KIEV REGIME GETS SECOND BREATH AFTER BAKHMUT KNOCKDOWN

Following the defeat in MSM-hyped ‘stronghold of Bakhmut’, the Kyiv regime is in a hurry for a PR victory to assist its claim that nothing bad has happened in its conflict with Russia. First, Kyiv’s forces carried out a raid targeting a border area in Russia’s Belgorod region. However, the hyped-up raid rapidly turned into another military failure and Ukrainian units retreated suffering notable losses. Then, the Russian Navy ship ‘Ivan Churs’ was attacked by three unmanned speed boats with explosives some 140km to the northeast of the Bosporus Strait. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the ship destroyed all the enemy boats using its onboard weapons. A day later, the Kyiv regime released a video showing an attack on the ship. It shows that at least one of the boats moved dangerously close to the Ivan Churs. It remains unclear as to whether or not the attack caused any damage to the ship. These actions were accompanied by a series of attempts to attack Russian border areas with missiles and drones. In one of the most recent developments, on May 26, a missile was shot down over Rostov Region. At the same time, the facade of an office building was damaged in a suspected drone attack in the city of Krasnodar. On top of these, Ukrainian artillery and rocket units intensified strikes on civilian targets within their range. Donetsk and Berdyansk were among the targets of such attacks. Such terrorist behavior apparently plays into the further escalation of the conflict and the Russian special military operation in Ukraine is not expected to be nearing its end with the liberation of Bakhmut. Furthermore, the reality on the ground differs significantly from the fairy tales that mainstream media outlets try to feed to their viewers. The disarray and chaos among the population of the Kyiv-controlled territory, including pro-Kyiv troops, are contained by harsh extralegal persecutions only. Nonetheless, even this approach misfires time to time. On May 25, a video appeared online allegedly showing the commander of one of the Ukrainian battalions shot and killed by one of his subordinates for insubordination after refusing an order to move to the contact line with Russian forces. Meanwhile, positional fighting continues in the region of Donbass and nearby areas. In the Kupyansk direction, Russian units destroyed a D-20 howitzer and disrupted four attempts to rotate pro-Kiyv units to forward positions near Kucherovka. Russian aviation carried out missile strikes on the temporary deployment areas of the 1st Separate Special Operations Forces Brigade and gathering points of personnel, weapons, and military hardware of the 14th Brigade and territorial defense units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The fighting was also reported near Torezk, Verhnekamenskoe and Vodyanoe. The current relative calm on the frontline will not likely last for long.