Today at 12: 15 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 3: 25 p.m. EDT
Heavy fighting continues around the Azovstal steel plant, where Mariupol’s mayor says defenders are dealing with difficult conditions. Officials from Ukraine claim that Russian troops are clearing out debris in preparation for an upcoming parade. This will make Mariupol the centre of Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on May 9.
Ukrainian officials say Mariupol residents are being forced to work to clear blockages, but Russian officials say “peaceful life” is being established in a city they control. Addressing speculation that President Vladimir Putin may use the Russian holiday to officially declare war on Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “This is nonsense.”
Meanwhile, the European Union moved to cut off a key source of funding for the Kremlin by proposing a plan to phase out imports of Russian oil by the end of the year. Diplomats and officials said that the proposal needs to be approved by all member countries, but it could be formalized as soon as next week.
Here’s what else to know
- As Russia intensifies missile attacks across Ukraine, its forces appear to be targeting key infrastructure points — including transport hubs and power stations. According to the Pentagon, such attacks in Ukraine’s western region appear to have been launched with the intent of disabling railways.
- Belarus has launched large-scale drills that aim to test its armed forces’ ability to respond quickly to “possible crises” and counter threats from the air and ground, the country’s Defense Ministry said.
- The E.U. plans to boost military aid to Moldova, European Council President Charles Michel said Wednesday, amid fears of spillover from Russia’s unprovoked Ukrainian war after recent explosions in the breakaway region of Transnistria.
- The Washington Post has lifted its paywall for readers in Russia and Ukraine. Telegram users can subscribe to our channel.
Pentagon: Russia reduces Mariupol footprint, advances on other fronts
Only a couple thousand Russian troops remain in Mariupol, according to the Pentagon, as the Kremlin continues to try to press its assault on Ukraine through its eastern and southern regions.
“The great majority of the forces” that were in Mariupol have left, according to a senior defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under terms set by the Pentagon. According to the Pentagon, the official stated that Russia’s remaining forces are roughly equal in size to two tactical battalions and contained a variety of troops including Chechen fighters. That is about one-sixth of the manpower Russia had devoted to the assault on Mariupol in late April.
Thus far, however, Russia has not made much progress outside Mariupol, the official said. Forces moving northward have stopped around 75 miles to the northwest in a town called Velyka Novosilka, along the western border of the Donetsk region. Meanwhile, Russian forces trying to move to the southeast from Izyum had made it about 35 miles to Lyman, a town less than 20 miles from the city of Slovyansk, the official said.
Slovyansk and neighboring Kramatorsk, both of which lie near the western border of the Donetsk region, are considered targets of the Russian advance. Both cities experienced heavy fighting in 2014 during Ukraine’s conflict with Russian-backed separatists in the region but ended up remaining under Kyiv’s control.
Russian forces also remained about 20 to 30 miles to the east of Kharkiv, the senior defense official said.
Ukraine’s resistance to the onslaught continues, aided by new influxes of weapons from the West, even as Russia struck critical infrastructure targets in Lviv, in what the Pentagon believes was an attempt to stymie Ukraine’s ability to resupply its forces elsewhere in the country. More than 80 of the 90 howitzers the United States pledged for Ukraine had arrived, the official said. Official declined to give details about how many were used in combat.
Russian forces, preparing for Mariupol parade, clear ruins of bombed theater
Russian forces in Mariupol are making preparations for a parade in the shattered port city — by clearing debris from the bombed theater that had been sheltering hundreds of civilians, Ukrainian officials say.
“The occupiers continue to dismantle the debris in the city center, including the Drama Theater, in preparation for the parade,” said Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol’s mayor.
Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency said Wednesday that Russia was planning to turn Mariupol into a center of “celebrations” May 9. That day, known as Victory Day, marks Russia’s role in defeating Nazi Germany. “To this end, the city is urgently cleaning the central streets of debris, the bodies of killed and unexploded ordnance,” the agency said.
Video posted to Telegram on Wednesday shows abandoned cars, mangled building materials and cleanup crews outside the theater. The nearly 13-minute recording captures the destruction wreaked by the March 16 bombing.
The video shows a bulldozer moving rubble into a garbage truck and an excavator picking through the wreckage. The theater is filled with a variety of debris, including a collapsed ceiling and windows that have been blown out.
Residents are being forced to clear the debris so they can eat, Andryushchenko said. He said, “Work for food. This is the most vivid example of the occupiers’ victory.” These claims cannot be independently confirmed.
The grim comments contrast starkly with the Russian outlook on life in the city. The Russian army is now in control of Mariupol. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated that peace is being restored to the city.
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in Mariupol late last month, despite fighting at the Azovstal steel plant, which continues. Ukrainian officials estimate that as many as 200 civilians remain trapped there.
Shoigu said the last of the Ukrainian fighters in Azovstal “are securely blocked around the plant’s entire perimeter.”
Russian forces bombed the Mariupol Drama Theater on March 16, even though the word “children” in Russian was painted on the ground along two sides of the building. Experts from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe determined that the theater bombing was “most likely an egregious violation of international humanitarian law and those who ordered or executed it committed a war crime.”
As Boris Johnson is cheered in Ukraine, U.K. voters prepare to punish his party
LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson was cheered with standing ovations when he addressed the Ukrainian parliament Tuesday. According to reports, Fontanka in Ukraine, close to Odessa has named a street after Boris Johnson. And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country “will always be grateful to Boris and Britain” for their support during the war.
But while the prime minister continues to tweet photos of himself walking with Zelensky through Kyiv last month, he isn’t being hailed as much of a hero back in Britain. On Thursday, his Conservative Party will take a huge hit in the local elections in all of Britain. This is partly because it’s being seen as a referendum against Johnson.
The prime minister and his staff are subject to not one, not two, but three investigations.
Russian strikes appear aimed at disrupting railroads, Pentagon says
Russian strikes in western Ukraine appear to be targeting electrical infrastructure with a goal of disabling railroads, the Pentagon assessed Wednesday, after missiles struck around the city of Lviv.
“Both sides rely on rail for resupply,” and Russia appears to want to hamstring Ukraine on that front, said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon. According to the Pentagon, Ukraine continues to be able to transport weapons throughout the country.
As of Wednesday, more than 80 of the 90 howitzers that the United States promised Ukraine had arrived in the country. Some already have been used against Russia, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday.
In Ukrainian villages, whispers of collaboration with the Russians
IVANIVKA, Ukraine — Olena peered out from her bedroom window to see what looked like her neighbor, a tall man nicknamed Girovka, step out of a car with Russian markings and begin sending flares into the night sky from the side of the road. The next day, Russian tanks and armored vehicles emerged from the woods in a long column, descending on this small village about 60 miles south of the Russian border, along the same road.
Days later, after the Russian retreat from northern and central Ukraine, four investigators from the Security Service of Ukraine filed into 66-year-old Olena’s living room. They were told what they had seen, and Olena showed them where Girovka stood. Others told investigators that he was seen moving between Ukrainian posts minutes before the Russian forces shelled them.
No one in the village has seen the neighbor since.
Don’t be ‘Putin’s altar boy,’ pope warns Russian Orthodox Church leader
Pope Francis warned the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church not to be “Putin’s altar boy” and justify the Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine.
In a Tuesday interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Francis said he spoke with Patriarch Kirill, a key supporter of Vladimir Putin and his war, for 40 minutes over Zoom. During the March 16 conversation, Francis said, Kirill was listing off all the justifications for the war from a sheet of paper he was holding.
“I listened and then told him: I don’t understand anything about this,” Francis said. Brother, since we’re not state clerics we can’t use politics, but the language of Jesus. We pastor the holy ones of God. Because of this, we must seek avenues of peace, to put an end to the firing of weapons.”
Then, Francis, who has repeatedly called for an end to the war, went one step further and challenged Kirill not to follow along with the actions of the Russian president.
“The patriarch cannot transform himself into Putin’s altar boy,” the pope said.
Video: Stranded Mariupol couple waits in basement of collapsed home
Sergei and Luidmila Shulgin, a couple in their 60s, are two of the 100,000 civilians who Ukraine said remain stranded in Mariupol, according to Reuters. On April 21, Russia claimed it had gained control of the strategic port city, although fighters in the Azovstal steel plant are holding out.
The Shulgins spend most of their time in the basement of their near-destroyed building waiting to evacuate.
“We were scared at the beginning, but now we are laughing. Sergei said to Reuters that spring is coming.
The couple said they had received food rations from Russian forces and were told they could evacuate in a week to the southern Russian city of Krasnodar.
“Why should I go there? “I’m too old,” Luidmila said to Reuters. “Let them blow me up here — if I deserve it.”
Heavy fighting at Azovstal steel plant, Mariupol mayor says
Heavy fighting engulfed the Azovstal steel plant on Wednesday as its Ukrainian defenders fought a “very difficult” battle against Russian forces attempting to storm the complex, Mariupol’s mayor said.
As he described Russian troops using heavy weaponry against the plant, including tanks and bombs, Mayor Vadym Boychenko said contact has been lost with the Ukrainian forces inside.
“Unfortunately today the connection with the boys broke off. He stated that there is no way to connect with the boys to find out what’s happening and whether they are safe.
Hundreds of civilians remain at the besieged plant, he said. In Mariupol overall, he said more than 100,000 residents still await evacuation.
Earlier, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said four humanitarian corridors for civilians seeking to flee the fighting were planned for Wednesday.
The routes were set to link towns in the south and east that are under Russian attack — including Mariupol, Tokmak and Vasylivka — to Zaporizhzhia, a Ukrainian-held city.
Buses have already left Mariupol, the Donetsk governor said. He said that civilians could join the column from Tokmak with their own transportation.
On Tuesday, an internationally organized convoy of 101 civilians escaped to Zaporizhzhia from the steel plant in Mariupol, which is now mostly under Russian control. In spite of Russian bombardment, the Ukrainian rebels are resisting.
German opposition leader visits Zelensky after chancellor refuses to
German conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz visited Ukraine and met with President Volodymyr Zelensky amid a diplomatic tiff between Kyiv and Berlin.
Merz thanked Zelensky for a “warm welcome” in a tweet posted late Tuesday. He also met with other Ukrainian leaders, including lawmaker Halyna Yanchenko and former president Petro Poroshenko, who said he had “quite a meaningful meeting” with Merz.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Monday that he would not visit Kyiv to meet with Zelensky because the Ukrainian president had previously rebuffed an offer by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to visit.
Zelensky had told Steinmeier not to come because the president and former foreign minister had previously fostered close relations between Berlin and Moscow. Germany relies heavily on Russian fossil fuels and relations between the two countries have grown during Steinmeier’s tenure as foreign minister.
The cold shoulder was inappropriate, Scholz said during an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF, and meant he could not visit Kyiv and Zelensky.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, said in response that Scholz was “playing an offended liverwurst,” according to German media reports, referring to a type of sausage. The diplomat added that Russia’s war against Ukraine was a brutal attempt at annihilation and “not a kindergarten.”
Russian ally Belarus launches military quick-response drills
The Belarusian military has launched large-scale drills to test the readiness of its armed forces to respond quickly to “possible crises” and counter threats from the air and ground, the Defense Ministry of Ukraine’s neighbor said early Wednesday.
Belarus said the training exercise would not “pose any threat to the European community as a whole or to neighboring countries in particular.” The country borders Ukraine to its south, Poland to its west, and Lithuania and Latvia to its north.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, allowed Russian troops to assemble and conduct military drills in the Eastern European country in the run-up to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
After Wednesday’s announcement on the drills, the spokesman for Ukraine’s state border guard service, Andriy Demchenko, said the frontier with Belarus was “constantly being strengthened” but added: “It cannot be said that they are ready to attack.”
Ukraine continues efforts to uncover, identify civilians in Kyiv region
Ukrainian officials say they continue to uncover evidence of mass graves and torture in the Kyiv region, as they methodically log evidence with the goal of bringing war crimes charges against Russian forces who occupied the areas.
Oleksandr Pavliuk, head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, said on Telegram that three men with bullet wounds in their limbs and signs of having been tortured “for a long period of time” were found buried in the woods near Myrotske, northwest of Bucha, on April 29. He said that more bodies bearing signs of torture were found Monday at Kalynivka. Pavliuk stated that war crimes investigations were underway for these cases.
As of Wednesday, the Kyiv regional police had “identified and examined” 1,235 bodies of civilians killed by Russian forces in the region, according to Andriy Nebytov, the regional police chief. He said 282 bodies remain unidentified.
“In the last 24 hours alone, another 20 bodies of killed civilians have been sent to the morgue,” Pavliuk said.
Russia denies it will declare war on May 9, says peace talks stalled
Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday dismissed speculation that Moscow was working toward a deadline to declare a formal war with Ukraine by May 9 — when Russia celebrates Victory Day, commemorating the end of World War II.
Russia has so far termed its invasion a “special military operation,” and any declaration of war would probably involve ramping up arms and a greater mobilization of troops.
Asked by journalists whether President Vladimir Putin could declare war with Ukraine on May 9, Peskov told reporters: “No. This question has been answered. No, this is nonsense.”
Victory Day for Russians carries great significance and recalls their role in defeating Nazi Germany. This anniversary is celebrated with parades of national pride and other displays.
Conversely, some lawmakers and military analysts have speculated that Russia could end its invasion on May 9. In late March, the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Russian soldiers were being told that the war must end by that date. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban also told Pope Francis at the Vatican last month that “the Russians have a plan, that everything [in Ukraine] will be over on May 9,” the pontiff said in remarks published Tuesday by an Italian newspaper.
The United States has said it would not speculate on the duration of Russia’s invasion, but State Department spokesman Ned Price said this week it would be “a great irony if Moscow used the occasion of Victory Day to declare war.”
Peskov also told reporters that peace negotiations with Ukraine are at an impasse, blaming Kyiv. He said that they change their positions every day. He said that the Ukrainians have changed their positions every day and the negotiations are at risk of collapse.
Hungary ‘outraged’ by Ukrainian claim it was warned by Russia of war
The Hungarian Embassy in Kyiv said it was “outraged” by a Ukrainian official’s claim that Russia warned Budapest in advance of its plans to launch the war in Ukraine.
The comment by Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, “contains accusations that are false and unfounded,” the embassy said Tuesday, urging the official to withdraw them. This week, Danilov was quoted as saying in an interview that Hungary “openly declares its cooperation with Russia” and had advance warning from President Vladimir Putin “that there would be an attack on our country.”
The Hungarian Embassy condemned the allegation as slander. It called for “an explanation” from Kyiv and said it was “not the first time” that a Ukrainian official has made such a remark about Hungary despite its “support and solidarity.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has ties to Putin, has been criticized by European neighbors and Ukrainian leaders as he walks a fine line on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has promised to keep his country out of the war.
Taiwan to fund kindergarten for refugee children in Slovakia
Taiwan will donate $150,000 to aid children who have fled the war in Ukraine to neighboring Slovakia, officials said Tuesday.
Taiwan’s representative to Slovakia, Lee Nan-yang, signed an accord this week with a Slovakian nonprofit, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported, with funds going toward establishing a kindergarten for refugee children.
About 5.6 million people have fled Ukraine since the war began, according to the United Nations, at least 2 million of them children. Slovakia is hosting almost 400,000 refugees.
Beijing considers self-governing Taiwan part of China’s territory and frequently threatens to annex the island of more than 23 million people by force should it ever declare legal independence. Citizens and politicians in Taiwan fear that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could embolden their similarly powerful neighbor. A popular catchphrase has emerged on the island: “Today Ukraine, tomorrow Taiwan.”
In March, China reiterated in a government report that it is committed to “resolving the Taiwan question.”
Taiwan to donate US$150,000 for Ukrainian refugee children!
The funds will be used to help set up a kindergarten for children who have fled Ukraine to neighboring Slovakia. https://t.co/yMSbi0r8u6— Taiwan in the US (@TECRO_USA) May 4, 2022
