August 10, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The US military tracked and identified Russian aircraft flying into Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone on two separate occasions on Monday, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). 

In both instances, it was a single Russian surveillance aircraft the military tracked. On the second occasion, which occurred on Monday night, NORAD sent F-22 fighter jets to intercept the surveillance aircraft. 

“The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,” NORAD said in a statement.

The ADIZ is international airspace adjacent to Alaska that extends in places more than 100 miles from US territory. The US military initiates identification procedures for aircraft in the ADIZ in the interest of national security. 

The incursions into the Alaskan Area Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) were not deemed to be escalatory, several defense officials told CNN.

The Russian aircraft did not operate in a way that was unsafe or unprofessional, one defense official said, nor did they enter Alaska’s Exclusive Economic Zone. 

Officials say a similar incident happened earlier this year.

The situation on the main battlefield in the Donetsk region remains unchanged, despite attacks by Russian forces in multiple locations, while a European Union ban on Russian coal comes into force today.

Here are the latest headlines:

Spain set a maximum air-conditioning temperature of 27 degrees Celsius (80.6 Fahrenheit) in stores and many public indoor settings starting Wednesday, as an energy savings law took effect in light of Russia’s “threats” to interrupt natural gas supply to Western Europe. 

“Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the threats of a partial or total interruption of natural gas supply from Russia to the European Union have been more frequent,” according to Spain’s official state bulletin on August 2, which published the energy savings law. 

The energy savings plan aims to reduce demand for gas and oil in Spain by 5 percent in the short term, and expand the use of green energy sources, said a government statement on August 1. 

European Union member states, including Spain, agreed to a “voluntary reduction of natural gas demand by 15 percent this winter,” the EU said in a statement on July 26. 

The air conditioning maximum of 27C applies to department stores and smaller shops, hotel lobbies, cinemas, theaters, airports, train stations and government buildings, under the law approved by Spain’s Socialist government earlier this month. 

The new law takes effect as maximum temperatures in many parts of country this week are expected to be around 35C (95F), following Spain’s hottest July in over 60 years, the national weather service said. 

Stores are also required to turn off their showcase window lighting at 10 p.m., when government buildings also have to shut off decorative exterior lighting.

Spanish media reported that the country’s largest department store chain turned off its showcase lights at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, just before the law took effect. 

The Madrid regional government, run by the main conservative party, blasted the rules as “arbitrary and authoritarian” and unconstitutional. 

It complained that the Socialist government’s law will make Madrid the only European capital to turn off its store showcase lights by 10 p.m.

The new law also requires stores with street access to have doors that can easily close, including automatically, so that they don’t remain open and waste energy while using air conditioning or heating, said Ecological Transition Minister Teresa Ribera, adding they would have to comply by September 30. 

A representative for Madrid small shop owners told Spain’s SER radio that the requirement would be costly for his sector, at an estimated 12,000 Euros ($12,290) per shop. 

The new law will limit winter heating temperatures to a maximum of 19C (66.2F) in the same public spaces where the maximum of 27C air conditioning rules apply in summer. The law will be in effect until October 1, 2023, the government said. 

A European Union ban on imports of Russian coal, agreed to by member states in April, began today.

The coal ban was part of a fifth round of EU sanctions imposed on Russia following  revelations of atrocities in Ukraine, including the killing of civilians in the town of Bucha.

All forms of Russian coal are banned from the European Union, a move that the European Commission said would affect about 8 billion euros worth of Russian exports per year. 

The ban constituted the first coordinated embargo by the EU on the vast energy exports that power Russia's economy and generate hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue each year.

EU leaders struggled to agree on targeting Russian energy because of the risk posed to the region's economy during a time of soaring natural gas and fuel prices. 

Europe imports almost half of its coal from Russia, but demand for the world's dirtiest fossil fuel was already waning, and alternative supplies are more readily available than for natural gas.

"Sanctioning coal will make life much more difficult for European utilities, which consume a lot of Russian coal, but energy companies can cope with this, and politicians find this an easier sale publicly because it chimes well with the general and accelerating EU green transition," Henning Gloystein, director of energy, climate and resources at Eurasia Group, told CNN Business in April.

Russia was the world's third largest exporter of coal in 2020, behind Australia and Indonesia, according to the IEA. It's also the leading exporter of thermal coal to the European Union, ahead of China and South Korea.

Supplies of Russian oil to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia through the Druzhba  pipeline have been suspended due to sanctions restrictions imposed by the European Union, Russian oil firm Transneft said Tuesday.

Ukrainian operator Ukrtransnafta suspended the pumping of Russian oil because it could not receive transit fees due to EU sanctions restrictions, Transneft told Russian state news agency TASS.

"Ukrtransnafta suspended providing services on transportation of oil through Ukrainian territory starting August 4, 2022, due to the lack of receipt of monetary funds for services provided," said Transneft. "The transit via the northern line of the Druzhba oil pipeline through Belarus towards Poland and Germany is per normal."

Transneft made a payment on July 22 but it was returned to the company’s account, it said. 

"As of now the European banks (correspondents) are no longer authorized to independently decide on the possibility of this or that transaction," Transneft said.

"To confirm the fact that the transaction is not among those banned it is necessary to obtain a permit from the national authorized state body. The fact that European regulators have not yet articulated a consensus on the algorithm of actions for banks in various jurisdictions, as well as the order of providing such permits, makes things even more complicated," it added.

To resolve the issue, Transneft has submitted a request to the authorized bank to transfer information to the European regulator to obtain a permit to carry out payments, according to TASS, while alternative options for making payments are also being investigated.

Promises of freedom and riches are made to convicts in cramped jail cells. Frantic phone calls ensue between relatives and inmates weighing the offer. Then prisoners vanish, leaving their loved ones to sift through reports of the wounded arriving in hospitals.

This scene is playing out in the convict communities across Russia. With a regular army stretched thin after nearly six months of a disastrously executed and bloody invasion of Ukraine, there's increasing evidence that the Kremlin is making ugly choices in its ugly war and recruiting Russia's prisoners to fight.

Over a month-long investigation, CNN has spoken to inmates caught up in Russia's newest recruitment scheme, along with their relatives and friends. Activists believe hundreds have been approached in dozens of prisons across Russia — from murderers to drug offenders.

Read the full story here.

Heavy rocket fire and artillery attacks hit multiple regions across Ukraine overnight, from Zaporizhzhia in the south to Kharkiv in the north.

On the southern front, Ukrainian air defenses shot down two incoming missiles near Zaporizhzhia, according to the regional military administration, and four more attacks were reported just south of the city early Wednesday.

The city of Mykolaiv came under rocket fire again Tuesday night, with three civilians injured.

"Fighting continues in settlements bordering Mykolaiv Region and Dnipropetrovsk Region. In most communities, the situation remains tense, more and more villages are on the verge of destruction," the regional administration said. 

Authorities in Kharkiv in north-eastern Ukraine reported attacks on several districts, with destruction of property but no civilian casualties.

On the main battlefield in the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian military said several efforts by Russian troops to push forward had been resisted.

However artillery fire persisted along much of the frontline, with Avdiivka, Soledar, Bakhmut and Siversk among settlements hit by rocket, tank and artillery fire, said the military. Two civilians were reported killed in Donetsk.

The Ukrainian military also reported further attacks against Russian positions in the Kherson region, and said that "an enemy warehouse was destroyed in the Henichesk district of the Kherson region" on Tuesday.

Henichesk is close to Crimea. CNN reported the attack on Tuesday. 

The number of people injured by massive explosions at the Novofedorivka air base in Crimea has risen to 13, according to the Crimean Health Ministry.

One person was killed by the explosions, which took place Tuesday.

The detonations also caused damage in a nearby town, with windows blown out. High-rise buildings lost power, while shops and a cultural center were damaged, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Russia invaded and subsequently annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

The explosions: On Tuesday, Russian state media RIA Novosti initially reported the blasts had been caused by detonated aviation ammunition "on the territory of the airfield 'Saki'" near Novofedorivka.

Ukraine has not officially said its forces were responsible for the explosions. But an adviser to the Interior Minister, Anton Gerashchenko, said Wednesday that satellite images of the airfield hours before the attack showed there were more than 30 aircraft and helicopters there.

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian armed forces added nine aircraft to the tally of Russian military hardware they say has been destroyed.

Zelensky on Crimea: On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the war "began with Crimea and must end with Crimea -- its liberation."

A large fire has broken out in the Russian port of Yeysk on the Sea of Azov, near the Russia-Ukraine border.

Yeysk is located across the water from the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol, which was targeted heavily during the start of the invasion.

Social media videos and images geolocated by CNN show a thick plume of dark smoke drifting across the town. One video shows a substantial explosion occurring.

Russian state news agency TASS said a fire broke out in a hangar building spanning 550 square meters. Emergency services are on the scene and there are no casualties, TASS reported, citing the Ministry of Emergency Situations in Krasnodar.

Local and regional authorities have not released any official comment.

This post has been updated with additional information.