PRESS DIGEST – UKRAINE

Fourth month of heroic resistance of Ukraine against Russian military invasion

Key updates on the war against Ukraine as of May 30, 2022

#ArmUkraineNow

DESTRUCTION AND LOSSES

📌 Russia is doing everything possible to bring famine to Ukraine and the world by shelling grain warehouses and exporting them to the Russian Federation. 

On May 29, another ship with grain stolen in Ukraine arrived in Syria. This is a dry cargo ship Matros Pozynich, which is currently in Latakia and is one of three ships carrying grain in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Analysts estimate that the ship can carry about 30,000 tons of grain. — CNN.

📌The list of ships with grain and other goods stolen in Ukraine that Russia is trying to export to other countries and sell was handed over to the adviser to the President of Turkey.

📌The Russian military injected Ukrainian prisoners of war with an unknown drug, its title starts with the letter “M”, after which they fainted and lost their memory – Ombudswoman Liudmyla Denisova said. They also forced Ukrainian soldiers to learn the poem “Forgive us, dear Russians”, the anthem of the Russian Federation, the history of the coat of arms and flag.

⚠️ Russia is going to exclude the study of English from the school curriculum in Crimea. They claim it to be dangerous. Campaigns are also held in schools, where children are told about the heroism of the army of the Russian Federation and the

atrocities of “Ukrainian nationalists”. Students are encouraged to write letters of support to the Russian military.

📌As of May 29, the Russian military has entered the outskirts of Severodonetsk, Luhansk region, and is advancing into the city. Fierce battles continue. Ammunition and equipment are being transferred to the city in large quantities. In total, 6 people have been killed and 5 injured in recent days.

• Critical infrastructure is destroyed. 60% of the housing stock has been destroyed, 85-90% of the city’s buildings have been damaged and will need major repairs.  17,000 hectares of forest were destroyed.

•  During the 3 months of the war, about 1,500 residents of Severodonetsk were buried.  About 12-13 thousand people remain in the city.

• Russian forces are striking at places where people may be. In particular, an air strike was carried out on the Druzhba cinema in Severodonetsk. Before the evacuation, the locals were hiding there. 

•  About 10,000 Russian servicemen are in the Luhansk region.

📌 The fighting reached its maximum intensity, the troops of the Russian Federation stormed the positions of Ukrainian troops simultaneously in several directions. Intense fire is being carried out along the entire line of contact and in the depths of the defense in the Donetsk region. A difficult and long stage of struggle is ahead – Hanna Malyar, Deputy Minister of Defense.

Donetsk region:

• The shelling of Avdiyivka continues. The recent shelling severely damaged the building and fire equipment.
• The operation of the Slavyansk electricity station was stopped on May 27 due to constant shelling.
• In addition, the May 29 shelling damaged power lines in Kramatorsk. Due to the lack of electricity, 115 miners were locked underground without the opportunity to rise.
• As of May 28, two civilians in Bakhmut and Avdiyivka had been killed in the shelling. 4 more were injured.

Kherson region:

• Russian troops fired on Chornobayivka again, the projectile hit a private house. A 33-year-old man died under the rubble. Another 6 civilians were injured.
• On May 28, an echelon of 30 units of 50-year-old canned T-62 tanks was pulled up in the Kherson region, as well as automobile equipment, armored combat vehicles, and multiple rocket launchers – OK “North”.
• Occupying troops in the Kherson region announced the closure of the road to the unoccupied regions. One can now leave the Kherson region only to the occupied Crimea or to the occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia region.
• In addition, Russian media report on the transition to Moscow time zone.
• Due to non-compliance with the proper operation of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, an ecological catastrophe may occur.
• The Russian military command stationed the personnel of its occupying units in the building of the penal colony, expelling the convicts and personnel – Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

The shelling of the border areas of Ukraine continues:

• On May 27, the Sumy region was hit by mortars every half hour.
• On May 28, Russian troops launched 6 unguided missiles at the border areas of Sumy region. And also 5 mortar mines were let out from the Russian settlement Troyebortne on frontier territory. Another 3 missiles hit the settlements. There are victims.
• The shelling of Chernihiv region also continues.

The Kryvyi Rih district, Mykolayiv region, Odesa region, Kharkiv region and Dnipropetrovsk region also suffered from missile strikes. In particular:

• In recent days as a result of attacks in the Mykolaiv area 22 civilians were wounded. 3 victims are reported as of now. During one of the shelling, ammunition exploded in the yards of high-rise buildings. 11 high-rise buildings were damaged.

• The number of dead as a result of the shelling of the Kharkiv region – 9 people, the victims – 27. Among the dead – a five-month-old baby. He was found on the roof of the porch, where he was thrown away by an explosive wave. The father died on the spot, and the mother was hospitalized. Also on May 29, a solar power plant was shelled, which is now completely out of order.
• As a result of the shelling of Dnipropetrovsk region, about 10 people were killed and about 30 were injured.

📌 1888 educational institutions were damaged due to constant bombing and shelling of Ukrainian towns and villages. At the same time, 180 of them were completely destroyed.

 📌 More than 687 children were injured in Ukraine as a result of full-scale armed aggression by the Russian Federation. As of this morning, 243 children had been killed and more than 444 injured.

In particular, on May 29, as a result of enemy artillery shelling in the village of Myrolyubivka, Kherson district, Kherson region, killed a 9-year-old girl. Two more children: a 7-month-old baby and a 5-year-old girl were injured.

📌110 operational battalion tactical groups of Russian troops were stationed on the territory of Ukraine. Most of them – in the south, the rest are fighting in the Donbass – the Pentagon. However, the U.S. Department of Defense states that Russian forces have made little progress. 

📌The Russian Federation is transferring manpower and military equipment from the Crimea to Zaporizhzhia. These are ground forces, air and naval components. It is known that a column of military equipment, about 200 tilt trucks and the same number of Grads passed towards Melitopol – Zaporizhzhia OVA.

📌Russia mined the Black Sea. Between 400 and 600 Russian mines were left in Ukraine’s maritime zone. They occasionally break anchor and are spotted off the coasts of Turkey and Bulgaria. 

📌Due to the large number of wounded Russian servicemen who are in hospitals and sanatoriums in the annexed Crimea, the local medical institutions cannot cope with the load, they are catastrophically short of blood. That is why the occupiers are forcing the civilians of the peninsula to become donors, – the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova said.

📌 U.S. troops will not take part in unblocking Ukrainian ports for grain exports by the Black Sea, – Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.

📌 The UN is not going to send peacekeepers to Ukraine yet, – UN Deputy Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

📌 Iran will supply Russia with turbines and spare parts in exchange for steel.

📌 In the Black Sea, there are two Russian carriers of naval cruise missiles of the “Caliber” type, they are ready for the use of missile weapons – OK “South”.

MARIUPOL NEWS

⚠️The Russian military began to export metal products from Mariupol. To do this, part of the city’s seaport was de-mined, and railways in Mariupol and Volnovakha were rebuilt. The first ship sent 3,000 tons of metal products to Rostov-on-Don. 

⚠️The Russian military has launched a large-scale information and psychological operation to spread fakes about prisoners from Azovstal. 

⚠️Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov reports that the fighters evacuated from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol to the occupied Olenivka are not currently being tortured. In the future, they must be exchanged for Russian prisoners.

⚠️️Humanitarian aid sent to Mariupol from the Russian Federation is on the store shelves. Critical problems with electricity and water supply remain in the city. 

⚠️Mobile shower tents have been set up in the city as the occupying forces have not been able to establish water supply.

⚠️On the territory of the school №30, Dnistrovska street, a 12-year-old boy died as a result of the detonation of a Russian shell from the Grad complex.

⚠️About 70 bodies of Ukrainians were found on the territory of the former Oktyabr plant. People were overwhelmed by the wreckage of the building after the shelling.

⚠️On May 29, it became known that the Russians were taking the bodies of the dead bodies to the premises of the local supermarket, those were the bodies which had been washed from the graves in an attempt to restore water supply and part of them – exhumed.   

⚠️️Employees of the Krupska library (Donetsk) were sent to Mariupol for library inventory. They are looking for textbooks on Ukrainian history, literature and Ukrainian-language books.

⚠️️According to the latest data, 280 people, including 36 children, were taken to the filtration camp in the village of Bezimenne.

RUSSIAN CONTEXT 

⚠️ The self-proclaimed President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, announced the need to establish an operational command in the southern Ukrainian direction, and ordered the creation of a “people’s militia.” 

⚠️Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the supply of weapons by Western countries to Ukraine, capable of striking the territory of Russia, will be a step towards unacceptable escalation.

⚠️Russia is accusing the United States of “delaying the special operation” by sending MLRS to Ukraine and calling for diplomacy, – Russian Embassy to the United States.

⚠️️At the end of May, the 90-day period for the “special operation” expires. Contractors who came to fight in Ukraine in February have a reason to leave the service.

DEFENSE UPDATES

📌 The first independent report on Russia’s allegations of genocide in Ukraine states that Russia’s activity in Ukraine provide sufficient evidence to conclude that Moscow incites genocide and commits atrocities aimed at destroying the Ukrainian people. A report signed by more than 30 leading legal scholars and experts on genocide accuses the Russian Federation of violating several articles of the UN Genocide Convention – CNN.

📌 On May 29, a peaceful patriotic rally in support of Ukraine took place in Melitopol. This event was previously announced by the Melitopol underground fighters.

📌As of May 29, 14 attacks by Russian forces had been repulsed, two artillery systems, eleven units of armored combat vehicles and ten enemy vehicles were destroyed. Air defense units shot down two cruise missiles and three Cube-type UAVs.

📌 Estimated losses of the Russian Federation Army in Ukraine:

📌 On May 26, the Ukrainian military destroyed a checkpoint of the Russian occupiers who were trying to gain a foothold on the Lysychansk-Bakhmut highway. In Severodonetsk, a Russian sabotage and reconnaissance group was driven out of the Mir Hotel.

📌 43 people have been evacuated from Lysychansk and Severodonetsk in recent days.

📌 The Council of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate declared “full independence and autonomy” from the Russian Orthodox Church, condemned the position of Moscow Patriarch Kirill and Russia’s war against Ukraine.

📌 Harpoon anti-ship missiles were handed over to Ukraine.

📌 Ukraine’s military intelligence has obtained evidence of the use of microelectronics produced in the United States in the armaments and military equipment of the occupying

country. Foreign electronic components in the captured enemy technology, once again prove the “effectiveness” of Russia’s “import substitution” and emphasize the complete dependence of the aggressor country on Western technology.

📌The Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov will take part in the NATO meeting at the level of heads of defense departments, which will take place on June 15-16 in Brussels, – the press service of the Alliance.

📌 In recent days, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Northern Macedonia, Bujar Osmani, and the Prime Minister of Finland, Sanna Marin, have paid official visits to Ukraine. Foreign delegations visited Irpin and Bucha.

📌 Iran suggested that they become a platform for peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. This statement was made by Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Iranian Foreign Minister, at the International Economic Forum in Davos.

📌 NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has warned members of the alliance that hostilities in Ukraine are turning into a “war of attrition”, which is why Kyiv needs more help from the West.

📌 The United24 Presidential Fundraising Platform for Ukraine raised more than $ 43 million in three weeks. In particular, philanthropists sent more than a million dollars to the accounts of the Ministry of Health. With these funds, 35 ventilators were purchased.

📌Trilateral talks between the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, the Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz and the President of France Emmanuel Macron took place.

Putin told the French president and German chancellor by phone that Russia was “ready to discuss ways to enable Ukraine to export grain.”

📌Karl Nehammer warned Putin that the Austrian government would take away Gazprom’s large underground storage facility in Gaidah if the Russian gas monopolist did not use it.

📌 Boris Johnson suggested to Volodymyr Zelensky to create a new “political, economic and military union” that would be an alternative to the European Union and aimed against Russia. 

📌 The EU Council will discuss assistance to Ukraine, energy, food security and defense at its next summit on 30-31 May. In the context of global food security, ways to help Ukraine export agricultural products using EU infrastructure will be discussed.

PUBLIC AND BUSINESS SUPPORT

📌 On May 28, peaceful street rallies began in the cities of the European Union to support Ukraine’s EU candidate status in June. The actions will take place in Milan, Vienna, Brussels, Berlin, Paris, Prague and Warsaw.

📌The International Ice Hockey Federation has extended the exclusion of Russia and Belarus, which previously lasted only until September 2022. Therefore, both countries will not be present at the 2023 World Cup.

📌Hackers of the Anonymous group stated that they hacked the government sites of Belarus “because of their involvement in the invasion of Ukraine.”

INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT OF UKRAINE

📌 More than 20 countries have canceled twinning relations with more than 160 cities in Russia. In particular, the cities of Australia, Austria, Great Britain, Denmark, Greece, Estonia, Spain, Italy, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, USA, Finland, Czech Republic, Sweden, Netherlands. Dozens more are on the way to this.

📌 Finland will help Ukraine rebuild its infrastructure and cities.

📌 Bulgaria may become completely independent of Russian gas by the end of this year.

📌 The International Club of Governments – the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada – have agreed to phase out coal in the energy sector. The approximate date is called 2035.

📌USA abolished tariffs on steel imports from Ukraine. President Joe Biden signed the document. Import benefits will last for a year.

📌The head of the Economic and Security Committee, Philippe Foliot, expressed his support for Ukraine by saying that the next NATO Parliamentary Assembly should take place in Mariupol.

📌 The Biden administration has officially approved the transfer to Ukraine of long-range multiple rocket launchers, MLRS.

📌In the UK, a special unit “K” was created on the basis of the National Crime Agency. It will control the Russians under sanctions.

📌The Pentagon will buy Stingers for Ukraine in the amount of $ 624 million, – CNN.

📌The Ministry of Labor of Japan encourages local companies to hire IDPs from Ukraine. Organizations that will hire Ukrainians who left because of the war will be able to receive grants of up to 600,000 yen.

📌The Royal Air Force of Canada has officially announced the delivery of nearly 2 million pounds of military donations to Ukraine on behalf of allies and partners to help Ukraine.

📌The Embassy of Northern Macedonia resumed work in the Ukrainian capital.

📌The Japanese government has provided $ 166 million in emergency grants in response to the growing need for humanitarian support in Ukraine.

📌China has closed the skies for Boeing and Airbus of Russian airlines.

📌 Poland will provide Ukraine with self-propelled howitzers AHS Krab, which fires at a distance of up to 40 kilometers.