As the war enters its 437th day, we review key developments.
This is the state of affairs on Saturday, May 6, 2023:
To fight
- The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force threatened to withdraw his troops from the battle for the eastern city of Bakhmut in Ukraine. Yevgeny Prigozhin published an expletive-ridden video in which he personally blamed top Russian chiefs for the losses suffered by his fighters due to a lack of ammunition supplies.
- Ukrainian officials dismissed the Wagner boss’ outburst as theatrical, reporting that Wagner mercenaries reinforced positions in Bakhmut from other parts of the front to try to capture the city before Moscow celebrated World War II Victory Day on May 9 celebrates.
- Ukrainian army spokesman Serhii Cherevatyi said Russian troops in Bakhmut were not short of ammunition. “Today alone, 520 rounds were fired from various types of artillery in Bakhmut and the surrounding area,” he said.
- Pro-Kremlin bloggers said the public split between Wagner and the Russian Defense Ministry was more dangerous than the fighting in Bakhmut because an internal conflict within the Russian armed forces could cause panic and mutual mistrust, Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova reported from Moscow.
- Residents of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson have a curfew of 56 hours, which was to take effect Friday evening. The curfew, which runs until Monday morning, has led to speculation that Kherson will be a launching point for Ukraine’s long-anticipated counterattack on Russian troops.
- Russian and Ukrainian forces were engaged in heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine, with the heaviest fighting around Bakhmut and Maryinka. Nearly 30 Russian attacks were repelled in both areas.
- Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-appointed governor of the Zaporizhia region, ordered the evacuation of towns and cities near the frontline after reporting increased shelling in the area.
- A drone attack on the Ilsky oil refinery in southern Russia caused a fire, the second drone attack and fire at the plant in two days, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.
- Russian engineers said they have reduced the risk of a dam bursting and damaging Ukraine’s large Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, a senior Russian official told TASS news agency.
Diplomacy
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he has secured more weapons for his country after returning from visits to Finland’s Helsinki and The Hague in the Netherlands. Zelenskyy said he won “a powerful reinforcement of weapons for our soldiers – on land, in the air and at sea” as a result of his talks with allies.
- Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations have not authorized new grain shipments under a soon-to-expire deal that allowed grain shipments through Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. The pace of grain shipments from Ukraine under the UN-backed initiative has slowed as concerns grow over ships becoming trapped in a conflict zone if the deal is not renewed later this month.
- Bahrain’s foreign minister, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, met with Zelenskyy during a state visit to Kiev, Ukraine’s presidential office said. Zelenskyy thanked Bahrain for its continued support in the war, saying, “This is an important signal of cooperation and support between our countries.”
- Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said Beijing would continue to promote peace talks to end the war in Ukraine and is “ready to maintain communication and coordination with Russia to make tangible contributions to the political settlement of the crisis” .
- The World Judo Championships kicks off in the Qatari capital Doha on Sunday and will be the first major international competition to welcome back Russian and Belarusian athletes, who have been banned from most sporting events since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Politics
- The European Union has accused Russia of escalating the war in Ukraine this week after drone attacks on Odessa and Kiev.
- A Ukrainian delegate punched a Russian delegate at a meeting of Black Sea nations after the Russian snatched the man’s Ukrainian flag to prevent the Ukrainian from filming a video interview with Moscow’s leading delegate at the summit.
- Poland summoned the Russian ambassador over a statement by the former Russian Ombudsman for Children calling for the murder of a Polish official.
- The French Senate website went offline after pro-Russian hackers claimed to have taken it down in the latest cyberattack since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. A group calling itself NoName on Telegram claimed responsibility, saying it had acted because “France is working with Ukraine on a new ‘id’ package, which may contain weapons”.