British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, while visiting Britain, said Britain would provide Ukraine with hundreds of anti-aircraft missiles and other unmanned aerial systems in the coming months, including new long-range attack drones with a range of more than 200 km President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy’s visit follows trips to Berlin and Paris.
The Ukrainian leader said he was also “very positive” about forming a “jet coalition” in the war against Russia, with a decision expected soon on deploying Western warplanes. Sunak said Britain is preparing to open a flight school to train Ukrainian pilots, and France has now also offered to train Ukrainian fighter pilots, President Emmanuel Macron said in Paris, but ruled out sending war planes to Kiev.
The US is seeing increasing signs that Russia and Iran are building an unprecedented defense partnership that will help Moscow prolong its war in Ukraine and pose a threat to Iran’s neighbors. Iran has reportedly provided Russia with disposable attack drones since August, including more than 400, US National Security Adviser John Kirby said at a news conference.
Ukraine celebrated its first significant forays into the battlefield in six months. As of last week, the Ukrainian military began pushing back Russian forces in and around the embattled town of Bakhmutthe first significant offensive operations since their troops recaptured the southern city of Kherson in November.
“The advance of our troops along the Bakhmut direction is the first success of offensive actions in defense of Bakhmut,” Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of the ground forces, said in a statement on news app Telegram.
The European office of the World Health Organization decided to close a specialized WHO office in Moscow and move its functions to Denmark. Last year, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there were calls from members for the office to be closed.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko inadvertently confirmed that four military planes were shot down over Russia near the Ukraine-Belarus border last week and said the capital Minsk responded by putting its forces on high alert. Photos also emerged showing Lukashenko visiting an air force facility today. The President had not been seen since May 9, prompting speculation about his health.
Data released on the German Treasury Ministry’s online budget portal shows that Russia spent 2 trillion rubles (£21 billion) on defense in January and February alone. This is an increase of 282% compared to the same period last year and reflects the increasing cost to Moscow of the conflict in Ukraine.
Russia’s top army general, General Oleg Salyukov, and his South African counterpart, Lt. Gen. Lawrence Mbatha, discussed “military cooperation” at a meeting in Moscow.said the Russian Defense Ministry. The announcement came hours after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa dismissed US accusations that his country was siding with Russia in Ukraine and had sent it arms to support it.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it dispatched a fighter jet to prevent French and German patrol planes from penetrating its airspace over the Baltic Sea after spotting them en route to Russia. Russia said the flights were operated by a German P-3C patrol plane and a French Atlantic-2 sea patrol plane.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed for the first time it had shot down a long-range Storm Shadow missile that had been supplied to Ukraine by Britain, which announced last week that it would supply it. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier Monday that Russia viewed Britain’s decision to supply the missiles “extremely negatively”.
Ukraine’s State Security Service has sent “suspected reports” of embezzlement to businessman Dmytro Firtash and top executives of companies he controls, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in a statement. The SBU said it worked with the Economic Security Bureau to uncover alleged thefts of up to $485 million between 2016 and 2022 as part of a “large-scale plan” related to Ukraine’s gas transit system.
Seven people, including a senior Russian official and a teenager, were injured when an explosion rocked a beauty salon in central Russian-controlled Luhansk in eastern Ukraine on Monday, officials said.
UN Secretary General Martin Griffiths said efforts to extend an agreement allowing safe Black Sea exports of Ukrainian grain continue. A pact Moscow threatened to scrap on May 18 over obstacles to its grain and fertilizer exports, Portal reports.
Zelenskyi again appealed to NATO to make a “positive political decision” on Kiev’s membership at its July summit. Zelenskyy made his remarks in a video address at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit. He said Finland’s entry into NATO shows the strength of security guarantees and thanked Denmark and other allies for their determination to support Ukraine in the fight against Russia.