War in Ukraine / May 17
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Up to a thousand servicemen were taken out of Azovstal, occupants want to demolish the plant
Over the past two days, several dozen military buses have left Azovstal. According to some estimates, it is from 900 to 1,000 servicemen, some of them seriously wounded. All of them are transported to territories controlled by Russia, not Ukraine.
Ukraine has not yet made a large number of statements. The government asks for understanding, as there is a “difficult negotiation process” between a large number of participants. All that is known is that the Ukrainian military agreed to leave, and in fact to be taken prisoner, exclusively through the guarantees of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross: these organizations have stated that they will personally monitor the rights of prisoners of war.
One of the scenarios that is being considered right now is the transfer of troops to a third country till the end of the war. Among the most obvious is Turkey, which has agreed to this. There was no information from Russia on such a tripartite agreement. Another scenario is the exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine.
Instead, the Russian Duma has already called not to extradite Azov members to Ukraine, but to recognize them as “terrorist” and to judge according to Russian law. Ukraine has not yet commented on such statements.
Why did Russia go to any negotiations at all? Experts suggest that the surrender of Azovstal is the fastest way for Russia to show that they control the entire city of Mariupol. In other words, the military goal has been achieved and the army has made concrete progress. The head of the DPR, Pushilin, said that a park would be created on the territory of the plant, and Azovstal, which had been operating for 90 years, would be demolished.
Airstrike, missile and MRL damage
Kharkiv region:
- More than 30 private houses, a high-voltage line and a number of cars were damaged.
- Shelling of the Zolochiv community from May 16 23:00 to 2:00 on May 17. Houses, and agricultural enterprises were damaged.
- The firefighters who were extinguishing a fire in the occupied Izium were fired upon on their way back. As a result, the firefighter died.
- A village was shelled for the first time in the war. Several private houses and outbuildings were damaged.
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Lviv region:
- Cruise missiles were launched from the sea. The missiles fell on the branch of Lvivska Zaliznytsya. The explosion damaged the infrastructure. Windows were smashed in the houses in the area. The strike occurred 20 km from the border. In the Lviv region, 8-10 explosions were heard.
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Kyiv region:
- A tractor driver was blown up by an anti-tank mine left by Russian troops in Andriivka village. The explosion damaged the tractor. The sappers who arrived at the scene found another unexploded mine.
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Sumy region:
- Russian troops carried out an air strike with 5 missiles on civilian targets in the central part of the city and the “Dachny” dwelling area. As a result of the shelling, a fire broke out in the warehouse building. The blast wave and shrapnel caused significant damage to residential buildings: windows were shattered, roofing and cladding were damaged. The blast wave damaged the entrance door of a two-story residential building, as a result, people were blocked inside. The buildings of shops, a kindergarten and a local church were damaged. ~5 people were injured.
- Border villages in the Shostka district were shelled by Russian troops. Mortar shelling of the division of the State Border Service in the village of Bilokopytove. At 8:45 there were 5 shell blasts recorded near Esman. Near the Sopych village at ~10:10 6 blasts were recorded.
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Zaporizhzhya region:
- Olhivske, Huliaipilske, Kamyanske, Novoandriivka, Malynivka, Poltavka, Novodanylivka, Chervone were shelled by Russian troops. At Hulyaipole a gas pipeline was damaged.
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Luhansk region:
- In the morning, Russian troops shelled the Severodonetsk city multidisciplinary hospital again, they damaged 2 more corps.
- An evacuation bus carrying 36 people from Severodonetsk and Lysychansk was fired at from MLRS.
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Mykolaiv region:
- A cruise missile was shot down over Mykolayiv. The missile was fired by a strategic bomber from the Caspian direction. The cruise missile was heading to the western regions of Ukraine.
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Donetsk region:
- Krasnohorivka was powered down as a result of shelling.
- As a result of shelling in Bakhmut, school No. 4 and several infrastructure facilities, including a factory, were damaged. At 13:30, the Russian army shelled the city again. As a result of a missile hitting a residential building, 1 person was killed and a 9-year-old child was injured. By the end of the day, 2 people got killed in the city in total (1, 2).
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Kherson region:
- A convoy consisting of about a hundred civilian vehicles was fired upon. 6 people were injured of varying severity.
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Dnipropetrovsk region:
- One of the shells fell into the garden and damaged the power supply line.
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Chernihiv region:
- Russian troops carried out a missile air strike with 4 missiles on the territory of the village of Desna. 2 missiles hit administrative buildings. As a result of the shelling, 11 people died and 14 were injured.
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Odessa region:
- Russian troops launched 2 cruise missiles on the bridge across the Dnister estuary in the village of Zatoka. Previously, the bridge was shelled 4 times by Russian troops.
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This was the free part of the military brief
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In a paid version:
- Airstrike, missile and MLRS damage
- Civilian casualties
- Video of russian prisoners
- New laws
- Occupant’s casualties (est. from Ukrainian General Staff)
- War crimes in a de-ocupied territories
- Alternative loss estimates
- Data archive.
- Analytical charts: occupant losses, chart with known air raid alerts by region and known damage, diagram of known airstrike, missile and MRL damage and known child deaths, diagram of known damage for Ukrainian infrastructure, diagram of average duration of the air alerts in the regions.