Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:
– Pro-Russian forces claim key eastern town –
Moscow-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine say they have captured Lyman, a strategic town situated between the city of Severodonetsk and the eastern administrative centre of Kramatorsk, which remain under Kyiv’s control.
The pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk region said they had “liberated and taken full control of 220 settlements, including Krasny Liman”, using an old name for Lyman.
Ukrainian forces are also battling to hold onto Severodonetsk, with senior local official Oleksandr Stryuk saying Russian forces control two-thirds of the city’s outskirts.
After failing to take Kyiv and being driven back from the outskirts of the second city of Kharkiv, Russia is waging all-out war for the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which together make up Donbas, Ukraine’s industrial heartland.
– 10 killed in central city –
The national guard says around 10 people have been killed in strikes on a military facility in the central city of Dnipro, which had so far been relatively spared by the fighting.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that 87 people had been killed in Russian strikes on a military base north of Kyiv on May 17.
In a sign that Kharkiv is not yet out of harm’s way, nine people were killed in shelling of the northeastern city on Thursday.
– Zelensky warns of ‘genocide’ in Donbas –
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accuses Moscow of carrying out a “genocide” in Donbas, where Russian forces are also closing in on the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.
In his daily televised address, Zelensky warns that Russia’s offensive could empty Donbas of its population.
“All this, including the deportation of our people and the mass killings of civilians, is an obvious policy of genocide pursued by Russia,” he says.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accuses allies of dragging their feet on arms deliveries, telling his German counterpart that Ukraine needs heavy weapons “as soon as possible.”
– Ukraine flag removed from Putin Peak –
Kyrgyzstan’s climbing federation said Friday that it has removed a Ukrainian flag from a mountain named after Russian President Vladimir Putin, following a police investigation of the stunt, and replaced it with the Kyrgyz flag.
A climber earlier this week posted a video of the flag on the mountain dubbed Putin Peak, which rises 4,446 metres (14,587 feet) above sea level.
– Two Russian lawmakers urge ‘immediate withdrawal’ –
Two Communist lawmakers in Russia’s far east urge Putin to put an end to Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine in a rare public show of dissent.
“We demand an immediate withdrawal of the Russian troops,” lawmaker Leonid Vasyukevich says in the assembly of the Primorsky Krai region, warning that if they do not “there will be even more orphans in our country.” He is backed by another lawmaker.
The head of the local Communist faction says the statement had not been agreed with the party and promises to take “the toughest measures” against the pair.
– Russian to boost grain exports –
Russia says it plans to ramp up grain exports against the backdrop of a looming global food crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.
Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev says Russia will increase its grain exports from over 37 million tonnes in the 2021-2022 season ending June 30 to 50 million tonnes in the new season starting July 1.
Kyiv and the West blames Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports for stalling grain exports from Europe’s breadbasket.
President Vladimir Putin tells Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer in a telephone call that the accusations are “groundless” and blamed Western sanctions on Russia for spiralling food prices.
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