Live blog: Russia evacuates civilians from Belgorod region

Monday, May 22, 2023

The governor of Russia's southern region of Belgorod, the scene of an armed incursion of a "sabotage" group from Ukraine, has said that authorities were helping people leave the area under attack.

"The situation here continues to be extremely tense," Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, adding that authorities were going door to door to notify local residents.

"I hope that our military will complete their task in the nearest future."

Follow more updates 👇

1901 GMT — US: Russia's Wagner Group seeking to transit material acquisitions through Mali

Wagner is willing to use false paperwork for such transactions, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at a regular news briefing.

"There are indications that Wagner has been attempting to purchase military systems from foreign suppliers and route these weapons through Mali as a third party," Miller said.

"We have not seen as of yet any indications that these acquisitions have been finalized or executed, but we are monitoring the situation closely."

Miller said Washington has imposed sanctions on a number of people and entities that support Wagner's military operations, and said the United States would have more to share soon.

1849 GMT — Ukraine's ambassador welcomes F-16 pledges

Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova has welcomed pledges of F-16 fighter jets to her country while also urging patience for the launching of a spring counteroffensive against Russia's full-scale attack.

For Ukrainians, she said, the effort to repel Russia has essentially been one long counterattack.

"I wouldn’t label it. Whether it’s going to be one offensive or several. Whether it going to be just the hard, daily work on every front line or we will see some big results in any of them, it doesn’t really matter," Markarova said.

1807 GMT — UN concerned by lack of grain ships going to one Ukrainian port

The United Nations expressed concern that Ukraine's Black Sea port of Pivdennyi (Yuzhny) has not received any ships since May 2 under a deal allowing the safe wartime export of grain and fertilizer.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric did not say who was to blame for the lack of ships travelling to the port, near Odesa, which is also where Russia used to pump up to 2.5 million tonnes of ammonia annually for export via a pipeline from Togliati.

That pipeline has been shut down since Moscow's February 2022 attack against neighbouring Ukraine.

1454 GMT — 'Great support' for training Ukrainian pilots - Denmark

Defence ministers from northern European countries showed "great support" at a meeting in Poland for training Ukrainian pilots in flying F-16 fighter jets, Denmark's Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said.

"Great support for the goal of training F-16 pilots for Ukraine," the minister said in a tweet, adding that Denmark is ready to play a central role.

1352 GMT — Ukraine has no role in Belgorod operation - Zelenskyy aide

A senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Kiev had nothing to do with an armed operation in Russia's Belgorod region.

"Ukraine is watching the events in the Belgorod region of Russia with interest and studying the situation, but it has nothing to do with it," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted.

"As you know, tanks are sold at any Russian military store, and underground guerrilla groups are composed of Russian citizens."

In a written statement, Podolyak said Ukraine's military operates only on Ukrainian territory and echoed Ukrainian military intelligence in blaming Russian partisans for the incursion.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region claimed earlier that a "Ukrainian sabotage group” entered the region in the Grayvoron district.

"The Russian liberation movement can become something that will contribute to the correct end of the war in Ukraine and significantly speed up the beginning of transformational events in the Russian political elite," he said.

"The Russian violent resistance movement, whose architects are exclusively citizens of Russia itself, is gradually coming out of the underground.

They are independent in their decisions, have certain experience, and are free from fear." Podolyak said Russia's war on Ukraine was "gradually returning to Russia itself."

"The authorities are losing control over the regions and the situation in general. And this is a window of opportunity for any internal protest movements," he said.

1348 GMT — Three injured in Russia's Belgorod: governor

1345 GMT — Denmark expects India, Brazil, China engagement in possible Ukraine peace summit

Denmark expressed its desire to host a summit in the coming months around the agenda of finding peace between Ukraine and Russia to stop the ongoing war but maintained that the meeting would require due engagement from India, Brazil and China.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said: "For starters, we need to put some effort into creating a global commitment to organize such a meeting.

"He said the planned summit should not only host the Western allies, considered to be the strong partners and allies of Ukraine in the war."If Ukraine finds that the time has come to have such a meeting, that would be fantastic and then Denmark would obviously like to host the meeting," he said.

1253 GMT — Ukrainian military intelligence: Russian groups behind incursion

Ukraine's military intelligence service blamed an armed operation in Russia's Belgorod region on "opposition-minded Russian citizens" from two paramilitary groups, Ukrainian media outlet Hromadske said.

Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said a Ukrainian army "sabotage group" had entered Russian territory in the Graivoron district, which borders Ukraine.

Hromadske quoted military intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov as saying the Freedom of Russia Legion and Russian Volunteer Corps were responsible for the incursion. It did not make clear whether he provided any evidence for the assertion.

1237 GMT — Russia claims eastern city of Bakhmut, but Ukraine say battle isn't over

Ukrainian officials acknowledge they control only a small part of Bakhmut.

Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said that Ukrainian troops hold some areas in its southwestern outskirts, while fighting continues for the strategic heights in the northern and southern parts of the suburbs.

“The offensive potential of the enemy has been significantly reduced. Huge losses have been inflicted on the enemy. We have gained time for certain actions, which will be revealed later,” Maliar said.

Ukraine says their fighters played a key role in their strategy of exhausting Russian forces. And they say their current positions surrounding Bakhmut will let them strike back inside the 400-year-old city.

0915 GMT — Three killed, 16 injured during Russian strikes on Ukraine

Russian forces pounded various parts of Ukraine, including the flashpoint regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia.

Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said that Russian strikes in the region killed two residents in the cities of Avdiivka and Chasiv Yar.

“Another 6 people in the region were injured,” Kyrylenko said, adding that it is impossible to establish the exact number of casualties in Mariupol and Volnovakha. The two cities are under Russian control.

In Kharkiv, a missile strike on a residential building resulted in a civilian being injured, according to the region’s governor Oleh Synyehubov. He further said on Telegram that a 61-year-old man was injured and hospitalized in the Izium district after an "unknown munition" blew up.

Separately, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukrainian air defence shot down 15 drones and four cruise missiles, the region’s governor Serhii Lysak said on Telegram, further saying that a 27-year-old man was injured due to a rocket strike in Dnipro and was hospitalized.

Lysak also said that seven people were injured when a drone crashed in the Hilarionivska community of the Synelniky district. Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said that one person in the region died due to Russian strikes.

0805 GMT — Ukraine restores power to Russia-occupied nuclear plant

Ukraine reconnected the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to its external power supply after a brief outage that had left it reliant on emergency generators.

Announcing that repair work had been carried out, Ukrainian national grid operator Ukrenergo said: "The station is switching (back) to power supply from the Ukrainian power system."

Back-up diesel generators had earlier kicked in at the plant in southern Ukraine to ensure nuclear fuel was kept cool and prevent a potential disaster.

Each side blamed the other for the power outage. A Russia-installed local official said Ukraine had disconnected a power line and Ukrainian state nuclear energy company Energoatom said the problem was caused by Russian shelling.

0754 GMT — Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant cut off from power grid

Ukraine's occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has been cut off from the power grid again, its Russian administrators and the Ukrainian atomic agency said.

"Due to a high-tension line being cut, the plant lost its external electricity supply," the Russian administration wrote on Telegram, adding the causes of the outage were being investigated and that back-up diesel generators were keeping it working.

Ukraine's nuclear agency Energoatom accused Russia of carrying out an attack on Monday morning that caused the power cut, saying it was the seventh instance of the plant entering "blackout mode" since Moscow's troops took control in March 2022.

0710 GMT — Fighting overnight in the Dnipropetrovsk region

Ukraine says at least eight people were injured and hundreds of buildings were damaged in a Russian air attack.

“The Russian invaders attacked military and infrastructure facilities of the eastern outpost of Ukraine – the city of Dnipro,” Ukraine’s air force said on the Telegram messaging service.

“The attack was carried out by 16 different types of missiles and 20 Shahed-136/131 strike drones."

0700 GMT — Gazprom to ship gas to Europe via Ukraine

Russia's Gazprom said it would ship 40.9 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine.

0230 GMT — F-16 transfer to raise questions of NATO involvement: Russia

The transfer of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine would raise the question of NATO's involvement in the conflict, Russia's Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said.

"There is no infrastructure for the operation of the F-16 in Ukraine and the needed number of pilots and maintenance personnel is not there either," Antonov said in remarks published on the embassy's Telegram messaging channel.

"What will happen if the American fighters take off from NATO airfields, controlled by foreign 'volunteers'?"

0152 GMT — Lula says 'upset' at not meeting Zelenskyy

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he was "upset" he and Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not meet at the G7 summit, adding his Ukrainian counterpart seemed uninterested in negotiating peace with Russia.

Zelenskyy, who emerged from the summit in Hiroshima with fresh diplomatic support and pledges of more military aid, had sought a one-on-one meeting with Lula, who has faced accusations of being soft on Russia over its invasion.

Both leaders said scheduling conflicts had prevented them from meeting – which Zelenskyy quipped had likely left his Brazilian counterpart "disappointed".

"I wasn't disappointed. I was upset, because I'd like to meet him and discuss the matter," Lula told a news conference before heading home from Japan.

But "Zelenskyy is a grown-up. He knows what he's doing," he added.

Lula said his team had scheduled a meeting with Zelensky for Sunday afternoon. But the Ukrainian leader ran late, and his own agenda was full after that, he said.

Zelenskyy got resounding support from G7 leaders at the summit, including long-sought US backing for access to F-16 fighter jets.

For our live updates from Sunday (May 21), click here.