May 18: E-Stories
Day 449: Kupyansk ZNPP Bakhmut 6traitors Donetsk GrainDeal Zvegintsev EE RUedu CoESummit Matveev Dodik HUN CN Sarkozy Azovstal A&P SpyMuseum KyivIndie BrexitShambles MacKay UKDef Golub Zelensky
Catching up…
EA Worldview’s Ukraine Up-date- hop over to Scott’s amazing hourly Ukraine up-date page. I’ll fill in with some bits and bobs
Stories we’re following…
Russia launched a massive missile attack on Ukraine. All 19 missiles and 6 hypersonic Kinzhal missiles were shot down (updated information). Overall, Russia attacked 11 Ukraine’s Oblasts over the past day.
The Russian military concentrates its main efforts on offensive actions in the Kupyansk, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Maryinka directions, intensifying their activities in the Kupyansk direction. There are more than 2,500 Russian military personnel at the Zaporizhzhya NPP. It has turned into a fortified military base. Approximately 152,000 Russian troops in southern Ukraine continue to defend against a possible Ukrainian counteroffensive.
In the coming days, units of the "Wagner" PMC will attempt to break through the residential area in the western part of Bakhmut and reach the Bakhmut-Khromove highway.
During the night of May 15 to 16, there was a change in the number of Russian Navy ships in the Black Sea. Three ships equipped with Kalibr missiles set sail, carrying a total of 24 missiles. During the night, they launched a missile attack on Ukraine, firing 9 Kalibr missiles. However, all of these missiles were successfully intercepted and shot down
Ukrainian Defense Forces will continue to shape the operational space, preparing favorable conditions for a counteroffensive operation, exerting pressure on the enemy's flanks north and south of Bakhmut, forcing the enemy to retreat from the city under the threat of encirclement.
The Security Service of Ukraine announced that they had identified six residents of Kyiv who filmed the work of the Ukrainian air defence forces and posted photos and videos on social networks. The SBU said it had also blocked webcams that automatically broadcast in real time from Kyiv, which had captured images of the air defence in action.
Denis Pushilin, leader of the so-called DNR, has posted to Telegram to say there have been civilian casualties in the area on the morning of May 17.
Since the morning the enemy has been fiercely shelling the cities of the republic [occupied Donetsk]. Unfortunately, there are already casualties among the civilian population – in the Petrovskyi district of Donetsk, one person was killed at a public transport stop and four more civilians were injured.
Last week Turkish diplomats made progress in the agreement on releasing all Turkish cargo ships from Ukraine. About 50 foreign vessels have been blocked in Ukrainian ports since February 24 last year. The agreement will require Russia to provide assurances that it will not engage in hostile actions against foreign ships during their departure from the ports.
According to the International Energy Agency, Moscow exported 8.3 million barrels per day of crude and refined oil in April. Russia has shifted its energy exports towards China and India, with India reexporting a significant portion of the refined oil from Russia to Europe.
"If diesel or gasoline is entering Europe ... coming from India and being produced with Russian oil, that is certainly a circumvention of sanctions, and member states have to take measures," European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
Officials in Novosibirsk arrested another scientist on treason charges — the fourth in the last year. Valery Zvegintsev, a chief scientist at the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Siberian branch. TASS reported that Zvegintsev is currently under house arrest and that his arrest was prompted by an article on gas kinetics that he published in an Iranian academic journal.
Anatoly Chubais denies it, but somebody who looks a whole lot like him was recently spotted in the migration department of the city of Nof HaGalil, in northern Israel.
According to the Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia, 44% of Ukrainian refugees aged 20-64 have successfully secured employment in Estonia. This figure surpasses the average of 30% across the European Union. However, challenges such as limited language proficiency and childcare responsibilities hinder their ability to find employment that aligns with Displaced Ukrainians’ education.
Internet sites and bloggers should popularize rural life among young people, said Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the Federation Council. She urged to support the movement of rural bloggers who talk about the benefits of living in the countryside.
“Of course, it is necessary to popularize rural life among young people. I think it would be useful to use Internet platforms more actively. Today there is already a whole movement of rural bloggers that needs to be supported, ” TASS quotes the speaker of the Federation Council.
Read the Financial Times story here.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has admitted for the first time that Russia could be recognised as a state sponsor of terrorism, Blinken at a US Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on China.
"We all want China to stop helping Russia, right? I have an idea. 100 US senators have proposed that we declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism to deter countries like China from providing them with weapons," Graham pointed out.
"Months have passed and nothing has happened. Mr Secretary of State, I like you very much, but you will never declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, will you?" Graham asked.
Blinken responded briefly: "Never say never."
US Foreign Affairs Committee supports resolution on special tribunal for Russia. The Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives agreed to a resolution on May 16 supporting the establishment of a special tribunal for Russian crimes of aggression in Ukraine.
The US Department of Justice has accused Russian Mikhail Matveev of involvement in cyber attacks of ransomware viruses on American schools, hospitals and police stations. According to the Ministry of Justice, Matveev, also known as m1x, Wazawaka, aka Boriselcin and Uhodiransomwar, has been involved in three hacker groups since at least 2020 - Lockbit, Babuk and Hive. They extorted more than $400 million from American institutions and were able to receive more than $200 million in ransom.
The head of the EU body responsible for enlargement warned aspiring member Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday that EU allies do not visit Russia, referring to an announced visit to Moscow by Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik.
“Our allies don’t go to Russia, that is my message,” Varhelyi said in response to a reporter’s question on Dodik’s visit, Reuters reports. “Who wants to be our ally, does not go to Russia.”
EU member countries are preparing to help their companies to exit Russia, amid a growing risk they will be taxed to fund Russian president Vladimir Putin's war, as reported by European Pravda. The proposals include new special permits for financial transactions and legal services designed to help European companies exit Russia.
But under the new proposal, EU countries will now be allowed to authorise financial transfers to blacklisted Russians "after having determined that such funds or economic resources are necessary for the completion of transactions, including sales, which are strictly necessary for the wind-down, by 31 August 2023, of a joint venture or similar legal arrangement established in Russia with this natural person or an entity owned by this natural person before 28 February 2022".
Ukrainian FM Kuleba told Li Hui, China’s special representative for Eurasian affairs, at talks in Kyiv on Wednesday that Kyiv would not accept any proposals to end the war with Russia that involved it losing territory or freezing the conflict.
Chinese authorities have asked foreign embassies and international organisations based in Beijing not to use the outer walls of their buildings for "political propaganda," apparently referring to signs showing support for Ukraine, Japanese Kyodo news agency citing "numerous diplomatic sources in the capital". Many embassies in Beijing have placed [on their buildings – ed.] posters featuring the Ukrainian flag and messages in Chinese and English, such as #StandWithUkraine. They were urged not to use the outer walls of their buildings for propaganda and "avoid conflicts between states".
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has lost his appeal against a prison sentence for corruption. However, the Paris appeals court ruled that he could serve his time at home wearing a tag instead of going to jail. He was convicted of attempting to secure information about a case in 2014 - after he had left office - by suggesting he could secure a prestigious job for the judge. He has been banned from holding public office for three years.
Read the BBC News article here.
Summit of the Council of Europe
Marija Pejčinović Burić, secretary general of the Council of Europe, which is meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, has posted an image of Ukraine’s prime minister Denys Shmyhal attending the event, alongside the message: “There cannot be a just and sustainable peace without accountability.”
An agreement has been signed on a register of damages from Russian aggression at the Council of Europe summit in Iceland. As of now, 43 states, including all G7 states (including the United States, Canada and Japan, which are not members of the Council of Europe), have supported or promised to support the establishment of a register of damage to be located in The Hague after completion of internal procedures. The Council of Europe has 46 members. Seven member states have decided not to join this "anti-Russian" agreement.
The German government is looking into mechanisms to secure war damages for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including the possibility of using Russian assets to compensate the country, a government spokesperson said. Chancellor Olaf Scholz was among European leaders who agreed to set up a register of damages for the Ukraine war during a meeting in Reykjavik this week, Reuters reported.
Duda: Poland can't supply Ukraine with F-16s. Polish President Andrzej Duda said that Poland was not able to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets but was not against training Ukrainian pilots and sending more MiG-29s, news outlet wPolityce reported on May 17.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made an address at the opening of the 4th Council of Europe summit.
The Azovstal defenders still haven’t come home
About 2,000 people who had helped defend the Azovstal plant who were captured and became prisoners of war are still in the hands of the Russians. Natalka Zarytska, who is in charge of the council of wives and mothers, women of Steel said on the one-year anniversary of the withdrawal from the plant that 500 had returned home, but many are still prisoners of war.
She said: “Despite all efforts, only 20% of the defenders, who stood to the death until they received an order from the command to lay down their arms and save their lives, were able to return over the past 12 months.
“Only the defenders of Azovstal received such an order during the war. According to information from open sources, fulfilling the order, about 2,500 defenders left the territory of the plant.
“Over the year, about 500 defenders were returned. This means that about 2,000 boys and girls are still in the hell of captivity, and together with them, their relatives and friends have been in the hell of uncertainty for the whole year.”
According to the Ukrinform news website she said that servicemen had been tortured and starved in captivity. Those who returned in a prisoner swap in September returned having lost about 40kg in weight.