The UN said a third operation is under way to evacuate civilians from the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, where fighting continued on Thursday at a besieged steel plant despite Moscow’s pledge to open humanitarian corridors. Earlier, Poland said an international donor conference raised more than €6 billion to help rebuild the war-torn country. Catch up with the latest developments on FRANCE 24’s liveblog for May 5. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
This live page is no longer being updated. For more of our coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here, and read our liveblog for May 6 to see how the day’s events unfold.
3:23am: Authorities seize Russian oligarch’s yacht in Fiji Authorities in Fiji have seized the $300 million yacht of Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov after the US justice department requested the vessel be held for violating sanctions and for alleged ties to corruption, the department said Thursday.
The five-year-old, 106-metre “Amadea” was berthed in Lautoka, Fiji when local authorities took control of it based on a US warrant and a justice department request.
2:51am: Zelensky says Russia has devastated hundreds of hospitalsRussia’s invasion of Ukraine has devastated hundreds of hospitals and other institutions and left doctors without drugs to tackle cancer or the ability to perform surgery, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday.
Zelensky, in a video address to a medical charity group, said many places lacked even basic antibiotics in eastern and southern Ukraine, the focal points of the fighting.
“If you consider just medical infrastructure, as of today Russian troops have destroyed or damaged nearly 400 healthcare institutions: hospitals, maternity wards, outpatient clinics,” he told the gathering.
In areas occupied by Russian forces, he said, the situation was catastrophic.
“This amounts to a complete lack of medication for cancer patients. It means extreme difficulties or a complete lack of insulin for diabetes. It is impossible to carry out surgery. It even means, quite simply, a lack of antibiotics.”
The Kremlin says it targets only military or strategic sites.
Mariupol steel plant fighting
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May 6, 12:27am: Pentagon denies helping Ukraine target Russian generalsThe US defence department denied Thursday that it provided intelligence on the locations of Russian generals on the battlefield so that Ukrainian forces could kill them.
Reacting to an explosive New York Times report on US support for Ukraine’s military, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said it was true that the United States supplies Kyiv’s forces with military intelligence “to help Ukrainians defend their country”.
“We do not provide intelligence on the location of senior military leaders on the battlefield or participate in the targeting decisions of the Ukrainian military,” Kirby said.
The New York Times reported late Wednesday that intelligence provided by the United States has helped the Ukrainian military target and kill several Russian generals since Moscow’s invasion.
Citing anonymous senior US officials, the newspaper said that of the approximately dozen Russian generals killed by Ukrainian forces, “many” had been targeted with the help of US intelligence.
The White House National Security Council slammed the Times’s report as “irresponsible”.
“The United States provides battlefield intelligence to help the Ukrainians defend their country,” NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson said. “We do not provide intelligence with the intent to kill Russian generals.”
11:55pm: Ukraine’s Zelensky says Mariupol evacuation continued ThursdayUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the evacuation of civilians from the besieged port city of Mariupol had continued on Thursday but did not say how many people had managed to leave.
In a video address, Zelensky also said Russian forces were still storming and shelling the city’s Azovstal plant, where civilians and military forces are sheltering.
9:42pm: UN again trying to evacuate Mariupol civiliansA third operation is under way to evacuate civilians from the Ukrainian port city and the besieged Azovstal steel plant, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tells the UN Security Council.
The United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have so far helped nearly 500 civilians flee the area during two operations in the past week. Guterres declined to give details on the new operation “to avoid undermining possible success.”
“I hope that the continued coordination with Moscow and Kyiv will lead to more humanitarian pauses to allow civilians safe passage from the fighting and aid to reach those in critical need,” he told the 15-member Security Council. “We must continue to do all we can to get people out of these hellscapes.”
The Security Council also heard from UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, who shared harrowing accounts from civilians in Mariupol. FRANCE 24’s Jessica Le Masurier reports from New York:
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7:10pm: UN convoy en route in bid to evacuate Azovstal civiliansA new UN convoy is heading to the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol to try to evacuate civilians, the UN’s humanitarian chief has said.
“Today as we speak, a convoy is proceeding to get to Azovstal by tomorrow morning hopefully to receive those civilians remaining in that bleak hell … and take them back to safety,” UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths told a Ukraine donors’ conference in Warsaw.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed to AFP “that a safe passage operation is ongoing, in coordination with the UN and the parties to the conflict”.
“The ICRC insists on the fact that no details can be shared until the situation allows, as it could seriously jeopardise the operation,” it added.
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7:02pm: German foreign minister will visit Ukraine shortly, chancellor saysGerman Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will visit Ukraine shortly, after the two countries mended a diplomatic rift over Kyiv’s refusal to receive German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Steinmeier held “good talks” earlier on Thursday, Scholz told a news conference.The German head of state had planned to visit the Ukrainian capital in mid-April but Kyiv refused to welcome him, amid disquiet over his past support of rapprochement with Russia.
Kyiv’s refusal caused a scandal in Germany and prompted Scholz to say he would not visit the war-torn country before the German president had done so.
6:50pm: Israel says Putin apologised for Lavrov’s Hitler commentsThe Israeli prime minister’s office has given its take on that phone conversation with the Russian president, saying Putin apologised for his foreign minister’s comments about Hitler.
Bennett, after a call with the Russian leader, said he accepted the apology and thanked Putin for clarifying his position.
Bennett also said he asked Putin to consider allowing the evacuation of civilians holed up in the besieged Azovstal steel works in Mariupol. Bennett said he made that request following an earlier conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and that Putin promised to set up a corridor for civilian evacuation.
5:40pm: Putin and Israeli PM discuss Ukraine, Holocaust Attempts to resolve another diplomatic spat, this time between Russia and Israel, were at the heart of a phonecall between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, also today.
The two leaders discussed the Ukraine crisis and the Holocaust amid tensions over Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s recent remarks regarding Adolf Hitler.
“A thorough exchange of views on the situation in Ukraine continued,” the Kremlin said, adding the two leaders also discussed “historic memory” and the Holocaust.
