Kyiv May 7, 6:18 a.m.
Moscow May 7, 6:18 a.m.
Washington May 6, 11:18 p.m.
Ukrainian forces are seeking to drive back Russian invaders from two key cities in northeast Ukraine and achieve a breakthrough in what has become a grinding battle.
Marc Santora, Cora Engelbrecht and Michael Levenson
KRAKOW, Poland — Ukrainian troops, emboldened by sophisticated weapons and long-range artillery supplied by the West, went on the offensive Friday against Russian forces in the northeast, seeking to drive them back from two key cities as the war plunged more deeply into a grinding, town-for-town battle.
After weeks of intense fighting along a 300-mile-long front, neither side has been able to achieve a major breakthrough, with one army taking a few villages one day, only to lose just as many in the following days. In its latest effort to reclaim territory, the Ukrainian military said that “fierce battles” were being waged as it fought to retake Russia-controlled areas around Kharkiv in the northeast and Izium in the east.
The stepped-up combat came as the White House announced on Friday that President Biden would meet virtually on Sunday with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and the leaders of the G7, which includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
Additionally, President Biden is sending a new security package to Ukraine worth $150 million, according to an administration official, who says it will include 25,000 artillery rounds, counter-artillery radars, jamming equipment and other field equipment.
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, noted that the leaders would convene as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia prepares to celebrate the annual holiday of Victory Day on Monday with military parades and speeches commemorating the Soviet Union’s triumph over Nazi Germany.
The holiday has intensified fears in Ukraine and some Western capitals that Mr. Putin could exploit the occasion to expand his Feb. 24 invasion, after his initial drive failed to rout the Ukrainian military and topple the government.
“While he expected to be marching through the streets of Kyiv, that’s actually not what is going to happen,” Ms. Psaki said. She called the G7 meeting “an opportunity to not only show how unified the West is in confronting the aggression and the invasion by President Putin, but also to show that unity requires work.”
Ukraine on Friday urged civilians to brace for heavier assaults ahead of Victory Day in Russia, warning them to avoid large gatherings and putting in place new curfews from Ivano-Frankivsk in the west to Zaporizhzhia in the southeast.
Ukrainian police forces were also placed on heightened alert ahead of the holiday, which will be commemorated in Russia with military parades in Moscow and hundreds of other cities.
Vadym Denysenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, warned civilians that they could risk their lives by gathering in crowded places.
“We all remember what happened at the train station in Kramatorsk,” Mr. Denysenko said on Telegram, referring to a devastating missile strike in that eastern city last month, which killed dozens of people as they crowded on railway platforms, trying the flee the invasion.
“Be vigilant,” Mr. Denysenko said. “This is the most important thing.”
The regional governor of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, Sergei Haidai, warned that Russian forces were preparing for a “major offensive” in the next few days against a pair of eastern cities, Severodonetsk and Popsana. He assailed what he called “continued horror” in the region, where he said that the latest Russian shelling had killed two people and destroyed dozens of houses.
The pace of Russian missile strikes across Ukraine has been intensifying in recent days as Moscow tries to slow the flow of Western arms across the country. But as with so many aspects of the war, uncertainty about Mr. Putin’s intentions runs deep.
There is rampant speculation that he might use the upcoming holiday to convert what he calls a “special military operation” into an all-out war, which would create a justification for a mass mobilization of Russian troops and set the stage for a more broad-ranging conflict. Kremlin officials have denied any such plans. But they also had denied plans to invade Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials have said that a military draft in Russia could provoke a backlash among its citizens, many of whom, polls show, still view the war as a largely distant conflict filtered through the convoluted and sometimes conflicting narratives provided by state-controlled media.
“General mobilization in Russia is beneficial to us,” Oleksei Arestovych, an adviser to Mr. Zelensky’s chief of staff, said during an interview on Ukrainian television this week. “It can lead to a revolution.”
Some Western analysts speculate that Mr. Putin may instead point to the territory that Moscow has already seized in eastern Ukraine to bolster his false claims that Russia is liberating the region from Nazis.
The Pentagon, for its part, has avoided stoking speculation about Mr. Putin’s Victory Day plans.
“What they plan to do or say on Victory Day, that’s really up to them,” John F. Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said on Thursday. “I don’t think we have a perfect sense.”
Fears that Russia could intensify its assault came as the United Nations Security Council adopted a statement on Friday supporting efforts by the U.N. secretary general, António Guterres, to broker a diplomatic resolution to the war.
The statement, initiated by Mexico and Norway, was the first action regarding Ukraine that the council had unanimously approved since the invasion began. Russia supported the statement, which did not call the conflict a “war,” a term the Kremlin forbids.
Mr. Zelensky insisted on Friday that peace talks cannot resume until Russian forces pull back to where they were before the invasion. Still, he did not foreclose the possibility of a negotiated settlement.
“Not all the bridges are destroyed,” he said, speaking remotely at a virtual event held by Chatham House, a British research organization.
Alexey Zaitsev, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said on Friday that talks between Russia and Ukraine were “in a state of stagnation,” Russian state media reported.
Mr. Zaitsev blamed NATO countries for prolonging the war by shipping billions of dollars in arms to Ukraine, even as those countries have urged Mr. Putin to withdraw his troops.
“This leads to an extension of hostilities, more destruction of civilian infrastructure and civilian casualties,” he said.
Mr. Zelensky said that Russian propagandists had spent years fueling “hatred” that had driven Russian soldiers to “hunt” civilians, destroy cities and commit the kind of atrocities seen in the besieged southern port of Mariupol. Much of the city, once home to more than 400,000 people, has been leveled, and it has become a potent symbol of the devastation wrought by Russia in Ukraine.
Mr. Zelensky said Russia’s determination to destroy the last Ukrainian fighters holed up with desperate civilians in bunkers beneath the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol only underscored the “cruelty” that has defined the invasion.
“This is terrorism and hatred,” he said.
On Friday, about 50 women, children and elderly people who had been trapped beneath the Azovstal plant in Mariupol were evacuated in a humanitarian convoy, according to a high-ranking Ukrainian official and Russian state media. The official, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk, said the evacuation had been “extremely slow” because Russian troops violated a cease-fire.
Nearly 500 people have managed to leave the Azovstal plant, Mariupol and surrounding areas in recent days with help from United Nations and the Red Cross, according to Mr. Guterres.
As the fighting drags on, concerns are growing that the war could exacerbate a global hunger crisis.
The United Nations said on Friday that there was mounting evidence that Russian troops had looted tons of Ukrainian grain and destroyed grain storage facilities, adding to a disruption in exports that has already caused a surge in global prices, with devastating consequences for poor countries.
At the same time, the organization’s anti-hunger agency, the World Food Program, called for the reopening of ports in the Odesa area of southern Ukraine so that food produced in the war-torn country can flow freely to the rest of the world. Ukraine, a leading grain grower, had some 14 million tons in storage available for export, but Russia’s blockade of the country’s Black Sea ports has prevented distribution.
“Right now, Ukraine’s grain silos are full,” said David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Program, while “44 million people around the world are marching towards starvation.”
Marc Santora and Cora Engelbrecht reported from Krakow, and Michael Levenson from New York. Reporting was contributed by Dan Bilefsky from Montreal, Nick Cumming-Bruce from Geneva, Rick Gladstone from Eastham, Mass., Zolan Kanno-Youngs from Washington, and Farnaz Fassihi from New York.
Photographs and Text by Finbarr O’Reilly
Among hundreds of mourners gathered in the midday sun on Friday for the joint funerals of three Ukrainian soldiers in Lviv, in western Ukraine, was Danylo Varianytsia, 21. His father Yurii Varianytsia, 53, was recently killed as battles rage in the country’s east.
Danylo, a soldier who has also been deployed in the east, identified his father’s body near the frontline after he was killed in a rocket attack.
“I felt anger and hate,” Danylo said of the moment he saw his father’s body, calling the invading Russians “monsters.”
He said that the fact his father was being buried in a military cemetery, along with two of his fallen comrades, brought some consolation.
“It comforts me because now he is here, together with us, and other soldiers,” said Danylo, who will soon head back to the frontline. “I’m not afraid to go back,” he added. “I will fight till the end.”
Kevin Draper
The Premier League soccer team Chelsea, which was put up for sale days before the British government levied sanctions on its Russian owner for his ties to the Kremlin, is set to be sold to a group led by an American billionaire for more than $3 billion, the highest amount ever paid for a sports team.
The team announced Friday night that terms had been reached to sell the team to a new ownership group headed by Todd Boehly, an American who earned his billions through finance and investments and who is a part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The group also includes the investment firm Clearlake Capital; Mark Walter, the controlling owner of the Dodgers; and the Swiss billionaire Hansjoerg Wyss.
For almost two decades Chelsea has been owned by Roman Abramovich, a Russian oil oligarch who pumped billions of dollars into the team to transform it from a mid-table Premier League club to one of the best teams in the world, winning multiple Premier League and Champions League titles with players like John Terry, Didier Drogba and N’Golo Kanté.
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as scrutiny on Russian oligarchs was intensifying, Abramovich announced that he would sell the club, but before he could do so his assets, including Chelsea, were frozen by the British government. Chelsea was granted a waiver by the government to continue operating more or less as normal, but the British government has said that Abramovich will not benefit from any sale of the club.
The team’s statement confirming the sale said it was expected to close in late May, and that it was still subject to “all necessary regulatory approvals,” a throwaway line much of the time but one that could have enormous consequence here.
Abramovich has said that the proceeds from the sale — according to the statement from Chelsea, Boehly and his group are paying 2.5 billion British pounds, or a little over $3 billion — will go to a charitable foundation to support victims of the war in Ukraine.
But it has not been made clear how that would actually work, whether the beneficiaries would include Russians or how British officials would make sure none of the money would flow to Abramovich. The funds from the sale will be placed into an account that has been frozen by the government.
It also is not clear whether top Chelsea executives, who were hired and largely left to run the club by Abramovich, will stay in place.
Boehly, 48, made his fortune in investment banking and venture capital, eventually founding Eldridge Industries in 2015 to control his portfolio. Boehly has significant minority ownership stakes in the Dodgers, Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Sparks, but Chelsea will be the first sports team that he leads.
According to the statement announcing the sale, in addition to the $3 billion the new ownership group is paying for Chelsea, it will also invest more than $2 billion in the club, including investments in its stadiums, youth academy, women’s team and foundation.
The group headed by Boehly was chosen by Chelsea as the preferred bidder last week, after a short and frenzied sale process. Jim Ratcliffe, a British billionaire, made a late bid for the team, and Steve Pagliuca, who owns the Boston Celtics, and Josh Harris and David Blitzer, who own the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils, also tried to buy Chelsea.
An earlier version of this article misstated the name of an investment firm founded by Todd Boehly. It is Eldridge Industries, not Eldridge Investments.
Alexandra Petri
Zelensky also said he had met with the foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, on Friday. He said they discussed how to increase pressure on Russia. In his nightly speech, he also said he had addressed Iceland’s Parliament virtually, thanking the nation for its support of sanctions against Russia.
Alexandra Petri
In his nightly address, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine paid respect to Infantry Day, a national holiday created in 2019 that honors the “Ukrainian warriors who are the foundation of the army,” he said, adding that he had thanked service members in the morning. He also said his government was “working on diplomatic options to save our military who still remain at Azovstal,” the besieged steel plant that is the last Ukrainian holdout in Mariupol.
Farnaz Fassihi
In its first unanimous action on the Ukraine war, the United Nations Security Council on Friday adopted a statement expressing “deep concern” and “strong support” for diplomatic efforts by the U.N. secretary general to find a peaceful solution.
Security Council statements must be approved by all 15 of its members, and the one adopted on Friday appeared to have averted Russia’s veto by referring to the conflict as “disputes” rather than “war” — a term Russia has essentially criminalized within its borders. Russia instead maintains that its invasion, large military deployments, massive shelling and widespread airstrikes constitute only a “special military operation.”
“I think it’s encouraging to see diplomacy is getting its place at the council, even though this is a very first initial step,” Mexico’s ambassador to the U.N., Juan Ramón de la Fuente, told reporters.
In the 10 weeks since Russia invaded, the Security Council has tried to pass two resolutions condemning Russia’s actions, demanding it withdraw troops and allow access for humanitarian aid and evacuation of civilians. But Russia, one of five permanent members of the Security Council, vetoed both.
Friday’s statement, proposed by Mexico and Norway, says: “The Security Council expresses deep concern regarding the maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine. The Security Council recalls that all Member States have undertaken, under the Charter of the United Nations, the obligation to settle their international disputes by peaceful means.”
The statement then expressed “strong support” for the efforts by the U.N. secretary general, António Guterres, to find a peaceful solution.
Mr. Guterres welcomed the statement as the first time the Security Council had spoken “with one voice for peace in Ukraine.”
“As I have often said, the world must come together to silence the guns and uphold the values of the U.N. Charter,” he said in a statement. “I welcome this support and will continue to spare no effort to save lives, reduce suffering and find the path of peace.”
Gaia Pianigiani
After weeks of investigation, Italian authorities announced late Friday evening that they had impounded a nearly $700 million superyacht, saying that its owner had “significant economic and business links” to “prominent elements of the Russian government.” According to U.S. officials, the prominent element is none other than Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin.
In recent days, the Scheherazade, as the enormous luxury ship is named, showed signs of readying to set sail, apparently aiming to leave before the Italian government could seize it. But late Friday, Italian police boarded the yacht — which is 459 feet long, with two helicopter decks, a gym and a swimming pool convertible into a dance floor — and told the crew that the ship was not going anywhere. The Italian finance ministry announced that an investigation had established that the ship’s owner, whom it did not name, was an individual that “threatened peace and international security” and that the individual’s actions amounted to the “undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.”
The ministry also specified the urgency to implement the restrictions as the reason to freeze the floating, and extremely expensive, asset.
The Italian authorities, who have actively impounded villas and yachts belonging to sanctioned Russian oligarchs, said in a statement that it had impounded the ship, which is in the dry dock of the port of Marina di Carrara, on the northern coast of Tuscany, even though the person they had identified as its technical owner did not currently appear on a European sanctions list. They added that they could not name the individual until the European Council published the name, and the Italian government committee tasked with protecting the country’s financial security called for the person’s name to be added to the list.
Italian media outlets have for weeks reported that Eduard Khudainatov, a Russian oil tycoon who is currently not under sanctions, owns the yacht. Mr. Khudainatov is considered close to Igor Sechin, a powerful oligarch and close friend of Mr. Putin’s who is currently under sanctions. Italian financial police officials reached on Friday night declined to say who they believed owned the ship.
The captain and the chairman of the Marina di Carrara shipyard, where the Scheherazade underwent refitting and has wintered for two consecutive years, have denied assertions made by U.S. intelligence service, construction workers, crew members and locals in the small port that the vessel unofficially belongs to, and is for the use of, Mr. Putin. They have argued that, on paper, it belonged to a Russian individual who hasn’t been sanctioned by international authorities.
The ship’s captain, Guy Bennett-Pearce, told The New York Times recently that its owner was not on the sanctions list, but also denied to have seen or met Mr. Putin on the yacht.
Yet a former Scheherazade crew member told The New York Times that he had never heard of Mr. Khudainatov and confirmed that crew members always believed and discussed the real owner to be Mr. Putin.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs
President Biden is sending a new security package to Ukraine worth $150 million, according to an administration official, who says it will include 25,000 artillery rounds, counter-artillery radars, jamming equipment and other field equipment.
James C. McKinley Jr.
About 50 women, children and elderly people who had been trapped in bunkers under the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol during the siege by Russian forces were evacuated on Friday in a humanitarian convoy, according to a Ukrainian official and the Russian defense ministry.
The official, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk, said in a post on Telegram that the evacuation was “extremely slow” because Russian troops repeatedly violated a cease-fire. She said the convoy of vehicles was forced to wait near the steel plant for most of the day because of fighting, Ms. Vereschuk said.
“Tomorrow morning we will continue the operation,” she said, adding that she expected the refugees from the plant to join another convoy in a nearby town that will leave for Zaporizhzhia in Ukrainian-held territory on Saturday.
The Russian defense ministry also said that 50 civilians, including 11 children, had been evacuated from the ruins of the plant on Friday, and that the operation will continue tomorrow, according to Russian state media. The civilians were handed over to representatives of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross “for delivery to places of temporary accommodation.”
Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the Mariupol City Council, confirmed in a Telegram post that 50 people had been evacuated from the plant as intense fighting continued. “The enemy was constantly violating the cease-fire,” he wrote, adding that the “fights and other provocations” stalled the evacuation at the plant and did not allow any time to retrieve civilians from elsewhere in the city.
“Tomorrow morning we will continue the evacuation operation,” Mr. Andriushchenko said. “If all goes according to plan, there will be buses from Port City at 5 p.m. to take people to Bezimienne,” he added, referring to a city about 20 miles east of Mariupol.
Ms. Vereschuk did not name the town where the civilians were being held on Friday, but Russian officials said the evacuees were bused to “temporary accommodations” in the village of Bezimenne, about 20 miles east of the steel plant.
The humanitarian convoy on Friday was the third effort by the United Nations and Red Cross to extract noncombatants from the scene of one of the most brutal battles of the war. Nearly 500 people have managed to leave in recent days with the assistance of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to António Guterres, the U.N. secretary general.
Those who have made it to Zaporizhzhia gave harrowing descriptions of the siege they had endured. They said they had sheltered in the near-darkness of underground bunkers, with little food or water as explosives of all shapes and sizes rained down day and night, slowly chipping away the steel and concrete overhead that was their only protection.
Russian officials had announced a three-day cease-fire, starting on Thursday, to allow more civilians to exit the complex. Some 200 civilians were still believed to be trapped in the plant where they have been hiding for weeks.
But shelling and combat between Russian forces and the Ukrainian soldiers still holding the plant did not let up on Thursday and the bombardment continued through the night, Ukrainian officials said.
On Tuesday, Russian forces penetrated the perimeter of the four-square-mile plant, the last patch of Ukrainian resistance in the city, with the help of a former electrician who shared his knowledge of the plant’s layout, said Mr. Andriushchenko.
Still, it was unclear how the battle for the plant was going. Some military analysts have said Russian forces seemed to be on the verge of capturing the plant in the coming days, which would hand President Vladimir V. Putin a victory to tout at the May 9 celebrations in Russia, when the country remembers the defeat of the Nazis in World War II.
