by Russia-Ukraine war live updates: Evacuation of Ukrainian soldiers underway at Mariupol steel plant
Yesterday at 1:22 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 10:31 p.m. EDT
One of the war’s bloodiest and most high-profile battles entered its final phase on Monday, as Ukraine’s military command announced the end of combat operations in Mariupol and began working to evacuate the soldiers who held off Russian forces for weeks at a sprawling steel plant.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the troops as heroes and said, “We hope that we will be able to save the lives of our guys.” A top Ukrainian defense official said more than 260 soldiers have been transported to Russian-controlled territory, including 53 who were “seriously wounded” and taken to a hospital. Moscow and Kyiv will broker a prisoner swap to secure their release, the official said, and efforts are underway to rescue the troops who remain trapped in the plant.
Even as Russia came away with an apparent victory in Mariupol, it suffered another setback on the global stage, as Sweden ended 200 years of military nonalignment to join Finland in applying for NATO membership. The Western military alliance is now considering its largest expansion in decades, and the Nordic countries’ neighbors have pledged protection through the accession process in the event of Russian retaliation.
Here’s what else to know
- Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to downplay NATO’s possible expansion, saying he had “no problems” with Sweden and Finland seeking admission.
- Despite a mostly stalled offensive in eastern Donbas, Russian forces have made modest gains amid heavy fighting in the Donetsk region, the Pentagon said.
- The U.S. Senate voted to advance a bill that would send nearly $40 billion in additional military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. A final vote will probably be scheduled for this week.
- McDonald’s said Monday that it would sell its Russian business, seeking a “local buyer” for its 850 restaurants in the country. French automaker Renault Group also said it would pull out of Russia.
- The Washington Post has lifted its paywall for readers in Russia and Ukraine. Telegram users can subscribe to our channel.
Bipartisan group of senators introduce resolution urging release of Russian dissident
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and a bipartisan group of nine other senators on Monday introduced a resolution urging the United States and its allies to secure the immediate release of Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian dissident who had denounced the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Kara-Murza, a Washington Post contributor and critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was detained by Russian authorities last month after condemning the invasionduring an interview with CNN. He has previously survived at least two poisonings that he said were orchestrated by Moscow.
He also helped persuade the United States, Canada and the European Union to adopt the Magnitsky Act, important sanctions laws that target human rights abusers in Russia and elsewhere.
Rubio’s resolution is co-sponsored by Republicans Charles E. Grassley (Iowa), Ron Johnson (Wis.), James E. Risch (Idaho), Dan Sullivan (Alaska), and Roger Wicker (Miss.). Democrats Ben Cardin (Md.), Richard J. Durbin (Ill.), Robert Menendez (N.J.) and Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) are also sponsors. The resolution also urges the U.S. government to seek the release of Alexei Navalny, another prominent Putin critic who survived an apparent assassination attempt in 2020.
Updates from key cities: Ukraine troops advance toward Russian border
Ukrainian troops have forced a Russian withdrawal in the northeastern city of Kharkiv and advanced as far as the Russian border, the local governor said Monday. In many areas in the east the situation is fluid, with Ukrainian and Russian forces capturing and recapturing territory.
Here are updates from key battlegrounds:
Kharkiv: Russian troops are trying to hold the border after withdrawing from areas around Ukraine’s second-largest city. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said this activity is different from previous Russian withdrawals from around Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy earlier in the war when they pulled all the way back into Russian territory. In this case, they “may seek to retain positions in Ukraine” — and keep up the battery of artillery strikes — to prevent Ukrainian forces from getting within striking range of the Russian city of Belgorod, a key supply hub for Russia’s military.
Donbas: Despite a mostly stalled offensive in the eastern Donbas region, Russian forces have made modest gains amid heavy fighting in the Donetsk oblast, the Pentagon said Monday.
Odessa: Russian airstrikes hit tourist infrastructure and buildings in the Odessa region, its military administration said Monday.
Mariupol: An evacuation of at least some Ukrainian soldiers from an encircled steel plant in this Russian-controlled city appeared to be underway Monday. The number of Ukrainian troops to be evacuated was not immediately clear — nor was their fate. Mass graves have been discovered to the west of the shattered southern port city, officials said. Ukraine’s military command said late Monday that it would end combat operations in Mariupol and focus on the evacuations.
Alex Horton, Reis Thebault and Hannah Dormido contributed to this report.
Senate advances $40 billion Ukraine aid bill, setting up final vote
The Senate voted 81-to-11 on Monday evening to advance a bill that would secure nearly $40 billion in additional military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine.
The chamber invoked cloture, capping further debate on the bill and setting up a final vote that will likely be scheduled for later this week. Both Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have stressed the importance of securing the aid this week, given that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that the remaining funds the U.S. has sent Ukraine will run out by Thursday.
Eighty-one Democrats and Republicans voted in favor of advancing the measure. Eleven Republicans, including Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.), Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) and John Boozman (Ark.), voted against it.
President Biden had expected the measure to land on his desk last week, but the Senate’s move to quickly advance the bill was delayed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who demanded that a provision be added establishing an inspector general to oversee the disbursement of the funds. While Schumer and McConnell told Paul he could have a vote on the addition, Paul wanted the amendment added to the bill, which means the measure would have gone back to the House, further delaying the process.
On the Senate floor Monday, Schumer alluded to the Paul impasse, accusing him of “needlessly” delaying the help for the people of Ukraine.
“I urge him to drop his opposition so we can reach an agreement to get this package passed through the Senate as soon as we can,” Schumer said.
The Senate, he said, has a “moral obligation” to pass the assistance quickly.
While Paul could further delay advancing the bill this week, he will not be able to block final passage of the legislation, as he made clear in a tweet Friday.
“They’ll eventually pass the spending without me, as they always do, but at the very least they need to include oversight,” he wrote.
‘Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes alive,’ Zelensky says as Mariupol soldiers are evacuated
Ukraine has launched a delicate, multilateral effort to evacuate its last remaining soldiers from the ruined Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced late Monday, saying that “Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes alive.”
Ukrainian officials have been coordinating the complex operation with the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, and they reached a cease-fire agreement with the Russian military, which said it would allow the fighters to be transported from the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works facility to Russian-held territory.
“We hope that we will be able to save the lives of our guys,” Zelensky said in a video address. “Among them are the seriously wounded, they are being provided with medical aid. … To bring the boys home, the work continues, and this work needs delicacy. And time.”
Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Anna Malyar, said 53 seriously wounded soldiers were taken to a hospital in the town of Novoazovsk, less than 30 miles east of Mariupol. Another 211 were transported to another Russian-backed village, she said, and Moscow and Kyiv will broker a prisoner swap to secure their release. Malyar said officials were still working to rescue the remaining soldiers, though it is unclear how many are still inside. Ukrainian authorities said last week there were nearly 1,000 holdout fighters in the plant.
Earlier Monday, the military unit posted a statement acknowledging the move, saying that, “In order to save lives, the entire Mariupol garrison is implementing the approved decision of the Supreme Military Command and hopes for the support of the Ukrainian people.”
The battle for Mariupol has been one of the war’s bloodiest and most high-profile. Russia laid waste to the strategically important southeastern port city, which had a fast-growing preinvasion population of about 450,000. Early on, Moscow’s forces surrounded Mariupol, cut it off from water and electricity and bombed it ceaselessly, reducing much of the city to rubble.
Losing Mariupol is a significant setback for Ukraine, but its military leaders said troops there kept the Russians at bay long enough to buy crucial time for Ukrainian forces fighting elsewhere.
“We got the critically needed time to build reserves, regroup forces and get help from partners,” Ukraine’s military command said in a Monday update.
“Mariupol defenders are heroes of our time,” the command wrote. “They are forever in history.”
On state TV, a retired Russian colonel gives frank assessment of war, isolation
A retired Russian colonel told state media on Monday that the invasion of Ukraine is not going the way Russia is portraying it, and that the global isolation facing the country is more daunting than Russian leaders are letting on.
“After all, the main deficiency of our military-political position is that, in a way, we are in full geopolitical isolation, and that, however much we would hate to admit this, virtually the entire world is against us,” Mikhail Khodaryonok said, according to a video translated by the BBC’s Francis Scarr. “And it’s that situation that we need to get out of.”
In an extremely rare moment of candour on Russian state TV today, defence columnist Mikhail Khodaryonok gave a damning assessment of Russia’s war in Ukraine and his country’s international isolation. It’s fairly long but worth your time so I’ve added subtitles. pic.twitter.com/0mr7WAgSx6
— Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) May 16, 2022
When asked about the current state of the war, Khodaryonok, who has given frank assessments of the war on Russian airwaves in recent days, urged viewers to be cautious about any information put out by Russia on how Ukrainian forces “are allegedly on the verge of some kind of crisis in morale and so on.”
“All of that, to put it mildly, is false,” he said.
Khodaryonok referenced how the U.S. Congress is poised to approve nearly $40 billion in additional military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, and what that could look like for Russia if Ukraine potentially employs a force of “a million armed Ukrainian soldiers.”
“We need to take that into account in our own operational and strategic calculations, that the situation in this regard for us will frankly get worse,” he said on state TV.
As state media host Olga Skabeyeva pushed back on Khodaryonok and said that the Ukrainian forces are “not such a great contingent,” the retired colonel replied that the will of Ukraine mattered more than whether they are “professional” soldiers.
“The thing is that the level of any army’s professionalism is determined not by the number of those recruited for professional service but by the level of the personnel’s training, and its morale and readiness to shed blood for the homeland,” he said.
Then, as Skabeyeva attempted to equate Ukrainian forces’ “desire to die” to professionalism, Khodaryonok shot down the state media host’s assertion, saying “it’s a component of an army’s high combat readiness.”
“The main thing in our [military] business, it’s always to maintain a sense of military-political realism,” he said. “If you go beyond it, then sooner or later the reality of history will hit you so hard that you’ll regret it.”
Ukraine, Japan sign $100 million loan agreement to help those displaced by war
Ukraine and Japan have signed an agreement on a $100 million loan intended to support Ukraine’s most vulnerable population, including those who’ve been displaced during the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance announced Monday.
The loan, which the ministry said was for 30 years and included a grace period of 10 years, is aimed to provide “budgetary support for the stabilization of the situation in Ukraine, in particular, the provision of priority social, and humanitarian expenditures, health care, support for internally displaced persons, and other priority expenditures,” according to a statement.
Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko said that he and the president of Japan’s International Cooperation Agency, Akihiko Tanaka, signed the loan agreement Monday in hope of supporting “the most unprotected population of Ukraine” in the aftermath of the invasion.
“The concessional loan of 13 billion yen, which is the first part of the agreed financial assistance between Ukraine and Japan, will be directed to the state budget to finance priority expenses. First of all, to support the most unprotected population of Ukraine,” Marchenko said in the statement.
At least some Ukrainian holdout fighters evacuated from Mariupol steel plant
An evacuation of at least some Ukrainian soldiers from the encircled Azovstal steel plant in Russian-controlled Mariupol appeared to be underway Monday, signaling the start of a new and perhaps final phase of one of the war’s bloodiest and most high-profile battles.
The Ukrainian military unit whose fighters were the last holdouts in the southeastern port city posted a statement on Telegram saying that, “In order to save lives, the entire Mariupol garrison is implementing the approved decision of the Supreme Military Command and hopes for the support of the Ukrainian people.”
The number of Ukrainian troops to be evacuated was not immediately clear — nor was their fate.
The announcement came the same day as Russia’s defense ministry said it had agreed to a cease-fire and a so-called humanitarian corridor that would allow wounded fighters trapped in Azovstal Iron and Steel Works to be transported to a hospital in the Russian-held town of Novoazovsk, less than 30 miles east of Mariupol.
A commander of the Ukrainian battalion, the Azov Regiment, said, without elaborating, that “there are no completely safe plans or operations in the war.”
“The main thing is to understand whether all the risks have been calculated, whether plan B has been worked out, whether you have given yourself completely to this plan, which must combine the fulfillment of the task and the maximum preservation of life and health of personnel,” the commander, Denys Prokopenko, said in a video that accompanied his unit’s statement.
Reuters journalists saw “about a dozen buses” leaving Azovstal on Monday, the outlet reported, but could not determine how many people were aboard.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was expected to address his country on Monday evening to deliver an update on the situation at the steel plant.
European Union still unclear when unanimous vote on Russian oil ban could come
Members of the European Union were unable to unanimously agree on banning Russian oil on Monday, with the bloc’s foreign policy chief saying “unhappily” that it was not possible just yet to get an unanimous vote.
Josep Borrell, the E.U.’s high representative for foreign policy, told reporters in Brussels that Hungary continues to hold up an unanimous vote on a proposal to ban all imports of Russian crude and refined fuels. Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said last week that the country would only vote on such a proposal if the E.U. develops solutions for the issues the Russian oil ban would cause for the Hungarian economy.
Borrell, who told Politico he was unsure how long it would take for the E.U. to deliver a unanimous vote on the sixth sanctions package against Russia, said at a news conference that the bloc was still facing “the same difficulties about unanimity on the oil ban.”
“It was not even in the agenda to try to get an agreement today, because we knew it was not possible,” Borrell said. “But we had a very constructive discussion about the reasons why some member states are reluctant — not only about oil ban but other elements of the sanctions package.”
Russian oligarchs loved luxe Sardinia. Now they’re frozen out of paradise.
ROMAZZINO, Italy — Even among the billionaires who flock to this vacation enclave, the Russian oligarchs stood out.
They bought up the choicest villas along the coast, building de facto empires shielded behind clipped hedges and surveillance cameras. They were known among real estate agents for always wanting armed guards. One mining and metals tycoon, Alisher Usmanov, would announce his presence every summer with the arrival of one of the world’s largest yachts, which he would park in the turquoise bay, shuttling between the vessel and his villas, flying in guests on helicopters.
“It was like having an oligarch state right here in Sardinia,” said Mauro Pili, a journalist who was once this island’s governor.
That state has now been dismantled.
Erdogan says diplomats from Sweden, Finland should not come to Turkey for NATO talks
ISTANBUL — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that diplomats from Sweden and Finland intending to visit Turkey soon should not come, since Ankara did not intend to approve their bids for NATO membership.
“They are going to come here on Monday to try and convince us? Excuse us but there is no need for them to tire themselves,” Erdogan said during a news conference in Ankara, referring to an announcement that senior diplomats from the two countries were scheduled to travel to Turkey to discuss Ankara’s opposition to their membership in the alliance.
“First of all, we would not say yes to those who impose sanctions on Turkey to join NATO, which is a security organization,” Erdogan said. Erdogan’s government has accused the two countries of harboring “terrorist groups,” including members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has fought a long separatist insurgency against Turkey.
Ankara’s objections have set it apart from NATO allies that have welcomed the bids by Finland and Sweden, and raised questions about whether the Turkish leader’s resistance is simply an effort to gain leverage as his government negotiates its relationship with western partners.
U.S. officials have downplayed Erdogan’s objections, saying it is not clear whether Turkey is intending to torpedo the membership bids.
“The president almost certainly sees this as an opportune moment to air his grievances about existing NATO members, especially with the Biden administration, which has kept the Turkish leader at arm’s length,” Asli Aydintasbas, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in an analysis published Monday.
“It is unlikely that Erdogan had one specific policy goal in mind, but he will no doubt be expecting to be cajoled, persuaded, and eventually rewarded for his cooperation, as in the past,” she wrote.
Analysis: Pro-Russian hackers tried to disrupt Eurovision Song Contest
Pro-Russian hackers tried — but failed — to disrupt the Eurovision Song Contest over the weekend in an effort to mar a runaway victory by the Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra.
It’s the latest in a spate of recent hacks aimed at undermining or embarrassing geopolitical adversaries under a media spotlight.
The hacks, conducted by partisans for both Russia and Ukraine, essentially borrow a page from hacktivist collectives such as Anonymous. They are aimed more at making a splash and stoking anger and anxiety than at causing real damage.
It is ‘vital’ for students, researchers to return to Ukraine after war, Zelensky says
Zelensky said Monday that Ukraine is facing great challenges to maintaining university education systems amid the ongoing war with Russia, with widespread destruction of infrastructure and displacement of countless students.
It’s “not easy to maintain education in our state now.… First we had a pandemic, and then the invasion,” he said during a virtual meeting with leaders and members of the Association of American Universities (AAU).
Despite the challenges facing students, faculty and other members of academia, Zelensky displayed his characteristic optimism and outlined the efforts needed to rebuild education systems once the war concludes.
“After the end of this war, it is of vital importance for us, for the students, for the researchers to come back,” he said, referring to the internally displaced and those who were forced to flee the country. “We can’t lose the power of youth, the power and energy of young people, without which we can have no future and we cannot create anything.”
He continued: “Life must go on despite the fact that in some of our communities death is reigning. Life in our country must go on, and shall go on, and the students will study, I’m sure.”
During the AAU meeting, presidents and provosts discussed how their institutions could offer aid to displaced Ukrainian students and researchers, as well as to rebuild the higher education system after the war is over.
Norway, Iceland and Denmark PMs support Sweden and Finland’s NATO bids
The prime ministers of Norway, Iceland and Denmark released a joint statement praising Sweden and Finland’s bid to apply for NATO membership, and pledging to assist the neighbor nations should they face any aggression before gaining membership in the Western military bloc.
All three countries are already in NATO.
In a statement, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store called it a “watershed moment for Nordic cooperation” and said they will “do our utmost to ensure a swift accession process.”
“Finland’s and Sweden’s security is important to our security,” Store said. “Together with Denmark and Iceland, Norway stands ready to assist its Nordic neighbours by all means necessary should they be the victim of aggression on their territory before obtaining NATO membership.”
Similar assurances have come from others as well: Last week, the United Kingdom signed a mutual security agreement with Sweden and Finland, vowing to defend the nations if they come under attack.
Russia makes small gains near Donetsk, Pentagon says
Russian forces have made modest gains west of Donetsk in recent heavy fighting, in a potential gambit to link up with stalled troops in the Donbas region, the Pentagon said Monday.
Fighting remains fluid in many areas in the east as Ukrainian and Russian forces capture and recapture territory. But Russia has been stymied in other areas, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon.
One potential Russian breakout outside Donetsk may be designed to reach troops farther west that have failed to make appreciable gains, the official said.
Russian forces have also recently bombarded western Ukraine, including with long-range missile strikes that appeared to target the Yavoriv military training center near the Polish border, the official said. That strike damaged a few buildings, but the official was not aware of any casualties.
The base was attacked in March, killing at least 35 people.