Russia-Ukraine live news: Moscow intensifies push for Donbas | Russia-Ukraine war News
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- Ukrainian forces in eastern separatist-controlled regions say fighting is continuing in four locations.
- Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country is prepared to exchange its troops who surrendered at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol for Russian prisoners.
- Russian energy giant Gazprom says it had stopped all natural gas supplies to Finland as it had not received payment in rubles.
Here are all the latest updates:
Russian forces intensify efforts to capture Severodonetsk: Think-tank
Russian forces have intensified efforts to encircle and capture Ukraine’s Severodonetsk city in Luhansk Oblast and will likely continue to do so in the coming days, the Institute for the Study of War has said.
“Russian troops in Luhansk will likely move to capitalize on recent gains made in the Rubizhne-Severodonetsk-Luhansk-Popasna arc to encircle and besiege Severodonetsk – the final Ukrainian strongpoint in Luhansk Oblast,” the US-based think-tank said.
According to ISW, Russian military bloggers are hypothesizing about the success of Russian tactics in the area and have dubbed it the “Battle of Severodonetsk”.
#Russian forces intensified efforts to encircle and capture #Severodonetsk on May 21 and will likely continue to do so in the coming days as efforts on other axes of advance, including #Izyumremain largely stalled.
Read the full report: https://t.co/RHILbQbQkH pic.twitter.com/z4KXCoCp6f
– ISW (@TheStudyofWar) May 21, 2022
Ukrainian director denounces Russian presence at Cannes
Ukrainian director Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk has criticized the Cannes Film Festival for including a Russian director in its line-up.
The festival has banned official Russian delegations from attending, but Russian dissident Kirill Serebrennikov, who has spoken out against the invasion of Ukraine, premiered his in-competition film “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” at the festival on Wednesday.
“When he’s here, he’s part of the Russian propaganda, and they can use him,” Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk told Reuters.
The Russian director Serebrennikov had said earlier this week that Russian culture should not be boycotted, saying that his culture “has always promoted human values”.
The Ukrainian director Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk described the sensation of being in Cannes while his country fights against a Russian invasion as “alien”.
![Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses guests during the Opening Ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2022 [Christophe Simon/AFP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/000_32AB9C9.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513)
Women among Azovstal fighters now prisoners of Russia: TASS news agency
There are 78 women among the people captured by Russian forces from the besieged Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, a pro-Russian separatist leader said.
Russia’s TASS news agency reported the Donetsk separatist leader Denis Pushilin as saying there were also foreigners among those taken prisoner from the Azovstal steelworks. He did not state how many foreigners were taken prisoner.
“They had enough food and water, they also had enough weapons,” Pushilin told TASS.
“The problem was the lack of medicine,” he said, referring to the Ukrainian forces that had held out at the steel plant.
Moscow may swap Ukraine prisoners for Putin ally Medvedchuk: Negotiator
Moscow will consider exchanging prisoners from Ukraine’s Azov battalion for Viktor Medvedchuk, a wealthy Ukrainian businessman close to President Vladimir Putin, a Russian negotiator has said.
“We are going to study the possibility,” said Leonid Slutsky, a senior member of Russia’s negotiating team on Ukraine, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Medvedchuk, 67, is a politician and one of Ukraine’s richest people and is known for his close ties to Putin. He is also a politician.
He escaped from house arrest after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February but was re-arrested by Ukrainian forces in mid-April.
Russian troops responsible for 7 civilians’ deaths: Ukraine governor
Ukraine says Russian forces are responsible for the deaths of seven civilians in the Donetsk area in the east of the country that is under Moscow’s control.
Three people were killed in the town of Lyman alone, regional governor Pavlo Kirilenko wrote on Telegram.
Meanwhile in Kherson, occupied by Russian forces, local administrators accused Ukraine of killing three civilians and injuring 10 in the village of Biloserka, in a statement on Telegram.
Ukraine ready to exchange its soldiers for Russian prisoners of war: Zelenskyy
Zelenskyy says his country is prepared to exchange its troops who surrendered at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol for Russian prisoners.
In an interview with a Ukrainian television channel, Zelenskyy said the most important thing for him was to save the maximum number of people and soldiers. “We will bring them home,” he said.
Russia claims to have taken full control of the besieged city of Mariupol after the last group of Ukrainian soldiers surrendered.
Zelenskyy talks to Italian PM, urges more Russia sanctions
Zelenskyy has said he talked to Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and stressed the importance of more sanctions on Russia and unblocking Ukrainian ports.
Zelenskyy tweeted that he had also thanked Draghi for his “unconditional support” of Ukraine’s bid to become a member of the EU. Draghi had initiated the call, he said.
Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Read all the updates from Saturday, May 21 here.
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