The situation as of 8:00 on May 5, 2022 (other languages version in PDF)
OPERATIONAL SITUATION
Russian troops continue their offensive in eastern Ukraine. There has been an increase in the number of missile strikes on Ukrainian transport infrastructure in order to complicate the logistics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and block delivery routes for foreign military aid. The vast majority of the strikes are directed at railroad facilities.
Kyiv and Zhytomyr directions:
On the evening of May 4, a fall of a missile shot down by an air defense system was recorded in the area of Brovary near Kyiv.
Chernihiv and Sumy directions:
Russian troops continue shelling the border areas of Chernihiv and Sumy regions from their territory.
Kharkiv and Luhansk directions:
Russian troops’ offensive in the Izium direction continues in the Kharkiv region. The shelling of Kharkiv continues. However, their intensity decreased significantly (to 2-3 attacks per day) due to the successful counteroffensive actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to the north of the city.
In the Luhansk region, Russian troops are concentrating their efforts on establishing control over the settlements of Rubizhne and Popasna. They continue shelling residential areas in the region.
Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia directions:
The Russian military in the north of the Donetsk region continues its offensive in the direction of Lyman and Sloviansk. In the south, shelling of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol continues. During May 3-4, there are attempts to storm the facility.
During May 2-4, 24 civilians were killed and 46 more were wounded in the Donetsk region. Avdiivka suffered the most casualties, where the Russian military struck a public transport stop near the coke plant on May 3. On the night of May 5, Russian troops launched a rocket attack on residential areas of Kramatorsk. At least 25 people were injured as a result.
In response to Russian shelling, the Armed Forces of Ukraine struck an oil depot located in temporarily occupied Makiivka (Donetsk region). The fire destroyed fuel supplies intended for Russian troops.
Fighting continues on the territory of Zaporizhzhia region. Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration reported shelling of residential buildings and civilian casualties near Huliaipole (near the administrative border with Donetsk region).
Dnipro direction:
Russian forces struck railroad infrastructure in central Ukraine. Several missiles hit infrastructure in Kirovohrad region. On the evening of May 4, missiles struck the city of Dnipro, an important transport hub through which supply routes for the Ukrainian Armed Forces in eastern Ukraine pass. Also, the shelling of settlements in Dnipropetrovsk region from MLRS continues.
Southern direction:
The shelling of Mykolaiv and missile strikes on the territory of the Odesa region are ongoing. On May 2, 1 child was killed in a strike on Odesa; another person was wounded. Also, the Russian army struck for the third time a strategically important bridge in Zatoka over the Dniester estuary, which is a road to Romania.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine continue strikes on the territory of the temporarily occupied Zmiinyi Island, using Bayraktar TB2 UAVs. On May 2, two Russian motorboats were destroyed near the island.
Western direction:
Russian troops have attacked electrical substations to complicate or disrupt rail traffic, cutting off the supply chains for military aid to Ukraine from Western partners. In particular, they carried out missile strikes and damaged 3 electric substations in Lviv on May 3; they struck a railroad substation in Volovets (Zakarpattia region).
Information confrontation
The Russian military is trying to establish monopoly control over communications systems in Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories. The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine reported that Ukrainian mobile operators did not work for several days as a result of hostilities in the Kherson region. It was not until May 3-4 that communication was restored.
The Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine informs that Russia is preparing so-called “celebratory events” on May 9 in occupied Mariupol. For this purpose, urgent street cleaning from rubble is being carried out in the city; propaganda filming with the participation of famous Russian journalists is under preparation.
HUMANITARIAN SITUATION
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recorded 6,635 civilian casualties (3,238 dead and 3,397 wounded) in Ukraine as of the beginning of the day on May 4, 2022. According to juvenile prosecutors, the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation affected more than 627 children: 220 of them were killed and 407 were wounded.
The Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories reported nine prisoner exchanges since the start of the war. As of May 2, 320 people had been released from Russian captivity, including 59 civilians (detained by the Russian military contrary to the Geneva Conventions in order to further exchange them for their military). For example, after 46 days of captivity, the secretary of Nova Kakhovka town council in the Kherson region, Dmitro Vasyliev, was released. At the same time, ombudsman Liudmyla Denisova reported new facts of torture and violations of the rights of Ukrainian prisoners of war by the Russian military.
The evacuation of Mariupol residents who are in storage facilities at the Azovstal plant has begun. On May 3, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk indicated that the first group of 156 evacuees, who had left the active combat zone two days earlier, had arrived in Zaporizhzhia. The next day, 344 more people were evacuated from Mariupol and surrounding settlements. There are still civilians and wounded in the zone of active hostilities.
The Associated Press cites updated information about the results of the March 16 bombing of the Mariupol Drama Theater by Russian troops. According to the investigation, about 600 people could have been killed in the attack. The investigation also refutes Russia’s claim that the theater served as a base for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, recalled that, according to the Council of Europe, at least 10 Ukrainian and international journalists have been killed since the start of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, with more injured.
Ombudsman Liudmyla Denisova noted that the Ombudsman’s hotline has already received appeals to search for 1,889 missing children. During a meeting with a delegation of the international non-governmental organization Save the Children, Denisova focused on the forced deportation of Ukrainian citizens to Russia. Russian official sources report that almost 1.1 million people, including almost 200,000 children, have been deported from Ukraine.
As a result of active hostilities, almost all territories controlled by the Ukrainian government in Luhansk region were left without gas supply. 42 settlements in the region were de-energized. Due to the destruction of pumping stations and collectors and the blackout of infrastructure facilities, there is no centralized water supply in major towns. Drinking water is being delivered by humanitarian headquarters and the State Emergency Service. In Kharkiv region more than 200 thousand houses in 250 settlements remain without electricity; there are about 90 thousand consumers in more than 70 settlements without gas supply. There are problems with water supply in Kharkiv itself.
The Ministry of Health revealed that as a result of Russian aggression in Ukraine, 400 health care institutions were damaged and another 40 were completely destroyed. The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources recorded 172 cases of ecocide in Ukraine due to the actions of the Russian military
ECONOMIC SITUATION
The press service of the Ministry of Finance reported on 2 May that Ukraine received 495 million euros of grant funds from the World Bank’s trust fund.
According to the head of the National Bank Kyrylo Shevchenko, the Ukrainian banking system remains highly liquid during the war. He explained that bank liquidity (balances on banks’ correspondent accounts and investments in certificates of deposit of the National Bank of Ukraine) has increased by 72 billion hryvnia since the war began, and currently stands at over 230 billion hryvnia.
Martin Frick, a representative of the UN World Food Program, stated that almost 4.5 million tons of grain are blocked at Ukrainian ports, which cannot be exported by sea due to the Russian blockade.
POLITICAL AND DIPLOMATIC EVENTS
More and more international leaders and high-ranking officials are coming to Kyiv to show their support for Ukraine. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Jeppe Kofod, the leader of the largest opposition party of Germany, the CDU, Friedrich Merz, and the Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament, Igor Grosu, paid official visits to the country. They visited the liberated cities of Kyiv region (Irpin and Bucha), and also met with representatives of the Ukrainian authorities.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi had a telephone conversation with Polish President Andrzej Duda, discussing further defense assistance to Ukraine and increasing sanctions on Russia. In talks with the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte and the Prime Minister of Israel Naftali Bennett, he touched upon the issue of prosecuting war criminals. The President of Ukraine also had a telephone conversation with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, during which the parties discussed the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol. In addition, Volodymyr Zelenskyi appealed to the parliaments of Denmark and Albania, urging them to increase sanctions on Russia, including closing ports for Russian ships and supporting the introduction of an oil embargo.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed Ukrainian MPs. He announced new arms deliveries (including armored vehicles and anti-ship missiles). In general, Great Britain announced its readiness to provide Ukraine with additional military aid worth $375 million.
The military support of Ukraine from the partners continues to expand. The German government has decided to hand over 7 PzH 2000 self-propelled artillery systems to Ukraine. On April 4, the Bulgarian Parliament voted to provide assistance to Ukraine, including the repair of Ukrainian military equipment at the country’s defense enterprises.
Sanctions measures against the Russian Federation are intensifying. The UK government imposed sanctions against 63 individuals and entities from the Russian Federation associated with major media organizations in Russia. The New Zealand government imposed additional restrictions against 170 members of Russia’s Federation Council, as well as six companies and organizations of the defense sector.
The EU is considering a total ban on oil imports from Russia until the end of 2022 and sanctions against suspected war criminals. Hungary remains the only member of the organization blocking the Russian oil embargo.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved 7172-1 bill in May. It provides for a ban on the activities of pro-Russian parties on the territory of the state. In addition, the deputies passed a resolution calling on the U.S. Congress to recognize Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, as well as a law on the legal mechanism of cooperation between Ukrainian government agencies and the International Criminal Court.
The information in the digest is collected from official sources — reports of state authorities of Ukraine, Ukrainian and international news agencies. The accuracy of the data is carefully checked by the project team and corrected in case of fake news.