May 6, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of the war in Ukraine has moved here.

The United Kingdom announced Saturday it will bolster its humanitarian aid to Ukraine by sending more essential equipment to relief centers and hospitals. 

In a statement, the British government said it will deliver an extra 287 generators that will help to run relief centers, hospitals, phone masts and water pumping stations. The new generators are enough to power the equivalent of around 8,000 homes and will be used for essential services in the face of the ongoing destruction in Eastern Ukraine.

In total, the UK will have delivered 856 generators. 

“Putin’s atrocities have continued to escalate, and so we are ramping up our support to the Ukrainian people in their time of need. Our donation of a further 287 generators will ensure more essential services in Ukraine can keep running,” Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said.

Britain’s decision follows a request from Ukrainian Ambassador Vadym Prystaiko, who welcomed the previous shipment of generators by saying ‘the light will always win over darkness’,” the government said. 

The generators will be delivered to a Polish government hub. From there, the Ukrainian government and the country’s energy networks will distribute the generators across the country to where they are needed most.

Fossil fuel rules: The UK government also said it is relaxing rules on support for overseas fossil fuels to boost supply of vital energy to Ukraine.

The policy typically prevents the UK from providing any new direct support for the fossil fuel energy sector overseas – but the government will introduce two exemptions for Ukraine and Eastern Europe, to allow the UK to support Ukraine’s energy and fuel needs, the government said.

Silos and containers on the dockside at the Port of Odesa on March 17.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has called for the reopening of ports in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa to help rein in the global hunger crisis.

The ports in Odesa and other Ukrainian Black Sea ports have been blocked because of the war, leaving millions of metric tons of grain sitting in silos.

Ukraine is a major breadbasket for countries in the Middle East and North Africa that depend on imports; in the eight months before the war began, almost 51 million metric tons of grain transited through Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, said the WFP in a news release on Friday.

If the ports don’t reopen, “mountains of grain” will go to waste, while “WFP and the world struggle to deal with an already catastrophic global hunger crisis,” said the release.

At the start of 2022, 276 million people were already facing acute hunger. That number is expected to rise by another 47 million people if the war in Ukraine continues, according to the agency’s analysis.

The United States and Europe will feel the pain, too, with increasing prices for important agricultural goods.

Two months into Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Biden administration has increased the amount of intelligence it shares with Kyiv, contributing to successful strikes against senior Russian leaders and the Russian Navy’s flagship, the Moskva, sources familiar with the intelligence sharing tell CNN.

But the effort raises questions about how far the White House is willing to go to help Ukraine fight the Russians while also trying to avoid provoking Moscow and getting drawn into the conflict.

Administration officials insist there are clear limits on the intelligence it shares with Ukraine, including a ban against providing precision targeting intelligence for senior Russian leaders by name, part of a White House effort to avoid crossing a line that Moscow may view as too escalatory.

Yet some current and former officials have suggested that the limits the Biden administration have drawn are arbitrary, in part because the end result is the same – Ukrainian strikes that kill senior Russian leaders. On top of that, any US assessment of what actions might provoke Moscow depends on the thinking of just one man, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Sources familiar with the administration’s approach say the decisions to gradually broaden the intelligence it is willing to share have been primarily based on the judgments of Biden administration officials rather than any changing assessments about how escalatory Russia might view a given action.

Read the full report here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his nightly address on Friday.

In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was able to evacuate women and children from Azovstal with the help of the UN and Red Cross.

He said he’s also working on diplomatic options to help evacuate the remaining military in Azovstal.  

“We continue the evacuation mission from Mariupol, namely from Azovstal, with the mediation of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross. During the day, our team organized rescue operations for more than 40 civilians, all women and children,” the Ukrainian president said.

An Italian police patrol boat is seen in front of the multimillion-dollar superyacht, The Scheherazade, docked at the Tuscan port of Marina di Carrara in Italy, on Friday.

Italian authorities have seized a superyacht believed to have links with the Russian government, according to a news release issued by the country’s financial police on Friday. 

The Scheherazade has been under scrutiny since March for possible connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The news release stated that investigations “highlighted the presence of significant economic and business connections” between the owner of the yacht and “prominent elements of the Russian government.”

The owner of the yacht — whose name was not disclosed — also has connections with other Russians included in the EU’s list of those sanctioned for “actions that compromise or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine,” according to police. 

“Based on these elements, the Financial Security Committee proposed to the Council of the European Union the inclusion of this person in the aforementioned list,” the news release continued. 

Italy’s Finance Minister Daniele Franco has ordered a decree to freeze the vessel which bears the flag of the Cayman Islands and is docked in the Italian port of Marina di Carrara.

US President Joe Biden on Friday announced additional security assistance to Ukraine in the form of “additional artillery munitions, radars, and other equipment.”

The latest package is for $150 million worth of equipment including 25,000 155mm artillery rounds, counter-artillery radars, jamming equipment and field equipment and spare parts, a White House official said.

The new security assistance package follows the President’s $33 billion proposal last week to Congress to support Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion. The US has made it clear it intends to provide long-term support to Ukraine and has already provided the nation with billions of dollars in military and humanitarian assistance.

The proposed package last week was more than twice as much as the $13.6 billion infusion of military and humanitarian aid that Congress approved last month.

In a statement, Biden said the administration has nearly exhausted funding that can be used for security assurance and called on Congress to approve his request for additional money for Ukraine.

“Congress should quickly provide the requested funding to strengthen Ukraine on the battlefield and at the negotiating table,” Biden added.

Read more about the assistance package here.

Vitali Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv, stands in front of a damaged building following Russian strikes in Kyiv on April 29

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko is urging citizens to stay inside from Sunday into Monday around Russia’s annual Victory Day as Western officials have warned Russian President Vladimir Putin could formally declare war on Ukraine on May 9, a symbolic day for Russia, paving the way for Putin to step up his campaign.

Though the mayor is not formally imposing a curfew, events will not be held during that time, according to posts on his social media. He said there will be enhanced patrolling in the city.

“If anyone would like to go lay flowers, they can do so in private … Pay attention and follow wartime security rules,” Klitschko said.

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated a curfew would be imposed in Kyiv Sunday and Monday. There will be no curfew on those days. 

Smoke rises at a warehouse after shelling in Severodonetsk, eastern Ukraine, on May 3.

The Russians want to seize the city of Severodonetsk so “this can be sold to the Russian people as a grand victory,” a senior official in eastern Ukraine says.

“Of course, they want Severodonetsk, because it is the city — the regional center. Of course, this can be sold to the people as a grand victory,” Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk regional military administration said on Telegram.

Severodonetsk, which was an important industrial center in eastern Ukraine, has been shelled by Russian forces for weeks and is largely destroyed. But Ukrainian troops remain in and around the city.

“And of course another goal is to encircle our military and try to cut the road to Bakhmut where Popasna is. These are the main two directions,” he said.

Hayday denied Russian claims that they’d taken the town of Rubizhne in the same area. 

“In fact they can’t move any further and our National Guard is still there and repulses all enemy attacks,” Hayday said.

Deborah Bronnert, British Ambassador to Moscow, takes part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin Wall in Moscow, Russia on February 10.

British Ambassador to Moscow Deborah Bronnert was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday over the latest sanctions against Russia, including sanctions against the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, according to the statement from the Russian foreign ministry.

The imposition of sanctions against the Russian media “only because their coverage and interpretation of events taking place in the world is not consistent with Western patterns, once again clearly confirms the duplicity and cynicism of British politicians, for whom such a thing as freedom of the media is nothing more than a tool for solving market problems,” the statement added.

The ministry accused the UK and its officials for imposing sanctions and making statements with “threats” that are “interspersed with lies and outright rudeness” against Russia.

“Russian side will continue to respond harshly and decisively to all sanctions initiated by London and take retaliatory measures,” the statement added.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said at least 50 civilians were successfully evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol Friday.

“Today we managed to extract 50 women, children and the elderly from Azovstal. Tomorrow morning we will continue the evacuation operation,” Vereshchuk said in a statement posted on her social media channels.

Ukrainian officials earlier had said that they couldn’t comment on the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant being organized by the United Nations and the International Red Cross.

Russian state media on Friday said that 25 civilians were evacuated out of the plant on two buses.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby speaks during a briefing in Washington DC, on Friday.

More than 200 Ukrainian soldiers have completed training on M777 howitzers provided to Ukraine by the US, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said during a briefing at the Pentagon on Friday.

An additional “150 plus” Ukrainian soldiers are currently going through the Howitzer training, he added.

US military service members are training groups of Ukrainian soldiers on the pieces outside of Ukraine, Kirby has said previously. Fifteen Ukrainian soldiers have completed training on the Q-64 mobile air-defense radar system, the Pentagon official noted.

And 60 Ukrainian soldiers have completed M-113 training, and “about 50 more are currently being trained on that right now,” Kirby said. The M-113 is an army personnel carrier.

Meanwhile, Russian forces “continue to launch both missile strikes as well as fixed-man airstrikes into Ukraine,” specifically in “the Donbas region, where the fighting is really going on right now, and also down in Mariupol,” Kirby told reporters. “Even today they continue to pound Mariupol,” he added.

The US Department of Defense will award a $17.8 million contract for the industry to produce and send Switchblade drones to Ukraine as the ongoing conflict with Russia continues, a Department of Defense official told reporters during a briefing Friday.

These drones will be bought from industry and delivered to Ukraine under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funding approved in the Ukraine aid supplemental funding, which was passed along with a massive spending bill in the US Congress in mid-March. The total USAI funding in that bill was $300 million, and the Department of Defense has awarded $136.8 million dollars of that so far, LaPlante said.

The $136.8 million overall has bought from industry and is sending “unmanned aerial systems, Puma, advanced precision kill weapon system, communication devices, combat medical equipment and supplies, meals ready to eat, even binoculars,” in eight different contracts, LaPlante said.

The Department of Defense is also using $1.45 billion in funding approved by the US Congress in the Ukraine aid supplemental signed into law in mid-March to replace US stocks of Javelin and Stinger missiles, along with key components for those missiles, LaPlante said.

In the Ukraine aid supplemental, the US Congress approved $3.5 billion in funding to “replenish US stocks of equipment sent to Ukraine,” LaPlante said. So far, DoD is using $1.45 billion from those funds to replace “Stingers, javelins and other key components,” LaPlante added.

“We are actively negotiating right now — the Army is — for Stingers and related components, and that’s ongoing. Expect to get that awarded by the end of May. For Javelins, the award is imminent, so that’s all happening right now,” LaPlante said.

Here’s what has happened in Mariupol and beyond today.

Conflicting reports of evacuations: Russia state media said that two buses with civilians were evacuated out of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol on Friday. But Ukrainian officials said they can’t comment on the evacuation of civilians from the plant being organized by the United Nations and the International Red Cross. And the mayor of Mariupol’s office told CNN it was not aware of the latest evacuations. 

Zelensky alleges deportations: More than “500,000 Ukrainians have been deported to Russia” since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday. He also accused Russians of blockades and torture with starvation in Mariupol.

G7 to meet this weekend: US President Joe Biden will meet virtually with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his G7 counterparts on Sunday morning during a meeting of the G7 forum, a National Security Council spokesperson said. Sanctions will be on the agenda for the meeting. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the timing of Sunday’s call ahead of Russia’s Victory Day is intentional.

Preparations for Victory Day: May 9, known as Victory Day inside Russia, commemorates the country’s defeat of the Nazis in 1945. The Kremlin said May 9 won’t be “overshadowed” by the events unfolding in Ukraine, adding “the significance of this holiday cannot be overestimated.” But this year’s parade is expected to be of a smaller scale than in previous years.

Some Western officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin could formally declare war on Ukraine Monday, paving the way for him to step up his campaign.

Russia leaving its mark: Ukrainian officials have posted images from Mariupol showing continuing work by what they call “the occupiers” to restore monuments from the Soviet era. Petro Andrushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of the city, distributed new photographs on Friday saying that, in recent days, all the monuments of the Soviet period have been “restored.”

Also, a senior official in Russia’s governing United Russia party on Friday said Russia has come to the Kherson region to “stay forever,” and there should be “no doubt about that.”

And new satellite images show Russia is excavating the site of the heavily bombed drama theater in Mariupol.

Grain stalled: The blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, along with infrastructure challenges, are preventing nearly 25 million tonnes of grain from being exported, according to a United Nations official.

CNN has also reported that Russian forces are stealing thousands of tons of grain from Ukrainian farmers, as well as targeting food storage sites with artillery, according to multiple sources.

A bus carrying civilians evacuated from Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol arrives at a temporary accommodation center in the village of Bezimenne, Ukraine on May 6, 2022.

Ukrainian officials say they can’t comment on the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steel plant being organized by the United Nations and the International Red Cross.

Meanwhile, 25 people brought out of the Azovstal plant late on Friday afternoon appear to have been evacuated as part of a unilateral operation by Russian authorities. Videos of their departure from the plant and their arrival at a reception center in Russian-controlled territory showed no presence of UN or Red Cross vehicles.

The US Embassy in Moscow on Friday warned Americans in Russia to avoid large public gatherings around Victory Day on May 9 “given the ongoing tensions.”

“Annual Victory Day celebrations, including the main parade in Red Square, will take place in Moscow through May 9,” the security alert said. “Local authorities will restrict movement in event areas to facilitate rehearsals for the event.”

“In the past, there have been heightened police presence surrounding these events. Given the ongoing tensions, U.S. citizens should avoid large public gatherings,” the alert said.

May 9 commemorates the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II. It is marked every year by a military parade in Moscow and a speech by Putin. At the end of the parade, Putin will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Some US and Western officials believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin could formally declare war on Ukraine on Monday and fully mobilize his reserve forces. 

The State Department had previously called on US citizens to leave Russia immediately “due to the unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces, the potential for harassment against U.S. citizens by Russian government security officials, the singling out of U.S. citizens in Russia by Russian government security officials including for detention, the arbitrary enforcement of local law, limited flights into and out of Russia, the Embassy’s limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia, COVID-19-related restrictions, and terrorism.”

The bombed Mariupol theater is seen in this satellite image from May 6. 

An extensive excavation of the bombed Mariupol drama theater is underway, new satellite images from Maxar Technologies show.

The area is now under Russian control, and the clearance of debris from the fighting is underway in several parts of the city. 

The site was bombed on March 16. Ukrainian officials believe at least 300 people who were taking shelter at the building were killed.

On April 29, a satellite image showed a crane at the side of the building. The sidewalks on the northern and southern side of the drama theater, which had been covered in debris from the bombing, were by then cleared.

The bombed Mariupol theater is seen in this satellite image from April 29.

In a May 2 satellite image, the crane was behind the drama theater. Trucks were parked at the front, but it’s unclear from the satellite images what their purpose was.

The latest satellite image, taken on May 6, shows even more activity at the theater. The crane is seen sitting next to the large hole in the theater’s roof, the likely epicenter of the explosion that tore the building apart.

More trucks are seen outside and around the building. Some trucks are parked on top of the large sign that said “children” written before the bombing.

CNN has reached out to the Russian defense ministry for comment about the excavations.

CNN has also reached out to the Ukrainian government and the United Nations for comment. 

International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson Ewan Watson told CNN that they do not have a team in Mariupol and are not part of the excavation at the drama ​theater.

When it was bombed, the theater was being used as a shelter by women, children and the elderly.

The Ukrainian government has accused the Russians of conducting an airstrike on the theater. Russia has repeatedly denied that it hit the theater and has claimed without offering evidence that the Azov Regiment — one of the Ukrainian Army’s units in Mariupol — blew it up.

A bus carrying civilians evacuated from Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol arrives at a temporary accommodation center in the village of Bezimenne, Ukraine on May 6, 2022.

A total of 25 civilians were evacuated out of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol on Friday, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti.

The news outlet reported that the first bus left the territory on Friday with 12 civilians, including four children. Another 13 civilians, including one child, were taken out of the territory on a second bus.

The first bus with people “held by the militants” at the plant had left through the checkpoint, RIA Novosti reported. Video posted by RIA Novosti shows a group of people transferring from one bus to a larger coach. CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of the video. CNN has reached out to the Ukrainian side for comment.

On Wednesday, the Joint Coordination Headquarters of the Russian Federation announced the opening of new humanitarian corridors from May 5 to May 7 for the evacuation of civilians from the plant.

It’s unclear whether Friday’s limited evacuation of a handful of civilians is connected to the proposed UN/International Red Cross evacuation from Azovstal, which was also due to begin Friday.

The second bus also evacuated two dogs with their owners. People were transferred to a larger bus, and video shows the bus later arriving at the village of after which it proceeded to the village of Bezimenne. Video geolocated by CNN shows the bus being escorted by the Russian military, but there is no evidence of UN or International Red Cross vehicles accompanying the transport.

There is a temporary camp for evacuees from Azovstal and other areas around Mariupol at Bezimenne.

The mayor of Mariupol’s office told CNN it was not aware of the latest evacuations. 

US President Joe Biden speaks at the White House in Washington, DC on May 5. 

US President Joe Biden in the coming days will announce another security assistance package to Ukraine, two sources say, with the total expected to be more than $100 million. 

Biden is set to speak with G7 leaders virtually Sunday ahead of expected Victory Day celebrations in Russia.

Reuters was first to report. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that the timing of Sunday’s G7 leaders call ahead of Russia’s Victory Day is intentional.

May 9 is when some US and Western officials believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin could formally declare war on Ukraine and fully mobilize his reserve forces.    

“I think it should not be lost the significance, on anyone, the significance of when the timeline, of when this G7 meeting is happening, which is the day before Russia’s Victory Day, which President Putin has certainly projected his desire to mark that day as a day where he is victorious over Ukraine. Of course, he is not,” Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One. 

May 9 commemorates the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II. It is marked every year by a military parade in Moscow and a speech by Putin. At the end of the parade, Putin will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Psaki added: “Having this meeting and conversation on Sunday is an opportunity to not only show how unified the West is in a confronting the aggression and the invasion by President Putin, but also to show that unity requires work, requires effort requires blood, sweat and tears sometimes.”

Asked about what further sanctions might come from Sunday’s call, Psaki said she did not have anything to preview.