May 31, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

By Helen Regan, Andrew Raine, Jack Guy, Hannah Ryan, Adrienne Vogt, Meg Wagner, Melissa Macaya and Mike Hayes, CNN

Updated 12:01 a.m. ET, June 1, 2022
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6:44 a.m. ET, May 31, 2022

Bulgaria exempt from Russian oil embargo until end of 2024, says prime minister

From CNN's Radina Gigova in London

Bulgaria's Prime Minister Kiril Petkov speaks to the press in Brussels, on May 31.
Bulgaria's Prime Minister Kiril Petkov speaks to the press in Brussels, on May 31. (Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images)

Bulgaria has been exempted from the European Union embargo on Russian oil until the end of 2024, Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday. 

Further details on the exemption will be revealed in a couple of days, Petkov said as he arrived for the second day of an extraordinary European Council meeting on Ukraine. 

Petkov said the exemption would give Bulgaria time to adapt its refinery to process other oil. 

He also said he is "glad" the sixth round of EU sanctions on Russia "will pass" and that Russia's "financial flows will stop."

European Union leaders agreed on Monday to ban most Russian oil imports as part of a new sanctions package against Moscow. 

6:36 a.m. ET, May 31, 2022

Russian foreign minister due to visit Turkey to discuss Ukraine exports corridor

From CNN's Isil Sariyuce and Sharon Braithwaite

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit Turkey with a military delegation on June 8 to discuss creating a potential sea corridor for Ukrainian agricultural exports, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday.

Speaking to the state-owned Anadolu news agency, Cavusoglu said that the humanitarian corridor for vessels carrying food is among topics that will be discussed.

Some background: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky during a call on Monday that Ankara places "particular importance" on efforts to establish a safe corridor to export Ukrainian agricultural products by sea.

On Friday, Zelensky said that 22 million tons of grain, accounting for nearly half of Ukraine’s grain export supply, is being held up by Russia's blockade of the main export routes through the Black Sea and Azov Sea.  

Erdogan told Zelensky that Turkey was making every effort to continue negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv and is ready to provide more support, including mediation, according to a Turkish readout of the call.

6:20 a.m. ET, May 31, 2022

Ship leaves Mariupol port heading for Russia for the first time since Moscow troops took the city

From CNN's Julia Presniakova and Bex Wright

A ship has left the southern Ukrainian port of Mariupol, the first to depart since Russia took the city, according to the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, who was speaking on behalf of the Russian authorities.

The RM-3 vessel carrying "2,500 tons of hot-rolled sheets" is headed for Rostov in western Russia, Denis Pushilin said on his Telegram channel.

Separately, an update from the press service of the People's Militia Department of the Donetsk People's Republic said the ship was loaded under the protection of special forces and the Russian navy.

Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of looting products such as grain and metal from the country.

Some background: On Saturday, Ukraine criticized Russia for sending a ship to Mariupol to load a shipment of metal bound for Russia. The Ukrainian parliament's commissioner for human rights Liudmyla Denisova said at the time that Russian troops were planning to send a ship carrying "3,000 tons of metal products" from Mariupol to Rostov-on-Don (in Russia).

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

6:42 a.m. ET, May 31, 2022

The EU's Russian oil ban is a big achievement, but the limits of Western unity will face further tests down the road

Analysis from CNN's Luke McGee

The European Union’s historic agreement to ban the vast majority of imports of Russian oil by the end of the year is without question a major achievement.

Getting 27 countries, many of whom have historically been utterly reliant on Russian energy, to agree on a package that will almost certainly damage their own economies on the behalf of Ukraine, a country that isn’t even in the EU, was unthinkable even a few months ago.

The deal, however, does have flaws that both reveals the limitations of European unity and nods to headaches for the bloc further down the road.

First and foremost, the deal does not include oil that is imported via the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Vladimir Putin’s key ally in the EU, started Monday by criticizing the EU Commission and calling it "irresponsible" for putting the economies of these countries at risk. He ended the day with a video message claiming: "We have managed to defeat the Commission's proposal to ban the use of oil from Russia in Hungary."

Needless to say, one EU leader celebrating the defeat of a key EU institution is a fly in the ointment for those claiming the deal was a triumph for European unity.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the pipeline issue would be discussed again, but didn’t predict a timeframe.

Given how difficult the oil pipeline issue has been, it’s reasonable to assume that Europe is some way off discussing what to do about Russian natural gas, on which the continent is even more reliant than Russian oil.

There will be other issues on which the member states will disagree that are either directly or tangentially related to the war in Ukraine. Should Ukraine join the EU? Should the EU have a more aggressive foreign and defense policy? Should countries like Hungary be able to hold the rest of the bloc to ransom with its veto, and how can the EU reform that?

It’s been a difficult few days in Brussels and EU officials can breathe a sigh of relief that this deal got there in the end. But there are going to be many more arguments before this crisis ends – and the limits of European unity could still be stretched to breaking point.

7:50 a.m. ET, May 31, 2022

"I understood that something had to be done": CNN speaks to volunteers helping the elderly in Kherson

From CNN's Julia Presniakova in Lviv

“Delivering supplies to people in Russian-held territories is a treacherous task that involves passing through Russian checkpoints,” said Roman Baklazhov.
“Delivering supplies to people in Russian-held territories is a treacherous task that involves passing through Russian checkpoints,” said Roman Baklazhov. (Roman Baklazhov)

While millions of refugees have fled Ukraine since the start of the invasion on February 24, others have stayed to help those who remain in areas now under Russian control.

Roman Baklazhov, a furniture maker from Kherson, stayed behind to distribute medication and cook for elderly people after parts of the region fell to the Russian military in mid-March.

"We started helping people from 2014 and haven’t really stopped. We helped refugees from Donbas who moved to Kherson," Baklazhov told CNN last week. "On February 24, of course, we were all in shock, and then I understood that something had to be done."

Last week Ukrainian officials estimated around half the population of Kherson had left the region, many of whom say they fled heavy-handed Russian rule. 

Baklazhov started handing out free lunches to those who remained, cooking in a school using donations of potatoes and chicken from local farmers, and feeding around 200 people per day.

"This is a depressed district in our city, it is closer to the edge of the city. And it's mostly pensioners," he said, adding that there have been issues getting pension payments to people who live in more rural areas.

Baklazhov also works to make sure that people can access medicines.

"There is a problem with meds, that the people do not have money, they are running out of money. And they can't buy it," added Baklazhov.

To help out, Baklazhov coordinates deliveries of medicines with Andrii Vakarchuk, who lives in Odesa, sending him lists of drugs that people need so he can buy them and send them to Kherson.

Vakarchuk told CNN that the deliveries have to pass Russian checkpoints, and soldiers sometimes steal products like food.

"Medicines still, it seems, they do not touch," he said. "Somehow they took one bag from mine, and so they let the rest pass."

But getting help to Kherson remains difficult, he said.

"There is no single route that works," said Vakarchuk. "Every time it is some kind of lottery, they are looking for a better way."

5:33 a.m. ET, May 31, 2022

The "stronger the sanctions, the quicker the war will end," says Latvian prime minister

From CNN's Sarah Diab in London

Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš has welcomed the latest round of sanctions against Moscow, saying the "stronger the sanctions, the quicker the war will end."

"All member states are determined to move away from Russian energy dependency," he said upon arrival to a special meeting of the European Council in Brussels on Tuesday.

"Over the past 20, 30 years, nations have built infrastructure, which has been greatly reliant upon Russian energy sources, and we're moving very rapidly away from that. For some member states it's easier, for other member states it is actually physically more difficult because of the lack of ports, lack of infrastructure, but everyone is moving in the same direction," Kariņš said.

This chart shows just how much the EU relies on Russia for its oil imports

The European Union agreed to ban 90% of Russian oil imports by the end of the year, the leaders of the European Council announced on Monday. 

"Yesterday we agreed on the sixth sanction round, which includes oil, it will cut about two thirds of Russia's oil exports to the EU," Kariņš added.

"This is very, very good news. Indeed. The stronger the sanctions, the quicker the war will end."

Kariņš also praised the agreement.

"I think it's a fantastic step in the right direction, to make it ever more difficult for Russia to fund this war of aggression in Ukraine."

Some background: Europe is the biggest buyer of Russian energy. Russian crude accounted for 27% of the bloc's imports in 2021, according to Eurostat. That's around 2.4 million barrels per day, data from the International Energy Agency shows. About 35% of that was delivered via pipelines to the bloc, according to the IEA. However, pipeline deliveries made up a much bigger share of Russian oil shipments to Hungary (86%), the Czech Republic (97%) and Slovakia (100%).

4:53 a.m. ET, May 31, 2022

EU's oil ban will cut Russia's resources to feed its "war machine," says top diplomat

From CNN's Sharon Braithwaite in London

The European Union's oil ban will cut the financial resources Russia can spend on the war in Ukraine, the bloc's chief diplomat has said.

EU leaders agreed on Monday to ban 90% of Russian oil imports by the end of this year as part of a new sanctions package against Moscow. Pipeline imports will be exempt from the sanctions.

"We are the most important client for Russia," Josep Borrell said Tuesday as he arrived to the second day of a special meeting of the European Council on Russia.

"Certainly we cannot prevent Russia selling their oil to someone else. We're not so powerful, but we are the most important client for Russia," he said.

"The purpose is for the Russians to get less resources, less financial resources to feed in the war machine. And this certainly will happen," he added.

4:43 a.m. ET, May 31, 2022

Oil embargo will be painful for EU members, says Austrian chancellor

From CNN's Inke Kappeler in Berlin 

A European Union embargo on Russian oil will be painful for members of the bloc as well as Moscow, according to Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer.

"The decision to impose the oil embargo is a measure that will certainly be painful in itself for the member states," Nehammer said upon arrival to an extraordinary European Council meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.

"But you have to be realistic, the pain we are suffering is nothing compared to what the Ukrainian people have to endure," he added.

The leaders of the EU member states agreed on Monday to ban most Russian oil imports as part of a sixth package of sanctions against Moscow. 

Nehammer said that the gas embargo will not be included in this new package of sanctions.

"Gas behaves very differently from oil in terms of security of supply," he said. "It is much easier to compensate for oil by not using Russian oil."

The agreement will ban 90% of Russian oil imports by the end of the year.

Russian oil delivered by tankers will be banned, while an exemption will be made for the southern segment of the Druzhba pipeline, which accounts for 10% of imports on Russian oil, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said Monday following a summit in Brussels.

The northern segment of the pipeline serves Poland and Germany, which have agreed to the embargo. The southern part goes to Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic.

 

4:04 a.m. ET, May 31, 2022

Russian energy giant Gazprom confirms it has halted supplies to Dutch gas trader GasTerra

From CNN’s Anna Chernova 

Russian state energy giant Gazprom has confirmed that it has “completely stopped gas supplies to GasTerra B.V. (Netherlands) due to non-payment in rubles.”

The company said it had not received payment in rubles for gas supplies by the end of the business day on Monday. 

On May 30, GasTerra said it expected supplies to cease after it refused to pay in rubles. It said it was buying gas from other sources to cover the loss.