Russia pounding new front with glide bombs
Russia is pounding its new front in Kharkiv with glide bombs, Kyiv has said.
The Russian army on Monday struck more than 30 towns and villages in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region after launching a surprise ground offensive over the border last week.
“They are shelling the villages, firing everything they can,” Sergiy Kryvetchenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian military administration in the village of Lyptsi, told AFP.
“The KABs (guided aerial bombs) are flying. The artillery is flying. Drones. Everything,” he said.
The Ukrainian army acknowledged Russia was “achieving tactical success” after the ground assault, which sparked the evacuation of almost 6,000 people.
Russia’s defence ministry said its troops had “improved the tactical position and dealt a blow to [Ukrainian] manpower” around border villages, including Lyptsi, and the town of Vovchansk.
03:17 PM BST
That’s all for today.
Thanks for following the Telegraph’s live blog. We’ll be back tomorrow with the latest updates on the war.
02:50 PM BST
Ukrainians flee Kharkiv border town amid a Russian assault
Only a few hundred residents remain in the embattled town of Vovchansk in northeast Ukraine, where Kyiv’s troops are locked in intense battles with the Russian army, according to local officials on Monday.
The town, whose pre-war population of 17,000 had dwindled to just 2,500 before Russia renewed its ground assault last week, has emerged as a focus point as pitched battles engulf the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions.
Ukrainian local officials said they feared Vovchansk’s fate may mirror that of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, Ukrainian cities where fierce fighting and scorched earth tactics forced Ukrainian withdrawals. Only 200-300 people remain in the town, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Suniehubov said, as Moscow’s troops advance in an effort to surround it from three directions.
Poorly built fortifications and enduring ammunition shortages enabled Russia’s sweeping advance in the area last week, local officials and soldiers said.
02:31 PM BST
Ukrainian commander in charge of Kharkiv replaced as Russia seizes new territory
The Ukrainian commander responsible for the northeastern Kharkiv frontline has been replaced after Russia launched a surprise offensive, a military spokesperson said on Monday.
Nazar Voloshyn told RBC-Ukraine media that the decision to appoint Brigadier General Mykhailo Drapatyi to the position was taken on May 11. He gave no reason for the decision.
It comes amid reports that Ukrainian defences were “built in the wrong place” to halt Russia’s Kharkiv offensive.
Kyiv is now building defensive lines in more “tactically advantageous” positions after it found the main battles were taking place where positions were “not equipped”, said Yuriy Butusov, a Ukrainian journalist reporting from the front line.
02:19 PM BST
Ukraine: Russian bomb attacks in Kyiv thwarted
Ukraine said on Monday it thwarted a Russian operation to set off a series of bomb attacks in builder’s markets and near a cafe in the capital of Kyiv, and at a defence enterprise in the western city of Lviv.
Two Russian military agents were detained on suspicion of involvement in the alleged plot and 19 explosive devices were seized, the prosecutor general’s office wrote on the Telegram app.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in a statement that four bombs had been intended for detonation in the capital on May 9, the day when Russia celebrates the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
“According to the plan of the Russian special service, the explosives were supposed to detonate during the supermarkets’ peak hours to cause maximum damage to the civilian population,” the agency said on Telegram.
There was no immediate comment from the Moscow.
01:48 PM BST
Watch: Telegraph Dispatch from Kharkiv Front Lines
01:31 PM BST
Kyiv: Moscow reshuffle shows it’s trying to scale up war effort
New Russian government appointments show that Moscow will try to scale up its war effort and is seeking to reconfigure its economy for its defence needs, Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, said on Monday.
More than two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin tapped civilian economist Adrei Belousov as his surprise new defence minister on Sunday.
“Russia is finally isolating itself and will try to scale up the war, expand its formats while reconfiguring the economy...” Mr Podolyak said on the Telegram messaging app.
01:14 PM BST
Russia’s new defence minister underlines need to take better care of soldiers
Andrei Belousov, the surprise choice of President Vladimir Putin to become Russia’s new defence minister, said on Monday that soldiers needed better access to housing, hospitals and welfare benefits.
Mr Belousov, an economist who previously served as deputy prime minister, underlined the need to take better care of Russia’s soldiers in comments to a parliamentary committee, his first since Putin named him on Sunday to replace Sergei Shoigu.
State media quoted him as saying there was too much bureaucracy surrounding the payment of benefits to military personnel. There were also issues with housing and medical treatment.
“I think it’s a mess when participants in the special military operation who come back on vacation are driven from civilian medical institutions to hospitals which are often simply overcrowded. This issue needs to be resolved,” Mr Belousov said.
The comments by Mr Belousov, who has no military background, appeared aimed at demonstrating to members of the armed forces that he understands their concerns and will work to improve their conditions.
He was addressing the defence and security committee of parliament’s upper house, the Federation Council, as part of a confirmation process for a new government line-up after Putin started his fifth term as president earlier this month.
12:51 PM BST
Sweden open to hosting nuclear weapons in wartime
Ulf Kristersson, the Swedish prime minister, said Monday he was open to allowing nuclear weapons on Swedish soil in wartime, as critics call for the new NATO member to ban their deployment.
Sweden’s parliament is set to vote on a Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) with the United States in June which will give the US access to military bases in Sweden and allow the storage of military equipment and weapons in the Scandinavian country.
Sweden abandoned two centuries of military non-alignment to join NATO in March this year.
Calls have mounted in recent weeks, from the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Association among others, for the government to put in writing in the DCA agreement that Sweden will not allow nuclear weapons on its soil.
12:31 PM BST
Russia pounds 30 towns and villages in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region
Russia pounded over 30 villages and towns in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region after launching a ground offensive in the border region, forcing almost 6,000 to evacuate, the governor said on Monday.
Ukraine’s General Staff acknowledged on Monday that Russia “currently is achieving tactical success” after driving a wedge into Kyiv’s defences.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday that troops had “improved the tactical position and dealt a blow to (Ukrainian) manpower” around border villages including Lyptsi and the town of Vovchansk.
“They are shelling the villages, firing on everything they can,” Sergiy Kryvetchenko, deputy head of the military administration in the village of Lyptsi, told AFP.
12:15 PM BST
Russia sentences five Ukrainians for passing military intel to Kyiv
A Russian court on the annexed peninsula of Crimea has handed down prison sentences of up to 16 years to five Ukrainian citizens accused of sharing military intelligence with Kyiv, state media reported Monday.
The men were charged with treason and espionage after sharing information on the location and movements of Russian army units that helped the Ukrainian army target aerial strikes, the FSB security service alleged.
The information “was used by paramilitary formations in Ukraine to adjust their artillery and rocket strikes on Russian army positions,” the FSB said in a statement cited by state news agencies.
They were handed prison sentences of between 11 and 16 years, the FSB said.
11:56 AM BST
Kyiv is locked in ‘fierce’ border battles in Kharkiv
Ukrainian troops are locked in intense battles with the advancing Russian army in two border areas, president Volodymyr Zelensky said, while the death toll from a Russian apartment building collapse blamed on Ukrainian shelling rose to 15.
Mr Zelenskyy said “fierce battles” are taking place near the border in eastern and northeastern Ukraine as outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian soldiers try to hold back a significant Russian ground offensive.
“Defensive battles are ongoing, fierce battles, on a large part of our border area,” Mr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Sunday.
Ukraine’s general staff said late Sunday that Russian forces had conducted at least 22 attacks over the previous 24 hours in two parts of the Kharkiv region and had “tactical success.” The statement did not elaborate.
11:40 AM BST
Ireland mulling cuts in supports for Ukrainian refugees
Ireland will this week consider making cuts to state support for asylum seekers and refugees, including those who arrived from Ukraine, in a bid to bring the system more in line with other European countries, Simon Harris, the prime minister, said on Monday.
Just over 100,000 Ukrainians have fled to Ireland since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, while the number of asylum seekers from the rest of the world almost trebled from pre-pandemic levels to more than 13,000 in 2022 and 2023. So far this year, the number has jumped to 7,700.
That has made immigration a much bigger political issue in the country of 5.3 million people, which is struggling to house refugees in the middle of a housing supply crisis.
11:15 AM BST
Ukrain’s first lady arrives in Serbia for surprise visit
Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s first lady, and Dmytro Kuleba, the country’s foreign minister, made a surprise visit to Russia-friendly Serbia on Monday, in a sign of warming relations between the two states.
On his first visit to Serbia since the start of the Russian aggression on Ukraine in 2022, Mr Kuleba met Milos Vucevic, the new Serbian prime minister, whose government includes several pro-Russian ministers, including two who have been under US sanctions.
Later Monday, he is to meet Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
Although Serbia has condemned the Russian aggression on Ukraine, it has refused to join international sanctions against Moscow and has instead maintained warm and friendly relations with its traditional Slavic ally.
10:51 AM BST
Map: Russia’s Kharkiv offensive
Russia pressed its ground assault into Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Monday, attacking new areas with small groups to try to widen the front and stretch Ukraine’s forces, the regional governor said.
Moscow’s troops entered Ukraine near its second city, Kharkiv, on Friday, opening a new, northeastern front in a war that has for almost two years been largely fought in the east and south. The advance could draw some of Kyiv’s depleted forces away from the east, where Russia has been slowly advancing.
Russia’s defence ministry said its troops had “improved the tactical position and dealt a blow to (Ukrainian) manpower” around border villages, including Lyptsi, and the town of Vovchansk.
The Ukrainian army reported fighting in the border town of Vovchansk, where Russia was deploying “significant forces”, numbering up to five battalions.
Vovchansk, which previously had a population of 2,500 but now has only 200-300 residents, suffered “massive shelling” on Sunday, said Oleg Synegubov, Kharkiv’s regional governor.
“The enemy is trying to deliberately stretch it (the front line), attacking in small groups, but in new directions, so to speak,”
Russia “carried out 22 assaults” in five border areas on Sunday, 14 of which were still ongoing, the Ukrainian army said.
It reported fighting in the border town of Vovchansk, where Russia was deploying “significant forces”, numbering up to five battalions.
Vovchansk, which previously had a population of 2,500 but now has only 200-300 residents, suffered “massive shelling” on Sunday, said Mr Synegubov.
10:32 AM BST
Moscow: Russia ready if West wants to fight for Ukraine
If the West wants to fight for Ukraine on the battlefield, Russia is prepared for it, Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, was quoted as saying on Monday.
“It’s their right - if they want it to be on the battlefield, it will be on the battlefield,” state-run news agency RIA cited Lavrov as saying.
Russia has stepped up warnings about the dangers of a direct confrontation with Nato since Emmanuel Macron, the French president, refused to rule out the possibility that Western troops could at some point be sent there.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has said the move could lead to World War Three.
10:16 AM BST
Ukraine’s foreign minister visits Serbia for first time since Russian invasion
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, visited Serbia on Monday, where he was set to meet with the Balkan country’s leaders days after a high-profile visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s First Lady, was also in the capital Belgrade, where she signed a new education agreement with a university in Serbia, according to a post on X.
Serbia remains a rare outlier in Europe for refusing to sanction the Kremlin following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Belgrade has long been close to Moscow, with its shared Orthodox heritage, mutual distrust of NATO, and military alliances during several wars strengthening their relations.
10:00 AM BST
Ukraine says Russian forces trying to stretch front line in Kharkiv region
Russian forces are attacking the border of Ukraine’s northern Kharkiv region in small groups in an attempt to stretch the front line, the region’s governor said on Monday.
“The enemy is trying to deliberately stretch it (front line), attacking in small groups, but in new directions, so to speak,” Oleh Syniehubov told local TV.
He added that Ukrainian forces were holding Russian troops back but there was a real threat that the fighting could spread to new settlements.
09:31 AM BST
Kyiv: Ukrainian drone attack caused fires at Russian oil depot
Drones launched by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) caused fires at an oil depot and power substation in Russia’s Belgorod and Lipetsk regions, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters on Monday.
The attack damaged “Oskolneftesnab” oil depot near the city of Staryi Oskol in Russia’s Belgorod region and “Yeletskaya” power substation in the Lipetsk region.
“Russian industry which works to wage war with Ukraine will remain a legitimate target for the SBU. Measures to undermine the enemy’s military potential will continue,” the intelligence source said.
09:03 AM BST
War in pictures
08:46 AM BST
Ukraine plans record power imports after infrastructure damage
Ukraine plans record electricity imports from five European countries on Monday after reporting significant energy infrastructure damage following Russian strikes, the energy ministry said.
Imports are expected to rise to 19,484 megawatt hours (Mwh), beating the previous record high of 18,649 Mwh recorded at the end of March after the first wave of Russian attacks on the Ukrainian energy sector.
08:30 AM BST
Ukrainian drones attack several Russian regions
A drone sparked a short-lived fire at an electrical substation in Russia’s Lipetsk region in a Ukrainian attack that also targeted the Belgorod and Kursk regions, Russian officials said.
“There are no casualties. The fire in the territory of the electrical substation is being extinguished,” Igor Artamonov, the governor of the Kursk region in Russia’s south, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Eight drones were destroyed over the Kursk region that borders Ukraine, the region’s administration said on Telegram. There was no information on potential damage or casualties.
Several “air objects” were also downed over the Belgorod region, south of Kursk, also along the border with Ukraine, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram.
08:15 AM BST
Shelling kills two in Russian-controlled city of Donetsk
Two people were killed in shelling of the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, Russian-installed mayor Alexei Kulemzin said on Monday.
07:56 AM BST
Moscow: Russia shoots down 31 Ukrainian drones
Russia said on Monday that it had shot down 31 Ukrainian drones overnight over several Russian regions and annexed Crimea.
“During the night new attempts by the Kyiv regime to carry out terrorist attacks with the help of aerial drones... against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation were foiled,” the defence ministry said in a statement on the Telegram social media channel.
