WAR IN UKRAINE: May 30, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the advanced positions of his armed forces in the Kharkiv region. The Office of the President reported that he got acquainted with the operational situation, talked with soldiers and presented them with state awards. This is believed to have been the first time Zelensky has left Kyiv Oblast since the war started.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to hold telephone talks with Russian and Ukrainian Presidents Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelenskyy on May 30, said the Anadolu Agency. Turkey has been a key interlocutor since the war broke out however there’s been little progress from several rounds of talks. Turkey is a NATO member, selling and buying lethal weapons from both Russia and Ukraine. Several million Russian tourists are expected to visit Turkey this year after the country instituted a new airlines specifically for Russian tourism.
Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko forbidden from leaving Ukraine for NATO meeting. The Kyiv Independent reports he was barred from crossing the Ukrainian border into Poland to attend the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Vilnius on May 28, according to Iryna Gerashchenko, an MP with his European Solidarity party. Gerashchenko said he had been authorized to attend by Ruslan Stefanchuk, speaker of the Ukrainian parliament. Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 cannot leave Ukraine due to martial law without a special permit. Poroshenko was also restricted from travel until recently as suspect of treason. He said he considers the ban on him leaving Ukraine and the criminal case to be part of a political vendetta by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Some context: Poroshenko and Zelensky formed a truce at the start of the war to work together to defend Ukraine. It appears that Zelensky has unilaterally broken that truce. The European Solidarity Party said other party leaders were permitted to leave Ukraine but not Poroshenko and said the former president was a victim of “political repression.”
The Ukrainian government wants to build a Euro-railway to Lviv and then nationwide, with a view towards boosting Ukrainian exports and increase passenger traffic to the European Union. However, the project requires several hundred million dollars. Ukraine will gradually move to the European track and integrate Ukrainian railways with the EU, Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said at a recent cabinet meeting. Why is this necessary? The difference between the tracks of 8.5 cm slows down the speed with which Ukrainian goods can be exported abroad - Forbes Ukraine
The second of three charter flights bringing Ukrainian evacuees fleeing Russia’s invasion to Canada landed in Montreal Sunday. Arriving on Canadian soil Sunday were 306 Ukrainian evacuees, exactly six days after 328 Ukrainians landed in Winnipeg on the first charter flight from Poland to Canada. Photo below
‘We can’t live with people who support Putin’s war’: the TV chief who fled Russia. When journalists faced jail for reporting on Ukraine, Viktor Muchnik closed down his Siberian TV station and left for Armenia. Read the feature by Shaun Walker in The Observer here