As the war enters its 826th day, these are the key developments.
This is the situation on Friday, May 31, 2024.
Fighting
- At least three people were killed and 16 injured after Russia struck three sites, including a five-story apartment building, in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, at around midnight local time (9pm GMT). Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said at least two children were among those injured. Earlier in the day, at least four people were injured in Russian shelling of the city.
- Ukraine’s top military commander, Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskii, said Russia continued to send additional regiments and brigades from other areas and training camps to reinforce its forces along two main lines of attack in the north of the Kharkiv region, where Moscow launched an offensive earlier this month. .
- U.S. officials, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issues, told multiple media outlets that President Joe Biden has decided to allow Kiev to use U.S.-supplied weapons on targets inside Russia, but only on its border in the northeast region. from Kharkiv. .
- Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence service said its forces destroyed two Russian patrol boats using naval drones off Crimea, which Russia occupied and annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Moscow previously said it had destroyed two naval drones “towards the Crimea”.
- Russia fired a total of 51 missiles and drones at “military installations and critical infrastructure” across Ukraine, the Air Force said. Air defenses destroyed seven missiles and 32 drones, he added.
Politics and diplomacy
- The 27 members of the European Union have agreed to impose “prohibitive” tariffs on grain imports from Russia and Belarus in a bid to cut off Moscow’s funding for its war against Ukraine. Grain in transit to other parts of the world through Europe will not be affected by the tariffs.
- Ukrainian lawmakers and journalists have called for an investigation into political pressure on the country’s state news agency, Ukrinform. Oleksiy Matsuka, head of the agency, resigned this week after being accused of leading an editorial policy exclusively supporting the presidential administration. He was replaced by a former army spokesman, Serhiy Cherevaty, worsening concerns about official censorship.
- Tharaka Balasuriya, Sri Lanka’s junior foreign minister, said Colombo would begin negotiations with Moscow to secure the release of hundreds of citizens, mostly former soldiers, who it believes were tricked into joining Russian forces in Ukraine. He also seeks the release of about a dozen men held as prisoners of war in Ukraine. At least 16 men were killed in the fighting.
- Russia’s FSB security service said it had detained four people in Crimea who were allegedly involved in a series of sabotage attacks planned by Ukrainian special services to destroy railway lines on the occupied peninsula. A fifth man, considered the group’s leader by Russian news agencies, was killed when the FSB tried to capture him.
Weapons
- German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius made an unannounced visit to the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, where he held talks with Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and promised Ukraine a new military aid package worth 500 million euros ($540 million), a ministry spokesperson told the AFP news agency. The package includes “artillery, air defense [and] drones,” he added.
- A Czech official said Ukraine would receive between 50,000 and 100,000 rounds of ammunition in June as part of an ammunition supply initiative led by the Czech Republic.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
