● On April 28, a multi-storey residential building in Uman was destroyed as a result of a Russian missile strike. At least 23 people (including 6 children) died.
● Russian troops struck residential areas in Mykolaiv (April 27) and Pavlograd (April 30). At least 1 civilian was killed and 48 people were injured as a result of these attacks.
● Russian troops continue to advance gradually in Bakhmut. Ukraine’s Armed Forces are holding the defense in the western part of the city.
● On April 29, a large-scale fire broke out at an oil storage facility on the territory of temporarily occupied Sevastopol. The destruction of fuel reserves complicates the supply of Russian troops in the southern direction.
● For the first time since the start of the full-scale invasion, Volodymyr Zelenskyi had a telephone conversation with the President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping.
● According to the SIPRI report, Ukraine’s military expenditures in 2022 reached $44 billion, an increase of 640% compared to 2021.
OPERATIONAL SITUATION
The Russian command continues its attacks in the eastern direction, concentrating its efforts in the area of Avdiivka and Bakhmut. Street battles continue in the latter city, as a result of which Russian troops are gradually advancing. Units of the Armed Forces currently hold the western part of Bakhmut.
Preparations are underway for the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces, which has been predicted for a long time. The Russian command is trying to reduce the offensive potential of Ukrainian units by intensifying attacks on rear infrastructure and civilian objects. On the night of April 27, as a result of a rocket attack on Mykolaiv, 1 person died, 23 civilians were injured. On the morning of April 28, the Russian strategic aviation launched a missile attack on the territory of Ukraine. Ukrainian air defense forces shot down 21 out of 23 launched missiles, as well as 2 drones. As a result of a rocket hitting a multi-story building in Uman (the Cherkasy region), at least 23 people were killed and 18 people were injured. Also, 2 civilians were killed and 3 people were injured in the Dnipro. 1 person was injured in the Kyiv region. Another missile strike was carried out on the territory of Ukraine on the night of May 1. Air defense forces shot down 15 of the 18 missiles involved in the attack.
Shelling the front-line and border regions of Ukraine by Russian troops continues. As a result, at least 6 civilians were killed and 32 people were injured in the Donetsk region last week. In the Kherson region, civilian casualties were 5 people were dead and 18 were wounded. In the Kharkiv region, 3 people were killed and 10 people were injured as a result of shelling; 1 more person died and 4 people were injured as a result of a mine explosion. The shelling of the territories of Sumy, Zaporizhzhia (where at least 1 person died) and Chernihiv (where 1 person died and 1 other person was injured) regions does not stop. Russian troops also shelled Dnipropetrovsk region. The city of Pavlograd and surrounding communities became a target for particularly powerful attack on the night of May 1. As a result, multi-story residential buildings were damaged in the city; according to preliminary data, 25 local residents (including 3 children) were injured.
The Ukrainian military strikes Russian military facilities in the temporarily occupied territories. On the morning of April 29, a large-scale fire (with an area of about 1,000 square meters) broke out at an oil depot in temporarily occupied Sevastopol. The occupation administration of the city claims that the fire was caused by an attack by Ukrainian UAVs.
Sabotage operations also continue. In particular, on April 27 in Melitopol, a representative of the pseudo-law enforcement structures created by the occupiers was liquidated.
HUMANITARIAN SITUATION, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS
On April 26, as a result of the exchange of Russian prisoners, 44 people were returned – 42 servicemen and 2 civilians.
According to the SIPRI report, Ukraine’s military spending in 2022 reached $44 billion, an increase of 640% compared to 2021. This was the largest one-year increase in the country’s military spending ever recorded in SIPRI data. Military expenditures of Ukraine in 2022 as a share of GDP amounted to 34%.
The Vice President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, announced the achievement of a political decision regarding the settlement of the situation surrounding the import of Ukrainian agricultural products to the EU, which escalated after the decision of five neighboring countries of Ukraine (Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) to limit it. The European Commission has promised to introduce exceptional protective measures and allocate funds to support affected farmers in the specified countries. Instead, the latter agreed to cancel the unilateral measures introduced to ban Ukrainian imports.
According to The New York Times, independent experts from the world’s leading universities evaluated last year’s Amnesty International report, in which Ukrainian servicemen are accused of violating the laws of war by “endangering” the civilian population. The expert assessment proved that the report of the organization was inaccurate and insufficiently substantiated, with a double interpretation regarding the responsibility of the Armed Forces for the safety of civilians as a result of the Russian attack on Ukraine.
FOREIGN POLICY AND INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT
International support for bringing Russia to justice for war crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine is increasing. In particular, on April 27, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recognized the deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to the territory of the Russian Federation as genocide and called on the International Criminal Court to consider the possibility of criminal prosecution for this crime. In turn, North Macedonia and Moldova joined the main group of countries working on the creation of the Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.
Pakistan is preparing to provide Ukraine with portable anti-aircraft missile complexes Anza Mark-II of its own production. The government of Slovenia delivered 20 Valuk armored personnel carriers to Ukraine. Italy transferred humanitarian aid to Ukraine in the form of energy equipment. Germany has confirmed the provision of the second IRIS-T anti-aircraft missile complex as part of another package of military aid. To strengthen Ukraine’s financial capabilities, the European Union allocated another tranche in the amount of 1.5 billion euros within the framework of the macro-financial assistance program for 18 billion euros. In addition, Ukraine received 1.25 billion US dollars from the United States of America through the Trust Fund of the World Bank as grant aid.
International partners continue to support the Ukrainian people in the fight against the hostile actions of the Russian Federation. This week, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, held talks with the President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, the President of the Slovak Republic, Zuzana Čaputová, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, and the National Security Adviser of the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Timothy Barrow, who were with a visit to Ukraine. In addition, the Presidents of Ukraine, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic signed a joint declaration of support for the European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine.
This week, for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the President of Ukraine held a telephone conversation with the President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping. The leaders discussed the implementation of the Ukrainian peace formula, strengthening the Ukrainian-Chinese partnership, as well as issues of nuclear and international security. China emphasized support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.
During the week, Volodymyr Zelenskyi also held telephone conversations with the President of the European Council Charles Michel, with the Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni and with the Director General of the IAEA Rafael Grossi.
The information in the newsletter 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.