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Morning Headlines
Reuters: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday in the first visit to Ukraine by a senior U.S. official since Congress passed a long-delayed $61 billion military aid package for the country last month.
The Kyiv Independent: More than 30,000 Russian troops are carrying out a renewed offensive in Kharkiv Oblast, National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Lytvynenko said in an interview with AFP.
AP News: Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said the long delay by the U.S. Congress in approving military aid for his country was “a colossal waste of time,” allowing Putin to inflict more suffering in the 2-year-old invasion and prolonging the war.
Reuters: President Joe Biden signed into law a ban on Russian enriched uranium on Monday, the White House said, in the latest effort by Washington to disrupt Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
ISW: Russian forces continued to make tactically significant advances north and northeast of Kharkiv City on May 13 and currently appear to be prioritizing the rapid establishment of a "buffer zone" along the international border over setting conditions for deeper penetrations into northern Kharkiv Oblast.
Reuters: Freight train cars derailed and a storage tank containing diesel fuel caught fire in the southern Russian region of Volgograd due to "outside interference," Russian officials said on Tuesday.
More News
The Kyiv Independent: Berlin will provide Kyiv with another IRIS-T air defense system in May, German Ambassador to Ukraine Martin Jager said on May 13.
AFP: Ukraine sees no risk of an imminent ground assault on the northeastern city of Kharkiv, despite Russia mounting tens of thousands of troops against the region in a surprise offensive last week, Ukraine's security council chief said on Monday.
Reuters: Russia's defense minister reshuffle was a further indication of Putin's "desperation to sustain" his invasion of Ukraine, U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Monday.
POLITICO: Britain insisted its position on a Ukrainian peace deal has not changed after a report that the country’s top diplomat floated an agreement with Russia in a meeting with Donald Trump.
ISW Special Report: Current US policy prohibiting Ukraine from using US-provided weapons in the territory of Russia is severely compromising Ukraine's ability to defend itself against the renewed cross-border invasion Russia has recently launched in Kharkiv Oblast.
Breaking Defense: The government of Estonia is “seriously” discussing the possibility of sending troops into western Ukraine to take over non-direct combat, “rear” roles from Ukrainian forces in order to free them up to fight on the front, Tallinn’s national security advisor to the president said.
Reuters: Ukraine said on Monday it thwarted a Russian operation to set off a series of bomb attacks in builder's markets and near a cafe in the capital of Kyiv, and at a defence enterprise in the western city of Lviv.
Bloomberg: The Kremlin opened up the fiscal taps after Putin’s reelection in March, putting the budget back into deep deficit despite a surge in oil revenues (archive).
The Kyiv Independent: The European Council agreed on May 13 to extend the suspension of export tariffs for Ukraine and Moldova for another year, the council's press service said. The extension of the free-trade regime also included two new "safeguard mechanisms to protect the EU market."
Reuters: Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic expressed support for Ukraine in its war against Russia after meeting Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Monday, but stopped short of committing to sanctions against Moscow.
WSJ: Ukraine is shooting down a far smaller proportion of Russian missile attacks than it was earlier in the war (archive).
Reuters: Russia pressed its ground assault into Ukraine's Kharkiv region on Monday, attacking new areas with small groups to try to widen the front and stretch Ukraine's forces, the regional governor said.
The Kyiv Independent: A source in Ukraine's security services told the Kyiv Independent that drones operated by the Security Service of Ukraine targeted an oil depot in Belgorod Oblast and an electrical substation in Lipetsk Oblast in Russia overnight on May 13.
Reuters: Russian oil giant Lukoil's Volgograd refinery was partly shut down after being hit by a drone attack on Sunday, two sources familiar with the matter said, the second such attack this year on the largest refinery in southern Russia.
AP News: Georgia’s parliament green-lit a final vote on a proposed law that critics see as a threat to media freedom and the country’s aspirations to join the European Union on Monday, a day after police dispersed the latest protests against it.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukraine's 110th Separate Mechanized Brigade shot down another Russian Su-25 fighter jet, the unit said on May 13. The 47th Mechanized Brigade reported earlier in the day that it had downed a Russian Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter.
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