Press digest – Ukraine

PRESS DIGEST – UKRAINE

Third month of heroic resistance of Ukraine against Russian military invasion

Key updates on the war against Ukraine as of May 5, 2022

#ArmUkraineNow

#SaveMariupol

DESTRUCTION AND LOSSES

📌 Russia has increased the number of missile strikes on Ukraine, in a few days – hundreds of missiles were fired at Ukrainian railways and residential buildings. One third of the attacks were aimed at the western parts of Ukraine, near the borders of Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.

📌 According to the latest Pentagon data, more than 2,125 missile launches have been issued on the territory of Ukraine since the start of the invasion.

📌 In Popasna and Rubizhne, people have only a week supply left of food and water. Access to the cities is complicated – said the Head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration Serhiy Haidai.

Also the volume of grain needs of the region’s residents for almost 3 years was removed or destroyed from Luhansk region, sowing has not started.

Russians leave Ukrainians on the brink of starvation in the occupied territories. This is a purposeful hunger. This is a food crisis for the whole world.

📌On May 4, it became known that Russian troops had broken into the territory of the Azovstal plant, where Ukrainian military and civilians are stationed. For a long time there was no contact with the military. It is now known that fierce fighting is taking place on the territory of the plant.

📌 An airstrike on the Mariupol Drama Theater killed nearly 600 people, according to an investigation by the Associated Press.

📌 More than 180,000 children were forcibly deported to the Russian Federation and the “Luhansk People’s Republic” / “Donetsk People’s Republic”. Among them are about 2,000 orphans and children deprived of parental care.

📌 According to the latest data, the Kyiv Region Police have already identified and examined 1,235 bodies of civilians. 282 dead have not been identified yet.

📌 More than 629 children were injured in Ukraine as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation. According to official data, 221 children were killed and more than 408 were injured.

📌 On May 3, the occupiers fired on the Avdiivka Coke Plant. 10 people were killed and 15 were injured. Currently, the plant is being preserved and the number of staff is being minimized.

At the same time, the victims were hit in a residential area in the central part of the city. It is known about 3 dead and 2 wounded. 8 houses were damaged.

📌 The Russians continue to shell infrastructure facilities in Ukrainian cities along with housing estates. Donetsk, Luhansk, Odesa, Mykolayiv and Kharkiv regions suffered the most.

In particular, a 14-year-old boy was killed in a missile strike in Odesa on May 2. 3 people were killed and 8 were injured in the shelling in Kharkiv. 1 person was killed and 8 were wounded in shelling in Donetsk region.

📌 On May 3, the occupiers launched mass shelling simultaneously in several regions of Ukraine:

Lviv region – 3 electric substations were hit. The fire at one of the power substations is being put out. 250,000 people were left without electricity. One person was injured;

Mykolayiv region – heavy rocket and artillery shelling. 11 people were injured;

Transcarpathia – a rocket attack, damaged an infrastructure facility in a mountainous area;

Kharkiv region – shelling of the central part of Kharkiv, which caused a fire at one of the enterprises. 1 person was killed, 1 person was injured;

Sumy region – mortar fire;

Kherson region – the occupiers continued shelling residential buildings;

Zaporizhzhia region – shelling of Zaliznychne village, school destroyed, 12 houses damaged. 2 people died;

Donetsk region – shelling of the city of Vugledar, 3 people died;

Kyiv region – artillery shelling, 2 wounded, damaged houses, educational institutions and administrative buildings.

📌 Every day, air raids are heard in almost all regions of Ukraine, as well as explosions due to the work of Ukrainian air defenses.

📌 On May 4 the missiles struck directly in the center of Dnipro — Mayor Borys Filatov.

📌In the evening of May 4, the Russian side fired mortars at the territory of Sumy region 40 times. Also there was a strike in the Donetsk region. According to information, phosphorus ammunition was used. 2 people were killed and 4 were injured.

MARIUPOL NEWS

📌 Mass civilian bombings that took place before killed 2 civilian women.

📌 The occupiers are transporting the corpses of Mariupol residents in humanitarian trucks in an unknown direction on the same cars which first of all bring food, – SSU.

📌 According to the plans of the Russian side, Mariupol should become the center of “celebrations” on May 9. The first deputy head of the Russian presidential administration, responsible for Russian domestic policy, Sergei Kiriyenko, arrived in the city. Blockages are being dismantled in the center of Mariupol.

📌 300 residents of Mariupol who had previously been deported to the Russian Federation, were deported to the Far East to Vladivostok. They do not receive any humanitarian aid.

SITUATION IN TRANSNISTRIA

⚠️ In unrecognized Transnistria, the families of Russian officers are being prepared for evacuation – the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported.

⚠️ The Russians are artificially inflating the situation in Transnistria. This creates zones of instability near the Ukrainian border and the appearance of the threat of attack by Russian and pro-Russian armed groups from Transnistria.

RUSSIAN CONTEXT

⚠️ The other day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview: “Zelensky puts forward an argument: what kind of Nazism can they have if he is a Jew? I could be wrong, but Hitler also had Jewish blood. It means absolutely nothing. The wise Jewish people say that the most ardent anti-Semites are, as a rule, Jews: “There’s black sheep in the family,” as we say.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid demanded an apology for Lavrov’s words that Hitler could be a Jew. And in response, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that the Israeli authorities support the “neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv.”

⚠️ The Russian Federation is considering the possibility of including the occupied territories of southern Ukraine in the temporarily occupied Crimea and their further integration into Russia. The development of a corresponding plan with a deadline of at least 2030 was announced on May 1 by the adviser to the so-called “head” of Crimea on information policy.

⚠️ According to Ukrainian intelligence, Russia is preparing to announce an open mobilization on May 9, – Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov.

⚠️ In Russia, there is a campaign to recruit “volunteers” – 200 fighters a week from each federal district, except Moscow – Defence Intelligence of Ukraine.

Currently, the main focus of the Russian agitators is on recruiting “volunteers” from among the Russian “Cossacks” in the Rostov region and the Krasnodar Territory. The focus is also on citizens who have lost their jobs as a result of international sanctions and former servicemen living in other post-Soviet countries.

⚠️ A sudden check of the forces and readiness of personnel to respond quickly to possible crises has begun in the Belarusian Armed Forces, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said.

⚠️ A public campaign is being held in Moscow calling for the “denazification” of Sweden. This was reported by Anonymous.

“In Moscow, people are publicly circulating calls for the ‘denazification’ of Sweden. Now Russia intends to terrorize Sweden so much with the suffering of Ukraine or a nuclear holocaust for them to abandon the idea of joining NATO”, reads the statement.

DEFENSE UPDATES

📌 Estimated losses of the Russian Federation Army in Ukraine:

📌 On May 3, the Ukrainian military once again successfully struck at the positions of the occupiers on Zmiiiny Island. Two Russian “Raptor” boats were destroyed.

📌 In the morning of May 3, the military destroyed Russian Outpost and Orlan-10 drones in Odesa and Mykolayiv regions. In total, the last 2 days of the Armed Forces eliminated almost 20 enemy UAVs worth about $ 2 million.

📌 The Ukrainian military destroyed a supply convoy in the Kharkiv region 20 km from Izyum in the territory that the enemy considered its rear.

📌 The Verkhovna Rada expanded the possibilities of territorial defense, giving the opportunity to perform tasks in areas of military (combat) operations. The bill was supported by 338 people’s deputies.

📌 In an address to Ukrainian parliamentarians, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom announced a new supply of arms and defense equipment worth 3 billion pounds.

📌 Ukraine and the United Kingdom also legally enshrined the abolition of import duties and tariff quotas in bilateral trade.

📌 In the temporarily occupied city of Tokmak in the Zaporizhzhia region, the Russians began mass tailoring and disguise of their servicemen in the uniform of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

HUMANITARIAN CORRIDORS AND EVACUATION UPDATES

📌 On May 4, 344 people were evacuated within the Mariupol Humanitarian Corridor. These are women, children and the elderly from Mariupol, Mangush, Berdyansk, Tokmak and Vasylivka. They all arrived in Zaporizhzhia.

📌 On May 3, evacuated civilians from Azovstal arrived in Zaporizhzhia. They left the city on May 1. A total of 156 people are women and children.
📌 In recent days, 78 people have been evacuated from the territory of Luhansk region. About 50,000 people still remain in the Luhansk region. The opposite situation is in Rubizhne and Popasna, hundreds of people want to leave, but due to the density of

shelling, evacuation is impossible. According to the head of Luhansk OVA Serhiy Haidai.

PUBLIC AND BUSINESS SUPPORT

📌 Russia was deprived of the right to vote at Eurovision-2022.

📌 Finland’s state railway terminates contracts with Russia. All Russian freight it serves will stop no later than the end of the year.

📌 The American magazine TIME has started voting among readers on the candidates for the latest ranking of the TOP-100 most influential people in the world. As of now, Zelensky sees 83% in the rankings.

📌 UEFA has excluded Russia from the European Cups and the League of Nations.

📌 A rally against energy trade with Russia took place in front of the German Chancellor’s residence in Berlin. In the square in front of the residence, the organizers of the rally painted a blood stain with the words “Energy embargo now!”

INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT OF UKRAINE

📌 Italy will give up Russian gas by the second half of 2024, – Italian Minister of Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani.

📌 Britain donates 13 armored cars to help Ukraine evacuate. The vehicles will start arriving in a few days, says British Foreign Secretary Liz Trass.

📌 Israel is preparing to supply Ukraine with defense weapons. It include helmets for soldiers and the Iron Dome missile defense, etc., according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing officials.

📌 Austria is ready to support the embargo on Russian oil if the European Commission and member states decide to do so, – Austrian Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler.

📌 Romanian Ministry of Transport has announced a tender for the repair of a railway line between the village of Giurgiulesti (Moldova) and the port of Galati for the transport of goods from Ukraine. This was stated by Romanian Transport Minister Sorin Grindeanu.

📌 The United Kingdom will send 570 mobile generators to increase electricity supply in Ukraine. The generators will be used for sustainable electricity supply to hospitals, shelters, communication stations, water supply, etc.

📌 At the same time, the United Kingdom has announced a ban on the export of services to Russia and added another 63 people to the list of sanctions, including Kremlin propagandists.

📌 On May 2, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod visited Ukraine. He assured that Denmark will provide Ukraine with weapons systems, and will help gather evidence of Russian war crimes, will take part in the reconstruction of Ukraine, in particular, will lead the reconstruction of Mykolayiv.

📌 Ukraine received a grant of 495 million euros from the United States, Norway and Austria, – Minister of Finance Marchenko.

📌 On May 5, the UN Security Council will consider the situation in Ukraine.