September 13, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Follow the latest news on Russia’s war in Ukraine?here?and read more about today’s developments in the posts below.

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and his team were in Moscow this week and held meetings with Russian leadership, CNN has learned.

The details of those meetings were not immediately clear. Richardson and his center privately work on behalf of families of hostages and detainees, and the trip comes as the Biden administration works to free two Americans whom the State Department has classified as wrongfully detained: Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.?

A spokesperson for the Richardson Center told CNN on Tuesday that “at this point we are not able to comment on this.”?

CNN reported in mid-July that Richardson had been expected to travel to the Russian capital.?Richardson has long worked to free Americans detained abroad and played a role in securing Trevor Reed’s release from Russian detention in April.?

A source familiar with the situation told CNN in April, following Reed’s release, that members of the Richardson Center had traveled to Moscow in February, in the days immediately before the Russian war in Ukraine, to meet with the Russian leadership. Following that visit, the Richardson Center came away with a clear sense of what the Russians were willing to do and how they were willing to do it, which was presented to the White House.

Some background: The Biden administration has repeatedly said that working to secure Griner and Whelan’s release, as well as that of Americans wrongfully detained abroad, is a top priority.

In late July, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the US had put forward a “substantial proposal” to try to secure the release of Griner and Whelan. Sources told CNN that proposal included a swap for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout.

A Ukrainian soldier stands on a Russian flag in Izium, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on September 13.

Ukraine’s Ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova said the counteroffensive against the Russians shows that Ukrainian forces have gained momentum.

“It’s the 202nd day of the war, and?this counteroffensive, which?already allowed us to free more?than 2,500 square miles of?Ukrainian territory, and more?importantly, almost 300 villages?and different settlements, and?our people there, is one of the?major turning points,” Markova told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

She added that Ukrainian forces are still facing difficulties in the war.

Burned-out tanks and trucks emblazoned with Russia’s signature ‘Z’ symbol lay at the side of the road, gutted and red with new rust. A collapsed bridge was covered in signs warning of landmines. Further along, the wreckage of a car was left alongside a destroyed petrol station surrounded by the debris of shelling.

These were the signs of Ukrainian victory and, for now, a Russian rout.

And the residents of Izium appear relieved to see their city back in Ukrainian hands.

Along with the loss of weaponry, and the humiliating retreat captured on multiple videos and shared across social media, one military official told CNN that a large number of Russian prisoners of war have been taken by Ukraine.

During CNN’s visit, a group of Ukrainian soldiers barreled up triumphantly in a steaming tank.

With obvious glee, they quickly hitched it to a Russian self-propelled artillery vehicle, abandoned intact by retreating Russians. The weapon is among the most powerful in Russia’s armory and will be repurposed for Ukraine’s counteroffensive.

When asked if it was a tough fight to retake the city, the tank driver who drove off with the howitzer replied, “Not really.”

Read more from CNN’s coverage on the ground here:

Related article 'We prayed to be liberated': Inside a city recaptured by Ukraine after months of Russian occupation | CNN

Ukrainian?boxing?world champion Oleksandr Usyk shared photos of himself at his family home in Vorzel, near Bucha, on Tuesday.

It was Usyk’s first time explicitly posting from the area since the house was taken by Russian forces earlier this year. Usyk posted photos on his verified?Instagram account’s story?along with a location tag for Vorzel.

The photos show Usyk, 35, standing near a?Ukrainian?flag outside the fence of the house.

In April,?Ukrainian?news outlet ICTV?tweeted images?from Usyk’s wife’s Instagram story which showed the house being destroyed and burned, along with a caption reading, “Russian world! It came to me too! Beasts! They just ruined everything, they were sh*tting as usual!”

In an?interview?with Britain’s The Guardian in August, Usyk said that his house had been broken into by Russian soldiers, but that he had “people rebuilding it, so everything is going to be okay.”

Usyk defeated British boxer Anthony Joshua for the second time on Aug. 20 in Saudi Arabia and returned home to Ukraine on Aug. 29, according to an?Instagram?post.

As Ukraine continues to liberate swathes of territory in the east, Ukrainian presidential military adviser Oleksiy Arestovych says the counteroffensive has “slowed down slightly.”

“The counteroffensive continues but has slowed down slightly because most of the Ukrainian forces are fighting to capture the city of Lyman, to open our way into the Luhansk region. We will intensify our strikes and liberate new territories in a different way,” he told CNN’s Becky Anderson in an interview.

Lyman, an important rail hub, is roughly 37 miles (60 kilometers) west of the strategically important Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk.

President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukrainian forces have taken 6,000 square kilometers of land since the beginning of the month. His adviser also said they conducted a storm operation that liberated “more than 300 settlements in four days.”

Here are more of the latest headlines from Russia’s war in Ukraine:

The White House said Tuesday that another aid package for Ukraine could be announced soon.

John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, said he didn’t want to “get ahead of future security systems packages,” when asked by CNN’s Phil Mattingly about more assistance to Ukraine.

Kirby said there were “real-time discussions going on with the Ukrainians about what their military needs are.”?

He added: “Many of the systems that we’ve been providing in just the last few weeks and couple of months have proven instrumental and effective in the Ukrainians ability to go on the offense and to be actually quite effective on the defense in the last several days and weeks.” ?

Some context: President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged this week the importance of US assistance to the recent Ukrainian counteroffensive. “We prepared carefully for?this.?It has taken months of?planning. We used reconnaissance and?accuracy, we used our allies,?especially the?United States army, for information on this,?and?we used Western weapons,” he said.

The Pentagon said some Russian forces have crossed from the Kharkiv region back into Russia.

But Russian forces still “do exist en masse in Ukraine,” Ryder said.

The US was not surprised that Ukraine forces “pushed as quickly as they have” in the counteroffensive, Ryder said, but based on reports that the Pentagon has seen “on the Russian military response, it was probably the Russians” who were surprised by the push.

Abandoned munitions are seen inside a church?in Bohorodychne village in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, on September 13.

As Ukrainian units press their offensive in parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Russian forces are trying to gain ground elsewhere, according to the Ukrainian military.

The military’s?General Staff, in its latest bulletin, said Ukrainian units had successfully repelled Russian attacks around the city of Bakhmut, while Russian artillery and air strikes continued to pound settlements near the front lines across Donetsk.

“During the day, the enemy carried out 2 missile strikes, 8 air strikes and conducted 13 strikes from missile artillery systems,” according to the military.

There was also Russian mortar and tank fire in the Zaporizhzhia region, the General Staff said.

Looting claims: The military claimed that in areas of Kharkiv and Luhansk, there was widespread looting from retreating Russian forces.

The General Staff said that on the Starobilsk-Luhansk highway, in the direction of Luhansk, “about 300 civilian cars, mostly with state license plates of the Kharkiv region were spotted – most on trailers driven by Russian military personnel.”

It claimed that in the south, around the city of Polohy, Russian troops were also stealing private cars. And in Nova Kakhovka, in the Kherson region, Russians “began to massively remove furniture and household appliances from temporarily abandoned settlements.”

CNN is unable to confirm the military’s claims, but there has been widespread evidence of looting in Kharkiv and other previously occupied Russian areas.

Military shortage claims: The General Staff also claimed that the Russian military was moving up the graduation of cadets from some Defense Ministry academies, such as the Black Sea Higher Naval School, to make up for shortages of junior officers.

“The shortage of tactical-level commanders is due to the refusal of reserve officers to sign contracts amid recent events. The level of morale and psychological state of the enemy’s personnel continues to decline,” the General Staff asserted. “A significant number of servicemen do not return to military units after the end of their vacations.”

Any further steps for Russian annexation in Ukraine will “not be recognized under any circumstances,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a 90-minute phone call on Tuesday,?according to a German government statement.?

Scholz urged the Russian President to “find a diplomatic solution as soon as possible, based on a ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of Russian troops and respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.”

Regarding the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Scholz called for “avoiding any steps of escalation“ and pressed for “the immediate implementation of the measures recommended in the report of the International Atomic Energy Agency.”

While discussing the global food situation, Scholz appealed to Putin to fully implement the United Nations-brokered grain deal, asking the Russian president “not to discredit the agreement.”??

Scholz also demanded Putin “treat captured combatants in accordance with the requirements of international humanitarian law, in particular the Geneva Conventions, and to ensure unhindered access for the International Committee of the Red Cross,” according to the statement.?

The conversation followed the chancellor’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sept. 7.?

The chancellor and the Russian president agreed to remain in contact.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will discuss Ukraine and Taiwan at the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Thursday, according to Putin’s foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov.?

According to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, Ushakov said that Beijing holds a balanced approach to Ukraine?and understands the reasons for what Russia called its “special military operation.”

“In the current difficult situation, in the face of illegitimate Western sanctions, this cooperation demonstrates sustainability, which continues to progressively develop, gain momentum,” Ushakov said as quoted by RIA Novosti.?

Putin will attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organization heads of state meeting in Samarkand on Sept. 15 and 16, according to a separate Kremlin statement.?

Russia's President Vladimir Putin, left, walks as he takes part in a naval parade in St. Petersburg on July 31.

Russian President Vladimir Putin?will not be invited to Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral because of his invasion of Ukraine, a senior UK government source told CNN on Tuesday.

The source said the full list of invitations had not yet been finalized, but that officials from three countries had been ruled out: Russia, Belarus and Myanmar.

In the case of Russia and Belarus, the source said their exclusion was due to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which Belarus has supported. In the case of Myanmar, it is because of the treatment of the Rohingya people, the source said.

The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar’s Rakhine state who were targeted in a brutal campaign of killing and arson by the Myanmar military in 2016 and 2017.

The Palace sends invitations to state funerals on the advice of the government after members of the civil and diplomatic services have considered the political implications of inviting certain leaders.?

Palace protocol is not to reveal invitees to family events, and it has not commented on the guest list.?

Typically, every country that the United Kingdom has normal diplomatic relations with would be invited to a state funeral, such as the one which will be held Monday for the late monarch in London.?

Nations are usually represented by their political leader, head of state, a senior member of the government or their ambassador to the UK.?

A second UK government source told CNN that up to 500 foreign dignitaries were expected to attend the funeral.

The UK has been one of the strongest opponents of Russia’s war and one of the biggest supporters of Ukraine, providing money, weapons and aid.?

Relevant US House of Representatives committees will get classified briefings on Ukraine over the next two weeks, multiple sources tell CNN.

The House Armed Services Committee will be briefed on Thursday at 10 a.m. ET, while the House Foreign Affairs Committee will also get a briefing next week, those sources said. Committee members from both parties are invited to attend.

The briefings come in the wake of?Ukraine’s recent stunning advances on Russian-held territory. Lawmakers are also pushing to include additional Ukraine aid in the upcoming short-term government funding bill. Current funding expires Sept. 30.

Ukrainian soldiers stand on a road in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on September 12.

As Ukraine continues to liberate swathes of territory from Russian occupation in the east, presidential military adviser Oleksiy Arestovych says the country’s counteroffensive has “slowed down slightly.”

“The counteroffensive continues but has slowed down slightly because most of the Ukrainian forces are fighting to capture the city of Lyman, to open our way into the Luhansk region. We will intensify our strikes and liberate new territories in a different way,” he told CNN’s Becky Anderson in an interview.

Lyman, an important rail hub, is roughly 37 miles (60 kilometers) west of the strategically important Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk.

President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukrainian forces have taken 6,000 square kilometers of land since the beginning of the month. His adviser also said they conducted a storm operation that liberated “more than 300 settlements in four days.”

“We prepared carefully for?this.?It has taken months of?planning. We used reconnaissance and?accuracy, we used our allies,?especially the?United States army, for information on this,?and?we used Western weapons,” Zelensky added.

During the recent offensive, Ukrainian forces managed to capture Russian weaponry that would support around three brigades in their fighting, Arestovych told CNN. He also said Russia suffered “huge casualties” and lost some soldiers who Ukraine had captured as prisoners of war. Asked by CNN whether they will be afforded the rights they are entitled to under the Geneva convention, he said “absolutely.”

Arestovych said Ukrainian forces used disinformation to trick Russian soldiers on the battlefield by making them think they were going to strike at Kherson.

“They thought we were going to start the main strike on the city of Kherson. We did start our strike on Kherson, but it was an assisted strike, not the main strike. The main strike we provided in the east of our country, and the Russians were completely surprised about this, because two months before, we were only speaking about the Kherson region. That’s why we liberated territory in four days that Russians tried to keep for about four months.” he said.

A Ukrainian official said that despite the retreat of Russian forces from much of the Kharkiv region, the area remains dangerous — with some Russian soldiers “wandering in the forests” and huge amounts of abandoned ammunition yet to be secured.

Stepan Maselskyi, head of the Izium district military-civilian administration, told CNN Tuesday that?there is no power, electricity and water in most settlements.

Maselskyi told CNN by phone that there is a “very big danger [with munitions left behind]. A lot of ‘booby traps,’ a lot of explosive items left, scattered.”

He said that near Balakliya, which was re-taken last week, one person was killed by a mine on Tuesday. “Many sappers work in the area, but the [liberated] territory is very large. It takes time to de-mine everything and defuse all explosive objects,” he said.

There are “a lot of places where ammunition was left, abandoned,” he added.

According to Maselskyi, “Some [Russian soldiers] are still wandering in the forests of the Izium region. … All measures are now being taken to detain them.”

He referred further comment to the military.

“The occupiers looted everything they could,” Maselskyi told CNN. “From households of people who had evacuated, everything was taken away. We try to prevent looting by locals. We immediately take the liberated settlements under the protection of the National Police.”

Maselskyi said it would be a while before residents could return home.

Maselskyi said restoring electricity and water is a top priority. “We have a week of hard 24/7 work ahead. And only after that we will make a decision: when to give permission to return,” he said.

Even if the conflict continues to swing in Ukraine’s favor, Europe is unlikely to dodge a recession this winter, given the energy crisis triggered by the Russian invasion in February.

Natural gas futures in Europe have dropped almost 50% after?hitting a record?in late August. They fell 20% last week alone as Ukraine’s troops advanced. But they’re still about 460% higher than a year ago, following Russia’s announcement that it would?shut the crucial Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

It’s also not clear what Putin’s next moves will be as his forces retreat. He could cut remaining supplies of gas to Europe that continue to flow through Ukraine, worsening the region’s energy crisis, or revert to even more worrying forms of brinkmanship if he believes he’s been backed into a corner.

Europe has been racing to stockpile energy supplies so households and businesses can retain access to power and heat as the weather gets colder. The endeavor has been successful so far, with storage facilities?at 84% of capacity, though at a huge cost.

Governments have also rolled out generous support packages to try to shield consumers and small companies from the effects of surging prices. The United Kingdom and Germany, along with other EU countries, have announced?more than 500 billion euros ($509 billion) in subsidies for bills and other interventions aimed at softening the impact.

Even so, a contraction in economic activity in the coming months looks inevitable, economists warn. Output in the United Kingdom stagnated in the three months to July, according to data released Monday. Meanwhile, Germany’s Ifo Institute has slashed its estimate for growth in Europe’s biggest economy.

Most forecasters think Europe’s economy will contract in the last three months of 2022 and the first three months of 2023. What happens after that remains uncertain.

Read more:

KHARKIV, UKRAINE - SEPTEMBER 11: A man pushes his bicycle in front of buildings, damaged in the conflicts between Russian and Ukrainian forces, as seen after Ukrainian army liberated the town of Balakliya in the southeastern Kharkiv oblast, Ukraine, on September 11, 2022. (Photo by Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Related article Analysis: Russia's retreat in Ukraine won't save Europe from recession this winter

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said?he was concerned about whether Russia might try “stir the pot” between Armenia and Azerbaijan “to create a distraction from Ukraine.”

Blinken said he spoke last night with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan and “urged them to do everything possible to pull back from any conflict and to get back to talking about building a lasting peace between their countries.”

“We’d seen the outbreak of hostilities again, something that is in no one’s interest,” said Blinken.

Some more context: Armenia’s prime minister says that at least 49 Armenian soldiers were killed after fresh clashes erupted on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan this week.

In an address to Armenia’s parliament on Tuesday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said,?“At present, we have 49 (service personnel) killed in action, confirmed by the Ministry of Defence. But I have to admit as well, that this number is unfortunately not the final one.”

Related article Clashes erupt along Armenia-Azerbaijan border, potentially reigniting an old conflict

An abandoned Russian tank is seen in a village on the outskirts of Izyum in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine on September 11.

Scores of images and videos have emerged in recent days of tanks, armored vehicles and other military equipment abandoned by Russian forces in their hasty retreat from the Kharkiv region.

While those losses are hard to quantify, it’s clear that the Russians lost or abandoned hundreds of pieces of equipment, including more modern hardware. Analysts believe that, for example, one Russian tank division may have lost half its combat power.??

According to the Ukrainian military’s General Staff, during the week beginning Sept. 6, 590 pieces of Russian equipment were destroyed.?

“Enemy losses were 86 tanks and 158 armored fighting vehicles, 106 artillery systems, 159 vehicles and 46 units of other equipment,” the General Staff claimed.

CNN cannot independently verify the figures cited, but an independent group, Oryx — which has collated Russian losses since the campaign began — said it has verified a surge of losses among Russian units?compared to August. Most have been incurred in Kharkiv, though the Russians have also lost equipment in Kherson and Donetsk.?

A wrecked Russian military vehicle is seen in Balakliya, Ukraine, on September 11.

In one day alone, Sept. 11, Oryx estimated that?Ukrainian forces destroyed, damaged or captured 102 pieces of Russian equipment, including 23 tanks, 13 armored personnel carriers and 25 infantry fighting vehicles. The following day, the Russians lost a further 99 pieces, according to Oryx data.?

As it only counts observed and verifiable losses in its data, Oryx says the real rate of losses is likely much higher.?

In the same period, Ukrainian verified losses were running at about 10 pieces of equipment.?

Abandoned munitions in a village on the outskirts of Izyum in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine on September 11.

Some of the equipment appears to have belonged to the Luhansk People’s Militia rather than regular Russian forces and is likely to have been older. But substantial amounts of modern hardware were also lost.

Geolocated images show a number of updated T-80 tanks were among those damaged or destroyed, as well as mine-clearing vehicles and armored personnel carriers.

Military analyst Rob Lee of the Department of War Studies at King’s College London tweeted Monday that videos showed T-80s, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles all disabled. Lee later tweeted: “Russia’s 4th Tank Division has two tank regiments … With the most recent losses in Izium, it has lost nearly a full regiment of T-80U variant tanks in Ukraine, or half its total that weren’t in storage.”

Ukraine Weapons Tracker, which also analyzes social media and official images, said that in one single location near Izium, “we counted no less than nine T-80U and T-80BV tanks.”

Some more specialized equipment was also lost, including a?Zoopark-1 radar station, which tracks the positions of enemy firepower. Other videos show Ukrainian soldiers showing off captured Russian Tor and Osa?short-range surface-to-air missile systems in the Kharkiv region.?There are also images of Russian Orlan-10 drones retrieved by Ukrainian forces, apparently undamaged.

Some analysts believe Russian forces left equipment behind because of a lack of fuel.?

According to the Institute for the Study of War:?

The loss of so much armor and other equipment may also complicate the Russians’ task of reconstituting units and forming a new defensive line inside the Luhansk region.

Ukrainian service members prepare to transport a Russian tank captured in the Kharkiv region on September 11.

U.S. Secretary of Defense?Lloyd?J.?Austin?attends a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at the American military's Ramstein Air Base in Germany on September 8.

Ukrainian government officials are asking the US for additional weapons systems and ammunition amid a major counteroffensive that has successfully pushed Russia out of key cities in northeast Ukraine.

Against the backdrop of this fresh momentum, Ukrainian officials told US lawmakers that the Ukrainian military needs new equipment to sustain the push. Specifically, they say they need long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems, known as ATACMS, which can fire as far as 180 miles,?according to a source who has seen the list and described it to CNN.

The US has been reluctant to provide the ATACMS out of concern that they could be used to fire into Russia and potentially escalate the conflict further. But in an?analysis published?last week, two top Ukrainian generals — Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi and Lt. Gen. Mykhailo Zabrodskyi — said that Ukraine is at a disadvantage because the Russians have assets that can fire as far as 1,200 miles, whereas the Ukrainians’ systems have a maximum range of around 60 miles.?

When Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was asked why the US has not sent ATACMs to Ukraine yet, despite Ukrainians’ request for them, Austin said the US is in “constant communication” with Ukraine about what weapons they need and stressed, “it’s not just about one particular weapon or weapons system.”

“It’s about how you integrate these systems and how you integrate the efforts of various elements in the inventory to create effects that provide advantages to the Ukrainians,” Austin said during a press conference in Prague on Sept. 9.

The?source said that the?Ukrainians also said they need?2,000 more missiles for their High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, which the US began providing earlier this summer, plus additional Harpoon anti-ship missiles and more drones and tanks.

The wishlist was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.?

The Biden administration has committed?nearly $15 billion?in security assistance to Ukraine this year alone.

CNN reported last week?that the Pentagon is preparing a detailed analysis and working out how to support?Ukraine’s military in the medium and long term, including after the war with Russia has ended, according to three defense officials.

The efforts are being led by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and would build on the billions of dollars in military aid the US has given to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February.

U.S. State Department spokesperson?Ned?Price?speaks during a news conference in Washington on March 10.

US officials refuted Russia’s false claims made earlier this year of the US developing biological weapons in Ukraine during a meeting of the Biological Weapons Convention last week in Geneva, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Tuesday.??

“The United States delegation, led by Special Representative Kenneth D. Ward, effectively exposed Russia’s disinformation tactics and dispelled Russia’s spurious allegations seeking to malign peaceful U.S. cooperation with Ukraine,” Price said. “In the presence of delegations from 89 countries, the United States and Ukraine presented a thorough, in-depth series of presentations that strongly refuted Russia’s absurd and false claims of U.S. biological weapons development and bio-labs in Ukraine.”

At the meeting — which Russia called for —?both American and Ukrainian delegations explained the work that the two countries are actually doing together, Price said.

Russia made?accusations that Kyiv was developing biological weapons and preparing a chemical attack in March of this year.?At the time?the US called the US’s UN Mission spokesperson Olivia Dalton said the move was “exactly the kind of false flag effort we have warned Russia might initiate to justify a biological or chemical weapons attack.”

At the meeting last week Russia also attempted to get certain delegations to agree to a statement about the convention before it was even over, Price added. They did this by “distributing a proposed “joint statement” to select delegations with its conclusions from the meeting before the United States and Ukraine even began our presentations,” Price explained.

“The United States takes seriously its obligations under the BWC and therefore participated fully, transparently, and with integrity in the Article V process,” Prices said, adding that Russia does not take those obligations seriously.

Russian President Vladimir Putin looks on during the Navy Day Parade in Saint Petersburg on July, 31.

Nearly 50 municipal deputies have now signed a petition demanding the resignation of President Vladimir Putin, 29 more than on Monday, according to one of those involved.

Ksenia Thorstrom, a municipal deputy of the Semenovsky District in Saint Petersburg, told CNN:?

“My colleagues and I wanted to support the deputies from Smolninsky, who were recently summoned to the police and will soon have a trial,” Thorstrom said.?

The petition says: “We, the municipal deputies of Russia, believe that the actions of its president Vladimir Putin are detrimental to Russia’s and its citizens’ future. We demand Vladimir Putin’s resignation from the post of the President of the Russian Federation.”

Last week, the deputies of the Smolninskoye municipality of St. Petersburg called on the State Duma of the Russian Federation to bring charges of treason against Putin in order to remove him from office due to the war in Ukraine. Now those deputies face charges of “discrediting” the Russian army, according to a tweet by one of them, Nikita Yuferev.?

Municipal deputies are local officials with limited political influence. The petition follows Russia’s first regional and municipal elections since the start of the war, in which pro-Kremlin candidates were overwhelmingly successful.

National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby answers questions during the daily briefing at the White House on August 4.

The White House reiterated some cautious optimism regarding Ukraine’s recent advances on Russian-held territory Tuesday, with John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, saying it has been “swift and stunning.”

“They certainly have some momentum, particularly up there in the northeast part of the country in that Donbas region. You saw just from that report how swift and how stunning their advances have been,” Kirby said during an appearance on “Good Morning America.”

“There is more fighting to go, though, and in particularly down in the south where the Ukrainians are also trying to break through near Kherson city. They’ve made some incremental progress there. They’re facing a stiffer Russian resistance down south, but clearly up in that northeast region, there’s some momentum here by the Ukrainians, there’s no doubt about it,” Kirby said.

He noted that “weeks of planning” went into the offensive.

Pressed on threats to Russian President Vladimir Putin inside Russia, Kirby said the US is watching closely.

When asked if the US believes the table has been set for a diplomatic settlement, Kirby said, “I don’t know that we know we’re there yet,” saying he would defer to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Mr. Putin has shown no inclination to stop the prosecution of this war against the Ukrainian people, as we saw with his retaliatory strikes and in Kharkiv just over the over the weekend. So I don’t think we’re there yet. Obviously, President Biden fully supports a diplomatic end of this war, an end that we’d like to see today if possible, but I just don’t know that we’re on the horizon right now,” he said.?

Vyacheslav Gladkov, center, speaks during a meeting with local residents in Belgorod, Russia, in July.

The governor of the Russian region of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, has again urged civilians to leave villages close to the border with Ukraine.

Belgorod is adjacent to Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.

Gladkov said on Telegram Tuesday that he had been to the village of Zhuravlevka, and the situation there is “difficult, but all services are in place,” including law enforcement and border guards.?

“We continue to persuade people who still remain in Zhuravlevka and Nekhoteevka to temporarily leave their homes,” he added.

Shelling along the border has affected communities on both sides, with homes damaged and grain fields set on fire.

China’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday responded to questions about remarks regarding Ukraine during a visit to Russia.?

A Russian statement on a visit by Li Zhanshu, Chinese chair of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, mentioned that Li said China “understands and supports Russia on issues that represent its vital interests, in particular on the situation in Ukraine.”

But a Chinese government readout on Li’s visit had no mention of Ukraine at all.?

According to the official Xinhua News Agency, Li expressed China’s willingness to “continue to work with Russia to firmly support each other on issues concerning each other’s core interests and major concerns.”

Mao Ning, a spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Tuesday:

Beijing has firmly refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – or even refer to it as a “war.” Instead, it has repeatedly laid the blame for the conflict on NATO and the United States.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, Chairman of National People's Congress Li Zhanshu, left, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, right, arrive to attend a plenary session at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022. (Vladimir Smirnov/TASS News Agency Host Pool Photo via AP)

Related article Russia plays up China's support as it retreats in Ukraine

Russia's Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov arrives for a meeting on Russky Island on September 6.

After a Russian parliamentarian suggested the need to announce a nationwide mobilization to boost Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine, the Kremlin said there has been no discussion about it.

“Without full mobilization, without wartime footing, including of the economy, we will not achieve proper results,” State Duma deputy from the ruling United Russia party, Mikhail Sheremet, was quoted as saying to local media Ura.ru on Monday.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists in a conference call Tuesday there is “no discussion of this for now.”?

When asked about criticism from some popular Russian bloggers and commentators about Russia’s recent performance in Ukraine, Peskov said it illustrated “pluralism,” adding that Russians support Russian President Vladimir Putin and his decisions but warned there is a “fine line” when expressing critical opinions.

“As for other, critical points of view, as long as they remain within the framework of the law, this is pluralism. But there is a fine line, and one must be very careful here,” Peskov said.

People inspect the damage at a residential building destroyed by a strike in?Mykolaiv on September 11.

Fighting continues in southern Ukraine along a wide front in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.

Pro-Russian officials have insisted that a Ukrainian offensive is being contained.

In a video message close to the front lines, Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-appointed deputy head of Kherson region military administration, said that he was on the Kherson-Mykolaiv highway and that “no one is retreating and will not retreat.”

Stremousov said he had visited much of the front line around Kherson and the city was “reliably protected.” He maintained that Ukrainian forces had “no chance of breaking through the line of defense.”

Ukrainian officials have provided few details about the progress of their offensive in the south, but claimed that some 500 square kilometers of territory had been taken — mainly along the borders of Mykolaiv and Kherson regions.?

Natalia Humeniuk, spokeswoman for the Ukrainian military’s Operational Command South, said Tuesday that Russian forces continued to shell “peaceful settlements,” especially in the direction of the city of Kryvih Rih.

An abandoned Russian armoured vehicle is seen near a village on the outskirts of Izyum on September 11.

As a CNN team on the ground surveyed the city of Izium, the signs of Ukrainian victory after months of Russian occupation are clear.

Burned-out tanks and trucks emblazoned with Russia’s signature “Z” symbol were at the side of the road, gutted and red with new rust. A collapsed bridge was covered in signs warning of landmines. Further along, the wreckage of a car was left alongside a destroyed petrol station surrounded by the debris of shelling.

Izium has now been “liberated,” along with almost the whole of Kharkiv region, a Ukrainian military source told CNN. The city is a huge strategic loss for the Russian military, which used it as a key base and resupply route for its forces in eastern Ukraine, and shows the speed and scale of Ukraine’s lightning-fast counteroffensive in the northeast.

Work is still ongoing to make the city center completely safe. The Ukrainians are seeking to capture a few Russian soldiers still in hiding, and anyone who worked with them during the occupation. The city also remains in a complete information blackout, with no phone or data signal — a tactic used by the Russians across the occupied territories.

From what the CNN team witnessed, local people are relieved to see their city back in Ukrainian hands.

Although the streets of Izium were largely quiet, residents would occasionally venture out of their homes and wave at CNN’s vehicles or at the passing military trucks, and shake hands with any Ukrainian soldiers they came across.

But at the same time, fear of the Russians still grips the city. Most of the residents CNN approached were too scared to speak freely about what had happened there in recent months.

One couple in their 50s agreed to talk, using only their first names. They have been celebrating the Ukrainian victory over the city, a resident named Valeriy said, calling it a “balm for the soul.”

The distant sound of shelling is a constant reminder that despite the impressive gains in this counteroffensive, the war is not yet won — and many parts of Ukraine are still within range of Russia’s arsenal of heavy weapons.

Read more here.

The wreckage of what Kyiv has described as an Iranian Shahed drone downed is seen near Kupiansk on September.

Ukraine’s military claimed Tuesday for the first time that its forces had shot down an Iranian-supplied drone used by Russia on the battlefield in the country’s east.

“With a great deal of conceit, it can be claimed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the first time destroyed an Iranian attack drone near Kupyansk,” the Ukrainian military’s Strategic Communication Directorate said in a statement on Telegram, published alongside images of the wrecked drone allegedly downed near a city in the Kharkiv district.

“Analysis of the appearance of the wing elements of the drone allows us to say with certainty that the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed an Iranian UAV for the first time. It is a long-range kamikaze UAV Shahed-136,” the statement added.

CNN is unable to independently verify the Ukrainian claim

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense also tweeted images of what appears to be the Iranian-made drone that was shot down near Kupiansk.

Background: The news comes after US intelligence warned in July that Tehran planned to send Russia “hundreds” of bomb-carrying drones for use in the war in Ukraine. In August, a US official told CNN that Russians were believed to have been training on the drones for several weeks. Later in the month, Iran’s armed forces launched drills with over 100 locally-manufactured combat and reconnaissance drones to exhibit its “power,” state media reported.

Iran began showcasing the Shahed-191 and Shahed-129 drones, also known as UAVs or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, to Russia at Kashan Airfield south of Tehran in June, US officials told CNN. Both types of drones are capable of carrying precision-guided missiles.

Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting via videoconference in Moscow on September 9.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has spent more than two decades carefully cultivating his domestic political image of a strong foreign policy strategist who can outsmart Western leaders and restore Russia to its former glory.

But that image has suffered significant damage in the past few days, as a blistering Ukrainian?counteroffensive in eastern Ukraine?exposed the inadequacies of Moscow’s master plan and forced Russian troops to retreat.

Experts said the Russian collapse in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region represented the biggest challenge of Putin’s career, and that the Kremlin leader was running out of options.

Moscow has tried to spin the hasty withdrawal as “regrouping,” but in a sign of just how badly things look for Russia, the military has been?publicly criticized?by a number of high-profile Kremlin loyalists — including Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who supplied thousands of fighters to the offensive.

Russia has suffered significant setbacks earlier in the war – for example, when it lost its?Black Sea fleet flagship Moskva?or when it was forced to withdraw from the areas around the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

But the current situation could pose a much bigger problem for Putin, Russian political analyst Anton Barbashin said.

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KHARKIV, UKRAINE - SEPTEMBER 11: Wrecked military vehichle of Russian army with "Z" letter sign on it is seen after Ukrainian army liberated the town of Balakliya in the southeastern Kharkiv oblast, Ukraine, on September 11, 2022. (Photo by Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Related article Putin's Kharkiv disaster is his biggest challenge yet. It has left him with few options | CNN

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that since the beginning of the month, Ukrainian forces have?recaptured?nearly 10% of the territory lost to the Russian offensive since February.

Here is the latest map of the situation in Ukraine, as assessed by the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based analytical group.

Russia on Sunday carried out some of the “most massive shelling” of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since the start of the war, according to the country’s energy minister, Herman Halushchenko.

Large parts of eastern Ukraine, including the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, were left without electricity following the strikes, Ukrainian officials said.

“These attacks are nothing more than Russian attempts to take revenge on the civilian population after the success of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the battlefield,” Halushchenko said Tuesday during a meeting with Bridget Brink, the US ambassador to Ukraine.

The two discussed the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant following an inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) two weeks ago.

The IAEA called for the “immediate establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone” around the plant.

According to a statement released after the meeting, Halushchenko told Brink that the only way to ensure nuclear safety was to return the plant to Ukrainian control.

Ukraine has claimed major territorial gains since the beginning of the month, much of that progress believed to be in the Kharkiv region.

This has given an impression that Ukraine is effortlessly pushing Russian forces back from territory they’ve controlled for more than six months. The truth, inevitably for a war zone, is far less clear-cut.

CNN was given exclusive access to Kupiansk, just a day after pictures emerged showing soldiers hoisting the Ukrainian flag on the roof of the town’s municipal building.

Far from being a town under full Ukrainian control, CNN found one still being bitterly fought for.

Further west, some villages have seen calm entirely restored, such as in the Kharkiv region’s Zaliznychne, liberated last week, as the eastern counteroffensive picked up speed. There, the fight appears to have been far less painful.

“I didn’t even expect it would be so fast,” says 66-year-old Oleksandr Verbytsky, who witnessed the Russians retreating. “I went to the store and when I came back, everybody was running away. The Russians drove through the cemetery to get away. Can you imagine?”

Read the full story here.

A power substation damaged by a Russian missile strike in?Kharkiv on September 12.

The entire region of Kharkiv is without electricity, the Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Tymoshenko said Tuesday, citing “insidious shelling by Russian [forces]” as the cause.?

?Local authorities in Derhachi, north-east of the city of Kharkiv, also reported electricity outages across its city center and nearby towns.?

The Ukrainian flag waves after the Ukrainian army liberated the town of Balakliya, on Sunday.

For Russia, the numbers are catastrophic.

From Wednesday to Sunday, Vladimir Putin’s military forces saw at least 338 pieces of important military hardware – from fighter jets to tanks to trucks – destroyed, damaged or captured, according to numbers from the open source intelligence website Oryx, as Ukraine’s forces have bolted through Russian-held territory in an offensive that has stunned the Russians in its speed and breadth.

Ukraine’s top military commander claimed on Sunday that more than 3,000 square kilometers (1,158 square miles) of territory had been retaken by his country’s forces since the beginning of September. And for more perspective, just “since Wednesday, Ukraine has recaptured territory at least twice the size of Greater London,” the British Defense Ministry said Monday.

Ukrainian reports say Putin’s troops are fleeing east to the Russian border in whatever transport they can find, even taking cars from the civilian population in the areas they had captured since the start of the war in February.

In their wake they leave hundreds of pieces of the Russian war machine, which since Putin’s so-called “special military operation” commenced, has not come close to living up to its pre-war billing as one of the world’s great powers.

These Russian losses are the accumulation of a multitude of existing problems that are now colliding head-on with a Ukrainian military that has been patient, methodical and infused with billions of dollars of the Western military equipment that Russia cannot match.

Read more here:

This photograph taken on September 11, 2022, shows an abandoned Russian tank in vegetation in a village on the outskirts of Izyum, Kharkiv Region, eastern Ukraine, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. - Ukraine forces said that their lightning counter-offensive took back more ground in the past 24 hours, as Russia replied with strikes on some of the recaptured ground. The territorial shifts were one of Russia's biggest reversals since its forces were turned back from Kyiv in the earliest days of the nearly seven months of fighting, yet Moscow signalled it was no closer to agreeing a negotiated peace. (Photo by Juan BARRETO / AFP) (Photo by JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article Analysis: The rot runs deep in the Russian war machine. Ukraine is exposing it for all to see

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, on August 1.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the recent progress Ukrainian forces have made in the northeastern region of their country, taking back land captured by Russians, was “encouraging,” but added “this is early days still.”

“So, I think it would be wrong to predict exactly where this will go, and when it will get there and how it will get there, but clearly we’ve seen significant progress by the Ukrainians particularly in the northeast,” Blinken said at a press conference in Mexico City on Monday.?

Blinken attributed this progress to both “support” the US and other allies have provided, “but first and foremost, it’s a product of the extraordinary courage and resilience of the Ukrainian armed forces and the Ukrainian people.”

Blinken cautioned that Russia still maintains forces and weapons in Ukraine that they continue to use “indiscriminately,” but said he was encouraged by the recent developments.

“The brutalization of the country continues by the Russian aggressor, and unfortunately the prospect of this continues to go on, but I think it’s encouraging to see the progress that Ukraine has made,” he said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces have recaptured 6,000 square kilometers (approximately 2,316 square miles) of land in the east and south of the country since the beginning of the month as he appealed for greater international pressure to isolate Russia.

According to analysts, that would amount to nearly 10% of the territory lost to the Russian offensive since it began in February.

In his daily video message, Zelensky also asked: “Why can [Russia] wage war so cruelly and cynically? There is only one reason – insufficient pressure on Russia. The response to the terror of this state is insufficient.”

One answer, he said, was to “increase aid to Ukraine, and above all speed up the provision of air defense systems.”

Some European countries have enacted bans on tourist visas for Russians; most have not.

Zelensky said Russia was to blame for “energy terror. Residents of many countries around the world are suffering due to the painful increase in prices for energy resources – for electricity, for heat. Russia does it deliberately. It deliberately destabilizes the gas market in Europe.”

He added:

The President described the attacks on Ukrainian electricity supplies as “a sign of the desperation of those who invented this war. This is how they react to the?defeat of Russian forces?in the Kharkiv region.”

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant seen on Sunday.

The president of Ukraine’s state nuclear company — Energoatom — told CNN that the?power units at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant remain in a cooling state while work continues to restore?power lines from the plant.

Speaking to CNN via Skype, Petro Kotin, said all seven lines connecting to the plant were damaged, and it had switched to what he called the “island mode” — where the plant supplied electricity solely for itself.

“We tried to prolong the operation of one of our power units for as long as possible, even in the conditions when it was operating in island mode. It worked for us for three days,” he told CNN.?

Kotin said just one of the six power units remained working, and was supplying the needs of the plant — the electricity necessary for the pumps that cool the nuclear material. The reactors “are full of nuclear material, fuel and also there are six pools that are located near the reactors at each power unit. They need to be constantly cooled,” he said.

“The hazard is that if there is no power supply, the pumps will stop and there will be no cooling, and in about one and a half to two hours you will have a meltdown of this fuel that is in the reactor,” he added.?

Kotin reiterated that when there is no external power supply, the diesel generators could kick in. “As of today the diesel generators can work there for ten days.”

Kotin said representatives of the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), remained at the plant. “They have meetings with the plant management twice a day, so they have all the current information on the plant’s operation,” he said.?

As for the IAEA proposal for a safety zone around the plant, Kotin said: “We don’t fully understand what this safety zone means exactly.”

He repeated the Ukrainian government’s line that the plant should be returned to Ukrainian control and the power plant itself and zone around it should be demilitarized.

Deputies from 18 municipal districts in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kolpino have called for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s resignation, according to a petition with a list of signatures posted on Twitter on Monday.

The petition follows Russia’s first regional and municipal elections since the start of the war, which brought a sweeping victory for pro-Kremlin candidates.

“The petition’s text is concise and does not “discredit” anyone. If you are mundep [municipal deputy] and want to join, you are welcome,” Thorstrom said in a Twitter post.

The council of one Moscow district (Lomonosovsky) also demanded Putin’s resignation, saying: “Your views and your model of government are hopelessly outdated and hinder the development of Russia and its human potential.”

Last week, the deputies of the Smolninskoye municipality of St. Petersburg called on the State Duma of the Russian Federation to bring charges of treason against Vladimir Putin. Several of them now face charges for discrediting the Russian army, according to a Twitter post from one of the local officials, Nikita Yuferev.

The Kremlin on Monday insisted that Russia would achieve all the goals of the “special military operation” in Ukraine, despite its damaging setback in Kharkiv over the weekend.?

Russian President Vladimir Putin is aware of the situation on the frontline, he added.

Russian officials had previously claimed the country’s primary goal was to control southern Ukraine as well as Donbas, though officials have been careful to avoid specifics, typically referring instead to catch-all phrasing.

After the success of Ukraine’s counteroffensive on Saturday, the Russian?Defense Ministry sought to present its retreat as a strategic regrouping.?

“The decision was made to?regroup?Russian troops in the areas of Balakleya and Izium and redirect their efforts in the Donetsk direction,” it said.

Peskov said Putin is aware of the said “regrouping” of Russian troops.

“Of course, all the actions of the army during the special military operation are reported to the supreme commander-in-chief [President Vladimir Putin],” Peskov told journalists. “The President is in constant round-the-clock communication with the minister of defense and with all military leaders.”