May 8, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

Russia’s launched a wave of strikes on Ukraine early Monday in what Kyiv mayor?Vitali Klitschko called its “most massive attack.”

The mayor said the drone attack did not cause any deaths, “but five people were injured in two districts of the city.”?Other attacks were recorded?in Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Kherson areas.

Here are the latest developments:

US to announce new aid package to Ukraine: The United States is set to announce a $1.2 billion aid package to Ukraine as early as Tuesday, according to a US official familiar with the package. It comes at a critical point with Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces looming.?The package will include drones, artillery ammunition and air defense missiles as well as other capabilities, the official said. It comes days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new $300 million security assistance package for Kyiv.

Wagner forces receive more ammunition: Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the private Russian military group Wagner, said preliminary information indicates that his fighters in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut have started to receive more ammunition.?Prigozhin had repeatedly complained that his units were not receiving enough ammunition from Russia’s defense establishment. Last week, he announced they would?withdraw from Bakhmut?— a threat he now appears to be rowing back on.?

Kremlin-backed officials mobilize Russians in Mariupol: Kremlin-backed authorities in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol are in the process of mobilizing residents who have Russian passports, the exiled city council claimed on Telegram.?Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian-backed self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, which administers Mariupol, signed a decree allowing the mobilization of Russian citizens in the occupied region on March 31.?

Parts of Russian administration leave Skadovsk: A significant part of the Russian-installed administration of Skadovsk left the occupied city on Sunday, Ukrainian military officials said.?The activities of Skadovsk’s district and city administrations were “suspended,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in its daily update. On Saturday night, “the occupiers loaded documentation, office equipment, and other property of state institutions into vehicles,” before leaving with their families on Sunday morning, Ukrainian military officials said. Skadovsk sits on the Black Sea.?

The United States is set to announce a $1.2 billion aid package to Ukraine as early as Tuesday, according to a US official familiar with the package. It comes at a critical point with Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces looming.?

The package will include drones, artillery ammunition and air defense missiles as well as other capabilities, the official said.

The package — first reported by the Associated Press — will fall under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which means it will be contracted and purchased from manufacturers instead of pulled directly from Defense Department stocks in a drawdown.

Instead of supplying Ukraine with the weapons it currently needs, USAI packages are intended to create a medium and long-term supply for Ukraine.

Last week, the Pentagon announced its 37th drawdown package for Ukraine since August 2021. The $300 million package included additional ammunition for the HIMARS rocket system, artillery and tank ammunition, anti-tank weapons and more.?

Russia’s wave of strikes on Ukraine early Monday was its “most massive attack with kamikaze drones,” Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Other attacks were recorded in Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Kherson areas.

The Ukrainian military said it repelled the assault on the capital city, the latest in Moscow’s efforts to?wear down its air defense system. According to Kyiv’s mayor, “36 drones flew to the capital” but were shot down by air defense forces.

“However, debris from several drones damaged some social facilities and a residential high-rise building in Sviatoshyn district,” Klitschko said.

The mayor said the drone attack did not cause any deaths, “but five people were injured in two districts of the city.”?

“Three of them were in high-rise buildings. Two victims were hospitalized, one of them underwent surgery. Doctors say that there is no threat to their lives,” he added.

Shahed drones are manufactured in Iran and have been frequently deployed by Russian forces in Ukraine.?

The PMC (Private Military Company) Wagner Center?building in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on October 31, 2022.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the private Russian military group Wagner, said on Monday that preliminary information indicates that his fighters in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut have started to receive more ammunition.??

Prigozhin has repeatedly complained that his Wagner units are not receiving enough ammunition from Russia’s defense establishment. Last week, he announced they would withdraw from Bakhmut — a threat he now appears to be rowing back on.?

Earlier Monday, a Ukrainian commander in Bakhmut said his unit faces “constant” shelling and had seen no evidence of the Russian ammunition shortage that?Prigozhin had claimed.

A significant part of the Russian-installed administration of Skadovsk left the occupied city on Sunday, Ukrainian military officials said.?

The activities of Skadovsk’s district and city administrations were “suspended,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in its daily update.

On Saturday night, “the occupiers loaded documentation, office equipment, and other property of state institutions into vehicles,” before leaving with their families on Sunday morning, Ukrainian military officials said.

The General Staff claims the Russians planned to transport the “documents and looted property,” by sea, further into Russian-held territory.?

Skadovsk sits on the Black Sea.?

The statement said that similar activity was occurring in the nearby villages of Krasne, Shevchenko, Shyroke, Ulianivka and Petrivka, as well as in Mykhailivka — some 28 kilometers away.?

Kremlin-backed authorities in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol are in the process of mobilizing residents who have Russian passports, the exiled city council claimed on Telegram.?

The Telegram post included a photo of a document which the authors said is a referral, received by a resident.?

“Draft boards have started working in Mariupol. The occupiers are already looking for citizens who do not fulfill their ‘military obligations’. The enemy plans to conscript men until August,” said Vadym Boichenko, the exiled Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol.

Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian-backed self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, which administers Mariupol, signed a decree allowing the mobilization of Russian citizens in the occupied region on March 31.?

A view shows an apartment building damaged by remains of a suicide drone during a Russian overnight strike in?Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 8.

The Ukrainian Red Cross suspended operations in Odesa after a Russian missile struck its warehouse in the southern port city.

The organization went on to say there had been no casualties.

Russia launched a wave of drone strikes on Kyiv Monday, and other attacks were also recorded in Kharkiv and Kherson areas. The Ukrainian military said it repelled the assault on the capital city, the latest in Moscow’s efforts to wear down its air defense system.

Here are the latest developments:

A Ukrainian commander in the eastern city of Bakhmut said his unit faces “constant” shelling and they have seen no evidence of the Russian ammunition shortage that Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has claimed.

Prigozhin, whose Wagner troops have spearheaded the fight to take the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut,?has?repeatedly claimed his fighters lack ammunition. Last week, he said they would withdraw from the area – a threat he has now apparently backtracked from.

Shepetin said?Prigozhin’s statements were an effort to “mislead” the Ukrainian military?in the face of his own “enormous losses”.

“I think that the enemy is already desperate. He is using all means at his disposal to try to drive our defense forces out of Bakhmut. But the enemy is not succeeding and will not succeed,” Shepetin said, adding that the Ukrainians were not in danger of being encircled and – while they had “some logistical problems” – were still able to evacuate the wounded and receive supplies of ammunition.

Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for the eastern grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, agreed, saying in a separate TV interview that “the Russians have no shortage of ammunition. This is absolutely not true.” He added that Ukrainian positions had been shelled more than four hundred times in the past 24 hours and enemy troops were using “more than 25,000 shells per day” on average around the eastern cities of Bakhmut, Lyman and Kupyansk.

“He [Prigozhin] comes up with this nonsense about the shell crisis. However, his main problem is the constant annihilation of personnel by our defense forces. And hence, he is unable to replenish personnel because he cannot recruit people from prisons,” Cherevatyi said.

Cherevatyi claimed that Russia had taken some 20,000 casualties in the Bakhmut area over the past nine months because of Wagner’s “meat grinder” tactic of fighting.

A man with a child look at a destroyed building in Zaporizhzhia after the Russian shelling.?

The evacuation of some civilians?from Russian-occupied towns on the front lines?in the Zaporizhzhia region has led to fuel shortages and problems with ATMs and the internet, according to Enerhodar Mayor Dmytro Orlov.

While Orlov is not currently in the occupied region, he said the evacuation announcement led to “if not panic, then a mood close to it.”

The first wave of evacuations that began Saturday morning was not massive, he said in a Telegram post Sunday.

Russian forces had removed medical equipment from the city’s hospital, asked patients to evacuate, and a number of hospital departments had ceased operations, he added.

An?11th?round of European Union sanctions against Russia will focus on how to effectively cut off ways for Moscow to bypass any existing European sanctions, the EU Commission announced Monday.?

On Sunday, the Financial Times reported that a new EU package of sanctions under consideration lists seven Chinese companies accused of selling equipment to Russia that could be used in weapons.?The sanctions list would need unanimous approval from the 27 member states before it can be enforced.

China said Monday it opposes any measures against trade based on its relationship with Russia. “We urge the EU not to take the wrong path, otherwise China will firmly guard our legal rights,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a news conference Monday.?

China’s foreign ministry said it opposes any measures against trade based on its relationship with Russia.

This comes in response to reports of proposed sanctions by the European Union on Chinese companies over their alleged involvement in supporting Russia’s war machine.

“We noted the relevant reports. China is firmly opposed to illegal sanctions or long-arm jurisdiction over China because of Sino-Russian cooperation,” Wang Wenbin, a foreign ministry spokesperson, said at a regular press briefing on Monday

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson?Wang?Wenbin?is pictured during a news briefing in Beijing, China, on April 26.

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On Sunday, the Financial Times reported that seven Chinese companies accused of selling equipment to Russia that could be used in weapons had been listed in a new package of sanctions to be discussed by EU member states this week, which had been seen by the FT.?The sanctions list needs unanimous approval from the 27 member states before it can be enforced.

A spokesperson for the Swedish presidency declined to comment before an initial discussion among EU ambassadors. Meanwhile, China’s state councilor and foreign minister are embarking on a week-long European visit, with stops in Germany, France, and Norway.

China has maintained that it has not supplied weapons to support Russia in its war in Ukraine, and Wang reiterated that Beijing holds an “objective and impartial position” on the war and supports peace talks. Chinese state-owned defense firms have maintained trade relationships with sanctioned Russian defense companies over the past year. A CNN review of customs records of key companies showed no evidence that any of the goods exchanged are directly feeding Russia’s war.

The Ukrainian Red Cross suspended operations in Odesa after a Russian missile struck its warehouse in the southern port city.

The organization went on to say there had been no casualties.

“The fire completely destroyed the humanitarian aid for Odesa region that was stored in the warehouse,” it added. “There were no representatives of the Red Cross at the site at the time of the missile strike.”

A total of eight missiles were launched at Odesa overnight Sunday, killing one and injuring three. Russian missile attacks were also recorded in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, according to Ukraine’s military.

Amid rumors that Ukraine is preparing to launch its long-anticipated counteroffensive, hundreds of people have begun evacuating from Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine’s southeast. Meanwhile, Moscow is preparing to celebrate Victory Day on May 9, marking the Soviet Union’s triumph over Nazi Germany, just two weeks after explosions targeted the Kremlin.

Russian servicemen are seen against the backdrop of the Kremlin and Saint Basil's cathedral during preparations for the Victory Day military parade rehearsal in Moscow, on Sunday, May 7.

Here are the latest developments:

Russian-occupied towns evacuated: More than 1,600 people, including 660 children, have been evacuated from Russian-occupied towns on the front lines in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, amid reports of intensified Ukrainian shelling there. Zaporizhzhia, home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, is expected to be a major target as Kyiv seeks to push back Russian troops. The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has stressed the need to prevent a “severe nuclear accident.”

Wagner chief appears to backtrack: Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Sunday that his troops are staying put in Bakhmut, having threatened two days earlier to withdraw totally from the Ukrainian city. In an expletive-laden rant made to Russia’s “fat cat” military leaders, Prigozhin accused Moscow of leaving his mercenary group short of ammunition. Russia’s defense ministry has since pledged more supplies to keep Prigozhin’s troops going.

Missile strikes hit Odesa: At least one person was killed and three injured in missile strikes on the southern port city of Odesa, according to military officials from the region. Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired eight long-range missiles at the city overnight Sunday. Missile attacks were also recorded in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions.

Ukraine says Russians are exporting stolen grain: The so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) announced its first grain export from the port of Mariupol. Ukrainian authorities said the grain being exported from Mariupol was “stolen” from the country, but added that the move is mostly for the purposes of propaganda, as the port is not fully operational. Mariupol was leveled by Russian forces in the early months of the war, and became a symbol of the Kremlin’s indiscriminate use of firepower in Ukraine.

Russian oligarch slams “terrible” war: Russian oligarch Andrey Kovalev has criticized Russia’s faltering invasion of Ukraine, saying the “terrible” war has not played out as many expected it to. He listed a string of Russian defeats – from the sinking of the Moskva ship to the bombing of the Kerch bridge – which has turned “the whole world” against Russia. Kovalev’s claims come as Moscow prepares for its annual Victory Day Parade. The event, held to commemorate the defeat of Nazi Germany, is also used to flaunt Russia’s military strength.

Zelensky proposes moving Victory Day: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky compared Russia to Nazi Germany as he proposed moving World War II Victory Day celebrations a day earlier to May 8 in a bill presented to lawmakers in Kyiv. Instead, on May 9 he will welcome European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for “Europe Day” – a celebration of peace and unity in Europe.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gestures on the day of an event marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement at Queen's University, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 19.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit Kyiv on Tuesday to mark Europe Day, according to her spokeswoman.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Monday that his country would begin marking Europe Day on May 9, the day that Ukraine traditionally commemorates victory over Nazi Germany.?

But this date has become increasingly associated with a parade to mark the same anniversary?in Moscow, used also by the Kremlin to flaunt its military prowess.

Seeking to break with the Russian tradition, Zelensky on Monday submitted a bill to the country’s parliament to move Victory Day celebrations a day earlier to May 8.

What is “Europe Day”: This annual event celebrates peace and unity in Europe. May 9 marks the anniversary of the historic “Schuman Declaration,” which set out the idea for greater political cooperation in Europe, as it emerged from World War II.

The Declaration was presented by French foreign minister Robert Schuman in 1950, as the countries of Europe were still recovering from the devastation of the conflict. It proposed the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community – the first of a series of supranational European institutions that would eventually become the “European Union” of today.

The new political cooperation aimed to make war between European nations “not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible.”

Russian oligarch Andrey Kovalev has criticized Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and its consequences for Russia.

In a video shared by Kovalev on his Telegram channel Monday, the businessman said at first he was certain that Russian troops would breach Ukraine’s defenses and capture Kyiv swiftly, within two or three weeks. He expressed surprise that this did not happen.

Kovalev pointed out Russia’s heavy losses since invading Ukraine – including the retreat of Russian troops from the positions they reached early in the war, the humiliating sinking of Russia’s Moskva warship last April, the blast on the bridge connecting annexed Crimea to the Russian mainland, and the recent alleged drone strike on the Kremlin.?

“The whole world is against us. One hundred and twenty-two countries voted to recognize us as an aggressor,” he added, referring to a resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly last month. The resolution, which qualified the war against Ukraine as “aggression by the Russian Federation,” received 122 votes, including from China and India – two countries that have avoided condemning Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

In a separate pre-recorded video posted on his Telegram channel, Kovalev tempered his tone somewhat, suggesting Russian President Vladimir Putin should “call on the service of the sovereign entrepreneurs” to help “ensure victory in the war.”

Andrey Kovalev is a Russian real estate businessman, a public figure, and chairman of the All-Russian Movement of Entrepreneurs. According to his biography on the movement website, he previously held government positions and was a member of the Moscow City Duma. In 2012, Kovalev was included in the “List of the Kings of Russian Real Estate” by Forbes Russia with an income of $55 million.

Is criticism growing?: There is little room for dissenting voices in Russia. Putin’s tight control of Russia’s information space prevents many citizens from accessing accurate reports about the invasion of Ukraine. Those who do attempt to speak out face lengthy prison sentences, or worse.

But there are signs of growing dismay among some Russians over how the faltering invasion has played out. Kovalev’s words echo those of the famous Russian pop star Alla Pugacheva, who in September called for an end to Russian soldiers “dying for illusory aims that make our country a pariah.”

Kovalev’s criticism comes the day before Moscow’s Victory Day Parade – an event held annually on May 9 to mark the anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, and used in recent years to flout Russia’s military strength.

Firefighters work at the site where storage facilities were heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike in the Odesa region on May 8.

At least one person was killed and three were injured in missile strikes on the southern port city of Odesa on Monday, according to the spokesman for the head of the regional military administration.

Russia fired eight long-range missiles at the city overnight Sunday, Ukraine’s air force said in a statement.

Russian missile attacks were also recorded in the Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, according to Ukraine’s military.

Storage facilities heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike are seen in?Odesa?region, Ukraine on May 8.

“61 air strikes and 52 enemy attacks from MLRS were documented at our troop positions and populated areas,” the Ukrainian military said in a statement Monday.

The Russian-controlled city of Polohy, in the Zaporizhzhia region, is under fire by Ukrainian forces, a pro-Moscow official said on Monday.

“Polohy is under the fire of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” Vladimir Rogoc, a member of the Russian-installed main council of the military-civilian administration of the Zaporizhzhia region, said Monday.?

“According to preliminary information, there are injured [people], as well as damage and destruction of civilian infrastructure,” he claimed.

Rogov said authorities had already been evacuating civilians from frontline areas.

More than 1,600 people, including 660 children, have been evacuated from Russian-occupied towns and cities near the front lines in Zaporizhzhia, according to Yevgeniy Balitskiy, the Russia-appointed acting head of the region.

Balitskiy claimed Sunday that the evacuees “have everything they need: food, a place to sleep, constant contact and consultation with specialists.”

Russia controls much of the Zaporizhzhia region and it could be a target for Ukraine should it launch its heavily anticipated counteroffensive.

The so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), territory in eastern Ukraine illegally occupied and annexed by Russia, has announced its first grain export from the port of Mariupol.

“The first ship carrying grain from the Donetsk People’s Republic loaded at the Mariupol commercial seaport,” the pro-Russian acting head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, posted on his Telegram account on Monday.

Ukrainian authorities said the grain being exported from Mariupol was “stolen” from the country, but added that the move is mostly for the purposes of propaganda, as the port is not fully operational.

“The first three and a half thousand tons of Ukrainian grain from Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions were stolen with the help of the Mariupol seaport,” Petro Andriushchenko, an advisor to the Ukrainian Mayor of Mariupol said.

“The loading took about one week, which indicates the port’s low efficiency. It can be stated that this cargo is more a propaganda piece,” he added.?

Some background: Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov, witnessed some of the most intense fighting since Russia launched its invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has estimated that “tens of thousands” died during the siege of the city. Ukrainian forces finally evacuated the city in May last year, after resisting Russia’s advances for weeks.

Images of Mariupol’s destruction became symbols of the Kremlin’s use of indiscriminate firepower in Ukraine, drawing stark visual parallels with the leveling of cities like Syria’s Aleppo or the Chechen capital of Grozny.

At the time of the siege, Mariupol’s mayor estimated that 90% of the city’s infrastructure had been damaged, 40% of it beyond repair.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Mariupol in March – his first visit to territory captured by his forces since the war began.

During his visit, a video showed Putin in discussion with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, outlining plans for “ongoing construction and restoration work” in the city.

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has raised concerns as to the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, describing it as “increasingly unpredictable,” after Moscow ordered the evacuation of residents from Russian-occupied areas close to the facility.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, is held by Russian forces but mostly operated by a Ukrainian workforce.

The town of Enerhodar was among 18 front-line settlements whose residents were evacuated over the weekend. Most of the plant’s staff live in the town, the International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement.

Safety fears: Grossi said he was deeply concerned about the “increasingly tense, stressful, and challenging conditions” for personnel and their families and about “the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant.”

“We must act now to prevent the threat of a severe nuclear accident and its associated consequences for the population and the environment,” Grossi warned.

The evacuation of Enerhodar comes amid rumors of an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive, with the southern region likely to be a major target as Kyiv seeks to reclaim territories taken by Moscow.

The site director Yuri Chernichuk said operating staff are not being evacuated and “are doing everything necessary to ensure nuclear safety and security at the plant.”

Chernichuk said the plant’s six reactors are all in shutdown mode and its equipment is being maintained, “in accordance with all necessary nuclear safety and security regulations,” according to Grossi.

Why Zaporizhzhia matters: Ukraine relies heavily on nuclear power. Should Russia keep the Zaporizhzhia plant – which it took control of in March last year – Ukraine would lose about 20% of its domestic electricity generating capacity. Analysts have said Russia would want to capture the plant undamaged, with hopes of serving its own electricity market.

The plant has frequently been disconnected from Ukraine’s power grid due to intense Russian shelling in the area, repeatedly raising fears across Europe of a nuclear accident, though experts say another Chernobyl-sized disaster remains unlikely.

Volodymyr Zelensky makes an address at the European Parliament in Brussels on February 9.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky compared Russia to Nazi Germany as he proposed moving World War II Victory Day celebrations a day earlier to May 8 in a bill presented to lawmakers in Kyiv.

Like Russia, Ukraine traditionally commemorates victory over the Nazis on May 9, but that date has become increasingly associated with a parade in Moscow, used by the Kremlin to flex its military might.?

Comparing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to Hitler’s expansionist goals, Zelensky said the goal of both regimes was the same — “enslavement or destruction.”

A T-55 main battle tank is seen on display at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridge, in the United Kingdom.

A cargo train loaded with tanks chugs along under the crisp, spring sun. “Wow,” a woman says, pointing her camera phone at the convoy. “This is the second train, there was one like it just before.”

The video, seemingly filmed in late March, shows old Soviet tanks being transported, somewhere in Russia. Moscow has been known to?bring out older military equipment?from storage to help it prosecute the war in Ukraine, but these are different.

The tanks are T-55s, a model first commissioned by the Soviet Union’s Red Army in 1948, shortly after the end of World War II.

They’re so old, you can find them in museums.

“This the first main battle tank used by the Soviet Union in the Cold War era,” said historian John Delaney, a senior curator at the Imperial War Museum (IWM) in Duxford, Cambridge, as he shows one to CNN.

For the Red Army, that was the T-55 and its many variants, which later became the most widely produced tank in the world, with more than 100,000 units built. Cheap, reliable, easy to use and easy to maintain, it was a military mainstay from Egypt to China to Sudan, where they are still in use.

In Eastern Europe, they were used to quash uprisings in the former Warsaw Pact countries, rolling through the streets of Hungary in 1956, and then Prague, capital of what was then Czechoslovakia, in 1968.

But in following decades, when deployed against Western-built tanks — in some Arab-Israeli conflicts, and then in the Gulf War — they were no match.

Read the full story here.

More than 1,600 people have been evacuated from?Zaporizhzhia, the Ukrainian region’s Russia-backed administration said Monday.

Russia controls much of Zaporizhzhia and the evacuations come amid rumors of an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive, with the southern region likely to be a major target as Kyiv seeks to push back Moscow’s invasion.

Among the evacuees were 660 minors and 230 psychiatric patients, acting Gov. Yevgeny Balitsky said.

The Russia-backed official has said the evacuations, which began on Friday, were a “necessary measure” due to “intensified shelling of settlements” close to the front line.

Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of using evacuations to forcibly deport Ukrainians.

Read more about the evacuations here.

Residents stand next to a car damaged after drones were shot down over Kyiv on May 8.

Five people were injured in Kyiv on Monday after air defenses repelled Russian drone attacks overnight, Ukrainian officials said.

Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv city military administration, said in a statement that falling debris from intercepted drones had damaged residential buildings and cars in the capital’s Svyatoshynskyi district.

Falling drone wreckage also caused a fuel leak in the Solomyanskyi district, he added.

The air force warned residents that “even a 100% intercept rate on air targets does not guarantee safety in areas where the air defense is operating! Fragments of anti-aircraft missiles and damaged UAVs always come back down to earth!”

Sustained attacks: On Sunday, Ukraine’s Operation Command South spokeswoman said Russian forces were trying to exhaust Ukraine’s air defense system with repeated attacks.

“They are trying to find a way around it. And they are also expanding their tactics because they do not have a stable stock of the means that they can operate with,” Natalia Humeniuk told local media.

The Russians were also trying “to test and find out where the air defense systems are located,” she added.

A firefighter works at the site of a resort area hit by a Russian missile strike in?Odesa?region, Ukraine on May 8.

Emergency responders were working to contain fires after a Russian missile attack near the southern port city of Odesa Sunday night, the Ukrainian military said.

No casualties were reported, the statement added.

Some context: Originally designed as an anti-ship missile, the X-22 is an older and less accurate weapon than most modern missiles. The frequently inaccurate missile, also known as the Kh-22,?has been used by Russia to target residential buildings during its assault on Ukraine.?

An explosion of a drone is seen during a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine on May 8.

Explosions were heard in Kyiv early Monday as Russian forces continued their bombardment of Ukraine following air attacks over the weekend against the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions in the south and Kharkiv in the north.

The Ukrainian military says the attacks are part of Moscow’s efforts to wear down Ukraine’s air defenses as the Russians try “to find out where the air defense systems are located.”

Here are the latest developments:

Residents inspect part of a drone shot down during a Russian strike in?Kyiv on May 8.

Explosions were heard early Monday in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv,?Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.

Three people were injured at the site of an explosion in Solomyanskyi district and another was injured in Sviatoshynskyi?district, where the wreckage of a drone fell on a building, he said.

Two victims were hospitalized, he added.

Yevgeny Prigozhin makes a statement as he stand next to Wagner fighters in an undisclosed location on May 5.

Wagner troops have made progress in the embattled eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut as they await munitions supplies from Russia, the head of the Russian mercenary group said on Sunday evening.

Prigozhin has suggested his forces will stay in Bakhmut after Russia’s Ministry of Defense promised to provide more ammunition to his troops, apparently backtracking on a threat to withdraw.

The city, which sits toward the northeast of the Donetsk region, has seen Russian troops incur massive losses during months of bloody fighting as the attacking forces gradually wear down resolute Ukrainian resistance.

What Ukrainians are saying: According to the Ukrainian military, more Russian forces are now arriving in Bakhmut, including Wagner fighters.

“The Russians are not going to leave Bakhmut,” Roman Hryshchenko, commander of Ukraine’s 127th territorial defense brigade, said in an interview with Ukrainian media on Sunday. “Moreover, we see new units arriving, including Wagnerites. The intensity of the assaults has increased. They are bringing more forces to the city of Bakhmut.”

The Russians have also increased artillery shelling of the city as they seem to have more ammunition, Hryshchenko added.

“The enemy uses a variety of munitions, including incendiary munition,” he said..

The commander noted that Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut “have a regular supply of ammunition, water and food” and that supply routes are working.

Some Russian soldiers are attempting to leave Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region disguised as civilians, an exiled Ukrainian mayor claimed on Sunday.

In an interview with Ukrainian media, Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov said, “there are soldiers who try to escape from the temporarily occupied territories.”

“Therefore, at the moment, one more ‘filtration’ has been added when leaving the temporarily occupied territory. When they check all the civilians in cars and try to prevent the cars with disguised Russian military personnel from leaving.”

On Friday, Russian-installed authorities in Zaporizhzhia announced the evacuation of residents of 18 frontline settlements due to “intensified shelling.” Russia controls much of the region and it could be a target for Ukraine should it launch its heavily anticipated counteroffensive.

Fedorov also noted that Russian troops “are moving more and more to the Zaporizhzhia frontline.”

Russian forces are?trying to chip away at Ukraine’s air defense system, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military said in an interview Sunday.??

Russians are trying “to test and find out where the air defense systems are located,” according to Humeniuk.?

Evacuations in southern Ukraine:?The spokesperson also commented on Russian authorities?recently evacuating civilians?from the Zaporizhzhia region, calling it “an imitation of care for the local residents.”

This is a standard practice that was used by Russians before, she said.

“They are trying to evacuate the people to the places where they set up their own defense lines and where they are setting their units in order to use local civilians as a cover,” Humeniuk claimed.

Analysts?suspect?the southern region could be a key target of Ukraine’s anticipated counteroffensive.

The US has high confidence in the accuracy of?Ukraine’s claim?that it used an American-made Patriot air defense system to intercept a Russian hypersonic missile, according to a source familiar with the matter.??

While the Patriot system has been successful in countering ballistic missiles, its ability to stop air-launched?hypersonic missiles was purely theoretical before last week. Ukraine’s intercept has now provided a real-world demonstration of that capability — something that has been viewed within the Pentagon as a major development, the source said.?

Ukraine’s intercept claim created buzz within the Pentagon late last week, the source added, noting it is significant for several reasons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has publicly touted the capabilities of Russia’s hypersonic weapons and cast them as capable of overcoming all existing air defense systems.?

Production of hypersonic ballistic missiles has always been challenging for Russia and sanctions have only made it more difficult.?

But prior to last week, Russia’s calculus was that if it?did?use a hypersonic ballistic missile, whatever it was shooting at would assuredly get hit, the source said.?This intercept has called that calculation into question, they added.

The fact that this intercept was conducted by a Ukrainian crew?that was trained in Oklahoma, but had no US advisers on the battlefield,?is even more of a feather in the cap for the Pentagon, the source added, calling it a major return on investment.?

The intercept also has likely caused a severe amount of uncertainty for Russia, raising the question of whether Ukraine is in possession of a sustainable countermeasure against hypersonic ballistic missiles, the source added.?

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, has apparently backtracked on?a threat to withdraw his forces?from the eastern Ukrainian city of?Bakhmut, after Russia’s Ministry of Defense promised to provide more ammunition to his troops.

In an?explosive, expletive-laden rant?this week, Prigozhin appeared in front of dozens of his dead soldiers and blamed Russia’s military leadership for “tens of thousands” of Wagner casualties. He declared that his men would leave Bakhmut by May 10 because of inadequate supplies, resulting in heavy losses.

But a new audio message posted Sunday on Telegram suggests he has changed his mind after concessions from the Russian government.

The Russian Ministry of Defense did not immediately comment on Prigozhin’s latest claim.

Bakhmut has been the site of a months-long assault by Russian forces that has driven thousands from their homes and left the area devastated. But, despite the vast amounts of manpower and resources Russia has poured into capturing Bakhmut, they have not been able to take total control of the city.

“We’ve taken 95% of Bakhmut. For this last 5%, the ‘Red Army’ [the Russian Armed Forces] are not playing any role,” Prigozhin said in a message posted on his official Telegram channel Saturday.

Prigozhin’s blunt and brutal tactics in Bakhmut have long been likened to a “meat grinder.” But, in his repeated threats to withdraw from Bakhmut, Prigozhin claimed this approach was?no longer viable.

“There will be no more meat grinder because there’s nothing left to grind the meat with,” Prigozhin said.

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