List

These are the key events on day 1,191 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here’s where things stand on Friday, May 30:

Fighting

• The Russian army said on Thursday that it had captured three villages in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Kharkiv regions in its latest advance.
• Authorities in Ukraine said Russia had fired 90 drones overnight and at least seven people were killed in drone, missile and artillery strikes across five front-line Ukrainian regions.
• Russia said it had repelled 48 Ukrainian drones overnight, including three near Moscow.
• Drones made a night-time attack on Russia’s western Kursk region, damaging a hospital and apartment buildings, and injuring at least one person, the regional Governor Alexander Khinshtein said.
• Ukraine’s military said its forces remained active in small areas of Kursk, though Russia’s military said last week it had completed the ejection of Ukrainian forces from the Russian region.

• Across the border in Ukraine’s neighbouring Sumy region, the regional governor reported new fighting in villages near the border where Russia has been seizing territory. He said various areas in his region were constantly changing hands as both sides continued to battle for control.
• “Active battles continue in certain border areas, notably around the settlements of Khotyn and Yunakivka,” Sumy Governor Oleh Hryhorov wrote on Facebook. “The situation on the line of contact is constantly changing. In some places, we hold the initiative, in others, the enemy is proving to be active.”
• Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had captured three more villages as it slowly advances through parts of eastern Ukraine. These were Stroivka in the northeastern Kharkiv region, and Shevchenko Pershe and Hnativka near the town of Pokrovsk, the focal point of Russia’s westward drive for months.
• Ukrainian military reports made no mention of any of the three villages coming under Russian control. Russian forces had launched 53 attacks over 24 hours near Pokrovsk, the military said.

Ceasefire

• The Kremlin said on Thursday that it was waiting for Kyiv’s response to its proposal for new talks in Istanbul next Monday.
• Ukraine said it was ready to hold more talks with Russia in Istanbul but demanded that Moscow supply a document setting out its conditions for peace in the war, adding that Kyiv had already submitted its vision of a peace settlement.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia was engaging in “yet another deception” by failing to hand over its peace settlement proposal in advance of the next potential meeting. “Even the so-called ‘memorandum’ they promised and seemingly prepared for more than a week has still not been seen by anyone,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Kyiv’s demand on the “memorandum” was “non-constructive”.
• Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Heorhii Tykhyi, said Moscow’s refusal to send the document “suggests that it is likely filled with unrealistic ultimatums”.

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who will host the new talks, called on Russia and Ukraine not to “shut the door” on dialogue.
• The Russian delegation to the second round of talks in Istanbul will be the same as for the first round, the Russian TASS news agency cited Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.
• United Nations Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council that the “cautious hope” she expressed a month ago for a ceasefire in Ukraine has diminished in the face of the “brutal surge in large-scale Russian attacks” against Ukraine.
• Ukrainian Deputy Ambassador to the UN Khrystyna Hayovyshyn told the council that “Russia is not signalling any genuine intention to stop its war”, and said that increased political, economic and military pressure on Moscow was required.
• Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia rejected the accusations, instead accusing Kyiv of “attempting to prolong the war” and warning that Ukraine’s defeat was inevitable. “No new anti-Russian sanctions, nor deliveries of weapons to Ukraine or any other hostile steps vis-a-vis Russia will be able to prevent the inevitable military defeat of the Zelenskyy regime,” Nebenzia said.
• John Kelley, the United States’s alternate representative at the UN meeting, said that if Russia “makes the wrong decision to continue this catastrophic war”, Washington will consider “stepping back from our negotiation efforts to end this conflict”, adding that additional sanctions against Moscow were “still on the table”.

Military aid

• Zelenskyy said he discussed the possible delivery of German Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during his visit to Berlin. “The Taurus issue was discussed in a one-to-one meeting between the chancellor and me,” the Ukrainian president told the German broadcaster RTL.
• Russia accused Serbia of exporting arms to Ukraine, saying it was a stab in the back by its longtime Slavic Balkan ally.
• “Serbian defense enterprises, contrary to the ‘neutrality’ declared by official Belgrade, continue to supply ammunition to Kyiv,” Russia’s foreign intelligence service said in a statement.
• The statement alleged that exports of Serbian arms to Ukraine are going through NATO intermediaries, “primarily the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria”. It added: “Recently, exotic options involving African states have also been used for this purpose.”

Regional security

• A Belarusian radio station has been flouting European Union sanctions to spread “disinformation” and back a pro-Russian candidate on social media in advance of Poland’s presidential election, according to reports.
• A Polish-language radio station, set up by Belarus, has been posting pro-Russian narratives on social media for almost two years “despite EU sanctions”, experts said in a report published by three think tanks. Poland votes on Sunday in a hotly contested presidential run-off between pro-EU and nationalist candidates, which is being closely watched in Europe.

Economy

• The International Monetary Fund announced it had reached an agreement with Ukraine on a loan programme review to unlock about $500m dollars of funds to support macroeconomic stability.

US president says Harvard must ‘show us their list’ of foreign students to make sure they are not ‘troublemakers’.

United States President Donald Trump has intensified his dispute with Harvard University, saying the college should cap foreign enrolments and share information with the government about its international students.

“Harvard has to show us their lists. They have foreign students, almost 31 percent of their students. We want to know where those students come from. Are they troublemakers? What countries do they come from?” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. According to university enrolment data, foreign students make up 27 percent of Harvard’s student body.

“I think they should have a cap of maybe around 15 percent, not 31 percent,” Trump said, adding that he wants universities to accept “people who are going to love our country”.

The Trump administration has sought to pressure Harvard into compliance on a number of demands, including greater control over the university’s curricula, information about foreign students and further steps to crack down on pro-Palestine student activism, which the administration has characterised as anti-Semitic.

“Harvard has got to behave themselves. Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all they’re doing is getting in deeper and deeper,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

The university has resisted what it says is an effort to erode its independence from the government and commitment to academic freedom.

The Trump administration has severed grants worth billions of dollars to Harvard and announced that it would revoke Harvard’s ability to enrol international students entirely. The Department of Homeland Security said that order was a response to Harvard “fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party”.

The university said in a statement at the time that the order was part of a “series of government actions to retaliate against Harvard for our refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government’s illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty, and our student body”.

The university swiftly challenged the order in court, and it was temporarily blocked by a judge on Friday.

Patricia McGuire, president of Trinity Washington University, said on Wednesday that Trump’s actions against foreign enrolment at US universities “makes no sense”.

“It’s so irrational because higher education is one of the top US exports to the world and the international students who come to this country enrich American universities immensely and take their knowledge back to all of their countries around the globe for the improvement of their countries and their populations,” McGuire told Al Jazeera from Washington, DC.

However, McGuire said Trump’s actions are consistent with “an administration that has literally snatched students off the street and taken them to detention centres”, referring to Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was forcibly taken into custody by masked federal agents in broad daylight on a street near her Massachusetts home in March.

This month, a court ordered the release of the 30-year-old Turkish doctoral student from the custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

“This is, in my view, completely anti-American values, and I think many academics are horrified by the fact that students are now being censored for their viewpoints,” McGuire said.

Here’s where things stand on Wednesday, May 28:

Fighting

• Russian air defences destroyed or intercepted 112 Ukrainian drones over a three-hour period, most of them over central or southern regions of the country, the Russian Ministry of Defence said in a post on Telegram early on Wednesday, as the two countries continue to trade drone attacks.
• Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said six Ukrainian drones were repelled while heading for the Russian capital. Recovery crews were examining fragments on the ground, he said.
• Russia deployed 60 drones across multiple regions of Ukraine through the night, injuring 10 people, Ukrainian Air Force officials said.
• More than 850 residents were left without power in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, after three Russian air strikes hit the city late on Monday night.
• Russia’s military said in a post on Telegram that it had begun naval drills in the Baltic Sea with more than 20 warships, boats and support vessels, 25 aircraft and helicopters, and 3,000 servicemen.

Politics

• United States President Donald Trump suggested that he has protected Russia from “really bad things”. In a post on TruthSocial, he said: “What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realise is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD.”
• Responding to Trump’s remarks, Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said in a post on X: “I only know of one REALLY BAD thing — WWIII. I hope Trump understands this!”
• Trump’s comments came after the the Kremlin said the US president may be experiencing “emotional overload” after Trump’s earlier remarks that Putin was “absolutely crazy” over the scale of Russian air attacks on Ukraine’s cities.
• Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy for Ukraine, told Al Jazeera that the US is waiting for a response from Russia after Trump gave Putin “some guidelines a week ago”.
• Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov accused German Chancellor Friedrich Merz of “pretentiousness” after Merz said that France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the US had lifted range restrictions on weapons supplied to Ukraine.

Energy

• The New York Times reported that satellite images suggest Russia is building new electricity lines in occupied southeastern Ukraine, connecting the grid to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant captured by Russia.
• Ukraine’s energy regulator said in a post on Facebook that a gas import mechanism will avoid high transit fees when supplying gas through the Trans-Balkan pipeline from Greece to Ukraine.
• Ukraine’s Minister of Energy German Galushchenko said he hoped all participating countries would agree that the Trans-Balkan Route from Greece to Ukraine would meet “common strategic goals”, as Ukraine continues to explore gas supply routes not involving Russia.

Former Los Angeles Times reporter Maya Lau filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Los Angeles County, former Sheriff Alex Villanueva, a former undersheriff and a former detective, alleging that a criminal investigation into her activities as a journalist violated her 1st Amendment rights.

The suit comes less than a year after a Times article revealed that Lau had been the target of an L.A. County Sheriff’s Department probe that “was designed to intimidate and punish Lau for her reporting” about a leaked list of deputies with a history of misconduct, Lau’s attorneys alleged in an emailed statement.

Lau’s suit seeks unspecified damages to compensate her for alleged violations of her dignity and privacy, as well as the “continuous injuries” and anxiety she says in the complaint that she has faced in the wake of the revelation she had been investigated.

The suit details “six different counts of violating Ms. Lau’s rights under the U.S. constitution and California state law, including retaliation and civil conspiracy to deny constitutional rights,” according to the statement by Lau’s attorneys.

“It is an absolute outrage that the Sheriff’s Department would criminally investigate a journalist for doing her job,” Lau said in the statement. “I am bringing this lawsuit not just for my own sake, but to send a clear signal in the name of reporters everywhere: we will not be intimidated. The Sheriff’s Department needs to know that these kinds of tactics against journalists are illegal.”

The Sheriff’s Department said in an emailed statement that it had “not been officially served with this lawsuit” by late Tuesday afternoon.

“While these allegations stem from a prior administration, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department under Sheriff Robert G. Luna is firmly committed to upholding the Constitution, including the First Amendment,” the statement said. “We respect the vital role journalists play in holding agencies accountable and believe in the public’s right to a free and independent press.”

Villanueva said via email that he had not yet reviewed the complaint in full and that “under the advice of counsel, I do not comment on pending litigation.”

“What I can say is the investigation in question, like all investigations conducted by the Public Corruption Unit during my tenure as Sheriff of Los Angeles County, were based on facts that were presented to the Office of the Attorney General,” he said. “It is the political establishment, of which the LA Times is a part, that wishes to chill lawful investigations and criminal accountability with frivolous lawsuits such as this one.”

A spokesperson for the county counsel’s office declined further comment. The other defendants in the lawsuit, former Undersheriff Tim Murakami and former Detective Mark Lillienfeld, did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday afternoon.

In December 2017, The Times published a story by Lau about a list of about 300 problem deputies. A lengthy case file reviewed by The Times last year found that department investigators launched an initial probe into who provided Lau with the list. The agency’s investigation began when Jim McDonnell was sheriff in 2017. The Sheriff’s Department ultimately dropped the investigation without referring it for proscution after, as Lau’s complaint says, it “turned up no evidence connecting Ms. Lau to any crime.”

The case file reviewed by The Times last year stated that, after Villanueva became sheriff in 2018, he revived the investigation into Lau, which the complaint alleges was part of an “unlawful conspiracy” conducted as part of a policy of “retaliatory criminal charges against perceived opponents of LASD.”

Lillienfeld led the investigation, and Villanueva “delegated to Undersheriff Murakami his decision-making authority” in the probe, which Murakami ultimately referred to the state attorney general’s office for prosecution, Lau’s complaint says. In May 2024, the office declined to prosecute her, citing insufficient evidence.

But Lau alleges that the damage was already done and that her rights under the 1st Amendment and California’s Constitution had been violated. “If LASD’s actions are left unredressed,” according to the complaint, “journalists in Los Angeles will be chilled from reporting on matters of public concern out of fear that they will be investigated and prosecuted.”

The Sheriff’s Department told The Times last year that its probe of Lau was closed and that the department under Luna does not monitor journalists.

David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit free speech and press freedom advocacy organization, told The Times last year that reporting on leaked materials involving a matter of public concern is typically “protected under the 1st Amendment” even if a reporter is aware they were obtained illegally.

“You’re not authorized to break into a file cabinet to get records. You’re not authorized to hack computers. But receiving information that somebody else obtained unlawfully is not a crime,” Snyder said.

The saga of the leaked records began in 2014, when Diana Teran compiled a list of deputies with histories of disciplinary problems. Teran was working for the Office of Independent Review, which conducted oversight of the Sheriff’s Department until it closed down that July.

In 2015, Teran was hired by the Sheriff’s Department to serve in an internal watchdog role. In 2017, according to the investigative file reviewed by The Times last year, she heard that Times reporters including Lau had been asking questions about the list.

After investigating further and learning that the reporters had asked about specific details that matched her 2014 list, she grew worried that it had been leaked.

On Dec. 8, 2017, The Times ran an investigation by Lau and two other reporters that described some of the misconduct detailed in the list, from planting evidence and falsifying records to sexual assault. Some of the deputies on the list, the reporters found, had kept their jobs or been promoted.

Sheriff’s department investigators interviewed Teran and other department officials who all denied leaking the list. The investigation was dropped before Villanueva became sheriff in November 2018.

Several months later, Lillienfeld was assigned to investigate allegations that Teran and other oversight officials had illegally accessed department personnel records, reopening the probe into the leaked list.

Lillienfeld’s inquiry produced an 80-page report that was part of the case file reviewed by The Times last year. It detailed potential times when the list could have been leaked by Teran and stated that she denied doing so.

In fall 2021, Murakami sent the 300-page case file – which identified Lau, Teran, L.A. County Inspector General Max Huntsman, an assistant to Teran and an attorney in Huntsman’s office as suspects – to California Atty. General Rob Bonta. There was no probable cause to prosecute Lau, according to the complaint.

“Undersheriff Murakami alleged that Ms. Lau had engaged in conspiracy, theft of government property, unlawful access of a computer, burglary, and receiving stolen property,” the complaint says. “Ms. Lau did not commit any of these crimes.”

Bonta declined to prosecute the case.

“The retaliatory investigation against Ms. Lau is one example of how Alex Villanueva used the LASD to target and harass his political opponents,” said Justin Hill, an attorney at Loevy & Loevy representing Lau. “Our communities suffer when governmental leaders try to silence journalists and other individuals who hold those leaders accountable. This lawsuit seeks to re-affirm the protected role that journalism plays in our society.”

Here’s where things stand on Tuesday, May 27:

Fighting:

• Ukraine says Russia launched a record number of drones overnight on Monday, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy describing the attacks as a sign that Moscow is “acting with impunity”.
• Ukrainian air defences downed most of the 355 drones, but several broke through defences, causing casualties, according to authorities. Two elderly women were killed in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, the regional governor said.
• Russia, meanwhile, accused Ukraine of launching aerial attacks on its “social infrastructure”. The Ministry of Defence said it shot down at least 48 Ukrainian drones on Monday, after shooting down 96 overnight.
• Russia’s state TASS news agency, citing the Defence Ministry, reported that Russian forces have taken over the villages of Volodymyrivka and Belovody in the northeastern region of Sumy.
• The governor of Sumy said Russian forces had captured four other villages as part of an attempt to create a “buffer zone” on Ukrainian territory. He identified them as Novenke, Basivka, Veselivka and Zhuravka, and said that residents had long been evacuated.
• The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said Russian attacks have killed 630 Ukrainian children and wounded 1,960 since the beginning of the war.
• Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs special envoy Rodion Miroshnik has accused the Ukrainian military of causing more than 400 civilian casualties in April, including with “inhumane methods of warfare”.

Military aid

• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced that Ukraine’s key Western allies are no longer limiting the range of weapons they supply, a move the Kremlin said would be “dangerous”.

• Ukraine says it has confirmed information that China is supplying a range of important products to Russian military plants, including tooling machines, special chemical products, gunpowder and components specifically to defence manufacturing industries.

Politics and diplomacy

• The Kremlin responded to United States President Donald Trump’s remark that Putin has gone “absolutely crazy” over the scale of Russian air attacks, suggesting the US leader may be experiencing “emotional overload”.
• It also said that serious work on Russia’s proposal for a possible peace deal for the war in Ukraine was ongoing and that a draft had not yet been submitted. “This is a serious draft, a draft of a serious document that demands careful checks and preparation,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
• Zelenskyy said Russia launched more than 900 drones as well as missiles towards Ukraine over three nights, and again called for intensified pressure on Moscow. “There is no military sense in this, but it is an obvious political choice – a choice by Putin, a choice by Russia – a choice to continue the war and destroy lives,” the Ukrainian leader said in his nightly video address.
• French President Emmanuel Macron said he believes Trump is beginning to see that Putin “lied” to him about the war in Ukraine. He also called for the imposition of a deadline for Moscow to agree to a ceasefire, backed up by the threat of “massive sanctions”./li>
• Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredericton also said that Russia’s attacks on Ukraine over the weekend proved that Moscow is not interested in peace.
• Finland summoned Russia’s Helsinki ambassador to ask for an explanation regarding a suspected violation of Finnish airspace which took place last week. The NATO member said on Friday that it believed two Russian military aircraft entered its airspace off the coast of Porvoo in the southern part of the country.

Former Dodgers utilityman Chris Taylor signed a one-year, major league minimum contract with the Angels on Monday.

Taylor will start in center field against the New York Yankees on Monday and bat eighth.

Angels prospect Kyren Paris, who was struggling at the plate in recent weeks — hitting just .190 — was optioned to triple-A Salt Lake City to make room for Taylor on the roster.

“He’s been through the wars,” Angels manager Ron Washington said of Taylor, adding that the Angels plan to use him in the outfield and the infield. “He’s a good piece for those young guys to talk to about how to handle a grind. He’s been in a grind over there with L.A., every day, winning, and we want that.”

Released by the Dodgers in the final year of his four-year, $60-million contract last week, Taylor was hitting .200 with seven hits in 35 at-bats before entering free agency.

A career .250 hitter and a one-time All-Star, the 34-year-old Taylor has experience playing in the infield and all three outfield positions, adding versatility and depth to an Angels team waiting for outfielder Mike Trout’s return from the injured list (knee). Angels closer Kenley Jansen, who played alongside Taylor on the Dodgers from 2016 to 2021, learned of Taylor’s signing while on his way to Angel Stadium.

“It’s nice to have him back,” said Jansen, who said he spoke to Angels general manager Perry Minasian about Taylor on Sunday. “I think once he gets more playing time here, I think, you know, it’s going to be great for the organization and help us win ball games.”

When asked about Taylor’s release Wednesday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said his former longest-tenured position player was looking for an opportunity to play more often rather than accepting a demotion to triple-A.

“He wanted an opportunity, if it wasn’t going to be here to play more, to play somewhere else,” Roberts said. “So that’s kind of the thought behind how it played out, and I respect him for betting on himself and hopefully get an opportunity to play more somewhere else.”

May 25 (UPI) — President Donald Trump again raged against Harvard University on Sunday, demanding that the university provide a list of names of its international students and the countries they come from.

Trump made his comments amid his ongoing feud with the prestigious university on his Truth Social platform.

It was not immediately clear what Trump meant, as international students are required to have student visas provided by the State Department, the records of which his administration would be able to access.

After students arrive in the United States, their status is then monitored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which tracks such students through its Student and Exchange Visitor Information System database. Universities are legally required to update this federal database regularly.

“Why isn’t Harvard saying that almost 31% of their students are from foreign lands, and yet those countries, some not at all friendly to the United States, pay nothing toward their student’s education, nor do they ever intend to,” Trump said.

“Nobody told us that! We want to know who those foreign students are, a reasonable request since we give Harvard billions of dollars, but Harvard isn’t exactly forthcoming. We want those names and countries.”

The remarks from Trump came after a federal judge on Friday blocked his administration’s efforts to prevent the university from enrolling anyone in the United States on a student visa.

“The revocation continues a series of government actions to retaliate against Harvard for our refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government’s illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty, and our student body,” university president Alan Garber said in a statement Friday morning.

“We condemn this unlawful and unwarranted action. It imperils the futures of thousands of students and scholars across Harvard and serves as a warning to countless others at colleges and universities throughout the country who have come to America to pursue their education and fulfill their dreams.”

The university has not yet publicly commented on Trump’s latest demand.

The clash between Trump and Harvard has been escalating for months. In April, the administration froze over $2 billion in federal research funding to the university after Harvard refused to comply with demands to alter its curriculum, admissions policies, and faculty hiring practices.

The administration also threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status and demanded the university conduct a “viewpoint diversity” audit.

These are the key events on day 1,187 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Monday, May 26:

Fighting

• Ukrainian officials say the death toll from the largest Russian aerial attack on Ukraine has risen from 12 to 13, and wounded at least 60 people.
• The victims included three children aged eight, 12 and 17 in the northwestern region of Zhytomyr.
• Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 298 drones and 69 missiles in its overnight assault, adding that it was able to down 266 drones and 45 missiles.
• The Russian Ministry of Defence said its troops had taken control of the village of Romanivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
• It also said Russian air defences intercepted 110 Ukrainian drones overnight on Sunday, including 13 over the Moscow and Tver regions.
• Russia and Ukraine completed a three-day exchange of 1,000 prisoners each, in the largest such swap since the war began three years ago.

Politics and diplomacy

• United States President Donald Trump lashed out at his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, following the attack, calling him “crazy” and warning that any attempt at a total takeover of Ukraine would “lead to the downfall of Russia”.
• Trump also raised the possibility of more punitive measures against Russia, saying he was “absolutely” considering increasing US sanctions on the country.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged international leaders to increase the pressure on Russia, saying that “the silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin”. He also said that additional sanctions “will certainly help”.
• Trump also criticised Zelenskyy, saying in a post on social media that the Ukrainian leader “is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop.”
• Germany’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul told public broadcaster ARD that Russia’s latest wave of attacks on Ukraine should be answered with additional Western sanctions. He said the weight of more sanctions on Moscow would get Putin to the negotiating table.
• The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, also called for “the strongest international pressure” on Russia to stop the war. “Devastating to see children among innocent victims harmed and killed,” she said on X.
• US Special Envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg said the latest Russian attack was “a clear violation” of the 1977 Geneva Peace Protocols, and called for an immediate ceasefire.

Military aid

• The Netherlands says it will send the last one of 24 promised F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine on Monday.

Here is where things stand on Sunday, May 25:

Fighting

• At least four people were killed and 16 others injured, including three children, after Russian forces hit Kyiv and surrounding areas in a “massive night attack”. The strikes also damaged dwellings and other buildings, officials said.
• At least four people were reported dead and five others wounded in Ukraine’s western Khmelnytskyi region, according to Sergiy Tyurin, the deputy head of the regional military administration.
• A Russian attack killed three children in Ukraine’s northwestern Zhytomyr region as Moscow unleashed massive overnight air attacks across the country, emergency services said. The victims were aged eight, 12 and 17, emergency services said, adding 10 other people were wounded.
• A man was also killed when a residential building was hit by a drone in Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, the emergency services said.
• At least three people were injured in northeastern Ukraine, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said, as Russian drones hit three city districts. Blasts shattered windows in high-rise apartment blocks.
• Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 12 drones flying towards the Russian capital had been intercepted. Restrictions were imposed on at least four airports, including the main hub Sheremetyevo, the Russian civilian aviation authority, Rosaviatsiya, said.
• The Russian military said on Saturday that Ukraine had targeted it with at least 788 drones and missiles since Tuesday.
• The Russian Ministry of Defence announced that its troops advancing slowly on the eastern front have captured two settlements in the Donetsk region as well as one in Ukraine’s northern region of Sumy.

Politics and diplomacy

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s attacks indicated Moscow was “prolonging the war” and repeated his call for ramped-up sanctions.
• The Russian Defence Ministry announced that it released an additional 307 Ukrainian prisoners of war in exchange for as many Russian servicemen, who are being cared for in Belarus before their return to Russia.
• Russia announced that it would send Ukraine its terms for a peace settlement once a “1,000-for-1,000” prisoner swap between the two was complete, without saying what those terms would be. At least two prisoner exchanges have been carried out between the two countries on Friday and Saturday.
• Ukraine announced that it had opened inquiries into the alleged executions of 268 Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian troops since their invasion in February 2022. Ukraine’s prosecutor general said it had opened 75 criminal proceedings into the 268 alleged killings.

THE FULL list of finalists on Britain’s Got Talent has finally been revealed after a tense semi-final.

The last live show before the forthcoming ITV grand finale of the talent variety competition was filled with controversies.

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Ten acts have made it through to the highly-anticipated final show of Britain’s Got Talent.

For the first time, all of the performers will face the public vote after a number of Golden Buzzers sent contestants straight through.

The Blackouts, Olly Pearson, Jasmine Rice, Joseph Charm, and magician Harry Moulding were the acts to receive the five golden buzzers.

The acts who won each of the semi-final shows were Vinnie McKee, Stacey Leadbeatter, Ping Pong Pang and Hear Our Voice.

Eight-year-old singer Binita Chetry was the last artist announced to win the public vote.

This comes as the long-running variety competition was engulfed with controversy over the ‘biggest set up ever.‘

Harry Moulding claimed that he was “going to create a special moment of real magic for one person” at the start of his act.

The performance was full of incredible tricks which involved pop star references and predictions before the live show.

One contributor – who was also named Harry – appeared in a pre-recorded VT that was filmed in Paris.

His girlfriend Jess was sat in the audience and she was ‘randomly’ chosen by the magician to come onto the stage.

At the end of the clip, Harry miraculously appeared in front of Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon, Bruno Tonioli, Amanda Holden and KSI.

He got down on one knee and popped the question to his partner, who tearfully accepted.

After KSI chose to send the act straight through to the final with his Golden Buzzer, droves of viewers took to social media as they claimed the show was ‘rigged’.

Writing on X – formerly known as Twitter – one fan fumed: “Cowell said this boring idiot is the frontrunner – so if he wins (despite everyone watching losing the will to live) you’ll know that this trashy, s***** programme is fixed.”

A second claimed: “That was either an amazing magic trick or there was some absolute collusion going on there. Decent act but had to have been set up somehow.”

“What the f*** do they expect him to do for the final now?? Biggest fix ever, magic my bloody a***,” furiously wrote someone else.

As a fourth added: “Utterly rigged and the trick itself was too grand and ridiculous it shouldn’t even be called magic. I know exactly how he did it, it was rigged.”

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The final of Britain’s Got Talent will air on ITV1 and ITVX on Sunday, May 31.

These are the key events on day 1,185 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Saturday, May 24:

Fighting

• At least 14 people were injured in one of the biggest combined drone and ballistic missile attacks to date on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, according to city officials, and witnesses reported a series of explosions and waves of Russian drones flying over the city.
• Ukraine’s air force said that Moscow launched 250 long-range drones and 14 ballistic missiles overnight. It said it down 245 of the Shahed-type drones and six of the Iskander ballistic missiles. It was unclear if the remaining drones and missiles hit its targets.
• Anti-aircraft units were activated across the Ukrainian capital following the attack at dawn. Timur Tkachenko, head of the capital’s military administration, said two fires had broken out in the city’s Sviatoshynskyi district. Drone fragments also hit the ground in four districts.
• At least two people were killed in Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa after Russia struck port infrastructure with missiles, according to authorities.
• Three people were killed in shelling incidents in different parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the focal point of the war’s front line, authorities said.

• Russia has accused Ukraine of launching a massive wave of drone attacks, numbering up to 800, against non-military targets in Moscow and other regions in the last three days and said it would respond, but said it was still committed to holding peace talks with Kyiv.

• Ukraine’s military said that it had hit a battery-manufacturing facility in Russia’s Lipetsk region, which it said supplied Russian missile and bomb manufacturers. It added that the batteries were used in aerial bombs, cruise missiles and the Iskander-M ballistic missile.

• A Russian military helicopter has crashed near the village of Naryshkino in Russia’s Oryol region, killing the crew, the state news agency TASS reported, citing the Moscow military district headquarters. The preliminary cause of the crash was a technical malfunction.

Politics and diplomacy

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has announced that Moscow will be ready to hand Ukraine a draft document outlining conditions for a long-term peace accord once a prisoner exchange, now under way, is completed.

• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told reporters that Kyiv was waiting for Russia’s proposals on the form of talks, a ceasefire and a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

• Sybiha, quoted by Ukrainian media, said Kyiv would be in favour of expanding such a meeting to include United States President Donald Trump.

• Lavrov has cast doubt on the Vatican as a potential place for peace talks with Ukraine. Italy had said Pope Leo XIV was ready to host the peace talks after Trump suggested the Vatican as a location. Italy, the pope and the US had voiced hope the city-state could host the talks.
• Russia and Ukraine have each released 390 prisoners of war and said they would free more in the coming days, an initiative agreed in talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Turkiye last week.
• Putin has declared in televised remarks that Russia needs to strengthen its position in the global arms market by increasing exports of weapons.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged Chinese President Xi Jinping to back Western efforts towards a Ukraine truce in his first phone call with China’s leader since Merz took office this month.

Economy

• US credit rating agency Fitch has affirmed Ukraine’s long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating at “Restricted Default”, as the war-torn nation continues to navigate diplomatic tensions and a significant erosion of its finances amid its grinding war with Russia.

• The International Monetary Fund has started a new review of its $15.5bn programme to Ukraine this week, even as the country failed to reach a deal with GDP-linked debt holders last month.

Jetting of to a country you’ve never visited before is an exciting adventure but it can bring risk. Here’s what to do case one of your loved ones go missing, according to the experts at the charity Missing People

Ahead of the summer holidays, here are three key things you should do as soon as someone you know goes missing. The charity Missing People have shared a plan of action to follow.

With over 13.5 million Brits jetting off last year according to a Kwik Fit study, and 82% of Brits saying their “number one holiday priority in 2025” is to explore somewhere new, according to the Great British Holiday Audit report – it’s wise for holiday makers to have a plan of action in case a member of their party goes missing.

The UK police define a missing person as anyone whose whereabouts cannot be established. They will be considered missing until located and their wellbeing confirmed. By this, the definition means that if a person is expected at home and aren’t there, or did not arrive at an expected location, they can be reported missing. Once they are reported missing to the authorities, a public appeal is released via social media.

READ MORE: When is a person considered missing? And how long until they’re presumed dead

Following a number of recent tragedies involving Brits on holiday abroad in recent years, it is safe to say there is a now a certain nervousness about travelling, especially as a young person. The Missing People’s charity have developed guidance, along with the Lucie Blackman Trust, to help prepare jet setters in case of such emergency.

Providing sympathy and support, the advice can be summarised as such:

Think of simple steps to try and find your loved one

If you know the location of where they were staying, try to call the establishment to ask whether the missing person has been spotted on the premises or if someone there knows where they are. If this is unsuccessful, you should contact the local police or any nearby hospitals to ask whether they may be held there or whether they are aware of the person’s location.

Contact the Foreign and Commonwealth Office or UK police

If they appear to be missing after these steps, the charity advise you to contact the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 020 7008 1500 and ask for the Consular Directorate. The Foreign Office will then assign a caseworker if appropriate and contact the British Embassy in the country of said visit on your behalf.

Despite not being in the UK if travelling, you are advised to contact UK police for either the area where the missing person lives, or your own local police station. Request that they inform the UK National Central Bureau of Interpol.

If needed, Interpol can contact the relevant foreign police, however this is normally only the case if the missing person is considered to be at risk of harm.

Be prepared with information about your missing person

To help aid any potential searches, Missing People also advise travellers to collect as much information as you can about the missing person and their recent activity and travel plans. This could be essential to an effective search and result in the local authorities finding them. See below for a list of questions to consider as seen on the Missing People Guidance Sheet:

• The missing person’s full name, date of birth and place of birth
• His/her mobile phone number and email address
• The last time you or anyone else that you know had contact with him/her and where this was
• His/her travel plans
• His/her passport details
• His/her travel insurance details
• Any travel blog/personal website/social network details
• Bank or building society account details (the police may ask the bank or building society for details of when and where the account was last accessed)
• A recent photo
• When you were expecting the missing person to contact you and why
• Whether there was anything in his/her last email/phone call/text/blog/social network message which could give a clue as to whereabouts and/or who he/she could have been with
• Whether the families of fellow travellers could provide any useful information
• Whether there is anyone else the missing person could have been in touch with
• Any other relevant information which could be of use in the search such as, and including any physical or mental health issues

The Lucie Blackman Trust can provide help and support tailored to your situation. It is open 24 hours a day and you can contact them for support and advice by calling 020 7047 5060, emailing [email protected] or visiting their website: http://www.lbtrust.org

If you suspect a child may have been abducted abroad then see here (p. 3) for Missing People’s advice to further ensure their safety, how to proceed.

For advice, support and options, if you or someone you love goes missing, text or call Missing People’s Helpline on 116 000 or email [email protected]. It’s free, confidential and non-judgmental, and sightings information can also be taken. Or visit www.missingpeople.org.uk

Though small, Cleo Street offers a peaceful escape, especially during low tide when more sandy space is available. From here, you can stroll north to Main Beach’s lively shops and restaurants or south to discover more secluded coves. Whether diving or relaxing, Cleo Street is a unique slice of beach life that blends tranquility with underwater adventure.

Construction, including replacing the stairs and building a landing spot at street level that’s ADA-accessible, is slated to begin after Labor Day and continue through May 2026. During construction, beachgoers can visit Cleo Street Beach by walking from St. Ann’s Beach to the south or Sleepy Hollow Beach to the north.

Best for: Diving, sunbathing on low tide

Parking: Street and metered parking are available.

Dog-friendly: Dogs are not allowed off leash at any time and are not permitted on the beach between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. from June 15 through Sept. 10.

ADA-accessible: Not accessible. Head to Main Beach, where one manual and one motorized wheelchair are available on a first come, first served basis, from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the lifeguard station. For more information, call (949) 497-0310.

What’s nearby: Enjoy breakfast or lunch at the Orange Inn. For casual Mexican food, head to the Taco Stand. Nearby, find surf gear at California Surf N Paddle and Costa Azul.

These are the key events on day 1,184 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Friday, May 23:

Fighting

• Ukrainian drones disrupted air traffic around Moscow, grounding planes at several major airports on Thursday, as 35 drones targeting the city were downed, according to Russia’s Ministry of Defence.
• According to the ministry and Moscow mayor’s office, a total of 46 Ukrainian drones targeted Russia’s capital, while an additional 70 drones were launched against other targets across the country.
• Russia launched 128 drones at Ukraine overnight, according to Ukraine’s air force, with 112 of those drones either shot down, jammed or were lost en route to their targets.

• Russia said that 12 civilians were injured in a “massive” Ukrainian strike on the town of Lgov in Russia’s Kursk region.
• Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the former top commander of Ukraine’s military who was known for clashing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said it was unlikely Ukraine would be able to return to the borders with Russia it held from 1991 until the Russian invasion of 2014. Even keeping Ukraine’s borders up until Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 may also not be possible, he said.
• “I hope that there are not people in this room who still hope for some kind of miracle or lucky sign that will bring peace to Ukraine, the borders of 1991 or 2022 and that there will be great happiness afterward,” Zaluzhnyi told a forum in Kyiv.
• Russia said it has received a list of names from Ukraine for a prisoner of war swap. A swap of 1,000 prisoners from each side was agreed to during a meeting last week between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Istanbul aimed at ending the war.

Regional security

• Finland said it is closely monitoring a Russian military build-up along its 1,340km (832-mile) joint border with Russia. Finland closed the border with its neighbour in December 2023 when 1,000 migrants crossed its frontier without visas.

Economy

• Following a meeting in Canada this week, the G7’s finance ministers said they would explore further sanctions on Russia if it fails to reach a ceasefire with Ukraine. They also said they will work to ensure “no countries or entities” that fuelled “Russia’s war machine” will be able to benefit from Ukraine’s reconstruction.
• Moscow is moving to block foreign companies returning to Russia from accessing “buyback” options for assets left there when they pulled out following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The bill before Russia’s legislature allows “Russian citizens and companies to refuse to return assets to foreign investors, subject to a number of conditions”.

Russia and Ukraine are expected to each swap 1,000 prisoners of war as part of deal reached at recent talks in Istanbul.

Russia has received a list of names of prisoners of war (POWs) that Ukraine wants freed as part of an expected exchange between the two countries, a Kremlin spokesperson told the Russian news agency Interfax.

Dmitry Peskov told Interfax on Thursday that the list had been received after Moscow gave Kyiv its own list of prisoners it wants released.

The exchange – which will see each side free 1,000 POWs in what would be the largest swap of the war – was agreed to during talks last week in the Turkish capital, Istanbul.

Those discussions marked the first direct peace negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations since 2022, the year the war began.

In advance of the meeting, Ukraine had called for a 30-day ceasefire, but Moscow rejected the proposal, agreeing only to the prisoner swap.

Ukrainian officials have since accused Russia of deliberately delaying peace talks while consolidating territorial gains on the battlefield.

The major prisoner swap is a “quite laborious process” that “requires some time”, said Peskov, adding that “the work is continuing at a quick pace.”

“Everybody is interested in doing it quickly,” the Kremlin spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that the deal “to release 1,000 of our people from Russian captivity was perhaps the only tangible result of the meeting in Turkiye”.

“We are working to ensure that this result is achieved,” he said in a post on X.

Zelenskyy added that Defence Minister Rustem Umerov is overseeing the exchange process, supported by several Ukrainian government ministries, intelligence agencies and the president’s own office.

“The return of all our people from Russian captivity is one of Ukraine’s key priorities,” Zelenskyy said. “I am grateful to everyone who is contributing to this effort.”

As Ukraine, the European Union, and the United States press Moscow to return to negotiations, Peskov dismissed reports about future peace talks taking place at the Vatican, saying, “There is no concrete agreement about the next meetings.”

US President Donald Trump spoke with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Monday and urged an end to the “bloodbath”.

Putin thanked Trump for supporting the resumption of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine, and said his government “will propose and is ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a possible future peace accord”.

Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry said on Thursday that its air defences shot down 105 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 35 over the Moscow region.

The ministry said it downed 485 Ukrainian drones over several regions and the Black Sea between late Tuesday and early Thursday.

In southern Ukraine, Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin also said on Thursday that one person was killed in a Russian artillery attack on the region.

He said 35 areas in the Kherson region, including the city of Kherson, came under artillery shelling and air attacks over the past day, wounding 11 people.

Zelenskyy said the “most intense situation” remains in the Donetsk region, however, while Ukrainian forces continue “active operations in the Kursk and Belgorod regions” inside Russia.

These are the key events on day 1,183 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Thursday, May 22:

Fighting

• Russia’s Defence Ministry said air defences shot down 105 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, including 35 over the Moscow region, after the ministry said a day earlier that it had downed more than 300 Ukrainian drones.
• Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said one person was killed in a Russian artillery attack on the region.
• H said over the past day, 35 areas in Kherson, including Kherson city, came under artillery shelling and air attacks, wounding 11 people.
• Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said the “most intense situation” is in the Donetsk region, and the army is continuing “active operations in the Kursk and Belgorod regions”.

Diplomacy

• Legislators from the European Union are expected to greenlight tariffs on fertiliser imports from Russia. A United States Senate bill to pressure Russia with new sanctions over the war gained the support of more than 80 members of both parties.
• The Kremlin rejected Ukrainian and European accusations that it was stalling peace talks, saying it plans to name its conditions for a ceasefire without a timeframe.
• Poland said its military intervened after a ship from the Russian “shadow fleet” was seen performing suspicious manoeuvres near a power cable connecting Poland with Sweden.
• Zelenskyy said he had spoken by phone to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, and that they had discussed joint steps and the need to put pressure on Russia to secure “a just peace”.
• Ukraine’s allies, including the US and UK, issued an advisory warning of a Russian cyber campaign targeting logistics and tech firms involved in delivering foreign assistance to Ukraine.

THE best and worst broadband and mobile providers for customer service have been revealed by the regulator.

All major providers were ranked on how pleased customers were with the service.

1

O2, which has millions of customers was rated below average when it came to customer satisfaction for mobile providers.

The telecoms giant fell below the sector average when it comes to customer satisfaction as it scored 85% and the average is 88% 

Last year, the firm also generated the most complaints, when it had 21 complaints per 100,000 customers.

The second worst ranked mobile provider was Vodafone who had a score of 84% when it came to how pleased users were with it’s service.

The pair were trumped by Tesco Mobile and giffgaff, which both 94% for overall satisfaction.

Tesco Mobile also led in satisfaction with complaints handling and generated the fewest complaints to Ofcom, when it had just four complaints per 100,000 customers.

However, Ofcom said that the average number of complaints reduced in 2024 across all providers.

Elsewhere, the average call waiting time for mobile customers decreased in 2024, from 2mins 24s in 2023 to  1min 52s in 2024.

Ofcom said Lebara had the shortest average call waiting time in 2024 at 15s while O2’s was the longest, at 3min 27s. 

Moving on to broadband and TalkTalk had a lower-than-average overall satisfaction score of 77% and also ranked poorly for complaints handling.

However, NOW Broadband, which is owned by Sky, generated the most broadband complaints to Ofcom at 65 per 100,000 customer.

Virgin Media generated the second highest number of fixed broadband complaints per 100,000 customers, at 56.

While EE was the third most complained-about broadband provider last year with 52 complaints per 100,000.

Plusnet achieved the highest overall satisfaction score at 91%, when it came to broadband.

When it came to landline, Plusnet also had the highest overall satisfaction score at 83%.

Meanwhile, Virgin Media customers were less pleased with the service giving the provider a rating of 67%.

Ian Macrae, Ofcom’s director of market intelligence, said: “Call waiting times have come down for many providers and satisfaction with complaint handling is on the up. 

“And we’re seeing competition in action, with smaller players challenging some of the bigger, well-established providers.”

He added: “But there’s further to go. Not all companies have made the same progress and it’s still taking the industry too long to fix things when they go wrong.”

A Virgin Media O2 spokesperson said: “Ofcom’s report shows that the vast majority of our customers were satisfied with their services in 2024, and highlights some improvements that have been made – including on complaints handling.

“While today’s data relates to the whole of 2024, we know from the regulator’s most recent statistics that the turnaround strategy we implemented in the middle of last year has led to significant improvements, with complaints about Virgin Media and O2 now at their lowest levels for several years.”

They added: “We’re continuing to make real progress through this strategy and we’re committed to giving our customers the best possible experience.”

How to complain about your service

If you’re unhappy with the service you’ve received, you’ll first need to contact your provider’s customer services department and explain the problem.

If this doesn’t resolve the issue, you can make a formal complaint to the company.

You can find details on how to do this on the back of your bill or on the company’s website.

Depending on your complaint type, you’ll be able to contact the customer service team by web chat, telephone or by post.

You’ll need to let the company know what has happened and what you want it to do to put things right.

If a formal complaint gets you nowhere, after eight weeks you can ask for a “deadlock letter” and take your dispute to the appropriate Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme.

These are free to use and will act as an independent middle man between yourself and the service provider when an initial complaint cannot be resolved.

There are two ADR schemes in the UK – the Communications Ombudsman and CISAS. 

Your provider is required to be a member of one of these and you can find out which one your provider is covered by visiting ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/service-quality/adr-schemes.

Before you can submit your complaint to it, you must have logged a formal complaint with your provider and worked with the firm to resolve it.

You must also have received a so-called deadlock letter, where the provider refers your complaint to the appropriate ADR.

You can also complain if you haven’t had a satisfactory solution to your problem within eight weeks.

To make a complaint fill in the ADR scheme claims form on its website – or write a letter if you’d prefer.

The ADR scheme then bases its decision on the evidence you and the company submit.

If you choose to accept its decision, your supplier will then have 28 days to comply.

But if an individual chooses not to accept the ADR’s final decision, they lose the right to the resolution offer.

These are the key events on day 1,182 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Wednesday, May 21:

Fighting

• United States President Donald Trump told reporters he is not worried about reports that Russia is massing its forces along the border of Finland. “No, I don’t… worry about that at all,” he said, adding that Finland and Norway were “going to be very safe”.
• Moscow accused NATO of “aggressive actions” after Estonia last week tried and failed to seize a Russian tanker suspected of ferrying oil in violation of international sanctions.

Diplomacy

• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni confirmed that Pope Leo XIV and the Vatican are willing to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he expects Putin to present a peace plan in the coming days, which will signal how serious he is about ending the war.
• Moscow will offer “just broad terms that would allow us to move towards a ceasefire, and that ceasefire would then allow us to enter into detailed negotiations to bring about an end of the conflict,” Rubio said.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia is just trying to “buy time in order to continue its war and occupation”, in a social media post.
• Poland indicted a man accused of helping Russian foreign intelligence services prepare a possible assassination attempt against Zelenskyy.

Economy

• The United Kingdom announced sanctions against 100 new Russian targets, with the intention of disrupting “Putin’s war machine” and its supply chain. The European Union also announced its 18th package of sanctions against Russia.
• Canada invited Ukrainian Minister of Finance Sergii Marchenko to attend a meeting of the G7 finance ministers this week in Banff, Alberta, as a guest.
• On the sidelines of the meeting, Marchenko called for more international sanctions on Russia, including further lowering the $60-per-barrel price cap imposed on Russian crude oil exports by many countries, including G7 members.
• The meeting precedes a major G7 summit in June, also hosted by Canada, which is expected to discuss the reconstruction of Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Tuesday, May 20:

Fighting

• With peace talks on the horizon, Russia currently controls about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory. Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to ask for Ukrainian forces to retreat from four regions of Ukraine during peace talks.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ruled out withdrawing troops from parts of eastern and southern Ukraine currently under Kyiv’s control in an interview with The Kyiv Independent.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Telegram it seized the village of Marine, in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, and Novoolenivka village in the eastern Donetsk region. Ukraine did not immediately comment on the claims.

Ceasefire talks

• United States President Donald Trump said Moscow and Kyiv “will immediately start negotiations towards a ceasefire and an end to their war” following a phone call with Putin that lasted for more than two and a half hours on Monday night.
• Following the call, Putin told reporters that Russia is “ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a possible future peace accord, defining a number of positions, such as, for example, the principles of settlement, [and] the timing of a possible peace agreement”.
• Putin repeated his oft-spoken point that any ceasefire would need to also address the “root causes of the crisis”, a reference to Ukraine’s potential entry into NATO.
• Zelenskyy said in a statement that Ukraine remains committed to peace talks, but Russia needs to also demonstrate its readiness to engage in meaningful dialogue. He also said the US is needed, saying: “It is crucial for all of us that the United States does not distance itself from the talks and the pursuit of peace, because the only one who benefits from that is Putin.”
• Moscow and Kyiv are also in talks about a major prisoner exchange, following a phone call on Monday, according to Zelenskyy.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said European Union leaders told Trump they are ready to put more pressure and sanctions on Moscow. “Europe will increase the pressure on Moscow through sanctions. This is what we agreed upon with @POTUS after his conversation with Putin,” Merz said on X.
• Germany has joined Denmark in calling on China to exert its influence on Russia over the war in Ukraine.
• Pope Leo XIV is interested in hosting talks between Russia and Ukraine, Trump said, a suggestion that was welcomed by US and European leaders, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who said Italy is “ready to do its part to facilitate contacts and work for peace”. The Vatican did not confirm any such offer by the pope.

Economy

• Finland’s Ministry of Defence said it will use about 90 million euros ($101.35m) in proceeds from frozen Russian assets to buy ammunition for Ukraine. About $300bn of Russian assets have been frozen across the EU since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
• The EU is expected to lower the current $60 per barrel price cap on Russian oil as far as $50 per barrel as part of its new sanctions package this week, the Reuters news agency reported, citing EU officials.
• Poland seized 5 million metric tonnes of tyres for civilian Boeing aircraft bound for Russia in violation of international sanctions.

May 19 (UPI) — The Russian government announced Monday that the nonprofit Amnesty International is no longer welcome within its borders.

The Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation put out a statement that it “has made a decision to recognize the activities of the international non-governmental organization Amnesty International Limited, registered in London, as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation.”

The agency then claimed that while “the organization positions itself as an active conductor of human rights protection in the world,” it alleges that “the London headquarters of AIL is the center of preparation of global ‘Russophobic’ projects, paid for by accomplices of the Kyiv regime.”

It then further purported that Amenesty International has not only worked to “intensify the military confrontation in the region,” but has also justified “the crimes of Ukrainian neo-Nazis,” and has sought an increase for funding of Ukraine as it insists “on the political and economic isolation of [Russia].”

“The organization’s members support extremist organizations and finance the activities of foreign agents,” the agency said.

The Amnesty Eastern Europe and Central Asia regional office responded Monday with a warning that the Russian declaration means “any participation in our activities, including donations and reposts, is punishable in the Russian Federation.”

“If you read us from Russia, or are planning to be there, please refrain from sharing our online and offline materials,” it said. “We will continue to protect human rights in Russia and in the world, and we will keep you informed,” before a final wish for readers to take care.

According to AIL, its Moscow office has been shut down since April of 2022 by Russian authorities after the Russian Ministry of Justice delisted it from the register of the representative offices of foreign nongovernmental organizations and international organizations. This allegedly came after Russia’s media regulator blocked access to Amnesty International’s Russian-language website.

Russia has a list of over 200 “undesirable organizations,” which includes the Clooney Foundation for Justice, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Greenpeace. Russian citizens can receive as many as five years in prison for funding or working with any of the groups that have been banned.