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Three big referendums

Russia is preparing to move only from military action to administrative change. First of all, they will concern those territories that are now under their control and where something like a “people’s referendum” can be held. All of them, of course, will be falsified: real polls should not be expected, as well as the presence of international observers. No one will recognize their results.

First of all – referendums in the so-called LPR and DPR. It is expected that a vote will be held in these territories on May 14 and 15. The idea is that in the referendum, the residents of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions will decide to leave Ukraine and become new subjects of the Russian Federation. Importantly, Russia does not currently have full control over these two Ukrainian regions, but there is a plan to take them under full control.

In mid-May, a separate referendum is planned in the Kherson region, which has been under occupation for almost two months. The goal is to create the Kherson People’s Republic by analogy with the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR. A puppet government has already been established in Kherson, which has made several statements. One of them states that “Kherson and the region will never return to the control of Nazi Ukraine.” The occupiers want to illegally put rubles into circulation in Kherson. At the same time, they do not have full control over the region, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine from time to time make successful counterattacks and return the settlements under the control of Ukraine.

There is no certainty about the exact dates of the referendums. It all depends on military successes, which are still few in the Russian army. Ukraine manages to contain the offensive of Russian troops. That is why referendums have been postponed several times and it is possible that they will have to be postponed this time as well. In any case, the mood of the Russian leadership is understandable: do everything to take away Ukrainian lands.

If the Ukrainian territories illegally become part of Russia, the fighting in these territories Putin, as well as the Russian people, may already perceive as waging war on their own lands, and therefore – the war will not stop, but only intensify. The reason will be clear and easy to propagate: to defend new illegal Russian territory.

Airstrike, missile and MRL damage

Luhansk region:

  • Russian forces shell the towns in the community. Damage was inflicted, in Hirske, the power station burned down. Six houses were destroyed. 1 casualty was reported, the victims search will proceed after the end of the shelling (1, 2).
  • Russian army shelled one of the two hospitals, that keep working in the region. Three storeys of the building with surgery, cardiology and internal medicine departments were destroyed, as well as the boiler house, storage rooms and garages. One woman was killed (1, 2). After the shelling, a store in the town caught fire.
  • […]

Kharkiv region:

  • As a result of the Russian strikes, a library, building supplies store and civilians’ garages were damaged and caught fire.
  • As a result of the shelling, civil infrastructure and residential houses were damaged. Three people were hurt, two of them – in Chuhuiv, among the victims there’s a 14 years old child. In Malynivka community the power transmission towers were damaged. Supposedly, the prohibited cluster munitions were used.
  • […]

Zaporizhzhya region:

  • Russian troops shelled settlements on the border with Donets’k region. As a result of the shelling, 6 fires broke out on the territory of private households in Orikhiv and Hulyaipole. In Orikhiv power grids 16.4k subscribers were de-energized. The buildings of the “Zastroyshchik”, “Zemledar”, “Agroservis” stores were damaged, all the kiosks and the meat pavilion were destroyed on the territory of the market. In Hulyaipole a residential building, two private outbuildings, 200 bales of hay and a seed trailer were on fire. Also, distribution gas pipelines of low pressure were damaged and the cabinet gas distribution point was turned off, 200 subscribers were left without gas supply. In Huliaipilske a resident woman received a mine-explosive injury of the lower extremities. Near Veselyanka a resident received a mine-explosive injury and a gunshot fragmental wound of the hand. In Preobrazhenka a private house is destroyed, in Poltavka  the stele in memory of those who died during the Second World War was destroyed.
  • […]

Sumy region:

  • During the day, Russian troops  fired twice at the territory of the region from the territory of the Russian Federation. At ~22:00 Bachivsk was shelled, over 50 shells were fired at the city in 30 minutes.

Donetsk region:

  • Over the village of October 40-th anniversary in Pavlohrad, air defence shot down the Russian missile, aiming for the civilian target. The debris fell into the woods outside of town. The missile carried the forbidden cluster munitions.
  • Russian shelling damaged 27 houses in the village of Lastochkyne, three of them were the direct hits (1, 2).
  • […]

Kherson region:

  • At the Svobody square in Kherson, Russian forces used flash bangs and gas grenades against the civilians, who were protesting the referendum on the creation of the People’s Republic of Kherson. Four people got injuries of varying severity.
  • Russian forces shelled the town center, damaging the Ukrposhta building, music school and the shopping mall “Admiral”. The windows in the town center were smashed. According to the witnesses (1, 2), the strike was made from Kherson as a false flag operation against the Ukrainian army, which is proved by the Russian reporters’ rapid arrival on the spot.
  • […]

Kyiv region:

  • During the field works, a tractor driver came upon the anti-tank mine, left by the Russian troops. The front part of the tractor exploded, the driver was wounded.
  • […]

Mykolaiv region:

  • Russian troops shelled the territory of the Agrospace Mykolayiv branch. As a result, two cars were destroyed, three tractors and the company facilities were damaged.
  • […]

Dnipropetrovsk region:

  • Russian army shelled one of the two hospitals, that keep working in the region. Three storeys of the building with surgery, cardiology and internal medicine departments were destroyed, as well as the boiler house, storage rooms and garages. One woman was killed (1, 2). After the shelling, a store in the town caught fire.
  • […]

Odessa region:

  • Russian forces shell the towns in the community. Damage was inflicted, in Hirske, the power station burned down. Six houses were destroyed. 1 casualty was reported, the victims search will proceed after the end of the shelling (1, 2).
  • […]

New laws

Ukraine:

  • [Other] The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has registered bill No. 7323 on the deprivation of deputy mandates of  the former faction “Opposition Platform – For Life” members Viktor Medvedchuk, Taras Kozak, Vadym Rabinovich and Oleksandr Kachny.
  • […]

Russia:

  • [Other] Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 241 on awarding the State Prize of the Russian Federation named after Soviet Union Marshal G.K. Zhukov in 2022 to representatives in the field of military science, weapons creation and military equipment, literature and art.
  • […]

This was the free part of the military brief

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In a paid version:

  • Airstrike, missile and MLRS damage
  • Civilian casualties
  • Video of russian prisoners
  • New laws
  • Occupant’s casualties (est. from Ukrainian General Staff)
  • War crimes in a de-ocupied territories
  • Alternative loss estimates
  • Data archive.
  • Analytical charts: occupant losses, chart with known air raid alerts by region and known damage, diagram of known airstrike, missile and MRL damage and known child deaths, diagram of known damage for Ukrainian infrastructure, diagram of average duration of the air alerts in the regions.