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After the evacuation of some civilians from the basements in the Azovstal facilities on April 30 and May 1, the new round of hostilities broke out in the area.
Massive artillery shelling and aerial bombardment of Azovstal resumed. Azov militants besieged in the facilities open fire in an attempt to find any weak spots in the Russian/DPR defence around the plant. In response, Russian forces destroy Ukrainian firing positions. Rare attempts of Ukrainian nationalists to break through are also prevented. The Russian fire gives the Azov militants another occasion to blame Russian forces of cruelty and bombardment of “the brave” Ukrainian defenders, as well as civilians who may remain in the facilities. Azov militants claims that there are still civilians in the basements.
“In accordance with the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the remnants of militants located in the industrial zone of the Azovstal plant are firmly blocked along the entire perimeter of this territory. Repeated proposals to the nationalists to release civilians and lay down their arms with a guarantee of preserving life and decent treatment in accordance with the norms of international law have been ignored by them. We continue these attempts,” Russian Minister of Defence Sergey Shoigu claimed on May 4.
Despite some insignificant Russian advance in the facilities which provides them with better positions to assure control over the plant, no full-fledged assault of Azovstal resumed. The remained Azov fighters are informed that they have only two options either to surrender or be destroyed on the territory of Azovstal.
The combat tactical unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the DPR has released a video showing the participation of its fighters in the battles at the Azovstal plant:
The other Donbass front lines are marked by positional battles.
In the Zaporozhye region, the front follows the Kamenskoye-Orekhov-Gulyai-Pole line. The main hotspots are the southern area of Orekhov and the outskirts of Gulyai-Pole. To the east of Gulyai-Pole, fighting continues for various villages with no significant progresses by any side. According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Russian Army is accumulating a strike force in the region, including at the expense of the troops liberated in Mariupol.
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In the Ugledar area, the front follows the Novomikhailovka-Ugledar-Velikaya Novoselovka line. Russian forces have gained a foothold in the villages south of Velikaya Novoselovka but are yet to carry out any major assault on the town. The AFU resistance in the area of Ugledar prevents Russian advance towards the Marinka-Kurakhovo highway, which is used for the supply of the AFU grouping near Donetsk.
Thus, DPR forces face difficulties at advancing in the area of Maryinka. The fighting has been going on in the nearby fields, where the AFU positions have been fortified during the years-long war in Donbas and are now reinforced from Kurakhovo.
Another hotspot of the war in Ukraine remains the area near Avdiivka. Fighting continues in the industrial zone of the town, without any successes by any of the warring sides. To the north of Avdiivka, clashes continue in the villages of Novoselka-2 and Novobakhmutovka.
The Sparta battalion of the DPR destroys the AFU positions in Avdiivka:
The DPR troops have taken control over the village of Troitskoye and street fighting continues. Russian attempts to advance towards the village of New York from the east have brought no significant success so far. At the same time, the AFU continues to shell the settlements of the DPR, including Donetsk, Makeyevka, Yasinovataya, Elenovka, etc. Ukrainian troops use 122-152-mm artillery, various types of MLRS as well as notorious Tochka-U missiles.
The village of Troitskoe:
120 mm foreign-made mines were found among the trophies in Troitsk:
In the Luhansk People’s Republic, fighting continues in the industrial zone of Rubizhne. Fighting also continues on the outskirts of Severodonetsk as well as in Popasna.
Video From Popasna:
In the area of Izyum, fighting continues north of the Barvenkovo-Slavyansk highway. Russian forces are yet to reach the highway yet, which is already under their fire control. The fighting is going on in the Kurulki-Pashkovo area as well as in Bolshaya Kamyshevakha.
The AFU is heavily shelling the civilian areas in Izyum. According to local reports, on May 4, the AFU shelled a civilian car with a missile with cluster munition. As a result, civilians were killed.
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The Russian Buk-M2 anti-aircraft missile system struck an air target in the Kharkiv region. In the command post of the air defense unit, it was recorded that the Ukrainian MiG-29 was shot down near Izyum.
In the direction of Slavyansk from the east, after Russian and LPR forces took control over the village of Yampol, they approached the town of Lyman, fighting is going on on the outskirts of the city. The AFU are blowing up bridges and prepare a withdrawal to the next line of defense north of Slavyansk. The AFU are suffering the heaviest losses in the area.
Earlier, it was reported that the Ukrainian military command has ordered to transfer the units of the territorial defence, i.e. mainly armed civlians, to the front lines in the Slavyansk region. This is a clear sign of catastrophic losses of the AFU.
In the Kharkiv region, after they failed to counter-attack the village of Cossack Lopan and reportedly lost two small villages in the area, the AFU changed tactics and increased pressure on the town of Russian Lozovaya, where the fighting continues to this day. Another AFU attack was carried out in the direction of the town of Stary Saltov. Due to the lack of forces on the both sides in this direction, there are no significant changes on the front lines. The main goal of the battles in the Kharkiv region is to distract Russian forces from reinforcement of the grouping deployed in the Izyum area.
Fighting continues on the front lines between Kherson and Nikolaev. On the direction of Krivy Rih, no Russian assaults was confirmed.
The AFU grouping deployed in the Odessa is still waiting for Russian assault, which likely will not take place soon. Military facilities and rail road stations in the region are hit by Russian missiles on a regular basis.
