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.