(Reuters) – Two Russian missiles struck Kyiv during a visit by the head of the United Nations, Ukrainian officials said, but the West believes the battles for the besieged port of Mariupol and other areas in the east and south may determine the war’s outcome.
FIGHTING
* “The enemy is increasing the pace of the offensive operation. The Russian occupiers are exerting intense fire in almost all directions,” Ukraine’s military command said.* Ukraine has suffered serious losses in the war with Russia but Moscow’s forces have lost many more soldiers, an aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video posted online.
* Two powerful blasts were heard in the Russian city of Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine, two witnesses told Reuters. It was not immediately clear what caused the blasts.
* Western countries are openly calling on Ukraine to attack Russia and the West should take Moscow seriously when it says strikes on Russian territory will lead to a response, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.* Russia is preventing wounded Ukrainian fighters from being evacuated from a vast steel works in Mariupol because it wants to capture them, the governor said.
Reports of battlefield developments could not be immediately verified by Reuters.
WEST’S RESPONSE
* The U.S. mission to the OSCE said the Kremlin might attempt “sham referenda” in southern and eastern areas it had captured since the Feb. 24 invasion, using “a well-worn playbook that steals from history’s darkest chapters”.
* NATO is ready to maintain support for Ukraine for years in the war against Russia, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.
* The United States believes Russian intelligence was behind an April chemical attack on, Dmitry Muratov, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Russian journalist critical of the Kremlin, U.S. news organizations reported.
HUMAN AND ECONOMIC IMPACT
* The bodies of 1,150 civilians have been recovered in Ukraine’s Kyiv region since Russia’s invasion and 50-70% of them had bullet wounds from small arms, Kyiv police said.
* Ukraine accused Russia of stealing grain in territory it has occupied. The Kremlin said it had no information on the matter.
(Compiled by Angus MacSwan, Toby Chopra and Cynthia Osterman)
