WAR IN UKRAINE: May 12, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 77
Ukrainian forces have been pushing Russia's army further back around the second city of Kharkiv. Meanwhile President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier said that Ukraine needs more heavy weapons to break the siege of Mariupol. Kyiv has offered to trade Russian POWs for the Ukrainian soldiers currently under siege at the city’s Azovstal steel plant.
Russian proxies will ask Putin to annex Kherson Oblast. Kirill Stremousov, a leader of the Kremlin’s proxies in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast, said there won’t be any referendum in Kherson to make it a so-called “people’s republic”, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported. Instead, Russian proxies in Kherson are seeking outright annexation - Kyiv Independent
Finland's leaders have announced that the country should apply to join the Nato defence alliance "without delay.” The Finnish government is likely to apply for membership after receiving parliamentary approval next week. Finland shares a 1,340km border with Russia and the invasion of Ukraine has seen public support for joining Nato surge. Sweden could follow suit in coming days and Russia has issued warnings to both countries that they will face consequences. Nato members - which include the US and UK - see an attack on one as an attack on all and vow to come to each other's defence
Russian ships carrying stolen Ukrainian grain turned away from Mediterranean ports -- but not all of them. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry estimates that at least 400,000 tons of grain has been stolen and taken out of Ukraine since Russia's invasion. More of this CNN report here
Ukrainian General Staff: Russia still plans to capture Kyiv. Oleksii Hromov, deputy head of the General Staff’s main operational directorate, said that Russia’s potential next moves may be capturing southern Odesa, Mykolaiv and partially Zaporizhzhia oblasts, creating a land corridor from the occupied east of Ukraine to Russian-occupied Transnistria region in Moldova. Russia may then focus on capturing central Ukrainian regions and Kyiv, stage elections, and proclaim a new state, he said
Russian soldiers shot two unarmed civilians as they walked away after an encounter in the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. CNN has obtained surveillance video of what is now being investigated as a war crime by Ukrainian prosecutors. The two men were working at a car dealership and were shot in the back by the Russian soldiers. Full story here
Airpower should have been one of Russia’s greatest advantages over Ukraine. With almost 4,000 combat aircraft and extensive experience bombing targets in Syria, Georgia, and Chechnya, Russia’s air force was expected to play a vital role in the invasion, allowing the Russian army to plunge deep into Ukraine, seize Kyiv, and destroy the Ukrainian military. But more than two months into the war, Vladimir Putin’s air force is still fighting for control of the skies. Full story in The Atlantic here.
My eyewitness report from a recent visit to the historic Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv, where Ukrainian servicemen are laid to rest.