Battle for Severodonetsk: security situation tense. Ukraine maintains full control over Severodonetsk in Luhansk region. Ukrainian troops hold defense, head of Luhansk regional military administration Serhiy Hayday said.
“The Ukrainian government maintains full control over Severodonetsk. The Ukrainian Armed Forces hold defense. The situation is very complicated. Russians put all efforts to either seize Severodonetsk or encircle the Ukraine-controlled part of Luhansk region,” Hayday said.
On the Luhansk axis, Russia deploys 25 battalion tactical groups, the equivalent of at least 10,000 troops, Hayday said. Each battalion tactical group consists of up to 500 troops. Russia also deploys numerous vehicles to the area.
“There is no fighting inside Severodonetsk,” Hayday said. “Fighting rages on the outskirts of the city, in satellite villages outside Severodonetsk as [Russian forces] may have gains in some areas. But there is no fighting in the city,” he added. Russian troops increased attacks on Severodonetsk several times over, the head of the regional administration said.
Ukrainian forces shot down and killed retired Major General Kanamat Botashev of the Russian Air Force, the BBC’s Russian service reported quoting Botashev’s army friends.
Pro-Kremlin and military groups on social media confirmed reports of Botashev’s death. A Su-25 fighter jet that the 63-year-old major general was flying, was downed near Popasna on May 22. On May 23, Ukraine’s National Guard downed a Russian Su-25 fighter jet over Zaporizhzhia region.
By end of year, Ukraine to enter Crimea, military intelligence chief. Ukrainian Armed Forces may cross the administrative border with temporarily occupied Crimea by the end of the year, the head of the Main Intelligence Department of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda.
Russia has 12 months of resources to wage a normal war. Fighting will decrease by the end of the year. Budanov is an intelligence operative who publicly warned of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
Russia uses rape as war tactics. It’s systematic, strikingly cruel, Ukraine’s Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights said. Over the past day, calls to the hotline came from Oleksandrivka in Kherson region. Callers gave permission to disclose the reported facts of sexual violence.
Two girls ages 12 and 15 were raped by Russians. A six-month-old girl was raped with a teaspoon by Russians.
Two twin boys and their mother were at home when five Russian soldiers broke into the house. One was holding the mother, four others raped the boys in pairs. The children died. Three-year-old boy was raped by two in front of his mother. The child died.
Article 27 of the Geneva Convention of 1949 prohibits sexual violence in war.
Explaining Ukraine podcast. Three months of full-scale war: key conclusions
Three months have passed since Russia started its invasion of Ukraine. In this episode, we draw some key conclusions. Hosts: Volodymyr Yermolenko, Ukrainian philosopher and journalist, chief editor at UkraineWorld.org, and Tetyana Ogarkova, Ukrainian scholar and journalist who is in charge of international outreach at the Ukraine Crisis Media Centre.
Ukraine in Flames #75: How Russia will be held responsible for the war crimes in Ukraine
How is the process of bringing Russia to justice for war crimes going on? Practices of international and Ukrainian courts, what punishment is possible and other issues to explain what is happening in this area. These questions will be covered by speakers in Ukraine in Flames #75.
Speakers: Kateryna Rashevska, lawyer of the Regional Center for Human Rights
Mykola Khavroniuk, member of the board of the Centre for policy of Legal Reforms, Professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
Oleksii Plotnikov, PhD, international legal expert, officer of the Territorial Defence Forces
Masha Stolbova, International Lawyer