From the FB page; The Heartbeat of Ukraine

Christine Stuerma

▶️Day 455 of a 3-day war. Kyiv still stands and Russia is a terrorist state.

▶️205,260 (+500) terrorists eliminated, not including Wagner cannon fodder..

▶️Number of days since Russia has committed a terrorist act. = 0

❤️President Zelensky stated in his evening video address:
“Today, our exchange team gained one more positive result. Another 106 soldiers were brought back from Russian captivity; they fought on the Bakhmut front. It is very important that there was no information about many of these 106 people; they were considered missing. But we found them. And they were brought back home. Including eight officers and 98 soldiers and sergeants”.

✅What’s going on in Bakhmut?

📌The Russian invaders are trying to stop the advance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the flanks on the Bakhmut front with artillery shelling, simultaneously deploying additional forces to boost their combat capabilities. Source: Hanna Maliar, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, on Telegram. On the outskirts of Bakhmut, the enemy has replaced the Wagner units with regular army units. At the moment, the Wagnerites remain in the city of Bakhmut.”

📌Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) believe that the information about Russian losses in Bakhmut has become dominant in the aggressor country’s information space. Source: an ISW report

📌The ISW has stated that discussions around reports of Russian troops’ losses in Bakhmut have flooded the pro-military information space and “drown out any positive effect of the capture of the city”.

📌In an interview with Russian political strategist Konstantin Dolgov on 23 May, Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin said that the Group had lost 10,000 recruits from among the convicts and 10,000 regular Wagnerites who were killed during the battle of Bakhmut.

📌Prigozhin noted in particular that the Wagner PMC had recruited 50,000 convicts, 20% of whom (10,000) had been killed in the battle of Bakhmut.

📌Russian so-called military bloggers quickly picked up on the casualty reports, thus shifting the overall Russian debate from discussing the importance of the capture of Bakhmut to increasing controversy over the reported casualties, with claims that the losses could be significantly higher than those made public.

✅What’s going on in Belgorod?

▶️Representatives of the Russian Volunteer Corps have said that they had once again entered the territory of Russia, and posted the corresponding video with a Russian Postal Service department in the background. Source: Russian Volunteer Corps on Telegram

▶️”Well, friends! The Russian Volunteer Corps has again done something impossible. We are back in the Motherland! The evidence is right behind my back. Once again we enter the territory of Russia with battles or quietly. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

▶️According to the representatives of the Russian Volunteer Corps, the flame of resistance is burning all over the country. “Wait for us in your town too,” they said. Judging by the sign, the video was recorded in the village of Glotovo in the Graivoronsky district of Belgorod Oblast, Russian Federation.

✅Operational Report of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine:

👉Russian troops carried out offensive actions on the Bakhmut front despite the declaration of the complete capture of this city, attacked Marinka, and also conducted unsuccessful offensive actions in the Bilohorivka and Krasnohorivka areas.

👉The General Staff reports that the Russians continue to concentrate their main efforts on the Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka fronts. During this day, 17 combat engagements took place in the indicated areas of the front.

👉During the day, the aviation of the Defence Forces of Ukraine carried out four strikes on areas where Russian personnel and military equipment were concentrated, and units of Rocket Forces and Artillery hit two clusters of Russian manpower, one ammunition depot, one radar station and an artillery unit used by the Russians in firing positions.

👉On the Volyn and Polissia fronts, the operational situation has not changed significantly, and no signs of the formation of offensive groups have been detected.

👉On the Sivershchyna and Slobozhanshchyna fronts, the Russians continue to maintain a military presence in the areas bordering Ukraine. During the day, they carried out mortar and artillery shelling of the settlements of Hai and Kamianska Sloboda in Chernihiv Oblast; Khodyne, Volodymyrivka, Oleksandrivka and Velyka Pysarivka in Sumy Oblast; as well as Strilecha, Krasne, Cherkaski Tyshky, Lukiantsi, Neskuchne, Ternova, Vovchansk, Chuhunivka and Khatne in Kharkiv Oblast.

👉On the Kupiansk front, the Russians do not stop trying to improve their tactical position. They carried out airstrikes in the area of the settlements of Chaikivka and Kyslivka in Kharkiv Oblast. During the day, they conducted unsuccessful offensive actions towards Masiutivka. The settlements of Topoli, Fyholivka, Novomlynsk, Dvorichna, Masiutivka, Zapadne and Kyslivka in Kharkiv Oblast and Novoselivske and Stelmakhivka in Luhansk Oblast were hit by Russian artillery and mortar fire.

👉On the Lyman front, during the day, the Russians carried out unsuccessful offensive actions near Bilohorivka. They carried out airstrikes on Bilohorivka in Luhansk Oblast and Ivano-Dariivka in Donetsk Oblast. Makiivka, Nevske, Dibrova and Bilohorivka of Luhansk Oblast and Ivanivka, Torske, Verkhnokamianske and Spirne of Donetsk Oblast were hit by artillery fire.

👉On the Bakhmut front, the Russians continue to conduct offensive actions in the Bakhmut area during the day. Vasiukivka, Pryvillia, Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Hryhorivka, Bakhmut, Kalynivka, Chasiv Yar, Ivanivske, Stupochky, Predtechyne, Kostiantynivka, Bila Hora and Pivnichne in Donetsk Oblast were affected by Russian attacks.

👉On the Avdiivka front, the Russians conducted unsuccessful offensive actions in the area of Krasnohorivka. Airstrikes were reported in the Avdiivka area. They conducted artillery shelling of Avdiivka, Pervomaiske and Karlivka in Donetsk Oblast.

👉On the Marinka front, units of the Defense Forces repelled numerous Russian attacks in the city of Marinka. The Russian army carried out airstrikes in the area of Marinka. At the same time, the settlements of Marinka and Pobieda in Donetsk Oblast were subjected to Russian attacks.

👉On the Shakhtarsk front, the Russians attacked, in particular, Vuhledar and Prechystivka.

👉The Russians continue to conduct defensive operations on the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson fronts. They carried out airstrikes on Olhivske, Huliaipole, and Novodanylivka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast and Novoberyslav in Kherson Oblast. They attacked the settlements of Zelene Pole, Olhivske, Malynivka, Huliaipole, Huliaipilske, Charivne, Mala Tokmachka, Novodanylivka, Shcherbaky, Stepove, Kamianske, and Stepnohirsk in Zaporizhia Oblast; Zolota Balka, Novooleksandrivka, Havrylivka, Vesele, Kozatske, Lvove, Vysuntsi, Bilozerka, Antonivka and Veletenske in Kherson Oblast; and the city of Kherson.

👉On the night of 25 May, Russia launched another massive attack on the territory of Ukraine, using Iranian-made Shahed-136/131 attack UAVs. 36 of 36 were destroyed by our defenders.

👉In total, during this day, the Russians carried out two missile strikes from S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems on the civil infrastructure in the village of Tsyrkuny in Kharkiv Oblast, as a result of which a private house was damaged. In addition, the Russians carried out 48 airstrikes and about 10 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems.

✅The Russian Yury Ivanov intelligence ship has been damaged as a result of an attack by Ukrainian naval drones in the waters of the Black Sea. Source: UP’s source in military circles. On 25 May, a video appeared on Telegram channels showing how a Ukrainian unmanned gunner hit the Russian Yury Ivanov intelligence ship of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation. Russia had claimed that all the marine drones were destroyed.

✅Mykhailo Podoliak, Advisor to the Head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, has said that the Ukrainian counter-offensive has been going on for several days now. Source: Podoliak in an interview with Italian TV channel Rai. “The counter-offensive has been going on for several days now, it’s an intensive war along 1,500 kilometers of border, but the action has begun.” We do not want to strike the Russian territory, we will use the weapons you have provided us to target Russian positions in the territories occupied by Moscow, including Donbas and Crimea.”

🔥What’s on Fire in Russia and Temporarily Occupied Territory:

✅Several loud explosions were heard in Russian-occupied Berdiansk, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, on Thursday evening. Source: eyewitness reports on Telegram channels; Vladimir Rogov, Russian-installed head of Zaporizhzhia Oblast Rogov said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine had inflicted a “massive blow” on Berdiansk. Emergency services are at the scene of the explosions. Information on casualties and damage is being confirmed. According to some reports, a field ammunition depot was hit.

✅In Moscow, the Russian Ministry of Defense building is on fire!
Russian propaganda media has reported on the fire in the building of the Russian Defense Ministry located in downtown Moscow; later, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation denied the fact of the fire. Source: Kremlin-aligned Russian news outlet TASS with reference to emergency services
“A fire broke out on one of the balconies in the building of the Defense Ministry on Frunzenskaya Embankment.” Updated: Later, the Russian Ministry of Emergencies reported that they had not detected a fire in the Defense Ministry’s building.

🛑The Russian invaders have destroyed the dam of the Karlivskyi reservoir in Donetsk Oblast; due to this, several villages are at risk of flooding, and evacuation could take place. Source: Pavlo Kyrylenko, Head of the Donetsk Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram. #WarCrimes

🛑The US is “deeply concerned” over the meeting between Virginia Gamba, the special representative of the UN Secretary General for children and armed conflict, and Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, who has been accused of forcible deportation of Ukrainian children and is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Source: Matthew Miller, spokesman for the US Department of State, during a press briefing on 24 May

☢️Self-proclaimed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said that Russian nuclear weapons have already begun moving to Belarus under bilateral agreements. Source: Lukashenko said this on Thursday, on the sidelines of the Higher Eurasian Economic Forum in Moscow, in a video posted by pro-government Belarusian media, European Pravda reports

💲The United States of America plans to announce the provision of a new package of military assistance to Ukraine worth up to US$300 million, which will mainly contain additional ammunition.
Source: two official sources reported to Reuters about this on Thursday, as European Pravda report. As planned, Ukraine will receive military equipment in the package from the reserves of the US Army through the Presidential Drawdown Authority.

💲Arvydas Anušauskas, Lithuanian National Defense Minister, presented the latest package of military assistance to Kyiv at a meeting of the Contact Group on the defence of Ukraine on Thursday. Source: European Pravda; press service of the Lithuanian Defense Ministry. According to Anušauskas, the new package of military assistance to Ukraine from Lithuania will contain anti-drone equipment, ammunition, combat meals and other assistance.
He said that the total amount of military support for Ukraine from Lithuania will soon reach 465 million euros.

💲The United States and the countries of the Contact Group for the Defense of Ukraine have pledged to provide it with military aid in the total amount of US$65 billion. Source: Lloyd Austin, United States Secretary of Defence, in his address during an online meeting in the Rammstein format

✅General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States explains why the West delayed decision on F-16s for Ukraine. Click on URL for story: https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/05/25/7403904/

✅Denmark and the Netherlands will lead a European coalition to conduct training for Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets. Source: Lloyd Austin, Head of the Pentagon, after the 12th meeting in the Rammstein format on Thursday, the correspondent of European Pravda reports. “I want to especially thank Denmark and the Netherlands, who have decided to lead the European coalition to provide F-16 training for Ukrainian forces. In the coming weeks, my Danish and Dutch counterparts will work with the US and other allies to develop a framework for the exercise.” He added that Norway, Belgium, Portugal and Poland have also offered to contribute to the training.

✅Victoria Nuland, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, has said that Ukraine can hope for a “clearer” statement of “what we have already said” at the NATO summit in Vilnius. Source: Nuland during the 15th annual Kyiv Security Forum, as reported by European Pravda. Nuland answered the question of what Ukraine can expect from the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius. She stated that the Alliance intends to express its support more clearly.
“I think that Ukraine in Vilnius can expect a clearer statement of what we have already said. That we support Ukraine, which is increasingly becoming democratic and strong. And we support it [Ukraine – ed.] in the long term, as each individual member of the Alliance and collectively,” she said. “We also cooperate on intelligence and cyber security, and Ukrainians will see this strong relationship between NATO and Ukraine,” added Nuland.

✅According to Andrii Yermak, Head of the President’s Office, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine. “India has definitively determined its stance on very fundamental issues for us regarding territorial integrity and our sovereignty, etc.” According to him, Ukraine and India are currently at a stage “when it is necessary for them [India’s representatives – ed.] to clearly understand what is happening in Ukraine”.

📍It is not possible to force Ukraine into negotiating before the withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukrainian territory.
Source: Andrii Yermak, the Head of the President’s Office of Ukraine, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine

📍”This is what I explained to the Chinese and Brazilian envoys: that there is no force today that would make Ukrainian society and its leadership negotiate with the Russians while Russian forces are deployed in our country. This possibility does not exist.

📍And anyone who thinks there is anything that could force us to hold negotiations with Russia in the current circumstances is deeply mistaken.”

📍Yermak also said he had told the representatives of the Chinese and Brazilian leaders that “Ukraine has its own peace plan, and we deem it fair that since the war is ongoing in the territory of Ukraine, the Ukrainian plan must be the basis for the settlement [of the war].”

📍”Our second point which we conveyed to the Chinese and Brazilian representatives is that we are against mediation. We all remember the Normandy Format. I dealt with it for two years. I can say for sure that sitting and discussing something with Russians with raised voices, well, this just does not work.”

So there.

😡During his tour to Africa, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, has reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is “following in his footsteps” preparing a visit to the continent, and Russian ambassadors are telling the governments of African countries how bad it is to receive a Ukrainian minister.
Source: Ukrinform with reference to Kuleba’s statement on Instagram made from Ethiopia

–“I know that my tour is being watched very closely by Moscow, and wherever I appear, a Russian ambassador comes and starts telling [that country’s government – ed.]: how bad it is that you hosted the Ukrainian minister.

–Lavrov follows in my footsteps, immediately tries to talk to the people I talked to and plans his visit to Africa.”

–Kuleba considers Africa to be a space of diplomatic duels with Russia. He emphasized that Russia has worked powerfully for 30 years, spreading its propaganda, and currently tries to make it seem like it is the “saviour and only defender” of Africa.

🍿Tonight’s episode of the Russians are batshit crazy and morally bankrupt. Tonight’s theme: Multipolar World Order/The West Sucks.

🔘Prime Minister Mishustin: “Russia and China share the commitment to strengthening the multipolar world order based on respecting sovereignty, the rule of international law and non-interference in the domestic affairs of states.” 🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥

I could have sworn that I read this exact bullshit quote posted on an official Russian Government Twitter page before. Respecting Sovereignty. Ha!

🔘Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov: “We are now at the point of fierce confrontation with an aggressive bloc composed of US, EU and NATO, which has stated loudly and openly that its goal is to “defeat Russia on the battlefield.”🥱😴

Is this Lavrov’s idea of trying to manage expectations? Who knows. But it’s bogus and nobody believes him.

That’s it for tonight folks. Keep those words of support and prayers coming for our Ukrainian friends. Find ways to help! #SlavaUkraini #StandWithUkraine #braveukraine #UkraineWillWin #russiaisaterroriststate #RussiaIsCollapsing #PutinIsaWarCriminal #FuckPutin #fuclukashenko #fuckIran #fuckOrban #fuckmedvedev #FuckLavrov #fuckshoigu #fuckzakharova

Reported by Christine Stuermer