War between Russia and Ukraine: list of important events, day 439

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By Webdesk


As the war enters its 439th day, we review key developments.

This is the state of affairs on Monday, May 8, 2023:

To fight

  • Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group, says he received “a promise” of more ammunition from the Russian army after threatening to withdraw his frontline troops from Bakhmut, Ukraine.
  • Russia’s Defense Ministry claims its forces have captured two more “blocks” in the northwestern and western parts of the devastated eastern Ukrainian city.
  • The Russian defense ministry says air defenses detected and destroyed 22 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea on Saturday night.
  • There were reports of multiple blasts in Russian-occupied Crimea as Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, accused Kiev of organizing more than 10 drone strikes on the peninsula.
  • Ukraine has said it shot down a Russian hypersonic missile over Kiev using the newly acquired US Patriot defense system.
  • Since Sunday, more than 1,500 people have been evacuated from the Zaporizhia region, including the city where many of the people working at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant work, over safety concerns at the plant.
  • The Prosecutor General of Ukraine has announced that six members of the Ukrainian state emergency service have been killed during Russian shelling in the southern region of Kherson.
  • Russia’s Federal Security Service says it foiled an attempt by Ukrainian intelligence to attack a military airfield in central Russia using drones filled with explosives.
  • Russia is preparing to hold its annual Victory Day parade in Moscow’s Red Square amid security concerns following a series of drone strikes on Russian territory.
  • Russian writer and politician Zakhar Prilepin has awakened from an artificial coma, officials said, after being seriously injured in a car bomb attack that Russia blamed on Ukraine.

Diplomacy

  • Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet responded to proposals from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the Black Sea grain deal, state news agency TASS reported, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
  • Russia is facing a labor shortage that is likely to “lead to a reduction in the potential growth of the Russian economy and risk fueling inflation,” according to the British Ministry of Defence.
  • A Polish border patrol aircraft, on patrol for the European Union border agency Frontex over Romania’s Black Sea, narrowly avoided a collision with a Russian fighter jet on Friday, Romania and Poland announced.
  • Russia has returned to international judo competition for the first time in nearly a year at the world championships; Ukraine has boycotted the main Olympic qualifier.

Weapons

  • Turkey rejected calls from Washington to send a Russian S-400 missile defense system to Ukraine, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.



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