Press digest – Ukraine

PRESS DIGEST – UKRAINE

Fourth month of heroic resistance of Ukraine against Russian military invasion

Key updates on the war against Ukraine as of May 26, 2022

#ArmUkraineNow

#SaveMariupol

 

DESTRUCTION AND LOSSES

📌 In total, since February 24, the Russian army has launched 1,474 missile strikes on Ukraine, using 2,275 different missiles. Most – on civilian objects. In less than three months, there have been more than 3,000 air strikes by Russian planes and helicopters.

📌 During the full-scale invasion, Russia used almost 170,000 manpower in Ukraine, more than 90 battalion tactical groups. 

Russia may put another 30 BTGs into operation within a month and a half, the Defense Ministry said. At the end of May, the Armed Forces completely destroyed 17 Russian battalion tactical groups.

📌 According to Forbes, Russia has currently temporarily occupied 20.7% of Ukraine’s territory. About 125 thousand square kilometers are under occupation. 

Prior to the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, as of February 23, 2022, 7% of Ukrainian territory was under temporary occupation. Now this area is 2.9 times larger.

📌 After an air strike on the village of Desna in the Chernihiv region by the Russian army on May 17, the bodies of 87 people were found under the rubble – reported President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the World Economic Forum in Davos.

📌 1297 bodies of civilians killed by Russian invaders have already been found in Kyiv region. Most of them were killed with small arms.

📌 More than 676 children were injured as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation in Ukraine. 240 children were killed and 436 wounded.

📌 Russian troops are advancing in all directions of Luhansk region. In total, the Russians recruited 25 battalion tactical groups, i.e. about 12.5 thousand troops, to attack the Luhansk region.

  • In an attempt to cut off the Luhansk region from the Lysychansk-Bakhmut route on May 23, Russian troops damaged a large-diameter gas pipeline.
  • The last gas distribution station has also been shut down in Luhansk region. From now on the area is completely without blue fuel, the station employee is injured. Also, the area remains completely de-energized. There is no centralized water supply.
  • In Severodonetsk, Russians deliberately hit civilians hiding from the shelling, killing six people and injuring at least eight people on May 24. – reported Luhansk Regional Military Administration. Two more people were killed on May 25.

📌 In addition, an active offensive is underway in Donetsk:

  • Due to the shelling on May 23, the largest salt production company in Europe, Artemsil, stopped working.

  • The city of Svitlodarsk was captured. According to the head of the military administration Sergei Goshko, the Russian military has already set up its flag on the city council building. Armed occupiers walk the streets of Svitlodarsk in groups of five and check the documents of local residents.

  • As of May 25, 25 strikes were inflicted on 18 settlements in the Donetsk region. There are dead and wounded. Forty-five civilian facilities were destroyed – residential buildings, a hospital, a railway station, a factory, a construction company, and critical infrastructure. In total, at least 15 people and about 20 victims have been killed in recent days.

  •  The AFP camera crew came under fire on the route from Bakhmut to Lysychansk. It is on this road that people are evacuated every day.

📌 The shelling of the territory of Ukraine by Russian troops also took place in other regions:

  • Sumy and Chernihiv regions continue to be shelled from the territory of the Russian Federation. About 20 houses in the Sumy region were damaged.
  • In the Kherson region, two women were killed in the shelling on May 23, and 5 other locals received shrapnel wounds, including two young children.
  • On May 24, 4 missiles hit the railway infrastructure in Dnipropetrovsk region. There is serious damage to the railway track and catenary.
  • On May 25, 4 cruise missiles were launched in Zaporizhia. One of them was shot down by air defense forces. It is currently known about 1 dead, 3 wounded and 62 damaged private houses.

  • Mykolayiv region was shelled with cluster shells and Tornado rocket systems. About 10 victims.

  • On May 21, a rocket attack on a military infrastructure facility was launched in the Rivne region, injuring 6 people.

  • On May 21, a rocket attack on a military infrastructure facility was launched in the Rivne region, injuring 6 people.
  • After cluster shelling in the Kherson region on May 21, three people died, partial and complete destruction of about 380 private homes.
  • The shelling of the border areas of Chernihiv region, as well as Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Poltava, Odesa, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia regions continues.

📌 On May 21, with the use of strategic aircraft, another air-based cruise missile strike was launched in the Odesa region. They hit an industrial plant with fertilizers. As a result of the impact, a funnel with a diameter of 12 and a depth of 3 meters was formed on the territory of the enterprise. The industrial facilities have been destroyed.

  • Also on May 25, 3 missile strikes were launched on Kryvyi Rih. It is known about the serious destruction of industrial enterprises.
  • In the evening of May 24 from the missile system of volley fire “Tornado-C” Nikolaev was fired at. A multi-storey building was damaged, 1 person was injured.
  • A 64-year-old man was killed and 7 people, including a 9-year-old child, were injured in the shelling in Kharkiv Region.

 

📌 The energy crisis is deepening in the Kherson region. Dozens of solar and wind power plants were destroyed – they were either looted or beaten during the shelling.

📌 The Russian military is forcing Kherson farmers to re-register their enterprises in the temporarily occupied Crimea, and threatening to take away business from dissidents. This was announced by Serhiy Khlan, an adviser to the head of the OBA on terrorism on a voluntary basis.

📌 In the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, the Russian military has created nineteen so-called “commandant’s offices” to strengthen control over the population – OK “South”.

📌 On May 23, the Russian military broke into the apartment of Serhiy Shvets, an employee of the Zaporizhzhya NPP’s energy repair unit, and shot him with an automatic weapon. He was hospitalized with numerous bullet wounds.

📌 On May 23, the Russian cruiser “Admiral Makarov” entered the Black Sea, trying to gain a foothold on the Zmiiiny island and collecting air defense there. In the same area there is a regrouping and maneuvering of the relevant forces of the Black Sea Fleet. – Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the Odessa OVA.

📌 From the warehouses of the temporarily captured city of Berdyansk, Zaporizhzhia region, Russian military wagons export grain to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and then to Russia, – the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova.

📌 In addition, Berdyansk is part of the “ruble zone” – pensions will be paid in rubles, price tags in stores will be set in both currencies.

📌 According to the UN, due to the war in Ukraine, wheat reserves on Earth are enough for only 10 weeks.

📌 580 foreign companies, eight of which are large corporations, continue to operate in the Russian market.

📌Hungary sabotages the discussion of the oil embargo against Russia. Prime Minister Victor Orban declined to raise the issue at a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels next week. At the same time, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declared a state of emergency in the country. According to him, this will allow to react quickly to the consequences of the war in Ukraine.

📌 In the Kirovohrad region, the Security Service of Ukraine detained teenagers who were photographing checkpoints, elevators and transport routes through a game developed by a Russian IT company. Under the conditions, participants must look for boxes with virtual prizes that can be exchanged for electronic money. During the route, children take photos of the area, in particular – critical infrastructure.

MARIUPOL NEWS

⚠️ In Mariupol, during the analysis of the blockages of a high-rise building in the area of the suburban gas station-2 on Myr Avenue, about 200 bodies were found in the basement, – adviser to the mayor of Mariupol Petro Andryushchenko.

⚠️ As of May 25, 346 Mariupol residents, including 24 children, were taken from Mariupol to the filtration camp in the village of Bezymenne by the russian occupiers, – said adviser to the mayor Petro Andryushchenko. He also said that at least 22,000 people had died as a result of the Russian aggression in Mariupol.

 

RUSSIAN CONTEXT 

⚠️ The moral and psychological condition of the personnel of the occupiers remains low, there is a systematic use of alcoholic beverages and desertion. The personnel of the enemy units complain about the ineffectiveness of their attacks on the position of the Defense Forces of Ukraine.

⚠️ Putin signed a decree on simplifying the procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship for residents of Zaporizhia and Kherson regions.

 

DEFENSE UPDATES

📌 The Armed Forces of Ukraine forced the Russian fleet to avoid approaching the coast of our state.

📌 Russia has already used 60% of its stockpiles of high-precision weapons. At the same time, Russia does not have the capacity and adequate production to quickly replenish its reserves. Source: Vadym Skibitsky, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

📌 Ukrainian special services together with the military and guerrillas of Melitopol conducted a successful special operation aimed at paralyzing the supply of weapons and ammunition to the temporarily occupied territories – Mayor Ivan Fedorov.

📌 Estimated losses of the Russian Federation Army in Ukraine:

📌 In recent days, 62 people have been evacuated from Luhansk region.

📌 48 Russian servicemen will soon be tried on suspicion of committing war crimes, – Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova.

📌 Ukrainian guerrillas promise to destroy the Russian military as the underground used to destroy the Nazis. Leaflets with such statements, as well as threats from the Nuremberg tribunal for racists, appeared in Berdyansk, Tokmak, Melitopol, Veliky Burluk and other temporarily occupied cities. Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces.

📌 Representatives of the United States, Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, Korea and New Zealand announced their immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine at the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum.

📌 About 20 countries have stated their intention to provide additional assistance to Ukraine at the second meeting of the Contact Group on Defense.

 

PUBLIC AND BUSINESS SUPPORT

📌Hacker group Anonymous has officially declared cyber war on the Russian hacking group Killnet.

📌Swiss concern Sulzer, which specializes in the production and service of industrial machinery and equipment, has announced its decision to leave the Russian market.

📌 For the first time, the OnlyFans service transferred funds to the state budget of Ukraine – 305 thousand dollars (about 9 million hryvnias).

📌”Stop Bloody Energy”— activists held a rally in Davos against the energy business, which continues to work with Russia. 

There was also a performance of Ukrainian artist Daria Koltsova “Lullaby”. This is the materialization of statistics on the real loss of children during the three months of the war, to “sing” the last lullaby and let go of the life of every Ukrainian child taken away by Russia.

📌 Marks & Spencer has stated that it will completely withdraw from the Russian market. The company cut off supplies to Russia back in March, but its stores remained open. After negotiations, the company decided to abandon the Russian franchise.

📌Nike also did not extend the franchise agreement in Russia and stopped supplying products to the Russian market. All branded stores will close after the stock is sold out.

📌Prince of Wales, Charles,  visited evacuated Ukrainians in Romania.

INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT OF UKRAINE

📌 The Polish government has stated that it is terminating the agreement on Russian gas supplies ahead of schedule, without waiting for its completion at the end of the year.

📌 Denmark will hand over Harpoon anti-ship missiles and launchers to Ukraine, says Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin.

📌 On 24 May, the Council of the European Union approved the fourth tranche of security assistance to Ukraine through the European Peace Instrument (EPF) of €500 million. Of the allocated funds, 490 million euros will be used to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons for defense purposes, and another 10 million euros – for the purchase of ammunition and protective equipment, fuel and first aid kits.

📌 In three months, Estonia handed over 1/3 of its military budget to Ukraine, – adviser to the head of the President’s Office Mykhailo Podoliak.

📌 On May 24, the Council of the European Union agreed on a temporary trade liberalization regime with Ukraine, under which Ukrainian goods will be imported into the EU duty-free during the year.

📌 Canada purchased 20,000 NATO artillery shells for Ukraine from the United States, for about $ 77 million. The ammunition will arrive in Ukraine soon.

📌 The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control will not renew the provisions of the general license, which allowed Russia to make payments on international debt in dollars. This means that Russia will not be able to legally pay its creditors.

📌 Lithuanian Minister of Defense Arvidas Anushauskas announced the preparation of a new military supply to Ukraine.

📌 The United States handed over 21 armored vehicles and $ 185 million in financial assistance to Ukrainian border guards and police.

📌 This week, the United States provided $ 4 million in new support to the Halo Trust in Ukraine, which will involve 10 teams to clear areas of Russian landmines and unexploded ordnance.

📌 The European Union has frozen about € 23 billion in assets of Russia’s central bank, according to EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders.

📌 German President Steinmeier called on Russian President Putin to cease hostilities in Ukraine and start talks with Volodymyr Zelensky.

📌 Norway will help with the demining of Ukraine: Norwegian People’s Aid will open a representative office in our country.