June 15, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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

US ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink during a news conference at Sofiyska Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, on June 2.

US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink visited the Ukrainian government’s main cybersecurity agency Wednesday and pledged support for Kyiv’s “crucial work’ in defending against Russian hacking threats.

The meeting with Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection (SSSCIP) comes just weeks after Brink was confirmed as the top US diplomat in Kyiv. Ukrainian cyber defenses have held up fairly well against a barrage of alleged Russian hacks during the war. 

Brink’s meeting with the SSSCIP included discussion of a US Agency for International Development (USAID) program aimed at bolstering Ukraine’s cyber defenses, according to Brink and Ukrainian officials.  

USAID initiated the four-year, $38-million program in 2020 to build out Ukraine’s cybersecurity workforce and make the country’s infrastructure more resilient to Russian hacks. 

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, the program focused on linking US technical experts with Ukrainian government agencies and critical infrastructure operators “to operators to identify malware and restore systems after an incident has occurred,” according to a USAID statement.

“We have common cyber enemies and that unites us,” Yurii Shchyhol, who leads the SSSCIP, said in a statement Wednesday.

Alexander John-Robert Drueke, left, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huyn, right.

Two Americans fighting alongside Ukrainian forces north of Kharkiv in Ukraine have been missing for nearly a week and there are fears that they may have been captured by Russian forces, according to their families and a fellow fighter.

The men are Alexander John-Robert Drueke, age 39, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, age 27, from Hartselle, Alabama.

A man who wished to remain nameless for security reasons, who is acting as the team’s sergeant, provided CNN with photos of both men’s passports and their entry stamps into Ukraine.

The man said that their unit was fighting under the command of Ukraine’s 92nd mechanized brigade on June 9, near the town of Izbytske.

He said that Drueke and Huynh went missing during the battle, and subsequent search missions failed to find any remains. A post the following day on a Russian propaganda channel on Telegram claimed that two Americans had been captured near Kharkiv.

Bunny Drueke, Alex’s mother, told CNN that “they are presumed to be prisoners of war, but that has not been confirmed.” She said that the US Embassy to Ukraine has not been able to verify whether her son has been captured.

“They have not been able to verify that he’s with the Russians. All that they can verify is that he is missing at this point,” she said. “They stay in close touch with me, and I have every confidence that they are working on the situation.”

Joy Black, Huynh’s fiancé, age 21, told CNN: “We don’t want to make assumptions about what might have happened at this time. Obviously, they’re looking at several scenarios. And one of them is that they might have been captured. But we don’t have absolute confirmation of that at this time.”

Both Bunny Drueke and Black told CNN that their last communication with their loved ones was June 8, when the men told them that they would be going offline for a few days, for a mission.

“It was a pretty normal conversation actually: I told him I was getting food with my friends at our favorite restaurant,” Black said. “And he said, ‘I love you very much.’ And then I said, ‘I’ll be unavailable for two to three days.’ Which I found out was for the operation they were doing.”

They got engaged in March, not long before he left for Ukraine, she said.

“We didn’t know if we wanted to get married or get engaged before he left. And we decided on just getting engaged so that when he came back we could get married and enjoy it and not be apart right after we got married.”

Now, she said, she is “very fragile.”

“Even though not great stuff has happened, I’m still very proud of Andy for being strong.”

Black, too, said that she has “ups and downs.”

“I’m trying to stay calm and brave, because losing everything will not help Alex in the least. So I’m just trying to stay calm.”

What the US is saying: A State Department spokesperson Wednesday said that they “are aware of unconfirmed reports of two US citizens captured in Ukraine.”

“We are closely monitoring the situation and are in contact with Ukrainian authorities,” the spokesperson said. “Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment.”

The White House said it cannot confirm reports regarding the two, National Security Council coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told CNN Wednesday, adding that “if it’s true, we’ll do everything we can to get them safely back home.”

Pressed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins during Wednesday’s White House briefing, Kirby said the administration will “do the best we can to monitor this and see what we can learn about it,” adding, “that this is an important point in time to remind that we discourage Americans from going to Ukraine and fighting in Ukraine.”

“It is a war zone. It’s combat,” Kirby said. “And if you feel passionate about supporting Ukraine, there’s any number of other ways to do that, that are safer and just as effective. We just — Ukraine is not the place for Americans to be traveling.”

Kirby was unable to say if US President Joe Biden has been briefed on the reports.

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting to this post.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley downplayed criticisms that the United States is not providing Ukraine with all of the weapons it is requesting, saying that “in warfare, no weapons system is a silver bullet, ever.”

Milley said that if the Ukrainians use the weapons systems the US and other allies are providing properly, “they ought to be able to take out a significant amount of targets.”

He also complimented them as “top-notch gunners” on the Triple 7 Howitzers, and he expected them to also be very good on the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS, a lighter wheeled system capable of firing many of the same types of ammunition as MLRS.

Milley said he believes Ukraine will be able to sustain the fight, despite media reports that say around 100 Ukrainian forces are killed and another 100 to 300 people are wounded each day.

He said that he believed Ukraine would continue to fight “as long as they have leadership, and they have the means by which to fight,” such as “ammunition, artillery tubes, et cetera.”

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks during a news conference at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that despite Russian forces outnumbering and outgunning the Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region, Russian consolidation of their control in eastern Ukraine was “not a done deal.” 

Milley said that the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk “is probably three quarters taken or so by Russian forces,” but that “the Ukrainians are fighting them street by street, house by house.”

He also characterized the current phase of the war as a “very severe battle of attrition, almost World War I-like,” noting how Russian progress in the region has been “very slow, a very tough slog.”

The US Defense Department has detailed the latest security assistance package the US is sending to Ukraine to fight the Russian invasion — totaling approximately $1 billion. It includes a number of additional howitzers, ammunition, as well as Harpoon coastal defense systems.

As part of the 12th “presidential drawdown” worth approximately $350 million, the US is sending 18 additional howitzers with tactical vehicles to tow them, 36,000 rounds of 155mm ammunition for the howitzers, as well as spare parts and other equipment for the artillery.

The drawdown also includes ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HMARS, and tactical vehicles “to recover equipment.”

As part of a $650 million package under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), the US is sending two Harpoon coastal defense systems, as well as thousands of “secure radios” and thousands of night vision devices, thermal sights, and “other optics.”

The USAI package also includes funding “for training, maintenance, sustainment, transportation, and administrative costs.”

Here’s the full breakdown from the Pentagon of what is in the package:

The presidential drawdown authority (PDA) authorization is the twelfth drawdown of equipment from Department of Defense inventories for Ukraine since August 2021. Capabilities in this package include:

Under USAI, the Department of Defense will provide Ukraine with near-term priority capabilities to defend against Russian aggression. Included in this package are:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the 9th Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles on June 10.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Wednesday with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba “to share updates on U.S. assistance to Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia’s brutal and unprovoked war.”

Their conversation came ahead of US President Joe Biden’s public announcement of an additional $1 billion in US security assistance to Ukraine.

“The Secretary underscored the United States’ diplomatic efforts to solve the global food security crisis caused by President Putin’s war of choice in Ukraine and previewed U.S. objectives for the upcoming G7 and NATO Summits,” Price said.

President Joe Biden walks to the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on Tuesday, June 14.

US President Joe Biden spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Wednesday ahead of an announcement of $1 billion in security assistance and other humanitarian assistance for Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion.  

He continued: “I informed President Zelenskyy that the United States is providing another $1 billion in security assistance for Ukraine, including additional artillery and coastal defense weapons, as well as ammunition for the artillery and advanced rocket systems that the Ukrainians need to support their defensive operations in the Donbas. We also discussed Secretary Austin’s efforts in Brussels today to coordinate additional international support for the Ukrainian armed forces.”

The US will also provide $225 million in humanitarian assistance, which Biden said will go toward “supplying safe drinking water, critical medical supplies and health care, food, shelter, and cash for families to purchase essential items.”

The two last spoke by phone in April.

French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base near Constanta, Romania, on Wednesday, June 15.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that joining the European Union “can’t be the only answer to the stability” of neighboring countries such as Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.

He stressed the importance of building a broader European political community to cooperate over key issues such as defense and security, which would not be a substitute for adhesion.

EU leaders will gather at the end of June in Brussels to discuss the candidacy applications of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. This will be the last EU summit held under the French presidency.

“My role is to build consensus,” Macron said.

France has also taken the initiative to lead the European Moldova Support Platform, which promises the eastern European country 650 million euros ($675 million) of aid, according to Macron.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin attends the Ukraine Defence Contact group meeting ahead of a NATO defence ministers' meeting at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on June 15.

The Biden administration Wednesday is expected to announce an additional $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, according to a US official.

The package is expected to include shipments of additional howitzers, ammunition and coastal defense systems among the first items to be shipped.

Speaking in Brussels, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US and Ukraine are “working in lockstep to meet Ukraine’s requests for new capabilities, especially its need for long-range fires, armor and coastal defense.”

The package is expected to include weapons and supplies that can be quickly shipped from existing US stockpiles as well as issuing new contracts for long-term supplies for Ukraine.

The same US official told CNN the new aid package for Ukraine includes:

Ukrainian forces are suffering heavy losses amid intense fighting in the east of the country, while Western leaders have promised to answer the country’s call for more heavy weapons.

Here’s the latest on the Russian invasion:

Situation in eastern Ukraine worsening: The Ukrainian military’s defense in the eastern region of Luhansk is growing more difficult, the head of Luhansk’s military administration said Wednesday morning. “It is getting harder, but our military is holding back the enemy from three directions at once,” Serhiy Hayday said via Telegram. 

Conflict at pivotal point: Western intelligence and military officials believe Russia’s war in Ukraine is in a critical stage that could determine the long-term outcome of the conflict, according to multiple sources familiar with US and other Western intelligence. Ukraine’s military is burning through Soviet-era ammunition that fits older systems as the country pleads with the West to send more heavy weaponry and Russia amasses a significant artillery advantage around two strategically important cities in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine suffering “painful” losses: Fierce fighting continues in Severodonetsk and the Kharkiv region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a video address on Tuesday. In Severodonetsk “the losses, unfortunately, are painful,” Zelensky said. “But we have to hold on.” He went on to say how it is vital for the Ukrainian military to stay in Donbas.

Russia claims NATO weapons destroyed: The Russian Ministry of Defense says it destroyed a warehouse of weapons provided by NATO nations in the western Ukrainian Lviv region on Tuesday. “High-precision long-range Kalibr missiles near Zolochev, Lvov region, have destroyed a warehouse of ammunition for foreign weapons transferred to Ukraine by NATO countries, including 155-mm M777 howitzers,” the Russian MOD said Wednesday.

NATO promises more weapons: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday the alliance will continue to support Ukraine, supplying them with a military support package that would help the Ukrainian army transition from Soviet-era artillery to more modern weapons. “We are extremely focused on stepping up, providing more support, more advanced weapons … because we support them in their just fight against the brutal Russian invasion,” Stoltenberg said in Brussels ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers.

Ukrainian children suffering widespread displacement: Nearly two-thirds of Ukrainian children have been forced to leave their homes, according to Afshan Khan, regional director at UNICEF.

Macron predicts negotiations with Russia: “It is the reality of things” that Ukraine and Europe “will have to negotiate” with Russia over the Ukrainian war at some point, French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday. “The only desirable end to the conflict is either a Ukrainian military victory or talks at some point because fighting has stopped, so at some point we must talk,” he said while visiting French troops in eastern Romania.  

Pope Francis keeps attention on Ukraine: The Pontiff made an appeal for people not to forget about the Ukraine war as the conflict rages on. “Let’s not get used to living as if war were a distant thing,” he said. 

Russian plan to reopen bombed Mariupol theater: Russia is planning to reopen Mariupol’s Drama Theater this fall – the location where hundreds of people are believed to have died after a Russian bombing on March 16 – according to an adviser to the Ukrainian mayor of the city. “Dances on the bones, a performance at the cemetery,” he said. “There is no such depth of the inhumanity bottom that the occupiers have not hit.”

The more than 500 civilians sheltering underneath the Azot chemical plant in the besieged city of Severodonetsk, eastern Ukraine, have not been supplied in two weeks, the district’s leader told CNN on Wednesday.

“There are food stocks, but they have not been resupplied for two weeks,” Roman Vlasenko, head of the Severodonetsk district military administration, said via text message. “So stocks won’t last long. If there is a humanitarian corridor, I believe people are ready to leave Azot.”

The Russian Ministry of Defense said that it would open an evacuation corridor from the plant for civilians starting on Wednesday, but only to Russian-held territory to the north. Ukrainian authorities have not commented on Russia’s proposal, and have generally been skeptical of such claims, given past Russian practice: At repeated points during the war, they say, Russian forces have broken promises to open evacuation corridors, driven civilian evacuees onto their territory and failed to observe ceasefire agreements.

In an interview on national television, the head of the city’s military administration said that travel between Ukrainian-held Lysychansk and Severodonetsk was difficult but still possible.

“Ways to escape are quite dangerous, but they exist,” Oleksandr Striuk said. “It is wrong to say that the city is completely cut off. Logistics has become much more complicated.”

He said that fighting was concentrated in the center of Severodonetsk.

“We control the industrial zone, the perimeter that provides connections with Lysychansk,” he said. “The situation is difficult, but stable.”

Striuk said that it was difficult to estimate how many civilians were left in the city, saying only that there were around 10,000 people left “at the beginning of the escalated situation.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg holds a news conference ahead of a NATO defence ministers' meeting at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on June 15.

NATO will have preassigned forces and prepositioned equipment on its eastern flank for the first time since the Cold War, the alliance’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday.

This would enable a faster response by the alliance in case of a threat, he said at a Brussels news conference before a NATO Defense Ministers meeting. 

“That’s exactly what we are working on with Germany but we expect all the allies to make similar offers, to enable preassigned forces that are training and are responsible for the defense of specific territories,” Stoltenberg said. 

A view of an IKEA store in Russia's capital Moscow on March 4.

Swedish furniture company IKEA announced that it will “further scale down” business in Russia and Belarus in a statement on Wednesday.

The company had already paused operations in both countries on March 3 due to the war in Ukraine, but said “unfortunately the circumstances have not improved.”

As part of this scaling down IKEA is looking for new ownership for all four of its factories in Russia; all import and export of IKEA products to and from Russia and Belarus will remain frozen; its offices in Moscow and Minsk will close permanently; and IKEA stores will also remain closed.

IKEA acknowledged that many staff will lose their jobs because of this decision.

In a statement published March 3 the company said the number of staff directly impacted was around 15,000, and subsequently announced it had guaranteed 6 months’ salary for all workers. 

NATO head Jens Stoltenberg holds a news conference ahead of a NATO defense ministers' meeting at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on June 15.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday that the alliance will continue to support Ukraine, supplying them with a military support package that would help the Ukrainian army transition from Soviet-era artillery to more modern weapons.

“We are extremely focused on stepping up, providing more support, more advanced weapons … because we support them in their just fight against the brutal Russian invasion,” Stoltenberg said at a press conference in Brussels ahead of a NATO Defense Ministers meeting. 

Ukraine will continue receiving “practical support, lethal and non-lethal support from NATO allies and NATO” that would enable Ukraine “to continue to modernize its armed forces, something NATO allies have worked on for many years but stepped up now,” he said. 

“This is our focus and Ukraine’s most urgent need as we speak,” he added. 

Stoltenberg also said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be invited to the NATO summit in Madrid in two weeks.

Smoke rises after a military strike on a compound of Severodonetsk's Azot Chemical Plant, Luhansk region, Ukraine, on June 10.

Hundreds of civilians continue to shelter at a chemical plant in the besieged Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk, as Russia advances a questionable claim to have opened a so-called “humanitarian corridor” for Ukrainians to evacuate into Russian-held territory.

The Russian Ministry of Defense on Tuesday said that it would open a route for civilians to move from the Ukrainian-held Azot chemical plant, starting at Wednesday at 8 a.m. Moscow time (7 a.m. local in Severodonetsk).

Just over 500 civilians are still sheltering beneath that industrial facility, according to Oleksandr Striuk, head of the Severodonetsk military administration. Authorities say it has come under sustained Russian bombardment, and the regional leader said Wednesday that “the Russians are close.”

It is unclear whether any Ukrainians will leave for Russian-held territory, or even whether a workable evacuation corridor exists. Given Russia’s past practice, Ukrainian officials have generally been skeptical of such claims, saying that Russian forces have repeatedly broken promises to open evacuation corridors, driven civilian evacuees onto their territory and failed to observe ceasefire agreements.

Ukrainian authorities have not commented on Russia’s proposal, and such a corridor is much less tenable without a two-sided ceasefire.

The Russian MOD did not mention the corridor in its Wednesday update on the war, but publicized its proposal after it claimed Ukraine asked for a corridor from the Azot plant to Lysychansk, to the west, which is held by Ukraine.

Instead, the Russian MOD called on Ukrainian fighters to “lay down their arms” and promised to treat them as prisoners of war, “as has already happened to your comrades who previously surrendered in Mariupol.”

“We call on the official authorities in [Kyiv] to show prudence and give appropriate instructions to the militants to stop their senseless resistance and withdraw from the territory of Azot plant,” the MOD said.

The difference with Mariupol is that unlike the Azovstal plant, which was entirely surrounded by Russian forces, the Ukrainians still appear able to move in and out of the territory they control in Severodonetsk.

All three main bridges between Severodonetsk and Lysychansk across the Siverskyi Donets River are now impassable.

But Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk region military administration, said Monday that moving back and forth to Severodonetsk was “difficult, but not impossible.”

Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday that evacuations were slow because of the constant bombardment, but still possible.

The Russian Ministry of Defense says it destroyed a warehouse of weapons provided by NATO nations in the western Ukrainian Lviv region on Tuesday.

“High-precision long-range Kalibr missiles near Zolochev, Lvov region, have destroyed a warehouse of ammunition for foreign weapons transferred to Ukraine by NATO countries, including 155-mm M777 howitzers,” the Russian MOD said in its update on the war in Ukraine published Wednesday. CNN cannot independently verify these claims.

Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday that their air defense systems had shot down Russian cruise missiles over Lviv and Ternopil, but conceded that some Russian strikes were successful.

“It was possible to bring down only a part,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, there are victims, there is destruction.”

Men in hard hats enter a child’s bedroom decorated with pink wallpaper that features two bejeweled elephants, a little one and big one.

The workers quickly shovel mounds of rubble off the beige carpet and into wheelbarrows, then dump it down a makeshift chute. They leave only a dusty pile of children’s books before moving on to the next room.

With the roof mostly burned out of this apartment building on the outskirts of Kyiv, due to previous Russian strikes on the Ukrainian capital, the sun beats down on the volunteers as they work methodically to make the devastated homes livable again.

It’s now more than 100 days since Russian troops invaded Ukraine. They initially attacked and occupied multiple Kyiv suburbs before the Kremlin withdrew its forces from around the capital to concentrate on the east of the country. Even as brutal street-by-street battles continue to rage there, residents in Kyiv say it is time to rebuild and return.

Read the full story here.

French President Emmanuel Macron addresses NATO forces during his visit at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, near the city of Constanta, Romania, on June 15.

“It is the reality of things” that Ukraine and Europe “will have to negotiate” with Russia over the Ukrainian war at some point, French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday.

“The only desirable end to the conflict is either a Ukrainian military victory or talks at some point because fighting has stopped, so at some point we must talk,” he said while visiting French troops at the Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase in eastern Romania.  

The French leader, on a two-day visit to Romania and Moldova, stressed that France is not at war with Russia, despite European support for Ukraine.

“The difficulty in which we were all plunged, is that while we condemn, we sanction, we support the Ukrainians in their fight but we are not at war with Russia,” he said.

Macron also said that the current deployment of French forces to NATO’s eastern flank “will increase in strength,” without providing further details.

According to the French armed forces, France has some 500 troops deployed in Romania under NATO command, alongside fighter and surveillance aircraft, as well as some 300 troops in Poland and Estonia.

Millionaires are leaving Russia in droves after its invasion of Ukraine and the West imposed sanctions.

According to a report by Henley & Partners – a company that helps the wealthy move abroad – almost three times as many Russian millionaires are expected to leave the country in this year than in 2019.

As Western sanctions take a toll on its elite, Russia is predicted to suffer a net loss of around 15,000 high net-worth individuals (HNWIs) – people with over $1 million in assets – in 2022 which is about 15% of Russia’s millionaire population, the report said.

Andrew Amoils, head of research at analytics company New World Wealth, which contributed data to the report, said that Russia was “hemorrhaging millionaires.”

“Wealth migration figures are a very important gauge of the health of an economy,” he told CNN Business, adding that this usually precedes “any major country collapse in history.”

Read the full article here.