The essentials in brief:
- New air raids on Kyiv
- Zelenskyj’s declaration of war on the Kremlin
- Steinmeier’s trip to Lithuania
According to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, several explosions shook the Ukrainian capital Kiev. “A missile was shot down near Kiev,” Klitschko said on the Telegram news channel. “Air defense works!” According to official figures, Ukrainian air defense shot down more than 40 Russian missiles over Kiev. The city’s military administration announced via Telegram that it was a combination of rocket and drone attacks.
The night before, Kiev had been hit by a wave of Russian attacks. On the last Sunday in May, the city celebrates the day of its official founding 1541 years ago.
Declaration of war against the Russian leadership
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has predicted the fall of the Russian leadership after its defeat in its war of aggression. “Kiev and all our cities, all of our Ukraine will put an end to the history of Moscow despotism, which has enslaved many different peoples for a very long time,” he said in his daily video address.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his video address on Sunday evening
The head of state was not seen in a screened-off room, as is usual, but in the evening light on the street in front of the president’s office in Kiev. Zelensky said Ukraine’s anti-aircraft defenses had managed to almost completely repel one of the largest Russian drone strikes since the beginning of the war. In this way, Russia tried to spoil the city’s birthday party for the people of Kiev.
Steinmeier travels to Lithuania
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is expected to pay a two-day visit to Lithuania. Among other things, a meeting with his Lithuanian colleague Gitanas Nauseda and a joint visit to an exercise of the multinational NATO combat group Enhanced Forward Presence (EFP) under German leadership are planned.
Steinmeier last visited Lithuania a few days after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (archive photo)
Steinmeier last visited NATO member Lithuania, which borders Russia, in early March 2022 – a few days after the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. A few weeks ago, Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius traveled to Lithuania and assured the Baltic country of a “permanent presence” of the Bundeswehr.
Training on Abrams tanks has started
Ukrainian soldiers train with American Abrams tanks at the military training area in Grafenwoehr, Bavaria. A spokesman for the US Department of Defense confirmed an article in the US military magazine “Stars and Stripes” that the heavy weapons exercises began on Friday. In the middle of the month, 31 Abrams training tanks arrived in Grafenwoehr.
Arrival of the Abrams training tanks in Grafenwoehr
200 Ukrainian task forces are learning how to operate and maintain the tanks and operational tactics in Grafenwoehr. They also receive medical training. At the end of April, US Chief of Staff Mark Milley said at a meeting of the Ukraine contact group at the US air force base in Ramstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, that the US would first deliver training tanks that were not fit for combat. The Abrams tanks intended for the battlefield were still being repaired.
rb/se (AFP, AP, dpa, epd, KNA, Reuters)
This article will be continuously updated on the day of its publication. Reports from the combat zones cannot be independently verified.
Source: DW
