January 14, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

We’ve wrapped up our live coverage for the day. You can read more on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine here, or scroll through the updates below.

The CNN film “Navalny” follows Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who was poisoned in August 2020 with a nerve agent during a flight to Moscow.

The film paints an intimate portrait of one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics and takes viewers inside the harrowing search for answers following his poisoning.

When and where to watch

“Navalny” airs on CNN on Saturday at 9 p.m. ET. You can also watch now on CNNgo and HBO Max.

Who is Navalny?

Navalny is a Russian opposition leader, Kremlin critic and activist. He has been a prominent organizer of street protests and has exposed corruption in the Russian government on social media.

Earlier this year, Navalny was sentenced to nine years in prison on fraud charges he said were politically motivated.

Where is Navalny now?

Navalny has been transferred into a solitary prison cell, according to tweets from himself and his staff, in what he described as a move designed to “shut me up.”

Even while behind bars, his Instagram and Twitter accounts keep up his attacks on Putin. “He passes hundreds of notes and we type them up,” according to Navalny’s chief investigator, Maria Pevchikh.

His defiance, according to his political team, has put him in a race against time with the Russian autocrat. The question, according to Pevchikh, is whether he can outlast Putin and the war in Ukraine – and on that, the verdict is still out. “So far, touch wood, they haven’t gone ahead with trying to kill him again,” she told CNN.

Worsening health

Navalny’s daughter, Dasha Navalnaya, who is currently studying at Stanford University in California, told CNN her father is being systematically singled out for harsh treatment.

Prison authorities are repeatedly cycling him in and out of solitary confinement, she said. “They put him in for a week, then take him out for one day,” to try to break him, she said. “People are not allowed to communicate with him, and this kind of isolation is really purely psychological torture.”

His wife Yulia, who said she received a letter from Navalny on Wednesday, has also raised concerns about his health. She said he has been sick for over a week, and that he is not getting treatment and is forced off his sick bed during the day.

At least 531 Russian doctors as of Wednesday signed an open letter addressed to Putin to demand that Navalny should be provided with necessary medical assistance, according to the Facebook post where the letter was published.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, his wife Yulia, opposition politician Lyubov Sobol and other demonstrators march in memory of murdered Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov in downtown Moscow on February 29, 2020. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP) (Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article Defiant Navalny has opposed Putin's war in Ukraine from prison. His team fear for his safety | CNN

Rescuers work at the site where an apartment building was heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike in Dnipro on Saturday.

The death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment block in the city of Dnipro has risen to 12, according to Valentyn Reznichenko, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration.

Reznichenko shared the update in a post on his official Telegram page. 

He also shared apparent video of the rescue effort, thanking the first responders who worked late into Saturday night local time to find anyone else buried in the rubble.

The founder and head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, posted a video Saturday claiming he visited Soledar after it was taken over by his mercenaries “in two weeks.”

Kyiv has disputed Wagner’s claim that it now controls the small town, which holds significant symbolic value but is not considered strategically pivotal. The town has also caused infighting between Prigozhin’s private forces and Russia’s Defense Ministry over who deserves credit for the assault.

In the video, the Wagner mercenary leader said he came to town to award medals to his fighters — who he says were almost exclusively responsible for capturing Soledar.

The video shows Prigozhin standing with a man who he calls “a commander who helped to take over Soledar.”

According to Prigozhin, Ukrainian soldiers who refused to surrender were killed. He said, “the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers will be sent back to their motherland.”

The private military contractor has heavily recruited from Russian prisons over the last nine months. Previously it has deployed contingents to Syria and several African countries. 

Prigozhin credited what he described as a wealth of fighting equipment and communications systems for giving his force an edge in battle.

What Ukraine is saying: Kyiv’s military has said that Wagner fighters, some without body armor and carrying only grenades, have been killed in their hundreds after launching one assault after another against Soledar. 

The Ukrainian military said late Saturday that heavy battles for the town continue, with one regional leader describing the situation as “difficult but controlled.”

More on Wagner’s leader: Prigozhin has been an increasingly visible figure in the conflict in Ukraine, visiting Wagner fighters on the front line and meeting former convicts who have completed their six-month tour of duty with Wagner. Prigozhin had promised them that in return for fighting they would be pardoned and be able to return home, rather than to prison. 

He has frequently contrasted the achievements of his Wagner fighters with what he has criticized as the poor leadership of the military establishment in Russia — a rare example of open disagreement within Russia about the conduct of the Ukraine campaign.  

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “Russian terror” can only be stopped on the battlefield in his nightly address Saturday. 

To achieve these aims, Zelensky said he was convinced Ukraine needs “weapons that are in the warehouses of our partners and that our troops are so waiting for.” 

Updates on today’s bombardment: The Ukrainian president said “the most difficult situation is in Kharkiv region and Kyiv region” following Russian missile strikes earlier Saturday.

Zelensky also said that Ukrainian forces had shot down more than 20 Russian missiles on Saturday, of more than 30 fired on the country. “These are hundreds of saved lives,” he said. 

Earlier Saturday, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said Russia had “made about 28 launches of cruise missiles of various types and 5 launches of guided aircraft missiles.”

Ukraine’s Defense Forces destroyed 18 of those cruise missiles and three guided aircraft missiles, Zaluzhnyi added.

Zelensky also commented on the deadly Russian missile strike against a residential apartment building in the city of Dnipro earlier Saturday.  

According to Zelensky “debris clearance is still ongoing and will continue throughout the night.” 

“It’s not yet known how many people are under the rubble,” he added. “Unfortunately, the death toll is growing every hour.”

Emergency workers clear the rubble after a Russian missile hit an apartment block in Dnipro, on Saturday.

Nine people, including one teenager, were killed when a Russian missile hit an apartment block in the city of Dnipro Saturday, according to the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office.

The teenager killed was a 15-year old girl, Kyrylo Tymoshenko said in an update on Telegram.

He said 37 people were rescued from the building, including 6 children, and 64 people were injured, including 14 children.

Search and rescue operations at the site continued into Saturday night.

The Ukrainian Air Force says the Russian missile that hit an apartment block in Dnipro Saturday, killing nine people and injuring dozens, was a Kh-22 — an older type of cruise missile that is a less accurate weapon than most modern missiles.

Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian air force, said the Kh-22 “was fired from a Tu-22M3 long-range bomber, launched from the area near Kursk and the Sea of Azov.”

“There were a total of five launches of these missiles,” Ihnat said.

CNN reported last June that it was a Kh-22 that hit a shopping center in Kremenchuk in central Ukraine. 

Originally designed as an anti-ship missile, the Kh-22 carries a warhead of nearly one metric tonne. But Western analysts say it is only accurate to a radius of about 500 meters (about 1,600 feet).

The Russian Defense Ministry said the target in June was a facility that repaired military vehicles, which was several hundred meters from the shopping center. At least 18 people were killed in that attack.

Speaking of Saturday’s attack, Ihnat said: “They hit with such a missile a densely populated city with people, women, children. There is no explanation and justification for this terrorist act.” 

Russia has used the Kh-22 throughout its campaign in Ukraine, drawing on stocks estimated to be in the thousands. 

CNN has not independently verified the type of missile used in the strike.

The State Emergency Service of Ukraine said that one child was killed in the Russian missile strike on an apartment block in the central city of Dnipro.

“Five people died including one child,” according to its Telegram account.

The SES also said 64 people, including 14 children, were injured.

Thirty-five people, including six children, were rescued from the wreckage, according to the SES.

Rescuers work on a residential building destroyed after a missile strike in Dnipro on Saturday.

The White House condemned Russia’s latest bombardment of Ukraine on Saturday, which targeted utility infrastructure and led to at least five deaths, according to Ukrainian officials.

“The United States will continue to provide Ukraine with what it needs to defend itself, including air defense systems, along with our allies and partners – and we will continue our work to hold Russian forces accountable for their war crimes and atrocities. Russia continues to underestimate the strength and resolve of the Ukrainian people, and these latest attempts to demoralize them will fail yet again,” the spokesperson said. 

Some background: Last week, the US announced its largest aid package to Ukraine since the war began — $2.85 billion worth of US equipment, including 50 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, 500 TOW anti-tank missiles and tens of thousands of rounds of 25mm ammunition.

Ukrainian troops are also set to begin training on the Patriot missile system in the United States as soon as next week, the Pentagon announced earlier this week.

The Ukrainian military said the battle for the town of Soledar continue as Russian forces try to advance in several parts of the eastern Donetsk region.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said late Saturday local time that “the enemy does not abandon its intentions to completely take over Donetsk region.”

“To do so, it focuses its main efforts on offensive operations on Bakhmut direction. Heavy battles for Soledar continue,” the military said.

Ukrainian forces recaptured Lyman at the end of September.

On Friday, Russia said its forces had taken Soledar following weeks of fierce fighting, but Ukraine has denied the claim.

The General Staff also said Russian units in parts of Donetsk were below strength because of recent casualties.

“The manning level of certain units of the 3rd separate motorized rifle brigade of the 1st army corps located in the vicinity of Horlivka (Donetsk region) remains low, up to 40 percent,” it alleged.

In the south, according to the General Staff, the Russians are trying to strengthen their defense capabilities on the east bank of the Dnipro river in Kherson.

“The movement of personnel, weapons, military equipment, and ammunition is reported,” the military said.

Local residents clear the rubble after a Russian rocket hit a multistory building in Dnipro on Saturday.

The number of people injured in a deadly Russian missile strike that hit an apartment block in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Saturday has risen to almost 60, according to an official.

Valentyn Reznichenko, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said 12 children are among the injured. The rescue operation at the site Dnipro continues.

At least five have been killed in the strike, Reznichenko said earlier.

DTEK, one of Ukraine's largest energy companies, posted a picture on its official Telegram account showing a picture of a turbine it said was damaged in the Russian attack Saturday on Ukraine's power infrastructure. The company did not give the location of the damaged plant. (DTEK/Telegram)

The CEO of the Ukrainian state power company Ukrenergo says the country’s power system suffered twelve waves of missile strikes Saturday.

“Unfortunately, energy facilities in 5 regions were hit,” Volodymyr Kudrytskyi wrote on Facebook. “Power engineers are already working on the restoration.”

Kudrytskyi said power plants and substations of Ukrenergo had been hit, but the “controllability and integrity of the power system was preserved.”

“Coordinated work of the military and power engineers does not allow the enemy to achieve their main goal - to plunge the whole country into cold and darkness,” the power CEO said.

About two-thirds of the Russian missiles fired at Ukraine on Saturday were intercepted, according to the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Defense forces destroyed 18 cruise missiles and three guided aircraft missiles, he said.

Zaluzhnyi said that early Saturday morning, the capital of Kyiv was attacked by anti-aircraft guided missiles from the north. Such weapons — S-300s — have rarely been used against Kyiv. 

He said Russians forces later used a mix of air-launched cruise missiles, sea-launched cruise missiles and guided missiles fired from aircraft to target the critical infrastructure of Ukraine. 

Denys Shmyhal, the Ukrainian prime minister, earlier said air defenses saved “the lives of thousands of people.”

The wave of Russian missile attacks Saturday was the first in two weeks.

Damage to power infrastructure from a wave of Russian missile strikes has led to emergency power outages in most regions across Ukraine, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said.

“The next days will be difficult. Power engineers are already working to restore electricity supply,” the energy minister continued.

Saturday’s wave of missile attacks follows a relative lull that had allowed Ukrainian power companies to reduce the power deficit caused by damage to transformers and substations.

Ukrainian soldiers equip trenches on a field not far from Soledar on Saturday.

A top Ukrainian government official said “fierce battles” for the town of Soledar continue Saturday. 

Russian forces appear to be in control of most of the town, with Ukrainian units on its northwestern fringes.

Some background: Soledar is a small town in eastern Ukraine with symbolic, if not especially strategic, value to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces, who have gone months without a notable victory.

Russia said Friday its forces had taken the town, though Ukraine has denied the claim.

Earlier Saturday, the head of the Donetsk region military administration called the situation for Ukraine’s military in Soledar “difficult but controlled.”

Local residents clear the rubble after a Russian rocket hit a multistory building in Dnipro on Saturday, leaving many people under debris.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said emergency services are working to clear debris and save lives at the site of an apartment building strike in the central city of Dnipro.

“Debris clearance in Dnipro continues. All services are working. We are fighting for every person, every life,” he said in a message on his Telegram channel.

At least five people were killed and nearly 30 injured in the Russian missile strike on Saturday, according to authorities.

“Eternal memory to all whose lives were taken by Russian terror! The world must stop this evil,” Zelensky added, vowing that “we will find everyone involved in this terror.”

The government in Moldova has condemned Russia’s missile attacks against neighboring Ukraine and expressed its “indignation” that debris from a missile fell on its territory Saturday.

She also decried “the disrespect of the sovereignty of the Republic of Moldova, its airspace being overrun again today and the remains of a rocket falling in the vicinity of Larga town in the Briceni district.”

The Moldovan Interior Ministry posted photographs of the debris in a field.

Rescuers and local residents are seen at a site of an apartment building heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike in Dnipro on Saturday.

A regional Ukrainian leader said five people were killed by a Russian missile that struck a nine-story apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

At least 27 people were injured, including six children. All of them are in the hospital, according to Valentyn Reznichenko, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration.

Images and video from the scene show the collapsed front of the building and a fierce fire in the immediate aftermath of the strike, which occurred early Saturday afternoon local time. There was a series of detonations after the initial impact, possibly as cars or gas lines ignited.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said earlier that “at least one entrance is missing, people who were at home on a holiday are under the rubble.”

Tymoshenko said 15 people had been rescued in the destroyed entrance of the building. The State Emergency Service and all city services are at the scene, he said.

Denys Shmyhal, the Ukrainian prime minister, said air defenses are working in the latest wave of Russian missile attacks against Ukrainian cities.

Shmyhal also said the strikes are “yet another proof that Russia is a terrorist and has no place in the civilized world.”

Shmyhal also said the strikes are “yet another proof that Russia is a terrorist and has no place in the civilized world.”

Russia is targeting infrastructure in Kharkiv as part of its “large-scale missile attack” on Ukraine, the mayor of the northeastern city said Saturday.

“There is a large-scale missile attack on Ukraine now, the enemy is targeting infrastructure facilities,” Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram.

Only ground transportation is operating in the city, he said, adding that “we have implemented a scheme of bus routes in case of power outage.”

Oleh Syniehubov, head of Kharkiv’s military administration, said there had been two “arrivals” of Russian missiles to a critical infrastructure facility in the region.

“Currently, emergency power cuts are being applied. Emergency services are working at the scene,” he said.