February 15, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

A Ukrainian soldier has told CNN of the "difficult" attempts to defend the few remaining routes into the city of Bakhmut, as the grinding battle for control of the eastern Donetsk region intensifies.

More than 25 settlements were shelled in eastern Ukraine Tuesday along what the Ukrainian military calls the "Bakhmut axis," including in the city and a number of nearby villages.

One of the villages -- Paraskoviivka -- is immediately to the north of Bakhmut and adjacent to the village of Krasna Hora. Fighters of the Russian private military group Wagner occupy parts of Krasna Hora, according to geolocated video.

The Ukrainian military on Monday disputed Russia's claim that it had taken control of Krasna Hora.

"Both we and the enemy understand the importance of this settlement," he said.

He dismissed reports on pro-Russian social media channels that 1,500 Ukrainian soldiers were surrounded as "nonsense" but said the situation in the city was "very difficult, everyone understands this."

CNN has spoken to the soldier several times in recent weeks. 

The Ukrainians' defense of Paraskoviivka is intended to protect one of the last remaining routes into Bakhmut, as most of the main roads into the city are either controlled by Russian troops or under their fire control.

Some of the routes into the city are dirt roads, which may become impassable as the weather warms, and frozen ground turns to mud.

Ukrainian officials say that the decision earlier this week to limit civilian and journalists’ access to the eastern city of Bakhmut was necessary both for the safety of those groups, and to protect operational security.

Ukrainian officials this week said non-local civilians would not be allowed to enter the city, and that stricter protocols had been put in place for journalists to travel there.

“Bakhmut is not closed, but a procedure has been introduced there to help preserve health and life, and prevent unnecessary information from leaking,” Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesman for the Eastern Grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said on national television on Monday.

He said that it was necessary “to ensure maximum control over who is there.” He denied that “censorship” was a goal saying that authorities were trying to protect “the troops, so that there is no unnecessary information, and the people who will work there.”

The Ukrainian military was trying to limit movement to, and within, the city, a deputy commander in the National Guard said on television Monday.

“Unfortunately the two roads [into the city] are under enemy fire control,” meaning Russia is capable of regularly striking any Ukrainian vehicle on the road, said Volodymyr Nazarenko of the 4th Brigade’s Svoboda Battalion. “The roads have not been cut off but the enemy is capable of firing at any means of transportation. There are lots of UAVs.”

“Lots of roads are under enemy fire control. This is why we need to reduce visual presence within the city."

The delivery of British fighter jets for Ukraine is likely to be years away, the UK defence secretary said Wednesday, reiterating that its decision to train Ukrainian pilots is aimed at “long-term resilience,” rather than the current Russian invasion.

“When it comes to fighter jets, I don’t think it’s going to be in the next few months, or even years, that we are going to necessarily hand over fighter jets,” Ben Wallace told BBC television.

“You just can’t learn to fly in a week or two. It will take a long time. But also they come with effectively a pit crew, like a Formula One team. You come with hundreds of engineers and pilots. And that’s not something you can just generate in a few months. And we’re not going to deploy two hundred RAF personnel into Ukraine in the time of a war.”

The UK government said last week during a visit by President Volodymyr Zelensky that it will begin training Ukrainian pilots on NATO-standard fighter jets. “The training will ensure pilots are able to fly sophisticated NATO-standard fighter jets in the future,” a statement from Downing Street read.

Wallace said that the British decision to begin training Ukrainian pilots was about the long-term.

“We have to plan not only for the fight at the moment, where we help Ukraine through seeing off Russia’s illegal invasion, but we have to help Ukraine with its long-term resilience, in making sure that after this conflict, or this war, Ukraine is able to defend itself for the long run.”

Some background: Zelensky lobbied strongly last week for allies to send modern fighter jets to Ukraine. On Tuesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said a decision by NATO allies on whether to send fighter jets to Ukraine is "not the most urgent issue" right now.

Speaking to reporters in Brussels before a meeting of NATO defense ministers, Stoltenberg said: "The urgent need now is to deliver what has always been promised. To deliver the armored vehicles, the infantry fighting vehicles, the German martyrs, the US Bradleys and of course also the main battle tanks, the Leopards and the other battle tanks that have been pledged."

Russia’s Embassy in Washington has dismissed a US report that alleges Moscow is operating a network of camps holding thousands of Ukrainian children as "absurd."

The embassy also accused the United States of being complicit in the alleged deaths of children in Russian-occupied parts of eastern Ukraine.

What's in the report: It says more than 6,000 children have been in Russian custody at some point during the course of the nearly year-long war, although the “total number of children is not known and is likely significantly higher than 6,000.”

The report was produced as a part of the work of the US State Department-backed Conflict Observatory by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab established last year to gather evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

“All levels of Russia’s government are involved,” Yale Humanitarian Research Lab’s Nathaniel Raymond told reporters Tuesday.

“The primary purpose of the camps appears to be political reeducation,” he said, noting that at least 32 of the facilities identified in the report “appear to be engaged in systematic re-education efforts that expose children from Ukraine to Russia-centric academic, cultural, patriotic, and in two cases, specifically military education.

The findings could provide evidence that Russia’s actions amount to genocide, according to the report.

Western intelligence shows that Russia is amassing aircraft near its border with Ukraine in an apparent attempt to bolster its faltering land offensive with jets and helicopters, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing two officials briefed on the matter.

Intelligence shared among NATO members showed that Russia has been accumulating fixed-wing and rotary aircraft close to its border with Ukraine, the two officials reportedly told the Financial Times.

"We don't currently see that": In a news conference following the meeting with NATO defense ministers on Tuesday, US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said they did not see an immediate threat but underscored the potential danger of Russian air forces.

A senior administration reportedly told the Financial Times that Russia would likely turn to an air offensive now as its land forces are depleted.

“The Russian land forces are pretty depleted so it’s the best indication that they will turn this into an air fight. If the Ukrainians are going to survive . . . they need to have as many air defense capabilities and as much ammunition . . . as possible,” the official told the Financial Times.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that allies in the alliance, working closely with the EU, will continue supporting Ukraine "for as long as it takes" so that Kyiv can "uphold its right to self-defense." 

An unlikely group is fighting to defend Ukraine from Vladimir Putin’s attacks.

Known as the Free Russia Legion, the group is made entirely of Russian soldiers.

Lynsey Addario, a New York Times photojournalist, told CNN's Erin Burnett on Tuesday the group is motivated "by various reasons."

Addario, who recently returned from a trip documenting the Ukrainian front lines, said Russian forces "really would like to target" members of the Free Russia Legion "because they're their own countrymen fighting for the enemy."

In a photo Addario captured during her visit, she recalled the story of one of the group's members, named Zaza.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the situation in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions remains extremely difficult but Russia's prolonged involvement in the battles there reduces its capacity to fight elsewhere in Ukraine.

Earlier, the Ukrainian General Staff said Russian forces are continuing air and ground offensives near Bakhmut, Shakhtarsk, Avdiivka and other towns in the Donetsk region. 

Russian rockets hit civilian infrastructure in the Donetsk region in two separate attacks, resulting in several wounded civilians, it said.

The Russian government is operating an expansive network of dozens of camps where it has held thousands of Ukrainian children since the start of the war against Ukraine last year, according to a new report released Tuesday.

The report contains disturbing new details about the extent of Moscow’s efforts to relocate, re-educate, and sometimes militarily train or forcibly adopt out Ukrainian children — actions that constitute war crimes and could provide evidence that Russia’s actions amount to genocide, it said.

The report was produced as a part of the work of the US State Department-backed Conflict Observatory by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab. The Observatory was established last year to gather evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

The report found that found that more than 6,000 children — ranging in age from mere months old to 17 — have been in Russian custody at some point during the course of the nearly year-long war, although the “total number of children is not known and is likely significantly higher than 6,000.”

It identified 43 facilities that are a part of the network, which “stretches from one end of Russia to the other,” including Russian-occupied Crimea, the “eastern Pacific Coast – closer to Alaska than it is to Moscow,” and Siberia, Raymond said.

CNN has asked Russia’s embassy in Washington for comment on the report.

Read more here.

Vadym Khodak beams and leans forward. He’s almost bouncing on his feet.

His smile speaks volumes, revealing deep furrows that a year of front line fighting have etched on his face. “I’m 57,” he says. “I’m a former tank driver and I volunteered to fight the day Russia invaded.”

That was almost a year ago.

Now he’s an army major and leading Ukraine’s new tank training in western Poland. His troops are the first to get their hands on the new Leopard 2 tanks that NATO allies spent months debating before finally agreeing in January to give Ukraine.

So far, Khodak’s crews are learning shooting skills on simulators and combat driving. Plunging through plumes of smoke, the 60-ton tanks plough through the soft forest dirt at Poland’s main tank range, in Swietoszow, near the German border.

Tucked away in a nearby airy modern hangar are simulators where the 21 crews on the training mission can learn how to use the machines’ highly effective sighting, target seeking and killer gun capabilities. Kyiv’s hope is that the weapons will deliver a punch to Russian forces and take back lost territory.

Read more here.