October 23, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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

Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu and US defense secretary Lloyd Austin spoke by phone Sunday, the second call in three days between the two top officials.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said the two discussed the situation in Ukraine but did not provide further details. It was Shoigu who initiated the phone call to Austin, according to a senior US administration official.

A second official familiar with the conversation said Shoigu alleged Ukrainians are planning to use a so-called dirty bomb — a weapon combining conventional explosions and uranium. That claim, which the Kremlin has amplified in recent days, has been strongly refuted by the US, Ukraine and United Kingdom as a Russian false flag operation.

Shoigu made similar comments to his French and British counterparts as well.

The US is also watching very closely for any intelligence that Russia has a specific plan to blow up a major dam near Kherson where Russia has ordered citizens to evacuate, the official said.

On Friday, Austin called Shoigu, the first call between the two in several months. Before Friday, the two had not spoken since May.

CNN’s Jonny Hallam contributed to this report.

Mario Draghi and Italy's new prime minister, Giorgia Meloni shake hands during the cabinet minister bell handover ceremony at Palazzo Chigi in Rome, on Sunday.

Giorgia Meloni, who was sworn in as Italy’s first female prime minister Saturday, is set to form the most hard right government the country has seen in decades.

The new governing coalition includes two other right-wing leaders. One is Matteo Salvini, a hard-right former interior minister, and the other is Silvio Berlusconi, the center-right former Italian prime minister.

Both men have previously publicly expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, which has prompted questions over what the coalition’s approach to Russia will be.

Just this week, secretly recorded audio was circulated in which Berlusconi appeared to lay the blame for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine at Kyiv’s door. He also boasted of having reestablished relations with the Russian leader.

A party spokesperson denied Berlusconi was in touch with Putin, saying he had been telling parliamentarians “an old story referring to an episode many years ago.” Berlusconi also defended his comments in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Thursday, saying they had been taken out of context.

Amid backlash over the comments, Meloni, who has been a strong supporter of Ukraine as it battles Moscow’s invasion, sought to clarify where she and the coalition would stand once in power.

“I have and always will be clear, I intend to lead a government with a foreign policy that is clear and unequivocal. Italy is fully part of Europe and the Atlantic Alliance. Anyone who does not agree with this cornerstone will not be able to be part of the government, at the cost of not being a government. With us governing, Italy will never be the weak link of the West,” she said.

Nonetheless, liberals within Italy and the European Union are fearful of what the promised rightward turn may mean for the country and its future.

Russia is intentionally slowing down food shipments made under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the Ukrainian infrastructure ministry claimed Sunday.

The charge echoes complaints made earlier this week by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“As previously reported, Russia is deliberately delaying the full implementation of the Grain Initiative,” the Infrastructure Ministry wrote in a Facebook statement. “As a result, the ports have been operating at only 25-30% of their capacity in recent days.”

But the ministry also said “the bulk carrier PANGEO, chartered by the UN World Food Program (WFP), left the port of Chornomorsk” Sunday. The carrier is heading to Yemen carrying 40,000 tons of wheat. 

The ministry said that since Aug. 1, “380 vessels have exported 8.5 million tons of agricultural products to the countries of Africa, Asia and Europe from the ports of Great Odesa.”

In an address on Friday, Zelensky said there were delays with ships delivering grain. 

What the Russians are saying: The Grain Initiative was agreed upon in July by Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the UN. But in recent weeks, Russia has complained that part of the agreement allowing for the export of its agricultural products and fertilizer, is not being upheld.

Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said last week that Moscow could leave the deal, according to Reuters. Later, President Vladimir Putin weighed in, saying Russia would shut the export corridors if they are used to carry out “terrorist attacks.”

The Ukrainian city of Enerhodar is “on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe,” the city’s mayor said Sunday.

Mayor Dmytro Orlov told Ukrainian media that repeated Russian strikes on his city prevent quick emergency and restoration work.

The mayor also said the city has “a centralized heating system that has not been working since spring.”

The heating system depends on the nearby Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, “several units of which are in cold shutdown mode, and several units are under repair,” Orlov explained.

“There are currently no prospects for starting a heating season, the city is in danger of not starting the heating season at all,” the mayor emphasized.

Women reunite with relatives during an all-female prisoner swap with Russia on October 17.

Hundreds of Ukrainian civilians have been imprisoned unlawfully in Russia since the start of the war, according to human rights groups.

The lucky ones are eventually used as bargaining chips in prisoner swaps. On Monday, 108 women, including 12 civilians, were released from captivity in Russia as part of one such swap.

Some of these Ukrainian women have alleged brutal mistreatment by their captors – including torture by electric shock and scalding. The Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform interviewed one of them – naming her only as Hanna O. She is 26, Ukrinform says, and had served in the 36th Marine Brigade.

Hanna O. had been in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol but left when the Russians began bombarding it. She said she had spent just over six months in captivity. “They treated us like animals,” she told Ukrinform.

International law is clear that civilians should be treated as protected persons and cannot be held as prisoners of war. The act of forcibly transferring Ukrainian civilians to another country is a war crime.

According to a Human Rights Watch Report in July, “International humanitarian law also prohibits hostage-taking. Detaining civilians for the purpose of using them in future prisoner exchanges would constitute the war crime of hostage-taking.”

Read the full report here.

In an interview Sunday, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace said lawmakers will need to “find balance” in aiding Ukraine as US President Joe Biden questions her party’s commitment to helping combat the Russian invasion.

Mace, appearing on State of the Union, was asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper whether she supported House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s assertion that the GOP would not write a “blank check” to Ukraine if they are in the majority.

“It is something that we’re going to have to find balance on next year,” she said, due to the threat of a recession and Republican promises to cut government spending.

She said Russian President Vladimir Putin has “lost his marbles,” but argued McCarthy’s comments do not risk further emboldening him. Instead, she pointed at U.S. infighting as a whole.

“The divisions that we have, and unwilling to work together on some of these issues and just the fighting, it makes us look weak on the world stage,” she told Tapper.

Biden questions Republican commitment: Biden has seized on McCarthy’s comments and similar remarks from some Republicans, framing the position as undermining US leadership in an increasingly volatile world.

“These guys don’t get it,” Biden said at a fundraiser in Philadelphia Thursday. “It’s a lot bigger than Ukraine – it’s Eastern Europe, it’s NATO. It’s real, serious, serious consequential outcomes. They have no sense of American foreign policy.” 

British Defense Minister Ben Wallace speaks on October 2.

British defense minister Ben Wallace on Sunday refuted claims by his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu that Ukraine was planning to escalate the conflict with help from Western countries.  

Shoigu made the allegations in a call with Wallace, which the UK Defense Ministry said was held at the Russian Defense Ministry’s request. Wallace warned Shoigu that “such allegations should not be used as a pretext for greater escalation,” according to a statement from the ministry. Wallace “observed that both Ministers were professional and respectful on the call,” the statement added.

Shoigu warned Wallace of his concerns Ukraine would use a “dirty bomb,” against Russia, according to a Russian Defense Ministry statement. 

Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba vehemently dismissed the suggestion his country would use such a bomb — a weapon that combines radioactive material with conventional explosives.

French defense minister Sébastien Lecornu told his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu that Paris “refuses any form of escalation, especially nuclear” during a call Sunday. 

The statement added that French President Emmanuel Macron’s government is “determined to contribute to a peaceful resolution of the conflict” and that the French and Russian defense ministers would stay in contact.

Lecornu would be meeting his Ukrainian counterpart “shortly,” the statement concluded.

Rescuers work at a site of a residential building heavily damaged by a Russian missile attack in Mykolaiv on October 23.

Five people were hurt when two missiles struck the southern Ukraine city of Mykolaiv Saturday night, according to a Ukrainian official.

Three of the five victims were hospitalized, Hanna Zamazeieva, the head of the Mykolaiv regional council, said on Telegram.

Rockets also passed over the city earlier Saturday, apparently headed to other parts of the country, Mykolaiv’s regional governor said. 

“Rockets passed by us. Probably on to western and central Ukraine,” Vitaliy Kim wrote on Telegram. 

Air sirens were activated across Ukraine Saturday amid the latest Russian barrage. Local leaders turned to Telegram and other messaging platforms to urge residents to take cover.

A Ukrainian serviceman checks trenches dug by Russian soldiers in a retaken area in the Kherson region on October 12.

Russia’s military is pulling troops back from positions on the Dnipro River in the southern Kherson region, according to a Ukrainian official. 

“We continue to move the front line. But they are firmly ensconced behind their defensive line,” Humeniuk continued. “They are trying to concentrate their forces on the east bank.”

Some background: Kherson — a gateway to Crimea near the Black Sea — was annexed by Russia last month amid wide international condemnation.

This weekend, Kremlin-backed leaders ordered residents to evacuate occupied Kherson city. Russian forces are struggling to withstand an oncoming Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Russia claims it has not lost ground to Ukraine in Kherson but is evacuating civilians for their own safety, moving them east.

“The evacuation of the city of Kherson continues. We provide maximum assistance to all those traveling to the eastern part of the Kherson region and other subjects of the Russian Federation,” Kirill Stremousov, a Russian-appointed official in Kherson, said Sunday.

Ukraine accuses Russia of creating “hysteria” as a justification to forcibly remove residents.

CNN cannot independently verify the recent troop movements reported by each country’s military.

A Russian fighter jet crashed into a two-story residential building in the Siberian city of Irkutsk Sunday, leaving its two pilots dead, a local official said.

“Both pilots were killed. None of the local residents were hurt,” Irkutsk governor Igor Kobzev wrote on Telegram.

The crash of the Su-30 aircraft, which took place during a test flight, caused a huge fire in an area of over 200 square meters, according to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Emergency crews were called to put out the fire and search for any potential victims. A formal investigation is underway.

“Investigators and forensic specialists from the territorial investigative body and the Eastern Interregional Investigation Department for Transport of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation are working at the scene of the incident,” a statement from the Russian Federation Investigative committee reads.

Another deadly crash for Russia’s military: The crash is the second such incident in the last six days.

On Monday, a Russian SU-34 fighter jet also crashed into a residential building in the western city of Yeysk during a training flight, killing at least 14 people.

That crash was due to one of the jet’s engines catching fire, reported state-run news agency RIA Novosti, citing Russia’s Defense Ministry.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine is managing to shoot down most of Russia’s cruise missiles and drones after another barrage pounded his country Saturday. 

During his nightly address, Zelensky alluded to the geographical scale of the attacks, calling it “very wide.” He highlighted Volyn in the northwest, Odesa, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia in the south, Rivne in the west, Kirovohrad and Dnipropetrovsk in the center, as examples of areas that were targeted as part of the “massive” strikes on Saturday.

“But we are already shooting down most of the cruise missiles, most of the drones. Only in the first half of this day, 20 missiles were shot down – Kalibr and Kh-101 missiles, as well as more than 10 Iranian Shahed UAVs,” he continued.

Calls for an “air shield”: While Zelensky touted his country’s air defenses in the address, he has also pleaded with Western allies for more help defending the country from Russian barrages.

When a US congressional delegation visited Kyiv Friday, Zelensky renewed his request for help creating an “air shield” of missile defense technology.

“When Ukraine receives a sufficient number of modern and effective air defense systems, the key element of Russian terror – missile strikes – will cease to work,” the Ukrainian President told leaders of the G7 nations at a meeting earlier this month.

CNN’s Tim Lister, Julia Kesaieva and Denis Lapin contributed to this report.

People arrive from Kherson with their belongings as they wait for further evacuation at the Dzhankoi's railway station in Crimea on October 21.

Russian-installed authorities in the city of Kherson urged residents to leave the city Saturday, the latest in a string of calls for civilian evacuations there this week.

Kherson was annexed by Russia just last month, amid wide international condemnation. Kyiv officials have accused the Kremlin of generating “hysteria” to compel people to leave as the Ukrainian counteroffensive approaches.

Saturday’s evacuation called for residents to cross to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, which divides the region, as you can see on the map below. Ukrainian gains in recent weeks have come on the other side — in villages and farmlands along the western bank.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian denied US and Western allegations that Iran is supplying Russia with drones, echoing denials from other officials in Tehran and in Moscow.

“We condemn the allegations of giving drones to Russia in the Ukraine war. We are against war anywhere in the world,” Abdollahian said Saturday, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency. 

The foreign minister’s remarks came as the Security Service of Ukraine announced criminal proceedings to identify anyone involved in supplying Iranian drones and short-range ballistic missiles to Russia.

Despite Russia’s attempts to disguise the (Iranian) Shaheds as Gerans (Russia-branded drones), we will prove their Iranian origin,” the acting head of the security service, Vasyl Maliuk, said. “We are working to tear masks off all war criminals and punish them.”

Some background: A growing number of countries and international organizations have condemned Russian-Iranian coordination on drone strikes.

Earlier this week, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the US has “abundant evidence” that Russia is using Iranian drones, specifically to target Ukrainian civilians and critical civilian infrastructure. The White House added claims that Iran’s military gave Russians hands-on training with the weapons.

The European Union and the United Kingdom have rolled out sanctions on the manufacturers of Iranian drones.

Natalia Zemko, 81, drinks tea in her apartment during a power outage in in Kyiv, Ukraine on October 22.

More than military bases or transport hubs in recent weeks, Russia has bombarded Ukraine’s electricity distribution and heating networks.

With winter weeks away, Russian missile and drone strikes are hitting thermal power stations, electricity substations, transformers and pipelines. The result: rolling power cuts, disabled water pumping stations and widespread internet outages.

A strategy emerges: As Russian forces endured losses in September and into this month, pundits appeared on state media urging that Ukraine be plunged into a dark, freezing winter in revenge. That now appears to be the goal.

The casualties are relatively few but the damage inordinate. Power infrastructure is an obvious, static target that is hard to defend without an extraordinary array of area defenses, which Ukraine has been begging for from its Western allies.

Maksym Timchenko, the CEO of energy company DTEK, noted in a recent interview that Russia has been very selective in their targeting. He told Ekonomichna Pravda that the strikes were aimed not at generating capacities but the cogs of distribution: switchgears and transformers, or output equipment at thermal power plants. 

Ukrainian authorities are clearly struggling to keep up with an ever-longer list of needed repairs this month, and some infrastructure is beyond repair.