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Morning Headlines
Reuters: Drones hit several buildings in Moscow causing "minor" damage and no serious injuries, with air defence systems also destroying several drones on their approach to the Russian capital, Russian officials said early on Tuesday.
Reuters: Three people died when a fire broke out in a paper warehouse near Moscow in the early hours of Tuesday, Russia's RIA state news agency reported, citing emergency services.
Reuters: Ukrainian defence forces said they shot down more than 20 drones during a fresh wave of Russian air attacks on Kyiv early Tuesday which killed at least one person and injured four others when their apartment building was hit and caught fire.
ISW previously assessed that Russian forces began a new limited air campaign in recent months to degrade Ukrainian counteroffensive capabilities, but that the Russian prioritization of targeting Kyiv is likely further limiting the campaign’s ability to meaningfully constrain potential Ukrainian counteroffensive actions.
UK Ministry of Defence: Russia’s true military spending is highly uncertain due to the increased use of classified budget lines, especially since February 2022, and the lack of transparency. Russia has only recently resumed publishing headline expenditure breakdowns after suspending this in May 2022. It is almost certain that military spending remains elevated, and this is putting pressure on Russian government finances.
More News
The Guardian: A beluga whale that turned up in Norway wearing a harness in 2019, prompting speculation it was a spy trained by the Russian navy, has reappeared off Sweden’s coast.
Bloomberg: Two state-owned Russian leasing firms based in Ireland have sought to prevent the appointment of a liquidator to wind-up their affairs by lodging a “last minute” application for an examiner.
Meduza: Starting June 1, freight vehicles registered in either Belarus or Russia will not be permitted entry into Poland when entering through its border with Belarus.
The Insider: Timur Ivanov, Russia’s Deputy Minister of Defense for construction, is making a fortune from the war in Ukraine, receiving tens of billions of roubles for the construction of buildings in occupied Mariupol, according to a report by investigative outlet Dossier.
AP News: Explosions rattled Kyiv during daylight Monday as Russian ballistic missiles took aim at the Ukrainian capital, hours after a more common nighttime barrage of the city by drones and cruise missiles.
AFP: Kyiv's parliament on Monday approved a sanctions package against Russia's ally Iran, accused of sending weapons to Moscow during its more than year-long invasion of Ukraine.
WSJ: Security firms created by Russia’s biggest state corporations, former military officers and businessmen sent troops to Ukraine's front lines in a bid to prove loyalty to the Kremlin.
Reuters: Poland's president said on Monday he would sign a bill to allow a panel to investigate whether the opposition Civic Platform (PO) party allowed the country to be unduly influenced by Russia and as a result too dependent on its fuel when it was in power.
Bloomberg: South Africa’s central bank has warned of dire consequences should the country face censure due to its stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Oryx: Russia is now visually confirmed to have lost more than 2000 tanks since it launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Meduza: The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said Monday that the problem of shelling in the region from across the Ukrainian border could be solved by Russia annexing Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. “We’re effectively living in a state of war,” he said.
Balkan Insight: Moldovan President Maia Sandu on Monday announced the launch of legislative initiatives to create an institution to combat Russian propaganda and better protect citizens from manipulation.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for greater global efforts to ensure an international treaty banning cluster munitions achieves its goal of ending the usage of such weapons, which it says are being used "repeatedly" by Russia in its war against Ukraine.
The Moscow Times: Russia has issued an arrest warrant for United States senator Lindsey Graham for “Russophobic statements,” Russian media reported Monday.
Meduza: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill officially denouncing the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE). Russia first suspended its participation in the treaty back in July 2007.
AFP: The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia was eyeing "very ambitious goals" in ties with Turkey after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a historic run-off vote to extend his two-decade rule.
CNN: Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has claimed that nations who are willing “to join the Union State of Russia and Belarus” will be given nuclear weapons, days after confirming the transfer of some tactical nuclear weapons from Moscow to Minsk had begun.
worth mentioning
Desperate Putin sends religious icon to front line to boost morale
Russian Colonel killed after direct strike on his command post
How sanctions have changed the face of Chinese companies in Russia
Seize, not just freeze, Russian assets? Why that’s hard
Russian state TV is running out of ideas
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