USA
Before meeting Vladimir Putin in Geneva, US President Joe Biden will talk to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Yenin has told Ukrayina 24 TV. Ukraine is "thoroughly preparing the agenda for this conversation", he added.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are investigating whether several Ukrainian officials helpedorchestrate a wide-ranging plan to meddle in the 2020 presidential campaign, including the possible use of Rudolph Giuliani to spread disinformation about Joe Biden and tilt the election in Donald Trump’s favor, The New York Times has said.
Belarus
Ukraine has closed its sky to Belarusian airlines as of 29 May, according to a decision of the Cabinet of Ministers.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has developed a set of sanctions against Belarusian nationals supporting Alyaksandr Lukashenka's regime "who were involved in falsifying the election and repressing their own compatriots", Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Yenin has told Ukrayina 24 TV. The list of such people will be handed over to the National Security and Defence Council.
Exclusive: Public activists, rights activists and journalists have held a rally outside the Foreign Ministry under the motto "Stop sponsoring Alyaksandr Lukashenka's state terrorism!" They want Ukraine to stop buying Belarusian petrol, bitumen and vehicles.
Belarus has introduced individual licensing for a number of Ukrainian-made goods, such as confectionery, chocolate, juice, beer, toilet paper, tiles and bricks and more, Ukraine's trade representative Taras Kachka has said on Facebook. He described such actions as "unjustified and discriminative".
Exclusive: Despite rumours, the Belarusian Oil Company (BNK) said that it was not planning to stop A-95 petrol supplies to Ukraine but may decrease them due to repairs at the Mazyr oil refinery, the deputy director-general of BNK-Ukraine, Serhiy Melnykov, has told LB.ua.
Defence reform
After the system of management is optimized, 42 out of 111 state-owned defence enterprises will remain in business, Deputy Defence Minister Ihor Khalimon has told Interfax-Ukraine.
Coronavirus
Slovakia has allocated 600,000 euros to Ukraine to help it with the purchase of coronavirus vaccines, the Ukrainian government press service has said following the meeting between Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Slovakia's Eduard Heger in Kyiv.
Incident
A former chief of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Viktor Hvozd, died while on a family vacation in Egypt, Obozrevatel has reported. The incident happened during a diving session. Hvozd was in charge of foreign intelligence from February 2014 to April 2016.
There has been a sharp increase in the number of children's suicides in Ukraine, according to ombudsman Lyudmyla Denisova. There have been 126 cases over four months of this year alone, she pointed out, whereas in 2020 there were 123 such cases.
Appointment
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed Mariya Chorna head of the Kirovohrad regional state administration. She has been in charge of the department for agro-industrial development at the same administration since 2020.