Sunday, May 28, 2023
Ukraine's capital has been subjected to the largest drone attack since the start of Russia's war, local officials said, as Kiev prepared to mark the anniversary of its founding on Sunday.
Russia launched the “most massive attack” on the city overnight on Saturday with Iranian-made Shahed drones, said Serhii Popko, a senior Kiev military official.
The attack lasted more than five hours, with air defence reportedly shooting down more than 40 drones.
A 41-year-old man was killed and a 35-year-old woman was hospitalised when debris fell on a seven-story nonresidential building and started a fire, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
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0651 GMT — Gazprom to ship 40.3 mcm of gas to Europe via Ukraine
Russia's Gazprom has said it will ship 40.3 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine, compared with 40.7 mcm on Saturday.
0455 GMT — Russia thwarts drone attack on Krasnodar oil refinery, officials say
Russia's air defence systems have destroyed several drones as they approached the Ilsky oil refinery in the Krasnodar region near the Black Sea, local officials said.
"Several unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) tried to approach the territory of the Ilsky oil refinery in the Krasnodar Krai," the region's emergency officials said on the Telegram messaging channel.
"All of them were neutralised, the infrastructure of the plant was not damaged."
The officials did not say who launched the attack.
0139 GMT — Russia calls Japan's 'nuclear blackmail' accusation 'cynical, unscrupulous speculations'
Japan’s "nuclear blackmail" accusation against Russia is "cynical, unscrupulous speculation," the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.
"Attempts to attribute to Russia the non-existing plans to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine is nothing more than cynical, unscrupulous speculation. There has been no change in our approach to this issue," a ministry statement said.
On Friday, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno condemned Russia's plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus and said it would further escalate the situation and that Japan would never accept "Russia's nuclear menace, let alone its use."
The Russian Foreign Ministry urged Tokyo to show similar "concern" about the US nuclear weapons already deployed in Europe.
The ministry also criticised Japan's anti-Russian sanctions announced on Friday and said it closely follows the implementation of sanctions, and assesses its possible impact on national security and economy.
"In any case, such illegitimate actions of official Tokyo will not remain unanswered," it added.
0008 GMT — Russia calls on West to sanction Ukrainian officials over threats against Putin
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that he expects the West to impose sanctions on Ukrainian officials over their threats against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Commenting on a statement by Vadim Skibitsky, the deputy head of Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence, who told German Welt newspaper that Putin is "at the top of Ukraine's kill list," Lavrov said that Kiev does everything to be seen as "a terrorist state."
"I hope that sanctions against these 'top officials' will follow,” the Russian foreign minister said in an interview with Russia's Rossiya 24 TV channel.
Lavrov added that he believes that "the puppeteers sitting in Washington and London are beginning to wonder how adequate these people [Ukraine's top officials] are."
On May 8, Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence, commented on the killing of Russian journalist Darya Dugina and said: "We killed, kill and will kill Russians anywhere in the world."
For our live updates from Saturday (May 27), click here.
