May 7, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

CIA Director Bill Burns warned on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has staked a lot on the second phase of his war in Ukraine and believes that “doubling down” on the military conflict is still his best path forward. 

It is this mindset, Burns said, that makes the second phase of the offensive at least as risky — and maybe even riskier — than the first phase of the conflict. 

"He's in a frame of mind in which he doesn't believe he can afford to lose," Burns said about Putin during a Financial Times event in Washington. "I think he's convinced right now that doubling down still will enable him to make progress."

“His convictions about Ukraine and the reality of Russia’s capability to continue to grind away at Ukrainian resistance — I don’t know whether that’s been shaken yet,” he added. “So the stakes are quite high.”

That view is informed by what Burns said he has observed about Putin over the last several years.

Burns also said that the risk of the war escalating into a nuclear conflict should not be underestimated during the second phase, even though the US intelligence community does not see “practical evidence at this point of Russian planning for deployment … of tactical nuclear weapons.”

“Given the kind of saber-rattling … we’ve heard from the Russian leadership, we can’t take lightly those possibilities,” Burns said. “At a moment when … the stakes are very high for Putin’s Russia and those risks at this second phase of the conflict are serious and should not be underestimated.”

Ramifications outside Russia: Burns also said that Russia’s conflict in Ukraine has affected China’s calculations when it comes to “how and when” it goes about attempting to take control of Taiwan.

“Clearly the Chinese leadership is trying to look carefully about the lessons they should draw from Ukraine about their own ambitions in Taiwan,” Burns said. 

“I don’t think for a minute it’s eroded Xi’s determination over time to gain control over Taiwan but I think its something that’s affecting their calculation about how and when they go about doing that,” he added. 

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that "all women, children and elderly people" have been evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant.

"The order of the president has been done," she said. "This part of the Mariupol humanitarian operation has been completed."

In brief comments to CNN from inside the Azovstal plant on Saturday evening local time, one of the Ukrainian defenders at the complex said that an evacuation of civilians had been conducted without incident.

The comments were made by Mykhailo Vershynin, the chief of the Mariupol Patrol Police. He gave no details about the number that had been able to leave.

Separately, the general staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that Russian forces continue to blockade the Ukrainian troops inside the plant and were using artillery and tank fire as they conducted assault operations.

What Russia is saying: A senior Russian official has agreed that the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steel plant has been completed.

Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia's National Center for Defense Management, said that Russia had evacuated a total of 51 civilians from Azovstal, in cooperation with the United Nations and the Red Cross, since May 5. Mizintzev said the tally included just one person evacuated Saturday.

The Russian account, which was carried by the state news agency TASS, appeared to match that of the Ukrainian government.

The total of 51 evacuees is much lower than previous estimates of the number of civilians still trapped at Azovstal. As of Saturday morning local time, more than 100 civilians — including children — were still thought to be trapped inside the sprawling complex, along with several hundred soldiers, many of them injured. It's not known how many men besides the Ukrainian soldiers might still be in the sprawling complex. 

One of the Ukrainian soldiers still at Azovstal, Serhiy Volina, posted on Facebook late Saturday local time: "Looks like I'm in some hellish reality show where we military fighting for life, taking every chance to save and the whole world is just watching an interesting story!" he said.

Volina said he was hoping for a miracle from the "higher powers" and that "this hell of a reality show will end."

"Time goes by, and time is our lives!" he concluded.

There have been no public statements from any side on the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol Saturday.

The Ukrainian government had expressed the hope that another batch of civilians would be able to leave the complex today.

The area around Azovstal appears to have been relatively quiet Saturday.

The self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, whose militia controls the surrounding area, said Saturday that a total of 152 people had been evacuated from the city of Mariupol in the eight hours since 8 a.m. local time. It remains unclear whether the total includes any civilians who are trapped at Azovstal.

The DPR said the total includes 32 children. All had been taken to a filtration facility in the town of Bezimenne.

CNN cannot verify the statement. 

There has been no comment from the Ukrainian side or the United Nations on the latest evacuations.

Late Friday, the Ukrainian government had proposed an evacuation that would collect civilians from Azovstal and then more people from the city of Mariupol. The proposed time for the departure of that convoy passed at 5 p.m. local time (which was 10 a.m. ET), and there has been no further word on developments.  

The defenders of the Azovstal complex raised the number of dead in a clash that took place Friday on the edge of the plant from one to three. 

Russia fired six cruise missiles at the southern port city of Odesa Saturday, according to Ukraine's Security and Defense Force South.

Video from the city shows thick columns of black smoke in several locations.

It said there were no casualties.

The regional military administration also posted a drone video purporting to show a strike against a Russian patrol boat in the Black Sea.

Some background: In the last few days, Ukrainian air force units have carried out several strikes against Russian positions on Russian-occupied Snake Island off the coast of Crimea.

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian Armed Forces said they hit at least two Russian military positions there using a Bayraktar UAV, a military drone.

Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme has called for the reopening of ports in Odesa to help rein in the global hunger crisis.

The self-declared Donetsk People's Republic said that a total of 152 people have been evacuated from Mariupol Saturday.

It's unclear whether the total includes any civilians who were trapped at the Azovstal steel plant.

The DPR said that "on 7 May, from 08:00 to 16:00, 152 people, including 32 children, were evacuated from Mariupol to Bezimenne, Novoazovsk district."

"At the present moment, they are in the evacuation assistance point, which has been deployed by the DNR Ministry of Emergency Situations," the DPR added.

There has been no comment from the Ukrainian side or the United Nations on the latest evacuations. 

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the number of civilians evacuated from Mariupol on Saturday — it was 152, not 50 — and it is unclear whether the total includes anyone from the Azovstal steel plant.

US first lady Jill Biden, accompanied by Romanian first lady Carmen Iohannis, visited a school earlier this morning where they talked with Ukrainian and Romanian educators, spoke to Ukrainian mothers and met with children.

Following her visit to the Uruguay School, Biden spoke shortly to reporters before boarding a plane, discussing the emotional impact of her visit to the school and the bravery of the mothers she met.

"It was so emotional, right? I think that really the Ukrainians know that we are standing with them," Biden told reporters.

Inside a classroom, children told Biden they were tracing their hands and making cutouts from copies of the Ukrainian and Romanian flags. At one point, a small girl approached the first lady holding her handprint cutout of the Ukrainian flag. Biden asked her to share her message, and a translator next to the girl said that she said, “I want to return to my father.” 

Biden sat down at a table to talk to a group of children who, according to their teacher, were working on a drawing of what the world would look like without war.

The first ladies also had a listening session with educators and refugees. 

Anastasia Konovalvoa, a Ukrainian teacher who fled in March to Romania, was among those who shared her story. 

“We stand with you,” Biden told her. “I hope you know that,” later adding, “I think you are the amazing ones, really.”

Biden also thanked Iohannis and said the Romanian people are “heroes.”

After the listening session, they went outside where students sang the Romanian national anthem followed by the Ukrainian military march song. 

Biden is now headed to Slovakia. 

This post also includes information from pool reports.

With Russia’s traditional May 9 "Victory Day" approaching, there is speculation that President Vladimir Putin will use the day to declare some form of success in his invasion, or ramp up his assault on the country.

There were evacuations Friday in the besieged city of Mariupol, where Ukrainian fighters and civilians are sheltering in the Azovstal plant -- which saw its perimeter breached this week by Russian forces, according to a commander inside.

Here's what you need to know:

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke about the war in Ukraine during his inauguration on Saturday, saying France needs to "act to avoid" any escalation in the conflict, and vowing to "help democracy and courage" prevail. 

The French leader told his country that by re-electing him as President, France had chosen "a project of independence in a destabilized world."

Some background: Last month, Macron became the first incumbent President to be re-elected in France in two decades, beating far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. Macron told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a few days later that French military support to Ukraine, in addition to humanitarian assistance, "will continue to grow."

"The President of the Republic reaffirmed to President Zelensky his willingness to work actively during his second term of office to restore the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, always maintaining close coordination with his European partners and allies," the Elysee Palace said in a statement last month.

After weeks of incessant artillery fire and air strikes, Ukrainian troops are "holding on" in a belt of towns in the Luhansk region, according to the head of its military administration.

Serhiy Hayday said on Ukrainian television that the situation was difficult. 

"The biggest efforts made by the enemy are to break through in Popasna and the direction of Severodonetsk and Voievodivka. That's where they deployed the biggest amount of their troops and equipment."

"That's where the largest number of shellings and rockets, and air strikes are constant -- it's just a terrible situation. Our guys are holding on, we are waiting for help, for reinforcement," he said.

Hayday said Russian artillery and rocket forces were being supported by private military contractors tasked with leading any ground assault. "There are PMC Wagner Group, there are the [Chechen] Kadyrovites -- but they are mostly about making videos for TikTok, and then there are the LPR [Luhansk People's Republic] servicemen," he said.

Hayday said Russian shelling had inflicted further heavy damage Friday in Hirske, Popasna and Severodonetsk.

An estimated 15,000 people are still living in Severodonetsk, where five high-rise apartment buildings were hit by shelling on Friday, Hayday said. The town of Zolote had also been hard hit, he said.