The United States believes Russia is planning this month, a senior US official says annex large parts of eastern Ukraine And the southern cities recognize Kherson as an independent republic.
Officials say there was a Russian missile attack on the Black Sea port of Odessa on Monday evening.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to address Ukraine’s parliament, delivering the message that the fight against a Russian invasion is Ukraine’s “best of times”.
Mr Johnson’s office says UK leaders will announce a new 300 million pounds ($375 million) package of military aid to Ukraine when they speak to the legislature by video link on Tuesday.
The conflict began to intensify on February 21, 2022, after Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized separatist territory Deployed troops to eastern Ukraine and in a peacekeeping role.
Here are the latest updates:
Russia
TASS: More than 1 million Ukrainians taken to Russia
Russia’s defense ministry said on Monday that more than 1 million people, including about 200,000 children, had been moved from Ukraine to Russia in the past two months, according to the state-owned news agency. TASS,
Defense ministry official Mikhail Mizintsev said that in the past 24 hours, “without the participation of the Ukrainian authorities,” 11,550 people, including 1,847 children, were involved.
According to the report, he said those civilians were “evacuated from dangerous areas to the territory of the Russian Federation” in Donetsk, Lugansk and other parts of Ukraine. No details were given as to the location or circumstances of the moves. AP
Mariupol
Mariupol mayor says Ukraine’s city’s huge steel plant still has more than 200 citizens
The city’s mayor, Vadim Boychenko, said on Tuesday that more than 200 civilians were still holed up with fighters at a huge steel plant in Ukraine’s southern city of Mariupol.
He said a total of about 100,000 civilians were still in the southern Ukrainian city, which is occupied by Russian forces. Reuters
Vatican City
Pope says he wants to go to Moscow to meet Putin in Ukraine – Paper
Pope Francis said in an interview published on Tuesday that he asked for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to try to stop the war in Ukraine, but received no response.
Pope also told Italy Corriere della Sera The newspaper reports that Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has given his full support to the war, “cannot be Putin’s altar boy”.
Francis, who made an unprecedented visit to the Russian embassy when the war broke out, told the newspaper that nearly three weeks after the conflict, he asked the Vatican’s top diplomat to send a message to Putin.
He said the message was “that I was ready to go to Moscow. Of course, it was necessary for the Kremlin leader to allow an opening. We have yet to receive a response and we are still insisting”. Reuters
Ukraine
Russian shelling kills three civilians in eastern Ukraine, says presidential office
At least three civilians were killed in Russian shelling on Tuesday in the city of Vuhledar in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Ukraine’s presidential office said.
Firing continues in some other areas of Donetsk and regional authorities are trying to evacuate civilians from the border areas. Reuters
Ukraine
Ukrainian official accuses Russia of crime
Ukraine’s nominated ambassador to Canada says Russia must hold its troops accountable for sex crimes, including children.
Yulia Kovaliev told a Canadian House of Commons committee on Monday that Russia is using sexual violence as a weapon of war and said rape and sexual assault should be investigated as war crimes.
She said that Russia has also kidnapped Ukrainian children and taken them to Russian-occupied territories and now Russia. Ukraine is working with partners to find and bring back the children.
“The Russians, a few days ago, killed a young mother and taped her surviving child to her body and attached a mine between them,” the ambassador said. He said that the mine exploded.
Kovalev said that all Russian society, and not just President Vladimir Putin “and his proxies” should take responsibility for the war on Ukraine as more than 70% of Russians support the invasion. AP
Mariupol, Ukraine
Citizens rescued from Mariupol steel plant head to safety
Russia has restarted the Mariupol steel mill, which has become the last bastion of resistance in the bombed city, Ukrainian fighters said on Monday, allowing the first evacuation of civilians from the plant after a brief ceasefire over the weekend Went.
Meanwhile, a senior US official warned that Russia was planning to capture large parts of eastern Ukraine this month and recognize the southern city of Kherson as an independent republic.
Michael Carpenter, the US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said those suspicious acts were “straight out of the Kremlin’s playbook” and would not be recognized by the United States or its allies.
In Mariupol, more than 100 people, including elderly women and mothers with young children, left the Azovstal steelworks buried in the rubble on Sunday and traveled some 140 miles (230 kilometers) in buses and ambulances to the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhya . According to the video released by North West, officials and both sides.- AP
Ukraine
Ukraine’s foreign reserves flexible amid war shock – central bank chief
Foreign financial aid will ensure the stability of Ukraine’s central bank reserves as the country deals with the economic setback from the Russian invasion, central bank governor Kyrlo Shevchenko said late Monday.
The central bank’s international reserves fell to $26.8 billion in early May, from $28.1 billion a month earlier.
“Despite the government meeting all its foreign debt obligations, we have substantial reserves of international reserves,” Shevchenko wrote on the NV Business media portal.
“With adequate international financial support, we will also be able to maintain and increase reserves at an appropriate level.” Reuters
Russia
Moscow says 1,847 children out of thousands were taken from Ukraine to Russia
Russia’s defense ministry said more than 11,500 people, including 1,847 children, were deported from Ukraine to Russia on Monday without the participation of Kyiv officials.
That number includes evacuations from Russian-backed isolated areas of Ukraine, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, which Russia recognized as independent just before launching the February 24 offensive.
Russia says people have been evacuated at their own request, while Ukraine says Moscow has forcibly deported thousands of people to Russia since the start of the war. Reuters
Russia
Russian teams out of soccer championship
The Federation of European Football Associations has excluded Russian football teams from qualifying for the Women’s European Championship, the next men’s Champions League and the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
UEFA and FIFA suspended Russian national and club teams in February from playing in international competitions, including the men’s World Cup playoff, in the latest round of sporting sanctions on Monday during Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The latest expulsion is likely to be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, just as the Russian Football Federation has challenged previous decisions. AP
America
Russia planning to occupy eastern Ukraine: US official
A senior United States official says the US believes Russia plans to annex large parts of eastern Ukraine this month and recognize the southern city of Kherson as an independent republic.
Michael Carpenter, the US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said on Monday that the suspicious actions are “straight out of the Kremlin’s playbook” and will not be recognized by the United States or its allies and allies.
Ukraine
Delay in Mariupol evacuation causes ‘heavy fighting’ in Ukraine’s east
Ukrainian officials were expected to evacuate more civilians from the southern port city of Mariupol on Monday, as Russia’s offensive into Ukraine’s east continued with “active and heavy” fighting.
Kyiv said more than 100 civilians were evacuated over the weekend from the giant Azovstal plant, the last holdout of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol, which has been surrounded by Russian forces since the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Ukraine
Ukraine admits ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ fighter pilot is a myth
On social media, the “Ghost of Kyiv” was a military hero, an ace fighter pilot honored for allegedly shooting down several Russian planes. The tales began just days after the war and circulated for months, bolstered by official Ukrainian accounts.
But on Saturday, Ukrainian officials acknowledged that the legendary pilot was a myth.