Russia-Ukraine War: List of main events, day 818 | Russia-Ukraine war news

As the war enters its 818th day, these are the key developments.

This is the situation on Thursday, May 23, 2024.

Fighting

• At least 10 people were injured in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, after a Russian-guided bomb destroyed a cafe and damaged an apartment building and a nearby trolleybus. Regional prosecutors said the bus driver had to have both legs amputated as a result of the attack.

• At least seven people were injured after a Russian attack on the northeastern city of Chuhuiv in the Kharkiv region with S-400 missiles. The attack damaged a kindergarten building and a private house, according to regional police.

• Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said a police officer was killed after a Russian drone dropped explosives on a police car as two officers were heading to evacuate civilians from Vovchansk in the northeast region of Kharkiv. Klymenko did not say what happened to the other officer.
• One person was killed after Ukrainian shelling hit villages in the border region of Belgorod, Russia, according to local authorities.
• At least two people were killed and four injured in Ukrainian shelling of Lysychansk in the eastern region of Luhansk, according to Russian-inaugurated governor Leonid Pasechnik. Moscow has occupied Lysychansk, which is close to the Eastern Front, since mid-2022.
• Russian news agencies, citing the Defense Ministry, said Moscow forces had taken control of the village of Klishchiivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, near the town of Bakhmut. The Ukrainian military said it was repelling attacks on the village but that the situation was under control. Ukraine recovered Klishchiivka from the Russians in September last year.

• Russian drones struck energy facilities in Ukraine, cutting power to more than 500,000 people in the northern Sumy region, according to regional authorities. The attacks targeted the cities of Shostka and Konotop, northeast of Kiev and close to the border with Russia.

Politics and diplomacy

• Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of the Russian region of Chechnya, said he met President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin and offered to send more fighters to Ukraine. Kadyrov said tens of thousands of “well-trained and equipped fighters from the reserves” were prepared to fight for Russia in Ukraine if such an order were given. A total of 43,500 soldiers have served there, including 18,000 volunteers, he said.

• A Russian court is considering a prosecutor’s request to designate former Russian television presenter Alexander Nevzorov and his wife Lidia Nevzorova as an “extremist group”. Nevzorov, 65, runs a YouTube channel with nearly 2 million subscribers, where he frequently criticizes the war in Ukraine. He and his wife fled Russia in March 2022. Nevzorov was sentenced in absentia last year to eight years by a Russian court for spreading “fake news” about Moscow’s army.

• Russia handed over six more Ukrainian children – aged between six and 17 – to Kiev, in a deal brokered by Qatar, Russian news agency TASS reported. Ukraine has accused Moscow of forcibly deporting thousands of Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia.

• Russian patriotic bloggers expressed anger at the arrest of Major General Ivan Popov, former commander of the Russian 58th Army, who was detained for “large-scale fraud”. Popov was fired last July after criticizing army leaders and raising concerns about the high casualty rate in Ukraine.

Weapons

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated his call for improving defense systems, in particular, to protect against guided bombs, which, according to him, are now Russia’s “main instrument” in its attacks on Ukrainian cities.
• The Swedish government agreed to additional military support for Ukraine totaling 75 billion kroner ($7.01 billion) over three years. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Swedish-made weapons “have already proven themselves on the battlefield.”
• Ukraine has equipped some of its naval drones with multiple rocket launch systems and used them to fire at Russian combat positions, a Ukrainian intelligence source told the Reuters news agency. The source, who declined to be named, said that some “Sea Babies”, a model of naval drones used by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), were equipped with graduated multiple rocket launch systems.
• British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps accused China of providing or preparing to provide Russia with lethal aid for use in its war against Ukraine. Shapps said it was a “significant development” but provided no evidence to support his claim.