On 1 May, Russian forces launched an offensive on Ukraine’s eastern front, capturing six villages. The fighting was particularly intense in the Robotyne area, where nearly the entire village fell under Russian control, though Ukrainian forces managed to hold their positions in the eastern part of the village. 

In Russia’s Ryazan region, a Rosneft refinery was struck by a drone attack, triggering a major fire. Meanwhile, in Odessa, a missile attack targeted a sorting facility and a Novaya Poshta branch, injuring 14 people. These attacks were part of a broader Russian strategy to destroy Ukraine’s civilian and logistical infrastructure. In the Dnipro region, Russian missile strikes caused significant damage to civilian infrastructure. 

Russian drones also targeted Ukrainian energy facilities, to weaken Ukraine’s defence capabilities by destabilizing its energy supply. 

According to the U.S. government, Russian forces had repeatedly used various irritant gases, including chloropicrin, in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, to which Russia was a signatory. The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine welcomed the United States’ decision to impose additional sanctions against Russia for the use of chemical weapons.

On 2 May, Russian forces captured the village of Berdychi near Avdiivka, intensifying their efforts to break through Ukraine’s eastern defence line in the directions of Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Novopavlovsk. In the Avdiivka area, the Russians continued to attack the village of Sokil and took control of the southern part of the town of Arkhangelsk. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces launched a counteroffensive to rescue several hundred soldiers who had been surrounded between Arkhangelsk and Keramik. 

President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that in April 2024, Russia had employed over 300 missiles, about 300 Shahed 136/131 drones and more than 3,200 aerial bombs, to attack Ukraine.

Local authorities stated that Russian forces had attacked the villages of Novoosynovy and Memryk in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, killing three people, including a 12-year-old child, and wounding two others.

The UK’s Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, during his visit to Kyiv, stated that “Ukraine has the right to use British weapons to strike targets on Russian territory” and confirmed that the UK would provide £3 billion in military assistance to Ukraine, including precision bombs, anti-aircraft missiles and equipment for 100 mobile fire groups. The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, said he would consider sending ground troops to Ukraine if Russia were to break through Ukrainian front lines and the government in Kyiv made such a request, but at present that was not the case.

On 3 May, Russian troops launched five missile strikes, 105 airstrikes, and 91 artillery shellings that targeted Ukrainian positions and civilian areas, causing casualties and destruction of infrastructure. Over 110 towns across nine regions were hit by artillery fire.

On 4 May, Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs put President Volodymyr Zelensky, General Oleksandr Pavlyuk - Commander of the Ukrainian Land Forces, and the former President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, on its wanted list.

On 5 May, the Ukrainian Aerospace Forces said that Ukraine had been attacked by 24 Russian Shahed 136/131 drones launched from the Kursk oblast and Crimea. Ukrainian intelligence reported that a pro-Russian official, Yevgeny Ananievsky, responsible for setting up torture chambers in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, had been killed in a car bomb explosion in Berdyansk in the early morning.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence informed that around 9,000 soldiers were serving in pro-Russian Chechen units in Ukraine. Chechen forces had been fighting in Ukraine since 2014, with additional troops being sent in 2022.

The Foreign Ministry of Finland accused Russia of jamming GPS signals in the Baltic Sea.

Photo: Patriot missile launch. By Bernd vdB. Public Domain