This is the CNBC blog covering updates on the war in Ukraine. [Follow the latest updates here. ]
Russia unleashed a wave of Russian missile and drone movements overnight, hitting Kiev and other major cities in Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said. Warnings of airstrikes sounded across much of the country early in the morning.
The head of the Ukrainian armed forces said Russia fired 81 missiles into Ukrainian territory on Thursday morning, adding six “kinzhal” hypersonic missiles, which its air force intercepted.
Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said the capital experienced several explosions that disrupted the force’s infrastructure and injured several civilians. Now warming up.
The air alert lasted only about seven hours in the capital, Serhiy Popko, head of Kiev’s army administration, said on Telegram. He accused Russia of launching “almost every and every one of its types of aerial weapons,” from Iranian-made drones to “almost every single type of cruise missile. “CNBC could not determine the claims.
Officials in the southern port city of Odessa, Lviv in western Ukraine and Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine also reported drone and missile movements overnight. “Energy infrastructure and commercial enterprises” damaged. Several deaths were reported in Lviv and Dnipro.
Andrii Sadovyy, mayor of the city of Lviv, said on Telegram that “according to initial information, drones and missiles flew in our direction. “He added that “the enemy is furious” because Russia has a bear injured in a trap.
“They haven’t had good fortune at the front for a long time. That’s why they shoot chaotically all over Ukraine,” he said.
Satellite photographs of Maxar show how the Battle of Bakhmut replaced the landscape near the city.
Before: Images show a handful of craters in fields east of Bakhmut, Ukraine
Next: The photos show piles of craters in the fields.
-Maxar Technologies
One man was killed and another wounded in an artillery attack in Volnovakha, Ukraine.
— Anadolu Agency | fake images
Biden’s management has imposed new sanctions on corporations and an individual who supports Iran’s efforts to acquire unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs.
The U. S. Department of the Treasury The U. S. Department of Defense said a China-based network supported “the sale of thousands of aerospace parts, adding parts that can be used for UAV applications, to the Industrial Aircraft Manufacturing Company of Iran. “
The Iranian corporation “participated in the production of the Shahed-136 style drone that Iran used to attack oil tankers and exported to Russia,” the management said.
The latest move is the sixth of sanctions Washington has imposed on Americans and entities involved in the production and movement of Iranian drones since September 2022.
“Iran is concerned about Ukrainian civilian casualties resulting from Russia’s use of Iranian drones in Ukraine,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson.
“The United States will continue to target Iran’s global networks supplying Russia with deadly drones for use in its illegal war in Ukraine,” he added.
—Amanda Macias
Ukrainian army intelligence said Russia’s plans are a “large-scale provocation” on the common border between Ukraine and Belarus.
“Information has been obtained that, in the short or long term, the political-military command of the Russian Federation is planning a large-scale provocation on the border between Ukraine and Belarus,” Ukrainian defense intelligence wrote on its official Telegram channel.
“The aim of the provocation is to create hostile public opinion towards Ukraine on the part of Belarusian citizens and the full participation of the country’s armed forces in the war by the Russian Federation,” Ukraine wrote, according to NBC. . Translation of stories.
—Amanda Macias
Biden’s leadership has released a budget proposal that includes $1700 million for Ukraine to fight Russia and rebuild its infrastructure.
The federal budget for fiscal year 2024 also calls for $63. 1 billion for the State Department and USAID, at least $2 billion more than last year.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said separately that the proposed investment “will allow us to continue to advance America’s national interests, lead the world in solving global challenges, and continue to help the Ukrainian people. “
—Amanda Macias
People paid their last respects to a deceased Ukrainian soldier as “Da Vinci” in his hometown.
The news of the death of Dmytro Kotsiubailo, the commander of the battalion “Da Vinci Wolves”, known this week. He was mortally wounded in the battles near Bakhmut.
Kotsiubailo 27.
The human rights defender’s frame was taken back to his home village. Residents of nearby villages met the dead soldier through a live corridor. take position on Friday in Kiev.
On December 1, 2021, Kotsiubailo won the highest national name of Hero of Ukraine with the award of the Order of the Golden Star. He has become the youngest commander and the first volunteer to obtain this rank in his life.
— Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine Getty Images
CIA Director William Burns said Chinese President Xi Jinping did not have to supply Russia with lethal weapons for the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
“We’ve noticed transparent evidence that China’s leadership is contemplating this, not that they’ve made a decision,” Burns told the House Standing Committee on Intelligence.
“I don’t think he has paid more attention to Vladimir Putin’s party in Ukraine than Xi Jinping,” he added.
The CIA leader said economic points similar to Russia’s source of weapons and any imaginable monetary retaliation from Western allies is something Chinese leaders weigh significantly.
“This is whatever President Xi wants to do when he comes out of 0 Covid-19, tries to repair Chinese economic growth, tries to interact with the rest of the global economy and I think that also weighs on his resolve on whether or not to supply lethal aircraft to Russia. “Burns said.
—Amanda Macias
A Ukrainian operator of electric power transmission formulas said it had restored power at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant following a series of Russian missile strikes.
“Ukrenergo specialists have restored force to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that disrupted today’s missile strikes,” Ukrenergo wrote in an update posted on Facebook.
“The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant switches from diesel turbines to receiving electric power at its own wishes from the United Energy System of Ukraine,” the organization added, according to a translation via NBC News.
Russian forces took possession of the nuclear plant, the largest in Europe, at the start of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
—Amanda Macias
Four ships carrying 175,802 metric tons of grain and other food products departed from Ukrainian ports, said the organization that oversees the country’s export of agricultural products.
The ships are bound for Italy, China and Portugal and corn and sunflower oil.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative, negotiated in July between Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations, eased the Russian naval blockade and allowed the reopening of 3 key Ukrainian ports. The deal expires this month.
So far, more than 780 ships have left Ukrainian ports.
—Amanda Macias
Polish and Slovak officials are urging their allies to supply fighter jets to Ukraine, saying they are in a position to send their Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets to Kiev as part of a foreign coalition.
However, it is not yet clear whether other Western supporters of Ukraine are in a position to take this step.
“I think it’s time to make a decision. Ukrainians are dying. We can help them,” Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad said on Facebook. “This is inhumane and irresponsible. “
Slovaks and Poles have already made appeals, but they have renewed their appeals in recent days.
Polish President Andrzej Duda told CNN on Wednesday that Poland is in a position to supply Ukraine with MiG-29 fighters in coalition with other countries.
– Associated Press
The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday that the new nightly missile offensive against Ukraine is a “massive retaliatory strike” in reaction to Kiev’s alleged involvement in an incident in Russia’s Bryansk region, according to a Google translation.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it had targeted Ukrainian army infrastructure, army industrial complexes and electrical installations, deploying a long-range air, sea and land arsenal, adding “kinzhal” hypersonic missiles, which Ukraine said its air force could intercept.
In the past, Moscow has accused Ukraine of carrying out a “terrorist attack” in its Bryansk region on March 2. Ukraine denied any involvement and in turn described the Russian reaction as a “deliberate provocation” and suggested that Russian anti-Moscow teams were raiding.
—Ruxandra Iordache
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated Moscow’s commitment to fulfilling its obligations to OPEC’s manufacturers’ alliances, even as his country seeks a unilateral cut this month.
Speaking at a press conference in Moscow alongside Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, Lavrov said Russia’s cooperation with Riyadh has been affected by the war in Ukraine.
“We reaffirm our commitment to the agreements that we have, first of all, within OPEC, and which remain in force until the end of the year,” Lavrov said. “After that, OPEC participants will review the scenario and make new decisions. “. “
OPEC recently agreed to a production cut of 2 million barrels consistent with the day in October, which it has reaffirmed at technical and ministerial meetings since then. Russia, whose crude oil and petroleum products are no longer available to G-7 countries at risk of Western sanctions. , unilaterally announced that it would reduce crude oil production by 500,000 barrels a day this month, a move that falls outside the OPEC agreement. Such projects have been permitted, provided they respect the spirit of the existing production agreement.
Asked about the Ukrainian conflict, Prince Faisal said the kingdom was “ready to dialogue with all countries to seek tactics to resolve this matter peacefully. “
—Ruxandra Iordache
Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party has to withdraw its questionable “foreign agents” bill, after two days of mass protests, according to Reuters.
Opponents have criticized the bill as a model for Russia’s authoritarian regime. The law would have called on Georgian organizations that earned more than 20% of their investment to register as “foreign agents” or face possible sanctions.
“The Kremlin has not encouraged anything and has nothing to do with it,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday, according to Russia’s Tass news agency.
EU High Representative Josep Borrell warned on 7th March that the law “is incompatible with EU values and standards” and “is contrary to the Georgian state’s objective of joining the European Union”.
“Its final adoption can have serious repercussions on our relationships,” he said.
Georgia applied for the EU club in March 2022, but the European Council said it was only in a position to bestow prestige on the country’s candidate once it had implemented certain reforms, including the judicial system.
The EU delegation in Georgia welcomed the announcement of the withdrawal of the bill on Twitter, encouraging Georgian politicians to resume pro-EU reforms “in an inclusive manner [and]”.
—Ruxandra Iordache
The International Atomic Energy Agency has intensified its calls to protect the besieged Zaporizhzhia plant in Ukraine after missile attacks disrupted power at the facility.
“I’m amazed at the complacency: what are we doing to prevent this from happening?We are the IAEA, we are meant to care about nuclear safety,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said Thursday. “Every time, roll a die. And if we let this happen again and again, one day our luck will run out. “
He called on the IAEA’s board of governors and network to “protect the safety and security” of Zaporizhzhia, which the firm said lost all strength for the first time since Nov. 23 following missile movements raining down on Ukraine overnight.
The Zaporizhzhia plant was “disabled and went into blackout mode,” Ukrainian nuclear company Energoatom said Thursday. Days of operation.
“It’s the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. How can we be here in this room this morning and allow that to happen?This cannot continue,” Grossi said.
Russia and Ukraine have traded accusations of bombing and endangering Zaporizhzhia facilities.
—Ruxandra Iordache
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia would be responsible after the latest circular of missile movements hit the capital, Kiev, and other major Ukrainian cities overnight.
“It was a tough night. A large rocket attacked the country. Kiev, Kirovohrad, Dnipro, Odessa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia. Attacks on critical infrastructure and residential buildings,” he told Telegram. Unfortunately, there are wounded and dead. “
He said efforts were underway to repair power infrastructure that had been broken in the 81 missile movements the president and Ukrainian military said in Ukraine.
“The enemy fired 81 missiles in an attempt to intimidate the Ukrainians again, returning to their depressing tactics. The occupiers can only terrorize civilians. That’s all they can do. done,” Zelenskyy said.
— Holly Ellyatt
The head of Ukraine’s armed forces said Russia fired 81 missiles into Ukrainian territory in the early hours of Thursday morning, adding six hypersonic “kinzhal” missiles that its air force intercepts.
The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valery Zaluzhny, said Thursday on Telegram that “overnight, the enemy introduced a major missile attack on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure” and introduced 81 missile movements from other bases. Listing the movements and weapons used, Zaluzhny said there were:
– 28 launches of Kh-101/Kh-555 aerial cruise missiles;
– 20 cruise missile launches in the Kalibr Sea;
– six launches of X-22 air-based cruise missiles;
– six launches of Kh-47 “Kinzhal” air cruise missiles;
– 8 guided aerial missile launches: 2 – Kh-31P; 6-X-59;
– thirteen launches of S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles.
In addition, he added, 8 attacks were recorded with attack drones or Iranian-made “Shahed-136/131” unmanned aerial vehicles.
He said the Ukrainian Air Force and other defense forces destroyed 34 cruise missiles out of the 48 Kh-101/Kh-555 and Kalibr cruise missiles that were launched, as well as 4 of the “Shahed-136/131” drones.
Zaluzhny said that “as a result of the countermeasures arranged, the 8 Kh-31P and Kh-59 guided air missiles were unsuccessful in their targets. “
The Armed Forces of Ukraine do not have the means to intercept the Kh-22 and Kh-47 “Kinzhal” hypersonic missiles, the Ukrainian Air Force said in a separate statement, detailing missile movements in Ukraine this morning.
Officials across Ukraine reported this morning missile and drone strikes in their respective regions, with the capital Kiev and the second-largest city of Kharkiv, as well as Odessa and Lviv, among the cities reporting broken electrical infrastructure and casualties as a result of the attack. strikes.
—Holly Ellyatt
Loss of power at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as a result of missile attacks in Ukraine.
“The last line of communication between the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and Ukraine’s force formula was cut off as a result of rocket attacks,” Ukrainian nuclear company Energoatom said on Thursday.
“Currently, the station is off and in blackout mode,” he said. This is the sixth time this has happened since Russian forces occupied the plant at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine.
Energoatom said 18 diesel turbines were powered to force the plant’s desires with enough fuel for 10 days of electricity. “The countdown has begun,” Energoatom said.
Russia unleashed a wave of drone and missile attacks on Ukraine overnight, with the capital Kiev among the affected cities. The component said cutting off electrical power materials to force the plant to be “a provocation,” Reuters reported.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest of its kind in Europe, is regularly caught in the midst of clashes between Russian and Ukrainian forces, who accuse each other of bombing and endangering the operation and protection of the facility and endangering an imaginable catastrophic nuclear accident.
Energoatom said Thursday that “if the plant’s external force source is unlikely to be renewed in this period, a twist of fate could occur with radiological consequences for the entire world. “
International observers have for a demilitarized zone around the plant.
— Holly Ellyatt
Kiev and other major cities in Ukraine, in addition to Lviv, Kharkiv and Odessa, were hit by a wave of Russian missile movements overnight, Ukrainian officials said, with alerts of airstrikes activated across much of the country in the early hours of Thursday.
Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said the capital had been hit by a series of explosions that fed infrastructure and injured several civilians.
In his most recent Telegram article this morning, Klitschko said that due to emergency force cuts after the missile attack, 40% of the capital’s citizens were warming up.
The air alert lasted only about seven hours in the capital, Serhii Popko, head of Kiev’s army administration, said on Telegram as he accused Russia of launching “almost all types of its aerial weapons,” from Iranian-made drones to “almost all types. “. ” cruise missiles. “
Popko said initial data indicated that a Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missile (a nuclear-capable Russian air-launched ballistic missile) hit an infrastructure object. CNBC could not determine the claims.
Officials from the southern port of Odessa, Lviv in western Ukraine and Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine reported rocket fire overnight, while in the Dnipro region, a regional official said there had been “severe destruction” as a result of the bombing with “energy and commercial fuels. “infrastructure. ” Damaged businesses Several deaths were reported in Lviv and Dnipro.
The governor of the northeastern region of Kharkiv, Oleh Syniehubov, said Ukraine’s largest city, Kharkiv, had noticed about 15 movements in the city and region. that “information about victims and the extent of destruction is being clarified. “Local citizens have been asked to stay in shelters.
—Holly Ellyatt
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Wagner mercenary organization fighting in Donetsk, said the most productive of his fighters are “waiting on the scene. “
Prigozhin said in his official telegram that some of Wagner’s sets equipped with “every imaginable fashionable weapon and intelligence means” have yet to join the fighting in Ukraine.
He also said, according to an NBC News translation, that Wagner’s forces fighting at Bakhmut had completely taken over the eastern component of the city.
—Amanda Macias
The besieged city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine could soon be completely captured by Russian forces, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday, but it will be a turning point in the war.
Russian forces, he said, “suffered heavy losses, but at the same time we cannot exclude that Bakhmut will probably fall in the coming days and therefore it is also important for the tension that this does not necessarily reflect a turning point. “in war and simply stresses that we deserve not to underestimate Russia. We will have to continue towards Ukraine,” he said while attending an assembly of EU defense ministers in Stockholm.
“Russia’s war of aggression continues against Ukraine and in recent weeks and months we have noticed fierce fighting in and around Bakhmut and what we see is that Russia is sending more troops, more forces and what Russia lacks in quality. in quantity,” he added.
—Holly Ellyatt
Georgian police reportedly used tear gas and stun grenades to respond to protests outside the Georgian parliament on Wednesday.
Protests in the capital erupted after lawmakers passed a “foreign agents” bill that would require any organization that receives more than 20 percent of its investment from abroad to register as “foreign agents” or face fines.
Reuters witnesses in the capital, Tbilisi, saw police with shields make arrests along Rustaveli Avenue, the main thoroughfare running through the city center. Some protesters were seen throwing Molotov cocktails and stones, the news firm reported.
Critics see the bill as authoritarian and akin to a Russian-style directive aimed at civil society and cracking down on press freedom.
Georgia has tense and tense relations with Russia, which invaded the country in 2008 to two pro-Russian separatist areas, as it has for two self-proclaimed pro-Russian “republics” in Ukraine.
Like Ukraine, Georgia has implemented to join the EU and NATO, fearing possible attempts through Russia to expand or impose its influence. This week’s protests drew pro-EU demonstrators who waved European flags and chanted anti-Russian slogans.
Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said on Twitter that he was “deeply involved through the developments in Georgia,” adding that “the right to nonviolent protest is at the core of any democracy. “
He said that “the adoption of this law on ‘foreign influence’ is compatible with the EU path” desired by the majority in Georgia, he said, adding that “commitment to the rule of law and human values is the key to the EU project. “
—Holly Ellyatt
After seven months of fighting for the trading town of Bakhmut in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, it’s no wonder that neither Ukraine nor Russia need to capitulate or capture its defense.
But it is now increasingly likely that Russia will be able to take the lead. On Wednesday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russian mercenary forces fighting in Bakhmut, said Wagner had taken the eastern part of the city entirely.
Although its forces appear vulnerable to the siege, Ukraine vowed on Monday to continue protecting the city and send reinforcements.
Russia and Ukraine have thrown masses of workers into their attempts to capture and protect Bakhmut, respectively, and claim to have inflicted heavy casualties on the forces of others on a daily basis.
In addition to atoning for those sacrifices with a kind of victory at Bakhmut, there are several other reasons why both sides have reasons to keep fighting to the end, ranging from the symbolic to the military.
Read more here: Ukraine promises a ‘fortress’ of Bakhmut as Russian forces surround it: Here are 3 reasons why
The head of Russia’s mercenary forces fighting in Bakhmut said on Wednesday that his personal military company, the Wagner Group, had completely taken over the eastern component of the city, according to comments published through Russian media outlet Tass.
“The Wagner PMC ensembles occupied the entire eastern component of Bakhmut. The eastern end of the Bakhmutka River is completely under the control of Wagner PMC,” Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said, according to Tass, citing comments made on Prigozhin’s Telegram channel. CNBC was unable to determine the claims.
Ukraine issued an army update on Wednesday in which it noted that Ukraine had repelled more than a hundred attacks in the Donetsk region over the past day, Bakhmut added, but said Russian forces were “continuing their failed offensive operations” in the area.
Russia is contemplating the capture of Bakhmut, a city it calls “Artemovsk” or “Artyomovsk,” a key strategic objective as it seeks to cut off Ukrainian routes in eastern Ukraine, but the war over Bakhmut is also symbolic. for the Wagner Group as it seeks to turn its credibility into the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Prigozhin has had a long-running feud with defense officials in Moscow, criticizing his strategy in the war and, more recently, suggesting that the ministry had responded to his request for urgent delivery of ammunition for his troops. Prigozhin warned that it could be due to “bureaucracy or treason. “
—Holly Ellyatt
America’s most sensible spies warn that Russia is beefing up its nuclear capabilities; Moscow launches missile barrage
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