October 17, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Monday that the funding request the company had made to the Pentagon to start picking up the bill for satellite internet services for Ukraine has been withdrawn.

Musk’s announcement on Twitter followed an exclusive CNN report that SpaceX made a request to the Pentagon in September saying they were no longer able to donate the critical Starlink terminals or support the expensive accompanying service “for an indefinite period of time.” SpaceX asked the Pentagon to start paying for the service for the current terminals operated by the Ukrainian government as well as fund almost 8,000 new terminals and service for Ukraine’s military and intelligence services.

After the CNN report revealed the request and showed in greater detail that SpaceX is not solely responsible for Starlink access in Ukraine (in fact numerous international efforts funded much of it), Musk tweeted on Saturday: “To hell with it…even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding the Ukraine govt for free.”

Musk’s tweet on Monday went a bit farther, saying the step had been taken to rescind the request to the Defense Department.

CNN has asked the Pentagon if SpaceX has withdrawn its request for funding.

Two sources briefed on the discussions between SpaceX and the Pentagon told CNN that as of Friday, before Musk’s apparent about-face, the Pentagon had in fact agreed to the request from SpaceX to pay for ongoing service for Ukraine’s government and the new request from Ukraine’s commanding general.

To read more, click here.

Brittney Griner’s family and supporters are launching a #WeAreBG messaging campaign for the WNBA star’s 32nd birthday on Tuesday, which she will be spending in a Russian prison.

The friends and family of Griner want to once again bring attention back to Griner’s wrongful detention. The US Embassy in Russia has not had consular access to Griner since early August, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said last week.

Griner has a hearing next week for the appeal of her prison sentence.

Some background: Earlier this month, Cherelle Griner said on CBS This Morning that she thinks it’s going to take Russian President Vladimir Putin to “have mercy” on her wife to get her home. 

“I feel like at this point it’s going to take Putin to have that same mindset and say ‘You know what, Brittney Griner Z– who came to my country for seven, eight years, and helped my country be recognized through sport, paid taxes in my country, helped my country – I’m going to sit at a table, and I’m going to be clear about what I need in return for her release,’ so that we can actually get a meeting of the minds between these two governments,” she said. 

The WNBA star was sentenced in August to nine years in a Russian jail for drug-smuggling. She turns 32 on Tuesday.

Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, left, meets with Tatyana Moskalkova, Russian Human Rights Commissioner, during an exchange of more than 200 prisoners of war.

In a first, Ukrainian and Russian human rights officials met Monday during a prisoner exchange between the two sides. 

Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, met with Tatyana Moskalkova, Russian Human Rights Commissioner, during the swap of more than 200 prisoners of war.

Moskalkova posted video of the meeting on Telegram. It is unclear where exactly the exchange took place. 

In the video, Lubinets and Moskalkova approach each other on a deserted highway, shake hands, and have a brief exchange.

“It’s an important humanitarian aspect in terms of social rights,” she said.

Lubinets replied that “we are exchanging lists, and I request that you will work through it and be in touch on what’s possible.”

“Most importantly, we have activated the process of exchanging civilians of our countries. I’m sure that you want this as much as we do.”

Moskalkova said that “certainly everyone is interested in this path forward.”

In a summation of the meeting posted on Telegram, Moskalkova said that she “met for the first time with Commissioner for Human Rights of Ukraine Dmitry Valeryevich Lubinets. We had a constructive dialogue and agreed to continue working to ensure the proper treatment of prisoners, keep working for future exchanges, to protect the rights of civilians, and learn the fate of missing persons.”

Lubinets, on his Telegram account, said that “the need for negotiations is the humanitarian sphere.”

“In particular, we talked about the need to intensify the repatriation of prisoners of war and the release of civilian hostages,” he said.

He said that the two discussed, among other things, the need to “develop ways to visit prisoners of war, inspect places of their detention, both on the territory controlled by the Russian Federation and in Ukraine” and “thorough searches for missing persons.”

They also discussed Ukraine’s desire to visit prisoners of war held in Olenivka, which is in an occupied portion of the Donetsk region.

“At the end of the meeting, it was agreed to send official letters for the implementation of the discussed tasks involving the protection of human rights,” Lubinets said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday hailed an exchange of more than 200 prisoners by Russia and Ukraine.

Among those released by Russian and pro-Russian forces, he said, were people who had been detained since before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February.

“I thank all those involved for this success, and I also thank all those who replenish our exchange fund, who ensure the capture of the enemy,” he added.

A Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian capital Monday morning killed a woman who was 6 months pregnant and her husband, according to Kyiv’s mayor.

In reaction, President Volodymyr Zelensky said:

“The world can and must stop this terror,” Zelensky said. “When we talk about Ukraine’s need for air and missile defense, we are talking about real lives that are taken by terrorists.”

He said that though Ukraine has been successful in shooting down Iranian-made Shahed drones, it was not enough.

“In order to guarantee the protection of our skies and reduce to zero the capabilities of Russian terrorists, we need much more modern air defense systems and more missiles for such systems,” he added.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during the daily news briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on Monday.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemned Russia’s latest attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine. While she would not say whether the Biden administration believes the war is entering a new phase, she did describe the last few weeks as an “escalation.” 

She also again noted that the administration is in daily contact with the Ukrainians and she pointed to the latest security package the US has announced for Ukraine, adding: “The most recent escalation, the United States strongly condemns Russia’s missile strikes today which continue to demonstrate Putin’s brutality.” 

Members of a forensic team during an exhumation at a mass grave in Lyman, Ukraine, on Tuesday.

Police in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk says that they continue to exhume up to 10 to 15 bodies per day in previously Russian-occupied areas of the region.

Many people are believed to have died of injuries from explosives, Havrylko said, but the police also have information about citizens “who were killed through violence.”

Exhumations in Lyman have so far revealed 35 members of the military and 152 civilians, Havrylko said. He said that 40 hard-to-reach graves have yet to be exhumed.

The Kyiv region’s air defense is actively responding to a Russian drone attack, the mayor of Boryspil on the outskirts of Kyiv city said Monday evening.

“The bright strip of light is our military trying to see the enemy drones, so don’t panic. Stay in shelters,” the mayor added.

Moscow’s strikes on Kyiv: At least four people were killed after Russia attacked the capital of Kyiv with Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones on Monday, according to Ukrainian officials, who have repeated their calls for Western allies to supply Ukraine with more advanced air defense systems. 

Ukraine’s interior minister said Kyiv’s security forces were able to shoot down 36 of 42 attack drones that Russia launched on Monday.

“It shows that this attack has not reached its goal. I think that the goal was to outdo the last Monday missiles attack. But this did not happen today,” Denys Monastyrskyi told Ukrainian television.

Of those 42 drones, around 30 targeted Kyiv, he said, adding that the others targeted the Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

The Ukrainian government and Russian-backed authorities in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region each freed more 100 prisoners on Monday in a swap.

The Russian-backed side released 108 Ukrainian women, both military and civilian, according to Ukraine’s Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Among the released Ukrainians are members of the Armed Forces, servicewomen in the Navy, National Guard and Border Guard. The Russian-backed authorities also released 12 Ukrainian civilians. 

“It was a very nerve-wracking exchange,” Andrii Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said on Telegram.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government released 110 people, among them 80 civilian sailors and 30 servicemen who serve on behalf of Russia, according to Denis Pushilin, the Russian-backed leader in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which Russia now claims to be part of its country.

Fire caused by a Russian jet that crashed into a residential building in the city of Yeysk, Russia, on Monday.

A Russian Su-34 supersonic fighter-bomber jet crashed into a residential building in the city of Yeysk on Monday, the Russian state media TASS reported.

The crash was due to ignition of one of the engines, Russian state media RIA Novosti reported citing the country’s defense ministry.

It is not clear how many people were in the fighter jet. 

The area of the fire that started after the crash is 2,000 square meters, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations told RIA.

The information about casualties in the area is being established, according to the ministry.

Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Krasnodar Krai region, is on his way to the city, he said in a statement on his Telegram channel.

“Emergency services are already working on the spot — all regional fire and rescue garrisons are engaged in extinguishing the fire,” he added.

The state media reported that another resident of the city specified that this residential building has nine floors. The entire house is on fire, according to the eyewitnesses, as quoted by TASS.

Yeysk is located across the water from the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol.

An adviser in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office has called for Russia to be expelled from the G20 forum of leading nations.

“Those who give orders to attack critical infrastructure to freeze civilians and organize total mobilization to cover the frontline with corpses, cannot sit at the same table with leaders of G20 for sure,” Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the President’s office, said on Twitter.

Some more context: Russia was expelled from the G8 in 2014 over its annexation of Crimea. The G20 is set to meet in Bali, Indonesia, next month. The Kremlin has not yet confirmed whether President Vladimir Putin will attend, but said that Russia will participate.

See Podolyak’s tweet:

Relatives say goodbye to Russian citizens drafted during the partial mobilization as they depart to their military units in Moscow, Russia, on September 29.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced on Monday the end of partial mobilization in the city and the closing of the military draft offices at 2 p.m. local time on Monday, according to the statement published online.

“Military draft offices will close on October 17, 2022, at 14:00. Summons sent in the process of mobilization to the place of residence and enterprises cease to be valid,” the statement said.

More on Russia’s mobilization order: Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the immediate “partial mobilization” of Russian citizens on Wednesday, a move that threatened to escalate his faltering invasion of Ukraine following a string of defeats that caused recriminations in Moscow.

Putin said in a speech that he would use “all the means at our disposal,” and even raised the specter of nuclear weapons, if he deemed the “territorial integrity” of Russia to be jeopardized.

Kyiv’s security forces were able to shoot down 36 of 42 attack drones that Russia launched on Monday, Ukraine’s interior minister said on Monday.

Of those 42 drones, around 30 targeted Kyiv, he said, adding that the others targeted the Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

At least one drone in Kyiv was brought down by small arms fire from police officers, he added.

However, he warned that the chance of shooting down a drone with small arms fire is quite low with a high risk.

“I would like address those citizens who have firearms in their possession: shooting from a rifle or a gun from the high-rise building might cause more damage than a chance to shot down a drone,” he said.

A police expert holds a fragment of a drone with a handwritten inscription reading "For Belgorod. For Luch" after a drone attack in Kyiv on October 17. Image has been blurred by CNN because the identifier could help Russian targeting.

A drone used by Russia to attack the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Monday had the phrase “for Belgorod” written on one of its vertical stabilizers.

The phrase appears to be a reference to explosions in recent weeks in Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine near the city of Kharkiv. Ukraine has not commented on those incidents.

The drone is the Iranian-manufactured Shahid-136, which is rebranded under the Russian name “Geran 2.”

The stabilizer was photographed this morning by an AFP photographer. It also appeared in a video posted on Telegram by Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs.

The drone also included the phrase “for Luch” that appears to be a reference to a reported power plant fire last week in the Belgorod region.

Russian and Belarusian troops have “begun to deploy and carry out tasks for the armed defense” of Belarus, according to Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin, Belarusian state media BELTA reported on Monday.

“Today, based on the current situation, we are acting in stages, implementing individual measures aimed at proactive readiness of the regional grouping to respond to emerging challenges and threats,” Khrenin said at a meeting with the staff of one of Belarus factories, as quoted by BELTA.

According to Alexander Volfovich, state secretary of the Security Council of Belarus, the regional grouping of troops on the territory of the republic is deployed in an incomplete composition.

“In the future, life will show whether to deploy it on a full scale or not,” said Volfovich, as quoted by BELTA.

On Monday, Valery Revenko, head of the international military cooperation department of Belarus Defense Ministry, said in a tweet that Russia plans to send about 170 tanks, up to 200 armored combat vehicles and up to 100 guns and mortars with a caliber of more than 100 mm to Belarus as part of the deployed Belarusian-Russian group of troops.

“Belarus to receive 9,000 personnel, about 170 tanks, up to 200 AFVs and up to 100 guns and mortars with a caliber of more than 100 mm,” Revenko said on Twitter.

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko announced on Oct. 10 that Belarus agreed to deploy a joint regional grouping citing “the aggravation of the situation on the western borders of the Union State.”

Germany announced it will end its program that offered Ukrainian refugees the ability to exchange Ukrainian hryvnia banknotes to euros without exchange rates.

The program will end by Oct. 30, a joint statement from the German finance ministry and central bank said on Monday. 

The provision was initially introduced to help Ukrainian refugees who fled the country after Russia’s invasion, but that the demand has “dwindled,” the statement said, adding that few transactions have recently taken place. 

The statement added that the last day to exchange between currencies is Oct. 28, due to banks being closed over the weekend. 

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko speaks to the press next to a destroyed building after a drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on October 17.

The number of people killed after Russian strikes in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, has now reached four, the city’s mayor said Monday.

Three people have been taken to the hospital, he said, two of whom are emergency responders.

CNN’s Olly Racz contributed to this report.

Russian-Belarusian exercises, dubbed Allied Resolve 2022, in Belarus on February 19.

The announcement last week that Belarus and Russia would form a joint regional force and carry out exercises set off alarm bells in Kyiv.

The last time Belarusian and Russian forces held joint exercises, in February, many of those Russian forces went on to cross the Ukrainian border in their ill-fated drive toward the capital.

It’s not that Belarus has a mighty army – it doesn’t. But the prospect of Ukraine’s long northern border becoming a passageway for Russian forces for the second time this year would be a nightmare for Ukraine’s already stretched forces. Ukraine and Belarus share a 1,000-kilometer frontier, much of it sparsely populated and thickly forested.

At the moment, the Ukrainian army is conducting offensives in the east and south while holding off Russian forces in parts of Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia. After seven months of war, the Ukrainian military has suffered attrition just like its enemy: moving forces to defend its northern flank would stretch forces already fighting on multiple fronts.

Predictably enough, Belarus says the joint force is purely defensive. The country’s Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said that “all activities carried out at the moment are aimed at providing a sufficient response to activities near our borders.”

Those activities, according to Belarus, are aimed at deterring Ukrainian preparations to attack the country. Lukashenko said last week that his government had been “warned about strikes against Belarus from the territory of Ukraine.”

Ukraine has vehemently denied the claims. The Foreign Ministry said it “categorically rejects these latest insinuations by the Belarusian regime. We cannot rule out that this diplomatic note may be part of a provocation on the part of the Russian Federation.”

Read the full analysis here.

A fragment of a kamikaze drone after the Russian attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine, on October 17.

Ukraine has repeatedly asked its allies to supply it with more air defense systems and ammunition after Russia stepped up its use of “kamikaze drones” in its brutal assault against the country.

Kyiv says Moscow has used Iranian-supplied kamikaze drones in strikes against Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia and other cities across Ukraine in recent weeks, and pleaded with Western countries to step up their assistance in the face of the new challenge.

Drones have played a significant role in the conflict since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February, but their use has increased since Moscow acquired the new drones from Iran over the summer.

What are kamikaze drones? Kamikaze drones, or suicide drones, are a type of aerial weapon system. They are known as a loitering munition because they are capable of circling for some time in an area identified as a potential target and only striking once an enemy asset is identified.

They are small, portable and can be easily launched, but their main advantage is that they are hard to detect and can be fired from a distance.

Why are they called “Kamikaze”? The name “kamikaze” refers to the fact that the drones are disposable. Unlike more traditional, larger and faster military drones that return to base after dropping missiles, Kamikaze drones are designed to crash into a target and explode, detonating their warhead and destroying the drones in process.

Which drones is Russia using in Ukraine? The Ukrainian military and US intelligence say Russia is using Iranian-made attack drones. US officials told CNN in July that Iran had begun showcasing Shahed series drones to Russia at Kashan Airfield south of Tehran the previous month. The drones are capable of carrying precision-guided missiles and have a payload of approximately 50 kilograms (110 pounds).

In August, US officials said Russia had bought these drones and was training its forces how to use them. According to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia has ordered 2,400 Shahed-136 drones from Iran.

Iran has denied supplying weapons to Russia: But evidence points to the contrary. Ukraine claimed its forces had shot down one of these drones for the first time last month near the city of Kupyansk in Kharkiv. There have been more reported attacks since then. Kyiv’s military said Wednesday it had downed 17 Shahed-136 drones that day alone. According to photos released by Ukrainian authorities, Russia has rebranded the Shaheds and is using them under the name of “Geran.”

US officials say there has been “some evidence already” that the Iranian drones “have already experienced numerous failures” on the battlefield.

Read more here.