Russia-Ukraine war updates for Oct.11, 2022

The organization overseeing the export of grain from Ukraine said it has approved seven vessels to leave the besieged country.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal among Ukraine, Russia, the United Nations and Turkey, said the vessels are carrying 174,862 metric tons of grain and other crops.

Two ships are destined for Turkey and are carrying wheat and sunflower oil. One ship will depart from Ukraine’s Yuzhny-Pivdennyi port for Italy and is carrying 26,380 metric tons of corn. Another ship will leave from Chornomorsk to Italy and is carrying 6,000 metric tons of corn. The fifth vessel will sail to Indonesia from Chornomorsk and is carrying 51,742 metric tons of wheat. One ship will leave for Tunisia carrying 30,000 metric tons of corn and another will depart for Spain carrying 27, 390 metric tons of wheat.

Read more about the Black Sea Grain Initiative here.

— Amanda Macias

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pledged continued support for Ukraine in a meeting with Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko, saying the Biden administration was looking for more ways to cripple the Russian economy with sanctions, a cap on oil prices and support for Ukraine’s rebuilding efforts.

“Importantly, the focus of our sanctions and export controls on Russia’s military-industrial complex have disrupted Russia’s operations, shuttered factories, depleted arsenals, and forced Putin to rely increasingly on arms suppliers of last resort, like North Korea and Iran,” Yellen said ahead of her meeting with Marchenko at the IMF and World Bank’s weeklong meetings in Washington, D.C. earlier Tuesday.

“Together with the G7, the United States will build on that work with our price cap on Russian oil, which will cut into Putin’s key source of revenue even as we mitigate future price spikes caused by Putin’s war,” she added.

Yellen said she wanted to discuss with Marchenko ways the global sanctions coalition can inflict more economic pain on the Kremlin, Russia’s allies, its public finances and military industries, according to her comments released by the Treasury Department.

— Chelsey Cox

Ukraine’s defense minister Oleksii Reznikov will attend a NATO defense minister meeting at the alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he submitted an “accelerated” application for his country to join the military alliance.

The defense ministers of Finland and Sweden will also attend the meeting as their countries wait for their ascension into the NATO alliance. Reznikov will also join the U.S.-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group on the sidelines of the NATO meeting.

The Ukraine Defense Contact group, a coalition of nearly 50 countries supporting Ukraine’s military needs, has met six times since it was formed in April. The group of defense ministers and chiefs will discuss additional ways to provide security assistance for Ukraine as Russia’s war enters its eighth month.

— Amanda Macias

Ukraine’s general prosecutor says investigators found the bodies of 78 civilians in mass graves in the recently occupied cities of Svyatohirsk and Lyman.

In Svyatogorsk, investigators exhumed the bodies of 34 people, some of them with signs of violent death including, gunshot wounds, fractures of ribs and skulls and mine-blast injuries.

Another 44 bodies were found, the youngest appearing to be only a year old, in a separate burial site.

The bodies were sent to Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region in order to establish the causes of death.

— Amanda Macias

Leaders of some of the world’s largest economies reiterated their commitment to Ukraine and condemned Russia’s escalating aggression, vowing to back Ukraine for “as long as it takes.”

“We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic and legal support and will stand firmly with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” the G-7 group of nations said in a statement released after wrapping up an emergency meeting they conducted virtually. “We are committed to supporting Ukraine in meeting its winter preparedness needs.”

“We condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms and recall that indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilian populations constitute a war crime,” the group said. “We will hold President [Vladimir] Putin and those responsible to account.”

U.S. President Joe Biden affirmed the group’s stance in a tweet following the meeting. He said that he and the G-7 leaders will keep their “unwavering commitment to hold Russia accountable for its war and support Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

— Emma Kinery

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent missile strikes across Ukraine and said the attack shows Moscow’s desperation to regain its footing as Ukrainian forces continue a stunning counteroffensive.

“President Putin is failing in Ukraine,” Stoltenberg told reporters at NATO headquarters.

He added that Putin’s attempts to annex additional portions of Ukraine, reckless nuclear rhetoric and a partial mobilization of additional troops were also examples that “this war is not going as planned.”

“NATO stands with Ukraine for as long as it takes, Stoltenberg said, adding that allies will discuss additional security assistance for Kyiv at this week’s defense ministerial.

— Amanda Macias

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will travel to Brussels this week to participate in the NATO Defense Ministerial meeting at the alliance’s headquarters.

The defense ministers of Finland and Sweden will join the NATO summit as invitees as they await their accession into the military alliance.

Following NATO, Austin and U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley will host a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.

The group, a coalition of nearly 50 countries supporting Ukraine’s military needs, has met six times since it was formed in April. The group of defense ministers and chiefs will discuss additional ways to provide security assistance for Ukraine as Russia’s war enters its eighth month.

— Amanda Macias

The Biden administration said that it has not seen any movements of Russia moving apparatus to carry out a nuclear weapon strike.

“We’ve seen no indication that Putin has made a decision to use nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine,” John Kirby, White House National Security Coordinator, told reporters on a call.

“Nobody wants to see this war escalate into the nuclear realm, there is no reason for it to escalate to that level,” Kirby said, adding that the U.S. has not observed any movements ahead of the potential use of a nuclear weapon.

He added that the U.S. was watching the situation closely but had not found cause to change Washington’s strategic nuclear posture.

“We do not seek a conflict with Russia, the president has been crystal clear about that,” Kirby reiterated.

— Amanda Macias

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen condemned Russia’s missile strikes during a G20 Joint Finance-Agriculture Ministerial calling the attack “barbaric.”

“The innocent lives taken by President Vladimir Putin’s barbaric missile attacks across Ukraine yesterday. Russia’s decision to indiscriminately strike civilian targets shows the world yet again the true nature of their brutal and illegal war in Ukraine,” Yellen said, according to a Treasury official.

The official said that Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov attended the meeting virtually and was present for Yellen’s remarks.

“Russia’s unprovoked war on Ukraine, including its blockade of ports and destruction of agricultural infrastructure, has disrupted global supply chains and food production. Putin’s regime and the officials who serve it – including those representing Russia at these gatherings – bear responsibility for the immense human suffering this war has caused,” Yellen added.

— Amanda Macias

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on G7 leaders to “respond symmetrically” on the heels of fresh Russian missile strikes across Ukraine.

“When Russia attacks the energy sector and energy stability of our countries, we must block its energy sector with sanctions, break the stability of Russian revenues from oil and gas trade,” Zelenskyy said, referencing Russia’s missile strikes on critical Ukrainian energy facilities.

Zelenskyy also called for a “tough price cap” on Russian exports of oil and gas in order to weaken Moscow’s revenue stream.

The Ukrainian leader, who has not left his war-weary country since the Kremlin’s late February invasion, said that Russian forces have used more than 100 cruise missiles and dozens of drones in the past 24 hours.

“When Ukraine receives a sufficient number of modern and effective air defense systems, the key element of Russian terror – missile strikes – will cease to work,” Zelenskyy said, in a new plea for additional Western security assistance.

— Amanda Macias

The U.N. agency that monitors human rights said it will continue corroborating information on human rights violations as Russian forces unleash fresh attacks on civilian infrastructure.

“The missile attacks by Russian armed forces yesterday which struck cities across Ukraine left at least 12 civilians dead and more than 100 injured in Kyiv, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia, and in Kyiv and Sumy regions,” Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a briefing.

“The location and timing of the strikes, when people were commuting to work and taking children to school, is particularly shocking,” Shamdasani said, adding that the Russian attacks targeted critical civilian infrastructure, including “dozens of residential buildings and 12 energy facilities.

“These strikes may have violated the principles on the conduct of hostilities under international humanitarian law. Attacks targeting civilians and objects indispensable to the survival of civilians are prohibited,” she said.

— Amanda Macias

Russia’s financial monitoring agency, Rosfinmonitoring, added U.S. tech giant Meta to its list of “terrorists and extremists,” Interfax news agency reported.

A Russian court banned Meta and its activities in Russia, including Facebook and Instagram.

The court’s decision does not prohibit the activities of WhatsApp messenger, which is also owned by Meta, because it does not publicly disseminate information.

Meta considered the decision unreasonable and challenged it, but it was unsuccessful.

— Amanda Macias

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed U.S. President Joe Biden and other G-7 leaders as they met virtually on Tuesday, asking the group to urgently provide Ukraine with more air defense weapons, Reuters reported.

Kyiv was widely expected to seek additional air defense weapons during the emergency meeting after Moscow ramped-up its missile strikes on various locations across Ukraine on Monday and Tuesday.

The attacks were unleashed after an explosion last weekend partially destroyed Russia’s prized Kerch Strait bridge linking the mainland and Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

G-7 leaders are also expected to discuss the global energy crisis and how to implement an international cap on the Russian oil price.

Russia dismissed the G-7 meeting with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying the mood of the G-7’s emergency meeting was “obvious and predictable.” “The confrontation will continue,” Peskov said.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia has dramatically ramped up its missile attacks on Ukraine in the last 48 hours, but experts say the country is running out of options — as well as supplies and munitions — on the battlefield.

Air raid sirens were once again sounding out across multiple regions in Ukraine Tuesday, with emergency services warning that more Russian strikes were highly likely. Ukrainian officials reported that energy infrastructure in the western city of Lviv had been hit earlier, while the city of Zaporizhzhia in the south was also targeted this morning.

The latest strikes come a day after a series of Russian attacks — launched in response to the bombing last weekend of Russia’s prized Kerch Strait bridge to Crimea — hit various Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv. The strikes left at least 19 people dead and over a hundred injured, the emergency services said.

Despite Moscow’s recent show of strength in the last day or so, experts say Russia’s forces are looking increasingly desperate and ill-equipped.

Read more here: Russia unleashes its anger on Ukraine with brutal strikes — but it has big problems on the battlefield

— Holly Ellyatt

Parts of Ukraine are still struggling with power outages as Russia says it is continuing to target energy infrastructure across the country.

President Zelenskyy said overnight that several hundred settlements remained without electricity after missile attacks yesterday and that authorities had made it a priority to restore power. Officials in Lviv, a major city in the west of Ukraine, reported more power outages Tuesday after Russian missiles targeted the city and wider region’s energy infrastructure.

“Missile attack on a critical infrastructure facility in Lviv. Part of the city is again blacked out,” Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said on the Telegram messenger app.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kulebahas said such attacks were “creating unbearable conditions for civilians.”

Russia openly admits targeting such facilities.

On Tuesday, the country’s defense ministry issued a military update on Telegram stating that its forces continue to launch “massive” attacks “using high-precision long-range air and sea-based armament at the facilities of military control and energy system of Ukraine.”

— Holly Ellyatt

A top Russian official warned of the danger of “uncontrolled escalation” if the West continues to support Ukraine, marking the latest threat to be issued by Moscow to Kyiv’s international allies.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia “will be forced to take adequate countermeasures, including of an asymmetric nature,” Ryabkov told Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti Tuesday, without detailing what those measures could be.

He said Moscow regretted “the ongoing large-scale assistance to Kyiv” from the West and said that while “a direct clash with the United States and NATO is not in Russia’s interests” there was a hope in Moscow “that Washington and other Western capitals are aware of the danger of uncontrolled escalation.”

Ryabkov’s comments are just the latest instance in a long line of saber-rattling by officials in Moscow, including President Putin, who has threatened to use nuclear weapons if the West continues to support Ukraine in the war, or if Russia deems there to be an existential threat to its territory.

— Holly Ellyatt

The director of GCHQ, one of Britain’s top intelligence agencies, will say in an address today that Russia is running out of supplies and munitions while their forces are exhausted as Ukraine turns tide in the conflict.

GCHQ’s chief Jeremy Fleming is due to speak at the annual RUSI lecture in London on Tuesday afternoon. While his speech will largely focus on China and its impact on global security, he will touch upon the war in Ukraine and is expected to say:

“We know – and Russian commanders on the ground know – that their supplies and munitions are running out,” Fleming will say, according to pre-released comments sent to CNBC by the intelligence, cyber and security agency.

“Russia’s forces are exhausted. The use of prisoners to reinforce, and now the mobilisation of tens of thousands of inexperienced conscripts, speaks of a desperate situation,” he will say, adding that the Russian population is beginning to understand the reality surrounding the war. 

“They’re seeing just how badly Putin has misjudged the situation. They’re fleeing the draft, realising they can no longer travel. They know their access to modern technologies and external influences will be drastically restricted. And they are feeling the extent of the dreadful human cost of his war of choice.”

Fleming is expected to say that far from “the inevitable Russian military victory that their propaganda machine spouted,” it’s becoming clear that Ukraine’s bravery on the battlefield and in cyberspace, counteracting Russian propaganda, is “turning the tide” in the war.

In the meantime, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision-making is looking increasingly flawed with “a high stakes strategy … leading to strategic errors in judgement.”

“Their gains are being reversed.  The costs to Russia – in people and equipment are staggering,” Fleming is set to say.  

— Holly Ellyatt

The chances of Russian President Vladimir Putin deploying nuclear weapons against Ukraine is low, and would isolate him globally as a pariah, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor told CNBC.

“If President Putin were to use nuclear weapons against a nuclear disarmed Ukraine, this would turn the world against him,” said Taylor.

Taylor said he believes that China and India, along with the rest of the world, would “draw back in horror” if Russia were to resort to nuclear arms.

“This would, I think, further cement President Putin as a pariah. I think there’s no military reason to do it. There’s a lot of political reasons that he shouldn’t do it.”

When asked if there are any traction towards peace talks, Taylor said he does not reckon so, mainly because “the Russians are not at all interested.” There are also no indications that Putin is too committed to the invasion, he added.

— Lee Ying Shan

Several missiles have been shot down over the Kyiv region, according to the governor of the region Oleksiy Kuleba.

Warning residents to stay in shelters while air raid alerts were ongoing, Kuleba said on Telegram Tuesday morning that “air defense forces shot down a rocket in one of the districts of the region.”

In a further post, he said there had been “another downed missile.”

CNBC was unable to verify the information but air raid warnings are in operation across Ukraine this morning.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine’s emergency services warned citizens of the likelihood of more Russian attacks on Tuesday, with air raid sirens ringing out across multiple regions.

The emergency services issued a warning on Telegram Tuesday. “Warning. During the day there’s a high probability of missile strikes on the territory of Ukraine. Please remain in shelters for your own safety, do not ignore air raid signals,” the services said, according to Reuters.

The warning came as the emergency services said that the death toll from Monday’s mass shelling had reached 19, with 105 now known to be injured in the strikes across the country.

This map shows the breadth and duration of air raid alerts on Tuesday, with the capital Kyiv and other major cities including Lviv and Dnipro experiencing more warnings this morning.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine’s emergency services said the death toll has risen after Russia’s mass shelling across the country on Monday.

The latest information from the services found that 19 people were killed in the strikes across Ukraine, and 105 were injured.

The services said on Telegram on Tuesday that, as a result of shelling, objects of critical and civil infrastructure were hit in the capital Kyiv as well as 12 other regions. More than 30 fires, caused by the strikes, had to be extinguished by the emergency services.

The power supply has been restored to 3,571 settlements in the Poltava, Sumy, Ternopil, Lviv, Kyiv and Khmelnytskyi regions, although over 300 settlements in those regions still have no electricity.

The emergency services said it had involved 22 power stations to provide power to health-care facilities in the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv regions, as well as seven power plants for critical infrastructure facilities.

“More than 1,000 people and about 120 units of emergency services equipment were involved in extinguishing fires and emergency rescue operations,” the services said.

— Holly Ellyatt

The city of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine has been hit by more Russian strikes on Tuesday morning, officials say.

“As a result of the morning rocket attack, an educational institution, a medical institution and residential buildings were also damaged,” Anatolii Kurtev, the secretary to the Zaporizhzhia city council, said on Telegram, adding that “unfortunately, there are casualties,” without providing more details.

Oleksandr Starukh, the head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, said on Telegram that “several powerful explosions” had rocked the city and that Russian forces “attacked the regional center with missiles. The enemy targeted infrastructure facilities.”

Information on damage and victims was being clarified, he said. CNBC was unable to independently verify the information.

The city was targeted on Monday as Russia conducted missile strikes across Ukraine. The image below shows destruction to a residential building following a missile attack.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Monday that Ukraine will not be intimidated by multiple strikes across the country on Monday and that it would respond on the battlefield, vowing to make it “more painful” for Russian forces.

“Ukraine cannot be intimidated. We united even more instead. Ukraine cannot be stopped. We are convinced even more that terrorists must be neutralized. Now the occupiers are not capable of opposing us on the battlefield already, that is why they resort to this terror,” he said.

He said that urgent work was being done to repair and restore damaged infrastructure and power supplies that had been lost during the strikes.

“Restoration work is currently underway across the country. We will restore all objects that were damaged by today’s attack by Russian terrorists. It’s only a matter of time,” he commented on Telegram as well as in a video address from the streets of Kyiv, where a variety of locations were hit, including a playground, cultural centers and office and residential buildings. 

Zelenskyy said that out of 84 Russian missiles launched against Ukraine, 43 had been shot down on Monday, and out of 24 Russian drones, 13 were shot down.

The president called on Ukrainians to restrict their power use between certain hours to relieve pressure on the energy system.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address a virtual emergency G7 leaders meeting on Tuesday after Russian missile strikes rocked Ukrainian cities.

Since Russia’s late-February invasion of Ukraine, the G7 has imposed a slew of coordinated sanctions against Moscow. The group kicked Russia out of the G8 following its illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.

The G7 leaders on Tuesday are also expected to discuss the mounting global energy crisis and ways to implement an international cap on the price of Russian oil.

The emergency meeting of the G7 follows a series of deadly missile strikes across Ukraine, killing at least 14 people and wounding 97.

— Amanda Macias

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that he ordered long-range missile strikes on a number of locations in Ukraine targeting military, energy and communications facilities.

“If attacks continue against Russia, the response will be harsh. The responses will be of the same scale as the threats to Russia,” Putin said during a meeting of his national security council.

“In the event of further attempts to carry out terrorist acts on our territory, Russia’s response will be harsh.”

Putin did not mention that the missile strikes hit several civilian areas and resulted in numerous casualties. The EU has said Russia’s indiscriminate attacks on civilians in Ukraine constitute a war crime.

Putin has blamed Ukraine for the explosion on Russia’s Kerch bridge Saturday morning — the only bridge connecting the country to Crimea, which it illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014 — and called it a terrorist attack. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for the blast that destroyed part of the bridge.

— Natasha Turak

Several Ukrainian cities have been hit by what officials are describing as a wave of missile attacks — as far west as the city of Lviv, largely considered one of the safest parts of the country.

Kyiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv and Vinnytsia, among other cities, have all reported explosions.

“Kyiv region and Khmelnytsky region, Lviv and Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Frankiv region, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy region, Kharkiv region, Zhytormyr region, Kirovohrad region, the south,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. He described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “terrorist” targeting civilians.

At least 8 people in Kyiv have been killed and two dozen injured, according to the city’s emergency services.

— Natasha Turak