In today's summary:
- Yevgeny Prigozhin does not confirm reports of the complete capture of Bakhmut;
- Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar speaks about the fulfillment by the defense of Bakhmut of the "set tasks";
- Western allies agreed to transfer F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine;
- One of the Patriot air defense systems transferred to Ukraine likely shot down a Russian combat aircraft in the sky over the Bryansk region;
- Raid of Russian kamikaze drones on Ukrainian cities: Kyiv, Krivoy Rog and Lvov;
- Ukrainian drone raid on Crimea, all UAVs intercepted by air defense;
- Ukrainian military intelligence believes that the Russian military-industrial complex produces less than 70 long-range missiles per month;
- The Pentagon has inflated the cost of US military aid to Ukraine by $3 billion.
The situation at the front
The day before, numerous reports appeared in the Z-segment of social networks about the final capture of Bakhmut by Wagner PMC mercenaries.
Yevgeny Prigozhin had to make separate comments on this matter. “I officially inform everyone: Bakhmut has not yet been taken,” the voice message published by his press service says. According to Prigozhin, the quarter "Airplane" in the south-west of the city, which has not yet been captured, "is an impregnable fortress." He admits that it will not be possible to completely take Bakhmut "neither tomorrow nor the day after tomorrow" and calls on the "military correspondents" to remain silent in order to "finish the job."
Photos of the destroyed quarter "Airplane" dated May 19 are published by Russian Telegram channels. It is noted that they depict the area between the streets of Chaikovsky and Korsunsky , where heavy fighting is taking place, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the help of artillery, “are trying to slow down the advance of the Wagner PMC.”
Prigozhin's RIA FAN correspondent Oleksandr Yaremchuk posted a video showing Wagner PMC rocket artillery hitting Ukrainian positions in Bakhmut .
Ukrainian OSINT project DeepState publishes a new map of Bakhmut neighborhoods. According to the map, the Armed Forces of Ukraine drove the Russians out of the Stupki tract and advanced towards Kleshcheevka . But at the same time, Russian forces captured part of the positions near the Seversky Donets-Donbass canal , and mobilized from the "LNR" are deployed on the heights.
In the meantime, according to an open data researcher tweeting as NLwartracker, the Russians are actively mining roads from Soledar . This may indicate two things: either the Wagner PMC forces are going to leave the city and take “more advantageous positions”, or the Russian military is mining the retreat routes for the “Wagnerites”. It is noted that in the event of a retreat from Soledar , Russian forces will have to roll back to the fortifications built a few months ago west of Popasna on the border of Donetsk and Luhansk regions .
The commander of the ground forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexander Syrsky published a video showing the work of the 3rd separate assault brigade in the Bakhmut direction . According to him, the Ukrainian military managed to knock out the Russians from their positions and gain a foothold on advantageous lines.
Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar writes that Russian units in Bakhmut continue to attack "at the cost of huge losses", which significantly exceed the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. She notes that the defenders of the city are successfully fulfilling three tasks: destroying the enemy, reducing its offensive potential and gaining time to implement other plans of the Ukrainian military.
Malyar also spoke on Ukrainian television in a slightly different formulation. According to her, “in essence, the Armed Forces of Ukraine completed their military tasks” [emphasis ours – The Insider] in Bakhmut , which may be a veiled hint that the fighting in the city may end soon.
A new video from the long-suffering suburb of Donetsk Marinka , which is still being stormed by tankers of the Russian 150th motorized rifle division, has been published on the Telegram channel “Tankists of the Southern Military District”.
The Russian military hit the Avdiyivka coking plant, probably with the help of aircraft. Military correspondents and the Russian media hurried to announce the destruction of the command and observation posts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the ammunition depot for mortars of 82 and 120 mm caliber, as well as tank shots. At the same time, the former director of the plant, deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, Musa Magomedov, writes that the Russians got into the tar warehouse of the tar distillation shop, and attaches photographs of its burning.
The commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Sergei Naev, has published a video with the practice of landing a river assault. Pro-Russian resources assess the video as part of a psychological operation to "intimidate" the Russian side with the Ukrainian "offensive." Previously, many Russian military correspondents allowed at least limited operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the left bank of the Dnieper , occupied by Russian troops, in parallel with the offensive in other sectors, and also alarmistly covered the emergence of a Ukrainian "bridgehead" on the left bank in the Kherson region .
Mutual shelling and sabotage
At night, Russia again shelled Ukrainian cities. Kiev , Krivoy Rog and Lvov came under fire. The command of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine of Ukraine reported the downing of 16 kamikaze drones of the Shahed family (aka Geran) and six Caliber missiles by air defense systems.
In Kiev , all aerial targets were reportedly shot down. According to the head of the Kiev city military administration, Sergei Popko, the Russian military, by regularly attacking the capital, are trying to deplete the city's air defense. He promised that the enemy "will not wait for this." It is worth noting that Western-made complexes, in particular Patriot, NASAMS and IRIS-T, are involved in the air defense of Kiev , the issue of production and replenishment of ammunition for which is less acute than for Soviet air defense systems .
Several explosions sounded in Krivoy Rog at night. According to the head of the local military administration Alexander Vilkul, a total of 4 "hit" were recorded. Arrivals to the administrative building and a private enterprise were noted. As a result, workshops and equipment were destroyed. Two people were injured – a 45-year-old man, who received minor injuries, and a 64-year-old woman, who is now in serious condition.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyy spoke about the attack of drones on the critical infrastructure of the city. No harm done. In turn, the head of the military administration of the Lviv region, Maxim Kozitsky, announced the destruction of five drones of the Shahed family in the sky over the region and one more in another western region of Ukraine.
According to Deputy Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Vadym Skibitsky, the volume of production of new long-range missiles in Russia does not exceed 70 units per month:
Now the Russians are able to produce about 25 "Caliber" per month, X-101 – 35 units, "Daggers" – two units per month, ballistic missiles 9M723 "Iskander-M" – five units.
On the night of May 19 , in the north of Crimea, Russian air defense forces shot down four Ukrainian drones, said the "head" of the occupied Crimea , Sergei Aksyonov. There were no casualties and no damage. The SHOT Telegram channel wrote about the interception of an aircraft-type drone in the Dzhankoy region at 3:00 am.
Also in Crimea, a drone attacked a railroad near Dzhankoy , near Salt Lake station . The drone broke contact wires and fell near the railway track without damaging it. Train traffic has been temporarily suspended. It is reported about the work of explosives at the crash site of the drone, it is noted that it shattered into many fragments.
Later, the Rybar channel, affiliated with the Russian Ministry of Defense, wrote that Ukraine launched seven Mugin-5 drones in the northern part of Crimea from an “improvised airfield” in the Odessa region . All of them, according to Rybar's information, were planted or destroyed. UAVs are confirmed to have been shot down near the village of Salt Lake and four others near the Mamut station north of Dzhankoy . At the same time, where the remaining two drones have gone is not reported. The authors of the channel suggest that Ukraine is carrying out operations to disrupt logistics in the Kherson and Zaporozhye directions .
The governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, reported on the shelling of the border area, as a result of which the fence of the local electrical substation and power lines were damaged. The villages of Troitskoe , Gordeevka and Vnepnepnoe remain without electricity.
In the Belgorod region, air defense crews worked over the city of Shebekino . The regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote about the interception of a Ukrainian UAV. According to preliminary data, no victims. It was later reported that in Belgorod , a drone crashed into the window of an apartment building and fell to the ground.
Also in the Belgorod region in the village of Shatalovka, an explosion occurred , leaving behind a funnel 5 by 15 meters. There were no casualties, emergency services are on the scene. The cause of the explosion is not known.
According to Russian sources, an exhibit resembling a part of the Ukrainian R-360 Neptune anti-ship cruise missile has appeared in the 35th Coastal Battery Museum in Sevastopol. If this is true, then it is possible that the earlier reports of the interception of the Grom-2 OTRK missiles are actually related to an attempt to strike ground targets with the Neptune missile. It is worth noting that even before the start of a full-scale invasion, the director of the Ukrainian Luch design bureau (the developer of Neptune) said in an interview that the complex could indeed be finalized for strikes against ground targets. In turn, according to the Ukrainian operational command "South", the Russians last year fired at ground targets in Ukraine using their own Bastion anti-ship complex.
Losses
CNN, citing a source, writes that one of the American Patriot systems, transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, could shoot down one of the Russian combat aircraft last week – apparently, we are talking about an incident in the sky over the Bryansk region on May 13, when the Russian Aerospace Forces lost two helicopters Mi-8, Su-34 front-line bomber and Su-35 fighter.
In the well-known Telegram channel “KatyaValyaDNR” (engaged in volunteer assistance to Russian units in Ukraine), a remarkable video appeared with the evacuation of the wounded: instead of a stretcher, a door removed from its hinges is used, and a Kalashnikov assault rifle with a magazine is attached to the leg instead of a tire.
Earlier, the state agency RIA Novosti published , citing the head of the Training Center for Tactical Medicine (UTsTM) of the Kalashnikov concern, Artem Katulin, information that “in the SVO zone” “more than 30% of amputations were performed due to improper tourniquet application, more than 50 % of all deaths were not from life-threatening injuries. The publication "Important stories" cited the story of a Russian military paramedic participating in the war and who confirmed Katulin's information.
An open data researcher under the nickname Def Mon provides estimates of the affected units of military equipment and intercepted strike weapons declared by the Russian Ministry of Defense. According to these data, the Russians destroyed 8 M270 MLRS, 50 HIMARS, 188 M-777 howitzers, 2 GLSDB ammunition and 8 Storm Shadow missiles. At the same time, according to official information, 13 M270 units, 20 HIMARS units and 153 M-777 units were delivered to Ukraine. Thus, according to the researcher's calculations, the Russians overfulfilled the plan, "destroying" 120% of the supplied M777 howitzers and 250% of the HIMARS MLRS. It is possible that the reason lies not only in the likely falsification of data by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, but also in the successful use of decoys by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Ukrainian resources distribute photos of a company of Russian T-90 tanks. As stated, their location in the Donetsk region was reconnoitred with the help of the Poseidon UAV, and then they struck from the HIMARS MLRS.
A remarkable video of the defeat of a (apparently abandoned) Russian tractor MT-LB with grenades from a drone has been published on the Telegram channel of the control and artillery reconnaissance battery of the 110th separate mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As it turned out, MT-LB was transporting anti-tank mines, so the explosion turned out to be so powerful that the drone itself was lost, and from the device that arrived to replace it, the Ukrainians saw that there was literally no trace of the Russian car.
The Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksandr Reznikov said that the losses of the Russians in the Bakhmut direction are up to 70 thousand killed and wounded. He noted that near Bakhmut , the Russian Armed Forces are losing one battalion a day. Recall that in early May, the representative of the US National Security Council, John Kirby, reported that in just 2023, Russian forces lost 80,000 people, of which 20,000 were killed, and that half of these losses fall on the Wagner PMC, which mainly fights in Bakhmut .
Armaments and military equipment
The Washington Post wrote that the Biden administration is not going to block the transfer of F-16s to Ukrainians by European allies, as the US president told them at the G7 summit in Japan. At the same time, he ruled out the supply of fighters from America. This information is confirmed by CNN, noting that so far no such requests have been received from European partners in the United States. Also, the States are going to support the initiative to train Ukrainian pilots. Earlier, the Netherlands and Great Britain publicly announced the desire to create an “aircraft coalition” for Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later wrote that he welcomed "President Biden's historic decision to support an international fighter coalition." Also, there was information that the training of Ukrainian pilots will take place in Europe not only on the F-16, but also on other fourth-generation western fighters. American instructors will take part in them.
According to the post of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the UK will work with the US, the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium to provide aircraft to Ukraine. The NBC television channel reports that the question remains unresolved who, when and how many will transfer fighters.
Yahoo News publishes US Air Force data that came into the publication's possession, from which it follows that Ukrainian pilots can be trained to fly the F-16 in just four months. According to a document circulated among NATO allies, in February and early March, two Ukrainian pilots, one of whom had experience in flying the MiG-29, and the other with the Su-27, performed 9 virtual flights within 11.5 hours without “formal training”. on the F-16 simulator, which is located at the US National Guard base in Arizona . The conclusion notes that they were able to perform several "relatively technical" maneuvers in a simulated environment. These included landing the car in the conditions of ignition of one of the engines.
According to Reuters, the Pentagon overestimated the cost of military aid sent to Ukraine by about $3 billion. The fact is that the Pentagon considered the cost of equipment sent from warehouses based on the cost of its replacement, and not on the cost of the initial purchase of this equipment, taking into account depreciation . According to the source of the agency, after additional analysis, this figure may increase. Thus, the US administration "appeared" another $ 3 billion for further arms supplies to Ukraine, which will allow postponing a request for additional funds, which may be complicated due to the confrontation between the White House and the Republican majority in the House of Representatives around the US national debt ceiling.
Vesti showed a Russian remote mining machine. It is an armored personnel carrier-D, on which cluster blocks are installed for throwing anti-personnel and anti-tank mines.
Z-channels publish a photo of an Msta-S self-propelled howitzer with a torn barrel and the caption “f*ck happens.”
The Financial Times found that a Wagner-affiliated firm has bought 20,000 polymer combat helmets from a small Chinese company that employs 5 to 15 people. The Chinese claim to have sold equipment for "games", and it is not suitable for combat.
About the main events of the war on May 18 – in the previous report: “Ukrainians advanced to the legendary village of Sacco and Vanzetti, only 1% of Bakhmut remains under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. What is happening on the front line.