Author: John Hanno

Ukrayinska Pravda

Ministry of Foreign Affairs warns other countries that grain from Russia could have been stolen in Ukraine

Kateryna Tyschenko – May 11, 2022

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has warned consumer countries that consignments of grain sold by Russia could contain grain stolen in Ukraine.

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs comment on Russia’s attempts to sell stolen Ukrainian grain from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine on the international market

Quote: “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine categorically condemns the actions of the Russian Federation in disposing of grain that has been illegally expropriated from Ukrainian farmers. The Russian occupiers are seizing Ukrainian grain and sending it to Russia for domestic consumption or trying to sell it on international markets.

The theft of food resources from the territory of an independent sovereign state constitutes looting.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has warned consumer countries that consignments of grain sold by Russia may contain stolen grain obtained as a result of looting by the Russian occupying authorities. We believe that any country that knowingly buys stolen grain is an accomplice to this crime.”

Details: According to the Ukrainian government, the occupiers have already stolen at least 400,000-500,000 tonnes of grain worth over US$100 million. Almost all of the ships which leave Sevastopol loaded with grain are transporting stolen Ukrainian products, the Foreign Ministry said.

Russia’s theft of Ukrainian grain is confirmed by numerous testimonies by Ukrainian farmers and documentary evidence:

• An order issued by the so-called “Berdiansk City Hall” (No. 10-p dated 7 May 2022) on the seizure of wheat and barley from a private company.
• A press release from the Legislative Assembly of Krasnoyarsk Krai in the Russian Federation (No. 379 (13593) dated 27 April 2022) on the decision of the Committee on Rural Affairs and Agricultural Policy to expropriate crops from farmers in Kherson Oblast, which is temporarily occupied by Russian armed forces. In the document, the chairman of the committee, Vladislav Zyryanov, also voiced the Russian authorities’ intention to extend this policy to other regions of Ukraine.
• Proposals by Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture to postpone the introduction of the federal state information system for tracking the origin of grain and grain products for one year.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that the criminal seizure, export and use of Ukrainian grain by Russia violates the basic principles of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) – to promote food security and end hunger.

“This policy of the aggressor state calls into question whether its membership in the FAO and other international organisations is appropriate. We demand that Russia stop the theft of grain, unblock Ukrainian ports, restore freedom of navigation, and allow the passage of merchant ships”, the statement said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also called on the international community to strengthen economic sanctions to stop Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine and prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and deterioration of the global food security situation.

Previously: Russia is stealing and exporting hundreds of thousands of tonnes of grain from Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts.

On 10 May the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said that grain stolen from Ukraine was already in the Mediterranean, most likely destined for Syria.

Business Insider

Russian ships carrying stolen Ukrainian grains are likely headed to Syria, Kyiv says

Brian Evans – May 11, 2022

• Stolen Ukrainian grains on Russian-flagged ships are likely headed to Syria, Kyiv said.
• Ukraine predicted the grain will then be distributed to the broader Middle East.
• Egypt has already turned away two Russian vessels this week carrying Ukraine’s wheat.

Russian-flagged ships carrying stolen Ukrainian grains are likely headed to Syria before the cargoes then move on to other destinations in the Middle East, the government in Kyiv said.

In social media posts, Ministry of Defense intelligence officials also said Russia is moving seeds and grain to Crimea, which is the Ukrainian territory annexed by the Kremlin in 2014.

Egypt in the past week has already turned away two Russian vessels with stolen Ukrainian wheat, Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Egypt told The Wall Street Journal.

The moves mark an escalation in Russia’s campaign to cripple vital sectors of Ukraine’s economy. Russia has blockaded Black Sea ports, a crucial avenue for Ukraine to import agricultural supplies and to export its farm products. Ukraine exported $28 billion worth of food in 2021, and the sector makes up 10% of Kyiv’s total gross domestic product.

The European Union took steps on Tuesday to help redirect Ukrainian exports by land to skirt the Russian blockade, according to Bloomberg.

But only so much can be transported by rail, for example, limiting potential food exports to 1.1 million tons of grain per month, which is far below the 25 million tons that Ukraine needs to release.

Daily Beast

‘It’s as Tall as a Person’: Russians Reveal Their Secret Dump of Dead Soldiers in Donetsk

Allison Quinn – May 10, 2022

Russian authorities in Ukraine’s occupied city of Donetsk are tossing the bodies of their dead soldiers in a secret dump “by the thousands” and charging their loved ones money to find them.

That’s according to a new audio recording released by Ukraine’s Security Service on Tuesday, which is purportedly an intercepted telephone conversation between two Russians discussing how one of their missing friends was finally found.

In the two-and-a-half minute recording, an unidentified man tells his female relative that the fate of “Inna’s brother” is finally known after he went missing a month ago.

“It’s better that you don’t hear this,” the man says at first, reluctant to spill all the grim details.

After more urging, he finally explains that the unidentified dead man’s “sister went to Donetsk, and there, basically, roughly speaking, is a dump.”

The Only Winners at Putin’s Victory Day Parade? The Hackers Who Took Over Russian TV

“They just toss them there. And then later it’s easier to make as if they disappeared without a trace. It’s easier for them to pretend they are just missing, and that’s it,” he said, noting that “there are thousands.”

“There’s nowhere left to place them. It’s a dump. I’m telling you in plain Russian—a dump. It’s as tall as a person,” he said, adding that the site is “fenced off, sealed, they don’t let anyone in.”

According to him, the only reason local authorities at the dump site let the woman find her brother was because she paid “good money.”

Watch: Wiretaps appear catch Russian soldiers sabotaging their own equipment

Wiretaps appear catch Russian soldiers sabotaging their own equipment

Russian soldiers have been sharing tips with one another about how to deliberately damage their own equipment in Ukraine, according to recordings of alleged phone calls that the Security Service of Ukraine intercepted.

After that, he said, “they rearranged it until she found [the body.]”

“It’s not a morgue, it’s a dump.… They are bringing [bodies] by the thousands,” he said, calling it a “shitshow.”

No further details were provided by Ukrainian intelligence on the exact location of the makeshift morgue, and it was not immediately clear if the man heard in the audio was a Russian soldier himself, though Ukrainian authorities described him as an “invader.”

The disturbing intercept comes after Al Jazeera on Monday released footage of refrigerated train cars holding the unclaimed bodies of Russian troops killed in Ukraine. Inside, there appeared to be human-size bodies stacked on top of each other in white bags. Ukrainian authorities said Moscow has refused to take the bodies back home, apparently to keep the lid on the sky-high death toll.

While Russia has claimed only 1,300 of its troops have died in its “special military operation” to rescue Russian-speakers in Ukraine (by bombing predominantly Russian-speaking areas), Ukraine’s military has put the death toll at about 26,000.

Ulrayinska Pravda

Occupying forces pile bodies of Russian soldiers in dump the height of a man outside Donetsk Security Service of Ukraine

Valentyna Romanenko – May 10, 2022

To cover up its losses in the war in Ukraine, Russia is logging dead soldiers as “missing in action”.

Source: Security Service of Ukraine

Quote: “Their bodies are stacked in makeshift dumping grounds where there’s so much ‘Cargo 200’ [military code for dead soldiers] that the mountains of corpses are two metres high.”

This is evidenced by the latest phone conversations between the invaders intercepted by the Ukrainian security service.

“It’s not a morgue, it’s a dump. It’s massive, it’s… not a field, not a landfill site… Fenced off, cordoned off, no one’s allowed in. Anyway, that’s where they’re brought, thousands of them. A dump the height of a man…” an invader tells his wife from the “Donetsk People’s Republic”.

Details: According to him, the dump is just outside occupied Donetsk. Guards there are earning insane amounts of money helping relatives of the dead to find their remains.

The soldier whose conversation was intercepted found out about it because a woman he knew had gone there to look for her brother’s body. The Security Service of Ukraine urges parents, wives and relatives of occupying troops to do all they can to stop their loved ones from going to this war and ending up rotting in a landfill site in the open air.

Reuters

Ukraine troops recapture towns near Kharkiv

May 10, 2022

STORY: Ukrainian soldiers inspected the wreckage of a Russian tank in the village of Rubizhne, recently recaptured from the invaders.

Kyiv said on Tuesday its forces had successfully pushed Russian troops out of several towns near the city of Kharkiv, part of a counter-offensive that Ukraine hopes could change the course of the war.

One soldier here boasted his team could keep delivering these sorts of results.

“The weapons are helping is a lot, the anti-tank ones. I wish the state would supply us with them more frequently. We use the weapons exclusively for specific targets. As you can see we have results. If there are weapons we will have more results.”

Kyiv’s counter-offensive here could be consequential: Ukrainian forces are moving into striking distance of the supply lines supporting Russia’s main attack force in the south, where Moscow has focused on encircling and capturing the Donbass region.

Ukrainian forces have so far mostly held out.

Despite these setbacks, Russian President Vladimir has showed no signs of calling off or limiting what he’s termed a ‘special military operation.’

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Tuesday she believes Russia still plans for a long war.

“We assess President Putin is preparing for a prolonged conflict in Ukraine during which he still intends to achieve goals beyond the Donbas. [Edit] The uncertain nature of the battle, which is developing into a war of attrition, combined with the reality that Putin faces a mismatch between his ambitions and Russia’s current conventional military capabilities, likely means the next few months could see us moving along a more unpredictable and potentially “

Demonstrating Moscow’s reach, Russian missiles destroyed a shopping center and depot in the port city of Odesa.

The Ukrainian military said one person was killed and five were injured.

In Mariupol, Russian forces again pummeled the Azovstal steelworks on Tuesday, trying to capture the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in the ruined city.

Scores of civilians have been evacuated from the steelworks in recent days, but an aide to Mariupol’s mayor said at least 100 still remained inside.

Ukraine says tens of thousands of people have died under two months of Russian siege and bombardment.

Daily Beast

Top U.S. Spy Spills on Putin’s ‘Drastic’ Secret Plan to Win War

Shannon Vavra – May 10, 2022

The U.S. intelligence community has assessed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is prepared to dig his heels in over the war in Ukraine and let it drag on for some time—and along the way, Putin might resort to extreme measures to ensure Russia wins in the end, top U.S. spies warned Tuesday.

The next steps Putin might take include escalating domestic measures that could contribute to the war effort, such as instituting martial law, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Avril Haines warned in a Tuesday briefing.

“The uncertain nature of the battle… combined with the reality that Putin faces a mismatch between his ambitions and Russia’s current conventional military capabilities likely means the next few months could [be] more unpredictable and potentially escalatory,” DNI Haines told senators. “The current trend increases the likelihood that President Putin will turn to more drastic means, including imposing martial law, reorienting industrial production, or potentially escalatory military actions to free up the resources needed to achieve his objectives as the conflict drags on.”

The assessment, which Haines delivered to lawmakers on Capitol Hill Tuesday, comes as Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its 76th day. Russian forces have turned their attention to taking Eastern Ukraine in recent weeks after failing to take the capital, Kyiv, in the early days of the war due to a series of logistical and planning issues.

And as the Russian military has shifted its attention to the Donbas, or eastern portions of Ukraine, the fighting is beginning to reach somewhat of a “stalemate,” the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Director, Scott Berrier, said Tuesday.

‘They Can Fuck Off With This War’: Putin’s Troops Finally Realize They’ve Been Hung Out to Dry

“I would characterize it as the Russians aren’t winning, and the Ukrainians aren’t winning, and we’re at a bit of a stalemate here,” Berrier said.

Putin doesn’t view the Donbas as the final stand in Ukraine, though, Haines warned, suggesting that more carnage might be on the way. Putin views it as just a “temporary” focus so that the Russian military can “regain the initiative,” Haines said.

“We are not confident that the fight in the Donbas will effectively end the war,” Haines said. “We assess President Putin is preparing for prolonged conflict in Ukraine during which he still intends to achieve goals beyond the Donbas.”

The assessment that Putin might escalate comes a day after Victory Day in Russia, when Russians celebrate the victory in World War II—a day U.S. and Ukrainian officials alike had warned Putin would seize on to mobilize more troops for the war. Victory Day came and went without any public mobilization, however.

But Russians are starting to see signs that Putin might be secretly putting in the legwork to pull in more resources to make the war effort function beyond the near term, just as Haines is warning Putin has his sights set on doubling down. Moscow Metro employees have been threatened in recent days that they might be sent to the war in a possible mobilization “if there are not enough soldiers to be sent to the ‘special operation,’” one of the employees’ wives told the Coalition for Conscientious Objection to Military Service in Russia and Verstka.media, using the term Russia has been using to describe the war in Ukraine.

“At a meeting in the metro depot… all men were ordered to undergo an extraordinary medical examination for subsequent possible sending to the war in Ukraine,” she said, adding that if they disobeyed they were told they could be fired or face criminal accusations. “It was precisely and clearly stated that the leadership is obliged to allocate a certain number of people for possible sending to the war.”

The Daily Beast has not independently verified the claims.

Russia has already lost tens of thousands of troops in the invasion and for weeks has been looking for alternative sources of manpower. Russia’s been looking to Syria for more fighters, the Wall Street Journal reported, and Russia’s defense minister has said Russia is recruiting 16,000 people from the Middle East to fight in Ukraine, too.

Members of Congress have been questioning the U.S. intelligence community for weeks now about whether the Kremlin has tapped into mercenaries working for a private Russian contractor known as the Wagner Group.

Haines confirmed Tuesday the Russian government has indeed pulled Wagner in for operations in Ukraine. “We do see Wagner being used in … Ukraine. We see that,” Haines said. “Russia deployed them effectively in Ukraine.”

Putin’s Private Army Accused of Raping New Moms on Maternity Ward

The U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Putin intends the war to last for some time could spell disaster ahead. Putin could become more likely to make a miscalculation and resort to using nuclear weapons, Haines warned.

Putin would only “authorize the use of nuclear weapons if he perceived an existential threat to the Russian state,” she said, adding that “with tensions this high there is always an enhanced potential for miscalculation—unintended escalation.”

“There is not… an imminent potential for Putin to use nuclear weapons,” Haines clarified.

Business Insider

Putin will ‘likely’ resort to imposing martial law in Russia to support his invasion of Ukraine, US intel chief says

Rebecca Cohen and John Haltiwanger – May 10, 2022

• Russian President Vladimir Putin will “likely” impose martial law in Russia to support the war in Ukraine, a top US intelligence chief warned.
• Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said Putin may turn to “more drastic means” to keep his war going in Ukraine.
• She added that the US believes Putin is “preparing for prolonged conflict in Ukraine.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin will “likely” impose martial law in Russia to support the war in Ukraine, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said Tuesday.

Haines told lawmakers on Tuesday that Putin may turn to “more drastic means” to keep his war going in Ukraine.

In addition to instituting martial law, Putin may also order more industrial production to make up for lost resources in the war, or order “potentially escalatory military actions to free up the resources needed to achieve his objectives as the conflict drags on, or if he perceives Russia is losing in Ukraine.”

The US spy chief said that the intelligence community does not believe there’s an imminent threat of Russia using nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Haines said Putin would only authorize the use of a nuclear weapon if he felt there was an existential threat to Russia. But she underscored that “could be the case in the event that he perceives that he is losing the war in Ukraine, and that NATO in effect is either intervening or about to intervene in that context, which would obviously contribute to a perception that he is about to lose the war in Ukraine,” per the Guardian.

Haines also said in her testimony that US intelligence believes Putin is “preparing for prolonged conflict in Ukraine during which he still intends to achieve goals beyond the Donbas.”

Russia reoriented its invasion of Ukraine to focus on the country’s eastern Donbas region after its forces stalled outside the capital Kyiv and were ultimately forced to withdraw. Putin’s forces have been accused of numerous war crimes against Ukrainians, including indiscriminate bombings of residential areas and the execution of innocent civilians.

The US and its allies have imposed unprecedented sanctions on Moscow over the war, while providing Kyiv with billions in military and humanitarian assistance — including lethal aid.

But Haines told lawmakers that Putin is “probably counting on US and EU resolve to weaken as food shortages, inflation and energy prices get worse,” stating that the Russian leader “most likely also judges that Russia has a greater ability and willingness to endure challenges than his adversaries.” The penalties slapped on Russia have rippled across the global economy, which raises questions about how long countries will be able to maintain the political will to punish Moscow.

The Russian ruble took a major hit in the early days of the war, but has made a remarkable recovery. And in spite of the historic economic penalties slapped on Russia over Putin’s unprovoked war, the Russian economy continues to rake in billions from energy experts. Moscow effectively has much Europe in an energy chokehold. In the first two months following the onset of the war, Russia exported $66 billion in fossil fuels, per a recent report from the Centre of Research on Energy and Clean Air.

The EU is especially reliant on Russian energy. Roughly 40% of Europe’s natural gas imports come from Russia as well as 27% of its oil imports. That said, the EU is moving to phase out Russian oil imports, though obstacles remain.

NBC News Today

Harrowing photos offer rare glimpse of wounded soldiers in besieged Mariupol steel plant

Danielle Campoamor – May 10, 2022

Warning: The following contains graphic images.

Photos of badly wounded Ukrainian soldiers trapped in a steel plant in Mariupol give a rare look at the conditions of those fighting Russia’s ongoing attempts to take control of the city.

Lt. Ilya Samoilenko, a 27-year-old staff officer for the elite Ukrainian Azov Regiment, has been trapped in the Azovstal steel plant in besieged Mariupol for more than 70 days.

Samoilenko shared photos with TODAY Parents to put a spotlight on his injured comrades and the doctors trying to keep them alive inside the steel plant’s basement.

“I’m OK, relatively,” Samoilenko told TODAY Parents via the Telegram messaging app. “Hungry, but not starving. Water is not enough. Health … well, I did not lose any more limbs than before.”

Samoilenko said he lost his left arm and right eye four years ago. “It’s a long story, from a previous life,” he explained. He said he also has some shrapnel in his leg.

“I’m still in a fight,” he added. “And there are hundreds of guys like me. We’re standing tall on missing legs. We hold weapons in lost arms. We are in a fight, and we are going to fight until the end.”

With limited access to food, water, medication and equipment, doctors have been treating severed limbs, head wounds, severe lacerations, gunshot wounds and broken bones inside the steel plant. Samoilenko described the doctors as “living heroes” and “legends.”

“Ninety percent of our servicemen are wounded,” Samoilenko said. “A lot of people recovered from lighter injuries, and they are back in the fight. Through pain, through struggle, well, you know, you have no choice. When you must fight, you’re rising up — with pain, with physical damage, but you are fighting.”

Related: Hope and defiance: A Ukrainian soldier shares what life is like inside Mariupol steel plant

Over the weekend, all the women, children and elderly Ukrainian civilians believed to be trapped in the Azovstal steel plant with the soldiers were safely evacuated.

There are at least 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers still fighting in the port city of Mariupol.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s attacks in the east of Ukraine have increased. At least 60 people were feared dead after a Russian airstrike on a school in eastern Ukraine on Saturday afternoon.

Related: Jill Biden visits Ukraine border as Russia doubles down on attacks

Russian forces also have increased their attacks on Odesa, another key port city located on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. On Monday, Russian missiles hit a shopping center and a warehouse, killing one person and injuring five more.

Zelenskyy also has described the situation in Mariupol as “extremely severe.”

The soldiers of the Azov Regiment demanded the “immediate evacuation of wounded servicemen in Ukrainian-controlled territories” so they could be “assisted and provided with proper care.”

“The servicemen you see in the photos and hundreds more at the Azovstal plant defended Ukraine and the entire civilized world, with serious injuries at the cost of their own health,” said a Telegram post made by a member of the Azov Regiment.

“Are Ukraine and the world community now unable to protect and take care of them?”

Associated Press

Ukrainians make gains in east, hold on at Mariupol mill

Elena Becatoros and Jon Gambrell – May 10, 2022

• A Ukrainian serviceman inspects a site after an airstrike by Russian forces in Bahmut, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
• In this photo provided by Azov Special Forces Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard Press Office, an Azov Special Forces Regiment’s serviceman, injured during fighting against Russian forces, poses for a photographer inside the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, (Dmytro ‘Orest’ Kozatskyi/Azov Special Forces Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard Press Office via AP)
• Destroyed Russian military vehicles lie in a garbage dump in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
• A Ukrainian Su-25 jet flies after an attack on Russian positions in Donetsk region, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
• UNCH staff speak to an elderly Ukrainian refugee woman during a visit by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to a refugee facility housing Ukrainian refugees in Chisinau, Moldova,. (AP Photo/Aurel Obreja)
• A local residence rides a bike past a destroyed Russian military vehicle in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
• A sign that reads “Mines” placed on a road where unexploded devices were found after shelling of Russian forces in Maksymilyanivka, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
• People stand near a destroyed building on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, The Ukrainian military said Russian forces fired seven missiles a day earlier from the air at the crucial Black Sea port of Odesa, hitting a shopping center and a warehouse. (AP Photo/Max Pshybyshevsky)
• Children wait for a meal in the Orthodox Skete in honor of St. John of Shanghai in Adamivka, near Slovyansk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)
• A man walks past the monument of St. John of Shanghai covered with sandbags in a yard the Orthodox Skete in honour of St. John of Shanghai in Adamivka, near Slovyansk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)
• In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine, (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba speaks during a joint news conference with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine, (Valentyn Ogirenko/Pool via AP)
• A de-miner wearing protective gear works in an area where unexploded devices were found after shelling of Russian forces in Maksymilyanivka, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
• An Ukrainian firefighter works near a destroyed building on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, The Ukrainian military said Russian forces fired seven missiles a day earlier from the air at the crucial Black Sea port of Odesa, hitting a shopping center and a warehouse. (AP Photo/Max Pshybyshevsky)
• Orthodox Sister Evdokia gestures in front of the crater of an explosion, after Russian shelling next to the Orthodox Skete in honour of St. John of Shanghai in Adamivka, near Slovyansk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)
• A Ukrainian serviceman talks with a local resident after de-mining the residential area after shelling of Russian forces in Maksymilyanivka, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)In this photo provided by Azov Special Forces Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard Press Office, an Azov Special Forces Regiment’s serviceman receives treatment inside the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, (Dmytro ‘Orest’ Kozatskyi/Azov Special Forces Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard Press Office via AP)
• Stepan and Anastasia sit at a public park as the sun sets in Kyiv Ukraine on (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv’s military has made small gains in the east, pushing Russian forces out of four villages near Kharkiv, as his country’s foreign minister suggested Ukraine could go beyond just forcing Russia back to areas it held before the invasion began 11 weeks ago.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba voiced what appeared to be increasing confidence — and expanded goals — amid Russia’s stalled offensive in the east, telling the Financial Times that Ukraine initially believed victory would be the withdrawal of Russian troops to positions they occupied before the Feb. 24 invasion. But that’s no longer the case.

“Now if we are strong enough on the military front, and we win the battle for Donbas, which will be crucial for the following dynamics of the war, of course the victory for us in this war will be the liberation of the rest of our territories,” Kuleba said.

Russian forces have made advances in the Donbas and control more of it than they did before the war began. But Kuleba’s statement — which seemed to reflect political ambitions more than battlefield realities — highlighted how Ukraine has stymied a larger, better-armed Russian military, surprising many who had anticipated a much quicker end to the conflict.

One of the most dramatic examples of Ukraine’s ability to prevent easy victories is in Mariupol, where Ukrainian fighters holed up at a steel plant have denied Russia full control of the city. The regiment defending the plant said Russian warplanes continued bombarding it, striking 34 times in 24 hours.

In recent days, the United Nations and the Red Cross organized a rescue of what some officials said were the last civilians trapped at the plant. But two officials said Tuesday that about 100 were believed to still be in the complex’s underground tunnels. Donetsk regional Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said those who remain are people “that the Russians have not selected” for evacuation.

Kyrylenko and Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol’s mayor, did not say how they knew civilians were still in the complex — a warren of tunnels and bunkers spread over 11 square kilometers (4 square miles). Others said their statements were impossible to confirm.

Fighters with the Azov regiment released photos of their wounded comrades inside the plant, including some with amputated limbs. They said the wounded were living in unsanitary conditions “with open wounds bandaged with non-sterile remnants of bandages, without the necessary medication and even food.”

In its statement on Telegram, the regiment appealed to the U.N and Red Cross to evacuate the wounded servicemen to Ukrainian-controlled territories.

The photos could not be independently verified.

Ukraine said Tuesday that Russian forces fired seven missiles at Odesa a day earlier, hitting a shopping center and a warehouse in the country’s largest port. One person was killed and five wounded, the military said.

Images showed a burning building and debris — including a tennis shoe — in a heap of destruction in the city on the Black Sea. Mayor Gennady Trukhanov later visited the warehouse and said it “had nothing in common with military infrastructure or military objects.”

Since President Vladimir Putin’s forces failed to take Kyiv early in the war, his focus has shifted to the eastern industrial heartland of the Donbas. But one general has suggested Moscow’s aims also include cutting Ukraine’s maritime access to both the Black and Azov seas.

That would also give Russia a swath of territory linking it to both the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized in 2014, and Transnistria, a pro-Moscow region of Moldova.

Even if Russia falls short of severing Ukraine from the coast — and it appears to lack the forces to do so — continuing missile strikes on Odesa reflect the city’s strategic importance. The Russian military has repeatedly targeted its airport and claimed it destroyed several batches of Western weapons.

Odesa is also a major gateway for grain shipments, and its blockade by Russia already threatens global food supplies. Beyond that, the city is a cultural jewel, dear to Ukrainians and Russians alike, and targeting it carries symbolic significance.

With Russian forces struggling to gain ground in the Donbas, military analysts suggest that hitting Odesa might serve to stoke concern about southwestern Ukraine, thus forcing Kyiv to put more forces there. That would pull Ukrainian units away from the eastern front as Ukraine’s military stages counteroffensives near the northeastern city of Kharkiv in an attempt to push the Russians back across the border there.

Meanwhile, Kharkiv and the surrounding area have been under sustained Russian attack since the early in the war. In recent weeks, grisly pictures testified to the horrors of those battles, with charred and mangled bodies strewn in one street.

The bodies of 44 civilians were found in the rubble of a five-story building that collapsed in March in Izyum, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Kharkiv, said Oleh Synehubov, the head of the regional administration, said Tuesday.

Russian aircraft twice launched unguided missiles Tuesday at the Sumy area northeast of Kharkiv, according to the Ukrainian border guard service. The region’s governor said the missiles hit several residential buildings, but no one was killed. The Chernihiv region, along the Ukrainian border with Belarus, was hit by mortars fired from Russian territory. There was no word on casualties there.

Zelenskyy said Tuesday that the military was gradually pushing Russian troops away from Kharkiv. The Ukrainian military’s general staff said its forces drove the Russians out of four villages to the northeast of Kharkiv as it tries to push them back toward the Russian border.

Zelenskyy also used his nightly address to pay tribute to Leonid Kravchuk, the first president of an independent Ukraine, who died Tuesday at 88. Zelenskyy said Kravchuk showed courage and knew how to get the country to listen to him.

That was particularly important in “crisis moments, when the future of the whole country may depend on the courage of one man,” said Zelenskyy, whose own communication skills and decision to remain in Kyiv when it came under Russian attack helped make him a strong wartime leader.

___

Gambrell reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Yesica Fisch in Bakhmut, David Keyton in Kyiv, Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Mstyslav Chernov in Kharkiv, Lolita C. Baldor in Washington, Kelvin Chan in London and AP’s worldwide staff contributed.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Reuters

Ukraine to halt some Russian gas flows, claims battlefield gains

Jonathan Landay – May 10, 2022

KHARKIV, Ukraine (Reuters) -Ukraine prepared to suspend the flow of some Russian gas to Europe through a key transit point on Wednesday, as it claimed battlefield gains over invading Russian forces, including the recapture of four villages around the second city of Kharkiv.

Ukraine has remained a major route for Russian gas to Europe even after President Vladimir Putin ordered what he called a “special military operation” on Feb. 24.

Mounting Western sanctions are seeking to ban or phase out the use of Russian energy, a major source of funds for Putin’s war effort and a vulnerability for Europe, especially Germany.

Blaming the interference of Russian occupying forces for the suspension, Ukraine’s gas operator said it would redirect gas from the Sokhranivka transit point, which is in an area occupied by Russian forces, to another in a Ukraine-controlled area.

Since Russia was forced to abandon an assault on the capital Kyiv at the end of March, its main force has been trying to encircle Ukrainian troops in the eastern Donbas region, using the city of Izyum near Kharkiv, in the northeast, as a base.

Ukrainian troops have mostly held out against assaults from three directions, and top U.S. intelligence officials say the war is now at a stalemate.

Putin appeared to be preparing for a long conflict, and a Russian victory in the Donbas region might not end the war, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said in Washington on Tuesday.

But the counterattack near Kharkiv could signal a new phase, with Ukraine going on the offensive and supply lines into Russia now potentially vulnerable.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian successes were gradually pushing Russian forces out of Kharkiv, which has been under bombardment since the war began.

“But I also want to urge all our people … not to spread excessive emotions. We should not create an atmosphere of excessive moral pressure, where victories are expected weekly and even daily,” Zelenskiy said in a video address.

GATHERING BODIES

In the villages of Staryi Saltiv and Vilkhivka near Kharkiv, Ukrainian servicemen gathered the bodies of Russian soldiers who were killed in the fighting, according to Reuters witnesses.

Russian forces were trying to prevent Ukrainian troops from moving further towards the border in the Kharkiv region and were trying to fully take over the town of Rubizhne, Ukraine’s general staff said early on Wednesday.

Ukrainian border guards reported Russian forces were shelling Sumy and Chernihiv regions close to the border.

“Enemy aircraft twice launched non-guided missiles on border areas of Sumy. There were also two instances of mortar shelling in Chernihiv region,” they said on their Telegram channel.

In the south, Ukrainian armed forces said they struck nine enemy targets, with enemy losses of 79 servicemen and 12 pieces of equipment, including armoured vehicles and howitzers.

Russian fire was concentrated on the Mykolaiv region where private homes were damaged as well as farms and power lines to one town.

Russian forces continued to pummel the Azovstal steelworks in the southern port of Mariupol with artillery, tanks and aircraft bombing, Ukraine’s general staff said, trying to capture the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in the ruined city.

Ukraine says tens of thousands of people have been killed in the city under two months of Russian siege.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the reports of fighting.

Scores of civilians have been evacuated from the steelworks in recent days, but an aide to Mariupol’s mayor, Petro Andryushchenko, said at least 100 remained inside.

The number of Ukrainians who have fled their country is approaching 6 million, according to the United Nations, which says the refugee crisis is the fastest growing since World War Two.

Russia denies targeting civilians and rejects Ukrainian and Western allegations of war crimes.

(Additional reporting Tom Balmforth in Kyiv; Writing by Rami Ayyub and Lincoln Feast; Editing by Stephen Coates, Robert Birsel)