Daily review

Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas declared the Lavra strike a war crime and unveiled a new sanctions package targeting 34 individuals and 47 entities, including two Chinese drone-component suppliers.

The EU formally opened the first cluster of accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova, ending years of delays and vetoes, while Kyiv confirmed strikes on two Tatarstan refineries and a rocket-fuel rubber plant.

From a wedding camera to a war machine: Ukraine's drone forces mark one year, claim every third Russian casualty.

The IAEA meanwhile warned that military activity has been documented near every one of Ukraine's nuclear sites, calling the situation unacceptable.

May was Ukraine's deadliest civilian month since 2022, the UN told the Security Council, even as Russia confirmed its Kalibrs again rely on foreign electronics and began moving gasoline to the front in sedan trunks.

A Russian drone damaged a nuclear fuel storage facility in the Chornobyl exclusion zone, while Ukrainian Special Forces struck a fuel depot and maritime terminal in occupied Crimea as part of an "asymmetric" campaign to disrupt Russian logistics.

From the Baltic to Crimea, Ukraine's drone campaign tightens the noose.

Ukraine's "Logistics Lockdown" pushed further into Russia's transport network in May, while a fresh US aid package hands Kyiv a win.

Zelenskyy issued an open letter telling Putin the war is his personal choice, as Germany, France, and the UK sketched a plan to bring Moscow to the negotiating table — with Kyiv holding the final say. On the battlefield, Ukraine claimed "fire control" over occupied Donetsk Airport, closing out its heaviest deep-strike month of the year. Sweden and France seized Russian shadow-fleet assets, while the IAEA reported fresh attacks on power infrastructure tied to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.

Separately, a crowdfunded Ukrainian satellite has now delivered 5,900 radar images to military intelligence since its launch.

A 24-country summit in Kyiv on 26 May produced the first in-person handshake between Belarus's exiled leader Sviatlana Tsikhanoŭskaya and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine's drone forces commander said the first 500 targets are already marked should Belarus enter the war. The diplomats Russia told to evacuate stayed.

The same day, Russia warned diplomats to leave Kyiv and threatened a new wave of systemic missile strikes, a day after launching an Oreshnik on Bila Tserkva.

50 strike sites across Kyiv. Two dead. Residential areas, schools, markets, and cultural sites damaged. Russia's overnight attack came with a reported Oreshnik ICBM strike on Kyiv Oblast — and Ukraine answered by hitting a Transneft pipeline node in Vladimir Oblast that feeds central Russia and the Moscow region.

Ukraine struck Russia's Sheskharis oil terminal and brought a key unit of the country's fourth-largest refinery to a halt.

Contents Exclusives Military Intelligence and technology International Humanitarian and social impact Political and legal developments Exclusives Ukraine's attack…

At the UN, Kyiv's envoy laid out the case to remove Russia from the Security Council. Civilian casualties are up 93% in 2026 — the first four months of this year are already the deadliest for Ukrainian civilians since the full-scale invasion began.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced it is cutting US combat brigades in Europe from four to three, with a Poland deployment temporarily delayed.