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What the 16 May 2023 Kyiv barrage showed
Summary
A retrospective on the missile attack on Kyiv and other cities, and the events of the days before it.
What did the days leading up to 17 May 2023 reveal about the state of the war? Reports from 11 to 16 May pointed to missile strikes on Ukrainian cities, fighting over Bakhmut and new Western weapons for Kyiv.
The barrage on Kyiv
On 16 May 2023, more than a dozen explosions were reported in Kyiv as Russia launched a missile barrage at the capital and other Ukrainian cities. Ukrainian forces said they had shot down six Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles.
Three days earlier, on 13 May, Russia had fired cruise missiles at Ternopil in western Ukraine, injuring two civilians.
Bakhmut and Western aid
On 11 May, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin confirmed that Ukrainian troops had recaptured parts of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast from his forces. The Battle of Bakhmut was a major contest between the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces for control of the city. Some military analysts later regarded it as the bloodiest battle since World War II.
On the same day, the United Kingdom's Defence Ministry confirmed that it had supplied Ukraine with Storm Shadow cruise missiles.
A diplomatic row over a Russian ship
The war also created friction far from the front. On 13 May, South Africa said it maintained a neutral and non-aligned stance on the Russo-Ukrainian War. This followed an accusation by the U.S. ambassador, Reuben Brigety, that South Africa had loaded a sanctioned Russian ship with weapons in December 2022. The accusation caused a diplomatic crisis between the United States and South Africa.
The ship, the Lady R, had docked at Simon's Town Naval Base in December 2022. It was carrying military cargo. The secretive nature of the docking and the ambassador's allegation, which was that South African military supplies were loaded onto the vessel for use in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, made the episode controversial.
The picture on the eve of 17 May
Taken together, the reports from 11 to 16 May show a war being fought on several levels: missile attacks on the capital and a western city, contested ground in Donetsk Oblast, a Western ally publicly confirming the delivery of longer-range weapons, and a diplomatic dispute over a Russian vessel.
