January 17, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

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

The Shakhtar Donetsk players line up before the UEFA Champions League group F match at Celtic Park, Glasgow, on October 25, 2022.

Ukrainian soccer club Shakhtar Donetsk on Monday launched a $25 million project to support the defenders of Mariupol and their families.

The “Heart of Azovstal” initiative comes after the club sold star player Mykhailo Mudryk to English Premier League side Chelsea. Azovstal is a reference to the massive steelworks plant in Mariupol, where Ukrainians held off Russian forces during a monthlong siege last year until they were eventually forced to evacuate.

“The money will be used to cover different needs – from providing medical and prosthetic treatment and psychological support to meeting specific requests,” Shakhtar president Rinat Akhmetov said.

The club will receive a Ukrainian record-breaking transfer fee of $75 million for 22-year-old Mudryk with an additional $35 million expected as a bonus payment, the club said in a statement Sunday.  

Shakhtar CEO Sergei Palkin talks with CNN.

CNN World Sport’s Don Riddell caught up with Shakhtar CEO Sergei Palkin, who described the challenges of playing football during a war.

He continued, “We understood, what we are doing on the pitch, it’s because… in support of our people, of our refugees, of our Ukrainian army and because of them.”

The death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment block in Dnipro on Saturday has risen to 45 as search teams continue to sift through the rubble. At least 19 people are still missing after one of the deadliest attacks of the war, according to officials.

Here are some of the latest developments:

International support: European Commission President Ursula von de Leyen told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday that Western allies need to “step up” the level of military support and equipment being sent to Ukraine. And on Tuesday, a series of countries made announcements to do just that.

Dnipro missile attack: A small memorial at the foot of a statue of a Ukrainian writer appeared in Moscow on Tuesday commemorating the 45 people who died in the Dnipro apartment bombing. It is not clear who started the memorial.

Impending import ban: Europe is scrambling to buy diesel fuel from Russia before a ban on imports comes into force in early February. But the frantic stockpiling is unlikely to prevent a new price shock for truckers, drivers and businesses.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte pledged that aid to Ukraine will not stop until the war stops.

Rutte emphasized it was up to Ukraine whether to engage in peace talks. “The only one who can decide it is Volodymyr Zelensky, sitting in Kyiv, the President of Ukraine. It cannot be the Netherlands, the US or any other countries that decide that for Ukraine.”

He also praised the US for supplying Ukraine with military gear, calling it “impressive” and “a game changer.”

He added that the fate of the West was at stake in the war, which is why the Netherlands was committed to supporting Ukraine for as long as was needed.

“If Putin would win this, it won’t stop at Ukraine. It will continue, and then, in the end, the collective safety of the whole West is under threat,” Rutte said.

The White House teased that additional Ukrainian aid could be announced “as soon as the end of this week,” while vowing to work to hold President Vladimir Putin responsible for any war crimes committed during Russia’s invasion of the country.  

“I suspect that you will continue to hear coming from the United States additional packages of security assistance, additional weapons and capabilities for Ukraine – perhaps as soon as the end of this week,” National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. 

Kirby didn’t answer when asked if the package would include tanks for the Ukrainians, saying he didn’t “want to get ahead of things we haven’t announced yet,” but he said the US was focused “on trying to make sure that we are giving Ukraine what they need in the fight that they’re in.”

He was also asked if the Russian missile strike on an apartment building in Dnipro, Ukraine, that killed dozens, including six children, was a war crime.

Kirby said the US had been “very, very clear and honest about the fact that the Russian Armed Forces continue to commit atrocities and war crimes” and would work with the international community to hold Russia accountable. 

“It is just egregious to look at what Mr. Putin did here over the last 48 hours or so in hitting an apartment complex with no military value whatsoever,” he said. “It wasn’t about knocking out power or water. It was about killing innocent civilians while they were at home.” 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a joint press conference with British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly at the State Department in Washington, DC on Tuesday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday the support Washington has provided to Kyiv has evolved throughout the course of the war as the United States is determined to give Ukraine “what it needs to succeed on the battlefield.”

Blinken teased “more announcements” from the US coming out of the meeting of the Ramstein group, which Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will attend in Germany this week. Blinken did not get into details about what else the US might be providing to Ukraine.

He said the provision of US support started “when we saw the storm clouds gathering in the months before the aggression.”

The top US diplomat reiterated that the fastest way to end the war is “to give Ukraine a strong hand on the battlefield,” which is what the US is doing, he said.

Blinken praised the United Kingdom for its announcement that it will provide tanks to Ukraine, saying, “We applaud the prime minister’s commitment over the weekend to send Challenger 2 tanks and additional artillery systems to Ukraine, elements that will continue to reinforce and add to what the United States has provided, including in our most recent drawdown.”

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez during a meeting of the Federal Executive of the Socialist Party, in Madrid, Spain on January 9, 2023.

Spain’s prime minister on Tuesday stressed the need for long-term European unity in its support of Ukraine.  

In an interview with CNN’s Julia Chatterley at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that the price of Russia’s war on the Ukrainian people has been high.

When asked if he believed Putin had been weakened, Sánchez said that it was his impression that he had been.

Earlier, the prime minister warned delegates attending the forum that it is crucial the EU “fights the rotten seeds Putin has planted in our own countries.” 

The Russian president has allies in Europe who hide their sympathies and ties to Putin who must be prevented from destroying the EU from the inside, Sánchez said. 

In his address, he pledged to fight them with the same conviction the Ukrainians are fighting the Russian forces but with different weapons. 

The Netherlands plans to join the US and Germany in sending a Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said during a meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House on Tuesday.

“We have the intention to join what you are doing with Germany on the Patriots project, so the air defense system. I think that is important that we join that,” Rutte said, adding that he’s already discussed the issue with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

A Dutch defense ministry spokesperson declined to comment beyond Rutte’s statement.

Biden and Rutte “reaffirmed the historic ties and shared values that link” the US and the Netherlands when they met Tuesday, the White House said, in a readout of the meeting. 

The two leaders, “reviewed our steadfast political, security, economic, and humanitarian support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s brutal war of aggression, including our efforts to hold Russia accountable for its abuses and for the war crimes committed by Russian forces,” according to the readout. They also discussed “growing cooperation on other foreign policy priorities, including our shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

More on the Patriot missile system: The Patriot’s radar system combines “surveillance, tracking, and engagement functions in one unit,” a description from the Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) says, which makes it stand out among other air defense systems. The system’s engagements with incoming aerial threats are “nearly autonomous” aside from needing a “final launch decision” from the humans operating it. Patriot – an acronym for Phased Array Tracking Radar for intercept on Target – system is considered one of the most capable long-range air defense systems on the market. 

CNN’s Haley Britzky contributed reporting to this post.

The US Defense Department confirmed that “upwards of 90 to 100 Ukrainians” have all arrived at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and have begun their training on the Patriot missile system.

On Monday, the US Army base announced that Ukrainian troops had arrived at the location to begin training. CNN was first to report that the training was set to begin as soon as this week.

Fort Sill is home to the Fires Center of Excellence where the US conducts Patriot training for its own military and other countries. 

The training will take “several months” on the advanced, but complex long-range aerial defense system, according to Pentagon officials. It’s not clear how much the military can accelerate the training program.

US President Joe Biden, right, speaks while meeting with Mark Rutte, Netherlands prime minister, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on Tuesday.

United States President Joe Biden thanked Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte for “standing strong with Ukraine,” while blasting Russia for “just continuing to act in ways that are almost unbelievable in its brutality.”

Biden made the comments from the Oval Office after welcoming Rutte to the White House Tuesday,

The president called the Netherlands, “one of our strongest allies and personal friends —and you’ve been a great, great personal ally as well,” he said alongside Rutte.

Commander in Chief of the Ukrainian armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi attends a session of the Ukrainian Parliament in Kyiv, Ukraine, on December 28.

Ukraine’s top general said he had his first ever in-person meeting with his US counterpart Gen. Mark Milley in Poland on Tuesday.

Milley and Zaluzhnyi discussed “the unprovoked and ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine,” according to a readout of the meeting provided by the US general’s office.

Later this week, Milley will attend the next meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group in Ramstein, Germany, when the US and approximately 50 other countries come together to pledge new support to Ukraine. On Monday, Milley saw the newly expanded combined arms training of Ukrainian forces in Germany.

“The Chairman reaffirmed unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” according to the readout.

The meeting between the generals came one day after Ukrainian troops arrived at Fort Sill in Oklahoma to begin training on the Patriot missile system, according to the US Army base.

Europe is scrambling to buy diesel fuel from Russia before a ban on imports comes into force in early February, but the frantic stockpiling is unlikely to prevent a new price shock for truckers, drivers and businesses.

In the first two weeks of January, European countries snapped up almost 8 million barrels of Russian diesel, according to energy data provider Vortexa, roughly on par with imports this time last year before Russia invaded Ukraine. Imports in the fourth quarter of 2022 were up nearly 19% on the same period the previous year.

Russia is the bloc’s biggest supplier, making up 29% of its total diesel imports last year, data from Rystad Energy shows.

Since Russia’s invasion in February last year, the European Union has made a huge effort to wean itself off Moscow’s oil and natural gas supplies.

EU countries drastically reduced their imports of crude from Russia ahead of the ban, but that isn’t happening with diesel because it’s much harder to find alternative sources of the fuel.

The EU ban will tighten the global market for diesel, according to Mark Williams, a research director at Wood Mackenzie, told CNN — unless Russia can successfully divert its cargoes to Latin America and Africa, regions which typically import from the United States. That would free up US barrels to be sent to Europe, plugging the gap left by Moscow, he said.

But importing diesel from suppliers further afield, including the United States and Saudi Arabia, will push up freight costs, feeding into higher consumer prices, he said.

According to Wood Mackenzie’s estimates, the price of a barrel of diesel will average $40 for the first three months of this year. That’s up a whopping 470% from the average price for the whole of 2021, before Russia’s invasion sent prices soaring.

Read more here.

The exposed interior of an apartment in the block in Dnpiro, Ukraine, on January 15.

The death toll from Saturday’s Russian attack on an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to 45, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk region military administration said Tuesday.

Another child was found among the dead, Valentyn Reznichenko said on Facebook. The total number of people killed now stands at at least 45, among whom six were children.

At least 19 people are still missing.

The British government decided to send heavy weaponry to Ukraine, including tanks, because the nation needs to give Russian President Vladimir Putin a “really clear message” about international support for Kyiv, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Tuesday.

Cleverly said Putin should understand that Britain is going to have “the strategic endurance to stick” with Ukraine until “the job is done.” He said support is constantly being reassessed by Ukraine’s partners and has evolved throughout the war, noting that “last year, we weren’t talking about tanks, and we weren’t talking about heavy artillery.” 

“Now what we recognize they need is the ability to push back hard and the east and the south,” Cleverly said in a conversation with CNN’s Kylie Atwood at The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. 

Cleverly would not preview future military support, but maintained that “our support has evolved and it is inevitable that it will continue to evolve.”

“This is what they need to get the job done. This is what we’re going to supply. And we’re going to supply modern heavy military equipment and the ammunition to allow them to defend themselves properly,” he said.

“What Putin should understand is we are going to have the strategic endurance to stick with them until the job is done, and the best thing that he can do to preserve the lives of his own troops is to recognize that we’re going to stick with Ukrainians until they are victorious, and bring that war to a conclusion and get around the negotiating table in good faith, and not these kind of performative things that he’s been doing up until now,” Cleverly continued, saying that such actions by the Russian leader would save lives and money.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, speaks to reporters on the opening day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on January 17.

Western allies need to “step up” the level of military support and equipment being sent to Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Tuesday.

Ukraine needs “all the military equipment” that “it can handle, and this also includes the advanced systems,” von der Leyen said.

“I hope very much that [at] Ramstein … that there will be a big move forward,” she added, referring to an upcoming meeting in Germany on Friday, where allies will meet Ukrainian defense officials at Ramstein Air Base as part of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.

Germany has come under pressure in recent days over the levels of military support it is sending to the war-torn nation, with the UK urging Berlin to send German-made Leopard tanks and to authorize others to do the same.

Von der Leyen also confirmed that a tenth round of sanctions against Russia is coming.

The tenth round “will be mainly focused on closing these loopholes, on finishing off with these circumventions, and on having massive consequences for those who circumvent the sanctions of the European Union,” she said.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley visited a site in Germany where the US is training Ukrainian forces on January 16.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley on Monday visited a site in Germany where the US is training Ukrainian forces.

The Defense Department released an image of Milley speaking with US Army officers at Grafenwoehr Training Area where the US began a previously announced joint maneuver and combined arms operations training program for Ukrainian battalions on Sunday.

Milley is in Germany ahead of a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group that he will host with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at Ramstein Air Base.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier held a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and told him that Germany “stands firmly by your side!”

According to a readout of the German Presidential Office on Tuesday, Steinmeier said the two countries “have never been as close and as important as they are now in the face of the Russian war of aggression.”

Steinmeier said: “Germany stands firmly by your side! We support Ukraine politically, humanitarianly, financially, militarily — with what we can and what is necessary, in coordination with our allies. “

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace arrives in Downing Street ahead of a Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street on December 13, in London, England.

Australian military personnel are set to be deployed to the United Kingdom to help train Ukrainian military, UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace said on Monday.

While speaking in parliament, Wallace said that the UK will train another 20,000 Ukrainian troops in 2023.  

Earlier on Tuesday, Russia said it was planning to increase its armed forces to 1.5 million servicemen due to what Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the “proxy war” in Ukraine that the West is waging.

Some background: Australia will be the ninth country to join the UK-led training mission, with Canada, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, New Zealand, and the Netherlands already part of it, Wallace added. 

Australia’s Ministry of Defense announced the move in a statement in October, saying it would deploy up to 70 Australian Defense Force personnel to the UK starting this month.

“Our soldiers will be part of a large training program in the United Kingdom to help prepare their Ukrainian mates for their struggle against Russia’s unwarranted and unlawful aggression,” Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Richard Marles said in that statement. 

Russia’s attack on a Dnipro apartment block in central Ukraine on Saturday has left five children without parents, Ukrainian police said on Tuesday.

Klymenko said that 20 people remain missing, and 15 bodies are still unidentified.

At least 44 people were killed in the attack, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. Among them were five children.

Lesya Ukrainka statue Moscow, Russia, on January 17.

A small memorial at the foot of a statue to a Ukrainian writer appeared in Moscow Tuesday commemorating the dead in the Dnipro apartment bombing. 

A CNN producer was able to visit the statue of Lesya Ukrainka in central Moscow and see flowers continuing to be laid. As part of the memorial there is a toy and a framed photograph of the damaged Dnipro apartment block. 

A video on social media appeared on Monday night showing a small gathering of flowers and the framed photo. 

It is not clear who started the memorial.

Some context: At least 44 people have died following a Russian cruise missile strike on an apartment block in Dnipro over the weekend. The strike is one of the deadliest single attacks of the war and is now confirmed to have killed at least four children.

Search teams are continuing to sift through the rubble left by a Russian missile strike on an apartment block in Dnipro Saturday. The attack killed at least 44 people, making it one of the deadliest single attacks of Moscow’s nearly eleven-month invasion of Ukraine.

Here are some of the latest developments:

Here’s where the state of control stands in Ukrainian territory:

An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed his resignation, after he suggested the rocket that hit an apartment block in Dnipro was downed by Ukraine.

“I wrote a letter of resignation. I want to set an example of civilized behaviour. A fundamental mistake means resignation,” Oleksiy Arestovych, posted on Facebook alongside a photo of his resignation letter.

Arestovych initially suggested that the rocket that hit the apartment block had been downed by Ukrainian air defense systems, rather than a direct hit. The rocket was a Kh-22.

However, the Ukrainian Air Force said Sunday that they did not have the capability to shoot down that type of rocket. Therefore, the attack was a direct hit.

Arestovych posted on Facebook ahead of his resignation that he acknowledges he had made “a serious mistake” on Ukrainian national TV following the Dnipro attack.

At least 44 people died, including four children, after a Russian cruise missile struck the nine-story block in the central Ukrainian city. President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack and said Russia’s actions amount to a “war crime.”

European Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen delivers a speech at the 2023 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on January 17.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska that the alliance’s support for her nation is “unwavering,” as world leaders and policymakers gathered at the World Economic Forum Tuesday.

The European Commission president said Europe had implemented “the strongest sanctions ever which leave the Russian economy facing a decade of regression and its industry starved of any modern and critical technologies.”

She reiterated that there would be “no impunity” for Russia’s actions and that there would be “no let-up in our steadfast support to Ukraine.”

Some context: Western allies of Kyiv, including the US, the UK and the European Union, have remained steadfast in their support for Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion.

Countries including Poland, France and the UK recently pledged to send tanks to the Ukrainian military, while the US announced a new $1.8 billion aid package to Ukraine in December.

Poland's President Andrzej Duda. left, and Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda take part in World Economic Forum (WEF) session "In Defence of Europe", in Davos, Switzerland, on January 17.

The leaders of Poland and Lithuania said they are optimistic that Germany will authorize the export of Leopard tanks to Ukraine, as business tycoons and policymakers came together for the annual World Economic Forum Monday.

“If we still send a lot of military equipment for the defenders of Ukraine, cutting edge military equipment, they still have this potential to stop Russians,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said Tuesday during a panel session in Davos, Switzerland.

His comments came after Poland announced last week that it plans to send Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine. The country has called on the German government to supply “all sorts of weapons” to Kyiv, as it needs permission from Germany to export German-manufactured Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

Duda said he hopes “there are a few partners, a few allies, who will give tanks to Ukraine,” when asked about his expectations as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has also attended the summit in Davos.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said that “someone has to take this leadership, to take the decision in order to support Ukraine,” when asked about divisions within the alliance.

“I strongly believe that Chancellor Scholz will decide on this and I was a witness of a very important break point or turning point in the thinking or mentality of Germany,” he added.

Some context: Numerous countries in the Western alliance have pledged to soon send tanks for the Ukrainian military to use in its efforts to defend against Russia’s invasion.

France, Poland and the United Kingdom for the first time answered Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s longstanding call to supply modern battle tanks to Kyiv.

However, Scholz insisted that any such plan would need to be fully coordinated with the whole of the Western alliance, including the United States.

Scholz is scheduled to make an address at the World Economic Forum Wednesday.

Moscow is planning to increase its armed forces due to the “proxy war” that the West is waging, as Russia’s faltering invasion of Ukraine approaches eleven months.

Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu announced earlier Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin had made a decision to increase the strength of the Russian Armed Forces to 1.5 million servicemen.

“Conceptually, Putin agreed” with the suggestions that were announced by the country’s defence ministry, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

The details of the military expansion are yet to be finalized, Peskov said.

Previous Russian mobilization efforts: In September, Russia conducted a partial mobilization of its citizens after suffering a series of major setbacks on the battlefields of Ukraine. Officials suspended the mobilization in November, citing that the draft’s target of recruiting 300,000 personnel had been met.

That same month, Putin signed into law to conscript citizens with unexpunged or outstanding convictions for murder, robbery, larceny, drug trafficking and other serious crimes under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation to be called up for military service to mobilize.

“The proxy war includes both elements of indirect participation in hostilities, and elements of economy, financial, legal war,” he commented.

Diplomatic relations between the Kremlin and Western leaders are historically low, as allies of Kyiv including the US, the UK and the European Union, have leveled economic sanctions against Russia in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

CNN’s Uliana Pavlova contributed to this post.

Ukraine's First Lady Olena Zelenska addresses the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on January 17.

Olena Zelenska said Russia’s assault against Ukraine is contributing to “the collapse of the world as we know it,” as politicians, business moguls and billionaires congregated at the World Economic Forum Monday.

“Russian aggression was never intended to restrict itself to the Ukrainian borders, this work will go further and make the crisis wider if the aggressor does not lose,” she added.

Zelenska also referenced the deadly attack in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro Saturday, when a Russian cruise missile hit an apartment building and killed at least 44 people.

“These ordinary people at home on a Saturday — that’s enough reason for Russia to kill,” she said of the strike.

“There is nothing off limits for Russia. As we speak, in our city of Dnipro, people are still working and sorting through the debris of a residential area, of a house that was destroyed by an anti-ship missile. This missile was built to destroy aircraft carriers and was used against the civilian infrastructure.”

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00:31 - Source: CNN

Forty-four people have died following a Russian cruise missile strike on an apartment block in Dnipro over the weekend, according to the city’s mayor.

Mayor Borys Filatov gave the new death toll on social media on Tuesday. The count rose since the earlier announcement that 41 people had died, including four children, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Presidential Administration.

Filatov did not immediately provide the ages of the three other bodies that have been discovered since.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack by Moscow was a “war crime” and pledged to bring its perpetrators to justice in his evening address Monday.

OHCHR added that they believed “most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects, including shelling from heavy artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, missiles and air strikes.”

CNN’s Sebastian Shukla contributed reporting.

Firefighters conducting search and rescue operations at a residential building hit by a missile on January 15, in Dnipro, Ukraine.

A child’s body was found in the wreckage of an apartment building in Dnipro on Tuesday, raising the death toll from a Russian missile strike Saturday to 41, according to Ukrainian officials. 

The strike is one of the deadliest single attacks of the war and is now confirmed to have killed at least four children.

Earlier Tuesday, a Ukrainian military official said 25 residents remain missing after 90% of the destroyed apartment block was “dismantled.”

Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration head Valentyn Reznichenko said 28 victims remain in hospital, 10 of them seriously injured.

On Monday the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that 7,000 civilians have died in Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24 last year. 

A Russian flag is seen during the first round match between Kamilla Rakhimova of Russia and Kateryna Baindl of Ukraine at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, on January 16.

Tennis Australia announced on Tuesday that fans will no longer be allowed to bring the Russian or the Belarusian flag to the site of the Australian Open.

The decision comes after Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia “strongly condemn[ed]” the Russian flag being displayed in the stands at the grand slam.

Tennis Australia wrote in its statement:

The flag was seen during the first-round match between Ukraine’s Kateryna Baindl and Russia’s Kamilla Rakhimova in Melbourne.

Read more here.

Head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak held a briefing for the US delegation headed by US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on Ukraine's counteraction to Russia's invasion on January 16 in Kyiv.

A high-level US delegation met Monday in Kyiv with top Ukrainian officials “to reaffirm the United States’ strong and steadfast commitment to Ukraine and its defense against Russia’s unprovoked aggression,” according to a State Department readout. 

Here’s who was on the US delegation:

Here’s who they met with in Ukraine:

“Prior to the visit, the delegation made stops in Germany and Poland to review U.S. security assistance to Ukraine,” the readout said. 

During the meetings, the leaders talked about how international assistance “has helped stabilize Ukraine’s economy” as well as how the US and Ukraine could continue to have an economic and trade relationship when the war is over, according to the readout.

Leaders also discussed efforts to repair Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, it added.

Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks during a meeting at the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant near Yuzhnoukrainsk on January 16.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday visited the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant to mark the permanent presence of the UN nuclear watchdog at the site.

The head of the agency is in Ukraine this week to “establish a continuous presence of nuclear safety and security experts at all the country’s nuclear power facilities,” the IAEA previously announced.

While the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant already has IAEA team members on location, experts will also be stationed at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant in western Ukraine in “the coming days,” the IAEA said in a statement on Saturday, ahead of the director’s visit.

Grossi will also visit the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant, as well as Chernobyl. Two IAEA members are expected to be posted at each site, the watchdog said.

A former commander in Russia’s Wagner private military company has fled to Norway and is seeking asylum after crossing that country’s arctic border, according to Norwegian police and a Russian activist.

Andrei Medvedev, in an interview with a Russian activist who helps people seek asylum abroad, said that he feared for his life after refusing to renew his service with Wagner.

Medvedev said that after completing his contract, and refusing to serve another, he was afraid of being executed in the same manner as Yevgeny Nuzhin — a defector from Wagner who was killed on camera with a sledgehammer.

A spokesperson for Norway’s Police Security Service confirmed to CNN Monday that Medvedev was in Norway and seeking asylum.

“This is so far a local police investigation,” Eirik Veum told CNN. “But the Security Service, we are informed, and follow the investigation of course.”

Some background: Wagner, headed by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, has emerged as a key player in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — recently doing much of the fighting in the small eastern town of Soledar.

The mercenary group is often described as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s off-the-books troops. It has expanded its footprint globally since its creation in 2014, and has been accused of war crimes in Africa, Syria and Ukraine.

Read more here.

Ukrainian troops have arrived at Fort Sill in Oklahoma to begin training on the Patriot missile system, the US Army base announced Monday. 

CNN was first to report that the training was set to begin as soon as this week.

Fort Sill is home to the Fires Center of Excellence where the US conducts Patriot training for its own military and other countries.  

The training will take “several months” on the advanced but complex long-range aerial defense system, according to Pentagon officials. It’s not clear how much the military can accelerate the training program.

Volodymyr Zelensky at a news conference in Lviv, on January 11.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday called the Russian attack on an apartment building in Dnipro a “war crime” and vowed to bring its perpetrators to justice.

“There is no doubt: everyone who is guilty of this war crime will be identified and brought to justice,” Zelensky said in his evening address. 

At least 40 people have died and 25 remain missing following the attack.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) named six members of the Russian military whom it claimed were involved in the strike, according to what the agency described as “preliminary investigation” findings.

Ukrainian soccer club Shakhtar Donetsk has launched a $25 million project for Mariupol soldiers and their families, the club announced Monday.

The launch of the “Heart of Azovstal” initiative comes after the club sold star player Mykhailo Mudryk to English Premier League side Chelsea.

Read more here.