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Morning Headlines
Reuters: Poland has arrested nine people in connection with acts of sabotage committed in the country on the orders of Russian services, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said late on Monday.
Bloomberg: In an about face, German officials are ready to support a US plan to leverage the future revenue generated from frozen Russian assets — mostly stranded in Europe — to back $50 billion in aid to Ukraine (archive).
POLITICO: Brussels officials are pushing to begin formal negotiations over Ukraine joining the European Union as early as next month, according to people familiar with the matter.
ISW: Ukrainian sources indicated that Russian forces are concentrating limited, understaffed, and incohesive forces in the Sumy direction, but even such a Russian grouping of forces will be able to achieve the likely desired effect of drawing and fixing Ukrainian forces in the international border area.
More News
NY Times: The FBI shut down at least a handful of informants — and issued warnings about dozens of others — after an internal review in 2020-2021 prompted by concerns that informants were channeling Russian disinformation about Hunter Biden, Trump and others (archive).
The Kyiv Independent: Spain announced the delivery of the second batch of Leopard tanks to Ukraine. The military package also includes 155-mm artillery ammunition, Patriot anti-aircraft missiles, anti-drone systems, optronic surveillance and tracking systems, and turrets.
Reuters: Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani expressed concern at a meeting on Monday about a Russian court's decision to seize securities, accounts and property amounting to 5% of bank UniCredit's assets in the country.
AFP: Ukraine's Western allies should lift the limits they impose on weapons they deliver, allowing Kyiv greater freedom to hit targets in Russia, the Lithuanian foreign minister said in an interview Monday.
The Kyiv Independent: The Netherlands will soon send Ukraine more YPR-765 armored vehicles, the Dutch Defense Ministry reported on May 20 after the U.S.-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting.
Reuters: Putin on Monday appointed former deputy economy minister Oleg Savelyev as a deputy defence minister, according to a published decree, in a further sign of his intention to improve the efficiency of Russia's war economy.
The Kyiv Independent: The Polish government signed a contract with the European Investment Bank worth 300 million euros to construct its part of the pan-European air defense, according to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Reuters: Western allies are taking too long to make key decisions on military support for Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Reuters in an exclusive interview in Kyiv on Monday (key quotes from the interview).
The Kyiv Independent: The Austrian government will allocate 5 million euros for energy infrastructure restoration in Ukraine, Der Standard reported on May 20, citing an Austrian official.
The Moscow Times: YouTube has blocked at least three videos that show viewers how to evade military service after it received a request from the Russian authorities, the investigative news outlet Agentstvo reported Monday.
Reuters: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will call on Tuesday for Europe and the U.S. to stand together against Russian aggression and Iranian "support for terrorism", including finding a way forward to unlock the value of frozen Russian sovereign assets to aid Ukraine.
AP News: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin committed Monday to keeping U.S. weapons moving to Ukraine as Kyiv faces one of its toughest moments against a renewed assault by Russia.
Reuters: Ukrainian troops still control about 60% of Vovchansk and are fighting house-to-house to defend the border town in northeastern Kharkiv region from Russian attacks, officials said in the most detailed public assessment of the battle to date.
The Kyiv Independent: A Ukrainian rocket attack targeted a Russian military base in occupied Luhansk's suburb of Yuvileine on May 20, said the governor of Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast, Artem Lysohor, citing local residents.
Reuters: A man in the western Siberian city of Novosibirsk was sentenced to a record 25 years behind bars on Monday for planning to set fire to a military recruitment office in September 2022.
Bloomberg: At least seven oil tankers returned to waters off southern Greece to resume switching Russian petroleum cargoes after drills in the area by local navy came to an end (archive).
POLITICO: Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, UK's OFSI (sanctions watchdog) has issued zero fines for sanctions evasion, despite £22.7 billion of frozen Russian assets.
WSJ: European investigators increasingly see Russian fingerprints around recent acts of suspected sabotage on strategic infrastructure but are struggling to respond.
worth mentioning
‘Code 9.2’: The secretive Ukrainian drone unit tasked with dropping mines into Russia
Russian government tells loss-making Gazprom not to pay dividends for 2023
U.S. investor Calvey's Russian conviction wiped as probation expires
US to consider major military, trade package to Georgia if anti-democratic drift reversed
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