Here is the situation on Monday, May 13, 2024.
Fighting
- Ukraine’s military chief Oleksandr Syrskii said his forces were facing a “difficult situation” in the northeastern Kharkiv region, where thousands more people have fled their homes amid an advance by Russian forces.
- Ukraine’s General Staff said fighting was raging around Vovchansk, a town about 4km (2.5 miles) from the border and 45km (28 miles) from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city and the capital of the Kharkiv region. The Ukrainian military said Russia had deployed “significant forces for its attack on the town” but “taking no account of their own losses”, with at least 100 soldiers reported dead.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “defensive battles” were taking place along large sections of the border near Kharkiv and that fighting was “no less acute” in some areas of the Donetsk region further to the east. Zelenskyy said 30 armed clashes had occurred in the past 24 hours in the Pokrovsk sector, northwest of the Russian-held town of Avdiivka, and there was also fighting in sectors including Lyman, Kupiansk and Kramatorsk.
- Ukrainian prosecutors said at least four civilians had been killed in the Kharkiv region since Russia began its ground offensive on Friday. Some 6,000 people have been evacuated as a result of the fighting.
- At least 13 people were confirmed dead and 20 injured after an apartment building collapsed in the Russian border town of Belgorod. Russia said the building was struck by fragments from a Ukraine-launched Soviet-era missile that was shot down by air defence.
Politics and diplomacy
- The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin planned to remove Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as part of a cabinet reshuffle and replace him with Andrei Belousov, a former deputy prime minister who specialises in economics.
- Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda appeared on track to secure a second term in office after Sunday’s election, following a campaign dominated by security concerns about Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
- Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska and Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba began a tour to Serbia – the first by a top Ukrainian delegation since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
