Weapons: US to provide Switchblade drones to Ukraine, sources say

President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday additional US assistance to Ukraine including drones, and two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN that, specifically, the US will be providing Switchblade drones, which are small, portable so-called kamikaze or suicide drones that carry a warhead and detonate on impact.

The Switchblade 300 and the larger Switchblade 600 are produced by AeroVironment. 

The smaller Switchblade 300 can hit a target up to 6 miles away, according to specifications provided by the company, while the larger Switchblade 600 can strike more than 20 miles away. Both systems can be set up and launched within minutes.

CNN reported earlier today that the Switchblade drones were on Ukraine’s wish list of requested military and technological assistance they are still requesting to share with the US government, according to two sources familiar with the list. 

These weapons were added to the list after the Ukrainians consulted with congressional partners over the weekend on a draft of the list. The US would have to provide training for the Ukrainian troops if the US gives them those weapons, but the sources familiar with the list said that could be done remotely.

The company had no comment on the provision of the drones to Ukraine, though a statement on AeroVironment’s website says the company “stands with the people of Ukraine and all of NATO.” 

The chairman of Ukrainian Railways has said that the Polish, Czech and Slovenian Prime Ministers, who traveled by train for a Tuesday meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, took a “strong step” to show support for his war-torn country, albeit a “naïve” one.

“That was really important for us, even if it was naïve,” Oleksandr Kamyshin told CNN Wednesday.

Kamyshin, the national rail system’s top executive, called the move naïve because the delegation of EU leaders announced their travel plans while they were still en route to the capital.

Kyiv has been terrorized by a campaign of Russian airstrikes that have hit residential areas in recent days, including several apartment blocks — prompting a 35-hour curfew that began Tuesday evening.

Ukraine’s rail system is not immune to those strikes. But Tuesday morning, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that he, along with Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, were heading toward Kyiv.

While en route, Morawiecki wrote in a Facebook post: “It is our duty to be where history is being made. Because it’s not about us, it’s about the future of our children who deserve to live in a world free from tyranny.”

Fiala also tweeted that the “purpose of the visit is to confirm the unequivocal support of the entire European Union for the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.”

Security concerns have been at the top of the 37-year-old rail executive’s mind ever since the war began.

Kamyshin and his top deputies have spent the last three weeks criss-crossing the country, managing the railway’s 321,000 employees and roughly 1,450 stations on the move. He believes that railway management is a target for Russian bombs, so staying in near-constant motion is a matter of personal safety.

“Even to my kids I don’t tell them, ‘Hey don’t reveal your location,’ because everyone should understand that it’s war. I can’t instruct prime ministers,” he said.

According to Kamyshin, it was the Prime Ministers’ idea to travel to Kyiv by train, believing it was the safest mode of transport.

He agreed, despite a train station in Zaporizhzhia being hit Wednesday morning by a Russian bomb, shortly after their visit, which left a crater-sized hole on the railway tracks, and damaged the rail station.

“Any smart person would choose the train over a car these days,” he said. “Even with bombing everywhere, stations and trains are the safest places in the country right now.”

Kamyshin said the delegation traveled on a special train with four of the railway’s newest sleeper cars. The only other passengers were part of the delegation or security.

“It was a regular, normal train, with normal rail cars,” he said. “So [the delegation’s route] was not more special than the others. … It was the same track that normal passengers take as well.”

The journey took around eight or nine hours, he said. The leaders spent a few hours with Zelensky and his team before taking an overnight train back to Poland.

“For me, it’s the best assessment of the railways if foreign prime ministers chose railways instead of a car or a helicopter, or any other option,” he said.

At least 103 children have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video message posted to Facebook on Wednesday. 

Speaking before addressing the US Congress, but released on Facebook afterward, Zelensky said in the video, “Last night, Russian troops continued shelling Ukrainian territory, our peaceful cities, our citizens. Kharkiv and the region … They bombed the coast of the Odesa region. They fired missiles at Kyiv. Hit civilian infrastructure of Zaporizhzhia.”

Zelensky said Russian troops have caused “hundreds of times more damage” in Ukraine than on Donbas in eight years of war. The Ukrainian president went on to say a total of 400 educational institutions have been destroyed in Ukraine to date, with 119 being in the Donetsk region.

Zelensky also said he spoke with the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and that the Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine and law enforcement agencies have already started working to “bring the invaders to justice.”

“The invaders will be responsible for all war crimes against Ukrainians,” he said.

Belarusian aircraft are prohibited from entering Canadian airspace in response to their support of Russia’s unprovoked aggression in Ukraine, according to a tweet from Canadian Transport Minister Omar Algahabra.

The restriction is part of a number of economic measures from Canada against direct supporters of Russia. 

“We have issued a revised #NOTAM (notice to airman) to inform air operators of the new restriction,” Transport Canada tweeted. “We will not hesitate to take immediate enforcement action should non-compliance with the restrictions be confirmed.”

Eleven thousand people left the southeastern city of Mariupol en route to Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday, according to a post on the Telegram channel of Mariupol city council, marking another increase in the number of residents able to escape the besieged city.

For people able to make it as far as Berdyansk in their own cars but unable to drive further, fifteen buses were supplied to complete the journey and Orthodox priests accompanied the buses, the council said.

By Wednesday evening, officials said more than 6,400 Mariupol residents had made the journey through Russian-occupied territory to Zaporizhzhia, which is still in Ukrainian hands. More than 2,000 children were among them.

The humanitarian convoy to bring aid into Mariupol, and empty buses to evacuate residents, remains blocked by Russian forces, officials said.

New satellite images from Maxar Technologies show that on Monday, the word “children” was spelled out outside the theater that the Mariupol City Council said was bombed on Wednesday.

The City Council said that on Wednesday that Russian forces had “purposefully and cynically destroyed the Drama Theater in the heart of Mariupol. The plane dropped a bomb on a building where hundreds of peaceful Mariupol residents were hiding.”

Olha Stefanishyna, deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, told CNN on Wednesday that President Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to the US Congress didn’t mention NATO because that is “not as essential” as a no-fly zone and weapons – and political aspirations will have to go on hold for now.

CNN’s Sam Kiley spoke to Stefanishyna remotely from a secure hidden location in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Wednesday, following Zelensky’s address.

Stefanishyna said Putin is failing in the war because “the chain of command which disinforms him, and the senior management around, shows that they know nothing about our nation.”

“I’m absolutely sure that he’s uncomfortable in every moment that he’s sitting in his bomb shelter,” she said, adding, “he fails in each of his assessments.”

She also responded to how she feels about her government being effectively driven underground, saying that “we feel ourselves as one with Ukrainian people and we suffer and cry the same with the death of every child and citizen of Ukraine.”

Stefanishyna told CNN she has faith in her country’s military — and the unity and fearlessness of the people — to overcome Russia’s aggression in this conflict, but she added that it’s the “responsibility” of Western leaders to provide security guarantees, together with Russia.

“Security guarantees in a broader format are essential to us,” she said.

“What we want is to live peacefully on our land in a democratic way,” Stefanishyna said, adding that Ukraine is already part of the European family. “We’re already part of the political European family,” she said.

A theater where hundreds of people had taken shelter in Mariupol was bombed on Wednesday, according to local authorities, as hundreds of thousands of people remain trapped in the coastal Ukrainian city that has been encircled for weeks by Russian forces.

Mariupol City Council, who shared an image of the destroyed building, said Russian forces had “purposefully and cynically destroyed the Drama Theater in the heart of Mariupol.”

CNN has geolocated the image and confirmed it is of the theater. Videos showed a fire raging in the theater’s ruins. The number of casualties is unknown, authorities said.

Here’s a catch up of key developments that have unfolded today:

Russian forces are still “generally stalled” near Kyiv, Ukraine, and have not “made any significant advances” towards the city from the north, northwest or east of the city, a senior US defense official told reporters Wednesday 

Russian forces to the east of Kyiv are still about 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) away from the city’s center, the official said.

Ukrainians are still in control of Brovary. Chernihiv remains isolated, but the US is seeing Ukrainians “trying to develop lines of communication to the south and with some success,” the official said. 

There has been no “apparent progress in or around Kharkiv” by Russian forces, the official said.

Mariupol also remains isolated by Russian forces, the official added.

In Mykolaiv, Ukrainians continue to defend the city. Russian forces are still outside of the city “mostly to the northeast,” about 10 to 15 kilometers (six to nine miles) away, the official said.