21:22 During the counterattack operations in the Bakhmut area, in some positions, Ukrainian units were able to advance to a distance of 350 to 450 meters, said Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the Eastern Group of Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
21:14 Zelensky said in an evening video message that Ukraine will continue the sanctions steps, and "new sanctions packages are next in line - even larger ones." "Everyone will receive global pressure. Step by step, we are collecting complete data on everyone who works for aggression - directly or indirectly. Each such person will be blocked. And our, Ukrainian, sanctions are either already synchronized or will be synchronized with the sanctions of the free world," the President emphasized.
20:55 Podolyak said in an interview with The Guardian that "preliminary operations" within the framework of the counter-offensive have already begun, but in general "it is a complex process that is not a matter of one day, a certain date or a certain hour." "The intensity is growing, but it will take quite a long time," he said.
Podolyak also predicts that as the counter-offensive develops, “Russian rebel groups” will incur more frequent incursions into Russia. At the same time, he denies that the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Legion of Freedom of Russia acted on the orders of Kyiv. The adviser to the head of the OP claims that their contracts with the Ukrainian Foreign Legion have ended, and therefore they have the status of "citizens of the Russian Federation temporarily staying on the territory of Ukraine."
18:43 Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Oleksiy Makeev announced the delivery of new IRIS-T systems.
18:27 The Russians fired at Stepnogorsk, Zaporozhye region from Gradov, two people were injured, the head of the OVA Yuriy Malashko said.
18:22 The Russians fired on the village of Shipovatoye, Kupyansky district, Kharkiv region: one person was killed, another was wounded, Oleg Sinegubov, head of the OVA, said.
18:01 Together with Hungary, new EU sanctions against Russia are now also blocked by Greece, writes Politico, citing five EU diplomats. We are talking about a list compiled by Ukraine of private companies that are considered "sponsors of the war." Budapest and Athens are using the sanctions block as political leverage to remove their companies from the list. In particular, the Greeks deny that their companies circumvent anti-Russian sanctions.
17:28 Kuleba denied The Wall Street Journal's information about China's proposal to recognize Russia's occupied Ukrainian territories. According to the minister, he contacted his European counterparts from the capitals where the Chinese special envoy Li Hui visited, and they did not confirm this: “None of them confirms that there were voiced or negotiations were conducted on recognizing for Russia those territories on which the Russian Federation is now in Ukraine".
Kuleba also stressed that "Ukraine will not consider any proposals that provide for territorial concessions."
16:50 Explosions again in occupied Berdyansk: local public write about a strike on the territory of the Azovcable plant.
16:12 Russian media report that kamikaze drones attacked an oil refinery in the village of Erokhino, Tver region, the roof and walls were damaged in the building and windows were broken.
15:47 The special services of the Russian Federation have begun to implement a provocation with chemical weapons in the occupied territories of the Zaporozhye region , the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense reports. This is done in order to disrupt the Ukrainian counteroffensive. According to Ukrainian military intelligence, the real victims of the provocation will be soldiers of the Russian army. Moscow plans to use traces of chemical weapons on their bodies as fake evidence to accuse Ukraine.
The Main Intelligence Directorate emphasized that the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine in the course of hostilities with Russian troops use only conventional means, and the next statements of the Russian special services are not able to influence the further course of events at the front.
15:13 Russian publics write that in the Bryansk region, a kamikaze drone allegedly attacked a Niva car of the Russian Defense Ministry on the Brovnichi-Sushany road, killing two servicemen. Also in the center of the city of Shebekino, Belgorod Region, a shell hit a jewelry store located on the first floor of a residential building.
14:16 The Russians fired on Sadovoe, Kherson region - private houses were damaged, one person was wounded. Also during the day, Kherson was under fire, the premises of the lyceum were damaged. In addition, the enemy shelled Zmievka, damaged a private warehouse, the OVA reported.
13:57 The first group of about 400 Ukrainian military began training on American Abrams M1 tanks in Germany, Pentagon Speaker Garron Garn said. He clarified that on May 26, combined-arms training at the training grounds began for about 200 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and another 200 servicemen began to train to refuel and service Abrams tanks. It is expected that the preparation will last 10-12 weeks, and the Abrams tanks will appear at the front in Ukraine until autumn.
13:45 As a result of the operation in the Belgorod region, information important for Ukrainian intelligence was collected, said Andrei Yusov, a spokesman for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense. According to him, all of it will not be disclosed, but part of this data, which can be briefly described as "the king naked", was received by the whole world. We are talking about the depletion of the power apparatus and Russia's vulnerability to internal strikes.
Yusov noted that now the task of the Russian partisans is "the liberation of the state from the Putin regime, which for the inhabitants of these territories - representatives of different peoples, different nationalities - is obviously a regime of internal occupation."
12:54 Zelensky introduced new personal sanctions against 51 individuals and 220 legal entities from Russia and Belarus. The list includes, in particular, the heads of Russian enterprises and scientists, as well as enterprises associated with the transport, communications and industrial sectors of the Russian Federation and Belarus. Thus, sanctions were imposed against the structures of MTS and Russian Railways, CJSC Russkaya Troika, Karachevsky Plant Elektrodetal, Sarapulsky Radio Plant, Chelyabinsk Forging and Pressing Plant, etc.
Also under the restrictions were Belarusian companies: Minsk Automobile Plant, Minsk Mechanical Plant named after Vavilov, Vitebsk Radio Components Plant Monolit, Orsha Aircraft Repair Plant.
12:31 Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Galuzin announced the Russian conditions for the end of the war in Ukraine. According to him, the first point is the cessation of the supply of Western weapons and hostilities by Ukraine, and the second is the non-bloc status of Kyiv. "In order to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting peace, Ukraine must return to a neutral non-aligned status, recorded in the 1990 declaration of state sovereignty, and refuse to join NATO and the EU," Galuzin said.
In addition, according to him, Kiev should recognize "new territorial realities." Another condition is "protection of the rights of Russian-speaking citizens and national minorities" at the legislative level.
In turn, Yermak said that "there is no such force that today will force Ukrainian society and the leadership of the state to speak with the Russians while Russian troops are stationed on our territory."
And Podolyak noted that the "demands of Russia" through the mouth of the Russian Foreign Ministry rather confirm the legal and actual incompetence of the Russian leadership. According to him, only the reciprocal conditions of Ukraine are realistic: “Immediate withdrawal of all troops from the sovereign territory of Ukraine. Final recognition that the USSR collapsed and the post-Soviet countries have the entire scope of sovereignty. territory of the Russian Federation Reduction of offensive weapons (long-range missiles) International conference on organizing control over the nuclear arsenal of the Russian Federation A legally fixed program of reparation payments, including the voluntary renunciation of Russian assets seized in other countries in favor of Ukraine.
12:02 Ukrainian troops control the neighborhood of Bakhmut in the southwestern part in the Airplane area, Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar said. According to her, the offensive activity of the enemy in the Bakhmut direction has been reduced. Yesterday and today there are no active battles - neither in the city, nor on the flanks. At the same time, the enemy is actively shelling the outskirts of the city and the approaches to it.
Malyar stressed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine firmly hold the previously occupied dominant heights in the north and south of Bakhmut. At the same time, the promotion yesterday and today is suspended in order to carry out other tasks. The decrease in the offensive activity of the enemy is due to the fact that the replacement and regrouping of troops is being carried out - he is trying to strengthen his capabilities.
11:36 In the Pskov region of the Russian Federation, an explosion occurred in the administrative building of the oil pipeline near the village of Litvinovo, Nevelsk district, Governor Mikhail Vedernikov said. The Baza Telegram channel clarifies that two kamikaze drones attacked the Transneft oil transshipment station in the Pskov region around 4:30. As a result of the attack, the facades and glazing of three administrative buildings were damaged, but no one was injured.
11:25 Deputy head of the Berdyansk District Council Viktor Dudukalov clarified that in the morning in the village of Novopetrovka near Berdyansk there was an "arrival" at the recreation centers Khimik and Vesna on the coast of the Sea of Azov - Russian military were stationed there.
10:41 Social networks write about a hit near the port of Berdyansk, enemy aircraft are circling over it. Meanwhile, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, Petr Andryushchenko, reported explosions in Nikolskoye near the Incubator. A large number of ambulances immediately arrived at the scene.
09:17 In Dnipro, search and rescue operations and the removal of the rubble of a three-story building of a medical institution have been completed, the State Emergency Service reported. According to the head of the IVA, Sergei Lysak, 32 people were injured as a result of the missile attack, 13 of them are still in the hospital, five are in serious condition. As of 7:30 am on May 27, the fate of three people was unknown, rescuers found fragments of bodies under the rubble.
09:08 In the Donetsk region over the past day, as a result of Russian shelling, two people were killed (in Vasyukovka and Chasovoy Yar), five more were injured. In the Kherson region, one person died. In the Zaporozhye region, one person was killed as a result of the shelling of Novodanilovka, two more were injured in Hulyaypole, according to the IVA.
08:59 NSDC Secretary Alexei Danilov confirmed to BBC News that some Wagner PMC forces are retreating from Bakhmut. At the same time, he added that they are regrouping in three more places and "this does not mean that they will stop fighting with us."
Danilov also said that the counteroffensive could start at any time: “It could happen tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a week. It would be strange if I named the dates of the start of certain events. We understand that we have no room for error.
08:38 The General Staff announced the approximate losses of the Russian Federation as of the morning of May 27.
personnel - about 206,200 (+480) people liquidated,
tanks - 3799 (+3),
armored combat vehicles - 7442 (+7),
artillery systems - 3406 (+22),
MLRS - 572 (+2),
air defense systems - 329 (+1),
aircraft - 310 (+0),
helicopters - 296 (+0),
UAV operational-tactical level - 2941 (+31),
cruise missiles - 1025 (+10),
ships/boats - 18 (+0),
automotive equipment and tankers - 6172 (+11),
special equipment - 449 (+3).
08:27 The Russian army continues to focus its main efforts on the Kupyansky, Limansky, Bakhmutsky, Avdeevsky and Maryinsky directions. Over the past day, there have been 25 clashes in the indicated sectors of the front, the General Staff said in the morning report .
According to the General Staff, cases of non-compliance with orders of commanders and desertion have become more frequent in the Russian troops. So, on May 25, about 20 former prisoners who had recently undergone accelerated training and arrived to reinforce the unit in the Svatovo district of the Luhansk region, stole a KamAZ and left in an unknown direction. Now they are looking for.
04:32 Canada in the coming weeks will give Ukraine 4,800 machine guns and a million rounds of ammunition for them, the country's government said.
02:38 Ukraine turned to Germany with an official request, in which it asks to provide it with Taurus cruise missiles, writes Spiegel.
01:41 Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with former US President Donald Trump during his trip to the US to "discuss the situation in Ukraine and the vital importance of Ukraine's victory," Johnson's spokesman said.
00:24 Representatives of the two parties of the US Congress called on Biden to transfer ATACMS missiles to Ukraine, writes Foreign Policy, citing a letter from the US Helsinki Commission. The leaders of the bipartisan Helsinki Commission point out that "now that the decision has been made to send the F-16s, it is time to commit ourselves to the complete victory of Ukraine and deliver all the necessary equipment."
The authors of the letter added that almost all of the weapons systems requested by Ukraine were delivered after intense pressure. They urged the White House not to wait for a new pressure campaign to grant ATACMS.
00:07 The head of the SBU, Vasily Malyuk, in an interview with journalist Dmitry Komarov, commented on the rumors about the alleged involvement of the Ukrainian special services in undermining the Crimean bridge in the fall of 2022: "According to our current and international legislation and the customs and traditions of warfare, given that there was a logistical way, which we were obliged to cut to the enemy. Certain measures were carried out, but I will not talk about such details. "
He also said that the successful attack by sea drones on the ships of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation in the Sevastopol Bay in October last year was a planned special operation by the SBU.