LIVE TEXT The war in Ukraine, year 2, day 68. Russia attacks in Kherson / Putin remotely inaugurated a tram line in Mariupol / Russia lost 100,000 soldiers in the offensive from the east, while Shoigu claims that Ukraine has 15,000 of losses in just one month

UPDATE 16:20 Putin inaugurates a new tram line in Mariupol via video conference

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke via video conference at the presentation of the new tram line in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, currently under Russian control. “We will develop the city’s transport infrastructure as a whole, including increasing the number of routes and modernizing the long-obsolete public transport fleet. In general, we will create a modern passenger transport system,” he said, according to Ria Novosti.

UPDATE 16:00 Russian attack on Kherson: three dead

Russian forces have bombed Ukraine’s Kherson region again, killing three civilians and wounding five others in several villages in the region. The military governor of the region, Oleksandr Prokudin, announced this on Telegram.

UPDATE 15:30 Kiev: Russian bombs on Kherson, 7 injured

In the Kherson region, Russian troops bombarded the town and villages of the Belozersk community, injuring 7. This was reported by Ukrinform, citing the Kherson regional prosecutor’s office.

UPDATE 15:10 Shoigu: Kyiv lost more than 15,000 people in a month

The Ukrainian armed forces have lost “more than 15,000 people in the last month alone”, says the Russian Minister of Defense, Sergei Shoigu. “Despite unprecedented military assistance from Western countries, the enemy is suffering significant losses,” added the minister, quoted by the Interfax agency.

UPDATE 15:00 The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the window for extending the Black Sea grain agreement is shrinking and that ongoing talks between the parties are continuing, but without any results.

Russia has repeatedly indicated that it is prepared to abandon the deal on May 18 if its demands to reduce restrictions on its own agricultural exports are not addressed.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that part of the agreement on Russia’s interests had not been implemented.

UPDATE 14:00 The Ukrainian army vowed on Tuesday not to give up the eastern city of Bakhmut as it prepares to launch a counter-offensive against Russian forces.

General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, has stressed the importance Kiev places on holding Bakhmut as it continues preparations for a counterattack that hopes to change the dynamics of the war in Ukraine.

UPDATE 13:00 The UN’s top trade official, Rebecca Grynspan, is expected to travel to Moscow this week, a spokesman said on Tuesday, as part of a diplomatic effort to secure the renewal of an agreement allowing the safe export of Ukrainian grain. from the Black Sea ports, Reuters reports.

Russia has repeatedly said it will not allow the deal to be extended beyond May 18 unless Western countries remove obstacles to Russian grain and fertilizer exports.

UPDATE 12:00 Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday ordered his government to “clarify” the procedure by which Russian companies can make dividend payments to shareholders in so-called “unfriendly countries”.

Russia considers all the countries that hit it with sanctions because of its military campaign in Ukraine to be “unfriendly”. It has retaliated with its own package of counter-sanctions and capital controls that limit the ability of companies and investors from these countries to transfer profits or dividends into the country.

UPDATE 11:00 Russia lost 100,000 soldiers in the offensive from the east. American Official: It eclipses some of the bloodiest battles of World War II

More than 20,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and more than 80,000 wounded in just five months of fighting in Ukraine, an acceleration of already heavy losses for Moscow, US intelligence officials estimate, The Guardian reports.

UPDATE 10:00 The Russian state news agency Tass announces that, according to the emergency services of the Russian Federation, eight soldiers of the armed forces of Ukraine were killed and four were wounded as a result of Russian artillery fire that destroyed Ukrainian self-propelled guns and a mortar in the Kherson region.

Kherson is one of the partially occupied regions of Ukraine that the Russian Federation claimed to have annexed last year.

UPDATE 09:00 Ukrainian forces allegedly bombed a village in Briansk, Russia – the local governor

Ukrainian forces bombed a village in Russia’s Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine early Tuesday, the local governor said in a social media post, a day after an explosion derailed a freight train in the region.

UPDATE 08:00 Two Canadians killed in Bakhmut

Two Canadian citizens have been killed in action around Bakhmut, a town in eastern Donetsk region that has become the center of the longest and bloodiest battle since the start of the full-scale invasion.

UPDATE 07:00 USA believes that Russian forces in Ukraine have suffered 100,000 casualties in 5 months

The White House has estimated that the Russian military has suffered 100,000 casualties over the past five months in fighting in the Bakhmut area of ​​Donetsk region and elsewhere in Ukraine.

UPDATE 05:00 The US believes that the Russian army in Ukraine suffered 100,000 casualties in 5 months

The White House has estimated that the Russian military has suffered 100,000 casualties over the past five months in fighting in the Bakhmut area of ​​Donetsk region and other parts of Ukraine.

UPDATE 04:00 ISW: Prigozhin uses the status given by the Russian leadership for self-promotion

Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin is likely to continue to rely on his existing information lines of attack to promote himself and seek further privileges from the Russian military because he has strong ties backing him up in the Russian leadership, the Institute for the Study said the war.

UPDATE 03:00 Ukraine is trying to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement

President Volodymyr Zelensky approved the delegation that will participate in the negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Meanwhile, Patriot air defenses face their toughest challenge yet in Ukraine as Russia launches massive artillery barrages.