Evening summary
The time in Kyiv is almost 9pm. Here is a round-up of the day’s stories:
In a tweet, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked the British prime minister Rishi Sunak for the provision of long-range cruise missiles. Yesterday, the UK defence secretary Ben Wallace confirmed that the UK would send long-range cruise missiles.
Two Russian pilots were killed on Friday when a Russian Mi-28 military helicopter crashed in the annexed peninsula of Crimea, Russian news agencies reported, citing the defence ministry. The defence ministry said it believed the reason for the crash was equipment failure, the TASS news agency reported.
Russia’s defence ministry has said some of its troops fell back “to more advantageous defensive positions” near a reservoir north-west of the east Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. The statement on Friday was the first admission by Moscow that Ukraine was successfully recapturing ground around Bakhmut, a largely destroyed city with a prewar population of about 70,000 that Russia has been trying to conquer for more than 10 months.
Wagner group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose troops have done the bulk of the fighting in and around Bakhmut, said via his press service that what the defence ministry had described was in fact a “rout” which had seen troops flee. He said Ukraine had been able to completely regain control of a crucial supply road that links Bakhmut with the town of Chasiv Yar and had seized useful higher ground, Reuters reported.
Ukraine’s planned counteroffensive to win back territory occupied by Russia has a good chance of success but may bring high casualties if Russia uses its prepared defences well, Czech president and former Nato general Petr Pavel said on Friday. Pavel, 61, said in an interview that Ukraine needs support for Nato and European Union entry but joining either will be a lengthy process, though talks on the EU accession could start this year, Reuters reported.
Police in the Russian city of St Petersburg have created an anti-drone unit to detect unmanned drones after a suspected attack on the Kremlin earlier this month, Reuters reports. The unit launched on 9 May during the annual the second world war victory day celebrations on St Petersburg’s Palace Square, the city’s interior ministry said.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow had never refused the “diplomatic track” to resolving the conflict in Ukraine in a phone call with his South African counterpart, the Kremlin said. Putin said he supported South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s proposal to involve African leaders in talks regarding a peace process for Ukraine, according to the Kremlin’s readout of the call.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday that Ukrainian forces carried out “offensive operations” on Thursday along the entire line of contact near Soledar, the ministry’s official Zvezda news outlet reported. More than a thousand troops and up to 40 tanks were used in the assault, it said, adding that the attacks were “repulsed”.
UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi plans to present an agreement with Russia and Ukraine on protecting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to the UN security council this month, indicating a deal is close, four diplomats have told Reuters. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Grossi has been trying for months to secure an agreement to reduce the risk of a catastrophic nuclear accident from military activity like shelling at Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, which is in Ukraine and has been occupied by Russia for more than a year.
A Russian defeat in Ukraine will not derail China’s rise, while relations between Beijing and the EU will be “critically affected” if Xi Jinping does not push Vladimir Putin to withdraw his forces, European ministers have been told. The message comes in a paper drawn up by the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, who is meeting the EU’s 27 foreign ministers on Friday in Stockholm to discuss how the bloc should “recalibrate” its policy towards Beijing.
Russia’s defence ministry has denied reports that Ukrainian forces had broken through in various places along the frontlines and said the military situation was under control. Moscow was reacting after Russian military bloggers, writing on the Telegram messaging app, reported apparent Ukrainian advances north and south of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, with some suggesting a long-awaited counteroffensive by pro-Kyiv forces had started. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had earlier said the offensive had yet to start.
Turkey’s defence minister, Hulusi Akar, has said that parties to the Black Sea grain initiative are approaching an extension. Akar’s comment was released by his ministry in a statement on Friday, after talks in Istanbul.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleksandr Musiyenko says Kyiv’s backers understand that a counteroffensive “may not result in the complete eviction of Russian troops and the definitive defeat of Russia in all occupied areas”. “We have to be ready for the war to continue into next year - or it could end this year,” Musiyenko told Ukrainian NV Radio. “It all depends on how the battles develop. We can’t guarantee how the counter-offensive will develop.”
The Russian-imposed mayor of occupied Donetsk has reported on Telegram that one person was killed by Ukrainian shelling of the city overnight.
The commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has said its defences are being tightened amid a flurry of Ukrainian drone strikes targeting its home base, the Crimean port of Sevastopol. V-Adm Viktor Sokolov told Friday’s edition of the military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda: “In connection with the threat of attacks by robotic surface and underwater systems, we have increased the technical defences of the fleet’s main base and of the ships’ anchorages”. Sokolov said the Black Sea Fleet, whose flagship, the cruiser Moskva, was sunk by Ukraine in April 2022, would receive four new ships in 2023.
China’s foreign ministry has announced that its special representative of Eurasian affairs will visit Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany and Russia from Monday in what it calls “an effort to promote peace talks”,
US President Joe Biden and Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez will discuss Ukraine, defence cooperation, and migration on Friday during a meeting at the White House. While Madrid agrees with Washington on the illegality of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Sánchez will convey the divergent views of China and Brazil and propose giving greater weight to the views of non-Nato nations hurt by the war, a Spanish diplomatic source told Reuters.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the Ukraine war live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi plans to present an agreement with Russia and Ukraine on protecting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to the UN security council this month, indicating a deal is close, four diplomats have told Reuters.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Grossi has been trying for months to secure an agreement to reduce the risk of a catastrophic nuclear accident from military activity like shelling at Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, which is in Ukraine and has been occupied by Russia for more than a year.
With Ukraine preparing a counteroffensive in the area, there is a risk that fighting near the plant and its six reactors will intensify. Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for shelling that has repeatedly downed power lines vital to cooling the reactors and preventing a nuclear meltdown.
“It looks promising,” one diplomat said about securing an agreement. Others said Ukraine, which long opposed the plan, now backed it while Russia’s position was less clear.
Russian troops fall back to ‘defensive positions’ near Bakhmut
Russia’s defence ministry has said some of its troops fell back “to more advantageous defensive positions” near a reservoir north-west of the east Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
The statement on Friday was the first admission by Moscow that Ukraine was successfully recapturing ground around Bakhmut, a largely destroyed city with a prewar population of about 70,000 that Russia has been trying to conquer for more than 10 months.
The Russian defence statement came hours after Kyiv said that its forces had advanced by about 2km (1.2 miles) around Bakhmut this week.
Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, said on Friday: “The enemy suffered great losses of manpower. Our defenders advanced 2km in the Bakhmut sector. We did not lose a single position in Bakhmut this week.”
It came as Russia’s foreign ministry condemned the UK for supplying Ukraine with the long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles that Kyiv wants to boost its chances in a counteroffensive – the first western country to do so.
Ukraine's planned counteroffensive has good chance of success but may bring high casualties, says Czech president
Ukraine’s planned counteroffensive to win back territory occupied by Russia has a good chance of success but may bring high casualties if Russia uses its prepared defences well, Czech president and former Nato general Petr Pavel said on Friday.
Pavel, 61, said in an interview that Ukraine needs support for Nato and European Union entry but joining either will be a lengthy process, though talks on the EU accession could start this year, Reuters reported.
Pavel, who was Czech army chief and also the principal military adviser to the Nato secretary-general in 2015-2018, said Ukraine would eventually get western fighter jets it has been calling for but it was impossible to deliver them in time for the upcoming offensive, and there were higher priorities such as ammunition.
“There is certainly high hope that the Ukrainian counteroffensive will be successful, because Ukraine is motivated, well prepared, its troops are experienced and certainly do not succumb to such deficiencies as the Russian army,” Pavel said at Prague Castle, the seat of the Czech presidency.
The Russian army had severe problems in logistics and morale, but a collapse of defences should not be expected, he said.
“Russia has had time to prepare a relatively high-quality and in-depth defence in several lines, which, if used effectively, will cost … Ukraine large casualties,” he said.
It was impossible to say what size of territory Ukraine could win back as various scenarios were open, he said. “Things do not always go according to wishes and plans but I think that the chance for a significant Ukrainian success is really high.”
Updated
White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday that the Biden administration has consistently urged countries not to provide weapons for Russia’s war with Ukraine when asked about US allegations that South Africa sent an arms shipment to Russia.
Kirby declined to talk specifically on the South Africa issue, but said “it’s a serious issue.”
A Russian defeat in Ukraine will not derail China’s rise, while relations between Beijing and the EU will be “critically affected” if Xi Jinping does not push Vladimir Putin to withdraw his forces, European ministers have been told.
The message comes in a paper drawn up by the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, who is meeting the EU’s 27 foreign ministers on Friday in Stockholm to discuss how the bloc should “recalibrate” its policy towards Beijing.
Along with the war in Ukraine, relations with China have become Europe’s most pressing foreign policy issue, but EU politicians take different approaches on how to respond to an increasingly repressive and nationalistic Beijing – revealed in the furore over Emmanuel Macron’s comments about not being drawn into a US-China clash over Taiwan.
In a letter to ministers to accompany the paper, Borrell highlights at least three reasons to adjust the EU’s approach: China’s internal changes “with nationalism and ideology on the rise”; the “hardening of US-China competition” in all areas and China’s status as a key regional and global player.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow had never refused the “diplomatic track” to resolving the conflict in Ukraine in a phone call with his South African counterpart, the Kremlin said.
Putin said he supported South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s proposal to involve African leaders in talks regarding a peace process for Ukraine, according to the Kremlin’s readout of the call.
He also repeated an offer to deliver Russian grain and fertilisers free of charge to African countries, Reuters reported.
It came as South Africa’s foreign ministry summoned the US ambassador over allegations he made that the country had provided arms and ammunition to Russia for its war in Ukraine.
Amid the diplomatic fallout, South Africa’s foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, would also speak with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation said in a statement posted on Twitter.
The US ambassador, Reuben Brigety, said at a press conference on Thursday that South Africa had loaded weapons and ammunition on to a sanctioned Russian vessel at the Simon’s Town Naval Base near the city of Cape Town in December last year. The arms were then transported to Russia, Brigety said.
Two dead as Russian military helicopter crashes over Crimea
Two Russian pilots were killed on Friday when a Russian Mi-28 military helicopter crashed in the annexed peninsula of Crimea, Russian news agencies reported, citing the defence ministry.
The defence ministry said it believed the reason for the crash was equipment failure, the TASS news agency reported.
The crash occurred at 3.42pm local time during a training flight, and the helicopter was flying without weapons, news agencies cited the defence ministry as saying in a statement.
An investigation was opened to confirm the cause of the crash, which occurred in the Dzhankoi region of northern Crimea.
Wagner group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose troops have done the bulk of the fighting in and around Bakhmut, said via his press service that what the defence ministry had described was in fact a “rout” which had seen troops flee.
He said Ukraine had been able to completely regain control of a crucial supply road that links Bakhmut with the town of Chasiv Yar and had seized useful higher ground, Reuters reported.
The risk, he said, was that if more ground was lost Ukrainian forces could gradually encircle Bakhmut.
Prigozhin, who has been openly feuding with Russia’s defence ministry for months, has repeatedly accused the top brass of sabotaging Wagner’s push for Bakhmut and this week accused them of doing too little to protect Bakhmut’s flanks.
The ministry appeared to push back against that assertion on Friday, saying that Ukrainian attempts to counterattack Bakhmut’s flanks were being repelled.
Prigozhin complained his men were still not getting enough shells and equipment, but said they were still advancing in Bakhmut and only needed to capture around a further 20 buildings to take full control of the city.
Bakhmut, much of which now lies in ruins, has been the focus of fierce fighting for months.
Zelenskiy thanks Sunak for supplying long-range missiles
In a tweet, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked the British prime minister Rishi Sunak for the provision of long-range cruise missiles.
He said:
Had a phone call with UK prime minister Rishi Sunak. Thanked for the significant enhancement of our capabilities with long-range Storm Shadow missiles and other irreplaceable military assistance.
We discussed further defence cooperation and coordinated our positions on the eve of upcoming international events. In particular, we need clear signals about Ukraine’s future with Nato.
Had a phone call with UK Prime Minister @RishiSunak. Thanked for the significant enhancement of our capabilities with long-range Storm Shadow missiles and other irreplaceable military assistance. We discussed further defense cooperation and coordinated our positions on the eve of…
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 12, 2023
Yesterday, the UK defence secretary Ben Wallace confirmed that the UK would send long-range cruise missiles.
Zelenskiy is expected to attend the next Nato summit in Vilnius in July, but has repeatedly requested for a firmer time table and more concrete steps for Ukraine to join the alliance.
Updated
Belgium will use €92m (£81m/$101m) it has received in taxes on frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, its government said on Friday, Reuters reports.
Half of the amount will be used to deliver military goods such as armoured vehicles, weapons and munition. The rest is earmarked for humanitarian support, the future reconstruction of Ukraine and strengthening Belgium’s diplomatic presence in the country, the government said.
Updated
Rishi Sunak is disappointed that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s request to address the Eurovision song contest was refused, the UK prime minister’s spokesperson said on Friday.
Ukraine’s president had requested to make a video appearance during the final on Saturday in Liverpool. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said on Thursday that while Zelenskiy’s request was made with “laudable intentions”, granting it would be against the non-political nature of the event and its rules prohibiting making political statements.
“The prime minister believes it would be fitting for President Zelenskiy to address the event and we are disappointed by the decision,” Sunak’s spokesperson said.
“The value and freedoms that President Zelenskiy and the people of Ukraine are fighting for are not political, they are fundamental. Eurovision themselves recognised that last year when they rightly suspended Russia’s participation from the competition.”
Updated
Police in the Russian city of St Petersburg have created an anti-drone unit to detect unmanned drones after a suspected attack on the Kremlin earlier this month, Reuters reports.
The unit launched on 9 May during the annual the second world war victory day celebrations on St Petersburg’s Palace Square, the city’s interior ministry said.
In a video message, Roman Uvarov, the department’s head, said it will “ensure the protection of public order” during large public events.
The unit will include officers armed with snipers and carbines, groups trained to neutralise unmanned drones, and mobile patrols to detain those suspected of operating drones.
Two Russian strategic bombers have conducted routine flights over the Chukchi Sea between Siberia and Alaska, the Tass news agency said on Friday.
“In the course of the flight, the crews of the long-range aircraft carried out aerial refuelling,” Tass quoted the defence ministry as saying.
Updated
At a secret location in southern Ukraine, Roman Kostenko watched a drone rise into the sky. It ascended to a height of 100 metres, buzzing above a yellow rapeseed field. The drone dropped a dummy anti-tank grenade on to a pile of tyres. The test worked. That night Kostenko’s team repeated the exercise over occupied territory. Two bombs fell on a Russian armoured fighting vehicle. It blew up, smoke pluming into darkness.
Kostenko, a decorated special forces colonel, said his unit had destroyed dozens of Russian military objects. They included tanks and howitzer guns. These operations took place every night on “a tactical level”, he said, close to the frontline. This stretches for 900 miles, from the eastern city of Bakhmut where Ukrainian troops launched a local counterattack this week, to the southern provinces of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
There has been intense speculation that Kyiv is about to launch a major counteroffensive. On Thursday night, Russian military bloggers erroneously reported that it had already started. Speaking earlier the same day, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said his forces needed “some more time”. According to Kostenko, Ukraine’s long-anticipated push should be understood as a rolling “spring-summer campaign” against an entrenched and powerful adversary.
Kostenko said the campaign was already unfolding in stages. The first saw the step-by-step elimination of Russia’s military potential, with strikes against logistical targets such as weapons depots and fuel dumps. This has begun, he said. A second stage involved seeking out and eliminating Russian command and control centres, causing a breakdown of communications with troops in the field. “That’s already happening too, probably,” he said.
Ukraine’s armed forces were unlikely to embark on a major frontal offensive until they had weakened Moscow’s battlefield capability, he indicated. “Our army won’t go forward until this preparation work is done. We can’t win if they have large amounts of ammunition and resources,” he said. He acknowledged that Ukraine was playing a disinformation game about when and where it might strike, with signs that it was working, and that Moscow was beginning to panic.
Germany aims to buy 18 Leopard 2 tanks for €525m (£457m) to replace tanks delivered to Ukraine, a defence source told Reuters on Friday.
The total price including an option for another 105 tanks will be €2.9bn (£2.5bn) and the German parliament’s budget committee is expected to sign off on the deal at the end of May, the source said.
Germany has supplied 18 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine since the Russian invasion last year and has said it intends to plug the gap with new tanks as soon as possible.
The Leopard is jointly manufactured by KMW and Rheinmetall.
Updated
The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is “disappointed” in the decision of the European Broadcasting Union, Downing Street has said, after it was reported that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was blocked from addressing Eurovision.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said:
The prime minister believes it would be fitting for President Zelenskiy to address the event and we’re disappointed by the decision from the European Broadcasting Union.
The values and freedoms that President Zelenskiy and the people of Ukraine are fighting for are not political, they’re fundamental, and Eurovision themselves recognised that last year when they rightly suspended Russia’s participation from the competition.
There are no plans to intervene and ask broadcasters to change their mind, Downing Street suggested.
Updated
The Kremlin said on Friday that a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and the Chinese special envoy Li Hui, who is to tour European countries next week to discuss Ukraine, had not yet been set up.
“There is no such meeting in the schedule yet. This will all be worked out through diplomatic channels,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Updated
Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday that Ukrainian forces carried out “offensive operations” on Thursday along the entire line of contact near Soledar, the ministry’s official Zvezda news outlet reported.
More than a thousand troops and up to 40 tanks were used in the assault, it said, adding that the attacks were “repulsed”.
Updated
The Kremlin said on Friday that there was nothing new to report after talks on possible renewal of the Black Sea grain deal in Istanbul, and that a potential conversation between the leaders of Turkey and Russia would not help clinch an agreement, Reuters reports.
In one of his regular calls with reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that only full implementation of the deal would facilitate its renewal.
Russia has repeatedly insisted that western sanctions are impeding its export of agricultural products, and that it is unwilling to extend the deal to allow Ukraine to export grain unless this changes. It cites the disconnection of the Russian Agricultural Bank from the Swift payment system and difficulties in being able to insure export vessels as being among factors that need to be addressed.
Turkey’s defence minister, Hulusi Akar, said earlier on Friday that parties to the Black Sea grain pact were nearing a deal to extend it.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Russia’s defence ministry has denied reports that Ukrainian forces had broken through in various places along the frontlines and said the military situation was under control. Moscow was reacting after Russian military bloggers, writing on the Telegram messaging app, reported apparent Ukrainian advances north and south of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, with some suggesting a long-awaited counteroffensive by pro-Kyiv forces had started. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had earlier said the offensive had yet to start.
Turkey’s defence minister, Hulusi Akar, has said that parties to the Black Sea grain initiative are approaching an extension. Akar’s comment was released by his ministry in a statement on Friday, after talks in Istanbul.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleksandr Musiyenko says Kyiv’s backers understand that a counteroffensive “may not result in the complete eviction of Russian troops and the definitive defeat of Russia in all occupied areas”. “We have to be ready for the war to continue into next year - or it could end this year,” Musiyenko told Ukrainian NV Radio. “It all depends on how the battles develop. We can’t guarantee how the counter-offensive will develop.”
The Russian-imposed mayor of occupied Donetsk has reported on Telegram that one person was killed by Ukrainian shelling of the city overnight.
The commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has said its defences are being tightened amid a flurry of Ukrainian drone strikes targeting its home base, the Crimean port of Sevastopol. V-Adm Viktor Sokolov told Friday’s edition of the military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda: “In connection with the threat of attacks by robotic surface and underwater systems, we have increased the technical defences of the fleet’s main base and of the ships’ anchorages”. Sokolov said the Black Sea Fleet, whose flagship, the cruiser Moskva, was sunk by Ukraine in April 2022, would receive four new ships in 2023.
China’s foreign ministry has announced that its special representative of Eurasian affairs will visit Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany and Russia from Monday in what it calls “an effort to promote peace talks”,
US President Joe Biden and Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez will discuss Ukraine, defence cooperation, and migration on Friday during a meeting at the White House. While Madrid agrees with Washington on the illegality of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Sánchez will convey the divergent views of China and Brazil and propose giving greater weight to the views of non-Nato nations hurt by the war, a Spanish diplomatic source told Reuters.
US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen met German finance minister Christian Lindner on Friday, to underscore the importance of working together to counter evasion of sanctions imposed on Russia over its war in Ukraine, the US Treasury has said.
The prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said on Friday they are considering speeding up a plan to disconnect the Baltic region’s electricity supply from Russia’s power grid.
Updated
South Africa did not approve any arms shipment to Russia, the minister who chairs the country’s national conventional arms control committee, Mondli Gungubele, told local radio station 702 on Friday, Reuters reports.
The United States envoy to South Africa said on Thursday he was confident that a Russian ship had picked up weapons in South Africa last year, in a possible breach of Pretoria’s declared neutrality in the Ukraine conflict.
The ambassador’s assertion saw the rand and South African government bonds sell-off, as currency traders said they were worried that South Africa could now face western sanctions.
The South African president Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said on Thursday that his government would open an inquiry led by a retired judge into the allegation that arms had been shipped to Russia.
Updated
The prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said on Friday they are considering speeding up a plan to disconnect the Baltic region’s electricity supply from Russia’s power grid.
“Today we agreed to continue discussions on accelerating as soon as all of our studies are finished,” Reuters reports Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas told a joint news conference with her Latvian and Lithuanian counterparts.
“Technical studies, especially on production capacity and energy crisis, will allow us to clarify the details and exact timing of this process,” she added.
The US president, Joe Biden, and the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, will discuss Ukraine, defence cooperation, and migration on Friday during a meeting at the White House.
While Madrid agrees with Washington on the illegality of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Sánchez will convey the divergent views of China and Brazil and propose giving greater weight to the views of non-Nato nations hurt by the war, a Spanish diplomatic source told Reuters.
Updated
There isn’t often a huge amount of news available from the occupied areas of Ukraine, but a Reuters reporter has been allowed to speak to people at a temporary accommodation facility in the occupied port city of Berdiansk in Zaporizhzhia region, one of the areas of Ukraine which the Russian Federation has claimed to annex.
Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-installed acting governor of occupied Zaporizhzhia has said that the temporary relocation of people – prioritising families with children – was due to increased Ukrainian shelling of 18 settlements near the frontline. The claim has not been independently verified.
Three evacuees interviewed by Reuters said they had chosen to be evacuated themselves for security reasons. Two expressed satisfaction with their new conditions. All said they hoped to one day return home.
Lyudmila, 22, who said she chose to be evacuated from her home in the town of Kamianka-Dniprovska, said the situation there had sometimes been “difficult” and that shells had landed nearby.
“We used to go out and watch. Especially at night, you could see the flashes as they launch. We’ve had shells land nearby and when it landed the entire sky was red,” she said. “People get used to it fast, children get used to it. They stop being afraid.”
She said she thought people still remaining in her town were “sitting on suitcases” ready to leave if the situation there became more dangerous. She said she was hoping for peace and that the two sides could find common ground.
Holding his family’s small dog in his arms as he spoke, a man who gave his name as Artyom said he chose to be evacuated from the town of Tokmak with his wife and children as a precaution. “We are sure that everything will be fine, but we don’t want to take any risks. When the opportunity arose, we left,” he said.
Alyona Trokai, a representative for the Russian Movement for Children and Youth, which is working to help settle the evacuees, said around 2,000 people had arrived at the centre so far.
Ukraine has repeatedly complained about Russian authorities relocating Ukrainian citizens.
The commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has said its defences are being tightened amid a flurry of Ukrainian drone strikes targeting its home base, the Crimean port of Sevastopol, an area that the Russian Federation claimed to annex from Ukraine in 2014.
Reuters reports V-Adm Viktor Sokolov told Friday’s edition of the military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda: “In connection with the threat of attacks by robotic surface and underwater systems, we have increased the technical defences of the fleet’s main base and of the ships’ anchorages.”
Sokolov said the Black Sea Fleet, whose flagship, the cruiser Moskva, was sunk by Ukraine in April 2022, would receive four new ships in 2023.
Sevastopol has repeatedly been attacked with drones since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Updated
The US Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, met the German finance minister, Christian Lindner, on Friday, to underscore the importance of working together to counter evasion of sanctions imposed on Russia over its war in Ukraine, the US Treasury has said.
“Secretary Yellen expressed appreciation for Germany’s close coordination on the implementation of Russia sanctions and discussed the importance of aligning efforts to counter sanctions evasion,” Reuters reports it said in a statement.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us from Ukraine over the news wires.
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reports that overnight there have been three explosions recorded in Sumy oblast. No casualties are known.
China representative to visit Ukraine and Russia
China’s foreign ministry has announced that its special representative of Eurasian affairs will visit Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany and Russia from Monday in what it calls “an effort to promote peace talks”, Reuters reports.
Xi Jinping, China’s president, had pledged in a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart last month that he would send a delegation to the region to help facilitate peace talks. It was the first time the two presidents had spoken since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
In April, a report on Chinese state TV said Xi had told Zelenskiy during their call: “Negotiation is the only viable way out.”
Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has issued a combative statement in response to Uzbek and Azerbaijani news websites publishing an article by Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the president of Ukraine. In the course of it, she says:
This libeler (he cannot be called anything else) is unable to accept this inconvenient truth: Russia is a friend and defender of anyone who is interested in its friendship and defence, anyone who does not act antagonistically at its doorstep, or attack its citizens, compatriots, culture or history. There are simply no examples to the contrary.
The fact that our allies are providing platforms for a high-ranking representative of the Nazi authorities in Ukraine to distort the essence of our relations is certainly baffling. We know that the collective west, not hiding its intentions to inflict damage on Russia, would use anyone, including the post-Soviet countries – not actually considering them valuable partners, but springboards for attacks on our country that still have untapped potential as such. But it is precisely the Nazi essence of the current government in Kyiv, sponsored by the west, that has undermined the foundations of European security.
We respect the freedom of the press. However, it is our belief that the information landscape in countries friendly to us cannot be a platform for broadcasting intentionally false and provocative fabrications.
Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and during the course of what it terms its “special military operation” it has passed new laws restricting criticism of the war, and jailed journalists.
Reuters has a quick snap that Turkey’s defence minister, Hulusi Akar, has said that parties to the Black Sea grain initiative are approaching an extension. Reuters reports Akar’s comment was released by his ministry in a statement on Friday, after talks in Istanbul.
The Russian-imposed mayor of occupied Donetsk has reported on Telegram that one person was killed by Ukrainian shelling of the city overnight. Alexei Kulemzin posted “As a result of the shelling of the Kyivskyi district of Donetsk region, a man of 40-50 years old was killed.”
My colleague Archie Bland looks at what a Ukrainian counter-offensive might mean in practice in today’s First Edition newsletter:
Ukraine’s greatest success of the war so far came when it successfully fooled Moscow into thinking its September attack would come in the south, and not in the northern Kharkiv region. Surprises over timing and location are the most powerful tool at Ukraine’s disposal as it attempts to regain lost territory, break Russian supply lines, and bolster western support for the long war that likely lies ahead. But it is also extremely difficult to maintain.
After the stalemate of winter, Ukraine has talked openly about a planned counteroffensive for months. “We are preparing for it,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in April. “It will happen.” But yesterday, he suggested that despite endless speculation about the timing, his country’s forces were not yet ready.
Ukrainian commanders have also said that Kyiv lacks vital weapons for the new push – but there are also reasons to be sceptical. The Economist’s defence editor Shashank Joshi wrote on Twitter that “Of course this is what you’d say if the counter-offensive was about to begin,” appending a shrug emoji. And it is always useful for Ukraine to increase pressure for more western military hardware.
“Secrecy is very, very important,” the Guardian’s defence editor Dan Sabbagh said. “It’s essential to the success of what happens next. In Russian, it’s called ‘maskirova’ – the military concept of operational security and secrecy, but also active deception about what to expect. So we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen or when.”
With a 900-mile frontline that divides occupied eastern territory roughly the size of Portugal from the rest of Ukraine, there are no shortage of possible sites for the attack. But there is a relatively brief list of options both viable enough and valuable enough to be plausible.
“The ‘route one’ option, and the most obvious strategic imperative, is to cut the “land bridge” to Crimea,” Dan said. That would severely hamper supply lines to Russian troops in the rest of Ukraine as well as being a humiliating blow for Putin. “But the obvious counterpoint to that is that the geography is perfectly obvious to the Russians as well. They have been preparing for a possible attack and they are very well dug in.”
There are other options available. “They could also try to attack Crimea by crossing the Dnieper River further west,” Dan said. “But the Dnieper is a formidable, wide river that has already hurt the Russians when they were forced to give up Kherson.”
Also possible is a counterattack in Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region, where Russia has the upper hand after long and bitter fighting – but Ukraine made its first significant gains in months this week.
Finally, the Ukrainians could seek a breakthrough in the northern province of Luhansk – more sparsely defended, and providing a route to Russian-held cities in the Donbas. But there is less obvious strategic value in that territory. “And it’s quite close to Russia proper, so it would be easier to bring in reinforcements,” Dan added.
You can read more here: Friday briefing – What will Ukraine’s long-anticipated counteroffensive look like?
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Ukraine’s defence ministry has issued some statistics about air attacks on Kyiv. The Ukrainian capital has faced 851 hours and 38 minutes of air alarms (the equivalent of just over 35 days) since 24 February 2022, the ministry said. It also states that “not a single missile or drone has reached its target” for over two months now thanks to air defence efforts.
740 air alarms have gone off in Kyiv since February 24, 2022. In total, the alarms have lasted 851 hours and 38 minutes.
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) May 12, 2023
The guardians of Kyiv’s skies have been operating flawlessly for over two months - not a single missile or drone has reached its target. pic.twitter.com/4CbBtyIVTk
Updated
Rodion Miroshnik, formerly the self-styled ambassador to Russia of the Luhansk People’s Republic, has posted on Telegram that “the situation on the frontline in the north-west of the LPR has not changed significantly”.
Tass quotes the Russian-imposed official as saying: “According to intelligence and satellite surveillance, there are attempts to concentrate [Ukrainian] armoured forces in the Krasnyi Lyman and Kupiansk directions. But so far they are at a distance from the zone adjacent to the line of contact.”
The claims have not been independently verified. Luhansk is one of four partly occupied regions of Ukraine that the Russian Federation has claimed to annex.
Updated
According to Reuters, Ukrainian military analyst Oleksandr Musiyenko says Kyiv’s backers understand that a counteroffensive “may not result in the complete eviction of Russian troops and the definitive defeat of Russia in all occupied areas.”
“We have to be ready for the war to continue into next year - or it could end this year,” Musiyenko told Ukrainian NV Radio. “It all depends on how the battles develop. We can’t guarantee how the counter-offensive will develop.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Russia’s Wagner private army which has led the fight in Bakhmut, on Thursday said Ukrainian operations were “unfortunately, partially successful”. He called Zelenskiy’s assertion that the counteroffensive had not yet begun “deceptive”.
'Strong' explosion heard in Melitopol – local official
A strong explosion was heard in Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia a short whole ago, according to exiled mayor Ivan Fedorov. Zaporizhzhia is under Russian occupation.
“A strong single explosion in Melitopol. Resounded in the very centre of the city,” Federov wrote on Telegram. He did not provide further details.
Updated
In case you missed this yesterday: Britain has become the first western country to provide Ukraine with the long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles that Kyiv wants to boost its chances in a much-anticipated counteroffensive, prompting a threat from the Kremlin of a military response, the Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh and Luke Harding report.
Hours after Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he needed more western weapons to be confident of a victory this summer, Ben Wallace, the UK defence secretary, told MPs that the missiles – which cost more than £2m each – were “now going in, or are in the country itself”.
The gift of the missiles was supported by the US, Wallace added, although previously Washington had declined to give Ukraine long-range missiles of its own, fearing that the outcome could escalate hostilities in the 15-month war.
“The use of Storm Shadow will allow Ukraine to push back Russian forces based within Ukrainian sovereign territory,” Wallace told MPs, adding: “Russia must recognise that their actions alone have led to such systems being provided.”
Unnamed Kremlin sources say recent statements by Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin is “seriously disturbing the top leadership” in the Kremlin, the Institute for the Study of War has said in its latest update on the conflict.
NEW: Ukrainian forces likely broke through some Russian lines in localized counterattacks near #Bakhmut, prompting responses from #Wagner Group financier Yevgeny #Prigozhin and the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD).
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) May 12, 2023
Latest on #Ukraine w/ @criticalthreats: https://t.co/r7NqfmK8hU pic.twitter.com/FUpQG0CsvO
Citing a report by Russian opposition outlet Meduza, the US thinktank noted that the sources said “Prigozhin may have crossed the Kremlin’s “red lines” and may alienate his supporters within the Russian inner circle”.
Updated
Moscow denies reports Ukraine has broken through front lines
Russia’s defence ministry has denied reports that Ukrainian forces had broken through in various places along the front lines and said the military situation was under control, according to Reuters.
Moscow was reacting after Russian military bloggers, writing on the Telegram messaging app, reported what they said were Ukrainian advances north and south of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, with some suggesting a long-awaited counteroffensive by pro-Kyiv forces had started.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy had earlier said the offensive had yet to start.
“Statements circulated by individual Telegram channels about ‘defence breakthroughs’ that took place in different areas along the line of military contact do not correspond to reality,” the Russian defence ministry said in a Telegram post.
“The overall situation in the area of the special military operation is under control,” it said in a statement, using the Kremlin’s description of the war in Ukraine.
The fact the Russian ministry felt obliged to release the statement reflects what Moscow acknowledges is a “very difficult” military operation.
Opening summary
Welcome back to our continuing live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with the latest.
Out top story this morning:
Moscow has rejected reports by Russian military bloggers and Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin that Ukrainian forces have broken through Russian frontlines in the devastated city of Bakhmut.
“Statements circulated by individual Telegram channels about ‘defence breakthroughs’ that took place in different areas along the line of military contact do not correspond to reality,” the Russian defence ministry said in a Telegram post.
“The overall situation in the area of the special military operation is under control,” it said in a statement, using the Kremlin’s description of the war in Ukraine.
Elsewhere:
Britain’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has confirmed reports that the UK is donating long-range Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine. Wallace said Ukrainians will have the “best chance to defend themselves”.
The US ambassador to South Africa has accused the country of covertly providing arms to Russia – a charge that drew an angry rebuke from Pretoria. Reuben Brigety told a media briefing that the US believed weapons and ammunition had been loaded on to a Russian freighter that docked at a Cape Town naval base in December. “We are confident that weapons were loaded on to that vessel and I would bet my life on the accuracy of that assertion,” Brigety said, according to a video of the remarks. “The arming of Russia by South Africa … is fundamentally unacceptable.”
A Ukrainian brigade commander fighting in the ruins of Bakhmut said Russian mercenary forces have stepped up shelling and artillery attacks in recent days and were not facing a munitions shortage, despite its chief’s claims to the contrary. Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Thursday that the situation on the flanks near the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut was unfolding in line with the “worst of all expected scenarios”.
Poland’s defence minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, confirmed that the army was aware of a possible missile heading towards the country in December but failed to inform the government. Poland has been on alert for possible spillover of weaponry from the war in neighbouring Ukraine, especially since two people were killed near the border last November by what Warsaw concluded was a misfired Ukrainian air defence missile.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the country needs more time to prepare for a much-anticipated spring counteroffensive, saying: “We can go forward and be successful. But we’d lose a lot of people. I think that’s unacceptable. So we need to wait. We still need a bit more time.”
Zelenskiy again denied any Ukrainian responsibility for the drone incident over the Kremlin. Russia has accused Washington and Kyiv of masterminding the attack, which it described as an assassination attempt on Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time, and no injuries were caused by the drones.
A Ukrainian drone attacked an oil storage depot in the Russian border region of Bryansk, the local governor has claimed in a post on his Telegram channel on Thursday. There were no casualties after the attack on the facility near the town of Klintsy, owned by Russia’s Rosneft oil company, though one storage tank was partly damaged, the governor, Alexander Bogomaz, said.
Belgorod’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, claimed that seven settlements in the Russian region have been left without electricity after Ukrainian shelling over the border.
