December 2, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Ukraine has put all embassies and consulates abroad under enhanced security measures after a series of incidents involving threatening packages, letter bombs and vandalism at its diplomatic missions. This week Ukrainian embassies in Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia, Italy, Austria, the consulates general in Naples and Krakow, and the consulate in Brno have received bloody packages, containing animal eyes, Oleh Nikolenko, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said Friday on Facebook.

"The packages were “soaked in a liquid of a characteristic colour and had a corresponding smell. We are examining the meaning of this message,” he wrote.

On Wednesday, a package sent to the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid, addressed to the country’s ambassador to Spain, Serhiy Pohoreltsev, exploded upon opening.

“We have reason to believe that there is a well-planned campaign of terror and intimidation of Ukrainian embassies and consulates. Unable to stop Ukraine on the diplomatic front, they are trying to intimidate us,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

He called on foreign governments to guarantee maximum protection of Ukrainian diplomatic institutions in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

In addition to the suspicious packages, Nikolenko reported other incidents including vandalism of the entrance to the Ukrainian ambassador's residence in the Vatican.

Czech police evacuate consulate: Czech police tweeted Friday that the Ukrainian Consulate in Brno, a city in the southeast of Czech Republic consulate and its immediate surroundings, including a kindergarten were evacuated. After investigating the package, the police said it did not contain any explosives, adding that they had no information to indicate people at the consulate or within its vicinity were at any danger.

“Initial analysis suggest the package contained animal tissue. A detailed analysis of will be conducted in laboratories now,” the police tweeted.

The fact that Washington doesn't recognize annexed Ukrainian regions as part of Russia would complicate possible talks between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

In September, Moscow illegally declared four Ukrainian regions to be Russian territory: Luhansk and Donetsk -- home to two Russian-backed breakaway republics where fighting has been ongoing since 2014 -- as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, two areas in southern Ukraine that had been occupied by Russian forces since shortly after the invasion began.

The illegal annexations followed sham referendums in these southern and eastern regions. Russian troops have since withdrawn from a swathe of the Kherson region, including the regional capital Kherson city.

Here's some background: On Thursday, Biden told reporters during a joint White House news conference with French President Emmanual Macron that he “has no immediate plans” to contact Putin, but added that he’s prepared to speak with the Russian leader if he’s looking for a way to end the war in Ukraine. Biden also clarified that Putin has not done so yet.

“He’s just miscalculated across the board,” Biden said of Putin following his bilateral meeting in the Oval Office with the French president. “And so the question is … how does he get himself out of the circumstances in? I’m prepared, if he’s willing to talk, to find out what he’s willing to do, but I’ll only do it in consultation with my NATO allies. I’m not going to do it on my own.”

Peskov said Moscow has always been open to negotiations to ensure its interests but Putin's initiative to discuss security guarantees with the US, NATO and the OSCE “was not reciprocated.”

On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov echoed those remarks, saying that Moscow "never avoids contacts" but there haven't been "substantial ideas" when it comes to a possible meeting between Biden and Putin.

Some people with reduced mobility will be evacuated from the Russian-occupied town of Kakhovka on the east bank of the Dnipro river, Russian-installed authorities said on Friday.

“On Saturday, December 3, the evacuation of bedridden and disabled citizens from Kakhovka to one of the boarding houses of the Henichesk district begins,” the Russian-installed administration said via its Telegram channel.

Earlier this week, Serhii Khlan, a member of Kherson regional council, told a news conference that pro-Russian administrators had left the east bank towns and set up an administration in the city of Henichesk, closer to Crimea.

"They defined it as the center of the occupation region, and now all supporters and collaborators are there," he said.

Khlan said that Russian forces are shelling "all settlements" along the west bank of the Dnipro river in recently liberated areas of Kherson.

He added that the bulk of Russian forces were positioned some 15 to 20 kilometers (9.3 to 12.4 miles) from the east bank of the river, but that personnel of the Russian security service (FSB) occupied observation posts close to the river, in towns like Kakhovka and Nova Kakhovka. They were exerting pressure on the remaining civilian population to leave, he said.

Khlan said that he expected people already in temporary accommodation would be forced to leave for Russia.

Ukraine's parliament will vote on a new law that would ban the operation of religious organizations “affiliated with centers of influence” in Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday, in an effort to prevent an "opportunity to manipulate" Ukrainians.

"Unfortunately, even Russian terror and full-scale war did not convince some figures that it is worth overcoming the temptation of evil. Well, we have to create conditions where no actors dependent on the aggressor state will have an opportunity to manipulate Ukrainians and weaken Ukraine from within," the Ukrainian president said in a statement.

"The National Security and Defense Council instructed the Government to submit to the Verkhovna Rada [Ukraine's parliament] a draft law on making it impossible for religious organizations affiliated with centers of influence in the Russian Federation to operate in Ukraine," he said.

Here's some background: The proposed law comes after the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) raided a historic Orthodox Christian monastery in Kyiv, the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, on November 22 as part of an effort to counter suspected “subversive activities" by Russia's special services.

The raid was aimed at preventing the “use of Ukrainian Orthodox Church premises for hiding sabotage and reconnaissance groups, foreign citizens, storing weapons," SBU said.

"All bodies responsible for ensuring national security must intensify measures to identify and counter the subversive activities of Russian special services in the religious environment of Ukraine. And apply personal sanctions -- the surnames will be made public soon," Zelensky said on Thursday.

In his statement, Zelensky also said "a religious examination" of the Management Statute of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be conducted "for the presence of a church-canonical connection with the Moscow Patriarchate and, if necessary, to take measures provided for by law."

These and other decisions are aimed at guaranteeing "Ukraine's spiritual independence," Zelensky said.

In May, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church officially broke allegiance with the Russian Orthodox Church and its leader Patriarch Kirill over the war, saying it considers the invasion "a violation of God’s commandment 'Thou shalt not kill'."

Kirill is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has supported the war in Ukraine.

Between 10,000 and 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the war in Ukraine, according to Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

This figure is much lower than estimates suggested by the United States.

"We have official figures from the General Staff, official figures from the high command, and according to them we have between 10,000 and 12,500 to 13,000 killed," Podolyak said speaking on national TV on Thursday.

On November 10, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said Russia has suffered more than 100,000 killed and wounded soldiers as a result of the war in Ukraine and that Kyiv is probably looking at similar numbers.

There is no confirmed number of troop casualties on either side for the war in Ukraine.

CNN has contacted the Ukrainian military for comment. However, Bohdan Senyk, head of the public relations department of the Armed Forces of Ukraine previously declined to confirm Ukrainian army losses.

Russia's military has begun conducting a census in parts of occupied territory in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, according to the Ukrainian mayor-in-exile of the city of Melitopol.

Melitopol has been occupied by Russian forces since the early days of the invasion and analysts have suggested the next offensive front for Ukrainian forces was likely to be a thrust southward toward the city.

Fedorov added that hospitals in the cities of Tokmak and Mykhailivka were also "turned into military hospitals for Russian forces."

"[Russians] are massively treating thousands of their wounded there," Fedrov said. "Only one hospital in Melitopol city, an ambulance hospital, provides assistance to civilians."

New Russian military bases had also been set up, he claimed, noting there were now "tens of thousands of Russian manpower in the territory of Melitopol."

Last month, Fedorov highlighted difficulties civilians faced to leave the city.

It comes after the Ukrainian military claimed some Russian troops are withdrawing from their positions in the Zaporizhzhia region. CNN is unable to confirm the claims made by the General Staff.

The Russian government formally told the US Embassy last week about Brittney Griner’s transfer to a remote penal colony, weeks after the wrongfully detained WNBA star had been moved, according to the Biden administration.

Read more here.

US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday demonstrated a united front in addressing the ongoing war in Ukraine but offered divergent answers over their willingness to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin, relaying that they spent much their recent meeting discussing the invasion.

Biden told reporters during a joint White House news conference with Macron that he “has no immediate plans” to contact Putin, but added that he’s prepared to speak with the Russian leader if he’s looking for a way to end the war in Ukraine. Biden also clarified that Putin has not done so yet.

Macron said that once Ukraine sets conditions for a peace agreement, he’s willing to speak with Putin. The French leader told ABC’s “Good Morning America” earlier Thursday that he intends to speak with the Russian president in the coming days.

Read more here.

The Ukrainian military claims that some Russian troops are withdrawing from their positions in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.

It also says that the Russians are preparing the evacuation of "the personnel of the occupation administrations" in the Zaporizhzhia region.

In its daily update, the military's General Staff said Russian units had left the settlements of Mykhailivka, Polohy and Inzhenerne, all towns south of the city of Zaporizhzhia. Front lines in the region run for 200 kilometers (about 124 miles) across rolling farmland. Geolocated footage posted on Wednesday shows the aftermath of strikes on buildings in Polohy.

The General Staff said that in the settlement of Burchak, the occupation authorities are conducting a census for the so-called voluntary evacuation of the population.

The Ukrainians appear to be repeating actions they undertook in Kherson — striking bridges, supply hubs and Russian troop concentrations behind the front lines. The General Staff said that in recent days strikes about half a dozen places had wounded more than 230 Russian soldiers and destroyed ammunition and equipment.

CNN is unable to confirm the claims made by the General Staff.

What could happen next: Analysts have suggested that the next offensive front for the Ukrainians is likely to be a thrust south toward the occupied city of Melitopol. 

The General Staff said that elsewhere Russian forces continued to defend their positions in eastern Luhansk region using tanks, mortars and artillery to prevent further advances of Ukrainian forces.

Russian units were also shelling several settlements in recently liberated parts of Kherson region. But Brig. Gen. Oleksii Hromov claimed that last week Russian forces had accidentally fired on their own unit near the village of Tsukury in Kherson, killing 14 servicemen. CNN cannot verify the claim.