March 9, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage for the day has ended. Follow the latest Ukraine news?here?or read through the updates below.

Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), speaks at a news conference in Vienna, Austria, on March 6. (Leonhard Foeger/Reuters)

The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency said the loss of power at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant should serve as another reminder of the perilous situation facing the site and surrounding area.

“If we allow this to continue time after time, then?one day our luck will run out,” said Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The plant?lost all off-site power due to Russian missile attacks Thursday, according to Ukrainian officials. Grossi said it was the first time the plant had lost all power since November 23, 2022.

“This is the largest nuclear power station in Europe. … What are we doing?” Grossi asked. “How can we sit here in this room this morning and allow this to happen? This cannot go on.”

Some background: The plant has been under Russian control since March last year, but is still mostly operated by Ukrainian workers.

Attacks at the complex have sparked concerns about the specter of a nuclear disaster, and IAEA staff have been visiting the site to assess the damage. Recently, the UN nuclear agency said it has been unable to rotate teams at the plant because of increased volatility in the area.

The IAEA head has?assured Ukraine?his agency will never recognize Russia as the owner of the Zaporizhzhia plant, according to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. Grossi has also pledged a?continuous IAEA presence?at all of Ukraine’s nuclear plants.

Watch Grossi’s impassioned remarks Thursday here:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said six people were killed in a wave of Russian missile strikes across Ukraine on Thursday. Earlier, regional authorities said 11 people were killed in the Russian attacks, which included those who died in shellings and other kinds of attacks.

While energy has been restored to most of the country, Russian forces are keeping up their assaults near the invasion’s eastern front, especially around the strategic city of Bakhmut.

Here are the headlines to know:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said work to restore power to parts of the country hit by a wave of Russian strikes Thursday is still underway, but efforts will continue “for as long as necessary.”

The president said the situation in Kharkiv and the Zhytomyr region has been the most difficult.

“Another attempt by the terrorist state to wage war against civilization has led to temporary power, heat and water outages in some of our regions and cities,” Zelensky said.

Critically, power has already been restored to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The plant is under Russian control, but it is being operated mostly by Ukrainians. It was running on emergency mode after the shelling, according to the national energy company.

Nearly a dozen people were killed in the attacks, officials said. Zelensky expressed condolences to those families.

Ukraine’s air defense systems didn’t withstand some of Russia’s Kinzhal missiles, according to an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, following a widespread attack from Moscow on Thursday.

A total of 84 missiles were fired on Ukrainian infrastructure, including six?Kinzhal ballistic missiles?that have the ability to elude Kyiv’s air defenses, the Ukrainian military said.

“They are using hypersonic missiles. They are using new types of weapons, and they are seeing how our air defense systems can cope with it,” said Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to Zelensky. “They are not coping well enough.”

Rodnyansky outlined what he saw as the Kremlin’s tactical, economic and political objectives for Thursday’s strikes, including what he described as “economic terrorism.”?

“They’re sending a very strong signal to everyone in Ukraine — and to perhaps some of our refugees outside of Ukraine — that life is very far from returning to normal despite the fact that over recent weeks there was more quiet,” he said.

This could cause refugees to stay away and businesses to withhold investing in the country, Rodnyansky said.

What else to know: Russia used the Kinzhal missile, which it has described as a hypersonic weapon, on a few occasions in the first weeks of its invasion last year. But the powerful weapon has rarely been seen over the country’s skies.

Its first known use was last March, and then again in May, according to?the?Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko meets with foreign media at his residence in Minsk, Belarus on February 16, 2023.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday signed a law introducing the death penalty for “state treason” committed by government and military officials, state news agency Belta reported.?

Additionally, the law introduces criminal liability for “propaganda” of terrorism, discrediting of the country’s armed forces, other troops and military formations, paramilitary organizations, and violation of requirements for the protection of state secrets.

Belarus’ parliament last year passed a bill that would impose the death penalty for “high treason, in order to prevent” possible actions by “destructive elements” in the country, which Lukashenko signed into law on Thursday.

Human rights group Amnesty last year called the law the “latest display of Belarusian authorities’ profound disregard for human rights.”

Belarus’ role in the Ukraine war: Lukashenko, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said in February that “there is no way we are going to send our troops to Ukraine unless you are going to commit aggression against Belarus.”

“But don’t forget Russia is our ally — legally, morally and politically,” he added.

Lukashenko’s government has claimed on numerous occasions that Ukrainian drones and missiles have entered its territory, sometimes without providing evidence.

Belarus helped Russia launch its initial invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, allowing the Kremlin’s troops to enter the country through the Ukrainian-Belarusian border north of Kyiv.

A worker repairs a power line following a Russian strike in the village of Velyka Vilshanytsia, Lviv region, Ukraine, on March 9.

Engineers have restored electricity supply in most regions where energy facilities were damaged by Thursday’s massive Russian bombardment, Ukrainian Energy Minister?Herman Halushchenko said in a statement.?

Halushchenko said Russia used a new tactic in its latest large-scale assault, launching different types of missiles and drones at the same time.

Earlier Thursday, the mayor of Kyiv said utility crews had fully restored power in the Ukrainian capital, but about a third of the city’s homes were still without heat.

Halushchenko said this was Russia’s 15th massive shelling of Ukraine’s battered energy system.

This wave of strikes forced the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to switch to backup power from diesel generators.

“The whole world sees that Russians do not care about any risks of a possible nuclear accident. And today, thanks to the fact that Ukraine has always supported the plant’s safety systems, all diesel generators that provide backup power to ZNPP have been used. Currently, the power supply to the plant, which has been provided by Ukraine for more than a year of occupation of ZNPP, has been restored,” he said.?

Facing Russia’s regular attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities, the country’s power engineers have developed a number of mechanisms that help them restore service quickly despite the extreme conditions, the minister said.?

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned the latest Russian missile barrage on Ukraine during a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

In a tweet, von der Leyen said “Russia’s deliberate targeting of civilians and energy grid is a war crime.”

Zelensky?said that during the call, “we welcomed the new package of EU sanctions and agreed on further pressure on the aggressor. We also discussed in detail Ukraine’s progress in implementing the recommendations of the European Commission to start negotiations on Ukraine’s accession this year.”

Russia launched one of its biggest aerial assaults of the year on Thursday, with 84 missiles targeted at Ukrainian infrastructure across the country.?

This included six Kinzhal ballistic missiles that eluded Kyiv’s air defenses, the Ukrainian military said. At least 11 people were killed.

US President Joe Biden speaks during the House Democratic Caucus Issues conference in Baltimore on March 1. ?

The 2024 fiscal year budget presented by US President Joe Biden’s administration requests $63.1 billion for the State Department and the US Agency for International Development, including specific funding for the war in Ukraine and countering China – a nearly $5 billion increase from the fiscal year 2023 adjusted enacted budget.

The request includes $1.7 billion “that will help Ukraine win the war and lay the reform and recovery foundation for winning the peace and help other partners impacted by the war stabilize their economies and prepare for recovery,” according to a State Department fact sheet.

In addition, the new budget requests a $1.5 million increase to funding for the Global Engagement Center, which would support programs countering propaganda and disinformation by Russia.

It also seeks $8.9 million “to support a priority U.S. strategic objective of increasing NATO common funding starting in 2023 as agreed to by the North Atlantic Council in December 2022.”

The Biden administration also requested $842 billion for the Defense Department, including $753 million for Ukraine to counter Russian influence and to help Kyiv with its security, energy and cybersecurity needs.

With the war in Ukraine in its second year, the latest budget requests $6 billion to support Ukraine, NATO and other European partners.

CNN’s Oren Liebermann contributed reporting to this post.

The Ukrainian military shared updates Thursday from multiple fronts in its defense against Russia’s invasion.

The battle for Bakhmut: Russian forces are still working to encircle the eastern city of Bakhmut, “with further access to the administrative borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said.

The military said it “repelled numerous attacks” surrounding the city, saying more than half a dozen villages northwest, west and southwest of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region have recently taken enemy fire.

Elsewhere on the eastern front: North of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, Russian forces are trying to break through Ukraine’s defenses in Kupyansk and Lyman, according to the General Staff.

South of Bakhmut, Russian forces conducted unsuccessful offensives on several towns near the eastern cities of Avdiivka and Shakhtarsk, Ukraine’s military said.

In southern Ukraine: Russian forces are on the defensive in the southern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, according to Ukraine.

The General Staff claimed that in some Russian-occupied settlements of Kherson, “Russian invaders have intensified looting,” using ammunition delivery trucks to smuggle out household appliances and other property.

CNN is unable to verify Ukraine’s claim.

Ukrainian strikes: Over the last 24 hours, Ukrainian forces have carried out seven strikes on areas where Russian personnel and military equipment are gathered.

Missile troops and artillery units hit a Russian command post, six areas where Moscow’s troops were concentrated, two logistics centers, three ammunition depots, an electronic warfare station and an anti-aircraft missile system, the General Staff said.?

US President Joe Biden informally dropped by a meeting between national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Finnish President Sauli Niinist? on Thursday, according to the White House.?

Biden, the White House said, “reiterated strong US support for the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO as soon as possible. The leaders also discussed their continued commitment to supporting Ukraine in the face of Russia’s aggression.”

Latest on Finland and NATO: Last year, the Nordic country ditched decades of neutrality and announced it would seek to join NATO, attempting to strengthen its security following the onset of the?war in Ukraine.?

But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan objects to Sweden and Finland’s membership on what he claims are security grounds, and Hungary has also failed to ratify the accession of both Finland and Sweden.

NATO diplomats are split on whether they think Turkey will budge before the July 11 alliance summit.?

CNN’s Luke McGee contributed reporting to this post.

Russia launched a total of 84 missiles over the last 24 hours, and Ukraine’s air defenses intercepted 34 of them, the Ukrainian military said in a Thursday evening update.

An additional eight missiles in the assault did not reach their targets, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“The enemy also carried out 12 air strikes, in particular, using 8 Shahed-136 UAVs,” the General Staff said, referring to Iranian-made attack drones. “Half of them were shot down.”

Initially, Ukrainian authorities had said Russia fired 81 missiles in the barrage.

“Having no significant successes on the battlefield, the enemy continues to use terror tactics, thereby grossly violating the norms of International Humanitarian Law,” Ukraine’s military said.

CIA Director William Burns testifies before a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday.

CIA Director William Burns on Thursday emphasized the extent to which Russia’s war in Ukraine could color China’s thinking when it comes to Taiwan, telling lawmakers that “nobody has watched more intently” what’s happened in Ukraine than Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“That’s something that President Xi has to weigh as he comes out of zero-Covid, tries to restore Chinese economic growth, tries to engage with, you know, the rest of the global economy,” Burns added.

Congressional advocates of continued US support for Ukraine have echoed Burns’ comments about China, arguing to their skeptical colleagues that countering China is one of the key reasons to continue helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia.

Smoke billows near electricity towers after a Russian missile strike in Kyiv on March 9.

Utility crews have fully restored power in the Ukrainian capital, but about a third of the city’s homes are still without heat,?Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Thursday.?

“Work to restore heat supply is ongoing,” the mayor said in an update on Telegram. “The utility plans to restore heat in full within 24 hours,” he added.

Russia launched one of its biggest aerial assaults Thursday with?81 missiles?targeting Ukrainian infrastructure across the country. In Kyiv, an air raid alert lasted for almost 7 hours overnight and officials implemented power outages as a preventative measure, regional?authorities said.

In an earlier post, Klitschko said Russia’s attacks knocked out the heat supply and hot water service at the Oleksandrivska Clinical Hospital. About 700 patients are receiving inpatient treatment at the hospital, he said.?

Mobile boilers, diesel fuel and generators were delivered to the medical center while crews made repairs, according to the mayor.

CNN’s Robi Picheta contributed to this report.

Radio stations and television channels in Moscow broadcast false air raid alerts Thursday after their servers were hacked, the Russian capital’s Emergency Situations Ministry office told state news agency TASS.

“As a result of a hacking attack on the servers of radio stations and television channels, a false air raid alert has been issued in Moscow. Moscow’s office of the Emergency Situations Ministry is hereby informing that the alert is false and isn’t real,” the ministry said, according to TASS.

A similar incident occurred February 28, when false air raid alerts were issued in 15 Russian regions, according to TASS.?

Earlier Thursday, a false air raid alert was also broadcast on radio and television in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region after the servers used by broadcasters there were hacked too, state media said.?

Locals gather around a shelling crater after a rocket hit the Pisochyn neighborhood outside Kharkiv, Ukraine, on March 9.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said Thursday the barrage of missile strikes launched on Ukraine overnight was retaliation for what the ministry called “terrorist actions” organized by Kyiv in Russia’s Bryansk region last week.

“High-precision long-range air, sea and land-based weapons, including the Kinzhal hypersonic missile system, hit key elements of Ukraine’s military infrastructure, military-industrial complex enterprises, as well as energy facilities that serve them,” the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed in a statement.

It claimed that the target was reached and “all assigned objects have been hit.”

Ukrainian authorities said Russia fired 81 missiles into multiple Ukrainian regions, including the nation’s capital overnight into Thursday. At least 11 people were killed across Ukraine in the strikes, according to regional authorities.

Here’s what happened in Bryansk: Russian security officials claimed a small Ukrainian armed group had crossed the Russian border last week into the southern Bryansk region. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said?the agency was carrying out operations following?“armed Ukrainian nationalists who violated the state border.” Russian President Vladimir Putin described the incident as a “terrorist attack.” A local official said two civilians were killed.

An adviser in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, Mykhailo Podolyak, said the alleged raid was either a Russian provocation or the work of local partisans taking a stand against the Kremlin, denying any Ukrainian involvement.

CNN cannot independently verify the Russian claims, and local media have not carried any images of the supposed incidents, any type of confrontation or an alleged raid reported by Russian authorities.

Ukraine rejects Russia’s narrative: Kyiv responded dismissively to Moscow’s claim the overnight assault on “peaceful cities and villages of Ukraine” was retaliatory. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense issued a statement likening the Kremlin’s narrative to Nazi propaganda that sought to justify attacks on British civilians during WWII.

CNN’s Olga Voitovych,?Vasco Cotovio,?Nathan Hodge?and?Rob Picheta contributed to this post.

The US has issued a slew of sanctions against members of a China-based network that supplies critical parts for the attack drones that Iran exports to Russia for its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The US Treasury issued the sanctions Thursday in its latest attempt to undermine support for the Kremlin’s war machine and funding for the Iranian regime, as both countries forge closer ties.

The sanctions issued today designate a network of five China-based companies and one employee who support Iran’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) procurement network, and are responsible for the sale and shipment of “thousands of aerospace components,” according to the Treasury.

Specifically, the network supplies the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company, which the US government says helps produce the Shahed-136 UAV that’s been exported to Russia for use in its invasion.?

The latest crackdown started in earnest in February, on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Biden administration announced sanctions for “over 200 individuals and entities, including both Russian and third-country actors across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East that are supporting Russia’s war effort.” Those sanctions were imposed in partnership with the G7 and other allies.

Ukrainian servicemen load an armored car before being deployed to the frontline of Bakhmut, in Chasiv Yar, Ukraine, on March 9.

The importance of Ukraine holding on to the eastern city of Bakhmut is “constantly growing,” as every day of sustained resistance allows Kyiv’s forces to chip away at Russia’s offensive capabilities, one of Ukraine’s top military leaders said Thursday.

“The importance of holding Bakhmut is constantly growing. Every day of the city’s defense allows us to gain time to prepare reserves and to prepare for future offensive operations,” Col. Gen.?Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s land forces, said in a statement.

According to the Ukrainian commander, Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin has said if Bakhmut is captured by his fighters, Russia will be able to launch a “large-scale offensive” using army and airborne units.

“This once again proves the very important role of Bakhmut in the overall defense system of our grouping,” Syrskyi said. “Thousands of enemies who died during the assault on the town are a vivid confirmation of this.”

The latest from the front: Russian forces have kept up their assaults near the invasion’s eastern front in Kupyansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Shakhtarsk, the?General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Thursday.

Ukraine’s military said its forces had recently repelled attacks in the villages of Orikhovo-Vasylivka and Dubovo-Vasylivka to the northwest of Bakhmut, in Ivanivske to the west of the city and in Oleksandro-Shultine to the southwest.

“The enemy continues to violate the norms of International Humanitarian Law, continues to carry out strikes, shell civilian objects and civilian homes, and tries to destroy the critical infrastructure of our country,” the General Staff said.?

The US and its allies have blocked or seized more than?$58?billion worth of assets owned or controlled by sanctioned Russians in the past year as Western governments continue to dial up the pressure over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a joint statement from a multinational sanctions enforcement task force.?

The Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs (REPO) Task Force held its sixth multilateral deputies meeting Thursday morning to discuss the group’s continued work and pledge to “redouble” their efforts to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin and his associates. The task force is a joint effort between the US, Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, the UK and the European Commission.

“REPO will continue to identify, locate, and freeze the assets of sanctioned Russians, with the aim of depriving the Kremlin of the funds it needs to fight its illegal war,” it continued.?

Identifying sanctions evasion: The task force, which was formed last March, is also taking further steps to crack down on sanctions evasion as the US and its allies work to seal the cracks in a sanctions regime that has weakened but not crippled the Russian economy.?

Following Thursday’s meeting, REPO also issued a joint global advisory to help the private sector spot and prevent common sanctions evasion methods, like using family members to maintain access to sanctioned assets, creating complex ownership structures and using third-party jurisdictions and false trade information to ship controlled goods, including those that support the Kremlin’s war machine.?

The task force has blocked financial assets and seized luxury yachts, high-end real estate and even priceless art, with US officials recovering a possible Fabergé egg from one Russian oligarch’s seized yacht last summer.

A US Treasury official told CNN that REPO also provides the governments involved a valuable and streamlined mechanism to apply many of the same tools and best practices for the broader effort to crack down on sanctions evasion.????

Over one year into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden administration officials are focusing on how to plug the gaps on sanctions evasion — a problem that runs the gamut of adversaries like China and allies like Turkey, India and the United Arab Emirates.?

When Russia launched a total of 81 missiles at major cities across Ukraine on Thursday morning, it included six?Kinzhal ballistic missiles?that eluded Kyiv’s air defenses, the Ukrainian military said.

“The attack is really large-scale and for the first time using such different types of missiles. We see that this time as many as six Kinzhal were used. This is an attack like I don’t remember seeing before,” Yurii Ihnat, spokesperson for the Air Force Command of Ukraine, said on Ukrainian television Thursday.

Russia used the nuclear-capable Kinzhal missile, which it has described as a hypersonic weapon, on a few occasions in the first weeks of its invasion last year. But the powerful weapon has rarely been seen over the country’s skies. Its first known use was last March, and then in May, according to?the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The use of such a wide and unpredictable array of weaponry seemingly marks a shift in the Kremlin’s strategy.

About the Kinzhal: It is an air-launched variant of the Iskander short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) which has also, more frequently, been used in Ukraine, and was?unveiled by Putin in 2018?as a cornerstone of a modernized Russian arsenal.

Like virtually all ballistic missiles it is hypersonic, which means they travel at least five times the speed of sound, but it is also particularly difficult to detect because it can be launched from MiG-31 fighter jets, giving it a longer range and the ability to attack from multiple directions.

CNN’s Svitlana Vlasova and Radina Gigova contributed reporting.

Correction: This post has been updated to clarify that virtually all ballistic missiles — not missiles in general — are hypersonic.

The power supply to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) has been restored, Ukraine’s national energy company Ukrenergo said in a statement Thursday.

“Ukrenergo specialists have restored the power supply to Zaporizhzhia NPP, which was interrupted by today’s missile strikes,” the company said. “ZNPP is switching from diesel generators to getting electricity for its own needs from the Integrated Power System of Ukraine.”

The plant has been under Russian control since March last year, but is still mostly operated by Ukrainian workers.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks during a news conference after a budget briefing at the U.S. Capitol March 8, in Washington, DC.

Ukrainian President?Volodymyr Zelensky?invited House Speaker Kevin McCarthy?to visit Ukraine during?an exclusive interview with CNN.

“Mr. McCarthy, he has to come here to see how we work, what’s happening here, what war caused us, which people are fighting now, who are fighting now. And then after that, make your assumptions,” Zelensky told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

But the California Republican told CNN on Tuesday he had no plans to visit.

“Let’s be very clear about what I said: no blank checks, OK? So, from that perspective, I don’t have to go to Ukraine to understand where there’s a blank check or not,” McCarthy told CNN. “I will continue to get my briefings and others, but I don’t have to go to Ukraine or Kyiv to see it.”

Almost every Western leader who matters, and many who don’t, have now made the daring trip to visit Zelensky, a hero of democracy, in Kyiv.

Yet McCarthy, who has a reputation for loving a photo-op with famous people, rebuffed the invitation to visit the Ukrainian leader.

His bridging of two adamant strands of opinion in the House GOP on Ukraine is just about holding. Moderate Republicans who helped the GOP win the majority last November are just as important to the party’s hopes of retaining control of the chamber next year as pro-Trump extremists. But their priorities risk being constantly compromised by the speaker’s repeated plays to Trump’s base and the ex-president’s most devoted followers in the House.

Making the trip is effectively a political impossibility for McCarthy as Trump accused Biden of caring more about Ukraine’s borders than America’s.

McCarthy hasn’t fully adopted demands of his most radical subordinates, like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Matt Gaetz of Florida, for audits or an end to Ukraine aid. His line about a blank check could be interpreted as a holding position between his extremist colleagues and hawkish internationalist Republicans who want to do more.

But with Russia only escalating its assault and the GOP presidential primary likely to drag the party toward the anti-aid faction, it’s a position that may crumble before much longer.

At least 11 people have been killed by a wave of Russian missile strikes across Ukraine overnight Thursday, sparking calls for more weapons shipments and sanctions against Russia.

Elsewhere, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is operating in emergency mode after damage caused by Russian shelling disconnected it from the power grid.

Here are the latest headlines:

Russia’s overnight strikes have killed at least 11 people and left 22 injured, according to local officials.?

As the assault continued into the early hours of Thursday morning, 81 missiles were fired into multiple Ukrainian regions including the nation’s capital, Kyiv, injuring three.

Police experts and rescuers inspect the site of fallen fragments of Russian rockets near a multi-storey residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 9.

In the Western Ukrainian city of Lviv, there were further strikes, as three residential buildings were destroyed. Reports indicate at least five have been killed as rescuers continue to search for additional victims.?

Police experts and local residents carry an unidentified body following a Russian strike in the village of Velyka Vilshanytsia, Lviv region, Ukraine, on March 9.

There were more fatalities in the Kherson region where at least three people died and three others were wounded after shelling hit residential areas and apartment buildings.

In the Kharkiv district a missile injured two elderly women, while the rest of the region is currently without power, regional authorities have said.?

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, one person was killed and two were injured, according to preliminary information.

Other regions hit by Russian strikes include Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernihiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhya, Kirovohrad and Vinnytsia.

Russian shells also hit a hospital and at least 9 residential buildings in Donetsk, killing two civilians.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attacks in a Facebook message on Thursday claiming Russia “won’t avoid responsibility for everything they have done.”

A burning residential house is seen after a Russian military strike in?Kherson, Ukraine, on March 9.

Air raid alarms are in place Thursday for the entire territory of Ukraine, the country’s emergency air alarms map shows.?

The move comes after at least 11 people were killed and more than 20 injured in missile strikes across Ukraine overnight Thursday.

Russia targeted critical infrastructure with more than 80 missiles.

The overnight strikes constitute “an attack like I don’t remember seeing before,” said a spokesman for the Ukrainian air force on Thursday.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal laying flowers at the graves of Ukrainian soldiers at Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine, on February 22.

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal called on Western allies to supply more weapons to Ukraine and impose more sanctions on Russia, following overnight Russian attacks that killed at least 11 people and over 20 injured across the country.

“Residential buildings have been hit. There are casualties. We need more weapons and more sanctions to stop the aggressor,” he said in a series of Twitter posts.

Noting that the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) was also impacted by the strikes — the sixth time since Russia launched its invasion — Shmyhal urged the UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to “take decisive action” to stop Russia’s “nuclear terrorism.”

Ukraine is becoming a “battle lab” for testing Iranian weapons outside of the Middle East, a senior US defense official said Thursday.

This comes ahead of US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s visit to Israel where Iranian-Russian military cooperation will be on the agenda.

The official added that Russia is willing to transfer advanced technology to Iran in order to receive Iranian “lethal aid.”??

A media report that a “pro-Ukrainian” group may have been behind last year’s attack on the Nord Stream gas pipeline is “hard to believe,” the Kremlin said Thursday.

“As for some pro-Ukrainian ‘doctor evil’ who organized this, it’s hard to believe,” Russian spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a daily call.

“It was too difficult a task that only a well-trained special state service could handle. There aren’t many of them in our world,” he said.

“We continue to demand a prompt and transparent investigation,” Peskov said.

Moscow will demand to be admitted to the investigation, he added, calling the theory that Russia was involved in the explosions “completely unfounded and unsubstantiated.”

“Now, no matter what happens, Russia is the first to be blamed. Of course, this hoax does not stand up to scrutiny. It is completely unfounded and unsubstantiated, absurd in nature,” he said.

What Ukraine is saying: Ukraine has denied any involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines following a media report citing new intelligence that a “pro-Ukrainian group” may have been behind the attack.

Mystery has surrounded who might be responsible for the brazen sabotage last September which damaged two pipes transporting Russian gas into the European Union and targeted a crucial source of revenue for Moscow.

Both pipelines were closed at the time of the attack, which came months after?Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The?Zaporizhzhia?nuclear?power?plant?in Russian-controlled Ukraine, on October 14.

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is operating in emergency mode after damage caused by Russian shelling disconnected it from Ukraine’s power grid,?the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Thursday.?

“All 20 of the site’s emergency diesel generators were activated. The site’s essential power is now being provided by 8 of those diesels with the rest now in standby mode,” said IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi in a statement.

“And there is enough diesel on site for 15 days of operation,” he added.

Grossi said this was the first time the site had lost full off-site power and had to run in emergency mode since 23 November 2022. It has happened six times in total since the beginning of Russia’s invasion.

There were also “reported losses of power lines” at the plant, but “there are sufficient remaining available to provide off-site power if required,” said the IAEA.

“This cannot go on,” Grossi said. “Each time we are rolling a [the] dice. And if we allow this to continue time after time then one day our luck will run out.”

The significance of the plant: The plant is the largest nuclear power station in Europe and has been under Russian control since March last year. The plant is still mostly operated by Ukrainian workers.

Attacks at the complex have sparked concerns about the specter of a nuclear disaster, and IAEA staff have been visiting the site to assess the damage.

Aftermath of missile attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 9.

It has been a “difficult night” in Ukraine as Russian forces launched a barrage of missiles on several regions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said?in a Facebook message on Thursday.

The Ukrainian president claims Russian missiles hit “critical infrastructure and residential buildings” across Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zhytomyr and the Vinnytsia regions.

This comes after Ukrainian officials say 81 missiles were fired by the Russian military, as the conflict escalated overnight into Thursday morning.

Zelensky said the Russian assault was “an attempt to intimidate Ukrainians again, returning to their miserable tactics. The occupiers can only terrorize civilians. That’s all they can do. But it won’t help them. They won’t avoid responsibility for everything they have done.”

Following the strikes 15% of the capital went without electricity temporarily, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said earlier on Telegram.?

Zelensky has since confirmed that “all services” are now working. “The energy system is being restored,” he added.?

At least three people were injured in the Russian strike on Ukraine’s capital, while in Lviv at least five people have been confirmed dead, officials have said.

Local residents wait behind a cordon near a multi-storey residential building after a missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 9.

Russia’s overnight strikes constitute “an attack like I don’t remember seeing before,” said a spokesman for the Ukrainian air force on Thursday.

“We see that this time as many as six Kinzhal were used. This is an attack like I don’t remember seeing before,” he added.?

“Different types of aircraft were used, strategic, long-range, Mig21. There were 81 missile launches,” said Ihnat.

“There were X-22 (missiles), which we can’t shoot down, we can’t shoot down the Kinzhal either, it’s six plus six and 13 S-300 (that haven’t been shot down by Ukrainian Air Defense Forces),” he said.

“So far, we have no capabilities to counter these weapons,” added Ihnat.

The strikes have reportedly killed at least five people in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, and at least three people were injured in the capital, Kyiv.

Three Russian rockets launched From Russia's Belgorod region are seen at dawn in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on March 9.

Russia fired 81 missiles of various types overnight into Thursday as it launched a fresh deadly onslaught against Ukraine, the head of the Ukrainian military said.

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi said the missiles targeted critical infrastructure.

The missiles included:

In addition, eight launches of Iran-made Shahed-136/131 drones were carried out,?he said.?

He said Ukrainian forces destroyed 34 out of 48 X-101/X-555, “Kalibr” cruise missiles, eight X-31P and X-59 guided missiles, and four drones.

The strikes killed at least five people in the western city of Lviv and injuries were reported in Kyiv, officials said.

The aftermath of the attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 9.

An explosion in western Kyiv has injured at least three people, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram Thursday.?

Earlier, Klitschko reported that a series of explosions had hit the Holosiivskyi district in southwestern Kyiv and that roughly 15% of the city was without electricity due to an emergency cut to the power supply.??

Rescuers work at a site of residential buildings destroyed in?Lviv?region, Ukraine, on March 9.

At least five people have now been confirmed dead in Lviv following a Russian missile strike Thursday, according to officials in the the western Ukrainian city.

Maksym Kozytskyi, head of the Lviv regional military administration, said the fifth victim was a man who was found under the rubble after the strike in a residential area in the city’s Zolochiv district

Ukrainian officials reported earlier that at least two people were injured in the capital Kyiv after Russian strikes targeted energy facilities in at least seven regions across Ukraine on Thursday.

An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that the Kyiv victims’ injuries were fatal. Their condition remains unknown.

Police in riot gear face protesters in Tbilisi early on March 9.

Georgia’s ruling party has withdrawn a controversial “foreign influence” bill, the country’s public broadcaster announced Thursday.

The proposed law sparked two nights of widespread protests in the capital Tbilisi over fears it would drive a wedge between the Caucasian nation and Europe.

The bill had been compared to a draconian set of laws adopted in Russia and condemned by rights groups as a bid to curtail basic freedoms and crack down on dissent in the country.

Analysts have noted similarities between the situation in Georgia and Ukraine — both former Soviet republics which have found themselves caught between the East and the West.

Read the full story here.

Personnel conduct work at the scene following a Russian attack that hit a residential area in the Zolochiv district in Lviv on Thursday.

At least four people were killed following a Russian missile strike that hit a residential area in the Zolochiv district in Lviv on Thursday, the head of the Lviv regional military administration Maksym Kozytskyi said.

Kozytskyi said the fire destroyed three residential buildings and had since been extinguished.

Ukrainian officials reported earlier that at least two people were injured in Kyiv after Russian shelling targeted energy facilities in at least seven regions across Ukraine on Thursday.

An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that the Kyiv victims’ injuries were fatal. Their condition remains unknown.

Russian shelling targeted energy facilities in at least seven regions across Ukraine early on Thursday, Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said on Telegram.?

Halushchenko said Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Dnipro and Zhytomyr were hit in the strikes.

At least two people were injured in Kyiv and about 15% of the capital was without electricity following the strikes, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said earlier on Telegram.?

An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that the Kyiv victims’ injuries were fatal. Their condition remains unknown.

?A general view of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is pictured in Nikopol on March 3.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has once again been “completely disconnected” from Ukraine’s power grid due to Russian shelling, state energy company Energoatom said on Telegram Thursday.

The plant sits in the Russian-occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region and is the largest in Europe. It has been held by Russian forces for some 12 months but is operated by its Ukrainian staff.

The facility’s latest disconnection from the power grid Thursday comes as officials across Ukraine reported Russian missile attacks targeting energy infrastructure.

“In addition, all domestic nuclear power plants located on the territory controlled by Ukraine have discharged their power due to the threat of missile attacks,” the Energoatom statement said.

An explosion in western Kyiv injured at least two people, the capital’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram Thursday.?

Earlier, Klitschko reported that a series of explosions had hit the Holosiivskyi district in southwestern Kyiv and that roughly 15% of the city was without electricity due to an emergency cut to the power supply.?

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that the victims’ injuries were fatal. Their condition remains unknown.

About 15% of Kyiv is without electricity due to an emergency cut to the power supply following a Russian missile attack Thursday, the capital’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.?

Earlier, Klitschko reported that a series of explosions had hit the Holosiivskyi district in southwestern Kyiv.?

Explosions were heard in southwestern Kyiv on Thursday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on his official Telegram account.?

Russia targeted energy infrastructure with missile strikes in several parts of Ukraine early on Thursday, according to Ukrainian officials.

In the southern Odesa region, missile strikes were reported on energy facilities and homes.

Maxim Marchenko, head of the Odesa regional military administration, said no casualties were reported.

Northwest of Odesa, missiles also struck the Khmelnytskyi region.?

“Remain in your shelters! The enemy is striking the country’s critical infrastructure. Take care of yourself and your loved ones!”?Serhiy Hamaliy,?head of the Khmelnytskyi regional military administration, said in a Telegram post.

In northeastern Kharkiv meanwhile, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said there was a series of explosions.

“I don’t have details yet, but I ask that everyone be careful,” he said on Telegram. “Our energy infrastructure is in the crosshairs. We are having problems with electricity in some parts of Kharkiv. But we will survive and everything will be repaired.”

Oleh Syniehubov, head of Kharkiv’s military administration, wrote there were at least 15 strikes. “There is a threat of repeat strikes! Stay in your shelters!” he wrote.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky can’t currently envisage a situation in which he would meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Personal life:?The Ukrainian leader also spoke about how he and his family are dealing with the war, which is now in its second year.

“My daughter joined the university and she studies there, and my son is attending school in Ukraine,” he said. “They’re both in Ukraine. They’re very much like other Ukrainian kids. We live with sirens.”

“We want victory. We don’t want to get used to war, but we got used to the challenges. Everyone wants one thing — to end the war,” he said.?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer he is “very grateful” for US President Joe Biden’s?visit to Ukraine?last month.?

“It’s an important signal to the whole world that the US is supporting us. And I think that US believe that we will prevail,” Zelensky said.

But on the question of whether the US will send Ukraine F-16 fighter jets to help the battle for control in the skies, Zelensky said, “The fighter jets issue is difficult. We’re waiting for this decision to be taken.”

Asked if the supply of Western jets will “make or break” a Ukrainian success in the war, Zelensky said: “Yes, we believe so.”

Recalling a discussion with Biden over jets, Zelensky said Biden and his aides felt jets “were not needed” at the moment.

“And I said, ‘No, we need those jets,’” Zelensky said.

“What fighter jets could do, they could help us to defend ourselves,” Zelensky said. “That’s why we need it urgently.”

More on Ukrainian pilots:?The US is working with Ukrainian pilots in the United States to determine how long it would take to train them to fly?F-16 fighter jets, three sources briefed on the matter told CNN.

Two Ukrainian pilots are currently at a military base in the US having their skills tested in flight simulators to see how much time they would need to learn to fly various US military aircraft, including F-16s.

A US military official added that “there are no updates to provide regarding F-16s to Ukraine” and there are no immediate plans to increase the number of Ukrainian pilots in the US.

One of Ukraine’s top military commanders visited the city of Bakhmut for the third time in less than a week, a video posted on his official Telegram account on Wednesday showed.?

Col. Gen. Oleksandr?Syrskyi, Ukraine’s second highest-ranked general, said his men were doing everything they could to ensure Russian forces made the wrong move, referencing a chess strategy.?

Ukrainian forces were holding their ground, he added. Other military leaders have said it is a priority for Ukraine to continue defending Bakhmut, where fighting has intensified.

CNN could not independently verify where the video was recorded but metadata on the file suggested it was recorded Wednesday.

Syrskyi?organized and led the defense of?Kyiv, successfully driving back Russian forces that had nearly encircled the Ukrainian capital at the beginning of Russia’s invasion.?He has paid regular visits to frontline units in the Donbas and elsewhere, including Bakhmut. His previous visit to the city was at the end of last week.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky?is inviting House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to visit Ukraine to see the situation on the ground first hand — an invitation that comes as the Republican Party?faces a divide?over whether the United States should continue to provide aid to the country under attack from Russia.

But when told of the invitation on Tuesday, McCarthy told CNN’s Manu Raju that he does not plan to visit Ukraine, and argued that President Joe Biden has not acted quickly enough to aid the country. McCarthy, a California Republican,?has said he supports Ukraine but does not support “a blank check,”?a position he repeated on Tuesday — even though there is federal oversight of all the dollars that are spent there.

Read more here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Georgian protesters for holding his country’s flag during demonstrations on Tuesday and Wednesday.?

Georgians have been coming out in force, protesting a foreign agents law introduced by the country’s ruling party that’s widely seen as very similar to Russian legislation.

Protesters say the law will leave Georgia further from joining the European Union and NATO.?

Protests have?erupted in Georgia?this week after the country’s parliament passed the first reading of a draft law that would require some organizations receiving foreign funding to register as “foreign agents.”

It has been compared to a draconian set of laws adopted in Russia and condemned by rights groups as a bid to curtail basic freedoms and crack down on dissent in the country.

The developments have sparked mass unrest, with thousands of demonstrators gathering outside Tbilisi’s parliament building on Tuesday night, waving not just the Georgian flag but also that of the European Union.

The country, which won its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, has long been playing a balancing act between its citizens’ pro-European sentiment and the geopolitical aims of its powerful neighbor, Russia.

In March 2022,?Georgia?applied for EU membership — an ambition that may be jeopardized by the proposed legislation.

Comparisons with Ukraine: Analysts have noted similarities between the situation in Georgia and Ukraine — both former Soviet republics which have found themselves caught between the East and the West.

The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)?think tank drew comparisons between the situation in Georgia and Russia’s invasions of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in 2011 that had Russia not invaded Georgia in 2008, NATO would have expanded into Georgia.

The 2008 conflict centered on South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two breakaway provinces in Georgia. They are officially part of Georgia but have separate governments unrecognized by most countries.

Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia are propped up by Russia.

The?2008 invasion of Georgia?only lasted days, but it appeared to have the same revanchist ambitions that drove Putin’s invasions of Ukraine in 2014 and last year, writes the ECFR.

Read more here.

Ukrainian forces may have repaired a bridge on the main road connecting the village of Chasiv Yar to the city of Bakhmut, according to video and an image geolocated by CNN.?

The bridge had been hit by Russian artillery, which left a large crater that made the road unusable and forced Ukrainian forces to use dirt roads to supply their forces defending the fiercely contested city.

The footage shows a temporary bridge has been placed on top of the crater, and a vehicle is seen driving over it.

CNN could not independently verify when the video was filmed but the potential repair of the bridge could mean the reopening of a vital supply line for Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut.

The US intelligence community believes that Russia “probably does not want a direct military conflict with US and NATO forces, but there is potential for that to occur,” according to the?unclassified annual threat assessment report?of the intelligence community on Wednesday.?

“Russian leaders thus far have avoided taking actions that would broaden the Ukraine conflict beyond Ukraine’s borders, but the risk for escalation remains significant,” the report said.?

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told Congress that the war in Ukraine has become a “grinding attritional war in which neither side has a definitive military advantage,” but said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was likely to carry on, possibly for years.?

Haines said that Russia will likely be unable to sustain even its currently modest level of offensive operations in Ukraine without an additional mandatory mobilization and third-party ammunition sources.

“They may fully shift to holding and defending the territories they now occupy,” she said.

But Haines cautioned that a potential spring offensive by Ukraine may be limited by “the extent to which Ukrainian forces are having to draw down their reserves and equipment as well as suffer further casualties” defending against current Russian operations.

Haines and the other top intelligence officials — CIA Director William Burns, FBI Director Chris?Wray, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier and National Security Agency Director Gen. Paul Nakasone — testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday at the panel’s annual public worldwide threats hearing.

The European Union is “at the decisive moment now” for the bloc’s support to Ukraine, its Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said Wednesday.?

Speaking at the EU defense ministers meeting in Stockholm, Breton urged that “it is absolutely mandatory that we move towards a sort of war economy mode in terms of supply and defense industry.”

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, called for EU defense leaders to work on a standard procurement scheme in the short term and increase defense capacity in the long term.?

In a separate interview with CNN Wednesday, Borrell’s spokesperson Peter Stano said the EU’s top diplomat proposes the bloc spend $1 billion on joint procurement of “crucially needed” ammunition for Ukraine.

“Right now, at this particular point, the ammunition is something the Ukrainians are needing most,” Stano said.

During the meeting, Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson echoed Borrell’s called for a plan, saying, “The Ukrainians direly need the ammunition in order to continue this war. And the other aspect of it is that we have to ramp up production in Europe.”?

Meanwhile, Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur urged leaders to make sure they are not “digging into the bureaucracy,” adding that “the aim is 1 million rounds for Ukraine.”?

CNN’s Mostafa Salem in Abu Dhabi contributed reporting to this post.