May 24, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

The heads of Rosatom, the state-owned Russia atomic energy agency, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have met in Beijing and discussed the “issues related to the work of IAEA" at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), a statement released by Rosatom said. 

According to the statement, the meeting took place in Beijing as Rosatom Director General Alexei Likhachev was part of the delegation accompanying Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on his trip to the Chinese capital.

Some context: Earlier this week Rafael Grossi, the IAEA chief, said the Zaporizhzhia plant was “extremely vulnerable” after external power had been lost. The plant has been occupied by Russian forces since March 2022.

“#Ukraine’s #ZNPP this morning lost all external electricity for 7th time during conflict, forcing it to rely on emergency diesel generators for power; nuclear safety situation at the plant extremely vulnerable. We must agree to protect plant now; this situation cannot continue,” Grossi said in a tweet on Monday.

Ukrainian energy company Ukrenergo announced in a statement later Monday that power had been restored.

According to Ukrenergo, the plant had been cut off from the grid after the high-voltage line that supplies it was one of those damaged by a Russian attack on the Dnipro region, to the north of Zaporizhzhia, in the early hours of the morning.

Earlier this month, Moscow ordered the evacuation of residents from Russian-occupied areas close to the nuclear plant, prompting the United Nations' nuclear watchdog to raise safety concerns and describing the situation as "increasingly unpredictable."

Dmitry Peskov, the Russian president's spokesperson, has said he believes the conflict in Ukraine should not be allowed to freeze. 

Peskov was asked in an interview with Russia state media outlet TASS whether he agreed with the West's viewpoint that the conflict should not be frozen. He replied "Russia is in solidarity" with this view. 

The spokesperson was quoted as saying: “Russia is only considering the possibility of completing a special military operation: ensuring its interests, achieving Russia's goals either through a special military operation, or by other available means."

The comments come as Ukraine is expected to launch an imminent spring counter offensive which would spark more intense fighting and could prove to be a pivotal moment in the war.

Meanwhile Russians have been shocked by an attack on the country's southwestern Belgorod region, claimed by a Russian anti-Putin group that says its goal is the "complete liberation of Russia." The region's governor said Tuesday's incursion was followed by multiple drone attacks overnight which left nine people injured.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin is currently on a trip to Beijing, where he met Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Wednesday and praised strengthening relations and trade between the two countries. Beijing has thrown Moscow an economic lifeline from the impact of sanctions as it grows increasingly isolated from the West.

Nine people were hospitalized following drone attacks on Russia's southwestern Belgorod region overnight, its governor said Wednesday — a day after a group of anti-Putin Russians claimed to have launched an attack there.

Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said Tuesday was "not a calm night" for Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, as cars, homes and buildings sustained damage in the drone attacks. 

Gladkov said Russian air defenses had repelled "most" of the drones, however.

He added that 500 people were now in temporary accommodation centers across the region and power had still not been fully restored to some districts, including the town of Graivoron — the scene of an incursion Tuesday claimed by Russian volunteers aligned with Ukraine.

Russian region under fire: On Telegram Tuesday, the Freedom for Russia Legion called the attack on Belgorod a "peacekeeping operation."

It said the goal was to create a "demilitarized zone between Russia and Ukraine, to destroy the security forces that serve the Putin regime and to demonstrate to the people of Russia that it is possible to create pockets of resistance and successfully fight against the Putin regime." 

“These goals of the operation were successfully achieved,” it said.

Trade between Russia and China is expected to hit a new record level of $200 billion this year, according to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin during his trip to China, as Moscow faces growing isolation from the West.

Russia has been hit by unprecedented Western sanctions since it unleashed a devastating war against Ukraine and has been shut out of much of the global economy.

But China, which has declared “no limits” to its friendship with its northern neighbor, has thrown the Kremlin an economic lifeline, tempering the impact of its banishment from the global financial system.

Last year, bilateral trade jumped nearly 30% to a record $190 billion, mainly boosted by China buying Russian energy. This year, their trade continued to surge, up 41% in the first four months, according to Chinese customs figures.

That will be one year ahead of the schedule set by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2019.

Energy cooperation with China remains Russia’s “absolute priority,” Mishustin said.

Read more here.

An anti-Putin Russian group, which claimed to have crossed the border from Ukraine and attacked Russia’s Belgorod region, said its goal is the “complete liberation of Russia."

The Freedom for Russia Legion called the attack in the Belgorod region a "peacekeeping operation" on Telegram Tuesday.

It said the goal was to create a "demilitarized zone between Russia and Ukraine, to destroy the security forces that serve the Putin regime and to demonstrate to the people of Russia that it is possible to create pockets of resistance and successfully fight against the Putin regime." 

“These goals of the operation were successfully achieved,” it added.

Here are the latest headlines from Russia's war in Ukraine:

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russian mercenary group Wagner, claimed Tuesday that his men are the strongest fighters but acknowledged the Ukrainian army has also put up a fierce fight, particularly in the eastern city of Bakhmut.

In an interview with pro-Moscow blogger Konstantin Dolgov, Prigozhin said the Ukrainians are “highly organized, highly trained and their intelligence is on the highest level, they can operate any military system with equal success, a Soviet or a NATO one."

Over the weekend, Wagner claimed it had taken all the territories they had planned to and would leave the front line in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, leaving the fighting to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Prigozhin has criticized Russia's military leadership several times in the past, including earlier this month when he blamed Russian defense chiefs for "tens of thousands" of Wagner casualties because they didn't have enough ammunition.

In the interview, Prigozhin said more than 10,000 Wagner troops had died in the battle for Bakhmut. And he admitted that Russia hadn't achieved much success in its goal of “demilitarizing Ukraine.” 

Attacks in Russia: Separately, when asked about cross-border incursions in Belgorod claimed by anti-Putin Russians this week, Prigozhin said: “Russian Volunteer Corps groups are shamelessly entering Belgorod region,” and Russian defense forces are “absolutely not ready to resist them in any shape or form.”

The acting head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic visited the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on Tuesday, saying it would now be known by its former Soviet name "Artemovsk."

The video showed Pushilin walking the streets of the heavily damaged city in military uniform and putting up the flag of the Donetsk People's Republic on a building.

In the video, he also claimed that the capture of Bakhmut would open up a route for Russian forces to make further gains in Ukraine. 

Pushilin vowed that the “city will be renewed,” promising new homes, workplaces and schools.

Two US Air Force aircraft were intercepted by Russian jets in the Baltic Sea near the Russian border, the Russian Ministry of Defence said Tuesday. 

The Pentagon, meanwhile, downplayed the incident saying it was a “safe and professional interaction."

“On May 23, 2023, Russian airspace control over the Baltic Sea detected two air targets approaching the State Border of the Russian Federation,” the National Defense Control Center of the Russian Federation said in a statement on Telegram.

The Russian MOD said the operation was carried out “in strict accordance with international rules for the use of airspace."

The Pentagon confirmed that there was an “interaction” between two of its B-1 bombers and the Russian jets.

An anti-Putin Russian group, which claimed to have crossed the border from Ukraine and attacked Russia’s Belgorod region, has said its goal is the “complete liberation of Russia."

In a Telegram post Tuesday, the Freedom for Russia Legion called the attack in the Belgorod region a "peacekeeping operation." It said the goal was to create a "demilitarized zone between Russia and Ukraine, to destroy the security forces that serve the Putin regime and to demonstrate to the people of Russia that it is possible to create pockets of resistance and successfully fight against the Putin regime." 

The legion, which is aligned with the Ukrainian army, also claimed it had destroyed a motorized rifle company of the Russian army on Tuesday, destroying armored vehicles. CNN has not verified this claim.

It was not immediately clear whether the legion claimed to have struck the Russian forces inside Russian or Ukrainian-held territory.

The Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), a second anti-Putin Russian group that has also claimed to have been involved in cross-border attacks, posted videos to Telegram on Tuesday showing their fighters inside Belgorod region. CNN cannot verify when these videos were filmed but has geolocated them to Belgorod.

A caption to a video purporting to show RDK fighters riding a vehicle at a border point said, “The situation on the small but now our own little piece of our homeland is still disturbing, and it wouldn't hurt to clean it up.”