Chris Lange, FISM News
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Loud explosions rocked Kyiv for the ninth time this month. Ukraine’s military said its air defenses shot down 29 out of 30 Russian-launched cruise missiles targeting the capital city and the southern region of Odesa on Thursday. Two explosive drones and two reconnaissance drones were also intercepted.
The missiles were launched from Russian air, ground, and sea bases between 9:00 p.m. Wednesday and 5:30 a.m. Thursday, according to a top Ukrainian general, per the Associated Press.
One person was killed and two were injured when the sole missile that made it past the defenses struck an industrial building in Odesa.
Moscow has escalated missile attacks in recent weeks as its forces brace for a looming Ukrainian counteroffensive augmented by newly acquired advanced Western weapons. On Tuesday, Ukraine shot down a Russian hypersonic missile once touted by President Vladimir Putin as “undefeatable.”
While little has changed in the front-line stalemate, Ukraine and Russia have increasingly targeted one another with long-range weapons.
The regional governor of Russia’s southern Kursk region bordering Ukraine said Thursday that two people were injured when Ukrainian forces dropped an explosive device from a drone on a sports and recreation complex.
Elsewhere, Kremlin-installed officials in occupied Crimea blamed a trail derailment Thursday on “the interference of unauthorized persons,” as reported by Reuters. Eight train cars carrying Russian grain were thrown off the tracks in the capital city of Simferopol accompanied by reports of an explosion. The derailment prompted a suspension of train services on the affected section of the line. No casualties were reported. Russia agreed on Wednesday to extend the United Nations-brokered Black Sea grain deal with Ukraine, Russia, and Turkey to facilitate agricultural exports on the Black Sea.
OBERVERS NOTE MARKED SHIFT IN KREMLIN-RUN MEDIA’S ‘SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION’ NARRATIVE
In the agonizing lull ahead of Ukraine’s anticipated counteroffensive, the Kremlin has substantially shifted away from its longstanding narrative that Putin’s “military operation” is moving according to plan. Newsweek reported that Russian state media appears “to be actively preparing the domestic population to accept further setbacks on the battlefield.”
“Russian federal talk shows and news broadcasts are pointing to all of the Western military aid that Ukraine has received,” Kateryna Stepanenko of the Institute for the Study of War told the news service. “They really highlight the number of troops trained by NATO countries and the quantity of Western-supplied weapons systems.”
Stepanenko said specifically that the new messaging from the Kremlin is that Ukrainian forces could potentially reclaim territory “around Melitopol, Derdyansk, and even in Crimea.”
KREMLIN FREEZES BANK ACCOUNTS OF FINNISH DIPLOMATS IN RUSSIA
On Thursday, the Kremlin claimed that its decision to freeze the bank accounts of Finnish embassies and consulates in Russia was in response to the unfriendly acts of “the collective West,” including Finland.
According to representatives from Finland and Denmark, both countries’ diplomatic bank accounts in Russia were frozen on Wednesday, forcing their embassies to make payments in cash.
“This is not an initiative from the Russian side,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday. “We are reacting to the situation created by the authorities of several countries of the collective West, including, to our regret, Finland.”
Peskov asserted that Russia will never fail to respond to “unfriendly actions.”
Pekka Haavisto, the foreign minister of Finland, told reporters on Wednesday that Helsinki had sent a note to the Russian government on May 4 asking that Moscow ensure the ability of the diplomatic missions to function and requesting an official justification for the freeze, but had not yet received a response.
“We will respond to the note by reiterating that the principle of reciprocity and the principle of responding appropriately to unfriendly steps will continue to prevail in our relations,” Peskov said.
Officials from Denmark said Wednesday that the bank accounts of its diplomats had also been frozen by Russia.