The Russian strikes have been increasing in intensity for several days. The US State Department says it has identified 145 since May 1. Ukraine, which claims to complete its preparations for a major offensive, said it shot down around 30 explosive drones sent by Russia on Thursday, May 4.
In the evening in kyiv, victim of a wave of attacks the previous night, explosions were again heard by journalists from AFP, the mayor of the capital. Vitali Klitschko, the city’s mayor, reported “explosions and fires”.
Ukraine says it shot down one of its own drones in kyiv after it lost control
The Ukrainian Air Force announced Thursday evening that the drone shot down a few hours earlier over Kiev, causing an explosion followed by a fire, was one of its own, losing control. It was a Bayraktar TB2, made in Turkey.
“Around 8:00 p.m. (17:00 GMT) a Bayraktar TB2 drone lost control during a scheduled flight in the kyiv region […] the target was destroyed,” said the Air Force, citing “probably a technical malfunction.”
“The uncontrolled presence of the drone in the sky of the capital” could indeed “have had undesirable consequences”, she explained before adding that no one had been injured. “It’s a shame, but it’s technology and these things happen,” she added, referring to a “technical malfunction”.
Crimea: A drone shot down near a Russian airbase in Sevastopol
A drone was also shot down in annexed Crimea on Thursday near a Russian air base in Sevastopol, its governor said, as such incidents increase in the run-up to May 9 military celebrations in Russia.
“A new attack on Sevastopol”, wrote on Telegram Mikhail Razvojayev, governor of this city, home port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. “A drone was shot down near the Belbek airbase,” he said, assuring that “no site was damaged and the situation is under control”.
Alleged drone attack on the Kremlin: “strange”, says Paris
The affair of the Ukrainian drones that the Russians say they shot down because they allegedly targeted Vladimir Putin “is strange to say the least”, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on France Inter on Thursday. Moscow on Wednesday accused Ukraine of targeting the Russian president’s Kremlin residence with two drones, a charge kyiv denies.
Catherine Colonna, however, refused to “indulge in the little game of hypotheses”. The fact that drones reach the Kremlin “is quite difficult to understand in normal situations”, she also reacted. She recalled that the Ukrainians had “officially declared yesterday that they had nothing to do with this event which remains unexplained”. The minister’s remarks aroused the ire of Russian diplomacy on the same day, for which Russia and France are now “irreconcilable adversaries”.
Putin seeks to consolidate gains in Ukraine, Washington says
Russian forces in Ukraine are so weakened that they cannot launch “a significant offensive” and are therefore concentrating on consolidating their gains in occupied territory, US intelligence director Avril Haines said Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir “Putin has likely scaled back his immediate ambitions as he seeks to consolidate control of occupied territories in eastern and southern Ukraine, and to ensure that Ukraine never becomes an ally of NATO,” the official said during a hearing before a parliamentary committee.
But, she said, whatever the outcome of a future Ukrainian offensive – whether it retakes part of the occupied east and south or whether the current stalemate continues – it is unlikely that Vladimir Putin makes concessions in view of peace negotiations. Russia still occupies nearly 20% of Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014.
Zelensky calls for the creation of a special court for the crime of aggression
Volodymyr Zelensky called on Thursday from The Hague for the creation of a special international tribunal for the crime of aggression, calling for “large-scale justice” and not “hybrid impunity”. ‘There should be accountability’ for this crime of aggression, the ‘beginning of evil’, Ukrainian president says in speech to diplomats and other officials in The Hague, referring to invasion of his country by Russia. “It can only be applied by the court,” added the Ukrainian president. But Ukraine “will not accept either a hybrid peace or a hybrid court”, envisaged by other allies of Ukraine, he stressed, however.
The United States notably declared itself in March in favor of the creation of a special tribunal to judge Russian “aggression” in Ukraine, with international funds and personnel but “rooted in the Ukrainian judicial system”.