November 9, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

By Kathleen Magramo, Sophie Tanno, Ed Upright and Adrienne Vogt, CNN

Updated 12:02 a.m. ET, November 10, 2022

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9:22 p.m. ET, November 8, 2022

Zelensky says "fierce battles" rage in eastern Ukraine, with Russian forces suffering large-scale losses

From CNN's Julia Kesaieva in Kyiv, Ukraine

Ukrainian forces fire a howitzer round toward Russian positions in the Donetsk Oblast on Tuesday. (Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters)

Amid fierce fighting in parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the "situation is complicated along the entire front line."

In his daily video address, Zelensky said "fierce positional battles continue in some areas, and the situation is especially difficult in Donetsk region. The occupiers' activity there remains at an extremely high level — dozens of attacks every day."

He said Russian forces "suffer extremely large-scale losses, but their order has not changed — to reach the administrative borders of Donetsk region. We do not surrender a single centimeter of our land there. And I thank all our heroes who hold positions in Donbas."

In the southern Kherson region, Zelensky said Ukrainian units were acting "carefully, thoroughly and in the interests of liberating our entire territory. We are strengthening our positions, breaking Russian logistics, consistently destroying the potential of the occupiers to keep the south of our country in occupation."

Zelensky said work continued to restore normal life in the liberated areas. In two districts of Kharkiv region, he said, "more than a thousand households have their gas and electricity supply restored."

Across the country, repair work continued on energy facilities, he said.

"As of this evening, about 4 million Ukrainians in 14 regions and the city of Kyiv are cut off from electricity supply. But the majority of them are under stabilization power cut off schedules, not emergency ones." The schedules implement 12 hours of power cuts a day.

To address the energy crisis, Zelensky said imports of goods necessary during the heating season will be exempt from VAT and import duties. "This should simplify and reduce the cost of supplying generators, batteries, transformers and other similar equipment for energy and heat supply to Ukraine," he said.

10:16 p.m. ET, November 8, 2022

US support will continue "until Ukraine wins this war" and Russia withdraws troops, UN ambassador tells CNN

From CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Madalena Araujo and Mick Krever in Kyiv, Ukraine

US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, speaks with CNN on Tuesday, November 8. (CNN)

The US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has said that American support for Ukraine is “unwavering” and will continue until the nation "wins this war.”

“We have been unified from day one, and we have not seen any cracks in that unity,” Thomas-Greenfield told CNN during an unannounced trip to the capital, Kyiv. “Europe is unified. NATO is unified. We’ve had bipartisan support in the United States for support for Ukraine.
“Our support is unwavering, and we will continue to be unified until Ukraine wins this war and Russia takes their troops out of Ukraine.”

When asked about reports that US officials have urged Ukraine to signal that they are still open to diplomatic discussions with Russia, amid concerns that public support for the country's war effort could wane, Thomas-Greenfield demurred.

“We’ve been clear,” she said. “No negotiations in which Ukraine is not in the driver’s seat. No negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine.”

The international community, she said, “wants justice for the people of Ukraine.”

“Any negotiations that take place have to take place with Ukraine in the driver’s seat," she said. "They have to determine that, when they are ready for those negotiations, with the backing and support of the international community, following the charter that Russia has violated.”

7:16 p.m. ET, November 8, 2022

US and Russia agree to hold talks on nuclear treaty for first time since Ukraine war began

From CNN's Kylie Atwood and Michael Conte

The US and Russia have agreed to hold talks on the single existing nuclear treaty between the two countries in the near future, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Tuesday.

The New START treaty limits all deployed intercontinental-range nuclear weapons by Russia and the US.

The treaty — the only one left regulating the two largest nuclear arsenals in the world — was extended by five years in February 2021 during the first weeks of Joe Biden’s presidency.

It requires both countries to allow on-site inspections of its nuclear weapons-related facilities by the other. Those inspections were paused in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A resumption of the inspections is expected to be a topic of discussion at the upcoming meetings, US officials said.

Diplomatic relations between Russia and the US are in the doldrums following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine with no end to the war in sight but US officials have viewed it as a positive development that Moscow has continued to express interest in the treaty, despite Putin’s alarming nuclear threats as the conflict rages on.

Russia has expressed a willingness to discuss extending the treaty and the US has said that negotiations would only happen once the on-site inspections resume.

Read more here.