September 23, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

President Joe Biden said the United States will never recognize Russia's referendums in occupied parts of Ukraine. 

The President said the US will continue to work with allies to "impose additional swift and severe economic costs on Russia.

"The United States stands with our partners around the world — and with every nation that respects the core tenets of the UN charter — in rejecting whatever fabricated outcomes Russia will announce," the statement said.

Some background: Four Russian-occupied areas began voting Friday in referendums on joining Russia, according to their separatist leaders, in a move that raises the stakes of Moscow's invasion.

The referendums, which are illegal under international law and dismissed as a sham by Western governments and Kyiv, could pave the way for Russian annexation of the areas, allowing Moscow to frame the ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive as an attack on Russia itself.

Ukraine has withdrawn the accreditation of the senior Iranian diplomat in Kyiv, citing the supply of Iranian-made weapons to Russia.

The move follows a spate of attacks by Russian forces using Iranian-made drones, according to the Ukrainian military. Several of the drones were used in an attack on Odesa Friday in which one person was killed.

In a statement, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that following the attacks, the Iranian charge d'affaires was summoned to the ministry.

The charge d'affaires was told that the supply of Iranian weapons to Russia and their use against civilians "contradicts the publicly declared position of neutrality, respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine."

The statement added:

A statement from President Volodymyr Zelensky's office said that "samples collected on the battlefield confirmed that Russia is using Iranian-made weapons in Ukraine."

"Such actions of Iran are considered as a step against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, as well as against the life and health of Ukrainian citizens," a spokesman for Zelensky said.

European Council President Charles Michel called out the United Nations Security Council Friday for allowing Russia to continue participating despite its invasion of Ukraine.

“When a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council starts an unprovoked and unjustifiable war, a war condemned by the UN General Assembly, its suspension from the Security Council should be automatic,” Michel said during his address to the UN General Assembly on Friday, adding that the Kremlin is trying to “mobilize the entire world against an imaginary enemy.”

Michel urged reform, which he said is "necessary and urgent."

Two Americans who had been held by Russian-backed forces in Ukraine for more than three months were back on US soil on Friday.  

Alexander John-Robert Drueke and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh arrived in New York City after they were released earlier this week in a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine that was brokered by Saudi Arabia. 

CNN obtained a selfie of the two men. Their families said they believe they are in good health.

“We know that they are speaking, they are breathing, they are ambulatory, and they sound like themselves,” said Darla Black, the mother of Huynh’s fiancée Joy Black, told CNN on Friday.

The Americans were captured in June while fighting for Ukraine in a battle near Kharkiv. Their pro-Russian captors, the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, have governed a breakaway portion of Ukraine's Donetsk region since 2014.

Even after being captured, their families said the men told them they have no regrets about going over to fight with the Ukrainians.

The Ukrainian defense ministry tweeted pictures Friday of a soldier Mykhailo Dianov, one which showed him before he was captured by Russia and one after his release from captivity.

He looks visibly weaker in the latter image.

"Ukrainian soldier Mykhailo Dianov is among the fortunate ones" in comparison to some of his fellow prisoners of war, the ministry claimed on Twitter.

CNN is unable to independently verify the authenticity of these images.

More than 6,400 Russians traveled into Finland on Thursday by land — a number comparable to weekend traffic, Matti Pitkäniitty, the head of the International Affairs Unit at Finnish Border Guard, tweeted Friday. 

About 3,227 Russians exited Finland, he added.

Comparing this data with the numbers from August and September, Pitkäniitty said Finland saw around 6,000 Russians arriving in Finland on Saturdays.

Earlier on Friday, Finland’s Border Guard tweeted that vehicle queues at Vaalimaa and Nuijamaa — two border crossings in south east Finland — were longer than they were Thursday.

The queue for Vaalimaa border crossing was approximately 500 meters long at approximately 9 a.m. local time (2 a.m. ET).

The Ukrainian military said that Iranian-made attack drones have been used to strike the port of Odesa, the main outlet for the export of Ukrainian grain under an agreement reached in July. 

The Ukrainian military's Operational Command South said on Telegram that "Odesa was attacked by kamikaze drones from the sea."

US officials have previously said that Russia bought Iranian-made drones.

According to the military, "two drones destroyed the administrative building in the port area, rescue services are extinguishing a fire."

Serhii Bratchuk, spokesperson of the Odesa region civil military administration, confirmed that two of the drones hit the administrative building near the port, killing at least one person.

Operational Command South said the blast damaged several surrounding buildings.

One Shahed-136 drone was shot down over the sea by air defense forces, according to the military.

In a second attack Friday, four Iranian-made drones approaching the city of Odesa were shot down, Operational Command South said.

The military also said air defenses had shot down a Russian Su-25 attack aircraft in the Beryslav district of the Kherson region.

Some background: CNN reported late last month that the United States assessed Russia was in possession of weapons-capable Iranian drones that they would likely deploy on the battlefield in Ukraine.

Russian operatives began training on the drones in Iran late in July. Russia then purchased and transferred the Mohajer-6 and Shahed-series drones — the Shahed-129 and Shahed-191— to Russia, according to US officials. 

Ukrainian officials say residents of Russian-occupied areas are ignoring the referendums organized by local Kremlin-backed authorities, but they acknowledged that in some instances, residents are being forced to vote.

The referendums, called on Tuesday in four parts of Ukraine under Russian control, have been widely denounced by western governments as a sham and are being conducted with few or no international observers beyond delegations from Russia.

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said it had uncovered documents showing that the Russian-backed separatist-held Donetsk People's Republic planned to expand the electorate by involving teenagers younger than 18 in the vote.

In order to enhance control over the "turnout," Donetsk officials decided that minors should be accompanied to the polling stations by their parents, guardians or representatives of so-called orphanages, SBU added.

Pro-Russian officials in the occupied areas have been enthusiastically pushing the referendums as a historic change.

"Today is a day that happens in history once every few centuries. I personally knew it would happen, always. I always felt I was part of a huge family called Russia. Dreams have come true," Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-backed head of the Kherson region administration, said on his Telegram channel.

As he cast his ballot, Saldo said he was sure that as part of the Russian Federation, "our Kherson region and most importantly its people will be protected. Protected in every way."

The leader of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, also cast his vote, saying, "I feel a sense of awe and confidence that what we have fought for so long is finally coming true. This is Homecoming. Return to the great Russia. History is being made today."

The voting continues until Tuesday.

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan reiterated that the ICC will continue to investigate allegations of Russian war crimes, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov continued to dismiss images of atrocities in Ukraine at the United Nations this week.

“The truth is the truth. Parties can make their own statements but I've been to Bucha. … I saw those bodies in the body bags and they were real people. We have to investigate how did they die, if crimes were committed and if so, who is responsible,” Khan told CNN’s Kate Bolduan. 

He said he has written to Russia to have a meeting with Lavrov, but there has been no response.

Khan has been to Ukraine three times now, and he said he is "staggered" by both the destruction in the country and also the hope and determination of its people.

Being in Ukraine in the midst of war allows "access to evidence before it is interfered with," he added.  

Priorities for the ICC includes allegations of crimes against children targeted in hospitals and schools, as well as allegations of children being transferred into Russia, he said.

"All of your viewers will know 'never again' that we've heard since the Holocaust, and yet we see — to our great chagrin — yet again, yet again, and yet again, these crimes are taking place. So this is the moment where I think we need to re-galvanize our efforts to show that the law can be active on the front lines. We're trying to act more nimbly," he said.