Russia

Russia has launched its largest drone and missile attack on Ukraine since the war began more than three years ago.

After the missiles came a war of words as United States President Donald Trump lashed out at Russian President Vladimir Putin on social media.

And he criticised Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s remarks after the Ukrainian president condemned what he called “the silence of America”.

So was that a warning the US may be ready to walk away from the talks on a ceasefire?

And is a decision by Ukraine’s allies to scrap range restrictions on arms sent to Kyiv, a “dangerous” move as Moscow claims?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Mark Storella – former US ambassador and deputy assistant secretary of state in the first Trump administration

Alexey Muraviev – associate professor of national security and strategic studies at Curtin University

Aaron Gasch Burnett – senior fellow at the Democratic Strategy Initiative, a political think tank

US President Donald Trump says Russia’s Vladimir Putin is ‘playing with fire’ and Russia has so far been shielded from ‘really bad things’.

A senior Moscow security official has rebuked United States President Donald Trump and raised the danger of another world war breaking out after Trump said Russian leader Vladimir Putin was “playing with fire” by refusing to engage in Ukraine ceasefire talks with Kyiv.

Dmitry Medvedev said World War III was the only “REALLY BAD thing” in a response, late on Tuesday, to Trump, who had earlier posted a message to Putin on social media saying that “really bad things would have already happened in Russia” without his intervention.

“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realise is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened in Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire,” Trump said in a post on his platform Truth Social.

Medvedev responded on the platform X: “Regarding Trump’s words about Putin ‘playing with fire’ and ‘really bad things’ happening to Russia. I only know of one REALLY BAD thing — WWIII.”

“I hope Trump understands this!”

Regarding Trump’s words about Putin “playing with fire” and “really bad things” happening to Russia. I only know of one REALLY BAD thing — WWIII.
I hope Trump understands this!

— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) May 27, 2025

Currently the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and a key Putin ally, Medvedev served as the Russian president between 2008 and 2012, and is known for his sabre-rattling comments.

He has repeatedly warned throughout the course of Russia’s war on Ukraine that Moscow could use its nuclear arsenal.

Putin also raised the possibility of nuclear confrontation in a state of the nation address in March 2024, warning Western powers of Russia’s nuclear capabilities should any decide to deploy troops in support of Ukraine.

“Everything that the West comes up with creates the real threat of a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, and thus the destruction of civilisation,” Putin said at the time.

Medvedev’s public rebuke of Trump also comes after the US president said in a post on Sunday that Putin had “gone absolutely CRAZY” by carrying out extensive aerial attacks on Ukraine despite widespread calls for a ceasefire and Washington’s frustrated attempts to broker a peace accord.

“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him,” Trump posted on Sunday.

Trump also told reporters he was considering new sanctions on Russia amid the impasse in ceasefire talks.

The war of words on social media comes as hopes for a swift end to Russia’s war on its neighbour dim. Kyiv suffered another battlefield setback on Tuesday, with Russian forces capturing four villages in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region.

Sumy Governor Oleh Hryhorov wrote on Facebook that the villages of Novenke, Basivka, Veselivka and Zhuravka had been occupied by Russia, although residents had long been evacuated.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Monday that it had also taken the nearby village of Bilovody, implying a further advance into Ukrainian territory, as the more than three-year war grinds on.

Ukrainian officials have said for weeks that Russian troops are trying to make inroads into the Sumy region, the main city of which lies less than 30km (19 miles) from the border with Russia.

Russian forces, attacking in small groups on motorcycles and supported by aerial drones, have been widening the area where they have been carrying out assaults on the front line, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s border guard service said.

Ukrainian forces last year used the Sumy region as a launchpad to push into Russia’s neighbouring Kursk region, where they captured a vast area of territory before being driven out by Russian forces last month.

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.

Russia and Ukraine have launched a wave of drone attacks against each other overnight, even as Moscow claimed it was finalising a peace proposal to end the war.

Ukrainian air force officials said on Tuesday that Russia deployed 60 drones across multiple regions through the night, injuring 10 people. Kyiv’s air defences intercepted 43 of them – 35 were shot down while eight were diverted using electronic warfare systems.

In Dnipropetrovsk, central Ukraine, Governor Serhiy Lysak reported damage to residential properties and an agricultural site after Russian drones led to fires during the night. In Kherson, a southern city frequently hit by Russian strikes, a drone attack on Tuesday morning wounded a 59-year-old man and six municipal workers, officials said.

The barrage came days after Ukraine endured one of the heaviest aerial offensives of the war. On Sunday night alone, Ukraine’s air force claimed Russia launched 355 drones, a record number.

That escalation prompted United States President Donald Trump to declare that Vladimir Putin had “gone absolutely CRAZY” and to threaten new sanctions. The Kremlin brushed off the remarks, accusing Trump of suffering from “emotional overload”.

Russia said on Tuesday that its huge aerial assaults in recent days were a “response” to escalating Ukrainian drone attacks on its own civilians, accusing Kyiv of trying to “disrupt” peace efforts.

“Kyiv, with the support of some European countries, has taken a series of provocative steps to thwart negotiations initiated by Russia,” the Russian Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

The ministry said its forces had shot down 99 Ukrainian drones on Tuesday, including 56 over the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine.

It claimed that from May 20 to 27, air defence units intercepted more than 2,300 Ukrainian drones – 1,465 of them outside active conflict zones.

Russia seizes more territory

In a further setback for Kyiv, Russian troops have captured four villages in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, the local governor confirmed on Tuesday.

Oleh Hryhorov said Novenke, Basivka, Veselivka and Zhuravka were now under Russian control, though civilians had already been evacuated. “The enemy is continuing attempts to advance with the aim of setting up a so-called ‘buffer zone’,” he wrote on Facebook.

Russia’s Defence Ministry also claimed it had taken the nearby village of Bilovody, pointing to further advances near the border.

Though Moscow’s main offensive remains in Donetsk, its push into Sumy shows how Russian forces are stretching Ukraine’s army thin across multiple fronts.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned again this week that new Russian offensives were likely in Sumy, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia.

Russian troops have been attacking in small groups on motorcycles, backed by drones. Ukrainian forces say they’re holding the line and targeting enemy positions with precision fire.

Military blog DeepState reported over the weekend that Russia now holds about 62.6 sq km (24 square miles) in the region – the first time it has secured a strip of border villages there.

Last month, a Russian missile killed 36 people in the city of Sumy.

Europe undermining peace talks, says Russia

Amid new territorial gains and escalating violence, Russia has shifted blame for the lack of diplomatic progress onto European leaders.

Putin met Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Monday to discuss efforts to end the war in Ukraine, according to a source from Turkiye’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Fidan also met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday as part of his two-day trip to Moscow.

During the meeting, Lavrov took aim at German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, suggesting his recent comments on Ukraine’s use of Western weapons for strikes deep inside Russia reveal that the decision to greenlight such attacks was made long before it was made public.

Lavrov said Merz’s statement was telling – not only for what it implied about policy but for what it revealed about the current crop of Western leaders.

“This shows what sort of people have come to power in key European countries,” Lavrov said.

Merz had earlier stated that weapons supplied to Kyiv by the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the US were no longer bound by range restrictions, clearing the path for deeper attacks into Russian territory.

On Tuesday, while on an official visit to Finland, Merz said Western allies had lifted restrictions on the range of weapons sent to Ukraine. He warned the war could drag on, citing Russia’s refusal to engage in meaningful talks. “We may have to prepare for a longer duration,” he told reporters.

Meanwhile, Moscow accused Ukraine and its European allies of deliberately undermining efforts to revive peace talks. “Since 20 May, Ukraine has ramped up strikes on Russian territory using Western-supplied weapons, deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure,” it said.

Direct talks between Russia and Ukraine resumed on May 16 – the first in more than three years – but failed to result in a ceasefire. Russia has since insisted it is working on a serious draft agreement to end hostilities.

“This is a serious draft, a draft of a serious document that demands careful checks and preparation,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, adding it had not yet been submitted.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the draft would lay out key terms for a political settlement and potential ceasefire, and would be presented to Kyiv once finalised.

Moscow has accused Ukraine of escalating attacks in recent days to derail the negotiations. In response to media reports about possible new US sanctions, Peskov claimed Washington was trying to sabotage the diplomatic process.

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.

United States President Donald Trump has lambasted his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, describing him as “absolutely crazy” after Moscow launched its largest aerial attack of the war on Ukraine, killing at least 13 people.

Trump’s comments, issued on his Truth Social platform late on Sunday, marked a rare rebuke of Putin.

“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” the US president wrote.

“I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!” he added.

The comments came as Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia had launched a record number of drones against Ukraine overnight on Sunday. It said Russian forces deployed 298 drones and 69 missiles, but that it was able to down 266 drones and 45 missiles.

The Russian attack was the largest of the war in terms of weapons fired, although other strikes have killed more people.

Ukraine’s emergency services described an atmosphere of “terror” across the country on Sunday, and regional officials said those killed included victims aged eight, 12 and 17 in the northwestern region of Zhytomyr.

More than 60 others were wounded.

“Without truly strong pressure on the Russian leadership, this brutality cannot be stopped,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media.

“The silence of America, the silence of others around the world only encourages Putin,” he said, adding: “Sanctions will certainly help.”

Sanctions

Trump has increasingly voiced irritation with Putin and the inability to resolve the now three-year-old war, which the US leader had promised he would do within days of returning to the White House.

He had long boasted of his friendly relationship with Putin and repeatedly stressed that Russia is more willing than Ukraine to reach a peace deal.

But earlier on Sunday, Trump made it clear that he is losing patience with the Russian president.

“I’m not happy with what Putin’s doing. He’s killing a lot of people. And I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin,” Trump told reporters as he departed northern New Jersey, where he had spent most of the weekend.

“I’ve known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all.”

Asked if he was considering more sanctions on Russia, Trump said, “Absolutely.”

Trump also criticised Zelenskyy, a more frequent target of his ire, in his social media post, accusing him of “doing his Country no favours by talking the way he does”.

“Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop,” he said of Zelenskyy.

Europe condemns Russia

A peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine remains elusive.

Last week, Trump and Putin held a two-hour phone call, after which the US leader said Moscow and Kyiv would “immediately start negotiations towards a ceasefire”.

Putin, however, made no commitment to pause his three-year invasion of Ukraine, announcing only a vague proposal to work on a “memorandum” outlining Moscow’s demands for peace.

That conversation occurred after Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Turkiye for the first face-to-face talks since 2022. But on Thursday, the Kremlin said no direct talks were scheduled.

The Russian attack against Ukraine prompted criticism from Europe, too.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, called for “the strongest international pressure on Russia to stop this war”. In a post on X, she said the attacks “again show Russia bent on more suffering and the annihilation of Ukraine. Devastating to see children among innocent victims harmed and killed”.

German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul also denounced the attacks, saying, “Putin does not want peace, he wants to carry on the war and we shouldn’t allow him to do this,” he said.

“For this reason, we will approve further sanctions at a European level.”

The massive attacks on Ukraine came as Russia said it had exchanged another 303 Ukrainian prisoners of war for the same number of Russian soldiers held by Kyiv – the last phase of a swap agreed during talks in Istanbul on May 16.

That marked their biggest prisoner swap since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, with 1,000 captured soldiers and civilian prisoners in total sent back by each side.

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.

May 25 (UPI) — The Ukrainian and Russian militaries exchanged massive air strikes overnight Saturday, even amid a planned swap of some 303 prisoners of war from each side.

The Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement that Russia’s bombardment began around 8:40 p.m. Saturday, during which Russia launched some 367 air attack weapons. It was the second night of such a large-scale attack by Russia.

Kyiv said it had shot down some 311 of them, including 45 cruise missiles and 266 drones. Still, some landed on Ukrainian territory.

“The air attack was repelled by aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare and unmanned systems units, and mobile fire groups of the Ukrainian Defense Forces,” the Ukrainian Air Force said in its statement.

The Ukrainian Air Force said “most regions of Ukraine” were affected by Russia’s attack, with strikes recorded in at least 22 locations.

The scope of the attack prompted the Armed Forces Operational Command of neighboring Poland, a NATO alliance member, to scramble jets in case it needed to defend its airspace, Polish officials said in a statement.

When the strike ended, the Polish military said it had observed no violations of its airspace and that defense systems had returned to normal.

“Unfortunately, last night, due to the barbaric attack of the Russians, there are dead and wounded, including children,” the Ukrainian Air Force said. “We express our condolences to the families of the victims and the wounded.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed Sunday that it carried out a “massive strike” against “enterprises of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex” that it said make missile components, drones, explosives, rocket fuel and radios for the Ukrainian military.

“The strike objectives have been achieved,” the Russian Defense Ministry said. “All designated targets have been hit.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted Sunday that the Russian strike was against “ordinary cities” and hit “ordinary residential buildings” in Ukraine.

“In Kyiv, dormitories of the university’s history department were hit. There were also strikes on enterprises. Tragically, people were killed, including children,” Zelensky said.

Zelensky called on world powers to levy new sanctions against Russia, which he said “is dragging out this war and continues to kill every day” as he criticized the “silence of America.”

“Without truly strong pressure on the Russian leadership, this brutality cannot be stopped. Sanctions will certainly help,” he said. “The war can be stopped, but only through the necessary force of pressure on Russia.”

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that it too had defended against a large-scale air attack by Ukraine on Russian territory Saturday night.

In total, Russia said it had intercepted and destroyed some 110 Ukrainian drones over the several Russian regions along the Ukraine-Russia border, including Moscow and the contested region of Crimea.

The Russian Defense Ministry later said that its troops are continuing to advance every day to push Ukrainian troops further from the Russia border to create a protection zone for Russia’s civilian population.

In another statement, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that 303 prisoners of war were returned from “territory controlled by the Kyiv regime” and that Russia handed over 303 Ukrainian soldiers in return.

The Russian soldiers are currently undergoing psychological and medical assistance in Belarus, an ally of Russia. They will then be taken back to Russia for further treatment and rehabilitation at Russian military hospitals.

In total, since Russia and Ukraine reached an agreement on May 16 in Istanbul, the two nations have swapped some 1,000 prisoners of war each.

“303 Ukrainian defenders are home. The third part of the 1,000-for-1,000 exchange deal, agreed upon in Turkey, has been completed,” Zelensky said in a statement.

“I thank the team that worked around the clock to successfully carry out this exchange. We will definitely bring every single one of our people back from Russian captivity.”

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.

May 24 (UPI) — Russia, using missiles and drones, launched one of the biggest assaults on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, since the beginning of the war more than three years ago and hours after a prisoner exchange began.

Russia was retaliating after several days of Ukrainian drone attacks inside its territory, including in Moscow.

The first explosions in Kyiv were reported at 10 p.m. Friday, according to the Kviv Independent. Another wave was heard at around 1 a.m. and then, hours later, more missile debris was reported in the Obolonskyi district

CNN reported that 13 people died in the drone and missile attacks — at least four in the eastern Donetsk region, five in the southern Kherson and Odesa regions, and four in the northern Kharkiv region in the past 24 hours.

At least 15 people needed medical attention in Kyiv, including two children, the network reported.

Russia launched 14 ballistic missiles and 250 drones, with Ukrainian forces shooting down six missiles and stopping 245 drones before they reached Kyiv. Projectiles also hit the Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reacted angrily after the attack and posted video with his message on X.

“It was a difficult night for all of Ukraine — 250 strike drones, the absolute majority of them Iranian ‘Shaheds,’ and 14 ballistic missiles,” Zelenskyy wrote. “The Odesa, Vinnytsia, Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Kyiv, Dnipro regions suffered damages. All strikes targeted civilians. There are fatalities. My condolences to the families and loved ones.”

Zelensky called for more sanctions on Russia to achieve a cease-fire, including one lasting 30 days.

“With each such attack, the world becomes more certain that the cause of prolonging the war lies in Moscow,” Zelensky wrote.

“Ukraine has proposed a ceasefire many times — both a full one and one in the skies. It all has been ignored. It is clear that far stronger pressure must be imposed on Russia to get results and launch real diplomacy.

“We are awaiting sanctions steps from the United States, Europe, and all our partners. Only additional sanctions targeting key sectors of the Russian economy will force Moscow to cease fire.”

Amid explosions and loud sirens throughout Kyiv, people took shelter in the city’s subway stations as the air raid alert in lasted more than seven hours

A five-story building in the Solomianskyi district caught fire, and seven people needed medical attention, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv city military administration.

“It’s terrorism,” said Mykyta Kruchan, a 22-year-old business development manager whose parents live in an apartment building in the Obolonskyi district hit by a Russian Shahed-type drone. Their apartment was not damaged, he told the Independent.

“What Ukraine does we shoot their military buildings, military stuff, centers. … But here, it’s not an adequate reply to me. All they do is on purpose.”

Kruchan, who described himself as once a supporter of President Donald Trump, said the president wants to “team up with terrorists rather than stop them.”

Olha Chyrukha, a 64-year-old resident of Kyiv, standing outside a damaged apartment building, said: “I wish they’d agree to a cease-fire. To bomb people like this …”

Ukrainian parliament member Kira Rudik told CNN hiding “under the stairs” overnight in Kyiv.

“It was terrifying, it felt honestly like armageddon, the explosions were everywhere,” she said.

Russia’s defense ministry claimed 94 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over Russian territory were destroyed, mostly over the Belgorod and Bryansk regions. Also, some UAVs were shot down over the Kursk, Lipetsk, Voronezh and Tula regions.

Prisoner swap, cease-fire talks

Russia and Ukraine began a one-for-one 1,000 prisoner exchange of soldiers and civilians in the first phase of a deal agreed to in Istanbul, Turkey, this week.

In the first swap on Friday, 390 Ukrainians were back home, and on Saturday the Russian defense ministry said 307 prisoners from each country were exchanged.

The two sides, with help from the United States, have been working toward a permanent cease-fire.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said “one week has passed since the Istanbul meeting, and Russia has yet to send its ‘peace memorandum.’ Instead, Russia sends deadly drones and missiles at civilians.”

Ukraine and its allies want an immediate and unconditional cease-fire.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his nation would give Ukraine a draft text stating its conditions for a truce after the prisoner swap is completed.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t show up for a meeting with Zelensky in Turkey. Instead, lower-level officials negotiated.

The two countries swap hundreds of soldiers and civilians as Russia launches more drone attacks on Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged more prisoners of war as Ukrainian officials renew their calls for more sanctions in response to dozens of attack drones and ballistic missiles launched by Moscow’s forces at Kyiv overnight.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Saturday it released 307 Ukrainian prisoners of war in exchange for as many Russian servicemen, who are being cared for in Belarus before their return to Russia.

Ukraine confirmed the exchange, saying among those returned were army soldiers, agents of the State Border Guard Service, and members of the National Guard of Ukraine.

The two sides each released 270 servicemen and 120 civilians on the Ukrainian border with Belarus on Friday, as part of the biggest prisoner exchange since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Both sides have agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners, but the aerial attacks and ground fighting have not stopped.

Ukraine’s military on Saturday said overnight attacks launched from multiple Russian regions used 250 drones and 14 ballistic missiles to hit Kyiv and other areas, damaging several apartment buildings and a shopping mall, and injuring at least 15 people in the capital.

Sites in the Ukrainian regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa and Zaporizhia were also hit, with Ukrainian forces saying six of the ballistic missiles were shot down by its air defences, along with 245 drones, many of which were said to be Iranian-designed.

Oleh Syniehubov, head of Kharkiv’s regional state administration, said on Saturday morning that four Ukrainians were killed and several others injured over the past 24 hours in the region as a result of multiple Russian attacks.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said at least 100 Ukrainian drones attempted to strike Russian targets overnight. It said 64 unmanned aerial vehicles were downed overnight in the skies of the Belgorod region, along with 10 additional drones launched on Saturday morning.

Dozens more projectiles were downed over Kursk, Lipetsk and Voronezh and another five were shot down over Tver northwest of Moscow, it said.

‘Difficult night’

In a social media post, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the country had another “difficult night” that he believes should convince the world that “the reason for the war being dragged out is in Moscow”.

“It is obvious that we need to put much more pressure on Russia to get results and start real diplomacy. We are waiting for sanctions from the US, Europe and all our partners. Only additional sanctions against key sectors of the Russian economy will force Moscow to agree to a ceasefire.”

The Group of Seven (G7) nations threatened on Friday to impose further sanctions on Russia if it fails to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said a week after talks in Turkiye’s capital Istanbul led only to an agreement on the exchange of prisoners of war, that Moscow has yet to send any “peace memorandum”.

“Instead, Russia sends deadly drones and missiles at civilians,” he wrote in a post on X, adding that “increased sanctions pressure on Moscow is necessary to accelerate the peace process.”

Reporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s John Hendren said the Istanbul meeting was disappointing for Zelenskyy because he wanted a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Instead, it was a much lower-level meeting. But they did manage to get this prisoner swap,” he said, adding that the exchanges could be over by Sunday but the details were not clear.

“Zelenskyy has been disappointed by the lack of additional US sanctions against Russia. Europe has agreed to new sanctions, but it’s not clear that they will really have the desired effect to bring Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.”

GOVERNMENT officials are investigating the possibility of Russia having links to arson attacks at properties belonging to Sir Keir Starmer, it is claimed.

Two homes and a car previously owned by the Prime Minister were torched earlier this month.

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Officials probing whether the three Ukrainian-born men charged with arson or conspiring to commit arson were recruited by the Kremlin, according to senior Whitehall figures.

This is just one of many lines of investigation being explored.

Talks are ongoing on how to respond if this proves to be the case, they told the Financial Times.

Even if there are found to be Russian links that does not mean the suspects were aware of any Kremlin involvement.

Cops have already said they suspect the trio of suspects could be part of a wider community.

However, they are keeping an open mind about motive.

The inquiry is being led by the Met’s counterterrorism command due to the connection to a high profile public figure, the force previously confirmed.

The suspects have been charged with criminal as opposed to national security offences.

Petro Pochynok, 34, is accused of conspiring to damage by fire the PM’s former Toyota Rav4, a property where he once lived and his family’s former house with intent to endanger life.

Models Roman Lavrynovych, 21, and Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, are also charged with plotting arsons between April 17 and May 13.

The charges relate to a vehicle fire in Kentish Town on May 8, a fire at the entrance of a property in Islington on May 11 and a fire at a residential address in Kentish Town in the early hours of May 12.

The three suspects deny the charges.

On Monday, police raided a two-bed North London flat said to have been previously shared by Pochynok and Carpiuc, his dad and brother until about six months ago.

Pochynok is said to have last visited the property three weeks ago.

Six officers were seen carrying evidence bags out after spending about four hours inside.

Carpiuc was arrested last Saturday at Luton Airport as he prepared to catch a Wizz Air flight to Romania.

He studied business at Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent, and is awaiting his results.

On website StarNow.com, Carpiuc said he wanted to be the “top male model in the world”.

The suspects have not displayed any links to Russia.

One has previously posted pro Ukraine messaging on social media.

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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.

Russia and Ukraine have each handed over 390 soldiers and civilians in the biggest prisoner exchange since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022.

They both returned 270 servicemen and 120 civilians on the Ukrainian border with Belarus, as part of the only deal agreed in direct talks in Istanbul a week ago.

Both sides had agreed to an exchange of 1,000 prisoners and confirmed there would be further swaps in the coming days.

Although there have been dozens of smaller-scale exchanges, no other handover has involved as many civilians.

The Russian defence ministry said servicemen and civilians, including those captured by Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region during Kyiv’s offensive in recent months, were among those handed over.

They were currently on Belarusian territory and were to be taken to Russia for medical checks and treatment, the ministry said.

“We are bringing our people home,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on social media.

“We are verifying every surname, every detail about each person.”

Ukraine’s co-ordination headquarters for prisoners of war said the 270 Ukrainian servicemen had fought in regions across the east and north, from Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy to Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kherson. Three of the 390 released on Friday were women, it added.

US President Donald Trump earlier posted his congratulations on his Truth Social platform, claiming that the swap was complete and that “this could lead to something big???”.

Families of Ukrainian soldiers held by Russia gathered in northern Ukraine on Friday in the hope that their sons and husbands would be among those released.

Natalia, whose son Yelizar was captured during the battle for the city of Severodonetsk three years ago, told the BBC she believed he would return, but did not know when.

The deal was agreed in Turkey a week ago, when low-level delegations from Ukraine and Russia came face to face for the first time since March 2022, even though the meeting lasted only two hours and failed to make any progress towards a ceasefire.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that there would be a second round of talks, when Moscow would hand a “memorandum” to the Ukrainian side.

Trump said earlier this week that Russia and Ukraine would “immediately” start negotiating towards a ceasefire and an end to the war, after a two-hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Since then, Zelensky has accused Putin of “trying to buy time” to continue the war.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has backed a suggestion from Trump that the Vatican might mediate talks on negotiating a ceasefire, but Lavrov said that was “not a very realistic option”.

The Russian foreign minister repeated an unfounded claim that Zelensky was not a legitimate leader and suggested new elections should be held before a potential future peace agreement is signed.

Asked if Russia was ready to sign a deal, Lavrov said: “First we need to have a deal. And when it’s agreed, then we will decide. But, as President Putin has said many times, President Zelensky does not have legitimacy.”

He said after an agreement was ready, Russia would “see who out of those in power in Ukraine has legitimacy”.

“The key task now is to prepare a peace agreement which will be reliable and provide a long-term, stable and fair peace without creating security threats for anyone. In our case, we’re concerned with Russia.”

Finance officials from the Group of Seven (G7) nations have threatened they could impose further sanctions on Russia should it fail to agree a ceasefire in its war on Ukraine.

Ending their G7 meeting in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, where foreign ministers were also convening this week, the finance chiefs said on Thursday night that if efforts to end Russia’s “continued brutal war” in Ukraine failed, the group would look at how it could push Moscow to step back.

“If such a ceasefire is not agreed, we will continue to explore all possible options, including options to maximise pressure such as further ramping up sanctions,” a final communique following three days of meetings read.

The G7, comprised of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, also pledged to work together to ensure that no countries that financed the war would be eligible to benefit from Kyiv’s reconstruction.

Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said that point was a “very big statement”, calling it a key pillar.

However, the group shied away from naming countries, including China, which the West has previously accused of supplying weapons to Russia.

The communique added that Russia’s sovereign assets in G7 jurisdictions would continue to be blocked until Moscow ended the war and paid reparations to Ukraine for the damage it caused to the country.

‘Clear signal?’

“I think it sends a very clear signal to the world … that the G7 is united in purpose and in action,” Champagne told the closing news conference.

However, the statement omitted mention of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs that are disrupting global trade and supply chains and swelling economic uncertainty.

Differences were also apparent in the approach to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Trump has unnerved US allies by sidelining them to launch bilateral ceasefire talks with Moscow, in which US officials have adopted many of the Kremlin’s narratives regarding the conflict.

In the statement, the description of the war was watered down from October’s G7 statement, issued before Trump’s re-election, that called it an “illegal, unjustifiable, and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine”.

Tariffs

According to European Commission executive vice president, Valdis Dombrovskis, the ministers discussed a proposal to lower the $60-a-barrel price cap to $50 on Russian oil exports since Russian crude was selling below that level.

However, the official G7 communique did not present the plan as the US was “not convinced” about lowering the price cap, an unnamed European official told the Reuters news agency.

Hours before the G7 meeting, the European Parliament also greenlit tariffs on Russian fertiliser imports.

According to the European Union bill, duties will be enforced from July 1 and gradually increase over three years, from 6.5 percent to about 100 percent, halting trade.

‘Yet to be agreed’

As international entities continue to place sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine, diplomatic efforts to end the war have increased after the two sides held their first face-to-face meeting last week.

However, Moscow appears set to continue to stall, as it has been doing since the US launched its push to broker a truce.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that new talks were “yet to be agreed” after reports that the Vatican was ready to host a future meeting to discuss a ceasefire.

Still, Russia and Ukraine are trading attacks.

On Friday morning, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its air defence systems had downed 112 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 24 over the Moscow region.

A day earlier,  Russia said it had fired an Iskander-M missile at part of the city of Pokrov in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region.

Ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine may soon be under way, but Ukraine’s economic recovery will be hobbled unless the European Union fast-tracks the war-torn country’s membership and provides hundreds of billions of euros’ worth of insurance and investment, experts tell Al Jazeera.

“I think what Ukraine needs is some kind of future where it will have a stable and defendable border, and that will only come, I would think, with EU membership,” historian Phillips O’Brien told Al Jazeera.

The US administration of President Donald Trump last month handed Ukraine and Russia a ceasefire proposal that excluded future NATO membership of Ukraine, satisfying a key Kremlin demand and leaving Ukraine without the security guarantees it seeks.

“What business is actually going to take the risk of getting involved there economically?” asked O’Brien. “With NATO off the table, I think if Ukraine is going to have a chance of rebuilding and being integrated into Europe, it will have to be through a fast-tracked EU membership.”

That membership is by no means assured, although the European Commission started negotiations in record time last June, and Ukraine has the support of EU heavyweights like France and Germany.

If Ukraine becomes an EU member, it would still face a devastated economy requiring vast investment.

The Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) estimated that between Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 and November last year, Moscow’s onslaught had destroyed $170bn of infrastructure, with the housing, transport and energy sectors most affected.

That figure did not include the damage incurred in almost a decade of war in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk since 2014 or the loss of 29 percent of Ukraine’s gross domestic product (GDP) from the invasion in 2022. The estimate also did not put a value on the loss of almost a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, which Russia now occupies.

That territory contains almost half of Ukraine’s unexploited mineral wealth, worth an estimated $12.4 trillion, according to SecDev, a Canadian geopolitical risk firm.

It also does not include some types of reconstruction costs, such as chemical decontamination and mine-clearing.

The World Bank put the cost of infrastructure damages slightly higher this year, at $176bn, and predicts the cost of reconstruction and recovery at about $525bn over 10 years.

‘The Kremlin has certainly looted occupied territory’

Economic war has been part of Russia’s strategy since the invasion of Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014, argued Maximilian Hess, a risk analyst and Eurasia expert at the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

“The Kremlin has certainly looted occupied territory, including for coking coal, agricultural products, and iron,” Hess told Al Jazeera.

The KSE has estimated Russia stole half a million tonnes of grain, included in the $1.9bn damages bill to the agricultural sector.

Using long-range rocketry, Russia also targeted industrial hubs not under its control.

Ukraine inherited a series of factories from the Soviet Union, including the Kharkiv Tractor Plant, the Zaporizhia Automobile Plant, the Pivdenmash rocket manufacturer in Dnipro and massive steel plants.

“All were targeted by Russian forces,” wrote Hess in his recent book, Economic War. “Russia’s attacks were, of course, primarily aimed at devastating the Ukrainian economy and weakening its ability and will to fight, but they also raised the cost to the West of supporting Ukraine in the conflict, something the Kremlin hoped would lead to reduced support for Kyiv.”

Through occupation and targeting, Russia managed to deprive Ukraine of a flourishing metallurgy sector.

According to the United States Geological Survey, metallurgical production decreased by 66.5 percent as a result of the war.

That is a vast loss, considering that Ukraine once produced almost a third of the iron ore in Europe, Russia and Central Eurasia, half of the region’s manganese ore and a third of its titanium. It remains the only producer of uranium in Europe, an important resource in the continent’s quest for greater energy autonomy.

Ukraine’s claims to have built a $20bn defence industrial base with allied help, a rare wartime economic success story.

That can make up for the losses in metallurgy, Hess said, “but only in part and in different regions of the country from which those mining and metallurgical ones were concentrated. Boosting [metallurgical activities] in places like Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and ideally territory ultimately freed from Russian occupation, will be necessary to win the peace.”

Trump’s minerals deal, and other instruments

Weeks ago, Ukraine and the US signed a memorandum of intent to jointly exploit Ukraine’s mineral wealth.

Ukraine committed to putting half the proceeds from its metallurgical activities into a Reconstruction Fund, but experts doubted the notion that mineral wealth can rebuild Ukraine.

“Projects have a long launch period … from five to 10 years,” Maxim Fedoseienko, head of strategic projects at the KSE Institute, told Al Jazeera. “You need to make documentation, environmental impacts assessment, and after that, you can also need three years to build this mine.”

The US and EU might invest in such mines, Fedoseienko said, because “we have more than 24 kinds of materials from the EU list of critical [raw] materials,” but they would only contribute to the Ukrainian economy if investments were equitable.

Trump presented the minerals deal as payback for billions in military aid.

“There’s nothing remotely fair about it. The aid was not given to be paid back,” said O’Brien.

As Fedoseienko put it, “It is not fair if everyone will say, ‘OK, we will help you in a time of war, so you are owned [by] us.’”

In addition to fairness, Ukraine needs money. Some of that needs to come in the form of insurance.

A state-backed war-risk insurance formula Kyiv reached with the United Kingdom in 2023, for example, brought bulk carriers back to Ukraine’s ports and defeated Russian efforts to blockade Ukrainian grain exports.

As a result, Ukraine exported 57.5 million tonnes of agricultural goods in 2023-2024, and was on track to export 77 million tonnes in the 2024-2025 marketing year, which ends in June, its agriculture ministry said.

“There needs to be a substantial expansion of public insurance products in particular, as well as a move to seize frozen Russian assets,” said Hess.

Seizing some $300bn in Russian central bank money held in the EU was deemed controversial, but the measure is now receiving support.

“The Russian state has committed these war crimes, has broken international law, has done this damage to Ukraine –  that actually becomes a just way of helping Ukraine rebuild,” said O’Brien. “[Europeans] have a very strong case for this, but they, right now, lack the political will to do it.”

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has already repeatedly asked Europe to use the money for Ukraine’s defence and reconstruction.

What Europeans have done in the meantime is going some way towards rebuilding Ukraine.

Some $300m in interest payments proceeding from Russian assets are diverted to reconstruction each year.

A European Commission programme provides 9.3 billion euros ($10.5bn) of financial support designed to leverage investment from the private sector.

Financial institutions such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank are providing loan guarantees to Ukrainian banks, which gives them liquidity.

“So Ukrainian banks can provide loans to Ukrainian companies to invest and operate in Ukraine. This is a big ecosystem to finance investment and operational needs to the Ukrainian economy,” said Fedoseienko.

Together with the finance ministry, the KSE operates an online portal providing information about the various instruments available, which has already helped bring 165 investments to fruition worth $27bn.

“Is it enough to recover the Ukrainian economy?” Fedoseienko asked. “No, but this is a significant programme to support Ukraine now.”

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”.

The group said it would call for analysis on international supply chain resilience.

Finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of Seven (G7) democracies have pledged to address “excessive imbalances” in the global economy and said they could increase sanctions on Russia.

The G7 announced the plan on Thursday as the officials, who met in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, said there was a need for a common understanding of how “non-market policies and practices” undermine international economic security.

The document did not name China, but references by the United States and other G7 economies to non-market policies and practices often are targeted at China’s state subsidies and export-driven economic model.

The final communique called for an analysis of market concentration and international supply chain resilience.

“We agree on the importance of a level playing field and taking a broadly coordinated approach to address the harm caused by those who do not abide by the same rules and lack transparency,” it said.

Lowering Russian oil price cap

European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said the G7 ministers discussed proposals for further sanctions on Russia to try to end its war in Ukraine. They included lowering the G7-led $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil, given that Russian crude is now selling under that level, he said.

The G7 participants condemned what they called Russia’s “continued brutal war” against Ukraine and said that if efforts to achieve a ceasefire failed, they would explore all possible options, including “further ramping up sanctions”.

Russia’s sovereign assets in G7 jurisdictions would remain immobilised until Moscow ended the war and paid for the damage it has caused to Ukraine, the communique said. It did not mention a price cap.

Brent crude currently trades at around $64 per barrel.

A European official said the US is “not convinced” about lowering the Russian oil price cap.

Earlier this week, the US Treasury said Secretary Scott Bessent intended to press G7 allies to focus on rebalancing the global economy to protect workers and companies from China’s “unfair practices”.

The communique also recognised an increase in low-value international “de minimis” package shipments that can overwhelm customs and tax collection systems and be used for smuggling drugs and other illicit goods.

The duty-free de minimis exemption for packages valued below $800 has been exploited by Chinese e-commerce companies including Shein and Temu.

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.

European Parliament backs bill that will enact duties in July and gradually increase them over three years.

The European Parliament has voted to impose tariffs on fertiliser and certain farm produce imports from Russia and its ally Belarus, despite European farmers’ fears that the move could lead to higher prices.

The European Parliament on Thursday voted 411 to 100 in support of the bill that will enact duties in July and gradually increase them to a point where they would make imports unviable in 2028.

In 2023, more than 70 percent of EU fertiliser consumption was of nitrogen-based fertiliser, of which Russia accounted for 25 percent of EU imports worth about 1.3bn euros ($1.5bn).

According to the bloc, the tariffs for certain fertilisers will increase over three years from 6.5 percent to an amount equivalent to about 100 percent, effectively halting trade by 2028.

For farm produce, an additional 50 percent duty will apply.

While Russia and Belarus were hit with prohibitive tariffs last year over the war in Ukraine, the new measures will apply to 15 percent of agriculture imports from Russia that were not previously hit, including meat, dairy produce, fruit and vegetables.

EU lawmaker Inese Vaidere, spearheading the push for increased tariffs, said the bloc must stop fuelling “the Russian war machine” and “limit the dependency of Europe’s farmers to Russian fertilisers”.

Member states still must formally give the bill their final approval, having already supported the idea.

Russia said on Thursday that the tariffs would cause fertiliser prices in the EU to rise.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that demand for Russian nitrogen fertilisers on other export routes remained high, adding that Russian fertilisers were of the highest quality.

Farmers’ fears

The pan-European farmers’ group Copa-Cogeca told the AFP news agency that using Russian fertilisers was the “most competitive in terms of price, due to well-established logistics”.

The tariff could be “potentially devastating” for the agriculture sector, the group warned, adding, “European farmers must not become collateral damage”.

A farmer in Belgium accused the EU of hurting its farmers.

Amaury Poncelet told AFP that he “doesn’t understand the European Union’s idea of punishing its farmers”.

“We’re losing money because of these European decisions that treat us like pawns who don’t matter,” he said.

The European Commission has argued the tariffs will help support domestic production and suggested duties on imports from other regions could be removed to alleviate price pressures, among other mitigating measures, in case of price shocks.