May 8, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Emergency responders were working to contain fires after a Russian missile attack near the southern port city of Odesa Sunday night, the Ukrainian military said.

No casualties were reported, the statement added.

Some context: Originally designed as an anti-ship missile, the X-22 is an older and less accurate weapon than most modern missiles. The frequently inaccurate missile, also known as the Kh-22, has been used by Russia to target residential buildings during its assault on Ukraine. 

Explosions were heard in Kyiv early Monday as Russian forces continued their bombardment of Ukraine following air attacks over the weekend against the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions in the south and Kharkiv in the north.

The Ukrainian military says the attacks are part of Moscow's efforts to wear down Ukraine's air defenses as the Russians try "to find out where the air defense systems are located."

Here are the latest developments:

Explosions were heard early Monday in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.

Three people were injured at the site of an explosion in Solomyanskyi district and another was injured in Sviatoshynskyi district, where the wreckage of a drone fell on a building, he said.

Two victims were hospitalized, he added.

Wagner troops have made progress in the embattled eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut as they await munitions supplies from Russia, the head of the Russian mercenary group said on Sunday evening.

Prigozhin has suggested his forces will stay in Bakhmut after Russia’s Ministry of Defense promised to provide more ammunition to his troops, apparently backtracking on a threat to withdraw.

The city, which sits toward the northeast of the Donetsk region, has seen Russian troops incur massive losses during months of bloody fighting as the attacking forces gradually wear down resolute Ukrainian resistance.

What Ukrainians are saying: According to the Ukrainian military, more Russian forces are now arriving in Bakhmut, including Wagner fighters.

“The Russians are not going to leave Bakhmut," Roman Hryshchenko, commander of Ukraine’s 127th territorial defense brigade, said in an interview with Ukrainian media on Sunday. "Moreover, we see new units arriving, including Wagnerites. The intensity of the assaults has increased. They are bringing more forces to the city of Bakhmut.”

The Russians have also increased artillery shelling of the city as they seem to have more ammunition, Hryshchenko added.

“The enemy uses a variety of munitions, including incendiary munition,” he said..

The commander noted that Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut “have a regular supply of ammunition, water and food” and that supply routes are working.

Some Russian soldiers are attempting to leave Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region disguised as civilians, an exiled Ukrainian mayor claimed on Sunday.

In an interview with Ukrainian media, Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov said, "there are soldiers who try to escape from the temporarily occupied territories.”

“Therefore, at the moment, one more ‘filtration’ has been added when leaving the temporarily occupied territory. When they check all the civilians in cars and try to prevent the cars with disguised Russian military personnel from leaving."

On Friday, Russian-installed authorities in Zaporizhzhia announced the evacuation of residents of 18 frontline settlements due to "intensified shelling." Russia controls much of the region and it could be a target for Ukraine should it launch its heavily anticipated counteroffensive.

Fedorov also noted that Russian troops "are moving more and more to the Zaporizhzhia frontline."

Russian forces are trying to chip away at Ukraine’s air defense system, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military said in an interview Sunday.  

Russians are trying “to test and find out where the air defense systems are located,” according to Humeniuk. 

Evacuations in southern Ukraine: The spokesperson also commented on Russian authorities recently evacuating civilians from the Zaporizhzhia region, calling it “an imitation of care for the local residents.”

This is a standard practice that was used by Russians before, she said.

“They are trying to evacuate the people to the places where they set up their own defense lines and where they are setting their units in order to use local civilians as a cover,” Humeniuk claimed.

Analysts suspect the southern region could be a key target of Ukraine’s anticipated counteroffensive.

The US has high confidence in the accuracy of Ukraine’s claim that it used an American-made Patriot air defense system to intercept a Russian hypersonic missile, according to a source familiar with the matter.  

While the Patriot system has been successful in countering ballistic missiles, its ability to stop air-launched hypersonic missiles was purely theoretical before last week. Ukraine’s intercept has now provided a real-world demonstration of that capability — something that has been viewed within the Pentagon as a major development, the source said. 

Ukraine’s intercept claim created buzz within the Pentagon late last week, the source added, noting it is significant for several reasons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has publicly touted the capabilities of Russia’s hypersonic weapons and cast them as capable of overcoming all existing air defense systems. 

Production of hypersonic ballistic missiles has always been challenging for Russia and sanctions have only made it more difficult. 

But prior to last week, Russia’s calculus was that if it did use a hypersonic ballistic missile, whatever it was shooting at would assuredly get hit, the source said. This intercept has called that calculation into question, they added.

The fact that this intercept was conducted by a Ukrainian crew that was trained in Oklahoma, but had no US advisers on the battlefield, is even more of a feather in the cap for the Pentagon, the source added, calling it a major return on investment. 

The intercept also has likely caused a severe amount of uncertainty for Russia, raising the question of whether Ukraine is in possession of a sustainable countermeasure against hypersonic ballistic missiles, the source added. 

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, has apparently backtracked on a threat to withdraw his forces from the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, after Russia’s Ministry of Defense promised to provide more ammunition to his troops.

In an explosive, expletive-laden rant this week, Prigozhin appeared in front of dozens of his dead soldiers and blamed Russia’s military leadership for “tens of thousands” of Wagner casualties. He declared that his men would leave Bakhmut by May 10 because of inadequate supplies, resulting in heavy losses.

But a new audio message posted Sunday on Telegram suggests he has changed his mind after concessions from the Russian government.

The Russian Ministry of Defense did not immediately comment on Prigozhin’s latest claim.

Bakhmut has been the site of a months-long assault by Russian forces that has driven thousands from their homes and left the area devastated. But, despite the vast amounts of manpower and resources Russia has poured into capturing Bakhmut, they have not been able to take total control of the city.

“We’ve taken 95% of Bakhmut. For this last 5%, the ‘Red Army’ [the Russian Armed Forces] are not playing any role,” Prigozhin said in a message posted on his official Telegram channel Saturday.

Prigozhin’s blunt and brutal tactics in Bakhmut have long been likened to a “meat grinder.” But, in his repeated threats to withdraw from Bakhmut, Prigozhin claimed this approach was no longer viable.

“There will be no more meat grinder because there’s nothing left to grind the meat with,” Prigozhin said.

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