LIVETEXT War in Ukraine, Day 802 | Russians Attacked With Drones and Missiles on Resurrection Night: At Least 2 Dead

A Russian missile fire on the Donetsk region, in eastern Ukraine, resulted in the death of two people, reports Agerpres, citing France-Presse.

The latest attacks took place while Orthodox Christians in Ukraine and Russia were celebrating the Resurrection.

“In Pokrovsk, rocket fire killed two people and damaged a house,” said Vadim Filashkin, the Ukrainian governor of Donetsk region (east).

The town of Pokrovsk is located about 60 kilometers northwest of the city of Donetsk, the administrative center of the region of the same name occupied by Russia and which Moscow claims to have annexed.

In a public speech addressed to Patriarch Kirill I, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, which strongly supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin leader thanked him for “fruitful cooperation in the current difficult period”.

“It is important for us to join our efforts in order to constantly develop and strengthen the homeland,” added Putin, according to Agerpres.

The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed the conquest of a new locality in eastern Ukraine, the village of Oceretîne, located northwest of Avdiivka, on the direction of Chiasiv Yar.

Oceretîne, which had a population of approximately 3,000 inhabitants before the war, looks devastated and deserted because of the fighting.

The Ukrainian military is on the defensive due to a lack of ammunition and anti-aircraft defenses, but is eagerly awaiting the resumption of US assistance, already approved by the US Congress.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to his fellow citizens, on the occasion of Orthodox Easter, to pray for each other and for the soldiers on the front, because God will lead to the victory of life over death, reports Reuters, according to news.ro.

“Let’s pray for each other. When we all come closer to each other, we are no longer strangers,” said Zelenskii, dressed in a traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt and his signature khaki pants.

Standing in front of Kiev’s 1,000-year-old Saint Sophia Cathedral, a spiritual and architectural monument, Zelenskiy said Ukraine has been fighting for 802 days to emerge victorious from a full-scale Russian invasion.

More details: Volodymyr Zelensky, Easter message: God is an “ally” of Ukraine and thanks to Him, “life will overcome death” VIDEO

Patriarch Kirill I, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, delivered a political message at the Resurrection service, celebrated in the presence of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and broadcast on Russian state television.

An ardent supporter of Putin’s bloodshed in Ukraine, Patriarch Kirill I told Russians to pray for the Russian “authorities and military”.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church also addressed God, asking him to “protect the borders” of Russia, which he called “holy”, and to stop the war, which he categorized as an “internal conflict”.

Cyril I also claimed that Russia is going through “tough trials, perhaps, in a way, fateful”, reports the Russian publication Meduza.

More details: Russian Patriarch Kirill I officiated the Resurrection service in the presence of Putin. The message to the Russians and the request to God

Journalists Hristo Grozev, Michael Weiss and Roman Dobrohotov uncovered, for the publication The Insider, one of the most infamous families of Russian “illegals” who have been operating in Western Europe in recent years.

It is about the couple Elena and Nikolai Šapošnikov, a couple of Russian spies with Czech citizenship under the coordination of the GRU (no – Glavnoe Razvedîvatelnoe Upravlenie, the Main Directorate of Espionage of Russia).

The two specialize in international arms trafficking and have worked closely with members of the 29155 GRU unit, Vladimir Putin’s darkest assassination and sabotage squad, responsible for poisoning Kremlin enemies and blowing up weapons caches stored in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, both NATO countries.

More details: How Unit 29155 GRU, Putin’s sinister assassination and sabotage team, works. The couple of Czech “illegals” with a conspiratorial villa in Halkidiki

Russia attacked from the north and south with 24 Shahed-131/136 attack drones launched overnight from Saturday to Sunday from Russia’s Kursk region and Cape Chauda (Crimea), Ukrainian Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. Mikola said Olesciuk.

“The enemy’s air attack was repulsed by the anti-aircraft missile units of the Air Force and the mobile fire groups of the Defense Forces of Ukraine. As a result of the combat operations, 23 attack drones were destroyed in the Kharkiv, Kherson and Dnipro regions,” Mikola Oleșciuk said.

Kristina Kimaciuk, a Ukrainian weapons inspector who works for Conflict Armament Research (CAR), an organization that recovers munitions used in war to learn how it was manufactured, studied the wreckage of a North Korean missile and concluded, after analyzing the hundreds of components, that it “has the latest Western technology, with parts produced in the US and Europe”, reports the BBC.

North Korea sells missiles to Russia and takes the opportunity to test its capabilities in a real war, the one in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s military says dozens of North Korean missiles have been fired by Russia into its territory. They killed at least 24 people and injured more than 70.

More details: North Korean weapons with US and European components kill Ukrainians in Putin’s war. But the implications are much greater | Analyze

According to military analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian troops have seized a tactical advantage northwest of Avdiivka, where they continue to press, but the ultimate goal of the occupiers on this side of the front remains unclear, reports Ukrainska Truth.

On the night of May 3-4, Russian troops made a remarkable tactical advance to the northwest of Avdiivka in the Arkhangelsk district.

Experts suggest that Ukrainian forces may have decided to trade space for time, pending the arrival of massive US aid to the front in the coming weeks – an appropriate solution for an under-resourced force at risk of being overwhelmed.

However, ISW continues to assess that Russian forces are likely trying to take advantage of the limited time “window” before the arrival of Western military assistance by intensifying offensive operations, and that Russian forces may gain additional tactical steps in this direction in the near future.

Experts also say Russian troops appear to have taken advantage of the tactical situation northwest of Avdiivka, but their ultimate goal on this side of the front remains unclear.

The occupiers have decided to exploit the area where they are most likely to gain a tactical advantage in the near future, but it is unclear whether they will continue to push north towards Toretsk or return to their previous focus on the offensive northwest of Pokrovsk.

On the night of Saturday to Sunday, during Russian Shahed drone attacks, explosions were heard in the cities of Kharkiv and Dnipro.

“Kharkov explosions. Stay in shelters,” said the city’s mayor, Igor Terekov, who added that the Russians targeted the private sector in the Osnoviansk district.

According to Suspilny, at least one man was injured and several houses were damaged. “A car burned in the garage. In at least three private houses, windows were broken and roofs were destroyed,” the publication noted.

Also, the city of Dnipro was subjected to an aerial attack by Shahed drones, on the night of Saturday to Sunday.

According to local authorities, several explosions were heard in the city.

Russian forces bombarded Kharkiv again on Saturday evening, Ukrainian authorities announced.

“The occupiers hit Kharkiv again. Emergency services remained for checks,” Oleh Sinegubov, head of the Kharkiv State Regional Administration, said on Telegram.

Ukrainian soldiers shot down a Russian Su-25 fighter jet in the Donetsk region on Saturday, May 4, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his address to the nation.

The Su-25 is used to provide close air support to Russian ground troops.

“Bravo. I thank all our soldiers at the front in combat missions,” Zelenskiy said.

Zelensky thanked all the soldiers, “who, despite strong Russian pressure, despite all the difficulties of the situation, are now destroying the occupiers.”

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