Ukraine says it used an air strike to destroy nine Russian helicopters in two cities that are occupied by Russia in eastern Ukraine.
According to a special forces statement, the cities of Berdyansk and Luhansk were attacked and some important military equipment, including an air defense system and a storage place for weapons, were damaged.
Many Russian soldiers were killed or hurt in the mission, stated the report.
No one else has confirmed the attack, and the Russian military has not said anything about it.
Vladimir Rogov, who was chosen by Russia to be the governor of the captured area in Zaporizhzhia region, announced that the air defense systems were able to stop enemy rockets in Berdyansk. They are currently investigating any injuries or damage and will inform us later.
However, there is a video on a social media account that supports Russia, which has not been confirmed, that shows explosions and rockets flying in a place called Berdyansk. In the video, a voice explains that a storage area for ammunition has been bombed.
A Russian blogger recently wrote about an assault on an airfield using American-made ATACMS rockets. The attack caused significant damage and resulted in casualties of both people and technology, according to the blogger.
Berdyansk is about 85km (or 53 miles) from the closest area of conflict, while Luhansk is nearly 100km away.
Fights are still happening between Ukrainian and Russian forces in Avdiivka, Kupyansk, and Lyman. Russian forces have been attacking these towns heavily lately.
Emergency services in Ukraine have reported that a dormitory building was destroyed in an attack by Russia on the city of Slovyansk. There are currently two people who are believed to be trapped under the debris.
In Odesa, the people in charge say that parts from Russian flying machines that were destroyed have harmed a club for boats and some boats themselves, but nobody was hurt.
Ukraine is attempting to reclaim land in the eastern and southern parts of the country that Russia has taken over. They have started a large-scale attack, but their progress has been slow.
It has also frequently attacked Russia’s positions in the air in order to weaken Moscow’s war effort.
Tag: Russian military
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Russian helicopters damaged by Ukrainian airstrikes
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Russian torturers allegedly ‘rape prisoners and electrocute their genitals – Report
According to information released today by a legal team, Russian military seized individuals in southern Ukraine using a variety of tactics, including rape, suffocation, waterboarding, and severe beatings.
According to Global Rights Compliance, almost half of those housed in the now infamous “torture chambers” in the port city of Kherson suffered such treatment.
The horrifying sexual crimes committed by soldiers were made clear by the evidence gathered from the more than 35 dungeons.
Their methods included rape with a foreign object covered in a condom and genital electrocutions.
This data suggests a “systematic plan to not only degrade and humiliate prisoners but also to eradicate Ukrainian identity,” according to Anna Mykytenko, a senior legal adviser at the firm, who spoke to Metro.co.uk.
She emphasised that “sexual violence has been used against Ukrainian people from all sections of society and continues to be used.”
This atrocity, along with others, shows how little regard Russian forces fighting on Ukrainian soil have for international law.
Without a question, the experiences that survivors of these horrors had in the prison facilities left them with permanent mental scars.
It may be challenging to bring culprits to justice, but she emphasised that this process is “well underway”.
“What we are seeing in Kherson is only the beginning of Putin’s heinous scheme to exterminate an entire population,” stated Ms. Mykytenko.
As we carry out our commitment to find and punish offenders, justice will be served for Ukrainians. There is no room for impunity.”
The Mobile Justice Team, comprised of prosecutors, solicitors and analysts, was established by the Global Rights Compliance in April 2022 to look into and prosecute war crimes in Ukraine.
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Russian prisoner of war poised to return to Ukraine
A former soldier who was taken prisoner and held captive by Russians has declared his intention to settle back in Ukraine.
Before being released last year, Aiden Aslin, a Newark resident, was imprisoned by forces in Mariupol that were supported by Russia and given the death penalty.
He revealed on the BBC’s Ukrainecast podcast that he would be returning to Ukraine with his Ukrainian fiancée, Diana Okovyta.
He intends to begin a career in conflict journalism there.
After completing the process of leaving the Ukrainian army, Mr. Aslin, who has published a book about his time in captivity, said he and Ms. Okovyta will want to settle down.
“It’s going to be a long drive, and hopefully everything will go as planned,” he remarked.
Although there is always a chance that you could be hurt or killed in one of the airstrikes, life goes on because we have been in Ukraine for such a long time, especially for a family that is there.
In addition, Mr. Aslin discussed his month-long detention by Russian military, which ended only after protracted discussions.
He described it as “like some old Soviet sort of police thing.”
There are no mattresses, only a concrete floor, no bathroom, and you get like a tiny piece of bread every day. In addition, everyone gets a two-liter bottle of water, so you’d be lucky to get maybe a quarter of a cup.
“Therefore, it’s just the bare minimum to keep you alive, and then on top of this, you have people that will get taken out – they’ll find out something about them, and you just hear them being taken beaten,”
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Putin cannot just ‘liquidate’ leaders of Wagner rebellion
An authority on Russian private military contractors has suggested that Vladimir Putin cannot just “kill his way out” of his conflict with the rebellious Wagner group.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the militia’s head, recently abandoned an advance on Moscow, and the president is attempting to quell his disobedience.
Prigozhin has been expelled to Belarus, and his old ally has threatened retaliation against the Wagner officials who are to blame.
But Alec Bertina, an all-source analyst at the Grey Dynamics private intelligence firm, said that the financier and his commanders still exert significant influence.
Assassinations and mysterious deaths routinely befall high-profile Russians who fall out of favour with the Kremlin, but this option would cause more problems than it would solve for Putin, Bertina told Metro.co.uk.
Prigozhin’s forces captured the city of Rostov-on-Don, a key Russian military centre, before a Wagner convoy headed north in the biggest challenge to Putin in more than 20 years.
Yevgeny Prigozhin makes a speech af the HQ of Russia’s southern military district in Rostov-on-Don (Picture: Wagner/Anadolu Agency via Getty) ‘Vladimir Putin knows he cannot simply kill his way out of this situation by liquidating Prigozhin and the Wagner leadership,’ Bertina said.
‘There is a real mess for everyone in the Kremlin to clean up.
‘This was very well planned and the question remains about the people who masterminded this with Prigozhin.
‘They were seemingly able to come up with a significant operation involving the seizure of the southern military command of Rostov, an important command and control node.
‘For the MoD to kill its way out of the problem they would need to liquidate and reconstitute those Wagner units, which is resource-intensive at a time when they are short of capable officers.’
Speaking from the Kremlin in a pre-recorded televised address yesterday evening, Putin said that those involved in the ‘criminal activity’ would be brought to justice. He is now inviting the mercenaries to sign over to Russia’s Ministry of Defence, but it remains to be seen if the battle-hardened fighters are prepared to abandon Prigozhin, who is reportedly staying at a hotel in Minsk, the Belarusian capital.
‘A lot of the Wagner operators will be upset at Prigozhin for ending this, as almost every combat element that has served in Ukraine has some animosity towards the MoD,’ Bertina said.
‘There is a balance between ensuring loyalty in your forces and not taking cut-throat measures that will backfire and make Russia look worse and more incapable than it already is. Putin does not have unity of command; he is a wartime leader who can’t control his men and has been left informationally vulnerable with Ukraine compelling Russian soldiers to surrender rather than fight for a regime on its last legs. In Russia, the elites are panicked and the existing discontent among the oligarchs will only grow.’
Prigozhin had repeatedly launched blistering video attacks on Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu and army chief Valery Gerasimov for failing to provide his mercenaries with enough ammunition during the bloody fight for the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut.
On Friday, he accused the Russian Ministry of Defence of launching a missile attack on one of his camps, before seizing Rostov, headquarters of Russia’s southern military district, the following morning. His units then advanced within 125 miles (200km) of Moscow.
Putin said the ‘rebellion’ was a ‘stab in the back’ before his former chef stood his troops down and apparently agreed to go into exile under a deal brokered via Belarussian president Aleksandr Lukashenko.
Wagner, along with all Russian private military companies, now has until July 1 to sign a contract bringing the group under the auspices of the Russian Ministry of Defence.
In his speech, Putin tried to persuade the militia’s estimated 50,000 fighters and leaders in Ukraine to come under the ministry’s command. The other stated options were to retire and go home or to go to Belarus.
The military’s supreme commander also praised Wagner commanders, which was framed by the US Institute for the Study of War as ‘likely critical’ to retaining them and maintaining the group’s effectiveness.
The research organisation said: ‘‘The future of the Wagner Group is unclear, but it will likely not include Yevgeny Prigozhin and may not continue to exist as a distinct or unitary entity.’
Putin further spoke at a speech in a Kremlin square today, praising the country’s military and law enforcement, who he said had ‘essentially prevented a civil war’.
However Bertina, a researcher on Russian non-traditional security actors, is sceptical about the president’s attempts to shore up his power.
‘One of Russia’s most effective forces will now have to undergo some element of reconstitution and possible liquidation of its leadership, which will be expensive as you don’t build up an organisation like Wagner overnight,’ he said.
‘Putin can still say he’s in power but it’s not much to go on, with even people on the pro-war side viewing their president as pathetic and questioning if he can lead effectively.
‘While there is no longer any kinetic conflict, this is far from finished, there are still difficulties getting Wagnerites to subordinate to the Ministry of Defence, and there is a lot of uncertainty about what the actual deal struck between Prigozhin and the Kremlin was.
‘The external statements put out by the Kremlin cannot be taken as indicative of what the deals actually contain.’
The Kremlin has said that Wagner is handing over its heavy weapons to the conventional military, but questions remain over its lucrative sphere of operations in Africa and its fighters’ willingness to join regular units.
‘Some Wagner elements might, while other elements will find it very hard to do,’ Bertina said. ‘While another kinetic confrontation is hard to see, the Wagnerites going to the front will be meeting their force counterparts who will be viewing them with suspicion and there will be a tension and uneasy relationship that might have a significant impact on the battlefield.
‘They went to Wagner to get paid more and also because they were led by a command structure outside of the Ministry of Defence, and that’s been taken away from them.’
In an 11-minute audio address released yesterday, Prigozhin said no one had agreed to sign a contract with the defence ministry and his firm was due to cease existence on the contract deadline day.
He portrayed his decision to turn his heavily armed convoy around on the road to Moscow as a move to avoid ‘shedding Russian blood’, with his actions borne of anger directed at the defence ministry rather than being an attempt to overthrow the government.
Rory Stewart, an independent MP and former House of Commons Defence Committee chair, speculated that Prigozhin had acted first because his ‘back was against the wall’ after an apparent ‘bungled attempt’ by the FSB, the KGB’s successor, to abduct him.
Bertina said: ‘Prigozhin was quite willing to take risks, and they were dangerous risks, but I’m not sure he was as cornered as some would suggest. It’s difficult to be certain about, but who knows?’
On the battlefield, Ukrainian Airborne forces ‘highly likely’ recaptured one of the first areas of territory occupied by Russia since 2014, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. The ‘small advances’ were made eastwards from the village of Krasnohorivka in the Donetsk region, according to the intelligence update this morning.
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500 Ukrainian children killed by Russian soldiers -Report
500 children have been slain during Russia‘s war with Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed.
The Ukrainian president disclosed the figure hours after rescue workers uncovered the body of a two-year-old girl who perished in a Russian strike on Saturday.
Two young children were murdered during the bombardment of Kyiv on Thursday, amid a rise in attacks on Ukraine’s capital city with 17 missile strikes throughout the month of May.
Mr Zelensky said that ‘Russian weapons and hatred, which continue to take and destroy the lives of Ukrainian children every day’, had killed the hundreds who had perished since Russia’s invasion began last February.
He continued: ‘Many of them could have become famous scholars, artists, sports champions, contributing to Ukraine’s history.’
‘We must hold out and win this war!
‘All of Ukraine, all our people, all our children, must be free from the Russian terror.’
Mr Zelensky said it was impossible to establish the exact number of children killed because there are still some areas under Russian occupation.
Flowers and toys left at the scene of a destroyed apartment building where several people, including children, died (Picture: Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Rescuers found the two-year-old’s body in the rubble of two residential buildings in the suburbs of the city of Dnipro.
The regional governor said five children were among 22 people injured in Saturday’s attack.
Russia launched more drones and cruise missile strikes on Sunday, targeting Kyiv as well as other parts of Ukraine.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said two missiles struck a military air base in Kropyvnytskyi, a city in central Ukraine’s Kyrovohrad province.
The Russian military said it has conducted a series of strikes in recent days on Ukrainian air defence batteries, air bases and troop depots.
Concerns about the safety of civilians have increased after officials found nearly a quarter of 4,800 air raid shelters were locked or unusable.
A 33-year-old woman in Kyiv died on Thursday while waiting outside a shuttered shelter.
Four people were arrested as part of the criminal investigation into her death and a security guard who allegedly failed to unlock the doors remained in custody.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said the city had received more than 1,000 complaints about locked, dilapidated or insufficient air raid shelters.
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Norway warns of danger to whale, urges people to stay away
The Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries has advised people to “avoid contact” with a well-known beluga whale to prevent unintentionally harming or killing it.
The whale, known as Hvaldimir, gained notoriety throughout the world in 2019 after it was noticed donning a custom camera harness, which led experts to speculate that the whale may have been taught by the Russian military.
The directorate stated that Hvaldimir has “been travelling along the Norwegian coast” since 2019 with a few stops along the route, and that it “tends to stay at farms where it has been able to catch fish, grazing on surplus feed.”
Hvaldimir is known to follow boats and play with those on board.
The whale, which is a protected species in Norway, now lives in inner Oslofjord, the directorate said.
This “means that it has arrived in a very densely populated area, and the risk that the whale may be injured due to human contact has become significantly greater,” it added.
In a statement on Wednesday, Fisheries Director Frank Bakke-Jensen said that “so far there have only been minor incidents where the whale has suffered minor injuries, primarily from contact with boats.”
But he urged people to keep their distance, “even though the whale is tame and used to being around people.”
“We especially encourage people in boats to keep a good distance to avoid the whale being injured or, in the worst case, killed by boat traffic,” said Bakke-Jensen.
Given the dangers, Bakke-Jensen was asked whether the whale should be placed in captivity.
“We have always communicated that the whale in question is a free-living animal and we see no reason to capture it and put it behind barriers,” he said.
However, now that the whale is “in a more vulnerable area and access to food may be limited, we will consider different measures,” added Bakke-Jensen. “But it is too early to say anything concrete about that yet.”
The Directorate of Fisheries will monitor the whale’s movements in the hope that it turns around when it reaches the end of the Oslofjord.
In 2019, experts told CNN that Hvaldimir was a trained animal, and evidence suggested that it had come from Russia.
Jorgen Ree Wiig, a marine biologist at Norway’s Directorate of Fisheries, told CNN that the harness appeared “specially made” and had “mounts for GoPro cameras on each side of it.”
And the harness clips read “Equipment St. Petersburg,” contributing to a theory that the whale came from Murmansk, Russia, and was trained by the Russian navy.
The navy has “been known to train belugas to conduct military operations before,” Wiig said, “like guarding naval bases, helping divers, finding lost equipment.”
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Ukraine claims have shot down a missile Russia said was unstoppable
In the conflict, now in its 15th month, Ukraine claims that a US Patriot defence battery destroyed one of Russia’s most advanced ballistic missiles.
The Kinzhal, or Kh-47, is a modernised missile that the Russian military and President Vladimir Putin have praised as an example of their armament, stating that its hypersonic speed makes it very difficult to intercept.
The Kh-47 is an air-launched ballistic missile with an approximate range of 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles), allowing it to be launched far from the battleground. A missile Russia claimed was unstoppable was allegedly halted by Ukraine.
It travels at about 10 times the speed of sound and is derived from the shorter-range Iskander ballistic missile, which is ground launched. It carries a warhead of nearly 500 kilograms.
Ukrainian intelligence believes Russia has only a few dozen Kinzhal missiles in its arsenal – a claim which couldn’t be independently verified.
Several Kinzhal missiles were launched at Ukrainian targets in March, but it’s not clear what damage they did or whether they all reached their targets. In April, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Patriot systems had arrived from the US, Germany and the Netherlands.
If one of those systems has now destroyed a Kh-47, as the Ukrainians say, it calls into question the capabilities of one of Russia’s new generation of weapons.
After the Kinzhal was first tested, Putin told Russia’s Federal Council in 2018: “The unique flight characteristics of the high-speed carrier aircraft allow the missile to be delivered to the point of discharge within minutes.”
He also said that its hypersonic speed would allow it to “overcome all existing and, I think, prospective anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems, delivering nuclear and conventional warheads in a range of over 2,000 kilometers.”
Russia has made ambitious claims for several of its newer military systems, but their prowess is unproven.
Though deployed in small numbers, the Russians’ newest main battle tank, the T-90M, has appeared vulnerable to unsophisticated munitions, and the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, the Moskva, was sunk early in the conflict.
Analysts have questioned the Kinzhal’s capabilities during the final phase of its flight, suggesting it may not be as maneuverable or as fast as it approaches a target.
The deployment of the Patriot represents a sea change in Ukraine’s air defense capabilities, which have been highly reliant on Soviet-era S-300 air defenses – for which munitions now appear in short supply.
The Patriots provide a modern dimension to Ukraine’s air defense layers, as does the German IRIS-T system. But it’s also much more complex, requiring about 100 personnel to operate.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Inhat said Saturday that the Russians “were saying that the Patriot is an outdated American weapon, and Russian weapons are the best in the world.”
“Well, there is confirmation that it effectively works against even a super hypersonic missile.” Ihnat said, adding that intercepting the Kinzhal is “a slap in the face for Russia.”
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Russia having difficulty producing modern weaponry, yet have enough older ones – Report
The Russian military is in a state of decline as a result of battlefield setbacks and Western sanctions, but Moscow will still have enough weaponry to continue the conflict in Ukraine, according a new independent report.
According to one estimate, the research from the Center for Strategic and International Studies provides stark estimates of Russian military losses, including close to 10,000 units of critical equipment like tanks, vehicles, artillery pieces, and aerial drones.
However, it also states that Russia can use Cold War-era and earlier stocks on the front lines to make up in numbers for any technology it may have lost.
“The quality of the Russian military in terms of advanced equipment will likely decline, at least over the near term,” the CSIS report says.
It notes how Russian losses of main battle tanks, especially modern ones, have been severe.
“Moscow is estimated to have lost anywhere from 1,845 to 3,511 tanks one year into the war,” the CSIS report says, with losses of its newer, upgraded T-72B3 main battle tank, first delivered in 2013, noted as especially damaging.
The Netherlands-based open source intelligence website Oryx says it has visual evidence of more than 500 variants of T-72B3 destroyed, damaged, abandoned or captured as of this week.
Western officials, speaking during a briefing Tuesday, also noted the pressure on the Russian tank fleet.
“They’re going backwards in terms of equipment,” the officials said of Russian armor, noting that T-55 tanks, introduced in 1948, are now turning up on the battlefield.
The CSIS report highlights the problem Russia faces in new tank construction, citing Russian media reports.
One tank plant, UralVagonZavod, can make about 20 tanks a month. But Russia loses, on average, almost 150 tanks of all types in Ukraine each month, it says.
And then there’s the lack of modern hardware.
The CSIS report says Moscow has to refurbish and put its decades-old tanks back into action because it just doesn’t have the resources to build new ones, with Western sanctions leaving it unable to source parts and tools needed to put together a modern tank.
Sanctions have cut Russian access to optical systems – needed for tank gunners to pick out targets – ball bearings and machine tools, the CSIS report said.
Specifically for optical systems, Russia relied on French imports during its pre-war production, the report said.
With those imports cut off by sanctions, it’s forced to put older, less sophisticated gunner’s sights in even its most modern tanks, resulting in a possible loss of up to two kilometers in range, it said.
In the case of high-quality ball bearings – “critical to producing any type of moving vehicle,” the report said – 55% of Russia’s pre-war supply came from Europe and North America. With those sources now lost, it may try to make up the deficit with domestically produced supplies or imports of lower quality from China or Malaysia, the report said.
Either way, Russia can’t get the quality it did before the war.
“Moscow is under pressure to adapt, often turning to less-reliable and costlier suppliers and supply routes, lower-quality imports, or trying to reproduce Western components internally. This is likely hampering the rate and quality of Russian defense production,” the report said.
The loss of Western components is not just felt in tanks, the report says.
Manned and unmanned aircraft, missiles and electronic warfare equipment need modern, high-tech parts – including microchips – that Russian can’t source adequately from internal suppliers and has difficulty importing because of Western sanctions, it said.
Retired Lt. Gen. explains where US defense systems need to be placed in Ukraine
But the report cautions that Ukraine and its Western supporters should not expect these supply problems to quickly stop the hostilities.
“Sanctions and export controls are not a silver bullet that will force Russia to bring the war to an end,” it said.
Russia still retains numerical advantages over Ukraine, the report said, because it has large inventories in reserve.
“Russia’s military capabilities still greatly outnumber those of Ukraine on most indicators, including man-, air-, land, and naval power,” the report says.
“While an accurate count of Moscow’s current military stocks is not available publicly, it has been roughly estimated that, as of February 2023, the total number of aircraft at the Kremlin’s disposal has been 13-15 times more than Kyiv’s. Russia has nearly 7-8 times more tanks and 4 times more armored fighting vehicles, while its naval fleet is 12-16 times larger than Ukraine’s,” it says.
The numerical advantages will enable Moscow to run a war of attrition over the next year, throwing numbers on the battlefield until Ukraine, even with fewer losses, runs out of hardware, the report says.
To offset the Russian numerical advantages, even of inferior weaponry, it is vital that Western countries keep technologically superior armaments flowing to Ukraine.
For instance, the older tanks are vulnerable to hand-held Javelin missiles, it says.
“This is the crux of this war in its second year: the Russian military can rely on its mass and continue feeding older or less than state-of-the-art technology as long as it thinks it can simply outlast the Western deliveries of weapons and systems to Ukraine,” the CSIS report says.
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Putin mercenaries accused of beheading Ukrainian soldier
A Russian defector from Wagner claimed to have seen the killing of a Ukrainian prisoner of war in video, and he recognized his former coworkers in the scene.
Andrey Medvedev, who in January managed to flee Vladimir Putin’s de facto private army and later applied for asylum in Norway, said he was able to identify the hired men by their “nicknames, the way they talk, and their manner when talking over the radio.”
The distressing videos, which surfaced on social media over the weekend, purport to show a Russian military allegedly chopping off a hostage’s head with a knife.
In one video, a voice encourages a killer to break the spine of his victim, identified by a yellow tactical armband, as he struggles on the floor.
‘Get working, brothers. Break his spine, f–k, have you never cut off a head?’, they can be heard saying.
It is unclear when or where this ISIS-style footage was shot, and who is behind it.
But an exiled Russian human rights group has said evidence indicates it was an act by Wagner fighters.
‘We contacted Andrey Medvedev, 26, ex-commander of the first squad of the 4th platoon of the 7th Wagner PMC assault squad, now in deportation prison,’ said Vladimir Osechkin, founder of Gulagu.net.
‘We sent this video, he listened to it several times and watched it carefully. He definitely identifies [in the video] his former colleagues, members of the Wagner PMC [private military company].
‘By their distinctive callsigns, the way they talk, what they say on the radios, as they go about this extrajudicial execution, that brutal murder.’
Osechkin stressed that Medvedev ‘was in Wagner and knows their call signs and code words and ciphers’.
He ‘helps us to identify them [and establish] that fighters of the illegal armed group known as Wagner PMC were involved in this extrajudicial execution, a terrible murder’.
Ukraine has vowed to identify the knifeman and a second suspected Russian fighter who appeared to be taunting him to decapitate the prisoner of war.
Osechkin has offered a £2,670 reward for information on the identities of those behind the atrocity.
The identity of the victim – seen pleading for mercy before he is decapitated – remains unclear.
The chief of Wagner, close Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, said: ‘I watched this video.
‘It is bad when people’s heads are cut off, but I have not found anywhere that this is happening near Bakhmut or that fighters of PMC Wagner are participating in the execution.’
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to punish the Russian ‘murderers’ in the video and urged international leaders to act.
‘This is something that no-one in the world can ignore – how easily these beasts kill’, the politician said.
‘This video – the execution of a Ukrainian captive – the world must see it. This is a video of Russia as it is – what kind of creatures they are.
‘There are no people for them. A son, a brother, a husband – someone’s child.’
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Russians overheard finding a downed US drone by amateur radio operators
It appears that amateur radio hobbyists have audio recordings of the Russian military attempting to recover a US espionage drone.
After the MQ-9 Reaper drone was shot down last Tuesday during an encounter with two Russian airplanes, they were keeping an eye on the public airwaves, according to the New York Times.
The radio intercept began around eight hours after the Black Sea collision, which was the first physical conflict between Russia and the US since the start of the invasion of Ukraine.
The clips reveal conversations between multiple Russian ships and aircraft over a four-hour period, discussing attempts to recover the drone’s engine casing, nose, wing and gas tank.
‘At this moment, we have brought up three parts of the frame,’ one unit code-named Apelsin (Orange) was heard saying. ‘Now I am proceeding toward the helicopter to search for more.’
There is a series of transmissions about the vessels’ declining fuel reserves and concerns about whether they will have enough to make it back to shore.
They then return to the Port of Sevastopol and one crew member indicates he passed an area called Striletska Bay.
The clips reveal conversations between multiple Russian ships and aircraft over a four-hour period (Picture: US European Command/Zuma/Shutterstock) 
An MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle shown on November 7, 2020. The MQ-9 Reaper drone was found 60km off the coast of Sevastopol This provides an insight into the units operating near the crash site, and indicates Russia’s continued use of open, unencrypted radio channels for operational communications in Ukraine.
A source close to the Russian defense ministry claimed Kremlin forces had found the downed drone at a depth of up to 2,953ft in the Black Sea.
While there is no indication sensitive US information was recovered, the intercepts contain special military words which are difficult to understand.
Pentagon officials said any sensitive information was wiped from the drone’s software.
‘Whatever is left of that floating will probably be flight control surfaces, that kind of thing — probably nothing of real intrinsic value to them in terms of re-engineering or anything like that,’ National Security Council spokesman John F. Kirby told CNN.
‘We’re not overly concerned about whatever they might get their hands on,’ he added.
Telegram channels indicate special purpose vessels Fizik (pictured in a file photo) and Professor Vodyanitskiy both sailed to or near the suspected location of the wreckage. Russia’s Ministry of Defense confirmed on Friday two fighter pilots had been honored with state awards for preventing the US drone from entering Russian airspace.
They claimed there was no physical contact between the aircrafts, and that ‘quick maneuvering’ caused the drone to fall into ‘unguided flight with a loss of altitude’.
But this contradicted US claims that a Russian jet rammed the drone and damaged its propeller.
Moscow did not officially acknowledge a salvage operation, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the military would decide whether to attempt a recovery.
‘This is the prerogative of the military. If they deem it necessary to do that in the Black Sea for our interests and for our security, they will deal with that,’ Pescov said at a news briefing in Moscow last week.
The US has since resumed surveillance drone flights over the Black Sea region, officials said.
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A big number of Russian soldiers stationed believed to have been killed
According to the Ukrainian military, pro-Russian military bloggers, and former officials, an apparent Ukrainian strike in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine appeared to have killed a significant number of Russian troops residing adjacent to an ammunition depot.
Both Ukrainian and pro-Russian accounts claim that the strike occurred at Makiivka, in the Donetsk region, just after midnight on Sunday, New Year’s Day, at a vocational school housing Russian conscripts.
The attack has led to vocal criticism of the Russian military from pro-Russian military bloggers, who claimed that the troops lacked protection and were reportedly being quartered next to a large cache of ammunition, which is said to have exploded when Ukrainian HIMARS rockets hit the school.
The Ukrainian military claimed that around 400 Russian soldiers were killed and 300 were wounded, without directly acknowledging a role. CNN cannot independently confirm those numbers or the weapons used in the strike. Some pro-Russian military bloggers have also estimated that the number of dead and wounded could run in the hundreds.
The Russian Ministry of Defense on Monday acknowledged the attack and claimed that “63 Russian servicemen” died.
Video reportedly from the scene of the attack is circulating widely on Telegram, including on an official Ukrainian military channel. It shows a pile of smoking rubble, in which almost no part of the building appears to be standing.
“Greetings and congratulations” to the separatists and conscripts who “were brought to the occupied Makiivka and crammed into the building of vocational school,” the Strategic Communications Directorate of the Chief Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Telegram. “Santa packed around 400 corpses of [Russian soldiers] in bags.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense said that the Ukrainian attack used HIMARS rockets.
Daniil Bezsonov, a former official in the Russia-backed Donetsk administration, said on Telegram that “apparently, the high command is still unaware of the capabilities of this weapon.”
A Russian propagandist who blogs about the war effort on Telegram, Igor Girkin, claimed that the building was almost completely destroyed by the secondary detonation of ammunition stores.
Girkin has long decried Russian generals whom he claims direct the war effort far from the frontline. Girkin was previously minister of defense of the self-proclaimed, Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic, and was found guilty by a Dutch court of mass murder for his involvement in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Sergey Markov, another pro-Russian military blogger, said there was “a great deal of sloppiness” on the part of the Russian command.
Boris Rozhin, who also blogs about the war effort under the nickname Colonelcassad, said that “incompetence and an inability to grasp the experience of war continue to be a serious problem.”9:22 a.m. ET, January 2, 2023
Ukraine waiting for first portion of $19 billion aid package from EU, Zelensky says
From CNN’s Allegra Goodwin and Victoria Butenko
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Ukraine was waiting for the first tranche of a $19 billion support package from the European Union in January, following a call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
He added in a tweet that Ukraine was also awaiting the first “batch of LED-lamps school buses, generators and modular houses.”
“We feel support and will win together,” Zelensky finished.
Von der Leyen tweeted that she had conveyed her “wholehearted support and best wishes for 2023 to the Ukrainian people,” to Zelensky on their first call of the new year.
“The EU stands by you, for as long as it takes. We support your heroic struggle. A fight for freedom and against brutal aggression,” she said.9:03 a.m. ET, January 2, 2023
It’s mid-afternoon in Kyiv. Here’s what you need to know
Five people have been injured by a Russian attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Beryslav, and another person was injured in Kyiv Monday amid strikes which have left the Ukrainian capital struggling to maintain electricity supply.
Here are the latest headlines:
- Strikes on Beryslav:Five people have been injured by alleged Russian tank fire on a market in the southern Ukrainian town of Beryslav, according to the regional governor. “Presumably, the fire was conducted from a tank from the temporarily occupied Kakhovka,” said Yaroslav Yanushevych, governor of Kherson region, where Beryslav is located, on his official Telegram channel. Kakhovka is on the opposite side of the Dnipro River.
- Russian attack wounds one in Kyiv: One man was injured early Monday as a result of a Russian attack on Ukraine’s capital. The 19-year-old man was hospitalized after suffering a lacerated foot while in an eighth-floor apartment in Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district.
- Second victim from Saturday strikes: A 46-year-old man who was injured by a Russian attack on Kyiv on Saturday has died in hospital, according to city mayor Vitaly Klitschko. Another person died and 20 others were injured in Saturday’s explosions, Klitschko said.
- Kyiv struggling to maintain electricity: The capital was experiencing power outages Monday, after overnight strikes damaged energy infrastructure facilities in the city, said Klitschko. Some heat supply facilities were disconnected from the power supply, but the city’s water supply remains normal, he added. Kyiv authorities are urging residents to reduce their electricity consumption after the third day of Russian attacks damaged infrastructure.
- Zelensky hails “unity” of Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used his first address of the year to underline the “sense of unity” in the country, and contrast it with the “fear” he said is felt in Russia. “Our sense of unity, authenticity, life itself – all this contrasts dramatically with the fear that prevails in Russia,” said Zelensky in an address published Sunday evening local time.
- Russia reportedly takes down Ukrainian drone: Russian air defenses downed a Ukrainian reconnaissance drone approaching the southwestern Russian city of Voronezh on Sunday night, Russian state news agency TASS reported Monday, quoting local authorities. There were no reports of casualties or damage, according to TASS, quoting the regional government.
7:02 a.m. ET, January 2, 2023
Russian air defenses reportedly down Ukrainian drone near city of Voronezh
From CNN’s Radina Gigova
Russian air defenses downed a Ukrainian drone approaching the southwestern Russian city of Voronezh on Sunday night, Russian state news agency TASS reported Monday, quoting local authorities.
“Last night, air defenses detected and downed a small reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle approaching Voronezh, which had been launched from Ukraine,” a statement from the regional government reads, as quoted by TASS.
There were no reports of casualties or damage, according to TASS, quoting the regional government.
Voronezh is located in southwestern Russia.
CNN has not been able to independently verify the TASS reporting.6:41 a.m. ET, January 2, 2023
One injured in Monday’s strikes on Kyiv
From CNN’s Olga Voitovych in Kyiv
Ukrainian servicemen use searchlights as they search for drones in Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 1. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters) One man was injured early Monday as a result of a Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, according to the State Emergency Service (SES) of Ukraine.
The 19-year-old man was hospitalized after suffering a lacerated foot while in an eighth-floor apartment in Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district.
“Firefighters of the nearest fire and rescue units immediately arrived at the scene,” the SES said on its official Telegram channel.
“Upon arrival, the firefighters found out that as a result of the rocket fragments falling on the roadway, balconies and windows on 3, 4, 6 floors of a 9-story residential building were damaged.”
The Ukrainian military claimed to have shot down 39 Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones overnight into Monday, but said that debris had nonetheless damaged infrastructure facilities and residential buildings.4:52 a.m. ET, January 2, 2023
Five injured by Russian attack on market in southern Ukrainian town of Beryslav
From CNN’s Olga Voitovych
Five people have been injured by alleged Russian tank fire on a market in the southern Ukrainian town of Beryslav, according to the regional governor.
“This morning Russians attacked the center of Beryslav – they shelled the city market,” said Yaroslav Yanushevych, governor of Kherson region, where Beryslav is located, on his official Telegram channel.
“Presumably, the fire was conducted from a tank from the temporarily occupied Kakhovka,” he added. Kakhovka is on the opposite side of the Dnipro River.
Of the five people injured, three are in critical condition, Beryslav said.
On Sunday, one person was killed and four injured by Russian attacks across the Ukrainian-controlled portions of the Kherson region, according to Beryslav.
Russian forces attacked the region 71 times on Sunday, he said, using artillery, multiple-launch rocket launchers (MLRS), mortars and tanks.4:27 a.m. ET, January 2, 2023
Kyiv authorities urge sparing electricity use after Russian strikes damage energy infrastructure
From CNN’s Olga Voitovych and Mick Krever
Authorities in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv are urging residents to reduce their electricity consumption after a third day of Russian attacks damaged infrastructure facilities.
On Monday, energy company DTEK said that it had been forced to implement emergency power cuts, and Oleksii Kuleba, head of Kyiv regional military administration, called on residents of the capital to keep an eye on their energy use.
“We are currently observing an increase in electricity consumption and excessive load on the grid,” Kuleba said on Telegram. “Therefore, it is important not to forget about reasonable consumption of electricity – to use energy-intensive devices in turn and to use electricity sparingly.”
The Ukrainian military claimed to have shot down 39 Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones overnight into Monday, but said that debris had nonetheless damaged infrastructure facilities.
Eleven private houses were also damaged by falling debris, according to Kuleba.
However the Prosecutor’s General Office of Ukraine said that there do not appear to have been any casualties.
“Prosecutors and investigators are working at the scene to document violations of international humanitarian law by the aggressor country,” the office said in a statement.4:43 a.m. ET, January 2, 2023
Zelensky hails “sense of unity” in first address of 2023
From CNN’s Jack Guy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivers his first address of the year on January 1. (President of Ukraine) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used his first address of the year to underline the “sense of unity” in the country, and contrast it with the “fear” he said is felt in Russia.
“Our sense of unity, authenticity, life itself – all this contrasts dramatically with the fear that prevails in Russia,” said Zelensky in an address published Sunday evening local time.
“They are afraid. You can feel it. And they are right to be afraid. Because they are losing. Drones, missiles, anything else will not help them. Because we are together. And they are together only with fear.”
Zelensky congratulated Ukrainian forces for shooting down 45 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia on the first night of the year
“Russian terrorists were pathetic, and they entered this year staying the same. Our defenders were awesome, and on January 1 they showed themselves very well,” he said.
Zelensky went on to thank “everyone who is fighting the enemy at the frontline every day and every night,” as well as energy and utility workers restoring infrastructure damaged by Russian strikes.
“And it is very important how all Ukrainians recharged their inner energy this New Year’s Eve,” said Zelensky.
“And how we thanked our warriors. How we thanked our loved ones. How millions of times all over Ukraine, all over the free world, our wish – the wish of victory – has sounded and still sounds.”3:48 a.m. ET, January 2, 2023
Second victim of New Year’s Eve strikes on Kyiv dies in hospital
From CNN’s Olga Voitovych, Mayumi Maruyama, Yulia Kesaieva and Gul Tuysuz
A 46-year-old man who was injured by a Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital on Saturday has died in hospital, according to city mayor Vitaly Klitschko.
“One of the injured as a result of the Russian attack on the capital on December 31 died this morning,” Klitschko said on his official Telegram channel. “The 46-year-old man was in intensive care in serious condition.”
Another person died and 20 others were injured in Saturday’s explosions, Klitschko said.
Out of the injured, 14 were hospitalized, while six others were provided with medical assistance on the spot, he said.
Several school buildings in the capital suffered severe damage from the explosions, the mayor added.
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Russia aims to draft occupied Ukrainians, officials say
In order to enlist Ukrainians in the Russian military, according to Ukrainian officials, Russia is employing so-called secession referendums in four regions of Ukraine that are now under occupation.
Ivan Fedorov, the Ukrainian mayor-in-exile of Russian-occupied Melitopol, stated on Telegram that the main goal of the bogus referendum was to organize the local population and utilize them as cannon fodder.
Ukrainian officials also say that travel for young men out of occupied Ukraine has become much more difficult since Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization. Such travel in Ukraine’s south has been difficult but possible, through arranged corridors.
In recent days, however, CNN understands from Ukrainian government sources that travel to Ukrainian-held territory has become much more difficult, and that those official corridors have now been effectively closed.
Ukraine’s National Resistance Center, a division of the defense ministry, said last week that the Russian military plans to enforce mobilization as soon as the “referendums” on joining the Russian Federation are approved, as is widely expected.
It is clear that after the referendum the enemy will announce mobilization on the occupied lands as well because it needs human resources,” the Resistance Center said in a statement.
The Ukrainian government says that Russian occupying administrations, together with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), are drawing up lists of thousands of people to be mobilized in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
In Ukraine’s Luhansk region, which is almost entirely occupied by Russia and Russian-backed forces, Ukrainian officials say that the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic is already implementing widespread conscription.
“Unlike in the Russian Federation where mobilization is partial, in the so-called LPR everyone is taken,” Serhii Hayday, the Ukrainian head of the Luhansk region military administration, said on Telegram.
“In Svatove, for example, call-up orders are handed out to every male aged 18 and over,” Hayday said. “Some individuals, such as lorry drivers, are dispatched to military units immediately, without training, because there are no reinforcements left to send to the front line.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said over the weekend that in occupied Crimea, which was annexed in 2014, Russia is specifically targeting ethnic Tatars, forcing them to flee the peninsula.
“Russia is trying to destroy the gene pool of the Crimean Tatars,” he said. “Males are taken from the age of 18.”
“They’re forcing people to fight, people from the temporarily occupied territories,” Zelensky told CBS in an interview broadcast on Sunday. “A lot of people will be forced to do this.”
Crimean Tatars – who were deported en masse from the peninsula by Soviet ruler Josef Stalin in 1944 – have faced severe discrimination following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, rights groups say.
Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol urged people in his occupied city to leave for Crimea. He said that travel has been only sporadically possible between Russian-occupied southern Ukraine and Crimea, which has been occupied by Russia since it was annexed in 2014.
“They are now being let through, but before departure they provide all personal data, the place of residence of all relatives,” Fedorov said. “We urge our residents to leave through the temporarily occupied Crimea to Georgia or the European Union. We clearly understand that very soon a full-fledged hunt for our men will begin, in order to use them as cannon fodder.”