🔴 Live: Russian forces temporarily ease attacks on Bakhmut to regroup, says Kyiv

5:48pm: Two killed in Russian regions bordering Ukraine, says governor

Shelling in Russian regions bordering Ukraine killed two people on Saturday, regional authorities said. 

The regional governor of Belgorod said there were fresh attacks, a day after dozens of strikes.

“One person was killed. He was a security guard… he was outside at the time of the shelling” in the Shebekino area, Vyacheslav Gladkov said. 

He said others were wounded, including a 15 and 17-year-old. 

Belogorod witnessed an unprecedented two-day incursion from Ukraine this week and Moscow used planes and artillery to push back the attackers. 

In Kursk, another region bordering Ukraine, mortar shelling killed a builder, governor Roman Starovoit said on social media.

3:29pm: Iran rebukes Ukraine’s claims of supplying Russia with weapons

Iran struck back at Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday, saying his accusation the Islamic republic is arming Russia was an attempt to gain the West’s military and financial support.

On Wednesday, during his daily speech, Zelensky said Tehran’s “support for evil cannot be denied” and appealed directly to Iranians, asking: “Why do you want to be accomplices in Russian terror?”

In response, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said Zelensky’s “repetition of false claims” against the Islamic republic was “in harmony with the propaganda and media war of the anti-Iranian axis”.

“It is done with the aim of attracting as much military and financial aid from Western countries as possible,” Kanani said.

3:05pm: Russia intercepts two UK missiles supplied to Ukraine 

Russian forces intercepted two long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles supplied to Ukraine by Britain, the RIA news agency cited the Defence Ministry as saying on Saturday.

The ministry also said it had intercepted shorter-range US–built HIMARS–launched and HARM missiles, and shot down 19 drones in the last 24 hours, RIA reported.

2:47pm: Germany to remove over 100 goverment employees in Russia

Germany will remove more than 100 government employees working in Russia after Moscow imposed limits on the numbers allowed to work at German diplomatic missions in the country, a source with the German foreign ministry said on Saturday.

“This limit, set by Russia for the beginning of June, requires a major cut in all areas of our presence in Russia,” the source said.

Those affected include teachers, as well as other employees of schools and the Goethe Institute, and is necessary to maintain the right balance for Germany’s diplomatic presence, said the person, who described the number affected as at least 100.

12:23pm: Russia accuses Japan of ‘cynical speculation’ after Tokyo’s nuclear rebuke

Russia on Saturday accused Japan of “cynical, unscrupulous speculation” over Tokyo’s comments around the nuclear threat Moscow poses and promised to respond to Japan’s latest round of sanctions imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno on Friday said Japan would place additional sanctions on Russia after the Group of Seven (G7) summit Tokyo hosted last week agreed to step up measures to punish Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Matsuno also condemned Russia’s plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, saying it would further inflame the situation and that Japan would never accept “Russia’s nuclear menace, let alone its use”.

12:21pm: Two drones attack Russia’s Druzhba oil pipeline, Kommersant says

Two drones attacked Russia’s Druzhba oil pipeline in the Tver region on Saturday, the Kommersant newspaper reported, citing social media reports.

11:06am: Kyiv says Russian forces ease attacks on Bakhmut to regroup

Russian forces have temporarily eased their attacks on the besieged eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut to regroup and strengthen their capabilities, a senior Kyiv official said on Saturday.

Russia’s Wagner private army began handing over its positions to regular Russian troops this week after declaring full control of Bakhmut following the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.

In a statement on Telegram, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said Russian forces have continued attacking but that “overall offensive activity has decreased”.

“Yesterday and today there have not been any active battles – neither in the city nor on the flanks,” she wrote, adding that Moscow’s troops were instead shelling the outskirts and approaches to Bakhmut.

“The decrease in the enemy’s offensive activity is due to the fact that troops are being replaced and regrouped,” Maliar said. “The enemy is trying to strengthen its own capabilities.”

11:01am: Hundreds of German civil servants to leave Russia, says government

Hundreds of German civil servants working in the education and cultural sectors will need to leave Russia following a request by Moscow, a German government source told AFP Saturday.

It follows Russia’s decision to force Germany to slash its diplomatic staff and presence at public institutions such as the Goethe Institute cultural organisation and the German school in Moscow by the beginning of June, the source said.

The source confirmed a report in the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which described it as a “diplomatic declaration of war by Moscow” in Berlin. 

“This is a unilateral, unjustified and incomprehensible decision,” the German foreign ministry said in a statement. 

10:08am: Ukraine asks Germany for air-to-surface missiles, says ministry

Ukraine has asked Berlin to provide it with Taurus air-to-surface missiles that have a range of in excess of 500 kilometres, Germany’s defence ministry told AFP on Saturday.

“We have a received a request from the Ukrainian side in recent days,” a ministry spokesman said, without providing further details.

9:47am: Iran says Ukraine president drone criticism a bid to secure more Western arms

Tehran on Saturday accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of anti-Iranian propaganda in his call for Iran to halt the supply of drones to Russia, saying his comments were designed to attract more arms and financial aid from the West.

9:23am: Two drones caused explosion at Russian oil pipeline building, says local governor

An attack by two drones caused damage to an oil pipeline’s administrative building in Russia’s Pskov region, local Governor Mikhail Vedernikov said on Telegram on Saturday, following a preliminary investigation.

Key developments from Friday, May 27:

• A Russian missile on Friday morning struck a medical facility in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, killing one and injuring 23 including two children, officials said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video of smoke billowing from roofless buildings with blown-out windows. “There are 23 injured in Dnipro,” the head of the regional military administration Sergiy Lysak wrote on Telegram, after several buildings were hit.

   

   

• Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Friday he had a phone call with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and reiterated his country’s willingness to talk to both sides of the war in Ukraine seeking peace.

   

   

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told China’s special envoy Li Hui on Friday that there were “serious obstacles” to resuming peace talks, blaming Ukraine and Western countries.

Read yesterday’s live blog to see how the day’s events unfolded. 

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)