Russia’s losses in Ukraine reach 200,000 troops. China’s envoy who served as ambassador to Russia, visits Ukraine. A Russian artillery strike on Kherson region kills three, including a five-year-old boy.
Russian artillery strike on Kherson region kills three, including five-year-old
Three civilians, including a child, were killed, and two others injured as Russian forces fired on Zelenivka village in Kherson region in the afternoon of May 17.
Head of the Kherson regional military administration Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram: “A country of terrorists, aggressors, and war criminals that will face shame and a tribunal at the end of its path, has claimed today the lives of a young Kherson resident and two adults.”
“In the afternoon, Russian forces fired on Zelenivka. Five people on their way to a grocery store, suffered the attack,” Prokudin added.
According to the Office of the Prosecutor General, Russia launched an attack at 4 p.m. One of the shells hit near a store where local residents were staying. A five-year-old boy and two men sustained injuries incompatible with life. Another man and a 16-year-old boy were injured.
The infant was rushed to hospital, but died before reaching the facility, Prokudin said.
The teenager is in grave condition, he was being operated. The 24-year-old man is in fair condition.
China’s envoy who served as ambassador to Russia visits Ukraine
Li Hui, China’s special representative for Eurasian affairs, who served as the Chinese ambassador to Russia for ten years, visited Ukraine on May 16 and May 17. His visit was agreed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a telephone conversation on April 26.
Li met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
They discussed Ukraine-China bilateral relations, and interactions through multilateral institutions. They also spoke of ways to stop Russia’s aggression, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Kuleba briefed the Chinese envoy “about the principles of restoring a stable and just peace based on respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.” He emphasized that Ukraine would not accept any proposals to end the war with Russia that involved it losing territory or freezing the conflict, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.
Kuleba stressed “the importance of China’s participation in the implementation of the President’s Peace Formula, the Black Sea Grain Initiative, nuclear safety and other important international efforts,” the ministry said.
Russia’s losses in Ukraine reach 200,000 troops
Russia has lost more than 200,000 troops in Ukraine since the invasion, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a daily update on May 17.
Russia’s losses in Ukraine exceed the ones in all of its wars throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, except the two world wars.
The USSR lost at least 127,000 troops in the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940 and around 15,000 troops during its 10-year war in Afghanistan in 1979-1989. Western experts say that Soviet losses in Afghanistan were 26,000. Russia suffered more than 20,000 soldiers killed in the two Chechen wars — meaning the numbers killed in Ukraine are already 10 times greater than those killed in Chechnya.
In a recently released interview with Ukrainian blogger Dmytro Komarov, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said that such high losses would have held back any country from continuing to wage a war.
“There is just one conclusion: the cheapest in this country [Russia] is human life. That’s the cheapest thing there is. For us, it is the opposite — that’s what we value most,” Zaluzhnyi said.
Ukraine – Azerbaijan: important cooperation in challenging conditions. Ukraine in Flames #433
Most of the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus have similar historical events to those that took place in Ukraine. Azerbaijan and Ukraine have relations defined by a long history. It didn’t start from the first day of the USSR collapse and not even from the end of the russian empire era. The first Ukrainians arrived in Azerbaijan in the 17th century to start their own businesses. Today Azerbaijan is cautious in its policy, as russian influence is heavily present in the country. This caution is evidenced by the votes at the meetings of the UN General Assembly. Watch Ukraine in flames #433 to find out about the strategic partnership between Ukraine and Azerbaijan in the context of business cooperation in the new geopolitical reality.
Guests:
- Maryna Goncharuk, Curator of Ukrainian-Azerbaijani projects
- Said Ismagilov, Military Serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Former Mufti of the Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine “Ummah”
- Valeriy Korol, Vice-President of Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
- Lidiya Alieva, Head of the Union of Ukrainian Women in Azerbaijan