May 25, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

British retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) has announced it will "fully exit" the Russian in light of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. 

Some context: M&S is the latest in a growing line of businesses that have abandoned or scaled back operations in Russia since it began its invasion of Ukraine.

On Monday, Starbucks said it had "made the decision to exit and no longer have a brand presence in the market" after having previously paused its operations and stopped shipments of its products to Russia.

Last week, McDonald's said it was selling its Russia business after operating for more than 30 years in the region.

The burger chain said the "humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, and the precipitating unpredictable operating environment, have led McDonald's to conclude that continued ownership of the business in Russia is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald's values."

The British government has approved the sale of Chelsea Football Club, saying Russian owner Roman Abramovich will not benefit from the $5 billion deal . 

On Tuesday, the English Premier League said its board had approved the sale of the club to a group led by American businessman Todd Boehly.

A UK government spokesperson said they will be "ensuring the proceeds of the sale are used for humanitarian causes in Ukraine, supporting victims of the war."

Some context: The sale of Chelsea brings an end to nearly two decades of Abramovich's ownership of the club. The Russian oligarch has known ties to the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin and was sanctioned by the UK shortly after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. 

Ukrainian officials reported Russian missile attacks on the east-central Dnipropetrovsk region and southeastern Zaporizhzhia region on Wednesday, causing extensive damage in the city of Zaporizhzhia. 

The Russian military launched four cruise missiles on Zaporizhzhia Wednesday, a statement from the Zaporizhzhia Regional Council said. One missile was shot down by the city's air defense, it added.

In an update, the council added at least one person was killed and three others injured, and that 62 buildings were damaged in residential areas of the city.

In a separate statement Wednesday, Valentyn Reznichenko, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said there had been constant air raid alarms overnight. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has effectively halted all maritime trade at Ukrainian ports, according to declassified US intelligence, blocking grain exports and risking a global food crisis.

Here's the latest on Russia's war in Ukraine:

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has effectively halted all maritime trade at Ukrainian ports, according to newly declassified US intelligence, cutting off a critical export commodity for Ukraine and risking a global food crisis.

In the months since Russia moved to invade in February, it has established an “effective blockade” in the northern third of the Black Sea, according to a US official who provided a declassified map of the region to CNN on the condition of anonymity. 

The map analyzes the density of ships coming in and out of Ukrainian ports before and after the start of the conflict, showing an almost total drop-off of commercial traffic to ports in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov after the start of the invasion. A third map provides a current visualization of the density of Russian naval vessels clustered in the Black Sea off Ukraine’s coast, highlighting “hotbeds of activity,” according to the US official. 

Ukraine provides about 10% of the world’s wheat exports, the official noted, the vast majority of which exit the country from Black Sea ports. 

Some context: Before the war, Ukraine was the world’s fourth-largest exporter of corn and fifth-largest exporter of wheat, according to the US State Department. Almost 30% of global trade in wheat came from Russia and Ukraine alone.

The United Nations World Food Program — which helps combat global food insecurity — buys about half of its wheat from Ukraine each year and has warned of dire consequences if Ukrainian ports are not opened up.

Last week CNN reported that the US and allies are holding discussions on how to safely develop routes to transport grain from Ukraine amid concerns about global food supplies. New satellite images reported by CNN on Monday appear to substantiate Ukrainian claims that Russia is also stealing stores of grain that have been sitting idle at commercial ports. 

Since the start of the conflict, Russia has intimidated commercial traffic, occasionally impeded safe passage to Ukraine through the Kerch Strait and, most visibly, stationed warships off Ukraine’s coast and pummeled Ukrainian ports, the US official said. 

CNN's Alex Marquardt contributed to this post

“Mariupol is now a city of ghosts,” an adviser to the mayor of the ruined Ukrainian port city said Tuesday.  

Speaking to CNN’s Melissa Bell, Petro Andriushchenko — who has fled to Ukrainian-held territory — said Mariupol town hall officials believe at least 22,000 residents of the city were killed during three months of war — a figure that cannot be independently verified, with the free press now unable to access the city and those still inside too scared to speak openly.

The figure of 22,000 is based, Andriushchenko said, on the many contacts he and other town hall officials continue to have with officials trapped inside. But he believes the actual figure could be much higher.

Andriushchenko said the process of reburying the dead has been complicated by Russian official insistence that reclaimed bodies be brought to a morgue and that a person claiming a body must agree to record a video in which the applicant says the deceased was killed by the Ukrainian military. 

Based on the information gathered from his network of sources, Mariupol has been thrown back to the Middle Ages, Andriushchenko said.

The mayor's adviser said his contacts paint a picture of a city in the grips of a humanitarian catastrophe with very little contact to the outside world. Mobile phone connections are only just beginning to be re-established.

He said residents are unable to move freely, with special passes needed for any movement within the city and a filtration system keeping them from fleeing altogether.

Mariupol has been at the center of a ferocious, months-long battle between Ukrainian government forces and Russian soldiers and pro-Russian fighters. 

It officially fell to Russian forces Friday when the last group of the Azovstal fighters at the steel plant they had been holding out in for several weeks surrendered.

Russian forces have taken the contested town of Svitlodarsk in the eastern Donbas region and Ukrainian forces have withdrawn, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration.

According to Kyrylenko, Svitlodarsk had been surrounded on three sides, and the city had not been under intense shelling, so much of the civilian population remained.  

"This is not a retreat [of the Armed Forces of Ukraine], but a regrouping," he said. "This is the right and logical decision in this situation to save the lives of [the military] and regroup."

Pro-Russian Telegram channels showed images of the Russian flag being hoisted over the city administration building in Svitlodarsk.

Kyrylenko also described the situation as "very difficult" in Lyman, a city further north in Donetsk region. "The situation there is now one of the tensest along the entire front line," he said.

A Ukrainian official from the Russian-controlled port city of Mariupol claimed 200 bodies had been discovered in the rubble of a ruined high-rise building, another gruesome find in the city that has been devastated by months of Russian bombardment. 

Petro Andriushenko, adviser to Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko, said in a statement on Telegram Tuesday that around 200 bodies were found during the dismantling of the rubble of a high-rise building near a suburban gas station. The bodies were found in a basement underneath the wrecked building in an advanced state of decomposition, he added.

CNN was not able to immediately verify Andriushchenko's claim. Andriushchenko is not in Mariupol but has served as a clearinghouse for information from residents remaining in the city. 

Ukrainian officials say more than 20,000 residents of the city died during three months of war — a figure that cannot be independently supported — and many of the dead have been hastily buried in courtyards. 

Andriushchenko said the process of reburying the dead has been complicated by Russian officials' insistence that reclaimed bodies be brought to a morgue and that a person claiming a body must agree to record a video in which the applicant says the deceased was killed by the Ukrainian military. 

"The city has turned into a continuous cemetery," Andriushchenko said. 

Russia's invasion of Ukraine may have marked the start of "a third world war," and Russian President Vladimir Putin must be defeated "as soon as possible" if the world wants to preserve civilization.

That was the stark message that Hungarian-born billionaire and philanthropist George Soros delivered on Tuesday to attendees at the 2022 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The former hedge fund manager, who is chair of Soros Fund Management LLC and founder of the Open Society Foundations, is famous for using his wealth to help foster open societies and create inclusive democracies with governments that are held accountable.

But after the events of September 11, he noted, the tide began to turn against open societies. As a result, "repressive regimes are now in the ascendance and open societies are under siege," he said Tuesday. "Today, China and Russia present the greatest threat to open society."

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