In Ukraine on Friday, May 12, media report on a successful attack on a Russian ship in the Black Sea. In the south of the country, Ukrainian ground forces have become more active and inflicted losses on Russian military personnel. A video of alleged killing of two Ukrainian civilians by the invading troops has been released and investigated, Belarusian Nexta TV, Ukrainian public broadcaster Ukrinform and UK’s the BBC report.
The Odesa Regional Military Administration has stated that in a strike by Ukraine’s Navy, Russia has lost its Black Sea fleet support vessel Vsevolod Bobrov.
Serhiy Bratchuk, a press secretary for the Odesa Regional Military Administration, has said as quoted by Ukrinform that the ship was damaged and set on fire as a result of a Ukrainian strike.
«As a result of the actions of our Navy, the Vsevolod Bobrov support ship, one of the newest in the Russian fleet, set on fire. They say she is limping toward Sevastopol», Bratchuk noted. The official added that the details have to be clarified, but «the fact that she suffered a ‘snake bite’ in the area of Snake Island is true».
Director of the Institute of Black Sea Strategic Studies, Andriy Klymenko, has noted to the press that the vessel was attacked overnight to Thursday, May 12.
According to Ukrinform, over the recent weeks, near Ukraine’s Snake Island, the Armed Forces of Ukraine lined up or destroyed half a dozen warships and other vessels of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, including the sinking of the flagship cruiser Moskva.
The Russian naval group in the Black Sea is made of four ships and two submarines carrying more than 30 Kalibr-type cruise missiles. Ukrainians still see a threat of missile strikes both in the south and across Ukraine.
Attacking the invaders in south
In the south of Ukraine, where Russian troops have seized large territories in the Kherson region, the defenders of the country are showing improved offensive abilities. The rocket and artillery units and aircraft of the Armed Forces of Ukraine launched more than 100 strikes on enemy positions in southern Ukraine on May 12, the Operational Command South reported.
The Russian army lost 57 troops, six armoured vehicles and three motor vehicles, the Ukrainian military claimed.
In the eastern Donbas front, American military analysts from the Study of War and the Critical Threats project evaluated that Russian forces did not make any confirmed advances around Izyum on May 12 but likely seized Rubizhne and made marginal advances to Voevodivka.
At night to Wednesday, Ukrainian time, the lower house of U.S. Congress passed Bill H.R. 7691, which sets forth allocating a total of about USD 40 billion to respond to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
The piece of legislation was supported by 368 legislators and 57 voting against it. The bill will now move to the Congress Senate later to be signed by US President Joe Biden.
US Democratic Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, the author of the bill, reasoned that Ukraine needs urgent help and the United States is «morally obligated» to provide it, to help end the massive loss of life, bring Vladimir Putin and his allies to justice, and defend global democracy. On a strategic perspective, the invaders may be abandoning efforts at a wide encirclement of Ukrainian troops along the Izyum-Slovyansk-Debaltseve line in favour of shallower encirclements of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the eastern Luhansk Region, the analysts noted on Twitter.
Shooting at civilians caught on CCTV
A suspected war crime has been reported by the BBC as allegedly having occurred near the E40 highway to Kyiv, while being under the control of Russian forces. Surveillance cameras filmed the events of unarmed, pensioner Leonid Pliats and his boss at a bicycle shop being shot in the back by Russian soldiers. The video material is now being investigated by Ukrainian prosecutors as a suspected war crime. Pliats had managed to hide and survive long enough to make phone calls and describe the events several persons outside the crime scene.
The chief of police for the Kyiv Region said to the BBC that the bodies of 37 civilians, all of them shot dead, were found along the road to Ukraine’s capital after Russian forces were pushed back. Ukrainian prosecutors confirmed that they were now investigating the killing of Leonid and his colleague as a possible war crime – another one in a series of more than 10,000 such suspected cases.
Zelenskyy calls attacks on hospitals barbaric
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has claimed that Russian military has destroyed 101 hospitals in Ukraine. «During the fighting since February 24, Russian troops have destroyed 570 healthcare facilities. 101 hospitals were completely destroyed. What is it? This is nonsense. This is barbarism. This is the self-destruction of Russia as a state that at least someone in the world could look at as a cultural nation,» Zelensky stated in an address to the nation.
See the video with English subtitles.
Day 78 of war in Ukraine: Russian ship set ablaze, invaders lose 75 troops in sought, killing of civilians filmed on CCTV
