May 28, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of the war in Ukraine has moved here.

Russian troops guard an entrance of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant in Kherson Oblast on May 20.

The deputy head of the Russian appointed administration in occupied Kherson says the region won’t hold a referendum on formally joining Russia until fighting ceases in Kherson and the nearby regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv.

Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Kherson Military Civilian Administration, told Reuters Saturday that currently there are?“are no talks about a referendum.”?

Ukrainian officials previously warned that Russian forces and Russian-installed administrators were readying a sham referendum that would mirror similar Russian efforts in the Donbas to create separatist republics in 2014.?

The region in southern Ukraine has been under Russian control since the beginning of the invasion in late February. More than a dozen people spoke to CNN earlier this month about their terrifying journeys out of the occupied region, painting a vivid picture of the culture of fear that exists there now.

While referendum plans appear to have been scaled back, Stremousov recently said pro-Moscow authorities of Kherson would request a Russian military base. He also said the Russian backed administration is pressing ahead with plans to set up a new “banking system” that will be “fully integrated” into the Russian system.

Ukraine on Saturday condemned Russia for sending a ship to the captured Ukrainian city of Mariupol to load a shipment of metal bound for Russia.?

The Ukrainian parliament’s commissioner for human rights Liudmyla Denisova said in a statement that the Russians were “sending 3,000 tons of metal products by the first ship from Mariupol to Rostov-on-Don (in Russia). In addition, for more convenient removal of the loot, the occupiers have begun to restore railway connections in Mariupol and Volnovakha.”

Russian state news agency TASS reported Saturday that a Russian ship entered the seaport of Mariupol. It quoted a representative of the port administration as saying the vessel would load 2,700 tons of metal and depart for Rostov-on-Don on Monday.

Denisova claimed that the Mariupol port housed about 200,000 tons of metal and cast iron worth $170 million prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Oleksandr Striuk, the head of the civil military administration in the embattled Ukrainian industrial city of Severodonetsk, said on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were in a “tough defensive position” as fighting raged on the outskirts of the city.

In remarks on national television, Striuk said some of the most intense fighting was concentrated around the Mir Hotel on the outskirts of the city.

“A real battle can be heard in the main bus station area,” he said. “Our military is in a tough defensive position. The city is being constantly shelled. The humanitarian headquarters that is located in the city was practically immobilized today, because it is not safe to move around the city, and the work of the headquarters was suspended.”

Striuk described a dire situation, saying there were no mobile telephone communications and that electricity has been cut.?His comments come just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Saturday that the time until Ukraine is liberated “grows shorter” every day, and that it is “just a matter of time” before Ukraine takes back Russian gains.

Striuk, however, expressed some confidence the city would be able to hold out with some limited supplies delivered over the road.

“The evacuation is very unsafe, few people, priority for the wounded. Only an initial level of medical care is available in the city.”

In a statement, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine claimed Russian forces had?suffered losses and retreated to some previously occupied positions in the direction of Severodonetsk, but added that the Russians were continuing to conduct reconnaissance of the area to identify and strike elements of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Fedir Venislavskyi, a member of the Ukrainian parliament’s Committee for National Security, Defense and Intelligence, said the next few days “will be decisive” in the battle for Severodonetsk.?

“Our forces pushed the enemy back to the positions he had previously held,” he said. “But we must understand that Russian troops are practically on the outskirts of Severodonetsk.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Saturday that the time until Ukraine is liberated “grows shorter” every day, and that it is “just a matter of time” before Ukraine takes back Russian gains.

“Ukraine will take everything back [from Russia].?This is an imperative,” he said, “And it’s just a matter of time. Every day at this same time, the time until liberation grows shorter. Everything we do is for this.”

Zelensky said the situation in the Donbas remains difficult, especially in the areas of Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, Bakhmut and Popasna.

“Above all, in terms of weapons supply, every day we are getting closer to outnumbering our enemy,” the Ukrainian president claimed.

Zelensky said Russian forces inflicted “barbaric blows” on the Sumy region using rockets and mortars. He also referenced Saturday’s Russian attack on Mykolaiv, which struck a residential area 20 meters from a kindergarten, killing one person and wounding seven others.

“Such was the target that the Russian Federation chose. Over and over [such actions] will remind the world that Russia must finally be officially recognized as a terrorist state, a state sponsor of terrorism,” Zelensky said.?

He said Russian forces are preventing Ukrainians from evacuating the Kherson region.

“Those who are confident in their position would certainly not make such decisions. This is clearly a sign of weakness. What it shows is that they have nothing to offer the people, and the people do not want to take anything from them. So, they resort to taking people hostage,” Zelensky said.?

Basketball star Brittney Griner has been detained in Russia since February.

The Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) on Saturday released a statement calling for action regarding the release of Brittney Griner and for Griner’s wife to be granted a meeting with US President Joe Biden.

Saturday marks 100 days since Griner was detained in Russia.

Earlier this month, a Russian court extended the WNBA star’s pretrial detention until at least June following her arrest in February. Russian authorities claim Griner had cannabis oil in her luggage, and she has been accused of smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance – an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The statement went on to call for action from professional and amateur athletes alike, as well as the media and others.

“To our sisters, brothers and colleagues in professional sports: sign the petition, hold your own media blackouts, please. Help us reach the White House. To athletes of any age, ability level, team, sport, or country: this is OUR teammate. A member of OUR global sports community, we need to stand up and stand together to call for her release. Speak up, speak out, and do not stop until BG is home,” it said. ?

The statement said Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, should meet with Biden.

“Her person, our sister has been wrongfully detained for 100 days. You’ve heard our pleas. You have heard BG’s wife Cherelle’s pleas. And now more than ever, we need you to stand with us, and get her person home,” it said.

Cherelle Griner earlier on Saturday posted on her Instagram pleading for action from Biden.

As Russia pummels the eastern city of Severodonetsk with heavy shelling, authorities are moving to evacuate the remaining neediest civilians of neighboring Lysychansk.

For 74-year-old Ekaterina, it is almost unimaginable that she is leaving her home, a one-room apartment she shares with her husband.

After she and her husband get into authorities’ vehicle, she asks, “when is this grief going to end?”

Elsewhere in Lysychansk, CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh met a large family with young children that is staying put, despite the shelling. Children play on swings outside as blasts can be heard in the background. They cook on an outdoor stove and spend nights in their basement.

Many people in the Luhansk region have ties to Russia, with relatives in both countries.

“I don’t understand this war,” one older man told Paton Walsh.

At a cemetery in the city, there are three types of mass graves: In one, dirt has been poured upon the bodies of an estimated 160 people whose families cannot bury them yet; in another, white body bags have the names of the dead collected daily written on them; and the third is empty in preparation for even more dead.

Watch CNN’s reporting here:

At least one person is dead after shelling in the southeastern Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv,?the regional state administration said Saturday.?

Mykolaiv is under Ukrainian government control, but is not far from the front lines of fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces. It is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) away from Kherson, which has been under Russian control since the early days of the invasion.

The statement said at least two rounds landed in the courtyards of residential high-rises, damaging several buildings.

“Mykolayiv city was shelled again this morning,” according to a previous statement. “The Russians hit the yard of a residential area, 20 meters away from a kindergarten. There are injured people due to the shelling.”

Russian forces are seeking to encircle the defenders of the Luhansk city of Severodonetsk – the last major Ukrainian stronghold in the region – as Moscow’s troops continue to press their offensive in the east of the country while outnumbered Ukrainian forces attempt to hold them off.

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

Russia's Patriarch Kirill conducts a service in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on October 27, 2019.

A branch of Ukraine’s Orthodox church has broken ties with Russia’s Patriarch Kirill over the Russian spiritual leader’s support for the war in Ukraine, deepening a rift between the Moscow church and other Orthodox believers.

Leaders of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which had been formally subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, held a council Friday in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a statement, the council said it “condemns the war as a violation of God’s commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill!’” and urged the governments of Ukraine and Russia to pursue a path of negotiation.

But the council also had criticism for Patriarch Kirill – who has given his support to the invasion of Ukraine and has put his church firmly behind Russian President Vladimir Putin – and said it had opted for the “full independence and autonomy” of the Ukrainian church.

A large part of the Orthodox community in Ukraine has already moved to establish independence from Moscow. That movement took on further momentum in 2018, after Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople – a Greek cleric who is considered the spiritual leader of Orthodox believers worldwide – endorsed the establishment of an independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The Russian Orthodox Church and the Moscow Patriarchate, which has become closely entwined with the Russian state under Putin’s rule, responded by cutting ties with Bartholomew.

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which has allegiance to Bartholomew, is separate from the UOC, which made its announcement Friday. But the emergence of a church independent of Moscow has also infuriated Putin, who has made restoration of the so-called “Russian world” a centerpiece of his foreign policy and has dismissed Ukrainian national identity as illegitimate.

The UOC council’s statement on Friday said the war had been devastating for members of the church.

The leaders of Germany and France held a phone call with Vladimir Putin on Saturday, in which they pressed the Russian President to agree to an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and withdraw Russia’s troops from the country, German officials said.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Putin for 80 minutes “on their initiative,” according to the German government’s press office.

A statement from the French Presidential office, the Elysee Palace, said: “Any solution to the war must be negotiated between Moscow and Kyiv.”

In the call, Macron and Scholz also called for the release of about 2,500 Azovstal defenders who have been taken as prisoners of war by Russian forces, the French readout said, in a reference to Ukrainian forces who were captured after defending the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol for weeks.

In addition, the two leaders urged Putin to lift the blockade of Odesa to allow the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea in order to avoid a world food crisis, according to the statement.

Some context: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that negotiations between Russia and Ukraine were frozen. He also accused Kyiv of making “contradictory” statements that Moscow did not understand.

A day earlier, Peskov said Moscow expected 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 a May 23 interview 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 and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke by phone Saturday morning to discuss several issues related to the war in Ukraine, Zelensky tweeted.

Among the matters the two discussed was the growing global food supply crisis, which has been exacerbated by Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports. Zelensky said Friday that some 22 million tons of grain meant for export were sitting in silos, as Russia is blocking export routes through the Black Sea and Azov Sea.

Ukraine and Russia together are responsible for about 14% of global wheat production, according to Gro Intelligence, an agricultural data analytics firm. The two countries supply about 29% of all wheat exports.

Russian forces have shelled a district of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv in recent hours, the regional military governor said in a statement.

Oleh Syniehubov, head of Kharkiv regional military administration, said the Kyiv district of Kharkiv city had been subjected to Russian shelling over the past 24 hours, and that several shells hit the suburb of Mala Danylivka overnight – with no casualties.

A 65-year-old woman was killed by Russian fire in the village of Slatyne, he added.

Ukrainian troops have in recent weeks pushed back Russian forces from around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. But it has remained in range of some Russian weaponry.?

“Fighting continues in the region,” Syniehubov said. “In the Kharkiv direction, the enemy is trying to hold its ground and prevent further advance of Ukrainian troops.”

Syniehubov said Ukrainian troops had shot down a Russian Ka-52 combat helicopter in the Kharkiv region, a claim that could not be immediately verified.?

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to watch the Victory Day military parade at Red Square in Moscow on May 9.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law scrapping the upper age limit for Russians and foreigners?to join the military as?contract service members, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Russia’s State Duma passed the bill on Wednesday but Putin’s signature was needed for it to become law.

Previously, citizens aged 18 to 40 and foreigners aged 18 to 30 could enlist in the Russian military.

The changes were drafted by the head of the State Duma Defense Committee, Andrei Kartapolov, and his first deputy, Andrei Krasov. According to TASS, they believe the abolition of an upper age limit will attract specialists in areas such as medical support, engineering and communications.

The explanatory note to the draft law also notes that the use of high-precision weapons and military equipment requires specialists and they gain the experience by the age of 40 to 45.

The changes in law come amid serious Russian casualties in Ukraine, where Moscow is waging what it euphemistically calls a “special military operation.”

Russia also has a system of military conscription. The Kremlin initially said draftees would not serve in Ukraine but subsequently acknowledged they were serving in combat.?

Russia is intensifying its offensive in the Luhansk and Donbas regions as heavy shelling continues in the key industrial city of Severodonetsk. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Donbas faces a “very difficult” moment.

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

A still image taken from a video released on May 28 by the Russian Defense Ministry shows what it said was a test firing of its hypersonic Zircon cruise missile from Russia's Admiral Gorshkov-class frigate in the Barents Sea.

Russia successfully tested its Zircon hypersonic cruise missile over a distance of 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) on Saturday, its Ministry of Defense reported.?

The missile was fired from the waters of the Barents Sea towards a “target in the White Sea,” a southern inlet on Russia’s northwest coast.

The missile was fired as part of a broader test of new weapons, according to a ministry statement.?

Video of the test shared by the Ministry of Defense showed the Zircon missile being fired at a steep trajectory from Russia’s Admiral Grigorovich-class frigate at sea.?

The Zircon cruise missile is part of a new generation of hypersonic arms systems that Russia has been developing since at least 2018.?

The Ukrainian military has claimed that Russian units have “suffered significant losses in manpower and equipment” since President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in late February.?

In a show of force, the Kremlin has continued to conduct high-powered weapons tests, including a test of its new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile last month.?

Smoke rises above Severodonetsk, during shelling on May 26.

Serhiy Hayday, the head of Luhansk regional military administration, said Saturday the key eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk was “not cut off,” as Russian troops press a concerted offensive in the Luhansk region.?

Hayday said intense Russian shelling was underway in Severodonetsk, an industrial center which is the last major stronghold of Ukrainian control in the Luhansk region.?

Severodonetsk, added Hayday, “is not cut off but, by and large, trucks will not pass there, only cars. Many cars were shot on the Lysychansk-Bakhmut route. It is dangerous to pass along that route.”

Ukrainian forces are fighting to stave off an apparent effort by Russian forces to encircle the?defenders of Severodonetsk, with Russian troops advancing in several directions around a pocket of Ukrainian-held territory.

Hayday said Russia had 25 battalion tactical groups in the Luhansk region – numbering 10,000 soldiers – and substantial amounts of military hardware. He said Russian commanders had committed a range of forces to the fight, including conscripts from the self-proclaimed separatist Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, fighters from Russia loyal to Chechen Republic leader Ramzan Kadyrov and private military companies, or PMCs.

An aerial view of the city of Kherson, Ukraine is seen on May 20.

The Russian occupied region of Kherson has closed its borders to surrounding Ukrainian areas, state media RIA-Novosti quoted Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-installed administration in Kherson as saying Saturday.

Kherson’s border crossings with the Ukrainian regions of Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk?are closed, while travel from Kherson to Crimea or the Russian-controlled areas of Zaporizhzhia remains possible, Stremousov added.

Nearly all of Kherson — located in Southern Ukraine — has been occupied by Russia since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February.

Some context: Exit points from Kherson have been unofficially blocked off for weeks, according to Ukrainian officials, who allege that anyone wanting to leave the area has been sent to Crimea.

CNN has spoken to dozens of Ukrainian families at length about their difficult journeys in and out of the region.

Efforts by the Russian-installed administration in Kherson to install military bases and advance a referendum to make the region a “Republic” — mirroring other separatists statelets in eastern Ukraine — are ongoing.

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 United Kingdom, 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.”?

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon on Friday, May 27.

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.

Smoke rises during shelling in the city of Severodonetsk, Ukraine on May 26.

Ukrainian officials are denying that Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region 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.”

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 an 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 the 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.

People prepare to be evacuated from Severodonetsk, Ukraine on May 25.

About 90% of residential buildings in Severodonetsk have been damaged amid a “fierce defense” of the eastern Ukrainian city, a local military official 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.?