March 11, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Western officials say a third Russian general has been killed by Ukrainian forces.

He was identified as Major General Andriy Kolesnikov. 

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense’s website, Kolesnikov was commander of the Eastern Military District.

A western defense official noted for context that only three Russian general staff officers were killed during the whole Syrian conflict and estimated that Russia would maintain a total of 20 generals in theatre in Ukraine at this time.

The official paid tribute to the strength of the Ukrainian resistance, particularly around Kyiv and Mykolaiv, where Russian attempts to circle the cities have been frustrated.

More context: Kolesnikov is the third Russian general to be killed during the invasion of Ukraine.

On Thursday, CNN reported that Russian Maj. Gen. Andrey Sukhovetsky was also killed while fighting in Ukraine, according to a statement from the Novorossiysk city government in Russia on March 3.

In the statement, the government said Sukhovetsky — the deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army of the Russian Ground Forces — died on Feb. 28 "while performing a combat mission during a special operation in Ukraine."

Sukhovetsky had previously served in the Russian military during operations in the North Caucasus region and Syria, the statement said. 

On Tuesday, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said a Russian general — Maj. Gen. Vitaly Gerasimov — was killed in battle near Kharkiv.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has not commented.

A fourth package of sanctions against Russia over its "ruthless" invasion of Ukraine, will be imposed tomorrow by the European Union, the head of the European Commission said Friday.

On Saturday, the bloc "will take a fourth package of measures to further isolate Russia and drain the resources it uses to finance this barbaric war," EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.

The bloc will also make sure that “the Russian state and its elites cannot use crypto assets to circumvent the sanctions," and will ban exports to Russia of EU luxury goods and import of iron and steel goods, she said.

The G7 finance, justice and home affairs ministers will meet next week to "coordinate the task force we set up targeting Putin's cronies," she added.

Earlier on Friday, G7 nations announced they would take action to deny Russia a so-called "most favored nation" status, which would revoke benefits of Russia's membership of the World Trade Organization.

"In addition to announced plans, we will make further efforts to reduce our reliance on Russian energy, while ensuring that we do so in an orderly fashion and in ways that provide time for the world to secure alternative and sustainable supplies. In addition, private sector companies are leaving Russia with unprecedented speed and solidarity. We stand with our companies that are seeking an orderly withdrawal from the Russian market," the G7 nations said in a statement.

Russian forces have continued to make some additional advances over the last 24 hours, a senior US defense official told reporters on Friday.

Russian forces that are the closest to Kyiv, about 15 kilometers (about 9 miles) outside of the city center, have not moved any closer since yesterday, the official said.

There are two other groups of Russian forces outside of Kyiv that are potentially moving towards Kyiv. To the north of Kyiv, a group of Russian forces are “somewhere between 20 and 30 kilometers” (or between more than 12 and 18 miles) from Kyiv’s city center. This group has “moved closer” to Kyiv over the last 24 hours, the official said.

A separate group of Russian forces closer to Sumy, to the east of Kyiv, have stalled and are repositioning around Sumy, the official said.

Chernihiv, another Ukrainian city, remains isolated. Russian forces are “right outside the city,” and there is “obviously some fighting in the city,” but the US does not assess that Russian forces have “moved beyond Chernihiv,” the official said.

“They’re still in and around Chernihiv, and again we assess Chernihiv is isolated, and under increasing pressure,” the official said.

In Kharkiv, Russian forces are “on the outskirsts” of the city,” the official said. The US is seeing reports of internet outages in the city, “which seems to be part of the playbook,” the official said, but there’s still “a lot of fighting there.”

“They haven’t taken Kharkiv, it’s being well-defended but they are closing in on it if you will from a geographic perspective,” the official said. 

The southern city of Mariupol is under “increasing pressure,” the official said. 

“Mariupol is also being defended, they’re fighting back, and we continue to see heavy bombardment there as the Russians try to increase their pressure,” the official said.

The US continues to assess that Russian forces have captured Kherson.

In Mykolaiv, Russian forces have not taken the city yet but it is coming under “increasing pressure,” the official said.

“We’ve observed the Ukrainians are continuing to defend the city, and the Russians are just outside the city, again mostly to the northeast, so again not a lot of change there from yesterday, but continues to be heavily fought over,” the official said.

There's growing evidence that the town of Volnovakha in eastern Ukraine has fallen to Russian forces and their allies in the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic.

The city had been surrounded almost since the beginning of Russia's invasion but had been fiercely defended by Ukrainian forces.

The Russian defense ministry's spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, said that a "group of troops of the Donetsk People's Republic liberated the city of Volnovakha" and several surrounding settlements.

Konashenkov said that the militia had advanced about six kilometers (about 3.7 miles) and continued to tighten the encirclement of the besieged city of Mariupol.

Some social media videos from the city showed Russian soldiers and vehicles in several neighborhoods, as well as abandoned Ukrainian tanks. Other videos showed widespread destruction in Volnovakha.

The apparent fall of Volnovakha — which is halfway between Donetsk and Mariupol — allows Russian forces to consolidate their control of the Donbas region.

Earlier Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Volnovakha remained completely blocked to humanitarian relief convoys, but the Ukrainian authorities have not acknowledged that the city has fallen under Russian control. 

European and African food supplies will be "profoundly destabilized" by the war in Ukraine, warned French President Emmanuel Macron.

He warned that both Europe and Africa "will be very profoundly destabilized in food supplies." 

The French leader said he will speak with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in "several hours" alongside the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

He added that "nothing is taboo" as far as sanctions against Russia are concerned, adding that European leaders "will do everything that we consider effective and useful to stop Russia in this path of aggression."

Russia and Ukraine are key players in the global agricultural trade, with both nations accounting for a quarter of the world's wheat exports, including at least 14% of corn exports in 2020, and a joint 58% of global sunflower oil exports in the same year, analyses show.

Read more about how war could impact Africa here.

Three members of the Ukrainian military — Senior Soldier Andrii Stefanyshyn, 39, Senior Lt. Taras Didukh, 25, and Sgt. Dmytro Kabakov, 58 — were laid to rest in a service at the Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Church in the city of Lviv.

Even in this sacred space, the sounds of war intruded: an air raid siren audible under the sound of prayer and weeping. Yet no one stirred. Residents are now inured to the near daily warnings of an air attack. Everyone is asked to stay inside for safety. Mourners held captive to their grief.

The mother of Didukh collapsed on his coffin, weeping. A soldier approached to gently lift her up as three others removed the coffin’s cover revealing her son inside, a purple bruise visible on his temple.

As the coffins were opened, the crowd of mourners surged forward for a final goodbye, caressing the cheeks of the departed.

In this war, the Ukrainian military has proven itself resilient, outmaneuvering the might of Russia’s war machine. But the cost has been high.

The Ukrainian military will not give out the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed — though officials insist that civilian casualties far outweigh the military’s.

“As of March 10th, the number of Ukrainian civilians killed by Russian interventionists is bigger than the number of our military personnel from all our defense corps killed in action,” said Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s Minister of Defense, “I want this to be heard not only in Ukraine, but in the whole world.”

Details of how and where these soldiers died are kept secret. All their families know is that they were killed in the opening days of the war.

Though Lviv is far from the fighting in eastern and central Ukraine, military units based here have been on the frontline. Now those killed are coming home. This church in Lviv has nearly three funerals a dayAs the funeral procession moved towards the military cemetery, Myroslava Stefanyshyn held a framed photo of her son Andrii.

“Two days into the war. And my kid was gone,” she said breaking into tears. “Unspeakable regret. Longing. Heartache. I cannot bear it. I feel so awful that I cannot find the words to explain it to you.”

Dabbing at tears with a handkerchief, Maria Solohun watched the funeral procession pass by. She is a stranger to these families in mourning, but she still grieves for them.

“They all are ours. They all are our children. They are our rescuers, forging our victory,” Solohun said, “Even if it is impossible to bear, impossible to bear this blood flowing as a river.”

A shipment of security assistance from the United States for Ukraine will arrive in Europe in the next 24 hours, a senior US defense official told reporters on Friday.

The US is also working to “coordinate” shipments of security assistance from other nations contributing to Ukraine, the official added. 

“It’s not just us. 14 other nations are also providing — on a bilateral basis — providing resources to Ukraine. We are helping coordinate that,” the official said. 

“We are working to get them the kinds of things that ... we know they need most, and that is largely right now, air defense and anti-armor in terms of munitions,” the official added.

US President Joe Biden said Friday that the US would ban imports of seafood, vodka and diamonds from the nation as part of an effort to ramp up economic pressure on Russia for invading Ukraine.

In remarks from the White House, Biden also called for revoking Russia’s "most favored nation" status, known as permanent normal trade relations in the US. The move, which has been coordinated with G7 and EU allies, will require an act of Congress.

The United States’ ban of exporting of luxury goods to Russia, which Biden referenced in his speech, will also include items like tobacco, clothing, jewelry, cars and antiques, an administration official tells CNN.

The idea behind this, the official explains, is to continue hurting Russian oligarchs and the country’s wealthiest by depriving them of their creature comforts, as the US continues to try to put pressure around those close to Vladimir Putin. It is also aimed at removing ways for these oligarchs to shelter their money, as they are already increasingly closed off from traditional financial avenues, the official said. 

So how much alcohol and seafood does the US import from Russia? The US imported 48,867 metric tons of seafood from Russia in 2021, worth about $1.2 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Crab accounted for the largest portion of those imports, with the US buying more than $900 million worth of frozen snow and red king crab last year.

The US does not sell any seafood directly to Russia, as the country banned US exports of seafood and fish in 2014.

CNN is still tracking down overall alcohol figures but according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, imports of Russian vodka to the United States accounted for only 1.3% of total vodka imports in in 2021.

The total amounts to $18.5 million dollars in 2021, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States said. 

The Ukrainian air force has about 56 fighter aircraft remaining on the ground, which is about 80% of the fixed-wing capabilities the Ukrainian air force had before Russia attacked, a senior US defense official said Friday.

The official told reporters that Ukraine hasn’t had to rely much on their fixed-wing fighter aircraft in the war against Russia, because they’ve used other capabilities, including drones and surface-to-air missiles, to fight back against the Russian air force. The Ukrainians are flying about five to 10 sorties per day, the official said, compared to roughly 200 from the Russians.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged NATO countries to provide Ukraine with more fighter jets. Poland had proposed sending its MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine by giving them to the US via a German air base, but the Pentagon rejected that plan earlier this week.

The defense official said that beyond Ukraine’s fixed-wing fighters, the Ukrainians have made effective use of drones, noting they are “cheap” and can fly below radar coverage. “It’s a very nimble platform, and they’re using them with terrific effect, particularly against Russian ground units,” the official said.

The Ukrainians are using surface-to-air missiles “with great effect” against Russian forces, the official said. “They’re being careful at what they’re shooting at, they’re moving stuff around, they’re being very nimble. And it’s proven effective,” the official said. “And I’m not just talking about mobile launchers, I’m talking about use of shoulder fire surface-to-air capability as well.”