March 9, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.  

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.

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.

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