May 22, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Ukrainian search teams found 50 bodies of missing people in the past month alone in areas formerly occupied by Russian forces, a Ukraine official said.

Ukraine's Commissioner for Persons Missing in Special Circumstances Oleh Kotenko said the bodies were discovered in the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions. The commission is still searching de-occupied territory for possible graves, according to Kotenko.

Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs said about 23,000 people have been officially deemed missing since the start of Russia's invasion. 

At least eight people were injured in an attack in Russia's Belgorod region, the governor there said Monday.

Regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a video live stream there were no deaths among civilians in Belgorod.

What happened: Earlier on Monday, Gladkov said several people were injured with shrapnel wounds in an attack in the town of Graivoron. He also said shells hit an administrative building in Belgorod and damaged three residential buildings, which caught fire. A shell also hit a kindergarten in the neighboring village of Zamostye, where another woman was injured, he added.  

A Ukrainian official acknowledged that the units that had carried out an operation in the area were part of the defense and security forces of Ukraine, but insisted they were acting independently. “We can confirm that this operation was carried out by Russian citizens,” Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency, told CNN.

The governor of Russia's Belgorod region said Monday that a "counter-terrorist operation" has been launched in the area following Moscow's announcement that it is fighting a group of saboteurs that crossed into its territory from Ukraine.

More on stringent security measures: Those measures include enhanced document verification for individuals as well as "the suspension of the activities of hazardous industries and organizations that use explosive, radioactive, chemically and biologically hazardous substances," according to an update published on the Belgorod government website.

Other special measures include "control of telephone conversations and other information transmitted through the channels of telecommunication systems" and the use of private vehicles "to deliver persons in need of urgent medical care to medical institutions, as well as to pursue persons suspected of committing a terrorist attack," according to the Belgorod government. 

The Belgorod region's government will also restrict the movement of vehicles and pedestrians on the streets and roads. 

The governor of Russia's Belgorod region said on Monday that at least three people have been injured with shrapnel wounds amid an attack by a Ukrainian "sabotage" group that entered Russian territory in the town of Graivoron bordering Ukraine. 

"They are in the hospital in a state of moderate severity. All necessary medical assistance is provided," regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram. 

Gladkov said that shells hit an administrative building in Belgorod and damaged three residential buildings, which caught fire. A shell also hit a kindergarten in the neighboring village of Zamostye, where another woman was injured with a hand wound, he added.  

An unmanned aerial vehicle was shot down by Russia's air defense system, according to Gladkov, who said there were no victims in the attack and Russian operational services were looking into any potential damage on the ground.

Earlier on Monday, Belgorod's governor said that Russian armed forces, along with the border service, the National Guard and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) were "taking measures to eliminate the enemy."

Some context: A Ukrainian official acknowledged that the units that had carried out an operation in the area were part of the defense and security forces of Ukraine, but insisted they were acting independently. “We can confirm that this operation was carried out by Russian citizens,” Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency, told CNN.

CNN's Victoria Butenko contributed to this post.

The Freedom for Russia Legion – a group that has claimed responsibility for an apparent incursion inside Russian territory – has one ambition. As “Caesar” says in a video statement he recorded with his comrades before joining a cross-border raid into his motherland: “Russia will be free.”

The group numbers a few hundred of diehard, battle-hardened Russian volunteers fighting their own people as part of the Ukrainian armed forces. Caesar is a former teacher, a father and has a wife living in Kyiv. He told CNN last year that he had dedicated his life to toppling Russian President Vladimir Putin and marching into Red Square and the Kremlin itself. 

Caesar is a devoted member of the Orthodox Church and is nostalgic for the Tsarist era that predated the Soviet Union. His unit is well-equipped with modern armored vehicles, gunsights and the latest automatic weapons. 

Previously engaged in bitter fighting south of Bakhmut, the Freedom for Russia Legion now claims to have crossed into Russia itself and, as of late afternoon on Monday, was continuing combat operations against Russian forces in areas close to the frontier.

In a Telegram post, the group said it had “liberated” a settlement in Russia's Belgorod region.

Ukrainian officials acknowledged that the unit crossed into Russia, but insist that members of the legion were operating independently as "Russian citizens."

The Legionnaires themselves have admitted that they’re often treated with suspicion by Ukrainian soldiers but hope to win them over with gallantry on the battlefield.

Their apparent incursion along a border that’s frequently used by Russian mortar teams and artillery as a firebase for attacks inside Ukraine will help further cement their reputation.

It also serves as part of ongoing psychological operations intended to undermine support for the war in Russia and the fighting spirit of Russian soldiers themselves – signaling that they could be attacked at any time and even by their own countrymen.

Russia has said it is fighting a group of saboteurs that crossed into its territory from Ukraine. 

State media TASS quoted Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying that Russian forces were working to push out the “sabotage and reconnaissance group” that had entered the Belgorod region that borders Ukraine. 

Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram: “The armed forces of the Russian Federation, together with the border service, the National Guard and the FSB, are taking the necessary measures to eliminate the enemy.” 

A group of Russian defectors called the "Freedom of Russia Legion" claimed on Telegram that it and the "Russian Volunteer Corps" were behind the attack in Belgorod. They said they had “fully liberated the settlement of Kozinka of Belgorod region” whilecthe “first groups have entered Grayvoron.”  

Aleksey Baranovsky, a representative of the Kyiv-based Russian Armed Opposition Political Centre – the political wing of the Freedom of Russia Legion – told CNN the operation had started last night and fighting was “ongoing.” He would not specify the number of fighters who had crossed the border into Russia. 

Baranovsky said the group wanted to “liberate our motherland from the tyranny of Putin." 

Some background: CNN interviewed members of the Freedom of Russia Legion fighting for Ukraine in its eastern Donetsk region in December. 

A Ukrainian defense intelligence official earlier told CNN that the Russian citizens were “part of the defense and security forces in Ukraine but said: “In Russia they are acting as independent entities.” 

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine's presidential administration, said on Twitter that Ukraine had “nothing to do with it.” 

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said on Monday that “a sabotage and reconnaissance group” of the Ukrainian army had crossed into Russian territory — and Ukraine confirmed the group was made up of Russian nationals.

Vyacheslav Gladkov said forces had entered the territory of the Graivoronsky district, which borders Ukraine.

“The armed forces of the Russian Federation, together with the border service, the National Guard and the FSB (Russia's security service), are taking the necessary measures to eliminate the enemy,” Gladkov said.

CNN is unable to verify the report.

Earlier on Monday, Gladkov claimed on Telegram that the district had been shelled by Ukrainian forces since 9 a.m. local time (2 a.m. ET), but added that no one had been injured.

The villages of Antonovka, Kozinka and Gora-Podol had been hit by shells or debris, Gladkov said.

What Ukraine says: A Ukrainian defense intelligence official has confirmed to CNN that a group of Russian nationals that crossed from Ukraine into Russia’s Belgorod region and attacked the town of Grayvoron were “part of the defense and security forces in Ukraine but acting as “independent entities” in Russia. 

Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency, told CNN: “We can confirm that this operation was carried out by Russian citizens. These actions are the consequences of intensified Russian cross border attacks, which have led to victims and destruction.” 

Yusov said that the units that had crossed the border were, “part of defense and security forces” in Ukraine but said: “In Russia, they are acting as independent entities.” 

Groups called the "Freedom of Russia Legion" and "Russian Volunteer Corps" claimed the attack on Belgorod region. In a Telegram post, they said they had, “fully liberated the settlement of Kozinka of Belgorod region. [The] first groups have entered Grayvoron.

Border strikes increase: Strikes on the Belgorod region appear to have intensified in recent weeks, according to claims by Russian officials.

Earlier this month, Gladkov claimed two drones had detonated and fell over a residential area in the region. He added that no casualties were reported, but two residential buildings and a car were damaged.

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.

Seldom in the history of warfare has so much been said, amid so much death, about a place that mattered so little – but that’s the Battle for Bakhmut for you. For now.

The leader of the Russian mercenary company Wagner claimed Saturday that his men had captured the town from Ukraine after “224 days of fighting.” Ukraine has denied the claim – and insisted that not only has Bakhmut not fallen but that it’s being flanked by Kyiv’s forces.

Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister, Hanna Maliar, said Monday that Ukrainian forces are still in control of some buildings in the southwest of Bakhmut and that the two sides were still fighting for control of “the dominant heights on the flanks” north and south of the city’s suburbs.

For months Ukrainian commanders in charge of troops on the ground, and the troops themselves, have scratched their heads over why Russia was prepared to invest so much materiel, and spend so many Russian lives, on trying to capture a town that has no obvious tactical, let alone strategic, value.

Wagner, and whoever is paying the company’s bills, were profligate with its people.

In December, a member of the International Legion of Defense of Ukraine, fighting in a group of about a dozen men to the south of the town, called from the front line.

“It’s incredible,” he told me. “Those Wagner guys come in waves of, like, 40 at a time. We kill 35. Five get into a trench or a house, then they send another 40 and we shoot another 35 or so. We’re just cutting them down like grass.”

It was assumed the “musicians,” as pro-Russian groups like to call the mercenaries, were largely prisoners. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the company, likes to call them “recidivists.” These convict recruits, some of them facing long sentences, were offered freedom if they survived six months at the front.

Clearly many did not. Instead, they were thrown into what both sides call the “meat grinder.”

“They’re coming at us all the time. We don’t know why they value Bakhmut so much but we know where they are and we know where to kill them,” said a brigade commander at the end of last year.

Read the full analysis here.

Who controls Bakhmut? It depends who you ask. According to Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, his troops have captured “all the territories they promised to capture, to the last square centimeter.”

But according to Ukraine’s deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar, Ukrainian forces still occupy “a small part of the city” and are advancing on Bakhmut’s flanks. Images show the devastation inflicted on the city following months of brutal fighting.

Here’s what you need to know: