As the war enters its 458th day, we take a look at the main developments.
This is what happened on Friday, May 27, 2023.
struggle
- Ukraine said it shot down 10 missiles and more than 20 drones in nighttime attacks on the capital Kiev as well as the city of Dnipro and the country’s east. A total of 17 missiles and 31 drones were fired during the nighttime raid, the Ukrainian air force said.
- A Russian missile hit a clinic in the city of Dnipro, killing two people and wounding 23, the region’s governor said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as a crime against humanity.
- The Russian Defense Ministry said it carried out overnight raids on ammunition depots in Ukraine, Ria Novosti reported.
- Five districts in Russia’s Belgorod region have been hit by drones, artillery and mortars in the past 24 hours, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, and the village of Kozinka was hit 132 times, adding that Belgorod The city of Rhodes was attacked 14 times.
- Two drones damaged a residential and office building in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar, east of Crimea, officials said.
- At least 483 children have been killed and nearly 1,000 injured since Russia’s all-out invasion last year, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said. Nearly 1,500 Ukrainian children have been orphaned, according to Ukraine’s State Ministry of Social Services.
- UNICEF says an estimated 1.5 million Ukrainian children are at risk of depression, anxiety, PTSD and other mental health problems, with potentially lasting effects.
- Russia’s foreign ministry summoned top US diplomats over comments by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, accusing him of “effectively supporting the strike on Crimea”. On Sunday, Sullivan was asked whether Ukraine should have weapons capable of hitting Russian targets in Crimea. He replied: “We have not restricted Ukraine’s ability to strike on its territory within its internationally recognized borders.”
arms
- The European Union condemns the deal that allows Russia to deploy nuclear warheads in Belarus. “This move would lead to a further and extremely dangerous escalation,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
- The German military has ordered 18 new Leopard 2 tanks to replace vehicles shipped to Ukraine earlier this year.
- Germany will transfer a Patriot missile defense system based in Slovakia to Lithuania to protect a NATO summit scheduled for July in Vilnius, the defense ministry said.
- Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the Netherlands was “seriously considering” sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine but had not yet made a final decision.
diplomatic
- Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said the U.S. would send a signal to China that it might invade Taiwan if it did not adequately back Ukraine against Russia. “There’s no going back from helping Ukraine because if we fail here, Taiwan will be finished,” Graham told reporters.
- In coordination with other G7 members and sanctions related to the Ukraine invasion, Japan will freeze the assets of 78 groups and 17 individuals, including military officers in Russia, and ban exports to 80 Russian entities, such as military affiliates Institutional research laboratories.
- Russia said it viewed Pope Francis’ Ukraine peace initiative positively, while stressing that the Vatican had no immediate plans to visit Moscow.
- Former U.K. prime minister Boris Johnson and former U.S. President Donald Trump discussed Ukraine and the “importance of a Ukrainian victory,” Johnson’s spokesman said.
- Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov thanked China for its “balanced stance” and willingness to play an active role in the Ukraine conflict.
- Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin and reiterated Brazil’s willingness to talk to both sides of the conflict. Lula also thanked Putin for inviting him to an international economic forum in St. Petersburg, which he was unable to attend.
politics
- Former Russian president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev warned that the West had underestimated the risk of nuclear war and said peace talks were “impossible” as long as Zelensky remained in power. “The Anglo-Saxons didn’t fully realize this and believed it wouldn’t go this far,” he said. “It will under certain conditions.”
- Jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has appealed a Russian court’s decision to extend pretrial detention by three months, court data show. Gershkovich was arrested in March on espionage charges after Russian security services accused him of gathering military secrets.
assistance
- A deal to allow safe wartime exports of grain and fertilizer from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports has not yet fully resumed functioning and was halted ahead of Russia’s decision last week to extend it, the United Nations said.
