May 10, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

Additional drone attacks were conducted over Russia’s Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, Belgorod Oblast Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a Telegram post Wednesday.

Two drones detonated and fell over a private residential area in the region, Gladkov said. No casualties were reported, but two residential buildings and a car were damaged, he added.

Another drone was shot down by Russian air defense systems over the region, Gladkov said. The governor said there were no casualties and that response teams are assessing the aftermath on the ground.

A drone strike hit Bryansk, another Russian region on the Ukraine border, said Bryansk Gov. Alexander Bogomaz.

Bogomaz said there were no casualties, and that an administrative building was struck in Stardoub. Response teams are working on site, he added. said.

Russia has conducted unsuccessful offensive actions in Bakhmut and the Avdiivka and Mariinka areas, with the “fiercest battles” taking place in Bakhmut and Mariinka, according to the Ukrainian military’s General Staff.

Russian forces claimed earlier Wednesday that they had taken the village of Kamianka, north of Avdiivka, where Ukrainian forces have been surrounded on three sides for several months.

Further south — where observers expect a Ukrainian counteroffensive to be focused — Russian forces are conducting “defensive operations in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson directions,” and had carried out a number of airstrikes, the General Staff said.

If you’re just now catching up, here’s what else you should know:

Zaporizhzhia claims: The Russian defense ministry claimed on Wednesday that Russian forces had hit the ammunition depot of the Ukrainian army’s 65th mechanized brigade in the Zaporizhzhia region – an area that has seen a rise in shelling by both sides in anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive. A senior Russian-appointed official in the occupied part of the region also made the same claim. Ukraine’s military said Wednesday that Russian soldiers are preventing employees of the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant from evacuating a nearby frontline town with their families. Russia-backed authorities have ordered the evacuation of thousands of civilians along the southern front as a Ukrainian counteroffensive looms.

The battle for Bakhmut: According to the commander of the Ukrainian Land Forces, Ukrainian forces are conducting “effective counterattacks” in the Bakhmut area. In another expletive-laden tirade, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said one Russian brigade had abandoned its positions south of Bakhmut, leading to many casualties among his fighters. Wagner units have been pulled back to the eastern city of Bakhmut from other areas where they had combat missions, according to Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar. They have been replaced by regular Russian army troops in those areas, she said.

Foreign perspectives: China’s foreign minister warned against an “emotional” view of the war in Ukraine, saying on a visit to Germany that “the only way out is to remain calm and rational and create conditions for a political solution.” And according to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is informing China’s calculations on a possible invasion of Taiwan. Meanwhile, France has opened a war crime investigation following the death of Agence France-Presse journalist Arman Soldin in Ukraine, a statement from the country’s antiterrorism prosecution office said on Wednesday. And Italy told its nationals on Wednesday who are still in Ukraine to leave the country “immediately” ahead of an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian forces. Also, Latvia and Canada will begin to train Ukrainian soldiers in Latvia starting on May 15, a statement from the Canadian government said on Wednesday.

Amid reports of fires in the southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia, a senior Russian-appointed official in the occupied part of the region has claimed that a Ukrainian ammunition depot was struck.

“The explosions that were heard in the Nazi-occupied city of Zaporizhzhia, were heard in the closest suburbs of the regional center,” claimed Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Russian-appointed military-civilian administration.
“The strike started a fire (pictured), causing ammunition of AFU [armed forces of Ukraine] militants to detonate,” he said.

The photograph could not be geolocated. 

There’s been no word on the attack from Ukrainian authorities. Some unofficial accounts said a number of properties had been set on fire in a strike by Russian forces.

There are no details about casualties.

The “special military operation” in Ukraine has been what Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described as “very difficult,” but said certain goals have been achieved over the past year.

Speaking to Bosnian Serb channel ATV in remarks carried by Russian state news agency TASS on Wednesday, Peskov said Russia is acting “slowly” In Ukraine because it is conducting a “special military operation, not a war.”

He acknowledged Ukraine’s stronghold in the eastern city of Bakhmut and said “a large amount of AFU troops are concentrated there, which is constantly receiving reinforcements.”

Peskov said the West has made “many mistakes” and “deceived Russia,” which prompted Russia to launch the operation in Ukraine — something he said the West became a participant in.

He maintained that the recent drone attacks on the Kremlin were an “attempted terrorist attack” against Russian President Vladimir Putin. By doing so, Peskov insisted, Ukraine has “equated itself with the state sponsors of terrorism.”

He said Russia will implement all necessary security measures following the incident. Ukrainian officials and the US have repeatedly denied being behind a drone attack on the Kremlin.

Referring to the International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant issued against Putin earlier this year, Peskov said, “It’s difficult to imagine that anyone in the world would seriously consider issuing an ICC warrant against Putin, the leader of a nuclear power.”

Peskov told the channel that his country is “too strong a state” to give up its positions under pressure from the West, and said the Kremlin would not communicate with Western media “until they begin to show some interest in the truth.”

Ukrainian forces are conducting “effective counterattacks” in the Bakhmut area, according to the commander of the Ukrainian Land Forces.

“Thanks to our well-thought-out defense in the Bakhmut sector, we are getting results from the effective actions of our units,” Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Telegram. “In particular, we are conducting effective counterattacks. In some areas of the front, the enemy was unable to withstand the onslaught of Ukrainian defenders and retreated to a distance of up to 2 kilometers.”

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner private military company, also indicated that Ukrainian forces have been able to advance south of Bakhmut.

“It was the competent conduct of the defensive operation that exhausted the trained forces of the Wagner PMC and forced them to be replaced in certain areas by less trained units of the Russian regular army, which were defeated and retreated,” Syrskyi said.

Prigozhin said earlier that units of Russia’s 72nd brigade had retreated from their positions. Other Russian accounts have said Wagner forces have moved to the city itself.

“Despite a significant concentration of troops and loud statements by Russian war criminals about their intentions to take Bakhmut by May 9, the enemy failed to capture the Ukrainian city,” Syrskyi said. “Our defense forces are holding the frontline securely and preventing the enemy from advancing. The battle for Bakhmut continues.”

He singled out the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, which was involved in an assault on the positions of the 72nd Brigade, and “inflicted a powerful strike on the enemy in the battle,” Syrskyi said.

Poland summoned Russia’s ambassador on Wednesday after a Russian fighter jet intercepted a Polish border patrol plane last week and nearly resulted in a collision, according to Poland’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lukasz Jasina.

“We strongly condemn the provocative and aggressive behavior of the Russian side, which is a serious international incident,” Jasina said in a tweet on Wednesday.

A Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jet intercepted a Polish Border Police aircraft flying a mission over the Black Sea near the Romanian border on Friday, Romanian authorities said Sunday.

The incident took place on Friday morning, about 60 km (37 miles) east of Romania’s airspace, the Romanian defense ministry said in a statement. 

The Polish aircraft was there as part of a joint mission coordinated by the European Union border patrol system Frontex. The mission, which is set to last until mid-December, focuses on preventing irregular migration, illegal fishing, marine pollution and other cross-border crimes in the Western Black Sea, according to the ministry. 

The Polish Border Guard on Twitter said the Russian SU-35 flew into the area without radio contact and performed “aggressive and dangerous maneuvers.” 

CNN’s Tim Lister and Xiaofei Xu contributed reporting.

The Russian offensive is concentrated in four different parts of the Donetsk region, with the “fiercest battles” in the cities of Bakhmut and Mariinka, according to the Ukrainian military’s General Staff.

Russia conducted unsuccessful offensive actions in Bakhmut and the Avdiivka and Mariinka areas, it said. Russian forces claimed earlier Wednesday that they had taken the village of Kamianka, north of Avdiivka, where Ukrainian forces have been surrounded on three sides for several months.

Further south — where observers expect a Ukrainian counteroffensive to be focused — Russian forces are conducting “defensive operations in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson directions,” and had carried out a number of airstrikes, the General Staff said.

Settlements close to the front lines had also been shelled, including 35 airstrikes and four attacks from MLRS [rocket systems] on the positions of Ukrainian troops and settlements of the Kherson region, it added.

The General Staff also claimed that Russians were evacuating civilians in the town of Tokmak in the Zaporizhzhia region to ”terrible living conditions” further south. “Russian occupiers, under the pretext of evacuating civilians, continue to take away looted property from the front-line settlements of the Zaporizhzhia region,” it said, adding that medical institutions in the city of Enerhodar had been looted.

The Ukrainian air force had carried out several strikes, it said, including against a Russian electronic warfare unit. The Ukrainians appear to be trying to disrupt both Russian military communications and electronic warfare capabilities ahead of a counter-offensive.

Fighters from the Wagner private military group have been pulled back to the eastern city of Bakhmut from other areas where they had combat missions, according to Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar. They have been replaced by regular Russian army troops in those areas, she said.

As the situation around Bakhmut appears to become more fluid, Ukraine’s military has not lost any positions in the area over the last day, Maliar said on Telegram.

Russian military bloggers have made similar reports, but they have complained that there is little coordination between Wagner fighters and Russian forces. Those same complaints have also been aired by the head of the mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Earlier Wednesday, Prigozhin said a Russian brigade had abandoned its positions south of Bakhmut, leading to many casualties among his fighters.  

France has opened a war crime investigation following the death of Agence France-Presse journalist Arman Soldin in Ukraine, a statement from the country’s antiterrorism prosecution office said on Wednesday. 

The investigation was opened under three “war crimes,” according to the translated statement, including: a “voluntary attack on the life and physical or psychological integrity of a person,” the “deliberate attack against the civilian population,” and the “deliberate attack in the knowledge that it will cause incidental loss of civilian life or injury to the civilian population.”

France’s antiterrorism prosecution office has already opened seven preliminary investigations against “persons unknown” for war crimes committed since February 2022 against French nationals in Ukraine, the statement added. “Two of them concern crimes committed against French journalists in the exercise of their profession,” it said.

Soldin was killed in a rocket attack on the outskirts of the town of Chasiv Yar, near Bakhmut, AFP announced on Twitter, citing colleagues who witnessed the incident. Soldin and the reporting team were with Ukrainian soldiers when they came under fire around 4:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, according to AFP. The 32-year-old was with four colleagues at the time of the attack, but the other journalists were not injured, the news agency added.

Italy on Wednesday told its nationals still in Ukraine to leave the country “immediately” ahead of an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian forces.

“Rocket attacks on the whole country continue. All compatriots still present are advised to leave Ukraine immediately. Risk of collapse of energy infrastructure,” the Italian embassy in Kyiv said on its website.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has assured a counteroffensive “will happen,” while demurring on any exact start date.

Latvia and Canada will begin to train Ukrainian soldiers in Latvia starting on May 15, a statement from the Canadian government said on Wednesday.

According to the statement, the initiative was developed jointly between Canadian Armed Forces and the Latvian National Armed Forces and will see both forces deliver the training for the Armed Forces of Ukraine through Operation UNIFIER.  

This initiative is in addition to the other ongoing deployments through Operation UNIFIER in support of Ukraine, the statement said. 

Some background: About 800 Canadian Armed Forces members are currently deployed to Latvia, where Canada has served as Framework Nation of the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group Latvia since 2017, the statement said.

Two Russian servicemen have been sentenced to 2.5 years for refusing to serve in Ukraine, according to the independent human rights monitor OVD-Info.

Both men — from the Kamchatka area in Russia’s Far East — were found guilty under the article on refusal to participate in hostilities, which carries a maximum penalty of up to three years in prison, according to OVD-Info.

One of the soldiers, Alexander Stepanov, was sentenced on April 25, according to the case file. The press service of the court reports that on January 18, Stepanov refused to follow the orders of the commander of the military unit and refused to go to war in Ukraine during mobilization.

The second serviceman is Andrey Mikhailov, who was sentenced on April 27 under similar circumstances. Mikhailov refused to go to fight in Ukraine on January 21 — three days after Stepanov’s decision.

The Russian courts have already received more than 500 cases against servicemen who directly refused to carry out orders to be sent to Ukraine or have deserted from the front, according to calculations by the independent media outlet Mediazona in March. But it added that most such cases were hidden from public view: sentences are usually not published and statistics are hidden or deleted.

In more than one-third of known AWOL convictions defendants receive suspended sentences, which means they can be sent to the front again, Mediazona reports.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Wednesday permitting the conscription for military training of citizens in the reserve, according to a document published on the government’s website.

“I order to call up in 2023 Russian citizens who are in the reserve to undergo military training in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the National Guard Troops of the Russian Federation, state security agencies and the Federal Security Service,” the decree said.

Military training of Russian citizens in the reserve is an annual event.

The Russian military reserve consists of a special combat army reserve, which may number as many as two million, and a larger group of eligible reservists, estimated by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu as almost 25 million people.

Some background: Russia’s move to send hundreds of thousands to fight on the battlefields of Ukraine has generated dissent and protest and prompted many Russians – young men in particular – to flee the country. In April, Putin signed a law that made the country’s conscription program more efficient, more modern – and harder to evade.

CNN’s Rob Picheta contributed to this post.

While Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has frequently poured scorn on Russia’s Defense Ministry and its leadership, he has not previously accused Russian units of running from battle and allowing Ukrainian forces to recapture territory.

But in another expletive-laden tirade released on the same day that the Kremlin commemorated victory over Nazi Germany, Prigozhin said one Russian brigade had abandoned its positions south of Bakhmut, leading to many casualties among his fighters.  

In comments Tuesday, Prigozhin said “one of the units of the Ministry of Defense fled from one of our flanks, abandoning their positions. They all fled and [laid] bare a front nearly 2 kilometers [1.25 miles] wide and 500 meters [1,640ft] deep.”

Prighozhin said that the “72nd brigade f***ed up three square kilometers (1.1 miles) today, on which I had about 500 people killed. Because it was a strategic bridgehead. They just ran the hell out of there.”

The 72nd Brigade (or Separate Motorized Regiment as it is sometimes called) is part of the Russian military’s Western Military District.

As for soldiers fleeing, Prigozhin said: “The fish rots from the head. A soldier leaves the trenches because it is not necessary to die [as] useless. A soldier may die, but a soldier should not die because of the utter stupidity of his leadership.”

Speaking to Russian media, Prigozhin reiterated that Wagner had planned to leave the area because its units had inadequate ammunition – a decision postponed when a promise was made that supplies would be sent by May 9, he said.

“During the day of May 8-9, 2023, the required amount of ammunition was not issued,” Prigozhin said.

Separately, a prominent Russian military blogger, Anastasiya Kashevarova, has reported a complete lack of communication in the Bakhmut area between Wagner and Russian regular forces (72nd Brigade.) 

She wrote on Telegram: “The 72nd has a ban on working with the ‘orchestra’ [Wagner] and Wagner is too proud.”

Often, she added, a brigade does not know who is on its right or left. “There is no single command that would be respected by all without exception, “ she added. “Complete disunity of the front…the enemy is using it.”

The Ukrainian military has confirmed that its forces have made gains south of Bakhmut – a dramatic turn of events in an area where gains and losses have usually been measured in several feet.

The Ukrainian Third Assault Brigade, which has advanced in the area, spoke of eliminating dozens of Russian soldiers, and released video showing its tanks, supported by infantry, overrunning Russian trenches.

Some background: In an explosive, expletive-laden rant last week, Prigozhin appeared in front of dozens of his dead soldiers and blamed Russia’s military leadership for “tens of thousands” of Wagner casualties.

In late April, he threatened to withdraw his troops from Bakhmut if Moscow didn’t provide more ammunition. Prigozhin later backtracked on his threat after receiving promises of more ammunition.

Russian soldiers are preventing employees of the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant from evacuating a nearby frontline town with their families, Ukraine’s military said Wednesday. 

“In Enerhodar, the Russian occupiers organized a so-called ‘evacuation’ for family members of Zaporizhzhia NPP employees — yet employees of the power plant are not allowed to leave the city,” Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces said in a statement.

Russia-backed authorities have ordered the evacuation of thousands of civilians along the southern front as a Ukrainian counteroffensive looms.

Enerhodar, where most of the nuclear plant’s staff live, was among 18 settlements whose residents were evacuated over the weekend. The evacuees were moved to recreation centers and hotels in the southern towns of Berdiansk and Kyrylivka, while others were taken to Russia’s Rostov region, Ukraine’s military said.

Remember: The Zaporizhzhia plant is Europe’s largest nuclear power station and has been held by Russian forces since early in the invasion last year. It is mostly operated by a Ukrainian workforce.

The plant’s position on the front lines means shelling in the surrounding towns and near the facility is common. The UN’s nuclear watchdog again raised concerns earlier this week about safety at the plant, describing the situation as being “increasingly unpredictable.”

The Russian defense ministry claimed on Wednesday that Russian forces had hit the ammunition depot of the Ukrainian army’s 65th mechanized brigade in the Zaporizhzhia region – an area that has seen a rise in shelling by both sides in anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive. 

“An ammunition depot of the 65th mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was destroyed near the village of Preobrazhenka, Zaporizhzhia region,” said the ministry in its daily briefing. There’s been no word from the Ukrainian side.

In addition, the ministry said that Russian assault detachments continued to move further into the northwestern and western outskirts of Bakhmut, while Russian airborne forces were “suppressing enemy actions on the flanks.”

Some context: The ministry’s version of events around Bakhmut is at odds with that of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who says he lost 500 fighters because one Russian army unit had abandoned its positions south of Bakhmut, allowing Ukrainian forces to take a swathe of territory.

In an angry video message, Prigozhin said Russian units were “running away.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is informing China’s calculations on a possible invasion of Taiwan, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN Wednesday.

“What happens in Europe matters for Asia, and what happens in Asia matters for Europe,” Stoltenberg told CNN.

“Security is global,” Stoltenberg said. “Beijing is watching closely what happens in Ukraine, the price President Putin is paying but also the potential rewards. So what happens in Ukraine actually matters for the calculations Beijing, China’s making regarding, for instance, Taiwan.”

China’s foreign minister has warned against an “emotional” view of the war in Ukraine, saying on a visit to Germany that “the only way out is to remain calm and rational and create conditions for a political solution.”

Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with his counterpart Annalena Baerbock in Berlin on Tuesday. 

Speaking at a regular press briefing in Beijing Wednesday, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Qin used the trip to state that “China is neither a conflict maker nor a participant in the conflict, but an advocate of peace and a promoter of peace talks.”

The ministry said Qin urged Germany to “play a leading role and put forward concrete proposals for the construction of a balanced, effective and sustainable European security framework.”

On Tuesday, Baerbock called on China to promise it will not help Russia avoid European sanctions.

“It is particularly critical if Russian weaponry companies obtain war-related goods,” she said, adding that all countries — China included — should take action to oblige their companies. “Neutrality means taking the side of the aggressor,” Baerbock said. 

Some background: Beijing has provided Moscow with a diplomatic lifeline as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has seen Moscow sanctioned by Western governments. China has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion or make any public call for Russia to withdraw its troops. Its officials have instead repeatedly said that the “legitimate” security concerns of all countries must be taken into account and accused NATO and the US of fueling the conflict.

Russia had hoped to welcome its annual Victory Day on Tuesday with news that Ukraine’s eastern city of Bakhmut – which Russian forces have for months tried to capture – had finally fallen. But “they were not able to capture Bakhmut,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared in Kyiv. And today, Russian forces have suffered another setback in the area.

Here are the latest developments:

Here’s where the state of control stands in Ukraine:

The Ukrainian duo TVORCHI, who are representing their country at this year’s Eurovision contest, have teamed up with Visa and the fundraising platform UNITED24 (launched by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky), to raise funds for equipment to help Ukrainian babies born prematurely due to war stressors. 

During the Eurovision opening ceremony that took place on Sunday in the English city of Liverpool, the duo wore costumes with the names and the weights of Ukrainian babies born prematurely displayed on their jackets. 

“Sofia, 1340 grams. Marichka, 804.6 grams. Nikita, 1280 grams. Alice, 1600 grams. Denis, 900 grams…These names and weights are displayed on our costumes, that we wore on the turquoise Eurovision runway,” the TVORCHI duo wrote in an Instagram post on Monday. “They belong to children who were born in Ukraine during the war, very tiny. More often, because their mothers experienced stress during pregnancy due to explosions, shelling and a constant sense of threat.” 

“These babies survived – their little hearts were saved by intensive care incubators,” the duo added. 

According to UNITED24, “because of the war, the number of such newborns has increased by at least 15% and behind this figure there are thousands of vulnerable children who were born prematurely and cannot survive without special assistance.” 

The goal of the initiative is to attract international support to raise 10 million hryvnias (around $270,000) for the purchase of 10 incubators for Ukrainian infants, UNITED24 says.

Eurovision is traditionally hosted in the country that won the contest the previous year. Ukraine won the contest in 2022 but cannot host it due to the ongoing conflict, so the United Kingdom is hosting on its behalf.

The theme of Eurovision 2023 is “United by music” and the final takes place on Saturday May 13.

Three sites in Russian regions on the border with Ukraine were attacked by drones early Wednesday, according to local authorities.

They say two drones launched strikes in the Voronezh, Belgorod and Kursk regions. 

The drones attacked a military facility in Voronezh, according to a statement by the region’s governor, Alexander Gusev.

“Early this morning, an attack attempt by two enemy UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] was thwarted at a Voronezh military facility,” he said in a Telegram post. The governor added that counter-actions caused one drone to deviate from its course and fall, while the second drone was “destroyed by fire damage.”

Drone attacks were also reported in the Belgorod and Kursk regions earlier in the day.

The governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, said an enemy drone was shot down. The debris fell in the village of Tolmachyovo near Kursk, causing damage to a gas pipe and the facade of a house, but did not cause any injuries.

Separately, the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said Wednesday an enemy drone explosion during an overnight attack on the village of Olkhovatka damaged several buildings and a car.

“It appears that an enemy drone exploded. Two residential buildings, a library, a post office, an urgent care center, and one car were damaged,” Gladkov said.

Some context: Drones have played a prominent role in the war. Most drones are small and versatile, able to fly through poor weather and travel for hundreds of miles. Russia has used drones throughout the conflict to bombard Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.

In March, Russia’s Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of launching a spate of attempted drone strikes targeting infrastructure deep inside Russia. Last week, a video emerged on social media which showed a bright flash and puff of smoke over a part of the Kremlin. Russia claimed the incident was a drone strike launched by Ukraine to kill President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine has vehemently denied the accusation.

Russian reports of Wednesday’s drone attacks come amid rumors that Ukraine is set to launch its long-anticipated counteroffensive.

The Ukrainian military has inflicted “huge losses” on Russian forces in a successful counterattack near the eastern city of Bakhmut on Wednesday, according to Ukrainian officials.

Speaking in a video shared on Telegram, Andriy Biletsky, head of Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade, said “units of the 72nd Brigade of the Russian Federation were defeated.”

The “6th and 8th companies of the division” had been “completely destroyed” along with a significant number of armored fighting vehicles, he added.

Biletsky said a “significant number of prisoners” were taken and “the 3rd Assault unit of Wagner also suffered heavy losses,” referring to the Russian private military company – or mercenary group – that is playing a major role in the battles around Bakhmut.

The offensive action “completely freed” an area 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) wide and 2.6 kilometers (1.6 miles) deep of Russian forces, he said. No exact location was given.

The spokesperson for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Serhii Cherevatyi, added that the battle was “still ongoing” but that “the enemy is suffering huge losses in this area.” He said that 203 were killed and 216 wounded.

He also noted that there was “no shortage of shells, but a shortage of people”. The spokesman said that there had been 524 attacks on Ukrainian positions around Bakhmut. Russia has suffered heavy losses in their months-long battle for the city, but have not yet been able to capture it.

“If they [Wagner] don’t get more personnel or change their tactics, in the near future, PMC Wagner will no longer exist in this area,” Cherevatyi added.

Some context: Bakhmut is the site of a long, drawn-out assault by Russian forces, including Wagner mercenaries, that has driven thousands from their homes and left the area devastated. But despite the vast amounts of manpower and resources Moscow has poured into capturing the city, they have been unable to take total control.

Japan is in talks to open a NATO liaison office, the first of its kind in Asia, the country’s foreign minister told CNN in an exclusive interview on Wednesday, saying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made the world less stable.

Hayashi specifically cited Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year as an event with repercussions far beyond Europe’s borders that forced Japan to rethink regional security.

“The reason why we are discussing about this is that since the aggression by Russia to Ukraine, the world (has) become more unstable,” he said.
“Something happening in East Europe is not only confined to the issue in East Europe, and that affects directly the situation here in the Pacific. That’s why a cooperation between us in East Asia and NATO (is) becoming … increasingly important.”

The Nikkei Asia first reported plans to open the office in Japan last Wednesday, citing unnamed Japanese and NATO officials.

In a statement to CNN last week, a NATO spokesperson said: “As to plans to open a liaison office in Japan, we won’t go into the details of ongoing deliberations among NATO allies.” She added that NATO and Japan “have a long-standing cooperation.”

Russia’s invasion drove non-aligned Finland and Sweden to abandon their neutrality and seek protection within NATO, with Finland formally joining the bloc last month.

An office in Tokyo would be hugely consequential, as the war in Ukraine and deepening divisions within Asia have seen countries like Japan and South Korea draw closer to their Western partners — and present a united front against perceived threats closer to home, such as North Korea and China.

Read more here.

Russia scaled back its annual Victory Day celebrations Tuesday due to security concerns related to the war in Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin spoke briefly in Moscow’s Red Square where only one tank was on display during a toned-down parade.

Meanwhile, explosions rang out over Kyiv on Tuesday as Ukrainian air defenses intercepted cruise missiles fired by Russia, officials said. The Patriot missile defense system was used to down a Russian missile, the Pentagon said.

Here are the latest headlines:

Bridget A. Brink, the US ambassador to Ukraine, accused Russia on Tuesday of “again blocking ships from loading grain in Ukraine’s ports to feed people who need it around the world.”

The US official referenced similar comments on the topic made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier on Tuesday.

“The world shouldn’t need to remind Moscow every few weeks to stop using people’s hunger as a weapon in its war against Ukraine,” Blinken said, as quoted by Brink on Twitter. 

Farhan Haq, UN deputy spokesman for the Secretary-General, said two inspections of ships did happen on Tuesday.

The news comes a day after the UN said there had been no ship inspections as part of the grain deal for two days. Ukraine on Monday accused Russia of effectively bringing the grain deal to a halt by not inspecting ships.

Some context: The Black Sea Grain Initiative is an agreement between Ukraine and Russia, brokered by the UN and Turkey, that was established in July 2022 to guarantee safe passage for ships carrying grain and oilseeds — some of Ukraine’s most important exports.  

Talks to extend the initiative are ongoing. The Black Sea grain deal was last extended on March 18 for 60 days, and is set to expire on May 18. 

A French journalist working for the international news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) was killed by rocket fire near the embattled city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday.

Arman Soldin, 32, was AFP’s video coordinator in Ukraine and was killed in a rocket attack on the outskirts of the town of Chasiv Yar, near Bakhmut, AFP announced on Twitter, citing colleagues who witnessed the incident.

Soldin was with four colleagues at the time of the attack, but the other journalists were not injured, the news agency said.

Their reporting team was with Ukrainian soldiers when they came under fire around 4:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, according to AFP.

Soldin, a French citizen with Bosnian origins, was an experienced reporter who had regularly traveled to the front lines, the news agency said. He had been AFP’s video coordinator there since September 2022 and covered the conflict from the early days of Russia’s invasion.

“Our journalists travel regularly to this area to report on clashes in the region, the epicenter of fighting in Ukraine for several months,” AFP said in its statement.

Soldin is one of the several known journalists killed since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, including Fox News photojournalist Pierre Zakrzewski and consultant Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova, journalist and documentarian Brent Renaud, and photojournalist Maks Levin.

Read more here.

Kremlin-backed authorities in the occupied Ukrainian city of Kamianka-Dniprovska in the southern Zaporizhzhia region are evacuating families and public sector workers further into Russian-held territory, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a statement.

“On May 8, the Russian occupiers began to evacuate preschool and school-age children with their parents, as well as teachers and other public sector employees from the city of Kamianka-Dniprovska in Zaporizhzhia Oblast,” the statement read. “There were not many willing participants.” 

Late Thursday, Yevgeniy Balitskiy, the acting governor of the occupied parts of the Zaporizhzhia region — who is backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin — announced his administration would evacuate people from places near the war’s southern front line.

Yesterday, Yurii Malashko, Ukraine’s governor of Zaporizhzhia, said in a television interview that he understood some Moscow-backed officials were leaving occupied towns, and offering to evacuate people with Russian passports, ahead of the anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive.

“We have also heard that they take civilians, including children, to Berdiansk first of all. Then they go either to Crimea or towards the [occupied] Donetsk region,” Malashko said.

Ivan Fedorov, the Ukraine-elected mayor of Melitopol — a city in Zaporizhzhia — told Ukrainian TV that it was not a “mass evacuation,” but rather “some hundreds evacuated for show.” He claimed that Russia was sending more forces to the southern front line and that, in Melitopol, troops had started mining administrative buildings, kindergartens and schools.

Fedorov advised people in the occupied areas to be prepared for the counteroffensive by finding shelter, charging power banks and stocking up on food and water. 

The Ukrainian military downed a Russian missile using the Patriot missile defense system, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Tuesday.

“I can confirm that they did down a Russian missile by employing the Patriot missile defense system,” Ryder said. “As you know, that system is part of a broader range of air defense capabilities that the United States and the international community have provided to Ukraine.”

Ryder added that the US and its partners would continue to “rush ground-based air defense capabilities and munitions to help Ukraine control its sovereign skies and to help Ukraine defend its citizens from Russia.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that he thinks Ukraine has the resources it needs to retake territory in an anticipated counteroffensive.

“They have in place … what they need to continue to be successful in regaining territory that was seized by force by Russia over the last 14 months,” Blinken said at a joint news conference with UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

“It’s not only the weapons; it’s the training,” Blinken added. “It’s making sure that the Ukrainians can maintain the systems that we provide them, and it’s important, of course, that they have the right plans, again, to be successful.”

Blinken’s comments come on the same day the US announced an additional $1.2 billion in aid to Ukraine intended to bolster air defenses and keep up ammunition supplies.

For Russian President Vladimir Putin, this year’s Victory Day parade in Red Square was a chance to continue his war on history. He succeeded only in underscoring his geopolitical isolation.

In a speech before the assembled troops, Putin drew a direct line between his invasion of Ukraine and the sacrifices of World War II. Flanked by surviving veterans of what Russia still calls the Great Patriotic War, the Russian president cast himself as savior and defender of an embattled Russia targeted by the “globalist elites” of the West.

While Russia sees “no unfriendly nations in the West or in the East,” Putin suggested darker forces are conspiring against Moscow.

“Western globalist elites still talk about their exceptionalism, pitting people against each other and splitting society, provoking bloody conflicts and coups, sowing hatred, Russophobia, [and] aggressive nationalism,” he said. “The Ukrainian nation has become hostage to a coup which led to a criminal regime led by its Western masters. It has become a pawn to their cruel and selfish plans.”

It’s worth unpacking this for a moment. It’s Putin’s longstanding view that Ukraine is not a legitimate nation — Ukrainians and Russians, in his view, are “one people” and the Ukrainian state is an artificial construct. In his conspiratorial view of the world, states like Ukraine are merely vassals, and Washington calls the shots. And if a shadowy global cabal is pulling the strings in Kyiv, that belief justifies what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Let’s remember that it was a genuine popular revolt — not, say, the CIA or George Soros — that brought people onto Kyiv’s Maidan Square to support Ukraine’s aspirations for joining the European Union, leading to the ouster of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president in 2014. And that Russian-speaking Ukrainians — and even some Russian nationals — are also fighting and dying on the side of Ukraine.

Read the full analysis here.