Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has fired the chief of security services for the northeastern region of Kharkiv. Zelensky said in a televised speech on Sunday. According to the president, the chief had “not worked on the defense of Kharkov” since the beginning of the Russian invasion, but “thought only of himself”. According to Ukrainian media, it is Roman Dudin.
In the same televised speech, Zelensky said that Russian shelling destroyed all essential infrastructure in the eastern Ukrainian city of Shevyerodonetsk, or “more than two-thirds of the housing stock”. According to Zelensky, taking the city is now Russia’s “main goal”. Earlier in the day, he had visited the war-stricken eastern Ukraine for the first time since the Russian invasion began. Video footage showed him walking through the streets of Kharkov with a shard vest.
Fierce fighting has been going on around Shevyerodonetsk for days, leaving several dead and injured. Earlier Sunday, Russia’s defense ministry reported that the military had attacked nearly 40 aerial targets in the previous 24 hours, including five weapons depots in the Donbas. In addition, nearly 600 targets were allegedly fired upon with rockets and artillery.
An empty Russian freighter arrived in Russian-occupied Mariupol on Saturday to pick up 2,700 tons of steel from the port city, Russia’s TASS news agency reported. It is the first Russian ship to dock in Mariupol since Russian troops captured the port. According to the TV channel Zvezda, affiliated with the Russian Defense Ministry, the metal is being shipped to Russia as “part of an order” allegedly placed for the invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine describes the action as looting. “After the theft of Ukrainian grain, the occupiers are now switching to metal products from Mariupol,” Lyudmila Denisova, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, said on her Telegram account.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of May 30, 2022