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Ukrainian troops are locked in pitched battles with fierce fighting ongoing, as Russian troops make gains in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions.
However, a former MI6 intelligence over said Vladimir Putin’s decision to replace his defence minister as part of a cabinet reshuffle points to “serious instability right at the heart” of his regime.
Sergei Shoigu was rated by many as the second most powerful person in Russia, Christopher Steele told Sky News, suggesting the change goes beyond a “normal” reshuffle.
It comes as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky sacked Kharkiv’s commander and replaced him with brigadier general Mykhailo Drapatyi amid a surprise attack by Russia.
The surprise northeastern offensive was launched into Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, which Volodymyr Zelensky said had escalated rapidly since it began on Friday.
“Defensive operations and fierce battles are taking place in the Kharkiv region along a significant border strip. Some villages have effectively turned from a grey zone to a war zone,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address.
Fifteen bodies pulled from Belgorod rubble
Russian emergency services on Monday finished clearing the rubble in the region’s capital city of Belgorod, where a section of a residential building collapsed following what authorities said was Ukrainian shelling.
Fifteen bodies were pulled from the rubble, Belgorod regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said, and 27 other people were wounded.
Another three people in the city of Belgorod were killed by shelling late Sunday, he said.
Yevgeny Poddubny, a usually well-connected military correspondent for Russia’s state TV corporation VGTRK, said in a recent Telegram post that the Kharkiv assault marked the beginning of “a new phase.”
“We’re pushing the enemy back from the border, destroying the enemy in order to deprive the Kyiv regime of the opportunity to use relatively cheap rockets to attack Belgorod,” he said.
Sam Rkaina14 May 2024 05:27
US and Ukraine speak about frontline situation over phone
Ukraine’s commander in chief and its defence minister spoke to senior US officials last night as the two sides discussed the war-hit nation’s military aid and the frontline situation, Ukrainian commander Oleksander Syrskyi said.
He said the Ukrainian officials spoke to the US national security advisor Jake Sullivan, defence secretary Lloyd Austin and Charles Q Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“We spoke about the situation at the front, as well the assistance that Ukraine needs on the battlefield,” the top commander wrote on his Telegram channel.
The call came as equipment and munitions began arriving in Ukraine from a $61bn aid package approved last month after months of delays owing to congressional wrangling.
Arpan Rai14 May 2024 05:08
Ukraine’s soldiers battle to stop Putin’s forces advancing around Kharkiv: ‘The next few days are critical’
Moscow’s forces have captured a number of villages and sent thousands of people fleeing their homes. They are trying to broaden the area of its most recent attack, which seemed to take Ukrainian forces by surprise and caused some to retreat from their lightly fortified positions.
The Independent spoke to a colonel from the Ukrainian general staff, who did not want to be named. He said: “The situation is serious and dynamic. It has the potential to develop dangerously very swiftly and the next few days will be critical.”
He said Ukraine “is sending one of our most experienced brigades to reinforce our troops. The Russians are taking very big casualties and I think this brigade, which I know well, will be able to stop the Russian attack from spreading and then push them back or destroy them.”
Arpan Rai14 May 2024 04:56
Biden bans imports of Russian nuclear reactor fuel
Joe Biden has banned imports of Russian-enriched uranium as he looks to disrupt more of Russia’s sources of income amid the war in Ukraine.
The ban on imports of the fuel for nuclear power plants begins in about 90 days, although it allows the Department of Energy to issue waivers in case of supply concerns.
Russia is the world’s top supplier of enriched uranium, and about 24 per cent of the enriched uranium used by US nuclear power plants come from the country.
The law also unlocks about $2.7bn in funding in previous legislation to build out the US uranium fuel industry.
“Today, President Biden signed into law a historic series of actions that will strengthen our nation’s energy and economic security by reducing, and ultimately eliminating, our reliance on Russia for civilian nuclear power,” Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, said in a statement.
Mr Sullivan said the law “delivers on multilateral goals we have set with our allies and partners,” including a pledge last December with Canada, France, Japan and the United Kingdom to collectively invest $4.2bn to expand enrichment and conversion capacity of uranium.
The waivers, if implemented by the Energy Department, allow all the Russian uranium imports the US normally imports through 2027.
Arpan Rai14 May 2024 04:40
Russian advance could open threat to Kharkiv
Russian troops have so far entrenched themselves in the villages of Strilecha, Pylna, Borysivka, Krasne, Oliynykove, Mrakovets, Pletenivka, and from there were launching attacks near Hlyboke Zelene Hatysche, and Buchansk.
The capture of the Donetsk city of Avdiivka in February opened a door for the Kremlin’s troops to push westward, deeper into Donetsk. Russia illegally annexed Donetsk and three other regions in 2022 shortly after it invaded Ukraine, and taking control of all of Donetsk is one of the Kremlin’s main war goals.
If Ukraine isn’t able to halt Moscow’s advance, it could create conditions for a possible attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine‘s second-largest city.
It could also create a “buffer zone” to protect Belgorod, where frequent Ukrainian attacks have embarrassed the Kremlin.
In March, Russia announced plans to evacuate about 9,000 children from the Belgorod region because it was being shelled continuously.
Sam Rkaina14 May 2024 04:27
US official says Russia concentrating its military might in Ukraine’s east
Ukraine’s east is witnessing the most intense Russian assault in the current offensive, a US official said, as Russia’s forces also continue to make significant gains near the country’s northern city Kharkiv.
“They (the Russians) are clearly throwing everything they have in the east,” said a US official briefing reporters ahead of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Kyiv.
As of today, Russia controls about 18 per cent of Ukraine’s land and has been gaining ground since October last year, capturing a number of critical towns and settlements.
Last week, Moscow’s troops entered Ukraine near its second largest city of Kharkiv, opening a new, northeastern front in a war that has for almost two years been largely fought in the east and south. The advance could draw some of Kyiv’s depleted forces away from the east, where Russia has been advancing.
Arpan Rai14 May 2024 04:10
Blinken arrives in Ukraine in show of US solidarity
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reached Kyiv today, marking the first high-level visit from the US since Congress passed a long-delayed $61bn military aid package for the country last month.
Blinken arrived in Kyiv by train in the early hours today and hopes to “send a strong signal of reassurance to the Ukrainians who are obviously in a very difficult moment,” said a US official who briefed reporters travelling with Mr Blinken on condition of anonymity.
“The Secretary’s mission here is really to talk about how our supplemental assistance is going to be executed in a fashion to help shore up their defences (and) enable them to increasingly take back the initiative on the battlefield,” the official said.
Artillery, long-range missiles known as ATACMS and air defence interceptors approved by president Joe Biden on 24 April were already reaching the Ukrainian forces, the official said.
He added that Mr Blinken will reassure Ukrainian officials including president Volodymyr Zelensky of enduring US support and deliver a speech focused on Ukraine’s future, the official said.
Arpan Rai14 May 2024 03:50
Battles ‘dynamic and complicated’ as Russia makes progress
The Kharkiv incursion has effectively pinned Ukrainian forces in the region, while potentially drawing precious reserves away from heavy battles in the Avdiivka and Chasiv Yar areas of the Donetsk region, where Russia’s advance has been far more significant and strategically important.
Ukrainian local officials said they feared Vovchansk’s fate may mirror that of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, Ukrainian cities where fierce fighting and scorched earth tactics forced Ukrainian withdrawals.
Russian forces were inching closer to Vovchansk, and heavy battles were ongoing on the town’s outskirts.
Using assault infantry units Russian forces are attempting to secure positions in three directions, as Ukrainian forces attempt to dislodge them using firepower. Ukrainian commanders describe the battles as dynamic and complicated.
Sam Rkaina14 May 2024 03:27
US aid to Ukraine starting to trickle in
Small batches of U.S. military aid have started to trickle into the front line in the form of much-needed artillery, said Federenko, whose unit received some of the aid.
But it will take at least two months before incoming supplies will meet Kyiv’s needs to hold the line, he said. Until they arrive, Ukraine won’t be able to seize the battlefield initiative, he said.
“They now have an opportunity to attack us while we cannot properly reply,” he said.
Russia’s offensive seeks to take advantage of this window of time. “In order to achieve success, in my opinion, in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the enemy needed to spread ... our defense forces.
Accordingly, the enemy started the campaign in Kharkiv region specifically,” Federenko said.
Top Biden administration officials and Ukrainian national security officials held a 90-minute call on Monday to discuss the situation on the ground in Ukraine as Russia intensifies its bombardment around Kharkiv.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff spoke with Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, and head of the office the president Andriy Yermak, according to Sullivan.
“It was a detailed conversation about the situation on the front, about the capabilities that they are most in need of, and a real triage effort to say, ‘Get us this stuff this fast so that we can be in a position to effectively defend against the Russian onslaught,” Sullivan told reporters at a White House briefing.
Sullivan added that a new influx of U.S. weaponry for Kyiv was expected to be announced by the U.S. administration in the coming days.
Sam Rkaina14 May 2024 02:27
