Ukraine War: Russia fails in attacks on contested villages in Donbass

Created: 05/13/2022, 04:49 am

By: Tobias Utz, Sandra Kathe, Katja Thorwarth, Daniel Dillmann, Nail Akkoyun

The situation in the Ukraine war continues to deteriorate - militarily, diplomatically and humanitarianly: the news ticker on Thursday.

• Russia

  reports the killing of 300 Ukrainian soldiers

  .

• Evacuations from Mariupol:

  UN Secretary-General comments on plans for Ukraine war

• New level of escalation:

   Russian President Vladimir Putin is apparently planning to impose martial law in Russia.

• All developments and news in the Ukraine conflict in our news ticker:

  This is constantly updated.

+++ 9:32 p.m .:

An air raid by Russian forces on Nowhorod-Siverskij in the Chernihiv region hit two schools and several administrative buildings.

This was announced by the North Command, according to the Ukrajinska Prawda news portal.

Several rockets hit a local school, a boarding school, the regional administration building, a medical school dormitory, a shop and some private homes.

At least three people were killed and twelve injured.

+++ 8:03 p.m .:

When trying to take other towns in the Donbass, the Russian military failed in several places on Thursday.

According to the news portal The Kyiv Independent, this was announced by the General Staff of the Ukrainian military.

For example, an attack on the village of Oleksandrivka in Donetsk Oblast was unsuccessful, and the Ukrainian fighters were also able to successfully defend the town of Voyevodivka in Luhansk.

According to media reports, Russian troops are now increasingly trying to encircle the area around the city of Sievjerodonetsk in the Luhansk Oblast.

According to a tweet by the news portal Kyiv Independent, the reason for this is that the Ukrainian resistance is more active in the vicinity of the city than in other areas of Donbass.

A special target of the Russian troops is currently said to be the city of Sievjerodonetsk in Luhansk.

Here the Ukrainian militants are resisting more actively compared to other places in Donbass.

(Archive photo) © Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP

+++ 3.50 p.m .:

According to their own statements, the Russian armed forces have killed hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers with heavy air and rocket attacks and destroyed numerous military vehicles.

Air-to-surface missiles "killed more than 320 nationalists and disabled 72 military vehicles," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Thursday.

The information was initially not verifiable by an independent party. 

Ukraine war: Video shows possible war crimes by Russian soldiers

+++ 1:37 p.m .:

In the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, Ukrainian troops say they have destroyed two pontoon bridges belonging to the Russian military over the Siwerskyi Donets river.

"Bilohorivka is just withstanding the Russian onslaught, our defenders twice destroyed pontoon bridges," wrote the oblast's military governor Serhiy Hajday on Thursday in the Telegram news service.

A third bridge will surely soon be destroyed.

He also presented drone footage of dozens of destroyed vehicles and armored vehicles.

The pictures were already circulating the day before.

Artillerymen from the 17th Armored Brigade from Kryvyi Rih are said to have struck the blow.

In the morning report, the Ukrainian general staff stated that the enemy had nevertheless managed to get across the river.

Hajday also admitted: "The situation has deteriorated significantly." The supply route from the towns of Bakhmut to Lysychansk and Sievjerodonetsk is therefore still acutely endangered together with the Russian advances from the conquered Popasna.

War in Ukraine: Video shows possible war crimes by Russian soldiers

+++ 11.30 a.m .:

The US news channel CNN published a surveillance video showing war crimes by Russian soldiers.

The video shows two Russian soldiers standing in front of the fence of a company premises and opening fire on two unarmed civilians.

The incident is said to have happened at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, when Russia tried unsuccessfully to capture the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

According to the CNN report, the soldiers wanted to inspect the company's premises.

The two civilians, the company owner and a security guard, spoke to the soldiers at the fence.

After matters seemed settled, the men turned their backs on the fence and returned to the company's premises.

At that moment, the Russian soldiers shot them in the back.

Both men died from gunshot wounds.

Russian soldiers in action in eastern Ukraine.

© Alexander Zemlianichenko/dpa

Ukraine war: Occupied territory wants to “ask” Russia for annexation

+++ 10.32 a.m .:

According to information from the US broadcaster CNN, the Ukrainian military has admitted Russian advances in some areas in eastern Ukraine.

However, the extent of the progress is difficult to measure.

In its daily situation report, the General Staff said Russian forces had crossed the Siverskiy Donets River towards Lyman in the Donetsk region.

Lyman is a city northeast of Sloviansk, one of the strategic destinations of Russia.

Several bridges across the river had been destroyed in previous fighting. 

Ukraine war: Occupied territory wants to “ask” Russia for annexation

+++ 9:20 a.m .:

The Cherson region in Ukraine apparently wants to ask Russia to annex the area, reports the Moscow Times news portal.

The Russian military took control of the Kherson region at the end of April, replaced the Ukrainian leadership with a pro-Moscow “military-civilian administration” and completed the conversion to the Russian ruble.

So far, the Kremlin has neither confirmed nor denied plans to annex Kherson.

The decision should be "with the residents of the region."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed the process will be "absolutely clear and legitimate," drawing parallels with Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014 after a referendum later invalidated by the United Nations General Assembly.

Ukraine war: Russia uses banned cluster munitions

Update from Thursday, May 12, 6:15 a.m .:

According to a report by the organization Human Rights Watch, the Russian armed forces have used internationally banned cluster munitions in Ukraine.

As a result, hundreds of civilians died and schools, residential buildings and hospitals were damaged, the human rights organization reported on Thursday in Geneva.

The Ukrainian army also used such ammunition at least once.

There is an international treaty that has banned the use, stockpiling, trade and production of cluster munitions since 2010 (Cluster Munitions Convention).

Strictly speaking, however, only the 110 contracting states are bound by it.

Russia and Ukraine are not among them.

Nonetheless, the widespread condemnation of so many countries has made the use of these weapons internationally outlawed.

Ukraine war: no hope for fighters in Mariupol?

US anticipates martial law in Russia

+++ 19:20:

According to the Ukrainian authorities, there is currently little hope of liberating the occupied port city of Mariupol on the Azov Sea, where over 1,000 Ukrainian fighters have been in a steel mill for weeks.

"As of today, such a deblocking operation would require a significant number of troops because Ukrainian forces are 150-200 kilometers from Mariupol," Deputy Chief of General Staff Oleksiy Hromov said on Wednesday (May 11).

Such an operation would also claim many victims.

+++ 4.15 p.m .:

The US secret service surprised Tuesday afternoon with the assessment that Vladimir Putin was probably planning to impose martial law in Russia.

In this way, the president can justify further war investments domestically, according to Avril Haines, director of the secret service.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the allegations on Wednesday.

"No, that's not in the plans," he said.

This is reported by the US broadcaster CNN.

Peskov also asserted that Russia's domestic political situation was very stable.

Ukraine War: New military alliance between Sweden and Great Britain

+++ 2.30 p.m.:

Great Britain forms a military alliance with Sweden with immediate effect.

This was announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a visit to Scandinavia.

In this context, he signed a “political declaration of solidarity”.

In it, the states promise to strengthen military relations and to help each other in the event of an attack.

Great Britain apparently also wants to sign a similar declaration with Finland.

Johnson will then travel to Finnish President Sauli Niinistö.

Johnson also said on Wednesday afternoon that more British troops would be sent to Scandinavia for stability.

"This is not a short-term emergency solution,

+++ 2:00 p.m .:

The authorities deployed by Moscow in Cherson want to ask Russia to annex the Ukrainian region.

Authorities would make such a request to make the region seized by Russian troops a "full part of the Russian Federation," Deputy Head of the Kherson Military and Civil Administration Kirill Stremusov told Russian news agencies on Wednesday.

+++ 1:00 p.m .:

The losses for Russia in the Ukraine war are increasing.

According to Ukraine, more than 25,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the war broke out.

According to British experts, the number could be much higher, "up to three to four times" as high, according to Justin Bronk, who works at the independent research institute "Royal United Services Institute" in Great Britain.

If the Russian army's losses in the Ukraine war were to include the wounded (and thus disabled) soldiers, as well as prisoners and missing persons, then the number "after the second two weeks of heavy fighting would definitely be 50,000 to 60,000 victims".

Bronk told Britain's Daily Mail.

Ukraine War: Heavy fighting for "Snake Island" in the Black Sea

+++ 11.00 a.m .:

The "Snake Island" in the Black Sea is still contested.

According to an assessment by the British Ministry of Defense, fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops continues.

Accordingly, Russia is currently trying to strengthen the troops on the ground.

If Russia strengthens its position on the island with strategic anti-aircraft defenses and cruise missiles for coastal defense, it could dominate the northwestern Black Sea, the morning's situation report said.

According to the Ukrainian General Staff, there are fears that the Russian army might want to take over the entire Ukrainian Black Sea coast (including the city of Odessa) after the "Snake Island".

Ukraine war: US send fighter jets to Crete

+++ 9.45 a.m .:

The USA is apparently sending 24 fighter jets to Crete to strengthen its presence in the eastern Mediterranean.

By the end of July, ten US Air Force "F-35" stealth jets and 14 "F-15" fighter bombers are to be relocated to a base in West Crete/Souda Bay - together with around 500 pilots and technicians.

This is reported by the Athens newspaper Kathimerini, citing circles in the Greek Defense Ministry.

The deal is based on a new agreement between Greece and the United States.

From the location in Crete, the US Air Force can probably operate in the Mediterranean and Black Seas.

Ukraine War: Russia is two weeks behind schedule for invasion

+++ 7.45 a.m .:

Putin is two weeks behind his war plans in the Ukrainian Donbas and in southern Ukraine.

The Pentagon reports.

As the Kyiv Independent news portal reports, a senior Defense Ministry official said at a closed press conference on May 10 that Russia is currently about two weeks behind schedule, "which [Putin] would like to see."

Ukraine War: One dead in Russian attack in south-east

First report from Wednesday, May 11, 6:15 a.m .:

At least one person was killed and eight others injured in new Russian attacks in the vicinity of the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia on Tuesday evening.

According to the regional administration, mainly residential buildings in Orekhovo were hit, Ukrajinska Pravda reported.

Because of the intensity of the shelling, the delivery of humanitarian aid to the town was temporarily interrupted.

The information could not be independently verified.

(dil/ktho/tu/nak/ska with AFP/dpa)