Victory Chronicles-DAY 819

According to a source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Ukrainian Sea Baby maritime drones have been upgraded with Grad missile systems. The modernized drones have already been tested and were able to destroy Russian forces on the Kinburn Spit. 

The source emphasized that the Sea Baby drone is not just a regular drone but a versatile platform that is constantly being improved. The addition of the multiple launch rocket system has demonstrated powerful results and is expected to continue surprising the enemy. 

The SBU, in collaboration with the Navy, successfully deployed the Sea Baby drones from the sea to target Russian positions on the Kinburn Spit on the night of May 20. 

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A Russian missile strike in Chuhuiv, Kharkiv Oblast, injures eight people. Kharkiv Oblast prosecutor’s office confirmed this information on Facebook. The attack took place around 8:00 a.m., with the Russian troops firing two S-400 missiles from the Belgorod region of Russia. Among the injured are two men aged 28 and 67, as well as six women. The strike’s impact was severe, causing the destruction of a kindergarten and damaging nearby residential buildings, shops, offices, cars, and administrative buildings. 

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A couple was killed in a Russian strike in Donetsk Oblast, and their 10-year-old son was wounded. The National Police of Ukraine reported this. The victims were taken out from under the ruins of their house in the village of Rih, located near Pokrovsk. The occupants launched a missile attack on the village and destroyed a private house, damaging two more. A 24-year-old local resident was also wounded and hospitalized.

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In Kharkiv Oblast, the Third Air Defense Brigade successfully destroyed a Russian Tulip self-propelled gun. The enemy gun was first spotted from the sky and then targeted by an attack drone. After further reconnaissance, precision strikes were carried out, including from a first-person perspective (FPV). The successful destruction of this weapon was made possible by the efforts of the fighters of the unmanned systems battalion and the Lumiere group of the 2nd Mechanized Battalion. 

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Satellite imagery indicates that Ukrainian forces likely damaged the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s (BSF) Tsyklon small missile ship in occupied Sevastopol, Crimea on May 19. Satellite imagery dated May 20 shows a damaged building, a rescue ship, and a floating crane near the port where the Tsyklon was docked on May 17. Ukrainian and Russian sources reported on May 20 that Ukrainian forces struck the Russian Tsyklon Karakhut-class (project 22800) small missile ship in Sevastopol Bay with three US-provided ATACMS missiles on May 19.

Ukraine’s Southern Operational Command and Navy Spokesperson Captain Third Rank Dmytro Pletenchuk stated on May 21 that that there are no more Russian Karakurt-class ships in the Black Sea following the Ukrainian strike against the Tsyklon on May 19. Pletenchuk stated that the Tsyklon was the “last missile carrier” in occupied Crimea and that Russian forces have likely moved all remaining BSF missile carriers to basing in Novorossiysk.

Pletenchuk stated that the Tsyklon had only been in service for a year and had not yet launched a cruise missile strike. Pletenchuk stated that Russia planned to deploy five Karakurt-class ships in the Black Sea, but that Ukrainian forces previously destroyed the Askold in November 2023, that Russian forces moved the Amur and Tucha from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea, and that the fifth unnamed ship is still under construction in Taganrog, Krasnodar Krai.

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26-year-old Junior Sergeant Pavlo Brodyuk, with the call sign Monarch, died on January 7, 2024, while performing a combat mission near the village of Vilshana, Kharkiv Oblast. He received fatal injuries as a result of an enemy mortar attack.

Pavlo Ihorovych was born in the city of Chervonohrad, Lviv Oblast. In 2016, he graduated as a mining technician electromechanic from the Chervonohrad College of Mining and Economics. In 2020, he received a master’s degree from the National University of Water and Environmental Engineering, specializing in mining. In his civilian life, he worked as an electrician at the Vidrodzhennia Mine of Lvivvuhillya preparatory work site, where he served as a deputy mechanic. He was fond of computer games and was interested in military affairs.

In the first days of the full-scale invasion, the man joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He fought for his country in the ranks of the 14th separate mechanized brigade named after Prince Roman the Great. He was the commander of a platoon of unmanned aerial vehicles of the company of attack UAVs.

Pavlo was awarded the ATO Participant medal and the Minister of Defense of Ukraine’s distinction for exemplary service.

“I am grateful to fate that you appeared in my life, you are the best thing I ever had, you are the meaning of my life. You fought for our happiness, freedom, for our future. You are forever in my heart and always by my side, no matter how far we are apart. I will love and remember you all my life,” wrote the deceased’s girlfriend.

“To be a warrior is to live forever,” added his brother Andriy. Pavlo was buried on the Walk of Fame at the cemetery in his hometown. The warrior is survived by his parents, a military brother and his beloved.

*Pavlo’s story on the Heroes Memorial – a platform for stories about the fallen defenders of Ukraine.

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