As the war enters its 454th day, let’s take a look at the main developments.
Here is the situation on Tuesday, May 23, 2023.
Fight
- Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said its mercenary soldiers would leave Bakhmut starting Thursday and transfer control of the eastern Ukrainian city to Russian conventional forces. Ukraine denies Russian claims that Bakhmut fell.
- One person died from shrapnel wounds after Russia shelled the village of Stanislav in Ukraine’s Kherson region, according to Governor Oleksandr Prokudin.
- Two women were injured in Russian bombing in Kupiansk in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv province, according to the region’s governor, Oleh Syniehubov. He said residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure were damaged in the attack.
- Ukrainian military intelligence officer Kyrylo Budanov spoke to Russian soldiers in a video and urged them to surrender if they did not want to die.
- Power has been restored to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant after Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for the latest blackout.
- Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s southern region of Belgorod, said authorities were helping people leave the area after an armed attack by a “sabotage” group from Ukraine. Kyiv denied any involvement saying the attack was the work of armed groups inside Russia.
- The United Kingdom says Russian troops may be forming a new “elite” aviation group as the West vows to bolster Kyiv’s air defenses.
Diplomacy
- The United Nations has expressed concern that Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Pivdennyi, in the city of Yuzhne, has not received any ships since May 2 under an agreement allowing the safe export of grains and fertilizers. during the war.
- NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly recognized Russia’s actions in Ukraine as “genocide”, according to Yehor Cherniev, the head of the Ukrainian delegation at the assembly.
- Six African leaders have suggested Ukraine accept the opening of peace talks with Russia despite Russian troops remaining on its soil, the South African presidency said, as South African officials prepared to visit in both countries to sell the idea.
- Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said the country plans to host a peace summit for Ukraine in July, according to the Danish news agency Ritzau.
- Tens of thousands of Moldovans rallied in the capital, Chisinau, to support their pro-Western government’s drive towards Europe amid what officials say are Russian efforts to destroy their country.
weapon
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Poland is in advanced talks to buy Swedish early warning planes and hopes that the negotiations will be completed soon, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said. Poland has increased military spending since Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, with the government pledging to double the size of the army and spend 4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense by 2023.
