War in Ukraine, Prigozhin: «The Russians lost 5 km at Bakhmut». Zelensky tomorrow in Rome (armoured with no fly zone): he will meet Mattarella, then Meloni

China’s peace plan contains “fairly correct positions” but “we reiterate once again: no compromises to the detriment of the territories” of Ukraine. According to reports from ‘Ukrinform’, this was stated to the Ukrainian media by the adviser to the Ukrainian president, Mykhailo Podolyak, in view of the forthcoming visit to Ukraine by the Chinese government’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs. “Sovereignty and territorial integrity are the basis for any agreement,” Podolyak underlines

The Russian Foreign Ministry called London’s decision to supply the Ukrainian army with Storm Shadow missiles “another extremely hostile step” and “aimed at further empowering Ukraine with weapons and leading to a serious escalation of the situation” in the conflict zone. This was reported by Tass quoting a note from the Russian ministry.

Armored Rome for the arrival of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. The Rome Police Headquarters has launched a safety plan which also includes a no fly zone and a ban on drones flying over. The use of bomb squads, helicopters and snipers is foreseen. Reclamation and checks will also be carried out underground. The Tiber and the parks will be monitored, where vigilance will also be ensured by the mounted department, while control from the air will be carried out with police helicopters. The anti-terrorism police and carabinieri units are also on the field.

Russian forces “are already internally prepared for defeat, they have already lost this war in their minds”. This was claimed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Telegram. For this reason, according to the Ukrainian president, “we must put pressure on them every day, so that their sense of defeat is transformed into their escape, their mistakes, their losses”. Zelensky then thanked “every one of you who is destroying the enemy”, all “those who are returning our land to Ukraine despite the difficulties” and promised that “we are preparing to give you, warriors, even more weapons, even more opportunities to defeat the aggressor and restore peace». «Glory to all our warriors who are now in combat, in combat positions and in combat missions» concluded the Ukrainian president, «thanks to all those who train our fighters and to those who treat and restore Ukrainian soldiers after their wounds».

Russia has lost 5 square kilometers of territory near Bakhmut. This was claimed by the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in an audio broadcast on Telegram and quoted by CNN. Ukraine “will be at a distance of 500 meters from Bakhmut, occupying all tactical heights,” Prigozhin said. He also noted that Ukrainian forces have “completely liberated” the hotly contested road from Khasiv Yar to Bakhmut, which is a key route for Kiev to supply its forces in Bakhmut.

Russia has lost 5 square kilometers of territory near Bakhmut. This was claimed by the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in an audio broadcast on Telegram and quoted by CNN. Ukraine “will be at a distance of 500 meters from Bakhmut, occupying all tactical heights,” Prigozhin said. He also noted that Ukrainian forces have “completely liberated” the hotly contested road from Khasiv Yar to Bakhmut, which is a key route for Kiev to supply its forces in Bakhmut.

The Ukrainian army has “several options” to carry out the counter-offensive. This was stated by Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Council for Security and Defense of Ukraine, in an interview with the Report agency relaunched by Ukrinform. «The military has several options for action and which of them will be used for a particular operation depends on many factors. If someone says they know the place of the operation, they are lying,” Danilov said, stressing that even international partners are only informed about general defense issues, and not about specific measures for the liberation of the territories. “When we talk about specific floors, we mean that they are closed, secret, if someone thinks they are revealed to someone then they are wrong”.

The regular forces of the Russian army have fled to Bakhmut. This was stated by Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner private military company. Moscow Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Russian units had “regrouped” to take a more advantageous line. “What Konashenkov said is called fleeing, not regrouping,” Prigozhin commented on his Telegram channel.

In a video message lasting more than five minutes, Prigozhin accuses the Moscow Foreign Ministry of “sweetening” reports on the situation in Bakhmut and warns that this will lead to “a total tragedy for Russia”. The agreement with the army, Prigozhin says, was that Wagner’s assault forces would continue to advance into Bakhmut to conquer the entire city and that in the meantime the regular forces of Moscow would take control of the flanks to protect the militiamen. . But the Russian soldiers have abandoned the flanks and now the situation is being reversed and the Ukrainians could surround the Wagner units that continue to advance in the city center. For the Wagner militiamen, the situation is all the more dangerous, adds Prigozhin, as there are high ground on the flanks of the front, from which it is possible to keep the entire city under fire.

Russian forces have repulsed a Ukrainian offensive along a 95-kilometer front in Donbass. This was announced by the Ministry of Defense quoted by Russian agencies. The ministry specifies that in the Soledar region 26 attacks by Ukrainian forces were repelled in which up to 40 tanks and over a thousand soldiers were used.

The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, will meet tomorrow the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. Confidentiality on the details of the visit for security reasons.

Russian Telegram channels that document and support the war, and are therefore generically referred to as Z, have started writing that the Ukrainian counter-offensive has begun. Blogger Evgeny Poddubny claims that the Kiev forces “started an operation to encircle” the Russian ones near Bakhmut and managed to break the Russian front in the Soledar area. Alexander Kots announces that tanks have been spotted on the road from Kharkiv to the Russian border, according to him, to force an extension of Russian resources used to “stop the threat in the Belgorod region”. Poddubny also reports Ukrainian military activity near Kharkiv. The former Minister of Defense of the Republic of Donetsk Igor Strelkov, specifies that at the moment we are dealing with “only local attacks, even if successful ones”.

China’s special envoy on the Ukraine crisis will go to Kiev on Monday and then go to Moscow. This was announced by the Beijing Foreign Ministry.

Wagner militia chief Yevgeny Prigozhin invited Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu to personally go to ‘assess the situation’ in Bakhmut, the city in eastern Ukraine where a fierce battle has been raging for months between Ukrainian and Russian forces. The independent Belarusian media Nexta writes it on Twitter by publishing Prigozhin’s letter to Shoigu dated 11 May.

A massive explosion in Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, was reported by exiled mayor Ivan Fedorov, quoted by RBC Ukraine. “A massive explosion in Melitopol right in the center of the city,” Fedorov said. According to Ria-Melitopol, the explosion was well heard by residents of the central part of the city, in the park and Pischanaya area. According to the version of the Russian forces in the city, the explosion was a bomb placed by the Ukrainian military in a garbage can.

The leader and founder of the Wagner group Yevgeny Prigozhin is going further. And his recent video messages, in which he attacks Moscow head-on, questioning its ability to protect Russia, are “seriously disturbing the top leadership” of the Kremlin. This was stated by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), quoting Kremlin sources on condition of anonymity in its latest update on the conflict in Ukraine.

It is possible that the Russian military authorities are lying about the alleged shortage of ammunition in Ukraine. This was underlined by the deputy defense minister of Kiev, Hanna Maliar, in a post on Telegram in which she highlighted how Russian air attacks have “increased significantly” in recent weeks and this in contrast with the observations of some senior commanders of the army, such as the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeni Prigozhin. According to Maliar, the Russians have stepped up their offensive against the localities of Liman and Bakhmut. “During war any information of a military nature is a weapon. The enemy is simply deceiving us for his military purposes,” he added

The Russian Defense Ministry has denied reports that Ukrainian forces have broken through at various points along the front line and said the military situation is under control. The Guardian reports it. Moscow reacted after Russian military bloggers writing on Telegram reported Ukrainian advances north and south of the eastern city of Bakhmut, with some suggesting the start of a Kiev counter-offensive.