On May 1, Russia carried out 19 missile attacks, 17 airstrikes and 25 rocket shellings, hitting civilian infrastructure and causing casualties among the population. The Kherson region alone was shelled 71 times by tanks, aircraft and artillery. In the occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia region (including Dorozhnyanka and Konstantynivka), the Russians introduced restrictions, prohibiting entry to civilians without local registration, which tightens the police regime against the Ukrainian population. 

On May 2, forced passportization continued in the Kherson region, where occupiers raided homes, intimidating residents with threats of deportation and confiscation of property if they did not accept Russian citizenship. The next day (May 3) was a day of tragic attacks on civilian targets in the Kherson region. As a result of 98 shellings (539 projectiles), 23 civilians were killed and 46 were injured. The Russians deliberately attacked facilities of purely civilian use: a railway station, a supermarket, and a gas station in Kherson. In the Henichesk district, repression and threats of deportation against people refusing to accept Russian passports intensified.

On May 4, Russia carried out 10 missile attacks on Kramatorsk and Zaporizhzhia and 75 airstrikes. In Odessa, drones struck university dormitories. During his visit to The Hague, President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the establishment of a special tribunal for Russian aggression, emphasizing the need to bring those responsible for war crimes to justice. In the Luhansk region, the occupation administration intensified the collection of data on employees of local companies in order to forcibly assign to them Russian citizenship.

May 5 In Starobelsk (Luhansk region), acts took place of forceful displacement of Ukrainians who refused to accept Russian passports. Their homes were handed over to Russian soldiers, and the residents themselves were sent to filtration points. The Russians struck energy facilities in the Donetsk region, damaging two power plants in Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. In the evening, the Russian army shelled Bakhmut using phosphorus and incendiary ammunition, a drastic violation of the Geneva Conventions in urban areas. At the same time, a forced "evacuation" (deportation) of residents from 18 localities in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region was announced.

On May 6 Russia carried out 6 missile attacks (hitting, among others, Chasiv Yar, Konstantynivka and Kherson) and 77 rocket shellings, which resulted in civilian casualties. In Enerhodar, the illegal transfer of residents to the centres in Berdyansk and Prymorsk began. This process was discriminatory in nature: the first to be deported were those who had accepted Russian passports in the early months of the occupation, which was part of the policy of forced assimilation.

On May 7, massive missile attacks (16 strikes) were carried out against Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odessa. In Nikopol, "Grad" shelling killed an elderly woman. From a legal perspective, the acts in Tokmak are crucial: The Russians threatened parents that if they refused to "evacuate" their children, they would not be allowed to attend the next school grade. It was a form of blackmail and forced transfer of children. Furthermore, in Bakhmut, Russia continued to use phosphorus and incendiary ammunition against targets in the city.

On May 8 in Odessa, a Russian missile completely destroyed a warehouse of the Red Cross of Ukraine (1,000 sqm), killing one person. The attack on a humanitarian organization is blatant violation of international humanitarian law. In the Zaporizhzhia region, mass looting of state and private property was reported, which was taken towards Crimea. Additionally, shelling damaged the water infrastructure of the Donets-Donbas canal, cutting off water supplies to thousands of civilians.

On May 9, in the occupied territories of Enerhodar, the Russians began deporting the families of employees of the Zaporizhzhia Power Plant (ZPP), and the employees themselves were banned from leaving the city, effectively making them hostages in the nuclear facility. The next day, Enerhoatom announced Russia's plans to deport 3,100 people from Enerhodar, including 2,700 employees of the power plant. Such mass forced transfer of employees of key critical infrastructure under the pretext of "security" is part of Russia's tactics to destabilize and depopulate occupied lands.

Illustrative photo/AI generated