuri Ushakov.

The grain deal will be one of the key issues the leaders will discuss, he said.

“African leaders are interested in the constant supply of grain to their continent, which so far has not been possible under the Istanbul deal,” Ushakov said, according to state media TASS.

Russia has been dissatisfied with the deal and will carefully consider a decision on whether to extend it, Ushakov said, echoing Putin’s Tuesday comments to war correspondents at the Kremlin, where he said he is considering exiting the deal.

Before they meet with Putin, the leaders will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday, the non-profit organization Brazzaville Foundation earlier announced.

Participating leaders will include:

Wagner private military company chief Yevgeny Prigozhin reiterated his fighters will not sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense, after Russian President Vladimir Putin backed a ministry order for mercenary groups fighting in Ukraine to sign contracts. 

The defense ministry Saturday said “volunteer units” and private military groups would be required to sign a contract by July 1, which would “give the voluntary formations the necessary legal status” and create “unified approaches” to their work. 

Putin said Tuesday during a meeting with pro-Kremlin journalists that contracts with the defense ministry are “the only way to ensure social guarantees,” adding that “it has to be done as quickly as possible.”

In a statement published by Prigozhin’s press service Wednesday, he said:

“When the Motherland was in trouble, when the help of PMC Wagner was needed and we all came to defend it, the President promised us all social guarantees,” said Prigozhin, who has publicly criticized Russian defense leaders.

The Wagner chief claimed in May that his fighters captured the eastern city of Bakhmut in a high-profile, protracted battle. He also said on Wednesday that Wagner will return to the front lines in August.

Prigozhin added that he thinks the State Duma, Russian parliament, and the president will find a compromise.

On Wednesday, a Ministry of Defense statement said 10 more commanders of brigades and detachments of volunteer corps fighting in Ukraine went ahead and signed the contracts.

“The decision to raise their status, first of all, to provide the same benefits that are provided to all military personnel, was accepted by the personnel of the volunteer formations with great approval,” said Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseev in a statement. 

The investigation into who was behind the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage is entering its “final phase,” lead prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist told Swedish radio on Wednesday.

“I do think we may possibly be entering a final phase in this case,” Ljungqvist said. “I hope that at least this autumn, we can take a stand on a decision on the so-called indictment issue.” 

Swedish and Danish authorities have been investigating four holes in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines that link Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea, which investigators believe were caused by explosives last year.

“I can say that the explosive has a special composition, from which it is possible to draw certain conclusions [about the perpetrator],” Ljungqvist said, adding that he has met the German prosecutor investigating the sabotage.

His statement comes a day after The Netherlands’ public broadcaster NOS reported Dutch military intelligence warned the CIA about an alleged Ukrainian plan to blow up the Nord Stream pipelines three months before they were hit.

Ukraine has denied any involvement in the sabotage following a New York Times report citing intelligence that a “pro-Ukrainian group” may have been behind the attack.

US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith speaks during a news briefing in Brussels, Belgium, on February 15, 2022.

Washington’s top diplomat to NATO said on Wednesday that the alliance supports Ukraine’s aspirations to join the group, adding Russia doesn’t have a say on NATO’s open-door policy. 

She also said the allies are looking forward to welcoming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the next NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius in July. 

“We think we’ll have a nice package to deliver (to Ukraine) at the summit,” the ambassador said. 

NATO allies are working on aiding Ukraine not just with their “current efforts to defend their territorial integrity, but (with) practical support tied to longer-term questions, longer-term modernization issues that they will be grappling with, questions of standardization, interoperability, and thinking about what type of force they will have in the future.”

“But at the summit, we’ll have more to say about our longer-term practical assistance,” the ambassador added. 

On Sweden: Smith also addressed Sweden’s intent to join NATO, which is currently being blocked by Turkey. Sweden has sought to become a part of the alliance in light of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.  

Russian forces pounded the southern port city of Odesa and the eastern Donetsk region overnight, destroying civilian infrastructure in a series of deadly attacks.

Meanwhile, Kyiv claimed key advances in Zaporizhzhia amid an ongoing offensive in the southeastern region.

Here are the latest developments:

Ukrainian military officials have claimed “partial success” in attempted advances in the Zaporizhzhia region, as Kyiv stepped up the early stages of a sweeping counteroffensive across southeastern parts of the country.

Fighting is ongoing in several areas, including toward the coast of the Sea of Azov near Berdiansk, the contested village of Makarivka, and near the villages of Novodanylivka and Novopokrovka, according to Ukrainian military spokesperson Andriy Kovalov. 

Kyiv’s officials claimed Moscow’s troops are stealing grain from Ukrainian farmers and loading into onto cargo ships in the port city of Berdiansk to be shipped to Russian territory.

Ukrainian defense forces have advanced 200 meters to 1.4 kilometers (about 656 feet to 0.8 miles), and took about 3 square kilometers (one square mile) of territory, Kovalov said.

Ukrainian troops have advanced 200 to 500 meters (about 656 to 1,640 feet) toward Bakhmut and 300 to 350 meters (984 to 1,148 feet) toward Zaporizhzhia, according to a Telegram post by Hanna Maliar, the deputy defense minister of Ukraine.

Russia has lost up to 10 vehicles, an air defense system, two electronic warfares systems and various radar systems and weapons in the past few days, Maliar added.

Some context: Kyiv has ramped up operations near the front lines of Zaporizhzhia in recent weeks, attempting what is seen as a major military objective — breaking Russia’s land-bridge to annexed Crimea.

Meanwhile, Russia has launched a series of air strikes and shelling operations in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, and in the eastern Donetsk region. As many as 40 civilian buildings have been destroyed, according to Kovalov.

Houses are seen underwater in a flooded neighborhood in Kherson, Ukraine, on June 10.

Top officials in Kyiv said valuable cultural heritage objects were destroyed during the Nova Kakhovka dam collapse in southern Ukraine last week, in one of the largest industrial disasters for Europe in decades.

The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine said Wednesday that “hundreds of cultural heritage objects” were either “damaged, flooded, or, like the power plant itself, deliberately destroyed.”

Kyiv and Moscow have traded accusations over the dam’s destruction, without providing concrete proof that the other is culpable. It is not clear whether the dam was deliberately attacked or whether the breach was the result of structural failure. 

The explosion of the dam and erosion and flooding of the nearby Dnipro River “caused a critical situation with the protection of archaeological heritage in the region,” it added.

The ministry claimed “valuable items” are at risk of being looted because some people are using metal detectors to try to locate objects in the southern regions of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa.

“Archaeologists, museum workers, and law enforcement officials will join forces to monitor, record damage and perform other urgent work,” the ministry said.  

The ministry added that specialists have been monitoring water levels along the reservoir, where water levels are gradually receding after the collapse caused flooding in Kherson.

Russia’s border regions of Kursk and Belgorod were shelled overnight by Ukrainian armed forces, Russian authorities said Wednesday.

The governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said four districts were targeted overnight: the villages of Zhuravlevka and Novopetrovka and the Graivoron and Shebekino urban districts. Gladkov added no casualties were recorded.

Separately, the border settlements in the Glushkovo district of the Kursk region came under fire from Ukraine, Gov. Roman Starovoit said on his Telegram channel. The governor also gave the following details:

A commercial building damaged in an overnight Russian strike in Odesa, Ukraine, on June 14.

As the Ukrainian port city of Odesa remains a top target of Russia missile strikes, CNN spoke to residents who said they are living in constant fear and their children adapting to the new normal.

Oleksandr Tokalenko, who recently relocated from Kherson to Odesa, said he and his family are used to the shelling. “Although the children live in constant fear and stay awake at night until 3 or 4 a.m., when attacks usually happen, to wake up the adults in case there are missiles or drones. Then they sleep during the day.”

Olena Yakovleva said she sees the latest Russian attack as an “illogical action caused by the Russians’ sense of powerlessness. That is why they are hitting residential areas where there is not a single military facility. This is how they take revenge on ordinary civilians for the actions of our army at the front.”

She added that the day after such shelling, she feels “happy that the morning has come and we are alive.”

Max Kopylov said the situation in Odesa has intensified. “Russians do not let us live and hit civilians … Recently, there was an attack near my mother-in-law, there are no windows in the area of a few hundred meters around, people were killed. We have many friends living there. Everyone is shocked after such nights.”

CNN was given unprecedented access to the frontline town of Velyka Novosilka in southeastern Ukraine, a secretive area where Ukraine has been preparing part of the opening phases of its counteroffensive.

Immediately to the south, Ukrainian pushing and probing has produced some success, as troops have taken back the villages of Neskuchne, Blahodatne and, more recently, Makarivka.

Ukrainian forces have been working to stabilize some of the villages, but when CNN visited Velyka Novosilka, the situation remained very fluid. Russia, some soldiers said, was not going down without a fight.

Velyka Novosilka, which has been without water, electricity or gas for a year and a half – and is constantly battered by shelling and strikes – is an oasis by comparison.

Winnie is one of several combat medics with the 68th Jaeger, one of Ukraine’s long-established brigades that has held this front line since early in the war. Now, reinforced by Western-trained units and armed with Western-supplied weapons, they are hoping to take back Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia.

“(The US-donated) MaxxPro (armored fighting vehicle) has saved my life many times. It saves our lives every day from shrapnel, shelling and bullets,” says another soldier who goes by the call sign Skrypal.

It’s a long, hard and dangerous task and, even this early on in Ukraine’s offensive, it’s not difficult to foresee victory is likely to come at a heavy cost. To reduce it, Ukraine relies heavily on drone pilots to provide accurate reconnaissance.

“It is impossible to carry out an offensive without drones,” says a pilot with the call sign Mara. “There are many casualties. But with the help of drones, losses can be minimized as much as possible.”

Read the full story here.

Watch CNN’s team take cover while reporting:

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02:21 • Source: CNN

Chancellor Olaf Scholz takes part in a press conference to introduce the new German security strategy in Berlin, Germany, on June 14.

A top German government minister said Moscow’s war in Ukraine has made Europe more “vulnerable” to security threats, as Berlin announced a major overhaul of its national strategy on Wednesday.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz presented a wide-ranging paper alongside senior government officials, as they pointed to several factors detailing the government’s revised security plan at a press conference in Berlin.

Annalena Baerbock, the foreign minister, stressed that with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “Europe is also vulnerable.” 

The new security elements included enhanced environmental policies, better cooperation with African countries, improved food security and an updated military program.

The war in Ukraine shifted the security landscape in Europe, with the military threat posed by Russia triggering a wave of countries on the continent to rethink their long-term priorities.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian private military company Wagner, said that his force will return to the Ukrainian front lines in August.

“We are resting and preparing. On June 5, we left, and on August 5, according to the forecasts, PMC Wagner will continue to perform in full combat readiness the tasks that were set,” Prigozhin said in a video comment speaking to journalists in Russia’s Ulyanovsk region.

The video was shared Tuesday via Orchest Wagnera, its unofficial Telegram channel. Prigozhin’s press service confirmed Tuesday he visited Ulyanovsk together with Viktor Bout, the former Soviet military officer and convicted arms dealer released in a prisoner swap with US basketball star Brittney Griner.

Prigozhin previously said Wagner fighters would be replaced by regular Russian forces in the Bakhmut area and relocated away from the front lines.

His group captured the frontline city of Bakhmut last month but more recently Ukraine has claimed advances in the area.