As the war enters its 816th day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Monday, May 20, 2024.
Fighting
- At least 11 people were killed and dozens injured after Russia bombed a busy lakeside resort on the edge of Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv and attacked villages in the surrounding area.
- At least 13 people were injured after the Ukrainian military shelled areas of Russia’s southern Belgorod region, according to Belgorod’s regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
- The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Russian attacks in the Kharkiv area “slowed down a bit” but that forces “continue their attempts to break through our defences near Vovchansk, Starytsya and Lyptsi”. Russia’s Ministry of Defence, which claimed earlier to have seized Starytsya, said its units “continued to advance into the depth of the enemy’s defences”.
- Officials said Russia shot down at least 103 Ukrainian drones, including 62 over Russian regions, as well as missiles that targeted Crimea, which Moscow seized and annexed from Ukraine in 2014. An oil refinery in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region was forced to halt operations after six drones crashed into the site.
- Ukraine’s military said its forces sank the Russian minesweeper Kovrovets in the attack on Crimea.
- Ukraine’s Air Force chief said air defences brought down all 37 Shahed attack drones launched by Russia. The weapons were shot down in the Kyiv, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy and Kherson regions. There were no reports of damage or casualties.
Politics and diplomacy
- A court in Saint Petersburg ordered the seizure of assets of Germany’s Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank in Russia in response to a lawsuit over a planned liquefied natural gas terminal in the Baltic Sea, which was cancelled when sanctions were imposed over Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
- Oleksandr Usyk beat Tyson Fury to win the world’s first undisputed heavyweight championship in 25 years. The Ukrainian won the 12-round fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, by a split decision.
Weapons
- Following the latest Russian attack on Kharkiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of using its weapons to “terrorise our cities and communities, to kill ordinary people”. He said Ukraine needed “two Patriots for Kharkiv, [which] will fundamentally change the situation”, referring to the sophisticated US-made air defence system.
