Here is where things stand on Thursday, May 1:
Fighting
- Russian drones attacked Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa early on Thursday, sparking fires and damaging dwellings and infrastructure, the regional governor said.
- In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the northeast, the mayor said another Russian drone had struck a petrol station in the city centre, triggering a fire.
- Ukraine’s SBU security agency claimed responsibility for a drone strike on a defence manufacturing facility in Russia. The strike on Murom Instrument-Building Plant, 300km (186 miles) east of Moscow, sparked a fire and damaged two buildings, the region’s governor reported.
- Russian air defence units destroyed 34 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russian news agencies reported, citing the country’s Ministry of Defence.
- Ukraine’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskii, said Russian forces have significantly increased the intensity of their combat activity in eastern Ukraine, despite Moscow declaring a three-day ceasefire from May 8-10.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin said some small groups of Ukrainian soldiers were still holed up in basements and hideouts in Russia’s western Kursk region. Moscow claims it expelled Ukrainian forces from the border region over the weekend.
- The Kremlin said at least 288 civilians were killed during Ukraine’s months-long incursion into Kursk.
- South Korean lawmakers, citing their country’s intelligence agency, said about 600 North Korean troops have been killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine out of a total deployment of 15,000.
- United States lawmakers have asked the Department of State to brief them about Russia’s use of Chinese fighters in its war in Ukraine, saying that Moscow could only employ Chinese mercenaries with Beijing’s “tacit approval”.
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Diplomacy
- The US and Ukraine have signed a long-awaited agreement that gives Washington access to Kyiv’s minerals in return for investment in Ukraine’s defence and reconstruction.
- US President Donald Trump said he thinks Putin wants to stop Russia’s war in Ukraine, despite recent attacks against the beleaguered nation.
- “If it weren’t for me, I think he’d want to take over the whole country,” Trump told the ABC News broadcaster. “I will tell you, I was not happy when I saw Putin shooting missiles into a few towns and cities.”
- The Kremlin, meanwhile, said Putin is open to peace in Ukraine and that intense work is going on with the US, but the conflict is so complicated that the rapid progress that Washington wants is difficult to achieve.
- Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also said Putin had expressed a willingness for direct talks with Ukraine, but that there had been no answer yet from Kyiv.
- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha responded by saying Ukraine was ready for peace talks in any format if Moscow signed up to an unconditional ceasefire. Putin has previously welcomed the idea in principle, but said that many issues need to be worked out in practice before such a ceasefire can be agreed.
- Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy and underscored Canada’s commitment to supporting Ukraine in achieving lasting peace and security.
- The European Union is preparing a “plan B” on how to keep economic sanctions against Russia should the Trump administration abandon Ukraine peace talks and seek rapprochement with Moscow, EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas told the Financial Times.
- The EU says 16 member states are seeking exemptions from the bloc’s public debt rules so they can ramp up defence spending as the continent looks to rearm following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Trump’s stance on European security.
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