Liveblog: ++ Prigozhin: Moscow promises weapons and ammunition ++

Wagner boss Prigoschin announced that he had now been promised the necessary equipment. According to official information, the Russian author, who was injured in an attack, woke up from a coma. All developments in the live blog.

Pope Francis has called for prayer for peace in the world. Believers should pray the Rosary in the Marian month of May and ask Our Lady for the gift of peace, the Pope said on St. Peter’s Square. This applies in particular to the “tormented Ukraine” so that those responsible in politics listen to the wishes of the people “who suffer and want peace”.

Ukraine has reported multiple Russian missile strikes in the country. Mikolaiv Governor Vitaly Kim said a building and premises of an unspecified company were damaged overnight after Russian long-range bombers attacked the region with five Kh-22 cruise missiles, according to Reuters news agency.

Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Ihnat said on local television this morning that a total of six of these missiles had been fired at Ukraine overnight, but none had hit their target.

At least five people were injured in an attack by an S-300 missile in the city of Balakliya in the Kharkiv region, according to Governor Oleh Synyehubov. The information cannot be independently verified at this time.

After the announcement of their withdrawal from the embattled Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the Russian mercenary group Wagner claims to be receiving the ammunition and reinforcements it needs from Moscow. “We were promised as much ammunition and weapons as needed to continue hostilities,” her boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said on the Telegram channel. In addition, he was assured flank protection so that his units did not run the risk of being surrounded.

It was only on Friday that Prigozhin threatened to withdraw his mercenaries from the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, which had been fought over for months, citing a lack of supplies from the military leadership. As a result, his mercenaries would have to retreat to supply camps on May 10 and hand over their positions to the Russian army, he said.

According to British assessments, the Russian economy is also threatened by a crisis because of the war of aggression against Ukraine. The country is facing the worst labor shortage in decades, the Ministry of Defense announced in London and also quoted information from the Russian central bank.

“In the past three years, Russia’s population has reportedly shrunk by up to two million people more than expected because of Corona and the war in Ukraine,” it said in London. In 2022 alone, up to 1.3 million people would have left the country, including many young and well-educated people from high-quality areas such as the IT industry.

“Mobilization, historically high levels of emigration, and an aging and declining population limit the supply of labor,” it said. “This will likely lead to a reduction in the potential growth of the Russian economy and fuel inflation.”

According to information from Warsaw, a Russian fighter jet dangerously approached a Polish aircraft over the Black Sea. The Polish machine of the type “Let L-410” was already on a patrol flight for the EU border protection agency Frontex on Friday when it was intercepted by a Russian “Sukhoi Su-35”, the Polish border guard said.

The Russian fighter plane approached the Polish plane “three times without maintaining the required safe distance”. According to the information from Warsaw, the Polish aircraft got into “considerable turbulence” and the crew had meanwhile “lost control of the aircraft and altitude”. After the incident, it landed safely in Romania. The incident happened in international airspace.

According to the governor, the Russian region of Belgorod was shelled by Ukraine during the night. A gas pipeline, power lines and a house in the village of Spodaryuschino were damaged. “Most importantly, there were no injuries,” Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram. This information cannot be independently verified at this time.

According to the Russian account, attacks by unknown perpetrators on Russian infrastructure and supply routes have increased in recent weeks. For example, a fuel depot on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Russia, recently caught fire as a result of a drone attack. Ukraine rarely claims responsibility for such attacks. Nevertheless, some observers assume that this is a preparation for the Ukrainian counter-offensive, which is expected to begin soon.

The Russian writer Zakhar Prilepin, who was seriously injured in an attack, has woken up from an artificial coma, according to official information. “He is conscious, according to the doctors, his condition is stable, the mood is cheerful,” wrote the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, Gleb Nikitin, on his Telegram channel.

Prilepin is considered a strong supporter of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. He had previously fought in Ukraine’s Donbass region on the side of the Moscow-loyal separatists. The 47-year-old was seriously injured yesterday when an explosive device exploded on his car in the Nizhny Novgorod region, and his driver died. According to the authorities, the attack was carried out with an anti-tank mine. A few hours later, according to the Interior Ministry, a man was arrested. An investigation into a suspected terrorist attack had been initiated. The Kremlin blames Kiev and Western countries for the attack.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has set the goal of freeing all compatriots captured by Russia. “We must and we will bring back all our people from Russian captivity,” said Zelenskyj in his evening video address. It is not known how many Ukrainians and how many Russians are being held on the other side more than 14 months after the start of the war. Another exchange of prisoners between the two warring parties became known yesterday. According to consistent information, three pilots from the Russian Air Force and 45 Ukrainian soldiers were released.

According to information from the Reuters news agency, the Ukrainian authorities issued an air alert for around two-thirds of the country late in the evening. The warnings extend from the capital Kiev to numerous regions in Ukraine.

Ukraine has attacked targets on Russia’s annexed Crimea peninsula with more than 10 drones overnight, according to a local administration official. Three of the unmanned missiles were aimed at the port city of Sevastopol, the city’s governor, who was deployed by Russia, said on the messenger service Telegram. These three drones were intercepted by the air defenses and there was no damage. The information cannot be independently verified at this time.

Even after a possible withdrawal from the embattled Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the Russian mercenary group Wagner will continue to fight for Moscow, according to statements by their boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin. “The Wagner fighters will be retained for the next operations in Russia’s interests,” he said, according to the Russian state agency TASS. Only on Friday, after complaints about a lack of ammunition, Prigozhin announced that he would withdraw his fighters from Bakhmut in the coming week. Now he said no one spoke to him about the lack of ammunition. The positions in Bakhmut are said to be taken over by fighters of Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov from next Wednesday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is alarmed by the tense situation surrounding the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which is close to the front. The situation is becoming increasingly unpredictable and the risk of danger in the Russian-occupied nuclear power plant is increasing, said IAEA chief Rafael Grossi.