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Morning Headlines
France 24: NATO foreign ministers meet in Prague on Thursday in the face of growing calls for leading allies to lift restrictions stopping Kyiv from using Western weapons to strike inside Russia.
WP: The U.S. fears that Ukrainian strikes targeting Russian nuclear early-warning systems could dangerously unsettle Moscow as the Biden administration is weighing whether to lift restrictions on Ukraine using U.S.-supplied weapons in cross-border attacks (archive).
BBC News: War-themed comic books are being used by the Kremlin to sell its vision of the war in Ukraine to the youth.
ISW: Russian forces recently advanced north and northeast of Kharkiv City, near Kreminna, Chasiv Yar, and Avdiivka.
The Guardian: Security services around Europe are on alert to a potential new weapon of Russia’s war – arson and sabotage – after a spate of mystery fires and attacks on infrastructure in the Baltics, Germany and the UK.
Reuters: Russian forces launched a series of missiles early on Thursday on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, injuring at least four people and damaging infrastructure, local officials said.
More News
FT: Europe has only a fraction of the air defence capabilities needed to protect its eastern flank, according to Nato’s own internal calculations, laying bare the scale of the continent’s vulnerabilities (archive).
NY Times: Pentagon opens ammunition factory to keep arms flowing to Ukraine. A plant still under construction in Mesquite, Texas, will soon turn out 30,000 artillery shells each month, roughly doubling current U.S. output (archive).
Reuters: NATO needs to send a signal that it will contain "Russian imperialism" and every move to aid Ukraine will help it do this, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said on Wednesday, as the military alliance meets this week to discuss support for Kyiv.
The Insider: Russian soccer and hockey leagues have become safe havens for rogue foreigners. Convicted criminals — like Dutch soccer star Quincy Promes, sentenced for stabbing his cousin and smuggling cocaine — increasingly feel at home in Russia.
The Kyiv Independent: Representatives of Finland, Canada, and Poland issued separate statements on May 29 saying Ukraine can use their weapons to strike targets on Russian territory.
Reuters: A senior member of a Russian think tank whose ideas sometimes become government policy has suggested Moscow consider a "demonstrative" nuclear explosion to cow the West into refusing to allow Ukraine to use its arms against targets inside Russia.
NY Times: Once a sheriff’s deputy in Florida, now a source of disinformation from Russia. In 2016, Russia used an army of trolls to interfere in the U.S. presidential election. This year, an American given asylum in Moscow may be accomplishing much the same thing all by himself (archive).
The Insider: Russian propaganda is preparing for November's U.S. presidential election. Russian state TV is back at it, spreading conspiracy theories about the FBI's alleged plans to assassinate Donald Trump — and the "devalued" U.S. dollar.
LRT: The Lithuanian government on Wednesday allocated 5 million euros to Ukraine’s education sector.
Reuters: HSBC has completed the sale of its Russian unit to Expobank for an undisclosed fee, the Russian lender said on Wednesday, ending around two years of negotiations and uncertainty.
The Moscow Times: The Russian division of Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank will stop processing outgoing payments in U.S. dollars starting on June 10, the bank announced Wednesday, citing “changed requirements of correspondent banks.”
POLITICO: The U.S. is stepping up diplomatic efforts to convince Europe about the scale of China's role in aiding Russia's war against Ukraine. And according to the second most senior figure in the U.S. State Department, Europe is now hardening its stance on Beijing.
Reuters: Belgian investigators searched the home and offices of an assistant at the European Parliament on Wednesday, who prosecutors say may have played a role in spreading Russian propaganda ahead of an election for the EU assembly.
LRT: The Lithuanian government on Wednesday approved 13.5 million euros for the purchase of air surveillance radars to contribute to the German-led air defence coalition for Ukraine, Defence Minister Laurynas Kasčiūnas said on Wednesday.
AFP: Ukraine reported Wednesday that nine people had been killed in five regions of the war-battered country, as Russia presses gains on the front line where Kyiv's troops are struggling.
Reuters: Poland will reintroduce a 200-metre buffer zone at the Belarus border at the beginning of next week, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday, after an attack on a soldier at the frontier left him fighting for his life.
Sweden on Wednesday pledged military aid of 13.3 billion kronor ($1.25 billion) to Ukraine, as Kyiv struggles with multiple delays of vital Western military support in the third year of war with Russia.
worth mentioning
Life on Ukraine’s front line: ‘Worse than hell’ as Russia advances
Putin names ex-bodyguard Alexei Dyumin, a potential successor, to senior role
Blinken pledges $135 million in US aid to Moldova to counter Russian influence
Putin allows Russian telecom operator to buy out Nokia
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