What there is to know
“A step towards an extremely dangerous escalation.” With this formula, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, condemned the transfer of nuclear weapons from Russia to neighboring Belarus. This maneuver, announced on Thursday by Belarusian autocrat Alexander Lukashenko, initially without confirmation from the Kremlin, was received “extremely negatively” by American President Joe Biden, the White House said. Follow the latest developments in the war in Ukraine in our live stream.
Russian nuclear warheads are on their way to Belarus. This was said by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, confirming an announcement made by Vladimir Putin in March. “The transfer of nuclear charges has started,” he said in a video broadcast on Telegram on Friday, without being able to specify whether the weapons in question were already in his country. Russia, on the other hand, initially did not comment.
New number of victims after the bomb attack on a hospital in Dnipro. The attack on a clinic in that city, attributed to the Russian army, left two dead and 32 wounded, Dnipropetrovsk region governor Sergei Lysak told Telegram on Saturday morning. The official said the rescue and search operations in the rubble had also ended. “You will stop at nothing. They continue to commit their crimes against civilians every day,” he denounced, referring to the Russian army.
Ukraine demands cruise missiles from Germany. Kiev has sent an official request to Berlin for Taurus air-to-surface cruise missiles with a range of at least 500 km, the German Defense Ministry told the AFP news agency on Saturday. The delivery of this type of weapon, capable of hitting targets far behind the current front line and especially on Russian territory, is still a matter of debate in the federal government.
A Northern European tour for Antony Blinken. The US Secretary of State plans to visit Sweden, Norway and Finland beginning Monday, May 29 to deepen cooperation on national security and economic issues, the US State Department said. In Helsinki, the head of American diplomacy should “highlight how much the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a strategic mistake,” according to the US State Department website. Since that invasion, launched in February 2022, Finland has joined NATO, but the candidacy of its neighbor Sweden continues to be blocked by Hungary and Turkey.