January 30, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

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

A former Wagner mercenary says the brutality he witnessed in Ukraine ultimately pushed him to defect.

Wagner fighters were often sent into battle with little direction, and the company’s treatment of reluctant recruits was ruthless, Andrei Medvedev told CNN’s Anderson Cooper from Norway’s capital Oslo, where he is seeking asylum after crossing that country’s arctic border from Russia.

CNN has not been able to independently verify his account and Wagner has not replied to a request for comment.

The 26-year-old, who says he previously served in the Russian military, joined Wagner as a volunteer. He crossed into Ukraine less than ten days after signing his contract in July 2021, serving near Bakhmut, the frontline city in the Donetsk region. The mercenary group has emerged as a key player in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Medvedev said he reported directly to the group’s founders, Dmitry Utkin and Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin.

He refered to Prigozhin as “the devil.” If he was a Russian hero, he would have taken a gun and run with the soldiers,” Medvedev said.

Prigozhin has previously confirmed that Medvedev had served in his company, and said that he “should have been prosecuted for attempting to mistreat prisoners.”

Medvedev told CNN that he did not want to comment on what he’d done himself while fighting in Ukraine.

Read more here

There’s a growing rift at the top of the Russian government between Vladimir Putin’s official military and the off-the-books mercenary force that has achieved some gains in Ukraine.

The oligarch figurehead of the private military company Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been openly critical of Russia’s military and its bureaucracy.

Recruiting for tens of thousands of fighters in Russian jails, Wagner offers freedom and cash after a six-month tour.

Videos of these prison yard pitches made by Prigozhin have been shared on social media, and prison-rights groups in Russia estimate 30,000 have taken up the offer, according to an excellent analysis of what we know about Wagner and Prigozhin by CNN’s Tim Lister. Read Lister’s story.

Brutal tactics for its fighters. A Ukrainian assessment of Wagner tactics suggests the convicts are pushed to the front lines in a human wave. Wagner is using “convicts as cannon fodder to try and storm Ukrainian positions with almost no fire support,” as CNN’s Fred Pleitgen said in a video report he filed after talking to Ukrainian tank operators.

Lister, Pleitgen and CNN’s Victoria Butenko wrote about Wagner’s tactics after seeing the Ukrainian assessment. The focus is on small groups of fighters – a dozen or fewer – guided by drones.

Deserters are said to be shot. The wounded are left behind on battlefields for hours, according to the assessment. Prisoners account for the bulk of Wagner’s casualties as they are pushed to storm Ukrainian positions. More experienced fighters with better equipment follow.

US officials have said Wagner appears to be dueling with Russia’s military for power in the Kremlin.

Read more here

A version of this story appears in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.

Shelling has caused serious damage to the village of Zarichne, near Kreminna.

The pine forests near the city of Kreminna have become one of the hottest combat zones in the war in eastern Ukraine. Almost every weapon seems to be at work here, artillery, howitzers, tanks and mortars. But perhaps the most important is the smallest: The reconnaissance drone.

Ukrainian and Russian forces have been fighting here for nearly two months. If the Ukrainians can break through Russian lines and reach Kreminna, they can disrupt Russian supply routes.

But it’s a much tougher proposition than it was at the end of last year. Russia’s defensive lines have been reinforced with heavy weapons and long-range artillery.

A year ago, one of the Ukrainian drone operators, who gave his name only as Ruslan, was a snowboard and kayak instructor. Now he’s watching the movement of Russian armor along the forest tracks, expertly skimming his drone across the treetops.

Arriving at a foxhole, the drone operators’ vehicles are carefully maneuvered under tree cover. The Russians have reconnaissance drones too, and Ukrainian drone operators are regarded as high-value targets.

Their job is to provide real-time intelligence on Russian positions and movements, and also to help Ukrainian artillery fix targets. 

A few miles away, the battalion Ruslan is a part of, Dnipro-1, has its own drone workshop, where NATO-issue grenades are carefully sawn in half to be reconstituted as small, free-fall munitions. Under a table sits a slab of C-4 plastic explosive. It’s a painstaking and demanding process, churning out one handmade munition every 20 minutes.

Some of the unit’s drone munitions are essentially fragment grenades dropped on infantry – and especially fighters from the Russian private military contractor Wagner fighters around Bakhmut. Heavier versions can damage or disable a tank.

The commander of Dnipro-1’s drone unit goes by the name of Graf. He says that drones have become “one of the most important elements of this war – both for us and the enemy. Nothing can be executed without drones.”

And that makes his men targets.

Read more here

F-16 Fighting Falcon aircrafts are seen over the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex on August 19, 2013.

White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby on Monday defended the Biden administration’s decision not to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, pointing instead to the aid the US is providing, including Abrams tanks.

“What I can tell you is that there’s a lot of capability that is being sent, and will be sent in the coming weeks and months,” Kirby told CNN. “The kinds of capabilities that we know will be critical to helping Ukrainians again in the fighting now in the wintertime, as well as the kind of fighting that we expect that they’re going to be doing in the spring.”  

Kirby said he believes the decision, announced last week, to send Abrams tanks to the region wasn’t one that was made too late, even amid reports of Russia gaining territory in eastern Ukraine.

Some background: President Joe Biden answered, “No,” when asked by a reporter whether he would send the jets to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sought fighter jets to help sustain his war effort against Russia. Biden has consistently said the planes aren’t on the table, even as he has given aid in other areas.

A married couple in the southwestern Russian city of Krasnodar was arrested Sunday for professing anti-war sentiments during a private conversation in a restaurant, according to the independent Russian monitoring group OVD-Info.

OVD-Info told CNN that Aleksey Ovchinnikov was sentenced to 15 days in prison for petty hooliganism, while his wife Olesya Ovchinnikova received a 1,000 rubles ($14) fine.

Olesya Ovchinnikova is also facing charges for discrediting the Russian army, according to reporting from local media 93.RU, citing her lawyer.

CNN has sought comment from the couple’s lawyer. The restaurant where the incident is said to have taken place, “Na Drovoh,” would not comment to CNN.

Crackdown on anti-war sentiments: OVD-Info said at least 61 cases related to expressing anti-war views were initiated in Russia in 2022 on the charges of justification of terrorism on the internet, with 26 leading to sentencing so far.

In another notable case, 19-year-old Olesya Krivtsova was charged over social media posts that authorities say discredit the Russian army and justify terrorism. She posted an Instagram story about the explosion on the Crimean bridge in October that also criticized Russia for invading Ukraine, according to Russian officials.

US President Joe Biden speaks in Baltimore, Maryland on Monday.

President Joe Biden said Monday he wouldn’t send American fighter jets to Ukraine, even as the United States ramps up military assistance in the form of artillery and tanks. 

“No,” Biden said when asked by a reporter whether he would send F16 jets to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sought fighter jets to help sustain his war effort against Russia. Biden has consistently said the planes aren’t on the table, even as he has given aid in other areas.

Last week, for example, Biden announced he would send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, despite top US officials saying previously the heavy-duty vehicles were a poor fit for the country’s military.

Speaking on the White House South Lawn, Biden also said he wasn’t sure whether he would visit Europe next month for the one-year anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine.

In response to a separate question, Biden said he was planning to visit Poland, but wasn’t sure when.

CNN reported last week the White House was exploring the possibility of a Biden visit to Europe to mark 12 months since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Some background: Ukrainian leaders have renewed their appeals for Western fighter jets. “I sent a wish list card to Santa Claus last year, and fighter jets also [were] including in this wish list,” Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told CNN last week.

US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged Friday that Zelensky had asked for fighter jets. “We are constantly talking to the Ukrainians about their needs, and want to make sure that we’re doing the best we can to meet them – and if we can’t, that some of our allies and partners can,” Kirby said.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Monday they have not received any requests from Ukraine for fighter jets.

“We do not have such a request formulated [from Ukraine],” Macron said at a joint press conference at The Hague where the two leaders were meeting to prepare the next EU council of February.

Macron said that while no requests had been received by France, “nothing is off-limits in principle.” He insisted that the usefulness of each request must be considered carefully.

Macron said the weapons requested should not escalate the conflict.

The French president added that the capacity of the French army to protect its own soil and its nationals should not be weakened by weapons transfer.

The Dutch prime minister also said that The Netherlands had not received any requests for F-16 fighter jets.

France does not operate F-16s but does operate the French-made Rafale fighter jet.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen arrive to hold a joint press conference in Odesa on Monday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on allies for “timely” implementation of “strong decisions.”

“There’s no time for continued reflections, we need to make decisions,” Zelensky said. “The key issue is efficiency.”

Zelensky also said that Ukraine shared “all the intelligence information we get” with partners. “There can be no secrets.”

He thanked Denmark for its donation of Caesar howitzers, and said that he is confident that Russia’s offensive will not have a positive outcome. “I am confident in our army. I think we will be gradually stopping [Russians], fighting them and will be preparing our own big counter-offensive.”

Oleksiy Storozh, right, 28, carries a cross to be placed at the grave of his late best friend, Ukrainian serviceman of the Azov Battalion Oleksandr Korovniy, 28, who was killed in action in Bakhmut, as friends carry Korovniy's coffin to a cemetery in Sloviansk on January 30.

Heavy fighting continues in eastern Ukraine, specifically in and around the city of Bakhmut. One Ukrainian commander called it “a living hell.”

Meantime, the British defense secretary said the 14 Challenger 2 main battle tanks pledged to Ukraine should reach that country in the next few months while France and Australia said they would collaborate on a project to produce “several thousand” artillery shells for Ukraine.

Here’s what to know:

Ukrainian Air Force Command spokesperson Yurii Ihnat briefs the press in Kyiv in 2022.

Should Russia obtain Iranian ballistic missiles for use in its war in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Air Force has warned that it does not have the means to defend against them.

As of November, Iran was preparing to send about 1,000 more weapons, including surface-to-surface short-range ballistic missiles and more attack drones, to Russia to use in its war against Ukraine, officials from a western country that closely monitors Iran’s weapons program told CNN at the time.

Reuters, in October, cited two Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats in reporting that Tehran had promised to provide Russia with those weapons. “The Russians had asked for more drones and those Iranian ballistic missiles with improved accuracy, particularly the Fateh and Zolfaghar missiles family,” one of the Iranian diplomats, who was briefed about the trip, told Reuters.

The Iranian government acknowledged in November that it had sent a limited number of drones to Russia in the months before the start of its invasion of Ukraine, but has denied supplying military equipment for use in the war in Ukraine.

“Russia has Kinzhal-type missiles that strike at ballistic trajectory,” Ihnat said on Monday. “They have Kh-22 missiles that strike at ballistic trajectory, and they have S-300 and S-400 rockets that strike at ballistic trajectory. Those are challenges and threats we are facing at the moment.”

Ihnat said that in order to “defeat ballistic threats,” Ukraine needed air defense systems like the latest-generation American Patriot PAC-3, and the French-made SAMP/T (Sol-Air Moyenne Portée/Terrestre)

The US has not announced details about the Patriot Air Defense System it plans to provide for Ukraine. Ukrainian soldiers were set earlier this month to begin training on the Patriot missile system.

Previous reporting from Kylie Atwood, Ellie Kaufman, Oren Liebermann, and Haley Britzky in Washington, and Celine Alkhaldi in Abu Dhabi.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, second right, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu, right, attend a joint press conference with Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles, second left, and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, on Monday.

France and Australia said on Monday that they would collaborate on a multi-million dollar project to produce “several thousand” artillery shells for Ukraine.

The announcement came as foreign and defense ministers of both countries were meeting in Paris.

“Several thousand 155-millimeter shells are going to be manufactured in common, with an unprecedented partnership between Australia and France,” said French defense minister Sébastien Lecornu during a press conference.

The French defense minister specified that Nexter — the French arms company — would be partnering with Australian companies which would be providing the powder for the shells.

Neither minister would specify quantities beyond “several thousand” artillery shells but they indicated this would be a long-term collaboration.

More on artillery to Ukraine: CNN reported in early January that the US had moved some of the 300,000 155-millimeter shells that the US and Israel agreed would be transferred to Ukraine. In November, a US official told CNN that the US intended to buy 100,000 rounds of artillery ammunition from South Korean arms manufacturers to provide to Ukraine.

The 14 Challenger 2 main battle tanks pledged to Ukraine by the United Kingdom should reach that country “this side of the summer,” the British Defense Secretary said on Monday.

“It starts with training on the individual operation of the platforms, then on training on being able to join together with formation units to be able to fight as a formed unit, because that’s important,” Ben Wallace said in parliament. “And then from there, those tanks will be put in.” 

A Ukrainian tank moves on a street in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on January 26.

Warning of Russia’s continued attempts to encircle Bakhmut, a local Ukrainian commander has said that any possible Ukrainian withdrawal from the embattled eastern city would be done with the sole aim of saving Ukrainian military lives.

“If our command decides to withdraw from Bakhmut, that would be with the only purpose of saving lives of our servicemen,” said Denys Yaroslavskyi, who commands a unit currently in Bakhmut.

Yaroslavskyi also warned that “super qualified” regular Russian military troops are now assisting Wagner private military contractors in assaulting the towns surrounding Bakhmut. That was echoed by another local Ukrainian commander, Volodymyr Nazarenko, who said that Russian paratroopers were taking part in the Bakhmut fight.

“They are just coming forward, they do not take cover, they are coming all-out,” Yaroslavskyi said on national television on Monday.

More on Moscow’s eastern offensive: Russian forces have been making slow but steady gains both north and south of Bakhmut. The last remaining routes under Ukrainian control into the city have come under heavier Russian fire in the past week, according to Ukrainian officials and commanders.

He said that the road north of Bakhmut, towards, the town of Krasna Hora, is almost entirely under Russian control. The Wagner group on Sunday claimed to have taken control of the town of Blahodatne, further north along that road.

CNN’s Tim Lister contributed reporting to this post from Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud in a phone call on Monday, the Kremlin said in a statement. 

The phone call comes ahead of an OPEC+ meeting on February 1. 

In October 2022, OPEC+ agreed to slash production by two million barrels per day, twice as much as analysts had predicted, despite an intense pressure campaign from the United States, which had warned Arab allies that such a move would increase prices and help Russian President Vladimir Putin continue to fund his war in Ukraine.

Saudi Arabia defended the decision after oil prices steadily pulled back.

More on the organization: OPEC members collectively supply about 37.1% of the world’s crude oil production. Together, OPEC members control about 79.9% of the world’s total proven crude reserves.

Finland remains committed to its application for NATO membership alongside Sweden and hopes the bid will be approved by July, according to the country’s foreign minister.

Finland had the “patience” to see out the membership process as Turkey continues to delay its approval of Sweden and Finland’s applications, Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said during a press conference in Helsinki on Monday.

Tensions between Sweden and Turkey have heightened in recent days, triggered by a recent protest outside Stockholm’s Turkish Embassy which saw a Swedish far-right politician set a copy of the Quran alight.

Finland had patience owing to the fact that it had received “security assurances when we started this NATO path” from the US, UK and other European allies, Haavisto added.

“All of these countries guaranteed that if something bad happens when we are on the waiting list, so to say, or when we are during this grey period, these countries will be of our help,” Haavisto told reporters Monday.

Haavisto said Finland and Sweden both considered NATO’s Vilnius Summit in July to be an “important milestone” for the military alliance. “We hope that both Sweden and Finland could and would be members of NATO before the Vilnius summit.”

US ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy meets with Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov in Moscow on January 30.

The new American ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, met with a senior Russian diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow on Monday for the first time.

She was greeted by a small group of people standing next to the ministry entrance, chanting, “war is a business for the US,” according to a video posted by Russian state media TASS and RIA Novosti.

Tracy was confirmed by the US Senate on Dec. 21 and sworn in on Jan. 9. She met with Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy minister of foreign affairs.

The meeting comes amid tensions between both countries over Moscow’s war in Ukraine and the United States’ recent announcement to send tanks to Kyiv alongside other allies.

In an interview released Monday, Ryabkov told state news agency RIA Novosti that the decision by the US and NATO allies to send tanks to Ukraine has made it “pointless” for Moscow to engage in any talks with Kyiv.

Ukraine's defense minister Oleksiy Reznikov at a conference at Ramstein Air Base last year.

Ukraine plans to spend 20 billion Ukrainian hryvnia ($545 million) buying drones — or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) — this year, the country’s defense minister announced Monday on Facebook.

“Development of Ukrainian UAV market is one of key focus areas for the Ministry of Defense,” Oleksiy Reznikov said in the statement. “Following consultations with the General Staff and testing/trials, sixteen contracts have been made by the Ministry of Defense with domestic UAV producers.”

The announcement comes as Ukraine continues to face rounds of Russian missile attacks and has renewed calls for Western jets and long-range missile systems.

Two Leopard tanks prior to an event to mark the reception of the first units of the new tank in Bad Frankenhausen, Germany, in 2021.

Two years ago, Moscow eyed a US-German standoff over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline as a litmus test of transatlantic power.

Russia had invested heavily in the 750-mile undersea pipeline linking it to Germany and wanted to increase global sales and ramp up economic leverage over Europe and its power-hungry heavy industries. Germany, a leading consumer, was on board from the get-go. Washington was not.

The United States didn’t want the new, high-capacity subsea supply to supplant old overland lines that transited Ukraine, providing vital revenue to the increasingly Westward-leaning leadership in Kyiv.

Russia reasoned that if Washington blocked Nord Stream 2, which it ultimately did, then it would show that European power no longer flowed through Berlin, but actually via the White House.

Fast-forward two years, and reading that transatlantic dynamic post-Angela Merkel, and particularly post-Russian President Vladimir Putin’s failing invasion of Ukraine, has become one of the most pressing political questions vexing the Kremlin.

Rare moment of steely leadership: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s refusal, in his words, “to be pushed” to go it alone in sending tanks to Ukraine — instead standing his ground and demanding US President Joe Biden join him in the venture, risking Putin’s wrath — has shown the transatlantic power dynamic has shifted.

Europe has been slow to respond to the deep fissures in US politics and the uncertainty another Trumpian-style presidency could wreak on its allies. Decades of a reasonably unshakable reliance, if not complete trust, in the US, has been replaced by stubborn European pragmatism — and Germany leads the way.

Read the full analysis here.

Ukrainian servicemen fire a 2S7 Pion self-propelled gun toward Russian positions on a frontline near Bakhmut in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on January 24.

The “constant” fighting in and around the eastern Ukraine city of Bakhmut has been “a living hell” as Russian forces try to take control of the Kostiantynivka-Bakhmut highway, a Ukrainian commander said in an interview on Ukrainian television Monday.  

“Because for five or six months, near Bakhmut has been a living hell. The enemy is constantly attacking. And we can observe more about how the weather is changing, which, by the way, has a great impact on the combat capability, morale, and living conditions of each soldier,” said Volodymyr Nazarenko, deputy commander of the “Svoboda” battalion of the 4th Rapid Reaction Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard.

He said he couldn’t say for certain whether Russian forces are making a full-scale offensive and whether their tactics have changed, but that it seems Wagner fighters have now been replaced by Russian paratroopers. 

Nazarenko went on to say the Ukrainian fighters “are doing an incredible job” and are “real heroes.”

“The enemy is trying to take control of the Kostiantynivka-Bakhmut highway. They are not successful in it. Our fighters are doing their best: The Armed Forces and the National Guard are doing an incredible job; they are real heroes. And the enemy is suffering huge, huge losses,” he said.

CNN has not been able to independently verify the claims about the losses. 

“What we see is that Wagner is almost completely destroyed. They have now been replaced by paratroopers, who also suffer losses almost every day, not only in manpower but also in armored vehicles,” he added.