Russia-Ukraine war: Top developments on May 15

‘We agreed to work closely together to ensure that Ukrainian food exports reach consumers in Africa and Asia. Grateful to Secretary Blinken and the US for their leadership and unwavering support,’ Kuleba tweeted.

Ukraine said it was holding off Russian offensives Sunday in the country’s east. Western military officials said the campaign Moscow launched there after its forces failed to seize Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, had slowed to a snail’s pace.

Here are the other top Russia-Ukraine developments.

Russians withdraw from around Kharkiv, batter east

Russian troops were withdrawing from around Ukraine’s second-largest city after bombarding it for weeks, the Ukrainian military said Saturday, as Kyiv and Moscow’s forces engaged in a grinding battle for the country’s eastern industrial heartland.

Ukraine’s military said the Russian forces were pulling back from the northeastern city of Kharkiv and focusing on guarding supply routes, while launching mortar, artillery and airstrikes in the eastern province of Donetsk in order to “deplete Ukrainian forces and destroy fortifications.”

Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra wins Eurovision amid war

Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra won the Eurovision Song Contest, a clear show of popular support for the group’s war-ravaged nation that went beyond music.

The band and its song “Stefania” beat 24 other performers early Sunday in the grand final of the competition. The public vote from home, via text message or the Eurovision app, proved decisive, lifting them above British TikTok star Sam Ryder, who led after the national juries in 40 countries cast their votes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the victory, Ukraine’s third since its 2003 Eurovision debut. He said “we will do our best” to host next year’s contest in the devastated port city of Mariupol, which is almost completely occupied by Russian forces.

More updates:

➡️ Russia’s offensive in Ukraine is failing and its operation in the Donbass region has stalled, NATO’s secretary general said on Sunday.

➡️ One person was wounded when forces in Ukraine fired at a Russian village close to the border, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app early on Sunday.

➡️ The Group of Seven leading economies warned Saturday that the war in Ukraine is stoking a global food and energy crisis which threatens poor countries, and urgent measures are needed to unblock stores of grain that Russia is preventing from leaving Ukraine.

➡️ Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and a delegation of GOP senators met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv during an unannounced visit Saturday, delivering the latest show of American solidarity with the country at war with Russia.

➡️ Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto confirmed on Sunday that his country would apply for membership of the NATO military alliance, in a historic policy shift prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

(Compiled from Reuters and Associated Press reports)