January 15, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

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

In his nightly address Sunday, Ukraine’s president addressed the devastating Russian missile strike on an apartment building in the central city of Dnipro.

“There are reports that two children lost their parents,” the president added.

A regional leader said earlier Sunday that the death toll has risen to 30 in the missile strike, with another 75 people hospitalized.

A CNN team was on the ground in Dnipro Sunday and reported that the operation appeared to be shifting to more of a recovery effort than a rescue mission.

The cold and densely packed wreckage of the building suggested hopes of finding anyone else alive were diminishing. But dozens of emergency service workers remained at the scene some 30 hours after the blast.

Zelensky also said on Sunday that a decision was made “to expand our sanctions against Russian citizens and other persons who help terror.”

“We will do everything to make the sanctions work on the largest possible scale — in Europe, in the world,” he said.

He did not specify the actions further.

CNN’s Tim Lister contributed to this report from Dnipro, Ukraine.

The fight for the embattled eastern town of Soledar is ongoing, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address Sunday. 

Russia claims its forces have taken Soledar after weeks of brutal clashes, which Kyiv has denied. The leader of the Wagner mercenary group has taken credit for the bulk of the fighting on Moscow’s side and claimed victory there, as well.

Ukrainian authorities reported “heavy battles” were ongoing in the town Saturday.

 Russian billionaire and businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin attends a meeting with foreign investors at Konstantin Palace on June 16, 2016, in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin is fighting his own war in eastern Ukraine, an often crude and increasingly vocal presence in Moscow’s faltering military campaign.

He is pitching himself and his Wagner mercenary group as the real patriots, in contrast to what he derides as the corrupt and incompetent military hierarchy. The language is getting harsher, and the stakes higher.

In the last few weeks, Prigozhin has been seen close to the frontlines in the occupied eastern region of Donetsk, delivering oranges to the troops or grimly reviewing body bags, and engaging with his fighters in unvarnished and sometimes crude language.

On Saturday, he posted a video claiming he had just visited his troops in the brutally contested town of Soledar, praising his forces for what he claimed was best-in-the-world fighting prowess.

He rarely misses an opportunity to take a swipe at the establishment. Somewhere in Donetsk earlier this month, Prigozhin told his fighters: “Once we conquer our internal bureaucracy and corruption, then we will conquer the Ukrainians and NATO.”

For Prigozhin, the chief bureaucrat that he has in mind is Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. The two appear to have fallen out over lucrative military contracts given to and then taken from Prigozhin’s Concord Group, as well as Wagner’s controversial role in Syria.

A clash over credit in Soledar: Prigozhin said Friday that it was “exclusively” his troops who have made purported gains around Soledar in recent days.

In a filmed exchange with his fighters, Prigozhin asked provocatively: “Other than Wagner PMC, who else is here?”

“No one else!” they replied.

Ukrainian forces continue to deny that Soledar has fallen and even Prigozhin has acknowledged that fighting continues there.

Regardless, the mercenary leader’s ambitions have not gone unnoticed in Washington, DC.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense Laura Cooper said in a briefing Friday: “In the recent past, we’ve seen that Wagner is advancing at a more rapid clip than any other unit in the Russian military.”

Read more analysis on Prigozhin’s role in the war here.

Emergency workers search the remains of an apartment building on Sunday, that was struck by a Russian missile on Saturday, in Dnipro.

The death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment building in Dnipro, Ukraine, has risen to 30, according to Natalia Babachenko, adviser to the head of Dnipropetrovsk region military administration, in an interview with Ukrainian media. 

Babachenko also said the rescue operation is ongoing, adding that there could be up to 30 or even 40 people still under the rubble. 

Following the strike, 75 people went to the hospital, 30 of whom remain there, Babachenko said. 

Babachenko added that 12 of those hospitalized remain in serious condition, including a 9-year-old girl. The young girl was walking near the apartment block when the missile hit, the adviser said.

The southern Ukrainian city of Kherson continues to endure bombardment from Russian shelling, local authorities said.  

On Sunday, the premises of a local Red Cross facility, a rehabilitation center for children with disabilities, an area surrounding a student dormitory, as well as a critical infrastructure facility came under fire, Yaroslav Yanushevych, the head of Kherson’s military administration wrote on Telegram.   

According to the official, Russian shelling caused a fire to break out on the premises of the Red Cross facility. “Rescuers are currently working to eliminate the fire,” he added.

Yanushevych reported that windows and doors were blown out as a result of a Russian strike on the rehabilitation center for children with disabilities.  

“Russian shells fell near the student dormitory,” he continued. “Russians also shelled private and apartment buildings.”  

He said that at least seven people were injured in the Russian shelling of Kherson city, with one of them in a serious condition. 

The city of Kherson was freed from Russian occupation in Nov. 2022. 

Cargo ship Rubymar, carrying Ukrainian grain, is seen in the Black Sea off Kilyos near Istanbul, Turkey on November 2.

Grain is once again leaving Ukrainian ports. The price of fertilizer is falling sharply. Billions of dollars in aid has been mobilized.

Yet the world is still in the grips of the worst food crisis in modern history, as Russia’s war in Ukraine shakes global agricultural systems already grappling with the effects of extreme weather and the pandemic. Market conditions may have improved in recent months, but experts do not expect imminent relief.

That means more pain for vulnerable communities already struggling with hunger. It also boosts the risk of starvation and famine in countries such as Somalia, which is contending with what the United Nations describes as a “catastrophic” food emergency.

Before Russia invaded Ukraine, the price of food was already at its highest level in a decade due to scrambled supply chains and extreme weather events, such as the worst drought in almost a century in central and southern Brazil. Record prices for natural gas — a key input to make nitrogen-based fertilizers — had also become a nightmare for farmers.

Then came the war. Ukraine normally supplies about 45 million metric tons of grain to the global market every year and is the world’s top exporter of sunflower oil. Together with Russia, it accounted for about one quarter of global wheat exports in 2019. As Russian troops blockaded the country’s ports, the strained food system was dealt another shock — this one even harder to bear.

That drove the Food Price Index developed by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization to its highest annual level on records dating back to 2005, rising more than 14% compared to 2021. In 2022, the number of people grappling with acute food insecurity — meaning their access to food was so restricted that it threatened their lives and livelihoods — shot up to 345 million from 135 million in 2019.

Read more about this here.

A CNN reporting team is now on the scene of the deadly Russian missile strike on an apartment building in Dnipro.

Cranes continue to work on removing the hundreds of tons of debris. Smoke is still rising from within the nine-story apartment building that was leveled. On either side of it, concrete sheets hang precariously from neighboring blocks.

The missile appears to have struck vertically, as there is little damage in the surrounding area.

The operation appears to be shifting toward recovery as of about 7 p.m. local time (noon ET), some 30 hours after the missile struck.

There are still dozens of emergency service workers at the scene, but the cold and the densely packed wreckage of the building suggest that hopes of finding anyone else alive are diminishing. 

Behind a cordon across the street, dozens of people watch the operation in silence.

The death toll currently stands at 29, with some people still unaccounted for, according to Ukrainian officials.

People watch as emergency personnel work at the site where an apartment block was heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike in Dnipro on Sunday.

The death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to 29, according to a leader in the region.

At least 73 people were injured in the attack, with 30 of them still in the hospital, said Valentyn Reznichenko, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration. He shared the update in a post on his official Telegram page Sunday.   

At least 12 of the hospitalized victims are in critical condition, he said.  

According to Reznichenko, 39 residents of the apartment building were rescued from the rubble. “The fate of more than 40 people is unknown,” he added.   

Reznichenko said that firefighters have finally extinguished the fire that started in the building as a result of the strike and “about half of the structures destroyed by the Russian strike have already been dismantled.”  

The rescue operation is ongoing with more than 550 rescuers, police officers, doctors and volunteers working nonstop, the official added.

Ukraine’s allies are increasing their support ahead of an anticipated Russian spring offensive, with Moscow’s invasion nearing the one-year mark.

Many of the battlefield developments this week have come out of the eastern town of Soledar in the Donetsk region. While the town is not considered strategically pivotal, its capture would offer Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces a symbolic victory and their first gain in the Donbas for months.

View Soledar and other key areas in the conflict on the map below:

Three people were killed and 13 injured by an ammunition explosion in Belgorod, a Russian region bordering Ukraine, Russian state media TASS reported, citing the country’s emergency services. 

A fire broke out early Sunday in a cultural center in a rural area of Belgorod, which led to the explosion of ammunition stored inside, according to TASS. 

The state media reported earlier that at least 10 Russian soldiers were injured in the blast. It’s not clear if any servicemen were among those killed. 

The death toll from Saturday’s Russian missile strike on an apartment block in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to 25, with 73 others injured, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday.

Here are the latest numbers from the blast, according to Zelensky’s update on his official Telegram channel:

He added that 72 apartments were destroyed and more than 230 apartments were damaged.

“4 tents of the State Emergency Service and 2 tents from volunteers were set up. Psychologists are providing assistance to the victims,” the Ukrainian president said. 

Zelensky also said that the search and rescue operations and dismantling of dangerous structural elements continue “round the clock.” 

“We continue to fight for every life,” he said, expressing his condolences to the relatives and friends of the victims.

An emergency worker at the site where an apartment block was heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike in Dnipro on Sunday.

Ukrainian authorities said the death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment block in the city of Dnipro rose to 22 on Sunday, the day after missiles and explosions were heard across the country. One child was among the dead.

As of 1 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) Sunday, “39 people (including 6 children) were rescued in Dnipro city. 22 people died (including 1 child), 72 people were injured (including 13 children), 43 reports of missing persons were received,” the emergency service said in its latest update on Sunday. 

Valentyn Reznichenko, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said in a post on his official Telegram page Sunday that 72 apartments were destroyed and 230 damaged as a result of the strike.

The rescue operation is ongoing with 43 people still unaccounted for.

“We are fighting for every person, every life,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.

In his nightly address on Saturday, Zelensky said “dozens” of people, including a three-year-old girl, were rescued from the building even though most of the floors were “smashed” in the strike.

Read the full story here.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday said that his so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine was showing a “positive” dynamic and that he hoped Russian soldiers would achieve more results on the battlefield after Soledar. 

“The dynamics are positive, everything is developing within the framework of the plan by the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff, and I hope that our fighters will continue pleasing us with the results of their combat work,” Putin told Rossiya 1 state television in a video interview.

Putin also said that the economic situation in Russia was “stable” and “much better” than forecasts. 

According to Ukrainian officials, “heavy battles” are still continuing in Soledar after Russia claimed Friday that it was in control of the eastern town.

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 repel enemy attacks round the clock. The occupiers suffer heavy losses,” the General Staff said.

“The enemy is also advancing on Lyman, Avdiivka, and Novopavlivka directions,” it added.

The golden domes of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra Orthodox Christian monastery on October 3, 2019 in Kyiv.

The vertically shot video published last November shows no weapons, battlefield atrocities or even soldiers. But the sound of a patriotic Russian song reverberating through a church on Kyiv’s famous Lavra monastery grounds seemed to open a new front in Ukraine’s war with Russia.

The church belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) – which, despite the name, has traditionally been loyal to the Russian Orthodox Church, and whose current leader Patriarch Kiril has openly supported Moscow’s brutal invasion.

Splitting with Kiril, the leadership of the UOC denounced Russia’s attack, and last May, declared its independence from Russia.

Days after the video surfaced, masked members of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) conducted a raid on the Lavra – officially, to prevent it being used for “hiding sabotage and reconnaissance groups” or “storing weapons.” By December, a handful of church leaders had been sanctioned, and dozens more churches across the country were raided by the SBU.

In his nightly address on December 1, President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated he was prepared to go beyond raids – proposing a law to ban churches with “centers of influence” in Russia from operating in Ukraine – all in the name of “spiritual independence.”

Read more on the new front in Ukraine’s war here.

An emergency worker views the site of a residential building hit by a Russian missile on Sunday in Dnipro.

The Russian missile that hit an apartment block in Dnipro on Saturday was “no doubt” a Kh-22 missile, the Air Force Command of the Ukranian Armed forces said Sunday on its Facebook page.

“[A] Radar detected the approximate launch site, altitude, and flight speed. There is no doubt that it was an X-22 [Kh-22] missile,” it said.

“The Armed Forces of Ukraine lack the firepower capabilities for shooting down this type of missile. Since the beginning of Russia’s military aggression, more than 210 missiles of this type have been launched at the territory of Ukraine. None of them have been shot down by our air defense systems,” the post added.

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.

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.” 

Originally designed as an anti-ship missile, the Kh-22 is an older and less accurate weapon than most modern missiles. But Western analysts say it is only accurate to a radius of about 500 meters (about 1,600 feet).

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

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.

The death toll from the Russian missile strike on an apartment block in Dnipro rose to 20 on Sunday, the day after missiles and explosions were heard across the country.

At least 73 people were wounded in the attack on the nine-story apartment building, including four who are in critical condition, Valentyn Reznichenko, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration said.

Ukrainian soldiers fire a projectile from a self-propelled cannon on the front line in Bakhmut on December 26, 2022.

Last fall, as Ukraine won back large swaths of territory in a series of counterattacks, it pounded Russian forces with American-made artillery and rockets.

Guiding some of that artillery was a homemade targeting system that Ukraine developed on the battlefield.

A piece of Ukrainian-made software has turned readily available tablet computers and smartphones into sophisticated targeting tools that are now used widely across the Ukrainian military.

The result is a mobile app that feeds satellite and other intelligence imagery into a real-time targeting algorithm that helps units near the front direct fire onto specific targets.

The targeting app is among dozens of examples of battlefield innovations that Ukraine has come up with over nearly a year of war, often finding cheap fixes to expensive problems.

Ukraine has even developed its own anti-ship weapon, the Neptune, based on Soviet rocket designs that can target the Russian fleet from almost 200 miles away.

Read more on Ukraine’s battlefield innovation here.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner group founder, attends a meeting in St. Petersburg on June 16, 2016.

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.