May 19: E-Stories
Day 450: UASitRep RUSitRep Odesa Crimea Patriots RashtaAstara Belarus Japan Rheinmetall SouthAfrica Lavrov G7 Estonia Moldova Kuleba Zhevago Teixeira EUGas PutinBunker RUpmcs A&P Mash Dzheppar
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…
Ukraine said it had repelled a day of Russian attacks in and around the ruined eastern city of Bakhmut on Thursday and made gains of a kilometre in some places while buying time for “certain planned actions”. There were Russian missile attacks on Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv as well as the Russian army shelled Kostyantynivka in Donetsk region, and one person was killed.
Official: Ukrainian defenders control southwestern Bakhmut, advance in city's outskirts. In the past day, Ukrainian troops have made localized advances south and north of the city, in some areas by up to one kilometer, according to Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar. The main objective of the Ukrainian defensive operation in the Bakhmut area is to exhaust the Russian forces in this region. The Ukrainian Defense Forces successfully conduct the active defense in Bakhmut and Avdiivka areas.
The Russian military command has failed to determine the direction of the possible main strike by the Defense Forces in their future counteroffensive, resulting in an increase in the enemy's activity of firepower along the entire front line of the conflict. The Russian military concentrates its main efforts on offensive actions in the Kupyansk, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Maryinka directions.
Units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces repulsed over 55 Russian attacks in different directions. Bakhmut and Maryinka remain at the epicenter of hostilities.
Information warfare: Summarizing Russian activity in the information space around recent events of the Russian aggression against Ukraine (Russian missile attack and fighting around Bakhmut), Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar stressed that Russia's manipulations in the information space are aimed at "creating a mythical image of the invincibility of the "Russian superpower" and intimidating the international and Ukrainian community".
The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the annexed LPR, Igor Kornet, who was injured in an explosion in Lugansk on May 15, was transferred to Moscow for treatment, the 112 telegram channel reported
In the annexed Crimea, a train with grain derailed. The media reported on the explosion. The Crimean Railway stated that there had been "intervention by outsiders". The authorities of the annexed Crimea plan to restore the railway tracks near Simferopol and resume train traffic by the evening of May 18, RIA Novosti reports . Source video- Mash Telegram channel.
US inspectors examine Patriot system, say it has 'minimal' damage following Russian attack. A U.S.-made Patriot air defense system, allegedly hit by the Russian May 16 attack on Kyiv, has only 'minimal' damages and doesn't need to be shipped to the U.S. for repairs, CNN reported, citing three American officials.
The Pentagon overvalued US equipment it sent to Ukraine by about $3bn, a Senate aide and a defence official said on Thursday, an error that opened up the possibility of more weapons being sent to Kyiv for its defence against Russian forces. The error was the result assigning a higher than warranted value on weaponry that was taken from US stocks and then shipped to Ukraine, two senior defence officials said.
UK Defense Ministry: Growing threat to air supremacy of 'exceptional concern' for Russia. After Ukrainian air defense successfully shot down several hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, the growing threat to air supremacy will be of "exceptional concern" for Russia, the U.K. Defense Ministry wrote in its May 17 update.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy's press service reports that Ukraine is faced with the task of demining approximately 700 km² of territories surrounding energy infrastructure and 4,500 km of power lines. Attracting the support of international partners in the humanitarian demining of energy facilities and adjacent territories remains one of the government's priorities.
The Russian authorities are taking out stolen grain from the occupied territories of Ukraine with the help of the Syrian ship SOURIA. Ukrainian General Staff reported that the transportation was happening via the Crimean port of the city of Feodosia.
Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar reported on Telegram that the Russian invaders are conducting raids in the occupied Ukrainian territories, arresting men there and trying to create a "reserve" of them to participate in hostilities.
According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russian occupiers have repurposed the kindergarten in Yuryivka village in Zaporizhzhya Oblast to house their military personnel. At the same time, civilians who were taken out of the villages close to the line of combat live on the territory of the kindergarten.
As of now, there are more Russian military personnel at the ZNPP than the number of personnel working at the station. In this way, the occupiers inflame the situation in order to continue to carry out nuclear blackmail. At the same time, recently, it became known that the occupiers are preparing a preliminary plan to evacuate the “RosAtom” employees from the captured Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Collaborators and “RosAtom” workers brought by the Russians were warned that forced evacuation may begin soon, and therefore they should provide a list of relatives and be ready to leave at the first signal.
Russia and Iran have signed an agreement for the section of the Rasht Astara railway that will tie the two countries even more. The section will cost 1.6 billion euros. Russia will give Iran 1.3 billion.
'Fighter jet coalition' to be formed this year. A coalition to provide Ukraine with western fighter jets will be formed this year, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on national television on May 17.
European countries bordering Russia and Belarus will tighten customs control to prevent circumvention of international sanctions against Moscow. This decision was made during three days of consultations by representatives of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Norway and Finland.
Japan will accept wounded Ukrainian soldiers for treatment for the first time , Kyodo reports. The soldiers are scheduled to be admitted to the Self-Defense Forces Central Hospital in Tokyo in June.
Ukroboronprom and the German defense holding Rheinmetall have signed a partnership agreement and a joint venture.
“According to the agreement, the basis and first step for cooperation will be the maintenance and repair of armored vehicles transferred to Ukraine. Further, the partners intend to jointly produce Rheinmetall products in Ukraine, as well as jointly develop promising models of weapons and military equipment on the basis of a newly created joint venture with the participation of Ukrainian and German specialists," Ukroboronprom said.
Zelensky's office: South African president wants to come to Ukraine as part of 'peace initiative' delegation. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa wants to come to Ukraine on a "peace initiative" with the leaders of other African countries, President Volodymyr Zelensky's spokesperson Sergii Nykyforov confirmed to Ukrainska Pravda on May 17.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that a delegation from African countries hoping to present their initiative would visit Moscow. Reuters reports Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow would be ready to listen to “any proposals” that help resolve the conflict.
Reuters reports the leaders of the G7 countries will discuss the idea of an international peace summit over Ukraine when they meet in Japan this week, an EU official said on Thursday. G7 leaders will meet on 19-21 May in Japan’s city of Hiroshima.
The Japanese PM, Fumio Kishida told reporters that he and president Biden have agreed to continue sanctions against Russia and support of Ukraine as the two leaders met in the Japanese city of Hiroshima today, Reuters reports.
The Estonian parliament adopted a statement in support of Ukraine's NATO accession on May 17. The statement urges NATO allies to invite Ukraine to join the alliance and formulate "concrete and unequivocal steps" needed to speed up the accession process at the July NATO summit.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister, Dymtro Kuleba, told the PRC's Special Envoy that Ukraine wouldn't even discuss territorial concessions to Russia and urged Beijing to support Ukraine's Peace Formula.
Moldova is no longer using Russian natural gas or electricity after cutting its dependence since war started in Ukraine, prime minister Dorin Recean said on Thursday.
“If at the start of the war 100% of energy consumed in Moldova originated in Russia, today Moldova can exist with absolutely no natural gas or electricity from Russia. Moldova no longer consumes Russian gas, it is integrated in the European energy network both technically and commercially.”
State Bureau of Investigation: More than $100 million seized from Zhevago's accounts in Switzerland. Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation reported on May 17 that it was working alongside the Agency for Investigation and Management of Assets to retrieve more than $113 million in frozen assets from a Swiss account belonging to Ukrainian oligarch Kostiantyn Zhevago.
Jack Teixeira, 21, was arrested in April after FBI agents traced back to him a collection of classified material posted in an online chat group. Teixeira accused in a high-profile classified leaks case appears to have shared sensitive secrets with foreign nationals and had raised concern among his co-workers in the months before he was charged with mishandling and disseminating national security information, prosecutors said in a court filing Wednesday.
Mattathias Schwartz & Anastasiia Carrier, Revealed: Vladimir Putin's secret Black Sea bunker
After all, the 190,000-square-foot, billion-dollar complex, perched on a rugged bluff overlooking the Black Sea, has every luxury that an autocrat could possibly desire. As revealed by Alexei Navalny's investigation, the palace has its own church, wine cellar, and casino. It has a hookah lounge complete with a stripper pole, an arboretum, and an ice rink for the hockey games Putin likes to play with cronies. But good luck ordering takeout — security is tight. Putin's imperial dacha is sealed off from the country he rules by 17,000 acres of woodland and a special no-fly zone.
The precautions are more than paranoia on Putin's part. Earlier this month, Russian authorities claimed that two drones had attempted to assassinate Putin in a failed strike that ended in an explosion above the Kremlin.
But, despite all these princely luxuries and castle-like defenses, the palace's builders appear to have neglected one crucial detail. They failed to hide plans showing two elaborate tunnels running beneath the palace complex — plans that any competent state-security apparatus would fight tooth-and-nail to keep secret.
Yes…he’s still alive and…well…unhinged.
"Fakel", "Potok" and "Redut" Three PMCs associated with Gazprom are fighting in Ukraine, BBC Russian Service
In addition to PMC Wagner, private military companies are involved in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which are most likely connected to Gazprom. As the BBC Russian Service recalls , Yevgeny Prigozhin spoke about the existence of such PMCs in an interview in April.
“Those people who have money think that this is an awesome topic now - to collect PMCs. So they start breeding. Gazprom's PMC Potok, PMC [billionaire Andrey] Bokarev, PMC Redut - each creature in pairs,” said the founder of PMC Wagner. Prigozhin claimed that mercenaries from other PMCs were sent to cover the flanks near Bakhmut, where Wagner was advancing, but they were forced to abandon their positions due to poor training and supplies, as well as due to the lack of “tactical commanders.” At the same time, Prigozhin said, the founders of such PMCs “report to the Kremlin,” and mercenaries in these companies receive huge salaries.
At the beginning of 2023, a subsidiary of Gazprom, Gazpromneft, received permission from Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to create a “private security organization” (PHOO). According to the BBC, it was created in Omsk under the name "Gazpromneft Okhrana" and under the leadership of former high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB. [continue reading]