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Ukraine claimed to have hit two Russian patrol boats in the Black Sea, off the coast of Crimea, a peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014, on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, May 30. Through this operation, the country’s army continues his efforts to repel the Russian navy from his shores.
On social networks, intelligence published a video showing a naval drone impact on an unidentified boat. Without commenting on this incident, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have destroyed two Ukrainian naval drones “heading towards Crimea” overnight.
What red line for NATO? Atlantic Alliance Secretary Jens Stoltenberg supports Ukraine using weapons delivered by its allies to target military bases and artillery on Russian territory. He repeated it on Thursday while a NATO meeting was organized in Prague (Czech Republic). The United States is much more reluctant, fearing a direct conflict with Moscow. Tuesday, in Berlin, Emmanuel Macron estimated that kyiv should be allowed to “neutralize” the military bases from which Russia fires its missiles against Ukrainian territory.
The Kremlin denounces a “new cycle of escalation”. While some members of the Alliance, including France, want Ukraine to now be able to strike Russian soil with Western missiles, the Russian regime sees this as a provocation. “NATO member countries, especially the United States and other European capitals, have started a new cycle of escalation in recent days and weeks”denounced the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitri Peskov. “They are provoking Ukraine by all possible means in order to continue this senseless war”he told reporters during his daily briefing.
German Defense Minister makes surprise visit to Odessa. From this city in southern Ukraine, Boris Pistorius announced that Germany will supply the country’s army with weapons worth 500 million euros, reports the site Die Welt. On the program of this new aid package: the transfer of Iris-T air defense systems, drones for operations in the Black Sea but also necessary spare parts for the artillery systems that Germany is preparing to deliver.
New deadly Russian strikes. Eight people were killed by strikes by the Russian army in several regions of Ukraine, and the death toll from Saturday’s bombing of a hypermarket in Kharkiv rose to 19 deaths, Ukrainian regional authorities announced on Wednesday. The country’s second city is the target of almost daily bombings, while Russian troops launched an offensive in the region at the beginning of May.
