Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

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Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

19 ***** and dozens injured after strikes on Belgorod, Russian officials say

Russian officials said at least 19 people were ******* and 27 injured during Ukrainian missile attacks on the border region of Belgorod this weekend.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the region, said

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that the bodies of 15 people had been recovered from the debris of a residential building that had collapsed following what he described as a “barbaric” Ukrainian missile *******. He said 27 people had been injured in the *******.

During separate shelling on Sunday evening, three more civilians were *******, he said, adding that one woman injured in an ******* on Saturday had also *****.

A view of a collapsed apartment after a missile strike in Belgorod, Russia on May 12, 2024. Russia said on Sunday that a Ukrainian missile strike on an apartment building in the city of Belgorod injured 19 people.

Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday that Russian air defense systems had repelled the *******, destroying six Tochka-U missiles, four Vampire MLRS missiles and two Vilkha MLRS missiles. “Fragments of one of the downed Tochka-U missiles damaged a residential building in the city of Belgorod,” the ministry

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CNBC was unable to verify the report and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Both Moscow and Kyiv deny the deliberate targeting of civilians.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia claims gains amid fierce fighting in northeast Ukraine

The Kharkiv coordination volunteer center, together with the national police and emergency services, is conducting an evacuation from the pro-front city on the border with Russia on May 12, 2024 in Vovchansk Kharkiv Region, Ukraine.

Libkos | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Russia’s Defense Ministry has claimed more advances in the Kharkiv area of Ukraine after Russian forces launched a new offensive in the northeastern region.

The ministry

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Sunday that its forces had “advanced into the depths of the ******’s defenses” and had “liberated” the villages of Gatishche, Krasnoye, Morokhovets, and Oleynikovo had been captured in the Kharkiv region.

On Saturday, the ministry said the border villages of Pletenivka, Ohirtseve, Borysivka, Pylna and Strilechna had been seized. It also claimed that the village of Keramik in the Donetsk region had been taken.

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after Russian forces crossed the border and launched a widescale offensive there last Friday. Questions are being asked as to why Russian forces were able to advance in the region so easily, but a Ukrainian government spokesperson told the BBC Monday that the villages that had been captured were long-abandoned “zombie” villages.

Volunteers and police evacuate residents of Vovchansk as Russian troops attempt to seize the city and launch shelling and air strikes in Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 12, 2024. 

Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images

Russia wants to seize the region, which includes the second-largest city in Ukraine, Kharkiv, in order to create what it calls a “buffer zone” to protect its own border regions from Ukrainian attacks, which have intensified in recent months.

Ukrainian officials were widely expecting the offensive and have sent reinforcements to the area but President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday called for Western military aid deliveries to be made as quickly as possible. Russia is trying to make as many gains as possible before Western military supplies, as part of an unprecedented $61 billion U.S. aid package, arrive on the ground.

— Holly Ellyatt

****** replaces longtime defense minister Sergei Shoigu

Russian President Vladimir ****** has moved his long-term ally Sergei Shoigu from the defense ministry to the country’s powerful Security Council amid a government reshuffle.

Russian President Vladimir ****** (R) and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (L) attending the Victory Day parade on Red Square.

Contributor | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Russian economist Andrei Belousov will be Russia’s new defense minister, while Shoigu will replace Nikolai Patrushev, another long-standing ****** ally, as the secretary of the powerful Security Council — the body charged with advising the president on national security policy. Patrushev will be given another role, the Kremlin said.

Shoigu had headed the defense ministry since 2012, going in to the role with no military experience, and oversaw Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

****** has remained loyal to Shoigu, although Russia’s military leadership during the war has been criticized by some Russian commentators, the most high-profile of whom was Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group of Russian mercenary fighters. Prigozhin ***** last August in a plane ******; the Kremlin denied any involvement in his ******.

The appointment of Belousov, former minister of economic development, is bound to raise eyebrows in military circles but comes as ****** looks to cement Russia’s economy on a war footing and defense spending surges.

Kremlin press spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the appointment of a civilian to the defense ministry was rooted in a need for “innovation.”

“On the battlefield today, the winner is the one who is more open to innovation … Therefore, at this stage, the president has made a decision for a civilian to head the Defense Ministry,” Peskov said, news agency

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.

Russia’s top general, the Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, will remain in his job, the Kremlin said.

— Holly Ellyatt

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