May 27, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the situation in Donbas is “very difficult” as Russia ramps up firepower and manpower, and makes incremental gains in the southeastern region. But he vowed Donbas would be “Ukrainian again.”

Here’s the latest on Russia’s war in Ukraine:

The US Defense Department awarded a top defense contractor a $624 million contract?to replenish?Stinger?anti-aircraft missiles, one of the key systems the US has provided to Ukraine as Russia’s war continues.

The department announced the contract to Raytheon on Friday afternoon, though it was officially awarded on Wednesday. The contract is “for the procurement of?Stinger?missiles and associated equipment.” There is no timeline listed for completion of the work.?

The US has sent more than 1,400?Stinger?systems, including missiles and launchers, to Ukraine to help them challenge Russia’s attempt to control the skies.?Stingers are short-range anti-aircraft missiles with a range of about 3 miles (nearly 5 kilometers). ?

Though their range is too short to allow them to target high-flying aircraft, they can effectively shoot down drones and low-flying aircraft and helicopters. The US has little use for?Stingers, but they have been in high demand in Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion.

The aftermath of a Russian air strike at a factory in Bakhmut, in the Donbas region of Ukraine on Friday May 27.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has promised that Donbas will be “Ukrainian again,” as Russian forces continue to make incremental gains in the southeastern region.?

Speaking during his nightly address Friday, Zelensky called the current situation in Donbas “very difficult,” referencing Russia’s ramping up of firepower and manpower in the region.?

The US Defense Department maintained during a press briefing Friday that Russia is continuing to make “incremental gains” in Donbas.?

Ukraine continues to call on international partners, including the UK, to provide it with multiple launch rocket systems to counter the Russian offensive.?

While acknowledging Ukraine’s request,?Pentagon press secretary John Kirby?stressed during Friday’s briefing that “decisions… haven’t been made yet.”?

The US Defense Department said it is “mindful and aware” of Ukraine’s request for multiple-launch rocket systems, but that “decisions … haven’t been made yet.”

“Our goal from the very beginning has been to try to help them in the fight that they’re in today,” said outgoing Pentagon press secretary John Kirby at a briefing with reporters.

“I won’t go so far as to say it’s too late to provide the Ukrainians with any system or capability that they might need because they are very active in the fight and they have pushed back the Russians up near Kharkiv,”?Kirby said.

However, Kirby said the Defense Department is “mindful of the clock” when it comes to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

CNN reported Thursday that the Biden administration is preparing to send MLRS systems as part of a larger package of military and security assistance to Ukraine, which could be announced as soon as next week.?The MLRS and its lighter-weight version, the HIMARS, can launch as far as 300 kilometers (186 miles), depending on the type of munition.

Ukrainian officials are denying that the city of Severodonetsk in Luhansk is surrounded, but have acknowledged that Russian forces hold one part of the city.

“This is a war, a war against a very powerful enemy, and in theory anything is possible,” Hayday said when asked about the possibility of Russian troops gaining further ground in the city. “The higher military command sees this situation. But so far I can’t say that in a day, two, three they will completely take over the area. No, most likely they won’t.”

“We have enough strength,” he continued, while also cautioning that, “Maybe there will be a command to our troops even to retreat.”

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto expressed optimism that “sooner or later, Finland and Sweden will be members of NATO” and said discussions with the Turkish government would continue as Ankara threatens to block the two nations from joining the defensive alliance.

In an interview with CNN in Washington, DC, Friday, Haavisto said he expected that the topic of Finland’s?NATO membership?and overcoming Turkey’s current opposition would come up in his conversations with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in his meeting later in the day, adding he was “quite confident” that other NATO countries had spoken with Turkey as well.

Delegations from Finland and Sweden – which both formally applied for NATO membership last week – traveled to Turkey earlier this week for talks on NATO accession. All current NATO members must approve new members.

Haavisto, who did not attend the talks, called it a “good meeting,” and said it lasted for five hours. Haavisto indicated that there are European and Finnish laws and policies in place that guide Finland’s actions on Turkey’s main demands – the designation the PKK as a terrorist organization, lifting arms export controls, the extradition of Kurdish militants that Turkey sees as terrorists. However, Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin said following the delegation’s visit that “if Turkey’s security concerns are not met with concrete steps, the process cannot progress.”

Haavisto said “there was an agreement to continue those discussions,” but a next round of talks has not yet been arranged.

The decisions by Finland and Sweden to apply for NATO was a major shift prompted by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Read more:

Related article Finnish foreign minister optimistic that 'sooner or later' Finland and Sweden will be NATO members

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the State Department in Washington, DC, on May 26.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Friday with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba “to discuss continued U.S. security assistance to Ukraine as it defends its sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s brutal and unprovoked war,” according to State Department spokesperson Ned Price.?

This was their second call this week after speaking on Tuesday.?

Kuleba said on Twitter that he and Blinken discussed Ukraine’s urgent need for supplies of heavy weaponry as well.

“I value his personal efforts to ensure a sustained U.S. and global support for Ukraine. Heavy weapons on top of our agenda, and more are coming our way. Ukraine and the U.S. work hand in hand to deliver our food exports despite Russia’s reckless blockade,” Kuleba tweeted.

Chancellor of Austria, Karl Nehammer seen during a joint press conference in Prague, Czech Republic, on May 17.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has assured Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer that an exchange of prisoners will take place between Russia and Ukraine.?

The two leaders discussed the possibilities for prisoner exchanges during a 45-minute phone call on Friday, according to a statement of the call from the Austrian Chancellery.?

Putin also told Nehammer that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will “have free access to prisoners of war,” asking for this access to also be granted to Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine.?

The Russian leader provided his Austrian counterpart with “an assessment of the situation?the context of the ongoing special military operation to protect Donbas,” the Kremlin said in a readout of the call,?using a standard euphemism to refer to the invasion of Ukraine.?

They also discussed efforts to “ensure the safety of navigation in the waters of the Azov and Black Seas,” the Kremlin said.?

The Austrian Chancellery added that Nehammer did receive “positive signals” from Putin that a solution will be found to allow the export of Ukrainian goods through the seaports of the Black Sea.?

During the call,?Russia’s “commitment to comply with contractual obligations on natural gas supplies to Austria was reaffirmed,” the Kremlin said.?

Ukraine’s military said the Russians are trying to repair damaged railway lines inside northern Ukraine to sustain their supply routes.

In an update posted Friday, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that “in order to improve the logistics of its troops, the enemy is trying to restore the damaged railway.?

The railway from Russia into the Kharkiv region and south to Izium is a critical supply line for the Russian offensive.

Elsewhere, the General Staff reported further heavy fire by Russian forces as they try to develop an offensive on Sloviansk, a city in Donetsk region, the update said. Russian assault operations were underway in several settlements around the city of Severodonetsk, where Ukrainian defenses have been under constant bombardment.

The updated added that Russian forces were also trying to disrupt Ukrainian supply lines from Bakhmut that support front-line troops in the Severodonetsk area but that their assaults on three settlements had been unsuccessful.

The Ukrainian air force says one of its planes shot down a Russian Su-35 fighter over the southern region of Kherson on Friday.

It posted on Facebook that “at about 2 pm, a MiG-29 fighter of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down a Russian Su-35 fighter in the sky over Kherson region.”

While the Ukrainian air force contingent of Mig-29 fighters is aging, the arrival of spare parts from other countries allowed it to field more of the combat jets than it had before the Russian invasion, according to US officials.?

The Russian Ministry of Defense regularly claims that Ukrainian combat planes have been shot down, and the Ukrainian air force’s current combat capability is difficult to gauge.

The Su-35 is a more capable and modern aircraft but the Russian air force has suffered some attrition of its fleet since the invasion began.?

A grain silo in the town of Sivers'k in the eastern Donbas region was destroyed by Russian shelling on May 25. The region has been under heavy attack.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said nearly half of Ukraine’s grain export supply is currently held up as Russia continues to block the country’s main export routes through the Black Sea and Azov Sea, calling the situation a potential “catastrophe” for global food security.

Addressing an Indonesian foreign policy think tank in an online forum Friday, Zelensky said,?“22 million tons of grain are kept in silos today. We cannot supply them to international markets where they are needed at this very point in time.”

The Ukrainian president also said the UN estimates that famine might affect additional 50 million people this year were a “conservative” estimate, implying that the number of those affected will be greater.?

The Ukrainian president also accepted an invitation to attend G20 Summit in Indonesia in November. He urged the hosts to include “only friendly nations,” implying Russia should be excluded from the summit in Bali.

Smoke and dirt rise from the city of Severodonetsk, during shelling in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, on May 26.

About 90% of the city’s housing stock had been damaged amid a “fierce defense” of the town, a local military official in the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk said Friday.

The city “held out through the night” under heavy Russian attack, Oleksandr Striuk, the head of the Severodonetsk military administration, said in a radio interview. But he acknowledged that Russian forces were continuing to press the offensive.

The city had seen widespread destruction, Striuk said.?

“The Azot (Nitrogen) chemical plant is being shelled,” he said. “There are dead among the civilian population and among employees of the enterprise. Ninety percent of the housing stock is damaged, 60% will have to be rebuilt.”

Striuk said a Russian force that entered a hotel on the north of the city was expelled by Ukrainian forces, a claim that could not be immediately verified. Ukrainian officials previously said the hotel was not under their control.?

Russian forces are intensifying attacks in eastern Ukraine as they try to break down stubborn Ukrainian defenses — which Ukrainian officials admit are outnumbered and outgunned. Meanwhile, in a new report, legal experts?accuse Russia of inciting genocide?and intending to “destroy” Ukrainian people.

Here’s the latest on Russia’s war in Ukraine:

Russian President Vladimir Putin says his government is continuing to implement measures to tackle the sanctions imposed on Moscow by?“unfriendly countries.”

“The government of Russia is taking prompt decisions to ensure stable functioning of the market and financial sector,” he told the Eurasian leaders during a virtual meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council on Friday. “We’re working on increasing access to finance, to support working capital and liquidity.”?

Russia had begun asking countries to pay for oil and gas shipments in rubles, but Putin says that policy will be reversed for some partners.

“We are extending the practice of payments in the national currencies for those countries that have proven themselves as reliable partners for Russia,” he said.?

The Russian president went on to address the issue of food insecurity, which has come to the fore because Russia invaded Ukraine, one of the Europe’s largest grain producers.?

“Russia and other members of our organization are behaving most responsibly,” he said, adding that Eurasian countries were fully self-sufficient when it came to these products.?

Putin went on to say that interest in the Eurasian Economic Union was on the rise “despite the complex international situation, unleashed by the so-called collective West, with its confrontation.”

“To Russia, deepening relations with all Eurasian partners is very important,” he said.?

The Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meeting took place on the second day of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) forum held in Kyrgyzstan.

A Ukrainian official said Friday that “maritime humanitarian corridors” announced earlier this week by the Russian military had not been agreed by Ukraine and accused Russia of trying to shift blame on Ukraine for a global food crisis.

Serhii Bratchuk, spokesman for the Operational Staff of the Odesa regional administration, said an announcement by the Russian Ministry of Defense of safe lanes for ships were “attempts to create an informational alibi for Russia.”

Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports has contributed to global grain shortages.?Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Mario?Draghi?discussed the global food security issue in a phone call Thursday, according to readouts of the call from both governments.

A satellite image shows an overview of bulk carrier ship loading grain at the?port?of Sevastopol, Crimea, on May 19.

According to the Kremlin,?Putin said Russia was ready to take steps to mitigate the crisis by allowing export of grain and fertilizers if the West lifts what Russia calls “politically motivated” sanctions.

Earlier this week, the Russian military claimed it would open two “maritime humanitarian corridors” – one from the direction of the Ukrainian ports of Kherson, Mykolaiv, Chornomorsk, Ochakiv, Odesa and Pivdennyi (Yuzhny) and another from the port of Mariupol on the Azov Sea. In his call with Draghi, Putin claimed the operation of those corridors was “hindered by the Ukrainian side,” the Kremlin said.

Army?Gen. Christopher?Cavoli,?the nominee to be the next top US general overseeing the US military presence in Europe,?told lawmakers Thursday that?grain shortages were “being felt on the African continent.” UK Foreign Secretary Liz?Truss said Thursday that Putin is “weaponizing hunger and lack of food amongst the poorest people around the world.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his office in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are currently frozen, the Kremlin said Friday, as it accused Kyiv of making “contradictory” statements that Moscow does not understand.

“The negotiations are frozen by the decision of the Ukrainian side,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a regular conference call.

“In general, the leadership of Ukraine constantly makes statements that contradict each other. This does not allow us to fully understand what the Ukrainian side wants,” Peskov added.

On Thursday, Peskov said Moscow expects Kyiv to accept the status quo and meet its territorial demands, following remarks by former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that appeared to suggest Ukraine has to agree to give up Crimea and much of the Donbas region to Russia.

In an interview last week with Reuters, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo?Podolyak?ruled out agreeing to a ceasefire with Russia and said Kyiv would not accept any deal with Moscow that involved ceding territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has compared Kissinger’s statements to appeasement of Nazi Germany in 1938.?

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a press conference at Downing Street, London, England, on May 25.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was making “slow” but “palpable” progress in the Donbas and urged more military support for Ukraine, such as the provision of Multiple Launch Rocket Systems.

“I think it’s very, very important that we do not get lulled because of the incredible heroism of the Ukrainians in pushing the Russians back from the gates of Kyiv,” Johnson said in an interview with Bloomberg.

“I’m afraid that Putin at great cost to himself and to (the) Russian military is continuing to chew through ground in Donbas, he’s continuing to make gradual, slow but I’m afraid palpable progress,” he added.

Johnson stressed that therefore “it is absolutely vital” to continue to support the Ukrainians militarily.

“What they need now is the type of rocketry, a Multiple Launch Rocket System, MLRS, that will enable them to defend themselves against this very brutal Russian artillery, and that’s where the world needs to go now,” he said.

Johnson also warned of the dangers of negotiating with Putin, and compared him to a crocodile.

“How can you deal with a crocodile when it’s in the middle of eating your left leg?” Johnson told Bloomberg TV. “[Putin] will try to freeze the conflict. He will try and call for a ceasefire while he remains in possession of substantial parts of Ukraine.”

Russian forces are intensifying attacks in eastern Ukraine as they try to break down stubborn Ukrainian defenses — which Ukrainian officials admit are outnumbered and outgunned.

Here’s the latest on Russia’s war in Ukraine:

Pro-Russian troops drive an armored vehicle past destroyed residential buildings in the town of Popasna in?Luhansk?region, Ukraine, on May 26.

Ukrainian officials on Friday reported continued heavy fighting in the Luhansk region, with a local military chief describing “fierce battles” for the city of Severodonetsk.

In televised remarks, Oleksandr Striuk, head of the Severodonetsk city military administration, said: “There have been fierce battles for the city. We have a hot spot, the Mir hotel. On May 26 [Thursday], an enemy sabotage and reconnaissance group entered the Mir Hotel. The [Ukrainian] Armed Forces resisted.”

A pro-Russian Telegram channel said Russian forces had entered the hotel, which is in the north of Severodonetsk, and that street fighting was underway.

Serhiy Hayday, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration, said a Ukrainian operation to retake the hotel was underway on Friday, but added: “We are not yet in control of the hotel. But we are working to drive out the ruscists [Russian fascists].”

Hayday also described heavy shelling around Severodonetsk and neighboring Lysychansk as Russian forces pushed from the direction of the towns of Purdivka and?Shchedryshchevo, saying it had set the police station in Lysychansk on fire and damaged about 50 buildings in the area.

A man walks near the remains of a missile in the city of Lysychansk, in eastern Ukraine, on May 26.

“Residents of Severodonetsk have already forgotten what it is like when the city is silent for at least half an hour,” Hayday said.

“Russians are harassing residential neighborhoods continuously. On May 26, four residents of Severodonetsk were killed by enemy shells in the old districts of the city. Two of them died at the same time near one high-rise building. There is damage to the housing stock; 11 apartment buildings and one private house damaged.”

Russia’s actions in Ukraine?provide enough evidence to conclude that Moscow is inciting genocide and?committing atrocities?intended to destroy the Ukrainian people, according to the first independent report into allegations of genocide in that country.

The legal report, signed by more than 30 leading legal scholars and genocide experts, accuses the Russian state of violating several articles of the United Nations Genocide Convention. It warns there is a serious and imminent risk of genocide in Ukraine, backing the accusations with a long list of evidence including examples of mass killings of civilians, forced deportations and dehumanizing anti-Ukrainian rhetoric used by top Russian officials.

The report was put together by?New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a US-based think tank, and the?Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights?which is based in Canada, and is set to release on Friday, with the authors sending copies to parliaments, governments and international organizations around the world. An advance copy of the report has been shared exclusively with CNN.

Read more:

Ukrainian police observe as municipal workers place into body bags two bodies exhumed from graves dug in the yard of a house, in the village of Vablia, Kyiv Oblast, on April 14, 2022, amid Russia's invasion launched on Ukraine.

Related article Leading experts accuse Russia of inciting genocide in Ukraine and intending to 'destroy' Ukrainian people

Russian forces are intensifying attacks in eastern Ukraine as they try to break down stubborn Ukrainian defenses — which Ukrainian officials admit are outnumbered and outgunned.

Here’s the latest on Russia’s war in Ukraine:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during his evening video message on Thursday May 26.

Russia’s intensified offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region reflects “an obvious policy of genocide,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Thursday.

In cities closer to the Russian border like Donetsk and Luhansk, Russian forces “gather everyone they can to fill the place of those killed and wounded in the occupation contingent,” Zelensky said.

Zelensky said putting pressure on Russia “is literally a matter of saving lives” and that every delay, dispute or proposal to “appease” Russia leads to “new killed Ukrainians” and new threats to everyone on the continent.

A damaged residential building is seen in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on May 26.

Nine people, including a 5-month-old baby, were killed in Kharkiv on Thursday amid “dense shelling” on residential areas near the city center, according to Oleh?Synyehubov, head of the Kharkiv region military administration.

Among those killed was “a family who was simply walking down the street — a man was holding his five-month-old baby in his hands, whom he died holding. (The) mother of this baby is severely wounded and is now in the hospital,”?Synyehubov?said.

He also described the artillery used, and said the targeting of residential areas in Ukraine’s second-largest city could only be for the purpose of “terrorizing” local residents.

The official added it was the Shevchenkivskyi and Kyivskyi districts of Kharkiv that were “densely shelled.”?He said in addition to those killed, 19 were injured, among them a 9-year-old child.

The Biden administration is preparing to step up the kind of weaponry it is offering Ukraine by sending advanced, long-range rocket systems that are now the top request from Ukrainian officials, multiple officials say.

The administration is leaning toward sending the systems as part of a larger package of military and security assistance to Ukraine, which could be announced as soon as next week.

Senior Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, have pleaded in recent weeks for the US and its allies to provide the Multiple Launch Rocket System, or MLRS. The US-made weapon systems can fire a barrage of rockets hundreds of kilometers — much farther than any of the systems Ukraine already has — which the Ukrainians argue could be a gamechanger in their?war against Russia.

Another system Ukraine has asked for is the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS, a lighter wheeled system capable of firing many of the same types of ammunition as MLRS.

Russia has in recent weeks?pummeled Ukraine in the east, where Ukraine is outmanned and outgunned, Ukrainian officials have said.

The Biden administration waivered for weeks, however, on whether to send the systems, amid concerns raised within the National Security Council that Ukraine could use the systems to carry out offensive attacks inside Russia, officials said.

Read more:

A US soldier sits at a Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) during the demonstration of the reload procedures after an artillery live fire event by the US Army Europe's 41st Field Artillery Brigade at the military training area in Grafenwoehr, southern Germany, on March 4, 2020. - The 41st Field Artillery Brigade plans, prepares, executes and assesses operations to provide US Army Europe with long-range precision strike capabilities.

Related article US preparing to approve advanced long-range rocket system for Ukraine

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have been processed through a series of Russian “filtration camps” in Eastern Ukraine and sent into Russia as part of a systemized program of forced removal, according to four sources familiar with the latest Western intelligence —? an estimate far higher than US officials have publicly disclosed.

After being detained in camps operated by Russian intelligence officials, many Ukrainians are then forcibly relocated to economically depressed areas in Russia, in some cases thousands of miles from their homes, and often left with no means of returning, sources said.

Although some Ukrainians have voluntarily entered filtration camps to try to escape the fighting by entering Russia, many have been picked up against their will at check points and in bomb shelters. After spending an average of around three weeks at the camps —? where sources and eyewitnesses say they are held in inhuman conditions, interrogated and sometimes tortured —?some are sent across the border into Russia and given state documentation.

Read more:

A woman carries bags as evacuees, including civilians who left the area near Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, arrive at a temporary accommodation center in the village of Bezimenne in the Donetsk Region, Ukraine May 1, 2022.

Related article Russia is depopulating parts of eastern Ukraine, forcibly removing thousands into remote parts of Russia

Destroyed houses are seen after Russian shelling in Donetsk region of Soledar, Ukraine, on Tuesday, May 24.

Ukraine’s armed forces have acknowledged that Russian forces have made further advances in the Donetsk region — capturing one district within 10 miles (about 16 kilometers) of the important town of Bakhmut.

In an operational update Thursday, the armed forces’ general staff said that while several Russian efforts to advance had been thwarted, “in?the directions of Pokrovsky and Klynove, the enemy has partial success, capturing the village of Midna Ruda.”

Midna Ruda is some 10 miles (about 16 kilometers) southeast of Bakhmut, which has come under heavier artillery fire in the last week. Bakhmut is on a key resupply route for Ukrainian units on the frontlines, which would potentially be cut off by further Russian advances.?

The general staff also said that other Russian efforts to push west towards the Donetsk region border had been repulsed. It said the Russians continued to bombard Ukrainian troops south of the town of Lyman, much of which fell into Russian hands Tuesday. Video Wednesday showed the Russian flag flying above the town’s municipal offices.?

Meanwhile, in the south:?The general staff said that Russian units in the Zaporizhzhia region were being reinforced by Soviet-era T62 tanks, which appear to have been brought out of storage.

CNN’s Kostan Nechyporenko contributed reporting to this post.

This video footage, published by Ukraine's Armed Forces, shows the devastating impact of shells from a Russian TOS-1A hitting Ukrainian positions near Novomykhailivka in the?Donetsk?region on May 26.

Russian forces are applying a wide array of weapons across several fronts in eastern Ukraine as they try to break down stubborn Ukrainian defenses, which are outnumbered and outgunned, according to Ukrainian officials.

Several of those officials describe the situation as “very difficult” and admit Ukrainian units may have to fall back in some places.

In recent days, Ukrainian officials say, the Russians have combined short-range ballistic missiles, multiple-launch rocket systems, heavy artillery and tanks in a remorseless bombardment of towns and cities in Luhansk and Donetsk regions still under Ukrainian control.

The National Police of Ukraine said that civilians were killed in attacks on 13 settlements in Donetsk, with several towns not previously targeted suffering damage.?Russian forces seem to be broadening the number of towns they are shelling as they try to destroy Ukrainian defenses and supply lines.?

Their chief objective appears to be taking Sloviansk, which has seen an increase in shelling in recent days. Mayor Vadym Liakh said half the city is now without water, and there will be “no gas supply until the heating season.”

A growing number of Ukrainian officials describe the military situation in dire terms, although Russian advances on the ground have been modest.

Fedir Venislavskyi, a member of Ukraine’s parliament who is on the National Security Committee, described the situation as “difficult.”

The twin cities in Luhansk are almost entirely destroyed, but Ukrainian troops are still present. Nearly 15,000 civilians are estimated still to be in Severodonetsk.

Russian soldiers Oleksandr Ivanov and Oleksandr Bobykin, right, attend their trial hearing in Kotelva, northeastern Ukraine, on May 26.

Two captured Russian soldiers pleaded guilty in Kotelevsky court in Ukraine’s Poltava region on Thursday to “violating laws and customs of war conducted with preliminary group conspiracy.”

Oleksandr Bobykin and Oleksandr Ivanov are accused of firing Grad rockets from Russia’s Belgorod region towards Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Feb. 24.

According to the case details made public on the court website, the men fired artillery and damaged “objects of civil and critical infrastructure, including private homes” in Kazacha Lopan and Veterynrne in the Kharkiv region. The soldiers were captured by Ukrainian forces in the Kharkiv region, according to the court memos.?

The court is due to deliver a verdict on May 31.