January 16, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

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

A high-level United States delegation met Monday in Kyiv with top Ukrainian officials “to reaffirm the United States’ strong and steadfast commitment to Ukraine and its defense against Russia’s unprovoked aggression,” according to a State Department readout. 

Here’s who was on the US delegation:

• Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman
• Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer
• Under Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl

Here’s who they met with in Ukraine:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
• Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal
• Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov
• Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov
• Ukrenergo CEO Volodymyr Kudrytskyi

“Prior to the visit, the delegation made stops in Germany and Poland to review U.S. security assistance to Ukraine,” the readout said. 

During the meetings, the leaders talked about how international assistance “has helped stabilize Ukraine’s economy” as well as how the US and Ukraine could continue to have an economic and trade relationship when the war is over, according to the readout.

Leaders also discussed efforts to repair Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, it added.

Lithuania’s minister of foreign affairs, Gabrielius Landsbergis, speaks during an interview with CNN on Monday.

Lithuania’s minister of foreign affairs said the only way to end the war in Ukraine is for Western allies to send weapons, particularly tanks, to counter Russian attacks. 

“The discussion in the West is still about the end of the war, and there are those who believe that maybe a frozen conflict would be suited better, which I completely disagree with that notion,” Gabrielius Landsbergis told CNN’s Becky Anderson in an interview on Monday. “This thinking I think is the main obstacle for some countries to send the weapons that Ukrainians need.”

As Russian attacks increase on civilian areas of Ukraine, Western allies have stepped up their support for Ukrainian forces with more advanced weaponry. Germany, however, has received some heightened criticism over its reticence to send Leopard 2 battle tanks. 

Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called on the German government to supply “all sorts of weapons” to Ukraine on Monday.

Asked whether the Germans should be doing more, Landsbergis agreed. And he also noted that many countries had procured German-made tanks.

“They are willing to send the tanks to Ukraine. So far, they have not got a greenlight from Berlin, and I truly truly hope that this might change – and that will reduce the pressure on Germany itself,” he added. 

Rescue crews in Ukraine are still working to reach victims under debris after a Russian missile hit an apartment building in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro this weekend.

The strike killed at least 40 people — making it one of the deadliest single attacks of the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack a “war crime.”

Meantime, the UN nuclear watchdog is working on setting up a permanent presence at all of Ukraine’s nuclear power facilities.

Here are the top headlines:

• Dnipro attack: The Russian strike on a residential building in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro has killed 40 people, including three children, and injured 75 others, emergency services said Monday. The core of that building is now gone, transformed into a mountain of jumbled concrete. Apartments were sliced in half when the missile – with a warhead of nearly one metric ton – penetrated all the way to the basement. Rescuers have removed 8,500 metric tons of debris in an effort to reach victims.
• Russia denies targeting apartments: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Dnipro strike was the result of counter-missiles and air defense, contradicting Ukraine’s claims that a Russian Kh-22 missile was used. In response to a question about the attack, Peskov said the Russian Armed Forces only strike “against military targets, whether they are obvious or disguised,” and not at residential buildings. 
• Ongoing fighting in Soledar: Russian fighters from the Wagner private military company appear to have captured the main train station west of Soledar, the town in the Donetsk region over which Russia appeared to have largely established control last week, according to a video posted on Wagner’s Telegram channel. Ukrainian and Russian authorities have not commented on the claim. But, the Ukrainian Armed Forces Eastern Group said fighting is ongoing, with a spokesperson saying, “Ukraine maintains its positions in the town.”
• Patriot training: Ukrainian troops have arrived at Fort Sill in Oklahoma to begin training on the Patriot missile system, the US Army base announced Monday. The training will take “several months” on the advanced but complex long-range aerial defense system, according to Pentagon officials.
• Ukraine’s nuclear power plants: The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency was at the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant to mark the permanent presence of the nuclear watchdog at the site. While the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant already has IAEA team members on location, experts will also be stationed at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant in western Ukraine in “the coming days.” The director of the IAEA will also visit the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant, as well as Chernobyl.
• Pressure on Germany: Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is calling on the German government to supply “all sorts of weapons” to Ukraine. It comes after the resignation of German Minister of Defense Christine Lambrecht. She has faced criticism as Germany is under increasing pressure to ramp up military support for Kyiv, which has been insignificant compared to support from other Western allies during her time as minister. 
• Belarus-Russia aviation drills: Joint military aviation drills involving Belarusian and Russian forces are underway, the Belarusian defense ministry said. The exercises are taking place on Belarusian territory and the main goal is to “increase operational compatibility in the joint performance of combat training missions,” said the ministry. Kyiv has, for some time, warned that Russia may once again attempt an invasion of Ukraine from Belarus. 

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, arrives at a conference to support Ukraine on December 13, 2022 in Paris.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday visited the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant to mark the permanent presence of the nuclear watchdog at the site.

The head of the agency is in Ukraine this week to “establish a continuous presence of nuclear safety and security experts at all the country’s nuclear power facilities,” the IAEA previously announced.

“Now we are setting this permanent presence here,” Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a video posted to his Twitter account. “I think it is highly symbolic that we start this cold evening here, but with a warm spirit and with great determination.”

While the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant already has IAEA team members on location, experts will also be stationed at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant in western Ukraine in “the coming days,” the IAEA said in a statement on Saturday, ahead of the director’s visit.

Grossi will also visit the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant, as well as Chernobyl. Two IAEA members are expected to be posted at each site, the watchdog said.

The logo of Russia’s private military company Wagner is seen on the PMC Wagner Center in St. Petersburg, Russia, in December 2022.

A former commander in Russia’s private military company, Wagner, has fled to Norway and is seeking asylum after crossing that country’s arctic border, according to Norwegian police and a Russian activist. 

Andrei Medvedev, in an interview with a Russian activist who helps people seek asylum abroad, said that he feared for his life after refusing to renew his service with Wagner.

Medvedev said that after completing his contract and refusing to serve another, he was afraid of being executed in the same way asYevgeny Nuzhin — a defector from Wagner who was killed on camera with a sledgehammer.

“We were just thrown to fight like cannon fodder,” Medvedev told Vladimir Osechkin, head of Gulagu.net, a human rights advocacy group, in a conversation published on YouTube.

A spokesperson for Norway’s Police Security Service confirmed to CNN on Monday that Medvedev was in Norway and seeking asylum.

“This is so far a local police investigation,” Eirik Veum told CNN. “But the Security Service, we are informed, and follow the investigation of course.”

In a phone call from Norway with Osechkin, which was published online, Medvedev said that he crossed the border near the Russian town of Nikel. That aligns with the account of the Finnmark Police District, which without naming Medvedev said that it made an “undramatic” arrest of a man in Pasvik on the Norwegian side of the border at 1:58 a.m. on Jan. 13.

In his own account, Medvedev said that he crossed the border and approached the first house he could find. “It was a miracle I managed to get here,” he told Osechkin in the phone call.

Medvedev had previously tried to cross into Finland twice and failed, Osechkin told CNN Monday. The head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, confirmed on Telegram on Monday that Medvedev had served in his company, and said that he “should have been prosecuted for attempting to mistreat prisoners.” 

In a December conversation with Osechkin, which was published on YouTube, Medvedev denied that he had committed any crimes in Ukraine.

“I signed a contract with the group on the 6th of July 2022. I had been appointed commander of the first squad of the 4th platoon of the 7th assault detachment,” he recalled. “When the prisoners started arriving, the situation in Wagner really changed. They stopped treating us like humans.”

He claimed that prisoners were “shot dead for refusing to fight, or betrayal.”

“I am afraid for my life,” Medvedev said in December. “I did not commit any crime. I have refused to participate in maneuvers of Yevgeny Prigozhin.”

Osechkin told CNN that he began helping Medvedev after being approached by a friend at the end of November.

Ukrainian troops have arrived at Fort Sill in Oklahoma to begin training on the Patriot missile system, the US Army base announced Monday. 

CNN was first to report that the training was set to begin as soon as this week.

Fort Sill is home to the Fires Center of Excellence where the US conducts Patriot training for its own military and other countries.  

“The same instructors who teach U.S., allied and partner nations will conduct the Ukrainian training, and these classes will not detract from the ongoing training missions at Fort Sill,” the base said in a statement. 

The training will take “several months” on the advanced but complex long-range aerial defense system, according to Pentagon officials. It’s not clear how much the military can accelerate the training program.

Relatives of victims stand together at a makeshift memorial near the site of Saturday’s attack on an apartment building in Dnipro, Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday called the Russian attack on an apartment building in Dnipro a “war crime” and vowed to bring its perpetrators to justice.

“There is no doubt: everyone who is guilty of this war crime will be identified and brought to justice,” Zelensky said in his evening address. 

At least 40 people have died and 25 remain missing following the attack.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) named six members of the Russian military whom it claimed were involved in the strike, according to what the agency described as “preliminary investigation” findings.

“This strike on Dnipro, as well as other similar strikes, falls under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court,” Zelensky said. “And we will use all available opportunities — both national and international — to ensure that all Russian murderers, that everyone who gives and executes orders on missile terror against our people, receive legal sentences. And that they serve their sentences.”

Russian fighters from the Wagner private military company appear to have captured the main train station west of Soledar, the town in the Donetsk region over which Russia appeared to have largely established control last week, according to a video posted on Wagner’s Telegram channel Monday.

CNN has been unable to verify that claim and Ukrainian and Russian authorities have not commented on the claim.  

The station is Sil (or Sol, in Russian) just about three kilometers northwest of Soledar and about 14 kilometers north of Bakhmut. It lies along the main north-south railway and road.

In the video, seven Russian fighters are holding a Wagner flag in front of Sil’s train station. “Well, look here, we’ve taken Sol,” one man says. The men then fire their weapons in the air, and the camera pans to the rail tracks.

In the Ukrainian military’s regular update Monday morning, it said that an attack on Sil had been repelled “over the past 24 hours.”

Rescue workers clear rubble from the site of Saturday's Russian missile strike that destroyed an apartment building in Dnipro, Ukraine, on Monday.

Rescuers in Dnipro, Ukraine, have removed 8,500 metric tons of debris in an effort to rescue victims of Russia’s strike on an apartment block Saturday.

The State Emergencies Service (SES) said that 25 people are still missing.

“Search and rescue operations and dismantling of dangerous structural elements continue,” the SES said on Telegram Monday evening. “Utilities have removed more than 8 thousand 500 tons of construction debris and 41 damaged vehicles.”

The SES said that as of 2 p.m. ET (9 p.m. local), the toll still stood at 40 killed, 77 injured (including 14 children) and 39 rescued. From 47 reports of missing people, 18 have been confirmed dead, four were found alive at relatives’ houses or in the hospital and 25 are still missing.

“Psychologists of the State Emergencies Service provided assistance to 174 victims,” the SES said. “In total, 418 people and 60 units of equipment are engaged in the works, including 65 people and 21 units of equipment from the State Emergencies Service.”

Correction: An earlier version of this post included the wrong amount of debris removed from the Dnipro site. It is 8,500 metric tons.

A high voltage substation stands partially destroyed after a missile strike in central Ukraine in November 2022.

The collapse of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure “could happen any second,” Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said Monday.

“We don’t talk about a collapse, but it can happen any second, because any second Russian rockets can destroy our critical infrastructure in our hometown in Kyiv and not just in Kyiv, in other cities,” he told Reuters in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “We have a deficit of energy around 30% right now in Kyiv,” Klitschko added.

Klitschko’s warning comes amid a winter that has seen millions of Ukrainians without access to electricity, water, and central heating as a result of relentless Russian strikes on critical energy infrastructure. 

“Now in Ukraine it’s pretty cold – negative 10, negative 20, sometimes in winter negative 30 degrees. And in these weather conditions, to live without electricity, to live without heating is almost impossible, and that’s why the situation is critical, we’re fighting to survive,” Klitschko said.

British defense secretary Ben Wallace arrives at Downing Street in London to attend a cabinet meeting in December 2022.

The British defense secretary said Monday that Ukraine needed a “new level of support” to expel Russian troops from its territory, after announcing the donation of main battle tanks for the country.

“President Putin cannot win,” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in the House of Commons. “But he’s equally certain he can continue inflicting this wanton violence and human suffering until his forces are ejected from their defensive positions and expelled from the country.” 

“That requires a new level of support — the combat power only achieved by combinations of main battle tank squadrons operating alongside divisional artillery groups, and further deep precision fires, enabling targeting of Russian logistics and command nodes at greater distance,” he said.

Wallace said that the UK would send “a squadron of Challenger 2 tanks, with armored recovery and repair vehicles” to Ukraine. He called it “the most significant package of combat power to date to accelerate Ukrainian success.”

 It is the first time that western main battle tanks will be sent to Ukraine, Wallace said.

“Today’s package will help accelerate the conclusion of Putin’s occupation and all its brutality, and ensure that in 2023 and beyond if necessary, Ukraine retains its momentum, supported by the international community,” the defense secretary added.

He also said that the UK would send Ukraine AS-90 self-propelled artillery, and “hundreds more armored and protective vehicles.”

Wallace called the replacement of Russia’s commander for its war in Ukraine “the visible tip of an iceberg of factionalism in the Russian command.” 

“Putin apparently remains bullish. And with Gerasimov’s deference to the president never in doubt, we now would expect a trend back towards a Russian offensive, no matter how much loss of life accompanies it.”

Ukraine’s military warned on Monday that the joint Russia-Belarus aviation drills that began Monday were a “guise.”

“There is a high danger of further Russian air and missile strikes on objects throughout Ukraine,” Ukraine’s General Staff said in its regular evening statement on Monday.

“On Jan. 16, near the Ukrainian border, a joint flight and tactical training of aviation units of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus and Russia, which are part of a regional grouping of troops involving combat aircraft of both countries, began,” it added. “Thus, under the guise of joint training, the enemy has strengthened the combat aviation group in Belarus. In view of this, the threat of missile and air strikes from the airspace of Belarus is growing.”

Kyiv has, for some time, warned that Russia may once again attempt an invasion of Ukraine from Belarus. 

Military exercises in Belarus were “sufficient to threaten Ukraine,” and Kyiv was “closely monitoring what is being transferred from Russia to the territory of Belarus,” Serhii Naev, commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, had said on Dec. 20.

Earlier this month, the Belarusian Ministry of Defense announced that Minsk and Moscow were planning to hold joint aviation drills from January 16 to February 1.

A resident gathers her belongings a day after Saturday’s missile strike on an apartment building in Dnipro.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said Monday that it had examined the wreckage of the munition that hit an apartment building in the city of Dnipro on Saturday and that it was identified as a cruise missile.

The SBU also named six members of the Russian military whom it claimed were involved in the strike, according to what the agency described as “preliminary investigation” findings.

“As a result of the inspection of the tragedy site, the type of Russian cruise missile Kh-22, which the enemy hit the residential building, was preliminarily confirmed,” the SBU said in a statement Monday.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed Monday that a Ukrainian air-defense missile had hit the apartment building, without presenting evidence.

“Each Russian war crime has a specific perpetrator,” SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk said, in a statement. “The Security Service will identify and publish all of them by name – so that no murderer escapes punishment.”

Some more context: A Russian missile strike on a Dnipro apartment building has left at least 40 people dead, making it one of the deadliest single attacks of the war, and the deadliest in months.

Dnipro is still reeling after a Russian cruise missile struck a nine-story apartment building in the central Ukrainian city on early Saturday afternoon, killing at least 40 people and injuring another 75, with 46 people reported missing.

The core of that building is now gone, transformed into a mountain of jumbled concrete. Apartments were sliced in half when the missile – with a warhead of nearly one metric ton – penetrated all the way to the basement.

Here are some pictures from the ground:

Rescue workers carry the body of a person killed in a Russian missile strike on an apartment building in the southeastern city of Dnipro, Ukraine, on January 16.

Emergency personnel evacuate a person at the site of the attack in Dnipro, Ukraine, on January 15.

Emergency workers clear the rubble after a Russian rocket hit a building in the southeastern city of Dnipro, Ukraine, on January 14.

Rescuers remove rubble and search for people at an apartment block hit by a rocket launched by Russian forces during in Dnipro, Ukraine, on January 14.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes a speech as he attends a program at the ATO Convention and Exhibition Center in Ankara, Turkey, on January 3.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call Monday that Western weapons supplies to Ukraine are intensifying hostilities and that Kyiv’s rejection of a ceasefire proposed by Russia for the Orthodox Christmas period is an example of Kyiv’s “hypocritical policy,” according to a statement by the Kremlin. 

“Vladimir Putin drew attention to the destructive line of the Kyiv regime, which relied on the intensification of hostilities with the support of Western sponsors, increasing the volume of transferred weapons and military equipment,” the statement reads. “An example of the hypocritical policy of Kyiv was the rejection of the proposal to cease fire for the period of Orthodox Christmas.”

“On the initiative of the Turkish side and taking into account recent contacts in Ankara, the commissioners of Russia and Ukraine for human rights will touch upon the issue of the exchange of prisoners, primarily the wounded,” the Kremlin said. 

Russian missile strike: The call between Putin and Erdogan came just a few days after a Russian missile hit an apartment building in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. The missile strike left at least 40 people dead, making it one of the deadliest single attacks of the war, and the deadliest in months.

The implementation of the package of agreements on the export of Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea ports and the unblocking of food and fertilizer supplies from Russia were also discussed, according to the Kremlin. 

“Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to the further comprehensive development of Russian-Turkish cooperation,” the Kremlin said, adding “among the priorities is cooperation in the energy sector, including the supply of Russian natural gas and the creation of a regional gas hub in Turkey.”