© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian servicemen prepare a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher system to fire towards Russian troop positions, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the town of Bakhmut, in Ukraine, May 19, 2023. Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
(Reuters) – Russia and Ukraine have given conflicting accounts of the situation in Bakhmut, with Kiev saying its forces still control part of the beleaguered eastern city, while Moscow praised the Wagner mercenary force and Russian troops for the to have “liberated”.
STRUGGLE
* Ukrainian forces have partially surrounded Bakhmut along the flanks and still control part of the city, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Sunday.
* Russia claimed on Saturday that it had fully captured the destroyed city, which would mark the end of the longest and bloodiest battle of the 15-month war and Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the troops.
* US President Joe Biden said Russians suffered more than 100,000 casualties in Bakhmut.
* A Russian-installed official in the Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine said on Sunday that Kiev hit the Russian-held port city of Berdyansk with British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles .
* Reuters could not verify reports from the battlefield.
DIPLOMACY AND ECONOMY
* Leaders of the world’s wealthiest democracies at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Hiroshima, Japan, said on Sunday they would not give up support for Ukraine.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he was confident Kiev would receive F-16 fighter jets from the West and Biden said he received “flat assurance” from Zelenskiy that Ukraine would not use them not to enter Russian territory.
* Zelenskiy played down the fact that he did not meet Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the sidelines of the G7 summit and said it was probably because of the timing.
IN-DEPTH STORIES
* INSIGHT-Communities torn apart as Ukraine turns its back on Moscow-linked church.
*INSIGHT-How Russians end up in far-right militia fighting in Ukraine.
* INSIGHT-Ukrainian farms are losing workers to war, complicating a difficult harvest
* EXPLAINER-Why the EU is restricting grain imports from Ukraine
