Russia Wire

CNN on Friday released “exclusive” satellite images showing three destroyed Russian jets and damaged buildings at Belbek airbase in Sevastopol, Crimea – that attack was carried out on May 16. In images taken by US real-time space-based intelligence company BlackSky and space technology firm Maxar https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/17/europe/ukraine-satellite-images-crimea-belbek-jets-destroyed-intl-hnk/index.html As Russia military blogger @infomil_live suggests that a shed over the warplanes would have helped reduce the impact. “The Ukrainian military used [US-supplied] ATACMS for the attack. Given they mainly use M74 submunitions, they would mainly damage the shed, rather than directly impacting the jets.” This is despite similar attacks on air bases (Saki, August 2022) and other military targets, and despite Ukraine getting longer range missiles – which raises questions whether the lessons can ever be learned? @RussiaWire

❗️Relations between Russia and China have surpassed the classical alliances of the past — FM Sergey Lavrov Speaking Saturday, Lavrov noted that Russia is united with the global majority on the commitment to the fundamental principles of communication.

⚡️⚡️ Key updates on Russia and #UkraineCrisis as on May 18, 2024 🇺🇦🇺🇸Permission to strike Kyiv has approached the US President Joe Biden administration with a request to lift restrictions on the use of weapons provided by Washington against military targets on Russian territory, writes The Wall Street Journal, citing officials. Kyiv has also asked the White House "to help identify targets" in Russia that Kyiv could strike using its own weapons, the publication claims. The request was made last week and is related to the successes of the Russian Armed Forces in the Kharkiv direction. The request is currently under consideration. 🇷🇺Assets war A Russian court has ordered that UniCredit's assets, accounts and property, as well as shares in two subsidiaries, be seized as part of a lawsuit over an aborted gas project involving the Italian bank, court documents showed. The ruling by a St Petersburg arbitration court covers 462.7 million euros ($503 million) in securities, real estate and accounts belonging to UniCredit as well as 100% of shares in UniCredit Leasing and UniCredit Garant. UniCredit Leasing and UniCredit Garant are subsidiaries of AO UniCredit Bank, the Italian group's Russian arm, which had 8.67 billion euros in assets at the end of 2023, down from 10.16 billion a year earlier. Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will push fellow G7 finance officials next week to agree to a plan to bring forward the interest earnings on frozen Russian assets to provide more money to Ukraine quickly, Reuters reported citing US officials. The matter will be taken up in Italy next week. The plan involves $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets frozen since the outbreak of Ukraine crisis. 💎Diamond ban backtracks The United States is re-evaluating the strictest elements of a ban on Russian diamonds from the Group of Seven major democracies, after opposition from African countries, Indian gem polishers and New York jewellers, seven sources said. The sanctions package, agreed in December and including a ban across the European Union, represents one of the industry's biggest shakeups in decades. Two of the sources familiar with the negotiations told Reuters the Americans had disconnected from G7 working groups on the stringent controls, with one describing them as "there but not engaging". 🏭Transforming towns Russian Ministry of Economic Development intends to revise the list of Russian single-industry towns – those, established during soviet times around large industrial facilities, and whose economies depend on this facility, Kommersant reports. Post-1991, these cities faced issued with employment and quality of live. The list has not been updated since early 2020 and currently includes 321 settlements. Only around 120 of them actually fall under the criteria, which points out the economy of these town has been already diversified, authorities claim. Meanwhile, The Ministry of Industry and Trade has updated the list of town-forming enterprises in Russia, which now includes 235 enterprises employing 880,000 employees. According to Ivan Kulikov, "a number of enterprises are in satisfactory condition or have certain risks of deterioration" (about 30 are under sanctions). 👉Follow t.me/russiawire for daily updates, analytics, and ground reportage from Russia, Donbass, and the neighbourhood.

Washington Post: The amount of territory Russia has occupied over the last several weeks is about as large as the territory Ukraine retook during its lackluster spring counteroffensive in 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/17/russia-ukraine-front-line-gains/ For those into data & stuff P.S. Be sure the maps are take for DC-based ISW

🇪🇺EU Council banned four Russian media outlets “which spread and support the Russian propaganda”: Voice of Europe, RIA Novosti, Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta. “These media outlets are under the permanent direct or indirect control of the leadership of the Russian Federation.” “The Russian Federation has engaged in a systematic, international campaign of media and information manipulation, interference and grave distortion of facts in order to justify and support its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.” https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/sanctions-against-russia/timeline-sanctions-against-russia/

🇸🇰 How Slovakia’s toxic politics left PM fighting for his life 📝 Phillip Pilkington: The ‘liberal’ press are in a really dark place at the moment. 🔶️ The shooting, which the government said was carried out by a “lone wolf” attacker with political motives, has left the country reeling and has raised questions about the threat that the spiral of toxicity poses to democracy just weeks before European parliamentary elections. 🔶️ “This tragic event should be a lesson to all of us,” Věra Jourová, European Commission vice-president, told the Financial Times. “All over Europe, we can see increased polarisation and hate . . . We have to understand that verbal violence can lead to physical violence.” https://archive.ph/LhcZi 📎 Financial Times

🇷🇺 Putin's key statements to the press following his visit to China: ▫️ Moscow will start from the real conditions in resolving the conflict, the President said. There can be no discussion of formulas for peace in Ukraine "on the basis of wishful thinking" rather than the real situation. Russia is ready to take part in peace talks on Ukraine, but it has not been invited to the conference in Switzerland, Putin said. If Russia is not wanted at the negotiations on Ukraine, it does not have to be there, he said. Russia will not discuss "from the centre of the field" ideas for a settlement in Ukraine that it does not know; ▫️ The President recalled the Istanbul agreements, when Russia was deceived, and noted that it is necessary to understand with whom Moscow can deal; ▫️ Putin said that before the acute phase of the conflict in Ukraine he had been in constant contact with Zelensky. As for the question of Zelensky's legitimacy in the light of the annulled elections, the President believes that it should be answered by the Ukrainian legal and political system. For Russia, the question of Zelensky's legitimacy is relevant if Moscow have to sign the documents; ▫️ Answering a question about the possible consequences for Paris of sending French troops to Ukraine, the President said the following:

First we need to get an answer from Macron whether their troops will be in Ukraine, then we will talk about the consequences.

t.me/ukraine_watch

⚡️⚡️ Key updates on Russia and #UkraineCrisis as on May 17, 2024 🇷🇺🇨🇳 Strategic friends Vladimir Putin’s visit to China to hold meetings with Chineses leadership continues on Friday. The Russian president underscore that cooperation between the two countries in world affairs “is one of the main stabilizing factors on the international stage.” China and Russia both “defend the principles of fairness and the democratic world order based on the multipolar realities and international law,” he stressed, adding that relations between the two countries “are not aimed against anyone.” According to Xi, the fact that he has met with Russian officials on so many occasions during the past few years has helped Beijing and Moscow plan ahead strategically and develop cooperation. Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin said the US is directly responsible for the creation and development of the Ukrainian crisis to its current state, said. "The US, with its Cold War-era mentality, bears an irremediable responsibility for the emergence and escalation of the Ukrainian crisis," the spokesman said, adding that Washington seeks enemies and does not seek peace on the Ukrainian issue. Beijing was responding to US latest remarks that China cannot improve relations with Europe, if it will support Russia at the same time. 🇺🇦Battle of Kharhiv Russia has no intention of capturing the Ukrainian city of Kharkov, which is close to the Russian border, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday during a press conference in Harbin, China, just as Russia troops are advancing towards towards the key Ukrainian city in recent weeks. The statement comes a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited Kharkiv. "The direction remains extremely difficult - we are strengthening our units," Zelenskiy said after holding a meeting in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, with his top commander and senior military leaders. The Guardian reported, citing sources, that both British intelligence services and intelligence services of other Western countries had warned Kyiv about the Russian Armed Forces' offensive in the Kharkiv region. However, the Ukrainian army did not prepare for the Russian advance on the battlefield. 🔴BRICS’ Boycott The leaders of Brazil and South Africa will not attend a peace summit on Ukraine to be hosted by Switzerland next month, RT writes citing reports. The summit is scheduled for June 15-16 at the Burgenstock Resort near Lucerne. More than 160 countries have been invited to take part – except Russia. On Friday, South African presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told reporters that President Cyril Ramaphosa would not take part in the Swiss summit due to “constitutional processes” in his country following the presidential election. His Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has also decided not to attend the event, due to it not including both sides in the conflict, CNN Brazil reported on Thursday. 🏝Crimea package After a two-year decline, the tourism market in Crimea has begun to recover, Kommersant writes. Tour operators expect that the number of travelers will increase by 20-60% year over year in the summer. This optimism is based on the results of the May holidays, during which a significant number of tourists visited the peninsula. This is despite continuous missile and drone attacks (most of them are being thwarted) that have become “a new norm” at this holiday destination. 👉Follow t.me/russiawire for daily updates, analytics, and ground reportage from Russia, Donbass, and the neighbourhood.

NYT: The attempted assassination of Slovakian PM Robert Fico “stoked fears that Europe’s increasingly polarized and venomous political debates had tipped into violence.” “Like Mr. Orban and the Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, Mr. Fico has delighted in presenting himself as a pugnacious fighter for the common man, a forthright enemy of liberal elites and a bulwark against immigration from outside Europe, particularly by Muslims.His critics have accused Mr. Fico of undermining the independence of the news media, opposed his efforts to restrict foreign funding of civic organizations and called him a threat to democracy. They accuse Mr. Fico of seeking to take Slovakia back to the repressive days of the Soviet bloc Mr. Fico’s political career appeared to be over after his ouster in 2018, but he found new support last year by promoting anti-L.G.B.T.Q. positions, attacking the European Union as a threat to national sovereignty and opposing the continued supply of weapons to Ukraine. In his tenure as prime minister, Slovakia became the first country to stop sending weapons to Ukraine, though nonmilitary aid continued.” https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/15/world/europe/slovakia-prime-minister-robert-fico-assassination-attempt.html

🇷🇺🇨🇳 All eyes on Vladimir Putin’s visit to China today. Putin held talks with Chinese President Xi eart in the morning. "It is of fundamental importance that relations between Russia and China are not opportunistic and are not directed against anyone. Our cooperation in world affairs today serves as one of the main stabilizing factors in the international arena," the Russian leader said. According to Putin, Russia and China together uphold the principles of justice and a democratic world order that reflects multipolar realities and a world order based on international law. "Russia and China are successfully cooperating in the UN, BRICS, SCO and G20. We are determined to further harmonize integration processes in the Eurasian space, to combine the potential of the Eurasian Economic Community and your, my dear friend, Belt and Road Initiative," the Russian leader noted. The Chinese leader called his Russian counterpart "his great friend" and congratulated him on entering a new presidential term. Xi added that ties between Russia and China have become "the benchmark of relations between major powers," and over the years the leaders of the two countries have met at least 40 times. @RussiaWire