Ukraine holds about 60% of border town of Vovchansk, deputy governor says
Ukraine still controls about 60% of Vovchansk, an almost deserted town in its northeastern Kharkiv region, despite a relentless Russian offensive, deputy governor Roman Semenukha told national television on Monday.
He said:
The enemy continues to try, especially inside Vovchansk, to push the Ukrainian armed forces out of the town.
About 60% of the city is controlled by the Ukrainian armed forces, meaning that the assaults do not stop.
In recent months, Russian forces have seized the initiative in the conflict, as Kyiv experiences difficult shortages of reserves and weaponry, the latter partly caused by months of wrangling in Congress that delayed a huge US military aid package.
Russian forces launched a surprise assault in Kharkiv region on 10 May that has resulted in their biggest territorial gains in a year-and-a-half.
Ukrainian officials have accused Russian soldiers in Vovchansk of capturing dozens of civilians and using them as “human shields” to defend their command headquarters – a claim that has not yet been independently verified.
Key events
Russia will try to carve out ‘buffer zone’ along Ukrainian border, says US defence secretary
US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said Russian forces will try to make further advances in the “weeks ahead” and try to carve out a “buffer zone” along the Ukrainian border.
Russian forces, which had made only moderate advances in recent months, launched a surprise assault in Kharkiv region on 10 May that has resulted in their biggest territorial gains in a year-and-a-half.
“This is a hard and dangerous fight but Ukraine’s defenders are showing extraordinary courage and skill,” Austin said as he delivered the opening remarks at the 22nd Ramstein-format summit of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group.
“And they are putting the capabilities that this contact group has provided to good use.”
Austin added that Vladimir Putin’s new offensive in Kharkiv has added to the urgency of the west’s support for Ukraine, saying the US is delivering much needed assistance to Kyiv.
The military support being delivered includes 155mm artillery rounds, ammunition for himars rockets, air defence capabilities and anti-armour systems.
Austin said the US will continue to approve “substantial” security assistance packages to Ukraine, meaning a “steady flow” of aid will be given to Kyiv “week after week”.
Putin said during a trip to China last week the north-eastern offensive was in retaliation for Ukraine’s shelling of border regions and that Moscow was trying to create a “security zone”.
Kyiv has experienced difficult shortages of reserves and weaponry, the latter partly caused by months of wrangling in Congress that delayed a huge US military aid package.
Ukraine’s leading mobile operator Kyivstar has allocated $90m (£70.9m) to deal with a suspected Russian cyber-attack on its service.
The hack, described by its CEO as the biggest cyber-attack on telecoms infrastructure in the world, struck Kyivstar in December, damaging infrastructure and disrupting mobile phone signals for millions of Ukrainians.
“Before the cyber-attack, we were moving with an increase of 11%-12% quarter-on-quarter in 2023. The cyber-attack ate up about 3% of annual growth,” CEO Oleksandr Komarov told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
Komarov said the mobile operator allocated 3.6 billion hryvnia ($90.76m) to deal with the aftermath of the attack. It went towards repairing damage as well as on strengthening the system and funding a loyalty program for clients.
Last January, Viktor Zhora, who was a senior figure in Ukraine’s cybersecurity agency, said the country had suffered a threefold growth in cyber-attacks in the past year, with Russian hacking at times deployed in combination with missile strikes.
Zhora said the attacks from Russia had often taken the form of destructive, disk-erasing wiper malware.
The Ukraine Defense Contact Group, also known as the Ramstein format, is meeting today.
The group coordinates assistance from Ukraine’s partners.
“We are grateful to our partners for their staunch support in our fight against Russian aggression,” the Ukrainian defence ministry said.
The 22nd meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (#Ramstein 22) has begun.
We are grateful to our partners for their staunch support in our fight against russian aggression. pic.twitter.com/N0c6hHhMPF
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) May 20, 2024
Summary of the day so far…
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Ukraine still controls about 60% of Vovchansk, an almost deserted town in its northeastern Kharkiv region, despite a relentless Russian offensive, deputy governor Roman Semenukha told national television. He said: “The enemy continues to try, especially inside Vovchansk, to push the Ukrainian armed forces out of the town. About 60% of the city is controlled by the Ukrainian armed forces, meaning that the assaults do not stop.”
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The Russian military has taken full control of the village of Bilohorivka in the Luhansk region of Ukraine and has taken up better positions there, Russia’s defence ministry said. The ministry said in a statement its forces had also been involved in fierce clashes in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region near Vovchansk, Starytsia and Hlyboke where it said they had repelled two counterattacks.
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Russian shelling killed one person in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, regional authorities said. “Another resident of Kherson was killed by Russian shelling,” the region’s governor Oleksandr Prokudin, wrote on Telegram, adding that a 72-year-old man had also been injured in the attack. Zaporizhzhia region head Ivan Fedorov, meanwhile, said Russian forces shelled the village of Stepnogirsk, killing one man.
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A Ukrainian rocket attack targeted a Russian military base in occupied Luhansk’s suburb of Yuvileine on Monday, according to regional governor Artem Lysohor. According to Lysohor, Luhansk’s residents said Russian forces had set up a military camp near civilian buildings in the village.
Zaporizhzhia region head Ivan Fedorov said Russian forces shelled the village of Stepnogirsk, killing one man.
Vladimir Putin has held a phone call with Iran’s interim president Mohammad Mokhber, with the two leaders declaring their “mutual intention to further strengthen Russian-Iranian interaction”, the Kremlin said.
Mokhber was appointed interim president after former president Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash in mountains near the Azerbaijan border on Sunday.
Russia says it has taken control of Bilohorivka in eastern Ukraine
The Russian military has taken full control of the village of Bilohorivka in the Luhansk region of Ukraine and has taken up better positions there, Russia’s defence ministry said.
The ministry said in a statement its forces had also been involved in fierce clashes in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region near Vovchansk, Starytsia and Hlyboke where it said they had repelled two counterattacks. These claims have not yet been independently verified.
Ukraine strikes Russian base in occupied Luhansk’s suburb, governor says
A Ukrainian rocket attack targeted a Russian military base in occupied Luhansk’s suburb of Yuvileine on Monday, according to regional governor Artem Lysohor.
According to Lysohor, Luhansk’s residents said Russian forces had set up a military camp near civilian buildings in the village.
Until 2014, the Academy of Internal Affairs worked in this area, he wrote on Telegram. These claims have not yet been independently verified.
Luhansk – effectively controlled by Russia since 2014 – had been relatively peaceful since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion two years ago.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana, the Russian state news Tass agency reported on Monday.
It said the ministers were meeting to discuss the implementation of Russian-Chinese agreements reached during Vladimir Putin’s state visit to China last week, and events in Iran, whose president and foreign minister were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
In February 2022, China and Russia declared a “no limits” partnership when Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the deadliest land war in Europe since the second world war.
The west says China has played a crucial role in helping Russia withstand sanctions and has supplied key technology which Russia has used on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Russian shelling killed one person in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, regional authorities said.
Kherson was recaptured by Ukrainian forces in late 2022, months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but the region and its largest city have been under persistent Russian attacks since.
“Another resident of Kherson was killed by Russian shelling,” the region’s governor Oleksandr Prokudin, wrote on Telegram, adding that a 72-year-old man had also been injured in the attack.
The Kremlin has said the exercises involving non-strategic nuclear weapons that Vladimir Putin has ordered would be held “in the relevant timeframes”.
Earlier this month, the Russian president ordered his military to practise the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons after what Moscow said were threats from France, Britain and the US.
When asked about the exercises on Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “This is a question for the defence ministry. There is indeed an order from the Supreme commander-in-chief, it will be executed in the relevant timeframes.”
Putin has periodically warned that the country is ready to fight a nuclear war and regularly orders strategic nuclear drills, which typically employ intercontinental ballistic missiles. It is less common for Russia to hold tactical nuclear drills, which use weapons that have a lower yield and are meant to be used on the battlefield.
A court in Siberia has sentenced a local man to 25 years in prison for crimes including treason and attempted arson of a military recruitment office, a Russian lawyers’ association said.
Prosecutors at a military court in Novosibirsk accused Ilya Baburin of trying to burn down the enlistment office with a molotov cocktail at the behest of an unidentified person from Ukraine, Reuters reported.
The court also found him guilty of setting fire to a local music school, which it categorised as a terrorist act.
Baburin, identified in Russian independent media as an IT specialist, is 24 years old.
The Pervy Otdel (First Department) legal association cited his lawyer as saying there was no evidence of Baburin’s involvement in the incidents, in which no casualties were reported.
“No, he did not kill, rape or rob anyone. Even according to the indictment, no one was harmed by his actions”, Zona Solidarnosti (Solidarity Zone), a Telegram channel that provides information about Russian anti-war activists, quoted his lawyer Vasily Dubkov as saying.
“Does a person really deserve to spend half his life in a prison or colony for such crimes?” In his final speech to the court last week before sentencing, Baburin denied any guilt.
Ukraine holds about 60% of border town of Vovchansk, deputy governor says
Ukraine still controls about 60% of Vovchansk, an almost deserted town in its northeastern Kharkiv region, despite a relentless Russian offensive, deputy governor Roman Semenukha told national television on Monday.
He said:
The enemy continues to try, especially inside Vovchansk, to push the Ukrainian armed forces out of the town.
About 60% of the city is controlled by the Ukrainian armed forces, meaning that the assaults do not stop.
In recent months, Russian forces have seized the initiative in the conflict, as Kyiv experiences difficult shortages of reserves and weaponry, the latter partly caused by months of wrangling in Congress that delayed a huge US military aid package.
Russian forces launched a surprise assault in Kharkiv region on 10 May that has resulted in their biggest territorial gains in a year-and-a-half.
Ukrainian officials have accused Russian soldiers in Vovchansk of capturing dozens of civilians and using them as “human shields” to defend their command headquarters – a claim that has not yet been independently verified.
Russia’s labour shortage has been in part caused by the mobilisation of working age soldiers being called up to fight in the war in Ukraine.
In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said Russian parliamentarians are now considering changing the labour code so that “excess labour force” could be moved to places that are short of workers.
Ukraine will introduce hourly energy shutdowns for industrial and household consumers in all regions from 6:00pm local time on Monday until midnight.
The restrictions will not affect critical infrastructure facilities, said Ukraine’s state-owned energy operator, Ukrenergo, on 19 May.
A recent uptick in Russian strikes put a heavy strain on Ukraine’s power grid, with several power plants being destroyed or disabled.
Due to resulting power deficits, Ukraine began implementing rolling shutdowns on 15 May.
These restrictions may last until August, said Yurii Boiko, an adviser to prime minister Denys Shmyhal.
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has sent his condolences to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, over the death of Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi.
According to the Kremlin, Putin told Khamenei in a message:
Please accept my deep condolences in connection with the great tragedy that befell the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Seyed Ebrahim Raisi was an outstanding politician whose entire life was devoted to serving the Motherland.
As a true friend of Russia, he made an invaluable personal contribution to the development of good neighborly relations between our countries and made great efforts to bring them to the level of strategic partnership.
Iranian state-run media have confirmed the death of Raisi and foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a helicopter crash in the province of East Azerbaijan on Sunday as they headed towards the city of Tabriz.
The group were returning from Azerbaijan, where they had attended the inauguration of a dam alongside President Ilham Aliyev, when the helicopter crashed in a mountainous region amid poor weather conditions.
Iran has supplied arms to Russia in its war on Ukraine and the two countries have been strengthening bilateral relations over recent months.
Ukrainian forces shot down all 29 drones used by Russian forces in an overnight attack, Ukraine’s air force said in a statement on Monday.
Sixteen of the drones were shot down over the southern region of Mykolaiv where debris damaged a private residence and caused a fire, the region’s governor said.
Three of the drones were shot down over the western region of Lviv, with no damage reported by local officials. The attack also targeted the Odesa and Poltava regions with drones, in addition to attacking the Kharkiv region with an Iskander-M ballistic missile.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. The time has just gone past 10:30am in Kyiv.
Russia struck a lakeside resort on the edge of Kharkiv on Sunday and attacked villages in the surrounding region, killing at least 11 people, officials said. Prosecutors said six people were killed in the resort, with one missing and 27 injured.
Rescuers said the initial strike was followed by a second strike about 20 minutes later, targeting emergency crews at the scene.
Another five people were killed and nine injured later in the day in two villages in Kupiansk district. Local governor Oleh Syniehubov said Russian forces shelled two villages of the district with a self-propelled multiple rocket launcher.
Prosecutors also said one person was killed in Russian shelling in the town of Vovchansk, a town at the centre of a Russian incursion launched just over a week ago. Three people were injured.
The missile strikes were the latest in what have been constant attacks in recent weeks on the Kharkiv region of north-eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops have launched an offensive.
In other news:
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Russia has said that Ukraine launched a major 62-drone attack on Russian regions forcing an oil refinery to halt operations, and that Kyiv’s forces had fired US, French and Ukrainian missiles at Russian-held territory. Russia said it shot down at least 103 drones, including 62 over Russian regions, as well as Army Tactical Missile System (Atacms) over Crimea, French guided “Hammer” bombs and US High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).
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Local officials said six drones crashed on to the territory of an oil refinery in Slavyansk in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region. Interfax news agency said the refinery halted work after the attack.
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Elsewhere, the Ukrainian navy said had destroyed the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s Project 266-M Kovrovets minesweeper.
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Britain and Finland will sign a strategic partnership on Monday to strengthen ties and counter the threat of Russian aggression, UK foreign secretary David Cameron has said. The two countries will declare Russia as “the most significant and direct threat to European peace and stability”, according to a Foreign Office press release.
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Russia has expressed its condolences over the deaths of Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi and Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-abdollahian who died in a helicopter crash on Sunday. Iran and Russia are allies, with the Islamic Republic supplying drones used in Moscow’s attacks on Ukrainian forces. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov hailed Raisi and Amir-abdollahian as true patriots of the Islamic Republic and reliable friends of Russia. “Their role in strengthening mutually beneficial Russian-Iranian cooperation and trusting partnership is invaluable,” Lavrov said.
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Divisions over whether Ukraine can lawfully be handed an extra €30bn (£26bn) loan drawn from €270bn in seized Russian state assets are likely to be aired at a meeting of G7 finance ministers this week in Stresa, northern Italy.