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Morning Headlines
AFP, Yahoo News: Trump on Sunday called Putin "crazy" for his attacks on Ukrainian cities and warned that any attempt at a total takeover of Ukraine would "lead to the downfall of Russia."
The Kyiv Independent: Ukrainian forces captured 971 Russian soldiers during a months-long offensive in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said on May 25, describing the campaign as key to conducting prisoner exchanges.
ISW: The Kremlin is attempting to leverage large strike packages and increasingly aggressive rhetorical efforts to distract from the Russian military's poor performance during this current stage of the war.
25.05.2025
Reuters: Russia's latest wave of attacks on Ukraine should be answered with additional Western sanctions, Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told public broadcaster ARD on Sunday.
The Kyiv Independent: Beijing is supplying "special chemicals, gunpowder, and components" to 20 Russian military-industrial manufacturing facilities, head of Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service Oleh Ivashchenko said in an interview partially released on May 25.
Ukrainska Pravda: Republican Representative Don Bacon, a moderate member of the US House of Representatives, has rejected the idea of peace talks with Russia following Moscow’s large-scale weekend attacks on Ukraine and called for decisive action.
Reuters: Trump said he is considering more sanctions on Moscow after Russia launched a barrage of 367 drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities overnight, including the capital Kyiv, in the largest aerial attack of the war so far. The strikes killed at least 12 people, including three children in the northern region of Zhytomyr.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukrainian drone operators destroyed three Russian fuel tanks during a strike on a train moving through occupied areas of Zaporizhzhia Oblast on May 24, according to Ukraine's Military Intelligence Agency.
Ukrainska Pravda: The Netherlands will complete the transfer of 24 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine on Monday 26 May, fulfilling its earlier commitment to support Kyiv’s defense capabilities.
Reuters: Russia and Ukraine completed the exchange of 1000 prisoners each on Sunday, the Russian Defence Ministry and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in the largest such swap since the war began three years ago.
ISW: The Russian salient southwest of Kostyantynivka is likely sufficient to support a future Russian offensive operation toward Kostyantynivka or Pokrovsk, but Russian forces will have to make further advances from Chasiv Yar and Toretsk and west of Pokrovsk before they will pose a significant threat to either of these towns.
24.05.2025
The Kyiv Independent: Russia's military advantage against Ukraine is declining, the Washington Post reported on May 24, citing U.S., European, and Ukrainian officials and military experts.
RFE/RL: A Munich court case has been described as a textbook illustration of how Russian intelligence now operates in Europe: outsourcing risky tasks to casual, cheap recruits instead of using its own agents.
The Kyiv Independent: Russia has upgraded its ballistic missiles with radar decoys and evasive maneuvers, making them potentially harder to intercept even by Patriot air defenses, Ukraine's Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said on May 24.
Politico: Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is set to travel to Russia on Monday and Tuesday to talk about the situation in Ukraine amid Moscow’s invasion of the country.
The Kyiv Independent: The European Union is weighing a proposal to disconnect more than 20 Russian banks from SWIFT, the global financial messaging network, as part of its upcoming 18th sanctions package against Moscow, Bloomberg reported on May 24.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukraine's military intelligence agency has documented more than 150 cases of Ukrainian soldiers being summarily executed after surrendering to Russian forces, the agency said on May 24.
Reuters: Russia launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles at Kyiv overnight in one of the biggest combined aerial attacks on the Ukrainian capital of the three-year war, damaging several apartment buildings and injuring 15 people.
The Kyiv Independent: British security officials are investigating potential Russian involvement in a series of arson attacks on properties linked to U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the Financial Times reported on May 23, citing senior U.K. government sources.
23.05.2025
The Kyiv Independent: The European Union has agreed to reintroduce import quotas on several Ukrainian agricultural products starting June 6, Bloomberg reported on May 23.
AFP: Russia said Friday it would send Ukraine its terms for a peace settlement once a major prisoner swap between the two was complete, without saying what those terms would be.
The Kyiv Independent: Russian forces have executed two Ukrainian prisoners of war during an assault near the village of Udachne, 12 kilometers (7 miles) west of Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office reported on May 23.
Reuters: Two Russian military aircraft are suspected of having violated Finnish airspace on Friday, Finland's defence ministry said in a statement. The incident occurred off the coast of Porvoo in southern Finland, the ministry added.
The Moscow Times: Army recruiters in Moscow are tricking Russians into signing military contracts with fake job listings that promise no front-line combat, the exiled news outlet Vyorstka reported Friday.
Bloomberg: The European Union is nearing a decision to include the Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines linking Germany and Russia in a fresh proposal of sanctions against Moscow amid persistent rumors about reviving flows that the bloc wants to stop (archive).
Politico: Right-wing Member of the European Parliament Fernand Kartheiser plans to visit Moscow early next week by invitation of Russia’s State Duma to talk about Ukraine.
Reuters: A Russian SU-24 aircraft was performing dangerous manoeuvres on Thursday evening and was intercepted by Polish Air Forces, Minister of National Defence Wladysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Friday.
Politico: A German-based technology company was able to export restricted tech to Russia even after the European Union imposed a fresh round of sanctions on Putin’s regime.
Defense News: As part of a larger reshuffle of the Pentagon’s policy apparatus, the office dedicated to Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia affairs would be shifted under a separate office that handles Europe and NATO issues.
Reuters: The European Union's plan to ban Russian energy imports must be prevented "by all means", Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told state radio on Friday.
Reuters: Major Russian exporters including Rusal and Gazpromneft have cut the planned volume of commodities like metal and oil products they send by rail, a Russian Railways document seen by Reuters showed, the latest sign of subdued demand as the country's war economy slows.
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