Closing summary
The blog has now wrapped for up today. Below is a round-up of today’s events.
Anti-Kremlin militia claims to have overrun Russian border settlement in Belgorod. Fighting broke out along the Russian border with Ukraine after self-described Russian partisan forces launching a cross-border raid, claiming to have overrun a border settlement for the first time in the war.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been reconnected to the power grid after it was switched to standby and emergency power supply generators. Russia-installed local official in the Moscow-controlled part of the region Vladimir Rogov said the plant was “completely” disconnected from external power supply after Ukraine disconnected a power line it controls.
12 northern European countries met to discuss stepping up deterrence and security on Nato’s eastern flank and strengthening Ukraine’s defences. Defence ministers from the Northern Group met in Poland on Monday where talks described as “very good” by the Polish defence minister were focused on coordinating ways of providing security to countries in the group.
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer both reaffirmed their support for Ukraine in the UK’s House of Commons this afternoon. The Labour leader also noted that Labour “[welcomes] the decision by our partners on F-16 fighter jets” and said “whichever party is in power in the UK, there will be no letup in Britain’s resolve. We will continue to support Ukraine’s military and its people in its quest for freedom, peace and justice.”
The Russian-imposed leader of the occupied Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, has said that Russian forces have begun demining operations in Bakhmut. Tass quotes him appearing on the Rossiya-24 TV channel and saying: “There is a preliminary demining of the city. It is important for us to carry out a complete, thorough demining. This is a very painstaking and difficult work, given the scale of the hostilities that took place there.”
In another report, Tass quotes a source from the local Russian-imposed officials saying that “a few dozen more residents” remained in Bakhmut, but that “perhaps, the figure will change as the basements of houses are examined”. The source said that the “evacuation” of civilians continues.
Ukrainian troops are still advancing on the flanks of the devastated city, although the “intensity” of their movement has decreased and Russia is bringing in more forces, Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said on Monday. She said that Ukraine had a small foothold inside the city itself, again denying Russia’s assertion that it has established full control over Bakhmut.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had congratulated Wagner and Russian regular forces on “the completion of the operation to liberate Artemovsk [the city’s Soviet-era name]” after Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin posed among the wreckage, and said his mercenary group controlled the entire city at the weekend. It has not been possible for journalists to verify the battlefield situation in the city for months.
At least eight people were wounded and scores of buildings were damaged in a Russian air attack on Dnipropetrovsk region. “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,” the air force said, adding that air defences brought down 20 Russian drones and four cruise missiles. At least one person was injured, and images from the city show destruction of emergency services equipment in what appears to have been a strike on a fire station.
Russia’s ambassador to the US appears to have warned Washington that any strike on Crimea could be considered a strike on Russian territory by Nato after the US president, Joe Biden, said he would support training for Ukrainian pilots on US F-16 fighter jets. In remarks published on the embassy’s Telegram channel, Anatoly Antonov wrote: “I would like to warn representatives of the administration against thoughtless judgments on Crimea, especially in terms of ‘blessing’ the Kyiv regime for air attacks on the peninsula. Let me remind you that strikes on this territory are considered by us as an attack on any other region of the Russian Federation. It is important that the United States is fully aware of the Russian response.”
The EU’s top diplomat will propose further sanctions against Russia, following a promise by G7 leaders to intensify western restrictions on Vladimir Putin’s ability to wage war on Ukraine. Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, said he hoped to soon present “concrete proposals to implement the decision of the G7 on new kinds of sanctions against Russia”.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, has tweeted out his nightly address where he claims Ukraine’s air defence systems have shot down “25 out of 25” Russian drones between Sunday night and Monday morning.
We have already started preparing for this and the coming weeks. We are expecting new meetings and negotiations, so far to a greater extent – visits to us, to our state. We will continue our intensive foreign policy, various non-standard formats, maximum useful attention of the… pic.twitter.com/QDreO5Wn7m
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 22, 2023
The Associated Press reports that defence ministers and senior officials from 12 northern European countries met in Poland on Monday to talk about stepping up deterrence and security on Nato’s eastern flank and strengthening Ukraine’s defences.
They gathered near Warsaw as part of the Northern Group, a platform for developing security initiatives for Nato and European Union members. Members of the Northern Group include Britain, Germany, Poland and Finland.
After the meeting, Poland’s defence minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, said the “very good” talks were focused on coordinating ways of providing security to countries in the group.
He underscored good cooperation with Britain and Sweden, saying the two countries have similar views on threats coming from Russia as it wages war on Ukraine.
“We are looking for joint solutions to ensure security,” Błaszczak said.
He said Poland’s efforts to obtain early warning planes from Sweden were moving forward.
Officials also discussed preparations for the July Nato summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, and Poland’s proposals for it, Błaszczak said.
That summit is expected to gauge prospects for Ukraine’s membership.
Updated
There have been eight injuries and no deaths as a result of the shelling in the Graivoronsky district in Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor for the region, has said during a live broadcast on the Russian social media network VKontakte.
Updated
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the Belgorod governor, has introduced emergency counter-terrorism mesasures, according to this message on Telegram:
“In order to ensure the safety of citizens in the Belgorod region, the legal regime of the counter-terrorist operation has been introduced today, which establishes special measures and temporary restrictions.
“Starting with the verification of documents proving their identity and ending with the suspension of the activities of hazardous industries and organisations that use explosive, radioactive, chemically and biologically hazardous substances.”
Updated
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have both reaffirmed their support for Ukraine in the UK’s House of Commons this afternoon.
Starmer said: “As I told President Zelenskiy when I met him in Kyiv, whichever party is in power in the UK, there will be no letup in Britain’s resolve. We will continue to support Ukraine’s military and its people in its quest for freedom, peace and justice.”
He also noted that Labour “[welcomes] the decision by our partners on F-16 fighter jets”.
Starmer also urged the prime minister to proscribe the Wagner group as terrorists and “to ensure Britain’s sanctions are not just in place, but enforced”.
Speaking beforehand, Sunak said: “When Putin launched his war he gambled that our resolve would falter, but he was wrong then and he is wrong now.
“Russia’s military is failing on the battlefield; their economy is failing at home as we tighten the stranglehold on sanctions; and the image of the G7 leaders standing shoulder to shoulder with President Zelenskiy in Hiroshima sent a powerful message to the world: we will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
“Putin should know that we are not going anywhere.”
Updated
The Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has accused the country’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, of personally ordering the illegal transfer of Ukrainian orphans and suggested he may be guilty of war crimes.
Tsikhanouskaya, who lives in exile in Lithuania, said “ample evidence” had been gathered indicating the “direct involvement” of Lukashenko and his regime in the deportation of Ukrainian children from territories occupied by Russia to Belarus.
“Alexander Lukashenko personally ordered the transfers of orphans to Belarus and facilitated their arrival by financial and organisational support,” states a report Tsikhanouskaya sent to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and EU foreign ministers.
Tsikhanouskaya’s team estimates that at least 2,150 children will have been brought to Belarus by the end of this month. Some have been sent to the Dubrava camp in the Minsk region, which is said to be run by Belaruskali, a state-owned potash company and major source of revenue for the Lukashenko regime.
The charge sheet against Lukashenko and Belaruskali comes amid growing pressure on the EU to tighten up sanctions against Belarus. The EU has already imposed sanctions on Belarus, including Belaruskali, both for its role in supporting the Russian invasion and the brutal crackdown on protesters after the 2020 elections. However, an extension of the sanctions has been held up for months over the question of whether Belaruskali should be granted an exemption in the name of food security.
The European Commission had proposed an exemption for Belaruskali in a belief it would ease global food shortages.
Lithuania, backed by Poland, Estonia and Hungary, is refusing to sign off sanctions if an exemption for Belaruskali is included. Vilnius argues that the market is adapting to provide alternatives to Belarusian potash. “It’s our duty not to fall into the trap of Russian propaganda. No lack of fertilisers [and] sanctions against Russia doesn’t cause food insecurity,” the Lithuanian foreign ministry tweeted on Monday.
Updated
Anti-Kremlin militia claims to have overrun Russian border settlement in Belgorod
Andrew Roth, the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent, has this roundup of what we know so far about the incident on Belgorod:
Fighting has broken out along the Russian border with Ukraine after self-described Russian partisan forces launched a cross-border raid and claimed to have overrun a border settlement for the first time in the war.
The Freedom of Russia Legion, which describes itself as an anti-Kremlin militia seeking to overthrow the Kremlin and liberate Russia from Vladimir Putin, claimed to have crossed the border and overrun the settlement of Kozinka, while sending units into the town of Grayvoron in Russia’s Belgorod region.
Any capture of territory has not been independently confirmed by journalists on the ground. The militia has mostly existed on social media and it is not known to have participated in any major battles during the war.
But both Russia and Ukrainian officials have confirmed fighting at the border and social media video has shown armoured vehicles appearing to overrun a Russian border post near Grayvoron.
“We are the same Russians as you,” said a statement put out by the group on social media. “We are distinguished only by the fact that we no longer wanted to justify the actions of criminals in power and took up arms to defend our and your freedom. But today it’s time for everyone to take responsibility for their future. It’s time to put an end to the Kremlin’s dictatorship.”
Other video posted to social media showed a Russian Mi-8 helicopter trailing flares over the town of Kozinka and videos of smoke rising from the settlement with the sounds of emergency sirens clearly audible.
The governor of the Belgorod region confirmed an attack on Monday, writing that “sabotage and reconnaissance group of the armed forces of Ukraine have entered the territory of the Grayvoron district. The armed forces of the Russian Federation, together with the border service, Rosgvardiya and the FSB, are taking the necessary measures to eliminate the enemy.”
Ukraine has disavowed connection to the Russian partisan fighters, saying that they act independently and are not subject to military control.
The head of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, has posted another update to Telegram about the outbreak of fighting inside Russia. He wrote:
There are three more victims in Grayvoron – two men and one woman with shrapnel wounds, they are in the hospital in a state of moderate severity. All necessary medical assistance is provided.
The shells also damaged three private residential buildings, as a result of which they caught fire. There is also a hit on the administration building.
In the village of Zamostye, a shell hit a kindergarten, causing it to catch fire. There is also an injured woman with a hand wound, assistance was provided on the spot. Damage information is being updated.
Updated
Here is what Russian state-owned media Tass is reporting as what it knows about events in Belgorod:
The head of the Belgorod region Vyacheslav Gladkov reported about the penetration of Ukrainian saboteurs into the Grayvoron district. He clarified that the Russian military, border guards, as well as employees of the National Guard and the FSB are taking “the necessary measures to eliminate the enemy.”
Prior to this, the governor reported two victims of shelling in the village of Glotovo, Graivoronsky district. According to him, a woman with mine-explosive wounds was taken to intensive care in a serious condition, the man’s condition is assessed as moderate.
Later, the Kremlin confirmed that a Ukrainian sabotage group tried to break into the Belgorod region, now it is being squeezed out of Russian territory and destroyed.
There are enough forces and means on the spot to fight saboteurs, Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the president of the Russian Federation, told reporters. He clarified that Putin was informed about the incident.
Peskov said that the purpose of the sabotage was “to divert attention from the Bakhmut direction, to minimize the political effect of the loss.
Christopher Miller, covering the conflict for the FT, has suggested on Twitter that “Ukrainian incursions into poorly defended Russian settlements along the border could be part of the counteroffensive strategy to keep the Kremlin off balance.”
The situation in Belgorod region remains unclear. Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, has published on its Telegram channel what it says is a message from the Freedom of Russia Legion. They claim to be participating in an attack inside the Russian Federation’s borders. Suspilne writes:
“The situation is difficult” in the Belgorod region, the press service of the Freedom of Russia Legion informed us. They said that the Legion and Russian Volunteer Corps are creating a demilitarized zone on the border with the Russian Federation, from where the Russian army will not be able to fire at Ukraine. According to them, they will continue to “move towards the liberation of all of Russia.”
The Kremlin has claimed that Ukraine is behind the incursion. Ukrainian officials have denied this.
The Washington Post is reporting that the UN nuclear watchdog is pushing for a last-minute agreement to safeguard Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant ahead of any counteroffensive. The report comes after the plant lost external power today for the seventh time during the conflict. The Post says that the plan being pushed by the director general of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, has five main points:
According to two diplomats familiar with the negotiations, Grossi’s plan includes five principles: a ban on stationing heavy military equipment and military personnel at the plant; a ban on firing from and toward the plant, including a ban on attacking the personnel at the site; protection of all safety and security systems at the plant; protection of all external power lines; and monitoring of compliance of the above-mentioned principles.
The Post notes that this appears to be less ambitious than Grossi’s previous proposal of a protection zone around the plant.
The plant has been under Russian occupation since the earliest days of the war, and the Russian Federation has claimed to annex the Zaporizhzhia region, despite not fully controlling the territory.
Updated
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of president of Ukraine, has distanced Ukraine from events in Belgorod, where there are reports of an armed incursion into Russian territory. He wrote on Twitter:
The only driving political force in a totalitarian country of tightened screws is always an armed guerrilla movement. 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. As you know, tanks are sold at any Russian military store, and underground guerrilla groups are composed of Russian citizens.
The only driving political force in a totalitarian country of tightened screws is always an armed guerrilla movement. #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. As you know, tanks…
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) May 22, 2023
The Kremlin has accused Ukraine of staging an incursion to distract from the Russian claim to have seized full control of Bakhmut at the weekend.
Here are some pictures of the destruction caused overnight by what Ukraine claims were Russian strikes in Dnipro city in south-eastern Ukraine.
According to the Ukrainian army, Russian forces targeted the Dnipro with 16 missiles and 20 attack drones.
Updated
Kremlin says Putin informed of attempt by 'Ukrainian saboteurs' to cross into Belgorod region
The Russian state-owned Tass news agency has reported on its Telegram feed that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has been informed about what is claimed to be an attempt to infiltrate the Belgorod region by Ukrainian forces.
Citing Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, it posted:
The ministry of defence, the FSB and the border service reported to Putin about an attempt by Ukrainian saboteurs to break into the Belgorod region, Peskov said.
The purpose of the Ukrainian sabotage in the Belgorod region is to divert attention from the situation in the Bakhmut direction, he noted.
Russian forces are working to squeeze out the Ukrainian saboteur group from the territory of the Russian Federation and destroy it. There are enough forces and means, the press secretary of the president of the Russian Federation added.
Reuters reports that Ukraine’s military intelligence service has blamed an armed operation in Belgorod on Russian citizens belonging to two paramilitary groups, Ukrainian media outlet Hromadske said.
It quoted military intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov as saying the Freedom of Russia Legion and Russian Volunteer Corps were responsible for the operation.
Tass identified the territory of the Graivoronsky district as the location for the incident.
None of the claims have been independently verified.
Updated
Reuters reports that Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, claimed on Monday that a Ukrainian army “sabotage group” had entered Russian territory in the Graivoron district, which borders Ukraine.
On Telegram, Gladkov claimed the Russian army and security forces were taking measures to fight off the incursion.
“A sabotage and reconnaissance group of the armed forces of Ukraine has entered the territory of the Graivoronsky district. The Russian armed forces, together with the border service, the Russian guard and the FSB, are taking the necessary measures to eliminate the enemy. I will report the details,” he said.
Updated
Reuters reports that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the private Russian army Wagner, repeated his vow to pull his troops out of Bakhmut in three days, and hand over the defence of the newly captured city to regular troops.
“On the western edges, defensive positions have been set up, and so Wagner will be leaving Artyomovsk between 25 May and 1 June,” he said, using the Soviet-era name for Bakhmut.
“If the Defence Ministry’s own forces aren’t enough, then we have thousands of generals – we just need to put together a battalion of generals, give them all guns, and it’ll all be fine.”
Prigozhin has been a vocal critic of the army and defence establishment support that his Wagner mercenaries have received. Moscow’s defence ministry acknowledged that some Russian troops fell back outside Bakhmut last week, but has denied Prigozhin’s repeated assertion that the flanks were crumbling, or that the military had withheld ammunition from Wagner.
Updated
Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned enterprise for the nation’s nuclear power plants, has released a statement on the restoration of power to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP).
Ukrainian experts restored the operation of the Dniprovsk 750 kV high-voltage power transmission line, from which the temporarily occupied ZNPP supplies its own needs.
The risk of a nuclear and radiation accident is minimised, the situation is stable.
We will remind you that on the morning of 22 May, at 5.26am, this line was disconnected as a result of Russian shelling. Since it is the last one that powers the ZNPP, all backup diesel generators are automatically turned on. As a result, the station experienced a blackout for the seventh time since the beginning of the occupation.
Earlier one of the Russian-installed leaders of the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region claimed it had been Ukraine who had disconnected the power plant.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the Danish foreign minister says his nation remains open to the idea of giving F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, but no firm position has been arrived at.
Rasmussen said: “It doesn’t make sense to train someone to fly a plane if you’ve decided in advance that they can never, ever be allowed to fly the plane. On the other hand, you cannot conclude from this that we have made a decision to donate aircraft.”
This follows on from comments earlier this morning where Rasmussen said his nation would like to host a summit in July about finding peace between Ukraine and Russia.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence appeared to gave a pictorial response to the proposed peace summit, tweeting a picture of a fighter jet superimposed over a peace symbol, with the caption “Ukraine’s Peace Formula”
Ukraine’s Peace Formula
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) May 22, 2023
Art by Yevgen Tonyev pic.twitter.com/LuOq1KNnzO
• This post was amended on 22 May 2023. An earlier version mistakenly identified Rasmussen as the Dutch foreign minister.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
The Russian-imposed leader of the occupied Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, has said that Russian forces have begun demining operations in Bakhmut. Tass quotes him appearing on the Rossiya-24 TV channel and saying: “There is a preliminary demining of the city. It is important for us to carry out a complete, thorough demining. This is a very painstaking and difficult work, given the scale of the hostilities that took place there.”
In another report, Tass quotes a source from the local Russian-imposed officials saying that “a few dozen more residents” remained in Bakhmut, but that “perhaps, the figure will change as the basements of houses are examined”. The source said that the “evacuation” of civilians continues.
Ukrainian troops are still advancing on the flanks of the devastated city, although the “intensity” of their movement has decreased and Russia is bringing in more forces, Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said on Monday. She said that Ukraine had a small foothold inside the city itself, again denying Russia’s assertion that it has established full control over Bakhmut.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had congratulated Wagner and Russian regular forces on “the completion of the operation to liberate Artemovsk [the city’s Soviet-era name]” after Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin posed among the wreckage, and said his mercenary group controlled the entire city at the weekend. It has not been possible for journalists to verify the battlefield situation in the city for months.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been reconnected to the power grid after it was switched to standby and emergency power supply generators. Russia-installed local official in the Moscow-controlled part of the region Vladimir Rogov said the plant was “completely” disconnected from external power supply after Ukraine disconnected a power line it controls.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has said the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) “cannot continue”.
At least eight people were wounded and scores of buildings were damaged in a Russian air attack on Dnipropetrovsk region. “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,” the air force said, adding that air defences brought down 20 Russian drones and four cruise missiles. At least one person was injured, and images from the city show destruction of emergency services equipment in what appears to have been a strike on a fire station.
Russia’s ambassador to the US appears to have warned Washington that any strike on Crimea could be considered a strike on Russian territory by Nato after the US president, Joe Biden, said he would support training for Ukrainian pilots on US F-16 fighter jets. In remarks published on the embassy’s Telegram channel, Anatoly Antonov wrote: “I would like to warn representatives of the administration against thoughtless judgments on Crimea, especially in terms of ‘blessing’ the Kyiv regime for air attacks on the peninsula. Let me remind you that strikes on this territory are considered by us as an attack on any other region of the Russian Federation. It is important that the United States is fully aware of the Russian response.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of president of Ukraine, has said “Crimea is an indisputable and inseparable part of Ukraine. It was, it is and it will be. The liberation of Crimea using any military force and means is the only rational way to stop ‘Russian aggressions’ and bring the world back to international law. It is Ukraine’s direct obligation and necessity today”
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region has claimed on Telegram that an explosive device dropped from an unmanned aerial vehicle in Novaya Tavolzhanka, without causing any injuries.
The governor of Russia’s Bryansk region has claimed this morning that Ukraine has shelled a village.
The EU’s top diplomat will propose further sanctions against Russia, following a promise by G7 leaders to intensify western restrictions on Vladimir Putin’s ability to wage war on Ukraine. Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, said he hoped to soon present “concrete proposals to implement the decision of the G7 on new kinds of sanctions against Russia”.
Updated
Citing Kharkiv’s regional governor, Oleh Synyehubov, Suspilne is reporting that two women have been hospitalised after shelling on Kupiansk. It reports “private houses and civil infrastructure were damaged in the city”.
Updated
Power restored at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – reports
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reports that the external power supply to Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) has been restored, after an earlier outage forced the plant to rely on emergency diesel generators. It posted to Telegram:
Energy workers have restored the power transmission line that feeds the ZNPP. The station is switching to power from the Ukrainian energy system, Ukrenergo reported.
Finland’s state-owned gas wholesaler Gasum said on Monday it had terminated a contract to buy natural gas from Gazprom Export via pipelines from Russia.
Reuters reports Gazprom ceased pipeline-based natural gas deliveries to Gasum in May 2022 in a dispute over payments, and the two sides had been in talks to resolve the matter.
Gazprom demanded that European countries pay for Russian gas supplies in roubles because of sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, which Finland refused to do.
Reuters reports Denmark’s foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen has said his nation would like to host a summit in July about how to find peace between Ukraine and Russia, citing the Ritzau news agency.
Updated
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region has claimed on Telegram that an explosive device dropped from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in Novaya Tavolzhanka. Vyacheslav Gladkov posted:
In Novaya Tavolzhanka, an explosive device was dropped from a drone next to a private residential building. There were no casualties or damage. The UAV itself fell 100 metres from residential buildings. Explosives and operational services are working on the spot.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Ukrainian troops are still advancing on the flanks of the devastated city of Bakhmut, although the “intensity” of their movement has decreased and Russia is bringing in more forces, Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said on Monday.
Reuters reports she said, in televised comments, that Ukraine had a small foothold inside the city itself, again denying Russia’s assertion that it has established full control over Bakhmut.
The claims have not been independently verified.
The Russian-imposed leader of the occupied Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, has said that Russian forces have begun demining operations in Bakhmut. Tass quotes him appearing on the Rossiya-24 TV channel and saying:
There is a preliminary demining of the city. It is important for us to carry out a complete, thorough demining. This is a very painstaking and difficult work, given the scale of the hostilities that took place there.
In another report, Tass quotes a source from the local Russian-imposed officials saying that “a few dozen more residents” remained in Bakhmut, but that “perhaps, the figure will change as the basements of houses are examined”. The source said that the “evacuation” of civilians continues.
Russian sources refer to Bakhmut by its Soviet-era name Artemovsk.
Jennifer Rankin reports from Brussels for the Guardian:
The EU’s top diplomat will propose further sanctions against Russia, following a promise by G7 leaders to intensify western restrictions on Vladimir Putin’s ability to wage war on Ukraine.
Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, said he hoped to soon present “concrete proposals to implement the decision of the G7 on new kinds of sanctions against Russia”. Meeting in Hiroshima over the weekend, leaders of the west’s seven largest economies, plus the heads of the European Commission and Council, pledged to “starve Russia of G7 technology, industrial equipment and services that support its war machine”.
Significantly, they also promised to reduce reliance on civil nuclear goods from Russia and to restrict the trade in diamonds mined, processed or produced in Russia.
Nuclear power and diamonds have increasingly been seen as no-go areas for EU sanctions, because of objections from Hungary and Belgium respectively. Hungary, which has signed a contract with Rosatom to build nuclear reactors, has repeatedly threatened to veto any nuclear sanctions, while Belgium, home to one of the world’s largest diamond trading hubs, has used more subtle diplomacy to get the precious stones off EU sanctions lists. The Belgian government argues that an international agreement to stop Russian stones being traded elsewhere in the world is necessary, rather than unilateral EU action.
Borrell did not mention any specific sector in his comments. The promise to implement the G7 text comes as EU27 member states continue to spar over the current sanctions proposals, largely aimed at clamping down on companies and countries that help Moscow dodge western measures.
Sweden’s foreign minister, Tobias Billström, said talks were well under way and he was confident of an eventual agreement, despite Hungary’s threats to block the latest proposals.
Updated
Earlier we reported remarks published on the Russian embassy in Washington’s Telegram channel by ambassador Anatoly Antonov, in which he appeared to draw a separate line between attacks on Crimea and attacks on the four regions of Ukraine which the Russian Federation claimed to annex last year. He said:
I would like to warn representatives of the administration against thoughtless judgments on Crimea, especially in terms of “blessing” the Kyiv regime for air attacks on the peninsula. Let me remind you that strikes on this territory are considered by us as an attack on any other region of the Russian Federation. It is important that the United States is fully aware of the Russian response.
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of president of Ukraine, appears to have retorted to that this morning in a tweet, saying:
Crimea is an indisputable and inseparable part of Ukraine. It was, it is and it will be. The liberation of Crimea using any military force and means is the only rational way to stop “Russian aggressions” and bring the world back to international law. It is Ukraine’s direct obligation and necessity today …
Crimea is an indisputable and inseparable part of Ukraine. It was, it is and it will be. The liberation of Crimea using any military force and means is the only rational way to stop "Russian aggressions" and bring the world back to international law. It is Ukraine's direct…
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) May 22, 2023
The governor of Russia’s Bryansk region has claimed this morning that Ukraine has shelled a village. In a message on Telegram, Alexander Bogomaz said:
The armed forces of Ukraine fired mortars at the village of Khoromnoe in the Klimovsky district. There were no casualties. As a result of the shelling, one household and an outbuilding caught fire. Operational and emergency services are on site.
Bryansk region is to the north of Ukraine, and shares its borders with Ukraine and Belarus. The claims have not been independently verified.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has said the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) “cannot continue”. In a tweet, he wrote:
Ukraine’s ZNPP this morning lost all external electricity for seventh time during conflict, forcing it to rely on emergency diesel generators for power; nuclear safety situation at the plant extremely vulnerable. We must agree to protect plant now; this situation cannot continue.
#Ukraine’s #ZNPP this morning lost all external electricity for 7th time during conflict, forcing it to rely on emergency diesel generators for power; nuclear safety situation at the plant extremely vulnerable. We must agree to protect plant now; this situation cannot continue.
— Rafael MarianoGrossi (@rafaelmgrossi) May 22, 2023
The Kyiv Post is carrying a video clip which it claims shows damage to one of the fire stations in Dnipro which appears to have been targeted in an overnight attack.
📹This is what one of the fire stations in #Dnipro looks like after the Russian attack pic.twitter.com/JVLKcZyA2G
— KyivPost (@KyivPost) May 22, 2023
Oliver Carroll, foreign correspondent at the Economist, has tweeted one of the images released from the scene, observing “Russia may have targeted emergency services in missile attacks on Dnipro last night. Local authorities reporting massive damage in one of the stations - more than 20 vehicles destroyed.”
Russia may have targeted emergency services in missile attacks on Dnipro last night. Local authorities reporting massive damage in one of the stations - more than 20 vehicles destroyed. pic.twitter.com/CD70GKzh9j
— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) May 22, 2023
Other images released by officials in Ukraine show several views of the damage.
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure since it began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The former commander of joint forces command Richard Barrons has been on Sky News in the UK, and he was asked what difference sending F-16 planes could make to Ukraine’s war effort. He told viewers:
It is a very complex fourth generation aircraft will give Ukraine a decisive advantage over the Russian air force and indeed, over Russian ground forces if they get to the right threshold of capability, and have the family of ammunition that make the aircraft so effective.
It would turn the battle in the skies in favour of Ukraine when Ukraine has enough of aircraft, enough competence with it and enough of the family of missiles that make it effective.
There’s not much wrong with [the Ukrainian air force], it is certainly full of spirit. But it’s aircraft are mostly Russian aircraft, and therefore well known to the Russians. So they’ve not been able to throw the Russian air force out of the skies, and they’ve relied very heavily on their ground air defences. F-16s will give them the ability to take Ukraine air power over Russian forces in Ukraine. That will be a gamechanger.
However, Barrons stressed it was not a short-term project.
We should recognise that F-16s will take about 18 months to become combat effective in Ukraine. So what this signals is an expectation on the part of the G7 and others and President Zelenskiy that whatever the outcome of the offensive they’re about to mount, this war will go on into next year.
Here is an update on the situation overnight in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where Ukraine says at least eight people were wounded and scores 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,” the air force said, adding that air defences brought down 20 Russian drones and four cruise missiles.
At least one man was wounded in the attack on Dnipro city and seven people were injured on an attack on Synelnykivskyi district of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Reuters reports the governor, Serhiy Lysak, said on Telegram.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
A picture is worth a thousand words and the images from the G7 summit in Hiroshima this weekend were a good example of that. Volodymyr Zelenskiy was pictured at the centre of a “family portrait” with G7 leaders at the weekend, symbolising their support for the Ukrainian president.
Just less than 10 years ago the G7 was the G8 – when Russia was a member of the group and president Vladimir Putin attended summits. Moscow was kicked out in 2014 after the invasion of Crimea.
Other pictures showed Zelenskiy being hugged by French president Emmanuel Macron, US president Joe Biden with his arm around him, and sharing smiles and handshakes with other leaders including Canada’s Justin Trudeau and the UK’s Rishi Sunak.
More on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, with Ukraine’s state-owned power generating company Energoatom confirming that it has experienced a power outage.
“Yes, we have the seventh blackout since the start of the [Russian] occupation,” Energoatom told Reuters.
Yuriy Malashko, the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region in Ukraine, said there was a fire at one of the facilities in Zaporizhzhia city due to an overload in the power system.
“Problems with electricity supply that arose in the city of Zaporizhzhia are not related to shelling,” Malashko said on the Telegram messaging app.
Updated
Russia’s ambassador to the US appears to have warned Washington that any strike on Crimea could be considered a strike on Russian territory by Nato after US president Joe Biden said he would support training for Ukrainian pilots on US F-16 fighter jets.
In remarks published on the embassy’s Telegram channel, Anatoly Antonov wrote:
So far Washington is opposing us … by proxy. However, every specialist knows that there is no infrastructure for the use of F-16s in Ukraine, and the required number of pilots and maintenance personnel is not there either.
What would happen if American fighters take off from Nato airfields, operated by foreign ‘volunteers’?
I would like to warn representatives of the administration against thoughtless judgments on Crimea, especially in terms of “blessing” the Kiev regime for air attacks on the peninsula.
Let me remind you that strikes on this territory are considered by us as an attack on any other region of the Russian Federation. It is important that the United States is fully aware of the Russian response.
Updated
Volodymyr Zelenskiy stole the show at the G7 summit, Patrick Wintour writes in his analysis of the weekend, with Zelenskiy’s whirlwind round of diplomacy the culmination of a Ukrainian realisation that for months they have been talking to wrong people.
Yes, it is essential to keep lines constantly open to Ukraine’s invested allies in the west, reaping the rewards such as Joe Biden’s decision finally to lift his veto on Ukrainian pilots training to fly US-made F-16 fighter aircraft, but the identification of the west with Ukraine’s cause is almost complete. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, ended her remarks by saying “Slava Ukrajni – Glory to Europe”.
But Ukraine for months has known it is not telling its story clearly enough to the phalanx of 40 or so nonaligned states that have abstained at successive UN general assembly votes on the war. India, Brazil, China and as many as 20 African states have sat on the sidelines in the key votes.
Updated
Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant put on emergency power supply generators
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been switched to standby and emergency power supply generators, a Russia-installed local official in the Moscow-controlled part of the region says..
Vladimir Rogov said the plant was “completely” disconnected from external power supply after Ukraine disconnected a power line it controls, Reuters reports.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, but Anatoliy Kurtev, Zaporizhzhia city council’s secretary in Ukraine, said that work was ongoing since early Monday to restore power to the city.
“(The power) partially disappeared in Zaporizhzhia due to an emergency situation at one of the energy facilities,” Kurtev said on the Telegram messaging app.
Explosions were heard in the city of Dnipro overnight as well as in Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv, with a nationwide air raid alert activated at 3.48am, according to the Kyiv Independent. The city of Odesa was also reportedly hit by Russian combat drones late on Sunday.
In a Telegram post, the governor of Dnipro, Serhiy Lysak, said: “Thanks to the defence forces, we withstood the attack.”
He later said 15 drones and four cruise missiles had been shot down over the region, while eight people had been injured, including three taken to hospital. Dozens of vehicles were destroyed or damaged as well as nine apartment buildings, several private homes, shops, a kindergarten and administrative buildings, he said.
Ukraine’s armed forces have sent a series of photos from Bakhmut, which show some of the extent of the city’s destruction.
At the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, “I’ll tell you openly: photographs of ruined Hiroshima absolutely remind me of Bakhmut and other similar settlements. Nothing left alive, all the buildings ruined.”
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Bakhmut remains 'epicentre' of combat, Ukraine's armed forces say
Fighting is continuing in Bakhmut, Ukraine’s armed forces have said in their morning update after Russia claimed to have completed the “liberation” of the eastern city over the weekend. Confusion has reigned as Ukrainian officials rejected the claims.
“[In Bakhmut] the enemy continues to lead offensive actions. Fighting for the city of Bakhmut continues,” the armed forces said, adding that over the past day Russian forces had “unsuccessfully tried to recover lost positions south of the [nearby] settlement of Ivanivske”. Russia had also carried out air strikes on Bakhmut.
It has been impossible to verify the conflicting statements over the devastated city, which has assumed symbolic importance as a measure of which side has the resilience to prevail in the war overall.
Here’s our full report on the back-and-forth by Peter Beaumont and Julian Borger:
Updated
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said he is “upset” that he and Volodymyr Zelenskiy did not meet at the G7 summit, adding his Ukrainian counterpart seemed uninterested in negotiating peace with Russia.
AFP reports:
Zelenskiy, 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 Zelenskiy 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 “Zelenskiy is a grown-up. He knows what he’s doing,” he added.
Lula said his team had scheduled a meeting with Zelenskiy for Sunday afternoon. But the Ukrainian leader ran late, and his own agenda was full after that, he said.
Lula said he did not see a point in meeting Zelenskiy now, saying neither he nor Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to want peace.
“For now, they’re both convinced they’re going to win the war,” he said.
Lula is pushing for peace talks and has proposed Brazil as a mediator, along with other “neutral” countries, including China and Indonesia.
But the veteran leftist faced criticism last month when he accused the United States of “encouraging” the war.
After the White House accused him of “parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda”, Lula toned down his rhetoric, saying Brazil condemned Russia’s invasion.
But he renewed his criticism Monday.
US president Joe Biden, he said, is sending the message that “Putin has to surrender and pay for everything he wrecked”.
“That message isn’t helping,” he said.
Updated
Welcome summary
Hello, welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Helen Livingstone and I’ll be bringing you the latest.
Bakhmut and the nearby Donetsk city of Marinka remain the “epicentre” of the conflict, Ukraine’s armed forces have said in their morning update, a day after Russia claimed it had completed its “liberation” of the ruined city.
“[In Bakhmut] the enemy continues to lead offensive actions. Fighting for the city of Bakhmut continues,” the armed forces said, adding that over the past day Russia had “unsuccessfully tried to recover lost positions south of the [nearby] settlement of Ivanivske”.
Confusion has reigned over the situation in Bakhmut after the Russian claim, which cannot be verified independently. Ukrainian officials said they still had a foothold in the city and were encircling it, while Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said at a G7 summit in Hiroshima on Sunday: “Bakhmut is not occupied by Russian Federation as of today. There are no two or three interpretations of this.”
Here are other recent developments:
Zelenskiy secured fresh military aid from the US during a day of frantic diplomatic activity at the G7 summit. US president Joe Biden announced military assistance worth up to $375m (£300m) to Kyiv, telling Zelenskiy the US was doing everything possible to strengthen Ukraine’s defence. The package includes ammunition, artillery, armoured vehicles and training.
Biden told a press conference that he had received a “flat assurance” from Zelenskiy that he would not use western-provided F-16 fighter jets to go into Russian territory. Biden said F-16 warplanes could, however, be used “wherever Russian troops are within Ukraine and the area”. Biden told G7 leaders that Washington supports joint allied training programs for Ukrainian pilots on F-16s warplanes, although Kyiv has not won specific, public commitments for delivery of the fighter jets.
In a G7 speech, Zelenskiy said Kyiv’s plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine was “an obvious expression of rationality”, and sought support for his “peace formula”. He thanked western leaders for achieving “a level of cooperation which ensures that democracy, international law, and freedom are respected”, but questioned: “Is this enough?”
Zelenskiy played down the fact he did not meet Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on the sidelines of the summit, saying it was likely because of scheduling. Lula has said Zelenskiy and Putin bear equal responsibility for the war and accused western powers of encouraging the conflict.
Russia’s foreign ministry dismissed the G7 summit in Japan as a “politicised” event which it said had pumped out anti-Russian and anti-Chinese statements. In a statement posted on Telegram, the Russian foreign ministry said the G7 had “irreversibly deteriorated” and that the forum had become “an ‘incubator’ where, under the leadership of the Anglo-Saxons, destructive initiatives that undermine global stability are prepared”.
Berlin police have opened an investigation into the suspected poisoning of two Russian journalists visiting the city for a conference last month organised by the Russian Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The probe comes after Russian investigative media group Agentsvo wrote that the two women had reported symptoms that pointed to possible poisoning around the time of the event at the end of April.
The head of Russia’s Security Council Nikolai Patrushev will hold talks on Monday with Chen Wenqing, member of the Chinese Communist party’s politburo who oversees police, legal affairs and intelligence, the Russian RIA state news reported. Patrushev, a former chief of the FSB internal security service, is widely seen as one of the most hawkish members of Putin’s inner circle.
