December 5, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The Israeli satellite imagery company ImageSat International has published images showing what appears to be the aftermath of an explosion at the Dyagilevo air base in Russia.

"On an image from 05.12.2022, burn marks and objects are seen near a Tu-22M aircraft that was probably damaged," it said. ISI made the images available to CNN.

Some background: The base is one of two which the Russian Defense Ministry says were attacked by Ukrainian drones on Monday.

In a statement carried on the official Russian news agency RIA Novosti, the Ministry said the attacks were "in the Saratov and Ryazan regions" but the "Ukrainian drones flying at low altitude" were intercepted by air defenses.

Ukraine has not confirmed that it attacked either airfield. Recent satellite imagery shows a substantial number of Russian strategic bombers at the Engels airbase in Saratov.

CNN's Tim Lister and Darya Tarasova contributed reporting to this post.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made it more difficult to stage protests in the country by signing a new law which bans any kind of rally from taking place at a range of locations.

Protests will be banned in areas like, government buildings, universities, schools, anywhere near churches, airports and ports, railway stations and vital infrastructure, state news agency RIA said Monday.

Previously, rallies were forbidden from taking place near presidential residences, courts, prisons and emergency operational services.

Regional authorities can additionally introduce further bans on demonstrations based on “historical, cultural, and other objective characteristics of the subject." 

Putin signed almost 50 laws on Monday according to RIA.

The Biden administration downplayed concerns that a price cap on Russian oil could backfire and hurt the global economy Monday, reiterating that the US reserves the right to adjust the price going forward as the cap begins to be implemented. 

On Friday, the European Union's 27 member states capped Russian oil at $60 a barrel, days before G7 and Australia begin to implement a price cap, set to start Monday. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Moscow will “not recognize any price caps” and warned that it was “a step towards destabilizing the world energy market.”

Global crude prices were up 2.6% on Monday as investors watched nervously for Russia’s next move.

National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby dismissed long-term effects of the price cap.

Kirby said the US believes that “this cap will lock in a discount on Russian oil,” adding that the US “fully” supports the $60 price cap announced last week and “stand behind it.”

Kirby suggested that the price cap will allow countries to “bargain for steeper discounts on Russian oil” but was “not intended to eliminate Russian oil from the market.”

“We believe it’s going to help limit Mr. Putin’s ability to profiteer off the oil market. It’s also, you know, adjustable. It doesn’t mean we can’t come back and revisit it if we need to,” he said.

CCTV footage geolocated by CNN to the Russian city of Engels, where a Russian air base is located, appears to show an explosion lighting up the sky at around 6 a.m. on Monday morning.

Engels is a port city on the Volga River located in Saratov Oblast, in western Russia, around 500 miles (more than 800 kilometers) southeast of Moscow. The CCTV footage shared on social media was recorded approximately 3.7 miles (nearly 6 kilometers) away from where the Engels-2 airfield is located, a strategic bomber airbase.

Saratov region Gov. Roman Busargin, reassured residents on Telegram that no civilian infrastructure was damaged but said “information about incidents at military facilities is being checked by law enforcement agencies.”

He acknowledged information about “about a loud bang and a burst in Engels in the early morning” was spreading on social networks and the media.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was asked about this incident and another explosion at a Russian airfield near the city of Ryazan, around 200 kilometers (about 124 miles) southeast of Moscow, during a regular call with journalists on Monday.

CNN had contacted the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment.

Later Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukraine used drones to attack two Russian military airfields on Monday morning.

In a statement carried on the official Russian news agency RIA Novosti, the ministry said the attacks were "in the Saratov and Ryazan regions" but had been intercepted by air defenses.

Russian state media also reported three people were killed and six injured after a fuel truck exploded at the Russian airfield near the city of Ryazan. The explosion occurred at an aircraft parking lot at the airfield, emergency services told state news agency TASS on Monday.

Pro-Russian bloggers have said that the incidents were likely an act of sabotage from Ukraine.

Yurii Ihnat, spokesperson for the Command of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, shared a social media report of a “blast at the Engels airfield” on Facebook but made no claim of responsibility. “And who did it?,” he wrote.

Later on national television Ihnat referenced the blasts while announcing the launch of a new Russian missile attack towards Ukraine, saying: “We have information that today there were blasts at the Engels airfield. And immediately after that there was a commotion at this airfield.

“Perhaps it is not connected with this, but still we see that strategic bombers have taken off and the first wave of missiles was already launched. There may be several of them [waves], they may use several waves of attacks to disperse the missiles throughout Ukraine and to confuse the actions of our air defense.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukraine used drones to attack two Russian military airfields on Monday morning.

In a statement carried on the official Russian news agency RIA Novosti, the ministry said the attacks were "in the Saratov and Ryazan regions" but had been intercepted by air defenses.

"The air defense of the Russian Aerospace Forces intercepted these Ukrainian drones flying at low altitude," the Ministry added. "Three Russian soldiers were killed, four more were injured in the attack."

"As a result of the fall and explosion at the Russian airfields of the wreckage of [the] jet drones, the skin of two aircraft was slightly damaged," it said.

Ukraine has not confirmed that it attacked either airfield. Recent satellite imagery shows a substantial number of Russian strategic bombers at the Engels airbase in Saratov.

Several regions of Ukraine have reported interruptions to power and water supplies amid freezing temperatures after about 70 Russian missiles were fired at targets across the country.

The Ukrainian Air Force said the great majority of missiles were intercepted, but some appear to have reached their targets.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Russia "tried to implement its criminal plan — to plunge Ukraine into darkness and cold. The enemy once again failed in its plan."

"The country's energy system is functioning and remains intact," Shmyhal added.

But he said there were "hits to power facilities in Kyiv region, Vinnytsia region and Odesa region. In some regions, emergency shutdowns were forced to balance the system and avoid accidents. Rescuers are already working to eliminate the consequences of the attack."

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that the missile attacks showed Ukraine still needed more air defenses.

Impacted areas: Odesa appears to have been among the worst affected regions. Maksym Marchenko, head of Odesa regional state administration, said energy infrastructure was damaged and there were also hits to civilian buildings, wounding two people.

"Currently, there is no electricity supply in Odesa city and most communities of Odesa district. All services are on the ground and have already started to restore power supply," the official said.

One of Ukraine's major electricity providers, DTEK, said there were "emergency blackouts" in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. These are in addition to scheduled power outages already in effect.

"We will resume the stabilization schedules as soon as the situation in the power system stabilizes," DTEK said.

Oleksiy Kuleba, head of Kyiv region military administration, said on Ukrainian television that "one energy infrastructure facility was hit in the Kyiv region. The attack was extremely dynamic, there were many targets. We will be able to give a clearer analysis of what happened within the next two hours. I can say that we do not see any critical consequences."

Kuleba added: "Emergency shutdowns continue in Kyiv region now. Currently, about 40% of subscribers are without power supply. This is an emergency shutdown. We are currently consulting on when we will be able to supply power to all consumers."

The Ivano-Frankivsk region also reported power cuts as a result of Russian missile attacks Monday, with the head of the region's state administration, Svitlana Onyshchuk, saying the regional power distribution company had reported that "due to massive shelling of the energy infrastructure facilities," NPC Ukrenergo had reduced electricity capacity in the Prykarpattia area by one-third. Prykarpattia is located near the Carpathian mountains in western Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Air Force said that more than 60 Russian missiles were intercepted on Monday.

In a statement on Telegram, the air force said that a "massive attack on critical infrastructure" had been repelled.

"The enemy also struck with 22 'Kalibr' cruise missiles from the Black Sea Fleet ships," it noted. "In addition, Ukraine was attacked from the Black Sea by Tu-22m3 long-range bombers with three cruise missiles, as well as Su-35 fighters with six guided missiles."

In the past, Ukrainian air defenses have been able to take out about two thirds of the missiles fired in barrages by Russian forces. The last such wave was on Nov. 23.  

President Vladimir Putin was filmed driving and walking on the Kerch Bridge, according to Russian state media and video. 

The bridge has been a major flashpoint in the war in Ukraine. On Oct. 8, a large explosion took place on the bridge that destroyed a large section. The bridge is the only land route that connects mainland Russia to illegally-annexed Crimea.

In one of the videos from state media, Putin is seen at the wheel of a Mercedes vehicle, sitting beside the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin. In another, he is seen walking along a section of the bridge with a hood pulled up on his coat.

Five images released by the Kremlin website show Putin accompanied by the deputy prime minister. 

In the driving video, Khusnullin says to Putin that “metal was available for bridge parts, so the metal was brought over to build these structures, and within two weeks all the 1214 tonnes were assembled and brought here,” an apparent reference to the damaged that the Kerch Bridge sustain on Oct. 8.

In the video released by Russian state TV, President PO Putin is heard asking “how many people worked on the repairs.” Khunsnullin replies, “500 people, 3 floating cranes, 4 barges and 31 pieces of equipment around the clock.”

CCTV from the time when the bridge sustained damage in October showed a truck exploding and the Kremlin was quick to point the finger at Kyiv. Putin alleged that the act was an “sabotage” by Ukrainian special services.

In 2018, Putin symbolically drove a truck across the Kerch Bridge to mark its opening. It was greeted with much fanfare on Russian state TV at the time.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill banning so-called LGBTQ “propaganda” in Russia, in the latest crackdown on human rights in the country.

The new laws significantly broaden the scope of a 2013 law which banned the dissemination of LGBTQ-related information to minors. The new iteration extends the ban on promoting such information to adults as well.

The new laws make it illegal to promote or “praise” LGBTQ relationships, publicly express non-heterosexual orientations or suggest that they are “normal.”

The package of amendments signed by Putin include heavier penalties for anyone promoting “non-traditional sexual relations and/or preferences,” as well as pedophilia and gender transition. Under the new law, it will be banned across the internet, media, books, audiovisual services, cinema, and advertising.

Under the new law, individuals can be fined up to 400,000 rubles ($6,370) for “LGBT propaganda” and up to 200,000 rubles ($3,185) for “demonstrations of LGBT and information that encourages a change of gender among teenagers.”

These fines rise to up to 5 million rubles ($80,000) and 4 million rubles ($64,000) respectively for legal entities.

The law was approved by the Russia’s upper and lower houses in recent weeks.

More background: The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2017 that the 2013 law is discriminatory, promotes homophobia and violates the European Convention on Human Rights.

The court found that the law “served no legitimate public interest,” rejecting suggestions that public debate on LGBT issues could influence children to become homosexual, or that it threatened public morals.

Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, but homophobia and discrimination is still rife. It is ranked 46th out of 49 European countries for LGBTQ+ inclusion by watchdog ILGA-Europe.

Speaking before Putin signed the bill into the law on Monday, Tanya Lokshina, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch said: “The 2013 ‘gay propaganda’ law was an unabashed example of political homophobia, and the new draft legislation amplifies that in broader and harsher ways.”