Victorious news of 435th day of war: Russian soldiers surrender en masse, SBU blocks billions of oligarch Novynskyi's assets

SBU seized Novynskyi's assets worth UAH 10.5 billion

Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) seized new assets of pro-Russian oligarch Vadym Novynskyi, who is involved in aiding the aggressor country. The total value of the seized assets is over UAH 10.5 billion.

The blocked list includes 230 properties owned by Novynskyi through an offshore trust fund. The seized property includes an upscale hotel complex in the center of Kyiv, the Ochakiv seaport, agricultural holding facilities, and shopping centers in various regions of Ukraine.

“It has been established that to avoid NSDC sanctions, Novynskyi re-registered his assets to several foreign nationals controlled by him in offshore jurisdictions. He involved affiliated private notaries and state registrars to carry out the transaction,” the statement says. 

3,200 Russian soldiers 'want to live'

Over the past month, the I Want to Live project has received 3,200 requests from Russian soldiers who want to surrender.

“In April, we received 10% more applications than in March 2023. This is 3,200 applications,” said Vitalii Matvienko, a representative of the I Want to Live state project, which helps Russian and Belarusian military personnel surrender.

He added that the project has received over 16,000 requests, and the site has been visited by more than 36 million people, including 32 million from Russia.

According to a sociological survey, 40% of the Russian military said they surrendered voluntarily.

Enemy drone tells AFU the Russian forces' coordinates

The National Guard shot down a Russian drone with small arms and struck at the UAV's takeoff coordinates they got from its memory card.

A mobile firing team of a separate public order battalion neutralized an enemy Zala-421 UAV while on duty at a checkpoint near Kherson using small arms. In addition, servicemen of the 31st Brigade of Public Order Protection named after Major General Oleksandr Radievskyi shot down a MAVIC-3 drone near Serebrianske forestry using small arms.

“A memory card containing photo and video files with information (geolocation data) on the place of its launch was seized from the downed UAV. The artillery struck at the specified coordinates,” the representative of Ukraine's National Guard said. 

SBU detained enemy agitators in 6 regions of Ukraine

Ukraine's Security Service blocked the activities of an extensive network of hostile Internet agitators. It consisted of 11 people from different regions of Ukraine.

They used messengers and social networks to spread Kremlin fakes about the war in Ukraine. The information for their publications was taken from Russian propaganda Internet resources.

In particular, a businessman 'worked' in the Kyiv region, denying Russian armed aggression on his Facebook page and claiming that the war in Ukraine was an “internal civil conflict.”

In the Chernihiv region, two propagandists on Russian Odnoklassniki social media published posts in support of the Kremlin's aggressive policy and sympathised with the losses of the invading Russian forces.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, four local residents were exposed. They called for cooperation with the occupying Russian troops and discredited the Ukrainian Defense Forces on social media and among their close circle.

In the Kharkiv region, an enemy accomplice posted propaganda videos glorifying the Russian military.

In the Kirovohrad region, two online agitators justified Russian war crimes, including the shelling of Ukrainian cities. And in Odesa, one of the administrators of an anonymous Telegram chat created to collect information about the movement of Ukrainian military equipment was served with a notice of suspicion.

Remove the Russian language

The Language Ombudsman recommends that the Verkhovna Rada amend the regulation on the passport of a citizen of Ukraine. The old-style document does not comply with the law, as the citizen's data is written in Ukrainian and Russian.

“We are asking to amend the regulation on the passport of a citizen of Ukraine to provide that the passport is drawn up in the state language, in accordance with part one of Article 8 of the language law,” the ombudsman said.

He said that there are currently two types of passports in Ukraine: biometric and old-style, where information about the citizen, his or her residence and the place of issue of the document are recorded in a non-state language.