🔴 Live: Ukrainian forces shell village in Russian border region, governor says

Issued on: 02/05/2023 – 08:41

11:49am: Top UN trade official to travel to Moscow this week

Top United Nations trade official Rebeca Grynspan is expected to travel to Moscow this week, a spokesperson said on Tuesday, amid a diplomatic push to ensure a deal allowing for the safe export of Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports is renewed.

Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February last year, has repeatedly said it will not allow the deal to be extended beyond May 18 unless Western countries removes obstacles to Russian grain and fertiliser exports.

10:57am: Talks on Black Sea grain export deal reportedly set for Wednesday

Talks on a UN-brokered deal that allows the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain are scheduled for Wednesday, with all sides in the negotiations involved, a senior Ukrainian source said on Tuesday.

“Talks are scheduled for tomorrow. All parties […] hopefully there will be results,” the source, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February last year, has signalled it will not allow the deal agreed last July to continue beyond May 18 because a list of demands to facilitate its own grain and fertilizer exports has not been met.

10:28am: Russian advance in Bakhmut ‘seems to have stopped’

“Yesterday, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the head of the land army in Ukraine, said that the Ukrainian armed forces had managed to take back some positions inside Bakhmut [and] had launched a small counter-offensive there. I’m not seeing that reflected on the maps that are drawn up by various independent observers, but the Russian advance seems to have stopped yesterday,” FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg reported from Ukraine’s Vinnytsia. “They haven’t taken any more territory in Bakhmut. Perhaps the Ukrainians there did claw something back. Everything there is very fluid; fighting is continuing in the city centre.

“The overall picture in Bakhmut, though, over the past two weeks, has been one of a slow but steady Russian advance – but only in the city centre,” Cragg continued. “They haven’t managed to cut off Ukrainian supply routes to the western outskirts of the city that Ukraine still controls. They haven’t managed to surround Ukrainian forces or put them in a situation where they wouldn’t be able to get out.”

6:56pm: Ukrainian forces shell village in Russia’s Bryansk region, governor says

Ukrainian forces shelled a village in the Russian Bryansk region bordering Ukraine early on Tuesday, the local governor said in a social media post, a day after an explosion derailed a freight train in the region.

“In the morning, the Armed Forces of Ukraine shelled the village of Kurkovichi in the Starodubsky municipal district.” Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz said in a post on his Telegram channel.

“There were no casualties. As a result of the shelling, a fire broke out in one of the households. All emergency services are on site.”

FRANCE 24 was not able to independently verify the report. Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia and on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine. The military, however, reports daily on activities and troops movements in battlefield areas.

4:05am: Ukrainian defenders oust Russian forces from some positions in Bakhmut, general says

Ukrainian units have ousted Russian forces from some positions in Bakhmut amid fierce battles, a top Ukrainian general said on Monday, as the White House believes that more than 20,000 Russian fighters have been killed in Ukraine since December.

“The situation (in Bakhmut) is quite difficult,” Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Ukrainian commander of ground forces, said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

“At the same time, in certain parts of the city, the enemy was counterattacked by our units and left some positions” in recent days, he said.

The 10-month-long battle for the eastern Ukrainian city has taken on a symbolic importance for both sides. It has become the fulcrum of a war that has seen little shift in front lines since late 2022, leaving both sides looking for a breakthrough.

• Key developments from Monday, May 1

A White House official said on Monday that more than 20,000 Russian troops were killed and another 80,000 wounded in five months of fighting in eastern Ukraine, particularly in Bakhmut.

This came after overnight Russian missile attacks on the eastern city of Pavlohrad killed two people and injured 40, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)