July 12, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The United States on Monday unveiled a potential new player in the Ukraine war: Iran.

Newly declassified US intelligence indicates that Tehran is preparing to supply Russia with "hundreds" of drones -- including those with weapons capability -- for use in the war in Ukraine, White House officials said. 

"Our information further indicates that Iran is preparing to train Russian forces to use these UAVs, with initial training session slated in as soon as early July. It's unclear whether Iran has delivered any of these UAVs to Russia already," national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House press briefing on Monday.

Sullivan argued that news of Iran supplying the drones is evidence that Russia's attacks against Ukraine in recent weeks are coming at the "severe" cost of depleting of its own weapons.

The announcement has raised eyebrows, and not everyone is convinced that Iran is capable of exporting large quantities of drones. “It's unlikely Iran even has that many operational drones in its own fleet,” tweeted Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, founder of Bourse Bazaar, a London-based think tank. “It also has no experience exporting drones at scale.”

The White House’s claim comes as nuclear talks between Iran and the United States have come to a dead-end, potentially raising the specter of renewed conflict in the Middle East should they fail. But it also comes as Middle East states prepare to launch an alliance of Arab states and Israel, reportedly under US backing, to counter potential threats from Iran. Iran has warned that it views the move as provocative and a threat to its national security. 

If Iran is indeed planning to sell arms to Russia for use in its war on Ukraine, it would be essentially inserting itself into a Russian-Western proxy war in NATO’s backyard. The message to the Biden administration is that Tehran too can spread its influence to faraway conflict zones where the US has vested interests.  

While Iran’s drones haven’t been known to be sought after by militaries around the world, they do pose a potent threat to its adversaries. They have been an integral part of Iran’s military strategy and have caught the attention of American officials. Last year, Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the top US commander in the Middle East, told Congress that Iran-linked drones “present a new and complex threat to our forces and those of our partners and allies.” For the first time since the Korean War, “we are operating without complete air superiority,” he said.

Drone warfare was especially important in the early weeks of the Ukrainian conflict, when Turkish-made strike drones were used by the Ukrainian military to great effect. But Russian air defenses now provide greater coverage in the east. 

Iranian drones would not be a game changer but might mitigate Russian weaknesses in exploiting UAVs. 

Major General Hossein Salaami, the commander of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, said last year that his country possesses drones with a 7,000 kilometer (4,300 mile) range. According to the United States Institute of Peace, Iran’s medium-to-large drones can likely stay in the air for up to 20 hours while carrying fairly sophisticated sensors, payloads and a range of weapons. Some its drones, like those used by Lebanon’s Hezbollah, can carry a payload of up to 150kg, it said.

Iranian drones have been used outside its borders before, but that has largely been in Middle East conflict zones where Tehran can smuggle them to its non-state proxies. They have been effective in Iraq, Yemen and Saudi Arabia, where they were believed by the US to have been used in an attack on Saudi oil facilities in 2019 that saw crude prices soar to a record high. Iran denied launching that attack. 

The arrival of Iranian weapons into Europe’s biggest conflict since the Second World War would be a major milestone for Iran’s weapons industry and its status as an arms manufacturer. And it would represent a rare occasion when Tehran’s weapons were being employed not just by a state actor, but one that is a top global military power. 

CNN’s Tim Lister contributed to this article.

The death toll from a strike at a residential building in the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine on Saturday has increased to 38, including a child, according to the Emergency Services of Ukraine. 

Nine people were rescued from the rubble and "more than 320 tons of destroyed elements of the building were cleared and disassembled," according to an earlier statement on Facebook from Ukraine's State Service for Emergency Situations in the Donetsk region.

Emergency teams continue to work at the site, it said.

There have been several unexplained explosions and reports of gunfire in the Ukrainian town of Enerhodar in the past 12 hours, according to social media accounts and the Russian-installed mayor.

"Enerhodar did not sleep tight tonight," said Dmytro Orlov, the mayor of the town, who is now in nearby Zaporizhzhia.

"At first, people were awakened by the sounds of several explosions that were heard either in the city itself or somewhere outside of it," he added. "And then during the second half of the night, weird chaotic shots were heard in various residential neighborhoods."

Unofficial social media accounts — reposted by Ukraine's state nuclear enterprise Energoatom — claimed that the Russians had staged a firefight that damaged the local Security Services (SSU) building.

"What is certain is that it makes no sense for our Armed Forces to fire at the SSU building, since it has not been used by the Russians themselves for a long time."

A later post on a local, unofficial Telegram channel showed smoke rising from somewhere in the town on Tuesday morning.

Russia claimed the Ukrainian Armed Forces attempted to use a "kamikaze" drone in Enerhodar, but it was destroyed by the air defense systems of the Russian Armed Forces, a spokesperson from the press service of the city's military-civilian administration told Russian state news outlet RIA Novosti on Tuesday. 

According to RIA Novosti, the Ukrainian military used the drone to attack a residential area.

"The Armed Forces of Ukraine have just tried to use another drone in Enerhodar. It was destroyed by the air defense of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation," the spokesman told RIA Novosti.

"Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, located in the city of Enerhodar, is operating normally. At the nuclear power plant itself, the situation is still calm," he added. 

Authorities are clarifying information about possible victims, RIA Novosti reported. 

According to RIA Novosti, the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Monday hit a building near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is located in Enerhodar, with two drones. The drones dropped two mines with a caliber of 120 millimeters, damaging the roof and glazing, according to RIA.  

Enerhodar has been occupied by Russian forces since early March and is adjacent to a large nuclear power station that is also under Russian control.

Dozens of civilians have been killed as Russian forces step up their bombardment of residential areas, while the Ukrainian military is pushing hard to regain territory in the south of the country.

Here are the latest headlines:

Twelve people were injured and homes destroyed after the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv came under heavy fire Monday night, according to Ukrainian officials.

"The enemy shelled the city massively at night," said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the President's office, on Telegram.

"The Russians direct their missiles at residential areas, shopping centers, recreation centers, and apartment buildings," Tymoshenko said.

Oleksandr Sienkevych, the mayor of Mykolaiv, said two hospitals were damaged by shelling, but there had been no injuries.

The regional military administration said Russian forces continued their fire against communities around Mykolaiv, but had caused no casualties.

Villages along the border between Mykolaiv and Kherson have become the front lines as Ukrainian forces try to penetrate Russian defenses in the region.

She further stated that “a hospital and school were destroyed” while “private houses were damaged.”

Russian forces have carried out a spate of attacks on residential areas in the last few days, causing dozens of civilian casualties.

On Monday, six people were killed and a further 31 injured in rocket attacks on Kharkiv, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office said on Telegram.

Serhii Bolvinov, head of the Investigation Department of the National Police in Kharkiv, said a shopping center was damaged, as well as houses and vehicles.

Fragments of a rocket from a Uragan multi launch rocket system had been found at the scene of the damage.

Then Russian forces struck Kharkiv again on Tuesday morning, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, on Telegram.

"We appeal to the residents of Kharkiv: stay in shelters, do not go out on the streets of the city unnecessarily," said Syniehubov.

Elsewhere, 12 people were injured and homes destroyed after the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv came under heavy fire Monday night, according to Ukrainian officials.

"The Russians direct their missiles at residential areas, shopping centers, recreation centers, and apartment buildings," Tymoshenko said.

These attacks follow the deaths of at least 35 people who were killed when Russian rockets hit a residential building in Chasiv Yar over the weekend, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk region military administration, on his official Telegram channel on Tuesday.  

At least nine more people were injured and one of those who died is a child, said Kyrylenko.

The Ukrainian military has reported widespread fighting in both the northern and southern theaters of combat over the past 24 hours, with Ukrainian forces going on the offensive in the south and Russian artillery active in Donetsk and Kharkiv.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Russian forces tried to advance in Kharkiv region -- some 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the city -- but were rebuffed.

However, they continued to shell districts close to Kharkiv city and other parts of the region, according to Ukraine's military.

Two men were killed in shelling of the town of Zolochiv near the Russian border, according to the regional military administration.

"In the Kharkiv region, seven people died and 34 were injured as a result of shelling by the occupiers," the administration said.

The General Staff said there had been no change in the front lines north of the city of Sloviansk. "All the actions of the enemy in the direction of these settlements were unsuccessful," it said.

But Russian shelling of the city from a distance continues, and one person was injured overnight when a residential building was struck, according to local authorities.

The General Staff said Russian forces were also trying to improve their tactical positions further south in the Donetsk region, with missile and rocket attacks in several areas. 

The Russian goal is to close in on those parts of the region still held by Ukrainian forces, around 45% of the region, from three directions.

But since the fall of Lysychansk in neighboring Luhansk, the front lines in Donetsk have changed little. 

In the south: Meanwhile, in southern Ukraine, Russian forces are largely on the defensive as Ukrainian forces try to make advances into Kherson region.

The General Staff said Tuesday that "the enemy is concentrating its efforts on holding the occupied positions and preventing the offensive of units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine."

The Ukrainian military's Operational Command South said three Russian ammunition warehouses had been struck in parts of Mykolaiv under Russian control, and Ukrainian helicopters had attacked Russian positions in neighboring Kherson.

Serhii Khlan, an adviser to the head of Kherson civil military administration, said Tuesday that "our armed forces began to attack positions near Pravdyne, Oleksandrivka, and Snigurivka [in Kherson and Mykolaiv regions] with helicopters."

"We have already launched attacks along almost the entire front line," Khlan said.

Russian forces are now reinforcing their checkpoints "because the partisan movement is intensifying in the Kherson region.....the fortification with concrete hints that the occupiers are preparing for street battles," he added.

CNN is unable to verify Khlan's claims, but there has been an uptick in Ukrainian offensive actions in Kherson and Mykolaiv recently.

Russia has blocked the exits from the occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol for the second day in a row, according to city mayor Ivan Fedorov.

Russian forces were "so afraid of the counter-offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that they have covered themselves with thousands of civilians as human shields," said Fedorov, who is not in Melitopol.

Fedorov said the Russians had closed the checkpoint at Vasylivka -- the main crossing point for civilian traffic trying to reach other parts of Ukraine.

On Monday, Fedorov said the Russians had blocked off the western part of Melitopol, stranding "tens of thousands of the citizens of the residential neighborhood."

Like parts of neighboring Kherson region, Melitopol has seen strikes by Ukrainian forces far behind the front lines in recent days.

The Russian-appointed head of the regional administration in Melitopol, Yevgeniy Balitskiy, said Tuesday on his Telegram channel that the Ukrainian government had "turned into ISIS: they blow up bridges, carry out attacks on public figures," an apparent reference to the reported assassination attempt against a pro-Russian local official, Andriy Siguta, whose car was blown up.

"This will not change anything," Balitskiy said. "The people of Zaporozhzhia region have already made their choice....The liberated part of Zaporizhzhia region will become a part of [the Russian Federation] through a referendum."

Fedorov has claimed that there were high casualties in a Ukrainian strike on a Russian garrison in Melitopol on Saturday night, saying the occupying forces "do not know where to put the bodies of the killed Russian soldiers."

"Doctors of forensic medical examination do not want to collaborate and do not issue death certificates because they do not want to cooperate with the Russians," Fedorov said.

Last week, Fedorov said there had been more than 30 strikes on a single military base outside the city.

CNN cannot confirm the extent of damage or casualties caused by the Ukrainian strikes against Russian forces in the area. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to Tehran to hold talks with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on July 19, according to the Kremlin. 

“Putin, [Raisi] and Erdogan will hold a meeting,” Peskov said, adding that, in addition to the trilateral meeting, there will also be a bilateral meeting between Putin and Erdogan.

The Chief of the Economic Commission of Iran’s Parliament, Mohammadreza Pour-Ebrahimi, told Iranian state news agency IRNA on Tuesday that Putin would visit Tehran next week to discuss expansion of economic ties between Iran and Russia.

Pour-Ebrahimi told IRNA that after the recent trip by Iran’s President to Russia, "a positive atmosphere has been created" regarding Iran-Russia economic cooperation.