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4 mins ago
A new law would ban religious groups in Ukraine associated with Russia
Agents of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) check the documents of visitors to the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery on November 22.
(Photo: Sergei Chuzavkov/AFP/Getty Images)
Ukraine's parliament will vote on a new law that will ban the operation of religious organizations "affiliated with centers of influence" in Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday, in an effort to prevent an "opportunity to manipulate" Ukrainians.
"Unfortunately, even Russian terror and large-scale war did not convince some figures that the temptation of evil is worth overcoming. Well, we have to create the conditions so that no actor dependent on the aggressor state has the opportunity to manipulate Ukrainians and weaken Ukraine from within," the Ukrainian president said in a statement.
"The National Security and Defense Council instructed the government to submit to the Verkhovna Rada [the Ukrainian parliament] a draft law on the impossibility of religious organizations affiliated with the centers of influence of the Russian Federation to operate in Ukraine." , said.
Some background
: The proposed law comes after the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) raided a historic Kyiv Christian Orthodox monastery, the Pechersk Lavra, on November 22, as part of an effort to counter the alleged "subversive activities" of Russia's special services.
The raid was aimed at preventing the "use of Ukrainian Orthodox Church premises to hide sabotage and reconnaissance groups, foreign citizens, and store weapons," the SBU said.
"All bodies responsible for ensuring national security must intensify measures to identify and counter the subversive activities of Russian special services in the religious sphere of Ukraine. And apply personal sanctions: surnames will be made public shortly," Zelensky said this Thursday.
In his statement, Zelensky also said that "religious examination" of the Management Charter of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be carried out "to determine the presence of an ecclesiastical-canonical connection with the Moscow Patriarchate and, if necessary, to take measures provided for by law".
These and other decisions are aimed at ensuring "the spiritual independence of Ukraine," Zelensky said.
In May, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church officially broke allegiance with the Russian Orthodox Church and its leader, Patriarch Kirill, over the war, saying it considers the invasion "a violation of God's commandment 'Thou shalt not kill'."
Kirill is a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and has supported the war in Ukraine.
23 minutes ago
Between 10,000 and 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed, according to a Zelensky adviser, a number well below US estimates
By Sarah Dean
Soldiers attend the farewell ceremony for Master Sergeant Yuriy Chernenko in Lviv, Ukraine, on November 24.
(Photo: Pavlo Palamarchuk/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Between 10,000 and 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers died in the Ukrainian war, according to Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
This figure is well below the estimates suggested by the United States.
"We have official figures from the General Staff, official figures from the high command, and according to them we have between 10,000 and 12,500 or 13,000 deaths," Podolyak told national television on Thursday.
On November 10, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, said that Russia has suffered more than 100,000 soldiers killed and wounded as a result of the war in Ukraine and that Kyiv is probably considering similar figures.
There is no confirmed number of troop casualties on either side in the Ukrainian war.
CNN has contacted the Ukrainian military for comment.
However, Bohdan Senyk, head of the public relations department of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, earlier declined to confirm the Ukrainian army's losses.
24 mins ago
Russian military start census in parts of Zaporizhia, according to Ukrainian mayor
By Sarah Dean
The Russian military has begun conducting a census in parts of the occupied territory in the southern Zaporizhia region, according to the Ukrainian-in-exile mayor of the city of Melitopol.
"In recent days, the Russians have made a scandal," Ivan Fedorov said in a televised broadcast on Friday.
"First, they took the wounded out of the hospital. Then they started a census in the towns of Mykhailivka and Burchak to supposedly prepare the evacuation."
Melitopol has been occupied by Russian forces since the first days of the invasion and analysts have suggested that the Ukrainian forces' next offensive front is likely to be a push south of the city.
Fedorov added that the hospitals in the cities of Tokmak and Mykhailivka were also "turned into military hospitals for the Russian forces."
"[The Russians] are massively treating thousands of their wounded there," Fedorov said.
"Only one hospital in the city of Melitopol, an ambulance hospital, provides assistance to civilians."
New Russian military bases have also been established, he said, noting that there are now "tens of thousands of Russian troops in the Melitopol territory."
Last month, Fedorov highlighted the difficulties faced by civilians in leaving the city.
This comes after the Ukrainian military claimed that some Russian troops are withdrawing from their positions in the Zaporizhia region.
CNN cannot confirm the statements of the General Staff.
26 mins ago
Russia informed the US about the transfer of Brittney Griner to a penal colony weeks after being transferred
By Jennifer Hansler
IK-2 penal colony in the town of Yavas in central Mordovia, Russia, where Brittney Griner is being held, on November 19.
(Photo: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images)
The Russian government formally notified the US Embassy last week of the transfer of Brittney Griner to a remote penal colony, weeks after the wrongfully detained WNBA star had been transferred, according to the Biden government.
"The US Embassy in Moscow was formally notified by the Russian government of Ms. Griner's transfer on November 23, more than two weeks after she was transferred from a prison in Moscow to IK-2 in Mordovia," said a State Department spokesperson told CNN on Thursday.
"We are in frequent contact with Ms. Griner's legal team and know that they were able to visit her this week," the spokesperson said.
32 mins ago
Ukraine claims some Russian units in Zaporizhia are withdrawing while attacking ammunition and troop depots
By Tim Lister, Julia Kesaieva
A Russian service member sits near an automatic grenade launcher in a fighting position on the left bank of the Dnipro river in Zaporizhia region, Ukraine, on November 26.
(Photo: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)
The Ukrainian military claims that some Russian troops are withdrawing from their positions in the southern Zaporizhia region.
It also says that the Russians are preparing to evacuate the "occupation administrations' personnel" in the Zaporizhia region.
In its daily update, the Military General Staff said that the Russian units had abandoned the settlements of Mykhailivka, Polohy and Inzhenerne, all towns south of the city of Zaporizhia.
Front lines in the region stretch for 200 kilometers (about 124 miles) across rolling farmland.
Geolocated images published on Wednesday show the consequences of the attacks on the Polohy buildings.
The General Staff said that in the Burchak settlement, the occupation authorities are conducting a census for the so-called voluntary evacuation of the population.
The Ukrainians appear to be repeating the actions they undertook at Kherson: attacking bridges, supply centers and concentrations of Russian troops behind the front lines.
The General Staff said that in recent days attacks at half a dozen locations had injured more than 230 Russian soldiers and destroyed ammunition and equipment.
CNN cannot confirm the statements of the General Staff.
What could happen next: Analysts have suggested that the Ukrainians' next offensive front is likely to be a push south toward the occupied city of Melitopol.
Elsewhere, the General Staff said Russian forces continued to defend their positions in the eastern Luhansk region using tanks, mortars and artillery to prevent further advances by Ukrainian forces.
Russian units also shelled several settlements in the recently liberated areas of the Kherson region.
But Brigadier General Oleksii Hromov claimed Russian forces had accidentally fired on his own unit near the Kherson town of Tsukury last week, killing 14 servicemen.
CNN cannot verify this claim.
Hromov said Russian forces had assembled in the Crimean town of Dzankhoi, which "has actually become the biggest military base in the territory... from where Russian occupation troops and weapons and equipment are redeployed." serviceman of the Russian Armed Forces".
war in ukraine
