Ukraine's military vowed on Sunday to turn Crimea into a new battlefront with Russian forces, while the commander of Russia's Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, reviewed "details" about the battle for Bachmut, which has seen its fiercest fighting in months.

A spokeswoman for Ukraine's Southern Operations Command, Colonel Natalia Humenyuk, commented on the explosions, which targeted several locations in Crimea, saying that these explosions were only the beginning.

The head of Ukraine's military intelligence agency, Kirilo Budanov, said Ukraine's goal was to regain control of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, adding: "It will be liberated because our victory is impossible without the liberation of Crimea."

Budanov predicted that Russia had exhausted its missile stockpile: "They are trying to work on accumulating a certain stockpile, working on preparing it to try to disrupt our attack, but the truth is that they have exhausted their stockpile to almost zero," he said.

It is noteworthy that the pro-Russian president of the Republic of Crimea announced yesterday that Russian air defense shot down a ballistic missile over the peninsula, without causing casualties.


Crimea is of particular strategic importance to Russia, as it is its only gateway to warm waters on the Black Sea, and there are military bases that play important roles in the Russian war on Ukraine, which has been ongoing since February 2022.

Russia annexed the peninsula on March 18, 2014, following a referendum that neither Kiev nor the international community recognized. While Kiev insists on demanding the recapture of its "territory" with weapons, Moscow says that "Crimea is Russian," refusing to be the subject of negotiation in any potential peace talks.

Russian novel

In contrast, Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev announced that a Ukrainian attack would be repelled by marches on the city.

One of the marches spiraled out of control, landing in a forested area, two of which fell over the sea, he said, noting that no facilities in the city were damaged.

In Moscow, the Russian State Security Service announced that it had thwarted an attack with Ukrainian drones on the military airport "Severny", in the Ivanovo province (northeast of the Russian capital).

The State Security Service said in a statement that the attack was planned by Ukrainian intelligence and was aimed at destroying Russian A-50 early warning aircraft.

The SSB confirmed the disclosure of what it called the "subversive group" that was preparing this attack, its coordinators, and its leadership, which was cooperating with Ukrainian private security agencies.

Prigozhin's remarks

In Bachmut in the east, the commander of Russia's Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced that he had received an official decision to supply his troops in the city with all the ammunition they needed.

Prigozhin confirmed that he received promises to secure his forces at the front, so that they would not be penetrated by Ukrainian forces, pointing to the assignment of General Sergei Surovikin to supervise coordination with his forces in Bakhmut, provided that the forces of "Wagner" are granted the authority to act and move in Bakhamout based on the conditions of the battle.

Prigozhin yesterday made a formal request to Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to order the handover of areas under his troop control in Pakhmut to Chechen forces.


Details of the Battle of "Bakhmut"

Prigozhin reviewed the details of the Bachmut military operation in a lengthy article, which he posted on his Telegram account.

Most notably, the goal of the battle of Pakhmut was not to control the city, but to push Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to send many of his troops there, allowing the Russian army to organize its defenses after retreating in Kherson and Kharkiv.

Prigozhin said that a period of 6 months has been set to complete the Bakhmut operation, and make it "a meat grinder for the Ukrainian army," as he put it.

He explained that the strategic importance of the city is in the advance of Russian forces after Bachmut, to take control of Slavinsk, Kramatorsk and Konstantinovka.

According to the commander of the Wagner Group, the Ukrainian army's losses have reached 50,<> dead since the fighting began in Bachmut.

Prigozhin noted that the decision to withdraw from Bachmut, which he recently waved, came after 400 days of fighting without a break, a lack of ammunition, and the loss of Wagner combat capabilities that need to be compensated.

Prigozhin: Wagner PMC remains in Bakhmut
PMC "Wagner" remains in Artyomovsk. Tonight, according to Prigozhin, he received for the first time a combat order in which he was promised to be given as much ammunition and weapons as needed to continue hostilities.
" We are sworn on... pic.twitter.com/ECThgtB2K7

— Spriter (@Spriter99880) May 7, 2023

Field developments

Ukrainian authorities in the city of Nikopol said one civilian had been killed and others wounded by Russian shelling targeting populated areas.

Authorities in the city of Nikopol, which is located in the central southern province of Dnipro and overlooking the Zaporizhia nuclear plant, said the shelling was artillery and led to material damage and hit three gas pipelines and an electricity line.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army confirmed that Russian forces and their loyalists continued to evacuate the city of Energudhar - home to the Zaporizhye nuclear plant in the southern province - from its residents, and brought in other Russian passport holders.

For his part, the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Melitopol in Zaporizhia Ivan Fedorov said that there is chaos and panic due to the ongoing withdrawal from the cities of the southern province.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has expressed concern about increased military action around the Zaporizhia plant, which is controlled by Russian forces.

Russian strategic bomber Tu-22M3 during an earlier military parade in Moscow (Reuters)

Bombardment with strategic bombers

In a related context, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat said that Ukrainian territory was attacked last night by Russian strategic bombers "Tu-22" (TU-22).

Ignat confirmed the downing of a drone in the skies over Kiev, and 5 drones in other regions of Ukraine, in the past 24 hours.

In Kherson in the south, Ukraine's provincial governor said seven civilians were killed in Russian shelling targeting populated areas and infrastructure networks.

He added that the Russians bombarded Kherson province more than 50 times, and fired more than 200 shells, and explained that the city authorities removed dozens of civilians in safe ways from Russian-controlled positions in the province.

Meanwhile, the head of the press center of the Russian army's Southern Forces Vadim Istvaev said the air force targeted a gathering of an infantry brigade of the Ukrainian army near Grigorovka in the Donetsk region.

He added that army forces targeted a Ukrainian ammunition depot on the Solidar-Pakhmut axis.