June 2, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina refused to shake hands with her Russian opponent after winning a match Friday, saying she did so out of respect for the men and women defending Ukraine from Moscow's invasion.

After Friday's victory, Svitolina avoided Blinkova while the two took turns shaking the hand of the chair umpire.

The Ukrainian said she would continue to snub any opponents from Russia or Belarus, the close Moscow ally.

"What the Russian government and Russian soldiers are doing on our land is really, really terrible," the 28-year-old Svitolina said. "It touches many different areas. It touches sport. It touches acting. It touches all different areas. So, we are all united Ukrainians and this is our position.”

Svitolina said she would like to see Russian and Belarusian players speak out and call for their countries to end the war.

Belarusian bows out of media appearance: World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, meanwhile, did not participate in a customary post-match news conference Friday.

In her last media appearance Wednesday, the Belarusian had been repeatedly asked to comment on the war in Ukraine and Belarus’ role, but she repeatedly declined to do so. This continued until the moderator halted the line of questioning.

Sabalenka said she had not felt safe during the Wednesday news conference.

"For my own mental health and well-being, I have decided to take myself out of this situation today, and the tournament has supported me in this decision," she said in an interview released by tournament organizers.

Top Russian player weighs in: Last month, Daria Kasatkina, Russia’s top-ranked women's tennis player, expressed her sympathy for Ukrainian players who refuse to shake her hand after matches.

“Well, the saddest part is the war still going on,” Kasatkina said. “So, of course, players from Ukraine have got a lot of reasons to not shake our hands. I accept it and it is how it is. It’s a very sad situation and I understand."

Kasatkina, a ninth seed, will face the unseeded Svitolina in the fourth round Sunday.

At least two people were killed and six others were injured in shelling in Russia’s Belgorod region on Friday, the governor there said.

Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a Telegram post that the people killed were in the yards of their homes when the attack came. Two children were among those injured, he said, adding that they were hurt by shrapnel.

Gladkov said that the two injured children were “a 13-year-old boy [who] suffered a closed fracture of the left shoulder and an 11-year-old girl [who] sustained shrapnel wounds to the left eye.”  

 The Belgorod region, which is located near the border with Ukraine, has seen intensified violence in the last several days, the governor previously said.

“A direct hit from a shell set an outbuilding and a garage in two private residences on fire” and there is damage to four more houses in the area, according to Gladkov. 

A deadly car bombing targeted "Kremlin collaborators" in the Russian-occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region Friday, according to Ivan Fedorov, the Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol.

Ukrainian and Russian-appointed officials offered differing accounts on the ultimate toll of the attack.

Fedorov claimed on Telegram that four Kremlin "collaborators and occupiers" were headed to a cafe in the town of Mykhailivka — north of Melitopol — but they "didn't quite make it." The group's car "flew skyward just outside their destination," the mayor said.

Fedorov, who is himself not in the region, said a businessman who owned a local cafe was among those killed.

A Russian-appointed official in the occupied southern region also reported the car bombing, publishing an initial post on his Telegram account and then sharing an updated message.

Vladimir Rogov, who serves on the council of the Russia-backed administration for the Zaporizhzhia region, said a car carrying three people was blown up, killing the cafe owner and leaving two others wounded.

"They are being provided with all the necessary medical care, and doctors assess their condition as stable," Rogov said in his updated Telegram post.

Rogov called the explosion “a terrorist attack" and identified the businessman as 53-year-old Sergey Gidovodyuk, who Rogov said had become active with the ruling "United Russia" party.

Several Russian-appointed officials in occupied parts of southern Ukraine have been wounded or killed, usually with improvised explosive devices, since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.

This post has been updated with new information about the attack.

Russia carried out at least 62 airstrikes and 15 missile strikes in the last 24 hours, according to the Ukrainian military, while its forces also rebuffed more than a dozen ground assaults.

Areas that came under attack, according to Ukraine's General Staff, included Kupyansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region, where mortar and artillery fire hit a number of settlements.

Further south, "the enemy conducted unsuccessful offensives near Makiivka in Luhansk region and Spirne in Donetsk region over the last day," the General Staff said.

In both areas, as well as around the eastern cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, there were Russian airstrikes, it said. Russia has been trying to surround Avdiivka for months.

Elsewhere in eastern Ukraine: Earlier Friday, the Russian defense ministry said Chechen units were launching an assault against the ruined town of Marinka in the Donetsk region. "Our defenders repelled all 8 enemy attacks," the General Staff said.

On Russian soil: Ukraine's military also claimed the Russian military was sending cadets to help defend Russia's border after settlements in the Belgorod region have come under increased fire by anti-Putin groups.

CNN is unable to verify claims on battlefield developments. 

Ukraine will be inspecting civilian bomb shelters across the country after three people died in Kyiv earlier this week when they were unable to access a shelter during a Russian missile barrage.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the deaths have caused an "obviously strong reaction" and orders are in place to check shelters in the capital and elsewhere.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said he'd been instructed to commence nationwide inspections and that the State Emergency Service of Ukraine and the National Police are already working.

"Any violations found must be properly recorded, and those responsible must be brought to justice," he said on Facebook.

The numbers: After a month of regular night-time Russian attacks on Kyiv, the city's authorities have disclosed that 92,000 people used the city's metro stations as shelters in May. They said that 46 underground stations operate as shelters around the clock. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated US support for Ukraine and said Russia’s war in Ukraine has been a "strategic failure" that has diminished the country's influence and interests "for years to come." 

“Where Putin aimed to project strength, he’s revealed weakness,” Blinken said in Helsinki, Finland. 

Separately, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he understands his country cannot become a member of NATO — as Finland recently has — while it is still at war.

If you are just joining us, here is the latest you need to know on Russia's war in Ukraine:

President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he understands that Ukraine cannot become a member of NATO while it is still at war.

The alliance's treaty includes Article 5, a collective defense provision that pledges members to come to the assistance of any state that is under attack.

"Give me an example of one NATO country which is in a state of war with Russia right now; or which NATO country has Russian troops on its territory," Zelensky said.

Both Russia and Ukraine have reported casualties in the ongoing shelling in southern Ukraine.

Nine people were injured in shelling in the Russian-occupied port city of Berdiansk on the Sea of Azov on Friday, according to Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed local official, who claimed that the strike was "carried out by the [Armed Forces of Ukraine] militants."

The city lies along the coast from Mariupol, an area that is believed to be among the sites Ukraine will attempt to reclaim in its counteroffensive. It is deep in Russian-controlled territory, around 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) from the front line. That means that if Ukraine was behind the alleged strike, the use of Storm Shadow missiles would be a likely option.

Separately, four civilians were injured and two women were killed in the settlement of Komyshuvakha, which is south-east of the city of Zaporizhzhia, according to Yurii Malashko, head of Zaporizhzhia region military administration.

Zaporizhzhia region police say they have documented "189 hostile attacks" on civilian settlements in the last two days, adding that residential buildings and households were damaged.

The “Akhmat” group of Chechen special forces had launched an offensive in the Marinka direction in eastern Ukraine, the Russian defense ministry said on Friday.

On Wednesday, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov had said that the Chechen special forces were preparing for the offensive amid intensifying attacks on the Russian border region of Belgorod. 

“According to the order, the fighters of the Chechen units must begin active combat operations and liberate a number of settlements,” he said.

Some background: The city of Marinka, which is now in ruins, has been on the front lines since the beginning of the invasion, with fighting at close-quarters among the rubble continuing almost daily. The Ukrainian military has said there are Chechen units at various points along the front lines in Donetsk region. 

Kadyrov leads sizeable paramilitary forces that, while formally a part of Russian security structures, have personal loyalty to him. During a visit to the Kremlin in March, the Chechen leader told Putin his forces in Ukraine will help Russia "fight to the victorious end."