Ukraine, ex-American soldier killed in Russian attack on Bakhmut

An American was killed in a Russian attack on Ukraine. CNN reports on it. This is Nicholas Mayme, a retired US Army Special Forces soldier who served for more than 20 years. The former soldier was in a building in Bakhmut that was hit by artillery fire from Moscow, said retired Lieutenant Colonel Perry Blackburn. Yesterday, the news of the death of an American citizen was reported by the leader of the Wagner mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, but the White House did not confirm this.

The night in Kiev was broken for the umpteenth time by the lights and roar of anti-aircraft explosions, which protected the Ukrainian capital from the eighth Russian air attack in sixteen days, the last of which was on an “extraordinary” scale for it. intensity. The Russians actually fired six fearsome Kinzhal hypersonic missiles at the city, a record since the beginning of the war. Russian sources said that Moscow denies Kiev’s claim that Ukrainian anti-aircraft guns shot down six Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missiles.

The result announced by Kiev is certainly exceptional: all six were shot down, possibly thanks to the American Patriot systems, but there is no official confirmation. There is no doubt that a rain of missiles is not a good way to talk about peace, while the Chinese envoy Li Hui started his tour of Europe directly from Kiev, then continued for the next few days in Poland, France, Germany and finally in Moscow, searching for a political solution to the conflict. Along with the Kinzhals, Moscow bombarded the Ukrainian capital with Kalibr missiles, ballistic missiles and drones, in one of the most dangerous escalations since the start of the invasion that kept citizens awake and anxious as explosions resounded across the city. The air raid alarm sounded first at 2.30 and then at 4. Debris fell in the Shevchenkivskyi, Sviatoshynskyi, Solomianskyi, Obolonskyi and Darnytskyi districts, causing damage, some fires and wounding three, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Russia claims it was able to destroy the Patriot system using a Kinzhal missile, while a US official said it “may have been damaged but not destroyed”.

In any case, it could have been much worse for Kiev, which immediately after Zelensky’s tour of Europe brought a victory to Western weapons, collecting “powerful defense packages”, even if the Ukrainians continued to call F16. On the other hand, Moscow talks about an escalation of new weapons in Kiev and condemns a new day of attacks in Russia, as a drone was shot down in the Bryansk region and another targeted the FSB headquarters in the Kursk region.

While the words of the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence only serve to inflame the confrontation: in a YouTube interview with Ukrainian journalist Valery Savchuk, Kyrillo Budanov said that Kiev’s services have “already reached many” in Russia, “including public and media figures,” without anything. He openly claims responsibility for the murders and assaults of Russian propaganda figures, most recently the wounding of Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin on 6 May. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova attacked the Ukrainian intelligence services as “terrorists” and “those who justify the Kiev regime and sponsor it as accomplices.” In a segment deemed surprising by the Ukrainian media, Budanov claimed that “most” of what Wagner’s mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin says is “true”, and that his militiamen have “showed maximum competence”, in contrast to the Russian regular army. Perhaps the statements were intended to inflame internal strife within the Russian forces, while fighting continues in Bakhmut in a situation that both sides consider “difficult”. The commander of the ground forces of the Armed Forces, Oleksandr Sersky, celebrated the “counterattack” of his soldiers with a visit to the city front, where he said that Wagner was “like rats in a trap”.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar claimed that “in a few days, the troops cleared about 20 square kilometers north and south of the suburb of Pakhmut for the enemy.” However, the Russians “advance to the city itself and completely destroy it with artillery.” Thus, it is a complex front, subject to sudden changes, and in which a victory with deep symbolic meaning is achieved after months of fierce clashes.