March 28, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Russia is ready to discuss the situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Russia's state-owned nuclear energy monopoly Rosatom said Tuesday.

Moscow is ready to negotiate "ensuring nuclear safety” and “understanding the development of the situation at the plant" during Rafael Grossi’s expected visit to the plant this week, said Renat Karchaa, an adviser to Rosatom’s CEO, on state TV Russia 24.

“We are open to these questions," Karchaa said, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Some context: Russia captured the plant in early March 2022. Since then, international and local experts have warned about the possibility of a nuclear disaster that could affect thousands of people in the surrounding area.

IAEA chief Grossi tweeted Sunday saying he is on his way for a first-hand assessment of "the nuclear safety and security situation at the facility.”

On Monday, he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was visiting the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions. 

Zelensky accused Russia of nuclear blackmail over its control of the nuclear power plant.

“No other terrorist has reached such depths in his cynicism, in which Russia constantly seeks and finds a new bottom.”

Authorities in the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka say the number of people willing to evacuate has increased as it comes under "almost non-stop" fire.

Up to 14 rockets hit the town every day and "someone dies every day," said Donetsk region police, who are helping with evacuations.

In recent days a kindergarten and farm were destroyed, said police, adding that five children remain in the town.

Vitalii Barabash, the head of Avdiivka military administration, said that starting on Sunday, the town’s utilities will begin to be shut off as “more and more of the town is shelled and destroyed daily.”

"The town is being wiped off the face of the earth," said Barabash.

Some context: Avdiivka is near the besieged city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine and has also come under sustained attack by Russian forces.

On Sunday, a Ukrainian soldier also said that the situation in Avdiivka continues to be "difficult," as Russian forces have increased the number of airstrikes and have been able to cut off some supply routes.

Avdiivka is located about 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of the city of Donetsk.

Ukraine’s main task in the eastern city of Bakhmut is to “deplete the enemy’s overwhelming forces and inflict heavy losses on it,” the commander of the Ukrainian Land Forces said Tuesday.

“We are now at a time when the enemy, trying to capture Bakhmut, has thrown all its best units in to achieve victory," Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a video posted on Telegram, which shows him standing alongside troops during a visit to the area.

“We want to reach the borders of Ukraine, we want to break the enemy so that it dies – here, near Bakhmut, in other areas. The main thing is that you continue to perform your tasks in such an exemplary manner, and the main thing is that you return to your units alive and unharmed after completing them,” Syrskyi told the soldiers.

“Thanks to the heroism and professionalism of our military, skilful and coordinated actions, effective use of maneuver and weapons capabilities, we are holding the Bakhmut fortress despite various deadlines and forecasts," he added.

On Monday, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said that Syrskyi visited Bakhmut and “took a number of measures to resolve problematic issues that impede the effective performance of combat missions.”

Some context: Bakhmut has been besieged by Russian forces for months. It remains the primary focus of Russian attacks, Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesman for the Eastern Grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, told CNN on Sunday. 

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has said that deploying Russian nuclear weapons on its territory is not against the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), according to Russian state news agency TASS.

“The training of Belarusian pilots capable of flying aircraft with specific ammunition, the modernization of such aircraft, as well as the deployment of nuclear warheads on the territory of Belarus without transferring control over them to Minsk, as well as access to appropriate technologies, do not in any way contravene the provisions of Articles I and II of the NPT," it added.

The ministry said that such practice "is not an innovation in the field of military cooperation between non-nuclear and nuclear powers."

It also said that Belarus has been subjected to pressure from the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and NATO allies, causing Minsk to take “forced retaliatory actions to strengthen its own security and defense capability.” 

Some context: Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in an interview Saturday that Moscow plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus.

The statement prompted strong reaction in the West including NATO denouncing the move as "dangerous and irresponsible," and Lithuania calling for new sanctions against Russia.

Advanced battle tanks donated by Western allies — including Leopard 2s from Germany and Challengers from the United Kingdom — have started to arrive in Ukraine, bolstering the country's armed forces after months of pleading for reinforcements.

On Monday, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Ukraine had received Challenger main battle tanks from the UK; Stryker infantry fighting vehicles and Cougar infantry mobility vehicles from the United States; and Marder infantry fighting vehicles from Germany.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Berlin had also delivered Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

“Yes, we delivered Leopard tanks as we announced," Scholz said during a joint news conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in Rotterdam on Monday. 

And three Leopard 2 main battle tanks donated by Portugal have arrived in Ukraine, the country’s ministry of defense said in a statement on Monday.

Some background: The Western main battle tanks bring greater firepower and survivability at a time when tank warfare has become an important part of the conflict.

Hamish de Bretton Gordon, former commanding officer of the 1st Royal Tank Regiment in the British Army, says the Challengers being sent by the UK are vastly superior to anything the Russians have, such as the T-72 tanks.

Western tanks would also allow Ukraine to conduct combined arms maneuvers if supported by infantry and artillery, and much of southern and eastern Ukraine is ideal terrain for combinations of modern Western tanks and armored fighting vehicles to spearhead a counteroffensive.

The Leopard 2 has another advantage, given the incredible rate at which ammunition is being used in Ukraine. The ammunition for its 120 mm gun is widely available among NATO armies.

Fred Pleitgen, Tim Lister, Matthias Somm, Vasco Cotovio, Yulia Kesaieva and Inke Kappeler contributed reporting.

A hospital in the southern Ukrainian port city of Kherson was shelled by Russian forces overnight, local authorities said Tuesday.

"The enemy fired mortars at the hospital, which is located in the Dniprovskyi district of the city," Kherson's regional military administration said.

No civilians were injured in the attack, it added.

On Saturday, regional authorities announced that Russian shelling in Kherson left two people dead and six injured in the preceding 24 hours.

A Russian rocket attack damaged a kindergarten and a school in the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region on Monday night, Ukrainian authorities said.

In a Telegram post, the Kramatorsk City Council said no casualties were reported. Six houses and a non-residential building were also damaged, it added.

The attack came after Russian missile strikes earlier in the day on nearby Sloviansk, which killed at least two people.

In an update Tuesday morning, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk regional military administration, revised the number of injured down from 32 to 28 in Sloviansk.

As Ukraine marked a year since Russia’s full-scale invasion, Sasha Kharitonov spent his days lying in a bed in a corner of a small room that smelled of cigarettes and had Russian TV playing in the background.

He’s 17 years old but unable to move or eat on his own because of a severe form of cerebral palsy. He has frequent seizures and sometimes struggles to breathe.

Sasha requires round-the-clock care, but after his mother died three months ago no one was willing to take care of him. He continued to live with his disabled stepfather and step-grandmother Halyna Chernyshova, an 81-year-old woman who sometimes refers to him as “it” and who openly contemplated whether he “would be better off with his mom.”

During a visit last month to their home in Slavutych, near Ukraine’s border with Belarus, the family told CNN they had tried to find a place for Sasha in a care home but were repeatedly turned away. Many facilities were either damaged in the war or are full of patients from occupied regions.

His distant aunt, Lilia Seheda, wanted to take him in, but as the single mom of two children, it’s too much for her. Instead, she’d visit a couple times a day and help feed or change Sasha. Sometimes she’d read to him, watching his faint smile.

The war has put a huge strain on Ukraine’s health care 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.

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Ukraine's air defenses shot down 14 of 15 Shahed drones launched by Russia into Kyiv's airspace overnight Monday, the Ukrainian military’s General Staff said Tuesday.

Earlier, the Kyiv regional military administration said in a Telegram post that falling debris from the incident set a building on fire.

There were no casualties, Popko added.

This post has been updated with additional information.