Russian troops in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, May 20, 2022 (EPA)

Saturday’s Coverage: Russia Strikes on Energy Facilities Across Country

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1218 GMT:

Speaking at Asia’s biggest security conference, the Shangri-La Dialogue, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for maximum support for the forthcoming Global Peace Summit.

Zelenskiy told the gathering in Singapore that 108 countries have accepted invitations to the summit in Switzerland on June 15-16. Attendees will consider the Ukraine Peace Formula, first tabled by the President in November 2022, to end the Russian invasion and ensure Ukrainian sovereignty and security.

The world has to be resilient, it needs to be strong, it has to pressure Russia. There is no other way to stop Putin – only diplomatic isolation, a strong Ukrainian military and for all the countries of the world to not balance between Ukraine and Russia but to defend international justice and law.

But Zelenskiy told reporters, “Regrettably, Russia, using Chinese influence on the region, using Chinese diplomats also, does everything to disrupt the peace summit. It is unfortunate that such a big, independent, powerful country as China is an instrument in the hands of Putin.”

The President said Ukrainian officials had unsuccessfully sought meetings with Chinese counterparts at all levels since a phone call between Zelenkiy and China’s leader Xi Jinping in April 2013.

Earlier on Sunday the Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun declared to the dialogue that China had “been promoting peace talks with a responsible attitude”.

We have never provided weapons to either party of the conflict. We have put stricter control on the export of dual use items and have never done anything to fan the flames. We stand firmly on the side of peace and dialogue.

But Zelenskiy chided, “With China’s support to Russia, the war will last longer and that is bad for the whole world. You cannot say that we accept sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and at the same time be on the side of the country that violates the principles of the UN charter and the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

UPDATE 0655 GMT:

Ukraine’s air defenses downed 24 of 25 Iran-type attack drones fired by Russia overnight.

The drones were intercepted over the Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, Odesa, Kherson, Kyiv, Khmelnytskyi, Dnipropetrovsk, and Vinnytsia regions.

Russia also luaunched two missiles towards the Kharkiv region in northeast region: an Iskander-K missile from occupied Crimea and an S-300 anti-aircraft guided missile from the occupied Donetsk region.

UPDATE 0654 GMT:

One civilian was killed and eight wounded by Russian shelling of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine on Saturday.

UPDATE 0645 GMT:

Estonia Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has said of the state of Russia’s invasion:

We should not give in to pessimism. Victory in Ukraine is not just about territory. If Ukraine joins NATO, even without some territory, then that’s a victory because it will be placed under the NATO umbrella.

Kallas told the BBC, “We have no Plan B for a Russian victory, because then we would stop focusing on Plan A” to defeat the invasion.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia’s killed and wounded in its 27 1/2-month invasion of Ukraine have “likely reached 500,000”, assess UK intelligence.

The Defense Ministry’s analysts noted that “in May average Russian personnel casualties were over 1,200 per day — the highest reported since the start of the war”.

They referred to Russia’s “ongoing attritional offensive” — months of attacks on the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine and a 24-day cross-border assault on the Kharkiv region in the northeast — as the likely cause of “elevated” casualties.

It is highly likely that most Russian forces receive only limited training, and they are unable to carry out complex offensive operations. As a result, Russia employs small-scale but costly wave attacks in an attempt to weaken Ukrainian defenses.

Russia continues to recruit additional forces to sustain this approach.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry puts Russian losses at more than 500,000. It said May’s toll of 38,940 is the highest monthly figure of the invasion.

The Russian independent outlet Mediazona and BBC Russian, using public records, have identified by name 54,185 of the slain troops.