Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 445

World
By William

As the war enters its 445th day, we take a look at the main developments.

Here is the state of affairs on Sunday, May 14, 2023.

To fight

  • Ukrainian troops have advanced on parts of the frontline against Russian forces near the war-torn eastern city of Bakhmut. “Our soldiers are moving forward in some parts of the front and the enemy is losing equipment and manpower,” Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukrainian ground forces, said on social media on Saturday.
  • Russia’s defense ministry said its forces have taken control of another city block in Bakhmut. “The units of the Airborne Forces provided support to the assault units and pressed the enemy on the flanks,” the ministry said in a statement.
  • The British Ministry of Defense has suggested in its daily intelligence update that Russian troops have likely withdrawn from their positions on Bakhmut’s southern flank over the past four days in poor condition.
  • Russian news outlet Kommersant has reported that two Russian fighter jets and two military helicopters crashed over Russian territory close to the Ukrainian border. Kommersant said on its website that the Su-34 fighter-bomber, Su-35 fighter and two Mi-8 helicopters, which had formed an airstrike together, were shot down “almost simultaneously” in an ambush in Russia’s Bryansk region. .
  • Bryansk regional governor Alexander Bogomaz has claimed that a Ukrainian drone hit a food production factory in Starodub, close to the border with Ukraine, damaging its roof. Bogomaz, writing on Telegram, said there were no casualties.
  • The Russian defense ministry has said Ukrainian aircraft hit two industrial sites in the Russian-occupied city of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine with Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles supplied by the UK.

Diplomacy

  • Germany will provide Ukraine with additional military aid worth more than $3 billion, including tanks, anti-aircraft systems and ammunition, the government said ahead of a planned visit to Berlin by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy – his first visit to Germany since Russia entered last year.
  • European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the EU must speed up ammunition supplies to Ukraine as the country’s armed forces need 1,000 artillery shells every day in the Bakhmut area alone.
  • Zelensky has called on Pope Francis to condemn Russia more clearly as he met with the pope and Italian political leaders in Rome on Saturday. “I am grateful for his personal attention to the tragedy of millions of Ukrainians,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter after meeting Francis at the Vatican, which lasted about 40 minutes. “I have asked [Pope Francis] to condemn Russian crimes in Ukraine. Because there can be no equality between the victim and the aggressor.”
  • The Ukrainian president has said he met South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday and urged him to help implement the Kiev peace plan to end the war with Russia.
  • South Africa’s presidential security adviser Sydney Mufamadi has stated that the country was “actively non-aligned” in Russia’s war against Ukraine after allegations from the United States that it supplied arms to Moscow sparked a diplomatic crisis this week . “We will absolutely ensure that if wars break out, our contribution will always be calculated to help the parties and everyone else to end such conflicts,” Mufamadi said.
  • Rafael Grossi, chief of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, plans to present an agreement with Russia and Ukraine on the protection of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to the UN Security Council this month.

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