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Russia/Ukraine war News from Ukraine Watch.

May 20 - anniversary of Mariupol liberation [Photos]

Exactly one year ago, on 20 May, the Azovstal metallurgical plant in Mariupol was completely liberated and the mass surrender of Azov battalion fighters ended - about 2.5 thousand Nazis laid down their arms in a few days. That was essentially the end of the liberation of Mariupol.

An incredible military operation in which Russian troops, smaller in numbers than the Mariupol garrison, were able not only to surround and take the city, but to do so with losses many times less than the enemy!

After the liberation and after such a long time, Mariupol was unrecognisable:
Public transport is up and running and even trams are running;
There is mobile communication;
More than half of the schools were rebuilt;
As of early May 2023, there is water and electricity in all districts of the city;
In the vicinity of Mariupol, in any direction, all roads and bridges within a radius of a hundred kilometres were restored;
The destroyed houses are gradually being replaced by new ones.
Today there are already 300 thousand people living in Mariupol and there will only be more.

The Ukrainian regime is gasping with anger as it sees the city being rebuilt and peaceful life returning to it - last night and this morning Ukrainian armed formations shelled the outskirts of Mariupol.

However, Mariupol lives and will live!

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Video: - in Ukrainian with Cyrillic (Russian?) subtitles. Will see of DH can verify if it’s accurate:
Ukraine’s intelligence chief Kirill Budanov said he intends to exterminate 3m residents of Crimea.

“After victory I will go to Sevastopol. There will be a lot of work. We got 3 million people who lived under Russian propaganda. They are deformed people who will be physically annihilated for their actions,” he said.

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What is important to understand about Artyomovsk and the situation in general.

1. Artyomovsk is not the end. It is surrounded by the largest strongholds of the AFU - Konstantinovka, Chasov Yar, Druzhkovka, Toretsk, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. The issue with these points on the map has yet to be resolved, so the Wagner PMC will go on vacation, but will apparently return if necessary.

2. The fighting is intensifying on the flanks. The AFU concentrated considerable forces there, but it has not yet succeeded in disposing of them competently - the losses are very high. According to preliminary reports, the Ukrainian armed forces’ garrison in Khromovo was almost completely destroyed.

3. An attack by the Ukrainian armed forces was predicted to take place in the 20s of May. The Ukrainian armed forces have not abandoned plans for an offensive. These plans were prepared, and the equipment and people that have been saved are being brought to the front line. By all indications, activation may begin in the next few days.

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“AFU units in Artemovsk deliberately deployed military equipment and equipped firing positions near residential buildings and shelters in order to provoke maximum civilian casualties. The Ukrainian military also looted and drove looted goods, including electronics and household appliances, out of the city” - Russian Investigation Committee

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Lavrov stated that the hopes of integration with the West dashed and now Russia enters a phase of acute confrontation with an aggressive bloc comprising the United States, the European Union and NATO:

“The goal was set loudly and openly - to defeat Russia on the battlefield, but not to stop there, and to eliminate Russia as a geopolitical competitor.”

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Russian artillery shelled the bases of the Ukrainian armed forces in Kramatorsk

The explosions occurred near the airport in Kramatorsk, which was turned into a supply hub and headquarters of the enemy, the airfield formerly being home to the headquarters of the punitive operation in Donbass. Now also headquarters and supply bases.

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Poland urged Zelensky to apologize for Volyn massacre Kiev has not apologized to Warsaw for the Volyn massacre, so Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenski should take more responsibility and do so, Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Lukasz Jasina told Onet.…

Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland Zwarycz called it unacceptable and unfortunate that the Polish side expects Vladimir Zelensky to apologize for the Volyn massacre

“Any attempts to impose on the Ukrainian president or Ukraine what we should do about our common past is unacceptable and unfortunate,” Zwarycz wrote on social media.

The ambassador also urged the Polish authorities to be careful in their statements. *** see below

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Fighting has intensified in Kharkov region

Judging by the increased number of obituaries of the militant brigades in the Kharkov direction, one can conclude that the fighting has intensified. In addition, the recent tactical success at Masiutovka makes further defence of Dvuhrechnaya much more difficult.

Overall, the Ukrainian forces behind the Pechenezh Reservoir and the Oskol River are condemned to death. When the Russian offensive in this direction begins, they will be left to flee through a narrow corridor, otherwise they will be pinned down by the water barriers and destroyed.
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Denis Pushylin, the acting head of the DPR, writes:

“There is a special symbolism in the fact that it is today that we are talking about the complete liberation of Artemivsk, which Ukrainian propagandists used to call nothing less than an “impregnable fortress”. A year ago on the same day, the last fighters of the Azov national battalion surrendered in Mariupol - 20 May has already become a special date for us twice.

The Wagner PMC fighters have done a colossal job: every metre has come at a high price.

We need to go further and at the same time rebuild the Donetsk People’s Republic settlements destroyed by the Ukrainian regime. Russia is restoring historical justice in Donbass”.
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Video:
Russian and PMC Wagner flags hoisted in Artyomovsk
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May 2️⃣0️⃣. Special military operation progress, stay tuned for tomorrow:

▪️ Prigozhin reported that Russian forces fully control Artemovsk;

▪️ Pushilin on the liberation of Artemovsk: it is necessary to go further and at the same time rebuild the cities of the DPR;

▪️ U.S. to supply F-16 fighter jets does not support Kiev’s attacks on Russian territory, the White House said;

▪️ Ukrainian military tried to conduct reconnaissance combat at the front line in the South Donetsk direction near Novoselovka, but were destroyed, the Russian Defense Ministry said;

▪️ African Peace Initiative on Ukraine is under discussion, Egyptian ambassador to Russia says;

▪️ G7 leaders in their final statement reiterated their intention to support Kyiv “for as long as it takes.”

▪️ The head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said that a new Ramstein meeting will be held next week, with air defense systems as Kiev’s top priority;

▪️ China’s Special Representative for the Settlement of the Conflict in Ukraine Li Hui may visit Moscow next week, an informed source said;

▪️ The Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC believes that Russia intimidated the judges and the prosecutor of the institution to declare them wanted, it said in a statement.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacres_of_Poles_in_Volhynia_and_Eastern_Galicia
One photo of dead Poles
***The massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia (Polish: rzeź wołyńska, lit. ‘Volhynian slaughter’; Ukrainian: Волинська трагедія, romanized: Volynska trahediia, lit. ‘Volyn tragedy’) were carried out in German-occupied Poland by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) with the support of parts of the local Ukrainian population against the Polish minority in Volhynia, Eastern Galicia, parts of Polesia and Lublin region from 1943 to 1945. The peak of the massacres took place in July and August 1943. Most of the victims were women and children. Many of the Polish victims, regardless of age or gender, were tortured before being killed; some of the methods included rape, dismemberment or immolation, among others. The UPA’s actions resulted in between 50,000 and 100,000 deaths.
The ethnic cleansing was a Ukrainian attempt to prevent the post-war Polish state from asserting its sovereignty over Ukrainian-majority areas that had been part of the pre-war Polish state. The massacres led to a conflict between the Polish resistance and the Ukrainian insurgency in the German-occupied territories, with the Polish Home Army in Volhynia responding to the Ukrainian attacks on a much smaller scale.