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Monday, 1 May 2023:
Russian Invasion of Ukraine: U.S. says Russia has suffered 100,000 casualties since December, The Washington Post, Rachel Pannett, Annabelle Timsit, and Adam Taylor, Monday, 1 May 2023: “The United States estimates Russia has suffered 100,000 casualties since December, including more than 20,000 killed in action, the National Security Council said Monday. Roughly half of those killed, NSC spokesman John Kirby said, were working with the Wagner mercenary group, often ex-convicts who had been recruited from prison. The figures were first shared by Kirby on a call with reporters Monday; NSC deputy spokesman Sean Savett said later that the casualty count referred to Russia’s losses across Ukraine since December. The numbers are based on ‘some information and intelligence that we were able to corroborate over a period of some time,’ Kirby said. He declined to discuss Ukrainian casualties. ‘That’s up to them to speak to,’ he said. Russia targeted Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with a ‘massive’ wave of missiles overnight, Ukrainian officials said. The assault on the capital lasted several hours early Monday, but no casualties were reported, as local authorities said air defenses worked to intercept most of the missiles. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that it carried out strikes against facilities that produce ammunition and weapons for Ukrainian troops. Ukraine said residential areas were hit. The attack followed a weekend drone strike by Ukrainian forces on an oil depot in Russian-occupied Crimea, as Ukraine prepares for an anticipated counteroffensive.
- Russian strategic bombers launched 18 Kh-101 and Kh-555 cruise missiles against Ukraine’s territory in an attack that began around 2:30 a.m. Monday, according to the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny. Zaluzhny said the attacks were launched from the Caspian Sea and from the Murmansk region in northwestern Russia. He said that 15 of the missiles were destroyed.
- Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the strikes, saying in a statement Monday that its armed forces ‘carried out a group missile strike with long-range airborne and sea-based high-precision weapons against the facilities of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex.’
- The U.S. ambassador to Ukraine criticized the overnight attack. Bridget A. Brink tweeted, ‘Russia again launched missiles in the deep of night at Ukrainian cities where civilians, including children, should be able to sleep safely and peacefully.’
- An explosion Monday morning caused a freight train to derail in Bryansk in western Russia, the regional governor said. Alexander Bogomaz said that an ‘unidentified explosive device’ went off around the train tracks near Russia’s border with Ukraine and Belarus. He did not specify who might be responsible. State-owned operator Russian Railways said that ‘unauthorized persons’ illegally interfered with the railway’s operations. The Washington Post couldn’t independently verify the claims.
- A power line was blown up in Russia’s Leningrad region early Monday near the border with Estonia and Finland, regional governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said. According to Drozdenko, the power line in the Gatchinskiy district blew up shortly after midnight, and an unidentified object, ‘presumably an explosive device,’ was found on a second power line. He said emergency crews and government investigators were at the scene.
- At least 34 people, including five children, were injured in overnight missile strikes against Pavlohrad in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, regional governor Serhii Lysak said. The strikes caused ‘significant damage’ to the energy network infrastructure in Dnipropetrovsk and the Kherson region, leaving thousands of households without power, Ukraine’s energy minister said.
- Ukrainian officials said the attack on an oil depot in Sevastopol was part of the buildup to Kyiv’s counteroffensive. Natalia Humeniuk, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern command, told local television that undermining Russia’s logistics helps prepare for the ‘broad full-scale offensive that everyone expects.’ Saturday’s strike in Sevastopol, which is home to the Russian navy’s Black Sea Fleet, destroyed more than 10 tanks holding some 40,000 tons of oil products intended for the fleet, according to Ukrainian officials.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a ‘meaningful conversation’ with French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, Zelensky’s office said. The leaders discussed French military aid to Ukraine and the upcoming NATO summit in Lithuania, according to a Ukrainian readout of the call. Zelensky has expressed hope that NATO members will agree at the summit to formally invite Ukraine to become a member of the alliance. But leaders of the alliance have avoided giving Kyiv any guarantees on its membership prospects.
- Pope Francis said the Vatican is involved in a secret peace mission. ‘I think peace is always made by opening up channels; it can never be accomplished by closing [doors]. I’m always urging [everyone] to have new rapports, friendly connections,’ the pope told reporters on a weekend flight back from a three-day trip to Hungary, according to Italian news agency ANSA.
- President Biden said he is ‘working like hell’ to bring home Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. At the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday night, Biden promised Gershkovich’s family, present in the audience, to work to secure the journalist’s release from prison in Moscow, where the State Department says he is being wrongfully detained on espionage charges. ‘Evan went to report in Russia to shed light on the darkness that you all escaped from years ago. Absolute courage,’ Biden said. ‘We all stand with you.’
Russian Invasion of Ukraine: White House Sets Russian Troop Losses at 100,000 Over Last 5 Months. Of the Russia soldiers no longer on the battlefield, 20,000 were killed, according to John Kirby, a White House spokesman. Half of them were Wagner mercenaries. The New York Times, Monday, 1 May 2023:
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The U.S. estimates more than 100,000 Russian casualties in recent months.
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Both sides report attacks before an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive.
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McCarthy, the House’s top Republican, publicly pledges continued support for Ukraine.
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An explosion derails a freight train in a Russian border area, according to a local governor.
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In the midst of war, a half-marathon brightens Kyiv.
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Battlefield Update: Russia and Ukraine each claim gains in Bakhmut.
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Ukraine’s human rights chief tells civilians in occupied areas to get Russian passports ‘to survive.’
Russian Invasion of Ukraine: May Day is another war day as Russia strikes Ukrainian cities, NPR, NPR Staff, Monday, 1 May 2023: Here’s a look ahead and a roundup of key developments from the past week. What to watch: As much of the world marks the May 1 Workers’ Day holiday, Ukraine tried to fend off a new barrage of Russian strikes in the 14-month-long war. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization launches its Global Report on Food Crises on Wednesday. Last year it predicted the war in Ukraine would exacerbate already severe food insecurity in different countries. Moscow is preparing for a military parade dress rehearsal for Russia’s Victory Day celebration of defeating Nazi forces in 1945. What happened last week: Chinese leader Xi Jinping called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in their first known contact since the Russian invasion last year. Zelenskyy appointed an ambassador to China. And China said it would send a special envoy to work toward a political settlement to the conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov went to New York to chair debates at the U.N. Security Council, over which Russia holds the rotating presidency. In attendance was Elizabeth Whelan, the sister of Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia. Russian missiles struck an apartment building in Uman, central Ukraine, killing more than 20 people, including children. Ukraine likely conducted drone attacks in Sevastopol, Crimea, including on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet on April 24 and an oil storage facility on April 29, conflict analysts said. A Ukrainian journalist was killed and Italian reporter injured in an apparent Russian sniper attack, their employer La Repubblica newspaper said. The European Union provided $1.65 billion to Ukraine as part of an annual financial assistance package, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. President Biden and others at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner called for Russia to release Evan Gershkovich, the U.S. citizen and Wall Street Journal reporter jailed in Russia.
Continue reading Aftermath of the Trump Administration, May 2023: