On the 442nd day of the war in Ukraine, Russia said it had repelled Ukrainian forces, with more than 1,000 men and up to 40 tanks, by carrying out “offensive operations” along the entire line of contact near Soledar, the mining town lost last January by Kiev.
Kiev forces have advanced two kilometers in the front area of the city of Bakhmut (east), the epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has assured.. “The enemy has suffered significant losses of men,” he added.. Bakhmut, springboard for Russia and necessary for kyiv in its counteroffensive.
Russia has had to deal with rumors on Russian social networks and the Wagner paramilitary group about the advances of Ukrainian troops at various points on the front and ensures that it has the situation in eastern and southern Ukraine “under control”.
Zelensky's Army is focused on hindering the supply, coordination and movement of Russian troops in the face of their expected counteroffensive.
The commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet has said its defenses are being tightened amid a spate of Ukrainian drone strikes targeting its base, the Crimean port of Sevastopol.
On the diplomatic front, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to meet Italian President Sergio Mattarella and possibly also Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Today, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, meets with the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, at the White House
Starting Monday, a special representative of China begins a tour of Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany and Russia, coinciding with the scheduled G-7 summit in the Japanese city of Niigata, on aid given to Ukraine and the approval of a new sanctions package that could affect Beijing.
Next Tuesday, the Council of Europe will hold a summit in Reykjavik largely dedicated to the war in Ukraine, attended by dozens of Russian citizens despite Russia's expulsion from the institution more than a year ago.
Separately, two Russian pilots were killed on Friday when a Russian military helicopter crashed in Crimea, Russian news agencies reported, citing the Defense Ministry.
The foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) discussed this Friday in Stockholm how to evolve from the current urgent support that they are providing to Ukraine to defend itself from the Russian invasion to a “humanitarian, financial and military” support to “medium” and ” long term.
“We have been quick in our response. But now we have to look a little further, in the medium term,” said the high representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, at a press conference at the end of an informal meeting of the ministers in the capital of Sweden, country who this semester presides over the Council of the Union.
Borrell specified that it is about seeing how to “convert into a long-term commitment” the instruments developed by the EU so that Ukraine can face immediate threats, providing it with “ammunition and military equipment”. The long-term goal, he said, is “to support Ukraine humanitarianly, financially and militarily.”
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, expressed this Friday to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, his gratitude for the support that Spain is giving to Ukraine and for the agreement reached to receive migrants.
“Together we help Ukraine, I can't thank you enough,” Biden said, addressing Sánchez at the beginning of their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House and in the presence of the media.
Biden also stressed that he and Sánchez have “a lot to talk about” in this meeting.. A meeting that shows the good moment that the bilateral relationship is going through with similar visions about the war in Ukraine and the role of NATO, as well as agreements on migration to face the crisis that the American continent is going through
Poland's decision to rename the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad as part of the conservative government's policy of extolling national history will in practice have no more repercussions than changing the name on official documents and road signs.
“The change to Königsberg does not introduce new obligations for employers or the need to update documents: Königsberg will be on maps and guides, but the name Kaliningrad will disappear from Polish roads. It is estimated that up to several dozen signs with this name will have to be changed. We are taking inventory of the plates to calculate the costs,” explains Karol Gbocki, spokesperson for GDDKiA in Olsztyn.
The Commission for the Standardization of Geographical Names beyond the Polish Borders recommended on May 9 to change the name of the Russian border region with Poland by Königsberg for the city and Königsberg Oblast for the region. “We do not want the Russification of Poland and that is why we have decided to change the name in our mother tongue of Kaliningrad and the Kaliningrad region,” Polish Development Minister Waldemar Buda explained at the time.
Read the complete information on Carmen Valero.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, plans to present an agreement with Russia and Ukraine on the protection of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant to the UN Security Council this month, signaling that the A deal is close, four diplomats told Reuters.
Grossi has been trying for months to secure a deal to reduce the risk of a catastrophic nuclear accident due to bombing at Europe's largest nuclear power plant, which is located in Ukraine and has been occupied by Russia for more than a year. .
With Ukraine preparing a counter-offensive in the area, there is a risk of intensifying fighting near the plant and its six reactors.. Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for bombing strikes that have repeatedly downed power lines vital to cooling reactors and preventing a nuclear meltdown.
The UK's delivery of long-range “Storm Shadows” missiles to Ukraine is “an extremely hostile step” that may lead to a serious escalation in the region, the Russian Foreign Ministry warned today.
“We view this decision as a new extremely hostile step by London, aimed at continuing to pump weapons into Ukraine and which will lead to a serious escalation,” Russian diplomacy said in a statement.
According to Foreign Affairs, Russia “reserves the right to take all necessary measures to neutralize threats that could arise as a result of Ukraine's use of British cruise missiles.”
For the second time this year, Russia today organized an informal meeting of the UN Security Council to denounce kyiv's measures against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, traditionally dependent on the Moscow Patriarchate,
The Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vasili Nebenzia, stressed that “millions of Ukrainian Christians are being discriminated against” by the authorities and warned that the situation could end in a “disaster”.
Last January, Moscow had already convened a similar meeting in which it denounced a “war” by the Government of Volodimir Zelensky against the country's traditional Orthodox Church, which Kiev sees as “pro-Russian”.
The presidents of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, today discussed in a telephone conversation the preparations for the upcoming Russia-Africa summits in July in Saint Petersburg and the BRICS countries in August in Johannesburg.
“Current issues of Russian-South African strategic partnership relations were discussed. The readiness to increase mutually beneficial relations in different branches was expressed,” the Kremlin reported.
According to the Kremlin, during the telephone conversation, which was carried out at the initiative of South Africa, “the importance of maintaining close coordination between Russia and South Africa was stressed in the context of preparations for important multilateral activities.”
The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit could be marred by the arrest warrant against Putin issued by the International Criminal Court and South Africa's permanence in the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the court that obliges it to stop the Russian leader as soon as he steps on their territory.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski thanked UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak by phone today for the delivery announced yesterday by the London government of long-range Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine.
“I have had a telephone conversation with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak. I have thanked him for the significant bolstering of our Storm Shadow long-range missile capabilities and other irreplaceable military assistance,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter after speaking to Sunak.
UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace announced yesterday in the British Parliament that his country will send Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine. The United Kingdom thus becomes the first country to agree to deliver long-range missiles to kyiv so that Ukraine can hit Russian targets inside the occupied territories.
The deputy head of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, today accused the United States of bribing the International Criminal Court (ICC) into ordering the arrest of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.
“I remember that this year the budget of that special court increased by 24 million euros. It can be interpreted as you like, but in essence it looks like a bribe by the US authorities,” Medvedev said during his speech at the International Legal Forum in St. Petersburg.
The former Russian president stressed that this bribery would be aimed at promoting “anti-Russian cases linked to the conflict in Ukraine”. The arrest warrant “is, of course, demonstrative and nonsense, even painful. But unfortunately, it has certain consequences,” he said.
Two Russian servicemen were killed when an Mi-28 military helicopter crashed on the annexed Crimean peninsula during a training flight on Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
“During the performance of a planned training flight in the Dzhankoi region (Crimea) an Mi-28 helicopter crashed,” the Russian command said in a statement quoted by the Interfax agency.
According to Defense, the incident took place at 15:42 Moscow time (12:42 GMT).. “The flight was carried out without weapons. no ground damage. Both pilots died,” added the military entity.
The Ministry of Defense declared that the preliminary version of the accident was a technical failure. A commission from the Russian Aerospace Force command was sent to the scene to investigate the causes of the incident.
The Mi-28H, also known as the Night Hunter (Havoc-B according to NATO classification), is a Russian assault helicopter designed at the end of the last century.
Before the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Mikhail Zvinchuk's Telegram channel was known only to specialists but today it has more than a million subscribers, illustrating the success of Russian military bloggers since the conflict began.
Just like him, many hitherto unknown bloggers have become popular thanks to their freedom of tone compared to traditional media, subject to strict control by the authorities.
They do not hesitate to publish information that has not yet been communicated by the authorities and to criticize certain decisions, which makes them more credible in the eyes of the Russians, but also annoys the army.
When the Russian intervention began on February 24, 2022, “the [official] institutions responsible for information were in chaos,” Zvinchuk, founder of the Telegram channel “Rybar” (“The Fisherman” in Russian) told AFP. .
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang warned in Oslo today against the danger of a “new” Cold War that would jeopardize multilateralism and harm relations with Europe.
“The Cold War was a tragedy in the history of mankind.. If we had a new Cold War, the results would be even more disastrous and seriously damage China-Europe relationship and cooperation and cast doubt on multilateralism,” Qin told a news conference with her Norwegian counterpart, Anniken Huitfeldt.
Qin defended that China and Europe should unite to promote cooperation between the main powers, stressing that what his country offers the world are “securities, not risks.”
The visit to Oslo closes a European tour in which Qin Gang has also visited Germany and France and from which he nevertheless made a positive assessment of relations with his country. “I feel that Europe has an urgent desire to increase coordination and communication with China and advance mutually beneficial cooperation,” he said.
The spokesman for the Ukrainian armed forces in the east of the country, Serhii Cherevaty, assured this Friday that the Russian forces are “exhausted” and have suffered “bleeding” in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, where the military also confirmed Ukrainian advances in the last hours.
“Only during the last day there have been 40 combats, and as a result of which 190 occupants have died, 244 have been wounded and another 15 have been captured,” Cherevaty said in an intervention on the national television news service, reports Efe.
New clash between the head of the Wagner mercenary militia and the Russian Ministry of Defense. Prigozhin has once again accused the Russian army of “fleeing” near Bakhmut, where, he has said, its defenses “collapse”.
Going a step further, he has accused the Russian General Staff of “sweetening” the situation. The statement provided this Friday from Moscow affirms that its forces have resisted Ukrainian attacks along a 95-kilometer front, and only admits a withdrawal to the northwest of Bakhmut.
But the leader of the mercenary militia fighting in that area offers a very different version.. “There was simply a leak from the units of the Ministry of Defense on the flanks” in Bakhmut, Prigozhin laments in a video. “Attempts by the Defense Ministry in the information field to sugarcoat the situation will lead to a global tragedy for Russia,” he adds.
The foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) will hold this Friday “difficult discussions” on the eleventh package of sanctions against Russia, with the possibility of penalizing companies from third countries, including China, that send military material to Moscow in the war against Ukraine.
“It is something new, we are doing it for the first time and for sure there will be difficult discussions. Absolutely”, said the head of Austrian diplomacy, Alexander Schallenberg, upon arrival at the informal meeting that the EU foreign ministers begin today in Stockholm, which will continue tomorrow. The Austrian minister stated that this is a “legitimate discussion” and said that the option of sanctioning companies from third countries that help to circumvent European sanctions against Russia is “correct and important”.
The German minister, Annalena Baerbock, was also in favor of this possibility because “we want to prevent military material from being delivered to Russia from other countries”, since that would be “direct support for the aggressor” that “would have consequences”.. Baerbock, however, stressed that Beijing “has made it clear” that it is not giving arms to Moscow.
The Federal Security Service (FSB, formerly KGB) has arrested this Friday an inhabitant of the annexed Crimean peninsula for delivering to Kiev a video about sending a Russian military convoy to the front.. The 34-year-old man would have sent the audiovisual material to one of the Telegram channels used by the Ukrainian secret services to gather intelligence data from the enemy.
According to the FSB statement, such data was used by kyiv to launch attacks against Russian positions in Ukraine.. The FSB has initiated a criminal case against the Crimean for high treason in the form of espionage, under article 275 of the criminal code. Due to a recent amendment, high treason in this country is now punishable by up to life in prison.
The Russian Defense Ministry statement announcing that its forces had repelled a wave of attacks along a 95-kilometre front in eastern Ukraine includes an acknowledgment of a setback that it attributes to tactical reasons.
According to that statement, Russian forces have withdrawn to take what it describes as “more favorable positions” near the Berkhivka reservoir, northwest of Bakhmut.
The leaders of the Baltic States have discussed this Friday in Tallinn how to cut ties with the Russian electricity grid as soon as possible and the increase in NATO troops stationed in each of the three countries.
The three prime ministers, the Estonian Kaja Kallas, the Lithuanian Ingrida Simonyte and the Latvian Krisjanis Karins, have stated after the meeting that they agree to accelerate the process of desynchronization of their electrical networks from those of Russia and Belarus.. Its objective is to achieve it as soon as possible and before 2026, the deadline currently set and which was established before the technical reviews that are being carried out right now.. In the future, the Baltic power grids will be synchronized with those of Western Europe, which means that, in the event of a sudden drop in supply, it would be automatically compensated by other power plants connected to the European grid.
“All attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been repelled” and Russian defensive lines were not allowed to break through near the city of Soledar, which Moscow forces captured last January,” military spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement. his daily war part.
In neighboring Bakhmut, the main battleground between Ukrainian and Russian troops, fighting continues in the western part of the town, he said.
In total, on the Donetsk front, where Soldar is located, more than 900 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in one day, according to Konashenkov.
Russia came out yesterday to the rumors about the start of the Ukrainian counteroffensive and assured that it has “under control” the situation in the east and south of the country.
“The statements broadcast by individual Telegram channels about 'breaks at the front' that took place at various points on the contact line do not correspond to reality,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, reports Efe.
The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, affirmed this Friday that “I hope Putin understands that diplomatic language”, and showed his agreement with the call for peace in the war in Ukraine made by the UN Secretary General. António Guterres said that “instead of bullets, we need diplomatic arsenals” to fight for peace.
Robles was “totally in agreement with Guterres” since, he added, “there is only one responsible here, who is the one who started the war, who is the one who is massacring the civilian population in Ukraine. Hopefully Putin understands that diplomatic language,” reports Servimedia.
Funeral ceremony of soldier Valeri Sosnovski, in Poltava.
China has been active in the Ukrainian crisis, announcing on Friday that it will send a special representative to Ukraine, Russia and other European countries to discuss a “political agreement” starting next Monday.
Although the Asian giant regularly calls for respect for the sovereignty of States, it has never publicly condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukrainian territory.
Beijing presents itself as a neutral party in the conflict and intends to play a mediating role, although its position as Moscow's close economic and diplomatic partner disqualifies it in the eyes of some European capitals.
“From May 15, Ambassador Li Hui, the Chinese government's special representative for Eurasian affairs, will discuss a political solution to the Ukrainian crisis in Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany and Russia,” said Wang Wenbin, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Chinese Foreign Affairs, reports Afp.
Li Hui, 70, is the highest-ranking Chinese diplomat to visit Ukraine since the large-scale invasion of Ukrainian territory by Russian troops in late February 2022.
The Russian army claimed on Friday to have repelled 26 Ukrainian attacks on a 95-kilometre front in the Soledar sector in eastern Ukraine, near the symbol city of Bakhmut, on the eve of a major Kiev offensive.
“In the tactical direction of Soledar, the enemy carried out an offensive yesterday (Thursday) along the entire line of contact, of more than 95 kilometers. Ukrainian army units carried out 26 attacks involving more than 1,000 soldiers and up to 40 tanks,” the Russian Defense Ministry stated, assuring that it had repelled all these attacks and prevented any advance, reports Afp.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky will meet with Italian President Sergio Mattarella tomorrow Saturday in Rome, a spokesman for the Italian presidency told Afp.
A Vatican source also indicated on Friday that a meeting between Zelensky and Pope Francis was “possible.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday that Ukrainian forces carried out “offensive operations” yesterday along the entire line of contact near Soledar, a mining town from which Ukraine withdrew last January, the Russian media reported. official communication from the ministry, Zvezda, collects Reuters.
More than a thousand soldiers and up to 40 tanks were used in the assault, he specified, adding that the attacks were repulsed.
The Kremlin said on Friday that a meeting has not yet been set between President Vladimir Putin and Chinese special envoy Li Hui, who will tour European countries next week to discuss Ukraine.
“There is no scheduled meeting yet. Moscow denied the reports and claimed that the situation was under control after 10 months of fierce fighting for Bakhmut.
In another Telegram message, Maliar later claimed that the Russian attacks were being responded to with defensive operations and counterattacks, suggesting that such moves should not be considered part of any major Ukrainian counteroffensive.
“Actually, this situation has been going on in the east for several months,” he wrote.. “That's it! Nothing else happens.”
South Africa has not approved any arms shipments to Russia, the minister who chairs the country's National Committee for Conventional Arms Control, Mondli Gungubele, told local radio station 702 on Friday, Reuters reports.
Radio 702 host Clement Manyathela wrote on Twitter that Gungubele said on his show that if weapons had been loaded onto a Russia-bound ship from South Africa, that was illegal and inappropriate.
The US envoy to South Africa said he was certain a Russian ship had picked up weapons in South Africa last year in a possible violation of Pretoria's declared neutrality in the Ukraine conflict.
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, will discuss Ukraine, defense cooperation and migration this Friday during a meeting at the White House in which the war between Moscow and Kiev will likely feature prominently, Reuters reports.
Although Madrid agrees with Washington on the illegality of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Sánchez will convey the divergent views of China and Brazil and will propose giving more weight to the opinions of non-NATO nations harmed by the war said a Spanish diplomatic source.
The United States reacted skeptically to China's 12-point peace plan, saying that if Beijing was serious about its first point on respecting sovereignty it should urge Russia to withdraw.
Similarly, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva drew criticism from the United States for suggesting that the West had been “fooling” the war by arming Ukraine.
A White House official said that China and Brazil could play a role in eventual peace talks, but stressed that the end of the war must respect the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Banner, like a postage stamp, showing Putin before the Tribunal in The Hague.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in an analysis on Friday that Kiev had “probably broken through some Russian lines during counterattacks near Bakhmut,” reports Afp.
“It is likely that Ukrainian forces have broken through some Russian lines in localized counterattacks near Bakhmut, prompting responses from the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and the Russian Defense Ministry,” the think tank says in its latest update. from USA.
“The commander of the Eastern Ukraine Group of Forces, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, stated that the Russian forces withdrew up to two kilometers behind the Russian lines in unspecified sectors of the Bakhmut front.. Syrskyi's confirmation of the Ukrainian advances provoked a response from Prigozhin, who stated that the Ukrainian forces had launched the counter-offensive and recaptured three kilometers of ground in and around Bakhmut.”.
“The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged the Ukrainian counterattacks with unusual speed, stating that Russian forces had repelled eight ground attacks and three reconnaissance operations in the Donetsk direction, but denied that Ukrainian forces had broken through Russian defensive lines.”. “Our fighters have advanced two kilometers in the Bakhmut area,” added the deputy minister.
Malyar also wrote that the Ukrainian forces “have not lost a single position in Bakhmut this week.”
The US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, and the German Finance Minister, Christian Lindner, agreed this Friday on the need to continue working on tax cooperation at a global level and showed their agreement on continuing to support Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion. .
Yellen and Lindner held a meeting on the sidelines of the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors that is being held in the Japanese city of Niigata.
The heads of finance from Washington and Berlin “spoke about the importance of aligning efforts to counter the evasion of sanctions” by Moscow, according to a statement released by the US Treasury Department.
The financial authorities of the Group of Seven (G-7), together with the European representatives of the sector and the International Monetary Fund, discussed in this second day of meetings the impact of the aid provided to Ukraine to date and the steps to be taken in forward.
The world's leading economy and the most important in the European Union now seek to focus on studying measures to prevent Russia from evading the economic sanctions that more than thirty countries have imposed on it to try to reduce its ability to finance the invasion of the neighboring country. reports Efe.
The Chinese government reported on Friday that it will send a special representative to Ukraine, Russia and other European countries, on a tour that will begin on Monday, to seek a “political solution” to the war in Ukraine.
“Starting May 15, Ambassador Li Hui, the Chinese government's special representative for Eurasian affairs, will travel to Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany and Russia to discuss with each of these parties a political solution to the Ukrainian crisis.” , told the press Wang Wenbin, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, collects Afp.
kyiv's forces have advanced two kilometers around Bakhmut, the epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister said Friday.
“The enemy has suffered heavy losses of men. Our defense forces have advanced two kilometers near Bakhmut,” Ganna Malyar said in a statement posted on social media.. “This week we have not lost any position in Bakhmut,” he added.
Only in the first nine days of May there have been 14 explosions caused by drone attacks or sabotage actions against infrastructures located within the Russian Federation such as fuel depots and train tracks, reports today the Ukrainian digital publication LIGA.net, replica Eph.
“In the first nine days of May, LIGA.net has counted 14 explosions caused (presumably) by drones or saboteurs,” writes the publication, which also explains that the figure is the same as the number of attacks that were recorded throughout the month of April.
The publication, which has produced an interactive map with the location of the alleged Ukrainian attacks inside Russia, counted 5 such incidents in March.
More than a year after Russia's expulsion from the Council of Europe, several dozen Russian citizens continue to work at the institution, much to the chagrin of Ukraine.
The 46 member countries of the Council of Europe, the continent's human rights watchdog, will meet in Reykjavik on Tuesday for a summit largely devoted to the war in Ukraine.
On March 16, 2022, the Council of Europe decided to expel Russia, three weeks after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.. The unprecedented decision raises the question of what will happen to Russian staff working at the Strasbourg-based agency.
For Ukraine, which is one of the 46 Member States, the solution is obvious: Russian citizens cannot continue to work in the institution.
“His presence undermines the credibility and security of this international organization,” Ukraine's deputy permanent representative Viktor Nikitiuk told Afp.. “We want only nationals of the Member States to work in the institution. As a Ukrainian, I would never claim to work for the European Union or NATO,” two organizations of which kyiv is not a member.
This position is shared by a dozen countries, such as Estonia and Latvia, which have considered the continued presence of Russian employees in the different departments of the Council of Europe, where more than two thousand people work, “intolerable”.
“There is a vulnerability within the organization,” says a diplomat. “We cannot be sure that information is not being transmitted clandestinely, and we do not know what harm it could cause.”
Ukraine has been focusing its efforts in recent weeks on destroying Russian logistics and supply infrastructure behind the front, both in the tactical zone closest to the contact line and in the so-called operational zone within Russia itself, according to Efe.
With these attacks – launched with drones, aviation, precision medium-range missiles and even acts of sabotage – Kiev intends to hinder the supply, coordination and movement of Russian troops in the face of their expected land counteroffensive to recover territories.
The Ukrainian armed forces struck this Thursday 11 checkpoints of the Russian army in the occupied territories, where they also hit 19 concentration points of Russian troops, an ammunition depot and another for fuel and lubricants, the military report reported today. Kiev General Staff, Efe replied.
Over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian forces have also hit 9 Russian artillery positions and an air defense infrastructure.. “The general situation in the area of the special military operation is under control,” the ministry said.
The head of the Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose men are on the front line of the battle for Bakhmut, has been reporting for three days that Russian soldiers have been retreating around the flanks of the city in the face of Ukrainian assaults, confirmed by a halt Kiev charge.
Ukraine said on Friday it had retaken some tracts of territory near Bakhmut in the east of the country, and Russia said it had repelled attacks along 95 kilometers of the eastern front, amid speculation that a Ukrainian counteroffensive was starting.
Those announcements of victorious operations mark a rebound in fighting, after months of relatively stable lines.
In the diplomatic field, China announced the upcoming dispatch of a special envoy to Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany and Russia to “communicate with all parties on the political solution of the Ukrainian crisis.”
Beijing, which has never condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has been outlining a mediation effort in the conflict for weeks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will travel to Rome on Saturday, where he will meet political leaders and possibly Pope Francis.