Battles for Bakhmut continue as Russian forces try to take control of whole city, Ukrainian military says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shared Iftar with Ukrainian Muslim soldiers observing Ramadan on Friday, in what he said would become an annual “new tradition of respect.”

Iftar is the meal breaking the daily fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Addressing participants at the dinner which included leaders of the Mejlis, the single highest executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatars, and representatives of the Muslim clergy, Zelensky thanked the Muslim community.

He said the month of Ramadan was “respected everywhere in Ukraine – even at the front line, even in combat conditions.”

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had a number of unintended consequences.

One of the less expected was that over a year into the conflict, President Xi Jinping of China would receive a courting from European leaders. Given the EU’s hard stance on Russia, you’d be forgiven for thinking they’d take a similarly firm approach with the Kremlin’s most important ally.

Yet this week in Beijing, French President Emmanuel Macron stood next Xi – who has not condemned Vladimir Putin’s war and doubled down on China and Russia’s “no-limits partnership” – and said “I know I can count on you to bring Russia to its senses, and bring everyone back to the negotiating table.”

Relations between China and the EU have been on a strange journey over the past decade. While an investment deal was struck in 2020 after years of negotiations, it is currently on ice, in part because of political differences – the EU has called China a “system rival” – but also because the Chinese government sanctioned European Parliament members after they criticized China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims.” 

Things have been frosty ever since and the lack of personal contact during the pandemic didn’t help.

This caused great upset to some EU members, who see good economic relations with China as essential to the bloc’s ambition to become a major geopolitical player.

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The Pentagon is investigating what appear to be screenshots of classified US and NATO military information about Ukraine circulating on social media, a Pentagon official told CNN.

CNN has reviewed some of the images circulating on Twitter and Telegram but is unable to verify if they are authentic or have been doctored.

US officials say the documents are real slides, part of a larger daily intelligence deck produced by the Pentagon about the war, but it appears the documents have been edited in some places.

Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh would not weigh in on the documents’ legitimacy but said in a statement that the Defense Department is “aware of the reports of social media posts, and the Department is reviewing the matter.”

Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said on his Telegram channel he believes the Russians are behind the purported leak.

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Battles between Ukrainian and Russian forces for Bakhmut continue, as Russian forces try to take “full control” of the key eastern city, the Ukrainian military’s General Staff said Friday in an update.

The main focus of Russian attacks remains in the areas of Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Mariinka and Lyman, where Russian forces have launched more than 40 attacks over the last 24 hours, the General Staff said.

Ukrainian defense forces repelled about 14 Russian attacks over the last 24 hours in the Bakhmut area, the General Staff said. 

CNN is unable to independently verify battlefield reports.

Some context: Russia has been trying to capture the city for months, but progress has been slow in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance. Much of the city has been destroyed and its strategic value is limited.

Thirty-one children are back in Ukraine after they were taken illegally to Russia, according to Save Ukraine, a Kyiv-based humanitarian organization.

The children — pulling suitcases and bags of belongings, with some clutching stuffed animals — accompanied by family members, were embraced by volunteers after crossing the border into Ukraine by foot. They then boarded a coach to continue their journey.

“Children abducted by Russians from Kherson and Kharkiv regions have finally crossed the border with their families and are now safe,” Mykola Kuleba, the founder of Save Ukraine, said in a Telegram post.

Save Ukraine’s Olha Yerokhina told CNN this was the fifth rescue mission arranged by the organization.

A group of 13 mothers had left Ukraine a little over a week ago, many of them granted power of attorney which allowed them to collect other parents’ children in addition to their own, she said. 

The party crossed into Poland before traveling through Belarus, Russia and finally entering Russian-occupied Crimea, where they were reunited with 24 of the children. The other seven children were collected in Voronezh, Rostov and Belgorod, all inside Russia, she said.

Yerokhina said facilitating the rescue missions was difficult because Save Ukraine has no official contact with anybody in Russia. Instead, the organization received crucial help from volunteers in different locations.

Remember: Allegations of widespread forced deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia form the basis of war crimes charges brought against Russian President Vladimir Putin and a senior official, Maria Lvova-Belova, by the International Criminal Court last month.

Ukraine has said there are more than 16,000 such cases under investigation.

Russia has denied it is doing anything illegal, saying it is bringing Ukrainian children to safety. 

Russian investigators have formally charged Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich with espionage, Russian state media reported Friday.

Gershkovich denied the accusations, according to the state news agency TASS. The newspaper has “vehemently” denied the Kremlin’s claims and the chief executive of Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, said it is working “around the clock” to secure his release.

The representative declined to comment further, as the journalist’s case was marked “top secret,” the state news agency said.

Dow Jones later reiterated its view that Gershkovich’s charges are “false and unjustified,” according to a statement, The company added: “We continue to demand Evan’s immediate release.”

What the US has said about the case: US President Joe Biden’s administration is preparing to officially declare Gershkovich wrongfully detained in Russia, two US officials told CNN earlier this week, a move that will trigger new government resources to work toward his release.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke last weekend with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and called for Gershkovich’s immediate release. The White House has said there is “no reason to believe” Russia’s justification for the detention.

More background: Gershkovich is the first US journalist detained on spying accusations by Moscow since the Cold War. His detention came a week after US authorities announced charges against a Russian national, Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, accusing him of being a Russian spy.

The episode signals a significant ratcheting of both Moscow’s tensions with the United States and its campaign against foreign news media, which has been under intense pressure since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.

CNN’s Kylie Atwood, Sarah Dean, Julia Horowitz, Eliza Mackintosh and Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting to this post.