In today's summary:
- The American Institute for the Study of War notes that the Russians were in a vulnerable position in Bakhmut;
- There were visual confirmations that the Ukrainian military left the defensive lines directly in Bakhmut;
- Denis Pushilin is going to liberate New York (this is the name of a small Donbass village);
- The CTO regime has been canceled in the Belgorod region, the authorities declare the liquidation of the Ukrainian sabotage group;
- Nuclear security expert Pavel Podvig about the storage of tactical nuclear weapons near Grayvoron;
- The US said it "does not encourage" Ukrainian attacks on internationally recognized Russian territory;
- The first country to hand over F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv could be the Netherlands;
- The US accuses PMC Wagner of trying to organize a channel for the supply of weapons and equipment through Mali.
The situation at the front
Experts assess the situation in Bakhmut after the completion of the active phase of the assault on the city by Russian troops. The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) writes that the Russians are now in a vulnerable position, since their offensive potential has obviously been exhausted, and the announced withdrawal of Wagner PMC units to the rear will create favorable conditions for Ukrainian counterattacks.
The Russian Ministry of Defense, if the Wagnerites leave, may have to cover this sector with poorly trained and poorly equipped military units – the same as those that previously retreated on the flanks to the north and south of the city.
At the same time, this danger is largely ignored in the Russian information space, writes ISW. Russian propaganda and "military correspondents" almost do not talk about this, but only write about the celebration of the victory and the awarding of soldiers.
The New York Times publishes video footage of Bakhmut , taken from a drone a few days ago, showing burned and destroyed buildings.
The video from Bakhmut was published by the head of the "DPR" Denis Pushilin. He stated that the city, after coming under Russian control, would bear the Soviet name Artyomovsk . In addition, Pushilin said that the New York settlement in the Bakhmut district would be renamed Novgorodskoye. “We have yet to liberate New York , it will also cease to be New York ,” Pushilin promised.
It is worth noting that New York is the historical name of the village, which survived until the start of the Cold War and was returned in 2021 thanks to a campaign of local activists. Pushilin also notes that the “historical” names as of May 11, 2014 (the date of the declaration of the “independence” of the republic) are returning to the settlements of the “DNR”, that is, Soledar is unlikely to be called Karl-Libknekhtovsky – the cumbersome name was got rid of back in 1991 before the declaration of independence of Ukraine.
In addition, the Telegram channel, affiliated with the RIA FAN agency (part of the structures of Yevgeny Prigozhin), published footage from Bakhmut taken near the former monument to the MiG-17 aircraft, the last district of the city that remained under the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to the correspondent, he did not find Ukrainian soldiers there.
Mutual shelling and sabotage
As of the morning of May 23, according to the governor of the Belgorod region Vyacheslav Gladkov, the “cleansing of the territory” of the Graivoronsky district continued, where the Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group entered the day before (declared as units of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) fighting on the Ukrainian side and "Legion Freedom of Russia" (LSR)). By the middle of the day, the “cleansing operation” had obviously ended, and accordingly, Gladkov announced the abolition of the counter-terrorist operation (CTO) regime.
The Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case under articles on “terrorist act”, “encroachment on the life of law enforcement officers”, “attempted murder”, “deliberate destruction of property” and “illicit trafficking in weapons and explosives”. The message of the Investigative Committee says that residential and administrative buildings, as well as civilian infrastructure facilities, were subjected to mortar and artillery shelling, several civilians were injured.
The Telegram channel of the Cheka-OGPU publishes a list of the wounded in the Belgorod region as of yesterday evening:
Military:
Sergei B. born in 1995 military unit 3526, penetrating wounds in the abdomen, chest, arm
Andrey E. born in 1981 military unit 25594, shrapnel wound to the temple, neck, head, forearm
Alan K. born 2001 w/h?, injury
Kirill A. born in 2002 w/h?, injury
Aslan K. born in 2003 v/h?, SGM, CTBI, amnesia
Zaur O. born in 2002 w/h?, injury
Anatoly Sh. born in 1992 military unit 25623, shrapnel wounds of the abdominal wall and forearm
Ivan F. born in 2004 in / h, shrapnel wound to the temple, fracture of the jaw.
Civilian:
Alesya Sh., born in 1988, gunshot wounds to the abdomen and thigh
Zoya K., born in 1950, shrapnel wounds to the thigh, abdomen, forearm
Galina D. born in 1970, gunshot wound to the neck
Nikolai V., born in 1966, shrapnel wound to the shoulder
Konstantin K. born in 1963, shrapnel wounds to the thigh and abdomen
Nikolai S., born in 1966, shrapnel wound to the arm
Vitaly P. born in 1973 shrapnel wound of the leg
Anatoly B. born in 1975 shrapnel wounds to the abdomen, buttocks and thighs.
The Institute for the Study of War publishes a map and describes the route of the sabotage group: it crossed the border in the Kozinki area in the Graivoronsky district of the Belgorod region .
Russian sources claimed that the group then captured the settlements of Glotovo and Gora-Podil (3 km and 5 km from the border, respectively), but ISW analysts found no location-based confirmation that the RDK or LSR actually reached these settlements.
Geolocation footage released on May 22 does indeed confirm that RDK fighters hit a border post near Kozinka before crossing the border.
Z-channels estimate the size of the group that broke through the border as one combined motorized infantry battalion (which is rather doubtful, given that the footage from the territory of the Belgorod region shows no more than 10 pieces of equipment, which rather corresponds to a company) with a tank platoon attached to it (although, judging by everything, the tanks took part only in the assault on the border post and did not proceed to the territory of Russia). The Russian Defense Ministry stated that the Ukrainian saboteurs were "surrounded and routed". According to the agency, the remnants of the DRG were thrown back from the Belgorod region to the territory of Ukraine, and "more than 70 terrorists, 4 infantry fighting vehicles and 5 pickups" were destroyed.
The Ministry of Defense also published a video with strikes on the Ukrainian DRG.
According to the Fighterbomber Telegram channel associated with the Russian Aerospace Forces, army and operational-tactical aviation worked from the Russian side, and the participants of the DRG had MANPADS and Avenger air defense systems at their disposal. In addition, the author of the channel hints that one Russian plane was lost in the Belgorod region, but does not give details.
Among the confirmations of the losses of the Ukrainian side is a photo of an abandoned International MaxxPro armored car, as well as several grenade launchers and small arms .
Financial Times correspondent Christopher Miller notes that he spoke to the head of operations, and he was in a "pretty good mood", which would be strange if he had just lost 70 subordinates.
The Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, published a video from the site of the "liquidation of the Ukrainian DRG" in the Belgorod region . The footage, published by the agency-controlled Zvezda TV channel, shows damaged military equipment, as well as a burned-out pickup truck with the words “For Bakhmut” written on it. In turn, the "military correspondent" of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Yevgeny Poddubny posted on the Telegram channel a video with the bodies of allegedly destroyed fighters from the Ukrainian DRG. It is worth noting that these frames show much less than 70 bodies.
The report of the Russian Defense Ministry says nothing about the losses on the Russian side. Some Z-channels write about the dead and wounded from the territorial defense units. This is also reported by the sources of the "military correspondent" of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Alexander Sladkov.
Also, the Ukrainians could have captured one BTR-82A and one BTR-80 and at least one prisoner ( according to the Two Majors Telegram channel, one of the conscripts of the Russian Armed Forces who was at the border checkpoint was captured).
During the day, there were reports of attempts at new breakthroughs from the Ukrainian border in the area of the settlements of Shchetinovka and Bohun-Gorodok. Belgorod Governor Gladkov denies this information.
If the purpose of the breakthrough was to divert Russian forces from other sectors, then it may have been accomplished. Source of Novaya Gazeta. Europe" in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation reported that after the "invasion of the sabotage and reconnaissance group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine" the forces of motorized rifles (about 3,200 fighters and 20 pieces of equipment) and army special forces (about 1 thousand people and 40 pieces of equipment) were pulled into the region. Employees of the TsSN FSB were also sent to the region.
As we wrote in previous reports, not far from Grayvoron there is an "Object 1150" (aka "Belgorod-22") on the territory of military unit 25624, which is under the jurisdiction of the 12th Main Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, responsible, among other things, for storing tactical nuclear munitions. The Rybar Telegram channel claims that nuclear weapons have not been there for a long time, however, Andrey Yusov, a representative of the Ukrainian military intelligence, stated that the Russians urgently removed nuclear charges.
Pavel Podvig, an expert on nuclear security at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Studies, writes that he is skeptical about reports of the transfer of weapons, since it would be a conspicuous operation that would be noticed by Western intelligence agencies monitoring Russian nuclear weapons – it should involve a convoy of trucks with security, etc.
Podvig notes that Belgorod-22 is a so-called “national-level” storage facility, which is located at some distance from the “base-level” storage facilities serving operational units. It has six large bunkers, so at least a dozen pieces of special ammunition can be stored there.
But it is not known for certain whether it is there or not, although the local security unit conducted exercises at least in November 2022.
The question is widely discussed why the Ukrainian DRG was able to break through the state border and the defense lines built there so easily. The well-known pro-Russian Telegram channel “Older than Edda” offers the following explanation:
“Here, many began to mock Governor Gladkov and ask, where is the actual line of defense, on which they spent so much money? There is a line of defense, everyone who has been to the border has seen it, the only thing is that the crest drove along the high road, and not through the fields, and the road, of course, is not dug up or mined, on the road the enemy is fired and shot from tanks, artillery , small arms, at least in theory."
Another well-known pro-Russian Telegram channel “ZAPISKI VETERAN” expresses several serious claims at once to Russian responsible persons:
1. Why were the enemy's attack plans not revealed at the initial stage of the preparation of the operation?
2. Why weren't they opened and worked out to prevent the movement of the enemy on the way to the state border?
3. Why did the border guards and the military have to leave the first line of defense?
4. Why are civilians still living in settlements that are 1 kilometer from the border (in fact, the front line), because of which artillery and aviation could not inflict fire damage on the enemy?
5. Why are people who want to defend their land still not armed and are in sham "terodefense", and not in the extermination squads of the people's militia?
Meanwhile, the United States has made it very clear to Kiev that it does not encourage attacks outside Ukrainian borders, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said , commenting on the situation in the Belgorod region :
“We made it clear to Ukrainians that we do not support or encourage attacks on territory outside of Ukraine. But I think it’s important to remind everyone that, of course, it was Russia that started this war.”
Miller recalled that it is Russia that continues to attack civilians in Ukraine, shelling schools, hospitals and civilian infrastructure. “Therefore, it is Ukraine that should decide how it wants to conduct its military operations. But it is Russia that is the aggressor in this war,” he added.
On the night of May 23 in Belgorod , according to preliminary information, objects of law enforcement agencies of the region were attacked with the help of UAVs: regional departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB. This is reported in the Telegram channels.
The channel "Belgorod Molniya" said that an explosion sounded and a column of smoke appeared. Preobrazhenskaya Street, where the regional branch of the FSB is located, was blocked. According to Sota, the explosion took place in the building of the FSB headquarters. In the Telegram channels of the Cheka-OGPU and Rybar, they claim that the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was attacked from a drone.
In the neighboring Bryansk region, on the morning of May 23, a general meeting of security officials was announced – the Edelweiss plan. As Mash wrote , the Russian Guard will switch to an enhanced mode of service in the Sevsky , Suzemsky , Trubchevsky and Klimovsky districts of the region. The Klimovsky district was shelled twice on May 22, Governor Alexander Bogomaz reported . A village in the Starodubsky district of the region came under shelling.
A strong fire broke out in the village of Dyatkovo, Bryansk region , the Shot Telegram channel reported , publishing a photo. Puffs of black smoke were visible several kilometers from the fire. According to preliminary information, a warehouse on the territory of a former factory was on fire.
In the Kursk region, shelling of the village of Gordeevka in the Korenevsky district is reported . There were no casualties among civilians, but the power line was damaged. In Gordeevka , as well as the neighboring villages of Viktorovka and Troitskoye , about 400 people were left without power.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian General Staff reported that air defense forces shot down four kamikaze drones of the Shahed family (aka Geran) launched across Ukraine. Later, the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on the shooting down on the night of May 23 of six Shahids and four Merlin-VR reconnaissance drones.
Losses
Russian sources diverge in the record of the strike by the Lancet kamikaze drone on the 5P85S launcher of the Ukrainian S-300PS air defense system, surrounded by masts with a grid.
It is noted that the hit was exactly in the container with the equipment for preparing and launching the rocket, which is guaranteed to disable not only this launcher, but also other 5P85D launchers connected to this container.
Armaments and military equipment
The United States will begin training Ukrainian pilots on the F-16 and will work with allies to transfer fighters to Ukraine, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. The first country to hand over the F-16 to Kiev may be the Netherlands, writes Politico. High-ranking officials in the EU do not rule out that the Ukrainian military will be able to receive aircraft by this autumn.
According to TASS, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said that the training of Ukrainian pilots on American F-16 fighters has already started in several countries.
This information was denied by the speaker of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Yuriy Ignat. According to him, the preparation process is underway, but the training has not yet begun. “There are advanced groups that have left for countries that can provide us with sites for exercises. It is being studied how this process will go. There are no pilots themselves, as such, in these countries yet, ”Ignat said on the air of the telethon.
In addition, Borrell said that the EU countries, as part of the plan agreed in March, have already supplied Ukraine with 220,000 artillery shells and 1,300 missiles. He did not specify the calibers and types of these ammunition.
In Germany, a train with Swedish Strf 9040C infantry fighting vehicles and Bgbv 90 ARVs was seen moving towards the Czech Republic. It is assumed that the equipment is intended for Ukraine.
The US State Department believes that the Wagner PMC is trying to organize the purchase of weapons and their delivery through Mali for use during the war against Ukraine. According to Reuters, a spokesman for the department, Matthew Miller, said at a briefing that the United States has information that mercenaries tried to purchase weapons from a third country and smuggle them through Mali, but so far there is no evidence that these purchases were made.
About the main events of the war on May 22 – in the previous report: “ The fall of Bakhmut, the Ukrainian DRG entered the Belgorod region. What is happening on the front line.