Ukraine Update Day 1,069…The Fighting Continues….

More fighting by drones and manned units…..

It HAS become CLEAR that Russian President does NOT want to stop the fighting….

And that American President Trump is NOT a factor in the situation…

It HAS also become clear that Europe IS increasing its support for Ukraine under the fear that Putin could be coming for them after Ukraine….

Finland is predicting that at the end of the current conflict?

More Russin military will moved opposite its border….

 

• Ukraine’s military said 10 of its drones hit the Bolkhovsky semiconductor plant, a supplier in the Oryol region to Russian fighter jet and missile makers. Videos online and Nasa satellite fire monitoring supported the claim. “This is one of the leading enterprises in the Russian Federation in the field of development and production of semiconductor devices and components,” said the Ukrainian military, adding that parts from the plant went into Iskander and Kinzhal missiles.

• A Russian strike on a military training site in north-eastern Ukraine killed six soldiers and wounded at least 10 others, the Ukrainian national guard said on Wednesday. Russia’s defence ministry confirmed a ballistic missile attack on the “training camp” for Ukrainian special forces. Ukraine’s national guard said: “An internal investigation into the incident is under way. The commander of the military unit has been suspended, and the necessary information has been passed on to law enforcement agencies.” Commanders on both sides have been censured during the war after presiding over military assemblies for training, parades and presentations that have come under enemy attack, resulting in casualties.

• Russia said more than 370 Ukrainian drones attacked across the border on Wednesday, including 27 aimed at Moscow, the capital, where airports had to be temporarily shut down.

• The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in his nightly video address that the heaviest frontline battles were around Pokrovsk, while Ukrainian forces remained active in two Russian regions along the border: Kursk and Belgorod. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, visited the Kursk region on Tuesday. Russia’s defence ministry said its forces were advancing at key points along the front, and pro-Russian war bloggers said Russia had penetrated Ukrainian lines between Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. The battlefield accounts could not be independently verified.

• Zelenskyy spoke on Wednesday with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, about the need to put pressure on Russia: “It is important that all decisions are coordinated. Then the sanctions will work. Without pressure on Moscow, a just peace cannot be achieved. Everyone understands this.”

• Russian military intelligence (the GRU) is targeting organisations delivering assistance to Ukraine by hacking into cameras at crossings and railway stations and near military installations, as well as such tactics as phishing emails and stealing passwords, according to the UK’s intelligence services and those of allies. Daniel Boffey writes that the unit involved – GRU Unit 26165, also known as APT 28 or Fancy Bear – has conducted the malicious cyber-campaign against public and private organisations in Nato states since 2022. In an advisory note, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) – part of GCHQ – called on private companies involved in the delivery of aid to “take immediate action to protect themselves”.

• The Polish navy has chased a “shadow fleet” oil tanker away from an undersea power cable connecting Poland to Sweden. Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, said on Wednesday that the ship was undertaking “suspicious” activity and “following a successful intervention by our military, the vessel left for one of the Russian ports”. The Polish defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said an emergency meeting of Poland’s Maritime Operations Command would be held on Thursday.

• Finland has said it expects Russia to further build up troops along their shared border when the war in Ukraine ends, writes Miranda Bryant, after reports that Moscow had strengthened its military bases near the Nato frontier. Maj Gen Sami Nurmi of the Finnish defence forces said the military was following Moscow’s manoeuvring “very closely” in order to “prepare for the worst”. The Finnish border guard announced on Wednesday it had completed the first 35km of a planned 200km fence on its eastern border with Russia, which has been closed for more than a year after Helsinki accused Moscow of directing asylum seekers to Finland in a “hybrid operation”. The fence also uses cameras and sensors to distinguish between people and animals crossing…..

More…

ISW…Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, May 21, 2025

• Russian President Vladimir Putin likely orchestrated a meeting with Kursk Oblast officials on May 20 to set conditions to justify the renewal of Russian plans to seize Sumy City and illegally annex Sumy Oblast.
• Russian forces are highly unlikely to be able to seize Sumy City in the near- to medium-term given Russia’s demonstrated inability to rapidly seize even much smaller settlements in Ukraine in the past three years.
• Russia continues to promote the false narrative accusing Ukrainian forces of “neo-Nazism” as part of dual Kremlin efforts to justify continued Russian offensive operations in Ukraine despite ongoing peace talks, and to prepare the Russian population for a Russian rejection of any future peace agreement.
• Russia continues to reject American proposals to establish a ceasefire in Ukraine before starting negotiations to end the war.
• Russian officials are setting conditions to refuse Western involvement in peace negotiations to end Russia’s war in Ukraine and for Russia to deny the independence and sovereignty of other former Soviet states.
• Russian security services continue to conduct hybrid operations against the United States and its allies in preparation for a larger future war with NATO.
• The recent establishment of the first formal motorcycle unit within the Ukrainian military demonstrates the rapid technical adaptation cycle that has become typical in Ukraine and that will become a key characteristic of future wars.
• Russian forces recently advanced near Velyka Novosilka.

Daily Kos grunt Report for Today….