February 23, 2023 - Town hall on Russia's war in Ukraine

On the front lines in Ukraine, the situation in the direction of the eastern city of Bakhmut remains "the most difficult" as Russian forces still try to encircle the city, said Oleksii Hromov, deputy chief of the general staff’s main operational directorate.

The largest part of Russia's artillery units are concentrated in the Bakhmut area, he said Thursday at a news conference, reiterating that intense fighting has been underway since seven months. "Since the beginning of February, there have been more than 380 combat engagements with the enemy," Hromov added.

He detailed what Russia may be hoping to achieve in launching a potential new offensive:

However, Russia's shortage of resources, like ammunition for artillery systems, will significantly limit Moscow's ability to achieve significant operational success, Hromov noted.

Meanwhile, CNN geolocated a video which shows that Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian private military company Wagner, is at a location close to Bakhmut, where hundreds of his group's fighters have been involved in combat.

CNN's Maria Kostenko and Denis Lapin contributed reporting to this post.

The Kerch Bridge, which connects Russian-occupied Crimea to the Russian mainland, has been fully open to car traffic in all lanes more than a month ahead of schedule, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin announced on Thursday, according to state news agency TASS.

Remember: Parts of the bridge were damaged as a result of an explosion that occurred on October 8, 2022. The exact cause of the bridge blast remains unclear. Russian officials have said a truck stuffed with explosives went off, damaging two spans of the bridge’s motorway section and causing fire to fuel carriages of a train traveling to the Krasnodar region. Four people were killed, according to TASS.

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the explosion, but days later, Russia launched a wave of missile strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.

All lanes for car traffic on the bridge are fully open 39 days ahead of schedule, according to Khusnullin. Meanwhile, the restoration of the railway part of the bridge is scheduled to be finished in July 2023. Restoration of other parts of the bridge will be completed before July 1, according to TASS.

The bridge holds huge strategic and symbolic importance for Russia, which built the 19-kilometer-long (about 12 miles) bridge after Moscow illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014. 

Security measures have been implemented across Ukraine in the face of potential Russian attacks on Friday, which marks exactly one year since the start of Moscow's invasion.

School classes have moved online, working from home is being encouraged and security patrols have been stepped up in order to minimize the potential impact of Russian strikes.

Ukrainian schools have been advised to hold classes online "as a precautionary measure," Education Minister Serhiy Shkarlet said in a statement Tuesday.

In Kyiv, a special security protocol has been developed for all educational facilities. Pupils are taking classes online from February 22-24 in the city and the wider Kyiv region, according to the regional military administration.

The decision was made "due to the increased threat of enemy shelling and potential provocative actions on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine," it said.

And additional safety measures will also be implemented in the Kherson region in northeast Ukraine, the regional military administration said in a statement Wednesday.

Most public offices and businesses will work remotely, with the exception of critical infrastructure facilities, it said.

The distribution of humanitarian aid and cash payments at post offices will be limited, and law enforcement officers will intensify patrols in places where crowds could gather, the administration said.

However so-called invincibility points, where people can charge their devices and warm up, will work around the clock, it added.

City mayor Ihor Terekhov said it is difficult to predict what Russian forces will do tomorrow.

"A lot of people now ask: what will happen? I cannot say what will happen, because it depends on our opponent, our enemy," Terekhov said in a video address.

"Nobody understands what is in his head, nobody knows."

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reiterated the Biden administration's warning to China to not provide material support for Russia’s war effort in Ukraine or for any of Moscow's efforts to evade sanctions.

Yellen would not comment on the intelligence the US has on the matter. “I really don’t want to characterize US intelligence with respect to sanctions violations.”

Yellen's remarks came on the heels of Russian President Vladimir Putin saying that relations between his country and China are “reaching new milestones” as Beijing’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, wrapped up a visit to Moscow on Wednesday.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has made a surprise visit to Kyiv, where he is expected to address the Ukrainian parliament.

Meanwhile, a Russian missile strike has injured at least one person in Kupyansk, northeast Ukraine, and a Russian pilot has been killed after his aircraft crashed on its way back from a combat mission.

Here are the latest headlines:

Ukrainian forces have struck Russian bases near the airport and a steel works in the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol, according to a local official.

Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian mayor of the city, said there have been three explosions so far on Thursday.

"Two of them hit the closed territory of Ilyich Iron and Steel Works in the area of the penal colony," he said in a post on his official Telegram channel. "The Armed Forces of Ukraine with surgical precision hit the bases of the occupiers."

CNN could not immediately verify that claim.

"Russians have raised aircraft over Mariupol again. Yesterday it didn't help, do they hope today it will be different," Andriushchenko said.

Russian forces took control of the city Mariupol in May 2022. The city's Ukrainian mayor, Vadym Boichenko, relocated last February to areas under Ukrainian control.

Andriushchenko has in the past aggregated information from sources on the ground in the city. 

Activists daubed a giant Ukrainian flag on the road outside the Russian embassy in London on Thursday to mark the anniversary of the Russian invasion.

Protest group Led By Donkeys posted an image of their work on Twitter, showing traffic driving over a road painted in blue and yellow.

"Tomorrow is the first anniversary of Putin’s imperialist invasion of Ukraine, an independent state and a people with every right to self-determination," tweeted the group.

"The existence of a massive Ukrainian flag outside his embassy in London will serve to remind him of that."

At least one person was injured Thursday when a Russian missile hit an administrative building in Kupyansk, northeast Ukraine, a local official said.

"The occupiers struck today in Kupyansk district. Once again with an S-300 missile. An administrative building is hit. A civilian who was near the building was wounded," said Oleh Synyehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, said on Telegram.

The S-300 missile is normally an air defense missile that Russian forces have been using as an offensive weapon. Their speed makes them difficult to intercept. But they are hardly accurate.

"At least two people are currently under the rubble," Synyehubov continued, adding that rescue teams are at the scene.

For Anastasia Kvitka, a marketer for Latvia-based tech startup Bordio, working from home in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro means planning the day’s tasks around frequent internet outages, power cuts and Russian air raids.

Simple errands, such as buying groceries or sending post, may be interrupted by sirens warning of incoming missile and air strikes.

Often, Kvitka works from her pantry. The improvised shelter is intended to protect her and her husband from glass splinters when there are explosions nearby, although it would be of no use in the event of a direct missile attack on their apartment block.

After one particularly heavy day of shelling in December last year, Kvitka and her husband had no water and electricity for three days.

Without internet, they were cut off from the outside world and couldn’t check in with family in nearby Zaporizhzhia, which had also come under heavy fire.

By Sunday, their apartment was so cold that they decided to travel to another city early on Monday morning. They later cancelled the trip after the electricity and internet were restored Sunday evening.

“I was back to work on Monday as usual,” Kvitka said.