Review of the events of May 15: the wives of Azovstal defenders gave a press conference, and the Kalush Orchestra won the Eurovision Song Contest

From the very beginning of Russiaʼs full-scale war against Ukraine, Babel has been conducting daily live text coverage and promptly informing about the main news on the Telegram channel. We also do a daily digest of the highlights of the day in case you havenʼt been able to follow live.

At night, Russian troops again fired on Sumy oblast. The village of Shpylivka, Sumy oblast, was hit by a missile. And then the air strike — the infrastructure of Shostka district. No one was injured in the shelling. In Lviv Oblast, the Russians launched a missile strike on a military infrastructure facility. According to preliminary data, no one was injured. In Luhansk oblast during the past day from shelling of Russians 4 people were wounded. Almost half of all shelling fell on Sievierodonetsk. The occupiers also fired on Uragan from the Shyrokiv community in the Kryvyi Rih district. There were no casualties or damage.

The wives of Ukrainian fighters defending Azovstal gave a press conference. The questions of journalists were answered by Anna Naumenko, Kateryna Prokopenko, Yulia Fedosyuk, Olha Andrianova, Daria Tsykunova, who are meeting with world leaders and asking the world to save the heroes of Mariupol. The wives said that the defenders were pessimistic. They no longer believe in negotiations and rarely come to the surface from shelters to find water. Defenders no longer have medication. The lightly wounded have their limbs amputated without anesthesia. The situation of the fighters is extremely difficult — they are preparing for the last battle. The wives expect decisive action from the Ukrainian authorities.

During the shelling of Azovstal on May 14, Russian troops used banned incendiary shells with thermite bullets. The combustion temperature of thermite charges is approximately 3,000 ° C.

Ukraine won the Eurovision Song Contest for the third time. Kalush Orchestra scored a total of 631 points. Spectators gave 439 points for Ukraine, judges — 192. Kalush Orchestra from the stage called to help Mariupol and Azovstal. The organizers of Eurovision have stated that there is no policy in such appeals, they are of a humanitarian nature. Political appeals to the competition are prohibited.

In Zaporizhzhia oblast, Russian troops turned a school in the village of Kamyanka into a prison. There they keep their soldiers who refuse to fight. The occupiers are also burning the bodies of their victims in the former chicken coop near the village.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, met with the Secretary of State of the United States Anthony Blinken. They discussed the possibility of exporting food from Ukraine to other countries in the world, when Russia blocked seaports.

42 investigators from the International Criminal Court will arrive in Ukraine next week to investigate Russiaʼs war crimes. Among them are 30 specialists from the Netherlands, including forensic experts and analysts.

US intelligence is conducting internal investigations because the intelligence services were completely wrong in their predictions about the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and the war in Ukraine. The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee sent a secret letter to the Department of Defense and the CIA, noting that the agency underestimated the Ukrainian army in the war with Russia and overestimated the Afghan army in its confrontation with the Taliban. This has caused a number of planning problems. It is noted that the assessments were based on the quantitative advantage of the Russian army over the Ukrainian one but did not take into account the "will to fight", which is the most difficult characteristic of the assessment. At the same time, the letter emphasizes the positive points — US intelligence was able to predict Russiaʼs invasion of Ukraine.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said that Turkey does not intend to block Finland and Sweden from joining the Alliance. Stoltenberg also called on NATO members to help Ukraine survive the war with Russia. He is confident that Ukraine can win. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is also confident that Finland and Sweden will join NATO despite Turkeyʼs objections.

The US Treasury Department has held closed-door talks with representatives of major international banks in China, Brazil, Ireland, Japan and Canada, warning of possible secondary sanctions against banks if they help Russia circumvent US and EU sanctions.