Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 05-27-2024

Ukraine’s top general, Oleksandr Syrsky said an agreement has been signed in which France will prepare to send military instructors to train Ukrainian troops directly on Ukrainian territory.

Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Monday that the first French military instructors would soon arrive in the country to prepare for training Ukrainian troops.

“I have already signed the documents that will allow the first French instructors to visit our training centers soon and get acquainted with their infrastructure and personnel,” Syrsky said on social media.

Hungary -- the friendliest EU country to Russia -- has repeatedly held up initiatives to aid Ukraine or punish Russia since Moscow's invasion of its neighbour in 2022.

EU counterparts lashed out at Hungary on Monday as a block from Budapest threatened to hold up billions more euros to help arm Ukraine. 

Hungary -- the friendliest EU country to Russia -- has repeatedly held up initiatives to aid Ukraine or punish Russia since Moscow's invasion of its neighbour in 2022. 

Zelensky's visit comes as Ukraine has been battling a Russian ground offensive in the Kharkiv region which began on May 10 in Moscow's biggest territorial advance in 18 months.

Spain on Monday pledged one billion euros in military aid to Ukraine as Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a security deal in Madrid.

The deal "includes a commitment for one billion euros in military aid for 2024," Sanchez told a joint news conference.

Kyiv’s troops say the US “battle taxi” can kill anything Russia might throw at it, but more importantly, no vehicle on the battlefield saves lives like the Bradley.

Heavy Russian fire recently knocked out a Bradley infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) during combat in east Ukraine, but a second one showed up and safely evacuated everyone. The US vehicle, which first saw service in 1981, was pounded by rockets, hammered by shells and struck by FPV explosive drones, but got everyone on aboard home in one piece.

Daytime video published by Ukraine’s 47th Mechanized Brigade on May 26 shows a single Bradley M2A2 IFV driving at speed along a dirt road.

An unknown drone attacked a gas station in Russia. When the rescuers arrived to eliminate the consequences, the second drone struck the gas station again.

Two unknown drones allegedly struck a Russian gas station in a sequential attack, with the first drone conducting the initial hit, with a second striking only after fire fighters and rescue personnel arrived in a Kremlin-style so-called “double-tap.”

Overnight on May 26-27, the two unknown drones allegedly attacked a gas station in the Russian city of Livny, Orel region apparently mimicking the Moscow method designed to cause casualties among those aiding in rescue operations. According to the governor of the region, Andrei Klitschkov, one firefighter was killed and three others were injured.

Following the passing of Ukraine’s May 17 law to allow certain categories of prisoners to volunteer to serve in the military it was assessed that up to 20,000 would be eligible.

President Volodymyr Zelensky signed legislation into law on May 17 that would allow certain categories of convicted prisoners or those accused of crimes and held in pre-trial detention to volunteer to serve in Ukraine’s Armed Forces in exchange for the chance to be granted parole upon completion of their service.

Minister of Justice, Denys Maliuska, confirmed in an interview with The New York Times on Friday, May 24 that approval had been given for the first 350 or so prisoners to be released in the first week since the law came into force. He also said that more than 4,000 of the around 20,000 inmates that were likely to be eligible, had put their names forward for consideration and were currently being assessed.

There is a proposal to train Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) soldiers within Ukraine itself, rather than transporting them across Europe.

NATO is currently deliberating the possibility of securing the airspace over Western Ukraine and training Kyiv’s troops on their own soil, according to sources from BILD.

Several member countries, including Estonia, the UK, Poland, Canada, Lithuania, and France, are advocating for increased support for Kyiv, potentially extending into Ukrainian territory.

In this interview, the Georgian Legion's Commander and founder, Mamuka Maulashvilli, opens up about why he has dedicated so many years of his life to Ukraine's struggle against Russian imperialism.

The Epicentr hypermarket near Kharkiv was destroyed on May 25 by glide bombs launched by aircraft that took off from a Russian airfield well in range of ATACMS and other Western-supplied weapons.

Aerial attacks using conventional cruise missiles, as well as Russia’s Kinzhal and Tsirkon “unstoppable wonder weapons,” have not proved as effective as the Kremlin hoped, largely because of their vulnerability to Western air defense weapons, such as the US Patriot system, their cost and the relatively limited numbers available.

It is the conversion of the thousands of dumb aircraft bombs lying in Moscow’s storehouses into smart, satellite guided long-range that have become Russia’s most effective weapon in attacks on the lines of engagement and the vulnerable border settlements.

Poland strengthening its borders with Belarus and Russia

Poland’s defense minister has unveiled details of the multi-billion zloty “Eastern Shield” plan that will fortify the country’s borders with Belarus and Russia.

The government will allocate 10 billion zlotys (€2.35 billion) to the 2024-2028 program, which will also receive funding from the EU, as Poland rushes to improve its defenses on its eastern borders owing to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The visit comes as Ukraine battles a Russian ground offensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region which began on May 10 in Moscow's biggest territorial advance in 18 months.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky landed in Spain Monday for talks with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez with the pair due to ink a deal increasing Madrid's military aid to Kyiv.

As he touched down at Madrid's Barajas airport at 1000 GMT, Zelensky was met on the tarmac by King Felipe VI and then headed straight into the Spanish capital to meet Sanchez where the two leaders were to sign a security agreement.

The end of the Cold War significantly scaled back Europe’s shell production capability, and retooling and refurbishing old factories would take time, The Economist reported.

A lack of explosives – itself caused by downsizing at the end of the Cold War – is to blame for the EU’s inability to provide Ukraine with the one million artillery shells it has pledged by March 2024, The Economist reported. 

Few munition factories remained on the continent following the end of the Cold War in the 1990s, where factories either scaled back their operations or closed down altogether, leaving only a handful capable of manufacturing NATO-standard explosives.

After Kyiv Camerata’s success at Carnegie Hall, world-renowned Kerry Lynn Wilson will conduct them in their hometown. Wilson gives Kyiv Post an exclusive interview on the eve of the Kyiv concert.

The National Ensemble of Soloists “Kyiv Camerata” will repeat the program of the New York Carnegie Hall concert on May 30 in Kyiv at the National Philharmonic with conductor Kerry Lynn Wilson. The internationally acclaimed Kerri Lynn Wilson, a Canadian of Ukrainian descent, has supported Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion. In 2022, at the initiative of the Metropolitan Opera and the Polish National Opera, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra was created, consisting exclusively of Ukrainian musicians. The orchestra was led by Wilson.

Ukraine has been pressing its Western backers -- especially the United States -- to allow it to use the longer-range weaponry they supply to hit targets in Russia.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Monday that Western powers should reconsider restrictions on Ukraine using weaponry they supply to strike inside Russia as it is hampering Kyiv's ability to defend itself.

"The time has come to consider whether it will be right to lift some of the restrictions which have been imposed because we see now that especially in the Kharkiv region the front line and the border line is more or less the same," Stoltenberg told NATO lawmakers meeting in Bulgaria.

Ukraine was previously prohibited from using Western weapons against targets in Russian territory. However, Paris and London have now changed this stance, and the US may also alter its position.

Up until now, Ukraine has not been permitted to use Western weapons against targets on Russian territory. However, due to the situation in the Ukraine war, Paris and London have already deviated from this stance, and there are indications that the US may also change its position. Now, outgoing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has explicitly called for this in an interview. Commentators in Europe are discussing the wisdom of such a decision.The red line: Kharkiv

Kharkiv's key role has fuelled this debate, writes Corriere della Sera:

A Ukrainian HUR drone attacked the Orsk long-range, over-the-horizon aerial surveillance radar facility more than 1,800 km deep into Russia, upping Putin regime’s area of vulnerability to Kyiv UAVs.

On May 26, Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) attacked the Voronezh-M long-range target detection radar station in Orsk, Orenburg region in Russia, according to Kyiv Post sources in the HUR.

The HUR drone set a new distance record

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

Russian President Vladimir’s Putin’s use of tactical or other nuclear weapons would represent a red line which no western countries or even China would tolerate, Ukraine’s top diplomat at the UN said. In a wide-ranging interview before a live audience at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York City, Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told Global Impact show co-hosts Michael Bociurkiw and Melissa Ricci that if the Russian leader were to use such weapons it would cause his annihilation “in less than half a day.” Commenting on the current situation, Amb. Kyslytsya said no one expected the Russian economy to endure to the degree it has this long into the war and that Mr. Putin's appointment of economist Andrei Belousov as the new minister of defense will likely curb corrupt practices in that ministry. In the interview, Amb. Kyslytsya - a former deputy foreign minister and one of Kyiv’s most experienced foreign envoys - also comments on a wide range of other topics, including what’s needed immediately from the West to protect Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Watch the full episode here:

https://knekt.tv/knekttv/series/knekttvarchive/83820-global-impact-show/84542-season-5/157189-s5-ep2-ukraine-war-exclusive-with-top-un-diplomathttps://knekt.tv/knekttv/series/knekttvarchive/83820-global-impact-show/84542-season-5/157189-s5-ep2-ukraine-war-exclusive-with-top-un-diplomat

Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite stated that this drone wall will enable continuous aerial surveillance of the entire external border from Norway to Poland.

Finland, Norway, Poland, and the Baltic states—Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia—have agreed to establish a "drone wall" along their borders with Russia and Belarus.

This decision was reached during a meeting of the countries' interior ministers in Latvia on Friday, May 24. 

According to Zelensky, Russia is gathering another group of troops near the Ukrainian border, 90 kilometers northwest of Kharkiv.

In his address to world leaders, President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Russian troops are preparing an offensive 90 kilometers northwest of Kharkiv.

He published a video shot at the Vivat printing house in Kharkiv - one of the largest printing enterprises in Europe, which was recently destroyed by a Russian attack.

The country has eliminated poverty faster than any other in history, removing 400 million from near starvation in one generation.

Elections have been underway since April in India, the world’s biggest democracy.

Results will be announced on June 1 as to who will be its next Prime Minister and Members of Parliament. Nearly one in five human beings reside on this gigantic subcontinent, and India’s 968 million eligible voters have been casting ballots at one million polling stations set up in parks, kiosks, buildings, and shipping containers. Line-ups are miles long and the turnout is impressive.

Opened 15 years ago in Lviv, Citadel – Gastro Boutique Hotel has become an organic part of the city’s gastronomic landscape and one of the most popular recreation sites.

Opened 15 years ago in Lviv, Citadel – Gastro Boutique Hotel has become an organic part of the city’s gastronomic landscape and one of the most popular recreation sites.

Citadel’s history is closely intertwined with Lviv’s. Built in 2004-2008 under an ambitious restoration and reconstruction plan, it welcomed in its first customers on April 30, 2009, setting out on the road to success.

French and German leaders call on European democrats to unite against external and internal threats.

On Sunday, May 26, Emmanuel Macron began  the first state visit to Germany by a French president in a quarter-century, bringing a plea to defend democracy against nationalism at coming European Parliament elections.

Macron made his first stop a democracy festival in Berlin, where he warned of a "form of fascination for authoritarianism which is growing" in the two major EU nations.

The Collective West misread Putin’s intentions and the threat from Russia. Now it needs to rethink its Ukraine and Russian policy and adopt a clear strategy. (Part 1)

I am a child of the Cold War. Growing up in Sweden, I was acutely aware of the occupation and suffering of the Baltic peoples. I visited Estonia and Latvia for the first time in 1974. In Riga I met a young Latvian who told me instantly: “We live in an occupied country.” My dream was to stand on the Red Square in Moscow and shout: “Down with communism!” In the fall of 1991, my dream came true, when I started working as an economic advisor to the new Russian reform government with my own office just off the Red Square.

The most beautiful time of my life was the second half of 1989, when the communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe collapsed one after the other under democratic pressure from the people, as Timothy Garton Ash captured so elegantly in his book We the People. Ralf Dahrendorf rightly compared these popular risings with the great liberal revolutions of 1848.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly called for the ban to be lifted to defend against rocket attacks on their cities.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has reiterated that the ban on Ukraine using Western-supplied weapons to attack Russian territory remains in place. Speaking at an event in Berlin on Sunday, Scholz emphasized the effectiveness of the current rules.

"There are clear rules for the supply of weapons from Germany, agreed upon with Ukraine. And they work. At least, I think so," Scholz stated, as reported by Tagesschau.

Russian strikes hit the Epitsentr superstore on Saturday, sparking a massive fire that makes the dead hard to identify.

The death toll from Russian strikes on a hardware store in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv rose to 16 Sunday, the regional governor said, as rescuers searched the charred debris for bodies.

"Unfortunately, 16 have already been recorded dead," Oleg Synegubov, Kharkiv regional governor, said on Telegram, while 43 were wounded.

The visit was originally scheduled for mid-May but was postponed due to a Russian offensive in Kharkiv region.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Madrid on Monday, May 27, as he seeks accelerated aid to combat Russia's invasion.

The Spanish prime minister's office confirmed that Sanchez would receive Zelensky at noon, followed by a joint press conference.

Gitanas Nauseda, who won re-election on Sunday, is a centre-right former banker who established himself as a pro-EU statesman and staunch Ukraine supporter during his first term in the job.

Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda, who won re-election on Sunday, is a centre-right former banker who established himself as a pro-EU statesman and staunch Ukraine supporter during his first term in the job.

Decades of TV appearances as an economic expert have made the married father of two a household name, reputed for his moderate stances on major policy issues.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Russian forces are reportedly concentrating forces of unspecified size in western Belgorod Oblast near the border with Ukraine, likely to fix and draw Ukrainian forces to the area and prepare for offensive operations that aim to expand the Russian foothold in the international border area in northeastern Ukraine.
• Western officials continue to publicly debate Ukraine's right to use Western-provided weapons to strike military targets in Russia amid Russian efforts to persuade the West to continue its self-imposed limitations and divide the NATO alliance.
• Russia's defense industrial base (DIB) will reportedly manufacture and refurbish three times as many artillery shells as the West will produce in 2024, although Russian shells reportedly suffer from quality-control issues and Ukrainian artillery is reportedly more precise than Russian artillery.
• Kremlin officials continue to indicate that Russia is not interested in meaningful negotiations with Ukraine and promote Kremlin information operations that aim to push the West to make concessions on Ukraine's sovereign territory and people.
• Russian forces recently made confirmed advances near Svatove, Avdiivka, and Donetsk City.
• Former Wagner Group fighters reportedly continue to form new units under Rosgvardia and Chechen Akhmat Spetsnaz.