live blog
Ukrainian President Zelensky has thanked the US for arms support. According to US Secretary of State Blinken, the first deliveries are already arriving in Ukraine and more will follow. All developments in the live blog.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj thanked the US for military assistance at a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Kiev. According to Blinken, his country’s new arms shipment to Ukraine is already arriving. More deliveries would follow. “This will make a difference.”
However, Zelensky added that the biggest deficit was in air defense. Ukraine now needs two air defense batteries for Kharkiv. In the region of northeastern Ukraine, Russian armed forces began a new offensive on Friday and are advancing.
According to local authorities, four people were injured in renewed Russian attacks on the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine. There were three women and one man, regional governor Oleh Synjehubow said on the short message service Telegram. Russian troops attacked Ukraine’s second-largest city early in the morning with new, retrofitted Soviet-era high-precision guided bombs that resemble cruise missiles.
Russia launched a new offensive in the Kharkiv region on Friday and claimed to have captured several towns.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian parties to the conflict cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
According to authorities, unknown persons caused a freight train to derail in the Volgograd region of southern Russia. Russian Railways said the wagons of a freight train derailed at Kotluban station due to unauthorized intervention. According to initial information, no one was injured. A diesel tank and some wagons loaded with wood caught fire, reports the state news agency RIA, citing the Civil Defense Ministry.
It was not immediately clear whether the incident was related to the Russian war in Ukraine. According to its own statements, Ukraine has carried out several sabotage attacks on the Russian railway in order to disrupt supply logistics for the Russian invasion troops, even far from the front.
According to Russian sources, around two dozen houses and a power line were damaged in nighttime attacks on the Belgorod region in the regional capital of the same name. This was announced by the region’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, on Telegram. A woman also suffered a shrapnel injury to her spine.
The Ukrainian military says it intercepted all 18 attack drones fired by Russia during the night. The drones were shot down over several regions, including the Kiev region and the eastern regions on the front, the Air Force said on Telegram.
There have been explosions again in the Russian border region of Belgorod following a missile alarm. The Russian Defense Ministry said anti-aircraft systems shot down 25 missiles fired from neighboring Ukraine over the region. This information could not be independently verified.
On Sunday, a residential building was attacked in the Belgorod region. According to authorities, at least 15 people were killed. The Defense Ministry in Moscow blamed Ukraine for the attack, but some observers expressed doubts about the account.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian parties to the conflict cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in the Ukrainian capital Kiev for an unannounced two-day visit. He arrived in the morning on a night train from Poland, as a journalist accompanying him reported to the AFP news agency. During Blinken’s fourth visit to Kiev since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression, a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is planned.
Rebecca Barth, ARD Kiev, tagesschau, May 14, 2024 8:22 a.m
According to the Tass news agency, General Yuri Kuznetsov, who is responsible for personnel matters in the Russian Defense Ministry, has been arrested on suspicion of criminal acts. “The case is being investigated by the main military investigative body of the Russian Investigative Committee,” Tass quoted a person familiar with the matter from Russian security circles as saying.
The popular blogger website Rybar suggested the investigation could be related to his previous work in the Russian General Staff, where he dealt with state secrets.
President Vladimir Putin made sweeping changes to Russia’s defense apparatus on Monday, including the dismissal and transfer of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has dampened expectations for the Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland in June. “No one should have excessive expectations: We are not negotiating the end of the war there,” said Scholz in an interview with “Stern” magazine. “At best, it is the start of a process that could lead to direct talks between Ukraine and Russia.” In Switzerland it will be about the safety of nuclear power plants, about grain exports, about the question of prisoner exchanges and about the necessary taboo regarding the use of nuclear weapons. “Again, this is all still a delicate plant.”
The Social Democrat was disappointed with the Europeans’ commitment to the war against Ukraine after his appeals for more arms deliveries. It was “frankly not enough,” he concluded. “This is depressing because Ukraine urgently needs more air defense systems. Putin obviously wants to destroy Ukraine’s infrastructure.”
According to official information, Ukraine and the USA have discussed further military aid and the situation on the front. Commander-in-Chief Olexander Syrskyj wrote this on Telegram after talks between him, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chief of Staff Charles Brown.
Equipment and ammunition from a $61 billion aid package have already arrived in Ukraine after months of delays due to disputes in Congress.
Chancellor Scholz and the heads of government of the Nordic states are pledging further support for Ukraine. Ukraine does not expect a Russian ground offensive on Kharkiv. Monday’s live blog for reading.