May 30, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

A car bomb detonated in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol in southern Ukraine on Monday, Russian state media has reported.

The car was parked in the center of the city near the House of Culture, where Russia’s officials in the city are now operating, according to a report by Russian state-run news channel RT.

The explosion shattered windows in nearby buildings, the report added.

Three people were injured in the blast, a source in the Kremlin-backed city administration told the Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti.

Exiled mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, said: "The explosion took place in the central part of the city, right next to the building belonging to the so-called head of the regional military administration."

Fedorov said there were "several versions" of what happened, and that law enforcement agencies will provide more details later.

He said that the area of the explosion is being investigated by the Russians.

CNN has reached out to Melitopol officials for more details.

Speaking to reporters in a daily call Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the explosions "outrageous."

"The fact of the strikes on civilian infrastructure, on children's institutions, is, of course, outrageous," Peskov said, adding that this is what they were fighting to prevent, to protect people from "neo-Nazis."

The Kremlin has been falsely claiming that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a special operation to rid the country of "neo-Nazis." Since the offensive started in February, Moscow still cites this as their reason, despite providing no evidence.

French Foreign Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna arrived in Ukraine on Monday for her first trip to the country, according to a tweet on her official account.

Colonna will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and her counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv to discuss France’s support for Ukraine in “all areas, and in particular the blockage of grain and oilseed exports from Ukraine,” the French Foreign Affairs Ministry said.

The ministry said Colonna’s visit is to demonstrate France’s solidarity with Ukrainian people and to strengthen its support for Ukraine, “both in humanitarian and financial terms and in terms of supplying defense equipment.”

Colonna will also visit the town of Bucha and donate civil security equipment, including fire trucks and ambulances, from France to the Ukrainian authorities, according to the ministry.

Russian forces are “advancing into the middle of the city” of Severodonetsk in northeast Ukraine, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration Serhiy Hayday said on Monday.

Two people were killed and five others wounded in attacks on Sunday, and 50 houses were destroyed, Hayday said.

The Russians have “consolidated their hold on the northeastern and southeastern outskirts of the city” and are “trying to encircle Severodonetsk and Lysychansk,” Hayday said. 

There is no internet connection in the city, apart from limited access to Starlink, Hayday said. 

The neighboring city of Lysychansk remains under the control of Ukraine, Hayday added. The road to Bakhmut to the southwest of Lysychansk is “not blocked, but it is under fire” so it is “very dangerous to use it,” he said.

He added that humanitarian aid is arriving “almost every day,” and his men are trying to evacuate people when they can. 

Separately, the Luhansk Military Administration said in a Telegram post on Monday that "heavy battles for Severodonetsk and Lysychansk [are underway]."

Some context: On Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told French broadcaster TFI that the "liberation" of Ukraine's Donbas region is an "absolute priority" for Moscow.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced a three-year gas deal with Russia in an interview with Serbian TV channel Pink on Sunday, calling the deal “advantageous” for his country. 

Vucic said Serbia will sign another three-year deal with Russian state energy provider Gazprom after the current 10-year gas deal expires on Monday.

On Sunday, Putin and Vucic discussed natural gas supplies to the Balkan country, according to RIA Novosti, the Russian state-owned news agency, which quoted the Kremlin as saying that Russia had agreed to “continue to supply uninterrupted natural gas to Serbia.”

Serbia is not a member of the European Union or NATO.

It is almost entirely dependent on Russian gas, while its army maintains ties with Russia's military.

Although the country backed two United Nations resolutions condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it refused to impose sanctions against Moscow.

As the battle for the eastern Donbas region heats up, Ukraine's military says Russian forces are trying to surround its troops in Lysychansk and Severodonetsk.

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

Pushing the Ukrainian army out of the Donbas region is a priority for Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with French broadcaster TFI.

Asked if Russia would annex the territories in Donbas, Lavrov responded: "It's not about annexation. This is a military operation requested by the sovereign states of the People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, under the United Nations Charter, Article 51, which provides for the right of individual and collective self-defense. We defend the populations, and we help them to restore their territorial integrity," Lavrov said.

Lavrov also told TFI that the other regions will be able to decide their fate.

"Our obvious objective is, of course, to push the Ukrainian army and the Ukrainian battalions out of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. For the rest of the territories in Ukraine, where there are people who do not want to break ties with Russia, it will be up to the populations of these regions to decide," Lavrov said.

Ukrainian forces have launched a "successful counterattack south of Kryvyi Rih," according to Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the Kryvyi Rih military administration in southern Ukraine.

He provided no further details, and the claim cannot be verified. But the Ukrainian military had earlier claimed significant advances south in the area where Kherson and Mykolaiv regions meet.

Vilkul also said the internally displaced from Russian-occupied areas or communities under attack continued to arrive in Kryvyi Rih.

"Refugees continue to arrive in the city. There are already more than 45,000 officially registered migrants in the city, but in reality, this number is more than 60,000.

Two wives and a girlfriend of Ukrainian troops captured by Russian forces or unaccounted for after defending the Azovstal factory in a lengthy siege told CNN they had little or no information about the whereabouts of their loved ones.

"I have not been in touch with my husband or got any information about him lately," said Anna Ivleva, the wife of Anton, a marine who was seriously wounded in Azovstal. "The last time we spoke was on April 13. And then his brothers-in-arms would send me texts that he was still alive."

Ivleva said Ukrainian government officials had been in touch but added that there was "no information" on where Azovstal fighters were being kept and under what conditions. ​She is holding out hope her husband is alive, even if in captivity. ​

The besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol fell under complete Russian control earlier this month with the surrender of Azovstal, the ​city's last bastion of Ukrainian defense. It is unclear how many Ukrainian troops are now in Russian custody, but the Russian military has claimed that over 2,000 Ukrainian servicemembers surrendered there. Russian state propaganda has demonized Azovstal defenders as "Nazis," raising serious concerns about how they may be treated in captivity.

A woman named Yana helped organize events in Kyiv in support of Azovstal fighters. Her boyfriend is a marine who was in Azovstal. ​She spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing security concerns.

She said the Ukrainian government had not provided any information on where her boyfriend might be. ​

"My boyfriend’s mother was contacted by the ICRC [the International Committee of the Red Cross], I can’t remember when exactly," she said. "They only told her he was alive, that’s it." ​

The ICRC has been involved in registering combatants leaving the Azovstal plant since May 17 ​-- partly to help prisoners of war keep in touch with their families. The organization has been working in Ukraine since 2014, when the war in Ukraine's Donbas region began.

Another wife of an Azovstal defender, Tetiana, said her husband managed to call her from an unknown number ​after the surrender and said some of his comrades were being held in a town in separatist-held Donetsk oblast. ​CNN agreed not to report her surname for the same reasons.

Tetiana said she spoke with her husband for about 10 minutes, and that her husband said that he would try to call again.

"That's it, no more calls or news," she said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has spoken of his visit Sunday to the city of Kharkiv, his first trip outside the region of the capital since the Russian invasion.

"Kharkiv suffered terrible blows from the occupiers. Black, half-ruined apartment buildings face east and north – where Russian artillery was firing from, where Russian combat aircraft were arriving," Zelensky said. 

Zelensky praised authorities in Kharkiv but said: "Unfortunately, I can't say the same about the local leadership of the SBU [the security service]." 

He said he had dismissed the head of the regional SBU who "didn't work to protect the city from the first days of a full-scale invasion and thought only of himself personally."

Zelensky said that "one-third of the Kharkiv region is still under occupation. We will definitely unoccupy the whole territory."

Turning to the fighting in Donbas, Zelensky said that 90% of the housing in Severodonetsk had been damaged. 

"Capturing Severodonetsk is a fundamental task for the occupying contingent. And they don't care how many lives will have to pay for this attempt to raise the Russian flag."