Russia launches freash attacks against Ukraine cities, something that had stopped for a while…
The Ukraine claims to have shot down dome of the rockets….
Is the Ukraine getting ready to go on the offense?
American lawmakers are not happy with Biden dargging his feet on Abrams tanks for the Ukraine….
The Ukraine HAS received Russian MIG-29 fighter Jets from East European countries….They will NOT be enough to counter Russian forces….
The EU finds buyers for Ukraine grain…..
Russian bombers launched two dozen cruise missiles at Ukrainian cities in the largest aerial strike in a month. One hit a nine-story apartment building in the city of Uman.
Here’s what we’re covering:
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The deadliest strike hit an apartment block far from the front line, officials say.
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Extending crackdown on dissent, Russia imposes harsher penalties for treason.
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In Uman, a mother holds out hope her children will still be found alive.
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The E.U. will keep letting in Ukrainian grains without tariffs.
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Here’s why Russia is threatening to back away from the Black Sea grain deal.
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The Kremlin steps up efforts to Russify occupied parts of Ukraine.
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Ukraine’s defense minister says counteroffensive preparations are ‘coming to an end.’….
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Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
- Eleven missiles and two drones were shot down over Kyiv, the city’s administration said. There were no initial reports of casualties or targets hit, but the administration said debris from intercepted attacks damaged a power line.
- Nine people were hospitalized after the attack in Uman, far from the front lines, Ukraine’s Internal Affairs Ministry said. Rescuers rushed to put out fires and pull survivors from the wreckage. The Ukrainian national police said about 10 apartment buildings were damaged and three children were rescued from the rubble.
- “This Russian terror must face a fair response from Ukraine and the world,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram after the strikes. “And it will.” Explosions also were heard overnight in the city of Kremenchuk and in Mykolaiv in the south, according to the Interfax Ukraine news agency.
- The European Commission reached a deal with five E.U. countries over Ukrainian produce imports, the commission’s executive vice president, Valdis Dombrovskis, announced Friday. The agreement defuses a weeks-long crisis over import bans and protests by farmers in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia. The European Commission will offer 100 million euros worth of support to those countries and implement emergency safeguards relating to wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seeds in exchange for Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia withdrawing their import bans. (Romania does not have a ban.)
- Oleksandr Bondarenko, a Ukrainian journalist who formerly worked for the BBC, was killed in fighting on the front lines, according to the BBC. Bondarenko joined the military after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. “It was always new challenges with this extraordinary man,” said Maciek Bernatt-Reszczynski, the former head of the BBC’s Ukrainian Service. “Including the last, heroic one, to defend his country from aggression.”
- The Biden administration imposed sanctions on Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and other entities for their role in the “wrongful detention” of Americans. U.S. officials maintained that the new sanctions on the FSB and the intelligence arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would not set back efforts to free Americans. The latest measures are meant to “change behavior and to incentivize better behavior,” a senior U.S. official said.
- WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was released from detention in Russia, said she has no plans to play overseas again, unless she does so as a member of Team USA in the Olympics. In a news conference, she thanked her family, team and supporters. She advised others in similar situations in Russia, such as journalist Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal, to “just keep waking up, find a little routine and stick to that routine.” She added, “We’re not going to stop fighting and bringing awareness to everyone left behind now.”
- Russia’s Foreign Ministry rejected a U.S. consular request to visit Gershkovich on May 11, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency. The move comes in response to the U.S. denial of entry visas to Russian journalists covering Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to the U.N. headquarters in New York, Interfax said.
- Gershkovich said he was “humbled and deeply touched” by all the letters he has received since he was detained in Russia while on a reporting trip last month. “I’ve read each one carefully, with gratitude,” he said in a statement released Thursday and relayed by his legal representatives in Russia.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree introducing life imprisonment for treason in Russia. The crime was previously punishable by up to 20 years in prison. This was part of changes to Russia’s criminal code finalized Friday, including tougher sentences for terrorism and acts of sabotage….
Hmmmmmm?
Putin troubles?
A drone that crashed outside of Moscow earlier this week was packed with 17 kilos of explosives meant to take out Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a new report.
The German news outlet Bild, citing unnamed sources, claimed Thursday that Russian authorities are trying to keep the failed attack by Ukraine a secret. The alleged attack, according to Bild, took place on Sunday, when Russian media reported that a drone had crashed in a village not far from the Rudnevo Industrial Park, where the Russian leader was rumored to be planning a visit.
It remains unclear if Putin really was meant to visit Rudnevo that day. Equally unclear is how, if there really was such an assassination attempt, Ukrainian authorities could have known the Russian leader’s movements….