Ukraine war live updates: Kremlin reacts to U.S.’ chemical weapons allegations; Russia claims further advance in east Ukraine

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its troops have captured the village of Berdychi in Donetsk, marking the latest advance in the eastern Ukrainian region.

“Following active operations, units of the ‘Center’ group of forces completely liberated the settlement of Berdychi of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said on Telegram Thursday, using the self-styled separatist name for Donetsk. CNBC was unable to verify the claim.

Ukraine has not yet commented on the latest claim, although the country’s army chief announced last weekend that he had withdrawn his forces “to new frontiers” west of the villages of Berdychi, Semenivka and Novomykhailivka in a bid to prevent casualties. Commander-in-chief, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi described the situation on the front line in eastern Ukraine as having “worsened.”

If the capture of Berdychi is confirmed, Russian forces now control all three villages.

Russia’s incremental if modest gains come after Ukrainian forces in the region reported acute shortages of artillery shells and ammunition. It’s hoped that weapons deliveries that are part of a $61 billion U.S. aid package can turn the tide of recent losses.

— Holly Ellyatt

U.S. accusations that Russia has used chemical weapons against Ukrainian forces are unfounded, the Kremlin said Thursday.

The U.S. State Department issued a statement Wednesday accusing Russia of using chemical weapons, namely the banned choking agent chloropicrin and tear gas, against Ukrainian troops. It said Russia was violating the Chemical Weapons Convention, a global treaty banning the production and use of chemical weapons.

Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov rebuffed the accusations when asked to comment by reporters.

“Yes, we saw the news on this matter. As always, such announcements sound absolutely unfounded and are not supported by anything. Russia has been and remains committed to its obligations under international law in this area,” Peskov told reporters, news agency RIA Novosti reported.

The U.S. imposed sanctions against individuals and entities that it said were associated with Russia’s chemical and biological weapons programs or supporting such entities.

Russia denies using chemical weapons in Ukraine and has accused Kyiv of deploying such weapons, which it denies. Neither side has presented concrete evidence supporting its claims.

— Holly Ellyatt

The Swiss government said Thursday that Russia has not been invited to a Ukraine peace summit set to be held in Switzerland in June, although it said a peace process without Moscow is “unthinkable.”

“Russia has not been invited at this stage. Switzerland has always shown openness to extending an invitation to Russia for this Summit. However, Russia has said repeatedly and also publicly that it has no interest in participating in this first Summit,” the government said on its website.

“The Summit in Switzerland is intended to initiate a peace process. Switzerland is convinced that Russia must be involved in this process. A peace process without Russia is unthinkable.”

Switzerland has invited over 160 delegations from around the world to join the first “Summit on Peace in Ukraine” on June 15-16 at the Bürgenstock resort.

Those invited include members of the Group of Seven, the Group of 20, BRICS, numerous other countries as well as the EU, three international organizations (the U.N., OSCE and Council of Europe) and two religious representatives (Vatican and Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople), the government said.

The aim of the summit “is to inspire a future peace process and to develop practical elements as well as steps towards such a process.” Russia says the conference is pointless without its involvement. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week there was intelligence that Russia was looking to derail the event.

— Holly Ellyatt

Georgia’s parliament on Wednesday approved the second reading of a bill on “foreign agents” that has been criticised as Kremlin-inspired, as police fired tear gas and stun grenades to clear a large crowd of protesters opposed to the draft law.

The bill, which would require organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as agents of foreign influence, has sparked a rolling political crisis in the South Caucasus country.

Ever-growing numbers of protesters have been taking to the street nightly for almost a month, with a heaving crowd tens of thousands strong shutting down central Tbilisi on Wednesday, the largest anti-government demonstration yet.

Georgia’s Health Ministry, in a bulletin quoted by Georgian media, said 11 people, including six police officers, had received hospital treatment after Wednesday’s altercations.

Deputy Interior Minister Aleksandre Darakhvelidze, quoted by Georgian media, said protesters had tried to push their way into parliament using various objects and were attacking policemen. Darakhvelidze said police action on Tuesday resulted in 63 arrests and six police officers injured.

— Reuters

The U.S. has formally accused Russia of using chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops and announced late Wednesday that it is imposing more sanctions on Russian individuals and entities.

The U.S. State Department released a statement late Wednesday in which it accused Russia of violating the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) by using the chemical weapon chloropicrin against Ukrainian forces.

“We make this determination in addition to our assessment that Russia has used riot control agents [tear gas] as a method of warfare in Ukraine, also in violation of the CWC. The use of such chemicals is not an isolated incident, and is probably driven by Russian forces’ desire to dislodge Ukrainian forces from fortified positions and achieve tactical gains on the battlefield,” the statement said.

Chloropicrin was used as a poison gas in World War I but is now more commonly used in agriculture as an insecticide. No longer authorized for military use, the “choking agent” inflicts injury mainly on the respiratory tract. It irritates the nose, throat and especially the lungs.

In February, Ukraine accused Russia of using chemical weapons in more than 200 attacks on the battlefield in January alone. Russia denied the allegations and, in turn, has accused Ukraine of using chemical weapons, an accusation Kyiv denies.

The U.S. said it is designating three Russian government entities “associated with Russia’s chemical and biological weapons programs and four Russian companies providing support to such entities.” The Treasury Department, separately, is sanctioning three entities and two individuals “involved in procuring items for military institutes involved in Russia’s chemical and biological weapons programs.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Russian forces launched another ballistic missile strike on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa overnight, officials said, as the city experienced attacks for the third day in a row.

Regional Governor Oleg Kiper said on Telegram that 14 people were injured in the latest attack on a postal depot.

“As a result of the Russian missile attack on Odesa, civilian infrastructure was damaged, in particular, post office warehouses. The fire is being extinguished. The surrounding houses have broken windows,” Kiper said, adding that “14 people were injured, one man was hospitalized in a moderate condition.”

Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure, but a ballistic missile equipped with a cluster munition warhead struck a seafront area in Odesa on Monday, killing six people and injuring 32 others.

Three people died and another three were injured in another ballistic missile attack on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, before this latest attack on the postal service, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed its forces had struck the command headquarters of the Ukrainian army’s southern grouping in Odesa.

The Nova Poshta postal and courier company said on Facebook that its Odesa sorting depot and post office had been hit by a Russian rocket but that none of its employees had been hurt. A video posted online showed flames and billowing smoke coming from a building. CNBC was unable to immediately verify the reports.

— Holly Ellyatt

The United Arab Emirates is facing fresh pressure from the U.S., U.K. and European Union to show it is clamping down on Russian sanctions evasion, Reuters reported Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Allied officials have repeatedly asked the UAE to share trade information on its exports to Russia, as well as the re-export of dual-use goods, which have both military and civilian applications, the sources said.

The UAE’s foreign ministry told CNBC that bans on certain dual-use products “deemed essential in mitigating the conflict in Ukraine” had been issued, but added that early data suggested there had been no export or re-export of such goods this year.

“The UAE strictly abides by UN sanctions and has clear and robust processes in place to deal with sanctioned entities, which we have exercised against a number of companies since the beginning of the conflict. We remain in close dialogue with our international partners, including the US and EU, concerning the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and its implications for the global economy,” a spokesperson added in a statement.

— Karen Gilchrist

Russia’s defense ministry claimed on Wednesday that it had struck the command headquarters of the Ukrainian army’s southern grouping in Odesa.

“Operational-tactical aviation, missile forces and artillery from groups of forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation hit headquarters of the operational command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ‘South’,” the defense ministry said in a post on Telegram translated by NBC News.

It provided no further details on the damage caused but Ukraine’s Southern Command confirmed that an attack had taken place overnight.

“Continuing their terrorist actions, the enemy on the night of May 1 launched another strike on Odesa with ballistic missiles from the territory of temporarily occupied Crimea. As a result of the hit, administrative and residential buildings, medical and educational institutions were destroyed,” it said on Facebook Wednesday.

CNBC could not independently verify the accounts from either side.

Odesa has come under frequent fire of late. On Monday, six people were killed and 32 injured when a Iskander ballistic missile equipped with a cluster munition warhead struck a busy seafront area in the southern port city.

— Holly Ellyatt

Crowds of Russians are visiting a new exhibition showing off NATO military hardware captured by Russian forces in Ukraine.

The display of war “trophies” features U.S.-made armored fighting vehicles, tanks and European armored personnel carriers. The exhibition opened in Moscow Wednesday, attracting large crowds of visitors.

Over 30 pieces of military hardware from 12 countries — including the U.S., U.K., France, Sweden, South Africa, Turkey, Australia and Germany — have gone on display. The exhibition also displays firearms, documents, maps, gear and drones.

Here are some pictures of the opening-day of the exhibition open to the public over the next month:

— Holly Ellyatt

An exhibition of Western military hardware captured by Russian forces in Ukraine has gone on display in Moscow.

The display, which opened to the public on Wednesday, shows off hardware donated to Kyiv by its NATO allies, including German and U.S.-made tanks and armored vehicles displaying national and NATO flags.

“The exhibition presents various examples of seized military equipment which were captured by Russian servicemen in the special military operation zone. In all, there are 32 items [or various armored equipment],” Andrey Lyubchikov, senior researcher with Russia’s Central Armed Forces Museum, told Russia’s TASS news agency.

The hardware, which is on display at the Victory Museum on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow, features a German-made Leopard 2 tank, an American Abrams tank, a Bradley fighting vehicle and armored vehicles including the U.S.-made М113 and MaxxPro, a Turkish-made BMC Kirpi, a U.K.-made Mastiff and a CV90 combat vehicle from Sweden, “as well as many others captured by the Russian servicemen during the special military operation,” TASS reported.

The exhibition also displays firearms, documents, maps, gear and drones, TASS noted.

Both Russia and Ukraine have both relished displaying military hardware that they’ve captured from each other over the course of 25 months of war. Kyiv has a selection of Russian tanks on display in Kyiv.

Moscow’s latest exhibition comes ahead of Russia’s “Victory Day” on May 9, when the country commemorates the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

— Holly Ellyatt

A bribery investigation into Russian Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov is likely to touch the higher echelons of Russia’s government, the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense said Wednesday.

The investigation into Ivanov, who is accused of accepting a large bribe while in office, “has likely pulled in the more senior First Deputy Defence Minister Ruslan Tsalikov,” the ministry said in an intelligence update on social media platform X.

“It has been reported that Tsalikov has been questioned by the FSB in connection with the Ivanov case. Tsalikov has been described as a patron of Ivanov. Tsalikov is likely effectively number three in the Ministry of Defence hierarchy, after Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu and Chief of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov,” the update added.

Ivanov denies the charges, but has already been fired by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, a source told Russian state news agency Tass. Two other suspects were arrested in relation to the inquiry: Alexander Fomin, the co-founder of a construction company, and Sergei Borodin, a close associate of Ivanov.

They have not commented on the matter.

There is also “a realistic possibility” that investigations into Ivanov could also affect Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, the U.K.’s defense ministry said. It noted that some sources had claimed that defense ministry-linked construction agencies built a house for Siluanov.

“Corruption has long been a problem in the Russian MOD,” the U.K. said, signaling that it was also a factor in “Russia’s poor performance particularly early in the Ukraine conflict, where corruption was blamed for expired ration packs and poor-quality tyres, and fuel embezzlement was also reported.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Police used tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons against protesters in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi on Tuesday night as demonstrations over the so-called “foreign agent” bill escalated.

The bill would force non-governmental organizations, campaign groups and media platforms who receive at least 20% of funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents.”

The bill’s opponents say the bill would obstruct media freedom, and push the country away from the European Union and closer to Russia. The U.S. State Department has said it is “akin to the kinds of legislation that we see in the Kremlin.”

Read the full story here.

— Sophie Kiderlin