New missile strikes hit Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia; Russia warns U.S. commercial satellites could become targets if involved in war

IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said that its inspectors will arrive in Ukraine this week on the heels of Russian allegations that Kyiv is preparing to use a "dirty bomb."

"I am very grateful for the openness that the Ukrainian government and I had a very comprehensive discussion with Ukrainian foreign minister Kuleba about this. He came to the conclusion and I agree that the best way to dispel any doubt is to allow the inspectors in and this is what we're going to do," Grossi told reporters at the United Nations.

Grossi added that it will likely only take a few days to carry out the inspections.

The U.S. and its allies have dismissed Russian allegations that Ukraine is assembling a 'dirty bomb.'

— Amanda Macias

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told her colleagues before the U.N. Security Council meeting that she would keep her remarks short because "frankly, this meeting is a waste of everyone's time."

"Russia has called us here, once again, for the sole purpose of spreading disinformation. We all know these claims are pure fabrications, brought forth without a shred of evidence," Thomas-Greenfield said referencing recent Moscow claims that Kyiv has a biological weapon.

 "We hear Russia raise alarms that biological weapons will be delivered by birds and bats and now even mosquitoes. Birds and bats," she said, calling Russia's allegations "absurd."

"Russia's assertions are absurd for many reasons, including because such species, even if they could be weaponized, would pose as much a threat to the European continent and to Ukraine itself as they would to any other country," Thomas-Greenfield said.

— Amanda Macias

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

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal announced in July among Ukraine, Russia, the United Nations and Turkey, said the vessels carry 117,341 metric tons of grain and other crops.

The nine ships will leave Ukraine's ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhny-Pivdennyi for Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, Italy, Israel and Greece.

On Wednesday, the Joint Coordination Center said that it halted departures from Ukraine until an inspection of a "suspicious mine-like object" was completed. The inspection did not produce a dangerous item and the shipping lanes were reopened on Thursday.

Read more about the Black Sea Grain Initiative here.

— Amanda Macias

National security council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. is concerned that Iran may supply Russia with advanced conventional weapons.

Kirby told reporters on a conference call that Moscow may seek "surface-to-surface missiles that would of course almost certainly be used in Ukraine."

Moscow has carried out several devastating missile and drone strikes against what Kyiv said were civilian targets and critical infrastructure such as energy facilities.

Iran and Russia's representatives at the United Nations have sharply denied reports that Tehran supplied Moscow with a fleet of drones for use in Ukraine. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied that it uses Iranian-made drones to target residential and other high civilian areas.

— Amanda Macias

The White House said that it expects "terrific bipartisan support" from lawmakers on additional support for Ukraine following some concern by lawmakers about the financial and security burden.

"We believe that support will continue," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on a conference call.

Earlier in the week, a group of 30 progressive Democrats signed a letter asking U.S. President Joe Biden to directly negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The letter was retracted shortly after its publication.

The two-paged letter signed by Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and others called for a renewed diplomatic push, including direct talks with the Kremlin in order to end the conflict in Ukraine.

In a statement on Tuesday, Jayapal said the letter was released by mistake.

"The letter was drafted several months ago, but unfortunately was released by staff without vetting. As Chair of the Caucus, I accept responsibility for this," she added.

— Amanda Macias

A prominent TV celebrity and former socialite with close family ties to President Vladimir Putin has fled Russia in the wake of a criminal probe, the latest sign of the war in Ukraine's domestic impact.

Ksenia Sobchak, who was once known as the "Russian Paris Hilton," arrived in Lithuania on an Israeli passport, the Baltic country's state security service confirmed to NBC News on Thursday.

Russian state media first reported that she had fled in order to avoid arrest and that her home had been raided as part of a criminal case against one of her employees, reports that topped domestic news.

Sobchak, 40, is one of the most well-known people in Russia.

She has often been critical of Putin and voiced opposition to the war, but opposition figures have viewed her family history — as well as her transformation from party girl to politician and well-connected journalist — with suspicion, accusing her of helping to serve the Kremlin's agenda.

Read the full NBC News story.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that Russia can expect a "significant response" from the international community if it uses a nuclear weapon in its fight with Ukraine.

Austin told reporters at the Pentagon that the U.S. has issued warnings to Russia to not resort to nuclear warfare since the beginning of the conflict.

He declined to elaborate on hypotheticals and any potential U.S. responses when pressed by reporters, adding that he would provide "credible responses" to President Joe Biden if needed.

Austin said that the U.S. is continuing to monitor the situation and that the U.S. has no indications at this time that Russia is moving toward using a nuclear weapon in Ukraine.

— Amanda Macias

A suspected Russian spy was arrested in a Norwegian Arctic town this week, adding to fears about Moscow's activity in the region after a string of recent incidents.

Norway's domestic security agency said Tuesday it had arrested a man suspected of spying for Russia while posing as an academic from Brazil in the northern town of Tromsoe, about 700 miles north of the capital, Oslo.

The news follows a spate of recent arrests involving drone sightings near critical infrastructure and comes as European countries move to bolster security in the wake of the Nord Stream gas pipeline sabotage. Norway, a NATO member, borders Russia in the Arctic.

The Norwegian public broadcaster NRK first reported that the man who entered the country as a Brazilian citizen was arrested on his way to work at the UiT The Arctic University of Norway, also known as the University of Tromsoe, on Monday, suspected of being a Russian national and working for one of the Russian intelligence services. 

Read the full NBC News story.

Ukrainian energy company Ukrenergo said it was limiting energy consumption in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy and Zhytomyr in order to not overload the weakened central system damaged by Russian strikes.

"The consumer restrictions are necessary to reduce the load on the networks and avoid repeated malfunctions after the infrastructure was damaged by the Russian attacks," the company wrote on its Facebook page, according to an NBC News translation.

"Such measures enable local energy companies to quickly restore damaged facilities and keep the system balanced," the company added.

— Amanda Macias

Russia has "no need" to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, its defense minister said, describing media speculation that Moscow might deploy nuclear or chemical weapons in the conflict as "absolute lies."

"From a military point of view, there is no need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine to achieve the set goals. The main purpose of Russian nuclear weapons is to deter a nuclear attack," Sergey Shoigu said during a speech at an international security conference in Moscow.

He blamed the media for spreading speculation about whether Russia would use nuclear weapons in its special military operation, "or about the readiness to use chemical weapons. All these informational attacks are absolute lies."

— Reuters

Brittney Griner will enter a system of isolation, grueling labor and psychological torment when she is transferred to a penal colony, the successor to the infamous Russian gulag, to fulfill a nine-year sentence handed down Tuesday in Moscow, former prisoners and advocates said. 

Human rights violations are a regular feature of many of the camps, according to the U.S. State Department, human rights groups and others who have maintained regular contact with prisoners in Russia. That the WNBA star, who lost her appeal Tuesday, is a gay Black woman could add unknown variables to a penal system that is known to be remote and harrowing. 

"Conditions in prisons and detention centers varied but were often harsh and life-threatening," a 2021 State Department report on Russian human rights abuses said. "Overcrowding, abuse by guards and inmates, limited access to health care, food shortages, and inadequate sanitation were common in prisons, penal colonies, and other detention facilities."

The report notes that "physical and sexual abuse by prison guards was systemic," that torture of prisoners was pervasive — at times resulting in death or suicide — and that discriminatory protections against women and people of color were not often enforced. The law also does not prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Read the full NBC News story.

The Ukrainian capital Kyiv and its surrounding region will introduce a schedule of pre-planned blackouts in the coming days to avoid uncontrolled power outages, after missile and drone strikes from Russia overnight took out 30% of the area's power generation capacity.

Strikes from missiles and Iranian-made drones, carried out by Russia, have targeted critical energy infrastructure all over Ukraine. This has prompted serious concerns over the country's ability to maintain access to basic electricity needs like light and heating, especially approaching winter.

Ukrainian authorities are working to restore power in many areas but have asked residents to minimize their power usage to help. In Kyiv, some residents are leaving emergency kits in elevators containing water, snacks, a flashlight and other basic necessities, in case anyone gets stuck in an elevator when the power goes out.

— Natasha Turak

Russian-instilled authorities in the Ukrainian regions occupied and illegally annexed by Russia announced the rollout of "selective" checks on residents' mobile phones, as part of the imposition of military censorship under President Vladimir Putin's recently-declared martial law.

"From today in the Zaporizhzhia region, law enforcement officers have begun a selective preventing check of the mobile phones of citizens," Vladimir Rogov, an official appointed in the territories by Moscow, said.

Rogov said anyone accessing "propaganda resources of the terrorist Kyiv regime" will first get a warning and then a fine. He also threatened "criminal liability" for "malicious violations of a law on the activities of foreign agent."

Residents in these areas have already for months reported instances of censorship and phone checks by Russian authorities, with often dangerous consequences for anyone seen to be spreading information from Kyiv or sympathetic to the Ukrainian government.

— Natasha Turak

Ukraine is preparing its forces for the possibility of an attack from Russian troops in Belarus, an official in Kyiv said, describing how his government is boosting Ukrainian troop numbers in the north of the country, closer to the Belarussian border.

"At the current time the creation of a strike force (in Belarus) is not observable," Oleksii Hromov, the deputy head of operations of Kyiv's general staff, said. However, he warned, "there are and will be threats. We are reacting, we have already increased our troops in the northern direction."

A large number of Russian troops are based in Belarus, which is Russia's main ally and has allowed Moscow to use its territory as a staging ground for attacks into Ukraine.

— Natasha Turak

Ukraine's Kyiv region is facing a 30% reduction in power generation capacity due to overnight Russian missile strikes on its energy infrastructure, the regional governor said.

"Last night the enemy damaged the facilities of the energy infrastructure of our region. A number of critical facilities have been disabled," Oleksiy Kuleba via Telegram in a video post.

Local officials also said that the area must "prepare for emergency power outages for an indefinite period" because of the attacks, according to a Reuters report.

— Natasha Turak

Australia is the latest country to join a coalition of states providing training to Ukrainian forces in the UK, the British Ministry of Defence wrote on its Twitter page.

"Australia will join the list of countries contributing to the British-led programme to train Ukrainian personnel in the UK," a tweet from the ministry said.

UK Defence Minister Ben Wallace praised the news.

"I am delighted that Australian troops will support the training of Ukrainian personnel in the UK from 2023, joining eight other partner nations," a statement from Wallace said. "Australia's Armed Forces are world class and will bring a wealth of expertise to ensure our Ukrainian friends have the knowledge and skills they need to defend the country."

Other countries involved in the training program include New Zealand, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Lithuania.

— Natasha Turak

Fresh Russian missile strikes hit Ukraine's Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia regions overnight, local media and officials reported.

"The Russians terrorize the Kyiv region at night. We have several arrivals in one of the communities of the region," Kyiv regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba wrote on his official Telegram channel.

"Rescuers and all emergency services are on the scene. The elimination of the fire and the consequences of the impact is ongoing."

Air raid sirens rang out in Kyiv from midnight, and authorities urged residents to seek shelter.

Zaporizhzhia Mayor Anatoly Kurtev also reported that Russian forces attacked the southern city and surrounding land, causing a fire in the area that houses Europe's largest nuclear power plant.

— Natasha Turak

Estonia's foreign minister called on new British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to commit to increasing defense spending, as the war in Ukraine enters its ninth month.

Sunak's predecessor Liz Truss, who spent only 44 days in office, pledged to raise defense spending to 3% of the U.K.'s gross domestic product by 2030. Sunak has not agreed to uphold that pledge, and in the past described the spending targets as "arbitrary."

"Autocrats are investing in weapons. They believe in (the) power of arms. To defend our values – the rules-based order – we need also to invest in the weapons," Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said in an interview with the BBC.

Asked if NATO should increase its requirement of 2% of a member country's GDP spent on its defense to 3%, Reinsalu said "absolutely." Sunak has not yet responded to the comments.

— Natasha Turak

U.S. commercial satellites and those of U.S. allies could become targets of Russian retaliation if they become involved in the Ukraine war, a senior Russian official warned.

"Quasi-civilian infrastructure may be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike," Konstantin Vorontsov, the deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's non-proliferation and arms control department, was quoted by state news agency Tass as saying.

"We are talking about the involvement of components of civilian space infrastructure, including commercial, by the United States and its allies in armed conflicts."

— Natasha Turak

The organization overseeing the export of grain from Ukraine said that no vessels were approved to leave the besieged country due to a "suspicious mine-like object."

The Joint Coordination Center said that it halted departures from Ukraine until an inspection of the suspicious object was completed. The group said that eight vessels will leave Ukrainian ports Thursday.

Since the inception of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal announced in July among Ukraine, Russia, the United Nations and Turkey, more than 390 vessels have left Ukraine carrying a total of 8.8 million metric tons of grain and other crops.

Read more about the Black Sea Grain Initiative here.

— Amanda Macias

Russian state media claimed that Ukraine has made a dummy rocket to deploy a "dirty bomb" near the Chornobyl nuclear power plant.

The U.S. and its allies have previously denied Russian allegations that Ukraine is planning to use a "dirty bomb" in order to escalate the conflict.

The report in Russia's RIA Novosti alleges that Ukrainian forces are planning to fill the rocket with radioactive material and blame an explosion on Russian forces.

— Amanda Macias

Putin says risk of world conflict is ‘high’; Moscow official calls for ‘de-Satanization’ in Ukraine