November 23, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, urging the group to support the Ukrainian peace formula following a wave of Russian missile strikes that the president dubbed “the Russian formula of terror.”

“I emphasize yet again: it is high time to support the Ukrainian formula of peace. There should be no room for terror in the world,” Zelensky said. 

Zelensky emphasized the need for “modern and effective air and missile defense systems” after detailing the series of Russian air strikes that destroyed critical facilities, including energy infrastructure, residential housing, and a hospital, where a newborn baby in the hospital’s maternity ward was killed. 

This large-scale assault on energy infrastructure also led to widespread energy blackouts in Ukraine and neighboring Moldova, an act Zelensky said was “analogous to using weapons of mass destruction.”

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield was one of several representatives to reiterate their support for Ukraine, with emphasis on condemning Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. 

“Putin’s motive could not be more clear and more cold-blooded. He is clearly — clearly —weaponizing winter to inflict immense suffering on the Ukrainian people. He has decided that if he can’t seize Ukraine by force, he will try to freeze the country into submission,” Greenfield noted.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to journalists in Vienna, Austria on November 16.

Negotiations with Kyiv and Moscow on the establishment of a safety zone around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant continue — but in the meantime the director of the UN nuclear watchdog is warning about potential consequences.

“We cannot continue counting on good luck to avoid a nuclear accident,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi told CNN on Wednesday.

Grossi said negotiations are “moving forward” but “this is an active combat zone, therefore getting to agreed parameters for this is not such an easy thing to do.”

The IAEA director said he met with a Russian delegation in Turkey earlier Wednesday and spoke with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Tuesday.

“I am having consultations with both. I would not agree with the assessment that we are not making any progress, I think we are,” Grossi said. “Of course, we are talking about something which is very difficult. This is war. This is real war and the protection zone that I am proposing is precisely on the front line, on the line were both adversaries are in contact.”

When asked who is “playing with fire,” referencing Grossi’s own remarks from Sunday following powerful explosions that rocked the nuclear power plant Saturday and Sunday, Grossi said “it is very difficult for us to identify from inside the plant who is doing that,” adding “by the way, our main goal is to get this to stop, not to get into a game of attribution.” 

Later on Wednesday, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant “once again lost access to external electricity” and was instead relying on its emergency diesel generators for the power it needs for reactor cooling and other essential functions, IAEA said in a statement. 

The Biden administration on Wednesday condemned Russian strikes on power generating infrastructure across Ukraine. 

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement that Russia “is increasingly turning to horrific attacks against the Ukrainian people with punishing strikes damaging energy grid infrastructure, and deliberately doing so as winter approaches.”

Watson said that the strikes “do not appear aimed at any military purpose,” but “instead further the goal of the Putin regime to increase the suffering and death” of Ukrainians. 

Watson’s statement touted an additional $400 million security assistance package for Ukraine announced earlier Wednesday. 

CNN’s Yulia Keseiva reported moments ago that power has been restored to almost 90% of the Ukrainian city of Lviv, officials said, following the Russian air strikes that knocked out power to much of the country.

A view of a blackout street in Lviv after a Russian missile attack on critical infrastructure in Lviv, Ukraine, on November 23.

Power has been restored to almost 90% of the Ukrainian city of Lviv, officials said Wednesday, following another barrage of Russian strikes which knocked out electricity throughout much of the country. 

In a telegram statement, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said that scheduled blackouts, which have become regular during the invasion, will continue due to country’s war damaged energy infrastructure, “so some houses may be without electricity.” Water and heating have also been restored and all city services are working, he added.

The situation in Odesa is similar with water and heat restored, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

“Power supply — the region is supplied, consumers are being connected,” he said. Electricity in the Zaporizhzhia region has also been restored.

According to the Ternopil region military administration, the power system there is “being stabilized” with customers “gradually being connected to the grid.”

About one third of the region has electricity with critical infrastructure facilities being connected to the power supply first.

Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe's largest nuclear power station, is seen on October 29, in Prydniprovske, Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant lost access to external electricity again on Wednesday and is relying on emergency diesel generators, the International Atomic Energy Agency said, warning of the “increasingly precarious and challenging nuclear safety and security situation” at the plant. 

The team of IAEA experts present at the power plant said it lost off-site power at 3:30 p.m. local time Wednesday when it was fully disconnected from the grid, “following reports of widespread military action targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure,” IAEA said in a statement.

“Initially all the site’s 20 diesel generators started operating automatically, and now eight of them are supplying the site with back-up electricity needed for all safety related equipment. The other 12 diesel generators are in stand-by mode,” IAEA said. 

Some context: The Zaporizhzhia plant has been disconnected from the national grid several times during the fighting in Ukraine, “most recently in early November when it took two days to restore external power supplies,” the agency said.

IAEA also said it has received information from Ukraine’s national operator Energoatom that “due to a decrease in the frequency in the power system of Ukraine” all power units at two other plants — the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant and the Khmelnytskyy Nuclear Power Plants — were automatically disconnected as part of emergency protection.

“The need for secure off-site power supply from the grid for all nuclear sites is one of the seven indispensable pillars for ensuring nuclear safety and security during an armed conflict,” IAEA said. 

At least seven people were killed and 36 were wounded following a fresh wave of Russian strikes across Ukraine, according to officials. 

Four died in the region of Kyiv, the head of Kyiv region military administration, Oleksii Kuleba, said in a Telegram statement. In the city of Kyiv, three people were killed Wednesday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on Telegram. 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz gives a press conference on November 23, in Berlin.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday that Germany’s energy security for this winter season is “guaranteed” amid Europe’s energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine. 

“It is guaranteed because the German government took a courageous turn in direction and because households and companies across the country save energy,” Scholz told German lower house of parliament Bundestag in Berlin. 

Scholz also said that he shares the goal with French President Emmanuel Macron of a geopolitical Europe that is “significantly more capable of acting.”

The UN Security Council will hold an urgent meeting Wednesday on Russia’s latest strikes across Ukraine on the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 

The meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET.

Europe’s largest cities will donate power generators and transformers to Ukraine as part of a joint campaign. It comes as temperatures begin to drop and Russia continues to attack Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

The “Generators of Hope” initiative, launched Wednesday by European Parliament President Roberta Metsola and Dario Nardella, Mayor of Florence and president of Eurocities, a network of more than 200 large European cities, is aimed at providing energy to essential facilities in the country, including hospitals, schools, water supply stations, relief centers, shelters and phone masts. 

“The European Parliament and the EU have shown remarkable solidarity with Ukraine on the humanitarian, military and financial front. Now they need practical support to get through the winter,” Metsola said at a press conference Wednesday. “I call on all cities, towns and regions across Europe to join the Generators of Hope campaign.”

“As Mayors, my colleagues and I know the importance of local services,” Nardella said. “By launching this direct call to action for cities to get together and help Ukraine by donating generators and transformers, we can help ensure that Ukraine’s cities will be able to manage their day to day lives in the best way possible.”

Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who joined the launch virtually, said Ukraine is “proud that Europeans and their institutions” are “standing by Ukraine in responding to Russia’s terrorist tactics against Ukrainian civilians.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is requesting an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council following the latest Russian strikes on power-generating infrastructure across Ukraine.

“I have instructed our Ambassador to the UN to request an urgent meeting of UNSC following today’s Russian strikes. Murder of civilians, ruining of civilian infrastructure are acts of terror. Ukraine keeps demanding a resolute response of international community to these crimes,” he said on Twitter.

At least four people were killed in Kyiv in Wednesday’s strikes, according to officials. 

Zelensky thanked members of the European Parliament for its acknowledgment of Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism” in a statement following the strikes. He said Russia has “proved to the whole world” that it deserves the classification by “launching 67 missiles at our infrastructure, at our energy industry, at ordinary people.” 

He reassured Ukrainians that power engineers, rescuers and local authorities are hard at work in impacted areas. 

“We will restore all this. We will go through all this, because we are an unbreakable people,” Zelensky said.

Kyiv residents who lost power in their homes told CNN they are planning to stay with friends or family tonight as temperatures drop below freezing.

Sofia, 24, a sales manager at a cafe in the city center, said she carries a flashlight, knife and insulated flask with her “at all times” in case of a missile attack.

“My friend in the Osokorky district has power, so I will either go to his place for the night or to my other friend in the Borshchahivka district,” she said.

Tamara, 53, works at a meat market in Lukianivka. She described sheltering in the district’s metro station after air raid sirens sounded on Wednesday and then getting a message to say the power had been knocked out at her house.

“I’m going to stay with my daughter for the night on the east bank of Dnipro [River],” she said. “I saw in the news today that Europe recognized Russia as a terrorist country. This should have been done a long time ago! I hope for them to experience what they do to us! They are inhumane.”

Earlier Wednesday, the European Union Parliament voted in favor to recognize Russia as “a state sponsor of terrorism” in what has been considered a symbolic move.   

The people CNN spoke to declined to give their last names.

At least four people were killed and 34 injured after a Russian missile strike in the Kyiv region, the head of the region’s military administration, Oleksii Kuleba, said in an update.

Five of the injured are children, he said.

Power supply at the sites of the strikes will be repaired in the “coming hours,” he added, urging people not to panic. 

“All services and emergency teams are working at the sites of the strikes. Power engineers have already started to restore power supply. Repair teams are working,” he said. 

All critical infrastructure — including hospitals — are operating on generators, and temporary shelters have been established.

The city centre of Lviv without electricity after critical civil infrastructure was hit by Russian missile attacks on November 23.

The large-scale Russian missile assault on Ukrainian energy infrastructure Wednesday left most power plants de-energized and the vast majority of people without power, Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy said in a statement on Facebook.

Engineers were working to restore the power supply “as soon as possible” but the scale of the damage meant it “will take time,” the ministry said.

The European Union Parliament website has been hit by a “sophisticated cyberattack,” the parliament’s President Roberta Metsola said Wednesday.  

It came after the parliament earlier Wednesday voted in favor to recognize Russia as “a state sponsor of terrorism,” in what has been considered a symbolic move.   

“Our IT experts are pushing back against it & protecting our systems. This, after we proclaimed Russia as a State-sponsor of terrorism. My response: #SlavaUkraini,” Metsola said in a tweet.  

The EU parliament website is currently down and is “impacted from outside,” Jaume Duch, an EU parliament spokesperson, said in a tweet.  

“This traffic is related to a DDOS attack (Distributed Denial of Service) event,” he added.  

It is not clear who is behind the cyberattack.  

Fire and rescue workers attend a building hit by a missile on November 23, in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Russia launched 70 missiles at Ukraine on Wednesday in its latest “large-scale attack on crucial infrastructure facilities,” the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Telegram.

Fifty-one of the 70 missiles were intercepted, as well as five attack drones, the military’s statement read. 

The missiles were launched from two small missile-carrying ships in — and aircraft over — the Black Sea; from TU-95MS missile carriers in Volgodonsk in southern Russia; and from the Caspian Sea. 

Rescuers work at a site of a residential building destroyed by a Russian missile attack in the suburb of Vyshhorod, Kyiv, on November 23.

More than 30 missiles flew towards the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Vitali Klitschko told Ukrainian television.

“According to the military, 31 missiles flew towards Kyiv. Twenty-one missiles were shot down,” he said. 

Some of the missiles hit critical infrastructure facilities, he added.

The blackouts are affecting businesses in the city. 

CNN’s Yulia Kesaieva reports that no shops, cafes or restaurants are open in the Podilskyi district. “There are huge traffic jams and some of the traffic lights are not working. Policemen are coordinating the traffic at the busiest junctions. Some people are waiting next to the entrances to the supermarkets, asking each other if they have power at home, and where to buy bread and hot meals,” Kesaieva said.

A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) moves in the northern Kherson region, Ukraine, on October 29.

The US will provide $400 million in additional security assistance to Ukraine, the White House announced Wednesday in a memo.

According to a statement from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the drawdown “includes additional arms, munitions, and air defense equipment from U.S. Department of Defense inventories.”

A White House official said that the package has “additional munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), 150 heavy machine guns with thermal imagery sights to counter Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS); additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), 200 precision-guided 155mm artillery rounds,” and more.

Total US military assistance for Ukraine amounts to approximately $19.7 billion since the beginning of the Biden administration, Blinken’s statement added.  

“We will continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, so it can continue to defend itself and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table when the time comes,” Blinken said.

A 17-year-old girl was one of three people killed when Russia shelled the Ukrainian capital Kyiv Wednesday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on Telegram. 

“Three people were killed as a result of today’s missile shelling of the capital. A 17-year-old girl was among them,” he said. “Eleven residents of the capital were injured. 10 of them were hospitalized in medical facilities in the city. One victim was treated on the scene.” 

Thirty-five Russian prisoners of war were exchanged with Ukraine and returned to Russia following negotiations, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

“On November 23, as a result of the negotiation process, 35 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime, who were in mortal danger in captivity,” a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

“Aircraft of the military transport aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces will transport the released servicemen to Moscow for treatment and rehabilitation at medical institutions of the Russian Defense Ministry,” it said.

All those released will be given medical and psychological assistance, the Ministry of Defense said. 

Earlier, Denis Pushilin, the leader of the separatist Donetsk region, said on his Telegram channel that Russia and Ukraine conducted a prisoner exchange according to the formula “35 for 35.”

“Among our released people there were four from the Donetsk People’s Republic, two from the Luhansk People’s Republic,” he said.