May 22, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks during a post cabinet press conference at Parliament on May 23.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday that her country would deploy an extra 30 defense force personnel to the United Kingdom to support the training of Ukrainian armed forces.

They will train Ukrainian soldiers on how to use the L-119 light gun, she added.

The troops, training ammunition and surplus equipment including aiming systems will be moved in an airlift coordinated by the UK.

This follows a previous deployment of 66 New Zealand defense force personnel in April along with a Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130 Hercules.

Trees in a forest area damaged by Russian attacks are seen in Irpin, Ukraine on April 1.

The pine forests around Irpin are Oleh Bondarenko’s happy place. He discovered them as a child, when his mom sent him to the area for summer camp, and he has been coming back ever since.

The hour-long journey from Kyiv – a trip he has made many times over the decades – was filled with anguish for Bondarenko, who worried what he would find in Irpin.

This area was under Russian control for several weeks in March; it has subsequently become known around the world as the site of some of the worst atrocities committed by Russia in this war. At least 1,200 bodies of civilians have been discovered in the region since Russian troops withdrew from there, according to the Kyiv region police. At least 290 of them were found in Irpin, according to the city’s mayor.

In addition to the human toll, the destruction Russian forces caused to the landscape here is brutal and omnipresent: Scorched earth, forest floors ravaged by missiles, and trees broken down and uprooted, while abandoned military equipment litters the ground. Many of the town’s neat houses lie in ruins; the woodland and green spaces around them are off limits.

Anzhelika Kolomiec, Bondarenko’s friend who lives in Irpin, told CNN the authorities have banned people from going into the woods. “We have a beautiful forest here, but this year there won’t be any walks, there won’t be any mushroom picking, there won’t be berries. We are not allowed to go in because of mines and unexploded missiles,” she said.

While the world’s eyes are focused on the human suffering brought about by Russia’s invasion, environmental experts in Ukraine are keeping a close record of the environmental damage it has caused, to try to repair it as soon as possible, and in hopes of extracting reparations.

Read more:

Related article Ukraine's natural environment is another casualty of war. The damage could be felt for decades | CNN

It took a few weeks of sleeping on crates of grenades for a bed and hiding his face from Ukrainians amid a growing sense of guilt, for the Russian junior officer to come to his conclusion: This wasn’t his battle to fight.

“We were dirty and tired. People around us were dying. I didn’t want to feel like I was part of it, but I was a part of it,” the officer told CNN.

He said he went to find his commander and resigned his commission on the spot.

His story is remarkable, but it could also be one of many, according to opponents of the war in Russia as well as in Ukraine who say they have heard of a lot of cases of soldiers – both professional and conscript – refusing to fight.

Russian troops have been struggling with low morale and heavy losses in Ukraine, according to the assessments by Western officials including the Pentagon.

The UK’s Intelligence, Cyber and Security Agency says some have even refused to carry out orders.

Read more:

Black smoke rises from a military airport in Chuguyev near Kharkiv on February 24, 2022.

Related article Russian officer reveals why he risked it all to quit Putin's war | CNN

A man gets out of an evacuation van in Sloviansk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on May 21.

Over 100 million people have been forced to flee conflict, violence and persecution, a record figure setting a “staggering milestone,” the United Nations refugee agency said Monday.

“One hundred million is a stark figure – sobering and alarming in equal measure. It’s a record that should never have been set,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

“This must serve as a wake-up call to resolve and prevent destructive conflicts, end persecution, and address the underlying causes that force innocent people to flee their homes.”

The UNHCR said the war in Ukraine has displaced 8 million within the country this year, and more than 6 million refugee movements from Ukraine have been registered. The number has also been propelled by “new waves of violence” or conflict in Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Myanmar, Nigeria, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during his nightly address, on Sunday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a “historic” joint customs control with Poland on Sunday, stressing “unity of Ukrainians and Poles is a constant that no one will break.”

Zelensky’s comments came on the heels of Polish President Andrzej Duda’s visit to Kyiv earlier in the day. Duda also emphasized the unity between the two countries as he became the first foreign leader since the Russian invasion to address Ukraine’s parliament, the Rada.

Zelensky described Ukrainian-Polish relations as “finally on a completely clean, sincere basis, without any quarrels and old conflict heritage. This is an achievement — the historic achievement of our people. And I want the brotherhood between Ukrainians and Poles to be preserved forever. As I talked about it today in front of the deputies, our unity of Ukrainians and Poles is a constant that no one will break.”

Zelensky also said he signed a decree introducing a new award “to thank those cities of partner countries that have helped the most. And Rzeszow became the first such city. The savior city. It is fair to say.”

The Ukrainian leader went on to announce the preparation of a bill that will mirror the law passed in Poland about Ukrainian citizens who sought refuge in Poland and who “have been legally given the same opportunities as Poles.”

Nearly 3.5 million Ukrainian refugees have entered Poland since the Russian invasion in February, making it by far the single largest host nation for people fleeing the country, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 

“It will be the right gesture to pass such a law in Ukraine,” Zelensky said. “Let it be so that the citizens of Poland will never have to use such a law. But let us show our gratitude and our respect.”

The Ukrainian leader also said he spoke with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and “discussed ways to increase the volume of our exports, especially agricultural products. As well as the volume of fuel imports to Ukraine.”

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told Ukrainian children they should be “immensely proud” of themselves in an open letter published Sunday, three months into the Russian invasion that has displaced millions of refugees within Ukraine and abroad.

The British PM said “the absence of children and young people on the streets and in the parks” he saw when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showed him around Kyiv last month made him “feel very sad.” According to UNICEF, more than half of Ukraine’s 7.5 million children have been forced to flee the ongoing violence, as homes, schools, water supplies and hospitals have been damaged or destroyed.

Boris Johnson also told Ukrainian children: “you are not alone,” echoing many messages of solidarity expressed in the United Kingdom and in many other countries.

“Here in the United Kingdom. We fly Ukrainian flags from our homes, offices, churches, shops and playgrounds. Even from my own roof in Downing Street, where the windows are filled with sunflowers drawn by British children. Our young people are painting your flag in their classrooms and making blue and yellow bracelets in support of your country,” his letter read.

Johnson shared Zelensky’s hopes regarding the end of the conflict: “I believe, like your president, that Ukraine is going to win this war,” he wrote.

“I hope with all my heart that one day soon, you will be free to return to your homes, your schools, your families, and whatever happens, however long it takes.”

“We in the UK will never forget you and we’ll always be proud to call you our friends,” Johnson’s letter concluded.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Paddington Station in London, England, on May 17.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will “redouble efforts to provide vital food and humanitarian aid” to Ukraine, his office said Sunday.

During a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Johnson spoke about the “despicable” blockade of the key port city of Odesa, according to the statement. The Prime Minister will work to “ensure that the country is able to export to the rest of the world,” according to a 10 Downing Street statement.

In Johnson’s view, “every country has a duty to help Ukraine in their struggle for freedom, both now and in the long-term.” He reiterated the British people are “1,000% behind the people of Ukraine.”

Johnson also “expressed his profound hope that they would, along with all the people of Ukraine, be able to return to life as normal one day soon.”

Russian forces shelled three settlements in the Kryvyi Rih district, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional council, Mykola Lukashuk, said Sunday.

Lukashuk said in a post on his Telegram page “ten shells flew into Maryanske village, and two more strikes hit Apostolove Community.”

Infrastructure facilities were not affected, he added.

He also reported one Russian missile fell into the Samara River in Pavlograd district. According to Lukashuk, there were no casualties.

“Other districts of Dnipropetrovsk region were not attacked today. There are no Russian occupation troops in the region,” he said.

At least one person was killed in a Russian missile attack on Malyn, in the Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, a senior Ukrainian military official said Sunday.

His comments were reported in a Telegram post by Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

A downed bridge that connects the city of Lysychansk to the city of Severodonetsk, on Sunday.

Russian forces attacked Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine from several directions overnight but were repelled to previous positions, President Zelensky’s office said on Sunday.

Seven houses in Severodonetsk and at least 27 houses in surrounding towns and villages were damaged, according to the statement from the office.

The attack on Severodonetsk was part of a broader assault along the line of contact between Russian and Ukrainian forces, the Ukrainian military general staff said. 

“The enemy forces are preparing to resume the offensive in the Sloviansk direction,” the Ukrainian general staff said, referring to another key city in the area.

Russian forces have also destroyed the Pavlograd bridge between Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the Luhansk region, says the Ukrainian head of the regional military administration.

Severodonetsk and Sloviansk are key to controlling Ukraine’s Luhansk region. Parts of Luhansk and neighboring Donetsk have been controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014.

Here are more of the latest headlines from the Russia-Ukraine war:

Ukraine’s Air Command Center said Russian forces fired missiles at infrastructure facilities in the Zhytomyr region on Sunday.

The Zhytomyr region was attacked from “the south-eastern direction” by “naval-based cruise missiles” according to Ukraine’s Air Command Center on Facebook.

The center added, “four Russian cruise missiles were destroyed by the Center’s air defense units.”

Three missiles were destroyed by aircraft, and one by an anti-aircraft missile unit of the Ukrainian air force, they added.

The Zhytomyr region sits to the west of Kyiv.

A security personnel walks next to the entrance of Russia House, now rebranded as the Russian War Crimes House, in Davos, on Sunday.

The venue typically used by Russia to promote itself at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos has been rebranded as the Russian War Crimes House. 

Russia House was used to host events at WEF by Russians for many years. A Ukrainian businessman, working with WEF, has turned the venue into an exhibition depicting the devastation and destruction of the war in Ukraine. 

Organized by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and PinchukArtCentre, an international centre for contemporary art based in Kyiv, “the exhibition aims to inform about the main facts, share faces, names and dates and provide at least some of the victims a platform from which to tell their real story,” the foundation said in a press release.

Björn Geldhof, the exhibition’s curator, told CNN that the process of collecting and verifying the images took about one-and-a-half weeks, collecting more than 4,600 images showing “overwhelming amount of evidence of war crimes.”

“An exhibition as this, is one of the steps to raise awareness for the absolute necessity of bringing war criminals to justice and this is not exclusively the task of Ukraine, this is a common task, this is a task for all countries in the world to say this cannot be,” Geldhof told CNN.

He added that this project is “about people” who have been attacked and killed. “And we need to honor them, we need to give them a voice and we need to give them a face,” he said.

Russian politicians and businessmen were not invited to this year’s World Economic Forum after Russia invaded Ukraine.

“As Russia is not here, we had the opportunity to speak about Russia but about a different reality of Russia, about the war crimes that Russia is committing in Ukraine,” Geldhof said adding that “it is incredibly important to show what Russia is really doing in Ukraine which is proactively and consciously targeting civilians, killing, raping civilians in a way to try to exterminate Ukraine as a nation.”

The initiative was supported by the City Council and the World Economic Forum.

France’s European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune speaks during a press conference in Paris on March 30.

Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union would take at least “15 or 20 years” to complete, France’s European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune said on Sunday, while promoting President Emmanuel Macron’s alternative proposal of creating a new “European political community” including Ukraine.

“If we say that Ukraine will join the European Union in 6 months, one year, two years, we are lying. It is not true,” Beaune told Jewish community radio station Radio J. “It is probably maybe 15 or 20 years. No matter what, it’s very long,” he added.

The French minister went on to say that Macron’s recent proposal to create a new European political community outside the EU, including Ukraine, was “not an alternative” to any EU membership for Ukraine and “did not prevent its future EU membership.”

“It is a complementary project to the European Union, which can offer a concrete political project to countries that are not in the heart of the European Union but that want to get closer to the Union,” the minister said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech on Saturday that any alternative to Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union would be a “compromise” with Russia, in response to the project proposed by Macron.

Beaune said that “any accession to the European Union, let’s be honest, it takes time.” “And while waiting for this membership, we cannot simply say ‘it is this or nothing’,” he added. 

“It is a quick and useful complement to protect Ukraine politically, economically and energetically and to tell Ukraine ‘you are already in a project and a European political family’,” Beaune told the radio.

A convoy of Russian armored vehicles drives along a road near Mariupol, Ukraine on May 20.

The Russian forces that control Mariupol have started requiring permits for cars entering and exiting the occupied Ukrainian city, an adviser to the city’s Ukrainian mayor said Sunday.

Petro Andrushchenko, the adviser, also warned that deportations of Ukrainians from the region were increasing.

Under the restrictions introduced Saturday, cars and passengers entering the city need single-use passes issued by a Russian commandant in Manhush or Vynohradne, towns to the west and east of the occupied city, Andrushchenko said.

Passes to leave the city must be obtained from the Russian-backed separatist Donetsk People’s Republic Ministry of Internal Affairs.

There is already a wait of several weeks for a pass, he said, and traveling within the district without entering the city also requires a pass.

A man pushes a stalled car past a damaged tram in Mariupol on May 21.

Mariupol, a strategically important port city on the Azov sea, fell under complete Russian control last week with the surrender of the Azovstal steel works, the last stronghold of Ukrainians defending the city.

The Russians are also setting up more checkpoints to control travel in the district, Andrushchenko said.

“Today it is almost impossible to leave the city, even to Berdyansk,” another Russian-controlled city southwest of Mariupol. “As new checkpoints appear, all roads, both official and unofficial, are blocked. Today, it is impossible to bypass the filtration procedure or obtain a pass from the occupying authorities.”

Nearly 50,000 people have been deported from Mariupol by the Russians, he said, adding that Ukrainian authorities are trying to find out where they have been sent.

A resident walks near a damaged building in Mariupol on May 20.

“We hope that we will be able to get at least some of our people back to Ukraine or to free countries,” Andrushchenko said.

He said that 313 people, including 55 children, were deported from Mariupol to the Bezimenne filtration camp on Saturday.

Some 175 people, including 17 children, were deported from Bezimenne to Russia on Saturday, he said, and 70 people, including 12 children, were deported from the filtration point in the village of Nikolske to Russia.

He said it was the first time Ukraine had seen direct deportations from Nikolske to Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a parliament session in Kyiv, Ukraine on May 22.

Ukraine’s parliament voted Sunday to extend martial law in the country for another 90 days, until August 23, the legislature announced on Telegram.

There were 320 votes in favor of the measure, the Verkhovna Rada said. The body has 450 members.

President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to sign the measure into law.

Polish President Andrzej Duda addresses lawmakers during a Ukrainian parliament session in Kyiv on May 22.

Polish President Andrzej Duda told Ukrainian lawmakers Sunday that the “free world today has the face of Ukraine,” according to a Ukrainian member of parliament.

Roman Hryshchuk tweeted a photo of Duda addressing the chamber with lawmakers holding up a blue and yellow Ukrainian flag.

“Dear Ukrainians, your relatives — wives, parents, children — who were forced to leave for Poland, are not refugees in our country. They are our guests,” Hryshchuk tweeted in English, quoting Duda.

Nearly 3.5 million Ukrainian refugees have entered Poland since the Russian invasion in February, making it by far the single largest host nation for people fleeing the country, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 

Duda also told Volodymyr Zelensky that “no one can break our unity” during the address, as he became the first foreign leader since the Russian invasion to address Ukraine’s parliament, the Rada, in Kyiv.

Duda’s office tweeted the message. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accuses Russia of blocking 22 million tons of food and warns that countries will face crises if ports are not unblocked. “Russia has blocked almost all ports and all, so to speak, maritime opportunities to export food – our grain, barley, sunflower and more,” Zelensky said in a meeting with media on Saturday.

Here are the latest updates in the war in Ukraine:

Russian forces pushed back from strategically important city: Russia attacked Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine from several directions overnight but were repelled to previous positions, President Zelensky’s office said on Sunday.

Seven houses in Severodonetsk and at least 27 houses in surrounding towns and villages were damaged, according to the statement from the office.

The attack on Severodonetsk was part of a broader assault along the line of contact between Russian and Ukrainian forces, the Ukrainian military general staff said. 

“The enemy forces are preparing to resume the offensive in the Sloviansk direction,” the Ukrainian general staff said, referring to another key city in the area.

Severodonetsk and Sloviansk are key to controlling Ukraine’s Luhansk region. Parts of Luhansk and neighboring Donetsk have been controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014.

Lithuania cuts Russian energy imports: Lithuania will have completely cut imports of Russian energy supplies including oil, electricity and natural gas from Sunday.

The country’s Ministry of Energy said in a statement on Friday that the pan-European power exchange Nord Pool had decided to stop trading Russian electricity with its only importer in the Baltic States, Russian utility Inter RAO – meaning the country would no longer be importing any Russian energy. 

Biden to meet Modi: President Joe Biden will meet one-on-one this week with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Japan as the US works to convince India to join western punishment of Russia.

They will meet on the sidelines of the Quad summit, where security in the Indo-Pacific is expected to be a central issue. The Quad is an informal alliance between the US, India, Japan, and Australia.

When Biden and Modi meet separately, their talks will be “constructive and straightforward,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters as the US President flew from South Korea to Japan.

India is a major purchaser of Russian arms, and has been wary of distancing itself from Moscow amid the war in Ukraine.

Polish President addresses Ukrainian Parliament: Andrzej Duda is in Ukraine today and is the first foreign head of state to address the council since the war began.

It took a few weeks of sleeping on crates of grenades for a bed and hiding his face from Ukrainians amid a growing sense of guilt, for the Russian junior officer to come to his conclusion: This wasn’t his battle to fight.

“We were dirty and tired. People around us were dying. I didn’t want to feel like I was part of it, but I was a part of it,” the officer told CNN.

He said he went to find his commander and resigned his commission on the spot. CNN is not naming the officer or including personal details that would help to identify him for his security.

His story is remarkable, but it could also be one of many, according to opponents of the war in Russia as well as in Ukraine who say they have heard of a lot of cases of soldiers – both professional and conscript – refusing to fight.

Russian troops have been struggling with low morale and heavy losses in Ukraine, according to the assessments by Western officials including the Pentagon.

The UK’s Intelligence, Cyber and Security Agency says some have even refused to carry out orders.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has not responded to a CNN request for comment.

The officer who spoke to CNN says he was part of the massive troop build-up in the west of Russia that triggered global fears for Ukraine.

But he said he did not think much about it, even on February 22 this year when he and the rest of his battalion were asked to hand over their mobile phones while stationed in Krasnodar, southern Russia, without any explanation.

That night they spent hours painting white stripes on their military vehicles. Then they were told to wash those off, he said. “The order has changed, draw the letter Z, as in Zorro,” he remembered being told.

Read more here:

Black smoke rises from a military airport in Chuguyev near Kharkiv on February 24, 2022.

Related article Russian officer reveals why he risked it all to quit Putin's war | CNN

US President Joe Biden arrives in Japan on May 22. He will have a separate one-on-one meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the Quad summit.

President Joe Biden will meet one-on-one this week with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Japan as the US works to convince India to join western punishment of Russia.

They will meet on the sidelines of the Quad summit, where security in the Indo-Pacific is expected to be a central issue. The Quad is an informal alliance between the US, India, Japan, and Australia

When Biden and Modi meet separately, their talks will be “constructive and straightforward,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters as the US President flew from South Korea to Japan.

Sullivan said it wouldn’t be a “new conversation,” since Biden and Modi have spoken by phone about the issue, but rather a continuation of that conversation.

“They’ll talk all of that through,” added Sullivan.

India is a major purchaser of Russian arms, and has been wary of distancing itself from Moscow amid the war in Ukraine.

At the larger Quad summit – which will include Australia’s freshly elected prime minister Anthony Albanese – leaders will discuss security issues, including Taiwan, according to Sullivan.

He declined to preview the Quad leaders statement, but said no member wants to see military aggression.