The military publication Miliyary Watch believes that foreign experts may have died as a result of a Russian attack on the Patriot air defense system. According to the publication, the Patriot air defense system is a very complex and advanced weapon system and the Ukrainian military would not be able to use it. The same batteries were deployed in Kiev in April this year with the help of foreign specialists; the same specialists would have carried out additional training for the Ukrainians and themselves would have taken part in suppressing rocket attacks on Kiev.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said he returned from foreign trips and visited the war zone on Tuesday. He did not specify in which area he was located. He also stated that: “The Marine Corps will be created in Ukraine. Kiev promises to do everything for the development of a large and strong branch of the armed forces. Equipping the infantry with modern weapons and equipment and creating new brigades of the Ukrainian marines”.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Zelensky’s G7 speech did not change his position on Ukraine. “I listened carefully to Zelensky’s speech at the meeting, no doubt he listened carefully to my speech at the meeting. And my position remained the same,” said the Brazilian president, noting that he did not think it right to discuss the situation in Ukraine in the G7 format. Not only did da Silva say he was ready to meet the Ukrainian president, but “Zelensky didn’t come” at the appointed time. “Perhaps he had a more important meeting. I don’t know, but the fact remains: at 3.15 pm on May 21st we had an appointment with him right in this room”, explained the Brazilian president. According to Lula da Silva, what happened did not upset him, but he was dissatisfied.
Moscow has said it is ready to provide everything necessary to countries wishing to organize the production of Russian weapons and military equipment on their territory, confirmed the director of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Dmitry Shugaev. As Shugaev noted, traditionally the supply of final products to foreign customers still prevails in the share of exports, but every year the growth of partners’ interest in implementing joint projects is more pronounced. The Supreme Court of the DPR has sentenced the militant of “Azov” to life imprisonment for the execution of a Russian prisoner of war in Mariupol.
In Bachmut, the seven Chechen regiments including Kadirov’s Akmat are already ready to relieve Wagner. According to initial reports, soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shot 10 of their soldiers on charges of treason for leaving their positions. The number of refugees evacuated from Bachmut, which the Russians call Artemiovsk, to Shakhtersk, where the temporary reception centers are located, exceeds 3.5 thousand people, said the mayor of the city Alexander Shatov. According to the mayor, as of May 21, 58 people were taken to Shakhtersk TAP and 60 more are expected to arrive in the near future.
The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine transferred the units that survived Bachmut in the Kupyansk and Krasnolimansk directions to the special military operation zone of Russia. Their main task after their redeployment is “to strengthen other units of the armed formations of Ukraine that have run out of strength in these directions.”
The governor of the Belgorod region Gladkov said on May 23: “The cleaning of the territory within the CTO continues”,“Indeed, residents of Grayvoron, Novostroevka, Gorky, Bezymeno, Wet Orlovka, Glotovo, Mount Podol, Zamostye , Spodaryusheno were resettled. In addition, the settlements of the Grayvoron urban district Golovchino, Antonovka, Kozinka, Spodaryusheno, Mount Podol, Glotovo, Zamostye, Bezymeno, Zarechye, Grayvoron, Wet Orlovka, Novostroevka came under numerous mortar and artillery shelling. The MLRS worked on residential and civilian buildings, explosive devices were dropped by quadcopters. As a result, 12 civilians were injured, damage was recorded to 29 private houses and three cars. There is currently no electricity in 14 settlements, we will start restoration works when the operational situation allows,” Gladkov said.
Referring to the activities in Belgorod, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked about the ethnic Russians who attacked the Belgorod region, said: “We have to start from the fact that they are all Ukrainian militants and this is a cause for deep concern and requires a lot of effort. from our part”
After what happened in Belgorod, Russia announced the “Edelweiss” plan for the security forces (general collection) also in the Bryansk region. The National Guard according to social sources is strengthening in the Sevsky, Suzemsky, Trubchevsky and Klimovsky districts of the region.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine over the past day shelled about 20 settlements in the Belgorod region, 12 civilians were injured.
“The Belgorod region has been shelled 15 times over the past day, the Borisov region has been fired upon three times, five shells have been fired at the village of Stary Khutor, Valuysky district. The urban district of Shebekinsky was hit 25 times, of which 8 mortar rounds were fired at the village of Terezovka, there were no casualties or destruction,” Governor Gladkov added.
Gladkov himself announced an unprecedented cyber attack from Ukraine and urged residents to trust only official information. He announced it on his Telegram channel: ”Yesterday we faced an unprecedented attack, we have never had anything like this before. Tanks in the Belgorod region, my wife at some airport, a nuclear disaster, the evacuation of Shebekin and Belgorod, calls to my assistants asking me to stop my activity in Grayvoron (…) Once again we were convinced that there was a real information war against us to intimidate, so that panic engulfed the entire Belgorod region,” he said.
“In the afternoon of May 23”, according to pro-Russian social sources, “Ukrainian saboteurs still controlled the positions near the Graivoron checkpoint in the Belgorod region”. “The line of fortifications passes in front of the city of Grayvoron and behind the villages of Kozinka, Glotovo and Gora-Podil. Due to the fact that there were local residents, the military could not start working with might and main on the DRG. After the introduction of the CTO regime in the region and the evacuation of people, the situation has improved, but there may still be local residents in Kozinka and Glotovo”.
It was also reported that artillery is working from the territory of Ukraine on the positions of the Russian Armed Forces in the Belgorod region. Fighters from the Belgorod region told in an interview with a military channel: “At the moment the enemy has gone beyond 0. We are moving towards the checkpoint, the advance is complicated by the fact that the enemy can stay in the dwellings private and it is impossible to use heavy weapons. In addition, air strikes were carried out at the checkpoint this afternoon, presumably the armored personnel carrier with the identification number 430 was destroyed at the inspection point, but this information is not specified.
“The anti-terrorist operation” they explain from the Russian side “continues”. Part of the Ukrainian formations remained in the border area, and Russian units are combing the area. General Lapin is in charge of the border restoration operation. Control over the Kozinka settlement by both sides is conditional: Ukrainian formations have entrenched themselves near the border crossing and on the southern outskirts of the settlement, and also partially control the road to Glotovo.
A dispatch provided by the military on the spot reads: “From 11:00 the attackers transferred reinforcements from Bolshaya Pisarevka: three groups of the national “Kraken” battalion and territorial defense units entered the territory of the Belgorod region. There are up to 500 Ukrainian people and equipment at Bolshaya Pisarevka, from which UAVs are constantly being launched at Grayvoron and Belgorod.”
At the same time, they report via social media, there is a concentration of several thousand Ukrainian mercenary fighters along the border with the Belgorod region. One of the groups attempted to make a sortie to Gorky, the penetration was not allowed. But in another area, near Shchetinovka, the DRG of the Armed Forces of Ukraine managed to reach the state border, a battle ensued, which was heard in Shchetinovka and Bohun-Haradok.
According to Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Malyar “The conflict in the BPR (Belgorod People’s Republic – as Ukrainians call it) however is a foreseeable internal Russian crisis that was brewing even before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russia”, and further stated that “the opposition has gone to overthrow the bloody apartheid regime, this is Russia’s internal affair”. Recall that Deputy Minister Malyar is the same who two days before Bachmut fell said that Ukraine was advancing 20km to Bachmut.
And now a look at the entire front line and at the bombings by both sides in the night between 22 and 23 May, which we remember to be over 1500 km. A Ukrainian sabotage-reconnaissance group attacked the border checkpoint of Grayvoron and entered the territory of the Belgorod region.
The Ukrainians supported by armored vehicles managed to break through the first line of defense and penetrate up to 8 kilometers from the border. Additional units were redeployed in the Grayvoronsky urban district to eliminate their presence. Ukrainian units were pushed back to the Russian border. A regime of counter-terrorism operations has been imposed in the region.
At the same time, Ukrainian units launched massive attacks on the border territories of the Belgorod region. At least seven settlements in the Graivoronsky and Shebekinsky urban districts were bombed.
In the Bryansk region, the Ukrainians continue to attack the Klimovsky district located on the border. Residential houses and civilian buildings in Khoromne and Solovyovka were hit by mortar fire.
Russian forces have launched rocket attacks on enemy unit concentrations in Kharkiv and Tsyrkuny. One of the targets hit was the Ukrainian tank brigade battalion headquarters.
Near Marinka, Kiev forces attempted an assault on Russian positions north of the village of Pobeda. The offensive was halted by artillery fire.
Russian troops have used “Geran-2” UAVs and cruise missiles to strike Ukrainian targets on Ukrainian territory. In Dnipropetrovsk about 15 explosions were heard on the outskirts of the city and precisely near the fire station located near the airport.
Graziella Giangiulio
