May 25, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky compared Henry Kissinger's views to appeasement of Nazi Germany in 1938.

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky has made a blistering attack on former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who suggested on Tuesday that peace negotiations should be aimed at creating borders along the “line of contact” in Donbas as it existed on the eve of the Russian invasion.

Kissinger was speaking by video link to the Davos Forum.  

In his remarks, Kissinger said of the conflict that: “Negotiations need to begin in the next two months before it creates upheavals and tensions that will not be easily overcome. Ideally, the dividing line should be a return to the status quo ante,” apparently suggesting that Ukraine agree to give up much of the Donbas and Crimea.

“Pursuing the war beyond that point would not be about the freedom of Ukraine, but a new war against Russia itself,” Kissinger said.

Zelensky compared Kissinger’s views to appeasement of Nazi Germany in 1938.

Zelensky called those who advise that Ukraine give something to Russia, the “‘great geo-politicians,’ do not always want to see ordinary people. Ordinary Ukrainians. Millions of those who actually live in the territory they are proposing to exchange for the illusion of peace. You always have to see people.”

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss arrives to attend a cabinet meeting in London on May 24.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is traveling to Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday, where she will use an address to the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to urge the UK’s Western partners to ensure Russian President Vladimir Putin loses in Ukraine, the Foreign Office said in a statement late Wednesday.

Truss will also warn against appeasing the Russian leader, the release added.

President Vladimir Putin has announced that state pensions and the minimum wage will rise substantially in Russia from June 1.

According to the state news agency TASS, Putin made the announcement at a meeting of the State Council.

“We discussed this issue with the government for a long time, there were differences within the government and a solution was worked out,” he said according to TASS. “I propose to increase the pensions of non-working pensioners by 10% from June 1.”

“Our main task is to ensure [a] further increase in the minimum wage, so that the citizens’ income level would significantly exceed the size of the subsistence rate,” he added.

Some background: Pensions were raised by 8.6% at the beginning of the year, but inflation has risen sharply this year. Putin said it was currently 17.5% but would decline to 15% by the end of the year. However, he denied that the spike in inflation was related to the conflict in Ukraine.

“The current year is not easy. Since its beginning, cumulative inflation has exceeded 11%. But when I say ‘not easy’ this does not mean at all that all these difficulties are associated with this special military operation, because in countries that do not conduct any operations, say, across the ocean, in North America, in Europe, inflation is comparable. And if you look at the structure of their economy — it’s even more than ours, and in some neighboring countries, it’s many times higher,” Putin said.

Prince Charles visits a Ukrainian refugee center in Bucharest, Romania on May 25.

Prince Charles has paid a visit to a Ukrainian refugee center in Romania, according to a news release from Clarence House.

Prince Charles joined Her Majesty Margareta, custodian of Romanian Crown, in “the visit to the Romexpo Donation Center for Ukrainian refugees in Bucharest, to see at first hand the excellent response of the Romanian authorities and of international and local organizations to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine,” according to the news release.

As part of the visit, they spoke to “Ukrainians who have fled the horrors of war in Ukraine,” Clarence House said.

The center has been seeing a “steady increase” in the number of Ukrainian refugees it has welcomed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Clarence House said.

Romania has welcomed one of the highest numbers of Ukrainian refugees in Europe, according to data from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). As of May 24, 972,203 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Romania, according to the latest UNHCR update.

This latest visit from Prince Charles “follows a series of engagements” undertaken “in recent months in support of the Ukrainian community,” according to the news release.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned a move by Moscow that makes it easier for Ukrainians in some Russian-occupied regions to obtain Russian citizenship.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Wednesday streamlining the process for providing passports to Ukrainians in the occupied portions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Russia has already handed out hundreds of thousands of passports to residents of separatist areas in Ukraine’s east and in the annexed Ukrainian territory of Crimea, as well as to residents of the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia and Transnistria in Moldova. Analysts say those moves have helped Moscow create a pretext for continued intervention in those areas. 

Yevhen Yaroshenko, an analyst for the human rights organization Crimea SOS, said Russia’s policy of “passportization” may also serve an agenda of providing conscripts for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits the Ukrainian Institute of America on May 19 in New York.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the launch of a new joint UK, EU and US group to help support efforts of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General (OPG) to document war crimes and other atrocities committed in Ukraine.

The new mechanism, called the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group (ACA), will “provide strategic advice and operational assistance to the War Crimes Units of the OPG, the legally constituted authority responsible for prosecuting war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine,” Blinken said. “Although the United States and our partners are supporting a range of international efforts to pursue accountability for atrocities, the OPG will play a crucial role in ensuring that those responsible for war crimes and other atrocities are held accountable.”

He added that the “ACA will liaise with the Department of Justice as it pursues accountability in US courts.”

In addition to streamlining efforts, the ACA will also provide expanded funding for the team of international prosecutors and other war crimes experts already deployed to the region, Blinken said.

Earlier this week, a 21-year-old Russian soldier was sentenced to life in prison for killing an unarmed man in Ukraine’s first war crimes trial since Russia’s invasion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met Wednesday with soldiers wounded in fighting in Ukraine during a rare visit to a military hospital, according to footage released by the Kremlin. 

Putin visited the Mandryk Central Military Clinical Hospital of the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow and “spoke with members of the Russian Armed Forces undergoing treatment after being wounded during the special military operation, as well as with the hospital’s medical personnel,” according to the Kremlin. 

Putin, wearing a medical gown, asked the servicemen how they felt, where they were from and how their families were doing, the video showed. 

Putin was accompanied by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

On Wednesday, Putin also visited the National Crisis Management Center of the Ministry of Emergencies, according to the Kremlin. 

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday the president “constantly takes interest in and keeps under his control the topic of conditions provided for those wounded in the course of the special military operation,” according to Russian state news agency TASS.

The Swiss government plans to seize more than 100 million Swiss francs ($104 million) worth of assets from an associate of Ukraine’s former president, Viktor Yanukovych, who was deposed in 2014, it said on Wednesday.

The proceedings concern assets of Yuriy Ivanyushchenko and his family that were frozen after Ukraine’s 2014 revolution, the Swiss government said in a statement, stressing the move was “unrelated to sanctions” that Switzerland imposed against Russians this year.

The finance ministry will now ask the Federal Administrative Court of Switzerland to approve confiscating the assets so that they can be returned to Ukraine, the government said.

A few days after Yanukovych’s ouster, the Swiss cabinet had ordered the freezing of any assets in Switzerland of the deposed president and his entourage, including Ivanyushchenko, a former member of parliament whom it described as a close confidant of the former leader.

However, Ukrainian authorities have not been able to issue judgements ordering the confiscation of those assets, according to the Swiss government.

The Swiss government said since the war in Ukraine “severely compounded” criminal proceedings against Ivanyushchenko, it now considers confiscation proceedings in Switzerland “both possible and appropriate.”

Regional officials in Ukraine say that two people have been killed by Russian shelling of the town of Balakliya, which is on the frontlines in the Kharkiv region.

Nataliya Popova, an adviser to the head of the Regional Council in Kharkiv, said seven people had been injured in the shelling Wednesday, including one child who is in critical condition.

Balakliya lies to the northwest of Izium, which is occupied by Russian forces and has become their platform for attacks further south into Donetsk region.

Storage silos and shipping cranes at the Port of Odesa in Ukraine, on January 22.

Russia is trying to “blackmail” the international community with an offer to unblock Ukrainian sea ports if sanctions against it are lessened, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday.

This is “clear blackmail,” Kuleba claimed. “You could not find a better example of blackmail in international relations.” 

He warned that if Russia does not lift its blockage of Ukrainian exports of crops, the entire agricultural cycle will be interrupted and could spur a “multi-year food crisis.”

Some background: Before the war, Ukraine was the world’s fourth-largest exporter of corn and fifth-largest exporter of wheat, according to the US State Department. Almost 30% of global trade in wheat came from Russia and Ukraine alone.

Speaking at a panel discussion, Kuleba said Russia and Ukraine are nowhere near the possibility of negotiated peace and that Russia has no intention of taking part in discussions aimed at ending the war. 

“When you are conducting an operation like this, you basically say no to negotiations. If Russia had preferred talks to war, they would have behaved differently,” he said.

Making concessions to Russia has not worked since 2014 and won’t work now, Kuleba said. 

Kuleba called again for further sanctions against Russia, namely stopping the purchase of Russian oil, which he said is keeping Moscow in a comfortable position.

“Ukraine is suffering more than Russia is with the sanctions against it. … After three months of war, my message is simple: kill Russian exports. Stop buying from Russia and allowing them to make money that they invest in the war machine to kill and destroy,” he said.   

A damaged home is seen after shelling in Lyman, Ukraine on April 28.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has said that Russian forces are “conducting an intense offensive” in order to seize the key town of Lyman in the Donetsk region.

Ministry spokesperson Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said Russian efforts to “completely take control” of Lyman “did not succeed.” However, images posted on social media Wednesday showed Russian soldiers at identifiable locations in northern neighborhoods of the town, which Ukrainian forces have defended in the face of an intense assault since late April.

Lyman is an important rail hub, and if the Russians are able to consolidate control over the town, the nearby city of Sloviansk becomes more vulnerable to attack by artillery — and Ukrainian troops to the south-east of Lyman become more at risk of encirclement.

Motuzyanyk added, “The enemy is conducting offensive operations, trying to surround our units near Lysychansk and Severodonetsk and reach the administrative border of Luhansk region.”

On Tuesday, the head of the regional administration in Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, described the situation in Lyman as “very difficult.”

The Institute for the Study of War reported in its latest assessment Tuesday that Russian forces continued to “prioritize attacks against Lyman rather than Slovyansk on May 24, likely to support a shallow encirclement of Ukrainian troops northwest of Severodonetsk.”

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson speaks during a press conference in Stockholm, Sweden on May 25.

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has said her country “does not send money to terrorist organizations,” responding to claims from Turkey as the Nordic nation seeks to join NATO. 

Speaking during a news conference in Stockholm on Wednesday, Andersson said dialogue between Turkey and Sweden was “ongoing” as part of efforts to counter Turkish concerns about Sweden joining the military alliance.  

Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would “say no to Sweden’s and Finland’s entry into NATO,” accusing both countries of housing Kurdish “terror organizations.” 

On Wednesday, Andersson said during discussions that the Turkish and Swedish sides “will naturally go through and discuss the list and sort out a number of things that have been unclear in reporting in the media and statements from other places.”

European Council chief Charles Michel, who addressed journalists alongside Andersson, said although he didn’t “want to make any statement” that would make things more difficult, he did want to express the EU’s support for the “important step” Sweden and Finland have decided to take in applying for NATO membership. 

European Council chief Charles Michel, left, and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson speak at a joint press conference in Stockholm, Sweden, on May 25.

European Council chief Charles Michel is “confident” that any issues over a proposed ban on Russian oil imports will be resolved by the next council meeting on May 30. 

Addressing a news conference alongside the Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson in Stockholm on Wednesday, Michel said that although he was “still confident” that the bloc will be able to resolve any issues, it will require “a lot of dialogue.” 

“We are working very hard in order to be able to stay united,” Michel stressed. 

The Swedish prime minister publicly declared the country’s desire “to go further” with sanctions against Russia. 

The proposed ban has been largely opposed by Hungary, which has said that such a measure would be “against Hungarian national energy security.” 

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting in Moscow on May 16.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on Wednesday making it easier for Ukrainians in the parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions occupied by Russian troops to obtain Russian citizenship. 

According to the decree published on a government portal, amendments will be made to an existing decree used to simplify the process for the residents of the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic or the Luhansk People’s Republic. 

Russia handed out hundreds of thousands of Russian passports to residents of the DPR and LPR ahead of the massive Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, helping create one of the pretexts for a wider war.

Smoke rises during shelling in the city of Severodonetsk on May 21.

The Ukrainian presidential administration on Wednesday reported “fierce battles” around the industrial city of Severodonetsk in the eastern Luhansk region, with a top military official saying shelling of the town had increased “exponentially.” 

A statement on Wednesday from the presidential administration reported “fierce battles for Severodonetsk,” with constant mortar shelling, adding, “In the morning, with the support of artillery, the Russian occupiers are advancing on Severodonetsk.”

According to the statement, six civilians have died and eight were wounded in the region amid the stepped-up fighting. 

Serhiy Haidai, the head of the Luhansk region military administration, said the shelling of Severodonetsk had “increased exponentially” in recent hours. 

He added that “the next week is important; if they do not succeed by Saturday or Sunday, they will run out of steam, and the situation will at least stabilize for us.”

Elsewhere in Ukraine, the Russian military acknowledged Wednesday that it had launched cruise missiles at targets in Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia. A statement by Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, the Russian defense ministry spokesperson, said the strikes on Zaporizhzhia had targeted production workshops of the Motor Sich plant, an aerospace facility. 

Ukrainian officials previously reported strikes in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk without giving extensive details on the facilities targeted. Officials in Zaporizhzhia subsequently posted video showing damage to a shopping mall. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Monday, May 23.

The World Economic Forum opens. Fighting rages in Ukraine’s east. And a state of emergency is declared in Hungary.

Here’s the latest on Russia’s war in Ukraine:

Members of the band Kalush Orchestra pose onstage with their trophy after winning Eurovision on May 14.

The Ukrainian folk-rap group Kalush Orchestra, which recently won the Eurovision Song Contest, is auctioning off its trophy to raise funds for the Ukrainian army, the group announced on Instagram Wednesday. 

Oleh Psiuk, the group’s frontman, also offered to sell his signature pink bucket hat.

The group recently announced it would tour Europe to raise funds for Ukraine and its armed forces. 

Kalush Orchestra won the competition on May 15 with the song “Stefania,” written about the frontman’s mother. The band beat competition from main rivals the United Kingdom and Spain.

The event marked the first major cultural event in which Ukrainians have taken part since Russia invaded in February, and many in the audience waved Ukraine’s blue and yellow national flag during the evening.

Ahead of the final round, Kalush Orchestra were runaway favorites to win the campy, much-loved singing contest this year, in part because of all the obstacles it overcame due to the war.

The band was unveiled as the country’s entry on February 22, two days before Russian troops invaded Ukraine.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks to parliament on May 24 in Budapest.

Hungary’s reelected Prime Minister Viktor Orban will continue to rule by decree after a state of emergency was declared at midnight due to the fact that one of the country’s neighbors – Ukraine – is in a state of war. 

The Hungarian government argues that “the government needs to be able to make decisions and act swiftly. The state of emergency, similarly to that introduced during the pandemic, will make it possible for the government to react quickly.”

Orban said the decree was reinstated to use “all methods at its disposal” to protect Hungary and Hungarians.

The current state of emergency, which allows Orban to disable some laws and push through emergency measures by decree, was set to expire at the end of May. It had been introduced in the spring of 2020 at the start of the coronavirus-pandemic.

Orban and his Fidesz party were reelected in April despite his historically pro-Kremlin positions and close relationship with Putin. The war there upended the contest, which had been focused mostly on domestic issues before the invasion began on February 24.

Orban’s relationship with Kyiv has deteriorated over the years. He has impeded the country’s attempts to form closer relations with NATO, and has clashed with successive governments in Kyiv.

Eduard Heger, Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, attends a panel session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday.

The Slovakian Prime Minister issued a stark warning about the future of his country should Russia defeat Ukraine during a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos Wednesday. 

Heger went on to criticize members of the European Union for relying too heavily on Russian energy. He urged leaders to “stop compromising” their principles when dealing with Russia.

Entry into the Union: Heger asked the bloc to work with Ukraine and the western Balkans to come up with “standardized rules so they can accede to the EU.”

Ukraine has, in recent years, deepened its economic and political ties with the EU, and Kyiv has expressed a desire to join. Nations in the western Balkans have also sought accession for several years.

Joining the bloc usually takes several years, as nations must satisfy strict criteria for membership before engaging in negotiations.

However, some current EU leaders have rebuffed the idea that its membership could be fast-tracked due to the invasion.

“There’s no such thing as a fast-tracking of accession, such a thing doesn’t exist,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in March.