Chronicle of the war with Ukraine. Day 99

Russian troops continue to storm Luhansk Severodonetsk. Meanwhile, the State Duma claims that Russian troops “They practically stopped losing people.”

23:21

Dolphins are dying en masse in the Black Sea, and the reason for this may be war, writes The New York Times.

Ivan Rusev, an ecologist at the Ukrainian national park Tuzlovskie Limany, citing data from the organization, told reporters that several thousand dolphins died. Some of them had burns from bombs and mines: “They could no longer navigate and, of course, they could not look for food.”

The Turkish Marine Research Foundation reported an "extraordinary increase" in the number of dead dolphins washing ashore in March. Scientists note that ship noise and low-frequency sonar pose a serious threat to dolphins because they rely heavily on underwater sounds for feeding and navigation.

Before the war, scientists estimated the number of dolphins in the Black Sea at more than 250 thousand - this is a positive indicator for the ecosystem.

23:06

Russian troops shelled the village of Maryanskoye in the Dnepropetrovsk region, said the head of the regional administration, Valentin Reznichenko. A mother and two children were wounded.

According to Reznichenko, the gas pipeline and electrical networks were disabled, two houses were destroyed, and several more were damaged.

22:36

Deputy head of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said that the Russian military will strike “decision-making centers” if the Ukrainian army uses weapons received from the United States against Russian territories.

“It is absolutely obvious that if, God forbid, these types of weapons are used against Russian territories, in this case the armed forces of our country will have no choice but to act to defeat the decision-making centers. <...> But you need to understand that the final decision-making centers in this case, unfortunately, are not even on the territory of Kyiv. Therefore, this is certainly a threat that will need to be taken into account,” he said ( quoted by RIA Novosti).

22:23

According to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, Russia has occupied 20% of the territory of Ukraine, Reuters reports .

He noted that the front line stretched for more than a thousand kilometers. “We have to defend ourselves from almost the entire Russian army. All combat-ready Russian military formations are involved in this aggression,” Zelensky said.

22:09

Today, three people have died in the Donetsk region, reports head of the regional administration Pavel Kirilenko.

According to him, two people were killed in the city of Avdeevka, another in the village of Stary Karavan. Nine more people were injured.

Kirilenko notes that the number of victims in Mariupol and Volnovakha is impossible to determine.

20:51

The Ukrainian army manages to drive out Russian troops from some streets of Severodonetsk, said the head of the Lugansk regional administration, Sergei Gaidai.

The Russian army still controls most of Severodonetsk, he said.

“Our defenders also hold positions in one part of the city, moreover, they even manage to carry out certain operations when they knock out the enemy from some streets. Sometimes we even manage to take prisoners; yesterday only six prisoners were taken. Therefore, I would like to say to all skeptics that there is no need to write off Severodonetsk,” says Gaidai.

Earlier, Advisor to the President of Ukraine Alexey Arestovich argued that the Ukrainian army had drawn Russian troops into a trap by pretending to “surrender” Severodonetsk. According to him, for Russia the conversation is no longer about capturing, but about holding the city. Commenting on this, Gaidai said that he would not go into details: “I’ll just say this: our defenders manage to actually carry out certain local military operations, to achieve success in carrying out these operations.”

20:19

Sota correspondent Gleb Yakutov, author of “Protest MSU” Yuliaslava Korolevich and activist Daniil Davydenko are witnesses in the criminal case against Dmitry Ivanov under the article on “fake news” about the Russian army (part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). OVD-Info writes about this.

All three were released from the Investigative Committee.

Yakutov and Korolevich were searched today.

18:12

A criminal case was opened against the author of the telegram channel “Protest MGU”, Dmitry Ivanov, under the article on “fakes” about the Russian army (part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code), reports OVD-Info with reference to his lawyer. What exactly was the reason is not clear.

Ivanov is now in the Investigative Committee, where he was brought from special detention center No. 2 in Mnevniki in Moscow. There he is serving 25 days of arrest for reposting Alexei Navalny’s call to take part in anti-war protests; this period is due to expire tomorrow.

Today, Ivanov’s parents, as well as Sota correspondent Gleb Yakutov and author of “Protest MSU” Yuliaslava Korolevich, were also searched.

17:38

The United States added to the sanctions list the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, businessman Alexei Mordashov and his two sons and wife, the head of the Ministry of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov, cellist Sergei Roldugin and 11 other Russians.

16 companies were also sanctioned, including Mordashov’s Severstal.

16:57

10 Russian soldiers were suspected of looting, the National Police of Ukraine reports .

According to the department, soldiers from the “elite unit” of the Russian Guard (military unit No. 6720) in the Kyiv region stole financial savings, jewelry, computer and household appliances and linen, after which they sent them from Belarus by mail to their relatives.

The National Police does not name the names of the military personnel.

16:31

The Russian presidential administration has prohibited the editors of state and pro-government media from focusing on the duration of the war in Ukraine before its hundredth day, writes Meduza. The publication refers to four anonymous sources: in one of the state media, in the Moscow mayor's office, in one of the pro-government publications and in the presidential administration.

The Kremlin does not want to remind Russians that the war has been going on for more than three months. Referring to the results of closed opinion polls, Meduza’s interlocutors close to the presidential administration say: Russians are confident that the war has dragged on.

“Focusing on dates associated with the war may cause Russians to question the goals and success of the invasion. When talking about a round date, questions always arise: what have you achieved by this date? This has been the case since Soviet times, when there were five-year plans, plans for them, and so on. It turns out that now there is almost nothing to present by this date,” a source from the presidential administration told Meduza.

The publication also notes that recently the rhetoric of Russian television propagandists has been changing: “Russia is actually at war not with Ukraine, but with NATO and the West.” The same logic is conveyed in the speeches of Russian officials.

14:54

Roskomnadzor said it was blocking VPN services, but did not specify which ones, according to a response to a TASS request.

“According to the Law on Communications, means of bypassing blocking of illegal content are recognized as a threat. The Public Communications Network Monitoring and Management Center is taking measures to restrict the operation of VPN services in Russia that violate Russian legislation,” the response said.

The day before, Russian users reported problems connecting to Proton VPN.

Roskomnadzor has already limited access to VPN services - at least 14 services were blocked in 2021. Since 2017, Russian legislation has made it possible to require VPN services to limit their users’ access to information that the authorities recognize as prohibited. Refusal threatens services with blocking themselves.

13:48

Moscow public sector employees are forced to vote on the “Active Citizen” platform for renaming the territory near the US Embassy into Donetsk People’s Republic Square, an employee of the Moscow City Disinfection Center and a source close to the State Budgetary Institution “Zhilishchnik” told Mediazona.

An employee of the center showed screenshots from a chat at one of the Moscow disinfection stations, in which workers are required to vote for the option “DPR Square” by June 2 - he assumes that the authorities will choose another place in the city to be renamed LPR Square.

Voting began on May 30. The press service of “Active Citizen” claims that over three days more than 200 thousand Muscovites took part in it.

13:15

The State Emergency Service of Ukraine reports that the situation in the Lugansk region is on the verge of critical and there is no water or other communications in the region.

Over the past 24 hours, more than 40 buildings were damaged due to shelling - there was a lot of destruction in the cities of Gorskoye, Lisichansk, Severodonetsk, Novodruzhesk and the villages of Vrubovka and Nikolaevka.

“There are no communications in the region. Fire and rescue units of the State Emergency Service of the Lugansk region deliver water for the needs of the population,” the department notes.

12:44

In Moscow, security forces came with searches to activists in a criminal case about “fakes” about the Russian army, OVD-Info reports , citing lawyers.

Today they searched the room of Sota correspondent Gleb Yakutov in the MSU student dormitory House of Graduate Students and Interns, as well as the home of one of the authors of the telegram channel “Protest MSU” Yuliaslava Korolevich. At the same time, in the Solntsevo district of Moscow, security forces detained activist Daniil Davydenko.

All of them were then taken for interrogation to the Moscow office of the Investigative Committee.

Lawyer Tatyana Okushko, who is defending Korolevich, told OVD-Info that a search in this case also took place at the home of the parents of activist Dmitry Ivanov, the creator of the Protest MGU channel. According to the lawyer, Ivanov’s parents were also brought to the Investigative Committee for interrogation.

Ivanov himself is currently serving 25 days of arrest for reposting Alexei Navalny’s call to take part in anti-war rallies. Tomorrow the activist was supposed to leave the special detention center.

12:07

In Ufa, a court fined activist Roman Marinkin for an anti-war picket with a poster “The quality of life is falling. “External threats are growing,” writes Kommersant, citing the press service of the Kirovsky District Court.

Marinkin’s picket was regarded as discrediting the Russian army, and the court fined him 30 thousand rubles.

11:31

Users in Russia are having problems connecting to Proton's VPN service, the company reports . Perhaps the Russian authorities are trying to block the service.

“We are currently investigating the issue, but it is not caused by any changes on our part. It is likely that local ISPs and authorities are interfering with VPN connections, in which case we may not be able to resolve such issues. Some servers may continue to work. We continue to try to bypass the blocking,” the company said in a statement.

11:11

Pixabay, a bank of free photos, has closed access to users in Russia.

“We strongly condemn Russia’s ongoing illegal war in Ukraine. In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Pixabay is no longer available in Russia,” said a message on the photo bank page when opening it from Russian IP addresses.

The day before, the graphic design service Canva announced that it was closing access to its website in Russia. The decision was also made because of the invasion of Ukraine.

10:52

In the Lviv region, five people were injured during shelling in the Stryi and Sambir districts, reports the head of the region, Maxim Kozitsky. Four of them are in moderate condition and were hospitalized.

According to Kozitsky, last night there were rocket attacks on the railway in both areas. There were four hits in total.

10:33

The Leninsky District Court of Yekaterinburg fined City Duma deputy Alexei Kholodarev 40 thousand rubles for a post criticizing the symbols Z and V and asking not to invite him to an event in support of the “special operation,” reports 66.ru.

The court recognized this as discrediting the Russian army.

The deputy himself does not agree with this assessment and denies the war. “I am against murder in any form and, in my opinion, all my voters are pro-life. I love Russia very much, I love Ukraine, and I am very upset that our citizens and Ukrainians are now dying for no apparent reason,” It’s My City cites a fragment of Kholodarev’s speech at the meeting.

In early April, the deputy, who has been criticizing Russia’s actions in Ukraine since February 24, was expelled from the “A Just Russia - For Truth” party, from which he entered the Duma. The party called his actions “harmful to the political interests of the party.”

10:05

At night, the Russian military fired at the Kiev and Slobodskaya districts of Kharkov, said the head of the region Oleg Sinegubov.

In the Kiev region, a shell hit a school, killing a woman and injuring another person. As the regional department of the State Emergency Service clarifies , in the Slobodsky district, a three-story industrial and utility building caught fire due to shelling, but no casualties were reported.

Yesterday, during the shelling of Kharkov during the day, two more civilians were injured. In the village of Tsirkuny, one person was wounded.

The city of Chuguev and the nearby villages of Korobochkino and Klugino-Bashkirovka also came under fire. Four people were injured there.

The governor reports that fighting continues in the Kharkov region. According to him, in the Kharkov and Izyum directions, the Russian military is focused on defense and retention of already occupied territories.

9:17

The publication “Sever.Realii” spoke about the death during the war in Ukraine of 21-year-old Anton Fedoseev from the village of Bolshoy Sabsk in the Leningrad region, who was born with a defect in appearance and went to serve under a contract in order to save up for an operation.

“Anton’s cherished dream was plastic surgery on his face so that his nose would become like everyone else’s. It was impossible to earn money for it in the village, all his friends say, so after serving in the army he agreed to a contract,” writes Sever.Realii.

During childbirth, the umbilical cord wrapped around the baby's face, and doctors had to perform emergency surgery. Fedoseev grew up in a large family - after the death of his father in 2004, his mother was left alone with four children.

After studying at the Begunitsky Agricultural Technical College, where 20-year-old Fedoseev trained as a tractor driver, he received a summons to the military registration and enlistment office.

“After graduating from college, he did an internship, which you’ll find in our area with a tractor license. At local farms they don’t really pay anyway, and they also withhold money. Of course, he tried to find at least some kind of stability, so he signed the contract, although we all dissuaded him,” says the military man’s elder sister Alena Fedulova.

The last time she spoke to her brother was on May 10. Fedoseev talked about a good salary and was pleased that he could help his mother. He was planning on getting plastic surgery sooner. “He was embarrassed by his appearance, he wanted to earn money for the operation, but do we really have that kind of money?” - explains his sister.

During the last conversation, he said that they were “being transferred somewhere” and he would be without contact, but then he would definitely come home on vacation.

Fedoseev served as a driver mechanic in the 200th separate motorized rifle brigade of the coastal forces of the Northern Fleet. At the beginning of March, the Odessa Journal reported that this brigade was defeated near Kharkov. Advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine Aleksey Arestovich claimed that almost all employees of the brigade were killed.

Fedoseev’s family was informed that Anton died on May 19 under artillery fire in the Kharkov region. He was brought home in a zinc coffin.

Results of the 98th day of the war

In eastern Ukraine, civilians continue to die due to shelling.

President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky said that in the east of the country, from 60 to 100 Ukrainian soldiers die every day. At the same time, State Duma deputy Andrei Kartapolov claims that Russia has “almost stopped losing people” in hostilities.

Primorye deputies who demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine were expelled from the Communist Party faction.

A criminal case was opened against a resident of the Nizhny Novgorod region for discrediting the Russian army for a poster on the rear window of the car “with false information about the Russian army.”

Cover photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine