Russia launches fresh wave of strikes on Ukrainian cities; Wagner boss ditches threat to leave Bakhmut

Russian military recruiters are targeting Central Asian migrant workers in Russia to go fight in Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence wrote in its daily intelligence update on Twitter.

“Recruiters have visited mosques and immigration offices to recruit. At immigration offices, staff who speak Tajik and Uzbek routinely attempt to recruit migrants,” the ministry wrote.

News outlet Radio Free Europe reported recruiters “offering sign-up bonuses of USD $2,390 and salaries of up to USD $4,160 a month,” the post said. “Migrants have also been offered a fast-track Russian citizenship path of six months to one year, instead of the usual five years.”

The recruits “are likely sent to the Ukrainian frontlines where the casualty rate is extremely high,” it added.

The program is part of the Russian Defense Ministry’s target of getting 400,000 volunteers to fight in Ukraine, since any new mandatory mobilization announcements could fuel dissent within the country.

— Natasha Turak

The local council of the Ukrainian capital gave the all-clear following a morning air raid that saw several Russia strikes and injured at least five people.

The council wrote on Telegram: “Please keep an eye on reports and return to shelter if the siren sounds again.”

Russian missile strikes early Monday morning hit a food warehouse and recreation center in Ukraine’s southern Black Sea port city of Odesa, local administrators reported.

“X-22 rockets were directed at the warehouse of one of the food enterprises and at the recreation area on the Black Sea coast,” Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odesa military administration, wrote on Telegram.

“Rescuers are working to eliminate fires. There was no information about the victims. The information is being clarified,” he wrote.

— Natasha Turak

Five people were injured in Kyiv as Russia launched a new wave of strikes against Ukrainian cities, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram.

Klitschko said that debris from a drone attack on a building fell onto a smaller building and a parked car, injuring people there.

“Likely as a result of debris falling on a parked car in the yard of a residential building, the car caught fire,” Kyiv’s military administration said in a Telegram post. “There is a recorded fall of debris on a residential building.”

Explosions have also been reported in the Black Sea port city of Odesa and the southeastern city of Kherson.

— Natasha Turak

Wagner Group leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin ditched his threat from last week to leave the war-ravaged city of Bakhmut in light of insufficient ammunition supplies.

The private military firm’s boss wrote on Telegram Sunday,: “Overnight we received a combat order, for the first time in all this time. We have been promised as much ammunition and weapons as we need to continue further operations. We have been promised that everything needed to prevent the enemy from cutting us off will be deployed on the flank.”

Prigozhin on Friday released a video in which he, surrounded by dead bodies of Wagner fighters, blasted Russian Defense Ministry chiefs for failing to supply his combatants with the ammunition they needed to fight in Bakhmut, an eastern Ukrainian city that’s been the site of the war’s longest and bloodiest battle so far.

— Natasha Turak

Moscow is going ahead with Victory Day celebrations on Tuesday, which include a major military parade, to celebrate the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

This year’s commemoration follows a turbulent week that saw an alleged attempted drone attack on the Kremlin, which Moscow blames on Ukraine and Washington, but that Kyiv argues was staged by Russia to escalate the war.

A Moscow city official was quoted by the Guardian as describing “a nervousness that I have never seen before” in the wake of the drone attack, but then adding that the Victory Day parade must still take place.

At least six regions in Russia have canceled their Victory Day celebrations.

The Guardian writes, “Tellingly, on Friday, Putin took the unusual step to discuss the preparations for the 9 May Victory Day parade in a meeting with his security council, composed of Russia’s top state officials and heads of defence and security agencies … Even before the drone attack on the Kremlin, there were signs of unease among the Russian leadership over the celebrations amid fears of Ukrainian strikes.”

— Natasha Turak