March 8, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The US estimates that as much as 8% to 10% of Russian military assets used in the invasion of Ukraine is now destroyed or inoperable, according to a US official familiar with the latest intelligence.

The equipment lost includes tanks, aircraft, artillery and other military assets. That is close to double the losses that CNN reported last week when it was estimated Russia had lost 3% to 5% of its military assets.

The US estimates the Ukrainian military has lost a similar percentage of its assets, the official said. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Tuesday that it has lost contact with remote data transmission from safeguards monitoring systems installed at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine, which was taken over by Russian forces last month.  

The Chernobyl site is not currently operational and handling of nuclear material has been halted, the IAEA said, citing information from Ukraine’s nuclear regulator. The facility holds decommissioned reactors as well as radioactive waste facilities. The regulatory authority told IAEA that it could only communicate with the plant via e-mail. 

The agency said it had been informed by Ukrainian officials that it is becoming “increasingly urgent” to rotate staff for the “safe management” of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where some 210 personnel have been working for almost two weeks straight since Russian forces seized control of the facility.  

Staff have been effectively living at the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster for the past 13 days and while they have access to food, water and medicine to a “limited extend,” their situation is “worsening,” the IAEA said it was told by Ukraine’s nuclear regulator.  

“I’m deeply concerned about the difficult and stressful situation facing staff at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the potential risks this entails for nuclear safety,'' IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in the statement.  

Eight of Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors are currently operating, Ukraine’s nuclear regulator told IAEA, and that radiation levels still appear normal. Staff have been able to swap shifts at the operational sites, including at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhya, which is also now under Russian control.   

Poland said on Tuesday that it was ready to deploy — immediately and free of charge — all their MiG-29 fighter jets to the US Air Force’s Ramstein Air Base in Germany and place them at the disposal of Washington to provide them to Ukraine, according to a statement from the Polish foreign ministry. 

The Polish government in the statement urged “other NATO Allies — owners of MIG-29 jets — to act in the same vein.” 

A top State Department official said Tuesday that Poland did not consult with the United States prior to issuing its statement about readiness to transfer jets to the US in Germany.

“I saw that announcement by the government of Poland as I was literally driving here today,” Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

“So to my knowledge, it wasn't pre-consulted with us that they plan to give these planes to us,” she said.

“I look forward when this hearing is over to getting back to my desk and seeing how we will respond to this proposal of theirs to give the planes to us,” she said, noting that the US and Poland have been in consultations for a couple of days on this topic. 

A senior US defense official, meanwhile, told CNN that they've seen the Polish government’s announcement and "have nothing to offer at this time."

More background: It remains unclear where the US will pull the F-16s from in order to possibly send them to Poland or other Eastern European countries in the near term. But members of Congress are supportive of the effort. Sen. Ben Cardin asked Nuland for the Biden administration to notify them if there were going to be any delays to getting these F-16s to Poland.

Still, the complicated logistics behind the idea that both US and Polish officials have now discussed have yet been determined, two European diplomats told CNN. 

The Polish announcement comes after some Polish officials were frustrated by how forward leaning the US was on this subject over the weekend, the sources said. 

"In fact, we’re talking with our Polish friends right now about what we might be able to do to backfill their needs if, in fact, they choose to provide these fighter jets to the Ukrainians. What can we do? How can we help to make sure that they get something to backfill the planes that they’re handing over to the Ukrainians? We’re in very active discussions with them about that,” Secretary of State Tony Blinken said over on CBS on Sunday. 

The Poles believe that the visit Vice President Harris is making to Poland in the coming days would be a good time for the US to announce more details but did not know if that was going to happen or not, a Polish official said. 

Other countries that are in talks with the US about also partaking in a similar are conducting the conversations quietly, without raising expectations, said a central European diplomat. 

CNN's Barbara Starr contributed reporting to this post.

The US intelligence community believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin views the conflict in Ukraine as a "war he cannot afford to lose," suggesting he is likely to escalate the conflict without any concern for the number of civilians killed, the US's top intelligence chiefs told Congress.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said at a congressional hearing Tuesday that US intelligence assesses Putin is unlikely to be deterred by the setbacks the Russian military has faced in Ukraine, suggesting he is doubling down on his campaign to keep Ukraine from joining NATO.

CIA Director William Burns said Putin had launched the invasion "determined to dominate and control Ukraine" based on a set of assumptions that the conflict would be successful, including that Ukraine was weak, that European allies like France and Germany were risk-averse, that he had "sanctions-proofed" his economy and that his military was capable of a quick and decisive victory at minimal cost.

"He's been proven wrong on every count," Burns said.

The discussion of Putin's motivations that led to Russia's bloody invasion of Ukraine last month — and the sweeping, crippling sanctions from the West in response — offered the most public assessment to date of the US view of Putin's ill-fated war in Ukraine. The intelligence community — which forecast Putin's moves in the lead-up to the invasion —testified before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday at an annual worldwide threats hearing.

Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the intelligence community estimates with "low confidence" that between 2,000 and 4,000 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine since Moscow launched its invasion last month.

Read more about their comments to Congress here.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday spoke with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin separately. 

In a tweet, Zelensky said he thanked Bennett “for Israel’s mediation efforts. Discussed ways to end the war and violence.” 

A Kremlin statement on the call said the Israelis initiated the call, and that the two leaders “discussed various aspects of the situation with Russia’s special military operation to protect Donbass. Vladimir Putin shared his assessment of the third round of talks between the Russian delegation and representatives from Ukraine held on March 7 in Belarus.” 

Israel has not provided any readouts or statements on the calls so far.

The latest round of conversations comes three days after Bennett took a surprise trip to Moscow on Saturday where he spent three hours with Putin. Bennett said the following day that Israel will continue to help mediate “even if the chance is not great.” 

Russia has announced a new ceasefire starting at 10 a.m. Moscow time (9 a.m. Ukrainian/2 a.m. ET) Wednesday, saying it’s ready to provide evacuation corridors from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol, along with other towns negotiated with the Ukrainian side.

Russian media reported the ceasefire parameters quoting the Russian Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine.

Russia insists on the need of a continuous communication channel with Ukraine to exchange information regarding the evacuation of civilians and foreigners.

The Russian side proposes that Kyiv notify the representatives of the embassies of foreign states, and international organizations located on the territory of Ukraine about the ceasefire and the provision of humanitarian corridors by 3 a.m. Moscow time Wednesday (7 p.m. ET Tuesday).

Information on evacuation corridors from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol will be sent to Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk on Wednesday, said the Russian Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine.

The first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, published an open letter on her Facebook page reflecting on what has happened to Ukraine in the past two weeks since the Russian invasion.

"Despite assurances from Kremlin-backed propaganda outlets, who call this a 'special operation' — it is, in fact, the mass murder of Ukrainian civilians," Zelenska said.

In the long and impassioned letter, she added: "Perhaps the most terrifying and devastating of this invasion are the child casualties. Eight-year-old Alice who died on the streets of Okhtyrka while her grandfather tried to protect her. Or Polina from Kyiv, who died in the shelling with her parents. 14-year-old Arseniy was hit in the head by wreckage and could not be saved because an ambulance could not get to him on time because of intense fires."

The Ukrainian first lady also discussed the challenges of getting essential medical care, as well as the growing tide of refugees.

She said Russian President Vladimir Putin has underestimated Ukrainians' resistance.

"While Kremlin propagandists bragged that Ukrainians would welcome them with flowers as saviors, they have been shunned with Molotov cocktails," she wrote.

Zelenska also thanked people from around the world for supporting her country.

And she echoed her husband's demands for a no-fly zone over Ukraine. "Close the sky, and we will manage the war on the ground ourselves," she said.

She concluded: "I testify and tell the world: the war in Ukraine is not a war "somewhere out there." This is a war in Europe, close to the EU borders. Ukraine is stopping the force that may aggressively enter your cities tomorrow under the pretext of saving civilians."

"If we don't stop Putin, who threatens to start a nuclear war, there will be no safe place in the world for any of us," she continued.

A bar owner and his team of volunteers in Kharkiv, Ukraine, have transformed the bar into an emergency shelter and food distribution center, and they are going around the battered city feeding about 1,800 people per day.

"We are not thinking about sleeping; we are not thinking about why we're doing this. We just do it because for everyone here, that's the only way," Bohdan Yurov said to CNN's John King in an interview.

Yurov said that seeing his city sustain heavy bombing now is "painful."

He said they started out as a walk-in, but are now fielding requests through a direct helpline. "As soon as someone calls us, we are ready to deploy some supplies," he added.

Yurov said he is in touch with several hundred supermarkets, stores and bakeries to help deliver free food to people around the city.

Watch Bohdan Yurov's full interview with CNN's John King:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked US President Joe Biden Tuesday for announcing the ban of Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports to the US.  

Speaking in a video posted on Telegram on Tuesday, Zelensky reiterated his thanks to Biden, saying: “The United States has taken a step that will significantly weaken the invaders. It will make them pay for aggression and be responsible for the evil they have done. For all the evil. America bans imports of oil from Russia, petroleum products, gas, coal. Prohibits US citizens from any investment in Russia's fuel and energy sector.”

He added, “I am grateful personally to President of the United States Biden for this decision. For this leadership. For this most powerful signal to the whole world. It is very simple: every penny paid to Russia turns into bullets and projectiles that fly to other sovereign states.”

More on Biden's actions: Sanctions on Russia's oil and gas industry had once been viewed as mostly off the table as officials in the United States and Europe worried about a global spike in prices. But pressure had been growing on Biden to act, including from Zelensky and American lawmakers from both parties, as Russia's onslaught in Ukraine increasingly targets civilians.

Biden acknowledged in frank remarks from the White House the step was likely to lead to higher costs for Americans, a potent political issue that is already leading to attacks from Republicans.

See Zelensky's tweet:

CNN's Kaitlan Collins, Jeremy Diamond, Kevin Liptak, Phil Mattingly, MJ Lee and Kate Sullivan contributed reporting to this post.