May 3, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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'I'm all scratched and battered': Ukrainian woman loses brother and home to Russian rocket
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Our coverage of the war in Ukraine has moved here.

Russian soldier allegedly says more lives lost in Ukraine than in 4 years of fighting in Chechnya

A Ukrainian man climbs over a destroyed Russian tank near Makariv, Ukraine on May 2.

Russian forces have lost more lives in Ukraine than in four years in Chechnya, a Russian soldier said in an audio clip that Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) claims was an intercepted communication between the soldier and his friend.

CNN has not verified the authenticity of the audio. The SBU did not provide further details on the soldier speaking in the audio file or how it was intercepted.

In the audio, the Russian soldier expressed discontent that the elite members of RosGvardia, Putin’s National Guard, and OMON, the Special Police Force, have left Ukraine.

Some context: The exact number of Russian troops that have been killed in Ukraine remains unclear.

NATO officials in March claimed that up to 15,000 troops had died in the fighting.

The Russian government has not provided updates. However, in mid-March, the Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda?published — then?later?removed —?a report?that the Russian Ministry of Defense had recorded 9,861 Russian Armed Forces deaths in the war.

Four planned humanitarian corridors to Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday "if safety situation allows"

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, announced four planned humanitarian corridors to the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday “if the safety situation allows.”

The humanitarian corridors are planned from Mariupol, Lunacharske Circle, Tokmak and Vasylivka, Vereshchuk said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Tuesday that 156 people arrived to Zaporizhzhia from the besieged?Azovstal steel plant and surrounding areas in Mariupol by evacuation corridors.

Ukrainians strike Russian positions in Oleksandrivka, newly released video shows

A drone video shows a smoldering Russian military vehicle in Oleksandrivka, Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military took out a number of Russian military vehicles in Oleksandrivka, south southeast of Russian-occupied Izium, newly released video from the Ukrainian Armed Forces shows.

The armed forces did not disclose where, or when, the video was taken. CNN verified its authenticity, and has geolocated it to Oleksandrivka, a small village in the Donestk oblast.

Sensory satellite data from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System has detected a number of fires in the village, and around the area, since April 27.

In the drone video, there are a number of smoldering Russian military vehicles.

In a Sunday briefing posted on Telegram, the Ukraine Armed Forces said Russian forces were moving south from the Kharkiv oblast and into Oleksandrivka.

According to briefing, the Russians were attempting to advance on Lyman, a strategic and heavily contested city just south of the village.

In recent weeks, the Russian military has conducted repeated military strikes on Lyman, including on its railroad infrastructure.

The Russian Ministry of Defense also admitted to military activity near Oleksandrivka, saying in a Monday briefing posted to Telegram that they targeted the area around the village with missiles.

Russian-backed separatist region opens criminal case against British, Moroccan nationals fighting for Ukraine

The prosecutor’s office for the Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic announced Monday it has opened a criminal case against two British men and a Moroccan national who were captured while allegedly fighting for Ukraine.

CNN previously reported British citizens Sean Pinner and Aidan Daniel John Mark Aslin were captured by Russian forces in mid-April in Mariupol.

A third man, a Moroccan citizen, also appears to have been captured, according to the prosecutor’s office.

The three are being investigated for “committing a crime by a group of people, forcible seizure of power or forcible keeping of power and mercenary activity,” the prosecutor’s office alleges. Prosecutors claim the three acted as mercenaries and conducted military operations against the separatist republic.

The three remain in custody, the prosecutor’s office said.

Pinner and Aslin’s families previously told CNN the two were serving with the Ukrainian Marines and were not mercenaries.

Ukrainians strike Russian positions on Snake Island with military drone, video shows

A strike targeting a communications tower on Snake Island is seen in a drone video.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces say they hit at least two Russian military positions on Russian-occupied Snake Island purportedly using a Bayraktar UAV, a military drone.

It’s unclear what date the Ukrainian military strikes were conducted, but the video was posted by the Ukrainian Armed Forces Southern Operation Command on Tuesday.

CNN has geolocated the video showing the strikes and verified its authenticity.

The military strikes appear to have targeted an area between a building and a communications tower, and another area that appears to have contained ammunition or another explosive. A number of explosions are seen after the initial one in the second area.

Snake Island, and the Ukrainian border guards on it, gained significant notoriety at the beginning of the Russian invasion when the island was targeted by Russian soldiers and the Ukrainian guards refused to surrender.

President Zelensky: 156 people arrived in Zaporizhzhia from areas near Mariupol

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a nightly video address.

In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 156 people arrived to Zaporizhzhia from the Azovstal steel plant and surrounding areas in Mariupol by evacuation corridors on Tuesday.

“We will continue to do everything to get all our people out of Mariupol and Azovstal. It’s difficult. But we need everyone who stays there: civilians and soldiers,” he said.?

Zelensky also accused Russian troops of not adhering to the ceasefire and continuing strikes on the Azovstal steel plant.

Ukrainians destroyed a number of Russian military vehicles in the Kharkiv oblast, drone footage shows?

Ukrainian military strikes, captured on drone footage, destroyed a number of Russian military vehicles in the village of Sulyhivka — about 11 miles or 18 kilometers — south of Izium in the Kharkiv oblast.

CNN has geolocated and verified the authenticity of the footage, which was first uploaded to Telegram on Monday. When the footage was taken is unclear.

However, in two situation updates posted to Telegram on Saturday, the Ukrainian Armed Forces and Kharkiv regional military administrator Oleg Sinegubov noted that Russian forces had tried to advance near the village.

Both said that Ukrainian forces had repelled the Russian assault, but Sinegubov claimed the Russians had sustained heavy losses.

There’s been heavy fighting in the area for several weeks, as Ukrainian forces try to resist a large armored offensive from the Izium area south and west towards Sloviansk. The video indicates that Ukrainian artillery fire and attack drones continue to degrade Russian armor.

Leader of Russian-backed separatist region of Donetsk visits Mariupol

Denis Pushilin, the leader of the Russian-backed separatist region of Donetsk visits Mariupol.

Denis Pushilin, the leader of the Russian-backed separatist region of Donetsk, is the first known high-ranking official — Russian or Russian-backed — to visit the besieged Ukrainian city.??

He is seen in photos, posted on his official Telegram channel, posing near the?Illich metallurgical plant, located in northern Mariupol, and on a ship in the Port of Mariupol, located in the southern area of the city.?

It’s unclear from the photos when the trip actually took place, but given that the Russian forces have solidified their control of the city within the last week, it’s likely to have taken place during that time.

It does not appear from the photos that Pushilin traveled anywhere near the Azovstal steel plant, the last remaining stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the city.

His trip to the city is the first major sign of the impending Russification of it. Pushilin is expected to oversee the city being that it’s in the Donetsk region.

President Biden?asked the US Congress to loosen visa restrictions on highly educated Russians

US President?Joe Biden?has asked the US Congress to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to make it easier for highly educated Russians to obtain visas to work in the United States, according to a section of the White House’s Ukraine supplemental budget request submitted to lawmakers last week and reviewed by CNN.

The request, if enacted, would allow Russians with a masters or doctoral degree in the fields of science, technology, engineering or math to apply for a visa without first obtaining an employer sponsor in the US.?

The amendment would also require the Department of Homeland Security “to expedite consideration of such applications,” the document says, “as appropriate” and with the necessary vetting.?

The administration explained in the document that the authority “would help the U.S. attract and retain Russian STEM talent and undercut Russia’s innovative potential, benefitting U.S. national security.” The authority would expire four years after the date that it is enacted, according to the document.?

More context: Tens of thousands of highly educated Russians have?reportedly fled?Russia since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine just over two months ago. The?Biden?administration is hoping to take advantage of that brain drain and lure some of those workers to the US, officials said.?

The document says the visa changes would apply to Russians with degrees in fields including, but not limited to: hypersonics, advanced nuclear energy technologies, advanced missile propulsion technologies, directed energy, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and space technologies and systems.??

The US has already sought to curtail Russia’s ability to remain technologically competitive by imposing severe export restrictions on materials like semiconductors that are found in thousands of electronic products.

Bloomberg first reported that the administration was weighing loosening the visa restrictions.

As investigators probe war crimes in Bucha, Ukrainian families mourn the war's youngest victims?

Local prosecutor Roman Kravchenk says at least 31 children have been killed in Bucha.

Deep in a pine forest in Ukraine’s Bucha district, a bumpy dirt road dead-ends in a small tidy cemetery. There, a figure dressed in black, her head covered with a scarf, hunches over a fresh mound of dirt blanketed in flowers and adorned with a picture of a small girl.

Her body begins to shake. Then her sobs pierce the quiet of the forest.

The grave holds the body of her seven-year-old granddaughter Anastasia, who was murdered as the family tried to escape the Russian invasion of their village. Galina says the pair — along with six more children and two other adults, all family members — had packed into a car and were driving down a two-lane highway when a Russian sniper fired at their vehicle from the woods.

Galina and her granddaughter Anastasia, in happier times.

When the screaming and panic ended, sorrow washed over the family with the realization Anastasia had been shot dead. Her sister Lida, 11, was also badly wounded.

“I asked the soldier (to) help us. I was begging them saying, ‘Don’t you have kids of your own?’” Galina says.

“We did nothing to them. We lived our life. We didn’t attack anyone … It was them to attack us. They didn’t care if there was a kid or grandmothers or grandfathers. They didn’t care. And still don’t care,” she adds.

This scenario is exactly what the family was trying to escape. They were well aware of the Russian soldiers who had rolled into their village in March, snuffing out humans as casually as cigarettes and then leaving the bodies carelessly scattered along the sides of the roads.

The true scale of Russia’s monthlong occupation of Bucha is yet to be fully understood — but the picture emerging from it has shocked the world.

Russia has flatly refused to accept responsibility for the atrocities emanating from Bucha and other districts surrounding Kyiv since its troops made a hasty retreat in late March after failing to encircle the capital. Instead, the Kremlin has repeatedly claimed – without evidence — that the numerous reports of indiscriminate killings, mass graves, disappearances and looting are “fake” and part of a “planned media campaign.”

Read the full story here.

Putin's war is tearing families apart in Ukraine's Russian-speaking east

The warm spring air is coming to?eastern Ukraine. The roads are lined with red tulips, and people are reopening their summer kitchens, small buildings outside traditional homes used to isolate the heat and smells of cooking in the hotter months.

It was in her elderly mother’s wood-frame summer kitchen that Ludmilla, 69, was chatting to her brother Victor, 72, who went by Vitya, in the?eastern city?of Lysychansk last week. Despite near-constant bombardment from Russian troops just a few kilometers away, they had stayed in their family home since the invasion of Ukraine in late February.

“My brother and I were talking,” said Ludmilla, who asked CNN to use only her first name out of privacy concerns. “All at once, Grads started falling down one by one.” The windows were blown from their frames. “Everything was cracking.”

She recalled the initial shock and confusion. “We’re standing there — my brother’s making the sign of the cross, and I’m shouting. I turned away from him to look at the house, and then another explosion went off, and I was trapped under the rubble.”

Ludmilla was momentarily blinded. Blood poured from her face and from lacerations on her hands and feet, but she was alive. She felt the touch of a neighbor, who pulled her to safety, to her basement. Her 96-year-old mother, mercifully, was unscathed.

“I ask, ‘How’s my brother, how’s Vitya?’ And the neighbor hides his eyes and says: ‘Everything is fine.’

“I said to him, ‘Vova, I don’t believe it. If it were okay, he would have come seen us.’

“He says, ‘Everything is OK down, sit down,’ and goes out. And his wife is sitting next to me and says ‘Luda, he doesn’t know how to tell you. Vitya is dead.’

“That’s it. And my brother would be 73-years-old on May 6. And that was it.”

Death and loss are far from the only traumas in this Russian-speaking region. For many, the war has upended any remaining fellowship with Russia. According to a survey last year by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, 43% of Ukrainians report having relatives in Russia.

Even in the Russian-speaking east, that camaraderie had already been waning since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and support for separatist movements. With this war, a history of pain is brought to the fore: of millions dead from famine and forced Soviet collectivization and of attempts, over decades, to wipe out Ukrainian culture and the Ukrainian language.

It’s hard to relate to someone if they believe Russian President Vladimir Putin’s propaganda — that the military is conducting a small and targeted operation that avoids civilian casualties. It’s perhaps, even more difficult to relate if they don’t believe your neighbors, brothers, and friends are being killed.

Ludmilla’s son, as well as her sister and her sister’s family, all live in Russia.

“My granddaughter had a fight with my own sister’s granddaughter,” Ludmilla explained. “She said, ‘What are you making up? You are shooting at yourself, and you are lying,’” adding that a “lot of people” in Russia don’t believe what’s really happening in her country.

“This is Putin’s politics. Zombification,” Ludmilla said.

Whether Russia can conquer all of the Donbas — the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk — is an unanswered question after its military’s underwhelming performance in the war’s opening months.

Read the full story here.

It's after midnight in Kyiv. Here's what you need to know

Ukrainian officials reported missile attacks in several parts of the country on Tuesday.

Several of the targets in the missile strikes appear to have been related to the transport of military equipment into Ukraine. Russia has threatened to target shipments of weapons and their routes.?

Two missiles flying over the southwestern Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia were shot down, according to Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Interior Ministry.

Serhiy Borzov, head of the Vinnytsia region military administration, said two blasts that Vinnytsia residents heard “were our air defenses.” A search is underway for the wreckage the missiles.

Gerashchenko said another cruise missile was just shot down by air defenses “on its way to Kyiv” in the area of ??the Odesa highway. The mayor of Dolynska, a town in the central Kirovohrad region, said there had been missile strikes in the area but gave no further details.

Further west, close to the Slovakian border, the head of the Zakarpattia Regional Military Administration, Viktor Mykyta, said there had been a missile strike in the mountainous region. “We are clarifying the information on injuries and possible victims,” he said.

In Lviv,?Maksym Kozynskyi, the head of the Regional Military Administration, said three power substations had been damaged.?Separately, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, said a border area in the region of Sumy in the far northeast of the country had been struck with multiple rocket launchers and mortars.

The chairman of Ukrainian railways, Oleksandr Kamyshin, said that Russian missiles had struck six locations along lines in central and western Ukraine on Tuesday evening.

Here’s are look at the latest headlines from the Russia-Ukraine war:

  • Biden administration says it won’t allow Russia to “co-opt” Victory in Europe Day: White House National Security Council senior director for Europe Amanda Sloat told CNN Tuesday the Biden administration does not want to allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to “co-opt” Monday’s Victory Day by tying it to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “The first thing that I would say is Victory in Europe Day is not something that belongs to Russia alone, and the holiday is going to be celebrated across Europe?on May 8?and?May 9?to commemorate the day when unified efforts came together to defeat Nazi Germany at the end of World War II — that included the United States, many of our European allies, as well as the former Soviet Union, including both Russians and Ukrainians,” Sloat told CNN’s Victor Blackwell. “So, this is a broader holiday that we should not let be co-opted by President Putin on the 9th.”
  • The UN says 127 people arrived in?Zaporizhzhia?from areas in Mariupol: A total of 127 people have arrived in?Zaporizhzhia from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol and surrounding area following an evacuation corridor effort, according to a?written statement?from?UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine Osnat Lubrani on Tuesday. A total of 101 people, including “women, men, children, and older persons,” were evacuated from the steel plant while another 58 joined from Manhush, a town outside of Mariupol, according to Lubrani. “Some evacuees decided not to proceed towards Zaporizhzhia with the convoy,” Lubrani added in the statement.
  • At least 290?civilian bodies found in Irpin?since Russian withdrawal: The bodies of?290?civilians?have been recovered in the town of Irpin, outside of Kyiv, since the withdrawal of Russian forces,?Irpin?Mayor Oleksandr Markushin said Tuesday. In a statement on Facebook, Markushin said 185?of the dead have been identified, the majority of whom were men.?The cause of death was?“shrapnel and gunshot wounds.” According to Markushin,?at least?five of the dead suffered brain injuries and starvation. Five residents were shot dead in the yard of a high-rise building and?at?the premises of a children’s development center.
  • Russian forces?deported almost 40,000 people from Mariupol to Russia, Ukrainian official says: Russian forces?deported almost 40,000 people from Mariupol to Russia or the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said during a briefing at the Ukraine-Ukrinform media center on Tuesday. “We have already verified the lists of those who were deported from Mariupol to Russia or the so-called DPR. Almost 40,000 people. Now they have begun to hide these lists. Unfortunately, we are not able to verify everything at the moment, but we are continuing the work,” said?Boichenko.?
  • Ukraine invasion threatens to undermine stability throughout world, not just in Europe, top US general says: United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said the world is witnessing “the greatest threat to peace and security of Europe and perhaps the world” in decades due to the invasion of Ukraine. “The Russian invasion of Ukraine is threatening to undermine not only European peace and stability, but global peace and stability that my parents and generations of Americans fought so hard to defend,” Milley said.?He added that the US is “at a very critical and historic geo-strategic inflection point,” where the US military must “maintain readiness and modernize for the future” at the same time.
  • Long lines form at gas stations due to fuel shortages in Kyiv: Many gas stations across the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv are closed due to the lack of fuel in the country. Those stations that do remain open have long lines of cars waiting outside in snaking lines, with the average wait time at least an hour. “This is not normal. I spend more time thinking about how to find fuel than I spend trying to find customers,” a local taxi driver told CNN.
  • US State Department now classifies WNBA player Brittney Griner as “wrongfully detained” in Russia: The US State Department has now classified WNBA player Brittney Griner as wrongfully detained in Russia and her case is now being handled by the office of the US Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (SPEHA) Roger Carstens, a State Department official confirms to CNN. The SPEHA office leads and coordinates the government’s diplomatic efforts aimed at securing the release of Americans wrongfully detained abroad. They played a major role in securing the release of American Trevor Reed from Russia last week.?

President Biden touts US support for Ukraine as he thanks employees helping with Javelin production

President Biden shakes hands with an employee at Lockheed Martin’s manufacturing facility in Troy, Alabama, on Tuesday.

US President Joe Biden traveled to a Lockheed Martin manufacturing facility in Troy, Alabama, Tuesday to tout US efforts to support Ukraine as he thanked the hundreds of employees at the plant where the Javelins the US is providing to Ukraine are finished.

Biden cast the Lockheed workers as central to the fight for democracy.

Citing his time visiting Iraq and Afghanistan as a senator and vice president, he said he has “been in those battlefields where those missiles are fired,” and the employees here are making a “gigantic difference” and are “changing people’s lives” through their work assembling this weaponry.

“It’s amazing what you’ve done,” he said, pointing to the “gut-wrenching” atrocities committed by Russia and the “incredible bravery” of Ukrainians.

The US is “leading” efforts, he said, to help Ukrainians defend themselves amid Russia’s ongoing assault and war crimes, and the work of American Lockheed Martin employees makes that possible. And in many instances, he later added, they are “making fools of the Russian military.”

The President said this is an “inflection point in history,” referencing his belief that the world is in a battle between autocracies and democracies, a central tenant of his presidency.

The Lockheed Martin employees, he said, are in the “first, really, battle” to determine whether democracy can succeed.

He touted other weaponry, equipment, and resources the US has sent to Ukraine, noting the US has sent more than $3 billion over the past two months in security assistance, a “direct investment in defending freedom and democracy itself.”

Efforts on the frontlines of democracy in these roles is also good for the American economy, citing the jobs Lockheed Martin and others have created, he said.

Biden called on Congress to “quickly” pass the $33 billion military, economic, and humanitarian aid package he submitted last week. And citing the role of semiconductors in the Javelin production process, he also called for the swift passage of the bipartisan innovation act, which will help produce more chips, along with other provisions – highlighting its bipartisan support.

Semiconductors are “critical” to defense production capacity, he said, adding that the bill and issue “unites” both Democrats and Republicans. He also suggested that the Chinese Communist Party is lobbying lawmakers to vote against it, calling the bill a national security imperative.

District on the river Dnieper among several regions targeted in Ukraine missile strikes

Valentyn Reznichenko, head of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, said there had been two missile strikes in the district of Kamianske on the river Dnieper.?

One person was injured, Reznichenko said, and the movement of trains was stopped.

The mayor of Lviv in the west said two people had been injured in the missile strikes there, which had also affected water supplies.

The Ukrainian military in the south confirmed that?the railway infrastructure in Kirovohrad region had been hit and said that “unfortunately there are dead and wounded.”

Three more missiles aimed at the Odesa region were shot down by air defense forces, it said.?

Several regions in Ukraine targeted by missile strikes, officials say

Smoke rises from a missile strike in Lviv, Ukraine, on May 3.

Ukrainian officials have reported missile attacks in several parts of the country.

Two missiles flying over the southwestern Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia were shot down, according to Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Interior Ministry.

Serhiy Borzov, head of the Vinnytsia region military administration, said two blasts that Vinnytsia residents heard “were our air defenses.” A search is underway for the wreckage the missiles.

Gerashchenko said another cruise missile was just shot down by air defenses “on its way to Kyiv” in the area of ??the Odesa highway.

The mayor of Dolynska, a town in the central Kirovohrad region, said there had been missile strikes in the area but gave no further details.

Further west, close to the Slovakian border, the head of the Zakarpattia Regional Military Administration, Viktor Mykyta, said there had been a missile strike in the mountainous region. “We are clarifying the information on injuries and possible victims,” he said.

Several of the targets in Tuesday’s missile strikes appear to have been related to the transport of military equipment into Ukraine. Russia has threatened to target shipments of weapons and their routes.?

In Lviv,?Maksym Kozynskyi, the head of the Regional Military Administration, said three power substations had been damaged.?

Separately, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, said a border area in the region of Sumy in the far northeast of the country had been struck with multiple rocket launchers and mortars.

The chairman of Ukrainian railways, Oleksandr Kamyshin, said that Russian missiles had struck six locations along lines in central and western Ukraine on Tuesday evening.

He said there were no casualties among staff or passengers.

At least 14 passenger trains were held up, he said, and the damage to infrastructure damage was severe.

CNN’s Kostan Nechyporenko contributed reporting to this post.

US national security official: Biden administration won't allow Russia to "co-opt" Victory in Europe Day

White House National Security Council senior director for Europe Amanda Sloat told CNN Tuesday the Biden administration does not want to allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to “co-opt” Monday’s Victory Day by tying it to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

She declined to weigh in on intelligence indicating?Putin may use the holiday?to rally support for his invasion of Ukraine, including possible steps to formally declare war on its neighbor or annex the Donbas and Luhansk regions, telling CNN, “I’m not going to speculate about what Putin might do, but it’s very clear that he’s already launched an unjustified and unprovoked aggression against Ukraine, and our position?on May 9?is going to be the same as it’s been every day for the last two and a half months, which is going to continue giving Ukraine the security assistance it needs to defend itself.”

Sloat also pointed to US President Joe Biden’s trip to Troy, Alabama today, where he’s highlighting the security aid the administration has provided to Ukraine.

“President Biden currently is in Alabama, speaking to workers at a Javelin factory, which is one of the key elements of security assistance that we have given,” she said. “The president sent a supplemental request to Congress last week asking for funding to continue providing security assistance, and that’s what our strategy has been, and that’s what our strategy is going to remain going forward, which is giving the tools to enable Ukraine to defend itself against Russian aggression.”

Azovstal evacuees describe how they survived inside the plant and what they saw

Some of the evacuees from the Azovstal steel plant have been speaking about their experiences after arriving in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.

Elina?Tsybulchenko, a former employee at the plant, says she was in a bunker there from March 2 until May 1 with her family.

They’d survived on soup and tinned food and unsweetened tea — but not much of it, she said.

She told CNN that when they left, there were still 42?people left in their bunker. “Only civilians, we did not have any military in the bunker. ‘Because if we are in the bunker, you will be in danger’ — the military said,” according to Elina.?

Speaking of the bombing, she said: “I never thought the earth could shake like that. It didn’t just shake. The bunker jumped and trembled.”

CNN asked Tsybulchenko why she had chosen not to go to Russia or the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic.?

She said she had lost precious family heirlooms, such as a traditional embroidered costume which was 150 years old.

“It survived the Holodomor (the mass starvation of Ukraine by Stalin in the 1930s), deportation, World War I, World War II, even the Nazis did not destroy it. And the fascists did not destroy Mariupol. But the Russians came and destroyed it,” she told CNN.

The family had three apartments, she said. “And it all burned down, everything burned down.”

She said that after leaving, they spent a night in a Russian filtration center in Bezimenne village.

On the way to Zaporizhzhia, she said she started to cry when she saw the Ukrainian flag.

Tsybulchenko noted that now she just wants to wash and have clean underwear.?

Sergey Kuzmenko, also an employee of Azovstal, was there from March 8. He said that in April the soldiers at the plant had managed to get cereals and canned food into the plant every few days.

“At the beginning of the war, the plant had 36 bomb shelters. But at the moment there are only a few left,” he said. He described how a two-story building was demolished by one bomb,

He said as they left they saw that?two floors of their bunker were full of badly wounded soldiers.?

Kuzmenko told CNN that Russian troops had searched through all his belongings after he was evacuated and he was examined for tattoos. “They offered options to return to Zaporizhzhia, or go to Russia or stay in the DPR. Some stayed in Russia. They didn’t force them,” he said.

Kuzmenko described a tortuous journey with many stops and detours. He said the passengers were aware that hundreds of people they passed could not join the convoy, including about 500 waiting at a shopping center outside Mariupol and at villages along the way.

He said he was really looking forward to shaving for the first time in more than two months.?

Many of the evacuees seemed overwhelmed, exhausted, pale and thin, but also relieved to be safe. Some of the children seemed to be ravenously hungry.

Satellite images show the progression of destruction at the Azovstal plant

While some civilians evacuated from the Azovstal?steel?plant in Mariupol have arrived safely in Zaporizhzhia today, Russian forces are launching fresh attacks on the ruined complex, according to official accounts from both the Russian and Ukrainian sides.?

More than 100 civilians are estimated to still be inside the plant, Capt. Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, told Reuters on Monday.

These satellite images show how Russian forces have slowly decimated the plant since late March.

Here’s what the plant looked like on March 22, with a few holes seen in roofs and some scattered debris.

The Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 22.

This satellite image shows what the sprawling complex looked like more than two weeks later.

An overview of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 9.

And in this image from April 29, nearly every building on the plant has been destroyed, a satellite image from Maxar Technologies shows. Some roofs have completely collapsed and other buildings have been reduced to rubble.

Satellite imagery shows what remains of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 29.

UN: 127 people arrived in?Zaporizhzhia?from areas in Mariupol

Evacuees from the Azovstal steel plant and surrounding area arrive at an evacuation point in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on May 3.

A total of 127 people have arrived in?Zaporizhzhia from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol and surrounding area following an evacuation corridor effort, according to a?written statement?from?UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine Osnat Lubrani on Tuesday.

A total of 101 people, including “women, men, children, and older persons,” were evacuated from the steel plant while another 58 joined from Manhush, a town outside of Mariupol according to Lubrani.?

Addressing the press Tuesday afternoon, Lubrani said she hopes this evacuation operation could be a “steppingstone to more such operations that need to take place. There is knowledge that there are still civilians trapped in the Azovstal steel plant. Some of them have been afraid to come out.”

There was not a clear number of people who remain inside the?Azovstal steel plant, Lubrani added.

Why Putin is eyeing May 9 for his next possible big move on Ukraine

Russia may have invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, but?President Vladimir Putin?has insisted that his troops are carrying out a “special military operation” instead of?declaring war.?

However,?Western officials?and analysts believe that could change on May 9, a symbolic day for Russia, with a formal declaration of war that will pave the way for Putin to step up his campaign.

What is May 9?

May 9, known as “Victory Day” inside Russia, commemorates the country’s defeat of the Nazis in 1945.

It is marked by a military parade in Moscow, and Russian leaders traditionally stand on the tomb of Vladimir Lenin in Red Square to observe it.

“May 9 is designed to show off to the home crowd, to intimidate the opposition and to please the dictator of the time,” said James Nixey, director of the Russia-Eurasia Programme at Chatham House told CNN.

Western officials have long believed that Putin would leverage the symbolic significance and propaganda value of the day to announce either a military achievement in Ukraine, a major escalation of hostilities — or both.

The Russian president has a keen eye for symbolism, having launched the invasion of Ukraine the day after Defender of the Fatherland Day, another crucial military day in Russia.

Preparing for mobilization?

Putin has many options on the table, according to Oleg Ignatov, senior analyst for Russia at Crisis Group. “Declaring war is the toughest scenario,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — who has not formally declared war on Russia — imposed martial law in Ukraine when the Russian invasion began in late February.

Another option for Putin is to enact Russia’s mobilization law, which can be used to start a general or partial military mobilization “in cases of aggression against the Russian Federation or a direct threat of aggression, the outbreak of armed conflicts directed against the Russian Federation.”

That would allow the government not just to assemble troops but also to put the country’s economy on a war footing.

Mobilization could mean extending conscription for soldiers currently in the armed forces, calling on reservists or bringing in men of fighting age who have had military training, said Ignatov.

But it represents a big risk to Putin’s government, he said.

Continue reading here:

Russian service members drive tanks along the street before a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia April 28, 2022. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Related article Why May 9 is a big day for Russia, and what a declaration of war would mean

Russians attack railway substations near Lviv, Ukrainian Railways says

After CNN teams in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv heard several blasts in the past hour, Ukrainian Railways said that a number of trains have been halted around Lviv because of Russian attacks on railway power substations.

A number of trains will run with a delay, it said.

“In particular, trains have been detained at the entrance to Lviv, information is being updated,” according to Ukrainian Railways.

Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi said that parts of the city are without power.?Sadovyi also said that?“as a result of the missile strikes, two power substations were damaged.”

“Everyone stay in the shelters,” he said in a brief Telegram post.

CNN reporters heard the blasts coming from directions to the east, south and west of the city center. One of the sites is close to the city center.

From another site, further away, a huge plume of black smoke could be?seen billowing across the sky.

Smoke continues to drift across the city, with the largest fire burning to the west of the city center.

Traffic that had come to a standstill immediately after the strikes began to move about 45 minutes later.

An eyewitness who spoke to CNN said they “saw the missile flying close by; I thought it was a plane” but then they heard a “loud explosion.”

“I was worried that people were injured, so we quickly took a car and drove there, because the sound of the explosion was very loud. We took shovels, buckets, axes and quickly went there,” the eyewitness said.

“We thought maybe they hit houses, but they hit the electricity substation. It is located near the railway tracks. Then we heard the second explosion; it was the explosion of the [substation’s] transformer. The fire was getting bigger, we saw the police, we showed them the direction, we showed them where the road is. Now the fire trucks are arriving.”

At least 290?civilian bodies found in Irpin?since Russian withdrawal, mayor says

Anna Shevchenko, 35, reacts next to her home in Irpin, near Kyiv, Tuesday, May 3, 2022. The house, built by Shevchenko's grandparents, was nearly completely destroyed by bombing in late March during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The bodies of?290?civilians?have been recovered in the town of Irpin, outside of Kyiv, since the withdrawal of Russian forces,?Irpin?Mayor Oleksandr Markushin said Tuesday.

In a statement on Facebook, Markushin said 185?of the dead have been identified, the majority of whom were men.?The cause of death was?“shrapnel and gunshot wounds.”

According to Markushin,?at least?five of the dead suffered brain injuries and starvation. Five residents were shot dead in the yard of a high-rise building and?at?the premises of a children’s development center.

Russian forces?deport almost 40,000 people from Mariupol to Russia, Ukrainian official says

Russian forces?deported almost 40,000 people from Mariupol to Russia or the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said during a briefing at the Ukraine-Ukrinform media center on Tuesday.

Russian military “takes the local population to the outskirts of Russia, to the Far East, or to Siberia and there they use them for various jobs,” Boichenko said, adding that Mariupol residents are issued a certificate of resettlement and are involved in “humiliating work.”

Call between Macron and Putin lasted over 2 hours

France's President Emmanuel Macron takes part in an expanded videoconference with the Quint group at the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris, France, on April 19.

French President Emmanuel Macron had a call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that lasted over two hours, the élysée Palace said Tuesday.

Macron warned Putin of the consequences of the war in Ukraine and called for an end to the “devastating aggression,” according to a statement from the Elysée Palace. Macron also “expressed his deep concern about Mariupol” and the situation in the Donbas region, it added. He also “called on Russia to allow the further evacuation of the Azovstal factory,” according to the statement.

According to the Kremlin, Putin told Macron about the progress of “the special operation to protect Donbas” and evacuation of civilians “held by the nationalists”?from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, using terms to justify his invasion of Ukraine.

Putin underlined that despite the “unpreparedness” of Kyiv authorities,?Moscow is still open for dialogue.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly said he wants to talk to Putin directly.

According to the Kremlin statement, Macron raised the issue of?ensuring global food security.?Putin in response said that the situation is complicated by the sanctions imposed by the Western countries.

Ukraine invasion threatens to undermine stability throughout world, not just in Europe, top US general says

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley testifies before the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Defense on Tuesday, May 3, 2022 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.

United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said the world is witnessing “the greatest threat to peace and security of Europe and perhaps the world” in decades due to the invasion of Ukraine.

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine is threatening to undermine not only European peace and stability, but global peace and stability that my parents and generations of Americans fought so hard to defend,” Milley said.?

Milley said the US is “at a very critical and historic geo-strategic inflection point,” where the US military must “maintain readiness and modernize for the future” at the same time.

He told lawmakers the world is becoming “more unstable” during his opening statement at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the Defense Budget on Tuesday.

“The potential for significant international conflict between great powers is increasing, not decreasing,” Milley said.

"This is not normal": Long lines form at gas stations due to fuel shortages in Kyiv

Long lines for fuel at a gas station in Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 3.

Many gas stations across the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv are closed due to the lack of fuel in the country.

Those stations that do remain open have long lines of cars waiting outside in snaking lines, with the average wait time at least an hour.

“There are fewer people in Kyiv than before so fewer customers for my taxi.”

As well as restricting travel, the lack of fuel is also having an impact on local business owners trying to keep their companies afloat.

“I searched everywhere, there is no gas at any station in Kyiv, we are very lucky that we found it here.”

Some background: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week said fuel shortages will be stopped despite Russian attacks damaging a number of oil depots across the country.

In a statement last week, Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said the shortages would be eliminated within a week, after operator’s had secured contracts with European suppliers.

Meanwhile, authorities in Kyiv have urged people not to use their cars in order to save fuel for the military.

Some evacuees from Mariupol's Azovstal steel plant arrive in Zaporizhzhia

Refugees begin to arrive in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on May 3

CNN spoke to some evacuees from Mariupol’s embattled Azovstal steel plant as they arrive in Ukraine-controlled Zaporizhzhia.

An elderly woman who emerged from a bus was carrying?small amounts of medicine, a?plastic cup, a toothbrush, a?tissue paper — the?things she was living off over?the past weeks.?

She had been sheltering in Azovstal for weeks and hadn’t seen the sun in days.

“You can see in the exhaustion of?her face. And you can see the head torch around her neck. She’s clearly been living in the?dark,” CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh reported.

Not having seen the sunlight in days meant she was now having some difficulty seeing, he added.

Civilians evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol have arrived in Zaporizhzhia.?

CNN’s team saw the arrival of five buses with evacuees and witnessed emotional scenes, as the evacuees emerged from the buses and were greeted by volunteers.?

After getting off the buses, the evacuees are heading to tents that the Ukrainian government has set up to help them with the next part of their journey.??

See evacuees from Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant arrive in Zaporizhzhia:

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02:58 - Source: cnn

UN agencies say Azovstal steel plant evacuees have arrived in Zaporizhzhia

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that civilians evacuated from Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol have reached safety in Zaporizhzhia.

“We’ll continue to engage parties to the conflict & do all we can to support safe passage for civilians trapped in war-impacted areas,” the OCHA said.

The UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Osnat Lubrani, said she was “relieved to confirm that the safe passage operation from Mariupol has been successful.”

“The people I travelled with told me heartbreaking stories of the hell they went through. I’m thinking about the people who remain trapped. We will do all we can to assist them,” she tweeted.

The International Red Cross also confirmed the safe arrival of the convoy.

See the tweet:

US State Department now classifies WNBA player Brittney Griner as "wrongfully detained" in Russia

Brittney Griner #15 of Team United States looks on against Serbia during the second half of the women's basketball semifinals on August 6 in Saitama, Japan.

The US State Department has now classified WNBA player Brittney Griner as wrongfully detained in Russia and her case is now being handled by the office of the US Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (SPEHA) Roger Carstens, a State Department official confirms to CNN.?

The SPEHA office leads and coordinates the government’s diplomatic efforts aimed at securing the release of Americans wrongfully detained abroad. They played a major role in securing the release of Trevor Reed from Russia last week.?

Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and player for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, was arrested in February at a Moscow airport and accused by Russian authorities of smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance — an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

More than 100 people evacuated from Azovstal plant expected to arrive in Zaporizhzhia Tuesday

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has told reporters in Zaporizhzhia that a convoy of 106 people evacuated from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol is expected to arrive later Tuesday.

But she said hundreds of others trying to leave Mariupol and other Russian-occupied areas were being prevented from doing so by Russian forces.

Vereshchuk said that the ceasefire around Azovstal had not been long enough to get all civilians out, “so hundreds more women, children and the elderly are under the rubble.”?

She said there were also 40 seriously injured soldiers trapped at the plant in urgent need of medical care.

Of the 150 people who had been able to leave the ruined complex, she said, 106 had been sent to Zaporizhzhia.

Vereshchuk accused the Russians of changing agreements about the evacuations, which meant that people from occupied towns like Tokmak and Vasylivka, which are south of Zaporizhzhia, could not leave.

The evacuation from Azovstal was brokered and organized by the United Nations and International Red Cross.

“It is an immense relief that some civilians who have suffered for weeks are now out,” International Committee of the Red Cross President Peter Maurer said Tuesday.?

“The ICRC hasn’t forgotten the people who are still there, nor those in other areas affected by the hostilities or those in dire need of humanitarian relief, wherever they are. We will not spare any effort to reach them,” he added.

5 people injured in Mykolaiv region shelling, according to top regional official

Five?people were injured in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region as a result of attacks from Russian forces in the past 24 hours,?regional council?head Hanna?Zamazeeva?said in a Telegram post on Tuesday.

All the victims were taken to hospitals and are receiving necessary assistance, Zamazeeva said. ?

According to Zamazeeva, there are currently 145 people in total in local hospitals due to the attacks in the region.

Russia and Ukraine are both reporting fighting around Azovstal plant in Mariupol

A view of heavily damaged Asovstal steel plant following airstrikes in?Mariupol, Ukraine, in this handout image from a video released on May 3.

Video from the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol shows thick columns of smoke rising from the area of the Azovstal steel plant amid the sound of heavy explosions.?

Russian forces are launching fresh attacks on the ruined complex, according to official accounts from both sides.?

All night long the plant was hit by artillery, naval artillery and aircraft. Two civilian women in one of the bunkers were killed as a result of a massive air strike,” Denys Shlega, a commander in the National Guard, told Ukrainian television from Azovstal.

The Azov regiment posted images of the bodies of two women inside the complex.??

Sviatoslav Palamar, an Azov Regiment commander also inside the complex, told CNN on Tuesday that?Azovstal “is now being assaulted.”

The field hospital had been badly damaged and “the doctors who perform operations are in very difficult conditions and do everything possible and impossible. Currently, there are about 500 wounded at the plant,” Shlega added.

About 200 civilians are still at the plant, including about 20 children, Shlega said.

Russian state media RIA Novosti reported Tuesday that Ukrainian fighters “took advantage of the ceasefire at Azovstal and assumed firing positions.” The outlet cited the Russian defense ministry spokesperson Vadim Astafiev.?RIA Novosti reported that Russian troops continue to the attack those firing positions.

“They have left the bunkers and assumed defensive positions on the territory of the plant. Currently, the DPR troops and the Russian armed forces are starting to destroy those positions with artillery and aviation,” Astafiev said.?

On Sunday, about 100 civilians were able to leave the plant in an evacuation organized by the United Nations and International Red Cross, but there have been no evacuations since then.

UK prime minister unveils new military aid to Ukraine

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky claps during a session of a parliament while British Prime Minister?Boris?Johnson?addresses Ukrainian lawmakers in Kyiv, Ukraine, via videolink, on May 3.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced 300 million euros ($376 million) in new military aid to Ukraine, telling the Ukrainian parliament that the country “will win” against Russia.

According to a transcript provided by Johnson’s office, he said:?

The military aid includes “radars to pinpoint the artillery bombarding your cities, heavy lift drones to supply your forces, and thousands of night vision devices.”

“We will carry on supplying Ukraine, alongside your other friends, with weapons, funding and humanitarian aid, until we have achieved our long-term goal, which must be so to fortify Ukraine that no-one will ever dare to attack you again,” Johnson added.

Putin signs decree on retaliatory sanctions against West

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree announcing retaliatory economic measures in response to the “unfriendly actions” of foreign states and international organizations?on Tuesday, according to the document published on the official government’s website.

Putin’s decree prohibits making transactions and fulfilling obligations to foreign individuals and legal entities that have fallen under the sanctions, such as trading and export products and resources, without specifying which individuals or entities may be affected by the measures.

According to the decree, these are the necessary measures to protect Russia’s national interests “in connection with the unfriendly actions of the United States of America and foreign states and international organizations that have joined them, which contradict international law and are aimed at illegally restricting or depriving the Russian Federation, citizens of the Russian Federation and Russian legal entities of the right to property.”

The decree said it is in effect until the economic measures are canceled.

At least 9 people killed by shelling and air strikes across Donetsk, regional officials say

The regional military administration in Donetsk said nine people have been killed by artillery barrages and air strikes carried out by Russian forces.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration, said Russian planes had bombed the town of Avdiivka Tuesday morning and that a residential area in the central part of the city was under attack. He said the same area had come under rocket fire on Monday night.

“At least 3 people have been killed and 2 wounded and 8 houses damaged,” he said.

Shelling of the town of Vuhledar killed three people, and three more civilians were killed in the shelling of Lyman, a town that has been severely damaged in the last few days, according to video geolocated by CNN.?

Russia accuses Israel of supporting “neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv,” repeating false claim about Ukraine's government

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid speaks during a press briefing at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, Israel, on April 24.

Russia accused Israel of supporting “the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv” Tuesday, raising the stakes in a high-level diplomatic dispute between Moscow and the Jewish state over Ukraine, anti-Semitism and Adolf Hitler.

The accusation potentially increases pressure on Israel.

Israel voted in the United Nations to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has accused Russia of war crimes.

But the Jewish state has not fully joined Western sanctions on Moscow or supplied Ukraine with weapons, and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has tried to mediate between Russia and Ukraine.

The Russian salvo came in a thousand-word broadside from the Foreign Ministry which used examples of forced Jewish collaboration with the Nazis and contemporary instances of anti-Semitism in Ukraine to defend Vladimir Putin’s tendentious claim to have invaded Ukraine in order to “de-Nazify” the country.

Israeli officials also responded with fury Monday to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asserting that Hitler had “Jewish blood.”

Lavrov was attempting to deflect a question about why Russia asserted that Ukraine was in the grip of neo-Nazis when its President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish.

Foreign Minister Lapid responded Monday that Lavrov’s “remarks are both an unforgivable and outrageous statement as well as a terrible historical error,” and Prime Minister Bennett called Lavrov’s statement “lies.”

Scores of people evacuated from Lyman as Russia continues attack

People sit in a bulletproof bus as they evacuate from the eastern Ukraine city of Lyman, Ukraine, on May 2.

Ukrainian volunteers and police evacuated scores of people on Tuesday from Lyman, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, as the Russian military bombarded the town with artillery fire.

A CNN team saw an armored coach and several other vehicles drive back and forth twice to Lyman, carrying men, women, and children of all ages.

“I took what I could with me. I left everything there. Even the house was left open.”

He said that he had been injured on Monday after a piece of shrapnel hit his neck.

From a few kilometers down the road, the CNN team could hear regular artillery exchanges from the Ukrainian and Russian militaries.

Some background: Russian forces are advancing on from the east on Lyman, a town on the main road to the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

It has been shelled frequently in the last few days as Russian troops step up their offensive to seize the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The Ukrainian military says the Russians have injected fresh troops and artillery into the region, which has also suffered air and drone attacks.

Fiji court rules US can seize superyacht believed to be owned by Russian oligarch

The super yacht Amadea is docked at the Queens Wharf in Lautoka, Fiji, on April 15.

Fiji’s High Court has granted permission allowing the US to seize a superyacht that it claims belongs to Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov.

The vessel, called the Amadea, has been restrained from leaving Fijian waters since mid-April after Fiji’s?Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) filed for its restraint and applied to register the US warrant.?

Justice Deepthi Amaratunga granted the US’ order to seize the superyacht, a statement released on Tuesday said.?

The yacht is registered to?Millemarin Investments Ltd, but the US claims it is “beneficially” owned?by Kerimov, according to a DPP spokesperson, who added that the issue of ownership will likely be decided in a US court.?

CNN has reached?out to Millemarin for comment, but has not yet heard back.?

According to Australian public broadcaster ABC, defense lawyer Feizal Haniff, acting for Millemarin, asked the court for a stay following the ruling.

“There is some indication that American authorities are wanting to take this boat away,”?Haniff?told journalists outside court, ABC reported.?”(The judge) said we have a right to appeal, and obviously he said that we will ensure that the boat is in Fiji while the stay application is filed.”

Kerimov, a member of the Russian Federation Council, has been sanctioned by the US Treasury since 2018 in response to Russia’s activity in Crimea and support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He has also been sanctioned by the UK and European Union in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.?

Some background: The news comes nearly a week after US President Joe Biden outlined a proposal that would further pressure Russian oligarchs over the war in Ukraine, including using money from their seized assets to fund Ukraine’s defense.

He said the proposal would strengthen US law enforcement capabilities to seize property linked to Russia’s kleptocracy.

“It’s going to create new?expedited procedures for forfeiture and?seizure of these properties and it’s going to ensure that when?the oligarchs’ assets are sold?off, funds can be used directly to remedy the harm Russia caused and help rebuild Ukraine,” Biden said.

The package — developed through an interagency process including the Treasury Department, Justice Department, State Department and Commerce Department — will “establish new authorities for the forfeiture of property linked to Russian kleptocracy,?allow the government to use the proceeds?to support Ukraine and further strengthen related law enforcement tools,” the White House said in a fact sheet.

CNN’s Kate Sullivan, Arlette Saenz, Betsy Klein and Kevin Liptak contributed reporting to this post.

"The Russians didn't let them go": As Ukrainians flee to Zaporizhzhia, they leave loved ones behind

A general view shows a registration and processing area for internally displaced people arriving from Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on May 2.

There were high expectations that evacuees from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol would finally arrive at a processing center in Zaporizhzhia, central Ukraine, on Monday, after a long and tortuous journey.?

Since then, however, the center based in a parking lot seems to contain more members of the media than families who have managed to flee.

The evacuees from Azovstal are now expected to arrive en masse later today.

For now, neatly organized rows of red-and-white plastic tape and wooden crates dictate where vehicles should enter to be registered and processed, while medical staff are on standby in a large white tent to coordinate the food, clothes and toys awaiting evacuees.

Families from villages south of Zaporizhzhia, near Mariupol and other regions in Ukraine have slowly trickled into the center. Some were weary from days of trying to reach Ukrainian-held territory. Others became teary eyed when seeing their loved ones.

Natasha told CNN she got lucky. Her family evacuated from Dniprorudne – a small city north of Melitopol – at around 6 a.m. on Monday. “There is a huge convoy of about 50 vehicles but they got stuck in Vasilivka. The Russians didn’t let them go,” she said.

The Russians said they have no orders to let people through, according to another evacuee Julia. Julia left on Monday morning and made it to Zaporizhzhia, although her boyfriend is still on the road. He left on Saturday.

“He’ll probably go back if the Russians don’t let them pass,” she said. “But for now, locals gave him a place to stay.”

Some background: The standoff between Russian and Ukrainian forces at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukraine’s unwavering resistance in the face of an enemy that?far outnumbers them.

On Sunday,?more than 100 civilians were evacuated?from the sprawling industrial complex, which has been under heavy Russian bombardment. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Sunday evening that for the first time, the vital corridor to evacuate civilians from the plant had started working, paving the way for them to pass through.

Those evacuated Sunday emerged from the plant to rubble-strewn streets and unrecognizable neighborhoods in bombed-out Mariupol.

This was short-lived, however, as Russian shelling once again intensified and put a halt to further rescue efforts, the commander of the 12th brigade of the National Guard Denis Schlegar?said.

A further 100 people are thought to remain at the plant, including 20 children, the deputy commander of the Ukrainian Azov Regiment, Svyatoslav Palamar,?told Reuters on Monday.

CNN’s Bernadette Tuazon, Lauren Said-Moorhouse, Isa Soares, Madalena Araujo and Oleksandra Ochman contributed reporting to this post.

Growing rift as top players slam Wimbledon decision to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes

Former Ukrainian tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky talks with journalists at Independence Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 15.

There is a growing split between some of the world’s leading tennis players over?Wimbledon’s decision to ban competitors?from Russia and Belarus due to the invasion of Ukraine.

Explaining its stance, Wimbledon said it didn’t want to “benefit the propaganda machine of the Russian regime.”

However,?Rafael Nadal,?Andy Murray and?Novak Djokovic, who have won 10 Wimbledon titles between them, have joined the likes of the ATP and WTA in their opposition to the ban.

Ukrainian players have largely supported the ban, and Sergiy Stakhovsky – who retired earlier this year and has since joined the Ukrainian army to defend his homeland – condemned those pushing back.

The All England Lawn Tennis Club’s (AETLC) decision marks the first time that Russian and Belarusian players have been banned from an elite tennis event following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Read more here:

nadal djokovic murray split

Related article Nadal, Djokovic and Murray slam Wimbledon decision to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes

Nearly 1.1 million Ukrainians have been evacuated to Russian territory, says defense ministry

Refugees from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic stay at temporary accommodation on in Novocherkassk, 40 km. north from Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on February 25.

Almost 1.1 million people have been evacuated from Ukraine to Russian territory since the invasion began on February 24, Russian officials said on Tuesday.

Of that figure, almost 200,000 are children, according to Russia’s defense ministry.

Russian authorities said thousands of people have been evacuated in the past 24 hours from “danger areas.”

“In the past 24 hours, 11,550 people, including 1,847 children, have been evacuated from danger areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, Ukraine to Russian territory without the involvement of Ukrainian authorities,” said Russian Colonel-General, Mikhail Mizintsev.

There is no way to verify the ministry’s data on evacuations. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that thousands of citizens are being deported to Russia forcibly.

Some background: A?CNN investigation?in April revealed that Russian forces and allied separatist soldiers were taking Mariupol residents to a so-called “filtration center” set up in Bezimenne, where they were registered before being sent on to Russia – many against their will. Ukrainian government and local Mariupol officials say that tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens have been forcibly deported to the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Russia since the war began.

CNN spoke with two people who were brought to Bezimenne before being sent to Russia. They described a massive military tent, where Russian and DPR soldiers were processing hundreds of people –?they were fingerprinted, photographed, their phones searched, interrogated, passports reviewed and registered into databases.

Read the full CNN investigation here:

An aerial view shows residential buildings that were damaged during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 3, 2022. Picture taken April 3, 2022. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Pavel Klimov     TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Related article Russia or die: After weeks under Putin's bombs, these Ukrainians were given only one way out

Azovstal evacuees are moving but civilians are still stranded, says mayor of Mariupol

Mariupol mayor Vadym Boichenko has said that an evacuation convoy has begun moving from the coastal town of Berdiansk, some 50 miles (85 kilometers) west of the besieged city, towards territory held by Ukraine.

The convoy includes many of the first batch of people to have been evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant.

“We expect that it will work, that our residents, those who hid for more than two months on Azovstal, will get to the territory controlled by Ukraine.”

Boichenko was less optimistic about the people still trapped in Azovstal.

“They are also waiting to be evacuated. More than 200 locals are still hiding in the area. And also there our [military] guys continue to defend Mariupol, our state.”

Boichenko said it remained very difficult for thousands of people in Mariupol to leave Russian controlled territory. He said 2,000 residents remain stranded in the Berdiansk area.

Pope Francis says Hungary's Viktor Orban told him Putin plans to end war on May 9

Pope?Francis?receives in audience H.E. Mr. Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary, at the Vatican, Italy, on April 21.

Pope Francis said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told him when they met in late April that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to end the invasion of Ukraine on May 9 — Russia’s Victory Day.?

The Pope made the comments to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in an interview published Tuesday.

“This would also explain?the speed of the escalation of these days. Because now it’s not just the Donbas, it’s Crimea, it’s Odesa, it’s taking away the Black Sea?port from Ukraine, it’s everything.

“There is not enough will for peace,” the Pope said.?“I am pessimistic, but we must make every possible gesture to stop the war.”?

He also repeated earlier statements that he is ready to travel to Moscow to meet with Putin and compared the war in Ukraine to the genocide in Rwanda.?

The Pope said he will not travel to Kyiv for now, instead sending a representative.

“First I have to go to Moscow, first I have to meet Putin. But I’m a priest too, what can I do??I’ll do whatever?I can. If Putin opened the door,” he said.

Ukrainian military says 12 Russian attacks repulsed across eastern regions?

Ukrainian servicemen adjust a drone at their position near the city of Izium, Ukraine, on May 2.

The Ukrainian armed forces say they have repulsed 12 Russian attacks over the past day in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

They also claim to have brought down seven attack drones.

In its daily operational update, the General Staff said there are signs the Russians are taking equipment out of storage to replenish units.?

CNN is unable to verify the claim.

On the battlefield: The General Staff said Russian forces had continued attacks from the Izium direction and efforts to take full control of the towns of Rubizhne and Popasna further east.

The General Staff also suggested that resistance is growing in occupied areas.

In Luhansk: Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk region military administration, said shelling had damaged or destroyed homes in several towns that have been under weeks of bombardment, including Severodonetsk, Hirske and Orikhove. He did not give any casualty figures.

In Donetsk: Three people were reported killed in shelling of the town of Vuhleda.?

On the southern front: Authorities in the region of Zaporizhzhia say fighting continues, especially around the town of Hulyaipole. Russian units have been trying to break through in that area, which would bring them closer to the regional capital.

Putin may soon officially declare war on Ukraine, US and Western officials say

Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a speech as he hosts Russia's medal-winning athletes of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games and members of the country's Paralympic team at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on April 26.

Russian President Vladimir Putin could formally declare war on Ukraine as soon as May 9, a move that would enable the full mobilization of Russia’s reserve forces as invasion efforts continue to falter, US and Western officials believe.

May 9, known as “Victory Day” inside of Russia, commemorates the country’s defeat of the Nazis in 1945.

Western officials have long believed that Putin would leverage the symbolic significance and propaganda value of that day to announce either a military achievement in Ukraine, a major escalation of hostilities – or both.

Officials have begun to hone in on one scenario, which is that Putin formally declares war on Ukraine on May 9. To date, Putin has insisted on referring to the brutal monthslong conflict as a “special military operation,” effectively banning words such as invasion and war.

What it means: A formal declaration of war could potentially bolster public support for the invasion. It would also, under Russian law, allow Putin to mobilize reserve forces and draft conscripts, which officials say Russia desperately needs amid a growing manpower shortage. Western and Ukrainian officials have estimated that at least 10,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the war since Russia invaded just over two months ago.

Read the full story:

TOPSHOT - Russian President Vladimir Putin looks on during a press conference after meeting with French President in Moscow, on February 7, 2022. - International efforts to defuse the standoff over Ukraine intensified with French President holding talks in Moscow and German Chancellor in Washington to coordinate policies as fears of a Russian invasion mount. (Photo by Thibault Camus / POOL / AFP) (Photo by THIBAULT CAMUS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article Putin may soon officially declare war on Ukraine, US and Western officials say

Analysis: The art of the Ukrainian drop-by meeting

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi during a visit by a U.S. congressional delegation on April 30, in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin?couldn’t have been more clear?that his aim in invading Ukraine was to end its right to exist as a free, independent nation.

So, the flow of high-profile Western visits to the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv – most recently by?House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the weekend?– is about more than daring photo-ops.

Such trips by leaders who stand side-by-side with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky make an important statement that Ukraine remains a viable, functioning nation, notwithstanding Putin’s forces now trying to bite off a big chunk in the east.

And they are a reminder to the Russian leader and the world that the primary aim he laid out at the start of the war has not been achieved. From Ukraine’s point of view, the trips keep the country’s plight in the headlines and send visitors home fresh with the horrors of a vicious war as they deliberate over Western aid.

Pelosi’s trip will only create more speculation about whether US President Joe Biden will eventually make his own clandestine swoop into Kyiv – a prospect that is likely to perturb Secret Service planners since the US President travels with a far more visible security footprint than the speaker.?

Read the full analysis:

In this image released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office on Sunday, May 1, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, centre right, and U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi shake hands during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. Pelosi, second in line to the presidency after the vice president, is the highest-ranking American leader to visit Ukraine since the start of the war, and her visit marks a major show of continuing support for the country's struggle against Russia. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Related article Analysis: The art of the Ukrainian drop-by meeting

Editor’s Note:?This story was excerpted from the May 3 edition of CNN’s Meanwhile in America, the daily email about US politics for global readers.?Click here to read past editions and subscribe.

It's 7 a.m. in Kyiv. Here's what you need to know

Smoke rises above the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in the southern port city of?Mariupol, Ukraine, on May 2.

All eyes are on the steel plant in Mariupol, where civilians and the last Ukrainian defenders of the besieged city are sheltering against nonstop Russian assaults. Meanwhile, Russian forces continue to press in the east, with warnings from the West that Russia’s formal declaration of war could come within a week.

Here are the latest developments:

  • Trapped in the steel plant: About 100 civilians, including women and elderly people, and about 20 children are still trapped inside the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged southern city of Mariupol, according to a Ukrainian captain inside. They have faced constant bombardment from Russian forces, while running out of food and water inside, he said. About 100 civilians were evacuated from the plant Sunday, but a further?planned evacuation for Monday did not take place.
  • Civilian evacuations planned: There will be a civilian evacuation early Tuesday morning in Mariupol, according to the city council’s Telegram channel. The agreement was struck with assistance from the United Nations and the Red Cross. Although it will evacuate Mariupol citizens, the convoy will actually be leaving from a roundabout near Berdiansk, a Russian-occupied city to the west of Mariupol.
  • Strike in Odesa: A missile hit infrastructure facilities in the southern city of Odesa on Monday, including a church and a dormitory. Teenagers are among the casualties, with a 14-year-old boy killed and a 17-year-old girl wounded, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky’s claims have not been independently verified by CNN.
  • Russia may declare war: US and Western officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin could formally declare war on Ukraine as soon as May 9, which would allow for the full mobilization of Russia’s reserve forces – which officials say Russia desperately needs amid a growing manpower shortage. May 9 is known as Russia’s “Victory Day,” marking Russia’s defeat of the Nazis in 1945.
  • Annexing the east: The US has “highly credible” intelligence reports that Russia will try to annex the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk “some time in mid-May,” said a US ambassador on Monday. There are also indications that Russia could be planning to declare and annex a “people’s republic” in the southeastern city of Kherson.
  • Retaking Ukrainian territory: The Ukrainian military said its forces have won back control of several settlements to the north and east of Kharkiv, potentially making it more difficult for the Russians to launch missile and artillery attacks against the northeastern city.

US Olympic Committee offers support to get Brittney Griner released from Russia, USA Today reports

Photo of Brittney Griner at a Russian police station, shown on Russian state TV, in early March.

The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is lending its support to efforts to get basketball player Brittney Griner released from custody in Russia, according to USA Today.

“If we felt like there was something we could do to be helpful, we would, in a heartbeat,” she said.

Hirshland said USOPC has had talks with the International Olympic Committee regarding Griner. Hirshland said she hasn’t spoken with IOC president Thomas Bach, but added that “the IOC has an acute focus on her and her health and safety as well.”

When reached by CNN, a USOPC spokesman verified USA Today’s reporting but declined to comment further.

Some context: Griner, who plays for Russian powerhouse UMMC Ekaterinburg during the WNBA offseason, was arrested by Russian authorities in February at a Moscow airport and accused of smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance – an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Ukrainian fighter trapped in steel plant: "If we run out of food, we'll be catching birds"

Svyatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Ukrainian Azov Regiment.

Civilians and Ukrainian forces sheltering at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol are facing “nonstop” bombardment, with basic supplies running low as Ukrainian officials race to evacuate those inside, according to a captain in the plant.

“The strikes (are) going on nonstop, it’s been tank artillery, volley artillery, and every three to five minutes there were air bombardments,” said Svyatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Ukrainian Azov Regiment. “There are still civilians sheltering in the plant, and yet the enemy continues this bombing.”

About 100 civilians were evacuated from the plant Sunday, but a further?planned evacuation for Monday did not take place. Meanwhile, the mood inside is grim, with the regiment reporting low supplies of water and food.

“If (worst) comes to worst and we run out of food, we’ll be catching birds, and we’ll be doing everything just to stand firm,” he said.

Last site of defense: Russia has claimed that its soldiers have reached the outskirts of the plant and are carrying out a “step by step clearing mission,” which Palamar denied.

“As of now, the entire plant territory is under our control and our defense is along the perimeter of the Azov steel plant, we are holding the defense,” he said.

Zelensky: Teenager killed in Russian strike on Odesa, 220 Ukrainian children dead since war began

Firefighters spray water on a building after a missile strike in Odesa on May 2.

A Russian missile strike on a dormitory in Odesa killed a 14-year-old boy and wounded a 17-year-old girl, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a nightly address on Monday.

Zelensky said 220 Ukrainian children have been killed since the start of the Russian invasion.

At least 1,570 educational institutions have been destroyed or damaged by shelling, he added.

CNN has not independently verified Zelensky’s claims.

President Zelensky: Russia has "forgotten all the lessons of World War II"

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

Russia has “forgotten all the lessons of World War II,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a nightly address on Monday, following comments from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Sunday alleging that Adolf Hitler had “Jewish blood” and that “the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews.”

Lavrov’s remarks also prompted a furious response from Israel, with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid calling them?“unforgivable and outrageous,” adding that “Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust.”

“How could this be said on the eve of the anniversary of the victory over Nazism? These words mean that Russia’s top diplomat is blaming the Jewish people for Nazi crimes. No words,” Zelensky said.

Putin could formally declare war on Ukraine as soon as May 9, US and Western officials believe

Russian President Vladimir Putin could move to formally declaring war on Ukraine as soon as May 9, which would allow for the full mobilization of Russia’s reserve forces as they attempt to conquer eastern and southern Ukraine, US and Western officials believe.

May 9, known as Russia’s “Victory Day,” commemorates the Russians’ defeat of the Nazis in 1945. Western officials have long believed that Putin would leverage the symbolic significance and propaganda value of that day to announce either a military achievement in Ukraine, a major escalation of hostilities — or both.?

Officials have begun to hone in on one scenario, which is that Putin formally declares war on Ukraine on May 9. To date, Russian officials have insisted that the conflict was only a “special military operation” with the central goal of “denazification.”?

Wallace added that he “would not be surprised, and I don’t have any information about this, that he is probably going to declare on this May Day that ‘we are now at war with the world’s Nazis and we need to mass mobilize the Russian people.’”

More context: A formal declaration of war on May 9 could galvanize Russian citizens and surge popular opinion for the invasion. It would also, under Russian law, allow Putin to mobilize reserve forces and draft conscripts, which officials say Russia desperately needs amid a growing manpower shortage. Western and Ukrainian officials have estimated that at least 10,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the war since Russia invaded just over two months ago.?

Other options for May 9 include annexing the breakaway territories?of Luhansk?and Donetsk?in eastern Ukraine, making a major push for Odesa in the south, or declaring full control over the southern port city of Mariupol.?

The US has “highly credible” intelligence reports that Russia will try to annex Luhansk and Donetsk “some time in mid-May,” the US Ambassador to OSCE Michael Carpenter said on Monday. There are also indications that Russia could be planning to declare and annex a “people’s republic” in the southeastern city of Kherson.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Monday that there is “good reason to believe that the Russians will do everything they can to use” May 9 for propaganda purposes.

Price added that he had “seen the speculation that Russia may formally declare war” on May 9, and said, “that would be a great irony if Moscow used the occasion of ‘Victory Day’ to declare war, which in itself would allow them to surge conscripts in a way they’re not able to do now, in a way that would be tantamount to revealing to the world that their war effort is failing, that they are floundering in their military campaign and military objectives.”

“I’m quite confident that we’ll be hearing more from Moscow in the lead up to May 9,” Price added. “I’m quite confident that you will be hearing more from the United States, from our partners, including our NATO partners, in the lead up to May 9 as well.”