Chronicles of the collapse of the Russian Federation: 01.05.2022
Materials prepared by Liza Tumanova for the Free Idel-Ural civic movement
Military action
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine, 219 children have been killed and more than 404 wounded by the Russian army. The data is not conclusive as work is ongoing to establish them in places of active hostilities and the territories temporarily occupied by Russia.
On 1 May started the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, which had been under constant Russian shelling the entire time. The first group of around 100 people left for Ukrainian-controlled territory. As soon as the evacuation ended, the Russians started shelling Mariupol again. About 20 more children remained in Azovstal.
A US congressman has suggested troops be sent to Ukraine if Putin launches a chemical or nuclear attack.
The story of 87-year-old Elvira Bortz, a Holocaust survivor in World War II and now forced to flee the blockaded Mariupol is the latest material that Radio Liberty journalist Vera Girich, who died in a Russian missile attack on Kyiv, worked on as a producer.
The UK government will increase deliveries of arms and military equipment to Ukraine. This was the subject of a statement by Boris Johnson’s office following his telephone talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ukraine plans to give up Soviet weapons and switch to NATO models.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the Ukrainian army will liberate all the territories temporarily seized and occupied by the Russian troops.
The Russian military hit saltpetre warehouses in the Mykolaiv region. Rescue services acted promptly. There is no chemical threat to the environment or people.
Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk each withstood six massive artillery attacks, three of which hit Rubizhne and Popasna – 12 houses were bombed and now are unsuitable for life. Four residents of Lyman were killed and 11 others were wounded as a result of Russian shelling in the Donetsk Region. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, 1 woman was killed during Russian shelling.
Ukrainian air defence forces shot down a Russian drone over Odesa.
The Ukrainian government closed the ports of Berdiansk, Mariupol, Kherson and Skadovsk until de-occupation. The decision was taken due to the inability to serve ships and passengers.
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian personnel losses reached about 23,500.
Russia is preparing a provocation in Transnistria for the May holidays. A large edition of an emergency Transnistrian newspaper was printed, dated 2 May 2022, i.e. the circulation was printed in advance. The newspaper’s main material is an official appeal by PMR residents to Russian President Putin to “involve the armed forces of the PMR in the actions of the Russian army”. For this purpose, mobilisation points are opened on the territory of the Russian Federation itself to recruit volunteers for the army of Transnistria.
The SBU has neutralized a Russian sabotage group plotting a terrorist attack. The Russian agents were planning to shoot down a passenger plane over Russian or Belarusian territory and blame it on Ukraine.
An explosion was heard in Izium, Kharkiv Region, near the headquarters of the Russian 2nd Army, where the Russian Chief of General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, is located.
Ukrainians in Russian captivity are humiliated and held in inhumane conditions. They return from Russian captivity with amputations and sepsis.
The HUR of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine has information about crimes committed by the Russian militaries against civilians in Kyiv’s suburbs in the temporarily occupied territories.
Ukrainian sixtiers artist and fashion designer Lyubov Panchenko died in hospital. During the Russian army offensive, 84-year-old Lyubov Panchenko was living in her private home in Bucha. During the month of the Russian occupation, the artist starved, she could not walk, could not handle all these and was too exhausted. After the city was liberated on 2 April, Lyubov was transferred to a hospital, where she could not be saved and died on 30 April.
In the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, Russia began to promote Soviet ideology, from monuments of Lenin to rallies with propaganda appeals.
Ukrainian defenders again attacked Russian positions on the captured Zmiinyi Island. Three anti-aircraft guns, a Strela-10 surface-to-air missile system and a communication vehicle and 42 military vehicles were smashed, — OC South.
The Russian military shut down communications and internet in Kherson and parts of Zaporizhzhia regions, cutting lines and cutting power to operators. The Russians have been spreading fakes that the communication cut-off was allegedly ordered by the Ukrainian authorities.
Over a day, Kharkiv was shelled 3 times with artillery and multiple rocket launchers by the Russians.
The Kakhovka city territorial community in Kherson Region has reported that Russian soldiers kidnapped Ihor Protokovylo, councillor of Nova Kakhovka. His location is currently unknown.
The Russians have started expropriating the homes of Mariupol residents who left the occupied territory – the Russian Federation is settling unknown people in their homes.
The Russian military is looting medical equipment, closing medical facilities in the occupied territories and prohibiting the delivery of medicines from Ukraine-controlled territories. In the tuberculosis dispensary in Kharkiv Region, patients with active tuberculosis are denied medical treatment and kicked out into the street, while the premises used to treat infectious diseases are filled with wounded Russians.
Fermentation in the Russian Federation
A British publication has reported that Vladimir Putin is being prepared for the surgery due to cancer.
In Russia, the structures of a railway bridge collapsed near the border with Ukraine. The railway line had been used to move warehouses of goods.
“How dare you publicly humiliate people?” Philipp Kirkorov addressed Margarita Simonyan after her words about Maxim Galkin.
There was a fire at a Russian Ministry of Defence property in Belgorod, Russia.
According to military journalists, three transport planes with Russian Ministry of Defence registration arrived at the airport of the regional centre before the explosions in the Belgorod region.
There are 7,047 new cases of coronavirus infection in Russia.
Bailiffs have decided to collect an unpaid fine of 7.2 billion rubles from Google. The company was punished back in December for refusing to remove information banned in Russia.
Putin signed a decree which bans state bodies, state-owned companies and strategic enterprises from using information protection tools produced in “unfriendly” countries from 2025. Bodies and enterprises have been ordered to provide ” unimpeded access” to the resources they use to FSB officers.
Visa exemptions for European journalists and officials were cancelled.
A pensioner was detained twice in Moscow with posters in support of Putin and Bortnikov.
Dmitry Medvedev has posted a silent May 1st greeting for Russians. He writes “Happy May 1st and the approaching Victory Day!” on the board, and at the end, he draws a big letter Z and stares into the camera for a few seconds.
Dmitry Rogozin published a poem dedicated to Angelina Jolie and her visit to Lviv but soon deleted it.
Executives at Russian cinema networks have spoken out about the problems in the industry: revenues have fallen significantly, and there are not enough new domestic and Indian films to replace Hollywood. If the situation does not change, half of the cinemas in Russia will close.
In various districts of St. Petersburg, about a hundred posters are showing a grandmother (possibly Ukrainian) holding the flag of the USSR. Fontanka Russian newspaper revealed that they had been ordered by an individual for about 10 million rubles.
The Chairman of the State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin proposed confiscating Russian assets of business representatives from “unfriendly countries”.
The director of the Novosibirsk City Public College interceded for the students who had been charged with participation in anti-war rallies and “fakes about the army”.
Andrey Krukovsky, general director of Krasnaya Polyana, died at the age of 37 in the mountains of Sochi.
A Mi-8 helicopter crashed while landing in Mogocha, Zabaykalsky Krai.
Authorities in Perm Krai said that the military commander asked not to hide information about the killed and injured soldiers in Ukraine, but to “coordinate with him”.
At least 32 people were detained in Russia on 1 May. Seven people each were detained in St. Petersburg and Moscow, six each in Novosibirsk and Chelyabinsk.
What’s left of the economy
The European Union intends to propose an embargo on Russian oil by the end of the year, and by then gradually impose restrictions on its imports. Germany has made its support for the embargo clear.
Natural gas exports from Russia to key foreign markets dropped to a three-month minimum in April.
Anonymous hacked into another Russian bank.
International isolation
Volodymyr Zelenskyy met the speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi in Kyiv, where the president awarded Mrs Pelosi with the Order of Princess Olga and thanked her for the lend-lease.
Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz promised to extend financial support to Ukraine and to send arms to it. He rejected reproaches from opposition leaders about his indecisiveness.
Ms Angelina Jolie, the Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, visited the town of Boryslav, Lviv region. There she talked to children from the Luhansk region at the Harmony Educational and Rehabilitation Centre. At this time Yevgeny Petrosyan went to support the Russian soldiers.
Friedrich Merz, leader of Germany’s largest opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union, will visit Ukraine. Merkel’s party representative will arrive in Kyiv on 2 May.
Poland will not support a peace agreement that would involve surrendering part of territory to Russia, said the head of the International Policy Bureau under President of Poland Andrzej Duda.
Leave a Reply