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6 mins ago
Death toll rises to 44 in attack on Dnipro apartment building
By Maria Kostenko
Firefighters conduct search and rescue operations at a residential building hit by a missile on January 15 in Dnipro, Ukraine.
(Photo: Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images)
Forty-four people were killed after a Russian cruise missile attack on an apartment block in Dnipro over the weekend, according to the city's mayor.
The mayor, Borys Filatov, announced on Tuesday on social networks the new number of fatalities.
The count increased from the earlier announcement that 41 people, including four children, had been killed, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Presidential Administration.
Filatov did not immediately provide the ages of the other three bodies that have been discovered since.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky called the Moscow attack a "war crime" and vowed to bring its perpetrators to justice in his evening speech on Monday.
Death toll rises after Russian attack in Dnipro, Ukraine
Also Monday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that 7,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the war began on February 24.
2022.
The OHCHR added that they believed that "the majority of recorded civilian casualties were caused by the use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects, including heavy artillery shelling, multiple launch rocket systems, missiles, and airstrikes."
CNN's Sebastian Shukla contributed reporting.
9 mins ago
A high-level US delegation meets in Kyiv with senior Ukrainian officials
By Jennifer Hansler
Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak held a briefing for the US delegation led by US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on Ukraine's reaction to the Russian invasion on January 16 in Kyiv.
(Photo: President of Ukraine)
A high-level US delegation met with senior Ukrainian officials in Kyiv on Monday "to reaffirm the United States' strong and unwavering commitment to Ukraine and its defense against unprovoked Russian aggression," according to a State Department statement.
The following details who was part of the US delegation:
Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman
Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer
Assistant Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl
Who did they meet in Ukraine:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal
Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov
Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov
The General Director of Ukrenergo, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi
"Prior to the visit, the delegation stopped in Germany and Poland to discuss US security assistance to Ukraine."
During the meetings, the leaders discussed how international aid "has contributed to stabilizing the Ukrainian economy" and how the United States and Ukraine could continue to maintain an economic and trade relationship after the end of the war, according to the statement.
The leaders also discussed efforts to repair Ukraine's energy infrastructure, it added.
10 mins ago
IAEA chief marks permanent presence at Ukrainian nuclear power plant
By Mick Krever
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
(Photo: JOE KLAMAR/AFP via Getty Images)
The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visited the nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine on Monday on the occasion of the permanent presence of the UN nuclear watchdog on the site.
The agency's chief is in Ukraine this week to "establish a continuous presence of nuclear safety experts at all nuclear facilities in the country," the IAEA previously announced.
"Now we are establishing this permanent presence here," Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a video posted on his Twitter account.
"I think it's very symbolic that we start this cold afternoon here, but with a warm spirit and with great determination."
Although the Russian-controlled Zaporizhia nuclear power plant already has IAEA team members on site, experts will also travel to the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant in western Ukraine in "the next few days," according to the report. IAEA in a statement on Saturday, before the director's visit.
Grossi will also visit the Rivne nuclear power plant, as well as Chernobyl.
Two IAEA members are expected to be stationed at each location, the watchdog said.
14 mins ago
A former Wagner commander flees to Norway and asks for asylum
By Mick Krever, Katharina Krebs
A former commander of the Russian private military company Wagner has fled to Norway and is seeking asylum after crossing that country's Arctic border, according to Norwegian police and a Russian activist.
Andrei Medvedev, in an interview with a Russian activist who helps people seek asylum abroad, said he feared for his life after refusing to renew his service at Wagner.
Medvedev stated that after ending his contract and refusing to lend another, he feared execution in the same way as Yevgeny Nuzhin, a Wagner defector who was killed on camera with a mace.
"They just threw us to fight as cannon fodder," Vladimir Osechkin, director of Gulagu.net, a human rights advocacy group, told Vladimir Osechkin in a conversation posted on YouTube.
ANALYSIS |
While the Russian army stagnates, the Wagner mercenary group wants to rescue the war campaign in Ukraine
A spokesman for the Norwegian Police Security Service confirmed to CNN on Monday that Medvedev was in Norway and was seeking asylum.
"So far it is a local police investigation," Eirik Veum told CNN.
"But in the Security Service we are informed and we are following the investigation of course."
Some background
: Wagner, led by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, emerged as a key player in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, recently doing much of the fighting in the small eastern town of Soledar.
This mercenary group is often described as the underground troops of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Since its creation in 2014, it has expanded its presence around the world and has been accused of war crimes in Africa, Syria and Ukraine.
15 mins ago
Zelensky calls deadly attack on Dnipro apartment building a war crime
By Denis Lapin i
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday called the Russian attack on an apartment building in Dnipro a "war crime" and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.
"There is no doubt: all those guilty of this war crime will be identified and brought to justice," Zelensky declared in his evening address.
At least 44 people were killed and 25 remain missing after the attack.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) named six members of the Russian military who it says were involved in the attack, according to what the agency described as findings of the "preliminary investigation."
"This attack on Dnipro, like other similar ones, falls within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court," Zelensky declared.
"And we will use every available opportunity - both domestic and international - to ensure that all Russian murderers, all those who give and carry out orders on missile terror against our people, receive legal sentences. And that they serve their sentences."
war in ukraine