At least three people were killed and three injured after a Russian missile struck the Ukrainian port city of Odesa early on Wednesday, while one woman was killed and three people injured in Ukrainian shelling along the border in Russia’s Kursk region, according to the regional governor there.
At least one man was killed and nine injured in the northeastern city of Kharkiv after Russia struck a railway line with a guided bomb damaging nearby residential buildings in the latest attack on Ukraine’s second-biggest city. Ukraine’s railway company said the 24-year-old victim was one of its employees.
Moscow has accused Ukraine of attacking Crimea, which Russia invaded and annexed from Ukraine in 2014, using Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS). The Russian Ministry of Defense said six of the missiles were shot down, along with 10 drones and two guided bombs. It did not say where the weapons were brought down or whether there was any damage. Ukraine did not comment.
The spokesman for Ukraine’s border service told the Ukrinform news agency that about 30 Ukrainian men had died trying to cross Ukraine’s borders illegally in an attempt to avoid fighting in the war since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Under Ukrainian law, men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave the country as they may be mobilized to fight.
Ukrainian soldiers discovered Lidya Stepanovna, a 97-year-old Ukrainian woman, who said she had walked 10km (6 miles) under shelling to escape Ocheretyne in Donetsk, now occupied by Russia, and reach areas controlled by Kyiv. Stepanovna is now in a shelter for evacuees.
Ukraine Scores Massive Weapons Boost from NATO Nation
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine needed “a significant acceleration” in deliveries of weaponry from its partners, particularly the United States, to enable its troops to face advancing Russian forces along several sectors of the front line. Top Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskii has said the Russians are intent on seizing the town of Chasiv Yar to coincide with the commemoration on May 9 of the Soviet victory in World War II.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Washington had been encouraging countries with Patriot missile systems to donate them to Ukraine. He did not name the countries, but Spain, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden are among the European nations that have Patriots.
Ukraine has scored a massive weapons boost from NATO member Germany as part of a fresh tranche of military aid unveiled on Monday.
“Great news from our German friends! Thank you for your steadfast support!” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on social media, announcing that Kyiv’s military will receive more armored personnel carriers, anti-aircraft defenses, and ammunition for its ongoing fight against Russia.
Russian forces have advanced in parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region in recent months as Ukraine suffers shortages of ammunition and equipment. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been appealing to his Western allies to provide additional support, saying that his troops are being hindered by low supplies of shells.
As part of its latest military aid package, Germany has provided another 10 “Marder” armored personnel carriers, a second Skynex anti-aircraft system, nearly 30,000 rounds of ammunition for the “Gepard” anti-aircraft gun, ammunition for the Leopard 2 tank, missiles for the Iris-T system, and other supplies.
The development comes days after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Ukraine’s allies in Europe must continue to provide assistance following a recent $61-billion aid package approved by Washington after months of talks.
Scholz on April 24 described the U.S. military aid package as “an encouraging and necessary signal.”
Vladimir Putin parades captured US tanks and British armored vehicles from Ukraine war
An exhibition of Western military equipment captured from Kyiv forces during the fighting in Ukraine opened Wednesday in the Russian capital, Moscow.
The exhibit organized by the Russian Defense Ministry features more than 30 pieces of Western-made heavy equipment, including a U.S.-made M1 Abrams battle tank and a Bradley armored fighting vehicle, a Leopard 2 tank, a Marder armored infantry vehicle from Germany, and a French-made AMX-10RC armored vehicle.
The exhibition, which will remain open for a month at a World War II memorial venue in western Moscow, also displays firearms, military papers and other documents.
Russian authorities have criticized supplies of Western weapons and military equipment to Ukraine, casting them as evidence of NATO’s direct involvement in the fighting. At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly declared that Western military supplies to Kyiv wouldn’t change the course of the conflict or prevent Russia from achieving its goals.
The exhibition comes as Russian forces have grabbed more land in eastern Ukraine, taking advantage of delays in US military assistance to push back the under-gunned Kyiv forces.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has hailed the Moscow exhibition as a “brilliant idea.”
Compiled by Ana Dumbadze
