As the war enters its 433rd day, we review key developments.
This is the state of affairs on Tuesday, May 2, 2023:
To fight
- The White House has estimated that 20,000 Russian soldiers have died in the past five months of fighting.
- Russia’s Defense Ministry has said it has carried out overnight rocket attacks against Ukrainian military sites, including weapons depots and munitions factories.
- The Ukrainian air force shot down 15 of 18 missiles fired over Kiev and Dnipro in the early hours of Monday, the army said.
- Rocket attacks on the eastern city of Pavlohrad killed two people and injured 40, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. The president said a 14-year-old boy was also killed near his school when he was hit by a bomb in the Chernihiv region, close to the Russian border.
- US ambassador to Kiev, Bridget Brink, has condemned Russia’s missile strikes as “barbaric”.
- The head of the Wagner Group has appealed to the Russian Defense Ministry to supply more ammunition to his troops fighting in Bakhmut, Ukraine. In a video on his Telegram channel, Yevgeny Prigozhin said he needed at least 300 tons of artillery shells a day to take the city.
- General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, has said the situation in Bakhmut remains “difficult”, but soldiers have launched a counter-attack in some parts of the devastated city.
Diplomacy
- Pope Francis has revealed that the Vatican is involved in a secret peacekeeping mission to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
- Zelenskyy has met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and discussed defense cooperation and increased sanctions.
- Zelenskyy thanked New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins for participating in the training of the Ukrainian army.
- Ukraine’s grain exports totaled 3.62 million tons last month, compared to 923,000 tons in April 2022, when all of the country’s Black Sea ports were blocked due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country.
- Ukrainian players have said they will not compete in this month’s World Judo Championships in Qatar following the International Judo Federation’s decision to allow Russians and Belarusians back as neutrals.