Ukraine: realities | «The Weekly Five»: 01.05 – 07.05

IAEA: The situation around ZNPP becomes potentially dangerous

According to Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA experts present at Zaporizhzhya NPP have received information that the Russians have started evacuating residents of Enerhodar, where most of the plant's personnel live. He expressed concern about the increasingly tense, stressful, and difficult conditions for the plant's personnel and their families.

Mr. Grossi added that the IAEA experts continue to hear regular shelling, including the evening of May 5.

Ukrainian air defense forces shoot down X-47 Kinzhal hypersonic missile for the first time

The Commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk, said that the Ukrainian military had shot down a Russian Kinzhal missile.

«I congratulate the Ukrainian people on this historic event! Yes, we have shot down the «unparalleled» Kinzhal! Patriot. It happened during a night attack on May 4 in the sky of Kyiv region. The X-47 missile was launched by a MiG-31K from the territory of Russia.»

Russia staged an attack on the Kremlin – ISW

Russia probably staged the attack on the Kremlin to convey information about the war to the Russian domestic audience and create conditions for wider mobilization of society, according to analysts at the Institute for the Study of War.

The ISW believes that if the drone attack had not been staged, Russia's official response would likely have been much more disorganized at first, as Russian officials would have tried to create a consistent narrative and compensate for the effects of the obvious information embarrassment.

«The Kremlin, in particular, failed to formulate a timely and consistent information response to other military humiliations that did not occur on its initiative, including the fall of Balakliya and Kherson in September and November 2022,» the institute noted.

Ukrainian Parliament officially recognizes Putin's regime as Rashism

The Verkhovna Rada has legislatively recognized the political regime in Russia as «Rashism» and condemned it.

The initiators of the resolution believe that it will «allow to define the forms of aggression and encourage the world to condemn the Russian policy that leads to war crimes and genocide of the Ukrainian people.» The statement should also help form a unified approach of international institutions to defining Russian policy.

The explanatory note to the statement reads: «Justification for the need to adopt the resolution: The brutal, unprovoked war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine has exposed to the whole world the real nature of Putin's political regime as a neo-imperial, totalitarian dictatorship that follows the worst practices of the past and embodies the ideas of fascism and national socialism in the modern version of Russian fascism (rashism).»

White House: Russia has lost over 100,000 people in Ukraine in 5 months

Over the past 5 months, Russia has lost more than 100,000 troops in the area of Bakhmut and other regions of Ukraine, including more than 20,000 killed in action, almost half of whom were Wagner mercenary group.

This was reported by Reuters, citing a statement by White House national security spokesperson John Kirby.

«Russia has exhausted its military stockpiles and armed forces. Since December alone, we estimate that Russia has suffered more than 100,000 casualties, including more than 20,000 killed in action, almost half of them Wagner soldiers», he said.

The project «Ukraine: realities» is implemented by the News agency «Konkurent» together with the Civic Movement «SVIDOMI» and the charity organization Global Empowerment Mission in English for readers from other countries to tell the stories of people who survived the horrors of the Russian occupation.

Проєкт «Ukraine: realities» реалізовується Інформаційним агентством «Конкурент» спільно з Громадянським Рухом «СВІДОМІ» та благодійною організацією Global Empowerment Mission на англійській мові для читачів з інших країн аби розповісти історії людей, які пережили жахи російської окупації.