Here are the key events so far on Monday, May 16.
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Fighting
- Russian forces are targeting civilian and military sites in multiple towns in the Donetsk region including Dovhenke, Ruski Tyshki, Ternova and Petrivka, the Ukrainian military said.
- The Russian military continues artillery and air attacks on Mariupol, particularly on the Azovstal plant where Ukrainian fighters are trapped, according to Ukraine’s army.
- Russia has likely run out of combat-ready reservists and is bringing in soldiers from private military companies and proxy militias, as well as covertly mobilising units of untrained men – including conscripts from Luhansk and Donetsk, the Institute for the Study of War said.
- Refugees from Mariupol reached Ukrainian-controlled Zaporizhzhia in a large convoy of cars and vans after waiting days for the Russian military to allow them leave.
- The Ukrainian army still controls about 10 percent of the eastern region of Luhansk despite heavy Russian attacks, its governor said.
- Russia is seeking to encircle Ukrainian forces in the battle for Donbas, Ukraine’s defence ministry said.
- Four missiles hit military infrastructure in the Yavoriv area of western Ukraine, according to Lviv’s regional governor.
- Russian forces hit Ukrainian military command posts, ammunition depots, and other military equipment, killing at least 100 Ukrainian “nationalists”, Moscow’s defence ministry said.
Diplomacy
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attacks in Donetsk and said Russian troops are at “a dead end” in Ukraine.
- Sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States on Belarus have blocked $16bn-$18bn worth of its annual exports to the West, Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko was quoted as saying.
- G7 foreign ministers promised to keep supplying weapons to Ukraine and isolating Russia, as well as working on easing global food shortages caused by the war.
- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Berlin, Germany, and said “more weapons and other aid is on the way to Ukraine”.
- After Ukraine’s win at Eurovision song contest, Ukrainians received a boost seeing a wave of popular support in Europe.
NATO
- Finland and Sweden announced bids to join NATO, reversing their traditional and longstanding policies of military non-alignment.
- Russia described the Nordic nations’ NATO bid as a “grave mistake”.
- Turkey has set demands for Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership, saying it wanted the two countries to end support for Kurdish armed groups on their territory, and to lift the ban on sales of some arms to Turkey.
- Russia’s war in Ukraine is not going as Moscow had planned, and “Ukraine can win this war”, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.
- Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets said Sweden and Finland joining NATO would increase the security of the Baltic region.
- Russia is “the only country that threatens European security” and “openly waging a war of aggression”, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said debating NATO bid.
Energy
- Germany plans to ban importing Russian oil by the end of the year regardless if the EU agrees on a ban in its next set of sanctions, Bloomberg reported, citing government officials.
- Zelenskyy urged European leaders to impose more sanctions on Russia and its energy sector claiming “the time of Europe’s dependence on Russian energy resources is coming to an end”.
- Ukraine has resumed operations at two distribution stations in the Kharkiv region and restarted gas supplies to more than 3,000 consumers after stations were shut down because of damage to the main pipeline from hostilities, Ukraine’s gas transit system operator said.
Economy
- Russia government nationalises French carmaker Renault assets following its withdrawal from Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.
