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Russia’s war against Ukraine
A view of destruction after Lancet drone strikes at a roadside cafe in Raihorodka, Lyman District, Donetsk Oblast on May 22, 2025. A 39-year-old resident who was selling at the market was injured and taken to hospital with a mine blast injury and shrapnel wounds while a 51-year-old kiosk vendor was killed. (Jose Colon/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Ukrainian drones target Russia in large-scale attack, Moscow claims 159 drones shot down in under a day. For at least two days in a row, Ukraine has launched massive waves of drones deep into Russian territory. Between the evening of May 20 and the morning of May 22, Russia claims to have shot down 485 drones on its territory.
Trump tells European leaders Putin doesn’t want peace because he believes Russia winning war in Ukraine, WSJ reports. U.S. Donald Trump’s reported statement marked the first time he acknowledged to European leaders the thing they and Kyiv have long maintained — the Kremlin has no intention of ending its full-scale war against Ukraine.
Putin claims Russia preparing ‘security buffer zone’ along Ukrainian border. A spokesperson for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said Putin’s words are further proof that Russia “is an obstacle to peace efforts.”
9 Ukrainian children rescued from Russian-occupied territories, President’s Office says. Among the rescued children is a girl whose life was in danger due to the lack of adequate medical care in the occupied territories, and a boy who, along with his mother, was locked in a basement by Russian forces while his father was tortured in a nearby room, Presidential Office chief Andriy Yermak said.
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Ukrainian defense firms urge Zelensky to lift drone export restrictions in open letter. The open letter, signed by leading representatives of Ukraine’s defense-industrial sector, highlights the strategic potential of the country’s homegrown military technologies, from drones to electronic warfare systems, and calls for decisive political action to authorize the controlled export of surplus weaponry to allied nations.
Kyiv proposes EU partners help directly fund Ukrainian military under new model. Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko said Kyiv is proposing a new model: EU partners would help fund the Ukrainian military, and in return, Ukraine would be further integrated into the continent’s defense system.
4 Chechen officers killed in car bombing in Russian-occupied part of Kherson Oblast, Ukraine’s HUR claims. The first blast was followed by more explosions, as the officers were allegedly transporting ammunition that detonated.
Russia cuts key projects in aviation, tech, auto industries as oil revenues plummet. The Russian government is slashing budgets for major projects across a number of sectors amid an economic downturn and oil price collapse, the pro-Kremlin news outlet Kommersant reported.
Read our exclusives
Ukraine war latest: Mass Ukrainian drone strike targets Moscow, Russia claims, multiple airports closed
Russian air defense systems shot down 105 Ukrainian drones overnight on May 22, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that all the drones were flying toward the Russian capital.
Photo: Leonid Faerberg / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
Ukraine’s new drone strategy — cripple Moscow’s airports, make Russian population ‘pay’
“This is about the potential disintegration of Russian regions and the weakening of internal control,” Serhii Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Defense Army’s Southern Division, told the Kyiv Independent.
Photo: Leonid Faerberg / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
Human cost of Russia’s war
Russian attacks against Ukraine kill 2, injure 27 over past day. Ukrainian forces downed 74 out of the 128 drones, including Shahed-type attack drones, and an Iskander-M ballistic missiles launched by Russia overnight, the Air Force reported. Thirty-eight drones disappeared from radars without causing any damage, according to the statement.
General Staff: Russia has lost 977,650 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022. The number includes 870 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
Opinions and insights
Russia just said it doesn’t want peace. This is what you need to do
“Any notion of a peace process is effectively over, and there’s only one remaining hope — those Americans who actually mean what they say and truly want the war to end must follow through and finally apply some good old-fashioned global superpower pressure on Russia,” the Kyiv Independent writes in an editorial.
Photo: Roman Pilipey / AFP via Getty Images
Why Washington failed to end the Russo-Ukrainian War
“The degree of the new U.S. administration’s political naivety, moral indifference and diplomatic dilettantism, during its first four months in office, has been astonishing,” writes Andreas Umland, an analyst at the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.
Photo: Ting Shen / Bloomberg via Getty Images
We need to push Russia to stick to ceasefire, Estonian ambassador says
International response
EU parliament backs tariffs on fertilizers from Russia, Belarus. “The regulation gradually increasing customs duties for products from Russia and Belarus will help to prevent Russia from using the EU market to finance its war machine,” said Inese Vaidere, Latvian Member of the European Parliament.
Finland expecting further Russian military build-up at border after Ukraine war ends. Finland shares a 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) border with Russia and joined NATO in 2023.
Stripping Hungary’s EU voting rights on agenda for May 27 meeting. The Council of the European Union will hold a hearing regarding the potential loss of Hungary’s voting rights at a meeting on May 27, marking the eighth hearing regarding Budapest’s alleged violations of founding EU principles.
In other news
Romania’s top court rejects far-right candidate Simion’s bid to annul presidential election results. Days before, George Simion, leader of Romania’s far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), appealed the results despite conceding defeat to pro-EU candidate Nicusor Dan on May 18.
North Korea’s Kim reportedly lashes out after failed warship launch, calls it ‘criminal act.’ North Korean leader Kim Jong Un condemned the failed launch as a “criminal act” and placed blame on several state institutions, accusing relevant officials of “irresponsibility” which “could not be tolerated.”
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