November 17, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that the United States is “sharing the information that we have” with Ukraine, adding that all partners – the US, NATO, Poland, and Ukraine – have “a commitment to follow the facts” regarding the deadly incident in eastern Poland.

“We've been in regular contact with our Ukrainian partners,” Blinken said at a press conference in Bangkok. “We’re sharing the information that we have.”

Blinken reiterated that the investigation is ongoing but the US has “seen nothing so far that contradicts President Duda’s preliminary assessment that that this was likely the result of Ukrainian air defense missile that unfortunately landed in in Poland.”

Despite the Polish and NATO initial assessments, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had publicly argued on Tuesday and early Wednesday that the missile was not Ukrainian.

In his Wednesday night address, he said, "The Ukrainian position is very transparent: we want to establish all the details, every fact. That is why we need our experts to join the work of the international investigation and to get access to all the data available to our partners and to the site of the explosion."

Blinken said Thursday that Zelensky “has been in touch with the Polish president himself to clarify the facts.”

“The chair of Ukraine's national security and defense council said that Ukraine is pursuing a comprehensive analysis of what happened,” the top US diplomat said.

The US is running low on some high-end weapons systems and ammunition available to transfer to Ukraine, three US officials with direct knowledge tell CNN.

The strain on weapons stockpiles – and the ability of the US industrial base to keep up with demand – is one of the key challenges facing the Biden administration as the US continues to send billions of dollars of weapons to Ukraine to support its fight against Russia. One of the officials said the stockpiles of certain systems are “dwindling” after nearly nine months of sending supplies to Kyiv during the high-intensity war, as there’s “finite amount” of excess stocks which the US has available to send.

Among the weapons systems where there’s particular concern about US stockpiles meeting Ukrainian demands are 155mm artillery ammunition and Stinger anti-aircraft shoulder-fired missiles, the sources said.

Some sources also raised concerns about US production of additional weapons systems, including HARMs anti-radiation missiles, GMLRS surface-to-surface missiles and the portable Javelin anti-tank missiles – although the US has moved to ramp up production for those and other systems.

For the first time in two decades, the US is not directly involved in a conflict after withdrawing from Afghanistan and transitioning to an advisory role in Iraq. Without the need to produce weapons and ammunition for a war, the US has not manufactured the quantities of material needed to sustain an enduring, high-intensity conflict.

Multiple officials underscored that the US would never put at risk its own readiness, and every shipment is measured against its impact on US strategic reserves and war plans.

In newly liberated parts of the Kherson region, Ukrainian war crimes investigators have found 11 detention centers and evidence of “torture” used in four of them, said Ukraine's internal affairs minister Wednesday evening. 

"Eleven places of detention have been discovered, of which torture was used in four places," Denys Monastyrskyi told Ukrainian TV.

After Russian forces retreated across the Dnipro river last week, Ukrainian forces reclaimed much of the Kherson region, including the regional capital.

The police and Ukrainian security services were working to gather evidence, “recording every fact of torture, finding witnesses, as well as exhuming the bodies of the dead,” Monastyrskyi said. 

While he did not specify locations, he said 63 bodies had been found so far.

CNN cannot independently verify Monastyrskyi’s claims.

Russia has previously denied allegations of war crimes and claimed its forces do not target civilians, despite extensive evidence gathered by international human rights experts, criminal investigators and international media in multiple locations. 

On Tuesday, Alexander Malkevich, a member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, an advisory body largely packed with pro-government loyalists, said that Kyiv was planning to accuse the Russian military of crimes in Kherson, in an interview on Russian state-owned Sputnik radio.

As Russia launches more missile attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, one of the country's electricity suppliers says the situation is "very difficult" but under control.

The CEO of DTEK, Dmytro Sakharuk, told Ukrainian television that "on average in the country, about 40% of consumers are left without electricity as of now."

DTEK Group is a leading private investor in Ukraine's energy sector.

Sakharuk said the "Russians have caused very serious damage to transmission facilities — these are substations that transmit electricity from one district to another, through which many regions in the center and west are supplied." 

He said one of the company's thermal power plants had been hit, and the damage had shut it down.

He warned about the prospect for days-long power outages.

"Now we must be prepared for the fact that there may be no electricity for days," he said. "Now we are going to talk not about scheduled power outages, but about scheduled power supply. And, unfortunately, the number of hours during which these power supplies will be turned on will be very short, 2-3 hours maximum."

Sakharuk's comments came as temperatures dropped across Ukraine, and Kyiv saw its first snowfall of the winter. 

Four KH-101 cruise missiles and five Iranian-made drones were shot down amid a wave of missile attacks by Russia on Thursday, the Ukrainian Air Force says.

The targets included an enterprise in Dnipropetrovsk region and a gas production facility, it noted. The Kremlin has stepped up attacks on Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure in the last several weeks.

The four cruise missiles brought down were destroyed by Air Command "Center" and all five Iranian-made Shahed UAVs that attacked Ukraine from the territory of Belarus were destroyed in the central region, it added.

In the south, the Air Force said, air defenses destroyed two Kh-59 guided missiles.

In recent weeks, Ukrainian air defenses have destroyed about two-thirds of incoming missiles, and a higher proportion of Iranian drones.

A Dutch court said Moscow had control of the Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine when Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was shot down in 2014, killing all 298 people onboard.

Hendrik Steenhuis, the presiding judge, is reading the coutr's verdict in the trial of three Russians and one Ukrainian separatist who are accused of mass murder for their roles in the downing of the jet.

The court also found that a Russian-made Buk missile was used to bring down MH17.

A Dutch court has found that a Russian-made Buk missile was used to bring down Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing all 298 people onboard.

A judge at the court is reading its verdict in the trial of three Russians and one Ukrainian separatist who are accused of mass murder for their roles in the downing of the jet.

Several gas production facilities in eastern Ukraine were destroyed and others damaged after “massive shelling” on Thursday, according to Ukraine’s state-owned energy firm Naftogaz.

“We are currently aware of several destroyed facilities, other ones have suffered damage of varying degrees,” said Naftogaz chairman Oleksii Chernyshov in a statement.

Experts were on site to assess the consequences of the attack, he added.

Some context: Russian shelling and missile strikes continued to target civilian infrastructure in various parts of Ukraine overnight, including gas and electricity facilities, according to Ukrainian officials.

Air raid sirens sounded across the country, with strikes reported in the city of Dnipro, in central Ukraine; Izium, in the northern Kharkiv region; Vilniansk in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region; and the southern Odesa region.

A Russian missile strike on Vilniansk in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region killed at least four people overnight, Oleksandr Starukh, head of the regional administration, said on Telegram.

Starukh said three missiles had hit Vilniansk, sharing photos of a residential building which had been destroyed. 

“Currently, four victims have been found under the rubble. Their identities are being established,” he said.

Pictures posted by Ukraine’s State Emergency Service showed dozens of rescuers working at the scene.

Some context: Russian shelling and missile strikes continued to target civilian infrastructure in various parts of Ukraine overnight, including gas and electricity facilities, according to Ukrainian officials.

Air raid sirens sounded across the country, with strikes reported in the city of Dnipro, in central Ukraine; Izium, in the northern Kharkiv region; and the southern Odesa region.

Russia's renewed barrage comes after Moscow's forces fired around 100 missiles on at least a dozen cities and districts Tuesday, according to Ukrainian officials and a CNN analysis of the strikes.

The attacks appeared to be the largest since October 10, when Russia stepped up its campaign to destroy electricity, water and gas infrastructure across Ukraine.