Russia Ukraine War top developments: Zelenskyy calls on German chancellor Scholz to visit Ukraine on May 9

Russia will not use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, foreign ministry spokesman Alexei Zaitsev said Friday. Zaitsev told reporters the use of nuclear weapons by Russia — a risk that Western officials have publicly discussed — was not applicable to what Moscow calls its special military operation in Ukraine.

CIA director William Burns said on April 14 that given the setbacks Russia had suffered in Ukraine, “none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons.”

Defenders inside Ukrainian steel mill refuse to surrender 

Ukrainian fighters battling Russian forces in the tunnels beneath Mariupol’s immense steel plant refused to surrender in the face of relentless attacks, with the wife of one commander saying they had vowed to “stand till the end.”

Smoke rises above a plant of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine on May 2, 2022. (Reuters)

The fight in the last Ukrainian stronghold of the strategic port city reduced to ruins by the Russian onslaught appeared increasingly desperate amid growing speculation that President Vladimir Putin wants to present the Russian people with a battlefield triumph — or announce an escalation of the war — in time for Victory Day on Monday.

US gave intel before Ukraine sank Russian warship, says official

The US said it shared intelligence with Ukraine about the location of the Russian missile cruiser Moskva prior to the strike that sank the warship, an incident that was a high-profile failure for Russia’s military. An American official said Thursday that Ukraine alone decided to target and sink the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet using its own anti-ship missiles.

Putin apologised for Russian Minister’s controversial remarks on Holocaust, says Israel PM

Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he accepted an apology from Russian President Vladimir Putin over controversial remarks about the Holocaust made by Moscow’s top diplomat. There was no mention of an apology in the Russian statement on the call.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Via Reuters)

Here are the key updates on the war and its impact across the world:

➡️ Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said on Friday that current international sanctons against Russia over the war in Ukraine were not enough and called for a full embargo on Russian oil and gas.

➡️ Nearly 25 million tonnes of grains are stuck in Ukraine and unable to leave the country due to infrastructure challenges and blocked Black Sea ports including Mariupol, a U.N. food agency official said on Friday. The blockages are seen as a factor behind high food prices which hit a record high in March in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, before easing slightly in April, the FAO said on Friday.

➡️ Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that there was hostile rhetoric coming out of Poland, and that Warsaw could be ‘a source of threat’.  Poland has led calls for the EU to toughen sanctions and for the Western NATO alliance to arm Ukraine as it tries to resist Russian forces that have poured into its east.

➡️ Amnesty International says it has documented extensive war crimes by Russian forces in communities around the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, including arbitrary executions, bombardments of residences and torture.

➡️ Ukraine said a new attempt was underway on Friday to evacuate scores of civilians trapped in a heavily bombed steelworks in the city of Mariupol, after bloody fighting with Russian forces thwarted efforts to bring them to safety the previous day.

➡️ Russian forces in Ukraine’s port of Mariupol continued their ground assault on the Azovstal steel plant for a second day, British military intelligence said.

➡️ Russia’s defence ministry said its missiles destroyed a large ammunition depot in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. It also said its air defences shot down two Ukrainian warplanes, an Su-25 and a MiG-29, in the eastern Luhansk region.

@kileycnn is on the ground in Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine, where residents are reeling from the first Russian missile strikes in a month. pic.twitter.com/91CPQsMToD

— CNN (@CNN) May 5, 2022

➡️ Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has devastated hundreds of hospitals and other medical institutions and left doctors without drugs to tackle cancer or the ability to perform surgery, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

➡️ Hungary cannot support the European Union’s new sanctions package against Russia in its current form, including an embargo on Russian crude oil imports, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.

➡️ US President Joe Biden said he would speak with leaders from the G7 advanced economies this week about more sanctions.

➡️ Germany will deliver seven self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, on top of five howitzers the Dutch already pledged, German Defence Minister Lambrecht said.

(Compiled from Reuters and Associated Press updates)