As the war enters its 449th day, we review key developments.
This is the state of affairs on Thursday, May 18, 2023.
To fight
- Ukraine denied a Russian claim that a US-made Patriot defense system had been destroyed, while US officials told Reuters news agency the equipment was likely damaged but not disabled.
- Russia’s defense ministry said a UK-made L-119 howitzer used in Ukraine had been destroyed by Russian forces, according to Russia’s state news agency TASS.
- The Ukrainian army said it was making fresh advances amid heavy fighting near the eastern city of Bakhmut and that Russia continued to send new units, including paratroopers.
- According to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, a child was killed in Russian shelling in the Kherson region. “This happened as a result of shelling in Zelenivka [a village in Kherson]. Her father carried her to the hospital in his arms,” he said on Telegram.
- A Kyrgyz court has imposed a 10-year prison sentence on a man who fought as a mercenary for Russia in Ukraine.
Diplomacy
- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the extension of the Black Sea grain deal with Ukraine for another two months.
- Ukraine’s foreign minister told China’s visiting envoy Li Hui that Kyiv would not accept any proposals to end the war with Russia and lose territory.
- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa wants to come to Ukraine for a “peace initiative,” a spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
- Belarus, one of Russia’s closest allies, has partially restored controls on its 1,239km border with its neighbor, Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik said.
- Finland and Denmark’s bank accounts in Russia have been frozen, prompting their embassies to pay in cash, officials from both countries said.
- The Czech government scrapped communist-era deals that allowed Russia to use land and real estate in Prague and elsewhere for free.
- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba thanked the French Senate for approving a resolution calling the Great Famine of 1932-1933, or Holodomor, a “genocide.”
- A Moscow court ordered the arrest of prominent film producer Alexander Rodnyansky and theater director Ivan Vyrypaev for “spreading false information” about the Russian military. Neither man is in the country.
Weapons
- Any decision to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine will fall with the White House, British and German defense ministers said, despite a recent jet coalition announced by the UK and the Netherlands.
- Polish President Andrzej Duda said Warsaw will not supply F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
- Hungary will block the next tranche of EU military aid to Ukraine and any new sanctions package against Russia unless Kiev removes Hungarian bank OTP from its list of war sponsors, the foreign minister said.