June 7, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

In Mariupol, the ravaged southeastern Ukrainian port city now under Russian occupation, fears have shifted from relentless bombardment to deteriorating sanitary conditions: sewage seeping into drinking water and fears of a cholera outbreak.

On Monday, one of the city's exiled local officials said that Russian officials now in control of Mariupol were considering imposing a quarantine in the city, where decomposing corpses and garbage were contaminating drinking water, putting remaining residents at risk of cholera and other diseases.

“There are talks about quarantine. The city is being quietly closed," said mayoral adviser Petro Andriushchenko, a reliable source of information from residents remaining in the city.

CNN could not independently verify Andriushchenko’s claims.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the alarm about the potential for a cholera outbreak in Mariupol and has pre-positioned vaccines in Dnipro, but it is not clear how they would get to residents. Cholera, an infection that causes acute diarrhea​, is linked to inadequate access to clean water and kills tens of thousands around the world every year, according to WHO.

Dr. Dorit Nitzan, WHO Europe's emergencies director, who visited Ukraine last month, said that the hygienic situation in Mariupol was a huge hazard. “We got information that there are swamps actually in the streets, and the sewage water and drinking water are getting mixed,” Dr. Nitzan said on May 17 in the capital Kyiv.

Andriushchenko said that it was "difficult to convey" how grim the situation had become in Mariupol, with natural water sources in the city waning as warmer months arrive and Russian evacuations stopping altogether.

The deputy mayor of Mariupol, Serhiy Orlov, who is not in Mariupol either, said Tuesday that he believes around 150,000 people remain in the city out of a pre-invasion population of more than 400,000, with a further 30,000 to 40,000 in surrounding suburbs.

Russia is coming under increasing fire for its role in fueling a growing global food crisis.

Speaking at the United Nations Security Council on Monday, European Council President Charles Michel accused the Kremlin of "using food supplies as a stealth missile against developing countries," by holding millions of tons of Ukrainian grain hostage and blockading Ukraine's ports.

The European Council chief refuted Russia's claims that Western sanctions were to blame for the food crisis, calling the narrative "disinformation" and saying that the EU had no sanctions on the agricultural sector in Russia. “Even our sanctions on the Russian transport sector do not go beyond our EU borders,” he continued. “They do not prevent Russian-flagged vessels from carrying grain, food or fertilizers to developing countries.” 

Michel's remarks, at a Security Council meeting convened primarily to discuss sexual violence and other alleged atrocities carried out by Russian forces in Ukraine, underlines the concerns in Brussels about the Kremlin's false narrative on the food crisis.

“The Kremlin is also targeting grain storage and stealing grain in Ukraine while shifting the blame on others. This is cowardly. This is pure and simple propaganda. Let's get to the facts,” Michel said. 

The comments prompted Russia's UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, to storm out of the meeting, to which Michel responded: "You may leave the room, maybe it's easier not to listen to the truth Mr. Ambassador."

Since launching its invasion of Ukraine in late February, Russia has upended food production and distribution from the country, known to the world as Europe's breadbasket. A months-long barricade of key ports -- including Mariupol on the Sea of Azov and Odesa on the Black Sea -- have left more than 20 million tons of grain stuck inside Ukraine.

In May, satellite images of the Crimean port of Sevastopol appeared to show bulk carrier ships with Russian insignia docking and loading up what is believed to be stolen Ukrainian grain. The EU's High Representative, Josep Borrell, on Monday condemned a Russian missile strike that demolished a big grain storage terminal in the southern port city of Mykolaiv over the weekend.

US officials looking to salvage Ukrainian grain: The Biden administration is working to get temporary storage containers for Ukrainian grain into the country, a stopgap measure as it seeks to mitigate the food crisis, administration officials told CNN earlier this month. The storage containers -- such as bags or boxes -- could help salvage some of the grain stuck inside Ukraine, and ideally be loaded onto trains or trucks out of the country once overland routes are established. Still, the US and its international partners are no closer to finding a quick and absolute solution to lifting the Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports that's raised global food prices and threatened to cause a catastrophic food shortage in parts of the world.

Read more of our coverage on the food crisis here:

RELATED

US officials looking to salvage Ukrainian grain with no good solution yet to Russia's export blockade

Ukraine's nuclear energy operator on Tuesday accused the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of legitimizing Russia’s occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNNP), and of “lying” in claiming that Ukraine requested he travel to the plant.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said Monday that there was a "clear and present risk to the safety, security and safeguards” at the plant, adding that "at least five of the seven indispensable pillars of nuclear safety and security have been compromised."

Grossi said that he was "working actively to agree, organize and head an IAEA-led International Mission” to the plant, writing on Twitter that "Ukraine requested us, will we go there."

In response, Ukraine's state-run nuclear power station operator Energoatom accused Grossi of "lying again" in a post on Telegram.

"The Ukrainian side did not invite Grossi to visit ZNPP and had previously denied him such a visit, emphasizing that a visit to the power plant will be possible only when our country regains control over it," Energoatom wrote.

The IAEA declined to comment on the Ukrainian nuclear energy operator’s accusation. “We have no comment on the statement you are referring to,” IAEA Spokerson Fredrik Dahl told CNN via email Tuesday.

It comes as the Ukrainian mayor of Russian-occupied Enerhodar, the town neighboring the power plant, said that plant employees and their families are coming under increasing pressure.

Mayor Dmytro Orlov, who is not himself in Enerhodar, said that the situation “is becoming more difficult every day.”

CNN cannot independently verify his claims.

Some context: The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been under Russian control since early March. Grossi visited the now-defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant north of Kyiv, which was briefly occupied by Russian forces, at the end of April.

Russia plans to cut off the strategic Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk and surrounding area from both the north and south, according to an intelligence update from the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) on Tuesday, as the Kremlin continues to fight for control of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

Over the weekend, Ukrainian forces recaptured parts of Severodonetsk, the MOD said in its daily assessment of the situation on the ground, adding that Russian forces will likely continue to occupy eastern districts of the city. Ukrainian troops are locked in fierce street battles with Russian soldiers in the industrial city on Tuesday, while other towns were under increased air assault, according to Ukrainian officials.

Meanwhile, on the southern axis of fighting in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, the UK MOD said that Russian forces -- which have been advancing in the area since May, when they took control of the town of Popasna -- have stalled.

On the northern axis in Donbas, reports of heavy shelling near the Russian-occupied city of Izium suggest that Moscow is preparing to make a renewed push.

The United States continues to issue visas to qualified Russian journalists and has not revoked credentials of any Russian journalists working in the country, the State Department said on Monday, adding that the Kremlin was engaged in a "full assault on media freedom."

The comments came after reports on Monday that Russia had warned US news organizations they risked being stripped of their accreditation and expelled unless the treatment of Russian journalists in the US improved.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told around a dozen journalists in Moscow from various American news outlets, including CNN, the Associated Press, NBC, the Washington Post, ABC and NPR, that unless the “rights” of Russian media in the US were “restored,” the “same measures will affect you.”  

Reacting to the comments, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that the Kremlin continues to make a "false equivalency" between press freedoms in the US and the media landscape in Russia -- where independent, accurate reporting on the war in Ukraine is effectively criminalized and journalists who air "false information" face stiff sentences.

Price noted that the US has sanctioned several Russian media outlets, including Russia 1, Channel One and NTV, because they are “directly or indirectly state-owned and state-controlled media within Russia, and the revenues from which support President Putin's war.”  

In the meeting with journalists on Monday, Zakharova alleged that Russian reporters were facing issues in the US ranging from visa renewals to accreditation, blocked bank accounts and alleged harassment by US special services. She told US media representatives that unless American authorities took action, then the journalists would have to leave Russia.

"If this is their (US government) final decision, then guys, you'll have to pack up and go home. We'll block you all here, we'll take away your visas and so on," the spokeswoman said.

Intense combat for control of the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk is continuing Tuesday, with Russia using artillery, aircraft, and helicopters in the area, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Two people were injured after Russian forces shelled a mining college in Lysychansk, which sits on strategic high ground across the Siverskyi Donets River from Severodonetsk, according to Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk Region Military Administration.

Hayday said Russia was using “sabotage and reconnaissance groups” in the village of Bilohorivka, just west of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk. That town also sits on high ground next to the Siverskyi Donets River, and was the site of a massive Ukrainian rout of a Russian assault last month.

On the outskirts of Severodonetsk, the Ukrainian military said Russia was using “remote mining of the area in the direction of the offensive of our troops towards Rubizhne.”

Rodion Miroshnik, an official in the separatist, self-declared Luhansk People's Republic, claimed on Telegram that nine civilians had been killed by Ukrainian shelling over the past day.

On Monday night, Oleksandr Striuk, head of the Severodonetsk military administration, said there were “fierce battles and street fights,” and the situation was “changing every hour.”

Further west, in the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian military said Russia was focusing its efforts on moving south from Izyum toward Sloviansk, where the front line has not moved very much despite many weeks of intense fighting.

In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, authorities said fighting continues along the entire line of contact, but decreased somewhat in intensity on Tuesday.

In the Kherson region, the Ukrainian military said Russia was “concentrating its main efforts on improving its tactical position, maintaining the occupied frontiers, replenishing ammunition and fuel.” Authorities said Russia had begun preparations “for the celebration of Russia Day in the region.” Russia celebrates its national holiday on June 12.

And in the northern Sumy region, authorities said Russian forces shelled the border town of Seredyna-Buda early Tuesday morning. At least six houses and a farm building were damaged, but no casualties were reported.

Russia has placed 61 more US officials and leading defense and media executives on its “stop list,” banning them from entering the country, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday.

The list includes heads of leading defense firms, media platforms, rating agencies and aircraft and shipbuilding companies, as well as individual US State Department officials.

US officials on the list include Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Head of the Office of Sanctions Coordination James O’Brien.

Some context: In May, Russia banned a total of 963 American officials and figures from entering the country, including President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

That list included the majority of US senators and members of the House of Representatives, former and current government officials, journalists, military personnel, advocates, citizens and CEOs.

Russian troops have resumed an offensive on the northern approaches to the key city of Sloviansk amid heavy fighting in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials say the situation is changing "every hour" in the battle for the nearby city of Severodonetsk.

Here are the latest headlines from Russia's war in Ukraine:

US President Joe Biden gave the order to declassify intelligence in the run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 because US officials’ claims about the impending attack were being met with “skepticism” by American partners and allies, according to the nation’s top spymaster. 

Some context: Dating back to the early days of the Russian buildup on the Ukrainian border, the Biden administration has been selectively declassifying and releasing intelligence surrounding Russia’s war in Ukraine, both to media organizations and to other friendly nations. The approach has been aimed at combating Russian propaganda globally and to ensure the US partners and allies are sharing a unified picture. 

Haines said Monday the US “did a lot of sharing in this space with partners and allies,” ultimately developing “mechanisms for sharing” that can be used in the future.