May 5, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

By Helen Regan, Andrew Raine, Jack Guy, George Ramsay, Ed Upright, Adrienne Vogt, Maureen Chowdhury, Aditi Sangal and Meg Wagner, CNN

Updated 1:54 AM ET, Fri May 6, 2022
28 Posts
Sort byDropdown arrow
1:48 p.m. ET, May 5, 2022

Another joint UN and Red Cross evacuation convoy is on the way to Azovstal, official says 

From CNN's Tim Lister

The United Nations Special Envoy for Ukraine Martin Griffiths said another evacuation convoy is hoping to get to the Azovstal plant in Mariupol by Friday morning.

"Now, the convoy is proceeding to get to Azovstal by tomorrow morning, hopefully to receive those civilians remaining in that bleak hell for so many weeks and months and to take them back to safety," Griffiths said.

Griffiths was speaking at the Ukraine Donors Conference in Warsaw. He said the UN was working with the International Red Cross to get the convoy to Mariupol, as it did in the operation to evacuate civilians in Azovstal during the weekend.

11:29 a.m. ET, May 5, 2022

Russian oligarch’s yacht seized by authorities in Fiji, US officials say

From CNN's Kara Scannell

US officials said a $300 million yacht belonging to a Russian oligarch was seized by Fijian authorities on Thursday as part of their broad crackdown on individuals friendly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Amadea, a 348-foot luxury yacht owned by Suleiman Kerimov, a Russian oligarch sanctioned by US authorities in 2018, was docked at the port in Lautoka, Fiji, and seized by local law enforcement at the request of the Justice Department.

“This yacht seizure should tell every corrupt Russian oligarch that they cannot hide – not even in the remotest part of the world. We will use every means of enforcing the sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war in Ukraine,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

US officials allege Kerimov, who made his fortune in gold, acquired the yacht after he was placed on the US sanctions list. They allege Kerimov violated US law by using the US banking system to conduct dollar-denominated transactions to cover expenses for the yacht, according to a FBI affidavit. The cost of maintaining the yacht runs $25 million to $30 million a year, the affidavit said. 

The yacht sailed through the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, to Mexico and then arrived in Fiji on April 12, authorities said. They believe it was en route to Russia to avoid US seizure when it docked in Fiji, the affidavit said.  

Fiji’s High Court earlier this week ruled the US could seize the yacht, according to news reports. Fijian officials executed the seizure warrant on Thursday.

Kerimov was detained in France in 2018 after bringing as much as 20 million euros into the country in suitcases without reporting the money to tax authorities. He was suspected of laundering the money through villas. The initial charges were dropped but a new tax investigation by the French authorities opened in 2019.

12:01 p.m. ET, May 5, 2022

Ukrainian foreign minister says Russia's Lavrov should publicly apologize to Jews around the world

From CNN's Hande Atay Alam in Atlanta and Hadas Gold in Jerusalem

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba speaks during a news conference on April 19.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba speaks during a news conference on April 19. (Nikolay Doychinov/AFP/Getty Images)

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Thursday that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov should publicly apologize to all Jews around the world about his comments about Nazism and Adolf Hitler.

"Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and I are both outraged by the Russian minister's anti-Semitic statements. I stressed that anti-Semitism among Russia's elites has a long history. The only way out for Lavrov is to publicly apologize to all Jews. Anti-Semitism cannot be tolerated," Kuleba wrote in his tweet.

Last Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made comments on Italian television, repeating Russia’s claim that its invasion of Ukraine is to “de-Nazify” the country. When the interviewer pointed out that Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish, Lavrov said “I may be wrong, but Hitler also had Jewish blood. It means absolutely nothing. The wise Jewish people say that the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews.”

Israeli officials condemned Lavrov's comments and Russia's ambassador to Israel was summoned to Israel's foreign ministry for talks. Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called the assertions "lies" and Lapid described them as "unforgivable and outrageous," warning that Israel had "tried to maintain good relations with Russia, but there is a line, and this time the line has been crossed."

"Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust," Lapid added. "The lowest level of racism against Jews is to accuse Jews themselves of anti-Semitism."

10:57 a.m. ET, May 5, 2022

Sources say Russian troops are stealing thousands of tons of grain from Ukrainian farmers

From CNN's Tim Lister

Multiple sources have told CNN how Russian forces have been stealing grain and farm equipment from Ukrainian farmers. The photo shows one machine being stolen near Melitopol.
Multiple sources have told CNN how Russian forces have been stealing grain and farm equipment from Ukrainian farmers. The photo shows one machine being stolen near Melitopol. (Obtained by CNN)

Russian forces are stealing farm equipment and thousands of tons of grain from Ukrainian farmers in areas they have occupied, as well as targeting food storage sites with artillery, multiple sources have told CNN.

The phenomenon has accelerated in recent weeks as Russian units have tightened their grip on parts of the rich agricultural regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, the sources said. Sowing operations in many areas have since been disrupted or abandoned.

The actions of the Russian forces may threaten the harvest this year in one of the world's most important grain-producing countries. The volumes involved are said to be huge.

Oleg Nivievskyi, an agrarian specialist at the Kyiv School of Economics, told CNN that on the eve of the invasion, six million tons of wheat and 15 million tons of corn were ready for export from Ukraine, much of it held in the south of the country.

Ukraine's Defense Ministry said Thursday an estimated 400,000 tons of grain had been stolen to date.

Farmers and others in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia have provided CNN with details of multiple thefts.

In late April, Russian soldiers removed 1,500 tons of grain from storage units known as elevators in the Kherson village of Mala Lepetykha, using trucks with Crimean number plates. The next day, those same trucks — 35 in all — returned and emptied large storage units known as grain silos at nearby Novorajsk across the river Dnieper.

In Melitopol, an occupied city in Zaporizhzhia region, Mayor Ivan Fedorov shared a video with CNN that showed trucks — several bearing the "Z" sign of the Russian military — carrying grain towards Crimea. The main elevator in the city had been emptied.

Fedorov told CNN that the Russians "went around all the villages, every yard and looked for agricultural machinery, for grain, which they subsequently looted."

"Chechen soldiers, fighting for Russia, act like criminals in the 1990s. First they offer to buy grain for a ridiculously low price. But if you don't agree, they take everything from you for nothing.

"The scale of looting is simply overwhelming," he said.

Continue reading here:

10:45 a.m. ET, May 5, 2022

German and Ukrainian presidents resolve row over Kyiv visit snub

From CNN's Nadine Schmidt in Berlin and Radina Gigova in London 

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by phone on Thursday and resolved a row over a would-be visit to Kyiv that was turned down in April, Steinmeier's office said. 

Steinmeier had offered to visit Kyiv in April with the heads of state of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to send a strong signal of common European solidarity with Ukraine, but his trip was not wanted by Kyiv, he told reporters on April 12. “I was ready for it. But apparently […] that was not what was wanted in Kyiv,” he told reporters while visiting Warsaw.

Kyiv's decision in April came amid sustained criticism over Steinmeier's close relations with Russia in his previous role as foreign minister, as well as criticism from Kyiv that Germany was hesitant to provide much-needed military support to Ukraine. 

''Both presidents described the talks as 'very important and very good,'" a statement posted on the German presidential office website read Thursday, adding that ''irritations of the past were cleared up. Both presidents agreed to remain in close contact.''

Following the talks with the German president, Zelensky said Thursday on his official Twitter account that he ''had a good, constructive, important conversation" with Steinmeier. Zelensky thanked him "for strong support for Ukraine," adding he expects the support "to be intensified.'' 

Zelensky said the "German leadership is important to counter Russian aggression'' and said he informed Steinmeier about the ongoing ''situation on the frontline'' and the ''critical situation in Mariupol."

See Zelensky's tweet:

10:36 a.m. ET, May 5, 2022

Ukrainian newlywed who lost legs in blast hopes to be walking down the aisle with prosthetics soon

Viktor and Oksana Balandina pose on their wedding day.
Viktor and Oksana Balandina pose on their wedding day. (CNN)

In video shared widely around the world, a Ukrainian nurse who lost both her legs in a blast had her first wedding dance with her husband in a ceremony in the hospital.

About a month ago, Oksana Balandina stepped on a land mine and needed to have her legs amputated.

"I felt like I was flying in the air. I felt a terrible noise in my head. I fell to the ground," she told CNN's Scott McLean. "When I looked down, they were gone."

At that moment, "I didn't want to live anymore," she said.

The newlyweds have been a couple since they were teenagers, and the 23-year-olds have two children together. Marriage had always been in their plans someday, but they decided to move forward with a quicker timeline by getting married in a civil ceremony and a small impromptu ceremony at a hospital in Lviv.

"I knew that she was strong, but I never thought she was as strong as she was these last five weeks," Balandina's husband Viktor said.

Their children are staying with their grandparents while she recovers. They understand their mother was in pain, and Viktor said they explained she'll have prosthetic legs in the future.

The last time the kids visited, "they were already fighting over who will be the first to push their mother in her wheelchair," Viktor said.

Balandina will be going to Germany to be fitted for prosthetics, and she hopes to be walking down the aisle at a formal church wedding ceremony soon.

"You don't need to give up," she said. "...You have to fight for your life."

See Ukrainian newlyweds share first dance from a hospital room:

9:41 a.m. ET, May 5, 2022

Germany starts construction of liquified natural gas terminals in effort to shake off Russia oil

From CNN's Nadine Schmidt in Berlin

The first pile driving takes place at the future jetty for the FSRU (Floating Storage and Regasification Units) for liquefied natural gas imports to Germany in Wilhelmshaven, Lower Saxony, on May 5.
The first pile driving takes place at the future jetty for the FSRU (Floating Storage and Regasification Units) for liquefied natural gas imports to Germany in Wilhelmshaven, Lower Saxony, on May 5. (Sina Schuldt/picture alliance/Getty Images)

Germany marked the start of construction work on Thursday for its first floating terminals for liquified natural gas (LNG) in Wilhelmshaven, a city and port located in Lower Saxony. The construction is part of the country’s efforts to become independent of Russian gas in the wake of the Kremlin’s ongoing war in Ukraine. 

Germany is attempting to speed up the construction of the terminal in order to import LNG from various countries, including the US. 

"We have a good chance to do what is actually normally impossible in Germany: To build an LNG terminal within about 10 months, and to connect it to the German gas supply," Germany's Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck said while watching the start of the construction work for the LNG terminal aboard a ship. 

Germany has been under pressure from Ukraine and other nations in Europe to make progress in weaning itself off Russian energy supplies since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. 

Habeck last month called for unprecedented measures to reduce Germany's reliance on Russian gas and counter what some German politicians call the Kremlin's “energy blackmail.”

Habeck said becoming independent of Russian energy supplies is paramount for Germany, even if that meant pushing for alternative solutions previously considered ''unrealistic.'' Habeck added that Europe's largest economy has reduced the share of Russian energy imports from 35% to 12% for oil, from 50% to 8% for coal and from 55% to 35% for natural gas. 

9:23 a.m. ET, May 5, 2022

Teenager killed by shelling near Kharkiv while moving animals from zoo

From CNN's Tim Lister

For weeks, volunteers and staff at an EcoPark near Kharkiv have been helping to evacuate the animals at the facility, with species from kangaroos to tigers and lemurs and lions loaded into the back of vans during sporadic incoming fire.

This week, volunteers were moving the African buffalos. As the animals were loaded onto transports Wednesday, the park came under artillery fire again.

Holding back tears, Oleksandr Feldman, the park's owner, said later in a Facebook post that a 15-year old volunteer had been killed in the strike. He had been helping his parents to feed and get the animals evacuated.

Feldman said the teenager was the sixth member of the EcoPark's team to have been killed.

9:20 a.m. ET, May 5, 2022

Ukraine's prosecutor general testified about alleged Russian war crimes at US Helsinki Commission hearing

From CNN's Katharina Krebs in London

Ukraine's Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova speaks to the media next to a mass grave in the town of Bucha, Ukraine, on April 12.
Ukraine's Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova speaks to the media next to a mass grave in the town of Bucha, Ukraine, on April 12. (Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

Ukraine's Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova testified at the hearings of the Helsinki Commission on alleged war crimes of Russia in Ukraine, Venediktova said in a Facebook statement on Thursday.

"The Helsinki Commission of the US Congress held a hearing on Russia's war crimes in Ukraine. I testified at the hearings about the horrific atrocities committed by the Russian army on our land: the deliberate bombing of civilian objects, killings and torture, the use of rape as a weapon," Venediktova said.

The Helsinki Commission is a US government commission that "promotes human rights, military security, and economic cooperation in 57 countries," according to its website. Commissioners include US Senate, House of Representatives and executive branch members.

The Ukrainian prosecutor general claimed that the Russian army had committed more than 9,800 war crimes in 70 days of war. She added that the unblocking of Mariupol and the end of the occupation of territories would open even more horrific cases for Ukraine to investigate.

She said that "the red lining at the hearings were signs of genocide of the Ukrainian people and the prosecution of the main serial war criminal of the 21st century." 

"The deportation of our children in order to erase their identity and bring them up as Russians is a direct proof of the plan to destroy Ukraine. The overriding task of the world community is to develop an effective international mechanism of justice and responsibility for Russia's crimes in Ukraine, which will become a tool now and a safeguard for the future," Venediktova said.

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko has claimed that Russian forces deported almost 40,000 people from Mariupol to Russia or the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic.

Russia also said that it has "evacuated" over one million people to Russian territory since Feb. 24.

There is no way to verify the Russian data on evacuations. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that thousands of citizens are being deported to Russia forcibly.