500 Russian convicts are being trained in Luhansk region – General Staff

The Ukrainian Armed Forces' General Staff reported this on April 27.

It is also known that instead of imprisonment, the convicts are offered a contract for military service with participation in hostilities in Ukraine for six months.

The General Staff explains that the Russian troops are doing this to replenish their manpower losses.

“Occupying Russian forces continue to actively involve persons with a criminal record or those against whom criminal cases have been opened, in particular for terrorism,” the report says. 

AFU shot down 5 Russian drones per day

Also, Ukrainian aviation launched 4 strikes on the invading Russian troops' military positions and struck an enemy anti-aircraft missile system.

In turn, missile and artillery units struck 2 Russian control points, a manpower concentration area, an air defense system, a munitions depot and 2 artillery units.

Russia launched 25 airstrikes and 20 MLRS attacks against Ukraine

Also, at night, the Russian troops launched 5 missile attacks on Mykolaiv, causing civilian casualties, destroying and damaging private houses and other civilian infrastructure.

Occupying Russian forces are attacking at the Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka directions. Over the course of the day, they launched over 35 assaults in these areas, but all of them were repelled by the Ukrainian Defense Forces. Bakhmut and Marinka remain at the epicenter of the fighting.

Near the state Ukrainian border with Russia and Belarus, the situation hasn't changed significantly, and no enemy offensive groups have been detected. 

At the same time, the Russian Federation keeps shelling the entire border line with mortars and artillery: 2 settlements in the Chernihiv region, 4 more in the Sumy region, as well as 10 villages in the Kharkiv region were attacked. 

Russian attacks in other Ukrainian regions

• In the Kupiansk direction, 8 settlements in the Kharkiv and Luhansk regions came under artillery fire. 

• In the Lyman direction, 7 localities in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions came under Russian attacks. 

• In the Bakhmut direction, fighting continues for the fortress city. 11 localities in the Donetsk region were subjected to numerous attacks by the invading Russian troops. 

• In the Avdiivka direction, 7 settlements in the Donetsk region were attacked. 

• In the Marinka direction, Ukraine's Armed Forces repelled numerous Russian assaults. At the same time, 3 settlements in the Donetsk region came under artillery fire. 

• In the Shakhtarsk direction, occupying Russian forces attacked 5 settlements of the Donetsk region. 

• In the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson directions, 10 towns and villages were shelled by the Russian army. 

On the night of April 27, the occupying Russian forces launched Kalibr missiles from the Black Sea to attack Mykolaiv, damaging houses, causing deaths and inju