Here is the situation on Sunday, May 12, 2024.
Fighting
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At least three people were killed when a section of a multi-storey apartment block partially collapsed due to a Ukrainian missile strike in the Russian city of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine, according to Russian. Footage from the scene posted by Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the region, showed at least 10 storeys of the building collapsing.
- The Russian Ministry of Defence says its air defence forces destroyed two Soviet-era conventional ballistic missiles launched overnight by Ukrainian forces over Belgorod.
- A missile attack on a restaurant in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, killed three people and wounded eight, Denis Pushilin, the head of the region’s Russian-backed administration, said, adding that there were two strikes by US HIMARS precision rocket launchers.
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Fierce fighting raged overnight on the fringes of Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region as Moscow claimed it had captured five villages and was advancing in the Donetsk region. However, Kyiv said it was repulsing the attacks and battling for control of the settlements.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy admitted in his nightly video address that battles were going on around seven border villages in Kharkiv and called the situation in the southern Donetsk region “extremely difficult”.
- Kharkiv regional Governor Oleg Synegubov said more than 4,000 people evacuated from areas near the Russian border, as Moscow launched the surprise ground offensive in the region.
Politics and diplomacy
- Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he was giving extra duties to two key government officials overseeing the defence industry and energy sectors, as the Kremlin chief girds the world’s second-largest oil exporter for a longer war in Ukraine.
- Incumbent Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, a staunch supporter of Ukraine, and his closest opponent, Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte, promise to stand up to Russian threat at home, as the country heads to the polls on Sunday. Voters in the Baltic state are worried that the country could be a target of Russian aggression.
- Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Ukrainians with a residence permit and work in Germany could stay even as Ukraine seeks to recruit nationals living abroad to serve in the war against Russia.
