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Russia claims 694 Ukrainian fighters surrendered at Azovstal in last 24 hours
Russia’s defence ministry has issued its latest operation briefing.
It says that a total of 959 combatants have surrendered from the Azovstal steel plant since Monday. It said that 694 Ukrainian fighters who had been under siege surrendered over the last 24 hours. Russia says that in total 80 of those who surrendered were wounded, of whom 51 have been taken to hospital.
In addition, the Russians claim that they have killed 270 Ukrainian fighters and “54 units of military equipment were disabled” overnight. They also claim to have shot down two planes and 15 drones.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Russia has expelled 34 French diplomats and staff in a retaliatory move, its foreign ministry said.
In response, the French foreign affairs ministry condemned Russia’s decision to kick its staff out of the Moscow embassy.
Last month, France expelled 35 Russians with diplomatic status as part of a wave of expulsions that saw more than 300 Russians kicked out of European capitals.
Later that month, the French foreign ministry declared six Russian agents posing as diplomats as “persona non grata” after an intelligence investigation concluded they were working against France’s national interests.
The UK’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, said he is looking forward to welcoming Finland and Sweden into Nato, just hours after both Nordic countries formally submitted their applications to join the military alliance.
Johnson tweeted that it was a “historic” day and said Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, had “transformed the geopolitical contours of our continent”.
This is an historic day for our alliance & the world. Not long ago nobody would have predicted this step, but Putin’s appalling ambitions have transformed the geopolitical contours of our continent.
I look forward to welcoming Finland & Sweden into the @NATO family very soon. https://t.co/0IxmEpvky8
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) May 18, 2022
More than 28,000 Russian troops killed so far, says Ukraine
Around 28,300 Russian troops have been killed since troops invaded Ukraine on 24 February, according to Ukraine’s armed forces.
In an update posted on its Facebook page, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Russia had lost 400 more personnel over the past day.
In addition, it said Russia had also lost 1,251 tanks, 3,043 armoured vehicles, 586 artillery systems, 199 multiple launch rocket systems, 91 air defence systems, 202 warplanes and 13 warships and boats.
These are the indicative estimates of Russia’s combat losses as of May 18, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/EM0NQ2MRrk
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) May 18, 2022
Hello, it is Léonie Chao-Fong taking over from Martin Belam to bring you all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
Today so far …
- Russia’s defence ministry said that 694 Ukrainian fighters who had been under siege at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol surrendered over the last 24 hours.
- The Russians claim that 959 combatants have surrendered in total at Azovstal since Monday, and that 80 of those who surrendered were wounded, of whom 51 have been taken to hospital. The numbers have not been independently verified.
- Denis Pushilin, who is head of the self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk, has told local media a court would decide the fate of the Ukrainian fighters who had surrendered at Azovstal.
- Russia claims they have killed 270 Ukrainian fighters and “54 units of military equipment were disabled” overnight. They also claim to have shot down two planes and 15 drones.
- The State Emergency Service of Ukraine have issued their latest daily update saying that yesterday they neutralised 685 explosive devices on Ukrainian soil.
- The latest intelligence update from the UK’s Ministry of Defence highlights Russia’s “significant resourcing problems in Ukraine”, which it says “is likely contributing to a disunited command which continues to hamper Russia’s operations”.
- Vadim Shishimarin, 21, will appear at Kyiv’s Solomyansky district court from 2pm local time, charged with war crimes and premeditated murder, over the death of a 62-year-old man in north-eastern Ukraine on 28 February.
- The international criminal court on Tuesday sent a 42-member team to Ukraine to investigate alleged war crimes since the Russian invasion in what it called the largest such deployment in its history.
- The US will create a new unit to research, document and publicise alleged war crimes by Russia in Ukraine. The Conflict Observatory will “capture, analyse, and make widely available evidence of Russia-perpetrated war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine”, the US state department said.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that there was no movement in peace talks with Ukraine, and claimed that Kyiv was showing a total unwillingness to continue them.
- Israel says it has delivered 2,000 helmets and 500 protective vests for emergency and civilian use in Ukraine.
- The UK’s foreign secretary Liz Truss has said the UK is open to the idea of an international criminal tribunal trying Vladimir Putin and other Russian leaders over the war in Ukraine.
- Austrian foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg told German radio broadcaster Deutschlandfunk his country would stay militarily neutral. “The situation for us looks a little different,” he said when asked about Sweden and Finland applying to join Nato.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. Léonie Chao-Fong will be on the live blog for the next few hours.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that there was no movement in peace talks with Ukraine, and claimed that Kyiv was showing a total unwillingness to continue them.
“Negotiations are not progressing and we note the complete unwillingness of Ukrainian negotiators to continue this process”, Reuters reports Peskov said.
In the past, Peskov has said that reports Russia intended to invade Ukraine were a “hollow and unfounded” invention of the western media, and in February he said that Russian troops would be “pulled back to their permanent bases” after the conclusion of joint military drills with Belarus.
Yesterday, Interfax news agency cited Russian deputy foreign minister Andrey Rudenko as saying that Russia and Ukraine were not holding talks “in any form”, and that Kyiv had “practically withdrawn from the negotiation process”.
Denis Pushilin, who is head of the self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk in Ukraine, has been quoted by Reuters, citing local media, as saying a court would decide the fate of the Ukrainian fighters who had surrendered at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.
The status of the fighters remains unclear, as there are moves in the Russian State Duma to treat the Azov Battalian as a terrorist organisation, which would then call into question whether Russia would feel obliged to treat those who surrendered at Azovstal as prisoners of war.
The UK’s foreign secretary Liz Truss has said the UK is open to the idea of an international criminal tribunal trying Vladimir Putin and other Russian leaders over the war in Ukraine. PA Media quotes her telling Times Radio:
We are very clear that Putin and all of those who’ve been behind the appalling war crimes that are being committed in Ukraine need to be held to account, and we’re working very closely with the international criminal court.
We’ve sent support into Ukraine to help collect evidence, from witness statements to video evidence.
I’ve talked to the Ukrainian government about this idea of a tribunal. We are open to the idea of a tribunal, we’re currently considering it, but what we want is the most effective way of prosecuting those people who have committed these appalling war crimes including rape, sexual violence, the indiscriminate targeting of civilians.
If the tribunal will help to do that, then the UK is definitely considering supporting it.
The decision of Sweden and Finland to apply for Nato membership has raised questions for other European countries who maintain a neutral stance. The foreign minister of Austria has said this morning his country would retain its neutral status.
“The situation for us looks a little different,” Austrian foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg told German radio broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, Reuters reports, pointing to “overwhelming” public support for neutrality in Austria.
Schallenberg said that the country, which obtains 80% of its natural gas from Russia, would continue to provide humanitarian support to Ukraine rather than lethal weapons.
“We are helping on a large scale but not with war munition and I think help for Ukraine cannot only be reduced to war munition,” he told the broadcaster.
Reuters has a quick snap that Israel says it has delivered 2,000 helmets and 500 protective vests for emergency and civilian use.
Russia claims 694 Ukrainian fighters surrendered at Azovstal in last 24 hours
Russia’s defence ministry has issued its latest operation briefing.
It says that a total of 959 combatants have surrendered from the Azovstal steel plant since Monday. It said that 694 Ukrainian fighters who had been under siege surrendered over the last 24 hours. Russia says that in total 80 of those who surrendered were wounded, of whom 51 have been taken to hospital.
In addition, the Russians claim that they have killed 270 Ukrainian fighters and “54 units of military equipment were disabled” overnight. They also claim to have shot down two planes and 15 drones.
The claims have not been independently verified.
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