In his address to the European Council, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, emphasized the need to implement new sanctions on russia.
The Adviser to the Head of the President's Office and the member of the team negotiating with the russian delegation, Mykhailo Podoliak, said in an interview with LB that Ukraine cannot join an assumed Minsk-3, as this would mean a postponed war. Nor can we talk about a ceasefire before the withdrawal of russian troops from Ukraine.
Podoliak also told how grain convoys under the protection of third countries could solve the food crisis and why the negotiation process with russia has been suspended in the political and diplomatic area but continues in the humanitarian one.
The Adviser to the Head of the Office of the President said that, given that one-third of Europe is currently at war, the position of defending only members of the Alliance looks strange. Podoliak also told what could become an alternative to NATO, which, in his words, is "an alliance for Hollywood, a beautiful brand"…
US President Joseph Biden has stated that the United States will not provide Ukraine with those missile systems that could reach russian territory. Reuters informs that the US president announced it after it was said that the Biden administration was preparing to give Ukraine advanced long-range missile systems.
Instead, France will provide Ukraine with an additional batch of self-propelled howitzers "Caesar." The Minister for Foreign Affairs of France, Catherine Colonna, stated this at a joint briefing with Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba.
Meanwhile, russian troops continue their offensive in the Eastern Operation Area to establish complete control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, ensure a stable ground corridor between the Rostov region and Crimea, and block sea communications in the northwest of the Black Sea.
"The battles have reached their maximum intensity. The russian occupation forces are conducting shelling along the entire combat line and trying to reach deep into our defense," - said Oleksandr Motuzianyk, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. The fiercest battles occur in the Sievierodonetsk, Bakhmut, and Kurakhiv areas.
The russian invaders entered Sieveierodonetsk. The Head of Luhansk RMA (Region Military Administration), Serhiy Haiday, reported street combats.
The General Staff of the UAF (Armed Forces of Ukraine) reports that the occupiers sent three boats to the island Zmiinyi and deployed additional air defense missile battalions in Crimea. As a result of the successful offensive of the Defense Forces, the russians suffered losses and withdrew from the village of Mykolayivka in the Kherson region.
While taking over Lyman in the Kramatorsk district of the Donetsk region, russian troops destroyed a modern cycling base there, which was opened only last autumn.
"The cycling complex with a special BMX track was the only one of its kind in Ukraine. We spent over a year building it and opened it last September. Now, this complex has become another" military target "of the russian army," - wrote the Head of Donetsk RMA (Region Military Administration), Pavlo Kyrylenko. The russian occupiers shelled the Sumy region with hazardous cluster bombs. Due to battles, the Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline was damaged, and the radius of possible damage caused by the ammonia cloud is about 4 km. The First Deputy Minister for Agrarian Policy and Food, Taras Vysotsky, said that russians transported almost half a million tons of grain from the occupied Ukrainian territories to russia.
The looters try to sell the stolen goods to Egypt and Lebanon, but these countries have refused to buy them. However, russian ships with Ukrainian grain were spotted in Syria.
French journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff was killed when russians targeted an evacuation vehicle with fire in the Luhansk region. The victim worked for the BFMTV channel. The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, said that Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff worked on covering the realities of the war in Ukraine.
The evacuation of civilians from the Luhansk region has been officially stopped.
80th separate airborne assault brigade of the UAF destroyed a 104th platoon of the Pskov region regiment. The Assault Troops Command of the UAF said that the operation was successful thanks to the collaborative work of artillery units.
The SSU (Security Service of Ukraine) thwarted an FSB special operation to discredit the OSCE mission.
After searching the premises of the Red Cross headquarters in Mariupol, the russian invaders accused the Red Cross employees of committing such "crimes" that a healthy brain cannot process. The details of the accusations could be a part of a horror genre fantasy story.
The wives, sisters, and mothers of the Ukrainian militaries who defended Mariupol, including the "Azovstal" plant, founded the organization "Women of Steel" to protect the rights of Ukrainian prisoners of war. The organization will be a mediator between the people and the government. LB.ua correspondent reports that the relatives of "Azovstal" worriers stated this at a briefing.
"Our boys followed the order heroically. The next order was to lay arms down and save lives. We froze for a while, waiting. But the miracle did not happen. We are shocked, but we can not stay doing nothing," - said one of the co-founders, Natalka Zarytska, demanding to return "Azov" worriers home as soon as possible.
By the way, the Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, Iryna Vereshchuk, handed over her responsibilities to exchange prisoners of war to the Ministry of Defense.
Several sources in the Parliament of Ukraine informed LB that at the next parliament meeting, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, Lyudmila Denisova, can be announced a subject to non-confidence.
Denisova confirmed this information and emphasized that she considers such actions of the authorities illegal and interfering with the activities of the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine, which has been legally elected for five years.
On 30 May 2022, the fifth President of Ukraine and the leader of the political party "European Solidarity," Petro Poroshenko, crossed the border on his third try. Finally, Poroshenko was allowed to leave for Poland. He was not allowed to go on a business trip as part of the Ukrainian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly twice.
On 1 June 2022, Kyiv will open some kindergartens. For a child to be accepted to kindergarten, the parents have to confirm that both of them are employed.
At the World Bench Press Championships in Almaty (Kazakhstan), Ukrainian weightlifter Anna Rykun became the champion in the weight category up to 57 kg. The 23-year-old from Sumy showed a result of 122 kg, which became a new world record.
The complete picture of today, including other achievements of Ukrainian athletes, is on our website.
Let's hold on and bring Victory closer!