WAR IN UKRAINE: May 7, 2023

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 438

• A Russian military blogger has been injured and his driver killed after their car was blown up, Russian state media reported, the latest attack on a pro-war figure. Zakhar Prilepin was hospitalized with a leg injury in the blast in the Nizhny Novgorod region, about 250 miles east of Moscow, TASS said. A criminal investigation has been opened and a man was arrested following the incident, authorities say, Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Russian-appointed military-civilian administration in occupied Zaporizhzhia claimed in a post on Telegram that Prilepin’s daughter was with him at the time of the incident but was not injured. Prilepin, whose Telegram channel has more than 300,000 subscribers, last September put up a commentary that described Russia’s retreat from Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, as a “catastrophe” - CNN

• Ukraine says it has for the first time used a US-made Patriot air defense system to intercept a Russian hypersonic missile. Mykola Oleshchuk, Commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, said on Telegram Saturday: “Yes, we have intercepted the ‘unmatched’ Kinzhal,’” adding an emoji of the Ukrainian flag. Oleshchuk said the interception happened during a night attack on May 4 in the sky over Kyiv. The Kh-47 Kinzhal is a hypersonic ballistic missile. It travels 10 times the speed of sound and can be fired far from the battlefield, making them difficult to intercept.