May 10, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

By Heather Chen, Christian Edwards, Hannah Strange, Aditi Sangal, Lianne Kolirin and Tori Powell, CNN

Updated 12:03 a.m. ET, May 11, 2023
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5:29 a.m. ET, May 10, 2023

Ukrainian military claims successful counterattack near Bakhmut 

From CNN's Tim Lister and Seb Shukla

Andriy Biletsky attends a rally in Kyiv, Ukraine on March 9, 2019.
Andriy Biletsky attends a rally in Kyiv, Ukraine on March 9, 2019. Gleb Garanich/Reuters

The Ukrainian military has inflicted “huge losses” on Russian forces in a successful counterattack near the eastern city of Bakhmut on Wednesday, according to Ukrainian officials.

Speaking in a video shared on Telegram, Andriy Biletsky, head of Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade, said "units of the 72nd Brigade of the Russian Federation were defeated."

The "6th and 8th companies of the division" had been "completely destroyed" along with a significant number of armored fighting vehicles, he added.

Biletsky said a "significant number of prisoners" were taken and "the 3rd Assault unit of Wagner also suffered heavy losses," referring to the Russian private military company -- or mercenary group -- that is playing a major role in the battles around Bakhmut.

The offensive action "completely freed" an area 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) wide and 2.6 kilometers (1.6 miles) deep of Russian forces, he said. No exact location was given.

The spokesperson for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Serhii Cherevatyi, added that the battle was “still ongoing” but that “the enemy is suffering huge losses in this area.” He said that 203 were killed and 216 wounded.

He also noted that there was “no shortage of shells, but a shortage of people”. The spokesman said that there had been 524 attacks on Ukrainian positions around Bakhmut. Russia has suffered heavy losses in their months-long battle for the city, but have not yet been able to capture it.

“If they [Wagner] don’t get more personnel or change their tactics, in the near future, PMC Wagner will no longer exist in this area,” Cherevatyi added.

Some context: Bakhmut is the site of a long, drawn-out assault by Russian forces, including Wagner mercenaries, that has driven thousands from their homes and left the area devastated. But despite the vast amounts of manpower and resources Moscow has poured into capturing the city, they have been unable to take total control.

1:46 a.m. ET, May 10, 2023

CNN Exclusive: Japan's foreign minister reveals NATO liaison office talks, says Ukraine war makes world less stable

From CNN's Jessie Yeung in Hong Kong and Marc Stewart in Tokyo

Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks to CNN on Wednesday.
Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks to CNN on Wednesday. CNN

Japan is in talks to open a NATO liaison office, the first of its kind in Asia, the country’s foreign minister told CNN in an exclusive interview on Wednesday, saying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made the world less stable.

“We are already in discussions, but no details (have been) finalized yet,” Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Wednesday.

Hayashi specifically cited Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year as an event with repercussions far beyond Europe’s borders that forced Japan to rethink regional security.

“The reason why we are discussing about this is that since the aggression by Russia to Ukraine, the world (has) become more unstable,” he said.
“Something happening in East Europe is not only confined to the issue in East Europe, and that affects directly the situation here in the Pacific. That’s why a cooperation between us in East Asia and NATO (is) becoming … increasingly important.”

The Nikkei Asia first reported plans to open the office in Japan last Wednesday, citing unnamed Japanese and NATO officials.

In a statement to CNN last week, a NATO spokesperson said: “As to plans to open a liaison office in Japan, we won’t go into the details of ongoing deliberations among NATO allies.” She added that NATO and Japan “have a long-standing cooperation.”

Russia’s invasion drove non-aligned Finland and Sweden to abandon their neutrality and seek protection within NATO, with Finland formally joining the bloc last month.

An office in Tokyo would be hugely consequential, as the war in Ukraine and deepening divisions within Asia have seen countries like Japan and South Korea draw closer to their Western partners — and present a united front against perceived threats closer to home, such as North Korea and China.

Read more here.

3:17 a.m. ET, May 10, 2023

Muted celebrations in Moscow as Ukraine gears up for long expected counteroffensive. Here's the latest

From CNN staff

Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a military parade on Victory Day, which marks the 78th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Red Square in central Moscow, on May 9.
Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a military parade on Victory Day, which marks the 78th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Red Square in central Moscow, on May 9. Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Reuters

Russia scaled back its annual Victory Day celebrations Tuesday due to security concerns related to the war in Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin spoke briefly in Moscow's Red Square where only one tank was on display during a toned-down parade.

Meanwhile, explosions rang out over Kyiv on Tuesday as Ukrainian air defenses intercepted cruise missiles fired by Russia, officials said. The Patriot missile defense system was used to down a Russian missile, the Pentagon said.

Here are the latest headlines:

  • Southern moves: Authorities in Russian-occupied towns in southern Ukraine are ordering the evacuation of thousands of civilians ahead of a much-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive. One Ukrainian mayor claimed it was not a "mass evacuation," but rather "some hundreds evacuated for show," and said Russia was sending more forces to the southern front line.
  • Keeping expectations in check: Don't expect a movie-like scenario when Ukraine eventually launches its counteroffensive because "the real world doesn't work like that," UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said. Speaking beside him, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he thinks Ukraine has the resources it needs to retake territory when the time comes after the US announced an additional $1.2 billion in aid to Kyiv intended to bolster air defenses and ammunition supplies.
  • Journalist's death: Arman Soldin, a video journalist for Agence France-Presse, was killed by rocket fire near the embattled city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, the news agency said. "We share the pain of his family and all his colleagues," French President Emmanuel Macron said in a tweet.
  • US diplomats point finger at Moscow: The US ambassador to Ukraine accused Russia of "again blocking ships from loading grain in Ukraine’s ports to feed people who need it around the world." US envoy Bridget A. Brink referenced similar comments made earlier by Blinken, in which he accused Moscow of "using people's hunger as a weapon."
  • EU chief visits Ukraine: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen traveled to Kyiv Tuesday to mark Europe Day — a celebration of peace and unity on the continent. In a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, she discussed European solidarity in areas such as grain export and more ammunition.
  • Germany presses China: In a joint news conference with her Chinese counterpart, Germany's foreign minister said Berlin wants Beijing to promise it won't help Russia avoid European sanctions, adding that all countries should take action to oblige their companies. "Neutrality means taking the side of the aggressor," she said. 
  • New Prigozhin tirade: Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin launched the latest in a series of rants directed at Russia’s military leadership, claiming his troops were "blatantly lied to" after he received only "10%" of the support he had been pledged to help sustain the fight Bakhmut. Prigozhin also questioned how Victory Day celebrations could be underway in Moscow, when "we haven’t earned that victory one millimeter."
12:29 a.m. ET, May 10, 2023

US diplomats accuse Russia of using hunger as a weapon of war against Ukraine

From Victoria Butenko, Richard Roth and Jen Deaton

Bridget A. Brink attends an event in Borodianka, Kyiv Region, northern Ukraine, on April 2.
Bridget A. Brink attends an event in Borodianka, Kyiv Region, northern Ukraine, on April 2. Kaniuka Ruslan/Ukrinform/Future Publishing/Getty Images

Bridget A. Brink, the US ambassador to Ukraine, accused Russia on Tuesday of “again blocking ships from loading grain in Ukraine’s ports to feed people who need it around the world.”

The US official referenced similar comments on the topic made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier on Tuesday.

“The world shouldn’t need to remind Moscow every few weeks to stop using people’s hunger as a weapon in its war against Ukraine,” Blinken said, as quoted by Brink on Twitter

Farhan Haq, UN deputy spokesman for the Secretary-General, said two inspections of ships did happen on Tuesday.

The news comes a day after the UN said there had been no ship inspections as part of the grain deal for two days. Ukraine on Monday accused Russia of effectively bringing the grain deal to a halt by not inspecting ships.

Some context: The Black Sea Grain Initiative is an agreement between Ukraine and Russia, brokered by the UN and Turkey, that was established in July 2022 to guarantee safe passage for ships carrying grain and oilseeds — some of Ukraine's most important exports.  

Talks to extend the initiative are ongoing. The Black Sea grain deal was last extended on March 18 for 60 days, and is set to expire on May 18. 

12:25 a.m. ET, May 10, 2023

AFP journalist Arman Soldin killed in rocket fire in eastern Ukraine

From CNN's Helen Regan

Arman Soldin walks in a village after a shelling in Ukraine on March 3, 2022.
Arman Soldin walks in a village after a shelling in Ukraine on March 3, 2022. Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

A French journalist working for the international news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) was killed by rocket fire near the embattled city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday.

Arman Soldin, 32, was AFP’s video coordinator in Ukraine and was killed in a rocket attack on the outskirts of the town of Chasiv Yar, near Bakhmut, AFP announced on Twitter, citing colleagues who witnessed the incident.

“We are devastated to learn of the death of AFP video journalist Arman Soldin in eastern Ukraine today,” AFP said. “All of our thoughts go out to his family and loved ones.”

Soldin was with four colleagues at the time of the attack, but the other journalists were not injured, the news agency said.

Their reporting team was with Ukrainian soldiers when they came under fire around 4:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, according to AFP.

Soldin, a French citizen with Bosnian origins, was an experienced reporter who had regularly traveled to the front lines, the news agency said. He had been AFP’s video coordinator there since September 2022 and covered the conflict from the early days of Russia’s invasion.

“Our journalists travel regularly to this area to report on clashes in the region, the epicenter of fighting in Ukraine for several months,” AFP said in its statement.

Soldin is one of the several known journalists killed since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, including Fox News photojournalist Pierre Zakrzewski and consultant Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova, journalist and documentarian Brent Renaud, and photojournalist Maks Levin.

Read more here.

11:45 p.m. ET, May 9, 2023

Zaporizhzhia civilians are being evacuated further into Russian-held territory, Ukraine says

From CNN’s Yulia Kesaieva in Kyiv

Kremlin-backed authorities in the occupied Ukrainian city of Kamianka-Dniprovska in the southern Zaporizhzhia region are evacuating families and public sector workers further into Russian-held territory, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a statement.

“On May 8, the Russian occupiers began to evacuate preschool and school-age children with their parents, as well as teachers and other public sector employees from the city of Kamianka-Dniprovska in Zaporizhzhia Oblast,” the statement read. “There were not many willing participants.” 

Late Thursday, Yevgeniy Balitskiy, the acting governor of the occupied parts of the Zaporizhzhia region — who is backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin — announced his administration would evacuate people from places near the war’s southern front line.

Yesterday, Yurii Malashko, Ukraine’s governor of Zaporizhzhia, said in a television interview that he understood some Moscow-backed officials were leaving occupied towns, and offering to evacuate people with Russian passports, ahead of the anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive.

“We have also heard that they take civilians, including children, to Berdiansk first of all. Then they go either to Crimea or towards the [occupied] Donetsk region,” Malashko said.

Ivan Fedorov, the Ukraine-elected mayor of Melitopol — a city in Zaporizhzhia — told Ukrainian TV that it was not a “mass evacuation,” but rather “some hundreds evacuated for show.” He claimed that Russia was sending more forces to the southern front line and that, in Melitopol, troops had started mining administrative buildings, kindergartens and schools.

Fedorov advised people in the occupied areas to be prepared for the counteroffensive by finding shelter, charging power banks and stocking up on food and water. 

12:33 a.m. ET, May 10, 2023

Ukraine downed Russian missile with Patriot missile system, Pentagon says

From CNN's Haley Britzky

Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder speaks at a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington on March 2.
Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder speaks at a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington on March 2. Kevin Wolf/AP

The Ukrainian military downed a Russian missile using the Patriot missile defense system, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Tuesday.

“I can confirm that they did down a Russian missile by employing the Patriot missile defense system,” Ryder said. “As you know, that system is part of a broader range of air defense capabilities that the United States and the international community have provided to Ukraine.”

Ryder added that the US and its partners would continue to “rush ground-based air defense capabilities and munitions to help Ukraine control its sovereign skies and to help Ukraine defend its citizens from Russia.”

12:36 a.m. ET, May 10, 2023

Ukraine has what it needs to successfully retake territory, US secretary of state says

From CNN's Kylie Atwood and Michael Conte

Antony Blinken speaks at the Freedom House 2023 Annual Awards Ceremony, in Washington on Tuesday, May 9.
Antony Blinken speaks at the Freedom House 2023 Annual Awards Ceremony, in Washington on Tuesday, May 9. Alex Brandon/AP

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that he thinks Ukraine has the resources it needs to retake territory in an anticipated counteroffensive.

"They have in place ... what they need to continue to be successful in regaining territory that was seized by force by Russia over the last 14 months," Blinken said at a joint news conference with UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

"It's not only the weapons; it's the training," Blinken added. "It's making sure that the Ukrainians can maintain the systems that we provide them, and it's important, of course, that they have the right plans, again, to be successful."

Blinken’s comments come on the same day the US announced an additional $1.2 billion in aid to Ukraine intended to bolster air defenses and keep up ammunition supplies.

3:17 a.m. ET, May 10, 2023

Analysis: Putin tried to project strength, but Moscow Victory Day parade revealed only his isolation

Analysis from CNN's Nathan Hodge

Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a military parade on Victory Day, which marks the 78th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Red Square in central Moscow, on May 9.
Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a military parade on Victory Day, which marks the 78th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Red Square in central Moscow, on May 9. Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Reuters

For Russian President Vladimir Putin, this year’s Victory Day parade in Red Square was a chance to continue his war on history. He succeeded only in underscoring his geopolitical isolation.

In a speech before the assembled troops, Putin drew a direct line between his invasion of Ukraine and the sacrifices of World War II. Flanked by surviving veterans of what Russia still calls the Great Patriotic War, the Russian president cast himself as savior and defender of an embattled Russia targeted by the “globalist elites” of the West.

“Today, civilization again is at a breaking point,” Putin said. “Again, a true war has been unleashed against our motherland.”

While Russia sees “no unfriendly nations in the West or in the East,” Putin suggested darker forces are conspiring against Moscow.

“Western globalist elites still talk about their exceptionalism, pitting people against each other and splitting society, provoking bloody conflicts and coups, sowing hatred, Russophobia, [and] aggressive nationalism,” he said. “The Ukrainian nation has become hostage to a coup which led to a criminal regime led by its Western masters. It has become a pawn to their cruel and selfish plans.”

It’s worth unpacking this for a moment. It’s Putin’s longstanding view that Ukraine is not a legitimate nation — Ukrainians and Russians, in his view, are “one people” and the Ukrainian state is an artificial construct. In his conspiratorial view of the world, states like Ukraine are merely vassals, and Washington calls the shots. And if a shadowy global cabal is pulling the strings in Kyiv, that belief justifies what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Let’s remember that it was a genuine popular revolt — not, say, the CIA or George Soros — that brought people onto Kyiv’s Maidan Square to support Ukraine’s aspirations for joining the European Union, leading to the ouster of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president in 2014. And that Russian-speaking Ukrainians — and even some Russian nationals — are also fighting and dying on the side of Ukraine.

Read the full analysis here.