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1 min ago

Why Ukraine faces many challenges in getting F-16 fighter jets into combat

From CNN's Tim Lister and Oren Liebermann

After months of intense lobbying, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is ebullient about the upcoming transfer of Dutch, Norwegian and Danish F-16 fighter jets to the Ukrainian air force.

In many ways, the US-made F-16 is the ideal platform for the Ukrainians. It’s multi-role: it can provide air cover for troops, attack ground targets, take on enemy planes and intercept missiles. And it’s available: European air forces have plenty of F-16s and are phasing them out. There is a ready supply of spare parts; and the F-16 can operate with a variety of weapons systems.

The need is critical: Russian air superiority, especially on the southern front, has stymied the progress of the Ukrainian counteroffensive and inflicted heavy casualties on Ukrainian units. With the right armament, F-16s could deter Russian fighter-bombers from approaching the battlefield.

But just when the F-16s will fly combat missions is at the mercy of many variables — training programs which are only now getting underway, getting support infrastructure in place, the type of weaponry deployed. There’s a delicate balance between the urgent need to get the F-16 into Ukrainian colors and the thorough preparations required to make the most of the aircraft.

Read the full story here.

38 min ago

Rare video shows detained American Paul Whelan inside Russian prison

From CNN's Alex Stambaugh Jennifer Hansler, Kylie Atwood and Kayla Tausche 

Paul Whelan, an American detained in Russia, can be seen inside prison in a rare video released by Russian state-controlled news agency Russia Today (RT).

Whelan — who has US, Irish, British and Canadian citizenship — was detained at a Moscow hotel in December 2018 by Russian authorities who alleged he was involved in an intelligence operation. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison on an espionage charge he vehemently denies.

In the video released by the Kremlin-backed media, Whelan is shown wearing a Russian prison uniform in different parts of the prison. The video includes shots of him using a sewing machine and eating in a cafeteria.

The video includes him telling a reporter, "You understand when I say that I can't do an interview, which means I can't answer any questions."

Following the release of the video, his brother, David Whelan, said in a statement, "Today was the first time I've seen what he really looks like since June 2020."

David Whelan said an RT crew showed up at the prison to film his brother in May and that "prison staff retaliated against him after he didn't participate" in an interview.

"I wish I could see Paul under better circumstances. But it was good to see him again and to see the fight remains in his eyes. It is good to know Paul remains unbowed," David Whelan said.

Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Whelan, who is deemed wrongly detained by the US government, according to a source familiar with the call.

The Biden administration continues to reiterate to Russia the proposal that they put on the table for Whelan’s release more than eight months ago. Russia has not responded in a substantive way, two administration officials told CNN at the time.

54 min ago

Russia destroys 2 drones south of Moscow

From CNN’s Josh Pennington

Russian air defenses destroyed two Ukrainian drones in the Tula region south of Moscow early Tuesday, Russia's defense ministry said in a statement.

“The Kyiv regime's attempt to carry out a terrorist attack using two aircraft-type UAVs on Russian Federation facilities was thwarted this morning,” the statement said.

Ukraine has not yet commented on the alleged attack.

In recent weeks, Russian officials have reported almost daily Ukrainian drone attacks and attempted attacks on Russian soil.

Kyiv often declines to take explicit credit for assaults across the border, though last month, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky said the war is "returning to Russia." 

1 hr 2 min ago

It's early in Kyiv. Here's the latest news from Russia's war in Ukraine

From CNN staff

Ukraine’s deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar on Monday claimed Kyiv's forces appeared to be making further advances along the southern frontline, near the recently liberated village of Robotyne.

However, Maliar added that “the enemy is throwing all its forces at these areas in order not to surrender the occupied positions.”

Her comments come as Ukrainian soldiers detailed the challenges in trying to push further south.

Catch up on the latest developments in the war here:

• US drones intercepted: Russia's defense ministry said it deployed two fighter jets to intercept two US drone near Crimea. A Pentagon spokesperson told CNN the US "will continue to fly routine missions over the Black Sea as permitted by international law to ensure freedom of navigation and maneuver in the region."
• Russian concerns: Multiple Russian military bloggers say Moscow's forces in the southern Kherson region lack artillery and ammunition support. The reports come as a Russian charity that provides financial support for frontline soldiers said it hopes the supply problem will be fixed so the troops can "defend their homeland with everything they need." If not, "there will be trouble," it said. 
• Kupiansk evacuations: More than 1,400 civilians, including over 340 children, have been evacuated from the northeastern city of Kupiansk and its surrounding areas this month, a local military official said Monday. Russian shelling in Kupiansk and surrounding areas of the Kharkiv region has intensified this month as Moscow's forces try to reclaim territory.
• Belarus borders: Poland and the Baltic states have pledged to shut their borders with Belarus if a "critical incident" occurs, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński said Monday, citing "the return of migratory pressure on our border." The stationing of "several thousand mercenaries" from the Wagner Group in Belarus has added a “new element” to the situation along the border, Kamiński added.
• Ukraine elections: President Volodymyr Zelensky has signaled that Ukraine may hold presidential elections next year, despite currently being under martial law. “We are defending democracy and our land,” he told local media. “That’s why people are talking [about elections]. There is a political process. It cannot be banned.”
• Moldova comparisons: Moldovan President Maia Sandu said Ukraine needs more support or Russia will not relent in its invasion. In an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Sandu drew parallels between Ukraine and her country, which has also experienced serious tensions with Moscow, concentrated in the eastern pro-Russia breakaway territory of Transnistria, where Russian troops are stationed

1 hr 20 min ago

More than 1,400 civilians have left embattled Kupiansk, official says

From CNN’s Mariya Knight

More than 1,400 civilians, including over 340 children, have been evacuated from the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kupiansk and its surrounding areas this month, a local military official said Monday.

In a Telegram post, Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv region military administration, said some residents left on their own and some were evacuated by local authorities.

Russian shelling in Kupiansk and surrounding areas of the Kharkiv region has intensified this month as Moscow's forces try to reclaim territory.

4 hr 12 min ago

Russian troops in Kherson lack artillery and ammunition, military bloggers say

From CNN’s Mariya Knight and Maria Kostenko 

Moscow's forces in the Kherson region lack artillery and ammunition support, according to several prominent Russian military bloggers.

Roman Saponkov, a Russian blogger who has more than 70,000 subscribers, wrote Friday that troops in the Kherson region had told him about their lack of artillery support.

“The brigade commander and the chief of the reconnaissance battalion are sending our guys in without artillery support, without drones — poor guys are being killed in packs,” Saponkov posted.

Visioner’s Channel, another Russian blog, posted Sunday that Russia’s 205th brigade is facing “an alarming signal of crisis in the army and the country.” 

“The main problem of the Russian Ministry of Defense is well known,” the blog said, referencing the lack of ammunition. 

“After the disaster with [Yevgeny] Prigozhin, there was confidence that now, at any rate, things would start to move forward and that changes would begin. But the third month has gone by, yet there is still nothing,” the blog said, referencing the incident when the late Wagner chief slammed Russian officials over the lack of ammunition months before his death. 

Another Russian blog, Republic, discussed “the growing problems in the Russian army” in a Telegram post on Monday. 

“The 205th brigade of the Russian Armed Forces that is fighting in the Kherson region was ordered to occupy islands on the Dnipro River; the servicemen responded by saying that they lacked ammunition, food, artillery support and reconnaissance,” the blog post said. 

The Russian Ataman Fund, a charitable foundation that provides financial support for frontline soldiers, wrote in a Telegram post Sunday it hopes the supply problem in Kherson will be sorted out so the Russian service members “will be able to defend their homeland with everything they need.”  

“Otherwise, there will be trouble,” it said. 

55 min ago

Ukraine's defense minister welcomes expected arrival of "powerful players" to arms market

From CNN’s Mariya Knight

"Powerful players" are expected to arrive on Ukraine's arms market, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in a news conference on Monday, according to Ukrainian-state news agency Ukrinform.  

"By the end of this month or at the beginning of September, there will be good news about powerful players arriving on Ukraine's arms market. Several agreements will be signed," Reznikov said. 

Ukraine plans to hold an industrial defense forum around the end of September or the beginning of October, he said. “The participation of about 50 powerful players of the arms market is planned,” he added. 

Reznikov said Ukraine has “significantly increased the production of domestic weapons,” such as 155 mm artillery shells that have already passed tests. 

"The contract is being executed. The first orders are already in place, we will immediately transfer them (artillery shells) to the Armed Forces. And we plan to increase the number for their production," he said. 

Reznikov noted that while the 125 mm artillery shells are still being tested, there are difficulties with producing 122 mm artillery shells. 

Ukraine has several missile and anti-missile programs and is discussing “how to use the funds more appropriately in this direction,” Reznikov said.

“A lot of money is needed so that these programs can be put into effect in 2024-2025. That's why we are having a discussion: whether to spend money and buy shells now from foreign manufacturers or invest it (at home) and have missiles approximately in a year," he explained. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky echoed Reznikov’s comments in his nightly address on Monday, noting that Ukraine is "maximizing production capacity” of domestic weapons. 

“Artillery made in Ukraine. Shells made in Ukraine. Drones, missiles, armored vehicles. We are maximizing production capacity. Ukraine can do it. Funding is available. Our defense industry will yield better results,” Zelensky said.  

4 hr 22 min ago

Russian Defense Ministry says it intercepted US drones near Crimea

From CNN’s Josh Pennington and Oren Liebermann

The Russian Ministry of Defense says it deployed two fighter jets to intercept a United States Air Force MQ-9 "Reaper" and RQ-4 "Global Hawk" unmanned aerial vehicles near the Crimean peninsula.

The drones were detected by Russian forces that were monitoring equipment flying over the southwestern part of the Black Sea, the Russian defense ministry said on Telegram. 

Two Russian fighter jets were deployed to avert a “possible violation of the state border” and to “counter any radio-technical reconnaissance,” the defense ministry said.

“As a result of the actions of on-duty air defense forces, the United States Air Force reconnaissance UAVs changed their flight path and left the areas where air reconnaissance was being conducted,” the defense ministry said.

Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Garron Garn told CNN the US "will continue to fly routine missions over the Black Sea as permitted by international law to ensure freedom of navigation and maneuver in the region."

4 hr 22 min ago

Ukrainian troops face more tough challenges as they try to push south

From CNN's Tim Lister and Maria Kostenko

Even as Ukrainian forces have breached the first line of Russian defenses on part of the southern front, soldiers taking part in the counteroffensive have revealed just how difficult it is to make more than incremental gains in the face of complex and multi-layered fortifications.

Ukrainian units say they have take the village of Robotyne in Zaporizhzhia region, and are moving toward several others in a bid to bring the strategic hub of Tokmak within range of artillery.

One soldier, a communications specialist named Oleksandr Solonko, has written in detail about the challenges of making progress in the area, and his account is supported by others.

First, he says, the topography is important: fields, villages, relatively flat land.

“Whoever you are, an assault group…an evac[uation mission], an airborne or ground reconnaissance, your movement is visible from afar. The enemy has been preparing to meet you for a long time,” Solonko wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“There are a limited number of access roads and logistics routes. Everything has been shot at and shelled repeatedly every day. You are almost certainly being spotted. It is basically impossible to do the job while remaining completely invisible to the enemy.”

And Solonko says that Russian fortifications are elaborate.

“There is an entire system of trenches, dugouts, actual tunnels in some places … automatic grenade launchers, machine guns, anti-tank missile systems. Anti-tank ditches and minefields stretch across the fields,” he wrote. “What is not dug up is mined. We need to go through all this to move forward.”

Read the full story here.

After months of intense lobbying, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is ebullient about the upcoming transfer of Dutch, Norwegian and Danish F-16 fighter jets to the Ukrainian air force.

In many ways, the US-made F-16 is the ideal platform for the Ukrainians. It’s multi-role: it can provide air cover for troops, attack ground targets, take on enemy planes and intercept missiles. And it’s available: European air forces have plenty of F-16s and are phasing them out. There is a ready supply of spare parts; and the F-16 can operate with a variety of weapons systems.

The need is critical: Russian air superiority, especially on the southern front, has stymied the progress of the Ukrainian counteroffensive and inflicted heavy casualties on Ukrainian units. With the right armament, F-16s could deter Russian fighter-bombers from approaching the battlefield.

But just when the F-16s will fly combat missions is at the mercy of many variables — training programs which are only now getting underway, getting support infrastructure in place, the type of weaponry deployed. There’s a delicate balance between the urgent need to get the F-16 into Ukrainian colors and the thorough preparations required to make the most of the aircraft.

Read the full story here.

Paul Whelan, an American detained in Russia, can be seen inside prison in a rare video released by Russian state-controlled news agency Russia Today (RT).

Whelan — who has US, Irish, British and Canadian citizenship — was detained at a Moscow hotel in December 2018 by Russian authorities who alleged he was involved in an intelligence operation. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison on an espionage charge he vehemently denies.

In the video released by the Kremlin-backed media, Whelan is shown wearing a Russian prison uniform in different parts of the prison. The video includes shots of him using a sewing machine and eating in a cafeteria.

Following the release of the video, his brother, David Whelan, said in a statement, "Today was the first time I've seen what he really looks like since June 2020."

David Whelan said an RT crew showed up at the prison to film his brother in May and that "prison staff retaliated against him after he didn't participate" in an interview.

Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Whelan, who is deemed wrongly detained by the US government, according to a source familiar with the call.

The Biden administration continues to reiterate to Russia the proposal that they put on the table for Whelan’s release more than eight months ago. Russia has not responded in a substantive way, two administration officials told CNN at the time.

Russian air defenses destroyed two Ukrainian drones in the Tula region south of Moscow early Tuesday, Russia's defense ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine has not yet commented on the alleged attack.

In recent weeks, Russian officials have reported almost daily Ukrainian drone attacks and attempted attacks on Russian soil.

Kyiv often declines to take explicit credit for assaults across the border, though last month, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky said the war is "returning to Russia." 

Ukraine’s deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar on Monday claimed Kyiv's forces appeared to be making further advances along the southern frontline, near the recently liberated village of Robotyne.

However, Maliar added that “the enemy is throwing all its forces at these areas in order not to surrender the occupied positions.”

Her comments come as Ukrainian soldiers detailed the challenges in trying to push further south.

Catch up on the latest developments in the war here:

More than 1,400 civilians, including over 340 children, have been evacuated from the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kupiansk and its surrounding areas this month, a local military official said Monday.

In a Telegram post, Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv region military administration, said some residents left on their own and some were evacuated by local authorities.

Russian shelling in Kupiansk and surrounding areas of the Kharkiv region has intensified this month as Moscow's forces try to reclaim territory.

Moscow's forces in the Kherson region lack artillery and ammunition support, according to several prominent Russian military bloggers.

Roman Saponkov, a Russian blogger who has more than 70,000 subscribers, wrote Friday that troops in the Kherson region had told him about their lack of artillery support.

Visioner’s Channel, another Russian blog, posted Sunday that Russia’s 205th brigade is facing “an alarming signal of crisis in the army and the country.” 

“The main problem of the Russian Ministry of Defense is well known,” the blog said, referencing the lack of ammunition. 

“After the disaster with [Yevgeny] Prigozhin, there was confidence that now, at any rate, things would start to move forward and that changes would begin. But the third month has gone by, yet there is still nothing,” the blog said, referencing the incident when the late Wagner chief slammed Russian officials over the lack of ammunition months before his death. 

Another Russian blog, Republic, discussed “the growing problems in the Russian army” in a Telegram post on Monday. 

The Russian Ataman Fund, a charitable foundation that provides financial support for frontline soldiers, wrote in a Telegram post Sunday it hopes the supply problem in Kherson will be sorted out so the Russian service members “will be able to defend their homeland with everything they need.”  

“Otherwise, there will be trouble,” it said. 

"Powerful players" are expected to arrive on Ukraine's arms market, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in a news conference on Monday, according to Ukrainian-state news agency Ukrinform.  

Ukraine plans to hold an industrial defense forum around the end of September or the beginning of October, he said. “The participation of about 50 powerful players of the arms market is planned,” he added. 

Reznikov said Ukraine has “significantly increased the production of domestic weapons,” such as 155 mm artillery shells that have already passed tests. 

"The contract is being executed. The first orders are already in place, we will immediately transfer them (artillery shells) to the Armed Forces. And we plan to increase the number for their production," he said. 

Reznikov noted that while the 125 mm artillery shells are still being tested, there are difficulties with producing 122 mm artillery shells. 

Ukraine has several missile and anti-missile programs and is discussing “how to use the funds more appropriately in this direction,” Reznikov said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky echoed Reznikov’s comments in his nightly address on Monday, noting that Ukraine is "maximizing production capacity” of domestic weapons. 

“Artillery made in Ukraine. Shells made in Ukraine. Drones, missiles, armored vehicles. We are maximizing production capacity. Ukraine can do it. Funding is available. Our defense industry will yield better results,” Zelensky said.  

The Russian Ministry of Defense says it deployed two fighter jets to intercept a United States Air Force MQ-9 "Reaper" and RQ-4 "Global Hawk" unmanned aerial vehicles near the Crimean peninsula.

The drones were detected by Russian forces that were monitoring equipment flying over the southwestern part of the Black Sea, the Russian defense ministry said on Telegram. 

Two Russian fighter jets were deployed to avert a “possible violation of the state border” and to “counter any radio-technical reconnaissance,” the defense ministry said.

Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Garron Garn told CNN the US "will continue to fly routine missions over the Black Sea as permitted by international law to ensure freedom of navigation and maneuver in the region."

Even as Ukrainian forces have breached the first line of Russian defenses on part of the southern front, soldiers taking part in the counteroffensive have revealed just how difficult it is to make more than incremental gains in the face of complex and multi-layered fortifications.

Ukrainian units say they have take the village of Robotyne in Zaporizhzhia region, and are moving toward several others in a bid to bring the strategic hub of Tokmak within range of artillery.

One soldier, a communications specialist named Oleksandr Solonko, has written in detail about the challenges of making progress in the area, and his account is supported by others.

First, he says, the topography is important: fields, villages, relatively flat land.

“Whoever you are, an assault group…an evac[uation mission], an airborne or ground reconnaissance, your movement is visible from afar. The enemy has been preparing to meet you for a long time,” Solonko wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“There are a limited number of access roads and logistics routes. Everything has been shot at and shelled repeatedly every day. You are almost certainly being spotted. It is basically impossible to do the job while remaining completely invisible to the enemy.”

And Solonko says that Russian fortifications are elaborate.

Read the full story here.