Upon returning from visits to Italy, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, the Ukrainian president, as soon as he arrived in Kiev, convened the high command of the army both to inform them of the Western arms and ammunition supply program and to get news of the hostilities taking place on the front lines. “Enemy flags will never fly over our land, and our people will never be enslaved. Endurance in today’s battles, the strength of our active actions, the courage and precision of our warriors every day and every night are independence of Ukraine that will be permanent. Independence that we are strengthening and will continue to do so”.
The Russians launched 18 missiles against Ukraine in the night, all of which were shot down by the country’s forces: the head of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valeriy Zaluzhny, announced on Telegram, as reported by the national media. A total of 18 “air, sea and land missiles of various types” were fired at the country, wrote Zaluzhny: “All 18 missiles were destroyed by air defense forces and means of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of the Ukraine,” he added.
“At about 03:30 on May 16, 2023, the Russian invaders attacked Ukraine from the northern, southern and eastern directions,” Zaluzhny wrote. According to the Armed Forces chief, the Russians fired six X-47M2 Kinzhal ballistic missiles from six MiG-31K aircraft, nine Kalibr cruise missiles from ships in the Black Sea and three land-based missiles (S-400 and Iskander-M). Shahed kamikaze drones were also launched, he added.
ANSA Agency
Black smoke at Coreper – the committee of 27 permanent representatives to the EU – on the eleventh sanctions package. “No decision has been taken today and will not be taken tomorrow either”, says a diplomatic source. (HANDLE)
Ukraine also managed to shoot down six Russian hypersonic missiles, according to the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Ukrainska Pravda reports. In addition to the 6 Kh-47M2 Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles, the Russians also launched nine Caliber cruise missiles from ships in the Black Sea and three land-based missiles (S-400, Iskander-M). All 18 missiles were destroyed by air defense forces and means of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. All six of the Kinzhal ballistic missiles shot down overnight were flying towards the capital Kiev, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat said. The site Zn.ua and Ukrinform report it. “The work is hugely successful. Sei Kinzhal is an impressive indicator. Kiev remains the epicenter, the capital has always been a priority for the Russians, so it is protected by serious means. Here are infrastructure facilities and other important state facilities” Ignat said.
“The situation in Bakhmut is tense, but Russian forces continue to advance and have sent reinforcements,” said the head of the pro-Russian administration of the self-proclaimed Donetsk republic, Denis Pushilin, quoted by Tass. And he added that the Russian forces captured several fortifications of the Ukrainian forces in the direction of Avdiivka, also in the eastern Donetsk region.
The head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, admitted today that the services of Kiev are responsible for the killings of people from the world of Russian media. In a Youtube interview with Ukrainian journalist Valery Savchuk, circulated on various Ukrainian Telegram channels, Budanov thus answers the question of whether Kiev might try to kill Russian journalist Vladimir Solovyov or philosopher Alexander Dugin: “We have already reached many, including public and media personalities”. Already on May 7 Budanov had said that the Ukrainian secret services have killed Russians and will continue “to kill Russians everywhere on the face of this world until the complete victory of Ukraine”. Kiev, however, has never confirmed that it is responsible for some attacks against personalities from the Russian media and cultural world who support the intervention in Ukraine, which Moscow has blamed on Ukrainian services. In particular, the killing of Darya Dugina, the daughter of Alexander Dugin, in August 2022, that of the blogger and war correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky last month and the wounding of the writer Zakhar Prilepin on 6 May.
The Ukrainian secret services are “terrorists” and “those who justify the Kiev regime and sponsor it are accomplices of terrorists”: thus the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, after the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kirill Budanov , has admitted responsibility for the killing of some Russian media figures. “Won’t the UN pay attention to us this time either?” Asks the spokeswoman in a comment on her Telegram channel.
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