In today's summary:
- In Bakhmut, the Wagnerites allegedly managed to get to the main entrance to the city, blocking one of the logistical routes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine;
- British intelligence reports Russian-equipped firing positions at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant;
- The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine calculated the number of Russian troops in the combat zone;
- Russian troops struck at Nikolaev: one person died and 23 were injured;
- In Melitopol, the deputy head of the local "Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs" was blown up, he died;
- It is likely that Russian kamikaze drones hit a Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft gun for the first time;
- According to Pentagon estimates, Ukraine received 98% of the weapons and military equipment promised by Western allies;
- There are serious reshuffles in the RF Ministry of Defense: the “Mariupol butcher” Mikhail Mizintsev leaves the post of Deputy Minister for Logistics;
- Moscow is preparing for a possible arrival of Ukrainian UAVs to the May 9 parade.
The situation at the front
The founder of PMC Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that he was ceasing fire in Bakhmut, as he was waiting for the arrival of American journalists.
“Information has been received that Cerberus, the commander of the 57th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, is taking American journalists to Bakhmut. A decision was made to suspend artillery fire so that American journalists could safely shoot Bakhmut and go home, ”the audio recording, which was published by the press service of Yevgeny Prigozhin, says. Later, Prigozhin called his statement a joke, "military humor."
According to the project "military correspondent" Semyon Pegov WarGonzo, Wagner PMC continues assault operations in the southern, western and northern regions of Bakhmut. The Wagnerites allegedly managed to get to the intersection of Tchaikovsky and Yubileinaya streets – this is the entrance to the city from both Ivanovsky and Khromovo. Thus, according to Pegov, one of the logistics routes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was blocked.
Z-channels report on the development of the situation in the Kherson direction. As stated, Ukrainian troops in small groups are actively moving on the islands in the Dnieper delta. At the current moment, the Armed Forces of Ukraine occupy the entire territory of the islands on the right bank of the Netrebka River (in fact, it can be designated as a front line).
The daily report of British military intelligence speaks of firing positions equipped by the Russian side directly on the roofs of the reactor halls of the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP). This is the first confirmation that the buildings where the reactors are located are used in organizing the defense of nuclear power plants. Russia is likely preparing these positions in anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Deployment of defensive positions at the ZNPP can lead to damage to the facility's security systems during combat operations. However, as noted by British military intelligence, it is unlikely that the reactors will receive catastrophic damage from infantry weapons, since the buildings in which they are located are very well fortified.
According to the estimates of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, there are 48 brigades, 122 regiments and 315 "formations" of Russian forces in the combat zone with a total number of 369 thousand people with 5.9 thousand heavy weapons.
Mutual shelling
Russian troops launched a missile attack on Nikolaev. Previously, four Kalibr missiles were fired at the city. It is known about one dead and 23 injured. Volodymyr Zelensky published a video with the consequences of the shelling of Mykolaiv. The mayor of the city Alexander Senkevich says that the people of Nikolaev do not remember such shelling since the New Year, and claims that there were no military facilities in the strike area.
Residents of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region reported explosions on the night of April 27th. In particular, the explosions were heard by residents of Pushkin and Pavlovsk. Later, a funnel six meters in diameter and 1.5 meters deep was discovered near the abandoned building of the thermal power plant in Pavlovsk. Also, the explosion damaged buildings on the territory of the equestrian club "Cowboy". The Investigative Committee of Russia announced the initiation of a criminal case on illegal trafficking in explosives. What exactly caused the detonation is unknown. The CCTV camera recorded the sound of the explosion. Fontanka subscribers report that this is a recording from a camera on a house in the Pudomyagsky settlement.
On the night of April 27, Ukrainian drones allegedly tried to attack the Kursk nuclear power plant in the city of Kurchatov. As writes Mash, Russian air defense worked, and an alarm went off across the territory of the Bryansk region. According to these data, the attack was carried out with the help of a UAV launched from the territory of the Sumy region of Ukraine. This information has not been confirmed. There were no casualties or damage.
In Melitopol, an employee of the local "Russian police" Alexander Mishchenko was blown up. The Telegram channel of the Investigative Committee of Russia reports that a criminal case has been opened on the fact of an attempt on the life of the deputy head of the Melitopol Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
An improvised explosive device exploded on April 27 at the entrance of one of the residential buildings on Kirov Street. Mishchenko died from his injuries. Another police officer was also injured, the report said.
Details of a new Ukrainian strike on an oil depot in the city of Rovenky, Luhansk region, have emerged . According to the "authorities" of the occupied "LPR", on the night of April 27, the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked the oil depot using seven Mugin-5 Pro drones, five of which were shot down, and two detonated on the territory of the oil depot. As a result of the shelling, administrative buildings and technical premises were damaged.
Russian “military correspondents” publish on Telegram a video with one of the drones that carried out the attack.
Z-channels report that in Donetsk, as a result of an explosion on a petal mine, 5 children were injured, one child lost a leg and is in serious condition. At the same time, it is noted that the children could have been injured not as a result of an anti-personnel mine, but as a result of a projectile being dropped from an unmanned aerial vehicle. An investigation is underway at the scene.
Losses
In pro-Russian Telegram channels, a video with the defeat of the combat vehicle of the Ukrainian air defense system "Tor" in the Kherson region is distributed by the Lancet kamikaze drone.
It is alsoreported that the Lancets destroyed four S-300 launchers and a Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft gun in the Kherson region. In confirmation of this information, a screen is published with, as stated, a freeze frame a few seconds before the kamikaze drone hit the Gepard.
A video about the “hunt” of Russian UAVs for Ukrainian air defenses also appeared on Telegram channels. You can see an anti-aircraft missile on it. When hit by the Lancet, detonation does not occur. It is likely that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are using faulty air defense systems, which can move, but not fire, near the front line as “false targets”.
Voenkor Oleksandr Sladkov publishes on his Telegram channel footage of the defeat of the Ukrainian radar station 36D6 by drones.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Telegram channels are publishing footage of what is claimed to be the destruction of a Russian launcher of the S-300PS anti-aircraft missile system as a result of Ukrainian artillery fire.
Armaments and military equipment
Ukraine has received almost all (98%) of the heavy equipment promised by the West, General Christopher Cavoli, commander-in-chief of US forces in Europe, said . Advisor to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak expressed doubts about this assessment.
According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the Western allies helped train and equip nine brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, transferring a total of 1,550 armored vehicles and 230 tanks.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal announced that Skynex air defense systems were put on combat duty.
In Ukraine, an underwater remote-controlled exploding apparatus (torpedo) "Toloka" was presented. Apparently, the device is being created in three versions, differing in size, with the largest having a length of 4 meters and very impressive dimensions. Management and guidance is carried out through instruments on a mast extended from the water. The declared range is from 400 to 1200 km for different versions. Naval Analyst H.I. Sutton calls the drone a "loitering torpedo" and notes that underwater movement makes it difficult to detect and destroy it, and hitting the underwater part of the target increases the chances of sinking it.
In addition, a video was published of the use of the 37th Separate Marine Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, presumably , by the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) high-precision missile system, which launches laser-guided Hydra 70 missiles. For the first time, the future delivery of such complexes to Ukraine was reported back in May last year .
Reshuffles in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
Z-channels report on reshuffles in the leadership of the RF Ministry of Defense.
Voenkor Alexander Sladkov writes about the dismissal of Mikhail Mizintsev from the post of Deputy Minister for Logistics, who is referred to in the Western press as the “Mariupol butcher”. Aleksey Kuzmenkov, deputy head of the Russian Guard, allegedly takes the place of Mizintsev.
Also, according to Sladkov, Stanislav Gadzhimagomedov, Deputy Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, has been appointed head of the National Defense Control Center instead of the recently appointed General Oleg Gorshenin.
The channels of the WarGonzo project and Anastasia Kashevarova protect Mizintsev. WarGonzo attributes the reshuffle to the fact that Vladimir Putin personally came to the front and the front line officers told him about the existing problems.
“Apparently, they told about some things as they are. Heads flew. But here again the traditional Russian question is whether they really demolish those responsible for the state of affairs or do it backwards, indiscriminately, just to keep their even higher chairs, ”the message says.
It also notes that Mizintsev “had by no means the best inheritance.” Namely, problems with the provision of military equipment and ammunition.
The well-known Z-channel “Voenkor Kotenok Z” claims that Mizintsev’s resignation is “the result of the active work of the commander of the Airborne Forces Teplinsky to check the combat readiness of our groups in the NVO.”
Moscow prepares for UAV attack at May 9 parade
The media publish, presumably, copies of documents outlining the procedure to follow if a UAV is detected during the parade on Red Square on May 9. In particular, an instruction for the operator of the Silok-01 radio suppression complex appeared on the network. Their authenticity has not yet been confirmed. In addition, the Caution, News Telegram channel announces the creation of duty groups of state employees who, among other things, will watch the sky in search of drones.
Recall that in early April, on the air of the Unified National Telethon, a Ukrainian businessman, one of the founders of the Ukrainian Monobank and the manufacturer of UAVs Dovbush T10, Volodymyr Yatsenko, promised to donate at least 20 million hryvnias (more than $500,000) to those who would land a drone on Red Square in Moscow May 9th.
“To avoid misunderstandings, there should be a Ukrainian slogan on the wings, for example, “Glory to Ukraine”, “Glory to the Heroes”, and so on,” Yatsenko said.
Since the fall of 2022, drone attacks on military and infrastructure facilities in Russia and drone crashes in various cities have been regularly reported. On April 25, it became known about three quadrocopters with cameras and without identification marks that fell in different parts of the Moscow region. One of them was found near the crash site of a Ukrainian drone, which was found on April 23 near Noginsk near the Zarya gardening partnership.
About the main events of the war on April 26 – in the previous report: “ Gazprom PMCs are in conflict with the Wagnerites, the Russian Aerospace Forces are changing tactics, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are counterattacking near Bakhmut. What's happening on the front lines ."