May 14, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of the war in Ukraine has moved here.

The?Indian Embassy in Ukraine will return to?the capital?Kyiv on Tuesday, India’s?Ministry of External Affairs said?on Friday.?

The?embassy was temporarily relocated to Warsaw, Poland, on March 13?amid an escalation in violence near?the Ukrainian capital?during Russia’s invasion.

Retirees in occupied territories of the Donetsk region have?yet to receive their pensions,?Governor of Donetsk Oblast Pavlo Kirilenko said in a Facebook post on Saturday.?

Kirilenko?said he?discussed the issue in a meeting with the Ukrainian Postal Service Director-General Ihor Smelyansky, and that about a third of retirees in Donetsk Oblast –?those living in occupied territories –?had not received their pensions?due to problems in transferring cash to these areas.

The Ukrainian Postal Service delivers cash to the nearest post offices deemed safe but people in the occupied territories of Mariupol, Kalchytsk, Mangush, Nikolske, Sartanske, Volnovakha, Khlibodariv, Myrnenske, Olhynsk, and parts of Staromlyniv cannot access their funds,?according to the?governor.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomes the U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the delegation he leads in Kyiv, Ukraine on May 14.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Saturday that the Republican delegation he led to Ukraine had recently left the country and it was an “honor” to have met Ukrainian President Zelensky and his senior advisers.

McConnell was joined on the unannounced trip by GOP Senators Susan Collins, John Barrasso, and John Cornyn.?

Zelensky said earlier Saturday on his Instagram account that the GOP delegation visit was “a strong signal of bipartisan support for Ukraine from the United States Congress and the American people.”

McConnell echoed the sentiment saying “our delegation reaffirmed to President Zelensky that the United States stands squarely behind Ukraine and will sustain our support until Ukraine wins this war. It is also essential that America not stand alone.”

“It is squarely in our national interest to help Ukraine achieve victory in this war and to help Ukraine and other countries deter other wars of aggression before they start,” he added.

The trip comes as GOP Senator Rand Paul stalled a $40 billion bill that would aid Ukraine in combatting Russia. The Senate is expected to pass the bill sometime next week.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has congratulated Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra on winning the Eurovision song contest.

After the band’s victory was announced, frontman Oleg Psyuk said in English: “Thank you so much. Thank you for supporting Ukraine. This victory is for every Ukrainian.”

“Glory to Ukraine!” he added in Ukrainian.

At the end of the band’s initial performance of their song “Stefania,” prior to the announcement of the winner, Psyuk said on stage, “I ask all of you, please help Ukraine, Mariupol, help Azovstal, right now.”

Kalush Orchestra from Ukraine poses after winning the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest in Turin, Italy, on May 15.

In a symbolic victory more than three months after the Russian invasion, Ukraine took top honors in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

The annual songwriting and performance competition is often viewed as an opportunity to celebrate a diverse range of musical styles, appreciate its sometimes kitschy presentations, and to feel national pride. The winner is voted on by panels of professional musicians and television viewers across Europe, although the audience cannot vote for their own country’s entrant.

The participants are admonished to refrain from political themes, however, the popular sentiment of the day can swing votes and Ukraine had been acknowledged as a favorite in this year’s contest.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the band on Instagram seconds after Ukraine’s victory was announced.

“Our courage impresses the world, our music conquers Europe!” he said in the post. Alluding to the rule that a winner of the previous year’s competition gets to host the contest, he said: “Next year Ukraine will host Eurovision! For the third time in its history. And I believe - not the last. We will do our best to one day host the participants and guests of Eurovision in Ukrainian Mariupol. Free, peaceful, rebuilt!”

Ukraine’s entrant was a group called the Kalush Orchestra, performing a folk/hip-hop style song called “Stefania,” about the lead singer’s mother.

Kalush is the name of the city where singer Oleh Psyuk grew up, in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains about 375 miles west of Kyiv.

The folk-rap group initially finished second in Ukraine’s national selection competition, but they were elevated after it emerged the initial winner had previously traveled to Russian-annexed Crimea. They were unveiled as the country’s entry on February 22, two days before Russian troops invaded Ukraine.

“As we speak, our country and our culture is under threat. But we want to show that we are alive, Ukrainian culture is alive, it is unique, diverse, and beautiful,” Oleg Psyuk, the band’s frontman, told CNN earlier.

Eurovision is among the world’s most-watched events not including sports, with hundreds of millions of viewers, and it often launches or reignites the careers of songwriters, artists and featured songs thanks to such wide exposure.

Traditionally, the winning nation hosts the following year’s event, attracting thousands of spectators and entertainment journalists, and drawing attention to the country’s tourism industry.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with US senators Saturday, and called for Russia to be officially recognized as a “terrorist state,” he said in his nightly address.

“I held talks today with a delegation of US senators led by Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitchell McConnell in Kyiv,” he said. “I believe that this visit once again demonstrates the strength of bipartisan support for our state, the strength of ties between the Ukrainian and American nations.”

Discussions of US support for Ukraine and tightening sanctions on Russia also took place during the meeting, according to Zelensky.

“I expressed gratitude for the historic decision to renew the Lend Lease program. I called for the official recognition of Russia as a terrorist state,” Zelensky said.

US President Joe Biden?signed into law?the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 on May 9. The new law, which eases some requirements for the US to lend or lease military equipment to Ukraine, passed with a bipartisan majority in the US House and Senate. Its sponsors said the legislation gives Biden much broader authority to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia and addresses how the US can get weapons to Ukraine faster.

The Ukrainian president also highlighted in his nightly address food security, an issue he said he deals with on a “daily basis.”

“More and more countries around the world are realizing that Russia, by blocking the Black Sea for us and continuing this war, puts dozens of other countries at risk of a price crisis in the food market and even famine,” Zelensky said. “This is another incentive for our anti-war coalition to act more decisively together,” he said.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks at a press conference after the G7 Foreign Ministers meeting in Berlin, on Saturday.

Russia has to take responsibility for the damages caused by its war in Ukraine, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said during the concluding press conference following the G7 Foreign Ministers meeting in Berlin Saturday.?

“Russia bears the responsibility for this massive damage, which goes hand in hand with this war,” Baerbock said, adding that “Russia is solely responsible, not only for this war, which is contrary to international law, but also for all this massive damage, which is also massive in Russia itself.”

Accessing Russian money frozen by sanctions to pay for damages incurred by the Russian war is legally possible in Canada, as the Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly pointed out on Saturday. Baerbock explained that Europe’s legal framework made it more difficult to make use of the seized assets.?

“Access to frozen money is legally anything but simple,” Baerbock said.??

“When we put people on sanctions lists, we have to and had to provide explanations for them, so that they are also valid before the European Court of Justice,” she said. “And that applies all the more to this path, if we were to take it — for which there are some good reasons. It must of course be such that it stands up before our law; we are defending international law.”?

A luminous dot approaches in the distance somewhere in the middle of Latvia.

It’s around midnight and it’s pitch black, but the?special forces aircraft is going to attempt a landing in the darkness on a two-lane civilian road.

Equipped with night vision goggles, pilots and ground staff are able to coordinate and successfully land the aircraft.

It’s part of medical training that US and NATO special forces are doing in the Baltic region, implementing practices they have been learning from the conflict in Ukraine.

The main lesson they have learned is that air superiority may be a thing of the past, and air evacuations using fast-moving helicopters might not be possible.

That means it could take longer to get wounded soldiers to hospitals and operations may need to be performed on or near the front line.?

“The spirit of what we are doing is called prolonged casualty care, prolonged field care,” the special forces service member explained. “And the concept is identifying those strategies that will help us prolong life in order to bridge that and get that patient to the surgeon.”

Some of the lessons from the war in Ukraine have also been learned by watching how medics have been operating on the battlefield, sometimes still under heavy fire.

As they watch events unfold nearby, they say it’s exactly the right time to prepare for the war of the future.

“There’s a sense of urgency, and I think, watching Ukraine right now, that is very prescient,” the member of the special forces said.

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Related article 100 miles from Ukraine, NATO special forces carry out training drills on the Black Sea

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a short video message Saturday ahead of the?final of the Eurovision song contest in Italy.

“Very soon in the Eurovision final, the continent and the whole world will hear our native word. I believe that, in the end, this word will be ‘Victory’!,” he said. “Europe, vote for Kalush Orchestra - № 12! Let’s support our fellow countrymen!”

Kalush Orchestra is a Ukrainian hip-hop band named after the city of Kalush, according to the group’s bio on the Eurovision website. The winner of Eurovision is set to be named on Saturday evening ET.

Related article Ukraine takes the Eurovision spotlight as the weirdest show on earth returns

Odesa businessman Sergey Demidov used to be a prominent member of the pro-Russian Party of Regions, which was in power in Ukraine from 2010 to 2014.

Now, he prefers to forget that part of his life.

Demidov is apoplectic about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As the director of the Grand Pettine hotel complex on the beach, that’s perhaps inevitable — as a large section of it was demolished last week by a Russian cruise missile.

Demidov told CNN that the irony of the attack was not lost on him. Ten years ago, when pro-Russian factions in Ukraine were powerful, the Grand Pettine welcomed prominent Russian political figures and media personalities. When the pro-Russian movement in Odesa was at its peak during that time, the complex held conferences dedicated to the brotherhood of Ukraine and Russia. One was called?“Challenges of the global crisis: the unity of Ukraine and Russia.”

“Many Russian politicians, many famous Russian people came here, stayed here,” he said.?“Russian political scientists, Russian deputies, all these scoundrels came here.”

As for his current political outlook, Demidov said: “I am Ukrainian, I am a patriot of Odesa, I am 100% Ukrainian!”

The four-star hotel is owned by a German company.

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde said Saturday she now expects to have a bilateral meeting with her Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt ?avu?o?lu, after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an said on Friday he is not looking at Finland’s and Sweden’s moves to join NATO “positively,” accusing both counties of housing Kurdish “terrorist organizations.”

?avu?o?lu has said Ankara’s stance is clear: “Those countries should not support PKK/YPG terrorist groups,” according to the Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu on Saturday.

The PKK, or Kurdistan Worker’s Party, which seeks an independent state in Turkey, has been in an armed struggle with Turkey for decades and has been designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Following Saturday’s informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Berlin, Linde said in comments to Swedish broadcaster SVT that “we have a very good and constructive relationship.”

Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Saturday that he spoke with Linde, as well as Finland’s President Sauli Niinist? and Finnish Foreign Affairs Minister Pekka Haavisto, ahead of Sunday’s formal NATO ministerial meeting in Berlin. Stoltenberg said via Twitter that “Finland and Sweden are our closest partners, and we discussed developments regarding their possible applications for membership. NATO enlargement has been a historic success.”

Restrictive tape blocks access to a beach in Odesa, Ukraine, on May 8.

Odesa’s city council warned residents about a sea mine floating just off one of the city’s beaches.

“Being tens of meters from the shore, it does not pose a direct threat,” the council said, “but once again it reminds of the dangers of swimming and other uses of coastal waters.”

The Black Sea port city said the mine would be dealt with by disposal specialists but told residents that “for your own safety, you should not approach the beaches and the coast, go out on the water with the use of watercraft and even for swimming.”

The council said the threat of missile strikes also remains.

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto speaks to reporters as he arrives for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on May 14, in Berlin, Germany.

Finland wants to keep its border with Russia peaceful, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Saturday, affirming the need to maintain communication with the Kremlin as the Nordic nation inches closer to joining NATO.

“We have a 1,300-kilometer [about 800 miles] border with Russia,” he told reporters in Berlin, where he was invited to join a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.?“The border is peaceful and we want to maintain that border peaceful. It’s very important that we communicate with our neighbor.”?

Asked about Turkey being against Finland joining NATO, Haavisto said he called Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt ?avu?o?lu on Friday to “take the tensions down” and will continue discussions with him at the NATO meeting on Saturday.?

He conceded that any NATO member could “block the process,” therefore it is important to maintain “good contacts” with everyone.?

Turkey, which has presented itself as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine, has signaled an unfavorable view on Finland and Sweden possibly joining NATO, with President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an accusing the nations of housing Kurdish “terrorist organizations.”

Nevertheless, Haavisto said Saturday he is “confident that in the end, we will find a solution and Finland and Sweden will become members of NATO.”?

Previous reporting from CNN’s Talia Kayali in Atlanta, Isil Sariyuce in Istanbul and Samantha Tapfumaneyi in London contributed to this post.

It’s after 7:30 p.m. in Ukraine. Here’s what’s happened on Saturday so far.

Finland makes moves toward NATO: Finland’s President Sauli Niinist? told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday that the Nordic nation will decide “to seek NATO membership in the next few days,” Niinist?’s office said in a statement.

Putin said it would be a “mistake,” according to the Kremlin, adding “it may have a negative impact on Russian-Finnish relations.” Russia previously warned Finland, which it shares an 800-mile border with, that it “will be forced to take retaliatory steps, both of a military-technical and other nature, in order to stop the threats to its national security that arise in this regard,” according to its foreign ministry.

Russia also suspended power exports to Finland, Finnish operator Fingrid confirmed to CNN on Saturday. Fingrid brushed off the cut, as Russian electricity amounts to a small fraction of the country’s total consumption.?

Programming note: CNN’s Dana Bash will interview the Finnish president on Sunday’s “State of the Union” at 9 a.m. ET.

GOP senators in Kyiv: A delegation of Republican US senators, led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky said on his Instagram account that the visit “is a strong signal of bipartisan support for Ukraine from the United States Congress and the American people.”

The visit comes as Congress has been trying to pass a roughly $40 billion aid bill that would provide Ukraine with military and humanitarian assistance.

Combat moves: The Ukrainian military said Russian forces are retreating from the northern Kharkiv region. A fierce counterattack has taken back a number of villages?in the area east of Kharkiv.?

But a Ukrainian lawmaker called on the United States to provide air defense systems and fighter jets to Ukraine, saying that the situation on the battlefield is “far worse” than it was at the beginning of the war.?

Meanwhile, satellite imagery and firsthand testimony have provided a fuller picture of the multiple and disastrous efforts by Russian forces to cross the?Siverskyi Donets River?in eastern Ukraine over the past week. New video and analysis of drone and satellite imagery show that the Russians may have lost as many as 70 armored vehicles and other equipment in attempting to cross the river early this week. Their goal was to try to encircle Ukrainian defenses in the?Luhansk region, but it failed.?

Azovstal families appeal for extraction: The relatives of Ukrainian soldiers still holed up in Mariupol’s Azovstal plant are?appealing to Chinese President Xi Jinping?to act as a mediator to help extract their loved ones, following a?similar plea?to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an.

“Our children are in hell,” one father said at a press conference in Kyiv.

A Ukrainian fighter inside the plant told Ukrainian TV about horrific conditions for the wounded, saying that “fighters are simply lying without limbs, without arms, without legs.” Conditions are unsanitary and there is no medicine, the solider said.

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said the government would welcome the prospect of Turkish or Chinese mediation in helping to arrange the evacuation of wounded soldiers from the Azovstal complex in Mariupol.

People walk near the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, on May 12.

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said the government would welcome the prospect of Turkish or Chinese mediation in helping to arrange the evacuation of wounded soldiers from the Azovstal complex in Mariupol.

Iryna Vereshchuk said on Ukrainian television that “the?Turkish side could really be a mediator in extraction issues. We are talking now about the seriously injured and this is a question to the ICRC [International Red Cross]. If Turkey can be a mediator in this matter as well, that would be good.”

“If Xi Jinping can influence, that would be good too. We hope for the best,” she said.?

Vereshchuk spoke as Turkey’s presidential spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, was outlining one option for the evacuation.

“We have had a number of plans, proposals. The first one was to get the soldiers from Mariupol to Berdiansk, and from the Berdiansk port to the ship from Istanbul, bring them here to Turkey. That offer is still on the table,” he said. Berdiansk is controlled by the Russians and is about 50 miles west of Mariupol.?

“The boat is still in Istanbul. It is ready to sail but we are waiting for final clearance from the Russian and the Ukrainian sides for it to go to Berdiansk and bring those injured soldiers to Turkey,” Kalin said.?

The relatives of Ukrainian soldiers still holed up in Mariupol’s Azovstal plant are appealing to Chinese President Xi Jinping to act as a mediator to help extract their loved ones, following a similar plea to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an.

After a press conference with the families in Kyiv, Stavr Vishnyak told CNN that his son Artem, 21, is fighting inside Azovstal.

Stavr Vishnyak and his wife, Tatyana, have a 21-year-old son in the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, Ukraine. They are part of the families who are asking the Chinese and Turkish leaders to help facilitate the extraction of remaining soldiers in the plant.

A Ukrainian soldier inside the plant described horrific conditions for the wounded on Ukrainian TV on Saturday, saying that “fighters are simply lying without limbs, without arms, without legs.” Conditions are unsanitary and there is no medicine, the solider said.

Alina Volovik shows a photo of her and her husband, Artem, who is inside the Azovstal plant.

Soldier Alina Volovik, 25, told CNN that she last saw her Marine husband, Artem, 29, in mid-February. She said she drove to Kyiv overnight from Mikolaiv to join the appeal to save him and others from Azovstal. They’ve been together for four years and have a 2-year-old daughter.

On Thursday, her husband wrote to her that he was alive, Volovik said. When she receives a message from him, she said she is both happy and cries at the same time.

“He has been defending our country since 2014. After this contract, he was going to resign. … We are doing everything possible and impossible to save our men,” she said.

A message from Alina Volovik's husband Artem, who is inside the Azovstal plant.

His last message reads: “Hello, honey. I’m all right. There is no internet, so I wrote a message through a friend. How are you? How are parents? Greetings to all. Are you getting my money? Write something and drop the photo. I love you very much and I miss you all, my dear.”

Volovik said that her love for him keeps her going.

Anna Ivleva said she last spoke with her husband Anton, who has been fighting in Azovstal, in April.

Anna Ivleva, 30, said that she and her 32-year-old husband Anton, a Marine, last spoke to each other in April. He told her he was in Azovstal and seriously wounded. She said he told her he would not surrender and wanted to set an example for their four sons.

“On April 24, he wrote that the situation was very critical, that he did not want to send vain hopes of return, and said that I should be happy and raise our sons properly,” she said.

His fellow soldiers later wrote that he was still alive.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets with the US Senate delegation led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 14.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed to Kyiv a congressional delegation led by US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.?

Zelensky said on his Instagram account that the visit “is a strong signal of bipartisan support for Ukraine from the United States Congress and the American people.”

Also seen meeting Zelensky in video and photographs on the president’s official social media accounts are Republican Sens.?Susan Collins of Maine, John Barrasso of Wyoming and John Cornyn of Texas.?

It’s unclear whether the meeting took place Saturday and whether the delegation is still in Kyiv.

Zelensky also “expressed hope that the US Senate will promptly approve a package of additional funding to support the Ukrainian people, which has already been considered in the House of Representatives and increased from $33 billion up to $39.6 billion,” according to his office.

A pro-Russian Telegram account has posted images purporting to show that the Russian support ship allegedly struck by Ukrainian fire this week is undamaged and in port in Sevastopol in Crimea, the home of the Russian Black Sea fleet.

On Thursday, the Odesa Regional Administration said that the ship, named Vsevolod Bobrov, was on fire near Snake Island and being towed to Sevastopol.

The Telegram account, called Black Sea Fleet, posted Saturday that the “logistic support vessel ‘Vsevolod Bobrov’ of the Black Sea Fleet returned to its native Sevastopol today. Itself, on its own at 18 knots, and calmly reached the pier.”?

“Those who wish to search for some kind of mythical ‘damage’ are invited to look,” it said.

CNN cannot verify when the photographs of the ship were taken.

A satellite image shows an overview of Snake Island, Ukraine May 12, 2022. Picture taken May 12, 2022. Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. DO NOT OBSCURE LOGO.

Related article Snake Island: The tiny speck of land playing an outsized role in Russia's war on Ukraine | CNN

A Ukrainian army officer inspects a grain warehouse in Novovorontsovka, Ukraine, on May 6, after it was shelled by Russian forces.

Russia has deliberately decided to extend the military war against Ukraine into a grain war, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said during the concluding press conference of the G7 Foreign Ministers Meeting in Germany.

“Russia’s actions are causing supplies to fail, prices to rise immeasurably — not only in our country but around the world — and the threat of brutal hunger,“ Baerbock said.?

“Russia is preparing the breeding ground for new crises in order to deliberately weaken international cohesion against Russia’s war,“ said Baerbock. “Hunger, instability, energy insecurity, the creeping erosion of democratic values, but also of human rights through disinformation” are caused by the Russian aggression on Ukraine, Baerbock said.?

Some background: Russia and Ukraine both produce almost 30% of global wheat exports. Russian troops have been stealing farm equipment and?thousands of tons of grain?from Ukrainian farmers, as well as targeting food storage sites with artillery, according to sources. Ukraine’s defense ministry said last week that an estimated 400,000 tons of grain had been stolen by Russian troops. And CNN tracked a Russian ship loaded with nearly 30,000 tons of Ukrainian grain that was turned away from two Mediterranean ports before landing in Syria.

“How we act, or how we don’t act, will shape the way we live together in the world for many years or perhaps decades to come. That is why ducking out of the way, passivity or dithering, hesitation, and then in the end saying nothing at all, is not an option for us, for me personally,” Baerbock said.?

“Having had to make many decisions in recent weeks to support Ukraine in a sprint,” Baerbock now fears that the alliance must prepare for “a long-distance race” to “to fight this global crisis.”

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks at a press conference on May 14, in Holstein, Germany.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said she supports Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to NATO, despite Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s criticism.

“Each country is free to decide on its alliance membership. This also applies to Sweden and Finland,” Baerbock said during the concluding press conference following the G7 Foreign Ministers Meeting in Germany.?

Finland’s President Sauli Niinist? told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday that the Nordic nation will decide “to seek NATO membership in the next few days.” On Thursday, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said Sweden will consider Finland’s assessments on NATO membership as it also considers joining the military alliance.

“The German government has already made it clear that we more than support this accession. Sweden and Finland are strong countries in terms of their own defense capabilities. That alone would make their accession stronger for NATO,” Baerbock said. ?

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday welcomed Finland’s bid to join NATO and offered Berlin’s “full support.”

Erdo?an on Friday said he did not view Sweden and Finland’s possible accession to NATO “positively” and had claimed on Thursday that “Scandinavian countries are like a guest house for terrorist organizations.”

The families of soldiers trapped inside the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol made a desperate plea to China’s President Xi Jinping to act as a mediator in helping to get their loved ones out, just days after they made a similar request to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an.

During a press conference in central Kyiv on Saturday, the families, who have limited contact with their loved ones, say time is running out for the soldiers who have dwindling medical supplies and almost no food.

Tanya Vychnyk speaks with CNN.

Tanya Vychnyk, who last saw her 21-year-old son Artem in February, said she’s praying for a miracle.?“It is hell in there, they are in real hell,” Vychnyk told CNN, her eyes filled with tears.?

Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of Donetsk region military administration, previously said that difficult negotiations are continuing over the soldiers’ release, several of whom are injured.

Finland's President Sauli Niinist? speaks at a press conference in Helsinki, Finland, on May 11.

Finland’s President Sauli Niinist? told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Saturday that the Nordic nation will decide “to seek NATO membership in the next few days,” Niinist?’s office said in a statement.

“The conversation was direct and straight-forward and it was conducted without aggravations. Avoiding tensions was considered important,” Niinist? is quoted as saying in the statement.?

Niinist? noted that he had already told Putin in their first meeting in 2012 “that every independent nation maximizes its security” and that “this is what is happening now, too,” the statement said.

Niinist? “repeated his deep concern over the human suffering caused by the war Russia wages in Ukraine” and “stressed the imperative of peace.” He also “conveyed the messages on securing the evacuation of civilians delivered earlier in the same week by (Ukraine’s) President Volodymyr Zelenskyy,” according to the statement.?

What the Kremlin says: Niinist? and Putin had “a frank exchange of views” during a phone call on Saturday that was?held in connection with the announced intention of the Finnish leadership to apply for NATO membership, the Kremlin said in a statement.?

“Vladimir Putin stressed that abandoning the traditional policy of military neutrality would be a mistake, since there are no threats to Finland’s security,” according to the statement.?

“Such a change in the country’s foreign policy may have a negative impact on Russian-Finnish relations, which for many years have been built in the spirit of good neighborliness and partnership cooperation, and were mutually beneficial,” it added.

The leaders also discussed the situation in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.

“Vladimir Putin, in particular, shared his assessment of the state of the negotiation process between Russian and Ukrainian representatives, which was actually suspended by Kyiv, who do not show interest in a serious and constructive dialogue,” the statement said.?

Smoke rises at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, on May 13.

One of the Ukrainian fighters still trapped in the Azovstal plant in Mariupol has described the atrocious conditions for the wounded there.

Speaking on Ukrainian television from within the plant, the unidentified fighter said there were about 600 wounded still within the sprawling complex.?

“The conditions are just awful,” he said.

He described the conditions in the hospital ward as “completely unsanitary. It’s already warmer, so there are flies.?The smell is disgusting.”

After the collapse of the operating room’s ceiling, it had been moved to the same room as the hospital, the fighter said. Medics were operating without anesthesia.

The fighter said he had witnessed one surgery on a soldier with a bad leg wound:?“He has a belt in his teeth. He is without anesthesia. And two doctors are trying to remove something there. He yells into this belt, his leg twitches.”

The fighter said he was not sure whether all civilians had been evacuated from the enormous complex.

“No one can be 100% sure. Let’s just say that we took out those civilians that we knew about. Somewhere they may be under the rubble, in some bunkers, where we have not yet explored in some shelters. Therefore, no one can be 100% sure. But those civilians whom we knew who were here, we took out completely 100%,” he said.

There’s been no word Saturday on the progress of negotiations to evacuate the badly wounded from Azovstal.?Late Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that “at the moment, very difficult negotiations are underway on the next stage of the evacuation mission, the removal of the seriously wounded and medics. We are talking about a large number of people.”

Foreign ministers of the G7 meet in Berlin, Germany, on May 13.

Foreign ministers of the G7, representing the world’s richest nations, said in a joint statement Saturday they “will never recognize borders Russia has attempted to change by military aggression,” adding that the G7 rejected “any notion of spheres of influence and any use of force that is not in compliance with international law.”

After three days of talks in Germany, the group of foreign ministers collectively expressed their “solidarity with and support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia’s unjustifiable, unprovoked and illegal war of aggression.”

In the presence of the foreign ministers of Ukraine and Moldova, the group added the war had reaffirmed their determination to “reject outright attempts to redraw borders by force in violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

G7 foreign ministers emphasized their support of Moldova’s stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, and called on Belarus to “stop enabling Russia’s aggression” and “abide by its international obligations.” There are fears that Russia could start a new front in the war in Eastern Europe via Transnistria, a breakaway territory within Moldova that has housed Russian troops for decades.

G7 foreign ministers also said they would “uphold (their) engagement in the support of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, including Crimea and all states,” and affirmed its determination to “ensure availability and accessibility of food, energy and financial resources as well as basic commodities” in Ukraine.

Tamara Aheieva sells home-made food, vegetables and flowers.?

The remnants of the horrors that transpired in Dmytrivka just a few weeks ago are everywhere around Tamara Aheieva.

Across the road from her little produce stall lies the burnt wreckage of a Russian armored vehicle. Just to the right of her is the deep crater left behind by a rocket, its edges formed of strangely smooth asphalt that melted on impact, then solidified again.

The building next to it is seriously damaged, its roof collapsed on itself.

“A man I knew was killed riding his bike down the road,” she said.

Friday was Aheieva’s first day back selling home-made pickled vegetables, flowers, potatoes and what she calls “zucchini caviar.”

She fled the village when Russian troops starting to close in and spent the next few weeks about 50 miles (80km) away in Zhytomyr region.

Aheieva said 17 houses have been destroyed in this tiny village alone. She was lucky — her home is a bit further from the main road and was spared the worst damage.

Before the war, the 64-year old pensioner would be one of many coming here to trade home-made food, vegetables and flowers. Now, it’s just her.

“People are just coming back. Normally we sell flowers and vegetable and people stop and buy from us, I hope they will come back,” she said.

As MMA fighter?Yaroslav Amosov?walks through the streets surrounding his hometown of?Irpin, which sits around 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) west of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, there are fleeting moments when it seems like an ordinary day in May.

But for many Ukrainians, such moments have been few and far between since Russia began its invasion on February 24 and every few steps, Amosov is reminded of the destruction Vladimir Putin’s war has brought to his homeland.

“It was always very beautiful here, people were happy, they were happy with their life and took pleasure in it.

Yaroslav Amosov, second from right, rests with fellow Ukrainian soldiers in Irpin, Ukraine, on March 6.

“Then simply to look at the city now, which is on fire, which is getting destroyed and it becomes horrible to look at. You couldn’t really go driving around the city because the roads were covered with trees, in some places, there were parts of houses. Destruction.”

The Ukrainian is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters of his generation and, at 26-0, currently holds the longest active unbeaten streak in all of MMA. On May 13, he should have been defending his welterweight world title at Bellator’s event at Wembley Arena in London, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced him to pull out.

Read the full story:

Related article Exclusive: 'This is not saving, this is destruction': Ukrainian MMA champion Yaroslav Amosov recounts the horrors of war

Finland is on the cusp of joining NATO while Sweden is on the verge of following suit. Here’s what you need to know about how the war in Ukraine pushed the two Nordic states closer to the US-backed alliance, and what comes next:

While other Nordic countries like Norway, Denmark and Iceland were original members of the alliance, Sweden and Finland did not join the pact for historic and geopolitical reasons.

Both Finland, which declared independence from Russia in 1917 after the Bolshevik revolution, and Sweden adopted neutral foreign policy stances during the Cold War, refusing to align with the Soviet Union or the United States.

For Finland, this proved more difficult, as it shared a massive border with an authoritarian superpower. To keep the peace, Finns adopted a process some call “Finlandization,” in which leaders acceded to Soviet demands from time to time.

Both countries’ balancing acts effectively ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. They joined the European Union together in 1995 and gradually aligned their defense policies with the West, while still avoiding joining NATO outright.

Each country had different reasons for avoiding signing up for NATO pact in tandem with the EU.

For Finland, it was more geopolitical. The threat for Russia is more tangible thanks to the two countries’ shared 830-mile border.

“Finland has been the exposed country, and we’ve been the protected country,” former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in a joint interview alongside former Finnish prime minister Alexander Stubb.

While an independent nation, Sweden’s geography puts it in the same “strategic environment” as its liberal democratic neighbors, Bildt said. Finland and Sweden have enjoyed a close partnership for decades, with Stockholm viewing its decision to refrain from joining NATO as a way to help keep the heat off Helsinki. Now, however, Sweden is likely to follow Finland’s lead.

Read the full story here:

A Leopard 2A6 battle tank during the Finnish Army Arrow 22 training exercise, with participating forces from the U.K., Latvia, U.S. and Estonia, in Niinisalo, Finland, on Wednesday, May 4, 2022. Swedes and Finns are increasingly in favor of joining the?NATO defense bloc after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, adding pressure on the countries' leaders to change long-standing policies of military non-alignment. Photographer: Roni Rekomaa/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Related article What you need to know about Finland, Sweden and NATO | CNN

Russia has suspended power exports to Finland, Finnish operator Fingrid confirmed to CNN on Saturday.

Fingrid’s?Senior Vice President of Power System Operations?Reima P?ivinen said the supply was effectively cut at 12 a.m. CET on Saturday (7 p.m. ET Friday).

He added that the suspension did not have any impact on the market and that Finland “can cope” with the cut, as Russian electricity amounts to a small fraction of the country’s total consumption.?

“We’re also heading into the summer and less electricity will be needed,” P?ivinien said, adding he was “confident there won’t be any major problems” next winter.?

On Friday, Fingrid said Russia was suspending power exports due to problems in receiving payments.

Some context: The Finnish government is planning to issue a second white paper on Sunday?proposing that the country joins NATO, Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told reporters on Thursday. The proposal would then be put into a parliamentary vote with a plenary scheduled for Monday morning.

Russia’s foreign ministry said Finland’s possible accession to NATO marked a “radical change in the country’s foreign policy” and?warned of retaliatory countermeasures.

Finland shares an 830-mile border with Russia and its accession would mean that Russia would share a border with a country that is formally aligned with the US.

“Russia will be forced to take retaliatory steps, both of a military-technical and other nature, in order to stop the threats to its national security that arise in this regard,” it said.

In late April, Gazprom said it fully?halted supplies?to Polish gas company PGNiG and Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz after they refused to meet a demand by Moscow to pay in rubles rather than euros or dollars.

Ukrainian Army vehicles drive past the remains of a Russian tank near Kharkiv on Friday, May 13.

The?Ukrainian?armed forces said in?a brief update late Friday that?Russian?forces are focused on ensuring the withdrawal of troops from the?northern Kharkiv?region. Those troops have come under growing pressure from?Ukrainian?counter-attacks along a wide front to the west of their supply lines.

The fierce counterattack has taken back a number of villages in the area east of Kharkiv. Ukraine’s advances threaten the symbolic embarrassment of pushing the Kremlin’s forces back to their own border, while posing the strategic threat of cutting Russia’s supply lines into Ukraine and its forces further south in the?Donbas region. It has also revealed further evidence of apparent Russian atrocities, according to a CNN team on the ground.

The General Staff on Friday also reported more cross-border shelling far from the current area of hostilities?in the northeastern region of Sumy – as well as an airstrike against a village?in?the region.

In the east of Ukraine, the General Staff said there had been more artillery shelling of?Ukrainian-held territory as the?Russians tried to make progress towards Sloviansk in the Donetsk region, a key objective. The village of Nova Dmytrivka had come under fire, it said, as it has done since late April.?

It also said that there had been airstrikes around Dolyna, which is 12 miles (20 kilometers) north of Sloviansk and nearby Adamivka. Airstrikes?in?the area earlier this week damaged two religious sites, according to?Ukrainian?authorities.?

In?the Luhansk region, the General Staff said a?Russian?attack on the town of Zolote had been repulsed.?

NATO leaders are meeting as Finland and Sweden make moves to join the US-led alliance. This comes as Ukraine’s defense minister says the country is now entering?a “long” phase of war?with Russia. Here’s the latest:

Nordic NATO developments: NATO foreign ministers are convening in Germany on Saturday while the Finnish government plans to issue a second white paper on Sunday?proposing that the country joins NATO. But NATO-member Turkey signaled hesitancy about the bloc’s expansion. The Kremlin says it will be “forced to take retaliatory steps” if Finland goes forward. Russia will suspend power exports to Finland starting Saturday due to problems in receiving payments, Finland’s transmission system operator Fingrid said in a statement on Friday.

Where the fighting is happening: In eastern Ukraine, satellite imagery and first-hand testimony have provided a fuller picture of the multiple and disastrous efforts by Russian forces to cross the?Siverskyi Donets River?over the past week. Russians may have sustained heavy casualties, and lost as many as 70 armored vehicles and other equipment in attempting to cross the river early this week. Their goal was to try to encircle Ukrainian defenses in the?Luhansk region, but it failed spectacularly.?

In the Luhansk region, more than 50 houses have been destroyed by Russian shelling, as fighting continues to rage around a belt of industrial towns in the area, according to Ukrainian officials. The Russians appear to have made little progress on the ground after consolidating their control over Rubizhne earlier this week.

In northern Ukraine, a Ukrainian counterattack has taken back a number of villages in the area east of Kharkiv. The Ukrainian advances threaten the symbolic embarrassment of expelling the Kremlin’s forces back to their own border and while posing the strategic threat of cutting Russia’s supply lines into Ukraine and its forces further south in the?Donbas region. It has also revealed further evidence of apparent atrocities.

In Mariupol, difficult negotiations are continuing over the fate of Ukrainian soldiers still trapped in the Azovstal steel plant, Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of Donetsk region military administration, said. In the meantime, he said, the Russians continued to attack Avozstal from the air.?“These are heavy, vacuum, high-explosive bombs,” the official said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine has retaken six settlements from Russian forces on Friday, and 1,015 overall since the start of the conflict in February. It is unclear exactly how much territory those settlements constitute. Zelensky did outline?other gains by Ukraine’s military in those areas.

Ukraine appeals for more defense systems: A Ukrainian lawmaker called on the United States to provide air defense systems and fighter jets to Ukraine, saying that the situation on the battlefield is “far worse” than it was at the beginning of the war.?The House of Representatives passed the $40 billion Ukraine aid supplemental this week, but the Senate failed to pass the bill after Sen. Rand Paul blocked its passage.

Rising food prices see India export ban: India is banning wheat exports as prices rise worldwide due to Russia’s prolonged war on Ukraine.?India is the world’s second-highest producer of wheat, the bulk of which is consumed domestically.?Ukraine and Russia together are responsible for about 14% of global wheat production. Wheat exports from the Black Sea region have plummeted since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, sending global buyers to turn to India to alleviate supply shortages.?

War crimes trial:?21-year-old soldier Vadim Shishimarin is set to become the first Russian to be?tried for war crimes?at a trial in Kyiv on Friday. He is accused of killing an unarmed 62-year-old man in Ukraine’s Sumy region, according to the country’s prosecutor general’s office.

War looms large at the Eurovision: Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra is the favorite to win at tonight’s Eurovision Song Contest, the continent’s garish and much-loved singing competition scheduled to take place in Turin, Italy. Russia was removed from the competition following its invasion of Ukraine.

The Kalush Orchestra from Ukraine performs during their first dress rehearsal for the final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Turin, Italy on Friday May 13.

The Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest – the continent’s garish and much-loved singing competition – is scheduled to take place in Turin, Italy on Saturday.

Last year 183 million viewers tuned in to watch the last three stages of the competition, when Italy’s punk-rock band M?neskin narrowly beat France and Switzerland to take the crown, according to the official Eurovision website.

Looking ahead to Saturday’s final, musicians from 25 countries will compete on Europe’s biggest stage, but only one group is commanding the spotlight in the build-up: Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra.

The folk-rap group are runaway favorites in the betting markets and their presence at the tournament has captured the imagination of fans from every competing country.

Getting Kalush Orchestra to the Eurovision stage took some doing, and their journey is deeply interwoven with the war at home.

The band initially finished second in Ukraine’s national selection competition, but they were elevated after it emerged the winner had previously traveled to Russian-annexed Crimea. They were unveiled as the country’s entry on February 22, two days before Russian troops invaded Ukraine.

Eurovision, for all its oddities, maintains a special place in the cultural calendar. However, winning would be uniquely significant for Kalush Orchestra, and it’s hard to imagine a more popular victor in the tournament’s history.

CNN’s Sana Noor Haq contributed reporting to this post.

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Related article Ukraine takes the Eurovision Song Contest spotlight as the weirdest show on earth returns | CNN

A drone image shows some of the dozens of burnt-out armored vehicles on the banks of the Siverskyi Donets River near Bilohorivka, Ukraine on May 12.

Satellite imagery and first-hand testimony have provided a fuller picture of the multiple and disastrous efforts by Russian forces to cross the Siverskyi Donets River in eastern Ukraine over the past week.

New video and analysis of drone and satellite imagery show that the Russians may have lost as many as 70 armored vehicles and other equipment in attempting to cross the river early this week. Their goal was to try to encircle Ukrainian defenses in the Luhansk region, but it failed spectacularly.?

In its account of the battle, Ukraine’s 80th separate assault brigade said it had “destroyed the pontoons and thwarted nine crossing attempts.”

It claimed that “at least 73 units of equipment were destroyed, including T-72 tanks” and a variety of infantry fighting vehicles.

This tally appears supported by analysis of?drone video showing Russian equipment strewn along a track to the north of the river, as well as half-submerged tanks.

It’s clear that the Ukrainians had previously worked out where the Russians were likely to try to lay down the pontoons and had observed the approach of Russian units. Reconnaissance of possible crossing points had begun at least two days before the Russian attempt.

The Siverskyi Donets flows quickly and the Russians appear to have needed motorized tugs to try to complete the bridge. The noise was a further clue to Ukrainian units that an attempt to ford the river was underway.

In its account, the 80th?brigade says that “despite heavy losses, the enemy still managed to break through … gaining a foothold on the northern outskirts of one of the settlements.”?At least 30 Russian vehicles and infantry did make the crossing.?

Other Ukrainian officials say that those Russian units that did get across, north of the village of Bilohorivka, were stranded.

Open source analysis suggests this is probably true,?with at least 30 infantry fighting vehicles counted among the wreckage at the site of the pontoon, not counting what may have been destroyed among the equipment that did get across.

In its analysis of the episode, the Institute for the Study of War said that “Ukrainian forces likely inflicted heavy casualties on Russian forces attempting to cross the Siverskyi Donets River.”

“Russian forces have likely lost the momentum necessary to execute a large-scale crossing of the Siverskyi Donets River,” it added.

Mick Ryan, a former Major General in the Australian armed forces who studies the Ukrainian conflict, tweeted: “Russians clearly intended to invest in this axis and throw a lot of combat power down it.

“Consequently, this is probably a larger setback for the Russians than some have speculated,” Ryan said in a post published to his verified Twitter account.

“Importantly, the Russians lost scarce engineer bridging equipment (and probably combat engineers too). These resources are neither cheap nor available in large quantities. And these are in high demand during an offensive.”

The Russians’ inability to advance from the north across the river has likely slowed down its offensive in Luhansk, which for now is reliant on troops moving from the east and south through frontlines that have moved little in a month.?

A special task force policeman inspects a site after an airstrike by Russian forces in Lysychansk, Ukraine on Friday, May 13.

More than 50 houses in the Luhansk region of Ukraine have been destroyed by Russian shelling, as fighting continues to rage around a belt of industrial towns in the area, according to Ukrainian officials.

The houses were located in the area around Popasna and Lysychansk, said Serhiy Hayday, the head of the Luhansk region military administration.

“They do not need people and their houses – they do need only the territory that the enemy turns into a desert,” Hayday said, adding that ten enemy attacks had been repulsed in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the past 24 hours.

The Russians appear to have made little progress on the ground after consolidating their control over Rubizhne earlier this week.

A combine deposits harvested wheat in a tractor trailer on a field in Ahmedabad, India on March 16.

India is banning wheat exports as prices rise worldwide due to Russia’s prolonged war on Ukraine.??

India’s Director General of Foreign Trade released a statement prohibiting the export of wheat with immediate effect, except in cases where irrevocable letters of credit had already been issued, or if the government of India grants export permissions to countries relying on wheat for food security.?

India is the world’s second-highest producer of wheat, the bulk of which is consumed domestically.?

The government cited rising wheat prices and the need to protect food security in India and neighboring vulnerable countries as the catalyst for amending its export policy.?

Ukraine and Russia together are responsible for about 14% of global wheat production, according to Gro Intelligence, an agricultural data analytics firm.?

Wheat exports from the Black Sea region have plummeted since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, sending global buyers to turn to India to alleviate supply shortages.?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky say Ukraine has retaken six settlements from Russian forces on Friday, and 1,015 overall since the start of the conflict in February.

It is unclear exactly how much territory those settlements constitute. Zelensky did outline?other gains by Ukraine’s military in those areas.

“We return electricity, water supply, communications, transport, social services there,” he said.

He also stated that “the gradual liberation of Kharkiv region” proves that Ukraine “will not leave anyone to the enemy.”??

Members of the Ukrainian Army's mobile evacuation unit treat a soldier wounded on the frontline before his transfer to a hospital by ambulance, near Lysychansk, on May 10.

A Ukrainian lawmaker called on the United States to provide air defense systems and fighter jets to Ukraine, saying that the situation on the battlefield is “far worse” than it was at the beginning of the war.?

Daria Kaleniuk, a leading Ukrainian civil society activist, explained “we can’t win this war with Soviet equipment because A. Russia has much more Soviet equipment, B. we don’t have anywhere to get ammunition for this, and C. Russia simply has more people and more troops.”

Ustinova said Ukraine no longer seeks the Soviet-era MiG fighter jets because “the war has changed.”

Instead, she said Ukraine needs the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS), Paladin self-propelled howitzers, and fighter jets like the F-16s in order to effectively counter Russia, and called on the US to begin training Ukrainian pilots to use such jets.?

Kaleniuk, who said she recently met with Ukrainian defense officials in Kyiv, noted that Ukraine has “combat-experienced pilots, who are willing and ready to go now for trainings. They were willing to go yesterday for trainings. But there is no decision to accept them and to provide that because there is no decision to provide fighter jets.”

The US has begun to send heavy weaponry to Ukraine, but has yet to give them MLRS or fighter jets.?

Ustinova and Kaleniuk, who were in Washington this week for meetings, said that they believe there is a lack of “political will that is needed” for the administration to decide to send such kinds of heavy weaponry – and quickly — and the feeling that there is still fear about provoking Moscow.?

They decried the fact that it took so long for the US to decide to send the heavy weaponry it is sending now, with Ustinova saying, “if we had Howitzers two months ago, Mariupol would not happen because they wouldn’t be able to surround like they did, to surround the city and literally destroy it.”

“For us time means lives, thousands of lives. We’ve been hearing that it has been unprecedented how fast everything is moving and how fast the decisions are taking. But there has never been a war since World War Two like that. And unfortunately, we keep asking here to take the decisions faster,” she said.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby speaks during a news briefing in Arlington, Virginia, on Friday.

If Congress does not pass the $40 billion Ukraine aid supplemental by May 19, “it’ll start impacting” the United States’ ability to provide Ukraine military aid “uninterrupted,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said during a briefing at the Pentagon on Friday.

“May 19 is the day we really, without additional authorities, we begin to not have the ability to send new stuff in,” Kirby said. “By the 19th?of May, it’ll start impacting our ability to provide aid uninterrupted.”

The House of Representatives passed the $40 billion supplemental this week, but the Senate failed to pass the bill after Sen. Rand Paul blocked its passage. Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, wanted more oversight of how the funds will be spent before agreeing to let the bill go to the Senate floor for a vote. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has started procedural steps to override Paul’s objection, but the bill likely won’t pass until next week at the earliest.

There is still “about $100 million dollars left in current” presidential drawdown authority funding, Kirby said. That funding has not been “allocated or announced” yet, he added.

“We would like to get approval for additional authorities before the third week of this month so that we could continue uninterrupted the flow of aid and assistance into Ukraine, so obviously we continue to urge the Senate to act as quickly as possible so we don’t get to the end of May and not have any additional authorities to draw back, to draw upon,” Kirby said.

Smoke rises above the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, on May 13.

Difficult negotiations are continuing over the fate of Ukrainian soldiers still trapped in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of Donetsk region military administration, said.

Kyrylenko echoed the comments of Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk that the Ukrainian side would not offer detailed comments about the process.

“We have to talk about it only when people will be safe. Only then we shall give any comments. Negotiations are ongoing and they are really very difficult. Because, first, the Russian Federation always changes them [the conditions]. And even those agreements that are reached are not a 100% agreement with Russia,” he explained.

In the meantime, he said, the Russians continued to attack Avozstal from the air.?“These are heavy, vacuum, high-explosive bombs,” the official said.

Vereshchuk has also been speaking about the Azovstal negotiations, apparently seeking to tamp down expectations.

A Russian General, identified in a CNN investigation as responsible for targeting civilians in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and his role as the architect of the siege of?Aleppo, was involved in high-level defense talks with his UK counterpart in 2017 after receiving Russia’s highest military honor for his role in its war in Syria.

Col-General Alexander Zhuravlyov, in his capacity as then Deputy Chief of General Staff, met with the UK’s then Vice Chief of Defence Staff General Messenger for high-level talks, during a trip to Moscow in 2017 in what was characterized by the UK’s Ministry of Defence as “military to military dialogue.” Zhuravlyov discussed with Messenger “a restart of military interaction,” Russian state news agency TASS reported on February 28, 2017, quoting Russia’s Ministry of Defense.

CNN’s investigation found that Zhuravlyov’s leadership in 2016 catalyzed the assault on eastern?Aleppo. After he took the reins, the Russian military rapidly ramped up its attacks on the rebel-held territory and completed the siege of the densely populated city, exacting a large death toll and setting the wheels in motion for a tactic that has defined Russia’s intervention in Syria: besiege, starve, bombard and grind into submission.

His period of command also saw a dramatic increase in documented cluster munition attacks in?Aleppo.

European intelligence agency analysts who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity said the pattern of Zhuravlyov’s behavior in Syria and Ukraine is the same, subjugating cities through terror. “Zhuravlyov was brought in with the purpose of bringing about a swift capitulation of?Aleppo. He did that using much of the same methodology we see in Ukraine. Ordering the indiscriminate use of cluster munitions against dense civilian infrastructure and populations,” the analyst said.

Syrian human rights activists have long called for Russia’s General to be held accountable, and a leading UK human rights lawyer at the law firm Payne Hicks Beach, Matthew Ingham, told CNN: “Colonel General Alexander Zhuravlyov should have been sanctioned for his actions in Syria” adding, “It is a shame that there was not a stronger response to alleged war crimes at that stage, because that may have affected Putin’s Ukrainian strategic calculations from the outset.?

Neither the US nor the UK have taken public action against Zhuravlyov or other key Russian generals implicated in war crimes. The US State Department wouldn’t comment on the specific findings of CNN’s investigation but said they continued to track and assess war crimes and reports of ongoing violence and abuses.?

In a statement to CNN, the UK Ministry of Defense said a previous statement issued in 2017 “made it clear” that they supported military to military dialogue to minimize risk and miscalculation

“We stand by that principle, which is why we gave Russia every opportunity to engage in dialogue this year over Ukraine before they launched their reprehensible and unprovoked invasion,” an MOD spokesperson said.?

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report

Russia will suspend power exports to Finland starting Saturday due to problems in receiving payments, Finland’s transmission system operator Fingrid said in a statement on Friday.

“RAO Nordic Oy, a subsidiary of the Russian entity Inter RAO, which trades electricity over the 400 kV interconnectors, will suspend imports of electricity to Finland at 1 am on Saturday 14 May 2022,” according to Fingrid.

The subsidiary said that it has not received payments for the volumes sold since May 6?and that this is the first time it has happened in over 20 years of its trading history.

“Unfortunately, in the current situation of lack of cash income, RAO Nordic is not able to make payments for the imported electricity from Russia. Therefore we are forced to suspend the electricity import starting from 14th of May,” RAO Nordic Oy said.

According to Fingrid, the adequacy of electricity in Finland is not under threat, with Russian imports in recent years covering 10% of Finland’s total consumption.

“The lack of electricity import from Russia will be compensated by importing more electricity from Sweden and by generating more electricity in Finland,” said Reima P?ivinen, senior vice president of power system operations at Fingrid.??

Some context: The Finnish government is planning to issue a second white paper on Sunday?proposing that the country joins NATO, Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told reporters on Thursday. The proposal would then be put into a parliamentary vote with a plenary scheduled for Monday morning.

Russia’s foreign ministry said Finland’s possible accession to NATO marked a “radical change in the country’s foreign policy” and warned of countermeasures.

“Russia will be forced to take retaliatory steps, both of a military-technical and other nature, in order to stop the threats to its national security that arise in this regard,” it said.

In late April, Gazprom said it fully halted supplies to Polish gas company PGNiG and Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz after they refused to meet a demand by Moscow to pay in rubles rather than euros or dollars.

CNN’s Luke McGee contributed reporting to this post.?