In today's summary:
- Yevgeny Prigozhin visits the rear camps where the Wagnerites are supposed to go from Bakhmut;
- The head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, does not believe that Ukraine will be able to return its territories militarily in the near future;
- In Dnipro, Russian rockets hit a hospital and a veterinary clinic, killing two people and injuring over 30;
- The shelling of the Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod regions continues;
- Denmark and the Netherlands will lead the European coalition to train Ukrainian pilots on the F-16;
- A video has surfaced showing a kamikaze maritime drone allegedly hitting the Russian warship Ivan Khurs;
- Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny, buried by Russian propaganda, showed up at a public event;
- The Russian military will be given 5,000 beds in civilian hospitals due to a lack of places in military medical institutions.
The situation at the front
Alexander Simonov, a “military commander” close to PMC Wagner, posted on his Telegram channel a video of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s visit to the “rear camps”, where mercenaries are allegedly being transferred from Bakhmut . During a walk around the camp, Prigozhin probably once again “pricked” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, alluding to “one military man” who “cuts wood”, but, in fact, does not fight so well.
In March 2021, Shoigushowed President Vladimir Putin his workshop "for making wood crafts."
In addition, he notes that Prigozhin calls one of the dugouts the “regimental headquarters” of the Wagner PMC. Based on the regular strength of a motorized rifle regiment in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, it turns out that the rear camp shown in the video can serve as a command and deployment center for about 2,000 Wagnerites.
The day before, the dam of the Karlovsky reservoir was hit in the territory controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the outskirts of Donetsk . As a result, the settlements of Galitsinovka , Zhelannoye-1 and Zhelannoye-2 were under the threat of flooding. The head of the Donetsk OVA, Pavel Kirilenko, recalled that the Russian army had been regularly shelling Karlovka since the beginning of the war. According to him, if the situation worsens, the evacuation of the civilian population will begin.
“Voyenkor” Roman Romanov notes that the dam was also of military importance, since one of the supply lines of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donetsk direction passed through it.
It should be noted that in April last year, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that Ukrainian forces had mined the dam of the Karlovsky reservoir , thereby endangering a territory with a population of 10,000 people.
The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCHS) of the US Armed Forces, Mark Milley, said that Ukraine's strategic goal of regaining all lost territories does not look militarily achievable in the short term. According to Milli, "bloody battles" will continue until, at some point, the parties return to the negotiating table. At the same time, the head of the OKNSh stressed that the United States continues to provide military assistance to Ukraine and supply the "most effective" air defense systems.
It is worth recalling that, according to Fox News sources , it is to Mark Milley that we owe the Kiev in 72 hours meme. According to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov, this mistake is explained by the fact that in the West they considered the coming conflict to be a clash between a “small Soviet army and a large Soviet army”, while in 8 years the Armed Forces of Ukraine have changed a lot. This year, Millie must leave his post (the heads of the OKNS serve for 4 years), US President Joe Biden has already nominated Air Force General Charles Brown to replace him.
Mutual shelling and sabotage
According to the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on the night of May 26, launches of 10 X-101 / X-555 cruise missiles, 7 anti-aircraft guided missiles for C-300 / C-400 systems, as well as 31 kamikaze drones of the family " Shahed" (aka "Geran"). Of these, the air defense forces of Ukraine shot down all cruise missiles and 23 Shaheda. Two reconnaissance drones, Orlan-10 and Merlin-VR, were also intercepted.
The Kiev city military administration reports that as a result of the fall of rocket fragments in the Obolonsky district , there was minor damage to the roof of one of the shopping and entertainment centers, as well as cars in one of the parking lots. In the Shevchenkovsky district, a fall of rocket fragments on a private house was recorded. There is no information about the victims.
In the Kharkiv region, a hit was recorded on a mini-refinery in Merefa .
The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine reports the arrival of a rocket on the buildings of a hospital and a veterinary clinic in the Dnieper . More than 30 people were injured on impact. According to the latest data, there are two dead. Damaged apartment buildings and cars.
At the same time, the well-known pro-Russian Telegram channel "Military Informant" openly writes about the strike "on the hospital with the Ukrainian military." And Komsomolskaya Pravda’s “military officer” Oleksandr Kots sets out a completely fantastic version – the Ukrainian air defense allegedly “redirected missiles flying to the Dnepropetrovsk Carriage Repair Plant <the Soviet name for Dnepr is The Insider>, where the military facility is located, to the city outpatient clinic on Obraztsova Street.”
For our part, we note that the presence of the military in a medical facility does not make it a legitimate military target, and, as far as we know, there are no ways to “redirect” flying missiles anywhere.
The Russian Defense Ministry reports that over the past 24 hours, air defense systems have intercepted the Grom-2 operational-tactical missile, ten HIMARS MLRS rockets, as well as two Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles.
A missile was intercepted in Morozovsk in the Rostov region (almost 300 kilometers from the nearest positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine). Governor Vasily Golubev wrote that the air defense shot down a missile near a military airfield.
In Berdyansk, occupied by Russian forces, there were several powerful explosions. An OSINTdefender analyst notes a strong fire near the Azovcable plant in the north-west of the city and cites information from the Ukrainian media that a Russian military base was located there. The fire after the “arrival” was included in the NASA FIRMS global fire map.
Probably, the strike was carried out with the help of the British Storm Shadow cruise missile, since Berdyansk is located more than 90 km from the front line, which means it is inaccessible to the HIMARS MLRS missiles at the disposal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Ukrainian city military administration believes that as a result of the hit, missiles for the S-300 air defense system were destroyed.
Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Russian administration of the Zaporozhye region , confirmed the attack, but, according to him (which, to put it mildly, is somewhat at odds with the footage of the consequences and the sounds of secondary detonations), the air defense system shot down all the missiles, the fall of fragments damaged several private houses, there were no casualties.
Two drones fell and exploded in Krasnodar . According to the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, Veniamin Kondratyev, the buildings were damaged, and there were no casualties.
Pro-Russian sources report shelling of the Voroshilovsky and Kalininsky districts of Donetsk .
In the Kalininsky district, the arrival came to the building of the research institute. The Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) of the “DPR” stated that six rockets from the MLRS were fired in this direction by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is reported that Russian air defense systems shot down one of the shells, "but there is no exact data yet."
The governor of the Bryansk region Alexander Bogomaz writes about the shelling of the village of Kurkovichi in the Starodubsky municipal district . He notes the absence of victims, damage to two households, as well as outbuildings.
The Telegram channel of the Governor of the Kursk region Roman Starovoit reports 20 arrivals in the village of Tetkino, Glushkovsky District . Power lines were damaged, houses on some streets were de-energized.
According to the governor of the Belgorod region Vyacheslav Gladkov, the Belgorod , Volokonovsky , Krasnoyaruzhsky districts , as well as the Graivoronsky and Shebekinsky districts, were shelled from mortars and artillery. Several drops of ammunition were also recorded using drones. There were no casualties as a result of the shelling.
The Economist writes about fixing 907 fires in the occupied territory of Ukraine over the past two weeks using satellite data. The publication suggests that the cause of most of them was the shelling of these territories. It is noted that this is twice as much as in the previous couple of weeks. The surge in the number of fires, according to the specified sample, began on May 11, coinciding with the start of the use of long-range Storm Shadow missiles by Ukraine.
Previous cases of an increase in the number of fires in the occupied territory were associated with the entry into service of the Armed Forces of the MLRS HIMARS and the start of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in September 2022. The authors conclude that now there is a "preparation of the battlefield" for a new Ukrainian counter-offensive (CNN sources previously reported the same).
Meanwhile, the "military correspondent" of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Alexander Sladkov shares the details of the raid of Russian military formations fighting on the side of Ukraine (the participation of the "Russian Volunteer Corps" and the "Legion of Freedom of Russia" is declared) on the territory of the Belgorod region . According to Sladkov, “Ukrainian saboteurs were fabulously lucky”: the mines intended for them burned down in a field fire, and the high-explosive charge laid on the route was not able to be blown up due to the “human factor”.
Losses
A video and photo appeared in several Russian sources of the entry of the ship of project 18280 "Ivan Khurs" into the bay of Sevastopol , including from the port side , where the kamikaze drone was heading from the video previously distributed by Ukrainian resources. There is no visible damage on the port side of the ship.
Meanwhile, Ukrayinska Pravda is publishing a video it received from its own source, which allegedly shows a naval drone striking a ship in the Black Sea .
The Telegram channel of the K2 combat group of the 54th separate mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine published a video of the destroyed modern Russian T-90M Proryv tank. The most modern Russian tank was, apparently, abandoned by the crew near the village of Spornoye in the Donetsk region . Apparently, it would be too dangerous to take him out as a trophy, so the Ukrainian military decided to destroy him from the air so that the Russians, in turn, could not evacuate him to the rear. The operation required "midnight", two sorties of a drone with a thermal imager and at least 7 ammunition.
The Russian military will receive 5,000 beds in civilian hospitals in 11 regions. As deputy head of the main military medical department of the Ministry of Defense Alexander Sergoventsev told the coordinating council of commissioners for human rights, civilian beds were needed because military hospitals were overcrowded.
Armaments and military equipment
Denmark and the Netherlands will lead a European coalition to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets. This was stated by the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin. He noted that colleagues from these countries will work with the United States and other allied countries in developing a training plan. At the same time, Bloomberg, citing two sources familiar with the situation, writes that the Netherlands is also likely to transfer its F-16s to Ukraine.
Canada will supply Ukraine with 43 AIM-9 Sidewinder aircraft missiles, according to the country's Ministry of Defense. It is noted that they will be supplied from the stocks of the Canadian army in order to "protect the skies of Ukraine from Russian attacks." Russian Z-channels suggest that these missiles will be launched from NASAMS ground-based air defense systems, since the Soviet Su-27 and MiG-29 aircraft in service with Ukraine are not equipped with the means to launch them.
The first footage appeared with the Slovenian Valuk armored personnel carriers handed over to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov tested the Ukrainian-made all-terrain vehicle "Bogun". He noted that two copies of this combat vehicle are already working at the front. In one of the modifications of the all-terrain vehicle, there is no cabin, which allows it to be used as a landing vehicle.
The Ukrainian Navy received a new artillery armored boat "Bucha". It was built as part of project 58155 Gyurza-M. The boat was launched in September 2021 and has been tested until now. It was previously assumed that boats of this model would sail in the Sea of Azov , however, in 2022, all the boats of project 58155 that were available at that time in this water area were captured by the Russians. Probably, "Bucha" will operate in the upper reaches of the Dnieper and remain part of the river forces of Ukraine.
It is worth noting that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny was present at the transfer ceremony to the Bucha fleet, whom Russian propaganda had already managed to bury several times, and then attributed to him a serious wound, resulting in an incapacitated state.
A video with an attempt to strike a Su-34 bomber at the Graivoron checkpoint in the Belgorod Region with the help of FAB-250Sh free-falling bombs is circulating on social networks.
The already mentioned Telegram channel “Military Informant” comments on this video in the following way:
It is painful to look at such footage: a modern front-line bomber flies at ultra-low altitude to drop high-explosive bombs, while exposing itself to small and medium-range air defense fire. Everything is like in World War II. The target, by the way, was not hit.
About the main events of the war on May 25 – in the previous report: “Bieber and Dolik remain in Bakhmut, nuclear weapons are being transported to Belarus. What is happening on the front line.