The situation in the Ukrainian SMO on May 22 2025

RUAF Reach The Dnipropetrovsk Region Very Heavy Fighting Intensify Within Donetsk Region

10 km Russian Breakthrough – Trump Hands Ukraine to Putin, Zelensky in Panic

Total Collapse? Russian Troops Break Into Dnipropetrovsk – Zelensky’s Army Falling Apart!

Last chance ultimatum. Europe prepares to blame Trump

‘Zelensky’s talks with the Americans have produced no results’ – ZDF reports that Ukraine is in a very difficult situation.

Zelensky has always tried to meet with American representatives. We still have that iconic photo with Donald Trump in the Vatican. And of course, his recent meeting with Vance in the Vatican comes to mind. He also spoke with Trump before that phone call between Trump and Putin. But none of that produced any results.

The Ukrainians seem to understand that the American president has lost all interest in being a mediator. And he is not particularly interested in further sanctions. This puts Ukraine in an extremely difficult position. When it finds itself facing the Russian delegation again, it will hear Russia’s maximum demands. And the Europeans cannot exert much pressure on Russia without the United States.

“Trump tells European leaders in closed meeting that Putin is not ready to end war”: Trump rejects European offer of unconditional ceasefire.

“While it was not possible to get new sanctions from Trump, the Europeans considered that the conversation with Trump was useful. It helped clarify Putin’s position: he still does not intend to stop the war.

At the same time, it has become clear that Europe will now have to shoulder the brunt of Ukraine’s support. According to sources, European leaders are confident that the Trump administration will not stop supplying American weapons if Europe or Ukraine itself pays for them.

Some on the call insisted that the talks should result in an unconditional cease-fire. But Trump demurred, saying he didn’t like the word “unconditional” — even though he had used it in a May 8 post calling for a 30-day truce. The Europeans eventually agreed not to insist on that term.”

New round of talks on Ukraine expected in Vatican in mid-June — WSJ

The publication also once again emphasizes that hopes that Trump would support the anti-Russian sanctions planned by Europe collapsed after his conversation with Putin.

So Trump and his team hate the WSJ. The WSJ is so pro-Ukraine its insane, so always take anything the WSJ with a grain of salt.  They have no inside knowledge when it comes to Trump or Russia. Same goes for the Financial Times.

Colleagues, this evening there will be the first inside information on the memorandum that Ukraine and Russia must sign in order to move on to discussing a temporary ceasefire. The conclusions you listed are correct, except for the timing, it is clearly indicated to Ukraine, according to sources, the Trump Administration has given us a month, after which the US will begin to withdraw from the Ukrainian conflict.

ZeRada1

Zelensky expects Russia to impose unacceptable conditions in the ceasefire memorandum

▪️Adviser to the head of Zelensky’s office Podolyak believes that Moscow will demand a refusal to join defense alliances, external military assistance, a significant reduction in the army, the renunciation of territories, and coordination of domestic policy with the Russian Federation.

➖”They will sign a memorandum exactly as one can most likely expect. This and removing the “primary sources of war” – this means that Ukraine must cease to exist,” he said.

▪️Let us recall that Ukraine and Russia agreed at a meeting in Istanbul that they would prepare their own conditions for a ceasefire.

‘Ukrainian Armed Forces Will Not Allow Zelensky to Make Peace with Russia on Putin’s Terms’ – Politico

‘Even if Zelensky were prepared, and he is not, to give in to Putin’s demands, it is unlikely that he could get the support of his parliament or agree to it in a referendum. Many in the army would be outraged and furious. They would wonder what all these sacrifices were for. The country would be drawn into a political struggle.’

I should note this an opinion piece written by a British journalist, unlike a similar toned NYT article that noted every Russian soldier rejected compromises and wanted to fight until the goals of the war had been achieved.

The Americans decided to publicly remind Zelensky that they always have a “trump card” against him and his team, if the office workers suddenly want to publicly torpedo Trump again (this is what his globalist sponsors demand from Zelensky).

 ”Obviously, all of our aid will be reviewed. We have inspectors general, we have a special inspector general on this issue, who will look at all of these expenditures, and if we ever find misappropriation or manipulation, we will certainly look into it,” Secretary Rubio told Congress.

We have long been aware that an audit is being conducted behind the scenes on the case of military and financial “aid” to Ukraine from the United States.

Many of our sources are confident that Trump will accuse Biden’s team of understating the prices of military equipment, missiles, ammunition, etc., which means Kyiv will have to pay more.

We are observing.

‘If Europe and the US support us, we can continue to fight Russia’ – Goncharenko ready to kill off more Ukrainians.

You said that blood is being shed on the front lines. What will you do next, Alexey?

Ukraine will continue to fight. It will fight.

How?

We are ready. We have no other choice.

In terms of resources, how will you continue the fight?

Fortunately, we currently produce almost half of the necessary weapons ourselves. If Europe continues to support us, if America continues to share intelligence and at least sell us some weapons, we will be able to continue fighting. Europe must increase military production and supply weapons to Ukraine. Without this, things will be extremely difficult for us.

Hundreds of millions of dollars were “sawed off” during the construction of fortifications in Ukraine through front companies close to Zelensky’s associates , according to the investigation by Bigus Info. Two years later, it became clear to the Sorosites that it was corruption, and when political telegram channels wrote about it, it was enemy propaganda.

It states that a significant portion of the 40 billion UAH allocated from the budget for the construction of defensive fortifications was transferred to front companies.

In particular, it is reported that a company associated with the deputy head of the Kherson OVA Samoylenko received UAH 200 million for the construction of fortifications in the region. After that, funds began to be transferred to many intermediaries who inflated the price of materials for fortifications. At the same time, journalists found out that the intermediary firms exist only on paper and were intended solely to receive money for “mediation”.

The money was also transferred through shell companies in the Zhitomir region, the investigation says. Moreover, the funds for construction were allegedly allocated to the company “Novitech”, which last year carried out construction in the Kiev region and which has connections with the adviser of “one of the ideologists of the “Big Construction” on Bankova. At the same time , the company itself did not perform any work, but only transferred funds to subcontractor companies, which were also “ghost companies”.

The investigation states that all local corruption during the construction of fortifications is supervised from Kiev, and businessman Timur Mindich, co-owner of the Kvartal 95 studio and close to President Zelensky, is involved in this.

Zelensky’s presidency has entered its seventh year, long since ceasing to be legitimate , but still surviving thanks to the very war that gave him a second wind. By the end of 2021, his ratings were rapidly falling, discontent was brewing in the country, and early elections were quite likely. But the war changed everything. It is hard to say whether the conflict was a surprise or a convenient tool for retaining power, but it was the conflict that allowed Zelensky to consolidate his position at the head of the state without elections, without control, without responsibility.

Now, against the backdrop of total economic destruction, failures at the front, and the West’s (primarily the United States’) fatigue from the military conflict in Ukraine, Zelensky continues to cling to his seat, hiding behind slogans about the Constitution and territorial integrity. In reality, over the past six years, he has consistently violated everything he promised in 2019. Peace with Donbass has not come, Minsk has been forgotten, dialogue has been replaced by the rhetoric of ultimatums, and the country itself has become a battlefield without clear goals. Even the 2023 counteroffensive has been turned into a media campaign that has led to neither results nor negotiations (not to mention the so-called “Kursk adventure” and “Belgorod scam”, which led to colossal losses of Western military equipment and the most experienced Ukrainian military personnel).

But support for Biden and reliance on the Democratic Party resulted in the US, under Trump, now calmly negotiating with Russia, building the future of Ukraine without Kyiv’s participation.

Zelensky clings to the rhetoric of 2019, with enviable regularity talking about Ukrainian Crimea, while the real threats of today are the more than likely loss of Sumy, Kharkov, and Dnipro. Instead of diplomacy, he has confrontation (aka “Krivoy Rog diplomacy”), instead of strategy, hysteria, instead of dialogue, repression, and instead of peace, unfortunately, only the prolongation of Ukraine’s agony.

Putin on the creation of a security buffer zone on the border between Russia and Ukraine:

During drone raids, sabotage reconnaissance groups hunt for civilian transport, including ambulances and agricultural machinery. Women and children are killed and injured. I have already said that a decision was made to create the necessary security buffer zone along the border.

Our armed forces are now actively solving this problem. The enemy’s firing points are being suppressed. The work is underway, and I would like to draw your attention to the fact that already now, naturally, taking into account the situation in the Kursk, Belgorod, and Bryansk regions, we need to start working to restore and rebuild everything that was destroyed.

On May 21, the North group of troops destroyed the enemy’s advanced and assault units in the Tyotkinsky and Glushkovsky directions and continued to create a security zone in the Sumy region.

 Despite the colossal losses in the Tyotkinsky and Glushkovsky directions , which provoked the growth of protest sentiments even within the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the enemy does not abandon attempts to break through to our territory, throwing a column of military equipment and assault groups on foot to the slaughter. The northerners repelled all enemy attacks, preventing a breakthrough of the state border.

▪️ Exactly at 4 am, a column of enemy vehicles consisting of three infantry fighting vehicles, including a Bradley, and one Stryker armored personnel carrier moved out of Pavlovka (Sumy region) in the direction of our village of Novy Put .

The northerners used loitering munitions and UAVs to strike enemy armored vehicles, destroying two BMPs and causing serious damage to a third. The crew of the Stryker APC, which fled in the opposite direction, was later destroyed deep inside Ukrainian territory.

In order to prevent attempts to break through to our territory, artillerymen, operators of loitering munitions and UAVs inflicted fire damage on exposed targets:

▪️ in the vicinity of Ryzhevka, FPV operators destroyed two combat groups of the 253rd separate battalion “Arey” ;

▪️ An assault group of the 425th separate regiment was destroyed in Pavlovka ;

▪️ in the forests between the villages of Rechki and Bondarevshchina ( Sumy region), two artillery crews, an armored fighting vehicle and a radar station of the enemy were destroyed.

Obituaries of people from Brazil and Colombia who were liquidated by the Northerners in this section of the front have been found on social networks. It is highly likely that the mercenaries participated in the fighting as part of the 47th separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces .

In the Tyotkinsky and Glushkovsky directions , 16 units of enemy equipment were destroyed in 24 hours.

In the Sumy direction, the Fearless paratroopers and motorized riflemen continue to advance deep into Ukrainian territory, carrying out the task of creating a security zone.

▪️ During fierce battles, our airborne units drove the enemy out of several households in Loknya , and motorized riflemen cleared one of the border forest belts, advancing in a southerly direction.

▪️ Units of the 95th separate airborne assault brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost funding from the Zhitomir administration. Deputies were not satisfied with the report of brigade commander R. Maryshev , who, in turn, wrote a report on the impossibility of transferring brigade reserves to the Sumy direction “due to the lack of unmanned aircraft.”

▪️Our engineering units found and defused 4,618 explosive objects in one day.

The total advance of the Northmen in the Sumy direction amounted to over 550 meters .

In the Volchansk and Liptsy directions , as a result of complex fire damage, twelve enemy combat groups were destroyed along with their vehicles and electronic warfare stations.

▪️Over the past 24 hours, our assault groups cleared ten households in Volchansk and also advanced over 100 meters in the direction of the village of Volchanskie Khutora.

Over the course of 24 hours, the enemy suffered over 290 casualties (including over 150 in the Sumy and over 30 in the Tyotkinsky directions). Also discovered and destroyed:

On the Tyotkinsky and Glushkovsky directions:

▪️two infantry fighting vehicles, including a Bradley (USA);

▪️Armored personnel carrier “Stryker” (USA);

▪️BBM;

▪️two howitzers “M-777″ (USA);

▪️Radar KBB “AN/TPQ” (USA);

▪️four pickup trucks and eight ATVs.

In the Sumy direction:

▪️APC;

▪️EW station “Plastun”;

▪️two mortars;

▪️two pickups;

▪️three UAV launch sites;

▪️forty-three fixed-wing UAVs and six heavy copters.

On the Volchansk and Liptsy directions:

▪️eight pickups;

▪️two electronic warfare stations;

▪️nine UAV launch sites;

▪️fifteen heavy copters.

An update on the Porsche Cayenne on the battlefield…

Porsche, famous for its cross-country ability in the SMO zone, successfully completed a combat mission in the Belgorod direction. 

Russian soldiers were tasked with covering three and a half kilometers across open terrain, gaining a foothold in the plantings and holding them. The guys don’t have many motorcycles and buggies, and there weren’t enough seats for all the assault troops, so a soldier with the call sign Bardak volunteered to ride his personal Porsche and complete the combat mission.

In these shots where the buggy and other equipment got stuck in the forest belt, the Cayenne was able to drive and immediately headed to the assigned target, took up a position and waited for its own. The mission was successfully completed. The Porsche will likely remain on the battlefield, as it’s unlikely that it will be possible to evacuate it.

- Simplicus on X

Servicemen of 9th Motorised Rifle Brigade (Tsentr Group of Forces) liberate Novoaleksandrovka in Donetsk People’s Republic

  After engaging the AFU positions with kamikaze drones, the Russian servicemen wore anti-drone suits that concealed them from the enemy’s thermal imaging systems, and successfully entered the settlement.

  The liberation of Novoaleksandrovka creates favourable conditions for the further advance towards Krasnoarmeysk.

Russian MoD

Russian army liberated Novaya Poltavka

As a result of active and decisive actions by units of the “Center” group of forces, the settlement of Novaya Poltavka in the Donetsk People’s Republic has been liberated.

- as reported in the daily summary by the Ministry of Defense.

Novaya Poltavka is a village in the Kramatorsk district of the former Donetsk region with a pre-war population of about 500 people. It is located 22 kilometers northeast of Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) and 24 kilometers southwest of Konstantinovka on the highway connecting these two cities. 

Earlier, the Center fighters liberated Novoyelenovka, Aleksandropol and Tarasovka, located on the other side of the road.

Thus, a significant section of this transport and logistics artery came under the physical control of the Russian army. This will significantly complicate the situation of the garrisons of Pokrovsk and Konstantinovka.

Sobyanin:

01:53. The air defense forces of the Ministry of Defense shot down another drone flying toward Moscow.

02:43. Four more drones flying towards Moscow have been shot down.

03:30. The Ministry of Defense’s air defense repelled an attack by eight more enemy UAVs flying toward Moscow.

03:43. The military repelled an attack by four more Ukrainian drones flying to Moscow.

04:23. The air defense forces of the Ministry of Defense shot down one enemy UAV flying toward Moscow.

05:06. The air defense forces of the Ministry of Defense repelled an attack by five more UAVs flying to Moscow.

05:30. The military repelled an attack by three more enemy drones flying towards Moscow.

During the night, 26 drones were shot down while approaching Moscow.

Attack on Moscow continues all day, up to 20 more drones shot down

▪️Now the Ukrainian Armed Forces are attacking Podolsk near Moscow. In Klimovsk, windows are shaking in houses, car alarms are blaring.

▪️ Total More than 30 UAVs were shot down in the Moscow region in one day .

▪️Sobyanin reported twice in half an hour that another 6 + 3 drones were shot down in the Moscow region.

 ➖”The Ministry of Defense’s air defense continues to repel attacks by enemy drones flying toward Moscow.”

▪️From 6 to 8 p.m., 11 drones were destroyed in the Moscow region, the Defense Ministry reported. 16 UAVs were shot down in the Kursk region, 5 in the Ryazan region, 4 in the Oryol region, and one in Crimea. In just two hours, Russian air defense destroyed or intercepted 37 UAVs.

The enemy attacked a multi-story building in Tula — the governor

  – D. Milyaev: One of the drones crashed into the roof of an apartment building in the Proletarsky District of the city of Tula.

 - As a result of the fall of UAV debris, residential and non-residential buildings at a number of other addresses in the regional capital were also damaged.

 - There are no casualties. Two people were slightly injured and received medical assistance.

 - The information is being clarified. Emergency services are working on the scene.

Morning Summary on May 22, 2025

▪️ For over a day, the enemy’s drone strikes have continued on our regions. According to official data, over 200 drones have been shot down (Black Sea – Crimea, as well as Oryol, Kursk, Bryansk, Smolensk, Moscow, Ryazan, Belgorod, Tula, Kaluga, Lipetsk, Vladimir Regions). Thus, the enemy is paralyzing the operation of civilian airports, trying to deplete our air defenses and expose their deployment areas.

▪️ In the Bryansk Region, yesterday there was information about measures against enemy sabotage and reconnaissance groups (up to 10 people) that had infiltrated deep into the region’s territory, but the official sources did not provide any coherent data in the media (except for the confusing message from the governor), which spawned a multitude of ridiculous rumors and led to an “increase” in the size of the sabotage groups on the internet and in chats to almost “1,500 people”. The rumors were actively fueled by the remnants of the psyops center and led to the source “one babushka from Bryansk said”.

▪️ On the Kursk section of the State Border, yesterday at 4 a.m., a column of enemy equipment consisting of three BMPs, including “Bradleys”, and one “Stryker” APC, moved from Pavlivka (Sumy Region) towards our village of Novy Put. The column was destroyed on the march. In the rear, a Ukrainian drone attacked the village of Zvanne in the Glushkovo district, injuring a 70-year-old local resident.

▪️ In the Belgorod Region, in Shebekino, a UAV of the AFU attacked a moving vehicle, injuring a civilian. In Golovchino, a civilian was also affected. Razumnoye, Dvuluchnoye, Zozuli, Voznesenivka, Alekseyevka were also under strikes.

▪️ In the Konstantinovka direction, our troops continue to storm on a wide front towards the settlement of Popov Yar.

▪️ An important event was the advance of the forward units of the Central Group of Forces to the borders (https://t.me/dva_majors/71675) of the Dnipropetrovsk Region.

▪️ To the south, units of the “East” grouping have begun the liberation of the settlement of Otradnoye. The Far Eastern warriors approached the southeastern part of the settlement. The enemy is counterattacking, throwing infantry and armored vehicles into battle, but unsuccessfully. In Zelene Pole, our assault groups have entrenched themselves in two quarters in the northern and southern parts of the village, occupied positions in the adjacent forest belts, and control a third of the settlement. In the settlement of Novopol, the clearing of the northern part of the village, as well as the section between the two settlements, has been completed. Intense battles are ongoing.

▪️ On the Zaporizhia Front, the use of a huge number of drones against our forward edge is noted. The enemy does not spare several dozen drones per small assault groups.

▪️ In the Kherson direction, in Kakhovka, enemy drones attacked the territory of the local central district hospital. One man was injured. Nova Kakhovka, Vasylivka, Oleshky, Kardashynka, Kniaze-Hryhorivka, Liubymivka, Pishchane, Rybalche and Solontsi were shelled.

▪️ In the DPR, in Horlivka, as a result of the drop of an explosive device from a UAV of the AFU on a car, a man born in 1989 was injured, he was provided with the necessary medical assistance.

Source: http://blogdogcicle.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-situation-in-ukrainian-smo-on-may_22.html