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Morning Headlines
Bloomberg: Germany is ramping up its battle tank brigade in Lithuania to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank as European allies take unprecedented steps to deter an increasingly hostile Russia (archive).
Bloomberg: The UK urged its Group of Seven allies to agree a cut to the price cap on Russian oil, saying the move is necessary to put further pressure on Putin to end Russia’s war in Ukraine (archive).
ISW: Russian forces are highly unlikely to be able to seize Sumy City in the near- to medium-term given Russia's demonstrated inability to rapidly seize even much smaller settlements in Ukraine in the past three years.
More News
CNN: Radio communications intercepted by Ukraine and obtained exclusively by CNN appear to capture Russian orders to execute surrendering Ukrainian troops.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukrainian officials have dismissed on May 21 claims circulating online that Russian forces have reached the administrative border of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
Fox News: Trump appeared to distance the U.S. from the war between Russia and Ukraine — just two days after speaking over the phone with Putin. "It's not our people, it's not our soldiers … it's Ukraine and it's Russia," Trump said in the Oval Office Wednesday while hosting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
AFP: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday steered clear of calling Putin a "war criminal," saying the priority was negotiations to end the Ukraine war (video).
The Kyiv Independent: The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces dismissed on May 21 Russian claims that fighting in Russia's Kursk Oblast has ended, insisting that operations by the Ukrainian military in the border region are ongoing.
The Guardian: Russia tried to hack into border security cameras to spy on and disrupt the flow of western aid entering Ukraine, the UK’s intelligence services and its allies have claimed.
AFP: Poland on Wednesday protested against the removal of military symbols from a Polish cemetery in Russia, a move that Warsaw slammed as "provocation" and attempt to interfere in its presidential election.
RFE/RL: Italian prosecutors have accused a Geneva-based Russian businessman of being the mastermind behind the audacious escape of Artyom Uss, a Russian businessman and son of a powerful Kremlin-connected governor, in March 2023.
The Moscow Times: About 70% of Italian companies operating in Russia did not leave the country following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the president of the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce told the RBC news website on Wednesday.
AFP: Poland on Wednesday welcomed a "breakthrough" in relations with Kyiv after experts concluded an exhumation mission at Volyn in modern-day Ukraine, the site of a World war II massacre of Poles.
The Guardian: Finland has said it expects Russia to further build up troops along their shared border when the war in Ukraine ends, after reports that Moscow had strengthened its military bases near the Nato frontier. The Finnish border guard announced on Wednesday it had completed the first 35km (22 miles) of a planned 200km fence on its eastern border with Russia.
The Kyiv Independent: Russia may be preparing to launch new attacks in the Kharkiv sector, as indicated by the buildup of its forces near the Ukrainian border, Andrii Pomahaibus, the chief of staff of Ukraine's 13th National Guard Khartiia Brigade, said on May 21.
Reuters: Poland's military intervened after a ship from the Russian "shadow fleet" was seen performing suspicious manoeuvres near a power cable connecting Poland with Sweden, the Polish Prime Minister said on Wednesday.
OCCRP: For over a decade, ‘Pravfond’ has been providing legal aid to Russians across the world. Internal emails obtained by journalists show how it collaborated with spies, funded propaganda efforts, and built points of influence along the way.
CNN: Former Ukrainian politician Andriy Portnov, who worked as a senior aide to pro-Russian former President Viktor Yanukovych, has been shot dead outside a school near the Spanish capital Madrid.
The Kyiv Independent: The U.S. objected to the inclusion of clauses on "further support" for Ukraine in a joint statement during the meeting of the Group of Seven finance ministers in Canada, Politico reported. Washington also refused to label Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine as "illegal" in the text.
Reuters: Ukraine will ask the EU next week to consider big new steps to isolate Moscow, including seizing Russian assets and bringing in sanctions for some buyers of Russian oil, as Trump has backed off from tightening sanctions.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukrainian drones struck Russia's Bolkhov semiconductor plant in Oryol Oblast, which is producing parts for Sukhoi warplanes and Iskander and Kinzhal missiles, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said on May 21. The statement comes after Russia claimed to have downed over 150 Ukrainain drones overnight in multiple regions, including 53 in Oryol Oblast.
worth mentioning
Putin jokes about occupying Ukraine’s Sumy region
Iran parliament approves strategic pact with Russia
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