10:47 a.m
Tomorrow the Matteralla-Zelensky game
The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella will meet with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy tomorrow. Confidentiality of the details of the visit for security reasons.
09:51
Telegram Z channels: the counteroffensive has begun
Russian Telegram channels, which document and support the war and are therefore commonly referred to as Z, have started writing that the Ukrainian counter-offensive has begun. Blogger Evgeny Poddubny claims that the Kiev armed forces launched “an operation to encircle” Russian forces near Bakhmut and managed to break through the Russian front in the Soledar region. Alexander Kots announces that tanks have been sighted on the road from Kharkiv to the Russian border in order to force an expansion of Russian resources used to “contain the threat in the Belgorod region”. Poddubny also reports on Ukrainian military activity near Kharkiv. Former Minister of Defense of the Donetsk Republic Igor Strelkov specifies that we are currently dealing with “only local, albeit successful, attacks”.
09:50
China’s special envoy will be in Kiev on Monday and then in Moscow
China’s special envoy for the Ukraine crisis will travel to Kiev on Monday and then to Moscow. This was announced by the Beijing Foreign Ministry.
9:00 am
Meeting between Wagner and Shoigu in Bakhmut
Wagner militia chief Yevgeny Prigozhin invited Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to pay a personal visit to Bakhmut, the city in eastern Ukraine where bitter fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces has been raging for months. This is what the independent Belarusian media Nexta writes on Twitter, publishing Prigozhin’s May 11 letter to Shoigu.
07:46
Powerful explosion in Melitopol
Exiled mayor Ivan Fedorov reported a massive explosion in Melitopol in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, quoted by RBC Ukraine. “A massive explosion in Melitopol in the middle of the city,” Fedorov said. According to Ria-Melitopol, the explosion was well heard by residents of the central part of the city, in the park and in the Pishanaya area. According to Russian forces in the city, the blast was a bomb planted in a garbage can by the Ukrainian military.
07:35
Prigozhin “disrupts Kremlin leadership”
The leader and founder of the Wagner group Yevgeny Prigozhin goes even further. And his recent video messages, in which he attacks Moscow head-on and questions its ability to protect Russia, seriously unsettle “the top leadership” of the Kremlin. This was stated by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), citing Kremlin sources on condition of anonymity, in its latest update on the conflict in Ukraine.
07:26
Kiev: “Russians lie about lack of ammunition”
It is possible that the Russian military authorities are lying about the alleged lack of ammunition in Ukraine. This was underscored by Kyiv Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar in a post on Telegram, in which she highlighted that Russian airstrikes had “increased significantly” in recent weeks, contrary to the observations of some senior army commanders. like the head of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin. According to Maliar, the Russians have stepped up their offensive against the towns of Liman and Bakhmut. “In war, any information of a military nature is a weapon. The enemy is simply deceiving us for their military purposes,” he added
07:25
Moscow denies Kiev: No advance for Bakhmut
The Russian Defense Ministry has denied reports of breakthroughs by Ukrainian forces at various points along the front line, saying the military situation is under control. The Guardian reports on it. Moscow responded after Russian military bloggers reported on Telegram about Ukrainian advances north and south of the eastern city of Bakhmut, with some suspecting a counteroffensive may be starting in Kiev.