Tag: RussiaUkraine

As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 96th day, we take a look at the main developments.

Here are the key events so far on Monday, May 30.

Get the latest updates here.

Fighting

• Russian troops are moving deeper into the besieged Donbas city of Severodonetsk from the outskirts. Two civilians killed and five wounded by Russian shelling.
• All critical infrastructure in Severodonetsk has been destroyed and 90 percent of buildings damaged as Ukrainian forces battle to hold off Russian attempts to capture the key city in the eastern Luhansk region, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
• Ukrainian forces counterattack in the south, claiming to have pushed back Russian troops in Kherson – the only region fully controlled by Russian forces.
• Russian forces fired on 46 communities in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, killing at least three civilians, wounding two others, and destroying or damaging 62 civilian buildings, Ukraine’s army said.
• Russia holds one-third of the Kharkiv region under its occupation, but Zelenskyy said Ukraine will “definitely liberate the entire territory”.
• The “liberation” of Ukraine’s Donbas is an “unconditional priority” for Moscow, while other Ukrainian territories should decide their future on their own, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
• Zelenskyy visited troops in the northeastern Kharkiv region. It was his first official appearance outside the Kyiv region since the Russian invasion began on February 24.
• Zelenskyy fired Kharkiv’s security services chief for “not working on the defence of the city” during the start of Russia’s invasion and “thinking only of himself”.
• The Russian defence ministry said Russian missiles have destroyed a large arsenal of the Ukrainian army in the city of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine.
• Ukraine prosecutor’s office in the Donetsk region opened five criminal proceedings into Russia’s use of heavy artillery on May 28 against the town of Toretsk, and villages in the Bakhmut and Pokrovsky districts.
• Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra, the winner of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, raised $900,000 for the country’s military by selling its trophy.

Diplomacy

• NATO is no longer bound by past commitments to hold back from deploying its forces in Eastern Europe following Russia’s invasion, Deputy Secretary-General Mircea Geoana said.
• Moscow “voided of any content” the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act, under which both sides agreed to work to prevent any potentially threatening build-up of conventional forces in agreed regions of Europe.
• French Foreign Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna meets Ukraine’s president in Kyiv to express France’s solidarity with Ukraine and offer more support for the country.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said talks last week with Finnish and Swedish delegations were not at the “expected level”, and Ankara cannot say yes to “terrorism-supporting” countries entering NATO, state broadcaster TRT Haber reported.
• Russia is looking at all international treaties with the United States “in fields of scientific and educational cooperation” to analyse whether Russia’s participation in various joint organisations is feasible.
• Canada asked South Korea to supply it with artillery rounds, apparently to “backfill” supplies that Ottawa has sent to Ukraine.

Economy

• Top European Union diplomats meet on Monday for a last-ditch attempt to agree on a Russian oil embargo.
• Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic announced he secured an “extremely favourable” three-year natural gas supply deal with Russia amid efforts by the EU to phase out Russian energy supplies.
• New satellite imagery shows a Russian ship carrying grains – allegedly taken from Ukrainian farms – arrived in the Syrian port of Latakia.

As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 95th day, we take a look at the main developments.

Here are the key events so far on Sunday, May 29.

Get the latest updates here.

Fighting

• Fighting for the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk rages with Russian forces conducting assault operations.
• Invading forces appear close to seizing all of the Luhansk region, one of the more modest war goals of the Kremlin.
• Russian artillery pounded the Lysychansk-Bakhmut road, which Russia must take to encircle Ukrainian forces.
• Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had taken full control of Lyman, west of Severodonetsk; however, Ukraine Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said the battle for the town continued.

• Russia also said it had used missile attacks to destroy Ukrainian command posts in Bakhmut and Soledar.
• Ukraine has started receiving Harpoon anti-ship missiles from Denmark and self-propelled howitzers from the United States, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he expected good news this week on weapons supplies without giving details.
• Russia’s defence ministry said its navy successfully launched a new hypersonic missile from the Barents Sea that struck its target 1,000km (600 miles) away.

Diplomacy

• In a sign of frustration over Western differences on the war, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishyna said NATO had shown itself incapable of mounting a united response.

• French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to release the 2,500 Ukrainian defenders of the Azovstal steel plant detained by Russian forces during an 80-minute call, the Elysee Palace said.
• Putin warned Macron and Scholz that ramping up arms supplies to Ukraine would be “dangerous” and risk “further destabilisation”.
• British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged his country’s continued support “including helping provide the equipment they need” in a call Saturday with Zelenskyy.
• A European Union summit on Monday and Tuesday could see divisions between members who want to take a hard line against Russia and those calling for a ceasefire.

Economy

• Putin told Macron and Scholz that Moscow was willing to discuss ways to make it possible for Ukraine to resume shipments of grain, the Kremlin said.
• Mariupol’s port reportedly resumed operations after Russian forces finished clearing mines in the Azov Sea.
• Johnson told Zelenskyy that international partners were working intensively to find ways to resume the export of grain from Ukraine to avert a global food crisis.
• A ship entered the Ukrainian port of Mariupol for the first time since Russia completed its capture of the city to load metal and ship it east to Russia.

As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 88th day, we take a look at the main developments.

Here are the key events so far on Sunday, May 22.

Get the latest updates here.

Fighting

• Russian forces are intensifying efforts to capture Severodonetsk, the final Ukrainian strongpoint in the eastern Luhansk region.
• Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said the only functioning hospital in Severodonetsk has just three doctors and supplies for 10 days.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian army was also attacking the city of Sloviansk, in the Donetsk, but Ukrainian forces were holding off its advance in both major centres. Sloviansk is critical to Russia’s objective of capturing all of eastern Ukraine.
• Russia claims to have taken prisoner nearly 2,500 Ukrainian fighters from the besieged Azovstal steel plant, and concerns have grown about their fate.
• Moscow released video of Russian troops taking into custody Serhiy Volynskyy, commander of the Ukrainian Navy’s 36th Special Marine Brigade, which was one of the main forces defending Azovstal.
• A prominent member of Russia’s parliament, Leonid Slutsky, said Moscow was studying the possibility of exchanging the Azovstal fighters for Viktor Medvedchuk, a wealthy Ukrainian with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin who faces criminal charges in Ukraine.
• The Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol warned it is facing a health and sanitation “catastrophe” from mass burials in shallow pits across the ruined city as well as the breakdown of sewage systems.
• The Russian military has said it destroyed a major consignment of Western arms in Ukraine’s Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, using sea-launched Kalibr cruise missiles.
• Russian missiles also struck fuel storage facilities near Odesa on the Black Sea coast and shot down two Ukrainian Su-25 aircraft and 14 drones, the military said.

Diplomacy

• Ukraine has ruled out agreeing to a ceasefire with Russia and said Kyiv would not accept any deal with Moscow that involved ceding territory.
• Zelenskyy said his country is prepared to exchange Russian prisoners of war for its troops who surrendered at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.
• US President Joe Biden signed a bill to provide nearly $40bn in aid for Ukraine as part of efforts to boost military support over Russia’s invasion, the White House said.
• Polish President Andrzej Duda arrived in Ukraine on an unannounced visit and will address the country’s parliament on Sunday.
• Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said he pressed Western countries for multiple-launch rocket systems, which he said “just stand still” in other countries yet are key to Ukraine’s success.
• In an interview with the Telegraph, British foreign secretary Liz Truss said she wants to see Ukraine’s neighbour Moldova “equipped to NATO standard” to guard against any threats from Russia.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has objected to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, held phone calls with the leaders of the two countries and discussed his concerns about “terrorist” groups there.
• Zelenskyy said he talked to Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and stressed the importance of more sanctions on Russia and unblocking Ukrainian ports.

Economy

• Russian energy giant Gazprom halted gas exports to neighbouring Finland, the latest escalation of an energy payments dispute with Western nations.
• Russia’s transport minister said Western-backed sanctions have “practically broken” logistics in the country.

As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 81st day, we take a look at the main developments.

Here are the key events so far on Sunday, May 15.

Get the latest updates here.

Fighting

• “Russia has now likely suffered losses of one third of the ground combat force it committed in February,” the UK’s defence ministry said.
• British military intelligence said Russia’s offensive in the Donbas “has lost momentum and fallen significantly behind schedule” with a dramatic acceleration unlikely over the next 30 days.
• Four missile attacks hit military infrastructure in Yavoriv in western Ukraine near the Polish border, Lviv region’s Governor Maxim Kozitsky said.
• Russia, rejecting Ukraine’s claim to have set alight a modern navy logistics ship in the Black Sea, showed photos of what it said was the Vsevolod Bobrov with no signs of damage.
• Refugees from bombed-out Mariupol spoke of devastation as they reached Ukrainian-controlled Zaporizhzhia in a large convoy of vehicles after waiting days for Russian troops to let them leave.
• Russia’s defence ministry said its forces hit Ukrainian command posts, ammunition depots, and other military equipment in several regions, including the Donbas, killing at least 100 Ukrainian “nationalists”.

Diplomacy

• Top NATO diplomats meet in Berlin to discuss providing further support to Ukraine.
• G7 foreign ministers vowed to reinforce Russia’s economic and political isolation, continue supplying weapons to Ukraine, and work to ease global food shortages stemming from the war.
• Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, said the country’s diplomats in Washington are being threatened with violence.
• Germany has taken all preparations for a quick ratification process should Finland and Sweden decide to apply for NATO membership, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said.
• US Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell and a delegation of GOP senators met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv and expressed their solidarity for Ukraine.

NATO

• NATO’s Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana expressed confidence that Turkey’s concerns over Finland and Sweden joining NATO could be addressed, after Ankara said it had not shut the door to their entry.
• Croatia’s foreign minister said talks between Turkey, Finland and Sweden were on the right track.
• Sweden’s ruling Social Democrats were poised to come out in favour joining NATO, paving the way for an application soon after and abandoning decades of military non-alignment.
• Geoana said Russia’s military advance in Ukraine appears to be faltering and he expressed hope that Kyiv can win the war.
• Ukraine wining the Eurovision Song Contest showed the immense public support for the country in its battle against Russia, Geoana said.

As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 80th day, we take a look at the main developments.

Here are the key events so far on Saturday, May 14.

Get the latest updates here

Fighting

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said although Ukrainians are doing everything they can to drive out the Russians, “no one today can predict how long this war will last”. “This will depend, unfortunately, not only on our people, who are already giving their maximum. This will depend on our partners, on European countries, on the entire free world.”
• Zelenskyy said talks with Russia on getting wounded defenders out of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol were very complex, adding Kyiv was using influential intermediaries.
• The deputy commander of the Azov Regiment, the last Ukrainian army unit holding out in the ruined port city, said his troops will resist Russian forces “as long as they can” despite shortages of ammunition, food, water and medicine.
• The Ukrainian army said Russian forces continued their offensive in the country’s east, attacking new towns and villages.
• More than six million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began, according to the UN.

Diplomacy

• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone for the first time since late March.
• US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called for an immediate ceasefire when he spoke by telephone to his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu for the first time since Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, the Pentagon said.
• Topical international security issues were discussed by Austin and Shoigu, including Ukraine, TASS news agency quoted the Russian defence ministry as saying.
• Ukraine’s foreign minister says his country remains willing to engage in diplomatic talks with Russia to unblock grain supplies and achieve a political solution to the war.
• The United States accused Russia of using the UN Security Council to spout disinformation and conspiracy theories about biological weapons in Ukraine to distract from its war against its smaller neighbour.

Economy and NATO

• Foreign ministers from the G7 group of rich nations backed giving more aid and weapons to Ukraine in what Germany called a “powerful sign of unity” to deepen Russia’s global isolation.
• The world will not be left short of oil even with lower output from sanctions-hit Russia, the International Energy Agency said. It cut its predictions for supply losses to one million barrels per day (bpd) compared with 1.5 million bpd predicted last month.
• The European Union is hopeful of a deal to impose a phased embargo on Russian oil this month despite concerns about supply in Eastern Europe, diplomats said.
• Natural gas prices rose after Russian state-owned exporter Gazprom said it would no longer send supplies to Europe via a pipeline in Poland.
• Swedish membership of NATO would boost national security and help stabilise the Nordic and Baltic regions, Sweden’s foreign minister said, a day after Finland said it would seek to join the US-led alliance.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country is “not favourable” towards Finland and Sweden joining NATO, indicating Turkey could use its membership in the Western military alliance to veto moves to admit the two countries.

As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 74th day, we take a look at the main developments.

Here are the key events so far on Sunday, May 8.

Get the latest updates here.

Fighting

• Russian air attacks on a school in the Ukrainian village of Bilohorivka killed two people and 60 remain under the debris and are feared dead, the governor of the Luhansk region said.
• Evacuation efforts will focus on getting the wounded and medics out of Mariupol’s bombed-out Azovstal steelworks.
• Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said his soldiers have taken control of most of Popasna, but Ukrainian officials said the battle for the eastern city continues.
• Ukraine’s general staff said the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine aimed to establish full control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and maintain the land corridor between these territories and Crimea.

Human impact

• Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said more than 300 civilians had been rescued from the Azovstal plant. Russia’s defence ministry said 51 people had been removed in a three-day operation.
• The World Health Organization said it is gathering evidence for a possible war crimes investigation, documenting 200 attacks by Russia on hospitals and clinics in Ukraine.

Diplomacy

• G7 leaders will hold a video call on Sunday with Zelenskyy in a show of unity the day before Russia marks its Victory Day holiday, the White House said.
• Britain pledged to provide a further 1.3 billion pounds ($1.6bn), double its previous spending commitments and what it said was the country’s highest rate of spending on a conflict since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• US CIA chief William Burns said Russian President Vladimir Putin believes “doubling down” on the war will improve its outcome.
• Russia’s most senior lawmaker accused Washington of coordinating operations in Ukraine, which he said amounted to direct US involvement in military action against Russia.
• The UN has called for a peaceful solution to the crisis, but avoided the use of the words “war”, “invasion” or “conflict”.

As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 73rd day, we take a look at the main developments.

Here are the key events so far on Saturday, May 7.

Get the latest updates here.

Fighting

• Russian forces continued their ground assault on the Azovstal steel plant with air support, Ukraine said.
• Russia continued its push in the east of the country. Its defence ministry said Russian forces had destroyed an ammunition depot in Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region and shot down two Ukrainian warplanes.
• Ukrainian forces made some advances near Kharkiv and Kherson, inflicting heavy losses, while also suffering losses of their own, a Ukrainian presidential adviser said.
• The Pentagon denies helping Ukraine sink the Russian ship Moskva last month – a high-profile failure for its military.

Human impact

• Fifty civilians including children were evacuated by bus from the Azovstal steelworks complex. More are set to leave on Saturday.
• Amnesty International said there was compelling evidence that Russian troops had committed war crimes during their failed onslaught of Kyiv in February and March. Moscow has denied that its forces committed abuses.
• Russia’s invasion has devastated hundreds of hospitals and other medical institutions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Diplomacy

• Putin will send a “doomsday” warning to the West when he leads celebrations on May 9 marking the 77th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany, brandishing Russia’s vast firepower while its forces fight on in Ukraine.
• Biden signed a $150m package of security assistance to Ukraine, providing additional artillery munitions, radars and other equipment.
• G7 leaders will hold a video call on Sunday with Zelenskyy in a show of unity the day before Russia marks its Victory Day holiday, the White House said.
• The European Commission has proposed changes to its planned embargo on Russian oil to give Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic more time to prepare for the shift in their energy supplies, sources said.
• The United Nations Security Council agrees to the first joint statement since the Ukraine war began, expressing “strong support” for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s efforts to find a peaceful solution to the crisis.

As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 59th day, we take a look at the main developments.

Here are the key events so far on Saturday, April 23.

Get the latest updates here

‘Heavy’ death toll in Odesa attacks

• A Russian attack kills at least five people, including a baby, and wounds 18 others in Ukraine’s Black Sea city of Odesa, Kyiv said.
• “Those are only the ones that we were able to find. It is likely that the death toll will be heavy,” the head of Ukraine’s presidential office Andriy Yermak said on Telegram.

Fighting rages in the east

• Authorities in two eastern Ukrainian regions report “fierce” fighting with Russian forces as hope fades for a truce over Orthodox Easter weekend.
• The governor of the eastern Kharkiv region, Oleg Sinegubov, said on Telegram that Ukraine forces retook three villages near the Russian border after “fierce battles”.

Mariupol evacuation

• A new attempt to evacuate Ukrainian civilians from war-torn Mariupol failed, an aide to the city’s mayor said on his Telegram channel, blaming Russian forces.
• The official said 200 residents of Mariupol had gathered to be evacuated, but the Russian military told them to disperse and warned of possible shelling. Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for repeated failures to evacuate people from Mariupol.

Zelenskyy to meet top US officials

• Ukraine’s president says he will meet on Sunday in Kyiv with the US secretary of state and secretary of defense.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not immediately share more details about the visit from Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin. The White House declined to comment.

UN chief to meet Putin, Zelenskyy

• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will meet Zelenskyy in Ukraine next week after a stop in Moscow to confer with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• Guterres will see Zelenskyy and Ukraine’s foreign minister on Thursday, two days after visiting Moscow.

Nearly 5.2 million flee

• The number of Ukrainians fleeing the country since Russia’s invasion is now 5,163,686, the UN refugee agency says.

Russia breaks silence on sunken cruiser

• Russia said one crew member died and 27 were missing after the Moskva missile cruiser sank last week, Moscow’s first admission of the losses following the tragedy. “As a result of a fire on April 13, the Moskva missile cruiser was seriously damaged due to the detonation of ammunition,” the defence ministry said.
• A senior Pentagon official said the Moskva was hit by two Ukrainian missiles before it sank.

Thales accusation

• A senior Ukrainian official accused French defence electronics company Thales of violating European sanctions and selling Russia equipment used to kill civilians fleeing recent fighting outside Kyiv – claims strongly denied by the company.
• “A family was trying to escape but was killed by Russian murderers,” tweets presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak. “Killed, as it is now proved, with French weapons sold in circumvention of sanctions in 2015.”

Russia jails opposition leader

• Russian authorities declared opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza a “foreign agent” and order his pre-trial detention for allegedly spreading false information about the Russian army.
• Moscow’s Basmanny district court ordered the 40-year-old Kremlin opponent be held in jail until June 12.

Ukraine security meeting

• The Pentagon invited 40 allies to meet in Germany next week to discuss Ukraine’s longer-term security needs.
• Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said defence ministers and senior generals of 20 countries, NATO and non-NATO members, have already accepted the invitation for the Tuesday meeting.

Mariupol forces urged to surrender

• Russia’s defence ministry said it is ready for a humanitarian ceasefire at the Azovstal steel plant if Kyiv’s soldiers holed up there surrender.
• “All servicemen of the Ukrainian armed forces, militants of the national battalions and foreign mercenaries who laid down their arms are guaranteed life, decent treatment in accordance with international law, and the provision of quality medical care,” Putin said.
• “But the Kyiv regime is not allowing for this opportunity to be used.”