Russians in the social sphere complain about the constant flights of the Western Gulfstream IV reconnaissance aircraft operating along the state border of the Russian Federation.
British political scientist Mark Galeotti has given an interview to The Times that appears to be the script for a new 007. According to him the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine (GUR MO) may be behind the latest sabotage attacks in Russia . According to Galeotti, “hackers loot the bank accounts of Russian pensioners and then use blackmail to force the elderly to blow up recruiting stations. And teenagers, in his opinion, are being hired through social networks to set fire to railway junction boxes (…) Some of the GUR attacks were carried out by people who apparently did not suspect that they were carrying out a mission, ”the political scientist said.
Galeotti noted that “some Western countries are concerned about the growing ambitions of Ukrainian military intelligence. According to the reports of US intelligence officers cited by the political scientist, the CIA representatives should have tried to detain the head of the GUR, Kirill Budanov, from some attacks”. The real fact at the moment is that in every Ukrainian territory on the border with Russia and in Russia itself there are populations of Polish-Ukrainian ethnicity who ideologically feel that they are closer to Ukrainian than Russian instances.
“Ukraine’s membership of NATO will become real if the Kherson region is returned to the Armed Forces of Ukraine before the end of the summer,” said Stanford University professor Francis Fukuyama. In his view, the return of this region is crucial to Ukraine’s negotiating positions for two reasons: “First, it will restore Ukraine’s ability to export from Black Sea ports. Second, it will block the land corridor of the Russia towards the Crimea and will seriously endanger the Kerch bridge. In addition, the Ukrainians will again be able to block the channel that supplies fresh water to the peninsula.”
On May 28, US Senator Lindsey Graham, during a meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in Kiev, said that Russians are “dying” because of the “most successful” spending by the US authorities in the supply of assistance to Ukraine. Zelensky thanked the senator for his contribution to strengthening the defense capability of the Ukrainian army.
In response to the senator’s words, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reminded Senator Graham that one of the US “investments” led to the Holocaust.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Western plans to supply Kiev with fighter jets an unacceptable escalation. In an interview, the Minister himself defined the words of the US Chief of Staff Milley on the impossibility of Kiev to get back the areas taken from Ukraine, a step towards understanding the reality.
The Chief of Staff of the US military had stated that it was impossible for Kiev to return all territory within the 1991 borders in a foreseeable way.
Adviser to the head of the Ukrainian President’s office Mikhail Podolyak, commenting on his Twitter on Moscow’s demands for Kiev to resolve the conflict, advanced against conditions that the Ukrainian side considers realistic. Among these are the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, the recognition of the sovereignty of post-Soviet countries, the “extradition of war criminals and war authors”, the creation of a demilitarized zone on Russian territory and the reduction of the number of long-range missiles. In addition, Podolyak said, it is necessary to obtain the convening of an international conference on the control of Russia’s nuclear arsenal and legally formalized “reparations payments”, including Moscow’s voluntary renunciation of assets seized in other countries in favor of Ukraine.
Podolyak told The Guardian: “The Ukrainian armed forces have started preliminary operations as part of the counter-offensive, but it will take a long time for it to gain momentum.”
According to the head of the Russian State Duma’s international affairs committee Leonid Slutsky: “The conditions for resolving the conflict in Ukraine, appointed by Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, are “a road to the Nothing”.
In an interview with the BBC Broadcasting Corporation the Russian ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin said that. “The duration of the conflict in Ukraine will depend on how much NATO countries, including the UK, further escalate it”. He added that Moscow has not yet taken “very serious action” in response to the moves of Kiev’s Western allies and called it “a grave mistake of the idealists” to imagine that Ukraine could defeat Russia ”.
According to the Bloomberg news agency, the American F-16 fighters, which Kiev intends to receive from a number of Western countries, are vulnerable to the latest Russian military equipment, it reports. According to the agency, the F-16 fighters, if delivered to Kiev, will either be used by it exclusively for defense purposes, or will be involved in “very high-risk” operations. “However, the F-16s will still have weaker radars and shorter-range missiles than Russia’s most modern fighters and air defense systems,” according to Bloomberg. According to the agency, Kiev “will have to curb the declared expectations”.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has a different opinion according to which for the complete liberation of the territory from Russian troops, Ukraine needs 48 F-16 aircraft
Soldiers from the Ukrainian army would be in Germany and begin training to operate the American M1 Abrams tanks, reports the New York Times, citing a statement from the Pentagon. The first batch of about 400 Ukrainian soldiers began training in Germany to operate and maintain them; About 200 servicemen began a combined arms briefing in Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels on Friday. Another 200 soldiers began training to supply the tanks and their service.
On May 29, Vladimir Putin signed a law which provides, after consultations between the CEC of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Defense and the FSB, the possibility of calling elections in the territories where martial law has been introduced.
And now a look at the fronts on 28 and 29 May.
On May 28, several unmanned aerial vehicles tried to approach the territory of the Ilsky oil refinery in the Krasnodar Territory. According to Russian sources they were neutralized, the infrastructure of the plant was not damaged, according to the Telegram channel of the region’s operational headquarters on Sunday.
On the night of May 28, from midnight to six in the morning, explosions occurred in Kiev, setting fires in different parts of the capital. Eyewitnesses wrote about it on Twitter. According to the head of the military administration of the capital, Serhiy Mikolayovych Popko , the intensity of the attacks on Kiev with drones on the night of May 28 has become, the highest since February 2022. The raids recurred between the 28 and 29 in the morning . Local residents report a series of powerful explosions and active air defense systems in Kiev. At present, Russian troops continue to strike targets in the capital. Earlier in the night, the Russian military used drones and cruise missiles to strike targets across the country, including Odessa, Kiev, Kremenchuk, as well as Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad, Khmelnytsky, Mykolaiv, Lviv and Cherkasy. Residents of Kiev could see parts of anti-aircraft missiles of the Patriot air defense system on the street.
Unofficial Ukrainian sources report that the target of last night’s combined drone and missile attack were some bunkers in Kiev and the region. According to some Russian sources, the objectives have been achieved. If this information is confirmed, the Ukrainian government is expected to confirm the destruction of the command centers. Moreover, in the Russian social sphere there is talk of an attack and destruction of a warehouse of Western military equipment hit by drone strikes in the port of Odessa, which, “”under the pretext of a “grain deal”, was imported by ships who called “en route” in Romanian and Bulgarian ports”. The attack in Odessa has been confirmed.
On the morning of May 29, the Kiev subway was filled with citizens seeking shelter from aerial bombardment. Kiev’s air defense returned Russian fire and as an effect hit residential buildings in Kiev. Photos and reports of the Patriot air defense system near the Zhuliany airport hit by Russian missiles appeared on the Ukrainian social sphere. Confirmations are awaited.
Ukrainians continue to attack borders with Russia, the situation in the Belgorod region at 19:30 on May 28 indicated that a kamikaze drone attacked the Shebekino border checkpoint in the Belgorod region. A drone arrived from the direction of the village of Ternovaya, Kharkiv region, and exploded over the territory of the Shebekino border crossing.
Residents of Novaya Tavolzhanka of the Shebekinsky city district received SMS alerts from the RSChS about the shelling. The village of Murom, Shebekinsky district fell under shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“There are no casualties. A farm’s ranch was attacked by a drone. Broken roof. The company’s employees were kept at a safe distance. The power line was also damaged in the village. Emergency teams and operational services are on the spot to eliminate the consequences of the shelling as quickly as possible,” the governor of the region said. Platoon commander General Lapin no longer appeared on the screens of the Belgorod region.
Another account reports that six kamikaze UAVs simultaneously attacked an automobile checkpoint in the Belgorod region. The Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked Shebekino checkpoint (50 meters from the border) with combat drones the day before at 7pm. Almost all drones hit their target – there were no casualties or damage.
The attacks also continued on the morning of May 29: several settlements in the Belgorod region came under fire from the Ukrainian armed forces. “Two industrial enterprises were attacked in Shebekino. As a result of shells hit at one of the enterprises, a production building with paint and varnish liquids caught fire.
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According to local sources there would be four victims: men, employees of the company, taken to the Central District Hospital with burns to the respiratory tract and carbon monoxide poisoning. One is in intensive care in serious condition, three are in a state of moderate severity. All necessary medical assistance is provided.
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There is no visible damage to the second feat. There were no casualties. All employees were kept at a safe distance. As a result of the shelling of the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka, there were no victims, there was damage to the power line. Novaya Tavolzhanka Tavolzhanka, Shamino and Arkhangelsk remain without electricity. In the village of Kozinka, Grayvoronsky district, there was a blow in the building of a hotel and a car wash, as a result of which it caught fire. “All operational and emergency services are working on site,” the governor said in a statement to the media.
On May 29, Russian drones hit Ukrainian positions in the direction of Avdiivka. A Russian FPV drone hit a communication tower of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Avdiivka direction.
Graziella Giangiulio
