Putin’s troops redeployed to Bakhmut as Kyiv makes ‘tactical gains’ – live

Volodymyr Zelensky will reach the Hiroshima G7 summit aboard a French government plane, reported CNN citing a diplomatic source.

It is not immediately clear when the Ukrainian war-time president will arrive in Hiroshima but he is expected to reach today, according to a statement by the Japan government.

This comes a day after Mr Zelensky reached Jeddah to attend the Arab League summit also aboard a French government plane, the French ambassador to Saudi Arabia said.

US  President Joe Biden aims to speak this weekend with Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, about Ukraine and the “sacrosanct” issue of sovereignty and territorial integrity, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Saturday.

Lula and Modi are attending a summit of the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations in Hiroshima at the invitation of Japan, this year’s host of the G7, which also includes the US., Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada.

Asked if Biden would pressure or urge the two leaders to toughen their approach on China and Russia, Sullivan said, “I think pressure is just the wrong word. I mean, that’s not how President Biden operates with these key leaders with whom he has deep relationships, like President Lula and President Modi.”

Instead, Biden would “look for the opportunity to speak with both of them about the constructive role that each country can play in supporting the most basic and fundamental element of any outcome, which is sovereignty and territorial integrity, which is sacrosanct in the (United Nations) Charter,” Sullivan told reporters in Hiroshima.

Russia has highly likely redeployed up to several battalions to reinforce the Bakhmut sector in the last four days, the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) said today.

“Russia’s leadership likely continue to see capturing Bakhmut as the key immediate war aim which would allow them to claim some degree of success in the conflict,” the ministry said in its latest intelligence update on the continuing war.

It added that the amped up redeployment of several troops “follows Ukrainian tactical gains on the flanks of the contested Donetsk Oblast town through mid-May and publicly aired doubts about the commitment of Wagner Group forces to continue fighting in the sector”.

“With Russia likely maintaining relatively few uncommitted combat units in Ukraine, the redeployment represents a notable commitment by the Russian command,” the MoD said.

Rishi Sunak has issued a warning to Vladimir Putin that he and other Western leaders are “not going away”, at the start of the G7 summit in Japan.

The prime minister said Russia’s president must understand that Western allies of Ukraine are “steadfast” in their support for the country’s resistance against his invasion.

“My message to Putin is straightforward. We’re not going away,” Mr Sunak told Sky News at Hiroshima’s Seifukan tea house shortly before the start of the summit.

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Russia has listed International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan on a wanted list following an ICC arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over the forced deportation of Ukrainian children, independent Russian media publication Mediazona reported.

Mr Khan’s photo and personal information are visible on the Interior Ministry’s database, listed as “wanted on felony charges”, the report added.

In early March, the ICC slapped arrest warrants for Mr Putin and Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, holding themm “allegedly responsible” for the illegal transfer and deportation of children from Ukraine and the occupied territories to Russia during its full-scale invasion of the country since last February.

A fire has been caused by falling debris in the Dnipro district of the capital, Kyiv mayor Vitalii Klitschko said.

“Fire on the roof of a 9-story building in one of the housing complexes in the Dnipro district. All services work on site. Information about the victims has not yet been received,” he said.

The Ukrainian air defences have managed to shoot down all Russian drones launched overnight, the Kyiv city military administration said.

Air defenses in Kyiv intercepted all Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia, as per the preliminary information overnight on May 20, officials said.

Those were among the first words the pair shared during a 4am interaction on the night of the advance in February 2022, Guto Harri said, describing it as a “man-to-man thing” between the PM and the Ukrainian president.

Former GB News presenter Mr Harri told his Unprecedented podcast on Thursday that the two leaders were on the phone within minutes of Mr Johnson being woken to be told the news.

The remains of a US marine veteran who was missing in Ukraine for more than a year have been returned to the United States and were headed to his hometown in eastern North Carolina.

A Turkish Airlines plane flying from Istanbul with the remains of retired Marine Capt Grady Kurpasi landed at New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport in the early evening yesterday. They were loaded onto a private jet bound for Wilmington, North Carolina.

Kurpasi, a 50-year-old Iraq War veteran, volunteered in February 2022 to help evacuate Ukrainian residents and later fought in the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, according to the Weatherman Foundation, the group that located his remains and repatriated them.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian Wagner private army that is leading the assault on the city, said in a Telegram message that “heavy, bloody battles” were continuing and claimed his men were close to completing the capture of Bakhmut itself.

The Wagner chief has made similar claims in the past and followed it up with threats to pull out his mercenary force from Bakhmut due to lack of ammunition supply from Russia.

A Ukrainian mortar unit near the city told Reuters it had advanced this week, but was facing heavy fire from Russian forces who appeared to have significant strength in manpower and stocks of ammunition.

“The fire was intensive this week. Our forces pushed forward a little, stopped near the canal. It’s hard to push them (the Russians) out of there,” said a soldier with the call sign Medvid, which means “bear” in Ukrainian.

The unit’s troops said they were firing around 100 mortar rounds a day at Russian positions. They said their location could not be disclosed.