The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send an advanced long-range air defense system to Ukraine to help counter Moscow’s attacks, US officials told CNN.
Here are some of the latest developments:
- “Saboteurs” take out utility substation in Russian-occupied city: The Russian-appointed head of the occupied city of Berdyansk in southern Ukraine said more than 10,000 customers are without electricity after Ukrainian “saboteurs” blew up a substation.
- Russian citizen indicted in smuggling case: The US Justice Department released an indictment that said Russian citizen Vadim Konoshchenok was arrested in Estonia last week after attempting to smuggle 20 cases of US-made sniper rifle ammunition into Russia in late November.
- Moscow targets Kyiv: President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine’s air defense shot down “all 13” drones used to strike the capital on Wednesday. The assaults were “aimed at the critical infrastructure of the region and capital,” according to a local official.
- American included in prisoner swap: An American named as 35-year-old Suedi Mureksezi was part of a 65-person prisoner swap in Ukraine on Wednesday, according to the Ukrainian presidential office.
- “Children are facing a bleak winter”: Russian strikes on critical infrastructure in Ukraine have put the physical and mental health of almost all seven million children in the country “at desperate risk,” UNICEF warned Wednesday.
- Russian commander cites nuclear weapons: Russia can’t “defeat the NATO bloc” in Ukraine without using nuclear weapons, Commander Alexander Khodakovsky of the Russian militia in the eastern Donetsk region said on state television.
