February 1, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Organizers for the next Summer Olympics said they will follow the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) previously announced plan to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate at the Games.

In an email to CNN, a Paris 2024 spokesperson reiterated the Olympic qualification system is determined not by their organization but by the IOC, International Paralympic Committee, and international federations.

In late January, the IOC outlined a multi-step plan for Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in Paris and at the 2026 Winter Games in Milan. “No athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport,” the IOC’s executive board declared.

The Paris 2024 spokesperson said the organization will comply with the sanctions already put in place on Russian and Belarusian athletes by the IOC. In order for athletes from the two countries to compete at the next two Olympics, they would represent as “neutral athletes and in no way represent their state or any other organization in their country,” the IOC said last month.

Paris 2024 said it stands in "full solidarity with Ukraine, its people and the Ukrainian Olympic and Paralympic movements, who are faced with an unimaginable crisis. ... Our wish is that the Olympic movement, the Paralympic movement and the athletes experience the Paris 2024 Games in a spirit of peace, respecting the values of fraternity and solidarity.”

Paris is set to host the XXXIII Olympic Summer Games from July 26 to August 11, 2024.

CNN’s Sammy Mngqosini contributed reporting to this post.

Ukrainian authorities have conducted a series of anti-corruption raids across the country, uncovering stashes of cash as well as luxury watches and cars.

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said the raids were part of an effort to combat what they described as “the internal enemy” in the country.

The raids come as President Volodymyr Zelensky said his government is working on “new reforms” that will make the country “more human, transparent and effective” as he prepares to meet European Union officials on Friday for talks on Ukraine’s possible accession to the bloc.

Here are key things to know about the raids:

What was revealed:

Some actions taken so far:

The investigation into January's helicopter crash:

Britain’s Defense Minister Ben Wallace on Wednesday said that it's the correct decision "for now" not to send fighter jets to Ukraine. 

“What they need right now is armor and tanks,” Wallace told reporters when asked why the UK would not send jets, pointing to the UK’s commitment to send Challenger 2 tanks to support Kyiv’s troops.

“I've been involved in this for a pretty long time and I've learned two things: never rule anything in and never rule anything out,” he said. 

Wallace acknowledged this was “not a solid decision,” but added, “for now, I don't think that's the right approach.” 

Some background: Top Ukrainian officials have been jockeying for US-made F-16 fighter jets, arguing they need them urgently to defend against Russian missile and drone attacks.

The defense minister’s comments come after a Downing Street spokesperson told journalists Tuesday that fighter jets are "extremely sophisticated and take months to learn how to fly,” adding it was “not practical” to supply them to Ukraine.

On Wednesday, former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson joined Kyiv in its calls for the jets to be sent to Ukraine during a visit to Washington, DC.

“All I will say is that every time we have said it will be a mistake to give such and such an item of weaponry, we end up doing it and it ends up being the right thing for Ukraine,” Johnson told Fox News. 

“Save time, save money, save lives. Give the Ukrainians what they need as fast as possible,” he continued. 

Following Johnson’s comments, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s official spokesperson noted Johnson was “acting in his own capacity and not on behalf of the UK government,” Britain’s PA news agency reported. 

CNN’s Niamh Kennedy contributed reporting to this post.

Italy's upcoming package of military aid to Ukraine will probably include weapons of defense against Russian missile attacks, a press officer of the Italian Ministry of Defense confirmed to CNN on Wednesday.

Earlier Italy's Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told the Financial Times that Italy was committed to fulfilling Ukraine’s requests for weapons to shore up its defenses but declined to offer any specifics.

Crosetto also said that any decision on air defenses would be taken in conjunction with the French government. 

The Italian government is working on the sixth package of military support to the war-torn country, the press officer told CNN.

Italy has so far approved five military support packages for Ukraine's defense, including both lethal and nonlethal equipment, based on the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

It contributes approximately 390 million euros to the assistance measures provided for by the European Peace Facility, for a total of 3 billion euros.

French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced on Tuesday that France will send an additional 12 Caesar howitzers to Ukraine on top of the 18 howitzers Paris has already delivered to Kyiv.

 Speaking at a press conference in Paris alongside his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov, Lecornu said that Denmark has also committed to giving their 19 of French-made howitzers to Ukraine. 

The French minister said another priority was the training of Ukrainian troops and that 2,000 of them would be trained in France by the summer. 

Correction: This post has been updated to correct the attribution in the first paragraph to a press officer with the Italian Ministry of Defense.

A military leader in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic told Russian media on Wednesday that Moscow's forces have practically encircled the key eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and active fighting is ongoing.

“Bakhmut has been practically 'embraced' from three sides, an intensive knocking out of the enemy is underway (…),” Col. Vitaly Kiselev said, according to state media TASS.

Russian forces are now trying to move into the area of ​​the Ukraine-controlled town of Chasov Yar about six kilometers (more than 3 miles) west of Bakhmut, he added. 

“They are trying, and I am sure that they will succeed. [It will succeed] to go to the Chasov Yar area, from where intensive shelling is going on back to Soledar, Bakhmut,” he said.

Earlier, retired Lt. Col. of the self-proclaimed LPR, Andrei Marochko, said that Ukrainian troops were going to withdraw to Chasov Yar in the event of a retreat from Bakhmut. 

The founder of Russia's Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a Telegram post on Wednesday that Russian forces now control the village of Sacco and Vanzetti, about 20 kilometers (more than 12 miles) from Bakhmut in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

"Today, February 1, 2023, at 16:00 Moscow time, Sacco and Vanzetti were completely taken under control by the assault units of the Wagner PMC," Prigozhin's press service Telegram channel said. 

The press service also posted a photo of the fighters against the background of the only remaining house in the village. Prigozhin also noted that at the moment there is no operational encirclement of Bakhmut.

The Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Hanna Maliar has said “heavy fighting” continues in the east with Russian forces making “powerful attempts” to break through Ukrainian defenses of Bakhmut. “The enemy is trying to expand the geography of its offensive in the Lyman sector,” a Russian offensive north of Bakhmut, Maliar said on Telegram.

Germany needs to order new Leopard tanks quickly after committing to send 14 of its own to Ukraine, the country’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Wednesday. 

“The decisive factor for me is that we have to order new tanks, and not in a year's time, but quickly so that production can begin and we can plan how many new Leopards we will have available — and when,” Pistorius told reporters on a visit to the town of Augustdorf. 

Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the German-made battle tanks would be sent to Kyiv’s troops last week, after intensifying international pressure led by the United States, Poland and a bloc of other European nations, which called on Berlin to step up its military support to Ukraine. 

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov had a "very frank and productive conversation" with French President Emmanuel Macron regarding the Ukraine army's "urgent operational needs for self-defense from the Russian aggressor," Reznikov tweeted Wednesday.

Reznikov thanked Macron for his "leadership and unwavering support."

On Wednesday, Reznikov met France Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu in Paris to discuss the needs of the Ukrainian army.

The pair signed a memorandum on the supply of MG-200 radars for Ukrainian air defenders. "This equipment will help us to spot enemy drones & missiles, including ballistic. Our skies will be protected from Russia’s deadly attacks," Reznikov tweeted.

On Monday, France along with Australia said that they would collaborate on a multi-million dollar project to produce “several thousand” artillery shells for Ukraine.

As for Ukraine's plea for fighter jets, Macron said Monday that they have not received any requests for jets, but “nothing is off-limits in principle.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his defense ministry to prioritize protecting Russian territory from shelling by Ukrainian forces.

Speaking at a video conference regarding the restoration of residential infrastructure, Putin said residential houses in Russia's Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions – as well as Crimea, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 – were “damaged or destroyed” by the Ukrainian army referring to it as to “shelling by neo-Nazi formations.”

Many people found themselves in a difficult situation, “they lost their homes, were forced to move to relatives or to temporary places of residence, faced interruptions in the supply of water, heat, and electricity,” he added.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine have not officially acknowledged the shelling of the Russian territory.

Southwest of the city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian soldiers Andriy and Borisych live in a candle-lit bunker cut into the frozen earth. For several weeks they have been confronting hundreds of fighters belonging to the Russian private military contractor Wagner throwing themselves against Ukrainian defenses.

Disguised in a balaclava, Andriy recounts one seemingly endless firefight when they came under attack by a flood of Wagner fighters.

“We were fighting for about 10 hours in a row. And it wasn’t like just waves, it was uninterrupted. So it was just like they didn’t stop coming.”

Their AK-47 rifles became so hot from constant firing, Andriy says, that they had to keep changing them.

“It was about 20 soldiers on our side. And let’s say 200 from their side,” he says.

The Wagner way of war is to send a first wave of attackers that mainly comprises raw recruits straight out of Russian prisons. They know little of military tactics and are poorly equipped. Most just hope that if they survive their six-month contract they can go home rather than back to a cell.

“They make the group – let’s say from 10 soldiers – reach 30 meters, then they start digging in to keep the position,” Andriy says of Wagner.

Another group follows, he says, to claim another 30 meters. “That’s how, step by step, (Wagner) is trying to move forward, while they lose a lot of people in the meantime.”

Only when the first wave is exhausted or cut down do Wagner send in more experienced combatants, often from the flanks, in an effort to overrun Ukrainian positions.

Andriy says facing the assault was a frightening and surreal experience.

“Our machine gunner was almost getting crazy, because he was shooting at them. And he said, I know I shot him, but he doesn’t fall. And then after some time, when he maybe bleeds out, so he just falls down.”

Andriy compares the battle to a scene out of a zombie movie. “They’re climbing above the corpse of their friends, stepping on them,” he says.

“It looks like it’s very, very likely that they are getting some drugs before attack,” he says, a claim that CNN has not been able independently to verify.

Read more here.