In today's summary:
- There are no significant changes in the line of contact in Bakhmut;
- In Kyiv, they decided to restrict access to information about the preparation of a counteroffensive in order to avoid new leaks;
- The Russian authorities announced the attempt on the life of Vladimir Putin with the help of UAVs attacking the Kremlin;
- In total, at least six incidents with UAVs were recorded on the territory of Russia during the night and during the day on May 3;
- Russian kamikaze drone strikes on Ukraine;
- New US military aid package;
- Iranian shells were seen in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, fired, judging by the markings, in 2023;
- The EU promises to supply Ukraine with a million artillery shells within a year.
The situation at the front
The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) notes a slight advance of Russian military formations near Bakhmut and attacks in the area of the villages of Bogdanovka (located 6 km northwest of the city) and Aleksandro-Shultino (15 km southwest). At the same time, in Bakhmut itself, the Russians failed to push the APU.
A number of sources reported that Ukrainian forces advanced to a depth of 1.5 km in the Avdiivka direction.
Pro-Russian Telegram channels disseminate information about the preparation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for an operation in the unrecognized Transnistria, allegedly with the aim of seizing military depots in the village of Kolbasna. They write that the combat groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine may advance towards Tiraspol from May 9 to May 15 to “carry out an armed provocation”, while other formations will advance towards Kolbasna “to capture the ammunition depots located there.” It should be noted that information regularly disseminated in the media about the storage of significant volumes of usable ammunition there does not correspond to reality.
The Politico publication claims that the Ukrainian authorities have decided to restrict access to materials related to the preparation of the counteroffensive in order to reduce the risk of information leakage. According to one source of the publication, the leak of secret American intelligence documents, which, among other things, indicated the expected date for the start of active hostilities, made a negative impression on Kiev. However, a representative of the US Department of Defense, in a conversation with Politico, said that Ukraine and the United States exchange information at the same level as before.
Mutual shelling
On the night of May 3, two UAVs tried to attack the Moscow Kremlin. According to official data, the devices were disabled by electronic warfare systems.
The first kamikaze UAV was spotted over the Kremlin at 2:27 am Moscow time. It exploded over the Senate Palace, after which a fire broke out on its roof. The impact of the second drone was recorded at 2:43 am. Its fragments fell on the territory of the Kremlin.
The Russian authorities called the attack a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the President of Russia. It is stated that the Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit.
Representatives of the Ukrainian authorities declared that they were not involved in the incident in Moscow. Press Secretary of the President of Ukraine Serhiy Nikiforov said that Kiev has no information regarding the night attacks on the Kremlin, and stressed that Ukraine's goal is to liberate its territories. In turn, adviser to Vladimir Zelensky Mikhail Podolyak suggested that "Russia is preparing a large-scale terrorist act" to "justify attacks on the civilian population [of Ukraine]". He also stressed that drones "can be bought at any military store." Volodymyr Zelensky himself said that Ukraine "does not attack Putin or Moscow."
According to one version , the outlines of the UAVs caught on video resemble the Ukrainian PD-1 and PD-2. However, the visible physical parameters of the devices lead some pro-Russian experts to assume that they were launched from Russian territory.
On the night of May 3 and during the day, several more incidents with drone attacks occurred in Russia:
- In the Belgorod region, a Ukrainian drone dropped an explosive device on a construction site for protective structures. A 46-year-old man was shell-shocked as a result of the explosion;
- In the Bryansk region, a drone dropped an explosive device in the village of Ales – construction equipment was damaged;
- In the Bryansk region, near the village of Seshcha, two UAVs exploded on the territory of a military airfield. The 566th military transport regiment is located here, which is armed with Il-76 and An-124 aircraft. Of the five drones, two reportedly reached the airbase and exploded. As a result, the decommissioned An-124 was damaged;
- An aircraft-type UAV 40-45 cm long crashed in the Moscow region near Kolomna. A crater formed at the crash site, around which fragments of the drone were scattered;
- Finally, in the Temryuk district of the Krasnodar Territory, a drone hit one of the tanks at an oil depot located just 7 km from the Crimean bridge and 270 km from Ukrainian positions.
It is possible that the fire at the airport in Gostilitsy (Leningrad region) is also associated with sabotage activity. Also in the Leningrad region, during the inspection of the territory near power lines, six suspicious objects were found that could turn out to be explosive devices.
There was information that an ammunition depot was hit by a HIMARS strike southeast of Donetsk near the village of Mospino.
It should be noted that the Russian Ministry of Defense for the first time in its report reported the destruction of the American JDAM-ER high-precision bomb by air defense forces.
In turn, Russian forces attacked targets in the Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnepropetrovsk and Kirovograd regions with kamikaze drones. According to official figures, 21 out of 26 Shahed-type kamikaze drones were shot down. In addition, the Ukrainian Air Force reports the destruction of two Russian Lancet UAVs, one Merlin-VR and one operational-tactical drone. They also inform that the IRIS-T air defense division has hit 60 air targets since October 2022.
Drones flying to Kiev were shot down . Near the Dnieper, they managed to shoot down seven of the eight Shaheds, one drone hit the administrative building in the city. Three drones attacked an oil depot in the Kirovograd region. There were no wounded or dead as a result of the strike. Z-channels also report "arrival" in Konstantinovka, Donetsk region.
Also, the RF Armed Forces fired rockets at Zaporozhye. The private sector of the city was attacked. As a result, one house was completely destroyed, and two others were badly damaged.
Kherson and other settlements of the region were shelled. It is reported about 18 dead and more than 40 injured. It is noted that the Russian military is conducting "indiscriminate shelling of civilian infrastructure." Power engineers who were restoring power supply in the area of the settlements of Muzykovka and Stepanovka also came under fire. Three of them died.
Losses
Yevgeny Prigozhin continues to voice information about the daily losses of PMC Wagner during the assault on Bakhmut. According to him, according to the results of May 2, the Wagnerites advanced up to 160 meters, losing 103 people.
Armaments and military equipment
The United States will provide Ukraine with artillery ammunition and Hydra 70 missiles as part of a new $300 million military aid package.
A video appeared on social networks with one of the French CAESAR 155-mm self-propelled howitzers on the Tatra T815 (8×8) wheeled chassis handed over to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Initially, 19 howitzers were intended for Denmark, but the Danish government abandoned them in favor of Ukraine.
According to the Ukraine Weapons Tracker project, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have seen shells of Iranian origin marked for release in 2023. According to the authors of the project, the Iranian shells previously seen in the Armed Forces of Ukraine were produced in 2022. The pro-Russian Telegram channel “Military Informant” notes that “the constant appearance of more and more fresh stocks of shells from Iran produced in just recent months is difficult to explain only by the transfer of captured weapons from Iranian naval convoys to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
Against this background, the EU announces that it will supply Ukraine with a million artillery shells over the next 12 months.
About the main events of the war on May 2 – in the previous report: “Another undermining of the railway in the Russian Federation, Wagner PMC loses up to a hundred killed per 100 meters of advance in Bakhmut. What's going on at the front .