On Tuesday, May 31, urban warfare takes place in Severodonetsk, a city that could allow the invading Russian troops to seize the last part of the Luhansk Region under Ukrainian control. A French journalist has been killed in the region. In the south Ukrainian troops had some success in Kherson Region. The US plans to deliver 30-kilometre missile systems to Ukraine, Ukrinform, Institute for the Study of War, Nexta TV and BBC report.
In the east, the Severodonetsk part of the Donbas frontline, the most difficult situation for Ukrainian troops is now in the Severodonetsk, Bakhmut and Kurakhov directions in Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
According to the Ukrainian Defence Ministry, «Russian command has engaged all its forces and is attempting to encircle our troops in Donetsk and Luhansk regions».
The American Institute for the Study of War has noted that Russian troops have recently seized parts of Severodonetsk. «Russian forces continued to incrementally capture areas of Severodonetsk but have yet to fully encircle the city. Meanwhile, mounting casualties among Russian junior officers will further degrade Russian capabilities and morale,» it wrote on Twitter.
Fighting in Donbas has taken the life of another journalist. Reporter Frederic Leclerc Imhoff has been killed, while covering a humanitarian evacuation in the Luhansk Region.
Illia Ponomarenko from Kyiv Independent posted Imhoff’s press card on Twitter.
pic.twitter.com/VvPjvrlLfW
— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) May 30, 2022
Village liberated in Kherson Region
Over the last 24 hours to Tuesday morning, fighting continued also in the southern part of Ukraine. The Operational Command South of the Ukrainian Armed Forces evaluated that the situation remained dynamic and tense as Russian troops had intensified shelling, including of civilian neighborhoods.
It wrote in its latest report Russian troops were holding their positions, seeing no success in further advance and therefore focusing on air, artillery and mortar strikes.
On May 30, the invaders had attacked Ukrainian positions with a pair of Mi-24 helicopters and the Mykolaiv Region twice. A number of settlements in the rear three times came under artillery and MLRS missile fire, as a result of which at least four civilians were injured. The invaders were described as having hit residential quarters and industrial facilities in Mykolaiv and its suburbs, damaging a mill, a meat processing plant, a number of households, and a water supply system.
In a successful counter-offensive of the Ukrainian military in the South Buh area, Russian troops were pushed out of the village of Mykolaivka in the north of Kherson region. The Ukrainian military claimed that this caused panic among Russian units in the area. It also wrote that Ukrainian missile and artillery strikes eliminated 78 invaders, also destroying eight main battle tanks, two howitzers, a Pion self-propelled gun, two Grad MLR systems, five armoured combat vehicles and two military trucks in the south.
Ukraine to receive 70-kilometre missile systems
As heavy weapons sought by Kyiv continue to be delivered to Ukraine. Former US ambassador Michael McFaul has said according to The Washington Post and Ukrinform that new batches of high-precision guided rockets for multiple launch systems from the U.S. will not be as powerful as to strike deep into the Russian territory.
Ukrinform commented that typical rockets fired by the MLRS have a range of about 70 kilometres. These shorter-range rockets would more than double the reach of Ukrainian firepower as Ukrainian forces have recently been using M777 howitzers, which have a range of about 30 km.
Finally, the BNN offers to watch the latest video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who met with a French government delegation in Kyiv on Monday.