May 13, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Satellite images of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol show the extent of the destruction the Russian bombardment has had on the complex.

The images from Maxar Technologies, taken on May 12, show the heavily damaged plant from above.

Azovstal has been under constant shelling from Russian forces for about two months.

Prior to evacuation efforts, hundreds of civilians had been sheltering in the complex along with the last remaining Ukrainian defenders of the city.

A Ukrainian officer inside the facility said on Thursday that all the trapped civilians have likely been evacuated, though he added it was difficult to make a full assessment of the situation across the plant given the constant shelling.

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Thursday that "very difficult negotiations" are ongoing on the evacuation of seriously wounded fighters from the plant in exchange for Russian prisoners of war.

There are thought to be several hundred soldiers still at Mariupol’s last Ukrainian stronghold.

Their families have sent an emotional appeal to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urging him to "be a hero" and initiate an extraction procedure for all remaining fighters at the plant. 

As the Russian forces retreated due to a sustained Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region, three bridges vital to continuing the Ukrainian advance were blown up, satellite images from BlackSky and the European Space Agency show. 

The images from Black Sky, taken on May 12, show collapsed sections of the bridges crossing the Siverskyi Donets River near the villages of Rubizhne and Staryi Saltiv, which are about 10 miles south of the Russian border.

The village of Rubizhne is near Staryi Saltiv, although it shares the same name with the city further south in Luhansk.

The villages were recently liberated by Ukrainian forces. 

Another satellite image, taken on May 8, by the European Space Agency shows the bridge across the Pecheneg hydroelectric power station — the nearest bridge to the south — has also been blown up. 

There are only two smaller bridges to the north, in the currently Russian-occupied villages of Ohirtseve and Buhrukuvatka, which cross the river. Their current status is unknown, as clouds have obscured any recent satellite imaging. 

Why the bridges are important: If those bridges are compromised, the momentum of the Ukrainian advance will be significantly hampered.

It's not just momentum that's important for the Ukrainian forces. Major Russian supply lines, which are vital to the Russian military advance near the city of Izium and into the Luhansk region, are just east of the Siverskyi Donets River in the Kharkiv region.

 While it's not entirely clear when the bridges were blown, or who is responsible for doing so, it's unlikely the Ukrainians are responsible for their destruction. The bridges are just too vital to their counteroffensive, and to targeting the supply lines.

Two battlegrounds are emerging in Ukraine, with the Russians trying to take the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, while the Ukrainians are trying to both hold them back and cut them off. And the boundaries of one river in the east are hindering both sides.

Here are the latest updates on the war in Ukraine:

A new satellite image from Maxar Technology appears to show a missile strike Thursday near Snake Island, in southern Ukraine.

Two plumes of smoke are seen near to a Russian Serna-class landing ship in the Black Sea, identified by Maxar.

The ship appears to be making a sharp turn where the missile hits the water.

Near the island, a barge with a heavy-lift crane is seen next to another sunken vessel, which Maxar has also identified as a Serna-class landing ship. 

It's unclear how the ship sank, but on Sunday, spokesman for Odesa region military administration Serhiy Bratchuk said that a landing boat was hit, in addition to two Raptor-class patrol boats.

Bratchuk also claimed the Ukrainian military had destroyed a Russian helicopter on the island. The Ukraine Armed Forces Southern Operational Command released video showing a helicopter being destroyed by a missile on Sunday.

In recent weeks, the Ukrainians have repeatedly — and successfully — destroyed Russian forces and vehicles on the island. 

Bratchuk claimed on Thursday that a Russian support ship, the 'Vsevolod Bobrov' was on fire and being towed to Sevastopol from the area of Snake Island. That support ship is not seen in this satellite image, and the claim remains unverified by CNN. 

So far Russia has not confirmed the loss of any of the ships mentioned.

The Russian military is continuing to use a Ukrainian air base outside the occupied city of Melitopol, satellite images from BlackSky show.

At least seven helicopters are seen at the air base in a satellite image taken on May 12 at 3:58 p.m. local time. Only one helicopter is seen in a satellite image from May 7 at 6:02 a.m.

Some context: The use of the air base by the Russians is important, given its strategic location between the occupied cities of Kherson, Mariupol and parts of the Russian-backed separatist-held Donbas region.

Although the air base is deep within Russian-occupied territory, it doesn't mean the aircraft there are safe. In late March, Ukrainian forces successfully targeted the airport outside of Kherson, blowing up a number of Russian military helicopters. 

As a result of that successful Ukrainian military strike, the Russian military has had to largely abandon the airport as a base for its aircraft.

The Ukrainians are continuing to pushback a Russian advance across the Siverskyi Donets River near Bilohorivka, a satellite image from BlackSky shows.

The fighting is taking place along the same bend in the river where the Russians constructed two pontoon bridges, which the Ukrainians blew up.

The satellite image, taken Thursday afternoon, shows large plumes of smoke rising from a dense forest just west of the river. Fighting also appears to be occurring in the area where the Russian pontoon bridges were deployed.

Smoke is obscuring much of that area, but through it, an object — a possible third Russian pontoon bridge — is seen bridging the river. The object seen crosses the entire river; drone photos of the first two destroyed pontoon bridges show they no longer cross the body of water.

Serhiy Hayday, the Luhansk regional military administrator, said on Wednesday the Russians are continuing to try to construct bridges across the Siverskyi Donets River. He also said that the Ukrainians have repeatedly blown them up. 

Russia's Ambassador to the European Union said Moscow's invasion of Ukraine is on track but not proceeding at the speed certain people in the country wanted.

Calling the invasion a "special military operation," Ambassador Vladimir Chizhov told Sky News Russia could have "steamrolled" Ukraine by now if it had wanted.

When asked about the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine Chizhov said:

Chizhov said he is "deeply disappointed and saddened" by Finland and Sweden making moves to join NATO.

"Why the current Finish government has chosen to turn the country into a backwater periphery of NATO, I cannot understand," he said.

If Finland joins, Russia will take "certain military technical measures," he said.

The United States assesses that Russian forces have sent “at least several thousand Ukrainians” to be processed at Russia’s so-called filtration centers “and evacuated at least tens of thousands more to Russia or Russia-controlled territory,” US Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Michael Carpenter said Thursday.

The forced displacement – and reported violence that are faced by those at the so-called filtration centers – amount to war crimes, Carpenter said according to the transcript of his remarks to the OSCE Permanent Council.

“Numerous eyewitness accounts indicate that ‘filtering out’ entails beating and torturing individuals to determine whether they owe even the slightest allegiance to the Ukrainian state,” Carpenter said.

Some background: A CNN investigation in April revealed that Russian forces and allied separatist soldiers were taking Mariupol residents to a so-called “filtration center” set up in Bezimenne, where they were registered before being sent on to Russia, many against their will. Ukrainian government and local Mariupol officials say that tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens have been forcibly deported to the Donetsk People’s Republic and Russia since the war began.

The US Mission to the OSCE declined to discuss the sources of the information, but said it is confident in the assessment and the scale of the numbers stated.

According to Carpenter, victims described an "invasive and humiliating" inspection process at these centers.

“Russia’s soldiers photograph victims from various angles, fingerprint and physically examine them for tattoos, inspect their cell phones and download their contacts and data onto devices, and record their biographic information in a variety of databases ... In some cases, Russia’s soldiers confiscated passports, identification documents, and cell phones altogether,” Carpenter said.

“Once in Russia, survivors report that some Ukrainian citizens are permitted to stay with friends and family living in Russia but that people without money or documents are put onto trains destined for cities hundreds of miles away, to be given jobs by Russian authorities,” he added.

Th Finnish government is planning to issue a second white paper on Sunday proposing that the country joins NATO, Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told reporters in a media briefing in Helsinki on Thursday.

The proposal would then be put into a parliamentary vote with a plenary scheduled for Monday morning.

Haavisto noted that it is “important to go through a proper parliamentary debate”

The Finnish foreign minister said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had “changed very much the security landscape in Europe,” adding that it also changed the public opinion on NATO membership.

Haavisto told reporters that the country is in close contact with the Swedish Foreign Ministry as Sweden also considers joining NATO. He added that he is in talks with European partners and the UK as applicant countries are not covered by security guarantees.