August 19, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

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

Seven people were killed and 129 were wounded by a strike in the middle of the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Saturday, in an attack the United Nations called “heinous.”

A 6-year-old girl was among those killed in the attack, which hit a theater and university in the city center, Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said. The Russian missile struck during a major holiday in the Orthodox calendar, the Feast of the Transfiguration. Ukraine will investigate the circumstances surrounding a drone demonstration event that was taking place inside the theater, Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said.

Here’s what else you might’ve missed:

F-16 training starts: Long-awaited training on F-16 fighter jets has begun, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told Ukrainian media on Saturday. Ukrainian pilots, engineers and technicians are involved in the training, which will last a minimum of six months. The US has committed to approving the transfer of F-16 fighter jets for Ukraine as soon as training is complete, according to a US official.

Zelensky talks fighter jets in Sweden: Ukraine is discussing “the next steps” to obtain Gripen fighter jets from Sweden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday at a joint news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. “You cannot move fast on the ground when (the Russians) control the sky. And we need that,” Zelensky said.

Drones in Russia: Russia intercepted a Ukrainian drone attack on the Moscow region, Russia’s defense ministry said on Saturday. The ministry also said a Ukrainian drone attack damaged a plane at a military airfield in Russia’s northwest Novgorod region.

Here’s the latest map of control:

Ukrainian pilots have begun training on F-16 fighter jets, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in an on-camera interview with Ukrainian media on Saturday. 

“Training (on F-16s) has begun,” Reznikov said, adding that a number of Ukrainian engineers and technicians are also training along with the pilots. 

Reznikov said he would not disclose how long training will last, but noted that “a minimal term of training is six months.” 

According to Reznikov, the instructors will be the ones to announce the completion of the training, when they see that Ukrainian pilots, engineers and technicians can successfully apply their new skills. 

Trainees will also get English-language training in technical terminology, because “the basic level of English language is not enough,” he said. 

Meanwhile, the period of training will be used to determine what country will supply Ukraine with the aircraft and in what quantity. 

Reznikov said it is also important to determine what kind of weapons the aircraft will be carrying.

The F-16 training program is being supported by a coalition of 11 NATO countries and requires official US approval because the jets are American technology. 

A US Air Force F-16 aircraft flies near the Rionegro Airport during military drills between the Colombia and the United States Air Forces in Rionegro, Antioquia department, Colombia on July 12, 2021. (Photo by JOAQUIN SARMIENTO / AFP) (Photo by JOAQUIN SARMIENTO/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article US commits to approving F-16s for Ukraine as soon as training is complete | CNN Politics

Taras Shevchenko Chernihiv Regional Academic Music and Drama Theatre is seen damaged by a Russian missile attack in Chernihiv, Ukraine, on August 19.

Ukraine will investigate the circumstances surrounding a drone demonstration event that was taking place inside the Chernihiv drama theater struck by a Russian missile Saturday, Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said in a video posted on Telegram.

A co-organizer of the event, Maria Berlinska, who is a cofounder of the charity Dignitas Fund, posted on Facebook following the attack in the northern Ukrainian city. Berlinska said the event, which had been announced on Facebook on August 12 as a drone “demo day” — with Ukrainian manufacturers, flight school representatives and military personnel who use drones at the front line — was officially approved by local authorities, who provided the venue. The location was only disclosed hours before the event for security reasons.

“All the participants were checked by the police upon the entrance. There were medics present on site,” she added.

Berlinska said it was not a public exhibition but “a closed meeting of engineers, military and volunteers on military tech for the frontline.”

“We are now working with the Security Service of Ukraine providing all needed information for a prompt investigation,” she added.

Video shared by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and geolocated by CNN shows debris and damaged cars surrounding the Taras Shevchenko Chernihiv Regional Academic Music and Drama Theatre. 

Klymenko said police have cordoned off residential areas in the center of Chernihiv and are conducting door-to-door inspections.  

Klymenko said the majority of casualties happened outside the building. “The most victims were in their vehicles or crossing the road, as well as returning from three churches,” he continued. Saturday is the Feast of the Transfiguration, a major holiday in the Orthodox calendar.

“There is a large park behind the drama theater, where mothers had been walking with their children since early morning. The central square was completely filled with cars. People began coming into cafes and restaurants,” he said.  

People react to the Russian missile strike in Chernihiv, Ukraine, on August 19.

The number of those wounded in a Russian missile strike on the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Saturday has risen to nearly 130 people, according to Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko.

“Seven people are dead and 129 injured, among them 15 children and 15 police officers,” Klymenko said, adding that “the search and rescue operation has been completed.” 

The attack hit a theater and university in the city center, Klymenko said earlier Saturday, and a 6-year-old girl is among the dead.

He said people were also leaving church during a major holiday in the Orthodox calendar, the Feast of the Transfiguration.

A Swedish Air Force Gripen fighter jet takes part a NATO exercise July 4.

Ukraine is discussing “the next steps” to obtain Gripen fighter jets from Sweden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Harpsund, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) west of Stockholm, Zelensky said that test flights with Ukrainian pilots had already begun.

The president said Ukraine has “excellent pilots” but “no advantage in the sky” and lacks modern aircraft.

“Over the next few weeks, there will be appropriate actions that I believe will open up the possibility of getting such aircraft in the future,” he added. Zelensky said that he would have further meetings with “several countries” and was confident Ukraine would obtain modern aircraft.

“You cannot move fast on the ground when (the Russians) control the sky. And we need that,” he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, left, and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson speak at a news conference in Harpsund, Sweden, on August 19.

Kristersson also announced that Sweden and Ukraine had signed a statement of intent to cooperate in the production, training and servicing of the Swedish armored Combat Vehicle 90. Combat vehicles were part of a new military support package for Ukraine, announced by Sweden’s defense ministry on Tuesday.

F-16 fighter jets: The leaders’ remarks come as a US official told CNN that Washington has committed to approving the transfer of F-16 fighter jets for Ukraine as soon as training is complete.

On Friday, the US approved the transfer of F-16 instructional materials from Denmark to Ukraine, according to a US official and an official in President Joe Biden’s administration. Also on Friday, Denmark said Ukrainian pilots would begin training on the jets later this month, part of a coalition of 11 countries that will be involved in the training program.

Ukraine has long been pleading for the fighter jets to counter Russian air superiority, but it is unlikely to receive them until next year.

Ukrainian firefighters work at the site of a Russian missile strike in Chernihiv, Ukraine, on August 19.

The United Nations’ humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown, condemned a Russian missile strike on the center of the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv. 

It is “heinous to attack the main square of a large city,” Brown said in a statement.

The attack left several dead – including a 6-year-old girl – and at least 90 people injured. 

“I am extremely disturbed by the news of yet another Russian strike that hit shortly ago the heart of Chernihiv, in northern Ukraine, leaving dozens of civilians killed and injured, including children,” Brown said.

“It is heinous to attack the main square of a large city, in the morning, while people are out walking, some going to the church to celebrate a religious day for many Ukrainians,” she added. Saturday marks a major holiday in the Orthodox calendar, the Feast of the Transfiguration.

Russia intercepted a Ukrainian drone attack on the Moscow region, Russia’s defense ministry said on Saturday.

“This afternoon, an attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack by an aircraft-type UAV on objects in Moscow and the Moscow region was thwarted,” according to a defense ministry statement. 

“The drone was jammed and fell near the settlement of Putilkovo, which is near the Russian capital, causing no casualties or damage,” the ministry said.

In recent months, drone attacks on the Russian capital and other regions have increased. On Friday, Russia temporarily shuttered all four major Moscow airports following an alleged drone strike on the capital city, its civil aviation authority said.

In this screengrab taken from video provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters work on the roof of a theater damaged by a Russian missile attack in Chernihiv, Ukraine, on August 19.

A Russian missile strike has hit a theater and the city center of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine. At least seven people have been reported dead, including a 6-year-old girl, and 90 wounded, according to the country’s minister of internal affairs.

The attack came on a major holiday in the Orthodox calendar, the Feast of the Transfiguration, with a lot of people out on the streets. More news is expected to follow.

Here’s what else you need to know:

Damage is seen following a Russian missile strike in Chernihiv, Ukraine, on August 19.

Seven people are now confirmed dead from the Russian missile strike on the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Saturday, Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said.

“The body of one more victim was discovered in Chernihiv. An unidentified woman. The death toll has risen to 7,” he said on Telegram.

“90 injured people applied for medical assistance. Among them are 10 police officers and 12 children. 25 people have been hospitalised.

“A 12-year-old girl is being urgently transferred by ambulance to Kyiv city. The child is in grave condition,” he added.

The missile hit the city center, where people were leaving church. It struck a theater and a university.

Portuguese Air Force F-16 military fighter jets participate in NATO's Baltic Air Policing Mission in Lithuanian airspace near Siauliai, on May 23.

The depth and frequency of craters across the frontline city of Orikhiv are a blunt example of why Ukraine needs F-16 fighter jets urgently.

Ukrainian troops amassed around the city have the unenviable task of pushing through minefields toward an enemy that has long anticipated their advance.

But their biggest handicap is the one they rarely hear until it is too late. Russian jets fire half-metric-ton bombs that glide in from afar – from outside the reach of Ukraine’s air defenses – and then devastate Ukrainian positions at will. Sometimes as many as 20 in as many minutes are launched into Orikhiv.

Ukrainian radar systems provide some warning, coupled with the brief and ominous roar of an incoming missile. But the eventual target is often obliterated without notice.

Residential buildings destroyed by Russian shelling in Orikhiv in Zaporizhzhia, in southeastern Ukraine, on August 10.

So when Ukraine says it urgently needs F-16s, it is because Ukrainian troops are dying daily because of Russian air superiority. Despite Western promises, even the training is yet to begin, with Ukraine saying that they don’t expect to receive jets until next year.

Ukrainian troops know all too well the impact F-16s could have on Russian forces and the fight, as they are suffering the same from Russian jets now.

One Ukrainian marine in the southern front told CNN: “I perfectly understand what aviation is with its equipment and firepower. It is very scary.” He said the Russians would feel the same effects they have from F-16s. “It will make things a lot easier, as they won’t feel safe in their rear positions. Not everyone will be psychologically ready to go back to the trenches after an airstrike.”

Read more about Ukraine’s push for the fighter jets.

Ukrainian servicemen inspect a damaged area after a Russian missile attack in Chernihiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, August 19.

The death toll following a Russian missile strike on the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv has risen to at least six after a 6-year-old girl died in the hospital, according to Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko. 

“Her mother is in grave condition. The police officers provided first aid to the girl. Unfortunately, doctors were unable to save her upon arrival at the hospital due to a heavy blood loss,” Klymenko said.

He said hospitals are operating at full capacity, with 36 people wounded, including police officers and court security officers. “These are civilians who were either on Chernihiv central square or returning from church,” he said.

An air raid alert had sounded a few minutes before the missile struck, meaning most of the people inside the theater and outside were able to take shelter. “That’s what saved a lot of people’s lives,” Klymenko added.

Acting mayor of Chernihiv, Oleksandr Lomako, told national TV: “There is a park right behind the drama theater, many children and their parents usually spend time there. There are numerous restaurants with outdoor terraces located nearby as well. It all happened in the middle of the day when obviously there are many people in the city center.”

“This crime cannot be interpreted except as a war crime against civilians,” he added.

Lomako said a lot of buildings around the drama theater in Krasna Square were damaged, with “rocket fragments and broken windows.”

A Ukrainian drone has damaged a plane at a military airfield in Russia’s northwest Novgorod region, according to a statement from the Russian defense ministry.

The attack occurred around 10 a.m. Moscow time (3 a.m. ET), and was carried out by “a copter-type UAV,” the defense ministry said Saturday, using an acronym for unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.

The UAV was spotted by an observation post at the airfield and shot with small arms, the Russian officials said.

“A fire broke out in the aircraft parking lot, which was quickly extinguished by fire brigades,” the statement added.

The defense ministry said there were no casualties as a result of the attack.

Correction: An earlier version of this post inaccurately identified the location of the airfield. The strike occurred in Russia’s northwest Novgorod region.

First responders work at the site of a Russian missile strike in Chernihiv, Ukraine, on August 19.

At least five people have been killed and 37 more have been wounded in a Russian missile strike on the center of the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv Saturday, according to Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko.

Saturday marks a major holiday in the Orthodox calendar, the Feast of the Transfiguration, which Klymenko said meant “people were leaving the church with baskets of blessed apples” when the attack happened. On this day, apples and honey are consecrated in churches.

The attack hit a theater and university in the city center and 11 children are among the wounded, he said.

Video shared by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and geolocated by CNN shows debris and damaged cars surrounding the Taras Shevchenko Chernihiv Regional Academic Music and Drama Theatre.

The strike took place around 11:30 a.m. local time (4:30 a.m. ET).

A drone demonstration day — a meeting with Ukrainian UAV manufacturers, flight school representatives and military personnel who use drones at the front line — had been announced to take place in the city on Saturday.

People stand near the site of a Russian missile strike in Chernihiv, Ukraine, on August 19.

A Russian missile strike has hit the center of the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, turning “an ordinary Saturday… into a day of pain and loss,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram.

“There are dead, there are wounded,” Zelensky said.

Oleksandr Lomako, acting mayor of Chernihiv city, said the number of victims is being clarified.

“A Russian missile hit right in the center of the city, in our Chernihiv. A square, the polytechnic university, a theater,” Zelensky said.

Emergency services are working at the scene, Lomako added.

We will bring you more on this story as we get it.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Sweden where he will meet with various officials including Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, he said on Telegram Saturday.

Others he is expected to meet are King Carl XVI, Queen Silvia, Speaker Andreas Norlén and heads of parliamentary parties.

“I would like to personally thank Sweden for supporting our struggle for freedom and independence,” Zelensky said.

“Our primary task is the strengthening of Ukrainian warriors on the ground and in the sky, the development of bilateral cooperation, in particular in the defense industry, Ukraine’s European integration and common security in the Euro-Atlantic space. Our full support for Sweden on its way to NATO,” Zelensky added. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited generals overseeing the Ukraine offensive in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia Saturday, according to the Kremlin.

Putin spoke with the “Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, commanders of sectors, and other senior officers of the group,” the Kremlin added.

Few other details have been released about the trip.

Some background: Rostov-on-Don, which is close to the border with Ukraine, was a focal point of the Wagner private military group’s short-lived rebellion in June.

Wagner fighters briefly occupied the city – video at the time showed some of the city’s residents cheering them on.

Gerasimov is among the Russian military leaders to have been bluntly criticized by Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Putin’s visit also comes amid Ukraine’s counteroffensive, aimed at recapturing territory seized by Russia. Progress has been slow in Ukraine’s campaign but Kyiv this week captured a village along the southern front.

An explosion in the urban center of Donetsk left three civilians dead and another wounded on Friday, according to the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.

The civilians were employees of a public utility company in Donetsk’s Kievsky District and were killed “as a result of the detonation of a previously unexploded cluster submunition,” Denis Pushilin said in a post on Telegram.

Hours later, a separate “unidentified explosive device” detonated at a construction site in the Voroshilovskyi district of Donestsk and killed three male construction workers and left five more injured, according to officials from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People Republic’s Joint Center for Command and Control.

Pushilin said that four civilians in the cities of Donetsk, Makiivka, Vasilyevka, and Nikolske were wounded after a day of heavy shelling on Friday. 

“Today, the enemy shelled the territory of the Republic 34 times, firing 115 rocket and barrel artillery shells,” Pushilin added.

CNN cannot independently verify these claims.

Russia has barred 54 more British citizens from entering the country, in response to the UK’s sanctions against its citizens and enterprises, according to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Russia accused the individuals and entities of involvement in “propaganda support of the activities of the [Ukrainian] Zelensky regime” and of being “Russophobic,” in its latest update to its sanctions policy on Friday.

The sanctions list includes several government ministers as well as journalists from public broadcaster the BBC, the Guardian newspaper and the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

“We would like to emphasize again that any efforts by London to further spin the anti-Russian sanctions flywheel will inevitably receive a decisive response from our side,” the Russian ministry said in a statement.

“Work on expanding the Russian ‘stop list’ in response to the actions of the British authorities will continue.”

The entry ban includes British prosecutor Karim Khan, who is an elected official on the International Criminal Court, due to his involvement “in issuing a warrant for the arrest of the Russian leadership,” according to the Russian foreign ministry statement.

In February, Khan submitted applications to the ICC for warrants of arrest for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova.

British cabinet minister Lucy Frazer, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport was also included in the updated list, with Russian authorities claiming she is “actively lobbying for the international sports isolation of Russia.”

Read the full story here.

Th US has committed to approving the transfer of F-16 fighter jets for Ukraine as soon as training is complete, according to a US official.

Denmark and the Netherlands have taken the lead in preparing a program to train Ukrainian pilots on the American jet, but the US is still working with other countries to see who may provide F-16s to the Ukrainian Air Force.

On Friday, the US approved the transfer of F-16 instructional materials from Denmark to Ukraine, according to the US official and an administration official.

The transfer will allow the Danish defense ministry to move forward with “their effort to stand up pilot and maintenance training programs,” the administration official said. The approval includes training modules, documentation and classroom training materials, the official said, which contains information about sensitive US technology.

The approval of the third-party transfer request from Denmark was one of the critical steps before Ukrainian fighter pilots could begin training to fly the fourth-generation jets which Kyiv has requested for months. Denmark said Ukrainian pilots would begin training on F-16 jets later this month, part of a coalition of 11 countries that will be involved in the training program.

Ukraine has long been pleading for the fighter jets to counter Russian air superiority. But Ukraine says it is unlikely to receive them until next year.

Read more here.