Exclusives
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Russia's air-to-air Shaheds probably can't hit F-16s—but the slow planes are exposed. Lag in Russia's command network protects fast jets. Helicopters less so |
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Russia threatens Latvia with "just retribution." Von der Leyen calls it "absolutely unacceptable". Latvia's government already resigned last week over its handling of the incursions. |
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US presses Ukraine to ease Belarus sanctions—and lobby Europe to follow. The country struck by drones launched from Belarus is being asked to argue for softer sanctions on the regime that hosts them. |
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Russian mines cost Ukraine $11 billion every year. Clearing them is the work of decades. Deputy Minister Ihor Bezkaravainyi, who lost his leg to a mine in 2015, on clearing Russia's mines from Ukraine. |
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Beijing endorses Moscow's 'root causes' framing on Ukraine in Putin-Xi joint statement. The summit produced no agreed timeline for the long-stalled Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline. |
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ISW: Russia prepares the ground for Baltic aggression as its spy agency threatens Latvian "decision-making centers". Russia's SVR threatens Latvian military bases over Ukrainian drone claims Riga denies. ISW warns Moscow is manufacturing a pretext for Baltic aggression. |
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Wounded warriors can wait months for evacuation. Ukrainians are trying to solve this—here's how. From UGVs to experimental hexcopters |
Military
Russia has five scenarios for its potential offensive from north of Ukraine, says Zelenskyy. Ukraine is tracking five Russian scenarios for expanding the war via the northern border and reinforcing its forces in the area.
Six of ten Russian refineries hit by Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces in May have stopped operating. Tuapse is indefinitely closed.
Drones strike Lukoil's Kstovo refinery, hitting primary crude unit. The plant is among Russia's largest fuel producers and supplies the Moscow region; it was also targeted on 18 May.
Ukraine must choose strike targets more precisely, Polish defense minister says. Kosiniak-Kamysz spoke a day after Estonia shot down a drone of likely Ukrainian origin near Lake Võrtsjärv.
Intelligence and technology
Russia's drone-air-defense arms race now includes depleted uranium — Ukraine found it in Geran-2 warhead. Depleted uranium is widely used in Russian conventional munitions. The change is mounting it on a drone to kill the helicopters defending against the drones.
360-degree armored capsule, V-shaped anti-blast underbody, thermal night-vision: Ukraine gets 20 Roshel Senator MRAPs. Russia's drones are hunting demining crews now, not just buried ordnance. This batch comes in an MRAP variant Ukrainian feedback helped design.
Ukraine's new Stinger training simulator lets crews drill without firing missile that costs $120,000–150,000. Global stocks are aging, too. The simulator means crews can train without firing one.
Every paid-for PURL weapon is reaching Ukraine, including air-defense interceptors, NATO's top operational military commander says. NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Alexus Grynkewich told reporters in Brussels on 19 May that the program now totals nearly $5.5 billion in allied pledges.
International
Russia threatens Latvia with "just retribution." Von der Leyen calls it "absolutely unacceptable". Latvia's government already resigned last week over its handling of the incursions.
US presses Ukraine to ease Belarus sanctions—and lobby Europe to follow. The country struck by drones launched from Belarus is being asked to argue for softer sanctions on the regime that hosts them.
Beijing endorses Moscow's 'root causes' framing on Ukraine in Putin-Xi joint statement. The summit produced no agreed timeline for the long-stalled Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline.
ISW: Russia prepares the ground for Baltic aggression as its spy agency threatens Latvian "decision-making centers". Russia's SVR threatens Latvian military bases over Ukrainian drone claims Riga denies. ISW warns Moscow is manufacturing a pretext for Baltic aggression.
Pentagon cuts US combat brigades in Europe from four to three—Poland deployment "temporarily delayed". The drawdown follows a separate decision two weeks ago to withdraw 5,000 US troops from Germany.
Lithuania scrambles NATO jets and shuts Vilnius airport over drone from Belarus. It is the third Baltic air alert in four days, after a Romanian jet downed a stray Ukrainian drone over Estonia on 19 May.
IFMA restores Russian and Belarusian flags and anthems at every muaythai championship and age category. Wrestling, gymnastics, judo, sambo, and taekwondo have already done the same; World Aquatics has postponed the same step.
Putin's top foreign-policy aide disavows "Spirit of Anchorage" Kremlin has pushed for months after Putin's visit to Beijing. In October he publicly defended the "spirit of Anchorage." Today he said he never used the phrase.
Humanitarian and social impact
Russian drone collapses Konotop apartment floors, destroys museum as strikes hit at least six regions. Russia hit six Ukrainian regions overnight 20 May, collapsing floors of a Konotop apartment building and killing two in Dnipro.
A Russian drone killed their parents. Soldiers found two children in a Dobropillia basement. Officially, the city had no children left to evacuate.
Russia is holding about 1,000 Ukrainians in indefinite detention and offering only one horrible way out. Russia stopped deporting foreigners in 2022. Around 1,000 Ukrainians now sit in indefinite detention.
Russian mines cost Ukraine $11 billion every year. Clearing them is the work of decades. Deputy Minister Ihor Bezkaravainyi, who lost his leg to a mine in 2015, on clearing Russia's mines from Ukraine.
After more than 1,200 Russian strikes on Ukraine's railway, Ukrzaliznytsia says this summer will be hardest. Since the full-scale invasion began, roughly 17,300 railway infrastructure facilities and pieces of rolling stock have been affected.
Political and legal developments
Kazakh court authorizes forced collection of $1.4 billion from Gazprom for Ukraine's Naftogaz. A Zurich-seated tribunal ordered Gazprom to pay $1.37 billion in principal for unpaid transit services in June 2025.
Russian court sentences Ukrainian woman to 12 years for wiring money to Ukraine's Armed Forces. Russian court sentences Ukrainian woman to 12 years for financing Ukraine's army via 78 transfers. Her Russian accomplice received 14 years for state treason.
New developments
Russia is preparing new campaign through 15+ Western "proxy outlets" to undermine Ukraine's external support, Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence says. EU media monitors have documented one of the named outlets calling Ukraine "a puppet state founded and run by the CIA."
Read our earlier daily review here.
