October 3, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

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

Russian air defenses detected and destroyed a Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missile near Crimea, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday. 

“On October 3, at about 8:30 pm Moscow time, an attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using the Neptune anti-ship missile against objects on the territory of the Russian Federation was stopped,” the ministry said in a post on social media. 

“Air defense systems detected and destroyed a Ukrainian missile over the northwestern part of the Black Sea off the coast of the Crimean peninsula,” the ministry said. 

The ministry didn’t include additional details about the alleged incident. 

The Pentagon cautioned on Tuesday that while there are enough funds for the time being to continue supporting Ukraine, funding could run out without action from Congress. 

“As (Defense Secretary Lloyd) Austin said on Saturday, we urge Congress to live up to America’s commitment to provide urgently needed assistance to the people of Ukraine as they fight to defend their own country against forces of tyranny,” she continued.  

Singh added that it was unclear how long the $1.6 billion left from previously allocated funds for Ukraine would last, saying that it depends “how that funding is used to replenish our stocks.” 

“It really depends on what Ukraine requests,” she said. “And again, we know that their priorities are air defense and artillery and also mine-clearing equipment. So that’s what our focus is on to that, of course, is what we’re inevitably going to be refilling as well.”

Western militaries are running out of ammunition to give to Ukraine — and therefore, production needs to increase, NATO and United Kingdom officials have warned. 

“The bottom of the barrel is now visible,” Adm. Rob Bauer, the chair of the NATO Military Committee and NATO’s most senior military official, said Tuesday during a discussion at the Warsaw Security Forum. 

“We need the industry to ramp up production in a much higher tempo,” he said.

Allies had increased budgets before the start of the war, but production capacity didn’t increase, and that in turn led to higher prices even before the war began, he said. 

UK Minister of State for the Armed Forces James Heappey, speaking at the same panel alongside Bauer, said the “just-in-time” model “definitely does not work when you need to be ready for the fight tomorrow,” and that aid for Ukraine should continue. 

“We can’t stop just because our stockpiles are looking a bit thin,” Heappey said. “We have to keep Ukraine in the fight tonight and tomorrow and the day after and the day after. And if we stop, that doesn’t mean that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin automatically stops.”

That means “continuing to give, day in day out, and rebuilding our own stockpiles,” he added. 

The White House reiterated its confidence that Congress will approve new Ukraine aid — with or without GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy serving as House Speaker.

John Kirby, the communications coordinator at the National Security Council, told reporters that US President Joe Biden discussed the situation with global allies in a call Tuesday morning.  

Yet, McCarthy may not be the speaker for much longer, throwing into doubt whatever assurances he’s provided about taking up new Ukraine aid.

GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz on Monday moved to oust McCarthy from the top House leadership post by offering a motion to vacate the chair on the House floor — a rare procedural maneuver that can be used to force a vote to remove the speaker. 

Kirby said the leadership fight in Congress wasn’t something Biden would interject himself in.

“That’s not something that the president is going to get involved in or necessarily be overly concerned about right now,” he said, pointing to statements of support on Ukraine from other Republicans as evidence of support within the party for continued funding.

“There’s a small number of very vocal, a small minority of vocal members who are pushing back on that but they don’t represent their party. They don’t represent their leadership,” Kirby said.

He warned that failing to approve new Ukraine assistance could have dire battlefield ramifications.

A bulk carrier ship sails towards the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk using a temporary corridor, established by the Ukrainian Navy, through the Black Sea on September 16.

More ships have used Ukraine’s self-declared humanitarian corridor through the Black Sea, according to Ukrainian and US officials.

Ukraine set up the route after the collapse of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, when Russia withdrew from the arrangement in July.

United States Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget A. Brink wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that three more ships are headed out to global markets through the corridor and five others are waiting to load.

Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said three vessels loaded with grain and iron ore had left the Black Sea ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi this weekend. He said the bulk carriers were using the temporary corridor established by the Ukrainian Navy to export 127,000 tonnes of products.

The five ships that are in the process of loading would take almost 120,000 tonnes of Ukrainian grain to Africa and Europe, he added.

But the number of ships using the Black Sea ports to carry grain to world markets has fallen sharply since the Russians pulled out of the grain deal. Ten ships have completed the journey so far, according to the infrastructure ministry.

US President Joe Biden looks on during a meeting with his Cabinet in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 2.

President Joe Biden spoke by phone with a group of top United States allies Tuesday morning as the future of US funding for Ukraine remains uncertain. 

“President Biden convened a call this morning with allies and partners to coordinate our ongoing support for Ukraine,” the White House said in a statement. 

The call came days after Congress passed a temporary government spending bill that notably did not include aid for Ukraine, which remains a thorny issue with hardline conservatives. 

Participants, the White House said, included:

Following the call, EU leaders reiterated their support for Ukraine.

Von der Leyen said Europe’s support for Ukraine “is unwavering” through a proposed new 50 billion euros (about $52 billion) on macro-financial assistance, one million rounds of ammunition delivered by March 2024, as well as “EU action to ensure full accountability for Russian crimes against Ukrainians.”

“Good call with NATO leaders hosted by the President of the United States. As Russia continues its brutal war, we are all committed to supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes,” said Stoltenberg. 

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak echoed that sentiment, according to a readout from his country, reiterating the UK’s “ongoing military, humanitarian and economic assistance” to Kyiv.

The Italian readout of the call also said Biden was “keen to reassure” Kyiv’s allies about the continuing American support for Ukraine. 

CNN’s James Frater, Sharon Braithwaite and Radina Gigova contributed reporting to this post.

European Union lawmakers have approved a four year budget that would provide up to $52.3 billion (50 billion euros) for Ukraine in order to tackle the crisis caused by Russia’s war, the European Parliament said in a statement on Tuesday. 

The budget revision was introduced to adapt to the ongoing “war against Ukraine and growing migration issues,” the statement said. 

The facility for Ukraine will provide up to $52 billion in direct budgetary support for Ukraine over the period 2024 to 2027, to support reforms, create a favorable investment climate and conditions for attracting private investors to Ukraine’s recovery. 

The funding would be separate to financing for military assistance. 

MEP Jan Olbrycht said of the revised budget: “Our goal was an ambitious but realistic proposal…and we have managed to keep it targeted but comprehensive. We aim to stabilise Ukraine’s situation with a new €50 billion facility while bolstering the EU’s economy.”

At the same time, Ukraine is working towards satisfying the European Union’s demands for reform as part of a path towards membership of the EU, though analysts expect this will take at least several years.

According to Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal Ukraine will work on a single document – a “roadmap for reforms plan until 2027.”

Much of Ukraine’s annual budget is financed by credits from external sources while its spending is focused on financing the war against Russia. 

Shmyhal said the plan would have a number of documents with reform proposals from partners including the seven conditions that the EU has laid out for Ukraine’s membership to move forward. Most significantly, these include action on corruption and money laundering, as well as guarantees for media freedom and the protection of ethnic minorities.

More Ukraine aid: The International Monetary Fund is also reviewing financial support for Ukraine, following the agreement of a $15.6 billion package of aid in March designed to help Ukraine’s economic recovery from the devastating effects of Russia’s invasion This week an IMF team has started technical discussions in Kyiv “with the aim of discussing fiscal, budgetary, financial, and structural measures .”

The arrangement is part of a US$115 billion total IMF support package for Ukraine.

The European Union is also planning to step up the pipeline of credits to finance military aid to Ukraine, principally munitions and weapons systems.

On Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell proposed an annual $5 billion “peace facility” for Ukraine, an EU fund that reimburses states that supply arms to Ukraine. 

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) claimed it has cracked a large Russian spy ring in the south of the country.

The SBU alleged that 13 informants had been detained in the Mykolaiv region, all of them local residents. Four of the 13 had already been found guilty and sentenced to jail, with terms of between eight and 15 years, it said.

Some context: Mykolaiv came under almost daily fire from Russian missiles for much of 2022 but has seen fewer attacks since Ukraine retook much of the neighboring Kherson region last autumn.

The SBU said that the informants had helped Russia target “a multi-storey building in Mykolaiv with an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system in the fall of 2022. Seven civilians, including a child, were killed as a result of the enemy attack at that time.”

According to the investigation, the Russian informants passed the coordinates of Ukrainian targets to Russia’s Federal Security Service through a “liaison,” whom the SBU named as pro-Kremlin blogger Sergey Lebedev. Lebedev was indicted on suspicion of treason in June.

The SBU said that “in the course of the investigation into Lebedev’s criminal actions, it was established that following the FSB instructions, he had remotely established his own espionage network in Mykolaiv region.” He recruited the informants through his Telegram channel, according to the SBU.

Earlier this year, a woman in Mykolaiv was arrested in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 

The US is increasingly urging Ukraine to do more to combat governmental corruption, issuing several notices to Kyiv in the last few weeks indicating that certain kinds of US economic aid will be linked to Ukraine’s progress in reforming its institutions, multiple US officials told CNN.

The Biden administration’s commitment to supporting Ukraine’s military remains undiminished. But officials have made clear recently that other forms of US aid are potentially in jeopardy if Ukraine does not do more to address corruption.

Congress has not yet approved the administration’s request for $24 billion in additional funding for Ukraine, with some Republicans wary of providing so much money without robust oversight and conditions attached.

The State Department issued a formal diplomatic note, also known as a demarche, to Ukraine in late summer that said the US expects Ukraine to continue pursuing various anti-corruption and financial transparency efforts in order to keep receiving direct budget support, three officials familiar with the matter told CNN. The demarche has not been previously reported.

The demarche also emphasized the need for Ukraine to implement critical reforms under Ukraine’s International Monetary Fund program, including those related to anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), a source familiar with the matter said.

In a statement to CNN, the Ukrainian embassy in Washington said that Ukraine has moved “ambitiously” to pass reforms, including on its IMF program.

White House list of reforms: Separately, the White House has drafted a list of reforms Ukraine should implement in order to continue receiving US financial assistance and move toward integrating into Europe.

The draft, first reported by Ukrainska Pravda, was shared with the US embassy in Kyiv and members of the Donor Coordination Platform, a mechanism launched in January to better coordinate international financial support flowing into Ukraine. The reforms are not a condition for receiving military aid, a US official said.

“This list was provided as a basis for consultation with the Government of Ukraine and key partners as part of our enduring support to Ukraine and its efforts to integrate into Europe, a goal the United States strongly supports,” the US embassy in Kyiv said in a statement.

The White House document outlines changes Ukraine could make within three months, six months, one year and 18 months.

Read more here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visits the front line on October 3.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he was visiting the eastern frontline areas of Kupyansk-Lyman.

He said he visited several brigades and commanders to discuss the battlefield situation.

“Each of our combat brigades, each warrior who destroys the occupiers with every step forward assert that the Ukrainian victory will surely come,” Zelensky continued.

“They are the power. I thank them for their service!” Zelensky concluded in his X post.

The area has seen intense exchanges of artillery and tank fire as both sides have probed for weaknesses. But little territory has been won or lost in the region over the past year. 

This is the furthest he has traveled east in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began.

View of the headquarters of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) in Beijing, China, on October 11, 2017.

Ukraine has added three Chinese oil and gas companies to its list of international companies sponsoring Russia’s war against the country.

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC Group), China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) were named today by the Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NAZK)

The NAZK said all three companies “continue to develop joint projects with Russia and to fund Russia’s strategic industry by paying substantial taxes.”

The additional listings bring the number of Chinese companies on the NAZK’s list to 12.

Heavy artillery and aerial bombardments on the front lines in Ukraine are preventing either side from winning territory, with official and unofficial reports indicating very little movement in many areas.

The Ukrainian military said Tuesday there had been 35 combat engagements over the past day, with the Russians carrying out 47 air strikes. It said that one area where the Russians have deployed many forces — Kupiansk in the north — had not seen any further Russian efforts to advance, while the Russians had again unsuccessfully tried to regain ground south of Bakhmut, which has seen some of the war’s most intense fighting.

Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed that Ukrainian forces failed in their attempts to break through Russian defensive lines in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, according to state media outlet RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

However, fierce fighting has continued to the south of the village of Robotyne, as Ukrainian forces try to push towards the strategic hub of Tokmak, which Russian forces use for resupply and where fuel and ammunition depots are located.

CNN is unable to verify battlefield claims made by either side. 

Here’s what else you need to know:

Here’s the latest map of control:

A Ukrainian solider rushes through the front line in Klishchiivka, eastern Ukraine, as gun and artillery fire erupt around him. Armed with an American-made M16 rifle, he and his unit storm an area that moments before was held by Russian forces.

The scene, recorded on the soldier’s helmet camera, illustrates Ukraine’s heavy reliance on international military support — especially on the equipment arriving from the United States — not just expensive body armor and high-tech missiles, but also small arms such as assault rifles and machine guns.

It also shows why the US Congress decision to pass a stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown, without additional funding for Ukraine, rang alarm bells from Kyiv right down to the front line.

US President Joe Biden was quick to try to reassure Ukraine and US allies that American support is unwavering, and called on Congress to follow through on a commitment to hold a separate vote on funding for Ukraine. But the damage was done: the squabble in Washington was a wake-up call for Ukrainians, indicating that US support could shift with the political winds in DC.

In Ukraine’s east, where Ukrainian soldiers are waging a counteroffensive against Russian forces assisted by American weapons, that scenario is unfathomable.

Read more here: Touting American-made guns, frontline Ukrainian soldiers fear potential loss of US military support

Watch the full report here:

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02:23 • Source: CNN

In the wake of autumn conscription announced last week, Russia’s defense minister has reiterated that conscripted soldiers will not be sent to the frontlines of the war in Ukraine.

The annexed regions (Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia) are parts of Ukraine illegally incorporated into the Russian Federation last year.

According to Shoigu, the General Staff has no plans for additional mobilization.

“The Russian Armed Forces have the necessary number of military personnel to conduct a military offensive,” he said.

Ukrainian servicemen of the 108th Separate Brigade of Territorial Defence load a shell into a small multiple launch rocket systems before firing toward Russian troops near a front line in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, on August 19.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces failed in their attempts to break through Russian defensive lines near Verbove and Robotyne in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu claimed on Tuesday, according to state media outlet RIA Novosti.

Shoigu was speaking on a conference call with leaders of Russia’s Armed Forces, according to RIA. He congratulated a number of Russian units —  in both the southern region and the Bakhmut area — for repelling Ukrainian attacks.

Remember: Last month, Russian officials said that Russian forces had “tactically left” the village of Robotyne after losing control of it.

However, fierce fighting has continued to the south of the village, as Ukrainian forces try to push towards the strategic hub of Tokmak, which Russian forces use for resupply and where fuel and ammunition depots are located.

Speaking on local television last month, the Russia-appointed acting governor of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeniy Balitskiy, said that Robotyne “almost no longer exists as a result of quite large and prolonged fighting.”

CNN is unable to verify battlefield claims made by either side. There have been a few territorial gains made by Russian and Ukrainian forces in recent weeks.

An Ukrainian army soldier stands on a Leopard 2 tank in Zaporizhia's Oblast, Ukraine on September 16.

Ukraine has received the first batch of refurbished Leopard tanks from Poland, a Polish industrial partner announced Monday.

PGZ is “the main industrial partner” of the Polish Armed Forces, conducted by the Ministry of National Defense, according to the group’s website. 

The group also confirmed they are working on repairing another batch of tanks for Ukraine. 

In April 2023, Germany, Poland and Ukraine signed an agreement to set up a hub in Poland to repair Leopard 2 battle tanks used in Ukraine to fight against Russian forces. 

The hub was supposed to start its operations at the end of May, according to Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.

Local residents walk past damaged shops and buildings in Kupiansk, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on September 28.

Heavy artillery and aerial bombardments on the front lines in Ukraine are preventing either side from winning territory, with official and unofficial reports indicating very little movement in many areas.

The Ukrainian military said Tuesday there had been 35 combat engagements over the past day, with the Russians carrying out 47 air strikes. Ukraine said more than 100 settlements had been shelled.

It said that one area where the Russians have deployed many forces — Kupiansk in the north — had not seen any further Russian efforts to advance, while the Russians had again unsuccessfully tried to regain ground south of Bakhmut, which has seen some of the war’s most intense fighting.

Bakhmut area: Analysts have suggested that Ukraine is trying to draw more Russian forces into the Bakhmut area to relieve pressure elsewhere.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed Monday that Russian units had thwarted eight attacks by the Ukrainians in the area, saying that “the enemy’s losses amounted to more than 300 military personnel.”

It’s not possible to verify claims by either side. 

Southern front: There has been very little movement on the southern front. The Ukrainians say that Russian counterattacks in the areas around Verbove and Mala Tokmachka have failed, but they have not claimed any progress themselves.

The Kherson region in the south has seen heavy shelling and mortar fire across the River Dnipro by Russian forces.

The Kherson region military administration said more than 500 munitions of various sorts had been fired at the Ukrainian-held part of Kherson, with 60 shells landing in and around Kherson city.

Northern air defenses: As winter approaches and Ukraine expects a renewed campaign against its energy infrastructure, General Serhii Naiev, Commander of Ukraine’s joint forces, says that Ukraine will increase the number of mobile air defenses in the north.

On Monday, Ukraine’s National Security Adviser Oleksiy Danilov told CNN that the country still needed more “air defense systems to protect our infrastructure… If we’re talking about protecting critical infrastructure facilities, these are energy facilities, water supply, and the fuel and energy complex.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with workers at the Obukhov State Plant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on January 18, 2023.

When Westerners talk about the conflict in Ukraine becoming a “forever war,” they tend to mean it as a bad thing. For Russian President Vladimir Putin, though, it likely is a goal.

When Putin talks of the operation in Ukraine as one of the “decisive battles for the fate of our Motherland,” as he did at this year’s Victory Day parade, he seems to be speaking from the heart — and to the new creed of his regime. He was offering no clear vision of the future, nor even any real hope, just the message that the nation was locked in an existential struggle with a hostile West with no real end in sight.

This sounds like a grim prospect, but from Putin’s perspective, it also has its clear virtues. Of course, the war is a catastrophe for Russia. US government sources suggest Russia may have suffered 120,000 killed and 170,000-180,000 wounded troops.

The economic scarring will take years to heal even when peace has been agreed and sanctions are lifted. 

But it is an opportunity, too. As the forever war becomes the organizing principle of “late Putinism,” it excuses — even demands — the tightening grip of repression Putin needs to maintain his control of the nation. Even the mildest dissent becomes treason, and the massive shift in resources to the defense sector becomes a necessity. 

Read more here: Opinion - Why Putin wants a “forever war”

Ukrainian forces fired cluster munitions at a southwestern Russian border village, damaging several houses and outbuildings, a local Russian official claimed Tuesday.

Bryansk Gov. Alexander Bogomaz said there were no casualties, according to preliminary reports.

Bogomaz has reported frequent Ukrainian attacks on the region in recent months, including drone strikes and alleged incursions by saboteurs.

Ukraine did not immediately comment on the allegations Tuesday.

Some context: The US announced it would be sending the controversial munitions to Ukraine on July 8, and they were delivered to the country’s forces about a week later, as CNN first reported. Ukrainians pledged in writing to only use the cluster munitions in “appropriate places” and not in populated areas, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has previously said. 

Cluster munitions scatter “bomblets” across large areas, which has allowed Ukrainian forces to target larger concentrations of Russian forces and equipment with fewer rounds of ammunition.

But the bomblets can also fail to explode on impact and can pose a long-term risk to anyone who encounters them, similar to landmines. The UK, France, Germany and other key US allies have outlawed the munitions under the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but Ukraine, Russia and the United States are not signatories to that international treaty.

Russia’s use: Russia has already used the munitions several times in Ukraine, CNN has previously reported, including in densely populated areas.

In March, the United Nations said it had compiled credible reports that Russian forces had used cluster munitions in populated areas at least 24 times. A CNN investigation last year found that the Kremlin fired 11 cluster rockets at Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, during the war’s opening days.