Ukraine

Armenia has long relied on Russian weapons in its bitter dispute with neighbouring Azerbaijan.

Russia’s top diplomat has blamed the war in Ukraine for affecting the supply of arms to Armenia, and has expressed concern that Moscow’s longstanding ally would now look to the West for military support instead.

Speaking in Yerevan on the second day of a two-day visit to Armenia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that some of Russia’s weapons contracts with the former Soviet republic had been delayed or reassigned due to the pressures created by the war in Ukraine.

Armenia has long relied on Russian weapons in its bitter dispute with neighbouring Azerbaijan, against whom it has fought a series of conflicts since the late 1980s.

“We are currently in a situation where, as has happened throughout history, we are forced to fight all of Europe,” Lavrov said, in a barbed reference to European support for Ukraine in response to the Russian invasion.

“Our Armenian friends understand that in such conditions, we cannot fulfil all our obligations on time.”

As Russia has failed to deliver on weapons contracts paid for by Armenia, Yerevan has increasingly turned to countries like France and India for military supplies.

Lavrov said that Russia would not oppose these growing ties, but said that they raised concerns about its traditional ally’s strategic intentions.

“When an ally turns to a country like France, which leads the hostile camp and whose president and ministers speak openly with hatred toward Russia, it does raise questions,” he said.

Armenia has strengthened its ties with the West amid recent ongoing tensions with Azerbaijan, fallout from the last major eruption of conflict and Russia’s role in that.

In September 2023, Azerbaijan launched a military operation to retake Nagorno-Karabakh, a separatist enclave in Azerbaijan with a mostly ethnic Armenian population that had broken away from Baku with Armenian support amid the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Armenia accused Russian peacekeepers of failing to protect the more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians who fled the region, fuelled by decades of distrust, wars, mutual hatred and violence, after Azerbaijan’s lightning takeover.

Yerevan also suspended its involvement in the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, a Russian-led security umbrella of ex-Soviet countries, last year, saying it would not participate or fund the alliance.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Andriy Portnov was previously a senior aide to removed former President Viktor Yanukovych and had been the subject of US sanctions.

A Ukrainian former politician has been shot dead by an unknown assailant outside a school in Madrid, Spain, authorities said.

The man was identified by Spain’s Ministry of Interior as Andriy Portnov, who was previously a senior aide to Ukraine’s former President Viktor Yanukovych.

The attack on Wednesday morning took place outside the gates of the American School in the Spanish capital’s upscale neighbourhood of Pozuelo de Alarcon.

Police were called at about 9:15am (07:15 GMT) and notified that a man had been shot in the street.

Witnesses quoted by the police said he was shot “several times” in the head and body by more than one assailant. The attackers fled on foot, police said.

Radio station Cadena SER reported that Portnov was taking his children to school when he was attacked.

Portnov had been closely tied to Ukraine’s pro-Russian former leader Yanukovych, having served as deputy head of the presidential office from 2010 to 2014.

During Yanukovych’s time in power, Portnov was involved in drafting legislation aimed at persecuting participants of the 2014 revolution in Ukraine. He was later placed on several sanctions lists, including by the US Treasury in 2021.

This is a developing story. More to come…

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.

Brussels and London acting ‘in concert’ after Trump failed to secure ceasefire promise from Putin.

The European Union and the United Kingdom have announced coordinated packages of sanctions against Russia in a bid to ramp up pressure on President Vladimir Putin to end the war against Ukraine, as diplomatic momentum to reach a ceasefire accelerates.

The packages, which were unveiled Tuesday, will see both the EU and the UK taking aim at Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of oil tankers that illicitly transport oil to circumvent Western restrictions, with Brussels targeting 189 ships.

The UK’s wide-ranging package will also target the supply chains of Russian weapons systems, including Iskander missiles, Kremlin-funded information operations, and financial institutions that help Russia evade sanctions.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said an 18th package of sanctions was already being prepared by the EU, to follow the newly adopted 17th, with further meaningful measures.

“It’s time to intensify the pressure on Russia to bring about the ceasefire,” she posted on X, after a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Reporting from London, Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull noted that the EU and UK were “acting in concert”, simultaneously releasing the new sanctions after sealing a new defence and security pact during reset talks in London the previous day.

Responding to the sanctions, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday that Russia would never bow to ultimatums from anyone, adding that it was clear Europe wanted to re-arm Ukraine to continue the war.

The coordinated action came a day after United States President Donald Trump failed to secure a promise for a ceasefire in Ukraine from Putin in the pair’s highly anticipated phone call on Monday – without any corresponding steps from Washington, despite intense lobbying from European leaders and Zelenskyy.

‘Buying time’

Eager to set the terms, Putin said after the call that Moscow was ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum about a future peace accord, saying that discussions on the memorandum would include the principles of a settlement and the timing and definitions of a possible ceasefire.

The Kremlin’s Zakharova told reporters “the ball is in Kyiv’s court,” adding that she hoped Ukraine would take a constructive position on the proposed memorandum for the sake of its own “self-preservation”.

Zelenskyy said on Telegram on Tuesday that it was “obvious that Russia is trying to buy time to continue the war and occupation”.

“We are working with partners to put pressure on the Russians to behave differently,” he added, in an apparent reference to further international sanctions on Russia.

After announcing their measures, Brussels and London both suggested that more sanctions could follow, and France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called for further action to “push Vladimir Putin to put an end to his imperialist fantasy”.

Germany’s Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said: “Putin is clearly playing for time; unfortunately we have to say Putin is not really interested in peace.”

Ukraine’s European allies are considering the possibility of using their air forces to defend the country’s western skies from drone and missile attacks without the help of the United States, sources familiar with the talks tell Al Jazeera.

The plan, known as Skyshield, could put NATO planes and pilots into Ukrainian airspace for the first time, sending a powerful political message to Russia that Europe is committed to Ukraine’s defence.

Skyshield is more likely to come into effect as part of any ceasefire, especially if European ground forces are committed. But it was designed by Ukrainian and British aviation experts to work under combat conditions as well.

“It’s being taken very seriously into consideration by the UK, France,” said Victoria Vdovychenko, an expert on hybrid warfare at Cambridge University’s Centre for Geopolitics, who has sat at some of the meetings. “German colleagues and Italian colleagues also do know about that, as well as the Scandinavian colleagues,” she said.

When it comes to implementing Skyshield in wartime conditions, she admits, “some of the partners are still fluctuating in their decision making”.

Skyshield was published in February and is the brainchild of Price of Freedom, a Ukrainian think tank founded by Lesya Orobets. She came up with the idea during an air defence crisis last spring, when Republican lawmakers in the US delayed the passage of a $60bn bill to send more aid to Ukraine.

During a phone call with the head of Ukraine’s air force, Orobets was told, “We are in the middle of a missile crisis. We don’t have enough [interceptors] to shoot down the missiles.”

Skyshield calls for the deployment of 120 European aircraft to protect Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and export corridors along the Danube River and the Black Sea, freeing up the Ukrainian Air Force to focus on the first line of defence in the contested east of the country.

“There would be a piece of land of 200 kilometres [125 miles] between them at least,” said Orobets.

European jets would be based in neighbouring Poland and Romania, and fly mostly west of the Dnipro, protecting Kyiv on both sides of the river in the north of the country.

A higher-risk strategy

Western commanders are wary of costs, casualties and military implications.

Hourly flight costs, which include training, parts and maintenance, range from $28,000 for an F-16 to about $45,000 for a fourth-generation Rafale jet, Colonel Konstantinos Zikidis of the Hellenic Air Force told Al Jazeera.

“We’d have to pay for people to be there, several shifts a day in all specialities … it will be exhausting,” he said, referring to aircraft technicians and pilots.

“On the other hand, the proposal downplays the effectiveness of air defence systems, which are very effective against cruise missiles and have a far lower hourly operating cost than aircraft,” Zikidis said.

“It’s also not really the job of aircraft to hunt down cruise missiles. They can do it if they are given coordinates by air command. They can’t go out on flight patrol and spot them by chance. So you need a very thick radar array to cover a given area, especially at low altitude.”

European NATO members do not operate AWACS airborne radar, which would be the ideal tool for the job according to Zikidis, but Ukrainian pilots have already downed Russian cruise missiles using air-to-air missiles, suggesting the ground-based radar assets are there.

Europe has provided Ukraine with Patriot and Samp-T long-range air defence systems and Iris-T medium-range systems, but these are enough only to protect larger urban centres, said Vdovychenko. Russia is also stepping up its attacks. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on May 4 that Russia had launched almost 1,200 long-range kamikaze drones and 10 missiles in just a week.

These types of weapons are routinely directed at civilian and industrial infrastructure, not the front lines, and Russian President Vladimir Putin is increasing production. Last year, Russia’s factory at Alabuga produced 6,000 Shahed/Geran long-range drones, said Ukraine’s head of the Center for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, last month. He said Putin set production at 8,000-10,000 drones this year.

The effects are visible. High-profile attacks on Kryvyi Rih, Kharkiv and Kyiv have killed dozens of people this year.

The second problem European air forces would face is that of casualties.

“If one European plane falls and a pilot is killed, it will be very difficult for a European government to explain it,” said Zikidis. “For a Greek pilot to go and get killed in Ukraine could bring the government down,” he added.

“I don’t think that there is a political will [for that], and that is what stops this partially,” said Vdovychenko.

But Orobets put this risk in a wider context.

“We’re talking about catching cruise missiles and putting down the offensive drones, which is quite an easy target for trained pilots,” she told Al Jazeera. “So we do consider Skyshield to be less risky [than enforcing a no-fly zone] or any participation of the European troops closer to the front line.”

Strategic intimidation

Thirdly, there are the military implications. Skyshield is partly about freeing up the Ukrainian Air Force to strike deeper inside Russia, deploying the estimated 85 F-16s it is being given.

That is because Russia has this year intensified its use of controlled air bombs (CABs), which are directed against front lines, reportedly dropping 5,000 in April versus 4,800 in March, 3,370 in February and 1,830 in January.

Ukraine would target the airfields from which Russian jets take off to drop the CABs. It would also move missile launch systems closer to the front lines, increasing their reach inside Russia.

CABs are Russia’s most effective weapon at the front, and it has successfully leveraged its nuclear arsenal to intimidate NATO into allowing them to be flown in.

The Biden administration had refused to allow Ukraine to deploy Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMSs), which have a range of 300km (190 miles), because Russia considered their use dependent on US intelligence, in its view, making the US a cobelligerent in the war.

It has expressed exactly the same view of Germany sending its 500km (310-mile) range Taurus missile to Ukraine.

In the same vein, Russia has threatened to act against any European force deployment to Ukraine.

Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu last month told a summit of the foreign ministers of the BRICS group of states in Rio de Janeiro that “military units of Western states on Ukrainian territory … will be considered as legitimate targets”.

These threats have been effective. The Biden administration was against the idea of allowing the Polish and Romanian air forces to shoot down drones and missiles in Ukrainian airspace that were headed into Polish and Romanian airspace, Orobets said.

The Biden administration “thought that if any American pilot on any American jet or any Western jet would enter the Ukrainian airspace, then America or another country would become cobelligerent”, she said.

The same applied to the notion of Europeans entering Ukraine’s airspace.

“They were scared that Russians would then escalate to the level of a conflict they could not sustain. So that was the only reason. There was no reason like, ‘Oh, we cannot do that’,” she said.

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.

United States President Donald Trump has said, after a more than two-hour call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, that Moscow and Kyiv “will immediately start negotiations” toward a ceasefire and an end to the war, now in its fourth bloody year.

Putin said that efforts to end the conflict seemed “on the right track” and that Moscow was ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum about a future peace accord.

Putin thanked Trump for supporting the resumption of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine, and said that Trump noted Russia’s support for peace, though the key question was how to move towards peace.

“We have agreed with the president of the United States that Russia will propose and 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, the timing of a possible peace agreement,” Putin told reporters near the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

If appropriate agreements are reached, then there could be a ceasefire, Putin said, adding that direct talks between Russia and Ukraine “gives reason to believe that we are generally on the right track”.

“I would like to note that, on the whole, Russia’s position is clear. The main thing for us is to eliminate the root causes of this crisis,” Putin said. “We just need to determine the most effective ways to move towards peace.”

For his part, Trump said the call went very well. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that the Vatican, “as represented by the Pope, has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations. Let the process begin!”

Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova, reporting from Moscow, said the call was “very important” for Putin.

“He [Putin] believes that the US – because of its influence – can resolve any problems. Vladimir Putin believes that initially the US was standing behind Ukraine in this conflict, masterminding it,” Shapovalova said.

“So, to address the so-called root causes of the conflict, it was important to speak directly with Donald Trump and with the US.”

‘I think we’ll solve it’

Trump briefed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders on the call. Zelenskyy has insisted if Putin doesn’t commit to a ceasefire stronger sanctions on Russia should be imposed.

Trump, who has promised to bring a swift end to Europe’s deadliest war since World War Two, has repeatedly called for a ceasefire after years in which Washington joined other Western countries in arming Ukraine.

Putin recently rejected an offer by Zelenskyy to meet in-person in Turkiye, for talks between the two nations the Russian leader suggested himself, as an alternative to a 30-day ceasefire urged by Ukraine and its Western allies, including Washington.

Those inconclusive direct talks, the first in three years, between delegations from Ukraine and Russia in Turkiye’s Istanbul on Friday were brief and only yielded an agreement to swap 1,000 prisoners of war, according to the heads of both delegations, in what would be their biggest such exchange since the war began.

A senior Ukrainian official familiar with the talks said Russian negotiators demanded Kyiv pull its troops out of all its regions claimed by Moscow before they would agree to a ceasefire. That is a red line for Ukraine, and as it stands, Russia does not have full control in those regions.

Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, told Ukrainian television Saturday that the exchanges could happen as early as this week.

While wrapping up his four-day trip to the Middle East, Trump said Friday that Putin had not gone to Istanbul because Trump himself wasn’t there.

“He and I will meet, and I think we’ll solve it or maybe not,” Trump told reporters after boarding Air Force One. “At least we’ll know. And if we don’t solve it, it’ll be very interesting.”

European leaders have said they want the United States to join them in imposing tough new sanctions on Russia for refusing a ceasefire. The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy spoke to Trump on Sunday ahead of his call with Putin.

Al Jazeera’s John Hendren, reporting from Kyiv, said there has been no reaction in Ukraine so far.

“There’s probably not going to be a lot of celebrations unless the details are much more revealing than what we’ve seen so far,” Hendren said.

The calls have taken place a day after Russia launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine since the start of the war.

Ukraine’s intelligence service said it also believed Moscow intended to fire an intercontinental ballistic missile on Sunday, though there was no confirmation from Russia that it had done so.

ROME — U.S. Vice President JD Vance extended an invitation to Pope Leo XIV to visit the United States during a meeting at the Vatican on Monday ahead of a flurry of U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to make progress on a ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Vance gave the first American pope a letter from President Trump and the first lady inviting him. The Chicago-born pope took the letter and put it on his desk and was heard saying “at some point,” in the video footage of the meeting provided by Vatican Media.

Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, also gave the Augustinian pope a copy of two of St. Augustine’s most seminal works, “The City of God” and “On Christian Doctrine,” the vice president’s office said. Another gift: A Chicago Bears T-shirt with Leo’s name on it.

“As you can probably imagine, people in the United States are extremely excited about you,” Vance told Leo as they exchanged gifts.

Leo gave Vance a bronze sculpture with the words in Italian “Peace is a fragile flower,” and a coffee-table sized picture book of the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace. Leo noted that Francis had chosen not to live in them and added, “And I may live in, but it’s not totally decided.”

Vance led the U.S. delegation to Sunday’s formal Mass opening the pontificate of the first American pope. Joining him at the meeting on Monday was Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also a Catholic, Vance spokesperson Luke Schroeder said. The two then also met with the Vatican foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher.

“There was an exchange of views on some current international issues, calling for respect for humanitarian law and international law in areas of conflict and for a negotiated solution between the parties involved,” according to a Vatican statement after their meeting.

According to the photo of the visits released by the Vatican, Leo’s brother, Louis Prevost, a self-described “MAGA-type,” and his wife, Deborah, joined the delegation during the visit.

The Vatican listed Vance’s delegation as the first of several private audiences Leo was having Monday with people who had come to Rome for his inaugural Mass, including other Christian leaders and a group of faithful from his old diocese in Chiclayo, Peru.

The Vatican, which was largely sidelined during the first three years of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has offered to host any peace talks while continuing humanitarian efforts to facilitate prisoner swaps and reunite Ukrainian children taken by Russia.

After greeting Leo briefly at the end of Sunday’s Mass, Vance spent the rest of the day in separate meetings, including with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He also met with European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Italy’s Premier Giorgia Meloni, who said she hoped the trilateral meeting could be a “new beginning.”

In the evening, Meloni spoke by phone with U.S. President Trump and several other European leaders ahead of Trump’s expected call with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Monday, according to a statement from Meloni’s office.

‘Every effort’

Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, is a Chicago-born Augustinian missionary who spent the bulk of his ministry in Chiclayo, a commercial city of around 800,000 on Peru’s northern Pacific coast.

In the days since his May 8 election, Leo has vowed “every effort” to help bring peace to Ukraine. He also has emphasized his continuity with Pope Francis, who made caring for migrants and the poor a priority of his pontificate.

Before his election, Prevost shared news articles on X that were critical of the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations of migrants.

Vance was one of the last foreign officials to meet with Francis before the Argentine pope’s April 21 death. The two had tangled over migration, with Francis publicly rebuking the Trump administration’s deportation plan and correcting Vance’s theological justification for it.

Winfield and Martin write for the Associated Press.

Russia claims members of the international rights group have backed ‘extremist’ organisations and ‘foreign agents’.

Russian authorities have designated Amnesty International as an “undesirable” organisation, alleging that the rights group propagates pro-war content backed by the Western allies of Ukraine, in the latest crackdown on Kremlin critics.

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement on Monday that Amnesty’s London office has acted as a “centre for the preparation of global Russophobic projects paid for by accomplices of the Kyiv regime”, according to state-run media.

It claimed that since the start of the war in February 2022, Amnesty has been “doing everything possible to intensify the military confrontation in the region”, including by “insisting on the political and economic isolation of our country”.

The office also emphasised that members of the international rights group “support extremist organisations and finance the activities of foreign agents”.

Amnesty did not immediately respond to the allegations.

The designation means the international human rights group must stop any work in Russia, and those accused of cooperating with or supporting it will be exposed to criminal prosecution.

This could even include anyone who shares Amnesty International’s reports on social media.

Russia currently recognises 223 entities as “undesirable” organisations, including some prominent independent, as well as Western-backed news outlets and rights groups. Some of those include Transparency International, Latvia-based outlet Meduza, and US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

Amnesty International was established in 1961 to document and report human rights violations around the globe and campaign for the release of those deemed unjustly imprisoned.

The organisation won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977, having been recognised “for worldwide respect for human rights” and efforts to combat torture, advocate for prisoners of conscience, and promote global adherence to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In addition to covering human rights violations during the Ukraine war, the group has documented massacres in the Gaza Strip and Israeli apartheid, as well as atrocities in Sudan and many other countries.

Moscow has intensified its crackdown on human rights groups and civil society organisations as relations with the West plummeted over the Ukraine war and the expansion of NATO.

This has included expanding the “undesirable” and “foreign agent” designations to shut down opposing voices, as well as the suppression of some minority groups’ rights.

The move on Monday came as US President Donald Trump was due to hold a phone call with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy amid efforts to end the fighting.

The diplomatic efforts follow inconclusive direct talks, the first in three years, between delegations from Ukraine and Russia in Turkiye’s Istanbul on Friday.

The brief talks yielded only an agreement to swap 1,000 prisoners of war, according to the heads of both delegations, in what would be their biggest such exchange since the war began.

A senior Ukrainian official familiar with the talks said Russian negotiators demanded Kyiv pull its troops out of all its regions claimed by Moscow before they would agree to a ceasefire. That is a red line for Ukraine, and as it stands, Russia does not have full control in those regions.

May 19 (UPI) — The Ukrainian military said Monday that the Security Service of Ukraine attacked a Russian facility in the Black Sea with the use of drones.

The Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, posted to Telegram Monday that “with the help of surface and air drones,’ it destroyed “enemy radars and warehouses” built on gas production platforms.

The post also included a video of the attack that showed the approach of the drones from a drone’s point of view before a long-distance view of an explosion on the Russian structure.

“Within one special operation, SBU specialists used two types of drones that demonstrated the effectiveness of paired work,” The SBU said.

The assault was carried out by the 13th Main Directorate of the SBU’s Military Counter-Intelligence Department and used both aerial and naval drones to target what the Telegram post described as “Russian military infrastructure placed on Ukrainian offshore drilling rigs,” known as the Boyko towers.

A Russian Neva radar system, stored supplies and living quarters were reportedly destroyed in the attack.

The attack destroyed a Russian Neva-B radar system used for monitoring aerial and surface activity, as well as supply storage and living quarters on the platform, the SBU reported. Neva-B radar systems can track as many as 200 targets at one time and is intended to warn of incoming attacks on infrastructure.

The SBU purports that through the use of drones, it has so far been able to attack 11 Russian warships and the “Crimean Bridge,” a reference to the Kerch Strait Bridge, which linked Crimea to the Russian mainland and was attacked by Ukraine in October of 2022.

“We once again reminded the enemy that [there is no place for Russian rubbish] in the Black Sea,” the Security Service of Ukraine added.

These are the key events on day 1,180 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Monday, May 19:

Fighting

• Russia launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine since the start of the war, destroying homes and killing at least one woman, a day before United States President Donald Trump is due to discuss a proposed ceasefire with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 273 drones at Ukrainian cities, more than the previous record Moscow had set in February, on the war’s third anniversary.

• Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said Russia planned to conduct a “training and combat” launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile to intimidate Ukraine and the West, as ceasefire talks continue.

• Russian forces have taken control of the settlement of Bahatyr in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said. It also said that Russian forces had downed 75 Ukrainian drones on Sunday, according to Russia’s state TASS news agency.

Ceasefire talks

• The leaders of France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom again pressed the need for sanctions against Russia in a call with Trump before his telephone summit with Putin on Monday, the office of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.
• Putin told Russian state television that he wanted to “eliminate the causes that triggered” its war on Ukraine, “create the conditions for a lasting peace and guarantee Russia’s security”, two days after the first direct talks with Kyiv since 2022 failed to produce a ceasefire deal.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Rome, on the sidelines of Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration, to discuss the latest developments on ceasefire talks with Russia. It was their first meeting since their heated White House encounter in February.
• The pope held his first private audience as Catholic leader with Zelenskyy, after highlighting hopes for peace for a “martyred Ukraine”.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has discussed the war in Ukraine with leaders of the United States, Italy, France and Germany, a 10 Downing Street spokesperson has said, in advance of US President Donald Trump’s planned call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Monday.

The flurry of diplomacy comes shortly after inconclusive direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul, Turkiye on Friday.

The leaders discussed the need for an unconditional ceasefire and for Putin to take peace talks seriously, the spokesperson said late on Sunday, adding that they also raised the use of sanctions if Russia failed to engage seriously in a ceasefire and concerted peace talks.

In remarks to reporters earlier on Sunday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he discussed the issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio while the two men were attending the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican. Merz said he also spoke at length at the Vatican with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“I spoke with Marco Rubio, including about the call tomorrow. We agreed that we will speak again with the four state leaders and the US president in preparation of this conversation [with Putin],” Merz said.

Trump said he planned to speak to Putin and Zelenskyy to discuss ways to stop the war’s “bloodbath”.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to Russian news agencies that preparations were under way for a conversation between Putin and Trump.

The talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Friday were the first time the sides had held face-to-face talks since March 2022, weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour.

The brief talks yielded only an agreement to swap 1,000 prisoners of war, according to the heads of both delegations, in what would be their biggest such exchange since the war began.

A senior Ukrainian official familiar with the talks said Russian negotiators demanded Ukraine pull its troops out of all Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow before they would agree to a ceasefire. That is a red line for Ukraine, and as it stands, Russia does not have full control in those regions.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy met US Vice President JD Vance and Rubio on the sidelines of the papal inauguration, according to a source in the Ukrainian delegation. It was the first meeting between Zelenskyy and Vance since they publicly clashed during talks at the White House in February over the future of the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine fears ballistic missile attack

In the meantime, Ukraine has claimed Russia is planning to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile late on Sunday to intimidate it and its Western allies.

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, GUR, said Russia was planning to conduct a “training and combat” launch of the missile.

GUR said in a statement on the Telegram app that the launch was ordered to be implemented from Russia’s Sverdlovsk region, adding that the flight range for the missile was more than 10,000km (6,200 miles).

Ukraine on Sunday also said Russia had launched a record number of drones overnight, targeting various regions, including that of the capital, where a woman was killed.

Its air force said Russia launched “273 Shahed attack drones and various types of imitator drones”, of which 88 were destroyed and 128 went astray, “without negative consequences”.

Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said it was a “record” number of drones. “Russia has a clear goal – to continue killing civilians,” she said.

Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Kyiv, said overnight, “air raid sirens began, and they went on for nearly nine hours”.

“We see these massive drone strikes and we see crowds of people seeking shelter, seeking safety, in those deep underground subway stations in the capital and in other areas of the country, once again,” Basravi said.

‘Deliberate killing of civilians’

The Russian military said it intercepted 25 Ukrainian drones overnight and on Sunday morning. It also claimed it had captured Bahatyr, another village in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, as it intensifies the war effort despite the talks.

Russia’s overnight drone attacks were roundly condemned by Ukrainian officials.

Zelenskyy reiterated his call for stronger sanctions on Moscow after a Russian drone killed nine bus passengers in the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine on Saturday. “This was a deliberate killing of civilians,” he said.

“Pressure must be exerted on Russia to stop the killings. Without tougher sanctions, without stronger pressure, Russia will not seek real diplomacy.”

Russia, which denies targeting civilians, said it struck a military target in Sumy. Its Ministry of Defence claimed another settlement was captured in eastern Ukraine.

Zelenskyy’s top aide, Andriy Yermak, also decried the attacks.

“For Russia, the negotiations in Istanbul are just a pretence. Putin wants war,” Yermak said.

Russia aims to ‘create conditions for lasting peace’

In an interview with Russian state TV, Putin said Moscow’s aim was to “eliminate the causes that triggered this crisis, create the conditions for a lasting peace and guarantee Russia’s security”, without elaborating further.

Russia’s references to the “root causes” of the conflict typically refer to alleged grievances with Kyiv and the West that Moscow has put forward as justification for launching the invasion in February 2022.

They include pledges to “de-Nazify” and demilitarise Ukraine, protect Russian speakers in the country’s east, push back against NATO expansion and stop Ukraine’s westward geopolitical drift.

Ukraine and the West have rejected all of these reasons, saying Russia’s offensive is nothing more than an imperial-style land grab.

Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia started the war, with millions forced to flee their homes.

Putin said the Russian army, which occupies about 20 percent of Ukraine, had the “troops and means required” to achieve its goals.

The US Department of State said in a statement that Rubio and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, spoke with each other on Saturday. During the call, Rubio welcomed the prisoner exchange agreement reached in Istanbul, the department’s spokesperson said.

Ukraine’s top negotiator, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, said the “next step” would be a meeting between the two warring presidents.

Russia said it had taken note of the request, but added that the swap of prisoners of war had to be completed first, and both sides then needed to present their visions for a ceasefire before the next round of negotiations could be arranged.

POPE Leo XIV meets Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday after the pontiff’s inauguration mass.

The bells of St Peter’s Basilica earlier rang out as Chicago-born Leo waved from the popemobile that slowly went round the square

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Guests at the mass also included Prince Edward and US Vice President JD Vance.

Vance paid his respects at the late Pope Francis‘s tomb upon arriving in Rome late on Saturday before heading to the US delegation honouring Chicago-born Leo.

The pope, 69, has publicly criticised Vance, previously sharing an article condemning the Republican’s comments about a hierarchy of who you love in Christianity on a social media account under his name.

Both the United States and Peru get front-row seats at the historic event due to Leo’s dual citizenship as well as strict diplomatic protocol.

Catholic convert Vance – who tangled with Pope Francis over Donald Trump’s mass migrant deportation plans – was joined by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Rubio arrived in Rome ahead of time to try to advance tense Russia-Ukraine peace talks.

Images showed Vance smiling as he shook the hand of President Zelensky – despite the two engaging in the brutal three-way Oval Office shouting match earlier this year.

Moscow last night fired a total of 273 exploding drones and decoys targeting Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, as well as Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions – the biggest Russian drone attack since the start of the war.

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Estonia redirects maritime traffic to prevent future incidents after Russia’s detention of the Green Admire oil tanker.

Russia has detained a Greek oil tanker sailing under the Liberian flag as it left the Estonian port of Sillamae on a previously agreed route through Russian waters, the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says.

In a statement published on Sunday, the ministry added that the vessel, the Green Admire, was undertaking a navigational route established in a deal between Russia, Estonia and Finland.

The Baltic nation will redirect traffic to and from Sillamea exclusively through Estonian waters to prevent similar incidents in the future, it added.

“Today’s incident shows that Russia continues to behave unpredictably,” Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said. “I have also informed our allies of the event,” he said, referring to other NATO members.

Estonian Public Broadcasting (EPB), citing the Transport Administration, reported that the Greek tanker was carrying a cargo of shale oil destined for Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It added that such incidents had never occurred before.

Vessels leaving Sillamae usually move through Russian waters to avoid Estonia’s shallows, which can be dangerous for larger tankers, the EPB said.

The incident took place after the Estonian navy on Thursday tried to stop an unflagged tanker that was said to be part of a Russian “shadow fleet” of vessels sailing through Estonian waters. Russia responded by sending a fighter jet to escort the tanker, violating Estonia’s airspace.

The “shadow fleet” is meant to help Moscow maintain its crude oil exports to avoid Western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine.

Pope Leo XIV condemned hatred, prejudice and exploitation of the earth and poor, during his inauguration mass at the Vatican. World leaders were among the hundreds of thousands who attended, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who was seen shaking hands with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The first US pontiff arrived at St Peters Square riding his popemobile for the first time.

The election result could reshape the direction of the pro-EU and NATO member nation bordering war-torn Ukraine.

Romanians have begun casting ballots in a tense presidential election run-off that pits a pro-Trump nationalist who opposes military aid to Ukraine against a pro-European Union centrist.

Polls opened on Sunday at 7am local time (04:00 GMT) and will close at 9pm (18:00 GMT) in the high-stakes second round of the elections that will impact Romania’s geopolitical direction.

Hard-right nationalist George Simion, 38, who opposes military aid to neighbouring Ukraine and is critical of EU leadership, decisively swept the first round of the presidential election, triggering the collapse of a pro-Western coalition government. That led to significant capital outflows.

Romania’s top court annulled the first round results in December over accusations of Russian interference. The court also disqualified leading nationalist candidate Calin Georgescu, making way for Simion, who is a self-proclaimed fan of United States President Donald Trump.

Centrist Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, 55, who has pledged to clamp down on corruption and is staunchly pro-EU and NATO, is competing against Simion. He has said Romania’s support for Ukraine is vital for its own security against a growing Russian threat.

An opinion poll on Friday suggested Dan is slightly ahead of Simion for the first time since the first round in a tight race that will depend on turnout and the sizeable Romanian diaspora.

‘Battle between nationalist populism and a centralist’

Reporting from the capital, Bucharest, Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego said this election is being pitched as a battle between nationalist populism and a centralist.

“The reality is that Romania, an EU and NATO member, shares a border with war-torn Ukraine, the longest among EU members. And that also makes it one of the most vulnerable within the bloc,” she said.

Some analysts have also warned that online disinformation has been rife again ahead of Sunday’s vote.

Elena Calistru, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera: “We have to look at what is happening online. And there we have seen a lot of misinformation.”

“We have seen a lot of … coordinated inauthentic behaviour. We have seen a lot of foreign interference in our elections,” she said.

‘Pro-European president’?

The president of the country has considerable powers, not least being in charge of the defence council that decides on military aid. He will also have oversight of foreign policy, with the power to veto EU votes that require unanimity.

Daniela Plesa, 62, a public employee, told the AFP news agency in Bucharest on Friday she wanted a president “to promote the interests of the country”, complaining that “the European Union demands and demands”.

Andreea Nicolescu, 30, working in advertising, said she wished for “things to calm down a bit” and “a pro-European president”.

Rallies of tens of thousands ahead of the elections have demanded that the country maintain its pro-EU stance.

Other protests, also drawing tens of thousands, have condemned the decision to annul last year’s vote and the subsequent barring of far-right candidate Georgescu.

The cancellation was criticised by the Trump administration, and Simion has said his prime minister pick would be Georgescu, who favours nationalisation and an openness towards Russia.

The vote in Romania comes on a day when Poland also votes in the first round of the presidential election, expected to be led by pro-EU Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski and conservative historian Karol Nawrocki.

Victory for Simion and/or Trzaskowski would expand a cohort of eurosceptic leaders that already includes prime ministers in Hungary and Slovakia amid a political shift in Central Europe that could widen rifts in the EU.

It took three years to get officials from Ukraine and Russia in the same room.

But President Vladimir Putin, who proposed the meeting, did not go to Istanbul and the talks ended in less than 90 minutes.

The result: an agreement for a large-scale prisoner exchange, talks about their presidents meeting, and both sides pushing their vision of a future ceasefire.

Yet, diplomacy is not narrowing the great gap between Russia and Ukraine.

So, is President Putin agreeing to further talks to avoid more sanctions?

And with Russia steadily advancing on the battlefield, can President Zelenskyy afford to push for peace without further compromise?

Presenter: Dareen Abughaida

Guests:

Peter Zalmayev – Executive director at Eurasia Democracy Initiative

Pavel Felgenhauer – Independent defence and Russian foreign policy analyst

Anatol Lieven – Director of the Eurasia Program at Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

The drone strike in the Sumy region amounts to ‘a cynical war crime’, Ukraine’s National Police say.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for tougher sanctions on Moscow after a Russian drone killed nine bus passengers, just hours after the two countries held their first direct peace talks in years.

Seven others were injured in the attack in Bilopillia in Ukraine’s northeastern region of Sumy, Zelenskyy said in a post on X on Saturday.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it had targeted Ukrainian military equipment, the TASS news agency reported. Russia denies targeting civilians since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, although thousands have been killed.

“All the deceased were civilians,” Zelenskyy said, adding that preliminary reports indicated a father, mother and daughter had been killed. “And the Russians could not have failed to understand what kind of vehicle they were targeting. This was a deliberate killing of civilians.”

He said the wounded had suffered burns, fractures, and blast injuries, and were receiving treatment in hospital.

The Ukrainian leader said he expected tougher sanctions from Ukraine’s partners to pressure Moscow “to stop the killings”, which came shortly after Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Istanbul on Friday to to attempt to broker a temporary ceasefire.

“Without tougher sanctions, without stronger pressure, Russia will not seek real diplomacy,” he said. “This must change.”

He said Russia had sent “a weak and unprepared” delegation to Istanbul without a meaningful mandate, and real steps were needed to end the war.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha denounced the attack as an “deliberate and barbaric war crime”, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of continuing “to wage a war against civilians” and calling for additional pressure on Russia.

“There should be no illusions. Pressure on Moscow must be increased to put an end to Russian terror,” Sybiha wrote.

No breakthrough

The 90-minute talks in Istanbul on Friday failed to reach a breakthrough, but ended with both sides agreeing to swap 1,000 prisoners in what would be the largest such exchange since the start of the war in 2022.

Vladimir Medinsky, the lead Russian negotiator, expressed satisfaction with the talks and said Moscow was ready for further negotiations, including on a ceasefire. “We have agreed that all sides will present their views on a possible ceasefire and set them out in detail,” he said after the meeting.

But a source in the Ukrainian delegation told Reuters news agency that Russia’s demands were “detached from reality and go far beyond anything that was previously discussed”.

The source told the agency Russia had issued ultimatums for Ukraine to withdraw from all parts of its own territory claimed by Moscow before they would agree to a ceasefire, “and other non-starters”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Saturday said Putin could meet with Zelenskyy – the first time such a meeting would have taken place since December 2019 – but only if certain agreements were reached. He did not elaborate on what would be required.

Speaking to Reuters on Saturday, British foreign minister David Lammy accused Moscow of obfuscating in its approach to the peace talks.

“Yet again we are seeing obfuscation on the Russian side and unwillingness to get serious about the enduring peace that is now required in Ukraine,” said Lammy. “Once again Russia is not serious.”

Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Kyiv, said Medinsky, Russia’s lead negotiator, had sent a clear message during the negotiations that Moscow was ready to continue the war for years – and had no problem in continuing to conduct the war at the same time as it held talks.

“And that is exactly what they have done,” said Basravi, adding that the destroyed vehicle in Bilopillia had been evacuating residents from a conflict zone, according to Ukraine.

These are the key events on day 1,178 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Saturday, May 17:

Fighting

• Russia is preparing for a new military offensive in Ukraine, the Ukrainian government and Western military analysts said, as Russia’s Defence Minister Andrei Belousov was in Minsk on Friday to discuss joint military drills in September and deliveries of new weapons to Belarus.
• A drone attack on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kupiansk killed a 55-year-old woman and wounded four men, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said that its forces seized six settlements in eastern Ukraine over the past week. According to a ministry statement, Russian troops advanced in the Donetsk region and took control of Torske, Kotlyarivka, Myrolyubivka, Mykhailivka​​​​​​, Novooleksandrivka, and Vilne Pole settlements, Tukiye’s Anadolu news agency reports.

• The Russian Defence Ministry released a video showing Russian forces raising the Russian flag in the settlement of Mykhailivka.
• A court in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Luhansk region sentenced Australian national Oscar Charles Augustus Jenkins to 13 years in jail at a high-security penal colony for fighting on behalf of Ukraine, Anadolu reports.

Ceasefire

• The first direct Russia-Ukraine dialogue in three years on Friday produced good results, Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy, said late on Friday. “1. Largest POW exchange 2. Ceasefire options that may work 3. Understanding of positions and continued dialogue,” Dmitriev said on the social media platform X.
• Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said following the talks that some 1,000 prisoners from each side will be swapped “in the near future”, in the largest exchange since the start of the war in 2022.
• Umerov led the Ukrainian delegation, which ended after 90 minutes in Istanbul, while Putin’s adviser, Vladimir Medinsky, negotiated on behalf of Russia. The United States delegation was led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
• Medinsky, who was the lead Russian negotiator, expressed satisfaction with the talks and said Moscow was ready for further negotiations, including on a ceasefire. “We have agreed that all sides will present their views on a possible ceasefire and set them out in detail,” Medinsky said after the meeting.

• A source in the Ukrainian delegation told the Reuters news agency that Russia’s demands were “detached from reality and go far beyond anything that was previously discussed”. The source said Moscow had issued ultimatums for Ukraine to withdraw from parts of its own territory in order to obtain a ceasefire “and other non-starters and non-constructive conditions”.
• Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who opened the talks by welcoming both delegations and calling for a swift ceasefire, served as a buffer between the negotiating tables in Istanbul’s Dolmabahce Palace.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed regret after the talks at what he called a missed opportunity for peace. “This week, we had a real chance to move towards ending the war – if only Putin hadn’t been afraid to come to Turkiye,” Zelenskyy posted on X from the sidelines of a European Political Community (EPC) summit in Albania.
• Zelenskyy, who did not attend the talks, said he had been “ready for a direct meeting with him [Putin] to resolve all key issues”, but “he didn’t agree to anything”.
• US President Donald Trump, who has pressed for an end to the conflict, said he would meet with Putin “as soon as we can set it up” in a bid to make progress in the peace talks. “I think it’s time for us to just do it,” Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi as he wrapped up a trip to the Middle East.

• Zelenskyy was in Tirana, Albania, on Friday with European leaders to discuss security, defence and democratic standards against the backdrop of the war. He held a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
• European leaders also agreed to press ahead with joint action against Russia over the failure in Turkiye to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine, Prime Minister Starmer said after consultations with President Trump.
• Starmer said after the talks that the Russian position was “clearly unacceptable” and that European leaders, Ukraine and the US were “closely aligning” their responses.
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced new plans for additional sanctions on Moscow after Putin failed to travel to Turkiye to negotiate with Ukraine.
• US senators renewed calls on Friday for Congress to pass sanctions on Russia after Russia-Ukraine ceasefire talks showed little progress, but no votes were scheduled on bills introduced six weeks ago aimed at pressuring Moscow to negotiate seriously.

Regional security

• Russia and Belarus are preparing a new, large military manoeuvre together, the Belarusian state agency BelTA reports. “We plan to jointly develop measures to counter aggression against the Union State,” Defence Minister Belousov said during a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart, Viktor Khrenin, in Minsk, according to BelTA. The Union State combines Russia and Belarus.
• The exercise, dubbed Zapad-2025, or West-2025 in English, will be the main event of the combat training of the regional troop formations, he said. The manoeuvre is planned for mid-September, according to the agency.

Economy and trade

• Russia’s economic growth slowed to 1.4 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025, the lowest quarterly figure in two years, data from the official state statistics agency showed on Friday.
• Economists have warned for months of a slowdown in the Russian economy, with falling oil prices, high interest rates and a downturn in manufacturing all contributing to headwinds. Moscow reported strong economic growth in 2023 and 2024, largely due to massive state defence spending on the Ukraine conflict.
• The Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS), which represents the democratic countries bordering the Baltic Sea, called for new shipping rules to allow for stronger joint action against Russia’s so-called shadow fleet.