Russian troops prepare to withdraw from Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, as the fierce battle continues in the country’s eastern industrial heartland on the 81st day of Russian attacks.
Ukrainian servicemen carry a wounded comrade on a stretcher to hospital after an attack by Russian forces in the Donetsk region. (AP)
Sunday, May 15, 2022
Russia’s Donbass offensive ‘lost momentum’
The Russian offensive in Ukraine’s Donbass region “has lost momentum and fallen far behind,” British military intelligence said.
“Under current conditions, Russia is unlikely to significantly accelerate its pace of advance over the next 30 days,” the British military said in a regular Twitter post.
On Friday, Ukrainian forces prevented an attempt to cross a Russian river in Donbass, an eastern area including Luhansk and Donetsk regions that has been the focus of the offensive.
A Russian village bordering Ukraine bombarded, one injured
One person was injured when Ukrainian forces fired on a Russian village near the border, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, said in a message on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters was unable to immediately verify the report.
Envoy says Russian diplomats in US are threatened and lured by FBI
Russian diplomats in Washington are threatened with violence and US intelligence services are trying to get in touch with them, Tass news agency quoted the ambassador as saying.
Anatoly Antonov told Russian television that since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, face-to-face meetings with US officials were over.
“It’s like a fortress under siege. Basically, our embassy is operating in a hostile environment…Embassy employees are receiving threats, including threats of physical violence,” Tass quoted him as saying.
Missile hits military infrastructure in Ukraine’s Lviv region: governor
A missile strike hit military infrastructure in the Lviv region of western Ukraine, the region’s governor, Maxim Kozitsky, said in a message on his Telegram messaging app.
“There is no information of any fatalities or injuries at this time,” Kozitsky said. “The extent of the destruction is being clarified.”
Ukrainian Zelenskyy challenges as Russia withdraws from Kharkiv
Fresh off his country’s Eurovision win, a defiant Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has pledged to one day hold the song contest in the beleaguered city of Mariupol, which is almost entirely in Russian hands , with the exception of a loyal group of a few hundred Ukrainian fighters who continue to hold out in a steel mill.
Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra won the popular competition with their song “Stefania,” which became a popular anthem among Ukrainians during the war, and their victory lifted their spirits.
“Our courage impresses the world, our music conquers Europe,” Zelenskyy said on Facebook.
Ukrainian forces launch a counteroffensive in Izium, a town southeast of Kharkiv, making it harder for Moscow to encircle Donbass. Journalist Owen Holdaway brings us the latest pic.twitter.com/Js2v1o1gPa
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) May 15, 2022
Russian and Ukrainian officials negotiate evacuations from Mariupol
Ukrainian fighters locked in a steelworks in the ruined southern port of Mariupol have faced continued attacks on the city’s last stronghold of resistance.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said authorities were negotiating the evacuation of 60 seriously injured soldiers, but Russia had not agreed to the evacuation of all wounded fighters at the steelworks, which number in the hundreds.
Earlier, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, Petro Andryushenko, said via Telegram that a convoy of 500 to 1,000 cars carrying civilians from the city had been allowed to enter Ukrainian-controlled territory and was heading towards Zaporizhzhia, the first major city beyond the front lines.
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