March 29, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

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

A screengrab of Masha Moskalyova, 12, describing the police search of her home in Russia's Tula region to Activatica, an online portal supporting grassroots activism in the country.

A Russian man,?Alexey Moskalyov,?who had been sentenced to two years in prison, was detained in Belarus after failing to turn up for a hearing, his lawyer told CNN’s Erin Burnett Wednesday.?

Moskalyov had been charged with “discrediting the Russian military” and was under house arrest after being accused of repeatedly publishing anti-war posts.

Moskalyov pleaded not guilty but failed to turn up to his hearing in the city of Yefremov on Tuesday. Prosecutors had requested two years in prison for him, according to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

According to the independent?Russian Telegram channel SOTA,?“his arrest was made possible because he activated a cell phone in the apartment, allowing [authorities] to identify the fugitive.”?

Some background: In April of 2022, Moskalyov’s then 12-year-old daughter Masha drew a picture of Russian missiles being fired at a Ukrainian family and wrote “No to war” and “Glory to Ukraine” during her art class, according?to Russian independent news outlet,?Mediazona. Her school subsequently called the police, who later visited the family home.?

This week, according to his lawyer, Masha wrote her father a letter from the orphanage where she has been sent. “Know that we will win, that victory will be ours, no matter what happens, we are together, we are a team, you are the best,” it said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin might visit Turkey on April 27 for the inauguration of the country’s first nuclear power plant, President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an said Wednesday.

Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, Akkuyu, will be built by Russia’s state nuclear energy company Rosatom.?

“On the 27th (of April), one possibility is that maybe Putin will come, or we will have an online system to connect,” Erdogan said during an interview with Turkey’s private channel ATV.

The German federal government has agreed to allocate an additional 12 billion euros (over $13 billion) worth of military support to Ukraine over the next nine to 10 years, it announced Wednesday in a?statement.

Around $4.3 billion will go to the German military to replace the military aid Berlin has given to Kyiv since the invasion, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius added.

Earlier this year, Berlin made a historic move to arm Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks.

Argentine President Alberto Fernández speaks at a news conference at Palacio San Martin in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on January 28.

Argentine President Alberto Fernández says the war in Ukraine has “generated immeasurable damage to the world economy.”

During his visit, Fernandez addressed bilateral relations, US support during Argentina’s financial challenges and other pressing global issues.?

Fernandez also said peace is urgent because of the food insecurity the war can cause.

“When the (Food and Agriculture Organization) announced that more than 300 million people could struggle with hunger because of this war, I realized that peace is urgent,” he said.

The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra is pictured March 24.

Ukraine is not ordering the monks from the pro-Russian Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to leave a historic cave monastery complex in Kyiv, the country’s Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said Wednesday.?

The Ukrainian government and security service said some members of the church are loyal to Moscow.

Wednesday marked the deadline for clergy from the UOC to leave the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. Hundreds of worshippers gathered to pray on their knees “for the saving of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra,” according to video and images shared by the church on social media Wednesday.

When asked about some Ukrainians reacting to the deadline order with disbelief and frustration, Tkachenko said: “First of all, the leaders of Ukrainian branch of Russian church did not call Ukrainians to come to Ukrainian army to defend Ukraine during this war [….] but they didn’t finish their relationship with Russian church […] they are a follower of Kremlin policy, of the policy of war.”?

The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra is home to the UOC, a branch of Orthodox Christianity in Ukraine that has been traditionally loyal to the leader of the Russian church, Patriarch Kirill.

Kirill is a close ally of Vladimir Putin and a supporter of his war on Ukraine. In May 2022, the UOC cut ties with Moscow and declared “full independence.”

The agreement that permitted the UOC to occupy the?historic cave monastery complex was terminated on March 10, and the UOC was instructed to leave the premises by March 29.??

But the order shouldn’t be called an eviction, said Danilov, the head of Ukraine’s National Security Council.

Danilov told Ukrainian television that “the Lavra is not a hotel, so eviction is not the right term.”

During his daily video message Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky made comments about the eviction deadline.

He added that his country “is the territory of the greatest religious freedom in our part of Europe.”

“This has been the case since 1991. It will always be so,” he said.

There are roughly 6,000 Wagner group mercenaries fighting in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told US lawmakers on Wednesday.?

The mercenary group is “suffering an enormous amount of casualties in the Bakhmut area; the Ukrainians are inflicting a lot of death and destruction on these guys,” he said, describing the battle Bakhmut as a “slaughter-fest” for the Russians.

The head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in an audio message Wednesday that the battle for the city “has already practically destroyed the Ukrainian army,” but added that Wagner has “been pretty battered” as well.

Here are the latest developments:

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki speaks at a press conference in Helsinki, Finland, on November 20, 2022.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki urged European Union leaders on Wednesday to use “all instruments” to limit the impact of the influx of Ukrainian grain on the markets of neighboring countries.?

Speaking to reporters in Warsaw, Morawiecki said that “we did not agree to this, and we do not agree that this grain should be sold on the Polish market” and “destabilize our domestic markets.”

“We are ready to help take this grain and export it to Africa. There you go,” Morawiecki added.?

A ship is loaded with Ukrainian wheat to deliver to Kenya and Ethiopia at the port of Chornomorsk on the Black Sea coast on February 18.

Some context: According to Reuters, there is mounting anger in the Polish countryside over the influx of Ukrainian grain, which is affecting Polish?prices.

At a meeting of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels on March 20, Poland requested the “urgent mobilization” of EU support for what it said were problems in the grain market “caused by a large influx of cereals from Ukraine.”

“Some grain purchasers, especially in this region [south-eastern Poland], have suspended or limited the purchase of domestic grain because stores are full. Poland calls for improved and better-supervised grain transit from Ukraine,” Poland’s agriculture ministry said.??

Morawiecki also told reporters on Wednesday that Romania’s president and prime minister shared his opinion.

Switzerland joined the European Union’s 10th package of sanctions against Russia Wednesday, the government said in a?news release.

Switzerland, a non-EU member, had already sanctioned around 120 additional individuals and entities added by the EU in its latest sanctions against Moscow, the government said.?

The latest package also tightens import restrictions on goods of economic importance to Russia, the news release stated.?

The European Union last month approved a 10th round of sanctions against Russia.?

The whole of Ukraine is traumatized since Russia’s invasion last year, according to Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova.

Speaking to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour from Kyiv, Dzhaparova said she thinks “a long-term process of recovery will be happening after the resolution of war,” but added that “at this stage of the war it’s still an existential matter of survival so we need to survive physically and after that, we can speak about the mental recovery.”?

The deputy minister told CNN she has seen her two daughters, who are abroad, only three times since the invasion.?

The four main battlefields, according to Dzhaparova, are Lyman, Mariinka, Avdiivka and Bakhmut.??

The situation in Bakhmut is “still terrible,” she said.???

Approximately 17% of Ukrainian soil is “still under occupation,” down from what she said was 20% at the beginning of the invasion.??

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi, center, visits the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine on March 29.

The situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has not improved, according to Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi.

The plant has been occupied by Russian forces since March of last year and is now run by the Russian atomic agency, ROSATOM.?

Grossi said military activity and the number of troops in the area were increasing, without specifying whether he meant both Russian and Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian troops are stationed several miles across the reservoir from the plant.?

He said original plans to create a demilitarized zone around the plant had “evolved” toward greater protection of the plant itself and added that there should not be heavy military equipment at the plant. Ukraine has accused Russians of basing rocket systems at the plant, which Moscow has denied.

Grossi said he was trying to formulate “realistic, viable proposals” that would be acceptable to both sides.

The United States has not received notice from Russia “indicating a change” in nuclear notifications, State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said Wednesday.

Speaking at a department briefing, Patel said that he had seen comments from Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov that all types of notifications between Russia and the US under the New START treaty had been suspended.

However, “we have not received any notice indicating a change,” Patel said.

Patel said the US has been “concerned about Russia’s reckless behavior” over the treaty.

A State Department spokesperson said Tuesday that “with the exception of this countermeasure regarding the biannual data update” — which the US said it would not provide because Russia said it would not — “the United States continues to fully implement the New START treaty, including the central limits.”

What to know about New START:?The treaty?puts limits?on the number of deployed intercontinental-range nuclear weapons that both the US and Russia can have. It was last extended in early 2021 for five years, meaning the two sides would soon need to begin negotiating on another arms control agreement. Under the key nuclear arms control treaty, both the United States and?Russia?are permitted to conduct inspections of each other’s weapons sites, though inspections had been halted since 2020 due to the?Covid-19 pandemic.

A senior Russian-appointed official in Crimea said that Ukraine most likely used a jet-powered drone — known as a Strizh — in an attempt to strike an air base in the peninsula.

Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to the head of Crimea, also published footage from the purported crash site of the downed drone, showing an impact in an open field.

Unofficial social media channels in Crimea said that a loud explosion was heard in the center of nearby Simferopol.

CNN also reported earlier that social media videos and posts indicate an explosion or fire at or near a Russian military airfield in?Crimea.

Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian-appointed head of Crimea, said on his Telegram channel earlier that a “UAV [drone] was shot down in the Simferopol region” and that there “were no casualties or damage.”

There has been no official comment from the Ukrainian side.

CNN’s Tim Lister and Josh Pennington contributed to this report.

Spain’s first shipment of six Leopard 2A4 tanks to Ukraine will be sent after the Easter holiday on April 9, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said on Wednesday.

Addressing Spanish lawmakers, Robles said that the battle tanks — which she said had not been used since the 1990s — have been repaired and are currently being tested in Córdoba in the south of Spain.?

The Spanish defense ministry had previously said that the six tanks would be shipped to Ukraine by the end of this week.??

Spain first announced it would send Leopard tanks to Ukraine in February, the day before Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez made a surprise visit to Kyiv.?

Robles said that a further four Leopard 2A4 tanks would be repaired and sent to Ukraine “in the near future.”

The shipment of these tanks will allow Spain “to continue helping the Ukrainian people … so that they can defend themselves against an absolutely unjust attack,” she said.?

Hungarian government spokesperson Zoltán Kovács?said Wednesday that there is “an ample amount of grievances that need to be addressed” before Sweden’s bid to join NATO is ratified by the country.

The remarks were published by the spokesperson as a?blog?titled “Three reasons why Hungary’s parliament is right to be hesitant about Sweden’s NATO admission” and said Sweden “must face the music” over what it called its “daunting attitude” towards Hungary.??

The Hungarian Parliament approved a bill on Monday to allow Finland to join NATO but has not yet voted on Sweden’s NATO accession.??

Finland and Sweden requested to join the transatlantic military alliance in May 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but Turkey and Hungary have been holding up the accession process.

CNN has reached out to Sweden’s foreign ministry for its response but has not yet received one.?

The spokesperson wrote that relations between the two countries “have been worn down over years, making bridging the gap more challenging in these trying times.”?

“We see the need to clear the air with Sweden in order to proceed,” he continued.?

Kovács?went on to quote Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán saying that Sweden’s admission to NATO is the “correct behavior in terms of logic, humanity and honor.”

“However, we see the need to clear the air with Sweden in order to proceed,” the spokesperson stressed.?

A Ukrainian tank rolls on a muddy road near Bakhmut on March 29.

There are roughly 6,000 Wagner group mercenaries fighting in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told US lawmakers on Wednesday.?

The battle over Bahkmut has turned into a “slaughter-fest” for the Russians, Milley said.

The head of the Russian private military company, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in an audio message earlier Wednesday that the battle for the city “has already practically destroyed the Ukrainian army,” but added that Wagner has “been pretty battered” as well.

Milley also addressed Russia’s allies: China, Russia and Iran are “moving closer together” and will be a persistent problem for years to come, Milley said.?

He said that he’s concerned about “any coherence and cohesion between Russia and China,” and that the two countries are “getting closer together.”?

“I wouldn’t call it a true full alliance in the real meaning of that word, but we are seeing them [Russia and China] moving closer together, and that’s troublesome,” Milley said. “And then if you add in Iran … those three countries together are going to be problematic for many years to come I think, especially Russia and China because of their capability.”

Last week, China’s leader Xi Jinping met with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. China in recent weeks has repeatedly attempted to portray itself as an aspiring broker of peace, reiterating its calls for a ceasefire and peace talks in a?vaguely-worded position paper?released last month. Western countries have viewed Beijing’s intentions with deep suspicion, and NATO’s chief said that the alliance has seen “some signs” that Russia is pressing China to provide lethal aid.

CNN’s Rob Picheta, Simone McCarthy, Darya Tarasova and Sarah Dean contributed reporting to this post.

Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Russian-appointed military-civilian administration in occupied Zaporizhzhia in southeast Ukraine, said Wednesday that six Ukrainian HIMARS rockets had struck rail infrastructure?in?a pre-dawn attack.?

Rogov said Russian air defenses shot down three of the rockets, and the remaining three?hit?objects?in?the city of Melitopol: a?railway, electricity substation and the?railway?depot.

He added that fragments of the downed missiles fell at the airfield.

“Thank God, there were no casualties,” Rogov added.?

Earlier, Melitopol’s Ukrainian mayor, who is not in the city, said some districts were without electricity after “explosions.”

Rogov has said earlier Wednesday that Melitopol?was shelled by Ukrainian forces early Wednesday causing power supply suspensions.

Melitopol is a hub for Russian occupying forces, located approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the front lines.

CNN’s Sarah Dean contributed reporting to this post.

Social media videos and posts indicate an explosion or fire at or near a Russian military airfield in Crimea.

Videos posted Wednesday afternoon local time show a plume of dark smoke rising from Hvardiiske in the Simferopol district of central Crimea, where there is an airbase.

The Russian-appointed head of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, said on his Telegram channel that “a UAV [drone] was shot down in the Simferopol region.”

“It crashed in a field. There were no casualties or damage,” he added.

There has been no official comment from the Ukrainian side.

Some Ukrainians have reacted with disbelief and frustration to an order for clergy from the pro-Russian Ukrainian Orthodox Church to leave a historic cave monastery complex in Kyiv.

The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra is home to the UOC, a branch of Orthodox Christianity in Ukraine that has been traditionally loyal to Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian church.

Kirill is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a supporter of his war on Ukraine. In May 2022, the UOC cut ties with Moscow and declared “full independence.”?The agreement that permitted the UOC to occupy the?historic cave monastery complex was terminated on March 10, and the UOC was instructed to leave the premises by March 29.?

Here’s what some Ukrainians told CNN about the news:

Oksana

Oksana, a resident of Odesa, cried as believers sang prayer songs while waiting to touch an icon in one of the complex’s churches.??

Domnika

Domnika, a resident of Kyiv, first went on a school trip to the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra when she was young. She is now 85 years old.

Natalia Drozd

Natalia Drozd moved to Kyiv from Luhansk in 2015. She attended the Lavra with her 10-month-old daughter on Wednesday.?

Heorhii

Heorhii, a protodeacon in the Lavra, told CNN that the Orthodox Church is being persecuted.

Klyment

Klyment, bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, told CNN that services will continue to be held.?

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki speaks at a press conference in Bucharest, Romania, on March 28.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Wednesday slammed the International Olympic Committee’s guidelines that allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals, calling it a “wrong and bad decision.”

Russian and Belarusian athletes were banned from most international competitions in February 2022 over Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, following the IOC executive board recommendations. On Tuesday, IOC President Thomas Bach outlined new guidelines that would allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals, paving the way for their return to international competitions.?

“We certainly will not withdraw our athletes on our own, but we will try to build a coalition of countries. And that’s what I instructed [Sports] Minister [Kamil] Bortniczuk to demand together with a strong voice from the IOC to withdraw this very wrong and bad decision,” the Polish prime minister added.?

The Kremlin earlier on Wednesday said the guidelines have “elements of discrimination.”

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov suggested that Ukrainian offensive action involving Western tanks may begin in April or May in an interview with Estonian television.

Reznikov said that German Leopard tanks, which have begun arriving in Ukraine, will be part of “the counteroffensive campaign under the decision of our General Staff. … They are planning that in different directions.”

“I think that we will see [the tanks] during these two months. I mean April and May,” Reznikov said.

Last week, Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s land forces, said on his Telegram channel that the Russians are “losing significant forces [in Bakhmut] and are running out of energy.”

“Very soon, we will take advantage of this opportunity, as we did in the past near Kyiv, Kharkiv, Balakliya and Kupyansk,” he said.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that all types of notifications between Russia and the United States under the nuclear New START treaty have been suspended.

Russian state media said that Ryabkov’s statement included suspending notifications on test missile launches, although Ryabkov himself was not specific on that point.?Such notifications are covered by the original 1988 treaty, which remains in force.

Ryabkov did say that “there will be no notifications at all. All formats are suspended.”

On Tuesday, CNN reported that senior US officials had disclosed that Russia will not provide the United States with data on its nuclear forces that is normally shared semi-annually – and in response, the US said it will not do so either.

Moscow’s move not to provide the information comes after President Vladimir Putin in February suspended Russia’s participation in the New START treaty, the only bilateral agreement left between the world’s two largest nuclear powers.?

On Tuesday, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb said that the US had pressed Russia about the exchange of information, due at the end of this month.??

“Russia responded that they will not be providing that information,” he said. “And so as a diplomatic countermeasure, the United States will not be providing that information back.”

Notices about missile tests and other events involving nuclear weapons have been an important part of preserving strategic stability for decades. They ensure that neither Russia and the United States misinterpret each other’s moves.

What to know about New START: The treaty puts limits on the number of deployed intercontinental-range nuclear weapons that both the US and Russia can have. It was last extended in early 2021 for five years, meaning the two sides would soon need to begin negotiating on another arms control agreement. Under the key nuclear arms control treaty, both the United States and?Russia?are permitted to conduct inspections of each other’s weapons sites, though inspections had been halted since 2020 due to the?Covid-19 pandemic.

CNN’s Kylie Atwood and Jennifer Hansler contributed previous reporting to this post.

Nadya Tolokonnikova speaks onstage during Unfinished Live at The Shed on September 22, in New York City.

A member of the Russian feminist punk group Pussy Riot is now on Russia’s federal wanted list, according to an interior ministry database.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova?is wanted under a criminal article, according to the interior ministry list published by the independent Russian outlet Mediazona. At the beginning of this month, a case was introduced against Tolokonnikova for “insulting the religious feelings of believers,” as outlined in Russia’s Criminal Code.

Tolokonnikova is no longer in Russia. She was recently in the United States.

She was declared a foreign agent in December. In that same month, Pussy Riot issued an anti-war statement and video, “Mama, Don’t Watch TV,” condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The chorus of the song was inspired by the words of a captured Russian conscript soldier who, in a telephone conversation with his mother, said “Mom, there are no Nazis here, don’t watch TV.”?

“This is the music of our anger, indignation, disagreement, a reproachful desperate cry against Putin’s bloodthirsty puppets, led by a real cannibal monster, whose place is in the infinity of fierce hellish flames on the bones of the victims of this terrible war,” Pussy Riot said in a statement shared with CNN.

In 2012, Tolokonnikova and two other members of Pussy Riot, Maria Alyokhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich, were sentenced to two years in prison after performing a “punk prayer” in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior.?

Russian citizen Alexei?Moskalyov, who is accused of discrediting the country's armed forces in the course of Russia-Ukraine military conflict, attends a court hearing in the town of Yefremov in the Tula region, Russia, on March 27.

The 13-year-old daughter of a Russian man sentenced to two years in prison for anti-war posts online has written him a letter from the orphanage where she has been sent, telling him that “we will win.”

“Know that we will win, that victory will be ours, no matter what happens, we are together, we are a team, you are the best,” according to the letter from Masha Moskalyova to her father Alexey Moskalyov. The letter was released at Moskalyov’s request, according to his lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov.

In April 2022, Masha drew a picture of Russian missiles being fired at a Ukrainian family and wrote “No to war” and “Glory to Ukraine” during her art class. Her school subsequently called the police, who later visited the family home.?

A court in the Tula region, south of Moscow, sentenced Moskalyov to two years in jail on Tuesday for a series of anti-war online postings. But he had escaped his house arrest, which began earlier this month, the night before the hearing, according to a court spokesperson.

Masha was sent to an orphanage when her father began his house arrest.?

Masha told her father in the letter that “everything is fine with me, I love you very much and know that you are not guilty of anything, I am always for you and everything you do is right.”?

“I don’t want to write about my health and mood, I don’t want to upset you, but I understood that the bitter truth is better than the sweet lie,” she added.

She ends the letter with a peace sign. Describing her father as her hero, she said, “I will give this pendant to you as the bravest person in the world!”

What the Kremlin says: Asked about the case, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday he could not comment as it was the court’s decision.

“The matter of the story with the child is completely different,” he claimed. “Indeed, the state of things with the fulfillment of parental duties and with ensuring the child’s living is very deplorable.”

“Everything is much more complicated there, everything is not so straightforward,” Peskov said.

Correction: An earlier version of this post gave an incorrect age for Masha Moskalyova.

The International Olympic Committee’s guidelines that allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutral participants at international competitions have “elements of discrimination,” according to the Kremlin.

Russian and Belarusian athletes were banned from most international competitions in February 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, following IOC executive board recommendations.?

On Tuesday, IOC President Thomas Bach outlined new guidelines that would allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals, paving the way for their return to international competitions.?

“Such recommendations (by the IOC) were characterized as containing elements of discrimination, which is unacceptable,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.?

According to the recommendations, athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport must compete only as individual neutral athletes and meet all anti-doping requirements, while those who support the war or are contracted to military or national cannot compete.?

The IOC also said that a decision about the participation of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games would be made at a later stage.?

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), visits the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine on March 29.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is working out a new concept for securing the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, its head Rafael Grossi said Wednesday, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.?

“We are developing a concept that is aimed at protecting the station more locally,” Grossi told reporters during his visit to the plant, RIA Novosti reported.

Grossi reiterated that the situation at the nuclear facility is not improving and hostilities around it are intensifying. Measures must be taken to protect the station from any attacks, he added, according to RIA Novosti.

The UN nuclear watchdog chief arrived at the power plant Wednesday and inspected the territory together with Renat Karchaa, the adviser to the general director of Russia’s nuclear power operator Rosenergoatom, according to RIA Novosti.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not planning to meet with Grossi during his visit to Zaporizhzhia, but Grossi remains in contact with Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy giant Rosatom, the Kremlin said earlier Wednesday.

The?Kremlin continued to dig into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying that?the country sees a long-term “war in a broad context.”

“If you mean war in a broad context — a confrontation with hostile states and with unfriendly countries, a hybrid war that they unleashed against Russia — this is for long,” Peskov told reporters Wednesday.

“Here we need firmness, self-confidence, purposefulness, unity around President [Vladimir Putin],” he added.

Peskov was asked when Russia’s “special military operation” — the country’s euphemism for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine — could end and if the Russian population?was?tired of it after over a year of battles.

In response, he said:

Remember: In the fall, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “partial mobilization” sparked rare protests and an exodus of men from the country.?

Smoke rises from burning buildings in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on March 26.

The founder and head of Russia’s Wagner private military company, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in an audio message on Wednesday that the battle for the eastern city of Bakhmut “has already practically destroyed the Ukrainian army,” adding that Wagner has “been pretty battered” as well.

In response to a question from a journalist regarding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s promise to defend Bakhmut to the end, Prigozhin said:

In his voice note on Telegram, he said that Wagner “destroys foreign forces that are trying to bring Russia to its knees.”

“This is a great turn in the war, because only one Russian army will remain on the chessboard, and all other pieces will be removed from it. And if PMC Wagner dies in the Bakhmut meat grinder and takes the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the forces attached to it with foreign weapons, and so on, and gives the Russian army the opportunity to go further to protect the interests of Russia, then we have fulfilled our historical role, period,” he added.?

Prigozhin has paid several visits to Bakhmut and its immediate surroundings in recent weeks.

Both Ukrainian and Wagner officials acknowledge street-by-street fighting in the city, with the Ukrainians claiming that they have stabilized the situation in Bakhmut.?

There are reports of new strikes in Melitopol, a city that lies between Kherson and Mariupol, in Russian-held southern Ukraine. And the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog has arrived on a visit to the occupied Zaporizhzhia power plant?amid fears of growing military activity in the area.

Catch up on the latest headlines:

Here’s a look at the latest map of control:

A delegation of the?Ukrainian?Orthodox?Church?branch loyal to Moscow, in?Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 20.

Wednesday marks the deadline for clergy from the pro-Russian Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to leave a historic cave monastery complex in Kyiv.

The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra is home to the UOC, a branch of Orthodox Christianity in Ukraine that has been traditionally loyal to Patriarch Kirill — the leader of the Russian church. Kirill is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a supporter of his war on Ukraine. In May 2022, the UOC cut ties with Moscow and declared “full independence.”

But in November last year, the Ukrainian Security Service said it raided the monastery to counter suspected “subversive activities of [the] Russian special services” in the country.

On March 10, Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Informational Police said it had notified the UOC that their 2013 agreement allowing the free use of the building was being terminated, and that the UOC must vacate by March 29. The ministry cited a working group’s conclusion that the monastery “violated terms of the agreement on the use of state property.”

In a statement, the UOC said, “there is no information about legal grounds for such actions,” and that the group’s conclusion were “drawn up, apparently, with bias and with brutal violation of legal rules.”

People hold placards reading "Moscow priests get away from Ukraine!", right, and "Moscow shaman get away from holy Lavra!" as they rally at the entrance to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 28.

Video and images shared by the church on social media on Wednesday show hundreds of worshippers gathered to pray on their knees “for the saving of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra”.

The Lavra was founded in the 11th century. As well as being a place of pilgrimage, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It also one of the most popular tourist attractions in Kyiv.

Russian conductor Valery Gergiev performs with The Munich Philharmonic orchestra on the stage of Grand Palace Hall during the Enescu Festival 2021, in Bucharest, Romania, on September 6, 2021.

Valery Gergiev, the star Russian conductor fired in Germany last year for his refusal to condemn the?invasion of Ukraine, was given a warm welcome in?China?this week as he started a three-day performance at the country’s top art center.

“It is like coming home,” Gergiev said at a news conference Monday night, according to state-run tabloid Global Times, before his first performance at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing.

His show with Russia’s Mariinsky Orchestra marks the first time an overseas group has performed in China since the country resumed accepting foreign artists this month, according to Chinese state media.

Gergiev, who has close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was dismissed as the chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic last March, shortly after Russia’s invasion began.

In a statement at the time, Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter said he had asked Gergiev to “clearly and unambiguously” distance himself from the war. “That’s not what he did,” he said.

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SAINT PETERSBURG, RUSSIA - 2022/06/16: Valery Gergiev, Artistic General Director, State Academic Mariinsky Theatre attends a session In Search of New Meanings: Science, Culture, and Sport in St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2022 (SPIEF 2022). (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Related article Russian conductor makes a comeback in China after he was fired for refusing to condemn the war | CNN

Residents of the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol were woken up by “powerful blasts in the north of the city” in the early hours of Wednesday morning, local Ukrainian media outlet RIA Melitopol reported.

RIA Melitopol said on the encrypted messaging app Telegram that there were about 10 strikes and people reported seeing a “glow” near a local airfield.

“The occupiers no longer deny that these are strikes by the Armed Forces of Ukraine rather than their own air defense,” it added.

RIA Melitopol’s report comes as Russia-backed officials in the city said it was shelled by Ukrainian forces. Melitopol’s exiled Ukrainian mayor, Ivan Fedorov, said the city’s northern and western districts were without electricity after “explosions.”

No casualties have been reported.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael?Grossi?is seen on his way to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, in Ukraine, on March 29.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, has arrived at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), according to Ukraine’s state nuclear power plant operator Energoatom.

It is the second time that Grossi has visited the nuclear power plant since it was occupied by Russian forces.??

Grossi told CNN earlier Wednesday that military action is increasing around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Russia has said it is ready to discuss the safety situation at the?plant?with international observers after President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of “radiation?blackmail.”

On Monday, Grossi met with Zelensky, who was visiting the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions. Zelensky thanked Grossi for his support in his nightly address.

CNN’s Anna Chernova contributed reporting.

Russia is committed to preventing nuclear war and confrontation between nuclear-armed powers, the Secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, said Wednesday, according to Russian state media TASS.?

“(Russia) is convinced of the need to prevent any military confrontation between countries possessing nuclear weapons,” Patrushev said during a meeting in New Delhi, according to TASS.

Patrushev said Russia would continue fighting in Ukraine until all of Moscow’s goals are met. He also warned that “the provocative behavior of the West in the context of the crisis in Ukraine can lead to catastrophic consequences.”

Patrushev specifically cited the “steadily increasing military assistance to Ukraine from the United States and other Western states.”

Nuclear weapons potentially on the move: Patrushev’s comments come after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that the Kremlin plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Ukraine’s northern neighbor. US President Joe Biden called those comments “worrying” and “disturbing” yesterday.

The war in Ukraine has put a huge strain on?the country’s healthcare system?and has had a particularly devastating impact on people living with intellectual disabilities and their families. Their conditions are often invisible to the general public and remain widely misunderstood in Ukraine.?

The community was suffering from a chronic shortage of support services even before the Russian invasion began last February. With resources diverted towards the war effort, the few that did exist are struggling to cope.

“I have been told by officials that care and support for people with intellectual disabilities and their families is ‘a luxury’ during wartime. So, we will have to wait until after the war to have this luxury,” said Raisa Kravchenko, the president of the?All Ukrainian NGO Coalition for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities.

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Mayor of Ukrainian city of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov during a press conference after the Sakharov Prize award ceremony, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on December 14.

The Ukrainian mayor of the occupied city of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, said explosions were heard in the southern city early Wednesday after Russia-backed officials reported shelling by Kyiv’s forces.

Earlier, Russia-backed officials said Ukrainian forces shelled a locomotive depot in the city early Wednesday, causing damage to infrastructure and power supply suspensions. Fedorov said power was lost in Melitopol’s northern and western districts as well as some surrounding villages.

No casualties were reported.

Melitopol is a hub for Russian occupying forces, located approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the front lines.

This post has been updated with additional information.

Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile units have shot down a Russian Su-24M bomber near the eastern city of Bakhmut, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

The aircraft was destroyed around 1:30 p.m. local time Tuesday, the ministry said.

CNN cannot independently verify the claim.?

The report comes as Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister, Hanna Maliar, said the country will defend Bakhmut “as long as we need it in terms of military defense tasks.”

Frontline situation: Russian forces control access to both Bakhmut and the nearby town of Avdiivka on three sides. They have made marginal gains in recent weeks but have been unable to encircle Ukrainian troops in either place. Most of the eastern front lines have changed little in the first three months of the year.

The power supply was disconnected in the occupied city of Melitopol in southern Ukraine after it was shelled by Ukrainian forces early Wednesday, a Russia-appointed official.

Melitopol is a hub for Russian occupying forces, located approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the front lines.

Earlier in the day, the Melitopol city administration reported damage to infrastructure following shelling of a locomotive depot, but no casualties.

Volodymyr Zelensky invited Xi Jinping to visit Ukraine in an interview with the Associated Press.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky formally invited Chinese leader Xi Jinping to visit Ukraine in an interview with the Associated Press published on Wednesday.

Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin are close allies and have strengthened economic and political ties since Moscow invaded Ukraine last year.

Following Xi’s state-visit to Moscow earlier this month, the Chinese and Russian leaders reiterated their alignment across a host of issues but their talks yielded no breakthrough on resolving the Ukraine conflict

China has attempted to position itself as a peace broker on Ukraine, releasing its position on a?“political solution”?to the conflict with calls for a ceasefire and peace talks.

Zelensky on Bakhmut: Speaking about the months-long battle for the eastern city, Zelensky told the AP that a Ukrainian defeat would spur on Russia’s propaganda effort and embolden Putin to “push” forward more aggressively.?

Russia has deployed thousands of military personnel to start drills with the Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system, its Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

The Novosibirsk missile formation is participating in the exercises and the Strategic Missile Forces are conducting a “comprehensive control inspection” of the Omsk missile association, the ministry said in a statement on Telegram.

More than 3,000 servicemen and about 300 units of military equipment are involved in the exercise, the statement said.

Some context: Russian President Vladimir Putin has aimed to make the?Yars?missile system part of?the country’s “invincible” weapons and the mainstay of the ground-based component of its nuclear arsenal, according to Reuters.

A locomotive depot in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol in southern Ukraine was hit by Ukrainian shelling Wednesday morning, the city’s administration said.?

The Melitopol city administration reported damage to infrastructure, but no casualties.

Ukrainian soldiers fire artillery in the direction of Bakhmut on Monday.

The situation in Bakhmut remains “under control,” with the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces taking control of the contested eastern city’s defense,?the Ukrainian military said.

The military also said in an update Tuesday that the heaviest combat is concentrated in several zones in?the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and its units have repelled the latest efforts by Russian forces to advance. Over the past day, the General Staff said it repelled 24 Russian attacks.

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President Joe Biden briefly speaks with reporters as he returns to the White House on Tuesday.

US President Joe Biden told reporters Tuesday he’s concerned about?Russia’s plans?to station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus.

On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to?station tactical nuclear weapons?in Belarus. Moscow will complete the construction of a special storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus by the beginning of July, Putin told state broadcaster Russia 1.

Former Vice President Mike Pence also weighed in Tuesday on Putin’s plans.

He argued it’s “absolutely essential that we continue to give Ukraine what they need.”

“We don’t allow Putin to distract the world or diminish support through his threats of moving tactical nuclear weapons,” Pence said. “We just need to remain strong and stand with the Ukrainians.”?

Military action is increasing around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Grossi said Tuesday.

Speaking from Dnipro in Ukraine ahead of a visit to the plant, Grossi said the situation “is not getting any better.”

The plant has been “in blackout repeatedly,” Grossi added.

The director general’s visit will be his second to the plant and his first since the IAEA established a permanent presence at the site in September last year, the agency said in a statement Saturday.

“I want to see what the situation is for myself, talk to the management there, which is the Russian management,” Grossi told CNN.

Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy monopoly, Rosatom, said Tuesday that Russia is ready to discuss the situation at the plant with?Grossi.

The IAEA chief said the current risk level at the plant is “extremely high and it’s totally unpredictable, precisely because we are in a combat zone.”

On Monday, Grossi met with President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was visiting the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions. Later, in his nightly address on Monday, Zelensky thanked Grossi for his support.

CNN’s Anna Chernova and Sarah Dean contributed reporting.

The United States announced it supports the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute the crime of aggression — a significant development in the push to hold top Kremlin officials accountable for the?war in Ukraine.

The announcement of US support for the development of such a body comes after Ukraine and other countries have for months pushed for the creation of the mechanism.

In that time, the US would not say whether it supported a special tribunal, with US officials instead saying there were reviewing the option and supporting other mechanisms like the?International Criminal Court.

However, in her remarks Monday, Van Schaack said “there are compelling arguments for why” the crime of aggression “must be prosecuted alongside” crimes that are being investigated by the ICC.

She noted the past example of the Nuremberg trials prosecuting Nazi leaders after World War II, in which “the United States led the prosecution of the crime of aggression — deemed ‘crimes against the peace’ in the lexicon of the era.”

There are a number of different bodies like the ICC which can prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity, but they do not have the jurisdiction to prosecute the crime of aggression by Russia against Ukraine.

As such, Ukrainian Ambassador at Large Anton Korynevych in December argued that these existing mechanisms do not do enough to ensure that the decision-makers in Moscow face punishment for their war against Ukraine.

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A Russian man whose 12-year-old daughter drew an?anti-war?picture at school has been sentenced to two years in prison by a court for his own online posts critical of the?invasion of Ukraine.

Alexey Moskalyov had been charged with?“discrediting the Russian military”?and was under house arrest in the Tula region after being accused of repeatedly publishing anti-war posts.

According to the indictment, Moskalyov, “using his personal computer, posted on his page in social networks statements in the form of text-graphic publications discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” reported Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

In April last year, Moskalyov’s daughter Masha drew a picture of Russian missiles being fired at a Ukrainian family and wrote “No to war” and “Glory to Ukraine” during her art class, according to Mediazona.

The school subsequently called the police.

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The US decision to?fly its surveillance drones further south?over the Black Sea after a Russian jet?collided with a US drone?earlier this month “definitely limits our ability to gather intelligence” related to the Ukraine war, a senior US military official tells CNN.

Flying drones at greater distances reduces the quality of intelligence they can gather, a US military official explained, noting that spy satellites can compensate to some degree but have shorter times over targets, again reducing effectiveness relative to surveillance drones.

After the Russian jet collided with a US Reaper drone earlier this month, the US began flying its surveillance drones further south and at a higher altitude over the Black Sea than previously, placing them further away from airspace surrounding the Crimean peninsula and eastern portions of the Black Sea.

When CNN first reported this change, one US official said the new routes were part of an effort “to avoid being too provocative,” as the Biden administration continues to be careful to avoid any incident that could escalate into a direct conflict with Russian forces. The official said the drone flights would continue this way “for the time being,” but added there is already “an appetite” to return to the routes closer to Russian-held territory.

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The United States is now the?biggest supplier?of crude oil to the European Union.

In December, 18% of the bloc’s crude imports came from America, EU data office Eurostat said Tuesday.

That is a big turnaround: Russia was until recently the bloc’s top supplier of crude, accounting for as much as 31% of total imports until the end of January 2022, according to Eurostat. The US, meanwhile, came a distant second, with a maximum 13% share.

But Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year led to an upheaval in Europe’s energy supplies. EU states slashed their imports of Russia’s energy, and the bloc imposed sanctions?on the country’s oil and coal exports.

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