1 Institute for the Study of War & The Critical Threats Project 2022
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, May 2
Kateryna Stepanenko, Karolina Hird, and Frederick W. Kagan
May 2, 5:15 pm ET
Russian forces did not conduct any confirmed ground attacks in Ukraine on May 2. The April 30
Ukrainian artillery strike on the Russian command post in Izyum may be continuing to disrupt Russian efforts
on the Izyum axis. Russian troops on the Donetsk-Luhansk frontline and Southern Axis continued to regroup,
likely in preparation for renewed offensives or to resist or reverse Ukrainian counter-offensives.
Key Takeaways
Russian forces did not conduct any confirmed ground attacks along any axes of advance
and instead shelled Ukrainian positions on the frontlines.
The April 30 Ukrainian artillery strike on Russian command headquarters near Izyum
likely disrupted Russian operations on the Izyum axis and may hinder Russian offensives
from Izyum for the next few days.
Russian forces on the Southern Axis continued to regroup and reconnoiter likely in
preparation for ground assaults in the direction of Kryvyi Rih, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhia.
We do not report in detail on Russian war crimes because those activities are well-covered in
Western media and do not directly affect the military operations we are assessing and
forecasting. We will continue to evaluate and report on the effects of these criminal activities
on the Ukrainian military and population and specifically on combat in Ukrainian urban
areas. We utterly condemn these Russian violations of the laws of armed conflict, Geneva
Conventions, and humanity even though we do not describe them in these reports.
