As the war enters its 823rd day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.
Fighting
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Three people were killed and six injured in a Russian missile attack on the town of Snihurivka in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region, according to the emergency services and the local governor.
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The Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office said at least one woman was killed and 11 injured in a Russian guided bomb attack that struck a sweet factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces had dropped about 3,200 guided aerial bombs on Ukraine this month and that Kyiv did not have enough air defence missiles to stop attacks on such a scale.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces captured two villages – Ivanivka in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region and Netailove in eastern Donetsk. There was no comment from Ukraine on the claims.
- Ukraine launched two attacks on the Russian-occupied city of Luhansk in its east, triggering a fire, according to Russian-appointed officials. Ukraine made no official comment on either incident. Ukrainian news outlets said the target of the second strike was an airfield.
- Russia and Belarus will hold joint air force and air defence ministry drills from May 27-31, the Belarusian Ministry of Defence said.
Politics and diplomacy
- Zelenskyy excluded Russia’s participation in next month’s peace summit in Switzerland. “We do not see Russia there, because Russia will block everything. It’s clear,” he said, adding that Moscow “does not benefit from peace. It wants to destroy Ukraine and move on.”
- The European Union imposed sanctions on the media outlet Voice of Europe, its funder Viktor Medvedchuk and “covert head” Artem Marchevskyi, extending penalties imposed by the Czech Republic, which says the Prague-based platform is a Russian influence operation “to undermine the territorial integrity, sovereignty and freedom of Ukraine”. Medvedchuk is a pro-Kremlin oligarch and former Ukrainian lawmaker who was sent to Russia in 2022 in exchange for Ukrainian prisoners of war and stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship.
- A German court jailed Thomas H, a former army captain who was stationed at a military procurement office in Koblenz, for three and a half years after finding him guilty of spying for Russia. Judges found the 54-year-old had handed over internal documents to Russia’s consulate in Bonn last May and offered to provide more material in future.
Weapons
- Spain pledged 1 billion euros ($1.1bn) in military aid, including Patriot missiles and Leopard tanks, to Ukraine as Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Zelenskyy signed a security deal in Madrid. Sanchez said the agreement would boost Ukraine’s capabilities including much-needed air defence.
- Zelenskyy will visit Belgium on Tuesday and sign a security pact with Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, the Belgian government said. The agreements, signed with several European allies, promise long-term security assistance in the form of arms supplies and training for Kyiv’s forces.
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Ukraine’s top commander Oleksandr Syrskii said he had signed paperwork that would allow French military instructors to visit Ukrainian training centres soon, and said he hoped others would join what he described as an “ambitious project”. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence said later that discussions on the use of foreign instructors were continuing with France and other countries.
