May 30, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The Ukrainian military has reported advances during its counteroffensive in the south and continuing efforts to hold off Russian advances in the eastern Donbas region.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported Monday additional Russian efforts to degrade Ukrainian defenses in Luhansk and Donetsk, saying that artillery, airstrikes and missiles had been used in several places — including Lysychansk and Soledar.

Russian pressure on Severodonetsk, a city where two-thirds of properties have been reported as destroyed, continues — with the General Staff saying that hostilities persist in and around the city. 

As the Russians attack Ukrainian lines in Donbas from the south, east and north, there are conflicting claims about their progress. 

The General Staff said that fighting continues around the village of Komyshuvakha, to the southwest of Severodonetsk. Social media video geolocated by CNN appears to show a Chechen unit in the village, with drone footage suggesting Ukrainian soldiers retreating from the area. A Chechen commander says:  "This locality is now under our control, and we will begin storming all fronts. We have seized, completely, you could say, Komyshuvakha."

Ukraine has claimed some success in its offensive in the south, which began during the weekend. The General Staff said, "the enemy suffered losses and withdrew from the village of Mykolaivka, Kherson region, which led to panic among servicemen of other units of the armed forces of the Russian Federation." 

If Russian forces have withdrawn from Mykolaivka, it would represent a gain of several kilometers for Ukrainian units. 

The General Staff reported continued further cross-border shelling of settlements in the northern regions of Chernihiv and Sumy, as well as shelling of territory north of the city of Kharkiv which has recently been retaken by Ukrainian forces.

Serhiy Hayday, the head of the Luhansk region military administration, said late Monday that while all parts of Luhansk region still under Ukrainian control are being attacked, "the situation in Severodonetsk is really the most difficult."

The official noted that Russian forces had been able to "push through territory from the outskirts of the city, where the Myr hotel is, and move a little deeper into the city. In the city now, there are and will be street battles."

CNN's Kostan Nechyporenko contributed reporting to this post.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, during a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, offered to host talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United Nations in Istanbul, according to a Turkish readout of the call. 

Erdogan stressed to Putin the "need for steps that will minimize the negative effects of the war" and reestablish peace between Russia and Ukraine "as soon as possible," according to the readout.  

Russian and Ukrainian delegations last met for talks in Istanbul on March 29.  

A French journalist has been shot and killed in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted.

“Journalist, Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff was in Ukraine to show the reality of the war. On board a humanitarian bus, alongside civilians forced to flee to escape the Russian bombs, he was fatally shot,” the French president tweeted.

BFM TV, a CNN affiliate, said that Leclerc-Imhoff was one of their journalists. On air, the outlet said he was 32 years old and had worked for BFM for six years.

Serhiy Hayday, the head of the Luhansk region military administration, spoke late Monday about the death of the French journalist who was killed in the area Monday. He said Leclerc-Imhoff was being evacuated with others when the vehicle they were traveling in was hit.

"I don't know whether it was an air bomb or a large shell which pierced the armored glass with a fragment and the French journalist died. And he was in a helmet and in a bulletproof vest, but a piece hit him in the neck," he said.

CNN's Kostan Nechyporenko contributed reporting to this post.

A military victory against Russia is “unlikely” if the United States holds back supplies of long-range artillery, a senior Ukrainian official tells CNN. 

Alexey Arestovych, a Ukrainian presidential advisor, told CNN the weapons are “essential for fate of Ukraine and its independence.” 

US officials said last week they are considering a Ukrainian request for deliveries of Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, MLRS, which can strike targets as far as 300 kilometers, or about 186 miles, depending on the type of munition. 

Arestovych told CNN that even a small number of the weapons systems — as few as 20 — would be a “game-changer” in the conflict with Russia, as he said it would enable Ukrainian troops to defend themselves against long-range Russian attacks. 

“But we would be looking at losing Kherson, Luhansk, Donetsk and parts of the Zaporizhzhia region,” he told CNN. 

But arming Ukraine with long-range rockets has raised concerns in the West that the MLRSs could be used to attack targets inside Russia, possibly escalating the conflict. 

Acknowledging those concerns, Arestovych told CNN that Ukraine would only use the weapons to defend their territory, not to attack Russia. 

An “improvised explosive device” detonated in central Melitopol at 7:50 a.m. local time on Monday, Russian state news agency RIA reports, citing Aleksey Selivanov, deputy chief of Zaporizhzhia region’s police.

He was speaking on behalf of the Russian authorities, which currently control Melitopol.

Two civilians — a man and a woman — were injured due to the explosion, Selivanov said.

The attack “looks like it was done by Ukrainians,” Selivanov added, without providing further details.

Earlier, Ivan Fedorov, the exiled Ukrainian mayor of the city said there are “several versions” of what happened.

Ukraine's Defense Ministry says that Russian forces are carrying our artillery strikes along much of the frontline that runs through Luhansk and Donetsk regions as they try to break through Ukrainian defensive positions.

Oleksandr Motuzianyk, the Defense Ministry spokesperson, told a briefing Monday that Russian forces "are trying encircle our troops in Donetsk and Luhansk regions."

Suggesting an intensification of Russian efforts, Motuzianyk said "simultaneous assaults on multiple access have been conducted."

On the situation in Severodonetsk, Motuzianyk said: "There are street fights, [the] Ukrainian military keeps fighting. We know all about enemy plans. I’m quite optimistic about the situation but it's tense. We are trying to prevent the enemy from encircling our units near Lysychansk and Severodonetsk and blocking the main logistics path," which runs west to Bakhmut.

He said that Russian forces were regrouping "in order to relaunch an offensive on [the] Izium-Barvinkove and Izium-Slovyansk [directions]." The Russians have already taken the town of Lyman northeast of Sloviansk.

In a shallow trench in a narrow strip of trees that offers the only cover in this Ukrainian landscape in the Mykolaiv district, a man stands with his two adult sons.

This is their first war together. Their first time as soldiers. When Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded their land, they went to the army as a family to sign up to fight.

Yaroslav is a 59-year-old grandfather. One of his sons, Nazar, 34, has two sons of his own. Another son, Pavlo, 26 has a daughter.

They left their wives and children to go the front lines but asked to stay together in their battalion.

Fighting as a family and for their family keeps their mission "very easy and simple," Yaroslav told CNN.

The men acknowledge with nervous laughter that it might not be so easy for those still at home, especially Yaroslav's wife who has her husband and sons all in harm's way.

"Mother surely worries because of us," Nazar said. "She's nervous. Also, our wives and our children worry. But nevertheless, we are here, we are standing for our land."

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Russia "does not stop conducting offensive operations" in the eastern areas of Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in its daily update on Monday.

In the Kharkiv region in the northeast, Russia fired on the areas north and northeast of the city, Ukraine’s military said.

A separate update from regional officials said "the night was relatively calm" with "sporadic shelling," adding that three people were injured in villages to the northeast of Kharkiv city.

In the Sumy region in the northeast, Russia launched air strikes and artillery shelling, the military said. Separate regional updates on Sumy said there was no casualties from the attacks.

In southern Ukraine, in the Kryvyi Rih area, Russia continues artillery shelling of Ukrainian troop positions and is conducting a "counter-battery fight," the military said.

Around 85 kilometers (53 miles) to the southwest of Kryvyi Rih, regional officials said the center of Novyi Buh city was shelled overnight, injuring two people and damaging a shop, a pharmacy and some residential buildings. Further south, the shelling continues against Bereznehuvate, where a school and residential buildings were damaged.

In the southern Kherson region, a regional update said fighting continues and "the situation is tense" in nearby villages. There is no water or electricity in the villages which border the regions of Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk, the statement added.

Along the Black Sea coast to the west in the Odesa region, a regional update said there were two missile strikes, one overnight and one on Monday morning. One missile was shot down by Ukrainian air defense forces. A non-functioning bridge was also hit, with no casualties reported, but damage was caused to several homes, the statement said.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Monday that NATO’s support for Ukraine is "unbreakable" as it has battled an invasion by Russian troops for more than three months. 

Sanchez was speaking at a Madrid ceremony marking the 40th anniversary since Spain joined the alliance. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was also present. 

Stoltenberg praised Spain’s contributions to NATO and looked ahead to NATO’s summit in Madrid at the end of June.

Stoltenberg said: "We will deepen our cooperation with like-minded countries and organizations, including the European Union and countries in the Indo-Pacific. We will also be joined by Finland and Sweden that just made historic applications to join our alliance."  

Finland and Sweden have recently set aside their historic policies of non-alignment, citing the war in Ukraine, and made moves toward NATO membership. 

Sanchez said the "unity of NATO is best to avoid an escalation" of the Ukraine war. 

Sanchez and Stoltenberg met over the weekend at a government retreat south of Madrid to discuss plans for the NATO summit next month, the prime minister’s press office said. 

Spain’s anniversary ceremony on Monday, at Madrid’s historic royal theater, included Spain’s King Felipe. Also present were three former Spanish prime ministers and four former NATO secretary generals who have served since Spain joined the alliance on May 30, 1982.