May 31, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

A Ukrainian official in Luhansk region has acknowledged that most rural settlements around the city of Severodonetsk have now fallen to the Russians.

Lysychansk is just across the Donets river from Severodonetsk, but it's unclear how many bridges are still intact. 

Vlasenko's remarks suggest that the routes available for any withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Severodonetsk are narrowing. Resupply lines from the town of Bakhmut, which is also under frequent artillery attack, are tenuous, with persistent shelling. 

Evacuation of civilians from Severodonetsk has been suspended. 

Serhiy Hayday, the head of Luhansk's regional administration, said that a Russian air strike in Severodonetsk had hit a tank of nitric acid at a chemical plant and warned people in the city to stay in shelters. 

An officer in the Luhansk People's Militia, which supports Russian forces, says that Ukrainian forces are using bomb shelters and the city's industrial zone — a complex of heavy manufacturing plants — to resist.

Andrey Marochko, a lieutenant colonel in the militia, told Russian media that the Ukrainians are also using higher ground across the river to shell the militia.

"Nearby is the city of Lysychansk [which] is located on a hill and it is from there that the armed formations of Ukraine are firing at the city of Severodonetsk," he said.

Marochko claimed that the Ukrainians' main supply route from Bakhmut had been cut. "We control almost all logistics, but the enemy is trying in a roundabout way to supply this settlement by moving between forests on dirt roads."

The Ukrainian side has acknowledged that it has become more difficult to use the main highway from Bakhmut because of constant shelling, and that it is using other ways of reaching the cities at the frontlines.

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny said Tuesday that he might face up to another 15 years in prison if found guilty of new charges for “creating an extremist organization.”  

“It turns out that I created an extremist group to incite hatred towards officials and oligarchs,” the Russian opposition leader said in an Instagram post.  

In March, Navalny was sentenced to nine years in a maximum-security jail, after being convicted on fraud charges by the Lefortovo court in Moscow over allegations that he stole from his Anti-Corruption Foundation. The sentencing came while he was already serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence in a detention center east of the Russian capital after being arrested in February 2021 for violating probation terms.  

The leader of the self-declared Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), Leonid Pasechnik, says that the Russian operation to seize the city of Severodonetsk "is not going as fast as we would like."

Quoted by the Russian news agency TASS, Pasechnik said the "liberation of the city is complicated by the defense in depth of the Armed Forces of Ukraine."

He said one-third of the city was now under the control of Russian and LPR forces.

"First of all, we want to preserve the city's infrastructure as much as possible," Pasechnik said — although Russian bombardment of Severodonetsk has been responsible for much of the destruction.

Pasechnik alleged that the goals of the Ukrainian side are "opposite, so their tactics of hiding behind the civilian population has been actively used in Severodonetsk since the beginning of the military operation." 

Both sides report heavy fighting in the city itself, with several Ukrainian officials confirming that part of it is under Russian control.

Russian forces have continued missile and aerial attacks against targets in the Donetsk region, where the Ukrainian military says there are "battles along the entire front line."

The Ukrainian president's office said Tuesday that "there was an air strike on Sloviansk [overnight]. As a result, at least three people are dead and six were wounded. The school and seven high-rise buildings were damaged. Rescue work is underway, the number of victims and injured is being clarified."

Sloviansk, a major target of the Russian offensive, has seen an uptick in indirect fire from Russian forces using missiles and aerial attacks.

In the neighboring Luhansk region, 90% of which is now under Russian control, the president's office said that "the main efforts of the Russians are now focused on establishing control over Severodonetsk." It said that they were continuing attacks on several neighboring towns and two civilians were killed. 

Ukrainian troops are still in Severodonetsk, but Russian forces control part of the city. Up to 15,000 civilians remain in the city, which is without power and water.

Elsewhere, there were additional Russian attacks across the border into the northern Sumy region by both aircraft and artillery, the presidency said.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said Tuesday that Europe’s “strength and determination has certainly suffered” during the "wrangling" between the European Union member states over the new sanctions against Russia agreed by the bloc on Monday.  

Habeck accused Hungarian leader Viktor Orban of “ruthlessly” persevering his “own interests" during the negotiations of the sixth package of EU sanctions against Moscow.  

The minister said there was a confusion between a short-term perspective of one's own country and a long-term observing of principles which could only be embraced globally.  

“I am irritated, and this is the polite way of putting it — how Viktor Orban can intervene so deeply that you ruthlessly just play poker for your own interests,“ Habeck said.   

The big goal of this time for Europe is to achieve unity as an economic region, the minister stressed. 

 “Europe has to reinvent itself,” he said. 

The Hungarian government won a major concession from the European Union on Monday, securing a near-total exemption from the bloc’s ban of Russian oil imports.

The exception will help the populist government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban keep prices at Hungarian gas pumps in check – but only for Hungarians.

Starting last Friday, the government introduced a system of dual pricing at gas stations across the country. While the price of petrol is now capped at HUF 480/liter ($1.30 per liter or $4.92 per gallon) for Hungarians, foreign drivers filling up in Hungary are now paying a lot more.

The Hungarian government first imposed price restrictions on fuel and some basic food items in November, in an attempt to soften the impact of rapidly rising prices on voters ahead of a key general election in April.

Blaming “petrol tourism” for the move, the government announced Friday that the lower price will only be available to vehicles with Hungarian license plates.

Prices at pumps in neighboring EU countries have been significantly higher for months, and drivers in some border regions have been taking advantage of the Hungarian policy. Last week, prices were hovering around 1.80 euros ($1.93) per liter in Slovakia, Croatia and Austria, and around 1.60 euros ($1.70) in Romania and Slovenia, according to the European Commission.

Gergely Gulyás, who heads the Hungarian prime minister’s office, said in a news conference last week that the fuel freeze “ensures the best prices in Europe.”

The leaders of the European Council announced on Monday that the European Union had agreed to ban 90% of Russian oil imports by the end of the year as part of a package of sanctions against Moscow over its unprovoked assault on Ukraine.

Orban has refused to support a Russian oil and gas ban, calling the EU "irresponsible" for putting the economies of its members at risk.

Rather than risk Orban vetoing the whole package of sanctions, the EU agreed an exemption would be made for the southern segment of the Druzhba pipeline. 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.

CNN’s Boglarka Kosztolanyi contributed reporting to this post.

Danish energy firm Ørsted has confirmed that Russian state energy giant Gazprom will halt gas supplies starting on June 1 after Ørsted refused to pay for gas in rubles. 

"At Ørsted, we stand firm in our refusal to pay in rubles, and we’ve been preparing for this scenario, so we still expect to be able to supply gas to our customers,” said Mads Nipper, group president and CEO of the Danish firm.

Ørsted warned on Monday that it could be cut off, adding that preparations to minimize the risk to wider supplies include filling up its gas storage facilities in Germany and Denmark.

Around 4% of Denmark’s total energy consumption comes from Russian gas, according to European think tank Bruegel.

Finland, Poland and Bulgaria have already been cut off from Russian gas supplies after refusing to pay in rubles. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in March that "unfriendly" nations would have to pay rubles, rather than the euros or dollars stated in contracts. 

Video has been released of Ukrainian helicopters flying supplies into the Azovstal plant in Mariupol even as it was under siege by Russian forces.

The video was shot aboard a Mi-8 helicopter and shows the aircraft flying low across countryside and then along the Mariupol shore before a brief shot of supplies being offloaded.

A social media channel affiliated with Ukrainian defense intelligence that distributed the video said the missions had been carried out by Ukrainian special forces.

Another channel that published the video said: "This unique special operation was carried out by specialists of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense and the Azov Regiment. 16 Mi-8 military helicopters loaded with the necessary equipment flew to the defenders of Mariupol blocked by Russia on Azovstal."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky referred to the previously undisclosed missions on May 20.

"Unfortunately, a large number of people died, our pilots. Absolutely heroic people who knew that it was difficult, that it was almost impossible to fly to Azovstal and bring there medicine, food, water, pick up the bodies of the wounded," he said.

"A lot of things were happening that no one could officially comment. There were no air corridors to Azovstal due to Russia's powerful deployed air defenses," Zelensky said.

The president added that "we lost a lot of pilots" who flew to the plant.

EU's decision on the sixth package of sanctions will affect Russian economic development and prosperity, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said during a press conference Tuesday following an extraordinary European Council meeting.

"The sanctions have a clear objective, to get Russia to end this war and withdraw its troops and come to an agreement with Ukraine on a reasonable and fair peace,“ Scholz said in Brussels.

About 90 percent of oil imports to Europe is covered by the embargo. An exception for pipeline oil being delivered to some countries in Europe enabled a joint agreement, Scholz explained. "This was important because the transitional measures that these countries have to take have not been able to be finalized so quickly,“ he said. 

Germany and Poland are continuing their efforts to become independent of Russian oil by the end of the year, the German chancellor said.

A Europe-wide gas embargo is not yet within reach as many countries will remain dependent on Russian gas much longer than Germany, Scholz said. "Germany is rapidly becoming independent of gas imports by constructing infrastructure to enable gas imports from other countries with ships,“ he said. "Some investments will be made very quickly, so we hope that there will already be significant changes at the turn of the year, but some things will take longer. But one thing is pretty clear from my point of view: Many countries will need longer than Germany." 

The German chancellor blamed Russia for the looming food crisis. "The responsibility clearly lies with Russia and its president,“ Scholz said. 

Germany is working on a weapons exchange with Greece so that the country can send its tanks from former Warsaw treaty to Ukraine which will be replaced German infantry fighting vehicles, Scholz announced.