• For Putin, “Kiev’s counter-offensive has failed”
• Zelenskyy: “There is no excuse for the attack on Odessa.” And promises retribution.
• Heavy damage to the Cathedral. Moscow denies any responsibility: “The fault of the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense”.
• Putin meets Lukashenko in Strelna (St. Petersburg), the Belarusian leader: “Wagner’s men want to march against Poland”.
• Burns on the Wagner uprising: “We knew about it.”
06:43 – Yellow on drone attack against Moscow, downplaying the Russian authorities
No injuries and minor damage. This is how the Russian authorities commented on the drone attack on Moscow launched in the early hours of May 24. The Ministry of Defense announced that it had “neutralized” the two unmanned vehicles and said it was “an attempted terrorist attack by Kiev”. Various images of the affected buildings are circulating on social networks, according to some sources, in reality far more than two drones were used for the attack.
5:59 am – Blinking: Let’s work to stabilize US-China relations
The United States is trying to strengthen “lines of communication” with China to stabilize ties. This was stated by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in an interview with the television channel “CNN”. “We’re working to add some stability to the relationship, to create a foundation for the relationship, and to make sure the competition we face doesn’t conflict,” Blinken said in an interview on the sidelines of the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. The minister, who returned from an official visit to China last month – the first by a US secretary of state to Beijing in five years – explained that Washington and Beijing “didn’t talk much” prior to the recent contacts. Now let’s do it. We have several groups that are in contact or in the process of being in touch on sensitive – problematic – issues in the relationship and I believe a solution can be found,” Blinken said.
05:01 – Drone attack on Moscow, two non-residential buildings hit
An attack with two drones on the city of Moscow was foiled. This was announced by the Russian authorities, after which the planes were “neutralized” and “crashed”. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced that “drone strikes” had struck two “non-residential buildings” in the Russian capital overnight, with no casualties or “severe destruction”. “An attempt by the Kiev regime to commit a terrorist attack on targets in the area of the city of Moscow with two drones,” says a statement by the Russian Ministry of Defense, “two Ukrainian drones were crashed and crashed.” According to Tass, there were no injuries. Office center on Likhacheva-Straße near one of the most important motorway rings Moscow met.
04:40 – Blinking: The Ukrainian army has liberated 50% of the Russian-held areas
According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, “Ukraine has liberated about 50 percent of the territory occupied by Russian forces at the start of the invasion of that country in February last year.” In an interview with US television channel CNN, Blinken said that the Ukrainians “have already recovered about 50 percent of the stolen goods,” but also acknowledged that Kyiv faces “a very difficult struggle” to continue the liberation of the occupied territories, as evidenced by the limited success of the offensive earlier last month in the Zaporizhia and Donetsk regions. However, according to Blinken, “we are still relatively at the beginning of the counteroffensive.” It’s difficult and the situation won’t clear up in the next one to two weeks. I think we have several months of struggle ahead of us.
01:57 – Odessa, the Italian-style jewel city that made Ejzenštejn unforgettable
The inscription of Odessa and its port to the UNESCO World Heritage came only on January 25 this year, during an extraordinary session of the UN cultural organization at its headquarters in Paris, a support of Ukraine full of non-military but intellectual significance.
The technical documentation was developed from a unified Italian-Ukrainian table precisely because of the long Italian experience: our country is still at the top of the list of countries with the highest number of tangible and intangible assets included in the World Heritage List. Inclusion on this list therefore makes the Russian bombing of the Transfiguration Cathedral even more serious and unacceptable than it already is.
01:54 – In Odessa, a city wounded by Putin’s vendettas. “To stay means to resist”
(by Lorenzo Cremonesi, our Odessa correspondent) Reaching the city center on the four-lane highway that connects it to Kiev, the first impression is that little has changed. The cafés are overcrowded, there are joggers, the shops are open as they have been since the first weeks of the panic at the outbreak of war last year. However, it should be noted that traffic is lighter and there are no traffic jams.
And further towards the green lung of Shevchenko Park, which overlooks the port and dominates the oldest coastal area, the feeling of emptiness becomes more and more evident: not only are there no cars, but also very few pedestrians. Usually this is the time of the year for Odessa when the beaches are completely crowded. People flock to the shady lanes to walk to the sea. The park becomes the prelude to a day at the beach. But these are not normal times. Swimming in the sea has been impossible since June 6, when the dirty tidal wave from the Russian attack on the Nova Kachovka dam polluted the nearby Dnipro estuary.
01:53 – Putin: “The global situation is far from stable.” Despite the sanctions, we will ship grain to Africa”
“The global situation is anything but stable, old conflicts are escalating and new challenges are emerging.” Despite the sanctions, the Russian Federation will continue to work energetically to organize the supply of grain, food and fertilizer to Africa, argues Putin. The article was published on the Kremlin’s website, RIA Novosti reports. “We will dynamically develop the entire range of economic relations with Africa, with individual states and regional associations and of course with the African Union,” Putin continues.