LIVE TEXT The war in Ukraine, day 803. The Ukrainian army destroyed a fast ship of the Russian Army in the Black Sea / Moscow prepares a new offensive / Putin ordered nuclear weapons exercises

UPDATE Commissioner: The next package of EU sanctions against Russia will target LNG imports

Kadri Simson also said that the EU is preparing for a sudden end to the supply of Russian gas when the transit contract between Ukraine and Moscow expires at the end of this year.

Sîrskîi UPDATE: Russia is trying to break through the defenses to reach Kurakhove, Pokrovsk

Russian troops are trying to break through Ukraine’s defenses and reach the towns of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove in the Donetsk region, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Sîrskîi said on May 6.

UPDATE Russia is trying to regain control over the island of Nestryha in the Kherson region

Speaking on national television, a spokesman for the Southern Defense Forces said Moscow’s troops had tried unsuccessfully to storm Ukrainian positions three times, losing four tanks in the process.

UPDATE Minister: Ukraine will produce more weapons worth 10 billion dollars if it is financed

“We have additional uncontracted capacities and we want them to be financed at the expense of European funds”, declared on May 6 the Minister of Strategic Industries, Oleksandr Kamyshin.

Reuters UPDATE: France will send an ambassador to Putin’s inauguration

Many European countries, such as Great Britain, Estonia, the Czech Republic and others, have declared that they will boycott the inauguration ceremony.

UPDATE EU Commissioner: EU begins work on new defense innovation office in Kyiv

The European Union has started work on establishing a new defense innovation office in Kyiv, European Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said on May 6 at the EU-Ukraine Forum for Defense Industries.

UPDATE Russia drops a 1,500 kilogram bomb on a village in the Kharkiv region

Russian forces hit the Kharkiv region with an FAB-1500 air-launched bomb for the first time since the beginning of the invasion, Kharkiv regional police reported on May 6.

UPDATE Finland is considering building a TNT factory in response to the war in Ukraine

“We need to significantly increase the production of explosives. Therefore, we need to seriously consider the role of the national industry in this matter,” said Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen.

Russia said the drills, which target non-strategic nuclear weapons that can be used in combat situations, are a response to “provocative statements” by Western officials, including Macron, reports the Financial Times.

The French president reaffirmed last week that he does not rule out the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine, while warning of the threat that Russia’s invasion poses to Europe.

UPDATE Kiev claims that Russia has lost 475,300 soldiers in Ukraine since the beginning of the war

Russia has lost 475,300 soldiers in Ukraine since the start of the invasion, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported.

This number includes 1,040 casualties suffered by Russian forces in the last day.

According to the report, Russia also lost 7,380 tanks, 14,213 armored fighting vehicles, 16,477 vehicles and fuel tanks, 12,250 artillery systems, 1,057 multiple launch missile systems, 791 air defense systems, 349 planes, 325 helicopters, 9,683 drones, 26 ships and boats and a submarine.

UPDATE Russia moves a battalion of the 76th Airborne Division to Kursk

Russia has redeployed a battalion of the 76th Airborne Division to Kursk and is trying to muster enough troops for an upcoming offensive on northeastern Ukraine and the city of Kharkiv.

The Institute for the Study of War warns that Ukraine must regain the initiative on the battlefield as soon as possible, because otherwise Moscow will gain more advantages this year.

Russia has amassed around 50,000 troops in Belgorod, Kursk and Briansk within the Russian groups in the North. Also, the 3rd Airborne Division of the 104th Regiment is in Kursk. These soldiers were previously in Zaporozhye, in February and March, so they were moved from southern Ukraine to the Russian border with northeastern Ukraine. The Russian army is apparently taking troops from the Leningrad Military District and training them in the Russian groups in the north to fight especially in the Belgorod-Kharkov operational direction. In addition to troops, military equipment is also transferred to these areas.

UPDATE Ukraine destroyed a Russian Navy fast ship in the Black Sea

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has shared footage from a Magura V5 maritime drone attack on a Russian fast ship in occupied Crimea. The combat mission was conducted by the “Group 13” unit of the Ukrainian military intelligence in collaboration with the fundraising platform United24, in Vuzka Bay, near the town of Ciornomorske in Crimea.

The spokesman for the Ukrainian Naval Forces, Dmytro Pletenchuk, said earlier that Russia had withdrawn almost all its major ships from ports in occupied Crimea, following the successful Ukrainian strikes.

UPDATE 6 dead and 35 injured in a drone attack in the Belgorod region

A drone attack in Russia’s Belgorod region killed six people and injured at least 35, according to Governor Viacheslav Gladkov.

Gladkov said the drones hit vehicles carrying workers at a factory near the village of Berezovka, killing six people.

The information could not be independently verified, and Ukraine does not usually comment on alleged attacks on Russian territory.

The Belgorod region borders the Ukrainian regions of Sumy, Kharkiv and Luhansk.

Ukraine shot down 12 Russian drones overnight

Ukrainian air defense units destroyed 12 of the 13 Shahed drones that Russia launched overnight, the Air Force reported on May 6.

The drones were launched from the neighboring Kursk region in Russia and targeted the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine.

Although mobile air defense groups of the Ukrainian Air Force intercepted the drones over Sumy Oblast, Russian forces struck local energy infrastructure in the region around midnight local time.

Officials later announced that critical infrastructure facilities, including water supplies and hospitals, had been switched to backup power.

Drone attacks are a daily occurrence in Ukraine, affecting various regions of the country.