Pre-trial restraint for Knyazev, railroad explosion in Crimea, progress near Bakhmut: highlights of the day

Pre-trial restraint for Knyazev

On May 18, the High Anti-Corruption Court convened to choose a pre-trial restriction for former Supreme Court Chief Justice Vsevolod Knyazev, who is suspected of taking a $2.7 million bribe.

The Court has imposed a 60-day, until July 14, pre-trial restraint on former Supreme Court Chief Justice Vsevolod Knyazev in the form of detention with the possibility of bail of UAH 107.36 million ($2.9 million).

Earlier, the High Council of Justice agreed to keep the former chief justice in custody.

Meanwhile, the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine imposed a measure of restraint on lawyer Oleh Horetskyi, who is suspected of aiding the former Knyazev. He was remanded in custody until July 13 with the possibility of bail in the amount of UAH 80 million.

Explosion on the railroad in Crimea

On the morning of May 18, Russian media reported that in the temporarily occupied Crimea, in the Simferopol district, unknown persons blew up the railway tracks. About 150 meters of the railroad were damaged.

The so-called head of the occupied peninsula, Sergei Aksyonov, said that grain wagons had derailed.

A representative of Ukraine's Defense Intelligence, Andriy Yusov, said that the blown-up tracks were used to transport weapons, ammunition, and equipment.

Advances near Bakhmut

The spokesman for the Eastern military grouping, Serhiy Cherevatyi, said that Ukrainian troops continue to advance on the flanks in the Bakhmut axis. They managed to advance 150 to 1,700 meters over the last day.

Cherevatyi stated that despite the fact that the Ukrainian military do not yet have a numerical and technical advantage over the enemy, they have seized the initiative and the occupiers are forced to respond to the actions of the Defense Forces. In particular, they are redeploying airborne units to and around Bakhmut, trying to stop the advance where Ukraine is having success.

Cherevatyi noted that the positional war is ongoing, the movement is happening every day, and unfortunately, sometimes the enemy has some success.

Language scandal in the capital

Taras Kremin, the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, spoke about an inspection at a private educational institution, the Kyiv Academy of Applied Arts.

The inspection was based on complaints about violations of language legislation.

The first vice-rector and founder of the Academy, Oleksandr Lubianskyi, stated during the official event "Creative Open Day" that "Russian is the Kyiv language".

In another case, a student was kicked out of the classroom because she opposed the use of Russian by the vice-rector during the educational process.

The day before, blogger Emma Antoniuk retold the story of the student on Instagram.

In the audio recordings, a man believed to be Lubyanskyi is outraged that the student "wants the Ukrainian language in her country," adding that he is a third-generation Russian-speaking Kyivan.

NATO's plan for Russian attack

NATO plans to adopt thousands of pages of secret military plans at its summit in Vilnius, describing how the Alliance would respond to a Russian attack, Reuters reports.

After the end of the Cold War, NATO saw no need to develop large-scale defense plans, as it believed that Russia no longer posed a threat to the existence of the world.

Now, NATO plans to provide guidance to countries on how to modernize their forces and logistics. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also noted that the documents will indicate which troops will be deployed to protect certain regions.

Derussification of metro stations

The Kyiv City Council voted to de-Russify 26 city facilities, including three subway stations.

In particular, they renamed:

• Druzhby Narodiv metro station to Zvirynetska metro station;
• Leo Tolstoy Square station to Ukrainian Heroes Square;
• the projected Prospekt Pravdy metro station to Varshavska station.

The Kyiv City Council also decided to rename a number of streets and alleys in different districts of the capital.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture has deprived two more Soviet monuments of monumental art in Kyiv of their protected status.

These are the monument to the participants of the January 1918 armed uprising against the Ukrainian Central Rada and the Ukrainian People's Republic in Mariinskyi Park and the obelisk in honor of the hero city of Kyiv on Halytska Square (formerly Victory Square).

Other news

• Norway, in cooperation with the United Kingdom, will provide Ukraine with up to eight MLRS long-range multiple-launch rocket systems and three Arthur counter-battery radar systems to detect enemy artillery;
• The National Police exposed fraudsters who, according to preliminary data, stole $406,000 from over 10,000 Ukrainians;
• the electronic medical service Helsi, after a scandal with a technical failure, will now report every new appointment with a doctor and completed appointment;
• military-medical commissions will switch to electronic lines in all military hospitals in Ukraine by the end of May;
• a briefing on the current security situation in Ukraine was held at the President's Office for a Chinese delegation headed by Li Hui, Special Representative of the Chinese Government for Eurasian Affairs;
• the construction of anti-tank fortifications known as "dragon's teeth" was spotted near the city of Gomel in Belarus.