May 19, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

A senior military official in Ukraine said that "measures to evacuate the Ukrainian military from Mariupol continue," as Russia claimed more than 1,700 Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered from the Azovstal plant since Monday.

Addressing the media in Kyiv, Brigadier General Oleksii Gromov said that "in the Mariupol direction, the intensity of hostilities has been reduced. At this time, measures are continuing to evacuate our heroes" from the Azovstal plant. Several hundred soldiers are still thought to be inside the plant.

The Ukrainian government has said little about the evacuation process since it began on Monday.

Gromov addressed whether the lives of those soldiers who had been evacuated to Russian-controlled territory were at risk.

Russia has said that the prisoners will be treated in accordance with international law, but the government's investigative committee has said that its staff "as part of the investigation of criminal cases by the Ukrainian regime against the civilian population of Donbas, will interrogate the surrendered militants who were hiding at the Azovstal plant in Mariupol."

CNN is unable to confirm the Russian tally of those it said had surrendered.

Ukraine said earlier this week that the "combat mission" had ended at the complex, which was for weeks the last major holdout in a city otherwise occupied by Russian troops.

US President Joe Biden welcomed Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson to the White House on Thursday, after the leaders of both Nordic nations submitted NATO applications.

Sweden and Finland’s bids to join NATO come in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine, which sparked security concerns across the region. Their moves to join the alliance mark a dramatic evolution in European security and geopolitics.

The leaders are scheduled to hold a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House and will later deliver remarks from the Rose Garden. 

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Wednesday that the meeting with the leaders in Washington will allow the three nations “to coordinate on the path forward” and “compare notes” on the move.

Sullivan called Finland and Sweden's applications to join the alliance "a watershed moment in European security."

CNN's Meagan Vazquez contributed reporting to this post.

The trial of a Russian soldier accused of killing an unarmed man in Ukraine — the first such trial since the Russian invasion began — has adjourned until Friday 11 a.m. local time.

The judges adjourned the trial saying that the soldier, Vadim Shishimarin, was not "ready" for a court "debate."

The 21-year-old soldier pleaded guilty Wednesday to shooting an unarmed 62-year-old civilian in Ukraine’s Sumy region on the fourth day of the war. 

The prosecution team earlier asked for a life sentence for the soldier.

Ukrainian officials have spoken about a rising incidence of armed resistance in Russian-occupied parts of southern Ukraine.

On Thursday, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that sabotage by the Resistance Movement in Melitopol had resulted in the derailing of a Russian armored train. Melitopol has been occupied by the Russians since early March. 

Arestovych claimed that railroad cars carrying personnel and ammunition overturned, detonating the ammunition.

Ivan Fedorov, the elected mayor of Melitopol, gave a similar account on Thursday. Fedorov is currently not in Melitopol. According to unofficial accounts from the area, the train consisted of 10 wagons, and railway tracks were damaged, the armored train was stopped, and a locomotive with 10 fuel tanks that was following the armored train was also stopped.

Separately, the Zaporizhzhia regional administration noted Thursday that "the Russian military does not allow railroad workers to be involved in track maintenance but continues heavy use of the railway. Such negligence plus actions of the Resistance Movement in Melitopol resulted a Russian armored train being derailed."

Arestovych indicated that the sabotage was not an isolated incident. "According to the available information, two high ranked Russian officers were eliminated," he said. 

On Wednesday, the Zaporizhzhia military administration also said the guerrilla movement in Melitopol had "eliminated two Russian military servicemen of high rank. The occupiers are trying to conceal this situation. But today the occupiers have been searching private transport especially thoroughly, apparently looking for partisans."

CNN cannot independently confirm the attacks on the train or the Russian officers.

Arestovych also said that "leaflets are being disseminated all over" in occupied areas, 

In recent days, graphic posters depicting Russian soldiers being killed by partisans have begun to appear in occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. It's unclear how widespread they are.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday his country “will say no to Sweden’s and Finland’s entry into NATO,” reiterating the same stance he took last week. 

“NATO is a security organization and we cannot accept the presence of terrorists organizations in there,” he said. Earlier this week Erdogan accused both countries of housing Kurdish “terrorist organizations."

Erdogan was mainly referencing the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which seeks an independent state in Turkey. The group has been in an armed struggle with Ankara for decades and has been designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Finland and Sweden have a Kurdish community, although Erdogan provided no detail as to whom he was referring.

Both Nordic countries formally applied to join NATO on Wednesday, a decision prompted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that the future of the regions in Ukraine occupied by Russia will depend on the "will" of the people living there.

"All actions have their forerunner, the forerunner of any action can only be the expression of the will of the inhabitants of these regions," Peskov said during his daily call with reporters.

"Nothing can be done without expressing the will of the inhabitants of these areas, without them deciding how to go on and with whom they want to live," he added.

Peskov said that humanitarian reasons also dictate the control of the Ukrainian territories occupied by the Russian army.

"Many areas are now without electricity, sewerage and water. And this needs to be taken care of. The need for these priority measures is dictated solely by concern for people," he said.

Some background: Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had retaken six settlements from Russian forces on Friday, and 1,015 overall since the start of the conflict in February.

"We return electricity, water supply, communications, transport, social services there," he said.

In the Russian-occupied region of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, hundreds -- sometimes thousands -- of people have been trying to flee every day.

They are leaving for many reasons: To avoid being detained or to escape the heavy-handed actions of Russian forces, or because of the chronic shortages of medicine and other basics in Kherson, which fell under Russian control soon after the invasion. 

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday that he spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about safe access to besieged areas in Ukraine.  

“Spoke with Foreign Minister Lavrov about Russia’s participation in global health matters, work with the WHO and the health situation in Ukraine,” Tedros said on Twitter.

“I requested safe access to Mariupol, Kherson, Southern Zaporizhzhia and other besieged areas to deliver health aid,” he added. 

As of May 10, WHO has verified 200 attacks on healthcare facilities in Ukraine since the start of the war, Tedros said, urging Russia "to stop this war."

Speaking from Kyiv on May 10 after spending two days in Ukraine, Tedros said he had been "deeply moved" by what he has seen and heard. 

A cat from Kharkiv who has raised thousands of dollars through his Instagram account for Ukrainian animal shelters has received an international award.

Stepan, who now has 1.3 million followers, received the World Influencers and Bloggers Awards in France.

Stepan and his owner Anna are from Kharkiv. One week after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, they were evacuated from the Saltivka area, which was heavily bombarded.

They are currently in France, but the tabby cat is still raising funds to support Ukraine's animal shelters and zoos. 

Stepan first went viral for images and videos of him sitting with his arm resting on a table next to a glass of wine or cocktail with disco lights in the background — and he looked wholly unimpressed in every situation.

The UK government will introduce new sanctions against Russian airlines to prevent them from cashing in on their unused landing slots at British airports.

"State-owned Aeroflot, Russia’s largest airline, Ural Airlines and Rossiya Airlines will now be unable to sell their unused, lucrative landing slots at UK airports -- preventing Russia from cashing in on an estimated £50 million (about $61 million)," the UK Foreign Office said Thursday in a press release. 

"We’ve already closed our airspace to Russian airlines. Today we’re making sure they can’t cash in their lucrative landing slots at our airports," UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said. 

"Every economic sanction reinforces our clear message to Putin -- we will not stop until Ukraine prevails," she added. 

Last week, Truss called for international allies to impose more sanctions against Russia until it completely withdraws from Ukraine and agrees to peace.

She urged sanctions on Russia not be lifted until those demands are met.