Victory Chronicles
-DAY 447

Above: This picture of hard currency on a couch was released the evening of May 15 in connection with anti-corruption officials’ announcement of the detention of Ukraine’s supreme court chief justice in the act of accepting a $2.7 million bribe.

The National Anti Corruption Bureau reported that it has exposed large-scale corruption in the Supreme Court. Ukrainians are sick of the russo-soviet legacy of pervasive corruption that still thrives among power elites. Indeed, the EU has said serious progress against corruption in the upper echelons is a prerequisite for accession. The National Anti Corruption Bureau has a hotline for reporting corruption. 

In related news, Dymtro Firtash, a key post-soviet-era russia-aligned oligarch who fled to Austria many years ago to avoid prosecution, was informed by Ukraine that he and his associates under investigation for stealing $500 million from Ukraine’s gas industry. 

Above: UK Ministry of Defence

• The Washington Post made a stunning revelation on Monday when it revealed, according to the intelligence documents leaked by the US national guardsman last month, that Wagner’s prima donna leader offered to give Ukraine the positions of Russian troops if Ukraine would take the pressure off of Bakhmut.  Ukrainian officials confirmed that Prigozhin spoke several times to the Ukrainian intelligence directorate and extended the offer regarding Bakhmut more than once. We don’t really care if it’s true or not, but enjoy watching the escalating internal battles.
• Moscow has banned government employees from resigning their positions in civil service to prevent a dearth of bureaucrats to carry on national business. Reportedly, many officials want to leave their positions that support the invasion of Ukraine.
• The Kremlin is dangling the delight of fast-track Russian citizenship to incentivize migrants to fight on the frontlines.  Recruiters are advertising a signing bonus of $2,500 along with a monthly salary in the same amount.  Putin is desperate to avoid another badly-needed official mobilization, pushing a lot of promises he can’t keep.
• A Duma committee recommended changing the wording of the law on martial law to legalize the forced deportation of citizens. It also recommended making election dates in temporarily-occupied territories flexible, depending on how the special operation is going.

General Staff’s Daily Video Digest with English subtitles

Above:  Army Inform published an interview with the head of the Center for Research of Trophy and Prospective Weapons and Military Equipment which was established on May 15, 2022, to gain intelligence from captured enemy materiél.  One of the center’s functions is to expose the enemy’s “weakness and backwardness” ito its highly-propagandized weaponry sales market, which has led to the cancellation of billions of dollars of potential orders. 

Ukrainian General Staff of the Armed Forces estimated enemy losses since February 24, 2022 (with daily additions)

• Liquidated personnel, 199,980 (+520)
• Tanks, 3,762 (+3)
• Armored personnel vehicles, 7,348 (+12)
• Artillery systems/MLRS, 3,150 (+13/0)
• Anti-aircraft systems, 316 (0)
• Aircraft/helicopters, 308/294 (0)
• Unmanned aerial vehicles, 2,732 (+12)
• Cruise missiles, 973 (0)
• Warships/boats, 18 (0)
• Vehicles and fuel tanks 6,048 (+14)
• Special equipment, 410 (+3)

Above: An explosion in the sky over Kyiv early morning 16 May. The enemy launched Russia launched a total of 18 drones and missiles including six hypersonic Kh-555 “Kinzhal” missiles this morning for the eighth attack this month.  (Reuters)

It appears that at least 1 of the Russian Kh-47M2 “Kinzhal” Hypersonic or Kh-55/3M14 “Kalibr” Cruise Missiles tonight hit an Air Defense Site somewhere in the Ukrainian Capital of Kyiv after it was attempting to Shoot Down one of the Incoming Missiles; some have claimed this was… pic.twitter.com/vBQcChJoaY

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) May 16, 2023

Glory to Ukraine!
The 447th day of the Russian large-scale invasion has begun.

• Today, the enemy again launched a massive attack on Ukraine, using missiles of various types. Detailed information will be provided later.
• During the past 24 hours, 2 missile strikes were recorded on Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region, with the use of the S-300 air defense system by the enemy. In addition, the Russian Federation carried out 48 airstrikes and carried out more than 50 attacks from rocket salvo systems.
• The probability of further missile and air strikes on the entire territory of Ukraine remains high, because the enemy does not stop its terror tactics.
• The enemy is concentrating its main efforts on the Lymansky, Bakhmutsky, Avdiyivskyi and Marinsky directions. Last day, 49 combat clashes took place on the specified areas of the front. Bakhmut and Maryinka will continue to be at the epicenter of hostilities.
• On the Siverskyi and Slobozhanskyi directions, the enemy carried out mortar and artillery attacks on the settlements of Yeline, Medvedivka, and Muravya of the Chernihiv region; Vovkivka, Manukhivka, Stukalyvka, Iskryskivshchyna, Volfine, Shpyl and Stepok of the Sumy region, as well as Kozacha Lopan, Hoptivka, Lukyantsi, Gatyshche, Budarky, Nesterne, Krugle, Zemlianka, Staritsa in the Kharkiv
• In the Kupyansk direction, yesterday, the enemy conducted an airstrike in the Kislivka region. Dvorichanske, Kamianka, Krasne Pershe, Mitrofanivka, Figolivka, Novomlynsk, Dvorichna, Zapadne, Kindrashivka, Kupyansk, Kislivka, Tabaivka, Berestov in Kharkiv region and Stelmakhivka in Luhansk region were subjected to artillery and mortar attacks.
• During the past day, the enemy carried out an air strike in the area of Spirny. In particular, Makiivka and Bilogorivka in Luhansk region and Verkhnyokamianske and Spirne in Donetsk region were subjected to artillery shelling.
• In the Bakhmut direction, the enemy shelled Oleksandro-Shultyne, Severnye, Zalizne, Petrivka, Toretsk and New York of the Donetsk
• In the Avdiivka direction, the enemy carried out airstrikes on Avdiivka, shelled Stepove, Lastochkina, Avdiivka, Pervomaiske and Karlivka in the Donetsk region with artillery.
• In the Marinka direction, Krasnohorivka, Gostre, Georgiivka, Maryinka, and Novomykhailivka of the Donetsk region came under enemy fire.
• During the past day, the enemy shelled populated areas in the Shakhtarsky Among them are Vugledar, Prechistivka, Novoukrainka and Shakhtarske.
• In the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson direction the enemy carried out airstrikes on the settlements of Vilne Pole, Donetsk region; Mala Tokmachka – Zaporizhzhia and Stanislav and Kizomys in the Kherson The enemy shelled the settlements of Burlatske, Vilne Pole, Novopil of the Donetsk region; Olhivske, Malynivka, Gulyaipole, Zaliznychne, Gulyaipilske, Biloghirya, Mala Tokmachka, Orihiv and Kamianske of the Zaporizhzhia region; Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region, as well as the city of Kherson.

Support the Armed Forces! United we will win! Glory to Ukraine!

Above: Belarusian Hajun Telegram channel published a photo of enemy military vehicles on a train leaving Brest, Belarus, reportedly headed for temporarily occupied Luhansk Oblast. (Ukrainska Pravda)

Video: One year ago on May 15, 2022, Ukrainian troops published this photo of their position on the Kharkiv – Belgorod border. (Visegrad 24)

Above: Screen grab from a video showing the aftermath of excess cotton in a Luhansk barbershop where the occupied-Luhansk KGB chief was gravely wounded.  It is far from clear who could have done such a thing as some local sources say he was a criminal thug who was widely hated. 

Map via ISW

Above: A Ukrainian soldier gives water to a captured invader in a trench near Bakhmut. Ukrainian troops are taking back territory on the northern and southern flanks of Bakhmut against primarily regular army invaders, threatening Wagner’s hold on the city itself. (Radio Svoboda)

• Russian forces continued ground assaults in Bakhmut and its outskirts on May 15, while Ukrainian forces are continuing defensive operations in the Bakhmut direction.Russian forces conducted unsuccessful offensive operations within 9km northwest of Bakhmut in the direction of Hryhorivka and Bohdanivka; within 14km southwest of Bakhmut in the direction of Ivanivske and Predtechyne; and in Bakhmut. Russian and Ukrainian forces engaged in 30 combat clashes in the Bakhmut direction and that Russian forces shelled Ukrainian positions over 300 times.
• Russian forces continued limited offensive operations along the Avdiivka-Donetsk City front on May 15. Russian forces unsuccessfully attacked Ukrainian positions in the Marinka area (approximately 22km southwest of Donetsk City).
• Russian forces are fortifying positions around Mariupol, especially around bridges over the Kalmius and Kalchyk rivers.
• The temporarily-free authorities in the illegal Donetsk People’s Republic plan to open 153 summer camps for 16,000 children this year and will also send up to 8,300 children to camps in Russia.

Above: Deep State Map shows areas in blue on the flanks of Bakhmut that Ukraine has taken back on the last week. 

Above:  National Guard sappers working in liberated Kherson are clearing unexploded ordnance.  The process of clean up after several months of invader occupation will take decades. (Radio Svoboda) 

• Ukrainian intelligence reported that approximately 152,000 Russian troops in southern Ukraine continue defensive efforts ahead of a possible Ukrainian counteroffensive.
• Russian forces have deployed an unspecified small missile ship with eight Kalibr missiles to the Sea of Azov for the first time since the start of the war in order to defend the Kerch Strait Bridge.
• Occupiers accused Ukrainian forces of using HIMARS to strike Melitopol, Tokmak, and Molochansk (between Melitopol and Tokmak on the T0401 highway), and of using Grad MLRS and other weapons to strike Vasylivka and Polohy. Ukrainian forces conducted three airstrikes against Russian air defense systems and force concentrations in Skadovsk Raion, Kherson