Ukraine war: Putin on the phone with Erdogan – Russia stationed new troops

Created: 05/31/2022, 04:47

By: Tobias Utz, Christian Stör

Russia is apparently stationing new soldiers at the border.

On Monday evening, Putin and Erdogan are on the phone about possible new negotiations: the news ticker on the Ukraine war on Tuesday, May 31.

• Counterattack in the south:

  Ukrainian army with offensive

• Sievjerodonetsk largely destroyed

  : Entire infrastructure destroyed

• Donbass has "unconditional priority" for Russia

  : Lavrov speaks of an alleged "liberation" of Donbass from the "Kiev regime"

• This news ticker on the Ukraine war is continuously updated by our editors

+++ 12:40 a.m .:

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has again offered Istanbul as a venue for possible talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United Nations.

Turkey could take on an observer role, the Turkish side said after Erdogan's phone call with Russian President Putin.

Among other things, the Russian President referred to Russia's willingness to facilitate the export of grain from Ukrainian ports in coordination with Turkey.

The Kremlin announced this late Monday evening (May 30).

Russia could also export “significant amounts of fertilizers” and agricultural products if the sanctions against the country were lifted.

Ukraine calls this blackmail.

The West only wants to talk about ending the sanctions when Russia ends the war.

Putin and Erdogan in conversation.

(Archive photo) © Alexey Nikolsky / Sputnik / Kremlin / EPA / dpa

Update from Tuesday, May 31, 12:15 a.m .:

The EU heads of state and government have agreed on an oil embargo for a large part of oil imports from Russia.

The decision will cover “more than two-thirds of oil imports from Russia” by the end of the year, said EU Council President Charles Michel late Monday evening (May 30) in Brussels.

+++ 9 p.m.:

The Ukrainian military has reported progress in its counter-offensive in the south and ongoing efforts to halt Russian advances in the eastern Donbass region.

The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces on Monday reported further Russian efforts to weaken Ukraine's defenses in Luhansk and Donetsk, saying artillery, airstrikes and missiles had been deployed in several locations, including Lysychansk and Soledar, according to US news outlet CNN.

Russian pressure continues on Severodonetsk, a city where two-thirds of the houses were reportedly destroyed.

The General Staff stated that fighting in and around the city is ongoing.

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+++ 7 p.m .:

A French journalist was killed in an attack on a bus with refugees in Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter on Monday that Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff was on a bus with fleeing civilians.

Secretary of State Catherine Colonna blamed a "Russian bombing of a humanitarian operation" for the reporter's death.

The attack on a "humanitarian convoy" and on a journalist is a "double crime".

The journalist worked for the news channel BFMTV.

The broadcaster confirmed the death of the 32-year-old.

The cameraman was working for BFMTV in Ukraine for the second time when he was fatally injured by shrapnel.

Another journalist from the station was slightly injured in the attack, BFMTV reported.

Ukraine war: Putin sends new soldiers – large-scale attack on Donbass expected

+++ 4.30 p.m .:

According to Ukrainian information, the Russian armed forces are preparing a large-scale attack on the Sloviansk area, the center of the Ukrainian defense forces in Donbass.

In addition, the Sievjerodonetsk area remains the focus of Russian attack efforts in Donbass.

On the 96th day of the war, Ukrainian authorities reported an offensive in the south of the country.

+++ 3.30 p.m .:

Heavy fighting between the Ukrainian and Russian armies takes place in Sievjerodonetsk.

The city's mayor, Olexandr Striuk, told the AP news agency that Russian soldiers had entered.

"The Russians are advancing towards the center of Sieverodonetsk," Striuk said.

The resistance is extremely difficult.

“We have no electricity and no means of communication.

The city has been completely destroyed,” said the mayor.

+++ 2.30 p.m .:

Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko left Ukraine after he said he was prevented from leaving the country twice over the weekend.

Under pressure from members of the EU Parliament and government representatives from the EU, Poroshenko was now allowed to leave the country in order to be able to take part in the party conference of the conservative European People's Party (EPP) in Rotterdam on Tuesday, his press office said on Monday.

At the border control, Poroshenko presented the same documents with which he had previously been refused departure.

Poroshenko's opposition party, European Solidarity, has accused the authorities in Kyiv of trying to prevent the ex-president from attending a NATO meeting in Vilnius.

Billionaire Poroshenko ruled Ukraine from 2014 to 2019 before losing the election to current President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Before the war began, the Ukrainian authorities investigated dozens of crimes in which Poroshenko is said to be involved.

In December they announced that they suspected him of high treason.

A travel ban was imposed on him in January.

However, he was granted an exit permit for the NATO meeting.

+++ 1:45 p.m .:

Russia is probably moving new troops to the Ukrainian border.

This is reported by the news portal Kyiv Independent, citing statements by the governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starovoit.

He spoke to the Russian exile medium Meduza.

Accordingly, the Russian military stationed a large number of soldiers as well as weapons in the form of rocket launchers and artillery in the border region.

The information cannot be independently verified.

However, the Kremlin has to compensate for heavy losses in the Ukraine war.

According to the Ukrainian General Staff, more than 30,000 soldiers have already fallen.

Recently there have been reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin is starting a covert mobilization.

For this purpose, the maximum age of the armed forces was abolished.

Experts had actually expected a new mobilization on May 9, the "Day of Victory" over Nazi Germany.

However, this did not happen.

+++ 12.45 p.m .:

Apparently, a shipyard in the southern Ukrainian city of Mikolajiv was shot at.

Behind it is the Russian military, according to a statement from Moscow.

So far there has been no reaction from the Ukrainian side.

+++ 12:00 p.m .:

The Russian army apparently used a “TOS-1” rocket launcher last week.

The Ukrainian military published a video of the operation on Twitter.

The multiple rocket launcher is referred to, among other things, as "Putin's weapon from hell".

+++ 11.30 a.m .:

Pjotr ​​Andryuschtschenko, advisor to the mayor of Mariupol, has accused Russia of now accommodating abducted residents of the port city in so-called filter camps.

From a humanitarian perspective, the conditions in the camps mentioned are said to be catastrophic.

On Telegram he explained that there is such a camp near a border crossing between Russia and Estonia.

According to this, it is primarily people who are trying to flee back to Ukraine who are being held there.

For weeks, the Russian army has been accused of kidnapping tens of thousands of people from Mariupol.

+++ 11.00 a.m .:

In the city of Melitopol occupied by Russian troops, a suspected bomb attack occurred on Monday.

"Today at 07.40 there was a powerful explosion right in the city center," the head of the Russian military administration Vladimir Rogov reported on Telegram.

There are at least three injured, so Rogow.

+++ 10.15 a.m .:

Russian troops are currently advancing on the city center of Sievjerodonetsk.

This was reported by the governor of the Luhansk region, Sergiy Gaiday, on Telegram on Monday morning.

Sieverodonetsk and the neighboring city of Lysychansk are the last two areas in Donbass that are still held by Ukraine.

Since Sunday (May 29) there have been street fights in Seyerodonetsk, according to Gaiday.

+++ 9.45 a.m .:

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna travels to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev on Monday.

A meeting with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to take place there.

+++ 9:00 a.m .:

According to an assessment by the British Ministry of Defense, the Russian army has lost numerous battalion and brigade commanders.

This is based on information from the secret service.

Accordingly, young commanders in particular have to organize operations at the front themselves, even though they lack experience and equipment.

According to the British Ministry of Defence, this resulted in “devastating losses”.

Ukraine News: Ukrainian army launches counterattack in south

+++ 08.00 a.m .:

The Ukrainian armed forces counterattacked in the Cherson region.

According to the Ukrainian general staff, the Russian army has been pushed back near the three villages of Andriyivka, Lozove and Bilohirka.

The Russian troops are building defense lines around Cherson.

"Kherson, stand firm, we are close," the general staff wrote on Facebook.

Initially, there was no information from the Russian side.

Greater Kherson is the only region of Ukraine that has been controlled by Russian troops since the beginning of the war.

Update from Monday, May 30, 7:40 a.m .:

According to their own statements, the Ukrainian military continued its offensive in the south of the country during the night.

"The situation in the south is dynamic and tense," said the high command of the Ukrainian military district south on Monday night on its Facebook page.

Russia is assembling reserves and trying to fortify the front lines in the Kherson region.

"At the same time, our units continue their offensive activities to tie down the enemy and prevent regrouping of reserves."

According to their own statements, the Ukrainian military killed 67 Russian soldiers and disabled 27 military vehicles in the fighting.

Among them were six - albeit very outdated - tanks of the T-62 type.

This information cannot be verified independently.

Kyiv also launched the attacks in the south of the country at the weekend as a counter-offensive to the Russian advance in the Donbass.

Ukraine News: Zelenskyy accuses Russia of "war of annihilation".

Kyiv/Moscow - The Ukraine war has been raging for almost 100 days now.

The situation for Ukraine in the Donbass, which has been attacked by Russia, is currently very difficult. The Russian army is wearing down the Ukrainian lines in the east of the country with massive shelling.

Ukraine News: Zelenskyy accuses Russia of war of annihilation

In view of this situation, Volodymyr Zelenskyj has now accused Russia of a war of annihilation.

After a visit to the front, he spoke of serious damage in the city of Kharkiv and reported destruction in Donbass.

"Black, burned-out, half-ruined apartment buildings face east and north with their windows - to where Russian artillery fired from," Zelenskyy said in a video message.

Russia not only lost the battle for Kharkiv, but also for Kyiv and northern Ukraine.

“It has lost its own future and any cultural ties to the free world.

They're all burned."

Ukraine News: Sieverodonetsk largely destroyed

Zelenskyj also accused Russia of extensively destroying the city of Sievjerodonetsk in the Donbass.

The entire infrastructure was destroyed, he said in the video message.

“90 percent of the houses are damaged.

More than two-thirds of the city's housing stock has been completely destroyed." The city is constantly being attacked.

Zelenskyy said Moscow wanted to hoist its flag on the administrative building of Sieverodonetsk, which is located on the Boulevard of Friendship of Nations there.

"How bitter that name sounds now." Sievjerodonetsk has been the target of attacks for months.

The city is considered the last point that the Ukrainian military still controls in the Luhansk region.

Ukraine News: Donbass is 'unconditional priority' for Russia

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described taking Donbass as an "unconditional priority".

It is about pushing the Ukrainian army and battalions out of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which Moscow recognizes as independent states, Lavrov said in an interview with the French broadcaster TF1, according to the Russian foreign ministry.

The ministry published the answers on Sunday on the website.

In the interview, Lavrov again spoke of an alleged “liberation” of the Donbass from the “Kiev regime”.

Ukraine News: Reports of dead and injured in Russian attacks

According to the authorities, several civilians were killed or wounded in attacks on Ukrainian locations.

Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kirilenko blamed Russia for three dead and four wounded in the government-controlled part of the region in the east of the country.

In Mykolayiv in the south of the country, the authorities spoke of at least one death in an attack on a residential area.

Russia denies attacking civilian targets.

The General Staff in Kyiv announced that the Ukrainian army had fended off 14 Russian attacks in the Donbass.

It said more than 60 Russian soldiers were killed and tanks and artillery destroyed.

The information is not independently verifiable.

(cs/tu with dpa/AFP)