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Morning Headlines
Reuters: Russia will face consequences for a cyber attack allegedly orchestrated by a group with ties to its military intelligence, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Friday.
AP News: Since Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, attacks and harassment of Russians — prominent or not — have been blamed on Moscow's intelligence operatives across Europe and elsewhere.
LRT: At least 130-million-euro-worth of dual-use goods have been shipped through Lithuania to Russia since the start of the Ukraine invasion. The shipments are routed via countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan.
Reuters: The success of ballistic missile defences facing their first complex, high-stakes combat scenarios in Israel, the Red Sea and Ukraine will encourage militaries globally to invest in the pricey systems, experts say - and intensify missile arms races.
ISW: Ukrainian and US officials issued assessments consistent with prior ISW forecasts that Russian forces may take Chasiv Yar in Donetsk Oblast but are very unlikely to seize major Ukrainian cities.
More News
Reuters: British Foreign Secretary David Cameron promised three billion pounds ($3.74 billion) of annual military aid for Ukraine for "as long as it takes" on Thursday, adding that London had no objection to the weapons being used inside Russia.
Business Insider: Russia has seen strong growth lately, but the fate of the nation's economy hangs on whether it can keep militarizing — something only accomplished by keeping the Ukraine war going, a think-tank analyst wrote in the Financial Times.
NBC News: China has helped shift the battlefield momentum in Russia’s favor in Ukraine by providing it with components and other material needed to sustain its defense industry, the top U.S. intelligence official told senators Thursday.
The Independent is publishing a four-article series into the rampant abuses and possible war crimes committed during Russia’s full scale invasion against Ukrainians with disabilities - among the most vulnerable of all in the bloody conflict.
NATO members are 'deeply concerned' about recent attacks they attribute to Russia that namely affected the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and the United Kingdom, the defence alliance said in a statement on Thursday.
Bloomberg: US intelligence officials assess that Russia and China are working more closely together on military issues, including a potential invasion of Taiwan, prompting new planning across the government to counter a potential scenario in which the countries fight in coordination (archive).
Reuters: Russia has been quietly shipping refined petroleum to North Korea at levels that appear to violate a cap imposed by the United Nations Security Council, the White House said on Thursday, suggesting new sanctions could result.
AP News: Serbian lawmakers on Thursday voted into office a new government that reinstated two pro-Russia officials who are sanctioned by the United States, reflecting persistent close ties with Moscow despite the Balkan nation’s proclaimed bid to join the European Union.
Brookings: New research shows that Russian state media are posting English and Spanish videos to TikTok and have doubled last year’s engagement on their posts, which include attacks on President Biden’s Israel policy and his age as well as promotion of far-right commentator Tucker Carlson’s Russia coverage.
Reuters: Kremlin-owned gas giant Gazprom said on Thursday it plunged to a net loss of 629 billion roubles ($6.9 billion) in 2023, its first annual loss in more than 20 years, amid dwindling gas trade with Europe, once its main sales market.
The Kyiv Independent: Russian troops have continued to storm the town of Chasiv Yar and nearby settlements in Donetsk Oblast amid a "great battle" for control of logistics routes, Nazar Voloshyn, the Khortytsia Group of Forces' spokesperson, said.
AFP: A Russian guided bomb attack in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region wounded seven children and an adult on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said.
Reuters: Putin sees domestic and international developments trending in his favor and likely will press aggressive tactics in Ukraine, but the war is unlikely to end anytime soon, the top U.S. intelligence official said on Thursday.
Reuters: Finland's new armed forces chief said Russia was unlikely to test NATO's mutual defence clause by attacking a NATO member state in the coming years, but may well continue what he said were hybrid attacks such as jamming and election interference.
Reuters: Kyrgyzstan's foreign ministry said on Thursday it was recommending its citizens to temporarily avoid travelling to Russia, becoming the second Central Asian nation to do so after Tajikistan issued similar advice last weekend.
AFP: French President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed he did not rule out sending troops to Ukraine, saying the issue would "legitimately" arise if Russia broke through Ukrainian front lines and Kyiv made such a request, in an interview with the Economist published Thursday.
The Times: A “ghost fleet” of unseaworthy Russian oil tankers travelling through the Strait of Dover risks inflicting billions of pounds of environmental damage on the English coast, campaigners have warned parliament (archive).
The Kyiv Independent: Russia is trying to break through the front line in the east of Ukraine in three directions, Nazar Voloshyn, the spokesperson of the Khortytsia group of forces, said on May 2.
Reuters: Russia said on Thursday it saw no point in a conference being planned by Switzerland in mid-June to discuss how to end the Ukraine war and to which Moscow is not currently invited.
HRW: Russian forces appear to have executed at least 15 Ukrainian soldiers as they attempted to surrender, and possibly six more who were surrendering or who had surrendered, since early December 2023, Human Rights Watch said.
worth mentioning
An interview with Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence
Italy seeks compensation for EU firms hit by Russian sanctions
Russia can't match a Western asset seizure, but it can inflict pain
For decades, Moscow has sought to silence its critics abroad
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