February 12, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

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

Ukraine’s defense minister said Ukraine has kept Russia from dominating the Black Sea when asked about the potential risk to southern Ukraine in a possible large-scale Russian counteroffensive.

Reznikov gave an example of the Ukrainians using the Neptune, an anti-ship weapon developed in Ukraine, to target the Russian cruiser Moskva in 2022. 

“Plus, the Harpoon anti-ship complexes are at work, so I don’t see any chances for them approaching Odesa from the sea,” the Defense Minister continued.

Talking about the left-bank territories of southern Ukraine, Reznikov said the enemy “has an opportunity to replenish their groupings with weapons, equipment and people; therefore, the situation there is more tense.”

Russia has “set records” for shelling, pounding Ukraine with artillery fire in the east, a military spokesperson said during an interview on Ukrainian television Sunday. 

According to the Cherevatyi, the main direction of the enemy’s attack remains on the Bakhmut section of the frontline.

“There, the enemy struck 167 times along the entire section of the front with various types of rocket-propelled artillery, and 41 clashes between forces took place. The enemy lost 212 servicemen and 315 servicemen were wounded as a result,” he continued.

CNN is not able to independently confirm the number of sustained casualties.

“In the area of ​​Bakhmut itself, there were 48 attacks and 19 clashes between forces,” he said. He added “battles were also fought in the area of ​​Torske, Fedorivka, Ivanivske and Chasiv Yar.” 

When asked whether the Russians are trying to wear down the Ukrainian troops, Cherevatyi expressed his belief that, on the contrary, “the defense forces in the east of Ukraine are wearing out the enemy so that it cannot conduct large-scale offensive operations.” 

He also reported that currently, “army reserves are being prepared to carry out a decisive blow to the enemy and push it away from Ukraine’s territory under the supervision of Ukraine’s commander-in-chief and the chief of the general staff.”  

“Using, of course, the help of our partners from the free world,” Cherevatyi added.

Debris is seen in a destroyed hospital used as a Russian base on December 15, 2022, in Kupiansk.

Damage to Ukraine’s health care system is estimated to be tens of billions of dollars, according to Ukraine’s Minister of Health Viktor Liashko.

The health minister reported that Ukraine’s medical infrastructure was significantly damaged as a result of the full-scale invasion and an estimated 1,218 health care facilities were damaged. He said among the health care facilities damaged include “540 hospitals (that) were partially destroyed, and 173 were completely destroyed.” 

“We have calculated the average price of all facilities, and now we can actually talk about the sum of up to 1 billion dollars, which is necessary to restore the medical facilities to the state they were in before February 24,” he said.

Ukraine’s minister of health said medical facilities in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions suffered the most significant destruction due to active hostilities.

“Healthcare facilities of various levels were most affected there; from rural clinics to city hospitals,” Liashko continued. “Currently, the infrastructure in Kherson and the region suffers the most because the city is under shelling.”

An F-16 Fighting Falcon from the Polish Air Force takes part in a NATO air shielding exercise at the Lask Air Base in Lask, Poland, in October 2022.

The Ukrainian ambassador to the United Kingdom said Ukraine will “wait and see” if its allied partners will agree to the country’s request to send fighter jets, after Poland’s president cast doubt on the prospect.

Any move from Ukraine’s allies to send fighter jets to Ukraine would have to be a “joint decision,” Polish President Andrzej Duda told the BBC in an interview Saturday.

“A decision today to donate any kind of jets, any F-16s, to donate them outside Poland is a very serious decision. And it’s not an easy one for us to take,” Duda said, explaining that Poland has a very limited number of the jets.

Prystaiko maintained that certain world leaders “have to say these words for the sake of the unity of the alliance.”

“I am not saying that somebody is trying to, you know, downplay it. No, just trying to create a compromise among all of them, and come with some sort of group decision,” he said. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed Ukraine’s need for modern fighter jets during an address to the European Council in Brussels on Thursday. 

On Friday, Ukraine’s Air Force and the Dutch Defense Minister announced that the Ukrainian government had officially asked the Netherlands for its American-made F-16 fighter jets.

With previous reporting from CNN’s Mick Krever and Radina Gigova 

Russian forces have maintained a high tempo of rocket attacks across the front lines of the eastern Donetsk region, the Ukrainian military reports.

Moscow’s troops carried out 23 attacks using rocket launchers over the course of 24 hours into Sunday evening local time, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in an update Sunday. The shelling focused on Lyman, Bakhmut and Avdiivka in Donetsk, and also Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region.

The Ukrainian military restricted access to Bakhmut as roads into the city came under increased fire.

Authorities in the central Dnipropetrovsk region said the town of Nikopol, across the Dnipro River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, was shelled three times Sunday. One woman was killed and two others were wounded.

Russia also shelled several settlements in the northern Sumy region, according to the General Staff, as well as several places near the border in Kharkiv region.

Russia also used aircraft to strike at Ukrainian defenses this weekend, the military said.

In southern Ukraine, the city of Kherson and 14 other settlements came under enemy fire.

When the Super Bowl gets underway in the US state of Arizona on Sunday night, at least one Ukrainian military unit stationed on the front lines will be trying to watch the game.

They are members of a Ukrainian American Football team who call themselves the “Uzhgorod Lumberjacks.” Uzghorod is a city on Ukraine’s border with Slovakia.

In a short video on their Facebook page, the Lumberjacks said: “We deeply appreciate and are grateful to the American people for their support! We firmly hold the line of defense of Europe!”

They added: “Together for victory in the military super bowl between Ukraine and Russia.”

The video featured Vitalii Melnyk, offensive lineman, and sergeant of the Ukrainian army; Oleksandr Soloviov, center lineman, soldier of the Ukrainian army; Ivan Horvat, line-backer, soldier-medic of the Ukrainian army; and Fedir Shandor, defensive lineman and a sergeant of the Ukrainian army.

One member of the Lumberjacks team, Danylo Boguslavskiy, was killed in action in October in Kherson region.

His brother Roman, who lives in the United States, took Danylo’s military patch to be photographed next to the Lombardi trophy, which will be awarded to the winners of the Super Bowl.

In a Facebook caption, Roman wrote: “This is my brother Danylo Boguslavskiy’s badge in front of the trophy. Half of the world away he loved this game with his whole heart and dreamt of attending this event one day.”

Heavy shelling was reported Saturday on the Russian-controlled settlement of Polohy in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, resulting in damage to electricity and water supply, Vladimir Rogov, an official in the Russian-backed administration, posted on Telegram. 

“Polohy town came under fire from the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” Rogov said. 

“As a result of yesterday’s shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces, electricity and water supply lines were damaged,” he said.

It comes after Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence on Tuesday dismissed Russia’s claims that it has taken control of several small settlements in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.  

Ukraine said “their capture by the enemy has not been confirmed at this time” and that “the Ukrainian Defense Forces continue to defend each of these areas.”

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had said earlier Tuesday that Russia’s “operations are successfully developing” near the key towns of Bakhmut and Vuhledar, and that Russian forces had taken control of several small settlements in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

CNN was unable to independently verify those claims.

Military academy cadets cover the coffin with flags during the funeral of a Wagner Group mercenary killed in Ukraine at a cemetery in St. Petersburg, Russia, on December 24, 2022.

Two former fighters of the Russian private military company Wagner have told CNN of their horrific experiences on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine, and how anyone who faltered was immediately shot by their own commanders.

The two fighters were captured by Ukrainian forces late last year. CNN is not disclosing their identities for their own safety. Both are married with children and were recruited while in prison. One was serving a 20-year sentence for manslaughter.

For security reasons, the Ukrainians kept a presence in the room where the interview took place. CNN told the fighters that they could end the interview at any time they wished. But they spoke in detail for more than an hour.

The two fighters told of hideous losses in “first wave” assaults reminiscent of World War I charges.

Read the full story here.

Electricians repair power lines in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 10.

Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and its surrounding areas, as well as Odesa and Dnipro regions, can avoid power cuts on Sunday, Ukraine’s state power generator, Ukrenergo, said in a statement on Telegram. 

“In the event of a grid overload, restrictions may be implemented according to stabilization schedules,” the notice said. 

A day without electricity cuts is a rarity for Kyiv, which for months has suffered rolling blackouts after repeated attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid.

Some background: Russia’s persistent and pervasive attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid have, at least temporarily, left millions of civilians without electricity, heat, water and other critical services in the freezing winter months.

Repeated missile and drone attacks since October, which have damaged or destroyed civilian infrastructure, are part of a strategy by the Kremlin to terrorize Ukrainians and are in violation of the laws of war, according to experts.

Damage is seen after a Russian missile strike hit Ukraine's Kharkiv region on Sunday, February 12.

At least one person was injured after a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, Oleg Sinegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional military administration posted on Telegram on Sunday. 

The attack, which happened around 11:15 p.m. local time on Saturday, damaged one business and led to a large-scale fire, Sinegubov said. 

A 35-year-old civilian was injured as a result of the strike. He has been hospitalized with mild injuries, Sinegubov said. 

Elsewhere in the region, massive shelling and an airstrike damaged 13 residential buildings and the national police building in the city of Vovchansk, Sinegubov said, adding that there were no casualties. 

At least 15 settlements came under enemy fire, including shelling on the border settlements of Chuhuiv and Kupyansk districts, he added. 

Zelensky is seen in Brussels with Charles Michel, right, president of the European Council, and Ursula von der Leyen, left, President of the European Commission on Thursday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s trip to meet with European world leaders this week included deeply emotional appeals and careful statesmanship.

Zelensky campaigned for his nation’s priorities, including securing more military firepower from allies and Ukraine’s long-sought accession to the European Union.

Here are some of the major takeaways from the president’s wartime trip abroad:

A focus on fighter jets: Now that Kyiv has secured pledges for more than 300 modern battle tanks, Zelensky is pushing for another potent addition to his arsenal: Western fighter jets.

That started with the Ukrainian leader’s surprise visit to London, which came a day before his Thursday trip to Brussels to meet with the EU Council. Zelensky presented the speaker of the House of Commons with the helmet of a fighter pilot, signed with a message: “We have freedom. Give us wings to protect it.”

Ukraine’s allies have expressed varying levels of openness to delivering the aircraft, including Poland, which has pledged to send the planes if other countries do, too. France and the Netherlands are among the nations that have said they’re considering the request.

Zelensky expressed optimism about the pitch, but behind closed doors, he is likely being warned that without a fully functioning air defense system, NATO’s expensive fighter jets could be easy prey for the Russians, and that any fighter jet commitment needs to be sequenced with better air defense.

A pitch to join the EU: Zelensky made a heartfelt appeal to lawmakers in Brussels to allow his country to become part of the European Union, insisting that Europe is Ukraine’s “home.”

During an address to the European Parliament, Zelensky said his country and the EU share the same values, and that the “European standard of life” and the “European rules of life” are “when the law rules.”

Ukraine has been given candidate status – a significant step on the path to full EU membership – but the process of admission to the alliance takes about five years on average. Some eastern European countries have waited as long as 10 years.

Allies’ reception: Zelensky received a standing ovation as he walked into the chamber of the European Parliament in Brussels on Thursday. 

Other world leaders reiterated their support for the Ukrainian cause this week after holding bilateral meetings with Zelensky, from the Dutch prime minister to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron.

The precise results of the president’s diplomatic blitz remain to be seen.

Ukrainian forces claim to have shot down 20 Iranian-made drones on Friday during a barrage of Russian attacks across the country, defense officials said Saturday. 

The Air Force of Ukraine said in a statement that it destroyed 20 Iranian-made Shahed-136 UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) launched by Russian forces from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov from 6 p.m. to 11:55 p.m. local time Friday.

Iran has given Russia hundreds of drones to use in its war in Ukraine, many of which have targeted Ukraine’s power grid and energy facilities to devastating effect. 

Russia also launched 106 missiles in “massive” waves of countrywide attacks on Friday, “particularly at civilian infrastructure,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a statement Saturday.

“During the attack, the enemy used 32 S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles and 74 air and sea-launched cruise missiles, 61 of which were destroyed by our defenders,” it continued, adding that Russian forces “also fired more than 90 times from multiple launch rocket systems.”

CNN is unable to independently verify these reports.