Current War Situation in Ukraine (May 4 Update)

Agricultural and Rural Ukraine

Current War Situation in Ukraine

War Updates

May, 2024

Situation is still difficult around Chasiv Yar

  • Chasiv Yar remains one of the hottest spots on the frontline.
  • The city is almost destroyed. There are almost no surviving houses in the city – almost all buildings or municipal offices are burnt.
  • Chasiv Yar is an operationally significant area as it would provide russian forces with a staging ground to launch offensive operations against Druzhkivka and Kostyantynivka, which are considered to form the fortress belt of four major cities in Donetsk Oblast.

The photo taken from a drone video provided by Ukraine Patrol Police, April 29, 2024. (Ukraine Patrol Police via AP)

War Updates: Crimes

  • russia has used banned chemical weapons against the Ukrainian Armed Forces almost 2,000 times, 444 times in the last month alone.
  • russians are not even ashamed to talk about it on TV.
  • The US State Department, in justifying new sanction measures against russia, indicated that Russian troops used the banned chemical substance chlorpicrin against the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

War Updates: ZNPP

  • russians use kamikaze drones over Zaporizhzhia NPP reactors, presenting a serious security hazard.
  • Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) published intercepted camera footage of a Russian drone over the plant.
  • the russians use the ZNPP to launch drones, because the Defense Forces of Ukraine cannot return fire in the one and a half kilometer zone around the plant.
  • Since the summer of 2023, they have been using the territory of the ZNPP for training FPV drone pilots.
  • The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear power station in Europe, has been under Russian occupation since March 2022.

Source: https://infoatom.news/

Odessa Under Attack

  • April 29: russians launched a missile attack on Odessa. They used ballistics.
  • 5 people were killed and another 30 injured, including two children and a pregnant woman. A child is among the seriously injured.
  • As a result, civilian infrastructure was damaged: residential buildings and the palace of the Odesa Law Academy, known as “Harry Potterʼs Castle”.
  • May 1: the enemy attacked Odesa with ballistic missiles. Three people died.

War Crimes: Execution

  • russian forces have executed at least 15 Ukrainian soldiers as they attempted to surrender.
  • “Since russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, its forces have committed many heinous war crimes,” claimed Belkis Wille (associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch).

Six of the Ukrainian soldiers remain face down, visibly reacting to the impact of the shots. The incident took place near Ivanivske village in the Donetska region.

Source: https://www.hrw.org/

Mykola Solskyi: criminal or victim?

  • Ukrainian Agriculture Minister was accused of corruption.
  • The stated reason is that he had illegally acquired land worth about 291 million hryvnyas ($7 million).
  • The situation with the Minister is nothing but the revanche for him pushing the laws, which cut down the illegal rentals of the state owned land, which was done by National Agricultural Academy of Ukraine!
  • Thanks to the Minister’s initiative the budget regained at least 20 mln hryvnias ($500 000) from shadow to the budget in one year.
  • Solskiy, who was appointed minister in March 2022, has denied the accusations

Export

Export of grain from Ukraine since the beginning of 2023/24 MY exceeded 40 mln tons. Shipped to foreign markets:

  • 15.4 mln tons of wheat;
  • 22.2 mln tons of corn.

In April, exports amounted to more than 13 mln tons.

In terms of money, exports reached $3.3 billion in April.

Grain From Ukraine Initiative

  • 22,265 tons of flour have already been sent to countries suffering from food shortages as part of the Grain From Ukraine initiative.
  • April 26 – 14.6 K tons of wheat flour were sent to Sudan.
  • This is the third batch of humanitarian food sent from Ukraine to Sudan as part of the initiative.
  • The same batch of flour was shipped at the end of March, and 7.6 thousand tons of flour were shipped in February.

Source: https://latifundist.com/

Planting season

 

Ukraine planted 3.407 mln ha of spring grains and pulses, which is 60.8% of the planned area (5.601 mln ha):

 

  • wheat – 240.7 K ha, or 97.8% of the plan (246.1 K ha);
  • barley – 775.7 K ha, or 94.8% of the plan (818 K ha);
  • peas – 16.1 K ha, or 100.8% of the plan (159.9 K ha);
  • Oats – 159.9 K ha, or 98.3% of the plan (162.7 K ha);
  • corn – 1.961 mln ha, or 50% of the plan (3.912 mln ha);
  • Buckwheat – 5 K ha, or 4% of the plan (124.8 K ha);
  • millet – 16.7 K ha, or 20% of the plan (85.3 K ha).

 

As for oilseeds, Ukraine planted 2.968 mln ha of sunflower (56% of the planned area (5.288 mln ha)), and 566.7 K ha of soybeans (28% of the planned 1.99 mln ha).

Sugar beet planting is almost completed – 248.4 K ha (97%).