Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 05-16-2024

In an exclusive interview with Kyiv Post, Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister discusses plans for an integrated defense system model, collaborative projects with NATO, and ministry de-bureacratization.

Part One of the Kyiv Post interview with the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine for Institutional Development

In this two-part interview, Deputy Defense Minister Haider talked with Kyiv Post about tackling a top to bottom revamp of the institutions of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, with changes involving extensive modernization, reciprocal collaboration with partner nations in NATO, and de-bureaucratizing the military servicemember obligations.

Intelligence reports indicate that in their bid to establish control over the city, the Russian military prevented residents from evacuating, resorting to abduction and coercing them into basements.

Ukraine has accused Russia of detaining and killing civilians in the border town of Vovchansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region, where Russian forces initiated a ground assault last week.

Interior Minister Igor Klymenko reported via Telegram, “Russian troops are taking civilians prisoner.”

US officials say if Russia successfully develops the weapon, it could disable American satellites, including the Starlink satellite network, which is crucial for Ukraine’s warfighting ability.

The Wall Street Journal, citing American officials, reported that in February 2022, Russia launched a satellite into space designed to test components for a potential anti-satellite weapon capable of carrying a nuclear weapon.

According to the WSJ’s sources, the satellite is a “prototype” of the weapon, while other sources are confident that the Russian program to develop anti-satellite weapons has not progressed that far.

Speech by Ola Myrovych at the Opening Ceremony of the Lviv Media Forum.

This year, the event takes place from May 16-18. Traditionally, the LMF is opened with a speech by the head of the NGO “Lviv Media Forum.” This year, Ola Myrovych, delivered the following speech:

Last summer, these walls trembled from the shockwave of a Russian missile striking a nearby residential building.

An exiled former Ukrainian politician has accused Kyiv’s special services, not for the first time, of preparing “dirty bombs” using material recovered from radioactive waste storage sites.

Andrii Derkach, a former Ukrainian politician made claims, in an interview with the Belarus BelTA news channel, that Kyiv was involved in plots to manufacture and use so-called dirty bombs or “poor man’s nuclear weapons,” the independent Russian news site Insider reports, reported in one of its “Fake News” series of articles.

A “dirty bomb” or radiological weapon refers to the idea of deploying a device in which conventional explosives are used to spread radioactive material over a large area, contaminating it so that it can no longer be used by military (or civilian) personnel.

Death tolls for Kremlin soldiers this week may have been the bloodiest since the start of the war. Russia’s Defense Minister said gaps in the ranks are manageable and no one needs to be drafted.

Russian soldiers are dying in record numbers. As the Kremlin’s troops make massed attacks into the teeth of Ukrainian killer drones backed by new deliveries of artillery shells, the numbers have skyrocketed, according to official Kyiv counts, reports from Ukrainian combat units, and independent analysts.

A Kremlin offensive launched in early May into Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region appeared to be the epicenter of the heavy Russian losses, with dead and wounded across all fronts numbering more than 1,000 men every 24 hours for the past two weeks, according to Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) official estimates.

President Zelensky on Thursday met military leaders in Kharkiv city, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the Russian border to assess Ukraine's defensive efforts.

Ukraine warned on Thursday it faced a "very difficult" military situation in its northeast Kharkiv region, where Moscow has made its largest territorial gains in 18 months since launching a surprise offensive last week.

As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv was sending yet more reinforcements to the area, the Ukrainian army said it had managed to partially halt Russia's advance.

Serhiy Kolyada on the evolving nature of Russo-Chinese relations.

The Kyiv Post sources in HUR confirm that Ukrainian military intelligence drones attacked the Bazalt weapons manufacturing plant in Tula, Russia.

Kyiv Post’s intelligence sources reported a successful attack overnight on a Russian weapons manufacturing facility in Tula, about 180 kilometers (112 miles) south of Moscow. Russian state-owned company Bazalt, which produces the RPG-7V2 and RPG-29 grenade launchers, was hit with kamikaze drones, the HUR source said.

Local residents reported that air defense was operating in the Tula region last night. Russian air defense allegedly shot down two Ukrainian drones.

Wednesday’s early morning precision missile strike by Ukraine destroyed two Russian fighter jets, a missile system and a fuel and lubricant depot at the Crimean Peninsula base.

Further to a Kyiv Post report posted on Wednesday,  the Russian Telegram channel Astra said that on the night of May 14 / 15, Ukrainian missile attacks against a Russian air base and nearby military locations in occupied Crimea destroyed an S-400 “Triumf” air defense system, two MiG-31 fighters, and a fuel and lubricant depot. The ASTRA account said that two Russian soldiers were killed, and 14 others were injured.

According to its sources, ASTRA said the initial attack against the Belbek military airfield in Sevastopol destroyed the two enemy fighter jets, set the fuel and lubricant depot on fire and injured 11 Russian soldiers.

The 71-year-old man who fired five shots at Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, is linked with a pro-Russian extremist group a Hungarian investigative journalist reported.

The Hungarian investigative journalist, Szabolcs Panyi, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that Juraj Cintula, who shot the Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico, on Wednesday, May 15 was associated with the right-wing, pro-Russian extremist group Slovenskí Branci (Slovak Conscripts).

According to a 2019 report by the VSquare investigative website the organization, which was set up around 2012 as a right-wing neo-Nazi group, had become increasingly linked with Russian bodies and had collaborated with the nationalist Russian motorcycle gang funded by the Kremlin – the Night Wolves.

Ukrainian fighters posted a video showing how they attacked and neutralized a group of 20 Russian assault troops within an hour using a combination of FPV and bomber drones.

The National Guard of Ukraine posted a video on Telegram showing the elimination of a group of 20 assaulting Russian soldiers in the Kharkiv region.

“Utilizing FPV and bomber drones, a group of 20 assault soldiers was neutralized within an hour,” the report said.

Western countries say vague peace proposals that Beijing issued last year would enable Russia to hold onto much of the territory it has seized in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he was "grateful" to Beijing for trying to find a solution to the war in Ukraine and hailed growing economic ties with China.

Putin was speaking at a press conference in Beijing alongside Chinese leader Xi Jinping, a day after he said his troops were advancing on "all fronts" in Ukraine.

From better electronic warfare to capitalizing on delays in US aid and Ukrainian mobilization, Moscow’s initial blunders have been reversed.

The White House is worried that Russia has figured out how to counter many of the weapons the US has sent to Ukraine, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing American officials.

Biden administration officials fear that just as the United States has learned key lessons from the war – about technologies that work and those that don’t – so has Putin.

Georgian lawmakers passed the controversial law, which would brand hundreds of civil society organisations and media outlets as foreign agents, by 84 votes in favour and 30 against.

As protests grow in Tbilisi, EU member states on Tuesday (14 May) failed to agree on a common statement that would condemn the passing of the Georgian government’s ‘foreign agent’ law, which Brussels warned defies ‘European values’ and hampers the country’s path towards accession.

Georgian lawmakers passed the controversial law, which would brand hundreds of civil society organisations and media outlets as foreign agents, by 84 votes in favour and 30 against.

The depot stored most of the air-to-surface missiles for Su-27, Su-30, and MiG-31 fighter-bomber aircraft that have been targeting Ukraine’s cities and infrastructure.

A weapons depot at the Belbek airfield, the main base of Russian military aviation in Crimea, suffered significant damage in the early hours of Thursday, May 16, following a long-range missile attack, according to reports by Atesh partisans.

It is Putin's first trip abroad since his March re-election and the second in just over six months to China, an economic lifeline for Russia after the West hit it with unprecedented sanctions.

Leaders Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin framed their nations' ties as a stabilising force in a chaotic world as they met Thursday in Beijing, where the Russian president is seeking greater Chinese support for his war effort in Ukraine and isolated economy.

It is Putin's first trip abroad since his March re-election and the second in just over six months to China, an economic lifeline for Russia after the West hit it with unprecedented sanctions over its military offensive in Ukraine.

In the Kharkiv region of Ukraine, an active Russian offensive has been underway in recent days, prompting an emergency evacuation of civilians from villages and towns caught in the line of fire.

Surgeons spent hours battling to save the 59-year-old populist leader after the attack, which has been condemned around the world.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico fought for his life in hospital Wednesday after being shot multiple times in what the government called a "political assault".

Surgeons spent hours battling to save the 59-year-old populist leader after the attack, which has been condemned around the world.

The Sentinel 830R RHIBs are part of a larger $66 million aid package that includes about $33 million in RBS 70 MANPADS and about $20 million in drones.

In the next few months, Australia will deliver a batch of Sentinel 830R RHIB (Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boat) boats to Ukraine as part of an AU$100 million ($66 million) military aid package Canberra announced last month.

“The 830R can be rapidly deployed and requires minimal maintenance, resulting in greater operational availability whenever the Ukrainian forces need it,” George McGuire, CEO of Sentinel Boats is quoted as saying by the company’s press service on its website.

The well-known Ukrainian vyshyvanka designer said that a few years ago, the traditional embroidered shirt had been seen as something exotic. Now it's commonplace formalwear that's even sold abroad.

On Thursday, May 16, Ukrainians once again celebrate Vyshyvanka Day. Vyshyvankas – traditional embroidered shirts – have long been symbols of Ukraine.

Kyiv Post interviewed celebrated Ukrainian designer Yuliya Magdych about vyshyvankas and more on the eve of Vyshyvanka Day.