the key:
"The Russian news outlet Kommersant reported that two Russian fighter
jets and two military helicopters had been shot down on Saturday close
to the Ukrainian border."

from
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/may/13/russia-ukraine-war-live-russian-retreat-in-bakhmut-highlights-shortage-of-credible-combat-units-say-uk-officials

Ukraine war live
Ukraine
Russia-Ukraine war live: two Russian jets and two helicopters reportedly
shot down – as it happened
Russian reports suggest two warplanes and two helicopters downed on
Saturday, though unclear if due to friendly fire or Ukrainian attacks

Zelenskiy meets pope as Ukraine retakes ground in Bakhmut
What we know on day 444 of the invasion
Updated 6h ago
6h ago
A summary of today's developments
6h ago
Russian fighter jets and military helicopters 'shot down close to the
Ukrainian border'
8h ago
Summary
8h ago
Zelenskiy meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican
9h ago
Two Russian jets and two helicopters reportedly downed
9h ago
Zelenskiy to visit Germany
9h ago
Italy promises Ukraine full support
10h ago
Summary
10h ago
UK-supplied missiles used to attack occupied Luhansk, Russia claims
11h ago
Ukraine regains at least 1km in Bakhmut
12h ago
Zelenskiy arrives in Italy
14h ago
Summary
15h ago
Zelenskiy arrives in Rome
16h ago
Three injured in Russian strikes on Mykolaiv
17h ago
Russian retreat in Bakhmut highlights 'shortage of credible combat
units', says UK MoD
17h ago
Opening summary

Ukrainian troops fire a Partyzan multiple launch rocket system in
Zaporizhzhia region. Photograph: Reuters
Nadeem Badshah (now) , Geneva Abdul,Adam Fulton (earlier)
Sat 13 May 2023 13.31 EDT
From 8h ago
10.18 EDT

Two Russian jets and two helicopters reportedly downed
Luke Harding
Luke Harding
Guardian foreign correspondent Luke Harding reporting from Kyiv.

There are unconfirmed reports that another plane and helicopter has
crashed, in what appears to be a disastrous day for Russian aviation.
Moscow Telegram channels reported that an SU-35 warplane had been shot
down too, together with a second Mi8 helicopter.

Another military helicopter crashed on Friday in Crimea. It was unclear
whether the two aircraft and two helicopters were downed on Saturday
because of friendly fire, or if the Ukrainians targeted them with missiles.

Updated at 10.29 EDT
6h ago
13.31 EDT
A summary of today's developments

The Russian news outlet Kommersant reported that two Russian fighter
jets and two military helicopters had been shot down on Saturday close
to the Ukrainian border. Kommersant said on its website that the Su-34
fighter-bomber, Su-35 fighter and two Mi-8 helicopters had made up a
raiding party, and had been “shot down almost simultaneously” in an
ambush in the Bryansk region, adjoining northeast Ukraine.
A 15-year-old girl was among two people killed and ten people were
injured in a Russian shelling attack, Ukraine’s defence ministry said.
The eastern city of Kostyantynivka was targeted by Smerch rocket
launchers, it added.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy held talks in Italy with the prime minister, Giorgia
Meloni, President Sergio Mattarella and Pope Francis. The trip is
Zelenskiy’s first to Italy since Russia invaded on 24 February last year.
Ukrainian forces have regained at least a kilometre of territory in
Bakhmut amid a Russian withdrawal that reflects Moscow’s “severe
shortage of credible combat units”, the UK Ministry of Defence has said
in its latest intelligence briefing. It said elements of a Russian
brigade withdrew “in bad order” from their positions on the southern
flank of the eastern Ukrainian city, the scene of the war’s longest
battle. The brigade had been “dogged with allegations of poor morale and
limited combat effectiveness”.
Zelenskiy will be received in Berlin on Sunday, German government
sources told Reuters on Saturday, as the leader seeks to shore up
support from key allies against Russia’s invasion. The Ukrainian leader
last visited Germany for the Munich security council in February last
year just before the war broke out.
The German government will provide further military equipment worth
€2.7bn (£2.4bn) to Ukraine in what would be the biggest Berlin has
provided since Russia’s invasion. The package includes 20 Marder
infantry fighting vehicles, 30 Leopard 1 tanks, 15 Gepard anti-aircraft
tanks, 200 reconnaissance drones, four additional Iris-T anti-aircraft
systems including ammunition, additional artillery ammunition and more
than 200 armoured combat and logistics vehicles, according to Der Spiegel.
Russian attacks injured three people in the southern Ukrainian city of
Mykolaiv, the city’s mayor said. The strikes occurred early on Saturday,
Oleksandr Sienkevych said on his Telegram channel. Russian forces
targeted a local factory, also damaging nearby residential buildings,
causing fires in three apartments and damaging an educational
institution, he said.
Russian-installed officials in Luhansk have said missiles fired by
Ukrainian forces injured six children and a Russian parliamentarian and
damaged two disused factories in the eastern Ukrainian region’s main
city, about 100km (60 miles) behind the frontlines.
A Russian SU-34 warplane crashed in the Bryansk region bordering
Ukraine, Tass news agency reported, quoting emergency services, in the
second such incident on Saturday after a helicopter was seemingly downed
in the same region.
Two Russian pilots were killed when a Russian Mi-28 military helicopter
crashed in the annexed peninsula of Crimea, Russian news agencies
reported, citing the defence ministry. It said it believed the reason
for Friday’s crash was equipment failure, Tass reported.
An unidentified object that entered Polish airspace from the direction
of Belarus was probably an observation balloon, the defence ministry
said on Saturday on Twitter. A spokesperson for Poland’s territorial
defence force told Reuters a search for the object was under way.
Russian and Belarusian authorities were not immediately available for
comment.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Saturday two industrial sites in the
occupied city of Luhansk have been struck with Storm Shadow long-range
cruise missiles supplied by Britain.
Zelenskiy has thanked the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, for the
provision of long-range cruise missiles. The UK defence secretary, Ben
Wallace, earlier confirmed it would send the Storm Shadow missiles,
prompting a threat from the Kremlin of a military response.
Police in the Russian city of St Petersburg have created an anti-drone
unit to detect unmanned drones after a suspected attack on the Kremlin
last week. The unit was launched on Tuesday during the annual second
world war Victory Day celebrations on St Petersburg’s Palace Square, the
city’s interior ministry said.
South Africa’s foreign ministry has summoned the US ambassador over
allegations he made that the country had provided arms and ammunition to
Russia for its war in Ukraine. Reuben Brigety said on Thursday that
South Africa had loaded weapons and ammunition on to a Russian vessel,
which is under sanctions, at the Simon’s Town naval base near Cape Town
in December last year and that the arms were then transported to Russia.
Russia’s defence ministry has said Ukrainian forces carried out
“offensive operations” along the entire line of contact near Soledar,
the ministry’s official Zvezda news outlet reported. More than 1,000
troops and up to 40 tanks were used in Thursday’s assault, it said on
Friday, adding that the attacks were “repulsed”.
The UN nuclear watchdog chief, Rafael Grossi, plans to present an
agreement with Russia and Ukraine on protecting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear
power plant to the UN security council this month, indicating a deal is
close, four diplomats have told Reuters. Grossi has been trying for
months to secure an agreement to reduce the risk of a catastrophic
accident from shelling at the Russian-occupied nuclear power station,
Europe’s biggest.
Rishi Sunak expressed disappointment at a decision to block Zelenskiy’s
request to speak via video at Saturday’s Eurovision grand final. The
European Broadcasting Union, which produces the event, said the
Ukrainian president had “laudable” intentions but rejected the request
over fears it could politicise the event.
6h ago
13.21 EDT
A 15-year-old girl was among two people killed and 10 people were
injured in a Russian shelling attack, Ukraine’s defence ministry said.

The eastern city of Kostyantynivka was targeted by Smerch rocket
launchers, it added.

Updated at 13.25 EDT
6h ago
13.10 EDT
Ukrainian troops are advancing in two directions in the eastern city of
Bakhmut but the situation in the city centre is more complicated, deputy
defence minister Hanna Malyar said.

“The enemy is not able to take control of the city,” Malyar wrote on the
Telegram messaging app.

6h ago
12.57 EDT
Russian fighter jets and military helicopters 'shot down close to the
Ukrainian border'
The Russian news outlet Kommersant reported that two Russian fighter
jets and two military helicopters had been shot down on Saturday close
to the Ukrainian border.