Updates: Ukraine says Russia to move staff from nuclear plant
Ukraine’s state-owned Energoatom company raises alarm about evacuation plan, saying it could imperil operations.
This blog is now closed, thanks for joining us. These were the updates on the Russia-Ukraine war on Wednesday, May 10.
This blog is now closed, thanks for joining us. These were the updates on the Russia-Ukraine war on Wednesday, May 10.
- Russian forces plan to relocate more than 3,000 workers from the town that serves the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in a “catastrophic lack” of personnel, Ukraine’s state-owned Energoatom company warns.
- Tributes are pouring in for AFP journalist Arman Soldin, who was killed by rocket fire near Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine. The 32-year-old is the 15th reporter killed in the Ukraine war.
- Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin again complains that his Wagner Group fighters are not getting enough shells from the defence ministry.
- Russian governors in provinces bordering Ukraine say air defence forces have shot down “enemy” drones.
Ukraine says Russian forces pushed back in parts of Bakhmut
Ukraine’s top commander Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who heads Ukraine’s ground forces says Russian forces in parts of Bakhmut have been pushed back up to two kilometres as a result of counterattacks, in a statement on Telegram.
Earlier, military spokesperson in the east, Serhiy Cherevatyi, claimed that Ukrainian troops have seriously damaged Russia’s 72nd separate motor-rifle brigade near Bakhmut but emphasised that the city was still Moscow’s “main target”.
US announces additional military aid for Ukraine
The United States has announced a new $1.2bn military aid package for Ukraine that will include air defence systems, conventional artillery and counter-drone ammunition, satellite imagery services and funding for military training.
In the package announced on Tuesday, Ukraine will also receive technology to allow the integration of Western air defence launchers, missiles and radar with Ukraine’s native air defence systems.
Wagner chief complains about ammunition supplies in Bakhmut
Russia’s Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has once again complained about his forces not receiving enough ammunition from Russia’s defence ministry.
In an audio message on Telegram, he said that the defence ministry had been holding long meetings on supplying more shells to his forces in Bakhmut but they had not yet received them.
“We’re scraping by with a minimal quantity of shells,” he said.
Russian planning evacuations near Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant: Ukraine
Ukraine’s state-owned energy company Energoatom says Russia plans to evacuate more than 3,000 staff members from Enerhodar, a town near the Zaporizhzhia plant, but warned that this could result in a “catastrophic staff shortage.”
“The Russian occupiers are proving their inability to ensure the operation of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, as there is now a catastrophic lack of qualified personnel,” the energy company said on Telegram.
Earlier, Ukraine’s military said that Russian troops were stopping staff from evacuating Enerhodar.
“In Enerhodar, the Russian occupiers organised a so-called ‘evacuation’ for family members of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant employees,” Ukraine’s armed forces said in a statement.
“Yet the employees of the power plant are not allowed to leave the city.”
Tributes pour out in memory of French journalist Arman Soldin
Friends and colleagues of AFP journalist Arman Soldin, have been posting messages on social media in his memory and hailed him for his hard work and humanity.
The 32-year-old was killed in eastern Ukraine when a rocket struck near where he was lying.
AFP’s Daphné Rousseau posted a video singing the song, Forever Young, with him as they drove towards Donbas last year.
“Forever Young, Arman. I want you to be forever young,” she said in a tweet.
“The whole agency is devastated by the loss of Arman,” AFP chairman Fabrice Fries said. “His death is a terrible reminder of the risks and dangers faced by journalists every day covering the conflict in Ukraine.”
"Hoping for the best but expecting the worst Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?
Let us die young or let us live forever
We don't have the power but we never say never Sitting in a sandpit, life is a short trip"@ArmanSoldin on his first trip to Donbass, April 2022 pic.twitter.com/sEEFeAym7i— Daphné Rousseau (@daphnerousseau) May 10, 2023
Canada and Latvia will conduct joint military exercises for Ukrainian soldiers
Canada and Latvia will jointly train Ukrainian soldiers on Latvian soil according to Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand.
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Canada, together with Latvia’s Defence Minister Inara Murniece, she said the training will begin on May 15 and will complement Canada’s previous training efforts in Poland and the United Kingdom.
China says Europe is ‘bullying China on economic issues’ over Ukraine crisis
China’s Director General for European Affairs Wang Lutong says that if the EU uses the crisis in Ukraine as an excuse to impose sanctions on Chinese companies, “it will be nothing but gross violation of the companies’ legitimate rights and interests.”
“While China is making every effort to promote peace which is in Europe’s interest, Europe gives a stab in the back in return, bullying China on economic issues. Can’t understand what Europe is up to,” he said in a tweet.
The European Union has begun talks in Brussels today to discuss imposing new sanctions on Russia. The European Commission has proposed that Chinese and Russian companies aiding Russia in its war should also be sanctioned.
While China is making every effort to promote peace which is in #Europe’s interest, Europe gives a stab in the back in return, bullying China on economic issues. Can’t understand what Europe is up to.
— 王鲁彤 Wang Lutong (@WangLutongMFA) May 10, 2023
Ukraine says Russia is stopping the evacuation of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant staff
Ukraine’s military says that Russian troops are stopping staff of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant from evacuating Enerhodar, a town near the power plant.
“In Enerhodar, the Russian occupiers organised a so-called ‘evacuation’ for family members of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant employees,” Ukraine’s armed forces said in a statement.
“Yet the employees of the power plant are not allowed to leave the city.”
Ukraine says Bakhmut is still a ‘main target’ for Russia: Reuters
Ukraine’s military spokesperson in the east, Serhiy Cherevatyi, claims that Ukrainian troops have seriously damaged Russia’s 72nd separate motor-rifle brigade near Bakhmut and highlighted that the city was still Moscow’s “main target”.
According to a Reuters report, the military commander said that the situation remained “difficult” in Bakhmut, but that Moscow was increasingly forced to use regular army forces because of heavy losses among the Wagner private army group.
Kremlin has not yet watched Wagner chief’s video criticising defence ministry: Peskov
Peskov says the Kremlin has not yet watched Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s video released on Victory Day, according to Russian-state news agency reports.
“You know what we were doing yesterday,” Peskov said, referring to a Red Square military parade, visits by foreign guests and other commemorations of Victory Day, which celebrates the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany.
In the video, Prigozhin criticised Russia’s defence ministry and said Wagner had still not received the ammunition it had requested to continue fighting in Ukraine.
‘Don’t think of this counteroffensive as the last’: Ukraine’s foreign minister
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tells the German daily Bild that the international community should not think of Kyiv’s planned counteroffensive against Russia as the last.
“If we succeed in liberating our territories with this counteroffensive, then at the end, you will say, ‘Yes, it was the last one,’ but if not, then that means we have to prepare for the next counteroffensive,” he was quoted as saying.
One killed in Russian shelling in Kharkiv’s Vovchansk: Governor
Russian troops shelled Kharkiv’s Vovchansk city killing one person, according to Governor Oleh Syniehubov.
“According to preliminary information, one woman may still be under the rubble. All emergency services are on site,” Syniehubov said in a statement on Telegram.
Russian shelling has intensified in and around Kharkiv Oblast in the last 24 hours, also injuring three people.
UNESCO condemns killing of AFP journalist Arman Soldin
The United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO, which also seeks to protect journalists, has denounced the killing of AFP journalist Arman Soldin in eastern Ukraine.
Audrey Azoulay, the Paris-based agency’s director general, called for an investigation to identify the circumstances of his death.
“I renew my call for international humanitarian law to be respected, including United Nations Security Council Resolution 2222 of 2015 on the protection of journalists, media professionals and associated personnel in situations of conflict,” she said in a statement.
UNESCO Director-General @AAzoulay denounces the killing of French reporter Arman Soldin, @AFP video coordinator, on #Bakhmut’s outskirts on 9 May.
He is the 12th journalist killed in #Ukraine since the war started.
Full statement: https://t.co/XXyGlfhjrO #ProtectJournalists pic.twitter.com/3tvxNEziWg
— UNESCO 🏛️ #Education #Sciences #Culture 🇺🇳 (@UNESCO) May 10, 2023
Russia slams Poland for disrupting its Victory Day celebrations in Warsaw
Russia’s foreign ministry says Poland will receive “a strong protest with an appropriate response” for not preventing demonstrations that sought to disrupt the Russian embassy’s Victory Day commemorations in Warsaw.
The ministry said in a statement that a large crowd of protesters demonstrating against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine gathered at the Memorial Cemetery of Soviet Soldiers-Liberators and prevented Russian diplomats from “reaching the place where the flowers were to be laid at the main monument and thereby disrupting the commemoration event”.
“The Polish Foreign Ministry was informed in advance of the Embassy’s planned ceremony, but the Polish authorities did not prevent the provocation staged by the protesters,” the ministry said, adding that Russia considers this to be “an insult to the memory of over 600,000 Soviet soldiers who died liberating Poland from German occupation”.
NATO’s military committee meets in Brussels to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine
Members of NATO’s military committee, which shapes the military alliance’s defence strategy, has met in Brussels to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine and other security threats to NATO members.
“When President Putin launched his full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in 2022, we were, therefore, ready,” NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told reporters ahead of the meeting. “Within hours, we activated all our defence plans. We put 40,000 troops under NATO command, backed by significant air and maritime power, and we strengthened our forward defences from the Baltic to the Black Sea.”
“These actions reduce the risk of miscalculation and escalation beyond Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said.
Finland took part in the meeting for the first time as a formal member of the alliance. It joined NATO on April 4.
Military object found in Polish forest in April was Russian missile: Polish media
A military object found in a Polish forest in April was a Russian CH-55 missile, according to Polish media reports.
“The remains of an unidentified military target were found. The situation does not threaten the safety of residents,” Polands defence ministry had said in a tweet last month when the object was discovered.
W okolicach miejscowości Zamość ok. 15 km od Bydgoszczy znaleziono szczątki niezidentyfikowanego obiektu wojskowego. Sytuacja nie zagraża bezpieczeństwu mieszkańców. Miejsce znaleziska badają funkcjonariusze Policji, Żandarmerii Wojskowej oraz saperzy.
— Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej 🇵🇱 (@MON_GOV_PL) April 27, 2023
Poland summons Russian envoy after fighter jet incident over Black Sea
Poland has summoned the Russian ambassador after a Polish border patrol aircraft “narrowly avoided a collision” with a Russian fighter jet over the Black Sea.
“We strongly condemn the provocative and aggressive behaviour of the Russian side, which is a serious international incident,” Lukasz Jasina, Poland’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said in a tweet.
We strongly condemn the provocative and aggressive behavior of the Russian side, which is a serious international incident.
No statement is planned today from a representative of the MFA on this issue.
— Łukasz Jasina (@RzecznikMSZ) May 10, 2023
Poland’s decision to rename Kaliningrad is a ‘hostile act’: Kremlin
The Kremlin says Poland’s decision to rename the Russian city of Kaliningrad, which lies along the Baltic coast between Poland and Lithuania, is a “hostile act”.
According to local media reports, Warsaw wants Kaliningrad to be referred to using its Polish name, Królewiec.
Putin signs decree denouncing European arms treaty
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to formally “denounce” the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.
The 1992 treaty is a complex agreement that was signed during the Cold War to “establish a military balance” by regulating the number forces deployed by Warsaw Pact and NATO countries.
It also “provides equal ceilings for major weapons and equipment systems, namely for each group in the whole area from the Atlantic to the Urals”.
As part of the decree, Putin appointed Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov to represent him during parliamentary proceedings on denouncing the treaty.
Russia declines to comment on extension of Black Sea grain deal
Kremlin spokesperson Dimitry Peskov has declined to comment on whether Russia would extend the Black Sea grain export deal, which is set to expire on May 18.
Peskov told reporters that Russia’s position was well known and that work on the deal was under way.
Russia has repeatedly threatened to quit the deal unless “obstacles to its grain and fertiliser exports are lifted”.
Talks on the grain deal have begun in Turkey in the presence of UN officials.
French journalist killed in rocket attack in Ukraine
Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist Arman Soldin has been killed by rocket fire near Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine. The 32-year-old is the 15th journalist killed in the Ukraine war.
“The whole agency is devastated by the loss of Arman,” AFP Chairman Fabrice Fries said. “His death is a terrible reminder of the risks and dangers faced by journalists every day covering the conflict in Ukraine.”
Soldin was reporting with AFP colleagues from Ukrainian positions when he was killed. The rest of the agency’s team was unhurt.
US says Russia blocking Ukrainian ships from loading grain
US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink says Russia has been blocking Ukrainian ships “again” from loading grain at Ukrainian ports.
“The world shouldn’t need to remind Moscow every few weeks to stop using people’s hunger as a weapon in its war against Ukraine,” Brink said in a tweet, reiterating US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s statements on the matter.
She posted the comment as a meeting on extending the Black Sea grain export deal begins in Turkey. The agreement is due to expire next week.
Russia is again blocking ships from loading grain in Ukraine’s ports to feed people who need it around the world. As @SecBlinken said, “the world shouldn’t need to remind Moscow every few weeks to stop using people’s hunger as a weapon in its war against Ukraine.”
— Ambassador Bridget A. Brink (@USAmbKyiv) May 9, 2023
UK plans to label Wagner as a ‘terrorist’ organisation: The Times
The United Kingdom is to formally classify Russia’s Wagner mercenary group as a “terrorist” organisation, which would impose financial sanctions and other penalties against it as a way of increasing pressure on Russia, according to a report by The Times newspaper.
The French Parliament has also called on the European Union to do the same.
Russia’s Wagner Group has been leading the country’s war in eastern Ukraine, especially in the city of Bakhmut, which Russian forces have been trying to capture for months.
Russia says drones shot down in regions bordering Ukraine
Russian governors in the Voronezh and Kursk regions bordering Ukraine say their air defence forces have shot down drones.
Voronezh Governor Alexander Gusev said on Telegram that two drones tried to target a military facility in the region but failed. “As a result of intervention measures, one of them veered off course and went down while the second was destroyed by gunfire,” he said.
Kursk Governor Roman Starovoyt said an “enemy drone” was shot down in his region and debris from the attack damaged a gas pipeline.
Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia or on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine, but Kyiv has said undermining Russian logistics is part of its preparations for a counteroffensive.