November 7, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Ukraine's air force says that newly arrived western air defense systems will help deal with the new threat of Iranian ballistic missiles reportedly being purchased by Russia.

Yuriy Ihnat, Air Force spokesperson, told a briefing in Kyiv that Ukraine might target the Iranian missiles at their launch sites, which would probably be well inside Russia. 

Ihnat said the Iranian missiles have "a range of 300 and 700 kilometers, which in principle will not create anything new for Ukraine, because [Russian-made] Iskanders were used from the first day of the war."

"I think both the top military leadership and our partners are working on this issue, looking for effective ways to counter these new threats," Ihnat said. 

He said that the Russians were unable to make progress on the battlefield and had resorted to attacking infrastructure supplying energy and water. "They want to hit energy facilities in the autumn-winter period first of all, because people's lives largely depend on them. This air terrorism will continue by all available means."

"It is clear that the missiles that will be received from Iran, if it is done, will be used at the energy infrastructure facilities, and [the Russians] will continue to strike with cruise missiles as well."

CNN reported on Nov. 1 that Iran is preparing to send about 1,000 additional weapons, including short range ballistic missiles and more attack drones, to Russia, citing officials from a western country that closely monitors Iran's weapons program.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Russia is “open to” negotiation with Ukraine but that the moment is not right for talks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree in early October formally ruling out the possibility of negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to Russia's illegal claim to annex portions of four Ukrainian regions. 

“Russians are not ready to admit they have occupied our country,” Zelensky said in September, a month before the decree. “This means there will be no substantial dialogue.”

“We want to end the war, but the space and opportunities have changed,” Zelensky said. “There is no reassurance that [the Russians] will do what they say they will do. I think they won’t. No one believes them.”

The Washington Post on Saturday reported that U.S. officials have privately encouraged the Ukrainian government to signal an openness to talks with Russia – not to reach a near-term settlement, but as a political move in order to maintain Western support for the war effort. CNN has not confirmed the Post’s reporting.

“We don't know if this is true or not,” the Kremlin’s spokesperson told reporters on a regular conference call adding, “We are unable to comment on this without being sure that it is true.”

CNN's Jo Shelley, Mariya Knight, and Olga Voitovych contributed reporting to this post.

New air defense systems provided by Ukraine’s western allies have arrived in the country, Ukraine’s defense minister said on Monday.

“These weapons will significantly strengthen #UAarmy and will make our skies safer,” Oleksii Reznikov said on Twitter. “We will continue to shoot down the enemy targets attacking us. Thank you to our partners: Norway, Spain and the US.”

The United States this summer committed to sending eight NASAMS – National Advanced Surface to Air Missile Systems – to Ukraine. The White House in October said it would expedite the delivery of two systems.

NASAMS provide short-to-medium range defenses, and would be capable of engaging Russian cruise missiles. It’s the same system used to protect airspace in Washington, DC.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi called for an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine at a speech during the opening of the World Leaders Summit at the COP27 UN climate conference.

This year's UN climate summit is being held in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh, where thousands of climate negotiators and advocates will gather to raise their ambitions on the climate crisis. Negotiators from nearly 200 countries will, over the next two weeks, debate future clean energy proposals to prevent the worst consequences of the climate crisis.

Sisi called on world leaders to urgently take “more measures and actions” to clarify how they will reduce emissions, which will encourage stakeholders to release “adequate funding” to face the challenge of climate change.

“There is no time to sit back, there is no space for hesitation for the sake of future generations,” Sisi said. 

Read more about what to expect at COP27 here:

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Russian forces have stepped up their scrutiny of civilians in occupied areas of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, detaining locals to root out partisan resistance, according to the Ukrainian military.

In the occupied city of Kherson, Russian troops are now largely wearing civilian clothing and living in civilian housing as they “strengthen positions inside for conducting street battles,” according to the Ukrainian military and a resident of the city with whom CNN exchanged messages.

The National Resistance Center said that it was aware of dozens of detentions in recent days. It called on civilians to leave the occupied territories “if possible” while the Ukrainian military pushed its counter-offensive.

Fewer checkpoints, more aggressive behavior: A resident of the occupied city of Kherson told CNN through a third party on Sunday that Russian soldiers in occupied villages are behaving more aggressively towards civilians.

“On the west bank, near Snihurivka, there are cases of occupiers moving into locals’ houses when people move to the city,” the resident said. “Many soldiers came to the villages, they settle in empty houses. But there are cases when they kick people out of their homes.”

CNN is not identifying the Kherson resident for their safety. The city of Kherson itself has been “relatively quiet,” she said. 

“From time to time you can hear automatic gunfire at night,” the resident said. “There is a curfew in the city, and no one goes out at night. The occupiers have created some kind of territorial defense in the city, which deals with security issues.”

Checkpoints within the city itself have been removed, she said.

More young soldiers appearing: The resident said that most soldiers appear to be over the age of 30, but that they had begun to see more young men, around ages 18 to 20.

Russian authorities continued Monday to try to restore electricity after an outage on Sunday.

Stremousov said that authorities continued to offer “evacuation” to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, including now to bed-ridden civilians or those with reduced mobility.

Evacuation offers like this have sparked concerns that Ukrainian citizens may be forced to go to Russian territory against their will. Reports emerged early in the war of tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians being forcibly sent to so-called “filtration centers” before being moved to Russia. Moscow denounced the claims as lies, alleging that Ukraine has hindered its efforts to “evacuate” people to Russia.

The Kherson city resident who spoke to CNN viewed the idea of getting on an “evacuation bus” to Crimea as a “one-way ticket.”

One of the major issues Ukraine faces as it fends off Russian attacks is how to keep its population from freezing. With winter slowly approaching, Moscow has continually attacked energy and infrastructure targets in recent weeks. Here's the latest on the energy situation across Ukraine:

Ukraine’s state-energy company, Ukrenergo, warned Monday morning that the country would face further scheduled and unscheduled power cuts. 

“From 6:00 a.m. and until the end of the day, there will be scheduled power outages in Kyiv city, and Kyiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Kharkiv, Poltava regions,” Ukrenergo said on its Facebook and Telegram channels. 

Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure has been under severe strain since Russia began attacking power plants on October 10.

Several buildings were ablaze in Donetsk city early on Monday morning following Ukrainian artillery strikes on the area, currently under Russian occupation, according to authorities and social media.

According to the Russian-backed Joint Center for Control and Coordination, six rockets hit Donetsk's Voroshilovsky District at 3:13 a.m. local time.

Witnesses on social media reported a shortage of water as the large fire continued burning after the shelling.

Social media videos geolocated by CNN showed the Donetsk Railway Administration building among those on fire in the central part of the city.

No casualties have been reported yet.