Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 05-31-2024

The discussion with Ben Hodges assesses current developments on the frontline, future scenarios and asks what if Russia wins?

Some NATO member states are opposed, however. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said that "for Italy, it is impossible to use our weapons outside of Ukraine".

Support grew among NATO allies on Friday for using Western-donated weapons to strike inside Russian territory, while NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg downplayed Kremlin warnings of an escalation.

Germany said it had given Ukraine permission to fire German-delivered weapons at targets in Russia, a day after US officials said Washington had partially lifted similar restrictions to allow Ukraine to defend its eastern Kharkiv region, which borders Russia.

Ukrainian strikes on oil installations, Russian warships and transport ferries in and around the Kerch Strait show the area around Crimea remains firmly in Kyiv’s crosshairs.

A combined Ukrainian strike with long-range kamikaze drones and modified anti-ship missiles hit an oil and fuel storage facility in the Russian port city of Kavkaz early on Friday, May 31 set at least three fuel reservoirs alight.

Both Russian and Ukrainian official sources confirmed the location of the attack, and the use of missiles and drones.

Russia, whose judiciary has been accused by rights groups and foreign governments of jailing dissidents, often criticises courts in Western countries.

Former US President Donald Trump's unprecedented trial for falsifying business records shows the White House is "eliminating" its political rivals, the Kremlin said Friday.

Trump became the first former US head of state ever convicted of a crime on Thursday after a New York jury found him guilty of 34 felony charges in a hush money case.

Tirana identified its desire for solidarity with Kyiv and the West and potential economic prospects as the reason for the historical move, as it presented its candidate for the ambassadorial role.

Albania is planning to open an embassy in Kyiv, the first in Ukraine since it first opened diplomatic ties with Ukraine in 1993.

As reported by Tirana’s official news outlet Albanian Telegraphic Agency (ATA), the nominated ambassador to Ukraine, Ernal Filo, told Albania’s Commission for Foreign Policy that opening an embassy in Kyiv can help bolster Albania’s international diplomatic standing. 

Zelensky denounced recent Russian hybrid warfare attacks on Baltic countries, stating, "Russia is preparing provocations in the Baltic region. Only together can we stop the madness from Moscow."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday urged his Nordic allies to supply his struggling military with more weapons, and denounced Russian border "provocations" in the Baltic region.

Zelensky has been touring European capitals in recent days to appeal for more military aid for the Ukrainian army, which has been ceding ground to relentless Russian attacks in recent weeks.

According to President Zelensky, soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Guard, border guards, and four civilians have returned from Russian captivity.

Ukraine has secured the release of 75 individuals from Russian captivity, including 71 servicemembers, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Telegram.

“All this time, we did not stop working for a single day to bring home every one of the Russian captives,” Zelensky wrote.

The decisions to allow Ukraine to use weapons supplied by Washington and Berlin against targets in Russia will “significantly boost” Ukraine’s defense, Zelensky’s press secretary said.

US President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use American-supplied weapons to strike targets in Russia will “significantly boost” Ukraine’s defensive capabilities, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s press secretary, Serhii Nykyforov.

Nykyforov announced on Friday that Ukraine had received “positive signals through diplomatic channels about the limited use of US-supplied weapons” in the region bordering Kharkiv. He said that this decision “will significantly boost our ability to counter Russian attempts to mass across the border.”

Sources from Ukraine’s special services told Kyiv Post about the latest successful SBU operation, which has rendered Russian air defenses in Crimea “blind.”

Kyiv Post sources in Ukraine’s special services report that on the night of May 29-30, “the Russians lost one long-range radar detection system Nebo-SVU worth about $100 million,” which was located near Armyansk and used to monitor a more than 380-kilometer section of the front protecting Russian positions in Crimea.

According to those sources, the radar system valued at $100 million, was hit by seven aircraft-type kamikaze drones in an operation run by the counterintelligence department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), after which satellite reconnaissance detected that emissions from the system could no longer be detected.

Parliament’s deputy speaker documented the number of children killed or missing in the conflict, along with nearly 20,000 taken away to Russia, according to Ukrainian government figures.

Moldova’s parliament on Thursday (30 May) denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “genocide” in connection with Moscow’s treatment of children in occupied areas, but the assembly’s Moscow-friendly opposition parties refused to take part in the vote.

Sixty deputies in the 101-seat assembly backed the declaration, joining several national parliaments in adopting similar documents and also offering to continue extending assistance to Ukrainians fleeing the conflict.

Kyiv Post sources said Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) executed a comprehensive multi-day operation to take out the logistics chains supporting Russian troops occupying Crimea.

Kyiv Post sources report that Ukraine’s Armed Forces (AFU), working with the Security Service (SBU), conducted a multi-day operation to destroy the logistics supporting Russian troops in Crimea.

According to early information, a comprehensive strike was carried out on substations and power grids, and on light oil reserves in Russia‘s Krasnodar Krai.

China briefed diplomats this week that unmet conditions included recognition by both Russia and Ukraine, equal participation from all parties, and fair discussion of all proposals.

China has confirmed it will not attend a Ukraine peace conference to be hosted by Switzerland next month, four sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Beijing declined the invitation because the conditions for them to participate were not met, including the participation of both Russia and Ukraine, three of the sources said.

Had the defenders of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol not pinned the Russians down for nearly three months, much of eastern Ukraine would have been overrun. Many are still in captivity.

Dozens of people joined a rally in Seattle, Washington, on May 19 to raise awareness for the plight of Ukrainian soldiers still held in Russian captivity. May marked the second anniversary of the defense of Mariupol, where thousands of Ukrainian soldiers were taken prisoner after the siege of the city ended on May 20, 2022. The rally in Seattle was part of a wider chain of protests organized around the US which were intended to raise awareness for the 1,900 soldiers still in Russian captivity.

The soldiers who fought till the end in Mariupol were hailed as heroes by the Ukrainian government. Drawing Russian forces into a prolonged siege of the city and later the Azovstal steelworks, forced Russia to expend more resources and manpower, preventing them from deploying those soldiers and resources to other areas of the front. Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces stated, “We gained critically needed time to build up our reserves, regroup our forces and get help from our partners.”

A selection of what European newspapers are saying about the meeting this week of the French and German leaders.

Harmony was the name of the game during Emmanuel Macron's three-day visit to Germany this week. In Dresden the French president emphasized the importance of defending democracy and Europe and at a meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier the strong ties between the two countries were emphasized. The clear differences in stance between German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Macron on issues such as Ukraine were dismissed as trivial. Commentators discuss to what extent this is true.

Germany annoyed by Macron's leadership posturing

South Korea accuses Pyongyang of sending thousands of containers of munitions to Russia, which would violate rafts of United Nations sanctions on both countries.

Russia is using North Korean ballistic missiles in Ukraine, a new Pentagon report says, citing debris analysis to confirm long-standing allegations that Pyongyang has been sending weapons to Moscow.

The report by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency used open-source imagery to confirm that debris found in Ukraine's Kharkiv region in January this year is from a short-range ballistic missile made in North Korea.

Due to the strikes, a five-story residential building was partially destroyed, a sewing workshop and a shop were damaged, and numerous residential buildings sustained damage.

Russian forces launched multiple airstrikes on Kharkiv using S-300/S-400 missile systems on the evening of Thursday, May 30, and the early morning hours of May 31, resulting in the deaths of five people, according to local authorities.

Ukraine’s SBU identified the selected Russian airborne officer as having been directly involved in the torture and murder of at least one civilian in Bucha.

In his address to Russia’s Federal Assembly on Feb. 29, President Vladimir Putin announced the launch of his “Time of Heroes” program which was a mentoring scheme designed to prepare suitable veterans of his so-called “special military operation” for future leadership roles. Putin said these were “the country’s true elite” who, in the future, should “lead regions, enterprises, and the largest public projects.”

The independent Russian news site Insider said that one of 83 candidates selected for the first tranche of the program, was an airborne forces officer Nursultan Mussagaleev. According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Mussagaleev was the commander of the reconnaissance platoon of Russia’s 104th Airborne Assault Regiment during the 2022 six-week occupation of Bucha, a town near Kyiv.

The epidemic of Russian airliners suffering in-flight emergencies caused by lack of spares and maintenance due to Western sanctions continues unabated.

The Moscow Times, citing Interfax, reported that an Airbus A319 of Rossiya Airlines, flying from St. Petersburg to Sochi with 126 passengers on board, made an emergency landing at Mineralnye Vody airport on Thursday, May 30.

The Russian telegram channel 112 said that the aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing because of a fuel leak and a replacement aircraft would be sent to ferry passengers to their destination in Mineralnye Vody.

A US Air Force Global Hawk UAV was meticulously combing the battlespace only hours before the attacks, probably flying closer to Russia than ever before.

Ukraine’s latest kamikaze sea drone attack sinking at least two Russian naval cutters on Thursday was backstopped by distracting attacks against local air defenses and an oil refinery in mainland Russia, and possibly an unprecedented patrol by the Pentagon’s best spy plane.

In the hours leading up to air-sea raid against a military pier in the Kerch Strait port Chornomorsk, a US RQ-4 Global Hawk flew a Black Sea mission of probably unprecedented duration and proximity to Russia – but the high-tech reconnaissance aircraft appears to have left the area an hour or two before the shooting started.

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

A Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in his New York hush money criminal trial. Judge Juan Merchan set a sentencing hearing for July 11. Prosecutors accused Trump of taking part in an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 presidential election and an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, which included concealing a hush money payment to an adult film star. A felony conviction of a former president or party frontrunner is unprecedented, but Trump can still run for office. The former president called the jury’s decision a “disgrace” and said the “real verdict” will come during the presidential election on November 5. President Joe Biden said on social media his 2024 rival can only be defeated at the ballot box. - CNN

As jurors deliberated in former President Donald Trump’s hush-money trial on Wednesday, Trump and his son Don Jr. convened in a private area of the courthouse to scoff candy and joke about writing nasty tweets. In a video posted to TikTok, the pair reveled in the “mean tweets” they had been devising together among a bed of candy, soda and snacks. Don Jr. ended the 17-second video telling the camera “stay tuned — it's going to be a doozy. - Daily Beast

Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation has created a new function in the Diia application to allow couples to get married remotely by video and is now calling on locals to help test the feature.

According to a Ministry of Digital Transformation press release, the new technology feature would allow couples to get married remotely using video connections, which can be attractive to those in deployed with the military.

The ministry said the new process could eliminate the time required to wait at the state registration of acts of civil status (DRATS) facilities.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• US President Joe Biden reportedly approved a policy change that will permit Ukraine to use US-provided weapons, including GMLRS rockets — but not longer-range ATACMS missiles — to strike within Russian territory near the border with Kharkiv Oblast.
• Ukraine's European allies continue to announce their support for allowing Ukraine to use Western-provided weapons to strike military targets in Russia.
• Senior Ukrainian military officials reported that Russian forces are transferring forces to northern Kharkiv Oblast from other sectors of the frontline, indicating that the Russian military continues to prioritize efforts to draw and fix Ukrainian forces in northern Kharkiv Oblast.
• French officials reportedly may soon announce that France is sending military trainers to Ukraine.
• Western countries continue efforts to increase artillery production and procurement for Ukraine.
• NATO member states reportedly lack sufficient air defense capabilities to protect members of the Alliance in Central and Eastern Europe in the event of a full-scale attack.
• The Russian government approved a package of amendments to the Russian tax code on May 30 that will introduce a progressive income tax scale starting in 2025, marginally placing some of the financial burdens of Russia's long-war effort in Ukraine onto Russia's wealthy elite.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin continued efforts to address Russia’s ongoing demographic crisis as part of the “Year of the Family” 2024 domestic policy initiative.
• Russian peacekeepers in Moldova's Russian-backed breakaway republic of Transnistria are reportedly conducting a month-long unauthorized inspection of their armored vehicles and may conduct further provocations in the coming months.
• Ukrainian forces recently advanced near Vovchansk and Russian forces recently advanced near Chasiv Yar, Avdiivka, and Donetsk City and in east (left) bank Kherson Oblast.
• Russia formed a new unnamed airborne (VDV) regiment based in occupied Crimea, which currently operates in the Zaporizhia direction.

Politico: Biden secretly softens stance on targets in Russia; Trump found guilty on all felony counts; Germany announces new $540M defense package; US and French leaders to discuss Ukraine on D-Day

An article published on Thursday in Politico, quoting three unnamed US officials, claimed that President Joe Biden’s administration has clandestinely given the green light to certain Ukrainian strikes within Russia using US weapons.

The secretive policy amendment was formulated shortly after President Volodymyr Zelensky implored the US to remove such restrictions, and is limited to Russian military targets that are launching attacks on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv.