September 28, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

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

At least?three women were killed in the Ukrainian city of Kherson on Thursday following shelling from Russian artillery,?according to Andriy Yermak,?the head of the Ukrainian President’s Office.

Russian forces attacked one of the residential areas of the city, the?Kherson region prosecutor’s office said. The three women killed happened to be outside on one of the streets when the shelling landed on the area.

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with 26 elected heads of Russian regions in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, September 28, 2023.

Ukraine will now serve on the Board of Governors for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear watchdog said in a statement on Thursday.?

Eleven countries, including Ukraine, were elected to serve on the 35-member board for the 2023-2024 term, the IAEA statement read. The newly elected Board members include Algeria, Armenia, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Indonesia, South Korea, Netherlands, Paraguay, Spain, and Ukraine, the statement said.?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the position would give Kyiv “real opportunities” to influence decisions “that are binding for all IAEA members and the entire international community.”

Here’s the latest:

Ukraine has been elected to serve on the Board of Governors for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog said in a statement on Thursday.?

“Eleven countries have been newly elected to serve on the 35-member IAEA Board of Governors for the 2023–2024 period” with Ukraine being one of them, according to the IAEA statement.

The newly elected Board members are Algeria, Armenia, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Indonesia, South Korea, Netherlands, Paraguay, Spain, and Ukraine, the statement said.?

“The Board of Governors is one of the two policy-making bodies of the IAEA, along with the annual General Conference of IAEA Member States,” the statement read.?

Ukraine has been elected to the board four times before. The last time it was a member of the agency’s executive body was in 2009-2011, according to Energoatom,?Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the position would give Kyiv “real opportunities” to influence decisions “that are binding for all IAEA members and the entire international community.”

He said Ukraine would work to implement the first point of its 10-point peace formula, which is “nuclear and radiation security,” and that Kyiv was focused on ensuring the “complete liberation” of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant from Russian forces.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister?Dmytro?Kuleba?also praised the decision in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

A “small number” of Ukrainian pilots have started language training in preparation for training on F-16 fighter jets, according to a spokesperson for the US Air Force.

The language training is taking place at the Defense Language Institute English Language Center at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.??

More on the training: Language training is a critical step for the Ukrainian Air Force as they learn to fly, operate and maintain the jet, since the jet’s instrumentation is in English, as are all the manuals and information pertaining to it.

The language training does not yet include Ukrainian maintenance personnel, who will learn how to sustain the complex system. The total number of Ukrainians who will come for maintenance training will be “upwards of 200,” the spokesperson said.

The language center at Lackland Air Force Base “is considering multiple options for training maintainers,” the spokesperson added.

Moscow is set to boost its military spending, with the Kremlin citing the need to increase budgets because of what it described as an ongoing “hybrid war” that the government says is allegedly being waged against Russia.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov made comments about the increase on Thursday, following the release of the Russian finance ministry’s draft budget for 2024, which indicated a 68% surge in defense expenditures compared to 2023.?

The ministry proposed to allocate up to 10.77 trillion rubles ($111.04 billion) on “national defense,” which is almost 70% more than last year.

Asked to comment during a conference call Thursday, Peskov said, “It is obvious that such an increase is absolutely necessary because we live in a state of hybrid war, we continue the special military operation. I mean the hybrid war that has been waged against us. And this requires high costs.”

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov highlighted the budget’s primary focus on military spending when asked about the priorities of Russia’s budget for 2024 at a financial forum in Moscow on Thursday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused the United States and other allies providing Ukraine with assistance of being “directly at war” with Russia.

US President Joe Biden will host European leaders at the White House in October for a summit expected to highlight cooperation between the US and European Union, particularly on Ukraine, the White House announced Thursday morning.?

President Charles Michel of the European Council and President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission will visit the White House on October 20 for the second US-EU summit since Biden took office.?

In addition to Ukraine, the leaders will “advance U.S.- EU efforts to accelerate the global clean energy economy based on secure, resilient supply chains, and will continue cooperation in critical and emerging technologies, including digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

“They will also review joint activities to strengthen economic resilience and to address related challenges,” she added.

A voter casts a ballot at a polling station during local elections held by Russian-installed authorities in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, on September 8.

Russian President Vladimir Putin lauded recent elections in the declared annexed regions of Ukraine, describing them at a meeting with regional heads as “held openly, fairly and competitively.” The international community has widely dismissed the elections — held across four Russian-occupied areas of eastern and southern Ukraine earlier this month — as a sham.

“Of course, this is a significant event, an important step towards the full entry of new regions into the single legal, state space of our large country,” Putin said Thursday.

According to Putin, the “high turnout” in the elections demonstrated “the growing civic maturity of our society.”

More key context: The elections were another attempt by Moscow to enforce a narrative of Russian legitimacy in the parts of Ukraine it holds – some, but not all of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Luhansk regions – even as Kyiv’s counteroffensive makes some progress toward taking back towns in the south.

Ukraine’s National Resistance Center, an official agency of the government in Kyiv, dismissed the elections as a propaganda exercise. The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they violated Ukraine’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity,” and the Council of Europe labeled them “a flagrant violation of international law which Russia continues to disregard.”

A Melitopol resident told CNN at the time that she had not seen heavy-handed coercion to force people to take part. “Why? Because they don’t care who votes and how, they have already counted the results,” she said.

Russia held?similar sham referendums in the four regions last year, in an attempt to project authority over the parts of Ukraine its troops had captured.?

CNN’s Rob Picheta and?Yulia Kesaieva contributed reporting to this post.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov commented on Cuban nationals fighting for Russia in Ukraine for the first time during his daily call with journalists on Thursday.?

Peskov was asked about recent comments made to CNN by Russia’s ambassador in Havana Viktor Koronelli and how many Cubans could be fighting on the Russian side.?

CNN has reported some family members of the Cuban nationals claim their relatives had been tricked into joining the Russian forces with promises of money and Russian citizenship.?

When asked if there will be an investigation into the allegations, Peskov said,?“If information appears about who exactly promised what to whom and who was deceived, and how, then, of course, we will look into this carefully.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov in Moscow on Thursday.

The Kremlin posted a video of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov meeting together in Moscow on Thursday amid speculations of Kadyrov’s deteriorating health.

The five-second video released by the Kremlin on Telegram shows Putin shaking hands with a man captioned to be Kadyrov. The caption reads: “Vladimir Putin holding a working meeting with Chechnya’s head Ramzan Kadyrov.”?

According to a Kremlin readout, the two leaders met to talk about various topics, including the economy and the social situation in the republic of Chechnya.

State-owned Russia 24 TV channel also showed Putin and Kadyrov discussing the war, with Putin speaking highly of Chechen fighters in Ukraine.

The meeting comes amid rumors about the deteriorating health of Kadyrov circulating through Telegram channels over the last two weeks, which the Kremlin has refused to comment on.

Prominent journalist and former head of the now-defunct Echo of Moscow radio station, Alexey Venediktov, said on Telegram last week that Kadyrov was undergoing hemodialysis at the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow due to “renal failure.” There has been no official confirmation of this information.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukrainian troops are “gradually gaining ground” in their counteroffensive operation against Russian forces, as Western allies visited the capital Kyiv in a series of unannounced trips on Thursday.

Here are the latest developments:

Here’s the latest map of control:

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg speaks at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday Kyiv’s troops are “gradually gaining ground,” in their sweeping counteroffensive against tight Russian defense lines in southeastern Ukraine.

“Today your [Ukraine’s] forces are moving forward, they face fierce fighting, but they are gradually gaining ground,” Stoltenberg said alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during an unannounced visit to Kyiv.

“Ukrainians are fighting for their families their future, their freedom,” Stoltenberg said, adding that “Moscow is fighting for imperial delusions.”

“Ukraine has strong backing from 31 NATO allies and many partners,” he continued. “In total, more than 50 nations support and supply you through that Ukraine defense contact group and over 140 nations stood up for your sovereignty at the United Nations.

“Meanwhile, Russia is diminished on the world stage, cut off from international markets.”

The transatlantic military alliance has donated billions of dollars-worth of weapons to Ukraine but it has so far stopped short of granting the country accession into the alliance, despite repeated requests from Kyiv.

Stoltenberg said NATO has framework contracts in place for a 2.4 billion euros ($2.53 billion) worth of “key ammunition” for Ukraine, including 1 billion euros ($1.54 billion) of firm orders.

“This covers capabilities like 155-millimetre artillery and tank guided missiles and main battle tank ammunition,” he said.?

“This will help allies to refill their stocks while continuing to support Ukraine.

“The stronger Ukraine becomes the closer we come to ending Russia’s aggression, Russia could lay down arms and end its war today,” Stoltenberg added.

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Thursday he has met with his British counterpart Grant Shapps in Kyiv.

The ministers, who are both new in their jobs, spoke about Ukraine’s demand for increased air defenses, artillery and anti-drone systems, Umerov said on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Winter is coming but we are ready. Stronger together,” Umerov said.

Umerov added that he briefed Shapps on Kyiv’s progress in its sweeping counteroffensive efforts in southeastern Ukraine.

Earlier on Thursday, Shapps convened with Ukrainian President?Volodymyr Zelensky during his unannounced visit to Ukraine, according to Zelensky’s office. It is unclear when the two met.

Slovakia is getting ready to elect its fifth prime minister in just four years, and with Kremlin sympathizer Robert Fico’s opposition party leading the polls, it is one being watched with alarm in the West.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine last February, Slovakia has been one of Kyiv’s staunchest allies. The two countries share a border, Slovakia was the?first country to send?air defenses to Ukraine and it welcomed tens of thousands of refugees.

But all that could change if Fico comes to power. The former prime minister makes no secret of his sympathies toward the Kremlin and has blamed “Ukrainian Nazis and fascists” for provoking Vladimir Putin into launching the invasion, repeating the false narrative used by the Russian leader to justify his brutal war.

Fico has called on the Slovak government to stop supplying weapons to Kyiv, and said if he were to become prime minister, Slovakia would “not send another round of ammunition.” He is also opposed to Ukraine joining NATO.

Grigorij Mese?nikov, a political analyst and the president of the Institute of Public Affairs, a Slovak think tank, said that like many Russia sympathizers, Fico is framing his support for Moscow as a “peace” initiative.

Read more about the Slovak election here.

Russian forces launched a “massive” drone attack on southern Ukraine overnight, scrambling air defenses across the region, a Ukrainian military spokesperson said Thursday.

Speaking on Ukrainian television, Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Operational Command South, said air defenses destroyed more than 30 drones but the impact of the attack remained unclear.

Earlier Thursday, a Ukrainian military official said no casualties or damage were reported after Russia launched a drone attack on the southern Odesa region overnight.

Zelensky?welcomes British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps in Kyiv on Thursday.

Britain’s new defense secretary Grant Shapps met with Ukrainian President?Volodymyr Zelensky on a surprise visit to Ukraine, Zelensky’s office said Thursday.?

It’s unknown when exactly Zelensky and Shapps met.?

Zelensky said cooperation between both countries “allows the Ukrainian army to significantly expand its capabilities on the battlefield, in particular by means of long-range weapons,” according to a statement from his office.?

The two also discussed bolstering Ukraine’s air defense, saying it is “particularly important in the run-up to the winter season,” the statement said.

No casualties or damage were reported after Russia launched a new drone attack on the southern Odesa region overnight, a Ukrainian military official said Thursday.

Russian forces have repeatedly targeted Odesa’s port infrastructure since the collapse of the Black Sea Grain deal in July. On Monday, Ukrainian officials said Russian strikes killed at least two people and?caused “significant damage”?in the city.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air force said Thursday it destroyed 34 of 44 Shahed drones launched by Russian forces overnight. Six reconnaissance drones were also intercepted over the past day, it said.

Ukrainian officials say former Wagner fighters have returned to the eastern front — but have downplayed their significance.

“As of now, there are several hundred of them in our direction, on the eastern front, in different areas,” Ukraine’s deputy commander in the east, Serhii Cherevatyi, told CNN.

But he added that Russian forces in Ukraine “are short of everyone there now, so any man is good for them.”

Here’s the latest developments from Russia’s war in Ukraine:

Rustem?Umerov?addresses the media at the Ramstein airbase in Germany, on September 19.

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov named three new deputies on Wednesday, more than a week after he said the department was “rebooting” following a mass dismissal of personnel.?

On his official Facebook account, Umerov said “the changes will be notable by our soldiers.”?

He named the following people as “Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine” with varying portfolios:?

The recent shake-up of defense officials comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired his defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, at the beginning of the month, citing the need for “new approaches.”?

The change of leadership followed several military corruption scandals.

Fighters who had previously fought in Ukraine for the Russian mercenary group?Wagne have returned to the battlefield in the east, according to the Ukrainian military.

Wagner mercenaries had withdrawn from the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut in May as they handed control of the area to Russia’s military.

Following the shadowy group’s failed mutiny in June,?security experts predicted?that the Kremlin would seek to further absorb the group into the Russian military.

On Wednesday, the Deputy Commander of Communications for Ukrainian troops in the East, Serhii Cherevatyi, said the former Wagner fighters who had returned to Ukraine were now working for the Russian Ministry of Defense or its affiliated structures and had joined as individuals not as a unit.

But he sought to downplay the significance of their return, saying Russian forces in Ukraine “are short of everyone there now, so any man is good for them.”

Ukrainian soldiers taking part in the offensive near the beleaguered city of Bakhmut also told CNN former Wagner troops had returned to the area.

“Wagner is here too,” a drone operator with call-sign “Groove” told CNN’s Fred Pleitgen on the ground in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday. “They came back, they swiftly changed their commanders and returned here.”

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Wagner fighters had signed contracts with the Russian MoD “as an agreement to play the last chord, plugging the Russian hole in the Bakhmut direction for a short time.”

Podolyak, too, was keen not to inflate the return of the former mercenaries.

The Ukrainian general leading the southern counteroffensive, Oleksandr Tarnavsky, told CNN last week that Wagner fighters continue to pop up “here and there” on the frontlines.

“The fact is that their badges appear here and there — that’s been constant,” he said.

CNN’s Florence Davey-Attlee and Andrew Carey contributed to this report.

Ukrainian servicemen and firefighters stand in the area outside of a maternity hospital damaged in a shelling attack in Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 9, 2022.

Russian forces are constructing a new railway that will link the occupied cities of Mariupol, Volnovakha and Donetsk to southern Russia, according to a Ukrainian official.??

Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the exiled mayor of Mariupol, said the Russians “have begun construction of a railroad bridge near the village of Hranitne over the Kalmius River. If successful, this will allow the existing Mariupol-Aslanove-Kalchyk-Volnovakha line to be connected directly to Taganrog and Rostov-on-Don.”

Andriushchenko said if this railway is completed, it would allow Russia to transport military and civilian supplies to occupied territory in southern Ukraine without relying on the Crimea bridge.

The bridge connecting Crimea with the Russian mainland has come under?increasing attacks?by Ukrainian forces in recent months, as they try to cut supply lines to the peninsula.?

About Mariupol:?The port city on the Sea of Azov is located in Ukraine’s Donetsk region and has been under direct Russian control since May 2022. It was in?Mariupol that Russian forces carried out some of their most notorious strikes, including an?attack on a maternity hospital?and the?bombing of a theater?in which hundreds of civilians had sought refuge.

The city became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance during weeks of relentless Russian attacks last year. Famously, even when most of it had fallen, its defenders held out at the Azovstal steel plant for weeks before the stronghold finally fell.

Russia’s bid to rejoin the UN Human Rights Council should not be considered until it “is held accountable for all its crimes,” a Kyiv spokesperson said.

Moscow is formally seeking to rejoin the council, nearly 18 months after it was suspended from the UN body following its invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has been accused of a?huge number of human rights abuses?over the course of its war in Ukraine, and the International Criminal Court has?issued an arrest warrant?for its President Vladimir Putin over an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia.

Some context: Russia is listed on the UN website as a candidate for the election of members of the council for the 2024-2026 term, with a vote due to take place on October 10. Any move to reinstate Russia would be met with fury from the West, with several leading NATO states repeatedly insisting that Moscow’s illegal invasion of a neighboring state should disqualify it from membership of international bodies. A US spokesperson on Wednesday called the bid “preposterous.”

Russian Defence Minister?Sergei?Shoigu?chairs a meeting with the leadership of the Armed Forces, Admiral Viktor Sokolov is bottom left on screen, in Moscow, Russia, in this picture released September 26.

The Russian admiral whom?Ukraine forces said died?in a strike on occupied Crimea last week has appeared in a?video?posted by a Russian military channel Wednesday — the second video released in as many days which has cast further doubt on Kyiv’s claim.

Viktor Sokolov, commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, was asked by a reporter in a video about the missile strike on the fleet’s headquarters in Sevastopol, which Ukraine said had killed him.

The video was published Wednesday, however CNN cannot verify the date the interview was carried out. There are few details within the interview that reveal its time or location.

In the video, Sokolov also referred to the “Order of Ushakov” award given to Russia’s 810th Marine Brigade. This award was given on August 29, according to the Sevastopol Gov. Mikhail Razvozhaev.

The interview was published a day after the Russian defense ministry released a video that also?appeared to show Sokolov?participating in a meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other Russian military leaders.

The Kremlin initially refused to confirm whether or not Sokolov was alive. But, by the next day, the messaging had changed, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirming that Sokolov had attended the defense ministry meeting.

“Yesterday we spoke about the fleet commander. He took part in the meeting,” Peskov told reporters Wednesday.

Ukraine’s new defense minister Rustem Umerov neither confirmed nor denied Sokolov had been killed in the strike when?asked by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour?in an exclusive interview from Kyiv Tuesday.

Read the full story here.