Live: Wagner ‘to leave’ Bakhmut; Ukraine denies city’s fall
Wagner Group mercenary forces will leave Bakhmut from Thursday until June 1 and transfer control of the eastern Ukrainian city to Russia, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin says.
Ukraine denies Russian claims that Bakhmut has fallen as a deputy defence minister says Kyiv maintains a small foothold inside the city.
Eight people wounded by Russian missiles in Ukraine’s Dnipro: Governor
Eight people have been wounded and many buildings have been damaged by Russian missiles, in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, according to the region’s governor Serhiy Lysak.
“A 27-year-old man was injured in the Dnipro district due to a rocket attack. He is in the hospital and in a moderate condition. 7 more people including women aged 52 and 70 are injured,” he said in a statement on Telegram, adding that buildings, trucks and cars have also been damaged.
Ukraine’s air force has said that “the attack was carried out by 16 different types of missiles and 20 Shahed-136/131 strike drones” and added they had “brought down 20 Russian drones and four cruise missiles.”
Ukraine needs more air defence systems: Air force spokesperson
Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat says the country needs more air defence systems to shoot down Russia’s ballistic missiles, according to a report by Ukraine’s national news agency, Ukrinform.
“Unfortunately, we do not have enough means against ballistics. We have Patriot systems on combat duty, but it is clear that this is extremely insufficient to cover all the necessary directions, all major cities, all important objects of critical infrastructure, because the enemy targeted precisely such objects in the Dnipro, military and infrastructure objects today,” the spokesman said.
Power restored to Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant: Ukraine’s national grid operator
External power has been restored to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant after a brief outage, says Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s national electrical grid operator.
“Ukrenergo restored the power transmission line that supplies the Zaporizhzhia NPP. The station is switching to power supply from the Ukrainian power system,” the company said in a statement.
Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant run on generators during power outage: AJ correspondent
Natacha Butler, reporting from Kyiv, says generators kept the lights on at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant during the latest power outage there.
“Russian administrators say the plant is running on backup diesel generators, which has been confirmed by Ukrainian nuclear authorities,” Butler said.
“Ukraine also says that it was a new wave of Russian air strikes overnight in Ukraine’s Dnipro-Zaporizhia region which caused the outage,” she said.
The nuclear plant has six Soviet-era reactors, which have all been shut down, but Butler said power is needed to cool the nuclear fuel.
Earlier, Ukraine’s state-owned Energoatom said the power outage at the nuclear plant is the seventh since the war began.
Denmark seeks to host a Ukraine peace summit in July: Ritzau
Denmark’s foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen seeks to host a peace summit for Ukraine in July, according to Danish news agency Ritzau.
He added that the summit should not only be attended by Ukraine’s allies but also involve India, China and Brazil in order to have a meaningful summit.
African and Chinese leaders also seek similar peace missions to end the war.
But the Danish minister said that at this moment, it is hard for him to see Russia participating in the summit.
“This is a question for Ukraine,” he said.
Patrushev says deepening ties with China ‘strategic course’ for Russia: TASS
The secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, says that the development and deepening of ties with China is a “strategic course” for Moscow.
“Moscow is grateful to Beijing for the fact that Vladimir Putin was invited to speak at the international forum “One Belt – One Road” as the main guest,” he said, according to Russia’s state-owned news agency TASS.
Russia and China renewed their “no limits partnership” earlier this year and Beijing has not yet officially condemned Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.
But China has sent an envoy to travel to both Ukraine and Russia in an effort to get both countries to find a “political settlement” to end the war.
UK says Russia is likely forming new ‘elite’ aviation group
The UK’s defence ministry says Russia is highly likely creating a new “elite” attack aviation group code-named “Shtorm” to operate over Ukraine, as the West pledges to bolster Ukrainian air defence by transferring F-16 jets and training Ukrainian pilots.
“The unit is likely to consist of at least one squadron of Su-24 FENCER and Su-34 FULLBACK fighter-bombers, and a squadron of attack helicopters,” the ministry said in a tweet, and added that “the mix of aircraft types suggests the group will have a primary role of ground attack missions.”
IAEA raises alarm on Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
The International Atomic Energy Agency has warned that the situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) is “extremely vulnerable”.
In a tweet, IAEA Director Rafael Grossi said the plant lost all external electricity for the seventh time since the war began, “forcing it to rely on emergency diesel generators for power; nuclear safety situation at the plant extremely vulnerable”.
“We must agree to protect plant now; this situation cannot continue,” he added.
Russia says Ukrainian shelling knocked the power out.
Ukraine has a ‘small foothold’ inside Bakhmut: Official
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, says Kyiv’s troops continue to advance around Bakhmut, although the “intensity” of their movement has decreased as Russia is bringing in more forces.
In a televised address to the country, Maliar denied Russia’s claims that Bakhmut had been captured by Moscow and highlighted that Kyiv had “a small foothold” inside the city.
Wagner fighters ‘to leave’ Bakhmut from May 25 to June 1
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin says his forces will leave the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut – which Russia claimed to have captured over the weekend – from May 25 to June 1.
Prigozhin says Wagner will transfer control of the city to Russia, but Ukraine denies the city has fallen.
Over the weekend, Russia’s defence ministry used the Soviet-era name of Bakhmut and said “the liberation of the city of Artemovsk was completed”, giving credit to Wagner.
