Russia claims capture of key Ukrainian transport hub

Ukrainian officials accused Russian forces of “looting” thousands of tons of metal from Mariupol via the first ship to use the southern city’s port since Moscow seized control of it last week.

Russian forces are exporting 3,000 tons of metal products to the southern Russian port city of Rostov-on-Don, said Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Lyudmila Denisova. In the process, they removed mines from part of the seaport and began to restore railroad connections in Mariupol and Volnovakha, about 40 miles north.

The Russian state-owned news agency Tass appeared to confirm Denisova’s account. Citing an unnamed port administration official, the news outlet reported Saturday that a ship had entered the port and would be loaded with 2,700 tons of metal before leaving for Rostov-on-Don on Monday.

The ship’s departure may signal Russia making good on its promise this month to ship goods through Mariupol — the largest trading port on the Sea of Azov and a de facto land bridge between Russia and its separatist allies in Crimea. Russia carried out a brutal assault on Mariupol, depriving it of basic supplies and reportedly killing tens of thousands of civilians, for months before taking full control of the city May 20.

Russian forces are making gains in eastern Ukraine, with more than 95 percent of the Luhansk region under their control, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. Severodonetsk, one of the largest Ukrainian-controlled cities in Luhansk, is now facing a direct Russian assault. But Moscow’s troops could struggle in the urban setting, the ISW said, citing their poor performance in cities earlier in the war.

Severodonetsk: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that the city remained under Ukrainian control. “It’s indescribably difficult there,” he said. Moscow’s troops tried to gain ground near a settlement on Severodonetsk’s outskirts but retreated after suffering losses, the Ukrainian military said.

Lyman: Russia-backed separatist forces claimed full control of Lyman, a strategically important city near a major highway in Luhansk, while the British Defense Ministry confirmed that Russian forces probably have captured most of the city. Ukrainian defense authorities said they were fighting for control in the northwestern and southeastern parts of the city.

Mykolaiv: One person was killed and seven were injured — including two people “in a grave condition” — Saturday from Russian shelling near a kindergarten in a residential area, Zelensky said.

Kharkiv: As life inside bombed-out Kharkiv gradually returns to normal, the ISW said fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the city’s northeast is static, with neither side launching major attacks. Ukraine has so far stopped Russian troops from seizing the city of Kharkiv.

Mariupol: A Ukrainian official accused Russia of “looting” metal from this southeastern Ukrainian city via the first ship to use its port since Russian forces seized control. The Russian navy had long blockaded this port from use while Moscow’s forces battered Mariupol for months.

Christine Armario, Victoria Bisset, Claire Parker and María Luisa Paúl contributed to this report.

To Dakota’s surprise, it wasn’t the shelling that terrified him most.

A Marine Corps veteran who volunteered to fight in Ukraine, he has taken cover behind walls as Russian gunfire punched through and felt the throttle of artillery so many times that his catchphrase, “It’s normal,” became a joke within the unit.

What wasn’t normal, he said, was the feeling of dread while he hid and listened as Russian attack helicopters strafed the position his team of tank hunters had just fled. That moment, he said, “was quite honestly the most unsettled I had been the entire time.”

Dakota, who is home in Ohio now after seven weeks of fighting abroad, is among the legion of Western volunteers who have taken up arms against Russia. Like others, he spoke on the condition that his full name not be disclosed, citing concerns for his safety and that of family and friends.

In interviews with The Washington Post, foreign fighters from the United States and elsewhere described glaring disparities between what they expected the war to be like and what they experienced. They recalled going into battle underequipped and outgunned, the occasional thrill of blowing up Russian vehicles, and feeling torn over whether to go back to Ukraine. Some intend to do so. Others saw friends die and decided enough is enough.

Ukrainian troops are fighting to retain control of Severodonetsk as Russian forces use a range of weaponry to demolish the city’s infrastructure and destroy civilian areas, Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai said Saturday.

The attacks on Severodonetsk, the easternmost city still under Ukrainian control, are among constant assaults by the Kremlin on the Luhansk region, Haidai said in a video posted to Telegram. Little is left in the region, he said.

“There is not a single city that hasn’t been fired upon,” Haidai said before repeating a phrase he’d used earlier this week: “Severodonetsk is being erased from the face of the earth.”

The bombings have dismantled Severodonetsk’s water, gas and electricity infrastructure and have gutted “humanitarian locations” and hospitals, Haidai said. Russian forces, he said, “are destroying the Ukrainian people.”

Haidai said Severodonetsk remains under Ukrainian control — echoing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — as Russian forces try to encircle the city. More than 95 percent of the Luhansk region is controlled by Moscow’s forces, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.

The Lithuanian public has raised more than $5 million to buy a drone for Ukrainian forces, according to a telethon-style live stream.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas tweeted his gratitude after the stream that ended Saturday evening.

A fifth of the 5 million euro ($5.4 million) target was donated within the first day after the fundraiser was launched by online broadcaster Laisves TV, Anusauskas tweeted this week.

“Before this war started, none of us thought that we would be buying guns,” Agne Belickaite, who donated 100 euros ($107) to the drive, told Reuters. “But it’s a normal thing now. Something must be done for the world to get better.”

The purchase is being organized by Lithuania’s Defense Ministry, which plans to sign a letter of intent to buy the ​​Bayraktar TB2 drone from Turkey next week, according to Reuters.

Russian shelling overnight destroyed a solar power substation in the city of Merefa in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.

Mayor Veniamin Sitov confirmed the destruction of the station Saturday, Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne reported.

Drone footage taken by the news agency Saturday showed artillery craters breaking up rows of solar panels. In another, Vladimir Mihailovich, manager of the solar plant, waded through the mound of dirt left by a Russian artillery shell toward mangled metal where solar panels used to be.

The station had produced 2.5 megawatts of power, Reuters reported. Merefa is a small city with a prewar population of about 22,000. It’s located southwest of Kharkiv, the northern Ukrainian city that Russian forces attempted to capture early in the war.

Ukrainian troops pushed the Russians back from the area earlier this month, but the region has come under bombardment again in recent days as Russian forces remain within artillery range.

Russian troops attempted to gain ground near a settlement on the outskirts of Severodonetsk but suffered losses and retreated, Ukraine’s military said Saturday.

A daily update by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine states that Russian soldiers led an offense toward Borivske, a small village about seven miles southeast of Severodonetsk, a focal point in the battle for eastern Ukraine in recent weeks.

Ukraine’s military leaders said the Russian forces “retreated to previously occupied positions” after sustaining losses, the nature of which were not specified.

Russia has been trying to encircle Severodonetsk, the easternmost city still under Ukraine’s control. A regional governor said Saturday that the city has not been cut off; the Pentagon recently said the municipality is “still being actively fought over.”

Around the key transport hub of Lyman, Russian troops were consolidating “captured frontiers,” the Ukrainian military said, without going into further detail. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that its forces now control the city; British officials believe most of the town is under Russian command.

Elsewhere in the east, Russia is transporting weapons, military equipment and other resources to the Kupyansk district of the Kharkiv region by rail, the Ukrainian military said.

Ukrainian forces have thus far succeeded in preventing Russia from seizing Kharkiv city.

An Australian citizen has been killed in Ukraine, the Australian government has confirmed.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the death of the individual, whom he did not name, as “a tragedy.” A spokesman for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the government is providing consular assistance to the family.

A Facebook tribute and an obituary posted in a local newspaper identified the man as Michael O’Neill, 47.

“Passed away in Ukraine helping with humanitarian aide,” said the Facebook post, which was shared by one of O’Neill’s sisters. “Always looking for a cause he headed to Ukraine to drive trucks helping citizens flee the country. He then assisted driving the wounded and injured from the front line.”

It was not immediately clear how O’Neill was killed.

“We are all so proud of you, you did it your way,” the death notice read.