Associated Press

Ukraine says mission at Mariupol steel mill is complete

Oleksandr Stashevskyi and Ciaran McQuillan – May 15, 2022

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The regiment that doggedly defended a steel mill as Ukraine’s last stronghold in the port city of Mariupol completed its mission Monday after more than 260 fighters, including some badly wounded, were evacuated and taken to areas under Russia’s control, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the evacuation to separatist-controlled territory was done to save the lives of the fighters who endured weeks of Russian assaults in the maze of underground passages below the hulking Azovstal steelworks. He said the “heavily wounded” were getting medical help.

“Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes to be alive. It’s our principle,” he said. An unknown number of fighters stayed behind to await other rescue efforts.

The steel mill’s defenders got out as Moscow suffered another diplomatic setback in the war, with Sweden joining Finland in deciding to seek NATO membership. And Ukraine made a symbolic gain when its forces reportedly pushed Russian troops back to the Russian border in the Kharkiv region.

Still, Russian forces pounded targets in the industrial heartland of eastern Ukraine known as the Donbas, and the death toll, already many thousands, kept climbing with the war set to enter its 12th week on Wednesday.

Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said 53 seriously wounded fighters were taken from the Azovstal plant to a hospital in Novoazovsk, east of Mariupol. An additional 211 fighters were evacuated to Olenivka through a humanitarian corridor. She said an exchange would be worked out for their return home.

“Mariupol’s defenders have fully accomplished all missions assigned by the command,” she said.

Officials also planned to keep trying to save the fighters who remained inside. Military experts generally put the number of fighters at the plant at anywhere from a few hundred to 1,000.

“The work to bring the guys home continues, and it requires delicacy and time,” Zelenskyy said.

Before Monday’s evacuations from the steelworks began, the Russian Defense Ministry announced an agreement for the wounded to leave the mill for treatment in a town held by pro-Moscow separatists. There was no immediate word on whether the wounded would be considered prisoners of war.

After nightfall Monday, several buses pulled away from the steel mill accompanied by Russian military vehicles. Maliar later confirmed that the evacuation had taken place.

“Thanks to the defenders of Mariupol, Ukraine gained critically important time to form reserves and regroup forces and receive help from partners,” she said. “And they fulfilled all their tasks. But it is impossible to unblock Azovstal by military means.”

The Ukrainian General Staff also said on Facebook that the Mariupol garrison has completed its mission. The commander of the Azov Regiment, which led the defense of the plant, said in a prerecorded video message released Monday that the regiment’s mission had concluded, with as many lives saved as possible.

“Absolutely safe plans and operations don’t exist during war,” Lt. Col. Denis Prokopenko said, adding that all risks were considered.

Elsewhere in the Donbas, the eastern city of Sievierdonetsk came under heavy shelling that killed at least 10 people, said Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region. In the Donetsk region, Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Facebook that nine civilians were killed in shelling.

The western Ukrainian city of Lviv was rocked by loud explosions early Tuesday. Witnesses counted at least eight blasts accompanied by distant booms, and the smell of burning was apparent some time later. An Associated Press team in Lviv, which was under an overnight curfew, said the sky west of the city was lit up by an orange glow.

The chairman of the Lviv Regional Military Administration said the Russians fired on military infrastructure in the Yavoriv district. The city of Yavoriv is less than 10 miles (15 kilometers) from the Polish border.

Ukrainian troops also advanced as Russian forces pulled back from around the northeastern city of Kharkiv in recent days. Zelenskyy thanked the soldiers who reportedly pushed them all the way to the Russian border in the Kharkiv region.

Video showed Ukrainian soldiers carrying a post that resembled a Ukrainian blue-and-yellow-striped border marker. Then they placed it on the ground while a dozen of the soldiers posed next to it, including one with belts of bullets draped over a shoulder.

“I’m very grateful to you, on behalf of all Ukrainians, on my behalf and on behalf of my family,” Zelenskyy said in a video message. “I’m very grateful to all the fighters like you.”

The Ukrainian border service said the video showing the soldiers was from the border “in the Kharkiv region,” but would not elaborate, citing security reasons. It was not immediately possible to verify the exact location.

Ukrainian border guards said they also stopped a Russian attempt to send sabotage and reconnaissance troops into the Sumy region, some 90 miles (146 kilometers) northwest of Kharkiv.

Russia has been plagued by setbacks in the war, most glaringly in its failure early on to take the capital of Kyiv. Much of the fighting has shifted to the Donbas but also has turned into a slog, with both sides fighting village-by-village.

Howitzers from the U.S. and other countries have helped Kyiv hold off or gain ground against Russia, a senior U.S. defense official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the U.S. military assessment, said Ukraine has pushed Russian forces to within a half-mile to 2.5 miles (1 to 4 kilometers) of Russia’s border but could not confirm if it was all the way to the frontier.

Away from the battlefield, Sweden’s decision to seek NATO membership followed a similar decision by neighboring Finland in a historic shift for the counties, which were nonaligned for generations.

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said her country would be in a “vulnerable position” during the application period and urged her fellow citizens to brace themselves.

“Russia has said that that it will take countermeasures if we join NATO,” she said. “We cannot rule out that Sweden will be exposed to, for instance, disinformation and attempts to intimidate and divide us.”

But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, a NATO member, ratcheted up his objection to their joining. He accused the countries of failing to take a “clear” stance against Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara considers terrorists, and of imposing military sanctions on Turkey.

He said Swedish and Finnish officials who are expected in Turkey next week should not bother to come if they intend to try to convince Turkey of dropping its objection.

“How can we trust them?” Erdogan asked at a joint news conference with the visiting Algerian president.

All 30 current NATO members must agree to let the Nordic neighbors join.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow “does not have a problem” with Sweden or Finland as they apply for NATO membership, but that “the expansion of military infrastructure onto this territory will of course give rise to our reaction in response.”

Putin launched the invasion on Feb. 24 in what he said was an effort to check NATO’s expansion but has seen that strategy backfire. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said the membership process for both could be quick.

McQuillan reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Mstyslav Chernov and Andrea Rosa in Kharkiv, Elena Becatoros in Odesa and other AP staffers around the world contributed.

Business Insider

Russia has probably lost a 3rd of the invading force it started with in February, UK defense ministry says

Matthew Loh – May 15, 2022

The UK on Sunday said Russia had probably lost a third of the invasion force it deployed in Ukraine.

It also said Moscow had lost critical equipment including recon drones for its push into the Donbas.

It added that Russia’s advance was behind schedule and likely to stay that way over the next month.

The UK’s defense ministry estimates that Russia has most likely lost a third of the ground troops it deployed in February for the invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow’s renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine — the invasion’s focus for the past month — has also “lost momentum and fallen significantly behind schedule,” the UK defense ministry tweeted Sunday.

“Despite small-scale initial advances, Russia has failed to achieve substantial territorial gains over the past month whilst sustaining a high level of attrition,” it said in its assessment. “Russia has now likely suffered losses of one-third of the ground combat force it committed in February.”

As such, the UK said it considered Russia unlikely to dramatically accelerate its advance over the next 30 days. Losses could include not just troops who’ve been killed but also ones injured or captured.

The ministry said losing “critical enablers” such as “bridging equipment, surveillance, and reconnaissance drones” would further delay the Russian advance, adding that Moscow’s drones had been vulnerable to Ukrainian weapons.

The ministry’s assessment said poor morale and reduced combat effectiveness had also “increasingly” affected Moscow’s forces.

On the same day, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the war was “not going as Moscow had planned,” according to the Associated Press.

“Ukraine can win this war,” Stoltenberg said, per the AP.

Though Russia has withdrawn from areas around Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and appears to have pulled back from the city of Kharkiv in the northeast, it has seized territories in Ukraine’s southeast and the eastern Donbas region, which is partially held by pro-Russian separatists.

Related:

Britain says Russia has lost a third of its forces in Ukraine

Reuters

May 15, 2022

LONDON (Reuters) -Russia has probably lost around a third of the ground forces it deployed to Ukraine and its offensive in the Donbas region “has lost momentum and fallen significantly behind schedule”, British military intelligence said on Sunday.

“Despite small-scale initial advances, Russia has failed to achieve substantial territorial gains over the past month whilst sustaining consistently high levels of attrition,” the British defence ministry said on Twitter.

“Russia has now likely suffered losses of one third of the ground combat force it committed in February.”

It said Russia was unlikely to dramatically accelerate its rate of advance over the next 30 days.

Since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, Ukraine’s military has forced Russia’s commanders to abandon an advance on the capital Kyiv, before making rapid gains in the northeast and driving them away from the second biggest city of Kharkiv.

A Ukrainian counteroffensive has been under way near the Russian-held town of Izium, though Ukraine’s military reported on Sunday that Russian forces were advancing elsewhere in the Donbas region, the main theatre of war over the past month.

(Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru and William Schomberg in London; Editing by William Mallard and Aidan Lewis)

Related:

UK: Russia has likely lost one-third of ground combat forces in Ukraine

The Hill

Olafimihan Oshin – May 15, 2022

The United Kingdom’s defense ministry said that Russia has likely lost one-third of its ground combat forces in Ukraine almost three months into its war.

in a Twitter thread on Sunday, the ministry added that Moscow’s forces in the Donbas region have lost their ​​momentum and fallen behind schedule.

The ministry also said that Russia failed to achieve substantial territorial gains in the past month, as it sustained “consistently high levels of attrition.”

“Russia has now likely suffered losses of one third of the ground combat force it committed in February,” the ministry said in its tweet.

As many as 150,000 troops are believed to have been deployed by Moscow in its assault on Ukraine.

NATO said in March that as many as 40,000 Russian troops have been killed, been captured, gone missing or been taken prisoner.

The current number of Russian troops killed is debated, with Ukraine putting the total at 26,000 and Russia admitting to a little more than 2,000 deaths.

The Ministry also said in the thread that Russia was struggling to provide necessary equipment to its troops, with Ukraine continuing to put up a fight in the air and on the ground.

“Russian forces are increasingly constrained by degraded enabling capabilities, continued low morale and reduced combat effectiveness,” the ministry said in its Twitter thread. “Many of these capabilities cannot be quickly replaced or reconstituted, and are likely to continue to hinder Russian operations in Ukraine.”

“Under the current conditions, Russia is unlikely to dramatically accelerate its rate of advance over the next 30 days,” the ministry concluded.

The ministry said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces were able to recapture the towns and villages north of the city of Kharkiv, noting that Ukrainian forces are now continuing their counterattack in the region near the Russian border.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in February, has also left thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians dead and forced some 6 million Ukrainian citizens to flee the country.

Insider

Ukrainian fighter says conditions are ‘awful’ for injured soldiers still trapped in Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant, report says

Taylor Ardrey – May 14, 2022

• A Ukrainian fighter detailed the “awful” conditions for those trapped at Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant.
• “They are dying in large numbers because we can’t provide medical care,” the fighter said, per CNN.
• The fighter added that medics are forced to perform surgeries without anesthesia, the report said.

A Ukrainian fighter detailed the “awful” conditions for those who are injured and remain trapped at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol amid the ongoing war with Russia, CNN reported on Saturday.

“Today, I was in the hospital. This is a huge gym, school … several dozen bunk beds. Everything else is just on the floor,” the fighter said on Ukrainian television, per the outlet. “Fighters are simply lying without limbs, without arms, without legs.”

The fighter said an estimated 600 people are wounded: “They are dying in large numbers because we can’t provide medical care. There are simply no medicines. Those with severe wounds … it is almost impossible to save them,” CNN reported.

According to the report, he added that the hospital is “completely unsanitary,” and some medics are forced to perform surgeries on soldiers without anesthesia.

Ukraine officials said that women, children, and elderly individuals were evacuated from Azovstal, the country’s last stronghold, after being trapped for weeks. Earlier this week, a Ukrainian marine commander asked billionaire Elon Musk to help people escape from the steel plant on social media.

According to CNN, the fighter said it is not clear if all civilians have been cleared from the complex.

“No one can be 100% sure. Let’s just say that we took out those civilians that we knew about. Somewhere they may be under the rubble, in some bunkers, where we have not yet explored in some shelters,” the fighter said, the outlet reported. “Therefore, no one can be 100% sure. But those civilians whom we knew who were here, we took out completely 100%.”

Reuters

Large convoy from Mariupol reaches safety, refugees talk of ‘devastating’ escape

Gleb Garanich and Leonardo Benassatto – May 14, 2022

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (Reuters) – A large convoy of cars and vans carrying refugees from the ruins of Mariupol arrived in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday after waiting days for Russian troops to allow them to leave.

Mariupol, now mostly Russian-controlled, has been flattened during the 80-day-old war. Ukraine has gradually been evacuating civilians from the devastated city for more than two months.

Refugees first had to get out of Mariupol and then somehow make their way to Berdyansk – some 80 km further west along the coast – and other settlements before the 200 km drive northwest to Zaporizhzhia.

Nikolai Pavlov, a 74-year-old retiree, said he had lived in a basement for a month after his apartment was destroyed. A relative using “secret detours” managed to get him out of Mariupol to Berdyansk.

“We barely made it, there were lots of elderly people among us … the trip was devastating. But it was worth it,” he said after the convoy arrived in the dark.

An aide to Mariupol’s mayor had earlier said the convoy numbered between 500 to 1,000 cars, representing the largest single evacuation from the city since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.

Iryna Petrenko, 63, said she had stayed initially to take care of her 92-year-old mother, who subsequently died.

“We buried her next to her house, because there was nowhere to bury anyone,” she said. For a time Russian authorities had not allowed large numbers of cars to leave, she said.

Only the port city’s vast Azovstal steel works is still in the hands of Ukrainian fighters after a prolonged battle.

“My parents’ house was hit by an aerial strike, all the windows got blown out,” said Yulia Panteleeva, 27, who along with other family members had been absent.

“I can’t stop imagining things that might happen to us if we stayed at home,” she said.

Moscow calls its actions a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and rid it of what it portrays as anti-Russian nationalism. Ukraine and the West say Russia launched an unprovoked war.

(Reporting by Gleb Garanich and Leonardo Benassatto; Writing by David Ljunggren; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

The New Voice of Ukraine

Nine Russian attempts to cross river in Donbas thwarted by Ukrainian paratroopers

May 14, 2022

Read also: Russia has now 105 operational BTGs in Ukraine, says Pentagon

“When the enemy tried to construct a pontoon crossing and conduct a forced crossing of the river on the eastern axis, the artillery of 80th Separate Air Assault Brigade once again dealt a heavy blow to the enemy, destroying pontoons and thwarting nine attempts to cross,” the statement reads.

Reportedly, the paratroopers destroyed at least 73 units of equipment, including:

● T-72 tanks;

● infantry fighting vehicle;

● airborne combat vehicle;

● armored personnel carriers;

● trucks;

● other special equipment.

Read also: Ukraine’s Armed Forces to transition from Soviet weapons to NATO equipment, says Commander-in-chief Zaluzhnyi

“By ruining the enemy’s plan to cross the river for a further offensive, the paratroopers destroyed an entire battalion-tactical group of invaders,” the press center added.

Russia is attempting to ford the Siverskyi Donets river in order to push their assault further into Ukrainian territory in Donbas.

Yahoo! News

Ukraine’s spy chief claims a coup to overthrow Putin is underway

Niamh Cavanagh, Producer – May 14, 2022

LONDON — Ukraine’s head of military intelligence claimed he believes that a coup to remove Russian President Vladimir Putin was already underway in Russia — and said he thinks the war is likely to be over by the end of the year.

Speaking to Sky News in an article published Saturday, Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov said he was “optimistic” about Russia’s defeat, suggesting that the loss would lead to Putin being removed from power.

“It will eventually lead to the change of leadership of the Russian Federation,” Budanov said. “This process has already been launched.”

When asked if a “coup” was underway, he told Sky News: “Yes. … They are moving in this way, and it is impossible to stop it.”

According to Sky News, Budanov doubled down after it was suggested that he was spreading propaganda. “It’s my job, it’s my work — if not me, who will know this?” he said.

Meanwhile, Gordon B. Davis Jr., former deputy assistant secretary-general of NATO’s defense investment division, told Sky News in another interview that he doesn’t “think we’re likely to see a coup in the near future.”

“It’s tough to talk about the credibility of such a likelihood,” he said. “I don’t put a lot of credence right now into the rumors.”

Budanov added in his interview that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Russian forces’ military tactics have not changed, despite their shift in focus to eastern Ukraine.

“The breaking point will be in the second part of August,” he said. “Most of the active combat actions will have finished by the end of this year. As a result, we will renew Ukrainian power in all our territories that we have lost, including Donbas and the Crimea.”

Sky News noted that the major general’s prediction that Russia would invade this year — at a time when other officials were skeptical — had been correct.

During the interview, Budanov also claimed that Putin is currently in “a very bad psychological and physical condition, and he is very sick.” In recent years, there has been considerable speculation about Putin’s alleged ill-health.

On Saturday, New Lines Magazine reported that an oligarch close to Putin had claimed the Kremlin leader is “very ill with blood cancer.” In a recording obtained by the publication, an unidentified oligarch was heard allegedly discussing Putin’s health. He went on to complain that Putin had gone “crazy” and claimed that the Russian president had had surgery on his back linked to his cancer, just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

Ukrayinska Pravda

Russian troops have lost over 550 artillery systems General Staff

Roman Petrenko  –  May 14, 2022

The Russian forces have already lost 1,218 tanks and 551 artillery systems during the war in Ukraine.

Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Details: The total combat losses of the Russian occupying forces from 24 February to 14 May are estimated to be:

•     personnel – about 27,200 (+300),
•     tanks – 1218 (+13) units,
•     armoured combat vehicles – 2934 (+34) units,
•     artillery systems – 551 (+9) units,
•     MLRS – 195 (+2) units,
•     anti-aircraft systems- 88 (+0) units,
•     aircraft – 200 (+0) units,
•     helicopters – 163 (+1) units,
•     operational and tactical level UAVs – 411 (+6),
•     cruise missiles – 95 (+0),
•     ships/boats – 13 (+) units,
•     motor vehicles and tankers – 2059 (+17) units,
•     special equipment – 42 (+1).

It is noted that the greatest Russian losses over the past 24 hours were observed on the Sloviansk and Bakhmutsk front.

The data is constantly being updated.

Reuters

Ukrainian servicemen load bodies of Russian soldiers onto refrigerated rail cars

May 13, 2022

Ukrainian servicemen load bodies of Russian soldiers onto refrigerated rail cars in Kyiv.

(Reuters) – Ukrainian military authorities loaded the bodies of Russian soldiers collected after fighting in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions onto refrigerated rail cars on Friday.

Volodymr Lyamzin, the head of Ukraine’s civil-military cooperation, said his country was acting in accordance with international law and was ready to return the bodies to Russia.

“According to the norms of international humanitarian law, and Ukraine is strictly following them, after the active phase of the conflict is over, sides have to return the bodies of the military of another country.

“Ukraine is ready to return the bodies to the aggressor,” he said.

Lyamzin said there were several refrigerator trains stationed in different regions across Ukraine where the bodies of Russian soldiers were being kept.

Several hundred bodies were being stored at a facility on the outskirts of Kyiv filmed by Reuters.

“In this refrigerator train several hundred bodies of Russian occupiers are kept. Most of them was brought from the Kyiv region, there are some from Chernihiv region, and from some other regions too,” Lyamzin said.

Moscow calls its invasion of Ukraine a “special military operation” to demilitarize a neighbour threatening its security. Ukraine denies posing a threat and says Russia is waging a war of aggression that has killed thousands of civilians, uprooted millions of others and destroyed cities and towns since the conflict began in late February.

(Reporting by Sergiy Karazy; Writing by Mark Porter; editing by Grant McCool)

The New Voice of Ukraine

How Russia’s maritime behavior is changing

May 13, 2022

As of May 10, the Mediterranean Sea remains an operational area for the same group of vessels that was stationed there as of February 7.

Therefore, there have been no substantial changes in that region so far. This group includes 13 ships and 5 complementary vessels of four Russian military fleets, including 9 rocket launcher ships.

Read also: Putin has become a problem. The main indicator of Russia’s defeat

This situation occurred after Turkey, a NATO member, passed a decision on February 27 to ban any military vessels from moving between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The ban includes ships of NATO countries that are not the Black Sea actors.

At the end of 2021 and at the beginning of 2022, Russia relocated 20 military vessels from the Mediterranean area to the Black Sea, including 14 ships subordinated to its Black Sea Military Fleet, 3 subordinated to Northern Military Fleet and 3 from the Baltic Sea Military Fleet.

What was happening in February is this: Russia’s Black Sea Military Fleet managed to relocate a large number of vessels to the Black Sea operational area a couple of weeks before the invasion of Ukraine was launched. For that purpose, Russian Federation used the assets of its Northern, Baltic, and Pacific fleet groups.

Besides that, Russia relocated 7 marine infantry vessels from the Mediterranean, including 6 big ones, that were previously components of Northern and Baltic fleet groups.

Overall, as of February 24, Russia had as many as 13 major marine infantry ships in the Black Sea. However, one of them needed repairs. After March 24, when Ukraine’s Armed Forces destroyed one of them and damaged another two, only 9 of those ships are left.

Because Russia has a shortage of major military vessels able to support marine infantry assaults with shelling, it is unable to conduct a major offensive operation in the Odesa region. Still, a minor local “adventure” with the participation of marines is still possible – in the Dniester area, for example.

Read also: Russian landing ship Orsk destroyed in Berdyansk

As of today, the Black Sea operational area also hosts two rocket launcher frigates and three corvettes, each of which are equipped 8 rockets – so that’s 40 rockets overall. None of these ships has any stores of rockets for further use, so they would need to go back to base to renew their supplies.

In addition, Russia has 4 submarines there at their disposal, with 4 rockets each. All in all, Russia is able to use as many as 56 rockets in a major attack.

After the elimination of the Moskva cruiser, Russia’s potential for shelling Ukraine with cruise missiles hasn’t changed much. Moskva had as many as 16 of those missiles, whose purpose was to targeting land structures. However, Kalibr rockets, deployed on other Russian military vessels, can be used for both purposes – shelling land-based targets, or destroying Ukrainian ships.

So what was the purpose of eliminating the Moskva cruiser? The reason is because it was a flagship for anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems.

It hosed 64 S300 rockets – that’s a very impressive shield for protection from the air. Now, when Russia doesn’t have that shield at all in the Black Sea, it has to keep its own military vessels further from the coast. At the same time, the Russian Federation is trying to engage its submarines, so they would have more action. They are able to launch their rockets while being submerged as deeply as 30-40 meters below sea level.

The Crimean peninsula, annexed by the Russian Federation in 2014, has its Kerch bridge, which is actively used for furthering hostilities against Ukraine. It will be used for such a purpose until its destroyed.

The Kerch bridge is a strategic asset. Why? Let’s compare. How much time do you need to transfer a tank brigade (that’s several trains with 50 carriages each) via a railroad bridge? And how many days do you need to do that using a ferry that is able to take only as few as 10 carriages in a single trip?

The Neptun missile is the only thing we have to damage the Kerch bridge. It can be operated from a distance of 280-300 kilometers. To hit the target, we would need to launch the missile from, say, the Zaporizhzhya region, from the frontline there, while it is still not too unrealistic. This is the way it is now.

But if we had better missiles that could be launched from a longer distance, that’s a totally different thing.

The Telegraph

Ukraine morning briefing: Five developments as Kyiv intelligence chief says war will be over by Christmas

Our Foreign Staff – May 13, 2022

The European Union has announced plans to give Ukraine an additional 500 million euros (£425 million) to buy heavy weapons.

Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov welcomed the pledge but admitted his country was entering “new, long-term phase of the war.”

Here’s what happened overnight – and you can follow the latest updates in our live blog.

1. Ukraine intelligence chief: war will be over by Christmas

The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence has claimed that the war will be over by Christmas and Vladimir Putin could soon be removed from power in a coup.

Major General Kyrylo Budanov has told Sky News that the war is going so well that it will reach a turning point by the middle of August.

Gen Budanov, who correctly predicted earlier this year that Russia would invade, also claimed that Putin is in a “very bad psychological and physical condition and he is very sick”.

He said the war would “lead to the change of leadership of the Russian Federation” and claimed the “process has already been launched and they are moving into that way”.

When asked if a coup was underway, he responded: “Yes. They are moving in this way and it is impossible to stop it.”

2. Georgian region holds vote on joining Russia

The leader of the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia has announced that a referendum will be held in July on joining Russia.

Russia has exercised effective control over the region since fighting a brief war with Georgia in 2008. Russia and a handful of other countries recognise South Ossetia as an independent state, but most of the world still considers it to be part of Georgia.

“We did it!” South Ossetian leader Anatoly Bibilov wrote on Telegram on Friday in announcing that he had signed a decree setting the referendum for July 17.

“In legalese, we fulfilled yet another important legal requirement,” he said. “And in normal language, we took a life-changing step – we are going home, we are going to Russia.”

About a month into Russia’s war with Ukraine, Mr Bibilov said South Ossetia would take the legal steps necessary to join Russia.

3. Negotiations underway for evacuations from Azovstal

Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday night that talks with Russia on getting wounded defenders out of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol were very complex, adding Kyiv was using influential intermediaries.

Russian forces have been constantly bombarding the steelworks in the southern port of Mariupol, the last bastion of hundreds of Ukrainian defenders in a city almost completely controlled by Russia after more than two months of a siege.

Kyiv has insisted there is no military solution to the stand-off and proposes evacuating 38 of the most severely wounded defenders. If Moscow allows them out, Ukraine says it will release a number of Russian prisoners of war.

“At the moment very complex negotiations are underway on the next phase of the evacuation mission – the removal of the badly wounded, medics. We are talking about a large number of people,” Mr Zelensky said in a late night address.

4. US and Russia hold high level talks for first time since invasion

Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister, spoke with Lloyd Austin, the US secretary of defence on Friday after months of refusing direct contact with his American counterpart.

The call, initiated by Mr Austin, marked the highest level American contact with a Russian official since the invasion in late February. Over the past few months, Pentagon officials have repeatedly said that Russian leaders have declined to take calls from Mr Austin and Gen Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

A senior US defence official said that while Mr Austin believes the hour-long conversation with Mr Shoigu was important in the effort to keep lines of communication open, it did not resolve any “acute issues” or lead to any change in Russian policy.

5. Europe could cap gas prices

The European Commission wants to waive EU competition rules to allow governments to cap prices for consumers in the event of a complete outage of Russian gas supplies, German newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported on Saturday, citing a commission document on “short-term energy market interventions”.

According to the document, European Union member states should be allowed to regulate consumer prices for a transitional period to protect them from spiking even before an acute shortage, Welt reported.

“The financing of this intervention requires significant sums,” the newspaper quoted the document as saying.

In March, the EU warned that seeking to cap wholesale gas prices would cause problems and undermine efforts to shift to green energy.

The European Commission is due to unveil a detailed plan this month to quit Russian fossil fuels by 2027, in response to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which supplies 40 per cent of EU gas.

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