The dam “suffered further significant damage” last week, which United Kingdom Ministry of Defence officials said was “almost certainly because of controlled demolitions by retreating Russian forces” to prevent Ukrainian troop advances in that area. Despite the recent damage, the ministry said the impacts to the Kakhovka Dam were not expected to be enough to cause “major flooding.”
The ministry also shared a map showing areas of Ukraine under Russian control.
Wednesday’s map depicts areas of “likely” Russian troop advances in the Donbas region. Additional Russian forces were shown gathered further south near Melitopol and Nova Kakhovka.
Maksym Kozytsky, the head of the Lviv state military administration, said on Telegram that the region suffered significant damage after a Russian missile strike “critically damaged” three objects of energy infrastructure.
“The consequences of the missile strikes that occurred in Lviv Oblast yesterday are worse than the consequences of those that occurred in October,” he said.
This comes as two of the three strikes recorded Tuesday were “repeated strikes on the objects of the critical energy infrastructure of our region,” he added.
Kozytsky said it will take eight to twelve months to fully restore the operation of energy facilities in the region to pre-war standard.
On Wednesday, he said crews restored power for 95 percent of Lviv. But he is still advising residents to “sparingly” consume electricity because the power supply is “based on a temporary scheme.”
Only about 30 percent of customers in the region can use electricity at the same time, Kozytsky said.
The heavy load on the country’s energy system may also cause electrical outages in people’s homes, he said.
Vedant Patel, the State Department’s principal deputy spokesperson, was asked during a Wednesday news briefing if the U.S. knows which penal colony Griner was transferred to after a Russian court denied her appeal of a nine-year prison sentence last month.
“We, through our lawyers, are aware of her location and are in frequent contact with Ms. Griner’s legal team,” Patel said. “But formally, the Russian Federation has still failed to provide any official notification for such a move of a U.S. citizen, which we strongly protest.”
Patel said the U.S. Embassy in Russia has “continued to press for more information” about where Griner is currently located.
A reporter then asked if anyone from the embassy has been able to speak with Griner directly. “Not to my understanding,” Patel answered.
The U.S. is reportedly trying to negotiate a prisoner swap with Russia to get Griner back home. She has been held in Russia since her arrest in February.
The Georgia representative called for an “audit” of all U.S. aid and funding to Ukraine. She compared the Biden administration’s effort to defend Ukraine’s borders to the situation happening along the U.S. border.
“The American people deserve to know how their money is being spent in defense of another nation’s border while the Biden regime ignores the threat to our national security everyday at our own border,” she wrote in a tweet.
With Republicans gaining a majority in the House of Representatives, some GOP lawmakers said the conference will use it’s power to end the “blank check” to Ukraine.
“I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine,” Representative Kevin McCarthy, who was elected by his party as House Speaker, told Punchbowl News in October. “They just won’t do it… It’s not a free blank check.”
After NATO and Polish officials report that it appears the missile that struck Poland Tuesday was likely from Ukrainian air defense, Greene called for the U.S. to pull back its Ukraine aid and work towards finding peace.
While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was a Russia missile, Polish and NATO officials say the attack was an accident, not Russian escalation.
“We must stop letting Zelensky demand money and weapons from U.S. taxpayers while he is trying to drag us into WW3,” Green said.
“No more money to Ukraine,” she added. “It’s time to end this war and demand peace.”
The plant used backup diesel generators until it was able to jump back on the grid, the IAEA said in a Wednesday news release.
The UN nuclear watchdog said Ukraine’s Rivne Nuclear Power Plant also lost a power line connection on Tuesday and limited power output to compensate.
The IAEA noted that the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), which is the largest nuclear plant in Ukraine and all of Europe, has lost access to Ukraine’s power grid several times since Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year.
“This was a very concerning development,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said of the Tuesday missile strikes’ impact on Ukrainian nuclear plants. “It shows the potential nuclear safety and security risks facing all of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities during this terrible war, not just the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant.”
The Ukrainian Security Service (the SBU) said a “torture chamber” has been found in de-occupied Kherson.
The Russians kept “local patriots who refused to cooperate with the enemy” in “inhuman conditions,” the SBU said in a statement.
The SBU said Kherson residents were “interrogated and brutally tortured” by Russian forces.
“During the inspection of the torture chamber, law enforcement officers found objects that directly indicate signs of torture,” the SBU said.
The SBU said an investigation is currently underway to document any evidence of crimes, identify perpetrators and “bring them to justice.”
“We have seen nothing that contradicts Duda’s preliminary assessment that this explosion was most likely the result of a Ukrainian air defense missile that unfortunately landed in Poland,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said during a press conference on Ukraine Wednesday.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said that the incident does not appear to be a deliberate Russia attack, but was rather caused by a Ukrainian air defense system.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, however, that he believes it was a Russian missile that struck Poland.
Austin later said it would be “premature” for any leader to jump to a conclusion about the incident before the investigation is over. He added that the information the U.S. has at this point supports Duda’s assessment.
Regardless of what Poland’s investigation concludes, Austin said Russia ultimately bears responsibility for the incident as it began this war and continues to launch missile attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure.
Secretary Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley gave an update following the seventh meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group Wednesday.
Austin commended Ukraine’s “tremendous leadership and tenacity.” He said Ukrainian forces are consolidating their gains on the battlefield, including in Kherson and Kharkiv, and asking allies to help bolster their air defense capabilities.
Austin added that that NASAMS the U.S. sent to Ukraine have had a “100 percent success rate” in intercepting Russian missiles.
The U.S. is also working to help Ukraine repair its energy infrastructure after targeted Russian attacks.
General Milley said these attacks on civilians infrastructure has “little to no military purpose” and have left over a quarter of Ukrainians without power.
The onset of the winter will cause even more suffering as basic human survival is impacted, Milley said.
“Targeting the power grid and causing damage and suffering is a war crime,” he said.
But even after launching its largest wave of missiles since the beginning of the war, General Milley said Russia is failing in every way in Ukraine.
With continued Ukrainian successes and significant Russian losses, Milley said Russia lost “strategically, operationally and tactically” as it tried to reframe its objectives in Ukraine.
Russia is currently trying to regroup their forces to continue their “campaign of terror” to issue “maximum suffering” on civilians.
As tactical operations slow down in Ukraine during the winter, Milley said this pause may provide a window for a political solution to end the conflict. But the Pentagon officials say any decision to negotiate with Russia is entirely up to Ukraine.
“It’s clear that Russia’s will to fight does not match Ukraine’s will to fight,” he said.
“Ukraine will continue to endure and not back down,” Milley added. “[The Ukrainians] are hard, tough, free people. And they want to remain free.”
Both Austin and Milley thanked European and North American allies for their continued support for Ukraine but sending air defense systems, ammunition and leading trainings.
The U.S. and its allies are steadfast in their support for Ukraine and have pledged to provide the best equipment to Ukraine to defend itself as long as necessary.
Ministry officials shared a video on Twitter of the ambassador leaving the ministry but did not detail the nature of the ambassador’s conversation with Russian officials.
The Polish ambassador’s visit followed a similar summoning of Russia’s ambassador to Poland. On Tuesday, Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it called the Russian ambassador “and demanded immediate and detailed explanation” of the missile that struck the Polish village Przewodow. In the statement, the Polish ministry identified the rocket as “a Russia-made missile” that landed amid Russia’s latest military strike against Ukraine.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said Wednesday that initial findings of an investigation into the missile’s origin suggest it was fired by Ukrainian forces, though he said there was no evidence to suggest the rocket was intentionally aimed at Poland.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Army Gen. Mark A. Milley are briefing media after their meeting with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
The media outlet quoted Zelensky as saying he has “no doubt” the missile was “not ours” and said he wants Ukraine to be involved as the investigation into the missile’s landing continues. If the missile was fired by Ukrainian air defense, Zelensky said he wants to assess that evidence, according to UkraineWorld.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said the rocket landed about 6 kilometers from Poland’s border with Ukraine amid Russia’s latest missile attack on Ukrainian territory. Zelensky said in an address to the Ukrainian people on Tuesday that the missile was Russian. Zelensky later said on Twitter that he spoke with Duda and shared “condolences over the death of Polish citizens from Russian missile terror.”
Duda initially said it was unclear whether the missile was fired by Ukraine or Russia, but Duda and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday initial findings suggest the missile was fired by Ukraine. Both Duda and Stoltenberg said it did not appear the missile was intentionally fired into Polish territory.
A a press conference Wednesday, Germany Ministry of Defense spokesman Christian Thiels said he is coordinating support with his Polish counterpart.
“As an immediate response to the events in Poland, we will offer Poland enhanced air policing with combat air patrols,” he said. “This can start from tomorrow at Poland’s request.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the “terrible” missile incident in Poland will be investigated thoroughly.
“It is good that NATO members are meeting without delay to do so,” he said in a tweet Wednesday. “All premature explanations must be avoided. It is clear that none of this would have happened without Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”
“Ukraine’s defense was launching their missiles in various directions and it is highly probable that one of these missiles unfortunately fell on Polish territory,” the Associated Press quoted Duda as saying. He added: “There is nothing, absolutely nothing, to suggest that it was an intentional attack on Poland.”
The missile landed in Przewodow, about 6 kilometers away from Poland’s border with Ukraine, according to a statement from Duda’s office. It landed as Russia was conducting its latest missile attack on Ukraine.
Duda called for a National Security Council meeting Tuesday after the missile landed in Przewodow but said at the time that it was not immediately clear whether the missile was fired by Ukraine or Russia.
Both Duda and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday that they do not think the missile was intentionally fired at Poland. Stoltenberg told reporters an investigation into the missile’s origin is ongoing but said there are early indications that the rocket was part of Ukraine’s air defense “fired to defend Ukrainian territory” against Russian attacks.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Army Gen. Mark A. Milley will brief media after meeting with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
The group includes “defense ministers and chiefs of defense from around the world, who discuss the Ukraine crisis and other security issues facing NATO allies and partners,” according to the DoD.
The press conference is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. ET. Watch live on the DoD’s website and follow Newsweek for the latest.
“Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy,” the statement said.
This impact includes constraining growth, increasing inflation, disrupting supply chains, heightening energy and food insecurity and elevating financial stability risks.
The emphasis on “most members” was notable. Russia is a G20 member, as are China and India, who have refused to condemn or cut economic ties with the Kremlin since the war began.
“There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions,” the G20 statement said.
The Ukrainian Parliament has asked G20 members to removed Russia from the group.
“Terrorists have no place at the same table as the leaders of the democratic world,” Ukraine Parliament Deputy Speaker Oleksandr Korniyenko said in a tweet.
On Tuesday, leaders of the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the Netherland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the European Commission released their own statement to condemn the “barbaric missile attacks that Russia perpetrated on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure.”
The allies met on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
“We reaffirm our steadfast support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in the face of ongoing Russian aggression, as well as our continued readiness to hold Russia accountable for its brazen attacks on Ukrainian communities, even as the G20 meets to deal with the wider impacts of the war,” the statement read. “We all express our condolences to the families of the victims in Poland and Ukraine.”
“An investigation into this incident is ongoing and we need to await its outcome, but we have no indication that this was the result of a deliberate attack,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters following NATO talks.
He added that the strikes were “likely caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile” fired to defend Ukrainian territory from Russian cruise missile attacks.
Despite fears of escalation from the Kremlin, Stoltenberg said the alliance has “no indication that Russia is preparing offensive military action” against NATO countries.
But Stoltenberg insisted that the blame for this incident should remain on the Kremlin.
“This is not Ukraine’s fault, Russia bears ultimate responsibility,” he said. “The whole incident is caused by Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine.”
NATO also reiterated its solidarity with Poland amid the “tragic loss of life” and made clear it will continue to support Ukraine’s right to self-defense.
“We agreed that we need to stay vigilant, calm and closely coordinated,” Stoltenberg said. “We will continue to consult and monitor the situation very closely. NATO stands united and we will always do what is necessary to protect and defend all Allies.”
