Japan will take time to phase out Russian oil imports after agreeing on a ban with other G7 nations to counter Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, prime minister Fumio Kishida has said.
“For a country heavily dependent on energy imports, it’s a very difficult decision. But G7 coordination is most important at a time like now,” Kishida told reporters according to Reuters, repeating comments he made at the G7 meeting.
As for the timing of the reduction or stoppage of (Russian) oil imports, we will consider it while gauging the actual situation. We will take our time to take steps towards a phase-out.
He did not elaborate.
The G7 nations committed to the move “in a timely and orderly fashion” at an online meeting on Sunday to put further pressure on president Vladimir Putin, although members such as resource-poor Japan depend heavily on Russian fuel.
There have been no ships loading Russian oil for Japan since mid-April, according to Refinitiv data. About 1.9 million barrels were exported from Russia to Japan in April, 33% down from the same month a year ago.
The Ukraine crisis has highlighted Japan’s energy dependence on Russia even as Tokyo has acted swiftly and in tandem with the G7 in instituting sanctions.
The latest ban underlines a turn in Japan’s policy. Japan has said it would be difficult to immediately cut off Russian oil imports, which accounted for about 33 million barrels of Japan’s overall oil imports, or 4%, for 2021.
It has already said it will ban Russian coal imports in stages, leaving just liquefied natural gas (LNG). Japan is in a particularly tough spot since it shut down the bulk of its nuclear reactors following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Russia was Japan’s fifth-biggest supplier of crude oil and LNG last year.
A Fiji court has suspended the execution of a US warrant to seize a $300 million super yacht Washington claims is owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, prosecutors have said according to AFP.
The 348-foot Amadea has been targeted because Kerimov is among a group of oligarchs close to Moscow who have been sanctioned by the United States over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The yacht remains in Fiji police custody and is blocked from leaving the Pacific nation’s waters despite the warrant suspension, prosecutors said.
The luxurious Amadea – which has a helipad, pool, jacuzzi and “winter garden” on its sun deck, according to tracking website superyachtfan.com – has been berthed in Lautoka, Fiji in the South Pacific since mid-April.
Last week, Fijian law enforcement, backed by US agents, took control of the super yacht under the warrant, which was lodged with the island state’s High Court.
The US Justice Department requested the vessel, which it has estimated to be valued at $300 million, be seized for violating sanctions and for alleged ties to corruption.
But the company officially registered as the Amadea’s owner, Millemarin Investment, on Friday obtained a temporary stay on the US warrant’s execution from the Court of Appeal, Fiji prosecutors said.
The Court of Appeal “granted an interim stay on the execution of the warrant”, a spokeswoman for Fiji’s office of the director of public prosecutions told AFP on Monday.
The case is scheduled to return to court on Thursday and the US warrant remains officially registered with the Fiji courts, she said.
“The yacht has been further restrained from leaving the Fiji waters until further notice,” she added.
“It is in Fiji police custody at this point.”
The UK government has expanded its sanctions against Russia to include punitive import tariffs on Russian precious metals, as well as export bans on certain UK products, to increase economic pressure on Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine, Guardian business reporter Joanna Partridge writes.
The third wave of sanctions was announced by the Department for International Trade just hours ahead of Russia’s 9 May Victory Day celebrations.
The latest £1.7bn sanctions on Russia and neighbouring Belarus – which has joined in the invasion of Ukraine and been used as a base for Russian soldiers – are aimed at knocking Putin’s ability to fund his war.
The new package of restrictions includes £1.4bn of UK import tariffs – border taxes paid by buyers on goods shipped from Russia – that will affect imports of platinum, palladium and other products including chemicals from Russia.
The international trade department said Russia was highly dependent on the UK for exports of the precious metals, which will be subject to additional 35 percentage point tariffs.
The latest measures, announced by the international trade secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, bring the total value of products subject to full or partial trade sanctions since Russia’s invasion to more than £4bn.
For more, read on here:
Here’s a bit more from Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, who gave an interview to Reuters during his unannounced visit to Ukraine on Sunday, telling the newswire the world would do everything possible to ensure that Russian president Vladimir Putin loses his war in Ukraine, including keeping Moscow under sanctions for years.
“What Putin needs to understand is that the west is absolutely determined and resolved to stand against what he is doing,” Trudeau said.
His illegal war, his escalations, his crossing of red lines by choosing to further invade Ukraine means that we will do as a world everything we can to make sure that he loses.
Speaking on the sidelines of an unannounced visit to Ukraine for talks with president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whom he calls a friend, Trudeau said Putin was making a terrible mistake.
“He is inflicting atrocities upon civilians, and it’s all something that he is doing because he thought he could win. But he can only lose,” Trudeau said when asked what he would tell Putin on the eve of Russia’s commemorations of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two, which Moscow calls the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45.
Trudeau also echoed a statement from the Group of Seven issued earlier on Sunday, following a video call of G7 leaders with Zelinskiy, on how Putin’s “actions bring shame on Russia and the historic sacrifices of its people” during the second world war.
Quite frankly, on Victory in Europe Day, when we all celebrate the victory over fascism of so many decades ago. Vladimir Putin is bringing shame upon the memory of the millions of Russians who fought and died in the fight for freedom and the fight against fascism.
Earlier, Trudeau said Canada would provide new weapons and equipment for Ukraine and will reopen its embassy in Kyiv, the country’s capital.
Trudeau said all the countries that have imposed sanctions on Moscow, which have taken a steep toll on the Russian economy, are determined to keep them in place as long as necessary, even for years.
Vladimir Putin cannot upend over 70 years of stability and growth and prosperity for the world and expect to continue to benefit from that stability, growth and prosperity.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive northeast of Kharkiv has likely forced Russian troops to redeploy to the city instead of reinforcing stalled Russian offensive operations elsewhere in eastern Ukraine, the Institute of War has said in its latest analysis of the conflict.
Russian forces are likely amassing in Belgorod to deploy to the Kharkiv City region to prevent the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the area from reaching the international border.
Russian forces were also continuing their attempt to reach the administrative borders of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts but have not made substantial territorial gains since securing Popasna on Saturday, the US-based think tank added.
Other potential developments to look out for were:
- Russian forces will likely continue to merge offensive efforts southward of Izyum with westward advances from Donetsk in order to encircle Ukrainian troops in southern Kharkiv oblast and Western Donetsk.
- Russia may change the status of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, possibly by merging them into a single “Donbas Republic” and/or by annexing them directly to Russia.
- Russian forces have apparently decided to seize the Azovstal plant through ground assault and will likely continue operations accordingly.
- Russian forces may be preparing to conduct renewed offensive operations to capture the entirety of Kherson oblast in the coming days.
#Russian forces did not make any significant advances on any axis of advance on May 8. The #Ukrainian counteroffensive NE of #Kharkiv City has likely forced Russian troops to redeploy to that area.
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) May 8, 2022
Read the latest from @TheStudyofWar & @criticalthreats: https://t.co/K87fihFBxY pic.twitter.com/QtaXCwPIy4
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy presented Ukraine’s famous mine sniffing dog Patron and his owner with a medal on Sunday to recognise their dedicated service since Russia’s invasion, Reuters has reported.
The pint-size Jack Russell terrier has been credited with detecting more than 200 explosives and preventing their detonation since the start of the war on 24 February, quickly becoming a canine symbol of Ukrainian patriotism.
Zelenskiy made the award at a news conference in Kyiv with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. Patron barked and wagged his tail, prompting laughter from the audience. Trudeau patted his pockets as though looking for a dog treat.
“Today, I want to award those Ukrainian heroes who are already clearing our land of mines. And together with our heroes, a wonderful little sapper – Patron – who helps not only to neutralise explosives, but also to teach our children the necessary safety rules in areas where there is a mine threat,” Zelenskiy said in a statement after the ceremony.
The award also went to Patron’s owner, a major in the Civil Protection Service, Myhailo Iliev.
Patron the dog has received an official award alongside his colleagues from Ukraine President Zelenskyy, in the presence of Canada PM @JustinTrudeau. What an honour! pic.twitter.com/uig8VFi5z4
— Stratcom Centre UA (@StratcomCentre) May 9, 2022
Updated
An update from one of the Guardian’s correspondents in Ukraine, Emma Graham Harrison, on the evacuees from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol:
The convoy arrived in the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia after dark, carrying about 170 evacuees. There were 51 civilians who had been sheltering in the Azovstal complex, and about 120 others who had walked or hitched lifts across the city to a pickup point in a ruined shopping mall.
The journey of just over 200 kilometres took two days, as the convoy of buses was held for hours at Russian checkpoints and the hungry, weary residents inside interrogated.
“I didn’t think we would make it out alive, so I don’t have any plans for my future,” said Natalia, who worked at the Azovstal plant all her adult life and then sheltered for over two months in its network of bunkers.
She had fled with little more than a collection of drawings made by children in their shelter; she had organised drawing competitions to occupy them and kept the pictures to remember. “I wouldn’t have given them up even if they shot me.
About 36 hours later the group filed slowly off the buses into the late evening dark, and fell upon a hot meal prepared in the registration tent. It also had clothes and toys, as most people fled with just a couple of bags.
“It is a breath of fresh air to be on Ukrainian-held land,” said Tatiana, who fled with her daughter and granddaughter.
Read on here:
Updated
The Guardian’s Ed Ram has managed to take some pictures of the civilians evacuated from the Azovstal steelworks to Zaporizhzhia:
Vladimir Putin’s regime is “mirroring” the actions of the Nazis, the UK’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, will say as the Russian leader stages a military parade to celebrate victory over Hitler’s fascists, according to an advance copy of the speech.
In a speech on Monday, Wallace will say president Putin and his inner circle should share the same fate as the Nazis, who ended up defeated and facing the Nuremberg trials for their atrocities.
In Moscow, Putin will watch the Victory Day parade of military hardware, marking the defeat of the Nazis in 1945.
Ukraine speech: Tomorrow Defence Secretary @BWallaceMP will say Russian military leaders are as much to blame for the invasion as President Putin and should face the consequences 👇
— Ministry of Defence Press Office (@DefenceHQPress) May 8, 2022
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/ckPmf8HhBc
According to extracts briefed to the Telegraph and Times, Wallace will say: “Through their invasion of Ukraine, Putin, his inner circle and generals are now mirroring the fascism and tyranny of 70 years ago, repeating the errors of last century’s totalitarian regimes.
“Their fate must also, surely, eventually be the same.”
Read on here in this report by PA’s political editor David Hughes:
Updated
Hello, this is Helen Livingstone taking over from my colleague Vivian Ho to bring you the latest developments from the conflict in Ukraine.
“Russia will lose, because evil always loses,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said in his latest nightly address on Sunday, 8 May, when Ukraine marks the end of the second world war with its remembrance and reconciliation day.
The main thing I felt today was the world’s even greater willingness to help us. And the fact that we have already achieved a historic result, because it is clear to the whole free world that Ukraine is the party of good in this war.
Russia marks its second world war Victory Day on 9 May, Zelenskiy noted, “when peace should be the main word. For all normal people.”
But he said, Russia had killed about 60 people in a “targeted” airstrike on a school in Luhansk, while another missile struck a residential building in the Odesa region. There was further shelling in the regions Sumy, the Donbas and Kharkiv.
The Russian army would not be itself if it did not kill today - on the eve of certainly important days for any European.
He also thanked Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, who along with several other western leaders visited Kyiv on Sunday, saying that they had agreed to expand economic and defence cooperation and Canada had made the “extremely important decision” to remove all barriers to trade for one year.
He also said that Canada had “a strong potential in mine clearance” and that “we expect that this potential will be used in Ukraine - where the Russian occupiers left thousands of mines, tripwire mines, shells.”
A summary of the latest developments
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirmed that 60 people who were sheltering in a school in Bilohorivka were killed when Russian forces bombed it this weekend. The United Nations has condemned the attack, with secretary-general António Guterres saying he was “appalled” by it.
- More than 170 civilians were successfully evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol and have arrived in Zaporizhzhia. Officials said that more than 600 people have been evacuated from Azovstal and Mariupol in total.
- Members of Ukraine’s Azov battalion trapped inside Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant meanwhile said they fear they will be killed if captured by Russian forces, as they pleaded with Ukrainian authorities to help arrange their extraction. Speaking to the media from inside the besieged steelworks, Lieut Illya Samoilenko vowed to fight on, saying that surrender would be a “gift” to the enemy.
- US president Joe Biden and other G7 leaders held a video call with Zelenskiy in a show of unity ahead of Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on Monday. The G7 said it was committed to phasing out or banning Russian oil and denounced president Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. “His actions bring shame on Russia and the historic sacrifices of its people,” the group said in a statement, referring to Soviet Russia’s role in defeating Nazi Germany 77 years ago.
- New US visa bans on more than 2,600 Russian and Belarusian military officials include personnel believed to have operated in Bucha, the town outside Kyiv that has become synonymous with war crimes, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said.
- America’s top diplomat to Ukraine, Kristina Kvien, arrived with her team in Kyiv today in a step towards resuming the country’s presence in the capital. The visit was timed to commemorate Victory in Europe Day on Sunday.
- Russian airstrikes on Sunday wounded one woman and knocked out electricity to six settlements in the Odesa oblast, authorities said.
- Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau promised new weapons and other equipment for Ukraine after a surprise visit to the country during which he toured Irpin, a Kyiv suburb and scene of some of the worst early attacks by Russia was among western leaders who made. He also said Canada would remove trade tariffs on all Ukrainian imports to Canada for next year.
- Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said Berlin had “made a mistake” after it banned all flags including Ukrainian flags as part of its decision to suppress all displays of public support for the Russian invasion on Victory Day. “Taking a Ukrainian flag away from peaceful protestors is an attack on everyone who now defends Europe and Germany from Russian aggression with this flag in hands.”
-
The US president’s wife, Jill Biden, met with Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska on another unannounced visit on Sunday to mark Mother’s Day. Meanwhile U2’s Bono and the Edge performed in a Kyiv bomb shelter.
- In an address to mark Ukraine’s 8 May remembrance and reconciliation day, Zelenskiy said his country paid homage to all those who helped defeat Adolf Hitler but accused Russia of repeating his crimes. “This year we say ‘Never again’ differently. We hear ‘Never again’ differently. It sounds painful, cruel. Without an exclamation, but with a question mark. You say: never again? Tell Ukraine about it.”
- Ukraine will prevail over Russia as freedom prevailed over the Nazi dictatorship in 1945, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said in a TV address to mark the 77th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day. Scholz, whose relations with Zelenskiy have been frosty, has not yet said whether he will accept an invitation to travel to Kyiv on Monday.
- The UK government has expanded its sanctions against Russia to include punitive import tariffs on Russian precious metals, as well as export bans on certain UK products, to increase economic pressure on Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine.
- Vladimir Putin’s regime is “mirroring” the actions of the Nazis, the UK’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, will say on Monday as the Russian leader stages a military parade to celebrate Russia’s second world war victory, according to an advance copy of the speech. Wallace will say president Putin and his inner circle should share the same fate as the Nazis, who ended up defeated and facing the Nuremberg trials for their atrocities.
- Emmanuel Macron, the French president, is set to travel to Berlin for talks with Scholz on Monday and to make a major address.
Updated
Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, was one of several western leaders who made a surprise visit to Ukraine today. During his visit, he announced that Canada would be providing an additional $50m in military assistance.
Updated
US first lady Jill Biden met today with Olena Zelenska, wife of Volodymyr Zelenskiy, outside a public school in Uzhhorod. Here are some photos:
Photograph: Reuters
Photograph: Reuters
Updated
60 people confirmed killed at school bombed by Russians
Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirmed late Sunday what many had feared but were hoping would not be true: 60 people who were sheltering in the Bilohorivka school that Russian forces bombed this weekend were killed in the attack.
About 90 people had been sheltering in that school at the time of the attack.
In news overnight, dozens of people are feared dead after a bomb hit a school in east Ukraine.
— Sam Wilkinson (@WilkoSam) May 8, 2022
About 90 people had been sheltering in the building and 30 were rescued, seven of them wounded, from the rubble of the school in Bilohorivka
António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, issued a statement Sunday saying he was “appalled” by the attack on the school.
“This attack is yet another reminder that in this war, as in so many other conflicts, it is civilians that pay the highest price,” said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the secretary-general.
Read more here:
Updated
After today’s successful arrival in Zaporizhzhia, the total number of people evacuated from Azovstal and Mariupol is now more than 600.
🔴BREAKING: 170+ people just arrived in Zaporizhzhia, through a @UNOCHA - @ICRC operation. This bring the total number of people evacuated from Azovstal & Mariupol to more than 600.
— OCHA Ukraine (@OCHA_Ukraine) May 8, 2022
The @UN will continue its efforts to reach people in need of assistance. https://t.co/is3FgxReLB pic.twitter.com/EU27DKor72
I'm relieved to confirm that we managed to bring 174 more people to safety from the hell of Mariupol today.
— Osnat Lubrani (@OsnatLubrani) May 8, 2022
Our work is not yet done. I don't forget those who've been left behind. pic.twitter.com/D7VpVVAl62
Mykhaylo Podolyak, aide to president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Twitter that they “won’t stop until we evacuate all our people” from Azovstal. “The life of every defender is sacred to the Ukrainian state,” he said.
“Every conversation of the president with the leaders of the world begins with the word ‘Azovstal’,” Podolyak said. “We calculate all formats, and if the history of international law does not know such formats - we offer new ones. We managed to get women and children out of the factory, but we will not stop until we get everyone out.”
Kyiv has responded to Berlin police confiscating a Ukrainian flag today in Germany.
To recap: with tensions heightened on the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender in World War II, the city of Berlin decided to suppress all public displays of support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine - everything from Russian flags to the beeping of horns at car rallies. Officials included Ukrainian flags under this decision, and earlier today police were filmed confiscating a large flag.
Berlin made a mistake by prohibiting Ukrainian symbols. It’s deeply false to treat them equally with Russian symbols. Taking a Ukrainian flag away from peaceful protestors is an attack on everyone who now defends Europe and Germany from Russian aggression with this flag in hands.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) May 8, 2022
Civilians from Azovstal arrive in Zaporizhzhia
After weeks of living under siege, more than 170 civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol have arrived in Zaporizhzhia.
BREAKING: After weeks of living largely underground, over 170 civilians from Azovstal and Mariupol area have arrived in Zaporizhzhia.
— ICRC (@ICRC) May 8, 2022
This is the 3rd safe passage operation we’ve coordinated with @UN.
We’re deeply relieved we could help more civilians get to a safer place. pic.twitter.com/xVDw195VLn
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said yesterday that more than 300 civilians had been rescued from Azovstal. But Reuters is reporting that captain Sviatoslav Palamar, a deputy commander of Ukraine’s Azov regiment, cannot say for certain if all civilians have been evacuated from the plant as Ukrainian fighters are not able to check and clear all the bombed areas.
New US visa bans for accused Bucha attackers
Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, said on Sunday that the new US visa bans on more than 2,600 Russian and Belarusian military officials include personnel believed to have operated in Bucha, the town outside Kyiv that has become synonymous with war crimes.
Images that emerged from Bucha after Ukrainian forces retook the region showed bodies lying in the streets or half-buried in mass graves. The corpses of civilians displayed signs of torture, some blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs when they were shot and killed in an execution style.
Reuters reported that when announcing the visa restrictions on 2,596 Russian military officials and 13 Belarusian ones, Blinken made a point to say that “included among this group are personnel who reportedly took part in Russian military activities in Bucha, the horrors of which have shocked the world”.
Russian officials have said the killings were faked.
Russia's forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine, killed thousands of civilians, and created a humanitarian catastrophe. In response, the @StateDept has imposed visa restrictions on over 2,600 Russian and Belarusian military and other officials to promote accountability.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) May 8, 2022
Updated
G7: world must intensify economic pressure on Putin
Volodymyr Zelenskiy met today with G7 leaders via video conference to discuss the war in Ukraine.
Downing Street has just released a readout from the meeting, noting that Boris Johnson “agreed with G7 leaders that the world must intensify economic pressure on Putin in any way possible, and said the west must not allow the war to turn into a stalemate that only magnified suffering.”
“Ukraine needed to receive military equipment that allowed them to not just hold ground in Ukraine, but recapture it, the Prime Minister told the leaders,” a Downing Street spokeswoman said.
Meanwhile, on Twitter, Emmanuel Macron, president of France, said the objective of the video conference was the “respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. This war must end!”
“Sanctions taken by G7 members against Russia are unprecedented,” Macron said. “They will get even stronger. We pledge today to phase out our dependence on Russian energy.”
Les sanctions prises par les membres du G7 à l’égard de la Russie sont sans précédent. Elles se renforceront encore. Nous nous engageons aujourd’hui à éliminer progressivement notre dépendance à l’énergie russe.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) May 8, 2022
Updated
The ministry of culture and information policy of Ukraine has an ongoing thread on the churches and temples destroyed so far in the Russian invasion.
The list is lengthy and the damaged holy sites are spread all around the country. They include a burned-down church in the Kyiv region that was built in 1873, a wooden 160-year-old church that was destroyed in the Zhytomyr Oblast and the chapel of the Holy Martyr Tatiana that was damaged in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol.
Тред про те, як росія українські церкви та храми "денацифікувала"👇 pic.twitter.com/P9Xkyi15Mk
— Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (@MKIPUkraine) May 8, 2022
12 березня, під час бомбування міста Святогірськ (Донецька область), у якому проживають виключно мирні жителі, було частково зруйновано Святогірську лавру. pic.twitter.com/85PRvAQl6D
— Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (@MKIPUkraine) May 8, 2022
Унаслідок обстрілів та пожежі постраждали фасади, покрівля та інтер’єри Вознесенської церкви у селі Лукашівка Чернігівської області. pic.twitter.com/Tgch31fJQd
— Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (@MKIPUkraine) May 8, 2022
8 березня від обстрілу суттєвих руйнувань зазнав храм на честь святителя Тихона у місті Гуляйполе Пологівського району Запорізької області. pic.twitter.com/DD6HuuOwG5
— Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (@MKIPUkraine) May 8, 2022
7 березня росіяни знищили 160-річний дерев’яний храм на честь Пресвятої Богородиці у селі В’язівка Житомирської області. pic.twitter.com/dlJVYhjT9n
— Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (@MKIPUkraine) May 8, 2022
6 березня у місті Малин на Житомирщині снаряд окупантів розірвався поряд із Покровською церквою у самому центрі міста. pic.twitter.com/rBQbajHFIZ
— Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (@MKIPUkraine) May 8, 2022
5 березня внаслідок ворожого обстрілу постраждав храм Вознесіння Господнього у селі Бобрик Київської області. pic.twitter.com/t11MNJiC2r
— Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (@MKIPUkraine) May 8, 2022
У Маріуполі через бойові дії постраждала каплиця святої мучениці Тетяни, що розташована на території Приазовського державного технічного університету. pic.twitter.com/p9pbg1M3IZ
— Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (@MKIPUkraine) May 8, 2022
Свято-Михайлівський собор, Маріуполь. Частково зруйнований рашистами pic.twitter.com/QI0ZOJok5P
— Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (@MKIPUkraine) May 8, 2022
Унаслідок російських обстрілів зазнав руйнувань Димитрієвський храм в смт Верхньоторецьке Донецької області. pic.twitter.com/uWO4OS4xNw
— Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (@MKIPUkraine) May 8, 2022
У селі Фасова на Київщині кілька російських снарядів впали на територію Жіночого монастиря на честь Ікони Божої Матері «Услишательниці». Зруйновано дзвіницю, монашеський корпус. pic.twitter.com/Kk7FvMIGXX
— Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (@MKIPUkraine) May 8, 2022
Російські військові злочинці "денацифікували" Свято-Духівський храм в місті Ірміно Луганської області. pic.twitter.com/aPRkkIZQN7
— Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (@MKIPUkraine) May 8, 2022
7 березня у селі Заворичі Броварського району Київської області в результаті ворожих обстрілів згоріла Георгіївська церква (збудована у 1873 році). pic.twitter.com/aue5lxuRlo
— Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (@MKIPUkraine) May 8, 2022
Updated
Russian airstrikes on Sunday wounded one woman and knocked out electricity to six settlements in the Odesa oblast, authorities said.
On May 8 at 16:20 local time, the Russian troops launched 3 missiles on Odesa from the Black Sea. One was shot down by Ukrainian air defense, the other two hit a residential area and destroyed recreation areas — Operational Command South pic.twitter.com/drtb0vxbi1
— Hromadske Int. (@Hromadske) May 8, 2022
As a result of Russian missile strikes in the Odesa region on Sunday, a woman was wounded, civilian infrastructure was damaged, and six settlements stay without electricity.
— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) May 8, 2022
Sumy shelling: a missile hit a Jewish cemetery pic.twitter.com/B1ROR0UAGE
— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) May 8, 2022
Today, Russia shelled in Odesa and Sumy. Air alerts sounded in most regions of the country
— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) May 8, 2022
Intensified shelling of Odesa is registered in recent days: 3 more Russian rockets were fired against the city. One was shot down by air defense, but two hit a residential area.
— UkraineWorld (@ukraine_world) May 8, 2022
U2’s Bono and the Edge performed in a bomb shelter in Kyiv today. Here’s some video of their performance:
Updated
As expected, the atmosphere in Germany continues to be tense, with police in Berlin confiscating a Ukrainian flag today as part of the city’s decision to include Ukrainian flags in their suppression of public displays of support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender in World War II.
The Guardian’s Philip Oltermann reported earlier that politicians were avoiding gatherings marking the anniversary, amid fears that commemorative events could be used for propaganda purposes.
In Berlin, police take away a Ukrainian flag. Today is the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation in Ukraine – known as Victory in Europe Day in other countries.
— Michael MacKay (@mhmck) May 8, 2022
These are disturbing images – a sign strategic corruption by the Russian fascist regime goes very deep in Germany. https://t.co/pwJG7jF2Fo
Vladimir Putin has tried to justify his invasion Ukraine by claiming he was going to “de-nazify” the country. Meanwhile, Germany has been criticized for not taking a hard enough stance against Russia, especially in divesting from Russian oil.
The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, called the ban on the Ukrainian flag “a slap in the face of the Ukrainian people”.
Updated
Here's a summary of the latest developments...
- The US has announced new sanctions on Russia - including against three Russian television stations, Gazprombank executives and a ban on Americans providing accounting and consulting services to Russians.
- Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with G7 leaders today to discuss the war in Ukraine and new measures to punish Moscow. The US president, Joe Biden, was due to meet leaders at 11am ET (3pm GMT) from his home in Delaware.
- The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, made an unannounced visit today to the Ukrainian town of Irpin. Irpin was retaken from Russian troops in late March following fierce fighting.
- Jill Biden has made an unannounced visit to western Ukraine to visit the Ukrainian first lady, Olena Zelenska to show US support on Mother’s Day.
- Ukrainian forces at the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol have vowed to continue fighting for “as long as we are alive”. Capt Sviatoslav Palamar, a deputy commander of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, also pleaded with the international community to help evacuate wounded soldiers.
- Ukraine’s ministry of foreign affairs has strongly condemned Russian shelling of a school in Bilohorivka, which is thought to have been sheltering 60 people. In a post on Twitter the ministry said: “#Russia committed this brutal war crime shortly before the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, constantly repeating the tragedy of World War II. #StopRussianWar”
- President Zelenskiy has compared Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to the actions of the Nazis in the second world war, as Ukraine marks its 8 May Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation.
-
At least two people have been killed and 60 more are feared dead
- after Russian bombs hit a school in the Ukrainian village of Bilohorivka, Serhiy Gaidai, governor of Luhansk, said on Sunday. Gaidai said Russia dropped a bomb on Saturday afternoon on the school where about 90 people were sheltering, causing a fire that engulfed the building. Thirty people have been rescued.
That’s it from me, Miranda, for today. Handing over now to Vivian Ho. Thanks for reading.
Updated
G7 leaders have released a joint statement in which they pledged to reinforce Russia’s economic isolation and “elevate” a campaign against Russian elites who support its president, Vladimir Putin, reports Reuters.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said that today was an 8 May “like no other”, as he condemned Russia’s “barbaric” invasion of Ukraine.
“We support Ukraine in the fight against the aggressor,” he said, in comments marking Victory in Europe day. “Not doing so would mean capitulating to sheer violence and empowering the aggressor.”
He told the German public that “fear must not paralyse us” and said he was “deeply convinced” that Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, will not win the war.
“Ukraine will survive,” he said. “Freedom and security will prevail - just as freedom and security triumphed over lack of freedom, violence and dictatorship 77 years ago.”
Updated
US unveils new raft of sanctions against Russia - including tv stations and Gazprombank executives
The US has announced new sanctions on Russia - including against three Russian television stations, Gazprombank executives and a ban on Americans providing accounting and consulting services to Russians.
The latest effort to increase pressure on Vladimir Putin came as Joe Biden and other G7 leaders met virtually with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to discuss the war.
“This is not a full block. We’re not freezing the assets of Gazprombank or prohibiting any transactions with Gazprombank,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters. “What we’re signalling is that Gazprombank is not a safe haven, and so we’re sanctioning some of their top business executives ... to create a chilling effect.”
Eight executives from Sberbank, which holds one-third of Russia’s banking assets, were added to the sanctions list, reports Reuters. Moscow Industrial Bank and its 10 subsidiaries were also added.
Updated
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, was on CNN’s State of the Union show this morning.
Asked by anchor Jake Tapper if the Russian air raid on a village school in eastern Ukraine this weekend, that is feared to have killed as many as 60 of the 90 civilians sheltering there, is a war crime, she said:
We [the US] have called out Russia very early on for committing war crimes and this contributes to that.
She added:
We are going to continue to work with the Ukrainian prosecutors to document evidence of their [Russia’s] war crimes so they can be held accountable. This just adds to the long list we already have.
US president Joe Biden first said in mid-March that he now regarded Russian president Vladimir Putin as a war criminal.
“I think he is a war criminal,” Biden told a reporter who asked him about Putin, following a searing address and plea for aid by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to the US Congress by video, on March 16, playing a video that showed graphic images of Ukrainian civilians slain in Russia’s attacks on the country.
Then in early April, Biden called for Putin to be tried for war crimes, after evidence emerged of atrocities including rape and summary executions of Ukrainian civilians by the Russian military during its brief but barbaric occupation of Bucha, on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv. Biden called Putin “brutal”.
The US first lady, Jill Biden, has shared a photo of herself with her Ukrainian counterpart, Olena Zelenska, saying: “My heart is with you”.
On this Mother’s Day, my heart is with you, First Lady Olena Zelenska, and all of the brave and resilient mothers of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/tCMXCXhgiY
— Jill Biden (@FLOTUS) May 8, 2022
America’s top diplomat to Ukraine, Kristina Kvien, arrived with her team in Kyiv today in a step towards resuming the country’s presence in the capital.
The announcemen, by a senior state department official, comes after the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, last month pledged to reopen Kyiv’s US embassy soon.
The latest visit was timed to commemorate Victory in Europe Day on Sunday, the official said, reports Reuters. Russia celebrates the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany on its Victory Day on Monday.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with G7 leaders ahead of Russia's Victory Day
Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with G7 leaders today to discuss the war in Ukraine and new measures to punish Moscow.
The US president, Joe Biden, was due to meet leaders at 11am ET (3pm GMT) from his home in Delaware. A White House official said the meeting was underway, reports Reuters.
The White House said leaders planned to discuss further sanctions on Russia.
It said in a statement:
They will discuss the latest developments in Russia’s war against Ukraine; the global impact of Putin’s war; showing support for Ukraine and Ukraine’s future; and demonstrating continued G7 unity in our collective response, including building on our unprecedented sanctions to impose severe costs for Putin’s war.
The meeting comes ahead of Russia’s Victory Day celebrations tomorrow.
Updated
Trudeau makes unannounced visit to Irpin
The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, made an unannounced visit today to the Ukrainian town of Irpin.
Irpin was retaken from Russian troops in late March following fierce fighting.
The town’s mayor, Oleksandr Markushyn, made the announcement of Trudeau’s visit on Telegram:
I’ve just had an honour to meet with the Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau, who came to Irpin to see with his own eyes all the horror which Russian occupiers have caused to our town.
He also posted a picture of Trudeau standing on a street to the backdrop of destroyed apartment buildings.
Updated
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has said that he has discussed the unblocking of Ukraine’s food exports with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in a bid to ensure global food security.
Before the war Ukraine, one of the world’s major sources of grain and oilseeds, used to export most of its cereals through its Black Sea ports.
But they have been blocked since Russia’s invasion on 24 February.
Michael Clarke, a visiting professor of defence studies, at King’s College London, has written a really interesting piece for the BBC arguing that Putin faces only different kinds of defeat.
Here’s a short extract of his conclusion, but you can read the whole piece here:
Any significant Russian military success will likely create a major, open-ended insurgency that will get bigger for every district Russian forces may overrun. Putin went for broke in February with Plan A. The failure of that scheme means that plans B, C or any subsequent plans still leaves Russia going for broke - needing to suppress some or all of a very big country.
One way or another, Russia will have to keep fighting in Ukraine, either against the population, or against the Ukrainian army, and quite possibly both simultaneously. And as long as Kyiv sticks to its current line that demands Russian withdrawal before any concessions can be contemplated, there is not much Putin can do but carry grimly on.
Updated
US first lady Jill Biden visits Ukraine
Jill Biden has made an unannounced visit to western Ukraine to visit the Ukranian first lady, Olena Zelenska to show US support on Mother’s Day.
The US first lady told Zelenska:
I wanted to come on Mother’s Day. I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to stop and this war has been brutal and that the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine.
The Associated Press reports:
Biden spent about two hours in Ukraine, traveling by vehicle to the town of Uzhhorod, about a 10-minute drive from a Slovakian village that she toured on the border.
Zelenska thanked Biden for her “courageous act” and said:
We understand what it takes for the US first lady to come here during a war when military actions are taking place every day, where the air sirens are happening every day – even today.
The two first ladies came together in a small classroom, sitting across a table from one another and greeting each other in front of reporters before they met in private. Zelenska and her children have been at an undisclosed location for their safety.
The school where they met has been turned into transitional housing for Ukrainian migrants from elsewhere in the country.
The visit allowed Biden to conduct the kind of personal diplomacy that her husband would like to be doing himself.
President Joe Biden said during his visit to Poland in March that he was disappointed he could not visit Ukraine to see conditions “first-hand” but that he was not allowed, likely due to security reasons. The White House said as recently as last week that the president “would love to visit” but there were no plans for him to do so at this time.
The meeting came about after the two first ladies exchanged correspondence in recent weeks, according to US officials who declined to provide further details because they were not authorised to discuss the ladies’ private communications.
As she arrived at the school, Biden, who was wearing a Mother’s Day corsage that was a gift from her husband, embraced Zelenska and presented her with a bouquet.
After their private meeting, the two joined a group of children who live at the school in making tissue-paper bears to give as Mother’s Day gifts.
Biden’s visit follows recent stops in the war-torn country by US house Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress, as well as a joint trip by US secretary of state Antony Blinken and US defence secretary Lloyd Austin to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv.
Her visit was limited to western Ukraine; Russia is concentrating its military power in eastern Ukraine, and she was not in harm’s way. On the same day as Biden’s visit, a Russian bomb flattened a school in eastern Ukraine that had been sheltering about 90 people in its basement, with dozens feared dead.
Earlier, in the Slovakian border village of Vysne Nemecke, she toured its border processing facility, surveying operations set up by the United Nations and other relief organizations to assist Ukrainians seeking refuge. Biden attended a religious service in a tent set up as a chapel, where a priest intoned, “We pray for the people of Ukraine.”
And before that, in Kosice, Biden met and offered support to Ukrainian mothers in Slovakia who have been displaced by Russia’s war. She assured them that the “hearts of the American people” are behind them.
At a bus station in the city that is now a 24-hour refugee processing center, Biden found herself in an extended conversation with a Ukrainian woman who said she struggles to explain the war to her three children because she cannot understand it herself.
“I cannot explain because I don’t know myself and I’m a teacher,” Victorie Kutocha, who had her arms around her seven-year-old daughter, Yulie, told Biden.
At one point, Kutocha asked, “Why?” seeming to seek an explanation for Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine on 24 February. ‘It’s so hard to understand,” the first lady replied.
The 24-hour facility is one of six refugee centers in Slovakia, providing an average of 300 to 350 people daily with food, showers, clothing, emergency on-site accommodations and other services, according to information provided by the White House.
Biden also dropped in at a Slovakian public school that has taken in displaced students.
Slovakian and Ukrainian moms were brought together at the school for a Mother’s Day event while their children made crafts to give them as gifts.
Biden went from table to table meeting the mothers and kids. She told some of the women that she wanted to come and “ say the hearts of the American people are with the mothers of Ukraine.”
“I just wanted to come and show you our support,” she said before departing for Vysne Nemecke.
Biden is on a four-day visit to Eastern Europe to highlight U.S. support for Ukrainian refugees and for the allied countries such as Romania and Slovakia that are providing a safe haven for them.
She spent Friday and Saturday in Romania, visiting with U.S. troops and meeting with Ukrainian refugee mothers and children.
Updated
A little bit of positivity for Kyiv residents today, well the U2 fans among them at least, as Bono and The Edge from the band performed in a bomb shelter in Ukraine’s capital.
The Dublin band, who said they were invited to perform by president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, shared the news in a post on Twitter:
President @ZelenskyyUa invited us to perform in Kyiv as a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people and so that’s what we’ve come to do. -- Bono and The Edge #StandWithUkraine
— U2 (@U2) May 8, 2022
Bono and guitarist The Edge played with Ukrainian band, Antytila to a small crowd.
They performed the Ben E King classic Stand By Me and other songs in the subway station that now serves as a bomb shelter.
Kyiv metro. Just the legendary Bono from the band U2 sings with Taras Topola.
— Good morning, Ukraine (@good_ukraine) May 8, 2022
We are unbreakable. We are invincible. The whole world supports us.
Glory to Ukraine! 🇺🇦#Bono #U2 #StandWithUkraine #Artists pic.twitter.com/7QqoQ1jVtr
This made me cry:
Bono singing in #Kyiv bomb shelter…
— olexander scherba🇺🇦 (@olex_scherba) May 8, 2022
Thank you, @U2!#StandWithUkraine #StopRussia pic.twitter.com/PaQDKOvsY1
Updated
The Associated Press have filed this report from Russia, as it celebrates Victory Day, which marks the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945:
AP reports:
Red Soviet flags and orange-and-black striped military ribbons are on display in Russian cities and towns. Neighbourhoods are staging holiday concerts. Flowers are being laid by veterans’ groups at monuments to the Great Patriotic War, as the second world war is known in the country.
At first glance, preparations for Monday’s celebration of Victory Day, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, seem to be the same as ever. But the mood this year is very different, because Russian troops are fighting and dying again.
And this battle, now in its 11th week, is going on in neighbouring Ukraine, against what the government has falsely called a campaign against “Nazis”.
The pride and patriotism usually associated with Russia’s most important holiday, marked by a huge parade of soldiers and military hardware through Red Square, is mixing with apprehension and unease over what this year’s Victory Day may bring.
Some Russians fear that President Vladimir Putin will use it to declare that what the Kremlin has previously called a “special military operation” in Ukraine will now be a fully-fledged war – bringing with it a broad mobilisation of troops to bolster Russia’s forces.
Historian Ivan Kurilla wrote on Facebook:
I can’t remember a time when the May 9 holiday was anticipated with such anxiety.
Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said Moscow was covertly preparing such a plan. British defence secretary Ben Wallace told LBC Radio that Putin was “laying the ground for being able to say, Look, this is now a war against Nazis, and what I need is more people.’”
The Kremlin denied having such plans, calling the reports “untrue” and “nonsense”.
Asked by the Associated Press on Friday whether mobilisation rumours could dampen the Victory Day mood, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “nothing will cast a shadow” over “the sacred day, the most important day” for Russians.
Still, human rights groups reported a rise in calls from people asking about laws concerning mobilisation and their rights in case of being ordered to join the military.
Pavel Chikov, founder of the Agora legal aid group, on the messaging app Telegram, said:
Questions about who can be called up and how have started to flow on a mass scale through our hotline about the rights of conscripts and the military.
Russian state TV has ramped up the patriotic rhetoric. In announcing the 24 February military operation, Putin declared it was aimed at the “demilitarisation” of Ukraine to remove a perceived military threat to Russia by “neo-Nazis”.
A recent TV commentary said Putin’s words were “not an abstract thing and not a slogan” and praised Russia’s success in Ukraine, even though Moscow’s troops have gotten bogged down, making only minor gains in recent weeks.
Ukraine, which has a democratically elected Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust, and the West have condemned the remarks as a fictitious cover for a blunt act of aggression.
But many Russians fed a steady diet of the official narrative have cheered on their troops, comparing them to “our grandfathers” who fought the Germans.
Popular support in Russia for the war in Ukraine is difficult to gauge in a country that has seen a steady crackdown on journalists in recent years, with independent media outlets shut down and state-controlled television providing a pervasive influence.
A recent poll by the respected independent Levada Center found that 82% of Russians remain concerned by the military campaign in Ukraine. The vast majority of them 47% are worried about the deaths of civilians and Russian soldiers in the war, along with the devastation and suffering. Only 6% of those concerned by the war said they were bothered by the alleged presence of “Nazis” and “fascists” in Ukraine.
In a recent commentary.political analyst Andrei Kolesnikov said:
A significant part of the population is horrified, and even those who support the war are in a permanent psychological militant state of a perpetual nightmare.
A government campaign encouraging support for the military is using the distinctive black-and-orange St. George’s ribbon that is traditionally associated with Victory Day. The letter “Z” has become a symbol of the conflict, decorating buildings, posters and billboards across Russia, and many forms of it use the ribbon’s colours and pattern.
Rallies supporting the troops have taken place in recent days at second world war memorials, with participants singing songs from the 1940s.
One official has suggested that Victory Day marchers display photos of soldiers now fighting in Ukraine.
Normally on the holiday, Russians carry portraits of their relatives who took part in the second world war to honour those in the so-called “Immortal Regiment” from a conflict in which the Soviet Union lost a staggering 27 million people.
Updated
Katerina Sergatskova, editor-in-chief at Zaborona Media, (an independent media outlet covering social trends and culture in post-socialist countries in Eastern Europe) has tweeted a thread of the main points made in the press conference:
Commanders of #Azov regiment who resists #Russia in Azovstal plant in #Mariupol tell during the press-conference via Zoom, that about 25,000 civilians have been killed in the city by Russia.
— katerina sergatskova (@KSergatskova) May 8, 2022
In this thread you can read the most important things they tell. pic.twitter.com/Hy25FDkTQ5
Here are the quotes she picks out from a press conference by the commanders of Azov regiment in he Azovstal plant in Mariupol. This is an unverified translation:
Civilians were evacuated in three days recently. We do not know if everyone was evacuated. From politicians we hear that it was success. But during the evacuation two servicemen were killed and six injured. This is the price of the evacuation of civilians.
[...]
On the territory of the Azovstal plant there are many civilian and military casualties, and tens of thousands of citizens died as a result of Russia’s actions during 2,5 months, they didn’t have a chance to be evacuated timely.
[...]
We have been asking for the evacuation of civilians for 2.5 months, and only now we have managed to evacuate several hundred. It is joy through tears.
[...]
No one expected us to stand for so long. Our government failed to save Mariupol. We are called heroes, and we should not flaunt it, because we do our job. The heroes are next to me. Many people gave their lives for the city, for the state and for the citizens of Ukraine.
[...]
We could retreat from Mariupol, because we saw what a dangerous situation. But we decided to stay here, and we had an order to defend Mariupol.
[...]
Many government officials have been sabotaging Ukraine’s defense for eight years. Everyone interfered, we knew that a great war with Russia was coming, and we were preparing. We didn’t get Javelins or coaches, we collected everything ourselves: information, ammunition.
[...]
We (Azov) were called a paramilitary group and radicals [by the West, as well as RU propaganda].Where we were radicals is in defending our country. We did great damage to the enemy. We received no help: no artillery or aircraft. We were left alone and we were alone for 8 years.
[...]
We know our past. We have been volunteers since 2014, there were many different people. But we decided to leave our past behind and become professional military. We wanted to create a new modern Ukrainian army, and trained as it should, at the highest level.
[...]
We are located 100 kilometers from the main Ukrainian positions. It is a shame to run away from here. Another option is to lay down your arms and surrender. The last option is to stand and fight.
[...]
We knew that the Azov Regiment had no high chance of survival. We cannot surrender and give up to the enemy. Because every POW is a resource for exchange to increase the level of political negotiations. They take away attention from another, it is a scattering of attention.
[...]
Moreover, not so long ago in April, Russian propaganda showed that they had captured Azov soldier. He had a large tattoo on his shoulder. They showed that he was alive, and a few days later sent a message to his mother that he had been strangled to death. They always do.
[...]
Russians are not interested in our lives. At the time, we had a lot of Russian POWs, and they are in the exchange fund, they are alive. We keep the agreements, the Russians do not.
[...]
We are fighting for a free world here. If #Russia will crash #Ukraine, and #Mariupol is the main location in this war, they will go further: to Poland, to the Baltic countries.
Ukrainian forces at besieged Mariupol steel plant vow to fight 'as long as we are alive'
Ukrainian forces at the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol have vowed to continue fighting for “as long as we are alive”.
Capt Sviatoslav Palamar, a deputy commandor of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, also pleaded with the international community to help evacuate wounded soldiers.
He told an online conference:
We will continue to fight as long as we are alive to repel the Russian occupiers.
Calling for urgency to evacuate wounded soldiers, he said:
We don’t have much time, we are coming under intense shelling.
Updated
Moscow residents appeared anxious but resilient as Russia prepared to celebrate Victory Day on Monday, reports Reuters.
“Emotionally it affects you because I have two sisters living in Ukraine,” said Larisa. “Of course, it is very difficult to communicate with them now – very difficult. They have their own information war going on now.”
She added: “In Russia as a whole, there is a lot of cohesion now among the masses in connection with these events: what I can say is that patriotism is growing.”
According to opinion polls, most Russians support the military operation and president Vladimir Putin’s approval rating has risen more than 14 points to 81.5% since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Updated
Manoeuvres update:
- Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday its forces had destroyed a Ukrainian navy ship near Odesa with a missile strike overnight, and had destroyed four Ukrainian warplanes, four helicopters and an assault boat in the past 24 hours.
- Ukraine said its forces had repulsed nine Russian attacks in Donetsk and Luhansk, destroying 19 tanks and 20 combat vehicles.
- The Luhansk governor said Ukrainian forces had retreated from the city of Popasna, which has been the focus of intense fighting. “Everything was destroyed there. Our troops retreated to more fortified positions,” he told Ukrainian television. Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Russia’s republic of Chechnya, said earlier his soldiers had taken control of most of Popasna.
Updated
We are getting more details from the Russian bombing of a village school in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, where as many as 60 people are feared to have been killed.
Governor Serhiy Gaidai said Russian forces dropped a bomb on Saturday afternoon on the school in Bilohorivka where about 90 people were sheltering, sparking a fire that engulfed the building.
Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Gaidai said:
The fire was extinguished after nearly four hours, then the rubble was cleared, and, unfortunately, the bodies of two people were found.
Thirty people were evacuated from the rubble, seven of whom were injured. Sixty people were likely to have died under the rubble of buildings.
Mariana Betsa, a former spokesperson for the Ukranian ministry of foreign affairs, now Ukrainian ambassador to Estonia, posted this footage, which appears to show the destroyed school:
No words… 60 people killed as a result of Russian bombing a school in Bilogorivka on May 7 - officials #StopRussia #StandWithUkraine pic.twitter.com/ZXhaqcQIM7
— Mariana Betsa (@Mariana_Betsa) May 8, 2022
Ukrainian politician Serhiy Prytula posted:
Russians dropped a bomb on a school in #Bilohorivka. 60 civilians dead. One more proof of russian conscious policy to eliminate the people of Ukraine. One more war crime adds to atrocities happening now in #Mariupol, Popasna &more.
— Serhiy Prytula (@serhiyprytula) May 8, 2022
No russian crimes will be forgotten or forgiven pic.twitter.com/aFlr3aHRYq
Updated
Ukrainian troops have retreated from the eastern city of Popasna, the governor of Luhansk region said on Sunday, confirming previous reports that it had been taken.
Ukrainian troops withdrew from Popasna in Luhansk Oblast to more fortified positions — Serhiy Haidai, Head of Luhansk Regional Military Administration 1/2
— Hromadske Int. (@Hromadske) May 8, 2022
Reuters reports:
The head of Russia’s republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, had said on Sunday his troops had taken control of most of Popasna.
Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai told Ukraine television that Ukrainian troops had retreated to take up more fortified positions.
Russian forces launched a new offensive in April along most of Ukraine’s eastern flank, with some of the most intense attacks and shelling taking place around Popasna in the Luhansk region.
Independent Ukrainian media outlet Hromadske reported him saying:
Ukrainian troops withdrew a little from Popasna because the city was under shelling for more than two months. Everything is destroyed there. That’s why Ukrainian troops retreated to stronger positions, which were prepared in advance.
Updated
The UK government is scrambling to rehouse hundreds of Ukrainians granted visas under the Homes for Ukraine scheme because the people they were supposed to stay with have been deemed “unsuitable”, the Observer can reveal.
Refugee charities have warned since the scheme’s launch that with most of the refugees being women and children, and many matches made on social media websites such as Facebook, the scheme risked being targeted by predatory men.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), which runs the scheme, has insisted that no visa is issued until the Home Office has completed checks on every adult in a sponsor household.
However, a source with links to the DLUHC told the Observer that the department is “looking for bridging accommodation for a group of 600 refugees who have come to the UK, but the people they have come to stay with have been found to be unsuitable”. This included sponsors with a criminal record.
Updated
Utterly gut-wrenching reporting from the Sunday Times Chief Foreign correspondent Christina Lamb today, who reports from a small village an hour north-west of Kyiv.
‘My men have had some vodka. Now they want some entertainment …’ Chilling words and truly a story I wish i didn’t have to write. Just hope this time - for once - these brave survivors get justice #ukrainehttps://t.co/C8cGr8wFIG
— christinalamb (@christinalamb) May 8, 2022
It’s a very distressing read of rape, murder and brutalisation, but an important one.
Updated
Politicians in Berlin are to stay away from gatherings celebrating the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender in 1945 this year, amid fears that commerative events could be used for propaganda purposes.
Justifying her and her senators’ absence at the traditional wreath-layings at the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin’s Treptower Park Berlin’s mayor Franziska Giffey said:
The situation is very oppressive, and any commemorations have to take that into account.
The Russian embassy in the German capital, which has organised the wreath-layings in the past, has not made its plans public this year due to security concerns.
Germany’s surrender in WW2 is traditionally celebrated in Germany and western Europe on 8 May. Due to time difference, the event is marked on 9 May in Russia, Belarus, Serbia and Israel.
Berlin’s senator for interior affairs, Iris Spranger, said police would seek to suppress any public displays of support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 8 and 9 May, including the beeping of horns at car rallies. The display of Russian flags in the vicinity of 15 memorial sites is banned.
The city’s decision to also include Ukrainian flags in its ban has been heavily criticised by the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany. Andrij Melnyk said the ban, which exempts flag displays by diplomats, was “a slap in the face of the Ukrainian people”.
A protest march against Russia’s invasion, entitled “No to the war in Ukraine”, has been registered at the Brandenburg Gate on Sunday.
The Institute for the Study of War has predicted that Ukrainian forces in Kharkiv oblast are likely to advance to the Russian border in the coming days or weeks.
The #Ukrainian counteroffensive northeast of #Kharkiv is making significant progress and will likely advance to the #Russian border in the coming days or weeks.
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) May 8, 2022
Read the latest report from @TheStudyofWar and @criticalthreats: https://t.co/Ya6pu4PTDd pic.twitter.com/eWEb4Ozvtb
According to a recent report by the US thinktank, the Ukrainian counter-offensive north-east of Kharkiv is making significant progress.
The report, written by Mason Clark, Karolina Hird and Kateryna Stepanenko, states its “key takeaways”:
- Russian forces destroyed several bridges to slow Ukrainian forces and may be conducting a limited withdrawal north-east of Kharkiv city in the face of the successful Ukrainian counter-offensive.
- Ukrainian forces are making significant progress around Kharkiv and will likely advance to the Russian border in the coming days.
- Ukrainian forces continued to repel Russian advances toward Barvinvoke and Russian forces have likely abandoned efforts to drive directly south-east toward Slovyansk. ISW cannot confirm claims of a Ukrainian counter-offensive toward Izyum at this time.
- Russian forces claimed to capture Popasna on May 7 but remain largely stalled in eastern Ukraine.
- The Ukrainian government confirmed the last remaining civilians trapped in the Azovstal plant evacuated on May 7, though the remaining Ukrainian defenders appear unlikely to surrender. ISW will likely be unable to report any discrete changes in control of terrain until Russian forces capture the plant as a whole due to the poor information environment in Mariupol.
- By all indications, Russian forces will announce the creation of a Kherson people’s republic or possibly forcibly annex Kherson Oblast in the coming weeks to cement its occupation administration and attempt to permanently strip these territories from Ukraine.
- Russian forces continued to target Odesa with cruise missile strikes and conduct false-flag attacks in Transnistria over the past several days.
Updated
The leader of Germany’s Bundestag, Bärbel Bas, has arrived in Kyiv to honour second world war victims and hold talks with Ukrainian authorities about supporting the country further.
Bundestagspräsidentin @baerbelbas in Kyjiw. pic.twitter.com/o2yKCHXm5n
— Vassili Golod (@VassiliGolod) May 8, 2022
Updated
'The temperature was wild': Luhansk governor speaks about school bombing
The governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region has said he is “hoping for the best” that there will be survivors following a Russian airstrike on the school sheltering civilians in the village of Bilohorivka.
Serhiy Haidai told reporters:
An aircraft bomb went into a school. Unfortunately, it is completely destroyed … There were 60 people hiding from the shelling …
Considering it was an aircraft bomb, not an artillery shell, when the explosion happened, the temperature was wild. Of course, our state service emergency workers will try to clear the debris as fast as they can, but the chances of people still being alive are small.
But we hope for the best. A bit later, when the debris is cleared, I will report on the situation. Maybe, someone will actually stay alive.
Updated
If you missed Daniel Boffey’s heartbreaking report on the last days of the besieged Azovstal steelworks in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, do it give it a read.
“Holding up”, wrote Denys Prokopenko, commander of Ukraine’s Azov regiment, in his latest WhatsApp message to his wife Kateryna from the besieged Azovstal steelworks in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.
Speaking via Zoom from Krakow, in eastern Poland, alongside three fellow wives and partners of soldiers living under the remorseless Russian shelling and infiltrating raids, Kateryna, 27, says she is doing everything she can think of to ensure the message at 10pm on Friday evening is not one of her husband’s last.
It is now two weeks since the last Ukrainian defenders of the flattened city of Mariupol, in south-east Ukraine, withdrew to the sprawling complex of hot and fetid tunnels, along with thousands of terrified civilians, including children.
Full text from Zelenskiy’s 8 May address
My colleague Daniel Boffey, who is in Kyiv, has been in touch this morning, and has supplied me with the text of Volodymr Zelenskiy’s 8 May address this morning entitled “Address by the President of Ukraine on the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation”.
Here it is in full:
Can spring be black and white? Is there eternal February? Are golden words devalued? Unfortunately, Ukraine knows the answers to all these questions. Unfortunately, the answers are “yes”.
Every year on May 8, together with the entire civilized world, we honor everyone who defended the planet from Nazism during World War II. Millions of lost lives, crippled destinies, tortured souls and millions of reasons to say to evil: never again!
We knew the price our ancestors paid for this wisdom. We knew how important it is to preserve it and pass it on to posterity. But we had no idea that our generation would witness the desecration of the words, which, as it turned out, are not the truth for everyone.
This year we say “Never again” differently. We hear “Never again” differently. It sounds painful, cruel. Without an exclamation, but with a question mark. You say: never again? Tell Ukraine about it.
On February 24, the word “never” was erased. Shot and bombed. By hundreds of missiles at 4am, which woke up the entire Ukraine. We heard terrible explosions. We heard: again!
The city of Borodyanka is one of the many victims of this crime! Behind me is one of many witnesses! Not a military facility, not a secret base, but a simple nine-storey building. Can it pose a security threat to Russia, to 1/8 of the land, the world’s second army, a nuclear state? Can anything be more absurd than this question? It can.
250kg high explosive bombs, with which the superpower shelled this small town. And it went numb. It cannot say today: never again! It cannot say anything today. But here everything is clear without words.
Just look at this house. There used to be walls here. They once had photos on them. And in the photos there were those who once went through the hell of war. Fifty men who were sent to Germany for forced labor. Those who were burned alive when the Nazis burned more than 100 houses here.
250 soldiers who died on the fronts of World War II, and a total of almost 1,000 residents of Borodyanka who fought and defeated Nazism. To ensure: never again. They fought for the future of children, for the life that was here until February 24.
Imagine people going to bed in each of these apartments. They wish good night to each other. Turn off the light. Hug their loved ones. Close their eyes. They dream of something. There is complete silence. They all fall asleep, not knowing that not everyone will wake up. They sleep soundly. They have a dream of something pleasant. But in a few hours they will be awakened by missile explosions. And someone will never wake up again. Never again.
The word “never” was dropped from this slogan. Amputated during the so-called special operation. They stabbed a knife in the heart and, looking into the eyes, said: “It’s not us!” Tortured with the words “not everything is so unambiguous.” Killed “Never again”, saying: “We can repeat.”
And so it happened. And the monsters began to repeat. And our cities, which survived such a heinous occupation that 80 years are not enough to forget about it, saw the occupier again. And got the second date of occupation in their history. And some cities, such as Mariupol, got the third. During the two years of occupation, the Nazis killed 10,000 civilians there. In two months of occupation, Russia killed 20,000.
Decades after World War II, darkness returned to Ukraine. And it became black and white again. Again! Evil has returned. Again! In a different uniform, under different slogans, but for the same purpose. A bloody reconstruction of Nazism was organized in Ukraine. A fanatical repetition of this regime. Its ideas, actions, words and symbols. Maniacal detailed reproduction of its atrocities and “alibi”, which allegedly give an evil sacred purpose. Repetition of its crimes and even attempts to surpass the “teacher” and move him from the pedestal of the greatest evil in human history. Set a new world record for xenophobia, hatred, racism and the number of victims they can cause.
Never again! It was an ode of a wise man! Anthem of the civilized world! But someone sang out of tune. Distorted “Never again” with notes of doubt. Silenced, beginning his deadly aria of evil. And this is clear to all countries that have seen the horrors of Nazism with their own eyes. And today they are experiencing a terrible deja vu. See it again!
All nations who have been branded “third-class”, slaves without the right to their own state or to exist at all hear statements that exalt one nation and erase others with ease. They claim that you don’t really exist, you are artificially created, and therefore you have no rights. Everyone hears the language of evil. Again!
And together they acknowledge the painful truth: we have not withstood even a century. Our Never again was enough for 77 years. We missed the evil. It was reborn. Again and now!
This is understood by all countries and nations who support Ukraine today. And despite the new mask of the beast, they recognized him. Because, unlike some, they remember what our ancestors fought for and against. They did not confuse the first with the second, did not change their places, did not forget.
The Poles didn’t forget, on whose land the Nazis began their march and fired the first shot of World War II. Didn’t forget how evil first accuses you, provokes you, calls you an aggressor, and then attacks at 4.45am saying it’s self-defense. And they saw how it repeated on our land. They remember the Nazi-destroyed Warsaw. And they see what was done to Mariupol.
The British people did not forget how the Nazis wiped out Coventry, which was bombed 41 times. How the “Moonlight Sonata” from the Luftwaffe sounded, when the city was continuously bombed for 11 hours. How its historic center, factories, St. Michael’s Cathedral were destroyed. And they saw missiles hit Kharkiv. How its historic center, factories and the Assumption Cathedral were damaged. They remember London being bombed for 57 nights in a row. Remember how V-2 hit Belfast, Portsmouth, Liverpool. And they see cruise missiles hit Mykolaiv, Kramatorsk, Chernihiv. They remember how Birmingham was bombed. And they see its sister city Zaporizhzhia being damaged.
The Dutch remember this. How Rotterdam became the first city to be completely destroyed when the Nazis dropped 97 tons of bombs on it.
The French remember this. Remember Oradour-sur-Glane, where the SS burned half a thousand women and children alive. Mass hangings in Tulle, the massacre in the village of Ascq. Thousands of people at a resistance rally in occupied Lille. They saw what was done in Bucha, Irpin, Borodyanka, Volnovakha and Trostyanets. They see the occupation of Kherson, Melitopol, Berdyansk and other cities where people do not give up. And thousands of them go to peaceful rallies, which are beyond the power of the occupiers, and all they can do is shoot at civilians.
The Czechs have not forgotten this. How in less than a day, the Nazis destroyed Lidice, leaving only ashes from the village. They saw Popasna destroyed. There are not even ashes left from it. The Greeks, who survived massacres and executions throughout the territory, the blockade and the Great Famine, have not forgotten.
This is remembered by Americans who fought evil on two fronts. Who passed Pearl Harbor and Dunkirk with the Allies. And together we are going through new, no less difficult battles.
This is remembered by all Holocaust survivors - how one nation can hate another.
Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Danes, Georgians, Armenians, Belgians, Norwegians and many others have not forgotten this - all those who suffered from Nazism on their land and all those who defeated it in the anti-Hitler coalition.
Unfortunately, there are those who, having survived all these crimes, having lost millions of people who fought for victory and gained it, have desecrated the memory of them and their feat today.
The one who allowed the shelling of the cities of Ukraine from his land. The cities that, along with our ancestors, were liberated by his ancestors.
The one who spat in the face of his “Immortal Regiment”, placing torturers from Bucha next to it.
And challenged all mankind. But forgot the main thing: any evil always ends the same – it ends.
Fellow Ukrainians!
Today, on the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, we pay homage to all those who defended their homeland and the world from Nazism. We note the feat of the Ukrainian people and their contribution to the victory of the anti-Hitler coalition.
Explosions, shots, trenches, wounds, famine, bombing, blockades, mass executions, punitive operations, occupation, concentration camps, gas chambers, yellow stars, ghettos, Babyn Yar, Khatyn, captivity, forced labor. They died so that each of us knows what these words mean from books, not from our own experience. But it happened differently. This is unfair to them all. But the truth will win. And we will overcome everything!
And the proof of this is called “Werewolf”. This is Hitler’s former headquarters and bunker near Vinnytsia. And all that is left of it is a few stones. Ruins. The ruins of a person who considered himself great and invincible. This is a guide for all of us and future generations. What our ancestors fought for. And proved that no evil can avoid responsibility. Will not be able to hide in the bunker. There will be no stone left of it. So we will overcome everything. And we know this for sure, because our military and all our people are descendants of those who overcame Nazism. So they will win again.
And there will be peace again. Finally again!
We will overcome the winter, which began on February 24, lasts on May 8, but will definitely end, and the Ukrainian sun will melt it! And we will meet our dawn together with the whole country. And family and loved ones, friends and relatives will be together again! Finally again! And over the temporarily occupied cities and villages our flag will fly again. Finally again! And we will get together. And there will be peace! Finally again! And no more black and white dreams, only a blue and yellow dream. Finally again! Our ancestors fought for this.
Eternal honor to all who fought against Nazism!
Eternal memory to all those killed during World War II!
Updated
The Ukranian prosecutor general’s office has stated that the war with Russia has killed 225 children and injured 413.
The prosecutor general’s Office said the figures are expected to be higher since they do not include child casualties in the areas where hostilities are ongoing and in the occupied areas.
⚡️Prosecutor General’s Office: Russia’s war killed 225 children, injured 413.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) May 8, 2022
The figures are expected to be higher since they do not include child casualties in the areas where hostilities are ongoing and in the occupied areas, Prosecutor General’s Office said.
Updated
Ukraine ministry condemns Russian bombing of school
Ukraine’s ministry of foreign affairs has strongly condemned Russian shelling of a school in Bilohorivka, which is thought to have been sheltering 60 people.
In a post on Twitter the ministry said: “#Russia committed this brutal war crime shortly before the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, constantly repeating the tragedy of World War II. #StopRussianWar”
🇺🇦 MFA strongly condemns #Russian shelling of a school in Bilohorivka, sheltered 60 people, on May 7. #Russia committed this brutal war crime shortly before the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, constantly repeating the tragedy of World War II.#StopRussianWar pic.twitter.com/dxf3fX7GrZ
— MFA of Ukraine 🇺🇦 (@MFA_Ukraine) May 8, 2022
Updated
Zelenskiy releases a video to mark Ukraine's Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation
President Zelenskiy has compared Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to the actions of the Nazis in the second world war, as Ukraine marks its 8 May Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation.
Christopher Miller, world and national security reporter for Politico, who is covering Russia’s war in Ukraine, has posted this video released by the president.
In it he asks, “never again? Try telling Ukraine that” and draws comparisons between Ukraine battle against Russia to the second world war fight against fascism. Zelenskiy says that on 24 February, when Russia invaded his country, “the word never was erased”. Air raid sirens can be heard in the background.
In a video released by Zelensky in Borodyanka for May 8, Ukraine’s Day of Remembrance & Reconciliation, he asks, “never again? Try telling Ukraine that.” He draws comparisons between Ukraine fight against Russia to WW2 fight against fascism. Air raid sirens sounded as he posted. pic.twitter.com/J8qOzzWuOA
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) May 8, 2022
Here is the second half of the video. Zelensky says that “never again” — the promise after the Second World War to not allow fascism to return — is now just “again,” and evil has returned. He says some people have forgotten the promise. Ukraine is the frontline in the fight now. pic.twitter.com/SzSzIWzbDN
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) May 8, 2022
Updated
I will now be handing the blog over to my excellent colleague Alexandra Topping in London. Thanks for following along.
Updated
Dozens feared dead after Ukrainian school is bombed
At least two people have been killed and 60 more are feared dead after Russian bombs hit a school in the Ukrainian village of Bilohorivka, Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the Luhansk region, said on Sunday.
Gaidai said Russia dropped a bomb on Saturday afternoon on the school where about 90 people were sheltering, causing a fire that engulfed the building. Thirty people have been rescued.
“The fire was extinguished after nearly four hours, then the rubble was cleared, and, unfortunately, the bodies of two people were found,” Gaidai wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “Sixty people were likely to have died under the rubble of buildings.”
Separately, Gaidai said that according to preliminary information, shelling in the village of Shypilovo destroyed a house and 11 people remained under the building’s debris.
Updated
Putin’s choices filled with peril on eve of Victory Day parade
On the brink of its May 9 Victory Day celebrations, Russia looks very far from triumph in its war in Ukraine. And all of its options going forward are fraught with danger.
After a disastrous assault on Kyiv, Russia is engaged in an attempt to take territory in Ukraine’s east, as its military nears exhaustion and sanctions continue to escalate.
“With the current force that they have, the push that they’re attempting now is all that they have left,” said Jeffrey Edmonds, former director for Russia on the US national security council and senior analyst at the CNA thinktank.
“Militaries just don’t recover that quickly from such a devastating loss. And given how effective the Ukrainians have been with our support, I just don’t think they’re going to be able to achieve their objectives within the coming weeks. And the coming weeks are going to be the telltale of where this is going.”
Facing setbacks, officials have suggested that Vladimir Putin may use the May 9 holiday to repackage the war in Ukraine. Dramatic options include escalation through a formal declaration of war or general mobilisation – or de-escalating by proclaiming victory.
Alternatively, Putin could offer up a “sandwich”, as one analyst put it, that praises the Russian army’s “victory” while preparing the population for a grinding and painful conflict as status quo.
Updated
As international efforts to pressure the Russian leader continue, G7 leaders, including US President Joe Biden and Ukraine’s Zelenskiy, are set to discuss Western support for Kyiv via videoconference today.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will host the call and Zelenskiy will “take part and report on the current situation,” government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said.
Further sanctions or at least a tightening of the huge array of economic punishments already inflicted on Russia are expected to be discussed.
Ambassadors from EU member states will also meet in Brussels today to discuss their sixth round of economic sanctions against Moscow, which this time should include a phased ban on imports of Russian oil.
Ukraine claims drones have sunk Russian ship
Military authorities in Kyiv have claimed one of their drones sunk another Russian ship in the Black Sea as part of their offensive on Snake Island.
The Ukrainian claim to have destroyed the ship – after the sinking of the Russian warship Moskva in the Black Sea last month – was accompanied by footage showing what was said to have been a strike by a Bayraktar drone on a vessel docked at Snake Island.
“The traditional parade of the Russian Black Sea fleet on 9 May this year will be held near Snake Island – at the bottom of the sea,” tweeted Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence.
Snake Island, located some 35 km (20 miles) off the coast, figured in a memorable incident early in the war when Ukrainian border guards stationed there defied Russian orders to surrender, purportedly using colourful language.
Ukrainian Bayraktar TB2 destroyed another Russian ship. This time the landing craft of the "Serna" project. The traditional parade of the russian Black Sea fleet on May 9 this year will be held near Snake Island - at the bottom of the sea. pic.twitter.com/WYEPywmAwX
— Defence of Ukraine (@DefenceU) May 7, 2022
Updated
Ukraine counter-offensive gathers pace in north
In a sign of the unexpectedly effective defense that has sustained the fighting into its 11th week, Ukraine’s military flattened Russian positions on a Black Sea island that was captured in the war’s first days and has become a symbol of resistance.
Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press showed Ukraine targeting Russian-held Snake Island in a bid to impede Russia’s efforts to control the Black Sea.
An image taken early Saturday by Planet Labs PBC showed that most of the island’s buildings had been destroyed by Ukrainian drone attacks, as well as what appeared to be a Serna-class landing craft against the island’s northern beach.
Western military analysts also said a Ukrainian counteroffensive was advancing around the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, even as it remained a key target of Russian shelling.
The most intense fighting in recent days has been in eastern Ukraine, where the two sides are entrenched in a fierce battle to capture or reclaim territory. Moscow’s offensive there has focused on the Donbas, where Russia-backed separatists have been fighting since 2014.
The governor of the Luhansk region, one of two that make up the Donbas, said a Russian strike destroyed a school in the village of Bilogorivka where 90 people were seeking safety in the basement.
Gov. Serhiy Haidai, who posted pictures of the burning rubble on Telegram, said 30 people were rescued. The emergency services later reported that two bodies had been found and more could still be buried under the rubble. Rescue work was suspended overnight but was to resume on Sunday.
Haidai also said two boys aged 11 and 14 were killed by Russian shelling in the town of Pryvillia, while two girls aged 8 and 12 and a 69-year-old woman were wounded.
Moscow also has sought to sweep across southern Ukraine both to cut off the country from the sea and create a corridor to the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria, long home to Russian troops. But it has struggled to achieve those objectives.
Updated
Six Russian cruise missiles hit Odesa
On Saturday, six Russian cruise missiles fired from aircraft hit Odesa, where a curfew is in place until Tuesday morning. Videos posted on social media showed thick black smoke rising over the Black Sea port city as sirens wailed.
The Odesa city council said four of the missiles hit a furniture company, with the shock waves and debris badly damaging high-rise apartment buildings. The other two missiles hit the Odesa airport, where the runway had already been taken out in a previous Russian attack.
Updated
Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Russia’s republic of Chechnya, said on Sunday his soldiers have taken control of most of the eastern Ukrainian city of Popasna, while Ukrainian officials said a battle for the town in the east of the country is ongoing.
In mid-April, Russian forces launched a new offensive push along most of Ukraine’s eastern flank, with some of most intense attacks and shelling taking place recently around Popasna in the Luhansk region.
“Fighters of the Chechen special forces ... have taken most of Popasna under control,” Kadyrov, who has often described himself as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “foot soldier”, wrote in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
“The main streets and central districts of the town have been completely cleared.”
Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.
There was no immediate response from Ukraine, but late Saturday Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said heavy fighting for the town continues.
“A battle for Popasna is ongoing,” Arestovych said in a video on social media.
“Russian propagandists have joyfully reported that they have already taken it, but this is not quite how it is. This is their 117th ‘capture of Popasna’ claim only this week.”
Updated
Anguish for partners of Mariupol’s defenders as Russian assault goes on
“Holding up”, wrote Denys Prokopenko, commander of Ukraine’s Azov regiment, in his latest WhatsApp message to his wife Kateryna from the besieged Azovstal steelworks in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.
Speaking via Zoom from Krakow, in eastern Poland, alongside three fellow wives and partners of soldiers living under the remorseless Russian shelling and infiltrating raids, Kateryna, 27, says she is doing everything she can think of to ensure the message at 10pm on Friday evening is not one of her husband’s last.
It is now two weeks since the last Ukrainian defenders of the flattened city of Mariupol, in south-east Ukraine, withdrew to the sprawling complex of hot and fetid tunnels, along with thousands of terrified civilians, including children.
For the 2,000 soldiers, 700 of whom are said to be injured, hope, however, is quickly dwindling, as has become cruelly clear from the irregular messages coming out of the works. “The last message was yesterday,” Kateryna says of the text from her 30-year-old husband. I said ‘Hold up, we will do everything in our power to save you.’”
The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned Russia’s targeting of Ukrainian cultural monuments and institutions, saying that “nearly 200 cultural heritage sites already” had been damaged or destroyed.
His comments, made in his nightly address on Telegram on Saturday, followed the destruction of a museum dedicated to the 18th century philosopher and poet Hryhoriy Skovoroda after it was hit by Russian shelling.
“Targeted missile strikes at museums — this is not even every terrorist can think of,” said Zelenskiy.
“Every day of this war, the Russian army does something that is beyond words. But every next day it does something that makes you feel it in a new way.”
🇷🇺rocket destroyed the National Museum of 🇺🇦philosopher Hryhoriy Skovoroda near Kharkiv. This year marked 300yrs since his birth. The killing of thousands of people, destruction of language, historical memory,and culture are confirmations of genocide. russia's genocide against 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/oJ3nAbhOqj
— Defence of Ukraine (@DefenceU) May 7, 2022
Updated
Fighters battle to hold in Mariupol
With supplies running low, amputations conducted in a ramshackle clinic, and corpses piling up, the fighters trapped at the besieged steel plant in Ukraine’s Mariupol are battling to hold on as Russian forces tighten their grip on the city’s last redoubt.
A smattering of Ukrainian units making their last stand are sheltering in the labyrinth of Soviet-era bunkers and tunnels snaking beneath the sprawling steelworks along with an untold number of wounded and dead combatants.
Details about the chaotic final defence and desperate efforts to tend to the wounded have been painstakingly pieced together by military medic Yevgenia Tytarenko, whose husband and colleagues remain trapped inside the factory.
“Lots of soldiers are in serious condition in the hospital. They are injured with no medicine. Food and water are running out,” said Tytarenko, who remains in regular contact with people inside the Azovstal plant.
“I’ll be standing until the end,” Tytarenko’s husband and medic Mykhailo texted to her on Friday, in a message shared with AFP.
For weeks, Russian forces have pounded the steelworks by land, air, and sea - while attempting to breach its defenses that have led to fierce firefights at the facility.
Commanders have issued their final goodbyes to loved ones as supplies dwindle and the Russians close in, while the possibility of extracting the fighters looks increasingly unlikely, said Tytarenko.
“Commanders have already said their farewells to their wives. One of them messaged his wife: ‘Don’t cry. We’ll be back home in any case - alive or dead’,” said Tytarenko.
Tytarenko described a chaotic and complex operation inside Azovstal with fighters battling the Russians while also shepherding civilians along with the bodies of those killed to different parts of the plant.
Without refrigeration, the bodies of the dead have been packed in plastic bags and are rotting, but the fighters remain committed to preventing them from falling into the hands of the Russian forces.
“Almost everywhere, they are carrying corpses with them,” said Tytarenko. “They deserve to be evacuated - those who are alive, injured, and dead.”
Updated
All women and children evacuated from Azovstal, says Zelenskiy
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that over 300 civilians had been rescued from Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, where they had been trapped for 72 days.
Speaking in his nightly Telegram address, he said:“I am grateful to the teams of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations Organisation, who helped us organise the first phase of the evacuation missions from Azovstal,” Zelenskiy said in a video posted to Telegram.
However, while the Ukrainian government said that “all women, children and the elderly” had been evacuated , there were still doctors and soldiers, including many wounded, stuck in the bunkers of the Mariupol steel plant, which is still undergoing vicious shelling and attacks by Russian forces.
Please save the defenders of #Mariupol #Azovstal! The world needs them alive! @MSF @antonioguterres @UNHumanRights @potus @SecBlinken @Pontifex @RTErdogan @ICRC @EmmanuelMacron @OlafScholz @BorisJohnson #SaveMariupol pic.twitter.com/VFOPTO2Di2
— Olena Halushka (@OlenaHalushka) May 7, 2022
Ukraine on Saturday urged aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to evacuate its soldiers from their last holdout in Mariupol.
Ukraine “calls on MSF to organise a mission to evacuate the defenders of Mariupol and Azovstal and provide medical care to the wounded people, whose human rights were violated by Russian Federation,” the ministry of reintegration of temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine wrote in a statement in English.
They have been “for 72 days in a row under... ongoing shelling and attacks by the Russian army”, it added.
“Now, there is a lack of medicines, water and food, wounded soldiers are dying because of gangrene and sepsis.”
Updated
Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Here are the latest developments:
- Russian forces fired six cruise missiles at the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa on Saturday and continued to bombarded a besieged steel mill in Mariupol. Russia appears to want to complete their conquest of Mariupol in time for Victory Day celebrations on 9 May.
- The Ukrainian government has said that it has destroyed another Russian ship. The ministry of defence claimed that Ukrainian Bayraktar TB2 had hit the landing craft of the Serna project, tweeting: “The traditional parade of the Russian Black Sea fleet on May 9 this year will be held near Snake Island – at the bottom of the sea.”
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said more than 300 civilians have been rescued from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, where they had been stuck for 72 days during a bitter battle for the city. Zelenskiy said they were now preparing for a “second stage of evacuation” to rescue doctors and soldiers still trapped there. The Ukrainian government have urged Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to help with the evacuation
- Zelenskiy also expressed regret at the cultural devastation caused by the war. In his nightly address on Telegram, he said “nearly 200 cultural heritage sites” in Ukraine had been lost or damaged
- A Russian bomb hit a school in the eastern Ukraine village of Bilogorivka where 90 people were sheltering, according to the governor of Luhansk. He said several bodies had been pulled from the rubble.
- CIA Director William Burns said the war is in a dangerous phase because President Putin “thinks he cannot afford to lose” . Burns said the huge amount of western military support for Ukraine was not a deterrent to the Russian President
- Britain has pledged to provide another £1.3bn ($1.60bn) in military support and aid to Ukraine. The new funds will almost double Britain’s previous spending commitments to Ukraine. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement, “Putin’s brutal attack is not only causing untold devastation in Ukraine – it is also threatening peace and security across Europe.”
- The Group of Seven (G7) leaders will hold a video call on Sunday with Zelenskiy in a show of unity the day before Russia marks its Victory Day holiday, the White House said. Talks will focus on the latest developments in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, efforts to bolster the country and ways to demonstrate “continued G7 unity in our collective response, including by imposing severe costs for Putin’s war”, a spokesperson for the White House said.
