June 15, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The Biden administration Wednesday is expected to announce an additional $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, according to a US official.

The package is expected to include shipments of additional howitzers, ammunition and coastal defense systems among the first items to be shipped.

Speaking in Brussels, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US and Ukraine are “working in lockstep to meet Ukraine's requests for new capabilities, especially its need for long-range fires, armor and coastal defense.”

The package is expected to include weapons and supplies that can be quickly shipped from existing US stockpiles as well as issuing new contracts for long-term supplies for Ukraine.

The same US official told CNN the new aid package for Ukraine includes:

Ukrainian forces are suffering heavy losses amid intense fighting in the east of the country, while Western leaders have promised to answer the country's call for more heavy weapons.

Here's the latest on the Russian invasion:

Situation in eastern Ukraine worsening: The Ukrainian military’s defense in the eastern region of Luhansk is growing more difficult, the head of Luhansk’s military administration said Wednesday morning. “It is getting harder, but our military is holding back the enemy from three directions at once,” Serhiy Hayday said via Telegram. 

Conflict at pivotal point: Western intelligence and military officials believe Russia's war in Ukraine is in a critical stage that could determine the long-term outcome of the conflict, according to multiple sources familiar with US and other Western intelligence. Ukraine's military is burning through Soviet-era ammunition that fits older systems as the country pleads with the West to send more heavy weaponry and Russia amasses a significant artillery advantage around two strategically important cities in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine suffering "painful" losses: Fierce fighting continues in Severodonetsk and the Kharkiv region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a video address on Tuesday. In Severodonetsk “the losses, unfortunately, are painful,” Zelensky said. “But we have to hold on.” He went on to say how it is vital for the Ukrainian military to stay in Donbas.

Russia claims NATO weapons destroyed: The Russian Ministry of Defense says it destroyed a warehouse of weapons provided by NATO nations in the western Ukrainian Lviv region on Tuesday. “High-precision long-range Kalibr missiles near Zolochev, Lvov region, have destroyed a warehouse of ammunition for foreign weapons transferred to Ukraine by NATO countries, including 155-mm M777 howitzers,” the Russian MOD said Wednesday.

NATO promises more weapons: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday the alliance will continue to support Ukraine, supplying them with a military support package that would help the Ukrainian army transition from Soviet-era artillery to more modern weapons. "We are extremely focused on stepping up, providing more support, more advanced weapons ... because we support them in their just fight against the brutal Russian invasion," Stoltenberg said in Brussels ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers.

Ukrainian children suffering widespread displacement: Nearly two-thirds of Ukrainian children have been forced to leave their homes, according to Afshan Khan, regional director at UNICEF.

Macron predicts negotiations with Russia: “It is the reality of things” that Ukraine and Europe “will have to negotiate” with Russia over the Ukrainian war at some point, French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday. “The only desirable end to the conflict is either a Ukrainian military victory or talks at some point because fighting has stopped, so at some point we must talk,” he said while visiting French troops in eastern Romania.  

Pope Francis keeps attention on Ukraine: The Pontiff made an appeal for people not to forget about the Ukraine war as the conflict rages on. "Let’s not get used to living as if war were a distant thing,” he said. 

Russian plan to reopen bombed Mariupol theater: Russia is planning to reopen Mariupol’s Drama Theater this fall -- the location where hundreds of people are believed to have died after a Russian bombing on March 16 -- according to an adviser to the Ukrainian mayor of the city. "Dances on the bones, a performance at the cemetery,” he said. “There is no such depth of the inhumanity bottom that the occupiers have not hit.”

The more than 500 civilians sheltering underneath the Azot chemical plant in the besieged city of Severodonetsk, eastern Ukraine, have not been supplied in two weeks, the district’s leader told CNN on Wednesday.

“There are food stocks, but they have not been resupplied for two weeks,” Roman Vlasenko, head of the Severodonetsk district military administration, said via text message. “So stocks won't last long. If there is a humanitarian corridor, I believe people are ready to leave Azot.”

The Russian Ministry of Defense said that it would open an evacuation corridor from the plant for civilians starting on Wednesday, but only to Russian-held territory to the north. Ukrainian authorities have not commented on Russia’s proposal, and have generally been skeptical of such claims, given past Russian practice: At repeated points during the war, they say, Russian forces have broken promises to open evacuation corridors, driven civilian evacuees onto their territory and failed to observe ceasefire agreements.

In an interview on national television, the head of the city’s military administration said that travel between Ukrainian-held Lysychansk and Severodonetsk was difficult but still possible.

“Ways to escape are quite dangerous, but they exist,” Oleksandr Striuk said. “It is wrong to say that the city is completely cut off. Logistics has become much more complicated.”

He said that fighting was concentrated in the center of Severodonetsk.

“We control the industrial zone, the perimeter that provides connections with Lysychansk,” he said. “The situation is difficult, but stable.”

Striuk said that it was difficult to estimate how many civilians were left in the city, saying only that there were around 10,000 people left “at the beginning of the escalated situation.”

NATO will have preassigned forces and prepositioned equipment on its eastern flank for the first time since the Cold War, the alliance's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday.

This would enable a faster response by the alliance in case of a threat, he said at a Brussels news conference before a NATO Defense Ministers meeting. 

"That's exactly what we are working on with Germany but we expect all the allies to make similar offers, to enable preassigned forces that are training and are responsible for the defense of specific territories," Stoltenberg said. 

Swedish furniture company IKEA announced that it will “further scale down” business in Russia and Belarus in a statement on Wednesday.

The company had already paused operations in both countries on March 3 due to the war in Ukraine, but said “unfortunately the circumstances have not improved."

As part of this scaling down IKEA is looking for new ownership for all four of its factories in Russia; all import and export of IKEA products to and from Russia and Belarus will remain frozen; its offices in Moscow and Minsk will close permanently; and IKEA stores will also remain closed.

IKEA acknowledged that many staff will lose their jobs because of this decision.

In a statement published March 3 the company said the number of staff directly impacted was around 15,000, and subsequently announced it had guaranteed 6 months’ salary for all workers. 

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday that the alliance will continue to support Ukraine, supplying them with a military support package that would help the Ukrainian army transition from Soviet-era artillery to more modern weapons.

"We are extremely focused on stepping up, providing more support, more advanced weapons ... because we support them in their just fight against the brutal Russian invasion," Stoltenberg said at a press conference in Brussels ahead of a NATO Defense Ministers meeting. 

Ukraine will continue receiving "practical support, lethal and non-lethal support from NATO allies and NATO" that would enable Ukraine "to continue to modernize its armed forces, something NATO allies have worked on for many years but stepped up now," he said. 

"This is our focus and Ukraine's most urgent need as we speak," he added. 

Stoltenberg also said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be invited to the NATO summit in Madrid in two weeks.

Hundreds of civilians continue to shelter at a chemical plant in the besieged Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk, as Russia advances a questionable claim to have opened a so-called “humanitarian corridor” for Ukrainians to evacuate into Russian-held territory.

The Russian Ministry of Defense on Tuesday said that it would open a route for civilians to move from the Ukrainian-held Azot chemical plant, starting at Wednesday at 8 a.m. Moscow time (7 a.m. local in Severodonetsk).

Just over 500 civilians are still sheltering beneath that industrial facility, according to Oleksandr Striuk, head of the Severodonetsk military administration. Authorities say it has come under sustained Russian bombardment, and the regional leader said Wednesday that “the Russians are close.”

It is unclear whether any Ukrainians will leave for Russian-held territory, or even whether a workable evacuation corridor exists. Given Russia's past practice, Ukrainian officials have generally been skeptical of such claims, saying that Russian forces have repeatedly broken promises to open evacuation corridors, driven civilian evacuees onto their territory and failed to observe ceasefire agreements.

Ukrainian authorities have not commented on Russia’s proposal, and such a corridor is much less tenable without a two-sided ceasefire.

The Russian MOD did not mention the corridor in its Wednesday update on the war, but publicized its proposal after it claimed Ukraine asked for a corridor from the Azot plant to Lysychansk, to the west, which is held by Ukraine.

Instead, the Russian MOD called on Ukrainian fighters to “lay down their arms” and promised to treat them as prisoners of war, “as has already happened to your comrades who previously surrendered in Mariupol.”

“We call on the official authorities in [Kyiv] to show prudence and give appropriate instructions to the militants to stop their senseless resistance and withdraw from the territory of Azot plant,” the MOD said.

The difference with Mariupol is that unlike the Azovstal plant, which was entirely surrounded by Russian forces, the Ukrainians still appear able to move in and out of the territory they control in Severodonetsk.

All three main bridges between Severodonetsk and Lysychansk across the Siverskyi Donets River are now impassable.

But Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk region military administration, said Monday that moving back and forth to Severodonetsk was “difficult, but not impossible.”

Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday that evacuations were slow because of the constant bombardment, but still possible.

The Russian Ministry of Defense says it destroyed a warehouse of weapons provided by NATO nations in the western Ukrainian Lviv region on Tuesday.

“High-precision long-range Kalibr missiles near Zolochev, Lvov region, have destroyed a warehouse of ammunition for foreign weapons transferred to Ukraine by NATO countries, including 155-mm M777 howitzers,” the Russian MOD said in its update on the war in Ukraine published Wednesday. CNN cannot independently verify these claims.

Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday that their air defense systems had shot down Russian cruise missiles over Lviv and Ternopil, but conceded that some Russian strikes were successful.

“It was possible to bring down only a part,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, there are victims, there is destruction."

Men in hard hats enter a child's bedroom decorated with pink wallpaper that features two bejeweled elephants, a little one and big one.

The workers quickly shovel mounds of rubble off the beige carpet and into wheelbarrows, then dump it down a makeshift chute. They leave only a dusty pile of children's books before moving on to the next room.

With the roof mostly burned out of this apartment building on the outskirts of Kyiv, due to previous Russian strikes on the Ukrainian capital, the sun beats down on the volunteers as they work methodically to make the devastated homes livable again.

It's now more than 100 days since Russian troops invaded Ukraine. They initially attacked and occupied multiple Kyiv suburbs before the Kremlin withdrew its forces from around the capital to concentrate on the east of the country. Even as brutal street-by-street battles continue to rage there, residents in Kyiv say it is time to rebuild and return.

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