Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 05-19-2024

Kyiv drones knock out another Kremlin oil refinery only hours after Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk becomes the new undisputed World Champion.

Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) sources reported that its drones had struck the Kuschevskaya Refinery and multiple aircraft at military airfields in Russia’s Krasnodar region, with Russian officials later confirming that the refinery had been forced to shut down by the attack.

The SBU sources made reference to Saturday’s World Championship Title win by Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk saying, “drones staged fireworks in Russia in honor of the victory of Usyk: burning at the military airfield Kushchevskaya and the Slavic refinery.”

Russian social media says there has been almost 50 “abnormal munitions releases” by Russian aircraft over the Belgorod and Voronezh regions over the past 3 months.

According to the ASTRA Telegram channel Russian aviation has dropped more than 60 FAB aerial bombs and other unidentified munitions on Russian and occupied Ukrainian regions since the end of February, based on its review of local media and other sources. In May alone there have been more than 20 reported incidents.

The FAB series of general-purpose high explosive fragmentation aviation bombs were developed in the Soviet Union in the 1950s and modified to be more streamlined and set-up for carriage on fighter bomber’s external hard points in the 1960s. The FAB-500 contains around 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of explosive and the FAB-250 has 100 kilograms (220 pounds).

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

Ukraine accused Russia of potential war crimes Saturday, saying their shelling targeted civilians in residential areas of two cities in northeastern Ukraine. In the first case, a Russian airstrike wounded six people, including two teens and a child in the city of Kharkiv. In the second case, Russian shelling in Vovchansk, a town 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from the Russian border, killed a 60-year-old woman and injured three other civilians. A 59-year-man also was injured in the village of Ukrainske, they said. Thousands of civilians have been killed or injured since Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Moscow denies targeting civilians. Russia said its forces shot down a Ukrainian Tochka-U ballistic missile on Saturday. A similar missile launched last week on the Russian border town of Belgorod caused the collapse of an apartment building, killing at least 15 people. Fierce battles continue along the now-longer front line of Ukraine - RFE/RL

In an interview with AFP, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv needs more air defenses to hold the front line since Russia's surprise offensive in the Kharkiv region last week. "Today, we have about 25% of what we need to defend Ukraine. I'm talking about air defense," he said. Ukraine needs "120 to 130" F-16 fighter jets or other advanced aircraft to achieve air parity with Russia, he added. He said Ukrainian troops have managed to stop enemy forces that have moved 5 to 10 kilometers (3.1 to 6.2 miles) into Ukrainian territory along the northeastern border, but he cautioned that those troops could be the "first wave" in a wider Russian offensive. "I won't say it's a great success (for Russia), but we have to be sober and understand that they are going deeper into our territory," he said, speaking from Kyiv on Friday. Zelensky said the situation in the Kharkiv region has been controlled but not stabilized.

The Big Meet, Kyiv’s top networking organization, will host its next event at Lunca on May 24, with proceeds helping rescue animals at risk in combat zones.

This Friday, The Big Meet is hosting an evening of networking and connection at Lunca with proceeds going to the Nor Dog Animal Rescue project. Additionally, they are promoting their new partnership with Language Lab to help expatriates become proficient Ukrainian.

In preparation for the event, Kyiv Post met with The Big Meet’s Olga Kearly, the owner and organizer-in-chief, and discussed how the Nor Dog Animal Rescue project is working to rescue Ukraine’s furred and feathered residents at risk in the Kremlin’s ongoing invasion.

New video shows Ukrainian border guards destroying a Russian ammunition depot in Bakhmut sector while Ukrainian forces destroy 37 Shahed attack drones overnight.

Overnight drone wars had some victories for Ukraine as border guards destroy a Russian ammunition depot in the Bakhmut area while air defense forces shot down 37 Shahed drones.

UAVs of the Phoenix border guard unit destroyed a Russian ammunition storage and hit several positions and shelters of Russian forces in the occupied Bakhmut sector.

The 22nd Meeting of the Ramstein Group will be on May 20 with options to watch US Secretary of Defense Austin’s opening remarks by livestream.

The US Department of Defense said the next meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group will be held virtually on Monday, May 20.

That's according to the Pentagon's press service, Ukrinform reports.

Coming from a Lithuanian family that suffered under Soviet occupation, Nerijus Glezekas is writing songs inspired by the Ukrainians’ resistance to another invasion from Moscow.

“If only my voice would carry a bit more eminence, I could offer so much. I would use it to move mountains, as all known artists should use their status to make a difference,” says Nerijus Glezekas, singer and composer from Chicago.

With his weapon of choice – a guitar, during the years of ongoing terror in Ukraine – Nerijus tirelessly created encouraging content on his social media to raise awareness among his fans.

With an agenda that puts their influence exclusively at the service of ordinary people, Olena Zelenska and Tamara Vučić together symbolize the shared emotions of their respective nations.

Rigid political leaders and bureaucrats are not the only ones engaging in diplomacy and critical intergovernmental affairs, which can only be a good thing.

When Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba visited Belgrade in early May, he was part of a delegation with First Lady Olena Zelenska. I hope therefore he did not mind being in the background on this visit, despite being the first high-ranking Ukrainian official to visit Serbia since the start of Russia’s full-scale aggression.

Despite initial developmental challenges, Ukrainian technology has prevailed in delivering an efficient and distinguished UAV with a proven capability for striking high value enemy targets.

Ukrainian strikes already reach deep into Russian territory. Domestically made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have carried out dozens of successful missions, hitting Russian oil refineries and dumps, and thus inflicting serious damage to Russia’s economy. Gas and diesel price hikes have further add to Russia’s huge losses from the forced suspension of exports. According to Ukrainska Pravda, in 80 percent of attacks, Ukraine has used its long-range kamikaze drone “Liutiy”.

About the Liutiy

President Zelensky led a commemoration ceremony in Kyiv for the victims at the site of a new Memorial Monument and noted the plight of Crimean Tatars today in Crimea under Russian occupation.

On May 18, the 80th anniversary of the deportation from the Crimean Peninsula organized by the Soviet authorities was commemorated, the official website of President Volodymyr Zelensky reported.

The Ukrainian leader took part on Saturday in the unveiling of a memorial stone in Kyiv, which will be replaced by a Memorial to the Victims of the Crimean Tatar Genocide.

Putin says he wants to decrease corruption to increase military effectiveness but really is redirecting the proceeds to himself and his cronies while preferring endless – and profitable – war.

A dominant idea in the many comments about the government changes in Russia is that Putin wants to render the military more efficient by reducing corruption. But is that really the case? I would rather suggest that Putin wants to redistribute the rents from corruption to himself and his closest friends and reinforce competition among nepotistic elites. He has shown no interest in ending the war but seems to prefer eternal war. My main guides are Vladimir Milov and Meduza.

Vladimir Milov‘s analysis starts with Putin’s actual objectives. He is a kleptocrat and a dictator, having indicated no desire for any succession. He is not interested in reducing corruption, but he wants to steer its fruits to him and his cronies. Since 2004, Putin and his cronies Gennady Timchenko, Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, and Yuri Kovalchuk have lived on Gazprom money. My late friend Boris Nemtsov and Milov assessed that they embezzled a total of $60 Billion during the four years 2004-7, mainly through no-bid public procurement and asset stripping. Their revelation sank the Russian stock market in 2008.

Kurt Volker, former US ambassador to NATO and currently Distinguished Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), writes a personal appeal to his friends in Georgia.

My Dear Georgian Friends,

The world does not know you. Maybe you do not know yourselves.

Russia’s war against Ukraine symbolizes everything that can go wrong with a “multi-polar world,” a concept often used as a mask to shirk standing against what is self-evidently wrong.

Everyone feels a ripple of warmth for the word “multi” in politics. Without knowing what it qualifies, it implies that what is about to be served up is expansive and capacious in its scope, fundamentally democratic in its intentions, and inclusive in its structure.

We are accustomed to words that encourage this assumption: multifarious, multidimensional, multilateral, multitudinous, multiply, multinonsense (I made that last one up, but more on that later). So what’s the surprise? The very word is derived from the Latin multus meaning much or many.

Georgian President Zourabishvili on Saturday put a mostly symbolic veto on the "foreign influence" law that sparked protests and warnings from Brussels it would undermine Tbilisi’s European dreams.

Georgian President Salome Zourabishvili on Saturday (18 May) put a mostly symbolic veto on the “foreign influence” law that sparked unprecedented protests and warnings from Brussels that the measure would undermine Tbilisi’s European aspirations.

Ruling Georgian Dream party lawmakers voted through the legislation this week in defiance of protesters, who are worried the country is shifting away from a pro-Western course back toward Russia.

The Su-57 was supposed to be the Kremlin’s answer to true fifth-generation fighters like the US F-22 and the multi-national F-35, but Russia's stealthy super-fighter never really got off the ground.

Russian propaganda media praise the Su-57 aircraft, calling it the best fifth-generation fighter, which has no analogs in the world. However, observing their combat use in Ukraine, doubts arise about the correspondence of these statements to the true characteristics of the fighter.

The Su-57 was intended to be the successor to the MiG-29 and Su-27. The new aircraft was supposed to become a new stage in the development of Russian combat aviation and the first Russian fifth-generation fighter. Moscow planned to develop the project jointly with New Delhi, but in 2018 India withdrew from the agreement due to the non-compliance of the fighter’s characteristics and performance with fifth-generation aircraft standards.

President Zelensky, leading the war effort against Russia's full-scale invasion for over two years, posted on social media: “Ukrainians hit hard! And in the end, all our opponents will be defeated.”

Oleksandr Usyk beat Tyson Fury by split decision to win the world's first undisputed heavyweight championship in 25 years on Sunday, an unprecedented feat in boxing's four-belt era.

Britain's Fury was the early aggressor, but Usyk gradually took charge and the "Gypsy King" was saved by the bell in the ninth round before slumping to his first career defeat.

In Putin’s Russia, it is best not to assume a strategic rationality behind personnel appointments. But recent moves raise interesting questions about Kremlin power dynamics.

There are a number of more-or-less plausible explanations for the strange castling in the Russian leadership. However, as often with Kremlinology, these interpretations from the outside do not achieve complete clarification.

Some see the replacement of the former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu as a reaction to the Russian failure in the war against Ukraine. However, Shoigu's new post as secretary of Russia's Security Council, of which he was already a member as defense minister, is in some respects a promotion.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Russian forces have recently intensified their effort to seize the operationally significant town of Chasiv Yar, seeking to exploit how Russian offensive operations in northern Kharkiv Oblast and ongoing offensive operations throughout eastern Ukraine have generated greater theater-wide pressure on Ukrainian forces.
• Russian forces are likely preparing for the second phase of their offensive operation in northern Kharkiv Oblast, which Russian forces likely intend to launch following their anticipated seizure of Vovchansk.
• Zelensky also outlined materiel requirements for Ukraine to combat Russia's air superiority and defend against the Russian air threat, especially given US-imposed restraints on Ukraine that prohibit Ukraine from striking targets within Russian territory and airspace.
• Ukrainian officials have reportedly asked the US presidential administration to ease the restriction against using US-provided weapons to strike military targets in Russia.
• Zelensky noted that Ukraine must overcome its manpower challenges in order to contest the theater-wide initiative in Ukraine.
• Ukraine's new mobilization law went into effect on May 18 and will help Ukraine stabilize its force generation apparatus amid ongoing manpower constraints.
• Russian Security Council Deputy Chairperson Dmitry Medvedev called for Russia's envisioned "buffer zone" to encompass all of Ukraine, illustrating that the Kremlin’s concept of the buffer zone is a thinly veiled justification for Russia's long-held intent to subsume the entirety of Ukraine and likely an effort to garner domestic support for the Russian war effort.
• Founder of the Kremlin-linked Rybar Telegram channel, Mikhail Zvinchuk, gave an uncharacteristically public interview in which he criticized the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) and speculated on possible changes in the MoD.
• Should the Kremlin allow select prominent Russian milbloggers to increase their criticisms of the Russian MoD, public pressure may grow in favor of reforms that would, if implemented, assist Russia's war effort in Ukraine.
• Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili vetoed the Russian-style "foreign agents" bill on May 18, but the ruling Georgian Dream party will likely override Zurabishvili's veto in the coming weeks.
• Russian forces recently marginally advanced near Avdiivka, Hulyaipole, and Robotyne.
• The BBC News Russian Service reported on May 18 that Russian military authorities in Astana, Kazakhstan, detained a Russian contract service personnel (kontraktnik) for desertion on April 23 – the first such instance in Kazakhstan.