Ukraine Briefly

May 05, 2023

Ukraine, Briefly

RussiaUkraine

Listen to Today's Edition

This week, tensions between Russia and Ukraine escalated as Moscow accused Kyiv of orchestrating a drone attack it claimed was an assassination attempt on President Vladimir Putin, according to CBS News. In retaliation, Russia launched an overnight wave of drones on Ukraine, and while most were successfully shot down by Ukrainian forces, drone attacks and shelling on the southern city of Kherson killed 21 civilians. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied any involvement in the alleged attack on Putin. At the same time, the Russian government accused the United States of planning the alleged drone attack on the Kremlin in Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed pleas of ignorance from both Ukraine and the US as “ridiculous” and claimed that decisions on such actions are made in Washington. However, US officials said they are trying to confirm the origins of the alleged drone attack while remaining skeptical of claims made by the Russian government.

Also this week:

• Explosions rocked Pavlograd in central Ukraine while air raid sirens sounded across the country following an attack on an oil depot in Russian-occupied Crimea over the weekend, the New York Times reported. Ukrainian military officials said the oil depot attack was part of Kyiv’s preparations for a counteroffensive and that targeting Russia’s logistical capacity was crucial. However, Ukrainian officials and military analysts believe it is highly unlikely that Crimea would be the immediate target of the upcoming campaign. On Sunday, Ukrainian shelling killed four civilians in a Russian village near the northeastern border, while Ukrainian officials reported two civilian deaths from Russian shelling in the country’s south.

• The US has claimed that around 20,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine in the past five months, with 100,000 men being killed or wounded in the Bakhmut region and other areas of Ukraine since December, Euronews wrote. Such casualty numbers are almost impossible to verify: Both the Russians and the Ukrainians have remained quiet about how many soldiers they have lost. Despite Moscow capturing most of Bakhmut, Ukrainian troops cling to a small portion in the west of the city. Meanwhile, the city has taken on huge symbolic importance for both sides, with Ukraine wanting to prove its ability to resist Russia, and Russia eager to obtain a clear battlefield victory.

• President Putin has signed a law imposing a life sentence for high treason, as well as stiffer penalties for other crimes, according to the Wall Street Journal. The move represents a further tightening of authority by the Kremlin as it prepares for a prolonged war in Ukraine. The use of espionage and treason laws by the Kremlin has increased to suppress criticism of the war and the government inside Russia, with even minor infractions receiving harsh sentences. Meanwhile, the US State Department has continued to call for the release of Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained on allegations of espionage, charges he and the US government deny. A Russian parliamentarian has also called for the return of Stalin-era repressions.

• Fuminori Tsuchiko, a 75-year-old Japanese national, has opened a free cafe in Kharkiv’s Saltivka neighborhood in Ukraine with a Ukrainian local, Reuters noted. The man decided to stay in Kharkiv, a city in the east, following Russia’s invasion last year and worked as a volunteer, distributing food in the subway. The cafe, named FuMi Caffe, serves about 500 people a day and has been funded mainly by donations from Japanese people via social media.

This story originally appeared in the May 05, 2023 newsletter, Bona Fides and Possibilities.