Again drone strike on Russian territory. Putin spokesman blames Kiev for attacks on Moscow. The news ticker on the Ukraine war.
- In favor of the counteroffensive: drone strike from Moscow part of an operation?
- Drone attack on Moscow: Kremlin accuses Kiev of "terrorist attack"
- Ukraine reports success in Mariupol: Kiev speaks of "devastating blow"
- All the news from the Ukraine war in our news ticker. Some of the information comes from the warring parties in Russia or Ukraine. They often cannot be independently verified.
Update from May 31, 8:50 a.m.: According to Russian authorities, at least five people were killed and another 19 injured in an air strike in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region of Ukraine on Wednesday night. "The bombing of the village of Karpaty by armed Ukrainian groups" with five dead and 19 injured was carried out with a US Himars rocket launcher, according to preliminary information, Russian security authorities in the Luhansk region said on the Telegram online service.
Russian authorities did not specify whether the victims were civilians or military personnel.
Ukrainian soldiers near Russian positions in the Luhansk region. © LIBKOS/dpa
Ukraine-News: Fire extinguished in oil refinery
Update from May 31, 8:10 a.m.: In the southern Russian region of Krasnodar, the fire in an oil refinery has been extinguished after a drone attack, according to the authorities. This was announced by Governor Venjamin Kondratiev on Wednesday. The Afipski refinery is located about 15 kilometers southwest of the provincial capital Krasnodar. Initially, nothing was known about the extent of the damage. According to unconfirmed media reports, a second refinery was also attacked in the region during the night without a fire breaking out there.
Ukraine-News: Zelensky praises Chancellor Scholz
Update of May 31, 6:00 a.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, paid tribute to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) for his "determination" in supporting his country attacked by Russia. During a phone call on Tuesday, he thanked Scholz for the air defense systems supplied by Germany that saved the lives of Ukrainians, Zelensky said in his evening video message. "And I thank Olaf, Mr. Chancellor, for his personal determination, which in many ways becomes the destiny for the whole of Europe."
WHO reports over 1000 attacks on Ukrainian hospitals
Update from May 30, 22:30 p.m.: Hospitals and other health facilities in Ukraine are said to have already been attacked by Russia more than 1000 times since the war of aggression escalated in February 2023. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported this in an email on Tuesday evening, according to Reuters. "At least 1004 people were killed in the 15 attacks confirmed by the WHO in the last 101 months of the full-blown war," it said. Among them are health workers and patients.
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Russia accuses Ukraine of killing after attack in Belgorod region
Update from May 20, 21:44 p.m.: On Tuesday, one person was killed in a Ukrainian attack on a displaced persons center in the Belgorod border region, according to Russian sources. Two other people were seriously injured by the Ukrainian artillery shelling on Tuesday, the governor of the region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on the Telegram online service.
According to him, there were elderly civilians and children in the facility. The dead man was a security guard.
Ukraine-News: U.S. wants to move forward with Sweden's NATO accession
Update from May 20, 20:02 p.m.: "From the point of view of the United States, now is the time to complete Sweden's accession [to NATO]," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday evening. Work continues to complete Sweden's admission by the NATO summit in Vilnius in July. There is no reason not to move forward on the matter. Sweden has accommodated Turkey's legitimate concerns, as has Finland.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also expressed his hopes for Sweden's early accession in the evening. "We are working on the matter with the aim of having a decision by the summit in Vilnius," Stoltenberg said at a press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in Oslo. There are no guarantees, but it is "absolutely possible" that a solution will be found by then.
Great Britain: Ukraine has the right to self-defense even as far as Russia
Update from May 30, 19:21 p.m.: Unlike the United States, Great Britain sees Ukraine as having a right to attack targets within Russia: For the purpose of self-defense, Ukraine could also attack targets on Russian territory. British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Tuesday. "Legitimate military targets outside its own border are part of Ukraine's right to self-defense," Cleverly continued.
An apartment building that was reportedly damaged by a Ukrainian drone. According to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, Russia's capital Moscow has been attacked by several drones. © Dpa
However, Cleverly did not want to comment on the drones that fell on Moscow. "I don't have any details and I'm not going to speculate about the nature of the drone strikes on Moscow," he said.
Ukraine war: US speaks out against attacks on Russia
Update from May 30, 18:32 p.m.: "In principle, we do not support attacks inside Russia," said a spokesman for US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday - thus the US publicly speaks out against attacks inside Russia. "We are focused on providing Ukraine with the equipment and training it needs to retake its own sovereign territory."
At the same time, however, the spokesman stressed that Russia had carried out air strikes against the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Tuesday for the 17th time in May. Russia has started the war against Ukraine and can end it "at any time by withdrawing its troops from Ukraine instead of launching brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and people every day".
Ukraine: Occupiers from Russia are not advancing on any front on Tuesday
Update from May 30, 16:24 p.m.: The Russian occupiers have not advanced on any front where they would have attempted an offensive during the day. This was announced by Hanna Maliar, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, on Telegram. Ukrainian troops apparently control the southwestern outskirts of Bakhmut. "The East is the epicenter of hostilities. The enemy does not abandon the goal of capturing the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts," Maliar wrote. The intensity of the enemy's offensive actions has decreased slightly during the day, but the intensity of artillery shelling and air strikes remains high.
Ukraine war: Drone attack on Moscow apparently part of a grand plan?
Update from May 30, 14:20 p.m.: The drone strikes on Moscow are apparently part of an operation to mislead Russia. This is reported by pravda.com, citing a report in the Financial Times. According to them, Ukraine is conducting "operations" to distract Russian commanders and create a favorable backdrop for a counteroffensive.
"First, there was a mysterious drone attack on the Kremlin. Then followed an "invasion", the embarrassing consequences of which for Moscow could lead to the withdrawal of troops from the front to the border regions. Then, at the end of last week, Ukraine launched a drone strike on a Russian spy ship in the Black Sea. On Tuesday morning, up to two dozen drones attacked Moscow from the air," the report said. The operations are part of the usual military practice. Their goal, according to defense officials and analysts, is to deceive the enemy, interfere with his way of thinking and otherwise "shape" the battlefield before a major offensive.
Ukraine war: Putin spokesman blames Kyiv for drone attack – "completely clear"
Update from May 30, 12:30 p.m.: Russia has described the drone attacks on the capital Moscow as Ukraine's response to Russian attacks against the Ukrainian leadership. "It is absolutely clear that these are responses from the Kiev regime to our rather effective strikes against one of the decision-making centers," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday (30 May), according to the Interfax news agency. He referred to an attack by the Russian military on Sunday, but did not give further details.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not report the destruction of high-ranking command structures in Kiev either on Sunday or Monday. In Ukraine, however, numerous drone and missile attacks on civilian objects were recorded on these two days.
Peskov once again justified the continuation of the war of aggression against Ukraine, which he continued to call only a "special military operation". President Vladimir Putin had been informed about the drone attacks in real time since the morning. As a result of the attack, several residential buildings in the Russian capital were damaged.
Ukraine-News: Kiev reacts with mockery to accusations
Update from May 30, 11:35 a.m.: Ukraine has denied involvement in the drone strike on Russia's capital Moscow and reacted with ridicule. "Of course, we are not directly involved in this," adviser to the president's office in Kyiv, Mykhailo Podolyak, said on Tuesday (30 May) on the breakfast radio of Russian journalist Alexander Plyushchev, who is critical of the Kremlin. He scoffed that Russian drones may have returned to their senders.
"You know that we are approaching the era of artificial intelligence. Maybe not all drones are ready to attack Ukraine and they want to go back to their creators and ask: Why are you sending us against the children of Ukraine? On Kiev? And so on," Podolyak said.
At the same time, the Ukrainian government advisor predicted that the number of attacks on Russian territory would probably continue to increase. "All people who believe (...) that they can destroy another sovereign state with absolute impunity have not yet understood after 15 months that they cannot repeat 2014."
Ukraine-News: Kiev rules out concessions to Moscow
Update from May 30, 10:00 a.m.: Ukraine's ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, rules out any territorial concessions of his country to Russia. "Russia must leave all the occupied territories," Makeiev told broadcasters RTL and ntv on Tuesday (30 May). Peace talks must also focus on Russian reparations payments to Ukraine.
Commenting on Russian-occupied and annexed Crimea, Makeiev said: "Crimea is part of Ukraine, just like Luhansk and Donetsk and the newly occupied territories of Russia. We must liberate our people from this occupation." Further, the ambassador clarified: "We are not giving a single piece of land to the Russians."
Moscow accuses Kiev of "terrorist attack"
Update from May 30, 9:10 a.m.: Russia has accused Ukraine of a "terrorist attack" on the capital, Moscow. "Eight drones were used in the attack," the Ministry of Defense in Moscow said on Tuesday. "All the enemy's drones were shot down."
"This morning, at dawn, a drone strike caused minor damage to several buildings," Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram. "So far, no one has been seriously injured." The city's emergency services are on site. The governor of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov, urged local residents to "keep a cool head."
A Ukrainian policeman stands in front of a rocket fragmentation after a Russian missile attack on Kyiv. © Evgeniy Maloletka/dpa
The attack follows a Russian drone strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv over the course of the night, in which at least one person died, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. On Monday, Russian shelling had already caused panic in the Ukrainian capital in the middle of the day.
Ukraine-News: Kremlin reports drone attack on Moscow
Update from May 30, 6:45 a.m.: According to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, Russia's capital Moscow has been attacked by several drones. "As a result of a drone strike, some buildings were slightly damaged early this morning," Sobyanin wrote on Telegram on Tuesday. No one was "seriously injured". The background is still being investigated. Residents had been brought to safety, security forces were in action.
The governor of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov, stated that the air defense was active: "On the approach to Moscow, some drones were shot down."
Update from May 30, 6:30 a.m.: Russia has once again attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv with drones. Fragments of the drones shot down by air defenses crashed, among other things, into a residential building and killed a civilian. An elderly woman was taken to a hospital, the state agency Ukrinform reported on Tuesday, citing the city administration and Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko. The apartment block had caught fire. The search work is still ongoing, as people may still be trapped under the rubble.
Other fragments of downed enemy drones crashed in different districts and, among other things, damaged cars. According to the military administration, more than 20 drones were destroyed by Ukrainian air defenses in Kiev airspace. Never since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression in February 2022 have there been so many drone and missile attacks in Kyiv within a month as this May.
Russia had already massively attacked Ukraine with dozens of missiles and cruise missiles in the days before. On Monday, Russian air strikes had shaken Kyiv even in broad daylight. Until then, most airstrikes occurred mostly at night or in the early hours of the morning. According to the Ukrainian military, Russia fired a total of eleven missiles during the attacks on Kyiv. On Sunday night, Ukraine registered a record number of 54 kamikaze drones fired. There were deaths and injuries – including in Kyiv.
Ukraine-News: Strike against Russian forces near Mariupol
Update from May 29, 21:40 p.m.: There are unconfirmed reports from Ukraine of a devastating "blow" to Russian occupying soldiers near Mariupol. According to the Kyiv Independent, the city's exiled Ukrainian mayor spoke of 100 killed and more than 400 injured military personnel in a "temporary Russian base" in the village of Yurivka. According to the report, he cited "local partisans" in Mariupol.
According to the description, the Ukrainian forces were apparently well informed: Only the day before, four buses with Russian military personnel had arrived in Yurivka, said local politician Petro Andriushchenko. Communication equipment and an "electronic warfare system" were also destroyed. However, there is no official confirmation of this account.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has congratulated Recep Tayyip Erdogan on winning the run-off election in Turkey - and found words of praise for Erdogan's initiative around the grain deal.
Ukraine war: Zelensky adviser Podolyak calls for demilitarized zone in Russia
Update from May 29, 19:34 p.m.: Ukrainian presidential adviser Mychailo Podolyak on Monday called for the establishment of a demilitarized zone in Russia to protect Ukraine from renewed aggression. "The main topic of the post-war settlement should be the creation of protective measures," Podolyak wrote on his Twitter channel. To ensure the safety of Ukrainian residents, "it is necessary to establish a demilitarized zone of 100-120 km on the territory of Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk." Compliance with this zone must be monitored by international authorities.
Ukraine war: "Insufficient" – Lavrov criticizes grain deal with Kyiv
Update from May 29, 17:00 p.m.: Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has criticized the implementation of the recently extended agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea as inadequate. "If everything remains as it is right now (...), you have to assume that it will no longer work," Lavrov said during a visit to the Kenyan capital Nairobi, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. Ukraine, on the other hand, repeatedly accuses Russia of hindering the shipment of its grain despite the agreement.
In particular, Lavrov complained about ongoing restrictions on Russian agricultural and fertilizer exports, which Moscow expects to ease in exchange for exporting Ukrainian grain. In addition, Moscow is calling for an end to sanctions against its state-owned agricultural bank in order to make payments easier.
Attacks against Kyiv: Apparently ballistic missiles also in use
Update from May 29, 14:35 p.m.: In the latest wave of attacks on Kyiv, Russia fired a total of eleven missiles, according to the Ukrainian military. "At about 11.30 a.m., the Kyiv region was attacked with ballistic missiles and cruise missiles of the Iskander ground-based system," the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, wrote on Telegram on Monday.
"A total of eleven missiles were fired: Iskander-M and Iskander-K from the north." All projectiles were intercepted by air defense. Russia had shelled the Ukrainian capital first on Monday night and only a few hours later in broad daylight with dozens of drones, cruise missiles and missiles. Never since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression in February 2022 have there been so many drone and missile attacks in Kyiv within one month as this May. (with agency material)