LIVE – War in Ukraine: kyiv says 30,000 Russian soldiers are engaged in the new offensive

By replacing his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Vladimir Putin announces that he is preparing for a “long” war against the West, the secretary of the Ukrainian Security Council told AFP on Monday.

“This suggests that Putin is planning a war for a long time to come. A war not only against Ukraine but also against the West as a whole, a war against NATO,” Oleksandr Lytvynenko said in an interview with the AFP.

“More than 30,000” Russian soldiers are engaged in the new offensive led by Moscow in the northeast of Ukraine, near the country’s second city, Kharkiv, which is “not threatened”, declared Monday to the ‘AFP Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

“About 50,000 (Russian soldiers) were at the border. Now there are well over 30,000 attacking” in the region since Friday, Oleksandr Lytvynenko said in an interview with AFP, adding that there was at this stage “no threat of assault against the city of Kharkiv”.

The new Serbian Prime Minister, whose country is a close ally of Moscow, reaffirmed Monday Serbia’s attachment to Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” during a meeting with the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, visiting Belgrade.

“Prime Minister (Milos) Vucevic stressed that Serbia is committed to respecting international law and the territorial integrity of each United Nations member state, including Ukraine,” the leader’s office said in a statement. of the Serbian government.

During his visit – his first to Serbia since February 2022 – Dmytro Kouleba also met with President Aleksandar Vucic and was scheduled to speak with Parliament Speaker and former Prime Minister Ana Brnabic.

Strikes in the occupied region of Lugansk (east) and the Russian region of Kursk left at least four dead and seven injured on Monday, Russian authorities said in a new report. The Russian official in the region, Leonid Passechnik, blamed the strike on the Ukrainian armed forces.

A strike on the town of Krasnodon, in the occupied Ukrainian region of Lugansk (east), left at least three dead and four injured on Monday, Russian occupation authorities said. “A severe fire broke out following a strike on the industrial zone of Krasnodon (…). Unfortunately, we already know that three people died and four others were injured,” the Russian official said from the region, Léonid Passetchnik, on Telegram.

A former employee of the Russian tech jewel Yandex, accused of having financed the activities of the Ukrainian armed forces, was arrested for “high treason”, the Russian security services (FSB) said on Monday. The arrest took place in the Nizhny Novgorod region, 400 kilometers east of Moscow, according to an FSB statement.

“It was established” that this man “made a transfer of his own financial means to the account of a foundation registered in Ukraine to acquire armored vehicles, ammunition, equipment and medicines for the Ukrainian armed forces,” states the press release. He briefly left Russia after the announcement of a partial mobilization in September 2022, a few months after the start of the offensive in Ukraine, then returned, according to the same source.

Fighting continues in the Kharkiv region, in northeastern Ukraine, where more than 30 localities are under Russian fire, according to the regional governor. “More than 30 localities in the Kharkiv region were hit by enemy artillery and mortar fire,” Oleg Synegubov said on social networks.

The governor specifies that a total of 5,762 residents have been evacuated from these areas since the start of the fighting.

Ukraine claimed on Monday that it had struck an oil terminal and an electricity substation respectively in the Belgorod and Lipetsk regions in western Russia, not far from the Ukrainian border.

“Explosions took place at the Oskolneftesnab oil terminal near the town of Stari Oskol, as well as at the Yeletskaya substation with a capacity of 500 kW,” a source in the sector told AFP. of Ukrainian defense, specifying that it was a special services operation carried out with attack drones.

The head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba, on his first visit to Serbia since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, will meet Prime Minister Milos Vucevic this Monday in Belgrade, the head of government’s office announced.

Belgrade, which supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity, has condemned the war at the UN, but refuses to align with Western countries’ sanctions against Moscow.

Since Friday, Russia has launched a ground offensive in the Kharkiv region, northeast of Ukraine. On site, residents who did not evacuate live to the sound of explosions. “When they have broken our lines, they will send even more soldiers,” fears a Ukrainian speaking to LCI.

Russian President Vladimir Putin decided on Sunday May 12 to dismiss his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Andreï Beloussov, an economist by training, replaces him. Who is he ?

Russia claimed this Monday to have neutralized 31 Ukrainian drones overnight in several regions of the country and in Crimea. “During the night, new attempts by the Kiev regime to carry out terrorist attacks using aerial drones (…) against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation were prevented,” the Russian ministry said of Defense in a press release.

Russian anti-aircraft defense notably destroyed 12 drones above the Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine and already targeted on Sunday by a Ukrainian strike which left 15 dead, according to the same source.

The Ukrainian army recognized this Monday “tactical successes” of Russia in the region of Kharkiv (north-east), where Moscow claimed the capture of four additional localities near the border in its offensive launched on Friday, which resulted in the evacuation of thousands of civilians.

“Currently, the enemy is experiencing tactical successes,” the Ukrainian general staff acknowledged early Monday morning in a statement, adding that “fighting continues in the border town of Vovchansk,” which had some 3,000 inhabitants before the offensive in progress and where Moscow has mobilized “up to five battalions”, according to kyiv.

Find below the main information related to the conflict of the last 24 hours:

– Russian President Vladimir Putin fires his defense minister. Sergei Shoigu is replaced by Andreï Belooussov, an economist by training, and becomes secretary of the Security Council, a position held until then by Nikolaï Patrushev, who is dismissed from his functions, according to a decree published by the Kremlin.

– Moscow is advancing on the front. The Ukrainian army recognized Russia’s “tactical successes” in the Kharkiv region (north-east), where Moscow claimed the capture of four additional localities near the border in its offensive launched on Friday, which led to the evacuation of thousands of civilians.

– Four dead in Ukrainian bombing. Four people were found dead in the rubble of a building hit by a Ukrainian strike on the Russian town of Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said on Sunday.

Hello and welcome to TF1info to follow the news around the war in Ukraine on Monday May 13, 2024.