Ukraine war live updates: Russia denies reports of Ukrainian breakthrough in front line

President Joe Biden met with Spanish President Pedro Sanchez at the White House to discuss a range of challenges and mutual concerns facing the bilateral relationship.

The two leaders are expected to discuss additional ways to support Ukraine and efforts to exact costs on the Kremlin.

“Spain has given Ukraine a significant amount of security and humanitarian aid,” National security council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on a call ahead of the meeting.

Spain will assume the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union in July.

— Amanda Macias

Ukraine held an exhibition showing the remains of missiles and drones that Russia used to attack Kyiv as part of an effort to learn more about Moscow’s methods of war.

Fragments of various types of weapons are currently being studied at the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise, which submits the results to the International Criminal Court.

– Oleksii Samsonov | Getty Images

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby downplayed Russian claims that Ukrainian forces were losing large swathes of Bakhmut.

“Bakhmut has not fallen to the Russians,” Kirby said, adding that Ukrainian forces “are still bravely defending Bakhmut.”

Kirby said that the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, much of which has been reduced to rubble and has been the focus of fierce fighting for months, “remains contested territory.”

— Amanda Macias

The White House raised concerns following reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin was receiving weapons for his war in Ukraine from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

“We have consistently and strongly urged countries to not provide any support for Russia’s war,” National security council spokesman John Kirby said on a call with reporters, declining to speak specifically about the matter involving South Africa.

“We’ve had conversations with multiple countries at multiple levels about those concerns,” Kirby said, declining to provide further details about the alleged arms transfer.

On Thursday, the U. S. ambassador to South Africa said that U.S. intelligence said a weapons transfer occurred via a cargo ship that was secretly docked at a naval base near Cape Town.

— Amanda Macias

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield demanded Russia cooperate in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal that has opened up the passage of more than 30 million metric tons of agricultural goods from Ukrainian ports.

“Right now ships are stalled because of Russia’s obstruction. Russia is refusing to approve any incoming ships. Plain and simple, this is Russia once again weaponizing food. They’re holding vulnerable and hungry people in Africa, the Middle East and around the world hostage,” Thomas-Greenfield told reporters on a conference call.

The Kremlin has previously said it will not continue to participate in the U.N.-backed Black Sea Grain Initiative because it has yet to see Russian fertilizer exported through Ukrainian ports.

“Russia’s threats to withdraw from the initiative next week show that the Kremlin doesn’t care about humanitarian concerns or global food security. Russia needs to stop this at once and follow through with their commitments to the U.N. under the initiative,” Thomas-Greenfield added.

— Amanda Macias

Save Ukraine, a charity that organizes rescue missions for Ukrainian children who have been deported to Russia during its invasion of Ukraine, said its efforts have resulted in the return of roughly 95 children.

Reports of Ukrainian children being deported have been a concern since the Feb. 24, 2022, invasion. 

The charity also collects evidence of human rights violations connected with the deportation of Ukrainian children and holds press conferences with children who have returned to Ukraine.

A February report from the Conflict Observatory, a program supported by the U.S. State Department, said Russian forces have moved at least 6,000 Ukrainian children to camps and facilities across Russia for forced adoptions and military training.

Russia has repeatedly denied its troops have committed war crimes or deliberately targeted civilians in attacks.

— Michele Luhn, Adam Jeffery and Dominika Zarzycka | SOPA Images | Getty Images

Baltic nations Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are considering accelerating plans to disconnect from Russia’s electricity grid, amid concerns over Moscow’s use of energy as political leverage.

The three countries, Russia and Belarus are part of a Soviet-era Russian power grid. They had previously planned to decouple from the grid by late 2025.

“We are all in agreement that we need to move as quickly as is feasible on the technical level,” Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said, according to Reuters. He spoke during a joint news conference alongside his Estonian and Lithuanian counterparts.

“Unfortunately we have direct experience of how Russia weaponizes energy,” Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said.

Western nations have previously accused Russia of withholding energy supplies or endangering energy infrastructure to exercise political pressure.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Li Hui, China’s special representative of Eurasian affairs, will visit Ukraine, Russia, Poland, France and Germany from May 15, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday, in comments reported by Reuters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin does not yet have a meeting with Li Hui penciled in his schedule, the Kremlin said later in the day, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

Western leaders have repeatedly entreated Beijing to use its considerable sway with Russia to broker an end to Moscow’s hostilities in Ukraine.

China, which has increasingly sought to position itself as a mediator in global diplomacy, put forward a 12-point peace proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine, presented on the first-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February. The initiative has yet to gain traction.

On April 26, Chinese President Xi Jinping had his first phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy since the start of the war.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Ukrainian Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Telegram that the country’s military forces have advanced 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) in the direction of the besieged city of Bakhmut and have not abandoned local positions.

She further accused the Russian side of disinformation over the state and depletion of Ukrainian weapons.

Earlier this week, Russian military bloggers had reported alleged Ukrainian advances north and south of Bakhmut, speculating over an Ukrainian counterattack. The leader of Russia’s mercenary Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, similarly warned that Ukrainian forces were approaching from the flanks of Bakhmut.

The Russian defense ministry denied such advances on Thursday.

CNBC could not independently verify the progress of Ukrainian forces.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Parties are close to an agreement to extend the Black Sea grain initiative, after two days of negotiations in Istanbul, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said in comments reported by Reuters.

Ukrainian, Russian, Turkish and U.N. officials have been discussing the fate of the deal, which Moscow says will expire by May 18 unless Russian demands are met.

The U.N.-brokered Black Sea agreement was struck last July to mitigate a global food crisis worsened by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The deal eased Russia’s naval blockade and reopened three Ukrainian ports, easing shipments of agricultural goods.

Russia and Ukraine accounted for almost a quarter of global grain exports prior to the war.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said he approved a plan to overhaul his country’s criminal and legal enforcement systems, in a bid to clinch Kyiv’s expedited accession to the European Union.

“We must provide for a system that guarantees justice and rule of law in our country, compatible with our aim of quickly joining the EU,” Zelenskyy said in a video address, according to Reuters.

Ukraine has formally applied to join the EU bloc and was granted candidate status in June last year. The EU in February acknowledged “the considerable efforts that Ukraine has demonstrated in recent months towards meeting the objectives underpinning its candidate status for EU membership.”

The EU sees judiciary and anti-corruption reforms as key to Ukraine’s admission. Kyiv ranks 116 out of the 180 countries assessed by Transparency International in its 2022 corruption perceptions index.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Thursday denied reports that Ukrainian military forces breached various areas of the front lines.

The ministry’s response comes after Russian military bloggers reported alleged Ukrainian advances north and south of the embattled city of Bakhmut, flagging a prospective counteroffensive.

“Statements circulated by individual telegram channels about “defense breakthroughs” that took place in various parts of the contact line do not correspond to reality,” the ministry said on Telegram on Friday, according to a Google translation.

It stressed that “the general situation in the area of ​​the special military operation is under control.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday told Western media that Kyiv required more time and more military aid to begin a proper counteroffensive.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Russian private military company Wagner Group that is carrying out Russian hostilities in Ukraine, nevertheless said later that day that Ukrainian forces had begun their counterattack and were approaching from the flanks of Bakhmut.

— Ruxandra Iordache

U.S. and Chinese officials met for two days in Vienna to discuss a range of topics, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, amid tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

“The two sides had candid, substantive, and constructive discussions on key issues in the U.S.-China bilateral relationship, global and regional security issues, Russia’s war against Ukraine, and cross-Strait issues, among other topics,” the White House said Thursday in a readout of the meeting between Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, and China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi.

The White House National Security Council and the State Department did not respond to CNBC’s requests for more details on the meeting.

Sullivan has previously reiterated deep U.S. concerns about China’s alignment with Russia and the possibility that the world’s second-largest economy might attempt to help Moscow blunt sanctions.

In the months following Russia’s invasion of its ex-Soviet neighbor, Washington and its allies have imposed rounds of coordinated sanctions vaulting Russia past Iran and North Korea as the world’s most-sanctioned country.

Read the full story here.

— Amanda Macias

G7 members export approximately $4.7 billion a month to Russia, which is about 43% of what they did prior to the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to a new report from the Atlantic Council. 

“After 15 months of conflict, the G7 have implemented nearly all the economic measures against Russia that garnered consensus within the group,” writes Niels Graham, an assistant director for the Atlantic Council GeoEconomics Center.

“The options they have left will be increasingly contentious and will impose higher costs on the G7 countries’ domestic economies,” he added.

Here’s a look at the G7’s remaining exports to Russia and the full report.

The war in Ukraine looks to have created deep and lasting tensions between Russia’s leadership in Moscow and its mercenary fighters on the ground.

The acrimony between the two sides descended into openly hostile criticism this week, with mutual accusations of treachery this week.

The head of Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group could barely contain his rage on Tuesday when he said promised supplies of ammunition to his fighters in Bakhmut had not arrived.

The Kremlin appeared to comment on tensions Wednesday, saying “emotions are boiling over” in Bakhmut.

Read more on the story here: The Ukraine war is driving a wedge between Moscow and its mercenaries — and the Kremlin knows it