Gennadi Manakov and Aleksandr Poleshchuk performed the first EVA on April 19, 1993 (5h 25m). They installed solar array electric drives on the sides of Kvant. These would later receive the collapsible solar arrays from Kristall. Aleksandr Poleshchuk climbed down the length of Kvant2 to the base of the Strela telescoping boom attached to the base block. Gennadi Manakov then fixed himself to the end of the boom, at which point Aleksandr Poleshchuk swung the boom to move him to the installation site on Kvant. A container holding one of the electric drives was transferred using the boom. With difficulty the cosmonauts attached the drive to one of the frameworks which had been assembled on opposite sides of Kvant in 1991 by Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov. Aleksandr Poleshchuk noticed that one of two control handles for the Strela boom had come off and floated away. A new handle would have to be sent up from Earth before work could continue.

While they waited for delivery of a replacement handle the second EVA, planned for April 23, 1993, was cancelled. The cosmonauts carried out routine maintenance on the water regeneration, electricity supply, and onboard computer systems. They also conducted Rezonans tests. Progress M-18's docking on May 24, 1993 marked the first time a Soviet station was attended by two Progress craft at the same time. In addition to the replacement handle for the telescoping boom, Progress M-18 delivered replacement water pumps for the thermal control system and computer parts. Progress M-18's cargo was essential for the execution of the planning for 1993 and 1994. In the first place it delivered the replacement of the lost key (or: handle) for the operations with the crane Strela. During the next planned spacewalks, the crew needed that Strela for the transfer of the solar panels from Kristall to Kvant1. Progress M-18 also brought new equipment and spare parts for the replacement or repairs of worn-out systems, but also equipment and experiments to be used during the French expedition 'Altair' (Soyuz TM-17) in July 1993.

Another EVA by Gennadi Manakov and Aleksandr Poleshchuk occurred on June 18, 1993 (4h 33m). Progress M-18 had delivered a replacement Strela handle on May 24, 1993. The second EVA was scheduled to last 5 hours. The cosmonauts installed the new Strela handle, then used the boom to move the second solar drive container to the worksite on Kvant1. In contrast to their April 19, 1993 EVA, Gennadi Manakov and Aleksandr Poleshchuk installed the second drive with few problems. In fact, the cosmonauts completed the installation ahead of schedule, so they were able to spend several minutes televising images of Mir's exterior to engineers in the TsUP.

In a unique maneuver on July 03, 1993 Progress M-18 undocked from Mir, clearing the port for the docking only minutes later of Soyuz TM-17 with the Mir-14 crew of Vasili Tsibliyev and Aleksandr Serebrov and French Research Cosmonaut Jean-Pierre Haigneré.
On July 01, 1993 at 14:33 UTC the transport ship Soyuz TM-17 was launched for a flight of two days to the Mir space station.