Russian paramilitary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin says he has received “a promise” of more ammunition from the Russian army after he threatened to pull his frontline Wagner troops out of Bakhmut.
Reports say multiple blasts rock Crimea as Moscow-installed governor of occupied Crimea, Mikhail Razvozhayev, accuses Kyiv of staging more than 10 drone attacks on the peninsula.
Russia ‘Destroys’ 22 Ukrainian drones over Black Sea
Russia’s air defenses detected and destroyed 22 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea overnight, the country’s defense ministry has said in a daily briefing.
Reuters was not able to independently verify Russia’s claim. A Russian-installed official said earlier that Ukraine had launched drones at Crimea overnight, without providing details.
Separately, the defense ministry said its forces had gained more ground in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, claiming two “blocks” in the northwestern and western parts of the city.
Russia’s FSB says it foiled the Ukrainian plan to attack the airfield
Russian security forces have foiled an attempt by Ukrainian intelligence to attack a military airfield in central Russia with drones stuffed with explosives, the Federal Security Service (FSB) has said.
The FSB said in a statement on its website that the target of the attack was an A-50 radar detection plane at the Severnyy aerodrome in the Ivanovo region, some 700 km (435 miles) from the Ukrainian border. It said its agents had foiled the attack in collaboration with the interior ministry.
The pilot of a light aircraft and other members of what the FSB called a “sabotage group” were detained in the Tula region after flying in from Ukraine, the statement said.
Polish plane on EU border patrol narrowly avoids collision with Russian jet
A Polish border guard aircraft on patrol for the European Union’s border agency Frontex over the Black Sea near Romania narrowly avoided a collision with a Russian fighter jet on Friday, Romania and Poland have said.
A Russian SU-35 jet carried out “aggressive and dangerous maneuvers” approaching the Polish aircraft without keeping a secure distance, leading to turbulence, loss of altitude, and a temporary loss of control of the plane by the Polish crew, Anna Michalska, a border guard spokesperson, wrote on Twitter.
“The Russian jet flew just in front of the nose of the Polish plane, crossing its trajectory at a dangerous distance, estimated by the crew at about five meters,” Michalska said.
After three approaches the Russian jet flew away, Michalska added. The incident took place in international airspace.
London forecasts Ukraine war to cause Russian economic crisis
Russia is facing a labor shortage that will “likely lead to a reduction in the potential growth of the Russian economy and risks stoking inflation,” the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said on Twitter.
Over the past three years, the Russian population has reportedly declined by 2 million more people than expected, the ministry said in its regular update on the war in Ukraine.
“Mobilization, historically high emigration, and an aging and shrinking population is limiting the labor supply,” it said.
Up to 1.3 million people left in 2022, including many younger and well-educated people in high-value industries. The Russian Ministry of Communications estimates that 100,000 IT workers, or 10 percent of the workforce in the sector, left in 2022 and did not return, according to the British MoD.
Russia keeps up missile attacks on Ukraine
Russia continues with its missile attacks on Ukraine in anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, targeting an industrial site in the southern Mykolaiv region.
Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim said in a social media post that a building belonging to an unspecified enterprise was damaged overnight after Russian long-range bombers targeted his region with five Kh-22 cruise missiles.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat told local television that a total of six of those missiles had been fired at Ukraine overnight but missed their targets.
Wagner chief says he was promised arms to continue fighting in Bakhmut
Yevgeny Prigozhin says his Wagner Group had been promised overnight as much ammunition and weaponry as needed to continue a months-long assault on the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
The comment, made on his Telegram channel, came two days after Prigozhin announced plans to withdraw from Bakhmut complaining that his men had been starved of ammunition and had suffered “useless and unjustified” losses as a result.
Source URL: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/5/7/russia-ukraine-live-blasts-rock-crimea-air-raid-alerts-in-kyiv