00:20
President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ukraine is trying to save the servicemen at the Azovstal plant through the efforts of the military, the negotiating group, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN. According to Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar, 211 servicemen were evacuated to occupied Olenivka for subsequent exchange, while 53 seriously wounded servicemen were taken to a hospital in occupied Novoazovsk for treatment.
00:50
Initial reports said that Russian troops had struck a military infrastructure facility in the Yavoriv district of the Lviv region. Regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy later clarified that a railway infrastructure facility had been hit and damaged. Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi described it as one of the largest missile attacks on the Lviv region.
02:50
According to Operational Command South, Ukrainian rocket artillery destroyed a fuel depot near Chornobaivka. The command also reported that 29 Russian troops were killed and a Strela 10 surface-to-air missile system, a T-72 tank and other armored vehicles were destroyed.
07:05
In the Severodonetsk direction near Syrotyne the Russian occupants experienced losses and retreated. In some other directions they had no success in the offensive.
08:35
On the morning of May 17, the settlement of Desna in the Chernihiv region was hit by missiles. Regional governor Viacheslav Chaus reported that people had been killed and others wounded.
09:40
Today at dawn the Russian troops shelled Okhtyrka in Sumy region with missiles. At least five people are wounded.
10:50
At night on May 17 the Russian troops launched missile strikes on Lviv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions. Kharkiv was not shelled, but Pervomaiske in Mykolaiv region, and some villages in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions experienced considerable destruction and casualties.
12:40
The Russian Federation plans to give the destroyed Mariupol to the governance of Kadyrov’s legionnaires. The city will be given to them together with the right to engage in looting, Petro Andriushchenko, advisor to the Mariupol mayor, reported.
13:25
Mariupol City Council has published a video of evacuation of wounded Mariupol defenders from the Azovstal steel plant.
The anonymous video shows men in camouflage uniforms and white arm bands (used by Russian troops) search wounded servicemen and the military personnel who carry them on first-aid stretchers.
13:40
Minister of Justice Denys Maliuska reported that since the beginning of the war 363 people had been released from Ukrainian prisons after they had expressed willingness to go to the front line.
There have been three waves of pardons so far. According to the minister, those released were individuals who posed no danger and were actually sent to the front line. He said that none of those pardoned would be returned to prison after the war.
14:05
The occupants are again shelling the border area near Seredyna-Buda in the Sumy region. Near Sopych village 6 blasts were registered and around 70 blasts were heard in the direction of Boyaro-Lezhachi.
Shelling continues in the north of the Shostka district. There are fires along the border caused by the shelling.
14:40
One more suspect in rapes of women in the Kyiv region has been identified.
According to Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova’s reports, the second Russian suspect identified in the rapes is 20-year-old Bulat Fassakhov, a radio operator in the howitzer artillery battalion of the 30th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade, 2nd Combined Arms Army, Central Military District of the Russian Federation. The identification of other suspects in war crimes continues.
15:15
According to Ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova, Russian occupiers are trying to forcibly organize a tourist season on the Arabat Spit.
According to her, spa resorts in the temporarily occupied Crimea are full of wounded Russian soldiers evacuated from the mainland Ukraine. That is the reason why the occupants decided to organize holidays at the resorts of the temporarily occupied Kherson region.
Local entrepreneurs are forced to open the hotels, cafes and shops to create “safe and comfortable” conditions for the holiday-makers.
15:35
The Russian troops have shelled the bridge over the Dniester Estuary in the Odesa region for the fifth time. According to Operational Command South, neither repairs nor operation of the bridge are possible.
16:00
Today patrol police have evacuated 36 people from Severodonetsk and Lysychansk; 6 of them are children. Near the refinery and near Volodymyrivka the bus was shelled by the Russians. Despite that, everyone rescued is unharmed and safe. Today in total 76 people were evacuated from the region.
17:35
A missile strike destroyed a 5-storey building in Bakhmut and caused a fire, the Donetsk Regional Military Administration reported.
A seriously wounded nine-year-old child was rescued from the ruins. There might be other people under the ruins; the rescue operation continues.
18:05
Russia may impose a ban on the exchange of Azov soldiers.
According to the report, tomorrow the State Duma plans to consider a draft resolution prohibiting the exchange of so-called “Nazi criminals”, while on May 26 the Russian Supreme Court is scheduled to consider designating the Ukrainian Azov battalion a terrorist organization.
18:40
Scientist Serhii Avramenko reported that the occupants had destroyed the plant gene bank in Kharkiv, which he described as the only such bank in Ukraine. According to the report, it held more than 160000 plant varieties and hybrids from around the world.
19:15
In the Novoyavoriv community in the Lviv region, a Russian missile strike damaged many private houses, a kindergarten, an outpatient clinic and the local starosta’s office, according to community head Volodymyr Matseliukh.
20:10
Russia continues shelling and military provocations at the border: on May 17 the border guards have registered 7 armed incidents at the border line within the Sumy region and 2 within the Chernihiv region.
21:35
In Mariupol the spread of infectious diseases is possible due to damaged water supply and sewage systems, the WHO representative Dorit Nitzan reported.
Ms. Nitzan stated that although the water supply in Mariupol is partially restored, many pipelines are damaged. Non-governmental organizations informed that the city streets look like “a swamp where sewage water is mixed with the potable one”. This creates a huge threat of many infections, including cholera.
22:00
“The war is entering into the protracted conflict phase”, the Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov wrote on Facebook.
“In the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions the occupants carried out fortification works to be prepared for the defensive measures”, he stated.