March 25, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

We’ve wrapped up our live coverage for the day. You can read more on Russia’s war in Ukraine here, or scroll through the updates below.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is pictured September 11, 2022.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael?Grossi?will travel to the nuclear plant in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region at the end of March, the agency said in a statement Saturday.

Grossi, the top official in the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency will “assess first-hand the serious nuclear safety and security situation at the facility,” officials said.

“It will be the second time Grossi crosses the frontline in order to reach Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and the first since he established a permanent presence of IAEA experts at the site in southern Ukraine,” the statement continued.?

Grossi noted that despite an IAEA presence at the site for seven months, the situation at the plant is “precarious.”?

The IAEA chief said his travel to Ukraine was also aimed at “ensuring the regular rotation of IAEA experts to and from the site is maintained and improved, following the very challenging circumstances faced by the experts during the previous rotation in February which had been delayed by almost a month.”?

Grossi will be accompanied by a new group of IAEA experts, the seventh such team to work at the site.

Some background:?The plant has been under Russian control since March last year, but is still mostly operated by Ukrainian workers.

Attacks at the complex have sparked concerns about the specter of a nuclear disaster, and IAEA staff have been visiting the site to assess the damage. Recently, the UN nuclear agency said it has been?unable to rotate teams?at the plant because of increased volatility in the area.

The IAEA head has?assured Ukraine?his agency will never recognize Russia as the owner of the Zaporizhzhia plant, according to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. Grossi has also pledged a?continuous IAEA presence?at all of Ukraine’s nuclear plants.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told state television that Moscow will retain control over any of the tactical nuclear weapons it plans to station in neighboring Belarus.

He likened the move to the United States’ practice of stationing nuclear weapons in Europe. Washington retains control over the weapons, keeping host countries — like Germany — from breaking their commitments as non-nuclear powers.

“We are not going to hand over control of nuclear weapons. The US doesn’t hand it over to its allies. We’re basically doing the same thing (US leaders) have been doing for a decade,” Putin said.

Some background: Even though there is no guarantee the Russian leader will follow through with his plan to station the weapons in Belarus, any nuclear signaling by Putin will cause concern in the West.

Since invading Ukraine more than a year ago, the Russian leader has used escalating rhetoric on a number of occasions,?warning of the “increasing” threat?of nuclear war and suggesting Moscow?may abandon its “no first use” policy.

The United States has sought to make it clear to Putin the consequences of any use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, even low-yield tactical devices.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a joint press conference with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow on September 9, 2021.

Russia plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus, President Vladimir Putin told state television Saturday.

Moscow will complete the construction of a special storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus by the beginning of July, Putin told state broadcaster Russia 1.

The Russian leader said Moscow has already transferred an Iskander short-range missile system – which can be fitted with nuclear or conventional warheads – to Belarus.

During the interview, Putin also said Russia has helped Belarus convert 10 aircraft to make them capable of carrying tactical nuclear warheads. Russia will start training pilots to fly the re-configured planes early next month, he added.

Key context: The government in Belarus, which is situated west of Russia on Ukraine’s long northern border, is among Moscow’s closest allies.

Belarus has had no nuclear weapons on its territory since the early 1990s. Shortly after gaining independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union, it agreed to transfer all Soviet-era weapons of mass destruction stationed there to Russia.

Belarus helped Russia launch its initial invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, allowing the Kremlin’s troops to enter the country from the north. There have been fears throughout the conflict that Belarus will again be used as a launching ground for an offensive, or that Minsk’s own troops will join the conflict.

Global tensions: Even though there is no guarantee the Russian leader will follow through with his plan to station the weapons in Belarus, any nuclear signaling by Putin will cause concern in the West.

Since invading Ukraine more than a year ago, the Russian leader has used escalating rhetoric on a number of occasions,?warning of the “increasing” threat?of nuclear war and suggesting Moscow?may abandon its “no first use” policy.

The United States has sought to make it clear to Putin the consequences of any use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, even low-yield tactical devices.

Speaking in October, US President Joe Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper,?“It would be irresponsible for me to talk about what we would or wouldn’t do,” in response to nuclear use by Russia.

But Biden hinted at the possibility of a rapid escalation in events.?

“The mistakes get made, the miscalculation could occur, no one could be sure what would happen and it could end in Armageddon,” he said.

CNN’s Peter Wilkinson, Frederik Pletigen, Zahra Ullah, Claudia Otto and Rob Picheta contributed.

Ukrainian authorities said two civilians were killed in a Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region Saturday.

A man was killed in the city of Chasiv Yar, and a woman was killed in Toretsk city, Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said in a Telegram post Saturday.?

This comes after three people were killed in an overnight Russian missile attack on the city of Kostantynivka in Donetsk region Friday.?

The city has been struck with increasing frequency by Russian missiles, especially the inaccurate S-300.?Kostantynivka lies about 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of the embattled city of Bakhmut.

Russian forces have been pushed out of one of the key roads in the contested eastern city of Bakhmut, a Ukrainian military official said Saturday.??

Ukrainian soldiers “managed to push the enemy away” from “the road of life” in Bakhmut for a “considerable distance,” making it impossible for Russia to keep the road under fire control, said Yuriy Fedorenko, a Ukrainian military officer.

Ukrainian forces have “improved their position” in the city, Fedorenko added, though he acknowledged “the fighting is tough.”

He said Ukraine is “holding the line in the most difficult areas” and have had some tactical successes.

According to Fedorenko, Russia’s forces are “constantly conducting assaults in the Bakhmut direction and are constantly trying to advance.”

Some context: CNN has not been able to independently verify Fedorenko’s claims.

It has been difficult to determine exactly where each military’s troops stand during the grueling fight for Bakhmut, and Kyiv and Moscow have often offered differing reports on the status of fighting on the ground.

Ukraine’s top generals have claimed in recent weeks that Russian forces are depleted in?Bakhmut. A Ukrainian counteroffensive could soon be launched, the generals say, raising the prospect of an unlikely turnaround in?the besieged city.

The Ukrainian military has repelled more than 50 Russian attacks over the past 24 hours, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces claimed in an update Saturday.

The majority of the repelled attacks were concentrated in communities of the eastern Donetsk region, the General Staff said, including the embattled city of Bakhmut and the towns of Avdiivka, Lyman and Marinka.

This map shows the latest state of control in Ukraine:

Around?10,000?Ukrainian civilians are being “pushed to the very limit of their existence,” in the beleaguered eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and the nearby area, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Friday.?

The bloody battle for Bakhmut has been at the center of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in recent months, as soldiers from the private Russian mercenary company Wagner have bombarded the city and edged closer towards seizing control.?

The ICRC has delivered hygiene kits, solar lamps, water containers, essential repair supplies and handheld tools to the community.?

Midfielder Taras Stepanenko leads Ukraine out against Brentford B on March 23.

It may be thousands of miles from the?frontline, but the Ukrainian?soccer?team is never far from the horrors of war.

While the squad has assembled in the leafy suburbs of London ahead of its Euro 2024 qualifying match against England, Russian forces continue to bombard Ukraine – with?deadly missile strikes?seen across the country this week.

It’s why, despite the comfort of their luxury hotel, the minds of the team are very much with their friends and family back home as they prepare for Sunday’s game.

Oleksandr Glyvynskyy, the Ukrainian team’s media representative, says many members of the squad have an application on their phone that alerts them when there is an air-raid siren back home.

Others start every day by scrolling through social media to check whether there were any Russian attacks from the night before.

They do this to ensure their loved ones are safe, but it also serves as a constant reminder of just how perilous the situation is.

Read the full story here.

Cots stand empty at the orphanage in Kherson.

When the war began in February last year, the staff at Kherson’s Children’s Home came up with a plan.

They spirited all the children, mostly under 5, to the Holhofa church on the other side of town, orphanage worker Olena recounted.

The church and caregivers from the home kept the children safe and warm in the basement. They hid them to keep them safe from the fighting and to escape the Russians, said Olena.

Kherson fell to the Russian forces in the early days of the war. The invading troops moved swiftly over the Dnipro River; it was the first major city to be taken and the only regional capital.

“Yes, the children were here,” Victor, the 74-year-old caretaker of the church, told CNN. “But after the Russians occupied this city, they started asking questions.”

After a few weeks, he said, agents from Russia’s security service, the FSB, came to the church and demanded that the caregivers transport the children back to the orphanage.

Read the full story here.

Wagner?Group owner Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday that over 5,000 prisoners completed contracts?with Russian forces and received pardons.

“At the moment, more than 5,000 people have?completed?their contract with PMC?Wagnerand have been pardoned,” Prigozhin said in an audio message published on his Telegram channel.

“The percentage of persons who reoffended during the month is 0.31, which is 10-20 times less than the standard figures before the special operation,” he said.

Prigozhin’s private army heavily relied on recruiting convicts from Russian prisons with a promise of a free pardon and monetary compensation if they survived six months on the battlefield.

The group has now stopped recruiting from prisons. Last week it said it was seeking 30,000 more fighters, and has been focusing its efforts on sports clubs and gyms.

A Ukrainian serviceman looks through goggles while another sits on an anti-air gun near Bakhmut on March 24.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence has said that Russia’s assault on Bakhmut has largely stalled.

According to a statement issued Saturday, this is “likely primarily a result of extreme attrition of the Russian force.”

“Ukraine has also suffered heavy casualties during its defence,” the statement said.

Russia has shifted its focus to nearby Avdiivka, the ministry says – a place Ukrainian officials previously warned could become a second Bakhmut.

According to the ministry, this suggests an “overall return to a more defensive operational design after inconclusive results from its attempts to conduct a general offensive since January 2023.”

Some context: The exact picture of the fighting in and around Bakhmut is unclear, but Russia has made it a major target.

This week one of Ukraine’s top generals said Russian forces were depleted in Bakhmut, and that his troops could “soon” launch a counterassault, raising the prospect of a turnaround in a city Ukraine has at times appeared on the brink of losing.

Sixteen?civilians have been killed and fifty-nine people injured in Russian shelling across eight regions of Ukraine, according to the?Defence Forces of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Defense Force said in a statement that “119 settlements have been shelled with various weapons including mortars, tanks, artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, S-300 air defense missile system, Lancet UAVs and Onyx cruise missiles.”

It is the latest wave of Russian attacks – Russia pounded towns and cities across Ukraine on Wednesday as Chinese leader Xi Jinping departed from?Moscow?following talks with?President Vladimir Putin, killing at least nine people.

In the aftermath of that attack one man, a student in Zaporizhzhia, told CNN: “We are mostly angry. We are not afraid. Why would we be? It is our home.”

The commander in chief of Ukraine’s military emphasized the difficulty of the battle for the eastern city of Bakhmut during a call Friday with the head of the British Armed Forces.

Ukrainian Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi shared a Telegram post outlining his conversation with Britain’s Chief of the Defence Staff Adm. Sir Tony Radakin.

Zaluzhnyi thanked Radakin, the United Kingdom and other allies for their support.

“Thanks to the help of our partners, we are holding on and will definitely win,” he said.

The battle for Bakhmut: The besieged city of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s Donetsk region has been a focal point of the frontline fighting between Russia and Ukraine for months.

One of Kyiv’s top generals this week said that Russian forces are depleted in?Bakhmut,?and a Ukrainian counteroffensive could soon be launched. It raised the prospect of an unlikely turnaround for Ukraine.

While?experts say?that capturing Bakhmut is unlikely to dramatically alter the overall picture of the war in eastern Ukraine —?where little territory has changed hands in 2023 —?it would hand Russia a symbolic victory and mark the first Ukrainian city it has captured in eight months.

Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian children's rights commissioner, attends a meeting with Russian President at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence, outside Moscow, Russia, on February 16.

Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova said on Friday that 56 Ukrainian children who are now in Crimea and Krasnodar Krai are awaiting reunification with their families.

“Currently 56 children remain in the health resorts of the Krasnodar Krai and Crimea. They are safe and in touch with their families. There is an action plan for each child so that they are reunited with family,” said Lvova-Belova in a statement on her Telegram channel.

Remember: Last Friday, the International Criminal Court (ICC)?issued an arrest warrant for Lvova-Belova for an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia. The ICC said that Lvova-Belova was “allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation.”

Lvova-Belova dismissed the ICC’s arrest warrant against her, saying it was “great” that the international community appreciated her work for children, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

According to Lvova-Belova, to date 33 Ukrainian children?have returned to their parents in Kharkiv, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. The children were brought home by their parents or a trusted representative.

“It was not possible to immediately ensure a safe return trip for everyone, since the front line has changed significantly, [and] parents and children found themselves on different sides,” she added.

Lvova-Belova said since October last year, the Russian authorities have been “consistently assisting in the reunification of children who arrived on vacation” from areas of conflict; and from this group, more than 2,000 children have already returned to their families.

CNN’s Rob Picheta and Lauren Said-Moorhouse contributed to this post.

US President Joe Biden speaks during a joint news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa on March 24.

President Joe?Biden?said Friday he’s not alarmed following the high-profile meetings earlier this week between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Instead, Biden said “we’re the ones expanding the alliances.”???

The president noted that while?US officials have recently warned?of signs that China could be considering increasing its military support for Russia, “they haven’t yet.”??

“Doesn’t mean they won’t, but they haven’t yet,”?Biden?said. “And if anything’s happened, the West has coalesced significantly more.”?

Biden?went on to cite increased cooperation across alliances, including through the G7, the Quad Alliance, ASEAN and AUKUS. He added he has now met with 80% of the world’s leaders.

The United Nations has documented hundreds of cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions by both Ukrainian and Russian forces since the beginning of the invasion, according to the Head of the UN Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

The UN has documented more than 600 cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions carried out by Russian forces, and 91 by Ukrainian forces, since the war began on February 24 of last year up until the end of January 2023.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued Friday its latest report, which cataloged cases of civilian casualties, torture, rape, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention.