December 27, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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

A funeral ceremony is held for Ukrainian serviceman Volodymyr Yezhov in Kyiv on December 27, who was killed in a battle near Bakhmut, Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Tuesday banning oil supplies to countries that have introduced price caps on Russian oil and petroleum products, according to the decree published on the Kremlin’s website.  

Meanwhile, the number of outages across Ukraine is decreasing as more parts of the electric grid are restored and consumption is reduced due to favorable weather conditions, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Tuesday.

In the event of no Russian shelling, the New Year holiday will pass without emergency shutdowns, Shmyhal said during a cabinet meeting in Kyiv, according to a government statement. 

Here are the latest developments:

At least one man was killed and five other people were injured following Russian shelling in the southern Ukrainian town of Oleshky, on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, across from Kherson, Oleshky Mayor Yevhen Ryshchuk said via Facebook.

“As a result of the shelling of the town of Oleshky by the (Russian) occupiers the windows in the high-rise apartment building were shuttered. Unfortunately, five people were wounded and one person was killed,” Ryshchuk said.

The mayor also said that aside from a high-rise building, kiosks on the town’s market were damaged by the shelling. 

Cars are seen on December 16 during a power blackout after critical infrastructure was hit by Russian missile attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed again on Tuesday to “work tirelessly with the G7 and other partners to repair, replace, and defend Ukraine’s energy infrastructure” as it faces a tough winter of Russian attacks.

But that effort will not come without challenges.

An initial tranche of US electrical equipment, which a US official told CNN included big items like circuit breakers, relays, disconnectors, arrived in Ukraine more than a week ago — part of a multimillion dollar pledge by the Biden administration to help to support Ukraine’s electrical system. 

However, as the US and its partners work to try to supply the capital of Kyiv with the supplies it needs to keep the electricity and heat on this winter, they have had to contend with worldwide supply chain issues, the US official said.

There is a global effort to try to deal with this, the official explained, and the US is working with the private sector to try to narrow the gap in equipment, but with the existing supply chain issues, there is not as much extra supply.

Other challenges: Some of the “bigger ticket” items that are used in the United States are not compatible in Ukraine, as they are designed to work on different frequency grids, the official told CNN. 

The US hopes that the provision of air defense systems will help counter the barrage of Russian attacks on Ukrainian critical infrastructure, so that the equipment provided by the US and partners is not destroyed.

By attacking the infrastructure, the Russians have made defense and recovery of the grid much more complicated, the official explained, because there are so many more places the system can go down than if they were to attack a power plant. 

In the short term, the US is trying to locate items the Ukrainians have prioritized, such as large gas generators. These generators would not be used to power individual homes, the US official said, but rather would be used to keep critical utilities such as water and heat on even if the electricity is down.

The official explained that even when the electrical grid is repaired, it cannot immediately be run on full capacity or it risks blowing out, so Ukrainian officials likely will need to keep rolling blackouts until they can ensure the patched electrical grid can sustain itself, the official said. 

Images shared by the deputy head of the office of the president of Ukraine, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, on Tuesday.

A hospital maternity ward in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson was hit by Russian shelling, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the office of the president of Ukraine said Tuesday. 

Other impacted areas: Russian shelling also damaged the civilian infrastructure of the Antonivka settlement in the Kherson region and Kherson city, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said via Facebook, adding that there are casualties among civilians.

Meanwhile, the threat of air and missile strikes on critical infrastructure facilities remains on the whole territory of Ukraine, as Russia’s offensive took place in the Bakhmut and Avdiivka directions, trying to improve the tactical situation in the direction of Lyman, Ukraine’s Armed Forces said.

Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, left, and French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu shake hands during the signing of a contract for the sale of French satellites to Poland in Warsaw, on November 27.

France and Poland have signed a deal for the sale of two French observation satellites to Poland, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu tweeted on Tuesday.

“This major contract demonstrates Poland’s trust in our technology and industry,” Lecornu tweeted after meeting with his Polish counterpart in Warsaw.

The French minister went on to say this deal shows the “deep ties that unite France and Poland in the field of defense,” while emphasizing this it would create “500 jobs in France for five years.  

Poland’s Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak reiterated his French counterpart’s sentiment saying it was “an important day for the Polish Army.”

“This investment in state-of-the-art technology is a significant improvement in the capabilities of the Polish Armed Forces in the key area of reconnaissance data acquisition,” Błaszczak tweeted. 

Tuesday’s announcement comes six weeks after the country was hit by a “Russian-made” missile, causing an explosion outside the rural eastern Polish village of Przewodow, about four miles (6.4 kilometers) west of the Ukrainian border, killing two farmers. 

At the time of the event, Poland’s ambassador to the United Nations Krzysztof Szczerski said the incident “teaches us how close we actually live the potential escalation in the spillover of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine of far-reaching consequences that we all can perceive.”

People use flashlights as they walk on a dark street during a blackout in Kyiv, Ukraine, on December 24.

The number of outages across Ukraine is decreasing as more parts of the electric grid are restored and consumption is reduced due to favorable weather conditions, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Tuesday.

In the event of no Russian shelling, the New Year holiday will pass without emergency shutdowns, Shmyhal said during a cabinet meeting in Kyiv, according to a government statement. 

More consumers are seeing power restored at least partially as the infrastructure is being restored, the prime minister said. 

“A well-developed algorithm for the priority of consumers’ power supply is in place. First  — the critical infrastructure is being reconnected, then goes the military-industrial complex, thirdly — important production facilities and the fourth turn is for the residential sector,” Shmyhal said.

Ukraine also believes Russia is preparing to continue attacks on the country’s energy system, according to Shmyhal who emphasized that his country is “in daily state of readiness for new massive shelling. It can happen at any time: today, tomorrow or even on New Year’s Eve. The enemy seeks not only to disable another substation or power line. He primarily aims to sow fear and panic. But he will not succeed. We believe in ourselves, in our army, in our power engineers, in our partners.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Tuesday banning oil supplies to countries that have introduced price caps on Russian oil and petroleum products, according to the decree published on the Kremlin’s website.  

The ban on oil supplies under the price ceiling comes into effect on Feb. 1, 2023 and is valid until July 1, 2023. The date of the ban on the supply of petroleum products will be determined by the government, according to the decree. 

Moreover, the head of state can issue a special permit for the supply of Russian oil and oil products prohibited by the document.

On Dec. 5, Western oil sanctions came into force after the European Union and Australia agreed this month to a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian seaborne crude oil. 

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told the Russian state news agency TASS on Monday that he expects Russian gas exports and gas output to drop in 2022. 

Novak added that the production and export of liquefied natural gas would rise by more than 8.7%.

In the same interview, Novak also said Russia plans to expand port facilities to supply energy resources by sea in three years.

When summing up the results of 2021, Novak said that Russian gas exports had risen by 10% to 763 billion cubic meters and exports had grown by 3% to 250 billion cubic meters.

The deputy prime minister added that Russian exports were being redirected to the Asia-Pacific region, Africa and Latin America.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks at a news conference in Moscow on December 23.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that the West must show restraint in nuclear questions, in an interview with TASS news agency on Tuesday. 

“We continue to call on the West to exercise maximum restraint in this extremely sensitive area. In order to minimize nuclear risks, it is important in practice to remain committed to the postulate of the inadmissibility of nuclear war, confirmed by the countries of the nuclear ‘five’ in a joint statement dated January 3, 2022,” he told TASS. 

“In particular, it emphasizes that Russia stands for the formation of a renewed, more stable architecture of international security based on ensuring predictability and global strategic stability, as well as observing the principles of equality, indivisible security and mutual consideration of the interests of the parties,” Lavrov concluded.

In the same interview, Lavrov said significant ideas from Washington regarding full-fledged diplomatic contacts between Russia and the US have not been received. 

“Now it is difficult to say something about the implementation of full-fledged bilateral contacts through the foreign ministries,” he said. 

“There were no significant ideas from the Americans on this issue,” Lavrov told TASS. 

“We, at various levels, including the highest, have repeatedly stressed that we are not shying away from a constructive dialogue,” the minister said.

Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin floated the possibility that Russia may formally change its military doctrine of not being the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict, days after he warned of the “increasing” threat of nuclear war.

Ukrainians attend a Christmas mass at an Orthodox church in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday, December 25.

The power situation across Ukraine remains “really difficult” because of the persistent risk of Russian shelling, Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said, warning that New Year’s Eve could see “maximum damage to the energy system.”

Speaking on Ukrainian television on Tuesday, Halushchenko said Ukraine was trying to use the time between Russian attacks to reduce the energy deficit by increasing electricity production and also to increase the capacity to transmit electricity.

During the holidays the risk of shelling could be higher, Halushchenko added. 

“There is a feeling that [Russians] have not refused to continue shelling our energy system. They are tied to certain dates. I think that the New Year is one of such dates when they will try to cause maximum damage to the energy system,” he said. 

“The situation is such that it is definitely difficult to plan anything, because we do not know the volume of possible future shelling and the amount of damage it will cause to the power system.”

Ukraine’s state energy company Ukrenergo said Tuesday that the power deficit in the system had “slightly decreased due to the increase in the production volumes of power plants” but that “the available capacity in the system is still not enough to meet all the needs of consumers in the country” because the level of power consumption had increased at the same time.

“This is due to the gradual return to operation of power grids that were damaged during massive attacks, as well as the restoration of energy infrastructure in the de-occupied territories,” Ukrenergo said in a statement. 

The number of consumers whose electricity supply has been restored at least partially has increased and the volume of industrial consumption is also growing, Ukrenergo said. 

During his nightly address on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said about 9 million people remained cut off from power in different regions of Ukraine.

Ukrainian soldiers fire a French-made CAESAR self-propelled howitzer toward Russian positions near Avdiivka, Ukraine, on Monday.

Russia is expending huge amounts of resources as it tries to defend the eastern Ukrainian town of Kreminna, a Ukrainian official said. The town has been under Russian occupation since the spring and Russia keeps bringing in more troops and equipment to bolster its forces there, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration, Serhiy Haidai, said Tuesday.

Here’s what else is happening today:

Ukrainian soldiers look at a map in an underground command center in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on Sunday.

The city of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s Donetsk region is holding “courageously” despite Russian forces’ concentrated efforts to advance, Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Tuesday.

“Bakhmut is really our eastern fortress now. Indeed, the enemy has concentrated most of its efforts, military equipment and weapons there,” Maliar said in an interview with Ukrainian television, adding:

“But you can see how courageously Bakhmut is holding, how much our soldiers inflict losses on the enemy and the enemy simply cannot advance further,” she said. “There was a slight advance, but the enemy was pushed out,” she added. 

A woman crosses a destroyed bridge amid artillery shelling in Bakhmut on Saturday.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Tuesday that in the Bakhmut and Avdiivka directions, Russian forces had inflicted damage through firing on more than 25 settlements, including Bilohorivka, Bakhmut, Klishchiivka, Bila Hora, Kurdiumivka, Vodiane, Pervomaiske, Maryinka and Novomykhailivka in Donetsk region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged on Monday evening that the situation on the front lines of Bakhmut and other areas in the eastern Donbas region was “difficult, painful.”

Members of the Honour Guard fold a national flag in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday over a coffin with the body of a Ukrainian serviceman killed near Bakhmut.

Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk regional military administration, is seen in Dnipro on August 17.

The Ukrainian city of Kreminna, northwest of Lysychansk, continues to experience heavy fighting as the Russian military keeps renewing its forces there, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration, Serhiy Haidai, said Tuesday.

“The Russian occupation troops managed to build a very powerful defense in a month, even a little more. They are bringing there a huge amount of reserves and equipment. They are constantly renewing their forces,” Haidai said.  

He said the Russian military had suffered a large number of casualties “but they still bring new [personnel], because they understand that if they lose Kreminna, in principle, the entire line of defense will crumble.”  

CNN has not been able to verify the number of casualties on the Russian side. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged on Monday evening that the situation on the frontlines in Bakhmut, Kreminna and other areas in the eastern Donbas region is “difficult, painful” as Russian forces use all resources available to them “to squeeze out at least some progress.”

Why Kreminna matters: The town in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region has been occupied since the spring.

Kreminna lies on a key north-south road from Svatove, which Russian troops had been using to resupply and which became even more important to them after Ukrainian troops took over Kupyansk, a resupply hub to the northwest of Kreminna and Svatove. Losing Kreminna would limit Russia’s ability to resupply its troops in the key city of Severodonetsk.

Haidai said the road remained under Ukraine’s fire control, which meant there was “no safe and calm way for the occupiers to bring in the equipment or ammunition towards Kreminna using this road,” he said.

Ukrainian forces appeared to be on the verge of retaking Kreminna a few weeks ago, but Ukrainian officials said the approaches to the city were difficult because of extensive mining.

“Every meter is difficult, because everything there is mined and they are constantly shelling with large caliber,” Haidai said, saying the situation in Kreminna was “radically different from Bakhmut.”

“[Russian troops] are trying to shell more powerfully, they have occupied all the forests, they have completely mined everything and no one knows the map of minefields. Therefore, it is very difficult to advance,” Haidai said.  

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, which follows the conflict closely, said information from Russian military bloggers suggests that “Russian forces are pulling troops from various points throughout the theater to fill holes in the Svatove-Kreminna line and compensate for the continued degradation of conventional units.”

An adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN that comments about peace negotiations from the Kremlin are just ways for the Russian government to buy more time and cannot be trusted.

Alexander Rodnyansky, Zelensky’s economic adviser, said:

He added that the Kremlin was trying to dissuade the world from sending more military aid to Ukraine. “We must not fall into that trap,” he said.

Some context: Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was ready to “negotiate with everyone involved in this process about acceptable solutions” regarding the war in Ukraine, according to Russian state news agency TASS, citing Putin’s interview with state TV Sunday.

On Monday, Putin’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov threatened Ukraine, saying it must fulfil Moscow’s proposals regarding Russia’s “new territories” – the four Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson that Russia claims to control after sham referendums in September – or the Russian military will take action, according to TASS.

The Ukrainian government has repeatedly said it will not accept any deal that would jeopardise its territorial integrity.

Olena Isayenko suffers from respiratory failure and can't breathe on her own. She says she lives in fear of power cuts.

For Olena Isayenko, the beeping sound her oxygen machine makes when disconnected from power is far scarier than the screeching of the air raid sirens now commonly heard throughout Kyiv.

She suffers from respiratory failure, meaning she can’t breathe adequately on her own and must receive a constant flow of oxygen through an electrical ventilator just to stay alive.

But the repeated Russian assaults on Ukraine’s power grid have left her gasping for air at times as the capital city continues to experience long blackouts. Other Ukrainians who require a constant power supply to keep vital medical devices running suffer similar fear each time the lights go out.

Green tubes carrying oxygen run across Isayenko’s face as she speaks with CNN at the home she shares with her husband, on the 15th floor of a residential block in Kyiv. Her portable oxygen machine is her lifeline. When the air raid sirens sound during blackouts, putting the elevator out of use, Isayenko, 49, is unable to get down to the block’s bomb shelter — but this worries her less than the lack of power for her ventilator.

Read more here.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi via phone line in Kyiv on December 26.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday he was relying on India’s help to implement a “peace formula” during a phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The call comes as New Delhi seeks to boost trade ties with Moscow after becoming one of the largest purchasers of Russian oil — defying Western sanctions and providing a vital financial lifeline to Russian President Vladimir Putin as the Kremlin wages an unprovoked war against its neighbor.

In a statement following the call, the Indian government said Modi had repeated his calls “for an immediate cessation of hostilities” and to “revert to dialogue and diplomacy.”

“Prime Minister also conveyed India’s support for any peace efforts,” the statement added.

Zelensky presented a 10-point peace formula to world leaders at the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November. India assumed the G20 presidency this month, and will hold it until next year.

Read more here.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that Ukraine must fulfil Moscow’s proposals regarding their “new territories” — or the Russian military would take action, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

The four occupied territories: Russia claimed control over the four regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson after sham referendums in September, widely slammed by Kyiv and Western governments as violating international law.

But 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.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that the situation in the four occupied territories was “extremely complicated,” a rare window into the challenges that Moscow faces in areas it has attempted to illegally annex.

This post has been updated to more accurately reflect Lavrov’s comments.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has neutralized more than 4,500 cyberattacks on the country this year, an official said Monday.

Ilya Vitiuk, head of the SBU cybersecurity department said in a statement that Ukraine had “entered 2022 with eight years of hybrid warfare experience behind us,” adding that “at the time of the invasion, we were already ready for the worst scenarios.”

“And the massive cyberattacks that we repelled in January and February became additional ‘training’ before the invasion,” he said.

The scale of cyberattacks is now much wider, particularly compared to previous years, he said. In 2020, nearly 800 cyberattacks were recorded, while in 2021 it jumped to 1,400, and in 2022 the number increased more than three times.

“Today, the aggressor country launches an average of more than 10 cyberattacks per day. Fortunately, Ukrainian society does not even know about most of them,” Vitiuk said.

He added that attackers are most likely to target energy, logistics, military facilities, government databases and information resources.

Ukrainian President Zelensky said the front lines of Bakhmut, Kreminna and other areas in the eastern Donbas region are “difficult, painful.”

“The situation there is difficult, painful. The occupants are spending all the resources available to them — and these are significant resources — to squeeze out at least some progress,” he said in his nightly address Monday. 

He thanked employees who worked Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to restore energy to different parts of the country. He said that while there are still some outages, the situation is improving.

“As of this evening, about 9 million people are cut off in different regions of Ukraine. But the number and duration of outages is gradually decreasing. I am grateful to each and every person who ensured this result,” he said. 

The Ukrainian president told people to be prepared for further Russian attacks as the war stretches on, saying, “Air defense is preparing, the state is preparing, and everyone must be prepared. Please pay attention to the sirens.”