Timeline: day 88 of Ukraine's defense against russia's aggression
Photo by Reuters
Today is May 22. russia's military attack on Ukraine has been going on for 88 days. We're reporting on all the current news. The article will be regularly updated.
What about today?
Key points
The enemy doesn't stop offensive operations in the Eastern Operational Zone and continues to launch the missile and airstrikes on our country's territory.
In the Siveria direction, the enemy continues to shell settlements in the Sumy and Chernihiv regions.
The enemy in the Sloboda direction is fighting to maintain the occupied borders in the Kharkiv region.
In the Donetsk direction, the occupiers are trying to break through the defense of Ukrainian troops and reach the Luhansk region's administrative borders.
Hell is non-stop in the Bakhmut direction.
For the past 24hrs, the Ukrainian army repulsed 9 enemy attacks in Donetsk and Luhansk directions, destroyed 5 tanks, 4 artillery systems, 10 armored combat vehicles, and 2 motor vehicles, and shot down 1 Orlan-10 UAV.
The Ukrainian Air Force's anti-aircraft missile units shot down 2 cruise missiles, and combat aircraft destroyed 12 units of enemy military equipment.
russians stationed in the Avdiivka direction suffered losses near Krasnohorivka. The enemy carried out assaults in the Maryinka area In the Kurakhiv direction but was unsuccessful.
"The war continues. It's not over. We still need to fight and reach victory. Someone in the rear cities may think that they can forget the war and become carefree. Or even careless. But no. Every day Ukrainians die for our independence. Every one of us must make an effort every day to help the defense. In any way they can," Zelensky said in a new video address.
The number of identified victims who suffered at the hands of russians in the Kyiv region alone has approached 1,300.
The World Davos Forum starts. It's the world leaders' first meeting since the pandemic began. The key topic is russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky will deliver a speech on the conference opening day via video.
Who's coming to Ukraine?
On financial and information assistance, weapons and politicians
Poland handed over almost the entire reserve of spare parts and weapons for MiG-29 planes to Ukraine. Thanks to this, Ukraine can restore its combat capability.
News from partners
The US Embassy in Ukraine published Illia Repin's Reply of Zaporizhzhia Cossacks and photoshopped Joe Biden into the painting. Now the letter will be to putin this time.
It may include a couple of lines about Poland's intention to permanently host NATO bases. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced this. "We must put permanent Allied bases in NATO's eastern flank. Poland is ready to build such bases permanently, including bases for light infantry units."
Today, May 22, Polish President Andrzej Duda will address the Ukrainian parliament, Verkhovna Rada. The politician's press service reports that Duda has already arrived in Ukraine. His official website says that he'll be the first foreign leader to personally address Ukrainian deputies since russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
EU and partner countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and others, have issued a statement restricting or suspending russia and Belarus' participation in the World Customs Organization (WCO). Also, signatory countries:
- demand to suspend all funding programs for russia and Belarus implemented by WMO to ensure that the programs' implementation will not contribute, even indirectly, to the financing of military aggression against Ukraine.
- call on the WCO to do its utmost to assist Ukrainian customs in carrying out its work in the face of this aggression, and promise to continue to call on russia and Belarus to fulfill their international obligations to support international peace and security.
Lithuania no longer imports russian electricity, the country's energy ministry said. Lithuanian authorities cut off electricity from Russia on May 20. Today, May 22, this decision came into force. As of today, Lithuania must also stop importing russian oil and natural gas.
Sanctions on the aggressor!
russia's Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev said Western sanctions against russia had almost destroyed all the country's logistical corridors for trade.
russia will pay for all its crimes. Volodymyr Fomitskyi, a former prisoner of war and a participant in Donbas hostilities, has won a lawsuit against russia. Now he's waiting for one million hryvnia compensation. Fomitskyi says the russians took him prisoner in the Battle for Ilovaisk in 2014. They held him hostage for 10 days. After Fomitskyi's release, the Ukrainian examination declared him unfit for military service.
The European Parliament can impose a russian oil embargo without Hungary's consent, Deutsche Welle reports. Vice-President of the European Parliament Katarina Barley called for the decision. She also said that Budapest "leads the EU by the nose."
Life considering hostilities
World-famous Ukrainian artist Ivan Marchuk painted a piece about the war, calling it "In anxiety…"
Photojournalists Mstislav Chernov and Yevhen Malolietka, who covered the blockade of Mariupol, won the Georgy Gongadze Prize. This year, a special award was posthumously given to photojournalist Maks Levin for the first time in the award's history.
Kyiv and the region
Destroyed russian military equipment—T-72B3 tank, BMD-4 gun turret, EW car, and part of Tiger SUV—are exhibited in Mykhailivska Square in the center of Kyiv. Our soldiers turned this ruscist federation's "pride" into exhibits at the National Military History Museum of Ukraine.
Donetsk and Luhansk regions
Donetsk region's Mykolaivka is one of 11 settlements in the Donetsk region shelled today by the russian occupiers, the Donetsk regional state administration reports. Two people were killed and two others were wounded yesterday.
The occupiers are renewing the so-called volunteer squads in Mariupol, Mariupol mayor's adviser Petro Andriushchenko said. The men of Mariupol will patrol the city together with the occupying military. Andriushchenko says, in this way, occupiers want to identify activists and public utility workers.
The "filtration camps" in the occupied Donetsk region have almost 4,000 men from Mariupol. The occupiers claim they will be "mobilized" to ORDLO illegal armed groups in July-August, the Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova said. According to her, the men are in terrible conditions, sleeping on the floor, in unsanitary conditions, and subjected to torture and abuse.
The russians tried to break into Sievierodonetsk from four sides but were defeated. The head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration Serhii Haidai announced this. The enemy received a decent rebuff and retreated. "Artillery and mortar shelling of residential areas continued. Almost every controlled settlement was affected. The bridge near the railway station between Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk was destroyed."
Retribution came quickly. The Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed the russian military equipment, which destroyed the bridge between Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk, the head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration Haidai says. A video of Russian propagandists gave a hint.
The Armed Forces also destroyed enemy vehicles and a pontoon crossing over the Siverskyi Donets River. The russians planned to cross a pontoon crossing near the village of Serebrianka, Donetsk region. The mission proved impossible due to the 30th Mechanized Brigade soldiers and other security forces.
Kharkiv region
Vilkhivka, Kharkiv region, liberated from the russians, now looks like this. This is the russian "liberation" and the "russian world." Now the village is coming back to life, but there's still a lot of work. Law enforcement officers are recording russian army's war crimes.
Kharkiv counted streets with the russian names and the results surprised everyone. Almost 260 Kharkiv streets are named after russian cities, rivers, lakes, mountains, and other geographical objects and administrative units of the aggressor state. This is twice as many as the names related to Ukraine's geography and the Kharkiv region in particular. Kharkiv Mayor Terekhov ensured they would rename all streets named after russian cities, and residents have already begun collecting proposals for alternative names.
Zaporizhzhia region
Thanks to the guerrillas' action, Ukrainian riflemen destroyed several russian artillery systems and destroyed the occupiers' radar stations near Melitopol, which jammed communications and conducted reconnaissance.
At about 2:44 a.m., russian troops launched missiles at the civilian infrastructure of one village in the Vilniansk district, Zaporizhzhia region, the local military administration said. There are preliminary no victims. Relevant services are working at the scene. The explosions heard by Zaporizhzhia residents at night were the sounds of this shelling.
The russians are withdrawing troops in some areas of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions to resume the offensive in the southern direction (towards Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv regions). Data from the Institute for the Study of War prove this. Replenishment of russian personnel and equipment has arrived in Vysokopillia and Arkhanhelske, and experts expect an increase in combat activity soon.
ISW also reports banners dedicated to the 220th anniversary of the russian empire's Tavriia province in Melitopol. According to analysts, this may show that the russians intend to turn the occupied territories in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia into a quasi-republic like "LDPR." The Ukrainian army's task is not to allow the occupiers' dreams to come true. Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions are Ukraine!
Kherson region
On May 21, between 6 and 7 p.m., the russian military shelled the village of Bilozerka near Kherson. Locals report three deaths. Among the dead are teenagers: a boy and a girl. The shelling also killed a young local teacher. There are wounded residents, among them is a child. After the shelling, about half an hour later, eyewitnesses report a russian film crew arriving: "The so-called 'international press' (the same "press tour" announced by the ruscists) arrived. And now those nits are making their movies," said a resident. Bilozerka wasn't shelled before the "press tour"…
The Ukrainian military shelled the occupiers' checkpoint in the Kherson region, and the enemy lost control of the units. The Armed Forces also destroyed the Giatsint large-caliber cannon, the Pion self-propelled cannon, and other equipment.
Mykolaiv region
At night Mykolaiv residents heard explosions of cluster shells. Mayor Senkevich reported about it about midnight. Five people were injured.
At night, the russians fired on the Shyroke community; three houses burned down after direct blows. During the day, night, and now the shelling continues in the Bereznehuvatske community.
