December 20, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

Ukrainian soldiers fire artillery from a Howitzer towards Russian targets in the Zaporizhzhia region on December 16.

US President Joe Biden will announce an additional $1.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine during President Volodymyr Zelensky’s expected visit the White House.

The significant boost in aid is expected to be headlined by the Patriot missile defense systems that are included the package, a US official told CNN.?

The new announcement will add to the nearly $20 billion in US security assistance provided to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February, and will come at the same moment US lawmakers are considering a sweeping government spending measure that includes an additional $45 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine.?

Patriot missile defense systems: Ukraine has been calling for the US to send the advanced long-range air defense system that is highly effective at intercepting ballistic and cruise missiles as it comes under a barrage of Russian missile and drone attacks that have destroyed key infrastructure across the country.

It would be the most effective long-range defensive weapons system sent to the country and officials say it will help secure airspace for NATO nations in eastern Europe.

Previously,?the US has sent?Patriot batteries to NATO allies like Poland as a way to bolster their defenses, and sent other weapon systems to Ukraine to assist against the Russian invasion.

A Kremlin-linked hacking group known for focusing on Ukraine has stepped up its spying efforts against Ukraine’s NATO allies in recent months — in part by trying to hack a big oil firm in a NATO country in August, according to US cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks.

It’s the latest sign that Russia’s various hacking teams are throwing out all the stops to try to get key intelligence on NATO members as Moscow tries to shift the tide of its bloody war in Ukraine.

The hacking group — which Ukraine has accused of working out of Crimea on behalf of Russian intelligence — unsuccessfully tried to break into the network of an oil refinery company based in a NATO country “that continues to import oil from Russia,” Unit 42, Palo Alto Networks’ threat intelligence group, told CNN on Tuesday.

Unit 42 declined to name the NATO country or the oil firm.

Data held by the oil firm could, in theory, be helpful to Russia as it deals with a slew of Western sanctions that followed its February full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The hackers’ “shift in targeting represents a significant expansion of their mission,” said Jen Miller-Osborn, Unit 42’s director of threat intelligence.?

Throughout the war in Ukraine, Russian operatives — and those from other governments — have tried to use hacking to understand what’s going on and off the battlefield, according to US officials and private researchers.

Multiple examples of that type of cyber-espionage against non-Ukrainian targets have spilled into the public eye in recent weeks.

Another set of suspected Russian hackers, for examples, tried to break into six military, technology or logistics firms in the US and Europe that do work with Ukraine, French cybersecurity firm Sekoia.io reported this month.?

The hacking operations typically involve deception and subterfuge.

The Russia-linked hackers tracked by Unit 42 tried to cover their tracks by changing up the internet protocol (IP) addresses — the unique numbers that identify computers online — they used in their operations. In one case, the hackers made it appear as if their activity was coming from an IP address owned by the Pentagon.?

The Pentagon has been heavily involved in trying to help Ukraine defend itself from Russian cyber operations for the last year.

Cyber Command – the US military’s offensive and defensive hacking unit — sent teams of personnel to Ukraine to study Russian hacking tools in advance of the Russian invasion. US and Ukrainian officials have shared thousands of dataset of malicious cyber activity with each other to bolster defenses during that time, according to Cyber Command.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a press conference in Kyiv in June.

Planning is underway for?President Joe Biden to welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House Wednesday. The surprise visit will coincide with the administration’s intent of sending a new defense assistance package that will include Patriot missile systems, according to two sources familiar with the planning.?

The visit, which hasn’t been finalized?and has remained tightly held due to security concerns, would mark Zelensky’s first trip outside Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in February.?

The White House declined to comment on a potential visit, a Biden announcement or new security assistance announcements.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday issued instructions for the creation of a so-called working group that would coordinate between various authorities issues related to mobilization preparation and mobilization, according to a statement by the Kremlin.?

Putin issued instructions “to form a working group to ensure the interaction of public authorities and organizations on issues of mobilization training and mobilization, social and legal protection of Russian citizens participating in a special military operation, and their families,” the statement reads.?

On Nov. 25, Putin met with mothers of soldiers fighting in Ukraine and promised them to look into reports about irregularities related to training, food supplies and lack of proper uniforms for soldiers fighting in what Russia calls its “special military operation.”

On Oct. 31, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that its “partial mobilization” of hundreds of thousands of citizens to fight in the country’s war on Ukraine has been completed.?The ministry said that all partial mobilization activities had been suspended, along with “all activities related to conscription for military service.”

Russia’s?“partial mobilization”?announcement sparked, at the time, protests and?an exodus of men from the country.?

A member of the Ukrainian military rides in the back of a pickup truck on Tuesday while patrolling the streets of Avdiivka, Ukraine, in the Donetsk region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the frontline city of Bakhmut Tuesday, where Ukrainian and Russian forces have been locked in a brutal battle for months.

Here are some of the latest headlines:

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the “headquarters” of what Russia calls its “special military operation” last week, Russian state media reported Tuesday quoting the Kremlin, without providing a specific location for the visit.?

Putin visited the Russian military “headquarters” of the so-called?“special military operation” zone on December 16, Russian state news agency TASS reported, referencing reporting by Russian outlet?Rossiyskaya Gazeta, which quotes Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.?

However, it remains unclear where those so-called “headquarters” were situated.?Video released by Russian state outlet Ruptly showed Putin in a business suit, meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and others in a conference room.

Earlier on Tuesday, Russian State Duma lawmaker Andrei Gurulev wrote on his Telegram channel that the Supreme Commander of the Russian Armed Forces [Putin] was in the zone of the “special military operation.”?

“If he [Gurulev] means the headquarters where he [Putin] was on Friday, then yes,” Peskov said, answering a question about Putin’s visit, according to TASS referencing?Rossiyskaya?Gazeta,?without saying where the “headquarters” was.

Peskov had told reporters that Putin worked all day on Friday at the “joint headquarters of the military branches involved in the special military operation,” according to TASS.

During the visit, Putin got familiar with the work of the headquarters, received a report on the progress of the operation, held a conference and separate meetings with the commanders, and listened to the proposals of military leaders regarding the immediate and medium-term actions of the military, according to TASS.?

The reporting by Russian state media about Putin visiting Russian military “headquarters” follows a visit by Ukrainian?President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier Tuesday to?the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, which has become the epicenter of Russian efforts to take territory.?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was struck by the state of cities and towns he passed through on the way to the front lines in Bakhmut on Tuesday.

Zelensky went to Bakhmut, the epicenter of fighting in Donetsk region, to meet troops and present medals.

“I was there today to support our soldiers, to present state awards, to thank them,” he said in his daily video message.

“I have passed Slovyansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka, Konstantinovka… Cities, villages nearby, which are now literally struggling for life.”

He said Ukrainian heroes in Bakhmut would stop the “so-called Russian world.”

“We will do everything possible and impossible, expected and unexpected, so that our heroes have everything they need to win,” Zelensky said, naming front line settlements in Donetsk and Luhansk.

?“This is our Luhansk region, this is our south of Ukraine, this is our Crimea. Ukraine will not leave anything of its own to the enemy.”

A person walks past a destroyed building in Lyman, Ukraine, on December 14.

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Ukrainian troops on the front lines in Bakhmut comes us Russian forces intensify their efforts to break Ukrainian resistance in several parts of Donetsk region.

With the conflict now exactly 300 days old, the Russians have been pushing some of their newly mobilized troops into fierce battles in both Luhansk and Donetsk, but the Ukrainian military consistently reports that Russian assaults have been rebuffed.

On Tuesday, the military’s General Staff said: “The enemy continues to focus its efforts on conducting offensive actions in the Bakhmut and Avdiivka directions,” both in Donetsk. The Russians were trying to recover ground lost in September along the borders of Donetsk and Luhansk, it said. They were also intensifying assaults immediately to the west of the city of Donetsk, the General Staff said.?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks to soldiers in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on Tuesday.

Much of the Russian fire comes from multiple rocket launchers. The Ukrainian General Staff said the Russians had carried out more than 80 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) attacks on Monday alone. Some of the most intense fighting has been in and around the ruined town of Mariinka, which the Russians are trying to secure to give them a foothold for further offensive action. The General Staff said that on Tuesday, “the enemy continues to conduct offensive actions, fired from tanks and all types of artillery at the positions of our troops in the areas of 24 settlements.”?

Ukraine said its air defenses had brought down two Mi-8 helicopters.

Neither side has made decisive gains in the east since the Ukrainians’ lightning offensive in September, partly because of wet weather, fog and mud but also because much of the front lines is heavily mined. Russian forces are on the eastern fringes of Bakhmut, according to geolocated video, but one Russian military blogger said Monday that Russian units of the Wagner group had lost some ground south of the city. It is difficult to confirm territorial changes around Bakhmut.

Remains of mines gathered by the Ukrainian National Guard sit in the grass in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on December 12.

Further north, on the border of Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, the Ukrainian military says it has beaten back “small counterattacks” by Russian forces. Serhiy Hayday, head of Luhansk region military administration, said the Russians continued to shell recently liberated areas.?

“Now that it’s getting colder and the ground is getting firmer, most probably the hostilities may become more active in the near future, as it will be easier for the equipment to move. Anyway, we do expect that some changes may come on this direction.?

A woman was injured when shells fired by the Ukrainian Armed Forces landed in?Russia’s Kursk region on Tuesday, the?governor of Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, said in a Telegram post.

At least four shells landed?in a village in the Sudzhansky district of Russia’s Kursk region, situated near the border with Ukraine, according to?Starovoit.?

Three houses were damaged by the shelling, one of them was “seriously destroyed” and “now it is on fire,” he said.?

“We will provide all the necessary assistance to the residents without fail. All security services are in place, firefighters are fighting the fire,” Starovoit said.?

A person walks down an empty street in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on December 18.

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said at least 200,000 civilians remain in Ukrainian-held areas of the eastern Donetsk region, despite a mandatory evacuation order.?

Iryna Vereshchuk, who is also minister of reintegration of temporarily occupied territories, said that number included thousands still living in Bakhmut, despite it being shelled every day and Russian troops being on the outskirts of the city.??

“We urge them to leave, especially from Bakhmut. You see how much it’s shelled now,” Vereshchuk said. “And even in Bakhmut, there are still children remaining. Therefore, I want to take this opportunity to appeal to the residents of Donetsk region. Please, do not risk the lives of your children.”

More on the evacuations: Mandatory evacuations from the Dоnetsk region have been taking place since August, but Vereshchuk’s ministry says only 33,000 citizens have left, including 5,000 children.?

Smoke rises near houses damaged by a Russian military strike in Bakhmut on December 9.

Vereshchuk’s ministry said that evacuations were continuing from other regions that were close to the front lines. It said that more than 43,000 people had left the dangerous regions of Zaporizhzhia in recent months. Since the summer, about 34,000 have evacuated from the Russian-occupied parts of Kherson for Ukrainian-held territory. Additionally, 12,000 have left since part of Kherson was liberated.

About 5,000 have evacuated from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, with a similar number evacuating from the Kharkiv region. It said evacuations were continuing in recently liberated settlements still being fired upon by Russian forces.?

Russia plans to provide Iran with “advanced military components” in return for Iranian drones it already received, UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said during an end-of-year address to the House of Commons Tuesday.

Wallace spoke of how “Iran has become one of Russia’s top military backers.”

CNN has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment on Wallace’s remarks.

On December 9, the White House sounded a fresh alarm at the flourishing military partnership between Iran and Russia, saying the US would work to “expose and disrupt” the exchange of weapons and know-how between the two countries.

Iran has acknowledged that it sent Russia “a limited number of drones” but before the start of the war in Ukraine.

Earlier this week: Russia launched drone attacks?on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in the early hours of Monday morning, damaging civilian targets and power systems.?

Ukrainian border guards, who have been building fortifications on the bank of the Dnipro river, have discovered the remnants of an ancient Roman settlement, the Ukrainian Border Guard said in a statement Tuesday.?

“Pieces of amphoras and pots began to emerge at the depth of about one meter,” the Border Guard said.?

An “archaeological expedition” will start work at the site after “victory” is achieved, according to the Border Guard.?

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy awards a Ukrainian service member at a position in the frontline town of?Bakhmut, Ukraine, on December 20.

While meeting soldiers in the most hotly contested part of the battlefield Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of a “difficult situation” and said he hoped for more support from the United States.

Zelensky was in the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, which has become the epicenter of Russian efforts to take territory.

Zelensky said in a video message while meeting soldiers: “We have a difficult situation — the enemy is increasing its numbers, but our guys are braver. We need more powerful weapons.”

One of the men he met told Zelensky: “The servicemen you have awarded today have written the most beautiful words to our brothers from America. We ask you to pass them on if possible.”

Zelensky responded:?“We will convey to the Congress, we will convey to the President of the United States the guys’ gratitude for their support. But it is not enough.”

Zelensky acknowledged that Bakhmut was critical to preventing Russian advances in Donetsk. “The East is holding out because Bakhmut is fighting. This is the fortress of our morale,” he said. “In fierce battles and at the cost of many lives, freedom is being defended here for all of us.”

Some more context: Since carrying out a partial mobilization in the fall, Russia has pushed more troops into eastern Ukraine, and continues heavy bombardments of cities and towns like Bakhmut, Mariinka and Avdiivka in the Donetsk region.

Zelensky also referred to the daily power cuts in most of Ukraine. “It seems to me that Bakhmut heroes should get the same as every person. I wish their children and families to be fine, to be warm and healthy. I would like to wish them to have light, but the situation is so difficult that there is light and then there is no light. The main thing is to have light inside.”

President Vladimir Putin will lead a meeting Wednesday at which the armed forces’ performance in 2022 and its tasks next year will be addressed, state Russian news agency TASS says.

TASS said?Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu will deliver “a keynote speech. He will report on the progress of the special military operation, the amount of weapons and military equipment received by the troops in the outgoing year, the construction of military infrastructure, the results of the international activities of the military department and the social protection of military personnel.”

The meeting will be attended by the commands of Russia’s military districts, various branches of the military and federal officials, TASS said.?About 15,000 officials of the Russian Armed Forces will take part in the event via videoconference.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier speaks to media representatives after a meeting in Berlin, Germany, on December 9.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged Chinese President Xi Jinping in a phone call on Tuesday to use his influence on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war against Ukraine, according to a German government news release.?

Steinmeier also thanked President Xi “for the clear rejection of nuclear threats by Russia.”

During the one-hour conversation, the German president reiterated Germany’s determination to continue supporting Ukraine. He said Europe would not back down from Russian threats and had taken precautions against the energy crisis.?

Ukraine’s defensibility and Europe’s cohesion had been strengthened by Russian aggression,?Steinmeier added, telling the Chinese president that “Putin had fundamentally miscalculated.”

Latest development: China?and Russia will begin a weeklong joint live-fire naval exercise in the East China Sea on Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, as the two partners step up cooperation in an increasingly tense western Pacific.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko meet at the Palace of Independence in Minsk, Belarus, on December 19.

Russia?will continue?training?Belarusian?Air Force?pilots?to?fly?combat?jets?that have been refurbished?to?carry?a “special?warhead,”?Russian President Vladimir?Putin?said Monday during a joint news conference with his?Belarusian?counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk.?

“I think it would be possible?to?continue implementing the proposal made by the Belarusian President?to?train crews for?Belarusian?combat planes, which have already been retooled?to?potentially use air-based munitions with a?special?warhead,”?Putin?said.?

According?to?Putin, “such coordinated measures are exceptionally important due?to?the tense situation on the external border?of?the Union state.”

“Taking into account the situation evolving along the border perimeter, I discussed with the [Russian] President some important details?of?cooperation in the sphere?of?military security,” Lukashenko said during the same news conference.??

During the presser, Lukashenko also said: “Today we’ve put the S-400 [air defense missile] complex that you transferred?to?Belarus into a state?of?combat-readiness, as well as, most importantly, the Iskander complex, which you [Putin] have also handed over?to?us after promising it half a year ago.”?

Lukashenko offered?earlier this year?to?take symmetrical military measures in response?to?Western actions, asking?Russia?to?help upgrade?Belarusian?military planes?to?make them?capable?of?carrying?nuclear?warheads, according?to?the Russian state news agency TASS.?

Lukashenko had said in August that “everything is ready,” according?to?TASS.?

Ukrainian soldiers in front of the remains of the lighthouse of Zmiinyi island aka 'Snake island'

Snake Island has a special place in Ukraine’s folklore, now more than ever. Its defiant defense – when a Russian warship was famously told to “go f*** yourself” – and then reconquest rallied a nation in the early months of the conflict with Russia, puncturing the myth of the invaders’ superiority.

Now, whipped by winter winds, it remains firmly in Ukrainian hands – a speck of rock that has both symbolic and strategic significance.

A few acres of rock and grass, treeless and difficult to access, Snake Island, also known as Zmiinyi Island, lies around 30 miles (48 kilometers) off the Ukrainian coast, near its maritime border with Romania.

Getting there proved challenging: An hour being pitched from wave to wave in a small boat, showered with spray, in sub-freezing temperatures. The Black Sea can be unforgiving, and so can its hazardous coastline. On the way back our dirigible boat got stuck on a sandbar, and it took six hours before we were transferred, one-by-one, to another vessel in the darkness.

Snake Island is now a desolate place, strewn with wreckage, its few buildings reduced to shells, its half-sunken jetty battered by the tide. It’s a graveyard of expensive military hardware – and is littered with unexploded ordnance and mines. This is not a place to be careless.

The CNN team saw at least four different kinds of landmines, Russian Pantsir surface-to-air missile systems, and an almost intact Tor anti-air missile complex. There was also the carcass of a Russian military helicopter that was hit.

Read more here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has presented awards to troops on the frontline in eastern Ukraine, while Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin has admitted that the situation in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine is “extremely complicated.”

Here are the latest headlines:

The United States is planning to send Ukraine electronic equipment that can convert unguided aerial munitions into “smart bombs,” which offer a high degree of precision targeting, according to multiple?US officials.?

The decision to ship the kits to Ukraine, first reported by the Washington Post, is expected to come in the next Ukraine security aid package as soon as this week, the sources said.

The guidance tail kits combine navigational and global positioning systems, and can be connected to bombs of different weights and sizes, to create what the Pentagon calls a Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM. The US military has used the technology on 500-pound bombs to larger 2,000-pound bombs to strike with a high degree of accuracy.

Officials did not say how many such kits or what specific type of JDAM would be provided.?

The precision bombs could help Ukraine attack fixed Russian defensive lines or other large targets. But they are normally dropped from aerial bombers or fighter jets. The Ukrainian Air Force would need to find a way to target and launch JDAMs from their ageing Soviet-era aircraft, much as they did with US-made HARM anti-radiation missiles earlier this year.

The kits give unguided bombs a range of approximately 15 miles, according to the US Air Force, meaning they would not allow Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin with Ukrainian separatist regional leaders Vladimir Saldo, Yevgeniy Balitsky, Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin seen during the annexation ceremony of four Ukrainian regions at the Grand Kremlin Palace, September 30, in Moscow, Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has presented state awards to the Kremlin-installed governors of four occupied territories in southern and eastern Ukraine, which were illegally annexed by Moscow in September.

Denis Pushilin, head of the Donetsk People’s Republic; Leonid Pasechnik, head of the Luhansk People’s Republic; Yevgeny Balitsky, head of the Zaporizhzhia region; and Vladimir Saldo, head of the Kherson region, were granted the Russian Federation’s highest state award at a ceremony in the Kremlin.?

Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the state run new network RT (formerly Russia Today), also received an award from Putin.

“Thank you for wasting the cannibals,” she said to Putin during her acceptance speech.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky visits Ukrainian service members at their position in the frontline town of?Bakhmut, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on December 20.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has visited the frontline city of Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian and Russian forces have been locked in brutal battle for months.

Zelensky met with soldiers and handed out awards, according to his office. Video posted by state TV shows the president clad in fatigues and a flak vest presenting awards to troops.

Bakhmut has seen some of the most ferocious fighting in the whole of the country since Russian forces launched their siege on the city in earnest in May, turning it into ruins.

On December 11, the Ukrainian military said the city was “holding on,” while fighting rages around it.

One man has been injured in shelling in the Shebekino district of Belgorod, a southern region of Russia bordering Ukraine, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

“According to preliminary reports, there is one injured - a man with fractures to the forearm bones,” Gladkov wrote on the messaging app Telegram.

Shebekino is south of the city of Belgorod, 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The electricity supply has been “disrupted” and a third of the town’s residents are without power, said Gladkov.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks at an end-of-year press conference at the UN headquarters in New York, on December 19.

Russia’s war in Ukraine will not come to an end anytime soon, according to the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said on Monday he was not hopeful about the prospect of peace as the war looks set to grind into the new year.

This is why the UN is focusing its efforts on areas where movement is possible, such as the exchange of prisoners of war and the Black Sea grain deal, added Guterres.

The UN played a key role in brokering the agreement that?guarantees safe passage?for ships carrying vital grain exports from Ukraine, but Guterres struck a pessimistic tone on the future of the conflict.

“We have no illusions that a true peace negotiation would be possible in the immediate future,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin orders FSB security services to step up surveillance of Russians and borders in this video message broadcast on December 20.

Nine months into Russia’s war in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has admitted that the situation in four occupied territories in Ukraine’s east and south is “extremely complicated,” a rare window into the challenges that Moscow faces in areas it has attempted to illegally annex.

In a recorded statement to mark a holiday for Russia’s security workers, released by the Kremlin on Tuesday, Putin noted the “difficult tasks” that security services face in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Russia claimed control over the regions after sham referendums in September, widely slammed by Kyiv and Western governments as violating international law.

Russia has struggled with setbacks in these areas from the start – Moscow’s forces were not in full control of the territories when they were rubber-stamped as part of the Russian Federation. Just weeks after illegally annexing Kherson, Ukraine reclaimed its regional capital with the same name, liberating about 10,000 square kilometers of land and moving its Western-supplied artillery within range of Crimea.

Underlining the importance of protecting people in Russian-occupied territories, Putin called on security services “to?do everything in?your power to?ensure their safety and?respect for?their rights and?freedoms.” He also promised that the force would be supplied with “modern equipment and?weapons, as?well as?experienced personnel.”

In the video address, Putin called on Russian security services to show “utmost readiness” and “concentration” to step up surveillance on “traitors, spies and diversionists,” reflecting the anxiety of this moment for the Kremlin not only in Ukraine, but also at home.

China?and Russia will begin a weeklong joint live-fire naval exercise in the East China Sea on Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, as the two partners step up cooperation in an increasingly tense western Pacific.

The exercises, dubbed Maritime Cooperation 2022, will feature Russia’s Pacific Fleet flagship — the missile cruiser Varyag — a frigate and two corvettes, the statement said, adding that China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy will send two destroyers, two patrol ships, a multipurpose supply ship, and a diesel submarine.

Chinese aircraft would also take part, it said.

“The main purpose of the exercise is to strengthen naval cooperation between the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China and to maintain peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region,” the statement said.

The Chinese military has yet to comment on the statement from Moscow.

China has so far refused to outright condemn Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine while stepping up economic assistance to its neighbor, boosting bilateral trade to record levels in a boon to Russian business amid Western sanctions.

Read more here.

Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko shake hands before a press conference in Minsk on Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare trip to Belarus on Monday to meet with the country’s president, close regional ally Aleksandr Lukashenko, who backed Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and is under increasing pressure to provide more support to the war effort.

In a statement after their talks in Minsk, the pair said they had agreed to continue joint military exercises and cooperate closely in the military sphere, exchanging and developing equipment and weapons, to protect “the safety of our countries,”?without putting a fine point on what that would look like.

Putin added that “such measures are necessary” because of the tense situation “on the outer borders of the Union state [of Russia and Belarus].” But neither leader mentioned Ukraine in their public statements.

Both emphasized the challenges of Western economic sanctions pressure, underlining the need to support each other. Putin said he expected trade between the two countries to reach a record this year, at the equivalent of $40 billion.

Lukashenko said that, despite “some rough edges,” Belarus and Russia would find answers to all threats; and expressed the hope that the West will “listen to the voice of reason” so a dialogue on security could resume.

Some background: Lukashenko?allowed Putin to use Belarus, which shares a 674-mile border with Ukraine, as a staging ground for his invasion. In early February, Russia sent some 30,000 troops ostensibly for?joint military exercises?with Belarus — the biggest deployment to the former Soviet state since the end of the Cold War. Weeks later, when?Putin declared his “special military operation”?on February 24, he sent missiles, paratroopers and a huge armored column of soldiers rolling south from Belarusian soil.

Unraveling the role that Belarus?has played in the Ukraine war has taken on new urgency since Lukashenko announced in October that Russian soldiers would deploy to the country to form a new, “regional grouping” and carry out new joint exercises with Belarusian troops, raising fears that he might draw the country?more directly into the conflict.

Putin has been laying the groundwork to transform Belarus into a vassal state for some time. After a rigged presidential election in 2020 cemented Lukashenko’s long reign, triggering?widespread pro-democracy protests, he clung to power with the help of Putin. Russia backed the?ruthless crackdown?on demonstrations, and gave Belarus a $1.5 billion lifeline to evade the brunt of sanctions, but it came with strings attached.

Beholden to the Kremlin, Lukashenko has supported Russia’s military actions from the sidelines, so far avoiding sending his own troops into the fray. But he may be forced to shift his position, as?Putin racks up losses.

A long-exposure photo shows a view of a road in Kyiv during a power outage on Monday.

Across Ukraine, power engineers are engaged in their daily battle to restore electricity to homes and public buildings after Russian missile and drone attacks —?but they are also tackling much longer outages.

In the far north of Ukraine, the villagers of Tsirkuny in Kharkiv region have electricity for the first time since the day Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February. The regional power company?said 100 consumers in the village are back online.

“As a result of hostilities, the damage to power grids and equipment here is enormous,” the company said. “Transformer substations, poles, wires are damaged. The work is also complicated by the large amount of work on demining the territory. We have already replaced two power transformers, which allowed us to supply the first consumers. Another 10 transformers need to be replaced.”

Elsewhere, more recent damage is being tackled.

Oleksandr Starukh, head of the Zaporizhzhia military administration, told a briefing that the situation in the region is currently difficult.?

“Our power engineers have managed to restore the basic vital systems. People have warm radiators, water supply, the sewage system works. Electricity is supplied according to schedules,” Starukh said.

The energy crunch is exacerbated by the lack of nuclear generation at the?Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where all six units are out of operation. “They are in partially cold and partially hot shutdown mode,” Starukh said.

The plant has been occupied by the Russians since early March. Russian-appointed officials have repeatedly declared plans to connect the plant to the Russian grid through Crimea.

Earlier Monday, state electricity company Ukrenergo said that “during the whole night, enemy UAVs have been trying at breaking through to power facilities across the country.”

Several facilities had been hit, it said, with the most difficult situations in the central, eastern and Dnipro regions.?

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday that its forces had shot down four US-made anti-radiation missiles over a region in southern Russia bordering Ukraine, one of the first such claims to be made by Moscow since it launched the war nine months ago.

The “HARM,” an air-to-surface, high-speed anti-radiation missile, is designed to “seek and destroy” radar-equipped air defense systems, according to the?US Air Force.

Separately, on Sunday, shelling struck the Belgorod region, hitting residential and industrial buildings, according to its governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, who said one person had died and 10 more were injured in the attacks.

“Yesterday was an extremely difficult day. There was shelling from the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” said Gladkov in a post on the messaging app Telegram on Monday.??

Ukraine would be better able to defend itself from drone and missile attacks by Russian forces if it were provided with fighter aircraft and Patriot missile defense systems, according to a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force.

Speaking on Ukrainian television on Monday following a wave of drone attacks on the country, Yurii Ihnat said that “F-15 and F-16 aircrafts could effectively fight the threats that we have today — missile attacks and attacks by Shaheds (Iranian-made drones used by Russian forces).”

Some background:?Last week,?CNN exclusively revealed?that the US was finalizing plans to send the Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine.

Ukraine has been calling for the US to send the Patriot, the US’ most advanced ground-based air defense system, which is highly effective at intercepting ballistic and cruise missiles, as it comes under a barrage of Russian attacks that have destroyed key infrastructure across the country.

It would be the most effective long-range defensive weapons system sent to Ukraine, and officials say it will help secure airspace for NATO nations in eastern Europe.

At least two people were hurt and key infrastructure has been damaged in a?Russian drone assault?on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the latest attempt by Moscow to ravage Ukraine’s power supplies.

Explosions and air raid sirens were heard around the city early Monday, with alerts sounding from 2 a.m. until after 5 a.m. local time.

The Ukrainian Air Force claimed to have shot down 30 out of 35 drones launched from Sunday night into Monday, but those that got around air defenses damaged power systems and civilian targets.

The Iranian-made, self-detonating Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 drones were launched from the “eastern coast of the Sea of Azov,” the Air Force said in a statement on Facebook.

Many of the drones targeted Kyiv, according to the city’s military administration, which said 18 out of 23 spotted in the sky over the capital were intercepted. There were no deaths recorded, but authorities said that one critical infrastructure facility was hit. Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv city military administration, said that emergency services were working to limit the consequences of the attack.

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