Sanna Marin toured sites where Russian troops committed war crimes, then met with the president of the attacked country. Together with Sweden, its government applied to join NATO
The Ukrainian city of Kharkiv ” derussify” its streets, while resuming metro service
The Ukrainian government qualified the current situation in the Donbas region, in the east of the territory, as “extremely bad”. The Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, appealed to the “self-confidence” and the unity of the West to take measures against the Russian invasionand has also urged allied governments to accept that “Ukraine is part of their world.”
The United States on Wednesday denounced a Russian plan to speed up the granting of citizenship in separatist areas of Ukraine as a new effort to bring the inhabitants of these areas under their control in the framework of the invasion of the neighboring country.
A below, minute by minute of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (Ukrainian time, GMT+3):
Thursday, May 26:
18:12: the member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) condemned by a large majority the Russian bombing of health facilities in Ukraine.
The resolution, adopted at the WHO annual assembly by 88 votes in favour, 12 against and 53 abstentions, it urges Russia to “immediately cease all attacks on hospitals” and other health services.
17:50: the Russian authorities who took control of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol decided to abolish the summer school holidays in order to prepare the students with the Russian school program, said a local Ukrainian official.
According to Petro Andriushchenko, adviser to the mayor of this port where the last Ukrainian soldiers, “the occupants announced the extension of the school year until September 1st”.
“All summer the children will have classes in Russian language and literature, history Russian and math classes in Russian”, he detailed.
The destruction in Mariupol (REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko/Archive)
17:27: French President, Emmanuel Macron, had a telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan , whom he asked to “respect” the decision of Sweden and Finland to join NATO.
“The President of the Republic has underlined the importance of < b>respect the sovereign choice of these two countries, the result of a democratic process and that is produced in reaction to the evolution of its security environment”, indicated sources from the Elysee, seat of the French presidency.
In this sense, Macron expressed his willingness that the discussions continue to find “a quick solution”.
16:40: the Prime Minister of Finland visited Volodimir Zelensky in kyiv .
Sanna Marinhe toured sites where Russian troops committed war crimes and then met with the president of the attacked country. Along with Sweden, his government applied to join NATO.
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin visited Zelensky (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS)
16:10: Russia will expel Western media and journalists if the YouTube platform blocks, as it has already done, the weekly press conferences of its diplomatic spokespersons, warned the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zajárova.
Both YouTube and other social networks and web pages explained that Russian media and official websites were blocked after the offensive in Ukraine, due to sanctions or simply for spreading disinformation.
15:47: the British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “blackmailing the world” by keeping the grain export from Ukraine in response to international sanctions.
“It is horrible that Putin wants to blackmail the whole world and that he uses hunger and lack of food among the poorest as weapons. We simply cannot allow it”, Truss said at a press conference in Sarajevo, where he is on an official visit.
Truss ruled out any lifting of the sanctions imposed on Russia by aggression against Ukraine or “any flattery that would make Putin stronger in the long run.”
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor/Handout via REUTERS)
15:30: fighting against Russian troops in eastern Ukraine reached its “intensity maximum”, declared the deputy defense minister, Ganna Malyar.
“The fighting reached its maximum intensity and we have before us a long and extremely difficult period”, the official told the press.
14:47: Italy revoked for “indignity” the decoration that had been awarded to the Russian Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin, as well as to two other members of the Government and to the president of the VTB bank, the second largest banking company in the country with state participation, reported local media .
The revocation of the decoration of Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Italy to the head of the Russian Executive, Mijail Mishustin, and also to the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Denís Mánturov< /b>, is included in a decree signed by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and published in the Official State Gazette.
14:19: The Armed Forces of Ukraine estimated at “about 29,600” the number of Russian soldiers killed since the beginning of the invasion launched on February 24 by order of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, a balance that includes the death of 150 soldiers during the last 24 hours.
The General Staff of the Army of Ukraine has indicated in a message on its Facebook social network account that so far 1,315 battle tanks, 617 artillery systems and 201 self-propelled and armored multiple rocket launchers have been destroyed.
Thus, he highlighted that 206 planes, 170 helicopters, 93 anti-aircraft defense systems, 2,225 vehicles and fuel tanks, thirteen boats and 502 drones have also been destroyed, while 114 cruise missiles have been shot down.
Buildings destroyed near Azovstal plant in the port city of Mariupol (REUTERS/Pavel Klimov)
13:40: around 4,000 civilians have been killed and more than 4,600 injured since the start of the war in Ukraine, unleashed on February 24 by order of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, according to the latest updated balance of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The body has detailed that to date the death of 3,974 civilians has been confirmed -1,497 men, 985 women, 91 girls and 99 boys, as well as 69 minors and 1,233 adults whose sex is still unknown-, while 4,654 have been injured -938 men, 619 women, 108 girls and 130 boys, as well as 164 minors and 2,695 adults of unknown gender.
By region, in eastern Ukraine, in Donetsk and Lugansk, the organization has put 2,234 dead and 2,638 wounded. Likewise, in the territory controlled by the Ukrainian government, 2,106 deaths and 2,111 injuries have been registered.
13:13: the leaders of the Belarusian opposition Svetlana Tijanóvskaya, Veronika Zepkalo and Maria Kolesnikova received the Charlemagne Prize for commitment to the European project in recognition of their fight for democracy and their calls to actively support Ukraine.
“You represent the struggle for freedom and for the European values of your compatriots and of Europe as a whole”, stated the German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, in the speech at the award ceremony for the prestigious award, instituted in 1950 by the city of Aachen (west of the country).
12:48: Pope Francis will pray next Tuesday in the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, before the same statue of the Virgin to which Benedict XV asked for the end of the First World War, in an act in which a Ukrainian family will participate, among other victims of the war, the Vatican reported .
“Francis wants to offer a sign of hope to the world, which suffers from the conflict in Ukraine and is deeply wounded by the violence of so many wars that are still active. On Tuesday, May 31, at 6:00 p.m. (4:00 p.m. GMT), the pope will recite the rosary in front of the statue of Maria Regina Pacis in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. /p>
El Pope Francis (Vatican Media/Handout via REUTERS)
12:10: Russia assured that it destroyed with high-precision missiles a Ukrainian electronic intelligence center in the Mykolaiv region, in the south, an attack in which 11 Ukrainian soldiers and 15 foreign technicians would have died.
“In the area of the village of Dniprovs’ke, in the Mykolaiv region, a Ukrainian electronic intelligence center was destroyed and (killed) 11 soldiers, as well as 15 foreign specialists who arrived with bodyguards”, Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashénkov said in his morning war report.
11:37: The Russian Army bombed In recent hours, a total of 41 towns in Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, where the pro-Russian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk are located, sources from the Ukrainian army reported Thursday.
As a result of these bombings, at least six people have died and another 12 have been injured,according to data published by the Ukrainian Army on its Facebook page.
“The enemy destroyed and damaged 52 multi-storey residential buildings and other civilian targets” that they include a secondary school, a house of culture, a health facility, among others, the source specified.
10:50: finish with the war in Ukraine and helping the opposition in Russia demands that the world stop buying Russian oil and gas, says Olga Borisova, a member of the Russian feminist group Pussy Riot, who has described President Vladimir Putin as a psychopath.
“We must stop buying oil and Russian gas. The result of doing business with Russia is wars and arrests (of opponents)”, warns Borisova in a statement to N1 television before a concert by the punk-rock group this night in Ljubljana.
Members of the group Pussy Riot have been criticizing the Russian president for years, but Borisova believes that the situation has worsened and that Putin is now a “very maniacal psychopath.”
Sanna Marin (REUTERS/Remo Casilli/File)
10:18: Finland’s Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, arrived today to Ukraine, where he visited several points in the kyiv region, the scene of alleged war crimes by Russia, in the midst of the process promoted by his country to join NATO.
Social Democrat Marin traveled to the town of Bucha and then visited Irpin, two of the towns where killings of civilians and other war crimes are being investigated, reports the Ukrainian portal Unian.
Finland, like Sweden, They have taken a 180-degree turn in their traditional defensive neutrality, precisely as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, by deciding to apply to join NATO, an organization with which they had a relationship of associated countries, but not member states. .
9:44: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said “convinced” that Russia will not win the war in Ukraine and considered that President Vladimir Putin will not “dictate” peace.
“Putin should not win your war. And I am convinced: he will not win it”, said the chancellor, in a speech during the World Economic Forum in Davos, in Switzerland.
8:23: the battle for control of the Donets River defines the war in eastern Ukraine. The fighting is concentrated in about 120 kilometers on both banks of the river.
Russian forces try to encircle the Ukrainian defense in the city of Sievierodonetsk. A siege similar to that of Mariupol is expected.
7:03: The president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, has sent a letter to the prime minister, Denis Shmigal, to work on the implementation of a visa control mechanism for citizens from Russia who enter the country.
“In the context of large-scale Russian aggression, the issue raised is important and urgent, which is why I support the need to strengthen the control regime on the entry of Russian citizens into Ukraine,” said the Ukrainian president. .
The petition on the need to introduce a visa control mechanism for Russian citizens was published on the website of the Ukrainian Presidency on February 11 this year and received 26,742 votes out of the 25,000 needed, according to the Ukrainian media.
6:16: Ukraine condemned the decree, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, to simplify the application procedures for Russian citizenship for residents of the Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions, taken by Russian forces in the framework of the offensive launched on February 24.
“The illegal obtaining of passports in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, as well as in Crimea and the temporarily occupied part of the Donetsk provinces and Lugansk, is a serious violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine”, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Furthermore, they pointed out that it violates Moscow’s obligations, “as an occupying power”, in accordance with article 45 of the 1907 Hague Convention and article 47 of the Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons in Wartime 1949.
Inhabitants of cities devastated by Russian troops have cleared some streets
4:45: the head of the Donetsk regional military administration, Pavlo Kirilenko, has reported the death of four civilians in the Ukrainian region during the day this Wednesday, which brings the figure to 431 dead and 1,168 injured.
Specifically, as indicated in his Telegram profile, the dead civilians have been registered in Liman, Sidorov and Beoresto. Likewise, he has also indicated that “it is impossible to determine the exact number of victims in Mariupol and Volnovakha.”
On the other hand, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, Valentin Reznichenko reported this Wednesday that Russian troops have fired three missiles at Krivoy Rog towards an industrial company.
03:39: The Russian Ministry of Defense announced the opening of maritime humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of foreign ships from the waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
According to the head of the Russian National Defense Control Center, Colonel Mikhail Mizintsev, these escape routes will be guaranteed by the Russian authorities from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. (Moscow time).
Thus, Mizintsev has pointed out that the Black Sea corridor will serve to evacuate ships from Kherson, Mikolaev, Chernomorsk, Ochakov, Odessa and Yuzhni; while the Sea of Azov will serve, mainly, those from the port of Mariúpol, according to the Russian agency Interfax.
02:49: The Ukrainian team of “Butterfly visions”, a film shot just a few months ago in Donbas and directed by Maksym Nakonechnyi, sounded the anti-aircraft sirens on the red carpet in Cannes on Wednesday to denounce the war in Ukraine.
Members of the film crew have posed with their faces covered by the crossed-out eye symbol used to censor content on social networks and a banner that read “The Russians kill the Ukrainians, do you find it offensive or disturbing to talk about this genocide?”.
02:08: Russia’s war in Ukraine and its impact on food and energy prices, as well as fertilizer availability, could trigger a global recession, the World Bank president suggested on Wednesday.
David Malpass told an event organized by the United States Chamber of Commerce that Germany, the fourth largest economy in the world, has already suffered a significant economic slowdown due to the increase in prices of energy, noting that limited access to fertilizers could worsen conditions elsewhere.
“If we look at world GDP…it’s hard right now to see how we can avoid a recession,” Malpass said.
01:14: Slovak authorities proceeded to rename the street where the Russian Embassy in Bratislava is located, which from now on will remember the figure of the Russian opponent Boris Nemtsov, assassinated in 2015 in the vicinity of the Kremlin prior to a demonstration against the Crimean War.
“I am pleased that the capital of Slovakia joins Prague, Washington or Vilnius, where they have also renamed the spaces in front of the Russian embassies after the assassination of the opponent of the president’s authoritarian regime, Vladimir Putin”, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs has transferred. Slovak, Martin Klaus, on his Facebook account.
Service members of pro-Russian troops drive a tank during the invasion between Ukraine and Russia in the Donetsk region
00:36: Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, visited an aid center for Ukrainian refugees in the capital from Romania, a country bordering Ukraine into which around a million displaced people have entered since the Russian military invasion began on February 24.
According to the agency Romanian news outlet, Agerpres, the British heir was received by representatives of the Romanian government at the ROMEXPO convention center in Bucharest, which once housed refugees Ukrainians and later it has been transformed into a center for the collection and distribution of humanitarian aid.
News in progress…