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Morning Headlines
Reuters: South Korea and Japan announced on Friday a series of sanctions applied to individuals, organisations and ships related to Russia's alleged procurement of weapons from North Korea in breach of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukraine is set to receive three additional tranches totaling $4.5 billion from the IMF's Extended Fund Facility in 2024, according to the Ukrainian Finance Ministry.
ISW: The Kremlin is pursuing a concerted effort to remove senior Russian defense officials and has likely expanded this effort to senior officers commanding Russian combat operations in Ukraine.
The Kyiv Independent: A missile attack on a Russian communications hub in the city of Alushta in occupied Crimea has caused "significant damage to equipment," with numerous casualties reported, the pro-Ukrainian partisan group Atesh reported on May 24.
More News
Reuters: Russian jamming has kept many of Ukraine's relatively new long-range GLSDB bombs from hitting their intended targets, three people familiar with the challenges told Reuters.
POLITICO: The first batch of Ukrainian pilots have graduated from F-16 training at an Arizona military base, a crucial step toward putting modern, American-made fighter jets in Ukraine’s skies.
Bloomberg: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will attend June’s meeting of Group of 7 leaders, people familiar with the matter said, as he pushes countries for longer-range weapons that will allow his forces to attack Russia inside its borders (archive).
The Kyiv Independent: Explosions were reported in Sevastopol, Yevpatoriia, and Alushta in occupied Crimea during the late hours of May 23, according to Suspilne Crimea.
Reuters: G7 finance chiefs are not expected to agree on details of a loan for Ukraine at their meeting in Italy starting on Friday, several officials said, leaving much work ahead in coming weeks or months to secure more financing for the war-torn country.
POLITICO: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has backed a demand from Polish and Greek Prime ministers Donald Tusk and Kyriakos Mitsotakis to create an EU-funded air defense shield.
Reuters: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Europe needs closer military collaboration, and said he also favors the deterrent of French nuclear weapons as suggested by President Emmanuel Macron, to respond to what Scholz called Russia's "brutal imperialism".
ISW Special Report: Ukraine and the West have defeated a months-long Russian effort to persuade the West to abandon Ukraine and set conditions to collapse Ukrainian defenses.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukraine's 110th Mechanized Brigade said it shot down a Russian Su-25 jet on May 23, making it the second reported downing of a Russian plane within the same day. It is reportedly the sixth Russian Su-25 jet that Ukraine has shot down this month.
Reuters: Russia has arrested two more top figures - the deputy head of the army's General Staff and a senior procurement official at the defence ministry - in a widening bribery scandal, investigators said on Thursday.
AP News: TikTok is putting in place new rules to limit the reach of state-affiliated media accounts (including Russian and Chinese outlets) that are attempting to exert influence abroad during a crucial election year.
The Guardian: A British man has been charged with assisting Russia’s intelligence service after being arrested by UK counter-terrorism police.
Reuters: Russia will identify U.S. property, including securities, that could be used as compensation for losses sustained as a result of any seizure of frozen Russian assets in the United States, according to a decree signed by Putin on Thursday.
AP News: The United States is expected to announce an additional $275 million in military aid for Ukraine on Friday as Kyiv struggles to hold off advances by Russian troops in the Kharkiv region, two U.S. officials say.
The Kyiv Independent: Russian forces launched attacks against Kharkiv Oblast on May 23, killing at least seven people in Kharkiv and injuring at least 21, as well as at least 11 elsewhere in the oblast.
The Insider: New details of Latvian MEP Tatjana Ždanoka’s espionage for Russia. The Insider and Re:Baltica examined 19,000 of Ždanoka's emails, revealing her extensive correspondence with FSB agents and work for the Kremlin — while being an MEP.
AFP: Estonia's border guards on Thursday said their Russian counterparts had removed buoys overnight from the Narva River which separates the two neighbours, amid a dispute over the shared border.
FT: Russia is still recruiting enough men willing to fight for money, but it looks increasingly stretched. Some regions have doubled sign-up bonuses. Analysts say a new mobilisation is “just a question of when.” (archive)
worth mentioning
BBC Russia: Putin's military purge echoes Prigozhin's call to act
The Daily Beast: Putin admits Prigozhin was right with wild new purge
General Staff: Ukraine hits Russian S-400 air defense system
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