November 8, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is putting the climate at risk, said Poland’s President Andrzej Duda in an address at COP27, the United Nations climate summit, on Tuesday.  

"The consequence[s] of Russia's aggression are crisis and huge costs which put at risk timely implementation of climate transition as well as timely attainment of the intended goals,” said Duda at the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

“It has also generated additional emissions exceeding the level of those produced by a number of developing countries within the scope of one year," he added.

"The world, however, has the right to ask where we have moved our production. For if we have moved it into non-European countries, then we should not forget that our responsibility has not disappeared."

Over the next two weeks, negotiators from nearly 200 countries will prod each other to raise their clean energy ambitions at the 27th annual UN climate summit, which is focused on loss and damage.

Low-emitting countries inundated with floods or watching their islands sink into the ocean are demanding that developed, high-emissions countries pay up for this damage. 

A drop in temperatures in Ukraine this week has prompted the national electric utility, Ukrenergo, to introduce further energy restrictions.

“Additional restrictions on consumption are necessary because due to the cold snap, electricity consumption is increasing, which leads to an increase in the load on equipment and a shortage of electricity in the power system,” said Ukrenergo in a statement.

The emergency power cuts that have been a daily occurrence for weeks continued Tuesday, with outages planned for the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Kharkiv and Poltava regions, as well as the capital, Kyiv.

Responding to various media reports about a push for negotiation with Russia, Ukrainian officials on Tuesday said that an essential condition for any settlement of the war is the restoration of Ukrainian occupied territory.

“The main condition of the [Ukrainian] President of is restoration of [Ukrainian] territorial integrity,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said on Twitter.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, asked on Twitter: “What do you mean by the word ‘negotiations’? Russian ultimatums are well-known: ‘we came with tanks, admit defeat and [the loss of territory].’ This is unacceptable. So what to talk about? Or you just hide the word ‘surrender’ behind the word ‘settlement?’”

Some background: The pair spoke out following reports that senior US officials have in recent weeks been urging Ukraine to signal that they are still open to diplomatic discussions with Russia. The push comes amid concerns that public support for the country's war effort could wane with no end to the conflict in sight and neither side willing to begin peace talks, sources familiar with the discussions tell CNN.

The discussions are not aimed at encouraging the Ukrainians to negotiate now -- rather, the US wants Kyiv to convey more clearly that it wants to find a resolution to the conflict and that Ukraine has the moral high ground, sources said. 

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claims to have disrupted a Ukrainian "sabotage and reconnaissance group" in the occupied southern Kherson region, and detained nine Ukrainian citizens.

The FSB said on Tuesday that it had "revealed and prevented the activities of an SBU [Security Service of Ukraine] sabotage and reconnaissance group in Kherson region, whose tasks included committing terrorist acts against high-ranking members of the military and civil administration of Kherson region."

The FSB claimed to have discovered explosives, detonators and small arms.

The Ukrainian government has not commented on the claimed arrests.

Monday was the last day of Russia's “organized evacuation” offer for civilians from the west bank of the Dnipro River in the occupied portion of Ukraine’s Kherson region, according to a Russian-backed official.

His comments come as an intense battle for the southern city of Kherson appears to be looming, with Ukrainian forces edging closer to the regional capital as part of a push to retake territory seized by Russian forces shortly after their invasion began in February.

Anyone who leaves the Kherson region will be given “a one-time payment of 100,000 rubles” (about $1,600) “and a housing certificate,” Stremousov added.

Some context: Evacuation offers like this have sparked concerns that Ukrainian citizens may be forced to go to Russian territory against their will. 

A Kherson city resident told CNN over the weekend they viewed the idea of getting on an “evacuation bus” to Crimea as a “one-way ticket.” CNN is not identifying the resident for their safety.

Reports emerged early in the war of tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians being forcibly sent to so-called “filtration centers” before being moved to Russia. Moscow denounced the claims as lies, alleging that Ukraine has hindered its efforts to “evacuate” people to Russia.

Kherson is one of four regions Russia has said it will annex from Ukraine in violation of international law. 

North Korea on Tuesday denied dealing arms to Russia following US accusations that Pyongyang is secretly supplying Moscow with weapons for use in the Ukraine war.

The United States was attempting "to tarnish the image" of North Korea "in the international arena," according to a statement by the vice director of military foreign affairs at North Korea’s Defense Ministry published by state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Some background: Last week, declassified US intelligence said North Korea is secretly supplying Russia with a significant number of artillery shells for use in Ukraine and is trying to hide the shipments by making it appear as if the ammunition is being sent to countries in the Middle East or North Africa.

US officials believe the alleged surreptitious North Korean shipments — along with drones and other weaponry that Russia has acquired from Iran — are further evidence that even Moscow’s conventional artillery arsenals have dwindled during eight months of combat.

The report follows a US statement in September that North Korea intends to supply weapons to Russia including rockets and artillery shells, which Pyongyang promptly denied.

In a letter purportedly sent from the front lines to a regional governor in Russia, the men of the 155th Brigade of the Russian Pacific Fleet Marines say they were thrown into an "incomprehensible battle" in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

The letter, published by a prominent Russian military blog on Monday, was sent to the governor of Primorsky Krai.

"Once again we were thrown into an incomprehensible battle by General Muradov and his brother-in-law, his countryman Akhmedov, so that Muradov could earn bonuses to make him look good in the eyes of Gerasimov [Russia's Chief of the General Staff]," it said.

In the letter, they asked the governor, Oleg Kozhemyako, "For how long will such mediocrities as Muradov and Akhmedov be allowed to continue to plan the military actions just to keep up appearances and gain awards at the cost of so many people's lives?"

CNN cannot verify how many soldiers signed the letter nor their ranks, but Kozhemyako confirmed he had received a letter from the soldiers of the unit.

A US citizen recently died in Ukraine, the US State Department said Monday, the latest known American to die in the country since Russia’s invasion in February.

While the State Department did not name the individual, the International Legion of the Defense of Ukraine identified Timothy Griffin as a US citizen killed during combat in Eastern Ukraine.

Both the State Department and Ukraine’s International Legion said they were in touch with family of the deceased and asked the public to respect their privacy.

At least five other Americans are known to have been killed in the country fighting alongside Ukrainian forces during the ongoing conflict with Russia.

Read more here.

Senior US officials have in recent weeks been urging Ukraine to signal that it is still open to diplomatic discussions with Russia, amid concerns that public support for the country’s war effort could wane with no end to the conflict in sight and neither side willing to begin peace talks, sources familiar with the discussions told CNN.

The discussions are not aimed at encouraging the Ukrainians to negotiate now — rather, the US wants Kyiv to convey more clearly that it wants to find a resolution to the conflict and that Ukraine has the moral high ground, sources said.

Officials including national security adviser Jake Sullivan began more urgently pressing the Ukrainians to shift their rhetoric after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree in early October ruling out any negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. That decree came in response to Russia’s self-declared annexation of territories in eastern Ukraine following sham referendums there.

Sullivan discussed the issue directly with Zelensky during a trip to Kyiv last week, the sources said. He expressed the US’ view that categorically ruling out any talks with Putin plays into the Russian leader’s hand by fueling the Kremlin narrative that the Ukrainians are refusing to talk.

The Washington Post first reported that the US is urging Ukraine to appear open to talks.

Read more here.