(LONDON) — An American citizen has been killed fighting in Ukraine, a U.S. State Department spokesperson confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday.
The State Department spokesperson did not confirm the man’s identity, but the sister of Dane Partridge confirmed he was the victim. The State Department only verified that a U.S. citizen had recently been killed in the Donbas region of Ukraine.
ABC News spoke with Dane’s sister Jenny Partridge Corry by phone who confirmed the death.
ABC News’ Amantha Cherry contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Hundreds of pilot whales that beached on the Chatham Islands in the last week died of natural causes or were euthanized, according to New Zealand’s Department of Conservation.
Officials responded to two mass strandings of pilot whales. The first group of 240 pilot whales beached in the northwest of Chatham Island, also called Rēkohu or Wharekauri, on Oct. 7. Days after, the second stranding occurred at Waihere Bay on Pitt Island, also known as Rangihaute or Rangiāuria, on Oct. 10, also involving almost 240 pilot whales.
Some whales were dead on arrival and others were put down, said Dave Lundquist, DOC’s technical advisor marine species and threats. The whales will decompose, Lundquist added.
“We do not actively refloat whales on the Chatham Islands due to the risk of shark attack to humans and the whales themselves, so euthanasia was the kindest option,” Lundquist said.
The remote Chatham Islands are a hotspot for cetacean graves. The largest recorded pilot whale stranding was 1,000 whales at the Chatham Islands in 1918.
“This is a sad event for the team and the community, with many people being affected by it,” Lundquist said.
Pilot whales tend to be the most frequent causalities of mass strandings, said the DOC. Though the exact reason behind whale strandings remains unclear, a few traits unique to this species of aquatic mammal make them more likely to be beached.
Pilot whales utilize echolocation for directions. Navigation errors occur, including human intervention, meaning the whales can accidentally trap themselves in a shallow bay or beach bar.
Another reason for stranding could be a disease. When whales from a pod are infected by a virus or toxic algae, they may all become sick and unable to swim, beaching themselves in response.
Pilot whales, uniquely, are social creatures, moving in large groups, said Anaïs Remili, a Ph.D. candidate and whale researcher at McGill University. When something goes awry, like a mistake in echolocation or an illness, pilot whales tend to beach themselves altogether.
“As we’ve seen with COVID, it’s quite easy to transfer a virus when you’re living in close quarters,” Remili said. “That’s what happens with stranded whales.”
On the bright side, Remili said, pilot whales are not an endangered species. Plus, mass strandings can inform environmentalists about the impact of climate change. If mass strandings become more common, then scientists can sample the dead individuals to understand if there is an ecological link to pollution.
“This is an incredibly sad event but we can use it to understand how our world is changing,” Remili said.
(LONDON) — After President Vladimir Putin’s decree to mobilize Russia on Sept. 21, a secretive Russian protest group called Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAR) instructed women to wear black and hold white flowers as they march the nation’s streets, a striking demonstration of grief.
“Your son, your father, your brother can be in a warzone,” said FAR coordinator Lolja Nordic. “We want the Russian army weaker. We don’t need more ordinary civilians turned into dead soldiers.”
Russia has a history of women’s activism, both in Soviet and post-Soviet times, in spite of women’s chronic political underrepresentation, including FAR’s action on March 8 — International Women’s Day — organized in remembrance of Ukrainians killed in the war, which compelled peace campaigners to protest in 112 cities.
FAR originated on Feb. 25, the day after Russia invaded Ukraine, and even though the number of members is not exact, the group has over 42,000 Telegram subscribers.
“We are the opposition to war, patriarchy, authoritarianism and militarism,” the organization’s manifesto, which has been translated into 13 languages, reads. “We are the future, and we will win.”
Due to her participation with FAR, Nordic notes that she has been surveilled, cyberattacked and arrested four times, her home has been raided twice and her devices were confiscated. After she was exiled to Tallinn, Estonia, she decided to forego her anonymity.
“All our participants are aware: none of what we do is 100% safe,” Nordic said.
FAR, though not exclusive to women, organizes online and street protests, posts strategies for avoiding conscription, disseminates anti-war messaging and volunteers with aiding Ukrainian refugees. The group also pays legal costs via crowdsourcing for residents who face illegal termination from their jobs for opposing the war.
Nearly eight months since the invasion, FAR is now active in over 40 Russian cities, says another FAR coordinator Julia, whose last name has been redacted for her security.
“Before the war, for most Russians, there was an illusion that politics won’t affect their lives,” Julia said. “Now, political decisions severely affect their lives.”
A former biochemistry student, activism now monopolizes Julia’s time and, in March, the 24-year-old fled her home in Russia to another European country.
“When Western journalists think of Russia, they think people here are super supportive of their, like, führer,” said Julia. “But that’s not the case.”
Putin has been threatening to use nuclear weapons since the beginning of his war in Ukraine. But in his Sept. 30 speech in which he formally and illegally proclaimed the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, the Russian president intensified his rhetoric.
Julia described the notion of introducing nuclear weaponry to this war as, “horrible, horrible, absolutely horrible.”
“Putin and his political allies have lost any connection with the real world,” she added while noting she can’t predict what could possibly come next in the conflict.
At the latest count, more than 14,900 Russian people have been detained by security forces and police for protesting, according to OVD-Info, a Russian human rights organization.
FAR exists among a coalition of anti-war groups and dissenters in Russia. Founded in 2013, Vesna is a Russian youth organization working towards liberal democracy. Vesna has a core group of about a hundred members who have been thoroughly checked, said Vesna leader Maria Lakhina who handles finances and works in Vesna’s international cooperation team.
To eventually reach its goal of a liberal democratic state, Lakhina added, Vesna wants to topple the current Russian regime, promote the values of human rights and the rule of law.
“It may sound unrealistic, but we believe it is the only way our country may positively change,” Lakhina said.
Growing up in Siberia, 26-year-old Lakhina, lived in St. Petersburg for the past six years before emigrating to Yerevan, Armenia, in March. She participated in two rallies in St. Petersburg but was arrested during the last one.
After she left the country, Lakhina coordinated four more rallies, two of which were anti-war rallies in March and two anti-mobilization rallies in September. Lakhina now receives treatment for trauma symptoms, insomnia and panic attacks.
“I shut down emotions and bury them in work as much as possible,” said Lakhina. “That does not sound healthy, and it will probably have consequences in the future, but that is the only way to stay productive in our field in times like this.”
(NEW YORK) — Russia’s missile strikes across Ukraine on Monday were a direct retaliation for the attack damaging the key bridge connecting Crimea with Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week.
The bombardment was the largest against Ukrainian cities in months and focused heavily on civilian targets, killing at least 19 and injuring dozens more, Ukrainian officials said. It was also the first time the very center of Kyiv had been directly hit.
But while the barrage was intended to terrorize, independent analysts said it underlined not Russia’s strength but growing weakness, illustrating its inability to shift the military situation in its favor. They called it a desperate attempt by Putin to respond to critics at home but said the strikes would have no effect in reversing Russia’s battlefield defeats.
“This is not, therefore, a new war-winning strategy but a … tantrum,” Lawrence Freedman, a professor of War Studies at Kings College London, wrote in a post his Substack blog of Monday’s strikes.
The Crimean bridge that was partially collapsed by a blast over the weekend was a target with major symbolic and military significance for Russia. The bridge was an expensive physical symbol of Putin’s annexation of Crimea and a key supply line for Russian forces already under intense pressure in southern Ukraine.
The attack on the bridge was a personal humiliation for Putin that underscored how badly the war is going for Russia. Russian nationalists were demanding a commensurate response, experts said.
Russia’s strikes on Monday were unable to hit anything comparable, instead resorting to bombing civilian targets without any military significance, including a university and a children’s playground in Kyiv, local officials said.
“The occupiers are not capable of opposing us on the battlefield already, that is why they resort to this terror,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social media post on Monday.
In the capital, for example, a Russian missile targeted a pedestrian bridge that crosses through a park and that’s only used for sightseeing. The missile missed the bridge, leaving it intact, but it did hit the surrounding park. It’s unclear if that strike resulted in any injuries.
Russia also targeted several power stations around the country that Ukrainian and Western officials have said are part of a strategy of destroying heating infrastructure as winter approaches.
The strikes are designed to spread fear, but will have no impact on Ukraine’s ability to keep advancing in the northeast and south where Russia is on the defensive, several military analysts said. Russia is also running out of the long-range missiles it used in Monday’s strike, meaning it will be unable to maintain such intensity even short-term, analysts said.
Pavel Luzhin, a military expert and political scientist, told the Russian independent news site The Insider that after Monday’s strikes, Russia already had insufficient advanced missiles to repeat such a large-scale attack.
“The 83 missiles that Russia used today, it had been hoarding for several months,” Luzhin, who writes for Riddle Russia, told The Insider.
Russia produces no more than 200 advanced cruise missiles a year, he said, and upping production or buying them from other countries was impossible.
Luzhin said Russia still had larger quantities of older, less advanced missiles and now Iranian drones, but these were not enough to have a significant military impact.
“Enough for terror, but not for anything more,” he said.
White House spokesman John Kirby said in an interview on ABC News’ Good Morning America on Tuesday that Russia’s bombing campaign across Ukraine didn’t appear to be enough to turn the military tide in Russia’s favor.
“It doesn’t appear like they’re going to do that,” Kirby said. “I mean, we don’t know what the next steps here are for Mr. Putin. But you can see just from the–just from the reaction of the Ukrainian people over the course of the weekend, they’re not backing down. They’re not slowing down. They’re gonna continue to conduct their counteroffensives. They are still active on the battlefield.”
Greg Yudin, a professor of political philosophy at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, told ABC News the Russian hardliners were “the target audience” for Monday’s strikes.
He said Putin was now fully aligned with the hardliners and that he would escalate further despite his military’s growing weakness.
“He doesn’t care about reality. He will push until the end. He will escalate further and further, hoping that perhaps the final escalation will make the opponent surrender,” Yudin said.
He said, in Putin’s view, the real opponent he must force to surrender was the West.
“The hardliners have been demanding attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure for some time and they now have got what they wanted. But they will inevitably be disappointed with the results. The electricity will be turned back on, the rubble cleared, and Ukraine’s armies will continue to press forward,” Freedman wrote in a post on his Substack.
Russia has been bombing Ukrainian infrastructure since the start of the war, hitting Ukrainian cities most days, but the number of its strikes has fallen dramatically since the summer, which is a sign it has to ration its limited missile stockpile, most military experts say.
Short on missiles and pushed back from Ukrainian cities, Russia is often turning to anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles to strike ground targets in order to preserve its more valuable cruise missiles, experts said. Ukraine is also increasingly effective at shooting down Russian missiles.
One of Britain’s top spy chiefs on Tuesday also said Russia was increasingly short on ammunition and supplies of all types.
“We know — and Russian commanders on the ground know — that their supplies and munitions are running out,” Sir Jeremy Fleming, the head of Britain’s GCHQ intelligence will say in a speech he is expected to give Tuesday, the BBC and other media outlets reported. “Russia’s forces are exhausted. The use of prisoners to reinforce, and now the mobilization of tens of thousands of inexperienced conscripts, speaks of a desperate situation.”
As Ukraine has routed Russian forces in parts of the country in recent weeks, hardline nationalists in Russia have been calling for Putin to adopt a total war approach that would destroy civilian infrastructure and flatten Ukrainian cities. On Monday some of those critics hailed the strikes.
“We must hope that this is not a one-time act of revenge but a new system of waging war,” Alexander Kots, a prominent military reporter for the pro-Kremlin Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, wrote on the social media platform Telegram. “Across the entire Ukrainian government. Until they lose the ability to function.”
The Kremlin last week appointed a new overall commander for its Ukrainian operations, Gen. Sergey Surovikin, known for leading a brutal indiscriminate bombing campaign in Syria. Monday’s strikes may suggest the Kremlin may be shifting to a similar strategy of intensifying attacks on civilians in the hope of counterbalancing its military’s failures while also placating its most aggressive supporters, experts said.
In a short speech on Monday, Putin said the strikes were in response to the Crimean bridge explosion and warned Ukraine more would come if it repeated similar attacks.
“No one should have any doubts about that,” Putin said.
But Ukrainian officials said the threats would not intimidate them, noting Russia has barraged the country since February and instead calling for western countries to provide more air defenses.
Kyiv has pleaded for such defenses for months, and Zelenskyy did so again Tuesday at the G7 meeting.
“I thank you for all the help already provided. It is big, it is significant,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday. “But the Russian leader, who is now in the final stage of his reign, still has room for further escalation. This possibility of his is a threat to all of us.”
Zelenskyy told the G7 that air defense systems are critical for peace to be achieved in his country.
“We have a formula for peace. And now, reacting to Russian terror, sham referenda and the attempt to annex our territory, we can apply the peace formula so that the terrorist state stands no chance,” he said.
“The first point is defense support. Air shield for Ukraine. This is part of the security guarantees that are an element of our peace formula,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday. “When Ukraine receives a sufficient number of modern and effective air defense systems, the key element of Russian terror – missile strikes – will cease to work.”
In a phone call on Monday with Zelenskyy, President Joe Biden pledged to continue support, including “advanced air defense systems.”
The United States announced in July it would provide two NASAMS surface-to-air defense systems, although they have not yet arrived.
Kirby wouldn’t provide any more details on what more, in terms of air defense systems, the U.S. may provide Ukraine.
“Clearly, air defense is a need, and we’re going to work with them on that going forward,” he told GMA on Tuesday, adding: “Clearly, after this weekend, air defense capabilities continue to be a significant need for Ukraine.”
(NEW YORK) — NASA successfully disrupted the orbit of an asteroid in a mission last month that tested a strategy to defend against a potential asteroid headed toward Earth, the agency said on Tuesday.
“This is a watershed moment for planetary defense and a watershed moment for humanity,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said on Tuesday.
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft, or DART, collided with an asteroid on Sept. 26 after traveling roughly 7 million miles to reach its point of impact.
On the receiving end of that collision was Dimorphos, a small asteroid that is the moon of a bigger space rock, Didymos.
NASA confirmed that the collision changed the trajectory of Dimorphos by comparing the length of its orbit before and after impact, Nelson said.
Before impact, it took Dimorphos 11 hours and 55 minutes to complete its orbit around Didymos. After impact, the orbit took 32 fewer minutes, Nelson said.
“It was expected to be huge success if it only slowed by 10 minutes,” Nelson said. “It was a bull’s eye.”
At the moment of impact, the refrigerator-sized DART spacecraft was traveling at 13,000 mph, Nelson said.
Asteroid Dimorphos, which NASA said is the size of a football stadium, does not pose a threat to the planet, in this case. But the mission aimed to test technologies that could prevent a potentially catastrophic asteroid impact.
Dimorphos, which means “having two forms” in Greek, spans 525 feet or 160 meters in diameter.
The results from the mission show that this technique could be used to deflect a future asteroid headed toward Earth, Nelson said.
“All of us have a responsibility to protect our home planet,” Nelson said. “After all, it’s the only one we have.”
“This mission shows that NASA is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us,” he said.
Giorgio Saccoccia, the president of the Italian Space Agency, a partner on the mission, celebrated its success.
“This is something we can really be proud of as an international endeavor,” he said. “I think our planet can feel a bit more safe for the future.”
(NEW YORK) — More than six months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion into neighboring Ukraine, the two countries are engaged in a struggle for control of areas throughout eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose forces began an offensive in August, has vowed to take back all Russian-occupied territory. But Putin in September announced a mobilization of reservists, which is expected to call up as many as 300,000 additional troops.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Oct 11, 4:37 PM EDT
7 people killed, 7 injured due to Russian shelling of Zaporizhzhia
Seven people were killed and seven others were injured after Russian forces shelled the Zaporizhzhia region on Tuesday with M270 multiple launch rocket systems and artillery, the deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, confirmed to ABC News.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Oct 11, 2:28 PM EDT
NATO warns Russia against any infrastructure attacks
NATO leaders warned Russia that it would meet attacks on allies’ critical infrastructure with a “united and determined response.”
In a news conference Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that while the defense alliance had not seen any changes in Russia’s nuclear posture, it was vigilant and would proceed with a nuclear preparedness exercise of its own next week.
“Now is the right time to be firm and to be clear that NATO is there to protect and defend all allies. … It would send a very wrong signal if we suddenly now canceled a routine, long-time-planned exercise because of the war in Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said.
In next week’s annual “Steadfast Noon” drill, NATO air forces will practice the use of U.S. nuclear bombs based in Europe with training flights, without live weapons.
Stoltenberg also pledged to boost the protection of critical infrastructure in response to the attack on the Nordstream gas pipelines, saying NATO had already doubled its presence in the Baltic and the North seas to over 30 ships supported by aircraft and undersea activities.
“We will further increase protection of critical infrastructure in light of the sabotage of the Nordstream pipelines,” he said.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Oct 11, 1:25 PM EDT
Russia kidnaps Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant deputy director
Russian forces have kidnapped Valery Martynyuk, the deputy head of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, and are detaining him in an unknown location, Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company Energoatom said Tuesday.
Russian forces are allegedly trying to get information about the personal affairs of Zaporizhzhia employees in order to force Ukrainian personnel to work at Russia’s state nuclear agency Rosatom as soon as possible, Energoatom alleged in a statement to ABC News.
This incident follows the detention of Zaporizhzhia’s then-chief Ihor Murashov on Oct. 1. The International Atomic Energy Agency announced his release on Oct. 3. Murashov later announced he would not return to the plant as its head.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Oct 11, 11:37 AM EDT
G-7 leaders condemn Russian attacks on civilians, saying they constitute ‘a war crime’
Group of 7 leaders met virtually on Tuesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after Russia launched airstrikes on civilians and civilian areas in response to an attack on the bridge linking annexed Crimea to Russia.
“We condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms and recall that indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilian populations constitute a war crime. We will hold President Putin and those responsible to account,” G-7 leaders said in a joint statement.
The G-7 leaders also accused Russia of “blatantly” violating the U.N. Charter. The leaders also vowed to continue financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic and legal support to Ukraine.
G-7 leaders also said they would help insure the recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine “including exploring avenues to do so with funds from Russia,” according to the statement.
The leaders also condemned the deliberate attacks on Nordstream pipelines in the Baltic Sea and vowed to “act in solidarity and close coordination” to address the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the global economy.
Oct 11, 10:49 AM EDT
Russia open to Biden-Putin meeting at upcoming G-20 summit
Ahead of the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, next month, Russia indicated it may be open to a meeting between President Joe Biden and President Vladimir Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with news agency Interfax.
“We have repeatedly said that we never refuse meetings,” Lavrov said, according to Interfax. “If a proposal is made, it will be considered by us.”
The White House National Security Council pointed to a comment made by Biden on Thursday outside the White House.
When asked by a reporter if he would meet with Putin, Biden responded, “That remains to be seen.”
Oct 11, 8:27 AM EDT
Russia in ‘desperate’ position, UK spy chief says
Russia is in a “desperate” position in its war in Ukraine and is running out of weapons and allies, according to the United Kingdom’s top cyber spy.
“We believe that Russia is running short of munitions, it’s certainly running short of friends,” Jeremy Fleming, director of the U.K. spy agency GCHQ, told BBC Radio in an interview Tuesday. “Russia and Russia’s commanders are worried about the state of their military machine.”
“The word I’ve used is ‘desperate,'” he added. “We can see that desperation at many levels inside Russian society and inside the Russian military machine.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a series of missile strikes across Ukraine in the last 48 hours in retaliation for an attack on the strategically important Kerch bridge into Crimea over the weekend, with Fleming arguing that this will have depleted Moscow’s dwindling arsenal.
“Russia, as we’ve seen in the dreadful attacks yesterday, still has a very capable military machine,” he told BBC Radio. “It can launch weapons, it has deep, deep stocks and expertise. And yet, it is very broadly stretched in Ukraine.”
Oct 11, 7:16 AM EDT
Death toll from Monday’s strikes rises to 19
At least 19 people have died since Russian missiles struck civilian and critical infrastructure targets across Ukraine on Monday, according to the Ukrainian State Emergency Service.
Another 105 people were injured in the attacks in over a dozen Ukrainian regions, including the capital Kyiv, where more than 30 fires broke out.
Oct 10, 9:04 AM EDT
Zelenskyy: Deadly civilian strikes show ‘true face’ of Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday said Russia’s missile assault on civilian targets across Ukraine showed Russia’s “true face.”
Eleven people have died and 64 are hurt across eight oblasts and the city of Kyiv, according to the Ukrainian State Emergency Service.
“The world once again saw the true face of a terrorist state that is killing our people,” Zelenksyy said on Twitter. “On the battlefield & in peaceful cities. A country that covers its true bloody essence & goal with talks about peace. It proves that the liberation of is the only basis of peace & security.”
Oct 10, 6:40 AM EDT
Missile strikes are response for bridge attack, Putin says
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday’s attacks on civilian areas across Ukraine were a response to Saturday’s attack on the bridge connecting Russia and Crimea.
“To leave without an answer a crime of such a type is already simply impossible. This morning, at the proposal of Russia’s ministry of defense and general staff, a massive strike of high precision, long-range weapons has been delivered from air, land and sea, on Ukraine’s energy facilities, military command and communication,” Putin said.
He added, “In the case of continuing terrorist attack on our territory, the answers from Russia will be severe and by their scale correspond to the level of threat created for the Russian Federation. No one should have any doubts about that.”
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Tanya Stukalova
Oct 10, 4:57 AM EDT
US Embassy in Kyiv: ‘Shelter in place’
The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv emailed Americans in Ukraine, warning that they should shelter in place.
“The U.S. Embassy urges US citizens to shelter in place and depart Ukraine now using privately available ground transportation options when it is safe to do so,” the email said.
Oct 10, 4:50 AM EDT
Missiles strike civilian targets in cities across Ukraine
Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine on Monday morning, as a series of Russian missiles struck civilian targets in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv and other cities.
Russia launched 75 missiles toward Ukraine, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said. Forty-one of those missiles were struck down by air defenses, Zaluzhnyi said.
At least eight people died and 24 were injured in Kyiv, officials said. At least five missiles struck the capital at about 8 a.m. local time.
Missiles hit the capital’s central Shevchenkiv District, with explosions near Parliament and other government buildings. Samsung’s Ukraine headquarters, which is next to Kyiv’s main train station, was damaged. Photos showed smashed glass windows and what appeared to be significant damage.
Power was out in much of Lviv, in western Ukraine, where several explosions were also reported. The mayor said “critical infrastructure” was damaged.
At least six explosions were heard in Kharkiv, where the regional governor urged residents to shelter in place.
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Britt Clennett and Ian Pannell
Oct 10, 3:08 AM EDT
Zelenskyy: ‘Hold on and be strong’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday urged Ukrainians to “hold on and be strong” after explosions rocked Kyiv.
“The 229th day of full-scale war. On the 229th day, they are trying to destroy us and wipe us off the face of the earth,” Zelenskyy said. “In general. Destroy our people who are sleeping at home in Zaporizhzhia. Kill people who go to work in Dnipro and Kyiv. The air alarm does not subside throughout Ukraine. There are missiles hitting. Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded. Please do not leave shelters. Take care of yourself and your loved ones. Let’s hold on and be strong.”
-ABC News Joe Simonetti
Oct 08, 4:21 PM EDT
Putin orders investigation into attack on Crimean bridge
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a commission to investigate an explosion that damaged a key bridge linking Crimea and Russia. Russia had been using the bridge as a key supply route for bringing in troops and ammunition into southern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Security Service declined to comment on rumors of its involvement in the bridge’s explosion.
Putin also signed a decree instructing tighter security for the bridge and the infrastructure supplying electricity and natural gas to the peninsula.
The blast coincided with the naming of Air Force General Sergei Surovikin as the commander of all Russian troops in Ukraine.
Oct 08, 12:10 PM EDT
Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant loses remaining external power source due to shelling: IAEA
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plane lost its last external power source due to renewed shelling, the International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement Saturday.
The plant is now relying on emergency diesel generators for the electricity it needs for reactor cooling and other essential nuclear safety and security functions, according to Grossi.
The plant’s connection to the power line was cut at around 1 a.m. local time. Sixteen of the plant’s diesel generators started operating automatically, providing its six reactors with power. After the situation stabilized, 10 of the generators were switched off, according to Grossi.
“The resumption of shelling, hitting the plant’s sole source of external power, is tremendously irresponsible. The Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant must be protected,” Director General Grossi said. “I will soon travel to the Russian Federation, and then return to Ukraine, to agree on a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the plant. This is an absolute and urgent imperative.”
Oct 08, 7:28 AM EDT
Three killed in bridge blast, official says
Three people were killed on Saturday in the explosion that collapsed portions of the bridge linking Russia to Crimea, a Russian official said.
The Russian Investigative Committee also said it had identified the driver of the truck that was allegedly blown up on the bridge.
Russia’s response should be tough, said Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs.
“If the Ukrainian trace is confirmed in the state of emergency on the Crimean bridge, the consequences will be inevitable,” Slutsky wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday.
He said he has no doubt that “Kyiv is behind the organization of this attack.” Ukrainian officials have not taken credit for the blast. Ukraine’s official government Twitter account tweeted the phrase “sick burn” after the explosion, but did not directly reference the blast.
“This is not just an emergency,” Slutsky wrote. “It could be an act of state terrorism.”
The railway infrastructure restoration has been started after the fire on the bridge was contained and extinguished, Crimean Railway said.
Oct 08, 6:38 AM EDT
Truck blast caused bridge damage, Russia says
Russian officials said the explosion that damaged the key bridge linking Crimea and Russia came from a truck.
“Today at 6:07 a truck was blown up on the automobile part of the Crimean Bridge from the side of the Taman Peninsula,” Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee posted online. “It resulted in the ignition of seven fuel tanks of the train, along the direction of the Crimean Peninsula. There was a partial collapse of two automobile spans of the bridge. The arch over the navigable part of the bridge was not damaged.”
Russian investigators were at the scene, attempting to “establish the circumstances of the explosion,” the committee said.
Russian supply lines into Crimea were likely to be disrupted by the blast. Crimean authorities said they would instead get supplies from Russia’s newly annexed territories.
Oct 08, 4:45 AM EDT
Bridge ‘down’ between Russia and Crimea
The bridge between Russia and Crimea was partially destroyed on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said the Kerch Bridge had “gone down.”
“The guided missile cruiser Moskva and the Kerch Bridge — two notorious symbols of Russian power in Ukrainian Crimea — have gone now,” the ministry said on Twitter, referencing Russia’s Moskva vessel, which was destroyed in April. “What’s next in line, russkies?”
Videos and photos posted by official Ukrainian accounts on social media on Saturday appeared to show the aftermath of an explosion, with plumes of smoke rising above the water.
At least one section of the bridge appeared to have partially fallen into the Kerch Strait, the waterway between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
A railway bridge running alongside the vehicle bridge also appeared to be damaged.
Oct 07, 4:07 PM EDT
Russian officials say its premature, there is no need to cancel New Year, Christmas festivities to put funds toward war
A source in the Kremlin said Saint Petersburg, Russia, authorities choosing to cancel Christmas and New Year citywide events to funnel the funds toward the war in Ukraine is premature, according to Russian News Agency Interfax.
“We consider it clearly premature and undeveloped,” the source said according to Interfax.
The Russian Defense Ministry also said its armed forces have all the necessary equipment for the war in Ukraine, saying there is no need to cancel events in Russian regions to save funds for military personnel, said Colonel-General Viktor Goremykin, Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation.
Earlier on Friday, St. Petersburg officials announced they had decided to cancel the planned festivities and the funds would be used to equip the mobilized. A similar decision was made by the authorities of the Leningrad region.
Oct 07, 2:16 PM EDT
Shelling outside Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant damaged power line to reactor, IAEA says
Shelling outside the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, damaged the power line to one of the reactors, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said Friday.
The damage was caused to reactor six on Thursday, forcing the unit to temporarily rely on emergency diesel generators, according to Grossi.
Two of the experts who had been at the plant for over five weeks, were replaced Friday. There are now four IAEA experts at the Zaporizhzhya plant.
“Again and again, the plant’s courageous, skilled and experienced operators find solutions to overcome the severe problems that keep occurring because of the conflict. However, this is not a sustainable way to run a nuclear power plant. There is an urgent need to create a more stable environment for the plant and its staff,” Grossi said in a statement.
Oct 07, 1:44 PM EDT
White House says no new intel sparked Biden comments on Putin’s nuclear threat
After President Joe Biden made comments suggesting Russia may use nuclear weapons, the White House says there is no new information to suggest an imminent threat.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden’s comments have been “very consistent” and he was reinforcing how seriously the U.S. takes Russia’s threats about using nuclear weapons.
“Russia’s nuclear rhetoric has been reckless and irresponsible. But if the Cuban missile crisis has taught us anything, it is the value of reducing nuclear risk and not brandishing that,” she said speaking to reporters Friday.
Jean-Pierre also called Putin’s comments irresponsible as a leader of a nuclear power.
“We won’t be intimidated by Putin’s rhetoric, we have not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture, nor do we have indications they are prepared to use them but Putin can de-escalate this at any time, and there is no reason to escalate,” Jean-Pierre said.
Oct 07, 1:31 PM EDT
St. Petersburg cancels New Year, Christmas festivities to put funds toward war with Ukraine
Traditional Christmas and New Year celebrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia will be canceled and all previously allocated money for the festivities will be channeled to finance volunteers and mobilized troops involved in the war with Ukraine, according to TASS, a Russian news agency, which cited a statement from the municipal authorities.
All the available funds will be channeled into a special account to pay for gear for volunteers and mobilized citizens, according to TASS.
“During a session with Governor Alexander Beglov with members of the municipal administration it was decided to cancel previously scheduled events dedicated to New Year festivities,” the statement said, according to TASS.
Oct 07, 11:33 AM EDT
Top Ukrainian adviser criticizes Noble Peace Prize decision
A top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has criticized the Nobel Peace Prize for its decision to award Russian and Belarusian human rights defenders alongside Ukraine’s, reflecting a widespread sentiment in Ukraine that it has been unwillingly lumped in with two countries engaged in attacking it.
“Nobel Committee has an interesting understanding of word ‘peace’ if representatives of two countries that attacked a third one receive @NobelPrize together. Neither Russian nor Belarusian organizations were able to organize resistance to the war. This year’s Nobel is ‘awesome’,”Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Zelenskyy, wrote on Twitter.
Oct 07, 9:55 AM EDT
Biden says Putin ‘is not joking’ about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons
President Joe Biden made some of his most clear and striking assessments on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats of using a nuclear weapon.
For the “first time since the Cuban missile crisis, we have the direct threat of the use of a nuclear weapon if in fact things continue down the path that they are going. That’s a different deal,” he said at a fundraiser in New York City on Thursday.
“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any such thing as the ability to easily [use] a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon.”
Biden said Putin’s military is “underperforming” in Ukraine and he may feel threatened.
Biden said he knows Putin “fairly well” and has spent “a fair amount of time with him” and warned that Putin is serious.
“He is not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons, or biological, or chemical weapons because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming,” Biden said.
“There’s a lot at stake,” Biden said. “We are trying to figure out what is Putin’s off ramp? Where does he get off? Where does he find a way out? Where does he find himself in a position that he does not – not only lose face but lose significant power within Russia?”
Oct 06, 2:27 PM EDT
Zaporizhzhia power plant perimeter has mines: IAEA
There are mines along the perimeter of Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said at a press conference in Kyiv Thursday after holding talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The facility is currently under the control of Russian forces.
“There have been indications that in the perimeter of the plant there are some mines, yes,” Grossi said, before denying that there are any mines inside the plant itself.
Grossi is headed to Russia next to push for a security zone to be set up around the Zaporizhzhia plant.
Grossi told reporters that the IAEA considers Zaporizhzhia a Ukrainian facility.
“I think the IAEA, as an international organization, has a mission, has a legal parameter to do it. And what I will be is very consistent as I have been from the very beginning. We are not changing our line. We are continuing saying what needs to be done, which is basically avoid a nuclear accident. At the plant, which is still a very, very clear possibility. Yes,” Grossi said.
Oct 06, 1:45 PM EDT
Ukrainian official confirms advance into Luhansk region
The village of Hrekivka in Ukraine’s Luhansk region has been liberated, its governor, Serhiy Haidai, said Friday, adding that fierce fighting continues for other settlements.
“I’ve seen some soldiers already posted a photo of them standing on the background of the sign ‘Hrekivka,’ so its not a secret anymore — it is already liberated. And we keep moving in that direction,” Haidai said.
“After liberating Lyman [in Donetsk at the end of last month], as expected, the main battles are on the direction of Kreminna. The occupiers are pulling their main forces there. This is where the beginning of de-occupation of Luhansk oblast lies,” Haidai said.
He added, “Luhansk region liberation will be tougher than Kharkiv region. All those Russian military who ran from Kharkiv region and Lyman ran to our direction, so the occupation forces increased in number.”
Oct 06, 4:38 AM EDT
Apartments in Zaporizhzhia struck in early morning
Russian forces struck a residential neighborhood in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia early on Thursday, officials said.
Oct 05, 2:20 PM EDT
Ukrainian officials say they found more evidence of tortures, killings in eastern Kharkiv
Ukrainian officials released images they claim show evidence of tortures and killings in eastern Kharkiv, in areas recently reclaimed from Russia.
Authorities are investigating an alleged Russian torture chamber in the village of Pisky-Radkivski, according to Serhiy Bolvinov, the head of the investigative department of the national police in the region.
Bolvinov posted an image of a box of what appeared to be precious metal teeth and dentures presumably extracted from those held at the site.
Two bodies were found in a factory in Kupiansk with their hands bound behind their backs, while two others were found in Novoplatonivka, their hands linked by handcuffs.
-ABC News’ Jason Volack
Oct 05, 6:47 AM EDT
Putin formally annexes 15% of Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed laws finalizing the illegal annexation of four regions of neighboring Ukraine — more than 15% of the country’s territory — even as his military struggles to maintain control over the newly absorbed areas.
The documents completing the annexation of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions — in defiance of international laws — were published on a Russian government website on Wednesday morning.
Earlier this week, the Russian parliament ratified treaties making the occupied areas part of Russia. The move followed what the Kremlin called referendums in the four Ukrainian regions, which the West rejected as a sham.
The annexed areas are not all under control of Russian forces, which are battling a massive counteoffensive effort by Ukrainian troops.
Oct 04, 1:29 PM EDT
Biden, Harris speak to Zelenskyy, offer new $625 million security assistance package
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday, underscoring that the U.S. will never recognize areas annexed by President Vladimir Putin as Russian territory and offering additional security assistance.
Biden announced a $625 million security assistance package that includes additional weapons and equipment, according to a statement from the White House.
Biden also promised to impose “severe costs” on any individual, entity or country that “provides support to Russia’s purported annexation.”
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Oct 04, 11:58 AM EDT
More than 355,000 people have fled Russia amid mobilization
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a national mobilization last month, more than 355,000 people have left the country, according to Russian independent media.
Roughly 200,000 people escaped to Kazakhstan, 80,000 left for Georgia and 65,000 departed for Finland. Some 6,000 people also fled to Mongolia and there are reports of people fleeing to Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tadjikistan.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that more than 200,000 people have been mobilized since Sept. 21.
-ABC News’ Tanya Stukalova
Oct 04, 9:29 AM EDT
Ukraine makes major breakthrough in south, advancing well behind Russian lines
Ukraine has made a major breakthrough in the country’s south that now threatens to collapse part of the Russian front line there, similar to Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the northeast last month.
Ukrainian forces have advanced over 18 miles in two days, driving deep behind Russia’s front line in the Kherson region and advancing south along the Dnipro river.
Russian journalists reported that Russian forces on Monday were forced to pull back from the village of Dudchany. Multiple Russian military bloggers, who are often embedded with Russian troops, say that Ukrainian troops now heavily outnumber Russian troops there.
The advance, if it continues, has huge implications for the war. Russia’s position is increasingly in danger of collapsing, which would make it all but impossible to defend the city of Kherson, the capital of the region annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin four days ago.
Oct 04, 5:55 AM EDT
Zelenskyy signs decree ruling out negotiations with Putin
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a presidential decree on Tuesday formally declaring the “impossibility” of holding negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The decree backs a decision put forward by Zelenskyy’s national security council and includes the point: “To declare the impossibility of conducting negotiations with the president of the Russian Federation, V. Putin.”
The decree echoed a statement made by Zelenskyy when Putin annexed Ukrainian territory last Friday, saying it showed it is impossible to negotiate with the current president.
Oct 03, 12:22 PM EDT
Ukraine advances in south, Russia says
Ukrainian forces on Sunday evening broke through part of Russia’s defense of the disputed Kherson region, advancing from the region’s northeast into a territory Russia had claimed to annex as its own on Friday.
Ukrainian troops succeeded in pushing south along the Dnipro river, according to Ukrainian and Russian officials.
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Monday partly confirmed the advance, saying Ukrainian forces “managed to drive a wedge deep into our defense.”
It said Russian troops had fallen back to “pre-prepared lines of defense” and were using heavy artillery to halt a further Ukrainian advance. It claimed, without evidence, that Ukraine had suffered heavy losses, but acknowledged that Ukraine had an advantage in tank numbers there.
Russian military bloggers said on Sunday that Ukrainian troops advanced southwards in the direction of the village of Dudchany, several miles behind the rest of Russia’s frontline in the region.
The advance raised questions about whether Russia would be able to hold the city of Kherson, the only regional capital it managed to seize in the invasion. For weeks, military experts have said Russia’s position in the Kherson region has been deteriorating because Ukraine has destroyed the only bridges allowing Russia to re-supply its troops.
Kirill Stremousov, a Russian-installed official in the region, on social media acknowledged Ukrainian troops had advanced along the Dnipro towards Dudchany but claimed they had been halted by Russian fire and that “everything is under control.”
A continued Ukrainian advance along the Dnipro would threaten to undermine the rest of the Russian front north of the river, raising the risk Russian forces there could be cut off.
The White House National Security Council’s spokesman John Kirby noted Ukraine was making gains in the south on Monday, but caveated that they were “incremental” for the time-being.
The battle for Kherson has major military and symbolic significance for both sides. A retreat from the city would seriously undermine Russia’s annexation of one of the four Ukrainian regions declared by Vladimir Putin just days ago — Kherson is supposed to be the capital of the newly annexed region of the same name.
Oct 03, 11:18 AM EDT
Kidnapped head of Zaporizhzhia plant has been released
The head of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporizhzhia has been released, after Ukrainian officials accused Russia of kidnapping him, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Ihor Murashov, the head of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, was released and returned safely to his family, Rafael Mariano Grossi, the Director General of the IAEA, tweeted.
Zaporizhzhia is a Ukrainian facility now occupied by Russian troops.
Oct 03, 7:26 AM EDT
Putin’s nuclear threats ‘irresponsible rhetoric,’ official says
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats that his country could strike Ukraine with nuclear weapons were “irresponsible rhetoric” from a nuclear power, a Pentagon official said.
“They are continuing to be irresponsible rhetoric coming from a nuclear power,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said on “Good Morning America” on Monday. “There’s no reason for him to use that kind of bluster, those kinds of threats.”
But the U.S. was still taking the threats seriously, he said. The U.S. was “ready and prepared” to defend every inch of NATO territory, he said.
“We have to take these threats seriously. We must. It’d be easier if we could just blow it off, but we can’t,” Kirby said. “These are serious threats made by a serious nuclear power.”
Oct 03, 5:55 AM EDT
Russia ‘likely struggling’ to train reservists, UK says
Russian officials are “likely struggling” to find officers and provide training for many of the reservists who’ve been called up as part of President Vladimir Putin’s mobilization, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said.
“Local officials are likely unclear on the exact scope and legal rationale of the campaign,” the ministry said in a Monday update. “They have almost certainly drafted some personnel who are outside the definitions claimed by Putin and the Ministry of Defence.”
Some of the reservists are assembling in tented transit camps, the ministry said.
Oct 02, 10:42 AM EDT
Former CIA chief Petraeus says Putin’s losses puts him in ‘irreversible’ situation
Former CIA chief David Petraeus said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has put himself in an “irreversible” situation amid the Kremlin’s annexation of Russian-controlled Ukrainian regions.
“President Volodymyr co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
Petraeus said Putin “is losing” the war, despite “significant but desperate” recent moves. On Friday, Putin said he was annexing four regions of Ukraine — a move denounced by Ukraine, the U.S. and other Western countries as a violation of international law — and, in late September, the Russian leader said he was calling up some 300,000 reservists, triggering protests and a mass exodus from Russia.
In a rare acknowledgment Thursday, Putin admitted “mistakes” in how the country carried out the mobilization.
Oct 01, 9:07 AM EDT
Russia shoots at civilian convoy, kills 22, Ukrainian official says
Russian forces are accused of shelling a convoy of seven civilian cars killing 22 people, including 10 children, according to preliminary data, Olexandr Filchakov, chief prosecutor of the Kharkiv region, told ABC News.
According to preliminary data, the cars were shot by the Russian military on Sept. 25, when civilians were trying to evacuate from Kupyansk, a settlement in the Kupyansk area, Filchakov said.
The column of shot cars was discovered on Friday. Two cars burned completely with children and parents inside, Filchakov said.
Filchakov said the bodies burned completely.
Russian forces fired at the column with a 12.5 mm caliber gun. Those who remained alive were then shot at with rifles, according to Filchakov.
(NEW YORK) — Education activist Malala Yousafzai has returned to her native Pakistan to support people devastated by the recent floods, according to a family source.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate landed in Karachi Tuesday and will stay in Sindh to show solidarity with flood victims, according to the source. She is expected to stay for a few days and travel to flood-affected areas to talk directly with victims about their condition, the source said.
The extreme flooding this summer, caused by fierce monsoon rains, killed nearly 1,700 people, injured another 13,000 and affected over 33 million, according to Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority. Millions of acres of crops were damaged and 18,000 schools were destroyed, impacting over 3 million children, officials said.
“Extreme flooding in Pakistan is sweeping away houses, schools and communities,” Yousafzai tweeted in August, noting that millions have been affected, “including in my home of Swat Valley.”
Her organization Malala Fund said it has been working to mitigate the impact of the flooding on girls’ access to education as well as help provide funding to partners that are providing direct flood relief.
Yousafzai’s return to Pakistan comes a decade after she survived an assassination attempt ordered by the Taliban because she spoke out for the right of all girls to go to school. On Oct. 9, 2012, on her way home from school, a Taliban terrorist stopped her school van, identified Malala, then 15, and shot her in the head.
A school van carrying female students was fired upon on Monday in Yousafzai’s native Swat Valley, killing the driver. Thousands of people in the region protested against increased violence in the region on Tuesday.
(LONDON) — Russia is in a “desperate” position in its war in Ukraine and is running out of weapons and allies, according to the U.K.’s Director of GCHQ Jeremy Fleming.
“We believe that Russia is running short of munitions, it’s certainly running short of friends … Russia and Russia’s commanders are worried about the state of their military machine,” Fleming said in an interview with the BBC News on Tuesday morning.
“The word I’ve used is ‘desperate.’ We can see that desperation at many levels inside Russian society and inside the Russian military machine,” said Fleming, whose British Government Communications Headquarters has a mission similar to the U.S. National Security Agency.
Fleming gave the interview ahead of a speech he was scheduled to give to a London think tank Tuesday, in which he was expected to be highly critical of the Russian military’s performance in the nearly eight-month-long war.
“Far from the inevitable Russian military victory that their propaganda machine spouted, it’s clear that Ukraine’s courageous action on the battlefield and in cyberspace is turning the tide,” Fleming said in his prepared remarks, adding that, “The costs to Russia — in people and equipment are staggering. We know — and Russian commanders on the ground know — that their supplies and munitions are running out.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a series of missile strikes across Ukraine in the last 48 hours in retaliation for an attack on the strategically important Kerch bridge into Crimea over the weekend, with Fleming arguing this will have depleted their dwindling arsenal.
“Russia, as we’ve seen in the dreadful attacks yesterday, still has a very capable military machine. It can launch weapons, it has deep, deep stocks and expertise. And yet, it is very broadly stretched in Ukraine,” he told the BBC.
He also took aim at Putin’s leadership: “With little effective internal challenge, his decision-making has proved flawed. It’s a high stakes strategy that is leading to strategic errors in judgement. Their gains are being reversed.”
“And the Russian population has started to understand that too, “ he added. “They’re seeing just how badly Putin has misjudged the situation. They’re fleeing the draft, realizing they can no longer travel. They know their access to modern technologies and external influences will be drastically restricted. And they are feeling the extent of the dreadful human cost of his war of choice.”
(NEW YORK) — More than six months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion into neighboring Ukraine, the two countries are engaged in a struggle for control of areas throughout eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose forces began an offensive in August, has vowed to take back all Russian-occupied territory. But Putin in September announced a mobilization of reservists, which is expected to call up as many as 300,000 additional troops.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Oct 11, 7:16 AM EDT
Death toll from Monday’s strikes rises to 19
At least 19 people have died since Russian missiles struck civilian and critical infrastructure targets across Ukraine on Monday, according to the Ukrainian State Emergency Service.
Another 105 people were injured in the attacks in over a dozen Ukrainian regions, including the capital Kyiv, where more than 30 fires broke out.
Oct 10, 9:04 AM EDT
Zelenskyy: Deadly civilian strikes show ‘true face’ of Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday said Russia’s missile assault on civilian targets across Ukraine showed Russia’s “true face.”
Eleven people have died and 64 are hurt across eight oblasts and the city of Kyiv, according to the Ukrainian State Emergency Service.
“The world once again saw the true face of a terrorist state that is killing our people,” Zelenksyy said on Twitter. “On the battlefield & in peaceful cities. A country that covers its true bloody essence & goal with talks about peace. It proves that the liberation of is the only basis of peace & security.”
Oct 10, 6:40 AM EDT
Missile strikes are response for bridge attack, Putin says
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday’s attacks on civilian areas across Ukraine were a response to Saturday’s attack on the bridge connecting Russia and Crimea.
“To leave without an answer a crime of such a type is already simply impossible. This morning, at the proposal of Russia’s ministry of defense and general staff, a massive strike of high precision, long-range weapons has been delivered from air, land and sea, on Ukraine’s energy facilities, military command and communication,” Putin said.
He added, “In the case of continuing terrorist attack on our territory, the answers from Russia will be severe and by their scale correspond to the level of threat created for the Russian Federation. No one should have any doubts about that.”
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Tanya Stukalova
Oct 10, 4:57 AM EDT
US Embassy in Kyiv: ‘Shelter in place’
The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv emailed Americans in Ukraine, warning that they should shelter in place.
“The U.S. Embassy urges US citizens to shelter in place and depart Ukraine now using privately available ground transportation options when it is safe to do so,” the email said.
Oct 10, 4:50 AM EDT
Missiles strike civilian targets in cities across Ukraine
Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine on Monday morning, as a series of Russian missiles struck civilian targets in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv and other cities.
Russia launched 75 missiles toward Ukraine, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said. Forty-one of those missiles were struck down by air defenses, Zaluzhnyi said.
At least eight people died and 24 were injured in Kyiv, officials said. At least five missiles struck the capital at about 8 a.m. local time.
Missiles hit the capital’s central Shevchenkiv District, with explosions near Parliament and other government buildings. Samsung’s Ukraine headquarters, which is next to Kyiv’s main train station, was damaged. Photos showed smashed glass windows and what appeared to be significant damage.
Power was out in much of Lviv, in western Ukraine, where several explosions were also reported. The mayor said “critical infrastructure” was damaged.
At least six explosions were heard in Kharkiv, where the regional governor urged residents to shelter in place.
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Britt Clennett and Ian Pannell
Oct 10, 3:08 AM EDT
Zelenskyy: ‘Hold on and be strong’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday urged Ukrainians to “hold on and be strong” after explosions rocked Kyiv.
“The 229th day of full-scale war. On the 229th day, they are trying to destroy us and wipe us off the face of the earth,” Zelenskyy said. “In general. Destroy our people who are sleeping at home in Zaporizhzhia. Kill people who go to work in Dnipro and Kyiv. The air alarm does not subside throughout Ukraine. There are missiles hitting. Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded. Please do not leave shelters. Take care of yourself and your loved ones. Let’s hold on and be strong.”
-ABC News Joe Simonetti
Oct 08, 4:21 PM EDT
Putin orders investigation into attack on Crimean bridge
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a commission to investigate an explosion that damaged a key bridge linking Crimea and Russia. Russia had been using the bridge as a key supply route for bringing in troops and ammunition into southern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Security Service declined to comment on rumors of its involvement in the bridge’s explosion.
Putin also signed a decree instructing tighter security for the bridge and the infrastructure supplying electricity and natural gas to the peninsula.
The blast coincided with the naming of Air Force General Sergei Surovikin as the commander of all Russian troops in Ukraine.
Oct 08, 12:10 PM EDT
Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant loses remaining external power source due to shelling: IAEA
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plane lost its last external power source due to renewed shelling, the International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement Saturday.
The plant is now relying on emergency diesel generators for the electricity it needs for reactor cooling and other essential nuclear safety and security functions, according to Grossi.
The plant’s connection to the power line was cut at around 1 a.m. local time. Sixteen of the plant’s diesel generators started operating automatically, providing its six reactors with power. After the situation stabilized, 10 of the generators were switched off, according to Grossi.
“The resumption of shelling, hitting the plant’s sole source of external power, is tremendously irresponsible. The Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant must be protected,” Director General Grossi said. “I will soon travel to the Russian Federation, and then return to Ukraine, to agree on a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the plant. This is an absolute and urgent imperative.”
Oct 08, 7:28 AM EDT
Three killed in bridge blast, official says
Three people were killed on Saturday in the explosion that collapsed portions of the bridge linking Russia to Crimea, a Russian official said.
The Russian Investigative Committee also said it had identified the driver of the truck that was allegedly blown up on the bridge.
Russia’s response should be tough, said Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs.
“If the Ukrainian trace is confirmed in the state of emergency on the Crimean bridge, the consequences will be inevitable,” Slutsky wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday.
He said he has no doubt that “Kyiv is behind the organization of this attack.” Ukrainian officials have not taken credit for the blast. Ukraine’s official government Twitter account tweeted the phrase “sick burn” after the explosion, but did not directly reference the blast.
“This is not just an emergency,” Slutsky wrote. “It could be an act of state terrorism.”
The railway infrastructure restoration has been started after the fire on the bridge was contained and extinguished, Crimean Railway said.
Oct 08, 6:38 AM EDT
Truck blast caused bridge damage, Russia says
Russian officials said the explosion that damaged the key bridge linking Crimea and Russia came from a truck.
“Today at 6:07 a truck was blown up on the automobile part of the Crimean Bridge from the side of the Taman Peninsula,” Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee posted online. “It resulted in the ignition of seven fuel tanks of the train, along the direction of the Crimean Peninsula. There was a partial collapse of two automobile spans of the bridge. The arch over the navigable part of the bridge was not damaged.”
Russian investigators were at the scene, attempting to “establish the circumstances of the explosion,” the committee said.
Russian supply lines into Crimea were likely to be disrupted by the blast. Crimean authorities said they would instead get supplies from Russia’s newly annexed territories.
Oct 08, 4:45 AM EDT
Bridge ‘down’ between Russia and Crimea
The bridge between Russia and Crimea was partially destroyed on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said the Kerch Bridge had “gone down.”
“The guided missile cruiser Moskva and the Kerch Bridge — two notorious symbols of Russian power in Ukrainian Crimea — have gone now,” the ministry said on Twitter, referencing Russia’s Moskva vessel, which was destroyed in April. “What’s next in line, russkies?”
Videos and photos posted by official Ukrainian accounts on social media on Saturday appeared to show the aftermath of an explosion, with plumes of smoke rising above the water.
At least one section of the bridge appeared to have partially fallen into the Kerch Strait, the waterway between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
A railway bridge running alongside the vehicle bridge also appeared to be damaged.
Oct 07, 4:07 PM EDT
Russian officials say its premature, there is no need to cancel New Year, Christmas festivities to put funds toward war
A source in the Kremlin said Saint Petersburg, Russia, authorities choosing to cancel Christmas and New Year citywide events to funnel the funds toward the war in Ukraine is premature, according to Russian News Agency Interfax.
“We consider it clearly premature and undeveloped,” the source said according to Interfax.
The Russian Defense Ministry also said its armed forces have all the necessary equipment for the war in Ukraine, saying there is no need to cancel events in Russian regions to save funds for military personnel, said Colonel-General Viktor Goremykin, Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation.
Earlier on Friday, St. Petersburg officials announced they had decided to cancel the planned festivities and the funds would be used to equip the mobilized. A similar decision was made by the authorities of the Leningrad region.
Oct 07, 2:16 PM EDT
Shelling outside Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant damaged power line to reactor, IAEA says
Shelling outside the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, damaged the power line to one of the reactors, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said Friday.
The damage was caused to reactor six on Thursday, forcing the unit to temporarily rely on emergency diesel generators, according to Grossi.
Two of the experts who had been at the plant for over five weeks, were replaced Friday. There are now four IAEA experts at the Zaporizhzhya plant.
“Again and again, the plant’s courageous, skilled and experienced operators find solutions to overcome the severe problems that keep occurring because of the conflict. However, this is not a sustainable way to run a nuclear power plant. There is an urgent need to create a more stable environment for the plant and its staff,” Grossi said in a statement.
Oct 07, 1:44 PM EDT
White House says no new intel sparked Biden comments on Putin’s nuclear threat
After President Joe Biden made comments suggesting Russia may use nuclear weapons, the White House says there is no new information to suggest an imminent threat.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden’s comments have been “very consistent” and he was reinforcing how seriously the U.S. takes Russia’s threats about using nuclear weapons.
“Russia’s nuclear rhetoric has been reckless and irresponsible. But if the Cuban missile crisis has taught us anything, it is the value of reducing nuclear risk and not brandishing that,” she said speaking to reporters Friday.
Jean-Pierre also called Putin’s comments irresponsible as a leader of a nuclear power.
“We won’t be intimidated by Putin’s rhetoric, we have not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture, nor do we have indications they are prepared to use them but Putin can de-escalate this at any time, and there is no reason to escalate,” Jean-Pierre said.
Oct 07, 1:31 PM EDT
St. Petersburg cancels New Year, Christmas festivities to put funds toward war with Ukraine
Traditional Christmas and New Year celebrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia will be canceled and all previously allocated money for the festivities will be channeled to finance volunteers and mobilized troops involved in the war with Ukraine, according to TASS, a Russian news agency, which cited a statement from the municipal authorities.
All the available funds will be channeled into a special account to pay for gear for volunteers and mobilized citizens, according to TASS.
“During a session with Governor Alexander Beglov with members of the municipal administration it was decided to cancel previously scheduled events dedicated to New Year festivities,” the statement said, according to TASS.
Oct 07, 11:33 AM EDT
Top Ukrainian adviser criticizes Noble Peace Prize decision
A top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has criticized the Nobel Peace Prize for its decision to award Russian and Belarusian human rights defenders alongside Ukraine’s, reflecting a widespread sentiment in Ukraine that it has been unwillingly lumped in with two countries engaged in attacking it.
“Nobel Committee has an interesting understanding of word ‘peace’ if representatives of two countries that attacked a third one receive @NobelPrize together. Neither Russian nor Belarusian organizations were able to organize resistance to the war. This year’s Nobel is ‘awesome’,”Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Zelenskyy, wrote on Twitter.
Oct 07, 9:55 AM EDT
Biden says Putin ‘is not joking’ about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons
President Joe Biden made some of his most clear and striking assessments on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats of using a nuclear weapon.
For the “first time since the Cuban missile crisis, we have the direct threat of the use of a nuclear weapon if in fact things continue down the path that they are going. That’s a different deal,” he said at a fundraiser in New York City on Thursday.
“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any such thing as the ability to easily [use] a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon.”
Biden said Putin’s military is “underperforming” in Ukraine and he may feel threatened.
Biden said he knows Putin “fairly well” and has spent “a fair amount of time with him” and warned that Putin is serious.
“He is not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons, or biological, or chemical weapons because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming,” Biden said.
“There’s a lot at stake,” Biden said. “We are trying to figure out what is Putin’s off ramp? Where does he get off? Where does he find a way out? Where does he find himself in a position that he does not – not only lose face but lose significant power within Russia?”
Oct 06, 2:27 PM EDT
Zaporizhzhia power plant perimeter has mines: IAEA
There are mines along the perimeter of Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said at a press conference in Kyiv Thursday after holding talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The facility is currently under the control of Russian forces.
“There have been indications that in the perimeter of the plant there are some mines, yes,” Grossi said, before denying that there are any mines inside the plant itself.
Grossi is headed to Russia next to push for a security zone to be set up around the Zaporizhzhia plant.
Grossi told reporters that the IAEA considers Zaporizhzhia a Ukrainian facility.
“I think the IAEA, as an international organization, has a mission, has a legal parameter to do it. And what I will be is very consistent as I have been from the very beginning. We are not changing our line. We are continuing saying what needs to be done, which is basically avoid a nuclear accident. At the plant, which is still a very, very clear possibility. Yes,” Grossi said.
Oct 06, 1:45 PM EDT
Ukrainian official confirms advance into Luhansk region
The village of Hrekivka in Ukraine’s Luhansk region has been liberated, its governor, Serhiy Haidai, said Friday, adding that fierce fighting continues for other settlements.
“I’ve seen some soldiers already posted a photo of them standing on the background of the sign ‘Hrekivka,’ so its not a secret anymore — it is already liberated. And we keep moving in that direction,” Haidai said.
“After liberating Lyman [in Donetsk at the end of last month], as expected, the main battles are on the direction of Kreminna. The occupiers are pulling their main forces there. This is where the beginning of de-occupation of Luhansk oblast lies,” Haidai said.
He added, “Luhansk region liberation will be tougher than Kharkiv region. All those Russian military who ran from Kharkiv region and Lyman ran to our direction, so the occupation forces increased in number.”
Oct 06, 4:38 AM EDT
Apartments in Zaporizhzhia struck in early morning
Russian forces struck a residential neighborhood in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia early on Thursday, officials said.
Oct 05, 2:20 PM EDT
Ukrainian officials say they found more evidence of tortures, killings in eastern Kharkiv
Ukrainian officials released images they claim show evidence of tortures and killings in eastern Kharkiv, in areas recently reclaimed from Russia.
Authorities are investigating an alleged Russian torture chamber in the village of Pisky-Radkivski, according to Serhiy Bolvinov, the head of the investigative department of the national police in the region.
Bolvinov posted an image of a box of what appeared to be precious metal teeth and dentures presumably extracted from those held at the site.
Two bodies were found in a factory in Kupiansk with their hands bound behind their backs, while two others were found in Novoplatonivka, their hands linked by handcuffs.
-ABC News’ Jason Volack
Oct 05, 6:47 AM EDT
Putin formally annexes 15% of Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed laws finalizing the illegal annexation of four regions of neighboring Ukraine — more than 15% of the country’s territory — even as his military struggles to maintain control over the newly absorbed areas.
The documents completing the annexation of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions — in defiance of international laws — were published on a Russian government website on Wednesday morning.
Earlier this week, the Russian parliament ratified treaties making the occupied areas part of Russia. The move followed what the Kremlin called referendums in the four Ukrainian regions, which the West rejected as a sham.
The annexed areas are not all under control of Russian forces, which are battling a massive counteoffensive effort by Ukrainian troops.
Oct 04, 1:29 PM EDT
Biden, Harris speak to Zelenskyy, offer new $625 million security assistance package
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday, underscoring that the U.S. will never recognize areas annexed by President Vladimir Putin as Russian territory and offering additional security assistance.
Biden announced a $625 million security assistance package that includes additional weapons and equipment, according to a statement from the White House.
Biden also promised to impose “severe costs” on any individual, entity or country that “provides support to Russia’s purported annexation.”
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Oct 04, 11:58 AM EDT
More than 355,000 people have fled Russia amid mobilization
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a national mobilization last month, more than 355,000 people have left the country, according to Russian independent media.
Roughly 200,000 people escaped to Kazakhstan, 80,000 left for Georgia and 65,000 departed for Finland. Some 6,000 people also fled to Mongolia and there are reports of people fleeing to Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tadjikistan.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that more than 200,000 people have been mobilized since Sept. 21.
-ABC News’ Tanya Stukalova
Oct 04, 9:29 AM EDT
Ukraine makes major breakthrough in south, advancing well behind Russian lines
Ukraine has made a major breakthrough in the country’s south that now threatens to collapse part of the Russian front line there, similar to Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the northeast last month.
Ukrainian forces have advanced over 18 miles in two days, driving deep behind Russia’s front line in the Kherson region and advancing south along the Dnipro river.
Russian journalists reported that Russian forces on Monday were forced to pull back from the village of Dudchany. Multiple Russian military bloggers, who are often embedded with Russian troops, say that Ukrainian troops now heavily outnumber Russian troops there.
The advance, if it continues, has huge implications for the war. Russia’s position is increasingly in danger of collapsing, which would make it all but impossible to defend the city of Kherson, the capital of the region annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin four days ago.
Oct 04, 5:55 AM EDT
Zelenskyy signs decree ruling out negotiations with Putin
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a presidential decree on Tuesday formally declaring the “impossibility” of holding negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The decree backs a decision put forward by Zelenskyy’s national security council and includes the point: “To declare the impossibility of conducting negotiations with the president of the Russian Federation, V. Putin.”
The decree echoed a statement made by Zelenskyy when Putin annexed Ukrainian territory last Friday, saying it showed it is impossible to negotiate with the current president.
Oct 03, 12:22 PM EDT
Ukraine advances in south, Russia says
Ukrainian forces on Sunday evening broke through part of Russia’s defense of the disputed Kherson region, advancing from the region’s northeast into a territory Russia had claimed to annex as its own on Friday.
Ukrainian troops succeeded in pushing south along the Dnipro river, according to Ukrainian and Russian officials.
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Monday partly confirmed the advance, saying Ukrainian forces “managed to drive a wedge deep into our defense.”
It said Russian troops had fallen back to “pre-prepared lines of defense” and were using heavy artillery to halt a further Ukrainian advance. It claimed, without evidence, that Ukraine had suffered heavy losses, but acknowledged that Ukraine had an advantage in tank numbers there.
Russian military bloggers said on Sunday that Ukrainian troops advanced southwards in the direction of the village of Dudchany, several miles behind the rest of Russia’s frontline in the region.
The advance raised questions about whether Russia would be able to hold the city of Kherson, the only regional capital it managed to seize in the invasion. For weeks, military experts have said Russia’s position in the Kherson region has been deteriorating because Ukraine has destroyed the only bridges allowing Russia to re-supply its troops.
Kirill Stremousov, a Russian-installed official in the region, on social media acknowledged Ukrainian troops had advanced along the Dnipro towards Dudchany but claimed they had been halted by Russian fire and that “everything is under control.”
A continued Ukrainian advance along the Dnipro would threaten to undermine the rest of the Russian front north of the river, raising the risk Russian forces there could be cut off.
The White House National Security Council’s spokesman John Kirby noted Ukraine was making gains in the south on Monday, but caveated that they were “incremental” for the time-being.
The battle for Kherson has major military and symbolic significance for both sides. A retreat from the city would seriously undermine Russia’s annexation of one of the four Ukrainian regions declared by Vladimir Putin just days ago — Kherson is supposed to be the capital of the newly annexed region of the same name.
Oct 03, 11:18 AM EDT
Kidnapped head of Zaporizhzhia plant has been released
The head of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporizhzhia has been released, after Ukrainian officials accused Russia of kidnapping him, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Ihor Murashov, the head of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, was released and returned safely to his family, Rafael Mariano Grossi, the Director General of the IAEA, tweeted.
Zaporizhzhia is a Ukrainian facility now occupied by Russian troops.
Oct 03, 7:26 AM EDT
Putin’s nuclear threats ‘irresponsible rhetoric,’ official says
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats that his country could strike Ukraine with nuclear weapons were “irresponsible rhetoric” from a nuclear power, a Pentagon official said.
“They are continuing to be irresponsible rhetoric coming from a nuclear power,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said on “Good Morning America” on Monday. “There’s no reason for him to use that kind of bluster, those kinds of threats.”
But the U.S. was still taking the threats seriously, he said. The U.S. was “ready and prepared” to defend every inch of NATO territory, he said.
“We have to take these threats seriously. We must. It’d be easier if we could just blow it off, but we can’t,” Kirby said. “These are serious threats made by a serious nuclear power.”
Oct 03, 5:55 AM EDT
Russia ‘likely struggling’ to train reservists, UK says
Russian officials are “likely struggling” to find officers and provide training for many of the reservists who’ve been called up as part of President Vladimir Putin’s mobilization, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said.
“Local officials are likely unclear on the exact scope and legal rationale of the campaign,” the ministry said in a Monday update. “They have almost certainly drafted some personnel who are outside the definitions claimed by Putin and the Ministry of Defence.”
Some of the reservists are assembling in tented transit camps, the ministry said.
Oct 02, 10:42 AM EDT
Former CIA chief Petraeus says Putin’s losses puts him in ‘irreversible’ situation
Former CIA chief David Petraeus said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has put himself in an “irreversible” situation amid the Kremlin’s annexation of Russian-controlled Ukrainian regions.
“President Volodymyr co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
Petraeus said Putin “is losing” the war, despite “significant but desperate” recent moves. On Friday, Putin said he was annexing four regions of Ukraine — a move denounced by Ukraine, the U.S. and other Western countries as a violation of international law — and, in late September, the Russian leader said he was calling up some 300,000 reservists, triggering protests and a mass exodus from Russia.
In a rare acknowledgment Thursday, Putin admitted “mistakes” in how the country carried out the mobilization.
Oct 01, 9:07 AM EDT
Russia shoots at civilian convoy, kills 22, Ukrainian official says
Russian forces are accused of shelling a convoy of seven civilian cars killing 22 people, including 10 children, according to preliminary data, Olexandr Filchakov, chief prosecutor of the Kharkiv region, told ABC News.
According to preliminary data, the cars were shot by the Russian military on Sept. 25, when civilians were trying to evacuate from Kupyansk, a settlement in the Kupyansk area, Filchakov said.
The column of shot cars was discovered on Friday. Two cars burned completely with children and parents inside, Filchakov said.
Filchakov said the bodies burned completely.
Russian forces fired at the column with a 12.5 mm caliber gun. Those who remained alive were then shot at with rifles, according to Filchakov.
(LVIV, Ukraine) — Ukrainian and foreign tech companies are providing an array of tech and cyber support to Ukraine in its fight against Russia, Ukrainian officials and tech experts said, with some of the country’s top commanders saying they plan to buy about 1,000 more drones.
“Ukraine needs all the categories of drones: huge ones, small ones, kamikaze drones,” Ivan Tolchynskyi, CEO of Atlas Aerospace, a compact drone manufacturer, said at a conference in Lviv this month.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation along with the General Staff said this month that they’d spend almost $500,000 to buy about 1,000 drones.
Small drones have become popular in Ukraine “because every soldier probably wants to get their own drone on the battlefield,” Tolchynskyi added. His company has provided the Ukrainian army with about 150 drones and plans to increase the number of deliveries to “1,000 by the end of this year.”
Ukraine’s cause is also boosted by non-combat drones and special equipment, such as the mine-detection technology and medical drones supplied to various NGOs by the Canadian company Draganfly.
“We originally came to Ukraine with our medical response drone that carries about 30 pounds of temperature sensitive supplies – such as insulin or pharmaceuticals – for search and rescue battlefield missions,” Cameron Chell, president and CEO of Draganfly, said.
While drones help defend Ukraine’s skies and territory, the country also needs solid protection in cyberspace to repel attacks by Russian hackers.
“On average, we register around 200 attacks every day. Sometimes it is 500 a day and sometimes it is 50, but it happens every day,” Oleksandr Bornyakov, deputy minister of Digital Transformation, said.
“We may not see it, we may not know what is really going on behind the scenes,” Kim Zetter, a cybersecurity journalist, added.
Yet according to NATO Cyber Defense Center Ambassador Kenneth Gears, “[W]e have probably seen what Russia has.”
As troops in the battlefield don’t do anything without hacker support these days, Gears said, the “very poor results that we see on the battlefield from the Russian army are in part the result of failed cyber-attacks and cyber defenses of the Russian army.”
But in Ukraine, the IT sector — and cyber warfare — seems to be thriving, industry officials said.
“The IT industry is one of the most resilient industries in Ukraine right now, maybe the most resilient. We are able to perform very efficiently during these times,” Vitaly Sadler, CEO and co-founder of Intellias, an IT development company, said.
Ukraine boasts an informal “IT army” — a gathering of over 200,000 anonymous volunteers who are coordinating via the Telegram messaging app. This motley crew of “hackers” performed online attacks on very sensitive Russian targets, targeting banks, civil aviation databases and even the Federal Security Service website.
Ukraine may even conscript a few IT specialists fleeing Russia on the back of the partial military mobilization announced by Moscow on Sept. 21, said Bornyakov, adding that the recruitment is likely going to be limited.
“I don’t think Ukrainian society is ready to accept even ‘good Russians.’ We might consider this on a very personal basis after conducting complete research on each person,” Bornyakov said.
Russian hackers are in a more vulnerable position once they leave Russia.
“Right now, they are protected by the Russian government — the NSA and the U.S. cyber command know many of them. And Russia is going to be focused primarily on its own defense,” he said.
