February 15, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Russia “continues to pour large numbers of additional people into the fight” in Ukraine, and “that is their strength.” 

He added that “Those people are ill-trained and ill-equipped, and because of that we see them incurring a lot of casualties,” Austin said, but the US expects Russia to continue with this strategy of throwing bodies at the fight despite their lack of equipment. 

Austin made the remarks at a news conference from NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday. 

Austin said that by contrast, the US and NATO are determined to provide Ukraine with sophisticated equipment — and train Ukrainian troops on those systems — to give them the upper hand. 

“Our goal is to make sure that we give Ukraine additional capability so that they can not only be marginally successful, they can be decisive on the battlefield and in their upcoming offensive,” Austin said. 

“We're laser-focused on making sure that we provide a capability and not just platforms,” he added.

The European Commission has proposed to sanction Iranian entities that are responsible for supplying drones to Moscow, according to EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. 

In a recorded statement from Strasbourg, France, von der Leyen announced the bloc's 10th round of sanctions against Russia which is due to be unveiled this month, and said it will include sanctions against seven Iranian entities to its dual use regime.

The EU controls the export, transit, brokering and technical assistance of dual-use items which are goods, software and technology that can be used for both civilian and military applications, according to the European Commission website.

The listed entities will be placed "under a complete ban to sell sensitive items to Russia," von der Leyen said, stressing that the bloc "stands ready" to add further entities if necessary.

Iranian-made drones have been used by Russia to attack Ukrainian infrastructure targets. The Iranian regime has only admitted to supplying Russia with drones in the months before the invasion.

As Russia is expected to carry out a new offensive in eastern Ukraine, the US and its allies are skeptical that Russia has amassed the manpower and resources to make significant gains, according to US, UK and Ukrainian officials..

“It’s likely more aspirational than realistic,” a senior US military official told CNN. 

"The meat grinder:" Russia has been increasing the number of forces situated on its border and inside Russian-held territory in Ukraine, some of the forces drawn from a partial mobilization ordered in September last year. Despite the increased numbers, Western allies have not seen evidence of sufficient changes to those forces’ ability to carry out combined arms operations needed to take and hold new territory.

Even the head of Russia’s Wagner private military company on Tuesday warned that the capture of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut was far from imminent.

“Bakhmut will not be taken tomorrow, because there is heavy resistance and grinding, the meat grinder is working,” Yevgeniy Prigozhin said in a statement distributed on a Wagner Telegram channel. “For the meat grinder to work properly, it is impossible to suddenly start festivities. There won't be any festivities anytime soon.”

The US military had assessed it would take as long as until May for the Russian military to regenerate enough power for a sustained offensive, but Russian leaders wanted action sooner. The US now sees it as likely that Russian forces are moving before they are ready due to political pressure from the Kremlin, the senior US military official told CNN. 

Though Ukrainian officials have been sounding the alarm about new Russian attacks in the east, there is also skepticism on the Ukrainian side about Russian capabilities as those forces currently stand. 

There is also no indication of any pending massive aerial assault. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that the US is not seeing Russia “massing its aircraft” ahead of an aerial operation against Ukraine. 

A Russian court has sentenced journalist Maria Ponomarenko to six years in prison for a Telegram post that the court said spread “false information,” state news agency TASS said on Wednesday.

Ponomarenko was detained last April and charged with publishing “false information” on her Telegram channel about a Russian airstrike on a theater in Mariupol, Ukraine, that killed hundreds, and for which Russian authorities deny responsibility.

Her employer, RusNews, said on Telegram that the journalist spent time at a pre-trial detention center, which impacted her psychologically, leading to a suicide attempt in September. Ponomarenko is a mother of two.

The court in Russia’s city of Barnaul in Western Siberia sentenced Ponomarenko to six years in jail at a general regime correctional colony, with no right to engage in activities related to the internet and other types of public communication for five years, according to court's press service quoted by TASS.

Earlier in February, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Russian authorities to "immediately release" Ponomarenko along with columnist Iskander Yasaveyev and “stop prosecuting members of the press over their reporting and commentary on the war in Ukraine." Per CPJ's most recent prison census, at least 19 journalists were behind bars in Russia as of December 1, 2022.

With previous reporting by CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Josh Pennington.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday that the conflict in Ukraine is now becoming a “grinding war of attrition,” adding that it now focused on logistics.

“Things are happening, but we need to continue, and we need to step up even more because there is a big need out there to provide Ukraine with ammunition,” Stoltenberg said at a NATO defense ministers press conference in Brussels. 

Stoltenberg said that it is crucial that Ukraine is “able to retake territory and launch offensives” to ensure that it is able to defeat Russia and continue as an independent nation.

The NATO chief’s comments were in response to a reporter’s question on whether he was worried that Ukraine could run out of ammunition in the coming months and whether there were more countries that are ramping up their production capacity to Ukraine. 

“Now we see that things are actually moving in the right direction,” he said.

“And there are also others who have already signed contracts with the defense industry, meaning that production is now ramping up,” Stoltenberg said.

On Tuesday, Germany's defense minister announced that the country will increase ammunition production and has signed contracts with ammunition manufacturers to provide for the Gepard air defense systems it has delivered to Ukraine.

Stoltenberg added that NATO countries adding more production has enabled them to replenish depleted supplies.

He added that besides stepping up support for Ukraine, ministers also discussed their “commitment to our others partners at risk, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Moldova.”

Russian forces are escalating attacks in eastern Ukraine in an effort to capture the strategically important city of Bakhmut, as the battle for control of the Donetsk region intensifies.

Here are the latest developments:

Russian forces have increased heavy shelling, rocket fire and missile strikes alongside attempted advances in several regions of Ukraine, as Kyiv officials anticipate a spring offensive from Moscow in the nearly years-long war.

The Ukrainian Defence Forces had "repelled attacks in the vicinities of more than 20 settlements" from the north of Kharkiv region through the Luhansk border and further south along the very active Donetsk front line, the General Staff said.

Moscow has been especially active to the east of the town of Kupyansk in Kharkiv region, which was recaptured by the Ukrainians in their sweep across Kharkiv in September, according to the military. There has also been a notable rise in the Russian shelling of settlements along the Kharkiv-Luhansk border, where the front lines have been largely settled since the autumn.

Russian troops leveled nearly 70 attacks using multiple launch rocket systems Tuesday, a higher number than is usually reported, the General Staff said. These included a number of attacks in the south.

In addition, Russian occupiers conducted 68 multiple rocket launchers (MLRS) attacks, including against civilian objects in the southern Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.

The General Staff also claimed that the Russians had begun burning the bodies of soldiers near the city of Simferopol in Russian-annexed Crimea.

"Recent reports prove constant presence of military vehicles numbering up to 10 units near the local crematorium. The occupiers use these trucks to bring dead Russian servicemen and mercenaries. Cremation is carried out 24/7," it added.

CNN is unable to verify the claim. 

A Ukrainian soldier has told CNN of the "difficult" attempts to defend the few remaining routes into the city of Bakhmut, as the grinding battle for control of the eastern Donetsk region intensifies.

More than 25 settlements were shelled in eastern Ukraine Tuesday along what the Ukrainian military calls the "Bakhmut axis," including in the city and a number of nearby villages.

One of the villages -- Paraskoviivka -- is immediately to the north of Bakhmut and adjacent to the village of Krasna Hora. Fighters of the Russian private military group Wagner occupy parts of Krasna Hora, according to geolocated video.

The Ukrainian military on Monday disputed Russia's claim that it had taken control of Krasna Hora.

"Both we and the enemy understand the importance of this settlement," he said.

He dismissed reports on pro-Russian social media channels that 1,500 Ukrainian soldiers were surrounded as "nonsense" but said the situation in the city was "very difficult, everyone understands this."

CNN has spoken to the soldier several times in recent weeks. 

The Ukrainians' defense of Paraskoviivka is intended to protect one of the last remaining routes into Bakhmut, as most of the main roads into the city are either controlled by Russian troops or under their fire control.

Some of the routes into the city are dirt roads, which may become impassable as the weather warms, and frozen ground turns to mud.

Ukrainian officials say that the decision earlier this week to limit civilian and journalists’ access to the eastern city of Bakhmut was necessary both for the safety of those groups, and to protect operational security.

Ukrainian officials this week said non-local civilians would not be allowed to enter the city, and that stricter protocols had been put in place for journalists to travel there.

“Bakhmut is not closed, but a procedure has been introduced there to help preserve health and life, and prevent unnecessary information from leaking,” Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesman for the Eastern Grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said on national television on Monday.

He said that it was necessary “to ensure maximum control over who is there.” He denied that “censorship” was a goal saying that authorities were trying to protect “the troops, so that there is no unnecessary information, and the people who will work there.”

The Ukrainian military was trying to limit movement to, and within, the city, a deputy commander in the National Guard said on television Monday.

“Unfortunately the two roads [into the city] are under enemy fire control,” meaning Russia is capable of regularly striking any Ukrainian vehicle on the road, said Volodymyr Nazarenko of the 4th Brigade’s Svoboda Battalion. “The roads have not been cut off but the enemy is capable of firing at any means of transportation. There are lots of UAVs.”

“Lots of roads are under enemy fire control. This is why we need to reduce visual presence within the city."