May 29, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Allegations of war crimes in the Ukrainian town of Bucha are a "fabrication," Russia's ambassador to the United Kingdom claimed on Sunday.

Andrei Kelin made the comments during an interview on the BBC’s "Sunday Morning" program and denied that Russian forces were shelling civilians.

"The mayor of Bucha in his initial statement confirmed that Russian troops have left, everything is clean and calm, the town in a normal state. Nothing is happening, no bodies are on the street,” Kelin said. 

Russia's month-long occupation of Bucha and other districts around Kyiv resulted in hundreds of deaths, with its troops retreating in late March after failing to encircle the capital.

Moscow has refused to accept responsibility for the atrocities, repeatedly claiming that the reports of indiscriminate killings, mass graves, disappearances and looting are false.

When pressed whether the evidence was made up, Kelin replied: "In our view it is a fabrication. It is used just to interrupt negotiations."

Maintaining that Russia’s invasion was a "limited operation" and not a war, Kelin said: "I can assure you that it is not our idea to kill civilians."

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He added the Russian military was only targeting military infrastructure in order to "diminish Ukrainian capabilities."

Kelin continued saying he does not believe Russia will use tactical nuclear weapons in the war against Ukraine.

Russia has very strict provisions for their use, according to Kelin, adding they are used "mainly when the existence of the state is in danger."

"It has nothing to do with the current operation," he said.

Fighting is continuing in the Severodonetsk area in eastern Ukraine, where the situation is "even more difficult" and "the enemy keeps assaulting," the head of the Luhansk region military administration said Sunday.

Serhiy Hayday said in a statement that 60 houses were destroyed in the region, and two people were found dead in the rubble.

He said one of the victims was a girl who died when a Russian shell hit a high-rise building in Lysychansk on Saturday, in a strike that injured four others. A cinema and 22 houses were also damaged in an air strike.

Separately, in an operational update on Sunday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Russia "carried out assault operations in the area of ​​the city of Severodonetsk" where "the fighting continues."

In Sloviansk, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) to the west, Russia carried out "intensive reconnaissance" on the city, and on the outskirts, conducted air strikes on Dovhenke area, and also artillery shelling of civilian infrastructure in nearby Bohorodychne and Sviatohirsk, the Ukrainian army statement said.

Elsewhere, the military reported new Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure in towns and villages between Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, and the Russian border. Ruski Tyshky, Petrivka and Ternova, were among the locations hit. The Russian army has also been conducting remote mining in those areas, according to the statement.

Several settlements close to the Black Sea coast in the south of Ukraine also suffered fire damage on civilian infrastructure, including Lymany, Stepova Dolyna, Luch, Partyzany, Chervony Yar, and Trudoliubivka.

Severodonetsk is in Putin's crosshairs.

The eastern Ukrainian city is being hammered with constant shelling. There's only one bridge in and out of the city, and almost anything that moves is being shelled.

Severodonetsk is the last major city held by Ukrainian forces in Luhansk, in the eastern Donbas region. Russian forces are trying to encircle the defenders of the city this weekend, with troops advancing in several directions around a pocket of Ukrainian-held territory.

Here is the latest from on the ground:

The Russian military is trying to encircle Ukrainian forces in the Luhansk city of Severodonetsk -- the last major Ukrainian stronghold in the region -- as Moscow's troops press their offensive in the east of the country.

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

The deputy head of the Russian appointed administration in occupied Kherson says the region won't hold a referendum on formally joining Russia until fighting ceases in Kherson and the nearby regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv.

Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Kherson Military Civilian Administration, told Reuters Saturday that currently there are "are no talks about a referendum." 

Ukrainian officials previously warned that Russian forces and Russian-installed administrators were readying a sham referendum that would mirror similar Russian efforts in the Donbas to create separatist republics in 2014. 

The region in southern Ukraine has been under Russian control since the beginning of the invasion in late February. More than a dozen people spoke to CNN earlier this month about their terrifying journeys out of the occupied region, painting a vivid picture of the culture of fear that exists there now.

While referendum plans appear to have been scaled back, Stremousov recently said pro-Moscow authorities of Kherson would request a Russian military base. He also said the Russian backed administration is pressing ahead with plans to set up a new “banking system” that will be “fully integrated” into the Russian system.

Ukraine on Saturday criticised Russia for sending a ship to the captured Ukrainian city of Mariupol to load a shipment of metal bound for Russia. 

The Ukrainian parliament's commissioner for human rights Liudmyla Denisova said the Russians were "sending 3,000 tons of metal products by the first ship from Mariupol to Rostov-on-Don (in Russia)."

Russian state news agency TASS reported Saturday that a Russian ship had entered the seaport of Mariupol. It quoted a representative of the port administration as saying the vessel would load 2,700 tons of metal and depart for Rostov-on-Don on Monday.

Denisova claimed that the Mariupol port housed about 200,000 tons of metal and cast iron worth $170 million prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Oleksandr Striuk, the head of the civil military administration in the embattled Ukrainian industrial city of Severodonetsk, said on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were in a "tough defensive position" as fighting raged on the outskirts of the city.

In remarks on national television, Striuk said some of the most intense fighting was concentrated around the Mir Hotel on the outskirts of the city.

"A real battle can be heard in the main bus station area," he said. "Our military is in a tough defensive position. The city is being constantly shelled. The humanitarian headquarters that is located in the city was practically immobilized today, because it is not safe to move around the city, and the work of the headquarters was suspended."

Striuk described a dire situation, saying there were no mobile telephone communications and that electricity has been cut. His comments come just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Saturday that the time until Ukraine is liberated “grows shorter” every day, and that it is “just a matter of time” before Ukraine takes back Russian gains.

Striuk, however, expressed some confidence the city would be able to hold out with some limited supplies delivered over the road.

"The evacuation is very unsafe, few people, priority for the wounded. Only an initial level of medical care is available in the city."

In a statement, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine claimed Russian forces had suffered losses and retreated to some previously occupied positions in the direction of Severodonetsk, but added that the Russians were continuing to conduct reconnaissance of the area to identify and strike elements of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Fedir Venislavskyi, a member of the Ukrainian parliament's Committee for National Security, Defense and Intelligence, said the next few days "will be decisive" in the battle for Severodonetsk. 

"Our forces pushed the enemy back to the positions he had previously held," he said. "But we must understand that Russian troops are practically on the outskirts of Severodonetsk."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Saturday that the time until Ukraine is liberated “grows shorter” every day, and that it is “just a matter of time” before Ukraine takes back Russian gains.

“Ukraine will take everything back [from Russia]. This is an imperative,” he said, “And it's just a matter of time. Every day at this same time, the time until liberation grows shorter. Everything we do is for this.”

Zelensky said the situation in the Donbas remains difficult, especially in the areas of Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, Bakhmut and Popasna.

“Above all, in terms of weapons supply, every day we are getting closer to outnumbering our enemy,” the Ukrainian president claimed.

Zelensky said Russian forces inflicted “barbaric blows” on the Sumy region using rockets and mortars. He also referenced Saturday’s Russian attack on Mykolaiv, which struck a residential area 20 meters from a kindergarten, killing one person and wounding seven others.

He said Russian forces are preventing Ukrainians from evacuating the Kherson region.

“Those who are confident in their position would certainly not make such decisions. This is clearly a sign of weakness. What it shows is that they have nothing to offer the people, and the people do not want to take anything from them. So, they resort to taking people hostage,” Zelensky said. 

The Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) on Saturday released a statement calling for the release of Brittney Griner and for Griner’s wife to be granted a meeting with US President Joe Biden.

Saturday marks 100 days since Griner was detained in Russia.

Earlier this month, a Russian court extended the WNBA star’s pretrial detention until at least June following her arrest in February. Russian authorities claim Griner had cannabis oil in her luggage, and she has been accused of smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance – an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The statement went on to call for action from professional and amateur athletes alike, as well as the media and others.

“To our sisters, brothers and colleagues in professional sports: sign the petition, hold your own media blackouts, please. Help us reach the White House. To athletes of any age, ability level, team, sport, or country: this is OUR teammate. A member of OUR global sports community, we need to stand up and stand together to call for her release. Speak up, speak out, and do not stop until BG is home," it said.  

The statement said Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, should meet with Biden.

“Her person, our sister has been wrongfully detained for 100 days. You’ve heard our pleas. You have heard BG’s wife Cherelle’s pleas. And now more than ever, we need you to stand with us, and get her person home,” it said.

Cherelle Griner earlier on Saturday posted on her Instagram pleading for action from Biden.