Bob Homans May 4

20220504

Ukraine – 5/4 Sitrep
Compiled by: Robert Homans
@rhomansjr
May 4, 2022

Patriarch Kirill Sanctioned

Patriarch Kirill, Head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate, is facing sanctions to be imposed by the European Commission.    Hopefully, the United States will follow soon.

The article in “Politico.eu” quotes the European External Action Service describing Kirill, “as one of the most prominent supporters of the Russian military aggression against Ukraine.”   That is true, but it is also likely that Kirill, using his position within the Church, facilitates the laundering of dirty money from previously sanctioned Russian Government Officials and Russian oligarchs.

The Church’s financial network has connections with parishes throughout the European Union, the U.K. and even likely the U.S., making it easy to move dirty money from Russia into the West’s financial system.   In addition to his sermons, Kirill’s access to this network should be an equal reason for both the EU and US to impose sanctions.

Ukrainian First Responders

As can be seen from this article in the London “Daily Mail,” about the rescue of a cat from a high-rise building,  Ukrainian first responders now have the latest rescue gear available, critical for making rescues from high-rise buildings.    This is a crucial factor for the safety and morale of Ukrainian civilians, who have become primary Russian targets.   As an aside, when in Kyiv we live on the 16th Floor of a Kyiv high-rise building.

Ukrainian first responders are heroes, no less so than Ukrainian servicemen and women.   They are often targets of Russian shelling because the Russians know how vital Ukrainian first responders are to Ukraine’s victory.   Russian gunners will hit a high-rise building, in Kharkiv for example, wait until the first responders arrive, and hit the building again with the objective of killing the first responders and destroying their equipment.

Sumy

Sumy is an oblast capital, and an important road & rail junction.   It is located near the Russian border, due east of Chernihiv, due north of Poltava and southeast of the Russian city of Kursk.  Poltava was the site of the battle in 1709, where Peter I defeated Charles XII of Sweden.   In 1943, Kursk was the site of the largest tank battle of WW-II.   Last February and March, Sumy was the site of a major battle during the early stages of the war.   Russians continue to shell Sumy and its environs, from the relative safety of Russian territory.

In July of 2007 I visited Sumy with my colleagues from the International Finance Corporation.   As was the case during our visit to Chernihiv, we went to Sumy to describe the virtues of equipment financing to Sumy’s business community.   Sumy is about a 4-hour drive from Kyiv, through beautiful farmland and forest.

It was a very hot day when we visited.   I remember having drinks at an outdoor bar & restaurant located along the banks of the river that flows through the city.   The hotel where we stayed only had one air-conditioned room.   It was assigned to me, likely because I’m an American.  This is not unusual for Ukraine.   I asked the desk clerk to give the room to the Head of IFC’s leasing project, but he said that was impossible.  

I hope that my colleagues, especially the Ukrainians Yulia, Andriy and our driver, Tola (nickname for Anatoliy) are all safe.   We took 5 trips together to various cities in Ukraine, all of which I remember fondly.

The Head of IFC’s Project wanted to stay another day, to visit a national park along with Russian border.   I said I couldn’t stay.  Now I wish I had.

5/4 Sitrep

INTERNATIONAL

Bild:  German Eurofighter jets armed with air-to-air missiles intercepted a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft after it crossed international airspace and headed for the German island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea.  "It was done on purpose; the Russians don't usually get that close" — a source in military circles said.

BNR:  Bulgarian ruling coalition held emergency meeting on aid to Ukraine.  The council of the ruling coalition of Bulgaria discussed the possibility of sending military-technical assistance to Ukraine for about two hours.

Ukraine Business News: The EU plans to step up cooperation with African countries to reduce dependence on Russian gas by two-thirds by the end of 2022. 

Sky News reports that the UK will provide Malloy T150 drones to Ukraine. These aircraft are capable of delivering heavy equipment to front line troops.

Hungary called the statement by Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Secretary, that Putin warned Budapest about his intention to invade Ukraine "fake news."

Reporters Without Borders, Russia ranks 155th out of 180 in terms of its freedom of speech rating.

Dutch and Swedish dockworkers refused to unload a tanker with Russian diesel fuel because of "international solidarity" against the invasion of Ukraine, as the union leader said.

Russian President:  Putin signed a decree on the application of retaliatory economic measures in connection with the unfriendly actions of certain foreign states and international organizations.

Lithuanian President:   Lithuania will support the toughest sanctions against Russia and will make every effort to convince states that doubt them.

Russian TV:  "Opponents of the letter Z must understand that they will not be spared. This is serious: concentration camps, re-education, sterilization.

Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church:   "We don't want to go to war with anyone, Russia has never attacked anyone. It is amazing when a great and mighty country has never attacked anyone, it has only defended its borders."

Boris Johnson addressed the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.  He announced the provision of new weapons and protective equipment for 3 billion pounds.

Die Welt:  The German government decided to supply Ukraine with seven Panzerhaubitzen 2000 howitzers from the Bundeswehr.

Deputy Defense Minister of Kazakhstan:  Kazakhstan will not send its military to Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Ministry: "We paid attention to the anti-historical statements of the head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which largely explain the course of the current Israeli Government to support the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv."

Corriere della Sera:  Hungarian Prime Minister, in a conversation with the Pope, said that Russia is going to end the war by May 9.

Conservative People's Party of Estonia proposed to annul the land and sea border agreement with Russia.  This agreement was adopted on February 18, 2014.

NATIONAL

Ukrainian Railways:  Russian troops hit six railway stations in the center and west of Ukraine today.  As a result, 14 trains are delayed.  The infrastructure damage is severe.

·       “We have two missile attacks in Kamenskyi district, Dnipro Oblast. They badly damaged the railway infrastructure. One person is injured. How long it will take to restore the railway is not yet clear. The movement of trains has been stopped.

General Staff of Ukraine Armed Forces:

·       More than 100 soldiers’ bodies of of the 1st Russian Army Corps, who died in the Zaporizhzhia region, were delivered to the central morgue in Horlivka.

·       Over the past day, 12 Russian attacks were repelled, 6 tanks, 5 artillery systems (3 of them multiple rocket launchers), 15 units of armored combat vehicles and 9 vehicles of the Russian Federation were destroyed.

Current carry-over stocks of grains and oilseeds may amount to 25.1 million tons in Ukraine for 2021/22 MY, up 4.2 times from the previous season. This will not allow the freeing of a significant amount of storage capacity for new-harvest crops. If the grain is stocked at ports and in silos in regions under constant hostilities and the grain in damaged storages is included, the carry-over stocks will total 21.3 million tons. Ukraine's overall storage capacity is 75 million tons. Ukraine will only have access to 60.9 million tons of storage capacity, however, as some facilities are in regions with ongoing hostilities. Thus, carry-over stocks will fill 35% of Ukraine’s total holding capacity. Forecasted production of grains and oilseeds are 55.9 million tons in Ukraine will lead to a storage deficit for new harvest crops of about 16.3 million tons.

Ukraine Business News:  The State Bureau of Investigation is initiating the nationalization of another 886 railway cars from Russia and Belarus. In total, 3,000 cars have been nationalized since the war started.

Ukraine Business News:  The state budget has received almost UAH 50B ($1.55B), $93.8M, and EUR 176.5M from the sale of military bonds since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The command of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that Russian Tu-95 or Tu-160 bombers carried out missile strikes on the evening of May 3.  They fired from the Caspian region. Approximately 18 missiles were fired, hitting infrastructure facilities in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Lviv, Vinnytsia, Kyiv and Zakarpattia regions. From other means, rocket strikes were carried out on the Odesa and Donetsk regions.  Ukrainian air defense shot down at least 8 cruise missiles.

Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine:  American police handed over bulletproof vests for Ukrainian border guard dogs.

Celebration of Victory Day in Ukraine was moved to May 8 by the decision of the Verkhovna Rada.  Officially, May 8 will now be called ""The Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II.""

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine allowed the Territorial Defense Forces to carry out tasks in areas of military operations outside its territorial community.  A total of 338 deputies voted for the adoption of bill No. 6521.

The deputies of Ukraine voted for the draft resolution No. 7343 "on the inadmissibility of appropriating the victory over Nazism by the Russian Federation."

Security Service of Ukraine:  In the Kyiv region, Russian agent transmitting data to the Russian Federation on the deployment of National Guard reserve units was detained.  He also exposed three collaborators.

·       Residents of the so-called "L/DPR" urge their fellow countrymen not to join the Russian army even under the threat of prison in a published video from an interrogation.  "Human losses, destroyed houses and cities are not worth his (Putin's) ambitions. If (now) I had a choice: to take up arms or go to jail, I would choose to go to jail," says a militant of the so-called "DPR," who was taken prisoner by Ukraine.

Demonstrations in Kyiv yesterday supporting Mariupol.

DONBAS

Luhansk Regional Military Administration

·       “The goal of the Russians is a famine in Ukraine.  The Russians bombed the 30 thousand ton grain elevator in Rubezhnoye.

·       Almost all the documents of the State Archive of Luhansk region have been evacuated.

·       Russian artillery destroyed two houses and people sought shelter in the community cemetery in Popasno.

·       In Severodonetsk, there is only one tank truck for water delivery.

Donetsk Regional Military Administration

·       As a result of this morning’s shelling of Vuhledar, three people killed.

·       At least 9 people were killed by Russians today in the Donetsk region.

·       At least 10 dead, 15 wounded - these are the consequences of the shelling of the Avdiivka coke plant by Russians.  The Russians knew where exactly they were aiming - the workers had just finished their shift and were waiting for a bus that was supposed to take them home from the factory. Another cynical Russian crime.

Advisor to the Mayor of Mariupol: 

·       In Mariupol, Russian soldiers have begun to appropriate private housing.

·       Russian soldiers are forcing children in schools in the Mangusha and Nikolsk districts to sign notebooks "Rostov Region".

·       Russians have created a bot to hack the online pages of Mariupol residents.

War correspondent Andrei Tsaplienko:  Russian soldiers stormed Azovstal trying to break into the territory of the plant without success".  Prior to the ground attack the plant was bombed and shelled.

KHARKIV

Russian troops continue shelling the center of Kharkiv, Pavlovo Pole and Alekseevka districts.

SOUTHERN UKRAINE

Operational command Pivden (South) report on in the Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kherson regions. 

·       Along the administrative border of the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, a Russian command post, three ammunition warehouses and one warehouse with fuel and lubricants, and several points of concentration of manpower and equipment were destroyed.

·       Two rockets hit the railway infrastructure of Kirovohrad region, there are dead and wounded. Three more missiles aimed at Odessa region were shot down by air defense forces.

Journalist Roman Tsymbaliuk:  All Russian soldiers who were on Zmiinyi Island at the time of the strike by the Armed Forces of Ukraine killed. 

Zaporozhia Regional Military Administration: 

·       On May 3, Russian troops shelled the village of Zheleznodorozhnе, Gulyaipolе district.  The shelling destroyed the local school, 12 houses were damaged and two people died from shrapnel wounds.

Suspilne:  More than 200 evacuated residents of the region and Mariupol arrived in Zaporizhzhia yesterday.  The column of people who escaped from ""Azovstal"" was delayed.

Russian soldiers arrested the head of Chornobaivka, Kherson Oblast.

Russian shelling of Kochubei community (Kherson region), a man died and four were injured.

REST OF UKRAINE

A cat was rescued, alive after a month, from the rubble of a multi-story building in Borodyanka destroyed by Russian soldiers.  

Kyiv Mayor met with Brussels Mayor in Kyiv yesterday.  "Brussels handed over to Kyiv two ambulances equipped with everything necessary, purchased by the Belgian capital's mayor's office. As well as three tons of critical medicines and supplies”.

Dnipro City Council:  Today in Dnipro, public utilities dismantled more than a dozen memorial signs installed in the Soviet era.

Kryvyi Rih Military Administration: The village of Zahradivka in the liberated part of the Kherson region was attacked by enemy Multiple Launch Rocket System “Grad”. A woman was killed, three more people were injured - all civilians.

Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine:  In the Chernihiv region, traffic was allowed on two temporary river crossings.   Crossings on the road P-69 Kyiv - Chernigov and H-27, which connects the cities of Chernigov and Mena.

Sumy Regionall Military Administration:  Russia is again violating the Sumy border.  After 18 hours, in the vicinity of one of the villages of Shostka district, border guards recorded the explosions of 8 rockets fired from Russian territory by multiple launch rocket systems.

A fire started after a Russian missile attack on an infrastructure facility in Mukachevo district of Zakarpattia region.  The rocket hit one of the railway substations near the railway station in Volovets

Comparing Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to Russian invasion of Ukraine using Wikipedia and Ukraine Ministry of Defense Daily Bulletins.  Soviet and Russian military losses not including captured equipment.

SOURCES

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/ 

https://euromaidanpress.com/

https://invite.viber.com/?g2=AQBD3wxTrZ6XUU7IdXeHUfjVCydekezQCCGuwYnT6qPd1r7n1aVbFIewa6ng6Lis

www.ubn.news