November 23, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The US will provide $400 million in additional security assistance to Ukraine, the White House announced Wednesday in a memo.

According to a statement from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the drawdown "includes additional arms, munitions, and air defense equipment from U.S. Department of Defense inventories."

A White House official said that the package has "additional munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), 150 heavy machine guns with thermal imagery sights to counter Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS); additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), 200 precision-guided 155mm artillery rounds," and more.

Total US military assistance for Ukraine amounts to approximately $19.7 billion since the beginning of the Biden administration, Blinken's statement added.  

"We will continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, so it can continue to defend itself and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table when the time comes," Blinken said.

A 17-year-old girl was one of three people killed when Russia shelled the Ukrainian capital Kyiv Wednesday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on Telegram. 

“Three people were killed as a result of today's missile shelling of the capital. A 17-year-old girl was among them,” he said. “Eleven residents of the capital were injured. 10 of them were hospitalized in medical facilities in the city. One victim was treated on the scene.” 

Thirty-five Russian prisoners of war were exchanged with Ukraine and returned to Russia following negotiations, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

“On November 23, as a result of the negotiation process, 35 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime, who were in mortal danger in captivity,” a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

“Aircraft of the military transport aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces will transport the released servicemen to Moscow for treatment and rehabilitation at medical institutions of the Russian Defense Ministry,” it said.

All those released will be given medical and psychological assistance, the Ministry of Defense said. 

Earlier, Denis Pushilin, the leader of the separatist Donetsk region, said on his Telegram channel that Russia and Ukraine conducted a prisoner exchange according to the formula "35 for 35."

“Among our released people there were four from the Donetsk People’s Republic, two from the Luhansk People’s Republic,” he said.

There are power outages across every region of Ukraine following a barrage of Russian missile strikes targeting the country’s critical infrastructure on Wednesday afternoon, national power supply company Ukrenergo said in a statement posted to Facebook. 

Ukrenergo advised everyone in Ukraine to make note of locations it described as "points of invincibility," where “electricity, mobile communication and Internet, heating, water and first aid kits” would be available in the event of “significant” interruptions. 

Kyiv regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said that a residential building in the district of Vyshgorod had been hit, as well as the village of Chabany. More than 20 people were injured, he said.

The air raid warning in Kyiv ended at 3:08 local time (8:08 a.m. ET) after being active for just under two-and-a-half hours. 

Warnings were still in place in six regions of Ukraine, all of them in the north and eastern parts of the country, including Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk.

Moldova is suffering a “massive blackout,” following a fresh wave of Russian missiles targeting critical infrastructure in Ukraine, Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure Minister Andrei Spinu said Wednesday.

He added that the country’s transmission operator, Moldelectrica, “is working to reconnect more than 50% of the country to electricity.”

Last week, Moldova similarly suffered power cuts after Ukrainian energy facilities were targeted. Spinu had warned last week that the risks of power cuts remain high and that the Russian aggression against Ukraine “directly affects” Moldova.

The water supply in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv has been suspended after shelling in the region, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on Telegram.

Klitschko asked residents to “stock up on water” while experts tried to “return water to the homes of Kyiv residents.” 

Engineers were also working to restore power supply, Klitschko said. Parts of the city are without power after Moscow reportedly targeted infrastructure facilities in the region, the country’s biggest energy supplier, Yasno, said in a statement earlier Wednesday. 

At least three people have been killed and six were injured after a Russian missile strike in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the city administration reported in a post on Telegram. 

The strike in the capital comes amid ongoing attacks from Russia targeting critical energy infrastructure across the country.

There are power outages in parts of Ukraine after reported strikes on critical infrastructure. 

Emergency power cuts have been introduced in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv after strikes on infrastructure facilities in the region, according to the country’s biggest energy supplier, Yasno.

“The outage schedules are temporarily out of order until the situation is stabilized,” it said in a statement. 

In southern Ukraine, the entire Odesa region is without electricity, the regional state administration's Maksym Marchenko said on Telegram.

Problems were reported as far west as Lviv.

“The whole city is without electricity,” Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said. “We are waiting for more information from the energy specialists. There may be interruptions in water supply. Stay in shelters.” 

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Head of the Office of President of Ukraine, said on Twitter that, “a new massive attack on [Ukrainian] infrastructure facilities is underway.”