WAR IN UKRAINE: May 3, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 434
At least three civilians were killed and several wounded in fresh Russian shelling in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, regional authorities said on May 2, as Russian forces launched more unsuccessful attacks on Ukrainian positions in Bakhmut over the past day - RFE/RL
CNN: US ambassador says China should push Russia to end its war in Ukraine. "What we need to see from China is to push Russia to withdraw its troops and so that Ukraine can have all of its territory back and can be fully sovereign again," Nicholas Burns said on May 2. "We would like to see China be much more tough-minded in its advice to the Russians," Burns said, calling for "action to end the war as quickly as possible in terms, of course, that the Ukrainian government can accept."
A former Russian political attaché stationed at the Russian Embassy in Indonesia says her boss called for the “slaughter” of Indonesians so that Moscow could steal the country’s land, according to a new report from Meduza. The independent outlet interviewed several current and former employees of Russia’s Foreign Ministry to determine how attitudes among diplomats changed with the war against Ukraine—and discovered Ukrainians aren’t the only ones deemed subhuman within the Russian establishment. “The diplomats’ attitude toward Indonesians was very bad,” the embassy staffer, identified only as Oksana, told Meduza. “My boss told me that all Indonesians need to be slaughtered, that rivers of blood should flow through the country, and we should take the land for ourselves,” she said, noting that he’d made the comment when she had spoken of how “kind” Indonesians are. She said she almost couldn’t believe what he’d said, but “he said it, and it was terrible.” The name of her boss was not released, and it was not immediately clear who among the diplomatic staff was acting as her boss at the time - Daily Beast
Even during war greed does not vanish: the mayor of Odesa, Gennady Trukhanov is out on bail and under a form of house arrest with an electronic bracelet in relation to charges that he embezzled UAH 92-million (about $2.5-million) during the purchase of the buildings of the Odessa "Krayan" plant. How appropriate for a once pro-Russian politician who ran like his own fiefdom a city branded the “crime capital” by Ukraine’s former interior minister
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reports from Ukraine, where attacks behind Russian lines indicate the possible beginnings of a counteroffensive. View the report here
