August 8, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

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

Two drones were shot down in the Moscow suburbs, according to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.

There is an international airport in Domodedovo.

There is no information on casualties, he added, and a response team was working on the scene.

Ukraine’s National Resistance Center — an official body — claimed Tuesday that the construction of another camp to host Wagner Group fighters has begun in the Zyabrovka Air Base in Belarus. 

CNN cannot independently verify this claim. 

Zyabrovka is located near Gomel in southeastern Belarus, about 40 kilometers from the border with Ukraine’s Chernihiv region.

The camp can house around 1,000 personnel, the center said, and it looks like a tent city. 

Ukraine’s National Resistance Center said it obtained this information from “underground sources.” 

The center claimed “there remains a high probability” that Belarus and Russia will use the camp to intimidate the neighboring European countries in order to create an illusion that “the mercenaries are ready to invade the EU.” This, in turn, can make the European countries “reduce their support for Ukraine,” according to the center. 

Some context: Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko brokered a deal to cap Wagner’s failed rebellion against Moscow, after which thousands of mercenary fighters were reportedly sent to Belarus.

Moscow used Belarusian territory to facilitate its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, strengthening ties between President Vladimir Putin and Lukashenko.

Poland recently accused Belarus of violating its airspace, raising tensions between the NATO member and a key Kremlin ally in an increasingly volatile security landscape in Europe.

Warsaw said two Belarusian helicopters allegedly violated the Polish airspace during training exercises on August 1, which the Belarusian defense ministry vehemently denied and dismissed as “far-fetched.”

A Ukrainian serviceman fires toward Russian troops at a position near the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on July 5.

The US is aware the Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russia isn’t progressing as quickly as was expected, White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said Tuesday.

His comments follow reporting from CNN that describes increasingly “sobering” assessments from Western officials about Ukrainian forces’ ability to retake significant territory.

And in a video released by his office Tuesday, Zelensky acknowledged that the counteroffensive hasn’t been easy and is “happening probably slower” than some had hoped.”

In terms of military aid to Ukraine, Kirby said the US will continue to provide military resources to Kyiv, including mine-clearing equipment, artillery ammunition and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems.

Three civilians are dead and nine others are injured in the Kharkiv region after Russian missiles hit a village near the eastern Ukrainian city of Kupyansk, the regional prosecutor’s office said. 

Initially, the Russians struck the Kruhliakivka village in the Kupyansk district with four guided aerial bombs on Monday. 

According to the office, when law enforcement officers and the State Emergency Service team arrived at the scene, Russians fired at the village again with MLRS rocket artillery. As a result, two police officers aged 21 and 24 as well as two rescue workers aged 22 and 46 were injured. 

A number of residential buildings were damaged and partially destroyed following the strikes. 

Andrii Besedin, the head of the Kupyansk city military administration, urged Kupyansk residents to evacuate children and those with limited mobility on Tuesday following the recent escalation of Russian shelling in the area.

Weeks into Ukraine’s highly anticipated counteroffensive, Western officials describe increasingly “sobering” assessments about Ukrainian forces’ ability to retake significant territory, four senior US and Western officials briefed on the latest intelligence told CNN.

The primary challenge for Ukrainian forces is the continued difficulty of breaking through Russia’s multi-layered defensive lines in the eastern and southern parts of the country, which are marked by tens of thousands of mines and vast networks of trenches.

Ukrainian forces have incurred staggering losses there, leading Ukrainian commanders to hold back some units to regroup and reduce casualties.

Here are other headlines you should know:

Nine people were killed and 82 were injured after Russian missiles on Monday struck residential areas in the eastern city of Pokrovsk, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky also said there were two children among the injured. One of them, an 11-year-old, is in serious condition, he said.

The Ukrainian president reiterated that the fact that the second strike occurred when the rescue operation was underway indicated it was “a conscious decision of terrorists to cause the most pain and the most damage.”

Zelensky noted he discussed how to protect Ukrainians more effectively “from the Russian invaders” during the phone call Tuesday with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. 

“We are preparing to upgrade our aviation with modern aircraft and it is the Netherlands that can become a leader in the issue of F-16s for Ukraine,” he said. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin talks at the Grand Kremlin Palace, in Moscow, Russia, on March 21.

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Putin met with 17 heads of African states for a two-day summit in July in an attempt to strengthen ties with African countries.

“Following their separate meeting on July 29, Vladimir Putin and Cyril Ramaphosa discussed a number of practical issues of bilateral cooperation, with a focus on enhancing trade, economic and investment ties,” the statement read. 

“The presidents expressed a mutual desire to continue constructive cooperation on the current international agenda, including preparations for the upcoming BRICS Summit in Johannesburg on August 23–24,” the statement added. 

Putin will take part in the summit via video link, according to state news outlets TASS and RIA Novosti. While the Russian leader will not be physically present, will be represented instead by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Putin’s absence is due to the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing an arrest warrant for Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova in March, over an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia amid the brutal invasion. Last month, the ICC chief pressured South Africa to do “the right thing” and arrest Putin if he arrived for the summit of the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS).

Some context: Speaking at a news conference with the chair of the African Union on July 28, Putin laid out the ways he says Russia plans to help African countries. Moscow will provide aid to “strengthen national health systems, improve their reliability, technical equipment, efficiency and resilience in the fight against epidemics,” he said.

A “large-scale program of assistance” for combatting infections in African countries will total 1.2 billion rubles (or about $13 million USD) running into 2026, according to Putin.

Putin also said Russia will “continue to supply African countries with grain on a commercial basis and free of charge.”

It was also during this summit that Ramaphosa and several other African leaders presented a 10-step peace initiative to both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. At the time, Putin said the Kremlin is “carefully” considering the African leaders’ proposal, and blamed Kyiv for not coming to the table.

Rescuers work with heavy machinery, at the site of a building destroyed during a Russian missile strike in Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on August 8.

At least three people are dead and 11 others, including a child, are wounded after shelling in the city of Donetsk by the Ukrainian military, according to the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin.

Pushilin added that a number of civilian infrastructure facilities were hit, while alleging the use of cluster munitions by the Ukrainian military. CNN is not able to independently verify this claim. 

Meanwhile, Ukraine has claimed that twin Russian attacks on the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, located in the Donetsk region, killed five civilians, an emergency worker and a service member.

Officials and first responders in Ukraine are paying tribute to an emergency service officer who was killed in Russian strikes in Pokrovsk.

Andrii Omelchenko who was killed Monday in the “double tap” attack on the city. He was described as a family man and someone who was loved and respected by his colleagues.

Omelchenko, who served as the Deputy Head of the State Emergency Service in the Donetsk region, was among the first responders to the site of a Russian strike on a residential area in Pokrovsk. He was killed after a second missile hit the same area 40 minutes later, according to officials. 

“We are deeply mourning the death of Andrii Omelchenko, Colonel of the Civil Defense Service,” Ihor Klymenko, the Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs, wrote on Telegram. 

His friend and colleague Taras Solodovnyk, Deputy Head of the Emergency Response Department in Donetsk region, said he was a decent, professional and sensitive man.

Omelchenko, 52, is survived by his wife, daughter and grandson, according to Solodovnyk. A Donetsk region native, Omelchenko moved to Mariupol in 2014 and lived there until 2022, he added. 

According to Colonel Oleksandr Khorunzhyi, spokesman for the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, at least 78 rescuers have been killed and 280 others wounded since the war started. 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky holds a press conference during the NATO Summit in Vilnius on July 12, 2023.

The Ukrainian counteroffensive hasn’t been easy and is “happening probably slower” than some had hoped, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video released by his office on Tuesday.

His remarks from a meeting Sunday with Latin American media outlets come amid CNN reporting that Western officials describe increasingly “sobering” assessments about Ukrainian forces’ ability to retake significant territory.

While there is fatigue in the eyes of Ukrainians, there is fear in Russians’ eyes, the president added.

Some more context: The primary challenge for Ukrainian forces is the continued difficulty of breaking through Russia’s multi-layered defensive lines in the eastern and southern parts of the country, which are marked by tens of thousands of mines and vast networks of trenches. Ukrainian forces have incurred staggering losses there, leading Ukrainian commanders to hold back some units to regroup and reduce casualties.

“Russians have a number of defensive lines and they [Ukrainian forces] haven’t really gone through the first line,” a senior Western diplomat told CNN. “Even if they would keep on fighting for the next several weeks, if they haven’t been able to make more breakthroughs throughout these last seven, eight weeks, what is the likelihood that they will suddenly, with more depleted forces, make them? Because the conditions are so hard.”

A senior US official said the US recognizes the difficulties Ukrainian forces are facing, though retains hope for renewed progress.

Correction: An earlier version of the post listed the wrong date for Zelensky’s remarks to Latin American media. The remarks were made on Sunday.

As Ukraine reels from the latest round of Russian missile attacks, residents in the eastern city of Pokrovsk recalled the harrowing experience of a “double-tap” strike Monday that left at least seven people dead and dozens injured.

“I heard a hum. A very, very loud hum. Then the entire building shook and the windows on our balcony blew out. Half an hour later there was a second hit — it was even louder and even scarier,” Liudmyla told CNN on Tuesday. 

There were several people in the yard and military personnel were telling them to go to take shelter for a possible second attack. Her husband was on the balcony at the time of the blast, she said.

“I heard this growing rumble and I shouted for him to get out of there. But he didn’t manage, he just fell to the floor and covered his head with hands. He was literally covered in glass,” she said. 

The explosion threw Liudmyla into the other room. “You’re flying and you don’t realize where you are,” she said. “I just yelled to my husband to see if he was alive. He responded, I crawled to him and shattered the glass,” she said.

Another resident, Alla, whose home is also close to the area that was hit, said she and her husband went outside after the first explosion. When they returned to their apartment after the unexpected second explosion, “we saw that there were no windows, no balcony, no electricity. “

She added: “Of course, we were very much scared. We got a terrible stress, because it was very loud. We didn’t sleep the whole night. How can one sleep here, when there are no windows?”

Russian shelling on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kupyansk, located in the Kharkiv region, further escalated recently and authorities are urging residents to evacuate children and those with limited mobility. 

“Starting from the deoccupation in September 2022, the Kupyansk community has been constantly suffering from the shelling. Recently, unfortunately, the number of shelling has escalated, increased and the range of weapon used to shell the community has also broadened,” Andrii Besedin, the head of the Kupyansk city military administration, said Tuesday on national television. 

Besedin said that the shelling now includes the use of guided aerial bombs.

Authorities in the city launched a voluntary evacuation plan for the population back in November 2022, but a number of residents have chosen to stay in the area. 

Besedin said that authorities are actively communicating with the residents in the city through social media pages and emphasized that while Kupyansk remains free — and is controlled by Ukraine — defense forces are working hard to “not give any chance for the enemy to get through, but the terrorist-country demonstrates that they can be at war with the civilians, critical infrastructure and is terrorizing civilians communities.”

Besedin noted how Russian shelling hit the village of Kruhliakivka on Monday.

Two civilians were killed and at least five injured in the Kruhliakivka village, Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, said. The Russian military shelled the village with four guided aerial bombs and hit private houses, he said. 

Ramped up offensive by Moscow: Russian forces have stepped up their offensive across the region in an effort to reclaim territory. On Monday, Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on YouTube that “the Kupyansk direction was probably the hottest” as Russian forces try to regain positions lost last autumn. “They have such a plan — they want to return the territories they lost in Kharkiv region,” she said. 

A Ukrainian serviceman launches a drone near a frontline in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine on August 4.

Efforts to “eliminate” Russian forces around the southern Ukrainian village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region are continuing with offensive action from Kyiv’s forces, according to Serhii Kuzmin, deputy commander of the Tavria Operational and Strategic Grouping for Strategic Communications.

Berdiansk is very densely mined, he explained. “There are a lot of occupiers in this area — probably their number per square meter is the same as the number of mines,” the official said.

“We have already reached the first line of defense of the occupiers. The first line is very difficult, but our military are pushing through it and moving forward. This movement is slowed down by minefields and our lack of aviation,” he added.

CNN is unable to independently verify these battlefield claims.

For the last few days, the Russian Defense Ministry and unofficial Russian sources have said that Ukrainian attacks on the Robotyne area have been repelled, as CNN reported, with one Russian military blogger saying that trenches in the area that had been occupied by Ukrainian troops were subsequently retaken.

The latest battlefield update comes amid CNN reporting Tuesday that Western officials have described increasingly “sobering” assessments about Ukrainian forces’ ability to retake significant territory, according to four senior US and western officials briefed on the latest intelligence.

The primary challenge for Ukrainian forces is the continued difficulty of breaking through Russia’s multi-layered defensive lines in the eastern and southern parts of the country, which are marked by tens of thousands of mines and vast networks of trenches. Ukrainian forces have incurred staggering losses there, leading Ukrainian commanders to hold back some units to regroup and reduce casualties.

CNN’s Jim Sciutto contributed reporting to this post. 

A police officer injured during a double Russian missile attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk on Monday has described the moment the second missile hit first responders at the scene. 

Speaking from his hospital bed, Volodymyr, a police officer who previously featured in the documentary film “20 Days in Mariupol,” told Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspline he had attended the scene after his working hours were over. 

“There was information that there might be a second strike. At the time we were there, people needed help. I heard the sound of a missile, tried to fall down, but a fragment hit me in the back and punctured my lung,” he continued.

“The one who sent the missile into the city center realized that there were only civilians there. And the one who hit this place for the second time is a criminal twice over because he realized that people would be getting help,” Volodymyr added.

In an update Tuesday afternoon, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (SES) said rescue operations are now complete at a five-story residential building that was damaged by the attack on Monday.

The SES have rescued eight people and 122 tons of debris was removed from the site, the update on Telegram said.

More detail on the Pokrovsk attacks: Two Russian strikes hit the city, which is located in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, within 30 to 40 minutes of each other on Monday evening, killing seven people and injuring at least 81, according to local officials.

Many of those injured were first responders, who had rushed to the scene after the initial blast, only to be targeted in the second, they said. Russia has used this tactic throughout its invasion of Ukraine, including an attack in Kharkiv witnessed by a CNN team.

Rescuers carry a wounded person from a damaged building following Russian missile strikes in Pokrovsk, Ukraine.

At least 78 rescuers have been killed and 280 wounded in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion while responding to missile strikes, according to Col. Oleksandr Khorunzhyi, spokesperson for the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. 

Khorunzhyi spoke Tuesday at a briefing at the Military Media Center following a deadly double missile strike in Pokrovsk, where emergency service workers were injured after rushing to the scene of the first strike. The deputy head of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Donetsk region, Andrii Omelchenko, was killed, Ukraine’s National Police said.

“Russians fire at rescuers, ignoring international conventions,” the center said on Telegram. 

“It is worth noting that rescuers are protected by international conventions, as they do not engage in hostilities, but go to rescue people and provide assistance,” the center added.

A woman sits in her destroyed apartment in a building struck by a Russian missile strike in Pokrovsk, Ukraine, on Tuesday.

Rescue work is ongoing in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, which officials say was targeted by Russia on Monday in a “double-tap” strike, which aims to kill or injure first responders.

Meanwhile, Russia has issued new history textbooks for high-school students, offering the Kremlin’s account of the reasons for the war in Ukraine, or what it still euphemistically calls a “special military operation.”

Here are the latest developments:

A Ukrainian soldier fires toward Russian troops near Bakhmut, Ukraine, on July 5.

Weeks into Ukraine’s highly anticipated counteroffensive, Western officials describe increasingly “sobering” assessments about Ukrainian forces’ ability to retake significant territory, four senior US and Western officials briefed on the latest intelligence told CNN.

“They’re still going to see, for the next couple of weeks, if there is a chance of making some progress. But for them to really make progress that would change the balance of this conflict, I think, it’s extremely, highly unlikely,” a senior Western diplomat told CNN.

“Our briefings are sobering. We’re reminded of the challenges they face,” said Rep. Mike Quigley, an Illinois Democrat who recently returned from meetings in Europe with US commanders training Ukrainian armored forces.

The primary challenge for Ukrainian forces is the continued difficulty of breaking through Russia’s multi-layered defensive lines in the eastern and southern parts of the country, which are marked by tens of thousands of mines and vast networks of trenches. Ukrainian forces have incurred staggering losses there, leading Ukrainian commanders to hold back some units to regroup and reduce casualties.

A senior US official said the US recognizes the difficulties Ukrainian forces are facing, though retains hope for renewed progress.

Multiple officials said the approach of fall, when weather and fighting conditions are expected to worsen, gives Ukrainian forces a limited window to push forward.

These latest assessments represent a marked change from the optimism at the start of the counteroffensive. These officials say those expectations were “unrealistic” and are now contributing to pressure on Ukraine from some in the West to begin peace negotiations, including considering the possibility of territorial concessions.

“Putin is waiting for this. He can sacrifice bodies and buy time,” Quigley said.

Read more here.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has claimed it hit a military command post in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk. 

In an update shared Tuesday, the Ministry of Defense used the Russian name for the city and said, “In the area of ​​the settlement of Krasnoarmeysk of the Donetsk People’s Republic, the advanced command post of the united group of Ukrainian troops Khortitsa was hit.”

Local Ukrainian officials have denied there are military units based there.  

The United Kingdom has added new designations under its sanctions regimes against Russia and Belarus, it announced on Tuesday.

Six of the new designations target Belarus-affiliated individuals and institutions; 19 target those affiliated with Russia. They include sanctions against individuals and businesses based in Russia, Turkey, Dubai, Slovakia and Switzerland.

The companies sanctioned include electronics and defense equipment producers who have exported microelectronics and drones to Russia to help in its war against Ukraine. Also sanctioned were Slovakian national Ashot Mkrtychev, who was involved in an attempted arms deal between North Korea and Russia, and Swiss national Anselm Oskar Schmucki for working in Russia’s financial services sector.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement Tuesday that the sanctions will “further diminish Russia’s arsenal and close the net on supply chains propping up Putin’s now struggling defense industry.”

“Alongside our G7 partners, the UK has repeatedly called on third parties to immediately cease providing material support to Russia’s aggression or face severe costs.”