Eurasia Press & News
Violent clashes erupted on the Russian-Ukrainian border with Moscow accusing a Ukrainian “sabotage group” of trying to make an incursion into the country, an allegation Kyiv rejected.
Explosions and sporadic gunfire could be heard on May 22 in the Belgorod region, with the local governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, saying that fighting had spilled into Russia in the Graivoron district which borders Ukraine. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The governor said six people were injured in the clashes. The incursion into Russian territory may be the biggest since the Kremlin launched its war against Ukraine 15 months ago.
A group calling itself the Liberty of Russia Legion, which claims to be made up of Russians cooperating with Ukrainian forces, took responsibility for the attack. The Ukrainian government denied any role in the events.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had been informed of the incursion, and that work was under way to drive the “saboteurs” out.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said on May 22 that it had restored external electricity supply to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest nuclear station, after a brirf cut-off earlier in the day.
Russia launched a wave of missile and drone attacks on the Dnipropetrovsk region overnight causing damage to the last high-voltage transmission line leading to the nuclear power plant.
“Ukrenerho restored the power transmission line that supplies the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant. The station is switching to power supply from the Ukrainian power system,” the national transmission operator, Ukrenerho, said in a statement.
It was the seventh time that the nuclear plant had been operating without external power since the start of Russia’s invasion, the plant’s Ukrainian operator, Enerhoatom, said in a statement earlier on May 22.
Enerhoatom said diesel generators automatically turned on during the external power interruption. The diesel generators have enough fuel to operate for 10 days.
The situation around the plant has been a cause for concern ever since Russian forces took control of it soon after the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
During the nighttime attack, Russian forces launched 16 missiles and 20 Iranian-made kamikaze drones on the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine’s air defense command said. As a result of the attack, several people were wounded, it added.
Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration head, Serhiy Lysak, said that 15 drones and four cruise missiles had been shot down by the Ukrainian air defenses.
Bakhmut Fighting
Ukraine’s military said on May 22 that it was continuing to fight for control of Bakhmut, despite claims by Russia that it had taken full control of the devastated city.
Bakhmut has been the epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine with massive casualties on both sides. Though military experts say the city has little strategic value, it has taken on great symbolic importance for both Kyiv and Moscow.
Ukrainian military officials claim to control an “insignificant” area in Bakhmut but say they are in the process of surrounding the city by retaking territory to the north and south.
In the meantime, Ukrainian forces said they continued to repel attacks along the whole Bakhmut-Avdiyivka-Maryinka front line in the Donetsk region.
Ukraine’s General Staff said in its daily report that its forces beat back 37 Russian attacks in the previous 24 hours.
Russian forces carried out 52 missile and air strikes on Ukrainian military and civilian targets alike, the military said.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of Donetsk regional military administration, said two civilians were killed by Russian shelling in the region.
In the southern region of Kherson, Russian shelling of civilian areas killed one person, Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the Kherson regional administration, said on May 22.
