Ukraine war live updates: Putin says ‘neocolonial’ world order will end; Russian mercenaries pull out of Bakhmut

One of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s close advisors said the country’s forthcoming counteroffensive won’t have a specific start time.

There’s been much speculation as to when Ukraine’s much-vaunted counteroffensive will begin, with Kyiv said to have delayed the start as it awaited more weaponry from its international allies.

Mykhaylo Podolyak tweeted Thursday that it will not be a “single event” that “will begin at a specific hour of a specific day with a solemn cutting of the red ribbon.”

“These are dozens of different actions to destroy the Russian occupation forces in different directions, which have already been taking place yesterday, are taking place today and will continue tomorrow,” he added.

Intensive destruction of Russian logistics is also a counteroffensive, Podolyak said.

— Holly Ellyatt

Defense officials from Russia and Belarus have taken another step towards the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons, also known as non-strategic nuclear weapons, on Belarusian soil.

Russian and Belarusian defense ministers met Thursday and “documents were signed defining the procedure for keeping Russian non-strategic nuclear weapons in a special storage facility on the territory of the Republic of Belarus,” Belarus’ defense ministry said on Telegram.

The plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons — shorter range nuclear weapons generally designed for battlefield use — was announced back in March.

Russia said Belarus had asked for the weapons to be placed on its territory and that the construction of a storage facility for the weapons would be completed on July 1. Russia has already stationed aircraft in Belarus capable of carrying the nuclear arms. Russia said it remains in control of the weapons and any decision to use them.

This morning, Belarus and Russia’s defense ministers discussed “the military-political situation and issues of military-technical cooperation between the defense departments,” the ministry said.

“Deployment of non-strategic nuclear weapons is an effective response to the aggressive policy of countries unfriendly to us,” Belarus’ Minister of Defense, Lieutenant-General Viktor Khrenin, commented in the post. 

“To ensure military security, including the protection of the western borders of the Union State [referring to Belarus and Russia] in the Republic of Belarus, close attention is paid to the readiness and ability of the Armed Forces to fulfil their intended tasks.”

— Holly Ellyatt

The head of Russian private military company, the Wagner Group, said his fighters are beginning to withdraw from Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine after claiming last weekend to have captured the town after nine months of fighting.

“PMC ‘Wagner’ began the withdrawal of units from Bakhmut,” said a short message posted on Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Telegram channel.

The Wagner Group said it had wholly captured Bakhmut in the heavily contested Donetsk region last weekend, adding that it would hand the town over to regular Russian army units around May 25.

Ukraine has denied it has lost Bakhmut, with defense officials saying their forces still control a southwestern part of the town and have made progress in their bid to take back control of the flanks of the town to the north and south.

— Holly Ellyatt

F-16 fighter jets will be high on the agenda as Ukraine and its international partners meet virtually on Thursday for the latest Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of nearly 50 countries supporting Ukraine’s military needs.

Ukraine has repeatedly asked its allies for F-16 fighter jets to help combat Russia’s ongoing invasion. The issue has returned to the fore recently and while some allies — such as the U.S., U.K. and several European partners — are willing to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s, there has been little appetite to provide them.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used his nightly address Wednesday to appeal for the jets ahead of the latest contact group meeting, saying “we are doing everything to reduce the time to the result [a decision on jets], to the appearance of new and powerful aircraft with Ukrainian pilots in the Ukrainian sky.”

“It is clear that this global step will expand our defense capabilities. Because only with powerful aircraft does the air defense system become complete,” he said.

Ukraine fears that allies could take a lot of time to decide on fighter jets, as they did with battle tanks earlier in the year.

“The main thing is the speed of training and supply, that is, the time that will elapse between decisions and real protection of our sky,” Zelenskyy said.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia wants to work with other countries to achieve a fair world order, criticizing a “neocolonial system” as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nears its 16th month.

Speaking at a security meeting Wednesday, Putin said he was confident that Russia and its allies could “achieve the formation of a more equitable, multipolar world, while the ideology of exceptionalism as well as the neocolonial system, which has undergirded the exploitation of the resources of the entire world, will inevitably recede into the past,” according to comments reported by Russian state news agency Tass.

Putin told the meeting, which included foreign security officials, that Russia was ready to cooperate with allied countries in an effort to counteract common threats.

“We highly appreciate the fact that Russia has numerous allies and partners across diverse regions and continents. We sincerely cherish our historically strong, friendly, and genuinely trust-based ties with Asian, African and Latin American countries, and we will continue to do all we can to strengthen them.”

Putin’s comments come a day after he slammed countries that “interfere” in the internal affairs and sovereignty of others despite Russia’s ongoing invasion of its neighbor Ukraine and repeated instances of meddling in other countries’ territories and political processes in recent years.

Read more on the story here: Without a hint of irony over Ukraine, Putin rages against countries that meddle in other states

— Holly Ellyatt

The White House slammed the extension of Evan Gershkovich’s pre-detention in Moscow and reiterated calls for his immediate release.

“It’s completely just irresponsible and unacceptable that they’ve decided to now extend his detention another three months here while they work through their quote, unquote, judicial process. He needs to be released. He’s not a criminal. He’s a journalist. We want him home,” National security council spokesman John Kirby said on a call with reporters.

“We’re going to continue to a seek consular access to him, which they have denied us a second visit and be continued to explore options to see what we can do to negotiate to get him released and get him home where he belongs,” he said, adding that the Biden administration is also working for the release of Paul Whelan.

Whelan, a former Marine, was arrested by Russian authorities in 2018 on espionage charges. At the time he was arrested, Whelan was visiting Moscow to attend a wedding, according to his brother, David Whelan. 

Whelan was convicted in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years of hard labor in a Russian camp in the remote province of Mordovia.

— Amanda Macias

A Russian warship stationed in the Black Sea was attacked in the early morning by multiple unmanned Ukrainian speedboats, Russia’s Defence Ministry said, according to Reuters.

The ministry said in a post on Telegram that the warship Ivan Hurs was protecting the TurkStream and Blue Stream gas pipelines and “continues to fulfil its tasks,” Reuters reported.

Last week Russia agreed to extend the Black Sea Grain Initiative, allowing Ukraine to safely export grain in the Black Sea.

Kyiv did not immediately respond to the report, and CNBC wasn’t able to immediately verify the authenticity of the footage.

— Chris Eudaily and Russian Defense Ministry | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley will host a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group Thursday. 

The meeting will be the 12th since the Ukraine Defense Contact group, a coalition of nearly 50 countries supporting Ukraine’s military needs, was formed last April.

— Amanda Macias

The United States has sought to distance itself from an alleged cross-border raid into Russian territory by pro-Ukraine fighters who appeared to use American equipment in their attack, NBC News reported.

While much is unclear about the fighting, Moscow said Tuesday it fought off an assault in its Belgorod region conducted by saboteurs from the Ukrainian military. Ukraine has said it was carried out by Russian citizens who rose up independently, according to NBC News.

The Russian Volunteer Corps, which claims to be made up of Russians fighting on behalf of Ukraine, posted video Wednesday morning showing it was in possession of Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected, or MRAP, vehicles although it was unclear where it was filmed.

Asked about the images, U.S. officials told NBC News they were monitoring the reports and added that the U.S. has not authorized Ukraine to give the equipment to anyone else and that Ukraine has not asked for the right to do so.

— Melodie Warner

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken over the phone, according to a State Department release.

“Secretary Blinken and Secretary General Stoltenberg discussed priorities for the upcoming ministerial, including preparations for the Vilnius NATO Summit in July, continued support to Ukraine, strengthening alliance deterrence and defense, and commitment to advancing Sweden’s accession process,” wrote State Department spokesman Matthew Miller in a statement.

The call comes one week before an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Oslo, Norway.

— Amanda Macias

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow’s top diplomat Sergey Lavrov both blamed the West for creating global insecurity and instability.

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, Putin said Wednesday that the world was becoming increasingly unstable and that “new centers of tension are emerging.”

Speaking at a high-level meeting in Russia on security issues, Putin said rising instability was due to individual countries and associations trying “to preserve, retain their dominance, impose their own rules, completely ignoring the sovereignty, national interests, traditions of other states.”

“All this is accompanied by a buildup of military potential, unceremonious interference in the internal affairs of other countries,” he said, “as well as attempts to extract unilateral advantages from the energy and food crises provoked by a number of Western states.”

Speaking at the same event, Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said the West wanted to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia and claimed NATO weapons for Ukraine were being spread beyond the country’s borders.

“The collective West does not hide its intention to inflict a strategic defeat on us. The Kyiv regime is being used as an anti-Russian battering ram, which is being pumped up with NATO weapons. At the same time, part of the Western supplies — and an increasing part — are spreading uncontrollably around the world,” he said, according to a Tass news agency report.

Russia invaded Ukraine 15 months ago in a bid to overthrow the pro-Western government in Kyiv and regain its influence over the former Soviet republic. Western countries rallied around Ukraine to provide it with military and financial aid to help it defend itself against its neighbor.

— Holly Ellyatt