WAR IN UKRAINE: May 28, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 459
In Kyiv, Mayor Vitaly Klychko: A 35-year-old woman was hospitalized in the Solomyansky district of the capital due to the fall of UAV wreckage near one of the gas stations. But a 41-year-old man died. On the night of May 27/28, Russian forces attacked Ukraine with 52 Iranian Shahed-136/131 attack drones from the northern direction — Bryansk region, and the southern — Krasnodar region. All were shot down, Kyiv said.
Ukraine’s military intelligence has claimed, without offering evidence, that Russia is plotting a “large-scale provocation” at a nuclear power plant it occupies in the southeast of the country with the aim of disrupting a looming Ukrainian counteroffensive. A statement released Friday by the intelligence directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry claimed that Russian forces would strike the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe, and then report a radioactive leak in order to trigger an international probe that would pause the hostilities and give the Russian forces the respite they need to regroup ahead of the counteroffensive. In order to make that happen, Russia “disrupted the rotation of personnel of the permanent monitoring mission” of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency that was scheduled for Saturday, the statement said. It didn’t offer evidence to back up any of the claims - AP
Hundreds of Germans working in the education and cultural sectors will be expelled from Russia next month, the German foreign ministry says. It confirmed media reports that Russia had decided to cap the number of German employees from the start of June. They include teachers at the German school in Moscow and staff at the Goethe Institute cultural association. The move follows tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats and increasingly strained relations between Russia and Germany - BBC
Russia has warned Western supplies of weapons to Ukraine risk escalating the war to levels not seen so far. Andrei Kelin, Russia's ambassador to the UK, told the BBC his country had "enormous resources" and it was yet to "act very seriously“
Ukraine's Elina Svitolina celebrated her first title since becoming a mother by donating her prize money to help children in her homeland. Svitolina, 28, beat Russia's Anna Blinkova 6-2 6-3 to win the Internationaux de Strasbourg.
Kyiv has hinted that its long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia could start soon with a video brandishing its intentions to "destroy the enemies” - Newsweek
A German Defense Ministry spokesperson confirmed that Ukraine has submitted a request asking Germany to supply long-range Taurus cruise missiles, Spiegel reported. According to Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, President Volodymyr Zelensky had previously discussed this matter with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during his visit to Berlin in May. On May 23, German MP of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Roderich Kiesewetter urged the government to provide Ukraine with long-range Taurus cruise missiles. “Ukraine’s partners must now go ‘all-in’ and provide Ukraine with everything that Ukraine can use in combined arms combat and that is permissible under international law,” he said in an interview with RND. “Taurus cruise missiles with a range of up to 400 to 500 kilometers would be a very helpful contribution from Germany,” he added. “There must be no more red lines here” - Kyiv Independent