Russia 'deeply concerned' as citizens evacuated from nine Belgorod villages
Two anti-Kremlin groups used US-made tactical vehicles to storm a Russian border region, according to reports.
Russia said it had used jets and artillery to repulse a Ukrainian cross-border raid after two days of fighting, in what appeared to be the most serious incursion into Russian territory since the war began.
Ukraine denied involvement in the raid into the Belgorod region, attributing it to local Russian “partisans”.
Two anti-Kremlin groups who claimed responsibility did not comment on reports they had withdrawn, but one of them said in a statement: “One day we will return.”
The Russian Volunteer Corps and the Free Russia Legion, two units of Russian nationals fighting on Ukraine’s side, released footage of their fighters in and around the village of Graivorona, about three miles inside Russia, on Monday.
“The Russian army could do nothing to oppose a group of patriotic volunteers who took up arms and were not afraid to openly go against the Moscow regime for the free future of Russia,” the Legion said on its Telegram channel. “There is panic in the Belgorod region.”
Russian Volunteer Corps leader, Denis Nikitin said his fighters used US-made Humvees and M1224 MaxxPro armoured vehicles during the attack.
The US state department said it was “sceptical” about reports that US-supplied weapons were used in the attack, adding that it does not encourage or enable attacks on Russian territory.
Mr Nikitin did not explain how he obtained the vehicles.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod region, on Tuesday morning declared an “anti-terrorist” regime and that security forces were still trying to clear ten settlements that were evacuated when fighting broke out on Monday.
Russia’s ministry of defence later said in a statement that the attackers had been repulsed by “air strikes, artillery fire and active action by border units”.
It said more than 70 Ukrainian fighters had been killed, and four armoured vehicles and five pick-up trucks destroyed.
“The remnants of the nationalists were pushed back to Ukrainian territory, where they continued to be hit by gunfire until they were completely eliminated,” it added. The claim could not be independently confirmed.
The defence ministry's announcement that it resorted to the air force and artillery on Russian territory confirmed an unprecedented use of force domestically since the offensive began.
"In the course of the counter-terrorist operation, the nationalist formations were blocked and destroyed by air strikes and artillery fire," the Russian ministry said.
Mr Gladkov cancelled the counter-terrorist regime later that evening. He denied reports by Russian military bloggers that Ukrainian forces attempted a second incursion near the village of Schetinovka, 25 miles further east, on Tuesday.
Russia and Ukraine regularly shell each other and conduct covert raids across the frontier, but this was the first overt incursion into Russia lasting more than a day since the war began in February.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesman, said the raid was “cause for deep concern and once again confirms that Ukrainian militants continue their activities against our country,”
“This requires more effort from us and these efforts continue - the special military operation is continuing - so that this does not happen again,” he added. Russia calls its invasion of Ukraine a special military operation.
The British Ministry of Defence said Russian security forces “highly likely” clashed with partisans in at least three locations within Belgorod.
“Russia is facing an increasingly serious multi-domain security threat in its border regions, with losses of combat aircraft, improvised explosive device attacks on rail lines, and now direct partisan action,” it said in a tweet on Tuesday.
Little is known about the groups who claimed to have carried out the attack.
The Freedom of Russia Legion was purportedly formed by Russian soldiers who defected to Ukraine early in the war. Few members have ever been seen in public and its exact relationship with the Ukrainian military is unclear.
The Russian Volunteer Corps was founded by Denis Nikitin, a neo-Nazi football hooligan from Moscow. The group describes itself as “a volunteer formation fighting on Ukraine’s side.” The Ukrainian military denies any connection to it.
03:05 PM
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We will be back tomorrow with all the latest updates on Ukraine.
03:04 PM
‘Lots of young men die on that bed... often they are on the phone to their mothers’
From the town’s military hospital, we switch vehicles and drive off the main road towards the front. In charge of us is Ruslan, the burly and cheerful deputy commander of the airborne brigade’s medical team.
After about half an hour, we are off-road. Navigating the potholes up a beautiful ridge in bright sunlight, we see, far away, smoke rising from the hellish battle of Bakhmut. Nearer, a series of lesser smoke-plumes mark the front line.
Our destination is the “stabilisation point”. When a Ukrainian soldier is wounded at the front, stretcher-bearers rush him, at high risk to themselves, to an improvised field ambulance at the nearby evacuation point.
The stabilisation point to which it then drives is the nearest place where most shelling can be avoided.
That point is only 11 miles away, but the journey takes 40 minutes over the rough terrain. At night, it must be conducted in total darkness to avoid attack. This causes accidents.
Read more from Charles Moore and Heathcliff O'Malley here
02:34 PM
Ukraine says Russia prevents Black Sea grain deal port operating
The Ukrainian port of Pivdennyi has halted operations because Russia is not allowing ships to enter it, in effect cutting it out of a deal allowing safe Black Sea grain exports, a Ukrainian official said on Tuesday.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative signed by Russia and Ukraine last July, and extended last week for two months, is intended to guarantee the safe wartime export of grains and foodstuffs from three Ukrainian ports - Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi.
The United Nations, which together with Turkey, brokered the deal and its extension, expressed concern on Monday that Pivdennyi - near Odesa on the Black Sea - had not received any ships since May 2 under the deal.
"Formally, the port of Pivdennyi is in the Initiative, but in fact it hasn't been there for a month. It has no incoming fleet," Ukrainian Deputy Renovation Minister Yuriy Vaskov told Reuters.
"They (Russia) have now found an effective way to significantly reduce (Ukrainian) grain exports by excluding the port of Pivdennyi, which handles large tonnage vessels, from the initiative," he said in written comments.
02:06 PM
Ukraine in pictures:
01:24 PM
Chinese envoy to reportedly visit Russia on May 26
Chinese Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui will visit Russia on May 26, the Russian state-owned news agency TASS has reported, citing an unnamed source.
Li, a former ambassador to Moscow, has been on an extended tour to Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany and finally Russia. Last week he became the most senior Chinese official to visit Ukraine since Russia sent in its armed forces in February 2022.
01:05 PM
Nato says F-16 training for Ukrainians does not make it a party to the conflict
Training Ukrainian pilots in flying US-built F-16 fighter jets does not make Nato a party to the conflict, the alliance's chief Jens Stoltenberg said.
"Ukraine has the right of self-defence...We help Ukraine to uphold that right," he told reporters. "That doesn't make Nato and Nato allies a party to the conflict."
12:51 PM
Russia claims incursion forces driven back into Ukraine after Belgorod attack
Russia's Defence Ministry claimed that the remnants of the units that it blamed for Monday's cross-border attack from Ukraine on the Belgorod region had been forced back into Ukrainian territory.
In its daily briefing, the ministry said more than 70 attackers had been killed. Reuters was unable to verify the report.
12:14 PM
The cost of Putin's hollow victory in Bakhmut by numbers
The meat grinder, hell on earth, the fortress, a blackened nightmare, and now Europe’s Hiroshima.
Bakhmut has been called many things over the course of its nine-and-a-half month siege. Few descriptions capture the scale of loss and destruction. Which side - if any - has come out on top of this costly battle is unclear.
The small eastern city has undoubtedly been the site of the bloodiest fighting since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. It is also the longest battle since the Second World War.
Read more here
11:11 AM
Ukraine in pictures:
10:55 AM
Kremlin demands 'more effort' to stop border incursions
The Kremlin said that Moscow needed to concentrate its military efforts to avoid another Ukrainian incursion into Russia and voiced "deep concern" over recent skirmishes in the Belgorod region.
"What happened yesterday is a cause for deep concern and once again confirms that Ukrainian militants continue their activities against our country," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"This requires more effort from us and these efforts continue - the special military operation is continuing - so that this does not happen again," he added, using the Kremlin's term for Moscow's offensive in Ukraine.
10:27 AM
'The frontlines'
In the frontlines.
Today, 🇺🇦 President @ZelenskyyUa and his team are here to congratulate our servicemembers on the AFU Marines Corps Day.
Glory to Ukraine. Glory to our heroes🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/VzcnqJvHn4— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) May 23, 2023
10:11 AM
Zelensky visits Donetsk frontline in east Ukraine
President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Ukrainian troops on the frontline in the eastern region of Donetsk, where Russian forces have concentrated their efforts to capture territory.
"On his return from a foreign visit, President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the frontline positions of the Ukrainian armed forces in the Vugledar-Maryinka defence line in Donetsk region," the presidency said in a statement.
Ukrainian troops held back Russian forces around Vugledar during Moscow's winter offensive that gave the Kremlin only limited gains in the battle-scarred Donetsk region.
The presidency said that Zelensky had been with senior officials responsible for ground forces along that section of the frontline and also handed out awards.
"Every day on the battlefield, Ukrainian marines prove that they are a powerful force that destroys the enemy, liberates Ukrainian land and performs the most difficult tasks in the most difficult conditions," Zelensky said.
"And we need more of this force. So, from today, we are significantly increasing the potential of the marines and creating a marine corps," Zelensky said.
09:37 AM
Russian investigators open 'terrorism case' over cross-border attack from Ukraine
Russian investigators said they had opened a terrorism investigation after what they said was a cross-border attack on Russia's Belgorod region mounted by what they called Ukrainian armed groups.
Kyiv has denied involvement in the attack.
Fighting broke out in the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, on Monday.
09:18 AM
Pictured: An elderly displaced Bakhmut resident cries as she visits a support centre in Kyiv
09:10 AM
Zelensky congratulates marines on frontline
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he visited frontline troops to congratulate them on the Day of the Ukrainian Marines.
Zelensky posted photos online showing him presenting awards and posing for a group photograph with marines in a dimly lit location.
"Our defenders. Frontline. Today I am here to congratulate our warriors on the Day of the Ukrainian Marines," he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
08:52 AM
The story of the battle for Bakhmut through the eyes of those who fought it
It is more than a year ago now, but Yana Olha says she will never forget the day the war came to Bakhmut.
“It was near my birthday, so springtime, when explosions hit. We have seen fighting since 2014, but this time the fear was worse,” said the 35-year-old Donbas native.
“My elderly mother and father were alone, my husband had to go and save them. I waited at home fearing that I would never see the three of them again. I walked up and down like a madman.”
Those explosions were only the very beginning of what may prove to be the pivotal battle of this war.
Read more from Roland Oliphant and Verity Bowman here
08:33 AM
Ukraine says it still holds part of Bakhmut
Ukrainian forces still control the southwestern edge of the city of Bakhmut and fighting in the city itself has decreased, Hanna Maliar, Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister, has said.
She wrote on the Telegram messaging app that Kyiv's forces had made some progress "on the flanks to the north and south of Bakhmut" and that Russian forces, which say they have taken the city itself, were continuing to clear areas they control.
08:15 AM
Latest MoD update
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 23 May 2023.
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/sl1BP3Jp3b
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/MuK0eYueQa— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) May 23, 2023
08:14 AM
Ukraine in pictures:
08:08 AM
Russian Prime Minister arrives in China
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has arrived in China, Moscow's foreign ministry said, for a visit in which he will meet with President Xi Jinping and ink a series of deals on infrastructure and trade.
Mishustin arrived late Monday in Shanghai, the ministry said, where he was greeted at the airport by Moscow's ambassador to China Igor Morgulov and Beijing's top diplomat to Russia Zhang Hanhui.
He will take part in a Russian-Chinese Business Forum and visit a petrochemical research institute in Shanghai, the Kremlin said, as well as hold talks with "representatives of Russian business circles".
That forum has invited a number of sanctioned Russian tycoons - including from the key fertiliser, steel and mining sectors - as well as Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who handles energy issues, Bloomberg reported.
08:07 AM
Good Morning
Good morning and welcome to today's Ukraine liveblog.
We will be guiding you through all the latest updates on Ukraine.
