As the war enters its 432nd day, we review key developments.
This is the state of affairs on Monday, May 1, 2023:
To fight
- The Russian Defense Ministry has said Russian troops have taken new parts of the eastern city of Bakhmut.
- The head of Russia’s Wagner group of mercenaries has threatened to withdraw his troops from Bakhmut over the mounting casualties.
- A Ukrainian army spokesman has said Kiev controls a key supply route to Bakhmut. The “road of life” is a vital road between the ruined city and the nearby town of Chasiv Yar to the west – a distance of about 17 km (11 mi).
- At least four civilians have been killed and two injured as a result of alleged Ukrainian shells that hit a village in Russia’s Bryansk region, the regional governor said.
- Russia has said a drone strike caused a fire at a fuel storage facility in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Andriy Yusov, a Ukrainian military intelligence official who spoke to RBC Ukraine, said more than 10 tanks of oil products were destroyed without claiming responsibility for the attack.
- The Russian army has replaced its top general in charge of logistics ahead of an expected counter-offensive by Kiev. The statement from the Russian Defense Ministry did not mention why Mikhail Mizintsev was replaced after only seven months.
Diplomacy
- Pope Francis has urged Hungarians to open their doors to others as he concluded a weekend visit with a plea for Europe to welcome refugees, migrants and the poor, and for an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
- Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk has described the possibility that China will take on a mediating role in Ukraine’s war as “not unrealistic”. The former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany said that for Kiev the withdrawal of all Russian troops was a necessity.
- French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke by phone on Sunday about Ukraine’s military needs, both sides said.
- Russia has said it will respond harshly to what it said was Poland’s “illegal” seizure of its embassy school in Warsaw.
- Ukrainian fencers, gathered in Paris for a training camp, have said they will not compete against Russians and Belarusians after being re-admitted to international competitions.
- The International Olympic Committee’s recommendation to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to return to international competitions as neutrals is “excessive and discriminatory,” the Russian Olympic Committee’s Athletes Commission said.